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it came from.
Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, he said it would ‘ruin the mystique’ to provide all the details, but said he had bought it for an exceptionally low price from a supermarket that was closing down.
‘I offered them a ludicrously low amount of money to let me steal the cheese, but the shopkeeper just put it through the till at my offered price,’ he said.
The Marrickville man insists his 35kg wheel is 'genuine Parmigiano Reggiano cheese'
This isn’t Mr Thompson’s first experience with trading food and beverages for a vehicle. He said he swapped his last car, an old Volvo, for just two cases of beer.
‘I’m a bit p***ed off though, looking back, because I reckon it was worth four cases of beer,’ he said.
Posting on a closed buy/sell/trade group and on his own Facebook page, he received a number of responses, in some case even agreeing to the trade.
Many however, just wanted to share cheese puns.
The environmental scientist was offered a 2001 Holden Barina, a Peugeot 307, and a Ford Focus. One woman even attempted to trade her husband for the huge haul of cheese.
Other suggestions were to raise money for the car by selling tickets to a large scale cheese and wine party.
One poster questioned where Mr Thompson would store 35kgs of cheese if he was unable to trade it.
‘It’s a good question,’ the 25-year-old responded.
‘I’m just hoping I get a car so I don’t have to find an answer to it.’
However, as the post blew up on social media, Mr Thompson’s cousin saw the post and offered him her car for free.
Having now dealt with his transport situation, he will now attempt to trade the cheese for something else, or celebrate his good fortune over cheese with friends.
‘I reckon, when you come into a windfall of something stupid like this, you have to do the thing that will result in the best story,’ he said.
Ehren Thompson, 25, came in to possession of a wheel of cheese and tried to trade it for a car
Mr Thompson was eventually offered a car by his cousin in return for no cheese. He is still unsure what he will do with the 35kg wheel of parmesanKrister Thelin
I ett gulmålat skäligen oansenligt eternithus vid landsvägen mellan Brunnby och Nyhamnsläge i Höganäs kommun i nordvästra Skåne bodde under många år som hyresgäst konstnären och professorn Lars Vilks. I våras tvingades han flytta, därtill i praktiken uppmanad av såväl hyresvärd som det moderata kommunalrådet P Kovacs. Alltsedan Vilks för snart tio år sedan började rita sina rondellhundar, vilka i den muslimska världen uppfattas som djupt kränkande, har han utstått en hel del: fysiska angepp på person och mordbrandsförsök på bostad. På grund av hoten och angreppen har han sedan många år statligt livvaktsskydd. Men han har bott kvar. Efter attentatet i Köpenhamn tidigare i år, där han undkom oskadd bl.a. till följd av personskyddet, är han dock husvill. De som önskar honom bort från kommun och grannskap är, enligt anekdotiskt vittnesbörd, den alldeles överväldigande delen av de goda medborgarna i kommunen, så kommunalrådet har rätt tolkat folkviljan. Resonemanget går ungefär så här. “Vilks har rätt till sin yttrandefrihet, javisst. Men varför måste han kränka genom sin (dåliga) konst och övriga krumsprång och därmed utsätta sig själv och inte minst andra i sin omgivning för allvarlig fara? Dessutom är personskyddet dyrt. De statliga pengarna kan bättre användas till annat.”
Nu när det är skäligen tyst om Vilks och medan han ännu i livet, kan det vara på sin plats att ta ett djupt andetag och försöka vidga perspektivet. Yttrandefriheten, inklusive den konstnärliga friheten, är en mänsklig rättighet, dokumenterad i vår grundlag och i allehanda internationella konventioner, bl.a. FNs konvention om de medborgerliga och politiska rättigheterna (MR-konventionen, art 19). Yttrandefriheten har i princip bara två begränsningar: Förtalsbrott och hets mot folkgrupp. Under min tid som ledamot av FNs kommitté för mänskliga rättigheter (MR-kommittén), som övervakar staternas efterlevnad av MR-konventionen, antog kommittén i enighet ett normativt dokument till vägledning för tolkningen av art 19 (Allmänna råd 34). Däri framgår bl.a. att förbud mot hädelse – utan undantag – är oförenligt med yttrandefriheten. Kränkning av andra personers religiösa föreställningar skyddas alltså som en mänsklig rättighet. Vilks har således stöd av MR-kommittén i sina blasfemiska krumsprång.
Ingenstans finns det heller nedlagt att yttrandefriheten bara får användas för “goda” eller “ädla” syften. När MR-konventionen utarbetades i FN under kalla kriget ville Sovjetunionen och dess satelliter att det skulle anges, att yttrandefriheten bara fick användas för att främja vissa “demokratiska” (i socialistisk tolkning) värden. Allt annat skulle vara förbjudet. Den västerländska tolkningen segrade dock över dessa totalitära önskemål. I den muslimska världen finns, inte bara i uttalade teokratier som Iran, som bekant ett synsätt som sätter religiösa påbud och “Guds lag”
(sharia) över den enskildes yttrandefrihet. I det hänseendet är det således ingen skillnad mellan de gamla socialistiska diktaturerna och länder som styrs av sharia. De många svenskar, i och utanför Höganäs, som tar avstånd från Vilks, när denne utnyttjar sin yttrandefrihet befinner sig därför i mycket tvivelaktigt totalitärt sällskap. Börjar vi som tror på de universella mänskliga rättigheternas överordnade ställning, det vill säga överordnade allehanda historiska, religiösa, kulturella, nationella och moraliska föreställningar, att tumma på dess gränser försvagar vi dem. Och det är särskilt sorgligt att notera de många svenska kulturaktivister som försvar rätten att häda kristnas trosföreställningar (jfr utställningen “Ecce Homo” i Uppsala domkyrka för ett antal år sedan) har så svårt att försvara Vilks frihet att utmana och kränka. Yttrandefriheten har ingen religiös gräns, oavsett slag av religion. Den hycklande svenska dubbelmoralen är inte rolig att skåda.
Istället för att gnälla över kostnaden för Vilks livvaktsskydd (hur många av oss skulle frivilligt avstå från skydd, om polisen hävdar att det finns en allvarlig, och vid detta lag väl dokumenterad, hotbild?) bör vi vara rädda om och hylla honom. Han är kanariefågeln i gruvan. När han tystnar vet vi att de totalitära krafter som vill kränka hans mänskliga rättighet har lyckats. Han är offer för icke upplyst fundamentalism och inte någon gärningsman. De verkliga gärningsmännen är de som vill tysta honom. Låt oss inte blanda bort korten.
Yttrandefriheten är omistlig, även i en icke politiskt korrekt kontext, och får brukas till annat än “goda” syften. Och det inser goda människor, om de tänker efter en smula. Och det går att försvara Vilks yttrandefrihet utan att tycka om alla dess uttryck: De gustibus non est disputandum.Hampton teen arrested for soliciting clown to kill teacher Copyright by WAVY - All rights reserved Image Credit: WKRN [ + - ] Video
HAMPTON, Va. (WAVY) -- A 13-year-old Hampton girl is in police custody for allegedly reaching out to a person on social media to kill one of her teachers.
Police say the person she contacted was using a clown image as their profile picture. She allegedly reached out to this person to murder a teacher at Davis Middle School.
"The profile that she contacted actually was using a clown as a profile picture and so using a clown related alias," Officer Ashley Jenrette of Hampton Police said.
According to police, a dispatcher received a call Sunday evening about a threat being made on social media, and the investigation resulted in the teen's arrest.
Detectives reached out to the teacher to make sure they were OK. Police say there is no evidence at this time indicating threats have been made against anyone else.
There was an increased police presence at the middle school Monday, according to police.
Local police have recently investigated clown-related threats made on social media. One of these alleged threats was making rounds on social media late last week.
Police departments across Hampton Roads said they took the alleged threats seriously, but found no evidence that any of those threats were credible.
The 13-year-old girl arrested in this case has been charged with threatening to kill by electronic message. She is still being held in police custody. The Hampton City School district will examine the student's future at the school.
"We looked at prior discipline issues and so on, but basically the range is long-term suspension to expulsion," Diana Gulotta from Hampton City Schools said.
A clown scare that came with serious consequences.Work by the perhaps founder of anarcho-communism; Joseph Déjacque.
Joseph Déjacque
Down with the Bosses!
We are no longer in the fabled times of Saturn, when the father devoured his children, nor in the times of Herod, when one massacred an entire generation of frail innocents — which, after all, did not prevent Jesus from escaping the massacre, or Jupiter the devouring. We live in an era where we no longer kill children much by the sword or the teeth, and where it appears natural enough that the young bury the old. Hercules is dead; why seek to resuscitate him? One can at the most only galvanize him. The club is less mighty than saltpeter, saltpeter is less mighty than the electric battery, and the electric battery is less mighty than the idea.
To every idea, present and to come, welcome! Authority had reigned so long over men, that it has taken such possession of humanity. It has left garrisons everywhere in the mind. Even today, it is difficult, other than in thought, to chip it away from top to bottom. Each civilizée is a fortress for it, which, under the guard of prejudices, stands hostile to the passage of that invading Amazon, Liberty. Thus, those who believe themselves revolutionaries and swear only by liberty, proclaim nonetheless the necessity of dictatorship, as if dictatorship did not exclude liberty, and liberty dictatorship. What big babies there are, truth be told, among the revolutionaries! — and big babies who cling to their daddy — for whom the democratic and social Republic is necessary, doubtless, but with an emperor or a dictator — it’s all one — for the governor; people mounted sidesaddle, and faced towards the rump, on their donkey’s carcass, and who, their eyes fixed on the perspective of progress, move away from it as fast as they approach it, — the feet in this position galloping in the opposite direction ahead of the head. These revolutionaries, bare-necked politickers, have preserved with the imprint of the collar, the moral stain of servitude, the stiff neck of despotism. Alas! They are only too numerous among us. They call themselves republicans, democrats and socialists, and they have fondness, they have love only for authority in the arms of iron: more monarchistic in reality than the monarchists, who beside them could nearly pass for anarchists.
Dictatorship, whether it is a hydra with a hundred heads or a hundred tails, whether they are autocratic or demagogic, can certainly do nothing for liberty: it can only perpetuate slavery, morally and physically. It is not by regimenting a people of helots under a yoke of iron, since there is iron, by imprisoning them in a uniform of proconsular wills, that intelligent and free men can result. All that which is not liberty is against liberty. Liberty is not a thing that can be allocated. It does not pertain at the whim of whatever personage or committee of public safety that orders it, that makes a gift of it. Dictatorship can cut off the heads of men, but it cannot make them increase and multiply; it can transform intelligences into corpses, but it cannot transform cadavers into intelligences; it can make the slaves creep and crawl under its boots, like maggots or caterpillars, flattening them under his heavy tread, — but only Liberty can give them wings. It is only through free labor, intellectual and moral labor, that our generation, civilization or chrysalis, will be metamorphosed into a bright and shiny butterfly, will take on the human type and continue its development in Harmony.
Many men, I know, speak of liberty without understanding it; they have neither the science of it nor even the sentiment. They never see in the demolition of the reigning Authority anything but a substitution of names or persons; they don’t imagine that a society could function without masters or servants, without chiefs and soldiers; in this they are like those reactionaries who say: “There are always rich and poor, and there always will be. What would become of the poor without the rich? They would die of hunger!” The demagogues do not say exactly that, but they say: “There have always been governors and governed, and there always will. What would become of the people without government? They would rot in bondage!” All these antiquarians, the reds and the whites, are just partners and accomplices; anarchy, libertarianism disrupts their miserable understanding, an understanding encumbered with ignorant prejudices, with asinine vanity, with cretinism. Plagiarists of the past, the revolutionaries retrospective and retroactive, the dictatorists, those subservient to brute force, all those crimson authoritarians who call for a saving power, will croak all their lives without finding what they desire. Fellows to the frogs who asked for a king, we see them and will always see them change their Soliveau for a Grue, the government of July for the government of February, the perpetrators of the massacres of Rouen for those of the massacres of June, Cavaignac for Bonaparte, and tomorrow, if they can, Bonaparte for Blanqui... If one day they cry: “Down with the municipal guard!” it is in order to cry at the next instant: “Long live the guard mobile!” Or they swap the guard mobile for the imperial guard, as they would swap the imperial guard for the revolutionary battalions. Subjects they were; subjects they are; subjects they will be. They neither know what they want nor what they do. They complained yesterday that they did not have the man of their choice; they complain the next day of having too much of him. Finally, at every moment and every turn, they invoke Authority “with his long, sharp beak, helved on his slender neck” [au long bec emmanché d’un long cou], and they find it surprising that it crunches them, that it kills them!
Whoever calls himself revolutionary and speaks of dictatorship is only a dupe or a rogue, an imbecile or a traitor: imbecile and dupe if he advocates it as the auxiliary of the social Revolution, as a mode of transition from the past to the future, for it is always to conjugate Authority in the present indicative; rogue and traitor if he only envisions it as a means of taking their place in the budget and of playing the representative in all modes and at all times.
How many dwarves are there, indeed, who would like nothing better than to have official stilts: a title, a salary, some representation to pull themselves out of the quagmire where ordinary mortals flounder and give themselves the airs of giants. Will the common people always be stupid enough to provide a pedestal for these pygmies? Will they always be told: “You speak of suppressing those elected by universal suffrage, to throw the national and democratic representation out the windows, but what will you put in its place? For finally, something is necessary, and someone must command: a committee of public safety, then? You do not want an emperor, a tyrant, this is understood, but who will replace it: a dictator?... because everyone can not drive, and there must be one who devotes himself to govern others...” Eh! Gentlemen or citizens, what good is it to replace it if it is only to replace it? What is needed is to destroy evil and not displace it. What does it matter to me whether he bears one name or another, whether he is here or there, if, under this mask or that appearance, he is still and always in my way. — One removes an enemy; one does not replace it.
Dictatorship, the sovereign magistracy, the monarchy, so to speak, — for to recognize that the Authority which is evil can do good, is this not to declare oneself monarchist, to sanction despotism, to renounce the Revolution? — If one asks them, these absolute partisans of brutal force, these advocates of demagogic and compulsory authority, how they would exercise it, in what manner they will organize this strong power: some will respond to you, like the late Marat, that they want a dictator in ball and chains, and sentenced by the people to work for the people. First let us distinguish: either the dictator acts by the will of the people, and thus will not really be a dictator, and will only be like a fifth wheel on a carriage; or else he will really be a dictator, will have he leads and whip in his hands, and he will act only according to his own good pleasure, which is to say for the exclusive profit of his divine person. To act in the name of the people is to act in the name of everyone, isn’t it? And everyone is not scientifically, harmonically, intelligently revolutionary. But I admit, in order to conform to the thought of the blanquists, for example — that tail of carbonarism, that ba-be-bou-vist freemasonry, those invisibles of a new species, that society of secret...intelligences, — that there is a people and a people, the people of the initiated brothers, the disciples of the great popular architect, and the uninitiated. These affiliates, these outstanding characters, do they always agree among themselves? Let one decree be issued on property, or the family — or you-name-it — some will find it too radical, and others not radical enough. A thousand daggers, for the moment, are raised a thousand times a day against the dictatorial slavery. Whoever would accept a similar role would not have two minutes to live. But he would not accept it seriously, he would have his coterie, all the men scrabbling for gain who will squeeze around him, and would be for him a consecrated battalion of manservants in order to have the left-overs of his authority, the crumbs of power. Then perhaps he can indeed command in the name of the people, I do not deny it, but without fail, against the people. He will deport or have shot all those who have libertarian impulses. Like Charlemagne or whatever other king, who measured men by the height of his sword, he would decapitate all the intelligences that surpassed his level, he would forbid all progress which goes further than him. He will be like all men of public safety, like the politicals of 93, followers of the Jesuits of the Inquisition, and he will propagate the general dumbing-down, he will crush individual initiative, he will make the night of the dawning day, cast shadows on the social idea. He will plunge us back, dead or alive, into the charnel house of Civilization, and will make for the people, instead of intellectual and moral autonomy, an automatism of flesh and bone, a body of brutes. Because, for a political dictator as for a Jesuit director, what is best in man, what is good, is the corpse!...
Others, in their dream of dictatorship, differ somewhat from these, in that they do not want the dictatorship of one alone, of a one-headed Samson, but the jawbones of a hundred or a thousand donkeys, a dictatorship of the small wonders of the Proletariat, deemed intelligent by them because they have reeled off one day or another some banalities in prose or verse, because they have scribbled their names on the polling lists or on the registers of some small politico-revolutionary chapel; the dictatorship finally of heads and arms hairy enough to compete with the Ratapoils, and with the mission, as usual, to exterminate the aristocrats or the philistines? They think like the others, that the evil is not so much in the liberticidal institutions as in the choice of tyrants. Egalitarians in name, they are for castes in principle. And by putting the workers in power, in the place of the bourgeois, they do not doubt that all will be for the best in the best of all possible worlds.
Put the workers in power! In truth, we need only to think back. Haven’t we had Albert in the provisional government? Is it possible to see anything more idiotic? What was he, if not a plastron? In the constituent or legislative assembly we have had the delegates from Lyons; if it was necessary to judge the represented by the representatives, that would be a sad specimen of the intelligence of the workers of Lyon. Paris gave us Nadaud, a dull nature, intelligent enough for a porter, who dreamed of transforming his trowel into a presidential scepter, — the imbecile! Then also Corbon, the reverend of the Atelier, and perhaps much the least Jesuitical, for he, at least, was not slow to cast off the mask and to take his place in the midst of, and side by side with, the reactionaries. — As on the steps of the throne the lackeys are more royalist than the king, so in the echelons of official or legal authority the republican workers are more bourgeois than the bourgeoisie. And that is understood: the freed slave who becomes master always exaggerates the vices of the planter who has trained him. He is a disposed to abuse his command just to the extent that he has been prone or forced into submission and baseness by his commanders.
A dictatorial committee composed of workers is certainly the thing one could find most inflated with self-importance and nullity and, consequently, the most anti-revolutionary. If one could take seriously the notion of public safety, it is first and in every occasion to unseat the workers from all governmental authority, and then and always to oust as much as possible from society governmental authority itself. (Better for power to have suspected enemies than doubtful friends.)
Official or legal authority, by whatever name one decorates it, is always false and harmful. Only natural or anarchic authority is true and beneficial.
Who had authority in fact and in law, in 48? Was it the provisional government, the executive commission, Cavaignac or Bonaparte? None of the above. For, if they had violent force in hand, they were themselves only instruments, the meshed gears of the reaction; thus, they were not motors, but machines. All the governmental authorities, even the most autocratic, are only that. They function at the will of a faction and in the service of that faction, except for the accidents of intrigues, and the explosions of compromised ambition. The true authority in 48, the authority of universal safety cannot be thus not in the government, but, as always, outside the government, in individual initiative: Proudhon was its most eminent representative (among the people, I mean, not in the Chamber). It was in him that was personified the revolutionary agitation of the masses. And for that representation, he had no need of legalized title or mandate. His sole title came to him from his work, his science, his genius. His mandate, he did not hold it from another, from the arbitrary suffrages of brute force, but from itself alone, from conscience/consciousness and from the spontaneity of his intellectual force. Natural and anarchic authority had any share of influence to which it was entitled. And that is an authority which has only to make de prétoriens, for it is the dictatorship of the Intelligence: it stirs and it invigorates. Its mission is not to garrotter or to shorten men, but to but to grow them all the height of the head, but to develop in all of them the force of expansion of their mental nature. It does not produce, like the other, slaves in the name of public liberty, it destroys slavery in the name of private authority. It does not impose itself on the plebs by crenellating itself in a palace, by armoring itself with iron mail, by riding among its archers, like the feudal barons; — it is asserted in the people, as stars become apparent in the firmament, by shining on its satellites!!
What greater power would Proudhon have had being a governor? Not only would he have not had more of it, but he would have had much less, supposing even that he could have preserved in power his revolutionary passions. His power coming to his from his brain, all that which would have been of a nature to impede the labor of his brain would have been an attack on his power. If he had been a dictator, in boots and spurs, armed from head to toe, invested with the suzerain sash and cockade, he would have lost to politicking with his entourage all the time that he employed to socialize the masses. He would have made reaction instead of revolution. See instead the chatelaine of the Luxembourg, Louis Blanc, perhaps the best-intentioned in all the provisional government, and yet the most perfidious, the one who has delivered the sermonized workers to the armed bourgeois; he has done all the preachers in vestments or authoritarian badges have done, preached Christian charity to the poor in order to save the rich.
The titles, the government mandates are only good for the non-entities who, too cowardly to be anything by themselves, want to be seen. They have no reason to be, except for the reason of these runts. The strong man, the man of intelligence, the man who is everything by labor and nothing by intrigue, the man who is the son of his works and not the son of his father, of his uncle or of any patron, has nothing to sort out with these carnivalesque attributions; he despises and hates them as a travesty which will sully his dignity, as something obscene and infamous. The weak man, the ignorant man, who still has the feeling for Humanity, must also fear them; he needs for that only a little common sense. For if every harlequinade is ridiculous, it is more horrible when it carries a stick!
Every dictatorial government, whether it be understood in the singular or the plural, every demagogic Power could only delay the coming of the social Revolution by substituting its initiative, whatever it may be, its omnipotent reason, its civic and inevitable will to anarchic initiative, to the reasoned will, to the autonomy of each. The social revolution can be made only by the organ of all individually; otherwise it is not the social revolution. What is necessary then, that towards which it must tend, is to give each and everyone the possibility, that is to say in the necessity of acting, in order that the movements, communicating with each other, give and receive the impetus of progress and thus increase the force tenfold and a hundredfold. What is necessary in the end, is as many dictators as there are thinking beings, man or women, in the society, in order to shake it, to rise up against it, to pull it from its inertia, — and not a Loyola in red hat, a general politics to discipline, that is immobilize one another, to settle on their chests, on their hearts, like a nightmare, in order to suppress the pulsations, and on their forehead, on their brain, as an compulsory or catechismal instruction, in order to torment its understanding.
Governmental authority, dictatorship, whether it is called empire or republic, throne or chair, savior of order or committee of public safety; whether it exists today under the name of Bonaparte or tomorrow under the name of Blanqui; whether it comes out of Ham or Belle-Ile; whether it has in its insignias an eagle or a stuffed lion... dictatorship is only the violation of liberty by a corrupted virility, by the syphilitic; it is a cesarian sickness innoculated with the seeds of reproduction in the intellectual organs of popular generation. It is not a kiss of freedom, a natural and fruitful manifestation of puberty, it is a fornication of virginity with decrepitude, an assault on morals, a crime like the abuse of the tutor towards his pupil, it is a humanicide!
There is only one revolutionary dictatorship, only one humanitary dictatorship: it is the intellectual and moral dictatorship. Is not everyone free to participate there? It is enough to want it to be able to do it. There is no need apart from it, and no need, in order to make it recognized, for battalions of lictors nor of trophies of bayonets; it advances escorted only by its free thoughts, and has for scepter only its beam of enlightenment. It does not make the Law, it discovers it; it is not Authority, but it makes it. It exists only by the will of labor and the right of science. He who denies it today will affirm it tomorrow. For it does not command the maneuver by buttoning itself up in inactivity, like the colonel of a regiment, but it orders the movement by preaching by example, and demonstrates progress by progress.
— Everyone marching in step! says the one, and it is the dictatorship of brute force, the animal dictatorship.
— Let he who loves me follow me! says the other, it is the dictatorship of force intellectualized, the hominal dictatorship. One has the support of all the shepherds, all the herders, all those who command or obey in the fold, all that which is domiciled in Civilisation. The other has for it individualities made men, decivilized intelligences. One is the last representation of the modern Paganism, the eve of final closure, its farewells to the public. The other is the debut of a new era, its entry onto the scene, the triumph of Socialism. The one is so old that it touches the tomb; the other is so young that it touches the cradle.
— Old one! It is the Law, — it is necessary to perish!
— It is the law of nature, child! — you will grow!!
New York, April 1859The Nokia-Microsoft deal is marching steadily to a conclusion as being approved by the United States, the European Union, and of course, Nokia's shareholders. However, China is still reluctant to give its word. Recently China's Ministry of Commerce has started a second round of probes into Microsoft's acquisition case. This time the government has a new emphasis: antitrust.
"Antitrust" is a knee jerk reaction -- something that pops up without involving real thought -- when it comes to business related to Microsoft. However, an antitrust probe is ridiculous in this particular case. According to statistics, Windows Phone maintains a very low market share (less than 5%) in China, and Nokia is only a shadow of its former self in terms of brand appreciation. Even if Nokia comes into absolute domination (100% ownership, I mean) within the Windows Phone ecosystem after the acquisition, the impact on the Chinese smartphone industry will be next to zero.
Rumors say that the Chinese government is now probing on behalf of local smartphone brands, most of whom have built their business entirely on low-to-medium range Android phones. These OEMs have been engaging in a heated civil war against one another. The smartphone war, like many other business competitions in the country, ultimately boils down to a price war, cutting the profit margin for everyone involved.
If Nokia "turns into a patent troll", as some have been worrying about, a combined patent portfolio from Microsoft and Nokia could blow many Chinese brands into oblivion. But such a thing probably won't happen if you really think about it: Nokia will keep its own patents, only licensing them to Microsoft through the selling of its mobile division. Thus there's no such thing as "combined portfolio" to speak of.
But anyway, this might be a good chance for the Chinese government, and Chinese smartphone brands, to think again about their actions: If all participants in an industry are competing on such a low level, that everyone is making essentially the same thing, only differentiating from names, prices, and marketing gimmicks, is it worthwhile to go that far in order to protect it? And if a platform is not very legally sound (as Android has been triggering patent lawsuits globally in recent years), is it not wise to at least try out something sounder? By "something sounder" I don't even mean Windows Phone specifically. Chinese brands could invest in developing their own smartphone operating systems, like HTC is doing, if rumors are to be trusted. Nowadays Chinese Android OEMs bashing one another on social media platforms with blunt specs or prices or both (as in "with the same price, you get about 300 MHz more from us") has become quite a tiresome scene. It's about time for some fresh elements in the game.
Anyway, we will keep an eye on the developments of the probe, and keep you informed.
Source: WPDangMy name is Aram Pan, and I’m a photographer documenting North Korea through 360° panoramas, photos and videos. I’d like to share with everyone my experience with what I call “copyright infringement abuse.”
Basically, I feel that the YouTube copyright reporting system is seriously flawed. Here’s what happened to me…
Back on September 27th, 2015, I published the following video that used an audio track by Digital Juice called the “Clarion Conspiracy.” Everything was fine for months.
On February 3rd, 2016, I was slapped with a “Copyright Infringement” notice claiming that I had infringed on a song “prologue” by SM Entertainment, South Korea’s largest K-pop media group that owns some of the biggest names in K-pop (e.g. Girls Generation, EXO and Super Junior). Their claim was that the “Clarion Conspiracy” audio track was copyrighted to them.
Naturally I disputed this claim but after some time, SM Entertainment escalated the claim and even though I submitted proof that I had bought the audio track from Digital Juice, they filed a take down notice against my video.
When I contacted YouTube with all my evidence, YouTube’s official reply was “Please note that YouTube does not mediate copyright disputes.” Even though I sent numerous emails to SM Entertainment through their web mail and directly to their email address, I received no reply.
I then decided to investigate this song “Prologue” that SM entertainment claims is theirs. After searching around the Internet, I found it here at 4:01 minutes in:
Please listen to it carefully and compare it to my video. I immediately realized they had used the same “Clarion Conspiracy” audio track and merely added additional sound effects…
If I had “used” their audio track for my video… how is it possible that my version is the clean version without any sound effects? Ask any audio engineer and they will tell you that it is impossible for me to remove the sound effects. That alone should prove that I did not infringe on SM Entertainment’s copyright.
The labeled “composer” of ‘Prologue’ is well known Korean composer Yoo Yong Jin, and his song is part of a K-pop CD now on sale and labeled as OST, or “Original Sound Track.” Since it’s a Digital Juice audio, selling it in an audio CD would clearly be a breach of Digital Juice’s end user agreement.
You can see “Prologue” on sale here and in iTunes.
I wrote to Digital Juice to tell them about my case, and the director immediately sent me a letter written on my behalf:
In the document, you can read that Digital Juice has called out SM Entertainment proving now that they are instead the ones who have breached copyrights and not me. What a turn of events.
The problem was that SM Entertainment has not bothered to reply any of my emails and my YouTube account is due to receive a “strike”, which is a black mark on my record. I therefore had to withdraw my defense.
As of yesterday 19th Feb 2016, I finally received a reply from SM Entertainment and |
Break when you have something much more important to do. Moreover, it will help in rejuvenating yourself. If you are using an iOS device, why don’t you control the amount of time you can spend on Wikipedia in settings?
All the best. Remember, Wikipedia wants you to be the best person you can. It is not the goal of the project to steal the time you can use to improve your career prospects, learn new skills, spend time with family or friends, rejuvenate yourself, or use any way you wish. Remember, it's your time and you are donating it to Wikipedia. It is healthy to donate what you can afford to donate, but no more.
Corrective strategies [ edit ]
Wikipediholism can be a manifestation of problematic Internet use (PIU) and/or a variety of co-occurring psychiatric disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or clinical depression. Corrective strategies include self-control software, content-control software, various other addiction treatments (such as motivational interviewing), and treating any co-occurring disorders.
If self-control software is insufficient, you may want to try one or more of the following ideas:
You could contact a professional. If you live in Canada or the US, you can check the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry list or with a doctor. If neither of those two resources were able to help you, then you can check the American Society of Addiction Medicine directory.
If you live elsewhere, you can contact your local psychiatric society, or you can ask a doctor. If neither of those two resources were able to help you, then you can contact your local addiction medicine society or the International Society of Addiction Medicine.
If you still haven't found a professional who you can afford to see, you can ask a local doctor, or Narcotics Anonymous or Alcoholics Anonymous in your area, to point you to a mental-health professional you can afford to visit. There are charities in many places that offer free or low-cost mental health counselling. Meanwhile, you could visit a twelve-step meeting. Narcotics Anonymous is very accepting of problematic Internet users, and it may be helpful for you.[2][3] If you feel that it might indeed help you, keep going back. There are no dues or fees and no waiting lists. Narcotics Anonymous operates in about 130 countries.[4] You could see a doctor and get screened to see if you have any co-occurring psychological disorders. Such disorders are very common, and it may be impossible to recover from problematic Internet use if you do not treat them.[5]
Or, you may write to us on the talk page and ask us for more help.
Software that may help [ edit ]
References [ edit ]On episode 24 of the Dear Hank and John podcast, someone asked about the best way to hold a chip while eating. This led to a discussion of whether or not it was appropriate to lick your fingers while eating flavored potato chips (a notion John was firmly against). This discussion led me to post a survey to the Nerdfighters reddit page as well as to r/samplesize (a page devoted to posting and participating in surveys), which asked whether people lick their fingers while they are eating flavored chips and whether they lick their fingers after they have finished. Below are my results:
Pretty amazingly the results came out almost at a completely even split. About 51.5% of respondents lick their fingers while eating flavored potato chips. As for after respondents have finished eating:
About 88.3% of respondents lick their fingers after they are finished! Sorry John, but it looks like if you want people to stop licking their fingers, you’ve got a lot of work ahead of you.Replay of Part 3 of the Rosetta wake-up media briefing at the ESA Operations Centre ESOC, in Darmstadt, Germany, on 20 January 2014.
Waiting for the signal from Rosetta. View inside the Mission Control Room at ESOC as the team waits for a first signal that Rosetta has successfully come out of deep space hibernation.
Rosetta was launched in 2004 and has since travelled around the Sun five times, picking up energy from Earth and Mars to line it up with its final destination: comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. For the coldest, loneliest leg of the mission, as Rosetta travelled out towards the orbit of Jupiter, the spacecraft was put into deep-space hibernation.
In 2014, Rosetta will complete its cruise towards the comet, rendezvousing with it in August, before putting its Philae lander onto the comet’s surface in November, as it begins its journey closer to the Sun.
The spacecraft’s internal alarm clock is set for 10:00 GMT (11:00 CET) on 20 January. Once it has warmed itself up, it should re-establish communication with Earth several hours later.I don’t usually pay much…or any…attention to the Miss America pageant. But this one has caught my attention.
First of all, since Ms. Davuluri is from Fayetteville, NY, a suburb of Syracuse, I consider her something of a Local Girl Made Good, and take a little pride in that. Upon discovering that she was planning to use the $50,000 prize money to go to Med School, I couldn’t help but shake my head a little. “Indian Doctor” is just as much a stereotype in certain quarters as “Jewish Banker” – but then, I suppose there are worse stereotypes to live up to.
Second…this. This pisses me right. The fuck. Off.
And this is even worse. At least most of the people in that first article were just random dumbshits on the internet. If a representative of a major network feels free to make such a transparently racist (but just barely deniable) statement without fear for his job, then there’s something poisonous at work in this country.
The sheer stupidity on display here actually takes the racism to a whole other level. If you hate Indian people, that’s wrong. If you hate Muslims and Arabs (note: not the same thing, though there is much overlap), that’s also wrong. But if you hate an Indian-American woman because you’ve mistaken her for Arab and/or Muslim…that’s…that’s not even wrong. I have trouble even imagining stupidity on that scale. How do you tie your shoes in the morning without hurting yourself?
Notice to all inbred, idiot mouth-breathing bigots of America: not all brown people are the same. I know you hate them all, because you’re inbred, idiot, mouth-breathing bigots, but at least try to keep straight which groups you hate, and why.
I mean, fuck’s sake people, a couple years back you pulled over my ex-wife’s cousin because he “looked Arab”. They’re Dominican!
Right, right, I know you don’t know what a “Dominican” is. Just file them with the Mexicans. You do anyway. When you’re not mistaking them for Arabs. Of course, they really don’t like it when you do that.
That’s another thing! The Brown People are not all united against you and your Traditional Values! Some hate each other! Some actually go to war with each other, out in those Anti-American wastelands where the Brown People live!
(Speaking of American Values, one of the things that has given me hope about this country, about its promise and what it still has to offer the world, is a law firm where I worked in the early Aughts: the owner and her family members who worked there were all Indian, and their right-hand employees were Pakistani. All first-generation, complete with regular visits to the Old Country. If you don’t know how big that is, let me put it this way: it’s a sign that true world peace may actually happen someday. Similar sign: the existence of an acquaintance from college with a Jewish mother and an Arab father…Syrian, I believe. Absolutely beautiful.)
I could rant at the stupid people all day, but I suppose I would begin to repeat myself before long. Besides, that would allow them to continue to spoil the occasion.
Congratulations, Ms. Davuluri. Good luck at Med School, and don’t let the haters get you down.
AdvertisementsWhy Amazon Went Down, and Why It Matters
Amazon.com’s U.S. retail site became unavailable around 10:25 AM PST, and now appears to be back up. Amazon’s not naming names — all that director of strategic communications Craig Berman would say was that: “Amazon’s systems are very complex and on rare occasions, despite our best efforts, they may experience problems.”
Berman did confirm, however, that neither Amazon Web Services nor international sites were affected.
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So what happened? Let’s look at the facts.
Traffic to http://www.amazon.com was getting there. So DNS was configured properly to send traffic to Amazon’s data centers. Global server load balancing (GSLB) is the first line of defense when a data center goes off the air. Either GSLB didn’t detect that the main data center was down, or there was no spare to which it could send visitors.
When traffic hit the data center, the load balancer wasn’t redirecting it. This is the second line of defense, designed to catch visitors who weren’t sent elsewhere by GSLB.
If some of the servers died, the load balancer should have taken them out of rotation. Either it didn’t detect the error, or all the servers were out. This is the third line of defense.
Most companies have an “apology page” that the load balancer serves when all servers are down. This is the fourth line of defense, and it didn’t work either.
The HTTP 1.1 message users saw shows something that “speaks” HTTP was on the other end. So this probably wasn’t a router or firewall.
This sort of thing is usually caused by a misconfigured HTTP service on the load balancer. But that would happen late at night, be detected, and rolled back. It could also happen from a content delivery network (CDN) not retrieving the home page properly.
So my money’s on an AFE or CDN problem. But as Berman notes, Amazon’s store is a complex application and much of their infrastructure doesn’t follow “normal” data center design. So only time (and hopefully Amazon) will tell.
Site operators can learn from this: Look into GSLB, and make sure you have geographically distributed data centers (possibly through AWS Availability Zones.) It’s another sign we can’t take operations for granted, even in the cloud.Thermometers don't seem like they need reinventing. Just stick one beneath your tongue, wait a minute, and everything you need to know is right in front of you. But there's a lot more that temperature can tell us if we're paying close attention. "Normally on temperature, I'd think that’s not very interesting," John Rogers, a University of Illinois researcher, tells The Verge. "It turns out, measuring skin temperature, let’s say to a tenth of a degree... that says something very meaningful about your physiological status and health."
The job of a quarter-million-dollar machine for just pennies
Rogers has been working on a series of super-thin, flexible electronics that are both wearable and totally unnoticeable to their wearer — they're so thin, they've often been referred to as electronic tattoos. His research team's latest device contains a hypersensitive thermometer that he says can do the job of a quarter-million-dollar thermal infrared camera, even though it costs only pennies worth of parts. Not only can the wearable thermometer do the same job, Rogers says that it can do it better: because it attaches to the skin, it can measure temperature over a long period of time, during a person's day-to-day activities, and without its target shifting around and introducing inaccuracies to a camera's steady sensor.
For certain people who can't properly control their body temperatures, knowing their skin temperature as far down as to the millikelvin (about two one-thousandths of a degree Fahrenheit), as this device allows, can let physicians tell exactly what's going on underneath it. The device can watch how heat flows through the bloodstream, or see how the dilation and constriction of blood vessels subtly alters the temperature around them. "That can say important things about cardiovascular health," Rogers says.
His team's new device, which is being described today in a paper published in Nature Materials, resembles the wearable electronics that Rogers has been working on for years. It looks like a small gilded barcode with vines snaking out of its top, and is applied to the skin using a water-soluble glue. Two different versions were created that work in different ways, but both have the same result: they can precisely determine temperature at multiple points across the skin, and can even introduce fine spikes of heat in order to measure how the skin reacts.
It took a couple years to build the sensors, but the majority of work involved with engineering the device has already been handled by prior or parallel research efforts. The next step is making them truly wireless — this version still requires external power — but now Rogers and colleagues can largely focus on introducing new sensors and applying them to new situations. In this case, his research group was contacted by the National Institutes of Health — the United States' primary medical research agency — which said it was looking for a better way to measure the temperature of skin.
"We started on the skin. The same device can be applied anywhere on the body."
Applying this wearable thermometer to the skin may be just the beginning, however. "There are lots of other places on the body where you might want to be able to do those kind of measurements," Rogers says. His team is experimenting with how the device could be applied to internal organs, even being placed right against the interior wall of the heart to measure its own properties. Right now that's just temperature, but additional sensors could be added on to report back an even richer body of detail, says Rogers. "Skin is a starting point."I think I’m addicted to puns. I’m sorry…and yet I’m not.
The Thundercats reboot really has been fantastic and I highly recommend it. It’s kind of got a Star Wars vibe to it…ya know…before it got badly “Lucas-ed”. This joke landed on me as kind of an excuse to draw my favourites.
That and my house has a garden now. Garden type stuff that I can eat eventually. I really did need to hoe it at one point, so I guess that’s topical too?
I’m happy to say I took the day off yesterday and spent it drawing (mostly, some video-games in there). Sadly, I never get as much as I want to get done, done. But that will always be true. Hopefully you’ll get to see more of the fruits of my labours soon.
~B
Be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter, ehDenmark has been totally recreated in sandbox game Minecraft, making it the first country able to be explored in the game "in the ratio 1:1," the Danish Broadcasting Corporation reports.
The map is the work of Simon Kokkendorf and Thorbjørn Nielsen of Geodatastyrelsen, the Danish Geodata Agency, who reportedly pulled public data about roads, buildings, elevation models and more. Dynamite has been disabled on the map to prevent serious modifications.
"This means that all of Denmark is now a virtual world in the ratio 1:1 inside the Minecraft," the mod's description (translated with Google) reads, "thus you can freely move around in Denmark, find your own residential area, to build and tear down as you can in whichever any other Minecraft world."
You can view the Minecraft version of Denmark in the video above. According to the Danish Geodata Agency's FAQ for the map, the organization hopes to bring spatial data to as many places as possible to pique "children and teachers' interest in spatial data." The server hosting the full map is temporary, though "chunks" will be available at a later date. Data used to create the map is available through the organization's website.
Minecraft has sold more than 12 million copies to date on the Xbox 360. The PC version surpassed 14 million, while the PlayStation 3 edition crossed the one million mark in January. Mojang's Owen Hill recently told Polygon that the PlayStation 4 and PS Vita editions of the game could launch in either Q2 or Q3 of this year.Following complaints from the Iraqi government, the United Nations has agreed to stop recording casualty figures for the ISIS war in Iraq, meaning that November’s report of 1,959 deaths among Iraqi security forces will be the last deaths you’ll be hearing about from them.
Iraqi Army officials claimed the figure was an “exaggeration,” though they’ve offered no death tolls of their own for the fighting. They further accused the UN report of hurting morale by making the death toll known.
The Iraqi Army command further claimed that the UN report was a deliberate attempt by the international body to “influence the course of Nineveh operations,” and that they were deliberately providing false reports in favor of ISIS.
The UN did note that they had requested casualty figures from the official Iraqi government sources, but never got any response, so they had to try to come up with their own figures. The UN says it will continue to report on civilian deaths in some parts of Iraq, but since they deliberately exclude the largest province, Anbar, this has always been of limited value anyhow.
Last 5 posts by Jason DitzA small, wide-eyed beast with luxuriant orange fur has been identified as a new species more than 100 years after it first went on display in the world's museums.
The discovery brings to an end one of the longest zoological cases of mistaken identity and establishes the "olinguito" (which rhymes with mojito) as the first new carnivore recorded in the western hemisphere for 35 years.
The animal – which has been described as a cross between a teddy bear and a house cat – had been displayed in museums around the globe and exhibited at numerous US zoos for decades without scientists grasping that it had been mislabelled.
One adult female, named Ringerl, was kept at Louisville zoo in the 1960s, but was moved to Tucson zoo, to the Smithsonian's National zoo, and to the Bronx zoo after keepers repeatedly failed in their attempts to breed the animal. The reason for that failure is now clear: it was a different species to the mates on offer.
The true identity of the overlooked beast only emerged after Kristofer Helgen, curator of mammals at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, launched a 10-year investigation into an obscure group of raccoon-like mammals called olingos. What began with a drawer-full of remains ended with a nighttime trek through the cloud forests of Ecuador, where scientists photographed the creature living in the trees.
"If you look up olingos in a book today, pretty much everyone says we don't know quite how many species there are, what their ranges are, and which are endangered. I set out to resolve all that, I wanted to put olingos on the map," Helgen told the Guardian.
"But in the process of trying to do that, and because we were the first group in generations to look closely at his part of the carnivore family tree, we revealed this incredible and beautiful animal that everyone had overlooked," he said.
The moment of realisation came when Helgen was going through skins and skulls of mammals at the Field Museum in Chicago. "I pulled out a drawer and there were these brilliant, beautiful orange-red pelts with long flowing fur. It was nothing like olingo fur. I then looked at the skulls and the shape was very different. I wondered, 'is this a mammal that's been missed by every other zoologist?' It turns out that it was," he said.
The animal had been mistaken for an olingo because of some broad similarities, but these turned out to be superficial. Helgen's animal was different on almost every measure: it was smaller, much furrier, had a shorter tail, different teeth, and smaller ears. "We are not talking about splitting hairs. If you saw the two animals side by side you would wonder how they could ever be confused," Helgen said.
Convinced they had a new species on their hands, Helgen's team arranged an expedition to the cloud forests of the Andes, where similar creatures had come from. Trekking at night through the dense vegetation, and accompanied by a chorus of frogs and crickets, they spotted other nocturnal beasts in the beams of their headtorches: kinkajous and porcupines.
"Eventually, there it was, an olinguito. We got it in the beam, running around, jumping from tree to tree, but getting close enough so that when it turned and looked into the beam we knew exactly what it was," he said.
The olinguito is a carnivore, but the term has two meanings in biology. The most familiar is an animal that eats meat, but the other is any animal that belongs to the order Carnivora, which includes cats, dogs, tigers, bears and others. They are not all meat eaters, and the olinguito mostly eats fruit.
Working with local museums, the team later extracted DNA from animals on display and confirmed that some were olinguitos, a previously unknown relative of the olingo. They have since confirmed there are at least four sub-species of the animals.
The DNA evidence took the scientists back to the Smithsonian Institution. There they found that scientific databases already contained olinguito DNA that had been wrongly labelled as olingo. It also led them to tissues from a Colombian olinguito held in storage at the museum. They belonged to Ringerl, the unfortunate female that toured US zoos.
"We tracked down Ringerl's keeper and asked why she moved her around so much. She said 'we couldn't get her to breed with any of the olingos.' This animal wasn't fussy, it just wasn't the same species. It would have been impossible. It was a glorious case of mistaken identity," said Helgen.
The name olinguito means small or adorable olingo, but writing in the journal ZooKeys, the team give the animal a formal scientific name too, Bassaricyon neblina. The species name, neblina, means "fog" or "mist" in Spanish, a nod to the cloud forests where the animal lives. But it also means obscured. "That's exactly what the olinguito has been," Helgen said. "Lost in the fog."He won't get credited for recruiting Devin Duvernay, but one of the influencers in Texas swaying the elite WR to Austin was sophomore linebacker Malik Jefferson.
Duvernay, who is from the North Dallas area like Jefferson, has known the former high school All-American linebacker for a while, and there's no doubt Jefferson had a bit of an impact on Duvernay. It's not just on Duvernay, though, Jefferson might be the best recruiter for the Longhorns based on the number of players he's helped reel in.
His commitment late in 2014 helped Texas land Kris Boyd, DeAndre McNeal, Chris Warren and others in the 2015 class. Once he got to campus, his impact was still felt as Jefferson's friendships with players such as Jean Delance, Brandon Jones and Jeffrey McCulloch helped the Longhorns land elite talent.
In other words, Jefferson proved an important factor in the commitments of many of Texas' top-ranked players the last two years.
This pattern led Bleacher Report's Matt Miller to pose a question to Jefferson on Twitter, and Jefferson provided an answer to it Longhorns fans will love:
Jefferson isn't likely to be around the Forty Acres for much longer than three years, so time is against that goal. But with Jefferson helping to recruit, there's little doubt the Longhorns will at least have the talent necessary to try and achieve it.Richard Dawkins is at it again - trying to wean the non-converted away from religion this time in his examination of The Genius of Charles Darwin, on Channel 4.
In 2006, his brutal and beautifully convincing exegesis The God Delusion tormented those whom Dawkins described as holding "beliefs that flatly contradict demonstrable scientific facts".
In this vein, the first of Dawkins' three programmes, aimed to show how we can live without the looming shadow of God, and enjoy a world that rests entirely upon the accuracy of natural selection - the hitherto most important discovery in science since time began.
It's not very long before Professor Dawkins cuts to the chase and explains how utterly irrational and dangerous spiritual beliefs can be (indeed it was an amusing undertaking to see how long it was until Dawkins plunged his dagger once more into faith).
Drawing upon the vacant menace of creationism and its sister theory intelligent design, Dawkins, in his inimitably composed manner, argued that hostility towards rationality, free thought, homosexuality and women still owes its persistence to medieval-esque subservience to theism, a vexation of science which should really have been promptly tossed away after the 18th century age of enlightenment, which Darwin himself was a prominent figure.
Dawkins' simple yet elegant address of Darwinism will surely make the programme a success, yet his attack on religion still seems to be somewhat indistinct. One obvious problem for Dawkins is that he battles to hold two rather inharmonious positions; at once he is the scientist - disciplined in observation and objectivity. But also he is the emotionally charged evangelical atheist.
Since the release of his bestseller, Dawkins has been unable to separate the two positions. Gone are the days of the professor dissecting halibut in front of an audience of pre-teens divided into those who are averting their squeamish gazes and those who can’t for the life of them turn away. Now, even in his scientific capacity, Dawkins is belligerent.
The God Delusion really marked the point where Dawkins transformed from the professor holding the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science to the celebrity fundamentalist atheist.
In his capacity as a scientist his efforts should be directed at safeguarding the longevity of Darwinism which, with the unsettling figure given by the British Humanist Association that at least 40 UK schools teach creationism, has the potential to be under attack from certain organs of the religious community. But given his more demanding role as fundamentalist, cedes all religiosity as dangerous, thus quashing any potential union to debilitate the creeping infection that is intelligent design, a topic where moderate atheists and those of faith can meet eye to eye. Indeed, Darwinism is not under attack from the religiously moderate, so why is there need to slur them?
The books by The Four Horsemen (Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, Hitchens) may well be trendy accessories (shown quite clearly by the numbers in their sales) but can they really solve the creationism-evolution argument in schools, or will they only create a small, solitary corner for themselves?
It’s quite clear that what the New Atheists are doing is lumping all the religious together in one bundle, just like the religious fundamentalists would do to atheists. Dawkins, in choosing to pursue a form of emotional firebrand atheism over the discipline of the scientist, is no longer the champion of reason, but an old problem this time on the other side of God. Even dyed-in-the-wall atheists like Bertrand Russell recognised a minimum of contribution religion has given to civilisation notably when he illustrated that religion informed "Egyptian priests to chronicle eclipses with such care that in time they become able to predict them."
In the fight against religious fundamentalism, atheists need to embrace the moderate religious community; they may well find they have more in common than they’d care to admit.Hit your target with maximum efficiency during this fall’s hunting season with these tips. (Yes, we're talking about the bullets.)
For many shooters, our choice ammo is often “what can we get the most bang for our buck?” This often means we are going for the lowest cost per round, and this will likely lead most of us to full metal jacket ammunition. What about those who are real sticklers for quality and are able to stomach the markup for a superior round for hunting season? Some may ask, what really is the difference between soft point V.S. ballistic tip? What about a hollow point? They are designed (for the most part) to accomplish the same thing… to hit the target and expand, right? In this article we will hopefully clarify some differences in bullet types so that you can choose your ammo wisely and hit your target with maximum efficiency this fall’s hunting season.
FMJ
The round is infamous for its ability to keep its shape in the most extreme handling conditions.
The most common round out there for many shooting enthusiasts is probably the FMJ (Full Metal Jacket). Deeply engrained into our modern pop culture by the popular movie title, by the same name and directed by Stanley Kubrick. The round is infamous for its ability to keep its shape in the most extreme conditions thanks to its hard outer jacket of copper that encapsulates the softer and more malleable lead core. Not only tough in the field when exposed to the elements, it also easier to feed in automatic weapons and protects the bore when solid core armor piercing rounds are used. The only fallback for most hunters is that the bullet tends to hold its form when hitting soft targets. The round does not mushroom efficiently like softer point bullets do.
SOFT POINT
Exposed lead creates more reliable expansion.
Soft nose lead tipped bullets, more commonly known as soft points are projectiles with an exposed lead core that is partially encased in a harder copper jacket. The exposed lead creates more reliable expansion and is ideal for firearms that have feeding issues with hollow point bullets, considering the front of the bullet is easily fed into the chamber due to its soft leading material. Although this type of bullet expands upon hitting soft targets, they do so at a slower rate than hollow point bullets. Depending on the hunting condition, distance, and size of the game you are targeting, the shooter should consider these factors when choosing an effective round. For instance, a blunt nose 30-30 round would work great for short distance deer hunting, but if you’re looking at reaching out past the 100 yard mark for a trophy elk with your 30-06, a standard soft point with a steep angled lead tip would be right in your ballpark.
HOLLOW POINT
Effective for quick and humane harvest for a wide variety of game.
The hollow point bullet is popular with varmint and predator hunters that are looking for exceptional stopping power and rapid expansion. One of the drawbacks is the rounds fragile nature. As the hollow point is easily damaged during transport, handling, or feeding into the firearm. Also popular for use in Law Enforcement and self-defense, these rounds are less likely to penetrate all the way through an intended soft target or put an innocent bystander in harms way. Effective for quick and humane harvest for a wide variety of game, its a no brainer why the hollow point has become one of the most popular rounds for hunting enthusiasts and personal protection.
More About Hollow Point: *Because of the rounds ability to create more damage upon impact, its use has been banned for military use by the continuance of the St. Petersburg Declaration of 1868, prefaced to the Hague Convention of 1899, Declaration III, which “prohibited the use in international warfare of bullets that easily expand or flatten in the body” This agreement was further solidified through the fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.
BALLISTIC TIP
Uniform expansion with maximum takedown power.
Becoming more and more popular in the hunting and competitive shooting world is the ballistic tipped style of bullets. The main purpose of these typically polymer tipped hollow point rounds, is to increase the coefficient of the bullets ballistics. (One of the first tipped bullets was the Remington Bronze Point, first introduced over 80 years ago.) Because of the bullets ability to stay uniform for longer periods of time down the bore and along its more aerodynamic trajectory, the design enables a stable flight path leading to improved accuracy. Popular within the competitive shooting world, it use is marketed towards those looking for match grade capabilities and high reliability to feed. Also popular within hunting applications, upon impact with a soft target the polymer tip is forced into the core of the bullet, thus creating a rapid and uniform expansion with maximum takedown power. This design enables a projectile to have the best of both worlds by combining the efficacies of soft point reliability, hollow point lethality, and unparalleled ballistic performance. That said the round is still susceptible to damage during handling, transport, and feeding into the chamber of the firearm. Overall, polymer tipped bullets are by far the most cosmetically pleasing rounds for consumers as they come in a variety of colors and are heavily produced by nearly every premium bullet manufacturer.
Ultimately, it’s the shooter choice as to which type of round they wish to use that best suits their own needs. Whether you are a purist who shoots blunt soft point rounds in heavy woods for that 140 class buck on your trail cam, or a competitive shooter attempting to be ahead of the curve by using heat shielded polymer tipped projectiles during a match. The type of bullet you choose is just one of the many factors that can lead to tight groups, a healthy harvest, and a great range day.PUP leader says reason is that he is ‘negotiating with the government about passage of legislation’
Clive Palmer has only attended just over 7% of all possible votes in parliament since he was elected.
Figures on parliamentary voting compiled by OpenAustralia show voting breakdowns for all House of Representatives and Senate bills. When MPs are ordered by the percentage of votes they have attended, Palmer is by far the lowest, having voted in only 15 out of a possible 196 votes, putting his attendance rate at 7.7%.
For comparison, the next lowest MP is Bob Katter, with 41.8%. Cathy McGowan, the only other new MP not in a major party, has an attendance rate of 87.8%. The average attendance rate is 93%.
Being absent from a vote is not necessarily due to an MP being absent from parliament, as it may also indicate deliberate abstention from the vote. The voting system in the Australian parliament only allows responses of ayes and noes, so any member wishing to abstain must leave the chamber and be recorded as absent.
When asked why his attendance rate was so low, Palmer said: “It’s because I’m negotiating with the government about the passage of their legislation.”
Many of Palmer’s votes relate to his business interests, including voting on the carbon tax repeal bill and the mining tax repeal bill.
Palmer responded to this by saying he does not have “business interests” as he is “retired from business”.
“My vote is not what’s important in the house. If I can assist our senators we’ll have the best outcome for Australia,” he said.
“I achieved the most of any member of parliament. In our party we get results and don’t sit in the parliament like puppets and follow the press.”
A Palmer United party spokesman said Palmer’s attendance rate at parliament was 70%. He said Palmer had been present at nine out of 15 sitting days in 2013 and 36 out of 49 in 2014. Some of the absences were due to illness, and the birth of Palmer’s daughter.
At the other end of the vote attendance scale were five MPs new to parliament. Coalition MPs Karen McNamara, Lucy Wicks, David Gillespie and Ann Sudmalis all had an attendance rate of 100%, as did Labor MP Andrew Giles.
Giles said attendance at votes was important, but other duties could lead to absences from politicians.
“As representatives it is a fundamental responsibility to participate in the business of parliament – and matters such as going to divisions [voting] are obviously significant decisions,” he said.
“Attendance at divisions needs to be considered in the context of all the other work that MPs do – on parliamentary committees and speaking in debates. This is sometimes overlooked as there is no easy tabulation of entire attendance at parliament house.”Video emerges of Red Bull Flugtag competition showing men apparently in blackface makeup, one dressed as US president, chasing banana off a ramp
The recent scrutiny of racism in the 2018 World Cup host Russia has expanded to include the world’s largest energy drink brand, after a video from a Red Bull event in Moscow showed a Barack Obama impersonator chasing a banana.
The controversy emerged over a highlights video from last week’s Red Bull Flugtag competition, in which participants send whimsical “flying” machines crashing off a ramp into water.
Of course it’s not an expression of racism. The situation was absolutely friendly and happy Vadim Shevchenko, Red Bull spokesman
In the video, at least four shirtless men who appeared to be in blackface makeup, and one dressed as the US president, chased another dressed as a banana.
Alec Luhn (@ASLuhn) Guys in blackface & Obama mask chase banana at Moscow @RedBull event—no racism here @robustmsk http://t.co/mEb1vlp7Dv pic.twitter.com/W1mHw4DGgM
The banana footage immediately sparked criticism from anti-discrimination activists. Robert Ustian, a supporter of the Russian football club CSKA and founder of the group CSKA Fans Against Racism, first spotted the video and said it showed that Russians often don’t understand the hurtfulness of their actions.
“They think this is funny, that this video with Obama and black people chasing a banana is funny,” said Ustian. “It shows that there’s an issue with racism in our society that is not being raised.”
Photoshopped memes showing Obama with bananas and calling the US president a monkey have appeared frequently on the Russian internet, including on a site of images often used by paid pro-Kremlin trolls.
Intolerant fans have also wielded bananas at football matches. In 2011, a fan of the St Petersburg football team Zenit waved a banana at Roberto Carlos, who was then playing for the Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala, as he walked down the tunnel. At another match, spectators threw a banana on the pitch in the direction of the Brazilian fullback.
Vadim Shevchenko, a member of Red Bull’s communications department, denied that the footage was meant to be racist and said the banana chase had not been planned. He said the man in the Obama costume had been part of a team called Dollar Goodbye alongside Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping impersonators, while the banana was from a different team called Crazy Tea Drinking.
A Red Bull photograph from the Moscow event showed people painted black pushing a flying machine resembling a white sheep off the ramp.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A participant falls down during the Red Bull Flugtag competition in Moscow. Photograph: Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters
Russia scores own goal after racism row casts shadow over World Cup draw Read more
“Of course it’s not an expression of racism,” Shevchenko said. “If you had been there you would understand. The situation was absolutely friendly and happy.”
Red |
released while he waits for trial. (Courtroom sketches by Bill Hennessy.) (Published Tuesday, March 25, 2014)
The amount of ricin Milzman produced was enough to kill an average person weighing 220 pounds if inhaled or injected, officials said. According to court documents, Milzman spent about a week researching ricin online, and watched 13 episodes of the show "Breaking Bad," during which ricin was used as a weapon to injure or kill someone.
When sentenced, Milzman faces between 366 days and two years behind bars.TEOLOYUCAN, Méx.
Seis personas muertas y 25 lesionadas dejó una carambola en el kilómetro 7.6 del Circuito Exterior Mexiquense, en este municipio, en el sentido a Querétaro, informó la Comisión Estatal de Seguridad Ciudadana (CES).
En un comunicado, indicó que las autoridades estatales atendieron el percance y por la magnitud del suceso se cerró la vía por nueve horas.
Reportes preliminares señalan que el accidente ocurrió alrededor de las 9:15 horas, en el que se vieron involucrados un aproximado de 57 vehículos.
El mismo comisionado de Seguridad Ciudadana del Estado de México, Eduardo Valiente Hernández, confirmó para Excélsior Televisión que habían sido seis las personas que murieron y otras 25 resultaron heridas en la carambola en el Circuito Exterior Mexiquense en la que más de 50 vehículos estuvieron involucrados.
En entrevista con Yuriria Sierra para Grupo Imagen Multimedia, declaró que en el percance estuvieron involucrados 57 vehículos.
“En el kilómetro 7.6 se registró el principal de los impactos, pero en los tramos tanto anteriores a este punto como posteriores, fueron registrados siete impactos”, dijo.
Afirmó que aún se desconocen las causas del accidente en el que pudieron haber influido factores como la niebla que se registró esta mañana en la zona, así como el exceso de velocidad, “pero el Ministerio Público y los peritos serán quienes realicen todos los trabajos para dictaminar cuáles fueron las causas”.
Jimena Rocha, quien viajaba junto con su esposo y sus dos hijos a bordo de un vehículo Matiz, señaló que ellos circulaban a baja velocidad, pues no se alcanzaba a ver la unidad de adelante.
“De repente se escuchó un rechinido y golpes y aunque mi esposo frenó, sentimos el golpe, le habíamos pegado a un carro, pero enseguida nos pegaron a nosotros, gracias a Dios a nosotros sólo fue el susto.
“Pensamos que había sido un choque normal, pero cuando se despejó la niebla, pudimos ver la magnitud del accidente”.
Tras el percance, se informó que tres choferes de las unidades siniestradas fueron presentados al MP de Cuautitlán, a fin de deslindar responsabilidades.
Banco de niebla
Neblina y exceso de velocidad de un tráiler pudieron haber sido las causas del accidente. Según versiones de algunos testigos, un tráiler alcanzó a un auto compacto y el impacto provocó que saliera proyectado hacia otro tráíler que venía en los carriles de contraflujo.Controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio isn't ruling out a run for the White House in 2012, CNN reports.
The Maricopa County official -- whose claim to fame has stemmed from crusading against illegal immigration in the wake of Gov. Jan Brewer (R) signing a controversial measure to tackle the matter -- is even heading to the key primary battleground state of New Hampshire next week.
According to Chad Willems, a political advisor to Arpaio, his boss "enjoys being sheriff, but he has been asked by and urged by so many people" to mount a presidential pursuit. He told CNN that "thousands of people call and write or email him each week saying 'Run for president, run for president.'"
As for the upcoming New Hampshire trip, Willems told the network that Arpaio is "not going back to test the waters," but then admitted, "People just don't go to New Hampshire if they are not interested in these things."
Statements made in the past by Arpaio suggest he sees himself carrying significant political clout.
Earlier this year, in squashing speculation that he might run for Governor in the Grand Canyon State, the Arizona sheriff said, "I don't want to be egotistical, but I could be the governor if I ran... My polls are very high. I got the money. I got the polls. I got the support." And, Apraio recently said that he considers his endorsement cred to be stronger than that of home state GOP Sen. John McCain.
Last month, the Arizona sheriff suggested President Obama consult his advice on the issue of illegal immigration.(Newser) – You'd think bright red lettering would be enough for a passenger to distinguish a plane's emergency exit from a bathroom door—not to mention the window offering a clear view outside. Yet a first-time air traveler in China says she mistook a cabin door for the entrance to a toilet on a China Southern Airlines flight on Friday, causing an emergency slide to deploy, reports Mashable. Thankfully the flight to Shenzhen was still grounded at Chongqing Airport, where it had to remain for two hours.
Passengers who were removed from the flight say a loud hissing noise could be heard when the 50-year-old touched the emergency door's handle. The woman later told officials that she had wanted to avoid the line for the bathroom and thought the door led to another toilet. An investigation is ongoing, but the woman didn't return to the plane, reports Shanghaiist. A man opened an emergency exit on a China Southern Airlines flight at the same airport earlier this month, per Mashable. His excuse: he wanted fresh air. (Read more China stories.)Lung Cancer Ends the Life of Former 'Marlboro Man'
Just last week, in an interview from his hospital bed at Hoag Hospital, McLaren said his own smoking habit of 25 years had "caught up with me. I've spent the last month of my life in an incubator and I'm telling you, it's just not worth it."
"All (smokers) would have had to do was see how long he suffered before he died, and they would stop," the mother said.
"He fought a hard battle," said Louise McLaren, mother of the 51-year-old former actor and Hollywood stuntman. "Some of his last words were: 'Take care of the children. Tobacco will kill you, and I am living proof of it.'
NEWPORT BEACH — Wayne McLaren, who once portrayed the "Marlboro Man" in cigarette advertisements and used that notoriety in his own crusade against smoking, died Wednesday after a long battle with lung cancer.
During the past week as her husband lay semiconscious, Ellen McLaren said letters began arriving from people throughout the region who pledged to continue McLaren's crusade.
"He was so concerned about the kids," she said. "If he could touch one person's life while he suffered, it would have made up for all the damage he felt he did while he was a (cigarette brand) model."
He gained his greatest notoriety in 1975 as a "Marlboro Man," one of several dozen models to portray the character in a series of print advertisements.
Last spring he appeared before a meeting of stockholders of Phillip Morris Inc., maker of Marlboro, and asked them to limit their advertising. And before his condition worsened, McLaren had made public appearances to warn children about smoking. He also spoke before the Massachusetts Legislature and appeared in a British Broadcasting Corp. production titled "The Tobacco Wars."
"He was a very strong-willed person," his mother said.
Found to have lung cancer more than two years ago, McLaren sued a physician who he alleged failed to discover his condition when he went for a physical examination in 1989. Last September, the case was settled out of court and terms of the agreement were ordered confidential.
In addition to his wife and mother, McLaren is survived by two brothers, Charles Lee McLaren, 49, and John L. McLaren, 40, and a sister, Marie Lynn Sellers Morrow, 43, all of Houston.
Funeral services are scheduled for 3:30 p.m. today at Pierce Brothers Bell Mortuary in Costa Mesa, with a viewing preceding the services, beginning at 1 p.m. Burial will be in Lake Charles, La.Vancouver Whitecaps FC @ New York City FC: 2-3
Recap:
Experience trumped youth on Saturday afternoon as Vancouver Whitecaps FC (3W-5L-2D) fell 3-2 after a poor performance against New York City FC (2W-3L-4D) in the ‘Caps first game at the historic Yankee Stadium.
Facing their third match in eight days, head coach Carl Robinson was forced to make some tough decisions with his lineup, especially considering the suspension to star centre-back Kendall Waston and captain Pedro Morales staying at home after returning from injury off the bench midweek against Sporting Kansas City. Making seven changes in the starting eleven, Jordan Smith replaced Fraser Aird who picked up a knock on Wednesday, Pa-Modou Kah was on for the suspended Waston, Canadian Sam Adekugbe played as left-back to give Jordan Harvey a rest, Andrew Jacobson joined Matias Laba in the midfield in place of Russell Teibert to take on his old team, Kekuta Manneh took over for Cristian Techera after a strong showing off the bench against SKC, while Octavio Rivero rejoined the team replacing Matias Kudo.
With a tired team and a weakened backline, there were a lot of questions regarding the Whitecaps team facing an experienced but struggling NYCFC side. One of the biggest worries heading into the game was how the defence, made up mostly of bench players, would be able to neutralise a team with World Cup winners such as David Villa and Andrea Pirlo.
The odds weren’t looking great for the ‘Caps.
Only 37 seconds into the game, however, designated player Octavio Rivero got Vancouver off to a roaring start as he scored on a Nicolas Mezquida rebound, potting his first of the season and ending a long scoring drought for the Uruguayan.
It started to look like it could be a very successful outing for the Whitecaps as Rivero nearly doubled the lead in the 15th minute after a great pass from Mezquida, but he could not put the ball behind New York goalkeeper Josh Saunders.
Despite the strong start from the Uruguayan, Rivero’s game was cut short as he was replaced in the 27th minute by Blas Perez, as he was forced off with injury.
The situation worsened for Vancouver in the 35th minute when former Barcelona and Spain star David Villa levelled the game at 1-1, after an incredibly poor turnover by Jacobson in the midfield. Only six minutes later, the duo of World Cup champions linked up, as Villa scored an incredible goal off of a Pirlo corner kick. The goal was contentious as Laba was pulled down on the play, but nevertheless, the goal stood and NYCFC went into the halftime break with a 2-1 lead.
Just over 15 minutes into the second half, the Whitecaps had a glimmer of hope as Kekuta Manneh was fouled just inside the box. With Morales and Rivero, Vancouver’s two top penalty takers, not on the pitch, Kah pointed to veteran Christian Bolanos to take the penalty. Bolanos was fortunate, however. Saunders stopped his poor penalty kick, but Bolanos ran up to put away the rebound to even the score at 2-2 in the 63rd minute.
It was not meant to be for the ‘Caps, though. Substitute Steven Mendoza put NYCFC ahead again in the 73rd minute, and although the Whitecaps fought hard for the remainder of the game, they could not equalise, even against a New York team that was prone to choking.
Opinion:
Goalkeeper David Ousted put in a poor performance which is unusual for the Danish keeper who usually bails the ‘Caps out several times a game with big saves. The entirety of the blame cannot be placed on Ousted, however, as the defensive line was poor throughout the game, and the team cannot expect one player to consistently win games for them.
Rivero’s goal was huge for his confidence and it could be seen throughout his 26 minutes on the pitch. The Uruguayan put in his strongest performance of the year in his short time on the field, and the result could have been very different if he was on the field for the full 90 minutes.
Finally, Carl Robinson’s substitution of Blas Perez for the injured Rivero instead of Masato Kudo was questionable. While Kudo played 65 minutes on Wednesday against Sporting Kansas City, Kudo could’ve been a better choice to replace Rivero. While Perez is a strong super sub off the bench to score a late goal, the 35-year-old Panamanian does not look to have the stamina left in him to play at full intensity for 90 minutes, or even the 60 minutes he played on Saturday. Whether or not Kudo could’ve made a difference, Perez looked like wrong substitution.
Upcoming:
The Whitecaps return home to BC Place next Saturday at 2:00 PM for their Cascadia Cup clash against the Portland Timbers. The ‘Caps lead the 2016 Cascadia Cup after their victory on the road against the Sounders. Pedro Morales should be expected to be back in the eighteen for Vancouver, however, Rivero’s status is unknown after his injury against NYCFC.
Stat Pack:
Starting Eleven and Substitutes:
Substitutes: Perez for Rivero (27′), Techera for Manneh (78′), Hurtado for Bolanos (78′)
Unused Substitutes: Tornaghi, Harvey, Kudo, Teibert (CAN)
CAN – Canadian player
Whitecaps FC 2 @ St. Louis FC: Postponed
The Thundercaps faced their second postponed game of 2016 already, as lightning prevented play from taking place on Saturday night at World Wide Technology Soccer Park in St. Louis. After a nearly three-hour delay, the St. Louis FC Twitter account announced the game was cancelled.
With WFC2 already having made the trip to St. Louis, the game could be rescheduled to Sunday afternoon.
Heading into the game Whitecaps FC 2 are unbeaten with a record of 3W-0L-2T, while St. Louis FC have had an average start to the season at 2W-2L-2D.
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Jacob Noseworthy Jacob is a second-year political science major at the University of Victoria, but he is also setting his sights towards a minor in journalism. He joined Northern Starting Eleven to combine his passions of soccer and journalism and to help promote and grow the sport in Canada. NSXI gives him the opportunity to refine and grow his writing skills, while also growing his love of the beautiful game. When he’s not studying, Jacob can usually be found watching soccer, whether he is supporting Vancouver Whitecaps FC from across the Georgia Strait or at Centennial Stadium cheering on the UVic Vikes.
Like this: Like Loading...This feels sort of incomplete but? I still like it so eh:
“Anna won’t find out?”
“As long as you don’t tell her.”
Natasha was raised as an assassin. She knew how to read people like a picture book, she knew when people were dangerous, when they could, almost, be trusted and when they couldn’t. This girl, Elsa, was dangerous.
When Natasha came into the modest New York apartment (that still cost a small fortune) the temperature dropped, quite literally, several degrees. Elsa did not find a government employee walking into her apartment very agreeable and Natasha didn’t blame her.
They’d talked for a long time, Elsa obviously knew about the Avengers, she’d done her research and Natasha was impressed. Elsa was only 21, but The Black Widow wouldn’t be surprised if she was quite the formidable opponent.
Now the blonde sat in front of her, pondering her deal; all expenses paid, hero work. Only when called upon, of course. Elsa was working long hours at an architectural business and going to night classes, Nat had done her homework too, and while her family’s wealth was certainly enough to pay for everything, for now, it wouldn’t last forever.
Elsa was smart and Natasha knew she’d hear from the young woman soon. The front door opened and a cheerful “I’m home!” signaled the end of Natasha’s visit. She didn’t mind, and she gave a cheerful wave goodbye to the bumbling redhead who was hanging her coat.
“Elsa? Who was that?” Natasha smiled as she closed the door, the two seemed like a good match. Natasha had indeed done her homework, but who was she to judge the relationships of others?
“Just a coworker,” Elsa responded, the tension from talking with the assassin began to slide off of her. Anna had that effect, one of calm excitement that always left Elsa more relaxed than perhaps she should be.
Anna gave a harumph and closed the distance between them, hooking her arms around Elsa’s waist and kissing the older woman’s cheek, “I answered a question perfectly in biology,” she smiled up at Elsa.
Elsa loved her so much, she practically beamed down at Anna and said, “well, perhaps you need a reward?” Anna’s eyebrow quirked and let her gaze rake over Elsa’s face and upper chest, her smile becoming slowly more predatory.
“Hmm, what kind of reward?”
A light squeeze to the buttocks had Elsa laughing, “I was actually thinking ice cream and a movie!”
Anna’s eyes lit up with more than desire, “Ah! Clue! And root beer floats!”
Elsa laughed again, “Go put in the movie.” Anna danced off, after a kiss of course, and Elsa went back to the kitchen to whip up two root beer floats.
She wasn’t sure about Natasha, or the organization “SHEILD” that she worked for, but she knew of the Avengers and she wanted to know more. Besides the added income wouldn’t hurt and the training they could put her through was probably one of a kind.
She could control ice, water vapor, anything that held water and could be frozen. Her father warned her countless times to never show anyone, to never use her abilities, but he’d died, as well as her mother, in a boating accident and Elsa didn’t get the continual reminders after she was 18.
She experimented. She froze a pool, built snowmen and watched them come to life, and even made sure it snowed on the first Christmas after their parents’ death, just for Anna. She made her first suit when she was 20, only a year ago, and went out on a very chilly night to stop several petty robberies.
After that, she was hooked. She loved the rush of the chase, the wind whipping in her hair as she froze a path in front of her, skating faster than ever advised. Her first suit was muted, the ice crystals dull and quite, her newest suit was nothing like it. She formed it from pure snow and it refracted and reflected light so well it was hard to look at even in the dark.
The Ice Queen, the Ice Devil, the Snow Queen, the Frozen Lady, Frost, all were names bestowed upon her. She liked Frozen Lady, not that she’d tell anyone that, but that was beside the point.
Anna didn’t know, wouldn’t ever know. Wouldn’t know that her root beer float would never melt nor that they didn’t have an AC bill. But Elsa didn’t dwell on that, because she had a movie to watch and a lover to cuddle.
Elsa smiled at the red head lounging across the couch, she couldn’t be happier if she tried.
Also, I realize I didn’t fully understand the prompt for yesterday, uh, oh well, I don’t think I’ve seen any classic romances to put Elsa and Anna into anyway…by Christina Sarich
If a system does not interact with its environment in any way... it does not exist in nature.
I will start this article with the definition of an isolated system: implies a system that does not interact with the other systems of its environment in any way. Now I ask: Does an isolated system exist?
An isolated system is based on something that is not fund in nature. Curious. Heretofore – all scientific exploration has looked at things as isolated systems. For example, we try to separate something and look at it as small, separate parts...the cell, the nervous system, the elements of the periodic table, apples, flowers, tables, etc. but this does not exist in nature – not in any system, not in gravitational pull, not in biological functions, not in mechanical engineering, not in sociological systems, etc. In Tibetan Buddhist teachings this is referred to dependent arising orpratityasamutpada. It is the notion that things only exist as referential systems to cause and effect by other things. Or, nothing exists in a closed-system. The Huayan-Zong school established during the Tang dynasty teaches this point as a primary focus of its spiritual theory. The Upanishads andVedasspoke of this repeatedly. There are countless other traditions throughout India, Japan, Asia, Korea, China, Australia, Africa, and elsewhere which tell the same story.
I will use geometry to explain this point. Take any shape, for now, we will look at a circle – is this an isolated system? It divides space between inside and outside. In fact, each circle is only another point of information, or energy. Within a circle, there can be smaller circles, and so on – infinitely. So again, it is not an isolated system, because the ‘space’ can always be divided into smaller diameters, or larger diameters, so the outline of the circle is just a temporary description of energy or information. This is essentially what fractals are – an infinite description of information into smaller and smaller, recurring shapes or definitions of space. But these definitions can be redefined infinitely. There are no isolated systems. This is the premise of holographic physics. All information is present in each part because it is referential to all other parts of the ‘system.’ The system, therefore, is not closed, but infinite.
People are similar. We use our outlines, just like the diameter of a circle to define ourselves, and act as if we are an isolated system, but we are not. We say we don’t have enough food, money, time, energy, etc. but this is pure fallacy, scientifically. If we are infinite, then so are our resources. Our energy is infinite. Our information is infinite. The finite self is an illusion – not just in esoteric or spiritual terms, but in scientific ones.
Space is everywhere – between galaxies, stars, quasars, planets, atoms, in the densest material, there is still space. Buckminster Fuller said, “Nothing touches.” That is how much space there is. Even an atom is made of 99.99999% space. It is the.00001% that we call the ‘real world.’ We call this isolated system reality. We ignore the truth on a daily basis. Matter doesn’t define space. Matter is definedby the space.
The unified field theory, as first proposed by Einstein when he attempted to correct our concepts of a closed system by merging the general theory of relativity and our understanding of electromagnetism, or electromagnetic interaction, the heretofore unknown organizing substance that holds together quarks to form neutrons, protons, and the nuclei of atoms, short range electroactivity, and gravitational interaction on all particles is still a theory because scientists do not understand whatorganizing substance or principal allows the continuous interaction of all systems. In fact, in most modern physics, gravity is the hardest force to include in the unified field theory because general relativity and quantum mechanics seem to be at odds with each other.
It is in fact, the supposition that these ‘closed systems’ react independently of one another that forms the final conundrum. A TOE or theory of everything has to pull together all known forms of physical matter – to explain what spiritual folks have been asserting – that we are all one. Archimedes andEinstein have attempted the TOE as have surfing scientists in Hawaii and numerous well-credentialed professors at Universities the world over. Plato and Socrates wanted an answer to our unity, as did Galileo.
If one were to read the paṭicca-samuppāda, an important Pali text, one can decide that everything exists or that nothing exists, polar opposites to the truth of the matter – that in relation to one another, there is a middle way. (Yes, the famous middle way that the Buddha spoke of) which ties all phenomenon – physical, mental and otherwise – together. In fact the word loka, which is often translated to mean ‘world’ really means ‘an open place or an open space.’
Space Makes Up 99.99999% of All Things
If we are truly 99.99999% space and the world, or loka is an open space or place, then how are we limited, or a closed system at all? We are an open-system, integrally related, dependent on one another for existence and actuality. Physicists may not yet have nailed down the TOE but there is irrefutable scientific evidence that cannot be ignored. We are all one morethan metaphorically, in a lets-all-hold-hands-and-sing-kumbaya way – but physically, mentally and relationally.
Sources:
Nassim Haramein – The Energy of the Future – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc4pi1PXb38&feature=related
The Telegraph: Surfer Dude Stuns Physicists with Theory of Everything – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/large-hadron-collider/3314456/Surfer-dude-stuns-physicists-with-theory-of-everything.html
Is Paṭicca-samuppada a Theory of Everything? Jayarava Nov 2010.1
Ronkin,Noa. 2005. Early Buddhist Metaphysics: the Making of a Philosophical Tradition. London, Routledge Curzon.
About the Author
Christina Sarich is a musician, yogi, humanitarian and freelance writer who channels many hours of studying Lao Tzu, Paramahansa Yogananda, Rob Brezny, Miles Davis, and Tom Robbins into interesting tidbits to help you Wake up Your Sleepy Little Head, and See the Big Picture. Her blog is Yoga For the New World.
Sources:
Waking Times
PictureIf you haven’t gathered as much from the rash of think-pieces and tributes (we suggest you read these instead), tomorrow marks the 20th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death. While the many words you may read in the next few weeks about Cobain’s legacy demonstrate his importance to generations of listeners (and music journalists), it’s also pretty clear that Cobain and Nirvana are a heavy influence on the bands that followed in their footsteps — and even some of their contemporaries and predecessors. It’s a ballsy move to cover a classic Nirvana song, and there have been some famous artists who have tackled the obvious ones (particularly Tori Amos and Patti Smith, who have both recorded famous version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”). There are also, however, plenty of musicians who came before and after Kurt Cobain who have successfully put their own spin on his words.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOuYtlex5Cs]
Caetano Veloso — “Come As You Are”
Brazilian singer-songwriter Caetano Veloso brings a slight Tropicália spin to his straight-forward cover of the second single from Nevermind.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdKK-o6OxFE]
tUnE-yArDs (feat. Wye Oak and Dirty Projectors) — “Lithium”
The encore performance of the epic concert to celebrate the anniversary of Michael Azerrad’s monumental book Our Band Can Be Your Life saw members of Wye Oak and the Dirty Projectors joining Merrill Garbus on stage at New York’s Bowery Ballroom for this pretty intense cover.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fE8l25CG2E]
Sinead O’Connor — “All Apologies”
Sinead O’Connor turns this classic into a pretty Sinead-y song.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bObLmKmx2hQ]
Kristin Hersh — “Pennyroyal Tea”
Kristin Hersh’s cover of the In Utero track doesn’t sound too different from the original, proving that sometimes you don’t need to put a new spin on what’s already a perfect song.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8VtU99vO4w]
Jay Reatard — “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle”
Jay Reatard’s lo-fi cover of the In Utero track is a fitting tribute, and a bittersweet one considering Reatard’s life was also tragically cut short before the age of 30.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEfCskXbvZ4]
Jessica Lea Mayfield — “Lounge Act”
It’s always interesting to hear a female voice tackle a Nirvana song, and Jessica Lea Mayfield’s ethereal vocals, combined with the chilled-out arrangement, is a nice balance to the original version from Nevermind.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAhU2Q8Uzws]
Manic Street Preachers — “Been a Son”
Here’s a bluesy, acoustic version of an early Nirvana track, which originally appeared on the Blew EP.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLn_TU61c2M]
Titus Andronicus — “Breed”
If there’s any recent band that can replicate the raw energy of Nirvana, it’s New Jersey punk rockers Titus Andronicus, who deliver a stellar cover of this Nevermind track.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJuAbh1–hg]
Maps & Atlases — “Drain You”
Chicago rockers Maps & Atlases give this song from Nevermind the indie-rock treatment.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICrVUX1S_LI]
Hooverphonic — “In Bloom”
With the addition of frenetic strings and female vocals, Hooverphonic turns “In Bloom” on its head while doing service to the original track from Nevermind.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgSxvXYMgHw]
Animal Collective — “On a Plain”
If there’s any band that could successfully turn a grunge song into a freaky, folky, acoustic jam, it would be Animal Collective.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4VcU7MG-Lk]
Sonic Youth — “Moist Vagina”
Noise-rock icons and Nirvana pals Sonic Youth take on this song, which was originally released as the B-side to “All Apologies” and “Rape Me.”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dLFkwMd3vQ]
Stereophonics — “Something in the Way”
This bare-bones acoustic cover of this song, from Nevermind, is a fitting and moody tribute.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl12P2ZdrvY]
Cibo Matto — “About a Girl”
Leave it to Cibo Matto to turn a grunge-rock classic into a groovy little ditty.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWO4JnP2T40]
Kathleen Hanna — “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
At the now-defunct New York variety show Our Hit Parade, Kathleen Hanna tells the amazing story of the time she and Kurt Cobain defaced a pro-life teen pregnancy center, explains the origins of the classic song title, and talks about how the song haunted her during her brief days as a stripper.Photo by Coley Brown
Tonight, starting at 7 p.m. Eastern time, Captured Tracks head Mike Sniper will spin a set on Pitchfork Radio, broadcasting live from the Shinola booth at New York Fashion Week: Men's. He'll premiere an unheard Mac DeMarco song called "Missin the Old Me." According to Sniper, it dates back to 2012 or 2013, right after the release of 2. There are currently no plans to release this song otherwise.
Listen to Pitchfork Radio here.
Tonight, Pitchfork Radio will also feature sets from Pitchfork's Ryan Schreiber, Ryan Dombal, and Prince Rama. (Prince Rama will also premiere a new track.) Tomorrow's Pitchfork Radio lineup features punk icon Richard Hell in conversation with Pitchfork's Brandon Stosuy, plus sets from Afrika Bambaataa, the Bomb Squad's Hank Shocklee, Calvin Johnson, Ted Leo, Kip Berman from the Pains of Being Pure at Heart with Jen Goma from A Sunny Day in Glasgow, Perfect Pussy's Meredith Graves, and more.
Find a full schedule here.
Check out DeMarco's episode of Pitchfork.tv's Over/Under:We got the opportunity to give them a spin last week in New York City and, guess what -- they're rewritable NFC tags. But they're going to be pretty darn handy.
For those of you new to the game, NFC stands for "Near Field Communication" -- think of it as very short-range wireless data transfers where you literally tap your phone against something to initiate the transfer. NFC tags are little stickers that, when touched by an NFC-enabled device, can then cause an action to happen.
NFC plays a pretty big part in Samsung's latest smartphone, the Galaxy S III. It's used to initiate an S Beam connection, which lets you transfer photos and videos (among other things) from one Galaxy S III to another. (There's some Wifi Direction action involved there, but we digress.) Back to the tags, though.
The TecTiles tags will run you $14.99 for a five-pack, which you can purchase from Samsung online, or at AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile stores. (Yes. That's a whopping $3 a tag.) They're good for many thousands of rewrites, Samsung tells us. So what can they do? It's a pretty extensive list. One you download and install the TecTiles app -- which works just fine on non-Samsung phones, by the way -- you'll be able to write tags to do the following:
Settings & Applications
Change phone settings (Bluetooth®, Wi-Fi, ringer/media volume, screen brightness, etc.)
Launch an application
Join a Wi-Fi Network
Show a message
Communication
Make a call
Send a text message
Start a Google Talk conversation
Share a contact or business card
Location & Web
Show an address on a map
Open a web page
Foursquare or Facebook check-in
Social
Automatic Facebook “Like”
Update Facebook status
Post a tweet or follow a contact on Twitter
Connect on LinkedIn
And that's it. Just tap, and go. And it works just fine, though the tags definitely are on the pricey side. There's more info at the link below. Or (and this was a bit of brilliance on Samsung's part), you can just tap a TecTiles tag with an NFC-enabled phone to visit Sammy's TecTiles site for more info and to download the TecTiles app.
More: Samsung TecTiles; Download the TecTiles app
This post may contain affiliate links. See our disclosure policy for more details.Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2009 October 15
Fireball Meteor Over Groningen
Credit & Copyright: Robert Mikaelyan
Explanation: The brilliant fireball meteor captured in this snapshot was a startling visitor to Tuesday evening's twilight skies over the city of Groningen. In fact, sightings of the meteor, as bright as the Full Moon, were widely reported throughout the Netherlands and Germany at approximately 17:00 UT. Accompanied by sonic booms and rumbling sounds, the meteor was seen to break up into bright fragments, eventually leaving a persistent smoke-like trail. Even though there are bright fireball meteors in planet Earth's atmosphere every day, sightings of them are relatively rare because they more often occur over oceans and uninhabited areas.WASHINGTON — The intensifying legal battle over encryption between Apple and the Justice Department has all but obscured another more subtle division, the one inside the Obama administration itself.
Driven by competing and sometimes clashing interests about privacy, national security and the economy, some of the president’s most senior aides are staking out a variety of positions on the issue.
The White House denies there is disagreement over the effort to force Apple to break into the phone used by one of the terrorists in the San Bernardino, Calif., shootings, but the differences on how to deal with the broader questions raised by encryption have become increasingly apparent.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation wants the ability to break into smartphones and computers for investigations. The Pentagon and intelligence officials worry that the same techniques could be used by foreign powers or hackers to drain data from phones used by the United States government, and that countries like China will demand the same access provided to American law enforcement officials.The state released a report this month on studying removal of the historic Fort Fisher dam
FORT FISHER -- When legislators take up removal of the New Inlet Dam this year, they'll have some explaining to do.
This month the state released its report on the 140-year-old structure south of Zeke's Island, known locally as "The Rocks." A provision in the state budget, passed last summer, asked the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to study the feasibility of digging out parts of the dam to restore "the natural hydrodynamic flow between the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean."�But federal agencies say before they sign off on the project, they need a better explanation.
"A clear purpose"
The Army Corps of Engineers |
the Bush administration and is now a professor at University of Minnesota Law School. “They are in charge of a very powerful independent agency.”
Painter said the longer time-out would help reduce the influence that former SEC leaders might have on the people they worked with at the agency. That could diminish any advantage over others seeking the attention of the regulators.
The potential for a high-paying job after an SEC stint helps the agency recruit people with expertise in arcane areas. SEC pay scales generally can’t compete with industry; they top out at about $240,000 for staff and $156,000 for commissioners. At Davis Polk, profits per partner reached $2.3 million in 2011, according to the American Lawyer magazine.
‘Economic Opportunities’
The SEC gets “top-notch, high-quality people because it’s fun, because it’s challenging, because it’s exciting and because of the economic opportunities after they leave,” said David Gourevitch, a former agency enforcement lawyer who is now in private practice in New York.
Gourevitch, in comments echoed by other SEC alumni, said the back-and-forth between the industry and the commission doesn’t help ex-officials tip the scale toward their clients.
“There clearly is a revolving door,” he said. “I don’t see it influencing the results.”
Others aren’t so sure. Markets are so complex that regulators operate under an “informational disadvantage” with those they police, and it’s natural for SEC officials to listen more closely to lawyers and lobbyists who once worked at the agency, said Pritchard, the Michigan law professor.
Nazareth is recognized as an expert since she ran the SEC’s markets division before she served as a commissioner. “She knows how to pitch the arguments to the SEC in a way that they’re likely to respond to,” Pritchard said.
Marketing Push
The e-mails reviewed by Bloomberg News begin in February 2009, just as Dodd-Frank was being crafted by the Obama administration and half a dozen agencies, and end in May 2011, when the public records request originally was made.
The time period coincided with an effort by Davis Polk, a New York-based firm that has long represented prominent Wall Street clients, to market its financial regulatory work. It sought to outdistance rival Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, people in the legal and banking industries say. Besides JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, Davis Polk has done work for Citigroup Inc. (C) and Morgan Stanley (MS) on Dodd-Frank matters.
The correspondence illustrates how Nazareth tended her relationships and pushed for access. She was able to arrange an unscheduled meeting with Becker on June 24, 2009, when she e- mailed him from the SEC’s lobby: “My meeting has just ended with Trading and Markets. Do you have time to meet?”
Five minutes later, Becker replied, “I do.”
‘Very Peculiar’
The next month, on July 11, Nazareth e-mailed Becker to offer “just some Saturday morning thoughts” about the Treasury Department’s draft of the regulatory bill, noting that she found it “very peculiar in places, causing me to believe that it was not written by the SEC or fully vetted.”
That included a section of the legislation concerning whether brokers should have a fiduciary duty to their clients. Sifma was fighting to make sure brokers weren’t covered by the same requirement as investment advisers.
“The language is broad enough to suggest that any compensation creates a conflict of interest,” Nazareth wrote. “Are these services now going to be provided for free?”
Becker responded that the draft was left vague on purpose, to give the SEC the authority to set the rules itself, rather than have Congress do it. Still, he told Nazareth: “This has been unbelievably messy.”
Observing Schapiro
After a month had gone by without any e-mails, Nazareth contacted Becker at 5:46 a.m. on Aug. 13.
“You never call. You never write. Do you have any time for lunch?” she wrote. They met the following week at an eatery in Washington’s Union Station, which is connected to the SEC offices.
Nazareth and Becker sometimes discussed Schapiro. In October 2009, Nazareth wrote that the chairman appeared “really exhausted and downbeat” when she spoke to a New York conference sponsored by Sifma. “It must be very difficult,” Nazareth said in the e-mail.
Becker responded that it “is an impossible job” to be SEC chairman.
“The demands from various quarters are strident and irreconcilable, and the agency, as you well know, is a huge management challenge,” he added.
Nazareth’s e-mails to Becker and Schapiro increased when there were developments on Capitol Hill. On November 10, 2009, then-Senator Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, released his 1,100-page version of the regulatory bill.
Investor Advocate
The next morning Nazareth sent the copy of her firm’s bill summary to Becker, Schapiro and the four other SEC commissioners.
“Thanks, this is very helpful,” Schapiro responded.
Becker told Nazareth that the summary was “really good” and noted that it “should go into extensive detail about the inanity of the Investor Advocate,” a new SEC position dedicated to protecting investors.
“Give me time!” Nazareth replied. “I have also asked Sifma to trash it. They need to understand how terrible it could be for all.” The idea stayed in the bill, though the agency has yet to fill the job.
Congress continued to work on the bill into 2010. As lawmakers neared a deal to create a new consumer agency to police products like credit cards and mortgages, Nazareth forwarded Becker a news article about the agreement. “I am beginning to feel ill!” she wrote on March 1.
‘Overworked Friends’
Toward the end of the month, when a later version of the Senate bill was released, Nazareth sent Becker and Schapiro another Davis Polk document outlining changes. “To assist all of my overworked friends at the commission,” Nazareth wrote. She passed along four more during the next few months.
President Obama signed Dodd-Frank on July 21, 2010, ending the legislative fight but opening a new front for banks and their lobbyists at the rule-making agencies. Nazareth marked the occasion with an e-mail to Schapiro, copied to Becker.
“Dear Mary, today is certainly a big day!” she wrote. “Congratulations on the end of the beginning.”
In the message, Nazareth offered to come in and give a demonstration of the Davis Polk Web product to track the regulatory developments.
Schapiro, responding the next evening, said she would defer to Becker on the meeting. “Hope you are well,” she concluded, prompting Nazareth to reply, “Thanks Mary, I always defer to David as well!”
Schapiro then replied: “It’s the safest thing to do!”
The SEC never purchased the product, the agency said.
Other E-Mails
The e-mails include matters beyond Dodd-Frank.
In February 2011, Nazareth forwarded Schapiro an exchange with New York Times reporter Edward Wyatt, who was writing an SEC story. Wyatt asked Nazareth to let him use a laudatory comment she had given him about Schapiro.
Nazareth asked Wyatt to include the name of her law firm. She objected to his identifying her solely as someone who “represents clients before the commission,” saying it might imply she was praising the chairman to benefit clients. “That is not the case,” Nazareth wrote. “I believe what I said.”
When she sent the e-mails to Schapiro two minutes later, Nazareth wrote: “The following seems to indicate that at least part of the piece will be positive.”
Schapiro replied: “Thanks so much. I have fingers (and toes) crossed.”
‘Remarkably Narrow’
However, the story, released online later that day, Feb. 2, was mainly about how the SEC failed to properly account for its finances.
“It’s hard to imagine that I gave him an hour of my time, talked about real issues from market structure to rules and lots in between and this is what he produces,” Schapiro wrote to Nazareth.
Nazareth called the article “remarkably narrow and largely off the point,” and added that, “the good news is that it says very little and therefore will not get much attention.”
Schapiro then thanked Nazareth: “I really, really appreciate your comments.”
In an interview, Wyatt said he wrote “a tough story” and added, “What Annette Nazareth does with her e-mails is her decision.”
In another set of e-mails, Becker wrote Nazareth in November 2009 to “beg for help” in finding an attorney with a background in administrative law to work at the SEC.
Nazareth passed along a name and said, “we can give her a call to let her know that you would like to speak to her.”
Becker replied: “You are a peach.”
‘Very Flattering’
In March 2010, Nazareth sent Becker a message on a Saturday afternoon that said she had “been getting pressure from headhunters” to consider taking a new job.
“I told them you would be great,” Nazareth told Becker. “You may get a call.”
She signed off, “Your Faithful PR Department.”
Becker, responding two minutes later, demurred.
“That’s very flattering,” he wrote. “Probably out of the question.”
In February 2011, as Becker prepared to leave his post at the SEC and return to his law firm, he e-mailed Nazareth asking if she’d seen the press announcement.
Nazareth wrote back: “Yup! And I talked Mary off the ledge.”
It was the second time Becker had left the agency. He had been general counsel from 2000 to 2002 before rejoining the SEC in 2009 to be Schapiro’s top lawyer.
‘Degree of Influence’
Becker publicly addressed the revolving door at an Oct. 8, 2010, Cleveland conference on securities regulation, where he sat next to Nazareth on the panel. The two discussed the event in advance, the e-mails show. Becker’s remarks were prompted by suggestions from participants that the agency’s enforcers tend to go easy on firms represented by former SEC lawyers.
“When you’re an SEC alum, particularly someone who’s high- level, certainly your clients think you have a certain degree of influence,” Becker told the conference at Case Western Reserve University’s law school. “I have told them this: What you’re getting from me is good lawyering. I’m not in the influence business.”
While SEC officials may be more likely to return phone calls from former colleagues, “they don’t do anything for me that they wouldn’t otherwise do,” Becker said.
By Robert Schmidt and Jesse Hamilton
Courtesy of Bloomberg NewsLess than a third of Scots support the child guardian scheme, a poll found.
Named persons: Teachers or social workers could be appointed. (file pic) © STV
Nearly half of people in Scotland oppose plans to appoint public sector workers to safeguard the welfare of every child in Scotland, a poll suggests.
Less than a third, 32%, of people support the "named person" scheme compared with 48% who oppose it, the YouGov poll of 1,070 adults for The Times between March 7-9 found.
A sizeable number of SNP supporters are also sceptical of the Scottish Government's scheme, which is being challenged in the courts, with 35% opposed compared with 44% who support it.
But the SNP's overall approval rating after nearly nine years in government remains strong, with 43% approving of its record against 35% who disapprove.
Its decision to increase council tax on properties assessed to be more expensive was popular, with 46% backing the rise against 24% who opposed it at 16% who said it should rise across all bands.
Scots are split on welfare, with almost as many people insisting benefits are too easy to obtain (35%) than people who say they are too hard (36%) and just 13% regarding the balance as about right.
Nicola Sturgeon continues to enjoy the support of an overwhelming number of Scots, with 60% who say she is doing well as First Minister compared with 30% who say she is doing badly.
Conservative leader Ruth Davidson also enjoys net approval ratings despite a five point drop since February, with 35% saying she is doing well compared with 33% who say she is doing badly.
The Tories remain neck-and-neck with Labour in the race for second place at the Holyrood election, both claiming the support of a fifth of Scots in the constituency ballot, while Labour has actually fallen behind Ms Davidson's party in the regional list, falling to 17% against 19% for the Tories.
The regional list is seen as the key battleground for second place, with the SNP still streets ahead in the constituency vote at 49% and well ahead on the list at 43%.
David Cameron remains highly unpopular in Scotland, with little more than a quarter (26%) saying he is doing well as Prime Minister.
UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is equally unpopular with 25% approval, although his disapproval ratings have improved slightly from April from 61% to 51%.
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale has yet to make an impact, with an equal number of Scots saying they do not know how well she is doing as those who say she is doing badly (39%).
SNP business convener Derek Mackay said the poll "shows that people in Scotland are continuing to put their trust in Nicola Sturgeon to build on the progress we've made since 2007 and keep Scotland moving forward".
"Today's poll also shows that people are continuing to reject a chaotic and divided Labour party which isn't even regarded as a credible party of opposition, never mind a credible party of government - and which finds itself locked in a battle for second place with the Tories," he said.
"And with Labour's complete lack of any positive vision for Scotland, their position is only going to get worse."Image: Hulu
One of The Handmaid’s Tale’s greatest strengths was how it expanded the book’s first-person narrative into a more detailed world, complete with backstories for some of the lesser-known characters. Unfortunately, one of the most interesting villains of the season hasn’t gotten the same treatment, but the woman who won an Emmy for playing her has already come up with her possible backstory.
Actress Ann Dowd recently shared some details about the story she came up with for Aunt Lydia, the lead educator at the Red Center Offred is forced to go to after being captured by Gileadean forces. Even though the character and performance were notable enough to warrant Dowd an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, very little has actually been revealed about her. It was one of my bigger issues with the first season, and something I hope is rectified in the next one.
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Since Aunt Lydia wasn’t given a backstory in the first season, Dowd told Variety that she went to showrunner Bruce Miller and asked if he had any ideas of what it could be. His answer: “I think she was a teacher,” something Dowd said made a lot of sense, adding that she may have taught at an all-girls’ academy. She then described the tragic story she’s since made up for Dowd, about a young woman who was mistreated when she was younger, became hardened against those who represented her mistakes, and found Gilead as the perfect outlet for her anger and newfound piety.
Maybe she got pregnant at 14 and her parents shunned her and took that baby, and she said to God, “If you just give me one more chance I’ll never be bad again. I’ll do everything you ask of me.” Why do people go to hardcore divinity? There has to be a reason. I’m generalizing here, but if Lydia is a teacher, and they’re making fun of her with her long skirts or whatever it is and disrespecting her constantly, and everywhere she looks there are girls in low cut shirts. They’re going straight to hell; they’ve got no relationship to God. And in our world, the level of pollution is so extreme with birthrates falling. So I think she went all-in.
Dowd added that she’d love for Aunt Lydia’s story to be expanded in the next season. As to whether she’d be disappointed if it turned out to be different than how she imagined, she said she trusts Miller and the writers to make the best story possible for The Handmaid’s Tale. However, she does believe she and Miller “are pretty much on the same page.”
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[Variety]I had to chuckle when I read this. Dr. Jeff Masters writes about the newly discovered siting and instrumentation issues that takes away the all time temperature record from Libya. Let’s hope it doesn’t cause any riots.
Masters writes:
As any weather aficionado can avow, Earth’s most iconic weather record has long been the legendary all-time hottest temperature of 58°C (136.4°F) measured 90 years ago today at El Azizia, Libya on September 13, 1922. One hundred thirty six degrees! It’s difficult to comprehend that heat like that could exist on our planet. For 90 years, no place on Earth has come close to beating the unbelievable 136 degree reading from Al Azizia, and for good reason–the record is simply not believable. But Earth’s mightiest weather record has been officially cast down.
Today, the official arbiter of Earth’s weather records, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), announced that the all-time heat record held for exactly 90 years by El Azizia in Libya “is invalid because of an error in recording the temperature.” The WMO committee found five major problems with the measurement.
Most seriously, the temperature was measured in a paved courtyard over a black, asphalt-like material by a new and inexperienced observer, not trained in the use of an unsuitable replacement instrument that could be easily misread.
The observer improperly recorded the observation, which was consequently in error by about 7°C (12.6°F.) The new official highest hottest place on the planet is now Death Valley, California. A remarkable high temperature of 56.7°C (134°F) was measured there on 10 July 1913, at Greenland Ranch.
==============================================================
Christopher C. Burt, Weather Underground’s historian, tells more of the story of how he reopened the issue.
Here’s an excerpt:
This would be an unprecedented investigation for this WMO extreme records evaluation committee. Rehashing old records is not the WMO Archive’s primary objective, which is to verify new potential records. As Dr. Tom Peterson of the US National Climate Data Center and President of the WMO’s Commission on Climatology (of which the Archive is a part), put it:
“To be honest, I was reluctant to reopen this question because other people had looked at the record in the past and it had been so widely accepted. I was particularly afraid that it would be an uncertain subjective opinion as to whether it was a bit off or not.”
Nevertheless, the investigation was approved and on February 8, 2011 an international team of climate experts was assembled (eventually 13 atmospheric scientists in all) by Randy. The official investigation began.
Amazingly, El Fadli had just uncovered a key document: the actual log sheet of the observations made at Azizia in September 1922 (see illustration further below). The log sheet clearly illustrated that a change of observers had occurred (as was evidenced by the hand written script) on September 11, 1922, just two days prior to the ostensible record temperature of 58° on September 13th. Furthermore, the new observer had interchanged the Tmin columns with the Tmax columns.
…
Also, Philip Eden of the Royal Meteorological Society and others uncovered information concerning the unreliability of the Bellani-Six type of thermometer that had apparently been used at Azizia in September 1922. Of particular interest was how the slide within the thermometer casing was of a length equivalent to 7°C. It would be easy for an inexperienced observer to mistakenly read the top of the slide for the daily maximum temperature rather than correctly reading the bottom of such slide, a point that El Fadli made in a message to me early on in the investigation.
A 1933 instrument catalog image of the Bellani-Six style thermometer. Image supplied by Paolo Brenni, President of the Scientific Instrument Commission, and courtesy of Library of the Observatorio Astronomico Di Palermo, Gisuseppe S. Vaiana.
==============================================================
So a combination of siting, inexperience, and instrumentation led to a record that was 7 degrees high, and it has taken decades to figure this out. It makes you wonder just how many other weather records and data are erroneous. My congratulations to Weather Underground for making this find.
While we are on the subject of siting/instrumentation and temperature records, this shift of the all time weather record now leaves another possibility open – that the record will be bested in Death Valley sometime soon. In 2002, the late John Daly presciently outlined the change in instrumentation and siting at a station in Death Valley that sets the stage for a new record there. I’m sure he would find this latest shift in the temperature record as “cheering news” as
=============================================================
Badwater
by John L. Daly
(19th July 2002)
In climatology, record-breaking is of little significance climatically speaking. An all-time hot record in one place can be easily matched by an all-time cold record somewhere else. This year in the U.S. and in Australia, both hot and cold records have been broken at various times and places. They make interesting fare for the Guinness Book of Records, but little else.
However, record-breaking does have one purpose for the greenhouse industry, namely that of heightening public fears about global warming. For this reason, the industry likes to see hot records being broken as often as possible, present a lot of media hype about them, and then go into quick denial and spin-making when cold records are broken, sometimes even blaming the cold record on global warming!
The industry also dislikes a hot record being very old, such as the all-time hot daytime record for Australia of 53.1°C. set at Cloncurry, Queensland in 1889. Valuable research money and academic effort was spent in a futile effort to discredit that one record (Trewin, B., Aust. Met. Mag. 46 (1997) 251-256).
There is one all-time hot record that is the ultimate global prize: 58°C (136°F) set at Al Aziziya, Libya, in 1922. This was the hottest temperature ever recorded anywhere in the world and has stood for 80 years in spite of real or imagined `global warming”. It is even noted in the Guinness Book of Records. But 1922 is a long time ago and the longer it stands, the less convincing are the claims about global warming in the eyes of the public.
To topple this record, the industry has not bothered with the Cloncurry approach – that of seeking to discredit the record itself – as that appeared to be, and was, merely sour grapes and spin.
Fig.1 – Badwater
Instead, the NASA Ames Research Center (ARC), has set up their own temperature instrument in Death Valley, even though there is already a long-standing instrument at Furnace Creek right in the open central part of the valley.
The new instrument is located 20 miles south of Furnace Creek at Badwater (Fig.1).
The photo shows the Badwater area with a large salt pan stretching into the far distance, caused by evaporation of salty water welling up from a spring just metres this side of the sign shown in the photo.
Fig.2 – GISS Historical Data for Furnace Creek
It was at Furnace Creek that the all-time hottest record in the USA was broken, 57°C. ( 134°F.) in 1913, just 2°F short of the Libyan all-time record.
The GISS historical data for Death Valley (i.e. Furnace Creek) is presented left and shows no overall warming at Death Valley since the 1950s.
The new instrument at Badwater was installed in the late 1990s, but it must be stressed that the record left is for Furnace Creek, not Badwater. Yet the public plaque on the instrument at Badwater implies otherwise.
Fig.3 – Part of the Badwater Plaque
Here is how the public plaque at Badwater misrepresents Death Valley (Fig.3). It’s red graph line traces the same data as the one above, and it is immediately clear that the ARC graph differs from GISS in that the ARC graph shows a continuous warming whereas the GISS graph only shows warming pre-1950s with little long-term change since. They can’t both be right. The plaque also said –
“During the summer of 1998 – the warmest year on record – we recorded the hottest air temperature anywhere in the world of 53.06°C ±0.1°C (128°F) on 17 July 1998 at 3:15 pm local standard time.”
Having mentioned 1998, that year was conveniently left off the chart. And with good reason, as Fig.2 shows that 1998 was a particularly cool year.
(left) Fig.4 – The Badwater instrument.
What exactly do those skilfully crafted words on the plaque mean anyway? Note, it refers to 1998 as the `warmest year on record’, but omits to say they are referring to the world as whole, not to Death Valley itself. 1998 at Death Valley (Furnace Creek) was actually cooler than usual.
The plaque claims Death Valley recorded the hottest air temperature anywhere in the world on 17th July 1998 – implying it was an all-time world record. It was not. It was referring to 1998 only. Actually, the hottest temperature ever recorded at Death Valley was way back in 1913 on 10th July – a whopping 134°F (57°C).
The sharp dip in temperature near the end of the record (Fig.2) was – 1998! – the `warmest year on record’ according to the plaque. In fact, 1998 was the coolest year at Death Valley since 1945, belying the implied claims about 1998.
Note how the ARC plaque refers to `Death Valley’ generally and not Badwater or Furnace Creek specifically. This merging of two quite different locations 20 miles apart is itself misleading to the public who may be unaware that `Death Valley’ now has more than one weather station.
A photo of the weather instrument at Badwater is shown left, the small yellow plaque mounted low down on the structure. I visited there during my trip in April this year.
Unlike the Furnace Creek instrument which is located in the open centre of the big valley, the new instrument has been mounted next to the eastern side of the valley at Badwater. The local topography is such that the instrument sits in a curved hollow (topographical map – Fig.5) so that it is well sheltered from all but westerly winds, and fully exposed to the afternoon summer sun. In fact, the whole area around the instrument is a perfect afternoon sun trap.
On the east side of the instrument is a high west-facing cliff over 500 feet tall, a cliff which will heat up magnificently in the afternoon sun on a hot summer’s day. 280 feet up on that cliff is a large sign which says `mean sea level’ (Badwater is 285 feet below sea level).
Fig.5 – Topographical Map of the Badwater area
Rising steeply above the cliff is the aptly named Dantes Peak, 785 feet high, overlooking what must be the nearest thing to `Dante’s Hell’ on Earth – Badwater in Death Valley.
On the western side of the instrument is a vast white salt pan, caused by salt deposits from a spring bubbling up from underground (the `bad water’) (Fig.1&6). This salt pan has a high albedo to sunlight so that the afternoon sun will reflect light and heat off the white expanse directly onto the cliff and the instrument itself. On a bright afternoon, it will act almost like a mirror to sunlight.
Fig.6 – The vast salt pan and salty spring directly to the west of the instrument
In all of Death Valley, the ARC has chosen just about the hottest spot possible in the hottest valley in North America. They have in effect put it into a natural oven – and done so in the full knowledge of Badwater’s topography. Now all they have to do is wait – wait for the inevitable day when the conditions will be just right – clear skies, still air, a blazing sun, and that instrument will heat up from the combined heating of the air, the immense heating from the nearby cliff only metres behind the instrument, the intense reflected heat radiation from the salt pan, and the mercury will very likely fall over the Libyan line and record the `hottest temperature ever measured on earth’.
Then we will see the champagne corks fly as the greenhouse industry will cry with righteous indignation, announcing the `new hottest temperature ever recorded on earth’, how it’s all due to global warming etc. etc. and all the time, the whole thing will be about as fake as a three dollar bill.
Even the wording on the plaque on the instrument betrays the real intent – the exclusive emphasis on the significance of heat, of global warming, of record-breaking temperatures, of the `hottest year ever’ etc. The plaque speaks of little else. Even the opening words of the text are `Carbon dioxide released by human activities etc. ….’. Consequently, it is reasonable to conclude that record-breaking is the primary purpose of the instrument, not genuine climatic research.
Fig.7 – The full information contained on the public plaque
This is further suggested by The Ames Astrogram, February 7, 2000, Page 2, who reported on a field trip by some of its scientists to Death Valley, (among them Dr Chris McKay who is cited on the plaque), and made this reference to the Badwater weather station – “The next stop was Badwater — minus284 feet below sea level, the lowest point in North America. McKay checked on a weather station he had installed at Badwater two years ago to precisely measure the temperature changes there and monitor global warming — which is much more noticeable in an extremely hot environment like Death Valley. In1999, McKay’s weather station recorded the continent’s highest temperature — a toasty 53.01 C.”
Even here, we have the focus squarely on global warming and breaking records just as on the plaque. ARC even reports the breaking of a continental record. If the Libyan world record of 1922 is broken, as seems inevitable at Badwater eventually, we can expect the full media scare treatment.
Death Valley is an interesting natural phenomenon because this valley is so unique, but the only instrument which will be credible in setting records or trends is the one at Furnace Creek, set properly in the open middle of the valley with a long respectable history of temperature data behind it.
If there is a media announcement of a record being broken at Death Valley, the skeptical observer should immediately demand to know if the record was broken at Furnace Creek, or at Badwater. If it is Furnace Creek, then the record will be quite genuine. But if it is Badwater, then the record will be a complete fake.
Thanks to Jerry Brennan and Miceal O’Ronain for their valuable research contribution – JD
===============================================================
Someday, in the future, this post may be referenced when a new world record temperature is recorded in Death Valley. If there is a new all time high at Badwater, making it the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth, I hope a future researcher will point out the siting/placement issue of the station at Badwater. – Anthony
=====================================================================
UPDATE: The official press release:
From Arizona State University
World’s hottest temperature cools a bit
Team of meteorologists overturn a reading from 90 years ago and make Death Valley the holder of the world’s hottest temperature
IMAGE: This is a drawing of the Six-Bellini thermometer. Image supplied by Paolo Brenni, President of the Scientific Instrument Commission, and courtesy of Library of the Observatorio Astronomico Di Palermo, Gisuseppe… Click here for more information.
TEMPE, Ariz. – If you think this summer was hot, it’s nothing compared to the summer of 1913, when the hottest temperature ever recorded was a searing 134 F in Death Valley, Calif. But while that reading was made 99 years ago, it is only being recognized today by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) as the most extreme temperature ever recorded.
That’s because an international team of meteorologists recently finished an in-depth investigation of what had been the world-record temperature extreme of 58 C (136.4 F), recorded on Sept. 13, 1922 in El Azizia, Libya. The group found that there were enough questions surrounding the measurement and how it was made that it was probably inaccurate, overturning the record 90 years to the day it was recorded.
“We found systematic errors in the 1922 reading,” said Randy Cerveny, an Arizona State University President’s Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning. “This change to the record books required significant sleuthing and a lot of forensic records work,” added Cerveny, who also is the Rapporteur of Climate and Weather Extremes for the WMO, the person responsible for keeping worldwide weather records.
Officially, the “new” world record temperature extreme is 56.7 C (134 F), recorded on July 10, 1913, at Greenland Ranch in Death Valley, Calif., USA.
“In the heart of every meteorologist and climatologist beats the soul of a detective,” said Cerveny. In this case the weather detectives had to work around an unfolding revolution in Libya.
Cerveny said the El Azizia temperature had long been thought as dubious. It was recorded in 1922 at what then was an Italian army base.
The international meteorological team – which included experts from Libya, Italy, Spain, Egypt, France, Morocco, Argentina, U.S. and the UK – identified five major concerns with the El Azizia temperature record. They included the use of antiquated instrumentation, a likely inexperienced observer, an observation site which was not representative of the desert surroundings, poor matching of the extreme to other nearby locations and poor matching to subsequent temperatures recorded at the site.
The WMO evaluation committee concluded the most compelling scenario for the 1922 event was that a new and inexperienced observer, not trained in the use of an unsuitable replacement instrument that could be easily misread, improperly recorded the observation. The reading was consequently in error by about seven degrees Celsius (12.6 F).
The detective work Cerveny describes included finding and examining the original log sheet, which he said was very useful. In reconstructing the events, Cerveny describes a person new to making temperature measurements being asked to make the measurements with a “Six-Bellini thermometer,” which even by 1922 standards was an obsolete piece of technology. By reviewing the logs, it became apparent that the person who recorded the temperature was transposing what he read from the thermometer, consistently scoring the readings in the wrong column of the log.
“One of the problems with a Six-Bellini thermometer is that the indicator—the pointer—to the temperature scale could conceivably be read at the top of the pointer or the bottom of the pointer,” Cerveny explained. “If an inexperienced observer used the top of the pointer rather than the bottom, he would have been as much as 7 C in error. ”
Other telling forensic information included the general location of where the measurement was made – El Azizia is roughly 35 miles southwest of Tripoli, which is on the Mediterranean coast – and the fact that the record temperature pretty much stood out among all of the other recorded values near the El Azizia location.
“When we compared his observations to surrounding areas and to other measurements made before and after the 1922 reading, they simply didn’t match up,” Cerveny said.
Investigation during a revolution
The investigation was launched in 2010 and soon after the revolution in Libyan started to form. The Libyan official on the team (Khalid El Fadli, director of the climate section of the Libyan National Meteorological Center) fell out of contact with the rest of the team for about eight months and the investigation went into a suspended state. Then El Fadli sent word that he was safe (although he and his family left Tripoli for a while to avoid being accidently shot in the turmoil) and he could resume his role in the investigation. But another three weeks passed before El Fadli was heard from again.
“Khalid El Fadli did this at great risk to himself,” Cerveny said. “He was an official of the previous regime, so when the revolution began to turn, his safety was a key concern.”
Fortunately, after the revolution, El Fadli could resume his duties as a lead meteorologist with the new government and the investigation started up again.
Beyond establishing bragging rights, Cerveny said the world record highest temperature does have some important uses.
“This is the highest recorded temperature of where people live, so this type of data can help cities that exist in such environments to design buildings that are best suited for these extremes,” he said. “Knowing the maximum temperatures certain materials must endure leads to better products and designs. That’s why many auto manufactures have test tracks in the hot Mohave desert.
Cerveny added that there also are important basic science implications in this finding.
“This investigation demonstrates that, because of continued improvements in meteorology and climatology, researchers can now reanalyze past weather records in much more detail and with greater precision than ever before,” Cerveny explained. “The end result is an even better set of data for analysis of important global and regional questions involving climate change.”
###
A full list of weather and climate extremes is available at the WMO Archive of Weather and Climate Extremes (http://wmo.asu.edu/). This includes the world’s highest and lowest temperatures, rainfall, heaviest hailstone, longest dry period, maximum gust of wind, as well as hemispheric weather and climate extremes.
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RedditFew adapatations are more convenient than tricking other creatures into caring for your young. Most adept at this bit of foolery is the cuckoo bird, which lays its eggs in other birds' nests; but no less spectacular is the Alcon blue butterfly, which hoodwinks ants into caring for its larvae.
In a study published yesterday in Science, University of Copenhagen entomologists describe how Alcon caterpillars secrete chemicals similar to those used by local ants to communicate. Ants adopt Alcons after finding them newly hatched from eggs laid on leaves, then nurture them for up to two years while their own young go untended. Ant colonies can protect themselves by evolving a different smell, but such |
outo.A well-known Toronto poet has been banned from live poetry events in three cities across the country over unspecified allegations of sexual harassment and assault contained in a grievance filed with Ottawa’s Capital Poetry Collective.
Greg Frankson, left, appeared (with host Gerry Dee) on the Canada's Smartest Person show on CBC. ( GWH )
Greg Frankson, who goes by the stage name Ritallin, was kicked out of the collective, which he helped create, and banned from attending any events organized by the group after the grievance was filed against him, according to an announcement posted on the collective’s website. Frankson is a poet and spoken-word artist working mainly in Toronto. He is a prominent figure in the local poetry community, appearing at and organizing regular slam poetry competitions. In 2007 he founded Cytopoetics, a business that provides “creative services” for organizations and heads up several regular poetry events in the city. From 2012 to 2014 he was the house poet on CBC’s Here and Now, where he delivered poems about current affairs. In 2012, Frankson appeared as a contestant on the CBC showCanada’s Smartest Person. He was also a guest speaker at the recent provincial NDP convention held in Toronto
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Shortly following the Ottawa action, the Toronto Poetry Project, which runs twice-a-month poetry events in the city, banned Frankson from its events, citing the move by the Capital Poetry Collective (CPC) as the reason. The Victoria Poetry Project, in British Columbia, also banned Frankson from appearing at its events and cancelled a slam poetry event he was slated to run next year. The specifics of the allegations against Frankson were not disclosed by CPC in its announcement. The Star has been unable to determine what prompted the complaint. A public Facebook post by a user who identified herself as the one who filed the grievance wrote that she filed it on the grounds of “sexual harassment and assault” on behalf of the victims. In the posting, which has since been removed, she wrote that she has knowledge of a “large number” of women who were victims. The woman who made the posting declined to speak with the Star. Reached by phone on Tuesday, Frankson refused to discuss the allegations. “There isn't really much to say. I'm in the process of retaining legal counsel,” said Frankson. “There isn't anything I can share about the allegations.”
He later told the Star that he has been advised not to comment further. “The CPC is committed to the creation of a safer space and supporting its members,” reads the collective’s statement. “We apologize for any failures to do so up until this point. We do not take this commitment lightly and will do all that we can to ensure that we live up to it.”
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Brad Morden, director of the Ottawa organization, declined to speak with the Star about the grievance. “Sorry I don’t have anything to say at this time,” he wrote in a Facebook message. According to CBC spokesman Chuck Thompson, Frankson’s last piece aired on Here and Now in August. “While we made a decision not to continue our relationship with Greg, it was for reasons unrelated to the allegations you mentioned and of which we have no knowledge,” Thompson told the Star. The notice posted by the Toronto Poetry Project said Frankson had violated item three of its “Code of Honour,” which governs the behaviour of individuals who attend the slam poetry events. The item requires that members “comply with local, provincial and federal laws pertaining to individual civil rights and physical or sexual harassment.” “TPP remains committed to creating, maintaining, and restoring safe spaces for all members of our community, both locally and at large. We apologize for our failures to do so. We invite anyone who may have been adversely affected by this individual, or any other individual in our community, to address this with a member of our collective,” said the statement from the group. David Silverberg, artistic director of the Toronto Poetry Project, said the group informed Frankson of the ban and he agreed via email not to attend any events. “Banning someone is quite serious, but we think it's the least we can do to ensure our community feels safe at this moment,” said Silverberg. The allegations come amid a vigorous national conversation in which women are speaking out about alleged harassment or assault by high-profile personalities, or in workplaces or on campuses across North America. Police would not say whether any complaints about Frankson have been filed. Frankson has not been charged criminally in connection with the allegations by police in Toronto, Ottawa or Victoria, B.C., according to the forces in each city.Vancouver house prices could drop 10 per cent by the end of next year, as the introduction of a new tax on foreign buyers helps speed up a market correction, Toronto-Dominion Bank economists warned in a new report.
House sales in the Vancouver region will fall 3 per cent this year and more than 22 per cent next year, wrote TD economists Derek Burleton and Diana Petramala.
By the end of next year, prices should fall 10 per cent below their peak in April of this year, the economists wrote. They predicted Vancouver house prices would continue to fall another 2.3 per cent in 2018.
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Vancouver's housing market experienced a similar drop in house prices over two years between 2010 and 2012.
But the economists warned this correction will likely come much faster because of British Columbia's introduction of a 15-per-cent tax on sales to non-resident buyers in the Vancouver region, which took effect this month.
"The timing and targeted nature of the new tax on foreign buyers and the frothier market conditions currently could result in a quicker price hit this time around," they wrote.
Related: Find your neighbourhood's home prices with the Globe's interactive data centre
Related: B.C. real estate reform: What you need to know
Related: Four charts that explain the impact of the Vancouver-region's foreign buyer tax
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver is set to report on August's house sales on Friday, offering the first official glimpse at how B.C.'s tax has affected the market. TD's economists expect Vancouver house prices to end the year up 16 per cent, largely because of a soaring market in the first half of the year.
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Yet the foreign-buyers tax comes even as the Vancouver market was already showing signs of cooling down. Resale house transactions fell 20 per cent in July from a year earlier, while new house construction hit a record high. Juwai.com, a website that markets international real estate to Chinese-language buyers, reported that searches for Vancouver houses worth more than $1-million plunged 55 per cent in the past month, in part because of "very dramatic and abundant" media coverage in China of the new tax.
Even so, Juwai said Chinese buyers had already been shifting their focus away from Vancouver to more affordable markets. Nearby Seattle is now the site's most-searched North American city.
"The shift to other cities has actually been going on for months, with buyer demand momentum shifting to other cities with similar appeal but lower entry prices," Matthew Moore, Juwai's president of the Americas, wrote in an e-mailed statement.
With the introduction of the B.C.'s foreign buyer tax, Canada's two hottest housing markets now appear to be on diverging paths.
Even as Vancouver appears set for a substantial price drop over the next year, TD's economists expected Toronto to continue to hit new records this year.
House prices have soared more than 16 per cent in Toronto since July, 2015, and the TD economists expected the market to continue to experience double-digit price growth and record sales numbers.
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Toronto's high-end market has seen particularly strong growth so far this year, in contrast to a drop in luxury house sales in Vancouver. That's likely a sign of increasing interest from foreign investors in Toronto's more affordable luxury market, the economists said.
Also unlike Vancouver, Toronto has not seen a jump in houses listed for sale, in part because red tape has lengthened the time it takes developers to finish building houses and because fewer homeowners have opted to put their houses up for sale this year.
Despite strong price growth, Toronto's housing market still appears to have room to run. Housing affordability has waned in Toronto over the past year, but not as dramatically as in Vancouver, wrote Royal Bank of Canada economists Craig Wright and Robert Hogue in a new report.
In Vancouver, it now takes 126 per cent of the median pretax monthly household income to cover the annual costs of owning a typical single-family house, up 29 per cent from a year ago. By contrast, a similar property would take 72 per cent of median household income in Toronto, an increase of 6.6 per cent from a year earlier.
Still, several economists are calling for both markets to eventually cool. TD's Mr. Burelton and Ms. Petramala predict that Canadian government bond yields will rise as much as 90 basis points by the end of 2018, helping to push up mortgage rates. (A basis point is 1/100th of a percentage point.)
A single percentage point increase in mortgage rates would force average home buyers to shell out an extra 6.2 per cent of their monthly income to pay their mortgages, said RBC economist Laura Cooper. That will put the brakes on house prices in both Toronto and Vancouver.
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TD's economists wrote, if interest rates don't rise in the next few years, the bank's predictions for a soft landing in Toronto and Vancouver could turn into fears of something much worse. "In light of this year's continued build-up in froth, the risks of a severe and painful correction have significantly increased," they wrote.Shaun Tait will be back in South Australia's colours © AFP
Fast bowler Shaun Tait is set to play his first one-day match for three and a half years after being named in South Australia's squad for their opening Matador Cup game this weekend. Tait retired from one-day cricket after the 2011 World Cup and since then has become a Twenty20 specialist, but he said earlier this year he was keen to help South Australia win more silverware.
South Australia's 14-man squad for their match against New South Wales in Brisbane also includes uncapped batsman Jake Lehmann, the son of national coach Darren, as well as Mark Cosgrove, who has returned to the Redbacks after spending the past few seasons with Tasmania. But it is the presence of Tait that will create the greatest interest after he appeared to be lost to the state system.
"Taity isn't a contracted player, but we have been blown away with his commitment," South Australia's coach Darren Berry said. "I told him, mate, you come along when you want to come along because you aren't contracted, but he hasn't missed a session. He has been a role model for our players and is bowling very fast, so I am delighted to have him back involved.
"Cosgrove brings so much class and experience to our group. He has spent a lot of time with our young batsmen and has been such a positive influence on them. It is fantastic to have him back playing for South Australia.
"Jake Lehmann and Alex Ross have been the standout performers in our lead-in games and have been rewarded. It is great to see young South Australian players putting their hand up and demanding their position in our squad."
The Matador Cup begins with two matches on Saturday and continues throughout most of the month, with the final to be played on October 26. All the games will be played in Brisbane and Sydney, with the opening games between Queensland and Victoria at the Gabba and New South Wales and South Australia at Allan Border Field.
Victoria have named a 15-man squad for the tournament, with former New South Wales fast bowler Chris Tremain set to make his debut for his new state. The New South Wales squad for their opening match will be captained by allrounder Moises Henriques, and includes the uncapped offspinner Chris Green.
Western Australia have also confirmed a 15-man squad for the whole competition, although they do not begin their campaign until October 8. Michael Klinger will make his debut for the Warriors having switched from South Australia, while Craig Simmons will have the chance to return to one-day cricket for the first time since 2011-12, following on from his outstanding form in the BBL last summer.
New South Wales squad Moises Henriques (capt), Ryan Carters, Trent Copeland, Chris Green, Josh Hazlewood, Scott Henry, Josh Lalor, Nic Maddinson, Peter Nevill, Kurtis Patterson, Ben Rohrer, Gurinder Sandhu.
South Australia squad Johan Botha (capt), Mark Cosgrove, Tom Cooper, Callum Ferguson, Travis Head, Trent Lawford, Jake Lehmann, Tim Ludeman, Gary Putland, Alex Ross, Chadd Sayers, Shaun Tait, Nick Winter, Adam Zampa.
Victoria squad Matthew Wade (capt), Fawad Ahmed, Scott Boland, Daniel Christian, Jake Haberfield, Peter Handscomb, Jon Holland, David Hussey, Alex Keath, Clint McKay, Rob Quiney, Ryan Sidebottom, Marcus Stoinis, Chris Tremain, Cameron White.
Western Australia squad Adam Voges (capt), Ashton Agar, Cameron Bancroft, Michael Beer, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Marcus Harris, Michael Klinger, Simon Mackin, Joel Paris, Nathan Rimmington, Craig Simmons, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Sam Whiteman.
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.NEW: Trump campaign paid for Pres. Obama's half-brother Malik to travel from DC area to Las Vegas for tonight's debate, @ABC confirms. — ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) October 19, 2016
In 2014, photos of President Obama’s half-brother Malik dressed in pro-Hamas garb were published in the Daily Mail — photos which are now going viral on Twitter thanks to Donald Trump’s plan to have Malik Obama attend the third and final debate tonight in Las Vegas:
Obama half-brother's Hamas scarf: 'Jerusalem is ours – WE ARE COMING' http://t.co/8S3afPHW0q via @MailOnline — David Martosko (@dmartosko) January 29, 2014
CNN’s Brian Stelter just happened to be on the same airplane as Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon with Bannon promising additional surprise guests at tonight’s event. We trust there won’t be more Hamas supporters, right?
What do you do when Steve Bannon is on your flight to Vegas? Ask him Q's on the walk to baggage claim: https://t.co/RZOqLXFYPK — Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 19, 2016
Anyway, here’s just a tiny sample of how it’s being reported right now:
Malik Obama is a Hamas-loving, polygamist, Muslim immigrant. Donald Trump has invited him to the #debate https://t.co/RTzk0y2t9e — Noga Tarnopolsky (@NTarnopolsky) October 19, 2016
Trump prop Malik Obama wants Israel to be destroyedhttps://t.co/EA8Y6ASNoA — Blake Seitz (@BlakeSeitz) October 19, 2016
Malik Obama dedicated a book to Muammar Qaddafi and in 2010 was pictured with pro-Hamas, anti-Israel gear https://t.co/rfxOlNypYH — Julian Hattem (@jmhattem) October 19, 2016
Trump invites pro-Hamas Malik Obama to debate https://t.co/blpgUvFYug via @timesofisrael — Elliott Hamilton (@ElliottRHams) October 19, 2016
Malik came out as a Trump supporter in July, prompting this tweet from the GOP nominee:
Wow, President Obama's brother, Malik, just announced that he is voting for me. Was probably treated badly by president-like everybody else! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2016
We’ll have to see now if Malik actually makes it to the debate or not. We’re guessing not.
***Washington (CNN) Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday vowed to work with Hillary Clinton to defeat Donald Trump, but he didn't end his presidential bid or endorse the presumptive Democratic nominee.
"The major political task that we face in the next five months is to make certain that Donald Trump is defeated and defeated badly," Sanders said in a much-anticipated live-stream address. "And I personally intend to begin my role in that process in a very short period of time."
Sanders did not offer details on how he plans to fulfill that role.
Much of the video amounted to a version of Sanders' standard stump speech, and he encouraged his legions of followers to run for local office.
He once again pledged to take his bid all the way to the convention. And he described his differences with Clinton as "strong" but limited.
"It is no secret that Secretary Clinton and I have strong disagreements on some very important issues. It is also true that our views are quite close on others," Sanders said. "I look forward, in the coming weeks, to continued discussions between the two campaigns to make certain that your voices are heard and that the Democratic Party passes the most progressive platform in its history and that Democrats actually fight for that agenda."
The Vermont senator vowed to take his campaign's "energy" into the Democratic National Convention next month. But Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver told Bloomberg News earlier Thursday that the campaign was no longer actively lobbying superdelegates.
Fight with DNC continues
Sanders' presidential campaign is winding down -- but his fight with the Democratic National Committee is just getting started.
The Vermont senator has called for the ousting of leadership from the convention committee level up to the top -- publicly insisting that DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz be replaced. And his campaign wants two well-known Democrats removed from key posts at the national convention in Philadelphia next month.
"I do believe that we have to replace the current Democratic National Committee leadership," Sanders told reporters in Washington Tuesday as the last Democratic primary voters went to the polls. "We need a person at the leadership of the DNC who is vigorously supporting and out working to bring people into the political process."
Sanders has publicly clashed with Wasserman Schultz throughout the campaign, including a spat over the number of debates scheduled that led to one of his congressional backers, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, quitting her post at the DNC.
He also sent a letter last month to the committee calling for the removal of two Democrats from their convention leadership positions: Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, who co-chairs the Platform Committee, and former Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, co-chairman of the Rules Committee.
The DNC swiftly dismissed the request.
Frank has spoken out against Sanders, writing in July 2015 that Sanders' campaign was a threat to Clinton's chances in a general election and "wishful thinking is no way to win the presidency." Malloy has been critical of Sanders' record on gun control.
A spokeswoman for the DNC said the committee has not received any further requests from either campaign over personnel, and a spokeswoman for Malloy said the governor has not heard any more about the matter.
"They have already tried this and it was ruled out of order," said Leigh Appleby, communications director of the Connecticut Democratic Party. "Gov. Malloy looks forward to chairing the committee in a fair manner and putting forward a platform that stands in stark contrast to Trump and his hateful, divisive policies."
Frank, for his part, downplayed the significance of the spat, saying he believes the animosity will calm down.
"I think that that has sort of faded," Frank said.
But he did say the convention would include "healthy debate" more than in previous cycles.
"I think there has been more differences here than in previous ones, but I think with Donald Trump being himself so dangerous, that the focus will be more on getting together to in in November," Frank told CNN. "There will be issues, there probably will be more debates, three or more platform debates and this issue of superdelegates."
Still, Sanders is giving no indication that he's letting up the pressure.
Asked if the campaign stood by the request to remove Malloy and Frank and if they would raise the issue with the Clinton campaign, Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs simply said "yes."
And Sanders on Tuesday used his news conference in Washington to spell out a list of his demands for the DNC platform and reforms.
"We are going to fight as hard as we can to create a Democratic Party which represents the working families and the low-income people in this country," Sanders said. "The time is long overdue for a fundamental transformation of the Democratic Party."
Among the demands he made publicly on Tuesday were opening primaries to independent voters, same-day registration and doing away with super delegates that aren't bound by voters' ballots. And several points of conflict are expected to emerge between Sanders' and Clintons' camps on the platform, including on the minimum wage, fracking, trade and Wall Street regulation.
Clinton and Sanders met Tuesday night in Washington as well. The two campaigns put out very similar statements after the meeting, saying the candidates and their aides met to talk about unifying the party, beating Trump and "progressive" ideas.
The senator is likely to call for a roll call vote at the convention, according to a person close to the campaign, and on Tuesday he ignored a question from CNN's Jeff Zeleny on Tuesday about whether he'd place Clinton's name into nomination as she did for Barack Obama in 2008.
A veteran of the primary process said lingering hard feelings are nothing unusual for the end of a campaign. But former Obama adviser and CNN contributor Dan Pfeiffer said that it's up to the candidates to set the tone going forward.
"It takes a long time for bad blood to go away," Pfeiffer said. "A lot of Obama and Clinton folks harbored resentments until well after the election was over. But both the President and Secretary Clinton sent pretty clear signals that they wouldn't tolerate any bad behavior, and pretty quickly the urgency of winning the general election forces everyone to put that aside."A Florida man was arrested on Monday after police said he approached another man and asked for a ride. Even though the driver refused, the man got into the car with him, threatened him but then asked for a hug when they reached his destination.
Nicholas Foreman, 36, came up to Garrett Loughry on Sunday at 4:55 a.m. at a DeLand-area gas station and asked for a ride to Wendy’s, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports. Loughry refused, but Foreman persistently asked and placed his right hand on his waistband as if he had a weapon, police added.
Foreman entered Loughry’s vehicle and sat in the seat behind the driver. After Loughry refused his request again, Foreman said he had a gun, police said. He asked Loughry if he would take him to a nearby convenience store and once they arrived, Foreman got out of the vehicle and asked if he could purchase the beer that Loughry had in his car.
Police said Loughry declined to sell Foreman his beer, and finally Foreman proceeded to ask if Loughry would step out of the vehicle and give him a hug.
"The victim advised he obliged due to being in fear of what the defendant had," the officer wrote in his report, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Foreman was arrested on Monday and charged with carjacking with a firearm/deadly weapon and carrying a concealed weapon/firearm. A hunting knife was also recovered on him by police.
Read more at the Daytona Beach News-Journal.Introduction
Specifications
Lian Li PC-D8000 CASE TYPE: Full tower chassis MATERIAL: Aluminium WEIGHT: 18 kg SLOTS: 11 DRIVE BAYS: 6x External 5.25"
20x Internal 3.5"
2x Internal 2.5" (in one 5.25" bay) MOTHERBOARD
FORM FACTORS: HPTX, E-ATX, ATX / Micro-ATX
DIMENSIONS: (W) 478mm x (H) 674mm x (D) 658mm FRONT DOOR/COVER: N/A FRONT FANS: N/A REAR FANS: 120mm x1 & 140mm x3 (optional) TOP FANS: 120/140mm x4 (with optional accessory) BASE FANS: N/A OTHER FANS: 120mm x6 (3 on each side, all optional) & 140mm x2 internal (optional) I/O: USB 3.0 x4 (USB 2.0 x2 with adapter) FAN CONTROLLER: N/A
I would like to thank Lian Li for supplying the review sample.The D8000 is a huge cube chassis from Lian Li, and some may ask why such a monster is even on the market. The case caters specifically to those building a super computer, as the D8000 can hold both HPTX motherboard and a crazy amount of hard drives with ease. We will for comparison's sake fill the chassis up with the same type of hardware we use for all our case reviews, which should help visualize the difference in space and size.A dozen U.N. agencies have issued an unprecedented joint call for countries to end violence against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Tuesday's statement comes as world leaders gather to address an annual U.N. meeting.
The agencies for human rights, refugees, children, health, food and more say they are "seriously concerned" that millions of people around the world face widespread human rights violations.
The call comes shortly before the U.N. secretary-general convenes a meeting on including LGBT individuals in an ambitious new set of global development goals for the next 15 years.
The statement says violence and discrimination against LGBT individuals have far-reaching effects on society and even economic growth. And it urges the 76 states with laws that criminalize same-sex acts between consenting adults to repeal them.by
Here are the top ten examples of corporate welfare and welfare for the rich. There are actually thousands of tax breaks and subsidies for the rich and corporations provided by federal, state and local governments but these ten will give a taste.
One. State and Local Subsidies to Corporations. An excellent New York Times study by Louise Story calculated that state and local government provide at least $80 billion in subsidies to corporations. Over 48 big corporations received over $100 million each. GM was the biggest at a total of $1.7 billion extracted from 16 different states but Shell, Ford and Chrysler all received over a billion dollars each. Amazon, Microsoft, Prudential, Boeing and casino companies in Colorado and New Jersey received well over $200 million each.
Two. Direct Federal Subsidies to Corporations. The Cato Institute estimates that federal subsidies to corporations costs taxpayers almost $100 billion every year.
Three. Federal Tax Breaks for Corporations. The tax code gives corporations special tax breaks which reduced what is supposed to be a 35 percent tax rate to an actual tax rate of 13 percent, saving these corporations an additional $200 billion annually, according to the US Government Accountability Office.
Four. Federal Tax Breaks for Wealthy Hedge Fund Managers. Special tax breaks for hedge fund managers allow them to pay only 15% rate while the people they earned the money for usually pay 35% rate. This is the break where the multimillionaire manager pays less of a percentage in taxes than her secretary. The National Priorities Project estimates this costs taxpayers $83 billion annually and 68% of those who receive this special tax break earn more than $462,500 per year (the top one percent of earners).
Five. Subsidy to Fast Food Industry. Research by the University of Illinois and UC Berkeley documents that taxpayers pay about $243 billion each year in indirect subsidies to the fast food industry because they pay wages so low that taxpayers must put up $243 billion to pay for public benefits for their workers.
Six. Mortgage Deduction. The home mortgage deduction, which costs taxpayers $70 billion per year, is a huge subsidy to the real estate, banking and construction industries. The Center of Budget and Policy Priorities estimated that 77 percent of the benefit goes to homeowners with incomes over $100,000 per year.
Seven. The billions above do not even count the government bailout of Wall Street which all parties have done their utmost to tell the public they did not need, they paid back, or it was a great investment. The Atlantic Monthly estimates that $7.6 trillion was made available by the Federal Reserve to banks, financial firms and investors. The Cato Institute estimates (using government figures) the final costs at $32 to $68 billion, not including the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which alone cost more than $180 billion.
Eight. Each major piece of legislation contains new welfare for the rich and corporations. The Boston Globe analyzed the emergency tax legislation passed by Congress in early 2013 and found it contained 43 business and energy tax breaks worth $67 billion.
Nine. Huge corporations which engage in criminal or other wrongful activities protect their leaders from being prosecuted by paying huge fees or fines to the government. You and I would be prosecuted. These corporations protect their bosses by paying off the government. For example, Reuters reported that JPMorgan Chase, which made a preliminary $13 billion mortgage settlement with the US government, is allowed to write off a majority of the deal as tax deductible, saving the corporation $4 billion.
Ten. There are thousands of smaller special breaks for corporations and businesses out there. There is a special subsidy for corporate jets which cost taxpayers $3 billion a year. The tax deduction for second homes costs $8 billion a year. Fifty billionaires received taxpayer funded farm subsidies in the past twenty years.
If you want to look at the welfare for the rich and corporations start with the federal Internal Revenue Code. That is the King James Bible of welfare for the rich and corporations. Special breaks in tax code is the reason there are thousands of lobbyists in the halls of Congress, hundreds of lobbyists around each state legislature and tens of thousands of tax lawyers all over the country.
Bill Quigley is a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans and can be reached at quigley77@gmail.comQuinn Matney WRAL
(CBS/WRAL) CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - A gay student who claimed he was attacked and branded in a hate crime wasn't telling the truth, officials with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said Tuesday.
Chancellor Holden Thorp said freshman Quinn Matney, who told authorities he was branded with a searing hot object because of his sexual orientation, filed a false police report, according to CBS affiliate WRAL.
"The alleged aggravated assault reported to campus last night (Monday) did not occur," Thorp wrote in a statement, WRAL reported.
Matney, who is gay, told authorities that on April 5, a man walked up to him near a foot bridge on campus, called him a derogatory name, told him "here is a taste of hell," and held a heated object to his skin for several seconds, leaving third- and fourth-degree burns.
Randy Young, a spokesman for UNC's public safety department, said charges of filing a false police report are likely against Matney.
University officials initially called the assault a hate crime and pledged to "bring the strongest possible charges against the attacker."It's what we thought; The Sony Daily Edition reader is Sony's first (AT&T) 3G reader with a seven-inch touch widescreen display that you can rotate to view books in landscape. It'll be available in December for $399. Updated.
But yeah, check out how crazy wide that display is. Newspaper content announcement is coming later, unfortunately—as in weeks later, not later today. Also unfortunately, Sony only brought one model and we can't touch it. And while 3G will be free, just like the Kindle, wireless access only gets you access to Sony's book store, none of the other new partnerships announced. Boooo.
One saving grace? The electronic library program: The eBook store will now have a Library Finder page, where you type in your zip and it'll take you to local library, where you can check out books from your library electronically. Books will expire in 21 days. They're taking the "virtual library" concept fairly literally here, so libraries will have to purchase licenses for each individual copy, which is loaned and returned in the same way as a physical one would be. That means a library will have a limited stock of virtual books—weird, I know—all licensed from an outside company called Overdrive. We'll have to see what the selection is like before getting too excited about this, but it's a pretty cool concept. And hey, free books!
Also, anybody else disappointed there's no Barnes & Noble partnership to really fight the Amazon book Borg?
EXTRA, EXTRA: SONY'S DAILY EDITION ROUNDS OUT NEW LINE OF DIGITAL READERS
Wireless 3G Reader Extends Sony's Commitment to Bring
Open Digital Reading to Mass Audience
NEW YORK, August 25, 2009 ¾ Delivering on its promise to give consumers a variety of choices, Sony today announced the third member of its new Reader family – the Reader Daily Edition™, a highly-anticipated wireless model with 3G connectivity. The Daily Edition caps its new line of Reader products, joining the Reader Pocket Edition™ and the Reader Touch Edition™ which were announced earlier this month.
The Reader Pocket Edition and the Reader Touch Edition are available immediately, and the Reader Daily Edition will be available this December in time for the holidays at SonyStyle stores and SonyStyle.com.
"We firmly believe consumers should have choice in every aspect of their digital reading experience," said Steve Haber, president of Sony's Digital Reading Business Division. "Today, we take another large stride to deliver on that promise. We now have the most affordable devices on the market, the greatest access to free and affordable eBooks through The eBook Store from Sony and our affiliated ecosystem, and now round out our Reader offering with a wireless device that lets consumer purchase and download content on the go."
A Family of Three Readers
The Reader Pocket Edition sports a five-inch electronic paper display packaged in a stylish chassis and is available in a variety of colors, including navy blue, rose and silver. It is available for the ground-breaking price of $199, making it the most affordable dedicated reading device on the market.
The Reader Touch Edition features a responsive, menu-driven six-inch touch screen panel that enables quick, intuitive navigation, page turning, highlighting and note taking with the swipe of a finger or by using the included stylus pen. It comes in red, black or silver and retails for about $299.
The Reader Daily Edition gives consumers wireless access via AT&T's 3G mobile broadband network to Sony's eBook store from just about anywhere in the U.S. Book lovers will be able to browse, purchase and download books as well as select newspapers and magazines when and where they want. There are no monthly fees or transaction charges for the basic wireless connectivity and users still have the option to side load personal documents or content from other compatible sites via USB.
The seven-inch wide, touch screen display provides for intuitive navigation and comfortable layout of content, including newspapers and magazines, whether you're reading in portrait or landscape orientation. In portrait mode, about 30-35 lines of text are visible, making the experience very similar to that of a printed paperback book. A high contrast ratio with 16 levels of grayscale ensures that text and images are crisp and easy to read. The Daily Edition also boasts an attractive aluminum body with an integrated cover for durability. It has enough internal memory to hold more than one thousand standard eBooks and expansion slots for memory cards to hold even more. It will sell for about $399.
All three models feature Sony's award-winning industrial design and an E Ink® Vizplex™ electronic paper display that emulates the look of ink on paper. Sony's eBook Library software 3.0, which now includes support for many Apple® Macintosh® computers as well as PCs, makes it easy to transfer and read any Adobe® PDF (with reflow capability), EPUB, Microsoft® Word®, BBeB® files, or other text file formats on the Reader.
Access to Even More Content at the eBook Store by Sony
In addition to announcing a new family of Readers, Sony has also made several changes and improvements to its eBook Store to provide better access to an even greater variety of ebooks. Earlier this summer Sony announced the availability of more than one million free public domain books from Google, and the company made new releases and New York Times bestseller titles available for $9.99.
Today also marks the launch of Sony's Library Finder application. Sony, working with OverDrive (www.overdrive.com), the leading global digital distributor of eBooks and to libraries, will now offer visitors to the eBook Store by Sony easy access to their local library's collection of eBooks. Thousands of libraries in the OverDrive network offer eBooks optimized for the Sony Reader, and visitors can now find these libraries by typing their zip code into the Library Finder. Through the selected library's download website, visitors can check out eBooks with a valid library card, download them to a PC and transfer to their Reader. At the end of the library's lending period, eBooks simply expire, so there are never any late fees.
The Reader Pocket and Touch Editions, as well as available accessories such as AC adaptors, cases and covers with reading lights, are available now at SonyStyle.com and SonyStyle stores. Book lovers interested in trying out a Reader in person will also be able to find them for sale at Best Buy, BJs, Borders, Sam's Club, Staples, Target, Toys"R"Us, Wal-Mart and other authorized retailers nationwide.
DIGITAL READING ECOSYSTEM EXPANDS FOR SONY'S READER
NEW YORK, August 25, 2009 ¾ Further evidence of the broad support for its open approach to digital reading, Sony today announced relationships with a variety of traditional and digital publishers who provide content in industry standard formats to create a universe of reading material compatible with the Reader.
All of these sites will offer content in the EPUB format, the International Digital Publishing Forum's (IDPF) XML-based standard format for reflowable digital books and publications. EPUB has gained acceptance among major trade book publishers with dozens of publishers already producing the majority of their eBooks using the standard. Sony recently announced that the company is transitioning its entire content library to the EPUB format, giving consumers the freedom to purchase or download free eBooks from the eBook Store by Sony and read them on any EPUB-compatible device.
"From the beginning, we have said that an open format means more choice for consumers," said Steve Haber, president of Sony's Digital Reading Business Division. "Now, working with other industry leaders, we can provide a device that is compatible with the widest selection of content available. Readers can shop around for what interests them rather than be locked into one store."
Sony's eBook Store already provides access to more than one million public domain Google Books in EPUB format and, |
the play-within-the-play, the Player Queen, representing Gertrude, declares in flowery language that she will never remarry if her husband dies.[1] Hamlet then turns to his mother and asks her, "Madam, how like you this play?", to which she replies ironically[2] "The lady doth protest too much, methinks", meaning that the Player Queen's protestations of love and fidelity are too excessive to be believed.[1][3]
The quotation comes from the Second Quarto edition of the play. Later versions contain the simpler line, "The lady protests too much, methinks".[4][5]
Later usage [ edit ]
The line's allusion to Gertrude's (lack of) fidelity to her husband has become a cliché of sexually fickle womanhood[6] and a shorthand expression conveying doubt in a person's sincerity, even when the subject is male.[2] As in the play, it is commonly used to imply that someone who denies something very strongly is hiding the truth.[3] It is often shortened to "[X] protest[s] too much",[7] or misquoted with methinks at the beginning, as in "methinks the lady doth protest too much".[3][8]
See also [ edit ]Top Dawg Entertainment’s ScHoolboy Q has social media buzzing after linking up with a well-known hip-hop producer. Groovy Tony has showed signs hitmaker Alchemist might have a role on his upcoming album.
A pic has gone viral of ScHoolboy and Al clocking in studio work.
It’s no secret that ScHoolboy Q has been busy working on his new album in recent months, with plans to release it sometime in 2017. Today, the TDE member took to Snapchat to post a photo of him kicking it in the studio with Alchemist. Q has previously worked with Alc on “Kno Ya Wrong,” “Break Da Bank” and “My Homie” on his past albums, and they’ve all been standouts. (On Smash)
Last month, ScHoolboy hinted at having some fresh audio gems on deck.
A few weeks ago, TDE head Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith said fans could look forward to Q’s project after Kendrick Lamar dropped his latest album.
In late February, Kendrick hit the studio with ScHoolboy Q.Amazon approached us with an idea that would highlight the latest features in Amazon Lumberyard. We developed the idea and refined the cinematography to bring a greater sense of emotion to the narrative. Our Games Cinematics Director, Ian Jones put a lot of his games trailer experience into this demo to really lift the cinematography. Alongside him our Art Director, Stu Bayley developed the art style through a series of concept pieces for each of the key scene within the demo.
It’s fortunate that many of the production processes in the early stages of the Lumberyard pipeline are actually quite similar to the processes we use in our pre-rendered production pipeline. The production phases at the initial creative stage, asset creation and scene development phases are extremely close to that of our games cinematics work.
Having built such a robust pipeline for pre-rendered cinematics, Graham Collier, Lead VFX Artist, wanted to use our current FX tools in Houdini and port them into the game. We were able to run dynamic simulations and then cache these to Alembic files which could then be triggered within the game engine. Other FX such as dust were created using the particle tools within Lumberyard. These had real-time feedback, so we could quickly prototype the look.
When it comes to lighting, having that understanding of how scenes should look is key and this really comes from years of creating all manner of pre-rendered trailers. James Kirkham, Lead Lighting Artist, was impressed with how simple it was to get up and running with daylight system.
Lumberyard’s voxel based GI really brings another layer of realism to the final scene allowing for sophisticated bounce light throughout. This foundation was then built upon with additional projection spot lights to allow complex shadow creation without the overhead of geometry.
It has been an absolute pleasure collaborating with all the guys at Amazon Lumberyard, and here’s what they had to say about working with us – John Noonan, Executive Producer at Amazon Games Studio said “When it comes to creating narrative cinematics, RealtimeUK shows us exactly what customers can achieve with Amazon Lumberyard. With RealtimeUK’s experience and skill, and the powerful rendering technology of Lumberyard, they created a visually-impressive narrative that delighted our customers at GDC.”Largest Text Size Larger Text Size Regular Text Size
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Have you ever watched someone try to cover up gray hair by dyeing it? Or maybe you wonder why your granddad has a full head of silver hair when in old pictures it's dark brown. Getting gray, silver, or white hair is a natural part of growing older, and here's why.
Each hair on our heads is made up of two parts:
a shaft — the colored part we see growing out of our heads a root — the bottom part, which keeps the hair anchored under the scalp
The root of every strand of hair is surrounded by a tube of tissue under the skin that is called the hair follicle (say: FAHL-ih-kul). Each hair follicle contains a certain number of pigment cells. These pigment cells constantly make a chemical called melanin (say: MEL-uh-nin) that gives the growing shaft of hair its color of brown, blonde, black, red, and anything in between.
Melanin is the same stuff that makes our skin's color fair or darker. It also helps determine whether a person will burn or tan in the sun. The dark or light color of someone's hair depends on how much melanin each hair has.
As we get older, the pigment cells in our hair follicles gradually die. When there are fewer pigment cells in a hair follicle, that strand of hair will no longer contain as much melanin and will become a more transparent color — like gray, silver, or white — as it grows. As people continue to get older, fewer pigment cells will be around to produce melanin. Eventually, the hair will look completely gray.
People can get gray hair at any age. Some people go gray at a young age — as early as when they are in high school or college — whereas others may be in their 30s or 40s before they see that first gray hair. How early we get gray hair is determined by our genes. This means that most of us will start having gray hairs around the same age that our parents or grandparents first did.
Gray hair is more noticeable in people with darker hair because it stands out, but people with naturally lighter hair are just as likely to go gray. From the time a person notices a few gray hairs, it may take more than 10 years for all of that person's hair to turn gray.
Some people think that a big shock or trauma can turn a person's hair white or gray overnight, but scientists don't really believe that this happens. Just in case, try not to freak out your parents too much. You don't want to be blamed for any of their gray hairs!Rumours is the kind of album that transcends its origins and reputation, entering the realm of legend -- it's an album that simply exists outside of criticism and outside of its time, even if it thoroughly captures its era. Prior to this LP, Fleetwood Mac were moderately successful, but here they turned into a full-fledged phenomenon, with Rumours becoming the biggest-selling pop album to date. While its chart success was historic, much of the legend surrounding the record is born from the group's internal turmoil. Unlike most bands, Fleetwood Mac in the mid-'70s were professionally and romantically intertwined, with no less than two couples in the band, but as their professional career took off, the personal side unraveled. Bassist John McVie and his keyboardist/singer wife Christine McVie filed for divorce as guitarist/vocalist Lindsey Buckingham and vocalist Stevie Nicks split, with Stevie running to drummer Mick Fleetwood, unbeknown to the rest of the band. These personal tensions fueled nearly every song on Rumours, which makes listening to the album a nearly voyeuristic experience. You're eavesdropping on the bandmates singing painful truths about each other, spreading nasty lies and rumors and wallowing in their grief, all in the presence of the person who caused the heartache. Everybody loves gawking at a good public breakup, but if that was all that it took to sell a record, Richard and Linda Thompson's Shoot Out the Lights would be multi-platinum. No, what made Rumours an unparalleled blockbuster is the quality of the music. Once again masterminded by producer/songwriter/guitarist Buckingham, Rumours is an exceptionally musical piece of work -- he toughens Christine McVie and softens Nicks, adding weird turns to accessibly melodic works, which gives the universal themes of the songs haunting resonance. It also cloaks the raw emotion of the lyrics in deceptively palatable arrangements that made a tune as wrecked and tortured as "Go Your Own Way" an anthemic hit. But that's what makes Rumours such an enduring achievement -- it turns private pain into something universal. Some of these songs may be too familiar, whether through their repeated exposure on FM radio or their use in presidential campaigns, but in the context of the album, each tune, each phrase regains its raw, immediate emotional power -- which is why Rumours touched a nerve upon its 1977 release, and has since transcended its era to be one of the greatest, most compelling pop albums of all time.Nasser Shiyoukhi And Raphael Satter, The Associated Press
After discovering a privacy bug on Facebook, unemployed Palestinian programmer Khalil Shreateh said he just wanted to collect the traditional $500 bounty the social network giant offers to those who voluntarily expose its glitches.
But when Facebook ignored his first two reports, Shreateh took his message to the top -- and hacked into CEO Mark Zuckerberg's personal page to prove his point.
"Sorry for breaking your privacy," he wrote the Facebook founder, "I has no other choice to make after all the reports I sent to Facebook team... as you can see iam not in your friend list and yet i can post to your timeline."
The stunt cost the 30-year-old Palestinian the bounty, but earned him praise -- and numerous job offers -- for being able to get to the boss of the world's most ubiquitous social network.
Shreateh, who lives near the West Bank city of Hebron and has been unable to find a job since graduating two years ago with a degree in information technology, told Facebook that he found a way that allowed anyone to post on anyone else's wall. "I told them that you have a vulnerability and you need to close it," he told The Associated Press. "I wasn't looking to be famous. I just wanted to make a point to Mark (Zuckerberg)."
In a message posted to the Hacker News, a user-driven security news site, Facebook software engineer Matthew Jones said the initial report was poorly worded, although he acknowledged that the company should have pressed for more information.
"As a few other commenters have pointed out, we get hundreds of reports every day," Jones wrote. "Many of our best reports come from people whose English isn't great -- though this can be challenging, it's something we work with just fine and we have paid out over $1 million to hundreds of reporters. However, many of the reports we get are nonsense or misguided, and even those... provide some modicum of reproduction instructions."
Nevertheless, he said, "we should have pushed back asking for more details here."
He went on to say that Shreateh would not be paid from Facebook's bounty program because he'd violated the company's terms of service -- namely by posting items to the Facebook pages of users he should not have had access to.
"The more important issue here is with how the bug was demonstrated using the accounts of real people without their permission. Exploiting bugs to impact real users is not acceptable behaviour for a white hat," he said, using an industry term for ethical security experts.
Jones added that the bug was fixed Thursday. Facebook declined to comment beyond the post.
The bug -- and Facebook's response to it -- has become a talking point in information security circles, with many speculating that the Palestinian could have helped himself to thousands of dollars had he chosen to sell the information on the black market.
Shreateh said he was initially disappointed by the Facebook response but that after being inundated by job offers from all over the world he is pleased with how things worked out.
"I am looking for a good job to start a normal life like everybody," he said. "I am so proud to be the Palestinian who discovered that exploit in Facebook."India has ranked a lowly 131 among the 188 countries surveyed for human development, a new UN report has said, bracketing the third-largest Asian economy alongside its South Asian neighbours like Pakistan, Bhutan and Nepal.
India has made no improvement in its ranking over the previous year, despite the Human Development Report for 2015 noting that foreign direct investment favours countries such as China and India.
India’s Human Development Index (HDI) rank in 2014 was also 131.
However, 63% Indians were “satisfied” with their standard of living in 2014-15, the latest report found.
The report, released annually by the United Nations Development Programme, said India’s rank of 131 puts it in the “medium human development” bracket, which also includes nations like Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan, Kenya, Myanmar and Nepal.
India’s HDI rank value in 2015 stood at 0.624, which had increased from 0.580 in 2010.
Its life expectancy at birth stood at 68.3 years in 2015 and the Gross National Income (GNI) per capita $5,663, the report said.
On the perception of feeling safe 69% answered “yes”, while on freedom of choice, 72% female responders answered they were “satisfied” as compared to 78% for male.
India’s score for overall life satisfaction was 4.3 on a scale of 1-10, according to the report.
On perceptions about government, 69% said they had trust in the national government for the 2014-15 period while 74% said they had confidence in the judicial system.
It lauded measures like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme taken in India to generate employment.
“Creating jobs through a public works programme targeted at poor people can reduce poverty through income generation, build physical infra- structure and protect poor people against shocks. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme in India and the Rural Employment Opportunities for Public Assets Programme in Bangladesh are prime examples.”
The report launched in Stockholm on Tuesday found that although the average human development improved significantly since 1990, progress is uneven, with systemic discrimination against women, indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities.
It said while many people have greater access to education, health and sanitation, more focus needs to be paid to who has been excluded and why.
Titled Human Development for Everyone, the report authored by the Director of the Human Development Report Office Selim Jahan, said that one in three people worldwide continue to live at a low level of human development.
Women and girls are systematically excluded by economic, political, social and cultural barriers, according to the report measured by the Human Development Index – a ranking of countries based on strides made with a peace-centric model of progress.
“Women tend to be poorer, earn less, and have fewer opportunities in most aspects of life than men,” it said.
The report also points to “dangerous practices,” such as female genital mutilation and forced marriage, which continue to hamper the development of women and their inclusion in society.
In addition to women and girls, the report points to “patterns of exclusion and lack of empowerment” of people in rural areas, indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants and refugees, and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community.
The report calls for far greater attention to empowering the most marginalised in society, and recognises the importance of giving them greater voice in decision-making processes.
First Published: Mar 22, 2017 15:52 ISTThis morning Trump tweeted that “I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!”
This is an almost indecipherably incompetent piece of writing. However, we can certainly glean that Mika Brzezinski was gushing blood out of her pores.
None of this is true, of course. Here’s a picture Brian Stelter tweeted of Mika on the weekend in question, where she looks lovely and is notably blood free at Mar-A-Lago:
For the record, this is a picture of @MorningMika at Mar-a-Lago at the time Trump is claiming she was "bleeding badly." pic.twitter.com/NJgioOD3Va — Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 29, 2017
But truth has become increasingly irrelevant to the Trump regime. Tomorrow we can look forward to some-manner-of-insane take from Kellyanne Conway about how Trump was in fact paying Mika a compliment by likening her to one of his favorite characters, Bloody Face.
This is, of course, not the first time Trump has been horrified by a supposedly bleeding woman. Who can forget the time that Trump declared that “you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever” after Megyn Kelly asked him a question about whether or not his comments about women were sexist.
Women like Kelly and Brzezinski are women who likely do not bleed more than the average human. They are even so traditionally attractive that Trump can’t label them fat slobs.
This might make you wonder whether the 53 percent of White Women Who Voted for Him will turn on him. But they won’t. Because honestly, this is what he was promising them when he promised to “make America great again.”
Because Mika and Megyn do not speak well of him. That is something Trump and some of his supporters—who cannot separate the idea of “a woman who is critical of you” from “a horrible bitch”—cannot abide in women.
...to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017
We know that hostility towards women was one of the strongest predictors of Trump support. For years, there have been groups of people getting angry that women seem allowed to be mouthier and mouthier. They have been criticizing men, asking for more rights—hell, one of them wanted to be President.
Men in turn have been expected to be polite. They’re expected not to rape them or harass them at work or say whatever they want about boobs whenever they want to. They’re even expected to not interrupt them all the time.
And some people do not especially care for that. Or, as those people would say, they feel they are being muzzled by political correctness.
When Trump declares that women like Kelly and Brzezinski are oozing bodily fluids he tells the world that critical women are not simply shrill or unlikeable. They are downright grotesque. They are repulsive, blood gushing monsters, the likes of which are typically only seen in horror films.
"Trump is telling his base that when women are critical of him they are downright unnatural."
He is telling his base that when women are critical of him they are downright unnatural.
The good kind of women—women who are not great big blood monsters—are women like Melania and Ivanka who, if they disagree with him at all, do so only in the gentlest, most private manner while still talking about how much they love Trump. They are always smiling—at least when he’s watching—and “dressed like women” in that way Trump prefers.
The 1950’s style “Great America” Trump promised his voters was one where women were smiling, beautiful—and silent. It’s not just men that reminisce about that period. It’s some women, too, who mistakenly think that the wives were silent because they were all having coffee while their husbands cheerfully provided for their needs. They perhaps do not realize that was also a time when beating an “aggressive, efficient, masculine” wife was considered “temporary therapy”.
Women being able to speak their minds without feeling threatened is a relatively new phenomenon.
And Trump wants to make sure women don’t get too comfortable.
Because after all, in Trump’s mind—and doubtless the mind of many of his supporters—he’s not the president of the United States needlessly defaming a journalist doing her job. He’s just a real old fashioned guy trying to expose a new kind of monster.A FEMALE escort who paid a corrupt police officer to plant a gun or drugs on an ex-boyfriend has avoided being jailed.
Claire Smethurst was so furious that assault charges against her former partner, Leroy Thomas, were being dropped that she agreed to detective constable Daniel Withnell’s suggestion that he arrange for evidence to be planted on Mr Thomas in return for a £30,000 payment, a court heard.
Judge Michael Henshell heard how Smethurst, of Hatherlow Court, Westhoughton, arranged to meet Withnell at her friend’s flat in Manchester on October 1 last year following texts and phone calls.
She knew him from a tanning salon that he owned in Bolton, the court heard.
Smethurst told Manchester Crown Court that she had been drinking heavily, agreed to his plan and said Withnell took £19,000 cash she had when he left the flat.
The 48-year-old claimed her drunkenness meant she was not aware of what she was doing, but Judge Henshell disagreed, stating: “Evidence in her texts seems to indicate that she was compos mentis — in full control of her senses.”
But the following morning she got cold feet about the scheme and texted Withnell several times to get her money back.
She also contacted another serving police officer, who was the former partner of a friend.
Smethurst gave him some details about what had happened and he reported the matter to his superiors.
Counter-corruption officers set up a meeting with Smethurst in a Manchester hotel on October 12.
She told them about Withnell and gave them her phone so they could access text messages.
In court she claimed she had been told she would not be prosecuted for her part in the plan to pervert the course of justice, but Judge Henshell rejected her claim.
Smethurst, who claims to count judges and barristers among her clients, pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and Gerald Baxter, defending, said that since the incident she has stopped working as an escort.
The court was told that Withnell, aged 30, of Cranark Close, Heaton, did not intend to carry out the plan to plant evidence on Mr Thomas.
He has already pleaded guilty to two counts of misconduct in a public office and intending to pervert the course of justice.
Withnell, who has been sacked from his job, is now in custody and will be sentenced at a later date.
Yesterday Judge Henshell sentenced Smethurst to 15 months in prison, suspended for two years.
He told her that perverting the course of justice is “always a very grave offence” but that her criminality was mitigated by her behaviour afterwards, because it only lasted a short time and that the plan was initially Withnell’s, not hers.
Legal proceedings are now being taken to seize the £19,000 she paid to Withnell as proceeds of crime.Ariana Grande met 14-year-old Evie Mills from Harrogate who was injured in the attack
Delighted young fans of Ariana Grande got to hug and pose for photos with their idol when she paid a surprise hospital visit to children recovering from the Manchester terror attack.
The American singer also met the family of 29-year-old Martyn Hett, who was among 22 people killed in last month's bombing.
endless respect to @ArianaGrande for coming back to our city and meeting my family and so many others. (I couldn't be there, babies etc) pic.twitter.com/UgZ8nZ39fR — Dan Hett (@danhett) June 3, 2017
Grande returned to the city on Friday morning ahead of a star-studded benefit concert - One Love Manchester - on Sunday.
She took time to visit the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, where some of the dozens of injured are being treated.
Image: Jaden Farrell-Mann says she was thrilled to'meet her queen'. Pic: Peter Mann/Twitter
Among those over the moon to see her was 10-year-old Jaden Farrell-Mann, who suffered fractures to both legs and shrapnel wounds.
Her father, Peter Mann, posted photos of Grande talking to his daughter and the pair sharing a hug.
He tweeted: "This means more to us than all the amazing things people have done this week. when your daughter asks after her 2nd operation: 'Is Ariana ok?'
"So happy she came I could burst! Never seen Jaden so happy! Even cried again myself."
I got to meet my queen today❤❤love you @ArianaGrande💖💖xxxxxx pic.twitter.com/xTymQaRoN2 — jaden farrell mann (@dustyblu10) June 2, 2017
Jaden, 10, also wrote on Twitter of her joy, saying: "I got to meet my queen today".
Meanwhile, Karen Mills said her injured daughter Evie, 14, was "buzzing" from meeting the "lovely, adorable and humble" star, who she said gave the girl "half an hour of pure happiness".
:: Prince William visits Manchester bombing heroes
Tonight's visit from @ArianaGrande was amazing. Just the lift all the kids (and parents) needed! What an absolute angel ❤️ pic.twitter.com/TD9tHvTDeu — Lauren Thorpe (@LaurenEveThorpe) June 2, 2017
Lily Harrison, who was also injured in the suicide bombing, "looked on cloud nine" after her time with Grande, according to her father Adam Harrison.
Mr Harrison told People: "What Ariana Grande did tonight was so selfless and amazing."
Grande also posted a black and white image of the hospital visit on Instagram, which picked up more than a million likes in an hour.
Image: The pop megastar spent time chatting and posing for snaps, pictured here with Evie
Pop stars including Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Coldplay, Take That and Miley Cyrus will join Grande for Sunday's concert.
Fans all over the world will be able to watch the show which will broadcast live in more than 50 countries across five continents in a global simulcast starting at 6.55pm.
The £40 standard tickets sold out in less than 20 minutes, while those who were at the concert on the night of the bombing have been offered free tickets.
💛 A post shared by Ariana Grande (@arianagrande) on Jun 2, 2017 at 4:48pm PDT
Proceeds will go to the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund to support families and victims of the terror attack.
In a statement on Twitter last week, Grande said of the attack: "We won't let this divide us. We won't let hate win."
Salman Abedi detonated his device as fans streamed out of the arena at the end of Grande's gig on 22 May.
A 24-year-old man was arrested on Friday night in the Rusholme area of Manchester, bringing the total number of people held in relation to the attack to 17, of which six people have been released without charge.
:: Manchester bombing: 'Significant' car seizedATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (CBS) — A new report shows sea levels are rapidly rising and the study predicts the Jersey Shore could be underwater in a matter of decades.
The organization “Climate Central” in Princeton, New Jersey released the ocean study Wednesday.
The group found global warming is expanding sea water and causing ice sheets to melt.
Scientists believe by the end of the century, water levels will be three to four feet higher, with bigger storm surges that could wipe out low lying areas.
The study says by 2030, the risk for devastating once-in-a-century type storms will double due to rising sea levels.
“It’s the pounding action of these storms on our coastlines that’s gonna be more amplified with a higher sea level,” said David Robinson, Ph.D. at Rutgers University.
In 1962, a Nor’easter flooded out the shore and damaged 48,000 homes.
Related Link:
Surging Seas: A Project Of Climate CentralTrucking Industry Gets a Glimpse of its Automated Future at CES 2017
The heavy- and light-duty trucking industries will benefit from the automated driving technologies rolling out of the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas.
Automated trucking innovators Peloton Technology and partner FEV North America Inc., a smart-vehicle technology business, are demonstrating so-called SAE Level 1 truck platooning technology, which allows tightly contained, digitally connected packs trucks to drive in formation to cut wind resistance and save fuel.
“If you can apply autonomous driving to the trucking industry, there’s tremendous opportunity for reducing costs and for making it easier for drivers,” said Stephanie Brinley, an analyst at IHS Markit.
The Society of Automotive Engineers, or SAE, uses a classification system of six different levels of vehicle autonomy based on the amount of necessary driver intervention. Level 1 requires a driver to be ready to take control at any time, and features a combination of radar-controlled advanced driver assistive systems, or ADAS, like adaptive cruise controls for “feet off” operations and land keep assist for “hands off” use.
In this case, Peloton is showcasing radar-based detection systems connected to its cloud-based operations center.
For platooning, ADAS technologies use vehicle-to-vehicle, or V2V, communication systems to link the braking, acceleration and distances between the lead and follow trucks, said Steve Boyd, co-founder for Peloton Tech.
ADAS technology also decreases stress on long-haul drivers. When a driver has a better job experience, they can be more efficient and happier while doing it, Brinley said. The trucking industry faces chronic driver shortages and is looking for ways to make the job both appealing and more cost efficient.
Safety also is a motivating factor for introducing ADAS to the trucking industry. If all semi-trucks were fitted with forward collision avoidance, or automatic braking, fatalities in related accidents may drop by 44 percent and injuries by 47 percent, according to a 2013 University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute report.
“Platooning is ready to provide benefits to fleets this year – not in 2020 or beyond – by allowing fleets to access the fuel savings and safety benefits of automation in the near term, at an affordable cost, and while continuing to leverage the experience of professional drivers,” Boyd said. “In an industry with tight margins, fuel continues to be the largest single cost for most fleets – even at a time of low oil prices – so the freight trucking industry is generally very excited for the benefits platooning can provide on both efficiency and safety.”
Artificial intelligence, or AI, is a key part of ADAS. It collects input from radar or other vehicle systems, processes the information and makes decisions based on programing and environmental factors.
AI is also a trend seeded throughout CES this year.
Graphics and computer processor manufacturer Nvidia introduced the Xavier automotive AI supercomputer for use in any fully-autonomous vehicle system in September 2016, and showed it off at CES using a Lincoln sedan as a test vehicle.
Nvidia announced a partnership with Audi for highly-automated vehicles. The company also has an “AI Copilot” software program that can alert drivers of upcoming road hazards or distracted driving in surrounding vehicles.
All new connective technologies will need increased cyber security.
“It is fundamentally important and critical that the data is safe guarded and the vehicles operations are safe guarded,” Brinley said.
FEV North America Inc., collaborated with Karamba Security, Infineon and GlobalSign for cyber security solutions. Karamba’s software combats malicious code and protects from external attacks, while Infineon and GlobalSign will bring security modules for enhanced authentication within the electronic control unit and AI computing systems.
The goal is to have these automated driving technologies fully implemented around 2020 to 2021, according to Brinley. However, many of these are already finding their way into vehicles already on the road.
“Peloton’s platooning system is already legal and ready to hit the road in many states,” Boyd said. “More highly automated systems will need to navigate the emerging state and federal regulatory regimes and prove to be safe in a range of challenging situations, which may take several years or more before commercial deployment can occur.”
The platooning ADAS technology will be available for pre-order starting Jan. 5 and be delivered to fleet customers by the end of 2017.Phew! Took me long enough to finish this one, but here it is! The photo of Twilight and Pinkie's wedding.Since there was a popular demand to show the Mane Six weddings how could I argue with that? But with so many works in hands I hardly can organize what to do first and after. Anyways! Next and last will be Applejack and Rarity's wedding photo! Hopefully I won't take much longer with that one than I did with this.Fun fact: Before the wedding Twilight was so nervous that she had a drink to calm down, courtesy of Rarity. It was actually three drinks but Rarity made Fluttershy promise to never speak of that ever again. Thankfully nothing ridiculous happened at the ceremony, she just looked waaaay happy.And by the time this photo was taken she had already got a bit of the drink out of her system and decided to not drink more the rest of the evening.Princess Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie © HasbroHuman designs by meOn my Tumblr page: hazurasinner.tumblr.com/post/1…Florida has set the bar for student achievement for the next six years.
The problem for some is that it's different depending on a student's race.
The state Board of Education unanimously approved its strategic plan Tuesday and the plan sets targets for the percent of students performing on or above grade level in reading and math separated by race.
The plan aims to get black students, the state's lowest performing racial group with 38 percent reading at or above grade level, to raise to 74 percent by the end of the 2017-18 school year.
Achieving that goal would narrow the vast achievement gap between black students and students of other races, but state board members set higher aspirations for other racial groups. White students, for example, are targeted for improving from 69 percent to 88 percent on or above grade level in reading. And Asian students are targeted for improving from 76 percent to 90 percent on or above grade level in reading.
"We're trying to be realistic and set realistic goals based on where each group is on their baseline," said board Chairman Gary Chartrand, a Jacksonville businessman. "They're starting in different places, you have to take that into account, it's not discriminatory at all."
The Duval County School Board chairwoman said she is angered by the state's move.
"Who's going to walk into the room with 100 African-American kids and tell a quarter of them they can't make it," Betty Burney said. "It all goes back to expectations and we get what we expect."
Another Duval School Board member, Tommy Hazouri, went further.
"I understand where they think they are coming from, but it's an insult to every race," Hazouri said. "The state is taking one small step for education but one giant leap backwards for equality for all of our children."
Chartrand said he requested a footnote be placed in the plan that the state's ultimate goal is a 100 percent student proficiency.
"Make no mistake about it, our goal is a 100 percent proficiency for everybody," he said.
The state is targeting 2022 to meet that mark.
"If it's a part of the footnote make it the number and hold people accountable," Burney said. "African-Americans are capable of achieving at the same rate as any other ethnic group. Period. Just because they didn't start in the same place doesn't mean they can't finish in the same place."
Parent Dwan Johnson, an African-American whose son attends San Jose Elementary School, called the state's action "embarrassing."
"I don't understand why they'd put Asian students above us," Johnson said. "We all are learning the same things."
The state has been in explanation mode ever since board members adopted the plan.
"Every single student, regardless of what background or ethnicity, has the ability to achieve at a high level and that's the reason for our bold move forward," said Pam Stewart, the state's education commissioner. She added that if students hit the 2017-18 goals, all Florida students will be on pace to be proficient by 2022-23.
The state arrived at each of the targets by cutting the percent of each racial group not scoring proficient in half and adding that figure to current percent scoring on or above grade level, plus one year of desired progress.
Stewart also sent a letter Thursday to all superintendents addressing issue. The state provided that letter to the media on Friday.
Duval School Board member Fel Lee said he understood the difficulty of balancing realistic goal setting with expectations, but he echoed Burney.
"I like the goal setting and I appreciate that you have to be realistic and all that, but tell me which students aren't going to succeed," he said.
The spokeswoman for the Duval school system said Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals didn't have time to speak about the matter Friday. Incoming Duval superintendent Nikolai Vitti did not want to speak about the state board's student achievement goals because he is negotiating his contract.
Julia Burns, a parent of three students at James Weldon Johnson, said it's a "really tough" issue.
"I think it's a really tricky message because it does suggest that there are different expectations for different ethnic groups," she said. "I understand why the measures are in place, but I'd want to be very careful about the messaging if I were them."
Duval board member W.C. Gentry described the state board's goals as "a poor way of presenting things."
Gentry said Florida's education department should stop basing student achievement metrics on race and start focusing on a student's level of poverty.
"It truly doesn't matter the race of |
As always we need to be aware of the cost of playing a tile (2 dice) and the opportunity cost (~8 points). The efficiency tiles seem to provide a benefit in mitigating the number of dice you spend on workers throughout the game. Therefore, to break even in this metric, they need to be put into use roughly 4 times (2 dice spent on workers is 4 workers). In my experience this rarely happens.
Of course, they’re also valuable insofar as they help you complete regions. Situationally they may be great for that purpose, but there are usually better knowledge tiles to select to complete your region.
The standard victory point tiles will generally give you about 4-8 points by themselves, before you factor in their role in completing regions.
Most critically, the most important knowledge tiles all only exist in the central black region. Number 15, in my opinion, is the best single tile in the game. Just through normal play it should score you between 9-15 points. Particularly in a 4 player game where shipping goods is worth more points, this tile should be your number one priority as soon as you see it.
Knowledge tile 7 has the greatest point potential (21 points) but it is extremely situational. Tiles 24 and 25 are very good and can, with a bit of planning, get you over 10 points each. I never get number 14 because I try to never pay dice for workers, and number 12 is a great pick up towards the beginning of the game. Even though it’s an efficiency tile, it has the advantage of helping you snatch the rare mine and castle tiles, or block your opponent’s strategies. It’s particularly good in 2 player games where the board is much more tight.
Unless some other opportunity presents itself to me, my main strategy regarding knowledge tiles is to complete all of them, and to have 4 at an absolute minimum give me victory points.
5. Don’t start regions you don’t intend to finish
Remember how the majority of your points are going to come from completing regions? This means that you need to actually finish regions. Generally speaking, you should not start a region unless you intend to complete it. Exceptions can be made for particularly good knowledge tiles. Remember that you will have about 6-10 empty spaces depending on how efficiently you used your dice, so don’t let your reach exceed your grasp.
6. Don’t succumb to the sunk cost fallacy
As a corollary to the previous point, do not fall into the sunk cost fallacy, particularly when it comes to farms. The sunk cost fallacy is essentially the impulse to hold onto something that you have invested in. If you’re trying to complete a 6 size town region but find that you would have to pass up a great opportunity elsewhere, or find that it’s going to depend on a lot of luck in the last round, take a deep breath and analyze your scoring opportunities only from that point forward. Do not let the fact that you have already played into that region dissuade you from the objectively right move.
7. Plan your end-game board by the mid-game
Avoiding situations in which you have to abandon an investment can be fairly easy with a bit of planning. By the 3rd round you should have a good idea of what you want your final board to look like. You should then start to count how many dice you need to complete that objective, and make sure you’re giving yourself a good amount of cushion to account for bad dice rolls and opponents blocking you. While Castles of Burgundy is mostly full of tactical decisions, creating a long-term strategy for yourself can help clear your decision making.
8. Understand what your opponents will do
This piece of advice is particularly important in 2 player games, where every point denied to your opponent is effectively one point gained. 2 player games also have more opportunities to be mean because the number of tiles available are limited and are dependent more on luck. So be mean! Part of this is making sure that you stay ahead in turn order. Ship tiles are more important in two player games, and the person who is ahead for the bulk of the game has a large advantage.
It also means both reading your opponent’s dice roll and their board when deciding your move. While this is less important in 3-4 player games, you absolutely should not make the fatal mistake with any player count of only looking at your own board.
I hope you find this information helpful! I tried to pack in many tactics and strategies that I see being underutilized. The single most important piece of advice overall is to calculate your moves objectively. Is a given action actually furthering any particular point-acquisition goal, or is it merely the convenient action? Remember the 4 points per die guideline (for 2 player games. 3 and 4 player games will have ~20-25 point increases, respectively, with their winning scores), and think in terms of dice as the currency for the game. Good luck!
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Like this: Like Loading...Macgarrett Kings Jr. was initially charged with two misdemeanors after Feb. 28 incident in East Lansing
Michigan State WR Macgarrett Kings. (Photo: Kirthmon F. Dozier, DFP)
EAST LANSING – Michigan State receiver Macgarrett Kings Jr. has had two misdemeanor charges against him dismissed and has pleaded guilty to littering in public, a civil infraction.
Kings, 21, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was arrested Feb. 28 in East Lansing for allegedly kicking a parking vehicle and resisting arrest. He was charged with drunken and disorderly conduct and obstructing, resisting, hindering or assaulting a police officer, both misdemeanors.
Kings initially had a pretrial hearing set for Thursday, but on March 26 he accepted a plea deal. Under the terms of the civil infraction, Kings was ordered to pay $360 in fines and costs and must attend 20 alcohol counseling sessions. The case is under advisement until Sept. 21, according to East Lansing 54-B District Court documents.
Kings, who will be a senior next season, was "in limbo" at the start of spring practices according to coach Mark Dantonio, but he returned to the practice field on March 28. Spring ball culminates with the spring game at Spartan Stadium on April 25 (2 p.m., Big Ten Network, WJR).
According to the police report, obtained via the state's open records laws, Kings had a blood-alcohol content of 0.18 after his arrest. Arresting officer Travis Bove wrote that a group of males stopped for a parking enforcement truck as it was trying to turn down an alley in downtown East Lansing.
Kings then "ran after the truck," Bove wrote, "(and) when he caught up to it, I watched him jump into the air and kick the back of the truck."
Bove wrote that he approached Kings, identified himself as "police" and tried to arrest him while telling the unidentified males with Kings to back away.
"I repeated to Kings between 10-15 times to get against the patrol car and place his hands behind his back," Bove wrote, "however he did not, he kept tensing up, attempting to spin towards me and failed to comply with my orders. I had a tight grip on his right arm but could not see his left hand, which was in his waistband area, and Kings would not listen to my orders to place his hand behind his back until backup arrived."
Kings was suspended for most of spring football a year ago after an April 6, 2014 arrest in Delhi Township for operating while intoxicated and driving under the influence with a blood-alcohol content of 0.17 or above, which is subject to Michigan's "super drunk" laws. Kings' blood-alcohol content registered a 0.234 on his preliminary breath test, nearly three times the legal limit of 0.08.
He was sentenced to 13 months of probation on July 7 in 55th District Court in Mason after pleading guilty to the DUI charge in exchange for having the OWI charge dropped. Both are misdemeanors.
Kings' probation ended early, though, according to 55th District Court records, after a Dec. 23 motion from his attorney and a final Jan. 14 payoff of $245.
Kings has 76 catches for 942 yards in 35 career games, including four starts, and he has 40 punt returns for 328 yards. He had 43 catches as a sophomore and 29 as a junior, tied with Aaron Burbridge for No. 2 on the team last season.
Contact Joe Rexrode: jrexrode@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @joerexrode. Check out his MSU blog at freep.com/heyjoe.TV Reviews All of our TV reviews in one convenient place.
Last year, Warner Bros. was in the news for an alleged “no jokes” mandate on all their DC superhero films, spawning a wave of debate on the value of humor in superhero narratives and Warner Bros.’ serious approach to its current slate of DC properties. (While the “no jokes” policy hasn’t been officially recognized, the first trailer for Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice certainly suggests that it is in place.) I believe that humor is essential in superhero stories, but I also believe that humor is essential in all stories. In my college theater classes, I was taught that humor wasn’t necessarily about telling jokes or making people laugh, but about showing the audience that the character you are creating finds pleasure in some aspect of life, which invites the audience to care about that person.
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Humor provides contrast in overwhelmingly dark narratives, and in stories that traffic in human suffering, humor can be used to build sympathy that heightens dramatic stakes. And again, humor doesn’t mean jokes. Sometimes it takes the form of banter, establishing a sense of comfort between characters. Sometimes it takes the form of unspoken sexual tension, taking advantage of actor chemistry to show how sometimes just being in the same room as a person can bring someone pleasure. In superhero narratives, humor can be found in an action sequence if it’s filmed in a way that highlights fantastic thrills instead of realistic property damage. There are a lot of ways to create humor without jokes, but “The Ones We Leave Behind” largely ignores them to deliver a particularly joyless episode of Daredevil.
Douglas Petrie’s script for this chapter is a big downer, largely focusing on how Matt and Karen struggle with recent trauma and ending with the death of Ben Urich at Wilson Fisk’s hands. There are a few scenes with Foggy Nelson and Leland Owlsley that lighten up the mood simply because of the way those characters interact with others, but the primary source of humor in this episode comes from an action sequence showing Matt sprinting, leaping, and flipping across rooftops in his civilian clothes. He’s trying to keep up with a car transporting one of Madame Gao’s blind drug runners, which amplifies the tension, but he’s also showing off, jumping across rooftops in a gray suit in the middle of the day. So much of this episode is depressing, but Matt’s parkour session introduces an element of fun that considerably picks up the pace of the story.
The material with Matt taking out Madame Gao’s heroin operation is this episode’s main strength, emphasizing exhilarating superhero elements in the middle of a story that is preoccupied with gritty crime drama. The rooftop sequence brings the pleasure, and Matt taking out Gao’s warehouse brings the pain, both externally and internally. He takes a hard hit from Gao, who reveals immense strength hiding under the illusion of a weary old woman, but that’s nothing compared to the pain his soul feels when he realizes that Gao is using blind people to package and distribute her product. Even with a mask on, Matt’s shock and disgust is clear in Charlie Cox’s performance, and his terror in that moment is the thing that forces him to fix his relationship with Karen, who is going through her own horrific experience.
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The end of last episode gave Karen her big moment of power when she shot and killed Wesley after being attacked again, but the show still can’t stop casting her as a weak victim. She has a cold resolve at the start of the episode when she gets rid of the murder weapon, but that immediately crumbles when she makes her way home and starts feeling the weight of what she just did. She’s overwhelmed by fear, immediately rushes to grab a bottle of booze, and starts weeping on the floor. Then we see her in the shower, voraciously scrubbing herself clean while she cries some more. She’s buried in guilt and fear, and without the support of Matt and Foggy, she turns to the bottle.
I understand that Petrie is trying to show how devastating Wesley’s killing is to Karen’s mental and emotional health, but it’s all just too much after spending a season with Karen The Victim, and makes me seriously worry about the future of her character. There’s a shady part of her past that hasn’t been revealed, and I’m beginning to fear that that will be where the writers fold in some of the more tragic elements of Karen’s comic-book story. If Karen’s life is going to be this rough in the present, she desperately needs an episode like “Nelson V. Murdock” that shows a time in her life when she wasn’t drowning in despair. Any bits of happiness for Karen in Hell’s Kitchen are surrounded by sad events that make the world look hopeless, and it would be nice to see a time in Karen’s life when she was truly happy so that she isn’t primarily defined through her suffering.
The women generally have it rough in this episode. Wilson Fisk’s mother has been more of a plot accelerator than a fully formed character for the entire series, and she stays in that role as Wilson tries to convince her to leave the country after learning that people are trying to get to him through her. Then there’s Doris Urich and Vanessa Marianna, two women that spend the entire episode in hospital beds playing cheerleader to their tortured mates. It’s a refreshing change of pace when Marci Stahl enters the episode after the script spends so much time on these uniformly weak depictions of women, and while Marci may be a caricature of an icy blonde, it’s excusable because she has a strength and authority that most of the other women in the episode lack.
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As usual, the main exception to this show’s unfortunate representation of female characters is Madame Gao, who proves in this episode that she’s even stronger than we previously thought. This chapter marks her last appearance this season, but it’s very likely that she will be appearing again, probably in the upcoming Iron Fist Netflix series. Gao’s product is called “Steel Serpent,” sharing a name and insignia with one of Iron Fist’s nemesi, and while there’s no overt mention of the mystical city of K’Un Lun, Gao’s hint that her place of origin is a considerable distance from China and her high power level suggest that she comes from the same place that will turn Daniel Rand into a kung-fu superhero. I don’t care how she comes back, I just want more Madame Gao in the MCU, because she’s made a big impression as this show’s most powerful woman and one of its few significant people of color.
This entire series is about one white man’s unrelenting quest for power and how he tramples over the rights of others in order to build his empire, hurting a predominantly non-white community in the process. In a piece for New Republic exploring how this show approaches gentrification, Jeet Heer calls Wilson Fisk a supervillain reimagining of controversial urban developer Robert Moses, a connection that is made explicit by the copy of Robert Caro’s 1974 biography on Moses, The Power Broker, visible behind Fisk when he confronts Ben Urich in his home. Wilson’s efforts are choking the life out of the disenfranchised residents of Hell’s Kitchen, which makes Ben’s strangulation a chilling encapsulation of Wilson’s narrative arc. But did this show really have to kill off its primary person of color? With Claire, Ben, and Gao all gone, this series is now just a bunch of sad white people, and it’s disappointing to watch the diversity drain out of a series that should be embracing the wide spectrum of people found in an urban environment.
Stray observations:
Wilson mourning over Wesley’s body is a very nice moment of tenderness from Vincent D’Onofrio, who brings a lot of compassion to Wilson’s interactions with the people he cares about in his life. That affection is what causes Wilson to act so viciously when one of these people is threatened, like when he discovers that Ben Urich had tracked down his mother.
Wilson Fisk would probably lighten up if he actually watched one of those cat videos he bitches about this week. What a killjoy.
I can’t say I’m all that sad about Ben’s death if it means we can stop listening to newspaper employees bemoan the fall of journalism because of the Internet. In a show full of heavy-handed writing, those scenes are some of the worst.
How many canes do you think Matt Murdock goes through in a week? He tosses them in alleys quite a bit.
“Maybe this isn’t the best time to be beating your men to death. He did what he was told. I think they call that loyalty or something.”
“My head’s fine where it’s at.”
“That’s disappointing. I thought this was a booty call.”
“I’m not a complete asshole.” If you want Marci to respect you, all you have to do is die.
“I should have just had her shot.”KIEV, Ukraine — As the center of the Ukrainian capital tipped into a maelstrom of gunfire and blood on Thursday, a man wearing a helmet stood on a street corner near Independence Square, the epicenter of the violence, holding a leaf of printer paper.
“Guys,” he called out, “we are forming a new hundred. Please sign up.”
Anton Chontorog, 23, a computer programmer, joined a small crowd of young men who lined up to enroll in the hundred, the basic organizing unit of a strikingly resilient force that is providing the tip of the spear in the violent showdown with government security forces. The sotni, as the units are called, take their name from a traditional form of Cossack cavalry division. Activists estimate at least 32 such groups are in Kiev now, with more forming all the time.
Mr. Chontorog said that he had been in the square many times as a protester, but that after the violence on Thursday wanted to commit himself to the fight, which meant following orders from the commander of his hundred. “A volunteer just shows up to help,” he said. “The difference is that a member of a hundred has obligations.”
Across Kiev and beyond, personal barriers that once defined the limits of behavior are crumbling, pushing this fractured but, until a few weeks ago, proudly peaceful nation into a spiral of chaos.Image copyright Getty Images
The name "Berkut", or "Golden Eagle" in Ukrainian, became synonymous with police brutality for many protesters in the capital, Kiev. The now-disbanded Berkut was an elite riot police force at the forefront of recent deadly clashes there.
Its members have been accused of beating, torturing and shooting demonstrators. Unprovoked attacks on journalists and medical workers have also been alleged. A video clip also emerged earlier, showing a naked protester apparently being abused and beaten by riot policemen who had stripped him in sub-zero temperatures.
While food and hot drinks were offered by sympathetic demonstrators to police officers and army servicemen amid the stand-off in late 2013, Berkut members bore the brunt of anti-government ire after tensions flared up in January.
What is Berkut?
Berkut members were reported to have been more carefully selected, better trained, paid and equipped than ordinary police units. They were also said to have had more senior officials as commanders.
The force was set up in 1992 and had its roots in Omon, the notoriously ruthless Soviet "special-purpose police". Initially, Berkut's primary goal was to fight organised crime, but later changed to ensuring law and order during "mass events".
Ukraine's police is run by the Interior Ministry, which itself was until recently headed by Vitaly Zakharchenko, a steadfast supporter of toppled President Viktor Yanukovych. Mr Zakharchenko hails from the ousted president's home region of Donetsk and is also reported to be close to his son, Oleksandr.
Mr Zakharchenko is now wanted by the new authorities in Kiev for the killing of demonstrators.
The media in Ukraine say Berkut members were rigorously trained. To be accepted into Berkut, army service and at least two to three years of law-enforcement experience were said to be compulsory.
Chances of employment with Berkut increased if the applicant was an athlete with a proven track record, reports say.
Berkut had about 4,000 to 5,000 members stationed across Ukraine. Local units were directly subordinated to the heads of regional Interior Ministry departments, instead of lower-ranking police officials such as district police chiefs.
It was not unusual for Berkut units to be dispatched from their bases to other regions. Report say that many of them were brought to Kiev from eastern Ukraine, which was more supportive of Mr Yanukovych.
Berkut members from more opposition-minded western Ukraine, meanwhile, complained to the media that they were "mistrusted" by top commanders.
Berkut had some serious hardware at its disposal, including machine guns and armoured personnel carriers. Its members were also reportedly paid 1.5-2 times more than the average police officer.
BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. For more reports from BBC Monitoring, click here. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook.Chinese women in car threesome have to be cut out after man accidentally knocks off handbrake and car rolls down hill into tree
Two woman involved cut from wreckage with broken legs, internal injuries
Police said handbrake was released, sending car down hill and into tree
Driver now being investigated for committing lewd acts in public place
An amorous threesome in a parked car ended in disaster for a group of Chinese when the driver accidentally released the handbrake, sending the car rolling down a hill and into a tree.
The two women involved were taken from the scene badly hurt - one broke both her legs and the other suffered internal injuries.
The accident occurred in Wenzhou, south of Shanghai, and local police said they were investigating whether or not to lay charges.
While the man escaped from the crash unscathed, the two women involved needed to be cut from the vehicle
Following the accident, police said the driver was being investigated for committing lewd acts in a public place
Passing motorist Bo Lan said the driver was agitated and'shouting for the firemen to work faster to free them'.
He can be seen in the video frantically dancing around in his underpants as the firemen work to free the trapped women.
'I could see that they were trapped naked inside.'
Police said that 'carnal knowledge' had been taking place in the car when the handbrake was released and the car sent rolling down the hill.
'The driver is being investigated for lewd acts in a public place, as the women will be when they are fit enough to answer charges,' a police spokesman said.PHOENIX — A pair of national polls released Monday shows Bernie Sanders walloping Donald Trump if the Vermont senator manages to win the Democratic party nomination.
As Sanders campaigned around Arizona, Utah and Idaho Monday ahead of their primary elections, a new CNN/ORC poll found the Vermont senator beating Trump 58 percent to 38 percent. That is almost double Hillary Clinton’s 12-point lead over the real estate mogul in the same poll.
Sanders had a double-digit lead over U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in the same poll. In the hypothetical match-up, Sanders led the Texas Republican 55 percent to 42 percent.
A CBS/New York Times released Monday also gave Sanders a notable advantage over the former secretary of state in a hypothetical general election match-up with Trump. Clinton beat the businessman by 10 points, while Sanders beat Trump by a hefty 15 points in the national survey.
At a rally in Flagstaff Monday night, Sanders told a crowd of 3,200 supporters “objectively speaking, there is no question that you are looking a the strongest Democratic candidate.”
As encouraging as these polls may seem to Sanders supporters in Arizona, the leader of the “political revolution” was slated to lose to Clinton in the Grand Canyon State by a whopping 26 percentage points in a March 16 Merrill Poll.
The Democratic Party standard bearer for the White House must win 2,283 delegates to lock in the nomination. Before the end of Tuesday primary elections in Arizona, Utah and Idaho, Clinton led Sanders 1,630 to 870.Ferguson #BlackLivesMatter Leader Who Spoke at UN Arrested For Human Trafficking – Pimping 17 Year-Old Child
Black Lives Matter protest leader Charles Wade was arrested in April and held on seven counts relating to human trafficking and prostitution.
Charles Wade was a leader in the Ferguson, Missouri Black Lives Matter movement after the death of robber Michael Brown.
Via Weasel Zippers:
Wade was flown to Geneva, Switzerland to speak to the United Nations on police abuse in November 2014 before activists ransacked, torched and looted Ferguson, Missouri businesses.
Wade and fellow Black Lives Matter activists stood with raised Black Power fists at the UN meeting.
Charles Wade was arrested in April on prostitution and child trafficking charges.
Via Weasel Zippers:
On April 25, he really got himself in a fix. He was arrested and charged with human trafficking and several prostitution-related charges. The police report notes, that as part of the charges, he is accused of allegedly pimping out a 17 year old girl in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
The police report notes clients allegedly called his phone and arranged with him for ‘dates’.
Wade is insisting he’s innocent.Photos & Videos
Grow Conditions
Week 4 Vegetation 18 hrs Light Schedule °F °C 22 Day Air Temperature °F °C 72 Day Air Temperature 6.5 pH 55% Air Humidity No Smell Smell °F °C 20 Night Air Temperature °F °C 68 Night Air Temperature
Nutrients
This is her now when I came to write this diary and its first four weeks. I topped my last plant and really liked it. I learned a lot from my last grow and am really excited to put my new knowledge to the test. I think because of the stress she had because it took me so long to replant her from her small pot to the final pot where she lost a lot of leaves. Led to 4 little stems coming out the bottom which i left on while topping. I am still trying to find out what works best for my bucket so I thouhgt hey why not experiment a little.Believe it or not, journalists can keep secrets. Nor do they keep any old secrets. They keep state and security secrets. In the last six months the journalists to whom the NSA-GCHQ archive was passed by Edward Snowden have kept more secrets safe than the entire Anglo-American intelligence community did in a decade. But then the trouble with a secret is that nobody knows when you keep it, only when you do not.
This week the British judiciary has come face to face with the same problem. Two defendants, AB and CD, are on trial at the Old Bailey as "terrorism suspects". The crown prosecution service has asked the judge to impose anonymity on the defendants, the charges, the evidence and indeed the reporting of the trial. Even the reasons for asking should be secret. "Public interest immunity certificates" have floated in the air like snow as judges, prosecutors and police prepared a witches' Sabbath of secrecy.
Not so fast, said the admirable Mr Justice Sweeney on Monday. He wanted a clear explanation to his court as to why secrecy was necessary. Any exemption from the principle of open justice, he said, "must be very clearly made out after every party [including counsel for the press] has the opportunity to make submissions". All the CPS had offered as justification were "operational reasons" and "to prevent the administration of justice from being damaged". It must now do better.
The argument is a microcosm of the debate consuming the privacy-security nexus across the Atlantic. The state requires confidences to be maintained if it is to work effectively, as does any organisation dependent on human relationships. Cabinets conducted in the public gaze would be not government but performance. State secrets must be guarded against known threats. Even with ordinary policing which embraces counterterrorism, active operations may require temporary blackouts and injunctions.
I may differ from some of my colleagues in accepting that such secrecy may require legal defence. Good governance needs confidentiality. During President Reagan's notorious Iran-Contra affair, the official conduits of diplomacy proved so leaky that private "back channels" took over. The result was disaster. When every participant keeps a diary for publication and every hard drive is evidence, power retreats behind cronyism and sofas, as under Tony Blair's regime. The present inefficiency of Whitehall is the outcome. Nobody trusts anybody with a secret.
In Dave Eggers' new novel The Circle, the mighty digital corporation taunts those holding public office into "going clear". They are wired with cameras and mics so their every movement day and night is broadcast on the web. Any who refuse "must have something to hide". Soon businesses, schools, even partners are drawn into doing likewise. The ruling mantra is, "Secrecy is lies: privacy is theft".
This may be a novelist's exaggeration. Yet it is plainly the direction of travel revealed by Snowden of the wilder shores of the NSA and GCHQ. What made his revelations particularly important was the spectacle of two contrasting forces in ghastly collusion. On the one hand was the move to digital transparency, the erosion of personal privacy through electronic surveillance, drone photography, face recognition and type-sorting. On the other was the hijacking of such power by a secret agency of the state under cover of "the war on terror". The agency sought to penetrate every citizen's life for undisclosed reasons, yet demand immunity from any oversight. This was asymmetrical democracy.
Any claim that "everyone knew these things were going on" is rubbish. Few even within the security realm were aware that servers were being hacked, encryptions corrupted and undersea cables tagged. They did not know because the means put in place to inform them were, as Snowden clearly shows, being circumvented and disobeyed. As Lord Ashdown said today, the nerds were "out of control".
This brings us back to the Old Bailey. What is it the police wish to keep secret and why? I have no problem with keeping names secret in some trials, as with certain sex crimes and family cases. Nor is Sweeney opposing secrecy in the AB/CD case. He merely regards justice as requiring openness prime facie. If it cannot be open, then the reasons for closure must be open. He and his court must be persuaded, not just told.
The days are over when those demanding secrecy for their work can offer the dismissive excuses of the three intelligence chiefs to Westminster's intelligence and security committee earlier this month. This boiled down to "Trust us, we are policemen". How could anyone trust people who delivered Britain's entire wardrobe of state secrets, some 60,000 files, to a potential audience of up to 800,000 Americans, including an honest but appalled private contractor named Snowden – and that after the Manning-Assange revelations. They must have known it would all leak.
British intelligence was saved from catastrophe only by Snowden not dumping his material on the web but giving it to what he regarded as responsible journalists. The newspapers, notably the Guardian, published less than 1% of the material judged as clearly in the public interest. This was after consulting (if not always agreeing with) security authorities on both sides of the Atlantic. British intelligence asserts that national security was endangered and lives put at risk. No American source has repeated that claim, but rather acknowledged a gross intelligence failure badly in need of correction.
The world now faces total electronic penetration, with huge power available to those who control it. The idea that the assurances of a policeman or spy are "good enough for me" has been shown as deluded. No group should be trusted with such unconstrained leverage over others, least of all one revealed as systematically deceiving Congress.
Expecting the west's arcane democratic institutions to police the new digital power of states is to build a sandcastle against a tank. Yet they are all we have. Parliamentarians who discover they have been deceived by the spies must howl blue murder, as they are doing in America but not in Britain. Sweeney must be persuaded for himself how far judicial openness should be suspended to help the police.
The press, showered with leaks, must resort to its own educated judgment in deciding where the public interest lies. Everyone knows secrets must be kept, but keeping them needs a framework built on public trust. That framework must be informed and argued. It can no longer rely on the bark of command and a cringing deference to the gods of security.Veronica Dunnachie, a 36-year-old Arlington woman, is sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole for the fatal shootings of her husband and his 20-year-old daughter in December of 2014.
An Arlington woman charged in the fatal shootings of her husband and his 20-year-old daughter has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that 36-year-old Veronica Dunnachie was sentenced Friday. Dunnachie had pleaded guilty to capital murder.
Dunnachie was arrested in December 2014 in the deaths of 50-year-old Russ Dunnachie and Kimberly Dunnachie.
According to court records, the victims were found in Russ Dunnachie's home in Arlington by patrol officers conducting a welfare check. Police said they arrested Veronica Dunnachie at a mental health hospital, where she drove herself after the killings.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC 5 Dallas-Fort WorthDick Severance studied martial arts from 1955 till 2009. He originally studied and taught Japanese Go Ju Ryu Karate for 24 years, and operated a karate dojo for many years in Palm Bay, Florida.
One day, in 1979, Dick received a flyer in the mail from Larry Beaver, who operated a Karate dojo in Atlanta, GA along with Stephen Hayes (now Bud Malmstrom's school). Steve was living in Japan and was teaching a seminar while visiting the US. This was the first U.S. dissemination of the art he was studying in Grandmaster Masaaki Hatsumi's dojo in Japan.
Dick attended that seminar and since then, he has become one of a handful of Ju Go Dan (fifteenth-degree black belt) instructors under Grandmaster Hatsumi, and has been traveling across the country, studying and teaching this incredible art, Budo Taijutsu.
Dick Severance was a craftsman of fine Custom Training Tools used by martial arts practitioners around the world.
Dick was a veteran of the US Navy, where he was trained as a mineman and underwater swimmer. He was an avid scuba diver, snorkeler and swimmer and shared this expertise with many students through the years.Swiss bankers are seeking to forge an alliance with London in the wake of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.
In a sign that the rest of the world wants to carry on doing business with the UK following Brexit, the Swiss Bankers Association is hoping to build a coalition with other international financial centres outside the EU.
The group has proposed building a so-called F4 alliance that would see Switzerland, London, Hong Kong and Singapore pool resources to negotiate access to other markets including the EU.
The eurozone is on course for an economic slowdown in the wake of Britain's decision to leave the European Union, according to the International Monetary Fund
‘The Swiss Bankers Association is suggesting an alliance to other financial centres to better coordinate worldwide in areas such as regulation and market access,’ a SBA spokesman said. ‘Coordinating our efforts would make it easier and quicker to discuss issues and come to solutions over challenges with the EU.’
Banks based in Britain have been able to sell financial services freely across the EU under the bloc’s ‘passporting’ system.
But it is feared that such unfettered access could be lost after last month’s vote to leave the EU.
Paris and Frankfurt are known to want to take advantage of Brexit by eating away at London’s dominance – although it is doubtful they will ever be able to match London’s status as a global financial powerhouse.
It is also likely that the EU will continue to rely heavily on London and Switzerland to finance future economic growth.
Patrick Odier, chairman of the SBA, said the UK and Switzerland together ‘would be even more important to contributing to the development of a European capital market and financing European industry than they were separately before’.
Figures yesterday showed the recovery is in far better shape than feared with industry clocking up its fastest rate of growth for six years
George Osborne and a host of Wall Street banking giants this week issued a resounding vote of confidence in the City of London.
In a joint statement with the Chancellor, investment banks including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan pledged to ensure London remains the world’ s dominant financial centre when it leaves the EU.
The signatories, which also included top executives at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and British emerging markets lender Standard Chartered, were effusive in their praise for the UK – citing its ‘brilliant workforce’, ‘stable legal system’, ‘world class regulators’, and ‘deep liquid capital markets unmatched anywhere else in Europe’.
They added that London has in recent years ‘established itself as a global hub for renminbi, rupee, Islamic finance and green finance.’The comic will be dropped from the network's upcoming comedy special ‘Night of Too Many Stars' and his past projects will be removed from its on-demand services.
HBO is parting ways with Louis C.K. in the wake of recent misconduct claims.
The premium cable network is dropping the comic from Night of Too Many Stars, its upcoming autism special, and is also pulling the C.K.'s previous standup specials and series from its on-demand services. The move comes after the Louie star was accused of sexual harassment by five different women in The New York Times on Thursday who claimed C.K. either masturbated in front of them or asked them permission to do so.
“Louis C.K. will no longer be participating in the Night of Too Many Stars: America Unites for Autism Programs, which will be presented live on HBO on November 18,” HBO said in a statement. “In addition, HBO is removing Louis C.K.’ |
of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs).
The information was obtained by Sinn Féin's finance spokesman Pearse Doherty, who criticised REITs for adding to property inflation.
The documents show the Department of Finance expected that the tax foregone by REITs would reach €11m in 2016.
The structures are exempt from paying 25% tax on non-trading rental income if they distribute 85% of their profits to shareholders. Instead investors pay 20% dividends withholding tax.
There are three REITs in Ireland: Hibernia, Green and IRES and they had a combined profit of €280m in 2015.
Investors were paid €238m but only paid tax of €5.27m in 2015.
However, the department said: "It is likely that there would be significant timing differences in relation to the payment of dividend withholding tax relative to the calculation of the profits per the REIT’s accounts."
Deputy Doherty said that the REITs had the "fire power" to outbid other house buyers.
"These funds are in direct competition with first time buyers and families seeking a move yet they have huge advantage because of these tax loopholes," Mr Doherty said.
"The Government needs to immediately act to close these loopholes to level the playing field for ordinary people who are being priced out of the market," he added.
However, the department said the "minimal" loss of tax brought new sources of capital into the Irish property market.
It said it reduced the dependence of the property market on bank finance and freed up bank lending for other industries.
The department also said it facilitated the collective investment in property which brought the benefit of risk diversification to investors.The NRA has a new president and judging by a speech he made at the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association’s annual meeting last June he could generate some controversy for the gun advocacy group. Jim Porter, previously a lawyer from Alabama, told that crowd that he likes to refer to the Civil War as the “war of Northern Aggression” and called Barack Obama a “fake president” whose entire administration is “anti-freedom.”
Speaking at that event in New York, Porter shared some of the shared history between the NRA and the local NYSRPA. “The NRA was started, 1871, right here in New York state. It was started by some Yankee generals who didn’t like the way my southern boys had the ability to shoot in what we call the “War of Northern Aggression.” Now, y’all might call it the Civil War, but we call it the War of Northern Aggression down south.” He added that the organization remains vital today to train civilians to use firearms so “when they’re ready to fight tyranny, they’re ready to do it. Also, when they’re ready to fight tyranny, they have the wherewithal and the weapons to do it.”
By the mid-20th century, he said, the NRA’s “number one charge was to protect and defend the Second Amendment.” He said, “we elect those people who support the Second Amendment. If you’re pro-gun, we support you. If you’re anti-gun, we’re gonna beat you.”
After Porter’s history lesson was over, he moved on to the present. Even with all the progress the organization has made over the years, Porter said “this fight has just started.” He added, “I get so sick and tired of all these people with this fake president that we got, who want to say ‘he hasn’t done anything bad for gun owners.’ I say, let me tell you something that he’s done. His entire administration is anti-gun, anti-freedom, anti-Second Amendment.”
Perhaps what’s most striking about Porter’s comments are that they came more than six months before the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut that spurred the Obama administration to its first real action on gun control legislation. He has not made any major public remarks since accepting the new leadership position in the NRA, but it’s fairly safe to say that his opinion of the president has not warmed.
Watch video below, via YouTube:
(h/t NYTimes)
—
>> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.comWhat to Bring
This list will help you decide what to pack for your move to Hampshire. With the help of the sustainability student group New Leaf, our "What to Bring" list now features tips and resources for making your Hampshire lifestyle a little "greener." By bringing energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs for yourself or to share, as well as recycled or reused materials, you can contribute to reducing Hampshire's carbon footprint and protecting our environment.
Please note: Hampshire College does not endorse any of the particular companies or products listed on this page. Rather, this information is an example of the types of products you might purchase, or types of establishments at which you might acquire them.
What You'll Find When You Arrive
Each room is pre-furnished with one bed frame and mattress; a desk and chair; an open closet rod to hang clothes; and a dresser for each resident. Storage space in your room is limited.
Necessities
Linens for an 80-inch mattress; pillow, towels
Blanket, mattress pad
Clothes hangers
Toiletries
Laundry basket or bag
Laundry detergent Hampshire uses Maytag High-Efficiency Washers (Seventh Generation, Ecover, and Biokleen are good brand names.)
Desk lamp, non-halogen Make sure your desk lamp has a compact fluorescent lightbulb (CFL).
Power strip or safety-fused surge protector and UL approved extension cords Appliances and devices that are plugged use energy even when they're not in use. Power strips that can be turned off prevent unnecessary use of electricity.
Refillable water bottle Hampshire's tap water is clean and healthy to drink. If you are concerned about the taste of tap water, consider bringing a water filter.
Optional Items
Snacks
Can opener
Flashlight or headlamp
Iron (with automatic shutoff)
Sewing kit
Drawer lining, not contact paper
Plants, knick-knacks
Wall-saver removable poster tape
Calculator
Computer
First-aid kit (plastic strips, aspirin, cotton balls, etc.)
Storage containers
Computer or MP3 player speakers or stereo (w/headphones)
Plates, cups, cutlery Bringing a set of reusable eating ware can help reduce waste on campus. You can bring it to campus events or use it in your room for snacks!
Bicycle with lock
Microwave oven not to exceed 0.7 cubic feet or 800 watts
Refrigerator not to exceed 3.0 cubic feet
Laundry drying rack Dryers run on fossil fuels and emit carbon dioxide. Reduce your carbon footprint by drying clothes on a drying rack or clothesline. Most drying racks can be folded up and stored out of the way when they are not in use.
Printer Hampshire has printers in the library for students to use. Consider coordinating with your roommate, hallmates, or modmates to share a printer.
General cleaning supplies Many conventional cleaning products are petroleum-based and contain potentially dangerous chemicals. We recommend the purchase of nontoxic, biodegradable, non-petroleum-based products (Seventh Generation, Biokleen, Mrs. Meyers, and Options for Life are good brand names).
Notes on Appliances:
If you are living in a double, consider talking to your roommate before school starts to plan appliances.
We strongly encourage that you use the full-size refrigerator in your floor's lounge rather than bring a mini-fridge for your room. If you still decide to bring your own refrigerator (not to exceed 3 cubic feet), please purchase an Energy Star-labeled product that will use less electricity.
Each lounge in the two traditional-style dorms (where most first year students will live) has a flat screen TV with access to cable, and the ability to connect to a computer. Students are welcome to bring a TV for use in their bedroom, but be aware that there is no cable service in student bedrooms.
Leave at Home
Halogen lamps of any wattage
Incandescent light bulbs
Weights
Oil lamps
Pets
Cinder blocks/bricks
Ceiling fans
Wall/Ceiling stickers (such as glow-in-the-dark stars)
Lofts
Candles, torches, incense, flammables
Dartboards
Paint guns, bb guns, air guns
Contact paper or wall paper
Electric/kerosene heaters
Hot plates and any heating unit with exposed heating element
Air conditioners
Water beds
Freezers
Deep fat cookers
Nails/hammer
Dimmer switches
Curtains/draperies
Bottled water
Furniture and Supplies
Consider purchasing second-hand furniture and other supplies (dishes, lamps, storage containers) at tag sales or thrift stores before classes begin in the fall. If you are living in a double, talk to your roommate before school starts to coordinate appliances and other items.
Thrift stores in the area include:
Salvation Army:
310 Russell Street (Route 9), Hadley, MA 413.582.0403
310 Russell Street (Route 9), Hadley, MA 413.582.0403 Goodwill:
183 University Drive, Amherst, MA 413.253.4182
971 Bridge Road, Northampton, MA 413.320.4911
183 University Drive, Amherst, MA 413.253.4182 971 Bridge Road, Northampton, MA 413.320.4911 The Hospice Shop:
18 Bridge Street, Northampton, MA 413.586.0193
Buying a computer before arriving?
Learn more about student discounts and recommendations from Hampshire IT. Also, check out the ratings of computers on 23 environmental performance criteria to reduce your carbon footprint.
Bikes
You can easily reach many places in the area by bike. It takes around 20 minutes to bike to the Hampshire Mall (3.8 miles), around 25 minutes to bike to Amherst (4 miles), and about 40 minutes to bike to Smith College/Northampton (7.8 miles), and there are bike racks on the front of all PVTA buses.
Hampshire also has a bike shop located in the Robert Crown Center where student workers perform free bike maintenance and repairs.The website of major bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox is offline today amid reports it suffered a debilitating theft, a new setback for efforts to gain legitimacy for the virtual currency.
The URL of Tokyo-based Mt. Gox was returning a blank page. The disappearance of the site follows the resignation Sunday of Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation, a group seeking legitimacy for the currency.
At the Tokyo office tower housing Mt. Gox, bitcoin trader Kolin Burgess said he had picketed the building since Feb. 14 after flying in from London, hoping to get back $320,000 he has tied up in bitcoins with Mt Gox.
"I may have lost all of my money," said Burgess, next to placards asking if Mt. Gox is bankrupt. "It hasn't shaken my trust in Bitcoin, but it has shaken my trust in bitcoin exchanges."
A "crisis strategy" report shared widely online that purports to be an internal Mt. Gox document says more than 740,000 bitcoins are missing from the exchange, which froze withdrawals earlier this month. It says the theft went unnoticed for several years and turned on disguised withdrawals.
Currency analyst Christopher Vecchio joins Here & Now's Meghna Chakrabarti with details.
GuestLOS ANGELES—Conceding the time has come to limit the proliferation of new movies that simply rehash old ones, Universal Studios and Warner Bros. have entered bilateral talks to reduce their considerable stockpiles of unproduced reboots, sources confirmed Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters after the first day of tense negotiations, members of both sides said that while building up enormous arsenals of remakes has long been their top strategic priority, the number of such revamped sci-fi franchises, action films, buddy comedies, and children’s movies now in development has reached levels that represent an existential threat to the medium of film worldwide.
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“We recognize that after years of pouring money into the same old material over and over again, we are one misstep away from unleashing something truly awful on our fellow man,” said Universal president Ronald Meyer, explaining that while hundreds upon hundreds of unproduced reboots sit stored in his studio’s vaults, it would only take the release of a single new Hulk film to devastate most of North America. “Should one party ever preemptively unleash an updated Edward Scissorhands, it would almost certainly be met by the deployment of a redone Labyrinth, causing an unstoppable chain reaction of similar retaliations across the entire industry.”
“We must install fail-safes to avoid a doomsday scenario in which the studios launch all their reboots upon the moviegoing public at the same time,” he added.
Universal reportedly made the first diplomatic overtures by proposing remake-limitation talks with Warner executives, who agreed on condition that both studios impose caps on the number of old films they would rerelease in 3D each year. Those close to the negotiations confirmed that Warner Bros. pledged to abandon its planned reboot of Gremlins when Universal provided assurances it would scuttle an upcoming sequel to the 1988 Arnold Schwarzenegger–Danny DeVito comedy Twins.
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The two studios also consented to dismantle their large-scale programs for identifying potential prequels, according to reports. In addition, Universal and Warner Bros. agreed to begin the careful destruction of their Spider-Man and Superman franchises, respectively, with all scripts for future installments to be fully eliminated by 2029.
Despite the progress, sources said negotiations stalled for an entire afternoon when Warner representatives refused to back down from their reboot of Mortal Kombat and walked out of the room, vowing they would not cooperate unless Universal immediately committed to pulling its forthcoming adaptation of the video game series Warcraft.
“A successful drawdown of our treatments for hundreds of films based on 1990s box-office hits and well-trodden comic-book properties will require a high degree of mutual trust,” Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara said. “We would certainly be open to utilizing a third party such as the Motion Picture Association of America to ensure that both sides comply with agreed-upon reductions in reboot numbers and to monitor studio lots to verify that teams of screenwriters are not secretly modernizing any preexisting film script.”
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Several close calls, most of which have remained hidden from the public, are believed to have provided the impetus for the current round of talks. Anonymous sources cited a particularly disturbing incident in which an erroneous report of an upcoming Tango & Cash reboot from Warner spurred Universal Studios executives to give the order for another live-action Flintstones. Only a last-minute phone call between levelheaded producers from both sides is said to have deescalated the situation.
“The outcome of these talks will have profound repercussions, with strict reboot limits potentially ushering in a more hopeful future for movie enthusiasts worldwide,” said film historian Arthur Spence, who described the power attained by Warner Bros. in 1947 after a team of producers and attorneys working in secret successfully rebooted the studio’s ailing Rin Tin Tin franchise, touching off a decades-long period in which each major Hollywood studios built vast stores of remake scripts. “The reality of the situation is that, at this moment, thousands of these unmade reboots have already been through the first stage of rewrites, are currently being punched up by script doctors, and could be ready to shoot within a few months. It’s absolutely terrifying.”
“These negotiations, however, could greatly reduce the grave threat posed by these unfinished remakes,” he continued. “At long last, it appears these studio heads are finally thinking long and hard about the kind of world they want to leave behind for their children.”
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While pleased with the steps taken during the first round of discussions, reports indicate that both sides still remain deeply troubled by rogue studio Lionsgate, which many suspect of secretly developing a fifth Expendables treatment.AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Turkish authorities on Wednesday briefly detained a second Dutch journalist in as many days amid growing concern that media freedom in the country is under threat.
Mehmet Ulgur, a Dutch citizen of Turkish background, was arrested at an Istanbul airport, the Dutch Journalists’ Association said. He was released after questioning, but ordered to attend court on January 21.
His detention follows that of Frederike Geerdink, a freelance reporter specializing in Kurdish issues, who was questioned and later released on Tuesday.
The detentions coincided with a visit to Turkey by Dutch foreign minister Bert Koenders, who said on Tuesday that he was shocked by the first incident. “Intimidation of journalists is unacceptable,” he said.
Ulgur, a documentary-maker, was taken aside while queuing for a passport check. He was told to attend a court hearing relating to an incident when he took photos at the 2013 trial of another Dutch journalist, news portal villamedia.nl reported.
Officials from Turkey’s justice and foreign ministries said Ulgur had been brought in for questioning and then released.
The detentions come at a time of political tension between Turkey and the Netherlands, home to one of the world’s largest Turkish diaspora communities.
In November Dutch Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher accused ethnic Turkish organizations in the Netherlands of lacking transparency and hindering integration. Turkey called the comments “racist” and the two ethnic Turkish lawmakers from Asscher’s party resigned.
Last week, two journalists were detained for tweets they sent that were critical of Turkish authorities, and last month the editor in chief of an opposition newspaper was charged with belonging to a terrorist organization.Women have emerged as one of the fastest-growing demographics of new gun buyers and concealed carry permit holders in the country, and in the process, they have become a driving force in the shift in American attitudes from pro-gun control to pro-gun rights.
In January, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that “women [are] buying more guns than ever.” And the result of this surge in women gun buyers has been an expansion of firearms and firearms accessories made to cater to the female market.
Many of the accessories are often designed and marketed by fellow women gun owners.
This growing participation of women in firearm purchases and firearm-related activities has not happened overnight. Rather, it has been steadily increasing over a number of years. For example, the National Shooting Sports Foundation found that 2011 and 2012 showed the surge beginning with a “79 percent … increase in female” customers buying firearms and/or firearm accessories. The trend has continued from that point.
Now, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that this is not only providing new markets for the gun industry and expanding the number of concealed carry permits issued to women, but also impacting Americans’ views on guns and gun rights.
In late 2012–immediately following the heinous attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School–there was greater support for gun control than for gun rights. In fact, there had been a greater support for gun control over gun rights for more than 20 years. And this held true through January 2013. Then things began to shift.
On parallel with growing female gun ownership, increasing numbers of women applying for concealed carry permits, and burgeoning women involvement in shooting sports, support for gun control has dwindled. Thus, whereas only “45 percent” of the American people supported gun rights in January 2013 while “51 percent” supported gun control, the numbers have now shifted to “52 percent” support for gun rights and only “46 percent” support for gun control.
Interestingly, the shift in women’s attitude in favor of guns has taken place during years when groups like Bloomberg-funded Moms Demand Action have worked their hardest to get moms to vote against the Second Amendment.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.The paintings of Roy Lichtenstein, who was born 94 years ago today, are some of the most iconic examples of the pop art movement of the 20th century. Through appropriating the techniques and styles of comic books, a product considered decidedly juvenile and frivolous, Lichtenstein found a way to unite "low" and "high" art in captivating compositions.
However, as Lichtenstein enjoyed worldwide acclaim and his works continue to sell for tens of millions of dollars two decades after his death, comic book artists have voiced frustration at having their creations and genre appropriated with little credit and no money.
Some of these criticisms come over what is perceived as plagiarism by Lichtenstein. "The fact remains that Lichtenstein was simply reproducing the work of the original comic artists, without adding much," comics artist Marc Ellerby told the Guardian on the occasion of a large retrospective of Lichtenstein's career at London's Tate Modern in 2013. While expressing respect for Lichtenstein's talents in works like "We Rose Up Slowly," Ellerby also felt that his paintings of single frames hardly did justice to the narratives of comic books that could be hundreds of pages long.
"Lichtenstein did no more or less for comics than Andy Warhol did for soup," echoed Art Spiegelman, creator of the graphic novel "Maus," said in a 2007 interview.
Comics artist Dave Gibbons, who famously drew the graphic novel "Watchmen," has made even more pointed criticisms of Lichtenstein's work. "I’m not convinced that it is art," Gibbons told the BBC in a 2013 interview. "A lot of Lichtenstein’s stuff is so close to the original that it actually owes a huge debt to the work of the original artist," he added, comparing it to music where artists usually credit the original creator of a song even when parodying it.
To shine more light on the source material behind Lichtenstein's work, comics enthusiast David Barsalou has spent more than three decades painstakingly tracking down the original strips that the artist painted after in a project called "Deconstructing Roy Lichtenstein."
A more personal comment on Lichtenstein's relationship with the comics industry comes from veteran artist Russ Heath, the creator of the original comic panel that Lichtenstein used in his famous painting "Whaam!" In 2014, Heath, who is now 91 years old, drew a short strip about his experience having his work appropriated by the artist while struggling to make ends meet.
Now semi-retired and living on a "fixed income," Heath says he survives with the help of the "Hero Initiative," a charity that supports comic creators in need. "Roy got $4 million dollars for it," Heath said of "Whaam!" "I got zero."The good news is that Troy Polamalu wants to play. The bad news is we’ve seen in the past what happens when he plays and then gets hurt, and how the defense for the Steelers goes down.
So with that, it was maybe the funniest line of the presser Sunday when coach Mike Tomlin was asked as to why Polamalu was given a day off.
His quote – “he has a contusion to the birth certificate.”
Yes, a ‘contusion.’ For those that are not aware of what a contusion is – here’s the meaning – An injury in which the skin is not broken; a bruise.
In other words, reading between the lines – Polamalu is old.
It’s good that Tomlin can keep things light, but even more important – better he keeps the safety off the field some days to make sure he’s around when it really counts the most.'The Muslims Are Coming': Satirical ads allowed in New York subways after legal case
Updated
Advertisements using humour to promote a greater tolerance of Muslims have finally been displayed in New York's subways after a long legal battle.
The ad slogans 'warn' that Muslims are 'coming to strike with hugs so fierce, you'll end up calling your grandmother and telling her you love her'.
Others read 'The Ugly Truth About Muslims: They have great frittata recipes', and 'Muslims Hate Terrorism!... and people who tell you they went to an Ivy League school within 10 seconds of meeting them'.
The posters were created last year as part of a campaign by comedians Negin Farsad and Dean Obeidallah to ultimately promote their film, a comedy documentary called The Muslims Are Coming!
The film follows a band of Muslim-American comedians as they visit American cities and towns.
"It's a comedy-doc. We went to the south and the west, did a lot of free shows, just to meet people and answer their questions about Muslims," Obeidallah said.
He said the poster campaign was "an outgrowth of the film."
However the subway advertisements were rejected and banned from display after New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) concluded they were political in nature.
Farsad said the intentions for the posters were always the same as for the movie — to fight prejudice against Muslims.
"All we wanted to do was put up this 'Fighting Bigotry with Delightful Posters' campaign where we were spreading hilarious messages about Muslims while promoting The Muslims Are Coming! — it was supposed to be no big deal," he said.
I think having a counter-message... that Muslims can be delightful and fun and ridiculous, is really necessary. Negin Farsad
"And then the MTA decided to ban the poster campaign, citing political speech. One of the ads, for example, says, 'The ugly truth about Muslims. They have great frittata recipes'. So, I guess for the MTA, frittatas were considered political or something.
"And so we decided to turn our 'Fighting Bigotry with Delightful Posters' campaign into fighting 'Fighting Bigotry with a Delightful Lawsuit' campaign. We sued the MTA."
A federal judge has since ruled that gently mocking prejudice as a comedic device did not make the message political.
Slogan messages still relevant
Several months later, both comedians say that although the campaign is now outdated in regards to the film's release date, the point of the slogans is as relevant as ever.
"Here we are 15 months later, and a federal lawsuit later, and finally these funny posters are going up that were tied to our film," Obeidallah said.
"It shows Muslims being funny and in a different light. That's all it was about," he said.
The advertisements are now being posted in around 144 subway stations.
"We hope that these posters will still promote the movie and still get more eyeballs on the movie," Farsad said.
"The point of the movie is just to show Muslims in a positive light, to build a bridge with mainstream Americans. Muslim-Americans can be super hilarious, and that's what we want to show people.
"Right now, the only message that we have about Muslims is 'they are terrorists, they should be in registries, we shouldn't allow them in'. Right now it's crazy.
"So I think having a counter-message to that, that Muslims can be delightful and fun and ridiculous, is really necessary. Because otherwise we are going to go off the deep end with this."
Australian comedians share power of humour
The message is one that Australian-Muslim comedians, such as Nazeem Hussain, believe is just as relevant in Australia.
"Comedy allows you to say the things that people are thinking and respond in a way that highlights the absurdity," Mr Hussain said.
Currently touring the country, he said Australians seemed to love comedy that pokes fun at prejudice.
"Whether there is enough comedy speaking about the Muslim experience or Islamophobia … there's definitely a growing audience of people that are interested in comedy that makes fun of power.
"Some of my favourite comedians in Australia are really good at rocking the boat that way and leaving the audience with questions in their minds."
Topics: race-relations, advertising, human-interest, united-states
First postedIsland Lake mayor breaks tie to censure Trustee Shannon Fox
hello
Shannon Fox is an Island Lake trustee who has now received a censure for an email she sent out criticizing a local business owner.
Island Lake Trustee Shannon Fox was censured by her peers on the village board Thursday for sending an email that criticized a local business owner.
The resolution containing the formal scolding was adopted with a 4-3 vote. Mayor Charles Amrich broke a tie to ensure passage.
The censure came about two weeks after Fox targeted Island Lake resident Mike Johnson and his Mike's Towing for Johnson's role in a property dispute with a local couple.
In a Sept. 25 email to Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran, Lake County commissioners and other municipal officials, Fox spoke negatively about Johnson and asked them to reconsider patronizing his business.
Fox sent the email from her official village account. She identified herself as a trustee and leader of the grants committee.
The censure resolution denounced the email and included an apology to Johnson and his company.
The resolution said Fox's email didn't represent the position of the board on the matter, and it said she wasn't authorized to write the message.
It also called for Fox to send a retraction to the recipients of her missive within three days.
Fox said she will not issue a retraction.
"I stand by everything I said in that email," she said before the vote.
Fox asked attorney David McArdle if the board has the legal right to force her to write a retraction.
In response, McArdle said the resolution's goal "is to keep us out of a lawsuit."
"Whether you do it or not, we're going to do it," McArdle said.
Trustees Mark Beeson, Keith Johns and Tony Sciarrone joined Amrich in voting to censure Fox. Trustees Chuck Cermak and Thea Morris joined Fox in opposing the measure.
The dispute at the heart of the matter is between Johnson and Betty and Glenn Reckwerdt, who live on the 100 block of Bassler Drive.
Johnson claims the Reckwerdts' driveway, which cuts through property he owns, is in the wrong spot. The Reckwerdts disagree.
On Sept. 20, Johnson placed large, concrete barriers across the driveway and alongside it. Johnson moved the barriers off the driveway Sept. 23, after complaints from the Reckwerdts and inquiries by the Daily Herald.
Mike's Towing is the preferred towing company for the Island Lake Police Department. Johnson also financially supported Mayor Charles Amrich in the spring election.
Johnson's attorney, David Zipp, spoke to the board at length about the dispute and Fox's email at the start of the meeting.
Zipp said Johnson "has suffered greatly" because of Fox's email and media reports about the dispute.
Zipp also warned Fox to "stop interfering with my client's business."
In response, Fox said it was "completely inappropriate" for Zipp to try the case in the boardroom.A minibus studded with fake diamonds and Louis Vuitton branding curled around a busy traffic circle at the top of the Champs-Elysée before escaping into the Bois du Boulogne, an enormous forest on the outskirts of Paris. Everyone’s gaze turned outward as we meandered through the woods, passing playgrounds and lunch break joggers, looking for a hulking white oasis that was impossible to miss.
I was on my way to see Frank Gehry’s latest work, the sprawling new Fondation Louis Vuitton. The $130 million building, affectionately dubbed “the glass cloud,” was commissioned in 2006 as a contemporary art and performance space for the Fondation, which is the philanthropic wing of the LVMH luxury goods conglomerate. It opened to the public Monday, after a week of media buzz and star-studded galas. French President François Hollande was on hand for the building’s inauguration last week, where he described the building as a “cathedral of light” and a “miracle of intelligence, creativity, and technology.”
The museum certainly cuts an imposing figure, with its galactic glass "sails" standing in cold contrast to the pastoral children’s park that neighbors it. From afar, it looks equal parts spaceship and sailboat — maybe even a bird. Twelve diaphanous sails encase the 126,000-square-foot building, shielding an oblique, undulating white exterior that the Fondation likens to an iceberg. The design was inspired, Gehry said, by the glass architecture of the late 19th century, as well as the children’s park it empties onto. Water cascades into a lower-level "grotto," illuminated by the soft yellow hues of a light installation by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. Louis Vuitton branding is sparse, but hardly subtle: an enormous shining "LV" brooch looms over the entrance.
Inside are 11 gallery spaces, a 350-person auditorium, and an upscale restaurant. The lobby’s soaring ceilings distill ambient chatter into a soft buzz, with giant windows framing the lush lawn outside. Navigating through the galleries can be a winding and sometimes disorienting experience, but you invariably end up at one of the site’s tree-dotted rooftop terraces with gorgeous panoramic views of the city — Eiffel Tower and all. This week’s opening caps a busy month for Gehry, who, at 85, is still among today’s most celebrated and recognizable "starchitects." His career is the focus of a major retrospective that opened this month at the Centre Pompidou museum in Paris, and the Fondation has reinvigorated debates about his work. "98 percent of everything that is built and designed today is pure shit." There are of course some who criticize his buildings as excessive and over the top — the Fondation faced stiff opposition from local groups before being greenlit by the French government — but Gehry has brushed them aside, sometimes with vigor. At a press conference in Spain last week, Gehry flashed his middle finger to a journalist who asked him to comment on those who say his works are just "spectacle." "Let me tell you one thing," the architect replied. "In this world we are living in, 98 percent of everything that is built and designed today is pure shit. There’s no sense of design, no respect for humanity or for anything else. They are damn buildings and that’s it." "Once in a while, however, a group of people do something special. Very few, but God, leave us alone."
Grid View A model of the building is on display in one of its 11 gallery spaces. (Gehry Partners LLP)
The Fondation Louis Vuitton is located in the Bois de Boulogne, between Paris and the La Défense financial district. (Wikimedia Commons)
A view of the Eiffel Tower from behind the Fondation. (Fondation Louis Vuitton / Facebook)
The building is encased by 12 diaphanous glass "sails." (Iwan Baan)
The Fondation Louis Vuitton opened its doors to the public on Monday, after eight years of construction. (Iwan Baan)
A light installation from the artist Olafur Eliasson lines the lower level "grotto." (Iwan Baan)
Water cascades from a reflecting pool into a lower level grotto.
The building has been likened to an iceberg because of its oblique white construction.
The design was inspired by 19th century glass architecture and garden design.
Staircases wind through a geometric maze up to the rooftop terraces.
A diamond-like "LV" brooch greets visitors at the main entrance.
Wooden beams support the glass sails, creating a nautical aesthetic.
The building is located on the edge of a 19th century children's park. (Iwan Baan)
Mann im Matsch ("Man in Mud"), a sculpture by German artist Thomas Schutte, is on display at the Fondation. (© ADAGP, Fondation Louis Vuitton)
The building empties out onto a large lawn in the Jardin d'Acclimatation. (Fondation Louis Vuitton / Facebook)Australian economist Steve Keen is one of the very few who have called this economic crisis correctly. What distinguishes Keen is that his economic forecasts are based on levels of debt and changes in levels of debt as opposed to money supply, output capacity and other things that led most economists astray.
The following video is about 19 minutes long but very much worth listening to in entirety, improving as it goes along. The video may take a while to load but it's well worth it. Everything below in quotes, until the next bold title is a partial transcript from the video.
Steve Keen:
"If you have a sane economy, and by sane economy I mean one which is not addicted to debt, not a Ponzi economy, then the change in debt each year should contribute a minor amount to demand. Therefore, if you tried to correlate debt to the level of unemployment you would not find much of a correlation. Unfortunately that is not the economy we live in."
"The red line shows the percent contribution that debt contributes to demand and the blue line which is inverted is the unemployment rate."
"There should be no correlation if the economy is operating sensibly. Correlation is now at the level of 83%. Because we have a debt driven economy, the change in debt levels each year is the major determinant in the change in economic performance."
"Neoclassical economic theory is dangerous. Neoclassical economists completely missed this crisis. My favorite statement comes from the OECD in its June 2007 report"
" A recent survey trying to find economists who predicted this found 12. And there are 10,000-15,000 economists in the US alone which is why I don't particularly accept their assurances that everything is OK from now on."
"Now why are economists so ignorant? Two major reasons. First of all the type of modeling they do is static where you ignore time, or if you have dynamics you assume they are converging to some nice stable situation in the future. And they ignore almost completely the role of credit and debt."
"I probably win the Dr. Doom award around the planet these days now that Nouriel Roubini is expecting the recession will end in about 6 months time. I think it's got a lot longer to go than that."
"What we are going through is a deleveraging crisis and we haven't experienced one of those since 1930. Last time it took 10 years and a world war to get rid of it, and this time we are staring up with 1.7 times the level of debt in America, not even mentioning the derivatives catastrophe that is also there."
"And deleveraging which is the attempt by the private sector to reduce its debt level can overwhelm the government's stimulus. The whole problem was caused by irresponsible lending and the only way out of this ultimately is to eliminate that debt. The debt has to be written off"
Powerpoint Presentation
The above text is a partial transcript from his presentation and the slides are two of many slides from the accompanying Powerpoint presentation. You can download the presentation on Steve Keen’s Debtwatch Blog. You will need to listen to the video to understand some of the slides.
Australian readers will |
: "It's hard to know what to say right now - it's an emotional moment, these things never come easily. At times we thought we'd never get there, but we've done it" "It's hard to know what to say right now - it's an emotional moment, these things never come easily. At times we thought we'd never get there, but we've done it" AUSTRALIA SECOND INNINGS 1750: Hussey prods to short leg, and England have wrapped up a 197-run victory. Hussey prods to short leg, and England have wrapped up a 197-run victory. 1749 - WICKET - Hussey c Cook b Swann 121 - Aus 343 all out (102.2 overs) - ENGLAND REGAIN THE ASHES 1747 - Aus 348-9 (102 overs)
Harmison to Hilfenhaus - the Ashes set to change hands unless the tall paceman can keep Harmy out here, in front of a deafening crowd. Hilfenhaus plays a straight bat, even when Harmy strays with a no-ball, and he's eventually off the mark with a well-timed off-driven four. Gentle Ben does his job, and England have to wait for their victory. Harmison to Hilfenhaus - the Ashes set to change hands unless the tall paceman can keep Harmy out here, in front of a deafening crowd. Hilfenhaus plays a straight bat, even when Harmy strays with a no-ball, and he's eventually off the mark with a well-timed off-driven four. Gentle Ben does his job, and England have to wait for their victory. From lufc_ardsley on 606: "The fat lady is practising her scales!" 1743 - Aus 343-9 (101 overs)
CMJ makes an interesting point on TMS - looking at the five Tests, the closest of the five was the draw at Cardiff. And what was the crucial session there? That last-wicket stand. So let's just think for a minute - you could say that England are about to win the Ashes because of Monty Panesar's batting. Monty MBE anyone? Swann tries to tease Hussey into an error, he stands firm but can't work the last ball for a single so last man Hilfenhaus will be exposed again. CMJ makes an interesting point on TMS - looking at the five Tests, the closest of the five was the draw at Cardiff. And what was the crucial session there? That last-wicket stand. So let's just think for a minute - you could say thatMonty MBE anyone? Swann tries to tease Hussey into an error, he stands firm but can't work the last ball for a single so last man Hilfenhaus will be exposed again. 1740 - Aus 343-9 (100 overs)
England's fans may be celebrating like it's already over, but they just need to apply the coup de grace. Ben Hilfenhaus to face the hat-trick ball, it's straight but Hilfy keeps it out. England's fans may be celebrating like it's already over, but they just need to apply the coup de grace. Ben Hilfenhaus to face the hat-trick ball, it's straight but Hilfy keeps it out. 1737 - WICKET - Clark c Cook b Harmison 0 - Aus 343-9 (99.5 overs)
Harmison bear-hugs his mate Flintoff for holding on to that catch as Stuart Clark strides to the wicket. He pops his first ball to short leg, England are one wicket from regaining the Ashes! Harmison bear-hugs his mate Flintoff for holding on to that catch as Stuart Clark strides to the wicket. He pops his first ball to short leg, 1735 - WICKET - Siddle c Flintoff b Harmison 10 - Aus 343-8 (99.4 overs)
Harmison tests Siddle with a bouncer, then he gets a leading edge to short cover and Flintoff takes the catch! Start the car! Harmison tests Siddle with a bouncer, then he gets a leading edge to short cover and Flintoff takes the catch! Start the car! 1732 - Aus 343-7 (99 overs)
Siddle pushes Swann to leg, it squirts into the air but safely and they run two. A textbook straight-drive brings the fast bowler a single. Siddle pushes Swann to leg, it squirts into the air but safely and they run two. A textbook straight-drive brings the fast bowler a single. From Paul Morton, TMS inbox: "After watching the Tests and ODIs this year I doubted England would regain the Ashes. I'm really pleased to be proved wrong, well done England" "After watching the Tests and ODIs this year I doubted England would regain the Ashes. I'm really pleased to be proved wrong, well done England" 1729 - Aus 340-7 (98 overs)
Harmison to Hussey, who might have to start thinking about farming the strike if he's going to push this game into a fifth day. England's fans are clapping and cheering, the Aussies (and big Merv Hughes) have fallen silent. Hussey tries an ambitious pull but fails to connect as Harmy raises his arms in frustration. The fielders come in to save the single on the fifth ball, so Hussey smacks a four through cover point. He then guides a single off his legs, and shows confidence in his batting partner by taking the second. Harmison to Hussey, who might have to start thinking about farming the strike if he's going to push this game into a fifth day. England's fans are clapping and cheering, the Aussies (and big Merv Hughes) have fallen silent. Hussey tries an ambitious pull but fails to connect as Harmy raises his arms in frustration. The fielders come in to save the single on the fifth ball, so Hussey smacks a four through cover point. He then guides a single off his legs, and shows confidence in his batting partner by taking the second. From nigeweir on 606: "What a day. Have sat here and watched every single ball with you guys and boy have we had to be patient. The score Australia had to get was massive, would have been a world record and is simply not in their range. Like at Lord's, we have outplayed them totally and will win the game. IT'S COMING HOME woohoo" 1725 - Aus 334-7 (97 overs)
Siddle gets forward to Swann, with a raft of fielders waiting around the bat. A well-timed cover-driven four gets him off the mark but frankly England could have all nine fielders around the bat now, the 214 runs needed for an Aussie victory must look like 214,000,000. He adds a couple more off the last ball. Siddle gets forward to Swann, with a raft of fielders waiting around the bat. A well-timed cover-driven four gets him off the mark but frankly England could have all nine fielders around the bat now, the 214 runs needed for an Aussie victory must look like 214,000,000. He adds a couple more off the last ball. From Xenia in Hove via text on 81111: "I'm confused. Was born in the UK. Brought up in Aus, now back again for five years. What an amazing win for Aus this would be but I feel so guilty. Help me decide!" "I'm confused. Was born in the UK. Brought up in Aus, now back again for five years. What an amazing win for Aus this would be but I feel so guilty. Help me decide!" 1721 - Aus 328-7 (96 overs)
The door to the hutch is well and truly open for England now as Peter Siddle comes to the crease. He guides his first ball to long leg for one - but England only need three wickets now to regain the Ashes. The crowd are on their feet. The door to the hutch is well and truly open for England now as Peter Siddle comes to the crease. He guides his first ball to long leg for one - but England only need three wickets now to regain the Ashes. The crowd are on their feet. 1719 - WICKET - Johnson c Collingwood b Harmison 0 - Aus 327-7 (95.5 overs)
Given that Harmison may never have to face Johnson's bowling again (considering his record on the last four tours, will England ever take him on tour again? I doubt it. And he's been dropped from the ODI squad), he may feel he has nothing to lose by firing in some "chin music" at the new man. And he does. Johnson, one of Australia's many left-handers, pokes one to second slip and finally Colly holds on to a catch! Given that Harmison may never have to face Johnson's bowling again (considering his record on the last four tours, will England ever take him on tour again? I doubt it. And he's been dropped from the ODI squad), he may feel he has nothing to lose by firing in some "chin music" at the new man. And he does. Johnson, one of Australia's many left-handers, pokes one to second slip and finally Colly holds on to a catch! From jovialmatty1111 on 606: "If we lose this I will never watch England again" 1714 - Aus 327-6 (95 overs)
Well, bit of a rash shot from Haddin but England won't mind. New batsman is Mitchell Johnson. Big lbw shout from Swann against Hussey (they crossed on the catch) but umpire Rauf isn't interested. Well, bit of a rash shot from Haddin but England won't mind. New batsman is Mitchell Johnson. Big lbw shout from Swann against Hussey (they crossed on the catch) but umpire Rauf isn't interested. 1712 - WICKET - Haddin c Strauss b Swann 34 - Aus 327-6 (94.4 overs)
Graeme Swann, still in his sunglasses, continues from the Vauxhall End as Hussey dabs a single, but then Haddin tries to go aerial over the legside boundary and is well caught by Cap'n Strauss at deep-ish mid-wicket! Graeme Swann, still in his sunglasses, continues from the Vauxhall End as Hussey dabs a single, but then Haddin tries to go aerial over the legside boundary and is well caught by Cap'n Strauss at deep-ish mid-wicket! From Kevin in London via text on 81111: "I've had enough of this tension. Any chance we can stop mucking about and take a wicket or two?" "I've had enough of this tension. Any chance we can stop mucking about and take a wicket or two?" 1709 - Aus 326-5 (94 overs)
The Vauxhall End of the ground is now in shadow underneath the massive new stand as Haddin steers Harmy past short leg for a single. He has 34, despite a couple of anxious moments. A mighty pull from Hussey brings him four to square leg, to the delight of a posse of Australian fans behind that boundary. A single to third man and he's nabbed the strike again. What can England do to turn the tide? The Vauxhall End of the ground is now in shadow underneath the massive new stand as Haddin steers Harmy past short leg for a single. He has 34, despite a couple of anxious moments. A mighty pull from Hussey brings him four to square leg, to the delight of a posse of Australian fans behind that boundary. A single to third man and he's nabbed the strike again. What can England do to turn the tide? From blueboyrob on 606: "At this level you must must must hold your catches. Surely such basic fielding errors cannot deny us? Hussey is the key, get him before the close of play and that Aussie dressing room will be downbeat" 1702 - Aus 320-5 (93 overs)
Strauss shuffles his bowlers as Swann replaces Broad. Two slips and a forward short leg in for the left-handed Hussey, who looks back on form after those scares in the nineties. A single takes him to 109 - the field shuffles for Haddin, there's a slip, silly point, short leg and short mid-wicket. Haddin flicks a two off his legs and a single just before the players take a drinks break. 226 needed for a breathtaking Australian victory. That Colly drop when Hussey was on 55 is starting to prey on my mind. Strauss shuffles his bowlers as Swann replaces Broad. Two slips and a forward short leg in for the left-handed Hussey, who looks back on form after those scares in the nineties. A single takes him to 109 - the field shuffles for Haddin, there's a slip, silly point, short leg and short mid-wicket. Haddin flicks a two off his legs and a single just before the players take a drinks break. 226 needed for a breathtaking Australian victory. That Colly drop when Hussey was on 55 is starting to prey on my mind. 1658 - Aus 316-5 (92 overs)
Harmison replaces Flintoff, Hussey flat-bats his first ball through mid-wicket, and Harmy isn't happy with the ball. He gives it to Umpire Bowden, who has a quick look and tells him to get on with it! Harmy gets one to explode from short of a length past Hussey's face, Hussey leaps out of the way and counters with some aggressive mid-pitch gardening. Hussey turns a single to leg to keep the strike. Harmison replaces Flintoff, Hussey flat-bats his first ball through mid-wicket, and Harmy isn't happy with the ball. He gives it to Umpire Bowden, who has a quick look and tells him to get on with it! Harmy gets one to explode from short of a length past Hussey's face, Hussey leaps out of the way and counters with some aggressive mid-pitch gardening. Hussey turns a single to leg to keep the strike. From Dave in Brighton replying to hiswrg [1635] via text on 81111: "I'm pretty sure when you look at the'stats' they will (assuming all goes to plan) say that England won two matches and Australia only won one. I think that makes us plenty deserving of our victory" "I'm pretty sure when you look at the'stats' they will (assuming all goes to plan) say that England won two matches and Australia only won one. I think that makes us plenty deserving of our victory" 1653 - Aus 311-5 (91 overs)
Hussey clips Broad for a quick single, "there's a cloud of dust like someone jumping into a long jump pit" notes Aggers, but Hussey makes his ground with a full-length five. Haddin repeats his late cut to third man for four. Broad then charges in, and drops the ball in mid-delivery stride! Is the pressure getting to him too? Hussey clips Broad for a quick single, "there's a cloud of dust like someone jumping into a long jump pit" notes Aggers, but Hussey makes his ground with a full-length five. Haddin repeats his late cut to third man for four. Broad then charges in, and drops the ball in mid-delivery stride! Is the pressure getting to him too? From Alyssa, USA, TMS inbox: "Look, I'm trying my hardest to be optimistic and confident, but if anyone could lose this game at this point, it's England of late. And that belief is sadly supported even further by that simple Onions catch that just wouldn't be. Tell me, please, someone, that I'm just being a Debbie Downer and England aren't going to shoot themselves in the foot and lose this match! Anyone?" "Look, I'm trying my hardest to be optimistic and confident, but if anyone could lose this game at this point, it's England of late. And that belief is sadly supported even further by that simple Onions catch that just wouldn't be. Tell me, please, someone, that I'm just being a Debbie Downer and England aren't going to shoot themselves in the foot and lose this match! Anyone?" 1648 - Aus 306-5 (90 overs)
A fortunate inside edge from Hussey, the ball dribbles just past his stumps. He cover-drives a single, then Haddin powers a four through point. And as well as being available to listen to on the site, the Daniel Radcliffe/Tom Felton interview is also available A fortunate inside edge from Hussey, the ball dribbles just past his stumps. He cover-drives a single, then Haddin powers a four through point. And as well as being available to listen to on the site, the Daniel Radcliffe/Tom Felton interview is also available as a podcast. Jonathan Agnew on TMS: "We're being watched by the editor of Wisden, Scyld Berry - it's like being watched by the headmaster" "We're being watched by the editor of Wisden, Scyld Berry - it's like being watched by the headmaster" 1644 - Aus 301-5 (89 overs)
Hussey cuts Broad for four, then he cracks a well-run two which beings up his 10th Test hundred, looking to the heavens in relief. A single to the cover boundary brings Haddin on strike, and he defends well. Hussey cuts Broad for four, then he cracks a well-run two which beings up his 10th Test hundred, looking to the heavens in relief. A single to the cover boundary brings Haddin on strike, and he defends well. From FleetJackHobbs on 606: "This is becoming unbearable - and still I don't see a fat lady appearing over the horizon" 1638 - DROPPED CATCH - Aus 294-5 (88 overs)
Hussey certainly looks to be in the nervous nineties as he nearly chops Anderson onto his stumps! A single takes him to 94. Haddin tries to force one off his legs... and is dropped by substitute fielder Graham Onions at short mid-wicket! It went through his hands as he jumped up. Anderson kicks the turf like an angry Andre Nel as they run two. Haddin smacks a four just wide of a fielder, and a misfield from Flintoff won't improve Jimmy's temper as Fred lets one through for another four at mid-off. Hussey certainly looks to be in the nervous nineties as he nearly chops Anderson onto his stumps! A single takes him to 94. Haddin tries to force one off his legs... and is dropped by substitute fielder Graham Onions at short mid-wicket! It went through his hands as he jumped up. Anderson kicks the turf like an angry Andre Nel as they run two. Haddin smacks a four just wide of a fielder, and a misfield from Flintoff won't improve Jimmy's temper as Fred lets one through for another four at mid-off. From David in Hook via text on 81111: "Guess it wouldn't be cricket to win the Ashes with one day spare. Thinking of what original sickie to pull tomorrow! Any suggestions? " "Guess it wouldn't be cricket to win the Ashes with one day spare. Thinking of what original sickie to pull tomorrow! Any suggestions? " 1635 - Aus 283-5 (87 overs)
Still hardly a cloud in the sky above The Oval Broad is getting some subtle movement as he pitches the ball up well against Haddin, who has to defend as if his life depends on it. We're beginning to wonder in the office whether we'll still be here tomorrow morning - mind you, at one point it looked like there was no separating Ponting and Hussey either... Maiden. Still hardly a cloud in the sky above The Oval Broad is getting some subtle movement as he pitches the ball up well against Haddin, who has to defend as if his life depends on it. We're beginning to wonder in the office whether we'll still be here tomorrow morning - mind you, at one point it looked like there was no separating Ponting and Hussey either... Maiden. From hiswrg on 606: "I can't believe the commentators on the radio and people here are already talking about 2-1 to England. Aus are eminently capable of getting the remaining runs before losing five wickets. It is typical of us English to rest on our (slightly flaky) laurels and not see things through properly. Although, to be honest, England don't really deserve to win this series when you look at the stats" 1630 - Aus 283-5 (86 overs)
Hussey blasts the recalled James Anderson through mid-wicket for four to reach 93. It's been 28 innings since his last hundred... and there's a brief sign of nerves as he's beaten outside off stump twice in successive balls. He tries to turn the last ball down the leg side... but doesn't get a touch. Hussey blasts the recalled James Anderson through mid-wicket for four to reach 93. It's been 28 innings since his last hundred... and there's a brief sign of nerves as he's beaten outside off stump twice in successive balls. He tries to turn the last ball down the leg side... but doesn't get a touch. From Darren, Cheltenham, TMS inbox: "What better a way to spend the day than to watch my two boys playing cricket on a sunny Cotswold day and to see the Ashes coming home 'where they belong!' Come on England, wrap it up today!" "What better a way to spend the day than to watch my two boys playing cricket on a sunny Cotswold day and to see the Ashes coming home 'where they belong!' Come on England, wrap it up today!" 1625 - SECOND NEW BALL TAKEN - Aus 279-5 (85 overs)
New ball.. and we have a new vote in for you too. The shining new cherry is handed to Broad, can he repeat his first-innings "reign of terror" and wrap it up tonight? Hussey pushes a single to cover, Haddin plays and misses outside off stump. New ball.. and we have a new vote in for you too. The shining new cherry is handed to Broad, can he repeat his first-innings "reign of terror" and wrap it up tonight? Hussey pushes a single to cover, Haddin plays and misses outside off stump. 1620 - Aus 278-5 (84 overs)
Swann induces an edge from Hussey... and it doesn't quite carry to Colly at slip. The Aussie pair manage three singles, but may have to gird their loins for the new ball soon... Swann induces an edge from Hussey... and it doesn't quite carry to Colly at slip. The Aussie pair manage three singles, but may have to gird their loins for the new ball soon... Philip Clive Roderick Tufnell on TMS: "I never captained Middlesex, but my dad gave me three initials just in case I ever had a chance of doing so" "I never captained Middlesex, but my dad gave me three initials just in case I ever had a chance of doing so" 1617 - Aus 275-5 (83 overs)
Broad, still with the old ball, runs in to the right-handed Haddin, who is resolute in defence, while Steve Harmison warms up at mid-off - which may be a hint that the new ball may be taken soon. Broad, still with the old ball, runs in to the right-handed Haddin, who is resolute in defence, while Steve Harmison warms up at mid-off - which may be a hint that the new ball may be taken soon. From James McCarthy, TMS inbox: "Does life get any better? Lazing in my pool in Doha listening to TMS' coverage of possibly the best English cricket performance in four years! Come on England!" "Does life get any better? Lazing in my pool in Doha listening to TMS' coverage of possibly the best English cricket performance in four years! Come on England!" 1613 - Aus 275-5 (82 overs)
CMJ and Tuffers on TMS are left rather baffled as Colly is taken off after one over! Swann returns, Haddin takes a single and Hussey strokes a confident four through mid-wicket. Australia are now more than half-way to their target. Any reason they shouldn't take the new ball? CMJ and Tuffers on TMS are left rather baffled as Colly is taken off after one over! Swann returns, Haddin takes a single and Hussey strokes a confident four through mid-wicket. Australia are now more than half-way to their target. Any reason theytake the new ball? From Chris in London via text on 81111: "Come on Freddie, finish them off with five wickets. A fitting ending to an illustrious career!" "Come on Freddie, finish them off with five wickets. A fitting ending to an illustrious career!" 1610 - Aus 270-5 (81 overs)
They're going to persevere with the old all for a while... with Stuart "Malfoy" Broad taking over. Hussey pushes a couple of twos to take his score to 82. They're going to persevere with the old all for a while... with Stuart "Malfoy" Broad taking over. Hussey pushes a couple of twos to take his score to 82. From Neil in Middlesbrough via text on 81111: "My girlfriend is in serious danger of being single in the morning if my answer to the question 'where were you when England won the Ashes' is 'in a garden centre'!" "My girlfriend is in serious danger of being single in the morning if my answer to the question 'where were you when England won the Ashes' is 'in a garden centre'!" 1605 - Aus 266-5 (80 overs)
Paul Collingwood to have a little trundle with his medium pace, he'll be seeing if he can get his off-cutters to work their magic on this pitch. He goes round the wicket to Hussey, who gently taps a single through mid-wicket. And the second new ball is available... Paul Collingwood to have a little trundle with his medium pace, he'll be seeing if he can get his off-cutters to work their magic on this pitch. He goes round the wicket to Hussey, who gently taps a single through mid-wicket. And the second new ball is available... Christopher Martin-Jenkins on TMS: "No chickens have been counted by anyone - including you, Tuffers, I trust" "No chickens have been counted by anyone - including you, Tuffers, I trust" 1559: After some interesting chat between Aggers and his panel of journalists, it's time to resume. Could this be Freddie's last session in Test cricket? After some interesting chat between Aggers and his panel of journalists, it's time to resume. Could this be Freddie's last session in Test cricket? From Dafydd Rees, TMS inbox: "I write this from a rainy Cape Cod, Massachusetts, having seen Hurricane Bill pass us by with little more than it being a usual rainy day in England, and thinking about seeing my first Test at the Oval in 1957. Anyway, to make all English fans feel better, I thought you'd like to know that if the remaining Australian batsmen all match their highest ever scores against England, they would be all out for 540" "I write this from a rainy Cape Cod, Massachusetts, having seen Hurricane Bill pass us by with little more than it being a usual rainy day in England, and thinking about seeing my first Test at the Oval in 1957. Anyway, to make all English fans feel better, I thought you'd like to know that if the remaining Australian batsmen all match their highest ever scores against England, they would be all out for 540" From Ben in Lancashire, via text on 81111: "Oops, I'm in big trouble! I promised the Mrs that I would cook and clean for one month if we beat the Aussies!" "Oops, I'm in big trouble! I promised the Mrs that I would cook and clean for one month if we beat the Aussies!" 1551: So, it begs the question, can England capture the Ashes tonight? Five more wickets are needed - the scheduled close of play is 1800 BST, but can continue until 1830 if the remaining overs (32) have not been bowled. And, if either captain (most likely Andrew Strauss) believes a result can be achieved tonight (we reckon this would be if seven or more wickets have fallen), they can claim an extra half-hour of play. So, it begs the question, can England capture the Ashes tonight? Five more wickets are needed - the scheduled close of play is 1800 BST, but can continue until 1830 if the remaining overs (32) have not been bowled. And, ifcaptain (most likely Andrew Strauss) believes a result can be achieved tonight (we reckon this would be if seven or more wickets have fallen), they can claim an extra half-hour of play. From adrian007 on 606: "This is now really the end of Australia. In the grander scheme of things, we all still have to feel sad that the great team that Australia once was is about to be only fourth in the world. And worst of all, Ponting is about to be the first Aussie captain to lead Australia to the lowest world ranking they have ever achieved" From Ross Brawn (Team Principal, Brawn GP), TMS inbox: "Our team just managed "Our team just managed a win at Valencia and I was desperate to see the score after the race. What a weekend - Rubens' first race win for five years and now the Ashes. Go for it boys!" Thanks, Ross, glad you're enjoying the cricket. TEA INTERVAL 1542 - Aus 265-5 (79 overs)
Swann gets one to turn sharply past Hussey, there's a big appeal for a catch behind from Prior, but Umpire Rauf shakes his head. A four through the covers and a clubbed single to leg take Hussey to 77 - that's tea. "A freakish session", says Vic Marks on TMS, but what a crucial session for England. Swann gets one to turn sharply past Hussey, there's a big appeal for a catch behind from Prior, but Umpire Rauf shakes his head. A four through the covers and a clubbed single to leg take Hussey to 77 - that's tea. "A freakish session", says Vic Marks on TMS, but what a crucial session for England. 1538 - Aus 260-5 (78 overs)
Two more overs in before tea? Should be. Anderson returns in place of Flintoff, and the Aussie listeners won't like this - Aggers is already talking about how England can claim the extra half-hour tonight if they think a result is possible. Hussey works another single, Haddin flays a four through the covers. And we'll get another over in. Two more overs in before tea? Should be. Anderson returns in place of Flintoff, and the Aussie listeners won't like this - Aggers is already talking about how England can claim the extra half-hour tonight if they think a result is possible. Hussey works another single, Haddin flays a four through the covers. And we'll get another over in. From Frazer, TMS inbox: "Don't want to spread typical British pessimism but have had a cheeky look at the weather forecast tomorrow and it's not great, we may need to finish up this eve no pressure lads!" "Don't want to spread typical British pessimism but have had a cheeky look at the weather forecast tomorrow and it's not great, we may need to finish up this eve no pressure lads!" Pessimism, Frazer? Are you any relation to Private "We're doooomed" Frazer from Dad's Army?! Pessimism, Frazer? Are you any relation to Private "We're doooomed" Frazer from Dad's Army?! 1534 - Aus 255-5 (77 overs)
Aussies are digging in for tea as Swann's over yields just a single to Hussey. Meanwhile, the entertaining interview with Harry Potter actors Daniel Radcliffe and Tom Felton is now available to listen to on the BBC Sport website - give this page a manual refresh if it doesn't display correctly, and you should be able to see it and have a listen. Aussies are digging in for tea as Swann's over yields just a single to Hussey. Meanwhile, the entertaining interview with Harry Potter actors Daniel Radcliffe and Tom Felton is now available to listen to on the BBC Sport website - give this page a manual refresh if it doesn't display correctly, and you should be able to see it and have a listen. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. 1531 - Aus 254-5 (76 overs)
Hussey pulls Flintoff for four, they're less than 300 behind now - but as I mentioned just now, the runs have become largely irrelevant. Flintoff oversteps for a no-ball before a single takes Hussey to 69. An exchange of singles takes Australia's total to 250, and Haddin finds the boundary for the first time with a flick off his legs. Hussey pulls Flintoff for four, they're less than 300 behind now - but as I mentioned just now, the runs have become largely irrelevant. Flintoff oversteps for a no-ball before a single takes Hussey to 69. An exchange of singles takes Australia's total to 250, and Haddin finds the boundary for the first time with a flick off his legs. BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat's David Garrido on Twitter: "Bit of chat between Fred & Hussey - 'Super Freddy Flintoff' again reverberates around t'Oval. This atmos is amazing" 1525 - Aus 242-5 (75 overs)
Haddin is off the mark with a single, Hussey copes well with some awkward bounce against Swann, then there's a big appeal... did that hit pad or bat first? Umpire Rauf appears to favour the "bat" option. Huss hustles for another quick single, clearly not afraid of doing so, despite having run out his captain in similar circumstances. Haddin is off the mark with a single, Hussey copes well with some awkward bounce against Swann, then there's a big appeal... did that hit pad or bat first? Umpire Rauf appears to favour the "bat" option. Huss hustles for another quick single, clearly not afraid of doing so, despite having run out his captain in similar circumstances. 1523 - Aus 241-5 (74 overs)
The crowd roar again as Flintoff charges into Hussey, who gets forward well to swipe a quick single through the covers - an overthrow brings a second. He has 63. Kevin Pietersen is in the England dressing-room and appears to be in his whites - no doubt ready to come on for the presentation and lift the trophy like David May for Manchester United in 1999... The crowd roar again as Flintoff charges into Hussey, who gets forward well to swipe a quick single through the covers - an overthrow brings a second. He has 63. Kevin Pietersen is in the England dressing-room and appears to be in his whites - no doubt ready to come on for the presentation and lift the trophy like David May for Manchester United in 1999... From Martin watching in Regents Park via text on 81111: "Yes, yes, yes! Five down now. God bless the man who wrote the 'on the line is out' rule!" "Yes, yes, yes! Five down now. God bless the man who wrote the 'on the line is out' rule!" 1519 - Aus 238-5 (73 overs)
Brad Haddin, arguably the last recognised batsman (although don't all e-mail in, we know Mitchell Johnson has a Test century), comes in - he tries to work Swann to leg and they run a leg bye, Hussey rotates the strike with a single. Brad Haddin, arguably the last recognised batsman (although don't all e-mail in, we know Mitchell Johnson has a Test century), comes in - he tries to work Swann to leg and they run a leg bye, Hussey rotates the strike with a single. Vic Marks on TMS: "That's an amazing decision - I can't believe Billy Bowden didn't go to the third umpire, but I think it was out" "That's an amazing decision - I can't believe Billy Bowden didn't go to the third umpire, but I think it was out" 1514 - WICKET - North st Prior b Swann 10 - Aus 236-5
After a single from Hussey, North tries to slog-sweep, doesn't ground his back leg and is smartly stumped! After a single from Hussey, North tries to slog-sweep, doesn't ground his back leg and is smartly stumped! 1513 - Aus 235-4 (72 overs)
Flintoff to resume battle with the reprieved Hussey, who nudges a single. Fred bellows an lbw appeal against North, was that just missing off stump? Hawk-Eye thinks it pitched just on leg stump and might have grazed off. "Not out" is the verdict. Flintoff to resume battle with the reprieved Hussey, who nudges a single. Fred bellows an lbw appeal against North, was that just missing off stump? Hawk-Eye thinks it pitched just on leg stump and might have grazed off. "Not out" is the verdict. 1508 - DROPPED CATCH - Aus 234-4 (71 overs)
After a single from North, Hussey edges Swann to slip... where he's dropped by Collingwood. How did he put that one down? Hussey then steers a two, they take a chance on a third but Broad's throw is wide. Good hustle, Hussey. North confidently square-drives for four - the runs hardly seem to matter now. Just over half-an-hour to tea. After a single from North, Hussey edges Sw |
driving an estimated 30,000 people from their homes. FEMA Administrator Brock Long said more than 450,000 people are expected to seek disaster assistance.
“Fema is going to be [in Texas] for years,” he told CNN. “This disaster is going to be a landmark event.”
According to the AP, there is only $2.3bn left in Fema’s disaster relief accounts. A senior Democratic aide told CNN that the costs of helping state and local communities will "likely to surpass" this amount.
Shape Created with Sketch. The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Show all 19 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey 1/19 A tattered U.S. flag damaged in Hurricane Harvey, flies in Conroe, Texas Reuters 2/19 Lisa Rehr holds her four-year old son Maximus, after they lost their home to Hurricane Harvey, as they await to be evacuated with their belongings from Rockport, Texas Reuters 3/19 People line up for food as others rest at the George R. Brown Convention Center AP Photo/LM Otero 4/19 Volunteers with The American Red Cross register evacuees at the George R. Brown Convention Center Reuters/Nick Oxford 5/19 Soldiers with the Texas Army National Guard help the residents of Cyprus Creek Reuters 6/19 Residents wade through floodwater Reuters/Nick Oxford 7/19 Residents walk along the flooded roadway of Texas 249 as they evacuate their adjacent neighborhoods EPA 8/19 A man floats past a truck submerged on a freeway flooded by Tropical Storm Harvey on Sunday AP 9/19 People are rescued by airboat as they evacuate from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey in Dickinson, Texas Reuters 10/19 James Archiable carries his bike through the flooded intersection at Taylor and Usenet near downtown Houston, Texas EPA 11/19 A massive sinkhole opened up on a motorway in Rosenburg, a city 25 miles southwest of Houston, Texas Rosenberg Police 12/19 People are rescued from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey in an armored police mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle in Dickinson, Texas Reuters 13/19 People are rescued from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey on a boat in Dickinson, Texas Reuters 14/19 Evacuees are airlifted in a US Coast Guard helicopter after flooding due to Hurricane Harvey inundated neighborhoods in Houston, Texas Reuters 15/19 Evacuees leave a US Coast Guard helicopter after being rescued from flooding due to Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Texas Reuters 16/19 Residents look on at a submerged motorway during a break in the rain in Houston, Texas EPA 17/19 People photograph the submerged motorway interchange EPA 18/19 Debris lies on the ground after a building was destroyed by Hurricane Harvey in Aransas Pass, Texas AP 19/19 Dominic Dominguez searches for his boat in a boat storage facility that was heavily damaged by Hurricane Harvey near Rockport, Texas EPA 1/19 A tattered U.S. flag damaged in Hurricane Harvey, flies in Conroe, Texas Reuters 2/19 Lisa Rehr holds her four-year old son Maximus, after they lost their home to Hurricane Harvey, as they await to be evacuated with their belongings from Rockport, Texas Reuters 3/19 People line up for food as others rest at the George R. Brown Convention Center AP Photo/LM Otero 4/19 Volunteers with The American Red Cross register evacuees at the George R. Brown Convention Center Reuters/Nick Oxford 5/19 Soldiers with the Texas Army National Guard help the residents of Cyprus Creek Reuters 6/19 Residents wade through floodwater Reuters/Nick Oxford 7/19 Residents walk along the flooded roadway of Texas 249 as they evacuate their adjacent neighborhoods EPA 8/19 A man floats past a truck submerged on a freeway flooded by Tropical Storm Harvey on Sunday AP 9/19 People are rescued by airboat as they evacuate from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey in Dickinson, Texas Reuters 10/19 James Archiable carries his bike through the flooded intersection at Taylor and Usenet near downtown Houston, Texas EPA 11/19 A massive sinkhole opened up on a motorway in Rosenburg, a city 25 miles southwest of Houston, Texas Rosenberg Police 12/19 People are rescued from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey in an armored police mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle in Dickinson, Texas Reuters 13/19 People are rescued from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey on a boat in Dickinson, Texas Reuters 14/19 Evacuees are airlifted in a US Coast Guard helicopter after flooding due to Hurricane Harvey inundated neighborhoods in Houston, Texas Reuters 15/19 Evacuees leave a US Coast Guard helicopter after being rescued from flooding due to Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Texas Reuters 16/19 Residents look on at a submerged motorway during a break in the rain in Houston, Texas EPA 17/19 People photograph the submerged motorway interchange EPA 18/19 Debris lies on the ground after a building was destroyed by Hurricane Harvey in Aransas Pass, Texas AP 19/19 Dominic Dominguez searches for his boat in a boat storage facility that was heavily damaged by Hurricane Harvey near Rockport, Texas EPA
Despite Mr Trump's promises, the fight for additional emergency funding is never an easy one.
In 2012, for example, a majority of Republicans voted against sending aid to New York and New Jersey after Superstorm Sandy. Both senators from Texas, and a majority of the state’s representatives, voted against the $50.4bn aid package that ultimately passed Congress.
Their northeastern colleagues, however, say they don’t hold it against them now.
"Ted Cruz & Texas cohorts voted vs NY/NJ aid after Sandy but I'll vote 4 Harvey aid,” New York Representative Rep. Peter King tweeted on Saturday. “NY wont abandon Texas. 1 bad turn doesnt deserve another.”
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 nowGlenn Beck, Sarah Palin Draw Large Crowd To Lincoln Memorial
Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin held a rally on the National Mall, but at times it sounded more like an old-time religious revival than a modern political rally.
Doug Mataconis · · 121 comments
The crowd estimate wars are likely to start up soon, and I don’t plan on engaging in them, but whatever the number there’s no denying that there was a large, enthusiastic crowd today for Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally at the Lincoln Memorial:
WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of people rallied at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial Saturday at an event organized by the conservative broadcaster Glenn Beck, who called for a religious rebirth in America at the site of Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech 47 years ago to the day. “Something that is beyond man is happening,” Mr. Beck in opening the event as the overwhelmingly white crowd thronged near the memorial grounds. “America today begins to turn back to God.” Mr. Beck, a Fox News broadcaster who has been harshly critical of President Obama and Congressional Democrats, has come under attack for dishonoring the memory of Dr. King by staging the event on the anniversary of his speech, which was part of the civil rights movement’s March on Washington. Critics suggested Mr. Beck was trying to energize conservatives in advance of the coming midterm elections. Civil rights activists intended to march to the site of a King memorial being constructed nearby. But while Tea Party activists and other conservatives have generally focused on fiscal issues and steered clear of social themes this year, Mr. Beck, in speeches Friday and Saturday, imbued his remarks with references to God and a need for a religious revival. “For too long, this country has wandered in darkness,” said Mr. Beck, dressed in a shirt and tie on a sunny late-summer day. “This country has spent far too long worrying about scars and thinking about scars and concentrating on scars.” Mr. Beck was followed by Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor. She said that she had been asked, in keeping with the theme of the day, to focus not on politics, but to speak as the mother of a soldier. “Say what you want to say about me, but I raised a combat vet and you can’t take that away from me,” Ms. Palin said.’
The religious overtones of the event are even more apparent when you read the Washington Times‘ take:
From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, conservative broadcaster Glenn Beck told a crowd of tens of thousands of people Saturday that the U.S. has too long “wandered in darkness.” His rally’s marquee speaker, Sarah Palin, praised “patriots” in the audience for “knowing never to retreat.” The two champions of the tea party movement spoke from the very spot where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech 47 years ago. Some civil rights leaders who have denounced Beck’s choice of a venue staged a rival rally to honor King. Palin, the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee who may make a White House run in 2012, said activists must honor King’s legacy by paying tribute to the men and women who protect the United States in uniform. Beck, pacing back and forth on the marble steps, said he was humbled by the size of the crowd, which stretched along the Washington Mall’s long reflecting pool nearly all the way to the Washington Monument. “Something beyond imagination is happening,” he said. “America today begins to turn back to God.” “For too long, this country has wandered in darkness,” said Beck, a Fox News host. He said it was now time to “concentrate on the good things in America, the things we have accomplished and the things we can do tomorrow.”
Notwithstanding Beck’s pre-rally statements that the rally was “non-political.,” what this rally was actually about, and what it means, largely depends on what side of the political aisle you sit on. For Beck and his fans, it was about “Restoring Honor” and, for a brief time, honoring America’s troops. For many on the left it’s seen as a slap in the face considering that it’s taking place on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech:
WASHINGTON – Broadcaster Glenn Beck and tea party activists have a right to rally in the nation’s capital but not to distort Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision, the Rev. Al Sharpton said Friday. Sharpton described the demonstration planned for Saturday by Beck and his supporters as an anti-government rally advocating states’ rights. And he said that goes against the message in King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, in which the civil rights leader appealed to the federal government to ensure equality. Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally will be held at the Lincoln Memorial, where King delivered his speech exactly 47 years earlier. Beck and other organizers say the aim is to pay tribute to America’s military personnel and others “who embody our nation’s founding principles of integrity, truth and honor.” The broadcaster toured the site Friday as supporters cheered. Sharpton wasn’t the only one upset with circumstance surrounding the event.
Sharpton, who is hardly a paragon of racial tolerance himself, is holding his own rally later this afternoon, with participants including the New Black Panther Party, and has reportedly been turned down in requests that a member of the King family join the event.
After listening to the Beck rally this morning, though, I think the charges of racism were clearly over the top. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a political rally, though. Regardless of whatever Beck might say, the political undertones were rather obvious, and the degree to which it mixed religion and politics should quite honestly be disturbing to anyone who believes in the value of secularism in politics.
I’m not sure what the impact of this rally will be. I’m sure Beck has something more planned, he always seems to, stay tuned.German luxury carmaker Mercedes- Benz today launched AMG GT R in India with prices starting at Rs 2.23 crore (ex-showroom).
The company also introduced AMG GT Roadster at a starting price of Rs 2.19 crore.
"Bringing the fastest cars from the fastest family in the world is proof of the increasing importance of India as a market and its potential for performance sports cars," Mercedes-Benz India MD & CEO Roland Folger told reporters here.
The company is confident that these two models will bring more customers and redefine the performance motoring segment altogether, he added.
The 585 HP AMG GT R can race to 100 km per hour in just 3.6 seconds and can achieve a top speed of 318 km per hour.
The GT Roadster pumps out 476 HP of power and can achieve a top speed of 302 km per hour.
With these launches, Mercedes-Benz now has 12 AMG models in India.
"We are confident that these two products will be well received by our elite Indian customers and reinforce AMG's reputation as the mist preferred performance brand in the country," Folger said.Feminist News
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June-14-10
Catholic Women Protest Vatican for Ordination
A group of women gathered in St. Peter's Square last Tuesday to protest the exclusion of women from the Roman Catholic priesthood, reports the American Free Press. According to the National Catholic Reporter, the eight protesters demanded "full and equal participation" in the church, as they marched on the Vatican holding signs reading "Ordain Catholic Women," "Vocation is important, not gender," and "Born to be Priests." The march was stopped almost immediately by police officers.
Prior to the demonstration, groups advocating for women's ordination held a press conference to protest the Vatican's three-day celebration marking the end of Pope Benedict's "Year for Priests," reports the Associated Press.
Erin Saiz Hanna, executive director of the Women's Ordination Conference, told reporters, "The absolute hypocrisy of the 'Year for Priests' celebration cuts to the core of what is wrong with the hierarchy today," reported the National Catholic Reporter. According to the Associated Press, Hanna continued, "While the hierarchy spends their time covering up scandals and throwing major celebrations for themselves, Catholic women are working for justice and making a positive difference in the world."
Mary Ann Schoettly, one of more than 100 women who have been ordained by female bishops and secretly consecrated by male bishops, told the American Free Press, "Reclaiming our ancient spiritual heritage, women priests are shaping a more inclusive, Christian centered Church of equals in the 21st century." Donning a traditional Catholic priest's collar, Schoettly vowed that the fight for equality has just begun.
Media Resources: American Free Press 6/8/10; National Catholic Reporter 6/10/10; Associated Press 6/8/10Voters can't attempt to recall Gov. Scott Walker until he's served for at least a year, but a Democratic polling firm says there's enough support right now for a recall petition to succeed.
34 percent of Wisconsin voters would sign a petition to recall Walker, according to a survey of 806 voters by Strategic Telemetry, the Democratic polling and microtargeting firm run by Wisconsin native Ken Strasma.
One big caveat: Strasma is a Democratic strategist who has done microtargeting for the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and John Kerry. While he told me he conducted this poll on his on initiative (not at the behest of a Democratic client), it's worth keeping in mind that the poll appears designed for news value.
In order to recall Walker, his opponents would need to garner a number of petitions equal to 25 percent of the 2010 electorate. (See Wisconsin recall guidelines here.) At that point, Walker wouldn't be removed; he'd simply have to run for the governorship again. No Wisconsin official is eligible for recall until they've served for one year (Walker was sworn into office last month), so, while his critics are calling for a recall, it can't happen until January 2012).
Presumably, the budget fight will be long over by then, and momentum for a Walker recall will have died down.Patreon
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Haven't made this style in a "while", and oh you can maybe guess why I wanted to make one again. Or maybe you can't... either way, I made it, so there we go, ponies! The gifts of ponies!Slightly different style, I didn't strictly follow the previous ones, as it's not part of a bigger project like the calendar was, and instead just another in this style. So a bit more free to make it look a bit different. Going back to a bit more rougher lines, less cleaned. How the style started out in the first place. But not exactly... a bit of a balance. It's always balancing act, like Applejack and Rarity would probably face every day trying to walk on those legs...Anywho, hope y'all enjoy and have a nice day.Cisco posted a decent 2008 fiscal second quarter, yet remains gloomy about its near-term sales forecast in the US and Europe.
Revenue increased 16.5 per cent to $9.8bn, compared with $8.4bn year-over-year.
Net income climbed 7.2 per cent to $2.1bn, compared with $1.9bn a year ago. Operating income increased to $2.4bn from $2.1bn a year ago.
The earnings matched average analyst estimates, which predicted revenue around $9.79bn. But investors seem more interested in the switching giant's forecast, used as a gauge of upcoming corporate spending.
CEO John Chambers told analysts today that due to "factors out of our control or influence" he expects revenue to grow by about 10 per cent next quarter — below the company's long-term expectations of 12-17 per cent growth.
Customers in US and Europe are currently "cautious," according to Chambers.
"As we enter the second half of the fiscal year, our innovation pipeline is in excellent shape, our balanced product momentum across core and advanced technologies continues to be solid, and execution against our long-term strategy remains unwavering," he said.
Three months ago, Chambers spooked the tech sector with liberal use of the word "lumpy" to forecast US corporate spending. Cisco clearly fears it's not out of the woods yet. But Chambers said he's optimistic about Cisco through a wide-angle lens.
This apparently didn't cheer investors very much. While shares remained flat at closing, Cisco's stock fell 7.5 per cent in after-hours trading. ®Earlier this month, we reported that Windows 10 cumulative update KB3135173 reset the default apps on a number of PCs running Microsoft’s new operating system, although its default behavior wasn’t clearly supposed to lead to such changes.
At that point, many accused Microsoft of using this cumulative update as a tactic to set its own apps as default on Windows 10, especially because many were replacing programs such as Edge browser with third-party solutions.
“We had to do this”
But in a recent statement, Microsoft says that it doesn’t change the default apps on Windows 10 with this update because it wants its programs to be used once again, but only due to the fact that some third-party tools were spotted messing with this system in ways that could affect OS performance.
“We’ve seen behavior by some apps that have set themselves as default in unsupported ways by deleting or corrupting registry settings. Details on supported methods for apps to register file associations can be found on MSDN here,” Microsoft explains.
“Update KB3135173 for Windows addresses the problem and resets application defaults to the initial Windows settings when registry settings are deleted or corrupted. We have worked with some of these app providers so the apps no longer exhibit this behavior in their latest versions. If a user proactively changes their default app settings using the supported method, the registry won’t be corrupted and those user settings are retained.”
So there you go. Microsoft doesn’t change default apps because it wants to, but because it has to, as these third-party programs are changing this behavior without you specifically asking them to do it.
As usual, if you want to configure your own default apps, you can click Start > Settings > System > Default apps, and in each section pick the program that you intend to use as default.Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET
Netflix today started offering a bare-bones DVD plan as it increased the prices of its DVD-and-streaming plans.
The company's new $7.99-per-month plan, offered at a new page on the Netflix site, allows users to have one DVD out a time on an unlimited basis. According to a Netflix salesperson who spoke to CNET today, those who want to include Blu-ray discs in the new plan will need to pay $9.99 per month. Internet streaming of video content is not included. If customers want two DVDs out at a time, they will need to pay $11.99 per month.
NewTeeVee was the first to report Netflix's new plan.
Netflix also announced today that those who want both DVD rentals and unlimited streaming will need to start paying more. Instead of paying the current $9.99-per-month fee for unlimited streaming and unlimited DVD rentals, customers will need to pay $15.98 a month for a single DVD out a time, paying almost 60 percent more for the same service. The company said the fee includes $7.99 for unlimited streaming and $7.99 for its new bare-bones plan. Those who want two DVDs out a time will need to pay $19.98 per month.
Earlier today, Engadget reported that a "tipster" claimed that Netflix was nearing a dramatic shake-up in plan structure that would push its streaming-and-DVD pricing up to $15.98.
Although the tipster told Engadget that the new plans would go into effect tomorrow night, Netflix reported on its blog today that new members will be subject to the pricing immediately. The additional charges will start for existing members on September 1.
In a blog post announcing the changes, Netflix said that based on its belief that DVD rentals will still be popular over the long term, and that there is a "very large continuing demand for DVDs," the company needed to make the change.
"Given the long life we think DVDs by mail will have, treating DVDs as a $2 add-on to our unlimited streaming plan neither makes great financial sense nor satisfies people who just want DVDs," Netflix wrote on its blog. "Creating an unlimited-DVDs-by-mail plan (no streaming) at our lowest price ever, $7.99, does make sense and will ensure a long life for our DVDs-by-mail offering."
Netflix went on to say that it believes $7.99 is a "terrific value" for both its streaming and unlimited-DVD options.
Over the last several months, Netflix has been seriously considering changing its current plans.
In April, for instance, Netflix used its investor site to answer questions related to its current plans, acknowledging that it was thinking of ways to encourage multiple people in a home to have their own accounts, rather than a single household sharing an account that everyone uses.
"Our $7.99-per-month plan is for one stream at a time, and later this year, we expect to be able to offer consumers some account options to watch multiple simultaneous streams," Netflix said on the Top Investor Questions page. "Or it could be that there is a price point that would encourage multiple accounts in one household. In either case, our long-term goal is to evolve the Netflix service so that it feels more natural to have a personal account."
Last week, Netflix announced a major expansion of its streaming services to Latin America and the Caribbean. The company said its streaming service will enable folks in 43 more countries to watch "a wide array of American, local, and global TV shows."
Updated at 10:17 a.m. PT and at 10:23 a.m. PT to include new details.Kotaku East East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.
Recently, Capcom made an announcement about an ambitious online game with the initials DD. But the new Dragon's Dogma wasn't exactly the game that people were expecting Capcom to highlight. So what's going on with that other game?
Deep Down was announced back in 2013 and caught everyone's attention with its enigmatic visuals and Dark Souls-esque gameplay and atmosphere. The game is set to be an online free to play game with something of an Assasin's Creed takes-place-in-the-future-where-they-have-technology-that-lets-people-adventure-in-fantasy-worlds sort of vibe to it.
However, after garnering attention at the 2013 Tokyo Game Show, news about the game have slowly died down to the point where updates on the official twitter have basically been screenshots and announcements that development is still going on.
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Translation: We're working so that Deep Down will live up to people's expectations in 2015!
It's the last post of the year, so here are a couple of screenshots.
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Asked in Weekly Famitsu about the upcoming games of Capcom Online Games, director Ono Yoshinori answered, "We are currently working diligently on Deep Down, so please give us a little more time," adding, "we may be able to show you some big developments this year." Producer Kazunori Sugiura also chimed in, noting that "[Deep Down] is a title that has to be able to compete for the next 15 years or so, so from a graphics standpoint we can't release it as it is now, saying that it's the best there is."
The devs did note that up until now they've only been able to show battles in closed dungeons, but that they were working to give the game more openness and freedom for the player. Sounds good, but for gamers who have waited nearly 6 years for The Last Guardian and nearly 10 years for Final Fantasy Versus XIII/XV, words are cheap without something substantial to back it up.
Either way, hopefully they'll have something to show us, and soon. Before people's emotions start turning from anticipation to resignation. Once a title gets the impression of being vaporware, it takes a lot to turn people's opinions back around.
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Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.
AdvertisementThere are a lot of things you might say about an Android phone–that it’s more powerful than the iPhone, more customizable, better integration with Google services. But one thing you probably wouldn’t say about an Android phone is that you love it–can’t-live-without-it, rip-it-out-of-my-cold-dead-hands love it. When Matias Duarte (the designer behind the T-Mobile Sidekick and Palm’s WebOS) joined Google a year-and-a-half ago as senior director for Android user experience, he set out to change that.
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But Duarte has been around the block a few times. He knows you can’t just walk into a place like Google, wave a wand, and make large-scale changes–especially when the inmates probably don’t think there’s anything particularly wrong with the way they’ve been doing things to date, thank you very much. The fact that the latest version of Android, release 4.0, code-named “Ice Cream Sandwich” (shipped in December on the Galaxy Nexus), is such a leap forward, and perhaps, even, bordering on beautiful, means that Duarte was able to convince Google’s Android team to see things his way. Here’s how he did it. Know that no one else might think there’s a problem, even if you do Duarte walked into Google knowing there was a long way to go with the Android interface. But he was also aware that it’s one thing to try to convince people to change what they’re doing when things are going poorly. It’s another entirely when things are actually going quite well. “I was going to have to ask them to change the way they’d been doing things for years,” he says. “And the way they’d been doing things [led] to great commercial success.” If he tackled his assignment without acknowledging that, he would likely run smack into opposition. And so he decided to … Run a baseline study to identify users’ core issues
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“I needed to have a mechanism that would both give me confidence that we were making the right changes and would also really engage everybody and not make them feel like we were arbitrarily throwing away work that had worked for them in the past,” Duarte says. So he built up his research team–that was his first major step–and then initiated a study to establish users’ baseline attitudes toward Android. The three principle questions were: How did users feel about Android? How did they actually use Android phones? And how did Android compare to other platforms? The first thing they found was perhaps predictable: People who have started using smartphones feel like they are an extension of themselves. They can’t imagine going back. But the team also found two other things. The first was that users felt Android was hard to learn–though they didn’t actually phrase it that way. “They felt that, even though the device was powerful, maybe they weren’t smart enough to unlock that power,” Duarte says. “Of course, that’s not really their fault. That’s our failure.” The second thing they learned is that users didn’t really love their Android devices. “Oftentimes there was enthusiasm, but beyond that sense of necessity, that sense that ‘This is my lifeline, I can’t live without it,’ there was seldom the positive that goes beyond that, the sense that they really loved it.'” “It’s kind of funny to talk about something that you don’t hear as a finding,” Duarte says, “but when you do research, you have to be alert to the things that are unspoken as much as the things that are said.”
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Bring your stakeholders along on your research As they were doing the baseline study, Duarte’s team brought engineers out into the field with them to observe what the users were saying. “Engaging people in the research gives it credibility,” Duarte says. “They see first-hand what people are saying. So it’s not somebody else telling them, ‘Oh, by the way, maybe there are some issues that we should look at.’ They can see the real customers, and they can see the kinds of problems that they’re having, and that provides an opportunity for us to have a dialogue, to say, ‘Look, these are some things we could do to alleviate that.'” Use the baseline research to establish your design goals After seeing users’ attitudes to the operating system, the team established three goals for the next phase of Android design, which would serve to give the team focus and, as Duarte said above, confidence that they were investing their efforts in the right places: 1. Transform Android into an OS people fall in love with. “We knew as designers that, for a really successful product, people should be having a stronger emotional reaction,” Duarte says. “They should be talking about how much they love it, how much they desire it, how much they appreciate it.” 2. Make Android truly simple and straightforward to use. “People know that Android is powerful, and they’ve felt a little bad about it when they can’t figure it out,” Duarte says. “We want to turn that around and make you feel like you completely understand the system.” 3. Have users associate Android’s cutting-edge innovations with things that will turbo-charge their own lives. Google is constantly turning out pioneering features, like voice actions or, the latest, Face Unlock, which allows you to unlock your phone using facial recognition software. Android wants users to have the feeling that “the technology is not just there for technology’s sake,” Duarte says, “but it’s there to make you an amazing person–to essentially unlock your own digital superpowers.” This is part one of a two-part story on the design overhaul of Android. Stay tuned for the second installment, which will detail how Android is meant to create a visual look that recreates the experience of the printed page. [Top image by GWImages/Shutterstock]This is an “iPhone” moment
If you look back at some of the big changes in our industry – the big challengers and innovators have continually challenged the status quo in how we use technology.
A perfect example of this is the iPhone. Until then we all thought keyboards, roller balls and scroll wheels were the answer. Smart PDA devices counted on using a pen to be accurate, and you needed an owners guide the side of war and peace to understand how to get things done.
Then comes this guy – Steve Jobs, who intuitively understood user interfaces. The guy just knew it. The interface was so clean, so natural and so easy – 2 year olds were picking up iPhones and using them like a part of their natural life. Scrolling feels very natural, and button presses are so precise even with big fingers. This crazy attention to user interface detail is what pushed our industry to the next step of mobile computing with the iPhone. Android existed – for some time but until Apple pushed the industry, the Android platform lacked continuous innovation, it was just another mobile OS.
Actually Collaborate
If you go back and read my previous blog about video phones, I talk about how video phones are on the way out – but telepresence is here to stay and without question this is one of the proof positive moments of that.
We need to get past the disgusting world of “conferencing” and actually collaborate. Getting past the microphones sound horrible, echo, robotic voice, poor quality video, difficult to share documents, poor white boarding and high cost of simply collaborating in a basic manner.
In 2012 an international conferencing study found that on a typical conference call – 10 minutes is taken up by distractions. If you have 6 conference calls a day that is an hour wasted just trying to get work done.
Typical meeting room of today – we have a projector connecting to someone’s laptop, maybe a video endpoint, a white board that nobody on the conference can see and some kind of flip chart because we want to keep some of that stuff for later. Nothing talks to each other, and everything is disjointed. The costs of all of this technology isn’t cheap either and most rooms they sit dormant because they are too complicated.
Video systems are impossible to use. You literally need a techo-nerd in every meeting – many companies actually place an IT resource INSIDE the video room for executive calls to monitor the health of the system – that is CRAZY! Many IT departments send IT people to the room 15 minutes before the meeting to check on the equipment, and then setup the call for the participants. WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE THIS HARD!?
Cisco Launches Spark Board
This is where difficult to use – is – OVER. Introducing the “Spark Board” a 55″ or 70″ device that you mount to the wall and do everything with – I mean everything. No more extra stuff, and everything works in a clean manner. This is a “huge iPad” type device for meeting rooms – and it is as intuitive to use – as a typical mobile tablet. No – it is easier than that. White boarding, video conferencing, screen sharing, calling, collaborating, it is all here. One device, simple design and dead simple interface.
High End Hardware Specifications
Cisco has spent time to make this product of the utmost quality. If you look at the MX series of end points, and the IX5000, Cisco was fanatic about design, everything was metal and glass and this is no different.
A 4K panel with 5.5ms response time and a VERY bright 300+ nits provides a bright picture even in well lit conference rooms. 4K video means quality presentations, video output and split screen capabilities. An amazing MIC array that allows beam forming and software audio normalization and optimization – with the possibility for speaker tracking.
The microphone system is so good, you don’t need table microphones or ceiling microphone arrays.
According to FCC Filings the unit is powered by a NVIDIA Jetson TX1 – this means it has an NVIDIA Maxwell architecture with 256 cuda cores, and over 1 teraflop of performance. 64-Bit CPU’s, 4K Video encoders and a camera interface. If this is a standard Jetson, that would be 4GB of LPDDR4 Memory, and 16GB of onboard flash (but they could have added more somewhere). They are using the display and camera headers off the TX1 from what I can see.
The audio system is a 12-element microphone array with intelligent beam forming. The audio is 20Khz wide and includes acoustic echo cancellation, auto gain control, automatic noise reduction and “active lip synchronization”
The panel has a HDMI input, a Home Button, a Whiteboading Pen (Passive) and a 3.5mm mini jack audio out, and 2 USB 3.0 ports. The input resolution is 1920×1080 maximum.
The unit is capacitive touch using an optically bonded glass front, this means that touching the screen feels very natural, and the included white board pen simply sticks to the front of the unit using a magnet, and because of this optically bonded capacitive design, the pen is passive but maintains very high accuracy.
Network connectivity is an RJ-45 Gig Ethernet port, Wifi 802.11 ABGN + AC (2.4 and 5ghz), it is “Bluetooth Ready”, but not sure what the means.
The 55″ Board is 50 x 32 x 1.9 in dimension, and weighs 87.7lbs. Shipped it is 101lbs.
The Camera is 4K 60FPS – not because they want to send 4K video, but because this allows all sorts of future software processing, cropping, tracking. If you look at the IX5000 series, they use 4K cameras and then software process the 1080P frame they want. Same idea here. The Camera Specs for those interested.
Fixed Lens with Infinite Focus
4K P60
Horizontal Field of View: 86 Degrees
Vertical Field of View: 55 Degrees
Camera is mounted tilted at 25 degrees.
The video resolutions are everything from 352×288 CIF,all the way to 1920×1080 30 frames (HD1080P) and anything in between
You literally mount this on the wall like a TV – and start using it in minutes. No need for external microphones or connections.
On the wall, on a stand, against the wall, many options exist for this platform to be placed anywhere. No additional crazy wires, ethernet and power. I can see organizations putting these on rolling carts in hospitals and educational facilities.
Good hardware has been around for awhile – but where this shines is in the software |
Image caption The FCO said about 70% of abducting parents were mothers
The number of parental child abduction cases has more than doubled in the last decade, new figures from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) suggest.
The FCO and charity Reunite say almost two children a day on average are taken out of the UK against a court order or without the consent of one parent.
There were 272 new parental child abduction and international custody cases in 2003-04, and 580 in 2012-13.
The FCO has released what is calls a "hard-hitting" film on the subject.
The film, Caught in the Middle, has been published on YouTube as part of a pre-Christmas awareness campaign to encourage parents to consider the "lasting damage" such abductions can do to children and families.
Reunite said it had already dealt with 447 new cases, involving a total of 616 children, in 2013 - with noticeable spikes after the Christmas and summer holidays.
Foreign Office minister Mark Simmonds said he was "very concerned" at the increasing number of abductions, and said parents should look for "warning signs" that their partner might take a child.
"Once children are taken overseas it can be extremely difficult to secure their return to the UK," he said.
"Many parents are not aware that by adducting their child, they may be committing a crime."
The FCO said cases can take up to 10 years to resolve, and sometimes the child may never be returned.
Cases 'prevented'
Reunite chief executive Alison Shalaby said holidays were a "stressful time" for families, especially if the parents' relationship has "broken down".
"However, there is help available if you think that your partner may be considering abducting your children," she said.
"Last year we helped to prevent 412 cases involving 586 children which demonstrates something can be done to prevent it from happening to you."
Ms Shalaby said parental abductions were not "faith or country specific".
The FCO said it was "much harder" to get children back from countries which had not signed the 1980 Hague Convention, an international agreement on the issue.
The most common Hague Convention countries for parental abductions from the UK in 2012/13 were the USA (32), Poland (29) and the Irish Republic (28), while the top non-Hague countries were Pakistan (35), Thailand (17) and India (16).
The FCO said that - "contrary to popular opinion" - about 70% of abducting parents were mothers.And then there was Wallace Stevens. In writing The Whole Harmonium, Paul Mariani, who has given us lives of Williams, Hart Crane, and Robert Lowell, set himself his most difficult challenge yet, for if ever there was a genius with a short biography, it was Stevens. The story that Mariani tells in 400 pages could be reduced, in its essentials, to 400 words. Stevens was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1879 to a family of Pennsylvania Dutch descent. He went to Harvard, where he took literature classes and became the president of the literary magazine, The Advocate. But the need for a more substantial career than writing poetry led him to New York Law School. He married his first sweetheart, Elsie, and grew to dislike her; they had one child. In time they moved to Hartford, Connecticut, where he worked in the insurance business and rose to become the vice president of Hartford Accident and Indemnity. He never left North America. He was casually racist and anti-Semitic. A Hoover Republican, he distrusted labor unions. He drank too much at parties, to overcome his natural shyness, and later had to apologize for his boorishness. In the depths of the Depression, he made $20,000 a year, the equivalent of $350,000 today. Each detail feels more interest-repelling than the last. If such a man were the subject of a novel, it would be Babbitt.
“Wallace Stevens is beyond fathoming,” Marianne Moore wrote, comparing him to a person with “a morbid secret he would rather perish than disclose.” But the secret would out, and in his poems Stevens revealed it: The bluff American executive had a soul as baroque and fantastical as an aesthete’s, as profound and brooding as a philosopher’s. Imagine the surprise of Carl Van Vechten, the writer and literary impresario, who met Stevens for the first time in 1914, when this “big, blond, and burly” insurance man handed over the manuscript of “Peter Quince at the Clavier”:
Just as my fingers on these keys
Make music, so the self-same sounds
On my spirit make a music too. Music is feeling, then, not sound
And thus it is that what I feel
Here in this room, desiring you Thinking of your blue-shadowed silk
Is music.
This scene is not nearly as famous as the scene of T. S. Eliot showing “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” to Ezra Pound, but the reader’s surprise must have been even greater: Stevens, like Eliot, had modernized himself. His first book, Harmonium, published in 1923, established Stevens as the patron saint of the inner life held captive by the outer life—a peculiarly American condition. His daily existence offered no scope for self-expression, but on his walks to and from work, in the evenings up in his study, he was confronting the ultimate questions of art and life. How can humanity live without God? Can religion be replaced with another kind of myth? How does art reflect and transcend reality? And he was answering in a language at once voluptuous and intellectual, elegant and eccentric—a language such as no one had spoken before:In Sloviansk, a city in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, council meetings have rarely been as turbulent as they were towards the end of last month. The reason was the decision by the mayor, Oleg Zontov, to move for a vote over the application of a law that had only just been passed by the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko. This “law on the condemnation of communist and Nazi totalitarian regimes”, voted through by parliament on 9 April, prohibits all defence of Nazism and communism.
The sale of communist souvenirs, and even the singing of the Internationale, is now banned in Ukraine. Individual offenders risk up to five years in prison. Members of organisations risk up to 10. The legislators were seemingly not worried about the risk of deepening the cultural abyss between western Ukraine and the Russophone east of the country, a centre of Soviet industrialisation between 1930 and 1950, and a place where nostalgia is ever present.
In Sloviansk, the mayor belongs to the Poroshenko bloc and he decided to apply the new law in his own way, targeting the statue of Lenin that enjoys pride of place opposite city hall. The national law has not yet taken effect, but debates are already under way over changing communist-era names of Ukrainian cities. Dnipropetrovsk, for instance, (named after the celebrated revolutionary Grigory Petrovsky) could be quickly retitled.
At the Sloviansk council meeting of 29 April, a vote on the “dismantling of the monument to Lenin, situated in October Revolution Square” was added to the order of business. But “the meeting was suspended and the vote postponed,” explained Edouard Torskiy, a journalist with Delovoy Slavyansk, when “militant communists barged in on the meeting, threatening a return of separatist forces if the councillors targeted Soviet symbols”.
Last year this city was seized by pro-Russian separatists led by Igor Girkin, a former Russian army officer who also goes by the name of Strelkov (Shooter). For a time it became the epicentre of the fighting between pro-Russia rebels and pro-Kiev forces. Strelkov briefly became minister of defence for the self-proclaimed Republic of Donetsk, taking numerous hostages, including journalists and observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The city changed hands again in June 2014 after fierce bombardment. But tensions are still high, in both the city and among its politicians, because the pro-Kiev mayor is in a minority on the council.
The elected officials are more or less the same as before. The majority belong to the Party of the Regions, the organisation headed by former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, who fled the country after the Maidan revolution, and the Communist party. The next local elections will take place in October.
Towards the end of last April, the giant Lenin statue had already been vandalised, covered in pink paint and adorned with a Ukrainian flag as a scarf. Around its base, placards explained “how to spot a separatist”, offering tips on recognising signs of separatism in one’s neighbours.
To begin with, local nationalists appeared to leave it to the councillors to decide the fate of the statue – though since the beginning of the war, and well before the “de-communisation” law was passed, more than 100 statues of Lenin have been demolished, many in the middle of the night.
On 27 May a new council meeting was scheduled and Zontov placed the statue on the order of business again. All of Sloviansk’s nationalist groups attended to express support for its removal, with nationalist parties Svoboda and Right Sector turning out en masse. The number of nationalist militants has boomed since the war began, even though the number of MPs from these two groups only went up to seven out of 450 at the general election last October. In Sloviansk the nationalists have long been frustrated at their lack of representation on the council.
At the meeting the nationalists’ constant interruptions led to a scuffle before the issue of the statue had even been broached. However, after temporarily halting proceedings, the mayor was able to start the debate. “I am responsible for the political life of our city,” he said. “There are many different points of view in our council. To find compromises, we have to talk with each other and take a decision today.”
Zontov proposed that, rather than being destroyed, the statue should be sold at auction or placed in a museum. As he spoke, nationalists in combat dress took position close to the council members. Then a man shouted from the public area: “I have in my hand a letter signed by 4,000 residents. People are against the destruction of the statue because it’s part of their history, part of their youth. You should listen to the opinions of your fellow citizens.”
The ensuing row deepened the divide between the younger generation, which looks towards Europe, and their often nostalgic elders, who lived under the USSR. The self-declared “patriots” shouted: “Shame on you! Glory to Ukraine. Glory to our heroes!” Then a young nationalist militant told the assembly: “It was Lenin who began the process of destruction of Ukraine. He brought the famine to Ukraine from 1922, then he launched a violent collectivisation. He created an ideology that killed millions of people.”
Another young man berated the councillors: “You are ‘provocateurs’. We are the descendants of people assassinated by that man. We are going to make that statue disappear. Now you are going to decide whether it’s destroyed or whether it’s removed. That is the choice we give you.”
The uproar resumed with loud shouts of “separatists” filling the hall, followed by cries of “Shame on you”. Zontov brought the meeting to an early close, but shouted above the clamour: “We have six months to resolve this question. Come to the next meeting.”
In the hall afterwards, militants flourished a placard calling for “Sloviansk without Lenin.” Tamara, an opposition member, left the assembly assailed by insults from the young nationalist militants, but didn’t seem too bothered. “Our mayor doesn’t do anything for this city. He only offers suggestions for destruction,” she said. “He has found 50 people to support his plan. We have collected 4,500 signatures against the destruction of the statue. Even if Lenin wasn’t a good human being, he was part of our history and you don’t wipe out history like that.”
But in the end the debate was settled by the minority. In the early hours of 3 June, militants from Right Sector tore the statue down.
This article first appeared in the French newspaper LibérationElections Canada has announced three federal byelections to fill vacant seats in the House of Commons – but the date set is the same for the next expected general federal election.
A statement by Elections Canada said it issued three writs this afternoon for a trio of Oct. 19 byelections to be held in the ridings of Ottawa West-Nepean, Peterborough and Sudbury.
It was not immediately clear what the implications of those votes would be for the broader federal election expected for the same day.
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Former foreign affairs minister John Baird left Ottawa West-Nepean vacant with his sudden resignation earlier this year.
Peterborough is vacant because Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro was found guilty last fall of violating the Canada Elections Act.
Former New Democrat MP Glenn Thibeault resigned his seat in Sudbury to join the Ontario Liberals.Remember the nursery rhyme about little Miss Muffet eating her curds and whey?
Back before I began my real food journey, I didn’t even know what whey was… I never would have dreamed I would as familiar with it as I am now!
Whey is the cloudy, yellowish liquid that is leftover after milk is curdled. It’s packed full of protein, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes.
There are two kinds of whey that you will encounter in your home dairying adventures:
1. Acid Whey- the whey resulting from cheese in which an acid (like vinegar or lemon juice) has been added to aid in the curdling process. (Some types of mozzarella, lemon cheese, or farmer’s cheese).
2. Sweet Whey– the whey resulting from cheese that is cultured or curdled with rennet instead of additional acid. (Yogurt whey fits in this category, as does soft cheese whey and traditional mozzarella.)
If you’ve ever made cheese, no doubt you’ve been amazed (and maybe even overwhelmed…) by how much whey is leftover after the process. It takes a lot of milk to make a little cheese! But, before you pour it down the drain, WAIT!
There are SO many uses for whey, it’ll make your head spin!
(Please note: real whey is not the same as the powdered “whey” sold in health food stores. They are not interchangeable. )
I’ve compiled a list of ideas that to help you to use up this nourishing byproduct.
I prefer using sweet whey in most of these cases. Be careful when adding the acid whey to things like smoothies, etc, as it might really change the taste of things!
(Some of these uses for whey require the whey to be heated, so if you are interested in keeping all the qualities and enzymes of the raw whey, just skip those.)
16 Uses for Whey
(some of these links are affiliate links)
1. Substitute whey in any baking recipe that calls for water (or even milk). I love making fresh breads and rolls with my leftover whey. Also try it in cornbread, pancakes, waffles, muffins, homemade biscuits, homemade tortillas, and more!
2. Use whey to lacto-ferment vegetables, condiments, sauerkraut, chutneys, jams, etc. This is an area that I have yet to really explore, but it’s on my list! This is an incredibly healthful form of preservation that increases the nutritional value of so many things. Check out the book Nourishing Traditions for more info on this topic. (It is important to use raw whey when you lacto-ferment– not acid whey or cooked whey.)
3. Use whey to soak grains, Nourishing Traditions style. Depending on your recipe, several tablespoons or more can be added to your grain and legume preparations to make them more digestible.
4. Freeze it for later. If you anticipate a milk-less time of year (perhaps when your animals are dried up), you can easily freeze whey for future use. Try putting it in ice cube trays or small cups to make the proper portion sizes. Then pop out the frozen cubes and store in a baggie.
5. Use whey to cook pastas, potatoes, oatmeal, or rice. Boiling the whey will cause it to lose its raw properties. However, if you feel like you are drowning in whey, this is a wonderful way to use it up and add extra flavor to the foods.
6. Add whey to soups and stews. Perhaps it could take the place of some of your homemade stock or broth?
7. Add whey to homemade fruit smoothies or milkshakes. The sky is the limit when it comes to all the flavor combos you can make.
8. Use whey as a hair product. Now, I personally have not yet tried this, so proceed with caution! But I have seen several sources recommend it as a shampoo substitute, hair rinse, or even as hair gel! Not sure if I’ll be trying this, but let me know if YOU do!
9. Feed it to the dogs. Our dogs love it when I pour a little whey on their dry food and make it into a cereal. It’s quite the treat.
10. Make whey lemonade. I’ve seen several delicious-sounding recipes for lemonade-type drinks using whey. It’s on my list of things to try this summer!
11. Use whey to water your plants. Dilute it with a good amount of water (straight whey will “burn” your plants- I learned this the hard way…) and pour on your veggies or flowers (avoid using acid whey here). Think how much your container garden would love that!
12. Feed extra whey to the farm critters. Our chickens love it and so did our pigs.
13. Make ricotta. Ricotta cheese is traditionally made from whey. And it’s so incredibly easy! However, this will require the whey to be heated to 200 degrees, so all the raw enzymes will be lost. Here is my homemade ricotta recipe. I like to make ricotta when I have gallons of extra whey, and then I freeze it for making lasagna later.
14. Pour it in your compost bin. I have yet to do this, but it would be better than dumping it down the drain.
15. Make a whey marinade. Add your favorite spices and seasonings (garlic, salt, pepper, maybe some rosemary…Yum!) to the whey and allow it to marinate your steaks, chicken, fish, or pork chops. The enzymes in the whey help to break down the meat and add flavor.
16. Use whey to stretch your mozzarella. If you’ve ever made mozzarella before, you know that you must stretch the curds at the end of the process. Some recipes say to use the microwave (no thanks!), while others use a pot of hot, salted water. I always use hot whey to stretch my curds–I think it adds more flavor, plus it’s just sitting there anyway. Here’s my traditional mozzarella recipe.
Bonus! 17. Use leftover sweet whey to make this incredibly awesome vintage Lemon Whey Pie recipe.
Bonus! 18. Make Gjetost–a sweet cheese made from reduced whey.
Now surely I didn’t cover all the uses for whey… What are some of YOUR whey tricks?Alex Davison has been confirmed as the driver of Ford Performance Racing’s fourth entry in next year’s V8 Supercars Championship.
In a statement released by the factory Ford team this morning, Davison, 33, will drive the #18 Charlie Schwerkolt Racing Falcon, prepared by FPR.
As first reported by Speedcafe.com, Davison’s place in the expanded FPR squad will place him alongside his younger brother Will, who drives one of the team’s official factory entries.
Speedcafe.com understands that Davison’s deal to drive for Schwerkolt is for one season. He will get his first test with the team tomorrow (Tuesday) during FPR’s three-car test at Winton.
It will be Alex Davison’s third attempt at a full-time V8 career, having driven a Perkins Engineering-prepared Commodore for Rod Nash Racing in 2005. It wasn’t until 2009 before Davison got his second chance, securing a three-year deal with Stone Brothers Racing.
During that time, he picked up two podium results, one pole position and a best championship finish of 11th last year.
After finishing third in this year’s Carrera Cup, Davison says that his chance with Schwerkolt and FPR is his best opportunity to succeed in V8 Supercars.
“It is extremely exciting for me to be racing in V8 Supercars again so I thank Charlie for putting his faith in me and for giving me the opportunity to be part of FPR,” Davison said.
“I put all my efforts this year into getting into Charlie’s seat as it was my number one pick and was highly-sought by a number of drivers given the amount of success the team has had this year.
“The Car of the Future angle makes next year all the more exciting and the fact FPR are further ahead than just about anyone else with their preparations gives me a great deal of confidence.
“I am going into the test with a very open mind. I’ve heard what Will thinks of the new car but for me it is a chance to get some laps in before the break and also a chance to meet the team before we start working together properly in January.”
Team owner Schwerkolt says Davison can be a regular front-runner in his car.
“Alex is a great talent and one that deserves a drive at the highest level so I am very pleased he will be driving my car next year,” Schwerkolt said.
“His experience both in V8 Supercars and the Carrera Cup means we can immediately aim to be a contender at the front of the field.
“FPR’s Car of the Future program is very advanced and alongside the team’s three very talented drivers I think my car, with Alex in it, ensures all four factory Fords will be in the mix from the first race.”Love them or hate them, Canada’s polymer banknotes appear to be a big success when it comes to fighting counterfeiters.
The Bank of Canada, which introduced the new $50 bill and $20 bills last year, kept the number of fake bills floating around well below its target of 50 notes per million in circulation in 2012, the latest data shows.
In its 2012 annual report, the Bank said counterfeiting fell to 28 notes per million in circulation in 2012, down from 34 notes per million in 2011.
What’s more, the face value of counterfeit bills in circulation dropped by 40% to $1.6-million last year from $2.6-million in 2011.
The revamped bills are decked out with novel security features intended to deter would-be counterfeiters and make them easier to authenticate: metallic imagery, transparent text and hidden numbers, to name a few. They’re also supposed to last nearly 2.5 times longer than the previous cotton-based paper notes.
The Bank says it deepened its support and coordination with “key stakeholders” in advance of issuing the $20 note, the most circulated denomination.
Canada has made significant inroads in the fight against counterfeiters in recent years. Data from 2004 shows 470 fake notes per million in circulation, with the trend continuing downward with each successive year.
The economic impact of counterfeit notes can be significant, the Bank said in a separate report released last year.
“Whether it’s a small retailer or a large business, the loss incurred from accepting a single counterfeit $100 note can affect a day’s profits or lead to increased prices that are ultimately borne by the consumer,” the Bank said.
The Bank intends to release new $5 and $10 polymer notes this year.If you’ve seen any movie involving aliens, you’ve probably heard the fictional invaders utter the phrase “Take me to your leader!” Well, according to one former Pentagon consultant, back in 1954, aliens did make this request, and our leader at the time, Dwight D. Eisenhower actually met with them — THREE TIMES!
For decades, conspiracy theorists purported that Eisenhower, who himself was known to be enthusiastic about the possibility of life on other planets, might have met with actual aliens in secret.
But it wasn’t until 2012 that former Pentagon consultant Timothy Good came forward to say he knows definitively that Eisenhower met with extraterrestrials at Holloman Air Force base in New Mexico at least three times.
It should be noted that while Timothy Good is an academic, he is also SUPER into alien stuff.
Good says that while the public thought Eisenhower was vacationing in California, he was actually in talks with intergalactic diplomats called the “Greys” in New Mexico. Supposedly, they communicated telepathically.
And it might not have been just Eisenhower who the aliens met with. Recently released documents suggest Winston Churchill might have ordered that an alien encounter be kept secret, and that he met with Eisenhower to discuss what to do about the UFO sightings.
(via Daily Mail)
Of course any definitive evidence of this conference with extraterrestrials mostly likely disappeared when Eisenhower passed away in March of 1969, which is a tragic date for the space-obsessed president to die, considering four months later, Apollo 11 landed on the moon.Marine mammal specialists from the University of Otago, Otago Museum and Doc take a look at a spectacled porpoise which washed up on Pipikaretu Beach. They are (from left) Carolina Loch, Emma Burns, Sophie White, Trudi Webster (obscured), Jim Fyfe, Associate Prof Liz Slooten (obscured), Prof Ewan Fordyce and Prof Steve Dawson. Photo by Peter McIntosh.
Dunedin marine mammal researchers have a new sense of purpose after a rarely seen porpoise washed ashore on Otago Peninsula.
A 2.15m-long male spectacled porpoise, one of the world's most rarely seen marine mammals, was found on Pipikaretu Beach by Penguin Place guide Tama Taiti on Wednesday morning.
It was taken to the Department of Conservation's workshop in Kaikorai Valley Rd, Dunedin, and a group of excited marine mammal specialists were invited to view it yesterday morning.
University of Otago geologist Prof Ewan Fordyce said fewer than 10 spectacled porpoises had washed ashore on New Zealand's coast and it was the first his research team had seen.
''It's a pretty important opportunity to help us understand the biology of a rare animal,'' he said.
By carrying out a postmortem, it might be established how it died, what it had fed on and where it had been.
The porpoise had been bitten by a large shark. It was not clear whether the porpoise was alive when the shark bit it.
''They are open-ocean animals - they live thousands of kilometres out at sea and we hardly ever see them. So when one is close to the shore we think something has gone wrong. Maybe it has got disoriented; maybe it has got a disease or a parasite.''
Prof Fordyce was present when the porpoise was put through a CT scanner at AgResearch's Invermay campus yesterday afternoon.
Marine biologist Prof Steve Dawson said out-of-proportion dorsal fins made male spectacled porpoises unique.
''It's completely outside any expectation you would have. Proportionally, it's probably the largest dorsal fin in the animal kingdom,'' Prof Dawson said.
Nobody knew why the dorsal fins were so large, but by dissecting it they might be able to get some idea.
It is the only species of porpoise which swims in New Zealand's waters.
Marine scientist Associate Prof Liz Slooten said she would contact scientists from Massey University and the University of Auckland, who would be ''very excited'' and might come to Dunedin to help with research.
The species was mostly associated with the Southern Ocean and New Zealand was ''right at the northern limit'' of its range.
Department of Conservation biodiversity ranger Jim Fyfe said another spectacled porpoise washed ashore near Timaru earlier this year and was in storage at Otago Museum.So I was messing around with Yoshi in training mode since its already been known that he has some weird glitches with and without custom moves. I decided to see what else his neutral b tongue attack could do. Anyways to the combo. The combo is performed by first successfully landing your opponent into an egg through his neutral b attack. At this point ANY moves that are connected onto the egg while your opponent is stuck in egg is considered a combo.Now of course this is pretty standard stuff. It was already known in Super Smash Bros Brawl and even Super Smash Bros 64 that Yoshi could attack his opponent after trapping them in an egg.The next step is a little tricky you need to make sure to follow up after your opponent breaks out of egg the instant (possibly a 1 frame window) that they fall out with another neutral B. This will lock them back into the egg and the next time they break out they will be stuck in an undiable hitstun until they hit the ground.I think this might be the real reason why japan had Yoshi in top tier over a week ago, but they have been keeping this a secret. I've also recorded a video below to show this insane new technique.I'd like to call this the SouthGod combo if no one has a problem with thatWe’re back at Chef Art Smith’s Homecoming Florida Kitchen for another visit today!
You might be scratching your head and wondering, “But AJ, you guys were just there a little bit ago. Why a return so soon?” Well, lots of reasons, actually. But the primary one is this: Once is never enough when it comes to reviewing Disney restaurants. Restaurants in the ‘World are notoriously inconsistent, and while Homecoming impressed us initially, I always like to duck into a new spot after it’s been open for a bit, just to see if the shine and sheen are still around. In fact, we review spots over and over, so we can always make the best recommendations for our readers.
In addition, dear friends of mine invited me to tag along for a catch up session, and Homecoming was the agreed upon choice for dinner. And like I’m gonna say no to Fried Chicken? Not likely.
Besides, there’s plenty to cover on this menu, and a follow up visit gave me a chance to show you a few new things.
Let’s check out how Homecoming is doing, a few months along in the journey.
Atmosphere
The premise of Homecoming Florida Kitchen (HFK) is pretty cool, actually. Chef Art Smith is a native Floridian, who even spent some of the early years of his career as a Cast Member at Disney. So it’s befitting that the restaurant’s name is Homecoming, as he returns to his home state.
The restaurant is a celebration of Old-Meets-New Florida in so many ways. The architecture echoes Florida Vernacular style, with lots of windows to let the light in, and deep overhangs from the hip roof to keep the heat out.
Since the whole premise of the re-imagined Disney Springs is that of an old Florida town, the style and substance of the restaurant make it a natural choice for the area.
To the far left of the entrance, you’ll see the Shine Bar. It’s accessible from inside the restaurant as well, but this separate entrance is convenient if you’re just stopping by for drinks.
Back to the main entrance of the restaurant, wood cabinetry boxes in the waiting area and lends warmth.
I like the glass backing for the cabinets, though, which allow plenty of light to filter through.
Once you enter, take a moment to observe the details. The rustic chandeliers are an example of art from repurposed materials. Those are actually potato sacks that form the shade!
The mural above the kitchen depicts Florida’s agricultural heritage.
Pull back a bit from the individual details, and you start to see the shape and overall theme of the space. While the elements are homespun and rustic, the feeling of the open floor plan is modern.
I found a mix of seating. There are tables and chairs as well as booths, and many of the seats carry the striking “HFK” symbol, which looks like a vintage post mark.
The bar occupies an area to the left. Don’t those chairs look super comfy?
The bar forms a square that adjoins to an outside bar area. The shaded area is comfortable and relaxed.
In speaking to Chef Art Smith, we know that he puts a premium on “porch time”, and so it was no surprise when Homecoming debuted with plenty of porch seating overlooking the springs. Again, this is such a comfortable area, and the views are really lovely.
House Made Hot Sauce adorns each table, and copper toned salt and pepper grinders lend additional warmth.
We told you about Chef Art’s housemade hot sauce during our previous review. When we raved about it to him, he generously sent us home with a bottle!
It’s time to take a look at some of the dishes we decided to try this time.
Eats
The menu at Homecoming focuses on Southern comfort food with Florida flair. While it’s not huge, we certainly found plenty of tempting choices.
A look at the Starters menu gives you a glimpse into the restaurant’s vibe. You’ll find clever names, some of which include Florida locales, like Jasper (Chef Art’s hometown) and Anna Maria, named for Anna Maria Island.
And seriously — who can resist something called Bee Haven Bay Fried Green Tomatoes? (Spoiler alert: we didn’t.)
We also found some interesting Salads, including a headliner that features Homecoming’s signature dish, Fried Chicken.
The Main Plates section reads like a “who’s who” of regional Southern favorites. And if you’re visiting Homecoming with hopes of trying Fried Chicken, there are two more ways to indulge in the dish here.
Buns & Such offers up some interesting takes on Sandwiches.
At the outside bar, you’ll also find a selection of breezy Cocktails as well as a Grab and Go Menu of to-go foods.
During our first visit, we shared plenty of pictures highlighting Homecoming’s interesting Cocktail selections. Don’t miss the Old Fashioned Elder — a contemporary twist on a classic favorite.
As the bar name implies, the restaurant also makes ample use of Moonshine in cocktails. We found the Moonshine Mash, with refreshing flavors of Watermelon, to be perfect libation for a sunny day.
Be sure to take a look at that review for photos of nearly all of the drinks available.
As you may have guessed by now ;-), we decided to kick off our meal with Bee Haven Bay Fried Green Tomatoes. The sliced tomatoes are prepared traditionally and deep fried with a Corn Meal Crust. Served on a bed of Local Greens, they’re topped with Shaved Ham and a drizzle of Remoulade.
These were a hit for us, and we’ve heard positive reviews from friends as well. The flavor combo is fantastic.
Next, we couldn’t pass up the Barbecue Chicken Wings. Jumbo wings are tossed in Homecoming’s signature sweet and spicy Barbecue Sauce. They’re topped with a sprinkling of Benne, or Sesame, Seeds. What a great touch! The dish is at once reminiscent of both Asian and Southern specialties.
These might have been my second…no, third…favorite thing of the night! And, honesty, so many things were SO SO good that third down on the list is still pretty spectacular.
We opted for a couple of selections from the Salads menu as well. Our first selection, the Kitchen Plate, gave us the opportunity to sample our choice of three selections from Homecoming’s side dish menu. We went for Southern Style Green Beans (YUM), Momma’s Mac and Cheese (DOUBLE YUM), and Cucumber Salad (MEH…compared to the others).
One of my friends chose a salad for her entree, and the Fried Chicken Chopped Salad won out. The large dinner salad combines diced Fried Chicken Breast with Mixed Greens, Chopped Boiled Egg, Cherry Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Icebox Dressing, and Cheddar Biscuit Croutons.
This was acceptable, but there were other dishes that we’d recommend over this one. But if you’re looking for lighter, though still filling, fare, this is a good choice.
I decided that I couldn’t visit Homecoming without trying the signature dish — Chef Art Smith’s Fried Chicken. The plate comes with three pieces of Buttermilk-Brined Fried Chicken, garnished with house made Hot Sauce and Pickles.
Normally, it’s served with Mashed Potatoes and Cheddar Drop Biscuits. I opted for a side of Southern Style Green Beans in place of the potatoes.
And this fried chicken isn’t just spectacular…it’s legendary. Seriously, if you eat here, don’t miss it!
Of course, since I made room in my carb budget by skipping the ‘taters — THIS happened. Cheesy pasta is a favorite of mine, so I had to give Momma’s Mac and Cheese a try. Note that the mac and cheese here is beloved by many, and it’s perfect if you’re looking for the scratch mac your mom used to make. To my taste, it needed salt. Lots of salt. But I was apparently born with a salt deficiency, because nobody ever wants things as salty as I do.
Salt. (There. I’m done.)
Another friend decided to try one of the the sandwich selections and went for The Hamilton. This homespun take on a burger combines two Beef Patties, White Cheddar, Grilled Onions, Chow-Chow Relish, Bread and Butter Pickles, and Tomatoes — all served on thick sliced, Griddled Bread. House-Made Chips with are drizzle of Icebox Dressing serve as the side.
There is a lot a lot a lot going on in this sammich. And it’s all worth it.
After a dinner full of hearty comfort food, we decided dessert was definitely in order. We started with the Shine Cake. Rich Butter Cake is soaked liberally with a Moonshine-spiked Simple Syrup, and served with a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream. Children need not apply for this one.
Note that while it’s “soaked” in simple syrup, it’s not soggy at all. Just moist. So those of you who, like me, don’t like soggy bready type desserts (tres leches cake, tiramisu |
:MP and we suppose that’s because the interests on the original multiplayers are absolutely not the same between the two different games, since Take-Two Interactive created a system of microtransaction on GTA:Online.
PCI: How did you discover this was happening to GTA:MP? What exactly happened?
GTA:MP: Everything was fine, a new week started. The previous day we just released our development blog week 30 just like we used to do since the release of GTA V on PC. Every Sunday we posted a newsletter on our forum, explaining what we have done during the last week, the progress, etc… Last Sunday we even posted a special letter from the staff member to the community to thank them for all the support and the donations. For many months the donations allowed us to pay all of our costs and we are very grateful to the community for that, this was awesome.
So the situation was absolutely fine but then on Monday 9 November, everything collapsed. I was about to do some stuff related to GTA:MP and Bit asked everybody in the team to come on Teamspeak for a big meeting. He (with XForce) explained everything: two private investigators went to their home, meaning a total of four private investigators just for us. They were sent by Take-Two Interactive, they called the Senior Vice President and Head of Risk Management of Take-Two Interactive and gave the phone to the two developers from GTA:MP. The person on the phone asked them to stop all of the activities related to GTA:MP because they represent a threat for GTA:Online and their business. At this moment, we knew that everything was over because we already said that we would not try to do anything against Take-Two Interactive, it’s useless.
PCI: You have been working on this for a long time, what motivated you to create GTA:MP?
GTA:MP: I remember myself riding around in Los Santos on the PS3 version of GTA V. At this time, we had not the PC version yet, in fact we didn’t even know if there will be a PC version of the game. While I was exploring this beautiful map with such awesome graphics, my thought was when the PC version will be released, I hope some developers will make an alternative multiplayer on this game, just like SAMP and MTA did on GTA:San Andreas. I played several years on SAMP and MTA, particularly on roleplay servers and it was my dream to have the same thing on GTA V. I didn’t even know yet, but a such project of alternative multiplayer was already in progress, and it was GTA:MP.
When I heard about it, almost nobody knew about GTA:MP. I started to be an active member of the community, I became a beta tester and finally a member of the team. A lot of people had the same dreams that I had back when I was playing GTA V on PS3 and this is the reason why people wanted to make and support such a beautiful mod. We all wanted an alternative for GTA:Online, where you could play with hundred of other players on a server, have countless opportunities and possibilities for the game modes, etc…
If you would have liked to play on a very serious roleplay server like it’s actually the case on SAMP/MTA, you could have done it. If you wanted to play on a fun server where the objective is to hunt rats as a cat, well, it could also have been possible. There would have been absolutely no limits. On GTA:Online, you can just do some races, deathmatches and some other limited stuff, for some people it can be enough, but for a lot of people new opportunities are welcome. This is basically why we made GTA:MP.
Video showing the progress one week after GTA:V’s launch
PCI: How much support did you get from Rockstar directly?
GTA:MP: We were in contact with some developers of Rockstar Games through mails and phone. They were very kind and they supported us. If we had some technical questions, they answered it. That kind of things. Basically, our relation with Rockstar Games was good, we have absolutely no problems with them.
We know that FiveM had troubles with Rockstar Games, but this is quite different. They used technical parts of the GTA:Online network and redirected it to their own software. It means that they used stuff from GTA:Online, which has been strictly forbidden by Rockstar Games. Additionally, they did nothing against the piracy and allowed it.
GTA:MP is totally different, everything is based on the single player game. It means that we made our own network and added it to the singleplayer. This is not an easy task and this is why it takes time and we did not release the first version yet (but we were about to do so very soon). The only thing we took from GTA:Online is just the login system, because we wanted to check if the player has a Social Club account with a legal copy of GTA V linked to it. We did not support the piracy!
PCI: Did the Rockstar team not give you any indications that there might be legal implications further down the line when you first started this project?
GTA:MP: Nope, our relation with Rockstar Games was very good and promising. We thought that it will prevent us from any kind of problem, but Take-Two Interactive was above all these things. We knew that there is an End User License Agreement, Terms of Use and that we are violating them in some kind of way, but also previous multiplayer modifications such as SA:MP and MTA violated them. Take-Two or Rockstar Games never stopped them because GTA:San Andreas does not have a multiplayer, so it’s in the interest of the developer and the publisher to gain more sales through this mod.
PCI: Were you at any point during the development process concerned about what might happen? Were there any indications legal action might be taken?
GTA:MP: At first, we were thinking about Rockstar Games, back when we had no relation with them. We thought that they will maybe prevent us from doing anything, but once we started to talk with them and had a great relation, we didn’t think about it anymore. We thought that we were out of danger, but as I said before, we forgot to think about Take-Two Interactive. We also respected things like Rockstar’s Social Club and never hooked or modified them, we did not want to make them angry or maybe rethink it.
PCI: Do you think the Shark cards are the main reason Take2 has taken this action?
GTA:MP: Yes. We don’t think that there is any other reasons, or at least it’s the main reason. Take-Two probably don’t want people to play on an other multiplayer because it can means that less people will buy their stuff on GTA:Online. We can understand that, but they only pay attention to the negative aspect of GTA:MP (and well, this is a negative aspect only for Take-Two, the community would love to have an alternative multiplayer). In fact, GTA:MP can have a lot of positive aspects for Take-Two Interactive. A lot of people already bought and would have buy GTA V just in order to be able to play GTA:MP.
In the PC community there’s a lot of piracy, and since we did not support that, the pirates would have to buy the game if they wanted to enjoy all these new possibilities. GTA:MP, just like all the other mods, would have also increased the lifetime of this beautiful game. GTA San Andreas was released in 2005 on computer and is still played massively just because of SAMP and MTA.AMD-65 (Hungarian: Automata Módosított Deszant[fegyver] 1965; Automatic Modified Paratrooper [weapon]) is a Hungarian-manufactured licensed variant of the venerable AKM rifle for use by that nation's armored infantry and paratrooper ("descent") units. The rifle's design is suited for outdoor use as an infantry rifle but can also be used from within the confines of an armored vehicle as a fire support weapon. This is possible due to the side-folding stock of shaft design that makes it more compact. The 12.6-inch barrel is also relatively short for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. The operating mechanism does not require a gas expansion chamber at the muzzle, as in the AKS-74U to ensure reliable functioning, but does use a specially designed muzzle brake. It reduces muzzle flash but makes the weapon louder.
The AMD-65, along with the earlier AKM-63, have been largely replaced in Hungarian military service by the AK-63, a more traditional AKM copy with a lower manufacturing cost.
Features [ edit ]
No wood is used in the manufacture of large numbers of AMD-65s. The front handguard area is made of perforated sheet metal and typically has a gray plastic vertical foregrip attached to assist in controlling fully automatic fire from this short weapon. In addition, the vertical foregrip has been canted forward to lessen interference with magazine changes. The vertical foregrip is physically identical to the rear grip, with the former mounted backwards with respect to the rear. There are, however, wooden grips available which can serve in place of the common gray plastic version. While these wooden grips are also authentic, in the regular Hungarian army and air force, use of wooden grips is extremely rare.
In Hungarian service, the weapon is mainly used with magazines which can hold 30 rounds (standard magazine) but a special variant (popularly known in the past as "officer's magazine") is also available, which can only hold twenty rounds – an unusual feature in many other countries, who more often use the standard 30-round or 40-round magazines. The weapon is better suited to a 20-round magazine, as it can be locked into the receiver without interfering with the forward handgrip and it is easier to handle the weapon in tight quarters. The 30-round magazine does fit with some slight interference and it can be also fitted with the 40-round magazine.
In theory, the short barrel is stiffer and more inherently accurate, but the short sight radius and poor quality of commonly available ammunition negates this advantage.
Another Hungarian AKM variant was used as Hungary's standard service rifle before being replaced by the AK-63. It is a standard-length AKM variant, with a standard buttstock and full-length barrel. The front sight is in the standard location. However, the front and rear pistol grips and sheet metal handguard are similar to those of the AMD-65.
Modernisation - AMD-65M [ edit ]
During the late 2000s, a modernization program started for the AK-63.
AMD-65M with folded buttstock
The modernisation included Picatinny rails, new handgrips, underbarrel grenade launcher, new sights, and flashlights.
Users [ edit ]
Availability in the United States [ edit ]
Many AMD-65s were exported to the United States and sold in kit form following the destruction of the receiver, which legally rendered the weapon to the status of a non-firearm. In order to be legally reassembled, the parts must be rebuilt on a US-made receiver which lacks the provisions for certain parts which would make it capable of automatic fire. In its original short-barreled form the completed weapon is regulated as a "short-barreled rifle" (SBR) under the National Firearms Act in the United States. The addition of a permanently attached barrel extension of the correct length will render the firearm legal for general use, subject to additional stipulations. These include a certain number of US-made parts in the finished rifle. This count is required in order to comply with U.S.C. 922 (r); a statute which regulates imported rifles with certain features that the BATFE defines as not being suitable for sporting purposes. Some individuals choose to build AMD-65s without a buttstock, thus legally classifying the resulting new firearm as a "pistol" and eliminating the need for a muzzle extension (as well as the parts for 922r compliance). However, this route requires the removal of the forward grip, unless the gun is registered under the NFA as an "AOW" (any other weapon) or has an overall length greater than 26 inches (660 mm).
In summary, the semi-automatic version of the AMD-65, when re-manufactured as detailed above, is now legal for civilian use in most states.
Use by foreign military and private security companies [ edit ]
The AMD-65 has been exported to the West Bank and Gaza, as well as Afghanistan. An increasing number of western security forces, including contract employees of the former Blackwater Worldwide (now known as "Academi") who are serving in the latter two countries, use highly modified AMD-65s rather than conventional 5.56mm based rifles. The combination of a larger caliber and shorter size provides better punch during short range combat. The metal front handguard lends itself well to a relatively easy refit with multiple Picatinny rails, allowing use of red-dot optics, tactical lamps and other accessories. The wire buttstock rod can be reshaped to allow use of 75-round RPK drum magazines even with the stock folded, and the weapon's internal mechanism can be tuned with aftermarket recoil dampers for smoother behaviour in full-auto mode.
Gallery [ edit ]
U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Cory J. Becker, of Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, shows Afghan National Police recruits different firing positions using an AMD-65 assault rifle on Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan, June 3, 2008.
Afghan National Police women qualify on the AMD-65 rifle during the tactical training program portion of the police basic training course at Kabul Military Training Center, April 13, 2010.
A group of Afghan National Police (ANP) train on the shooting range with the AMD-65 at Camp Shouz in Herat Province of Afghanistan.
See also [ edit ]The Violence In Bangladesh: What Happens When Islam Takes Over
On July 1, 2016, ISIS took responsibility for invading an ex-pat café in Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, killing at least two and taking twenty hostages. At the same time, a Hindu priest was hacked to death in his temple. Now the world is paying more attention to this small South Asian country and wondering if Bangladesh is the new hot spot for ISIS, or perhaps al Qaeda. Whatever the handle used by the Muslim group that committed the latest attacks, there is no doubt that non-Muslim and dissident Muslim Bangladeshi natives have been living with terror at the hands of jihadis.
Jihadis in Bangladesh have been steadily increasing their rapes, murders, land thefts, and public humiliations against all they deem fit to suffer for their cause: the spread of sharia. They do this with impunity. Here are some, but by no means all, of the many atrocities committed by them in just the last few months: A seven months pregnant Hindu woman was kicked in the womb by a gang of men until her baby was born, dead. The eighteen-year-old mother died shortly after from her wounds. At least twenty other of her villagers were also wounded in an attack perpetrated as punishment for staging a Hindu festival, forcing fifty people to leave their homes for the safety of a riverboat.
Hindu priest was beheaded with cleavers at his home and a worshipper with him was wounded.
A June 13, 2016 issue of USA Today cites reports from terrified leaders of Hindu, Christian and Buddhist communities that murders are being committed with impunity, in spite of Prime Minister Hasina’s promise to hunt down the killers. ISIS and al Qaeda vie for responsibility for the killings.
Secular bloggers Avijit Roy and Ahmed Rajib Haider were hacked to death for disagreeing with fundamentalists. Roy was the founder of the Muktu Mona (Free Mind) blog, a very popular online home for Bangladeshi atheists and liberals. Even though he had received death threats for five years, he had no protection from officials. Adding insult to injury after Haider’s death, jihadists protested against liberal bloggers, accusing them of blasphemy and calling for their execution. Favoring them, the government responded by arresting some bloggers and cracking down on liberal blog sites. Then in a move apparently designed to please both sides, the government did provide some security to some bloggers, but still offered no real protection for free speech.
Other known victims of religiously driven murder in just one month, May 2016, include a homeopathic doctor, a Buddhist monk, an atheist student, gay rights activists, a liberal professor, a Hindu tailor and a Sufi Muslim leader.
A Facebook group dares to call for the murder of a headmaster, already publically humiliated, and a university professor both alleged to have “hurt the sentiments of Muslims.” Detailed instructions were given on Facebook about how to invade what should be the sanctity of a hospital to finish murdering one of the victims taken for treatment after a beating by the thugs.
The free thinking blog Mukto Mona details a “ slide into darkness ” as state sponsored Islamization takes over. The prime minister plans to build “model mosques” everywhere, in all four hundred and eighty nine districts – using state money. Madrassas are allowed to spring up all over, teaching jihad. The home minister declares that protecting homosexuals’ civil rights, including it would seem the right to live, is not the government’s concern because ”their rights are not compatible with his country’s society.”
In the atmosphere of contempt for whatever weak laws might protect minorities, even some members of the Awami League, the Bangladeshi political party that is nominally opposed to jihad and supposed to protect minorities, participate in these crimes. For example, the young mother killed along with her unborn child was attacked by members of the Awami League, among others. Other Muslims join in the sadistic fun simply for thrills and profit, such as running farmers off their ancestral land, according to a report by The Bangladesh Minority Condition.
People in minority communities have a choice: hold onto land that has been in their families for many generations while facing increasing risks of being killed, or flee. Many are leaving, most of them to India. Every day around seven hundred and fifty people from minority communities leave Bangladesh, according to Abul Barkat, an economist and professor at Dhaka University. Keep in mind that before the Muslim invasions began in the late eighth century Bangladesh was dominated by Hindus and Buddhists. In fact, the Hindu empire once spread all the way to what is now called Afghanistan. Century by century, it shrank, under Muslim conquest. Year by year, the number of Hindus who remain in Bangladesh shrinks. Now they are down to about 9%. When Bangladesh became independent in 1971, it was supposed to be a secular country. Only six years later, secularism as a principle was removed from the constitution, and in 1988, Islam was declared the state religion, although curiously, secularism was restored as a governing principle. The current problem is the vastness of the Muslim population, which gives confidence to the jihadists who seek domination over others. Bangladesh’s original problem was the Muslim invasions, and its eventual conquest. We face the same problem in the United States. It’s up to us to make sure it doesn’t happen. Madeline Brooks is a counter-jihad writer. She can be reached at ResistJihad@aol.com'Romney wants to continue tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas,' Plouffe says. Plouffe steps up outsourcing attack
White House senior adviser David Plouffe on Tuesday accused Mitt Romney of having outsourced jobs in both the private sector and as governor of Massachusetts, doubling down on the Obama campaign’s ongoing effort to label the Republican candidate an “outsourcer-in-chief.”
“Mitt Romney wants to continue tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. He would do that as president. This president’s led an effort to put the focus on insourcing and wants to get rid of those tax cuts and will reward those that ship jobs overseas,” Plouffe said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
Story Continued Below
“Mitt Romney, it’s clear, in his private sector experience, when he was governor, is someone who practiced outsourcing. Now as president, he wants to say to companies that ship jobs overseas, we’re going to reward you for that,” he added.
The Obama campaign has continued to pummel the former governor as having championed outsourcing, an accusation that the Romney camp has pushed back on. After a Washington Post story in June said Bain Capital had invested in firms that created jobs overseas, the Romney campaign had unsuccessfully demanded that the paper retract the story.
While much of the outsourcing charges have been focused on Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital, the Obama camp has also accused the candidate of having outsourced jobs as head of the Bay State.
Vice President Joe Biden said in March: “Despite the fact that millions of taxpayer dollars were flowing to companies outsourcing state services like overseas call centers, he vetoed a bill passed by the Massachusetts legislature that would have stopped the state from outsourcing contracts overseas, state contracts.”
When host George Stephanopoulos pointed out Tuesday that FacCheck.org had questioned the validly of the outsourcing accusation, Plouffe was dismissive.
“The Washington Post did an exhaustive look at this,” he said. “By the way, the Romney campaign … [tried] to get them to pull back this story and they refused to do it, because it’s accurate.”
Plouffe’s attacks came as the Romney campaign and the Republican National Campaign are launching a new effort to counter the outsourcing charges. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus is slated to appear in Iowa Tuesday to discuss how the federal stumulus money created jobs outside of the U.S. and also unveil a new website, ObamanomicsOutsourced.com.
Meanwhile, Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul fired back Tuesday morning by accusing the Obama campaign of resorting to “dishonest, repeatedly proven false, attacks.”
“If it wasn’t enough to stick families, job creators, and small businesses with a massive tax hike, it seems his campaign is also now baselessly attacking American businesses,” Saul said in an email. “If this president had half the job creation record of Mitt Romney, he’d be running on it and, if his team focused as much energy on job creation as they do trying to tear down his opponent, maybe the middle class would be better off right now.”
The early morning interview also touched on Romney outraising Obama for the second consecutive month in June. Plouffe said his campaign had “assumed all along” that Romney and the RNC would be a formidable force in fundraising, and placed the bulk of the blame on super PACs.
“The real new dynamic in this race is obviously the super PACS. And we have three or four Republican super PACs at any given time spending tens of millions of dollars aimed at the president,” he said. “You’ve got a few very wealthy people lining up, trying to purchase the White House for Mr. Romney, and we’re going to have everybody out there who wants the president to continue on a second term to step up here and help the campaign.”Since weather records began in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1937, it has never been hotter than today – when it sizzled to 117 degrees. Only one other day in recorded history could match this heat: July 24, 1942.
(What happened in Vegas, can stay in Vegas!)
Via the National Weather Service, Las Vegas:
The high temperature at the official long term Las Vegas climate station at McCarran International Airport has reached 117 degrees today, June 30th. This ties the all-time record high for Las Vegas first set on July 24, 1942 and tied on July 19, 2005. The previous all-time record high for June in Las Vegas was 116 degrees on June 15, 1940. Official records in Las Vegas date back to 1937.
The 117-degree reading was Vegas’ hottest temperature ever recorded in June. The previous record was 116 set June 15, 1940.
(National Weather Service)
Meanwhile, The Weather Channel is saying it’s possible Death Valley reached at least 129 today, and possibly 130. If it hit 130, that would be the hottest reading there in 100 years. Death Valley’s all-time hottest temperature is 134 from July 10, 1913, the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth.
Death Valley automated thermometer reached 129.1º today, which means official high may have hit 130º – via Chris Burt @wunderground — The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) July 1, 2013
Update, 10:10 p.m. eastern: It’s not clear the 129 degree reading reported by The Weather Channel for Death Valley is accurate. The National Weather Service reports the high today in Death Valley was 128…still plenty hot and hot enough to tie its hottest temperature on record in June (matching Saturday’s high, as well as June 29, 1994).Right from the start C. S. Arnot's tale put me in mind of Lawrence Block's Evan Tanner novels, probably mostly due to location (Aiden and Fredrick bounce around but spend most of their time in Armenia, Tanner keeps returning to Macedonia on his travels) but also for the swash-buckling flavor of the tales. Arnot's a bit more rude-and-crude and lacks Block's tongue-in-cheek flavor but both writers use their tools well and create good reads. I could have done with a little less 'guilt-tripping' but I can't think of anything else about this rollicking tale I didn't enjoy reading, get a kick out of, find myself hoping for more of the same. One of the things I like best about it is the freshness. By that I mean this could be called a 'post-apocalyptic novel' but there hasn't really been a totally devastating world disaster that's thrown everyone back into the dark ages, so that label doesn't fit except in limited circumstances. It could also be called 'post-war contemporary' because all or most of the political subdivisions of the part of the world we're dealing with seem intact if a little battered and bruised, but then there are the airships big and small which seem to dominate commerce so that isn't exactly the right category either. And there's the.....I could say more but I don't want to be a spoiler. A hearty two-thumbs-up for this author's first effort.next Image 1 of 3
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The Israeli military said it deployed tank fire and an airstrike on targets in Gaza after its troops came under attack by Palestinian snipers as they were on patrol on the Israeli side of the border.
It said it "immediately responded" to the Palestinian shooting attack on Wednesday.
The Islamic militant group Hamas that rules Gaza said one of its members has been killed. It did not immediately comment on the sniper fire.
Gaza residents said the sound of explosions and gunfire lasted about half an hour.
Israel and Hamas fought a 50-day war this summer.
Gaza militants fired a rocket at Israel on Friday prompting an Israeli airstrike in retaliation the next day for the first time since that war.Joe Mauer, the consummate Minnesota Twin, and wife Maddie are expecting twins.
“Obviously, we’re both really excited and couldn’t be happier,” the Twins all-star and three-time batting champion said Wednesday, Feb. 27. “Everything so far is good.”
Mauer said it’s still too early to know whether the twins will be boys or girls.
University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler was among the sellout crowd of 14,625 that rocked Williams Arena on Tuesday night when the Gophers upset No. 1 Indiana 77-73.
Kaler’s cheering left him in a sweat at game’s end.
“I think I played,” he said. “This was a great win for Gopher basketball, a great win.”
I asked Kaler about the status of Tubby Smith, who is in his sixth season as Gophers men’s basketball coach, is signed through 2017, and has been criticized by fans for his team’s enigmatic play.
“It’s the same as all of our coaches when they’re in season,” Kaler said. “Norwood will take a look at the overall season, we’ll make some decisions and go forward from there. But I don’t like to talk about it during the season — it takes the focus away from the coach and the team.”
Norwood is Norwood Teague, the Gophers’ athletics director whom Kaler hired last summer. Smith, who has a $2.5 million contract buyout, was hired by former AD Joel Maturi.
Among the crowd at Williams Arena on Tuesday was Jim Dutcher, who coached Minnesota to the 1982 Big Ten championship. It was just Dutcher’s second trip to Williams Arena in two years. His last visit was when his title team was honored.
Dutcher, who turns 80 in April and lives in Edina, was at the arena to speak to the Golden Dunkers booster club.
“I’m not here to evaluate the team or Tubby,” said Dutcher, who coached the Gophers for 11 years, then remained as an astute TV analyst for the ensuing 12 years.
Before the game, Dutcher chatted with Gophers assistant Vince Taylor, a former Duke standout whom Dutcher recruited out of high school in Kentucky in 1978.
“This is what you live for, to play against the No. 1 team,” Dutcher told Taylor before the game. Taylor agreed.
Maturi, who was the Gophers’ AD for 10 years, turned 68 this month. He continues to teach a sports management class with 52 students at Minnesota and this spring will teach a couple of classes in China.
Men’s basketball associate head coach at Indiana is Tim Buckley, a Bemidji State grad. Buckley, 49, was a roommate of San Francisco 49ers general manager Trent Baalke at Bemidji State.
Buckley, who went to high school in Aurora, Ill., got to know Indiana head coach Tom Crean when Crean was an assistant at Michigan State and Buckley was an assistant at Ball State.
“You kind of run in the same circles recruiting-wise,” Buckley said. “Also, we would play Big Ten teams in the non-league and they would play MAC teams, so we would compare notes, things like that, and we developed kind of a professional relationship that became a personal relationship.”
When Crean took the head coaching job at Marquette, he hired Buckley, who eventually returned to Ball State as head coach.
Of Crean, Buckley said, “He’s always in pursuit of getting better. I learn something on a daily basis. He teaches you things that make you better and the team better, and he’s really given me a great perspective of how to run a program and how to be successful.”
Former Gophers baseball players Terry Steinbach, Paul Molitor, Glen Perkins, Kyle Knudson and Cole De Vries of the Twins had a group picture taken at spring training in Fort Myers, Fla., wearing their Twins jerseys but with Gophers caps.
Former Gophers fireballer John Gaub from South St. Paul has foregone a nice minor league contract from the St. Louis Cardinals in order to return to school at Minnesota.
Defenseman Matt Dumba, who started the season with the Wild but didn’t get into any games, has 13 goals and 23 assists in 55 games for Red Deer in the Western Hockey League. Mario Lucia, a second-round Wild draft pick, has 10 goals and nine assists in 25 games for Notre Dame. Wild seventh-round pick Louis Nanne, who bypassed his senior high school season at Edina, has 18 goals and 20 assists in 42 games for Penticton.
By the way, Nanne’s father, Marty, the former Gophers hockey player who also is a scout for the Wild, has been named a member of the 2016 Ryder Cup executive committee in sales. The Ryder Cup will be at Hazeltine National in 2016.
It’s a baby girl, Valerie, for Gophers assistant football coach Mike Sherels and wife Emily.
DON’T PRINT THAT
The way it looks now, the Gophers men’s basketball team could be in a No. 7 seed for the NCAA tournament. Before Tuesday’s upset of No. 1 Indiana, Minnesota looked to be a No. 11 seed.
Winning their final three Big Ten regular-season games, beginning Saturday against Penn State at Williams Arena, should push the Gophers to at least a No. 6 seed.
That was men’s basketball coach Tubby Smith making appearances at the Gophers men’s hockey game and wrestling tournament Saturday.
“Trying to get good vibes for our game with Indiana,” Smith told a friend.
Centennial High grad Chris Anderson, 6-4, 225 pounds with a 95-mph fastball at the University of Jacksonville (Fla.), could be a late first-round or early sandwich pick in June’s major league draft. Also a quarterback in high school, Anderson declined a football offer from Wisconsin because the Badgers don’t have a baseball program.
The right-hander, who was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 35th round out of high school, has progressed well.
OVERHEARD
Andrei Kirilenko, 6 feet 9, on leading the Timberwolves in dunks: “No big deal; I’m not a dunker. A lot of times I’m just under the basket.”
Charley Walters can be reached at cwalters@pioneerpress.com.Billionaire businessman Mike Ilitch, who founded the Little Caesars pizza empire before buying the Detroit Red Wings and the Detroit Tigers and who won praise for keeping the professional sports teams in the city as others relocated to new suburban stadiums, has died. He was 87.
His family released a statement saying Ilitch died Friday at a local hospital. They called him a visionary who set the tone for his company and his family.
"He made such a positive impact in the world of sports, in business and in the community, and we will remember him for his unwavering commitment to his employees, his passion for Detroit, his generosity to others and his devotion to his family and friends," his son Christopher Ilitch, president and CEO of Ilitch Holdings Inc., said in the statement.
Family spokesman Doug Kuiper confirmed the death, but no other details were provided.
Editor's Picks Mike Ilitch rebuilt Detroit, not just its teams Detroit Red Wings and Tigers owner Mike Ilitch not only was the driving force behind returning two struggling franchises to championship form, he also helped rebuild the city they called home.
Mike Ilitch's passion earned loyalty across sports in Detroit With his commitment to winning, Tigers and Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch earned loyalty among fans and all who worked for him on and off the field. 1 Related
Former President George W. Bush, also the onetime owner of the Texas Rangers, was among those who offered condolences Friday night.
"Mike was a great citizen of our country, a self-made man with talent, drive, and a huge heart," Bush said in a statement. "My favorite memories with Mike are of our discussions about our shared love, baseball. Another of Mike's passions was his beloved Detroit. He generously gave back to his city and made it a better place. Most of all, Mike loved his family a lot."
Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman, who won three Stanley Cups as a Red Wings player and another as a team executive, said he was "extremely saddened" to hear about Ilitch's death.
"Both Mr. and Mrs. Ilitch, as well as their entire family, have had an immeasurable impact on not only my career, but my life," Yzerman said in a statement. "Going back to the age of 18 when I arrived in Detroit, the guidance, generosity, concern and love Mr. Ilitch had always shown me and my family are things I will forever be grateful for.
"Mr. Ilitch has left an incredible legacy in baseball, hockey and Metropolitan Detroit. He will forever be remembered for all the ways he enriched our lives. Mike Ilitch will live on vividly in my mind and heart forever."
Tigers manager Brad Ausmus, who worked for Ilitch as a player and manager, said, "It was an honor to work for a man who made winning the priority. Baseball is a business, but Mr. I was a baseball player who became a businessman. He loved baseball, and my memories will always be centered around the passion with which he talked about it."
Second baseman Ian Kinsler also offered an appreciation of Ilitch.
"I appreciated what Mr. Ilitch stood for," he told ESPN via text message. "I'm thankful for the opportunity to play under his ownership and feel the passion, along with the people of Detroit, that he had for his two sports franchises."
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred called Ilitch "a model owner."
"He was also a fierce believer in his home city of Detroit, and the role that the Tigers and sports played in contributing to civic pride and renewal," Manfred said in a statement. "Mr. Ilitch led a decorated life of service to his country, accomplishment in business and philanthropy in all of his endeavors. He was also extremely supportive of me both personally and professionally. On behalf of all of Major League Baseball and Mr. Ilitch's countless friends and admirers throughout the game, I extend my deepest condolences to his wife Marian and their entire family, the Tigers organization, their fans and his fellow citizens of Detroit."
"Going back to the age of 18 when I arrived in Detroit, the guidance, generosity, concern and love Mr. Ilitch had always shown me and my family are things I will forever be grateful for." Former Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman
Ilitch and his wife, Marian, founded Little Caesars -- later known for its "Pizza! Pizza!" ads featuring an animated "Little Caesar" -- in suburban Detroit in 1959. They eventually grew the business into one of the world's largest carryout pizza chains with several spin-off companies.
Known simply as "Mr. I" to most people in Michigan, Ilitch was as much a fan of the often-struggling Detroit as he was of sports. When approached in 2009 by organizers of the Motor City Bowl in Detroit, Ilitch agreed to sponsor the annual college football bowl game despite a poor local economy. The game was renamed the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl.
"It's a sporting event, and we need sporting events," Ilitch said at the time. "It picks our community up to no end, with all the great colleges we have in this state and the professional teams that we have. Thank God for 'em, especially at times that are rough right now."
The son of Macedonian immigrants, Ilitch was born on July 20, 1929. He played baseball at Detroit's Cooley High School and was signed by his hometown Tigers after a four-year stint in the U.S. Marines, spending three years in the team's farm system before a knee injury ended his |
The level of hatred the left has for the patriotic and no-nonsense 45th President of the United States is slated to come to a boil on inauguration day.
Anarchist groups are threatening to shut down Donald Trump’s swearing in ceremony by any means possible. Thousands of police officers and security agents are being deployed to Washington, D.C. in preparation to guard the President-elect and his supporters from a potentially violent mob.
Washington, D.C. police officials are expecting at least 900,000 people to flood the capitol on inauguration day. Interim Police Chief Peter Newsham revealed more than two dozen activist groups for demonstrations – which claim to be peaceful in nature.
Approximately 3,000 police officers from outside Washington, 5,000 National Guard troops and federal agents will create a buffer zone, crowd-control barriers and bag checks outside of the inauguration area.
The Bikers for Trump are also expected to be on hand to help curtail any disruptions or violence on January 20.
Newsham said his department is aware of anarchist groups vowing to disrupt, perhaps even thwart, the Trump oath of office ceremony, via online rants. “That’s one of the things that we have to prepare for,” the Washington, D.C. police official added.
“The fact that you have some folks that are indicating on social media that they’re coming to shut down the inauguration events is something that we will be prepared for,” Newsham continued. “We’ve experienced that type of thing before in the city and we’ll be able to handle it.”
Anti-Trump protests are scheduled to occur before, during, and after the President-elect’s inauguration ceremony, Yahoo News notes. The largest Trump protest related event which a permit has been granted for is the Women’s March on Washington, set for January 21.
On Thursday the National Park Service, which controls the permit process for the public grounds in the capitol, began issuing permission to use protest sites. Civil Rights attorneys threatened to sue the park service, claiming the agency was attempting to stomp on political dissent.
At least one group who requested a permit during the inauguration does not seem focused on disrupting Trump’s swearing in ceremony with violence. A pro-marijuana lobbying group has promised to distribute 4,200 joints and light them up near the inauguration site.
When asked if the capitol police would be quickly arresting pot smokers during Trump’s swearing in ceremony, the Washington Mayor offered a reasonable response. “That wouldn’t be our first priority,” Mayor Mureil Bowser told the media.
to discuss this story.An extinct submarine shield volcano located in the northwestern Pacific Ocean
Tamu Massif is an extinct submarine shield volcano located in the northwestern Pacific Ocean.[3] The possibility of its nature as a single volcano was announced on 5 September 2013, which, if corroborated, would make Tamu Massif the largest known volcano on Earth.[1] It is located in the Shatsky Rise about 1,600 km (990 mi) east of Japan. Its summit lies about 1,980 m (6,500 ft) below the surface of the ocean, and its base extends to a depth of about 6.4 km (4.0 mi).[1] The volcano is about 4,460 metres (14,620 ft) tall.
* Tamu
Massif Shatsky Rise Emperor Seamounts Chain Hawaiian Ridge Japan Kamchatka Alaska * Tamu
Massif Shatsky Rise Emperor Seamounts Chain Hawaiian Ridge Japan Kamchatka Alaska [4][5] Location of Tamu Massif
William Sager, a marine geophysicist from the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Houston, began studying the volcano in about 1993 at the Texas A&M College of Geosciences. According to Sager and his team, Tamu Massif is "the biggest single shield volcano ever discovered on Earth". While other igneous features on the planet are larger, such as the Ontong Java Plateau, it has not yet been determined if they are indeed just one volcano or rather complexes of several volcanoes.[6]
Geology [ edit ]
The Tamu Massif was formed about 145 million years ago during the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous period[1] over a relatively short period of time (a few million years) and then became extinct.[1] If confirmed, the suggestion that it could be a single volcano[7] would make the Tamu Massif the largest known volcano on Earth, dwarfing the current record-holder, Mauna Loa on the Hawaiian Islands. Tamu's rounded dome extends over an area of 450 km × 650 km (280 mi × 400 mi), totaling more than 292,500 km2 (112,900 sq mi), many times larger than Mauna Loa, which has an area of 5,000 km2 (1,900 sq mi), and about half the area of the Martian volcano Olympus Mons.[a] The entire mass of Tamu consists of basalt. Its slopes are very gradual, ranging from less than half a degree to one degree near its summit. While the Shatsky Rise oceanic plateau is comparable in size to California or Japan,[1] Tamu Massif, which is the plateau's oldest and largest edifice, is comparable in size to New Mexico[1][9] or Britain and Ireland together.[4]
Using magnetic lineations, researchers discovered that there are three bathymetric highs and a low ridge, a topography that would imply three separate volcanoes; but the plume-head model indicates a single massive volcano.[7][10] Based on multichannel seismic profiles and rock samples from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) core sites, Tamu Massif appears to be a single massive volcano made of lava flows that emanated from the volcano centre and formed its shield shape; however, the profiles have large gaps in them, leaving open the possibility that it may represent the activity of more than one volcano.[7]
Name [ edit ]
The name Tamu is taken from the initials of Texas A&M University,[11] where William Sager, a geology professor at the University of Houston and one of the lead scientists studying the volcano, previously taught. Massif, which means "massive" in French, is a large mountain or a section of the planet's crust that is demarcated by faults and flexures.
References [ edit ]
Informational notes
CitationsAdventure Pouch: Oversky opens
Faeria’s first expansion, the Adventure Pouch: Oversky is now available - starting today! Open it up and begin your journey into the Oversky.
If you haven’t had the chance to grab your pouch during the preorder, don’t worry, it’s now accessible directly within the game and in gems. So head over there and make sure to grab your Adventure Pouch: Oversky to team-up with your friends and take on the Emperor and reap the exclusive rewards.
A unique Co-op experience
The beginning: The Emperor’s Daily Challenges
Your journey into the Oversky will start with the Emperor’s Daily Challenge. It will introduce a first of its kind co-op mode for you to experience! Each day, a new challenge featuring a unique rule for the match will be available to the players who own the Adventure Pouch: Oversky.
As you know, the Emperor’s Daily Challenges (also known as the Limited Boss Battle) are just a part of the Oversky expansion and will be introducing you to our new co-op mode.
Invite a friend and battle the mighty, greedy Emperor of Mirnast himself: Kaios.
Every day Kaios will have a new challenge for you to overcome. The first time you defeat him each day earns a lot of points for your Adventure Pouch!
The Emperor's Cosmetic Set
By earning points for your Adventure Pouch, you can obtain an exclusive set of cosmetics featuring Emperor Kaios.
The voice of the Emperor
We're happy to have partnered with Team Four Star to bring life to Emperor Kaios.
Emperor Kaios' sinister voice is provided by the equally sinister Ben Creighton.
NOTE: This post has been edited to make a correction regarding an earlier statement that the Emperor Avatar cosmetic will feature the voice acting as well. While it is our full intention to implement this feature in the future, it currently does NOT have voice acting enabled.
The Co-op campaign: Islands of the Oversky and 33 new cards
We will be releasing the islands of the Oversky every Tuesday, starting next week! Each island will come with its own unique set of cards.
TODAY - Monday, August 7th The Adventure Pouch opens, and the Emperor’s Challenge becomes available
Tuesday, August 15th The first (free) and second islands of the Oversky unlock Includes 10 brand new cards!
Tuesday, August 22nd Third island of the Oversky unlocks Includes 7 brand new cards!
Tuesday, August 29th Fourth island of the Oversky unlocks Includes 8 brand new cards!
Tuesday, September 5th Fifth island of the Oversky unlocks Includes 8 brand new cards!
How does Co-op mode work?
When you enter co-op mode you will see a new board layout with three orbs on the field. You and your ally will be on the bottom of the field. Hover over your ally’s orb at any time to see their current Faeria, hand size, and land amounts.
You and your ally share a life total! Any damage you or your ally takes is delivered to both of you at the same time, so make sure to protect your friends.
Each player takes one turn as normal. You will notice that your ally’s lands have a new shade of color applied to them. You may not place units on your ally’s lands or build off of them.
For the Emperor’s Challenge, you must invite a friend to participate. Further adventures in the Oversky will allow you to choose an NPC ally.
Where can I get my Adventure Pouch: Oversky?
If you’ve pre-ordered it already, you’ll find it waiting for you on the main menu next to Sharra. Otherwise you have the option to purchase it in gems as part of the Pioneer or Supporter bundle.
What does the Adventure Pouch do?
The Adventure Pouch is a special item you can obtain to help you explore the Oversky, of which the islands will become available starting next week. It will level up based on daily activities you participate in, and award you various special cosmetics, gold, gems, and chests.
It also allows you to participate in the limited time, co-op only Emperor’s Challenge, also known as the Limited Boss Battle.
How long is the Adventure Pouch open for?
The Adventure Pouch and Limited Boss Battle will be open for two months, starting today.
It officially closes on Monday Oct. 9th, at 23:59 CEST.
For more comprehensive information about the Adventure Pouch and all of the Oversky, please read the following FAQ:
Ulani’s Medallion: A new Pandora treasure
Ulani’s Medallion is a brand new treasure that is making its way to Pandora - starting today! Use it to transform all of your creatures into a base copy of your target.
You may recognize this dangling trinket from the War Effort. With your efforts combined, you helped power up this special medallion, highly treasured and sought after by Fugoro.
Balance changes
Oakling Now increases the stats of green creatures only
Mistral Guide Land cost changed from 4 Deserts to 2 Deserts, 2 Wild.
About Oakling:
We’ve had our eyes on the current state of the game after the last set of balance changes, and believe it’s important for us to step in and correct a problem that has emerged with decks that tend to buff haste creatures in hand and win in one single, explosive turn.
We recognize there are a few ways to approach a solution to this problem and appreciate everyone’s feedback on the matter. We believe targeting Oakling with this change will still allow it to be a very powerful card with Feed the Forest, but not necessarily in a deck stacked with Haste creatures generally found outside of Green, and give us more comfortable room in our design space.
Season Reset and the Monthly Cup
All of today’s coincides with this month’s season reset, meaning the next Monthly Cup is this coming weekend.
Tune in this Saturday to FaeriaTV to watch the Monthly Cup and catch a new batch of Oversky card reveals, and dip into the first islands next Tuesday.
Bug fixes, adjustments, and features
Fixed the Dash and Gift problem that could result in players sometimes losing the ability or mistargeting by clicking too early. You can now only use these once the creature hits the board.
Fixed some instances where the craft and disenchant buttons that could sometimes craft and disenchant multiple cards when buttons were double clicked rapidly
After editing a deck, it is now automatically selected as the deck you'll play with
Hoaka cosmetic set is now available for purchase
Reduced the size of Hoaka's orb to make it more inline with other orbs
The behavior of the "bump" animation playing on all creatures with taunt whenever the player wants to move, attack or summon something has been improved. It will now execute the "bump" only on relevant taunting creatures instead of all of them.
Fixed instances where the Pandora tutorial was being played repeatedly on each new Pandora run
Fixed occurrences of a bug leading the in-game camera to be misplaced after several turns
Fixed a bug sometimes making the game quit unexpectedly if the steam client was not running
Fixed a visual glitch making the zoomed card in deck editor sometimes going below the Save button
The "Replay" feature on Solo content has been removed
Some music tracks have received an update for Oversky
There are some animated surprises included in this patch!
We hope you’re excited for a summer brightened by the Oversky!I believe the day-to-day practice of writing JavaScript is going to change dramatically for the better when ECMAScript.next arrives. The coming year is going to be an exciting time for developers as features proposed or finalised for the next versions of the language start to become more widely available.
In this post, I will review some of the features I'm personally looking forward to landing and being used in 2013 and beyond.
ES.next implementation status
Be sure to look at Juriy Zaytsev's ECMAScript 6 compatibility table, Mozilla's ES6 status page as well as the bleeding edge versions of modern browsers (e.g Chrome Canary, Firefox Aurora) to find out what ES.next features are available to play with right now.
In Canary, remember that to enable all of the latest JavaScript experiments you should navigate to chrome:flags and use the 'Enable Experimental JavaScript' option.
Alternatively, many ES.next features can be experimented with using Google's Traceur transpiler (useful unit tests with examples here) and there are shims available for other features via projects such as ES6-Shim and Harmony Collections.
Finally, in Node.js (V8), the --harmony flag activates a number of experimental ES.next features including block scoping, WeakMaps and more.
Modules
We're used to separating our code into manageable blocks of functionality. In ES.next, A module is a unit of code contained within a module declaration. It can either be defined inline or within an externally loaded module file. A skeleton inline module for a Car could be written:
module Car { // import … // export … }
A module instance is a module which has been evaluated, is linked to other modules or has lexically encapsulated data. An example of a module instance is:
module myCar at "car.js";
module declarations can be used in the following contexts:
module UniverseTest {}; module Universe { module MilkyWay {} }; module MilkyWay = 'Universe/MilkyWay'; module SolarSystem = Universe.MilkyWay.SolarSystem; module MySystem = SolarSystem;
An export declaration declares that a local function or variable binding is visible externally to other modules. If familiar with the module pattern, think of this concept as being parallel to the idea of exposing functionality publicly.
module Car { // Internal var licensePlateNo = '556-343'; // External export function drive(speed, direction) { console.log('details:', speed, direction); } export module engine{ export function check() { } } export var miles = 5000; export var color ='silver'; };
Modules import what they wish to use from other modules. Other modules may read the module exports (e.g drive(), miles etc. above) but they cannot modify them. Exports can be renamed as well so their names are different from local names.
Revisiting the export example above, we can now selectively choose what we wish to import when in another module.
We can just import drive() :
import drive from Car;
We can import drive() and miles :
import {drive, miles} from Car;
Earlier, we mentioned the concept of a Module Loader API. The module loader allows us to dynamically load in scripts for consumption. Similar to import, we are able to consume anything defined as an export from such modules.
// Signature: load(moduleURL, callback, errorCallback) Loader.load('car.js', function(car) { console.log(car.drive(500, 'north')); }, function(err) { console.log('Error:' + err); });
load() accepts three arguments:
moduleURL : The string representing a module URL (e.g "car.js")
: The string representing a module URL (e.g "car.js") callback : A callback function which receives the output result of attempting to load, compile and then execute the module
: A callback function which receives the output result of attempting to load, compile and then execute the module errorCallback : A callback triggered if an error occurs during loading or compilation
Whilst the above example seems fairly trivial to use, the Loader API is there to provide a way to load modules in controlled contexts and actually supports a number of different configuration options. Loader itself is a system provided instance of the API, but it's possible to create custom loaders using the Loader constructor.
What about classes?
I'm not going to be covering ES.next classes in this post in more, but for those wondering how they relate to modules, Alex Russell has previously shared a pretty readable example of how the two fit in - it's not at all about turning JavaScript into Java.
Classes in ES.next are there to provide a declarative surface for the semantics we're used to (e.g functions, prototypes) so that developer intent is expressed instead of the underlying imperative mechanics.
Here's some ES.next code for defining a widget:
module widgets { //... class DropDownButton extends Widget { constructor(attributes) { super(attributes); this.buildUI(); } buildUI() { this.domNode.onclick = function(){ //... }; } } }
Followed by today's de-sugared approach that ignores the semantic improvements brought by ES.next modules over the module pattern and instead emphasises our reliance of function variants:
var widgets = (function(global) { //... function DropDownButton(attributes) { Widget.call(this, attributes); this.buildUI(); } DropDownButton.prototype = Object.create(Widget.prototype, { constructor: { value: DropDownButton }, buildUI: { value: function(e) { this.domNode.onclick = function(e) { //... } } } }); })(this);
All the ES.next version does it makes the code more easy to read. What class means here is function, or at least, one of the things we currently do with functions. If you enjoy JavaScript and like using functions and prototypes, such sugar is nothing to fear in the next version of JavaScript.
Where do these modules fit in with AMD?
If anything, the landscape for modularization and loading of code on the front-end has seen a wealth of hacks, abuse and experimentation, but we've been able to get by so far.
Are ES.next modules a step in the right direction? Perhaps. My own take on them is that reading their specs is one thing and actually using them is another. Playing with the newer module syntax in Harmonizr, Require HM and Traceur, you actually get used to the syntax and semantics very quickly - it feels like using a cleaner module pattern but with access to native loader API for any dynamic module loading required at runtime. That said, the syntax might feel a little too much like Python for some peoples tastes (e.g the import statements).
I'm part of the camp that believe if there's functionality developers are using broadly enough (e.g better modules), the platform (i.e the browser) should be trying to offer some of this natively and I'm not alone in feeling this way. James Burke, who was instrumental in bringing us AMD and RequireJS has previously said:
I want AMD and RequireJS to go away. They solve a real problem, but ideally the language and runtime should have similar capabilities built in. Native support should be able to cover the 80% case of RequireJS usage, to the point that no userland "module loader" library should be needed for those use cases, at least in the browser.
James has however questioned whether ES.next modules are a sufficient solution. He covered some more of his thoughts on ES.next modules back in June in ES6 Modules: Suggestions for improvement and later in Why not AMD? for anyone interested in reading more about how these modules fit in with RequireJS and AMD.
Isaac Schlueter has also previously written up thoughts on where ES6 modules fall short that are worth noting. Try them out yourself using some of the options below and see what you think.
Use it today
Object.observe()
The idea behind Object.observe is that we gain the ability to observe and notify applications of changes made to specific JavaScript objects. Such changes include properties being added, updated, removed or reconfigured.
Property observing is behaviour we commonly find in JavaScript MVC frameworks at at the moment and is an important component of data-binding, found in solutions like AngularJS and Ember.
This is a fundamentally important addition to JS as it could both offer performance improvements over a framework's custom implementations and allow easier observation of plain native objects.
// A model can be a simple object var todoModel = { label: 'Default', completed: false }; // Which we then observe Object.observe(todoModel, function(changes) { changes.forEach(function(change, i) { console.log(change); /* What property changed? change.name How did it change? change.type Whats the current value? change.object[change.name] */ }); }); // Examples todoModel.label = 'Buy some more milk'; /* label changed It was changed by being updated Its current value is 'Buy some more milk' */ todoModel.completeBy = '01/01/2013'; /* completeBy changed It was changed by being new Its current value is '01/01/2013' */ delete todoModel.completed; /* completed changed It was changed by being deleted Its current value is undefined */
Availability: Object.observe will be available in Chrome Canary behind the "Enable Experimental JS APIs" flag. If you don't feel like getting that setup, you can also checkout this video by Rafael Weinstein discussing the proposal.
Use it today
Special build of Chromium
Watch.JS appears to offer similar behaviour, but isn't a polyfill or shim for Object.observe outright
Read more (Rick Waldron).
Default Parameter Values
Default parameter values allow us to initialize parameters if they are not explicitly supplied. This means that we no longer have to write options = options || {};.
The syntax is modified by allowing an (optional) initialiser after the parameter names:
function addTodo(caption = 'Do something') { console.log(caption); } addTodo(); // Do something
Only trailing parameters may have default values:
function addTodo(caption, order = 4) {} function addTodo(caption = 'Do something', order = 4) {} function addTodo(caption, order = 10, other = this) {}
Traceur demo
Availability: FF18
Block Scoping
Block scoping introduces new declaration forms for defining variables scoped to a single block. This includes:
let : which syntactically is quite similar to var, but defines a variable in the current block function, allowing function declarations in nested blocks
: which syntactically is quite similar to, but defines a variable in the current block function, allowing function declarations in nested blocks const : like let, but is for read-only constant declarations
Using let in place of var makes it easier to define block-local variables without worrying about them clashing with variables elsewhere in the same function body. The scope of a variable that's been declared inside a let statement using var is the same as if it had been declared outside the let statement. These types of variables will still have function scoping.
var x = 8; var y = 0; let (x = x+10, y = 12) { console.log(x+y); // 30 } console.log(x + y); // 8
let availability: FF18, Chrome 24+
const availability: FF18, Chrome 24+, SF6, WebKit, Opera 12
Maps and sets
Maps
Many of you will already be familiar with the concept of maps as we've been using plain JavaScript objects as them for quite some time. Maps allow us to map a value to a unique key such that we can retrieve the value using the key without the pains of prototype-based inheritance.
With the Maps set() method, new name-value pairs are stored in the map and using get(), the values can be retrieved. Maps also have the following three methods:
has(key) : a boolean check to test if a key exists
: a boolean check to test if a key exists delete(key) : deletes the key specified from the map
: deletes the key specified from the map size() : returns the number of stored name-value pairs
let m = new Map(); m.set('todo', 'todo'.length); // "something" → 4 m.get('todo'); // 4 m.has('todo'); // true m.delete('todo'); // true m.has('todo'); // false
Availability: FF18
Read more (Nicholas Zakas)
Use it today
Sets
As Nicholas has pointed out before, sets won't be new to developers coming from Ruby or Python, but it's a feature thats been missing from JavaScript. Data of any type can be stored in a set, although values can be set only once. They are an effective means of creating ordered list of values that cannot contain duplicates.
add(value) - adds the value to the set.
- adds the value to the set. delete(value) - sets the value for the key in the set.
- sets the value for the key in the set. has(value) - returns a boolean asserting whether the value has been added to the set
let s = new Set([1, 2, 3]); // s has 1, 2 and 3. s.has(-Infinity); // false s.add(-Infinity); // s has 1, 2, 3, and -Infinity. s.has(-Infinity); // true s.delete(-Infinity); // true s.has(-Infinity); // false
One possible use for sets is reducing the complexity of filtering operations. e.g:
function unique(array) { var seen = new Set; return array.filter(function (item) { if (!seen.has(item)) { seen.add(item); return true; } }); }
This results in O(n) for filtering uniques in an array. Almost all methods of array unique with objects are O(n^2) (credit goes to Brandon Benvie for this suggestion).
Availability: Firefox 18, Chrome 24+
Read more (Nicholas Zakas)
Use it today
Proxies
The Proxy API will allow us to create objects whose properties may be computed at run-time dynamically. It will also support hooking into other objects for tasks such as logging or auditing.
var obj = {foo: "bar"}; var proxyObj = Proxy.create({ get: function(obj, propertyName) { return 'Hey, '+ propertyName; } }); console.log(proxyObj.Alex); // "Hey, Alex"
Also checkout Zakas' Stack implementation using ES6 proxies experiment.
Availability: FF18, Chrome 24
Read more (Nicholas Zakas)
WeakMaps
WeakMaps help developers avoid memory leaks by holding references to their properties weakly, meaning that if a WeakMap is the only object with a reference to another object, the garbage collector may collect the referenced object. This behavior differs from all variable references in ES5.
A key property of Weak Maps is the inability to enumerate their keys.
let m = new WeakMap(); m.set('todo', 'todo'.length); // Exception! // TypeError: Invalid value used as weak map key m.has('todo'); // Exception! // TypeError: Invalid value used as weak map key let wmk = {}; m.set(wmk, 'thinger'); // wmk → 'thinger' m.get(wmk); // 'thinger' m.has(wmk); // true m.delete(wmk); // true m.has(wmk); // false
So again, the main difference between WeakMaps and Maps is that WeakMaps are not enumerable.
Use it today
Read more (Nicholas Zakas)
API improvements
Object.is
Introduces a function for comparison called Object.is. The main difference between === and Object.is are the way NaN s and (negative) zeroes are treated. A NaN is equal to another NaN and negative zeroes are not equal from other positive zeroes.
Object.is(0, -0); // false Object.is(NaN, NaN); // true 0 === -0; // true NaN === NaN; // false
Availability: Chrome 24+
Use it today
Array.from
Array.from : Converts a single argument that is an array-like object or list (eg. arguments, NodeList, DOMTokenList (used by classList), NamedNodeMap (used by attributes property)) into a new Array() and returns it;
Converting any Array-Like objects:
Array.from({ 0: 'Buy some milk', 1: 'Go running', 2: 'Pick up birthday gifts', length: 3 });
The following examples illustrate common DOM use cases:
var divs = document.querySelectorAll('div'); Array.from(divs); // [<div class="some classes" data-info="12"></div>, <div data-info="10"></div>] Array.from(divs).forEach(function(node) { console.log(node); });
Use it today
Conclusions
ES.next is shaping up to potentially include solutions for what many of us consider are missing from JavaScript at the moment. Whilst ES6 is targeting a 2013 spec release, browsers are already implementing individual features and it's only a matter of time before their availability is widespread.
In the meantime, we can use (some) modern browsers, transpilers, shims and in some cases custom builds to experiment with features before ES6 is fully here.
For more examples and up to date information, feel free to checkout the TC39 Codex Wiki (which was a great reference when putting together this post) maintained by Dave Herman and others. It contains summaries of all features currently being targeted for the next version of JavaScript.
Exciting times are most definitely ahead.The media whirlwind surrounding the Oscar nomination of the documentary 5 Broken Cameras has put the spotlight on film as a tool for social justice in Palestine. In the film, Palestinian farmer and filmmaker Emad Burnat chronicles the struggle against the construction of the “Apartheid Wall” in the West Bank village of Bil’in. He records demonstrations in the village as well as its cultural and social gatherings. Throughout the course of filming the movie, Israeli security forces break five of Burnat’s cameras.
5 Broken Cameras is one more step in the ongoing global effort to raise awareness about the Israeli occupation. But another video released last year to much less fanfare had a very tangible impact on one family. Thanks to footage posted online under the title “isreali (sic) army tortured a woman,” Abdelrahaman Salayma is not in jail.
The video was shot in Hebron (also known by its Arabic name, Khalil), a city divided into two sections under a system Israel calls the “separation policy.” This ancient and vibrant city, a center of industry in the West Bank, has become one of the most troubled examples of life under Israeli occupation. The area known as H2 is under full Israeli military control, and access is highly restricted for Palestinians. All Palestinian shops in H2 were closed by the Israeli military following the 1994 massacre of 29 Palestinians by Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein. Palestinians are barred from living in most H2 areas. H1, on the other hand, is under Palestinian Authority control.
In Hebron’s historic old city, H1 runs right alongside H2. About 500 ultra-Zionist settlers live in H2, and the Israeli government provides as many as 2,000 soldiers to protect them. Many of these settlers live next door to Palestinians, and some Palestinian homes have had their front doors welded shut by the military, forcing the residents to enter through windows accessible only from the roof.
The old city is also the center of settler violence in Hebron. Especially vulnerable are those, like Abdulrahaman Salayma, who live near the Tel Rumeida settlement. The Palestinians in the area are subjected to frequent attacks by both settlers and soldiers. Settlers habitually throw rocks and fists at Palestinians — and, in one particularly extreme case, a washing machine. Soldiers enter homes for random night raids, terrorizing the residents and searching through their belongings.
When the soldiers broke in to Salayma’s house, he thought it was just a regular night raid. “I said, ‘Maybe it’s something normal, because the soldiers come often,’” he told me. “[Then] a soldier grabbed me by the shirt, so I thought, ‘Maybe this is something new.’”
The soldiers told Salayma to get dressed because he was under arrest. His mother began screaming at the soldiers to let her son go. At this point, someone in his family started filming.
In the video, Salayma’s mother can be seen screaming at the soldiers as they drag her violently from the house. She falls to the ground and is picked up by the soldiers before being taken to jail along with her son.
“They kept her in jail four days. Thirteen soldiers went to court and said she hit them,” Salayma said. But Salayma’s family had the video.
Issa Amro is the director of Youth Against Settlements, the group that posted the video on YouTube. He believes the video alone saved Salayma and his mother from an extended stay in Israeli prison. “If it wasn’t on film, they both could have gone to jail for a long time,” he said.
In a tragic twist of fate, video also became an integral element in the story of Salayma’s cousin Mohammad, murdered on his 17th birthday by Israeli border police in Hebron. The border police initially claimed Mohammad had attacked them with what turned out to be a toy gun, but a security-camera video released later puts the lie to their story. Mohammad was empty-handed when he was killed.
The footage can’t help Mohammad, but for thousands of people living in Hebron’s old city, video often makes all the difference.
Another volunteer with Youth Against Settlements, Sundus Allazeh, told me, “If we want to take a picture or film settlers or soldiers making problems, it helps us a lot.” It produces an immediate change in the aggressors’ behavior. I’ve heard this story over and over again while covering Hebron for the Palestine Monitor.
Edan Alsharabaty of Youth Against Settlements told me, “When the soldiers see the cameras, they will stop attacking, or they will talk with the people in a nice way.” Sami Nastheh, co-founder of the Hebron Defense Committee, said, “The cameras are the only thing that makes the soldiers afraid.”
Many of the cameras in Hebron were donated by B’Tselem, an Israeli human-rights organization that maintains an office in the city. Over the last eight years B’Tselem has distributed more than 200 cameras in Gaza and the West Bank, including 40 in Hebron alone. Musa Abu Hashhash, a field worker with B’Tselem, reiterated the effect that cameras have on the behavior of soldiers and settlers.
“It’s a big difference,” he said. “First, for the people, it reduced violence, especially by the settlers or soldiers. When you open your camera in the face of a settler or soldier, they stop. This is for sure.”
B’Tselem also takes footage to court on behalf of Palestinians arrested unjustly by Israeli security forces. B’Tselem field researcher Manal al-Ja’bari said she provided footage of arrests to the Israeli courts 10 times, and in all but one case the person being detained was released. Despite the notoriously unjust court system Israel uses for Palestinians, the videos provide such hard evidence that the judge is forced to release the prisoners.
Although filming in public is unambiguously legal under Israeli law, B’Tselem takes precautionary measures. Its volunteers are given copies of permits authorized by the IDF’s high commander in Hebron, as well as a letter from B’Tselem’s director. They put B’Tselem stickers on the cameras to provide another layer of protection to their volunteers.
Buying cameras, however, is expensive. Al-Ja’bari told me there still aren’t enough cameras for everyone who needs them in Hebron, and B’Tselem is forced to distribute them according to levels of need.
“We gave cameras to those who had been attacked several times,” she said. And not everyone is willing to take one. “Many people have been attacked, but they are afraid.”
Abu Hashhash of B’Tselem told me that when the group began operating in Hebron, it often provoked violent reactions from Israeli soldiers. But this has happened less and less often thanks to the refusal of B’Tselem and others to stop filming.
“At the beginning they were very angry at being filmed. They would break the camera, detain volunteers. But they got used to it,” he said. “This was not easy. It was hard work. It took patience, sacrifices.”
The idea of casting a watchful eye on police and security forces isn’t unique to Palestine. In the United States, such “copwatch” programs date back to at least the Black Panthers. Organizations such as Witness continue this tradition today, offering online trainings and producing documentaries based on video testimony collected by members. Witness’ Cameras Everywhere Initiative seeks to build a framework for making effective use of cameras as they become increasingly more ubiquitous in conflict zones around the world.
And, of course, Palestinian protests like those shown in 5 Broken Cameras will continue to be documented and broadcast to the world, spreading their messages and raising awareness. But for residents of Hebron, cameras play a crucial self-defense role in daily life. For Sami Nastheh, cameras are “one of the most effective weapons we have.”
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A 16-inch wastewater main broke, causing more than 100,000 gallons of wastewater to leak out on Farm to Market Road 620 Four Points Drive |
for avoiding problems and self-inflicted wounds. I would hope that more US officials would be honest, as opposed to just pushing out things that are designed to promote oneself or protect oneself.
'We cannot build walls, despite what some people may think, and keep problems out'
Former CIA director John Brennan testifies before the House Intelligence Committee to take questions on “Russian active measures during the 2016 election campaign” in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., May 23, 2017. Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Shontell: A big issue increasingly is cybersecurity. And it seems as if we're pretty ill-prepared — there are leaks happening all over the place, the CIA was just part of a data dump from WikiLeaks. How big a threat do you think this is, and does it keep you up at night?
Brennan: Well, my stock answer to the question when I was at the agency, I used to say, "Nothing — I'm so friggin' tired at the end of the night. Just as soon as my head hits the pillow, 15 seconds later." But it is one of the issues that I'm very concerned about, because the cyber domain, the digital domain is the environment now where most human activity takes place, across all different areas, whether it be social media, financial, educational, commerce, business, you name it. That's the environment that is rich now with opportunity, risks, and dangers. The issue that I think we have to come to grips with as a nation is that we really have to decide for ourselves what's the role of the government in the digital domain.
There is this great debate about what's the government doing there — it's an invasion of privacy. Well, what we need to do is optimize those things that we want in the digital domain. We want to optimize security and safety, we want to optimize privacy and civil liberties, and we need to find a balance whereby the government can help to keep that environment rich so that we're able to prosper as a country. The challenge is that 85% of the critical digital infrastructure of the world is owned and operated by the private sector.
Shontell: Apple, Google, Facebook.
Brennan: All of them, whether it be internet service providers or all the various technical firms. So I have argued that there needs to be an unprecedented partnership between the government and the private sector to determine how the government's authorities and capabilities can be applied to that environment that's going to not sacrifice our privacy and civil liberties or security — it's going to optimize both. That's a big challenge. It's going to take a major, major effort, something akin to the Manhattan Project, and also the digital domain does not respect sovereign boundaries. So this is the challenge I think of the 21st century. If we continue to admire the problem, we do so at our own peril.
Shontell: The US has been a world leader for a long time. Do you think that the way things are moving, we are at risk of losing that? Or are you optimistic?
Brennan: That's a really good question, and I think the United States of America is an exceptional nation. We're an exceptional country because we have such tremendous good fortune, and, to me, we have exceptional responsibility then to do what we can to have this world be as stable and as peaceful as possible because we are an interconnected world, and people who think that we should ignore what's going on overseas — whether it be in the Middle East or Europe, Asia, Africa — really do not understand just how interconnected our world is. What happens in those countries really makes a difference to our global strength, our capabilities, and our security.
What we need to do is to continue to play this role on the world stage. Looking back on the last 100 years, the United States had isolationist tendencies before the two world wars and, thankfully, those isolationist tendencies melted away as we recognized that we needed to join forces with allied countries to stave off fascism and Nazism and communism, which we did.
But now when I look in places like the United States and Europe and other areas where you have this anti-incumbent and populist movement that's gaining strength, I think it's really telling that politicians and governments have really not stepped up to what their responsibilities are. And so now there is this popular sentiment about pushing these people out. This administration is going to recognize that we do play this extraordinarily exceptional role on global affairs. We need to do so judiciously. We cannot just go in and think that we can take care of North Korea's nuclear ballistic-missile program easily with a military strike. You cannot do that. We have to be thoughtful about this. But our presence worldwide, our leadership really needs to, I think, loom large now just because of the nature of the challenges we face, how many there are out there, and just how complex these issues are.
If the United States were to shrink from its responsibilities on the world stage, it would be bad news for global stability as well as for peace security in so many countries around the world. And it will hurt us. We cannot build walls, despite what some people may think, and keep problems out.
What it was like in the Situation Room during the Osama bin Laden raid
John Brennan, in the back right corner, watching the raid that took out Osama bin Laden, alongside Obama and Clinton. US Department of Defense
Shontell: We wrapped up the Brennan interview by letting the audience ask some questions. One of the audience members asked Brennan what one of his proudest moments was during the CIA after 9/11.
Brennan: Well, obviously a lot of people talk about the takedown of bin Laden. I was the president's assistant for counterterrorism at the time, worked very closely with the CIA and Special Forces. And so clearly that, you know, ranks up there.
Shontell: What was it like to be in that room?
Brennan: It was a 72-hour period of time there that was quite, quite intense as we went up to the point of bin Laden's takedown. And I must say that the minutes seemed like hours, it went on and on, and even after we knew that it seemed like the raid was successful, waiting for our forces that carried out that raid to get out of Pakistani airspace safely because it was a fair distance that had to travel, it was white knuckles, because you always want to be able to succeed in your mission but you also want to make sure that the people who are undertaking these great risks and doing it are going to come home safely. And I think it just shows just how tremendously skilled US military is in terms of doing these things, so clearly that was a proud moment. There are a number of other moments that when I was at the CIA that I'd love to be able to tell you about.
Shontell: Please.
Brennan: But I can't, and that really is what is typical about the agency is that the successes are ones that you cannot tout and you don't see on the front pages. There were some real white-knuckle moments when I was at the agency, when we were trying to either do something that was very, very delicate and sensitive, that if we failed, it would have had tremendously negative implications and impact on national security, as well as things that we were doing that really were quite risky for the people involved and sweated bullets over it. And thankfully, because of the great competence of the people, those things came off successfully.
Every time when I'd go down to the White House and I was bringing forth what the CIA was able to contribute to the national-security discussion, it gave me tremendous pride. I'll always feel that I'm a CIA officer, a retired one now. But there is a camaraderie and esprit de corps that really is very, very special.
Shontell: Thank you so much, John. We could all spend many more hours with you, but unfortunately we need to let you go catch your flight. Thank you very much.BOSTON (Reuters) - Car hacking is not a new field, but its secrets have long been closely guarded. That is about to change, thanks to two well-known computer software hackers who got bored finding bugs in software from Microsoft and Apple.
Security researcher Charlie Miller holds two automobile electronic control module circuit boards while posing in his home-office in Wildwood, Missouri, April 30, 2013. REUTERS/Sarah Conard
Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek say they will publish detailed blueprints of techniques for attacking critical systems in the Toyota Prius and Ford Escape in a 100-page white paper, following several months of research they conducted with a grant from the U.S. government.
The two “white hats” - hackers who try to uncover software vulnerabilities before criminals can exploit them - will also release the software they built for hacking the cars at the Def Con hacking convention in Las Vegas this week.
They said they devised ways to force a Toyota Prius to brake suddenly at 80 miles an hour, jerk its steering wheel, or accelerate the engine. They also say they can disable the brakes of a Ford Escape traveling at very slow speeds, so that the car keeps moving no matter how hard the driver presses the pedal.
“Imagine what would happen if you were near a crowd,” said Valasek, director of security intelligence at consulting firm IOActive, known for finding bugs in Microsoft Corp’s Windows software.
But it is not as scary as it may sound at first blush.
They were sitting inside the cars using laptops connected directly to the vehicles’ computer networks when they did their work. So they will not be providing information on how to hack remotely into a car network, which is what would typically be needed to launch a real-world attack.
The two say they hope the data they publish will encourage other white-hat hackers to uncover more security flaws in autos so they can be fixed.
“I trust the eyes of 100 security researchers more than the eyes that are in Ford and Toyota,” said Miller, a Twitter security engineer known for his research on hacking Apple Inc’s App Store.
Toyota Motor Corp spokesman John Hanson said the company was reviewing the work. He said the carmaker had invested heavily in electronic security, but that bugs remained - as they do in cars of other manufacturers.
“It’s entirely possible to do,” Hanson said, referring to the newly exposed hacks. “Absolutely we take it seriously.”
Ford Motor Co spokesman Craig Daitch said the company takes seriously the electronic security of its vehicles. He said the fact that Miller’s and Valasek’s hacking methods required them to be inside the vehicle they were trying to manipulate mitigated the risk.
“This particular attack was not performed remotely over the air, but as a highly aggressive direct physical manipulation of one vehicle over an elongated period of time, which would not be a risk to customers and any mass level,” Daitch said.
‘TIME TO SHORE UP DEFENSES’
Miller and Valasek said they did not research remote attacks because that had already been done.
A group of academics described ways to infect cars using Bluetooth systems and wireless networks in 2011. But unlike Miller and Valasek, the academics have kept the details of their work a closely guarded secret, refusing even to identify the make of the car they hacked. (reut.rs/NWOPjq)
Their work got the attention of the U.S. government. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has begun an auto cybersecurity research program.
“While increased use of electronic controls and connectivity is enhancing transportation safety and efficiency, it brings a new challenge of safeguarding against potential vulnerabilities,” the agency said in a statement. It said it knew of no consumer incident where a vehicle was hacked.
Still, some experts believe malicious hackers may already have the ability to launch attacks.
“It’s time to shore up the defenses,” said Tiffany Strauchs Rad, a researcher with Kaspersky Lab, who previously worked for an auto security research center.
A group of European computer scientists had been scheduled to present research on hacking the locks of luxury vehicles, including Porsches, Audis, Bentleys and Lamborghinis, at a conference in Washington in mid-August.
But Volkswagen AG obtained a restraining order from a British high court prohibiting discussion of the research by Flavio D. Garcia of the University of Birmingham, and Roel Verdult and Baris Ege of Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands.
A spokeswoman for the three scientists said they would pull out of the prestigious Usenix conference because of the restraining order. Both universities said they would hold off on publishing the paper, pending the resolution of litigation. (See FACTBOX by clicking)
Volkswagen declined to comment.Tweet Ninebot Mini Released By Xiaomi Funded Robotics Transportation Start-Up Based In Beijing.
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By Date: 20 Oct 2015
Xiaomi, famous for delivering high grade smartphones, tablets and wearable at affordable and fair prices, has just expanded its reach into other segments like robotics and autonomous vehicles. Ninebot Inc. is a counterpart of the Segway in Beijing, China
Although Xiaomi itself manufactures smartphones, tablets, routers, TVs and set-top boxes, it also invests in many other companies so that they can collaborate on products ranging in other segments like power banks, water purifiers or, as of now, self-balanced scooters. The western countries have been selling Segways and Swegways for quite a time, however, they are still among the segment of toys for kids and are quite hefty an investment. The main objective through this collaboration between Ninebot Inc and Xiaomi was to introduce a product that has the same features at nearly half of the price that any self-balanced scooter currently boasts.
The first product from Ninebot Inc is called Ninebot Mini, which is a self-balancing scooter that runs on two wheels that is navigated using a handle and foot pressure. The Ninebot Mini features all specs that its counterparts have but at half of the price. These are controlled by sophisticated electronic circuits and technology that convert your muscle pressure exerted on its footrest to steer the vehicle. The vehicle runs on batteries and can manage a distance of 22 km on a single charge. The maximum load it can support is 85 kg and can run uphill up to an angle of 15? inclinations. The maximum speed has been electronically set to 16 km per hour and is just meant for street transport, mostly as an alternative to a bicycle or walking.
The weight is about 12 kg including the head gear. This product will be on sale in China from November 3 through Mi.com. This shows the current interests of Xiaomi in expanding beyond just consumer electronics, but also mechanical and robotic products aimed at the masses. The self-balancing scooter was also one of the hottest bet considering that it is still quite expensive for the public in the western countries. Thus, it was only a natural attempt to try to provide an affordable alternative without compromising on quality. It is sure to give a boost in its user base in the homeland, at the moment.
Watch the video for Ninebot Mini Released By Xiaomi Funded Robotics Transportation Start-Up Based In Beijing.:
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Rate:In Fort Collins, Colo., librarians strung white lights and scattered rose petals for two date nights last fall. The main library in Sacramento recently hosted its second event. Libraries in Chattanooga, Tenn., Piscataway, N.J., and Omaha all held soirees for Valentine’s Day last month.
“The library wants to be a gathering place that is relevant to younger people,” said Donya Drummond, the reference librarian who promoted the San Francisco event, mostly through Facebook. “We had more people than we knew what to do with.”
Literary speed dating seems to have its roots in Europe. Danny Theuwis, a librarian from Leuven, Belgium, believes he and his colleagues introduced the concept in 2005 with the goal to enliven somber libraries, and make them “more alive, more direct, more emotional,” he said in an e-mail. He trained hundreds of librarians across Europe to host literary speed dating, or “bibdating” in Flemish.
Among the first of similar events in the United States took place at the Omaha Public Library Benson Branch, where Amy Mather, a librarian, and her colleague at the time, Manya Shorr, organized a “Hardbound to Heartbound” night in 2009, on Valentine’s Day. Some 65 people showed up.
Library Journal, a trade publication, named the two women “Library Leaders Creating the 2.0 Library of the Future” for their efforts to attract “a generation that came of age in the Age of the Internet.”
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“The age range from 20 to 40 is a population that we do tend to lose unless they have young kids to bring them into the library,” said Audra Caplan, president of the Public Library Association. “They’re paying taxes and voting. We need to be viable to them and provide them with experiences and resources that are useful.”
Last spring the Collaborative Summer Library Program, a national consortium of public libraries, included literary speed dating on its list of suggested adult library programming. Since then, libraries across the country have been dimming the lights and playing matchmaker.
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“It’s a safe space,” said Diane Moore, a librarian at the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library. “There is no alcohol, so you don’t have to worry about people saying ‘Oh, baby’ one night, and then the next morning waking up and going, ‘Yikes!’ ”
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One logistical snag is the preponderance of women. Libraries reported difficulties attracting men in sufficient numbers. In downtown Fort Collins, an event had to be canceled when no men signed up. At the San Francisco event, the sign-up ratio was about one man to every five women. (The one exception seemed to be the same-sex night, when more than twice as many gay men turned up as lesbians.)
“We can’t figure out how to get enough men,” Ms. Moore said. Chattanooga’s downtown branch is planning to host date nights quarterly, and is soliciting ideas for how to draw more men. Some have suggested putting photographs of attractive young women on their leaflets. Others proposed playing down fiction, since men seemed to bring in more nonfiction books.
That was not the case at the San Francisco Public Library, where women and men showed an eclectic range. Not surprisingly, the book you brought advertised something about your compatibility.
One man brought a science fiction book he wrote himself. Another participant, Tiffany Bukowski, a 24-year-old marketer, brought a collection of short stories by Charles Bukowski, the infamous womanizer, with whom she shares a surname.
“One guy brought in Kafka,” said Ms. Bukowski, who wore a quick smile and low-cut sleeveless dress. “I’m like, ‘What are you trying to say about yourself with that?’ ”
Still, she seemed to hit it off with the Kafka guy. The witty exchange prompted her to include the man on her list of those she would like to see again. It wasn’t clear if he felt the same.
As for Mr. Lee, the software engineer, he went to dinner and karaoke with a woman he met at the library, though things fizzled after one date. He was undeterred and said he would come again.
“The books were almost irrelevant,” Mr. Lee said. “But if your four minutes is feeling like a long time, you have your book to fall back on. It’s a great prop.”Editorial Note: This is Chapter 8 of Brian Davey’s book Credo, which can be accessed online for free here.
Some of the ridiculous assumptions on which much of mainstream economics is constructed are explored in this chapter – for example the methodology that stresses individual decision- making, the assumption that decision-makers have the information that they need, the assumption of honesty, the default assumption of competition. (TEXT BOX: Labour market competition as an alternative to corporal punishment according to Hayek).
Today’s leading economic textbook writer, Greg Mankiw, has compared non-economists to “mere Muggles”, the ordinary people without magical powers described in the Harry Potter novels. His implication is that economists are “wizards”. (Mankiw, 2008)
Perhaps they are. However, people with magical abilities are not always to be trusted.
The ideas of the economists are important because they frame the way we understand the world, sometimes distracting us from understanding and living in the world in other ways. The economists claim that they describe the world as it is, rather than describing it as it should be, but there is an entire value system implicit in economics. It is implicit in their definition of what it is to be “rational”. Implicitly, economists are making a truth claim about how human beings are, what makes them tick.
Unaware of the criticism of their model of rationality (or ignoring the criticism) it seems reasonable to economists to theorise human beings as if they act in a predictable way by calculating their individual self-interest to maximise their utility and then acting accordingly. This makes possible a deterministic view of human action that allows economists to model markets as fundamentally positive social institutions which can solve virtually all problems.
In actual fact, economists are there as advocates for a particular kind of value system. They are not unlike priests whose job it is to argue that their beliefs should be guiding principles for life.
Some economists are well aware of this. Robert Nelson describes debates about economics as having a “theological character“. He worked as an economist in the US Department of the Interior with responsibility for the upkeep of national parks and landscapes in the USA:
If economists had any influence—which they sometimes did, if rarely decisive—it was seldom as literal “problem solvers”. Rather, the greatest influence of economists came through their defence of a set of values. Much of my own and other efforts of Interior (Ministry) economists were really to persuade others in the department to act in accordance with the economic value system, as compared with other competing priorities and sets of values also represented within the ranks of the department. (Nelson R. H., 2001, p. xiv)
Ridiculous assumptions
In other sciences ideas evolve by testing hypotheses against the facts. In economics what mostly happens is that simple models are created which have this kind of form:
assuming human beings behave in a particular kind of way e.g. as consumers seeking to maximise their level of satisfaction through purchasing
assuming their behaviour takes place in a particular set of conditions e.g. they are fully aware of all their consumption options available with their purchasing power
faced with a particular change in conditions it is possible to state how they will adapt, as well as to quantify this adaptation e.g. faced with a price change they will change how much that they buy by so much
This appears to be an exercise in logic rather like this – All men are mortal, Socrates is a man, therefore Socrates is mortal. The premises of this argument are things asserted to be true which in this case are that “all men are mortal” and that “Socrates is a man”. The conclusion that follows automatically is that Socrates is mortal. This conclusion does not really add any new information to the premises that have been proposed, it only draws out the consequence. In a sense, the conclusion is already contained in the premises.
In an apparently similar way the conclusions of economics follow from the starting points of their modelling analyses. However, the starting points of economic models are not premises asserted to be true but assumptions. These assumptions do not have a truth value status based on evidence but, on first impressions, appear to be plausible. (Bardsley, Cubitt, Loomes, Moat, Starmer, & Sugden, 2010, p. Chtp5)
If many people do not realise that this is a fraud, it is partly because the mathematics, the symbols and the diagrams with which the models are expressed enable economists to distance themselves from ordinary people, rather in the manner that speaking Latin enabled priests to put themselves above the common people.
Consider this proposition:
If Socrates is assumed to be a woman, and if all women are assumed to live forever, then it can be assumed that Socrates will be immortal.
It is obvious what is wrong with this proposition. Nevertheless, the falsity of economic propositions are not always so obvious. This is partly because some of the assumptions have a superficial plausibility and sometimes because the assumptions remain implicit, unstated and unexamined. The most important point here, however, is that there is no evidence for these assumptions. Read any economic textbook and you will find it rich in numerical examples that were made up by the author. They are neither taken from real life nor based on evidence. This is an ideal basis for a self-serving ideology in which this kind of “logic” can prove anything that is wanted according to the starting assumptions. Economics like this is not falsifiable because evidence is implicitly deemed to be unnecessary in the first place.
If you assume no problems at the start of the theory you will conclude that the economic world works without problems. For example, if, as was the case for many years, you assume that there are no problems in getting the information that you need to take economic decisions, then all the uncertainties, the dishonesty, the misinterpretation and the errors that take place in the real world disappear from the theory. The conclusions of models that do not draw on real world evidence are only as accurate as the assumptions they start with – no more and no less. A good deal of textbook economics is a description of what economists assume the world is like.
Even worse, the construction of models based on assumptions enables the imagination of a world akin to the one that Dr Pangloss believes he lives in. He is the character in Voltaire’s satire, Candide, who at every misfortune reassures everyone that all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds. Nothing will go wrong in the world of the mainstream economists because growth, technology, innovation, markets and entrepreneurial zeal together have the mechanisms for fixing all problems for ever. The message is perpetually upbeat and reassuring – which it can be when you construct a model of the world with assumptions that don’t include the problems.
Thus, markets are “efficient” and welfare outcomes are “optimal” when the starting assumptions contain none of the real life issues that would make them otherwise. In order to arrive at these optimal and efficient outcomes what is needed above all is “competition”. This is another very handy conclusion. It enables neoclassical economists to convince themselves and successive generations of students that, as long as the state minimises its involvement in markets, we live in this best of all possible worlds.
Competition is an idea which has many useful ideological functions. Instead of being a place of shambolic chaos, a competitive market is portrayed as having its own kind of order without a single big player – state or monopoly – needing to take all the decisions for overall coherence. With a set of assumptions that portrays this competitive market order as “optimal”, here is an argument that can be used as a default presumption against co-operation; against state regulations; against taxation; against trade union combination in the labour market. Competition is an idea that stands for general “freedom” from interference for powerful economic actors, against any limitation on their rights to act – and therefore for a general understanding of what “freedom” means for everyone else in society too. It can be used by those who are the strongest to prevent support for the weakest, and generally in a self-celebratory way praising “success” as the result of “efficiency”.
But let’s look at some of the most common assumptions that underpin the key idea.
Methodological individualism
To take the first issue – in the textbooks, markets are places where there are lots of actors and, to get a collective picture of what happens, you simply add up the actions of all the separate individuals. Of course, this does not rule out the idea that the separate individuals have previously influenced each other, but that is not what is explored. This is a version of what is called “methodological individualism” and there is no place in it for applying the insights of group psycho-dynamics. This is not because methodological individualists necessarily deny that the “preferences” that form people’s choices can be formed by social, interpersonal or community processes – it is rather because they take the “preferences” that give rise to choices as givens. They see themselves as modelling rational behaviour about what people will do with a pattern of preferences, a certain amount of purchasing power when faced with a set of prices. As economists, they are not concerned to delve further. In that sense, methodological individualism is a choice to ignore why people prefer and choose what they do. It is a choice to ignore and thus a choice to remain ignorant.
It is no wonder that, when criticising their teachers a few years ago, French economics students described neoclassical economics as “autistic”. Autism is a psychiatric disorder where a person is unable to recognise other people as people, as acting subjects. The autistic person is, thus, unable to form meaningful reciprocal relationships. Of course, in their private lives even neoclassical economists recognise that people act in groups in which they interact and have a reciprocal influence on each other – in families, in clubs, in associations, in societies, in crowds. A lot of what happens in markets is driven by crowd psychology. What is “fashion” if not a form of collective psychology? Arrangements made by producers try to influence and steer fashion processes which are only partly under their control.
When I go into supermarkets or department stores at the weekend it is full of families who are taking group decisions about purchasing. At other times, there are mothers who are taking decisions for partners and children. But that is not what most of the theories assume.
Ignoring ignorance – the myth of perfect information vs the thinking of the herd
Let’s look at another assumption. It is only in the last few decades that a new approach of “information economics” has evolved out of the recognition that access to information is crucial to decisions and market outcomes. Many of the textbooks from which today’s elite were taught assumed that markets had all the information that market actors needed. Indeed, some of the more elaborate models that “proved” the superiority of markets to allocate resources assumed that market actors had god like powers because they could make accurate assessments of the future too.
In fact the market is almost always shot through with a lack of information and/or information asymmetry. Perhaps in the world of Adam Smith’s small town butcher, baker and brewer, people could pick up gossip about their suppliers and even know them personally. But how does information work in a global market? How does it work with products made out of hundreds of components made out of hundreds of materials supplied by global supply chains? How does this work with meat products in the freezers of supermarkets? People buy what they think are beef products and are dependent on public health authorities to discover that they have been eating horse meat.
A very powerful reason why people have so much influence on each other lies in the absence of information and the uncertainty in which many economic decisions are taken. When you don’t know, you ask and/or you take your cues from other people.
Margaret Thatcher once famously said that “there is no such thing as society” which is one of those monumentally stupid things that powerful people can say and get away with because they are surrounded by sycophants. A very powerful person like Thatcher could doubt the existence of society because she had little need for the ideas and inluence of other people as she would have known that she was always right. By contrast mere mortals are influenced by others because we live in a world of uncertainty and inadequate information. Allowing ourselves to be in influenced by what others are doing and saying is a rough and ready way of coping with the information that we lack. Thus, we come to be influenced and swayed by social trends.
One cannot possibly understand the mentality of what are called “bubbles” in asset markets and speculation, except through collective psychology. Whether and how much of a commodity, or an asset, is purchased depends powerfully not just on current prices but on what people expect will happen to prices in the future. When they try to figure out what is likely to happen to future market valuations, perhaps the most powerful influence of all is what other people are saying and thinking. Anyone who reads a newspaper like the Financial Times will be struck by the way it is full of reports which convey to the readers what the “market sentiment” is, that is, what others think will happen.
Up to a point, movements in market sentiment are exercises in self-fufillling prophecy. If a rise in price is taken to be indicative of an ongoing trend, which will lead to even higher prices later, then many traders will follow each other and be tempted to buy more now, before prices go higher and possibly also to make money in the “rising market”. Perhaps speculators imagine that they can sell what they buy now on a rising price for an even higher price later. We have already seen how speculation drove up rising grain prices in the famines of India, taking food out of the mouths of the poor even in areas of good harvests.
Honesty and Dishonesty
Other, sharper, market actors seek to play these movements in a devious fashion. This brings us to the third of our assumptions about why competitive markets deliver wonderful outcomes. It assumes that market players are honest when a lot are not. If people are only motivated by individualistically calculated self-interest why should they not resort to fraud and opportunism, to secrecy and misleading accounts of product quality?
This kind of duplicity affects what happens during speculative manias. For example, if you know that the shares of a company are going to lose value because you have insider information that a company or an industry is heading towards a big loss, if you have no commitment to the company or the industry, and if you no scruples, you will want to sell the shares at a high price before the truth gets out. So you might launch a PR campaign to hype the company or industry that you know is heading for a loss. That way you seek to create a rising market in order to offload your otherwise worthless shares on the people who get taken in. The game being played is to let other suckers take the losses.
That happened at the end of the subprime boom where bank traders sold what they referred to privately as “toxic waste” to unsuspecting customers as if these assets were of real value. A similar thing is happening at the time of writing in the gas fracking industry. All over the world, articles are appearing about the incredible potential for gas fracking. Meanwhile, industry insiders are pointing out the rapid depletion of the wells, the number of wells that come up dry and the high cost of drilling. If you believe the former narrative you put up money to enter the industry – and allow the insiders in the know to get out.
So here you have it. If we assume that most actors do not know what it going on and are able to influence each other, along with insiders who do have the best information acting as crooks trying to mislead and defraud other people, this gives us a far better fit for understanding what actually happens in markets. Instead, we have models which assume the reverse and this is what is taught to students.
Perfect competition
To be fair, neoclassical economists do get rather cross when businesses seek to accumulate monopoly power. This is paradoxical because competitive success leads to the weaker companies being driven out and/or taken over by the stronger ones thereby accumulating more monopoly power. Without competition the bracing Darwinist struggle between businesses does not deliver the benefits advertised in the textbooks, such as, cheaper products for all of us. For that reason some capitalist countries have “competition” policies and police against secret agreements between companies that “restrain trade” in favour of higher prices at the consumer’s expense. However, a closer examination of some of these policies often reveals that the intended result is the opposite of the stated one. As already mentioned, the ideology of competition through free trade is intended to clear the field for those companies in those countries that are already in the globally dominant position. It is about preventing competition emerging in the first place and consolidating global dominance. Throughout economic history the ideology of competition has been used to open up markets to the strongest market players and enable them to accumulate further market power. These are the players who will be most influential in political lobbying in the corridors of power. These are the very private sector players who will be influential in university departments of economics.
Text Box– Labour market competition as an alternative to corporal Punishment according to Hayek
Where neoclassical economists can be expected to get indignant is if competition is limited is in the labour market. If workers form trade unions to create for themselves a countervailing power over and against their employer then economists are rarely sympathetic and almost always take the side of employers. Not many infants are born because their parents decided to do their bit to supply the future labour market. However, that does not excuse these infants, when they grow up, from their duty to compete in the labour market for work and take the going price. When there is full employment, this gives employees far too much “market power” for “optimality”. As Hayek puts it in his book The Road to Serfdom, without unemployment, managers lose their ability to discipline workers and take on or lay off workers according to their plans.
“… there should be a place from which workers can be drawn, and when a worker is fired he should vanish from the job and from the payroll. In the absence of a free reservoir discipline cannot be maintained without corporal punishment, as with slave labour.” Quoted in (Smith & Max-Neef, 2011, p. 35)
Note the verb “should”… at the beginning of most textbooks there are usually little homilies that say economists describe the world as it is and not as it should be – but that’s not for Hayek. The labour market needs an alternative for corporal punishment if the workers is to be managed as an input to be used and disposed of as required. Workers are a means to the ends of employers.
At the risk of going off on a tangent, I cannot help but wonder what Hayek would have said about this famous principle from the philosopher Kant:
“Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end.” (Kant & (Tr.)Ellington, 1993, p. 30)
I’ve already claimed that human relationships are not the strong point of economists – neoclassical or Austrian. Hayek’s requirement for some kind of discipline derives as a self-fulfilling imperative from the mind-set of employers who use people merely as means, for example, as “factory hands”. If you treat |
will be Cleveland - good luck winning that series) even though you have home court as a fourth seed? In the Atlantic, you have three teams in a'rebuild mode' (I'm being kind) and the Nets up for sale and trying to figure out what to do. Great spot to be in to get a top-four seed. Some of it's you being good and some of the rest is the other four teams being so lousy. Don't fool yourself. To make next step as a franchise, they've got to grow to the point that they can compete and win a first round series. How does that happen? Not being satisfied and pushing on to a new and greater challenge. Player internal leadership, professionalism and maturity are a must. This team has good guys. They can do it. Now time to do so.Hey we are Marta and Alex, Marta is from Spain and Alex is from Australia but we live in our RV “Wayne” in the Canadian Rockies. We gravitated to this life for a few reasons. We were plain curious to see what RV life would be like in a cold place nothing like home, this was also going to force a welcome shift in our lifestyle. We both feel a itch to get moving again, to travel, and this means money needs to be saved. Changing our housing costs from the norm helps with this. It’s lots of fun and creatively engaging making videos together so we decided to start with a “how to” series on RV living in cold Canadian winter conditions. Our first episode tells you more about Wayne and ourselves.
You can follow us here
Instagram: @wanderlustvanlife
Alex’s Landscape Photography
Marta’s Travel Blog (en español)
And here are our three first episodes about living in an RV in Winter, we’re happy to share what we’ve learned along that process!
Winterize Part I – Insulating your RV for Winter living
In this episode we take you through the easy and cheap steps for insulating Wayne from the Canadian Winter.
Winterize Part II – How to heat your motor home
In this episode we talk about the two heaters we have in Wayne (propane and electric) and vent covers.
Winterize Part III – Indoor clothing and water system
In this episode we give you some tips on staying warm in your winter home and how we handle our water and pipes.Update: After launching on 17 February, ASTRO-H has reached its intended orbit, says the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The agency also says that it has renamed the craft Hitomi, the Japanese word for the pupil of the eye. Hitomi will remain in a ‘critical operation phase’ until 28 February; this will include tests of onboard navigation systems and of the deployment of its solar panels.
Astronomers around the world are hoping that the third time will be the charm as Japan prepares to launch its largest space observatory ever. The telescope will use X-rays to study phenomena from black holes to dark matter and carries cryogenic imaging technology that flew on two previous missions — but met disaster both times.
Weather permitting, a Japanese-built H-IIA rocket is scheduled to launch the probe, provisionally named ASTRO-H, from Tanegashima Space Center at 17:45 local time on 12 February. Once in orbit, the 2.7-tonne probe will stretch out to its maximum length of 14 metres, including a 6.4-metre boom that will host an imager capable of collecting high-energy, or ‘hard’ X-ray photons (see ‘Spectra in space’). The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) leads the mission with an investment of ¥31 billion (US$265 million), but there is also major participation from NASA, as well as institutions in six other nations and the European Space Agency (ESA).
Studying X-ray emissions is the best way to observe a wide range of cosmic phenomena, from galaxy clusters to the super-heated accretion disks around black holes. But Earth’s atmosphere is mostly opaque to radiation outside the visible spectrum, and particularly to X-rays and γ-rays, meaning that most X-ray astronomy requires a satellite.
Source: JAXA
The major existing X-ray satellites are NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton, which both launched in 1999. These can analyse the constituent wavelengths of X-rays — the spectra — emitted by point-like objects such as stars. But ASTRO-H will be the first to provide high-resolution spectra for much more spread-out X-ray sources such as galaxy clusters, says Norbert Schartel, project scientist for XMM-Newton at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre outside Madrid, who is also a member of ASTRO-H’s ESA team.
Spectra carry information about the velocity and turbulence of the plasma that pervades galaxy clusters, which in turn can reveal whether, and how, a cluster resulted from a merger of two smaller ones, says Christine Forman, a high-energy astrophysicist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. X-ray pictures of clusters, when combined with visible-light images, have also previously provided striking — although indirect — evidence for the existence of dark matter. ASTRO‑H should be able to help settle whether a 3.5-kiloelectronvolt X-ray signal seen in certain galaxies is a signature of dark matter decaying into photons — or something else, says Alexey Boyarsky, an astrophysicist at Leiden University in the Netherlands who co-discovered the signal.
ASTRO-H will also cover a broader range of wavelengths than most other missions, from ‘soft’, low-energy photons starting at 300 eV, through hard X-rays and right up to soft γ-rays of 600 keV. But only the soft X-rays will have their spectra imaged to high resolution. At the heart of the instrument responsible for this — the Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) — is an array of 36-pixel elements that must be kept at 0.05 degrees above absolute zero, well inside the main body of the craft. When a photon strikes one of the sensors, the temperature of the sensor rises slightly, causing its electrical conductivity to increase. The resulting change in voltage can be used to measure the energy of the original photon — and therefore its wavelength — with a precision of nearly one part in 1,000.
Courtesy of JAXA
The technology first took shape in 1984, when Richard Kelley, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, started designing sensors for Chandra. After NASA scaled back its ambitions for the observatory and scrapped that plan, Kelley and his team provided the spectrometer for a Japanese X-ray telescope called ASTRO‑E. But in 2000, the rocket that was supposed to put it into orbit crashed shortly after take-off.
JAXA prepared a replacement mission, Suzaku, which reached orbit in July 2005 — only for disaster to strike again. The liquid helium used to keep a spectrometer’s sensors cold has to be slowly released, or outgassed. But in Suzaku, a tiny amount of that helium accumulated inside the craft. This was enough to ruin the vacuum that was supposed to insulate the helium tank from the rest of the craft. The tank heated up faster than expected, causing the helium to boil off and vent into space within four weeks of launch. Unable to stay super-chilled, the spectrometer was crippled before it could start making observations, although Suzaku’s other instruments continued to operate until the craft was decommissioned in 2015.
For ASTRO-H, JAXA redesigned the tank with plumbing to outgas the helium straight into space. And to further guard against glitches, ASTRO-H project manager Tadayuki Takahashi, an astrophysicist at the University of Tokyo and ASTRO-H’s project manager, pushed his collaboration to work without borders. “Usually, international coalitions have clearly defined interfaces,” with different laboratories providing isolated components of a spacecraft and its payload, says Takahashi. But ASTRO-H researchers regularly visited each other’s labs, sometimes for months at a time.
Kelley says that Takahashi forged a very open collaboration. “Tad understands that if you want to maximize the chances of success, you have to have no barriers,” he says. “Everybody has access to everything.”
Astronomers around the world will be allowed to request observing time with ASTRO-H. Each team will have exclusive access to the resulting data for one year, after which JAXA will make them publicly available — a model long adopted by NASA. ASTRO-H will be renamed after launch, although what it will be called is yet to be determined.
A larger, higher-resolution version of the SXS is due to fly aboard Athena, an ESA-led X-ray astronomy mission planned for the late 2020s.Elizabeth Buchanan has the kind of space at her Tobermory Dr. community centre that any organization would covet. The walls are there — framing the big open space with burnt orange concrete floors on the ground level of the 25-storey community housing highrise just east of Jane St. and Finch Ave. They’ve been freshly painted red and green and yellow.
15 Tobermory Dr., a Toronto Community Housing highrise, has space for community programs, but not the city funding to operate them. They are one of 800 organizations that receive some city money annually. ( Jennifer Pagliaro / Toronto Star ) Jennifer Kumar is a resident and volunteer at 15 Tobermory Dr. who helps run a pay-what-you-can thrift shop on the building's main floor. ( Jennifer Pagliaro / Toronto Star ) The staff and volunteers at Tobermory Community Activities have the space but not the resources to fund community programs at their TCHC highrise. From left: Jennifer Kumar, Trevor Dixon, James Nyewuto, Elizabeth Buchanan, Victoria Grendys. ( Jennifer Pagliaro / Toronto Star ) The staff and volunteers at Tobermory Community Activities have the space but not the resources to fund community programs at their TCHC highrise. From left: James Nyewuto, Trevor Dixon, Jennifer Kumar and Elizabeth Buchanan. ( Jennifer Pagliaro / Toronto Star )
Toronto Community Housing recently helped renovate the bright and essentially empty space Buchanan operates with a small team of volunteers. She manages to keep the door of Tobermory Community Activities office open two days out of seven — offering much-needed services to some 1,200 residents, including an overpopulated food bank. Still, some call her when she’s away. There are too many needs and never enough time. She has dreamed of starting seniors’ and youth programs. “No dreams have come,” says Buchanan now. “People here are so committed and involved, but there’s nothing to be involved in.”
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Tobermory may not be alone. The city allocates more than $40 million every year for community programs through the Community Partnership and Investment Program (CPIP). But a Star investigation shows the city does not have up-to-date data on what money is going where, appears to send more money to downtown wards at the cost of suburban wards, and appears not to be targeting the city’s most challenged neighbourhoods with investment funds. Click here to see a map showing Neighbourhood Improvement Areas and 2013 city grant funding In 2008 and 2011, the top-funded neighbourhoods were the Waterfront and the Bay Street corridor — topping $7 million and $3 million each — while communities such as Mount Dennis, a priority neighbourhood then and now, recorded between a total of $83,000 and zero city grant funds.
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Tobermory’s program, funded through the Jane/Finch Community and Family Centre, is just one of more than 800 programs that received funding from city grants in 2013. But with just $29,455 budgeted for this year, it’s not enough to fill up the space with staff or even furniture. Wanda MacNevin is director of community programs at the Jane/Finch Community and Family Centre, which was granted $146,000 total by the city in 2013 through CPIP.
Neighbourhood Improvement areas and city grant funding
CPIP isn’t the only way organizations get money from the city, but it represents a large pool of cash — $47.4 million in 2013 — dedicated for communities and solely administered by the city. The program is heavily used, with more applications than can be fulfilled. After growing frustrated about the lack of funds to keep programs like Tobermory’s afloat, and unable to get the data she needed from the city, MacNevin conducted her own research on funding disparities across the city. She picked five organizations from each of the city’s four corners and asked for their financial records. What she found was a startling disparity between north and south. The three wards that cover the Jane-Finch area have a combined population of nearly 150,000 people, compared with three of the downtown core’s wards at 200,000. But the funding total from all government grants for five selected organizations only totalled $14.4 million in North York, less than half of the funds that went to the downtown wards, $32.2 million. The problem directly affects staffing levels, which in turn affect the ability to deliver programming. For example, MacNevin’s community service in North York has 277 full- and part-time staff across 15 community-based organizations; compare that with a place like the downtown WoodGreen Community Services on Danforth Ave., which has 650 full- and part-time staff. (WoodGreen also received double the number of CPIP dollars the Family Centre did in 2013.) Though not a perfect study, MacNevin said the numbers are symptomatic of the larger problem. “There are needs across the city,” she said. “I think it’s well past the catch-up time of making sure there’s equity with city funding going across the city.” With many individual organizations in Jane-Finch — one of the most challenged neighbourhoods with a higher than average number of immigrants and low-income families — getting less than $25,000 in community grants, MacNevin argues the city is “throwing away” its money. Those organizations, she said, are barely able to pay one staff member with that level of funding. “What is one person supposed to do to make an impact or a change in the community?” she said. “There’s got to be a better way of doing it.” Jenn Miller, the city’s manager of community funding, says many of the grants are focused on programs that benefit marginalized communities, including the new “neighbourhood improvement areas” established in March — 31 communities that incorporate many of the city’s previous 13 “priority neighbourhoods,” all of which have been identified as needing extra help in areas such as health, economics, political participation and education. When asked whether the grants program gives preference to those communities, Miller said it depends on the program’s “area of focus.” “While place-based/neighbourhood-based investments are a consideration, it is not a requirement for city funding,” Miller said in an email. That means just being located in an identified neighbourhood improvement area does not make an organization a priority for funding. It’s unclear whether the city is invested in a “moneyball” approach to this area of spending, because there’s so little public information about how it sets priorities. (For example, the city does not have data to show how much grant money flowed to improvement areas in 2013 and 2014.) That’s not unusual in government; in a recent Atlantic article, two former White House administrators estimated that less than $1 out of every federal $100 spent was allocated according to evidence-based returns. The “moneyball” concept is a riff off of the Oakland A’s major league success strategy (chronicled in a Hollywood movie starring Brad Pitt) whose premise is this: when the budget is limited, a purely statistical and sometimes unconventional approach to spending leads to winning.
15 Tobermory Dr., a Toronto Community Housing highrise, has space for community programs, but not the city funding to operate them. They are one of 800 organizations that receive some city money annually. ( Jennifer Pagliaro/Toronto Star )
“The consequences of failing to measure the impact of so many of our government programs — and of sometimes ignoring the data even when we do measure them — go well beyond wasting scarce tax dollars,” the authors of the Atlantic piece wrote. “Every time a young person participates in a program that doesn’t work but could have participated in one that does, that represents a human cost.” At a glance, Toronto’s funding by neighbourhood between 2008 and 2013 shows a clear slant towards funding downtown organizations. Miller explained that the by-neighbourhood allocations are based on where organizations are headquartered, with some programs also financing satellite offices or services in communities outside their borders. This could explain why places like the Bay Street corridor have a much higher funding total. But when asked how they track the real impact of that funding, Miller said the city relies on “self reporting,” followed by a formal staff assessment of the reports provided. Grant figures by individual neighbourhoods for 2013 were not available from the city. But a ward-by-ward analysis by the Star showed that some areas that were home to multiple neighbourhood improvement areas received very little funding. Ward 9, York Centre, in North York, for example, contains three neighbourhood improvement areas, but received only $177,435 in community grant funding last year. By comparison, the downtown Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina, which contains no neighbourhood improvement areas, received $8.6 million last year. And despite a stated goal of funding those neighbourhoods, the city does not have data on how much grant money is currently going to neighbourhood improvement areas. The city also hasn’t kept data on which funded organizations worked in priority neighbourhoods in previous years — making it impossible to see which programs are being underfunded or having the most impact. Miller said the city is looking for ways to “investigate how we can best collect this information in an accurate way.” The final say on who gets funded remains up to council, which votes on the allocations distributed each year. Most community organizations are worried not only about their level of funding, but how stable that money is from year to year. Neighbourhoods such as Glenfield-Jane Heights, Regent Park, Moss Park and Oakridge saw dramatic funding declines between 2008 and 2011, with some recorded as receiving no money in 2011 — when overall funding took a dramatic budgetary hit under Rob Ford to total under $14 million. Miller said “it is not uncommon” for organizations to get second-time funding or have multiyear requests granted. “Investment programs are open to new applicants each year, and therefore grant recipients do fluctuate from year to year,” she wrote. Despite an additional $300,000 budgeted by council to “support emerging needs in underserved areas” in 2014 and 2015, Miller said the city program is “very competitive” and still receives more applications than it’s possible to fulfill. John Campey, executive director for Social Planning Toronto, says city money plays an important role in the bigger funding picture, often providing the anchor that allows many organizations to even exist. But as the city’s population continues to grow, and with the suburbs continuing to be underserved, Campey said there is increasing pressure on programming funds that have not kept pace. “I honestly think the city does a relatively good job of identifying what’s needed to maintain a basic community infrastructure, and on top of that targeting specific needs with the resources that are available,” Campey said. “It again comes down to an issue of political will.” An October report by Social Planning cites data collected by the city that shows Toronto spent $17.70 per capita on grants in 2010-2011, compared with $66.72 in Calgary, $45.20 in Winnipeg, and $40.73 in Ottawa. Toronto spent 0.5 per cent of its total budget on grants, while the other major cities spent between 1.6 per cent and 2.7 per cent. “The situation for many people is in fact desperate,” Campey said. “It’s really frustrating in a sense to have to push the city to support community organizations to fill gaps in service that 10 or 20 years ago we took for granted would be dealt with by other levels of government.” Susan McIsaac, president and CEO of United Way Toronto, said the need in many communities is still not being met, but she argued organizations like hers, which plays a key role in the strong-neighbourhoods framework and funding, are doing a much better job at being proactive and strategic about where investments are made. “We really do have a problem with division, and I think a lot about the geographic nature of poverty in Toronto — the fact that we do have these neighbourhoods that have really fallen behind,” she said. “We need to focus on where the need is greatest and we need to actually apply resources against that geographic landscape.” Dennis Keshinro — who is on the road in Jane and Finch with a convoy of refurbished TTC buses designed to be mobile community spaces for youth — has little faith the city will prop them up. For years, Keshinro, a longtime community advocate who runs the Belka Enrichment Centre, said the organization applied for city money — at first with limited success. They were funded between $6,000 and $10,000. But organizations pay upwards of $3,000 for the financial audits the city required, he said — putting a huge dent in their total program funds. In 2011, he finally gave up. “It was a waste of time,” said Keshinro, who works full-time as a high school teacher and runs his homework and sports programs after school and on weekends. He is able to continue through his own grassroots efforts, including the personal support and fundraising of now Mayor John Tory, who helped finance Keshinro’s dream of renovating a decommissioned city bus into a mobile computer lab for students. He parks the bus so kids can climb aboard to do homework and get help with their projects. Like the Tobermory group, he has dreams of what he could build. “The city has a lot of power to take care of organizations, but they’re not doing it. They’re just looking for the big guys,” Keshinro said.
Read more about:The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday to offer a $25,000 reward for information about chemical attacks on several dogs that left two of them dead in the Antelope Valley.
Mayor Michael D. Antonovich, who represents the county’s Fifth District, took to Twitter early Tuesday afternoon to announce that the board had approved his motion to offer the reward in the “heinous” cases.
Between July 20 and Aug. 20, at least seven dogs — six pit bulls and a golden retriever — have been found with burn injuries, according to a news release from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The cases occurred in the Antelope Valley and Kern County, and there could be additional ones that have not been reported.
The news release also included a photograph of a Cavalier King Charles spaniel that appeared to have a burn wounds on its back. Information about the particular case wasn’t provided, however, and a phone call to the department has not yet been returned.
At least four of the dogs in the recent series of attacks suffered chemical burns and were brought to the Lancaster Animal Shelter. One of those dogs, a 1- to 2- year old golden retriever nicknamed “Fergus,” a 1- to 2-year-old golden retriever was severely injured when someone poured battery acid down his spine.
Fergus was treated for third-degree burns, but was expected to completely heal in the coming months.
Another dog, nicknamed “Bella,” was found in Palmdale in mid-August and appeared to have been tortured in a similar manner. She survived the attack, but also faced a long and painful road to recovery, veterinarians said.
Two of the other dogs treated at the Lancaster shelter were so badly burned, however, that they had to be euthanized.
Investigators still have not determined whether the cases or linked, or even if they were the result of an intentional criminal act, the news release stated. Authorities and animal care professionals were working to figure out what exact substance caused the wounds.
In addition to the county board, PETA and the Southern California Golden Retriever Rescue have also offered rewards totaling $4,500 in an effort to help catch the person or persons responsible for the brutal assaults.
Anyone with information about the incidents has been encouraged to call Lancaster Sheriff’s Station Detective Daniel Gore at 661-940-3851 or 661-948-8466, or the L.A. County Department of Animal Care and Control at 661-974-8096.Digimon Universe: Appli Monsters launches December 1 in Japan
Free-to-play Cyber Arena due out on September 21.
Digimon Universe: Appli Monsters will launch physically and digitally for 3DS in Japan on December 1 for 5,700 yen, Bandai Namco announced. The download version will be sold at a discounted price of 5,130 yen until December 28.
If you pre-order the retail version from Japanese game shops between October 8 and October 24, you’ll receive a Super Rare Special Appmon Chip, “Onmon.”
As previously announced, the free-to-play Digimon Universe: Appli Monsters Cyber Arena will launch via the Nintendo eShop in Japan on September 21, and the save data from the free-to-play game is compatible with the December-due full release. Appmon Chips are also compatible, so you’ll be able to use your Onmon Appmon Chip to befriend him in the game before it launches.Just when it looked like Ontario Place couldn't possibly get any cooler, the provincial government is moving forward with plans for a gigantic "flexible green space" on Toronto's waterfront.
Called Celebration Common, the proposed 20-acre venue on the East Island of Ontario Place would be used for "open-air cultural activities, festivals, community events and recreation in downtown Toronto."
The public space will be about the size of 14 football fields, according to a press release, and connect the new Trillium Park and William G. Davis Trail, the recently reopened Cinesphere, and Ontario Place's West Island through a system of pedestrian and bike trails.
It's all part of the government's master plan for transforming Ontario Place into "a vibrant, public, year-round waterfront destination" (which, some might say, they've already done – or come pretty close to doing.)
This isn't the first time we've heard about the possibility of Celebration Common, but the province is only just now issuing a request for proposals to find planning and design consultants. This means it might be a while before we see plans for the space come to fruition.
When it does open, Ontario Place board Chair Penny Lipsett says that she wants visitors to experience the grounds "as if it were their own backyard, every season."
Can do, Mrs. Lipsett! I don't even have a backyard, so this will be easy.Left to choose between Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking in Rajya Sabha and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi speaking in Lok Sabha simultaneously, television channels chose to telecast both on Tuesday, who were speaking at the same time in the two houses.
However, while Modi’s speech went on on the Rajya Sabha TV without disturbances, the Lok Sabha TV got freezed for nearly ten minutes from 3.58pm when Gandhi started speaking.
While Congress leaders cried foul, saying it was a deliberate attempt by the LSTV administration at the behest of the ruling BJP to ensure people focus on Modi’s speech as against Gandhi’s, LSTV blamed the freeze on power cuts.
Senior Congress leader Suresh Kanojia told dna, “Since both were speaking simultaneously at the two houses, the freezing was pre-planned and deliberately done, so that viewers can see only the PM’s speech.”He added that notices should be sent to the LSTV administration for the lapse.
However, Seema Gupta, chief executive of LSTV blamed the glitch on power cuts that apparently took place frequently on Tuesday. “Throughout Tuesday, there were frequent power cuts. During Rahul Gandhi’s speech, there was a power cut and we couldn’t connect the feed to the UPS. We sent out technical person immediately to the house, after some difficulty the problem was restored within a few minutes.
However, another senior Congress leader rubbished the explanation and asked how was the Rajya Sabha proceeding not affected because of the power cut.
Speaking at the upper house on the constitution debate, Modi said, "Constitution should be a celebration and the message of the Constitution must reach the future generations.”While Seattle has been trying to figure out how to regulate companies like UberX, Lyft and Sidecar for well over a year, Washington’s third-biggest city is just getting started.
Just a 45-minute drive down from Seattle on Interstate-5 is where the Tacoma City Council will meet this afternoon to discuss ways to regulate the app-based transportation startups.
All three companies recently started offering their services in Tacoma, home to just over 200,000 residents. The city does not have any additional regulatory requirements for UberX, Lyft and Sidecar other than a general City business license for transportation services.
However, Tacoma does have a full list of requirements for anyone who wants to drive a taxi in its city, including proper licensing, criminal background checks and training programs.
The meeting today will address five strategies that city staff have come up with to address this issue. They range from creating special laws for the companies — which allow everyday drivers to use their own cars to shuttle people around town — to prohibiting them from operating in the city at all:
Regulate Non-Taxi Services as Taxis: Regulate non-taxi transportation services the same as the City currently regulates taxi services. This would require an amendment to TMC to clarify in the definitions in the Taxi code to include other types of transportation services and subject the for-hire vehicles and drivers to the same requirements as the taxi cabs and taxi drivers. Create Modified Non-Taxi Services Regulations: Regulate non-taxi transportation services with a modified version of the City’s current Taxi Code. Modifications could include requiring non-taxi services to have annual vehicle inspections, safety inspections, video cameras, andlor driver training. This would require an amendment to the Taxi Code to create a new regulatory scheme specifically for types of for-hire vehicles that are not taxis. Modify the Regulations on Taxis: Reduce the current regulatory requirements on taxis by removing certain requirements. This list could potentially include removal of requirements for dispatch services and being in constant contact with a dispatcher, uniforms, monitored silent alarms, age requirements on vehicles, vehicle inspections requirements, to have maps and complaint forms available in the taxi, andlor the requirement to provide a printed receipt. No Regulations for Non-Taxi Services: Do not create new regulations for non-taxi transportation services and allow them to operate their business with a general City business license and verification that the vehicles have received the appropriate for-hire state licenses. Prohibit Non-Taxi Services: Do not allow non-taxi transportation services to operate in the City. This would require a change to the Taxi code specifically prohibiting these types of services.
In an interview on the Jason Rantz Show last month, Tacoma City Councilmember Ryan Mello expressed optimism for services like Uber in his city.
“I really want Uber to come to town,” Mello said. “I’m excited about it because as someone who likes to get around town as conveniently as possible, I want as many options as possible.”
Meanwhile in Seattle, the City Council passed an ordinance to legalize and regulate these companies in March. Those rules included a cap of 150 on the amount of “active” drivers each company could have on the roads.
In response to that decision, Uber and Lyft poured in more than $400,000 to a coalition that garnered enough petitions to suspend the newly-passed ordinance regulating their companies. Mayor Ed Murray is now trying to reach a new agreement between the startups and taxi drivers, but if nothing is on the table by the end May, Murray said he’ll issue a cease-and-desist letter to Lyft, UberX and Sidecar.BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two suicide bombers targeted Shi’ite Muslims in Iraq on Saturday, killing 60 people on the eve of the anniversary of one of their imams’ deaths, police and medics said on Saturday.
In the northern city of Mosul, unidentified gunmen shot two Iraqi television journalists dead as they were filming, security sources said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for either of the bombings, but such attacks are the hallmark of Sunni Islamist al Qaeda, which views Shi’ites as non-believers and has been regaining momentum this year.
In Baghdad, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives at a checkpoint, killing 48 Shi’ite pilgrims on their way to visit a shrine in the Kadhimiya district, police and medical sources said.
Earlier on Saturday, another suicide bomber blew himself up inside a cafe in a mainly Shi’ite town of Balad, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, killing 12 people. The cafe was targeted in an almost identical bombing 40 days ago.
“I received the corpse of my cousin. It was completely charred and difficult to identify,” said Abdullah al-Baldawi, whose relative was killed in the cafe bombing.
Relations between Islam’s two main denominations have come under acute strain from the conflict in Syria, which has drawn fighters from Iraq and the wider Middle East into a sectarian proxy war.
More than 6,000 people have been killed in violence across the country this year, according to monitoring group Iraq Body Count, reversing a decline in sectarian bloodshed that had climaxed in 2006-07.
It was not clear who was behind the killing of the journalists, who worked for Iraqi television channel al-Sharqiya News, which is often critical of the Shi’ite-led government and is popular among the country’s Sunni minority.
“They shot them in the chest and head, killing them instantly,” said a security source who declined to be named.
Iraq is considered one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. According to the Baghdad-based Journalism Freedoms Observatory, 261 journalists have been killed and 46 kidnapped since 2003, the year of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Mosul, capital of the predominantly Sunni province of Nineveh, is a stronghold for Islamist and other insurgents.
A journalist from Mosul said insurgents in the city changed their tactics and targets from time to time, and may now have set their sights on journalists, after previous spates of attacks against traffic police and mayors.
“I will leave the city of Mosul and live in the outskirts until things calm down,” said the journalist on condition of anonymity.
The Journalists’ Syndicate denounced the killings as a “criminal act”, demanding the authorities track down the perpetrators and do more to protect the media.
Nineveh governor Atheel al-Nujaifi condemned the killings: “It aims to muzzle the voice of people, the voice of righteousness”.
Iraq’s Sunni community has grown increasingly resentful of a government it accuses of marginalizing their sect since coming to power after the U.S.-led invasion that vanquished Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Sunnis launched street protests in December after Shi’ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki sought to arrest a senior Sunni politician. A bloody raid by security forces on a protest camp in April touched off a violent backlash by Sunni militants.
The United Nations Mission in Iraq said nearly 900 civilians were killed across Iraq in September, raising the death toll so far this year to well above the total for 2013.Egyptian-born Ibrahim al-Bana and six others killed in second airstrike to target group in as many weeks
A US air strike has killed the media chief for al-Qaida's Yemeni branch along with six other militants, the Ministry of Defence said on Saturday, in the second high-profile American missile attack in as many weeks to target the terror group in the country.
A ministry statement said Egyptian-born Ibrahim al-Bana and six other militants were killed in the south-eastern province of Shabwa on Friday night. Security officials said an American drone carried out the airstrike, which was one of five overnight strikes that targeted suspected al-Qaida positions in Shabwa and the neighbouring province of Abyan in Yemen's largely lawless south.
Friday's missile attack came two weeks after a US drone strike killed prominent American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a gifted Muslim preacher and savvy internet operator who became a powerful al-Qaida tool for recruiting in the West. Also killed was Samir Khan, a Pakistani-American who was a propagandist for Yemen's al-Qaida branch: al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
The latest airstrike underlines the growing use by the United States of drones to hit al-Qaida militants in Yemen in what appears to be a determined effort to remove the threat emanating from the group, blamed for plotting or inspiring a series of attacks on American soil and in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, a staunch Washington ally.
Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has taken advantage of the political turmoil roiling Yemen. Embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh has been struggling to stay in power in the face of eight months of massive street protests demanding his exit from power and the defection to the opposition of key aides and military commanders.Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Bacopa monniera (BM), a traditional Ayurvedic medicine has been used in treatment for a number of disorders, particularly those involving anxiety, intellect and poor memory. The current study examined the effects of standardized extract of Bacopa monniera on the dendritic morphology in adult rats of hippocampal CA3 neurons, one of the regions concerned with learning and memory.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Adult Wistar (2.5-month-old) rats were designated into 2-, 4- and 6-week treatment groups. Rats in each of these groups were divided into 20 mg/kg, 40 mg/kg and 80 mg/kg dose groups (n=8 for each dose). These rats along with age-matched control rats were then subjected to spatial learning (T-maze) and passive avoidance tests. Subsequent to the T-maze and passive avoidance tests, these rats were killed by decapitation, brains were removed and hippocampal neurons were impregnated with silver nitrate (Golgi staining). Hippocampal CA3 neurons were traced using camera lucida. Dendritic branching points (a measure of dendritic arborization) and dendritic intersections (a measure of dendritic length) were quantified. These data were compared with control rats.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The results showed improvement in spatial learning performance and enhanced memory retention in rats treated with BM extract. There was a significant increase in the dendritic intersections and dendritic branching points along the length of both apical and basal dendrites in rats treated with BM extract for four and six weeks. However, the rats treated with BM extract for two weeks did not show any significant change in hippocampal CA3 neuronal dendritic arborization. We conclude that constituents present in BM extract have neuronal |
government called Policy1st stumbles onto a conspiracy to rig elections, he’s teamed with an agent of Information as they struggle to find out the truth, expose the plot—and, naturally enough, stay alive. Older’s fierce imagination and eye for detail make her future world seem entirely plausible, and her characters believably flawed. It’s one of the year’s most promising debuts, and we can’t wait to see where she goes with the recently announced sequel.
League of Dragons, by Naomi Novik (June 14, Random House—Hardcover)
The ninth and final installment of Novik’s Temeraire series opens with Napoleon’s ignominious retreat from his disastrous invasion of Russia, harried by Captain Laurence and the dragon Temeraire. Napoleon’s near-miraculous escape from this disaster is as demoralizing as it was in our timeline, but even worse is what happens next: the French dictator makes an offer of humane treatment and autonomous lands to any dragon that will serve him, a rich offer for the often-mistreated flying beasts. Meanwhile, Temeraire’s egg and mate are stolen and transported to China, where his old enemy the Celestial Dragon Lien lies in wait. Novik bids farewell to her magnum opus with a book that packs incredible detail, deep knowledge of history, and a simple, gleeful love of dragons into a remarkably satisfying conclusion to a remarkable series.
Rise, by Mira Grant (June 21, Orbit—Hardcover)
Fans of the lively zombie-cum-virus-cum-survival universe explored in Grant’s Newflesh series can rejoice: Rise collects all of her Newsflesh-set short fiction into one epic volume. What has always set Grant’s zombie universe apart is her focus on the way society bends and snaps under the pressure, but people still fall in love, still need to live their lives, still need to attend sci-fi conventions—even if it means occasionally having to shoot an old friend or loved one in the head. Best of all, in addition to the eight published Newflesh stories, there are two never-before-published novellas, making this collection an absolute must-have for fans.
The Best Science Fiction of the Year, by Neil Clarke (June 7, Night Shade Books—Paperback)
Keeping up with the sheer volume of SFF short fiction published every year can be daunting, so collections like this one are therefore essential to if you want to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening in genre. Clarkesworld publisher Neil Clarke brings his reputation and impeccable taste to this anthology of the best short fiction of 2015, including stories by David Brin, Ken Liu, Alastair Reynolds, Seanan McGuire, and many others. It’s an incredible collection of work from some of today’s most celebrated writers, assembled under the direction of one of our most respected editors. You simply can’t go wrong with this one.
The Invisible Library, by Genevieve Cogman (June 14, Penguin—Paperback)
We’re all readers. We know the peculiar power of books to transport us and transform the world. Cogman makes that power literal in this popular series-starter, a runaway hit when first published in the U.K. The Library is an organization that traverses space and time to collect unique books from alternate realities and catalog them for posterity. Into that fascinating premise is thrust Irene, a spy for the Library tasked with flitting into alternate realities—say, a vampire-infested London—in order to acquire invaluable books for the collection. With trainee Kai in tow, Irene’s latest quest goes awry and she has to delve into London’s underworld to set things right, battling not only bloodsuckers, but werewolves and Fair Folk as well. She must rely on more than her fighting skills if she wants to make it out with the books and her body intact.
The Medusa Chronicles, by Stephen Baxter and Alastair Reynolds (June 7, Saga Press—Hardcover)
Arthur C. Clarke’s award-winning 1971 novella A Meeting with Medusa casts a long shadow, and continuing the story of Howard Falcon, whose body was rebuilt using cybernetics and prosthetics after he was injured exploring Jupiter, is a task best left to experts. Luckily, we have the combined minds of Stephen Baxter and Alastair Reynolds, who return to the story 45 years later, crafting a sequel overfull with cutting edge SF-nal ideas. Falcon’s storied journey to Jupiter has inspired Earth to stretch out beyond the planet’s boundaries, but the technology developed and refined by humanity begins to assert its own autonomy and intelligence. Preserving the tone and feel of Clarke’s original, Reynolds and Baxter expand the scope of the story in thrilling ways, making this a must-read for any fan of the Golden Age master.
The Perdition Score, by Richard Kadrey (June 28, HarperCollins—Hardcover)
Sandman Slim is back, and once again embroiled in a supernatural plot that holds dark implications, not just for James Stark and his band of demons and freaks, but for every single soul on the planet. Called in by the Sub Rosa Council to investigate a missing child case, Slim acquires a vile of mysterious black liquid with which a friend is inadvertently poisoned. The only place to secure an antidote is, of course, Hell itself, and Slim and Candy head there determined to save the day. Along the way, they discover evidence that Wormwood’s undead servants have made a deal with rebel Angels seeking to block humanity from Heaven—and the consequences might be worse than anything Sandman Slim has ever encountered before.
The Shadowed Path, by Gail Z. Martin (June 14, Solaris—Paperback)
For those who loved the character of Jonmarc Vahanian in Martin’s Chronicles of the Necromancer series, this spinoff volume is a must-read, collecting a host of short stories that fill in the gaps in Vahanian’s life and adventures, exploring the motivations and background of one of a complex and charismatic character. Offering a deeper dive into a Chronicles fan favorite, this collection is ideal book for longtime readers and an excellent introduction to those who aren’t yet familiar with Martin’s popular fantasy series.
Vicky Peterwald: Rebel, by Mike Shepherd (May 31, Penguin—Paperback)
Shepherd returns to his Kris Longknife universe with a third installment of the adventures of Vicky Peterwald—Imperial Duchess, spoiled brat, libidinous expert in court politics, and now, fully-fledged rebel against her stepmother the Empress. The Vicky books offer a fascinating new perspective on the Longknife universe, but new readers can also appreciate this brisk, sexy tale of court intrigue, military exploits, and satisfying space opera shenanigans, as Vicky consolidates her support against the Empress and survives any number of tense action scenes on her way to securing her destiny.
Wasteland King, by Lilith Saintcrow (July 26, Orbit—Paperback)
The third and concluding book of Saintcrow’s Gallow and Ragged series, set in a world where the Fae inhabit greasy spoons, junkyards, and dive bars, opens on a world in chaos, as the events of the prior two books have set a calamity into motion. Jeremiah Gallow finds himself simultaneously hated and needed by the Unseelie King, who puts his grudge against Gallow aside long enough to assign him a desperate, impossible mission—the success of which doesn’t just mean the continued existence of the sidhe, but the survival of the mysterious Robin Ragged as well. Saintcrow combines a smart sense of humor with impeccable instincts for pacing and action, delivering an explosive and emotionally satisfying end to an imaginative not-so-urban fantasy series.
This list was published simultaneously on Tor.com.Islamic banking or Islamic finance (Arabic: مصرفية إسلامية) or sharia-compliant finance[1] is banking or financing activity that complies with sharia (Islamic law) and its practical application through the development of Islamic economics. Some of the modes of Islamic banking/finance include Mudarabah (profit-sharing and loss-bearing), Wadiah (safekeeping), Musharaka (joint venture), Murabahah (cost-plus), and Ijara (leasing).
Sharia prohibits riba, or usury, defined as interest paid on all loans of money (although some Muslims dispute whether there is a consensus that interest is equivalent to riba).[2][3] Investment in businesses that provide goods or services considered contrary to Islamic principles (e.g. pork or alcohol) is also haraam ("sinful and prohibited").
These prohibitions have been applied historically in varying degrees in Muslim countries/communities to prevent un-Islamic practices. In the late 20th century, as part of the revival of Islamic identity,[4][Note 1] a number of Islamic banks formed to apply these principles to private or semi-private commercial institutions within the Muslim community.[6][7] Their number and size has grown, so that by 2009, there were over 300 banks and 250 mutual funds around the world complying with Islamic principles,[8] and around $2 trillion was sharia-compliant by 2014.[9] Sharia-compliant financial institutions represented approximately 1% of total world assets,[10] concentrated in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Iran, and Malaysia.[11] Although Islamic banking still makes up only a fraction of the banking assets of Muslims,[12] since its inception it has been growing faster than banking assets as a whole, and is projected to continue to do so.[9]
The industry has been lauded for returning to the path of "divine guidance" in rejecting the "political and economic dominance" of the West,[4] and noted as the "most visible mark" of Islamic revivalism,[13] its most enthusiastic advocates promise "no inflation, no unemployment, no exploitation and no poverty" once it is fully implemented.[14][15] However, it has also been criticized for failing to develop profit and loss sharing or more ethical modes of investment promised by early promoters,[16] and instead selling banking products[17] that "comply with the formal requirements of Islamic law",[18] but use "ruses and subterfuges to conceal interest",[19] and entail "higher costs, bigger risks"[20] than conventional (ribawi) banks.
History [ edit ]
Usury in Islam [ edit ]
Although Islamic finance contains many prohibitions—such as on consumption of alcohol, gambling, uncertainty, etc. -- the belief that "all forms of interest are riba and hence prohibited" is the idea upon which it is based.[19] The word "riba" literally means “excess or addition”, and has been translated as "interest", "usury", "excess", "increase" or "addition".[21][22]
According to Islamic economists Choudhury and Malik, the elimination of interest followed a "gradual process" in early Islam, "culminating" with a "fully fledged Islamic economic system" under Caliph Umar (634-644 CE).[23]
Other sources (Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, Timur Kuran), do not agree, and state that the giving and taking of interest continued in Muslim society "at times through the use of legal ruses (ḥiyal), often more or less openly,"[24] including during the Ottoman Empire.[25][26] (Still another source, (International Business Publications), states that during the "Islamic Golden Age" the "common view of riba among classical jurists" of Islamic law and economics was that it was unlawful to apply interest to gold and silver currencies, "but that it is not riba and is therefore acceptable to apply interest to fiat money -- currencies made up of other materials such as paper or base metals -- to an extent.")[27][Note 2]
In the late 19th century Islamic Modernists reacted to the rise of European power and influence and its colonization of Muslim countries by reconsidering the prohibition on interest and whether interest rates and insurance were not among the "preconditions for productive investment" in a functioning modern economy.[28] Syed Ahmad Khan, argued for a differentiation between sinful riba "usury", which they saw as restricted to charges on lending for consumption, and legitimate non-riba "interest", for lending for commercial investment.[29]
However, in the 20th century, Islamic revivalists/Islamists/activists worked to define all interest as riba, to enjoin Muslims to lend and borrow at "Islamic Banks" that avoided fixed rates. By the 21st century this Islamic Banking movement had created "institutions of interest-free financial enterprises across the world”.[30]
The movement started with activists and scholars such as Anwar Qureshi,[31]Naeem Siddiqui,[32] Abul A'la Maududi, Muhammad Hamidullah, in the late 1940 and early 1950s.[33] They believed commercial banks were a "necessary evil," and proposed a banking system based on the concept of Mudarabah, where shared profit on investment would replace interest. Further works specifically devoted to the subject of interest-free banking were authored[34][35] by Muhammad Uzair (1955), Abdullah al-Araby (1967), Mohammad Najatuallah Siddiqui,[36] al-Najjar (1971) and Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr.[37]
Since 1970 [ edit ]
The involvement of institutions, governments, and various conferences and studies on Islamic banking (Conference of the Finance Ministers of the Islamic Countries held in Karachi in 1970, the Egyptian study in 1972, The First International Conference on Islamic Economics in Mecca in 1976, and the International Economic Conference in London in 1977) were instrumental in applying the application of theory to practice for the first interest-free banks.[38][39] At the First International Conference on Islamic Economics, "several hundred Muslim intellectuals, Shari'ah scholars and economists unequivocally declared... that all forms of interest" were riba.[28][40]
By 2004, the strength of this belief (which is the basis of Islamic finance)[19] was demonstrated in the world's second largest Muslim country—Pakistan—when a minority (non-Muslim) member of the Pakistani parliament[Note 3] questioned it, pointing out that a scholar from Al-Azhar University, (one of the oldest Islamic Universities in the world), had issued a decree that bank interest was not un-Islamic. His statement resulted in "pandemonium" in the parliament, a demand by members of leading Islamist political party[Note 4] to immediately respond to these allegedly derogatory remarks, followed by a walkout when they were denied it. When the upset members of parliament returned, their leader (Sahibzada Fazal Karim), stated that since the Pakistan Council of Islamic ideology had decreed that interest in all its forms was haram (forbidden) in an Islamic society, no member of parliament had the right to "negate this settled issue".[41]
The council's decree notwithstanding, over the years a minority of Islamic scholars (Muhammad Abduh, Rashid Rida, Mahmud Shaltut, Syed Ahmad Khan, Fazl al-Rahman, Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy and Yusuf al-Qaradawi) have questioned whether riba includes all interest payments.[42] Others (Muhammad Akran Khan) have questioned whether riba is a crime like murder and theft, forbidden by sharia (Islamic law) and subject to punishment by human beings, or simply a sin to be inveighed against, with the reprimand left to God, since "neither the Prophet nor the first four caliphs nor any subsequent Islamic government ever enacted any law against riba."[43]
Banking [ edit ]
A Jordan Islamic Bank branch in Amman
While revivalists like Mohammed Naveed insist Islamic Banking is "as old as the religion itself with its principles primarily derived from the Quran", secular historians and Islamic modernists see it as a modern phenomenon or "invented tradition".[44][45]
Early banking [ edit ]
According to Timur Kuran, by "the tenth century, Islamic law supported credit and investment instruments" that were "as advanced" as anything in the non-Islamic world, but prior to the 19th century there were no "durable" financial institutions "recognizable as banks" in the Muslim world. The first Muslim majority-owned banks did not emerge until the 1920s.[46]
An early market economy and an early form of mercantilism, sometimes called Islamic capitalism, was developed between the eighth and twelfth centuries.[47] The monetary economy of the period was based on the widely circulated currency the gold dinar, and it tied together regions that were previously economically independent.
A number of economic concepts and techniques were applied in early Islamic banking, including bills of exchange, partnership (mufawada, including limited partnerships, or mudaraba), and forms of capital (al-mal), capital accumulation (nama al-mal),[48] cheques, promissory notes,[49] trusts (see Waqf),[50] transactional accounts, loaning, ledgers and assignments.[51] Muslim traders are known to have used the cheque or ṣakk system since the time of Harun al-Rashid (9th century) of the Abbasid Caliphate.[52][51] Organizational enterprises independent from the state also existed in the medieval Islamic world, while the agency institution was also introduced during that time.[53][54] Many of these early capitalist concepts were adopted and further advanced in medieval Europe from the 13th century onwards.[48]
20th century [ edit ]
In the middle of the 20th century some organizational entities were found to offer financial services complying with Islamic laws. The first, experimental, local Islamic bank was established in the late 1950s in a rural area of Pakistan which charged no interest on its lending.[55][56]
In 1963, the first modern Islamic bank on record was established in rural Egypt by economist Ahmad Elnaggar[57] to appeal to people who lacked confidence in state-run banks. The profit-sharing experiment, in the Nile Delta town of Mit Ghamr, did not specifically advertise its Islamic nature for fear of being seen as a manifestation of Islamic fundamentalism that was anathema to the Gamal Nasser regime. Also in that year the Pilgrims Saving Corporation was founded in Malaysia (although not a bank, it incorporated basic Islamic banking concepts).[57]
The Mit Ghamr experiment was shut down by the Egyptian government in 1968. Nonetheless it was considered a success by many,[58] as by that time there were nine similar banks in the country.[59] In 1972, the Mit Ghamr Savings project became part of Nasr Social Bank, which as of 2016 was still in business in Egypt.[60]
Since 1970 [ edit ]
Publications available relating to Islamic Finance Year Number prior to 1979 238 1999 2722 2006 6484 Source: Islamic Finance Project Databank[61]
The influx of "petro-dollars" and a "general re-Islamisation" following the Yom Kippur War and 1973 oil crisis encouraged the development of the Islamic banking sector,[62] and since 1975 it has spread globally.[63]
In 1975, the Islamic Development Bank was set up with the mission to provide funding to projects in the member countries.[64] The first modern commercial Islamic bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, was established in 1979.[65] The first Islamic insurance (or takaful) company — the Islamic Insurance Company of Sudan — was established in 1979.[57] The Amana Income Fund,[66] the world's first Islamic mutual fund (which invests only in sharia-compliant equities), was created in 1986 in Indiana.[57]
From 1980-1985, Islamic investments underwent a "spectacular expansion" throughout the Muslim world, attracting deposits with the promise of "great gains" and "religious guarantees" supplied by Islamic jurists who were "recruited to issue fatwas denouncing conventional banks and recommending their Islamic rivals."[67] This growth was temporarily reversed in 1988 in the largest Arab Muslim country, Egypt, when the Egyptian state — worried that Islamist movements were building up a "war chest" and being given financial independence — reversed its tacit support for the industry, and launched a media campaign against Islamic banks.[67] The ensuing financial panic led to the bankruptcy of some companies.[68]
In 1990 an accounting organization for Islamic financial institutions (Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions, AAOIFI), was established in Algiers by a group of Islamic financial institutions.[69][70] Also in that year the Islamic bond market emerged when the first tradable sukuk — the Islamic alternative to conventional bonds — were issued by Shell MDS in Malaysia.[57] In 2002, the Malaysia-based Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) was established as an international standard-setting body for Islamic financial institutions.[57]
By 1995, 144 Islamic financial institutions had been established worldwide, including 33 government-run banks, 40 private banks, and 71 investment companies.[71] The large US-based Citibank began to offer Islamic banking services in 1996 when it established the Citi Islamic Investment Bank in Bahrain.[57] The first successful benchmark for the performance of Islamic investment funds was established in 1999, with the Dow Jones Islamic Market Index (DJIMI).[57]
Building housing the Islamic Banking & Finance Institute Malaysia (IBFIM) in downtown Kuala Lumpur
Also in the 1990s, a false start was made in Islamic banking in the UK, where bankers declared returns "interest" for tax purposes, while insisting to depositors they were actually "profit" and so not riba. Islamic scholars issued a fatwa stating they had "no objection to the use of the term `interest'" in loan contracts for purposes of tax avoidance provided the transaction did not actually involve riba, and the Islamic bankers used the term for fear that lack of tax deductions available for interest (but not profit) would put them at a competitive disadvantage to conventional banks.[72] Muslim customers were not persuaded, and a "bad taste" was left "in the mouth" of the market for Islamic financial products.[73] The Islamic Bank of Britain, the first Islamic commercial bank established outside the Muslim world, was not established until 2004.[57]
By 2008 Islamic banking was growing at a rate of 10–15% per year and continued growth was forecast.[74] There were over 300 Islamic financial institutions spread over 51 countries, as well as an additional 250 mutual funds complying with Islamic principles. Worldwide, approximately 0.5% of financial assets[75] were estimated to be under sharia-compliant management according to The Economist magazine.[8]
But as the industry grew it also drew criticism (from M.T. Usmani among others) for not progressing from "debt based contracts", such as murabaha, to the more "genuine" profit and loss sharing mode, but instead moving in the opposite direction, "competing to present themselves with all of the same characteristics of the conventional, interest-based marketplace".[76]
During the global financial crisis of 2008, Islamic banks were not initially impacted by the ‘toxic assets’ built up on the balance sheets of US banks as these were not shari’a compliant and not owned by Islamic banks. In 2009, the official newspaper of the Vatican ('L'Osservatore Romano) put forward the idea that "the ethical principles on which Islamic finance is based may bring banks closer to their clients and to the true spirit which should mark every financial service".[77] (The Catholic Church forbids usury but began to relax its ban on all interest in the 16th century.)[78][79] However the drop in valuation of real estate and private equity – two segments heavily invested by Islamic firms – following the collapse of Lehman Brothers Islamic did hurt Islamic financial institutions.[80]
As of 2015, $2.004 trillion in assets were being managed in a sharia compliant manner according to the State of the Global Islamic Economy Report. Of these $342 billion were sukuk. The market for Islamic Sukuk bonds in that year was made up of 2,354 sukuk issues,[81] and had become strong enough that several non-Muslim majority states — UK, Hong Kong,[82] and Luxemburg[83] — issued sukuk.
Principles [ edit ]
To be consistent with the principles of Islamic law (Shariah) -- or at least an orthodox interpretation of the law -- and guided by Islamic economics, the contemporary movement of Islamic banking and finance prohibits a variety of activities, some not illegal in secular states:
Paying or charging interest. "All forms of interest are riba and hence prohibited". [19] Islamic rules on transactions (known as Fiqh al-Muamalat ) have been created to prevent use of interest.
and hence prohibited". Islamic rules on transactions (known as ) have been created to prevent use of interest. Investing in businesses involved in activities that are forbidden ( haraam ). These include things such as selling alcohol or pork, or producing media such as gossip columns or pornography. [84] [85]
). These include things such as selling alcohol or pork, or producing media such as gossip columns or pornography. Charging extra for late payment. This applies to murâbaḥah or other fixed payment financing transactions, although some authors believe late fees may be charged if they are donated to charity, [86] [87] [88] or if the buyer has "deliberately refused" to make a payment. [89]
or other fixed payment financing transactions, although some authors believe late fees may be charged if they are donated to charity, or if the buyer has "deliberately refused" to make a payment. Maisir. This is usually translated as "gambling" but used to mean "speculation" in Islamic finance. [82] Involvement in contracts where the ownership of a good depends on the occurrence of a predetermined, uncertain event in the future is maisir and forbidden in Islamic finance.
This is usually translated as "gambling" but used to mean "speculation" in Islamic finance. Involvement in contracts where the ownership of a good depends on the occurrence of a predetermined, uncertain event in the future is and forbidden in Islamic finance. Gharar. Gharar is usually translated as "uncertainty" or "ambiguity". Bans on both maisir and gharar tend to rule out derivatives, options and futures. [82] Islamic finance supporters (such as Mervyn K. Lewis and Latifa M. Algaoud) believe these involve excessive risk and may foster uncertainty and fraudulent behaviour such as are found in derivative instruments used by conventional banking. [90]
. is usually translated as "uncertainty" or "ambiguity". Bans on both and tend to rule out derivatives, options and futures. Islamic finance supporters (such as Mervyn K. Lewis and Latifa M. Algaoud) believe these involve excessive risk and may foster uncertainty and fraudulent behaviour such as are found in derivative instruments used by conventional banking. Engaging in transactions lacking "`material finality`. All transactions must be "directly linked to a real underlying economic transaction", which excludes "options and most other derivatives".[85][91]
Money on the most common type of Islamic financing — debt-based contracts — "must be made from a tangible asset that one owns and thus has the right to sell — and in financial transactions it demands that risk be shared." Money cannot be made from money.[92] Another statement of the Islamic banking theory of finance is: "Money has no intrinsic utility; it is only a medium of exchange."[93][94] Other restrictions include
Islamic banks are to collect zakat (obligatory religious alms giving) from customers' accounts — at least according to some sources. [95] [96]
(obligatory religious alms giving) from customers' accounts — at least according to some sources. A board of Shariah experts is to supervise and advise each Islamic bank on the propriety of transactions to "ensure that all activities are in line with Islamic principles". [95] [96] (Interpretations of Shariah may vary by country. According to Humayon Dar, [97] interpretation of the Shariah is more strict in Turkey or Arab countries than in Malaysia, whose interpretation is in turn more strict than the Islamic Republic of Iran. Mohammed Ariff also found less exacting Shariah compliance in Iran where the Islamic government had decreed "that government borrowing on the basis of a fixed rate of return from the nationalized banking system would not amount to interest" and consequently would be permissible." [59] Mahmud el-Gamal found interpretations most strict in Sudan and least in Malaysia.) [98]
(Interpretations of Shariah may vary by country. According to Humayon Dar, interpretation of the Shariah is more strict in Turkey or Arab countries than in Malaysia, whose interpretation is in turn more strict than the Islamic Republic of Iran. Mohammed Ariff also found less exacting Shariah compliance in Iran where the Islamic government had decreed "that government borrowing on the basis of a fixed rate of return from the nationalized banking system would not amount to interest" and consequently would be permissible." Mahmud el-Gamal found interpretations most strict in Sudan and least in Malaysia.) Risk sharing. symmetrical risk and return on distribution to participants so that no one benefits disproportionately from the transaction.[85][91]
In general, Islamic banking and finance has been described as having the "same purpose" as conventional banking but operating in accordance with the rules of shariah law (Institute of Islamic Banking and Insurance),[99] or having the same "basic objective" as other private entities, i.e. "maximization of shareholder wealth" (Mohamed Warsame).[100] In a similar vein, Mahmoud El-Gamal states that Islamic finance "is not constructively built from classical jurisprudence". It follows conventional banking and deviates from it "only insofar as some conventional practices are deemed forbidden under Sharia."[Note 5]
A broader description of its principles is given by the Islamic Research and Training Institute of the Islamic Development bank,
"The most important feature of Islamic banking is that it promotes risk sharing between the provider of funds (investor) on the one hand and both the financial intermediary (the bank) and the user of funds (the entrepreneur) on the other hand... In conventional banking, all this risk is borne in principle by the entrepreneur."[102][103][Note 6]
Some proponents (Nizam Yaquby) believe Islamic banking has more far reaching purposes than conventional banking, and declare that the "guiding principles" for Islamic finance include: "fairness, justice, equality, transparency, and the pursuit of social harmony",[105] although others describe these virtues as the natural benefits of following sharia. (Taqi Usmani describes the virtues as guiding principles in one section of his book on Islamic Banking, and benefits in another.)[106]
Nizam Yaquby, for example declares that the "guiding principles" for Islamic finance include: "fairness, justice, equality, transparency, and the pursuit of social harmony".[105] Some distinguish between sharia-compliant finance and a more holistic, pure and exacting sharia-based finance.[107][108][109] "Ethical finance" has been called necessary, or at least desirable,[110] for Islamic finance, as has a "gold-based currency".[111] Taqi Usmani declares that Islamic banking would mean less lending because it paid no interest on loans. This should not be thought of as presenting a problem for borrowers finding funds, because — according to Usmani — it is in part to discourage excessive finance that Islam forbids interest.[112] Zubair Hasan argues that the objectives of Islamic finance as envisaged by its pioneers were "promotion of growth with equity... the alleviation of poverty... [and] a long run vision to improve the condition of the Muslim communities across the world."[113] Some (such as convert Umar Ibrahim Vadillo) believe the Islamic banking movement has so far failed to follow the principles of shariah law, or at least failed to follow them sufficiently strictly.[Note 7]
On the other hand, Usmani preached that an Islamic economy free of the "imbalances" in society — such as concentration of "wealth in the hands of the few", or monopolies which paralyze or hinder market forces — would follow from obeying "divine injunctions" by banning interest (along with other Islamic efforts).[116] (Later in his book Introduction to Islamic Finance, he argues that Islamic principles should include "the fulfillment of the needs of the society" giving "preference to the products which may help the common people to raise their standard of living", but that few Islamic banks have followed this path.)[117] Another source (Saleh Abdullah Kamel),[Note 8] described the changes anticipated for the Muslim community by following Islamic approach to economics, banking, finance, etc., as a "move towards economic development, creation of the value added factor, increased exports, less imports, job creation, rehabilitation of the incapacitated and training of capable elements".[118]
Criticism [ edit ]
Critic Feisal Khan argues that in many ways Islamic finance has not lived up to its defining characteristics. Risk-sharing is lacking because profit and loss sharing modes are so infrequently used. Underlying material transactions are also missing in such transactions as "tawarruq, commodity murabahas, Malaysian Islamic private debt securities, and Islamic short-sales". Exploitation is involved when high fees are charged for "doing nothing more substantial than mimicking conventional banking /finance products". Haram activities are not avoided when banks (following the customary practice) simply take the word of clients/financees/borrowers that they will not use funds for unIslamic activities.[119]
Scriptural basis [ edit ]
The sharia law that forms the basis of Islamic banking is itself based on the Quran (revealed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad) and ahadith (the body of reports of the teachings, deeds and sayings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad that often explain verses in the Quran).[120] Prohibition of gharar is based on ahadith declaring as forbidden gharar the sale of things like "the birds in the sky or the fish in the water".[121][122] [Note 9] Maisir is thought to be banned by verses 2:219, 5:90, and 91 in the Quran.[122]
However, "the Islamic evaluation" of modern banking centers around the definition of interest on loans[127] as riba. Twelve verses in the Qur'an deal with riba, the word appearing eight times in total, three times in verses 2:275, and once in 2:276, 2:278,[128] 3:130,[128] 4:161[128] and 30:39.[129] Riba is mentioned numerous times in ahadith, including Muhammad's Farewell Sermon.
A number of orthodox scholars point to Quranic verses (2:275-2:280) as declaring riba "categorically prohibited" and "unjust" (zulm), and defining it to mean any payment "over and above the principal" of a loan.[130][131] (Although at least one source states "it is commonly argued" that riba is "defined by hadith".)[132]
Those who devour usury shall not rise again except as he rises, whom Satan of the touch prostrates; that is because they say, 'Trafficking (trade) is like usury.' God has permitted trafficking, and forbidden usury. Whosoever receives an admonition from his Lord and gives over, he shall have his past gains, and his affair is committed to God; but whosoever reverts -- those are the inhabitants of the Fire, therein dwelling forever.
God blots out usury, but freewill offerings He augments with interest. God loves not any guilty ingrate.
Those who believe and do deeds of righteousness, and perform the prayer, and pay the alms - their wage awaits them with their Lord, and no fear shall be on them, neither shall they sorrow.
O believers, fear you God; and give up the usury that is outstanding, if you are believers.
But if you do not, then take notice that God shall war with you, and His Messenger; yet if you repent, you shall have your principal, unwronging and unwronged.
And if any man should be in difficulties, let him have respite till things are easier; but that you should give freewill offerings is better for you, did you but know. (Quran 2:275-280)[133]
Some unorthodox (such as Raqiub Zaman) have asked why — if "God Almighty used the terms `doubling` and `quadrupling` (the sum lent)" as riba in verse 3:130, and if "there was no further clarification of this verse in the Quran or by the Prophet" — the orthodox are so certain that riba is defined as any "addition over and above the principal sum that is lent."
Nonetheless this is a minority view,[130][131] and (according to the orthodox) an "increase over the principal sum" in loans of cash are riba. An increase over the principal sum in financing a purchase of some product or commodity is another matter. These are not riba — according to the orthodox interpretation — at least in some circumstances.[134] (These are sometimes known as "credit sales".) According to noted Islamic scholar Taqi Usmani, this is because in Quran aya 2:275 ("they say, 'Trafficking (trade) is like usury,' [but] God has permitted trafficking, and forbidden usury")[135] "trafficking (trade)" refers to credit sales such as murabaha, the "forbidden usury" refers to charging extra for late payment (late fees), and the "they" refers to non-Muslims who didn't understand why if the first was allowed both were not.[136][Note 10] For this reason (according to Usmani) it is not true that "whenever price is increased taking the time of payment into consideration, the transaction comes within the ambit of interest".[138] Instead of "principal" and "interest rate", the credit taker is paying "cost" and "profit rate".[134] (Another difference with conventional finance is that there is no penalty for late payment.)[Note 11]
Interest and credit sales [ edit ]
While Usmani and other Islamic Banking pioneers envisioned credit sales like murâbaḥah being a limited part of the Islamic Banking industry and subordinate to profit and loss sharing, it has become the "most common" mode of Islamic financing.[134][140][141][142]
The distinction between credit sales and interest has also come |
storming back to score three goals in a span of 20 minutes in the second half to get back in the game. Andrew Gutman also kept Chicago in play with a goal to keep an even 3-3 score line in the final minutes of the match. That’s when Sierakowski completed his stellar performance and netted a last minute tally to give the Fire the 4-3 victory.
Notable Info: Unbeaten in nine games.
All times listed are Pacific Time.
All games will be played at U.S. Soccer's National Training Center in Carson, California.Buy-Back Event Buys Hundreds Of Gun
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The Coalition Against Gun Violence ran out of gift cards and scrambled for cash during a gun buy-back event at the Earl Warren Showgrounds in Santa Barbara.
Nearly 240 guns were turned in. In return the gun owners received $100 or $200 gift cards or cash. Gun locks were also given out to gun owners who didn't want to part with their weapons.
Police said they will make sure the guns were not stolen before they are sent to Los Angeles to be destroyed.
One new dad said he wanted to get rid of his rifle because he didn't want it in the house with his baby girl.
The buyback event was planned months before the Isla Vista murders last month.
Three UCSB students were gunned down, three others were stabbed to death.
Organizers of the event said they know it won't solve all the problems involving guns but they think it will make a difference in this community.At a recent town hall meeting with constituents, Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) fielded a frightening question: “Who’s going to shoot Obama?”
That’s not an exact quote from the unnamed questioner, but it is how local reporter Blake Aued scrawled it down.
Aued was also able to confirm the wording of the question with Broun’s press secretary, his report in the Athens Banner-Herald noted.
That question apparently got a “big laugh” out of the crowd assembled for Broun’s Tuesday meeting. But instead of coming out very strongly against such a shocking query, Aued wrote that Broun tried to sympathize with the individual.
“The thing is, I know there’s a lot of frustration with this president,” Broun reportedly said. “We’re going to have an election next year. Hopefully, we’ll elect somebody that’s going to be a conservative, limited-government president that will take a smaller, who will sign a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.”
Read the full report in the Athens Banner-Herald.
Broun isn’t known for being the sharpest member of Congress. Last year he followed Fox News conspiracy host Glenn Beck in boasting that he’d returned his family’s US census form without answering all the questions.
Problem for the ostensibly fiscal conservative Broun: not answering the 10 questions on census forms triggers a visit from a census-taker, who costs the taxpayers about $60 per house according to a census bureau spokesman who talked to reporter Greg Sargent.
Broun was an ardent defender of the “death panel” myth invented by Republicans amid a disinformation campaign against the president’s health reform proposals. He’s also long called Obama a “socialist,” even in spite of the president’s mostly friendly stance toward big business.
He’s since been mocked as one of the dumbest elected representatives in Washington.On December 14, 2010, a firefight erupted in the Arizona desert. When the smoke had cleared, Customs and Border Protection Agent Brian Terry was dead, and the seeds of a scandal had been sown. Some of the rank and file of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), often referred to as the ATF, began to grow concerned that a new development in Project Gunrunner probably had resulted in the death of Agent Terry.
First word of the incident began to appear on CleanUpATF.org, a whistle-blower website dedicated to "returning the integrity, accountability and decency to the ATF." Two Second Amendment advocates, Mike Vanderboegh of the blog Sipsey Street Irregulars and David Codrea, a writer at Gun Rights Examiner.com, became immediately aware of the posts, and their interest pushed them to collaborate and use their own sources within the ATF to confirm the allegations being made.
The pair independently corroborated the existence of a deviation from Project Gunrunner which they began to sardonically refer to as Project Gunwalker. Sources told them of the unstated policy to provide assault weapons to straw buyers, who would walk the guns over the border and sell them to members of the Mexican drug cartels for the purpose of manufacturing evidence.
One source of resistance to this development came from Darren Gil, then ATF attaché to Mexico, who felt strongly that the Mexican authorities should be made aware of the change in tactics. Gil brought his concerns to Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Office William D. Newell. Despite Gil's insistence, Newell refused to inform Mexico of the Bureau's intent. Frustrated and considering Newell's refusal to be a significant international policy error, Gil went to Newell's superiors in Washington. One can only speculate as to the conversations that took place, but Gil has since retired from the ATF.
With no further objections, the cynical plan allegedly was put into effect, and a string of subsequent events were unleashed. If played right, however, the Obama administration would get their "evidence," and the ATF could count on increased resources to pursue the very problem they were facilitating. That did not take into account the events that unfolded on the night of December 14 -- events which resulted in the death of Agent Terry.
Vanderboegh and Codrea relentlessly pursued the facts as presented to them by numerous and separate sources. They recognized that if true, the allegations would spell a serious breach of the public trust and the prospect of criminal activity within the ATF.
Finally, with facts in hand, they sought protection for their sources before going public. They approached several staff members on the Senate Judiciary Committee. They were directed from one person to the next. It was a struggle to ensure the safety of the agents putting their lives and careers on the line to expose the actions of the ATF. Eventually, Vanderboegh and Codrea obtained assurances that their informants would come under the whistle-blower protections offered by Senator Grassley of Iowa, ranking member of the Judiciary Committee. What follows is an excerpt of a letter from Grassley to Acting Director of the ATF Melson:
Members of the Judiciary Committee have received numerous allegations that the ATF sanctioned the sale of hundreds of assault weapons to suspected straw purchasers, who then allegedly transported these weapons throughout the southwestern border area and into Mexico. According to the allegations, one of these individuals purchased three assault rifles with cash in Glendale, Arizona on January 16, 2010. Two of the weapons were then allegedly used in a firefight on December 14, 2010 against Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, killing CBP Agent Brian Terry.
On January 30, 2011, there came word that the ATF in Phoenix, instead of helping Senator Grassley get to the bottom of the allegations, had begun to exert retaliatory pressure against agents suspected of blowing the whistle on the operation. The following is an excerpt from the subsequent letter sent from Grassley to Acting Director Melson upon hearing of the retaliation:
As you know, I wrote you on Thursday, January 27, regarding serious allegations associated with Project Gunrunner and the death of Customs and Protection Agent Brian Terry. Although the staff briefing I requested has not been scheduled, it appears that the ATF is reacting in less productive ways to my request. I understand that Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) George Gillette of the ATF's Phoenix office questioned one of the individual agents who answered my staff's questions about Project Gunrunner.So, this morning Cif posted an open thread inviting you, Guardian readers and users, to share your views with us about who or what the Guardian should support in the election editorial that will be published sometime before Thursday 6 May. The purpose of this "have your say" was to open up, as far as we could, an important bit of Guardian tradition: the editor's meeting at which all Guardian journalists can air their views of what the leader line should be, before the leader writers retire to some hallowed inner sanctum to compose whatever oracular statement the Guardian finally makes on the subject.
Your response was spectacular. Between 7.30am and the start of the meeting at 1.15pm, in excess of 1,200 comments were posted. At the time of writing, the total stands at more than 1,500. Even a cursory skim through the thread will tell you two things. While this is no scientific sample (and no opinion poll), an overwhelming majority of commenters urged the Guardian to back the Liberal Democrats. But just as significantly, the key reason why most of those who posted wish to see that is – necessarily summarising and simplifying hundreds of fascinating contributions – because you want to see real political change, vitally including electoral reform. And to most of you, Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats look like that change or the best bet for it.
That was the message we Ciffers took into the meeting – in the Guardian's Scott Room, whose walls were lined with sheets displaying a selection of your comments from the thread. With at least 200 people in the room, one issue at least was immediately clear: the air conditioning wasn't up to the job. As is also traditional at such gatherings, the Guardian's instinct for democracy and egalitarianism wars with an obscure combination of deference to the senior editors and columnists and an "I'll-sit-at-the-back-of-the-class" rebelliousness. This tension gets resolved in a delicate hierarchical compromise, with inner circle chairs occupied by the big beasts, with some secondary ranks behind, and then a standing crowd of silent spectators and occasionally noisy dissenters.
The editor, Alan Rusbridger, kicked off proceedings by reminding us why we were there – to honour the unique institution in Fleet Street of a news media organisation, independent and not beholden to proprietor or shareholders, holding such a consultative, "sounding-board" meeting with staff about such a central question of editorial policy. He then laid out seven areas of policy and principle to guide discussion: the economy, constitutional reform, foreign policy, public services, social justice, the environment and civil liberties. From here, I'm observing Chatham House rules and not attributing remarks, but will try to summarise and give you a flavour of the debate.
On the economy, the discussion focused on Labour's record: on the one hand, its management of the recession has been creditable and things could have been so much worse; on the other hand, the responsibility for the regulatory failures during the previous decade's boom is largely Labour's too. The bottom line, though, is that Labour is still the most redistributive party – for all its failures and timidity on that score. As one said (you might guess who): "Labour always remembers the poorest," whereas, historically, the Liberal Democrats are a party of the centre that looks out for the middle strata of society and tackling poverty is not in their DNA, as it is for Labour.
It was then that Michael White (no comment attributed, so I'm going to tell you) diverted everyone by starting to tear up a copy of the Financial Times as someone was speaking. It wasn't that he was bored and resorting to origami; he just wanted to clip an article for the editor that showed that more Guardian readers intend to vote Tory than vote Green.
Jumping to foreign policy, a consensus soon emerged that the Guardian's editorial positions are most closely aligned, of all the three parties, with the Liberal Democrats' prospectus. On Europe, especially, Cameron's Conservatives are a cause for concern, in contrast to a more realist Liberal Democrat attitude than in past times. Clegg's scepticism on replacing Trident suited many, too; and on Britain's role in the world, a less fetishistic attitude towards the "special relationship" with the US, and human rights, the Lib Dems tick Guardian boxes that Labour leaves blank. Brown's attack on Clegg in the leaders' debate for being "anti-American" seemed clumsy and ill-judged, it was said; after all, it was only the Liberal Democrats, of the main parties, who had shared the Guardian's opposition to the Iraq war.
Moving to public services, the debate was wide open. There is doubt about Labour's centralised mode of delivery and its target-driven record. Have people had enough of the big state, and are both the Tories and Lib Dems more in tune with the public mood by promising more devolved services and local control? As one said: "Labour has real achievements, but there are big questions to answer." On the other hand, the older hands at the Guardian – and among the electorate – still have the memory of past recessions under Conservative governments when cuts in public spending were harsh and not "humane". A voice from the standing contingent also observed crisply that, whatever Clegg and Cable might say about public spending, there is plenty of evidence of Liberal Democrats in local government being anything but liberal in their approach to services and cuts.
Constitutional reform energised discussion. A senior web editor observed that not just in today's open thread, but throughout our election coverage, there has been an incredibly high level of engagement from users and the dominant theme has been the desire for change and reform – for a new politics. Labour did push through devolution a decade ago, and has done plenty of constitutional tinkering since, but the party is a late and lukewarm convert to voting reform. Where the Guardian has long been on political reform (in some areas, for more than a century), there also, by and large, are the Liberal Democrats. And on civil liberties, which the Guardian has championed, most recently through liberty central, the Lib Dems score a home run, it was agreed.
On the environment, the verdict is that Labour has come late to the party, but have finally started to get things done – slowly building a new green economy, with jobs and growth in the renewable energy industry, for instance. There was a feeling, too, that however strongly Cameron had run on the environmental message in the early days of his leadership, he has not ultimately succeeded in selling that message to substantial portions of his party base and hierarchy. Again, the Liberal Democrats have long been on the right ground on the environment – although, as a senior editor observed, their opposition to nuclear power is hard to square with Britain's commitment to cutting carbon emissions.
At that point, discussion of the big policy areas came to a close – although not before the point had been raised that we had barely discussed the issue that has, for the public, dominated the election campaign coverage, galvanised by the leaders' debates: the personalities of the three leaders themselves and their relative merits.
The editor moved the debate on to the decisive questions of how to translate the Guardian's values and principles into a succinct editorial message – as he put it, separating the matters of principle from the pragmatic issue of how to reconcile them with the First Past the Post system we have.
Opening, one said there was "a consensus in favour of some form of 'Lib-Lab-ery'"; as another then chimed, "If there were a box [on the ballot paper] you could tick, it would be for a hung parliament – but you can't vote for that." So immediately, we were into the mechanics of how to get the reform we all want (no one was mounting a defence of First Past the Past, for instance). But how to address the question of "progressive alliances" and tactical voting in the most unpredictable, poised and unstable general election in decades?
There was a strong feeling from several quarters that the Guardian should not necessarily plump for one party over another, but instead, in tune with what feels like the public mood, "vote with our values" – say that we want change and reform, and leave it to voters to decide the rest. And this is where your Cif representatives in the room spoke up to convey a sense of what you had been telling us, reading from the thread: strong support for the Liberal Democrats, not necessarily to see them in government and Nick Clegg as prime minister, but with a powerful current of desire for a new politics – the resurgent great theme of the last year.
Some election veterans and harder-headed realists wanted to see a firmer message in favour of Labour, on the grounds that there is a real risk that a collapse in Labour's vote, even with a big turnout for the Liberal Democrats, would be most likely to deliver a minority Conservative government or even a majority for Cameron.
What is certain, though, is that creating at least some kind of window for the world to this internal Guardian exercise brought an even greater sense of energy and engagement to an already unexpectedly exciting election. Thank you for sharing your views with us. The Guardian's election leader will be written and published in the newspaper and here on Comment is free later next week.
But if, in the meantime, you have any bright ideas about how to manage the electoral mechanics to ensure the optimal outcome for the reform we all want – and then how to express that with clarity and conviction in an editorial – please post below. All ideas welcome.
• More Guardian election comment from Cif at the pollsAfter months of rumours and speculation, Electronic Arts has finally confirmed that it's releasing an update to classic cyberpunk game, Syndicate. Due out early next year on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, the game puts players in control of Miles Kilo, a prototype agent employed by mega-company EuroCorp for a series of assassination missions against two other corporations, Cayman Global, and Aspari. Unlike the original title – an isometric-viewed real-time strategy adventure – the new game will be a first-person shooter.
The development team has changed too. While Syndicate and its sequel Syndicate Wars were developed by Peter Molyneux's now-defunct Guildford studio, Bullfrog, the new title is being handled by Starbreeze Studios, previously responsible for sci-fi action title Chronicles of Riddick and offbeat horror shooter, The Darkness.
Although the gamer's perspective has changed, it seems the setting will be familiar to those who reminisce about the earlier titles. The game takes place in a 2069ad where governments have collapsed, their role taken by sinister global corporations (wait, hasn't this already happened?). According to the press release a bio-chip technology known as DART 6 allows players to slow down time to take down enemies using a range of 'upgradable hacking mechanics'. Max Payne meets Deus Ex? Don't be so cynical.
Indeed, Syndicate was exploring elements such as bio-mechanical augmentation, computer hacking and cyber-terrorism back in 1993, seven years before the launch of Deus Ex.
And for those scared stiff by the translation from RTS to FPS, EA has sought to provide some assurance. "It's been an amazing opportunity for us to use our expertise in the first person shooter and action genres to bring back, and reignite, the signature action/espionage gameplay of Syndicate," said Mikael Nermark, CEO of Starbreeze Studios. Jeff Gamon, EA Partners Executive Producer, chipped in with, "Fans of the franchise will recognize many weapons and environments in the game, but in a whole new way. The game also provides a separate and deep 4-player co-op mode featuring missions from the original cult classic, which adds another layer of depth to the overall experience."
Lovers of classic sci-fi games have been rather spoiled recently. Deus Ex: Human Revolution has proved a worth successor to the much-loved PC series, while 2K Marin's first-person take on the legendary Xcom titles also looks interesting.
The biggest challenge will to replicate Bullfrog's brilliant story-telling and its keen eye for cyberpunk details. The original titles were also fascinating for their amorality – players were neither rewarded nor penalised for gunning down civilians or destroying vast areas of real estate, reflecting the wider themes of urban nihilism and social breakdown. Fans certainly won't be appeased by a vaguely near-future shoot-'em-up with some hackneyed hacking mini-games tossed in for cyber-credentials.Wandee stands by the main road, now a knee-deep river, in the Sai Mai district of Bangkok, selling bottles of petrol to drivers as they inch their cars through the muddy water. Like the majority of the capital's residents, she is staying put despite evacuation orders following Thailand's worst floods in half a century and the waters continuing to rise. "We'll stay one more night," she said. "Well, unless it gets really high."
Bangkok faces a growing emergency. Flood defences were breached on Saturday in the Thonburi district, bringing water to the outskirts of the central tourist and business areas. The mighty Chao Phraya river, which wends through the city, is predicted to break its banks over the weekend when coastal tides swell its volume, threatening to inundate central areas.
The government has mobilised more than 50,000 soldiers, 1,000 trucks and 1,000 boats for the relief operation. Army trucks carrying residents through the water pass sandbag barriers stacked like shooting ranges. Along the roadside, entrepreneurs sell everything from wellington boots and lifejackets to blocks of foam and inflatable dinghies. Wandee is proud of the community spirit in the district. "We rely on each other, not the government," she said.
In a number of northern districts of the capital, the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority has ordered evacuations. The city's governor, Sukhumbhand Paribatra, said this weekend was "a critical moment", and that "massive water is coming". Prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra said she was only "50% confident that the inner zone of Bangkok will not be completely flooded".
The government has announced a five-day holiday to enable citizens to escape and emergency relief centres have been set up around the country. With all domestic flights booked up, public transport packed and the roads hectic, it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people have already left.
There are risks for those who stay. The Red Cross warns that the city faces a "potential humanitarian crisis" of water and mosquito-borne illnesses, and many shops have run out of essentials like bottled water, eggs and instant noodles. Danger also lurks in the water. As well as snakes and rats, there are scores of crocodiles which have escaped from flooded crocodile farms.
Nipapat, a market worker from the north of the city, told how she saw a crocodile attack a small child playing in the water. "The men in the neighbourhood hunted it down and killed it," she said.
The floods have had a devastating impact on the country. More than 380 people have been killed and a third of Thailand's provinces have suffered serious flooding, affecting 2.2 million people. The sheer scale of the problem is laid out in a popular flood-awareness cartoon, which explains that the volume of water, which has to drain from the north to the Gulf of Thailand, is equivalent to the weight of 50m blue whales. The cost of the floods is already estimated at 800bn baht (£16bn) and is likely to rise further.
The city of Chonburi, one hour south of Bangkok, has set up a relief centre in a sports centre to take some of the evacuees from the capital. The gym floor is a colourful patchwork of red mats, dome tents and sprawling bodies. Downstairs hordes of volunteers bustle about, handing out basic supplies, giving financial advice and even organising local trips to lift people's spirits.
For Luangjan, this is the second emergency centre she has been to – the first one was flooded a few days ago. She left Rangsit, north of Bangkok, last week with 10 family members. "The dam broke," she said. "The water was too fast and too strong to save anything." They ferried their family to dry ground in a giant plastic tub, before being picked up by one of the many army trucks criss-crossing the disaster zones.
She is worried about what will happen when they return – her hairdressing business has been flooded and she is sceptical about whether the government will provide any assistance. "When the floods stop they will only care about [big] business – not people like me," she said.
In Bangkok, taxi driver Bprasert was also sceptical about how the government can handle the crisis. He repeated a common criticism that there has been too much political conflict between Bangkok's governor and the prime minister, who both represent different political parties. "One says yes, the other no," he said. "They should work together, but they don't."
Bprasert slept in his taxi on Friday night, parked on the raised express way along with hundreds of other cars left on higher ground by their owners. His district in the south of the city was unaffected yesterday but he was worried that the flood would come soon. He complained that there was not enough information from the Flood Relief Operations Centre (FROC) about where might flood next – and so, unsure of what is going to happen, he prefered to sleep in his car.
With the Chao Phraya river forecast to burst its banks and the prime minister warning that the water in the capital could last a month, the floods provide a real challenge to the new Thai government. For Luangjan, stuck in Chonburi however, it's very simple: "I just really want to go home and tidy up my house."HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam, Laos and Thailand are considering introducing bus routes to offer the public better transport connectivity between the three countries.
The transport ministries of the three countries had agreed to conduct surveys on the routes at the first meeting on the initiative held in December last year. They also agreed that the operation of these routes would be based on shared interests, which would be identified by their transport enterprises.
Two routes starts from Thailand’s Bangkok, running through Nakhon Phanom Province in northeast Thailand and Laos’s Thakhek Town to Việt Nam’s Hà Tĩnh Province, while the third route is from Thailand’s Mukdahan Province to Việt Nam’s Đà Nẵng City.
The Directorate for Roads of Việt Nam (DRVN) said surveys had been conducted on the first route from Bangkok to Hà Tĩnh.
The DRVN would co-ordinate with its Thai and Lao counterparts to complete surveys on the other two routes, it said.
The second meeting on the initiative will be held this year in Laos, however, the date has not yet been announced.
During the meeting, transport firms from the three countries are expected to discuss the operation mechanism of the Bangkok-Hà Tĩnh route, keeping the interests of all parties in mind.
The new routes are expected to promote trade and tourism between countries in Southeast Asia in the future.
Việt Nam is operating international bus routes connecting the country with Laos, Cambodia and China. — VNSThis post contains spoilers.
If you love Final Fantasy VII as much as I do (doubtful), then June 15, 2015 was the greatest day in your video-game life since the first time you beat Sephiroth and saved the planet. That, of course, was the day Square Enix announced they would be remaking the 1997 classic.
Since the announcement, just about every video game outlet has weighed in on what should and should not be included in the remake, yet none of those articles appeared to have been written by anyone who had really played or loved the game. All the articles discussed the same ideas, and sure, some things will obviously need to be reimagined, but I wanted to write my own suggestions, as a real fan (seriously,* there was fanfiction**) and since I have just finished replaying the game on iOS the timing seems right.
There are some universally wanted things—expanded chocobo breeding/racing, more games at the Gold Saucer, the ability to skip through summons, e.g.—so I’m not going to bring those up. But there are two commonly discussed topics that I’d like to give my two cents on quickly.
1. Tweak the Battle System
We already know the battle system will be overhauled. If the graphics are going to be updated to make the game more realistic, then the old battle system of taking turns and standing in line to attack—wonderful as it is—just isn’t going to work. Remake director and original character designer Tetsuya Nomura already said the battle system would see “dramatic changes” but that it’s still in the trial-and-error stage.
I’d like to see a modified version of the FF12 or FF15 systems, where creatures exist in the environment and not in random encounters. I suggest finding a way to ensure the player can control each member of the party. Cloud is an awesome guy, but we’re all used to customizing a battle through each character. If there could be a way to switch between characters that wouldn’t cause whiplash, I’d be all for it.
I liked the FF12 gambit system as a way to include the other players, but I’d still like more control. If the materia system could be tied to some kind of gambit system, that would be fine, but I don’t want to spend half an hour equipping materia and giving characters specific tasks before each battle.
Whatever it takes to make the game more realistic I’ll support, but I’m hoping the more whimsical monsters don’t get cut. I still want to fight Hell House (it’s a sentient house!) and Heavy Tank (it’s a triceratops with tank treads!) and watch the characters get turned into frogs.
2. Don’t Bring Aerith Back
I think I’m in the minority here, and I write this with the full disclosure that I am Team Tifa, but I don’t want the story compromised to bring Aerith back. The planet would not have been saved had Aerith (I’m using this version of her name because that’s what other games used and will probably be used in a voice-acted remake) not fused with Lifestream to stop Meteor.
Any attempt to bring her back would either upset the entire story, along with the movie/super-long cell-phone commercial that was “Advent Children,” or cause the player to have to pretend she’s not there in the final moments of the game. It just can’t work.
It could work bring Aerith back as a hard-to-obtain summon materia. Sort of like Phoenix paired with a Final Attack material, Aerith could be a cure-all summon that only activates under specific circumstances, such as everyone’s HP being in the yellow. Her last words in AC were “You see? Everything’s alright.” If she said something similar just before Sephiroth kills her, and then you heard those words when the summon was activated? Oooh, I just got chills.
3. Make the Game Open-World
I want to explore every inch of this world. I want to see the world from the character’s point of view. It seems like a daunting task, but most of the towns in this game are really small. Junon could prove to be a time-consuming task, but the only really big city in the game is Midgar. Granted, it’s absolutely massive, but it’s doable.
Other games have created worlds much larger than Midgar. The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall is said to cover more than 60,000 sqare miles, and the city of Los Santos in Grand Theft Auto V stretched 20 square miles. Creating all eight sectors of upper and lower Midgar is possible.
I’m not saying I want to be able to enter every single house just because, but being able to explore and discover secrets in the cities like never before would give hours and hours of extra enjoyment.
4. Don’t Give In to Social-Justice Warriors
Ever since the remake was announced, Internet scolds have been suggesting what “must” be changed in regards to problematic parts of a late ’90s video game. Barrett is a racist stereotype. Cloud dressing as a woman is transphobic. Tifa’s boobs are too big.
Barret calls people ‘fools’—a popular Mr. T. catchphrase—exactly once in the entire game.
Step off mah game! First, Barret’s dialogue is not racist like people are claiming. His look appears to be based off of Mr. T, and that has led to years of people seemingly unfamiliar with the game assigning traits to him. If you read his dialogue (or, you know, play the game) it doesn’t seem out of the ordinary and especially not when compared to the dialogue of Cid Highwind, a white character. Barret’s appearance clouded the impression of people looking for something to disagree with.
Barret calls people “fools”—a popular Mr. T. catchphrase—exactly once in the entire game. “Get in here, fools! We’re startin’ the meetin’!” he says, after Avalanche blows up the first reactor and the team regroups at Tifa’s Seventh Heaven. He says “Hey, fool!” on a voicemail to Cloud in “Advent Children.” These are the only two instances of him calling people that. You know who else calls people fools at some point in the game? Cid, and Shinra executive Scarlet—both white characters.
Second, to the complaints about a crossdressing Cloud. This was one of the most light-hearted moments in a dark game where every main character had suffered significant emotional turmoil. Despite being in their early 20s, most of the characters’ parents were already dead due to horrific circumstances. Barret lost his wife. Vincent lost his love. Cid lost his dream. This is a dark game.
In another instance of ascribing a negative component in hindsight, if you played the game and paid attention to the dialogue, Wall Market was a really progressive area. When I played the game again recently, I was actually surprised at how accepting the characters were even in 1997, when much of America would not have been.
If you played the game and paid attention to the dialogue, Wall Market was a really progressive area.
The tailor agrees to make the dress because it “might be interesting” and he was getting “bored” of making regular women’s clothes. There’s an entire gym of people who completely accept Cloud in this state. The people at the Honeybee Inn are accepting. Really, no one bats an eye at the suggestion of a man in a dress, yet Internet scolds suggest this is a transphobic moment.
Finally, Tifa’s boobs. Is it just me, or are the people most concerned with the way a female character looks the ones saying we should not be concerned with looks?
More than any other fictional character, Tifa has always been my spirit guide. She loved Cloud, to be sure, and in some respects was a hopeless romantic (just as I was in my younger days), but she was also emotionally and physically strong. In fact, the few times she did seem to fall apart emotionally, Barret was there to tell her how out of character that was.
Final Fantasy 7 had some of the strongest female characters in all of gaming, yet the outrage brigade focuses on looks.
Final Fantasy 7 had some of the strongest female characters in all of gaming, yet the outrage brigade focuses on looks. Without Aerith, Meteor would have destroyed the planet, and without Tifa, Cloud never would have been able to kill Sephiroth (ignore that he was brought back in “Advent Children”). If not for Tifa pushing Cloud to keep going, especially after he comes down with mako poisoning and loses himself, he would still be in a wheelchair. That’s right, these two are every bit as important to the game as Cloud, if not more so. They’re the ones who truly saved the planet. And SJWs want to focus on one physical characteristic?
Tifa’s boobs aren’t even a plot point. No one focuses on her physical appearance. It astounds me to see others so upset over something only they seem to care about.
5. Include More Backstory
We know a lot about these characters, but there’s a lot we don’t know that I’ve always been curious about. How did Tifa and Barret meet in Midgar? How did Red XIII get captured by Hojo, and why was no one trying to rescue him? When and how did Avalanche come together? I have so many more. But don’t play up the Sephiroth mother story any more than it already has been. Sephiroth is kind of the Darth Vader of video game villains, and the more mother obsession added to him, the less fearsome he becomes.
6. Don’t Skimp on Red XIII
I get it, animating fur is really difficult, but I hope this won’t diminish Red XIII’s appearance in the game. Vincent got his own video game to explain his backstory. So did Cloud, Zack, and Aerith. I want to know more about Red XIII. He’s one of the last of his kind, yet no others are included in FF7. Somehow, 500 years in the future, Red has offspring. Where is the mother?
Red really got the shaft in “Advent Children” and Dirge of Cerberus. His voice actor only had one line in the movie, and he only appeared briefly at the end of DoC. He is an amazing character. I don’t want him to be excluded.
7. Offer More Things to Spend Gil On
Either gil was too easy to come by in FF7 (during my replay I was well off without even having to sell an All Material) or there isn’t enough to spend it on. The big purchases—the Costa del Sol villa (300,000 gil), the Sneak Glove (129,000 gil), and breeding a gold chocobo (360,000+ if you include purchasing stalls and feeding each one 10 Sylkis Greens to raise stats)—only amounts to 789,000 gil. Sell one Mastered All, which you could acquire before coming close to beating the game, and the need to raise money vanishes.
It would be great if there were more to spend money on. Perhaps a house in every town? If not, then maybe the amount of gil earned needs to be adjusted, because right now it’s just too easy to obtain expensive items.
Finally, a personal request.
8. Don’t Take Away My Cloud X Tifa Moment Under the Highwind
The dating mechanics could be expanded upon, but I hope there’s still an option to choose different characters to date. The only date level that mattered beyond the Gold Saucer was Tifa’s, who would share a moment with Cloud under the Highwind toward the end of the game. If the dating mechanics could be expanded beyond the Gold Saucer it could be really interesting.
I’d love to know what you all want to see and not see, so leave comments!
*I told my piano teacher in the sixth grade that my favorite composer was Nobuo Uematsu. The only music I play on the piano any more is from the Final Fantasy series. I have a chocobo, moogle, and tonberry on my dresser (my |
announced Monday. Apparently unbeknownst to the officers, the cameras were rolling when one officer squatted in front of the empty driver’s seat. Another officer “found” a bag of drugs there moments later. The footage is the second body camera video in two weeks to apparently show Baltimore Police officers planting drugs on an otherwise-innocent scene.
Two weeks ago, the public defender’s office released body camera footage that appeared to show an officer planting a bag of pills in an empty lot in January, while two other officers looked on. The footage prompted Baltimore prosecutors on Friday to drop 34 drug and weapons cases connected to the three officers captured on camera.
The newest footage, announced on Monday, comes from a separate incident involving at least seven other police officers. The footage, which has not been released to the public, is said to show officers conspiring to fudge their body camera records and plant drugs in a car, the public defender’s office said.
It was described to The Daily Beast on Tuesday.
“A series of body worn camera videos show multiple officers searching a car, including the front driver side area,” said public defender’s office spokesperson Melissa Rothstein. “After the car has been thoroughly searched, the officers turn off their body cameras and reactivate them. When the cameras come back on one officer is seen squatting by the driver’s seat area. The group of officers then wait approximately 30 seconds.”
Baltimore police use cameras that retain 30 seconds of silent footage prior to an officer pressing the record button. The silent period, known as a “buffer,” is supposed to show the moments before an officer flagged an incident as noteworthy.
“Shortly thereafter, another officer asks if the area by that compartment has been searched. Nobody responds, and the officer reaches in and locates a bag that appears to contain drugs right by where the prior officer was, and where the car had been thoroughly searched about a half an hour prior with absolutely no results.”
The officers’ 30-second wait could prove particularly damning. It’s the same time delay that tripped up the three other officers who were apparently captured planting drugs in the first body camera video released by the public defender’s office last month.
The video released last month appears to show police manufacturing a crime. While the silent “buffer” footage was rolling during a January patrol, Baltimore Police officer Richard Pinheiro appeared to a bag of pills in a can in an empty lot while officers Hovhannes Simonyan and Jamal Brunson looked on.
Pinheiro returned to the street and stood with Simonyan and Brunson before activating his camera.
“I’m gonna go check here,” Pinheiro announced, walking into the lot where he had apparently just planted the drugs. After a few moments of searching, he found the can with its hidden bag of pills.
Baltimore Police have since suspended Pinheiro and placed Simonyan and Brunson on desk duty. The department said it was investigating the body camera footage of the officers involved in the drug search on the car.
“The police department works closely with the Office of the Public Defender and the State's Attorney's Office,” Baltimore Police spokesperson T.J. Smith told The Daily Beast. “Anytime an allegation of misconduct is made, we take it seriously and investigate it fully. Right now, we are investigating the allegation that was brought forth by the Office of the Public Defender and the State's Attorney's Office.”
The Baltimore Police body camera program is still relatively young. The department began equipping officers with body cameras in spring 2016, following the death of Freddie Gray, an unarmed black man who died of spinal cord injuries after his arrest by Baltimore officers, and whose death prompted widespread calls for greater police accountability. Though eyewitnesses accused Gray’s arresting officers of unnecessary force, none of the six officers charged with Gray’s death were convicted. Nine hundred Baltimore Police officers had body cameras as of April, the Sun reported.
The case against the two people arrested during the drug bust have been dropped, the public defender’s office announced Monday.
But the office claims Baltimore Police brass are letting some officers off easy. “While today's dismissed case involved at least seven officers, the State’s Attorney's Office confirmed that it has only referred two officers to Internal Affairs,” the public defender’s office said in a statement.The Alward government's change in forest policy just two years after introducing a forest plan that wasn't to the liking of the Irving forestry interests is raising political questions about the provincial government's independence from the powerful industrial family.
The challenges came in the CBC News political panel this week dealing with the forest policy introduced Wednesday.
The Irvings, they've finally found a government they can run. - Liberal MLA Donald Arseneault
"The Irvings, they've finally found a government they can run," said Liberal Donald Arseneault.
Under the new forest policy, an additional 660,600 cubic metres of softwood from Crown land will be made available, representing an increase of 21 per cent.
"This is a plan for plunder," said Green party Leader David Coon, who noted two years ago the Conservatives' plan for forestry involved a 5 per cent decrease in the amount of wood to be taken from Crown land.
Green party Leader David Coon wants to know why the Conservatives abandoned their forest plan of two years ago. (CBC) "Industry hated the plan. A big hole was dug and it was buried," said Coon.
"And now these guys have just given the Irvings what they want — a 21 per cent increase in clear cutting on Crown lands," said Coon.
"That's insane. That's just pillage."
Coon said the Conservatives' 2012 plan for forestry struck a better balance between industry's needs and protecting the environment.
"I don't know why no one is asking this government what happened to that plan? How come just two years later and it's dead and buried — Plan A and Plan B," said Coon.
"It just goes to show you how much our government, and governments have become captured by this dominant player in our economy," he said.
"It's time that a government, that a party, has the courage to stand up to them and say `When your interests are not in line with the interest of New Brunswickers, we are going to make other decisions.'
"Government is the power in this province."
I find the obsession with one company in this province, across a whole range of different files, completely baffling. - NDP Leader Dominic Cardy
New Democratic Party Leader Dominic Cardy said "I find the obsession with one company in this province, across a whole range of different files, completely baffling.
Energy Minister Craig Leonard says the forest industry was not given all it wanted in the new policy.
"What the industry wanted was 1.8 million cubic metres. They ended up getting 660,000 out of this plan," he said.
"They did not get everything they wanted by any stretch of the imagination."
Leonard said the primary interest of New Brunswickers is preserving and protecting jobs in the forest sector.
"We can talk about ecological concerns and environmental concerns. Those have to be balanced with a strong economy," said Leonard.
"In this particular sector, it's a sector that is under severe pressures from outside and our mills simply have to become more efficient."
Leonard said in order to invest in capital upgrades to achieve that efficiency, the forest companies need a long-term commitment on the Crown wood supply.
Where do you draw the line on creating jobs? How much plunder and pillage? - Green Party Leader David Coon
"Where do you draw the line on creating jobs? said Coon. "How much plunder and pillage? How much wreck and ruin in this province? How many sacrifice zones do you want to create to create jobs?
"The private woodlot owners have lots of wood to sell if companies are looking for wood."
The new forest policy has been met with opposition from private woodlot owners and from people concerned about the protection of wildlife habitat and the forest ecology. The new policy decreases the area of forest that is off-limits to industrial forest operations to 23 per cent, down from the previous 28 per cent.
"I would like to hear from any of those individuals what the alternative is," said Leonard. "Give us a solution that allows for a vibrant forest industry to take place in this province. They haven't done that. All they want is the status quo."
Coon said the alternative is the Conservatives plan from two years ago that was scrapped in favour of the new policy.
"The alternative that everyone could live with was the first plan that his government released two years ago when Bruce Northrup was minister before he got tossed under the bus," said Coon. "The only people who didn't like that plan were the Irvings.
"They wield a tremendous amount of power in this province and the responsibility of government is not to adopt their agenda, fold their cards and welcome them on in."
Coon said the provincial government's responsibility is to advance the common good.
"When it doesn't line up with the Irving's agenda, too bad," said Coon. "Shut the door. `Sorry, Mr. Irving, we're not going down that road.'"Ivanka Trump will reportedly conduct a listening tour throughout her father's administration focused on working families and women's economic empowerment.
A White House official told Politico that the first daughter will meet with Cabinet officials and department heads.
Trump will start by visiting Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt on Monday, the news outlet reported, adding that Sen. Lisa Murkowski Lisa Ann MurkowskiHouse to push back at Trump on border GOP Sen. Tillis to vote for resolution blocking Trump's emergency declaration Pence meeting with Senate GOP ahead of vote to block emergency declaration MORE (R-Alaska) will then meet with Trump and Pruitt Tuesday.
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Those conversations are reportedly part of the administration’s process to decide whether it should abandon the Paris climate change agreement, which was negotiated by former President Barack Obama Barack Hussein ObamaWith low birth rate, America needs future migrants 4 ways Hillary looms over the 2020 race Obama goes viral after sporting black bomber jacket with '44' on sleeve at basketball game MORE.
The pact states that the U.S. will cut its greenhouse gas emissions 26 percent to 28 percent from current levels by 2025.
The first daughter will also sit down later this week and early next with several administration officials on workforce development, Politico reported.
Trump will meet with Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta. Small Business Administration Administrator Linda McMahon will also speak with Trump about entrepreneurship, according to the news outlet.BEIJING -- The Chinese Communist Party and the government have decided to reorganize the State Council in spring 2018, focusing on bolstering the collection and analysis of intelligence related to counterterrorism and national security.
The Communist Party's Central Institutional Organization Commission has instructed relevant organizations to devise reform proposals that are to become a draft by the time the party holds its next National Congress in autumn 2017, where President Xi Jinping is expected to be re-elected to a second term. A final proposal likely will be submitted for approval at the National People's Congress, the country's legislature, during a meeting scheduled for March 2018.
Intelligence overhaul
Chinese sources say talks have occurred about reorganizing the Ministry of State Security, which keeps a watch over spies; the Ministry of Public Security, the nation's principal security and police authority; and intelligence-related organizations inside the People's Liberation Army. The aim is to create a system that lets the government comprehensively access intelligence at various related agencies.
Hong Kong news reports suggest the reforms likely will involve reconstituting the Ministry of State Security as a two-part body, one for monitoring spies in China and another for gathering intelligence overseas.
Xi's administration created the National Security Commission of the Communist Party in 2014 and appointed him as the commission chief, with an eye toward creating a central platform for controlling various intelligence agencies. But the commission appears to have hit a snag, since no activities have been reported after the group's first meeting in April of that year. Some now think the commission will be revived as the control center for newly reorganized intelligence agencies.
Power grab
The Ministry of State Security was under the strong influence of Zhou Yongkang until the former Politburo Standing Committee member and potential political rival of Xi was deposed on corruption charges in 2014. Some see restructuring of the ministry as Xi's attempt to strengthen his grip on the organization.
But the reforms may prove a difficult task even for the president, since intelligence agencies are notoriously independent and regard each other as rivals. It has been suggested that strong objections already are appearing against the idea of getting organizations belonging to the PLA involved with the Ministry of State Security.
Xi's push for intelligence reforms will serve as a litmus test for the strength of the president's power base going into his second term. The apparent attempt to boost his power comes as China's elites are increasingly concerned about the maintenance of social order amid the nation's economic slowdown and expanding wealth gaps.Researchers have found a possible explanation for why certain people are prejudiced: they're less intelligent.
Children with lower general intelligence are more likely to become prejudiced as adults, according to a Brock University study.
The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, examined data from two large-scale British studies, and found lower intelligence scores in childhood were predictors of greater racism in adulthood, which the researchers controversially explain is brought about by adopting right-wing ideologies.
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A secondary analysis of data from a U.S. study also showed those with poor abstract-reasoning skills were more likely to have anti-homosexual prejudice, partially linked to authoritarian attitudes.
Lead researcher Gordon Hodson told LiveScience that the results of the study indicate a vicious cycle, in which people with low intelligence are drawn to socially conservative ideologies. In turn, those ideologies can contribute to prejudices.
"Socially conservative ideologies tend to offer structure and order," he said, explaining why those with lower intelligence may gravitate toward the right. "Unfortunately, many of these features can contribute to prejudice."
The researchers found that people with lower intelligence also tended to have less contact with other races and groups, which, Dr. Hodson said, supports previous research that determined interacting with other groups is mentally challenging and cognitively draining.
Dr. Hodson explained the findings do not mean all liberals are smart and all conservatives are stupid, LiveScience.com reports. "There are multiple examples of very bright conservatives and not-so-bright liberals, and many examples of very principled conservatives and very intolerant liberals," he said.
Previous research has suggested that the brains of conservatives and liberals are wired differently.
What do you think? Does intelligence really determine your political stripe? And do your politics determine how prejudiced you are?2010-09-16 23:25:08 [WARNING] Can't keep up! Did the system time change, or is the server overloaded?
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9/16/2010 11:25:21 PM [MCAdmin] <tehElad> they don't work
9/16/2010 11:25:29 PM [MCAdmin] <scovac_fumalas> oh. ):
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9/16/2010 11:27:23 PM [MCAdmin] IP 72.218.107.25 connected!
9/16/2010 11:27:23 PM [MCAdmin] IP 72.218.107.25 logged in as leebird!
2010-09-16 23:27:24 [INFO] leebird [/127.0.0.1:49229] logged in
THE REPLY IS YES
Player count: 9
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9/16/2010 11:27:50 PM [MCAdmin] tehElad teleported to crave_
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2010-09-16 23:28:17 [INFO] leebird used a compass.
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2010-09-16 23:28:39 [INFO] SmellyAvocado [/127.0.0.1:49235] logged in
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9/16/2010 11:29:10 PM [MCAdmin] tehElad forced time to be: 12:00
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2010-09-16 23:29:12 [INFO] CONSOLE: Giving KlonopinClyde some 42
2010-09-16 23:29:12 [INFO] crave_ tried command: servertime day
9/16/2010 11:29:20 PM [MCAdmin] SmellyAvocado teleported to mr_mustash
2010-09-16 23:29:20 [INFO] CONSOLE: Teleporting SmellyAvocado to mr_mustash.
2010-09-16 23:30:02 [WARNING] Can't keep up! Did the system time change, or is the server overloaded?
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
2010-09-16 23:30:31 [INFO] waypoint destroyed.
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
Removing entity because it's not in a chunk!!
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9/16/2010 11:31:06 PM [MCAdmin] mr_mustash(IP: 173.8.206.230) disconnected!
2010-09-16 23:31:07 [INFO] mr_mustash lost connection: Internal
exception: java.net.SocketException: Connection reset
Player count: 9
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9/16/2010 11:31:21 PM [MCAdmin] IP 173.8.206.230 connected!
9/16/2010 11:31:21 PM [MCAdmin] IP 173.8.206.230 logged in as mr_mustash!
2010-09-16 23:31:22 [INFO] mr_mustash [/127.0.0.1:49247] logged in
THE REPLY IS YES
Player count: 10
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9/16/2010 11:31:28 PM [MCAdmin] SmellyAvocado (IP: 72.196.223.178)
disconnected (Message: Quitting)!
2010-09-16 23:31:28 [INFO] SmellyAvocado lost connection: Internal
exception: java.net.SocketException: Connection reset
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2010-09-16 23:31:42 [INFO] leebird returned home
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2010-09-16 23:32:50 [INFO] CONSOLE: Giving leebird some 1
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2010-09-16 23:33:02 [INFO] leebird used a teleporter.
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2010-09-16 23:33:06 [INFO] CONSOLE: Giving mr_mustash some 8
2010-09-16 23:33:06 [INFO] leebird used a teleporter.
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2010-09-16 23:33:11 [INFO] CONSOLE: Giving KlonopinClyde some 1
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2010-09-16 23:34:16 [INFO] leebird used a compass.
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9/16/2010 11:34:26 PM [MCAdmin] tehElad teleported to thewoolyninja
2010-09-16 23:34:26 [INFO] CONSOLE: Teleporting tehElad to thewoolyninja.
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2010-09-16 23:34:50 [INFO] CONSOLE: Giving Mishkan some 46
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2010-09-16 23:35:00 [WARNING] Can't keep up! Did the system time change, or is |
next century do not lie in the Middle East. China, and to a lesser extent, Russia and the future of Europe deserve the bulk of America’s foreign policy focus. An invasion of Iran would divert resources and distract America from its most significant interests for a decade.
While America managed an invasion and its consequences for a decade, China would continue to progress toward its goal of displacing the United States as the global superpower. China would continue to develop its conventional military assets, its space capabilities, and most worryingly, its cyber capabilities. In 2013, the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, said that cyberattacks pose the greatest threat to national security. Indeed, as The Economist recently reported, China has been increasingly active in its attempts to infiltrate and exploit sensitive national security information. Most recently, China appears to have breached the Office of Personnel Management, which stores security clearance information on millions of past and current federal employees. According to The Wall Street Journal, China also has stolen data from the Pentagon, Los Alamos, oil pipelines, and power plants, and after stealing data from Lockheed Martin on the F-35, China debuted its own stealth fighter. Back in the physical world, China may become even more assertive in the South China Sea, limiting America’s naval and intelligence capabilities in the hemisphere. The United States would of course try to maintain its strategic advantages, but it would be unable to devote the level of resources and attention that the threat from China demands.
Russia is likely to benefit from an Iranian distraction as well. Perhaps it would annex Ukraine. Most worryingly, it may attempt to break NATO by threatening Poland or the Czech Republic at a time when the United States and NATO cannot sufficiently respond. These are America’s greatest threats, and the agreement with Iran could make it possible for America to direct its attention where it is most needed.
I said above that any agreement with Iran must produce 1) transparency about past nuclear activities, 2) restrictions on nuclear activities going forward, and 3) increased verification. The deal largely satisfies these criteria, albeit not as well as it could have. While the world can expect better transparency into Iran’s past activities and significant restrictions on its nuclear activities for at least the next decade, the verification provisions of the agreement are more worrisome.
First, although Iran surely will try to hide critical information regarding its past nuclear activities, we are likely to learn a good deal more about the so-called “possible military dimensions” of its nuclear program. The United States should stand firm and refuse any sanctions relief until Iran resolves questions about its past activities.
Second, though the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear capabilities will expire in ten to fifteen years, for that time period its capabilities will be significantly curtailed. The Economist recently reported that even Israel’s generals and intelligence service believe that Iran essentially has accepted a ten year hiatus on its nuclear program. And, as stated recently by the former Director of Israel’s Mossad, Efraim Halevy (who was appointed by Benjamin Netanyahu), what will happen in ten to fifteen years is a moot point—in international relations, a decade is like eternity.
The weakest point of the three criteria is verification. Significantly, Iran has agreed to adopt the IAEA’s Additional Protocol, and Modified Code 3.1 (requiring early disclosure of design information for nuclear facilities) as well as additional inspection measures allowing the IAEA access to nuclear sites and other sites with suspected undeclared activities. But critics of the deal rightly point out that these are not the “anytime, anywhere” kind of inspections that many wanted, and that Iran has shown are warranted. Iran could delay critical inspections with bureaucratic obstacles sanctioned by the agreement itself—the famous 24 day access timetable.
Nonetheless, Iran will be watched more closely than ever before. Though Iran implemented the Additional Protocol on a voluntary basis from 2003 to 2006, Iran’s implementation of the Additional Protocol under the new agreement is nondiscretionary. Also, though subject to a 24 day timescale, the agreement provides inspectors with greater rights to demand inspections when necessary. And, unlike prior safeguard agreements, which Iran tended to violate with few consequences, the current agreement allows for sanctions to be “snapped-back” into place if Iran does not comply with its international obligations. Given Iran’s history of noncompliance, this is a significant enforcement mechanism. No verification regime can be one hundred percent effective, but this agreement increases the cost of cheating for Iran, and increases the chances that the world will discover if Iran cheats.
In short, the costs of invasion are high, and while the agreement is far from perfect, it does offer real benefits—but America must act on them. Iran should know that this is its last, best chance to rejoin the league of respectable nations. If Iran cheats again, if it is found to have been working in secret toward a nuclear weapon, the response should not be more negotiations. In that unfortunate scenario, the world, led by the United States, must enforce its rights militarily. In the meantime, the agreement provides America the capacity to deal with the most significant strategic threats emanating from China and Russia. The greatest shame will be if America fails to capitalize on this opportunity.
Alex Rinn is an attorney and former CIA analyst.America’s Climate Pollution is Falling, EPA Report Says
After two years of increases, greenhouse gas emissions fell in 2015, reducing America’s overall climate pollution to below 1994 levels, according to a draft Environmental Protection Agency report published Tuesday.
The decline in 2015 was mainly because that year’s mild winter reduced demand for heat across the country, and electric power companies were using less coal and more natural gas to generate electricity than in previous years, the report says. Emissions fell 2.2 percent overall.
An oil refinery near Anacortes, Wash.
Credit: Dana/flickr
The draft report is required to be produced annually under an agreement with the United Nations. It is open for public comment and scheduled to be finalized in April, according to an EPA statement.
“These numbers demonstrate the successfulness of the policies that were instituted by the Obama administration — the Clean Power Plan and incentives for renewable energy — to lower domestic carbon emissions,” said Michael Mann, a Penn State University climatologist. “And, this underscores how disastrous it would be if the Trump administration makes good on its threat to undo the progress that was made under the Obama administration.”
The U.S. has made significant progress in cutting its greenhouse gas pollution over the past decade. America’s overall climate pollution peaked in 2007 just before the Great Recession, and the trend has been generally downward ever since. (Emissions grew slightly in 2010, 2013 and 2014.)
The EPA’s report, which quantifies greenhouse gas emissions through 2015, does not reflect more recent data from the U.S. Department of Energy showing how much progress the U.S. is continuing to make in cutting its climate pollution, especially from electric power plants.
Cheap and abundant natural gas, in addition to mercury pollution regulations over the past decade, have been an incentive for electric companies to shut down their ageing coal-fired power plants in favor of plants that run on natural gas and renewables. That led to a major milestone in 2016: U.S. carbon emissions from electric power generation dipped below emissions from transportation for the first time.
After taking office at the height of the economic crisis, the Obama administration instituted new policies to ensure climate pollution would continue to drop. The Climate Action Plan called for broad energy reforms, including energy efficiency measures, power plant and vehicle pollution controls and support for renewable energy, all of which were intended to help the U.S. do its part in preventing global warming from exceeding 2°C (3.6 °F).
U.S. greenhouse gas emissions since 1990.
Credit: EPA
When the Obama administration committed to pollution cuts under the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, the administration finalized the Clean Power Plan, a rule that sought to curb climate pollution from coal-fired power plants and encouraged electric companies to use more natural gas and renewables.
The Trump administration, however, has made a show of dramatically reversing course, casting doubt on established climate science and scoffing at any actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The president has said he views climate regulations as overly burdensome to businesses and he has promised to kill the Clean Power Plan and gut the EPA, the agency that regulates human carbon dioxide emissions.
The Trump administration’s EPA transition team spokesman said in January that he expects all EPA data released during the transition to receive some political vetting, but scientists who reviewed the EPA’s greenhouse gas emissions report Tuesday said no political influence was immediately apparent in the report.
“I do not see anything in the report to indicate political interference,” said Kevin Trenberth, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
He said the report’s primary omission is large uncertainty in the amount of methane leaking from oil and gas wells.
The report shows that U.S. emissions of methane — a greenhouse gas about 86 times as potent as carbon dioxide over a span of 20 years — have fallen nearly 17 percent since 1990. The largest man-made source of methane is cattle production, followed by natural gas production, landfills, agricultural manure use and coal mining.
Cattle are the largest source of methane emissions in the U.S.
Credit: USDA
Methane emissions from natural gas production and use have fallen about 18 percent since 1990 as energy companies have plugged leaks in their pipelines by building them with more leak-proof materials, such as plastic, the report says.
But research has increasingly shown that the EPA’s annual greenhouse gas emissions tallies do not fully capture uncertainties in the amount of methane leaking from mines and oil and gas wells. Independent studies using different methods than the EPA have shown that more methane is leaking than EPA reports suggest partly because the EPA’s methods of tallying methane emissions differ than those used by some researchers.
“This highlights that, while I think this report is done in good faith and that these may well be the best numbers available, there are some uncertainties that seem glossed over,” Trenberth said. “At the same time, they do a thorough analysis to understand the trends or changes, and they note how many leaks have been improved by the use of plastic piping, etc.”
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Trump Revives Keystone XL, Dakota Access PipelinesAlmost everyone has thought about what their obituary will say, but one Swedish man got to read it in a local newspaper after his 90-year-old sister mistakenly thought he died.
"Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated," Svensson joked to a reporter after the obituary was published.
Sven-Olof Svensson, 81, checked himself into a hospital on Christmas Eve because he was feeling "unwell." Later that day, his sister spoke with his doctors and somehow walked away with the impression that Svensson was dead.
She wrote an obituary for him that ran in the local Jonkopings-Posten on New Year's Eve.
They figured it out when a friend came to the hospital to pick up Svensson's belongings and found Svensson very much alive.
Svensson stoically told reporters that upon reading one's own obituary, "you don't feel much."
"We are all on the same road. Sooner or later you are going to end up in the obituary section. I've lived a fantastic long life, I'm 81 and can't complain about my age."
[image via Wikipedia]Since many Pokemon Go players live in areas without any in-game Gyms or Pokestops nearby, game creator Niantic Inc. is opening up submissions for these critical locations. The last time this occurred was during the early stages of Ingress, Niantic’s first augmented reality game that transferred many of its flagged locations over to Pokemon Go. Players were allowed to submit places of “cultural, historical, artistic, community, or religious importance”, and can now do the same with Pokestop requests. You can even report a Pokestop or Gym that’s on your private property, if you wish to get it removed. There have been reports of trespassing over the past few days, and Niantic may work to solve the problem with this method.
It’s difficult to determine how many of these requests Niantic will fulfill, based on the high demand of the game. With Ingress, submissions were eventually delayed and finally ignored. For this reason, it’s best to get your forms in as soon as possible! In order to make a request for a Pokestop or Gym, please visit this official form.
Hopefully the folks in Antarctica can get some gym battles going now.
Source: Reddit
[Update 7:50 EST] – The option to “create a Pokestop or Gym” has unfortunately been removed. You can still report stops or request for one to be added to a general area, however. Looks like Niantic couldn’t handle the massive influx of submissions!
Follow us on Twitter for the latest updates.I'm watching this haring off after any information about Donald Trump and possible loans from Russia with an increasing sense of mystification. Not because there seems to be almost no information upon which people can base any conclusions but because of the obvious economic point that whatever did happen is an irrelevance. Loans or no loans, from Russia, Russians or people connected with Russia, it simply doesn't matter. For imagine that there are some such loans. No, just imagine--what possible problem could they cause? What leverage is there?
None.
And thus I do find all of this entirely mystifying:
The former head of MI6 has said Donald Trump borrowed money from Russia for his business during the 2008 financial crisis.
That would be interesting of course but it's also quite obviously not true. The Russian state is not in the habit of handing out loans to real estate tycoons. That's also not quite what was said:
As for the president’s personal position, he said, “What lingers for Trump may be what deals—on what terms—he did after the financial crisis of 2008 to borrow Russian money when others in the west apparently would not lend to him.”
There's a certain weight on that "apparently" there. For we are in that usual fog surrounding intelligence matters of not having a great deal of information. Do note that this is all entirely different from the allegations about contacts during the election campaign. Where it seems that GCHQ did have something to do with it:
Britain’s spy agencies played a crucial role in alerting their counterparts in Washington to contacts between members of Donald Trump’s campaign team and Russian intelligence operatives, the Guardian has been told.
That "has been told" is the British newspaper code for "this is from an official source but we're not allowed officially to say so or which one."
But to this idea of Russian loans in 2008. Consider the economics of the matter right now. The concern is that the President owes some chunk of money, or at least his business does, to some people we would prefer he didn't. Owing that money might produce some form of leverage that the people owed the money have over the elected head of state. That's what the concern is, isn't it?
And it's a ridiculous concern. Does anyone really believe that the sitting President of the United States could not refinance a loan? "Hi Jamie, the Russians are pressuring me over that money I owe them, wanna help me out bigly?" Half his cabinet seems to have worked for Lloyd Blankfein at one time or another. In fact, given the make up of his cabinet they could probably finance it by a whip round while sitting at said cabinet table.
Whether or not Donald Trump borrowed money from Russia or Russians is interesting, of course it is, but it's economically irrelevant. Given the ease with which the President could refinance any borrowings he does have there's simply no importance here, none.Announcing a new STRETCH GOAL!
If we reach $250,000, it will unlock RiffTrax getting the rights to the 1997 adventure horror classic ANACONDA to riff live in theaters on October 30th, 2014. We have added some new reward levels to help make this happen, AND all backers at the $30 level and higher will also get a FREE MP3 of a studio version of the ANACONDARiff written for the October 30 Live Show in addition to your other rewards.
New Reward Levels:
- New $1,125 Level: Write a Riff For ANACONDA (limited to 5)
- New $1,025 Level: Get Mike’s ANACONDA Live Script
- New $1,025 Level: Get Kevin’s ANACONDA Live Script
- New $1,025 Level: Get Bill’s ANACONDA Live Script
Reward Level Updates:
- Backers $30+ get an MP3 studio version of the ANACONDA riff.
- Backers $100+ get GODZILLA and ANACONDA posters.
- Backers $175+ get SIGNED posters of SHARKNADO, GODZILLA and ANACONDA.
We've even lowered the price for having Kevin write you a PERSONALIZED SONG! We hope to see you at SHARKNADO, GODZILLA and - with your help - ANACONDA.
Thanks,
- Mike, Kevin, Bill, and the rest of the RiffTrax TeamGuy occupies a unique place among Nashville writers. His reputation is much like John Prine’s—a songwriter who has maintained a long creative career without an outlandish number of big hits. They both get referred to as songwriter’s songwriters, though as Guy told Garden and Gun last year, “It’s flattering, I guess, but you can’t make a f—ing living being a songwriter’s songwriter.” To be clear, Guy has written two country number ones, and his songs have been charting since the seventies, covered by everyone from Johnny Cash and Bobby Bare to Brad Paisley and Kenny Chesney. But it’s the way Guy has conducted his career, his refusal to write songs to anyone’s taste but his own, that has made him one of the most revered figures in Nashville.
Those infirmities have conspired to prevent him from performing since the start of last summer. He’s always preferred to play standing up, and with his legs shot, he’s unable to keep his balance. The hope is that with thrice-weekly physical therapy he’ll be booking gigs again this spring. In the meantime, he continues his writing sessions, inviting collaborators to the basement as his doctors’ visits allow. There’s no shortage of songwriters waiting to make that appointment.
But he evinces no regrets, and when he talks about long-ago gigs like the one in Dallas when he and Van Zandt called Ray Wylie Hubbard out of the audience to join them onstage and then snuck out a side door and into a cab while Hubbard was singing—“I don’t remember where we went or what we did; it may have just been to get some cocaine and come back”—you get a sense that every ache, pain, cough, and wheeze has been hard-earned and worth it. “I went to the emergency room with pneumonia a while back and heard the doctor say, ‘Give this man as much morphine as he wants.’ I raised my hand and said, ‘Here! He means me! And I’ve got a hundred dollars in my jeans.’ ”
He musters a rogue’s charm when discussing his physical state. He lost three toes on his left foot in recent years as a result of diabetes. “It began with my big toe,” he says before pausing and gazing off nobly, “or the Great Toe, as some call it.” He’s battled lymphoma to a draw, had both knees replaced, and endured a “Roto-Rooter sinus operation” that effectively killed his sense of smell and an arterial bypass that ended up costing him half a quadriceps. One doc fitted him with a vest defibrillator to manage an irregular heartbeat last July, another soldered closed a hole in his bladder in August, and yet another performed cataract surgery on both his eyes in November. He’s had to cut back on coffee and cigarettes, and he quit drinking altogether when, in his one stroke of good fortune—Guy would dispute the characterization—he lost his taste for liquor following chemotherapy treatments.
In November Guy turned 72, but it must be noted that songwriter years, like dog years, aren’t the same as people years. Nashville writers of Guy’s era lived by a different set of rules than the rest of us. They didn’t punch a time clock. If they went for early-afternoon drinks on a weekday, they weren’t skipping out on work but fishing for lines, scribbling the best bits of conversation on cocktail napkins. When they passed a guitar around after the bars closed, ingesting whatever chemicals would carry them to dawn, they were soliciting reactions to new material, refining new songs. It wasn’t partying, it was writing. But it also wasn’t healthy, and while it may have kept them open to exotic ideas and experiences, it worked hell on their bodies. Those who couldn’t manage their appetites either quit drinking and drugging, like Steve Earle, or died, like the long list running from Hank Williams through Van Zandt. Somehow Guy always maintained just enough control to survive without stopping. And now he’s got a young man’s curious mind atop a body that’s fixing to turn 111.
“I never was much for moaning and crying with this kind of experience,” he said. “This is the only way I know how to deal with it. To get it out.”
That was particularly true in this instance. Susanna’s slide out of life lasted just another year and a half. In June 2012 her heart gave out, and it’s hard now to listen to “My Favorite Picture of You” and not think of it the way Guy describes “The Randall Knife,” as a cathartic piece of writing. Only he wrote “Randall Knife” a couple of weeks after his dad’s death. With Susanna, he tried to say goodbye while she could still hear him.
“The whole song just kind of poured out,” Guy explained one afternoon a few months ago, sitting in the same workshop, holding the same photo. “I didn’t have to think too much other than to get it all down. Then I went upstairs, sat on the edge of the bed, and played it for her. She said she liked it, I guess. Whenever I wrote about her, she was always... I don’t know if ‘touched’ is the right word. She was always flattered. Usually she said, ‘Well, it’s about time.’ ”
Sampson’s line could only refer to that photo. Guy started into his writing ritual, spreading out sheets of draftsman’s graph paper and grabbing one of the music chart pencils he orders special from California. Methodically, he wrote in all caps, giving each letter its own box on the page.
But the Susanna Clark living upstairs when Sampson came to write scarcely resembled that woman. In the early 2000’s, reeling from the twin defeats of a debilitating back condition and the early death of her and Guy’s best friend, Van Zandt, she’d taken to bed. Though she eventually quit drinking, she upped her intake of pain pills to a point beyond lucidity, seldom leaving the bedroom or changing out of her white cotton nightgown. Then came lung cancer and her refusal to stop smoking. Through much of that time, until his own health turned south, Guy was her sole caregiver. When he went to the basement to work, she’d call on his cellphone and ask him to cook for her or sit and keep her company as she moved in and out of reason. On his walk to the stairs, he’d pass by that Polaroid. It was taken, he told visitors, one afternoon when he and Van Zandt were day-drunk and acting like assholes. She’d had enough and was ready to get as far from the two of them as she could. She stands center frame, arms crossed, glaring at the camera like she might make the photographer’s head combust.
One line on the list jumped out at him: “my favorite picture of you.” He pointed past Sampson to a thirty-year-old Polaroid of his wife, Susanna, pinned on the wall behind a drill press, a photo taken back when she and Guy were Nashville’s king and queen. In those days the first advice new songwriters heard when they moved to Music City was to find Guy and Susanna. And once young guns like Earle and Rodney Crowell made their way to the nonstop picking party at the Clarks’ kitchen table, their goal quickly became twofold: write a song that Guy dug and find a woman like Susanna. She was gorgeous, with long brown hair and dark bottomless eyes. But her attraction was something more: she was uncompromising, indomitable. A painter and songwriter herself, she insisted budding artists place their craft at the center of their lives, just as she and Guy had. When Guy had started thinking about writing songs as a career in the early seventies, she challenged him to quit his day job at a Houston television station and move to Los Angeles, where they’d live for a year before settling permanently in Nashville. She was smart and cocky but also funny. She started writing songs on a how-hard-could-it-be lark to gig Guy, and then she got cuts. And after Emmylou Harris and Kathy Mattea made the charts with her songs, she liked to tell people, “Guy writes the classics, and I write the hits.”
Guy sat across from Sampson at a workbench in the center of the room. A tall man with regal posture, he’s got an angular white mustache and soul patch, wavy gray hair that curls up at his collar, and a woodblock of a forehead that looms over deep-set blue eyes. His general expression is that of someone who’s thinking about something more important than you are. Or at least more interesting.
The song originated the way most of them do, with a line. A friend, Gordie Sampson, came to write at Guy’s West Nashville home and brought a hook list with him, a page of potential lines and titles. The two reviewed the list in Guy’s basement workshop, where he splits his time between writing and building guitars, sustaining himself on black coffee, peanut-butter crackers, hand-rolled cigarettes, and an occasional toke of boo. One wall is covered with shelves that hold some 1,500 cassette tapes of demos, live shows, and friends’ albums, and another wall holds luthier tools. The rest of the room is cluttered with the ephemera of his life, some of it stored in little clementine orange crates, the remainder hanging on the walls and scattered on tables. Guy is endlessly loyal, and each item carries a specific sentimental tie. There’s a tight portrait of Van Zandt taken by their friend Jim McGuire. A cane that artist Terry Allen found for him in Santa Fe. Every last piece of a fiddle that Guy smashed on a mantel in a drunken fit forty years ago and still means to repair. And on a stand-up table along the back wall, the actual Randall knife, along with others sent in by fans and a letter of thanks signed by the knife maker himself.
And then there’s the equally significant matter of his timing. Those songs were written in the seventies and eighties, when the hard-living coterie of Guy, Townes Van Zandt, and Jerry Jeff Walker was inventing the notion that a Texas singer-songwriter practiced his own distinct form of artistry, creating the niche in which disciples like Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle, and Robert Earl Keen would make their careers. Yet Guy penned “My Favorite Picture of You” a mere three years ago, just after turning 69, an age to which most of his contemporaries had chosen to coast, provided they were still living at all.
The title track to Guy Clark’s most recent album, My Favorite Picture of You, may be the finest song he’s ever written. This is no small feat. For one thing, there’s his catalog to consider. Guy wrote “L.A. Freeway,” one of American music’s greatest driving songs and the final word for small-town troubadours on the false allure of big cities. His lyrical detail in “Desperados Waiting for a Train” and “Texas, 1947” presents a view of life in postwar West Texas that is as true as Dorothea Lange’s best Dust Bowl portraiture. When he wrote about the one possession of his father’s that he wanted when his dad died in “The Randall Knife,” he made a universal statement about paternal love and respect. Bob Dylan lists Guy among his handful of favorite songwriters, and most of Nashville does too.
Guy Clark songs are a lot like Guy Clark. Some are dramatic, almost self-consciously so, and others seem to wink at you. They are all intensely personal. “Desperados Waiting for a Train” is about a man he knew, his grandmother’s boyfriend, who took Guy under his wing when he was a boy growing up in Monahans. “New Cut Road” is about a man he wishes he knew, a fiddle-playing great-uncle who stayed in Kentucky when Guy’s other grandmother boarded the family’s covered wagon and headed for Texas. He writes songs about things he values, like loyalty (“Old Friends”), respect (“Stuff That Works”), small gifts that bring great pleasure (“Homegrown Tomatoes”), and trusting your muse (“Boats to Build” and “The Cape”). Running through all of them is Guy’s love of language. “Heartbroke,” which became Guy’s first number one when Ricky Skaggs cut it in 1982, contains more ten-dollar words than the entire country top forty holds at most given moments. The lyrics to “Instant Coffee Blues,” a song about a shortsighted tryst—the couple may have just met or they may be backsliding, but they are clearly not destined for togetherness—read like a Raymond Carver short story.
“What Guy tried to do when he got here,” explains Rodney Crowell, who met Guy shortly thereafter, at the urging of a trapeze artist he encountered while busking in Centennial Park, “was take the values of literature and poetry and put them in song. He didn’t want to just write a hit, he wanted to write something that had real intrinsic value, to wrestle with the human condition and come up with new ways of talking about it that would make people listen.”
Crowell was one of the young writers who started showing up unannounced in the middle of the night at Guy and Susanna’s house. “They’d always make room and pull out guitars,” he says, “and Guy’s first question would be ‘What are you working on?’ Half songs were important. It was like a salon that way. The confidence you’d take playing a half song in that setting would give you the strength to finish it. ‘Till I Gain Control Again’ is one of my songs that that happened with.”
That open-ended encouragement is another reason Guy is so beloved—and referred to frequently as a mentor. “Townes was more of a ‘Go read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee’ kind of mentor,” recalls Earle. “Guy actually showed me how he did things.” Guy also lobbied the publishing company he wrote for, Sunbury Dunbar, to give an untested Earle his first writing deal, in 1975. But Guy doesn’t like to think of that as mentoring. “ ‘Nurturing’ is a better word,” he says. “It’s just trying to make things available to people who deserve a shot.” An even better word might be “advocate,” and not for the advancement of great songwriters so much as great songs. He played an early demo tape of Lyle Lovett’s for everyone he knew in Nashville, helping Lovett secure his first deal. At that point the two had yet to even meet.
His support makes a huge impression. One night in 1997, after one of Jerry Jeff Walker’s annual birthday concerts in Austin, I found my way into an after-hours guitar pull that had broken out in a suite at the Driskill Hotel. Sitting around a large table and surrounded by awestruck fans were Guy, Walker, Hubbard, and Bruce and Charlie Robison, who’d all performed that night, and Monte Warden, who’d tagged along with the Robisons. “Guy asked me to play a song,” remembers Warden. “He told me to play ‘I Take Your Love.’ It had never been a single, never a video, never a nothing, just a buried album cut on a record that sold maybe four copies. And Guy asked for it by title, in that room, in front of those people.” Bruce Robison has a similar recollection. “It was crazy for me just to be there. And Guy asked me to play ‘My Brother and Me’ again [Guy had first heard it onstage earlier that night]. That was the biggest moment of my career up to that point.”
I asked Guy what he remembers of that night. “Oh, they kept asking me to play ‘Randall Knife.’ And I knocked my drink off a balcony down into that absolute chaos on Sixth Street. Luckily it didn’t hit anyone in the head. It would have killed them.”
On a clear Saturday afternoon at the end of August, Guy drove me around Nashville. On the way out of his house I noticed some dozen freshly pressed denim work shirts stacked on an ironing board. They were various colors, all muted, and all the exact same L.L. Bean model. Then I saw Susanna’s painting of the original blue Carhartt version of that shirt. It hangs in Guy’s kitchen now, instantly familiar from the cover of his first album, Old No. 1, released in 1975. That’s been his uniform since at least back then, when newcomers to Nashville who’d never laid eyes on Guy knew they could find him by looking in a handful of bars for the tall pool player with the untucked denim shirt and big turquoise ring on his right hand.
He was wearing that same turquoise ring as he grabbed the steering wheel and pointed us downtown. The first place he showed me was a West End bistro, the Tin Angel. In 1972 it had been Bishop’s Pub, one of the first Nashville clubs to host open mikes. “You could make ten or twenty dollars a night,” said Guy. “When I came here, I had a publishing deal and a draw, something like fifty dollars a week, not enough to live on. Townes and I were still stealing mayonnaise from the mini-mart to survive.” He pointed around the corner. “Susanna and I had an apartment two blocks from here. Every afternoon she and Townes would walk down to Bishop’s and shoot pool.”
Guy and Van Zandt were part of a crop of songwriters who came to Nashville in the wake of Kris Kristofferson, Mickey Newbury, and the tumult of the sixties. Their priorities ran more to art for art’s sake, at least compared with the preceding generation, which was typified by people like Harlan Howard, a onetime jingle writer who cranked out an endless stream of radio-ready hits. “Those guys were always at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, which I never went in. Harlan was a sweet man and a good friend, but I just didn’t feel comfortable there. I wasn’t country. I was a folk singer from Texas.”
He’d fallen for poetry as a kid, first in Monahans and then in Rockport, when his family would follow dinner with readings of Robert Frost and Stephen Vincent Benét in the living room. He learned guitar from one of his father’s law partners, then taught himself to fingerpick by studying Lightnin’ Hopkins and Mance Lipscomb in the Houston folk scene. That’s where he fell in with Van Zandt and Walker, who encouraged him to move beyond Dylan covers and write his own songs. He got married and had a son, Travis, then divorced and took up with Susanna. After their famously dissatisfying year trying to get Guy’s career off the ground in L.A., they moved to Nashville.
Country music was in a transitional state. Willie Nelson had left town to do his own thing in Austin, and the progressive-country scene he cultivated there had caught Nashville’s attention. The music had a rougher edge than mainstream country, but it was also opening a new market. Nashville wanted some of that audience, and Guy seemed like an artist who could attract it. His music was probably better suited to Austin, where performers made a big to-do of placing art before commerce. But Guy was never one to worry about threats to his artistic integrity. He knew he’d never write a song just to get paid, but he certainly wanted to be paid for what he wrote. “Austin was always a lot more fun than Nashville,” said Guy as he turned onto Music Row, the string of old houses on Sixteenth and Seventeenth avenues that became the center of the country music industry in the late fifties and sixties, when they were converted to recording studios and publishing companies. “But I never much liked doing business from there. Nashville had serious lawyers, not hippie-dippie bullshit. I wanted lawyers who were armed robbers in business deals.”
He stayed in Nashville and recorded for the label Nelson had left, RCA, whose head of country music, Chet Atkins, was an early champion of Guy’s writing. RCA released Old No. 1 and then Texas Cookin’, both of which fared better with reviewers than with radio programmers. But other writers took note, and both albums are now regarded as essentials in the Texas singer-songwriter canon. Then he made three records for Warner Bros., which was attempting to create stars out of hipper artists like Emmylou Harris. But radio didn’t take a shine to the big, busy sound of those albums, and Guy soon gave up all pretense of chasing anything but songcraft. He released his next album, 1988’s Old Friends, on the boutique bluegrass label Sugar Hill. He and an engineer friend tricked out the studio in his publishing company’s basement, where writers would cut demos, so that he’d always have access to a free, first-rate place to record. From then on, he recorded only when he felt ready, typically every three or four years, once he had a batch of ten songs that satisfied his ear. Rather than rely on session players to back him, he brought in other songwriters, like Verlon Thompson and Darrell Scott, who played in service to the songs rather than their own showy licks. His sound took on more space, his lyrics were allowed to breathe.
Many of the records he made in that manner, like 1992’s Boats to Build and 1995’s Dublin Blues, are now indispensable to songwriting fans, and his latest album rates with those. My Favorite Picture of You opens with “Cornmeal Waltz,” a brightly colored snapshot of families spinning in a Hill Country dance |
with Valencia on the floor but was beaten by him in the air for the goal) was now away from Vermaelen and instead attacking against Arshavin.
Arshavin is poor defensively and allowed Valencia past him amazingly easily for United’s winner, and the ball out to that flank also came from a cool, measured lofted pass from Scholes – United now had two holding players spreading play to the wings.
Wenger tried to get back into the game with the use of Park Ju-Young (who played behind van Persie rather than the Dutchman dropping into a number ten role) and then shoved Per Mertesacker upfront for some long balls. That was arguably the style of football that would cause Chris Smalling and Jonny Evans more problems – they’re better against ‘clever’ centre-forwards than physical ones, but United held on.
Conclusion
Arsenal’s full-backs problems are no secret, United’s quality on the flanks is equally obvious. Valencia and Nani running at Vermaelen and Djourou was always likely to be a prosperous approach, although in the end it turned out to be Giggs running at Djourou and Valencia running past Arshavin that proved crucial.
It was less predictable that use of the bench would be key, but if it were to come down to substitutions, one would always have backed United. In addition to Rafael, Scholes and Park, they could have also chosen the guile of Dimitar Berbatov or the pace of Javier Hernandez.
Arsenal’s options were much less enticing – Arshavin is dreadfully out of form, Park hasn’t scored a Premier League goal, Benayoun doesn’t seem to interest Wenger, while Yennaris and Miquel are promising but a couple of years away from being truly valuable. Arsenal have injuries, of course, but this was a demonstration that football is a squad game – and Ferguson managed his squad better over the 90 minutes.
Man City v Tottenham to come…
Related articles on Zonal Marking:Gameweek 4 Attacking Potential: Form vs Fixture vs Odds
Gameweek 4 Attacking Potential: Form vs Fixture vs Odds
Which team has the best attacking potential for Gameweek 4? We’ve analysed attacking form, fixture difficulty and the bookies odds to reveal which teams are going to score the highest.
Last game week the table suggested that Everton, Man City & Arsenal had the highest potential whilst Swansea, Burnley & Hull had the lowest. This proved very accurate with the top three scoring seven goals and the bottom three scoring just once.
Ahead of Gameweek 4, @CallumRead has compiled the data and created another forecast which hopefully provides results with a similar accuracy to last week. Not only is this useful when selecting your FPL team, it’s also a great visual aid for daily fantasy players.
How is the data calculated?
Every team has been rated 1 to 20 (1: best in the league, 20: worst in the league) based on form, fixture and odds. We’ve then totalled up all three scores and colour coded them for you to easily visualise which ones have the best goalscoring potential for Gameweek 4.
Gameweek 4 Best Overall Attacking Potential:
Best Attacking Form Ahead of Gameweek 4:
Team Goals Scored Chances Created Big Chances MCI 9 38 9 CHE 7 37 7 MUN 6 36 7 ARS 6 24 4 LIV 5 47 4
Manchester City have found the back of the net nine times from nine Big Chances in their opening three Premier League games but will be without their talisman Sergio Aguero for the next two Premier League fixtures, including the Manchester derby.
If you’re looking for an immediate striking replacement then Kelechi Iheanacho offers a cheap stop gap solution. They youngster hasn’t got off the mark this season but has registered one assist and had two shots.
Elsewhere in the Manchester City attack, Raheem Sterling has looked a different player under Pep and his two goals against West Ham added to his seven shots in three games leaves Sterling an adequate midfield option for the foreseeable future.
Chelsea found the back of the net three times against Burnley but Antonio Conte will be wanting his side to find the back of the net more from the amount of chances Chelsea are creating. Eden Hazard is playing out of his skin and continued that form into the international break. The Belgian has had 14 shots this season, created six chances and scored two goals – leave him out at your peril.
It’s hard to overlook Diego Costa now Sergio Aguero is banned, he’s the focal point of Chelsea’s attack and also looks a fresh face under Conte He’s registered two goals from nine shots and one assist from three games.
Manchester United place third in the form table and if you don’t already own Zlatan Ibrahimovic – what are you doing? The big Swede has three goals this season and has shown on more than one occasion this season he can score even if he’s not playing well. Zlatan has had 12 shots, the second most of any striker and created four chances, if you can guarantee one thing this weekend it’s that Ibrahimovic will be raring to get the Manchester Derby underway.
Arsenal were in fine form against Watford scoring three goals at Vicarage Road with Alexis Sanchez finding the back of the net in the win. The Chilean has created five chances this season and will fancy himself to create more against a Southampton side that are yet to record a clean sheet.
The Liverpool attack constantly throws up and FPL selection headache due to the vast amount of quality they have. We’d stick with Roberto Firmino or Coutinho, the former has created the most joint chances in the Premier League (10) and has had seven shots whilst his Brazilian teammate has had the joint most shots in the league (15) and created six chances.
Best Attacking Fixture For Gameweek 4:
Team Vs. Goals Conceded Big Chances Conceded TOT STO 5 6 WHU WAT 5 6 LEI LIV 4 6 WBA BOU 4 5 WAT WHU 4 5
In terms of which clubs have the most attractive attacking fixture in Gameweek 4, based on statistics, we are presented with five completely new sides.
Tottenham face a Stoke City side that look a different team without Jack Butland in goal but could become tighter at the back with the addition of Dutch defender Bruno Martins-Indi. Erik Lamela has had a brilliant opening three games, creating eight chances and scoring and assisting one goal apiece. Elsewhere Harry Kane will be desperate to find the back of the net against Stoke, he’s not scored from his six shots this season but with an attractive upcoming fixture list and a reducing ownership percentage could be worth the gamble.
West Ham also face a side that have conceded five goal in the shape of Watford, the Hornets’ looked very poor defensively against Arsenal and on another day would’ve conceded more than three. It’s a difficult job picking who will start for the Hammers this weekend, Simone Zaza has no stats to support his selection but brings pedigree from his time at Juventus and Sassuolo.
Whilst in midfield, most FPL managers are desperate for Dimitri Payet to return to the scene. The Frenchman made a substitute appearance against Belarus during the international break, the Hammers will be craving his creativity this weekend against an unimpressive Watford defence.
Leicester, West Brom and Watford all face sides that have conceded four goals this season. For the Champions, how can you overlook Jamie Vardy for Leicester attacking coverage? The striker grabbed his first goal of the season against Swansea and will be looking to continue his streak against a shaky Liverpool defence.
It’s hard to tip any Tony Pulis attacking player as the man hates his own strikers, but Salomon Rondon’s attacking stats are impressive for a Baggies striker. He’s had 12 shots, scoring one goal and created four chances, for a cheap third striker you could do a lot worse than Rondon.
Watford’s newest signing Roberto Pereyra came off the bench against Arsenal to find the back of the net on his debut. He looked on a different wavelength to the rest of his side – and that’s not a dig at Watford it’s a testament to Pereyra’s ability. At the price of just £6.0m you’re getting a seriously good attacking player for a very cheap price.
Bookies Odds To Score In Gameweek 4:
Team To Score Implied Chance CHE, LIV, ARS 1.11 90.09% WHU, TOT 1.17 85.47% EVE 1.22 81.97% BOU, MNU 1.29 77.52% MID 1.33 75.19%
The bookies odds are always provide an unbiased opinion and provide an eye opening look at the weekends fixtures.
Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal all top the bookies table for Gameweek 4, all three sides also featured in the Best Attacking Form table too. Both Chelsea and Arsenal will be favourites to overcome Swansea and Southampton respectively but Liverpool’s fixture against Leicester City is harder to call.
West Ham and Tottenham place second, both sides will be looking to get back to winning ways against Watford and Stoke respectively, two sides that have looked very week defensively, perhaps this is why the bookies have placed them so highly?
Everton place third on the table and will be hoping Romelu Lukaku can continue his form with Belgium into Monday Nights game against Sunderland. The striker scored twice in Belgium’s 3-0 win over Cyprus and will be eager to get his first goal of the season against David Moyes’ side.
Bournemouth place fourth on the list as they welcome West Brom to Dean Court, Callum Wilson provides their biggest danger going forwards but so far hasn’t scored from his three shots.
Manchester United also come in fourth and as mentioned in the Best Attacking Form table, it’s incredibly hard to not select Zlatan at this moment in time.
Middlesbrough complete the bookies odds table, they play hosts to Crystal Palace this Saturday. Over 20% of FPL managers will be hoping Alvaro Negredo can find the back of the net or add to his two assists this season.
[alert type=yellow ]Introducing Bet4theBest
Bet4theBest is a website that allows you to create a new FPL team each GW and enter it into either a £5, £10 or £20 league. The entry fees are totalled up and split between the managers who scored highest that GW.
Why do we promote Bet4theBest?
The Bet4theBest game is one that we feel our users will learn quickly and could profit from. The website boasts budget-free team selection, top-heavy payout structures and smaller, more competitive, contests.
Read our guide to daily fantasy football and weekly Bet4theBest tips here.
[/alert]In response to Jennifer Slegg's awesome coverage of Google's Gary Illyes statement that local pack won't be impacted by the mobile-friendly algorithm, Gary said on Twitter nothing really will be outside of Google's core web search results, the ten blue links.
Gary Illyes from Google posted on Twitter, "just the 10 blue links are" impacted by the mobile-friendly algorithm.
Here is the tweet:
@jenstar yep, just the "10 blue links" are, but of course teams who own the other features may also use mobile friendliness on their own — Gary Illyes (@methode) April 10, 2015
Here are a few more clarification tweets from Gary:
@localseoguide @jenstar no, this is a core ranking change for web search (blue links). It works independently from anything else we have. — Gary Illyes (@methode) April 11, 2015
Which is obviously interesting because the In The News box will be impacted (or maybe not) by the mobile algorithm because it is part of the core web results but Google News will not, at least currently.
So the Google local pack will not, probably images, videos, etc will also not be.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, Local Search Forum and Twitter.Current situation Edit
Reasoning for the restrictions Edit
Blood services first and foremost must ensure that all blood received for donation is safe for transfusion purposes. This is achieved by screening potential donors for high risk behaviors through questionnaires and interviews before blood is taken, and subsequent laboratory testing on samples of donated blood. Blood services commonly justify their bans against MSM using the statistically higher prevalence of HIV and hepatitis of MSM in population studies. In the earliest years of the AIDS epidemic, there were no reliable tests for the virus, which justified blanket bans on blood donations from groups at high risk of acquiring or having HIV, including MSM. These restrictions are similar to present-day restrictions in most countries on people residing in the United Kingdom during the BSE ("mad cow disease") epidemic of the 1980s and early-to-mid 1990s, due to the absence of a test for its human form, variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD). In 1985, early tests using the ELISA method looked for antibodies, which are the immune system's response to the virus. However, there is a window period when using this method in which a person who has been infected with HIV is able to spread the disease but may test negative for the virus. This window period can be as long as three to six months,[144] with an average of 22 days.[145] Tests using the ELISA methods are often still used in developed countries because they are highly sensitive. In developing countries, these tests are often the only method used to screen donated blood for HIV. To cover the window period resultant from the use of these tests, donors are also screened for high risk behaviors, one of which is a history of same-sex sexual activity among male potential donors. Other groups with similar restrictions include commercial sex workers, injecting drug users, and people resident in countries with a high HIV prevalence (such as sub-Saharan Africa). Newer tests look for the virus itself, such as the p24 antigen test, which looks for a part on the surface of the virus, and Nucleic acid tests (NAT), which look for the genetic material of the virus. With these tests, the window period is shorter, with an average duration of 12 days.[145] Fourth generation combination HIV tests are conclusive at 3 months, and Hepatitis B tests are conclusive at 6 months. Risks are also associated with a non-MSM donors testing positive for HIV, which can have major implications as the donor's last donation could have been given within the window period for testing and could have entered the blood supply, potentially infecting blood product recipients. An incident in 2003 in New Zealand saw a non-MSM donor testing positive for HIV and subsequently all blood products made with the donor's last blood donation had to be recalled. This included NZ$4 million worth of Factor VIII, a blood clotting factor used to treat haemophiliacs which is manufactured from large pools of donated plasma, and subsequently led to a nationwide shortage of Factor VIII and the deferral of non-emergency surgery on haemophiliac patients, costing the health sector millions of dollars more.[120] Screening out those at high risk of bloodborne diseases, including MSM, reduces the potential frequency and impact of such incidents.
Criticism of the restrictions Edit
Objections to the restrictions, including those from the American Medical Association[146] and the American Red Cross, are generally based on the idea that improvements in testing and other safeguards have reduced the risk from transfusion transmitted HIV to an acceptable level. Blood shortages are common, and advocates for change to the policies point out that excluding healthy donors only makes the problem worse. "Ideal" inventories are at least a three-day supply, but many blood centers struggle to meet this demand.[citation needed] Further advocating for change stems from the fact that the ban is a blanket ban encompassing all men who have had sex with another man, even with protection and even if the HIV status of these men's partners is shown beyond doubt to be negative. Advocates for change point out that a promiscuous straight male is a higher-risk donor than a gay or bisexual man in a monogamous relationship, but the former will usually be allowed to donate blood. Furthermore, other high-risk activities such as having sexual contact with anyone who has used needles to take drugs not prescribed by their doctor have a set deferral period before the donor is allowed to donate blood, whereas in some countries MSM donors are deferred indefinitely. Female donors who have sexual contact with MSM are sometimes deferred temporarily.[citation needed] Following a mass shooting targeting a gay nightclub in June 2016, there were reported expressions of frustration and disapproval by a number of gay and bisexual men who were forbidden to donate blood to victims, with LGBT activists across the country and a group of Democratic lawmakers[147] urging the ban to be lifted. The FDA later said it had no plans of changing the regulation and will reevaluate its policies "as new scientific information becomes available".[148][149][150]
Activism in favor of reform of MSM donor policies Edit
See also EditTwo new projects have joined the wagon for those banking on the Ethereum smart contract feature to bring their concept to their intended users.
Of late, there have been suggestions that the second most valuable crypto network will blossom beyond expectation in the coming months. SuperDAO and Matchpool appear to be working to be a part of this evolution just like several other projects like Swarm and Colony.
Ola Ajayi is the founder of SuperDAO, a decentralized governance system that enables the collaboration of innovators and communities into strong thriving forces. He says:
“We chose to go on the Ethereum platform early 2014 when we discovered the generalized computing capabilities of the Ethereum EVM based Blockchain and its 14 sec block time plans as compared to the NXT platform which we were already prototyping on.”
Crowd dynamics obstacles
It is built to use a multi - tiered hybrid approach to address the problem of leveraging products by traditional startups and problems typical DAOs face due to the inherent disadvantages of crowd dynamics such as lower efficiency from diffusion of responsibility or voting apathy.
Pokereum is the first SuperDAO dapp that provides a provably fair solution to the mental poker problem using smart contracts as a component of a multi-faceted solution.
Ajayi adds in the email:
“Nxt had only a few "transaction types" and it was cutting edge at its peak with a 60 sec block time. The core team working on the NXT platform at the time had plans for smart contracts but decided it was not worth pursuing. Ethereum obviously proved that wrong and we had to make a decision.”
Matchmaking Blockchained
For the founder of the cryptocurrency-backed matchmaking platform Matchpool, Ethereum was chosen because “it is the most secure smart contract that exists today.”
Yonatan Ben Shimon, who also states in an email to Cointelegraph that his platform wants to democratize this world, is depending on the Ethereum smart contracts for its ability to handle the trust-sensitive ownership and reward structures and the core game logic which makes it work.
Matchpool aims to revolutionize the age-old tradition of matchmaking - which involves one person introducing two separate people who share common values to one another - by taking it online with a purpose of creating a connection that would last for as long as it would as if they were to meet in person. The matchmaker will be rewarded for the role that would be based on agreed rules set for the group handled by each matchmaker.
The two platforms have tokens. Matchpool will start its ICO crowd sale in late March, while SuperDAO will start later this month. In the meantime, the story of Ethereum continues to unfold especially for its projected power to transform entire industries.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption President Duterte: "I killed about three of them - I don't know how many bullets from my gun went into their bodies"
The President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte has confirmed to the BBC that he shot dead three men while mayor of Davao.
He said: "I killed about three of them... I don't know how many bullets from my gun went inside their bodies. It happened and I cannot lie about it."
His statement came hours after his spokesman denied that Mr Duterte had personally killed anyone.
The recent controversy began on Wednesday at the president's palace.
He told a group of business leaders gathered there: "In Davao I used to do it [kill] personally. Just to show to the guys [police] that if I can do it why can't you.
"And I'd go around in Davao with a motorcycle, with a big bike around, and I would just patrol the streets, looking for trouble. I was really looking for a confrontation so I could kill."
Mr Duterte was mayor of the southern city for two decades, during which time he earned a reputation for brutally suppressing crime, and was accused of sponsoring death squads.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Mr Duterte should be taken "seriously, but not literally" says his spokesman, Martin Andanar
He first spoke about killing three men in 2015, while still mayor of Davao. He said that the men were suspected of kidnapping and rape.
Speaking to the BBC on Friday, Mr Duterte's spokesman Martin Andanar said the president's apparent admissions were simply tough talk and that he was "not a killer".
"That is the style of the president, ever since he was a mayor he would talk that way," Mr Andanar said.
"We do not take all of those statements literally. We take it seriously, but we don't take it literally."
But hours later Mr Duterte reiterated his earlier admissions. But he denied reports that he had shot people who were kneeling down with their hands tied behind their back.
'Not an addict'
Speaking to the BBC after a news conference, Mr Duterte pledged to wage his war on drug dealers "until the last day of my term".
Nearly 6,000 people are said to have been killed by police, vigilantes and mercenaries in the Philippines since Mr Duterte launched a drug war after being elected in May.
Critics say he has encouraged police and vigilantes to shoot drug dealers and users on sight.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Manila's brutal nightshift: documenting Duterte's drug war
Mr Duterte denied that he was a drug addict himself, despite using the powerful pain killer Fentanyl.
"I'm not an addict," he said. "Only when it is prescribed. Addiction is only with regularity, my friend."
Mr Duterte has admitted to using the drug, saying he had migraines and issues with his spine.
Mr Andanar dismissed claims that the president was suffering from the side effects of Fentanyl, which can cause confusion, anxiety and even hallucinations.
"[Mr Duterte] is healthy," Mr Andanar said. "We've seen him work till the wee hours of the morning. He is in a hurry, [and is] very impatient because our country has been dragged down to the toilet."
Image copyright EPA Image caption Mr Duterte made the speech before leaving the country for visits to Cambodia and Singapore
The president's admission on Wednesday sparked calls for his impeachment from opposition leaders and rights groups.
It was the latest in a series of controversial claims by Mr Duterte since he became president.
Senator Leila de Lima, a staunch critic of Mr Duterte, has said his admission could be grounds for impeachment.Virtual reality has the potential to be used for all kinds of activities, at work or at play.
A startup has come up with a way to use your smartphone to take photos and video of a scene that are then mashed up as a spherical combination of the two that can be watched in virtual reality.
Emergent VR’s app will let users shoot a video and a series of photos to create an immersive sphere that they can view from within virtual reality.
Emergent VR is planning to release a free Android app that lets you capture such mixed-media creations as part of a private “beta” test in late November. Users will then be able to watch the content with another app on a Gear VR—a virtual reality headset developed by Samsung with Oculus technology that relies on a smartphone for computing power.
Emergent is among a group of companies trying to figure out what, exactly, we’ll do with virtual reality, whether we’re using it with a smartphone-enabled device like the Gear VR or Alphabet’s Google Cardboard or, eventually, a headset like the Rift from Facebook-owned Oculus, which is set to be released next year.
While video games are expected to be popular, Emergent and others also expect that people will want to use virtual reality to take and share real-life moments like a pretty sunset or a kid’s birthday party.
Apps already let you do this kind of thing with spherical photos that you capture with a smartphone, but doing so with live-action video still requires a bunch of cameras positioned around a special rig so you can record a full sphere of imagery at once.
As an alternative, Emergent’s app will just have you record one segment of the sphere as a video, and the rest will be composed of still photos that you take, similar to the way you’d take a panorama. The company, which has raised just over $2 million in venture funding, hopes to expand viewing capabilities beyond the Gear VR to Google Cardboard (and capturing and viewing to iPhone users, too). Eventually, it plans to support headsets like Rift, too.
I strapped on a Gear VR to take a look at several of the photo sphere/video combinations that Emergent had already made with a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 smartphone. One transported me to a cliff overlooking a beach at sunset in Half Moon Bay, California, where waves lapped at the shore; another set me at the edge of a grassy backyard, watching a bunch of children play.
The photos and video looked sharp, and stitched together impressively well. But some of the visuals needed work. I did find it weird to realize that one of the kids in the backyard scene was motionless because he wasn’t part of the video scene, which indicates how tricky it may be to capture certain things with Emergent’s method. Exploring a big party in virtual reality, for instance, would feel pretty weird if most of it is frozen in time.Sandy Hook victims' siblings coping two years later
Sarah D'Avino, 27, left and Hannah D'Avino, 24, are the sisters of Sandy Hook Elementary School victim, Rachel D'Avino. The sisters are photographed with a bench dedicated to Rachel on the town green in Bethlehem, Conn., their home town, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2014. less Sarah D'Avino, 27, left and Hannah D'Avino, 24, are the sisters of Sandy Hook Elementary School victim, Rachel D'Avino. The sisters are photographed with a bench dedicated to Rachel on the town green in... more Photo: Carol Kaliff Buy photo Photo: Carol Kaliff Image 1 of / 27 Caption Close Sandy Hook victims' siblings coping two years later 1 / 27 Back to Gallery
Hannah D'Avino had the routine down perfectly: Crunch a couple of Tic Tac mints and follow them with a caffeine chaser, usually a cup of coffee, light and sweet.
That was it. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. For two weeks.
After losing her sister Rachel in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, D'Avino had no appetite for much of anything. The tragedy took that, too.
Rachel D'Avino, a behavioral specialist who loved working with kids and died trying to save them, was one of 26 victims -- six staff members and 20 first-graders -- killed Dec. 14, 2012.
The deaths brought profound grief to Newtown and the world, but the victims were mourned even more deeply by the brothers and sisters who lost their hearts that morning.
Two years after the second-worst school shooting in U.S. history, more than 40 siblings of the Sandy Hook victims continue to search for themselves and a road to healing that keeps twisting -- sometimes into the sun, sometimes into the darkness.
"Our future is completely different now because there's a major piece missing," D'Avino said at Nick's Country Kitchen in Bethlehem, not too far from where she grew up with her sisters, Rachel and Sarah. "Rachel and I promised to be each other's maid of honor, but that's not going to happen and that hurts.
"I still have a hard time sleeping. I still have recurring nightmares from an overactive imagination. You just have to rebuild your pyramid. I feel like I'm a completely different person now."
Because she is different.
For Matt Rousseau, of Southbury, the brother of slain Sandy Hook teacher Lauren Rousseau, the reality of her death is still difficult to grasp. It grew harder when he started applying to graduate school.
"When I've been writing essays for my applications, I've mentioned Lauren," said Rousseau, 29. "When you write it down and you read it, usually that's when I get emotional because it becomes more real.
"It's like, `OK, I'm reading this, and yes, it really happened.' It becomes more true because I'm reading it: My sister died that day."
Such reactions are familiar to Holly Aldrich, founding director of the Center for Homicide Bereavement in Cambridge, Mass. The center is part of the Victims of Violence Program at Cambridge Health Alliance, which is affiliated with Harvard Medical School.
"Very often, people will say in the second year after their loss, `It's getting worse, it's not getting better,' " said Aldrich, who works with siblings of all ages. "It's getting worse because as the shock recedes and the disbelief recedes, things start to surface, and that's very often when people around them are thinking, `Well, it's been however long and you're looking better and it's time to get on, move on,' -- all of the usual things that are understandable projections."
But understandable and helpful are two different things, especially for siblings. There are no instruction manuals or timelines here. There are only incremental steps on a Chutes and Ladders board.
Some days, some weeks, some years, progress is achieved square by square. Other times, progress is swiftly lost in a heart that won't heal because it can't heal -- at least not without help.
Next to three wicker chairs in Aldrich's sanctuary in the Central Square neighborhood of Cambridge are three small tables, each topped with a cube of tissues to blow noses, blot tears or ball up bolts of anger.
"For many people, it is well into the second year before there is even a real beginning absorption that there is a finality," Aldrich said, folding her hands like she's about to recite that nursery rhyme with a church and its steeple. "Often we hear from people -- very often -- that the hope is it will be linear and progress in a linear fashion, so if they can just hang on, they will reach an end point.
"It doesn't work that way. It's not, `One day, you will be who you were.' But very often, especially in adults -- and kids can do it, too -- there's a before and after. There's the before in my life and there's that demarcation, which begins the after in my life."
Embracing old memories, new roles
For 26-year-old Jillian Soto, whose eldest sister Vicki died protecting her students, the hurt has been compounded by conspiracy theorists who insist the shooting was an elaborate hoax to promote a national gun control agenda.
"I've been called a hoaxster to my face. I've seen terrible things written on the Internet. But I know my sister is real," said Soto, who even wears `Victoria' perfume by Victoria's Secret. "Our lives don't end. The world hasn't stopped. I try to live my life not in her memory, but for what she would have wanted for me."
Jillian grew up as Vicki's little sister, the shadow at school and the clothes thief at home. Despite Jillian's best attempts to turn a Stratford hallway into a catwalk, Vicki always knew when skinny jeans or a cute top were lifted from her closet.
Until the day she died, Vicki was the ringleader of the Soto kids, the instigator with the disarming dimples and the master plan. She was the one who stuck out her tongue in family photos. She was the one who bought lingerie for their grandfather's girlfriend.
But Vicki was also the rock and the role model, the one who walked off the stage at Eastern Connecticut State University with two degrees. And gave her life to save as many first-graders as she could that December day.
After the shooting, Jillian became the rock and the role model in the Soto family, the touchstone for her sister, Carlee, and their kid brother, Matthew.
"I wasn't meant to be the older sister. I was the screw-up sister. I broke all the rules and tested all the boundaries," said Soto, who is studying human development and family studies at the University of Connecticut after taking five years off from school. "I had to grow up in a hurry and be there for my family because they needed me.
"My brother, it's his senior year of high school this year. You're supposed to be looking forward to your prom and graduation and your homecoming, everything like that. But that's been taken away from him.
"My sister is married to a Marine and five months pregnant in North Carolina. Vicki will never get to see her new niece or nephew," Soto said, pausing to let the injustice of that image resonate. "When I see my parents cry, my grief is not important. Helping my parents make it through that moment, that's what is important.
"I'm the older sister now and I'm supposed to fix everything."
A distinctly shared sadness
And yet, some things in life -- and death -- are beyond fixing. The miracle then becomes the reclamation.
In a 1991 study published in the Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, authors Debra R. Applebaum and G. Leonard Burns of Washington State University explored "Unexpected Childhood Death: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Surviving Siblings and Parents."
What they found is that Jillian Soto's sense of duty to her family is a common and consuming response for children old enough to carry that mantle.
"Parents who are grieving the sudden loss of a child may be so absorbed with their own grief and posttraumatic stress that they may not be able to -- or may not want to -- see symptoms in their children," Applebaum and Burns wrote. "Another reason why parents were not cognizant of some of their children's symptoms may stem from the children's desire to shelter their parents from additional pain."
For those who lost a sibling Dec. 14, the demarcation that Aldrich describes can be unusually dark, darker than any night. It's the emotional eclipse that hides the light, and haunts with a sliver of hope.
"The three of us lived together," Sarah D'Avino said. "You want to talk about being close: That's close.
"When you go through something like this, I feel like there's nothing left to be afraid of anymore. What in our lives will we ever go through that's worse than this?"
Sarah, now 27, knew she couldn't save Rachel's memory without saving herself first. She had been, by her own account, "not likable for a very long time," largely as a result of addiction.
"I'm actually in recovery, six years now," Sarah said. "Everybody was certain when we found out what happened to Rachel that I was going to relapse. But it wasn't even an option. It wasn't even a thought. I mean, oh man, if I had dealt with it that way -- you can't even call that dealing with it."
There are many who mourn those killed at Sandy Hook, but the heartache -- that of a mother and father, a friend and co-worker, a sister and brother -- has an individual imprint.
"Family members can forget that each person had a particular relationship with the person who was killed. It's not all the same," Aldrich said. "It's very different for the sibling who loses a sibling. There's no one else in the family who had that kind of connection."
The sound track of healing
For Rousseau, who also has a 25-year-old brother Andrew, the grief can be filtered at times.
"I've told a lot of people that my sister died, but I didn't tell them she died at Sandy Hook," Rousseau said. "It's really more of a comfort-level thing for me. I'm trying to get more comfortable telling people what happened to Lauren."
But that's just the surface of Rousseau's sadness. Other struggles are tougher, the kind of soul-searching that goes on for years, maybe forever.
After graduating from the New England Conservatory of Music, Rousseau set off for a career as a jazz drummer in Brooklyn. It was tough to pay the bills and build a future, but it was nothing compared to losing his sister to a gunman.
"One thing I remember -- and it's more tragic than happy -- is from Christmas of 2012," Rousseau said. "Lauren had all of our family gifts wrapped up, but she hadn't put names on them yet. So we had to open up these packages and try to figure out who was supposed to get what.
"She got me a T-shirt with drums on it and a gray sweater. And I, you know, I haven't been able to wear that sweater yet. It's just too hard."
Matt, who is 3 1/2 years younger than Lauren, was her sidekick as much as her brother. As a little boy, he sat up straight while she played teacher. To this day, she teaches him about chasing what he wants in life -- a new career, a new direction, a new normal.
Instead of sitting behind a drum kit for a living, Rousseau is applying to master's programs to study occupational therapy. Someday, he might even work in a school, just like Lauren.
"After Lauren died, I was less inclined to go through the struggle of a musician," Rousseau said. "It just didn't seem that attractive and important anymore when I'm dealing with the loss of my sister and trying to figure out what that means."
The lamppost at the bottom of Rousseau's driveway is curved at the top like a question mark. It's the perfect metaphor for his journey.
The color of compassion
In the two years since his brother Jesse was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary, 14-year-old J.T. Lewis has followed his mother's model for grieving -- "choosing love and forgiveness over anger and violence (to) heal our hearts and our world," as her website says.
After Scarlett Lewis created the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Foundation, J.T. launched his own charitable mission, Newtown Helps Rwanda. He hatched the idea after orphaned survivors of the Rwandan genocide reached out to him after the shooting. In return, J.T. collected enough money to send one of the Rwandan orphans to college for four years.
And that's just the beginning, |
put my hands up,” Briggs said. “If he had tried to get away from me I would have had to do something. And I was ready and willing to do that,” Briggs said.
She stood up for herself and all women. And Valdivia is now not only in jail, he will be deported, back to Mexico.
Briggs also wants people to know that when she turned for help a lot of men on that train kept the suspect there until police arrived.Houthi militias and their allies yesterday condemned US attacks on Al-Qaeda in Yemen, saying they would never be “fruitful” if America doesn’t cooperate with them, the Anadolu Agency reported.
Over the past the past couple of days, the US has increased its attacks on what it claimed are Al-Qaeda bases in Yemen. News reports spoke of more than 30 attacks in the governorates of Al-Baydaa, Abyan and Shabwa.
The Yemeni news agency run by the Houthis reported an official saying: “Houthis and forces of Ali Abdullah Saleh reiterated that the unliteral American military measures violate the national sovereignty of Yemen.”
Read: Houthis and their allies destroy mosques and kidnap imams
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, stressed: “The attacks will never be fruitful without security and intelligence cooperation with our authorities which fight Al-Qaeda and Daesh.”
He said that the attacks, which were cooperated with Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, “will not achieve their goals because they are based on false information supplied by the sponsors of Al-Qaeda and its sisters.”
The Houthis are able to get rid of Al-Qaeda and Daesh on the ground, he added, calling on the international community and the US to continue fighting Al-Qaeda and Daesh on the basis of increasing cooperation with the Houthis.Srinagar, India-administered Kashmir - Danish Rajab, 24, used to work as a marketing executive for a company selling dairy products in the city of Srinagar in India-administered Kashmir. That was until the day his life changed forever.
The Kashmir valley has seen violent protests break out, triggered by the death of popular rebel militant commander, Burhan Wani on July 9. A curfew was imposed in most parts of the valley, almost immediately after his death, to contain the protests. Defying this curfew, people took to the streets in large numbers to protest against the killing.
On the evening of July 17, 2016, after the curfew had been lifted, Danish was hit by pellets in his face and eyes from a distance of about 10 metres, as he sat chatting with his friends at a tea stall near his house. He felt sharp pain and fell down with the shock. His friend, Aashiq, tried to lift him up. This was the last image that Danish saw.
The current unrest in the valley - which continues to this day even as the intensity has dwindled - has seen a new kind of injury inflicted by a new kind of non-lethal weapon, the pellet gun. Thousands have suffered damage to their eyesight as a result of pellet gun use by security forces to quell protests.
The pellet gun fires more than 500 sharp lead pellets at high velocity. Doctors say that even a single pellet entering the eye at that speed can cause grievous and irreversible damage.
READ MORE: Scarred by pellets, Kashmir girls face uncertain futureMIAMI (Reuters) - A teacher who had been fired earlier in the day returned to a Florida high school on Tuesday with an assault rifle and fatally shot the headmistress before killing himself, a sheriff’s spokesman said.
The murder-suicide occurred at Episcopal High School in the northeast Florida city of Jacksonville. No students were hurt or involved, investigators said.
Undersheriff Dwain Senterfitt said the shooter, identified as 28-year-old Spanish teacher Shane Schumerth, was fired on Tuesday morning. He returned to the campus at lunchtime with the rifle hidden in a guitar case, went to the office of headmistress Dale Regan and shot her several times, Senterfitt said.
Regan had been with the private school for 34 years as an English teacher and the last seven years as headmistress, said the school’s dean, Katherine Moorehead.
“We are shocked. She was a very beloved woman,” she added.
The Florida shooting occurred just over a week after a teenager opened fire at an Ohio high school, killing three students and wounding two others. The Ohio shooting renewed concerns about violence at schools across the nation.Today Nike Golf released information “officially” on new products in golf clubs, golf balls, footwear and apparel for 2014.
According to Nike’s press release: Cavity Back technology in golf clubs; Speedlock RZN Core technology in golf balls; Lunar technology in footwear; and Mobility Enhanced technologies in apparel.
“For us, innovation and design is at the epicenter of everything we do,” said Cindy Davis, President of Nike Golf. “We obsess every detail. Is it fast enough? Is it light enough? Does it feel right? Sound right? Does it meet the eye? Does it move with the body? We challenge everything. We think something nobody else thinks. We build something nobody else builds. We improve something that no one else thinks needs improving. If it’s good enough, then we must make it better.”
VRS Covert 2.0 Drivers:
Photos above are the Covert Driver (left) and Covert Tour Driver (right)
According to Nike’s press release: An enhanced cavity back design with new Fly-Brace technology delivers increased energy transfer at impact for more ball speed and forgiving distance. The new VRS Covert 2.0 drivers deliver more forgiving distance, faster ball speed and simple, intuitive customization to meet the swing needs of every athlete. High-Speed Cavity Back technology redistributes weight to the heel and toe allowing for increased distance and more stability across the face of the driver. See the original photos of this driver we spotted out on tour.
“We re-engineered the VRS Covert 2.0 with enhancements to our High Speed Cavity Back technology that allow athletes to experience more forgiving distance than ever before,” says Nate Radcliffe, Nike Golf Director of Engineering. “The new VRS Covert 2.0 driver features a redesigned cavity with Fly-Brace technology that ties the sole to the crown. By stiffening the rear portion of the club, more energy is transferred to the face at impact. The end result is even greater ball speed and up to six yards of distance gain over last year’s model.”
The VRS Covert 2.0 drivers feature two additional proprietary technologies: A larger, re-engineered NexCOR face for increased ball speed and distance, and FlexLoft adjustability, which allows athletes to easily customize loft and face angle positions for 15 drivers in one.
Photos above are the Covert Driver (left) and Covert Tour Driver (right)
The redesigned NexCOR face incorporates variable face thickness for a faster, hotter face and as a result, more speed at impact. It is 15-percent larger in the VRS Covert 2.0 Tour driver and seven-percent larger in the VRS Covert 2.0 driver.
Nike Golf’s patented FlexLoft system offers the same, intuitive adjustability system featured in the VRS Covert driver. Athletes can adjust lofts from 8.5 to 12.5 degrees while independently modifying for three different face angle positions to optimize launch and spin conditions for maximized distance and accuracy.
Photos above are the Covert Driver (left) and Covert Tour Driver (right)
The second generation of Mitsubishi Rayon’s Kuro Kage shafts are the standard graphite option for both models. In the VRS Covert 2.0 Tour, the Kuro Kage Silver 60 graphite, featuring Titanium Nickel fiber in the tip section, creates more stability and lower spin. The VRS Covert 2.0 utilizes the Kuro Kage Black HBP Graphite 50 shaft with a higher balance point, allowing for higher swing speeds without adding shaft length.
Both drivers will be available for pre-order on Nike.com on Jan. 6, 2013. The VRS Covert 2.0 Tour driver and VRS Covert 2.0 driver will be available on Nike.com and at select retailers on Jan. 31, 2014 for a suggested retail price of $399 and $299, respectively.
VRS Covert 2.0 Tour Driver Specifications: 8.5-12.5º, RH/LH: R, S, X
VRS Covert 2.0 Driver Specifications: 8.5-12.5º, RH/LH: A, R, S, W
See more images and find out what GolfWRX members think about these products in the forums
VRS Covert 2.0 Fairway Woods:
Per Nike’s Press Release: Coupled with High Speed Cavity Back technology for longer and straighter shots, a lower center of gravity promotes a higher launch with reduced spin, which produces an average of eight yards in additional distance compared to last year’s model.
Nike Golf re-engineered the Fly-Brace design within the cavity back of the VRS Covert 2.0 fairway woods similar to that of the VRS Covert 2.0 driver, re-distributing material from the center of the club toward the heel and toe for increased stability. The Fly-Brace technology stiffens the chassis to focus flexing toward the variable thickness NexCOR face. The result is a faster, hotter face with higher ball speed.
Photos above are the Nike Covert 2.0 (left) and the Covert 2.0 Tour (right)
The VRS Covert 2.0 Tour fairway woods feature Nike’s patented FlexLoft technology, a simple pull, turn, push-and-tighten adjustment system that allows golfers to choose their loft and face angle independently of each other, providing more range and versatility in the bag.
Photos above are the Nike Covert 2.0 Tour (left) and the Covert 2.0 (right)
The second generation of Mitsubishi Rayon’s Kuro Kage shafts are the standard graphite option for both models. In the VRS Covert 2.0 Tour, the Kuro Kage Silver 70 graphite, featuring Titanium Nickel fiber in the tip section, creates more stability and lower spin. The Kuro Kage Black HBP Graphite 60 shaft in the VRS Covert 2.0 fairway woods features a higher balance point allowing for higher swing speeds without adding shaft length.
Photos above are the Nike Covert 2.0 Tour (left) and the Covert 2.0 (right)
The VRS Covert 2.0 Tour fairway woods and VRS Covert 2.0 fairway woods will be available on Jan. 31, 2014 for a suggested retail price of $249 and $199, respectively.
VRS Covert 2.0 Tour Fairway Woods Specifications: 3W: 13°-17° (RH/LH), 5W: 17°-21° (RH/LH)
VRS Covert 2.0 Fairway Woods Specifications: 3W: 15° (RH/LH), 5W: 19° (RH/LH)
See more images and find out what GolfWRX members think about these products in the forums
VRS Covert 2.0 Hybrids:
According to Nike’s press release: Nike Golf engineers tapped into their “Linear Transition Design” methodology to create a new line of hybrids with progressively smaller head designs while increasing face height on each model.
Tapping into what the engineers at The Oven call “Linear Transition Design,” the club team crafted the VRS Covert 2.0 hybrids with progressively smaller head sizes as loft increases, while increasing the face height on each model. The #2 and #3 hybrids, with larger heads, perform more like fairway woods to advance the ball, while the #4 and #5 hybrids are designed for approach shots toward the green.
Photos above are the Nike Covert 2.0 (left) and the Covert 2.0 Tour (right)
Both the VRS Covert 2.0 Tour and VRS Covert 2.0 hybrids feature a Fly-Brace reinforced High-Speed Cavity back design for longer and straighter shots. The cavity back design improves the moment of inertia, helps to stiffen the back of the golf club and improve the energy transfer across the club face.
“With the new VRS Covert 2.0 hybrids, the longer the shot, the more forgiving the club,” says Tony Dabbs, Nike Golf Global Product Director, Golf Clubs. “When we looked at it, we realized it makes more sense, especially with a #2 and #3 hybrid, to produce ball flight that is more similar to a fairway wood. As the line progresses, the heads get smaller, and the #4 and #5 hybrids are designed to hit the green with a little higher trajectory and more shot-making precision.”
In addition to the VRS Covert 2.0 hybrids, the VRS Covert 2.0 Tour hybrids feature Nike’s patented FlexLoft technology, a simple pull, turn, push-and-tighten adjustment system that allows golfers to choose their loft and face angle independently of each other, providing more range and versatility in the bag. NexCOR face technology, which incorporates variable face thickness for a faster, hotter face, results in more speed at impact.
The second generation of Mitsubishi Rayon’s Kuro Kage graphite shafts are the standard graphite shaft option for both models. In the VRS Covert 2.0 Tour, the Kuro Kage Silver 80 graphite shaft creates more stability and lower spin. The VRS Covert 2.0 hybrids utilize the Kuro Kage Black HBP Graphite 70 shaft, featuring a higher balance point to allow for higher swing speeds without adding shaft length.
The VRS Covert 2.0 and VR Covert 2.0 Tour hybrids will be available January 31, 2014 for a suggested retail price of $179 and $229, respectively.
VRS Covert 2.0 Tour Hybrids Specifications: 3H: 17°-21° (RH/LH), 5H: 21°-25° (RH/LH)
VRS Covert 2.0 Hybrids Specifications: 2H: 17° (RH), 3H: 20° (RH/LH), 4H: 23° (RH/LH), 5H: 26° (RH)
See more images and find out what GolfWRX members think about these products in the forums
VR X3X Toe Sweep Wedges:
According to Nike’s press release: With a wider sole area toward the toe and improved Nike X3X groove technology, the VR X3X Toe Sweep wedges deliver a more consistent shot in any condition, providingbetter ball flight and stopping power on the green.
Over the course of five years, the Nike Golf team prototyped, analyzed and tested a range of functional sole configurations before landing on an innovative design that makes it significantly easier to hit out of the toughest lies from anywhere around the green. A wider sole area toward the toe and a relieved heel ensure versatility around the greens and make it easier for golfers to hit out of the bunker. Improved X3X groove technology delivers a more consistent shot in any condition, better ball flight and superior stopping power on the green.
“We built the VR X3X Toe Sweep wedges from the ground up,” said Mike Taylor, Nike Golf Master Modelmaker. “Our Tour athletes have told us that the toe side of the sole is most critical in bunker performance. In a bunker shot, these new wedges are carefully crafted to provide bounce relative to the path of the club head. Around the green, our athletes ask for material to be ground away from the heel to aid open-face versatility–and we’ve done that with this new design.”
The toe-sweep sole is an innovative combination that blends the best attributes of several of Nike’s most functional grinds. The VR X3X Toe Sweep wedges perform like a wide sole from the bunker, but slide through the tightest lies around the green with ease.
Included in the VR X3X line are the Tour-validated Dual Wide sole wedges, which have a wide “c-shaped” grind with heel and toe relief, making it extremely easy to launch the ball high with maximum spin.
Nike’s X3X groove technology features grooves that are closer together and deeper on the clubface. Nike Golf engineers added width to the shape of the existing X3X grooves to create a new X3X 27 groove design for the VR X3X line of wedges. The enhanced design improves spin consistency for more precision when approaching the green.
Both VR X3X wedges feature a satin chrome finish, Dynamic Gold Wedge shafts and Golf Pride Tour Velvet 360 grips.
The Nike VR X3X wedges will be available on Jan. 31, 2014 for a suggested retail price of $109.
See more images and find out what GolfWRX members think about these products in the forums
VRS Covert Forged Irons:
According to Nike’s press release: Nike Golf engineers incorporated a NexCOR face, Nike’s proprietary technology that delivers faster ball speed and more distance, and a high-speed cavity back design with a lower, deeper center of gravity for longer and straighter shots.
Built with metal wood distance in mind, Nike Golf’s new VRS Covert Forged irons provide high-speed performance in a premium design. Nike Golf engineers incorporated a NexCOR face, Nike’s proprietary variable face thickness technology that delivers faster ball speed for greater distance. The new irons also feature a high-speed cavity back design with a lower, deeper center of gravity for longer and straighter shots.
“We focused on improving distance and off-center hit performance with the VRS Covert Forged irons,” said Chris Savage, Nike Golf Irons Innovation Engineer. “It’s the first time we designed a forged iron with a high-speed NexCOR face, and engineering the variable thickness really amplifies the trampoline effect off the face. We further enhanced the performance with balanced perimeter weighting via a deep, engineered cavity back design. In our testing, the VRS Covert Forged irons delivered up to seven additional yards in distance compared to last year’s product.”
“Our research shows that more than 80 percent of player impact is between the center and the toe side of an iron,” Savage adds. “So another key focus on this product was to shift the center of gravity to the center of the face. By moving the true sweet spot to the area where most people hit the ball, we enhanced the iron’s feel and improved off center performance by as much as 17 percent.”
Nike’s X3X groove technology features grooves that are closer together and deeper on the clubface. Nike Golf engineers added width to the shape of the existing high-frequency X3X grooves to maximize spin and maintain ball flight, resulting in a 50-percent decrease in long iron dispersion from difficult lies.
The Nike VRS Covert Forged irons will be available on Jan. 31, 2014 for a suggested retail price of $1,099.
See more images and find out what GolfWRX members think about these products in the forums
Speedlock RZN Core technology:
According to Nike’s press release: This new technology features an interlocking core design – the core’s surface is similar to that of a waffle iron – that interconnects with the compression layer to form a tighter bond. Speedlock Technology helps to harness more energy between layers for faster ball speed, longer distance and more stability into the wind.
Four new golf balls featuring Speedlock RZN Core technology:
•RZN Platinum: Tour Performance control and moderate spin
•RZN Black: Tour Performance distance and less spin
•RZN Red: Distance Performance, longer carry
•RZN White: Distance Performance, softer feel, for swing speeds 95-100 mph
See more images and find out what GolfWRX members think about these products in the forums
Nike Lunar Control:
According to Nike’s press release: Venom Green, Military Blue and Challenge Red pop against white and black premium full-grain leather uppers and highlight Nike’s proprietary full-length Lunarlon technology, a lightweight cushioning system that is highly responsive, resulting in a unique combination of comfort and support.
Nike Golf Athletes sport the Nike Lunar Control on Tour more than any other shoe because it offers the control and lightweight cushioning they need round after round – and now they have an expressive range of bold and confident colors to choose from beginning Jan. 1, 2014.
“The shoe is designed to be in contact with the ground as much as possible and that enables me to push off the ground with more control,” said Casey. “For me, it’s always incredible how Nike creates great shoes, and then improves on them in the next generation.”
Vibrant colors such as Venom Green, Military Blue and Challenge Red pop against white and black premium full-grain leather uppers and highlight Nike’s proprietary full-length Lunarlon technology, a lightweight cushioning system that is highly responsive, resulting in a unique combination of comfort and support.
“Our Tour athletes are on their feet all day, every day – they know what they need out of a golf shoe to perform at their best,” said Lee Walker, Nike Golf Global Footwear Marketing Director. “We relied heavily on their insights to create a shoe that provides optimal control and comfort in a range of confident colors.”
In addition to Lunarlon foam cushioning, the Nike Lunar Control also features Nike Flywire, another proprietary technology, which wraps from the midfoot to the heel for targeted support and lightweight structure.
Underfoot, Nike Power Platform stabilizes the foot to provide better balance, smoother weight transfer and more control at impact. Power Transfer Zone technology works in conjunction with the Power Platform to allow for constant ground contact and a smooth transfer of power throughout the swing.
The new colorways of the Nike Lunar Control will be available in Black/Reflect Silver-Light Crimson on December 1, 2013 and White/Team Red-Challenge Red; White/Black-Venom Green; and White/Military Blue-Venom Green on Jan. 1, 2014 for a suggested retail price of $160.
See more images and find out what GolfWRX members think about these products in the forums
Nike Lunar Clayton:
According to Nike’s press release: Nike Golf footwear designers combined a handcrafted, waterproof leather upper with lightweight Nike Lunarlon technology in the outsole for maximum responsive cushioning to create a versatile shoe for both on and off the course. A leather welt joins the upper to the outsole while protecting from the elements.
Nike Golf Footwear Product Line Manager Ryan Bucci was first inspired more than 5,000 miles from Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., while window-shopping in Florence, Italy.
“Handmade, Italian leather shoes are the essence of premium footwear,” said Bucci. “We saw that there was an opening in the marketplace for a high-quality, handcrafted golf shoe that we could marry with Nike technology to make it lighter, more comfortable and more wearable.”
To achieve the ultimate combination of craftsmanship and comfort, the Nike Golf footwear designers combined a handcrafted, waterproof leather upper with lightweight Nike Lunarlon technology in the outsole for maximum responsive cushioning. A leather welt, often utilized in traditional methods of making shoes, joins the upper to the outsole while protecting from the elements.
“In the past, wearing a high-end leather golf shoes meant you had to take the time to break it in. Those shoes can be rigid and uncomfortable,” Bucci says. “The Nike Lunar Clayton is a handcrafted leather shoe that is built to last but ready to wear. We obsessed the details, from the leather upper to the contrast stitching to stability and fit.”
A new Internal Dynamic Fit System provides a secure fit and stability in the midfoot through a lacing system that Nike Golf designers moved to the inside of the upper. A molded rubber outsole (Integrated Traction) makes the Nike Lunar Clayton a versatile, wearable shoe both on and off the golf course.
Additional design features include a Nike-crafted Swoosh on the upper, premium sock liner, contrast stitch details and two sets of laces with each pair of shoes.
The Nike Lunar Clayton with be available Jan. 1, 2014 for a suggested retail price of $249.
See more images and find out what GolfWRX members think about these products in the forums
Nike Hyperadapt Wind Jacket:
According to Nike’s press release: Featuring the same four-way stretch technology and sweater-like feel as the Hyperadapt Storm-FIT jacket, the Hyperadapt Wind jacket is a lighter, windproof and rain-resistant version perfect for spring. A transparent outer shell showcases the jacket’s technical details inside and out.
Baggy, bigger and bulky used to be the standard go-to for outerwear on the golf course. Nike Golf changed that with the Hyperadapt Storm-FIT jacket in 2013, and with the new Hyperadapt Wind jacket, available at retail Jan. 1, 2014, extra fabric and noisy, distracting swings are now null and void. The Hyperadapt Wind jacket features the same four-way stretch technology and sweater-like feel as the Hyperadapt Storm-FIT jacket in a lighter, windproof and rain-resistant version perfect for spring.
“With the Hyperadapt Wind jacket there’s no need to ‘size up’ – it’s designed to fit and move with your body,” said Merritt Richardson, Nike Golf VP of Global Golf Apparel. “The four-way stretch laminate through the back, shoulders and upper arms maximizes range of motion and eliminates distractions, and the lightweight outer shell provides superior protection from the elements for all day performance and comfort on the course.”
Inspired by a car with a see-through, engine-exposing hood one of the designers saw in a parking lot on Nike’s Beaverton, Ore., campus, the Nike Golf apparel team incorporated a half-zip, transparent outer shell that showcases the jacket’s technical details inside and out. A v-shaped panel underneath incorporates bonded mesh within the Hyperadapt construction for added breathability and mobility where golfers need it most.
In addition to a performance-driven design, the Hyperadapt Wind jacket is sustainable, too– recycled coffee grounds were used in part to make the windproof coating on the outer shell, which helps reduce odor from perspiration and assists in UV protection.
The Hyperadapt Wind jacket also features elastic cuffs to keep sleeves from moving up and down during a swing, as well as an adjustable waist and a back pocket for storage.
The Nike Hyperadapt Wind jacket will be available Jan. 1, 2014 for a suggested retail price of $100.
See more images and find out what GolfWRX members think about these products in the forumsRoy Williams hasn’t been spending every waking moment in Houston — site of the Final Four — preparing his North Carolina Tar Heels for tonight’s NCAA championship game against Villanova.
The former Kansas University basketball coach has found time to fulfill grandpa duties with his son, Scott, and daughter-in-law Katie’s two sons, Aiden (6) and Court (4).
“He is an off-the-charts grandpa,” 1995 Lawrence High and 1999 UNC graduate Scott Williams told the Journal-World Sunday in a phone conversation from Texas. “The mornings we’ve been here, we’ve dropped the boys off with pops early in the morning so Katie and I could get a run in together. He’s taken the reins.”
What the heck has 13th-year UNC coach Roy — he spent 15 seasons at KU — been doing with his grandkids in the early a.m. hours in Houston?
Associated Press
Not watching game films, that’s for sure.
“They’ll play card games, go out and run around the grass. There’s a nice little pool-side area at the hotel. Actually, I don’t ask questions. As long as he takes ’em off my hands and Katie’s hands and lets us go have some peace and quiet to ourselves, we don’t ask,” Scott said, laughing.
On a serious note, Aiden and Court’s gramps today can become the sixth coach in NCAA history to win three national hoops titles. By beating ’Nova, Roy would join John Wooden (10), Mike Krzyzewski (5), Adolph Rupp (4), Bob Knight (3) and Jim Calhoun (3) as three-time champion mentors.
“I don’t think it is as big a deal to him as it probably is to the rest of us,” Scott Williams said. “I think the takeaway for him is if that comes about it’ll be the way they did it — with the kids they did it with. Inevitably with any team there will be somebody who is a little pain, a little nuisance. I don’t get that feeling with this team. It reminds me some of those early 90s Kansas teams (that) I don’t think were as gifted as maybe some teams out there, but gosh they play their tails off together.”
Scott thinks his dad enjoys coaching this team so much, there’s absolutely no way he’ll ride off into the sunset at the age of 65 and retire if the Heels win tonight.
“The NCAA stuff... clearly he’s said there’s no way he’d leave until there is resolution there,” Scott Williams said of an inquiry into an academic scandal encompassing the entire UNC athletic department. “I think he’s found such an immense amount of joy with this team, I just don’t see any chance of him leaving. I think this team more so than probably any I can remember has re-energized him. He loves the kids.”
Reports of Roy’s health problems are “greatly exaggerated,” said Scott, who is a bond salesman in Charlotte. His sister, LHS and UNC grad Kimberly, owns a dance studio in the same city.
“The attack of vertigo on the court this year? The only difference between that one and the rest he’s had is it happened on national TV,” Scott said. Roy Williams had vertigo problems dating back to his KU days. “His knees are not in good shape. That’s obvious. You see him hobbling out there. He doesn’t run anymore. They are painful but that is not something that will ever stop him from doing what he wants to do. Has the off the court stuff been difficult? Sure. That obviously will affect stress level. But my guess is he’ll have surgery on his knees and maybe knee replacement this summer and hopefully it’ll all be taken care of,” Scott added.
Scott did reveal his one wish for his dad.
“Honestly, I want him to go take a Div. III baseball coaching job. I think baseball was always his love,” Scott said. “I want him to coach third base for some school completely off the grid. To show up at practice which he loves and maybe coach third during the game. I always say do it at Brevard College up in the mountains. Maybe we could talk to the head coach and see if he has a spot open for him. I think he’d love it at that level. That’s my unrealistic dream for him. I think he’d have a ball doing it,” added Scott, who knows the more likely scenario is his pops coaching at UNC into his 70s.
Maker off market: Thon Maker, a 7-foot center from Sudan who had KU on his list of prospective schools, will attempt to enter the 2016 NBA Draft, bleacherreport.com and draftexpress.com report. Maker, 19, who plays at Athlete Institute in Canada, believes he is draft-eligible because he reportedly graduated high school in Canada in June of 2015 and is in his fifth year of high school. The NBA collective-bargaining agreement states a player is eligible for the draft if the player is 19 and one year removed from high school. He may not have had his credentials approved by the NCAA Clearinghouse.The universe is in trouble and there are 9 beings that have the power to save us. Sent to Earth with adult guardians, the 9 have been in hiding moving from place to place until their special powers, called legacies, can be developed. The bad guys, Mogadorians, have come to destroy the nine before the legacies are at full power – the catch is they have to kill the 9 in numerical order.
The movie opens with number 3 and his guardian being killed. Number 4-John (Alex Pettyfer) must pick up and move – again – with his guardian Henri (Timothy Olyphant). They relocate to Paradise, Ohio, where John meets and falls in love with Sarah (Diana Agron). As if the threat of the Mogadorians is not enough, there is the overly jealous football hero rival that use to be involved with Sarah and the science nerd being picked on by the jocks whom John befriends and defends. Because of his involvement with Sarah, he refuses to leave town as the Mogadorians are closing in and must stay and fight to protect his new found love.
This is pretty much a formula sci-fi film with some good special effects. I imagine the target audience for this film is the teenage set. However, I did for the most part enjoy the film and can give it a recommendation. Matinee pricing only for this one or it would be a worthwhile rental when it pops up for PPV or at the local video store.
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Sep. 19, 2013, 6:35 PM GMT By Emily Main
Want to lose weight, ward off diabetes and still drink something that tastes sweet and fizzy? Grab a diet soda! After all, they're sweetened with zero-calorie sweeteners that give you the sugar fix you need without boosting belly fat.
Except that's all a great myth, as a growing number of studies is finding. Artificial sweeteners, whether sucralose, stevia, aspartame or any of the other increasing number of ingredients being added to this category, are being linked to just as many negative health problems as sugar, in its many forms, according to a new review of five years' worth of research. (Learn the bitter truth about some "natural" sweeteners.)
This new research, published in the journal Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism, reviewed all the most recent literature on the relationship between artificially sweetened beverages and their effects on weight gain, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The authors' conclusion? Artificial sweeteners aren't doing anyone any good. "Data from these recent studies suggest a link between consumption of artificially sweetened beverages and a variety of negative health outcomes...especially in adults," the authors wrote. "In none of these prospective studies was artificially sweetened beverage consumption associated with a significantly decreased risk."
There have been a lot of theories as to why artificial sweeteners don't yield the positive effects they promise. One of the big ones is psychological: People who drink diet sodas perceive them as healthy and then overeat other unhealthy foods. But Susan Swithers, PhD, professor of behavioral neuroscience at Purdue University and lead author of the review, says that that can't explain away everything these studies find. In most of these studies, the authors controlled for total calorie intake and still saw increases in disease risk among people who consume diet drinks. Another theory is that people who drink diet sodas tend to be heavier anyway and therefore already at risk. But again, when weight was taken into account, diet sodas were still linked with increased disease risk. (And that's not all. Check out these other 9 Disturbing Facts about Soda.)
What seems to be the best scientific explanation, Swithers says, is that "artificial sweeteners fail to produce the responses your body expects to produce when you taste sweet things." She writes in her review that sweet tastes send a signal to your gut that something high calorie is on its way. Your gut anticipates this high level of energy, but when it doesn't arrive (artificial sweeteners have no calories), your gut doesn't utilize the food efficiently. And that causes a cascading effect that interferes with your body's hunger signals.
Swithers says that animal studies have also shown that artificial sweeteners interfere with your body's production of a hormone called GLP-1. It's a hormone that regulates your blood sugar levels and your feelings of satiety. It's also been shown to protect your heart, she adds. "We can't say with 100-percent certainty that GLP-1 plays a role," she says, "but when people get artificial sweeteners, they're not releasing things like GLP-1." (Discover how too much diet soda may be bad for your kidneys.)
The conclusions are concerning, considering that, according to data presented in the study, roughly 30 percent of adults and 15 percent of children consume artificial sweeteners. Ironically, increases in consumption of these sweeteners has increased in lock-step with obesity rates over the past 40 years.
The bottom line? The healthiest diet drink for you is water. Or try one of these other healthy "diet" drinks:
Coffee. Coffee is rich in antioxidants and might even protect against diabetes.Green tea. It delivers the caffeine kick you crave, plus a lot more. In addition to fighting cancer and lowering blood pressure, green tea is a natural brain booster: It contains an amino acid called theanine, which enhances mental performance, according Keri Glassman, RD.Super smoothie. Whip one up at night, and save it to enjoy at work tomorrow. Fruits and veggies are natural energy lifters, but so is chocolate -- toss in a dark variety for a healthy helping of caffeine. (Need some suggestions? Check out some of these awesome smoothie recipes.)
More Links:
How to Combat Diet-Soda Belly
8 Healthy Sodas
Diet Water? Artificial Sweeteners May Wind Up In Your H20As the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers prepare to joust in Super Bowl XLVII, the most anticipated matchup since Super Bowl XLVI, ESPN's crack staff of experts, writers, analysts, bloggers, columnists and pundits boldly makes its predictions for the big game.
Chris Berman, "Sunday NFL Countdown" host: Ravens, 27-26 -- One of the great Super Bowls we'll talk about for decades.
Tom Jackson, "Sunday NFL Countdown" and "Monday Night Countdown" analyst: 49ers, 24-21 -- In the critical area – the front line on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball – I think the 49ers have an edge.
Mike Tirico, "Monday Night Football" play-by-play commentator: 49ers, 26-22 -- It's hard to separate the teams. Slight edges to San Francisco in a few key spots tilt the scale for me. I wouldn't be surprised to see the result reversed. In this good run of excellent games, we're in for another.
Jon Gruden, "Monday Night Football" analyst and Super Bowl champion coach: Ravens, 23-20 -- If this really is Ray Lewis' last game, how can I pick it any other way?
Steve Young, "Monday Night Countdown" analyst |
Reynolds in the top of the ninth, except for me, and now possibly you. I’d like to hone in on this to search for a possible explanation.
Explanation: the pitch was a legitimate strike
Well, no, that is demonstrably wrong.
Let’s make this even easier:
Sometimes the top and the bottom of the strike zone can get a little blurry. We’re not dealing with a pitch that was either too high or too low. Sometimes the camera angle can make the sides of the strike zone a little blurry. This camera angle is perfect, coming from right behind the mound. This pitch flew over the right-handed batter’s box. It didn’t graze the plate. The strike zone is more or less the width of the plate. There’s no question here: any umpire, looking only at this screenshot, would rule this pitch a ball. And you don’t need more than the screenshot.
Explanation: the count was such that the zone was bigger than normal
Fascinating research has found that the strike zone is significantly larger in 3-and-0 counts than in 0-and-2 counts. Those aren’t the only two counts where the zones are different, and there’s a strong correlation between zone size and pitcher- or hitter-friendliness. But we already said this was the first pitch of the at-bat. The count was nothing and nothing, so.
Explanation: the umpire was giving this pitch all game
From Brooks Baseball:
Spot the outlier. So far these have been some pretty bad potential explanations.
Explanation: the pitch was expertly received
Behind the plate for Tampa Bay was not Jose Molina, but Jose Lobaton, who is a Jose, but who is not a Molina. Lobaton seems to be a good receiver of his own right, based on a limited amount of playing time, but he’s certainly not Molina-esque, or Lucroy-esque in keeping with my own advice. Let’s look at how Lobaton received this fastball. Did he get his pitcher an extra strike he didn’t necessarily deserve?
I’m not going to pretend to be able to see what the umpire might’ve seen, but Lobaton caught this ball in front of his bicep, and not in front of his chest. He had to move his target quite a bit, and his arm travels in something of an ellipse. Molina probably would’ve “cheated” with his glove, gradually moving his target inward to account for the run on Rodney’s heater. Lobaton left his target in place until the ball was out of Rodney’s hand, with the result being inches of horizontal elbow movement. I don’t think Lobaton screwed this pitch up, but this doesn’t strike me as an exceptional frame job. Again, I’m not an expert in the field.
Explanation: the umpire was being a little more generous because it was a blowout and so there was incentive to just get the game finished
I wonder if anybody has studied what the strike zone looks like in blowouts, versus close games. Intuitively, it makes sense that the zone might expand, because there’s less reason to be strict. It would encourage hitters to swing more often, and it would speed the game up toward its virtually inevitable result. Just looking at last year’s league numbers, the average K/BB in tie games was 2.3. The average K/BB in games with a margin of at least five runs was 2.6. Does that mean anything? I doubt it, since most of that gap goes away once you factor in intentional walks. But this is something that should be examined using PITCHf/x, not statistical proxies. Interestingly, here’s a pitch:
There are two outs in the bottom of the ninth of a 13-0 baseball game. This is a 3-and-0 fastball that grazes the rule book inner edge. It was called a ball, and the Rays worked their second consecutive walk of the frame. There would’ve been almost every reason to call that pitch a strike, especially if the umpire were trying to get things to hurry up. Matt Joyce took his base. It’s not consistent with the idea of the umpire expanding the zone.
Explanation: the umpire just missed it
The obvious one is the most likely one. Fernando Rodney threw a first-pitch fastball that was to become ball one. It was determined instead to be strike one, because the umpire is human and funny things happen in the course of human processing. Perhaps, on account of the blowout, the umpire was operating at less than 100% focus. Perhaps, if the score were closer and this same pitch were thrown, it would’ve appropriately been called a ball. One should never excuse a lapse in concentration, but if there has to be a lapse in concentration, a good time would be the ninth inning of an absolute blowout. There are worse mistakes to make. There are actual meaningful mistakes to make.
And maybe the umpire was being more generous because the game was out of hand. Which leads one to wonder: should that be considered permissible behavior, or should the strike zone always remain the same? Should the zone be the same in all combinations of scores? Should the zone be the same in all combinations of counts? Is it better this way, or is it worse this way? If the human element can call this pitch a strike, might it call similar pitches strikes in closer games, games of greater import? How much can we take away from a single called strike in an 11-0 game at the beginning of April?
Why do humans do the things they do? Why was this pitch called a strike? What did the umpire see, and what was the umpire thinking? It’s a completely insignificant thing, but from another perspective, it is the very most significant thing.Apparently, the PFA Awards have been decided, people know and aren't supposed to talk about it yet. Tottenham Hotspur winger Andros Townsend did not get this memo, because he tweeted out that Kyle Walker has won the PFA Young Player of the Year award.
Congrats to @kyle28walker on winning the PFA young player of the year award #baller — andros townsend(@andros_townsend) April 22, 2012
This is being echoed all across the twitter machine and it's not April 1st or Day Of The Innocents, so I'm going to assume that this is a legit thing. It's also being echoed all across the twitter machine that Robin van Persie is the PFA Player of the Year.
I find it hilarious that a right back who can't defend or cross at an average Premier League level has won this award. Congratulations to Kyle Walker for bringing his unique brand of track and field skills to the football pitch and convincing his fellow players that this makes him the best young footballer in the country.“Information, knowledge and culture are central to human freedom and human development. How they are produced and exchanged in our society critically affects the way we see the state of the world as it is and might be…”--The Wealth of Networks, Yochai Benkler
Lourdes Lopez had a conversation with her mother that she had never had before. The focus of that conversation was not the young woman’s immigration struggles or even her undocumented status. The conversation was about her mother’s opinion of Lourdes’ level of English. The sixteen-year old Honduran was surprised when her mother said that she thought that now, after six years in the United States, Lourdes’ English should be better. The comment surprised and insulted the rambunctious but thoughtful teen. She was a good student but lacked the confidence to speak her mind outside of the EL classroom.
That conversation happened last August, when Lourdes (not her real name) and six other high school students taking my language development class at International Studies Academy in the San Francisco Unified School District began the school year with that interview assignment. I’ve been teaching English to non-native speakers for years and have found that using new media tools creates a production-centered classroom that introduces students not only to English but a new media literacy. The class becomes a team; each student learns to teach the others. Plus we get to shout to the world, “We are here!”--a declaration of confidence that may the hardest and yet most powerful lesson that we can teach English language learners.
Here’s how we did it: Soon after school started, I asked each student to do a reflection of themselves as language learners and then to interview someone who knew them well. Next, they created a video using iMovie in which they simply read their results aloud. This was the initial assessment for a framework called the Learning Record, a powerful evidence-based assessment originally developed in London. One key component to the Learning Record is to measure how you develop along the Dimensions of Learning: confidence and independence, skills and strategies, knowledge and understanding, prior and emerging experience, reflection and creativity, imagination and originality.
While the class is designed to develop academic English, the focus on new media literacy and production enables the students to bring the ideas on the page to life. They dig the production process and a finished product is a celebration. The content for the class was a textbook that concentrated on developing academic English with new vocabulary, using sentence and paragraph “frames.” (If you aren’t sure what a sentence frame or a paragraph frame is, picture a “MadLibs” booklet where you fill in the missing word in a story and you will get the idea.) After each unit, we created a movie, or rather a short -- just one to two minutes long.
One thing about developing media in the classroom is you have to have an infrastructure for where to place this media once it’s done. I have been using the open source Mahara for many years as my portfolio solution. Each student has an account. They populate it with media: a picture, an essay, a poster, an mp3, a movie and, at the end of a unit, they add a reflection about the unit and what they learned.
Because I wanted students to genuinely learn about media tools, we experimented with different movie making and sound editing software platforms. We made our first movies with iMovie. But when we created our second movie, which was about graffiti, we used Animoto. Our third movie, about women who play contact sports, we used a recording device to interview and WeVideo. And at the end of the year, we remixed our first assignment with Mozilla Popcorn.
The learning we did on one platform led to an enhanced understanding of the next platform. For instance, WeVideo was great because it stores everything in the cloud and students and teachers could access their work from both the school computer lab and from home. The students became very adept at making these video shorts and at curating their digital selves on their portfolio. And oh, yes, we also used Twitter to publish our WeVideo movies.
At the end of the school year, our students had online portfolios populated with three movies and a Popcorn remix. Among, them, Lourdes’ portfolio shined the brightest. When considering the Learning Record during her portfolio presentation, she said that through building these media products she gained confidence. This confidence, she said, extended beyond the class. Where she once used to just sit, listen and follow the crowd, she now voices her opinions more readily.
Maybe it is time her mother reassesses her fluency in English!
NOTE: This article is part of EdSurge's Fifty States Initiative (representing the state of California).With electric vehicles like the Tesla Roadster, we are interested in how fast they will go from 0-60 mph. Think announced today that it has teamed up with AeroVironment, Inc., a leading developer and supplier of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, to demo the company’s level III fast-charge system and the Think City electric-car.
The team held a 15-minute news conference at the 2010 Washington Auto Show where they charged a Think City from 0-80% using AV’s fast-charge system in 15 minutes.
“THINK and AeroVironment are setting a new standard for extremely quick re-charging – zero to 80 percent in just 15 minutes,” said THINK CEO Richard Canny. “This is a major leap forward for electric vehicles. The development and deployment of very-fast-charge stations will help speed the electrification of automobiles in the United States and globally.”
“For electric vehicles to achieve broad adoption as a practical alternative to gasoline-powered cars, safe, reliable and accessible charging infrastructure is necessary,” said Michael Bissonette, AV senior vice president and general manager of its Efficient Energy Systems business segment. “Our portfolio of true fast-charge systems, commercial opportunity charge stations, and overnight home charge stations will help drivers integrate electric vehicles, such as the THINK City, into their lives and realize the benefits of zero emission transportation.”
THINK also announced that it has chosen EnerDel, the Indiana-based lithium ion battery manufacturer, to be the exclusive battery supplier for THINK City electric vehicles sold in the U.S. through 2012. EnerDel also will supply at least 60 percent of the batteries for THINK City electric vehicles sold in Europe.
“EnerDel has developed an extremely energy-dense lithium ion battery for the THINK City,” said EnerDel President Rick Stanley. “This battery has been designed from the earliest stages of cell development to accommodate the surge of current required for a new standard of rapid charging.”
The AV level III fast-charge system employs a protocol developed by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). THINK and EnerDel have for several months been using TEPCO fast charging daily to quickly recharge development vehicles. This work has confirmed the suitability of the fast-charge technology and readiness for commercialization.
AV level III is a constant current 3 phase (200-430V) switching type power supply capable of 50-100 kW output at up to 200 Amps. The EV ECU determines optimal current; charger supplies current based on order from EV ECU.
THINK City, to be sold in the United States beginning this year, will have a top speed of more than 70 miles per hour and a range of more than 100 miles per full charge. THINK City has an onboard AC charger that can be coupled with an economically priced 220-volt THINK home charging station to provide overnight charging for the vehicle. It can also be charged using 110-volt current on a regular household outlet. The fast-charge system will be a supplementary alternative for customers’ added sense of security and for fleets with daily mileage requirements exceeding the car’s range.
“Our experience with more than 1,500 vehicles in use in Europe is that customers using the vehicle for daily commutes and trips around town quickly become comfortable with THINK City’s range of more than 100 miles,” Canny said. “For them, the standard over-night charging is a very practical solution. Fast charging’s importance will be for high-use fleets.”
THINK recently announced plans for a North American manufacturing facility in Elkhart, Indiana, where the company will build the THINK City beginning early in 2011. The new facility will be in addition to THINK’s current manufacturing capability in Finland, where it has contracted with Valmet to build the THINK City.
THINK expects commercial fleet customers in the U.S. to be among the first users of the fast-charge system, but also anticipates that commercial enterprises – including shopping malls, convenience stores and parking garages – will quickly see the value in offering fast-charging services for their customers as a way to grow business and to demonstrate environmental responsibility.You can be gay or vote for Donald Trump or even be pro-choice and still be a Christian.
Recently I read an article that claimed a person couldn’t possibly be a professing evangelical Christian and vote for Donald Trump. It laid out the case against Trump as a madman and liar who doesn’t really have a faith at all.
Not long afterward I read a post that purported if you plan to vote for Hillary Clinton then there is no way you can be a real Christian. As both a blogger and a Christian, I come across a lot of opinions about how Christians should be and think and vote. It seems like people are always asking where the line should be.
Can you be gay and Christian? Can you be Jewish and Christian? Can you be pro-choice and Christian? Can you be a Democrat and Christian? What are the limits of faith? What are the boundaries that you simply cannot cross and still call yourself a follower of Jesus?
The only real and reliable source on this is the Bible itself. When I read through my Bible I see very little about the “rules” of being a Christian. In the New Testament especially there are a lot of dos but few don’ts. Do treat your neighbor the way you would wish to be treated, do love the Lord with all your heart, do turn the other cheek, do be patient and kind and honest.
How About We Ask God to Define His Own Thing
It’s also pretty clear what the parameters are for loving the Lord and calling yourself his follower. If we take the Bible at its word, and God at his word, the requirements for being a Christian are fairly simple.
Galations 3:22. “But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.”
John 1:12-13. “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”
John 3:16-18. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
Mark 16:16. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”
There are a hundred more verses just like these, but the point remains the same. If you believe Jesus Christ is the living Messiah and was sent to lead us back into relationship with Jehovah, than you are a Christian. If you believe the only remedy for sin is the blood of Jesus, you are a Christian. If you believe God has created you to be an adopted son or daughter and partake in his blessings through the mystery of Jesus Christ, you are a Christian.
Christianity Is About What Jesus Did, Not What We Do
It’s important to note that while the Bible is clear about the “standards” of believing, that isn’t to say there is no accountability. Can you be an alcoholic and a Christian? Sure. Lots of people are. A popular saying in Christian circles is “Church is a hospital for sinners.” There are lots of broken, struggling people within the church body. Mostly everyone, to be honest.
You can be a liar and still believe Jesus died for your sins. It’s not that those two things can’t go together, but if you choose to continually live in your sin while unrepentant, that will have different consequences for your spiritual health and how you influence others.
In my younger days I was a pretty committed progressive socialist and pro-choice to boot. I was also a born-again Christian, a choice I made on my own at the age of 14. I believed in Jesus Christ and in the right to abort a baby in the womb. Many people today aren’t shy about saying you’re not a Christian if you believe in abortion rights, but there’s no way anyone can tell me I didn’t love Christ with my full heart, even as I made poor choices.
We’re all broken people. We all grow and change. We harbor ideas at 18 that we wouldn’t dare entertain at 40. If the legitimacy of our faith is based solely on our opinions—political or otherwise—then is that to say we are always moving in and out of the grace of God? In and out of Christianity? That’s a scary thought, and also completely antithetical to what we just read in Scripture.
The point is: you can be wrong and be a Christian. In fact, the entire reason for Christ’s presence is because we are wrong-headed people. We are also not called to judge what is in another person’s heart. Some Christians may have heard my pro-choice chatter and thought I was a heretic, but truth was (and is) that I was a very passionate follower of Jesus and believed with all my heart that he saved my life. I was also wrong. That’s it. Does God abandon us for being wrong sometimes? If so, we’re all screwed.
So can you be [insert stereotype here] and still be a Christian? Yes. You can be gay or vote for Donald Trump or even be pro-choice and still be a Christian. Faith in Christ is not qualified by anything but faith in Christ. The end.
Let’s stop pontificating about the hearts of those who don’t share our opinions. Render unto Caesar what belongs to him and leave the rest to God.Image copyright Banksy.co.uk Image caption The artist posted two photos of the stencil on his website
A new Banksy mural showing a group of pigeons holding anti-immigration banners has been destroyed following a complaint the work was "racist".
The mural in Clacton-on-Sea - where a by-election is due to take place following the local MP's defection to UKIP - appeared this week.
It showed four pigeons holding signs including "Go Back to Africa", while a more exotic-looking bird looked on.
The local council, which removed it, said it did not know it was by Banksy.
Tendring District Council said it received a complaint that the mural was "offensive" and "racist".
The artist, who chooses to remain anonymous, posted pictures of the work on his website earlier.
But by the time it had been announced, the mural had already been removed due to the complaint received on Tuesday.
Image copyright Banksy.co.uk Image caption It was the second new piece of work by Banksy (not pictured) unveiled this week
Image caption The artwork had been removed by the time Banksy announced it on his website
Nigel Brown, communications manager for the council, said: "The site was inspected by staff who agreed that it could be seen as offensive and it was removed this morning in line with our policy to remove this type of material within 48 hours.
"We would obviously welcome an appropriate Banksy original on any of our seafronts and would be delighted if he returned in the future."
Image copyright Richard Haugh Image caption Banksy's artwork has a huge following and his pieces are sold for hundreds of thousands of pounds
A spokeswoman for Banksy said the artist would not be commenting further on the Clacton piece.
Banksy's work often makes political statements, covering subjects including global warming, wars, surveillance and poor working conditions.
In the past, his art has been cut from walls and sold for hundreds of thousands of pounds.
On 9 October, people will be voting in the Clacton by-election prompted by Douglas Carswell's defection from the Tories to UKIP.Who is the greatest statistical quarterback in NFL history, you ask? That distinction belongs to Peyton Manning, right? No doubt about it, right? That is what most people believe.
However, I have come up with a basic formula that proves that claim isn’t quite accurate. I found this out by applying this formula to the career statistics of every statistically elite quarterback in NFL history, current and past, which led me to a shocking conclusion.
What is the formula I used? Thanks for asking!
I divided every elite quarterback’s career statistics, compiled in games that they started, by their number of starts at quarterback. I then multiplied each of those numbers by 16 (the number of games per season). Using this formula, of dividing each quarterback’s career stats by total starts and multiplying by 16 games, gives us the clearest example of which quarterbacks truly are statistically the greatest of all-time.
This formula demonstrates each quarterback’s average NFL season over the course of their career. Thus, this shows us which quarterback has put together the best average season in NFL history (factoring out injury among other things).
The numbers showed me that the Green Bay Packers’ quarterback Aaron Rodgers is the greatest statistical quarterback in NFL history, according to the numbers. When it comes to statistics, the numbers truly cannot lie.
Disclaimer: I am not claiming that Rodgers is the greatest quarterback of all-time, although some think he’s on his way. I am not making that claim because this ranking doesn’t factor in wins, winning percentage, championships, awards, accomplishments, milestones, or anything else — strictly averaged statistics. However, using quantifiable numbers such as career averages gives us an definite answer as to which quarterback is the greatest statistical signal caller of all-time and it isn’t the Broncos’ Manning.
Keep in mind, this isn’t my opinion and I did not create these statistical results — I’m simply presenting them to the world.
When career starting statistics are averaged over a 16-game span it levels the playing field and gives the best indication as to which players have been, statistically, the best all-time. Career totals are interesting, but the longevity of a career and amassing stats over time doesn’t necessarily mean that a quarterback was better than one that played in fewer games. Likewise, a few great (even elite) seasons mixed with years of mediocre play doesn’t mean a quarterback was truly a great statistical quarterback overall.
This formula credits players with being consistently great each time they step on the field and none have been better than Rodgers in the history of the game. Therefore, injuries or time spent on the bench doesn’t negatively hurt a quarterback’s ranking — as it shouldn’t.
Players should only be judged by their production as a starter; that is what this ranking accomplishes and the results are fascinating.
On the following slides I’ve compared Rodgers’ career stats to former greats Dan Marino, Kurt Warner, Brett Favre, Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas, and Steve Young. I also compared his stats to current stars Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Andrew Luck, Tony Romo, and Manning. I know that it’s hard to compare statistics across eras of the NFL and the game has significantly changed, but Rodgers not only tops players from the past, he tops his peers, too.
You are definitely going to want to check out how Manning and Rodgers stack up statistically. Their head-to-head breakdown is on the following slides.
ATTN people interested in playoff statistics: At the end of this piece I’ve even compared Rodgers’ career playoff statistics to other great quarterbacks that are famous for their great postseason play. The results to those comparisons were the most shocking information that I found while compiling this research.
An interesting part about Rodgers’ career averages is that he has at least five more years of his absolute prime to work with to raise his overall statistics — which he very well may do. Of course, there is a risk that his play could diminish over the years, but like Brady and others have proved, quarterbacks can play at an extremely high level into their late-30’s in today’s NFL and I would image Rodgers will do the same.
Alright, onto the the head-to-head quarterback comparisons!Earlier today, Samsung revealed that it won't update the Galaxy S, its most successful smartphone to date, to the latest version of Android. You might shrug and dismiss that as just more evidence of Android's inherent fragmentation or the need for buyers to beware, but I take grave issue with it. This is a decision based not on technical constraints, as Samsung would have you believe, but on hubris.
Consider, firstly, that the Galaxy S sold 10 million units within its first seven months on the market and was recently nudging up against the 20 million mark. It wasn't merely Samsung's flagship phone for 2010, it was Android's. As if to confirm that, Google later chose the Galaxy S hardware as the base around which to build the Nexus S, its second Android showcase device. The Galaxy S was a big deal, as close to a halo Android phone as we've had prior to the grunting arrival of the Galaxy Nexus powerhouse.
It's not just ancient history, either. The Galaxy S was still the top Samsung phone you could buy in the US as recently as this September. In light of that fact, Samsung's choice not to upgrade this phone to Ice Cream Sandwich is simply unacceptable. As an owner of a Galaxy S, I would feel betrayed. As a technology journalist, I am appalled.
The Nexus S is receiving ICS over the air right now, while we've seen the hacking community install and run the new OS on older devices like Motorola's original Droid. Samsung protests that there's not enough RAM and ROM on the Galaxy S to operate Ice Cream Sandwich, but the Nexus S precedent tells me that the company could provide an unskinned build of Android 4.0 to users who'd like to upgrade their months-old phones. Unfortunately, however, Samsung doesn't seem to care. The company's failure to support its Android products stretches back to a promised Behold II update that never came, through the Fascinate that got it months late, to today's Galaxy S news.
The problem is a cultural one: Samsung considers its relationship with the consumer to be concluded the moment the sale is completed. Whereas Apple, Microsoft, and other software vendors have learned the value of supporting current users in the hope of enticing new ones, Samsung's attitude remains deeply rooted in its history as a hardware manufacturer. It sees production and R&D costs in one column and it tries to balance them against sales revenue in the other, never raising its gaze to the long-term consideration of whether anyone would come back for a repeat purchase.
People stand in line for the new iPhone because they believe Apple cares. If Samsung wants to start competing with those lines instead of just making fun of them, it had better start caring too.According to the numbers, ensemble power catapulted DC’s “Suicide Squad” and HBO’s “Game of Thrones” past the usual assortment of films and television shows that stormed Comic-Con this year.
Each genre property invaded the San Diego Convention Center’s famed Hall H with its respective cast in tow, as names like Will Smith, Sophie Turner and Margot Robbie graced the stage to preview things to come on the big and small screen.
Other films that sparked included “Star Trek Beyond,” which kicked off the convention with a grand outdoor IMAX premiere punctuated with a dazzling light show and fireworks display; “Wonder Woman,” which debuted an exciting first trailer for screaming fans; and “Justice League,” presenting the full superhero lineup and a sizzle reel unique to the event.
On the television side, other series that drew online attention included USA’s “Mr. Robot,” currently in its second season; “American Gods,” as Starz debuted a trailer for the upcoming show based on Neil Gaiman’s bestseller; and Marvel’s “Luke Cage,” catching the most fire in the comic book clutter.
Provided by ListenFirst Media, the Interest Score aggregates metrics that measure organically generated activity by fans of a TV program or film. The metric includes total volume of official hashtag mentions, along with Wikipedia page views (as a proxy for organic search volume) for a program / film as a percentage of the total volume of the same activities for all programs / films. The TV Interest Score does not include Twitter.
Related Jared Leto's Joker Is Getting His Own Movie (EXCLUSIVE) Upfronts 2018 Social Buzz: NBC's 'New Amsterdam,' CW's 'Charmed' Reboot See Early Lead Among New ShowsFutaba 0.22mm flexible OLED watch concept wants your wrist
Ditch your Omega and get with the high-tech watch times, granddad: Futaba is hoping the well-dressed wrist of tomorrow will be sporting its flexible OLED, the company’s thinnest yet. Just 0.22mm thick, and easily capable of being bent around your arm – such as in the watch concept Futaba is showing at CEATEC this week – the 3.5-inch display makes current smartwatches look clunky in comparison.
The display is an odd aspect ratio – long and narrow, to wrap around your wrist – and so the resolution is atypical at 256 x 64. Brightness is 100 cd/m2, and of course there’s full color support; if you’ve ever wanted to watch video of very tall, narrow buildings as well as tell the time, this could be the concept for you.
What we don’t know is power consumption. Recent smartwatches have used e-paper or transflective panels so as to minimize energy requirements, on the assumption that a compact device will only have minimal space for a battery but still be expected to deliver all-day runtimes. Futaba wasn’t saying exactly what sort of power draw the 0.22mm OLED demanded, though the display technology has generally been more frugal than traditional LCD.
Of course, this watch itself won’t be hitting the market, as it’s just a way for Futaba to show off what its flexible OLED is capable of. Still, the screen technology is production-ready – the company had a 0.29mm version back in June – and is just waiting on a vendor with a suitable application to snap it up.Microsoft has acquired Beam, an interactive livestreaming startup that lets viewers watch and play along with game streamers in real time.
The Seattle-based firm will join Microsoft's Xbox team to help make Xbox Live "more social and fun," according to a blog post from Xbox Live Partner Group Program Manager Chad Gibson.
By pairing Beam and Minecraft, for example, users can not only watch their favorite streamer play, but join the game, introducing new challenges and making real-time choices.
"We at Xbox are excited about this convergence between playing and watching, and want to provide gamers with the freedom and choice to have great multiplayer experiences across all of Beam's platforms," Gibson wrote. "This acquisition will help gamers enjoy the games they want, with the people they want, and on the devices they want."
In the meantime, Beam promises business as usual. According to CEO Matt Salsamendi, the company will continue offering streaming tools and broadcasts.
As the two teams merge, "you'll see awesome new features, epic new interactive game integrations, and a huge influx of new community members," Salsamendi wrote in a blog post.
"It's always been a dream of mine to make an impact in the lives of gamers all over the world, and I'm extremely excited to announce that we're taking another huge leap towards making that dream a reality," the company co-founder said.
"As part of Xbox, we'll be able to scale faster than we've ever been able to before," he continued. "We're expanding the team, bolstering our infrastructure, and most importantly, continuing to grow and support the amazing community at Beam," which boasts more than 100,000 members.The Hidden Dangers in Buying a New Home
Why would you consider buying a new home, is it simply because you want that feeling of owning something new? Perhaps you want cutting edge design and modern standards of thermal comfort with low energy bills, or perhaps you simply feel that buying a new home gives you peace of mind that nothing could possibly go wrong? You may even have reasonable expectations that nothing is perfect and perhaps you may find one or two snags but so what, your constructor will willingly correct defects in the first two years and after that you have NHBC insurance to cover further eventualities. Moreover, even your solicitor has advised you not to bother getting a full survey because its a new property and you’re covered by the construction guarantee and NHBC warranty. Well a qualified solicitor must know what he’s talking about and given the expense in moving home you’re predisposed to taking this advice because you’re trying to manage a budget. Of course your solicitor is absolutely right in principle but in practice he is very very wrong because there are many hidden dangers in buying a new home
I write this blog very conscious of the fact that I’m in a ‘well you would say that wouldn’t you’ position since I’m advising a course of action that I may potentially profit from, but to be frank this information is only going to come from a surveyor dealing with these issues at the sharp end. I’ve carried out many detailed snagging surveys on new build properties and I can not remember ever signing off on a property that only had reasonably minor defects. So what is going wrong?
The Decline in Quality Standards
Firstly there has been a gradual and systematic decline in quality control linked to a number of fundamental issues:
Developers self manage their quality control pprocess. The Site managers primary focus is on managing productivity and site efficiencies and you will rarely see them employ a Clerk of Works anymore to oversee quality control. A mistaken belief that either building control or the NHBC are responsible for managing the quality control process. They aren’t. Big developers deliver the larger portion of their works through a wide range of sub-contractors and often very little of the work is completed by in-house staff. Developers then expect sub-contractors to self manage their own quality control process but they’re under the same commercial pressures as the developer and time is money. The lack of time served tradesmen and their subsequent replacement with multi-skilled, jack of all trade, operatives.
5. British workers are increasingly refusing to carry out works on a price and this has resulted in an influx of Eastern European workers on the large development sites and even fundamental communication problems on site. I often find myself on development sites where I genuinely struggle to encounter staff that speak English.
6. The advent of MMC (Modern Methods of Construction) and ‘Lean’ construction principles has resulted in the development of some truly terrible composite products. For example, there are some really shocking composite I-beams on the market that are both cheap and nasty. This has resulted in a marked increase in the number of floors that are flexing under load, something that was rarely a problem when standard timber floor joists were used. MMC is actually the modern version of non-traditional construction and will have a significantly reduced life span when compared to traditional construction erected during the Georgian or Victorian era. It is being optimistic to expect a 100 year life span from MMC construction and I believe that most will have a significantly shorter lifespan due to poor quality materials and low architectural merit.
7. The move away from traditional skilled building and plumbing techniques. Most central heating is plumbed in on cheap plastic push fit pipework and soldered copper pipes are in decline, you’d be amazed at the number of flooded properties we see due to poor plumbing. Roof leadwork is also being severely de-skilled on new build sites with leadwork sealed in place with mastic rather than being properly installed. Push fit pipework relies on a rubber o-ring to make a seal but how long do you think this o-ring lasts when compared to soldered copper pipework. I’ve always held a view that plastic push fit pipework is OK for Portacabins or other temporary installations but it is now in common use.
8. The lack of a site benchmark test wall. There was a time when a standard test wall was constructed on every site and used to benchmark the site build standard. You rarely see this anymore, though we’d advise that you should use the site show home as |
debate proposed by Fox News and the Sanders campaign earlier this month.In a nation whose founding president is famous for his tree chopping, you'd think there's be a little more sympathy for the likes of Douglas Hoffman.
But a jury just convicted the Nevada retiree on 10 charges in the destruction of more than 500 trees, the Los Angeles Times reports. He now faces up to 35 years in prison.
Hoffman, who had moved with his wife into an upscale retirement community just south of Las Vegas five years ago, had complained to the homeowners committee that the greenery was blocking his view of the Strip. At once point he even asked if he could swap out the rapidly growing trees marring the couple's view for shrubs. He was told no.
So he took matters into his own hands. Call it arboricide, vigilante-style. In 2004, the tops of 60 trees were lopped off. Homeowners thought it was maybe teenagers. Over the next year, more trees - some worth $1,450 - were felled. The developer hired a private security firm. Upset residents posted photos of the carnage online.
He severed some, but other he sliced just enough so that they would slowly die. In a year's time, authorities said, he wiped out more than 500 trees.
Then one November night in 2005, one resident - who just happened to be a retired sherrif's deputy - was driving home when he noticed a freshly cut tree and a figure disappear into the darkness. He grabbed a golf club and gave chase. He found Hoffman, patted him down, and found a single-blade saw under his clothes.
When authorities searched Hoffman's home, they found a seven-page screed decrying the community's landscaping. Hoffman's wife told them that her husband had whacked some branches in order to get a better view of the Strip. The subsequent foliage slaughter was Hoffman's plan to cover up his initial chopping, police said.
Hoffman's wife said her husband was too old and sick to be running around in the woods at night chopping down trees. She said the saw was something he scooped up on the side of the road.
"You murder someone, and it's OK," she said. "But you're accused of killing trees, and it's like, execute him."
Giuliani's Firm Lobbied For Bill Bush Administration Calls A Threat
When it comes to his stance on fighting terrorism, the campaigning Rudy Giuliani is so aligned with the Bush administration that he could shorten many of his speeches by simply chanting "four more years."
So it's startling to read in today's New York Times that Giuliani's law firm has been lobbying Congress on behalf of legislation that the Bush administration calls a threat to antiterrorism efforts in the Horn of Africa.
Bracewell & Giuliani was hired last year by the American wing of a dissident Ethiopian political party known as the Coalition for Unity and Democracy. The group wanted Congress to pass legislation proposing restrictions in American aid if Ethiopia does not agree to share power with opposition parties and take other steps promoting democracy.
The Bush administration supports the government of Ethiopia as a bulwark against terrorism and has characterized the legislation as a liability in that effort.
Although the Ethiopian opposition has many supporters in Congress, in part because of the existing government's reputation for repression, the administration believes that the current government is making progress towards democracy, a state department official said.
Moreover, the Bush administration is impressed by the way the current Ethiopian government has helped put the smackdown on an extremist insurgency in neighboring Somalia, where it has sent troops and worked to aid American operations against al Qaeda suspects.
Although Giuliani was not personally involved in the lobbying, his firm used his name in its pitch to win the assignment, and his clout was the reason it landed the job, said Seyoum Solomon, an Ethiopian-American from Maryland who helped negotiate the deal.
The conflict highlights how tricky it is for candidates to keep operating in the business world while the run for office, the paper suggests. At the moment, in fact, Giuliani is alone among Republican contenders for keeping his business pursuits while campaigning.
In the end, the Ethiopian opposition group ended their contract with the law firm last year, in part because the firm never delivered a meeting with Giuliani (the firm denies ever promising such a thing). Nevertheless, the legislation that the group wanted passed by a voice vote in the House of Representatives in October.
This Holiday, Consider Telecommuting
Just when you thought flying couldn't become anything more of an infernal punishment, USA Today reports that the country's six big network airlines are continuing to trim their U.S. schedules, despite strong travel demand.
This time, they're blaming the oil companies.
The airlines, which handle about two-thirds of domestic flying, are reacting to autumn's run-up in fuel prices, which can make some flight unprofitable, said William Swelbar of MIT's International Center for Air Transportation.
"With $90 oil, (airlines) have to really look in the mirror... to see whether the economics still make sense," he said.
American, United, Delta, Continental, Northwest and US Airways have scheduled 4.4 fewer seats for January than a year earlier, according to USA Today's analysis of flight schedules.
To trim capacity, airlines can eliminate routes, fly them less frequently or switch to smaller planes. Whatever the course, travelers face reduced options and fuller flights.
"If you have a cancellation," said Wayne Shank, deputy executive director of the Norfolk, Va. Airport, "you could be sitting there for a couple of days instead of a couple of hours."
A NOTE TO READERS: The Skinny is available via e-mail. Click here and follow the directions to register to receive it in your inbox each weekday morning.September 11, 2014 Snow, Cold to Spread Into Northern US This Week
By By Brian Lada, Meteorologist September 11, 2014, 1:32:56 AM EDT
The first general frost and snowfall of the year will spread southward over the northern Plains and northern Rockies of the United States through Wednesday.
According to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson, "Snow fell in parts of the Canada Rockies and Prairies Monday into Tuesday as the cold air pushed southward."
Several inches of snow fell on Calgary, Alberta into Tuesday. Another dose of snow will hit the area on Wednesday.
The rounds of snow will spread southeastward across a large part of Montana and into northern and western Wyoming, the Black Hills of South Dakota and part of the Nebraska Panhandle through Thursday.
Some of the eastern slopes of the mountain ranges in the region will pick up as much as 6 inches of snow.
Accumulating snow is likely to stop short of reaching Denver with this outbreak of cold air. However, it is not out of the question some snowflakes are seen in northeastern Colorado Thursday night.
"The chilliest air since last spring will push southward from Canada and across the northern and central Plains, Midwest and the eastern slopes of the Rockies, prior to the middle of September," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski last week about the upcoming weather.
This chilly air mass will continue to expand south and east throughout the rest of the week, but the coldest air will remain locked up over the Canadian Prairies and northern Plains.
RELATED:
Forecast Temperature Map
Brett Anderson's Canadian Weather Blog
Severe Storms From Chicago to Detroit to Precede Chilly Blast
Frost will be a major concern for those with outdoor plants that are sensitive to freezing temperatures such as flowers and garden plants. This includes plants such as tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and watermelons.
Frost may form several nights in a row across the northern Plains with frost also possible over parts the Upper Midwest during the second half of the week.
Covering your plants early in the night is one way to try to prevent frost from damaging your plants.
"On a broad-term agricultural standpoint, crops such as corn and soybeans are maturing about a week behind average, but with such a bumper crop anticipated, no significant impact is expected by the light spotty frost unless temperatures dip significantly lower than currently forecast," said Sosnowski.
By the end of the week, the core of the chilly air mass will shift over the Great Lakes and away from the Plains.
However, those across the Great Lakes should not have to worry about temperatures dipping below freezing this weekend. The warm waters of the Great Lakes will cause the air to warm up slightly.
"Provided the sky becomes clear and winds diminish, portions of upstate New York, northern Pennsylvania and interior New England could experience a frost during multiple nights early next week," Sosnowski said.
As a result, people in the typical early-season cold spots of the Northeast should be prepared to take preventative measures against frost late this weekend.
Report a TypoTrump on Immigration: There Could Be a 'Softening,' But We'll Follow the Law
Trump to Moms of Children Killed by Illegals: 'They Will Not Have Died in Vain'
WATCH: Kid Recites the Entire U.S. Constitution From MEMORY!
An attendee at Donald Trump’s Tuesday rally in Austin, Texas apparently decided to poke fun at the ongoing email controversy surrounding the Republican presidential candidate’s opponent, Hillary Clinton, and the move quickly went viral.
Among the host of secured, or password protected, Wi-Fi networks that appeared on smartphone screens at the Luedecke Arena was a single ‘unsecured’ network labeled “Clinton Email Server”.
Screenshots of the Wi-Fi menu were soon shared all around social media, including by Trump’s son, Don Jr.
Say what you want but that's really funny! https://t.co/NlDfjHptm7 — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) August 24, 2016
But, Trump Sr.’s social media director warned supporters not to connect to the suspect network, in case it indeed was a cyber-hazard.
“Team Trump does not recommend using the unsecured Wi-Fi signal at this evening’s @RealDonaldTrump Texas rally,” advisor Daniel Scavino, Jr. Tweeted.
Team Trump does not recommend using the unsecured wi-fi signal at this evenings @realDonaldTrump Texas rally. pic.twitter.com/5yvkZIf3fC — Dan Scavino Jr. (@DanScavino) August 24, 2016
Do you think it was just a supporter having fun at Clinton’s expense, or something more suspicious? Let us know in the comments.
Was the Suspect in a Brutal Stabbing ISIS-Inspired or Just Mentally Ill?
U.S. Visa Forms Don’t Ask About ISIS Support, But Question Nazi Affiliation
'Dumbest Thing I've Ever Read': School Sends Parents Pledge of Allegiance WaiverPredatory Alienation: New Jersey Orders Ground-Breaking Study
Predatory Alienation is a powerful method of undue influence used by abusive spouses and slavers, criminal gangs and destructive cults; it is the methodical and deliberate alienation of a person from their family of origin, usually in order to gain emotional, psychological, and often financial advantage. A manipulative con artist or predator will use gaslighting, triangulation, and a variety of other subtle techniques to estrange someone from their family, their loved ones, and the rest of the community, leaving the victim increasingly isolated, with the predator or abusive group as the only point of reference in an ever-narrowing world.
Predatory alienation tears apart families and destroys relationships, stifles civil rights and poisons whole communities.
In the state of New Jersey, lawmakers understand the need for change, and the New Jersey legislature has just enacted a bill ordering a study of Predatory Alienation: on May 8, 2017, Governor Chris Christie signed into law this ground-breaking bill, calling for the departments of Children and Families and Human Services to study the tactics of predatory alienation, and requiring these departments to report their findings and recommendations to the Governor and Legislature within six months.
This law, which has enjoyed broad bipartisan support, is in response to the hard work and determination of NJ Safe and Sound, a nonprofit volunteer organization dedicated to educating the public about predatory alienation and extreme undue influence, and safekeeping the well-being of families and individuals within the Garden State. To this end, they have produced a pair of instructive booklets on predatory alienation, one for teens and youth alienated from their parents, another focusing on the specific issues of seniors and how predators can also alienate those in their golden years from their children and grandchildren.
The new act defines predatory alienation as:
“a person’s extreme undue influence on, or coercive persuasion or psychologically damaging manipulation of, another person that results in physical or emotional harm or the loss of financial assets, disrupts a parent-child relationship, leads to a deceptive or exploitative relationship, or isolates the person from family and friends.”
The study will examine:
“how online predators, human traffickers, con artists, gangs, cults, and other groups use predatory alienation to isolate young adults and senior citizens from their family and friends; the grooming practices used to target and control young adults; the high pressure tactics used in scams and exploitative relationships to manipulate, control, and take advantage of senior citizens; why young adults and senior citizens are vulnerable to predatory alienation; what young adults and senior citizens can do to protect themselves from predatory alienation; and any other information relative to the subject matter of the study.”
In order to help lawmakers gather more information about predatory alienation, NJ Safe and Sound has devised a set of questionnaires for those whose lives have been affected by this manipulative behavior, whether you have had a family member or loved one alienated from you, or if you are being pressured to detach from your family or loved ones yourself, or even if you are merely a concerned onlooker; residents of any US state are encouraged participate.
Although these questionnaires are not the property or the creation of The Open Minds foundation, we are highlighting this project because we strongly approve of the need to gather this important information. With enough cooperation and response to this important survey, and in concert with this innovative law, lawmakers everywhere will gain vital information upon the techniques, effects, and impact of predatory alienation. The time is right to protect those affected by this use of undue influence.(CNN) -- Two of five feet that have washed up on the shores of British Columbia are from the same person, but authorities believe they are a long way from solving the mystery of where they came from.
The British Columbia Coroners Service said Thursday that DNA tests indicate a right foot found on February 8 and a left foot found on June 16 were from the same male. The office also determined that a right foot found on May 22 belongs to a female.
But authorities still don't know whom they belong to or how they have come to wash up on shores near Vancouver, British Columbia, in the past 12 months. Map: See where the feet were found »
Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokeswoman Constable Annie Linteau said forensic examinations suggested the feet were not severed or "mechanically removed" from the bodies.
"The evidence shows that the feet were separated from their bodies by a natural process of decomposition," Linteau said in a press conference Thursday.
Investigators have eliminated 130 people from a list of 243 missing persons, while authorities continue to examine multiple possibilities for the origin of the feet, including foul play and the chance they belonged to victims of a plane crash.
The five feet were found in running shoes. Four of the shoes were made between 2003 and 2004, according to police, and the other was made in 1999. The RCMP released photos of the shoes hoping someone can help identify the remains.
"We are asking anyone who may have had their loved one last seen wearing this particular pair of shoes to contact us immediately," Linteau said.
What was believed to be the sixth human foot to wash up on the shores of British Columbia was determined to be a hoax last month.
Here is a timeline of the discoveries in British Columbia, according to police:
August 20, 2007
The first foot is found by an American man and his 12-year-old daughter boating near Jedidiah Island. The shoe is later identified as a Campus brand running shoe, primarily white with blue mesh and is believed to be a size 12. It is determined that it was produced in 2003 and distributed primarily in India.
August 26
The second foot is found on Gabriola Island by a resident walking on a trail. The shoe is a size 12 men's Reebok running shoe, primarily white in color. It was produced in 2004 and distributed globally mostly in North America. It was first available on March 1, 2004 and is no longer available for purchase.
February 2, 2008
The third foot is found by two forest workers on Valdez Island. The shoe is a size 11 blue and white Nike running shoe, made in 2003 and sold in Canada and the United States from February 1 to June 30, 2003.
May 22
The fourth foot is found on Kirkland Island by the local caretaker walking along the shoreline. The size 7 blue and white New Balance running shoe was made in 1999 and distributed in major retail stores. DNA tests later determine the remains belong to a female.
June 16
A fifth foot is found on Westham Island, in the same Nike shoe as the third foot found on Valdez Island. DNA tests later determine both feet belong to the same male.
All About Royal Canadian Mounted Police • British ColumbiaA darkly defined Rhea passes before the fuzzy orb of Titan in this Cassini view of Saturn’s two largest moons.
Rhea is closer to the spacecraft in this view. See Ancient Plains of Rhea to learn more about Rhea. See Haze Layers on Titan to learn about Titan’s atmosphere.
Lit terrain seen here is on the Saturn-facing sides of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) and Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across).
The image was taken in visible blue light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 19, 2009. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (684,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 118 degrees. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 118 degrees. Image scale is 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel on Rhea and 14 kilometers (9 miles) on Titan.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.× Text
The 10 Least Used Bat Gadgets
By Mike Trapp
BruceWaynerangs: This variation on the batarang is shaped like Bruce Wayne’s face. (On the back it says, “If found, please return to Bruce Wayne (Batman)”) Bat-Mother’s Day Card: (image of a lovingly crafted mother’s day card preserved under a glass dome) The most technologically perfect Mother’s Day card Batman could make. Every day he adds a little bit more to make it better. Every day. Bat-Bat: A baseball bat with the Batman logo. Bat-Bat-Bat Bat: A baseball bat made out recycled Bat-Bats.Printed with Batman logo. Hunter Safety Orange Bat Suit: (a bright, almost glowing orange bat suit) For being the night. Safely. Flyingfoxmobile: (looks like the batmobile, but has fur on it and the hood is a little longer and more narrow, like a snout) The flyingfoxmobile is distinct from the batmobile in that it has underfur and subsists primarily on fruit, nectar, or pollen. Bat Bing: (It’s a screenshot of a Bing search for “men who want to watch the world burn”. The word “bat” is appended in front of all nouns) Batman’s version of Bing. Commissioner Gordon Signal: (Like the bat signal, but glasses and a moustache instead) Used when Batman feels like talking to Commissioner Gordon. Adamantium Batarang: (Batarang with an X-men logo on it) Never used for fear of people complaining about unlikeliness of Marvel-DC crossover. Bat-Bat-Bat-Bat Bat Bat: A robotic, flying bat made out of Bat-Bat-Bat Bats. Printed with Batman logo.In a previous post I guessed that 91 bytes was close to the minimum size for implementing signed and unsigned saturating 32-bit addition and subtraction on x86. A commenter rightly pointed out that it should be possible to do better. Attached is my best shot: 83 bytes. Given the crappy x86 calling convention I’m going to guess it’s hard to do much better unless the saturating SSE instructions offer a way. Or can the branches in the signed functions be avoided? It seems like it, but I couldn’t figure out how.
sat_unsigned_add: movl 4(%esp), %eax xor %edx, %edx not %edx addl 8(%esp), %eax cmovb %edx, %eax ret sat_unsigned_sub: movl 4(%esp), %eax xor %edx, %edx subl 8(%esp), %eax cmovb %edx, %eax ret sat_signed_add: movl 4(%esp), %eax movl $2147483647, %edx movl $-2147483648, %ecx addl 8(%esp), %eax jno out1 cmovg %edx, %eax cmovl %ecx, %eax out1: ret sat_signed_sub: movl 4(%esp), %eax movl $2147483647, %edx movl $-2147483648, %ecx subl 8(%esp), %eax jno out2 cmovg %edx, %eax cmovl %ecx, %eax out2: ret
Another question: How difficult is it to create a superoptimizer that turns obvious C formulations of saturating operations into the code shown here? This is beyond the capabilities of current superoptimizers, I believe, while being obviously feasible.
Feedback is appreciated.October 7, 2010 5:07 PM | Michael Rose
Warning: This game features pretty disturbing scenes. If you believe the experience will affect you in a negative manner, please do not download it.
Roulette is a one-button game which sees you sat at a table playing a game of Russian Roulette. You and your opponent take it in turns to point the gun at your head and pull the trigger. Firing the gun is done by holding down the space bar on your turn.
The whole thing is made up of dozens of video clips strung together, with a dark graphical effect over the top. It's really shocking stuff - I found myself gritting my teeth and watching out of the corner of my eye every time the trigger was pulled. The outcome is completely random, as are the reactions from your competitor, hence each game is different.
Please heed the warning above - if you think you're not going to like this, then do not download it. Otherwise, grab it from the Select Button forums and see how shocking a one-button game can be.FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- The New England Patriots concluded their three-day mandatory minicamp with a unique twist on Thursday. It was football turned futbol.
With practice having been moved inside the Dana-Farber Fieldhouse, and media members required to leave for the final hour-plus of the practice, Bill Belichick brought out soccer balls to lighten the mood. As media members waited outside the fieldhouse, there were several loud roars from players inside.
"Bill always has a fun side to him, and today is one of those days, once we finished practice and everything, we brought out soccer balls," defensive lineman Vince Wilfork explained. "There are so many things that you can do to bring a team together and I think Bill does a great job of that -- finding whatever it may be that he can do to bring this team together. Today was one of those things -- the last day of minicamp, we finish our practice and everything, and he kind of surprised us with it. Everyone was pretty pumped up and happy about it. It was fun. This game is meant to be fun and we definitely had fun."
As for his own skill, the 6-foot-2, 325-pound Wilfork cracked, "I don't know how to kick a soccer ball. That ball moves way too fast for me. I'll stick to football. American football."CLOSE McDonald's made the announcement to use 100 percent pure fresh beef in its Quarter Pounders. But social media users are not keeping it 100, having "beef" with McDonald's latest decision. USA TODAY
McDonald's announced Quarter Pounders will be made of fresh beef in most U.S. restaurants by mid-2018. (Photo11: McDonald's)
Hoping to bring back diners who left in droves in search of tastier food, McDonald's announced Thursday that it will start making one of its signature hamburgers, the Quarter Pounder, with fresh beef patties.
The announcement follows executives' admissions earlier this month that "hundreds of millions" of visits had been lost by once-loyal customers who drifted away in search of better quality, convenience and value. By embracing fresh beef for its Quarter Pounders, McDonald's seeks to head off Wendy's, a traditional rival, which likes to emphasize its usage of the fresh, not frozen, beef. It's also edging closer to the so-called better-burger chains, like Five Guys and Smashburger.
The changeover from frozen beef in the Quarter Pounder will begin next year in a majority of the U.S. restaurants at the nation's largest fast-food chain.
"Consumers are demanding more in terms of health and wellness," said Jack Russo, an analyst with brokerage Edward Jones. "They want to know what’s in their products."
Other McDonald’s sandwiches, which include the Big Mac and the McDouble, could eventually be made without using frozen beef as well. Having boosted foot traffic with the all-day breakfast and recently promoting different sizes of Big Macs, executives say they are only starting on their mission to improve food taste.
"By no means are we done. This is a first step," said McDonald’s USA president Chris Kempczinski.
The Quarter Pounder was the first burger line chosen for the switch, because it "is right up there with the Big Mac as we think of iconic products," he said. “It's where we have most demanding customers." The lineup includes Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, the Quarter Pounder with Cheese Deluxe and Signature Crafted Recipe burgers.
Fresh beef had been tested in 325 restaurants in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and 77 restaurants in Tulsa, Okla. McDonald's doesn't break out its sales by individual menu items, but during the test run, the new Quarter Pounder burgers had a double-digit sales increase, according to McDonald's spokeswoman Becca Hary.
Kempczinski declined to talk about how long the switch to fresh might take for other McDonald's burgers.
And while nutrition will remain the same, he said, burgers with fresh beef will taste better.
"When you're cooking a fresh patty on the grill, you need to cook it less," he said. "Faster cook time on the grill means you have better flavor retention and it comes right off the grill and is delivered to the customer."
The change in food handling practices and the shorter grill time mean McDonald's must tweak its how-to manuals for staffers. The charge requires the fast-food giant to update its food safety procedures, such as the proper way to store the patties.
McDonald's switched to frozen in 1973, because it was a way for the chain, expanding rapidly nationwide, to keep up with consumer demand, Hary explained.
Analyst Russo says the change to fresh beef is in keeping with other improvements from McDonald's, like pledging to have eggs from chickens that aren't confined to cages by 2025 and eliminating artificial preservatives from Chicken McNuggets. "I think this will resonate well with people," he said.
McDonald's investors reacted positively. The chain's shares closed at $129.32 up 48 cents or 0.37%.
Earlier this month, the company said retaining existing customers, luring back those who left and turning casual consumers into committed ones will lead to a boost in annual growth of 3% to 5% starting in 2019.
Restaurants in Alaska and Hawaii aren't making the switch, because of the distance and the logistics involved in shipping there, according to Hary.
Follow USA TODAY reporter Zlati Meyer on Twitter: @ZlatiMeyer
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2oC0ihdA new Facebook video posted by Huawei takes a very unsubtle swipe at a glitch in a demo during Apple’s launch of the iPhone X …
NordVPN
A headline feature of the iPhone X is a new facial-recognition feature called Face ID. Unlike earlier attempts at the technology, this one can’t be fooled by photos, videos or even 3D masks – but the first demonstration of it didn’t go well.
Craig Federighi’s first attempt to use Face ID to unlock a demo phone failed, something the company later explained as a problem with the demo setup rather than the technology itself. But that didn’t stop Huawei poking fun at the feature in a video posted on Facebook (below).
Huawei also claims that its own upcoming smartphone, the Mate 10, is ‘the real AI phone.’ The upcoming Android phone will presumably be powered by a the company’s recently-announced Kirin 970 chip, which – like the A11 chip in the new iPhones – includes a dedicated AI component known as the Neural Processing Unit.
The previous generation Mate 9 claimed to use AI to learn how people used the device, and assign maximum RAM and processing power to the most-used apps. It seems likely Huawei plans to announce some kind of next step in this technology when it launches the phone on October 16. It earlier claimed the new chip put it at an advantage over Apple and Samsung.
You can watch the brief video, which is pretty cringe-worthy, below.
Via The VergeAccording to the World Bank Group’s Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD) initiative, the top 10 migrant destination countries were the United States, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Russia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), United Kingdom, France, Canada, Spain and Australia. The top 10 migrant source countries were India, Mexico, Russia, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Philippines, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and United Kingdom.
The projections include international migrants will send US$601 billion to their families in their countries this year with developing countries receiving US$441 billion. India is the highest remittance receiving country, with an estimated US$72 billion in 2015, follows by China (US$64 billion), and the Philippines (US$30 billion).
George Harrap, CEO of Bitspark, says the Blockchain and remittance suit together. Bitspark is redesigning the settlement systems and picking up a solid lowering so as to foot in the business sector overhead expenses and passing investment funds on through lower charges. These organizations use portable and online channels to send cash while meeting consistence gauges. Utilizing bitcoin, cash movements are led progressively as the system is in charge of approving the exchanges. The exchange itself is free with commonplace expenses in the scope of 0.0001 bitcoin per exchange.
Over Asia, especially in creative markets, Bitcoin-based MTOs are springing up to catch the open door. Organizations like Bitspark (Hong Kong), Coins.ph and Rebit (the Philippines) and CoinPip are only a couple of these new businesses that have sprung up to gain by the opportunities.
“Bitspark uses blockchain to convey payments to other countries quickly, instantly and with little friction. The user doesn’t need to know anything about the intricacies of the technology in order to send the money. For them, it’s simply a cash-in and cash-out transaction. In the growth regions in Asia many of the MTOs are small businesses that may be using their own proprietary systems and processes to conduct remittance, or using the systems of a large third party as in the case of a franchise model. For customers, they don’t really need to know or care what technology is being used to send and receive the money. They just need to know that the money is going to arrive at the other end,” explained Harrap.
There is no doubt that more developments can be expected with crypto-remittance integrations. Traditional financial institutions are not standing idle in the sidelines either, so only time will show these developments when they manifest themselves. Get the latest in Asian Bitcoin news here at Coin News Asia.I recently rewatched Ted Demme‘s (R.I.P.) Beautiful Girls as I mentally prepared myself for my 20-year high school reunion which is happening this weekend. Outside of Grosse Pointe Blank, I don’t think there is a better film that captures the angst and uncertainty about one’s life and what one has achieved up to a point in light of returning home to meet with old friends to celebrate times past, present and those that might occur in the future.
The story centers on Willie Conway (Timothy Hutton) who himself is returning home for his 10-year high school reunion to his family home in Knightsridge, Massachusetts. His father (Richard Bright) has yet to reconcile the death of his wife, spending his days in front of the TV watching golf and his brother Bobby (David Arquette) is as lost, doing nothing with his life that we can see. Willie is in the same boat, though. He is a piano player who plays for chump change in New York City. He is dating a lovely lawyer named Tracy (Annabeth Gish), but isn’t sure he wants to commit. So he comes home to think his life over, see his old friends and to try and find some perspective. Wrong move.
When he arrives in Knightsridge via Greyhound, his buddy Moe (Noah Emmerich) picks him up. Moe seems to have it all worked out – he got the wife, two kids, house and a great job. He sets the standard, the societal expectation, for what Willie and his friends were expected to become in the years since they left school. However, we quickly see this isn’t the case.
His buddy Paul (Michael Rapaport) is the one who is most off his rocker. Having been dating his girlfriend Jan (Martha Plimpton) for seven years, he like many men, is afraid of commitment. So she does what any self-respecting woman should do in similar circumstances – dump his ass. He can’t get past this, not seeing the error of his ways. He is obsessed with models (he has a dog named Elle MacPherson) and thinks that only through a model that he can find true happiness. See for yourself:
Guy is looney tunes, but it’s likely the inspiration for the title of the film and it works for the character.
Tommy is just as fucked up as Paul. He has a girlfriend, Sharon (Mira Sorvino), but consistently cheats on her with his married ex-high school flame, Darian Smalls (Lauren Holly). Trying to relive the past when he and Darian were the hottest couple in school, he is slowly destroying Sharon, who has adopted an eating disorder as her way to keep Tommy around.
That leaves us with Kev (Max Perlich), easily my favorite character in the film, albeit the one who has the least amount of screen time. If I had to be a character in this film, it would be him. Kev is the conscience of the group, balancing out the craziness of Paul, the sliminess of Tommy and the ambivalence of Willie.
Together these five guys represent a pretty wide spectrum of personalities and a group that many people can probably identify with having been a part of or knowing.
So as Willie navigates these relationships and tries to glean what he can from them to help out in his own situation, he meets Marty (Natalie Portman), the 13-year old girl who lives next door. They strike up an instant rapport and throughout the film flirt, getting to know one another. Marty is the antidote to his group of friends – a level-headed, thought-provoking young lady who gives him much more clarity in the short talks they have than the weeks he spends with his friends. But she too has an agenda:
So Willie is left to figure out on his own what he wants from his life as Paul’s relationship falls apart, as Tommy tries to mend fences with Sharon and as Moe tries to keep his cool when Darian’s husband (Sam Robards) exacts revenge on Tommy for the years of fucking around with his wife. So even though the reason they are all together is the reunion, none of them ever make it. Their past which they are there to celebrate directly affects their present, making it impossible to embrace until those past indiscretions are rectified.
While all of this seems heavy, and there are heavy parts to this film, it is also very funny. Rosie O’Donnell delivers one of the all-time greatest monologues I’ve ever seen chastising Willie, Tommy and Paul for their (and all men’s) obsession with fake female beauty and their overall piggishness, which is confirmed time and again throughout this film. Check it out:
Uma Thurman‘s turn as Andera, a true beautiful girl, is also quite wonderful. She outduels the boys at every turn and shows the boys for what they really are…boys.
And who can forget the “Sweet Caroline” scene, right? Just a total classic moment and one of the great musical interludes in recent memory.
This is such a fun movie, one I truly love and one that is very pertinent to me at this time. I look forward to going home this weekend and reviving old friendships, reliving good times and making great new memories – something that these characters also do.
If you haven’t seen this one, do yourself a favor and check it out.
And I will say this, it ends on such a great interaction between Kev and Willie. I wish I could find a damn clip, but alas I can’t. The still below gives you the gist of the exchange, and I can’t explain why it hits me so hard, but it does.
“Stay cool. Stay cool forever.” Damn. Gets me every time.
Here’s the trailer:A 62-year-old woman arrested earlier this week on suspicion of identity theft allegedly had more than 70 aliases and may have several unidentified victims, authorities said Friday.
In some cases, Katherine Gonsalves was accused |
to exclude all of the major disadvantages that players around the world have to face today”, it said.
The platform development started last year and is built according to the principle of a new form of decentralized organizations. Blockchain technology in KIBO allows eliminating any cheating with the results of the drawn, while smart contracts provide full transparency of the inside processes and guarantee 100% fair play. The game rules and requirements are initially established in the architecture of KIBO smart contract and cannot be changed, falsified or deleted after the start of the network.
According to the announcement, KIBO currently has partners from over 20 countries, including China, the Great Britain, the USA, Brazil, Australia, Russia, Spain, Portugal, and India. In addition, more than 2500 people will take part in the launch of the project as owners of the platforms.
The team has already collected 94538 ETH, which will be used for KIBO’s realization and on the first marketing campaigns. Furthermore, the crowdsale of KIBO tokens are expected to launch in autumn.
“By this we want to attract additional funds for the growth, development and realization of the marketing strategy. Another pre-sale major task is to give anyone interested the possibility to join KIBO and to launch his/her own lottery on the basis of the united decentralized platform”, it said.
The release further said that the process of KIBO tech development has entered its final stage and currently the team is running tests and refining the source code.
“We plan to complete the tests and full functionality this Autumn. Then we will open KIBO’s gaming platform for the first users - for those who share the ideas of honesty, transparency, accessibility and anonymity, and who are just like us inspired by the ideas of new technological products. In the coming weeks we will launch our new website and publish the tech documentation so that any interested person could find out more about the concept of KIBO”, it said.Germany and Switzerland reached a deal Wednesday to end their long-standing row over German citizens stashing assets in Swiss banks in order to avoid paying taxes at home.
Under the agreement, the Swiss government is set to pay Germany 1.91 billion euros ($2.6 billion). The money will act as a down payment on tax revenue Berlin claims it has lost as a result of the tax evasion.
German tax evaders, meanwhile, will be offered the chance to make anonymous lump sum payments at a rate of between 19 and 34 percent of the assets they stored in Switzerland. The voluntary payments from tax evaders would offset the 1.91 billion euros, which could then be refunded to Swiss banks.
Swiss Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said the deal "creates legal certainty and will strengthen the competitiveness of Switzerland in the long run."
Information accessible
Swiss banks maintain strict secrecy laws
In the future, Berlin will be able to request information from the Swiss government on suspected tax cheaters. The Swiss Finance Ministry expects the number of requests to reach between 750 and 999 over the next two years.
In July 2010, Germany had to purchase such information for 2.5 million euros. Switzerland condemned the move, claiming the purchased information was stolen and therefore violated its banking secrecy laws.
The deal, likely to take effect in 2013, would end the dispute over the purchased bank data. In exchange, Germany has agreed to drop plans to prosecute bank employees who helped Germans evade taxes.
"Germany no longer sees any reason for the purchase of stolen bank client data," said the Swiss Finance Ministry. "Switzerland undertakes to waive criminal prosecution of persons on account of involvement in illegally acquiring bank data."
Author: Spencer Kimball (AFP, dpa)
Editor: Martin KueblerFree Uber Ride
As if things weren’t bad enough, my car’s computer decided to die on me last weekend.
So like any usual service, I brought my car to the dealer. Instead of an easy process, the dealership decided to fuck me.
They found a way to con me out of a loaner vehicle while my car was in the shop. As if having to take public transportation was not enough, the greedy vultures made me pay for a tire that I didn’t even pop.
In the age of smartphones and technology, I couldn’t go backwards and ride shitty taxies. Instead, I decided to Uber my way around Boston in stylish Ford Focus’ and 2014 Hybrids.
Being the stingy and broke capitalist that I am, I put on my best pair of thinking pants and thought as hard as I could on how to save money.
How it works
Uber has a simple “refer a friend” program where you both get $20. The only criteria that makes your friend a “friend” – is an email and phone number that was never used with Uber. You can use the same credit card.
To do that, you simply create new emails and new phone numbers over….and over again.
Continue reading below to see how you do this(the hardest part is creating the phone numbers).
QuestionsThe stained, brown water seen washing up in pockets along Alabama beaches for the last two weeks appears to contain the dispersant widely used on oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill, according to a preliminary analysis.
The Press-Register collected samples from multiple locations along the Fort Morgan peninsula during the last several weeks and provided them to Ed Overton, a Louisiana State University chemist.
While heavy oil sheen was visible in the areas where the material was collected, little if any oil was found to be present in the samples, said Overton, who is analyzing oil samples for the federal government.
"We didn't see oil in the analysis we do, but I passed some of these water samples to a colleague who does fluorescence analysis," Overton said. "We saw some preliminary indications that there was a dispersant signal in the sample."
Fluorescence analysis provides ultra-fine detail and can measure chemicals to the parts per billion level or better. Overton said it was too soon to say definitively that the material in the samples was the Corexit dispersant, but the signal was similar to a Corexit sample.
Overton asked the Press-Register to take some of his researchers back to the sites this week to collect more samples for further study.
"I'm very interested in it. We need to find out what it is," Overton said. "If dispersants are getting onshore, that's news. We need to know that."
Over the last several weeks, Harriet Perry, a scientist at the Gulf Coast Research Lab in Ocean Springs, has collected larval crabs, finding blobs of oil beneath their shells. Further testing has suggested that there may be dispersant present in the crab bodies as well, she said.
"They looked specifically for the Corexit. It looks like they found it," Perry said of work by research colleagues at Tulane University.
"These (oil) droplets in the crabs, they are pinhead-sized. For a droplet to be that small, it has to be dispersed oil," Perry said. "It's supposed to biodegrade rapidly. It's supposed to disappear in days, not weeks, but that may not be happening."
In fighting the spill, BP applied dispersants to oil on the surface and at the wellhead. Press-Register calculations suggest about 1,500 gallons of oil was flowing from the well per minute. Into that stream, BP injected between 10 and 20 gallons of dispersant per minute, or about 12,000 to 20,000 gallons a day.
The material collected by the Press-Register was found in water between two sandbars that lie about 50 yards and 100 yards off the beach, respectively. A heavy, metallic sheen was floating on the water between the bars and stretched for miles to the east and west.
Gulf water in the areas sampled by the newspaper was a muddy brown. The discoloration began just inside of the outer bar.
Seen in a jar, the Gulf water was turbid with tiny flecks of a dark, reddish brown material.
At some locations, the brown material was present from the surface to the sea floor. At other locations, the brown material was in a layer in the bottom 5 feet of the water column. At those sites, another material -- stringy, milky yellow filaments the thickness of a human hair -- formed a layer above the brown material.
Overton said the filaments appeared biological in nature and might be the remnants of bacteria that consumed oil.
Monday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a new round of test results on dispersants. The testing concluded that oil mixed with dispersants was no more toxic than oil alone. In a previous round of testing, the agency determined that dispersants were "generally less toxic than oil."While in Japan this fall, I was fortunate enough to take in a lovely exhibition of original comics artwork by two modern masters, Igort and Jiro Taniguchi. While I’m super behind on my Japan blogging, I wanted to mention this one because it ends on December 19th, and if you can attend you absolutely should, it’s wonderful and free!
Here’s a link with all of the relevant location info: http://www.tokyoartbeat.com/event/2015/7F2A.en
My friend Jocelyne and I made the trek to Kudanshita, and then up the hill to the exhibition at The Italian Cultural Institute in Tokyo. We arrived just as the building was closing for the day and we had the place all to ourselves. So: a few pictures!
The exhibition featured lovely introductions for both artists, in Japanese and Italian, and the large printed materials really complimented the originals and helped fill the large, lovely space.
The exhibition featured Igort on the right (orange), and Taniguchi on the left (blue), and was about men taking a walk. Igort’s work was pulled primarily from his new book “Les Cahiers Japonais: Un voyage dans l’empire des signes”, a travelogue of sorts. The art was lovely and was very much the perspective of an outsider looking into Japan, lots of Japonisme to the work. I’m interested to read it now, and I hope it gets an English translation.
Taniguchi’s work was drawn from one of his newest projects, a gorgeous fully watercolour-painted travelogue of Venice, commissioned by Louis Vuitton(!) and available more-or-less exclusively through them. It’s a gorgeous book and the artwork itself is similarly beautiful, the details and sense of place very impressive indeed.
In addition to the originals from both books, the display cases also featured original artwork and books from different projects in the artists’ careers, going back almost to the beginning. It’s remarkable just how much Taniguchi’s style has changed, and how much it’s remained the same, over the years. The exhibition also featured 4 short films about the artists on a loop, and a selection of their graphic novels for visitors to browse (French, Italian, and Japanese).
The exhibition is free, and also features a small catalogue to go along with it. We got ours for free, which was a lovely treat! Unfortunately they’re still packed away, and I’ll see about uploading a photo or two of it when I unpack.
I wasn’t allowed to take close up pictures of the art, for obvious reasons, so I’ve included a few samples from both cartoonists below that I found on the web. Both books are lovely, and if you can track down that limited edition Taniguchi do so before it’s too late–it’ll set you back $80-$100.
Jiro Taniguchi, from Venice:
Igort, from Les Cahiers Japonais:SISTER DEATHWISH is an hour-long dramatic series with a purpose, tackling the issues that are most on young Americans’ minds.
MEET MONICA NIXON She’s designed some of the hottest games in history, and her new title is about to drop: Sparrows Descent is a feminist epic that will revolutionize gaming. Fearless to the point of recklessness, she breaks the cardinal rule in her industry and sleeps with a game reviewer - an encounter covertly captured by one of her critics and shared with the world. As her own ethics bend under the weight of her passions, she becomes an easy target for a cybermob of angry dudes trying to terrorize women out of gaming. Ignored by Police, Monica is driven from her home, fired from her job, and on the run. But when one of her attackers is killed, all fingers point to Monica. Now she has one choice: live with a target on her back or change the game….
SISTER DEATHWISH is a frenetic thrill-ride through the dark underbelly of digital culture. Between facing the nameless threats of the dark web and challenging the police to do their jobs, Monica is armed with a brilliant intellect and a tough-as-nails attitude. Fast-paced and unafraid, SISTER DEATHWISH is a modern epic that will leave you breathless.
We have a script, a crew, and a vision. We even have a little dough. But we need a little more. We are gearing up to shoot a short (2-3 minutes) Proof of Concept (POC) teaser video that will look and feel like a movie trailer. This video, along with our pilot script, will be the centerpiece of our campaign to find a home for SISTER DEATHWISH on a cable network or digital platform.
FEARLESS STORYTELLING
SISTER DEATHWISH is as bold as Monica. That is why the pilot takes on the most challenging issues of our time: violence against women, Black Lives Matter, trans rights, a militarized and unaccountable police force, cyber-bullying, gender equality in and out of gaming.
Avoiding simple black-and-white, good-vs-evil caricatures, SISTER DEATHWISH sprints through the minefield of messy truths. We explore what others ignore.
THE CHARACTERS
MONICA NIXON 27, Brilliant and Doomed.
She’s designed some of the most influential video-games in history, and her new title is about to drop: Sparrow's Descent, a feminist epic that will revolutionize gaming. Always a lightning rod for controversy, she infuriates a cyber-mob bent on terrorizing women out of gaming. And Monica never backs down from a fight. But now one of those trolls has been murdered, and all fingers point to Monica. As her own descent becomes more perilous than her digital heroine’s, she has one choice: live with a target on her back or change the game....
MARCO ZAMBRANO 15, Mexican-American, Born Lupita Zambrano
Born in a woman's body and the youngest child of gang-leader Hector Zambrano, Marco is tech-savvy, street-smart and devilishly handsome. He comes out as trans at his Quinceañera; His family doesn't take it well. The entire gang beats him savagely, landing him in the hospital. But as his body heals, his place in the world becomes even more tenuous. Will old-school tough-guy Hector come to terms with his uncommon son? Or will the next beating be fatal? Monica is Marco's first ally. And he, in turn, is hers.
HART COLE 26, African-American, Game Journalist.
As the charming host of Killscreen, Hart has interviewed hundreds of guests. But none like Monica. Their attraction is immediate, the intensity is real. When their first magical night together is shattered by a "SWATing" (fake 911 call that ends in a SWAT team busting down your door), their consensual encounter is mistaken for an attack, and the police don't ask questions. Fists, boots, batons - Hart is a bloody mess when they're finished. As his face appears on posters held by angry and forgotten citizens chanting Black Lives Matter!, Hart has to balance the competing loyalties of a black man in love with a woman like Monica.
"Ride with us..."
SISTER DEATHWISH is already more than a TV show - it's becoming a movement! From the video game journalists, hackers and activists who have shared their vast expertise, to our amazing crew, Monica's story has inspired the community to get involved at every level.
LANCE LARSON Co-Creator, Director, Writer
Lance is an award-winning director and editor with films that have played in Film Festivals around the world. He currently directs commercials for Synthetic Pictures and edits promos for Fox. Previous positions include commercial director for Giant Pictures and music video director for FM Rocks as well as editor for Universal Pictures and Blockbuster Entertainment.
ALEX LANG Co-Creator, Writer, Producer
Alex is an award-winning writer, creative director, director, producer and art director. He currently serves as Sr. Creative Director at Fox. Previous positions include VP Creative at G4, and Creative Director at Fox Sports. His poetry has appeared in many periodicals and anthologies; his lyrics are featured on a number of EDM songs.
STEPHANIE JELLEY
Stephanie is a producer and social geek with a passion for developing and delivering digital media with social relevance and impact. Born in New York, Stephanie's childhood was primarily split between private schooling in New Jersey while receiving an incidental education in design and modern art while prancing about the family atelier. She currently serves as the Director of Social Responsibility & Community Engagement at Seequ building intentional mobile peer networks.
KUSKO Creative Development
Kusko is an award recognized Creative Ingénue, sailing the landscape of a lengthy career from producer, thru creative director. Offering the specialized skill of conceptual creative development. Taking initial concepts thru full exercise; stretching them like Laffy Taffy, expanding thoughts, challenging intent and fleshing ideas in an attempt to leave no stone unturned, no seed unsown. Currently, working in global marketing, for Dell, managing digital innovation from concept thru product launch.
VERN DAVIDSON Producer
This award winning filmmaker and Chicago native has over 20 years of experience in Film Production. He began his career performing at The Second City and working on local commercials in his hometown. After moving to Los Angeles in 2000, Vernon was accepted to the DGA Producers Training Program and has been working steadily ever since; serving such shows as “Buffy The Vampire Slayer,” “Alias,” and “Entourage.” Most recently, he works as Unit Production Manager at ABC’s “The Goldbergs.”
BRAINBOW Design, Animation
Brainbow was spawned from California Institute of the Arts by 3 like-minded designers. Located in Downtown LA, our passion is creating fun yet thoughtful design that comes to life with a nudge and a wink. Our specialty is creating motion & branding packages, film sfx & titles and bumpers for television commercials. All trained in the arts, our group is a multi-disciplinary minded assemblage of animators, illustrators, filmmakers and photographers. We pride ourselves in being a full service design firm who work with advertising agencies, brand managers and TV Networks.
CHRIS WHITE Composer & Sound Designer
Chris is a composer, sound designer, actor, and audio engineer who has been making music for international clients for 20 years. His credits include feature films, indie shorts, television network promos, news music packages, and advertising. He has created music for every major domestic network (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and PBS) and many cable networks. He was awarded a National Gold Addy in 2001 for “Best Musical Score.”
HELP US BRING SISTER DEATHWISH TO LIFE
We need your help to spread the word! Please LIKE us at https://www.facebook.com/sisterdeathwish and FOLLOW us on Twitter via @SisterDeathwish and @StephanieJelley to stay involved. Tell other fans! Tell co-workers and classmates! And of course, keep checking here for more updates!You might have thought there would be an outpouring of good vibes from Green Bay Packers players when the club released veteran defensive back Charles Woodson.
You would have been wrong.
We waited around until Sunday afternoon and found only four members of the Packers who said anything about the situation. Only three of them did the usual “great player, will be missed” routine.
When Donald Driver announced his retirement, there was a boatload of chatter. Of course, that’s a slightly different story. Driver left somewhat voluntarily. Woodson did not.
Still, you’d think his teammates would have said more. Or least we would have thought that.
Maybe they were shocked (although they shouldn’t have been). Maybe they were too busy reflecting on their own football mortality. Maybe they just didn’t care.
Whatever the reason, these are the only guys we could find who bothered to say something. It’s interesting to note none of the team’s so-called leaders are among them. Neither are any other defensive backs.
Gonna miss Woodson. I mean, dude is quoted on our Super Bowl ring! Elite player, teammate and leader! #respect — Tom Crabtree (@itsCrab) February 15, 2013
Gona miss the best DB to do it! Great leader friend n teammate. Always a packer Charles Woodson http://t.co/ZPqCA0lP — Jerel Worthy (@I_AM_Worthy99) February 15, 2013
Reality check. — Randall Cobb (@rcobb18) February 15, 2013
So, draw your own conclusions from that.About 77 percent of Ohioans don't smoke. So if the income-tax cut Gov. John Kasich unveils on Tuesday is paid for in part by a significant increase in the state's cigarette tax, as expected, roughly three-quarters of Ohioans probably would support it. But what about the 23 percent who smoke?
About 77 percent of Ohioans don�t smoke.
So if the income-tax cut Gov. John Kasich unveils on Tuesday is paid for in part by a significant increase in the state�s cigarette tax, as expected, roughly three-quarters of Ohioans probably would support it.
But what about the 23 percent who smoke?
�There are certain activities we all do in life that if we do them, you know there is going to be increased costs. This is one of them,� said state Rep. Jeff McClain, R-Upper Sandusky, who will carry Kasich�s legislative agenda in the House, including the tax plan.
The Dispatch reported yesterday that a framework has emerged for Kasich to pay for an income-tax cut that would reduce Ohio�s top rate below 5 percent. It includes potentially increasing the state�s $1.25 tax on a pack of cigarettes, raising the state�s primary tax on businesses and implementing a severance tax on shale oil and gas drillers.
Neither Kasich nor his team has confirmed what�s in the plan. But revenue boosters such as those could draw opposition from the state legislators and key supporters who back the idea of lowering the income tax but don�t like the method of paying for it � even though most Ohioans don�t smoke and the cigarette tax has not been increased since 2005.
Ohio businesses selling tobacco, especially in communities near the state line, fear losing customers.
Also, the overwhelming majority of data show that most of Ohio�s smokers are poor. They pay little or no income tax, so they would pay more for their smokes but benefit little from the proposed income-tax cut.
�It�s bad news for poor people, that�s for sure,� said Jack Frech, director of the Athens County Department of Job and Family Services, which is in one of Ohio�s poorest areas. �Let me say, no one should be smoking cigarettes. It�s unhealthy, and no one should smoke. But poor people are not going to be able to turn on a dime and stop smoking because (the state) raises the prices.�
The state brings in more than $770 million a year from its cigarette tax. Boosting that tax by $1 per pack, as some sources have indicated Kasich might propose, would generate an extra $450 million in revenue in the first year and $344 million in the second, according to figures provided by the Ohio Department of Taxation. The first year would provide more because the existing cigarette inventory would be subject to a one-time tax.
Ohio�s cigarette-tax rate is the 29th-most expensive in the U.S. The American Lung Association gives Ohio�s cigarette tax a �D� grade, and experts say raising the price of cigarettes is one of the most effective ways to get people to quit smoking or prevent them from starting the habit.
Weaning people off smoking might sound counterintuitive if a tax cut was structured in part on revenue generated from cigarette sales. But during his State of the State speech last month, the governor pledged about $35 million for smoking cessation and enforcement of Ohio�s statewide smoking ban.
�Ideally, the money generated from a higher tax would be invested back into cessation programs to help people quit,� said Micah Berman, assistant professor of public health and law at Ohio State University. �If you are increasing the tax, that is going to increase the number of people who want to quit and try to quit, so you would want to have the resources available to help them.�
Ohio last raised its cigarette tax in 2005, the same year it began to implement the commercial-activity tax on businesses� gross receipts. Nine years later, Kasich might propose not only an increase in the cigarette tax but also a small increase in the commercial-activity tax; that could draw the ire of the business community.
Beth Wymer of the Ohio Wholesale Marketers Association said her members would have concerns if either tax is raised to fund an income-tax cut. She said that a higher tax on cigarettes could mean a loss of customers to other states. Michigan and Pennsylvania have a higher cigarette tax than Ohio, but should Ohio�s tax rise by $1 per pack, it would be higher than that of all the state�s neighbors.
�When retailers start losing business to other states, it�s not just cigarettes,� Wymer said. � It�s the bag of chips, the six-pack of beer, pop � even motor fuel. Then that hurts not only the retailer, but the wholesaler, too.�
Dispatch Reporter Jim Siegel contributed to this story.
jvardon@dispatch.com
@joevardonhealth & science
New tech takes the guesswork out of gut diagnosis
New technology developed by scientists at the University of Auckland could soon enable faster diagnosis of gut conditions often difficult to detect.
Instead of requesting patients cut out certain foods, or relying on chemical tests or even a physical probe to examine the digestive tract, Dr Peng Du and his 12-strong research team at the university’s bioengineering institute are using electrode technology to map what is wrong in an unhealthy gut through bioelectrical activity.
Dr Du, who has developed the technology through the university's spin-out company FlexiMap, said eight polymer patches embedded with electrodes and a copper circuit are placed on the internal stomach surface to measure the bioelectrical activity of the gut.
As a person digests food, it is regulated by bioelectrical activity. Discrepancies in the activity - which are picked up by the FlexiMap technology - indicate a problem in the digestive process.
“Basically, it’s the difference between somebody who keeps making diagnosis or treatment based on symptoms, or somebody who makes these diagnoses based on quantifiable figures,” Du said of the bioelectrical mapping technology.
“At the moment, if you have gut pains and you go to the doctor, they might suggest you change your diet and return in a week’s time. If you go back in a week, and nothing has changed then you might have to do another test, which could take another few weeks.
“It’s a process of elimination with these current tests….whereas bioelectrical mapping can tell you a lot about how your body or how your gut functions.”
So far, the technology - which contains 32 recording channels that transmit readings of gastrointestinal biochemical activity to a computer, similar to how an electro-cardiogram measures heart function - has undergone one clinical trial.
The control group of healthy patients were tested in New Zealand, while sick patients underwent tests in the United States.
Because the current form of the electrode has to be applied directly to the surface of the stomach, to qualify for the clinical study participants had to already be undergoing a surgical procedure.
Bioelectrical results from the control group were compared to the participants with known diseases so researchers could begin to map out what different illnesses looked like. Currently, the electrodes are being used to detect two conditions: chronic unexplained nausea and vomiting, and gastroparesis. Gastroparesis occurs when the pacemaker cells in the stomach stop working, preventing proper digestion. It can cause severe malnutrition
“We [would] take the recording for about 10 to 15 minutes, then we would let the surgeons carry on with their surgical techniques,” Dr Du said.
Next, the research team is focusing on enhancing the electrode technology so the patches, and mapping, work when placed on the patient’s skin.
“At the moment, we take a recording directly from the stomach which gives the best signal. We are trying to develop the next generation of electrodes so that we only need to put them on the surface of a patient’s body so it can [eventually] be something you sit down in the doctor’s room and do.”
Further research could also examine the efficacy of different treatments for gut conditions, Dr Du said.
“A lot of the efficacy or tracking of the outcome of current treatments is based on quite a subjective survey.They basically go back to the patient and say how do you feel.
“That’s really important, but it’s quite inconsistent, whereas this electrical recording is something that we would be able to get from every patient and that would basically form a more structured way to monitor progress of treatment,” he said.Chile's General Carrera Lake (photo by Mr Hicks46/Flickr)
Update: Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard and mountaineer Rick Ridgeway were among the kayakers rescued by naval personnel on Tuesday.
In a news release published on its website, the Chilean navy identified the other paddlers who were out with Tompkins as Weston Boyles and Jib Ellison of the United States, and Lorenzo Alvarez of Mexico.
According to the release, the local naval authority received a phone call at 11:10 a.m. alerting them that a group of six foreign kayakers were drifting near the Avellano area of the lake and needed rescue. The navy dispatched a patrol boat to the area, while coordinating support from a local air ambulance company and a ferry, La Tehuelche. The kayakers also arranged for a private helicopter from Lodge Terraluna, a tour company in nearby Chile Chico.
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The rescued kayakers "indicated they had flipped due to the prevailing weather conditions in the area, produced by high wind and the surf at the moment of the accident," the Navy said.
Original post: Doug Tompkins, the outdoorsman and conservationist who co-founded The North Face, has died following a kayaking accident in Patagonia.
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Tompkins, 72, was kayaking on Chile's General Carrera Lake with a group including Mexicans and Americans at around 11 a.m. local time when six of the paddlers capsized, according to Chilean news site La Nación.
While three of the kayakers successfully made it to an island, Tompkins and two others remained in the water until personnel from the Chilean Navy arrived to rescue them. Tompkins was then transported by helicopter to the Coyhaique Regional Hospital, where doctors attempted to revive him.
Carlos Salazar, director of the hospital's emergency unit, said earlier on Tuesday that Tompkins faced steep odds.
"In these extremely serious cases of hypothermia, survival is very rare," he told Chile's EMOL news site.
An accomplished climber, paddler, and mountain guide, Tompkins is best known for founding TNF in 1966. In recent years, Tompkins and his wife, former Patagonia CEO Kristine McDivitt-Tompkins, had worked to create a string of of new, U.S.-style national parks in southern Chile, acquiring hundreds of thousands of acres of rainforests and former ranch lands, rehabilitating them, and transferring some to the control of the country's government.Representational Image.
The Supreme Court today directed the Centre and states to stick to its earlier order and not insist on Aadhar card for granting social security benefits to citizens. The court had issued an order to that effect nearly two years ago, in September 2013.
"In certain quarters, Aadhar cards are being insisted on by various authorities. We don't want to go into specific instances," the court said while hearing an appeal to curb the practice.
Appearing for one of the petitioners, former Solicitor General Gopal Subramanian said even for registration of marriage, the Delhi government insists on Aadhar cards.
The Centre, represented by the Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, told the court that it was the responsibility of the states to comply with the order, but they were not following it.
Criticising the Centre, the bench comprising Justice J Chelameswar, Justice SA Bobde and Justice C Nagappan, said, "It is your duty to ensure our orders are followed. You can't say states are not following our order".
"Since the Centre and all the states are represented we expect all to scrupulously adhere to our order dated 23 Sept 2013," the court said, posting the matter for hearing on the second week of July.The Aadhar number, rolled out by the Unique Identification Authority, has become essential for every government service. From availing ration cards to bank accounts, voter ID cards and even LPG subsidy - the number is a must in most states. In September 2013, the Supreme Court had ruled that the card cannot be a prerequisite for public services. Last year, in March, the court had asked the government why the Aadhar card was still being treated as mandatory for citizens who want to get their marriages or property registered, or receive a gas connection.A pagan priest has won the right to wear goat's horns on his head for his driver's licence photo.
Phelan MoonSong, known as the "Priest of Pan", was initially told he could not wear the headgear. But he challenged the decision and has been given the same recognition as other religions.
MoonSong, 56, has been wearing the real goat's horns since 2008 and claims he feels naked without them. He described his beliefs to RT as "nature-worshiping, polytheistic or pantheistic religion which incorporates beliefs and ritual practices from ancient traditions".
Facebook / Phelan MoonSong MoonSong's ID arrived in the post earlier this week.
When he tried to wear them for new his driver's licence in Maine, USA, he was told they would have to be approved by the secretary of state. He had to submit religious documentation to prove his faith claim was genuine.
MoonSong, who changed his name in June according to Bangor Daily News, told the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) he was an "ordained pagan minister".
But because paganism does not have a governing body to issue such documentation, MoonSong wrote an essay on why his "Horns of Pan" were important to him and his own spiritual journey. He argued his horns were no different to a nun's habit or a Sikh's turban permitted under Maine law.
Weeks later he was told his application had been denied.
Facebook / Phelan MoonSong MoonSong started wearing the real goat's horns in 2008 and claims he feels naked without them.
But eventually the BMV relented when MoonSong sought advice from the Maine Civil Liberties Union. Earlier this week he received his ID complete with horns fully visible.
"They sent me nothing else or no further explanation. Just received my ID in the mail after my last visit," he told RT.
He said he was hoping to start a temple in his home town of Millinocket to provide a "safe, friendly environment to celebrate and honor the old Goddesses and Gods."New Delhi: The finance ministry on Monday invited proposals from investment bankers to help the government sell shares in three railway enterprises.
The three companies controlled by the railway ministry are Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp. (IRCTC), IRCON International Ltd and Indian Railway Finance Corp. Ltd (IRFC).
In advertisements published in newspapers on Monday, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), under the finance ministry, sought proposals from investment bankers by 16 March to manage the initial public offerings and advise the government in listing the stocks.
While IRCTC has been a pioneer in e-commerce in India and handles almost 60% of railway ticket bookings, IRFC is the sole financier of railway projects by sourcing low-cost funds from the market. IRCON, the infrastructure and engineering arm of the railways, also builds projects overseas for governments and private parties.
IRFC has railway assets worth Rs1,37,038 crore till March 2016. IRCON which has operations in several states of India and overseas including Malaysia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, UK, Algeria and Sri Lanka has net worth of around Rs3,530 crore in 2015-16. Similarly, IRCTC which provides online ticketing service for Indian Railways along with catering in trains and rail neer has a Rs1,500 crore turnover.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley, in his budget speech on 1 February, said their listing will foster greater public accountability and unlock the true value of these companies.
Under the disinvestment policy, public sector enterprises (PSEs) having a positive net-worth, no accumulated losses and having earned profits in three preceding consecutive years are required to achieve 25% public holding.
A former railway board chairman speaking under condition of anonymity said the railways had already appointed SBI Capitals Markets Ltd to do a study for listing of these PSUs and the work would overlap now. He said the move is going to impact railways severely, especially IRFC, because it’s the biggest funding agency for the national monopoly carrier.
The government has set an ambitious Rs72,500-crore disinvestment target for 2017-18, against the revised estimate of Rs45,500 crore for 2016-17.
It has so far collected Rs27,917 crore through stake sales in public sector units in 2016-17, implying it aims to sell stakes (in state-owned companies) worth around Rs17,583 crore by 31 March.
The cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) last month approved the public listing of five state-owned non-life insurance companies and reduction of the government’s stake in them to 75% from 100%.
Oriental Insurance Co., National Insurance Co., New India Assurance, United India Insurance and national reinsurer General Insurance Corp. of India, or GIC Re, are the five companies that will be listed on the stock exchanges.
The government will pare its stakes in these companies either through the sale of new shares or an offer for sale or through a combination of both, Jaitley said at a press conference on 1 February.
The government has also put in place a revised mechanism to ensure time-bound listing of identified PSE |
the end of the 1990s, Junior had established himself as an all-time great, an elite hitter and fielder who’d already smacked 398 career home runs—at the time the most ever by a player before his 30th birthday. That offseason, Griffey decided he was done with Seattle and demanded a trade. Eventually, he narrowed that demand, insisting that the Mariners send him to the Reds, the team his father starred for in the 1970s. After a few months of stop-start negotiation—haggling that in retrospect seems less like brilliant brokering and more like an omen of the dysfunction and cheapness that defined Cincinnati’s front office—the Reds got their man. The price was seen as absurdly low: the outfielder Griffey would replace (Mike Cameron), a pitcher (Brett Tomko), and two minor leaguers (Antonio Pérez and Jake Meyer). One baseball exec’s one-word review: “wow.”
On Feb. 10, 2000, the Reds held a press conference to announce the move. At the time, the team was owned by Carl Lindner, a local billionaire and philanthropist, and Lindner brought Griffey home in style, flying him to Cincinnati on a private jet, then personally driving him to the press conference in his Rolls-Royce. It was a smooth trip, since Lindner had convinced the city to coordinate a stretch of traffic lights so that he and Griffey didn’t catch a single red.
The press conference aired live on ESPN News and all four of Cincinnati’s network affiliates. Griffey was clearly giddy. He was thrilled to play in front of family members who still lived in Cincinnati, including his grandmother. He was thrilled to be closer to his own wife and kids, who lived in a gated community in Florida, near the Reds’ spring training facility. He was thrilled to join a promising young team. More than anything, Junior just seemed thrilled to be coming home. “I really don’t know what to say,” he said that night. “This is something you dream of as a little kid and I finally did it. I’m finally back in the hometown where I watched some of the great players play.”
He was talking, of course, about the Big Red Machine. While Griffey was born in Pennsylvania, he moved to Cincinnati as a toddler when his dad, Ken Griffey Sr., became the right fielder on those mythical mid-1970s squads. Everyone in Cincinnati idolized the Big Red Machine. My own dad was a teenager back then, and he attended the same private school as Junior, something he’ll tell you with only the slightest provocation. They overlapped for just one year—my dad a senior, Griffey in kindergarten or first grade—but each afternoon, while everyone waited on their parents to pick them up, they played in an unruly game of parking lot Wiffle ball. Griffey, who even then sported a big, sassy smile, insisted on competing with the older kids. “There was no showing him to hold that bat or any of that,” my dad says. “He was flapping his elbow, doing the Joe Morgan thing. He knew what to do.”
The kid was not yet the Kid, which meant the main attraction was still Ken Griffey Sr., who would swing by to pick up his son whenever the Reds were in town. But it wasn’t long before Junior became a Cincinnati baseball legend, hitting 380-foot homers as a 13-year-old, throwing no-hitters on the mound, and ultimately starring in center field at Moeller High School. Scouts from every major-league team trekked to Cincinnati to watch Griffey play, though it quickly became clear that he was out of their reach. In 1987, the Mariners grabbed him with the first overall pick. In 1989, he made his major-league debut. The next year, he and his 40-year-old father suited up together in Seattle and hit back-to-back home runs.
Reds fans couldn’t help but think the Griffeys should’ve reunited in Cincinnati. Junior’s ancestral connection to the Big Red Machine explained a lot of the fervor over his eventual homecoming. Just as important was his star power, which transcended his sport in a way that doesn’t really happen in baseball today. (Try to imagine local news helicopters tracking the homecoming of, say, Dallas-born Clayton Kershaw.) Griffey had endorsement deals with Pepsi, Nabisco, and AOL; he had a hugely popular video game; he had a sprawling relationship with Nike, seen most famously in the ads that pushed “Griffey for President.” And yet, in an era when TV money had not yet semileveled the playing field, baseball’s most famous player chose to go to Cincinnati, one of the game’s smallest markets. To make that happen, Griffey agreed to a team-friendly extension: a nine-year deal for $112.5 million that made him just the seventh-highest-paid player in the game (And that didn’t even account for the fact that more than half of the money was deferred.) “If the player owns a Rolls-Royce and he chooses to sell it at Volkswagen prices, that’s his right,” agent Scott Boras groused. The contract’s details reportedly moved Bud Selig to the verge of tears.
But the biggest reason for the Griffey hype was that he was really freaking good. He was joining a good team, too—the Reds were coming off a 96-win season and looking forward to a new taxpayer-funded stadium that would open in a couple of years. On Griffey’s first day of spring training in 2000, more than 100 reporters showed up to document him riding in a golf cart and taping the handles of his new bats. Once the real games started, the Reds got off to a slow start, with Griffey battling a sore hamstring and hitting.212 through the end of May. Griffey ended up hitting 40 home runs—his lowest full-season total since 1994—for a squad that slipped to 85 wins. Based on Griffey’s impossibly high standards, both totals seemed a little disappointing. After the season, Ken Griffey Sr., who was then the team’s bench coach, sensed that this sweet story was already going sour. “It’s like everybody started nitpicking,” he said, “finding things wrong with him.”
That year was Griffey’s best by far in a Reds uniform. Though he’d had only one major injury in Seattle, over the next few seasons Junior suffered a broken hand, a sprained foot, a dislocated toe, and a separated shoulder. He tore a tendon in his ankle and a tendon in his knee. He tore his hamstrings multiple times. As he struggled with his health, Griffey’s demeanor toggled between sensitive and surly. He hunted for criticism in every form of media, monitoring ESPN, listening to talk radio, and reading voraciously on sportspages.com. “I’m in a Catch-22,” he told Sports Illustrated after several injury-shortened seasons. “If I don’t go after a ball, I’m lazy, I’m not giving it 100 percent. If I do dive for the ball—which I did, and blew out my shoulder—it’s, Why did I play it so hard?”
Cincinnati’s front office didn’t help matters. Other than that first year, the Reds never managed a winning record with Griffey. This was partly the result of its star player’s many absences and diminished skills. (Despite all the initial reports that they’d been fleeced, the Mariners unquestionably ended up winning the Griffey trade.) But it also reflected the team’s own incompetence. The Reds frequently screwed up on the field, stocking their rotation with rookies and retreads. They also blundered behind the scenes. Just before moving into that new stadium in 2003, they tried to trade Griffey in a Lindner-ordered salary dump. The Reds initially lied about this, to both Griffey and their fans. When the team finally admitted that trade talks had commenced, it did so at a fan festival—while Griffey was in attendance, signing autographs for little kids.
The fans contributed to the misery, too. They—OK, we—bristled at each of the franchise’s failings. One year, when Lindner showed up for Opening Day, the entire stadium booed him. (Lindner would sell the team in 2005.) But Griffey always got the worst of it. He did everything we said we wanted modern stars to do—skipped steroids, avoided off-field drama, took less money, and never stopped talking about how much he loved his kids. But Reds fans never gave him the benefit of the doubt. I was a teenager when the team acquired him, about the same age my dad was when he and Junior were schoolmates. Looking back, I’m amazed at how quickly I turned on Griffey—at how quickly he went from hero to disappointment to punchline. And the thing is, Griffey felt it, too. At that first joyous press conference, he said things like, “It doesn’t matter how much money you make; it’s where you feel happy. Cincinnati is the place where I thought I would be happy.” By 2007, he was saying, “My home’s in Florida. I work in Cincinnati.”
The next year, the Reds finally traded Griffey, and he ended up finishing his career in his real baseball home: Seattle. It’s no surprise he’ll be wearing a Mariners hat when he goes into the Hall of Fame.
Junior’s bid to be a hometown hero cost him something beyond mere sports. When everything went bad in Cincinnati, his hometown stopped being the place where he went to high school and played Wiffle ball and watched his dad star on one of baseball’s greatest teams. It became, instead, a place to work. The last time I saw Griffey clock in was 2015, when he threw out the ceremonial pitch for that summer’s Home Run Derby. After the announcer’s introduction—“We welcome home …”—the crowd greeted Junior with polite cheers. The reaction was noticeably warmer for his ceremonial catcher, Ken Griffey Sr., a player who was never as good as his son but who never tried something as risky as coming back home.Arnold Schwarzenegger in mocking President Trump's proposed budget for its cuts to funding for after-school programs — a cause the Austrian-born action star championed as governor of California.
"President Trump promised us that he wants to'make America great again.' That's not how you make America great — by taking $1.2 billion away from the children and robbing them blind," the former Republican governor said during a speech at the National After School Summit on Wednesday.
"Why would he do that? Why would he want to balance the budget on the backs of those kids. Kids are the most vulnerable citizens," he said.
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In Trump's proposed budget, nearly $3 billion would be cut from education programs, including $1.2 billion from a teacher-oriented grant program that funds after-school programs.
Last month, Schwarzenegger hit Trump's budget for similar reasons, also knocking his declining approval ratings and advising him to visit D.C. schools to see the "fantastic work" being done for students through federal funding.
In 2013, Schwarzenegger came to D.C. and met with lawmakers at the Capitol to discuss after school-programs. He visited several local middle schools during that trip.
You can hear Schwarzenegger's comments on his Facebook page.
The president and the former governor have repeatedly sparred since Trump's inauguration, with Trump mocking the ratings of his replacement host on "The Celebrity Apprentice."It was a mid-July day in Bratislava when Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico gave vent to his fury, pulling off his jacket and threatening to hand down sanctions. But his anger wasn't directed at some tin-pot dictator. Rather, his tirade was focused on fish sticks from Iglo and fabric softener from Lenor. Those companies, Fico threatened, could find themselves boycotted if they continued to sell inferior products to the consumers of Eastern Europe.
His message could hardly have been clearer.
Fico, though, wasn't speaking just for people in his own country. Rather, he was giving voice to those across Central and Eastern Europe who have long wondered why Nutella doesn't taste as chocolatey at home as it does in Germany, for example, or why the cola isn't as full-bodied and the washing powder doesn't work as well.
He was speaking for 103 million EU citizens who for years have been forced to make due with second-rate versions of brand-name products. Not only that, but questionable studies have even claimed to show that Eastern European consumers prefer the mediocre goods to the real thing. The Polish newspaper Gazeta Prawna has referred to the phenomenon as "grocery racism."
Fico's mid-summer jeremiad was just the latest climax in an ongoing, potentially explosive conflict involving first- and second-class consumers. At issue is not just the question as to why large companies dump apparently inferior products onto the Eastern European market, thus "defrauding" millions of consumers, as Slovakian Agricultural Minister Gabriela Matecná puts it. It is also about the European Union's commitment to unity and whether that commitment should extend to the recipes used by Nutella.
The European Commission in Brussels has been repeatedly informed of the fact that products sold under the same brand name sometimes contain different ingredients depending on where in Europe they are sold. But the EU executive body only got involved once several leading Eastern European politicians began focusing on the issue. This spring, the chief of staff to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán referred to the situation as "the biggest scandal of the recent past." The Czech agricultural minister said it made people feel as though they were "Europe's garbage can."
Justified Complaints
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker promised a bit of help in his September State of the Union address. And a first step was taken by European Justice and Consumers Commissioner Vera Jourová, who ordered an evaluation of tests that have been performed on products in various Eastern European countries. That evaluation found that Robert Fico may have been justified in the complaints he made back in July.
One test showed that a package of fish sticks sold in Slovakia contained just 58 percent fish whereas a package purchased across the border in Austria included 65 percent fish. When it came to the bottle of Lenor fabric softener provided by Fico, it cost 30 cents more than in Austria and contained 60 milliliters less. In other products, more expensive ingredients like butter have been replaced by cheaper palm oil for the Eastern European market while fruit flavors are augmented by aromas. In products like Coca-Cola, sugar is sometimes replaced with cheaper sweeteners like glucose syrup.
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In the first years following the collapse of communism, the use of cheaper ingredients could perhaps have been justifiable: Consumers had little purchasing power and delivery routes tended to be long, with most of the products being manufactured in Western Europe. Companies, though, have long since adjusted prices in Eastern Europe to match those elsewhere - but they have continued to use the inferior recipes. Armin Valet, an expert on grocery products for the consumer protection agency in Hamburg, estimates that selling inferior products saves companies millions.
Commissioner Jourová has now assembled an investigative committee which is to develop guidelines together with consumer protection groups and food manufacturers to address the issue. It's not a particularly powerful lever, but the companies do seem concerned about more radical steps. A steady stream of companies and lobbying groups have been approaching Jourová and her team.
Unfair Commercial Practice
Whether their solicitation efforts are successful will be seen in how willing the Commission ultimately proves to be in granting concessions. One specific area to watch is the EU's evaluation of industry studies pertaining to alleged regional preferences. In the future, companies that are unable to adequately explain why they use differing recipes could face proceedings for unfair commercial practices.
Past attempts by companies to explain the discrepancies have been prime examples of PR balderdash, including claims that they were simply trying to use local products or account for local tastes and preferences. In other words, skimping on premium ingredients was merely an expression of intercultural understanding. In the future, the Commission will demand convincing proof of the differences in taste between Eastern and Western Europe. To date, none has been provided.
DER SPIEGEL Graphic: Product discrepancies between the East and West.
Instead, many companies prefer to hide behind formulaic statements and continue to reject all accusations of any wrongdoing. Industry lobbying groups have likewise sought to cast doubt on the studies that have found recipe discrepancies.
But Bahlsen, the manufacturer of the popular sweet biscuits under the Leibniz brand, has taken a different tack. Recently, the company fixed a discrepancy between the recipe it was using in Germany and the recipe it was using in Poland. Company spokesman Christian Bahlmann says that he began suspecting an approaching PR disaster for the company in summer 2016. "It began relatively quietly on social media channels," he says. Customers were asking why Leibniz biscuits baked in the company's Polish factory contained less butter and more palm oil than those produced in Germany. And the company did not have a satisfactory answer.
Bahlmann realized that it could become a problem for the brand. After all, the recipe for the sweet biscuits had been around since 1891. Suddenly diluting it with palm oil looked extremely suspicious. But in July, Bahlsen reversed course and has been using exclusively butter since then -- in its Polish factory as well.
Cheaper Production
Another company that has elected to buck the industry-wide trend of denial is Frosta, a Hamburg-based frozen food company. Felix Ahlers, whose family runs the company, has chosen not to try to use the "national preferences" excuse cited by Iglo, its main competitor. "There is only one reason to use less fish," Ahlers says. "To make production cheaper."
For years, Frosta fish sticks produced in Poland were wrapped in a much thicker layer of breading. But the company fixed the inconsistency a year and a half ago. In contrast to Germany and Austria, there are no laws in Poland that required Frosta to make the change, but Ahlers says it was an issue of credibility. "The argument about regional tastes is nonsense," he says. It isn't difficult, he says, to condition children to prefer more breading. "But really, everybody wants more fish in their product," he says. And tests undertaken by Frosta, he says, have shown that Polish consumers prefer the new recipe.
Still, many companies continue to insist that it makes sense to have different recipes for different countries. A spokeswoman for the SPAR supermarket chain in Austria made clear that the company doesn't believe products should contain exactly the same ingredients across Europe. The yoghurt sold by SPAR in Eastern Europe, for example, has less fruit in it than the same yoghurt -- packaged under a virtually identical label - sold in Austria, according to a test performed by the Slovenian consumer protection organization ZPS. Furthermore, the fish sticks sold under SPAR's own brand name are fattier and more expensive in Eastern Europe.
The spokeswoman justified the discrepancies by citing alleged differences in taste - and by reviving a few outmoded, postwar clichés. Hungarians, she claimed, demand "rather fatty meat." That, she continued, is something known by all industry experts. "It's not something you need a study for."
The company also seems rather flexible on other issues as well. In 2011, the company set a goal for itself of only using fish from sustainable sources and catch methods starting in 2013. But that doesn't seem to apply to Eastern Europe. Indeed, the Marine Stewardship Council certification seal is missing from many of the company's fish products in the region. In Slovenia, the spokeswoman said, most consumers aren't particularly concerned about sustainability.
Ripping Them Off?
The American consumer goods corporation Procter & Gamble -- which owns the brands Gillette, Lenor and Pampers, among many others -- is much more rigorous when it comes to determining the predilections of its customers, with a company spokeswoman claiming that it performs 20,000 studies each year. One finding she mentioned as an example is that Poles prefer squirting dishwashing liquid directly onto the sponge rather than using a sink filled with soapy water, as the Germans prefer.
So is the company giving Poles what they want by using a more diluted mixture than that sold in Germany? Or is it simply ripping them off?
Tests that are pointed to as proof of alleged national differences are often commissioned from the Appliance Technology department at the University of Bonn. One of the studies undertaken by the department is called "Washing-up Behaviour and Techniques in Europe," and as part of the study, 11 test subjects from Poland and the Czech Republic were questioned, apparently by telephone. Hardly a representative study.
Chocolate multinational Ferrero likewise serves up some rather strange answers when questioned about the different recipes for its famous hazelnut-chocolate spread Nutella. Tests have determined that Ferrero uses less cocoa powder in Hungary than it does in Germany and the company has sought to justify the discrepancy with "the availability of resources." The explanation makes it sound like cocoa is first delivered to Germany and then Hungary has to make due with whatever is left over. But Ferrero also points to "national regulations," even though there is no regulation anywhere in Eastern Europe that requires the company to use less cocoa in Nutella sold there.
Ferrero executives have presented an additional curious explanation to European commissioner Jourová. The amount of cocoa used in Germany, they said, is slightly higher to make the consistency of the Nutella sold there thicker because Germans tend to use denser, whole-grain breads. Ferrero has yet to submit a study to back up the claim.
Destroying Brands
It is enough to make one wonder what such companies are thinking. They are, it would seem, putting the reputation of their most important brand names at stake.
"It is astounding how amateurishly these multinationals are acting," says Achim Feige from BrandTrust, a brand consultancy. At a time when brand loyalty is eroding and store brands are on the rise, Feige says, a product must be extremely reliable, like a good friend, and guarantee transparency and verifiable sustainability. "These executives are doing the opposite: They are destroying a brand from the inside out by using inferior, cheaper versions for other countries and by relying on even less convincing excuses. They are allowing for fraud. And they are sacrificing the idea of a united Europe to the greed for profits."
Nowhere is the problem more visible than at Danone, the Paris-based food-products corporation (sold as Dannon in the United States). For years, the company has been severely criticized for high sugar content in its products, among other shortcomings. Recently though, the company has sought to demonstrate responsiveness to such concerns and in June, CEO Emmanuel Faber called for a "food revolution" at an industry conference.
Faber failed to clarify exactly what role his company planned to play in this revolution. He did, however, mention "social responsibility" and unveiled the company's new logo: "One Planet. One Health."
But his company's commitment to social responsibility doesn't seem to extend into Eastern Europe. Danone's bestselling Activia brand, sold in the same packaging worldwide since 2016, tastes quite a bit different in the region when compared to the same product sold further to the west. And a test conducted in Lithuania shows why that is: The amount of fruit used in the product was quite a bit lower than in Western Europe. And the strawberry yogurt also contained a thickener.There are many brands of kids’ “gummies” on the market. They are promoted as deliciously flavoured and a great way for growing bodies (and fussy eaters) to get the nutrients they need.
The “active” ingredients are usually listed as vitamins, minerals and sometimes omega-3 fats and vegetable powders. They may say “contains sugars” or they may not. Rarely, some list an amount of sugar and other ingredients such as food acids like citric acid, lactic acid and ascorbic acid.
In our opinion, these products are unhealthy and exploitative. Their high sugar content may appeal to young children, but they’re not a good introduction to a healthy diet.
The problem of tooth decay
Dental caries are a significant Australian public health problem. In 2014-15, A$9.5 billion was spent on dental services in Australia, up from $6.1 billion in 2007–08. In Australia, around 50% of children start primary school with largely untreated cavities. In Victoria, 7.1% of children aged under 12 have had a general anaesthetic for dental treatment.
Sugars provide food for the bacteria that dissolve tooth enamel. As sugar consumption increases, so do cavities. This damage is irreparable and individuals are left with life-long problems that require fillings, and possibly root canal work or extractions.
In addition, food acid (especially citric acid) causes dental erosion that can lead to the progressive loss of the surface of the tooth. This may require complex and lengthy treatment involving fillings, veneers and crowns. The sticky consistency of “gummies” adds to the problem.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says higher rates of dental caries occur when the intake of free sugars (added sugar plus honey, syrups and sugars in fruit juices) is more than 10% of total energy intake. This is despite fluoride in drinking water and using toothpaste.
Dental caries rates decline progressively as sugar intake is reduced to less than 5% of total energy intake. Hence, for a range of health reasons, the WHO recommends we get no more than 5 to 10% of our daily energy from free sugars.
So, two- to three-year-olds with a daily energy intake of 4,300 to 5,450 kilojoules (kJ) shouldn’t consume more than a maximum 430 to 545 kJ, or about six to eight teaspoons (25-32g) of free sugar a day, and preferably half that amount. And four- to eight-year-olds, with a daily energy intake of 5,700 to 7,100 kJ, shouldn’t consume more than 570 to 710 kJ, or about eight to ten teaspoons (33-42g) a day, and again, preferably half that.
Contrary to this advice, 50% of Australian children aged two to three, and 67% of four- to eight-year-olds, consumed more than 10% of their total energy from free sugars in 2011-12. The top 10% of two- to three-year-old boys consumed 18 teaspoons (70g), rising to 23 teaspoons (90g) in the top 10% of four- to eight-year-olds.
Knowing how much sugar is in what we eat
Part of the problem is there is currently no clear way of knowing how much sugar has been added to a product (including gummies) by looking at the ingredients listed on the label. Choice (the Australian Consumers’ Association) is campaigning for food and health ministers to act on added sugar labelling so consumers can limit their consumption, as advised by the WHO and other authorities.
“Gummies” also exemplify the problem of regulating products at the food-medicine interface. Some of these products, such as the Kids Smart Vita Gummies above, are listed with the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) as complementary medicines.
For complementary medicines, there is a requirement to declare the presence, but not the quantity, of sugars on the label.
For no apparent reason, other “gummies” such as Bioglan Omega 3 Fish Oil Kids Gummies have not been listed with the TGA and may be classified as foods by their sponsor.
For food, there is a requirement by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) to disclose the total content of sugars on the nutrition information panel on the product label.
The Bioglan website states each bottle of 60 gummies contains 168g of product; an average serving is two gummies (5.6g), which the formulation states have 3g sugar (54% by weight). They also stated there was 3mg of sugar per 100g of product which is clearly mislabelled; 100g of product must contain 54g of sugar, not 3mg.
Using the TGA Food-Medicine Interface Guidance Tool, we determined this product was a food, so we sent a complaint about mislabelling to the NSW Food Authority. However, they advised us to send the complaint to the TGA. The TGA response ignored our concern about mislabelling. We also asked why there were different sugar labelling requirements for foods compared to medicine. The TGA stated the warning statement, “contains sugar”, serves as an advisory without unnecessarily deterring general consumers from taking a medicine they may need.
from www.shutterstock.com
It is our view “gummies” that contain food acids, and have a high sugar content, are not medicines consumers need, and their sale should be prohibited on public health grounds. At the very least, the amount of sugar (and the presence of food acids) should be disclosed.
Health benefits dubious
In addition to the high and damaging sugar content, we argue these are exploitative products that mislead consumers about the benefit of dietary supplements.
Both the website and the label of Kids Smart Vita Gummies Multivitamin for Fussy Eaters say the zinc content will boost the appetite of a “fussy eater”. Zinc is readily available in foods such as meat, fish and poultry while cereals, grains and dairy foods also contribute substantial amounts. We are unaware of any evidence that zinc boosts the appetite of “fussy eaters”.
Kids Smart omega-3 supplementation claims “to help support brain function, growth and development”. The US Food and Drug Administration recommends eating oily fish two to three times a week. They do not recommend taking omega 3 supplements, reflecting findings that randomised controlled trials of fish oil supplementation have generally been disappointing and fish contain many more nutrients than omega-3 supplements.
Gummy vitamins are unhealthy and exploitative products that mislead parents about the benefits of dietary supplements. The TGA and FSANZ should urgently review the regulation of these products.Bratislava, Slovakia, 2003 Martin Kollar
Although he doesn’t admit it fully, Martin Kollar seems to have a pretty good sense of humor. “Usually, as it is in life, people who make funny films are usually very boring,” he said. “It rarely works the other way around.”
Many of his photography series aren’t always “funny, ha-ha,” but Kollar’s seemingly nonchalant observations of what’s happening around him does contain a somewhat absurd sense of humor. “There were moments when you go, ‘What the hell?’ ” he said about the images he captures. That could be said about many of his series, including, “TV Anchors,” previously featured on Slate, that took a look at the sometimes bizarre environments reporters find themselves in while taping segments for television.
Bratislava, Slovakia, 2001 Martin Kollar
Kuks, Czech Republic, 2003 Martin Kollar
For the series “Nothing Special,” Kollar explores the period between the end of communism and the rise of a new political and cultural environment for many of the ex-Soviet countries. Kollar began the project around 2000 and traveled roughly 8,500 miles with his camera throughout Eastern Europe looking for moments that portrayed the chaotic and often humorous moments those countries experienced during their years of growing pains.
“Everything became messy after the end of communism in Eastern Europe. If you compare it to a bottle with sediment and you shake up that bottle, suddenly you can’t see through it. Then things start to become clear as the sediment settles; that period of sedimentation was when I worked on the series,” Kollar said.
Belusa, Slovakia, 2001 Martin Kollar
Budapest, Hungary, 2004 Martin Kollar
None of the images in the series, also published as a book in 2008 by Actes Sud, were set up; all of them were taken serendipitously and examine clashing cultures, tradition versus modernity, and sometimes situations that are simply perplexing. Kollar said approached the work organically, documenting moments he said focused on “a tragicomedic way of looking at the world.”
Kollar was born in Czechoslovakia in Zilina, which is now part of Slovakia. He said the transitional period of culture and politics that surrounded him during his upbringing inspired him to work on “Nothing Special.” “It was slightly funny, but not always when you face daily issues,” he said. “Obviously when you are growing up during this period of time, life is full of clashes, so things are both sad and funny.”
Belusa, Slovakia, 2000 Martin Kollar
Nadlac, Romania, 2001 Martin KollarA specially equipped Black Hawk was recently used to demonstrate the helicopter's ability to operate on its own.
In the first such test of its type, the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research's Development and Engineering Center, based at Redstone Arsenal, flew the Black Hawk over Diablo Mountain Range in San Jose, Calif. Pilots were aboard the aircraft for the tests, but all flight maneuvers were conducted autonomously: obstacle field navigation, safe landing area determination, terrain sensing, statistical processing, risk assessment, threat avoidance, trajectory generation and autonomous flight control were performed in real-time.
"This was the first time terrain-aware autonomy has been achieved on a Black Hawk," said Lt. Col. Carl Ott, chief of the Flight Projects Office at AMRDEC's Aeroflightdynamics Directorate and one of the tests pilots.
The 2-hour tests was conducted on the Rotorcraft Aircrew Systems Concept Airborne Laboratory, or RASCAL, a JUH-60A Black Hawk equipped with the H.N. Burns 3D-LZ laser detection and ranging system for terrain sensing.
"The RASCAL aircraft was the ideal platform upon which to demonstrate this technology, as it provides a unique, fully programmable fly-by-wire flight control system and advanced sensor interfaces for rapid prototyping of new concepts, while maintaining the standard UH-60 hydromechanical flight control system as a safety backup," said Jay Fletcher, RASCAL project manager.
The aircraft flew at an altitude between 200-400 feet about ground level. As part of the field navigation tests, the aircraft's system was able to autonomously identify a safe landing spot within a forest clearing and then hover 60 feet over the identified landing spot. It achieved this goal within 1 foot of accuracy.
"A risk-minimizing algorithm was used to compute and command a safe trajectory continuously throughout 23 miles of rugged terrain in a single flight, at an average speed of 40 knots," said Matthew Whalley, the Autonomous Rotorcraft Project lead. "No prior knowledge of the terrain was used."
Joining Ott on the test were Army experimental test pilots Lt. Col. Mike Olmstead, RASCAL System Operator Dennis Zollo and Dr. Marc Takahashi.
(Link to video www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoCFE8xVhKA&feature=em-share_video_user)President Trump has saved taxpayers more than $86 billion in regulatory costs during his first three months in the White House, according to a new study from a conservative group.
The American Action Forum (AAF) points to several Obama-era regulations that Trump has either rolled back on his own or with the help of Republican lawmakers using the Congressional Review Act (CRA).
This includes the Education Department’s school accountability standards, the Environmental Protection Agency’s waters of the United States rule and the so-called “blacklisting” rule for government contractors.
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These are just a few examples mentioned in the report. Since taking office, Trump and Congress have repealed 13 rules with the CRA. The CRA allows lawmakers to overturn recent rules they disapprove of with a simple majority in Congress, and send the action to the president for his signature.
“Just as there are fiscal costs for new significant rules, there can be savings from repealing old rules through comprehensive regulatory reform,” said Sam Batkins, director of regulatory policy at the AAF.
Proponents of stronger regulation warn that critics often assess only the costs of these rules, but overlook the financial benefits they create.Microsoft Pledges To Cut Emissions By 75% By 2030
November 15th, 2017 by Joshua S Hill
Microsoft has announced this week that it intends to cut its carbon emissions by 75% by 2030 against a 2013 baseline, making continued progress with its carbon neutrality and renewable energy commitments while also making future investments in energy efficiency.
Over the last month, Microsoft has made two announcements backing up its claims to be tackling climate change and taking its emissions seriously. In October the company signed a new Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with GE in Ireland for the electricity generated by the 37 MW (megawatt) Tullahennel wind farm in County Kerry which will go towards powering Microsoft Cloud services based in Ireland.
“Microsoft is proud to be deepening our long history of investment and partnership in Ireland with this agreement,” said Christian Belady, general manager, Datacenter Strategy at Microsoft.
“Our commitment will help bring new, clean energy to the Irish grid, and contains innovative elements that have the potential to grow the capacity, reliability and capability of the grid. This will make it easier to incorporate new clean power sources like wind energy, and that is good for the environment, for Ireland and for our company.”
A month later, Microsoft announced its second European wind project deal in the Netherlands with Swedish power company Vattenfall, in which Microsoft will acquire 100% of the power generated from the 180 MW Wieringermeer wind farm which sits adjacent to Microsoft’s local data center operations, a regional hub which delivers Microsoft Cloud services to European customers, the Middle East, and Africa, as well as global customers.
Fast-forward a fortnight and Brad Smith, Microsoft’s President and Chief Legal Officer announced on the company’s website that it had pledged to reduce its operational carbon emissions 75% by 2030 against a 2013 baseline.
“We’ll do this through continued progress against our carbon neutrality and renewable energy commitments, as well as investments in energy efficiency,” said Smith in a blog post published on Tuesday.
“This puts Microsoft on a path, as a company, to meet the goals set in the Paris climate agreement, which is a level of decarbonization that many scientists believe is necessary to keep global temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius. We estimate this will help avoid more than 10 million metric tons of carbon emissions by 2030.”
“As we expand our global cloud infrastructure, we will increasingly turn to renewable energy because it is a clean power source and gives us better financial predictability |
very disappointing for him. He has been on fire and I think he showed that again today – even with a bit of pain, he could get the job done and get those few breakthroughs for us in the middle order.
"We know Starcy – he'll be back. It's a nice little rest for him. It's not a bad thing for him at this time of the year. I think he will be back firing in no time at all."A leading member of the IFPI in Germany has suffered a setback with its new strategy for dealing with allegedly infringing sites. Following an attempt to pressure advertisers into abandoning popular YouTube ripping service YouTube-MP3, the site has obtained a court injunction which orders the 300-label group to cease and desist on pain of prison sentences and fines of up to 250,000 euros ($340,550).
With both Hollywood and the major recording labels seemingly taking a step back from major legal action against sites they claim are infringing on their rights, some other mechanism would clearly have to take its place.
Currently in fashion is the voluntary agreement, whereby companies and organizations with an interest in the entertainment industry ecosystem are encouraged to enter into anti-piracy collaborations. The so-called six-strikes scheme in the United States is probably the most prominent example, although there is another with more global reach.
Advertising is what keeps millions of websites alive today and that hasn’t gone unnoticed by the entertainment industries. For some time they have been putting well-known companies and agencies under pressure not to place their ads on so-called pirate sites, and not without success. The ultimate aim is that with no financing, sites of which the entertainment companies disapprove will wither and die.
One group employing such a strategy is BVMI (Federal Music Industry Association). This RIAA-style IFPI member in Germany has around 300 label members which together dominate around 90% of the local music market. In its quest to bring the very popular YouTube-MP3 ripping site to its knees, BVMI recently approached the site’s advertisers in the hope that a few choice words would cause them to abandon their business partner.
“The lawyers of BVMI in Germany sent letters to business partners of mine to notify them that they are ‘cooperating with a service that is clearly illegal’ and asked them to cease their cooperation immediately,” YouTube-MP3 owner Philip Matesanz informs TorrentFreak.
Matesanz says he obtained a copy of BVMI’s letter sent to one of his business associates and decided to take immediate action.
“We think that the behavior of the music industry and its spreading of false rumors violates several laws including anti-trust law,” he explains.
YouTube-MP3 acted quickly against BVMI. The letter seen by the site was sent in the first days of last month and by December 13, 2013 a motion had been filed with the anti-trust chamber at the district court of Berlin. Just seven days later the court handed down its ruling.
“The defendant [BVMI]….has encouraged the recipient of its letter sent on the 3rd of December 2013 to end its business relationship or rather stop buying advertisements on the website of the plaintiff [YouTube-MP3] and therefore acted with the intention to illegitimately disrupt its business,” the three judges of the chamber wrote in their ruling.
“The illegitimacy of the disruption by evaluating the interests of both parties arises from the wording of the letter by which the defendant wants to make the recipient believe that the service of the plaintiff is without a doubt illegal and therefore the recipient must end its business partnership with the plaintiff. As a matter of fact the legal situation is not as obvious as the defendant concludes.”
The judges ordered BVMI to immediately cease and desist from their actions. The group was further warned that a failure to comply could see its board of directors subjected to prison sentences or have fines as high as 250,000 euros ($340,550) imposed for every violation of the order.
Matesanz says that holding the music business to account over its meddling via anti-trust legislation is an important step forward.
“What would happen if gas manufacturers like SHELL engaged in talks with financial institutions to make sure they won’t work with producers of electric cars, talk with ad-agencies to make sure electric car manufactures won’t advertise its products and so on? The situation is pretty absurd,” he concludes.Since 1995 several ice shelves in the Northern Antarctic Peninsula have collapsed and triggered ice-mass unloading, invoking a solid Earth response that has been recorded at continuous GPS (cGPS) stations. A previous attempt to model the observation of rapid uplift following the 2002 breakup of Larsen B Ice Shelf was limited by incomplete knowledge of the pattern of ice unloading and possibly the assumption of an elastic-only mechanism. We make use of a new high resolution dataset of ice elevation change that captures ice-mass loss north of 66°S to first show that non-linear uplift of the Palmer cGPS station since 2002 cannot be explained by elastic deformation alone. We apply a viscoelastic model with linear Maxwell rheology to predict uplift since 1995 and test the fit to the Palmer cGPS time series, finding a well constrained upper mantle viscosity but less sensitivity to lithospheric thickness. We further constrain the best fitting Earth model by including six cGPS stations deployed after 2009 (the LARISSA network), with vertical velocities in the range 1.7 to 14.9 mm/yr. This results in a best fitting Earth model with lithospheric thickness of 100–140 km and upper mantle viscosity of 6 × 10 17 – 2 × 10 18 Pa s – much lower than previously suggested for this region. Combining the LARISSA time series with the Palmer cGPS time series offers a rare opportunity to study the time-evolution of the low-viscosity solid Earth response to a well-captured ice unloading event.A woman accused of killing her twin sister by driving their SUV off a cliff in Hawaii has cleared the way for her extradition from upstate New York.
TEEN CHARGED WITH MURDER IN ATTACK AT TROUBLED-YOUTH RANCH
Alexandria Duval waived her right to an extradition hearing in an Albany court on Friday morning. Duval's lawyer says she wants to get back to Hawaii and defend herself against a second-degree murder charge. She is expected to head to Hawaii in the next few weeks.
Authorities in Hawaii say Duval was driving an SUV in May with her sister, Anastasia, in the passenger seat when the vehicle crashed into a rock wall and plunged about 200 feet.
The 38-year-old traveled to upstate New York after an initial indictment was dismissed earlier this year.
She was arrested in Albany last month.Lipoedema is a progressive condition that if left untreated may progress, worsen, and give rise to secondary problems. Conservative therapy may decrease symptoms of swelling and heaviness and offer a lifestyle change. Those patients who can remain compliant with conservative therapies, maintain a normal weight, and who have fewer comorbidities have a better prognosis and usually a milder disease course than those who do not. 11 Complications of Lipoedema, most importantly the progression to lipo-lymphoedema, can be prevented or minimized by early diagnosis and treatment.
COMPREHENSIVE LIPOEDEMA PROGRAM
The goal of this program is to reduce pain, have aesthetically pleasing limbs and decrease lipoedema adipose tissue. This program must be strictly followed for the best possible results and any diversion will compromise those results. Results are not guaranteed and will vary for each patient. All modules of this program need to be completed prior to any "Liponix" treatments.
Modules
1. Confirmation of the fat disease Lipoedema, understanding of the disease and what contributes to the increase in Lipids. 2. Anatomy of the Lymphatic System for a deeper understanding of how your body functions and why certain treatments are adopted for the best outcome. 3. How to take care of the Lymphatic System along with products to support this. 4. Infection - What is it?, How to recognise and manage it effectively. 5. Diet 6. Best Compression Garments. 7. Self Massage Techniques specifically for Lipoedema. 8. Best practice Exercise. 9. “Liponix” appointments need to be booked.
MAIN CHARACTERISTICS
It usually is inherited
It occurs almost predominately in women
It occurs from the anorexic – morbidly obese
It occurs bilateral and symmetrical from the waist to the ankles, Stemmer’s Sign (edema of the forefoot and toes) is negative
Lipoedemic fat cannot be lost through excessive diet or exercise, often this makes the condition worse
Is usually triggered around Puberty, Pregnancy, Pre-Menopause and following Gynecological Surgery
Patient’s will gain weight in lipoedemic areas, (Around hips, thighs, upper arms and abdomen) and lose it in non-lipoedemic areas, (face & breasts).
The basic profile of sufferers look like a size 8 from the waist up and a size 16 from the waist down
In males it is “rare”, only because males do not get cellulite.
CUFF SIGN WITH ADIPOSE FOLDS CAN BE PRESENT IN DIFFERING STAGES OF LIPOEDEMA. WHILE THIS IS A COMMON SIGN, IT IS NOT PRESENT IN ALL TYPES OF LIPOEDEMA.
LIPOEDEMA VS. OBESITY
LIPOEDEMA (LEFT) IS OFTEN MISDIAGNOSED AS OBESITY. ON CLOSER EXAMINATION AND HISTORY, LIPOEDEMA'S DISTINCTIVE SIGN AND SYMPTOMS CAN BE DIFFERENIATED FROM GENERALIZED OBESITY (RIGHT)
LIPOEDEMA VS. LYMPHEDEMA
LIPOEDEMA (LEFT) IS BILATERAL AND THE FEET ARE SPARED. LYMPHOEDEMA (RIGHT) GENERALLY AFFECTS ONE LIMB AND INCLUDES PITTING OEDEMA OF THE FOOT.
MRI IMAGING CAN BE USED TO DIFFERENTIATE FAT (WHITE) VS. FLUID (BLACK) CONTENT OF THE EXTREMITY
Comparisons: Lower Lymphoedema Versus Lipoedema
Lower Lymphoedeam Lipoedema
(Pre Lipo-lymphoedema) Pre-Lymphatic Channels Usually Normal Abnormal Sex Commonly Female Always Female Laterality Uni- or Bilateral Bilateral Symmetry Unusual Yes Skin Deposits Firm Soft Skin Temperature Warm Cold Edema Present Minimal Pitting Common Rare Pain on Pressure Varies Yes Fragility of Blood Vessels Rare Typical Foot Involved Spared Cellulitis Yes Rare Response to Bandaging Tolerated Not Tolerated
SymptomsResearch: Electric, hybrid and other eco-friendly cars fill the air with as many toxins as dirty diesel vehicles, scientists have found (file photo)
Electric, hybrid and other eco-friendly cars fill the air with as many toxins as dirty diesel vehicles, scientists have found.
The greener alternative produce more tiny particles from tyre and brake wear because batteries and other parts needed to propel them make them heavier.
It happens because when eco-cars accelerate or slow down the tyres and brakes wear faster, in turn producing more particulates. More particles are also whipped up from the road surface because of the extra weight.
These extra emissions are almost equal to the toxic particulates saved by reduced engine use, according to Jonathan Leake at The Sunday Times.
The research, led by Peter Achten and co-author Victor Timmers of Edinburgh University, is published in the journal Atmospheric Environment.
Achten said: 'We found that non-exhaust emissions, from brakes, tyres and the road, are far larger than exhaust emissions in all modern cars.
'These are more toxic than emissions from modern engines so they are likely to be key factors in the extra heart attacks, strokes and asthma attacks seen when air pollution levels surge.'
The research used technical data from the motor industry and government research agencies, including direct tests of brake, tyre and road wear rates.
The aim was to show that non-exhaust emissions a vehicle produces its directly related to its weight.
Scientists found that electric and eco-friendly cars weighed around 24 per cent more than conventional vehicles, a discovery that linked to anecdotal complaints from greener car owners that their tyres wear out faster.
A leading professor at the University of Hertfordshire, Ranjeet Sokhi, also led a study into the impact of non-exhaust emissions.
After installing particulate air pollution monitors in the southbound Hatfield tunnel on the A1(M), which has 49,000 vehicles a day travelling through it, scientists found that each one produced 34-39 micrograms of particles per kilometre. But only a third came from the engine.
The greener alternative, including hybrid cars (similar to the one pictured), are said to produce more particles from tyre and brake wear because batteries and other parts needed to propel them make them heavier
HOW THE WEIGHT OF CONVENTIONAL CARS COMPARE TO ECO VERSIONS Model Volkswagen Golf Fiat 500 Ford Focus Smart coupe Toyota Prius V Petrol/diesel version 1,390kg 1,149kg 1,500kg 820kg Hybrid petrol/electric Eco-car version 1,617kg 1,427kg 1,719kg 1,055kg 1,514kg % Difference +16.3% +24.2% +14.6% +28.7% N/A Source: Journal Atmospheric Environment
Everything else was from small pieces of bitumen whipped up from the road, rubber from tyres and brake dust.
Professor Sokhi said the findings highlighted the significance of non-exhaust emissions and a need for legislation.In a nice, though somewhat short, interview with two Nintendo developers both ladies touch upon what it’s like to work in games.
The ladies in question are Aya Kyogoku and Risa Tabata (shown above), who are working on Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer and Chibi Robo: Zip Lash respectively.
Talking about how and why they entered into making games in the first place they also discuss about what it’s like to be a woman in what is often considered to be a male dominated industry.
They admit that when they started out that their presence was a rare one but these days it’s fairly even in terms of the gender split.
From my own experience of working in Japan there are considerably more women involved making games than in the West, so what both these ladies are saying definitely ties in with what I have personally seen.
Considering that Japanese gaming culture and especially its games industry have both been dismissed as being backward and sexist in recent years, it’s clear that this is far from true. If anything those criticisms are more aptly aimed at the Western side of things really, from what I have seen at least.
Both of these ladies are also quite senior, so again their gender doesn’t seem to have been a hindrance.
Personally, I think you need as many disparate viewpoints and skillsets as possible in making a good game. So you should absolutely have a balanced split of genders across a team, it is clear Nintendo and a slew of other Japanese games companies have already arrived at this eminently sensible conclusion.
Chibi Robo: Zip Lash will be released on 3DS this October and Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer will also be out on 3DS this September.
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Read my Forbes blog here.Costa Rica, both the Pacific and the Carribean’s amazing coastal waters. Jungles, amazing species diversity. Seriously multicurtural, little country. Language diversity that will bothlend itself to the World Citizen’s I hope my chilfren grow to be, and to ease of transition, as English is largely spoken. Another thing, 93% of the countries energy comes from renewable sources!
The cultural and adventure possibilities impress of course. Carribean, Spanish Colonial, British Colonial, African cultures. Pirates, sunken treasure and scuba diving. Yes, even my research, great jumping off spot.
Their Universal healthcare is consistently rated as one of the best in Latin America. The two tiered, Universal healthcare system ia accessible to both citizens and Legal residents alike. The Seguro Social.
Education again is aprimary concern. I truly want mu children to become well rounded, multi-lingual citizens of the world. The ststem in Costa Rica is ranked one of the best in South AND Central America. That is thanks to a truly aggressive campaign over the last 30 or so years, that comes to 30% of the National Budget. Now THAT’s commitment!
Laws pertaining to Marijuana are moving in the right direction, not top grades yet, but they could be soon, changes are in front of the Legislature right now. They have already decriminalized posession for personal use, and are on the verge of a Medical marijuana program.
In addition, a new hemp industry may be born of this legislation as well. So, though currently not much better than things here in the US, it looks like change is imminent.
That means Costa Rica is well in the running for our ultimate destination. Socially and eco friendly, excellent education and healthcare
Want More Immigration Research? Click here https://wildnwoollywordsmith.wordpress.com/2017/07/28/colombia-as-a-possible-immigration-destination-surprisingly-yes/
AdvertisementsThere comes a moment in the life of most pre-installed Google apps where they hit the big 1 billion installs mark. This is measure less of how many users have sought out the software on the Play Store and more the number of times people have set up devices in the years since the app became available. Though in the case of Google+, the latest app to reach this milestone, there are surely people out there who didn't get the software out of the box and decided they wanted in on the fun. What proportion they are, we do not know.
This puts Google+ among the Google greats, such as Gmail, Maps, and Search. But the social network doesn't get to have all the fun. Google Play Games and Google Drive have both reached half a billion installs. That's nothing to shake a stick at, and as Android devices get into the hands of more people, we can expect these numbers to only rise.Got gigabit? The vast majority of Minnesotans cannot get home Internet connections with speeds of 1 gigabit per second — about 100 times faster than a standard broadband hookup. At least, they cannot do so easily and affordably.
But the residents of Melrose, Minn., about 100 miles northwest of the Twin Cities, will get gigabit Internet connections with a call, beginning this week.
The city of about 4,000 is declaring itself the state’s first “gigabit city.”
This is in response to a January challenge by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski for at least one gigabit city to emerge in each U.S. state by 2015.
All Melrose residents have gigabit capability courtesy of fiber-optic networking that links directly to every home, said Mark Birkholz, director of southern markets for broadband provider Arvig.
This compares with about 10 percent of U.S. homes with direct fiber access, he noted.
Not every Melrose resident will want gigabit service, to be sure, and achieving that speed is not simple. Realistically, Arvig can offer about 890 megabits per second consistently, Birkholz said.
Even so, this places Melrose ahead of most Minnesota cities and makes it a prime location for technology startups and other Internet-ravenous companies.
“We’re reaching out to entrepreneurs,” said Birkholz.
He describes Melrose as “gig central” because of the city’s geographical location close to the center of the state and because speedy, reliable Internet access is central to people’s lives.
Arvig’s gigabit service costs $300 a month, while 100-megabit service runs $200 a month. Those wanting conventional 20-megabit service pay $20 a month.
Arvig’s Internet service is comparable in performance but not in cost to the Google Fiber service available in Kansas City, with Austin, Texas, and Provo, Utah, getting on board soon. Google charges $70 a month for 1-gigabit service.
Arvig provides Internet, television, telephone and security services in 73 Minnesota cities — from Moorhead and Detroit Lakes in the north to Kimball, south of St. Cloud. All told, it serves 65,000 people covering 9,000 square miles.
The company also is responsible for broadband access at 33 Rochester, Minn., schools and a high school in St. Cloud, among other specialized customers.
With fiber recently installed in the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan area, Arvig aspires to offer its services in the metro before long.In 2006, he came under fire for speaking admirably of a 1950s federal deportation program called Operation Wetback, and for sending an e-mail message to supporters that included an attachment — inadvertently, he said — from a white supremacist group.
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But Mr. Pearce, 62, cannot be dismissed as just the party’s right-wing fringe. As chairman of the Senate’s appropriation committee, he controls whose bills are financed, and he has shown an uncanny knack to capitalize on this border state’s immigration anxiety.
While surveys show immigration is less of a hot-button issue than it was a few years ago, Republican conservatives still care about the issue. In a New York Times/CBS News poll released last week, 82 percent of self-identified Tea Party supporters said illegal immigration was a “very serious” problem.
The nightly news here is filled with stories of raids on drop houses filled with immigrants and drug-related shootouts and home invasions. Mexico’s drug violence has bloodied Nogales, Sonora, across the border from Nogales, Ariz. And just a couple of weeks ago, a southern Arizona rancher was killed on his property by someone the police suspect was involved in smuggling.
“Senator Pearce is the one to articulate things and take bullets and arrows,” said Stan Barnes, a former Republican legislator and political consultant who has supported Mr. Pearce. The issue, he said, “has electrified and energized a great many Arizonans.”
More than a few Democrats took notice that Mr. Pearce, whose district is in Mesa, a Phoenix suburb, managed to win unanimous support for the bill from House Republicans, even from some moderates who had voiced misgivings about it.
One of those moderates, State Representative Bill Konopnicki, Republican of Yuma, said planned amendments to address legal and other concerns never materialized. In the end, he said, “everybody was afraid to vote no on immigration.”
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“We are going to look like Alabama in the ’60s,” said Mr. Konopnicki, who is facing a tough election and did not believe voting no would change the outcome..
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In the Senate, only one Republican, Carolyn S. Allen, voted against the bill, and she is one of the few leaving office because of term limits and not seeking another post. She did not respond to a message left at her office.
The bill makes it a state crime for immigrants not to carry authorization papers, requires the police “when practicable” to check the immigration status of people they reasonably suspect are in the country illegally and allows people to sue cities and counties if the law is not being enforced.
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Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican who, like Mr. McCain, is facing primary challengers from the right, is widely expected to sign the bill, though her spokesman said she would not comment.
That the bill has gotten this far has angered advocates for immigrants, who have staged protests and sent a stream of postcards to the governor urging her to veto it.
But analysts said its legislative success may be another sign that, while the Latino population is growing here, a large number of Latinos are under age or are not citizens and so are less powerful than those in California, New Mexico or Texas.
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“Right now, there are supporters of the bill who are thinking, We don’t need that vote,” said Rodolfo Espino, a political science professor at Arizona State University who studies ethnic voting trends. “With a low Hispanic voter turnout, they are not going to be made to pay a price for this.”
State Representative Ben Miranda, a Democrat and co-chairman of the legislature’s Latino caucus, agreed. In other border states, Mr. Miranda said, “there is much more political clout in the Latino community.” And Arizona feels the effects of immigration more acutely, as the state with the most arrests for illegal crossing and drug trafficking across the border.
“Arizona is the funnel to the United States,” he said. “It’s not California. It’s not Texas. It’s not New Mexico. People are in hysteria here. It is totally different.”
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People on both sides of the debate see the bill as a result of the failure of Congress to overhaul the immigration system, and predict that other states, as they have in the past, will be inspired by Arizona to consider similar legislation.
Mr. Pearce, who did not return a telephone call, has said he is on a mission to rid the state of illegal immigrants and discourage others from coming.
Mr. Miranda and others wonder whether Mr. Pearce’s personal experience motivates him: his son, a Maricopa County sheriff’s deputy, was shot and wounded in 2004 by an illegal immigrant and Mr. Pearce, a former sheriff’s deputy, was shot and wounded while arresting gang members 20 years ago, he has said.
But on the floor of the Senate, which approved the bill 17 to 11, Mr. Pearce said he pushed the bill because the federal government had not done enough.
“This law is not about race,” he said. “It’s about what is illegal.”As if performances from Jenny Lewis and Beck didn't inject enough indie rock into your nighttime schedule last night (July 28), The Late Show with David Letterman got a dose of Conor Oberst. With the backing of his tourmates/bandmates Dawes, the Bright Eyes frontman performed his Upside Down Mountain single "Hundreds Of Ways."
Oberst and his nine-piece backing band bounced along to the upbeat single, with the frontman himself nearly kissing the microphone, he's singing so close to the piece.
The jangly signle didn't just get Oberst and co. grooving...
As he is wont to do, after the performance Letterman himself freaked out about the performance and congratulated the band, but not without remarking about the group's notable size.
"Look at everybody here! Are you paying these guys? Good gig," he commented before saying the name of the "mountain" was Upside Down Mountain.
Watch Conor Oberst perform "Hundreds Of Ways" on Letterman below:
"Hundreds Of Ways'" is a single from Conor Oberst's most recent solo album Upside Down Mountain, which hit stores in May via Nonesuch Records.
Oberst and Dawes weren't just in New York City to stop by Letterman. Tonight (July 29), the folky groups will play Central Park as a part of Summerstage before going on a more extensive North American tour.Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption The government is being urged to address a shortage of RE teachers
Developing young people's "religious literacy" would help to make them less vulnerable to radicalisation, a conference will hear later.
"Good religious education has never been more needed," Ed Pawson, chairman of the National Association of Teachers of Religious Education, will say.
But pupils will miss out unless the government addresses a shortage of RE teachers, he will warn.
The government said training bursaries would help to recruit more RE staff.
'Never more threatened'
In a speech to NATRE's inaugural annual conference, Mr Pawson is expected to ask "what hope" there is for students to receive a strong religious education when so few of those teaching the subject are qualified to do so.
RE "has never been under greater threat", he is expected to say.
Mr Pawson will cite official figures that show 54% of secondary RE teachers have no post-A-level qualification in a related subject.
"This compares very unfavourably with history, where a mere 27% of teachers lack post-A-level expertise."
Primary pupils are even worse served, he will add, with a NATRE survey of teachers in 2013 suggesting half of almost 700 who responded had received only three hours' training in the subject. A quarter had no training at all.
Image copyright Jeff J Mitchell Image caption Good RE teaching can help promote a vision for a more respectful, Mr Pawson will say
"We must work hard to attract bright young graduates to join the RE profession, bringing with them energy, creativity and a vision for a more respectful, understanding and diverse society - but let's be honest about some of the facts: as a subject, we need more resources."
Mr Pawson is expected to mention Ofsted's 2013 report on RE, which said more than half of schools were failing pupils on religious education and raised "significant concerns" about the training deficit.
This report found low standards, weak teaching, a confused sense of the purpose of religious education, training gaps and weaknesses in the way the subject was examined.
A report by MPs from the same year said many primary subject leaders in RE lacked sufficient experience and expertise to fulfil the role.
Two religions
On top of this, from 2016, proposed changes to GCSE subject specifications for RE, requiring the study of two religions, will pose even greater challenges to teachers, he will argue.
"There is still a mountain to climb to bring RE teachers up to the level of qualification and skill that is required to make it a vibrant, exciting and academically rigorous subject in all our schools."
In the speech, Mr Pawson is expected to describe England's Education Secretary Nicky Morgan as "supportive" of religious education.
He promises NATRE will be "candid about the significant obstacles we face" in forthcoming meetings with ministers.
The government said RE was a "vital part" of its plan to prepare young people for life in modern Britain by helping children to develop an understanding of the different faiths and cultures which make up our society.
"That is why it remains compulsory at all key stages, including at primary," a Department for Education spokesman said.
From September top graduates, "including those with the potential to be exceptional RE teachers", could apply for a training bursary "worth £9,000 for a first-class degree and £4,000 for a 2:1", he added.Today is the big day. There’s thirty General Managers with five or so hours to improve their team before the trade window slams shut at 3 PM EST. As hockey fans everywhere tune in breathlessly, there’s the obvious likelihood that today’s deadline will go off with a whimper, rather than any sort of bang. It’s a frenzied atmosphere – and as every General Manager past and present will tell you, "more mistakes get made" on this day, than on any other.
Over the past week we’ve taken stock of what the Canucks need and how much cap-space they have. We’ve looked at the franchise’s recent history at the deadline and at what “winners” typically do at the deadline. We’ve also “targeted“ available forwards and defenseman. Now in the calm before the potential storm, lets think long and hard about whether or not it’s even worthwhile for Mike Gillis to make a major move to his current roster.
Read on past the jump!
I know what you’re thinking "not make a trade? At the TRADE DEADLINE booooo." *ducks tomato.*
Realistically though, prices are exceedingly high at this season’s deadline; largely the result of the leagues carefully manufactured parity. In the East, there are three teams that are more than six points out of a playoff spot: Montreal, Carolina and the New York Islanders. In the West, there’s only two: Edmonton and Columbus. That makes twenty-five possible buyers who are still dreaming of making the dance, and only five true sellers – several of whom have spent the last month re-signing their more valuable trade assets.
There are other teams, the Avalanche, the Sabres, the Stars and the Ducks – clubs who could yet decide to sell off assets. But these teams are almost certainly not in the market for just picks, or tier-two prospects, they’ll be looking for young roster players. Is it worth trading away a good young player to net the likes of Gaustad, Winnick or Steve Ott? Unless Joe Nieuwendyk is trading you Vernon Fiddler’s angry Kevin Bieksa face (value: priceless), the prices on this years “sellers-market” will make it hard for the Canucks to materially improve their roster today.
The team’s needs are well known: a number 4 or 5 defenseman who can play the right-side, and a top-9 forward who can bring a physical edge and thrive in tough minutes. Over the course of this week we’ve heard names like Steve Ott, David Jones, Jason Garrison and Dustin Brown bandied about. None of those guys are going to be pried away from their current clubs in exchange for habitual fan-base whipping-boy Mason Raymond and a pick.
There are impact players out there, sure, but from all accounts the asking prices are high and the market is slow. Prices will come down over the course of morning, but for the Canucks there’s maybe 10 guys on the market who would be worthwhile difference makers in the roles the team requires. And those guys are not going to be given away.
To acquire the sort of player the fans desperately want, Gillis would need to part with a young roster player, a first round pick (the draft is projected to be weak, so even Vancouver’s late first pick isn’t very valuable this season) and/or a young prospect (and the team is still rebuilding their prospect pool).
It’s worth remembering that, if the team goes into the postseason with the roster as is: the Canucks are still an exceptionally good club and a legitimate contender. They’re a good five-on-five team, they boast elite special teams units and between the pipes, Luongo and Schneider make for arguably the leagues best goalie tandem.
With Kesler and Sedin down the middle, the Canucks are a nightmare for most teams to match-up against. Bieksa and Hamhuis are as good of a defensive pairing as exists in the NHL. Lapierre and Malhotra help limit shots against off of defensive zone starts, and their presences legitimately allows Vigneault to deploy three "scoring lines."
Beyond that, the team is deeper now than it was last season. The emergence of Cody Hodgson, gives the Canucks scoring punch out of the bottom-6, something they were lacking last season. Meanwhile two-way ace David Booth has turned himself into the poor man’s Marian Hossa – he’s the "top-6 power-forward" Canucks fans were so desperate for over the summer. Finally, while any team with ambitions of making a deep playoff could use more defensive depth, the Canucks’ 8th defenseman is Chris Tanev – a guy who already looks capable of playing a significantly larger role on the club.
The continued emergence of Chris Tanev, and his increased competence in physical battles (he beat Johan Franzen in a puck battle along the boards this week) is a major reason I expect the team to be cautious today. Tanev’s presence means the team now goes 4 deep on the right side (Bieksa, Salo, Tanev, Rome) and when you consider the exorbitant cost defenders are likely to garner on the market – that’s probably better than over-paying for a veteran band-aid.
Adding a proficient tough-minutes forward like Steve Ott, or an Ehrhoff upgrade like Mark Streit or Stephane Robidas could put the Canucks over the top, no doubt about that – but at what cost? If the cost is any of the big three (Schneider, Hodgson or Tanev) you can bet that Gillis will walk away from the deal – as he should.
In three previous deadlines Gillis has sat tight once (2009), acquired a depth defender once (2010 when he acquired Andrew Alberts) and last year he added two depth forwards (Higgins and Lapierre). While Ballard’s injury gives the Canucks flexibility under the cap, Gillis remains a shrewd and conservative general manager and notably doesn’t view the teams "championship window" as imminently expiring. I’m sure Gillis will add a depth forward at some point this afternoon, probably at the buzzer, but We’ve never seen him move a top-end prospect, or even a roster player at the deadline While some were expecting (and are still expecting) this to be the year that changes: don’t be surprised or upset if it isn’t.Virgin Galactic, the world’s first commercial spaceline owned by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and Abu Dhabi’s aabar Investments PJS, completed the first rocket-powered flight of its space vehicle, SpaceShipTwo (SS2) on April 29.
The test, conducted by teams from Scaled Composites (Scaled) and Virgin Galactic, officially marks Virgin Galactic’s entrance into the final phase of vehicle testing prior to commercial service from Spaceport America in New Mexico.
“The first powered flight of Virgin Spaceship Enterprise was without any doubt, our single most important flight test to date,” said Virgin Galactic Founder Sir Richard Branson, who was on the ground in Mojave to witness the occasion. “For the first time, we were able to prove the key components of the system, fully integrated and in flight. Today’s supersonic success opens the way for a rapid expansion of the spaceship’s powered flight envelope, with a very realistic goal of full space flight by the year’s end. We saw history in the making today and I couldn’t be more proud of everyone involved.”
The test began at 7.02am local time when SS2 took off from Mojave Air and Space Port mated to WhiteKnightTwo (WK2), Virgin Galactic’s carrier aircraft. Piloting SS2 were Mark Stucky, pilot, and Mike Alsbury, co-pilot, who are test pilots for Scaled, which built SS2 for Virgin Galactic. At the WK2 controls were Virgin Galactic’s Chief Pilot Dave Mackay, assisted by Clint Nichols and Brian Maisler, co-pilot and flight test engineer, respectively, for Scaled.
Upon reaching 47,000 feet altitude and approximately 45 minutes into the flight, SS2 was released from WK2. After cross-check |
I cannot suspend my disbelief from a misgiving that Kher is indeed not only just playing a character here, but some more sinister game.
Privileging Pandit trauma
In the 50 minute long TV discussion that followed the airing of this short clip, it became clearly evident that the story he so ably tells, is in his hands just ammunition, a live grenade that he will not ever hesitate to explode so as to browbeat, shout down, humiliate and shame anyone who as much as dares to fit in certain other nuances or contradictions in the seemingly inviolate construct of his tragedy.
Play
It is important to tell our stories, to keep on telling them.
It becomes even more important to do so as long as the other, the addressee of these stories in the valley of Kashmir, fails to respond in a way that provides a closure or a semblance of a respectful hearing. But more than the telling of your own story, it is also important to hear and to address the suffering of the other, if the desire is to solve, reduce and overcome the conflict that has ripped our two communities apart.
This is where Kher so profoundly lets the Pandits down.
He fails to realise that for all our talk of being victims or fighters of a cause, neither the entire Muslim nor the Pandit community were really the ones who got to make the choices. We were all so unlucky that we lost our humanity then and that the separate histories of continued Pandit and Kashmiri Muslim sufferings over all these years makes us lose hold of basic kindness and the ability to empathise.
Kher only comes across as caring for the ones he loves (fellow Hindus) not knowing that some of our old neighbours in Kashmir could also love us. As a self-professed leader of the Pandit community, he has lost his precious gift of empathy for the other.
In that discussion on TV, it became clear to me that the people he thinks and wishes to project as the enemies of the Pandits or of India, are not my enemies, at least not all. I am sure Kher has more Kashmiri Muslim fans and friends than I can hope to have in this life, but the few I have do not ever behave anywhere as shamelessly and cold-heartedly to the trauma of Pandits as the three Muslim gentlemen did on that TV discussion. One wonders why the anchor of the show always finds these types ever ready at hand to display and demonise as communal, anti-India and anti-Pandit?
The fact is that the gentlemen from Kashmir do not speak for the entire Muslim community just as the representatives of my community that the channel often brings on its shows for a”‘pre-fixed” boxing row do not speak for me or for the entire Kashmiri Pandit community. We cannot reduce our collective traumas to a show of debating (more appropriately, shouting) skills because there is certainly more to the intractable conflict in Kashmir than a one-sided Pandit story. The story of Kashmir is not only the story of Kashmiri Pandit exile but also of 26 years of continued presence of India’s soldiers in every street of Kashmir.
We never understand the anger we cause.
Communalising the narrative
There can never be any equitability about describing trauma – one side of the story is always heavier than many others, but in the absence, or near impossibility of finding, an impartial judge who could decide which story deserves more weightage in terms of justice and redress, there is no other way for mere mortals but to provide them equal attention. This may sound unfair to those who may have lost their only son to a cruel torturer in an army interrogation camp, but it is equally unfair to a Pandit family that one of their children got killed in an extra judicial killing in someone else’s fight for azadi. Whether committed by a mujahid or a soldier, a rape, cold-blooded killing of a Pandit or encounter killing of a presumed militant, torture, looting, burning are what they are: crimes of war that should shame us all.
The need to assert the exclusivity of their own suffering while negating and downplaying the pain of others has come to be a special narcissistic trait of Pandit and Muslim Kashmiris. We think as though the grave suffering imposed on our own is somehow some kind of a special affliction in opposition to what afflicts the other community in the same way, and as though these are not the same issues affecting the people elsewhere in India, Pakistan and rest of the world. It should have been obvious that among the people of Kashmir, this is not a war that can be fought fact for fact, emotion for emotion or bullet for bullet but only by finding a common ground for peace and resolution that enables the people of Kashmir and of India and Pakistan to live not as Hindus and Muslims only, but as humans first and then as respectful citizens of the world. When people decide, governments too follow.
The more disturbing aspect of Kashmir’s collective trauma is not that it has made us immune and indifferent to the tragedy of the other, but that it has divided the people of Kashmir and the narratives of their recent history along communal lines. While for the Muslims, the raison d’ê·tre of their azadi movement may compel them to cast India in terms of a predatory and a wily Hindu nation and the Kashmiri Pandits as a perfect Hindu enemy, the Pandits, in seeing their sufferings entirely as an outcome of Muslim belligerence, complement and strengthen them in that perception. If for the Muslims, their present day sufferings are a consequence of a long reign of Indian subjugation going as far back as the conquest of Kashmir by the Mughals, the Pandits see their exodus as part of a long historical process starting from their emasculation as a dominant community in Kashmir from the times when Sultan Sikandar (Butshikan) converted Kashmiris en masse and destroyed their temples.
Speaking specifically about the Pandits, after their exodus in 1990, this self-professed learned and intelligent community, had two choices to make. They could either cast themselves, in communal terms, as the eternal victims of ancient hatred from days of our mythologised past, and see their present predicament as part of the continuous processes of persecutions, resulting from an aggressive Islamisation process of Kashmir initiated by its first Muslim rulers that culminated in their eighth exodus from the valley. Or, they could see their present predicament, in secularly equalising terms, as the victims of the after-life of Partition that affected and continues to affect the Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Bengalis in diverse ways across India and Pakistan, as in 1947. The choice they made, as demonstrated by their narratives of various exoduses since Islamisation of Kashmir et al, and the gifting away of their story to the Hindu-Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party makes them stand irrevocably on the communal path.
Thanks to Kher’s effective performances of their narrative, most Pandits of Kashmir today stand, in an incongruous alliance and on the same pedestal with their equally communalised Muslim brothers in Kashmir (though with their backs touching) who seek Pakistan or azadi because they are Muslims.
This is where our tormentors wish us to be, so that they can feel justified and point at us with glee: “So you too turned out to be like us!”
The Political Buffoon
Anupam Kher, as the new, self-professed narrator and champion of Pandit story in the national media and for the ruling party, is no ordinary actor and certainly not the first in history who has chosen to serve up his gift and talent to the powers intent on altering the very character of the country. Thinking of various recent acts and pronouncements of Anupam Kher regarding some of the contentious issues that have dominated our national discourse in the past few months – issues like intolerance towards the minorities, Dalits, killings of writers, intimidation of dissenters, returning of awards by intellectuals, writers and filmmakers and solutions to Kashmir issue that he has proposed – one need not suspect anymore that he is clearly edging himself into the circle of power at Delhi to make some personal gains. We know that his wife is already a BJP Member of Parliament. That in the process he has also become a political buffoon and laughing stock in the social media may bring no discredit to him in the long run (professionally at least), but it certainly harms the causes he so ardently professes to champion.
Anupam Kher’s phenomenal rise, in the political esteem of many Hindutavaadis and fascist elements following his dubious march against award-returners, and the corresponding decline in his stature and esteem as a respectable Kashmiri for many Kashmiris like me, reminds me of a German actor named Gustaf Grundgens, immortalised on screen, by Klaus Maria Brandauer in Istavan Szabo’s masterpiece Mephisto, who in his quest for power and greater glory abandoned his conscience and good judgment to serve Hitler’s Nazi Party. In Kher’s case though, one cannot be certain whether charging him with abandoning his conscience and good judgment is even appropriate till one is certain that he had either of those to start with. I am certain, however, that he was a happy go lucky, jolly good fellow till something hit him hard about two years ago: It was Modi.
Modi is not only a political but also a social and cultural phenomenon. Since his coming to centre-stage, it seems that not only have the diehard Hinduvadis got a fresh lease of life, but even those who were lying quietly in the recesses of rotting woodworks, have found sunlight. The phenomenon of Modi has emboldened many in our extended circles, many of our erstwhile pseudo-secular uncles, aunts, friends, retired professors, scientists, writers, historians and civil servants to renounce their old avatars and suddenly rediscover their repressed Hindu past. Topics, which had remained confined to closed drawing room discussions, could now be articulated in the open. Suddenly, “appeasement of Muslims”, their “meat eating habits”, “propensity to violence”, “love jehad”, “deliberate disrespect of Hindu rituals and national symbols”, and their “tendency to dominate when in majority anywhere”, could be discussed even on television without inviting secular outrage, censure or charge of being communal.
And if you were to look at Anupam Kher’s public pronouncements on many issues since Modi’s first day in power, and his propensity to hog the headlines (recently, championing free speech after denial of visa by Pakistan) it would be apparent that as a well-known actor with unlimited access to the top of the BJP leadership and mainstream as well as social media, he is just the most popular public face of a farcical conversation about Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh version of nationalism and majoritarian privileges that Modi’s ascension has unleashed in the country.
Like India before and after Modi, the Anupam Kher of today and of old is not the same person. Like many of our uncles, aunts and close relatives, who had kept their disagreeable political views to themselves earlier, but do not seem to be able to resist articulating them now, Kher too has done or said nothing that is at any odds with present day mainstream Hindutva thinking and discourse. But that he has also taken upon himself the mantle to represent the Pandit story and thereby push it determinedly into the majoritarian Hindu camp should, however, be a cause of serious concern to every secular Kashmiri – Hindu or Muslim – even if the intellectually-stilted, so called liberal, emasculated secular Indian has given up on them already as people of no consequence.
Ajay Raina is a filmmaker, co-founder of www.kashmiroralhistory.org and co-curator of Kashmir Before Our Eyes film festival.On a recent Sunday, I woke up around 8 A.M. I had slept on a SULTANA HAGAVIK mattress. I smoothed the DVALA fitted sheet and tucked the HENNY CIRKEL quilt beneath four pillows sheathed in matching polka-dot cases. In the kitchen, some lettuce clung to the meniscus of a BLANDA BLANK salad bowl. Rouged RÄTTVIK wineglasses and dirty DRAGON forks waited to be washed. In the living room, I sat down on the KIVIK sofa. Because it is a few years old, its lines are leaner than those of current models, which have been expanded to accommodate the modern habit of perching a laptop on the armrest. KIVIK—along with a profusion of things I use every day—is made by IKEA, the Swedish home-furnishings company. IKEA has three hundred and twenty-six stores in thirty-eight countries. In the fiscal year 2010, it sold $23.1 billion worth of goods, a 7.7-per-cent increase over the year before. IKEA calls itself the Life Improvement Store. The invisible designer of domestic life, it not only reflects but also molds, in its ubiquity, our routines and our attitudes. When IKEA stopped selling incandescent light bulbs, last year, six hundred and twenty-six million people became environmentalists. The prevalence of IKEA in my apartment is more the result of circumstance than of desire or discernment. Since graduating from college, nine years ago, I have moved eight times, propelled by the usual vicissitudes of money, romance, and work. My first encounter with IKEA was in the freshman-year dormitory, where I marvelled at the profligacy of classmates who, that September, and each one thereafter, ordered a new couch from IKEA—and paid the ninety-nine-dollar delivery fee! (My roommates and I settled for a hand-me-down, which we covered with a sleeping bag and doused in Febreze.) By the time I was a senior, I had my own room and had acquired my first piece of IKEA furniture, an only slightly shopworn navy-blue love seat. A shared apartment in Manhattan followed. It suffered from a plight that IKEA has acknowledged in an internal report titled “Life in Rental Accommodation”: the tragedy of the common room is that it often is a dump. There were several apartments in the West Village, and one, farther south, in which my parents and I spent a long night trying to assemble an IKEA bookshelf with the guidance of only a stick man with a mute smirk. IKEA omits words from instruction booklets, because words make instruction booklets thicker, which makes them more expensive. The screws strip easily. Amy Poehler once said that IKEA is Swedish for “argument.” In Tribeca, I pridefully refused IKEA, like a child announcing that she no longer plays with dolls. IKEA can also be Swedish for feeling like you’re never going to grow up. The apartment I live in now is a rental in west London. Like many rentals here, it comes furnished—which means that, instead of your having to go to IKEA and get the stuff yourself, the landlord goes to IKEA and gets it for you. IKEA offers more than nine thousand products, divided into four “style groups”: Traditional, Scandinavian, Modern, and Popular. (These are subdivided into such categories as Continental Dark, Continental Light, Contemporary, and Ethnic.) I moved into the London apartment in January. The person I live with had added to the mostly Modern infrastructure a few personal touches, for an effect one might call Itinerant Indifferent: a picture frame with no picture, various gifts from his mother, no knife that could penetrate meat. I put the picture frame in a drawer. The knives I cared enough about to buy a decent set from a department store. In a paper called “On the IKEAnization of France,” a sociologist named Tod Hartman suggests that IKEA resolves the conundrum posed by Georges Perec in his 1965 novel, “Les Choses,” about a young couple consumed with unhappiness at the discrepancy between the dismal home they have and the tasteful one they think they deserve. “Question your teaspoons,” Perec later wrote. Eventually, we drove to the IKEA store in Wembley, where we picked out some throw pillows and a phalaenopsis orchid. We liked the SNÄRTIG bud vase, the surface of which is dotted with tiny bubbles, like eyelet lace. It cost fifty-nine pence, which makes it what IKEA calls a “breathtaking item”—so affordable that you can’t afford not to buy it. We took two. IKEA offers the serendipity of the yard sale without the mothballs. Bill Moggridge, the director of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, in New York, calls IKEA’s aesthetic “global functional minimalism.” He said, “It’s modernist, and it’s very neutral in order to avoid local preferences, to get the economies of scale they need in order to keep the prices good.” IKEA products are intended to work as well in Riyadh as they do in Reykjavík. (Pigs and skeletons, for example, are banned motifs.) Last year, IKEA’s business in China, where it has eight stores, grew by twenty per cent. IKEA sells a few products (water fountains, chopsticks, mosquito nets) tailored to a Chinese clientele, but ninety-five per cent of the product range is standard. It is said that one in ten Europeans is conceived in an IKEA bed. People have cared intensely about the decoration of their houses since cavemen began painting on walls. We are attached to our belongings because they are vessels for our memories and for our aspirations. Freud wrote to Martha, his future wife, during their engagement: Tables and chairs, beds, mirrors, a clock to remind the happy couple of the passage of time, an armchair for an hour’s pleasant daydreaming, carpets to help the housewife keep the floors clean, linen tied with pretty ribbons in the cupboard and dresses of the latest fashion and hats with artificial flowers, pictures on the wall, glasses for everyday and others for wine and festive occasions.... Are we to hang our hearts on such little things? Yes, and without hesitation. Our curio cabinets and chesterfield sofas are the backdrops of domesticity, forming the unchanging indoor landscape—mahogany mountains, meadows of chintz—against which we go about life. Choosing a piece of furniture was once a serious decision, because of the expectation that it was permanent. It is said that Americans keep sofas longer than they keep cars, and change dining-room tables about as often as they trade spouses. IKEA has made interiors ephemeral. Its furniture is placeholder furniture, the prelude to an always imminent upgrade. It works until it breaks, or until its owners break up. It carries no traces. (Jonathan Coulton’s song “IKEA”: “Just some oak and some pine and a handful of Norsemen / Selling furniture for college kids and divorced men.”) In David Fincher’s 1999 movie, “Fight Club,” the character played by Edward Norton flips through an IKEA catalogue while sitting on the toilet. “Like so many others, I had become a slave to the IKEA nesting instinct,” he says, in a voice-over. “If I saw something clever, like a little coffee table in the shape of a yin-yang, I had to have it.” The ease of self-invention that IKEA enables is liberating, but it can be sad to be able to make a life, or to dispose of it, so cheaply. Ingvar Kamprad holding an ÖGLA café chair, launched in 1961. Courtesy IKEA Courtesy IKEA
IKEA stores, like Chihuahuas and cilantro, provoke extreme reactions. Some people, such as the members of the “Official IKEA Is Hell on Earth” Facebook group, can’t stand them. Others treat IKEA as a human-size doll house, hanging around its prettily furnished rooms just for entertainment. In recent months, middle-aged singles have taken to congregating in a Shanghai IKEA in such numbers that management has been forced to cordon off a designated “match-making corner.” Shen Jinhua, an IKEA employee, told the Shanghai Daily, “Before we set up an isolated area for them, they occupied the seats in the dining area for a long time, and thus other guests could not find a seat.” Each IKEA store is carefully laid out to stimulate certain behaviors. Johan Stenebo, who worked at IKEA for twenty years, writes in “The Truth About IKEA” (2009), “One could describe it as if IKEA grabs you by the hand and consciously guides you through the store in order to make you buy as much as possible.” In June, I visited IKEA’s new store in Hyllie, a suburb of the Swedish city of Malmö. The store, which opened in September, 2010, is IKEA’s “everyday best practice” store. Martin Albrecht, the store’s manager, agreed to give me a tour of the premises. “All the knowledge and wisdom of our stores is built into this one,” he said. A bin of blue-and-yellow tarpaulin bags stood at the store’s entrance. Albrecht explained that a customer, wherever he is, should always be able to see the next bin of bags. We were standing on the gray path that guides customers through an IKEA store. “We call this the Main Aisle,” Albrecht said. “You should feel safe that you can walk it and you won’t miss anything.” The Main Aisle is supposed to curve every fifty feet or so, to keep the customer interested. A path that is straight for any longer than that is called an Autobahn—a big, boring mistake. Those customers who would like to veer off the IKEA-approved route often cannot find the exit. IKEA stores have secret doors, like those in “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”: one can step through them and go directly from Living Rooms (which an IKEA store always starts with) to Children’s Rooms (“Cots are our ticket to building a lifelong relationship with our core customers,” according to an internal report) without having to look at two hundred bath mats on the way. But the hidden portals are almost impossible to find: if sticky eyeballs are the metric of success on the Internet, then IKEA rules sticky feet. Alan Penn, a professor of architectural and urban computing at University College London, conducted a study of the IKEA labyrinth and deemed it sadomasochistic. The only comparably vast shopping environment he could think of, he told the London Times, was the Bazaar of Isfahan, a seventeenth-century Persian marketplace. Albrecht, an affably earnest man in a blue-and-yellow polo shirt, led the way past several room sets. In the IKEA catalogue, the rooms are always perfectly done, but in stores the quality of their execution varies. Design experts love IKEA’s products but consider going to retrieve them a necessary evil. Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan, a co-founder of the blog Apartment Therapy, praised IKEA for “the inventiveness of their designs” and “the usability of their furniture,” but, he added, “A brand-new IKEA store that’s fully stocked can be a happy place, but one that’s been trampled by the crowds on a Saturday is an ugly place to be.” At the Malmö store, Albrecht and I ran into Gabrielle Granath and Linda Eriksson, who were tidying a room set. “We find things all over the place,” Granath said. “We find trash in the trash bins.” “Sometimes in the toilets,” Eriksson added. Granath and Eriksson explained that their job was to keep the room sets looking fresh. They change the slipcovers once a week. They cut wicks on candles and dust fake computer screens. They make sure that all the price tags aim to the left. Albrecht indicated a box of green fleece blankets, meant to complement a couch on display. “This we would call an ‘add-on,’ ” he explained. Add-ons are not the only way that IKEA encourages what it refers to, internally, as “unplanned purchasing.” When we reached the Market Hall section of the store, where IKEA sells pots, pans, and other lightweight items, Albrecht declared, “Now it’s the famous Open the Wallet section.” There, an abundance of cheap goods—flowerpots, slippers, lint rollers—encourages the customer to make a purchase, any purchase, the thinking being that IKEA shoppers buy either nothing or a lot. There is art in the visual merchandising, too. Albrecht showed me how IKEA uses a technique called “bulla bulla,” in which a bunch of items are purposely jumbled in bins, to create the impression of volume and, therefore, inexpensiveness.
IKEA constitutes a sort of borderless nation-state, with seats of power, redoubts of conservatism, second cities, imperial outposts, creative hubs, and administrative backwaters. In a letter that prefaces “A Furniture Dealer’s Testament,” the company’s constitutional text, Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA’s founder, wrote, “A well-known industrialist/politician once said that IKEA has had a greater impact on the democratization process than many political measures combined.” The capital of IKEA is Älmhult, a small village on Sweden’s southern peninsula. Kamprad, who is eighty-five, opened the first IKEA store there, in 1953. Älmhult lies halfway between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, in Småland, a remote region of barren, rocky flatland. Smålanders are known, more or less, as the Scots of Sweden. Faced with the area’s harsh winters and lack of arable soil, many of them immigrated to Minnesota in the nineteenth century. Those who didn’t are renowned for their obstinacy and thrift. The Småland ethos is central to IKEA’s self-mythology. “Like Småland’s farmers, our values are down-to-earth,” an IKEA ad from 1981 read. “We have toiled hard in a difficult field to produce sweet harvests.” Clogs and a lip full of snus are still the favored uniform of Kamprad loyalists. Kamprad’s paternal grandparents, Achim and Franziska, arrived in Småland in the winter of 1896. Immigrants from Germany, they had bought a timber estate of four hundred and forty-nine hectares near Agunnaryd, about twelve miles from Älmhult, after seeing an advertisement in the back of a hunting magazine. They established a farm there. They didn’t speak Swedish. The farm, called Elmtaryd, foundered. In the spring of 1897, after the local savings bank rejected his loan application, Achim Kamprad shot his hounds and then killed himself. His widow continued to run the farm, which in 1918 passed to her eldest son, Feodor. He married the daughter of the proprietor of the area’s biggest country store, “the old kind with four or five assistants, the smell of herring and toffees and leather,” as Ingvar Kamprad described it to Bertil Torekull in his authorized biography, “Leading by Design,” published in 1998. Ingvar was born in 1926. At Elmtaryd, Torekull writes, “the silence is still more likely to be broken by the bark of a roebuck than the sound of a tractor or a car.” I.-B. Bayley, a Kamprad cousin, recalled young Ingvar’s life there: We taught him to dance to the gramophone beneath the thick foliage of the oaks down by the church.... He caught fish and crayfish and was adventurous and bold, stuffing the crayfish he’d just caught down the back of his long johns. “Oh, no. My wife’s drone!” For Christmas in 2007, IKEA employees received a DVD about the first sixty years of Kamprad’s life. The cover featured an image of a stone wall built in the Småland style, along with a head shot of Kamprad, like a Mao or a Padre Pio. Kamprad has said that he engineered his first business deal at the age of five, when he contracted with an aunt in Stockholm to buy a hundred boxes of matches. “Then I sold the boxes at two or three öre each, sometimes even five öre,” Kamprad told Torekull. “Talk about profit margins, but I still remember the lovely feeling.” Eventually, Kamprad branched out into Christmas cards and wall hangings. He caught fish and picked lingonberries. At eleven, he made a killing in garden seeds. As Kamprad tells it, he was an Agunnarydian Iacocca: “In my last year at middle school, my first rather childish business was beginning to look rather like a real firm.” Kamprad founded IKEA at his uncle Ernst’s kitchen table, in 1943. (The “I” is for “Ingvar,” the “K” is for “Kamprad,” the “E” is for “Elmtaryd,” and the “A” is for “Agunnaryd.”) He sold fountain pens, encyclopedias, table runners, udder balm, reinforced socks. In 1948, in imitation of a competitor, he added furniture to his portfolio. The business was mostly mail-order: at six-fifty every morning, the milk bus came by the farm’s churn stand and picked up goods that had been ordered, carrying them on to the train station. In 1949, Kamprad published a circular in the national farmers’ newspaper. His appeal, “To the People of the Countryside,” read: You may have noticed that it is not easy to make ends meet. Why is this? You yourself produce goods of various kinds (milk, grain, potatoes, etc.), and I suppose you do not receive too much payment for them. No, I’m sure you don’t. And yet everything is so fantastically expensive. To a great extent, that is due to the middlemen. Compare what you receive for a kilo of pork with what the shops ask for it.... In this price list we have taken a step in the right direction by offering you goods at the same price your dealer buys for, in some cases lower. But the mail-order business proved tricky: customers were not always pleased with the items that arrived on their doorsteps. In 1952, Kamprad bought a joinery in Älmhult—his grandfather’s general store had once occupied the site—and set up a showroom, where people could come and see the goods. “At that moment, the basis of the modern IKEA concept was created, and in principle it still applies: first and foremost, use a catalogue to tempt people to come to an exhibition, which today is our store,” Kamprad later said. In 1963, IKEA opened its first store outside Sweden, in Oslo. Ten years later, IKEA was expanding so frantically that German executives accidentally opened a store in Konstanz when they had meant to open one in Koblenz.
In June, I flew to Copenhagen. From there, I look a train to Älmhult. Out the window, I glimpsed a series of glittering lakes that appeared to be populated by the hardy mothers and cherubic children of La Leche League literature. Abandoned crofts bordered wooden cottages painted Sweden’s traditional Falu red. Two and a half hours later, I reached Älmhult’s station. The town was quiet, as though a storm had just blown through. I walked across the tracks and, in five minutes, arrived at what is known as the “IKEA village”: a large parking lot surrounded by IKEA corporate offices, an IKEA store, a museum, and an IKEA hotel. Twenty-five hundred of Älmhult’s eighty-five hundred inhabitants work for IKEA. Spending time in Älmhult is a prerequisite for advancing one’s career at IKEA, and the social scene is as intense as the professional one. “It’s a very strange climate,” Johan Stenebo, the former employee, told me. “Älmhult is pretty much what you get if you live in the middle of a dark, boring forest.” It sounded like a mixture of Lowell, Massachusetts, summer camp, and “Ice Storm”-era New Canaan. According to an IKEA brochure, “At first sight, Älmhult seems very normal. But in time a sense of positive madness begins to surface.” My first appointment in Älmhult was at IKEA’s “corporate culture centre,” Tillsammans. (It means “together” in Swedish.) Michele Acuna, who had recently moved to Älmhult from Shanghai, was my guide. A native Californian in her forties, she spoke fluent IKEAn. IKEA’s products offered “solutions” to “challenges.” Its employees were “co-workers.” Kamprad was “Ingvar” or “the founder.” Rooms were “living situations,” which, a circle graph explained, are occupied by eight categories of people: “baby,” “toddler,” “starting school,” “tweens and teens,” “living single/starting out,” “living single/established,” “living together/starting out,” and “living together/established.” (The uncertainty I felt at deciding which label I qualified for reminded me why a trip to IKEA can induce existential dread.) Inside the museum, I played a magnetic matching game, pairing products with their designers. Traditionally, the names of IKEA’s bookcases derive from different occupations; curtains are given names from mathematics; and bathroom products are named for lakes and rivers. A file cabinet was filled with cards bearing unfortunate IKEA product names: ANIS, DICK, FANNY, BRACKEN (a homophone for “vomiting” in Dutch), GUTVIK (a child’s bed; it sounds like “good fuck” in German). At a poker table, I perused cards inscribed with bits of Kampradiana: the time someone tried to sell the founder an intercom system, and the founder yelled to a co-worker, “We already have one!”; the time the founder was in Romania, looking at a freezer case full of ducks, and wondered, What do they do with all the feathers? (He wanted to use them for pillows.) The feather story is to Kamprad as the cherry-tree tale is to George Washington. In another version I heard, it was China and chickens. Near a display of LACK tables, we ran into an executive—a European with reading glasses and a sweater draped over his shoulders. “It is one of the most copied,” he said, of LACK. “So many have tried to do the same. But they make it a little more ugly.” He, Acuna, and the P.R. person who had accompanied us dissolved into a round of giggles. On the way out the door, I noticed a video of Kamprad, in a chambray shirt and gold chain, playing on a nearby screen. It also showed men and women prying stones out of the Smålandian soil with what looked like a large spoon. “As long as earth has houses for people, there will also be a need for a strong and efficient IKEA,” a narrator intoned. Acuna looked me in the eyes. “You know that’s the vision of the company—to create a better life for the many?”
That night, I stayed at the IKEA hotel. Its Web site promises, “Guests sleep well and wake up refreshed, without art or frills.” The lounge area was fresh and bright, like a scene from the IKEA catalogue. I sat on a candy-striped KARLSTAD chair and listened to supply managers discuss the respective turnaround times of China and Pakistan in global English. Swedish-speaking men with mustaches wore short-sleeved plaid shirts and drank Eriksberg beer. Ostensibly, this was a public space, but I felt as if I had walked into a bar where everybody had been at the same wedding. Behind the reception desk was a series of candy jars filled with gummy bears and caramels. Why was the receptionist smiling so broadly? Were the toasting salesmen bit players in some sort of Älmhultian “Truman Show”? IKEA is obsessed with lista, which translates as “making do.” IKEA employees, including the C.E.O., travel in coach. To save money, the company uses employees as models for its catalogues. “I’m tall, so the furniture looks too small when I’m standing by it,” one told me. “So I usually have to be sitting or lying down on a couch.” In “A Furniture Dealer’s Testament,” Kamprad writes, “It is not only for cost reasons that we avoid the luxury hotels. We don’t need flashy cars, impressive titles, uniforms or other status symbols. We rely on our strength and our will!” (Don’t order that ficus!) Kamprad drives a beat-up Volvo. He is reported to recycle tea bags. He is known to pocket the salt and pepper packets at restaurants. He has ranked as high as fifth on Forbes’s list of the world’s richest people. IKEA’s utopian strain derives partly from Swedish tradition. In the nineteenth century, Carl Larsson’s influential watercolors depicted halcyon scenes of family life—blond children, blond furniture, teapots, kittens, striped cotton rugs. In the nineteen-thirties, the social-democratic movement advanced the idea of the folkhemmet—“the people’s home”—using the home as a metaphor for its vision of a harmonious, classless Sweden. After the war, the folkhemmet became manifest in the Scandinavian design movement, which envisaged a world in which beautiful things would be made accessible to everyone through mass production. The Swedish welfare state built more than a million new dwellings, and issued advice on interior design, health, and hygiene. “What IKEA did then was to commercialize this idea,” Cilla Robach, a curator at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Stockholm, told me. “Ingvar Kamprad understood quite early how to change the social-democratic ideology into money and make an industry of it.” IKEA is Legos for grownups, connecting the furniture of our adulthoods with the toys of our childhoods. IKEA is proud of its egalitarianism. Perks such as special parking places and corporate dining rooms are not considered “IKEA-mässigt”—acceptable in the IKEA world view—and co-workers who are thought to be snobbish are quickly disabused of their pretensions, or their positions: “If you don’t fit, you quit.” A recent edition of ReadMe, IKEA’s internal magazine, featured an article entitled “Step Inside—into two co-workers’ bathrooms,” in which a human-resources employee from Lisbon discussed her bidet. The sense of |
, now the CEO of Connacht.
It was a disappointing end to the European season for the westerners, and Gatland moved on to the Ireland job just over three months later.
Connacht (v Agen): Willie Ruane; Nicky Barry, Pat Duignan, Mervyn Murphy, Nigel Carolan; Eric Elwood, Conor McGuinness; John Maher, William Mulcahy, Michael Finlay; Graham Heaslip (capt.), Mark McConnell; Shane McEntee, Junior Charlie, Barry Gavin. Replacements: Russell Southam, Bernard Jackman, Martin Cahill, Rory Rogers.
2002/03
Connacht had to wait another four seasons to play their next knock-out game in the Challenge Cup, which underwent a restructuring for the start of the 2002/03 season.
Instead of pool stages, the competition was played on a knock-out basis from the very start, with direct head-to-heads fought out on a home-and-away basis.
Head coach Steph Nel guided Connacht past Mont-de-Marsan in Round 1, winning at home and away, before they squeezed past Narbonne on a 50-49 aggregate scoreline to set up a quarter-final meeting with Welsh side Pontypridd.
Eoin Reddan dives for possession against Pontypridd. Source: ©INPHO
The first leg was played at the Sportsground and proved to be a thrilling encounter that ended in defeat for Connacht. Back rows Johnny O’Connor and Colm Rigney both scored tries, with wing Wayne Munn adding a brace and Elwood kicking 10 points.
But a Pontypridd side that included Sonny Parker, Ceri Sweeney, Gethin Jenkins, Rob Sidoli and Brent Cockbain, as well as Neil Jenkins off the bench, emerged 35-30 winners.
A week later in Sardis Road, Connacht managed only three penalties through Elwood to lose 12-9 and exit the tournament. The likes of Gavin Duffy, Eoin Reddan and Jerry Flannery would go onto greater things, but again there was disappointment.
Connacht (v Pontypridd, second leg): Mark McHugh; Gavin Duffy, Darren Yapp, Shane Moore (capt.), Wayne Munn; Eric Elwood, Eoin Reddan; Ronan McCormack, Jerry Flannery, Peter Bracken; Damian Browne, Rowan Frost; Colm Rigney, John O’Sullivan, Johnny O’Connor. Replacements: Chris Keane, Marthinus Uijs, Dan McFarland, Michael Swift, Eric Peters.
2003/04
Connacht learned their lesson from the season before and went a step further in the Challenge Cup in 2003/04.
Having negotiated their way past Béziers and Pau in the opening two rounds, the province saw off Narbonne in the quarters on a 43-28 aggregate scoreline to secure a semi-final against Harlequins.
A relatively fresh-faced Michael Swift powers into contact. Source: INPHO
A late try from Will Greenwood added sheen to the English side’s win at home in the first leg of the tie, further scores from George Harder, Mel Dean and Ugo Monye helping them towards a 31-22 scoreline.
Flanker Matt Lacey score Connacht’s only try at the Stoop as Elwood kept the province in touch. However, it left Nel’s men with an uphill battle two weekends later in Galway.
Darren Yapp is tackled by former teammate Gavin Duffy. Source: INPHO
Ultimately, it was the kicking of Quins out-half Paul Burke - a former Connacht U20 cap – that undid the western province, while the presence of Duffy at fullback in the visitors’ team hurt too.
Darren Yapp and Elwood both scored tries for Bernard Jackman-captained Connacht, while Mark McHugh slammed over two conversion and two penalties, but a 23-18 second-leg win for Connacht wasn’t enough.
Quins snuck through to the final as 49-45 aggregate winners.
Connacht (v Harlequins, second leg): David Hewitt; Conor McPhillips, Darren Yapp, Mark McHugh, Wayne Munn; Eric Elwood, Michael Walls; Dan McFarland, Bernard Jackman (captain), Peter Bracken; Damian Browne, Andrew Farley; Michael Swift, Matt Lacey, John O’Sullivan. Replacements: John Fogarty, Adrian Clarke, Mike McCarthy, Paul Neville, Conor O’Loughlin, Shane Moore, Ted Robinson.
2004/05
With the competition running in the same format as the previous season, 2004/05 saw Michael Bradley’s mean beat three French opponents again to reach the semi-finals, as they saw off Narbonne, Montpellier and then Grenoble.
Sale Sharks lay in wait in the last four, and got off to the perfect start to the tie with a 25-18 victory at the Sportsground as Sebastien Chabal and Mark Cueto [2] scored tries and Mike Hercus added the rest of the points.
Eric Elwood makes a half break in the first leg against Sale. Source: INPHO
Elwood popped over a conversion, drop goal and penalty, while captain Andrew Farley and flanker Lacey scored the tries, but the Irish province were left in a difficult situation before visiting Edgeley Park later in April.
The polished Sharks proved utterly clinical in dismantling Connacht on a 59-9 scoreline in that second leg to power into the final, which they won [as had Harlequins after beating Connacht the year before].
Jason Robinson was part of the vintage Sharks side. Source: Jed Wee/Sportsbeat Images
Paul Warwick was preferred to Elwood at out-half for that second leg, while the likes of James Downey and current Connacht analyst Conor McPhillips attempted in vain to stem the tide.
Connacht (v Sale, second leg): Matt Mostyn; Conor McPhillips, Mark McHugh, James Downey, Ted Robinson,; Paul Warwick, Chris Keane; Ray Hogan, Bernard Jackman, Peter Bracken; Christian Short, Andrew Farley (capt.); Michael Swift, Brendan O’Connor, John O’Sullivan. Replacements: Stephen Knoop, Michael Carroll, Paul Neville, Michael Walls, Eric Elwood, David Slemen.
2005/06
With the Challenge Cup having returned to a pool format followed by single-leg knock-out ties, Connacht earned their quarter-final by finishing as runners up in a pool that contained Worcester, Catania and Montpellier.
Bradley’s side were drawn away to Rob Andrew’s Newcastle in the knock-out stages. Despite the absence of Jonny Wilkinson, the Falcons proved far too strong for Connacht and won 23-3 at Kingston Park.
Indeed, it was out-half Toby Flood who inspired Newcastle with a superb first-half try, while Mike McCarthy’s score [the flanker/lock had spent the '03/04 season with Connacht before moving back to England] did further damage.
Mark McHugh on the attack against the Falcons. Source: Lorraine O'Sullivan/INPHO
Jamie Noon, Colin Charvis, Geoff Parling and Matt Burke were all part of the victorious Falcons XV.
Connacht’s sole score was a Warwick penalty, the Australian having now replaced Elwood as the province’s out-half. John Muldoon got a taste of European knock-out rugby in the back row, while Tongan international Andrew Mailei featured at centre.
Connacht (v Newcastle): Mark McHugh; Matt Mostyn, Andrew Mailei, Keith Matthews, Conor McPhillips; Paul Warwick, Chris Keane; Ray Hogan, John Fogarty, Stephen Knoop; Dave Gannon, Andrew Farley; John Muldoon, Matt Lacey, Colm Rigney. Replacements: Joe Merrigan, Adrian Clarke, Christian Short, Michael Swift, Tom Tierney, David Slemen, Gavin Williams.
2008/09
After two seasons of third-placed pool finishes, Connacht once again returned to the knock-out stages in the 2008/09 campaign, still under the stewardship of former Ireland international Bradley.
Second place behind London Irish in a pool that also featured Dax and Rovigo was enough to secure a quarter-final, again away to strong English opposition.
Northampton’s intimidating pack proved far too efficient for Connacht at Franklin’s Gardens, sending the Premiership side on their way to a 42-13 success in which three Connacht players were sin binned.
Ian Keatley and Troy Nathan were powerless in Franklin's Gardens. Source: Lorraine O'Sullivan/INPHO
Gavin Duffy, Johnny O’Connor and Brian McGovern all saw yellow, as Ray Ofisa’s try and eight points from out-half Ian Keatley did little to stem the tide. Irish back row Neil Best was among the try-scorers for the dominant Saints.
Sean Cronin, Fionn Carr and Frank Murphy all featured in a Connacht side captained by John Muldoon, but the defeat was comprehensive.
Connacht (v Northampton): Gavin Duffy; Fionn Carr, Keith Matthews, Niva Ta’auso, Liam Bibo; Ian Keatley, Frank Murphy; Brett Wilkinson, Sean Cronin, Ronan Loughney; Andrew Browne, Andrew Farley; John Muldoon (capt.), Johnny O’Connor, Ray Ofisa. Replacements: Adrian Flavin, Brian McGovern, Michael Swift, Colm Rigney, Conor O’Loughlin, Andy Dunne, Troy Nathan.
2009/10
And so we come to Connacht’s most recent foray into the knock-out stages of the Challenge Cup, and one that very nearly proved to be their most successful of all. Having reached the semi-finals in 2004 and 2005, Bradley’s final season saw them reach the last four again.
Topping a pool that included Montpellier, Worcester and Olympus Madrid was vital, as it handed Connacht a home quarter-final against French side Bourgoin.
Miah Nikora celebrates his dramatic winning drop goal. Source: Lorraine O'Sullivan/INPHO
A huge crowd at the Sportsground saw Michael Swift and John Muldoon run in tries in a 23-20 victory, but it was the 78th-minute Miah Nikora drop kick that won the game for Connacht.
Keatley had converted both tries and added a penalty, before Nikora entered the fray to kick a penalty and then clinch the game in dramatic circumstances. Connacht’s reward was a home semi-final against rising French power Toulon.
In their second season back in the Top 14 – where they were on their way to a semi-final – Mourad Boujellal’s club brought names likes Jonny Wilkinson, Joe van Niekerk, Sonny Bill Williams, Juan Fernandez Lobbe and Irishman Tim Ryan to the Sportsground.
Sonny Bill Williams was among the Toulon replacements. Source: Cathal Noonan/INPHO
Connacht fought superbly against the French side, scoring four penalties through Keatley, but a Mafi Kefu penalty and 14 points from Wilkinson were enough to send the Englishman into his first-ever European final after a 19-12 win.
Bradley departed at the end of the season and Connacht have not featured in a European knock-out game since. That will change on Friday evening in Kingsholm.
Connacht (v Toulon): Gavin Duffy; Troy Nathan, Niva Ta’auso, Aidan Wynne, Fionn Carr; Ian Keatley, Frank Murphy; Brett Wilkinson, Sean Cronin, Jamie Hagan; Michael Swift, Mike McCarthy; John Muldoon (capt.), Johnny O’Connor, George Naoupu. Replacements: Adrian Flavin, Ronan Loughney, Bernie Upton, Mike McComish, Conor O’Loghlin, Miah Nikora, Brian Tuohy, Robbie Morris.
- All teams and scorers courtesy of EPCR.BEIRUT: The government intends to apply new fees on certain imported items to protect Lebanese industry and combat dumping of cheap goods, Industry Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan said Wednesday.
“The government plans to introduce a package of taxes and fees on certain imported goods in the coming few weeks.
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“This proposal was made by Prime Minister Saad Hariri and adopted by all ministers,” Hajj Hasan said during a ceremony at the Association of Lebanese Industrialists.
He added that Hariri has asked the industry and economy ministers to impose new taxes on specific imported goods to crack down on dumping in the Lebanese market.
The minister said the items that will be subject to the new fees are white cheese, yogurt, eggs, cut stones, industrial paper, garments, jewelry, shoes, steel, aluminum, plastic, flour and artifacts.
He said the government had to take this measure because many of the importing countries are not respecting the conditions of the World Trade Organization.
“Many countries that export their goods to Lebanon are subsidizing their industries, which makes it very difficult for the local manufacturers to compete in a fair way,” Hajj Hasan said.
Lebanese industrialists have consistently lobbied governments to reduce the cost of production and review some of the free trade agreements with countries that do not comply with WTO conditions.
Hajj Hasan added that merchants in Lebanon are importing any product that is cheaper than in Lebanon.
“If we don’t impose protective fees then Lebanese industrialists will reduce production and ultimately this will lead to a drop in sales and maybe the closure of the industrial plants,” he warned.
The minister repeated that the closure of factories and more unemployment would have a negative impact on the economy
“We need to import less and we must strive to increase our industrial exports from $2.2 billion to $4.4 billion, a figure we achieved in 2011,” Hajj Hasan said.
He emphasized that over 200,000 Lebanese families make their living from industry.
Fadi Gemayel, president of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists, echoed the minister’s calls to protect Lebanese industry. He called on the government to pay more attention to the industrial sector and to apply reciprocal treatment to any country that blocks the import of Lebanese-made goods for a variety of reasons. Gemayel told The Daily Star that there was nothing wrong with Lebanese-made goods, adding that the industrial sector creates more jobs than any other sector.
“We will not remain idle until all our demands have been fulfilled. We are only asking for reciprocal treatment. That’s all,” he added.
At the end of the ceremony, Hajj Hasan awarded an ISO quality control certificate to the Association of Lebanese Industrialists.
© Copyright The Daily Star 2017.The chairman of the League of Legends professional side Team Imagine also happens to be the owner of the pharmaceutical company that has sparked wide outrage for sharply raising the price of one of its drugs.
Martin Shkreli, whose League of Legends handle is "Cerebral," entered eSports as a team owner earlier this year, creating the team Odyssey in April. It merged with Imagine in August.
Shkreli is more notorious, however, as the owner of Turing Pharmaceuticals, which acquired the drug Daraprim in August and immediately raised its price to $750 per tablet. It had been $13.50 per tablet. Daraprim is used to treat a parasitic infection and is of particular need to those who have AIDS.
The pill was $13.50 per tablet. Now it's $750. The CEO says the company needs to make money.
Two medical associations condemned the price hike and Hillary Clinton, seeking the Democratic nomination for president, called it "outrageous" price gouging and said she would lay out an agenda to deal with it, if she is elected.
Some League of Legends fans have wondered if Riot Games, LoL's maker, could ban Shkreli or his team from the League of Legends Championship Series over this, citing language in the official rules for the current season. It's not certain that it applies to Shkreli's conduct separate from the game or team administration.
Shkreli's comments on the price hike have won him few friends. To Bloomberg, he acknowledged that while costs of production and distribution have risen in the 60 years Daraprim has been on the market, they haven't risen commensurately with the 5,500 percent hike in the pill's cost. Shkreli noted the drug's age and that Turing was investing in creating a "more effective and less toxic" version of Daraprim.
Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager who started Turing, said Daraprim had been pulling in $5 million in revenue and that his start-up needed it to bring in significantly more. He later added that around half of the pills Turing produces from now on would be provided free of charge and that those who need it but are unable to pay would not be denied it. However, even patients who do have insurance could have to pay $150 per tablet by themselves, under common co-pay provisions for drugs like Daraprim.
In May, The Daily Dot reported on Shkreli's entry into the eSports scene and noted that after left the company Retrophin, which he also founded and had been CEO, it filed a statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission outlining a long list of misconduct by Shkreli. The allegations included large payouts and transfers of stock, leading to lawsuits against him and the company. The filing also said Shkreli was under a criminal investigation by a U.S. Attorney's office in New York. Shkreli has denied these allegations.
Team Imagine's most recent performance was a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Team 8 in the League Championship Series Promotion Tournament held Sept. 6. It had been seeking a bid to the North American Spring Season of the League Championship Series next year. Prior to the loss, Team Imagine made the semifinals of the NACS Summer Playoffs, losing to eventual winner Renegades, but claiming the third-place match against Cloud 9 Tempest.Despite playing two wingers, visitors demonstrated once again against Everton they need to be more creative in final third
This was another poor attacking performance from Tottenham Hotspur, and it is remarkable that André Villas-Boas' side are fourth in the Premier League having scored only nine goals in 10 matches.
Spurs have depended on their excellent defensive record – only five goals conceded – but these raw statistics are rather misleading, suggesting Villas-Boas deliberately sacrifices attacking firepower in order to keep it tight at the back. In reality, Spurs are one of the division's more adventurous sides – they have the second-highest average share of possession, behind Manchester City, and have attempted the most shots. They have simply not been creative or clinical enough.
For this trip to Goodison Park, Villas-Boas continued with two wingers, Andros Townsend and Aaron Lennon. The former is capable of going down the line but generally cuts inside before shooting with his left foot, whereas Lennon's deployment on the left flank hampers his crossing ability without boosting his goalscoring potential. Lennon presented Roberto Soldado with one fine early chance but otherwise both wingers were unproductive.
Spurs were actually dominating possession too much in the first half.
Townsend and Lennon are more suited to direct attacking: Townsend impressed on England duty by driving forward powerfully from deep positions, while Lennon's best contributions are in similar situations – think of his assist for Peter Crouch at the San Siro, for example. Neither are regular goalscorers or proficient at playing clever through-balls, and neither was particularly useful in this situation.
While Soldado is adept at converting crosses, he is not a limited, old-fashioned target man who depends solely on that method of service. At Valencia, he was equally capable of bursting past the opposition's back four on to through-balls, often finishing first time from clever angles. In this Tottenham side, it is difficult to pinpoint a player capable of playing those type of passes.
A peculiar but perhaps revealing statistic is that Spurs have been caught offside fewer times, nine, than any other Premier League team. Being flagged offside is clearly not a virtue in itself, but it is a natural consequence of having a striker regularly sprinting on to through-balls, something evidently not happening at Spurs.
Lewis Holtby is tactically intelligent but not a catalyst in the manner of Oscar or Mesut Özil, and it is extremely rare to see Spurs' attacking quartet combining in dangerous zones. Lennon, Townsend, Holtby and Soldado seem like independent actors, and the closest thing Spurs have had to cohesion this season is when Gylfi Sigurdsson and Christian Eriksen have been fielded together, forming clever triangles with Soldado towards the left of the pitch against Norwich and Chelsea.
It is understandable, given so many arrivals and the departure of last season's star performer, that Villas-Boas is still attempting to find his best attacking combination – but he still seems surprisingly far away from an adequate solution. Eriksen is surely the key player, while the Argentinian attacker Erik Lamela will grow in prominence over the course of the season.
Villas-Boas will be reluctant to make any changes that risk jeopardising the fine defensive record and Spurs do not need to become more attacking, simply more efficient with their attacking.The NBC/SurveyMonkey poll out Monday finds that 63 percent of likely voters say Donald Trump doesn’t respect women much or at all. | Getty Poll: After bombshell video, 63 percent say Trump doesn't respect women
A majority of likely voters say Donald Trump doesn’t respect women, according to a new poll released days after a video surfaced showing the GOP nominee making sexually aggressive and lewd comments toward women.
The NBC/SurveyMonkey poll out Monday finds that 63 percent of likely voters say Trump doesn’t respect women much or at all. The online poll, conducted between Oct. 3 and Oct. 9, shows that in the four days before Friday’s revelation of the video, 55 percent of likely voters said that Trump doesn’t respect women.
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In the video out Friday, Trump makes strikingly obscene comments about women, including bragging about groping their genitals. During Sunday's debate, Trump said he hadn't done the deeds he detailed in the leaked clip, but the fallout from the video was already massive, with dozens of GOP elected officials denouncing Trump and some pulling back their endorsements.
The poll results also come after Trump feuded with a former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado, who he had previously called “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping.” Machado bounded into the spotlight after Hillary Clinton brought her name up during the first presidential debate in late September.
Not surprisingly, the poll finds that the video hurts Trump’s standing with women. Before the video was out, 64 percent of women said Trump didn’t respect women. But after the video was out, 69 percent of women said Trump didn’t respect women.
Also, if the election were held today, Clinton would beat Trump by 5 points – 46 percent to 41 percent – in a four-way match, according to the poll. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson would take 8 percent and Green Party candidate Jill Stein would garner 3 percent.
The NBC/SurveyMonkey poll was conducted online using a nation sample of 23,329 likely voters drawn from users of its surveys, with an error of plus or minus 1 percentage points.6 6.0
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san diego padres san diego padres it's a big market but they're not one of the teams that has been out there. >> apparently never won a world series >> i think they have been in one maybe. >> what is it in poker when you put all the chips -- all in. >> all in on manny. >> how old is he in year ten of this >> 36 or 35. >> okay. >> manny good for manny. >> good for manny. thank you for watching, everybody. >> "closing bell" right now. ♪ >>> good afternoon welcome to the "closing bell." i'm wilfred frost. >> i'm sara eisen. president trump considering auto tariffs on foreign made cars bob lutz and jim press both here with what that could mean for the industry. >>> plus, an interview of paypal ceo dan schulman what he told me about competition in the payment space and comments on facebook and amazon all to come. >>> first up, though, what the markets are doing one hour before the close a big improvement from what we saw this morning futures were lower early before the bell and there's been a turnaround the dow up walmart's a big part of that story. better earnings. s&p strong up.4 the nasdaq also charging ahead almost half a percent higher coming off of eight straight gains. >> below the open, high of the session, now. >> that's been a trend lately. >> europe closed and that was not a majorly soft session and negative and allowed the u.s. equity markets to pick up. >> what is helping shares of walmart soaring after a big beat on earnings record holiday sales after the government's december retail sales report showed the biggest decline since 2009 what does it say about the health of the consumer bring in simeon siegal and kate rogers following walmart what is the general take on the consumer versus the comeback story? >> hey there, sara yeah, a takeaway and hearing from the ceo doug mcmillan and talked with the cfo by phone that they really feel the consumer is strong right now i know we have been concerned about potential softness, a slowdown in the year to come and not the story we heard from walmart today. obviously, they're monitoring that but to walk you through the big numbers today, u.s. same store sales up 4.2%, compared to estimates of 3.2%, the 18th consecutive positive comp, a really important stat. also, their e-commerce group up 43% in this quarter and up 40% for the full year. those are really impressive stats and seeing strength, continuing to monitor the situation, but from the walmart perspective things look really strong right now. >> kate, and on a two-year view, i think they recorded their best same store sales growth in ten,The Giants have lost another starting outfielder to injury.
Left fielder Nori Aoki was diagnosed Tuesday with a fracture in his right fibula, two days after being hit by a pitch from the Dodgers' Carlos Frias. Aoki will be placed on the 15-day disabled list but is expected to be out longer.
MORE: Is your NL team a buyer or a seller? | Bumgarner strikes out 14 in Giants' loss
Aoki was a late scratch Tuesday after testing the leg during batting practice.
“I was definitely surprised,” Aoki said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “I came here ready to play. It was really weird that it got really worse at that point.”
The Giants were already without right fielder Hunter Pence (wrist), who is on the DL. Pence's return date is uncertain.
The Chronicle's Henry Schulman reported that Travis Ishikawa will likely be called up from Triple-A Sacramento to replace Aoki. Schulman speculated that the Giants could play Ishikawa at first base, and shift first baseman Brandon Belt to left field, against right-handers.
Ishikawa, a left-handed hitter, will provide a much-needed power threat. The Giants are tied for 12th in the National League with 56 home runs. He became an unlikely postseason hero last year when he hit a walkoff homer against the Cardinals to clinch the NLCS. He started five games in the World Series.In 1914 the Ottoman Empire was depleted of men and resources after years of war against Balkan nationalist and Italian forces. But in the aftermath of the assassination in Sarajevo, the powers of Europe were sliding inexorably toward war, and not even the Middle East could escape the vast and enduring consequences of one of the most destructive conflicts in human history. The Great War spelled the end of the Ottomans, unleashing powerful forces that would forever change the face of the Middle East.
In The Fall of the Ottomans, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan brings the First World War and its immediate aftermath in the Middle East to vivid life, uncovering the often ignored story of the region’s crucial role in the conflict. Bolstered by German money, arms, and military advisors, the Ottomans took on the Russian, British, and French forces, and tried to provoke Jihad against the Allies in their Muslim colonies. Unlike the static killing fields of the Western Front, the war in the Middle East was fast-moving and unpredictable, with the Turks inflicting decisive defeats on the Entente in Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, and Gaza before the tide of battle turned in the Allies’ favor. The great cities of Baghdad, Jerusalem, and, finally, Damascus fell to invading armies before the Ottomans agreed to an armistice in 1918.
The postwar settlement led to the partition of Ottoman lands between the victorious powers, and laid the groundwork for the ongoing conflicts that continue to plague the modern Arab world. A sweeping narrative of battles and political intrigue from Gallipoli to Arabia, The Fall of the Ottomans is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the Great War and the making of the modern Middle East.This just in: people still cannot repeal the laws of supply and demand.
Ride-sharing companies are bowing to regulatory pressure to limit price increases during disasters. This means some people might be left out in the cold as price controls reduce the number of rides supplied and raise the number of rides demanded. In the name of "helping" people, governments are creating shortages.
It isn't all bad as prices will be allowed to rise: Slate reports that Uber and Lyft will be able to raise prices in response to changing market conditions, but Lyft's "Prime Time" pricing means prices will not more than double and Uber's "surges in Boston will be capped at 2.9 times the normal fare and in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut at 2.8 times the normal fare." If the market price is below these caps, then the caps are non-binding and they should not affect the number of rides offered and bought.
If the market price for an Uber ride is more than 2.8 times the normal fare in New York, then there's a problem. Economists have said before that rising prices are like a signal flare that tells people to move scarce resources toward the areas in which the prices are rising. Price controls mean a lot of people don't get the message.
Consider what might happen if prices were allowed to fluctuate freely. There are lots of people living in unaffected areas who have four-wheel drive vehicles. There are probably a lot of potential drivers within a few hours of the affected area. Rising prices would probably draw some of them into New York and Boston where they could earn extra money getting people to safety. If prices are kept below their market-clearing level (or if special licenses are needed to offer rides for hire), a lot of people will just stay home.
Last year, winter weather turned Birmingham into a tangled mess resembling a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Disasters can bring out the best in people, and it was really encouraging to see people going out of their way to help people who were stranded. The kindness of strangers has its limits, however, and I can't help but wonder how much more effective relief efforts would have been had we been able to appeal not only to strangers' kindness, but also their self-interest.
It is tempting to say shortages are worth it if it means protecting people from price gougers. This is cold comfort (literally) for people stranded without a ride. The comfort goes away, though, when we consider two additional effects of the controls. First, laws against price-gouging don't change the fact that people are willing to pay a lot for a ride, but they change the way people pay. They can "pay" for a ride with cash, by waiting, or with some combination of the two. Limiting people's ability to pay with cash means they will pay by waiting longer or by trying to find other ways to get around.
If I value my time at $10 an hour, for example, and I am only allowed to pay $100 for a ride for which I would gladly pay $150, I might pay for the ride with $100 in cash and five hours of waiting around. Those five hours are wasted time, and I am no better off than I would have been had I been allowed to pay $150.
Second, prosecuting price gougers diverts attention from dealing with the destruction caused by the storm. Is fielding complaints about "price gougers" and then prosecuting them really the best use of municipal resources?
I'll admit I was tempted for a few minutes to write a clickbait headline like "Do Regulators Want New Yorkers to Freeze?" Headlines like that are absurd because the answer is an obvious "no." The controls are probably in place because the regulators think they are doing riders a favor. As I tell my students, meaning well is not the same as doing good, and when we impose price controls after disasters, we just make things worse.It was her cell phone. She was on her property. And they were handcuffing her husband on the ground.
Yet when Heather Donald used her cell phone to videotape the arrest of her husband Thomas, the police took the cell phone from her and later commanded her to delete the footage. In so doing, they violated her First Amendment right to record and report about their conduct.
According to the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to a call from Heather about a possible trespassing. When they arrived at the Donalds’ home, Thomas pointed what appeared to be a loaded gun at them. Heather says that her husband held up the “open shotgun” with his left hand while holding the shell in his right hand to indicate the weapon was not loaded and to assure the officers that he was not a threat. All agree that a deputy, Shawn Shoor, pointed his pistol at Thomas and told him to lie on the ground. Thomas complied, and Shoor handcuffed him.
Heather did not interfere with Shoor in any way. Because she was concerned that her husband was being mistreated, however, she began to film the events with her cell phone. In the video, Shoor tells Heather that she “can stop” filming. When she continues to film, a second officer informs her that the police need to take the cell phone as “evidence.” The second officer then confiscates the phone.
Heather claims that the deputies later commanded her to delete the video before they returned the phone and that she did so, but a recovery program saved her footage.
If Heather was indeed commanded to delete her footage, it was an egregious abuse of police authority and a violation of Heather’s constitutional rights. The First Amendment guarantees the right to record and report upon matters of public interest. It prevents the government from limiting the stock of information available to the public, as well as covering up overly aggressive police tactics.
As the U.S. Supreme Court stated in Near v. Minnesota, “In determining the extent of the constitutional protection [of the press], it has generally, if not universally, considered that it is the chief purpose of the guaranty to prevent previous restraints.”
Accordingly, federal courts that have considered the issue have held that citizens have a constitutional right to film officers who are performing their duties in public places, subject to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions. Given that Heather was on her own property, no such restrictions would apply to her filming of the arrest.
While, thankfully, Heather’s footage was preserved, we should insist that government officials comply with our First Amendment right to make recordings like this one. Today, cell phones are an increasingly important means of recording and publishing information. Allowing officials to force citizens to delete video footage on their cell phones would encourage those officials to crack down on a tremendously effective means of exposing violations of individual liberties. We can’t let ourselves be cut off like this.
The Heritage Foundation’s project USA vs. YOU spotlights the flood of criminal laws threatening our liberties. Explore more stories of overcriminalization and find out what you can do to reverse this trend.As a part of our very special, Volume II: Music Issue, we talked to singer-songwriter and unapologetic vagina enthusiast, Tove Lo, about what her vagina tattoo means to her and why more woman should be proud of their lady parts.
“Excuse me, what’s that symbol on your jacket?”
“A vagina,” I said.
“Oh, come on, my wife’s right here.”
“Well, she has one, so hopefully she’s not offended.”
My whole crew (of two girls and eight dudes) and I walked away smiling, with my vagina logo on the backs of our tour jackets. It’s the same symbol I, along with many of our fans, have tattooed on my arm. To some people, like that couple, “showing off” the vagina in any way is seen as something shocking and scandalous.
I don't know if it's their religious or cultural beliefs that make them think it’s something to be ashamed of, but I know for sure I don’t feel that way: You should be proud of your vagina — it's a cool and positive part of you! Being open and free about the body and self-love (the way I am) can be provocative — but that doesn’t mean that it's bad or dangerous.
My vagina tattoo reminds me not to make myself smaller, which is often what’s expected of women. To be loud is to be seen as being a troublemaker. As girls, we’re often not encouraged to speak up. I’m allowed to claim my space. The symbol, which is also on the cover of my album Lady Wood, is a reminder to go for the things that scare you but also give you a rush. People tell me all the time that I’m a chick with balls. It’s supposed to be a compliment, but really it’s insulting. Women don’t need balls to be brave. Our vaginas will do just fine.
Go Inside Our Out-Of-This-World MUSIC Issue! Arrow
Don't forget to subscribe now to get our new, out-of-this-world MUSIC issue!
Related: Halsey Opens Up About Living With Bipolar Disorder and How Criticism Affects HerMini Teaser: Germany is no longer Europe’s most troublesome player. It’s now an indispensable nation. The power of this transformation is personified by Chancellor Angela Merkel and her delicate political and diplomatic balancing act.
BACK IN November 2011, as Europe struggled with its ongoing financial crisis, Poland’s foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, gave a speech in Berlin that beckoned toward his country’s western neighbor and pleaded with it to save the euro. “You know full well that nobody else can do it,” said Sikorski. “I will probably be the first Polish foreign minister in history to say so, but here it is: I fear German power less than I am beginning to fear German inactivity. You have become Europe’s indispensable nation.”
Indispensable? This was an extraordinary statement |
of your interviews and did a little bit of research around how you guys take care of the quality of your beers.
Greg: Right. Yes. I’m still struggling with the idea that you would bring up a fizzy yellow beer in our conversation.
Nathan: Sorry, I wasn’t aware of these ethics. But let’s get back to the business stuff because I’m really curious because it feels like you’re a little bit playing it down, Greg. But in this space you’ve essentially disrupted an industry. And I’m curious to go back to how it all started, you know, what fueled that. You talked about how you just wanted to make great beers and you wanted to challenge the status quo. Was there anything else that drove that? Obviously, from the sounds of it, you didn’t care about how much money you were making, you just wanted to make great beers.
Greg: Right. Well, we had to make enough money to be able to have a successful business. Because if we didn’t make enough money, eventually we would have to close our doors. And then, you know, we couldn’t, you know… The goal was, of course, to be a part of the craft beer revolution. But, you know, we’ve had a no-advertising policy for our 18 years, and so we’ve actually, you know, been growing at an approximate rate of 50% a year for 18 years, on an average annual growth basis.
And the basic philosophy we have is to brew the beers that we feel we should brew and not to brew the beers that people think that maybe they want. And this is very important because if you look at any art in the world… And I consider what we do art. You know, beer is the brewer’s art. If you leave it to the public to curate the art, they will gravitate towards the lowest common denominator. And if you, instead, curate the experience for them and you create things that you truly believe in, then you’re going to get a better result.
And we can look for an analogy. The best bands in history. You know, the best bands in history were ones that followed their own muse, were very good at what they did, but went their own way and didn’t necessarily try and create the popular style of the day, or regurgitate it. And it’s a lot of times, you know, who was asking for, you know, U2 or Metallica or The Rolling Stones before The Rolling Stones or U2 or Metallica even existed. Right? They each sort if created their own genre, they created their own niche just by being who they were.
I’ve actually always loved a Metallica quote that I saw on a music magazine in 1991 just after the Black Album was released. And I love the quote they put on the front cover, which was, “Metallica didn’t go to number one, number one came to them.” And that really spoke to me. You know, this philosophy that, “Let’s just be who we are at Stone.” Let’s work on being great. It’s going to be our version of great, not somebody else’s version. And those who agree with us, they’re going to love what we do. And those who don’t agree with us, maybe they won’t like what we do. And that our loyalty in our efforts should go and be for the people who do like what we do, not to try and please the people who don’t like what we do.
Nathan: And how did you come up with these philosophies? Were these philosophies that you and Steve came up with when you first started just straight off? Or, like, what influenced this?
Greg: Well, so essentially we did have these philosophies from the beginning, although I don’t know if I would have phrased it exactly the same way. I’ve had, you know, 18 years to think about how to, you know, describe it. But we did start off at the very beginning thinking, look, Steve and I had been home brewing for many years, I’d been a beer geek for many years, I’d become quite educated about beer, and I realized that I could either use that education that I gained and use my own personal tastes and beliefs when it came to beer or I could throw that all out the window and we could make stuff that was what people thought they wanted. And I thought, well, if I’m going to throw all that out the window, I’m just going to stay home because I’m not interested in brewing generic beer. So I’m not interesting brewing mass homogenized, you know, no-character beers. Like fizzy yellow beer in green bottles from a European country, for example.
Nathan: Got you.
Greg: And so we decided right from the very beginning that we had to follow our own muse and do it our own way and accept it if people didn’t like it. As long as we knew that the result was a result that we were proud of.
Nathan: So you said it was you need to make money, but at the same stage you didn’t brew beers to please anyone else but yourself.
Greg: True. If you go back to the music analogy, like, think of…you know, try and put yourself in the mindset of your favorite band, you know, recording their seminal album. Probably they are really focused on making a great album and creating great art and not focused on trying to manipulate their art to try and gain mass acceptance. Right? But while they’re doing that, what’s the hope when you’re finished with your album and somebody listens? You hope somebody is going to like it. I mean you want them to like it. Right?
Nathan: Yeah.
Greg: But you don’t want to compromise your art to try and capture everybody. Like Metallica, I’ll just use Metallica. It’s really easy to, you know, kind of wrap your head around these analogies with a band like Metallica. Metallica loves its fans. I mean Metallica honors their fans at the concerts and, you know, they do things for… You know, they love their fans. But if you’re not a Metallica fan, they don’t care. Why would they care? If somebody doesn’t like Metallica, the worst thing they could ever do is try and make that person happy. Because all of their fans would be disappointed in that. Right?
So this is actually a path to success. And I realized it, you know, early on. I actually believed it from both a philosophical, personal standpoint, like the standpoint of our art and what we wanted to do and what it meant to me. You know, this emotional side of me. But I also realized it from a business perspective. If we were going to do something different, unique, special, but really great, then we’d have a chance to do something relevant in the world. However, if we were going to follow along the same path as everybody else, I wouldn’t be that excited about it. And, by the way, it might be tough for us to ever make a mark or become anything special.
You know, there’s a lot of philosophy these days, which I would agree, is if you want to be successful, I mean, like, really successful, you have to combine something that you love, feel personally passionate about, that you’re good at. I mean you have to be good at it. If you suck, then, well, never mind. Right? There’s lots of garage bands out there that suck that will never go anywhere, but at least they’re having a good time. And you have to just follow that down with, you know, rigorous focus and passion and not giving up on this ideal that you’ve set for yourself. And then if you’re lucky, other people will appreciate and love what you do. In fact, people that like what we do, that’s great. But I really want people that love what we do to really love what we do. I want them to be passionate about it.
And not everybody is going to be passionate about it. And every once in a while somebody feels like they need to go out of their way to tell me that they don’t like our beer, for whatever reason. And I comfort them and tell them it’s okay. And they’ve got safety in numbers, as they’re one of probably seven-plus billion people on this planet that don’t know or don’t care about what we do. And that’s okay. Some many people getting into business sometimes feel like they need to make seven billion-plus people happy. But that’s a recipe for mediocrity, not greatness.
Nathan: How did you, like, keep raising the bar and have these such high standards? Because your standards for when you first started for brewing may have not been…they may have been a lot higher than someone else’s. And how did you gauge that, of what was, like, a quality beer and, you know, what was really high quality that people, like, you didn’t care whether people loved it or not, but you were really proud of?
Greg: Well, you know, quality is a tough word to use. If you go back to Metallica and music, you know, what’s better quality? Is a Metallica album better quality than a U2 album and a Grateful Dead album? I think, you know, you’d have people with opinions on all of those, right? And you’d have people that would, you know, argue fiercely for their favorite band. But I think we can step back and say, you know, Metallica makes the best quality Metallica and Grateful Dead makes the best quality Grateful Dead, and so on.
So it’s not really…quality is a little bit of a term that is thrown around a lot in the beer industry. You know, “We use nothing but the finest quality hops and the, you know, purest water and the best barley,” and all that. And, you know, probably by and large that’s true. But it’s what you do with it. And, again, you know, you can have a pop band that’s, you know, creating throwaway music, you can have a seminal rock band, you can, you know, have folk rock, you can have all these different styles. And mostly it’s guitar-based and drums, and vocals. Mostly. Same with brewing. Barley, hops, water, yeast. Mostly.
So you can take your art with these very simple ingredients. And it’s not just the quality of the ingredients, because everybody can get themselves a good quality guitar, everybody can get themselves a good quality amplifier. And today you can even get really good quality recording equipment quite cheap, it’s quite democratized. But it’s what you do with it that really matters. And it’s not just the quality, although that’s very important. Right?
So our beer, yes, I like to think it’s very high quality, we set very high standards. But we also set standards for ourselves in terms of the character, the kinds of beers, the flavor profiles, the aroma profiles, all of these characteristics. And these were more aggressive than what most people were used to. By “most people” I mean at that time almost anybody. There were very, very few people… Our hardest core fans tended to be home brewers because they knew what was possible in the world of beer and they loved that we didn’t pull back. Today people understand a lot more widely, you know, this character and aroma and flavor profile that’s available in the world of craft beer, and frankly how much better I think it is than, you know, industrial beer.
Nathan: So how do you create this cult following? You said you haven’t done any marketing since you’ve started.
Greg: Well, to be straight, we haven’t done any advertising. Like, you know, is our Facebook or Twitter account or our website, is that marketing? I think you could argue that maybe that’s marketing.
Nathan: Yeah, okay.
Greg: I’ve got a coaster on my hand for one of our beers, you know. It’s a coaster, is that marketing? I would say that’s marketing. But we haven’t done any paid advertising in broadcast or print and such, no billboards or anything.
Nathan: Okay. Can you tell us about, yeah, the early days? Like how did you get your first hundred customers? How did you get your first, yeah, 1,000 customers?
Greg: Well, we started off draft-only. So that required me to go out to bar and restaurant owners and talk to them about our beer. You know, that was tough because mostly they weren’t interested. You know, mostly they just wanted me to go away. They would say whatever they could say just so I would leave. But you had to be tenacious.
So in the early days our success was based primarily on shoe leather, just going, continuing going up and down the sidewalk. Beating the streets, as they say. Tenacity. A lot of bars and restaurants in the early days put our beer on because I would go back week after week after week asking. And finally they would say, “Okay, you know, kid, you’re certainly working hard. I suppose you deserve it just from how many times you’ve heard me say ‘no’ and kick you out the door. So we’ll give you a chance.”
And most of it came… As people started to discover our beer, most of it then started coming from pull. Right? You know, push is pushing your product out into the marketplace, pull is the consumers’ demand for it. And consumer demand started to rise as we developed…you know, began developing a reputation. People really enjoyed our beer and would ask for it. But even still it was tough.
I mean I would go to bars and I would have, you know, bar owners or bar managers tell me, “Nobody is asking for your beer.” Knowing that that was an incorrect statement because I know that people had been in that bar asking for our beer and they would tell me, “I’ve been in Joe’s Bar & Grill asking for your beer.” But, you know, mostly Joe just didn’t want to bother with this, you know, young company and he thought our beer tasted weird or too bitter or whatever. But eventually enough of Joe’s customers… And this is, of course, a proverbial Joe. But if enough of Joe’s customers would be asking, and so Joe would put us on tap. So a very, you know, grassroots, very organic, very one foot in front of the other.
Nathan: And at what point did you feel like, “I’m onto something, I’ve made it and this is going to work”?
Greg: From the beginning I felt we were onto something because I was very proud of our beer, I was very happy with, you know, my own judgment about the quality and the character of the beer. And then when we finally had our first break-even month, which was March of 1998, about a year and a half into it, that was when I felt like, “Okay, maybe we’re actually going to survive.”
Nathan: And did you ever feel like giving up?
Greg: No. That’s not in my DNA. You know? That just makes you fight harder. You know, if I have any entrepreneurial trait, it’s what I call being unrealistically positive about our chances for success. I was certain, even though I recognized and accepted, and even was, you know, perfectly good with the knowledge that most people wouldn’t like our beer, I also was certain that lots of people would still love our beer. You know, it doesn’t take a very large percentage of the world. In the United States we’re less than 0.1% of the beer market, I’m sure. Right? So it’s still a very, very, very small, tiny percentage of people that drink our beer. But it doesn’t take much, it just takes people to be passionate about what you’re doing so that they become loyal customers.
Nathan: Are you able to tell us any marketing tactics that you used in the very early days, and what worked and what didn’t?
Greg: You know, most of our marketing tactics were really simple and straightforward. I’ve always been focused on communication. So whether it’s, you know, the newer stuff of the social media and whatnot to early things that we could do, like printing up coasters. Or on our bottles, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen one of our bottles, but I write quite a bit on the back of them.
So there’s always communication going on from our brewery about our beers. It seemed obvious to me to… We were the first brewery to put a lot of text on a bottle of beer. Nobody else did. They would put on, you know, where it was brewed and bottled. Hopefully they would tell the truth about that. They put on the government requirement information. They might have a small, you know, one or two-sentence statement about the brewery. And we put paragraphs, literally paragraphs, on bottles of beers that went into our philosophical take on the world and what the flavor profile they could expect was and why we were doing things the way we were doing.
And that was an early way to communicate to people that, one, they could expect something different; two, that they could, you know, understand a little bit about where we were coming from and what our philosophies were, which I was excited to be able to share with people. And it was just a fun way to communicate.
So we’ve always been focused on communicating. Even today, you know, we actually have an internal policy on not using calls to action. We can communicate to people, I love telling them about our beer, but what we don’t do is we don’t say, “We’re releasing a new beer, pick one up today. Try it now. Get it before it’s too late.” Right? We don’t do those things. Well, instead we say, “Here’s a new beer we’re releasing, and we’d like to tell you a little bit about it.”
Nathan: Because in the marketing, from a conversion standpoint, it’s like proven copywriting to say, “Get your free beer today,” or, “Get it now.” Why are you choosing against that, out of curiosity?
Greg: You know, we just take in a different tack as, “Well, why not make our beer consistently awesome and use that as the reason why people…” So, you know, I think it’s even better if somebody tells their friend, “You’ve got to get one of these today. You’ve got to get, you know, some before it’s too late.” If we come out with a special release and it’s on the shelves and people recognize Stone and they know our reputation and what it’s about and they know that it’s a special limited release, they’re telling themselves, “I better get this while it’s still here.”
Nathan: I was going to say one thing in terms of your marketing that I think speaks for itself is, like, just an example of what you call some of your beers. Like the Arrogant Bastard, “Hated by many, loved by few. You’re not worthy.” That just invokes so much curiosity. Did you come up with that?
Greg: Yeah, yeah. So I was the guy that wrote those phrases and wrote the text on the back of the bottle. You’ve got to remember when I wrote that in 1997, it was a very different time for beer in the world. And it was quite straightforward. And still today it is loved by fewer people than it’s hated by. It is an aggressive beer and most people don’t like it, most people aren’t worthy of the beer. And so, you know, so that was a combination of being very straightforward and also having fun at the same time.
Nathan: Like, that is very, very good copywriting.
Greg: Well, I’ve been complimented many times in the past about, you know, the reverse psychology or whatever on the bottle label. It wasn’t written from that perspective. I was being honest and straightforward. I was also letting the beer channel through me in the tone of voice. And that’s a tone of voice that I attribute to the beer, not to myself. Although maybe there is a little bit of me in there.
Nathan: This is something I’d like to unpack because I think it’s brilliant. And even if it wasn’t strategic in that sense from a marketing standpoint, like, “Oh, you know, let’s come up with a really amazing slogan which would, you know, invoke curiosity and, you know, reverse psychology,” or whatever, how long did it take you? I’m just curious around your thinking. And how long did it take you to come up with that slogan? Like, let’s unpack the process behind such a brilliant slogan that really, yeah, like you said, in 1997 was quite, and still today, quite out there. What was the… Yeah, what was the processes? Did it take you months to think about? Was it something that you were sitting with and you had, like, you know, 20, 30 different slogans? Or it just came to you one day? Like, how did that come to you?
Greg: Boy. One, it’s requiring me to, you know, go back a little ways to come up with the answers to this. But I can tell you that my partner, Steve Wagner, and I had home brewed the first recipe for Arrogant Bastard Ale in 1995. And so we didn’t release it until a year and a half almost after we opened. Because it is a big character, strong beer. And while today it’s not as out there as it used to be, it was, you know, way out there at the time. Much stronger, much more bitter than anything else on the market.
So I really felt it important to let the beer kind of talk for itself. And when we were first going to brew a batch of this, we calculated out that we’d have about 100 cases, that we’d be making about 100 cases of beer. And I wasn’t certain that we’ve ever brew it again because I didn’t know…I didn’t think people would be buying it. I thought it was going to be much, much too strong. Because, again, there was nothing like it out there.
So I partially wrote the label from the perspective of not wanting people to just pick it up out of curiosity, take it home, open it up, taste it, and then pour out the rest because they couldn’t handle it. I wanted to warn them. And it was a sincere warning. Now, again, sincere warning coupled with some, you know, a wink and a nod and, you know, an elbow in the ribs. Right? But it was still very sincere. I did not want people to buy the beer without being warned in advance. And I figured if I give them a very hardy warning, then maybe they’ll be dissuaded. And for those who aren’t dissuaded, there’s probably going to be a higher percentage chance that they’re going to be the kind of person who would be able to appreciate a beer like that.
And so we released 100 cases and they sold out. So we brewed some more and it sold out. And we brewed some more and it sold out. And we brewed more and more and more. And then we became…eventually we became a going concern. And that’s along with that and Stone IPA, which is our flagship beer. Stone IPA is the one we sell the most of.
Nathan: So you test it?
Greg: No, we didn’t test. We’ve never tested, we’ve just done. So when we brewed 100 cases, we didn’t brew 100 cases to test, we brewed 100 cases because that plus a few kegs, that was the batch size. We’ve never really been ones to do a lot of testing, but it depends exactly how you identify it. We have a small restaurant brewery now and we brew new recipes on that all the time. And is that a test or is it just brewing because we like being creative?
Nathan: Yeah, okay. Let’s switch gears. Do you have any amazing customer stories that you’d like to share?
Greg: Amazing customer stories? You know, it’s much more about the ones that didn’t buy our beer than the ones who have bought our beer. You know, it’s more about the chain store that only bought on discount and we refuse to discount. So for, you know, for 14 years they never bought our beer. Until they finally came and they’re buying our beer and they’re selling quite a lot of it now 14 years later at full price because we refuse to discount. It’s about the wholesaler who patted me on the head in 2000 saying, “Sorry, son, I hate to be the one to tell you, but this craft beer thing is dead and it’s not going anywhere and, no, we’re not going to carry your beer.” But he did it in a very nice way. And that wholesaler is out of business and we’ve grown.
Nathan: What advice would you give to entrepreneurs? Do you have some actionable items, the core actionable items that you would give for someone that’s just starting out their entrepreneurial journey?
Greg: So it’s very fundamental. Which is follow your heart, follow your own muse, ignore everybody. Do it the way that you think it should be done, not the way that other people think that it should be done. And watch out for this trap because most people won’t give you their opinion, they’ll give you what they think somebody else’s opinion might be. You know, everybody is quick with advice on how something that you want to do will be accepted or not accepted in the marketplace.
And I’m sure you’ve seen that. You know, we can see it in our own lives all the time. Go, “Oh, people will never like this. Oh, people wouldn’t do that. People wouldn’t do that, they wouldn’t buy something like that.” Etc., etc. And at some point you just have to say to yourself, “This product or service that I’m getting into, is this something that I believe in? And I’m going to do it for the people who do like it. I’m going to do it for the people who do or would appreciate what I’m going for.”
And, Nathan, between you and me, most of the stuff that I am enthusiastic about in this world is a result of somebody having that kind of a mindset. Now they may express it a little bit different or in their own way, but most of the stuff that I have discovered in this world that I love is a result of somebody that’s followed their own muse, who’s gone their own path, that’s ignored the naysayers or charged through anyways, and they’ve done something remarkable. And it’s given somebody like me a chance to discover this remarkable thing that they’ve done and become an enthusiast and a fan of their product or service. And that’s cool.
So I just hope that, you know, somebody who’s starting out today will give me the chance, or give me the credit, for being able to appreciate the real version, and that they won’t feel like they need to dumb it down for me because I won’t appreciate it otherwise. And you know what? If I can’t appreciate it, still they shouldn’t dumb it down for me.
Nathan: Yeah. It comes back a little bit how you said to me at the start, like, for you and you guys that are brewing it, for you it’s like art.
Greg: Very much. And I think we can look today at almost any entrepreneurial endeavor and say that it’s a form of art. Because art is curated, art is created, art is seeing things, the world or what you do, through a particular set of lenses, your own lenses. Right? And so you can be artistic in business. I think art isn’t just relegated to music and painting and sculpture. Right? There’s more forms of art in this world. And you can be artful with the things that you do. In fact, my definition of art is simply bringing your best work every day and only bringing that. That’s art. You know this is as a writer. I mean we see it every day, right? Is, you know, tabloid journalism, yellow journalism that’s all designed to just get, you know, click-throughs, is that art? I suppose that’s one form of art. But, you know, is it art that anybody is really proud of?
Nathan: No.
Greg: And then there’s, you know, a really well-crafted, you know, article. And, you know, conscientious journalism is actually trying to communicate interesting things and so on, and then that’s a different kind of art. And so there’s always all kinds available and it’s up to us to make our own choices.
Nathan: Yeah, that was great. Really, really interesting. We have to work towards wrapping up and I have two more questions for you. One, what did you have to sacrifice to get where you are today, what did you have to give up?
Greg: My life for a period of time. I mean I did… Like I said, I did 14, 16, even 18-hour days. But it was a willing sacrifice, I mean I was very engaged. It’s like that old saying of, you know, “love what you do and you don’t have to work a day in your life,” you know, kind of mentality. I mean it was real work and it was hard work, and many times it was scary work because it was questions of our survival as a company. But still, you know, it gave me a lot of energy and I had a lot of drive for it because I believed in it and I really wanted to do it. But that’s the primary thing, you know, I had to sort of give up. It wasn’t such a sacrifice because it’s what I wanted to do.
Nathan: Last question. And that was around business disasters, how to avoid them in the future. Any particular failures that you guys have had or roadblocks that you’d like to mention? Because it wasn’t all just smooth sailing, right, to get where you guys are now today? Like, how many beers do you create a year, out of curiosity?
Greg: Well, last year we brewed 74 different beers. But we do have a small system at one of our restaurants that brewed about 50 of those, and then about 25 of those were from our larger brewery. But, you know, we’re just a company with a lot of creativity. Right? So, you know, not all of those were released in the same way. Some of them are just small batches available maybe only at our restaurants on draft, some just go to a local area, and so on.
But as far as mistakes go. You know, and so even if we sort of make a mistake and we brew a beer that we may think to ourselves, “Okay, we won’t brew that again because it didn’t turn out that great,” it’s hardly a very big mistake, right? You know, we haven’t really made any big mistakes at Stone, which is scary because I know that our biggest mistake is still ahead of us.
Nathan: Why do you say that?
Greg: Because we haven’t even made a big mistake. And nobody gets to go through life, especially not business life, without some major mistakes along the way. So we’re trying not to make any, you know, big stupid mistakes, right? But we’re human and humans make mistakes. And then we’ve made plenty of mistakes, so I’m not going to suggest for one second we haven’t ever made mistakes. But we’ve never made any really big ones, not any big hairy mistakes.
Now the size of our mistakes sometimes get bigger and bigger, but as we’re a little bit larger company we can absorb them. Like if we make a mistake and, you know, get the wrong piece of equipment to handle a piece of…you know, to handle a specific function in the brewery and that equipment ends up not being the right one for the job, that would be a mistake, right? But, yeah, that’s why, you know, we’re building a brewery in Berlin right now. Some people think it will be a mistake, some people think it will be a great success. I think it will be a great success, but, hey, you know, you’ve got to risk it, I’ve got to risk making a big mistake, too.
Nathan: Yeah. Well, look, I’m mindful of your time, Greg, and we’ll wrap things up now. Just, yeah, was there anything that you’d like to finish off on for this conversation? I’ve really enjoyed speaking with you, it’s been an absolute pleasure.
Greg: Well, thank you very much. Likewise, Nathan. No, I think we’ve covered things very well, you know. As an entrepreneur, I mean, not every day is fun. Right? And not every day is filled with fun. There’s a lot of very, very real work there. But, you know, try and have fun, try and really approach life from that perspective, and business life. And that can happen a lot better when you believe in what you’re doing and you really care about it and, you know, approach it with passion. And that’s what I do. That’s what we all do here at Stone. And that’s actually a lot of the strength of the company itself, is that we work to inspire and bring in people with that level of passion, because they feel the same way about it.
Nathan: Fantastic. Well, look, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me, Greg. Yeah, that was a really cool interview, I really had a lot of fun speaking with you.
Greg: Sure, pleasure, pleasure.Publisher Ad Council
Digitizing sponsor American Social Health Association
The American Social Health Association was always experimenting with new ways to educate the public about venereal disease. They helped produce the first VD education film, "Fit to Fight", in 1918 in order to educate soldiers being shipped abroad to fight in the first World War. Although this popular TV public service announcement informs the public that everybody is susceptible to venereal disease, strangely, it also seems to imply that having VD will make you successful, attractive and happy. Also, the song is quite infectious...
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Reviewer: d2Kplus - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - March 10, 2017
Subject: My favorite PSA ever
BTW for the people who believe this has the wrong Ad Council logo, The Ad Council's current logo debuted in 1969, the year this ad was produced.
http://logos.wikia.com/wiki/Ad_Council This may be my favorite PSA ever. I was 6 or 7 when this ad started airing. The klezmer / German beerhall lament playing over the images of happy attractive people (95% White as was the practice at the time) twisted my mind forever.BTW for the people who believe this has the wrong Ad Council logo, The Ad Council's current logo debuted in 1969, the year this ad was produced. - March 10, 2017My favorite PSA ever
Reviewer: Veristo - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - February 22, 2015
Subject: Date/Logo
and
@Reviewer: torgman - January 8, 2010
And yet there's that exact, same pesky new logo likewise concluding, for example, this 1972 UNCF PSA ( @Reviewer: Mewster - March 18, 2007and@Reviewer: torgman - January 8, 2010And yet there's that exact, same pesky new logo likewise concluding, for example, this 1972 UNCF PSA ( http://www.adcouncil.org/Our-Campaigns/The-Classics/United-Negro-College-Fund). Reviewer: OrygunState - March 24, 2007 would, on the other hand, look to have it pretty much pegged. - February 22, 2015Date/Logo
Reviewer: dahszil - favorite favorite favorite favorite - September 9, 2014
Subject: they didn't call it the swingin 70's for nothing seems like nobody "was on the shelf" back then. just one big orgiastic america! and you could leave a job in the morning and find another in the afternoon. And minimum wage back then would pay 20 bucks per hr today....hmm we could learn something from those blissful 70's - September 9, 2014they didn't call it the swingin 70's for nothing
Reviewer: BenjaminS.T. - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - May 18, 2014
Subject: VD is for Everybody PSA I give this clip five stars. - May 18, 2014VD is for Everybody PSA
Reviewer: Freddie Jaye - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - February 13, 2013
Subject: "...it's REAL!" I used this clip in a collection of short films for a fringe-arts festival. At first, everybody thought it was a SNL-styled parody. What a surprise for them to find that it's a real PSA! - February 13, 2013"...it's REAL!"
Reviewer: Rooftopjump - favorite favorite favorite favorite - July 13, 2012
Subject: Way back then In the 70's we were very aware of VD or STDs. More often it was NSU that spooked us and Cream even produced the song NSU. More sinister things arrived on the scene in the 80's, but even HIV seems to have lost a lot of the respect it used to engender. The online porn business has a lot to answer for (so they tell me). - July 13, 2012Way back then
Reviewer: Bigten88 - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - January 27, 2012
Subject: Ah, That Sweet Blush of VD! I about wet myself when I saw this. Back when it came out, I was an almost tween-ager with bad ADHD, and my parents were aghast when I was rolling around humming/singing "VD, it's for everybody!"
I was also the one who left pamphlets for "The PILL" in my mom's bathroom. That I had gotten from the community college pamphlet stand during a "take your little bro or sis to campus day." It only came out years later at a family reunion as to which of us had planted the mystery literature. - January 27, 2012Ah, That Sweet Blush of VD!
Reviewer: WKAC Sports - - January 8, 2012
Subject |
part by the European Southern Observatory and we acknowledge ESO program 199.D-0143 and 099.D-0376. We acknowledge the Leibniz-Prize to Prof. G. Hasinger (DFG grant HA 1850/28-1) for support of GROND observations.Seven years have passed since a Toronto Star investigation into race, policing and crime in Canada’s largest city was met with denials of racial bias. Today, police across the country readily acknowledge bias is a factor in police decision-making, and the Toronto Police Service is setting an example for other services and institutions with its diversity policy. Yet race still matters. Today, using never-before-released data, the Star launches a series highlighting the Toronto police practice of documenting people in mostly non-criminal encounters. In an uneasy trade-off for safer streets, people — both “good” and “bad” — end up in a growing internal database, and it is young black men, more than any other group, who are most likely to be stopped and documented.
Black people across Toronto are three times more likely to be stopped and documented by police than white people, a Star investigation has found.
To a lesser extent, the same is true for people described by police as having “brown” skin, according to a Star analysis of 1.7 million contact cards filled out by Toronto police officers between 2003 and 2008.
Top brass, including Chief Bill Blair, stress that they are deploying officers in areas of high “victimization” where there is lack of opportunity and people are struggling with poverty, and where there also happen to be significant ethnic populations. They say being carded does not mean you have a criminal record.
Yet young men interviewed by the Star who have been stopped and questioned feel as though they do have one, and complain of racial bias and repeated encounters in which they believed they had no choice but to cooperate, produce identification and sometimes be searched.You beauty! Model Riquelme vows to strip if Paraguay win the Copa America
Strike a pose: The Paraguayan model - with trademark mobile phone dock - shows her support during Paraguay's opening match with Ecuador
Paraguayan beauty Larissa Riquelme has promised to strip naked if the team win the Copa America.
'If Paraguay win the Copa America then I shall pose nude on the pitch,' the 26-year-old said, tantilisingly adding: 'I think we'll do well at the Copa.'
The South American model made similar claims at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, but to no avail with her nation being dumped out by eventual winners Spain in the quarter-finals.
This time, Riquelme will be hoping that Gerrardo Martino's side can repeat their 1999 triumph when they beat Brazil 3-0 on home soil.
Model fan: Riquelme became famous after cheering on Paraguay at last summer's World Cup
Paraguay are in Group B alongside Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador, against whom they notched a 0-0 draw in their opening match.So, this piece of news managed to sneak under the radar, but it’s worth recognizing as a victory for the Internet and for the state of California. Digital technology has been slow to come to some offline institutions, a glaring (and sad) example being the very democratic process of registering to vote (and then actually voting) in local, state, and federal elections. A few weeks ago, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that (once again) legalizes online voter registration in the state of California.
As TheVotingNews points out, while California does in fact have a voter registration database, until the passage of 3B 397, residents could not fully register to vote online. Instead, voters could go through the process of filling out registration forms, but instead of hitting “approve” or “send” and closing the loop, Californians had to then print out the completed form and send it to their local county election office for approval.
Considering California is responsible for the development of a wide array of mind-blowing technology, including that which allows disabled and paralyzed people to walk again, it’s kind of embarrassing that our state can’t even offer a workable way to register people to vote online.
Until now, that is.
Lawmakers had been waiting for the state’s “federally compliant statewide voter registration database to come online”, TheVotingNews said, but apparently San Francisco Senator Leland Yee was tired of twiddling his thumbs and authored the new online voter registration bill, which was then signed into law by Jerry Brown.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 39 percent of the Californians that were eligible in 2010 did not register to vote. That’s nearly 9 million people. What’s more, only eleven states in the U.S. (Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington) currently (or will soon) offer online voter registration — oh, and North Carolina is considering implementing online registration, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Though 34 states do offer residents the opportunity to access voter registration online, it is appalling how few states have implemented statewide voter registration databases, let alone allow people to take advantage of online registration or voting.
In a statement about the new legislation, State Senator Lee seemed to agree: “In the 21st century, especially here in California, it is long overdue to have online voter registration. SB 397 will not only help protect the integrity of the vote, but will allow many more individuals the opportunity to register and participate in our democracy”. Nearly 9 million people, in fact.
Under the new law, California residents will now register to vote online, at which point the county elections office will use the voter’s signature from the DMV to verify authenticity. Then, when residents actually go to vote, their signatures will be matched against those records at the polls.
As to the timeline for the implementation, well, Yee and other representatives said that they hope to have the new system live in time for the 2012 presidential elections. If they don’t, I encourage all Californians (and Americans, for that matter) to write strongly-worded letters to their local politicians.
Now, of course, the question becomes: When do we actually get to vote online? 2020?
Excerpt image from PopArtUK$\begingroup$
John Harte's work on applying the mathematical theory of maximum entropy to ecology is certainly one of the better known examples of the application of this area of mathematics to science, in part because he literally wrote the textbook: Maximum Entropy and Ecology: A Theory of Abundance, Distribution, and Energetics (Oxford Series in Ecology and Evolution)
To be clear, maximum entropy (also known as MaxEnt in some of the literature, though most/all researchers use the longer form in publications) is a mathematical tool stemming from the fields of probability theory, statistics, and information theory. Its use is classically most often seen in thermodynamics, statistical thermodynamics, physics, and information theory, primarily because these were the areas in which E.T. Jaynes was working when he posited the idea. Wikipedia has links to his two seminal papers.But because of it's mathematical form, it can be applied in a multitude of areas, typically where one can utilize probabilistic methods.
If you're looking for additional areas of application, simply google the phrase "applied maximum entropy" and you'll find a wealth of areas including: econometrics, natural language processing, nuclear medicine, queuing systems, mass spectrometry, image processing, machine learning, and many others.
For ecology related work, a cross search on maximum entropy and "genetics", "evolution", "species", and similar words will provide a wealth of papers like "A maximum entropy approach to species distribution modeling".
Given the generic nature of your question, I might suggest that you'll find E.T. Jaynes' paper "On the Rationale of Maximum-Entropy Methods" (IEEE, 1982) useful.
Those generally interested in the broader applications of information theoretic methods to biology will likely appreciate some of the work that came out of last year's NIMBioS Workshop on Information and Entropy in Biological Systems (which Harte both attended and presented at), the BIRS Workshop Biological and Bio-Inspired Information Theory, and the 2014 CECAM Entropy in Biomolecular Systems. The NIMBios Workshop was organized by John Baez, a physicist, who has worked with MaxEnt methods and explored them on his blog "Azimuth".
Those with a more sophisticated mathematical background (including measure theory, functional analysis, etc.) may appreciate Henryk Gzyl's text The Method of Maximum Entropy (World Scientific: Series on Advances in Mathematics for Applied Sciences, Vol 29, 1995).
-- Additional thoughts after the question was edited --
First for those who don't have the background, I highly recommend reading the two seminal papers on information theory and statistical mechanics by ET Jaynes and the standard text on information theory Elements of Information Theory by Thomas M. Cover and Joy A. Thomas.
In addition to the information theoretic related areas, you might want to take a look at the discipline of complexity theory, which has primarily grown out of the Santa Fe Institute over the past several decades and which includes information theory as part of its disciplines. If you're unfamiliar with the broader topic, Melanie Mitchell has an excellent overview with her book Complexity: A Guided Tour. Also related to complexity is the area of cellular automata which one could view as a very base model of more complex ecological systems. Here, perhaps Stephen Wolfram's A New Kind of Science or Cellular Automata and Complexity will be enlightening. The broader theories coming out of these primarily mathematical areas may be useful to you.
In particular, given the types of models in ecosystems, I might suggest taking a look at some of the mathematical modeling going on at the intersection of complexity and economics. For a relatively simple introduction to this area, one could look at the relatively introductory text Complexity and the Economy by W. Brian Arthur which is very interesting. The economy is essentially a very specific type of ecology dealing with human beings, assets, and the monetary system.
Another area which I've seen a lot of literature over the last few years is applicable to the ideas of resiliency and complexity in cities, for assisting in designing more robust city planning. This really isn't that far from the naturally evolving systems being looked at in ecology settings.
For those looking for researchers in the area of complexity, I have a list of many who are on twitter in a variety of sub-areas. In addition to individuals, it also includes a number of institutes and related organizations as well.
I'd also suggest, that for the broadest theoretical setting, one could actually start with the topic known as "Big History" which takes the broadest approach of looking at history and the evolution of the cosmos over 13.7 billion years since the big bang. This conceptualization includes ideas like evolution, complexity, and emergence on the biggest scales, a set of theories that could be similarly applied to ecologies both large and small. For this viewpoint, I would suggest two works by David Christian including Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History and Big History: The Big Bang, Life on Earth, and the Rise of Humanity.
In essence, with many of these topics and viewpoints, one is treating individual animals or even entire species as elementary particles and then using the mathematical models of statistical thermodynamics to tease out specific types of data or trends. As layers of overlapping "particles" interact with each other, they cause emergent types properties, and then these resultant emergent properties combine to create further layers of emergent properties, none of which might have been necessarily deduced from the initial conditions. Within Big History, these types of emergence go from the big bang and basic particles in the early universe to the ultimate evolution of humankind by way of a variety of stages.GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) - At least 77 people have been killed and nearly two million affected by heavy monsoon rains that caused floods in India’s northeastern Assam state, in what the prime minister on Monday called one of the worst such disasters to strike recently.
Flood-affected people gather below a helicopter carrying relief materials in the flooded areas of the Sonitpur district in the northeastern Indian state of Assam July 1, 2012. Incessant heavy rains in northeast India have caused massive flooding and landslides, killing more than 60 people, local media reported on Sunday. Picture taken July 1, 2012. REUTERS/Stringer
The mighty Brahmaputra river and many of its tributaries have breached their banks after downpours, washing away thousands of homes mostly made of bamboo and straw, as well as roads, bridges and power lines.
Authorities have given shelter, food and medicines to thousands of homeless people, and deployed mobile medical teams to prevent the outbreak of disease.
“People of Assam are facing one of the worst floods in recent times,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told reporters in Guwahati, Assam’s main city, after flying over the areas affected by the flooding.
Floods have hit Assam - a state famous for its hilly tea-growing areas - at the same time that much of India has suffered weaker-than-average monsoon rains that are crucial to its hundreds of millions of farmers.
Hundreds of soldiers and rescue workers from the federal National Disaster Response Force have been deployed for rescue and relief efforts, while military helicopters have airlifted people and dropped food.
“Once we complete rescue and relief operations our focus will shift to restoration of damaged caused by floods,” Singh said.
Rain has stopped, but many rivers remains dangerously high.
Much of the Kaziranga National Park, known for its one-horned rhinos, was under water, forcing the animals to move to higher ground. Poachers have already killed one rhino that had strayed from the park and took away its horn, foresters said.
Singh announced 100,000 rupees ($1,800) compensation to each of the families whose members died in the floods.
“Until today 77 people have died. We are passing through a challenging time,” Nilamoni Sen Deka, Assam’s agriculture minister and official spokesman, told Reuters. ($1 = 55.8350 Indian rupees)Chevrolet 3D Car Configurator
The AL Ghandi Auto Company, an official General Motors and Chevrolet dealer in the UAE, makes active use of WebGL technology to promote automobile production in the region. A 3D configurator provides a great opportunity to show off the features of the car, attract customers and to fuel sales growth.
The 360-degree view function allows users to examine the exterior of the car in great detail. Smooth camera animation with impressive angles and depth of field effects emphasize the elegance of the car body. The developers were able to implement some features of polished metal and you have the option to change the color of the car. The 3D configurator gives you the option to change the wheels, to have a look at lights and to examine the interior of the car. For the icing on the cake, the developers have also added the option to change the background.
The simple and convenient development process, desktop and mobile device support and unlimited visual capabilities are the main factors that made one of the biggest General Motors dealers in Eurasia choose the Blend4Web framework to help increase its sales potential.
This application was developed by VisCircle GmbH, our partner agency known for their high-quality 3D web configurators.
See also:
Chevrolet 3D Car ConfiguratorYesterday I went to the post office to mail something. I was going to have to get a container at the post office; I didn’t have one at home. In the US, you can get free boxes of certain sizes to use for Priority Mail, a category of expedited mail. But they didn’t have a free box that would fit what I was trying to mail.
I then looked at the boxes available for sale and there was one that would fit my parcel. I figured I would also need to buy some tape. This was close to Christmas and there was a line of people practically to the back door. I looked at these items and contemplated the long line. I didn’t want to go through it twice; first to buy the supplies, then to mail the package after having boxed it up.
I was a little nervous about it, but I decided to go ahead and box up my parcel using the post office’s box and tape before going through the line. In other words, I used the items before paying for them. The only place I could pack the box was on a little table that was right next to the back door. So I not only had these two items I had not yet purchased but I also looked as if I was going to leave with them.
I did this and nothing bad happened. I set up at the table and boxed up my parcel without incident. Then I got in line. It wasn’t as bad as I had thought; it took about 15 minutes to get to the front. I told the post office worker immediately that I needed to pay for the box and the tape as well as mailing the package. Again, there were no untoward consequences.
White Privilege, Here We Come
This is an example of white privilege and class privilege. Although I was a little nervous about doing it, I made the decision with confidence that it would be OK. These are the actions and attitude of a person who has never been in danger from an authority figure. Who has rarely been negatively profiled. Who has never been falsely arrested, shamed in public, or lost a relative to law enforcement violence.
Instead, I felt that I could explain my way out of any bad situation. That’s probably true, and it’s because I am white and look middle class. I rarely dress up; I was wearing cheap jeans and a T-shirt. But some marks of class privilege were there. My teeth have been straightened. I was wearing high-end cross training shoes. The most important class aspect was probably that I have the confidence about speaking in public that can come from higher education. Frankly, with the exception of gender-related prejudice, I’m used to being treated well. (That’s a big exception, but let’s leave it for another day.)
Where I live, people of color and people of any race who appear working class or impoverished have to be careful in places of business. They are profiled as potential shoplifters. They are often followed or made to feel unwelcome by staff. Most would not feel comfortable and wouldn’t risk using something that they had not paid for the way I did.
I’m not sure if what I did was legal or not. (Another sign of privilege, by the way. I tried it without even knowing.) I’ve read that no one can arrest a shoplifter until they actually exit the store with an item not paid for. But even if true, that doesn’t necessarily protect one from being hassled or shamed in public. That happens to some more than others, though.
Legal or not, my actions weren’t victimless. I should have gone through the line twice. I cheated the system. In so doing, I got ahead of some people who would have been ahead of me if I had played by the rules. Plenty of the people in line were people of color, by the way. But even if there hadn’t been any, the thing that was helping me feel OK about what I was doing was white privilege.
I apologize. I can’t make it right with those people but I won’t be doing that again. And I regret the sense of entitlement that helped me feel like that was an OK thing to do.
I’m not looking to be absolved or praised for my realization. I published this in hopes of encouraging others to notice their privileges and to help myself do better in that regard. Embarrassingly, it was only through the process of writing it that I realized that I had wronged others through my actions.
Yabbut
To head off a few protests: I know this was a small incident with fairly low stakes. But how many times a day does that happen to me and I don’t even realize it? What difference does it make to my psyche that there is a whole set of things I don’t have to worry about that people of color do?
Also, there are probably some people of color and working class white people who would have done what I did. And there are some well-off whites who wouldn’t have risked it. When dealing with human behavior we rarely get 100%.
But my confidence came from my history of being treated well. And that is directly related to being white in a nation that has not yet left racism in the past.
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Check out this thoughtful list of the ways white privilege affects white people (and by implication, how it affects people of color). Becoming conscious of these things is exactly my goal. The list is by Professor Peggy McIntosh, Associate Director of the Center for Research on Women at Wellesley College. It is posted on the website of Professor Julie Lewis, Department Chair for African American Studies at De Anza College, who incidentally turns out to be from my hometown.
Coming up
What Makes an Anti-Racist?
Not Normalizing Donald Trump
Copyright Eileen Anderson 2016
Photo of Daytona Beach Post Office from Wikimedia Commons
RelatedMoly today launched its new Windows 10 Mobile device, the Moly W5. The company’s new Windows 10 Mobile packs a 5-inch display, the Snapdragon 210 (clocked at 1.1GHZ), 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, an 8MP rear camera, a 2MP front camera, a 2000mAh battery and has a thickness of only 7.33mm.
Here are the features of the phone:
Powered by Windows 10:Office documents and photos are in sync across devices and your favorite apps, games, music, and videos are in one place with the brand new Windows Store.
8GB Internal Storage 1GB RAM with Micro SD Slot up to 128GB.8MP Autofocus Camera,1080p HD Video Recording
2250 mAh Li-Polymer long-lasting Battery let you have more time to enjoy all the good things in life.
5.0 inch LTPS Display,Featured by the world’s top glass-Corning Gorilla Glass and the Metal Frame which afford the smartphone solid and fantastic protection.
Unlocked cell phones are compatible with GSM carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile as well as with GSM SIM cards. Unlocked cell phones will not work with CDMA Carriers like Sprint, Verizon, Boost or Virgin.Lightning-fast 4G LTE makes it quickernect with the people and things you love online and easier to con
Moly says the device will be available on April 13 for $199. You can check it out on Amazon here.Cleveland is demanding our attention. From the Republican National Convention to the Cavaliers’ NBA championship, the Indians’ recent dominance to a surprising tech scene, we’re thinking about the city more than ever. This week,The Ringer is exploring why Cleveland matters.
J.R. Smith threw an alley-oop to LeBron James in the NBA Finals. It happened during the third quarter of Game 6. The Cavaliers were up in the game but down in the series (3–2), and so the situation was very serious because the Cavs very seriously did not want to lose in the Finals for the second straight year, because if they lost for a second time the city of Cleveland was going to crater into the earth from depression, leaving behind only rubble and ash and maybe a Quiznos, is what we were told. They’d not won a championship in more than half a century, is what we were told. If this isn’t their year, there’ll probably never, ever, never, ever be a year that is their year, is what we were told. So, I say again: The situation was very serious.
Kyrie Irving stole the ball from Steph Curry under Golden State’s basket, then pushed it forward quickly. J.R., who was guarding Klay Thompson on that possession, recognized what’d happened before just about everyone else, so he sprinted out onto the fast break before just about everyone else, creating Advantage CLE. Kyrie saw him, then tossed the ball upcourt to him. When J.R. caught it, he was two steps from the basket. It was him and the ball and Draymond Green.
J.R. could’ve shot it, and probably should’ve shot it, because — AND THIS IS ME TELLING YOU THIS FOR A THIRD TIME NOW — the situation was very serious. Everything was in his favor: He had half a shoulder ahead of Draymond; Draymond had already jabbed at the ball, so his balance was off; there was no way he was going to be able to block the shot. Smith was either going to make the layup or get fouled on the layup or miss the layup, all of which would’ve been perfectly reasonable and understandable outcomes. But J.R. Smith did not shoot it. He never even considered the notion. Instead, he blossomed. As soon as the ball touched his hands, he immediately turned his head AWAY FROM THE PLAY and then tossed the ball up into the sky several feet in front of the rim. It was incredible. Look:
In what was then the most important basketball game in the history of the Cleveland Cavaliers franchise, with 20,562 people watching in real life and somewhere near 20 million more watching on television, and with the possibility of being able to play a Game 7 for the first championship across all major sports in 52 years for a devastated city still in play, J.R. Smith’s reflexes told him to attempt a no-look alley-oop pass rather than shoot a layup.
J.R. Smith is perfectly reckless.
LeBron James, previously unseen, skied. He jumped, snatched the ball out of the air, then rose high, then Rose Higher, then ROSE HIGHEST, then dunked it. It was electrifying.
J.R. didn’t celebrate. He didn’t fist pump. He didn’t scream. He didn’t even snarl. He didn’t do anything except run back on defense.
J.R. Smith is perfect.
LeBron James threw an alley-oop to J.R. Smith after the NBA Finals. It happened at the end of the championship parade for the Cavaliers, when all the players were up on stage and each had a few minutes to talk to the crowd. LeBron went last and was going player by player, talking a little bit about each guy. He was as candid as he’s ever been with a camera on him, and it was wonderful and very charming to watch, even when he cussed, and sometimes especially when he cussed, like when he talked about J.R.
“You guys all heard the stories,” he said, referring to the reputation J.R. had built up for himself over his sporadically chaotic, occasionally overwhelming 13-season professional basketball career. “False,” LeBron continued, and he said it quickly, but quick in a way that soaked the word with contempt and dismissiveness. “Everything about J.R.: ‘He’s not a team player.’ ‘You can’t win with J.R. on your team.’ ‘J.R. takes bad shots,’” and as he was listing things, J.R., sitting just a few feet behind him, looked so regal. He wasn’t smiling, but he was glowing, because he knew.
Nearly two years prior he’d been anointed by LeBron, and make no mistake that is exactly what’s happening when LeBron allows you to be on the Cavaliers. You are anointed. You are selected. A three-team trade sent J.R. to Cleveland, which meant that LeBron was choosing J.R. to help him win a championship for Cleveland, the most precious thing LeBron, the most powerful figure in basketball, could offer anyone.
The idea of J.R. Smith playing high-stakes basketball is wonderful. But the idea of of J.R. Smith playing high-stakes basketball in Cleveland, existing in Cleveland, among Clevelanders, as a Clevelander, is even better. He’s a fantastic avatar for the city. Take a broad view of him and he appears to be the precise opposite of the imagery most often associated with Cleveland: he’s a partier, he’s a showtime figure, he’s a big lights chaser. But he’s also undervalued and underappreciated. I don’t think he’s misunderstood — in fact, I think he is understood perfectly. He’s compulsive, and every now and then propulsive, too. He’s lovable and likable in his sincerity, and the two things I’m remembering right now are: (1) the time he was fined $50,000 by the NBA because he kept untying opponents’ shoes during free throws, and (2) him losing in the Finals in 2015 and then slowly leaving the arena on a fucking hoverboard, solemn and heartbroken but still gripping people up on his way out. And that’s to say nothing of his postgame press conference after the Cavs won Game 7 of the Finals, which was the most moving J.R. Smith moment we’ve ever gotten. So he’s that. He’s always that. He’s always pure.
But he’s also complicated and burdened by his own existence. There are more than a half dozen examples of things he’s done during basketball games that could be highlighted here — the suspensions for elbowing people in the head, being found in violation of the league’s drug policy, etc. And there are things that’ve happened away from the court that are more troublesome. He’s had his license suspended on multiple occasions for multiple infractions. There was the time he took a picture of a woman wearing only a T-shirt and thong lying in bed — without her permission — and then posted it to Twitter. There were several instances when he was accused of either being in a gang or being affiliated with a gang. But the most wrenching example is from 2007 when he drove an SUV through a stop sign, causing a car crash that killed one of his close friends.
Sometimes J.R. Smith is funny. Sometimes he’s frustrating. And sometimes he’s absolutely heartbreaking. He’s all of those things.
But so there he was, sitting on a stage listening to LeBron validate his anointment (or validate his existence, possibly) to a crowd bigger than big. And it was such a beautiful and peaceful moment. He just sat there, perfectly still and perfectly shirtless, thinking about who-knows-what, remembering who-knows-what.
“Everything about J.R.,” LeBron said, “‘He’s not a team player.’ ‘You can’t win with J.R. on your team.’ ‘J.R. takes bad shots.’ Y’all heard them weak-ass stories.” And there it was.
“Y’all heard them weak-ass stories.”
Cleveland’s savior, The Chosen One, presenting Smith his earned salvation, and if not actual salvation, then at the very least redemption, in the most immediate sense, and in the most apt way possible: in a sentence with a curse word in it; in a sentence that was funny to hear and astounding to unravel.
“If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” — Mahatma Gandhi, probably talking about J.R. Smith, NBA champion.
“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.” — Leo Tolstoy, probably talking about about J.R. Smith, NBA champion, while subtweeting Steph Curry and Klay Thompson.
“Everything about J.R.: ‘He’s not a team player.’ ‘You can’t win with J.R. on your team.’ ‘J.R. takes bad shots.’ Y’all heard them weak-ass stories.” — LeBron James, definitely talking about J.R. Smith, NBA champion.
J.R. Smith belongs in Cleveland, to Cleveland.Unsuccessful testfire in eastern coastal city comes hours before US vice-president is due to arrive in Seoul
North Korea has defied Donald Trump’s demands for it to abandon its nuclear and missile programmes, launching a missile from an eastern port city on Sunday morning.
However, the test appeared to fail. “The missile blew up almost immediately,” the United States Pacific Command said in a statement. “The type of missile is still being assessed.” Reuters reported one US official as saying it was confident the failed projectile was not an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
North Korea parades military might and warns US amid nuclear test fears Read more
The attempt came hours before US vice-president Mike Pence was due to arrive in Seoul at the start of a 10-day trip to Asia in what his aides said was a sign of the US commitment to its ally in the face of rising tension over North Korea. Both Pence and President Donald Trump have been notified. The president had no further comment, said defence secretary Jim Mattis.
South Korea described the launch as a “threat to the entire world” and warned that it would respond to any further provocations, such as a nuclear test or the launch of an ICBM.
“North Korea showing a variety of offensive missiles at yesterday’s military parade and daring to fire a ballistic missile today is a show of force that threatens the whole world,” South Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
The missile was launched from the eastern coastal city of Sinpo, which is the site of a submarine base and where the North has tested the submarine-launched ballistic missile it is developing. Weapons on submarines are much harder to track and destroy, and would make it far more challenging for the US and its allies to mount a pre-emptive strike. However, it is thought the latest launch was land-based.
A spokesman for the UK Foreign Office said: “We are concerned by reports of a missile test by North Korea and are monitoring the situation closely.”
The foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, urged North Korea to abide by UN resolutions and end its quest to develop nuclear weapons. “We have been here before but continue to monitor the situation carefully,” Johnson said in a statement.
“We stand alongside our international partners in making clear that North Korea must adhere to UN resolutions designed to secure peace and stability in the region and stop its pursuit of nuclear weapons.”
Sunday’s missile launch comes a day after a giant military parade in North Korea’s capital and exactly one year after a similar failure, when Pyongyang attempted to mark the anniversary of its founder’s birth, Kim Il-sung, on 15 April, by launching a Musudan missile. North Korea displayed new long-range missiles that could one day threaten continental America, showcasing the isolated nation’s defiance as a US aircraft carrier group headed to the region.
On Sunday, the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the ruling Workers’ party, issued a special edition to mark the previous day’s celebrations, and devoted several pages – including dozens of photos – to what appeared to be new types of strategic weapons, including an ICBM.
Kim Jong-un has overseen three nuclear tests and a string of missile and rocket launches since taking over after the death of his father, dictator Kim Jong-il, in late 2011.
Another missile test from Sinpo ended in failured earlier this month, when the rocket spun out of control and plunged into the ocean. That launch came shortly before Trump’s first meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. China is North Korea’s only major ally.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Missiles are driven through Kim Il-sung square on Saturday. Photograph: Sue-Lin Wong/Reuters
Despite Sunday’s failure, the North’s previous claim to have used “standardised” warheads has led to worries that it was making headway in its push to develop small and sophisticated warheads to be topped on long-range missiles.
John Delury, a North Korea expert from Yonsei University in Seoul, said the fact that the test had “fizzled” would be a frustration rather than a major embarrassment to Kim Jong-un.
“Failure is part of the game … They’ve shown they’re not afraid to test and anyone who follows this knows that the testing will continue.”
Delury said the message to Trump from Sunday’s launch was: “We’re not stopping our testing program because you are threatening us”.
“That may be enough of a strong signal from their perspective for the immediate future,” he added. “One hopes that everyone can now step back from the cliff and keep face.”
China offered no immediate reaction to the missile launch. But in a commentary released after Saturday’s military demonstration, Beijing’s official news agency, Xinhua, said the region had reached “a critical moment in history” and warned that a pre-emptive US strike could trigger full-scale war.
It was now time for North Korea and the US to strike a “grand bargain,” Xinhua said.A pallet of peated malt that escaped the Fort McMurray wildfire is set to be distilled into a whisky and christened with the name of the blaze it survived: The Beast.
Wood Buffalo Brewing Co. was struck by the idea of creating a signature spirit after discovering the 1,000 kilograms of malt had developed a new unique flavour thanks to being left on the side patio of the Morrison Street brew pub, absorbing the smoke from the forest fire.
“It was already heavily peated malt destined for whisky, but it absorbed this extra flavour,” head brewer Spike Baker said.
“You can taste the malt, but it also has this smoky campfire taste to it. This is definitely going to be a one-off whisky because these conditions are never going to be repeatable.”
The brew pub approached the Fort McMurray Fire Fighters Association to partner with the organization for a special event Friday that will not only see the distillation process begin, but will be used to raise funds for the Friends of the Fort McMurray Firefighters Charities Association.
“It’s an opportunity to celebrate how far we’ve come as a community,” Baker said. “In honour of the firefighters saving the city and making this whisky possible, we want to move that legacy forward — that’s where the giveback comes in.
“Our local firefighters have been with us every step of the way and when we shared our initial idea, they jumped in to help brainstorm the name and even wanted to be part of the event.”
Close to 200 bottles will be produced, and 10 of those will be auctioned off Friday.
Successful bidders will receive an empty bottle and an IOU to be redeemed in five years when The Beast will be ready to drink.
In addition, Wood Buffalo will provide 10 bottles a year for auctions that support victims of the wildfire.
“This event is a chance for us to move forward and remember the good things,” Baker said.Share Tweet Google Plus reddit Messenger Share Email Print
So there is a fairly short list of topics that I keep meaning to write about and never seem to get around to (I’m running out of stuff to talk about). Today is one of those since it addresses a question that gets asked fairly frequently. And having officially released my Nutrition for Injury Recovery e-book, it’s time to finally get around to it.
That question has to do with what kind of calorie surplus is optimal for muscle gain. That is, people continuously ask what kind of daily, or weekly, or monthly surplus is required to optimize muscle gain and hopefully avoid excessive fat gain |
), Silver (over $250,000)—even the largest organized-labour contributions are ranked way down in Bronze.
The great liberal silence
The obsessive ‘Anyone but Bush’ posture across the liberal-progressive spectrum has ensured that Kerry has not had his feet held to the fire by any faction of the Democratic Party. This has been the year of surrendering quietly. Dean’s candidacy expired in Iowa, its prime consequence having been to lure a large chunk of the anti-war movement into the Democratic fold—which, as Dean imploded, then agreed that abb was the bleach of choice and committed to the support of a pro-war candidate. Looking for evidence of active protests against Kerry on the liberal-left in America in the late summer of 2004 was like trudging through the grey ash around Mount St. Helens, after the eruption. In thirty years I can recall nothing like it.
One cannot fault Kerry on truth in packaging. In the months after his nomination became assured, he methodically disappointed one vital section of his liberal constituency after another. In April, organized labour was admonished that Kerry’s prime task would be to battle the deficit. In May and again in July, women were informed that the candidate shared with the anti-abortion lobby its view of the relationship between conception and the start of life, and would be prepared to nominate anti-choice judges. In June it was the anti-war legions, to whom Kerry pledged four more years of occupation in Iraq.
Touting his brief stint as a Massachusetts prosecutor, Kerry vowed to put more cops on the streets and promised there would be no intermission in the war on drugs. The grand total of those caught in the toils of the criminal-justice system is now nearly 6.9 million, either in jail, on probation or on parole, amounting to 3.2 per cent of the adult population in the United States. In many cities a young black man faces a far better chance of getting locked up than of getting a job, since jail is the definitive bipartisan response of both Democrats and Republicans to the theories of John Maynard Keynes. Blacks have got less than nothing from Kerry, aside from his wife’s declaration that she too is an African American, yet the Congressional Black Caucus cheers the man who voted for welfare reform and devotes its time to flaying Ralph Nader.
War in Iraq? A majority of the country wants out, certainly most Democrats. Kerry wants in, even more than Bush. When the Democratic National Committee told Dennis Kucinich what to do with his peace plank, the Representative from Ohio tugged his forelock and told his followers to shuffle back in under the Big Tent and help elect a man who pledges to fight the war better and longer than Bush. Feminist leaders kept their mouths shut when Kerry flew his kite about nominating anti-choice judges. Gay leaders did not utter so much as a squeak when Kerry declared his opposition to same-sex marriages. Did we hear a peep from Norman Lear and People for the American Way as Kerry, the man who voted for the Patriot Act, revived his Tipper Gore-ish posturing about the evils of popular culture and said he would draft laws to elide the constitutional separation of church from state, permitting ‘faith-based organizations’ to get some purchase on Federal funds?
In spring 2004 Kerry told James Hoffa of the Teamsters that, though he would not touch the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, he would ‘drill everywhere else like never before’. There was not a bleat from the major environmental groups. He pledged the same policy again to the American Gas Association a couple of months later, throwing in the prospect of a new trans-Alaska–Canada pipeline for natural gas from the Arctic. Once again the big environmental organizations held their tongues. True, Andy Stern, head of the Service Employees, tossed a firecracker onto the Convention floor by confiding to the Washington Post’s David Broder that another four years of Bush might be less damaging than the stifling of needed reform within the party and the labour movement that would occur if Kerry becomes president. After a short period of re-education, however, Stern recanted and said he was ‘a hundred per cent’ for Kerry. Thus ended labour’s great revolt against a candidate who has cast his full share of votes in Congress to ensure job flight from America, and whose commitment to the living standards of working people is aptly resumed in his pledge to raise the minimum wage to $7 an hour by 2007, far below where it stood in real terms nearly forty years ago.
Joblessness and war
From June 2004, a bet on Kerry as the winner in November rested on two conspicuous features of the political landscape: the war and the economy. Bush had landed the us in a costly mess in Iraq, press-ganging reservists into open-ended tours of duty, a widely resented tactic. The economic recovery, such as it is, has had the worst record in producing new jobs of any since 1947. What was the Democratic candidate’s response?
Kerry worked methodically to eradicate any hope that he might extricate the us from Bush’s war in Iraq. Back on the campaign trail after the flag-wagging in Boston, he administered yet another wallop to wan progressives trying to persuade themselves that he was more of a man of peace than Bush: he surrendered Saddam’s non-existent wmds as an election issue. Jamie Rubin, top State Department spokesman in the Clinton years and now Kerry’s foreign-policy flack, was the bearer of this huge gift to Bush. Rubin told the Washington Post that ‘knowing then what he knows today’ about the lack of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in Iraq, Kerry still would have voted to authorize the war and, ‘in all probability’, would have launched a military attack to oust Hussein by now if he were president. (Previously, Kerry had only said, with typical forthrightness, that he ‘might’ have still gone to war.) Kerry himself then did some further clarifying in Arizona, where he told the press that, knowing then what he knows now, he would not have changed his vote to authorize the war, although he would have handled things ‘very differently’ from Bush.
In late August, with us forces engaged in heavy fighting in Najaf, and American casualties edging inexorably towards 1,000, Rubin apologized to the Washington Post for his ‘in all probability’ phrase. In more philosophical mode, he now explained that it was ‘unknowable whether Kerry would have waged the war. “Bush went to war the wrong way,” Rubin said. “What we don’t know is what would have happened if a president had gone about it the right way”.’ Equally unknowable is what Kerry’s ‘very different’ might mean. Under Bush, the un has given its full backing to the ongoing Occupation and its puppet government in Baghdad; fifty Islamic states have signed up in support; nato forces are hard at work inside Iraq’s borders.
On the economy, Kerry’s message at the Boston convention was dourly clear. Sitting next to Teresa Heinz Kerry during the candidate’s acceptance speech was Robert Rubin, ex-Secretary of the Treasury and Wall Street’s point man during the Clinton years, whose former subordinates are now running Kerry’s economic policy. Here we may as well state the obvious. As a political force on the national stage organized labour, manifested in the big unions of the afl-cio, is pretty much dead. As a fraction of the workforce, non-government union membership is now down to 9 per cent, and that number is sinking by a digit a year. In 1992, labour could still claim to have made at least a rhetorical input into Clinton’s campaign, with its pledges about ‘putting people first’. Clinton repaid labour’s ‘get out the vote’ efforts and money by selling out on health reform and failing to do anything on labour law; unless this changes, prospects for union organizing are bleak.
In 2004, organized labour has failed to elicit a single significant pledge from Kerry. His only concern is Wall Street and the bankers. His April statement that the deficit would be his first consideration meant goodbye to any decent jobs programme. Big labour’s prime political functions are, domestically, to rally its members and cash for the Democratic candidate and, internationally, to use the millions put its way by the National Endowment for Democracy and cognate operations to subvert radical organizing (as, most lately, in the efforts to oust Hugo Chávez). That is the story—just another mile-marker in the decline of labour since the late 1960s. Kerry will do nothing to arrest that decline, though his public-spending cuts, if his deficit-slashing is serious, may help to hasten it along.
Progressives who have touted the ‘Anyone but Bush’ standard (which reached its comical nadir with furious defences of Kerry’s record as an accredited war hero and winner of medals in Vietnam, accompanied by denunciations of Bush as a draft dodger) claim that the minute Kerry is sworn in as president they will be out on the streets, attacking from the left. One only has to look at the surrenders of the Clinton years, sketched in above, to predict with some confidence that these pledges of resistance are vacuous.
Safeguarding the duopoly
Always partial to monopolies, the Democrats think they should hold the exclusive concession on any electoral challenge to Bush and the Republicans. The Nader campaign prompts them to hysterical tirades. Republicans are more relaxed. Ross Perot and his Reform Party actually cost George Bush Sr his re-election in 1992, yet Perot never drew a tenth of the abuse for his presumption that Nader does now. Of course the Democrats richly deserve the challenge. Through the Clinton years the party remained ‘united’ in fealty to corporate corruption and right-wing class viciousness; and so inevitably and appropriately, the Nader-centred independent challenge was born, modestly in 1996, strongly in 2000 and now again in 2004. The rationale for Nader’s challenge was as sound as it was for Henry Wallace half a century earlier.
The central political issue in America today is the decay of the political system itself, and of the two prime parties that share the spoils. Wherever one looks, at the gerrymandered districts, the balloting methods, the fundraising, corruption steams like vapours from a vast swamp. In the House of Representatives, only some 35 seats are in serious contention. The rest have been gerrymandered into permanent incumbencies. A key attribute for entry into America’s professional political caste is the ability, so well demonstrated by the Senator for Massachusetts, to cultivate the interests of a multi-millionaire donor base. Of course money has always played a decisive role in American politics, but these days the amounts required are truly vast. It was Rep. Tony Coelho of California who oriented the Democratic Party in the 1980s towards the mountains of cash available (given suitable pledges) from corporate treasuries, thus setting the compass for the Lincoln bedroom auctions of Clinton-time and Al Gore’s black-bag outing to the Buddhist temple.
There are plenty of campaigns here in the usa that pit idealism and the zeal for justice against the cruelties and oppressions of the system. They do not rise and fall in tune with the political cycle and have faced bipartisan obloquy from Democrats and Republicans. The struggle for Palestinian justice has grown from near invisibility in the early 1970s to a substantial movement active across the entire United States, notably in church and community groups and on campuses. Ralph Nader’s fierce denunciations of aipac, of the Anti-Defamation League and of the overall malign power of the Israeli lobby would have been inconceivable even a decade ago. The fact that Nader, a Palestinian, felt emboldened to break a lifetime’s public silence on the topic is testimony to the change wrought by thirty years of organizing.
If ever there was a long-haul crowd, it is the anti-death penalty organizers who saw their greatest recent victory come in Illinois when Governor Ryan conceded police torture and racism and took a dozen inmates off death row. Year after year, the anti-death penalty campaigns across the country offer vivid dioramas of the savageries of the state at every stage, from the biographies of those condemned to the death-house conveyor belts that run continuously in states such as Texas and Florida. Medical marijuana has been one important gateway in the long guerrilla campaign against the ‘war on drugs’, in essence a war on the poor, particularly minorities. The right of people in permanent pain to have their palliative of choice is one that has endless resonances, in combating the predations of the pharmaceutical industry and the iniquities of the law and its enforcement. The living-wage campaign, fought in city after city across the country, has kept a focus on building a movement that actually fights for the working class. Amid the decline of organized labour, these campaigns have created coalitions at the city level, below the radar of the vested powers operating through state and Federal legislatures.
Many attest to a slack political tempo this campaign season. A simple refusal to vote at all on the presidential candidate could see the turnout drop below 50 per cent, as bleak a register of popular cynicism about the realities of the democratic mandate in the us today as the Venezuelan turnout was exhilarating. The next us president could even be denied a majority ‘mandate’ from the sliver of those voters going to the polls. By the same token, the shape of resistance in the coming years will not derive from a vote for Kerry, or even one for Nader, but from the harnessing of those vital, idealistic energies that always move through the American firmament, awaiting release.Show your support for the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus by placing a Tentacle Ribbon or badge—along with a link to the PNWTO page so people can learn more—on your website or blog. Together, we have the power to build a grass-roots campaign to save the Tree Octopus!
The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus
Tree Octopus Sightings
Tree octopus species, including the endangered Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus, are some of the most elusive creatures known to Man. Not many researchers have managed to photograph them in the wild and those few in captivity tend to hide in inaccessable corners of their cages, as if purposefully avoiding the prying of humans. Any Tree Octopus sighting should be sent to lyle@zapatopi.net. If it adds significantly to Tree Octopus research it may end up on this page.
Ellie managed to catch a climbing tree octopus on video: 2012-05-16 May 11th my friends and I hiked up Mt Baker. Snow caused us to start two miles from the trail head which retrospectively was a stroke of luck! Almost, back at the car on the 12th I suddenly see something strange scurrying around the base of a tree. I couldn't believe my luck when it ended up being the elusive Pacific North West tree octopus! Managed to get a little footage before it secreted itself away in a hole in the tree!
2011-01-06: A rare sighting of tree octopus predation by hawk:
Click to enlarge. Photos by Galen Leeds. Found at Pharyngula.
John digs deep to help the cause: 2010-12-16 Hello!
A few days ago I stumbled across some information about the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus on the web, so I decided to look for a specimen in my area. I was happy to discover a tree octopus living comfortably in a tree near my house. I excitedly took out a dollar bill for its nest, and left it at the base of the tree trunk. I dashed inside to get my camera, and took this picture just before the magnificent little creature crawled into its nest. I've seen this tree octopus and maybe a couple others a few times since. I really hope this photo adds to your research.
Sincerely,
John C. Lawson
A report of tragedy among the already endangered tree octopus population: 2010-03-24: "Tree Octopi tragedy" While enjoying a break from shooting one of my films, I was vacationing on the west coast, visiting a friend. Inbetween our extensive debates on international politics and the environment, we happen to stroll the grounds of his estate. His home is set adjacent to the beautifully scenic Olympic National Park. The air was tinged with smoke from the nearby Constantine fire, which was happening at the time. It wasn't long before I noticed something strange at my feet, an entire pod of 30 to 40 Pacific Northwest tree octopi were littering his lawn. The poor creatures had obviously been driven from the moisture of their forest homes and were desperately migrating toward the safety of the nearby Hood Canal. Tearfully, we collected several of the dehydrated animals and tried to nurture them back to health, but to no avail. I have attached [photos] of one of the Octopi for you to use to raise awareness to the continued plight of the species. With love & support to the Pacific Northwest tree octopus
Babette Bombshell With their numbers still dwindling, this is the sort of setback that the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus can ill afford.
Contrary to popular beliefs, not all tree octopuses hibernate during winter. Here are two sightings of snow-loving octopuses from New England. The first is from Danno: 2009-03-11: "Snow Octopus" The other day after a snow storm. I was getting ready to shovel the snow. When I notice some movement. When I realized what it was I grabbed my camera. I was only able to get one photo be for the Snow Octopus (Snow Puss) disappeared under the snow. Living in New England I didn't think they came this far south or east.
Photo detail enhanced using third-party cephalopod-image processing technology. Photo detail enhanced using third-party cephalopod-image processing technology. Their ability to blend into the environment is amazing. One would almost think it was made of snow. But one would be wrong. This sighting comes from Emmy: 2009-01-19: "we found a tree octopus!!!!!!!" These photographs show that tree octopi are not restricted to temperate climates. The last picture also is possibly the only known photo of a tree octopus nest. This is a proposed new species, or the New England Ground-Nesting Tree Octopus, or just simply New England Tree Octopus. Emmy's photos of this previously unclassified tree octopus species were too blurry for even our most advanced cephalopod-image processing technology to enhance. In order to keep warm in the cold winter air, this species must be constantly on the move through the tree tops, making photographing it clearly next to impossible. Its blue coloration might mean it's related to T. pilosa, or perhaps that's just its way of saying how very cold it feels. Whatever the case, the ground nest shows that, even in these uncertain economic times, people are willing to open their wallets to help give tree octopuses comfy homes.
2009-02-16: The Save the Tree Octopus! YouTube channel has found actual footage of a Octopus paxarbolis in the wild:
James from Seattle/Olympia writes in with a discovery he made in his Christmas tree: 2008-12-25: "Pacific NW Xmas tree Octopus" Just letting you know, we spotted this adventurous tree octopi feeling particularly festive. Sometimes tree octopuses hitch a ride in Christmas trees harvested from farms on the Olympic Peninsula. When its tree is being jostled violently, a tree octopus will hunker down deep inside the branches near the trunk and camouflage itself to look like bark. This is a defensive mechanism to protect it from wind storms and sasquatch trying to shake octopuses to the ground. They may stay hidden like this for days after a particularly violent shaking, such as experienced by Christmas trees when they are chopped down and transported. Many octopuses have a natural instinct to decorate their lairs with attractive baubles, and O. paxarbolis is no exception. When it finally comes out of hiding and explores its tree, finding it covered in shiny ornaments and sparkly lights, it will become so mesmerized by the baublely abundance that it'll hardly notice that its tree is sitting in some human's living room. Scandinavian immigrants considered it good luck to find a tree octopus in their Christmas tree. Granted, that's because they like to eat them. But for us more enlightened cephalopodophiles, we can consider it a sign of good luck that the species hasn't yet gone extinct. And to keep it that way, please remember to remove any octopuses you find before disposing of your Christmas tree. They can be put in a shoe box -- with a bit of moist branch to make them feel comfortable and some tinsel to keep them distracted -- and taken to your nearest chapter of the Friends of the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus for reintroduction into the wild.
Jonathan wrote in with an invasive tree octopus species he discovered in his garden... 2007-08-24: "Invasive exotic tree octopus species a threat to our native Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus?" Dear Sir, I am writing to bring to your attention yet another threat to our endangered native Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus (Octopus paxarbolis). I photographed these specimens on a potted bamboo and Japanese maple on my deck, north of Seattle. At this time, I am uncertain whether this invader is the Chinese Bamboo Octopus (Sinoctopus bambusa) that came in on the bamboo and spread to the nearby Japanese maple, or a related Japanese species (Aceroctopus japonicum) that spread from the maple to the bamboo. Given the similarity between the coloring of the octopuses and the maple leaf stems, I suspect the latter. The Asiatic invasive octopus is much smaller than O. paxarbolis, with mature specimens measuring just 5-6 inches across, from tentacle tip to tentacle tip. However, what they lack in size, they make up for in numbers. The maple and bamboo plants were just crawling with them! Lax inspection standards for horticultural imports are certainly to blame. I worry about the effect on the native species should the exotic species manage to spread beyond garden plants to the greater fir forests of the area. Sincerely,
Jonathan Griffin-MacGregor It is indeed a Japanese maple octopus. You can tell from the spring-like cinching at the base of the arms, which has become characteristic for A. japonicum. Shinto priests in Japan have been artificially selecting this species for centuries, culling from the maple trees only those with a pleasing continuity between their body and arms for use in their ceremonies/luncheons. This has left the wild population with limbs oddly mismatched to their bodies -- as well as a bold, some would say defiant, attitude toward humans, since the unculled ones have come to view the priest's avoidance as a sign of fear. You are right to be worried about this invasive species. I would suggest you burn your garden to the ground. It's the only way to make sure that the invasion doesn't spread to native Tree Octopus habitats.
Marc L. sent in a photo of a rare tree octopus that specializes in redcedar: 2006-12-16
Photo detail enhanced using advanced ZPi cephalopod-image processing technology. Photo detail enhanced using advanced ZPi cephalopod-image processing technology. Here is a rare and endangered Cephalopod Thuja Pilcata or locally known as the Western Red Cedar Climbing Octopus. You don't see one of these babies everyday!! Especially this far inland!! Emacs! Marc has his names a bit confused, which is understandable given the esoteric nature of tree octopus cladistics. Thuja plicata is actually the scientific name for the Western Redcedar tree that this octopus calls home. The correct binomial for the octopus itself is Thujoctopus pilosa, named for the lush coating of bluish velvet that it evolved to help retain moisture as it migrated deep inland from its ancestral Pacific home. Unfortunately, this notable trait led to its current rarity. Originally considered a cheaper domestic alternative to fine velvets imported from Italy or Kashmir, redcedar octopus pelts became popular in the early to mid 20th century with a growing North American middle-class desperate for luxury goods. In particular, evening dresses made entirely of undyed T. pilosa pelts became such a fixture during the post-war period that they were immortalized in the song "Blue Velvet" -- made a hit in 1951 by Tony Bennett and again in the 1960s by Bobby Vinton. (The song also featured prominently in the 1986 film "Blue Velvet" by director and animal lover David Lynch, who considered it emblematic of the moral degeneracy of suburban middle-class life. Lynch spent much of his childhood in the woods of eastern Washington and was well aware of the devastation brought against the local tree octopus populations by the twisted, fetishistic desires of the suburbs.) Eventually, shrinking numbers of redcedar octopus combined with inexpensive mass-produced synthetic velvets available on the burgeoning global market led to the pelt trade becoming unprofitable -- narrowly saving T. pilosa from extinction. [2007-01-01] Marc had a follow up letter: 2006-12-31 Your write up was very impressive but you failed to mention the decline in habitat here in Southern Oregon due to logging. Fortunately, now that the species is protected, you often hear in the woods " Don't cut that one, they's one of them dang blue pusses up there!!" A far greater threat to the species exists from pets. I have personally witnessed a Labrador Retriever violently shaking a Cedar Pus, the cries of which are unimaginable, perhaps best described as unworldly or maybe Chinese. On a lighter note I'm sure you will be happy to hear our sighting turned out to be a breeding colony, as evidenced by the attached photo.
Another sighting of an Australian species of tree octopus, this one associating with an arboreal marsupial... 2005-04-28: "Tree-ringed octopus sighted with koalas"
Photo detail enhanced using third-party cephalopod-image processing technology. Photo detail enhanced using third-party cephalopod-image processing technology. At last! Someone who can testify to the reality of such rare and beautious beasts. It was a fine Spring day. We hapless residents of Daisy Hill were out photographing the last remaining large koala habitat in SE Queensland, with developers poised at our doorstep (www.savedaisyhill.com), snapping away at the innocent koalas sleeping peacefully in the treetops, when lo! The great and very endangered Tree-ringed octopus appeared swinging amongst the branches. Very unusual for such a shy animal. Developers are still poised at our doorstep. We know our plight to save the Tree-ringed octopus is futile, but this, at least, is testimony to the world that they once inhabited this great land. Hapalochlaena eucalyptlata, which is known to grow up to 30cm (12 in) across bears bright blue rings when angered, and can inflict a lethal bite, much like it's marine cousin, the lesser Hapalochlaena lunulata. Since both species carry enough poison to kill 26 adults within minutes, we're hoping there'll be enough to go around for the developers and their bulldozer wielding lackeys. Sonny Whitelaw
Report of tree octopus seen east of Seattle, possibly feeding on bugs. Unlikely to be O. paxarbolis, as they could never survive crossing the I5 corridor... 2004-10-29: "Tree Octopus Sighting East of Seattle!"
Photo detail enhanced using third-party cephalopod-image processing technology. Photo detail enhanced using third-party cephalopod-image processing technology. A friend an I were looking for interesting bugs in a dense forest east of Seattle. My friend John is the man hanging from a rope in the middle of the photo. I was taking a picture of him hanging from the ropes with my digital camera when I noticed in the picture preview there was something on the base of one of the trees. I Looked at the tree and saw what appeared to be an octopus. It was rather dark because the sun was on the other side of the tree, so I took a photo of it with my heat sensing camera to make sure that it was a living creature. I then went searching on the internet for a tree-climbing octopus site and I found this one. Here is the photo I was talking about, I hope it helps your studies. Sincerely,
Peter Rootes
Below is a first hand account of the cephalopodic carnage that results when tree octopuses cross the road... 2004-02-11 I am well acquainted with the tree octopus from the time I lived in Tacoma. For a time I dated a girl who lived in Port Angeles on the north end of the Olympic peninsula. Because it was a about a three hour I'd drive up to visit her on the weekends. The route I'd drive to and from visiting her crossed the Hood canal and then followed its western shore for some distance. It's a beautiful, unspoiled area of virgin forest at the foot of the majestic Olympic mountains in the west, and the beautiful waters of the Hood canal and Puget sound to the east. Many times while driving back home late I would see tree octopi (or "tree squawbs" as the locals call them) as they crossed the road heading for the canal, obviously on their way back to spawn... (Read more on the Louisville Scuba Divers website.)
This is why you should always bring an umbrella with you in the Hoh Rainforest... 2003-06-04: "Possible Tree Octopus Sighting!"
Photo detail enhanced using advanced ZPi cephalopod-image processing technology. Photo detail enhanced using advanced ZPi cephalopod-image processing technology. I was hiking with my Aunt Gene last August in the Hoh rain forest when I shot this slide. It wasn't until a few months later, when I was giving a slide presentation, that I noticed the mass in the upper left [sic] corner. I thought it appeared a little strange, but it wasn't until I stumbled across your site that I realized that I had found an elusive tree octopus! I feel so lucky to have accidentally gotten a photo of this amazing creature! -- Justin
The following photo appears to be of some species of Deciduous Tree Octopus, most likely O. saccharum or the Sugar Octopus. They occur most often in coastal New England, where they use their beaks to break the bark of maple trees and slurp the sap. These tree octopuses die off annually with the changing of the leaves, dropping to the ground where they are then gathered by the local Hominoids as sweet Fall snacks. Although not closely related to O. paxarbolis, they do share a common plight as environmental disruption and poaching for the lucrative Japanese dessert sushi market has brought Sugar Octopus populations to dangerously low levels. 2002-12-21: "Tree Octopus Sighting!!!!"
Photo detail enhanced using advanced ZPi cephalopod-image processing technology. Photo detail enhanced using advanced ZPi cephalopod-image processing technology. I was recently taking pictures of the beautiful scenery while on vacation, when I noticed something odd crawling through the trees. To my disbelief, I discovered that it was a tree octopus! It moved extremely quickly, but I managed to get a good picture of it, and I think you'll agree that it's a pretty high-quality photo. I hope you add this picture to your site so that people can see the beauty of the tree octopus. Sincerely,
JonathanLooking for news you can trust?
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Matt Yglesias put up a chart today showing that unemployment is high among the less educated but pretty low among the well educated. Then this comment:
Virtually every single member of congress, every senator, every Capitol Hill staffer, every White House advisor, every Fed governor, and every major political reporter is a college graduate. What’s more, we have a large amount of social segregation in the United States — college graduates tend to socialize with each other. And among college graduates, there simply isn’t an economic crisis in the United States.
Here’s another chart that, if anything, makes this point even more strongly: it shows the rate of long-term unemployment by educational level. I had to cobble it together with an interpolation or two,1 but I think it’s pretty close to the mark, and what it shows is that for those with a high school diploma or less, the long-term unemployment rate is about 5-6%. If this is the social class you hang out with, then out of a circle of a few dozen friends and acquaintances you probably personally know four or five who are currently out of work, and of those perhaps two or three who have been out of work for six months or more and are getting truly desperate.
But if you’re a college grad? Obviously this varies from person to person, but chances are that you know only a couple of people who have been out of work for even a couple of months and nobody who’s been out of work for six months. Or, at most, maybe one. And chances are that even that one has a way better safety net — savings, parents, credit cards, etc. — than the blue collar folks who have been out of work that long.
Being out of work for a few weeks — or even a couple of months — is bad but not debilitating. It’s long-term unemployment that makes people profoundly fearful and discouraged. But among the college-educated crowd, it barely exists. The fear just isn’t there, and that makes it awfully easy to ignore.
1I’m not sure why BLS doesn’t make this stuff more easily available. If anyone has the raw data for this and can provide exact numbers, let me know.Saracens got off to a flyer against Clermont at Twickenham in the weekend's first Heineken Cup semi-final. Chris Ashton touched down for the English side after just 8 minutes.
After a Morgan Parra penalty, Saracens put last year's finalists under huge pressure from the kick off. Lee Byrne had a kick blocked and then Marcelo Bosch challenged Brock James in the air for the ball. Nigel Owens adjudged that the Aussie had deliberately knocked the ball out of play and prevented a try scoring opportunity. He awarded the a penalty try to Saracens.
Stuart Barnes commentating on Sky Sports was adamant during the TMO review that it should be a penalty but even he was surprised when Owens awarded the penalty try.
It seems a very harsh decision to me. Judge for yourself.worst fic a guest May 6th, 2015 351 Never a guest351Never
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 29.08 KB WORST FUCKING FICTION EVER THANKS PAST ME ---Monster Chronicles--- -------Chapter 1-------- June 4, 9:00 AM, 2020 Detective ClapShon, the best Detective in New York woke up. He looked at the time, and exclaimed, "Oh, damn. If I'm any later, I ain't getting that promotion!" He walked out of his House, a regular house, with green paint, and a dark green roof. He looked around. The whole city was in ruin. The whole street was filled with cops and Cars, who were shooting at a lone man. One cop said, "John ClapShon, we have a major problem. This guy---i know you won't believe this--- is destroying the whole city! He fires beams from his hands,and we cant stop him!" The Mysterious "man" stood on top of the ashes of a building. He screamed, "Fear me, fools! I am Bloodar, The To-be dominater of this here world!" He started firing Plasma Beams out of his hands. The Police kept firing. After 5 minutes of solid gunfire, the police chief screamed, "Our weapons are not enough?!" One of the Policemen exclaimed, "Of course. I don't see that thing dieing, do you?" The So-Called Bloodar shouted some strange word, and shot a beam of Nails at one of the police cars, the police car exploded,causing 2 police officers to go flying back. The Chief Screamed, "Fall Back, men! Fall Back!" The Police officers started running away, and soon, John was running with them. He Ran into his old Friend, Natalie bloodsick. She had been a demolitions expert in World War 3, Which happened back in 2013. In that battle, one of her bombs malfunctioned, and landed near her. The Bomb's explosion damaged her head, causing her to become Obsessed with bombing things. The World was still recovering from World War 3...in that war, the whole war was effected. In Russia, only a mere 9,000 people were alive...in africa, 75% of the forests were burnt down...In Spain, the country that started the war, a Mutant Falcon's radiation mutated 88% of everything that lived there. The Mutant falcon was an experimental bomb at the time, with mass radiation in it. And England became a City of Ashes...only 5.5% of the population managed to escape england before it was destroyed. France became a graveyard. It was contaminated with radiation, the whole place was dead. Not even a cockroach could survive in France... The Radiation of France was spreading the radiation over the world, and it needed to be stopped. Elephants, Giraffes, Racoons, and Sperm Whales. They all became Extinct. Some kids don't even know they existed... She said, "Why's everyone running?" He said, "It's a freaking warzone out there! The cops versus a lone man, who's freaking unstoppable!" She Said, "I say we use bombs." He said, "It's too dangerous!" She said, "Awwwwww...But I like explosions!" He said, "Nevermind, just GO!" Bloodar approached them, firing lazers out of his hand. Then, the earth shook, and even Bloodar got startled. The Earth Shook. It shook again. And again, until finally, a Giant Creature was glaring at Bloodar. It looked like a Man...it looked like a mix of man and animal...It's eyes looked like a cat's eyes...It had a bird's beak... it's fur was green, and it stood like a man...it's feet were those of a monster...and it had claws with blood dropping down from them. It was 50 feet taller than an average apartment...and with one strike, it could shatter a building. Natalie said, "Do I get to use bombs yet?" John replied, "No---" Natalie screamed, "WHAAAAAAAT?!" John replied |
your daughter."The only thing we're afraid of," he said, "is losing things we have. You can't be afraid of losing something you don't have. If you don't have a family, you don't have any concern about losing them. You have to create a sense of stakes."
In the first BioShock game, Levine attempted to make his game's enemies something more than cannon fodder: Splicers, the demented humans that roamed the halls of the ruined city, had all suffered some great loss and talked and screamed about it as they set upon you. Similarly, the city of Rapture clearly used to be a beautiful place, a utopia.
"There's the loss of the dream, the idealism that they brought to this place, that's soured and dissipated. If you don't create the sense of something positive and take that away, it's very hard to create fear," Levine said.
Ridley Scott's Alien films have also made an impression on the game director.
"From a very strict archetype, Alien is a slasher movie," he said, "a killer hiding in the dark taking them out one by one. But it's done with a kind of expertise and care and art that puts most of those other movies to shame."
Players must first make a connection with a character like BioShock Infinite's Elizabeth before they can feel true fear, the game's director Ken Levine says.
Image: Irrational Games
Levine said that the iconic scenes in which the character Kane, played by actor John Hurt, is assaulted by the alien represent a different feeling of loss, one that can connect powerfully with a viewer.
"It starts with a rape moment, where John Hurt is first infected with this thing. It's an invasive rape-style scene which taps into something terrifying, that sense of being violated." When the alien later bursts forth from his stomach, it's based on another deep-seated fear. "There's a primal birth moment there... a fear we all have of blood and birth and that going terribly wrong."
In between these two scenes, there's a moment where Kane recovers and is sitting around eating dinner with his friends before he dies gruesomely. This, too, is important, Levine said.
"It's probably worse to have somebody you love fall ill and then seem to recover and then die," he said. "That's terrifying to us because it plays on that sense of fragility we all have."
In BioShock Infinite, the challenge that Levine has set himself and his team at Irrational Games has been to add a more human relationship. Instead of wandering around a dead city alone, you're doing it with a companion. The relationship between your player character Booker and his friend Elizabeth has been the focal point of the team's efforts thus far.
"The most important thing that we've learned from BioShock that we're trying to put in Infinite is that you need to create stakes," he says. "We're trying to create a relationship between Booker and Elizabeth, and between the player and Elizabeth through the vehicle of Booker.... It's more about the story of these two characters set against the backdrop of the city, whereas BioShock was more about the city itself."
What many games and movies do wrong, Levine says, is mistaking form for function. "You have to do more things than outline, in a cursory sense, these relationships... You can't just say, this is your wife, this is your daughter. That's not enough."
"You have to think of it as a seduction process," he says. "You have to lower the lights, pour the wine. You have to bring the audience in with some degree of care, take the time to let them marinate in the environment and the characters before you bring out the big guns.... If you can't get them to care, you really can't scare them."
See Also:- Creepy Moral Dilemmas Make BioShock a Sophisticated ShooterThe game has changed a lot since those days. But, as one pitching coach has said, “the game never changes to help pitchers.” That’s why today’s pitchers have been forced to evolve from predators to jackals. “Pitchers today don’t out-stuff hitters,” Buck Showalter, the Baltimore Orioles manager, says. Pitchers today are con men, pickpockets, masters of deception. Their weapons are small pitches: cutters, splitters, circle changeups.
No team in baseball today has a greater number of successful deceptive pitchers than the Philadelphia Phillies. They have brought together four of the best starting pitchers in the game: Roy (Doc) Halladay, a 33-year-old two–time Cy Young Award winner; Cliff Lee, 32, and also a Cy Young winner; Roy Oswalt, 33, with 150 career wins; and the 27-year-old Cole Hamels, a World Series hero three years ago. Before they have even thrown one pitch for the same team, they are being hailed as the best four-man rotation in baseball, maybe the best ever. They are being compared with the great staffs in baseball history: the New York Yankees in the 1930s; the Cleveland Indians in 1954; the Orioles with their four 20-game winners in 1971; and the Atlanta Braves in the 1990s. As soon as Lee rejoined the team last December, the Phillies immediately became everyone’s favorite to win this year’s World Series. And necessity may push those expectations even higher now that the Phillies are dealing with injuries, most worryingly to their star second baseman and No. 3 hitter, Chase Utley, and must rely even more on their pitching.
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Last month I went to the Phillies’ spring-training camp in Clearwater, Fla., to see for myself how their star pitchers stacked up against my idols from back in the day. I went straight to Greg Casterioto, the media guy, for my credentials. He laid down the ground rules. I couldn’t approach any of them at their lockers, in the weight room or on the field until he had spoken to them about an interview. Not even to say hello. He said the three older pitchers were nonverbal and gruff because they felt talking about their pitching might jinx it. Halladay, in particular, was very focused, always in some psychic zone that excluded others. “He works out at 5 a.m. for five hours before practice,” Casterioto said.
Every morning I checked the bulletin board to see who was throwing a bullpen session under the watchful eyes of Rich Dubee, the Phillies’ pitching coach. When Halladay’s name appeared, I asked Dubee what time Halladay would throw. “Whenever,” he said. Dubee had an ineffectual minor league career before becoming a pitching coach. He said the hardest part of his job was “to stay out of their way and not screw it up.”
I stood behind Halladay while he threw. Despite his size, 6-foot-6, 230 pounds, and his grizzled, unshaven face, he was less than fearsome. His father once said his son had the nature of an amiable golden retriever. But he throws like a vulture, all flapping arms and lunging body. His pitches hit the catcher’s mitt with the sound of a ball thrown into a bale of cotton. Halladay never throws a straight pitch that his catcher can catch flush or a batter can hit solidly. His cutter darts away from a right-handed hitter, his fastball has a little tail into a right-handed hitter and his sinker drops straight down. Unlike most pitchers, Halladay doesn’t throw directly at the corners of the plate. He aims at the middle and lets the pitches break left, right, or down off the plate. All his pitches look like strikes, until they aren’t.
Halladay regularly leads the majors in complete games, averaging greater than five a year. Which is an example of how far the bar has been lowered for greatness since back in the day. Spahn averaged 21 complete games a season from age 26 until he was 42 in 1963. Spahn also won 20 or more games in 13 seasons. Even more recent pitchers, like Jim Palmer, who was a part of that Orioles rotation in 1971, regularly completed 20 games per season. During one nine-year period, Palmer won 20 games eight times.
Everyone I talked to said the same impressive things about Halladay. A pitching coach said, “On a good day Doc is dangerous, and on a bad day he’s still dangerous.” Palmer, who now works as a broadcaster for the Orioles, called Halladay “Greg Maddux with better stuff,” referring to the four-time Cy Young Award winner who pitched for the Braves in the ’90s. Ryan Howard, the Phillies’ slugging first baseman, told me, “Doc’s sinker is probably unhittable.” John Farrell, the manager for the Toronto Blue Jays, Halladay’s first team, said: “If he mistakenly throws a pitch over the middle, you can’t miss it. But then again, his pitches over the middle don’t end up over the middle.”
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The next morning I watched Hamels throw. He’s tall, 6-foot-3, but he looks soft, a surfer dude from San Diego with a shock of black hair falling over his handsome face. He has a decent four-seam fastball that doesn’t move much, but it has, according to Pat Gillick, the former general manager of the Blue Jays and Phillies, “a late giddyap.” His curveball, without an abrupt break, is merely adequate. It’s his changeup that has made him an excellent pitcher. Years ago, a starting pitcher’s changeup was his third or fourth pitch. Today, for a lot of pitchers, the changeup is their Unfair One. It’s called a circle change. The pitcher spreads his last three fingers around the ball, then forms a little circle with his forefinger and thumb on the side of the ball. Then he just throws a fastball and his grip prevents it from going fast. The best circle changes, like the one thrown by Hamels, either seem to die at the plate or fade away from a right-handed batter like a soft cutter. It’s a deceptive pitch, easier to master than to hit. Tom Glavine, another smooth southpaw — are there any other kind? — used his deceptive changeup to win 305 games, most of them with the Braves from 1987 through 2002. “Hamels is a Glavine,” Palmer told me, “but with a better fastball and less control.”
According to Mike Arbuckle, the Phillies’ scouting director in 2002, when the Phillies drafted Hamels out of high school, Hamels “was very polished, his changeup was very advanced, but his curve had no bite.” Gillick said Hamels used to have a good curveball, but “he lost confidence in it because he had so much confidence in his change as his out pitch.” Ryan Howard said of Hamels’s changeup: “Devastating, but his curveball is whatever. But sometimes your third pitch can be your best first pitch.” What he meant is that so many hitters are looking for Hamels to throw a first-pitch changeup that a curveball will often catch them flat-footed taking the pitch.
A pitching coach told me: “Hamels makes mistakes. He’s not strong like Doc either. A few years ago he was the It guy after he was the World Series M.V.P. in 2008. But he started appearing everywhere.” In other words, Hamels became a celebrity beyond baseball. He appeared on “Late Show With David Letterman” and “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” with his wife, Heidi Strobel, a reality-TV veteran from “Survivor.” Hamels transformed from a laid-back kid from San Diego in O.P. shorts into a slickster in Hugo Boss suits with a buffed, boyish charm. His teammates began calling him Hollywood Hamels.
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In the two seasons after he was named M.V.P. of the World Series, his records were 10-11 and 12-11. Eventually he admitted “these side jobs” were wearing him out and getting in the way of his real job, which was playing winning baseball.
After four days, I was getting antsy. No interviews, no word from Casterioto. So I approached Halladay at his locker one morning. He turned his back and muttered, “Talk to Greg.” I went over to Hamels at his locker. Before I could speak, he brushed past me: “I’m busy.”
I looked around and saw Oswalt at his locker. What the hell! He looked up without expression and said, “O.K., let’s do it now.” We went outside and sat on a bench and talked.
Oswalt is often described as “a slender six-footer.” In Gillick’s words: “If you like him as a pitcher, he’s a six-footer. If not, he’s 5-foot-10.” He looks smaller, barely 160 pounds. But, as Palmer put it to me, “he pitches like a big man.”
Oswalt said he was smaller as a kid: “I had to use my body more to throw hard.” He drives off the mound with his legs low to the ground, which propels his fastball upward of 95 m.p.h. He considers himself a classic “old school” pitcher: overhand fastball, curveball, with a change as a third pitch. “I’m aggressive,” he said. “I throw strikes and pitch to my strength, not a hitter’s weakness.” If a hitter likes high inside fastballs and that’s Oswalt’s best pitch, he’ll challenge the hitter mano a mano. Nolan Ryan told me, “He’s very confident, but he throws his fastball up more than I’m comfortable with.” Mike Maddux, Texas’ pitching coach, said: “He’s cocksure, very aggressive. The knock against him is he’s only a fastball pitcher. But he has a big-time curve too.” Ryan Howard told me that Oswalt’s curve is not even 70 m.p.h., “but it’s got a hump in it. You get anxious, you go at it too soon. Then he comes back at you with that 94 m.p.h. fastball on the hands. Oh, man.”
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Oswalt said that no one throws a curveball much anymore. “It’s too hard to learn, and umpires don’t like to call it a strike.” A great overhand curveball drops from a batter’s waist to his knees as it crosses the plate, and is caught by a catcher before it hits the dirt. A great curveball never looks like a strike. Umpires don’t like to be embarrassed in front of 50,000 people. “If a guy doesn’t come into the big leagues with a curveball, it’s hard to teach him a quality one,” Dubee told me. “You either can spin it right away or you can’t.” A curveball begins with a fastball arm motion, the pitcher’s arm passing his head with his two fingers cutting through the center of the ball and aimed directly at the plate. When the pitcher’s hand is in front of his head, just before he releases the ball, he must roll his two fingers over the top of the ball to give it downward spin, while simultaneously pulling his arm sharply in toward his opposite hip. The motion is akin to pulling on the string hanging from an overhead light bulb. A great curveball is the only pitch that requires two different arm motions in one pitch.
Oswalt throws between starts more than he works out in a gym. He gave me a sly, sideways grin. “I don’t get to the gym at 5 a.m. and work out for five hours. That’s ungodly.” Oswalt went on to say that “guys used to throw 300 innings a year,” but 200 is a lot today. “Now there’s pitch counts. Who came up with the magic number, 100 pitches and take him out? You don’t hurt your arm throwing in the ninth inning — you hurt it in the early innings before your throwing smooths out.”
Mel Queen, a player-development consultant for the Blue Jays, told me that the kiss of death for today’s pitchers is the “quality start”: seven innings and turn the game over to the setup man and then the closer. He said babying young pitchers to protect a team’s investment in them has made many of them soft, like Joba Chamberlain of the Yankees. “Joba looks confused now,” Queen said, “because he hasn’t pitched enough in the minors.” Mike Maddux told me: “My icons were Palmer, Seaver and Ryan. They took responsibility for finishing a game. That’s why pitchers don’t have the variety of pitches today that they used to.” He meant that today’s starting pitchers don’t need as many good pitches, or the Unfair One, to go seven innings as they do to finish to nine. It’s that third and even fourth time through the opposition’s batting order that dooms most of today’s starting pitchers. It’s something of a fallacy that today’s starting pitchers don’t complete games simply because they lack the stamina, or because teams fear injury. Starting pitchers today don’t have the quality or variety of pitches, the depth of talent, required to go nine innings.
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“Everyone says that the Phillies have this great staff,” Palmer told me. But baseball strategy has changed, and “the name of the game is just to go seven innings. Young pitchers never find out where their heart is until they’ve been tested over nine innings.” Seaver, who completed 231 games during his career, told me, “If I was a manager today, I’d go out to the mound in the seventh when a pitcher was in trouble and tell him, ‘I’m not coming back.’ ”
I asked Oswalt how he would adjust to the loss of his stuff as he got older. He laughed and said: “I have a great knuckleball. I’ll break it out later in my career.” Oswalt is like most successful pitchers today who are reluctant to tamper with the stuff that made them successful, until they lose it. Most great pitchers don’t wait until they lose their stuff before they redefine themselves as pitchers. Spahn began tinkering with a screwball and slider when he was still winning 20 games a season in his 20s. By the time he began to lose his good fastball and sharp-breaking curveball, in his early 30s, he had already incorporated his new pitches into his repertory, which is why he continued winning 20 games a year into his 40s.
The following morning, Casterioto told me Halladay would talk to me at 8:30 by his locker. I went over, and we talked. As a pitcher, he said, “I have to work hard to throw hard because I was never a nice, easy, fluid thrower.” That’s why he’s so dedicated to his obsessive workouts: “It makes me feel stronger and more confident. It’s the mental part of pitching I worry about. I have to remind myself don’t think too much.” (According to Queen, Halladay can’t remember the last thing you told him. “You put too much in his head, and nothing sticks.”)
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When Halladay was drafted by Toronto in ’95, he was a big, hard-throwing overhand fastball-curveball pitcher like Nolan Ryan, but with less explosive stuff. Then, in his second full season with the Blue Jays, in 2000, he lost his control, his stuff and his confidence. He posted a 10.64 E.R.A., the worst of any pitcher who pitched at least 50 innings in a single season. The Jays sent him down to the minors, where he came under the spell of Queen. Queen called him “weak” and “worthless,” and Halladay agreed. Then Queen made a few simple changes to Halladay’s motion. He lowered Halladay’s arm motion from straight overhand to low-three-quarters overhand, then taught him various grips to make his fastball move. “The rest is history,” Queen told me. Two years later, Halladay was a 19-game winner. He has won at least 20 games in a season three times.
Of his disastrous meltdown in 2000, Halladay said: “It wasn’t that I was afraid. I was confused. I didn’t know what the problem was or how to turn it around.” Queen helped him physically. Mentally, he learned a lot from Harvey Dorfman’s book, “The Mental ABC’s of Pitching.” Dorfman has become a psychological guru for confused pitchers. His book is full of simplicities cloaked in athletic jargon that comforts pitchers who have never thought much about their craft. (Seaver always had his own theories about pitching.) Sample advice from Dorfman: “Address failure by defining it in situational terms, rather than personal ones. In other words, be certain perspective is clear.”
I left Halladay and went to watch Joe Blanton pitch batting practice. Blanton is the Phillies’ fifth starter. He’s being paid a lot of money to be the forgotten man: $8.5 million a year compared with Halladay’s $20 million, Oswalt’s $16 million, Lee’s $11 million ($21.5 million starting next year) and Hamels’s $9.5 million. Blanton throws with an extreme, short-arm motion, a short stride, a stand-up follow through, like a Little League pitcher who has never been coached. Still, he has a darting fastball and a sharp slider.
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Then I saw Lee throwing off a bullpen mound with Dubee and abandoned Blanton. Dubee glanced at me as if annoyed. At 6-foot-3, Lee is tall and lean like a knife blade, with a club fighter’s big jaw. Carl Willis, his coach at Cleveland, once said if he was ever in a bar fight, he’d want Lee on his side because “you’d have to kill him” to stop him. Lee has something of a temper. In 2007, pitching for the Indians, he hit Sammy Sosa in the head with a fastball on a night the Rangers were honoring Sosa for hitting 600 home runs. The same game, Lee got into two arguments with his catcher in full view of the fans. Willis says Lee can be stubborn. Others have called him colorless and “not especially eloquent or intellectual,” a man who admits to having never read a book.
Lee may have the temperament of a bar fighter, but as a pitcher he’s as precise as a surgeon. He dices and slices batters with his delicately placed fastballs. Last season, he walked 18 batters in 212 innings. “I wish he’d throw more balls,” Gillick said. Lee can be predictable with his four-seam fastball, which doesn’t move much at 92 to 94 m.p.h. He throws as many as 90 fastballs a game, most of them to one spot, low and inside to right handers. When his control is off, Lee, unlike Halladay, can be hit. Last year in the World Series with the Texas Rangers, Lee was roughed up by the San Francisco Giants in two games, giving up nine earned runs and 14 hits in 11.2 innings because, according to Willis, “his fastball migrated to the middle of the plate,” where it was hittable.
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Lee has a smooth, high kicking motion not unlike Warren Spahn’s. When he raises his right leg so high that his knee is almost to his face, he draws his arm back with the ball. He doesn’t bring the ball all the way behind him, as most pitchers do, their arms extended so far behind them that the hitter can pick up the ball and follow its progress. Lee “short arms” the ball instead, pulling his arm back alongside his body, as if he were cocking an AK-47, which keeps the ball hidden.
Farrell called him the most deceptive pitcher in the game. Willis said: “The ball comes out of his uniform, and the batter can’t pick it up until late. He has the same great delivery every pitch. He’s a machine. The ball goes to the same spot every time.” He’s like a dart thrower, focused on one spot where he throws his four-seam fastball and cutter. He has a decent circle change too, and a good one-knuckle curveball that he doesn’t throw much because he doesn’t have confidence in it.
Lee bounced six consecutive curveballs in the dirt, then abandoned it for his pinpoint fastball, his comfort zone. “Oh, I love it!” Dubee said.
When I asked Nolan Ryan about Lee’s fastball, he said: “Well, he throws a lot of them. But I wouldn’t rave about it.” (Lee spurned the Rangers, where Ryan is an owner and the president, to rejoin the Phillies, for whom he pitched in the second half of the 2009 season.) Gillick said, “If I was a hitter, I’d uncork on that inside pitch.” Mike Schmidt, a Hall of Famer and a former third baseman with the Phillies, where he is now a hitting instructor, said, “I might be able to hit that pitch.” He added that he might be able to hit Halladay’s moving fastball too. “I’d just look for a ball away,” he said, “and let everything else go.”
After watching Lee throw, I followed him into the clubhouse and introduced myself. He looked at me with cold eyes, then said, “Tomorrow morning, 7:30.” The following morning, I sat down at the outside bench at 7 o’clock. At 8, I stood up and walked over to the open doors of the weight room. I saw Lee pedaling a stationary bike. I waited until he finished and followed him into the clubhouse. “I’m busy,” he said. “Tomorrow.”
I saw Hamels by his locker, so I went over to him. “O.K.,” he said. “I’ve got a few minutes.” Hamels was charming, voluble, self-deprecating. He told me that when he was a high-school pitcher in San Diego, the competition was so tough that he couldn’t just throw a fastball, even if it was 95 m.p.h. “So I picked up a circle change,” he said. He showed me how he held the ball. It’s such a deceptive pitch for him now that at times, he said, “a guy will swing so hard and miss it, his helmet will come off.” He laughed. “One guy threw up his arms and said, ‘That’s not fair.’ ”
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I told him the knock against him was that when he was in trouble, batters looked for his change. “Definitely true,” he admitted. “I used to always go to my strength, but now I’ll go to a batter’s weakness too... unless it’s a curveball.” He smiled. “No, no, no way I’ll throw a curve in a clutch situation. I’ll throw my cutter.”
The cut fastball, popularized by the Yankees’ brilliant closer, Mariano Rivera, approaches the plate like an easy-to-hit fastball; then, as the batter begins his swing, it cuts in on his hands, or away. The cutter is a poor man’s slider. It breaks later and less than a slider and is much easier to learn to throw. A slider is thrown hard, with a locked wrist, almost like throwing a football, with the pitcher’s hand slightly cocked off-center so that his fingers cut through the left or right half of the ball. If those fingers rotate too much around the ball, the slider will soften, slow, break too much and become a sloppy, hittable curveball. The less a ball breaks, the easier it is to control. A cutter can be thrown with confidence when the pitcher is behind the batter in the count, say, 3 and 1. Young pitchers are taught a cutter early today so they don’t struggle learning a curveball. Cutters, splitters and changes are just variations on a fastball. They rely simply on gripping a ball in different ways and then throwing it like a fastball.
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I asked Hamels if he felt a lot of pressure as the youngest pitcher in this great four-man rotation. “No, I can be myself now,” he said. “I don’t have to be the Big Guy.” (Palmer and Seaver told me they relished being the Big Guy.) When we finished, he flashed me his charming, boyish smile, scissored his hair off his brow and said, “Thank you so much, and have a wonderful day!”
Eventually I cornered Lee at his locker. I asked him how he developed that southpaw’s motion of his. “What do you mean by that?” he said. I said, “It’s a beautiful motion.” He said: “Oh. I had a lot of coaches.” He referred to his fastball as his “go-to” pitch. Then, defensively, he added: “That’s not the only pitch I throw, you know. My game is locating. If I’m hitting my spots, I’ve got stuff and control. If not, I’ve lost both.”
I asked which batters gave him the most trouble. Punchy hitters, he said, who foul off a lot of pitches, then slap the ball the other way. “Like Ichiro,” he said. “Sometimes you just want to let him hit his ground ball and hope someone catches it. He’s gonna get his hits. The quicker he does, the better for me. The more pitches a batter sees, the better hitters they become.” All four Phillies’ pitchers prefer to face free-swinging home-run hitters — those with “a lot of air in their swing to make them miss,” in Oswalt’s words. Pitchers who rely on one favorite pitch, instead of a variety of pitches, always lose effectiveness the more pitches they throw to a batter. Spahn often set up a batter by deliberately getting behind in the count 2-0, so the batter started looking for a fat pitch. That’s when Spahn went to work on him with his screwball, slider and big curve.
I asked Lee if he pitched to his strength or a batter’s weakness. He said: “If a hitter’s looking for a fastball inside, that doesn’t mean I won’t throw it. You don’t abandon your best pitch because a guy likes it.” Why doesn’t he throw more curveballs? He said, “It’s the hardest pitch to locate.” In fact Lee had his worst year in the majors in 2007 (5-8, 6.29 E.R.A.), when he tried to master a slider. “I focused so much on it,” he said, “it got me in trouble. Some guys put a lot of pressure on themselves because they think they gotta be more than they are.”
As I left, he said, “Sorry it took so long.”
After more than a week, I formulated my opinion about what made these four pitchers successful. A deceptive pitch, great control and the need to stay within the boundaries of their talent. If they strayed too far from those boundaries, they feared that might destroy their success. This has made them very good pitchers, maybe even great pitchers in the game today. But in that pantheon of great pitchers throughout history, they seemed merely one-trick ponies in an age of diminished expectations of greatness. A harsh judgment? Possibly. So before I left the Phillies, I talked to one more man.
Mike Schmidt was standing behind a batting cage, still as trim as during his playing days. A handsome, middle-aged man with swept-back, silvery hair and a thick mustache. I asked him what he thought of the four Phillies pitchers
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“Well,” he said, “now when the Phillies come to town, the other team knows they’re being challenged by four No. 1 pitchers. They have to amp up their mental game. I used to see my at-bats the night before a game when I laid my head down on the pillow. Gibson, Seaver, Ryan. I had to have a plan. When I went to Houston, they had three good pitchers. The fourth was Nolan Ryan. I could go to sleep with the other three, but Ryan kept me awake. Ryan! Ryan! Ryan! My plan was, don’t miss his fastball if he threw it over the plate. If he got two strikes on me, I’d have to face his curveball.” He turned and looked at me with his small blue eyes, which had fear in them. “Ryan was scary!” he said. He shook his head, as if seeing Ryan on the mound. Ryan began his motion and fired the ball at his head. Schmidt had a split second to make a decision. Was it a 100 m.p.h. fastball that could kill him if it hit him in the head, or was it that wicked curveball? If he dove away from the plate and the pitch was a curveball that broke over the plate, he’d look like a fool and a coward. But if it wasn’t a curveball, if it was that 100 m.p.h. fastball, and he didn’t dive away from the plate... well, he didn’t even want to think about that.
“Ryan, Gibson, Seaver, they made you defensive,” he said. “Does that make sense? You were afraid of the ball. There’s no fear of the ball today with cutters, splitters and changeups.”
“What about the Phillies’ four pitchers?” I said.
“They’re not scary,” he said. “Even if they all win 20 games, the Phillies don’t have a pitcher who strikes fear in a hitter.”When I put together this post showing some awesome science photos, I expected to be amazed, but not to find myself becoming extremely cheerful. However, in the middle of digging for cool research image material, I went deep into Fermilab's Visual Media Services Photo Database and found a lot of visual treasure.
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Fermilab has more than 4,000 stock science photos, mostly captured for journalistic illustrations—and a few of them are funny as hell. Here is a selection of their best.
Einstein learns that neutrinos faster than light
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Astronomical toilet paper
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Scientist Mandy Rominsky
Your browser does not support HTML5 video tag.Click here to view original GIF
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Cardboard H Higgs
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BaBar hunts for Dark Matter
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Decimal time (deci-time) clock
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Jellybean pie chart showing composition of the Universe
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Water wave
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Andrew Sonnenschein at the MINOS Underground Hall for data
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Cans of data on shelves for data storage
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This happens all the time
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Styrofoam cups with bite marks
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Selda Esen and a CMS Starter Kit
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Physics in TV and Film
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Physics in TV and Film
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String Theory written in string
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Universal Accord recipe
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"Dark Matter" written in Braille
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Foreign currencies in ziplock bags
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Jelly Bean Universe - representing the percentages of Dark Matter, Dark Energy and Normal Atomic Matter
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Bottle of wine won by Michael Witherell for solving a mathematical equation
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Ice Cream and Accelerating Cavity
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Wilson Hall night time reflection with Sloan star field image and CDF Top Quark image
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A private firm running NHS services is allegedly discharging patients before they have been treated to avoid breaching guidelines.
An undercover probe into Care UK, Britain’s biggest provider of out-of-hours services, has revealed patients are put at “huge risk”.
Healthcare providers face fines for missing the national four-hour target for all emergency departments to conclude 95% of cases.
But covert footage has suggested doctors are discharging patients when they near the limit.
They continue to receive treatment later on, but off the books.
Suzanne Mason, professor of Emergency medicine at the University of Sheffield, said: “By discharging somebody off your system before they’ve left the department, there’s a huge risk something could happen to that patient.”
The month-long probe by ITV’s Exposure, presented by Mark Austin and to be broadcast on Wednesday night, exposed major concerns at Care UK’s 24-hour Ealing Urgent Care Centre, West London.
One doctor told an undercover reporter he discharged a patient to meet the target.
He said: “It’s all... playing the game. I’ve discharged her, but I’m still dealing with her. So as far as statistics are concerned she was discharged within four hours.”
Two days later, the same doctor said he had discharged another patient before treatment finished.
He added: “It happens a lot.”
Care UK said both the firm and doctor “refuted any suggestion patients have been discharged before treatment is complete”.
The probe into Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s NHS also revealed patients were given thermometers to take their temperature, to determine which were seen |
parts of neighbouring states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka (Particularly the bordering districts of Belgaum, Bidar, Gulbarga and Uttara Kannada), union-territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The former Maratha ruled cities of Baroda, Indore, Gwalior, Jabalpur and Tanjore have had sizable Marathi speaking populations for centuries. Marathi is also spoken by Maharashtrian migrants to other parts of India and overseas.[13]
There were 83 million native Marathi speakers in India, according to the 2011 census, making it the third most spoken native language after Hindi and Bengali. Native Marathi speakers form 6.86% of India's population. Native speakers of Marathi formed 68.93% of the population in Maharashtra, 10.89% in Goa, 7.01% in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, 4.53% in Daman and Diu, 3.38% in Karnataka, 1.7% in Madhya Pradesh and 1.52% in Gujarat.[14]
Status [ edit ]
Marathi is the official language of Maharashtra and co-official language in the union territories of Daman and Diu[4] and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.[5] In Goa, Konkani is the sole official language; however, Marathi may also be used for some official purposes in some case. Marathi is included among the languages which stand a part of the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India, thus granting it the status of a "scheduled language".[15] The Government of Maharashtra has submitted an application to the Ministry of Culture to grant classical language status to Marathi.[16]
[17] is the main regulator of Marathi Rajya Marathi Vikas Sansthais the main regulator of Marathi
The contemporary grammatical rules described by Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad and endorsed by the Government of Maharashtra are supposed to take precedence in standard written Marathi. Traditions of Marathi Linguistics and the above-mentioned rules give special status to tatsamas, words adapted from Sanskrit. This special status expects the rules for tatsamas to be followed as in Sanskrit. This practice provides Marathi with a large treasure of Sanskrit words to cope with demands of new technical words whenever needed.
In addition to all universities in Maharashtra, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in Vadodara,[18] Osmania University in Hyderabad,[19] Karnataka University in Dharwad,[20] Gulbarga University in Kalaburagi,[21] Devi Ahilya University in Indore[22] and Goa University in Goa[23] have special departments for higher studies in Marathi linguistics. Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi) has announced plans to establish a special department for Marathi.[24]
Marathi Day is celebrated on 27 February, the birthday of the poet Kusumagraj (Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar).[25]
History [ edit ]
Indian languages, including Marathi, that belong to the Indo-Aryan language family are derived from early forms of Prakrit. Marathi is one of several languages that further descend from Maharashtri Prakrit. Further change led to the Apabhraṃśa languages like Old Marathi, however, this is challenged by Bloch (1970), who states that Apabhraṃśa was formed after Marathi had already separated from the Middle Indian dialect.
The earliest example of Maharashtri as a separate language dates to approximately 3rd century BCE: a stone inscription found in a cave at Naneghat, Junnar in Pune district had been written in Maharashtri using Brahmi script. A committee appointed by the Maharashtra State Government to get the Classical status for Marathi has claimed that Marathi existed at least 2300 years ago alongside Sanskrit as a sister language.[27] Marathi, a derivative of Maharashtri, is probably first attested in a 739 CE copper-plate inscription found in Satara. Several inscriptions dated to the second half of the 11th century feature Marathi, which is usually appended to Sanskrit or Kannada in these inscriptions. The earliest Marathi-only inscriptions are the ones issued during the Shilahara rule, including a c. 1012 CE stone inscription from Akshi taluka of Raigad district, and a 1060 or 1086 CE copper-plate inscription from Dive that records a land grant (agrahara) to a Brahmin. A 2-line 1118 CE Marathi inscription at Shravanabelagola records a grant by the Hoysalas. These inscriptions suggest that Marathi was a standard written language by the 12th century. However, there is no record of any actual literature produced in Marathi until the late 13th century.
Yadava period [ edit ]
After 1187 CE, the use of Marathi grew substantially in the inscriptions of the Seuna (Yadava) kings, who earlier used Kannada and Sanskrit in their inscriptions. Marathi became the dominant language of epigraphy during the last half century of the dynasty's rule (14th century), and may have been a result of the Yadava attempts to connect with their Marathi-speaking subjects and to distinguish themselves from the Kannada-speaking Hoysalas.
Further growth and usage of the language was because of two religious sects – the Mahanubhava and Varkari panthans – who adopted Marathi as the medium for preaching their doctrines of devotion. Marathi had attained a venerable place in court life by the time of the Seuna kings. During the reign of the last three Seuna kings, a great deal of literature in verse and prose, on astrology, medicine, Puranas, Vedanta, kings and courtiers were created. Nalopakhyan, Rukmini swayamvar and Shripati's Jyotishratnamala (1039) are a few examples.
The oldest book in prose form in Marathi, Vivēkasindhu (विवेकसिंधु), was written by Mukundaraja, a Nath yogi and arch-poet of Marathi. Mukundaraja bases his exposition of the basic tenets of the Hindu philosophy and the yoga marga on the utterances or teachings of Shankaracharya. Mukundaraja's other work, Paramamrta, is considered the first systematic attempt to explain the Vedanta in the Marathi language
Notable examples of Marathi prose are "Līḷācarītra" (लीळाचरीत्र), events and anecdotes from the miracle-filled the life of Chakradhar Swami of the Mahanubhava sect compiled by his close disciple, Mahimbhatta, in 1238. The Līḷācarītra is thought to be the first biography written in the Marathi language. Mahimbhatta's second important literary work is the Shri Govindaprabhucharitra or Rudhipurcharitra, a biography of Shri Chakradhar Swami's guru, Shri Govind Prabhu. This was probably written in 1288. The Mahanubhava sect made Marathi a vehicle for the propagation of religion and culture. Mahanubhava literature generally comprises works that describe the incarnations of gods, the history of the sect, commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita, poetical works narrating the stories of the life of Krishna and grammatical and etymological works that are deemed useful to explain the philosophy of sect.
Medieval and Deccan Sultanate period [ edit ]
The 13th-century varkari saint Dnyaneshwar(1275–1296) wrote a treatise in Marathi on Bhagawat Gita popularly called Dnyaneshwari and Amritanubhava. His contemporary, Namdev composed verses or abhang in Marathi as well as Hindi.
Mukund Raj was a poet who lived in the 13th century and is said to be the first poet who composed in Marathi. He is known for the Viveka-Siddhi and Parammrita which are metaphysical, pantheistic works connected with orthodox Vedantism.
The 16th century saint-poet Eknath (1528–1599) is well known for composing the Eknāthī Bhāgavat, a commentary on Bhagavat Purana and the devotional songs called Bharud.[32] Mukteshwar translated the Mahabharata into Marathi; Tukaram (1608–49) transformed Marathi into a rich literary language. His poetry contained his inspirations. Tukaram wrote over 3000 abhangs or devotional songs.[33]
Marathi was widely used during the Sultanate period. Although the rulers were Muslims, the local feudal landlords and the revenue collectors were Hindus and so was the majority of the population. Political expediency made it important for the sultans to make use of Marathi. Nevertheless, Marathi in official documents from the era is totally persianised in its vocabulary.[34] The Persian influence continues to this day with many Persian derived words used in every day speech such as bāg (Garden), kārkhānā (factory), shahar (city), bāzār (market), dukān (shop), hushār (clever), kāḡaḏ (paper), khurchi (chair), jamin (land), jāhirāt (advertisement), and hazār (thousand)[35] Marathi also became language of administration during the Ahmadnagar Sultanate.[36] Adilshahi of Bijapur also used Marathi for administration and record keeping.[37]
Maratha Empire [ edit ]
Marathi gained prominence with the rise of the Maratha Empire beginning with the reign of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj (ruled 1674–1680). Under Shivaji, the language used in administrative documents became less persianised. Whereas in 1630, 80% of the vocabulary was Persian, it dropped to 37% by 1677[38] Samarth Ramdas was a contemporary of Shivaji. He advocated the unity of Marathas to propagate Maharashtra dharma.[33] Unlike varkari saints, his writing has a strong militant expression to it. Subsequent Maratha rulers extended the empire northwards to Attock, eastwards to Odisha, and southwards to Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu. These excursions by the Marathas helped to spread Marathi over broader geographical regions. This period also saw the use of Marathi in transactions involving land and other business. Documents from this period, therefore, give a better picture of the life of common people. There are a lot of Bakharis written in Marathi and Modi script from this period. But by the late 18th century, the Maratha Empire's influence over a large part of the country was on the decline.
In the 18th century during Peshwa rule, some well-known works such as Yatharthadeepika by Vaman Pandit, Naladamayanti Swayamvara by Raghunath Pandit, Pandava Pratap, Harivijay, Ramvijay by Shridhar Pandit and Mahabharata by Moropant were produced. Krishnadayarnava and Sridhar were poets during the Peshwa period. New literary forms were successfully experimented with during the period and classical styles were revived, especially the Mahakavya and Prabandha forms. The most important hagiographies of Varkari Bhakti saints was written by Mahipati in the 18th Century.[39][33] Other well known literary scholars of the 17th century were Mukteshwar and Shridhar.[40] Mukteshwar was the grandson of Eknath and is the most distinguished poet in the Ovi meter. He is most known for translating the Mahabharata and the Ramayana in Marathi but only a part of the Mahabharata translation is available and the entire Ramayana translation is lost. Shridhar Kulkarni came from the Pandharpur area and his works are said to have superseded the Sanskrit epics to a certain extent. This period also saw the development of Powada (ballads sung in honor of warriors), and Lavani (romantic songs presented with dance and instruments like tabla). Major poet composers of Powada and Lavani songs of the 17th and the 18th century were Anant Phandi, Ram Joshi and Honaji Bala.[40]
British colonial period [ edit ]
The British colonial period starting in early 1800s saw standardisation of Marathi grammar through the efforts of the Christian missionary William Carey. Carey's dictionary had fewer entries and Marathi words were in Devanagari. Translations of the Bible were first books to be printed in Marathi.These translations by William Carey, the American Marathi mission and the Scottish missionaries led to the development of a peculiar pidginized Marathi called the "Missionary Marathi in early 1800s[41] The most comprehensive Marathi-English dictionary was compiled by Captain James Thomas Molesworth and Major Thomas Candy in 1831. The book is still in print nearly two centuries after its publication.[42] The colonial authorities also worked on standardizing Marathi under the leadership of James Thomas Molesworth and Candy. They used Brahmins of Pune for this task and adopted the Sanskrit dominated dialect spoken by the elite in the city as the standard dialect for Marathi.[43][44][45][46]
The first Marathi translation of the New Testament was published in 1811 by the Serampore press of William Carey.[47] The first Marathi newspaper called Durpan was started by Balshastri Jambhekar in 1832.[48] Newspapers provided a platform for sharing literary views, and many books on social reforms were written. First Marathi periodical Dirghadarshan was started in 1840. The Marathi language flourished, as Marathi drama gained popularity. Musicals known as Sangeet Natak also evolved[citation needed]. Keshavasut, the father of modern Marathi poetry published his first poem in 1885. The late-19th century in Maharashtra saw the rise of essayist Vishnushastri Chiplunkar with his periodical, Nibandhmala that had essays that criticized social reformers like Phule and Gopal Hari Deshmukh. Phule and Deshmukh also started their own periodicals, Deenbandhu and Prabhakar, that criticised the prevailing Hindu culture of the day.[49] The 19th century and early 20th century saw several books published on Marathi Grammar. Notable grammarians of this period were Tarkhadkar, A.K.Kher, Moro Keshav Damle, and R.Joshi[50]
The first half of the 20th century was marked by new enthusiasm in literary pursuits, and socio-political activism helped achieve major milestones in Marathi literature, drama, music and film[citation needed]. Modern Marathi prose flourished through various new literary forms like the essay, the biographies, the novels, prose, drama etc. N.C.Kelkar's biographical writings, novels of Hari Narayan Apte, Narayan Sitaram Phadke and V. S. Khandekar, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar's nationalist literature and plays of Mama Varerkar and Kirloskar are particularly worth noting.
Marathi since Indian independence [ edit ]
After Indian independence, Marathi was accorded the status of a scheduled language on the national level.In 1956, the then Bombay state was reorganized which brought most Marathi and Gujarati speaking areas under one state.Further re-organization of the Bombay state on May 1, 1960 created the Marathi speaking Maharashtra and Gujarati speaking Gujarat state respectively.With state and cultural protection, Marathi made great strides by the 1990s. A literary event called Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan (All-India Marathi Literature Meet) is held every year. In addition, the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Natya Sammelan (All-India Marathi Theatre Convention) is also held annually. Both events are very popular among Marathi speakers.
Notable works in Marathi in the latter half of 20th century include Khandekar's Yayati, which won him the Jnanpith Award. Also Vijay Tendulkar's plays in Marathi have earned him a reputation beyond Maharashtra. P.L.Deshpande(PuLa), Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar, P.K.Atre & Prabodhankar Thackeray, were also known for their writings in Marathi in the field of drama, comedy and social commentary[51]
In 1958 the term "Dalit literature" was used for the first time, when the first conference of Maharashtra Dalit Sahitya Sangha (Maharashtra Dalit Literature Society) was held at Mumbai, a movement inspired by 19th century social reformer, Jyotiba Phule and eminent dalit leader, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar.[52] Baburao Bagul (1930–2008) was a pioneer of Dalit writings in Marathi.[53] His first collection of stories, Jevha Mi Jat Chorali (जेव्हा मी जात चोरली) (When I Concealed My Caste), published in 1963, created a stir in Marathi literature with its passionate depiction of a cruel society and thus brought in new momentum to Dalit literature in Marathi.[54][55] Gradually with other writers like, Namdeo Dhasal (who founded Dalit Panther), these Dalit writings paved way for the strengthening of Dalit movement.[56] Notable Dalit authors writing in Marathi include Arun Kamble, Shantabai Kamble, Raja Dhale, Namdev Dhasal, Daya Pawar, Annabhau Sathe, Laxman Mane, Laxman Gaikwad, Sharankumar Limbale, Bhau Panchbhai, Kishor Shantabai Kale, Narendra Jadhav, Keshav Meshram, Urmila Pawar, Vinay Dharwadkar, Gangadhar Pantawane, Kumud Pawde and Jyoti Lanjewar.[57][58][59][60]
In recent decades there has been a trend among Marathi speaking parents of all social classes in major urban areas of sending their children to English medium schools. There is some concern, though without foundation, that this may lead to the marginalization of the language.[61]
Dialects [ edit ]
Standard Marathi is based on dialects used by academics and the print media.
Indic scholars distinguish 42 dialects of spoken Marathi. Dialects bordering other major language areas have many properties in common with those languages, further differentiating them from standard spoken Marathi. The bulk of the variation within these dialects is primarily lexical and phonological (e.g. accent placement and pronunciation). Although the number of dialects is considerable, the degree of intelligibility within these dialects is relatively high.[62]
Zadi Boli [ edit ]
Zadi Boli or Zhadiboli (झाडीबोली) is spoken in Zadipranta (a forest rich region) of far eastern Maharashtra or eastern Vidarbha or western-central Gondwana comprising Gondia, Bhandara, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli and some parts of Nagpur of Maharashtra.
Zadi Boli Sahitya Mandal and many literary figures are working for the conservation of this important and distinct dialect of Marathi.
Southern Indian Marathi [ edit ]
Thanjavur Marathi, Namadeva Shimpi Marathi, Arey Marathi and Bhavsar Marathi are some of the dialects of Marathi spoken by many descendants of Maharashtrians who migrated to the Southern India.
These dialects retain the 17th-century basic form of Marathi and have been considerably influenced by the Dravidian languages after the migration. These dialects have speakers in various parts of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
Varhadi [ edit ]
Varhadi (Varhādi) (वऱ्हाडी) or Vaidarbhi (वैदर्भी) is spoken in the Western Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. In Marathi, the retroflex lateral approximant ḷ [ɭ] is common, while in the Varhadii dialect, it corresponds to the palatal approximant y (IPA: [j]), making this dialect quite distinct. Such phonetic shifts are common in spoken Marathi and, as such, the spoken dialects vary from one region of Maharashtra to another.
Others [ edit ]
Other Languages and dialects spoken in Maharashtra include Maharashtrian Konkani, Koli, Malvani, Agri, Andh, Warli, Dangi, Khandeshi, Ahirani, Kokna, Vadvali, Samavedi, Marathwadi and Deshi.
Phonology [ edit ]
The phoneme inventory of Marathi is similar to that of many other Indo-Aryan languages. An IPA chart of all contrastive sounds in Marathi is provided below.
Consonants[63] Labial Dental Alveolar Retroflex (Alveolo-)
palatal Velar Glottal Nasal plain m n ɳ ( ɲ ) ( ŋ ) murmured mʱ nʱ ɳʱ Stop voiceless p t t͡s ʈ t͡ɕ ~ t͡ʃ k aspirated pʰ ~ f tʰ ʈʰ t͡ɕʰ ~ t͡ʃʰ kʰ voiced b d d͡z ~ z ɖ d͡ʑ ~ d͡ʒ ɡ murmured bʱ dʱ d͡zʱ ~ zʱ ɖʱ d͡ʑʱ ~ d͡ʒʱ ɡʱ Fricative s ʂ ɕ ~ ʃ h ~ ɦ Approximant plain ʋ l ɭ j murmured ʋʱ lʱ ( jʱ )[64] Flap/Trill plain ɾ ɺ̢ [65] murmured ɾʱ
Older aspirated *tsʰ, dzʱ have lost their onset, with *tsʰ merging with /s/ and *dzʱ being typically realised as an aspirated fricative, [zʱ]. This /ts, dz, zʱ/ series is not distinguished in writing from /tʃ, tʃʰ, dʒ, dʒʱ/.
Vowels Front Central Back High i u Mid e ə o Low a
There are two more vowels in Marathi to denote the pronunciations of English words such as of a in act and a in all. These are written as अॅ and ऑ. The IPA signs for these are [æ] and [ɒ], respectively. Maharashtri Prakrit, the ancestor of modern Marathi, is a particularly interesting case. Maharashtri was often used for poetry and as such, diverged from proper Sanskrit grammar mainly to fit the language to the meter of different styles of poetry. The new grammar stuck, which led to the unique flexibility of vowels lengths – amongst other anomalies – in Marathi. Marathi retains the original Sanskrit pronunciation of certain letters such as the anusvāra (for instance, saṃhar, compared to sanhar in Hindi). Moreover, Marathi preserves certain Sanskrit patterns of pronunciation, as in the words purṇa and rāma compared to purṇ and rām in Hindi.
Writing [ edit ]
Kadamba alphabet and its variants has been historically used to write Marathi in the form of inscriptions on stones and copper plates.[66] The Marathi version of Devanagari, called Balbodh, is similar to the Hindi Devanagari alphabet except for its use as words in Marathi traditionally pronounce schwa making its written form differ even from other Marathi words. For example, the word 'रंग' (colour) is pronounced as 'ranga' in Marathi & 'rang' in other languages using Devanagari despite same spelling, 'खरं' (true) despite the anuswara is pronounced as 'Khara' as the Anusara in this case is used to avoid schwa deletion in pronunciation since most other languages using Devanagari show schwa deletion in pronunciation despite the presence of schwa in the written spelling. From the 13th century until the mid-20th century, Marathi was written in the Modi script. Since 1950 it has been written in the Balbodh style of Devanagari.[67] Except for Father Stephen's Krista Purana in the Latin script in the 1600s, Marathi has mainly been printed in Devanagari because William Carey, the pioneer of printing in Indian languages, was only able to print in Devanagari. He later tried printing in Modi but by that time, Balbodh Devanagari had been accepted for printing.[68]
Devanagari [ edit ]
Marathi is usually written in the Balbodh[69][70][71][72] version of Devanagari script, an abugida consisting of 36 consonant letters and 16 initial-vowel letters. It is written from left to right. The Devanagari alphabet used to write Marathi is slightly different from the Devanagari alphabets of Hindi and other languages: there are a couple of additional letters in the Marathi alphabet, and Western punctuation is used.
As with a large part of India, a traditional duality existed in script usage between Devanagari by religiously educated people (most notably Brahmins) and Modi for common usage among administrators, businesspeople, and others. As observed in 1807,[73]
Although in the Mahratta country the Devanagari character is well known to men of education, yet a character is current among the men of business which is much smaller, and varies considerably in form from the Nagari, though the number and power of the letters nearly correspond.
Vowels
Devanagari अ आ इ ई उ ऊ ए ऐ ओ औ अं अः अॅ अॉ Transliterated a ā i ī/ee u ū/oo e ai o au aṃ aḥ æ ɒ IPA ə] a] short i] i] short u] u] e] [əi] o] [əu] [əm] [əɦa] æ] ɒ]
Vowel ligatures with Consonant क/ka
क का कि की कु कू के कै को कौ कं कः कॅ कॉ ka kā ki kī/kee ku kū/koo ke kai ko kau kam kah kæ kɒ
consonants
क ख ग घ ङ
च छ ज झ ञ
ट ठ ड ढ ण
त थ द ध न
प फ ब भ म
य र ल व
श ष स
ह ळ
क्ष ज्ञ
ka kha ga gha ṅa
cha chha ja jha ña
ṭa ṭha ḍa ḍha ṇa
ta tha da dha na
pa pha ba bha ma
ya ra la va
śha ṣha sa
ha ḷa
kṣa dña/jña
It is written from left to right. Devanagari used to write Marathi is slightly different than that of Hindi or other languages. It uses additional vowels and consonants that are not found in other languages that also use Devanagari.
The Modi alphabet [ edit ]
From the thirteenth century until 1950, Marathi, especially for business use, was written in the Modi alphabet — a cursive script designed for minimising the lifting of pen from paper while writing.[74]
Consonant clusters in Devanagari [ edit ]
In Devanagari, consonant letters by default come with an inherent schwa. Therefore, तयाचे will be 'təyāche', not 'tyāche'. To form 'tyāche', you will have to write it as त् + याचे, giving त्याचे.
When two or more consecutive consonants are followed by a vowel then a jodakshar (consonant cluster) is formed. Some examples of consonant clusters are shown below:
त्या चे – tyāche – "his"
– – "his" प्रस्ता व – prastāva – "proposal"
– – "proposal" वि द्या – vidyā – "knowledge"
– – "knowledge" म्या न – myān – "Sheath/scabbard"
– – "Sheath/scabbard" त्व रा – tvarā – "immediate/Quick"
– – "immediate/Quick" मह त्त्व – mahatttva – "importance"
– – "importance" फ क्त – phakta – "only"
– – "only" बाहुल्या – bāhulyā – "dolls"
In writing, Marathi has a few digraphs that are rarely seen in the world's languages, including those denoting the so-called "nasal aspirates" (ṇh, nh, and mh) and liquid aspirates (rh, ṟh, lh, and vh). Some examples are given below.
क ण्हे री – kaṇherī – "a shrub known for flowers"/ Oleander
– – "a shrub known for flowers"/ Oleander न्हा णे – nhāṇe – "bathing"
– – "bathing" म्ह णून – mhaṇūna – "therefore"
– – "therefore" त ऱ्हा – taṟhā – "different way of behaving"
– – "different way of behaving" को ल्हा – kolhā – "fox"
– – "fox" केंव्हा – keṃvhā – "when"
Grammar [ edit ]
Marathi grammar shares similarities with other modern Indo-Aryan languages. The first modern book exclusively concerning Marathi Grammar was printed in 1805 by William Carey.
Marathi employs agglutinative, inflectional and analytical forms.[75] Unlike most other Indo-Aryan languages, Marathi preserves all three grammatical genders from Sanskrit: masculine, feminine and neuter. The primary word order of Marathi is subject–object–verb[76] Marathi follows a split-ergative pattern of verb agreement and case marking: it is ergative in constructions with either perfective transitive verbs or with the obligative ("should", "have to") and it is nominative elsewhere. An unusual feature of Marathi, as compared to other Indo-European languages, is that it displays inclusive and exclusive we also found in Rajasthani and Gujarati and common to the Austronesian and Dravidian languages. Other similarities to Dravidian include the extensive use of participial constructions[75] and also to a certain extent the use of the two anaphoric pronouns swətah and apəṇ. Numerous scholars have noted the existence of Dravidian linguistic patterns in the Marathi language.[79]
Sharing of linguistic resources with other languages [ edit ]
Over a period of many centuries, the Marathi language and people came into contact with many other languages and dialects. The primary influence of Prakrit, Maharashtri, Apabhraṃśa and Sanskrit is understandable. Marathi borrows a lot of its vocabulary from Sanskrit.[80]
Marathi has also shared directions, vocabulary, and grammar with languages such as Indian Dravidian languages,[80] and foreign languages such as Persian,[35] Arabic, English and a little from Portuguese.[80]
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the noted Hindutva Ideologue, writer and poet, contributed to the Marathi language, by coining new Marathi equivalents for words from other languages, mostly English. Prior to these Marathi equivalents, words from other languages were used commonly which was unacceptable to Savarkar. He opined that intrusion of foreign words, polluted the Marathi language, while also rendering the original Marathi words, of the same meanings, obsolete.[citation needed] The following are some of the words coined and popularized by him:[citation needed]
School: शाळा
College: महाविद्यालय
Academy: प्रबोधिका
Headmaster: मुख्याध्यापक
Superintendent of high school: आचार्य
Principal: प्राचार्य
Professor: प्राध्यापक
Dispensary: औषधालय
Consulting room: चिकित्सालय
Vakil (an Urdu word): विधिज्ञ
Fauj, Lashkar (Urdu): सेना, सैन्य
Skirmish: चकमक
Camp: शिबीर, छावणी
Submarine: पाणबुडी Telephone: दूरध्वनी
Television: दूरदर्शन
Circular: परिपत्रक
Chronicle: इतिवृत्त
Report: अहवाल, प्रतिवृत्त
Zindabad: की जय, जय हो, अमर हो
Legislature: विधी मंडळ
Parliamentarian: संसदपटू
Ahmedabad: कर्णावती
Arabian sea: पश्चिम समुद्र, सिंधुसागर
Hyderabad (south): भाग्यनगर
Cinema Hall:चित्रपटगृह
Cinema: चित्रपट
Film: चित्रावली, चित्रपट्टिका Interval: मध्यांतर
Studio: कलागृह, कलामंदिर
Shooting: चित्रण
Three dimensions: त्रिमितीपट
Green groom: नेपथ्य
Photograph: छायाचित्र
Camera: छायिक
Portrait: व्यक्तिचित्र
Tape recorder: ध्वनिमुद्रक
Scenario: पटकथा, चित्रकथा
Trailer: परिचयपट
Music director: संगीत नियोजक
Director: दिग्दर्शक
Editor: संकलक
Morphology and etymology [ edit ]
Spoken Marathi contains a high number of Sanskrit-derived (tatsama) words.[citation needed] Such words are for example nantar (from nantara or after), purṇa (purṇa or complete, full, or full measure of something), ola (ola or damp), karaṇ (karaṇa or cause), puṣkaḷ (puṣkala or much, many), satat (satata or always), vichitra (vichitra or strange), svatah (svatah or himself/herself), prayatna (prayatna or effort, attempt), bhīti (from bhīti, or fear) and bhāṇḍa (bhāṇḍa or vessel for cooking or storing food). Other words ("tadbhavas") have undergone phonological changes from their Sanskrit roots, for example dār (dwāra or door), ghar (gṛha or house), vāgh (vyāghra or tiger), paḷaṇe (palāyate or to run away), kiti (kati or how many) have undergone more modification. Examples of words borrowed from other Indian and foreign languages include:
Aḍakittā "nutcracker" directly borrowed from Kannada
"nutcracker" directly borrowed from Kannada Akka "sister" borrowed from Tamil
"sister" borrowed from Tamil Hajērī Attendance from Haziri Urdu
Attendance from Urdu Jāhirāta "advertisement" is derived from Arabic zaahiraat
"advertisement" is derived from Arabic Marjī "wish" is derived from Persian "marzi"
"wish" is derived from Persian "marzi" Shiphārasa "recommendation" is derived from Persian sefaresh
A lot of English words are commonly used in conversation and are considered to be assimilated into the Marathi vocabulary. These include "pen" (native Marathi lekhaṇii) and "shirt" (sadaraa).
Compounds [ edit ]
Marathi uses many morphological processes to join words together, forming compounds. For example, ati + uttam gives the word atyuttam, miith-bhaakar ("salt-bread"), udyog-patii ("businessman"), ashṭa-bhujaa ("eight-hands", name of a Hindu goddess).
Counting [ edit ]
Like many other languages, Marathi uses distinct names for the numbers 1 to 20 and each multiple of 10, and composite ones for those greater than 20.
As with other Indic languages, there are distinct names for the fractions 1⁄ 4, 1⁄ 2, and 3⁄ 4. They are paava, ardhaa, and pauṇa, respectively. For most fractions greater than 1, the prefixes savvaa-, saaḍe-, paavaṇe- are used. There are special names for 3⁄ 2 (diiḍ) and 5⁄ 2 (aḍich).
Powers of ten are denoted by separate specific words as depicted in below table.
Number power to 10 Marathi Number name[81][82] In Devanagari 100 Ek, Ekak एक/एकक 101 dahaa, dashak दहा/दशक 102 Shambhar, Shatak शंभर/शतक |
increase of the money supply. This was what the traditional gold standard always did. It forced central banks to stop inflating. If they did not stop inflating, there would be a run on the supply of gold by a small minority of investors. They would bring in IOUs to gold and take their gold home.
Central bankers do not want to fight gold investors in this way. They want to continue to expand the money supply but not face the consequences in the arena of public opinion. They seek ways to force down the price of gold because the price of gold is an indicator of central bank monetary policy. Central bankers today have a number of anti-gold investor policies.
ANTI-GOLD INVESTOR POLICIES
The most common policy is to lease gold to a specialized group of insiders known as bullion banks. The central banks call this leasing, but it is operationally a form of gold sales.
The central bank leases gold at well under 1% per annum to bullion banks. Bullion banks then sell the gold into the private market, take the money, and invest it in government bonds or other investments that pay far more than 1% per year.
That gold is gone. To get the gold back, the central banks would have to demand payment in gold by the bullion banks. The bullion banks could not repay this gold without going into the gold market and purchasing it. This would drive up the price of gold. It would bankrupt the bullion banks.
So, central banks do not require the bullion banks to repay the gold which the bullion banks borrowed from the central banks. The central banks simply roll the loans over, year after year, and the bullion banks invest the money that they get from selling the gold. These central bank sales are not recorded as sales by the central banks. The public remains oblivious.
The central banks maintain the fiction that they still own the gold. They report their holdings of gold as not having changed. But, from an economic standpoint, the gold is gone, and there is no possibility of central banks will ever get it back from the bullion banks.
Another way that central banks and governments battle investors in gold is to announce, from time to time, that the central bank is contemplating the sale of gold. This scares some gold investors, who sell their gold. Of course, other investors who know the name of the game buy the gold. By threatening to sell gold, central banks are attempting to push down the price of gold.
The latest example of this came at the G20 meeting on April 2. An announcement was made that the International Monetary Fund will make available special drawing rights (SDRs), which will serve as money for central banks. To raise some of this money, the IMF will sell some of its gold. That was the official announcement.
The IMF has been threatening to sell gold for several years. To do this takes a majority vote of the member nations of the IMF. It is clear that the member nations are willing to allow the IMF to do this. Previously, this was not clear.
The figure quoted by the press regarding the amount of gold be sold is 400 tonnes. World production of gold each year is in the range of 2500 tonnes. It is unlikely that the IMF will sell all of this gold at the same time. It is likely that these sales will be stretched out over at least a two-year period. So, the sales are likely to increase the supply of available gold by perhaps 8% for two years. In a time when central banks are increasing the monetary base by 100% per annum or more, this increase in the supply of gold available for purchase is not substantial.
There is another issue to consider. It is likely that most of this gold will be purchased by other central banks. If this should turn out to be the case, then the actual supply of gold coming into the public domain will not change. Nevertheless, the announcement was made that these sales will take place. This put downward pressure on the price of gold.
Why would a central bank or the IMF say in advance that it planned to sell a large portion of its gold holdings? When a large holder of commodities is going to sell the commodity into the open market, he does not announce this in advance. His goal is to maximize the amount of money he gains by the sale of the asset. If he warns the world in advance how much he plans to sell and over which time period, this will depress the price if the sale constitutes a significant quantity. It is economically irrational for a seller of commodity to say in advance how much she plans to sell. I say "economically irrational" on the assumption that the goal is to make a profit. But if the goal is not to make a profit, but rather to inflict economic harm on people who hold a particular commodity as an investment, the announcement makes eminently good sense.
The fact that the IMF sale was announced by the IMF for years preceding the G20 meeting, and the fact that it was announced at the G20 meeting, indicate the degree of the hostility of the IMF and the central bankers to people who invest in gold. They were willing to take a loss in terms of the amount of money they could have obtained for the gold by quiet, unannounced sales. They are willing to take this loss because they believe that it is more important to create uncertainty in the gold market than it is to maximize the amount of fiat money gained by the sale of gold. So committed are these people to inflicting financial losses on gold investors that they are willing to suffer hundreds of millions of dollars of losses. After all, it's not their money.
The classic example of this was Gordon Brown's decision in the late 1990s to sell half of the gold reserves held by the Bank of England in trust for Great Britain. In terms of today's price of gold, his decision cost the government something in the range of $10 billion. He drove down the price of gold to a little under $260 an ounce in 2001. He inflicted damage on a tiny minority of investors in gold, and he inflicted enormous damage on economic reserves of his country. He did this as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Today, he is the Prime Minister. He is now pressuring the Bank of England to inflate at unprecedented rates in order to save the banking system.
Any suggestion that Gordon Brown understands economics is laughable. Any suggestion that Gordon Brown is envious against investors in gold seems to be substantiated by his public career. He is representative of virtually every national politician and every central banker. He hates the fact that investors in gold can drive up the price of gold, thereby embarrassing the government and the central bank.
The rising price of gold warns the general public that the government's tax policies and the central bank's monetary policies cannot be trusted. Worse, a rising price of gold transmits the availability of a profit opportunity: get rid of fiat money and purchase gold.
Politicians and central bankers are frantic today to keep the general public from being aware of the enormous increase this taken place in the monetary base of every Western industrial nation. They do not want the public to perceive that the central banks are in panic mode because of the disaster has taken place in commercial bank balance sheets. Large commercial banks around the Western world are bordering on bankruptcy. Central banks and governments are intervening frantically to keep the banks' doors open, in order to keep the public confused about the implications of the worldwide economic recession that has come as a result of worldwide monetary expansion by central banks from the year 2000 until 2004.
PRICES CONVEY INFORMATION
Prices convey information about economic conditions. The price of gold conveys information about the likelihood of future price inflation. This information governments and central banks want to distort. They do this by manipulating the price of gold through leases that are actually sales and sales that are announced in advance.
When an individual invests in gold, he is making a statement. He is saying that he does not trust the powers that be. The powers that be deeply resent this. So, an individual who actively takes steps to increase the price of gold, which he does by buying it, should be aware in advance that he and people like him will be the targets of deception, envy, and ridicule. Buying gold is not the same as buying other commodities. Other commodities are not perceived as touchstones of central bank monetary policy. The price of gold is, even though most of the gold in private hands winds up as jewelry to be used in dowries in India. Far more than central banks, Indian fathers set the price of gold. At the margin, however, central banks do affect the price of gold.
With the rising productivity of India, the gold market has received a long-term increase in demand. This can be offset by the worldwide recession, which is now in progress. When Indian fathers decide that times are getting better, they will start buying gold again. Today's policies of monetary expansion, which lower real wages and therefore get people back to work, will begin to affect the worldwide labor markets. This will increase the demand of gold in India. It is unlikely that a tradition governing marriage that has prevailed for thousands of years is likely to change just because a relatively small fraction of the Indian population has moved into modern urban capitalism. On the contrary, there is likely to be increased demand for gold, because fathers will be enabled to purchase more gold for their daughters than before because they are making more money than ever before.
This is why the attempt of governments and central banks to lower the price of gold will backfire. Eventually, governments will run out of gold to sell, and so will the IMF. They will run out of gold to lease. While I do not think the politicians will ever catch on to the fact that their nations' gold is gone, leaving only IOUs for gold written by bullion banks that are on the verge of bankruptcy anyway, I do think that at some point the central banks will stop leasing gold. They will stop leasing it because they will not have enough to lease to substantially affect the price of gold.
I do not think the central banks will ever demand repayment of their gold by the bullion banks. The bullion banks would simply declare bankruptcy, and be done with it. That would publicly expose the central bankers as economic idiots, which happens to be the case, and the idiots don't want the bad publicity. So, the gold is gone, and the public will not find out that the gold is gone. The gold is nevertheless gone. Gone in the sense of outside of control by central banks. It is inside the dowries of women in India and a small handful of goldbug investors.
At some point, the number of investors who figure out that they had better buy gold is going to go from less than 1% of the public to 5%. When that happens, the supply of gold will not increase, and the price of gold will skyrocket. If as many as 10% of the investing public tries to put 10% of their assets in gold, I suspect the price of gold would go to $10,000 an ounce. The gold market is so marginal in the overall commodities market that the attempted 10% of investors to increase their holdings of gold to 10% of their assets would make today's holders of gold very rich and very happy. I think at some point this is going to happen, but I think it is going to happen in a time of price inflation so bad that the purchasing power of the currencies will decline so fast and so far that the fact that you can get rich in fiat money by selling your gold will not persuade you to sell your gold.
CONCLUSION
Who is going to win the gold wars? Holders of gold. The big winners will be Indian wives whose fathers gave them a lot of gold as a dowry. The rest of us gold bugs will also do well. The general public will never catch on in time, and by the time that it occurs to even 10% or 20% of investors that they better by gold, it will cost them so much to get into the market that they will not make the kinds of profits that today's gold investors are going to make.
Governments and central banks can continue to fight the gold war by means of gold leasing, outright gold sales, and threats of gold sales, but for as long as they inflate the money supply to obfuscate the price of economic depression, they will be running out of ammunition. They are in a war in which ordnance is in fixed supply. They cannot go into the gold market and replenish the supply of gold without driving up price of gold.
Central banks are expanding the money supply, which is providing ammunition for those of us who want to fight the gold war by buying more gold. In contrast, central banks are not expanding their holdings of gold, but rather depleting them, and so they will not be able to fight this fight indefinitely.
They may be able to fight it for as long as the threat of recession hangs over the world economy. But when the recession ends, or appears to end, as a result of the massive monetary inflation and massive deficits that the governments of the world are running, there will be a new market for gold that is unprecedented in its intensity. This does not mean that everybody is going to buy gold. It probably does not mean that even 20% of investors will buy gold. All it will take is about 10% of investors decide to put 10% of their holdings in gold. Governments and central banks are going to lose the war on gold because they refuse to fight gold by the one technique that can give them victory: stop printing money.The Ben Franklin stems from a story from the 18th century. Franklin was dealing with the malignity from a rival legislator and devised a plan to win him over. He was aware his rival had a particularly rare book and wrote to him asking to borrow it. It was sent immediately and soon after was returned with a note from Franklin thanking him for the favor. The next time the legislature met, Franklins rival spoke to him for the first time in person and thus started what Franklin called a great friendship.
So what does this mean? Basically, a way to try to get a rival, or even a stranger, to like you is to have them do you a favor. For some psychological reason that is beyond my understanding them doing you a favor starts to form a positive opinion of you in their brain because people don’t like doing favors for individuals they dislike.
Taking this even further I have my own hypothesis, an individual can do another a disservice and if they genuinely believe that the other person did them a favor and they thank them, this can convince the other person that they did do a favor for them. An example of this is just last week I was driving on a highway when a car cut me off, my initial reaction was to retaliate in some way because this person had just done me a disservice. It was what the other driver did next that made me completely change my train of thought and made me think that I, for some reason, let them cut me off or did them a favor. The other driver simply raised their hand, as if to say “Thank you”. As soon as they did this my mindset switched from, “Who do they think they are, thinking they can just cut me off like that?” To something more along the lines of, “They must be in a rush”, or, “It isn’t a race, everyone just wants to get to where they’re going.”
The Ben Franklin effect is a great psychological trick that anyone can use in an attempt to get another person to like them. I challenge you to try it out and see how you can use this to your advantage.
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US government to issue travel alert warning citizens to be vigilant while travelling in Europe as fears of al-Qaida attack rise
US to issue terror warning to Americans in Europe
The US government is to warn its citizens to stay away from high-profile sites in Europe amid renewed fears over al-Qaida terrorist attacks, reports said today.
US and UK officials are understood to have been in contact over the possibility of a broad alert being issued, possibly as early as today, with significant implications for tourism across Europe.
High-profile tourist sites and transport hubs are expected to be highlighted as potential targets for an attack.
However, reports suggested the warning was likely to be vague and urged people to be cautious rather than cancelling their travel plans altogether.
A senior US state department official said: "We are considering issuing an alert [today]. The bottom line is travel, but be vigilant."
PJ Crowley, a state department spokesman, would not comment on specific threats, but said the US remained focused on al-Qaida threats to US interests and would take appropriate steps to protect Americans.
The warning comes a week after intelligence officials in Britain intercepted a credible Islamist-linked terror plot.
The attack would reportedly have been similar to the deadly commando-style raids in Mumbai, India, two years ago, with cities in France and Germany also targeted.
On Tuesday, the Eiffel Tower, in Paris, was evacuated following a bomb threat called in from a telephone box – the second such alert at the landmark in two weeks. A search by bomb experts found nothing unusual, and the tower was reopened within hours.
There has been speculation that Osama bin Laden could be masterminding the latest plots personally.
On Friday, Sweden announced it had raised its alert alert to the highest status ever because of an increased threat of terror attacks.
A Home Office spokeswoman confirmed that the UK's terror threat rating remained at "severe", the second highest rating, where it has been since being increased from "substantial" in January.
There has been an upsurge in US drone raids in Pakistan in recent weeks as Nato targets Islamist militants. The US has carried out at least 25 drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas so far this month – the highest monthly total for the past six years, US media reported.
US officials have been pushing Pakistan to increase its search for al-Qaida militants, who are believed to be hiding in a mountainous border region in the country.The player Mergen is abusing mechanics of the game for AFK farming using multiple bought accounts which falls under two violations of terms of service:
Using multiple-accounts for any purpose, such as AFK farming. Buying other’s player items and accounts with real life monetary transaction.
Server : Klaipeda
Team Name : Mergen, XXYYXX, Pipistrella
Location : Dina Bee Farm - Channel 4
Approximate date / time (EDT) : 2017-02-26 10:30 AM
Evidence :
The screenshots below shows the CharacterID of the same character between two periods, one being the old owner and the new after the accounts was bought by the current player.
Along with this information it is possible to track down the player by ID and TP transactions as well the renaming history of them along with the Team “Mergen” (old team name: Rynn) and the team name “Lyriel” (old team name: Mergen), which were changed after the owner bought the “Rynn” team account.
Current character: Princess Pipistrella
Character ID / Old owner: Hehexd Marilynn
Current character: DMT XXYYXX
Character ID / Old owner: Leafen Ensa
Current Character: Dina Mergen
Old team’s owner: Rynn
Complete screenshot Dina Bee’s channel at the moment of the report:So much for rumors about Paxton Lynch’s work ethic.
The second-year quarterback has been the first one to meetings at the Broncos’ facility, an unnamed player recently told KUSA-TV’s Mike Klis. While that doesn’t guarantee success on the field, it is a good sign that Lynch has been putting in the time to improve this offseason.
Lynch, who worked out with a quarterback guru in Florida this offseason, has noted he’s going to “be in the building” as much as possible this summer.
Lynch, 23, was selected by Denver 26th overall out of Memphis in last year’s draft. He appeared in three games as a rookie, going 1-1 in two starts and throwing for 497 yards with two touchdowns and an interception.
This offseason, Lynch will compete for the starting job with Trevor Siemian, who went 8-6 as a starter in 2016. Siemian, a former seventh-round pick, has more experience, but Lynch arguably has more potential.
Getting to meetings early certainly won’t hurt Lynch’s chances.
Related 4 players linked to Broncos will attend 2017 NFL draftImage caption The claim of electricity from the air as a renewable resource is controversial
Tiny charges gathered directly from humid air could be harnessed to generate electricity, researchers say.
Dr Fernando Galembeck told the American Chemical Society meeting in Boston that the technique exploited a little-known atmospheric effect.
Tests had shown that metals could be used to gather the charges, he said, opening up a potential energy source in humid climates.
However, experts disagree about the mechanism and the scale of the effect.
"The basic idea is that when you have any solid or liquid in a humid environment, you have adsorption of water at the surface," Dr Galembeck, from the University of Campinas in Brazil, told BBC News.
"The work I'm presenting here shows that metals placed under a wet environment actually become charged."
Dr Galembeck and his colleagues isolated various metals and pairs of metals separated by a non-conducting separator - a capacitor, in effect - and allowed nitrogen gas with varying amounts of water vapour to pass over them.
What the team found was that charge built up on the metals - in varying amounts, and either positive or negative. Such charge could be connected to a circuit periodically to create useful electricity.
The effect is incredibly small - gathering an amount of charge 100 million times smaller over a given area than a solar cell produces - but seems to represent a means of charge accumulation that has been overlooked until now.
Dr Galembeck suggests that with further development, the principle could be extended to become a renewable energy resource in humid parts of the world, such as the tropics.
Charged debate
However, while the prospect of free electricity from the air is tantalising, the prospect of harnessing enough of it to be widely useful is still a matter of some debate.
Hywel Morgan of the University of Southampton says that a similar effect has been known for some time; he points out that tribocharging - the generation of charge by rubbing wool over amber or water droplets over water droplets - is the origin of thunderstorms.
There have been many attempts to harness electricity from the atmosphere and most had bad endings Francesco Galembeck, University of Campinas
"What we think is happening is he's pumping the water vapour across his capacitor and during the pumping mechanism, tribocharging the water vapour."
That would result in a charge, but would not be the same as simply pulling the charge from still, wet air.
Marin Soljacic, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist behind a wireless power transmission technology, known as Witricity, disagrees.
He calls the paper "very interesting" and "a good area of research".
He concurs, however, that the amount of charge gathered in the initial tests suggests the effect may be difficult to put to good use, saying that "at this point it is far-fetched to see how it could be used for everyday applications".
"It really warrants future research and understanding what all the limitations of this are, how far it can go," he told BBC News.
"[Prof Morgan] is right that a similar and closely-related effect is known to exist, but we're very pressed for finding new sources of renewable energy, [so] I think it's a bit early to discard this research."
Dr Galembeck is familiar with the controversy that this kind of work generates, saying that disagreement about the mechanism behind it forms "the motif for bitter discussions among scientists".
"There have been many attempts to harness electricity from the atmosphere and most had bad endings."Tesla CEO Elon Musk at a 2015 event to launch the Tesla Model X Crossover SUV in Fremont, California. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images The Hong Kong government's decision to scrap a tax break for electric vehicles has had a dramatic effect on sales of Tesla cars in the city, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Data analysis from The Journal has shown that zero new Tesla Model S sedans and Model X SUVs were registered with the transport department in April, after the vehicle-registration tax waiver for electrics was discontinued at the start of that month.
Following that, just five privately owned electric cars were registered in May.
The Journal reported a sales surge just before the April 1 rule change, with 2,939 Tesla vehicles registered in March and nearly 3,700 entering the department's books for the first quarter of 2017. The end of the tax break was announced in February.
A Tesla representative told Business Insider that although the company welcomed government policies making "it easier for more people to buy electric vehicles," the company was not dependent on tax concessions for its livelihood.
"In China, for example, we've tripled our revenue from 2015 to 2016 despite a massive tariff and no incentives," the representative said. "At the end of the day, when people love something, they buy it.
"Hong Kong remains a significant market for Tesla, and we continue to sell cars there each quarter. When the Hong Kong government reduced the tax exemption for electric vehicles and increased the cost of our cars by nearly 100%, it's to be expected that demand will be impacted in the period immediately following the change, particularly because of the large number who bought just prior to the change being implemented."
Tesla's global sales have somewhat mirrored the fluctuation in fortunes in Hong Kong. The first quarter of the year saw the electric-car maker have its best period ever, shipping out 25,000 units and sending its share price rocketing upward to surpass Ford and close in on General Motors in market capitalization. Then for the second quarter, global sales fell to 22,000.
Tesla just last week announced the first batch of its cheaper Model 3 cars would be released at the end this month. The $35,000 vehicle may be dampening appetite for the far more expensive existing models.
The Hong Kong experience also shows how sensitive electric-vehicle sales are to government incentives for cleaner transport technology. The region has only 7.3 million people, but Fox Business reports it is a significant market for luxury cars.
The Tesla representative said the company didn't hold long-term concerns over sales in Hong Kong.
"Tesla absolutely believes that the Hong Kong market will continue to be very strong over the long term because it's clear that the people in Hong Kong love our cars."Zhu shares new album single ‘Palm of My Hand’
With the release of Zhu’s debut album GENERATIONWHY quickly approaching, the hype around the “Faded” producer is reaching a fever pitch. Previous collaborations with Kaskade on “In The Morning,” and Skrillex on “Working For It” — which also will be featured on his album — have served to set the stage for what will surely be a diverse debut. The enigmatic producer has now released another new track from GENERATIONWHY, “Palm of My Hand.”
From the get-go, the track evokes a retro, ’80s vibe. Police sirens quickly give way to rounded off, gently pulsing synths, providing a foundation for an extended guitar solo. The track eventually transitions into a house beat, while maintaining a melancholic, contemplative nature. The layered production, featuring more guitar, strings, piano, electronic horns, and a chunky bass, is accompanied by a breathy vocal repeating the track’s title as a hook. Given the track’s length — it comes in at just over six minutes — the track has plenty of time for extended solos and instrumental sections, which all evoke the same vibe while still avoiding any dragging or excessive self-indulgence.
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Categories: MusicSHANGHAI — When the Chinese government announced new curbs on property prices this month, homeowners bombarded social networking sites with complaints. They formed long lines at property bureaus to register to sell their homes before the restrictions went into effect.
And some couples went even further: they filed for divorce.
Divorce filings shot up here and in other big cities across China this past week after rumors spread that one way to avoid the new 20 percent tax on profits from housing sales was to separate from a spouse, at least on paper.
The surge in divorce filings is the latest indication of how volatile an issue real estate has become in China in the past decade and how resistant people are to additional taxes.
Worried that housing prices are spiraling out of control and threatening social stability, the central government regularly rolls out measures aimed at damping demand and weeding out speculators.Jason Chaffetz, grand inquisitor.
Republicans are at each others’ throats in a way they haven’t been since at least 1964. Republicans disagree about Trump, and they disagree about what they need to do in order to regain power. But those disagreements have very little to do with the decisions the party will face between now and the next presidential campaign. Its position toward a prospective Hillary Clinton administration is so predetermined it is hardly a decision at all. The party will oppose her completely and totally.
Some Republicans blanched at Donald Trump’s outright promise to imprison his opponent if elected. But almost none of them objected to his underlying premise that Clinton is a criminal figure who should be in prison but for the politically motivated decision of the FBI’s Republican director to inexplicably spare her prosecution. That consensus will quickly return to the fore.
Jason Chaffetz, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, boasts to Dave Weigel that he plans to begin multiple years’ worth of investigations into the incoming Clinton presidency. “Even before we get to Day One, we’ve got two years’ worth of material already lined up.” Chaffetz makes clear in his interview that two years truly is a low-ball figure.
He sees numerous examples of Clinton’s corruption, each one of which could inspire 12 months of investigations and hearings on their own. “Every single time we turn around, this puzzle gets more complicated with more pieces to it,” he told Weigel. “That story about the $12 million from Morocco to the Clinton Foundation? You could take any one of these stories and have a year’s worth of investigations.”
So the Republican plan is to consume Clinton’s presidency with an investigative apparatus that will surround her with allegations of corruption, which in turn can enmesh her staff into defensive paranoia that produces cover-ups that in turn produce more grist for additional investigations and hearings. Note that this assumes that Clinton and her staff manage not only to avoid any legitimate scandal — which is difficult for any administration, given the historical frequency of scandals — but also to avoid anything that House Republicans would consider scandalous, which is near impossible. Chaffetz has plans to spend most of Clinton’s term criminalizing her presidency even if her administration is somehow as pure as driven snow. In the far more likely scenario that it isn’t — and, let’s face it, she has surrounded herself with some pretty shady characters before — it will get much, much worse.
The 40-member House Freedom Caucus, which abjures compromise in all forms and habitually goads its leadership into hopelessly aggressive confrontations, is already stirring up a challenge to Paul Ryan’s Speakership. It’s unlikely that the Caucus will actually topple Ryan. What it will do is limit his ability to conduct normal business in the chamber. The intent of the coup threats is to bring the House leadership to heel. Ryan has every incentive to support Chaffetz’s star-chamber strategy and no leeway whatsoever to rein it in. Indeed, Ryan is already praising Chaffetz. Ryan’s office told Weigel that he “supports [Oversight’s] investigative efforts following where the evidence leads.”
The constant churn of scandals will keep the Republican base in a state of perpetual frenzy at the administration’s perfidy, some of which will redound back at the Republican leadership. However far Republicans go, conservatives will be furious they haven’t gone further. Ryan will be facing endless coup threats, and his members the prospect of right-wing primary challenges. The last thing they will want to do is cast votes for Clinton-supported policies. A total boycott on any legislative cooperation will constitute the moderate, responsible Republican position. The “crazy” Republicans will be the ones who demand impeachment or publicly muse about political violence.
Not that any of this would be necessary to prevent cooperation anyway. What Republicans have demonstrated and proved during the Obama era is that bipartisan cooperation is a losing strategy for the out party. As Mitch McConnell explained, if proposals had bipartisan support, it would signal to America that they were unobjectionable, making them, and their president, popular; the president’s popularity would then make it harder for the opposition to gain seats or defeat him in the next election. That dynamic will not change at all with a new Democrat in office. Clinton’s plan to change this dynamic, as Patrick Healy reported in July, is to get Republicans roaring drunk. (“Mrs. Clinton’s ability to use alcohol as a political lubricant came up repeatedly when allies and advisers were asked how she might work with Republicans.”) This is not a promising long-term strategy to induce legislators to act contrary to their political self-interest.
Even suppose Clinton faces the most fantastically positive and unlikely scenario, in which the GOP suddenly reverses its decades-long lurch to the right, ignores its base and the conservative media, and attempts to reposition itself closer to the center. Suppose “reform conservatives” somehow get their hands on the party’s steering wheel. Would they cut deals with Clinton? Hardly. Remember, the main goal of the reform conservatives is to build a platform that Republicans can use to win presidential elections. This objective does not depend on working with Clinton. It actually depends on not working with her. Allowing Republican reform ideas to be seen by the party’s base as tainted by support from Clinton, the evilest and most socialist president in history, would make them poison for any Republican candidate. More important, for a candidate to run on a platform, it needs to have not been enacted into law, because you can’t run on a promise that the incumbent president has already fulfilled.
The Republican Party may have a lot of fights over the next four years: whether to moderate any elements of its platform, how to rebuild its support among minorities and women, whom to nominate for president, and whether to impeach Clinton or merely oppose her. None of the factions has any interest in helping her have a successful presidency.But Mr. Bezos and Mr. Nadella are concerned that keeping assistants from working together could hold them back. The way they see it, each assistant has unique strengths that could benefit the other assistants.
In an interview last Friday at one of Amazon’s Seattle high-rises, Mr. Bezos predicted that over time people would turn to different digital assistants — also called “A.I.s,” for artificial intelligence — the same way they turn to one friend for advice about hiking and another for restaurant recommendations.
“I want them to have access to as many of those A.I.s as possible.” Mr. Bezos said.
As an example, Mr. Bezos cited Cortana's superior integration with Outlook, the popular calendar and email application that is part of the Microsoft Office suite of software. Because Microsoft controls both products, Outlook is integrated more deeply with Cortana than with other voice assistants. Through its collaboration with Microsoft, Amazon said, Alexa users will get answers to some of the same questions that Cortana can now answer — for instance, when is the next budget review with the boss?
Initially, getting the two systems to work together is going to be a little awkward. Someone working with an Alexa device will have to say “Alexa, Open Cortana” followed by their command, while someone starting with a Cortana machine will have to say “Cortana, Open Alexa.”
The Amazon-Microsoft partnership started in May 2016, when Mr. Bezos raised the idea with Mr. Nadella at Microsoft’s CEO Summit, an annual event for business leaders in the Seattle area. Mr. Nadella was receptive to the idea, so a short while later Mr. Bezos emailed a draft of a brief news release that described how their assistants would work together, both men said.European football's governing body dismisses Spanish capital club's claims that their opponents displayed unsporting behaviour in ill tempered Champions League semi-final
Uefa has rejected Real Madrid's complaint against Barcelona for unsporting behaviour following last week's Champions League semi-final, first-leg which was marred in controversy.The Whites reported Barcelona players Dani Alves, Sergio Busquets, Pedro, Jose Pinto, Seydou Keita and Victor Valdes for unsporting behaviour following their 2-0 loss at the Bernabeu.They said Barca players repeatedly showed unsporting behaviour that led to the referee making mistakes, including Pepe's sending off.Uefa, however, did not agree. European football's governing body released a statement which read: "Uefa Control and Disciplinary Body, as a judge sitting alone, has rejected both the protests lodged by Real Madrid CF and the complaint made by FC Barcelona following the Uefa Champions League semi-final first leg match between the two clubs last Wednesday.
"The protests lodged by Real Madrid CF, against the behaviour of the FC Barcelona players during the match and against the red card shown to Kepler De Lima Ferreira (Pepe), are rejected. In the case of the behaviour of the FC Barcelona players, it was deemed that there was no common strategy to provoke the Real Madrid CF player, while in the case of Pepe, the referee's factual decision is upheld. As a result, the player Pepe is suspended for the FC Barcelona-Real Madrid CF match on 3 May 2011."
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Regarding Jose Mourinho's post-match comments, Uefa will make a decision on Friday when the commission for control and discipline meet to investigate the case.Both clubs have three days to contest Uefa's ruling.PLEASE READ
mamamantis:
hello i’m cramp and i’m a queer WOC who’s just decided to fully separate myself from an abusive living situation
i’m fully determined to find a job and a place to live in columbus, a city that i am in love with, away from my emotionally abusive parents. however, when i told them about my decision this morning, they drained all of the money out of my checking account (which is joint ownership between us, but all of the money in the account belonged to me) so now i only have ~$500 to my name, and i only have that because i withdrew as much as i could after telling them bc i anticipated they would do something like that. they’ve also shut off my credit card, which is something i can’t reverse because they are the primary signers on the card (again, even though i pay for it) so this $500 is literally all i have right now.
going back to my parent’s house will undeniably exacerbate my anxiety and self-harm issues and it will be even worse if i have to do so now that i’ve stood up to them - i have no idea what they’ll do if they can get |
theft is common among low-wage employers in the United States. A 2008 survey of low-wage workers in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City found that 76 percent of those who worked overtime “were not paid the legally required overtime rate.”These are the results of a recent YouGov/Handelsblatt poll on which leader the citizens of the G20 countries want to see as the next US President.
Russia is the only country where more people, by a considerable margin, support Donald Trump becoming US President (31%) than support Hillary Clinton (10%).
This might come as a surprise to some of you considering how many Russians and (((Russians))) have been writing anti-Trump jeremiads in both the Western and Russian press:
Which just goes to show that whenever you see a Russian writing in an American mainstream media publication, its usually safe to assume the truth is the exact opposite of whatever he or she says.
Here is how one /r/The_Donald user described his “awakening”:
Thats actually really cool to hear. I will admit, I ate up our medias picture of Russia and never had much positive to say, but this election has made me do my own research and you all seem pretty bad ass. I would like to say sorry for being a cuck and hopefully we can become strong allies in the future.
Ultimately, as the only major candidate who doesn’t want to fight a New Cold War with Russia, it stands to reason the most Russians with an opinion on US politics support Trump.
Putin’s near endorsement of Trump as a “bright and talented person” would have also helped.
As Irish journalist Danielle Ryan points out, it’s not like Trump is likely to magically transform relations between the US and Russia. And certainly those corners of the internets who dream of a Western Alliance between a Trumpian America and Putin’s Russia to remove kebab are deluded (even if they are ironically deluded… or delusively ironic… or whatever).
It’s a nice dream though.
However, there is the basic perception that Russia will get along better with a straightforward American patriot than an empty suit (or empty dress?) ideological stooge of neocon and globalist agendas.
I expect the 10% of Russians for Hillary Clinton are mostly Westernists/zapadniks who reliably support the politically correct line of the “international community” against Russia. (However, I think it’s safe to say that Clinton also has a massive anti-rating in Russia. Bill Clinton’s war against Serbia – which resulted in the first major spike in anti-American sentiment in post-Soviet Russia’s history – is still remembered negatively. And many Russians are aware of Hillary Clinton’s warm relations with liberal “neocons in other words” interventionists).
This zapadnik constituency who support Hillary Clinton are not feeling the Bern because they tend to be virulently anti-socialist in the style of Garry Kasparov*:
I’m enjoying the irony of American Sanders supporters lecturing me, a former Soviet citizen, on the glories of Socialism and what it really means! Socialism sounds great in speech soundbites and on Facebook, but please keep it there. In practice, it corrodes not only the economy but the human spirit itself, and the ambition and achievement that made modern capitalism possible and brought billions of people out of poverty. Talking about Socialism is a huge luxury, a luxury that was paid for by the successes of capitalism. Income inequality is a huge problem, absolutely. But the idea that the solution is more government, more regulation, more debt, and less risk is dangerously absurd.
Really the only group of people who would support Sanders in Russia are the liberal leftist anti-globalist ecological hippie types but they’re only 1-2% of the population, or an order of magnitude lower even than the zapadnik liberals.
As for Cruz, literally the only Russian of any prominence I’ve found who supports him is the Christian Orthodox fanatic and renowned lolcow Dmitry Enteo:
FWIW Russia's foremost Orthodox Christian crazy fanatic Enteo endorses Cruz and condemns Trump. https://t.co/gpiX1iANRS — ak (@akarlin88) March 16, 2016
***
There are no major surprises in the rest of the rankings.
(1) On average the more “cucked” countries support Hillary Clinton more.
(2) Mexico is at the top and one can’t really fault them for that.
(3) China seems to intuitively support Trump. They too have their issues with the Clintons in the form of the bombing of their Belgrade embassy in 1998. However, they are also understandably a bit put off by Trump’s relatively more bellicose rhetoric against their country, plus as the survey notes, China’s – and India’s and Indonesia’s – respondents were all queried online. The part of the Chinese population that is regularly online and presumably likelier to participate in such polls is demographically younger and presumably more globalist.
(4) Apparently not all Saudis share Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal’s negative assessment of Trump (or maybe they really don’t like the idea of a woman at the helm):
.@realDonaldTrump
You are a disgrace not only to the GOP but to all America. Withdraw from the U.S presidential race as you will never win. — الوليد بن طلال (@Alwaleed_Talal) December 11, 2015
Finally, I would note that the US Presidential Elections haven’t really gotten going yet, so many foreign opinions of Trump vs. Clinton will be quite hazy and uncertain at this point. International opinion will become clearer as we approach November 2016.
* At least when Kasparov’s writing in English in Facebook or The WSJ, as opposed to riling up protest crowds in Moscow, when for some reason his rhetoric becomes remarkably leftist.You may not think you’re sharing with many people when using Facebook’s “Friends of Friends” privacy setting, but two degrees of separation actually goes a long way.
According to a new Pew study, Facebook users who share with friends of friends reach an average of 156,569 other people. Granted, that’s the mean average, which skews a bit high due to people who befriend pretty much everybody. But even the median user has a lot of reach, with 31,170 people connected through friends-of-friends.
(MORE: Facebook Timeline: 5 Things You Need to Know)
Statisticians probably figured this out a long time ago. After all, with the average Facebook user having 245 friends according to Pew, and the average friend of that user having 359 friends, one person’s reach can easily get into the tens of thousands even after you account for overlap. But for me, at least, Pew’s results are surprising, as they are for Gizmodo’s Sam Biddle, who put it this way:
When you think friend of a friend, the IRL analogue comes to mind. Your buddy’s buddy. That guy you met at a bar who seems okay. Your girlfriend’s pals from college. They must be okay people, right? They’re so narrowly removed from you, why not share all your photos with them?
Of course, on Facebook, the definition of “friend” is elastic, and so you may be exposing your life story to people that shouldn’t have it. Fortunately, Facebook doesn’t really promote the “Friends of Friends” option anymore, instead burying it within the “Custom” privacy settings.
But if you use “Friends of Friends,” and are now freaked out by it, you can switch it off by clicking the little arrow on the top-right corner of Facebook’s website, then clicking “Privacy Settings.” From here, you can either press the big “Friends” button, or click “Edit Settings” in the “How You Connect” section to fine-tune your options. Also, next time you’re sending a status update, click the little drop-down menu next to the “Post” button, and make sure you don’t have friends-of-friends selected there.
(MORE: Facebook IPO News Roundup)Wolfgang Schäuble knows that the quiet on the markets over the past few weeks has been deceptive and that the euro crisis could erupt again soon. After all, doubts remain about whether Greece can remain in the currency union in the long term. If it triggers a chain reaction, the entire euro project could collapse. In addition, the willingness of many euro-zone member states to eliminate the design defects of the common currency appears to be diminishing.
Cash-strapped Greeks, fatigued Europeans -- Germany now wants to solve both problems for the long term. "There will be no state bankruptcy in Greece," Schäuble said in a speech in Singapore on Sunday. He also wants to give a new boost to the reform impetus for restructuring the euro zone. "We now need to go a major step in the direction of a fiscal union that will go beyond the proposals made so far," Schäuble said on Monday night during his flight back to Berlin.
The finance minister, a passionate advocate of deeper European integration, has said he wants to concentrate on a small number of far-reaching reforms:
The European commissioner for economic and currency affairs is to become equally powerful as the commissioner for competition. The competition commissioner is entitled to make decisions independently and does not require the agreement of the other commissioners in making those decisions. If the currency affairs commissioner were truly independent when it came to decision-making, it would depoliticize that office holder's position. That would enable the commissioner to make decisions based on content rather than interests.
In order to strengthen the position of the currency affairs commissioner, individual member states would have to hand over part of their budget sovereignty to Brussels. Under Schäuble's proposal, the currency affairs commissioner, by now one of the most powerful positions in the EU, would be equipped with veto power over national budgets. The procedure might look like this: If a euro-zone member state sent its budget proposal to Brussels and the commissioner felt the deficit in the draft was too high, then the country's parliament would be asked to prepare a new draft. Member states would retain the power to decide which revenues to increase and which spending to to cut. But the proposed change still represents an improvement over the status quo. Under current rules, the European Commission's power is limited to making recommendations to member states on improvements to budgets.
, individual member states would have to hand over part of their budget sovereignty to Brussels. Under Schäuble's proposal, the currency affairs commissioner, by now one of the most powerful positions in the EU, would be equipped with veto power over national budgets. The procedure might look like this: If a euro-zone member state sent its budget proposal to Brussels and the commissioner felt the deficit in the draft was too high, then the country's parliament would be asked to prepare a new draft. Member states would retain the power to decide which revenues to increase and which spending to to cut. But the proposed change still represents an improvement over the status quo. Under current rules, the European Commission's power is limited to making recommendations to member states on improvements to budgets. Schäuble also wants to create more democratic legitimation for European policies by including the participation of the European Parliament at a fundamentally earlier stage in all important processes. The representative body of the people would also be changed so that votes would only include members of the European parliament from the countries that would be directly impacted by proposals considered. For decisions relating to the euro-zone, for example, only members of parliament from the 17 nations in the common currency area would meet to vote -- and not MEPs from all 27 EU countries. Although critics will note that this ultimately cements the idea of a two-speed Europe, the advantage of the proposal is that it would enhance democracy without making decision-making processes that are already very difficult to understand any more complicated.
In principle, there is nothing new about these ideas. What is new, though, is that one of the most influential politicians in Europe has cherry-picked concrete measures from the complex reform suggestions for the currency zone and strung them together as his own reform package.
The chances of success for Schäuble's plan aren't bad, either, because the German finance minister already presented them to other other euro-zone members before going public. The four leaders of important European institutions who are currently tasked with putting together proposals for reforming the currency union -- European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, Euro Group President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi -- have also been briefed.
Schäuble's proposals may play a role as soon as this week's EU summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday. Their implementation would require changes to the European treaties -- a process the finance minister would like to begin as soon as possible. Schäuble would like to convene an EU convention by the end of the year in which members of the European and national parliaments would work on a draft that would then have to be ratified by the 27 member states. Even if the process proceeded under the most optimal of conditions, it would still likely take one-and-a-half years before the changes could become law. However, it is more realistic that the changes would then go into effect at the beginning of 2015 at the earliest.
That, of course, assumes that Britain, which is not a member of the euro zone and which often opposes steps towards closer European integration, will play along. If it doesn't, it won't be possible to change the EU treaties. Euro zone governments would have to come up with a separate treaty as they recently did with the fiscal pact. It wouldn't be an optimal solution, but it wouldn't be acceptable.
The British should not underestimate Schäuble's determination to solve the euro crisis. Chancellor Angela Merkel backs the proposals even though Schäuble admits: "The chancellor is still a little more cautious than me." He added with a smile: "That's also why she is a little more successful than me."Under a portion of a controversial Arizona immigration law that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, police in the state may ask people they stop about their immigration status.
Arpaio, who was elected to a sixth term as sheriff last year, has helped make Arizona a touchstone in a bitter national debate over illegal immigration. The sheriff, who is facing a lawsuit and investigation from the U.S. Justice Department accusing him of civil rights abuses, vehemently denies that he or his officers profile Latinos.
On Wednesday, the same judge ordered parties in the case to agree on the selection of a monitor within 60 days to oversee the work of the 81-year-old lawman, who styles himself as "America's toughest sheriff."
U.S. District Judge Murray Snow had in May ordered the Maricopa County sheriff to stop using race as a factor in law enforcement decisions, in response to a lawsuit brought by Hispanic drivers that tested whether police could target illegal immigrants without profiling U.S. citizens and legal residents of Hispanic origin.
PHOENIX - A U.S. federal judge on Wednesday ordered a monitor be appointed to oversee the work of hard-line Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio to ensure that his officers no longer use racial profiling, especially of Latinos, when cracking down on illegal immigration.
The monitor's duties are to include reviewing the sheriff office's policies and procedures, as well as making sure that its operations are carried out in a "race-neutral fashion," the ruling said.
The judge also ordered audio and video recording of all traffic stops, increased training of sheriff's office employees and the implementation of comprehensive record keeping.
The ruling requires the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, or MCSO, to create a community advisory border to bolster its public outreach efforts, and mandates that deputies must tell dispatchers the reason for any traffic stops before approaching a vehicle.
"In conducting its activities, MCSO shall ensure that members of the public receive equal protection of the law, without discriminating based on actual or perceived race or ethnicity, and in a manner that promotes public confidence," Snow wrote in his ruling.
Arpaio has been a lightning rod for controversy with his get-tough stance on illegal immigration in Arizona, which borders Mexico, and an investigation into the validity of President Barack Obama's U.S. birth certificate.
In a statement, Arpaio said he was discussing the court order with his attorneys, who had identified "areas that are ripe for appeal."
"To be clear, the appointed monitor will have no veto authority over my duties or operations. As the constitutionally elected sheriff of Maricopa County, I serve the people and I will continue to perform my duties and enforce all laws."
'Important victory' for Latinos
Cecillia Wang, director of the American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants' Rights Project and the plaintiffs' counsel, called the order "an important victory" for Latinos.
"It means the sheriff's office needs to stop balking and start complying with the Constitution," Wang said.
Nancy Ramirez, counsel for the Mexican American Legal and Educational Defense Fund (MALDEF), said the ruling would bring "accountability" to the sheriff's office.
"The Latino community has waited a long time for the court-mandated reforms that will provide accountability and transparency.... and prevent the abuse of authority that has been so prevalent," Ramirez said in a statement.
MALDEF said rights groups would continue the legal fight if Arpaio appeals, and would closely monitor the office's activities as the judge's order goes into effect.
Arizona has long been a cauldron of controversy over immigration issues. Republican Governor Jan Brewer signed a 2010 crackdown on illegal immigration that was subsequently challenged by the federal government and partly struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
A landmark immigration overhaul passed by the Democratic-led U.S. Senate in June seeks to tighten security on the U.S. border and a path to citizenship for millions of unauthorized immigrants living in the shadows, although it faces scant chance of passage in its current form in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.A Melbourne man has pleaded guilty to entering a marriage with a 14-year-old bride.
Mohammad Shakir, 34, is charged with going through a formal ceremony of marriage with a person not of marriageable age at Noble Park last September.
As part of the plea, two charges were withdrawn by prosecutors in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, including allegations Shakir had sex with the girl between September 30 and October 1, 2016, following their wedding.
A Melbourne man has pleaded guilty to entering a marriage with a 14-year-old bride (stock image)
The ceremony was conducted in Noble Park by former imam Ibrahim Omerdic, 61, who also faces charges relating to the illegal marriage.
He will front court in May for a contested hearing.
Omerdic, former imam of the Bosnian Islamic Society and Noble Park Mosque, was stood down after his November arrest and later sacked.
'A new Imam has been appointed. Omerdic is no longer the Imam of the Noble Park Mosque and has no role with the Society,' a Noble Park Mosque statement read at the time.
The girl is in a 'fragile state' and has 'ongoing health issues', prosecutor Ranjani Padmanabhan told Melbourne Magistrates Court in February.
The ceremony was conducted in Noble Park by former imam Ibrahim Omerdic, 61, (pictured) who also faces charges relating to the illegal marriageFairness and Freedom: A History of Two Open Societies, New Zealand and the United States.
David Hackett Fischer
New York: Oxford University Press, xxv + 629 pages.
I have to start off by saying that David Hackett Fischer’s Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America has shaped the way I see American history and much else. He provides a compelling account of how the four main British-derived groups (Puritans, distressed Cavaliers, Quakers, and Scots-Irish borderers) differed and their struggle for dominance in America. To me as an evolutionist, a big part of the attraction is that Fischer roots these cultural differences in the distant past—in English pre-history. Thus the tendencies of the two main groups, Puritans based in East Anglia and the Cavaliers in Southeast England, go back to the murky period of English pre-history. These types (Puritans relatively egalitarian, Cavaliers elitist and hierarchical) indicate very strong cultural differences and thus likely to be influenced by ethnic-genetic differences.
Fairness and Freedom continues his comparative approach, this time comparing two different British-derived societies, New Zealand and the United States. The basic thesis is that New Zealand political culture is much more infused with “an abiding concern for fairness” (p. 14), while the U.S. is more focused on an ideology of individual freedom.
Interestingly, until the mid-20th century and then doubtless because of Western influence, there are no words for fairness in languages apart from English, Danish, Norwegian, and Frisian. Moreover, the words for fair and fairness have no Greek or Latin roots, but are nevertheless traceable to an Indo-European origin where they appear only in the above group of Northern European languages (and notably excluding German). The original Indo-European word meant “to be content,” later giving rise to the Gothic fagrs, meaning pleasing to behold and often connoting blond hair and fair complexion. It eventually came to mean something that could be agreed on by most parties—e.g., a fair price.
Unlike Albion’s Seed, where the focus is on deep, long-lasting and quite possibly ethnic-genetic differences in explaining cultural variation, Fairness and Freedom provides an entirely cultural explanation for the development of a universalist sense of ethics in the West:
In early ethical usage, [words for fairness] tended to operate within tribes of Britons and Scandinavians, where they applied to freemen in good standing. Women, slaves, and strangers from other tribes were often excluded from fair treatment, and they bitterly resented it. The tribal uses of fair … were full of historical irony. These ideas flourished on the far fringes of northwestern Europe among groups of proud, strong, violent, and predatory people who lived in hard environments, fought to the death for the means to life, and sometimes preyed on their own kin. Ideas of fairness and fair play developed as a way of keeping some of these habitual troublemakers from slaughtering each other even to the extinction of the tribe. … Something fundamental changed in a second stage, when the folk cultures of Britain and Scandinavia began to grow into an ethic that embraced others beyond the tribe—and people of every rank and condition. This expansive tendency had its roots in universal values such as the Christian idea of the Gold Rule. That broader conception of fairness expanded again when it met the humanist ideas of the Renaissance, the universal spirit of the Enlightenment, the ecumenical spirit of the Evangelical Movement, and democratic revolutions in America and Europe. (pp. 16–17)
Thus, beginning in only a northern subset of Indo-European languages, the explanation is that there were then a series of completely cultural shifts beginning with Christianity and culminating (as Fischer later contends) in what I would see as the rather overwrought sense of fairness that now underlies the culture of Western suicide. In any case, saying that “something changed” is not so much an explanation as it is simply pointing to a set of proposed historical shifts. Fischer provides no further ideas on why these changes happened.
Fischer contends that fairness is much less important in American history compared to freedom. At present, fairness tends to be a buzzword among Democrats, while conservative thinkers at times reject the entire concept. Still, Fischer claims that “the frequency of the word fairness has been increasing in American usage during the twentieth century, though far below freedom and free. Even so, few Americans think of fairness as the organizing principle of their open society” p. 27). In England, the usage of fairness has been increasing steadily since 1800, while the usage of liberty has been in steady decline from a peak around 1780.
After briefly recounting the four main British-derived American groups described at length in Albion’s Seed (Puritans, Cavaliers, Quakers, and Borderers), Fischer describes the very different pattern in New Zealand. The immigrants to New Zealand came from various parts of England but without strong cultural differences. They tended to be at least of the middling rank, some with aristocratic connections; most came with assistance from organizations who were keen to select on the basis of moral character and other traits. For example, a typical program required a letter from the prospective immigrant’s vicar attesting that the immigrant was “among the most respectable of his class” (p. 57); the Scots who migrated to Otago on the South Island are described as “the better educated and religiously disposed of the lower and middle classes” (p. 60 Perhaps reflecting these processes, the IQ of White New Zealanders is slightly above the White average. Two large studies performed in 1989 and 1997 and included in Lynn and Van Hanen’s IQ and Global Inequality found that the IQ of White New Zealanders to be 101 and 102 respectively.
The basic difference between the U.S. and NZ is that the American colonists were treated horribly by the British (“six generations of American colonists were challenged by the British to fight for their rights” [p.76]). Fischer notes that the Bill of Rights is a list of specific grievances against things the British had done to the American colonists from 1760–1775. Moreover, the economic model for the American colonies was designed to benefit England rather than the colonies. All this resulted in a powerful ideology of freedom and liberty.
On the other hand, New Zealand encountered the kinder, gentler British Empire of the mid-19th century and later. The “Second Empire” as it developed in New Zealand was “highly principled and deeply Christian, with an elaborately developed sense of justice and equity. … Their acts often fell short of their ideals. But there was a constancy of striving in their lives, and they planted the seeds of an ethical system that kept growing long after they were gone” (p. 93).
Unlike in the American colonies, the British encouraged self-government in New Zealand and tried to protect the Maoris. New Zealand did not have slavery, indentured servants, or plantation economies; there was no significant number of distressed cavaliers who shaped the culture of the American South. By the 19th century, the British Empire rejected the mercantilism aimed at benefiting England in favor of free trade. But the most important characteristic of the British Empire at the time of New Zealand colonization beginning in 1840 was a greater emphasis on social justice. Colonial administrators like Captain William Hobson (“a leader of high probity … [who] recruited able and honorable men to serve in the colony” [p. 84]) were concerned about justice and fairness—self-consciously trying to uphold a universalist morality. A major result was that the Maoris were treated much better than American Indians.
Thus already in the 19th century we see a strong sense of “high-mindedness” (p. 87) and crusading moral universalism taking hold in New Zealand. Bishop George Augustus Selwyn, who became Anglican Bishop of New Zealand in 1841, was “a high-principled idealist” with a “broad ecumenical version of Christianity which in New Zealand became linked to an idea of racial equality between Pakeha [i.e., Whites] and Maoris” ; Selwyn was “a fierce defender of Maori rights” [p. 87]).
Whereas Christian missionaries seem to have been in the forefront of idealizing the (cannibalistic, very warlike) Maoris in the 19th century, these trends have become exaggerated in the contemporary culture of White guilt and idealization of non-Whites. College campuses have become hotbeds of positive attitudes toward Maoris. A military officer refers with contempt to contemporary academic “maoriolatry” (p. 96). On the other hand, the Maoris themselves have realized that their culture left something to be desired. A 19th-century chief asked, “What did we do before the Pakeha came? We fought, we fought continuously.” In the end, a great many Maoris doubtless viewed the coming of the White man in positive terms.
This high-mindedness and commitment to fairness can be seen in a much stronger tradition of socialist tendencies in New Zealand. For example, “New Zealand after 1891 began a sustained program to redistribute its lands” (p. 106), not by confiscating large estates but by government purchases when they came on the market. Fischer documents a stronger concern in New Zealand for fairness for all citizens—not without a struggle, of course, but easier than in the U.S. “In general, New Zealand had remarkably little in the way of hard-right, hard-core conservatism that was stronger in Britain, the United States, and Canada. … [Even the most conservative elements] supported women’s suffrage and other Progressive measures” (p. 324). New Zealand’s response to the Great Depression was far more in the direction of promoting welfare benefits, while the U.S. focused on programs to “help people help themselves.”
On the other hand, notions of individual liberty are relatively weak in New Zealand. A Bill of Rights was finally adopted in 1990, but unlike the U.S. Bill of Rights, it incorporated “human rights” (including “natural justice” and explicit assertions of procedural and institutional fairness) rather than, as in the U.S., rights against state power that were so much on the mind of the U.S. founding fathers. Most New Zealanders are hardly aware of their Bill of Rights, while in the U.S., the Bill of Rights has high psychological salience to most Americans.
Scandinavian Roots of Western Egalitarianism and Sense of Fairness
In general, Fischer seems more inclined to value fairness than liberty (“On the subject of fairness, no nation in the world has more to teach than New Zealand; and no country has more to learn than the United States” (p. 403). However, he does see weaknesses in the emphasis on fairness. Most centrally, he describes the “Tall Poppy Syndrome” (envy and resentment of people who are “conspicuously successful, exceptionally gifted, or unusually creative”) (p. 386) that is characteristic of New Zealand. “It sometimes became a more general attitude of outright hostility to any sort of excellence, distinction, or high achievement—especially achievement that requires mental effort, sustained industry, or applied intelligence. … The possession of extraordinary gifts is perceived as unfair by others who lack them” (pp. 486–487).
The expression ‘Tall Poppy Syndrome’ originated in Australia but seems to be more characteristic of New Zealand. Successful people are called ‘poppies’. This tendency is perhaps not as strong as it used to be, but, although some successful New Zealanders are accepted, “other bright and creative New Zealanders have been treated with cruelty by compatriots who appear to feel that there is something fundamentally unfair about better brains or creative gifts, and still more about a determination to use them” (p. 487). Doubtless because of the same egalitarian tendencies, the New Zealand system encourages laziness and lack of achievement—workers insist that others slow down and not work hard. “Done by lunchtime” is the motto of a great many New Zealand workers.
This egalitarianism enforced by shunning is entirely reminiscent of the Jante Laws of Scandinavia which “mandate” that no one can rise above the others in the group. In my experience, the 10 commandments of Jante Law are well-known among Scandinavians as an aspect of self-identity. From my perspective, they present the archetype of the individualist-egalitarian cultural strand of Western social organization: (see here, Discussion section)1. Don’t think you are anything; 2. Don’t think you are as good as us. 3. Don’t think you are smarter than us. 4. Don’t fancy yourself better than us. 5. Don’t think you know more than us. 6. Don’t think you are greater than us. 7. Don’t think you are good for anything. 8. Don’t laugh at us. 9. Don’t think that anyone cares about you. 10. Don’t think you can teach us anything.
Such egalitarian social practices are common in hunter-gatherer groups around the world and support the general view that the most powerful strand of European culture, especially apparent after it came to power post-1800, is the culture of Northern hunter-gatherers (see here, based on M. L. Burton, et al., Current Anthropology 37, 87–123, 1996);. Reflecting this pattern, Scandinavian society in general has a history of relatively small income and social class differences, including the absence of serfdom during the Middle Ages. A recent anthropological study of hunter-gatherers found that the economic inequality approximated that of modern Denmark (Eric A. Smith, et al., Current Anthropology.51(1),19–34, 2010).
Just as socialist economic practices (including national health care) and women’s rights came relatively easily to Scandinavia, they have come relatively easily in New Zealand (although Fischer notes that Scandinavian socialism was more radical than New Zealand’s). This suggests that New Zealand should be considered as having culture more typical of Scandinavia. It also suggests that these tendencies may be ethnically influenced rather than purely cultural as Fischer proposes. The ethnic argument emphasizes that two important British-derived American groups are notably missing from New Zealand, at least in sufficient numbers to influence the culture: the distressed Cavaliers and the Borderers. (The Quakers are also missing, but they are relatively unimportant in the U.S. as well.) As noted above, the distressed cavaliers are characterized by hierarchical, aristocratic, anti-egalitarian values that resulted in the slave culture of the Old South —values that are quite the opposite of any important tendencies to be found in New Zealand culture or in Scandinavian culture. And the borderers, who have had a major influence on what one might term the country music culture of rural, working class White America, have a very strong identity as Americans that has not been destroyed by the post-1960s rise of the culture of Western suicide. To an extent far greater than their Puritan co-ethnics, the borderers have a history of being more involved in clan relationships of extended families rather than merely lineal descent. In Albion’s Seed, Fischer notes that among them, “marriage ties were weaker than blood ties,” and there was a tendency to marry within the extended family—both markers of greater collectivism doubtless brought about by the centuries of wars characteristic of the border region of England and Scotland.
Unlike other British-derived groups, the Borderers have retained a strong religious commitment. In the 19th century, they showed “intense hostility to organized churches and established clergy on the one hand and [an] abiding interest in religion on the other.” They rejected the Anglican Church, religious taxes and established clergy, but for all that, they were intensely and emotionally religious. Indeed, this group is the main force behind the culture of the American Bible Belt —the religious fundamentalism that is such an important aspect of contemporary American politics. They are indeed socially conservative and a great many of them are involved in the angry protests of the Tea Party movement. They are the epitome of implicit Whiteness, flocking to implicitly White cultural events like NASCAR racing and gun shows. It’s fair to say that New Zealand has no comparable cultural influence. There appears to be no similar group with a detectable influence on New Zealand culture.
Thus the main influences on New Zealand culture would appear to be much more similar to the Puritan influence on American culture as well as the other American group highly committed to egalitarian universalism, the (relatively less important) Quakers. As Fischer notes in Albion’s Seed, the Puritans and Quakers both originated mainly from groups that had immigrated from Scandinavia in pre-historic times, and their cultures reflect the strong egalitarian universalist tendencies of Scandinavia.
The Puritan Intellectual Legacy: Fairness as a Theme in American Culture
It is noteworthy that in Fairness and Freedom, Fischer does not emphasize the strong strand of moral universalism and concern with fairness apparent in the Puritan-descended intellectuals who dominated American intellectual life in the 19th century and continued as a dominant group until being displaced by Jews in the mid-20th century. In the 19th century, these intellectuals placed a high value on fairness—for example, strongly opposing slavery on moral grounds. They tended to pursue utopian causes framed as moral issues, with opposing sides painted in stark contrasts of good versus evil. Whereas in the Puritan settlements of Massachusetts the moral fervor was directed at keeping fellow Puritans in line, in the nineteenth century it was directed at the entire country and focused on the evils of slavery and capitalism. For example:
An important 19-century intellectual and orator, Orestes Brownson (1803–1876) admired the Universalists’ belief in the inherent dignity of all people and the promise of eventual universal salvation for all believers. He argued for the unity of races and the inherent dignity of each person, and he was fiercely opposed to Southerners for trying to enlarge their political base.” Like many New Englanders, he was morally outraged by the Supreme Court decision in the Dred Scott case that required authorities in the North to return fugitive slaves to their owners in the South. For Brownson the Civil War was a moral crusade waged to emancipate the slaves. Writing in 1840, Brownson claimed that we should “realize in our social arrangements and in the actual conditions of all men that equality of man and man” that God had established but which had been destroyed by capitalism (pp. 138–39). According to Brownson, Christians had to bring down the high, and bring up the low; to break the fetters of the bound and set the captive free; to destroy all oppression, establish the reign of justice, which is the reign of equality, between man and man; to introduce new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, wherein all shall be as brothers, loving one another, and no one possessing what another lacketh.
Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalists were outraged by the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. For Emerson, “the very landscape seemed robbed of its beauty, and he even had trouble breathing because of the ‘infamy’ in the air.” After the militant abolitionist John Brown failed in his violent uprising to free the slaves, Emerson was “glad to see that the terror at disunion and anarchy is disappearing,” for the price of slaves’ freedom might demand it. This is a paradigmatic example of what evolutionists label ‘altruistic punishment’—the willingness to right perceived wrongs even at enormous cost to self. No cost was too high to free the slaves. In the event, recent estimates of the Civil War dead put the figure at 750,000 men.
Both Emerson and Henry David Thoreau commented on John Brown’s New England Puritan heritage. Emerson lobbied Lincoln on slavery, and when Lincoln emancipated the slaves, he said “Our hurts are healed; the health of the nation is repaired.” He thought the war worth fighting because of it.
Thus the high-minded moralism of New Zealand |
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If you use any other social platform and miss our presence there, let us know in the comments. And if you run your own Raspberry Pi-related forum, online group, or discussion board, share that as well!This article is about the 1983 film. For other uses, see Flash Dance
Flashdance is a 1983 American romantic drama film directed by Adrian Lyne and starring Jennifer Beals and Michael Nouri. It was the first collaboration of producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, and the presentation of some sequences in the style of music videos was an influence on other 1980s films including Footloose, Purple Rain, and Top Gun, Simpson and Bruckheimer's most famous production.
Flashdance opened to negative reviews by professional critics, but was a surprise box office success, becoming the third highest-grossing film of 1983 in the United States.[3][4] It had a worldwide box-office gross of more than $200 million.[5] Its soundtrack spawned several hit songs, including "Maniac" (performed by Michael Sembello), and the Academy Award–winning "Flashdance... What a Feeling" (performed by Irene Cara), which was written for the film.
Plot [ edit ]
Alexandra "Alex" Owens (Jennifer Beals) is an eighteen-year-old welder at a steel mill in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who lives with her dog Grunt in a converted warehouse. Although she aspires to become a professional dancer, she has no formal dance training, and works as an exotic dancer by night at Mawby's, a neighborhood bar and grill which hosts a nightly cabaret.
Lacking family, Alex forms bonds with her coworkers at Mawby's, some of whom also aspire to greater artistic achievements. Jeanie (Sunny Johnson), a waitress, is training to be a figure skater, while her boyfriend, short-order cook Richie (Kyle T. Heffner), wishes to become a stand up comic.
One night, Alex catches the eye of customer Nick Hurley (Michael Nouri), the owner of the steel mill where she works. After learning that Alex is one of his employees, Nick begins to pursue her on the job, though Alex turns down his advances at first. Alex is also approached by Johnny C. (Lee Ving), who wants Alex to dance at his nearby strip club, Zanzibar.
After seeking counsel from her mentor Hanna Long (Lilia Skala), a retired ballerina, Alex attempts to apply to the Pittsburgh Conservatory of Dance and Repertory. Alex becomes intimidated by the scope of the application process, which includes listing all prior dance experience and education, and she leaves without applying.
Leaving Mawby's one evening, Richie and Alex are assaulted by Johnny C. and his bodyguard, Cecil. Nick intervenes, and after taking Alex home, the two begin a relationship.
At a skating competition in which she is competing, Jeanie falls twice during her performance and sits defeated on the ice and has to be helped away. Later, feeling she will never achieve her dreams, and after Richie has left Pittsburgh to try to become a comic in Los Angeles, Jeanie begins going out with Johnny C. and works for him as a Zanzibar stripper. Finding out that she is dancing nude, Alex drags her out while she protests and cries.
After seeing Nick with a woman at the ballet one night, Alex throws a rock through one of the windows of his house, only to discover that it was his ex-wife (Belinda Bauer) whom he was meeting for a charity function. Alex and Nick reconcile, and she gains the courage to apply for entrance to the Conservatory. Nick uses his connections with the arts council to get Alex an audition. Alex is furious with Nick, since she did not get the opportunity based on her own merit and decides not to go through with the audition. Seeing the results of others' failed dreams and after the sudden death of Hanna, Alex becomes despondent about her future, but finally decides to go through with the audition.
At the audition, Alex initially falters, but begins again, and she successfully completes a dance number composed of various aspects of dance she has studied and practiced, including breakdancing which she has seen on the streets of Pittsburgh. The board responds favorably, and Alex is seen joyously emerging from the Conservatory to find Nick and Grunt waiting for her with a bouquet of roses.
Cast [ edit ]
Music [ edit ]
"Flashdance... What a Feeling" was performed by Irene Cara, who also sang the title song for the similar 1980 film Fame. The music for "Flashdance... What a Feeling" was composed by Giorgio Moroder, and the lyrics were written by Cara and Keith Forsey. The song won an Academy Award for Best Original Song, as well as a Golden Globe and numerous other awards. It also reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1983. Despite the song's title, the word "Flashdance" itself is not heard in the lyrics. The song is used in the opening title sequence of the film, and is the music Alex uses in her dance audition routine at the end of the film.
Michael Sembello - "Maniac" listen to a clip from the track. Problems playing this file? See media help.
Another song used in the film, "Maniac", was also nominated for an Academy Award. It was written by Michael Sembello and Dennis Matkosky. A popular urban legend holds that the song was originally written for the 1980 horror film Maniac, and that lyrics about a killer on the loose were rewritten so the song could be used in Flashdance. The legend is discredited in the special features of the film's DVD release, which reveal that the song was written for the film, although only two complete lyrics ("Just a steel town girl on a Saturday night" and "She's a maniac") were available when filming commenced. Like the title song, it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1983.[6][7]
Other songs in the film include "Lady, Lady, Lady", performed by Joe Esposito, "Gloria" and "Imagination" performed by Laura Branigan, and "I'll Be Here Where the Heart Is", performed by Kim Carnes.
The soundtrack album of Flashdance sold 700,000 copies during its first two weeks on sale and has gone on to sell over 6,000,000 copies in the US alone. In 1984, the album won the Grammy Award for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special.
Production [ edit ]
Adrian Lyne, whose background was primarily in directing television commercials, was not the first choice as director of Flashdance. David Cronenberg turned down an offer to direct the film, as did Brian De Palma, who instead chose to direct Scarface (1983). Executives at Paramount were unsure about the film's potential and sold 25% of the rights prior to its release.[8] The film was shot over a period of three months beginning on October 18, 1982 and ending on December 30, 1982.[9]
Flashdance is often remembered for the sweatshirt with a large neck hole that Beals wore on the poster advertising the film. Beals said that the look of the sweatshirt came about by accident when it shrank in the wash and she cut out a large hole at the top so that she could wear it again.[10]
Casting [ edit ]
Three candidates, Jennifer Beals, Demi Moore, and Leslie Wing, were the finalists for the role of Alex Owens. Two different stories exist regarding how Beals was chosen. One states that then-Paramount president Michael Eisner asked women secretaries at the studio to select their favorite after viewing screen tests. The other: the film's scriptwriter Joe Eszterhas claims that Eisner asked "two hundred of the most macho men on the [Paramount] lot, Teamsters and gaffers and grips... 'I want to know which of these three young women you’d most want to f---'".[11]
The role of Nick Hurley was originally offered to KISS lead man Gene Simmons, who turned it down because it would conflict with his "demon" image. Pierce Brosnan, Robert De Niro, Richard Gere, Mel Gibson, Tom Hanks, and John Travolta were also considered for the part. Kevin Costner, a struggling actor at the time, came very close for the role of Nick Hurley, which went to Michael Nouri.
Crew [ edit ]
Flashdance was the first success of a number of filmmakers who became top industry figures in the 1980s and beyond. The film was the first collaboration between Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, who went on to produce Beverly Hills Cop (1984) and Top Gun (1986). Eszterhas received his second screen credit for Flashdance, while Lyne went on to direct 9½ Weeks (1986), Fatal Attraction (1987), Indecent Proposal (1993), and Lolita (1997). Lynda Obst, who developed the original story outline, went on to produce Adventures in Babysitting (1987), The Fisher King (1991), and Sleepless in Seattle (1993).
Locations [ edit ]
Much of the film was shot in locations around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:
The ice skating rink on which Jeanie falls was filmed at Monroeville Mall. This was the same ice skating rink used in the George A. Romero horror film Dawn of the Dead (1978).
(1978). The fictional Pittsburgh Conservatory of Dance and Repertory was filmed inside the lobby and in front of Carnegie Music Hall, a part of the Carnegie Museum of Art, located near the campuses of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh Oakland.
Alex's apartment was located in the South Side neighborhood of Pittsburgh.
Alex is seen riding one of the Duquesne Incline cable cars when she goes to visit Hannah.
Hannah's apartment is located at 2100 Sidney Street at the southeast corner of South 21st Street. The entrance to the apartment is from South 21st Street.
The opening sequence of scenes with Alex riding her bicycle starts on Warren Street at its intersection with Catoma Street. She rides south on Warren Street to Henderson Street, makes a hairpin turn from Henderson Street onto Fountain Street, and is next shown riding south on Middle Street. The last scene of the sequence shows Alex riding east over the Smithfield Street Bridge, which is a continuity error.
Reception [ edit ]
Critical response [ edit ]
Flashdance has received mostly unfavorable reviews from professional critics. It currently holds a Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of 35%, based on 40 reviews with the consensus: "All style and very little substance, Flashdance boasts eye-catching dance sequences—and benefits from an appealing performance from Jennifer Beals—but its narrative is flat-footed".[12] Roger Ebert placed it on his list of Most Hated films, stating: "Jennifer Beals shouldn't feel bad. She is a natural talent, she is fresh and engaging here, and only needs to find an agent with a natural talent for turning down scripts".[13] Halliwell's Film Guide gave it one star out of four while The New Yorker described the film as "Basically, a series of rock videos." The Guardian described it as "A preposterous success." Detractors of the film argue that in addition to the shallow plot, the film represents the worst excesses of 1980s film making with its emphasis on short sequences and rapid editing between shots. The screenplay of the film was nominated for a Razzie Award, where it lost to The Lonely Lady. A common criticism was directed toward the on-screen partnership between Jennifer Beals and Michael Nouri, largely due to the significant age difference between the two (at the time of filming, Beals was 18 while Nouri was 36). Critics have also questioned whether an 18-year-old woman would have been given a job as a welder in an old-fashioned steel mill.
The dimly lit cinematography and montage-style editing are due in part to the fact that most of Jennifer Beals' dancing in the film was performed by a body double.[14] Her main dance double is the French actress Marine Jahan, while the breakdancing that Alex performs in the audition sequence at the end of the film was doubled by the male dancer Crazy Legs. The shot of Alex diving through the air in slow motion during the audition sequence was performed by Sharon Shapiro, who was a professional gymnast.
Accolades [ edit ]
Academy Award nominations:
Editing
Cinematography
Original Song (Win): Flashdance...What a Feeling
Original Song: Maniac
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
Legacy [ edit ]
Sequel [ edit ]
There were discussions about a sequel, but the film was never made. Beals turned down an offer to appear in a sequel, saying: "I've never been drawn to something by virtue of how rich or famous it will make me. I turned down so much money, and my agents were just losing their minds."[17]
Musical adaptation [ edit ]
In March 2001, a Broadway musical version was proposed with new songs by Giorgio Moroder, but failed to materialize.[18]
In July 2008, a stage musical adaptation Flashdance The Musical premiered at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth, England. The book is co-written by Tom Hedley, who created the story outline for the original film, and the choreography is by Arlene Phillips.[19]
Flashdance and the MTV connection [ edit ]
Flashdance is not a musical in the traditional sense as the characters do not sing, but rather, the songs are presented in the style of self-contained music videos. The success of this film is attributed in part to the 1981 launch of the cable channel MTV (Music Television), as it was the first to exploit the new medium effectively. By excerpting segments of the film and running them as music videos on MTV, the studio benefited from extensive free promotion, and thus established the new medium as an important marketing tool for movies.
In the mid-1980s, it became almost obligatory to release a music video to promote a major motion picture—even if the film were not especially suited for one.[20] An example from the era is the song and music video "Take My Breath Away" from Top Gun (1986), also from Flashdance producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. Giorgio Moroder composed "Take My Breath Away" and several of the songs for Flashdance.
Other media [ edit ]
Singers Jennifer Lopez and Geri Halliwell paid homage to "Flashdance" in their music videos. Lopez' "I'm Glad" from her album "This Is Me… Then" was heavily based on the film, while Halliwell's version of "It's Raining Men", the first single from her sophomore album "Scream If You Want To Go Faster", takes inspiration from the iconic audition scene.
A promotional poster for the 2018 film Deadpool 2 paid homage to Flashdance, with Deadpool recreating the scene where Jennifer Beals is showered with water while outstretched over a chair. Deadpool is showered with bullet casings rather than water.[21]
Legal action [ edit ]
Suit against the filmmakers
Flashdance was inspired by the real-life story of Maureen Marder, a construction worker/welder by day and dancer by night in a Toronto strip club. Like Alex Owens in the film, she aspired to enroll in a prestigious dance school. Tom Hedley wrote the original story outline for Flashdance, and on December 6, 1982, Marder signed a release document giving Paramount Pictures the right to portray her life story on screen, for which she was given a one-off payment of $2,300. Flashdance is estimated to have grossed more than $200 million worldwide. In June 2006, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco affirmed a lower court's ruling that Marder gave up her rights to the film when she signed the release document in 1982. The panel of three judges stated in its ruling: "Though in hindsight the agreement appears to be unfair to Marder—she only received $2,300 in exchange for a release of all claims relating to a movie that grossed over $150 million—there is simply no evidence that her consent was obtained by fraud, deception, misrepresentation, duress or undue influence." The court also noted that Marder's attorney had been present when she signed the document.[22]
Suit against Jennifer Lopez and filmmakers over music video
In 2003, following the use of dance routines from the film by Jennifer Lopez in her music video "I'm Glad" (directed by David LaChapelle), Marder sued Lopez, Sony Corporation (the makers of the music video), and Paramount in an attempt to gain a copyright interest in the film. Although Lopez argued that her video for "I'm Glad" was intended as a tribute to Flashdance, in May 2003 Sony agreed to pay a licensing fee to Paramount for the use of dance routines and other story material from the film in the video.[23][24]
See also [ edit ]
Films of a similar genre in the 1980sBattle Worlds: Kronos has almost reached its $120,000 Kickstarter goal with more than a month to spare. It’s the kind of game that is ideally suited to the crowdfunding platform – a turn-based strategy game that references the likes of Battle Isle, simultaneously exciting people like me, and causing publishers to purse their lips and tighten their purses. I spoke with Jan Theysen, co-founder and Creative Director of KING Art, to learn more about the company’s approach to crowdfunding, Battle Worlds history and the game itself.
RPS: Hello! We know KING Art as the developers of point and click adventure series, The Book Of Unwritten Tales. Battle Worlds is a very different project and based on a six-year old prototype, if I understand correctly. Are the same teams responsible for both games?
Theysen: Yes, indeed! The old Battle Worlds: Kronos prototype was the first offline-game we ever started developing. After it became obvious that we wouldn’t be able to obtain outside funding for the project we focused on another of our favourite ideas and pitched The Book of Unwritten Tales with the same team. Now a lot of the BoUT people are back working on BW:K.
RPS: Could you talk about the prototype a little? What did it involve and who actually worked on it?
Jan Theysen: It was our pet-project for about two years. We did a lot of web- and community games at the time and wanted to do “a real game”. So we worked on it whenever there was time. Pretty early on we gathered some turn-based enthusiasts from all walks of the TBS community around us and developed the game together with them. The prototype was pretty advanced, actually. We got the first three missions of the campaign, we got playable multiplayer-maps (hot-seat & LAN), we got a basic AI, an editor… it’s still playable today and it’s fun.
When it comes to basic game-design, balancing, controls and stuff like that the old prototype is still our starting point for the new game. We didn’t use any assets or code, though. We actually started all over again in December.
RPS: Did you pitch the project to publishers over the last few years?
Theysen: We pitched the old game for about two years, and then basically had to give up. At that time it was impossible to get funding. Turn-based strategy was dead (at least in the eyes of the publishers). And there were other problems. I remember one publisher explained to us that our asynchronous multiplayer mode would be dead weight, as everybody would know, no one wants to play just a few minutes every day, but spend large chunks of time on it only. Anyway, it was widely known that we were still interested in doing this project, but whenever we brought it up in other project discussions with publishers, people got this blank stare that you get when you stopped listening a long time ago….
When Kickstarter became the phenomenon it is today we instantly knew that Battle Worlds: Kronos would be an ideal game for the platform. It enables us to do exactly the game we and our fans wanted to play for so long now, and we are glad that so many people responded. It’s still up in the air, but just maybe, Kickstarter and other crowdfunding tools will truly change the way games are made for good.
RPS: For those who might not be aware of the series, what are the features of Battle Isle that you’re particularly interested in reviving?
Theysen: Actually, while the name of the game is clearly a nod to Blue Byte’s great series, there is a lot of games we draw inspiration from when it comes to TBS, like Advance Wars or the SSI classics Panzer General, Fantasy General and so on. What we like about them and want to bring to the forefront of our game is the fact that these games do not require fast reactions but clever tactics.
We are also big fans of RTS, but when our art director Alex is slaughtering three of his colleagues in StarCraft 2, he is probably not the better tactician, but the guy who knows the production chain inside and out and can execute roughly one thousand commands per second (as a rough estimate). That’s skill, no question about it. But it’s far less tactical and strategic than you might think. Many TBS we like have very simple rules that can be learned quickly and easily. After a few matches, everybody knows the rules equally well. From that point on, the better tactics, the better plans will win.
RPS: Why do you think the time is right for this game? Is the rise of Kickstarter a large part of it, or do you think the success of big budget titles such as the new XCOM has brought a new turn-based audience as well?
Theysen: I think, gamers are generally curious for new gaming experiences. Battle Worlds can be played alone or with buddies in live multiplayer. However, Battle Worlds’ asynchronous multiplayer also allows for a type of multiplayer experience that has not been done right in years. To beat your friends in epic battles, maybe fighting 4 or 5 of them against several friends at the same time, and finally achieve victory after weeks of campaigning is new to many players. As a novel concept, however, it is exciting to think about from a gamer’s perspective, but frightening since unpredictable from an investor’s perspective. Doing it the Kickstarter way did not only allow us to present a TBS game, but to include modes like this without fighting zombie hordes of marketing managers reurgitating market data that does not show anything, because no one has dared to ask questions outside the box.
Surely it hasn’t hurt that XCOM is a great game and probably exposed hundreds of thousands of gamers to turn-based strategy for the first time. It’s a great example by a great studio, of how unconventional or “lost” genres can be honored to the benefit of gamers, developers and publishers.
RPS: Do you think that publishers will look at the Kickstarters that succeed and react quickly or at all?
Theysen: I’m not sure… I don’t think you’ll see EA making a new, isometric Ultima or Ubisoft bringing back Battle Isle as a boxed game. Successful Kickstarter campaigns are collecting enough money to produce small to medium-sized games and bring it to a few ten thousand to maybe about a hundred thousand gamers. That is not a scale that registers with the major publishers. However, for small and medium-sized publishers, Kickstarter campaigns might be interesting. That’s a good sign. There are projects that are well suited for Kickstarter, while others might not be as compatible with it. If those projects get financed by publishers who took notice of a project on Kickstarer… why not?
RPS: You have an arrangement with publishers for your adventure titles – what makes Battle Worlds different? And do you think there are differences from region to region as well?
Theysen: It’s essentially the size that matters. If we’d put a “Book of Unwritten Tales 2” on Kickstarter, we would have to raise over a million dollars (since after fees, taxes and rewards, there would maybe be 600,000 left, which is about what the first BoUT had as a production budget).
That doesn’t mean that we might not try to finance a bigger project through Kickstarter, but for our first Kickstarter campaign, we needed a smaller game, production-wise, that we could develop on our own dime to a significant state so that we felt comfortable pitching it in a Kickstarter. From the feedback we are getting to the pre-alpha video and screenshots, we seem to have been right about this. It’s also a question of countries… we are from Germany. To have a successful Kickstarter campaign, you can’t make a “German game” that only caters to the German gamer’s tastes. You have to make a game that appeals to as many people around the world as possible. We seem to have hit that nerve with Battle Worlds: Kronos.
RPS: How long have you been considering a crowd-funding campaign?
Theysen: It took about 2 hours from the start of Double Fine’s Kickstarter campaign? It was a revelation: to be able to produce a game without publishers, only because you know that there are enough fans out there who would like it? Wow.
RPS: Have you watched other crowd-funding campaigns and learned any lessons from them?
Theysen: Quite a lot of them! One of the most important lessons we learned was that campaigns are difficult to compare in the first place. If there’s a big name behind a project, it works differently from a campaign headed by nobodies like us. A well-known developer can stand in front of a camera and hold up three pieces of paper, and maybe talk a bit about their vision… and there’s a million dollars waiting for him at the end. As a small fish, you have to present your backers more than that. You have to excite them for your game, and you have to convince them that you will be able to deliver. This does not mean that big name projects aren’t well thought out in general, it just means that the road is a bit steeper if you are not a gaming legend. This is actually where the classic publishing model and Kickstarter are understandably similar, despite its democratic qualities.
Another underappreciated factor seems to be how the media react to Kicktarter. A few months ago, it was much easier to obtain coverage for a Kickstarter project. Today, it’s quite a bit of work. Some of the big websites seem to be cutting back on Kickstarter campaign reporting on principle, if there is no big name attached to them. I am pretty sure that many campaigns that reached their funding goals 6-12 months ago would not have the same chance today. You are just not getting the press coverage. With Rock Paper Shotgun being the shining exception to the sad rule. And it actually DOES MATTER. The success of a campaign still is connected with media coverage. I’d wish that more sites would judge campaigns by what they are showing and not by the names they are having connected with it.
RPS: Talking about the game now – how will the single player campaigns work? What aspects are carried across from one mission to the next?
Theysen: You could think of the first of two single player campaigns as a gigantic tutorial. Bit by bit, all the different unit types and game functions are introduced. You are the commander of the House of Telit, one of the factions that are fighting about domination on the planet Kronos. You rise to the top of the heap of heroic fighters for this faction, but – spoiler alert – will in the end be brought to your knees rather roughly.
The second campaign is about the story on the side of the so called Residents faction. While Telit and the other two “invading factions” possess lots of high tech units, and TONS of them, the Residents are fighting a guerilla war in the shade. Thus, players will have to learn different tactics all over again in the second half of the game. The individual missions are connected by a background story we are trying to make as diverse as possible. Wherever it makes sense, story-wise, surviving units will be taken from one mission to the next, including all their upgrades they already won.
RPS: You mention every unit having unique characteristics – could you go into more detail about how they vary?
Theysen: A few days ago, one of our backers wrote on Facebook that he would rather have less different unit types than more, since the best strategy game in the history of man only had 6 specialized units. I think he was referring to chess, and I think he has a point. 200 different units might just end up feeling somehow very similar and exchangeable. We want to make each unit count by differing in skills and behavior from all the others.
Each unit is supposed to have their own character by having individual strengths and weaknesses and special tasks to perform in battle. One of my favorite units is the rocket buggy we named “Bandit”. It’s a cool unit, because it can attack twice each turn, if you choose not to move it. However, the Bandit can only attack targets that are two tiles away, so he is extremely vulnerable in close quarter combat. That’s why it works best to pair it with a Cerberus tank or another heavy defensive unit that you can position between the Bandit and the enemy unit. But of course, the Cerberus is slow, so you kind of have to balance the speed advantage of a buggy against the protective ability of the tank, losing the speed bonus if you always play it safe… We continuously strive to give players something that they can fiddle with and tweak their tactics.
RPS: Will there be significant differences between the two factions?
Theysen: The Invaders and the Residents are the basic factions. The invaders, however, are split into three houses. All three houses play very similar, but each house has an own special ability that only they can use. The Residents feel decidedly different. They can use conquered Invaders units, but most importantly units welded together from metal trash and heavy infantry. Those “self-made” units are not as powerful as Invaders units, but they do have an important advantage: they can repair themselves with the wrecks of destroyed enemy units.
The infantry of the Residents can also cloak itself, which the infantry robots of the Invaders cannot. Cloaked units are only revealed if a unit is moved next to the cloaked unit or if the cloaked units start to fight. Naturally, this skill qualifies the Residents troops for ambushs.
RPS: It’s an attractive game, but do you use modern technology for anything other than the graphics? Are there things that it’s possible to do now that wouldn’t have been possible fifteen or even six years ago?
Theysen: The whole online-gaming aspect has become much more important than it was six years ago. We want to offer players a ladder system, a good match making system, tournaments and a platform for exchanging maps they built with the map editor. Some years ago we might have taken less interest in developing these community features. Back in the early days, writing a “clever” AI was a huge problem, especially if it was not to take up tons of processor time to make its next move. Today, we have a lot more processing power at our disposal, which can be used to make the AI much more powerful as well. The problem nowadays is to make AI play still feel like fun and feel “just right”.
RPS: Is there any base building or are facilities already on the maps to be captured?
Theysen: No, there is no base-building. That’s a decision we made even before we started development for the first prototype. The player is supposed to be able to concentrate on what is happening at the front lines.
RPS: There are tablet versions listed under the stretch goals, with cross-platform play proposed. Are you confident that moving to other platforms won’t hinder development of the PC version?
Theysen: Certainly. We will finish the PC version first and treat the tablet version as a true port. We do not believe that “one control scheme fits all”. You want to be able to use the right mouse button on your PC, as well as Keyboard shortcuts, even if this means we have to think of new ways to design the controls for tablets.
RPS: You actually have a reward tier that is called ‘the Notch edition’! And somebody backed at that level. Can you tell me if it was Notch or would that break some sort of digital secrecy act and end up with RPS shipped off to some sort of holding centre a mile underneath Buckingham Palace, being nibbled by attack corgis?
Theysen: I would love to see that. It sounds rather spectacular! But it won’t come to this, I am afraid. No, it wasn’t Notch who pledged. It was Klaas Kersting, CEO of Flaregames and co-founder of Gameforge. He is an old friend of ours and we knew he loved Battle Isle, but we didn’t know he loved it so much!
This is actually one of the most positive, uplifiting things we encountered in the first days of the campaign: Being supported not just by gamers, but by fellow developers as well. Brian Fargo and the guys over at Obsidian became our backers and did shout-outs on Twitter, and many developers shared our campaign and were actually campaigning for us on Facebook… Kickstarter seems to be one of those things that brings out the best in people, probably because it is so close to what all of us really want to do: Games we like ourselves for fans who like them too.
RPS: Thanks for your time.
Battle Worlds: Kronos is Kickstarting right now.Generally speaking, there are two pieces you need to get internet working in your house or apartment: a cable modem, which is connected to a regular cable jack and outputs a wired Ethernet connection; and a router, which takes the wired connection of the modem and transmits the wireless internet you know and love.
Linksys, a networking company that makes both routers and modems, is now releasing a router / modem hybrid device that combines the two into one. While these kinds of devices aren’t exactly new, it is Linksys’ first shot at making one, and it could be a good option for people looking to avoid rental fees from ISPs or just hoping to cut down on cords in their living room. The AC1900 Cable Modem Router, as it’s called, supports the DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem standard and offers an AC1900 router. So if you’re looking for an all-in-one option, you could certainly do worse.
I’ll be honest, I’m not a huge fan of hybrid router / modems — it’s much more worthwhile to me to buy the two devices separately, allowing each to |
when fourteen people were killed in and around the mission. Over the next few years the Provisional Government of Oregon and later the United States Army battled the Native American peoples east of the Cascades. This was the first of several wars between the original inhabitants and Euro-American settlers in that region that would lead to the negotiations between the United States and Native people of the Columbia Plateau, creating a number of Indian reservations.
Utah War or Mormon War (US vs. Mormon Settlers of Utah)
The Utah War, was an armed confrontation between Mormon settlers in the Utah Territory and the armed forces of the United States government. The confrontation lasted from May 1857-July 1858 during a time of deep mistrust between the Mormon settlers the federal government. There were some casualties, mostly non-Mormon civilians, and the war had few notable battles, generally being resolved through negotiation.
In the end, negotiations between the United States and the Latter-day Saints resulted in a full pardon for the Mormons, the transfer of Utah’s governorship from church President Brigham Young to non-Mormon Alfred Cumming, and the peaceful entrance of the U.S. Army into Utah.
Spanish-American War (US vs. Spain)
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, the result of American intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. American attacks on Spain’s Pacific possessions led to involvement in the Philippine Revolution and ultimately to the Philippine–American War.
The result was the 1898 Treaty of Paris, negotiated on terms favorable to the U.S., which allowed temporary American control of Cuba, ceded indefinite colonial authority over Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippine islands from Spain. The defeat and collapse of the Spanish Empire was a profound shock to Spain’s national psyche, and provoked a thoroughgoing philosophical and artistic reevaluation of Spanish society known as the Generation of ’98. The United States gained several island possessions spanning the globe and a rancorous new debate over the wisdom of expansionism.
The Puerto Rican Revolt (US vs. Puerto Rican Nationalists)
Not really a war, but worth noting. The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party Revolts of the 1950s were a series of coordinated armed protests for the independence of Puerto Rico led by the president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, Don Pedro Albizu Campos, against the United States Government rule on the Island. The Party repudiated the “Free Associated State” (Estado Libre Asociado) status that had been enacted in 1950 and which the Nationalists considered a continuation of colonialism.
The Party organized a series of uprisings to take place in various Puerto Rican cities on October 30, 1950. The uprisings were suppressed by strong ground and air military force under the command of Puerto Rico National Guard Major General Luis R. Esteves.
In a related event, on November 1st of that year, two Nationalists from New York City attempted to assassinate U.S. President Harry S. Truman, who supported the Puerto Rican government effort to draft a constitution that would rename the local government as a commonwealth of the United States and provide some limited local autonomy. The incident described as “the biggest gunfight in Secret Service history.” Truman later went to Puerto Rico where he made a speech absolving the island nation of any blame.
Photos courtesy of Wikimedia commons.Just a few years ago, the word Squamish would likely be mistaken by most people for a misspelling of squeamish. Not any more.
In only four years, the sleepy former logging town has become the unlikely home to one of North America’s biggest annual music festivals.
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As someone who used to live there a decade ago, it’s hard to overstate how unlikely this would’ve seemed back then when a show by, say, a Van Halen cover band or DOA’s latest final show ever at one of the town’s handful of seedy pubs was considered a big deal for live entertainment on a Saturday night. The only time you’d be likely to see a multiple Grammy-winner or a Super Bowl headliner was if they stopped at Starbucks on their way to Whistler while on vacation.
This year’s Squamish Valley Music Festival was twice as big as last year’s and had less than half the problems. Brand.LIVE organizers have sensibly ditched the old “LIVE at Squamish” name that sounded more like a lame real estate marketing slogan and also solved last year’s brutal traffic problems by offering advance check-ins for campers at Britannia Beach. The sun was shining and so was the supermoon. Approximately 30,000 people ‑- roughly double Squamish’s total population -- made it to this year’s three-day affair an hour’s drive from Vancouver and it looks like the summer concert is here to stay.
The Good
Arcade Fire put on one of the best shows I’ve ever seen, period, let alone probably the best show of the festival. (I say “probably” because, of course, there’s no way to see them all.) As a former Montrealer as well as a former Squamishite, I take a certain amount of hometown pride in how this weird indie band has become the world beater it is today.
After “The Reflektors,” a fictional group wearing giant papier-mache Arcade Fire bobblehead masks first took to the stage, the band themselves came out to an immediately frenzied crowd. Enigmatic frontman Win Butler – who I’ve always been a bit on the fence about after watching him needlessly smash his guitar on Saturday Night Live a few years ago – immediately won me over by stealing my friend Rebecca Blissett’s camera.
And then taking her photo.
Arcade Fire are a band that could never have come out of Vancouver. Apart from anything, there is probably no way all seven of them would’ve been able to squeeze into affordable rehearsal space here back in their early days. But there’s also something distinctly Quebecois about them that is more than just their habit of switching into French and somehow the band’s performance reminded me of la belle province’s other big cultural export: Cirque du Soleil.
They may not have been doing backflips on trampolines while riding unicycles or anything, but there’s something about their over-the-top theatricality, elaborate costumes, fancy video montages and sheer musical virtuosity, which was added to Saturday night by a horn section, violinists Owen Pallett and Sarah Neufeld, and several drummers. Something to do with the way they keep changing instruments simply because they can or the obvious joy they take – Butler’s wife Régine Chassagne in particular – in performing before a crowd.
They also deserve props for delivering the funniest encore I’ve ever seen when The Reflektors once again took to the stage and did an air band version of local boy Bryan Adam’s syrupy ballad (Everything I Do) I Do It For You from the Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves soundtrack. And then explaining it was because Jurassic Park is their favourite movie.
The Bad
The festival was a cashless event, meaning that if you wanted to get something to eat from the wide range of food vendors or stand in line for a LONG time in order to buy an overpriced adult beverage, you had to buy a special bracelet with a microchip inside that gets swiped to complete transactions.
While there’s something inherently creepy and uber-corporate about being forbidden to use actual money, this wouldn’t be too much of a problem if festival organizers didn’t also gouge customers at the same time. It cost $3.50 just to activate the damn thing and, if you didn’t use all the credits up by the end of the festival, yet another $2 to apply for a refund. Which could only be returned after filling out a whole bunch of forms online by Aug. 15 and giving them your bank account info rather than, say, simply going to one of their on-site stations and getting it back in cash. Brand.LIVE are clearly counting on people being too lazy to bother and it is the most transparent cash grab since Ticketmaster "convenience" fees.
It is literally armed robbery.
The Ugly
Look, if you had one shot or one opportunity to see Eminem perform in B.C. for the first time in a decade, would you capture it or just let it slip? I’ve enjoyed – sometimes guiltily – Marshall Mathers’ music since his early Slim Shady days and I was looking forward to seeing him live.
But I still left a few songs into his set in order to beat the traffic back to the city. I’ve huge respect for Eminem but the fact remains this is a middle-aged man with an adolescent daughter who is now reportedly clean and sober but is still being forced to jump around accompanied by a Dr. Dre-lite doing the same old shtick rapping about assaulting women in order to entertain the masses.
As hard-working detective Roger Murtaugh famously said, I’m too old for this shit.
So, frankly, is Eminem.
See more Skookum City postsChristopher Monfort, who was serving a life sentence for killing Seattle Police Officer Timothy Brenton on Halloween night in 2009, has died in prison.
According to Washington Department of Corrections officials, Monfort was found unresponsive in his single-person cell at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Wall at 7:45 a.m. Staff performed CPR until paramedics arrived and pronounced Monfort deceased at 8:09 a.m.
While they're still awaiting a report by the coroner's office, officials presume he died of natural causes.
Monfort, who was convicted in summer 2015 of aggravated first-degree murder for the ambush killing of Seattle police Officer Timothy Brenton on Halloween night 2009, was serving a life sentence.
“While there is no sense of closure, it does close a chapter. We know his family is hurting and we are thinking of them,” said Officer Timothy Brenton's family in a statement to KING 5 after hearing of Monfort's death.
Paralyzed below the waist by a gunshot he suffered during his arrest in Tukwila, Monfort's health had deteriorated by the time he stood trial in King County Superior Court.
Copyright 2016 KINGGerman tanks during World War II were often outmatched by superior Red Army designs beginning with the T-34. Armor, reliability and firepower were all—at...
German tanks during World War II were often outmatched by superior Red Army designs beginning with the T-34. Armor, reliability and firepower were all—at various times—serious shortcomings.
To counteract the Soviet beasts, Germany rushed ahead with tank destroyers—armored vehicles designed to inflict long-range firepower from concealed positions—but these also had a mixed record. The introduction of the Ferdinand during the 1943 Battle of Kursk turned into a disaster as the vehicles broke down from mechanical failures.
But Germany managed to produce practical and satisfactory tank destroyers, the Nashorn being one of the more successful designs.
Manufacturer Alkett completed the 24-ton, nearly nine-foot-high tracked vehicle by combining a modified Panzer III/IV chassis with an 88-millimeter gun—one of the deadliest German weapons in the war.
Nashorns on the move in March 1944. German Federal Archives photo
The specific gun, the Pak 43, would later see use on the Tiger II—one of the heaviest tanks of the era—and the Ferdinand and Jagdpanther tank destroyers. The Jagdpanther was a decent machine, the Ferdinand was not, and the Tiger II was extremely formidable but suffered from reliability issues.
Historical memory is generally favorable to the Nashorn, which entered service in early 1943 as an interim stopgap. As a result, only 473 Nashorns were produced, but the type served until the end of the war and inflicted pain on the heaviest Allied and Soviet tanks. The Nashorn was also inexpensive and quick to build due to the simple, evolutionary design.
An MG-34 or MG-42 machine gun served as the crew’s close-range protection.
During the December 1943 battles for Vitebsk, the 3rd Panzer Army fought desperate battles as it fell back to defend the Panther Line. One Nashorn under Capt. Albert Ernst knocked out 14 Soviet tanks during one day of the battle. And in March 1945, a Nashorn knocked out a U.S. M-26 Pershing heavy tank, one of that type’s few losses in the war.
The Nashorn’s gun and open-top superstructure sat high, which was a disadvantage, but the machine was designed to ambush tanks from thousands of yards away in a hull-down position, and then move quickly. So provided that field commanders used them appropriately, they remained deadly.
The tank destroyer’s armor was a mere 30-millimeters thick in the hull, and 10 millimeters in the superstructure, which was practically nothing for everything except small arms. A modified Nashorn introduced in May 1943 featured a redesigned front armor plate with 15 millimeters of armor.
But there’s a lesson there. Although the Nashorn had its downsides, notably the lack of armor, it was a cheap and effective long-range weapon.THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The bigger killer on the heights of Siachen Glacier is not enemy bullets from Pakistan Army but the extreme weather. Fewer soldiers would die if some of the technologies developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation ( ISRO ) for use in space are quickly and effectively deployed for protecting our soldiers.ISRO has developed the world's lightest insulating material and also high-powered search and rescue beacon technologies that can touch and save lives of Indian soldiers serving on the world's highest battleground.In the past three years, at least 41 soldiers have lost their lives at the Siachen Glacier, according to the Ministry of Defence. Since 1984 when India occupied the icy heights, about 1,000 soldiers have died on the glacier and as per official records, only 220 of these have been felled by enemy bullets. At those heights of 6000-7000 m, extreme weather is the bigger killer.If only our soldiers get access to some of the latest developments from Indian labs many lives could be saved. Then there is lethargy on both sides, scientists find it hard to transfer technology to the industry and the industry complains that half-baked products are passed on, hence the failure rate is very high.Despite upgrades, Indian soldiers still wear very heavy clothes, now scientists at ISRO have developed an ultra-light weight material that acts as an effective insulator. Another game changer could be the hand held'search and rescue' radio signal emitter that can be detected by satellites. This can help in effective pinpoint of the location of soldiers lost or buried in avalanches.K Sivan, well-known rocket scientist and Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram, says with a little tweaking, these materials and technologies developed for hi-tech space applications can easily be spun off for societal use."ISRO uses tax payer money so it is answerable to the Indian public," he says.ISRO's rockets and satellites certainly help people but there are many more developments hidden in the 'temples of technology' like the VSSC that can be used to save lives.If some of these technologies were being used possibly Lance Naik Hanamanthappa Koppad and the nine other soldiers who lost their lives earlier this year at the Siachen Glacier could well have been saved. If only these soldiers were using clothing made of the'silica aerogel' they may possibly have been saved from freezing to death. Similarly, if the soldiers were equipped with suitable hand held'search and rescue' devices, their location could have been easily pin-pointed using Indian satellites and rescue efforts could have been speeded up.Recently India's main lab that specialises in making rockets for the country mastered the art of making the 'world's lightest artificial material' called'silica aerogel'. This aerogel is actually a solid but within its complex matrix it encapsulates 99 per cent air. This gives it several unique properties-- it is incredibly light, it is a great thermal insulator.Naga Priya, scientist in Advanced Materials & Ceramics Division at VSSC who is part of the team that made this material, explains that the process to make the silica aerogel is highly guarded so standardising the procedure to make the aerogel took her team a lot of effort.The team hopes to use some of the'silica aerogel' for insulating the tanks that hold the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen in the cryogenic engines. Since it is lightweight, it could also be used in designing the space suits that future Indian astronauts may be wearing. The small buggy that will be part of the Chandrayaan-2 and will run around the lunar surface in 2018 could also see the use of the'silica aerogel' as an insulator.Naga Priya explains her lab is already in discussion with the Indian Ordnance Factory that manufactures clothes for the soldiers to see how this new material can be sandwiched between layers of cloth for making light weight parkas, socks and gloves for the soldiers who are posted at Siachen.The Indian space scientists have already made small pieces of the silica aerogel that resemble a fabric but still it is very fragile and suitable fabric has to be developed that can effectively sandwich this great insulator.There are other societal benefits of using the'silica aerogel', if window panes are given a coating of this new material, light would easily pass but heat would be contained, says Naga Priya.She says imagine a building, whose exterior is coated with this top class insulator, the building would be cool in summer and warm in winter. It would reduce the load on air conditioning and could lead to saving a lot of electricity and help combat climate change.It is not that the material is fully ready to be deployed for all these varied uses, it is still very expensive to make and some of it is very fragile. The team at VSSC uses evaporation at ambient temperature to make some of the aerogels. This is cheaper than the specialised super critical drying technique used to make aerogels for special applications. There are many industrial applications like in furnaces where these special materials can also be easily used.Scientists at ISRO have developed small portable devices that can help in search and rescue. There are handheld devices that can be carried by trekkers and soldiers when they traverse the desolate regions. These smart devices can be activated using a button and once initiated it emits a radio beacon that can be detected by satellites.Using the Global Positioning System (GPS) the exact location of the person who is in distress can be automatically pin pointed. The battery-powered device sends up a signal, which can then be automatically tracked at ground stations in Lucknow and Bengaluru. If only Lance Naik Hanumanthappa were carrying this device his rescue could have been greatly speeded up.A similar but slightly larger device has been made by VSSC for use by fishermen. This can be fitted on the fishing boats and can be triggered manually or when it encounters salt water it gets triggered. This device transmits a pulsed signal in the 406 MHz band and can help in locating ships lost at sea.The batteries are robust enough to transmit a signal for at least 65 hours at a stretch. ISRO has helped save the lives of many trekkers in the Himalayas and is eager to help the Indian Armed Forces in case they seek to use the device at the remote locations in times of emergency.Ensuring uninterrupted maintenance-free power supply at remote locations is a nightmare for technologists, now the scientists at VSSC have made a portable fuel cell system that can produce electricity directly from fuel through an electrochemical process where the only inputs needed are hydrogen gas and air.Based on the 'proton exchange membrane' technology the gadget made at VSSC can generate up to about 100 watts of power. This is like lighting a single bulb but then there are several small devices that need only a small amount of power for it to work round the clock. An all-weather automatic weather station powered using this indigenously made fuel cell is currently being tested at Dehradun.Another digital GPS device has been deployed at the Gangotri Glacier to see how this hydrogen powered device works at high altitudes. There are also plans to use the sophisticated G-SAT-6 satellite's multimedia communication capability to deploy surveillance systems in remote locations from where Pakistani infiltrators creep into Indian territory and make devastating terrorist attacks on India.Such automatic remotely operated cameras could be powered using the maintenance free 'fuel cells' and then they could beam pictures up to the Indian satellites through which soldiers could maintain a 24x7 vigil from far away, this would be akin to having closed circuit television cameras (CCTV) but in places where there is neither power supply nor continuous human presence.Sivan says suitable industrial partners are being actively identified and the technologies will transferred so that so called 'rocket science' no longer remains rocket science. More importantly he says 'desi technology' can be used to power the 'Make in India' effort and help save lives.Remember what mom would give you to drink when you were a sick kid? It was probably ginger ale. But ginger ale isn't only a soothing remedy for tummy troubles, it's also a refreshing beverage that's been around for quite some time. But the soda we know today is much different than how it once was. In fact the first ginger drinks were actually beers, and they're still around today in the form of ginger beer. But what makes these two drinks different?
The Origin
It all started with ginger beer, which originated in England in the 1800s. Eventually the popularity spread across the pond and Americans were also enjoying this refreshing beverage. Ginger beer was brewed with ginger, sugar, water, lemon juice and a bacteria called "ginger beer plant" -- the final product did have a small alcohol content of no more than 11 percent. Ginger ale was purported to be first invented in 1851 in Ireland, but modern-style ginger ale came about many years later in 1907 when Canadian John McLaughlin invented it and it eventually became Canada Dry. The ginger ale was available in two versions, golden and dry (golden is rare today). The golden variety is, as it sounds, golden in color and has much more ginger flavor. The dry version is what we recognize today as ginger ale -- it's pale in color and has a mellow ginger flavor.
The Difference
The big difference between ginger beer and ginger ale is that ginger beer is brewed (fermented) but ginger ale is just carbonated water that's been flavored with ginger. Today's brewed ginger beers are categorized as non-alcoholic drinks because their alcohol content is less than 0.5 percent, which meets FDA requirements. Since ginger beers are naturally fermented, they have less carbonation and often develop a beer-like head when poured into a glass. Some ginger beers are sold unfiltered and appear cloudy, so it's recommended the bottle be inverted before drinking to reincorporate any separation.
However, the difference isn't so clear cut anymore. Many small soda companies like Reed's naturally brew both their ginger beers and ginger ales. And some large-scale soda companies that still produce ginger beer actually make it by adding a stronger ginger flavor to carbonated water. So really the difference becomes merely one of taste.
Which do you prefer, ginger ale or ginger beer? Let us know below.Human Rights Watch called on Israel Saturday to stop razing the homes of Palestinians accused of attacking Israelis, saying the practice can constitute a war crime.
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"Israel should impose an immediate moratorium on its policy of demolishing the family homes of Palestinians suspected of carrying out attacks on Israelis," the New York-based group said, as the fate of three houses slated for demolition awaits a court ruling.
Home of terrorist behind light rail attack that killed baby (Photo: Mohammed Shinawi)
"The policy, which Israeli officials claim is a deterrent, deliberately and unlawfully punishes people not accused of any wrongdoing. When carried out in occupied territory, including East Jerusalem, it amounts to collective punishment, a war crime."
The East Jerusalem families of Muataz Hijazi, and of cousins Uday and Ghassan Abu Jamal, killed by police after two separate attacks in west Jerusalem, have been served demolition orders on their homes but have appealed.
Their lawyer, Mohammed Mahmud, said in a statement that an Israeli military court would hear their petition Sunday morning.
Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal
Hijazi was accused of shooting and critically wounding a far-right Jewish activist on Oct. 29. Police shot him dead during a raid on his home in Abu Tor the following morning.
The Abu Jamals, from Jabal Mukaber, were shot dead Tuesday after they attacked a synagogue with meat cleavers and a pistol, killing four rabbis at prayer and a policeman who responded.
On Wednesday, Israeli forces razed the East Jerusalem home of a Palestinian who killed two Israelis with his car last month.
That was the first punitive demolition in Jerusalem since 2009. It came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed a harsh response to the synagogue attack, Jerusalem's bloodiest in years.
Home demolitions have long been used as a deterrent punishment in the occupied West Bank, but this is the first time they have been adopted as a matter of policy in Arab East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in a move not recognized by the international community.
The practice has been condemned by human rights watchdogs and the international community as collective punishment that targets the families of perpetrators rather than the assailants themselves.
At the same time, Israeli commentators have questioned whether it has any deterrent value, with some suggesting it could even have the opposite effect.
.People with investment properties in WA would be hit with a $270 levy under a McGowan Government plan to raise revenue and fix the Budget crisis.
The West Australian understands the tax will be linked to water rates and apply to tens of thousands of investment properties with a gross rental value of $24,000 or more.
The Government did not rule out the levy yesterday but refused to confirm any details.
“All options are being considered as part of the Budget repair process,” a spokesman for Treasurer Ben Wyatt said.
“Any announcements regarding household fees and charges will be before July 1.”
Sources say the levy will target those getting investment earnings of more than the median house rental, which is $380 a week in WA.
The State Government is expected to increase electricity and water charges and public transport fares by at least 6 per cent before it hands down its first Budget in September.
Camera Icon People with investment properties in WA would be hit with a $270 levy under a McGowan Government plan. Picture: WA News
“We have made, as a new Government, a range of savings measures,” Mr Wyatt told Parliament yesterday.
“I must admit I’m not enjoying making them, but the reality is everyone has to contribute and everybody will be looked to to contribute.”
He said further announcements on savings would continue until the Budget.
“For example, tariffs, fees and charges need to be announced prior to their implementation on July 1,” Mr Wyatt said. “I will be looking to all organisations and individuals in the community to help... In terms of specific impacts on specific taxpayers, you’ll have to wait for the Budget.”
Premier Mark McGowan continued his hard line on the state of WA’s finances yesterday, saying tough decisions had to be made. “As you know, the financial position we inherited is catastrophic,” he said.
Mr McGowan has already moved to reduce the number of government departments from 41 to 25, frozen the salaries of politicians and senior public servants and introduced a maximum $1000 pay rise for others in the public service.Image copyright Alamy/Getty
Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon was once rebuked by a journalist for putting his hand on her knee during dinner, his spokesman has confirmed.
Radio presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer had recounted the "mildly amusing" incident without naming Sir Michael.
After his identity was revealed in the Sun, she tweeted saying she had not been "remotely upset or distressed".
A spokesman for Sir Michael said he had apologised when it happened in 2002.
Ms Hartley-Brewer, a former political editor of the Sunday Express and regular political commentator, has criticised "wild rumours and claims" circulating at Westminster.
She said she did not consider herself a victim after the incident which happened over dinner at the Conservative Party conference.
After the minister kept putting his hand on her knee, she said: "I calmly and politely explained to him that, if he did it again, I would 'punch him in the face'.
"He withdrew his hand and that was the end of the matter."
A spokesman for Sir Michael said: "He had apologised when the incident happened 15 years ago and both Julia and he now considered the matter closed."
It comes amid allegations about sexual harassment at Westminster.
On Monday Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom said recent allegations against MPs "risked bringing all our offices into disrepute".
Commons Speaker John Bercow said there must be "zero tolerance" of sexual harassment in Parliament.
Conservative MP Tim Loughton compared the allegations to the MPs' expenses scandal, which he said had been "deeply damaging" to the "integrity" of the House of Commons and each MP.
He said it was "essential" for the response to the allegations to be "swift, robust and wholly transparent".
What are the existing procedures?
Image copyright Reuters
People who work for MPs are legally employed by them and are not covered by the established grievance procedure for other Parliamentary employees.
Employment disputes have traditionally been handled in-house by the MPs concerned with, in some cases, the input of political parties.
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), which pays MPs and their staff, offers guidance on grievance procedures to MPs when they draw up employment contracts but these are not binding.
The guidance states anyone with a complaint against an MP should initially make it to their line manager, even though this could be the MP themselves. It goes on to set out the best practice procedures to be followed.
MPs are bound by rules set out in a code of conduct drawn up in the mid-1990s. They are expected to act with "probity and integrity" and "in accordance with the public trust" placed in them.
Parliament's standards commissioner has the power to investigate claims that MPs have undermined the "reputation" of Parliament - but the rules do not cover sexual matters.
The government has promised urgent action to improve the handling of complaints about the way MPs' staff are treated.
Ms Leadsom said the existing system for handling grievances was inadequate and promised a cross-party approach to establishing a contractually binding complaints procedure for all those working in Parliament, including MPs, peers, staff and interns.
In a letter sent to Mr Bercow on Sunday, Prime Minister Theresa May said the current system for airing grievances was not fair on employees, many of whom were young and in their first job.
Labour has written to its MPs setting out rules for dealing with allegations of sexual abuse and harassment, while the SNP said it had begun an investigation into two unconnected allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour.
Over the weekend, a Cabinet Office investigation was ordered into whether Conservative MP and international trade minister Mark Garnier breached ministerial rules after he admitted asking his secretary to buy sex toys and calling her "sugar tits".
And former Welsh Secretary Stephen Crabb was reported by the Sunday Telegraph to have admitted sending "explicit" messages to a 19-year-old woman after a job interview at Westminster in 2013.To be clear, this shouldn't be read as a recommendation that we adopt strict rent control, which puts a ceiling on rents themselves, regardless of tenant turnover—i.e., rent stabilization without vacancy decontrol. This is what existed in a number of cities in California before 1995 (more on that in Part 2), and it tends to result in very poorly-maintained units as well as persistent housing shortages. That in turn develops into a lottery system where a few lucky winners get an affordable home in a desirable area (albeit a relatively poor quality home), and everyone else either has to pay twice as much for a non-controlled unit, or live in another city altogether. As an analogy, think of the long lines at gas stations during the gas crisis, or Soviet bread lines. Price controls often lead to rationing, and rationing is a really awful outcome when we have a simple alternative solution available to us: build more housing. Rent stabilization is the compromise we came to after the failure of rent control.
Stuck in Place
A second concern is that rent stabilization causes people to be "stuck in place," sometimes at the cost of social or economic mobility.
If you've lived in the same apartment in Santa Monica for 15 or more years, you're probably getting an incredible deal on rent—way below what you'd pay if you moved into the same unit today. So what happens when you get a great job offer in Burbank? You can move closer to your new job, but you'll probably pay much more for a unit of similar quality to your Santa Monica home, since you'll be paying market rates on the new apartment. Or you can stay in Santa Monica and commute well over an hour each way, adding untold amounts of stress to your life. Suddenly that new opportunity doesn't look so appealing, even though it might be the right choice for your future.
Or maybe you're retiring and want to live closer to your family in Long Beach. Your only options may be to move in with your children, since you can't afford market-rate rents near your kids, or to stay in Santa Monica and endure the mental and physical costs of social isolation.
Whatever the individual circumstances, rent stabilization can make it more difficult to move. Not only can that be bad for the tenant, it's also bad the person who actually has a job in Santa Monica, but can't find anywhere to live in the area since all the units are full. We end up with a perverse situation where someone lives in Santa Monica but drives to Burbank for work, and another person lives in Burbank but commutes to Santa Monica, but neither party has any incentive to make the rational choice and move to (or near) their respective city of employment because the cost of leaving their rent-stabilized unit is too great.
Long-Term Costs
The third problem is one that pro-growth, pro-housing advocates tend to focus on: rent stabilization can make market-rate rents go up even faster, and it pits the tenants of rent-stabilized units against new housing development and future residents of the city.
Rents go up more quickly for a few reasons. One is simply because of the number of people that are "stuck in place"—some of those people might choose to live in another area and free up some of the housing stock, but their incentives for staying are too great. That creates an artificially high demand for housing locally, which contributes to low vacancies throughout the region, which in turn lead to higher prices. (This problem is compounded by Proposition 13, by the way.)
Another, perhaps more important reason rents go up faster is that rent stabilization encourages local opposition to new development. Because of the way rent stabilization works in LA, the stock of rent-stabilized units can only fall over time: There were a certain number of multifamily units built before 1979, and that number will never go up. Every time a 10-unit dingbat is torn down to build a 100-unit apartment complex, that's 10 fewer rent-stabilized homes, forever. Since most people living in a 50-year old building can't afford a brand-spanking-new apartment, and because rent-stabilized tenants were probably getting a good deal even for a not-so-great 50-year-old building, they understandably feel threatened by new housing development. Which is unfortunate, because an inadequate supply of new housing is the #1 cause of rapidly increasing rents, and it's a big part of why it can be so difficult to find an affordable replacement when a rent-stabilized home disappears.
This local opposition is the driving force behind the affordability crisis in Los Angeles and throughout the booming metropolises of our country. Local opposition on the part of homeowners, while misguided and arguably immoral, can at least be explained (at least in part) by financial incentives: when housing is in short supply, their homes grow in value faster. But renters? Opposition to new housing just doesn't make any sense, at least in a very broad sense. (There are justifiable reasons for opposition at the individual/neighborhood level, which pro-housing advocates need to do a better job of addressing head-on.) As renters, there's no household equity for us—higher rents just means more money out of our pockets. Pitting existing residents against future residents, as we often do, only serves to make all of us worse off.Carlin Isles has returned home to the USA to focus on earning selection for the Olympic 7s.
The 24-year-old winger joined the Warriors in February and was part of the Glasgow squad which won the Melrose 7s in April.
Born in Ohio, Isles scored 27 tries in 14 sevens tournaments for the USA national team in the IRB Sevens World Series and also featured for his country at the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Russia last year.
He came to Scotland to learn and develop as a winger in the fifteen-a-side game, but with Rugby 7s set to debut at the 2016 Olympics in Rio he has decided to concentrate on trying to get into the USA 7s squad.
Glasgow Warriors head coach Gregor Townsend said: “Carlin has come in and trained really well with us, but he has decided he would like to concentrate on 7s and we respect that.
“It’s an exciting time for the sport, with it set to debut at the Olympics in 2016.
“We’d like to thank Carlin for coming over and we wish him all the best for the future.”
Carlin Isles said: “I’d like to thank Glasgow Warriors for giving me the opportunity to train with them over the last few months.
“I’ve learnt so much from the experience and made some really good friends.
“However, I want to focus on 7s and if I work hard hopefully I can be part of the USA 7s squad at the Summer Olympics in 2016.”SHARE
By of the
U.S. potato growers, including big farms in Wisconsin, have again been snubbed by government officials who have kept fresh spuds off the list of approved foods for the federal Women, Infants and Children voucher system.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture expanded low-income families' access to produce and whole grains through the WIC program. The white potato continues to be the only fresh vegetable excluded, potato growers say, much to their disappointment.
Wisconsin grows 3 billion pounds of potatoes a year and is the No. 1 spud-producing state east of the Mississippi River. The industry was valued at $7 billion in the state last year, including sales and processing.
Since 2008, growers have fought to get white potatoes back on the list of WIC-approved foods — saying the nation's No. 1-selling vegetable has more vitamin C than an orange, more potassium than a banana and is cholesterol-free, fat-free |
useful for policy makers because, in most cases, black carbon is co-emitted with other particles that can have opposing effects. What we really need to know is not the percent of black carbon that a particle filter can take out of, say, diesel truck exhaust, but what the net effect of putting particle traps on all the world's diesel engines would be for the whole suite of pollutants that diesel engines produce. And we also wanted to know how much emissions control measures like that would influence specific changes such as global temperatures, human health, and crop yields.
What were the control measures that you considered?
We looked at about 2,000 different measures, but there were 16 key measures that we analyzed closely because they likely have the most impact. For black carbon, for example, we looked at the impact that replacing traditional cook stoves with cleaner-burning options, putting particle filters on vehicles, or banning the burning of agricultural waste might have. For ozone, we looked at measures like fixing leaky gas pipes, limiting methane emissions from mines, upgrading wastewater treatment systems, and aerating rice paddies.
Have other research groups looked at specific control measures in the detail that you have?
We reviewed and assessed all the science that's out. However, we found that few groups have looked deeply at the potential impact of widespread use of known control measures, so we decided to do additional analysis and modeling by plugging extensive databases of economic activity information from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis into global aerosol-chemistry-climate models at GISS and the European Commission's Joint Research Center in Ispra, Italy.
What did you find? Would reducing black carbon and ozone have a significant climate impact?
The answer is unequivocally yes. For climate, putting control measures in place could eliminate about half the warming we'll otherwise face over the next 40 years.
Does that mean reducing carbon dioxide isn't important?
No, not at all. Over the long-term, carbon dioxide increases are the primary driver of climate change. In order to mitigate climate change, there is no way we can ignore or overlook carbon dioxide. But we could make a major dent in climate change in the near term by controlling black carbon and ozone.
What about public health and agriculture?
Again, an unequivocal benefit. We estimate that adoption of the 16 control measures we considered would save about 2 million lives a year and save 50 million tons of crops a year.
Are there particular regions that would benefit most from the control measures you studied?
The Arctic is one of the regions where we have some of the largest impacts. A lot of pollution makes its way to the Arctic from the Northern Hemisphere. Black carbon not only warms the atmosphere, but it also darkens the surface of snow and ice, which causes them to melt faster than they would otherwise. We found that these 16 control measures could mitigate about two-thirds of the warming we'll likely otherwise see in the Arctic over the next half-century. We found the health and agricultural benefits would be greatest in Asia.
What surprised you most about your latest findings?
I found it remarkable that for incomplete combustion, which gives you black carbon, a group of just nine measures was able to pull down the emissions by about 70 to 80 percent. And all of the technologies already exist. There's no technological barrier whatsoever to reducing black carbon.
How do you hope people react to your results?
In an ideal world, I would say people would look at the results and say, wow, doing these kinds of measures will produce major benefits. I hope that some of the spirit and will people have to deal with climate change can energize us to improve air quality as well. Many nations are already pursuing many of these measures for air quality, but perhaps the recognition that there's a climate impact as well will help prod nations, states, and cities to take air quality more seriously.
What institutions were involved in the preparation of the report?
The United Nations Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization convened the assessment, which was coordinated by the Stockholm Environmental Institute in York, UK and led by scientists from NASA GISS, the European Commission's Joint Research Center in Ispra, Italy, the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, Thailand, Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego, and the Catholic University of Chile in Santiago, Chile.
Related Links:
NASA Portal: Aerosols May Drive a Significant Portion of Arctic Warming
NASA What On Earth blog: Black Carbon's Day on the Hill
NASA Earth Observatory: What are Aerosols?
NASA News: Glory Promises New View of Perplexing Particles
Media Contact
Leslie McCarthy, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, N.Y., 212-678-5507, leslie.m.mccarthy@nasa.gov
This article was originally prepared by Adam Voiland as a NASA Portal Looking at Earth news feature.Ministers pledge to compensate Brussels if Britain pulls out as part of decisions over Europe-wide policing measures
David Cameron has been involved in talks which could increase cooperation over policing in Europe, documents show.
Ministers have told EU leaders that they will make a decision on whether to take part in a Europe-wide DNA database by 1 December next year and have promised to compensate Brussels if Britain decides to pull out.
Britain insisted on the right to opt out of 133 EU-wide policing measures when it signed the Lisbon treaty in 2007. It has until December this year to decide which exactly it wants to implement.
A document leaked to the Times states: "The UK government has also indicated that in a number of other cases it will set in motion a process towards the subsequent opting in to certain other instruments of particular importance."
The development will add to the discontent among some Eurosceptic Conservative backbenchers who remain mistrustful of Cameron and concerned by the rise of Ukip. It follows a grandstanding performance by Cameron last week as he criticised the planned appointment of Jean-Claude Juncker as commission president.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, a leading Eurosceptic, told the Times that Cameron faced a serious battle: "As the prime minister has made it clear that he wishes to bring back powers in relation to justice and home affairs, it is surprising that the foreign office is paving the way for a further surrender of power to Brussels.
"It is troubling that more information is coming from leaked commission documents and press releases than from statements to the House of Commons. This lessens the ability of the British people to scrutinise the activities of the government and is characteristic of the back-room deals that led to Mr Juncker's appointment."Trump's Tremendous Policy U-Turn Disasters
When Donald Trump was just an ordinary citizen, he used to give his advice to President Obama and others about the situation in Syria. Now he is President, will he be taking his own advice?
Here is a taste of what he had to say :
Here are some more :
So you can imagine our surprise when Trump orders a military strike in Syria. Now here is the interesting thing. If he genuinely thought that the Syrian government was behind the Chemical weapons attack, then the attack has accomplished nothing, and was a pathetic waste of money. Money that was supposed to be for “America First”, as his core supporters are now reminding him. A strong argument that he did not actually believe the Syrian government was behind the attacks is that they did not want to investigate the matter. If he really wanted to isolate Syria from its Russian and Iranian backers, proof of using Chemical weapons would have done that. The fact that Trump and his allies reacted to YouTube clips and no independent investigation or evidence suggests an ulterior motive.
If he did not believe the Syrian government were behind the attacks, why is he getting involved? It is literally the opposite of everything he has always said about foreign policy.
So what is the play here? Why did Trump order such a “non-strike” Strike? Some commentators have said that it gives him an air of unpredictability that will reign in Russia. Putin was embolden by Obama’s non-confrontational approach and this lead to Russia annexing areas of Ukraine. Trumps unpredictability means that Putin and others will not be able to second guess if Trump will react, confront or ignore gestures by other nations.
Or it could just be that the role of the American president is to simply read the script that the White House and Pentagon officials give him, and he is simply a figure head rather than decision maker.
Or it could be simply that Trump is a businessman and benefits financially from his policy decisions.Among things prohibited in the Asia-Pacific so far this year are junk food ads in Korea, mullets in Iran and facial hair in Japan.
1. Junk Food Commercials (South Korea)
In January, Korea’s Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family Affairs imposed a strict ‘junk food curfew,’ for which TV commercials that promote processed and unhealthy foods with high fat, sugar and salt content (like pizza and hamburgers) are banned from airing between 5 and 7pm.
All TV ads (including promotional video and audio) for culinary items exceeding 250 calories, with less than 2 grams of protein or more than 4 grams of saturated fat or 17 grams of sugar per serving, are also included in the ban.
The new rules came into place after a couple of years of warnings by experts of the likely link between growing child obesity in the country and TV commercials ‘encouraging consumption of these products.’
Sounds like anti-childhood obesity crusader and US First Lady Michelle Obama might want to take a page out of the South Korean government’s strategy on this issue.
2. Beards (Japan)
In May, the city of Isesaki in Japan’s Gunma Prefecture banned beards for its entire male staff. There are mixed reports on the real reasons behind this. Some say it’s because facial hair takes away from the image of public servants as decent and proper-looking. Other sources claim it’s for climate change—Japan has for years now in summers implemented a ‘Cool Biz’ policy in its offices that promotes cooler attire for workers to keep air conditioning use down.
In a satirical and witty opinion piece for The Japan Times, Japan-based professor Jay Klaphake, said regarding the decision:
‘Isesaki deserves our thanks for recognizing that allowing beards is the first step along a slippery slope. If we let government workers get away with improper grooming, the next thing you know they will start being creative and ask inappropriate questions like, “If we are actually trying to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, maybe we shouldn’t make expressways toll-free?”’
3. On-line Dating (China)
Since June 15, 2.3 million members of China’s armed forces have been prohibited from on-line dating. If that isn’t enough to make it tough on single and isolated members of the country’s enlisted men, blogs, personal websites and visits to Internet cafes were also forbidden.
The Internet rules in China are part of internal affairs regulations drawn up by the Communist Party’s Central Military Affairs Commission. It’s still undetermined whether the military men will be completely prohibited from all social networking sites; however, civilians working for military research and training academies are exempt from these particular rules.
Of course, this isn’t completely out-of-the-blue. It turns out that according to some experts, such restraints are necessary to prevent security breaches for a Chinese military that places a particularly high value on secrecy.
But on the other hand, online dating sites have never been a forum for too much disclosure…Have they?
4. The Mullet (Iran)
Earlier this month Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance released a catalogue of ‘Islamically permissible hairstyles’ for men, emphasizing that the purpose of the guide is to ‘protect culture and respect Iranian tradition,’ by coming up with appropriate hairstyles that ‘confront Western cultural invasion.’ The media jumped on the story—most giving it the same catchy treatment: Iran bans the mullet (an obvious attempt to appeal to our tendency to mock and despise the unconventional and outdated ‘do).
The BBC did, however, make sure to point out that other hair trends like ponytails and ‘elaborate’ spikes were also not included in the state-approved list of proper styles.
In an interesting analysis put forth by Religion Dispatches writer Hussein Rashid, its suggested that the decision by Tehran showed weakness in the current regime because of its blatant use of ‘faith as a cudgel to demonstrate that they do still have some power.’
5. LA Zombie (Australia)
Australia doesn’t often make it into the news for its prohibitions, but it has actually raised some eyebrows with its recent ban on the film LA Zombie.
According to Reuters this week, the Canadian indie film that is described as queer zombie cinema, has been banned from the Melbourne International Film Festival, which runs July 22 to August 8, for having content that is too suggestive—explicit scenes of sex and violence.
However, while the director of LA Zombie, Bruce LaBruce, calls the classification board hypocritical’ in its decision, he’s actually ‘delighted’ that the film’s been banned, stating ‘the more they try to suppress a film, the more people will want to see it. It gives me a profile I didn’t have yesterday.’In Defense of Anarchism Robert Paul Wolff 1970 Contents Preface ONE: The Confuct Between Authority and Autonomy The Concept of Authority The Concept of Autonomy The Conflict Between Authority and Autonomy TWO: The Solution of Classical Democracy Democracy Is the Only Feasible Solution Unanimous Direct Democracy Representative Democracy Majoritarian Democracy THREE: Beyond the Legitimate State The Quest for the Legitimate State Utopian Glimpses of a World Without States A Reply to Reiman (1976) Index Preface This essay on the foundations of the authority of the state marks a stage in the development of my concern with problems of political authority and moral autonomy. When I first became deeply interested in the subject, I was quite confident that I could find a satisfactory justification for the traditional democratic doctrine to which I rather unthinkingly gave my allegiance. Indeed, during my first year as a member of the Columbia University Philosophy Department, I taught a course on political philosophy in which I boldly announced that I would formulate and then solve the fundamental problem of political philosophy. I had no trouble formulating the problem- -- roughly speaking, how the moral autonomy of the individual can be made compatible with the legitimate authority of the state. I also had no trouble refuting a number of supposed solutions which had been put forward by various theorists of the democratic state. But midway through the semester, I was forced to go before my class, crestfallen and very embarrassed, to announce that I had failed to discover the grand solution. At first, as I struggled with this dilemma, I clung to the conviction that a solution lay just around the next con- ceptual corner. When I read papers on the subject to meetings at various universities, I was forced again and again to represent myself as searching for a theory which I simply could not find. Little by little, I began to shift the emphasis of my exposition. Finally -- whether from philosophical reflection, or simply from chagrin -- I came to the realization that I was really defending the negative rather than looking for the positive. My failure to find any theoretical justification for the authority of the state had convinced me that there was no justification. In short, I had become a philosophical anarchist. The first chapter of this essay formulates the problem as I originally posed it to myself more than five years ago. The second chapter explores the classical democratic solution to the problem and exposes the inadequacy of the usual majoritarian model of the democratic state. The third chapter sketches, in a rather impressionistic, Hegelian way, the reasons for my lingering hope that a solution can be found; it concludes with some brief, quite Utopian suggestions of ways in which an anarchic society might actually function. Leaving aside any flaws which may lurk in the arguments actually presented in these pages, this essay suffers from two major inadequacies. On the side of pure theory, I have been forced to assume a number of very important propositions about the nature, sources, and limits of moral obligation. To put it bluntly, I have simply taken for granted an entire ethical theory. On the side of practical application, I have said almost nothing about the material, social, or psychological conditions under which anarchism might be a feasible mode of social organization. I am painfully aware of these defects, and it is my hope to publish a full-scale work in the reasonably near future in which a great deal more will be said on both subjects. If I may steal a title from Kant (and thus perhaps wrap myself in the cloak of his legitimacy), this essay might rather grandly be subtitled Groundwork of the Metaphysics of the State. New York City, March, 197040+ Intentionally Vulnerable Websites To (Legally) Practice Your Hacking Skills
Image credit: Flickr/Pierre (Rennes)
Attack is definitely the best form of defense and this also applies to Cyber Security.
Companies are now hacking their own websites and even hiring ethical hackers in an attempt to find vulnerabilities before the bad guys do. As such ethical hacking is now a much sought after skill but hacking websites without permission can get you on the wrong side of the law, even if you're just practising.
Check out these Cyber Security T-Shirts on Amazon!
So how do learn how to hack and practice your hacking skills whilst staying on the right side of the law?
Well there's many ways to learn ethical hacking. You can learn to hack through online hacking tutorials, watch YouTube videos on hacking, learn through online courses like this complete ethical hacking course on Udemy or you can learn from reading ethical hacking books.
Now there are a number of deliberately vulnerable websites out there designed to allow you to practise and hone your hacking skills, without fear of prosecution. So I've decided to compile a list of over forty of them, each with short description.
Once you feel comfortable finding vulnerabilities, the next step could be a job as a penetration tester or participation in one of the bug bounty programmes where companies reward you based on the severity of the bugs that you find, which could be very lucrative. Facebook is one such company offering a bug bounty programme and has paid out more than a million dollars to date.
So without further ado, here's list of over 40 vulnerable websites. If you know of a good hacking website that's not on this list, let me know and I'll add it. Oh, and don't forget to bookmark this page! :)
Must read: The Web Application Hacker's Handbook (Amazon)
bWAPP stands for Buggy Web Application and is is "a free and open source deliberately insecure web application" created by Malik Messelem. It's built in PHP and uses a MySQL database. The vulnerabilities are those derived from the OWASP Top 10.
This has recently been re-released as a free download by InfoSec Engineer @prateekg14. It's an deliberately vulnerable iOS7 app that's definitely worth a look because there aren't many of them around.
This website is fully of 'holes' and is deliberately 'cheesy'. It's designed for the absolute beginner and you can learn how hackers find security vulnerabilities, how they exploit web applications and how to protect applications from being exploited. It's written in Python and offers a range of vulnerabilities including cross-site scripting, cross-site request forgery and remote code execution.
This site was originally designed to teach how hacks, dumps and defacement are done and to tech how you can secure a website against hackers. There are over 50 levels of difficulty on offer and a great online community to help you with hacking and keep you up to date with security news.
This is a perfectly legal place to test your hacking skills and also offers hacking news, articles, forums and tutorials. You can build your skills by completing various challenges.
This website puts the emphasis on being hands-on and offers a wide array of challenges to get you to learn how to identify potential vulnerabilities and it also suggests ways to patch them. Hellbound Hackers has a vast array of tutorials and a thriving community of nearly 100K registered members.
The HacMe sites comprise of the HacMe Banks, HacMe Casino, HacMe Travel and more. They were launched in 2006 and were aimed at pen testers and security professionals. Each site offers a real world experience to help ethical hackers stay ahead of the bad guys.
This is another deliberately vulnerable web app which runs on Linux and Windows. The web app is written in PHP and contains all of the OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities. There is also a dedicated YouTube channel and Twitter account to accompany the project.
OverTheWire is designed for either developers or security professionals and the experience is centered around wargames. You are initially taught the basics and you can progress through the levels to more advanced games with more complex bugs to find and patch.
With Peruggia you can learn and test common attacks on web applications. This website looks similar to an image gallery and allows you to practice on it to find several controlled vulnerabilities.
This is a great website to improve your hacking skills and generally improve your cyber security knowledge. With over 200 hacking challenges and 50 virtual environments, there should be enough here to keep you going.
Try2Hack is one of the oldest challenge sites around and there are numerous security challenges on offer here. Each of the levels are sorted by difficulty and created so that you can practice hacking for fun. There's a community on the IRC channel where you can ask for help and a full walkthrough on GitHub.
This is an OWASP project developed by developed by Mordecai Kraushar consisting of vulnerable web applications based on games " commonly used to kill time". In each application are common security problems such as cross site scripting, SQL injections and session management issues.
The goal of the project is to strengthen the security of web apps by educating different groups of people such as developers, management, users and auditors as to the things that can go wrong with web apps. They also say "of course it's OK to have a little fun".
WebGoat is one of the most popular OWASP projects as it provides a realistic teaching and learning environment to teach users about complex application security issues. Again its an insecure app available for Windows, OS X Tiger and Linux and also runs in Java and.NET environments. You can just run the web app, or you can download the source from GitHub and modify the source code. There are a series of videos too available to download.
Check out the OWASP project page here.
This is an insecure web app based on JavaScript and was created by Björn Kimminich. This perfect for anyone that's into coding or testing JavaScript but don't understand the security issues that can arise. Juice Shop provides a fun challenge and can be run on a local or containerized environment. Be sure to check out Björn’s SlideShare too to get an overview of the app and how it was made. The source code can also be found on GitHub.
Hack.me is a free, community based project powered by eLearnSecurity. It hosts a number of vulnerable apps but allows allows the community the build, host and share their vulnerable application code educational and research purposes. As such, on the website it says it "aims to be the largest collection of "runnable" vulnerable web applications, code samples and CMS's online.".
Hackademic is another OWASP open source project and offers 10 realistic scenarios which are full of vulnerabilities including those in the OWASP Top 10. It is perfect for use in a classroom or workplace environment for educational purposes and developers are encouraged to contribute by adding new scenarios and vulnerabilities.
This is actually an hacking simulation game where the goal is to manage your hardware and software and make the computers you hack or defend your'slaves'. Although this isn't a website to hack per se, I have included as it does help security people to see their systems in the way malicious hackers do. You can also connect with other players in the forum and help each other when you get stuck.
This is a web app hacking game created by @albinowax. It focuses on being realistic and difficult and contains cross-site scripting, cross-site request forgery and sql injection vulnerabilities. The online version has just two levels but the downloadable version has more advanced levels.
This vulnerable web app was created by Simon Bennetts and is full of OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities. It can be used as a pentesting tool, a code review tool or it can teach you how to look out for exploitable vulnerabilities. There are various hacking challenges too so you can even make a game out of it.
Created by Bonsai Security, Moth is "a VMware image with a set of vulnerable Web Applications and scripts.". It was originally designed as a way to test application security tools
This is another challenge site with a community forum. It's designed for anyone that wishes to improve their security knowledge and hosts a wide variety of vulnerabilities including of course, those from the OWASP top 10. The site says that "By knowing your enemy, you can defeat your enemy." and takes a hand-on approach to learning about application security.
OWASP Bricks is a deliberately vulnerable web application built using PHP and MySQL and focuses on commonly seen application security vulnerabilities and exploits. The goal is to 'break the bricks' and in doing so you will learn various aspects of web application security.
The Damn Vulnerable Web App is a a PHP/MySQL application that is riddle with vulnerabilities. Created by @ethicalhack3r, the goal of this project is to test the skills and tools used by security professionals in a safe and legal environment. It also teaches web developers the process of how web applications are made secure.
ExploitMe Mobile Android Labs is designed for developers and security professionals with a slant on the Android operating system. There are ten vulnerabilities to find in total which are found in Android applications. The lessons include password lock screens, insecure logging, file system access permission and more.
XSS game area is a website that focuses specifically on Cross Site Scripting (XSS) bugs which are one of the most dangerous web application vulnerabilities, especially if they are exploited. The website will teach you how to find and exploit XSS bugs and will also teach you how to prevent these bugs from creeping into your applications which will "confuse and infuriate your adversaries".
W3Challs is a pentesting training platform which has numerous challenges under different categories such as hacking, cracking, wargames, cryptography, steganography and more. The challenges increase in difficulty and provide and are realistic and not based on simulations. There's a forum too where you can discuss the challenges etc with other members.
The ButterFly project is an educational project designed to give an insight into common web application and PHP vulnerabilities. There are also examples provided that show you how such vulnerabilities are patched.
Damn Vulnerable Web Services is another insecure app with multiple vulnerable web services intended to be used to learn real world web service vulnerabilities such as WSDL enumeration, XPATH injection, OS command injection, JSON Web Token (JWT) secret key brute force and much more.
InsecureWebApp was created in 2004 by Lawrence Angrave and is a teaching aid to challenge and improve secure design and coding skills. Again, its an insecure web application containing common web app vulnerabilities and can be used for automated and manual penetration testing, source code analysis, vulnerability assessments and threat modelling. InsecureWebApp assumes some knowledge of web app vulnerabilities such as broken authentication SQL injection and HTML injection.
This website is a deliberately vulnerable forum built using ASP and was originally conceived with the intention of testing the Acunetix Web Vulnerability Scanner.
This website is a deliberately vulnerable forum built using.NET and was originally conceived with the intention of testing the Acunetix Web Vulnerability Scanner.
This website is a deliberately vulnerable forum built using PHP and was originally conceived with the intention of testing the Acunetix Web Vulnerability Scanner.
This is another vulnerable web app with a focus on online banking. It's designed for application security testing and built using PHP.
This is another vulnerable web app, again with a focus on online banking.
Yet another vulnerable online banking website designed to test IBM AppScan products. It's a simple application written in.NET. Instructions are available here to logon to the application with links to more complex web applications and vulnerable web services.
Badstore is dedicated to helping you understand how hackers prey on vulnerable websites. It shows you how to reduce your exposure to hackers and is designed to show you common hacking techniques.
Reversing KR has 26 challenges designed to test your cracking an reverse engineering capabilities. Unfortunately the site hasn't been updated since 2012 but the stuff available on this site will be relevant for some time to come.
RingZer0 Team Online CTF offers over 200 challenges in 13 different categories including Cryptography, Jail Escaping, Malware Analysis, SQL Injection, Shellcoding and more and are designed to test and improve your hacking skills. After you complete a challenge, you can do a write up on it and submit your solution to the RingZer0 team. If your solution is accepted you can earn RingZer0Gold which can be exchanged for hints in future challenges and there's even a score board of the top players.
Hacking-Lab provides the CTF (Capture The Flag) challenges for the European Cyber Security Challenge but host challenges on their own platform which anyone can take part in once you have registered.
The OWASP SiteGenerator allows you to create dynamic websites based on XML files which cover predefined vulnerabilities, some of which are simple, others more complex. The main languages covered are.NET languages but other web languages are covered including HTML, JavaScript. Flash and Java etc. Other uses for the site generator include developer training, evaluation of web app security scanners, evaluation of firewalls, web honey pots and you can even use it for web application hacking contests.
VulnHub provides you with practical and 'hands-on' experience in digital security, computer software & network administration. It provides you with an environment whereby you can break and hack legally 'allowing you to learn in a safe environment and practise'stuff' out.'
There's a community too so that you can learn from others and you can even watch others hack or follow along at the same time which they call 'white box testing'. A perfect learning environment I would say. Check out their Twitter page here too.
See also: How To Browse The Internet Safely Without Using A VPN Using A Socks Proxy With SSH (step-by-step)iStock
The past decade has brought us jaw-dropping insights about the hidden workings of our brains, in part thanks to a popular brain scan technique called fMRI. But a major new study has revealed that fMRI interpretation has a serious flaw, one that could mean that much of what we’ve learned about our brains this way might need a second look.
On TV and in movies, we’ve all seen doctors stick an X-ray up on the lightbox and play out a dramatic scene: “What’s that dark spot, doctor?” “Hm…”
In reality, though, a modern medical scan contains so much data, no single pair of doctor’s eyes could possibly interpret it. The brain scan known as fMRI, for functional magnetic resonance imaging, produces a massive data set that can only be understood by custom data analysis software. Armed with this analysis, neuroscientists have used the fMRI scan to produce a series of paradigm-shifting discoveries about our brains.
Now, an unsettling new report, which is causing waves in the neuroscience community, suggests that fMRI’s custom software can be deeply flawed — calling into question many of the most exciting findings in recent neuroscience.
The problem researchers have uncovered is simple: the computer programs designed to sift through the images produced by fMRI scans have a tendency to suggest differences in brain activity where none exist. For instance, humans who are resting, not thinking about anything in particular, not doing anything interesting, can deliver spurious results of differences in brain activity. It’s even been shown to indicate brain activity in a dead salmon, whose stilled brain lit up an MRI as if it were somehow still dreaming of a spawning run.
The report throws into question the results of some portion of the more than 40,000 studies that have been conducted using fMRI, studies that plumb the brainy depths of everything from free will to fear. And scientists are not quite sure how to recover.
“It’s impossible to know how many fMRI studies are wrong, since we do not have access to the original data,” says computer scientist Anders Eklund of Linkoping University in Sweden, who conducted the analysis.
How it should have worked: Start by signing up subjects. Scan their brains while they rest inside an MRI machine. Then scan their brains again when exposed to pictures of spiders, say. Those subjects who are afraid of spiders will have blood rush to those regions of the brain involved in thinking and feeling fear, because such thoughts or feelings are suspected to require more oxygen. With the help of a computer program, the MRI machine then registers differences in hemoglobin, the iron-rich molecule that makes blood red and carries oxygen from place to place. (That’s the functional in fMRI.) The scan then looks at whether those hemoglobin molecules are still carrying oxygen to a given place in the brain, or not, based on how the molecules respond to the powerful magnetic fields. Scan enough brains and see how the fearful differ from the fearless, and perhaps you can identify the brain regions or structures associated with thinking or feeling fear.
That’s the theory, anyway. In order to detect such differences in brain activity, it would be best to scan a large number of brains, but the difficulty and expense often make this impossible. A single MRI scan can cost around $2,600, according to a 2014 NerdWallet analysis. Further, the differences in the blood flow are often tiny. And then there’s the fact that computer programs have to sift the through images of the 1,200 or so cubic centimeters of gelatinous tissue that make up each individual brain and compare them to others, a big data analysis challenge.
Eklund’s report shows that the assumptions behind the main computer programs used to sift such big fMRI data have flaws, as turned up by nearly 3 million random evaluations of the resting brain scans of 499 volunteers from Cambridge, Massachusetts; Beijing; and Oulu, Finland. One program turned out to have a 15-year-old coding error (which has now been fixed) that caused it to detect too much brain activity. This highlights the challenge of researchers working with computer code that they are not capable of checking themselves, a challenge not confined just to neuroscience.
The brain is even more complicated than we thought. Worse, Eklund and his colleagues found that all the programs assume that brains at rest have the same response to the jet-engine roar of the MRI machine itself as well as whatever random thoughts and feelings occur in the brain. Those assumptions appear to be wrong. The brain at rest is “actually a bit more complex,” Eklund says.
More specifically, the white matter of the brain appears to be underrepresented in fMRI analyses while another specific part of the brain — the posterior cingulate, a region in the middle of the brain that connects to many other parts — shows up as a “hot spot” of activity. As a result, the programs are more likely to single it out as showing extra activity even when there is no difference. “The reason for this is still unknown,” Eklund says.
Overall, the programs had a false positive rate — detecting a difference where none actually existed — of as much as 70 percent.
Unknown unknowns: This does not mean all fMRI studies are wrong. Co-author and statistician Thomas Nichols of the University of Warwick calculates that some 3,500 studies may be affected by such false positives, and such false positives can never be eliminated entirely. But a survey of 241 recent fMRI papers found 96 that could have even worse false-positive rates than those found in this analysis.
“The paper makes an important criticism,” says Nancy Kanwisher, a neuroscientist at MIT (TED Talk: A neural portrait of the human mind), though she points out that it does not undermine those fMRI studies that do not rely on these computer programs.
Nonetheless, it is worrying. “I think the fallout has yet to be fully evaluated. It appears to apply to quite a few studies, certainly the studies done in a generic way that is the bread-and-butter of fMRI,” says Douglas Greve, a neuroimaging specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital. What’s needed is more scrutiny, Greve suggests.
Another argument for open data. Eklund and his colleagues were only able to discover this methodological flaw thanks to the open sharing of group brain scan data by the 1,000 Functional Connectomes Project. Unfortunately, such sharing of brain scan data is more the exception than the norm, which hinders other researchers attempting to re-create the experiment and replicate the results. Such replication is a cornerstone of the scientific method, ensuring that findings are robust. Eklund, for one, therefore encourages neuroimagers to “share their fMRI data, so that other researchers can replicate their findings and re-analyze the data several years later.” Only then can scientists be sure that the undiscovered activity of the human brain is truly revealed … and that dead salmon are not still dreaming.MOSCOW – The year 2012 began with thousands of Russians taking to the streets to demand reform and a government that would obey the law. On Thursday, the group Human Rights Watch said Russia has just gone through its worst year for human rights since the collapse of the Soviet Union more than two decades ago.
Russian opposition supporters rally in Moscow against the adoption ban. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images)
It would be difficult to describe it any other way. Laws on protests were sharply tightened, with severe punishments for infractions. Members of the punk group Pussy Riot were packed off to a prison camp after a protest in a cathedral. Nonprofit groups were required to register as “foreign agents” if they receive money from abroad. A law banning “gay propaganda” is working its way through parliament. Journalists have been attacked, and an opposition leader was apparently kidnapped in Ukraine and brought back to Russia. Russian orphans were barred from adoptions by Americans.
“We can’t be silent about the situation in Russia today,” said Rachel Denber, who presented the Human Rights Watch annual report here. The authorities, whom she characterized as “aggressive and cynical,” have equated human rights work with violating Russian sovereignty, she said. “Any activity can be portrayed as betrayal.”
Denber, who has worked in Russia on and off since 1991, said the new law on nonprofits sent a signal up and down what President Vladimir Putin calls the vertical of power. And that signal, she said, is simple: Time to put on the pressure. And officials all across Russia went to work.On the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, Columbia University Professor Joseph Massad explains how the reframing of the concepts of peace and war were at the core of the Zionist strategy in colonising Palestine.
This article is the final of a two-part series.You can read part one here.
Oslo Accords
In the wake of the 1973 War, the US had started an earlier version of the so-called "peace process", one that fully adopted Vladimir Jabotinsky's model. The US was represented by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Kissinger's plan, which would lead in a few years to Egypt's capitulation at Camp David, was to eventually include the PLO in "peace" talks, whereby the organisation would only be invited after Egypt, Jordan, and Syria had recognised and accepted the irreversibility |
December 9, 2015. Accessed: June 6, 2017.
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27Saltzman, Sammy Rose. “Autism: Air Pollution May Be to Blame, Study Suggests.” CBS News. December 17, 2010. Accessed: January 25, 2012.
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31Wojazers, Philippe. "1 in 8 Global Deaths Linked to Air Pollution, Study Says." Newsweek. March 25, 2014. Accessed: May 30, 2017.
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33Zerbe, Leah. "10 Shocking Facts about Your Garbage." Prevention. May 3, 2012. Accessed: May 5, 2017.- Detroit police say two people are in custody after threatening Detroit police officers with a gun Halloween night, and authorities are still looking for a third suspect.
The incident started with a traffic stop around 9:30 p.m. in the 19000 block of Albion Avenue, which is near E State Fair Avenue and Hoover. Police say an SUV was blocking traffic, prompting their attention.
Turns out, police say the SUV was stolen. One suspect stayed in the car and two others took off running, police say.
Police say a 21-year-old pulled a gun out and pointed it at police during the chase. An officer shot at the suspect, who was not struck.
Police eventually took a 16-year-old into custody, and tracked down the 21-year-old and took him in custody as well. Police are still looking for the third suspect, who they say is also 16.
The suspect's gun has been recovered by police.
We're told one officer sustained a minor foot injury during the chase.
This is a developing story. Stay with FOX 2 for updates.This content was published on December 21, 2014 5:39 PM
An estimated 100 Muslim women in Switzerland wear the burqa but public opinion appears to be set for a ban (Keystone)
A large majority of citizens is apparently in favour of introducing a nationwide ban on burkas for Muslim women in Switzerland, according to an opinion poll.
More than 60% of respondents said they would outlaw the Muslim religious garment in public spaces, the survey by the Léger Switzerland polling institute found.
The SonntagsBlick newspaper says people of all age groups and both in the German- as well as in the French-speaking parts of the country would vote for a ban.
About one in three respondents are apparently against it.
A member of the rightwing Swiss People’s Party is planning to launch a campaign next year for a nationwide vote on the issue.
Last year, a two-third majority of voters in Italian-speaking Ticino – one of 26 Swiss cantons – agreed a public ban in the southern Swiss region. But the decision is pending approval by the federal authorities.
Five years ago, a People's Party committee won a nationwide vote banning the construction of new minarets in Switzerland, prompting a political upset.
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SWI swissinfo.ch on Instagram SWI swissinfo.ch on InstagramThe number of Albertans applying for employment insurance benefits rose almost 30 per cent in February, Statistics Canada reported Thursday.
EI claims, which indicate how many people could receive the benefits in the future, rose 29.4 per cent in the province from January. That compared with a national increase of 6.7 per cent.
Across Canada, the number of people actually receiving employment insurance benefits increased by two per cent, to 509,300 people in February. In Alberta, 36,000 people received employment insurance, an increase of 15.6 per cent from the previous month.
For context, 1.5 per cent of Alberta's workforce is claiming EI benefits. In Ontario, that number is 1.9 per cent and in B.C. 2 per cent.
It was the largest monthly increase in Alberta since 2009, and the fourth consecutive monthly increase for the province. Hardest hit were Albertans working in primary industry, processing, manufacturing and utilities; natural and applied sciences; and management, Statistics Canada said.
This came as no surprise to economists watching the job market in Alberta, where activity in the oilpatch is drying up due to low oil prices.
Between January and February, the unemployment rate in the province rose from 4.5 per cent to 5.3 per cent.
"We'll see continuing claims in Alberta for employment insurance benefits," said Janice Plumstead, senior economist with the Canada West Foundation.
"We should see something again in March and April and, assuming that we don't see any more layoffs, that will probably level out in the next few months.
"But I don't think we're through it yet — not until we see the price of oil stabilize or start to increase."
Extended slowdown
The total number of EI recipients in Alberta was steeper than expected, said Pedro Antunes, deputy chief economist at the Conference Board of Canada.
"We are looking at a situation where Alberta is coming off a very big high. For the last four years, investment levels have been just phenomenal in the province. The province was generating over half of the employment in the country in the last two years," he said.
"Until we see oil prices doing a little bit better and profitably up among the oil producers, we are probably going to see a fairly extended slowdown. We are not expecting oil prices to recover very quickly, and we're really in a different situation now than anyone had planned for."In many ways, Star Wars Rebels Season Two is where it all comes together. “All” meaning all of Star Wars. Characters and storylines from The Clone Wars, including clones and Ahsoka Tano, return. Darth Vader is unleashed in a way fans have only dared dream. Darth Maul, for lack of better term, strikes back. There are even bits of The Force Awakens in there. But what makes the second season of Rebels so rich and rewarding is that all of these elements really serve one purpose: to drive the story of Ezra, Kanan, Sabine, Hera, Zeb, and Chopper forward. And move forward it does, in ways exciting and troubling. To mark today’s release of Star Wars Rebels Season Two on Blu-ray and DVD, StarWars.com caught up with executive producer Dave Filoni to discuss the season’s events in detail; in part one of our exclusive interview below, we talk the difference between Anakin Skywalker and the Sith Lord he became, Santa Rex, and having all the toys in the toy box.
StarWars.com: I wanted to start by going back to “Siege of Lothal.”
Dave Filoni: Oh boy. [Laughs]
StarWars.com: [Laughs] It feels like it was three years ago.
Dave Filoni: Right?
StarWars.com: So what I took from it was, you kind of present the Vader I think everybody has wanted to see. It shows the strategy of Anakin Skywalker combined with the ruthlessness of Vader that we knew in the movies. I just wanted to ask how you came to that version of him, and was it exciting to present Vader at a time in his life that had really never been explored before?
Dave Filoni: I have a strange kind of entry into it because I’ve worked with Anakin Skywalker as a character for so long. The thing that’s really apparent is just how different they are. Anakin and Vader have a different manner of speaking, and they have a different way of, obviously, reacting to things. Their physical nature is similar but different. When you deal with Vader, you have to remember that he really is Darth Vader. Everybody knows that he is Anakin Skywalker, but when he becomes Darth Vader, the good person is largely destroyed. We made a special trailer focused on Ahsoka and Vader, and someone was saying that when Vader speaks, they didn’t think of it as Anakin. I thought, well, yeah, why would you? That’s Darth Vader. It’s kind of interesting to have that evolution.
In Rebels, we wanted to see Darth Vader do things that we hadn’t really seen him do before, but still stay true to the character. One opportunity was showing Vader as a pilot. Anakin was a pilot, but we had never really seen Vader piloting the TIE fighter after A New Hope. So, there was a chance to do something with that starfighter and show Vader blowing away a rebel fleet, which was something we knew he did, but we never got to see. I was pretty pleased with the results. It felt, to a lot of people, like this was the Vader they had imagined.
StarWars.com: Let me ask you about the “apprentice lives” moment in “Siege of Lothal.” First, I’m wondering — was that line a nod to the “Ahsoka lives” movement?
Dave Filoni: [Laughs] No, it really wasn’t. It was just the right line for the moment for me. It just seemed like something Vader would say when I was phrasing the dialogue. I actually storyboarded that whole sequence on a whiteboard at Lucasfilm. I wanted to build everything to the moment where Vader realizes that Ahsoka’s alive. That was really the key. To understand that Vader would be the one to know that she’s alive and she would have no clue what it means and who he is. That allowed us to really build the mystery that we see in the entire season surrounding Ahsoka Tano and Darth Vader.
StarWars.com: But does she get kind of an inkling? ‘Cause after that episode it seems like there’s a sadness about her. My interpretation was she didn’t know clearly, but she knew that there was something about this person she connected with.
Dave Filoni: I could answer that implicitly, if you want me to. I never know how fun it is for people to know answers to things. This is something that George [Lucas] and I talked about. When Order 66 is called and Ahsoka survives it, she has a moment where she reaches out into the Force and she looks for Anakin’s presence. She could feel Anakin’s presence in the Force, no matter where she was in the galaxy. It’s not like a metal detector — she couldn’t just go right to where he was, but she would get a feeling that her friend is still safe and alive. When she reaches out after Order 66, she doesn’t get that. It’s gone, and so she believes him to be dead.
When Ahsoka reaches out with Kanan to see who Vader is, that’s different. She digs in and she’s so close to him physically, flying after him, and strikes into his consciousness. It’s almost like realizing something that’s so jarring you can’t handle it. Like Force feedback. She gets knocked out because, I believe, in a flash of a moment, she sees this truth that there’s a layer of hate. An angry, horrible being, and then underneath it is Anakin Skywalker. But when Ezra asks her, “Do you know who or what he is,” she wouldn’t necessarily say yes she does. She is open to the idea that there’s something about this Darth Vader that’s familiar to her, but she’s not ready to name him Anakin Skywalker yet. She has to do a search. That’s why she’s saying there are questions, questions that need to be answered. In the very next episode she starts a kind of long exploration of who Darth Vader is and, specifically, where does he come from and what does it all mean and can it be true. Her unconscious mind knows it’s Anakin; her conscious mind cannot accept that Anakin could be this horrible person.
StarWars.com: Very good. I’m glad you explained it.
Dave Filoni: [Laughs] It’s been thoroughly thought out.
StarWars.com: You mentioned that you talked about what happened after Order 66 with George Lucas. Obviously, as you’re writing the episodes, things might change or you can develop scenes. Some of these things, like Ahsoka and Rex playing a role in the development of the rebellion, Ahsoka connecting with Vader during this battle — how many of these are ideas you had back when you were working with George Lucas on The Clone Wars, versus ideas that came to you now that felt right for the story?
Dave Filoni: There was some discussion with George that Rex would be involved in the Rebel Alliance. We had some discussions about that towards the last season. The conversation I had with George about Ahsoka was mainly pertaining to Vader, and what would she know, what wouldn’t she know, because it was George’s feeling that she survived Order 66. So I made sure to discuss with him his feelings on that, and then I’ve made choices since then. That’s kind of the world that we all live in now as Star Wars creators. We have to make our choices based on where we’re at in the shows that we’re doing. But her being a Fulcrum-like agent, a part of building this rebellion and stuff, was never something we really discussed in detail. Maybe we discussed as far as possibilities. It was really something that [executive producer] Simon Kinberg and I developed along with [Season One executive producer] Greg Weisman when we decided that Ahsoka could play this Fulcrum character.
Originally, I was thinking Ahsoka was much more of a passive player. That she wasn’t a combatant as much. I later changed my mind and thought, “We really need to see the warrior in her in this volatile time.” We’re always evolving the characters and their stories to try and get the best thing possible.
Over the years, I have illustrated the conflict between Ahsoka Tano and Darth Vader many times with several different endings. [Laughs] Interestingly, the way we finally ended up doing it wasn’t really in a scenario or place that I ever pictured. I certainly never knew about Kanan or Ezra or any of them. It’s been fascinating to tell this story with another crew of characters that I really had no knowledge of back when we were doing Clone Wars. Of course, there are certain moments during the confrontation that absolutely ring true to original ideas that I had. One example is the [Ahsoka/Vader] sword fight. I told [the Lucasfilm Story Group’s] Kiri Hart, “Well, I always pictured this going this way,” and she was like, “Well, let’s do it.” I always appreciate that they are very supportive of what I want to do with the character and where I think she should go. The Story Group is incredibly insightful and I think they helped develop the story in fantastic ways.
StarWars.com: I want to go through the season a bit. So, the return of the clones. How did you get the idea that they would be in this kind of [Hayao] Miyazaki-esque AT-TE, spending their retirement as fishermen?
Dave Filoni: [Laughs] I, for whatever reason, was obsessed with this idea that they were fishing. I grew up in Pittsburgh and saw a lot of older people move to Florida, get an RV. I gravitated towards some version of that for our old clone friends. That they were literally retired veterans on an elongated fishing trip. They had found some way to sustain their life by rod and reel. I eventually came up with the idea [of the joopa creature] to give them something to fish for under the surface of the planet. I guess it’s just from my East Coast upbringing — that’s what a retirement community is kind of like to me. [Laughs]
When I was telling [the team], “I think they’re in a tank,” people were getting really behind that. They liked that idea. I wanted it to feel like this bizarre walking menagerie, you know, and it is like this Howl’s Moving Castle in its own way. So any analogy to the great Miyazaki is welcome in my book, so I’ll take it. We’re strides away from anywhere near him, but you can’t help but be influenced by an animator of such caliber. It is a bit of an homage and I guess just a good idea.
StarWars.com: Well, I love that, just because I’m from the East Coast also.
Dave Filoni: It made sense to you, right?
StarWars.com: It did, it made total sense. And the other thing was that, I think Rex, the way he looks and the way he carries himself, he felt like a grandfather to me. He had that grandfather type quality. Were you going for something like that?
Dave Filoni: Yeah, I mean, it was just a fact that clones age quick, and so he was always going to be older. I never intended the Santa Claus-ish nature of Rex. I really didn’t think about that until later. I just always liked those Miyazaki characters that have that big old beard. I always loved the way they’re animated and I was dead set on Rex having one like that. The beard is important — it’s in an interesting part of the character. I also wanted them to be bigger guys. You know, they still like to eat well and do their thing. I did sketches of all these things for the [animators] to look at, as they went to do the designs and I think everyone did a great job of adapting them.
StarWars.com: I’m curious how you think Rex, Wolffe, and Gregor view their service, because I’m thinking that if they know Order 66 was a lie, they must have some sense of guilt or regret. Would you say that they do, or can they distance themselves from that?
Dave Filoni: I would say they’re pretty conflicted about that. I think that different clones have dealt with that in different ways. Wolffe has a very hard time separating realities from himself. He still has, or had, some level of loyalty to the Empire and what it was doing. It’s hard for him to realize that it’s not the Republic anymore. I think that they mainly care about their brothers-in-arms and what they went through. I think that most of them, over time, realized that Order 66 was a terrible thing. Some of them benefited from it but all the clones eventually are decommissioned because they just get too old. They outlive their usefulness and then they see that they were exploited and used. Their story is kind of a sad one at the end of the day. I think that’s why Rex would have been on the run at the end of Order 66. He had gone completely AWOL in aiding Ahsoka’s escape from the order. We actually had that story written. It was the finale of Clone Wars.
Ahsoka and Rex were together. They were always intended to be together when Order 66 was called. This is why you don’t see Rex in the film [Revenge of the Sith] or Ahsoka in the film. We had actually accounted for where they were during the film.
StarWars.com: But they were still fighting with the Republic up until that point?
Dave Filoni: Well, Rex definitely was, but Ahsoka still thought of herself as outside the Jedi Order.
StarWars.com: Cool. Well, I hope we see that one day in some form.
Dave Filoni: Yeah, well, you know it could be some kids that grew up on Clone Wars and years later work for Lucasfilm that convince somebody to finish it. And I would be alright with that. It’s just nice that people care.
StarWars.com: This season, it seems to me like Ezra takes two steps forward and one step back. He gets more powerful and he shows leadership and he comes to grips with his parents’ death. But at the same time, he acts out more aggressively and he seems to enjoy combat almost a little bit too much. So it seems like he’s open to the dark side. Is this just part of his nature or is this a failing on Kanan’s part as a teacher? What would you say is going on with him?
Dave Filoni: I would say it’s just the nature of things. It’s everyone’s nature. When you have power and you gain more power, power is corrupting, and you have to be vigilant. You have to try to remain selfless, otherwise you can do terrible things. You don’t really start out saying, “Today I’m going to do terrible things,” necessarily. You know, Anakin does terrible things and he thinks he’s actually saving people. He thinks everybody else has betrayed him.
Ezra, just in a similar fashion to Anakin, he thinks he’s helping by trying to save people and protect his friends. He thinks that finding power will be a way to achieve this. He’s getting older and more rebellious — in some ways he’s your typical teenager. This is true in Star Wars as much as in the real world. Ezra is going to challenge authority and he’s going to ask more questions. If he didn’t and he was perfect, it wouldn’t be real; forget it just not even being a good story, but it wouldn’t be believable. So, the fact that he is out there challenging things is just kind of the way it goes. We’ll see what the repercussions are for that.
StarWars.com: Right, he has to experience it so he learns what is right and what’s wrong.
Dave Filoni: Yeah. He’s going to have missteps, and you just hope when you do they don’t cost you, but you start to get the feeling that Ezra’s missteps could have a significant impact on the group.
StarWars.com: Two of my favorite episodes were “The Protector of Concord Dawn” and “The Honorable Ones.” What I feel is different about them is that they were really intimate episodes. They were on a smaller scale and just kind of drilled down on these characters. What can you say about the making of those two episodes in particular?
Dave Filoni: Well, a lot of our goal in Season Two was to really focus on characters and give them more background, depth, and history. We really tried to do that with Sabine. We always promised that you were going to find out more about her Mandalorian heritage and we had this great opportunity to expand on the culture we had created in Clone Wars. What happened to those people was pretty important, and also furthers one of our own characters in Sabine Wren. I thought it was just a really nice exploration, especially because it was Kanan and Sabine together and we had never, up until that point, done a Kanan and Sabine story.
StarWars.com: Right, it’s an interesting pairing.
Dave Filoni: Yeah. I think that we’ve noticed, with the 21 minutes that we have to work with, that the show tends to actually be better when it’s about fewer characters. In that way, we seem to be able to service the characters better. The finales are great but, my gosh, we don’t have a lot of time to service some really amazing, important characters, and it can be quite a juggling act to get those characters’ stories told. So, I think that’s a little bit of what you feel when you have episodes like [“Legends of the Lasat”]. Here are more Lasats that you didn’t know were alive, and we have to figure out who these characters are and what drives them.
The Kallus/Zeb episode is like that, as well. You trap them in a one-room ice cave and yet it still feels like a really compelling story. It doesn’t suffer for being one location the whole time. Hera got her episode like that, as did Chopper. Everyone got their featured episode this season, which is something a lot of fans had said they wanted. They liked Ezra and Kanan, but they wanted to see a little more focus on the other characters, so it was fun to kind of branch out and give people some diversity and deeper insight into characters.
StarWars.com: I wanted to dovetail back to Ahsoka and the way you handled her this year. You touched on this a little bit. It’s interesting that you said you kind of [originally] wanted her to be in the background more, because I felt like although we definitely see her mix it up, she was not super involved. I think it made her more mythic. It reminded me of old Ben Kenobi and his role in A New Hope. What did you want to convey about her this season?
Dave Filoni: Well, we were actually very careful. Once we brought her back, there was a lot of excitement — more than we had anticipated. The first day back in the writing room everybody was like, “Oh, this is great, we’ll have Ahsoka do this and we’ll have Ahsoka do that,” and as we’re kind of sitting there, it’s really apparent that this could become The Ahsoka Tano Show really quickly. That’s not the direction we wanted to go in for Rebels. This show is primarily about Ezra and Kanan and what they’re doing. If we focus too much on Ahsoka, we’re not showing the importance of our main characters anymore. It was important that if we had Ahsoka in the story it be in service to Ezra and Kanan somehow, that her story crossed with theirs because it was important for them. Those were the ground rules that we had going into it.
We used to have this problem in Clone Wars when we would try to put Yoda in a story and it would be like, “Yeah, if Yoda’s there, this isn’t really a problem is it?” That’s because Yoda’s going to go in there and kick everyone’s butt. We all felt that Ahsoka, the only person that could really match her in this time period, blow for blow, would be Vader or the Emperor. So that was why you didn’t see her as much and when she showed up it was purposeful. It had meaning again. You always have to serve your story, and the best way we could do that was by actually limiting Ahsoka in the story, so when she showed up, you knew it was going to be important.
StarWars.com: So she gets her final conversation with Anakin in the Jedi Temple. I interviewed Ashley [Eckstein] and I told her that it seemed like a bookend to their relationship. Did you worry that you would not get that opportunity? That’s question one, and question two, how did it feel to write Anakin and Ahsoka again, but with an Anakin that’s different than the one you really worked with?
Dave Filoni: I’d been searching for a way to bring back a lot of the Clone Wars cast as a thank you to them for being such an important part of that show. I had figured out a way to get almost everybody back and there was a lot of talk about how we could bring Matt Lanter back. Matt is a very talented actor. He can do a lot of things, and so there was some thinking that maybe he could come back as somebody else. But then, we had devised that way of showing Obi-Wan as a hologram and that worked really well, so I thought that might be the way to do it. The holocron seemed reasonable; it could have a history of Anakin Skywalker on it training kids how to fight with a lightsaber. I wrote so much of Anakin and worked with Matt for so long that it wasn’t hard to do. It’s just kind of like getting on a bike. You remember the beats of it and how he speaks. I ended up writing most of the Ahsoka dialogue between her and Anakin too, because I know the characters so well. It was a lot of fun and I knew Matt would deliver. He loved it and it was great having him in the role again.
Rebels, in the end, has allowed us to follow through on some stories for a few Clone Wars characters, which I really didn’t think would be possible. The fact that the fans wanted it, and that the Lucasfilm Story Group was excited about telling these stories and seeing these characters again, made it possible. It’s been amazing. It really speaks to this generation of fans and who their favorite characters are. They’re fans of Rex and Ahsoka as much as they’re fans of Luke and Leia.
I’m very grateful for the fans’ loyalty and their campaigning. It made it even more entertaining when I was messing with them relentlessly about what was going to happen in the [season] finale.
StarWars.com: Well, that’s the real fun of it, right?
Dave Filoni: It really is a great joy. I have to say it is a great joy for me. [Laughs]
StarWars.com: Every job has its perks.
Dave Filoni: [Laughs] Yeah, and this is definitely one of those for me. It’s fantastic to just make it gut-wrenching for them right down to the last moment. So I’m having a great time.
StarWars.com: When Ahsoka’s running out of the Temple and she sees Yoda, that’s from Last Crusade, right?
Dave Filoni: Absolutely. I couldn’t help myself. It’s just the right thing. Yoda and Ahsoka kind of had a bad moment when she was expelled from the Temple, and I just couldn’t have them get so close to meeting without seeing each other and without kids knowing there’s no hard feelings there. That there’s some forgiveness there. I just thought that was important to show, so it was a fun little moment and it was absolutely Last Crusade — the Templar knight saying goodbye.
StarWars.com: What I love about the show is that it’s a meeting point between all facets of the saga. Can you talk about what is great about that, but also maybe what is the challenge of having all those toys in the toy box?
Dave Filoni: Well, the toys are always fighting for screen time. That’s the challenge. [Laughs] Everybody wants to be in the episode and you’re never going to have enough time to service every story. So again, it’s about making characters meaningful. I work on Rebels and story in the same way I worked on Clone Wars. Whether it’s the Legends era or the classic trilogy or the prequel trilogy, these are Star Wars characters and stories.
We have borrowed from as many places as we can. Our carrier that the rebels steal is actually from the West End games. I believe it was a design that Doug Chiang had done for a roleplaying manual. I said, “Well, we’ve got an aircraft carrier, let’s use that.” I worry about people just inventing things for the sake of inventing new things. I don’t want to do that. I think Star Wars fans are immensely loyal and have been loyal for a long time, and probably, there’s somebody out there that played that game that knew there was a carrier like that, and if we put it in the show and they see that, they might think, “Wow, I used to play that! That’s amazing.” I think we’ve tried to honor that loyalty and show them that we care. It’s something I used to do with George. We had a motto — “We never throw anything out.” We just had all these things and we find ways to use them and, as long as it makes sense for the story, you’re alright bringing them in.
StarWars.com: Well, the Fifth Brother is based on a design from The Force Awakens, right?
Dave Filoni: That’s right, that’s absolutely correct. I was sitting in on those [The Force Awakens] meetings early on and I’d see some pretty cool stuff, and I was like, “Heyyyyy… Is anybody going to use that?” And they were like, “Well, we don’t know,” and I said, “Well, if he [J.J. Abrams] doesn’t use that, I’m taking that.” And J.J. went in a different direction and I said, “Hey, where’d that thing go? I want that guy with the hat. Where’d that guy go?” Why waste it? It was a great design. I try to utilize everything. I keep my eyes open when I walk around the studio or when I walk around the film sets. I’m always looking for those bizarre little things that we can borrow from. Everybody gets it. We’re all fans, and part of Star Wars was imagining that every bizarre background character had an incredible story. For me, it’s fun to try to tell those incredible stories.
Stay tuned for part two of StarWars.com’s interview with Dave Filoni!
Dan Brooks is Lucasfilm’s senior content writer and editor of the StarWars.com blog. He loves Star Wars, ELO, and the New York Rangers, Jets, and Yankees. Follow him on Twitter @dan_brooks where he rants about all these things.Donald Trump’s health-care Waterloo two weeks ago was a moment made to order for Ohio governor John Kasich, and he did not let it go unexploited. “This cannot go away,” he told host Dana Bash during a State of the Union interview with CNN. “There are too many people’s lives that are at stake if we fail to be able to reform this program. This is serious, serious stuff, and the idea that it’s a quaint notion that Republicans and Democrats ought to work together—that’s how broken that city is.” Trump ran and won on the idea that Washington was broken, and that “I alone can fix it.” But with health care mired in the swamp he spoke of draining, Kasich has been putting down unmistakable markers for a possible 2020 challenge to Trump while subtly reworking his brand along Trumpian lines—the consummate outsider, but competent. Since Kasich exited the G.O.P. primary in May of last year, he wrote a book rumored to be critical of Trump; buttressed his international accolades; and thrust himself to the forefront of the trade and health-care debates currently roiling Washington. And despite the reality that Kasich is closing in on the end of his second and final gubernatorial term, his campaign and super PAC apparatuses remain in operation, and two of his long-time aides launched a nonprofit political organization to champion recurring themes from the governor’s 2016 campaign in January. The Ohio politician has on various occasions pushed back on the narrative that he is planning another White House bid. “I don’t see it, I just don’t see it,” he said during his recent CNN interview. But when pressed by Bash on whether he would “ever” run for president again, Kasich hedged his denial. “You don’t close the door on anything,” he responded. VIDEO: Clinton, Kasich, and Carson on the 2016 Campaign Trail
If Kasich were to declare himself a challenger to an incumbent Republican president before the 100-day mark, it would be nothing short of treasonous. “Nobody wants to be seen as mentioning any names, because that would be seen as disloyal. Everyone assumes that President Trump runs for re-election, and I can’t imagine another scenario at this point,” G.O.P. pollster Frank Luntz said. “The normal rules of politics don’t apply to him, and we have learned that again and again and again.” Ambitious politicians like Kasich—or Marco Rubio or Tom Cotton—are at pains to sound statesmanlike. But ambition has a very long half-life. So the challenge for Kasich is to build a critique of the administration and burnish his own brand as a man above D.C. business as usual—he alone can fix it—while cultivating the Trump voters he’ll have to win over should an opportunity arise. Kasich’s rhetoric about the administration’s struggles has been an exercise in political needle-threading. He’s even defended the president—a subtle way of throwing shade, since the implication is that the vaunted businessman can’t even manage his own people. As G.O.P. leaders and Cabinet secretaries scrambled to contain the fallout after Trump signed his first executive order on immigration, Kasich told The Washington Post he thought the president was “ill-served by his staff” but added that he didn’t want to be a “clanging bell” or “negative force against” the Trump administration. Similarly, during his interview with CNN the Sunday following the American Health Care Act failure |
cause multi-hour delays and traumatize drivers and witnesses, but the unfortunate reality is that people who desperately want to end their lives will probably find another way to do so if subway tracks aren’t accessible.
The topic of suicide-by-public-transit is getting a surge of public attention because the TTC’s top brass has only recently started to openly acknowledge that it actually happens. Rather than hiding behind euphemisms, stations now contain posters that blatantly offer help to those “thinking of suicide.”
The transit agency also now releases statistics on the number of actual and attempted suicides it sees.
The numbers are rather staggering, to be fair. There’s approximately one actual or attempted suicide every two weeks in our subway system.
It’s easy to react instinctively to such numbers and shout, “Put up the barriers!” But the better use of more than $1 billion would be to invest in our mental health-care system.
Anyone who has sought help for mental health issues in Toronto will tell you it’s — at best — not easy.
At worst, it’s a total nightmare that actively discourages people from seeking and ultimately getting the help they need.
Wait times for both diagnosis and therapy are out of control. If you do get off the waiting lists, publicly-funded counselling options are extremely limited and private counselling options are often exorbitantly expensive.
Pricey medications people need to function in their daily lives aren’t covered by OHIP and more and more employers neglect to cover health insurance.
A surge in funding could go a long way towards helping those in distress.
Spending a billion dollars on subway barriers is a Band-Aid solution. Doing so won’t prevent loss of life, but rather push some of society’s most vulnerable further into the dark corners we like to keep them in. Newspapers report on the TTC suicide rate because it’s a public interest issue, but rarely if ever discuss suicides that happen in private residences or out of the spotlight. These people simply disappear without debate or reflection.
Mental health won’t be solved by quick-fix solutions. If we want to see real change we can, and must, do better than a few barriers.Image copyright AP
Here is the full list of winners for the 2014 Bafta Film Awards.
Best film
12 Years a Slave
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Gravity
Philomena
Outstanding British film
Gravity
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Philomena
Rush
Saving Mr Banks
The Selfish Giant
Actor
Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)
Christian Bale (American Hustle)
Bruce Dern (Nebraska)
Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips)
Actress
Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
Amy Adams (American Hustle)
Sandra Bullock (Gravity)
Judi Dench (Philomena)
Emma Thompson (Saving Mr Banks)
Supporting actor
Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)
Daniel Bruhl (Rush)
Bradley Cooper (American Hustle)
Matt Damon (Behind the Candelabra)
Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)
Supporting actress
Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)
Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine)
Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave)
Julia Roberts (August: Osage County)
Oprah Winfrey (The Butler)
Director
Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)
Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips)
Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave)
David O Russell (American Hustle)
Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Adapted screenplay
Philomena
12 Years a Slave
Behind the Candelabra
Captain Phillips
The Wolf of Wall Street
Original screenplay
American Hustle
Blue Jasmine
Gravity
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska
Animated film
Frozen
Despicable Me 2
Monsters University
Documentary
The Act of Killing
The Armstrong Lie
Blackfish
Tim's Vermeer
We Steal Secrets
Foreign film
The Great Beauty
The Act of Killing
Blue is the Warmest Colour
Metro Manila
Wadjda
Cinematography
Gravity
12 Years a Slave
Captain Phillips
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska
Costume design
The Great Gatsby
American Hustle
Behind the Candelabra
The Invisible Woman
Saving Mr Banks
Editing
Rush
12 Years a Slave
Captain Phillips
Gravity
The Wolf of Wall Street
Make-up and hair
American Hustle
Behind the Candelabra
The Butler
The Great Gatsby
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Music
Gravity
12 Years a Slave
The Book Thief
Captain Phillips
Saving Mr Banks
Production design
The Great Gatsby
12 Years a Slave
American Hustle
Behind the Candelabra
Gravity
Sound
Gravity
All is Lost
Captain Phillips
Inside Llewyn Davis
Rush
Visual effects
Gravity
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Iron Man 3
Pacific Rim
Star Trek Into Darkness
Short animation
Sleeping with the Fishes
Everything I Can See From Here
I Am Tom Moody
Short film
Room 8
Island Queen
Keeping Up with the Joneses
Orbit Ever After
Sea View
Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer
Kieran Evans (writer-director, Kelly + Victor)
Colin Carberry, Glenn Patterson (writers, Good Vibrations)
Scott Graham (writer-director, Shell)
Kelly Marcel (writer, Saving Mr Banks)
Paul Wright. Polly Stokes (writer-director and producer, For Those in Peril)
Rising Star award
Will Poulter
Dane DeHaan
George MacKay
Lupita Nyong'o
Lea SeydouxAfter months of uncertainty, the GST is inching closer to reality. We look at what it has in store for the car buyer
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) moved a step further to becoming a reality with the Lok Sabha unanimously passing the amendment that enables the highly anticipated reform.
GST is expected to replace as many as 17 indirect central and state tax levies and result in a cutback in logistics costs of businesses across all sectors, enhancing ease of doing business. Moreover, the overall consumer demand is set to improve since the benefits of the reduction in costs are likely to be passed on to the consumers. But what does this mean for car buyers?
Decline in vehicle prices
The implementation of GST will remove the effect of multiplicity of taxes on the cost of goods and services. The standard excise duty of 12.5 percent and VAT of 12.5-15 percent along with cess, entry taxes and CST (Central Sales Tax) take the effective tax rate up to 26-30 percent in the current system which will drop to a standard rate of 17-18 percent under the GST.
Within passenger vehicle industry, mid-size segment (1,200-1,500 cc) will be the largest beneficiary with an estimated duty decline of nearly 20 percent. The small car segment could see a price benefit of about 10 percent, while luxury cars and utility vehicles segment could get a benefit of up to five percent.
However, with regard to vehicles in the luxury segment, there is unlikely to be a significant impact on demand given the small amount of the benefit. Moreover, the customs duty is among the taxes which will be left out of the GST and therefore prices of vehicles brought in as imports or Completely Built-Up (CBU) units is unlikely to change.
Within the two-wheeler segment, prices are likely to drop by about 8-10 percent. This will result in improved demand for cost sensitive 100-125cc segment.
Change in price structures
The implementation of the goods and service tax is likely to result in a shift in price structures. With a standard tax rate for both the compact sedan/hatchbacks and mid-size/full-size sedans, the price gap is expected to shrink. A higher number of buyers may thus naturally choose to go for vehicles belonging to the latter segment; a departure from the current buying behavior.
Moreover, apart from the change in buying preference due to the shrinking gap between small cars and mid-size segment, the implementation of the GST could force some manufacturers to reorganise their strategies especially in the sub-four-metre segment which was born out of the excise duty benefits.
Uniform price
Besides absorbing a host of taxes, GST will permit carmakers to have a uniform ex-showroom price of its vehicles across the country. Currently, all the vehicles are priced differently across the states on account of diverse excise rates. The uniformity in prices will ease the concern among car buyers over deciding on a place to buy the vehicle and even curb the practice of registering it elsewhere.
-With inputs from CRISIL ResearchSandeep Mahapatra, the only right-wing president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU), traditionally a Leftist stronghold, feels that free thinking and controversies have co-existed on the campus for long. In an interview to Firstpost, the 40-year-old practising lawyer says that the present hullabaloo is all about gaining political mileage ahead of upcoming elections in a few states.
Excerpts:
As a JNU alumnus, do you feel the unique culture of debate and discourse has got affected/ lost?
No I don’t subscribe to this view. The positive aspect of JNU is that it provides an atmosphere of free thinking to a student—to discuss and debate, unlike in any other university. This university provides a wider worldview to its students on every issue and gives students a platform to hone their talent, and this will always be there. The student politics in JNU is different from elsewhere. Here, students of opposite ideologies fight against each other on the basis of debates and intellectual deliberation, and not through muscle-power. It’s only due to this that ABVP could strongly establish itself in the campus amid a strong Leftist ideology, which has been continuing for over two decades. The understanding of student politics amongst the JNU students is ahead of their contemporaries elsewhere.
Monday's rally at Jantar Mantar organised jointly by the JNU students, Left students’ unions and Dalit organisations was a big success. Does this reflect growing dissent among students against the establishment?
The Left parties, the Congress, the AAP and others participating in the students’ rally is nothing but drawing political mileage out of dead bodies. It is a cyclical case going on for political gains. We had witnessed this during Delhi election, when strong rumours were spread about persecution of Christians. Then during the Bihar election, the Dadri incident and the issue of intolerance were played up. Now no one is bothered about these. Keeping in mind the Budget session and upcoming polls in a few states, the Left, the BSP, the Congress and others are politicising the JNU and Dalit issues. Let me ask, why all these parties were silent when a Dalit girl was raped in Haryana by a Muslim youth? Is it because Muslims and Dalits are vote banks? There are several instances of Dalit persecution and killing. How much mobilisation has been done by these parties? There has always been a social churning among students on issues that often takes the shape of a movement. There’s nothing new in it, but we’ve to see whether the movements are ill-motivated or genuine.
No one in ABVP before or after you managed to become president of JNUSU. Why so?
I joined JNU in 1997 and became president as an ABVP candidate in 2000-01 while I was pursuing M Phil (International Law). JNU has always been a stronghold of the Left. Our ideological fight with the Left was at its peak at that time. All the Left forces united to defeat us, but we managed to pull through. After several years, this year, ABVP has won the joint secretary post in JNUSU. It’s quite tough to crack the predominantly Left bastion, but ABVP has gradually emerged as a strong challenger.
How could you make it possible?
It was very tough, especially because the majority of the faculty members and heads are Left-affiliated, many are CPI/CPM cardholders and they exercise immense influence on students who join the campus. It’s like either you follow them or be left out. I connected with people one-on-one and took up real issues of students like hostels, campus problems, etc and this motivated others to connect with Vidyarthi Parishad. Winning or losing an election is a part of the game, but our main achievement was establishing ourselves.
Why there is so much anarchy in the campus all of a sudden?
It has always been there in the campus, but this time it has gone out of control and as the government intervened, and the Left ganged up. JNU is the only place where the Left rules the roost. Since the JNU politics reflects on national politics and vice versa, they are going hammer and tongs to protect even their wrong doings. They talk about intolerance, but it’s they who have shown extreme intolerance inside the campus. If you’re not a Leftist, you’re an outcast. A large number of students join the campus from eastern India, so in 2000 when ABVP wanted to perform Durga puja, it faced severe resistance. But, ultimately we won and till now festival takes place and almost everyone participate in it.
There have been allegations against JNU that a section of its students had been involved in controversial ‘anti-national’ issues like hailing Afzal Guru, the killing of 75 CRPF personnel in Dantewada etc. Did such incidents occur in the past too?
Yes, when I joined in 1996, the CPI-ML affiliated All India Students’ Association (AISA) had invited Kashmiri secessionist leaders to speak in the campus, because they think India is a country of multiple nationalities and Kashmir, Nagaland, etc should be free from India. The ABVP opposed it. There is a dichotomy in their stand. The students who give a call to fight against the state, later become a part of the same state machinery and enjoy power as bureaucrats. Those who raised anti-imperialistic slogans, later latched on to scholarships and went to the US. This is nothing but compromising on your ideology for bigger gains.
JNUSU and Left-backed unions’ members have alleged that ABVP has been into hooliganism in the campus and the BJP-backed government through police crackdown put students behind bars. What do you have to say on this?
The ABVP has no role in it. An inquiry is going on and it’s the police to take the call. The best way to gain mileage is by blaming ABVP and RSS. And, as I said, unlike in other universities there has never been any hooliganism inside JNU campus.
What will you say on students’ allegation that RSS through ABVP has been trying to crush the liberal culture and freedom of expression of though in JNU?
The Left had written-off the RSS, but it has emerged as a potential force and they are unable to accept that. In last 40 years, barring Brinda Karat, how many women could make it as politburo members? How many Dalits have become their top leaders? The RSS has a women’s wing at national level and the Sangh works amongst the tribals for their development unlike the Left. It’s not the RSS that’s crushing the liberal culture but the Left itself unable to deal with the challenge from the Right.
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 release included personnel files for all of the officers involved, including Officer Long, Officer Steven L. Smith, Officer Mauricio Rodriguez Jr. and Sgt. John Moore, as well as the notice given that each was being put on administrative leave. Officer Long and Sgt. Moore had each been disciplined for minor, non-violent incidents in the past.
The department also released audio of the original call in which the airline asked for help.
“Two passengers are refusing to get off the aircraft when instructed by the agent and also the supervisor,” an airline employee tells the police dispatcher. He could not give a description of the passengers.
“Any information on were they drinking, were they doing anything like that?” the dispatcher asks a little later in the recording.
“No, it’s something with an oversold and didn’t volunteer or something like that,” the United employee responds.
In fact, the flight was not oversold. United was attempting to make seats available for a flight crew that needed to be in Kentucky for flights the next morning. The airline tried to get volunteers, but when no one stepped forward four people were selected and told to leave. Two complied, but Dr. Dao refused, saying he had patients to see the next day.
Multiple passengers made videos of the physical confrontation that followed, in which Dr. Dao was dragged down the aisle by his arms. He was later seen returning to the flight with a bloodied mouth in a state of confusion. He was eventually removed in a stretcher.
Ginger Evans, the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Aviation, said Tuesday that she was unhappy that the agency’s police officers were made to remove Dr. Dao, suggesting that it was not an appropriate task for the officers.Now playing: Watch this: Hands-on with Apple's new MacBooks
Apple's popular entry-level MacBook Air laptop is finally getting an update, albeit a small one.
The company on Monday announced the 13-inch computer will get a "bump in megahertz." More specifically, it will get the 1.8 gigahertz version of the Broadwell Intel processor.
This news comes as part of a major overall to Apple's entire Mac line, although the MacBook Air only warranted a passing mention (it didn't even show up on the slides).
Apple's iMacs will now include a seventh-generation Intel core processor known as "Kaby Lake," which Apple says will be 43 percent brighter and capable of showing 1 billion colors. All of Apple's notebooks will be getting a refresh as well.
"It's a great performance bump across the board," said John Turnis, Apple's VP of hardware engineering.
Apple made the announcement during its annual Worldwide Developers Conference. WWDC is known as the event where Apple details the newest software that will hit its devices later in the year, but it makes hardware announcements too.
With its minor MacBook Air update, Apple is getting back to its roots. Apple fans love the MacBook Air and have been clamoring for an update. Up until now, the company hasn't complied. The laptop, which starts at $999, £949 or AU$1,499, hasn't had so much as new chips since 2015. Users have repeatedly asked for the device to get a high-resolution Retina display, but it appears this isn't happening anytime soon.
When Apple introduced its new MacBook Pros with Touch Bar last year, it also launched another 13-inch MacBook Pro that's thinner, smaller and retains the function keys. The company positioned it as a middle step and a sort of update to the MacBook Air -- but a more expensive one, with that device starting at $1,499, £1,249 or AU$1,899.
WWDC 2017: All the news so farGetty Images
Raiders coach Hue Jackson didn’t take Oakland’s latest defensive collapse well.
While he occasionally made a weak effort to take responsibility for his team’s loss, Jackson generally threw his team under the bus in a manner you don’t normally see from head coaches.
“I’m pissed at my team,” Jackson said after the game via the Oakland Tribune. “At some point in time, as a group of men, you go in the game, and you can say whatever you want about coaches, you win the game. Here’s your time. Here’s your time to make plays.
“We didn’t get ‘em stopped. And we didn’t make enough plays. So, yeah, I’m pissed at the team. I’m also, like I tell them, I’ll always put it on me, but I am pissed at my team. Because when you have those kinds of opportunities, you’ve got to do it, and we didn’t do it.”
Translation: I’ll always put it on me, except when I totally put it on you guys.
Jackson seems especially upset with his defense. (For good reason.) We wouldn’t expect to see defensive coordinator Chuck Bresnahan back next year.
“Chuck knows how I feel,” Jackson said. “I’m disappointed over there. I have been. It’s not like we haven’t had conversations. Chuck knows what I feel, and it’s not good enough.... When you play defense in the NFL, man, you got to hunt. You can’t give up 28, 29 points and expect to win.”
Translation: That’s Bresnahan’s defense. Got it?
Jackson’s solution for all the problems: More Hue Jackson.
“I’m going take a stronger hand in this whole team, this whole organization,” Jackson said. “There ain’t no way that I’m going to feel like I feel today a year from now, I promise you that. There’s no question. Defensively, offensively and special teams. I aint feeling like this no more. This is a joke.... Yeah, I’m going to take a hand in everything that goes on here.”
Translation: I haven’t fully considered all the implications of what could happen when the Raiders hire a personnel man to be my boss.>Like so many platitudinous politicians seeking to inspire, in his SOTU President Obama characterized the nation as "the American family," and I suppose Americans are a family in one sense -- all 300 million of us are stuck with each other. We surely don't all like each other or wish each other well; some of us assume others of us belong in hell, quite literally; we don't share the same fundamental values or ideals, much less the "common creed" referenced by Obama.
We don't "all believe in the rights enshrined in our Constitution," obviously. We differ vigorously and sometimes viciously over freedom of speech and religion, abortion and gay rights, the rights of criminal (or terror) suspects, property rights and unqualified Second Amendment rights, among others. We regularly sabotage, assault, rob, kill each other, and lock each other up. (Some seven million of us are in prison or on probation or parole.) If we are any sort of family we are a highly dysfunctional one, riddled with domestic abuse.
Yes I realize the President was trafficking in metaphor, not intended to be taken literally, but his familiar, familial rhetoric is intended to resonate emotionally. I realize too the futility of railing against such trite and childish sentimentality -- it's like objecting to the now inevitable SOTU anecdotes about ordinary yet exemplary Americans displayed in the gallery -- but I am nostalgic for the Obama who once spoke to us as if were adults (mainly in his speech about race).Preview | Recap
Rockets-Warriors Preview
By JOSH DUBOW
Posted Apr 16 2016 12:12AM
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors had their chance to celebrate their record-setting regular season before turning their focus to even bigger goals.
The 73 wins that put the Warriors in the record books and left the rest of the NBA chasing them all season are meaningless right now. When the Warriors take the court Saturday to open their first-round series against the Houston Rockets, they will be on even footing with the other 15 playoff teams.
"The regular season doesn't mean anything at this point," Curry said Friday. "We have two months to play our best basketball and compete and get it done."
Having successfully completed their chase for 73 wins to break the previous mark of 72 set by Chicago 20 years ago, the Warriors have targeted a new number.
With 16 postseason victories, the Warriors will have a second straight championship to go along with their single-season wins record and a case for having the most successful season in NBA history.
Anything short of that will make the regular season record somewhat meaningless, adding another level of pressure for the postseason run.
"That just goes with the territory," coach Steve Kerr said. "We're defending champs. When you're the favorite, it's a little different dynamic. Last year even though we won 67 games and were the one seed, people still wondered if we could get it done. It's a different feel, a different dynamic. We still have to win 16 games."
The chase for the record has provided the Warriors have been dealing with a playoff-style environment the past few weeks. There's been increased media scrutiny, the knowledge that any slipup could derail their chances and opponents playing their best in hopes of knocking off the league's top team.
Golden State has survived that gauntlet well with the exception of losing home games to Boston and Minnesota in a span of five days early in April. But the Warriors rebounded to win their final four games to break Chicago's record.
"Really all year we got everybody's best shot," Curry said. "Whether the atmosphere was there or not, on the court it felt like playoff intensity for the majority of our games. We feel confident we're ready for the moment."
Houston had to play it out until the end too, needing a win in the regular season finale just to clinch the playoffs.
The Rockets' reward is a rematch with the Warriors, who knocked out Houston in five games last year in the Western Conference finals.
"You have to face them anyway, either its first round or the Western Conference finals," star James Harden said. "We have a great opportunity. A lot of people are counting us out."
Here are some things to watch in the series:
RAINING 3S: The analytics-driven Rockets took the second most 3-pointers in the NBA this season with 2,533. But the Warriors are in a different league when it comes to long-ranger shooting. Despite taking only 59 more 3s than Houston, the Warriors made 199 more on the way to a record 1,077 for the season. Leading the way is Curry, who shattered his single-season mark of 286 by hitting 402. Klay Thompson hit 276 of his own - more than any player in NBA history other than Curry.
HANDLING HARDEN: Harden averaged 33 points, 10.5 rebounds and nine assists in losing the first two games of last year's series in Oakland. He struggled after that as the Warriors mixed in the bigger Andre Iguodala and Harrison Barnes defensively. Harden shot 3 for 16 in a Game 3 loss and then went 2 for 11 with 12 turnovers in the elimination fifth game.
BEVERLEY THE PEST: The Rockets played last year's series without point guard Patrick Beverley, a defensive specialist known to irritate opponents. Teammate Jason Terry says Beverley can even pester his own teammates.
"Even on the bus, It doesn't even matter," Terry said. "It's Patrick. He's always going to get under people's skin."
QUICK TURNAROUND: The Warriors had been hoping to get the prime Sunday afternoon slot for their series opener and the extra day off that comes with it. Instead, they will have to play Game 1 on Saturday afternoon for the second straight year. That leaves both teams with only one real day of practice and no shootaround before the opener.
"I'm not annoyed. I'm just kind of surprised. But it shouldn't make any difference," said Kerr, who pointed out it was tougher on the Rockets because they had to travel.
Copyright 2016 by STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibitedAfter much speculation, Capcom confirmed Okami HD in September—a reworked and repolished version of the 2006 original that's due on December 12. It'll support 4K resolution on capable PCs, and now has a trio of new trailers.
The first, named Celestial Brush: Inferno, teases environment manipulation and a majestic pipe-smoking bird:
The second, named Celestial Brush: Veil of Mist, appears to portray sacrificial slaughter and nightmarish, spike-studded spiders:
And the third, named Demon Introduction No. 5, shows off an arena boss battle with a four-legged, dual-wielding samurai beast:
If you're new to Okami know that the above makes marginally more sense in English, but that it's a wonderful game in any event.
Again, Okami HD is due in Europe and the US on December 12, 2017
Thanks, All Games Delta.How Forensic Psychiatry Informs Trials
James Holmes, the former neuroscience student accused of killing 12 people and injuring 58 others in the Colorado movie theater massacre, has been formally charged with 24 counts of murder. The case will likely involve questions about Holmes' psychiatric condition and competency to stand trial.
NEAL CONAN, HOST:
This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. Ten days ago now, a gunmen left 12 dead and 58 injured in Aurora, Colorado. The man accused, James Holmes, faces 142 criminal charges after a court appearance this morning, including 12 counts of murder with extreme indifference to the value of human life. Court documents last week revealed that Holmes had seen a psychiatrist at the University of Colorado and the case may include analysis of Holmes' mental health and whether he's competent to stand trial.
So how does a court determine a defendant's mental state at the time of the crime and at a trial? Today, forensic psychiatry in the justice system. We want to hear from forensic psychiatrists and from those who work with them - lawyers, judges, medical professionals. Call and tell us what we don't know. Our phone number: 800-989-8255. Email us: talk @npr.org. And you can also join the conversation on our website. Go to npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION.
Later in the program, Bill Keller on the opinion page this week, yes, the real Bill Keller about today's actual column on baby boomers and entitlements. WikiLeaks published a fake Bill Keller column over the weekend. But first, forensic psychiatry. We're joined by Dr. Ronald Schouten, associate professor of psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School, and Jim Silver, a former federal prosecutor, now a criminal defense attorney.
They're the co-authors of a book, "Almost a Psychopath." And they both join us from a studio on the Harvard campus. Thanks very much for coming in.
DR. RONALD SCHOUTEN: Thanks for having us.
JIM SILVER: Thank you. We appreciate it.
CONAN: And let's start with the defense attorney, Jim Silver. You get a high profile murder defendant. Under what circumstances do you call in a forensic psychiatrist?
SILVER: Well, in a case like this, I think you have to be thinking about a mental health defense right away, and I think the defense attorneys will call in a forensic psychiatrist and do some evaluations almost immediately. Whether they ever use that to challenge competency or to later present an insanity defense is open to developments in the case investigation. But I think they would be remiss in not doing that right away.
CONAN: And when you talk about evaluations - interviews, essentially, with the defendant.
SILVER: Yes. Absolutely. They'll be interviews with the defendant. The defense team will also be spending an awful lot of time gathering information. They're going to want all his medical records, if there's any psychiatric records. Anything that would be relevant to that investigation, they're going to want to have that available to whichever psychiatrist or psychologist they bring in for an evaluation. And they may bring in a couple.
CONAN: All right. And Dr. Schouten, I say that to you. Where do you begin?
SCHOUTEN: Well, we begin first of all with a review of all of the available records and certainly starting with the police reports and the charges that have been filed against the individual. The roles for the psychiatrist or psychologist brought in may vary in some cases such as, you know, in a complicated case like this a mental health professional, forensic mental health professional, may be brought in primarily as a consultant to the defense team without really anticipating that that person will testify at trial. So they become very much a part of the defense team and their comments, their reports, are kept confidential.
But assuming there's someone who's retained on the competency to stand trial issue or criminal responsibility, that person would again review all the available records, spend time with the person, spend time observing them, interacting with them, and assessing them around the fundamental issues that we look at in competency.
CONAN: And would there be tests in addition to interviews?
SCHOUTEN: You know, there have been a number of efforts to develop specific structured instruments that look at competency to stand trial. They all have a few problems with them, so really it goes back to extended observation and extended interviews that focus on the defendant's ability to consult with his attorney to a reasonable degree and also their rational and factual understanding of the charges against them.
CONAN: But might you order something like an MRI to see if there's a tumor pressing on part of the brain or something like that?
SCHOUTEN: Well, certainly part of it is a thorough psychiatric evaluation and that includes looking at medications the person is taking, underlying medical conditions, underlying neurological conditions, which as you point out, Neal, could include an MRI to look at any brain abnormalities, and then a thorough clinical psychiatric interview occasionally with psychological testing.
CONAN: Jim Silver, now put on your former hat, that of a federal prosecutor, and let's go through this again. When would you start calling in a forensic psychiatrist?
SILVER: Well, technically the way it works in most states and in the federal system is the defendant has to formally tell the court and the prosecution that he or she is going to present an insanity defense. So technically - and that could be months into the case - so technically a prosecutor could wait until they get that formal notification. Lots of times, though, it becomes pretty obvious that a mental health defense is going to be part of the trial.
So pretty much right away the prosecutor will start figuring out does he want to or she want to ask for an evaluation. The prosecutor could bring up an issue of competency if he or she sees that, but probably will begin preparing for an insanity defense right away by consulting their own experts. And as Dr. Schouten said, they may have their own sort of consultant just working with them and trying to help them anticipate issues that may arise should the insanity defense be raised.
CONAN: So they'll have somebody on retainer, say, from one of the local institutions?
SILVER: Sure. They'll bring in a doctor and start consulting, maybe right away, especially in a case like the Aurora shooting or many other cases where it's apparent that a mental health defense is going to be part of the case. So, you know, almost right away they'll be thinking about it too. I mean, in some cases it's obvious where it's probably going to go and they'll start preparing right away.
CONAN: Mm-hmm. And what kinds of questions would the forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Schouten, what kind of questions would you be answering for the defense and what kind of questions for the prosecution?
SCHOUTEN: They're all the same questions. So in addition to getting a thorough psychiatric history, it's what we call a mental status examination, looking at the content and the form of the person's thought, whether they're affected by any sort of mood or anxiety disorder, whether they have a psychotic disorder.
So those general clinical questions, whether there's impairment of their thinking, sort of cognitive impairment of any sort. But then a very focused examination on their knowledge of the charges, their relationship with their attorney, whether they think the attorney is on their side or against them, what's the role of the judge, what's the role of the prosecutor, what's the role of the defense attorney, what does a jury do. Looking at their understanding, again, whether it's a factual understanding and a rational understanding of the proceedings and what's involved.
CONAN: Because one of the questions you have to answer is: is this person competent to stand trial - in other words, able to assist in his own defense or her own defense.
SCHOUTEN: In part it's able to assist, but the other portion of that is whether they have a rational and a factual understanding of the proceeding. So I've had cases where the person thought that, well, this is really, you know, the case is really about my political beliefs. The case is about the rights of the Catholic people to rise up and form an army and to fight for the pope and therefore - this is the John Salvi case here in Brookline, Massachusetts, a number of years ago.
And whether, you know, the appropriateness of those actions - and really this is a political trial. It has nothing to do with the fact that I murdered two people.
CONAN: Well, if a defendant thinks something like that, they would then - might easily reject the assistance of a forensic psychiatrist.
SILVER: That absolutely happens. This is Jim Silver. That absolutely happens. I had a case where a client was charged with first degree murder. There seemed to be indications, at least to me and the other lawyer, the other defense counsel, that there was a mental health issue but this defendant did not want to raise it. And I think that's a fairly common occurrence. People don't want to be stigmatized. Even if it might be helpful to them, it's sometimes really hard to convince a client to even consider a mental health defense.
SCHOUTEN: And given the success rate, which is very low, for the insanity defense, a person is likely to be convicted and then they head off to prison with sort of their notation and well-known reputation that they have some sort of mental illness and as the saying goes, better to be bad in prison than mad. And people would rather go in as a convicted person rather than someone who narrowly escaped an insanity acquittal.
CONAN: But just to reinforce something Jim Silver just said, these are attempted fairly rarely and succeed even more rarely.
SCHOUTEN: It's true, they're very rarely used. Which is interesting - the public perception is really far out of line with the reality of the insanity defense. There have been studies that have shown that the general public perception is that about 37 percent - so somewhere in the vicinity of 40 percent - of felony cases have some type of mental health defense. That's far from the truth. It's really about 1 percent.
And people also overestimate how often those defenses are successful. They think they're successful upwards of 60 percent of the time. In fact, they're successful less than 25 percent of the time.
CONAN: Let's see if we can get some callers in on the conversations. We wanted |
. "It's often claimed that fragrance chemicals, such as limonene, are 'natural.' But there is a difference between the limonene as found in an orange and limonene made in a lab."
Janine Ridings of Bellevue, Wash., became housebound after an extreme exposure to jet fuel fumes in 1998. A short while later, she began an online prayer group, Aroma of Christ, to provide fellowship and encouragement for others dealing with multiple chemical sensitivity. Ridings said she has been fortunate that a couple local churches accommodated her needs with everything from fragrance-free, windowed rooms outside the sanctuary to air freshener-free restrooms.
"If churches could just get air fresheners out of restrooms, that would help a lot," she said.
Lake Washington Christian Church made that step. And the church's fragrance-free efforts continue. This month, the church held a screening of the environmental documentary, "Chemerical," which explores the dangers of chemicals to clean our bodies and homes, and offers recipes for toxic-free alternatives.
The film's producer, Andrew Nisker, recommended first targeting laundry and dishwashing detergents, which he suggested have some of the worst health and environmental impacts.
Nisker has produced a cookbook of make-your-own cleaning products. The Environmental Working Group, meanwhile, offers a free database and guides to help identify the least toxic and fragrance-free personal care and cleaning products on the market.
"Policy is not going to change unless people change, and stop buying products full of toxins," Nisker told HuffPost.
Consumer pressure may be responsible for announcements this fall from Target and Walmart. Both big box stores said they will begin rating products based on suspect chemicals. This week, Reckitt Benckiser, maker of Lysol, Woolite and Airwick, reported plans to disclose chemicals in its fragrances.
Raising awareness in the religious community may be a powerful avenue for further change, said Nisker. "A lot of politics, whether we like it or not, has influenced policy for good or for bad. And there's a lot of religion in politics," he said.
Ohio State's Heimlich agreed that churches are key venues for environmental progress.
"Churches are often a place where people are paying attention to things they may not pay attention to elsewhere," Heimlich said. "If something comes to them from the pulpit, or the alter -- from that authority -- they'll hear it in a way they won't hear it from newspaper, radio, TV or from someone else."LONDON -- Gary Mabbutt believes Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy deserves more credit for the club's success.
Spurs are second in the Premier League, three points clear of Arsenal, and eyeing both a first league title for over half a century and a first league finish above their neighbours since the 1994-95 season, when Mabbutt was captain.
There is plenty to admire about the way head coach Mauricio Pochettino has transformed Tottenham, whose success has been based on a core of homegrown players and a relentless work ethic.
Levy has faced criticism in the past for not backing his managers -- with Andre Villas-Boas, sacked in December 2013, claiming the chairman made signings over his head -- but he has allowed Pochettino free reign to dispense of unwanted players, and appointed the Argentine's former Southampton ally Paul Mitchell as head of recruitment.
Meanwhile, Spurs are the only top-flight club to have made a profit over the last five years and have a new state-of-the-art stadium on the way.
Mabbutt, who made 619 appearances in a 16-year spell at Tottenham, believes Levy deserves more praise for his part in Spurs' rise.
"The club as a whole is doing an excellent job. People ask me, 'Which jobs would you least like to have in football?' and there are two: one is a referee and the other is a chairman. Chairmen only got mentioned when they're doing badly. When things are going well, they never get mentioned," Mabbutt told ESPN FC.
"But we've actually got a board of directors who have worked really hard to put the club on a great footing. That's off the field, with the new stadium, and on the field by bringing together Mauricio and his backroom team which has got us to where we are now in the table.
"Things are looking very bright."
Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy has guided Spurs into a very positive position. Julian Finney/Getty Images
Last week's defeat at West Ham and draw with Arsenal left Spurs five points behind league leaders Leicester City but Mabbutt believes "slips-ups" are inevitable and he also praised Pochettino's personality and work.
"Wherever you go, Mauricio has huge respect for the way that he works with youngsters, brings them through, nurtures them. He's given an opportunity to a lot of players at Tottenham and it's fallen into place this year. He's got a great manner about it -- everyone who knows him will say he's a gentleman and a lovely guy. He's doing an excellent job with the club.
"What Pochettino has installed is confidence. He's got a group of players that are playing for each other. They want to win together -- as a team. That's a vital component of any successful side. As the season's moved along, I've seen this team getting stronger and stronger. Yes, there's been slip-ups along the way -- there's always going to be.
"But I see a lot of characters emerging. There's a lot of quality in the side, a lot of players performing. Whatever happens this season, the future of Tottenham Hotspur over the next few years, both on and off the field, is very exciting."
Despite having an average age of 24 -- the youngest in the Premier League -- Mabbutt believes there are characters emerging throughout the Tottenham squad but singled out club captain Hugo Lloris, 29.
"There's characters all through the side but particularly Hugo Lloris. He's one of the best goalkeepers in the world and a great lad as well. I went with him to the Christmas party for the Spurs disabled supporters and we were supposed to be there for and an hour or so, but he stayed a lot longer. He met everybody, shook their hands and had photographs taken... He's a great character in the dressing room.
"But throughout the side there's characters. In front of the back two, there's Eric Dier, and the back two of Jan Vertonghen and Toby [Alderweireld]. It was inspired to sign Toby and put him alongside Jan, and we're looking very solid defensively, giving very little away and if you look at our goal difference, that says a lot.Canada rugby legend Jamie Cudmore has defended referee Ben Whitehouse after he allowed scrum-half Morgan Parra to return to the pitch, even though the player was apparently briefly knocked unconscious during Clermont's Champions Cup match against Northampton.
Whitehouse was criticised for a number of decisions in the game but Cudmore, now forwards coach at Top 14 side Oyonnax and founder of the Rugby Safety Network, believes it is unfair to lay all the blame at the referee's door.
Instead, he believes it brings the entire Head Injury Assessment (HIA) process -- which he describes as 'not fit for purpose' -- and clubs' attitude to player welfare into sharp relief.
"Rugby laws say that if a concussion is suspected, a player does not return to play," Cudmore said. "But the professional leagues have put the HIA in place to get around that law.
"Referees have an enormous amount of stress on their shoulders. They're watching things at a million miles an hour. For him to stop the play and have Morgan taken off right away, that was very good. That's what referees need to do. What happens afterwards is out of his hands.
"He would have been well within his rights to say he could not come back on but I think the fact Parra seemed okay after the hit: he was talking to the medic, got up on his own, walked with no problem to the sideline, maybe that swayed his judgement."
Whitehouse's decision received further support on Tuesday when European Professional Club Rugby, the organisers of the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup competitions, published the results of an independent review that ruled that Parra was correctly permitted to return to the field of play.
The EPCR statement highlighted that "an initial Head Injury Assessment (HIA) revealed no loss of consciousness on the part of the player" and that Parra had also passed the first stage of the HIA after leaving the pitch.
"The event involving Parra was referred in the first instance by Alligin Performance to Dr Mike Rossiter, Consultant in Sport and Exercise Medicine, who concluded that the clinical decision-making process was correct in allowing Parra to return to the field of play."
Parra was part of Clermont's side which claimed the Top 14 trophy last season. Jean Catuffe/Getty Images
The referee's mistake, Cudmore said, came before Parra was taken off: "Coming over and saying 'I think he's unconscious', didn't help because everybody on TV heard that and decided Parra's day was done."
But the incident also lays bare the problems with HIAs, Cudmore said: "To me that's where the whole HIA process comes into play. It really needs to be abolished. Sure, Parra came on 10 minutes later -- and he looked fine walking off -- but who really knows?
"We're not going to know more until this week, when he goes and sees the neurologist and they have some time to do some proper testing.
"You don't to learn anything in a hurry-up 10-minute period in a rugby stadium."
Many pundits insisted that Whitehouse should have refused to allow the player to return after his 10 minutes on the sidelines because of his earlier suggestion that the player was knocked out, but Cudmore believes that more responsibility should fall on the shoulders of the medical staff.
"It's too much to put it all on the referee," he added. "He's totally within his rights to say 'he's not coming back on', but he knew the HIA procedure was in place, so he went through each logical step: he saw a player who was injured and he called the medical staff. That's exactly what had to happen.
"When Parra returned, that falls to the medical staff. For me, they're taking a risk with their player.
Editor's Picks England's Hartley, Hughes and Marler cited England captain Dylan Hartley is one of three England forwards to have been cited following the weekend's European action.
Review finds Parra correctly allowed to return An independent review has found that Clermont Auvergne scrum-half Morgan Parra was correctly permitted to return in their victory over Northampton Saints at the weekend. 1 Related
"I know it was a big game, but I'm scared it's going to come to the point where a player has done his 10 minutes, passed his tests and come back on, and gets another knee in the head -- and comes off again on a stretcher with a blanket over his face."
For Cudmore, the current procedure is being abused by teams and the only solution is to abolish HIAs altogether. "It's not a law. The professional leagues have stepped around the law by putting HIAs in place.
"Teams are using that 10-minute period as 10 minutes off. They're swallowing the pill for 10 minutes -- almost like a yellow card -- knowing that once players have jumped through all the hoops on the sideline they'll go back on, almost regardless of what their scores on the [HIA] test were."
Cudmore is all-too aware of the risks of concussion. He was forced to the brink of retirement shortly before the 2015 Rugby World Cup after suffering a concussion while playing for Clermont in that year's European Champions Cup semifinal against Saracens.
Despite failing an HIA, he was allowed back onto the pitch and lined-up again for the club a fortnight later at the final at Twickenham. He lasted only a few minutes before going off after a tackle with'second impact syndrome'.
"It was too early to come back," he explained. "The first major contact I made was enough to send me off. I came back and then went off again, and then a third time in the second half. After vomiting, I was still allowed back."
He later told reporters: "It was very scary. The whole month of June I was sitting on my couch. I couldn't watch TV, I couldn't really do anything. I was stuck between the World Cup and retirement.
"I had all kinds of symptoms: headaches, being irritable, tired when you shouldn't be tired, then being really tired and not being able to sleep."It’s a pretty uneventful weekend after a busy one of last. Hubby and I opted for home cinema as I’ve already seen two of this weekend’s new releases: The Monuments Men and The LEGO movie. Click on the title to read my review of it, I actually agree with the critics on both films. It’s no wonder the latter is a big hit at the box office with nearly $70 mil, there’s really no competition for a family movie and it’s an awesome one for all ages!
I did see two very good older films I’ve missed out on: Europa Report and Pirate Radio [review coming next week]. I saw the latter partly as my attempt to see as many films of Philip Seymour Hoffman that I’ve missed out on. It can’t be more different in terms of tone and subject matter but I quite like both in varying degrees. Here’s my review of …
EUROPA REPORT
An international crew of astronauts undertakes a privately funded mission to search for life on Jupiter’s fourth largest moon called Europa.
This is not an action-packed kind of sci-fi movie like Elysium, so if you’re expecting that you’re probably not going to like this movie. It does start pretty slow but I quite like the realism style of filmmaking here, making it look more like a documentary that makes it look as if we’re watching real NASA footage. CEO of Europa Ventures Dr. Unger (Embeth Davitz) serves as a *talking head* of sort, explaining what happened with what’s happened in the Europa mission. The narrative switches back and forth between current time and flashback of the team of six astronauts who’re privately funded to explore one of Jupiter’s moons to see if there’s any potential sources of life.
The date on the screen shows that the crew has been on that ship for a long time, as weeks turns to months and even year. It’s fascinating to see the mood shift from the earlier time of the mission to the increasingly-dire time of their last days. There are barely any movie stars on this film, in fact there’s practically no leading role here as the ensemble cast seem to get equal screen time. I’ve loved Sharlto Copley from District-9, and there’s also Swedish actor Michael Nyqvist from the original Dragon Tattoo trilogy, plus Davitz who impressed me in Junebug and Mansfield Park. Those three are the only names I recognized in the film, but they as well as the entire International cast (Daniel Wu, Anamaria Marinca, Christian Camargo, and Karolina Wydra), did a nice job here.
There’s genuine tension throughout, which continues building as the ship lands somewhere and the crew start collecting Europa samples. One by one, each crew member is dealt a nasty blow, and the whole sequence felt all too real. In fact, one of the scenario of two space engineers Copley and Nyqvist, doing repair to the ship look so similar to an early scene in Gravity. This is definitely one of the most suspenseful and heart-wrenching scenes to watch, beautifully-acted by both actors. Props to director Sebastián Cordero for his effort considering this is only his fifth feature film.
Now, I’d have given this film a higher score if it weren’t for the rather clichéd ending that kind of make me roll my eyes. I was expecting something a bit more um, intelligent and realistic as that’s what the build-up seems to suggest. [SPOILER ALERT – highlight text if you want to read] I think if they’d go with some kind of natural gas/chemical substance that’s native to Europa but toxic to mankind and would also disrupt the ship’s electrical system, it’d have given the story a bit more weight. The whole ALIEN killing machine has been done to death and it makes the finale less impactful somehow.
My hubby said that as if the filmmakers were running out of ideas to end the film and just threw something together at the last minute. It’s a bummer as I think a bit more originality would’ve made this an excellent slow-burn sci-fi thriller. Still, it’s got enough going for it for me to recommend it if you’re a fan of the genre. I appreciate the performances and that it’s made in the true spirit of the sci-fi genre (see Conor’s article on this topic). The production values and effects are pretty good as well for its low budget of $10 mil.
3 out of 5 reels
What did YOU see this weekend? Any thoughts on Europa Report?
AdvertisementsUse of CT scans in children to deliver cumulative doses of about 50 mGy might almost triple the risk of leukaemia and doses of about 60 mGy might triple the risk of brain cancer. Because these cancers are relatively rare, the cumulative absolute risks are small: in the 10 years after the first scan for patients younger than 10 years, one excess case of leukaemia and one excess case of brain tumour per 10 000 head CT scans is estimated to occur. Nevertheless, although clinical benefits should outweigh the small absolute risks, radiation doses from CT scans ought to be kept as low as possible and alternative procedures, which do not involve ionising radiation, should be considered if appropriate.
During follow-up, 74 of 178 604 patients were diagnosed with leukaemia and 135 of 176 587 patients were diagnosed with brain tumours. We noted a positive association between radiation dose from CT scans and leukaemia (excess relative risk [ERR] per mGy 0·036, 95% CI 0·005–0·120; p=0·0097) and brain tumours (0·023, 0·010–0·049; p<0·0001). Compared with patients who received a dose of less than 5 mGy, the relative risk of leukaemia for patients who received a cumulative dose of at least 30 mGy (mean dose 51·13 mGy) was 3·18 (95% CI 1·46–6·94) and the relative risk of brain cancer for patients who received a cumulative dose of 50–74 mGy (mean dose 60·42 mGy) was 2·82 (1·33–6·03).
In our retrospective cohort study, we included patients without previous cancer diagnoses who were first examined with CT in National Health Service (NHS) centres in England, Wales, or Scotland (Great Britain) between 1985 and 2002, when they were younger than 22 years of age. We obtained data for cancer incidence, mortality, and loss to follow-up from the NHS Central Registry from Jan 1, 1985, to Dec 31, 2008. We estimated absorbed brain and red bone marrow doses per CT scan in mGy and assessed excess incidence of leukaemia and brain tumours cancer with Poisson relative risk models. To avoid inclusion of CT scans related to cancer diagnosis, follow-up for leukaemia began 2 years after the first CT and for brain tumours 5 years after the first CT.
Although CT scans are very useful clinically, potential cancer risks exist from associated ionising radiation, in particular for children who are more radiosensitive than adults. We aimed to assess the excess risk of leukaemia and brain tumours after CT scans in a cohort of children and young adults.
We did a study to directly assess the question of whether cancer risks are increased after CT scans in childhood and young adulthood. Here we assess the risks of leukaemia and brain tumours because they are the endpoints of greatest concern as the red bone marrow and brain are highly radiosensitive tissues, especially in childhood.Furthermore, these tissues are also some of the most highly exposed from childhood CT scans,and leukaemias and brain tumours are the most common childhood cancers.
CT imaging is a valuable diagnostic technique, and new clinical applications continue to be identified. As a result, the rates of CT use have increased rapidly in the USA and elsewhere, particularly in the past 10 years.Although the immediate benefit to the individual patient can be substantial, the relatively high radiation doses associated with CT compared with conventional radiography have raised health concerns.Potential increases in future cancer risk, attributable to the rapid expansion in CT use have been estimated with risk projection models, which are derived mainly from studies of survivors of the atomic bombs in Japan.These studies have been criticised because of concerns about how applicable the findings from this group are to the relatively low doses of radiation exposure from CT scans and to non-Japanese populations. Some investigators claim that there are no risks, or even beneficial effects, associated with low-dose radiation.No direct studies of cancer risk in patients who have undergone CT scans have been undertaken to date.
The sponsors of the study had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of the report. MSP and ABdG had full access to all the data in the study and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication.
We assessed potential associations between radiation dose and cancer outcomes with Poisson relative risk models fitted by maximum likelihood (see appendix ). To avoid inclusion of CT scans related to cancer diagnosis we began accrual of person-time for leukaemia incidence 2 years after the first CT scan and for brain tumours 5 years after the first CT scan. We continued accrual of data until date of first cancer diagnosis or the earliest of death, loss-to-follow-up, or Dec 31, 2008. Because it typically takes at least 2 years for radiation-related leukaemia to develop and 5 years for a solid cancer to develop,doses were lagged by 2 years for leukaemia and by 5 years for brain tumours. Application of the exclusions and lag periods are described in the appendix. We did sensitivity analyses in which the exclusion and lag periods were increased to 10 years for brain tumours, the follow-up period for leukaemia was decreased from 2008 to 2004, and the age at end of follow-up was restricted to patients younger than 25 years for leukaemia and younger than 28 years for brain tumours. We did significance tests on the basis of the likelihood-ratio test. Unless otherwise stated, we based CIs on the profile likelihood.When the statistical software failed to produce a convergent profile likelihood bound we used the Wald-based (Fisher information-based) confidence bound. All p values are two-sided and p<0·05 was regarded as significant. We did all statistical analyses with the DATAB and AMFIT modules of the EPICURE programme.
Estimated radiation doses to the brain and red bone marrow from one CT scan, by scan type, sex, and age at scan, as used in this study for scans after 2001
Table 1 Estimated radiation doses to the brain and red bone marrow from one CT scan, by scan type, sex, and age at scan, as used in this study for scans after 2001
CT scans deliver very non-uniform radiation doses across the body. Therefore, we assessed the risk of leukaemia and brain tumours in relation to estimated radiation absorbed doses in the appropriate organ (red bone marrow or brain), which were estimated for each type of scan without knowledge of case status. The absorbed dose from a CT scan depends on factors including age, sex, examination type, and year of scan. Data for the machine settings that also influence dose, such as milliampere seconds and peak kilovoltage, were not available for every individual patient from the electronic databases during the study period. Therefore, we obtained typical machine settings for CT in young people from UK-wide surveys undertaken in 1989 and 2003.We combined these data with those from a series of hybrid computational human phantomsand Monte Carlo radiation transport techniques to estimate absorbed doses to the red bone marrow and brain for reference males and females for integer years of age between 0 and 22 years. Table 1 shows estimated red bone marrow and brain doses from different CT examinations by age and sex after 2001. Dose estimates before 2001 were generally 2–3 times higher than were those after this date because age-specific technical settings were rarely used in earlier years.
The appendix shows details of the morphology codes used to define leukaemias. We examined four non-mutually exclusive leukaemia subgroups, which were acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, acute myeloid leukaemia, myelodysplastic syndromes, and leukaemia excluding myelodysplastic syndrome. We defined malignant and benign brain tumours with WHO's International Classification of Diseases for Oncology, 3rd edition topographic codes for meninges, brain, olfactory, and cranial nerves, and other parts of the CNS (spinal tumours were excluded). We examined two subgroups: glioma and meningioma plus schwannoma ( appendix ).
Linkage with the NHS Central Registry (NHSCR) provided cancer incidence, mortality and loss-to-follow-up data (eg, notified emigrations) from Jan 1, 1985, to Dec 31, 2008. The NHSCR holds computerised records of everyone registered with an NHS general practitioner in Great Britain (most residents). It is continuously updated with births, deaths, marriages, name changes, and movements of patients, and records cancer incidence from the regional cancer registries. We excluded patients from the cohort who had an exit date of less than 2 years in the case of leukaemia or less than 5 years for brain tumours after the first scan to reduce the possibility of inclusion of patients who had CT scans because a cancer was suspected. We also excluded patients who could not be traced by NHSCR, and those who had missing information or inaccurate information on the date of CT scan.
This study was approved by the Newcastle and North Tyneside Local Research Ethics Committee (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK) and by the UK National Information Governance Board, exempting the study from requiring individual patient's consent.
In our observational retrospective cohort study, we included patients without previous malignant disease who were first examined with CT between 1985 and 2002 when they were younger than 22 years of age. Patients were scanned at hospitals within 81 National Health Service (NHS) regional services in Great Britain (England, Wales, and Scotland). We assembled the cohort with historical data from electronic radiology information systems (RIS) from the participating hospitals or, for a small number of patients in five hospitals, from paper or film records. Retrieved data included date of birth, details of the CT examinations, sex, post code, and body parts scanned. We used the patient's identifiers to identify patients having scans in more than one hospital.
We noted little evidence of non-linearity of the dose-response, using either linear-quadratic or linear-exponential forms of departure from linearity (leukaemia exponential p=0·2672 and quadratic p=0·4683, brain tumour exponential p=0·9203 and quadratic p=0·8993). In sensitivity analyses in which all scans 10 years before brain tumour diagnosis were excluded, the magnitude of the dose-responses was increased rather than decreased as might be expected if the association was driven by bias from CT scans related to the diagnosis ( appendix ). When follow-up for leukaemia was restricted to 2004, the dose-response also increased, which was as expected given the short latency period for leukaemia and early peak in excess risk reported in previous studies.To assess whether the missing exposure data after age 22 years resulted in underestimation of doses and hence overestimation of the relative risks, we restricted follow-up to individuals younger than 28 years for brain tumours and individuals younger than 25 years for leukaemia, but this did not change the dose-response estimates.
We noted positive associations between CT scans and cancer subgroups of gliomas (p=0·0033), schwannoma and meningiomas (p=0·0195), acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (p=0·0053), and myelodysplastic syndromes (p=0·0032), but not acute myeloid leukaemia (p=0·2653) or leukaemia excluding myelodysplastic syndromes (p=0·1436; table 3 ). For leukaemia, the dose response did not vary between age at exposure, time since exposure, sex, or any other covariates examined ( table 4 ). However, for brain tumours there was significant heterogeneity (p=0·0003) in estimated RR (ERR) across categories of age at exposure, with ERR increasing with increasing age.
Compared with doses of less than 5 mGy, the relative risk (RR) of leukaemia for patients who received doses of at least 30 mGy (mean dose in this group was 51·13 mGy) was 3·18 (95% CI 1·46–6·94; appendix ). Compared with doses of less than 5 mGy, the RR of brain tumours for patients receiving 50–74 mGy (mean dose 60·42 mGy) was 2·82 (1·33–6·03; figure, appendix ), and for patients receiving 50 mGy or more (mean dose 104·16 mGy) the brain tumour RR is 3·32 (95% CI 1·84–6·42; appendix ). To put this into context, after 2001, 5–10 head CTs in children younger than 15 years result in the accumulation of about 50 mGy red bone marrow dose and 2–3 head CTs results in about a 60 mGy cumulative brain dose ( table 1 ).
The risk of leukaemia was positively associated with estimated doses delivered by CT scans to the red bone marrow (p=0·0097), as was the risk of brain tumours associated with estimated doses delivered by CT scans to the brain tissue (p<0·0001; figure ).
Relative risk of leukaemia and brain tumours in relation to estimated radiation doses to the red bone marrow and brain from CT scans
Figure Relative risk of leukaemia and brain tumours in relation to estimated radiation doses to the red bone marrow and brain from CT scans
We included 283 919 CT scans in the analysis of leukaemia risk, of which 64% (182 337 scans) were of the head. The next most common CT scan types were of the abdomen and/or pelvis (9%, 25 695 scans) and chest CT (7%, 18 910 scans; appendix ). The distribution of scan types was very similar for patients in the brain tumour analysis, but the total number of scans was slightly smaller than in the leukaemia analysis because of the longer exclusion period (279 824 scans). Table 2 lists the distributions of cases and overall person-years, by sex, age at first scan, attained age, years since first scan, and the number of scans.
After exclusion of 33 372 patients who could not be traced by NHSCR because of incomplete names or dates of birth in the RIS databases (and 960 non-UK resident patients) and those who were ineligible for follow-up because the exit date occurred less than 2 years in the case of leukaemia analyses or 5 years for brain tumours after the first scan (or when information, such as date of scan, was missing or obviously inaccurate), we included 178 604 individuals in the leukaemia analyses and 176 587 in the brain tumour analyses ( table 2 ).
Person-year data in the leukaemia group do not sum to the overall number because of rounding.
Discussion
In this retrospective cohort study, we show significant associations between the estimated radiation doses provided by CT scans to red bone marrow and brain and subsequent incidence of leukaemia and brain tumours. Assuming typical doses for scans done after 2001 in children aged younger than 15 years, cumulative ionising radiation doses from 2–3 head CTs (ie, ∼60 mGy) could almost triple the risk of brain tumours and 5–10 head CTs (∼50 mGy) could triple the risk of leukaemia.
19 Einstein AJ Effects of radiation exposure from cardiac imaging: how good are the data?. 20 Preston DL
Kusumi S
Tomonaga M
et al. Cancer incidence in atomic bomb survivors. Part III: leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma. 21 Cardis E
Vrijheid M
Blettner M
et al. Risk of cancer after low doses of ionising radiation: retrospective cohort study in 15 countries. 22 Boice Jr, JD
Preston D
Davis FG
Monson RR Frequent chest x-ray fluoroscopy and breast cancer incidence among tuberculosis patients in Massachusetts. 23 Davis F
Il'yasova D
Rankin K
McCarthy B
Bigner DD Medical diagnostic radiation exposures and risk of gliomas., 24 Blettner M
Schlehofer B
Samkange-Zeeb F
Berg G
Schlaefer K
Schüz J Medical exposure to ionising radiation and the risk of brain tumours: Interphone study group, Germany. Panel Research in context Systematic review 10 United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, 16 Committee to Assess Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation We searched PubMed and Medline databases without date or language restriction for articles with the search terms “computed tomography”, “ionizing radiation”, “cancer”, “radiation-induced neoplasms”, “case-control”, and “prospective”. We reviewed reports from scientific committees such as the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), and Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiations (BEIR), and also a broader range of publications and reports covering medical imaging and radiation exposure. We checked references from selected publications for relevance to this study including comments, correspondence, and editorials. Exposure to ionising radiation is an established risk factor for leukaemia and brain tumours.Although CT has important clinical uses, concerns exist about the potential cancer risks from the associated ionising radiation, particularly for children. Rates of CT use have been rising rapidly in the developed world. Interpretation Increases that we noted in incidence rates of leukaemia and brain tumours after childhood exposure to CT scans are unlikely to be due to confounding factors. The evaluated risks per unit dose were consistent with those derived from recent analyses of cohorts exposed to higher average radiation doses and dose rates. The current study supports the extrapolation of such risk models to doses from CT scans. Although no previous cohort studies have assessed the risk of cancer after CT, several studies have reported significantly increased cancer risks after radiation exposure in the range received from multiple CT scans (100 mGy).Such studies include those of survivors of the atomic bombs in Japan,nuclear workers,and patients who received tens of diagnostic radiographs.A few case-control studies have also assessed cancer risks from CT scans on the basis of self-reported history of diagnostic radiograph exposures.These studies might be subject to recall bias whereby patients are more likely to recall previous medical radiation exposures than are unaffected controls, and also high levels of reporting error. We avoided such bias by taking a cohort approach and assessing more accurate exposure histories from medical records ( panel ).
20 Preston DL
Kusumi S
Tomonaga M
et al. Cancer incidence in atomic bomb survivors. Part III: leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma. 10 United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, 16 Committee to Assess Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation 16 Committee to Assess Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation In terms of the quantitative estimates of the risk, our primary comparison for leukaemias and brain tumours is with the Life Span Studyof Japanese atomic bomb survivors, which is the most comprehensive study of cancer after radiation exposure currently available.The dose-response for leukaemia following childhood exposure and similar follow-up time (<15 years after exposure) in the Life Span Study was 0·045 per mSv (95% CI 0·016–0·188; appendix ) which was much the same as our estimate (ERR of 0·036 per mGy [0·005–0·120]; 1 mSv=1 mGy). For brain tumours, our result (ERR 0·023 per mGy [0·010–0·049]) was about four times higher than was the Life Span Study estimate (0·0061 per mSv [0·0001–0·0639] <20 years after exposure; appendix ), but the CIs are wide and overlapped. We had reduced power to examine risks by subtype of neoplasm, age, or time since exposure compared with the Life Span Study, partly because of the more restricted ranges of length of follow-up and age at exposure. The increased risks noted in our study compared with the Life Span Study might be because existing tumours in some patients were not detected at the time of their first CT. The relatively low-energy x-radiation from CT scans might also be about twice as biologically effective per unit dose as the mainly high-energy γ-rays that were the predominant exposure source from the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
25 Office for National Statistics 10 United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation Our large study sample was collected from a wide range of hospitals in Great Britain. Because most medical attendances at hospitals in Great Britain, particularly for the age group in this study, are in public, free-to-access, NHS hospitals, the sample is probably representative of the childhood and young adult population in the country as a whole who undergo CT. Ascertainment of cancer diagnoses by NHSCR is estimated to be 97%and therefore there is a low likelihood of losses to follow-up. Patients who were excluded because linkage to their records was not possible had similar characteristics to those who were linked and thus should not have biased conclusions. Because we assessed children and young adults, our results are directly applicable to a highly radiosensitive section of the population,although whether the results can be generalised to adulthood CT scans has not been established. Moreover, because most (>80%) of the population assessed was white, whether the results are generalisable to other ethnic groups is unknown.
26 Ahmed BA
Connolly BL
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simplicity, keeps echoing back: He's not politically correct.
Sure, you can easily find Trump supporters who are only fans of his because they're blatantly racist, nationalist, or sexist (or sometimes, if you're lucky, a winning combination of all three). For these supporters, it's likely just nice to have a candidate openly espousing the same distasteful feelings that they've always harbored. But for every one of these Trump fans, there are plenty of others who claim that even though they don't actually like the content of what Trump is saying, they appreciate the fact that he is openly saying it. In one supporter's words, Trump is "an a**hole, but at least he's honest, and isn't really into bullsh****ng people." Another claims to like Trump because he "isn't a pandering politician…[and] the rest of the field looks slimy and self-serving [in comparison]."
With all of this focus on how Trump is appealing because of his brutal honesty, it begs the question -- what exactly is it about "political correctness" that turns off so many potential voters? And why is Trump's brazen honesty appealing to so many?
This weekend, I'll be publishing a series of three posts, each one expanding on a specific psychological explanation for why Trump is having such a successful run by capitalizing on his reputation as "the anti-PC candidate."
Trump's honesty is likely winning him voters who find his "put-it-all-out-there" candidness dependable -- and comforting. Image Credit: Gage Skidmore.
Trump May Be Disagreeable—But To Some Voters, That's Better Than Being A Flip-Flopper
Think back to a time in your life when you and a bunch of other people you knew were on the precipice of a big life change -- maybe your senior year of high school or college, when you and many of your peers were all waiting to find out what jobs you would be entering or what universities you would be attending after graduation. Specifically, think back on those few months when you knew your life would be changing soon, but you didn't quite know yet what that change would specifically entail -- you didn't know which colleges would grant you acceptance, which jobs would offer you an interview, or what opportunities would eventually present themselves.
Did you have one friend who embraced that sense of uncertainty, viewing it with a sense of enthusiasm and thrill, excited about the prospect of embarking on an unknown adventure? Did you have another friend who hated every moment of not knowing what would come next, feeling anxious and uneasy until the minute that every single detail of his/her plan had fallen into a definite, guaranteed place?
Those two friends likely fell on opposite ends of the spectrum for a personality trait known as ambiguity (or uncertainty) intolerance, and research happens to show that people high in ambiguity intolerance -- those who feel uneasy or anxious in the presence of uncertainty -- are significantly more likely to be politically conservative. This correlation makes a lot of sense when you stop and think about the fact that political conservatism, at its ideological core, really just consists of an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality that values tradition and stability over societal upheaval and social change.
However, it makes even more sense once you read the seminal research on ambiguity intolerance and learn more about other personality tendencies that tend to go hand in hand with it. For example, according to early researcher Frenkel-Brunswik, ambiguity-intolerant people tend to "like dichotomous conceptions of the sex roles...and of interpersonal relationships in general...are less permissive, and lean toward rigid categorization of cultural norms" (1948). It is likely not surprising that people with predispositions towards strict social role categorization and wanting a sense of "certainty" would be drawn more to political conservatism than to liberalism, which often values things like fluid conceptualizations of gender roles and the challenging/questioning of traditional cultural norms -- the exact opposite of what would make someone high in ambiguity intolerance feel comfortable.
What may be surprising, however, is the research showing that people high in ambiguity intolerance feel so profoundly uncomfortable with the idea of uncertainty, they will often prefer a slightly negative yet certain outcome to a potentially-more-positive, uncertain one. In other words, people may find Donald Trump to be disagreeable, abrasive, or downright unlikeable. But because of his reputation for "telling it like it is" and "being honest to a fault," they also feel certain that they can believe Trump when he says he's telling the truth.
Essentially, Trump comes across as the "dependable" candidate -- to the extent that you can dependably count on him to consistently say anything and everything on his mind, and you don't have to worry that he's trying to hide what he truly thinks or feels. To someone who hates ambiguity, that candidate probably feels a lot more intuitively comforting than a more pleasant, likeable candidate who runs the risk of actually being an authentic-self-masking "flip-flopper." For the significant faction of the conservative voter base that will naturally feel quite anxious when things are ambiguous and will cringe at the thought of a politician whom they find difficult to read, a candidate who seems to be "putting it all out there" and provides no room for ambiguity regarding his political positions will be refreshing -- and quite desirable.
But...why exactly do people believe that Trump really is telling the truth? After all, he has been criticized for his shifting stance on abortion, he's running with the Republican party after years of close ties to Democratic candidates, and he once made the very un-Republican suggestion that the wealthiest 1% of Americans should pay a one-time 14.25% tax on their entire net worth to wipe out the national debt, an idea that bears very little similarity to his current stance in favor of huge tax cuts for the wealthy.
Well, there's actually a good psychological reason why we're more likely to think Trump is actually being "honest" with what he's saying, even in the face of evidence that suggests he really might be "flip-flopping" as much as any other "ambiguous" candidate.
Come back for Part II tomorrow to find out what that reason is.
___
References
Frenkel-Brunswik, E. (1948). Intolerance of ambiguity as an emotional perceptual personality variable. Journal of Personality, 18, 108–143
Jost, J.T., Glaser, J., Kruglanski, A.W., & Sulloway, F.J. (2003). Political conservatism as motivated social cognition. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 339-375.
Further Reading
Decoding Trump-Mania: The Psychological Allure of Hating Political Correctness, Part 2
Decoding Trump-Mania: The Psychological Allure of Hating Political Correctness, Part 3
Image Credits
All Donald Trump images: Gage Skidmore, via Flickr and Wikimedia Commons.Obscure Perl trick: single-quote separators
One of the delights of working in an old language with penchant for backwards-compatibility is discovering some of the artifacts that remain. A couple of weeks ago I was reading perlmod and came across this:
The old package delimiter was a single quote … which was there to make Ada programmers feel like they knew what was going on … the old-fashioned syntax is still supported for backwards compatibility
How interesting! Ada uses a single quote as an attribute delimiter, similar to the possessive in English:
Customer'name
In Perl, I can replace the use of the two colon separator with a single quote. So this simple package declaration and script:
package My::Customer; sub name { 'Dobby the Sheep' } package main; print My::Customer::name();
Becomes:
package My'Customer; sub name { 'Dobby the Sheep' } package main; print My'Customer'name();
You can see that the single quote can replace both namespace separators in the package name, and attribute accessors in the call to name(). Running this code prints “Dobby the Sheep” as expected, but the syntax highlighting is pretty messed up in my editor.
ReferencesUse Network Link Conditioner When Testing Your App
Yogev Sitton Blocked Unblock Follow Following Feb 21, 2016
Network Link Conditioner
One thing that is often being over looked when putting an app through QA is working with different variations of quality of the device’s internet connection. Usually the QA makes sure everything works as it should, then turns off WiFi, turns on Airplane Mode and makes sure the app knows how to handle “no internet”.
Developers need to support both cases so apps won’t just crash when trying to query an unreachable server. You can decide on a set of features that is available for offline mode and another set that is restricted to online mode only. You can also decide to block the use of the app altogether in case of no internet.
Unfortunately for us mobile developers — these are not the only two states of an app. Most of your users will be using 3G or 4G in one point or another while interacting with your app instead of the more (usually) stable WiFi. Connection speed and quality may vary.
It’s easy to imagine cases where a user is using your app while driving. What will happen if the road will suddenly go into a tunnel? How will your app handle the sudden connection loss? What if a user enters a building and takes a long elevator? Also — there are cases where the iPhone will think it’s connected to the internet but lose all or most of it’s bandwidth.
Fortunately for us iOS developers — Apple has provided a great tool for just that.
Xcode provides a tool called Network Link Conditioner that can simulate various network conditions, including reduced bandwidth, high latency, DNS delays, packet loss, and so on. Before you ship any software that uses networking, you should install this tool, enable it, then run your software to see how it performs under real-world conditions.
Network Link Conditioner Profiles Management
With Network Link Conditioner it is very easy to check your app still behaves as expected with an unstable/bad connection. It comes with it’s own preset profiles (100% loss, 3G, High Latency DNS, Very Bad Network, etc…) and allows you to make custom profiles of your own.
When turning Network Link Conditioner ON it will affect the connection of your machine. You should remember that. More than once I was frustrated with the sudden slowness of the internet speed in the office — only to remember a few seconds later I was still using Network Link Conditioner.
The fact that your entire machine is affected makes it easy to test your app and check how it handles connection issues in a simulator. While the Network Link Conditioner is turned on a big exclamation mark will be featured on the status bar - helping you remember you are now testing slow internet connection.
Network Link Conditioner on a real device
You can also use Network Link Conditioner on actual devices that have been enabled for development. First, go to the Settings app, search for the Developer section (which will appear only on devices that has been used for development) and then search for the Network Link Conditioner section. TA-DA! Network testing on a real device. Just remember to turn it off when you are done testing.
In order to install Mac OS’s Network Link Conditioner you must first download the Hardware IO Tools for Xcode 7 from this link.After getting your engagement photos back from your photographer, you probably shared the best shots on Facebook and emailed them to your entire family. But what about those other shots that didn't quite make the cut?
North Carolina couple Ali Brown and Derek Pinkerton compiled all of their engagement photo "outtakes" into a hilarious slideshow and posted them to Imgur and Reddit on Sunday. Brown told HuffPost Weddings in an email that her future sister-in-law Elisa Pinkerton took the photos earlier this month, and that although most turned out beautifully, some poses quickly went from "adorable" to "hilariously awkward."
"While Derek and I love the more traditional (a.k.a. attractive) photos we used on the website and will use on the save-the-dates, I think we'll always enjoy looking at our ridiculous outtake photos and remembering how much fun we had that day," Brown said. "The photos are also a great reminder that some of the imperfect moments of the planning and the actual wedding may end up being some of our favorite memories."
Check out the photos below:
We love when couples aren't afraid to get goofy with their wedding photos -- like one couple who made fun of modeling cliches for their engagement shoot, and pretty much all of these awkward couples.
Click through the slideshow below to see more hilariously awkward engagement photos.
Awkward Engagement Photos SEE GALLERYBy ERIC A. POWELL
July/August 2015
Scientists recently examined a silver ring holding a gem engraved with the word “Allah” that was discovered in a Viking-era woman’s grave by Swedish archaeologists in the late nineteenth century. The team used a scanning electron microscope to determine that the gem, thought to be an amethyst, is actually colored glass, which would have been an exotic material in the Viking world. They also discovered that the ring is still in mint condition, with no sign of wear. “That means it was not an heirloom passed from person to person that randomly ended up in Scandinavia,” says Stockholm University biophysicist Sebastian Wärmländer, who led the team. “The ring was brought here soon after it was made, and corroborates ancient tales about direct contact between Viking Age Scandinavia and the Islamic world.”The Turkish Football Federation (TFF) has agreed on appointing Romanian coach Mircea Lucescu as the next coach of the Turkish national football team.
The signing ceremony is scheduled to take place in Istanbul on Friday, the federation said in a statement. Lucescu, who is expected to sign a two-year contract with a one-year option, has previously coached Turkish clubs Galatasaray and Beşiktaş.
He will succeed Fatih Terim, who resigned on July 26.
After Şenol Güneş and Abdullah Avcı both declined the offer to coach the Turkish national side, all eyes had turned towards Lucescu.
The Romanian coach has proven track records for Galatasaray, Beşiktaş and Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk.
After managing local clubs and the Romanian national team, Lucescu pursued his coaching career in Italy for almost a decade where he coached clubs including Pisa, Brescia, Reggiana and Inter Milan.
He took the helm in Galatasaray in 2000 and won the UEFA Super Cup against Real Madrid. Under Lucescu, the lions played UEFA Champions League quarter finals in the 2000-01 season where they lost to Real Madrid. The next year, Galatasaray won the Super League title and was knocked out in the second round of the Champions League. However, he was sacked at the end of the season and was replaced by Fatih Terim.
Shortly after his departure from Galatasaray, he signed a contract with rivals Beşiktaş in June 2002. The next season started off well but after a disastrous second half, Lucescu decided to leave Turkey. In 2004, he joined Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk and led their rise to prominence in the country and in European football.This special telephone Morgan Poll was conducted over three nights this week, July 20-22, 2015 with an Australia-wide cross section of 587 electors.
A telephone Morgan Poll over three nights this week (July 20-22, 2015) finds:
Former Liberal Party Leader Malcolm Turnbull is again clearly preferred as Liberal Leader by 44% of electors (up 6% since April 21-23, 2015) well ahead of Deputy Liberal Leader Julie Bishop 15% (down 12%) and Prime Minister Tony Abbott 13% (up 1%).
L-NP voters also narrowly prefer Turnbull as Liberal Party Leader 32% (up 2%), ahead of Prime Minister Tony Abbott 26% (up 1%), Deputy Liberal Leader Julie Bishop 16% (down 9%) and Scott Morrison 13% (up 5%). All are now well ahead of Treasurer Joe Hockey 4% (unchanged).
Deputy ALP Leader Tanya Plibersek 26% (up 3%) of electors is still the preferred Labor Leader ahead of Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Anthony Albanese 19% (up 6%), Opposition Leader Bill Shorten 12% (down 9%) and former Treasurer Wayne Swan 10% (unchanged).
Tanya Plibersek 32% (up 2%) is also preferred amongst ALP supporters ahead of Bill Shorten 17% (down 9%), Anthony Albanese 16% (up 5%) and Wayne Swan 9% (unchanged).
If Mr Abbott were to resign as Prime Minister tomorrow, electors clearly prefer Malcolm Turnbull 47% (up 7%) ahead of Julie Bishop 19% (down 11%). Their support is more evenly matched amongst L-NP voters with Turnbull 37% (up 3%) preferred to Bishop 24% (down 8%) and Scott Morrison 21% (up 8%).
If Labor Leader Bill Shorten were to resign for any reason, Tanya Plibersek 29% (up 3%) is clearly preferred as ALP Leader ahead of Anthony Albanese 21% (up 5%) and Wayne Swan 12% (down 3%). Their support amongst ALP voters favours Plibersek 38% (up 4%) even more preferred to Albanese 20% (up 3%) and Swan 11% (down 4%).
Gary Morgan says:
“Australians aren’t fond of either major party leader - Prime Minister Tony Abbott 13% (up 1% since April) trails both former Liberal Party Leader Malcolm Turnbull 44% (up 6%) and Deputy Leader Julie Bishop 15% (down 12%) as preferred Liberal Party Leader while Opposition Leader Bill Shorten 12% (down 9%) is well behind Deputy ALP Leader Tonya Plibersek 26% (up 3%) and former ALP leadership rival Anthony Albanese 19% (up 6%) as preferred ALP Leader in the eyes of Australian electors. “Abbott has consistently trailed Turnbull over the past few years on this measure, however, Shorten was the preferred ALP Leader as recently as January and has lost more than half of his support over the past 6 months. “Even amongst L-NP supporters – who have traditionally favoured Abbott over both Turnbull and Bishop – Turnbull has for the second straight survey retained the most support as the preferred Liberal Party Leader 32% (up 2%) ahead of Abbott 26% (up 1%) while Bishop 16% (down 9%) has lost a great deal of support over the past few months. “Worryingly for Shorten, Deputy ALP Leader Plibersek 32% (up 2%) is clearly the choice of ALP voters well ahead of both Shorten 17% (down 9%) and Albanese 16% (up 5%). It appears Australian electors haven’t been impressed by Shorten’s recent appearance at the Royal Commission into Trade Unions. However, whilst Abbott can be voted out of the leadership by the Liberal Party room – Shorten can’t be removed before the next election given the new rules surrounding a change of leadership adopted by the Federal ALP.”
This special telephone Morgan Poll was conducted over three nights this week, July 20-22, 2015 with an Australia-wide cross section of 587 electors.
Visit the Roy Morgan Online Store to browse our Voter Profiles by electorate, detailed Voting Intention Demographics Reports and Most important Political Issue Reports (all 150 electorates ranked by an issue).
Preferred Coalition Leader
Electors were asked: “If you were a Liberal or National Party voter and helping to choose the Coalition Leader for the next Federal Election, who would you prefer?”
Tony Abbott as Prime Minister Analysis by Federal Voting Intention Sep 30-Oct 2,
2014 Jan 12-13,
2015 April 21-23,
2015 July 20-22,
2015 L-NP ALP Greens Ind/ Other % % % % % % % % Turnbull 38 36 38 44 32 56 62 32 J. Bishop 16 26 27 15 16 15 14 19 Abbott 19 14 12 13 26 4 2 13 Morrison 2 2 5 5 13 1 - - Joyce 3 4 3 5 4 4 6 11 Hockey 6 4 5 5 4 5 4 7 Pyne 1 2 2 1 1 1 2 2 Robb * * * * - - 1 2 Someone else 1 1 1 1 * 1 1 1 Can’t say 14 11 7 11 4 13 8 13 TOTAL 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
*Indicates support for this candidate of less than 0.5%.
Preferred Coalition Leader other than Tony Abbott
Electors who preferred Tony Abbott were then asked:
“Still thinking about helping choose the Coalition Leader for the next Federal Election, who would you prefer out of: Malcolm Turnbull, Julie Bishop, Joe Hockey, Andrew Robb, Christopher Pyne, Barnaby Joyce & Scott Morrison?”
The answers were added to those preferred Coalition Leader from the previous question to show preferred leaders other than Tony Abbott.
Tony Abbott as Prime Minister Analysis by Federal Voting Intention Sep 30-Oct 2,
2014 Jan 12-13,
2015 April 21-23,
2015 July 20-22,
2015 L-NP ALP Greens Ind/ Other % % % % % % % % Turnbull 42 38 40 47 37 57 64 35 J. Bishop 23 32 30 19 24 15 14 23 Morrison 3 3 7 8 21 1 - - Joyce 4 4 4 7 7 5 6 13 Hockey 9 6 6 6 7 6 4 8 Pyne 2 3 2 2 2 1 2 5 Robb * * 1 * - - 1 2 Someone else 1 1 1 1 * 1 1 1 Can’t say 16 13 9 10 2 14 8 13 TOTAL 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
*Indicates support for this candidate of less than 0.5%.
Preferred Labor Leader
Electors were then asked: “If you were a Labor Party voter and helping to choose the Labor leader for the next Federal Election, who would you prefer?”
Prime Minister Tony Abbott Analysis by Federal Voting Intention Sep 30-Oct 2,
2014 Jan 12-13,
2015 April 21-23,
2015 July 20-22,
2015 L-NP ALP Greens Ind/ Other % % % % % % % % Plibersek 18 18 23 26 16 32 42 21 Albanese 15 10 13 19 25 16 13 15 Shorten 21 25 21 12 10 17 6 10 Swan 10 10 10 10 11 9 15 9 Bowen 6 6 5 7 7 8 3 6 Burke 3 5 4 4 6 3 2 10 Macklin 4 5 4 4 4 2 6 2 Someone else 2 2 1 2 * 2 4 1 Can’t say 21 19 19 16 21 11 9 26 TOTAL 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Preferred Labor Leader other than Bill Shorten
Electors who preferred Bill Shorten as ALP Leader were then asked:
“Still thinking about helping choose the Labor leader for the next Federal Election, who would you prefer out of: Anthony Albanese, Wayne Swan, Jenny Macklin, Chris Bowen, Tanya Plibersek or Tony Burke?”
The answers were added to those preferred for Labor Leader from the previous question to show preferred leaders other than Bill Shorten.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott Analysis by Federal Voting Intention Sep 30-Oct 2,
2014 Jan 12-13,
2015 April 21-22,
2015 July 20-22,
2015 L-NP ALP Greens Ind/ Other % % % % % % % % Plibersek 21 21 26 29 17 38 47 22 Albanese 19 14 16 21 27 20 13 16 Swan 14 16 15 12 13 11 16 12 Bowen 8 9 8 7 9 9 3 6 Burke 3 7 5 5 6 3 2 10 Macklin 5 7 6 4 4 3 7 2 Someone else 2 2 1 2 * 2 4 1 Can’t say 28 24 23 20 24 14 8 31 TOTAL 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
For further information:
Contact Office Mobile Gary Morgan: +61 3 9224 5213 +61 411 129 094 Michele Levine: +61 3 9224 5215 +61 411 129 093
The Morgan Poll is conducted by the ONLY Australian and New Zealand member of the Gallup International Association.
No other public opinion poll taken in Australia has this qualification.Puzzlement; who is 'winning' the so-called "war-on-drugs?"
This fifth in a series of articles pertaining to the "War on Drugs" illustrates a huge disconnect from our government toward average citizens.
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To write this piece, I interviewed my brother, 18 year veteran police officer and detective, Howard Wooldridge (retired), now with Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, www.leap.cc, stationed in Washington, DC.
"One hundred and forty two years ago lawmakers amended the United States Constitution to eliminate slavery and give full citizenship to the freed slaves," Officer Wooldridge said. "How well has 'freedom' worked for the descendants of slaves? Certainly there has been tremendous progress in the past several decades. Record numbers of African-Americans hold elected offices and important positions in government.
"Just as certain, millions of blacks have been put in chains, lost their votes, even had their children taken away from them. Black neighborhoods are too often plagued with violence, crime and despair. For over 100 years Jim Crow kept the black population from enjoying citizenship. In the past 36 years the 'War on Drugs' has devastated African-Americans nearly as much as Jim Crow."
By the late 1960s Jim Crow laws of the South disappeared.
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The KKK's power to intimidate blacks and local politicians vanished like a raindrop in the Sahara Desert. With the Voting Rights Act of 1965, millions of blacks voted for the first time. African-Americans made progress economically, educationally, spiritually and politically. The Old South would never be the same, or at least it seemed that would happen. The future appeared bright.
"Then, President Nixon launched a 'War on Drugs' in 1971," Officer Howard Wooldridge said. "He committed the United States to a 'drug-free' America, established the Drug Enforcement Administration and poured money into law enforcement to stop this'scourge.' President Reagan continued this battle cry of a 'drug-free' America and added mandatory minimums to those possessing or selling drugs.
We 'public-service troops' in law enforcement knew it to be a "War on People" – mostly People of Color. Whether by design, ignorance or lack of research, the New Prohibition policy has been nothing short of devastating to people of color – black Americans in particular.
Blatant discrimination; blacks are the losers
"Due to racial profiling and the nature by which blacks sell drugs openly on the streets, they are incarcerated at a ratio of about eight to one over white drug dealers. As they are more visible to buyers, so are they more obvious to others who want the dealer's money, drugs and selling turf. Thus, everyone buys weapons to protect themselves or to rob and kill the dealers.
"Black neighborhoods have been for decades plagued by gunfire and death. Minor disputes escalate into deadly force being employed. The quality of life in a black neighborhood, never that prosperous, has been dramatically lowered due to another, unintended consequence of drug prohibition."
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Life has been cheapened by the decades of violent deaths.
A recent drive-by shooting in Washington DC resulted in seven people hit by bullets as everyone ducked for cover. Because it happened that the victims were black, the local paper buried it on page 17. Since the policy of the drug war gives a job option to a million teens, thousands have been shot and killed. However, no one outside the victim's family raises an eyebrow when a 15 year old dies on the street corner. We no longer react to the horror of a violent death at such a young age, especially when the victim is black.
"Homeowners put iron bars across all the windows, trying to stop thieves," Officer Wooldridge said. "Every year dozens of black children die in house fires, unable to get out. These young, innocent victims never saw another birthday because of drug prohibition. You may not count them as drug war victims – but I do.
Political solution has become more difficultTransitional Interfaces
Pasquale D’Silva Blocked Unblock Follow Following Apr 8, 2013
Designers love to sweat the details. Much time is spent pixel-fucking buttons, form styles, setting type, & getting those icons as sharp as a tack. A+, great job, don't stop you guys.
...but there's little consideration about how it all fits together outside of a static comp. You tap a button and the form just...appears? You swipe to delete an item and it just vanishes? That’s super weird and un-natural. Nearly nothing in the real world does anything as jarringly as just swapping states. It would feel like a glitch.
Oh, ok sweet. You made some notes — it just “slides in.”
How? Quickly? Does it bounce back? Cushion in? Static design doesn't provide context between states.
Folks keep throwing around the word “delight” when referring to animation and cute interactions. Cool and great for those guys. Guess what though? Animation can be used functionally too. It's not just an embellished detail.
Animation leverages an overlooked dimension — time! An invisible fabric which stitches space together. You don't have to be a math dork to understand this.
Let's take a look at some simple ideas:
Easing/cushioning
In traditional animation, a breakdown determines how a mass moves from Point A to Point B. It adds bias to motion, and determines how the rest of the frames fall into place. Take these 25 frame interpolations, where frame 13 (the middle-ish point) varies in position:Man upset (Shutterstock)
Three Cincinnati police officers have been suspended after they were charged with covering up a crash that involved another officer who fatally shot a musician four years ago.
Sgt. Andrew Mitchell crashed his personal vehicle while off-duty about 5 a.m. on March 22 in the city’s West End neighborhood after three witnesses reported an apparently drunk driver in a van just like his, reported WLWT-TV.
“This man in a gray van was flying around the corners,” one caller told 911 dispatchers. “He is drunk as hell, ma’am, he is drunk as hell. He ran every stop sign. He was right in front of me.”
Officer Jason Cotterman was called to the scene to investigate, and the initial police report indicated Mitchell had swerved to avoid a left-of-center vehicle and crashed into a utility pole in the 600 block of West McMicken Street – where 42 people were arrested a month later in a prostitution blitz.
The police report made no mention of Mitchell’s position as a police sergeant or the location of the crash, and officers failed to account for his activities prior to the crash.
Cotterman and Sgt. Richard Sulfsted prevented other investigators from testing Mitchell’s sobriety and arranged for him to be taken home without charging him, according to court documents.
The police department launched an internal affairs investigation after learning of a possible cover-up, and they found the officers had ignored witness statements and failed to properly investigate the crash or its cause.
Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell said the situation was quickly handled after investigators learned of the apparent cover-up, but local media have been requesting records – including the 911 call recordings – since at least April.
Mitchell was charged Friday with reckless operation of a vehicle, operation without reasonable control of a vehicle and a safety belt violation, and his police powers were suspended until the case is resolved.
Cotterman and Sulfsted were each charged Saturday with two counts of dereliction of duty and four counts of obstruction of justice, and they were also suspended.
Sulfsted’s police powers were suspended two days after the crash, while Cotterman lost his police powers on May 1.
Sulfsted was also charged with illegal conveyance of weapons, drugs or other prohibited items onto the grounds of a detention facility — but it’s not clear whether that count is related to the crash and cover-up.
Mitchell still faces a federal civil rights lawsuit in the fatal shooting of 40-year-old David “Bones” Hebert in April 2011 after a man claimed the drummer and cook had assaulted and robbed him with a pirate sword. (Disclosure: The author was acquainted with Hebert.)
Police spotted Hebert and a woman sitting on a sidewalk about 10 minutes later, and officers claimed the heavily tattooed musician drew a knife before Mitchell fired twice – killing him.
An investigation found that Mitchell and other officers got too close to Hebert, who had a blood alcohol level of.33 and traces of psychedelic mushrooms and marijuana in his system, and had no plan for engaging him before the fatal confrontation – but all three officers were cleared by an internal investigation.
Hebert’s family filed a wrongful death suit in 2012 against the officers and the police department.
Mitchell was sued in 2008 after he was accused of improperly using a Taser on a teenager from his patrol car.
The teen, Christopher Bauer, was wearing headphones and apparently did not hear the officer’s command to stop before he was shocked and fell face forward onto the pavement.
Mitchell was eventually placed on a 40-hour suspension in connection with the incident.
All three officers are due to appear in court next week in connection with the crash and subsequent cover-up.
Watch this video report posted online by WLWT-TV:Valencia Valencia Getafe Getafe 2 2 FT Game Details GameCast
Lineups and Stats
Paco Alcacer equalised with Valencia's first goal against Getafe.
Valencia were held to a 2-2 draw by Getafe at the Mestalla as new head coach Gary Neville continued his wait for a first Primera Division victory.
All four goals were scored in the first half, with Getafe twice taking the lead through Pablo Sarabia and Angel Lafita only for Valencia to respond each time via Paco Alcacer and Santi Mina.
Valencia boss Neville has now drawn his first two league matches, although he has suffered a defeat in the Champions League and earned his sole victory in the Copa del Rey.
Getafe, who started the day in 15th place but were only a point above the relegation zone, took an early lead on 10 minutes.
Jose Gaya fouled Cala just outside the penalty area. Midfielder Sarabia curled the resulting free-kick up over the wall and past the desperate dive of Valencia keeper Jaume.
The lead, however, lasted only four minutes.
Joao Cancelo advanced down the left channel, before floating the ball into the Getafe area, where Alcacer arrived to send a superb volley inside the near post.
Neville was soon lamenting more poor defending as Aymen Abdennour sent a stray pass along the backline, which Victor Rodriguez latched onto before feeding Lafita on the edge of the area and he put the visitors back in front on 22 minutes.
Getafe thought they had gone further ahead when centre-back Cala nodded in from close range after a free-kick into the penalty area, but was flagged offside.
Valencia equalised again on 35 minutes after substitute Mina, who had just replaced the injured Gaya, tapped home following a flowing team-move as Cancelo charged down the left and fed Alcacer, who slid the ball across the six-yard box.
The home side dominated for large spells of the second half, and came close to a late winner when Daniel Parejo's free-kick was clawed off the line by goalkeeper Vicente Guaita.
Getafe could have won it themselves in stoppage time, but Lafita saw his effort come back off the crossbar.WASHINGTON, May 3 (UPI) -- A website offering "fake doctors notes" to help customers get out of work, school or other duties is offering a 100-percent-refund guarantee.
The website, BestFakeDoctorsNotes.net, offers phony excuses purporting to be from healthcare providers including general practitioners, dentists, gynecologists, oncologists and other types of doctors.
The site offers purported testimonials from supposedly satisfied customers who used the faux doctors notes to get out of work and school commitments.
There are even YouTube videos featuring blurred-out faces of alleged customers who praised the realism of the notes.
The service includes call-back numbers that will play a pre-loaded MP3 message to anyone who tries to verify the authenticity of the notes.
The site offers a one-year "no questions asked" refund guarantee for anyone whose notes fail to pass scrutiny.
Attorney David Aylor, who is not associated with the business, said a disclaimer on the website protects BestFakeDoctorsNotes from any legal action stemming from illegal use of the fake notes.
"They state clearly that this is fictitious doctors and fictitious names, fictitious hospitals," Aylor told WCIV-TV. "When you look at the promotion of it; what they are promoting is the authenticity of the looking in that it could be used as a form of trickery of an employer getting out of work and getting paid for it."
He said the site would be unlikely to face any legal action from duped employers or customers whose fake notes fail to fool their targets.
"What you can claim as an owner of the website is that you have no idea what someone is using it for in that once you sell it," he said. "What they determine what they want |
Japan are powerful institutions and are even more influential on the culture than many Western pop idols are in the West. So prominent are they within Japanese society, that there is an entire genre of Japanese manga comics which focuses specifically on stories about obscure people rising to the heights of super-stardom and becoming pop idols. Unlike in the West, J-pop idols are always looked up to and expected to be positive examples for young people.
This mythology surrounding the J-pop idol has come into being for a very good reason. In the past, an idol had to be initiated at a talent agency from an early age and pass many gruelling tests of their abilities in many different pop groups before they could attest to true pop idol status. So, you could be sure, if you saw a J-pop idol, that a phenomenal amount of effort and hard work had been put into it to get them into the position they are in now.
A perfect example of this traditional process for creating pop idols is J-pop idol, Suzuka Nakamoto. Also known as “Su-Metal” in the popular J-pop group “Baby Metal”, Nakamoto’s career followed a fairly typical path to stardom for a J-pop idol. She was signed to a talent agency before she was ten years old after having won a talent audition. She was then placed in a kid’s idol group called “Karen Girl’s”. When she became a young teen, she was placed in teen idol group “Sakura Gakuin”. She was then chosen to be the lead singer in wildly popular group “Babymetal”, which has helped define the new genre of “Cute Metal”. Since agencies first began taking control of the J-pop scene back in the early 1990s, this was literally the only way to become a J-pop star.
A New Grassroots Approach
With the great expansion of the Internet over the 2010s, the whole world has become more “grassroots” in how it approaches everything, from celebrities to advertising. The spread of social media has democratized talent, in a way. Nowadays anyone with the creativity and intelligence to generate a following can make it pay, for themselves as well as for their potential investors. This is the way of the world nowadays, and J-pop is not immune to that.
The perfect example of this new way of making yourself known as a pop artist is the now uber-popular J-pop idol “Kyary Pamyu Pamyu (きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅ)”. Unlike Su-Metal, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu did not spend her childhood being trained and groomed by a traditional talent agency. She began as a humble beauty and fashion blogger who would walk around Tokyo’s legendary fashion district, Harajuku, attracting attention with her interesting fashion statements. With time, she generated an online following and became well-known enough to be able to model for Harajuku fashion magazines. As her fame grew, she was invited to participate in fashion shows. It was at one of these fashion shows that she met the producer of one of her favourite J-pop groups, “Perfume”, and this producer recommended that she try out as a singer. The rest, as they say, is history.
Harajuku: Tokyo’s Incubator for Talent
Known as Japan’s incubator for creative expression and artistic development, Harajuku is a real source of grassroots talent for modern producers to tap into, not only for fashion but for music and J-pop as well. They aren’t letting this endless reservoir of talent go to waste. If you’re as keen a student of modern Japanese culture as I am, then you’ll be fascinated to observe the newest Harajuku artists and try to guess which ones are likely to rise to prominence.
I’ve personally enjoyed seeing my favourite model Yuri Nakagawa rise from the humble origins of fashion blogger up to become the official model for prominent fashion shows all around the world, and so grow into a genuine public figure whose profile keeps rising. Harajuku models and fashion bloggers like Yuri Nakagawa are continuing to prove every day that talent and star appeal itself can make you rise to the top of Japanese popular culture these days.
So, what’s holding you back? With the advent of social media and the dominance of the Internet for personal expression, anyone with enough talent and creative energy can try to become a pop idol, not only in Japan but pretty much anywhere else on Earth. Gone are the days when a gatekeeper would decide who is good and who is not. Nowadays, the people decide. So, if you think you have what it takes to be a star, then get out on the streets of Harajuku and prove it!
Related Articles:
・100 Things to Do in Harajuku, the Fashion Capital of Tokyo, in 2018!
・BABYMETAL: Japan’s Way of Redefining Heavy Metal Music
・Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s Unique Fashion and MusicChai Ling is a very interesting woman. I just stumbled on this article about her a few days ago. I don’t know what her politics are. I don’t know if she’s fully embraced feminism, although some of what I’ve seen at her website indicates that she has embraced some style, form, or genre of it. Note this passage: “Since 1978, the implementation of China’s One-Child Policy has led to female gendercide, abandonment of daughters, human trafficking and violations of women’s reproductive rights” [emphasis mine].
Despite this, I don’t see any hints of misandry. I think I even spot some elements of libertarianism. I also see a mostly voluntary effort at educating the world about a stupid government solution. Yes, I know, using the word “stupid” is redundant when speaking of government, but without knowing it, Ms. Ling has unintentionally endorsed what ought to be a concern of men for their own sakes, without even considering the numerous ways in which women are harmed.
In an effort to curb “overpopulation,” a term embraced by governments that all of a sudden find they can’t plan and control that many people, China has enforced, through fines, confiscation of property, and involuntary abortions, a “one-child” policy for more than thirty years. According to the website: “The math behind the implementation of the One-Child Policy is questionable. The calculations were performed by a notable Chinese rocket scientist who used a rocket formula (replacing rocket variable[s] with people) to predict future population levels.” (Well, that’s understandable. The creation of a baby involves a “rocket,” does it not?) Ms. Ling’s central complaint is that this policy targets women and girls. She is correct, as there is now an increase in the male-to-female ratio that shows a significant decrease in the number of women.
There are both cultural and practical factors at work. The Chinese character for “good” is the combination of the characters for “woman” and “son.” (See the astoundingly gorgeous Gong Li to the left. Try to pay attention to the character for “good” written in red.) Also, since men have a tendency to ease into the provider role with greater success than women, parents who are forced to have only one child are, for practical reasons, going to choose to have a son. I have little to no problem with the Chinese character for “good”; I see it mainly as an interesting cultural artifact. Societies the world over have traditionally looked to men to provide, fight, protect, warn, build, instruct, and plant seeds of all kinds. That’s just how it is. Government mandates won’t change that.
However, due to my abhorrence for abortion and government mandates alike, just as in the bizarre alliance between feminists and conservatives over what I have termed “misaporno,” I find myself in agreement and alliance with Ms. Ling, but I’m coming at this issue from a different angle, as an anarchist, a men’s activist, and a sibling.
Governments, being the initiators of coercion, are death-oriented; therefore, all government solutions that are not clearly directed back at the governments themselves are bound to cause widespread destruction. As if Mao’s Great Leap Forward (which turned out to be the Great Leap Into the Abyss) wasn’t bad enough, this death-oriented government then decided that it could dictate one of the most private, personal decisions that a heterosexual couple could possibly make: “Wanna have a baby?” The very idea that something so intensely and wonderfully intimate should be dictated by outside forces is repugnant. And now the afterbirth of this misbegotten communist solution is pouring out for all to see:
“The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences reports that in 2020, there will be 40 million more young men than women; by comparison, there are currently 40 million young men in the entirety of the U.S. Not surprisingly, China’s crime rates and the prevalence of women and child trafficking have risen dramatically” [emphasis mine].
Nice work, commies! As I pointed out in “Prostitution and the Evil, Evil Penis,” where there is less sex available, there is more rape and more homicide. The communist Chinese government is now sitting atop a very dangerous situation. Where young men have to compete for mates, there is sadly going to be bloodshed, unless Tibet is overrun by millions of single Chinese dudes who all of a sudden wish to become Buddhist monks, or my team inexplicably explodes (no pun intended) with a ton of new Chinese converts. I don’t see either of those things happening in the near future.
What I do see are Asian women dating white men, black men, Latino men, and Asian men. Asian women are prized by many different kinds of men because when an Asian woman is beautiful, she is normally considered beautiful. (Again, refer to the picture of Gong Li above. But be sure to finish the article.) I have to confess to being ever-so-slightly interested in the feminine sex, and I can tell you that the most beautiful woman I ever took out on a date had pure Asian ancestry. She was drop-dead-frickin’-gorgeous! The most beautiful woman I have ever seen, beyond compare. (Okay, Gong Li compares. See the picture above.) She had an attitude to match. (And I’m not talking about a “beautiful” attitude. I’m talking about the attitude that beautiful girls can afford to have in a free and open society. We had one date.)
I do not see Asian men dating women of any other ethnicity or color. There are exceptions, to be sure, but not many. Since the norm is for Asian men to date Asian women; since the most populous Asian country is obsessed with who is doing what to whom; since those fewer women are getting online now and marrying themselves off to non-Asian Western men to have a better life; since that country employs a highly trained and intelligent military armed with nuclear warheads, and that military is mostly comprised of men who are becoming sexually and procreatively frustrated; what does this tell you about the state of the world that Mao helped to build?
It’s bad enough to force women into abortions, an act abhorrent to this pro-life anarchist even when it is voluntary. How much worse is such a procedure when the “patient” is unwilling? But what Ms. Ling has left out is the glaring fact that the world is now dealing with a potentially devastating problem due to its effects on men, not women.
So Ms. Ling is looking for a change in policy. Perhaps the Federal government, a body that is better at hiding its atrocities, one that has permitted more freedoms than the one she defied in Tiananmen Square, will listen to her pleas. Therefore, her website has a petition: “Abolish China’s One-Child Policy.” Abolishing the policy is fine, but soliciting a man currently slaughtering women and children (oh yeah, and men) on the other side of the earth via predator drones, an act of which he makes fun? Somehow, I doubt that is going to make much difference.
Then again, the repellant Nixon did visit China, and did make some headway with a few free market principles by opening trade with them. Perhaps you can occasionally get a murderer to do things right, twice a day, like a broken clock. I have a feeling, however, that the American government putting pressure on the Chinese government will only lead to more problems. The premise of both governments is something that ought to be checked before asking either one to save an unborn little girl’s life. The problem with the Chinese government’s solution isn’t the “one-child” part, after all.
Take a look at the horrifying situation in Romania, brought about by a different policy on forced family planning. The mass-murdering Nicolae Ceauşescu made it mandatory for people to have multiple children, once again, like Mao, sticking his nose in where it didn’t belong, where it was most unwelcome. The end result is disturbing to say the least: “Not all the children in the orphanages were actual orphans. Many had been abandoned by desperately poor families who had been forced to have more children than necessary as part of Ceauşescu’s insane [population] building policy.”
Wow! Commie solutions just get better and better. Ceauşescu even made it impossible for hospitals to treat women who had given themselves abortions, adding to the Romanian death toll. My convictions against the death penalty aside, I’m relieved that they simply did away with that guy. (And being pro-life, I would not hesitate to assist a woman who had a self-induced abortion, in case you’re wondering.)
Compare this to America: Have 15 kids, adopt an African kid, have two kids, “end” the third one in the womb, give the one you don’t want up for adoption, or have no kids at all. For all the Federal government’s intrusion into our private lives, the one area where this country has never suffered is “overpopulation” or “underpopulation,” because this is one area where the government has largely remained absent. That will undoubtedly change, and has already changed somewhat (try defending your newborn against getting a Social Security number, or keeping your kid out of government schools), but the lesson is there for anyone who cares to learn from it before we’re exposed to greater tyranny:
Leave people alone!
Better yet:
Leave men alone!
There aren’t a whole hell of a lot of men out there who are going to impregnate women without their consent, just as there aren’t a whole hell of a lot of men out there who are going to penetrate women who say, “No.” In a free society, women have a bewildering number of options for birth control, one quite volatile and controversial, but the rest are not controversial at all outside the softly coercive Catholic Church. (Remember, boys: Your sperm is sacred.)
But governments thrive on the idea that ordinary multitudes of men cannot be trusted. To the contrary: If any government has proven its inability to be trusted based on its own glaring, undeniable, historical record, it’s the death-oriented government of China. Even the United States’ government has a record that belies its own untrustworthiness. Just one example for the unconvinced: Name a single thing the Federal government did on the morning of 9/11 to ensure the one thing that most people agree it is there to do, namely, protect its “citizens” from attack.
Nixon’s visit to China was, in a way, an effort at turning away the government’s guns: more trade was opened up with China. If you need an idea of how that’s turned out for the Chinese, look no further than the ever-changing skyline of Shanghai. Overpopulation, my ass:
“Noted economists Thomas Sowell and Walter E. Williams studied and found no correlation between population density and famine & poverty, which were the two original reasons behind the implementation of the One-Child Policy. In fact, these economists found that corrupt government—rather than population density—is the main indicator for nations impacted by famine & poverty” [emphasis lovingly mine].
When the government’s guns are turned away from heterosexual couples who wish to reproduce, I can assure you that the outcome will be much the same. It’s a pity that it will be too little, too late for a generation of Chinese men looking for sex, and mothers for their children. How do we convince these bachelors to turn to peace? Your guess is as good as mine.
B.R. Merrick writes for “Strike The Root“ and “A Voice for Men,” lives in the Northeast, is proud to be a classical music reviewer at Amazon.com and iTunes, and in spite of the poisonous nature of television, God Himself will have to pry his DVDs of “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” out of his cold, dead hands, under threat of eternal damnation.A black York Region officer faces Police Act charges for not investigating racial taunts thrown at him when he was called to a bush party. Const. Dameian Muirhead, 33, is charged with three counts of misconduct for his handling of a farm party turned ugly, where he was allegedly subjected to repeated racial slurs and told, “I would love to see that guy hanging from a tree.”
The target of the alleged lynching remark, York Regional Police Const. Dameian Muirhead (left), is scheduled to attend police disciplinary hearings Tuesday and Wednesday. The complainant, Rheal Duguay (right), was present at the hearing on Tuesday. ( RICHARD LAUTENS / TORONTO STAR )
Muirhead, an eight-year veteran, was charged with insubordination and discreditable conduct over the way he allegedly investigated the party on the Victoria Day long weekend in May 2011. A partygoer lodged the complaint, saying he was rudely treated — but Muirhead also faces a neglect of duty charge for failing to properly investigate the racial remarks. A police disciplinary hearing which began Tuesday was told that Muirhead and other officers were sent to the party after a woman was seriously injured when run over by an off-road vehicle. Muirhead has told police investigators he and his fellow officers were immediately met with hostile resistance by about 15 people who had been drinking.
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In his written defence, Muirhead said none of the partygoers would identify themselves, admit that the off-road vehicle’s driver had been on the premises or provide identification. While Muirhead has yet to take the witness stand, the disciplinary panel heard from the man who lodged the complaint against the officer, Rheal Duguay, 41, who runs a landscaping and engine repair business in Aurora. Duguay testified he was offended because Muirhead wouldn’t talk with him as he checked the licence plates of vehicles at the farm party. Things got particularly ugly when Duguay’s $400 leather jacket fell from his motorcycle to the ground during the plate check and Muirhead ignored Duguay’s order to “Pick up my (expletive) jacket!” At this point, according to Muirhead, the officer stepped back to de-escalate the tensions while a fellow officer and Duguay yelled at each other, with Duguay calling the officer an “(expletive) pig.”
Muirhead’s written defence said partygoers hurled racial taunts including comments on the darkness of his skin and “I would love to see that guy hanging from a tree.” The prosecutor alleges Muirhead failed “to properly investigate an allegation that you made about Rheal Duguay which connected him to a person making racial remarks.”
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In his defence statement, Muirhead doesn’t accuse Duguay of making any of the racial taunts, and Duguay stressed at the hearing there was nothing racial about his anger toward Muirhead. “There’s no racism,” he testified. “I’m married to an Asian lady. My kids are half-Asian.” Duguay said he did not hear any racial taunts or threats, and that he had only been at the party for a few minutes when police arrived. He admitted under questioning from Muirhead’s lawyer, Courtney Betty, that he became agitated and swore at the officer when he refused to pick up the fallen jacket. “He just ignored me,” Duguay said. “It’s not a professional manner... I pay taxes. I deserve to be treated like a human.” Betty asked Duguay what sort of example he was setting for his 8-year-old daughter by swearing and yelling at a police officer in front of her. “He gets paid to do a job,” Duguay replied. “So it’s up to him. “He’s a police officer. He’s supposed to set examples.” “Was there any damage to the jacket?” Betty asked. “No, just dirt,” Duguay replied. Things got worse on May 24, 2011, when Duguay and Muirhead ran into each other at a gas station. Duguay asked for the officer’s business card and badge number. He said he believes he was given a false number, yet he did not write it down. In his statement to police, Muirhead said he provided his name and badge number, and directed Duguay to a police station to file his complaint. Duguay said Muirhead also called him a “loser.” Duguay admitted under questioning from Betty he told Muirhead he is lucky to have a gun and a badge, or he would “kick his ass.” Muirhead then arrested Duguay for uttering threats. The hearing was told the charge was dropped on condition Duguay take a one-day anger management course. Prosecutor Jason Fraser said the force is no longer seeking Muirhead’s dismissal or demotion if he is found guilty on any of the charges. The hearing before York Regional Police Supt. Robertson Rouse continues Wednesday.The Bauhaus singer is suspected of causing injuries while driving under the influence and possession of methamphetamine.
Peter Murphy, former singer of British goth-rock band Bauhaus, was arrested Saturday in Los Angeles following a hit-and-run incident in neighboring Glendale.
The Glendale News Press reports that while driving a Subaru Forester, Murphy reportedly rear-ended a Mercedes around 11:48 a.m. at an intersection and then drove around the car to get on the Ventura Freeway as he fled the scene.
A witness who was washing windows was able to photograph Murphy's car immediately following the accident, documenting the Subaru's moderate front-end damage.
The driver of the struck Mercedes was able to write down Murphy's license plate number. She later was removed from the scene on a gurney by Glendale fire personnel.
Most dramatically, a driver of a pickup truck is said to have followed Murphy on and off the freeway and into Los Angeles, where he pulled in front of his Subaru, blocking the car from moving, and called Glendale police to report where he had detained the singer. Los Angeles Police Department officers soon arrived and held Murphy for the Glendale police
Glendale officers said Murphy seemed "very confused" and had difficulty telling them the day and time. He denied drinking alcohol, stating he had only taken his regular prescription pills for depression. He admitted his involvement in the hit and run and told officers he was jet-lagged from a recent flight.
Inside the police car, officers reported finding a small plastic bag that possibly contained methamphetamine. Murphy said it did not belong to him, but police said they believed he had been trying to ditch it.
Arrested on suspicion of causing injuries while driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, felony hit-and-run and possessing methamphetamine, Murphy remained in custody in lieu of $500,000 bail until around 1 p.m. Tuesday, Glendale police told The Hollywood Reporter.
Murphy has solo tour dates planned for North America from April to May, then is set to head to Europe for a month of shows before returning to the U.S. in July. The last announced show is July 27 at the Fonda in Hollywood. His biggest stateside solo hit was "Cuts You Up," which reached the mainstream rock Top 10 in 1990.I've carried a smartphone of some sort for nearly 7 years now without ever losing one or having one of those close calls that scare you into thinking carefully about recovery options. So when I collapsed into a cab at San Diego airport just after midnight last Friday, my Droid was enjoying the woefully inadequate protection it was accustomed to: a loose pocket in the front of my cargo shorts. At least that's where it was supposed to be.
I noticed it was missing as soon as I arrived in my hotel room and did my customary pocket dump. With the realization that I didn't have any recovery software installed, a receipt from the cab, or even any recollection as to which company I had used, I was certain I'd never see it again. I tried a few traditional recovery methods: calling the phone (it rang with no answer), taking a cab back to San Diego International (it was all but deserted in the wee hours of the morning), and creating lost property reports with each of the 7 taxi companies servicing the airport. After that, I decided I should at least look into after-the-fact recovery options.
A small seed of optimism sprouted as I read the Android Market description for Plan B from Lookout Labs. A remotely installable app which would instantly e-mail me the phone's location? It sounded too good to be true. I installed it immediately, sent the keyword "locate" via SMS from my laptop with Google Voice, and awaited the first e-mail. None came. Perhaps the phone had been powered off?
I called it again. No answer.
I sent "locate" a second time. Nothing. By now the adrenaline surge I felt when I discovered Plan B had worn off and I collapsed into bed, exhausted.
The following day I walked to the harbor and had lunch on the water. Pleasant weather, an ocean breeze, and some great seafood lifted my spirits, and I still had hope the phone would be returned. I flew home to Montana and the next morning I decided on a whim to send one more SMS, for some reason capitalizing the keyword as "Locate" this time. The reply came nearly instantly.
Lookout Plan B has started locating. You should have your location shortly.
This single message triggered a 16-hour game of cat-and-mouse, spanning half the country and involving a cast of disinterested bureaucrats, helpful strangers, and one witless would-be criminal. We'll call him Roland, because that's his name.
Within minutes I had received my phone's location with a reported accuracy of two meters.
I did a reverse-lookup of the address and determined that two people were listed living there. I researched each name, determining that one of them has a San Diego business listing of "Taxi Services." Alas, no contact information was provided. I turned next to the San Diego Police Department, Southeastern Division, which has its headquarters less than a mile away from the address, but it was unwilling to assist in any capacity. So I turned to The Lounge for help and got a private message in no time from a regular poster in San Diego. We agreed that I would continue to monitor the phone and we would plan a good time for him to drop by the house if needed.
I sent location requests to the phone throughout the day, notifying my Ars contact that the phone was in motion. I become worried when it sat here for nearly 10 minutes:
I quickly looked up the phone number for the wireless shop at that address and called them, hoping to catch the culprit red-handed as he was trying in vain to switch service on the Droid. Unfortunately, their number rang through to a fax machine. The phone then stopped at a second wireless shop. I quickly called it, and after relating my tale I was put on hold, only to be told they couldn't provide any information about someone in their shop who was at that very moment trying to activate a used Droid, due to privacy concerns.
Late in the afternoon I saw that the driver had returned to work and was making runs from the airport to various spots around the city, stopping frequently at a parking lot across from a hotel just south of the airport. I tracked down a phone number for the airport taxi dispatch manager and explained my situation, telling him that I had been watching my phone being chauffeured all over the city by a driver who I think is named Roland. He told me there are at least 25 drivers in and out of the airport at any given time, and he doesn't really know any of them by name. Still, he would be happy to put a message out to see if there's a Roland who has a lost phone in his car. I thanked him and hung up before it occured to me that this is precisely what I didn't want him to do.
My heart sunk again as I requested additional location updates over the course of 15 minutes and noticed that not only was the phone not moving, it was not in a good spot.
I contemplated sending my San Diego Ars contact to the scene, but was not thrilled by the prospect of asking a good Samaritan to dig through a trash can or hop a fence to explore a demolition site.
What exactly happened at the vacant lot that day will remain a mystery, as the phone finally began moving again. I called the dispatch manager again. He reported that sadly, none of the drivers answered to Roland or admitted to having a lost phone in their car. I feigned surprised disappointment and expressed to him how frustrating it was to watch helplessly as the phone traveled all over the city. At that point, he told me that if I ever saw it in the taxi holding lot south of the airport, it would be easier for him to have the lot attendant speak directly to the driver.
Eureka! This was the lot I'd seen the phone at earlier!
I followed the cab's location as the driver dropped a fare and proceeded back to San Diego International. The dispatch manager had instructed me to call him once the cab was about five minutes away. When the cab turned onto North Harbor Drive near the airport I called back and we stayed on the phone together through the final moments of the hunt. When I told him the cab seemed to be stopped at a light waiting to pull into the holding lot, he looked through his office window and confirmed he could see it sitting there at the light.
The dispatch manager called his lot attendant via two-way radio and asked her to approach the cab to provide the driver with a description of the phone, inform him that its movement had been tracked via GPS, and ask him if he'd like to return it now. The manager told me he'd give me a call back to let me know how it went.
A few short minutes later, the phone rang. "I've got it."
After being confronted by the lot attendant about the phone, the driver was "kind" enough to offer to drop the phone off at my house, but I would just as soon buy a bushel of Droids than pay cab fare from San Diego to the Big Sky country. Once the phone was in the dispatch manager's hand, I confessed that I was actually tracking the phone from Montana and couldn't exactly drop by to pick it up. He laughed and said he'd take it over to the airport lost and found.
Sure enough, another location ping a while later showed my Droid was somewhere in Terminal 1. I called lost and found, and was instructed to call the phone from another line. After they heard it ring, I provided a FedEx account number and they shipped it off to me.
I would not have been reunited with my Droid without Plan B, but there was help from other places, too. Our friend the taxi driver was at least kind enough to keep the phone charged over the 2+ days it was out of my hands. During that time, there was at least 16 hours of heavy GPS battery. The folks at San Diego International Airport were extremely helpful as well. They could have passed the buck, but they instead went the extra mile to reunite me with my phone.Image copyright Getty Images Image caption IMF: the UK will be the worst affected by Brexit of all the advanced economies
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said the UK's decision to leave the European Union has "thrown a spanner in the works" of its global growth forecast.
Instead of predicting 3.2% growth in 2016, the IMF's World Economic Outlook (WEO) now expects only 3.1%.
It says the UK will be the worst affected of all the advanced economies.
Its 2017 UK growth forecast has been slashed from 2.2% to 1.3% and this year's has been cut from 1.9% to 1.7%.
The IMF's global growth forecast for 2017 has also been revised down from 3.5% to 3.4%.
Before the referendum vote on 23 June, the IMF says that the global economy had been showing promising signs of growth.
Analysis: Kamal Ahmed, BBC economics editor
The IMF does not believe that fears over an economic downturn have passed.
But, now the vote has been taken, now the Bank of England has made it clear it stands ready to loosen monetary policy further to support growth, now the government has signalled it could be willing to borrow more at ultra-low interest rates to invest, the hit to confidence (that essential economic driver) may not be as severe as some believed.
Read more from Kamal here.
"The first half of 2016 revealed some promising signs, for example, stronger than expected growth in the euro area and Japan, as well as a partial recovery in commodity prices that helped several emerging and developing economies," Maury Obstfeld, IMF Economic Counsellor and Director of the Research Department said in a statement.
"As of June 22, we were therefore prepared to upgrade our 2016-17 global growth projections slightly.
"But Brexit has thrown a spanner in the works."
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Maury Obstfeld of the IMF: "Brexit has thrown a spanner in the works."
Uncertainty
The IMF says that while the effects of Brexit are greatest in the UK, there is not enough information available to make a full assessment of its impact.
A UK Treasury spokeswoman said: "The decision to leave the European Union marks a new phase for the British economy, but the message we take to the world is this: our country remains open for business. We are the same outward-looking, globally-minded, big-thinking country we have always been."
The IMF also highlights the stresses that Brexit may cause within the European banking system, particularly in Italy and Portugal.
It says: "The Brexit vote implies a substantial increase in economic, political, and institutional uncertainty, which is projected to have negative macroeconomic consequences, especially in advanced European economies."
However Mr Obstfeld added: "The real effects of Brexit will play out gradually over time, adding elements of economic and political uncertainty that could be resolved only after many months.
"This overlay of extra uncertainty, in turn, may open the door to an amplified response of financial markets to negative shocks."
The IMF has produced two other set of predictions, a "moderately worse" one, and another that is "much worse", depending on how hard the UK finds it to re-establish trading relations with the EU and the rest of the world.
The "much worse" scenario would see global growth slow to 2.8% this year and next.
But Mr Obstfeld said: "The main reason we place less weight on these alternative scenarios, especially the more severe one, is that financial markets have proven resilient in the weeks after the referendum, re-pricing in an orderly fashion to absorb the news."Tea prices are surging. Is your mug next?
By Kabir Chibber
Business reporter, BBC News
The tea leaves in this cup were probably bought and sold in Mombasa Your cup of tea may be about to get more expensive. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says that demand exceeded supply in 2008, driving up the cost of tea. Tea consumption reached 3.85m tonnes last year, up 4.8% from 2007. But production was only 3.78m tonnes, according to the FAO's preliminary estimates. Tea was in surplus in 2007, but it seems the recent shortfall can only get bigger. "This explains the current price hike, which shows that traders are expecting the worst," said Kaison Chang, an economist who works in the FAO's tea division in Rome. Tea prices have soared as drought has hit Kenya hard in the past year, as well as Sri Lanka and India, which is the world's biggest producer of tea. Traders' fears "There've been reports of a 15% drop in production in Sri Lanka alone in January and February due to the drought," Mr Chang said.
If the shortfall turns out to be as deep as expected, then prices will go through the roof
Kaison Chang, FAO All this has not gone unnoticed in Mombasa, a Kenyan coastal city of white sand and blue water that hosts tea auctions. These weekly auctions, which sell most of the tea produced in Africa, pretty much set the benchmark for the price of the crop throughout the world. The average price of tea last year was $2.33/kg, almost a third higher than $1.76/kg in 2007, according to Kenya's tea board. Black tea had jumped to a record of $2.70 last August. But Mr Chang said he had heard reports that the price of tea had now breached $3/kg in recent weeks, as the scale of the crop shortfall became clear. The new oil? It may get even higher as tea traders worry the production gap will get larger. Kenya, which is Africa's largest grower of tea, will probably produce 328 million kg of the crop this year, the Tea Board of Kenya said this month. That is well below the 345 million kg produced last year. "If the shortfall turns out to be as deep as expected, then prices will go through the roof," Mr Chang said. But much in the same way that rising crude oil prices push up the cost of petrol at the pump, this too is likely to increase the price of High Street brand teas. The UK is the second-biggest importer of tea in the world, behind Russia, so any costs of the raw materials will either have to be absorbed by the teamakers or passed on. British tea companies are also suffering from the decline in the pound against the dollar for the past year. Whittard of Chelsea said that the market was going through an "uncertain period". "Areas are certainly suffering drought and there is no reserve of tea, so shortages exist," said Giles Hilton, Whittard's product director. "Some prices might need reviewing soon," he said. With global demand continuing to rise, there is little sign that production is going to be able to match. More expensive cups of tea may have to become a fact of life.
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionUpdate:
The US Senate on Friday voted to reauthorize the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, a spying bill that critics say violates the Fourth Amendment and gives vast, unchecked surveillance authority to the government.
The move extends powers of the National Security Agency to conduct surveillance of Americans’ international emails and phone calls.
The FISA Amendments Act Reauthorization Act (H.R. 5949), passed on a 73-23 vote.
“It’s a tragic irony that F |
force. In August 2015, the Argentine air force retired its Mirage fighters, with only a handful of them even flyable.
The problems don’t stop there, their submarine crews despite benefiting from a recent upgrade, need at least 190 days of immersion practice and in 2014 only spent 19 hours submerged. A similar situation is faced by their four destroyers, they don’t have any weaponry.
Argentine ground forces rarely have the resources for training and are vastly under equipped, their kit dates back to the 70’s and is in very short supply. In addition to this, the Argentine Air Force largely consists of a collection of obsolete aircraft mostly dating back to the 1970’s, which are frequently grounded due to poor serviceability. They’re now even getting rid of their only semi-capable fighter aircraft.
According to IHS Janes
“The Argentine Air Force is drastically cutting staff working hours and decommissioning its last fighter aircraft amid continuing budget issues.
A recently published daily agenda indicates that the service’s working hours have been significantly reduced, from 0800 to 1300; rationing of food, energy consumption, and office supplies has been directed headquarters staff and property residents; and only the minimum personnel required to staff headquarters, directorates, and commands are working.
These orders, issued on 11 August, take effect 18 August. A next step will cut Monday and Tuesday as working days. Moreover, air force officials said any aircraft taken out of service will not undergo maintenance for now.”
This leaves the Argentine military with just two types of jet aircraft A-4’s and IA-63’s and both are subsonic, decades old and barely serviceable. Argentina had looked into buying new Gripen’s from Sweden via Brazil but this was vetoed by the United Kingdom which makes a large number of internal components for the aircraft. They had also looked at JF-17’s from China, but the JF-17s proved too expensive to modify.
All Mirages were officially decommissioned in November 2015. Only 4 of the A-4’s were airworthy with the rest in storage at Villa Reynolds.
When Barack Obama visited in March 2016, Air Force One was accompanied by US Air Force F-16’s because Argentina could only offer Pucarás and Pampas for air defence.
Photo Credit: Chris Lofting [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia CommonsOn today’s show, your hosts will go back over the positives and negatives from the LA Galaxy draw with Houston and get you ready for the midweek matchup with Colorado. Plus transfer talk and Injury updates.
CoG Studios, CA – The LA Galaxy just pulled out a last minute draw with the Houston Dynamo and they did it with 8 possible starters out of the lineup. Honestly, you should be amazed at how badly they played, and they still got a respectable result against the second best team in the Western Conference.
Your hosts, CoG’s Josh Guesman and LA Times’ Kevin Baxter, talk you through the showdown with Houston as well as focusing on the two big issues that have plagued the Galaxy in 2017 — the strikers can’t score and the team can stay healthy.
Gyasi Zardes was missing in action, Jack McInerney only touched the ball 12 times on the night and was totally absent in the playmaking process, and the midfield couldn’t hold any possession. The Galaxy only got a single chance in the first half and that was thanks to a great individual piece of skill from Romain Alessandrini and a great hustle play by Emmanuel Boateng.
The guys will tell you who impressed them on the night, who should be considered for a starting spot against Colorado, and who is in danger of wasting their chances. Clement Diop will be on the hot seat soon, as Josh pins him for both goals. And Jose Villarreal looked better than he has, but he is directly responsible for the Dynamo pulling ahead. We’ll give you the details.
Josh and Kevin will also update you on nearly every player who has been injured and what their status is for the upcoming games. There’s a ton of people to talk about. So don’t be surprised when all those updates take a considerable amount of time. But you won’t get a more detailed or up to date look from anyone else. We’ve got you covered.
Finally, the guys answer your questions and get you ready for the game against the Colorado Rapids. With a short week and a long list of injuries, finding 18 players might be the hardest thing Curt Onalfo has to do. Then it’s back home for Sporting KC on the weekend.
Thanks for joining us! We’re glad we could be part of your Galaxy talk for the week. We’ll be back very soon!
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comments“ELECTRONICS are like drugs. You can buy them for $1 and sell them for $40,” says Jordi Muñoz, a 27-year-old Mexican entrepreneur. People in Tijuana, where he makes small, insectlike drones (pilotless aircraft) for civilian use, would probably prefer he used a different metaphor: the city is trying to put its narcotic reputation behind it. But Mr Muñoz feels free to say what he likes, because he has found the holy grail for exporters in northern Mexico. He has brought inventive flair, not just deft fingerwork, to the process of making things (see article).
Mr Muñoz’s drone-producing plant is a maquiladora, a factory that enjoys special tax breaks. When Mexico set up the first maquiladoras half a century ago, they were sweatshops that simply bolted or stitched together imported parts, then exported the assembled product north across the border to the United States. America got cheap goods; Mexico got jobs and export revenues. Now, with competition growing from other low-cost locations, and with the government cutting some of their tax breaks, the maquiladoras are having to step up their efforts to become innovative.
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On October 18th the lower house of Mexico’s Congress approved President Enrique Peña Nieto’s proposal to sweep away a range of deductions and allowances that the maquiladoras enjoy. In general, Mexico collects less tax than other middle-income countries, and the government is striving to raise more revenues to improve its lamentable public services. But the maquiladoras already face stiff competition from other countries offering juicy tax breaks to manufacturers: KPMG, an accounting firm, last year rated Mexico worse than five of its main rivals in terms of tax competitiveness. Accountants at another firm, Deloitte, reckon the reforms, if passed by the upper house in the coming days, will raise the maquiladoras’ effective income-tax rate from 17.5% to at least 30%.
Over the years the maquiladoras have already lost much basic work, such as stitching together fabrics, to cheaper places in Asia, like Bangladesh (see article). But more recently, rising pay in Chinese factories has made Mexico look an attractive location once more. According to the maquiladoras’ industry association, their exports and foreign investment each grew by more than 50% between 2009 and 2012, to $196 billion and $7.4 billion respectively. Employment, having fallen sharply in the wake of the global financial crisis, rebounded by 25% to just over 2m, slightly above the average for 2007-08. Carmakers, in particular, have been investing heavily in Mexico in response to a recovery in sales across the border in the United States.
The lure of cheaper shores
However, the tax rise risks prompting a fresh wave of departures to cheaper shores: even impoverished Haiti is now touting itself as a hub for low-cost assembly. So the maquiladoras are having to up their game, moving into more sophisticated types of manufacturing and doing more product design. On the first score, there has been some progress: much of the stitching done in Tijuana these days is not of T-shirts but of finicky medical devices such as stents, made of fine pig tissue. The aim of Mr Muñoz’s company and others like it is to go a step further and to get involved in design and development.
If they succeed, they stand to gain some of the investment that American manufacturers are expected to make, as they shift work closer to home in reaction to rising costs in China. Otherwise, those firms may instead be tempted to put their new plants in American states such as Nevada and New Mexico. These may not be able to match Mexican labour costs, but they have a better-educated workforce and are offering attractive tax rates and utility costs.
Aerospace and defence companies are among those thought likely to “nearshore” some of the manufacturing currently sent to China. The maquiladora zone near Tijuana already has more than 50 firms in these industries, and it is here that the efforts to become more innovative are most visible. The Tijuana plant of Zodiac Aerospace, a French company, makes aircraft interiors. Downstairs, nimble-fingered women glue window-frames onto interior panels, and technicians operate machines that cut, stamp and weld metal parts. But upstairs, young engineers are hunched over computers. One is designing from scratch a netting system for planes’ overhead lockers, to stop luggage shifting during flights. He has proudly attached a note saying “Made in Mexico” on his screen.
His boss, Raúl Pérez, says that product design is the next logical step for his firm—and for Mexican manufacturing in general. “It hasn’t been easy,” he admits. Mexican universities and colleges tend to produce engineers expert in industrial process rather than products; they are good at making production lines more efficient, but not at inventing what goes on them. So Zodiac, which used to train recruits in-house, now sends its staff into universities to teach, and helps design courses that will produce engineers suitable for his industry.
Even more than other industries, aerospace needs skilled and versatile workers. Honeywell, one of the biggest aerospace firms in the region, employs 350 people in the design, engineering and testing of aircraft components in Mexicali, the capital of Tijuana’s home state of Baja California. But on a recent visit, its boss, David Cote, told reporters the talent pool lagged other potential aerospace hubs such as eastern Europe. He said Mexico needed more multi-skilled engineers able to work in mechanics, electronics and software.
Another drawback for the maquiladoras is that they have not developed local suppliers: less than 5% of their inputs are sourced within Mexico. Aerospace is a particularly demanding field because safety standards require a high degree of certification for all the parts that go into an aircraft; and suppliers making components for defence equipment are subject to strict security requirements.
To become a plausible aerospace “cluster”, and attract more investment from the world’s top manufacturers, the maquiladoras around Tijuana need to bolster the local supply chain, as well as produce more engineers capable of product design. For decades, low costs have made the maquiladoras one of the two main pillars of Mexico’s exports, second only to oil. From now on, creativity will be a better way of beating the competition than cost.This post may contain old screenshots of bliss which has been replaced by a new design. The basic structure of the user interface is similar though, so I'm keeping these old pages around in case they still contain useful information.
Release 20160406 - DSF tagging and album art
Over the past few months we've slowly been improving our support for audiophile file formats, to make bliss a more useful tool for audiophiles. Following the release of WAV and AIFF support, back in November, I'm pleased to announce DSF support in this new and subsequent builds!
These improvements have come from new work on JAudioTagger - the tagging library that bliss uses. As with WAV and AIFF support the support is "total" meaning anything you can do on an MP3, say, in bliss, you can also do to a DSF file. Add album art, fix tags, consolidate genres, it's all there!
Bug fixes
This build also contains a bunch of bug fixes.
WAV scanning has been made much faster for certain WAV files.
Parse track numbers in the format 2/0 (meaning "track 2").
(meaning "track 2"). Fixed year lookup in files with year AND date, and fixed year only lookup in ID3v2.3 files.
Simplified new file notification code.
Made file scanning much faster on Windows Vista and newer using CIFS (Samba) to a NAS
Make sure old directories are not watched anymore when changing music folder
The VortexBox v2.4 build is now based on systemd rather than init.d
Don't try to set ALBUM_ARTIST on ID3v1 only files.
on ID3v1 only files. Make bliss.sh arguments overridable from wrapping scripts
Downloading and installing
You can download from the downloads page. After you click through, installation instructions are available on the page following download.
If you are using Windows and you don't know whether your version of Java is version 7 or later, in app update is not recommended when updating from version 20151013 or earlier, because bliss now requires Java 7 or later. The Windows installer now bundles Java 8, and so download of the full installer is recommended.
Thanks to Bygone for the image above.
More like this:We must all come together. We need to respect the fact that everyone’s transgender journey is different. We need to accept that there is no one way to be trans and unite around our common struggle. We need to pool our resources and lift one another up from that which pulls us down. We must band together with same fervor as the groups that try to oppress us. Much like the hate groups and those that pose under the guise of their misplaced faith, we must organize. Instead of hiding under the veil of good to actually do evil, we will be the ones who actually do the good in the world. Together in concert with our allies, we will make the change that we wish to see.Ethan Miller/Getty Images Floyd Mayweather Jr. stands to make well over $100 million in his fight with Manny Pacquiao.
To put that in perspective, Mayweather was the highest-paid athlete in the world in 2014 at $105 million. He's going to surpass that in a single night.
The reason Mayweather is far and away the highest-paid athlete on earth goes back to a decision he made in 2006.
For the first 10 years of his professional career Mayweather was a part of Bob Arum's stable of fighters at Top Rank promotion company. During that time he became the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
But in April of 2006 Mayweather turned down the highest purse of his career, $8 million to fight Antonio Margarito, and exercised a provision in his contract that let him become a free agent if he paid Top Rank $750,000.
Arum told ESPN's Dan Rafael at the time that before he left Mayweather had asked, among other things, for a $20 million guaranteed purse to fight Oscar De La Hoya.
"He wants $20 million for the De La Hoya fight? It's not there. Sometimes, my man, you gotta know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em. We'll talk about things down the road," Arum said.
A year later, Mayweather made $25 million in a fight against De La Hoya that still holds the record for total pay per view buys.
After buying himself out of his Top Rank contract, Mayweather took unprecedented control over his career. Rather than getting paid a large guaranteed fee up front by a promotor like Top Rank — as is the norm across the sport — Mayweather stages his fights himself and takes a cut of the total revenue on the back end.
Greg Bishop described it like this for the New York Times in 2011:
"He earns a percentage of every ticket purchased, every pretzel consumed, every poster sold. He will earn from countries that paid for broadcasting rights and the theaters where the fight is shown.
"Mayweather, regarded as one of the best boxers in history, fights under a highly unusual financial structure, exchanging upfront risk for back-end profit while retaining total control."
After distributors and networks get their cut, Mayweather gets a bigger piece of the remaining revenue than anyone else in the sport.
Mayweather fought De La Hoya in 2007 and made $25 million. His earnings only grew from there, culminating in an $80 million payday for 2013's fight against Canelo Alvarez, which set the record for PPV revenue at $150 million. In that fight he made $41.5 million pursue, and then almost doubled that amount once PPV receipts came in.
Every move is designed to give him a larger piece of the pie. He left HBO and signed a more lucrative deal with Showtime in 2013. He got a Nevada promoter's license for his Mayweather Promotions company so he could stop co-promoting fights with Golden Boy in 2014.
Since Mayweather went pro in 1996 he has made over $400 million in career earnings, and the vast majority of it has come after he spent $750,000 to leave Top Rank in 2006.
Mayweather doesn't have a single endorsement, but he has been able to capitalize on his value to his sport more than any other athlete alive.Last week a senior member of Hamas’s military wing named Mazen Faqha was shot dead outside his home in Tel el Hawa, on the Gaza Strip, by unknown gunmen. The timing and the tactics used in the killing, in which Faqha was shot in the head repeatedly at close range with a silenced pistol, appear to point to a professional assassination. Hamas have already directed the blame towards Israel, however given the wider geopolitical situation in the Levant, an escalation in tensions comes at a dangerous time for Gaza.
Mazen Faqha was a leading member of Hamas’ military wing, the Ezzedeen al Qassam Brigades. Born and typically based out of the West Bank, in 2003 Faqha was sentenced to nine terms of life imprisonment in Israel for his role in planning a suicide bombing which killed nine Israelis. In 2011, Faqha was set free as part of the prisoner-swap that saw captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit returned in exchange for the release of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. Faqha was delivered from prison to the Gaza Strip rather than the West Bank due to Israeli concerns that should he be released back to his homeland, he would immediately rejoin the militant movement. He remained in Gaza until his recent death.
Most Palestinian factions now appear to agree that Israel was behind the assassination. Israel had recently accused Faqha of planning further attacks, and while the government has declined to comment on the killing, the Israeli military has been placed on high alert in anticipation of retaliatory attacks from Hamas. Former Israeli military intelligence officer Alon Eviatar, talking to the UK’s Telegraph newspaper, said it was possible that Faqha was killed by Palestinian political rivals, however judging from the professionalism of the killing it was more likely the work of Mossad; Israel’s intelligence organisation. Faqha’s murder also appeared to be similar in style to the assassination of Tunisian drone expert Mohamed Zaouari in Sfax in 2016, which the group also blamed on Israel after Zaouari was found dead at the wheel of his car, having been shot at close range multiple times.
While the style of the killing – a close-range barrage of accurately-placed rounds from a silenced pistol – does seem consistent with previous assassinations blamed on Mossad, Faqha’s line of business has generated a wide repertoire of potential enemies whom could take blame for this. Faqha is believed to have been involved in the arms smuggling businesses that made use of al Qassam’s Gaza-Sinai tunnel network, and a deal gone wrong could plausibly have motivated any number of the militant and criminal groups who profit from this trade to turn on him. The Egyptian government has also long been keen to see al Qassam’s Gaza strip presence reduced, as the smuggling tunnels leading into the Sinai are believed to be a source of income and materiel for Islamic State affiliates on the peninsula. Egypt and Israel have cooperated closely on security matters in recent years, including the targeting of these tunnel networks, and as such a joint operation by the two nations also cannot be ruled out.
Multiple Palestinian militant groups also compete for influence within Gaza, and inter-factional political rivalries have previously motivated killings in the territory. Hamas is believed to have recently conducted several arrests of Salafi leaders in Gaza following a similar series of high profile arrests in late 2016, and if true, the close timing of these detentions to the killing may suggest a link. Internal rivalries within Hamas and the al Qassam Brigades also may be involved. While Hamas is typically perceived as a unified organization, the reality is that it is a deeply fractured movement. Internal rivalries have been deepening since 2012, when several factions refused to cooperate with Syria and Iran in Syria’s civil war, and economic disputes within Palestinian territory have only exacerbated this.
Thousands of Hamas supporters marched through the streets of Gaza this weekend for Faqha’s funeral, while the group’s leaders pledged retribution against those found responsible. Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas official, also called for a crackdown on Palestinian collaborators during the rally, leading to speculation that the killers may have been hired locals. Gaza has since been placed on lockdown as Hamas hunts for the assassins, and while the search is ongoing, the group has prevented any men younger than 45 years old from leaving Gaza. A media blackout on details of the investigation has also been imposed locally.
While the threats of retribution seemed relatively typical, Hamas has specified that it will not respond to the assassination with rocket attacks on Israel. This indicates a hesitance to escalate tensions militarily which is unsurprising, given the current state of affairs regionally. Whatever the motive behind the killing, this comes at an inconvenient time for Hamas. With most of the group’s sympathetic regional allies’ attention and funding currently being directed towards Syria, the group would lack the usual level of international support it would require to conduct a military escalation with Israel.
The increasingly right wing government in Tel Aviv would however almost certainly benefit from renewed fighting with Hamas, as militarily they are now likely to hold the upper hand, and through increased cooperation with Egypt would almost certainly inflict significant damage on the cash-starved militant group. Meanwhile the U.S. administration under President Donald Trump has given Israel a relatively free hand since the inauguration, and as such any military action would likely see at least tentative support from the U.S. All this also takes place against a backdrop of a recently intensified settlement building program by Israel in the West Bank, which has escalated tensions with the Palestinian community significantly.
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to distract the public from the deepening arms procurement corruption scandal, a successful military engagement in Gaza would likely be a welcome distraction. The outcome now appears to lie with Hamas, the manhunt underway in Gaza, and its ability to control its armed factions in a period of high tension.
Lewis Tallon is a former British Army Intelligence Officer with several years experience working and living in the Middle East and North Africa region in geopolitical, armed conflict risk and threat intelligence roles. Lewis currently provides MENA-region geopolitical intelligence support to a leading U.S. investment bank.
Photo credit: Jonas MoffatA friend of mine had a grandma who loved drinking wine. However, she didn’t drink wine the normal way. She had nice red wines with ice. Yes, literal ice cubes inside the glass. That’s how she liked her wine, even if it’s some nice vintage first growth Bordeaux. You can imagine the horror, of course, of those serving the wine, but when an old lady wanted her wine that way and doesn’t give a damn about what you think (and she’s paying)… well, you give it to her that way.
I think in general we can agree that this is probably a sub-optimal way of serving wine. Nobody worth their salt in the wine industry would tell you to serve wines with ice cubes, unless it’s the crappiest box wines that are basically glorified fruit juice with alcohol. You also aren’t likely to go around asking for wines like that – because you know this would sound silly. Most of us, whether you think it or not, care at least somewhat about what other people around you think – and if you ask for wines with ice cubes when it comes to fine wines, it can make you look rather silly.
I am writing about this because a somewhat recent discussion in a facebook tea group talked about brewing oolongs with cooler water. My general stance on this is quite simple – brewing oolongs with water that isn’t very close to boiling is a waste of tea – sort of like having wine with ice cubes that end up diluting the wine. It doesn’t bring out the best in the tea, especially among higher end teas. If you’re paying good money for the leaves, then brewing the leaves with, say, 85C water, you’re basically throwing money away.
The argument I hear sometimes is that brewing at lower temperatures would help alleviate problems – bitterness, sourness, astringency, etc. Yes, that’s true, brewing at lower temperatures does reduce those things, but it also reduces the amount of flavour you’re getting out of the tea. Especially in the case of the more tightly rolled oolongs these days, if you use water that isn’t boiling it takes 2-3 infusions to even get the leaves to open up. Everything is on a reduced extraction schedule. You end up prolonging infusions or you end up with a weaker, flatter, less interesting brew. It’s like putting ice cubes in wine.
This is not to say you can’t have it that way – sure, if you really prefer it that way, go for it. It’s your money and your tea, after all, so drink however you’d like. That isn’t to say there is no absolute best way to brew it, and no objective way to judge a tea. The thing is, if you are skillful in brewing, none of those problems – bitterness, sourness, astringency – are actually problems. You can manage them away with the right ratio of leaves to water, with the right time for infusions, and having an instinct to switch it up as you go along depending on how the last cup went. You, as the person brewing the tea, are in full control. Using cooler water would help avoid you running into problems, but it also handicaps you in the maximum amount you can get out of the leaves – so it cuts both ways. The real way to avoid them is to “git gud” – improve your skills and do it so you don’t run into problems with bitterness or unpleasant tastes, instead of handicapping the tea with warm water.
This also brings me to another factor that is rarely mentioned in online English language discussion on tea drinking – what you’re looking for is different. To many Chinese anyway, drinking a tea is not just about the flavour in your mouth the moment you swallow. How you judge a tea is as much about the tea’s lasting fragrance, instead of the ephemeral and momentary floral effervescence that you get in your mouth. When I drink tea at the office, I particularly enjoy the fact that, half an hour after my last cup as I’m driving home from work, I can still taste the cup of tea I just had – its aftertaste glows in my mouth. With poor quality tea or weakly brewed tea, you can’t get that. Yes, the moment you get with a nice floral taste might be somewhat enjoyable, but the real difference marker between a good and a great tea is how long it stays with you. That sort of effect and experience you can only get if you brew your tea somewhat strong. It is only then that you can relish it.
This is also why competition or commercial grading of tea happen in standard brews with boiling water – because once you’ve had enough teas, you quickly know what’s better, and what’s not. One of the key markers is how much stuff there is for the tea to give up – the more it has and the deeper the taste, the better the tea is. If you try a sip of the competition-brewed tea, they’re all really bitter, kinda nasty, and not very pleasant, but the good ones will show you a kinder, gentler side that will stay with you for a long time, whereas a bad tea is just bitter and thin. Taste matters on an individual level – some people will always prefer X over Y, even if by objective measures Y is better than X (the analogy I gave in the facebook thread was that some people will always like Big Mac over a nicely made gourmet burger with great ingredients). Just because some people are contrary doesn’t exclude the possibility that there’s an objective way to measure something we consume.A prosthetic bladder: more valuable than a toilet with gold-plated accessories
Photo by ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP/Getty Images
When you read about new prosthetics, it’s usually about fancy robotic arms, legs, and brain-computer interfaces. And while those are all exciting technologies, there’s this whole other world of prosthetics with the potential to dramatically improve the lives of quadriplegics and paraplegics. I refer, of course, to bladder control. Most of us take the ability to urinate for granted, but doing so requires a network of firing nerves, contracting muscles, and communication with the brain. Unfortunately, the nerves that control bladder (and bowel) functions are near the bottom of the spine—which means those with traumatic spine injury usually suffer from a severed connection. Without constant management, urine can back up into the kidneys or empty at unpredictable times. Other woes include bladder and kidney damage, life-threatening infection, and bladder cancer. But there may soon be a new method for achieving better bladder control, according to a study published in this month’s Science Translational Medicine. Scientists have been working on a neuroprosthesis that would tap into the nervous system and interpret electrical messages from the bladder. One day, these messages may be able to set off a buzzer letting the user know that the bladder is full and even allow her to empty it at the touch of a button. There are currently other methods for regulating bladder function, but they leave a lot to be desired. Catheters are probably the simplest method, but they often fail to drain the bladder completely, and lingering urine becomes a breeding ground for bacteria. Another method involves the implantation of a “sacral anterior root stimulator.” This allows the patient control over the bladder but does not provide any indication of when the bladder is full—you just have to keep emptying it every so often. The implant can also have unfortunate side effects like weakening of the pelvic floor muscles and the loss of sexual functions. (Many people suffering complete paralysis can still have sex for pleasure or procreation, an ability that no one should have to sacrifice for the sake of better bladder control.) According to Daniel Chew from the Cambridge Centre for Brain Repair and one of the study’s lead authors, his team has had great success testing their neuroprosthesis device on rats, but it could be some time yet before it’s ready for human use. They will need to miniaturize the equipment and make it wireless before submitting the product for extensive human trials. However, their achievement could lay the groundwork for many other uses of neuroprosthetics throughout the human body. “That is the beauty of neuroprosthetics,” Chew told me in an email. “The principle can be applied to the whole body, as all organs of the body are controlled by peripheral nerves. Refinement in neuroprosthetics may one day help treat many diseases such as hypertension, asthma, diabetes, and inflammation.” And such devices wouldn’t just benefit those with spine injuries. Sufferers of multiple sclerosis and ALS (or Lou Gehrig’s Disease) would also profit from better bladder control. A friend whose husband has ALS said he suffers from urinary tract infections on a monthly basis and any technology that could both empty the bladder and prevent infection would be amazing. If this were a traditional article about prosthetics, this would probably be the part where I’d embed a video of the robot arm/leg/exoskeleton at work, and we’d all marvel at how amazing science is. Well, I’m sorry to say there’s no futuristic bladder video. But that doesn’t make Chew’s research any less crucial for the millions who struggle with bladder issues every day. Think about that the next time you run to the bathroom.Before becoming a Pathologist there are major hurdles you must clear. Preparing for the Pathology Board Exam will not be without its difficulties. From blood banking to neuropathology, anatomic to clinical pathology; it won’t take much review until that all-too-familiar feeling of stress overwhelms you. Can you feel it already? Clear your mind and prove those nerves wrong by answering these 5 free Pathology sample questions.
Good luck!
Feel better? If not, then let us help you practice and succeed. Take a look at our Pathology Board Review Question Bank, which has more than 900 questions ready for you to breeze through. There’s no better time than now to get your ducks in a row and set yourself up for success come exam time. Don’t wait until it’s too late.
Share +1 15 SharesIllustration by Robert Neubecker
You’re sitting in the waiting room, icing your sore ankle. The teenager to your right is moaning and clutching his belly. The woman to your left is coughing into her mask. A stretcher rolls by with a man yelling at the top of his lungs. An ambulance arrives. You see paramedics performing CPR.
You wonder, with all this chaos around you, how can you make sure that your emergency room doctor will address your concerns?
Along with primary care physicians, we emergency providers are the frontlines of medical care. We see people with every imaginable issue. Some ER patients are critically ill—from trauma, heart attack, or severe infection. These patients will get seen immediately and have the full focus of ER staff. Other patients are not critically ill but still have needs that must be tended to.
As an emergency physician and patient advocate, I’ve met many patients who are frustrated by their medical care. I wish I could have given them advice before they came to the ER.
I see some of the same missed opportunities and miscommunications again and again. Categorizing the clusters of difficulties can help to identify and fix the problems. Here are my suggestions for 10 types of ER patients. I don’t intend to stereotype or imply that every patient falls into one of these categories. If you recognize yourself in one of these categories, you may benefit from some guidance to help us best help you.
No. 1: The Repeat Customer. Often, ER docs will see a patient who’s had headaches for 10 years or foot pain for even longer. If you have a chronic, ongoing issue, explain why today is the day you came to the ER. Help us understand why you’re here. Maybe your symptoms have changed. Perhaps your sister just got diagnosed with cancer and you’re worried. Please tell us the truth. If there is truly nothing new and you have a primary care physician, please consider making an appointment with her. We can take care of acute pain, but you will need someone to follow you for ongoing medical problems.
No. 2: The Second-Opinion Seeker. You’ve had months of troublesome symptoms. Nobody—not your primary care physician, not the five specialists you’ve seen—has given you a satisfactory answer. We understand that you’re concerned, but it’s unlikely that in the ER, with limited time and resources, we can give you the in-depth investigation you deserve. Ask your regular doctor for referrals and further testing. Keep in mind that we have finite resources; if you’re in our emergency MRI for your chronic knee pain, that means the patient with the possible stroke needs to wait.
No. 3: The Googler. The Internet can be a powerful tool for empowering patients, but please use it responsibly. Looking up your symptoms yourself might turn up that you have a brain tumor when you have food poisoning or that you are pregnant when you have belly pain (and you’re a man). Use the Internet to help you understand your diagnosis and treatment and to come up with questions—not to diagnose yourself.
No. 4: The “Pain All Over” Patient. We call it the “positive review of systems” when you say yes to everything we ask. Headache? Chest pain? Shortness of breath? Fatigue? Muscle aches? Yes, yes, of course, yes. Some illnesses really affect many parts of the your body, but more often than not, patients will say yes to convince us they are ill. We know you aren’t well, so tell us the truth. (If you don’t, you run the risk of undergoing unnecessary testing.) If everything hurts, try to tell us your story. When did you last feel normal and well? What happened then? And please don’t exaggerate. If you say that your pain is 15 out of 10, but you’re eating lunch and texting on your iPhone, it’s hard for us to calibrate your symptoms.
No. 5: The “Totally Healthy” Person. I can’t tell you how often a patient will tell me he is healthy with no medical problems, then mention to his nurse that he gets insulin shots and takes “some white and blue pills.” Please give us the full information about your health. Few visits to the ER are truly such an emergency that you don’t have time to prepare in advance. Carry a card with you of all your medical conditions, past surgeries, allergies, and current medications and dosages. Don’t forget vitamins and herbal supplements. Let your doctor know you’re coming; she can call in and let us know, or she might say you can see her that day instead of going to the ER.
No. 6: The Forgetter. Often, I’ll ask patients what brought them to the ER, and they’ll look at me blankly. “I don’t know,” they’ll say. Going to the ER is stressful, especially if you’re ill and already not feeling well. While you’re waiting for the doctor, write down your symptoms and key concerns. Bring a family member or friend with you who can help you speak up. There is limited time to see the doctor, so you have to make use of that time and tell us why you are here. If you brought a loved one to be seen, stay with the person—this isn’t the time to go shopping and leave granny alone in the waiting room.
No. 7: The Narcotic Seeker. This is the patient who says he has chronic |
I — Eternal Central (@EternalCentral) August 15, 2014As reported by the Toronto Sun, Amir Johnson has spoken about how injuries have been hampering him of late:
“Just with the injuries we have, it was a tough month of January and especially for me,” Johnson said initially only hinting at the severity of his injury. “Guarding their bigs we just have to do a better job.” Johnson admitted he’s not only playing with just another injury, he’s playing with one that prevents him from doing the sort of things he needs to do to be effective. “Just certain movements on the floor,” he said. “I feel like I can make a move and then I can’t just because I’m babying it. Just little stuff like being able to box out a defender and go grab the ball and do other stuff. That nagging pain is just bothering me.”
If you’ve seen him play in the last month this is pretty obvious, as pointed out numerous times on this site. Historically, Amir has always suffered through minor niggles when asked to play out of his position against bigger players who he regular gives up 20-40 pounds against. This year is no different as he’s switching over to the center role quite frequently due to Jonas Valanciunas’s defensive inconsistencies combined with the Raptors lack of depth at the position (Austin Daye is next).
The injury to Tyler Hansbrough didn’t help Johnson’s cause, but Dwane Casey has made an effort to monitor Johnson’s minutes in face of injury by using Patterson as a stretch four. Johnson averaged 31.2 and 28.2 minutes in December and January, respectively, but has seen playing time drop to 21.9 minutes in February.Because of their high radioactivity, fuel rods continue to produce very significant heat even after they are no longer useful for generating electricity and are removed from the reactor core. Such “spent fuel” rods need to be continually cooled for many years to prevent them from heating to a level where they would suffer damage.
To cool the rods after they are removed from the reactor core, they are placed on racks in a spent fuel pool that circulates cooled water around them. This water is circulated by pumps that are run using electricity from the power grid. Typically these pumps do not have backup power from deisel generators or batteries, so if power from the grid is interrupted, as it is in the case of the Japanese earthquake, they will stop operating.
Once the cooling pumps stop, the water in the spent fuel pools will begin to heat up and will eventually start to boil off. The pools are typically 45 feet deep with the fuel rods stored in the lower 15 feet of the pool, so 30 feet of water would have to boil off before exposing the rods. That could take several days, so this issue may only be appearing now.
The pool at Fukushima Dai-Ichi Unit 4 is a particular problem since the fuel rods in it were only removed from the reactor core during a refueling of the reactor in December 2010. Therefore, they still have a very high level of radiation and are generating more heat than the spent fuel at the other reactors at the Dai-Ichi site.
The spent fuel pools for the Dai-Ichi reactors are located on an upper floor in the reactor building (see red circle in figure). The pools are outside the primary containment of the reactor, but inside the reactor building, which is the secondary containment. Typically any radioactivity released from the pool will be contained by the reactor building, which is maintained at less than atmospheric pressure so air flows into the building rather than out. The air in the building is filtered to remove the radioactivity before it is released outside.
As the water in the pool heats up and evaporates, the vapor will carry some radiation with it. This includes tritium and radioactive particles in the water.
If the water level in the pool drops low enough to expose the spent fuel, the fuel rods can suffer the same kinds of damage as fuel in the reactor core that is expose. If only a small length of the rods is exposed, they will get hot enough to create steam, but the steam flowing along the exposed surface of the rod will cool it enough that the rod’s cladding will not reach the high temperature required to react with the steam and create hydrogen.
Once the water has dropped low enough to expose several feet of the length of the fuel rods, they can become hot enough that the zirconium cladding of the rods will react with the steam and release hydrogen.
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has said there was a hydrogen explosion that damaged the Unit 4 reactor building on Tuesday morning in Japan (Monday afternoon U.S. time), reportedly blowing a 26-foot wide hole in the side of the building. If this explosion was due to hydrogen, that hydrogen very likely came from the spent fuel since there is no other clear source (this reactor was not operating when the earthquake hit). And if the spent fuel produced the hydrogen, that indicates that the water level in the spent fuel pool must have been low enough to have exposed a significant fraction of the fuel rods.
Shortly after that—at 9:38 am Tuesday (8:38 pm EDT Monday)—TEPCO discovered a fire on the fourth floor of the building in the spent fuel pool, which reportedly burned for three hours. That fire may have been the oxidation of the zirconium cladding, as it was continuing to produce hydrogen.
The other effect of heat damage to the fuel rods is that radioactive gases such as iodine-131 and cesium-137, which are produced in the fuel during the operation of the reactor, can be released. The hole in the secondary containment at Unit 4 means that any emissions from the spent fuel will be vented directed to the outside.
If water cannot be added to the pool, or if the pool has been damaged and is leaking, the fuel may remain uncovered. The exposed fuel can get hot enough to melt, depending on how long it has been out of the reactor. If the fuel melts, it would release significant additional radioactivity into the air.
This same scenario could occur at Units 5 and 6 if the water in the spent fuel pools is not replenished, although the fuel there has apparently been in the pools longer and is not as radioactive as at Unit 4. For rods that have been in the pool for long enough, their decay heat will have dropped sufficiently that they will not undergo the same rapid oxidation as newer fuel rods will, and would not produce as much hydrogen.
Thus, depending on the age of the spent fuel in Units 5 and 6, there may be less hydrogen produced if the water level in the spent fuel pool drops. There may still be enough heat to damage the fuel and release radioactive gases, but if the secondary containment is not damaged by a hydrogen explosion, that gas may not be released to the atmosphere.
If mechanisms to fill the pool at Unit 4 are broken, or if there is a need to repair the pool, it will be difficult to get workers close enough to do this. If spent fuel has been in the pool for a relatively short time, even if the water level is at the top of the fuel rods, the radiation dose to someone at the railing of the pool would give them a lethal dose in well under a minute. This would explain why there have been reports of requests to use helicopters to deliver water to the pools. However, it appears that this is not a practical way of delivering water.
Posted in: Japan, Nuclear Power Safety Tags: Japan nuclear, nuclear power, nuclear power safety, spent fuel
Support from UCS members make work like this possible. Will you join us? Help UCS advance independent science for a healthy environment and a safer world.Welcome back to Funding the Kryptonite, a blog that will take a look at comic book super villains and discuss them from a business perspective.
Today’s blog post will touch on data analytics and how using your data needs to be handled correctly. To illustrate this point, I’m going to go back to the example of Lex Luthor and his continual quest to uncover information about his arch-nemesis, Superman.
But first, a Crisis:
A bit of backstory on Lex Luthor. His popular depiction before the events in the maxi-series Crisis on Infinite Earths was that of a super-scientist who viewed Superman as an obstacle in his quest for global, and eventually universal, domination. However, following Crisis, the DC universe was rebooted in an attempt to streamline the continuity of DC Comics and several alterations were made. One of those was changing the portray of Lex as a genius scientist who would constantly be jailed into that of a genius executive who would use his brains to mastermind things from behind the scenes. His frustration against Superman now stems from his inability to view himself as the master of Metropolis because Superman cannot be bought or controlled by Lex in the manner that he does everyone else. How best to slay this dragon?
Knowledge is Power:
Lex seeks out information on Superman, attempting to learn more about his target and try to bring him to heel. He gathers all the Superman information he can find, pulling in data from public sources (cameras, photographs, etc…) and sends out agents to collect further information about Superman from Smallville, as he knows that Superman is somehow connected to Lana Lang (Clark Kent’s childhood flame) and through that connection also investigates the Kents. He takes this massive bundle of raw data and runs it through the computer system in an attempt to find the connection between Clark Kent and Superman. He suspects they are perhaps friends, or even relatives. And the computer delivers the shocking result, that Clark Kent IS Superman.
Data Analytics and You:
Computers can do amazing things, and scary ones too. A recent news story broke about how Target Corporation uses their data analysis to predict, based on shopping patterns, how likely it is that a female customer is pregnant and how far along in her pregnancy she is. They would then use that information to send targeted coupons and discounts to that customer in the hopes of drawing their business to Target for maternity items. Another similar story is that a retailer discovered that there was a strong correlation in same-basket sales of hockey equipment and plants, later shown to be because mothers prepping their children for the hockey season would also be buying indoor plants since it was wintertime.
All this is to say that there is a wealth of information that can be teased out of the material at hand, if a company puts the time and effort into managing their data and crunching it for good information. However, this information can also lead companies horribly astray if managed incorrectly. Poor data analytics, or bad or incomplete data fed into the system, can generate incorrect conclusions that, if acted upon, lead to poor management choices.
The Human Problem:
And here is where Lex goes horribly wrong with his data analytics results. He has just been handed the secret of Superman’s secret identity and he dismisses it. Brutally, arrogantly, and swiftly, he dismisses it. He sets it aside because he does not agree with the outcome. He cannot comprehend the notion that a being of Superman’s power would do anything but use it. The idea that Superman would hide himself and pose as a regular person is outside of Lex’s worldview.
And Lex is not entirely wrong. Data analytics can often turn up surprising conclusions that might seem erroneous or counterintuitive. The correct course of action would be to set aside the result and re-examine the processes and data to ensure that things are in working order. But because he doesn’t like the answer, he shuts down the project and dismisses the entire affair.
Closing comments:
Data analytics, is a huge field and used for a variety of different business functions. Forecasting your sales, understanding consumer behavior in purchasing choices, optimizing for marketing purposes in targeting an audience, or, in this case, trying to beat the one man who cannot be bought. Lex Luthor is right in using the tools of data analysis to reach his goal, but sometimes the answers you don’t like are the toughest to swallow.
“I have no place in my organization for people who cannot see the obvious.” –Lex Luthor (Superman (vol. 2), #22)
Final Rating: Bad business!“Isn’t it hard to be a vegan athlete?” “Where do you get your protein?” These are the sorts of incredulous questions Sustainable Technology Coordinator Samuel Hartman and Sustainability Coordinator Bridget Flynn set out to answer once and for all in their second talk of the year on vegan athleticism last Tuesday.
The pair mainly emphasized the ease with which they gain the necessary nutrients, even protein, on a plant-based diet. Flynn was quick to debunk the common misconception that veganism was an irresponsible choice for serious athletes due to the lack of protein through meat and animal products.
Hartman and Flynn ensured that their presentation was accessible to the entirety of their eclectic audience of vegans, athletes and people unfamiliar with either topic, making sure to explain all technical terms involved in both concepts.
“It’s probably easier than you think,” Flynn insisted, rattling off the amount of protein in a half cup of black beans, a half cup of tempeh and a half cup of seitan, which contain 7.6 grams, 15 grams and 31 grams, respectively.
Hartman, a veteran vegan of 10 years, and Flynn, who has been a hardcore herbivore for nine years, have both engaged in heavy athleticism throughout the past decade. Together they have accrued an eclectic list of athletic experiences. Hartman has some amateur road bike races under his belt, while Flynn has dabbled in Tough Mudder races and taekwondo. Currently, Hartman is focusing on Olympic weightlifting and Flynn is a figure bodybuilder looking to compete again in 2016.
The presentation and discussion, sponsored by both the Office of Environmental Sustainability and Oberlin Animal Rights, was a derivative of the talk the two Oberlin employees gave to Harkness Co-op athletes last year. The talk served as a response to doubts that the co-op members could make veganism work with their athletic goals. The discussion was a hit with Harkness athletes, and the success inspired the duo to open up the discussion to the rest of Oberlin’s campus.
In a brief aside, Hartman explained that there are nine essential amino acids — the compounds that form proteins — and countered the myth that these essential compounds are only found in meat. He explained that anyone could cobble together a full set of nine with a varied diet of plant proteins.
“Eat your greens!” Hartman said in conclusion.
Another myth busted by the talk was that meat and animal products are the sole available sources of important vitamins and minerals. They cited soybeans, spinach, molasses, quinoa and even dark chocolate as having significant iron content, and soymilk, tofu and cereal as some B12-fortified foods. Chia seeds, flax seeds and seaweed all provide Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids.
Along with these natural foods, Hartman and Flynn stressed that there are many easily accessible non-meat, non-dairy supplements that might help not only with nutrition but also with diversifying the taste of one’s dishes. Tofurky, Teese, Rice Dream, Vegenaise, Amy’s Kitchen and Daiya are all brands that made the list, although Flynn was quick to admit that she mainly prefers natural foods instead of substitutes and has done just fine without them.
Discussion turned towards lifestyle questions when the vegan duo opened up the floor to the audience.
They addressed topics such as traveling as a vegan, how to start bodybuilding and superfoods. On so-called superfoods, like quinoa and açaí, Hartman said that they are simply foreign foods that have been marketed well, and while he conceded that they taste good and have nutritional value, they aren’t worth their hype.
“They’re not worth paying a premium for,” he concluded.
On being vegan while traveling, Flynn stressed being polite and respectful but also assertive about dietary restrictions.
“Do your research,” she said. The pair advised learning a few key phrases in the language of wherever you are traveling to make communication easier and mistakes less frequent. On this point, the presenters were met with widespread agreement from the audience.
“It’s very possible to just be vegan,” one audience member called out.
Both Hartman and Flynn enthusiastically encouraged their audience to go to the gym and to get involved in athleticism. Flynn shot out several helpful websites and insisted that no one should be too intimidated to go to the weight room.
“Probably half the people in the gym don’t know what they’re doing either,” she said.
On the way out of the presentation, students could grab a coupon for a free Tofurkey product at the Oberlin IGA, as if Harman and Flynn were telling the audience, “If you don’t believe us, see for yourselves.”PWTorch.com is reporting “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels has signed an exclusive contract with Ring of Honor Wrestling.
Daniels is the latest ROH star to sign an exclusive deal, as ROH World Champion Jay Lethal and the Young Bucks have already done so this year. The deals mean Daniels and others who signed are no longer available for U.S. and Toronto-area indy bookings, but can work internationally in the UK, Mexico, Japan and Europe through their agent Bill Behrens. It was noted that Daniels’ tag partner, Kazarian, is available for all bookings, as he has not signed a deal with any promotion as of now, and Moose and Matt Sydal also have the same availability.
The new exclusive deals were said to be a measure to protect a promotion like ROH from having non-contracted talents working one taping and not being available the next, citing NXT as an example. Additionally, this prevents ROH from having to remove an advertised wrestler from show due to signing with another promotion, like the situation with AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, DOC Gallows and Karl Anderson.PITTSBURGH -- With at least one veteran defenseman departing, the Pittsburgh Penguins will rely heavily on Derrick Pouliot to take a substantial step forward this season.
It's a step the second-year defenseman said he is prepared to take.
"I definitely know the expectations, that's for sure," said Pouliot, Pittsburgh's first-round pick (No. 8) at the 2012 NHL Draft. "I know I have to be ready when the season comes around, what I have to do to be ready. It's a little different in that aspect, that's for sure. … I'm pretty anxious. I feel like I can take on a bit of a bigger role."
Pouliot, 21, impressed in his first season in a similar fashion to defenseman Olli Maatta's debut during the 2013-14 season. In 34 games, Pouliot solidified his position as one of Pittsburgh's top four defensemen (two goals, five assists) while showcasing his dependable defensive IQ, steady skating and heavy slap shot, which he routinely unleashed on the Penguins' second power-play unit.
He temporarily filled a void left by Maatta when the 20-year-old defenseman sustained a season-ending upper-body injury 20 games into his second season and about two weeks after returning from surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his thyroid.
Maatta is expected to return this September when training camp opens. But even with him back in the lineup, Pouliot's presence will be necessary for Pittsburgh's success.
Paul Martin, arguably the Penguins' most consistent defenseman the past three seasons, signed with the San Jose Sharks on July 1, and defenseman Christian Ehrhoff, who signed a one-year contract with Pittsburgh last summer, is an unrestricted free agent and unlikely to return.
Martin played a lot of minutes during his five seasons in Pittsburgh, with a high of 25:20 per game in 2012-13 and a low of 22:47 last season.
"Someone's going to have to step up and take some of those minutes that he took," Pouliot said. "He played a lot. He's a very good defenseman, so there's a chance for everybody to grab an elevated role."
Rob Scuderi will again provide veteran leadership on the back end, but the top-four group will be led by 28-year-old defenseman Kris Letang, who is likely to be paired with Maatta. Pouliot's partner won't be established until September at the earliest, but he is firmly entrenched as one of the Penguins' necessary cogs.
The defensive depth Pittsburgh built throughout the past several seasons will finally be tested with Pouliot, Maatta and potentially Brian Dumoulin all finding a place in the opening-night lineup, if not in the Penguins' top-four defense group.
Pouliot's place within that group wasn't guaranteed entering July when he was rumored to be a piece in a potential trade for Toronto Maple Leafs forward Phil Kessel. The trade went through on July 1, but Pouliot remained with Pittsburgh.
"I heard some rumors that I might be involved in that," Pouliot said. "I saw the trade come through and I think that's great. He's a very good player. He scores a lot of goals. I think he'll be a good fit here. … You try not to think about [being traded]. I was working with [former Penguins forward Gary Roberts] in the summer. You just kind of go day by day.
"If it happens, it happens. And fortunately, it didn't happen and I get to stay here."
Pouliot contacted Roberts shortly after the New York Rangers eliminated the Penguins during the Eastern Conference First Round of the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs. After sustaining an upper-body injury that kept him from making his postseason debut, Pouliot set out to enter the 2015-16 season in better condition and felt Roberts could help him achieve his goal.
"I improved my fitness over the summer," Pouliot said. "That's a big thing, so I can handle the speed. And the minutes aren't really elevated, I think, but they're harder minutes. I think that'll be a big help coming into this season.
"One of the big things I learned, I think I have to be in a little better shape. I learned I can play at the NHL level and hopefully I can stick and be a big part of this team in the coming years."
Pouliot is attending his fourth development camp with the Penguins this week. His experience is clear when compared with Pittsburgh's prospects.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins goalie Matt Murray, the 2015 AHL goaltender of the year and rookie of the year, faced Pouliot during a shootout competition on the opening day of the development camp Tuesday. Pouliot drove in slow, drifted left and quickly shifted the puck from forehand to backhand before roofing it over Murray.
"I don't want to pump his tires too much, but he's a heck of a player, obviously," Murray said. "He definitely stands out out there. He's just so smooth. His offensive ability is just God-given talent. He's born to be a hockey player and he's really fun to watch. Not so fun to try to stop, most of the time."
Pouliot is no longer using the camp to develop his game; that was accomplished in previous years. This time, he is expected to help guide the next wave of Penguins talent.
"He's at a stage of his career where nobody should be dragging him around to meetings or to the rink," Penguins assistant general manager Tom Fitzgerald said. "He should be leading. I don't know who I put him with, but I'm guessing I put him with a young 18-year-old to help get up, be prepared to get to the rink. Not just roll out of bed and throw a baseball hat on.
"That's the stage he's at. And his ultimate goal, obviously, is to make this team out of training camp."Image caption Raoul Moat died following a six-hour stand-off with armed officers
Inquest jurors have returned a verdict of suicide in the death of gunman Raoul Moat, who shot himself in the head after a six-hour stand-off with police.
The 37-year-old former doorman died in Rothbury, Northumberland, in July 2010.
The hearing was told Moat was hit by an experimental shotgun Taser round fired by marksmen who believed he was preparing to kill himself.
Meanwhile an Independent Police Complaints Commission report found no evidence of misconduct by officers.
The IPCC looked at the period from the sighting of Moat until his death, including strategy and tactics and the deployment of Tasers.
It concluded there may be "some learning" for Northumbria Police from the investigation but there was no evidence of misconduct by any police officers.
On the run
One area the jury had to consider was whether the use of Tasers was appropriate. It returned its verdict after deliberating for more than five hours.
The inquest heard the aim was to incapacitate Moat, allowing officers to make an arrest.
Officers were offered and accepted X12 Taser shotguns which were licensed only for testing in the UK.
The shotguns were used because they fired XREP cartridges over a longer range than conventional handheld Tasers.
It was the first time firearms officers had seen the weapons.
Two were fired, with one hitting his forearm and the other missing, and shortly afterwards Moat shot himself.
A consultant neuropathologist told the inquest he did not believe Moat shot himself because a Taser caused his hand to contract.
Dr Ian Schofield said there was no definitive evidence of an electrical discharge from the non-approved Taser which hit Moat's left arm.
In a written narrative explanation of the events, the jury said "questions have been raised about the suitability of XREP Tasers and the information officers were given on deployment".
"All officers involved were shotgun and X26 Taser trained and had no qualms in using XREP shotgun Taser."
Concerns were also raised by the Moat family that his estranged brother Angus and best friend Anthony Wright were not called as third party intermediaries during negotiations.
The jury found "at no point did Mr Moat ask to talk to any family member or friend".
After the verdict, solicitor Adam Straw read a statement on behalf of Angus Moat.
It said: "I remain highly critical of the police decision not to allow myself, or any other friend or relative, to speak to Raoul alongside police negotiators, during the six-hour stand-off.
"I believe the police decision to deploy and use the X12 XREP shotgun taser, despite it not being authorised by the Home Office, was a mistake.
"Sufficient knowledge of its likely chance of failure was not obtained. I also feel the training given to the officers to use the XREP was woefully inadequate, and given far too late."
Image caption Police said the Tasers were the only option to try to bring Moat to justice
'Extremely volatile'
Northumbria Police Chief Constable Sue Sim welcomed the verdict.
She said: "Raoul Moat chose his path, he decided to murder, attempt to murder and to threaten the lives of the public and police officers.
"He had many opportunities to hand himself in and face justice, yet he chose not to do so. His victims had no such choice.
"This was an extremely complex and dynamic operation. In the first few days we were also dealing with a potential hostage situation.
"We always wanted to bring him to justice."
She responded to the criticism about why family and friends were not brought in during negotiations.
"The situation was extremely volatile and dangerous and the assessment of trained expert negotiators was that it would have been unsafe to introduce anyone into the negotiation with Moat who had not seen him for some time or who may have inflamed the situation," she said.
She said Tasers were used because there were no other options available to police to try to stop Moat from taking his own life.
Moat had been on the run for a week after shooting his ex-partner Samantha Stobbart, murdering her new boyfriend Chris Brown and later blinding PC David Rathband.Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has brushed aside international condemnation of his hard-line asylum seeker policies, saying Australia's border protection protections will always be "made in Australia" under the Coalition.
This came as Sri Lankan police arrested 37 asylum seekers they prevented from reaching Australia's maritime zone by boat. Sri Lanka charged them with illegally leaving the country, and their cases are due to be taken up by a court next May.
"The government remains committed to fixing the mess we were elected to fix": Immigration Minister Scott Morrison. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Another passenger on the boat was found to have a case for claiming refugee status and is being transferred to either Nauru or Papua New Guinea for processing.
Sri Lankan Superintendent Ajith Rohana said the coastguard handed the asylum seekers, including six children, over to Sri Lanka's navy on Thursday.The best place for that glorious first bike ride is now open for cruising.
Nothing comes close to the thrill of the first ride. It could be the first time you wobbled along after the training wheels came off, or when the ice and snow finally melt so you could venture out for the first ride of the season. Whether you’re eight or 80, we very happily encourage you to take that first ride on Pocusset Street.
The first of its kind in the nation, Pocusset Street is a successful experiment in ‘road shift’, a term coined by Bike Pittsburgh. The project, spearheaded by Bike Pittsburgh and the City of Pittsburgh, was all about rethinking and resizing this paved surface, taking a structurally unsound and sharply curving through-street and creating a safe — and repaved! — avenue for bikers and walkers through Schenley Park. Linking Squirrel Hill to Greenfield, Pocusset Street has been shifted into a very sleek and safe thoroughfare with ‘lanes’ for bikers, wide shoulders for walkers, new LED street lighting, and reflective bollards that bar motorized traffic. Now, it’s a road for everyone.
The recent installation of the bright yellow candlestick bollards are the final pegs in this redesign. The project is a real testament to committed community members; with the support of neighbors, a road that would have normally been shuttered has contributed tremendous value to the park. On a larger scale, Pocusset Street is another step for connected bikeways through Pittsburgh and is definitely something worth bragging about on a national level (did we mention the perfect timing?)
Jump on Pocusset Street as the weather breaks for a cruise with a sweeping vista to one side and the park to the other. Bring along your friends, your grandparents, your little one with the training wheels — anyone you want along for that first ride.
Remember your first foray on two wheels? Roads like Pocusset make the parks bikeable and enjoyable for everyone. This spring, enable an awesome child to get out in the parks to ride a bike of their own through Variety the Children’s Charity “My Bike” program. Through this happy project, children with special needs are outfitted with a bike specially tailored to their disabilities. Currently, they have 150 souped-up bikes for eligible kids that fill out the application before April 1st. Spread the word!
Lauryn Stalter for the Pittsburgh Parks ConservancyAlan Gilbert conducts the New York Philharmonic. Photo: Chris Lee
With a flourish of optimism, the New York Philharmonic has opened its new home, David Geffen Hall, which looks exactly like its old home, Avery Fisher Hall, except for the signs. The rechristening ceremony and the opening-night gala attracted a passel of Hollywood stars, as well as a $25 million donation from board chairman Oscar Schaefer to supplement Geffen’s $100 million. On the next Oprah-less night, the Philharmonic’s present seemed bright: Alan Gilbert conducted rip-roaring performances of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s L.A. Variations and Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben. Frank Huang, the orchestra’s first new concertmaster in 35 years, played Strauss’s rhapsodic solos with lyrical freedom and refined good taste that bode well for the Philharmonic’s strings.
But with those everyday heroics, the orchestra plunged confidently into a foggy future. Somewhere in the chasm ahead lies a massive fund-raising campaign (just $375 million to go to pay for the actual renovation!), a redesigned hall, a new music director, financial stability, and an artistic vision, all of which will need to materialize at roughly the same time.
Gilbert steps down in 2017; the hall is supposed to be gutted and rebuilt starting in 2019. In the geological time scale of the classical music business, that leaves his successor about five minutes in which to influence the design by an as-yet-unnamed architect, figure out how to keep the Philharmonic artistically and fiscally vigorous during its period of homelessness, and then lead it back to the glittering new Geffen. Orchestras are delicate creatures, and getting this complicated maneuver wrong could prove catastrophic.
One partial solution — maybe the only good solution — appeared briefly onstage at the first subscription concert: Salonen was starting a three-year term as composer-in-residence, which could serve as a prologue to a stint as music director. A composer-conductor of immense talents, he would step onto the podium a well-honed musical personality. He would continue Gilbert’s efforts to adapt a 19th-century institution to the contemporary world, and deliver stirring performances of the big core works.
But his most important experience, a qualification that the Philharmonic should consider indispensable, is that he was present at the creation of Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Hall. Great designers depend on great clients, and if the Los Angeles Philharmonic now inhabits one of the country’s architectural masterpieces, it’s thanks in part to the orchestra’s bold soul. Salonen’s major role in that adventure means that he understands how the backstage nitty-gritty of freight elevators and practice rooms interacts with the experiential immersion of a resonant room, and the continuity of the audience experience from subway to seat and back again. Not many other musicians have that kind of authority. Without it, the Philharmonic risks buying itself a half-billion dollars’ worth of compromises and misjudgments.
Gilbert and Salonen opened the concert not with a bang but with a speech, a tag-team lecture on a sparkling 20-year-old work that requires no explanation. Salonen, a Finn who was trained in the rigors of European modernism, recalled that shortly after he began his tenure as music director of the L.A. Philharmonic, he woke up early one morning and, intoxicated by chirping birds and gaudy bougainvillea, experienced an unfamiliar and un-Finnish feeling: “I was happy.” So he sat down to write. Instead of making his exit there, he then plunged into a discussion of hexachords, aggregates, and implied modulations that must have mystified 90 percent of the audience and hardly entertained the rest. Gilbert is unusually deft at spoken introductions; Salonen should probably be a man of fewer words.
Once the concert finally got going, it was clear that Gilbert has kept the orchestra in splendid musical shape. Perhaps he was implying a comparison between Strauss and Salonen and suggesting that since the first isn’t available, the Philharmonic should hire the second. Both wrote their respective pieces in their 30s, when they gloried in their success as conductors and discovered new freedom as composers. Eager to show off their exuberance and skill, both used upward-floating themes, techniques of continuous variation, and dazzling pinwheels of instrumental colors. Orchestras tend to attract attention only in times of strike, penury, and inner turmoil, but on this night the 100-plus players onstage had nothing to offer but pyrotechnic pleasures and swashbuckling sounds. The Philharmonic will have to be careful not to squander that trust fund of joy.by admin
in Edmonton 620
Who doesn’t like Halloween? The whole festival is a treat of joy for every single person. And what can be better than treating the kids with delicious candies and amazing delicacies? With all the costumes and the dressing up and the showers of candies, it is the best holiday for kids, apart from Christmas. And if you are in Alberta then there is a whole another surprise for you. You could always check out the places where you will the best Halloween parties.
Check Out These 5 Places For Halloween In Alberta
Halloween At The TELUS World Of Science Edmonton: Are you brave enough to explore all the thrills and chills of Halloween? Then you must visit the TWOS. All kinds of treats and tricks are available in this place. Enrol yourself in some of the classic horror movies which will make your skin crawl and keep you up at night because of the inspired nightmares. Keep in mind that some of the movies are not appropriate for children of all ages. Keep your little ones away from it. Regardless of your age, some movies will send some chills down your spine.
During the weekends you can also have fun at the Science Centre. Encounter with some horrifying and creepy Tarantulas and Eyeball Dissection. Visit the science garage and create some scary Halloween Props.
Baby Can Boogie Dance Party: Pay a visit to this place and hit the floor on the Baby Can Boogie Dance Party. It’s a Halloween themed party for friends and family. It is one of the best places to visit with your children. The party goes well and strong with rock music. You can get admission by donation or with a receipt from Cafe Bicyclette.
Spooktacular Acreage Of Fun: The Spooktacular Acreage Fun is presented by the Realty Executives Leading. The paths are filled with scary Halloween decorations and a touch of Halloween magic along with tons of inflatables. This is quite an appropriate place for you and your kids to enjoy the Halloween, the events are not very scary. And the best part is that it is free. You can donate money which will be accepted for Stony Plain Kinsman Christmas Hamper.
Sherwood Park Halloween Haunted House: Want to know how brave you are? Then you must pay a visit to the Sherwood Park Halloween Haunted House. Test your bravery to see are you the one who will come out screaming from the house or the one who breeze through the terror. This house is designed for all ages, adults, and children. You will encounter many frightful treats and lots of tricks which may leave you baffled. So this is definitely a good option to enjoy your Halloween with you elder son or daughter. You can get admission to this house by donation. The food donation goes to the Strathcona Country Food Bank and the collected money goes to the Zoe’s and WARF. These are non-profitable animal rescue organisations.
Few More Events In Edmonton: Edmonton is also named as Deadmonton. Few more events of Halloween are.
Halloween At The Muttart: Halloween at the Muttart is not only fun but its botanical too. The featured pyramid is decorated with the creepy chrysanthemums on its deck. After the Curse of the Chrysthanemummies is over, it is the Pumpkin Patch Pyramids. It organises plenty of Halloween activities in which you can take part with your children, wear your Halloween costume, make creepy crafts and make horrifying face paintings. This |
flaps are at thir- twenty two
18.34:39 CAM-1 Yeah, I know it
18.34:44 CAM-3 Both loops "A" and "B" are out
CAM-1 Thank you
18.34:53 PA Ladies and gentlemen, no need to panic, place your hands behind your head for impact position [Urdu]
18.35:06 CAM-3 Aft cargo door is opened sir
18.35:11 CAM-1 Check
CAM-3 No problem
PA Now ladies and gentlemen, may I ask you to please put your hands behind your heads for the impact position
18.35:56 CAM-3 Looking good
18.35:57 CAM-1 Tell them, tell them to not evacuate
18.36:01 PA Put your hand behind your head and head between your knees, hands behind your head
CAM ((Sound similar to door opening))
18.36:07 CAM-3 No need for that, we are okay, no problem, no problem
18.36:12 GPWS Minimum --- minimum
18.36:12 CAM-1 One hundred
CAM-3 One hundred
18.36:15 CAM ((Loud squeal begins and continues until end of CVR tape))
18.36:18 CAM-3 Fifty
18.36:19 CAM-3 Forty
18.36:21 CAM-3 Thirty
18.36:22 CAM ((Loud squeal))
((End of CVR tape))The coverage of Kesha’s ongoing legal battle with Sony (she says that her contracted producer, Dr. Luke, assaulted her) has been, in some cases, sadly exploitative. When we write about victims who we’ve always known through their celebrity status, we often forget that they are, privately, survivors: real people with complicated feelings about their own life and the things they’ve experienced. In writing and talking about what they’ve been through, we often miss the mark. We generalize. We assume.
But in Kesha’s case, one writer was able to get and share real insight into by speaking with her mother, Pebe Sebert. Sebert spoke with Billboard contributor Danielle Bacher about her daughter's experiences with Dr. Luke, who she alleges was abusive towards her for 10 years. As Pebe told Bacher, Kesha "was a prisoner. It was like someone who beats you every day and hangs you from a chain and then comes in and gives you a piece of bread. Luke would say, 'You look nice today,' and send her into hysterics of happiness because she was programmed to expect nothing but abuse."
Bacher also recently interviewed comedian Margaret Cho and musician Amber Coffman of Dirty Projectors about their experiences as victims of sexual assault. Over email, Bacher talked to Teen Vogue about how the interviews with Kesha’s mom came to be, what her experiences were regarding talking to insiders about something so often covered up, and why stories like these are so important.
Teen Vogue: How many hours did you spend on the phone with Pebe? It seemed like such an exhaustive process, like you really got to know her.
Danielle Bacher: I would estimate Pebe and I spent around 15 hours on the phone over the course of two weeks. We communicated through emails and texts as well.
TV: Did Pebe speak about any of her own experiences in the industry?
DB: She only spoke about negative experiences with Luke and Kesha, but she has told me she's heard of other musicians who have had similar experiences with other men in the industry.
TV: Was it difficult to find music producers, PR people, executives, and other people inside the story to comment?
DB: At first, it was extremely hard. We talked to a lot of executives off the record. I received a ton of help from Shirley Halperin and my editor Nick Catucci, and I was fortunate to get interviews on record with artists. The entire Billboard team also helped out with talking to lawyers and crisis managers for Kesha and Luke. It wasn't an easy process, but we really dug in and contacted everyone involved in the story.
TV: Do you think this exclusive with her mother will help people see a more whole version of the case than what's been in the press up until now?
DB: I think so. This is the first time that she's spoken out on what seems like a horrific situation. But I think her mother really wanted Kesha's story out. I think it was hard for her to watch her daughter experience so much heartache stemming from the alleged abuse.
TV: All in all, what first attracted you do doing this story?
DB: I've done some other in-depth reportage for Billboard, and I had spoken with them about doing this one. I think it's an extremely important story, and I was determined to find out as much as I could. I'm fortunate that Billboard allowed me to write it.The leading voice against marijuana law reform in Texas has lost his bid for re-election in Denton County.
Sheriff Will Travis lost by just over 10,000 votes in his attempt to gain a second term to the new Republican nominee Tracy Murphree.
Travis traveled to the state legislature multiple times last year to oppose marijuana and hemp bills, and at one point was confused on the difference between the two.
He also took major blows during a radio debate in San Antonio with marijuana activists from Republicans Against Marijuana Prohibition and Texas NORML.
Mailers sent out by his campaign touted his opposition to marijuana law reform and the steps he had taken to oppose it.
Travis was also the subject of an ethics investigation involving bribery and lost multiple local endorsements. He was recently involved in an incident where he claimed that he was related to William Travis who fought at the Alamo, and that has since been called into question as well.
Outspending Murphree by more than 2-to-1, Travis also lost the support of his own deputies, who reportedly endorsed Murphree.
One medical cannabis patient organization that took issue with Travis’ actions at the legislature was Team Alexis, an organization that began based on a then 9-year-old girl, Alexis Bortell, who was suffering from severe seizures but found relief with medical cannabis oils in Colorado.
Dean Bortell, Alexis’ father, released a statement today about Travis’ failed re-election bid.
Last night was a historic night for Texas patients as one of their biggest opponents was voted out of office. We thank the good people of Texas for removing a Sheriff who was openly against Texas’s most vulnerable citizens which included very sick children like Alexis Bortell. While it is our policy to thank public servants for their service, in this specific case we will respectfully pass and instead take great pride knowing that the two remaining candidates have never testified before the Texas Legislature that propaganda, illness, and death should prevail over science and compassion. Thank you Denton Texas!
Murphree will face the Libertarian Party candidate Randy Butler in November.
Stay up to date with the latest cannabis news from a Texas perspective by following the Texas Cannabis Report social media pages.
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The following two tabs change content below. Bio
Latest Posts Stephen Carter Stephen Carter is a journalist and information technology specialist living in Waco, Texas. He has been working with the cannabis movement since 2009 and serves on the board of directors for Texas NORML as an advisor. He founded Texas Cannabis Report in 2013 to bring Texans accurate cannabis related news. Latest posts by Stephen Carter see all) Legislative session to begin with over a dozen cannabis bills - January 7, 2019
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commentsCNN host Jake Tapper grilled Republican presidential candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich and asked him if he thought his attack web video against GOP rival Donald Trump seemed “desperate.”
Tapper asked Kasich about his recent video against Trump and that the video could be compared to a poem about the Nazis.
“The Nazis killed 12 million people,” Tapper said. “It seems a little extreme and perhaps even a lot desperate to compare Donald Trump to the Nazis.”
Kasich responded and said that wasn’t “what is being done here.”
“When you attack Hispanics, when you characterize all Muslims in a very negative way, when you insult women, we don’t think that that’s good. We think, at this point in time, more than any other time, we need to have — we need to have America united,” Kasich said. “And we need to have an American president who is going to unite us and not divide us.”
“And it’s no more than that,” Kasich said. “And any read into it more than that is certainly not what was intended or what was meant.”We received word from one of our Verizon friends late last week suggesting that the official Froyo (Android 2.2) build for the Samsung Fascinate is not version DL30 that was leaked out last week, but will instead be build EB01. As many of you are aware, DL30 was quite the buggy mess, but that’s not what we’re hearing that with this new version which we’re hoping means it’ll be out fairly soon. You’ll see in our gallery that all of the bloatware that you love so much is in tact and Bing is definitely still the default search app. The good news is that you can all finally download the Google Search and Voice Action app to counteract it.
Changelog and a whole bunch of screenshots after the break.
Here is the changelog:
1. Updated to support the Google Froyo 2.2 software
2. Added support for SMS Delivery acknowledgement
3. Addressed an issue seen in some cases were users would lose their data connection and have to either power cycle or turn on and off airplane mode to recover
4. A UI change was made to correct the spelling of “Dialled Calls” in the dialer app.
5. Addressed an issue where the speaker button was not working when connected to a Bluetooth device.
6. A software change was made to enhance the reliability of the syncing of IMAP and POP 3 e-mails accounts
7. You can now move messages between folders in the exchange mail client
8. Addressed an issue found when connected to the car dock and you turn off the back light the connection defaults to the speakerphone when you turn the back light back on
9. Addressed a “force close” error message seen when you select “delete all” in your sent or trash folders in your exchange e-mail account
10. You can now save a contact you found using a Global Address Look up.
11. Addressed an issue found when using Bing Voice search causing the device to give the error message “thinking” and “make sure you are connected to a network and try again”.
12. When using the Voice Command application it will not display duplicate names and numbers for the same contact that was found from multiple sources.
13. Addressed an issue when using the Desktop dock which in some cases was causing the idle screen image to appear to be burned into the screen
14. The color scheme in the calendar has been changed
15. Enhancements were made to improve the update consistency of the feeds and widgets
16. Protected Media licenses are now stored on the memory card so if the device is factory reset these protected content licenses will not be lost
17. The Swype application will no longer capitalize letters inappropriately
The gallery:
And yes, it was rooted using current methods.BRISBANE Lions match-winner Tayla Harris and Melbourne excitement-machine Lily Mithen have scooped the Round 2 AFL Womens Rising Star nominations.
At just 19, Harris is already a star of the competition after being signed as a marquee player by the Lions and has proved her worth in the opening two weeks, helping the club to an undefeated start to the inaugural season.
The Brisbane-born forward was at her match-winning best against Fremantle on Sunday collecting 12 disposals and kicking two goals while taking six contested marks.
MATCH REPORT: DEMONS STORM HOME TO CRUSH MAGPIES
MATCH REPORT: LIONS UNBEATEN AS DOCKERS SLUMP CONTINUES
RATINGS: AFL WOMEN'S A TV WINNER
Meanwhile, Mithen, 18, celebrated her nomination with another great milestone, being excepted into university.
The Demons midfielder - taken with pick No.73 in the draft - is set to study business marketing at RMIT this year.
Mithen was instrumental in Melbourne’s stunning come-from-behind win over Collingwood on Saturday night, collecting 14 disposals.
Tayla Harris in action for Brisbane. Source: Getty Images
Melbourne midfielder Lily Mithen. Picture: Jay Town Source: News Corp Australia
“I was at the club doing recovery with the girls, and (football manager) Debbie Lee walked in, told me to stand up, shook my hand and said, ‘Congratulations, you’re the Rising Star nominee’,” Mithen said.
“I’m definitely pleased. It was a good win and I was happy with how I played. I got a bit of the ball and helped the team out, but I didn’t think I starred by any stretch.”
The pair join Adelaide’s Ebony Marinoff and Bulldog Bailey Hunt in the running to be crowned the first AFLW Rising Star.
Two players are nominated for the Rising Star each week with the winner chosen from the 14 nominees and announced at season’s end.'Cremate me with my Padma Shri': Tragedy of weaver whose award 'ruined his livelihood'
Sita Ram Pal, 72, believes receiving the prestigious Padma Shri award damaged his business as a blanket weaver
Poverty, poor health and government negligence have driven a Padma Shri awardee from Uttar Pradesh to desperation.
Sita Ram Pal, the 72-year-old blanket weaver who received the country's fourth highest civilian award under social work category in 1981, has written to President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requesting them to cremate him along with his award after his death.
Frail and bedridden, Pal was once renowned for his artistic blanket weaving. Even the then President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy had termed his work as classically and culturally rich while conferring the award on him.
"Although I suddenly became very famous in the area, the carpet manufacturers stopped giving me work fearing that the government will get annoyed with them if I was employed as a daily wager. So my bad days started with Padma Shri award," says Pal, a resident of village Sherpur Kalan in Ghazipur district.
He lost his eyesight in 1986 because of lack of money and medication.
"I wrote to the central and state governments about my condition. As a result, I was listed for old age pension of Rs 300 per month and got a house under the Indira Awas Yojana.
"But that didn't change my fate. My son also lost his eyesight because there was no money to pay for the doctors," he rues.
His son, Shrawan Pal, says: "Our life was not bad before the government awarded my father Padma Shri. We had thought our life would transform after that. It really transformed, but in a bad way. My father has been jobless since then. We couldn't learn the art that he knew because we didn't see any hope of livelihood in it.
"Since there was no electricity in our house, I got cataract which finally took my vision."
The father claims the government did not come to their help despite several pleas.
"I have written at least 20 letters to the governments in last three decades and met many Presidents, Prime Ministers and chief ministers for help. But they didn't realise my woes. Nobody came to ask about my wellbeing. Since I am on the death bed now, my last wish is to cremate me with my medal."There are few markets that are quite as loaded-up with snake oil products as audio / video. I am sure that by me simply saying that, you immediately thought of "Monster", one of the most infamous offenders. But believe it or not, there are some vendors that push the envelope so far that Monster's $100 HDMI cables look like a bargain by comparison.
Take AudioQuest's high-end Ethernet cable, for example. Called "Diamond", AudioQuest is promising the world with this $10,500 USD cable, and if you for some reason believe that an Ethernet cable is completely irrelevant for audio, you might want to listen to what the company has to say.
AudioQuest's Diamond RJ/E is a directional Ethernet cable made with the same hallmark materials, philosophy, care and attention that is applied to all their interconnects, whether it's an entry level introduction to hi-fi or a died-in-the-wool music connoisseur. Another upgrade with Diamond is a complete plug redesign, opting for an ultra-performance RJ45 connector made from silver with tabs that are virtually unbreakable. The plug comes with added strain relief and firmly lock into place ensuring no critical data is lost.
It's too bad AudioQuest limits itself to just audio, because descriptions like that would prove a welcome sight in other markets. Just imagine how tempting it would be to own 100% solid paper clips made with uncompromising materials that take a no-nonsense approach to holding paper together.
There are a bunch of promises made here, but the one that stands out most to me is the "Directional" aspect. This isn't just mentioned once, but is all over the place. The cable even comes complete with arrows to make certain that the data will flow in the right direction. I guess that we can just ignore the fact that Ethernet cables are bi-directional; the same on both ends. If that wasn't the case, data couldn't be written back to the network device; it could just be read from it.
Also interesting is the promise of 100 Gbps speeds over 100 meters, a spec that's currently impossible in a retail product. Not that it'd matter anyway - a 5 minute 24-bit / 44Hz track could be loaded at the source in its entirety within half a second on a standard 1 Gbps connection.
These selling-points make me wish I could see just how many of these cables have been sold, and also whether or not that particular feature had helped push the sale.
Since this story broke over the wire, its etailer has pulled the listing. But, thanks to the magic of caching, you're able to peruse the page in all of its glory via the Web Archive. Though the company still has a 10 foot version available on Amazon for only $2,194.75. You need to get your head checked first, if you're interested, of course.
I am sure it doesn't need to be said, but AudioQuest's super-expensive Diamond cable would make no difference whatsoever in a setup. Bits are bits, after all. Once those bits reach their destination, they're the same regardless of the cable being used. Also, it's not as though music streams in real-time over a network; audio players constantly buffer the currently-playing track to prevent skipping in the event of network interruption. To reiterate, when we're dealing with digital bits, the cable doesn't matter as long as it works.
But facts like that don't matter to everyone. Read this excerpt from a professional review:
The perceived differences between the Vodka, Diamond, Cinnamon, and Cat. 5 cable are plainly apparent and easy to hear. I'd sum up these differences as more. You get an increasingly large sound picture as you move up the line, greater differentiation between sonic elements, and a greater sense of clarity. I would classify these changes as being better in each case.
There's a reason these things sell.
Update: If you're interested, AudioQuest makes a 16 meter braided HDMI cable for only $13,499.75. (The reviews are priceless though) What a steal!
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In Germany climate science used to be considered completely settled.
Global temperatures had been pretty much steady for a thousand years before skyrocketing upwards as soon as man really started industrializing about 150 years ago, Germans were told again and again.
But today Germany’s major media are beginning to realize that this view is perhaps quite naïve after all. Though most major media outlets here do think man is responsible for global warming, many seem to be having second thoughts and coming out to say: Gee, looks like natural factors may be important after all.
Source: www2.tu-berlin.de/
Germany’s version of the BBC is ARD television and at the ARD website we find an unusually semi-sober report on the history of the earth’s climate.
First off the ARD presents its version of the above chart, thus acknowledging that climate has been changing naturally throughout the Holocene and that there have been warmer periods than today.
Old towns bear names related to wine-making
The ARD piece even goes on to say that the Medieval Warm Period from the years 800 to 1300 was similarly as warm as the “last climate normal period of 1961 to 1990, whose mean temperature is used as the reference value.” The ARD writes further:
Using alternative reconstructions that period was even about 0.5°C warmer than today.”
As evidence that this was probably the case, the ARD writes that many towns and villages that were founded during the Medieval Warm Period actually bear names related to wine-making: “places that are too cool for this today“.
The ARD then describes the ensuing Little Ice Age as a time of harsh winters, crop failures, starvation and witch hunts. All this, the ARD claims, was caused by “fluctuations in solar radiation and a series of especially powerful volcanic eruptions,” citing Tambora in 1815 as an example.
Of course anyone with a half knowledge of climate science knows that solar radiation is not the real culprit for climate change over the last 1000 years, but some other solar mechanism involving solar magnetic fields, cosmic radiation and cloud seeding. We’re just going to remain patient and wait for the ARD to get up to speed on this. In the meantime we can take heart that progress is being made.
Finally, I find that little tail they’ve added to the Modern Warm Period on their chart to be very amusing (see figure below, circle). That’s the warming all the panic and hysteria has been about?
Circle around little tail indicates recent warming that has caused worldwide panic and mass hysteria.'The Bible has been used much too often to justify even the most inhuman and ungodly things,' one of the Catholic Church's leading Bible scholars says
Published 1:15 PM, August 10, 2016
MANILA, Philippines – One of the Catholic Church’s leading Bible scholars, Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, criticized Senator Manny Pacquiao for using the Bible to justify the death penalty during his first privilege speech.
"If Senator Pacquiao is convinced that the death penalty is a useful deterrent for criminality, he is entitled to his personal opinion. His right to express it will be protected in a democracy. But I just wish he didn't have to justify it using the Bible," David said in a statement prepared for Church-run Radyo Veritas on Tuesday, August 9.
In his statement, which he sent to Rappler on Tuesday evening, David stressed the need to interpret Scriptures in the proper context, with Jesus as "our criterion and standard for reading the Bible as Word of God."
The bishop explained, "If we use the Bible as a mere justification for our personal opinions (such as on death penalty) then we might as well return to the morality of slavery, misogyny, death penalty for homosexuals, and the ancient laws of purity and impurity, just because we also have them in the Bible."
"The Bible has been used much too often to justify even the most inhuman and ungodly things," he said.
A priest for more than 30 years, David chaired the Commission on Biblical Apostolate of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines from 2009 to 2015.
David, a graduate of the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines, also holds a doctorate in sacred theology from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium.
Born in Betis, Guagua, Pampanga, the 57-year-old David served as auxiliary bishop of San Fernando, Pampanga, from 2006 until Pope Francis named him Caloocan bishop in 2015.
Pacquiao: God 'is a God of justice'
David issued his statement after Pacquiao on Monday, August 8, cited Bible passages to justify the death penalty.
The senator said Genesis 9: 6, for instance, states: "Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God, has God made mankind."
Pacquiao said, "Having read the Bible on a regular basis, I am convinced that God is not just a God of mercy, but he is also a God of justice." (READ: Death by hanging? Pacquiao jokes, 'Sisipain lang po 'yung upuan')
Pacquiao is a former Catholic whom David, in 2012, eyed as a potential partner "in promoting the reading of the Bible among Catholics."
The boxer is now a first-time senator who, as Sarangani representative, was known for his habitual absences in Congress.
Reacting to Pacquiao’s statements on the death penalty, David said that "it is difficult to discuss the Bible with fundamentalists," or those "who would quote a verse or two from the Scriptures, and not mind the other passages that may not be supportive of their opinion."
David said: "The Word of God was gradually revealed to us from the Old Testament to the New Testament, culminating with the incarnation of God's Word in Jesus Christ. We were like children who matured in stages. In Jesus, we're supposed to see the highest level of maturity of our humanity. He is our criterion and standard for reading the Bible as Word of God."
Jesus vs stoning to death
David also cited a Bible passage: John 8: 1-11. Here, Jesus said something that stopped scribes and Pharisees from imposing the death penalty on a woman caught in adultery.
Jesus told them, "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." In response, the scribes and Pharisees "went away one by one," the Bible said.
David said: "If Christ were in favor of death penalty, perhaps he would have been the first to cast a stone at the woman caught in adultery in John 8:1-11. Instead of dying for sinners, he would have just killed them all instead."
He then cited another Bible passage, the popular John 3: 16, and the verse that immediately followed it: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him."
David said, "I am willing to have a discussion with the good senator about the Bible if he is willing and sincere in his effort to understand the Bible as Word of God."
Read the full Tagalog and English versions of David’s statement below.
Bishop David's statement in Tagalog:
Mahirap makipag-usap tungkol sa Bibliya sa mga fundamentalista, 'yung tipong kukuha ng isang linya sa Bibliya pero hindi na papansinin ang ibang linya na salungat sa binanggit.
Ang Salita ng Diyos ay unti-unting nabunyag sa atin mula sa Lumang Tipan hanggang sa Bagong Tipan, hanggang sa magkatawang-tao ang mismong salita ng Diyos kay Kristo. Para tayong mga bata na unti-unting nag-mature. Kay Hesus natin dapat makita ang pinakamataas na antas ng maturity ng ating pagkatao. Siya ang pamantayan natin sa pagbasa sa Bibliya bilang salita ng Diyos.
Kung gagamitin lang natin ang Bibliya bilang depensa o para lang igiit ang mga pansarili nating opinyon, e 'di ibalik na rin natin ang pang-aalipin (slavery), ang mababang pagtingin sa mga babae, ang death penalty para sa mga bakla, ang mga sinaunang batas tungkol sa malinis at maduming pagkatao? Kasi nasa Bibliya din ang mga iyan? Marami nang gumamit ng Bibliya para sa hindi makataong mga layunin.
Kung sa personal na opinyon ni Senador Pacquiao, ang death penalty ay makatutulong sa pagsugpo ng kriminalidad, karapatan niyang ipahayag ang personal niyang opinyon. Sa demokrasya, irerespeto naman talaga natin ang personal na opinyon ng isa't isa. Pero sana huwag na lang niyang gamitin ang Bibliya bilang justification.
Kung sang-ayon sa death penalty si Kristo, e 'di sana binato na rin niya ang babaeng nahuling nakikiapid? E 'di sana imbes na mamatay para sa mga makasalanan e pinagpapatay na lang niya ang mga makasalanan? 'Di ba favorite passage ng mga Evangelicals ang John 3:16: "For God so loved the world...? God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save it!"
Willing akong makipag-discuss na personal sa butihing senador tungkol sa Bibliya kung willing din siya at sincere sa pagsusumikap na unawain ang Bibliya bilang salita ng Diyos.
Bishop David's statement in English:
It is difficult to discuss the Bible with fundamentalists, the type who would quote a verse or two from the Scriptures and not mind the other passages that may not be supportive of their opinion.
The Word of God was gradually revealed to us from the Old Testament to the New Testament, culminating with the incarnation of God's Word in Jesus Christ. We were like children who matured in stages. In Jesus we're supposed to see the highest level of maturity of our humanity. He is our criterion and standard for reading the Bible as Word of God.
If we use the Bible as a mere justification for our personal opinions (such as on death penalty) then we might as well return to the morality of slavery, misogyny, death penalty for homosexuals and the ancient laws of purity and impurity, just because we also have them in the Bible. The Bible has been used much too often to justify even the most inhuman and ungodly things.
If Senator Pacquiao is convinced that the death penalty is a useful deterrent for criminality, he is entitled to his personal opinion. His right to express it will be protected in a democracy. But I just wish he didn't have to justify it using the Bible.
If Christ were in favor of death penalty, perhaps he would have been the first to cast a stone at the woman caught in adultery in John 8:1-11. Instead of dying for sinners, he would have just killed them all instead.
But isn't John 3:16 a favorite of Evangelicals? "For God so loved the world he gave us his only Son so that all who believe might not perish but might have eternal life. God did not send his Son to the world to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him."
I am willing to have a discussion with the good senator about the Bible if he is willing and sincere in his effort to understand the Bible as Word of God.
– Rappler.comFirst Justin Anderson got to make his own burger. Dirk Nowitzki went next.
But now it’s Deron Williams’ turn up to bat, and he hit one out of the park with the Big D Will Burger.
A play both on his nickname and Dallas’ own moniker — Williams originally hails from The Colony — the burger will be available at American Airlines Center throughout the month of November.
Anderson and Nowitzki both incorporated elements from the area they grew up in their burgers, and Williams did the same with his: a 1/3 pound beef patty with smoked bacon, shaved romaine, tomato, chopped red onions, chipotle aioli, and Monterey Jack cheese are all stacked on a jalapeño cheddar brioche bun. It comes with black and tan onion rings, coated in a dark beer batter. Williams said the heat should appeal to Mavs fans with Texas roots.
“Most people are from Dallas, so they’re gonna see a taste of Texas right here,” he said. “I think it’s just a great mix of flavor.”
He’s right. It’s a really tasty burger. There’s a bit of a competition going on between Anderson and Williams to determine whose burger is better, and while I will happily stay out of it, I will offer this: AAC executive chef Mark Mabry placed the tomato by design directly on the bottom bun, beneath the patty, because he’s been told that’s the optimal place for it to be.
By whom, exactly? Anderson. As Mabry was explaining this, Williams interrupted: “Hold on, Justin?” Mabry nodded. “No, we gotta change that.”
A rivalry is born.
The burger does pack some serious flavor. The jalapeño and chipotle add a nice bit of heat, but not enough to overwhelm you. And who could say no to onion rings? Williams said he chose them to be different from Anderson and Nowitzki, as both paired their burgers with fries last season.
The Big D Will Burger with onion rings is yours for $12, which is a pretty great deal for the amount of food you get. In addition, the Mavs-themed can of Bud Light, set to debut at the arena tomorrow, is only $4 when ordered with the burger. You get a restaurant-quality burger at a restaurant-quality value. Not a bad deal at all.
Plus, you can go on Twitter after you’re done and let @DeronWilliams and @JusAnderson1 know which one you like better. Williams guaranteed his burger would outsell the second-year Mav’s, so the heat really is on, in more ways than one.Johannesburg - The real estate agent whose racist rant towards a black police officer was caught on camera is expected to appear in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
Vicki Momberg faces eight charges of crimen injuria after a video of the incident was released by eNCA.
In the video, she refuses the help of the police officer and his white colleague after a smash-and-grab incident.
In the video clip Momberg can be heard complaining about the "calibre of blacks" in Johannesburg.
"The calibre of blacks in this town [varies] from the calibre of blacks in Durban. They're opinionated, they're arrogant, and they're just plain and simple useless. I am happy for a white person to assist me, or a coloured person, or an Indian person.
"I do not want a black person to assist me," she shouts.
"Let me tell you something. This is the type of police force we have got. We got a low calibre [of] people working. If I see a black person, I will drive them over. If I have a gun, I will shoot everyone," she tells the officer before driving off.
Momberg also appeared in the Equality Court earlier this year. The South African Human Rights Commission requested this court to fine her R150 000.According to a totally bogus study conducted by The Sun, this is what humans will look like in the year 3000. Basically, people are gonna look totally and completely gnar-gnar. Supposedly the results come from surveying the leading anatomical experts, but I think they just asked an artist to draw up the ugliest Gollum-esque human they could imagine. Per the questionable results:
– We’ll be TALLER at 6-7ft because of improved nutrition and medical science. Osteopath Garry Trainer, from north London, says: “The average American is about one inch taller than in 1960.”
– Our INTESTINES will get shorter so we don’t absorb as much fat and sugar — a natural way of avoiding obesity, says dentist Dr Philip Stemmer.
– If male fertility declines further, there will be SMALLER TESTICLES (tough luck, chaps).
– Our most used extremities will change dramatically.
ARMS AND FINGERS get longer to reduce the need to reach too far and nerve endings in hands and fingers will increase because of the greater use of devices such as iPhones that need complex eye-hand coordination.
– We’ll have SMALLER BRAINS, maybe because so much memorizing and thinking is done by our computers. “Science fiction images show humans of the future with huge brains but big brains are not necessarily the best,” says Chris Stringer, from the Natural History Museum.
– There will be LARGE EYES to compensate for smaller mouths. Cary Cooper, of Lancaster University, explains: “Communication will rely on facial expressions and eye movements.”
– Dentist Dr Stemmer also thinks there could be FEWER TEETH as softer food needs less chewing and biting. He says: “We could even get our nutrition from liquids or pills in the future, which could mean less teeth and receded jaws.”
– Expect people to have QUADRUPLE CHINS. “Our bodies were designed for eating less and using more energy than a modern lifestyle requires,” says Rajiv Grover, a consultant plastic surgeon.
We can expect other dramatic changes too.
– Everyone will have the same shape of NOSE because climate is having less influence on broad or narrow hooters thanks to air conditioning and central heating.
– Central heating and warm clothing means we’ll be LESS HAIRY but there’ll be more WRINKLES as a result of peering at our electronic devices.Rebalancing of oil markets will continue at a faster pace
The oil market has actually achieved a balance and this process will continue to accelerate in the short term, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) showed in its monthly report.
“We think rebalancing is going on and going on”, said the director of the oil industry and markets unit at the IEA, Neal Atkinson. “We may not see a return to deficits in the first quarter of 2017, but this report confirms our message that rebalancing is actually there and that it is accelerating at least in the short term”, added he.
Global oil markets are set to strike a balance between supply and demand in 2017, the agency predicts, with supply shortages expected to expand more rapidly in the near future.
Experts say growth in global demand will slow for a second consecutive year. However, they warn that even if OPEC’s contraction |
already a Canadian, born in Ontario.
The government admits it made a mistake giving him a passport, but says the fault is Mr. Budlakoti's. "While it's true that he was issued a Canadian passport, the passport application incorrectly referred to Mr. Budlakoti as a citizen," Paul Northcott, spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration, said in response to written questions from The Globe and Mail. "This inaccurate information led to Mr. Budlakoti acquiring a passport that should not have been issued."
Passports are issued only to citizens, and government officials are supposed to check the supporting documents that applicants submit. When Mr. Budlakoti wound up in Joyceville penitentiary, the government ordered a review of his status.
Nathalie Des Rosiers, general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Union, said the government is taking advantage of an opportunity to expel a criminal.
"There is no indication of fraud here, simply that Mr. Budlakoti is no longer the type of citizen that the minster [Jason Kenney] wants in Canada because he has committed a crime," she said.
"It is dangerous for a democracy to create a system where people should always be fearful of not breaching any laws or of upsetting anyone so that they can remain safely where they live."
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Mr. Budlakoti's deportation is likely to be permanent exile. "Deportation usually means that one cannot ever return to Canada," Mr. Northcott said, adding "there are certain limited circumstances in which a person who has been deported may return."
Mr. Budlakoti has little hope. "Some people are not allowed to come to Canada. They are known as 'inadmissible,'" Mr. Northcott said. "There are a number of reasons you can be found inadmissible, denied a visa or refused entry to Canada … including criminality."
Ms. Des Rosiers warns the case is about far more than just a young man being kicked out of Canada because he has a criminal record.
"All Canadians and permanent residents should be worried about this vendetta, because it undermines the security and validity of immigration status and determination of citizenship."Water
Considering the human body is about 60 percent water it seems implausible — if not impossible — to be allergic to water, but about 40 people worldwide have been diagnosed with the condition. Known as aquagenic urticaria, it causes the skin to break out in painful hives and welts when it comes in contact with water, and in severe cases, a person's throat can swell when they drink water. Michaela Dutton (pictured) a British woman who developed a water allergy after the birth of her son, drinks Diet Coke to survive — her body tolerates it even though it contains carbonated water. How do people like Dutton bathe? Quickly and carefully because even brief contact with water can cause a painful itchy rash that lasts for hours. Doctors aren't sure what causes water allergy, but some have hypothesized that elevated histamine levels play a role.Polio in Congo - update
9 November 2010 - 184 cases of acute flaccid paralysis and 85 deaths have been reported from the site of the acute poliomyelitis outbreak centred in Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo. Four cases have been confirmed to have been caused by wild poliovirus type 1 and laboratory testing continues. The majority of the reported cases and deaths have occurred in the population aged over 15 years.
Genetic sequencing has determined that the cases are caused by a poliovirus most closely related to that circulating in neighbouring Angola. Congo had recorded its last case of indigenous polio in 2000.
Nearly all cases have been reported from the port city of Pointe Noire, with cases also reported from Niari (5), Bouenza (2), Brazzaville (1), and Kouilou (2).
The Government of Congo has alerted the public to the outbreak and launched an emergency response plan, with support from key partners, including WHO, UNICEF and the US CDC. The first vaccination response, using monovalent oral polio vaccine type 1 (mOPV1), will start on Friday, 12 November, to cover the whole population of Porte Noire and Kouilou, in conjunction with the neighbouring province of Cabinda in Angola. The rest of Congo will be vaccinated starting 18 November using mOPV1. Two additional nationwide rounds are planned. The number, geographic extent and target age groups of further campaigns will be determined by the Government based on the evolving epidemiology. The multi-country campaign may be further expanded to cover additional bordering at-risk areas. New cases continue to be reported.
Countries across central Africa should strengthen surveillance for cases of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) to rapidly detect any poliovirus importations and facilitate a rapid response. Countries should also address any gaps in polio immunization coverage to minimise the consequences of a poliovirus introduction. As per the recommendations in the WHO publication International Travel and Health, travellers to and from all countries where polio is circulating, including the Republic of Congo and Angola, should be fully protected by vaccination.
Given the recent progress towards polio eradication in Nigeria (98% reduction in cases in 2010 compared to the same period in 2009), rapidly stopping the persistent poliovirus transmission in central Africa (i.e. Angola, DR Congo) and stopping new polio outbreaks such as in Congo, are top international disease control priorities.
For more informationChannel 4’s live coverage of Formula 1, beginning with the Bahrain Grand Prix next weekend, will feature no additional live feeds, this site can confirm.
The feeds were previously featured on the BBC’s website and Red Button service from 2009 to 2015. The live video feeds included on-board cameras, a pit lane feed and a driver tracker. Instead, Sky have gained exclusivity to these feeds as part of their contract with Formula One Management (FOM).
Furthermore, Channel 4 note that they will not be continuing with BBC’s F1 Forum programme as they do not have a Red Button service. The forum used to air via BBC’s website and the Red Button. Again, there was the hope that the forum (or a programme of a similar nature) would air either via online, or one of Channel 4’s supplementary channels such as More4. Channel 4 are keen to emphasise though that they are looking for ways to “expand our service.”
A Channel 4 spokeswoman told this site: “We don’t have any access to extra feeds for live content, Sky have that exclusively as part of their deal. Although we don’t have a red button service for us to do a ‘fan forum’ type programme, we are looking at ways we can expand our service.”
“We have already launched channel4.com/f1 which is the home for the voice of our presenting talent – with authored columns from DC and Karun. We’ll also have lots of video from all the races available online e.g. here is a highlights package we produced from Australia – http://f1.channel4.com/video/australian-grand-prix-highlights/. And we’re looking to expand what we do as we move through the season. “
AdvertisementsQueen's University is under fire after students complained that one of its instructors has been teaching for several years that vaccines are harmful.
Melody Torcolacci is an adjunct instructor who teaches the Health 102 and Health 200 courses at the Queen's School of Kinesiology and Health Studies. She was a track and field coach, but resigned in 2011 and has been teaching since.
There have been protests about Ms. Torcolacci's teachings before, but the controversy has flared again amid the current news about measles outbreaks and the role played by vaccination skeptics.
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A 60-part slide presentation from one of her courses states that the benefits of immunization are exaggerated and that vaccinated children faced greater health problems.
"In the last 30 years vaccination U.S. kids receive has tripled; during that same time, number of kids with learning disabilities, ADHD, asthma and diabetes has more than tripled," one slide says.
"No scientific evidence exists showing vaccines are NOT contributing to increased incidence of chronic illness and disability in children," the next slide says.
The presentation also says autism has increased more significantly among vaccinated children. It ends with links to four videos critical of vaccination and a reminder to "especially watch these … all of them! Going to be on test!!!!!"
The course outline for her Health 102 class includes topics such as "Vaccines and health," "Dental amalgams, sealants, crowns," "[Electromagnetic fields], cellphones and other forms of radiation."
Ms. Torcolacci did not reply to a phone message and an e-mail seeking comments.
Queen's principal Daniel Woolf said he had asked provost Alan Harrison to gather information about Ms. Torcolacci's courses. "I encourage people to be respectful and patient, and to reserve judgment until the facts are known," Dr. Woolf tweeted.
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In an interview, Dr. Harrison said he wants first to find out the context and substance of what Ms. Torcolacci is alleged to have taught to her students.
He added, however, that "we expect that evidence to be presented would be reliable, scientific evidence and that that evidence would be presented objectively."
Instructors can have their own opinions, he said, but "they should indicate to students that these are biases."
Colin Zarzour, academic affairs commissioner for the Queen's Alma Mater Society, said the student association started hearing concerns from students this week.
He noted that the faculty's collective agreement stipulates that academic freedom is to be used to pursue excellence and knowledge. "The course content was not meeting that scholarly obligation," he said.
Isabelle Duchaine, who was academic affairs commissioner in 2012-13, said she heard at the time from three students complaining about Ms. Torcolacci. She said she urged them to inform the department.
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Ms. Duchaine heard on Tuesday that Queen's students were again unhappy with Ms. Torcolacci. She obtained a copy of the slide presentation from a student and shared it with The Globe and Mail.
Both Ms. Duchaine and Mr. Zarzour said Queen's should not have been caught off-guard because it was likely that students complained about Ms. Torcolacci in the past in their mandatory evaluations of her course.
A former student, Sarah Pekeles, said that as early as 2011 or 2012 she filed a complaint to the website of the School of Kinesiology after dropping out of the course because she disagreed with its content. She said she did not hear back from the department.
On the website ratemyprofessors.com, several writers described Ms. Torcolacci as a nice instructor with questionable scientific views.
A former shot put national champion, Ms. Torcolacci was head coach of the Queen's track and field program for two decades.Inadvertent war in Korea is more likely now than at any point in recent history. Whereas a second Korean war has always been possible, clashing U.S. and North Korean “theories of victory” — beliefs about what it takes to successfully coerce and control escalation — now make it plausible, even probable.
Patterns of bluster and brinkmanship have of course long characterized affairs on the Korean Peninsula. For “Korea watchers,” there’s a perverse comfort in the predictability of a situation that, to the uninitiated, sometimes looks anything but stable.
So on some level, the rhythm of recent saber-rattling between the Trump administration and North Korea recalls the perverse comfort of typical Korea policy. On a recent visit to South Korea, Vice President Mike Pence cited U.S. attacks in Syria and Afghanistan as indications of U.S. resolve against North Korea. This statement followed numerous officials confirming that the administration is contemplating preventive strikes against the North, and a recent policy review on North Korea yielding one overarching imperative: “maximum pressure.” North Korea’s rhetoric and posturing has been no less confrontational and no less familiar. As Pence departed Alaska for South Korea, North Korea attempted a submarine-launched ballistic missile test that failed. Upon news that a U.S. carrier group was headed to its neighborhood, North Korea responded that “a thermonuclear war may break out at any moment” and that it’s “ready to react to any mode of war desired by the U.S.”
These words and deeds themselves are more heated than usual, but unremarkable in the context of all that’s come before. North Korea routinely threatens war, often summoning images of a future mushroom cloud. The United States routinely dispatches aircraft carriers, bombers, and other strategic military assets in hopes of signaling resolve while actually registering little more than displeasure with North Korean behavior. The notion of “maximum pressure,” moreover, only differs from the approach of past U.S. presidents in the ambiguous adjective “maximum.” Pressure is the historical mean of U.S. policy toward North Korea. My concern is not with these observable dynamics to date, but rather with what lies beneath them, and what may be coming soon as a consequence.
It’s getting harder to ignore that the Pentagon, under Secretary Jim Mattis, may have a coercive theory of victory that largely mirrors that of North Korea under Kim Jong-Un. The danger is in the fundamental incompatibility of these disturbingly similar sets of strategic beliefs.
U.S. Signaling Antagonism
Senior U.S. military officers have repeatedly and publicly claimed that “Deterrence=Capability x National Interest x Signaling.” This aggressive formula is at odds with best practices from deterrence theory, as I discuss in my forthcoming episode of “Pacific Pundit.” Placing direct causal emphasis on using the military to signal resolve toward an adversary is mistakenly provocative, even antagonistic. It risks goading an adversary into aggressive actions, thereby bringing about deterrence failure. It ignores how and why military signals are taken seriously by adversaries, which has less to do with the wielding of a weapon than the history of proven willingness to use it. And it wrongly implies the need to take positive military action — for example, by deploying assets that would be necessary for prosecuting a war, like an aircraft carrier — just for stability to hold, to say nothing of what it might take to coerce your adversary into doing something they might otherwise not do. When signaling is treated as a cause and deterrence as an outcome, virtually any offensive action can be logically justified on the grounds that it helps buy the United States the deterrence it already has.
So, if moving ships and bombers around on a map were the full extent of U.S. plans to apply “maximum pressure” to North Korea, then U.S. policy might struggle to achieve its aims, but it would be no more dangerous than usual. In the context of this distorted formula, however, there are two interrelated differences that give reason to worry. First, the most direct reason that past crises with North Korea have not bubbled over into war was American restraint. The historical record of U.S.-North Korea relations reveals the surprising extent to which North Korea was poised to automatically retaliate and escalate in response to U.S. uses of force that never took place. Second, numerous administration sources have conveyed that the Trump administration is willing to launch preventive strikes in response to unspecified North Korean provocations, potentially even in response to non-violent actions like nuclear testing. This would be unprecedented. The United States has almost never threatened offensive action against North Korea; retaliatory action in response to violence sure, but never threatening to draw first blood. As crazy as such a move sounds, it would be consistent with a more offensive theory of victory that believes it necessary to do something more than uphold defense commitments. As I outline below, the preventive use of force— which is logically justifiable when signaling is mistakenly believed to be a cause of deterrence — clashes rather explosively with North Korea’s own theory of victory.
The Pentagon’s belief that sustained deterrence rests on communicating resolve through military posturing rather than through upholding commitments is in keeping with an expectation that war in Korea would be Kim Jong-Un’s responsibility, not America’s. A U.S. general assigned to Korea recently told the press, “Our biggest concern is that he’s going to miscalculate. That’s always our concern.” This kind of thinking overlooks the interdependence of North Korean strategic decision-making with our own. A North Korean attack is most likely in response to it misinterpreting America’s aggressive signaling as something more dramatic or imminent than Washington intends.
In fairness, the U.S. military’s faith in the ability to signal resolve through military assets predates the Trump administration. Some version of the deterrence formula above was occasionally espoused by military counterparts when I served in the Pentagon during the Obama administration. The difference is that the Obama administration was notoriously risk-averse, and the White House micromanaged the Department of Defense, allowing it very little discretion on policy matters. But the Trump administration appears to be a much more permissive — even enabling — environment for such coercive beliefs, if only because of Mattis’s reputation as a hawk and the prominence of the Pentagon in President Trump’s national security policy to date.
Clarifying North Korea’s Theory of Victory
America’s more assertive theory of victory is not, on its own, a recipe for war. And in contexts outside Asia, seeking deliberate friction might be useful. For example, in situations where adversaries doubt U.S. resolve, where military signals don’t risk being mistaken for war, and where adversaries lack the ability to meaningfully retaliate against U.S. interests, such an assertive stance could be productive. But none of that applies to North Korea. The acute danger of offensively oriented U.S. thinking about coercion is that North Korea thinks in largely the same way, and has a massive, diverse retaliatory capability at its disposal.
I recently reviewed two newly translated documents from Soviet archives, obtained by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. They relayed conversations between senior North Korean officials and their Soviet counterparts on the day after North Korea shot down a U.S. EC-121 reconnaissance aircraft, killing all 31 Americans on board. The documents were written by the Soviet ambassador to Pyongyang, reporting conversations with senior North Korean officials. These documents strongly suggest that North Korea has a highly offensive, highly reputational theory of victory toward the United States, believing that
military force has political value, escalation is a reliable means of de-escalation, provocations help deter “US aggression,” and retaliating when attacked is essential to maintaining credible deterrence.
In other words, North Korea’s formulation for how to deter war places high emphasis on offensive signaling through low-level violence, provocations, and retaliation if attacked. Extrapolating how an adversary thinks from evidence dating to 1969 would normally be difficult to justify, but in this case the documents are simply illustrative, reinforcing a mounting body of analysis that suggests North Korea’s theory of victory is disturbingly escalatory.
When Theories Collide
We have in Korea a clash of strategic beliefs that will make it hard to avoid locking into what scholars describe as a “spiral model” of conflict: A scenario in which punitive action intended to deter the adversary leads to adversary retaliation or even more aggressive behavior. Conflict spirals are historically rare, but so are the conditions found on the Korean Peninsula. If both sides believe too fervently in the value of military signaling to achieve deterrence, then both are primed to respond to the signals of the other with still more provocative signals. The underpinning intention of both may be defensive, but because of what they believe about shows of resolve, each is primed to respond adversely to the other.
The alternative need not be unqualified appeasement. Recent research on the history of failed rapprochement with North Korea expects that accommodating an adversary is much harder than many foreign policy doves expect. Instead, stability is more likely if the United States adapts its deterrence posture to account for North Korea’s coercive theory of victory — retaliating when attacked but not attacking first — and remembers that making good on threats and promises over time has a much more meaningful impact on preventing adversary aggression than military signaling alone ever will.
I hope I’m wrong about the Pentagon’s theory of victory. But if I’m not, and the United States is going down a more offensive path with North Korea, where does it end, and how?
Van Jackson, PhD is a Senior Editor at War on the Rocks and host of the Pacific Pundit podcast series. In June, he joins Victoria University of Wellington as a Senior Lecturer in International Relations. In addition to previously serving in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the U.S. Air Force, he is author of the unusually expensive book Rival Reputations: Coercion and Credibility in US-North Korea Relations (Cambridge University Press, 2016). The views expressed are his own.
Image: CCSize now appears to be no barrier to building competent vehicles without internal combustion engines. Big battery-powered electric vehicles like trucks once seemed fanciful, because their large masses need a lot of energy to shift and diesel fuel is much more energy-dense than a lithium-ion cell. But that’s not holding people back from seeing just what kind of performance they can eke out of electrified working vehicles.
Today, electric bus maker Proterra has announced that one of its Catalyst E2 Max electric buses, pictured above, has set a new world record for the longest distance traveled by an electric vehicle on a single charge. Its 660 kilowatt-hours of battery capacity—almost nine times the capacity of the largest batteries in Tesla’s new Model 3 sedan—allowed it to cruise 1,101 miles, albeit at 15 mph, around the Navistar Proving Grounds in Indiana.
Elsewhere, Swiss firms Lithium Storage GmbH and Kuhn Schweiz AG have converted a monstrous Komatsu dumper mining truck with a giant 700 kilowatt-hour battery pack to create the world’s largest electric vehicle, Electrek reports. Weighing 110 tons—4.5 tons of which are battery pack—it’s not yet in use, so there are no performance stats. But its makers do expect its descents back into the quarry to allow it to top its batteries up with as much as 40 kilowatt-hours of charge via regenerative braking.
Meantime, plenty of folks are also busy building electric trucks. Last week we reported that Daimler’s new eCanter electric load haulers are to be put to use in America by UPS. Today, Bosch announced that it’s partnering with startup Nikola Motor Co. to launch a pair of heavy-duty trucks with hydrogen-electric powertrains and ranges of at least 800 miles by 2021. And, of course, Tesla is expected to unveil its own electric semi in October.
In other words, diesel’s days may be numbered, even in heavy duty vehicles.Béchir Ben Yahmed, at age 89, is probably the most experienced journalist in the world today. He is warning that he has inside information that an alliance of Saudi Arabia and Benjamin Netanyahu, urged on privately by the Trump administration, is deliberately moving toward starting a much wider “New War in the Mideast.”
Ben Yahmed is not some obscure conspiracy theorist holding forth in a coffee house in Cairo or Beirut. He is the Tunisian-born founder of the distinguished French-language weekly Jeune Afrique (Young Africa), which he has headed since 1960 and where he still writes his influential, measured weekly column, “What I Believe.” So when he reports that he has learned that the 32-year-old de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and his pliable father, King Salman, are actively plotting to launch a far-reaching war with Israeli backing, attention must be paid.
Ben Yahmed recognizes that Saudi Arabia has already been at war in Yemen for 2 years. He says the kingdom’s next target is the Hezbollah political/military movement, in Lebanon. He writes that the Saudis plan “at the right moment, to unleash, with the help of Israel and the United States, a war aimed at defeating, disarming and putting Hezbollah completely out of action.”
But the real ultimate target is Iran, Hezbollah’s ally and patron. Ben Yahmed continues, “King Salman and his son, Netanyahu and Trump, four men of the extreme right who hold supreme power in three wealthy nations, are armed to the teeth and have the same enemy: Iran.” He argues that a wider war may be imminent partly because the Saudi crown prince and his father know they must act quickly, while Trump and Netanyahu are still in power. He cites, as evidence for this conspiracy, Trump’s tweet the very day that the Saudi twosome staged a de facto coup and arrested their domestic enemies: “I have great confidence in King Salman and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, they know exactly what they are doing....”
So in the months to come, the Korean peninsula may not actually be the most dangerous place in the world. Take a 32-year-old Saudi prince, intoxicated by having more real power than possibly anyone else in the Kingdom’s history, add the opportunistic Benjamin Netanyahu, who is anxious to act decisively to ward off the growing political threat from the Israeli far right, mix in the volatile, ignorant Donald Trump — and you have the makings of a regional cataclysm.
Béchir Ben Yahmed’s sober warning contrasts with another pathetic instance of journalistic malpractice by Thomas Friedman, whose recent gushing praise of the crown prince is already notorious. Friedman spent 4 hours with Mohammed bin Salman, whom he affectionately humanizes by calling him “M.B.S.,” and completely fell for the prince’s pose as a “reformer.” Friedman did not mention the rising threat of a wider Mideast war, (and he was also silent about the kingdom’s air attacks in Yemen, in a conflict in which more than 5000 people have already died, and a cholera epidemic has killed another 2000 Yemenis).
Friedman’s failure to report the real news is characteristic. We are still living with the consequences of the disastrous U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, which Friedman — the most influential foreign affairs columnist in America — enthusiastically (and viciously) endorsed. Once again, the call goes out to “Fire Thomas Friedman.” Until he is replaced, Americans have to read a French-language magazine to find reporting that should be in their own newspapers, in English.Radical professors are teaching the next generation of Americans across the U.S. and if you thought they were made up exclusively of the leftist type, you’d be wrong.
Meet Professor Bassem Alhalabi from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, who recently was chosen to be on a panel of ‘experts’ regarding Islamophobia hosted by the school’s Muslim Student Association.
What sage advice did he have on Sharia law? Well, letting students know that it’s OK to chop off thieves’ hands. You know, because it’s for the greater good, or something.
“Where there is no Sharia, Islamic Sharia, they die in dozens and hundreds every day because of organized crime. People kill people, other people or steal pizza for $10 and so – so when Islamic Sharia is saying about capital punishment – so even though it sounds like it is severe but if that is the solution to prevent any crimes, then it still has a lot of rules and regulations. I will just mention one and stop here, which is let’s say, cutting off the hands of a person if they steal. It sounds very severe. It sounds very barbaric, I know. But if takes one or two people to have their hands cut off, and then there’s no more stealing and there’s no more stealing in the whole nation – that’s a much better resolution than having hundreds of people die every day.”What we have instead of Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt looking glamorous are the film’s two directors and their friends bringing out the natural cadences and rhythms of their relationships. The result is a more believable work, a dry-hard pan comedy that feels closer to you and your friends goofing off than anything rehearsed or scripted. Apparently much of the mock-doc was an improvised version of a script, letting the filmmakers have broad strokes in mind to keep focus but with the freedom to let actors be themselves. Everything has an ADD spontaneity that grabs your attention without needing a conventional plot, such as a midnight walk discussing a Fear Factor competition turning into an impromptu encounter with werewolves (who remind themselves “we’re werewolves not swearwolves”). Even the very brilliant This is Spinal Tap can drag, a problem the filmmakers solved here.
Laughs are frequent and consistent. The more references you know, the funnier it will be, such as “We got the idea from The Lost Boys.” or when Deacon tries dressing up as Blade for a costume party. Made for fans of the genre by fans of the genre, vampire fans will rejoice. But what stops What We Do in the Shadows from appealing only to a niche is the warmth of the characters. I identified not only with their vampiric loneliness, but also the loving push-pull between friends. As noted by some critics, there’s an inherent sweetness to these characters and their interactions, one we all share with our own people. it is simply unexpected how universal Clement and Waititi’s off-kilter vampire mockumentary comedy turns out to be.
It doesn’t share Dostoyevsky’s level of insight into the human soul, but it doesn’t have to. Authenticity is a driving force here, and the home-movie look, naturalistic performances, and everyday slice-of-life dialogue and story bite the point home. Seeming to riff on Dogme 95, the overall look is digital and unsophisticated, lacking coloring or much in the way of composition. During the few qualifying action sequences, especially a hyper-speed chase through a haunted house, the grounded low-budget look is terrifying. The stakes aren’t high, but What We Do in the Shadows is relentlessly bloody fun.
B
Please follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or RSS belowCHICAGO -- The Chicago Blackhawks recalled forward Brandon Pirri from the Rockford IceHogs of the AHL and assigned forward Jimmy Hayes to the IceHogs on Friday.
Pirri, a 2009 second-round pick by the Blackhawks, suffered an undisclosed injury during training camp and was among coach Joel Quenneville’s final roster cuts last month. Pirri has three assists in three games with the IceHogs this season.
Pirri told ESPNChicago.com earlier in the week he was still working toward an NHL opportunity.
“You can’t control where you are,” Pirri said in Rockford on Wednesday. “You just have to do the best with the situation you have. Obviously getting into some games and getting back into a routine, that helps a lot. I just want to show well. Hopefully, I get that opportunity with the Blackhawks or somewhere else.”
Hayes played in two of the Blackhawks’ first four games. He had zero points and a plus-1 rating. He was a healthy scratch against the New York Islanders on Friday.As developers, we should always strive to be become better at our craft, no matter whether you started yesterday or ten years ago. With the rapid growth and expansion of programming languages, APIs, tools, and other items typically available to a developer’s arsenal, there is always an opportunity to learn something new and grow as a developer.
I would never consider myself a great developer, but I am a far superior developer today than the developer I was three years ago, and even the developer I was just six months ago.
There are so many ways that we can grow as developers and I’d like to share a few of the methods that have helped me.
1. Have an attitude to learn
To get better you must want to get better. Period. Do you remember your high school math class where you wanted to be anywhere but there? Probably. Do you remember any of the advanced techniques they tried to teach you? Far less likely. To truly learn and retain a more advanced development knowledge, you have to yearn to get better. If you don’t want to get better, you will likely never see anything but minor improvement.
Your attitude towards learning goes a long way.
2. Challenge yourself with difficult projects
No developer will ever get better by always working on the easy projects. To grow as a developer, you must step out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself with tasks that are far beyond your current skill level.
One of the biggest weaknesses I often see in developers is the “this is too hard” mentality. Bullshit. Nothing is too hard, you just don’t yet have the knowledge or know how to accomplish the task at hand. Being faced with technical challenges is very different than mental challenges. You may not be able to make a processor run faster, but you can find ways to make the processes take less power.
Taking a difficult challenge head on with a mentality of “I will solve this” is one of the single greatest steps you can take in becoming a developer. It is also a great life lesson.
With every difficult challenge you take on, you will learn something new, even if you fail to complete the task. It may be that you learn how poor a previous design decision was, or it may be that you learn of a new-to-you technical limitation that the programming language you’re working in has.
3. Direct yourself
Becoming a better developer means helping yourself. If you stand around waiting for step-by-step directions, you will never get better. You may get really good at reading instructions, but you will be lost when forced to do it on your own.
Having someone to mentor and teach you is a wonderful luxury, but it is also a crutch. If you rely on the direction of others, you will have a really hard time freeing yourself from those chains.
If you come up against a challenge, work on it. Dig into it until you find a hint at the solution. Pursue that hint until it turns into a brick wall or opens up into another hint. Eventually, after you find enough hints, you will have a solution. If you run out of technical knowledge, go and seek more. If you’re working with an API and don’t know how to retrieve some particular data, research the documentation, and if that fails, dig into the source code.
Directing yourself at finding solutions is one of the best things you can do to become a better developer. Forcing yourself to discover a solution will drive that knowledge home and it will stay there. Copying and pasting an answer from someone else will end the same way your highschool math classes did.
Self direction is one of the number one attributes that I look for when deciding whether to work with a developer. If I’m going to have to guide them through the entire project, we will not be a good fit.WASHINGTON, DC–A study released Monday by the American Public Transportation Association reveals that 98 percent of Americans support the use of mass transit by others.
"With traffic congestion, pollution, and oil shortages all getting worse, now is the time to shift to affordable, efficient public transportation," APTA director Howard Collier said. "Fortunately, as this report shows, Americans have finally recognized the need for everyone else to do exactly that."
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Of the study's 5,200 participants, 44 percent cited faster commutes as the primary reason to expand public transportation, followed closely by shorter lines at the gas station. Environmental and energy concerns ranked a distant third and fourth, respectively.
Anaheim, CA, resident Lance Holland, who drives 80 miles a day to his job in downtown Los Angeles, was among the proponents of public transit.
"Expanding mass transit isn't just a good idea, it's a necessity," Holland said. "My drive to work is unbelievable. I spend more than two hours stuck in 12 lanes of traffic. It's about time somebody did something to get some of these other cars off the road."
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Public support for mass transit will naturally lead to its expansion and improvement, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials said.
"With everyone behind it, we'll be able to expand bus routes, create park-and-ride programs, and build entire new Metrolink commuter-rail lines," LACMTA president Howard Sager said. "It's almost a shame I don't know anyone who will be using these new services."
Sager said he expects wide-scale expansion of safe, efficient, and economical mass-transit systems to reduce traffic congestion in all major metropolitan areas in the coming decades.
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"Improving public transportation will do a great deal of good, creating jobs, revitalizing downtown areas, and reducing pollution," Sager said. "It also means a lot to me personally, as it should cut 20 to 25 minutes off my morning drive."
The APTA study also noted that of the 98 percent of Americans who drive to work, 94 percent are the sole occupant of their automobile.
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"When public transportation is not practical, commuters should at least be carpooling," Collier said. "Most people, unlike me, probably work near someone they know and don't need to be driving alone."
Collier said he hopes the study serves as a wake-up call to Americans. In conjunction with its release, the APTA is kicking off a campaign to promote mass transit with the slogan, "Take The Bus… I'll Be Glad You Did."
The campaign is intended to de-emphasize the inconvenience and social stigma associated with using public transportation, focusing instead on the positives. Among these positives: the health benefits of getting fresh air while waiting at the bus stop, the chance to meet interesting people from a diverse array of low-paying service-sector jobs, and the opportunity to learn new languages by reading subway ads written in Spanish.
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"People need to realize that public transportation isn't just for some poor sucker to take to work," Collier said. "He should also be taking it to the shopping mall, the supermarket, and the laundromat."Anger is building up among Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, with several inmates on long-running hunger strikes in a number of prisons and clashes erupting in the Nafha jail in southern Israel.
Rights groups have warned that the health of a hunger-striking jailed Palestinian has plummeted as his fast hits 51 days.
Sami Janazrah, 43, launched his hunger strike on March 3 to protest against being held in solitary confinement and administrative detention, a practice in which Israel jails Palestinians on "secret evidence" without charges or trial.
Janazrah, who is a married father of three from the al-Fuwwar refugee camp in Hebron, is reportedly suffering from low blood pressure and arrhythmia, causing seizures and fainting spells. Meanwhile, his weight has sunk to 52 kilogrammes.
People and Power - Boycott Israel
He is one of several prisoners refusing food behind bars. Among them are also Fouad Assi and Adib Mafarjah, both of whom have been on hunger strike for 20 days.
"This could cause a lot of noise because [they] don't appear to be willing to give up the strike," said Farah Bayadsi, a lawyer at the prisoner rights group Addameer.
Of the estimated 7,000 Palestinians in Israeli lockup at the moment, at least 700 are being held as administrative detainees, according to Addameer.
"Recently there have been far more administrative detention orders," |
"stayed home" is a fantasy. Not going to happen. Beating Trump with an unelectable general election candidate would still salvage some of what's left of the party's honor, but if we have the option of a non-Trump candidate who can also win a general election, then we should definitely take it.
Ted Cruz's entire candidacy and public persona is premised on the idea that he's the only one who puts principle above all. Many conservatives have long suspected that it's all an act, and that what Ted Cruz puts above all is Ted Cruz. Now he has an opportunity to prove us wrong, and do a great thing for his country. He should seize it.OmniOS Installation in the Amazon Cloud
OmniOS is provided as a public Amazon Machine Image (AMI) within some regions in the Amazon Cloud; you can have a virtual OmniOS server up and running within a couple of minutes. The image is small so can be run within the free tier - a t2.micro instance is perfect for experimentation.
r151026
Region(s) AMI ID AMI Name EU (Frankfurt) ami-07e7a072121af904b r151026 stable 20180507 EU (London) ami-0e815515b2fe8f7b3 r151026 stable 20180507 EU (Ireland) ami-072c2a2ffb7e97761 r151026 stable 20180507 EU (Paris) ami-0864714f1fe8631ff r151026 stable 20180507 US (Oregon) ami-09e271c1e0f163eca r151026 stable 20180507 US (N.California) ami-0d2d11f5075cc9845 r151026 stable 20180507 US (Ohio) ami-0169c5108d1bdfd57 r151026 stable 20180507 US (N.Virginia) ami-0b2c7fd1c1f7e91d6 r151026 stable 20180507 Canada ami-0413ce96dc9426f86 r151026 stable 20180507 S.America (Sao Paulo) ami-05d9d52506d57b653 r151026 stable 20180507 Asia Pacific (Tokyo) ami-037d1630e373179ff r151026 stable 20180507 Asia Pacific (Seoul) ami-07f5fd6fa34316773 r151026 stable 20180507 Asia Pacific (Mumbai) ami-06ef85f830ecd879f r151026 stable 20180507 Asia Pacific (Singapore) ami-036737039cf84b8bf r151026 stable 20180507 Asia Pacific (Sydney) ami-04db88805d27f8c74 r151026 stable 20180507
r151024
Region(s) AMI ID AMI Name EU (Frankfurt) ami-cc56d7a3 r151024 stable 20171113
Launching an instance
To launch an instance, visit the EC2 dashboard, select the correct region from the drop-down menu at the top right and then click on Launch Instance
On the next screen, select Community AMIs on the left-hand-side and then search for OmniOS to find the AMI.
Please check the AMI ID against the table above to ensure you’re choosing one of our official images.
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OmniOS Community Edition has no major company behind it, just a small team of people who spend their precious spare time keeping it up-to-date. If you rely on OmniOS for fun or business, and you want to help secure its future, you can contribute by becoming an OmniOS patron.IFAB ban players from lifting their shirts to display slogans or messages
No more of this from June 1st this year
The new law will come into effect before the start of this summer's World Cup in Brazil.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the International FA Board, the game's law-making body, in Zurich.
Overt slogans have long been banned by FIFA, world soccer's governing authority, but players often lift up their shirts after scoring to display other messages.
Speaking after the IFAB meeting, FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke said: "From now on, there can be no slogan or image whatsoever on undergarments - even good-natured ones.
"This will apply from June 1 and be in force for the World Cup."
The Football Association had proposed the ban to make sure there was a consistent message and its general secretary Alex Horne said: "The idea is to get some consistency. The simplest rule for the image of the game is to start from the basis that slogans will not be allowed."
Jonathan Ford, chief executive of the Football Association of Wales, said: "Everyone agreed about political or religious statements but on personal statements some of us did consider how far are we going.
"We decided, however, it was easier for us to say it has no place in the game."
Referees will not book players who display messages. Disciplinary action will be meted out by the footballing authorities in charge of the respective matches.
At the same meeting on Saturday morning, IFAB rejected a proposal from European soccer's ruling body UEFA to review the so-called 'triple punishment.'
This occurs when a player is sent off, concedes a penalty and is later suspended for stopping a goalscoring opportunity.
"We don't want to flip back to where we were before where some goalkeepers knew that if they could not be sent off, they would simply take out the attacker," said Scottish FA chief executive Stewart Regan.
"It will make such an impact on the game of football if it's changed, we have got to get it right."
Horne added: "A lot of us felt that taking UEFA's wording would reopen the door for cynical fouls.
"That is not to say we don't listen, we don't understand. Maybe we just need to re-educate people about why it was introduced in the first place."
And there will be no extension in the use of technology, which will be restricted to goal-line verdicts only.
Valke said: "There is a risk that using the video will change the nature of the game and maybe we will reach the day when the referee will ask one day to stop the game to make sure he has made the right decision."
IFAB also reported to agree to continue with pilot studies of sin-bins to used instigated instead of yellow cards cards.
It was agreed that Sikh men would be allowed to wear approved head coverings in games following a similar ruling for women.
FIFA ratified the use of head scarves for women, a measure which had been provisionally approved in July 2012 to allow women Muslim players to wear the hijab.
Valcke added: "We had a request from the Sikh community to play with headgear and, to avoid discrimination against men, it was decided that what applied to women can apply to men.
"We will work exactly on the definition on these covers."1. October 13. No further commentary needed. Just reading the date still makes you emotional. Like a lover you waited too long to see again.
2. You have a zombie survival guide. A hard copy. You know why it can’t be digital.
3. Your plans for post-apocalyptic survival have essentially become brunch conversation at this point.
4. You have this app.
5. You know that if Daryl dies, the actual, literal, not fictional world may also come crashing down. Even the zombies know not to mess with him. He rides a loud ass motorcycle and no one even looks twice.
6. You can’t even really talk about Andrea’s death because… fucking… come on.
7. You.
8. Hopefully you don’t have anybody named Lori in your life because honestly that woman cannot do anything right. Where’s Carl, bitch? You don’t even know. You don’t even know.
9. You read the comics before they were cool and proclaim having done so to every passerby that will listen.
10. You may possibly be as far into your obsession as to actually own a variety of weaponry… just in case.
11. You suddenly have a thing for redneck people.
12. You and your friends identify with the characters and cast random people as your enemies if they somehow resemble the Governor or Merle… think Sex and The City level of obsession (oh my GOD I’m soooo Charlotte becomes holy shit I’d definitely be Andrea).
13. You enjoy watching The Talking Dead as much as you do the actual show.
14. You find yourself completely skeptical of every single character introduced.
15. You are either planning to be a zombie for Halloween or you’ve participated in some other kind of weird zombie thing like you’ve made a video for a class project about an outbreak.
16. This is your greatest fantasy come true.Getty Images
Five different athletes with NFL experience are vying to compete in the 2016 Olympics, with two trying to make Olympic rugby teams, two trying to run the 100 meters and one having a real shot at gold in the long jump.
The player with the best chance is Bills wide receiver Marquise Goodwin, who long jumped a whopping 27 feet, eight and one-half inches at a track meet over the weekend. Not only is that Goodwin’s career best jump, but it’s the best jump in the world this year by anyone. Goodwin is heading to his second Olympic Games after a 10th place finish in London in 2012, and this year he could bring back gold.
According to NBC’s Olympic Talk, two former NFL players, Jeff Demps and Jahvid Best, are attempting to run the 100 meters in Rio. Demps was on the American 4×100-meter relay team in London in 2012 and has a chance of making the team again this year. Best, who retired from the Lions because of concussions, is attempting to qualify for the Olympic team of the Caribbean nation of Saint Lucia, where his father was born.
As we’ve previously noted, Patriots safety Nate Ebner has taken a leave from the team to try to qualify for the U.S. Olympic rugby team. And former 49ers running back Jarryd Hayne is giving up football to return to rugby, also with Olympic ambitions.
Several athletes have gone from the Olympics to the NFL, but Herschel Walker is the only player who has ever played in the NFL first and then competed in the Olympics (in bobsledding in 1992). This year as many as five players with NFL experience may compete in Rio.According to its owner, the artist John Giorno, 222 Bowery is “an Italian-inspired palazzo for the beggars.”
The address housed New York’s first Y.M.C.A. in the 1880s — in what was then one of the worst neighborhoods in Manhattan, frequented by prostitutes and alcoholics. Much has changed since the poet, performer and painter moved in 53 years ago and created a haven for artists: It’s where Mark Rothko painted the Seagram murals and one of the spots where Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns hung out. Giorno and Andy Warhol were lovers there, from 1962 to 1965; Giorno starred in several of Warhol’s movies, including “Sleep.” William S. Burroughs lived there, too — he moved into the building in 1966, and to “the bunker,” now Giorno’s kitchen and meditation room, in 1975. “I never intended to live my life in this building, but somehow that happened,” Giorno says.
Giorno, now 78, owns three lofts in the building, including a living area and office space on the third floor that is bathed in light thanks to its Tiffany glass panels and arched windows. Giorno’s partner, the artist Ugo Rondinone, created the giant, rainbow-colored “Hell, Yes!” light sign that graced the New Museum’s facade from 2007 to 2010; when it was up, the couple had a direct view of it. “It was an unusual phenomenon. We’d just lie back in bed and look up at it,” Giorno says.
Every New Year for the past 28 years, Giorno has removed all the furniture from the third-floor loft to make space for a Buddhist fire prayer ceremony, which sees 100 monks gather around the fireplace. (The artist is a Tibetan Buddhist in the Red Hat Nyingma tradition.) But most mornings, after several cups of Assam tea (and maybe a little marijuana), the area is where he writes poems, works on his memoir and meditates for about two hours. “I really love this space,” he says. “It was built in 1884 by Cornelius Vanderbilt II’s railroad architect in Queen Anne Romanesque Revival style. It is not square, but has rectangular, huge spaces, which are so nice to work in.”Curator of the Centre for African Studies Gallery Paul Weinberg asks a member of the Trans Collective to stop the disruption. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks
The Rhodes Must Fall Exhibition, “Echoing Voices from Within” was disrupted yesterday by members of the University of Cape Town’s Trans Collective, a student led organisation that prioritises the rights of transgender, gender non-conforming and intersex students at the University of Cape Town.
Students smeared photographs with red paint and blocked the entrances to the Centre for African Studies Gallery with their painted naked bodies. The exhibition was shut down.
Members of the UCT Trans Collective blocked entrances to the exhibition of “Echoing Voices from Within”. The exhibition was eventually shut down. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks
“We will not have our bodies, faces, names, and voices used as bait for public applause” was printed on a pink piece of paper plastered over one of the photographs in the exhibition. Another sheet read: “RMF [Rhodes Must Fall] will not tokenise our presence as if they ever treasured us as part of their movement”.
“Rhodes Must Fall is a dynamic movement with a very difficult story to tell. At the same time we cannot police people and the way they express themselves,” said Wandile Kasibe, the Rhodes Must Fall Curator of the exhibition. “For me, I think people should be given the opportunity to see the exhibition and make their own decisions.”
“Rapist” was painted over a photograph of Chumani Maxwele throwing human excrement at the Cecil John Rhodes statue on UCT campus last year. Many regard this event as the birth of the Rhodes Must Fall Movement. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks
Whether the exhibition will be reinstated is still under discussion, as certain photographs have been removed, while others have been covered in red paint.
In a statement released a short while ago, the Trans Collective stated that its “role has now evolved into speaking back to RMF and keeping it accountable to its commitment to intersectionality precisely because it is positioned as a black decolonial space.”
Trans Collective complained that only three out of more than 1,000 images that ended up making it onto the exhibition roll featured a trans person’s face.UPDATED: December 23, 2015 8:50 AM EST
Hennepin County District Court Judge Karen Janisch on Tuesday barred three organizers from attending a Black Lives Matter rally Wednesday, but said she doesn’t have the power to prevent others from showing up to demonstrate, according to The Associated Press:
“The Court does not have a sufficient basis to issue an injunction as to Black Lives Matters or to unidentified persons who may be acting as its agents or in active concert with the Black Lives Matters movement,” she wrote.
The judge also denied the mall’s request to order the organizers to remove posts about the protest from social media and to alert followers that the demonstration had been canceled. The organizers’ attorney argued during a Monday hearing that those demands were clearly unconstitutional.
Mall attorney Susan Gaertner had said a restraining order would make it clear that the mall prohibits demonstrations on its own private property.
Kandace Montgomery, one of three organizers barred by the judge’s order, told the news outlet that the group is undeterred by the judge’s ruling, saying they want to draw attention to the Nov. 15 police shooting of a black Minneapolis man, Jamar Clark.
SOURCE: FOX News
————————–
The nation’s largest shopping mall is seeking a temporary restraining order against members of the Black Lives Matter movement to curb a planned protest scheduled to be held exactly a year after a large group succeeded in interrupting one of the biggest shopping days of last season.
Officials at the Mall of America in Minnesota asked a judge Monday to cancel the event because the “rally lacks permission from the mall,” the Huffington Post reports. Officials also sought to obtain temporary restraining orders against eight members of the BLM group in Minneapolis. Both attempts are seen by the group as “unconstitutional.”
“The Mall [of] America continues to seek to bar free speech for the community on its premises despite receiving hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies, which it has used to appropriate the traditional public forum in service of its own corporate profit,” a statement from the group’s Facebook page read. “The Mall of America has now taken the further outrageous and totalitarian step of attempting to control the speech of individuals.”
The planned protest was organized to call for the release of video showing the police killing of 24-year-old Jamar Clark.
From the BLM Minneapolis Facebook page:
Although they destroyed our occupation, they will not destroy our spirits. If we don’t get justice for Jamar Clark and Black Minnesotans, we will return to the Mall of America.
A year after our first Mall of America action, we have not seen nearly enough progress in our state. Last month, Jamar Clark, a young black man, was shot in the head by police while handcuffed, according to witness testimony, prompting an 18 day occupation of the 4th Precinct that was bulldozed by police.
We have endured an armed white supremacist terrorist attack where five of us were shot; police violence in the form of mace, batons, and less lethal projectiles; over 50 arrests on highway 94 and at the 4th Precinct; and freezing temperatures, to demand justice for Jamar Clark. If it’s not clear yet: We won’t stop until we get it.
Mall representatives are asking that the group cancel the protest and delete social media posts promoting the demonstration. Karen Janisch, the judge reviewing the case, said she would decide on the matter “quickly,” the Post writes.
Wednesday’s demonstration, if permitted, comes a year after more than 1,500 activists staged a die-in at the mall to bring awareness to police violence in the wake of the deaths of Michael Brown Jr., Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, John Crawford, and more.
SOURCE: Yahoo, Huffington Post | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
SEE ALSO:
Minneapolis Police Arrest Eight After Using Bulldozers To Tear Down Protest Camp
Minneapolis Police Officer Involved In Jamar Clark Death Sued Just 10 Days Prior For Excessive Force
Also On News One:The Deal
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More than a month after Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico on a path of destruction that spared no region, race or class, residents of the island have found their creativity stretched to the limit as they try to function without many amenities of the modern world.
It is not just water and electricity that are in scarce supply. Cellphone service ranges from spotty to nonexistent. Cars are damaged and roads blocked. For many, work and school still have not resumed, so they wander the streets, play board games and sit around telling stories by candlelight.
“It’s like going back in time,” said Kevin Jose Sanchez Gonzalez, 25, who has been living in darkness since Sept. 5, the day before a previous storm, Hurricane Irma, began to chip away at Puerto Rico’s electrical grid.California's 2012 average gas price was $4.028 a gallon
The 2012 average for a gallon of regular gasoline in California shatters the previous record — set in 2011 — by 21 cents.
She noted that $4.028 "over a full year is a lot of money out of our pockets that we can't spend on other things."
"I can remember when the California average for the year in 2008 was $3.525 and we thought we would never see it go that high again," said Marie Montgomery, spokeswoman for the Automobile Club of Southern California.
That shattered the previous record, set in 2011, by 21.3 cents a gallon. The jump was so big that it surprised even people who review fuel prices on a daily basis.
Californians had a bad year at the pump in 2012, averaging a record $4.028 for a gallon of regular gasoline, according to AAA.
California's gas prices in 2012 also helped kick the national average for a gallon of regular up to a record $3.603, which broke the previous record, set in 2011, of $3.510, AAA said.
The increase in California fuel prices in recent years is startling. In 2008, the year oil prices shot above $147 a barrel, the state averaged a then-record $3.525 for a gallon of regular gasoline, according to AAA.
The California average fell to $2.687 a gallon in 2009, then climbed back above the $3 threshold to $3.100 in 2010. In 2011, the state's average for the year jumped to $3.815 a gallon.
Since 2009, the average price that Californians pay for a gallon of regular gasoline has jumped nearly 50%.
California has some fuel factors that are unique. It's an isolated market that does not have access to cheap crude flowing from the oil boom in states such as North Dakota, Texas and Oklahoma.
Its only regular source of domestic crude from outside the state is Alaska's dwindling North Slope oil fields. That means California has to import more and more foreign oil, which is substantially more expensive than U.S. crude.
California's clean-air rules also mandate a special formula of gasoline that is more expensive to make and is produced by few refineries outside the state.
Analysts have cited many reasons for the 2012 prices, including one of the worst years ever for refinery outages in California. A fire in August, for example, knocked out part of Chevron's Richmond facility, one of the state's biggest refineries.
In October, a power failure at an Exxon Mobil refinery helped send California's average price up to a record $4.671 for a gallon of regular.
But a lot of people aren't buying those explanations. Consumer groups and California's U.S. senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, have called on the state attorney general and the Justice Department to investigate California's volatile fuel prices.
California refineries were also exporting fuel in 2012, and an analysis by Oregon-based McCullough Research indicated that some of them may have misled the public about the amount of fuel they were producing.
ron.white@latimes.comImage copyright SPL Image caption People who are abused during the World Cup are urged to come forward
A clinic is being set up in Kent to support victims of domestic violence during the Brazil World Cup.
Figures from the 2010 event showed there was often a spike in cases when England play, irrespective of the match result, mostly due to drinking.
When England beat Slovenia 1-0 in June 2010, there was a 27% rise in cases across the UK.
In Kent there was a 32% rise in cases of abuse, while in Sussex the figure rose by 26%.
A victim of domestic abuse who did not want to be identified, said: "He'd had a lot to drink. I made sure that I only had a couple of drinks because I wanted to keep a level head.
'Expectation and celebration'
"We started to walk home, I tripped up and went to grab his arm for reassurance or help and he pushed me and I ended up on the floor.
"We walked home and it stemmed from there, the abuse, the shouting, we got in the house and the house was completely obliterated and the police were called."
Solicitor Maria Steele-Williams added: "I think there's a sense of expectation and celebration, but unfortunately alcohol is often involved and that can turn a situation sour, especially if those expectations are dashed."
Det Ch Insp Andy Pritchard, from Kent Police, urged people who are abused during the World Cup to come forward.
The unit, run by North Kent Women's Aid, will be operating at Greenfields children's centre in Shepway for five-weeks from Thursday.North Korea has mocked Donald Trump by saying that he is too much like Barack Obama.
Kim Jong Un's regime slammed the US President, claiming he is adopting his predecessor's policies.
The communist country, which regularly vilified Obama in the strongest terms, had been slow to do the same with the Trump administration.
But Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's recent trip to Asia, where he discussed tougher sanctions, appears to have prompted the secretive state to make its views known.
North Korea has mocked Donald Trump by saying that he is too much like Barack Obama. The hermit kingdom's state media slammed the president, claiming he is adopting is predecessor's policies. Obama and Trump are seen at the inauguration on January 20
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un waves at parade participants at the Kim Il Sung Square in capital Pyongyang
The latest comments come just days after officials in the hermit kingdom said their military it is not frightened by US threats of possible pre-preemptive action to halt its nuclear capability and that the country is fully ready to go to war.
Just before Tillerson arrived in Tokyo, the North launched several ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan
While he was still in China, North Korea conducted a test of what it called a'revolutionary' new type of engine for its rockets.
In North Korea's first official comments since Tillerson's visit to the region, a Foreign Ministry spokesman seized on the former oil executive's blunt assessment that Obama's strategy needs to be replaced and US efforts to get North Korea to denuclearize over the past 20 years have been a failure.
The spokesman then slammed Trump for their similar policy plans, particularly regarding tougher economic sanctions.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's recent trip to Asia appears to have prompted the secretive state to make its views known. Tillerson (right) is seen standing next to Chineses President Xi Jinping (left) during his visit to China earlier this week
Tillerson admitted the failure of the US efforts to denuclearize the DPRK for 20 years and end of Obama's policy of'strategic patience' during his recent tour,' the North's official Korean Central News Agency said in the dispatch on Monday, quoting the unnamed Foreign Ministry official.
'Now Tillerson is repeating what Obama touted... until he left the White House.'
North Korea, officially known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea or DPRK, has been continuing with its ongoing nuclear testing program.
On Wednesday, it appears to have conducted more missile tests from the eastern port city of Wonsan, although these reportedly failed.
Trump does not have a clear policy on North Korea yet.
Tillerson stressed repeatedly that a comprehensive policy review is underway and that the purpose of his trip to Asia was to hear out the North's neighbors, although it is not clear exactly how successful his dialogue was.
South Korea currently only has an interim government, since President Park Geun-hye was forced out of office amid a scandal.
China, North Korea's economic lifeline, has a longstanding dialogue-based agenda that Washington is already familiar with but has not previously engaged with.
However, Tillerson did raise some eyebrows with his tough-sounding warnings.
A North Korean soldier, right, tries to take a photograph through a window while US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visits the U.N. Command Military Armistice Commission meeting room at the border village of Panmunjom, which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War
While in Seoul, he said 'everything was on the table,' including military intervention, or even a pre-emptive strike if tougher sanctions or other diplomatic measures fail to achieve Washington's goals.
But some policy experts in the US did not attach much gravitas to his warnings.
'If you look at Tillerson's full statements, they were much more of a continuation of current policy than has been portrayed in the press, with an emphasis on expanding sanctions,' said David Wright, co-director and senior scientist of the Global Security Program for the Union of Concerned Scientists.
'You can try to squeeze North Korea with more sanctions and maybe slow its program, but it's hard to see how to stop it from moving ahead without diplomacy.'
Tillerson's remarks are in line with longstanding US policy, including Obama's, but were stated more threateningly.
In this file image made from video released by KRT on Tuesday, March 7, 2017, North Korea launches four missiles in an undisclosed location North Korea
President Bill Clinton, for example, is known to have seriously considered a pre-emptive strike over the nuclear issue in 1994.
Even so, tone is important in diplomacy and Tillerson does seem to have reassured some in Seoul and Tokyo that the United States hasn't forgotten them.
Pyongyang, however, seems to have hit the familiar bravado button.
'The nuclear force of the DPRK is the treasured sword of justice and the most reliable war deterrence to defend the socialist motherland and the life of its people,' the official reportedly said.
'If the businessmen-turned-US authorities thought that they would frighten the DPRK, they would soon know that their method would not work.'After a user on imgur posted an image purportedly of someone representing Uber confirming Bitcoin integration, various media outlets, including Bitcoinist, took the shaky claim and ran with it, stating that Uber had “confirmed” that Bitcoin integration was imminent.
Through some very basic journalistic techniques (we emailed and asked Uber directly) we can now confirm that Uber is not working on anything Bitcoin related at this time, or at least are not willing to talk about it. We spoke to Harry Porter, Uber’s Communications lead for the UK, Ireland and Nordics. He first said that it seemed unlikely but would need to check with the U.S. team. A few hours later, he came back with a definitive statement on the matter.
“I can confirm that [the rumor that Uber will soon be accepting bitcoin is] not true.”
Update: Uber has replied with an even more definitive statement when asked if there was any “long term plans” to accept Bitcoin through BrainTree, stating “No – nothing at this stage” making it as clear as possible that the Bitcoinist article is incorrect.
This showcases the importance for serious media outlets of not simply accepting Reddit or imgur posts as fact and double checking your sources, rather than making bold proclamations based on anonymous internet users posting easily modified images.
The rumor that Uber will eventually accept bitcoin as a payment method has been floating around ever since its payment processor, BrainTree, stated that it would begin allowing merchants to accept bitcoin if they choose.
Unfortunately, it appears that the dream of a Bitcoin-powered Uber has not yet been filled. While I don’t enjoy being the bearer of bad news, it is important to note that artificially generated hype that falls flat is likely to have a more harmful effect on Bitcoin than if it had never been generated at all.
While Bitcoin and Uber do seem like an ideal match, I find it unlikely that any major merchants are going to start accepting bitcoin while the blocksize debate and corresponding spam attacks on bitcoin are ongoing and slowing down the network.
In the meantime, Bitcoin users are well-advised to pay attention to their news sources and hold them and their so-called journalists to their mistakes.
We will keep an eye out for any real indications that Uber or any other major merchant is accepting bitcoin, we will double check the reports with original sources before stating something as “confirmed” in a weak attempt to be the first to a story.
Update: We want to point out that CoinDesk also, independent of us, confirmed with Uber that the rumor is false.In mid-February, coffee retail giant Starbucks confirmed it was to stop selling music CDs.
It was a big blow for the format: not only does Starbucks own more than 21,000 outlets across the world, but ever since buying US music retailer Hear Music in 1999, it took records seriously – selling millions of units each year and securing exclusives from the likes of Paul McCartney.
Now Starbucks is back in the world of music, but its days of shifting physical records appear to be over.
The company has confirmed that it is entering into a multi-year exclusive relationship with Spotify, initially in its 7,000 US stores but soon expanding to the UK and Canada. The US roll-out will take place this autumn.
The deal links Starbucks’ 10 Million ‘My Starbucks’ Reward members with Spotify, offering users free coffee as well as ‘unique access to Starbucks music on Spotify and the ability to influence in-store playlists’.
Perhaps more significantly for Spotify, its $9.99-per-month premium tier will be heavily promoted by Starbucks to customers.
150,000 U.S.-based Starbucks employees (‘partners’) will receive a Spotify Premium subscription – an initiative that will also be rolled out to the UK and Canada. Starbucks is believed to employ over 190,000 people worldwide.
These ‘partners’ will then be permitted to programme music in their stores using tools provided by Spotify. Their playlists will then be accessible on Spotify via the Starbucks Mobile App.
In addition, Spotify users will be able to obtain ‘Stars as Currency’ for My Starbucks Rewards loyalty programme – meaning free coffee and food.
“Starbucks has a rich music heritage… we’re incredibly proud to be their partner.” Daniel Ek, Spotify
This represents the first time that Starbucks loyalty programme stars can be accessed by a third party.
Spotify will also include a dedicated section on Spotify featuring new playlists from Starbucks and its most popular music from the past 20 years, available to all Spotify users.
“For over forty years, music has played a vital role in Starbucks Third Place experience – inspiring our partners and customers in unexpected ways that have helped to shape the global pop culture. And we are delighted and honored to bring Spotify directly to our customers,” said Howard Schultz, chairman and CEO of Starbucks.
“Throughout its history, Starbucks has worked closely with the music industry, offering a variety of artists a platform for their work. By connecting Spotify’s world-class streaming platform into our world-class store and digital ecosystem, we are reinventing the way our millions of global customers discover music.”
Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, commented: “Starbucks has a rich music heritage and customers who are passionate music fans which makes us incredibly proud to be their music partner.
“Spotify has powered more than 25 Billion hours of listening around the world so far, and we’re looking forward to creating unique in-store music experiences while also making more than 20 years of popular Starbucks music available to both Starbucks customers and Spotify’s 60 Million global music fans.”
Added Kevin Johnson, president and COO of Starbucks: “We plan on building one of the most robust digital ecosystems of any retailer in the world. Given the evolution of the music industry and the proliferation of streaming technology, it was natural that we would partner with Spotify in offering our customers a new way to engage with their favorite music,”
“Starbucks ability to innovate with partners such as Spotify, creating new ways and platforms to engage with our customers, will afford us unprecedented interconnectivity across all of our capabilities, and provide new access points for Spotify as they continue to grow globally.”Music Business WorldwideTOKYO, (CNN) -- Japan is mobilizing its missile defense system, and U.S. Navy ships are deploying to the Sea of Japan, as North Korea prepares to launch a rocket that is expected next month, officials said.
Japan's move, aimed at shooting down debris from the launch that might fall into its territory, is notable for a country with a pacifist constitution.
The U.S. ships are capable of shooting down ballistic missiles, a Navy spokesman said.
North Korea says it will launch a commercial satellite on top of a rocket sometime between April 4 and April 8. But other governments fear the North Koreans will actually put a long-range missile on top of the rocket.
The United States and Japan have been stepping up pressure on North Korea, hoping to head off the launch. Watch why the U.S. is'very concerned' »
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin on Friday also urged North Korea to not launch the rocket, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.
Japan's military has two-pronged orders: to move destroyers carrying air-to-sea missiles to the Sea of Japan, which separates Japan and North Korea, and to send land-to-air missiles to northern Japan.
However, the probability of a missile successfully hitting a moving target without a known trajectory -- as in the case of debris -- is very low, Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshitada Konoike said earlier this week.
If North Korea launches, the United States may have as little as five minutes to decide |
eteers make the latter claim, which hands the entire theoretical argument to supporters of fiscal stimulus.)
Depression, War, and C... Robert Higgs Best Price: $4.00 Buy New $6.00 (as of 06:05 EST - Details)
The connection between this version of history and the events of today is obvious enough: once again, it is claimed, wildcat capitalism has created a terrific mess, and once again, only a combination of fiscal and monetary stimulus can save us.
In order to make sure that this version of events sticks, little, if any, public mention is ever made of the depression of 1920—21. And no wonder: that historical experience deflates the ambitions of those who promise us political solutions to the real imbalances at the heart of economic busts. The conventional wisdom holds that in the absence of government countercyclical policy, whether fiscal or monetary (or both), we cannot expect economic recovery — at least, not without an intolerably long delay. Yet the very opposite policies were followed during the depression of 1920—21, and recovery was in fact not long in coming.
The economic situation in 1920 was grim. By that year unemployment had jumped from 4 percent to nearly 12 percent, and GNP declined 17 percent. No wonder, then, that Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover — falsely characterized as a supporter of laissez-faire economics — urged President Harding to consider an array of interventions to turn the economy around. Hoover was ignored.
Instead of fiscal stimulus, Harding cut the government’s budget nearly in half between 1920 and 1922. The rest of Harding’s approach was equally laissez-faire. Tax rates were slashed for all income groups. The national debt was reduced by one-third. The Federal Reserve’s activity, moreover, was hardly noticeable. As one economic historian puts it, Despite the severity of the contraction, the Fed did not move to use its powers to turn the money supply around and fight the contraction.2 By the late summer of 1921, signs of recovery were already visible. The following year, unemployment was back down to 6.7 percent and was only 2.4 percent by 1923.
It is instructive to compare the American response in this period to that of Japan. In 1920, the Japanese government introduced the fundamentals of a planned economy, with the aim of keeping prices artificially high. According to economist Benjamin Anderson, The great banks, the concentrated industries, and the government got together, destroyed the freedom of the markets, arrested the decline in commodity prices, and held the Japanese price level high above the receding world level for seven years. During these years Japan endured chronic industrial stagnation and at the end, in 1927, she had a banking crisis of such severity that many great branch bank systems went down, as well as many industries. It was a stupid policy. In the effort to avert losses on inventory representing one year’s production, Japan lost seven years.3
The U.S., by contrast, allowed its economy to readjust. In 1920—21, writes Anderson, we took our losses, we readjusted our financial structure, we endured our depression, and in August 1921 we started up again.... The rally in business production and employment that started in August 1921 was soundly based on a drastic cleaning up of credit weakness, a drastic reduction in the costs of production, and on the free play of private enterprise. It was not based on governmental policy designed to make business good. The federal government did not do what Keynesian economists ever since have urged it to do: run unbalanced budgets and prime the pump through increased expenditures. Rather, there prevailed the old-fashioned view that government should keep spending and taxation low and reduce the public debt.4
Those were the economic themes of Warren Harding’s presidency. Few presidents have been subjected to the degree of outright ridicule that Warren Harding endured during his lifetime and continues to receive long after his death. But the conventional wisdom about Harding is wrong to the point of absurdity: even the alleged corruption of his administration was laughably minor compared to the presidential transgressions we have since come to take for granted.
The Presidency of Warr... Eugene P. Trani, David... Best Price: $24.13 Buy New $41.21 (as of 05:25 EST - Details)
In his 1920 speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination, Harding declared:
We will attempt intelligent and courageous deflation, and strike at government borrowing which enlarges the evil, and we will attack high cost of government with every energy and facility which attend Republican capacity. We promise that relief which will attend the halting of waste and extravagance, and the renewal of the practice of public economy, not alone because it will relieve tax burdens but because it will be an example to stimulate thrift and economy in private life.
Let us call to all the people for thrift and economy, for denial and sacrifice if need be, for a nationwide drive against extravagance and luxury, to a recommittal to simplicity of living, to that prudent and normal plan of life which is the health of the republic. There hasn’t been a recovery from the waste and abnormalities of war since the story of mankind was first written, except through work and saving, through industry and denial, while needless spending and heedless extravagance have marked every decay in the history of nations.
It is hardly necessary to point out that Harding’s counsel — delivered in the context of a speech to a political convention, no less — is the opposite of what the alleged experts urge upon us today. Inflation, increased government spending, and assaults on private savings combined with calls for consumer profligacy: such is the program for recovery in the twenty-first century.
Not surprisingly, many modern economists who have studied the depression of 1920—21 have been unable to explain how the recovery could have been so swift and sweeping even though the federal government and the Federal Reserve refrained from employing any of the macroeconomic tools — public works spending, government deficits, inflationary monetary policy — that conventional wisdom now recommends as the solution to economic slowdowns. The Keynesian economist Robert A. Gordon admitted that government policy to moderate the depression and speed recovery was minimal. The Federal Reserve authorities were largely passive.... Despite the absence of a stimulative government policy, however, recovery was not long delayed.5 Another economic historian briskly conceded that the economy rebounded quickly from the 1920—21 depression and entered a period of quite vigorous growth but chose not to comment further on this development.6 This was 1921, writes the condescending Kenneth Weiher, long before the concept of countercyclical policy was accepted or even understood.7 They may not have understood countercyclical policy, but recovery came anyway — and quickly.
Banking and the Busine... Phillips C.A. Best Price: $500.00 (as of 09:25 EST - Details)
One of the most perverse treatments of the subject comes at the hands of two historians of the Harding presidency, who urge that without government confiscation of much of the income of the wealthiest Americans, the American economy will never be stable:
The tax cuts, along with the emphasis on repayment of the national debt and reduced federal expenditures, combined to favor the rich. Many economists came to agree that one of the chief causes of the Great Depression of 1929 was the unequal distribution of wealth, which appeared to accelerate during the 1920s, and which was a result of the return to normalcy. Five percent of the population had more than 33 percent of the nation’s wealth by 1929. This group failed to use its wealth responsibly.... Instead, they fueled unhealthy speculation on the stock market as well as uneven economic growth.8
If this absurd attempt at a theory were correct, the world would be in a constant state of depression. There was nothing at all unusual about the pattern of American wealth in the 1920s. Far greater disparities have existed in countless times and places without any resulting disruption. In fact, the Great Depression actually came in the midst of a dramatic upward trend in the share of national income devoted to wages and salaries in the United States — and a downward trend in the share going to interest, dividends, and entrepreneurial income.9 We do not in fact need the violent expropriation of any American in order to achieve prosperity, thank goodness.
It is not enough, however, to demonstrate that prosperity happened to follow upon the absence of fiscal or monetary stimulus. We need to understand why this outcome is to be expected — in other words, why the restoration of prosperity in the absence of the remedies urged upon us in more recent times was not an inconsequential curiosity or the result of mere happenstance.
First, we need to consider why the market economy is afflicted by the boom-bust cycle in the first place. The British economist Lionel Robbins asked in his 1934 book The Great Depression why there should be a sudden cluster of error among entrepreneurs. Given that the market, via the profit-and-loss system, weeds out the least competent entrepreneurs, why should the relatively more skilled ones that the market has rewarded with profits and control over additional resources suddenly commit grave errors — and all in the same direction? Could something outside the market economy, rather than anything that inheres in it, account for this phenomenon?
Ludwig von Mises and F. A. Hayek both pointed to artificial credit expansion, normally at the hands of a government-established central bank, as the non-market culprit. (Hayek won the Nobel Prize in 1974 for his work on what is known as Austrian business cycle theory.) When the central bank expands the money supply — for instance, when it buys government securities — it creates the money to do so out of thin air. This money either goes directly to commercial banks or, if the securities were purchased from an investment bank, very quickly makes its way to the commercial banks when the investment banks deposit the Fed’s checks. In the same way that the price of any good tends to decline with an increase in supply, the influx of new money leads to lower interest rates, since the banks have experienced an increase in loanable funds.
The Great Depression Lionel Robbins Best Price: $49.93 Buy New $30.00 (as of 03:50 EST - Details)
The lower interest rates stimulate investment in long-term projects, which are more interest-rate sensitive than shorter-term ones. (Compare the monthly interest paid on a thirty-year mortgage with the interest paid on a two-year mortgage — a tiny drop in interest rates will have a substantial impact on the former but a negligible impact on the latter.) Additional investment in, say, research and development (R&D), which can take many years to bear fruit, will suddenly seem profitable, whereas it would not have been profitable without the lower financing costs brought about by the lower interest rates.
We describe R&D as belonging to a higher-order stage of production than a retail establishment selling hats, for example, since the hats are immediately available to consumers while the commercial results of R&D will not be available for a relatively long time. The closer a stage of production is to the finished consumer good to which it contributes, the lower a stage we describe it as occupying.
On the free market, interest rates coordinate production across time. They ensure that the production structure is configured in a way that conforms to consumer preferences. If consumers want more of existing goods right now, the lower-order stages of production expand. If, on the other hand, they are willing to postpone consumption in the present, interest rates encourage entrepreneurs to use this opportunity to devote factors of production to projects not geared toward satisfying immediate consumer wants, but which, once they come to fruition, will yield a greater supply of consumer goods in the future.
Had the lower interest rates in our example been the result of voluntary saving by the public instead of central-bank intervention, the relative decrease in consumption spending that is a correlate of such saving would have released resources for use in the higher-order stages of production. In other words, in the case of genuine saving, demand for consumer goods undergoes a relative decline; people are saving more and spending less than they used to. Consumer-goods industries, in turn, undergo a relative contraction in response to the decrease in demand for consumer goods. Factors of production that these industries once used — trucking services, for instance — are now released for use in more remote stages of the structure of production. Likewise for labor, steel, and other nonspecific inputs.
When the market’s freely established structure of interest rates is tampered with, this coordinating function is disrupted. Increased investment in higher order stages of production is undertaken at a time when demand for consumer goods has not slackened. The time structure of production is distorted such that it no longer corresponds to the time pattern of consumer demand. Consumers are demanding goods in the present at a time when investment in future production is being disproportionately undertaken.
Thus, when lower interest rates are the result of central bank policy rather than genuine saving, no letup in consumer demand has taken place. (If anything, the lower rates make people even more likely to spend than before.) In this case, resources have not been released for use in the higher-order stages. The economy instead finds itself in a tug-of-war over resources between the higher- and lower-order stages of production. With resources unexpectedly scarce, the resulting rise in costs threatens the profitability of the higher-order projects. The central bank can artificially expand credit still further in order to bolster the higher-order stages’ position in the tug of war, but it merely postpones the inevitable. If the public’s freely expressed pattern of saving and consumption will not support the diversion of resources to the higher-order stages, but, in fact, pulls those resources back to those firms dealing directly in finished consumer goods, then the central bank is in a war against reality. It will eventually have to decide whether, in order to validate all the higher-order expansion, it is prepared to expand credit at a galloping rate and risk destroying the currency altogether, or whether instead it must slow or abandon its expansion and let the economy adjust itself to real conditions.
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It is important to notice that the problem is not a deficiency of consumption spending, as the popular view would have it. If anything, the trouble comes from too much consumption spending, and as a result too little channeling of funds to other kinds of spending — namely, the expansion of higher-order stages of production that cannot be profitably completed because the necessary resources are being pulled away precisely by the relatively (and unexpectedly) stronger demand for consumer goods. Stimulating consumption spending can only make things worse, by intensifying the strain on the already collapsing profitability of investment in higher-order stages.
Note also that the precipitating factor of the business cycle is not some phenomenon inherent in the free market. It is intervention into the market that brings about the cycle of unsustainable boom and inevitable bust.10 As business-cycle theorist Roger Garrison succinctly puts it, Savings gets us genuine growth; credit expansion gets us boom and bust.11
This phenomenon has preceded all of the major booms and busts in American history, including the 2007 bust and the contraction in 1920—21. The years preceding 1920 were characterized by a massive increase in the supply of money via the banking system, with reserve requirements having been halved by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and then with considerable credit expansion by the banks themselves. Total bank deposits more than doubled between January 1914, when the Fed opened its doors, and January 1920. Such artificial credit creation sets the boom-bust cycle in motion. The Fed also kept its discount rate (the rate at which it lends directly to banks) low throughout the First World War (1914—18) and for a brief period thereafter. The Fed began to tighten its stance in late 1919. Economist Gene Smiley, author of The American Economy in the Twentieth Century, observes that the most common view is that the Fed’s monetary policy was the main determinant of the end of the expansion and inflation and the beginning of the subsequent contraction and severe deflation.12 Once credit began to tighten, market actors suddenly began to realize that the structure of production had to be rearranged and that lines of production dependent on easy credit had been erroneously begun and needed to be liquidated.
We are now in a position to evaluate such perennially fashionable proposals as fiscal stimulus and its various cousins. Think about the condition of the economy following an artificial boom. It is saddled with imbalances. Too many resources have been employed in higher order stages of production and too few in lower-order stages. These imbalances must be corrected by entrepreneurs who, enticed by higher rates of profit in the lower-order stages, bid resources away from stages that have expanded too much and allocate them toward lower-order stages where they are more in demand. The absolute freedom of prices and wages to fluctuate is essential to the accomplishment of this task, since wages and prices are indispensable ingredients of entrepreneurial appraisal.
Austrian Theory of the... Ludwig von Mises, Murr... Best Price: $4.95 Buy New $5.77 (as of 03:45 EST - Details)
In light of this description of the post-boom economy, we can see how unhelpful, even irrelevant, are efforts at fiscal stimulus. The government’s mere act of spending money on arbitrarily chosen projects does nothing to rectify the imbalances that led to the crisis. It is not a decline in spending per se that has caused the problem. It is the mismatch between the kind of production the capital structure has been misled into undertaking on the one hand, and the pattern of consumer demand, which cannot sustain the structure of production as it is, on the other.
And it is not unfair to refer to the recipients of fiscal stimulus as arbitrary projects. Since government lacks a profit-and-loss mechanism and can acquire additional resources through outright expropriation of the public, it has no way of knowing whether it is actually satisfying consumer demand (if it is concerned about this at all) or whether its use of resources is grotesquely wasteful. Popular rhetoric notwithstanding, government cannot be run like a business.13
Monetary stimulus is no help either. To the contrary, it only intensifies the problem. In Human Action, Mises compared an economy under the influence of artificial credit expansion to a master builder commissioned to construct a house that (unbeknownst to him) he lacks sufficient bricks to complete. The sooner he discovers his error the better. The longer he persists in this unsustainable project, the more resources and labor time he will irretrievably squander. Monetary stimulus merely encourages entrepreneurs to continue along their unsustainable production trajectories; it is as if, instead of alerting the master builder to his error, we merely intoxicated him in order to delay his discovery of the truth. But such measures make the eventual bust no less inevitable — merely more painful.
Meltdown: A Free-Marke... Thomas E. Woods Best Price: $1.52 Buy New $11.88 (as of 11:05 EST - Details)
If the Austrian view is correct — and I believe the theoretical and empirical evidence strongly indicates that it is — then the best approach to recovery would be close to the opposite of these Keynesian strategies. The government budget should be cut, not increased, thereby releasing resources that private actors can use to realign the capital structure. The money supply should not be increased. Bailouts merely freeze entrepreneurial error in place, instead of allowing the redistribution of resources into the hands of parties better able to provide for consumer demands in light of entrepreneurs’ new understanding of real conditions. Emergency lending to troubled firms perpetuates the misallocation of resources and extends favoritism to firms engaged in unsustainable activities at the expense of sound firms prepared to put those resources to more appropriate use.
This recipe of government austerity is precisely what Harding called for in his 1921 inaugural address:
We must face the grim necessity, with full knowledge that the task is to be solved, and we must proceed with a full realization that no statute enacted by man can repeal the inexorable laws of nature. Our most dangerous tendency is to expect too much of government, and at the same time do for it too little. We contemplate the immediate task of putting our public household in order. We need a rigid and yet sane economy, combined with fiscal justice, and it must be attended by individual prudence and thrift, which are so essential to this trying hour and reassuring for the future....
The economic mechanism is intricate and its parts interdependent, and has suffered the shocks and jars incident to abnormal demands, credit inflations, and price upheavals. The normal balances have been impaired, the channels of distribution have been clogged, the relations of labor and management have been strained. We must seek the readjustment with care and courage.... All the penalties will not be light, nor evenly distributed. There is no way of making them so. There is no instant step from disorder to order. We must face a condition of grim reality, charge off our losses and start afresh. It is the oldest lesson of civilization. I would like government to do all it can to mitigate; then, in understanding, in mutuality of interest, in concern for the common good, our tasks will be solved. No altered system will work a miracle. Any wild experiment will only add to the confusion. Our best assurance lies in efficient administration of our proven system.
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Harding’s inchoate understanding of what was happening to the economy and why grandiose interventionist plans would only delay recovery is an extreme rarity among twentieth-century American presidents. That he has been the subject of ceaseless ridicule at the hands of historians, to the point that anyone speaking a word in his favor would be dismissed out of hand, speaks volumes about our historians’ capabilities outside of their own discipline.
The experience of 1920—21 reinforces the contention of genuine free-market economists that government intervention is a hindrance to economic recovery. It is not in spite of the absence of fiscal and monetary stimulus that the economy recovered from the 1920—21 depression. It is because those things were avoided that recovery came. The next time we are solemnly warned to recall the lessons of history lest our economy deteriorate still further, we ought to refer to this episode — and observe how hastily our interrogators try to change the subject.
Notes
The above piece comes from the Fall 2009 issue of The Intercollegiate Review. If you are a student or faculty member you can receive The Intercollegiate Review for FREE by clicking here. Otherwise you can subscribe to this flagship journal of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.
The Best of Tom WoodsDay care operators in Ontario will no longer be allowed to charge parents a fee to put a child on a waiting list as of Sept. 1.
Education Minister Mitzie Hunter says the ban on what she calls unfair fees and deposits will apply to licensed child care centres and home child care agencies.
Hunter says Ontario will be the first province to ban wait list fees for child care.
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Child care providers have until Jan. 1 to develop a public wait list policy that clearly explains how children on the list are offered admission.
They will also have to make the wait list available to families while at the same time protecting the confidentially of their personal information.
Ontario spends over $1 billion a year on child care, and has nearly 351,000 licensed child care spaces.24 Hour News 8 web staff - HOLLAND, Mich. (WOOD) -- A $5,000 reward is being offered through Silent Observer for information leading the arrest and conviction of the people responsible for more than $15,000 in graffiti damage in Holland over the last month.
More than 50 graffiti incidents between Dec. 2, 2014 and Jan. 7 are believed to be the work of the same two people. Homes, churches, businesses and public buildings including schools and city hall have been defaced with spray paint.
At a Thursday press conference, Holland Department of Public Safety Capt. Jack Dykstra said the taggers are spreading anti-police messages, but he also said there is no reason to think that any officers are in an increased danger because there have not been threats outside of the graffiti.
Holland police released surveillance photos that appear to show the two taggers. The photos, though blurry, show that both taggers had their faces covered with bandanas. They also showed one was taller than the other. Police say the two are likely driving to Holland to paint the graffiti.
An anonymous donation is funding a $5,000 reward for information leading to a conviction, police say. Tipsters are asked to provide as much specific information as possible to help identify the taggers.
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 616.355.1100 or email them. Tipsters can also contact Silent Observer at 1.877.887.4536 or online. Tips can also be texted to274637 with the keyword OCMTIP.As The Electronic Intifada reported yesterday, singer/songwriter Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall) was encouraged by boycott activists to cancel her gig in Tel Aviv, scheduled for 12 February.
It looks like the pressure worked.
This morning, Cat Power announced her show had been canceled, and tweeted:
Her announcement came after she sent out a few tweets asking her fans to “find a show in Ramallah … for the people of Palestine.” However, it is against the Palestinian-led BDS call to support an artist seeking to mitigate the apartheid policy by “balancing” their performance in Tel Aviv with a performance in the occupied West Bank.
Regardless of her attempt to find a venue, Cat Power ended up canceling her gig in Tel Aviv anyway. Cat Power joins a growing list of artists, musicians and performers who have canceled their appearances for audiences in Israel, and should be commended for her action.Tunis: A Tunisian court handed a British DJ a one year jail term in absentia on Thursday after he played a remixed recording of the Muslim call to prayer, a judicial source said.
Dax J, who left Tunisia after last weekend's set in the northeastern town of Hammamet, was sentenced to "six months for public indecency and six months for offending public morality", said Ylyes Miladi, a spokesman of a court in the nearby town of Grombalia.
The court dismissed charges against the nightclub owner and an organiser behind the event in the coastal resort, but the prosecution has appealed saying the two should have checked what the DJ would be playing, he added.
A video of the alleged incident shared widely online since Sunday shows clubbers dancing to music that includes the call to prayer. It sparked a storm of debate on social media.
On Monday, authorities announced they had closed the nightclub.
The DJ has issued an apology, as have the organisers of the event.
Tunisia's religious affairs ministry has said: "Mocking the opinions and religious principles of Tunisians is absolutely unacceptable."NEW YORK -- Pittsburgh Penguins defensemen Christian Ehrhoff and Derrick Pouliot are out because of injuries will not play against the New York Rangers in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference First Round series at Madison Square Garden on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, TVA Sports).
The Rangers lead the best-of-7 series 1-0.
"Neither will play and they are still day-to-day," Pittsburgh coach Mike Johnston said. "We will have the same lineup as Thursday [in Game 1]."
Ehrhoff has missed the past 10 games because of an upper-body injury and Pouliot has missed the past three games because of an upper-body injury. The injury-depleted defense also is without Kris Letang, who has missed the past eight games after being diagnosed with a concussion March 28. Second-year defenseman Olli Maatta has not played since Dec. 6 because of surgery to repair a shoulder injury.
In their absences Taylor Chorney and Brian Dumoulin will remain in the lineup; both players made their Stanley Cup Playoff debuts in Game 1.
Penguins defenseman Ian Cole knows that while limiting the New York Rangers in their own zone is critical, it also would be beneficial if the team can provide a little more of an offensive push.
"That's a little bit easier when you're not killing penalties the whole first period, but I think that's definitely our mindset," Cole said. "We want to be as aggressive and as hard as we can without taking penalties and as a defense we need to jump in and create offensively.
"We need to try and be that third or fourth man up on the rush. Not necessarily leading the rush with the puck, but certainly trying to jump in and help out."
Pittsburgh defensemen accounted for 10 of the 25 shots on goal in a 2-1 Game 1 loss, including three by Ben Lovejoy. The unit also needed to step up and spend a lot more time on the penalty kill as the Rangers had five power plays and scored once.
It also might help if a few key forwards broke out of scoring slumps, including Chris Kunitz and David Perron. Kunitz had 17 goals in the regular season but two in the past 34 games, including the playoffs; Perron had 12 goals in 43 games with the Penguins but one in the past 15 games.
"When you don't have the confidence [on offense] you look for the pass or you don't shoot it right away or maybe shoot it too quick," forward Patric Hornqvist said. "You have to go back to basics and get the puck to the net and start from there. When you get the puck there you know we'll have bodies there to get those second and third chances. When you do, you must make sure you get [the puck] under the bar too, and don't shoot it wide."
After the morning skate on Saturday, Johnston responded to allegations made by Rangers coach Alain Vigneault that the Penguins were crashing the goal crease and disturbing goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.
AT THE RINK: RANGERS Rangers' focus on net presence at both ends of the ice
"I think the referees have taken a stance on the playoffs on everyone, [Kunitz] was whistled for goalie interference [in Game 1]," Johnston said. "When a lot of that stuff happened on Thursday there was a loose puck in the crease. When the puck is sitting there players have free reign to play that puck. I didn't see, other than [Kunitz's] penalty, where we hindered Lundqvist in net."
Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury will be back in goal for Game 2. He is 7-6 with a 2.05 goals-against average, three shutouts and a.935 save percentage in 13 career playoff games against the Rangers. He made 36 saves in Game 1.
Here are the projected lineups:
PENGUINS
Daniel Winnik - Sidney Crosby - Patric Hornqvist
Chris Kunitz - Evgeni Malkin - David Perron
Beau Bennett - Brandon Sutter - Steve Downie
Nick Spaling - Maxim Lapierre - Blake Comeau
Paul Martin - Ben Lovejoy
Rob Scuderi - Ian Cole
Taylor Chorney - Brian Dumoulin
Marc-Andre Fleury
Thomas Greiss
Scratched: Scott Harrington, Craig Adams, Scott Wilson
Injured: Christian Ehrhoff (upper body), Kris Letang (concussion), Pascal Dupuis (blood clot), Olli Maatta (upper body), Derrick Pouliot (upper body)
RANGERS
Rick Nash - Derick Brassard - Mats Zuccarello
Chris Kreider - Derek Stepan - J.T. Miller
Carl Hagelin - Kevin Hayes - Martin St. Louis
Tanner Glass - Dominic Moore - Jesper Fast
Ryan McDonagh - Dan Girardi
Marc Staal - Dan Boyle
Keith Yandle - Matt Hunwick
Henrik Lundqvist
Cam Talbot
Scratched: Chris Summers, James Sheppard
Injured: Kevin Klein (left arm)
Status report: Ehrhoff and Pouliot took part in the morning skate Saturday. … Johnston had the Penguins work on the power play for much of the practice, with Crosby, Malkin, Perron, Hornqvist and Martin on the top unit.
Who's hot: Cole led the Penguins with 26:06 of ice time and six shot attempts in Game 1. … Crosby won 15 of 20 faceoffs (75 percent) and Lapierre won nine of 15 faceoffs (60 percent) to lead the Penguins in Game 1.
---Florida could be split in two, effectively creating the 51st state of "South Florida," if city officials near the southern end of the (currently singular) Sunshine State have their way.
Commissioners in the city of South Miami passed a resolution calling for the "legal separation" of Florida into two states, north and south.
The reason: South Miami Vice Mayor Walter Harris says state leaders in Tallahassee aren't doing enough to address southern Florida's concerns about rising sea levels and climate change.
The resolution proposes that Florida's 24 southernmost counties secede from the Sunshine State and create a new state called South Florida. The remaining 43 counties would retain the original name "Florida."
The dividing line would be the northern borders of Brevard, Orange, Polk, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, effectively splitting up the Central Florida and Tampa Bay areas between the two states.
At first glance, the proposed secession looks like a King Solomon-style split across the middle, but according to the resolution, South Florida would consist of 39 percent of the area and 67 percent of the population of the currently whole state.
Florida is currently the fourth most populous state in the union, with over 19 million residents. The proposed split would give South Florida just under 13.4 million citizens, which would make it the new fourth most populous state. "North" Florida would drop to a population of 5.76 million and 20th on the list, behind Maryland (5.88 million) and ahead of Wisconsin (5.73 million).
Orange County would be the northernmost point of the new South Florida. South Miami leaders noted the South Florida Water Management District includes part of Orange County.
The South Miami City Commission voted 3–2 on Oct. 7 to pass the resolution calling for the split. The resolution was then sent to the governing bodies in the 24 counties of the would-be South Florida.
But in order for the secession to actually happen, the resolution would need electorate approval from the entire current state of Florida, as well as approval in Congress.
Not likely, though it's happened before. The last time a U.S. state split in two was during the Civil War, when 50 counties in Virginia broke away to form the state of West Virginia. Kentucky was also previous part of Virginia before it split in 1792, and Maine was part of Massachusetts until 1820.
Mayor Philip Stoddard echoed the vice mayor's complaint that Tallahassee isn't taking action to combat rising sea levels, telling the Orlando Sentinel he had wanted South Florida to secede for years, but never put it to a formal resolution.
Said Stoddard: "It's very apparent that the attitude of the northern part of the state is that they would just love to saw the state in half and just let us float off into the Caribbean."
"Saw the state," you say? That reminds us of this popular image of Bugs Bunny doing just that in a 1949 cartoon:The notion that one might give up precious family heirlooms to help the state to repay its debt would seem absurd for people in most countries. And yet many Koreans did just that - during the Asian financial crisis which brought the country to the brink of bankruptcy in 1997.
In South Korea, the national currency took a sudden dive, speculative bubbles burst, companies and banks collapsed under the weight of their debts, and millions of people lost their jobs during the course of the crisis.
"The government informed us in November 1997 through the media that we have a major financial problem and that we urgently need to borrow a lot of money," recalled Kyoung Sung-Suk, then a student and now a visiting professor of Korean studies at the University of Bonn.
Shortly thereafter, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) gave the green light to the biggest loan it had yet made: $58 billion (53.8 billion euros). The money had strict conditions attached to it: Interest rate hikes, fiscal austerity, and structural reforms. The unemployment rate quickly tripled as a result.
Heirlooms, wedding rings and gold medals
The Korean people tackled the crisis head-on. Starting in January 1998, the government asked the country's citizens to donate their gold jewelry to help repay the loan more quickly. Millions answered the call and went to special collection points to give the government what they could in heirlooms, wedding rings, or small gold figures, such as those traditionally presented in Korea on a child's first birthday. Athletes brought in gold medals and trophies.
"These things are connected with beautiful memories and very precious," said Sung. "My parents were among those who donated the gold jewelry they'd received as gifts on my first birthday."
A friend's family, she said, donated the entire contents of their household jewelry showcase to the government's collection center.
The result was impressive. Within months, 227 tonnes of gold were collected, valued at more than $3 billion, according to a report in Hankyoreh newspaper. Voluntary action contributed to enabling Korea to repay its IMF loan ahead of schedule, after just three years.
An example for Athens?
Could the Korean example serve as a model for the heavily indebted Greek state? The situation is not quite the same, according to economist Rolf Langhammer, who was vice president of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy during the Asian crisis. Greece's current problem, in contrast to that of Korea in 1997, doesn't involve a shortage of foreign exchange reserves.
"But the core idea is quite right," said Langhammer. "We need to transfer funds from the private sector to the state, so the state can meet its obligations."
Koreans shopping, perhaps for gold jewelry
This could be done in several ways. "The best way is the normal route, namely via payment of taxes," said Langhammer. Another possibility would be for the Greek government to collect money from those of its citizens who have excess savings by selling them bonds.
In Japan, the latter is exactly the mechanism by which the government is funding its deficit. The fact that it is in debt to its own citizens, in a currency the government controls and creates, is the only reason Japan's enormous sovereign debt burden is sustainable.
However, there's a prerequisite for a government to be able to sell bonds to its citizens: Confidence in the state. |
-drop-additive-DNA-damage-fear.html
Meanwhile, the same ingredient – added to your food as a preservative – also poses another admitted risk: the 40-year-old thesis that artificial color dyes & additives – including sodium benzoate – were making kids hyperactive and/or ADHD and irritating allergies was officially confirmed and publicly recognized, prompting EU bans, in the 2007 Southampton study.
Supporting evidence:
Sodium Benzoate, Artificial Colors & ADHD/Hyperactivity in Children: Key Southampton Study from 2007 – Food additives and hyperactive behaviour in 3-year-old and 8/9-year-old children in the community: a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial.
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673607613063/abstract
Artificial Food Colorings & Benzoate Preservative, from 2004: The effects of a double blind, placebo controlled, artificial food colourings and benzoate preservative challenge on hyperactivity in a general population sample of preschool children.
http://adc.bmj.com/content/89/6/506.short
This artificial beverage – one of the least enlightened products anywhere on store shelves, and marketed directly to Hispanics already at a higher risk for food-derived health decline – not only gives its customer base the literal formula for creating benzene, a known toxin, inside the bottle [sodium benzoate + citric acid + ascorbic acid (Vitamin C extract likely derived from corn)], but it also provides consumers with every opportunity for hyperactivity with ingredients Yellow #5 & Yellow #6 and sodium benzoate all in one batch, as well as every opportunity for obesity, diabetes, et al. via the ‘contains no juice’ yet filled with loads of high fructose corn syrup approach to refreshment.
With ingredients this good, why not just go into a science lab and guzzle down any random yellow liquid you find?
Further supporting evidence on this complex social issue may help address several concerns with no easy answer (or alternately no easy solution):
Should oligopolistic cartels control the “free market”?
Should Michael Bloomberg lead the way in dictatorial nanny state calorie control just because the majority of the food supply is laced with dangerous additives?
Should U.S. taxpayers be forced to subsidize GMO corn & soy by the billions, along with filthy, toxic CAFO feedlots to produce beef & chicken, etc. et al. and pay Big Agra to effectively poison the population?
Download Your First Issue Free! Do You Want to Learn How to Become Financially Independent, Make a Living Without a Traditional Job & Finally Live Free?
Download Your Free Copy of Counter Markets
SLAVE MARKET FOODS: Studies, and a bit of common sense, show that classifications on the socio-economical scale such as low income, inner city and/or ethnic minority [Hispanic/Black] predisposes consumers (who are equal under the law to protections against harm) to diabetes, obesity and other health risks as grocery stores in their area tend to sell lower qualities foods while food producers price high quality (or even halfway decent) foods out of reach.
Again, the product in this video (above) is a good example, as is this GMO- and artificial ingredient-filled powdered drink mix Truthstream previously covered.
Seriously, there are studies about poor people and the poor food they are all but forced to eat by circumstances.
How can this be right? Obviously, food stamps and the dependent population system is hurting not helping this phenomenon:
Barriers to Buying Healthy Foods for People With Diabetes: Evidence of Environmental Disparities
http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.94.9.1549
Poverty and obesity: the role of energy density and energy costs
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/79/1/6.short
Avoiding The Eye - Ships Free Today! The economics of obesity: dietary energy density and energy cost
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/82/1/265S.short Food Choices and Diet Costs: an Economic Analysis
http://jn.nutrition.org/content/135/4/900.short Choosing to eat unhealthy junk foods rather then choosing healthy foods and living a healthy lifestyle at the individual level may be important and significant to the outcome of our life’s work, but there is no denying that the system is making a lot of these choices for people without their consent or full knowledge. The poverty cycle cannot be explained just by irresponsible individuals; clearly many sectors of society are trapped in it, and a market-driven conspiracy to keep them down with shitty food is apparent. Sadly, this is a de facto reality, no matter whether “the elite” have planned it this way, or just failed to correct it… Planned or not, there are clearly elements of dumbing down the population through diet, essentially social engineering sectors of the population to create a strata of efficient worker bees, subservient functionaries and helpless hoards of jellyfish consumers through targeted metabolisms (just as the queen bee is fed royal jelly all her life, and the drones and workers only get royal jelly in the first days of their lives…) that change the character of people and malnourish thoughts of liberation and creative prosperity. Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs that the authorities consider desirable, and any serious criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible. Even if all are miserable, all will believe themselves happy, because the government will tell them that they are so. – Lord Bertrand Russell, The Impact of Science on Society (1951) Humans are capable of so much more, but the diet modern society has lived off of will not allow the population to attain this potential. Instead, people are treated as human capital/cattle. Think about it… you are what you eat holds as true as ever! Aaron Dykes is a co-founder of TruthstreamMedia.com, where this first appeared. As a writer, researcher and video producer who has worked on numerous documentaries and investigative reports, he uses history as a guide to decode current events, uncover obscure agendas and contrast them with the dignity afforded individuals as recognized in documents like the Bill of Rights.The city is picking up the tab for Mayor Naheed Nenshi's legal battle with developer Cal Wenzel, but he now has to fundraise in order to pay the city back.
Council voted on Monday to grant the city solicitor the power to determine whether legal fees should be paid by the city for councillors, and those sitting on city boards, commissions, committees and authorities.
In addition, councillors now have the ability to fundraise in order to pay back the city for their legal costs.
Nenshi, however, has no choice: he has to pay back the amount he incurred from his legal fight stemming from the 2013 election.
"What they chose to do today is actually, I think, the right thing to do," said Nenshi, who abstained from the vote due to the obvious conflict of interest.
He's happy the power to determine whether the city will cover legal fees for councillors or city workers and volunteers now rests with the solicitor and not with council as "that ought not to be political."
Fundraising for fees
Nenshi said he's paid about $100,000 in legal fees at this point, but he doesn't know what the final tally will be, as the city and outside lawyers argue over the details. He's also not permitted to discuss the lawsuit and its outcome as part of his settlement.
He's now in a situation where he must fundraise to pay back the yet-to-be-determined amount with very few rules in place to govern his actions. He's not exactly sure at this point how he's going to go about it, but he plans to start right away.
His preference would be to not know who's contributing, but isn't sure that's possible.
"I will tell you that I have had a couple of individuals, one of whom I don't even know, offer to pay the whole thing. And I said that was inappropriate, I don't think that's right."
Nenshi also says he sees no reason why the final bill amount won't be made public.A former mayor of Meycauayan City, Bulacan, Joan Alarilla, has been slapped with dozens of criminal charges before the Sandiganbayan for allegedly rigging the procurement for P4.55-million worth of construction materials for what turned out to be ghost projects in 2007.
State prosecutors charged Alarilla with one count of violation of Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and 33 counts of malversation through falsification.
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Prosecutors recommended that bail be fixed at P6.63 million.
The Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon accused Alarilla of causing undue injury to the government and giving unwarranted benefits to L.C. San Pascual Construction Supply and VSP Trading and General Merchandise.
The 33 contracts were allegedly awarded to the two suppliers without public bidding. Alarilla also allegedly resorted to the splitting of contracts in violation of the Government Procurement Reform Act and other pertinent rules.
Prosecutors also accused Alarilla of failing to validate the veracity of the disbursement vouchers when she allegedly facilitated the payment of the public funds to the two contractors.
She even allowed her now-deceased husband, former mayor and then-general counsel Eduardo Alarilla, to certify the correctness and legality of the payment claims, according to the charge sheet.
Alarilla also allegedly falsified requests for price quotation and other documents from Mario-Zen Enterprises, which turned out not to have participated as a bidder for the city government projects.
The projects were not actually implemented, according to the multiple charge sheets for malversation through falsification.
The unimplemented projects include the construction of nine artesian wells, a perimeter fence, a multipurpose hall, a motor pool, a dumpsite, a city nursery.
Also unimplemented were 12 road concreting projects, the repair of four basketball courts, the repair and painting of the ceiling at the vice mayor’s office, and the dredging of the Meycauayan River.
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One ghost project even pertained to the purchase of P46,656 worth of T-shirts to be used by the city’s meat butchers.
In March, the Ombudsman announced Alarilla’s dismissal and lifetime ban from public office.
She recently ran for representative of Bulacan’s 4th District. But she garnered only 16 percent of the votes.
/atm
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MOST READGuest post by Aaron Stanley.
A number of recent reports out of Zimbabwe note a fracturing of Zimbabwe’s military elite. It appears that opposition to the Mugabe regime, which most recently has been articulated through the vocal #thisFlag movement, is spreading into the military. Up until this point, the military has been a stalwart supporter of the Mugabe government. Despite one thwarted small-scale coup attempt, President Mugabe has been able to control the military’s elites and its broader apparatus – this support has been crucial to the regime’s longevity. Yet, like war veterans and other groups that have been loyal supporters of the regime, it appears dissent is now boiling over into the open. This makes the political fracturing of the armed forces even more worrisome. Without significant changes, the Mugabe regime might be closer to its end than ever before. Moreover, there is a real possibility that the fight for succession could turn bloody.
History indicates that the signs of military fracturing in Zimbabwe should be taken seriously. This phenomenon has long been associated with increased violence and civil wars. For example, in 1861, large swaths of the US military left to support the secession movement of the southern states. This political fracturing of the US military, in part, enabled the civil war. In the African context, military fractionalization along ethnic lines was a critical part of the Biafran War in Nigeria. A South Sudanese military split along ethnopolitical lines ignited the country’s first civil war only three years after its independence.
Warning signs, like active military officers openly expressing opposing political positions, can indicate military fracturing and the potential for large-scale violence. Leading up to and during the Yugoslav Wars, politicians and military commanders were complicit in taking ethnopolitical sides and publicly stating their prejudices to stir violence. The Yemeni Civil War in 1994 resulted from the failure of the political union that had not yet integrated the northern and southern militaries. As the political union began to deteriorate, the divided military provided an obvious backing to their respective sides. This resulted in full-scale military attacks between southern and northern forces with heavy weaponry such as tanks and air bombing.
In part, this is why military integration plans and disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration programs are prioritized in post-conflict situations. Unified militaries are critical to the stability of political institutions and divided militaries are threatening to peaceful processes. As in the previous examples, the failure of integrating forces into a unified military structure is seen as a cause of the Yemeni Civil War and, now, the South Sudanese Civil War.
Of course, military fracturing is not the only cause nor the only reason for the continuation of all large-scale violence and civil war. In Rwanda, forces organized largely outside the country engaged the country’s military. Likewise, in recent examples such as Syria and Libya, it is largely militia groups – as opposed to the military – that have taken over the fighting. In Syria, the top-brass of the Syrian Army has remained remarkably loyal. However, despite the many factors that can contribute to high levels of violence and civil war, the fractionalization of the military stands out as a key indicator of problems in the making.
There should be serious concern over the reports of military fractioning coming from Zimbabwe, in particular, because of the country’s militaristic and authoritarian past, which can exacerbate military fracturing. The division of the military along political lines, as with other scenarios, should be a seen as warning sign warranting preventive engagement. Unfortunately, more often than not, these situations are not responded to with great urgency and the appropriate resources. This has resulted in a relatively limited set of examples of how best to respond. Preventive Diplomacy remains one of the few non-military options available to the international community. As defined by Michael Lund and adopted into documentation by the United Nations, preventive diplomacy has a checkered history. Despite its imperfect use and inadequate achievements, many continue to tout preventive diplomacy as the best approach to mitigating violent conflict.
Regardless of preventive diplomacy’s limitations, the indications of military fracturing in Zimbabwe today seem to be pointing towards the need for high-level and intensive engagement – one that allows for broad and robust political engagement, while also mitigating the possibility of high levels of violence.
Aaron Stanley is on the International Peace and Security team at Carnegie Corporation of New York.Several hundred Moroccan children live on the streets of Sweden, reports the investigative journalism TV program Uppdrag granskning (Mission Investigation). Their main sources of income are drug dealing and theft.
Since these kids don’t have any adults in Morocco to take care of them, it’s impossible for Sweden to deport them. Meanwhile, the number of migrants flooding Europe is rising.
Desperate youths
Increasingly more Moroccan boys, some of them as young as 9, are coming to Sweden. They live on the streets and avoid the authorities for fear of deportation. Their parents are either dead or very poor.
In Stockholm City alone, police say there are up to 200 Morrocan youths. But no one knows exactly how many there are in the country.
The reporters of Uppdrag granskning followed a few of the boys for months, documenting their dire situation. Footage show the youths sleeping at Stockholm Central Station, on benches and stairwells. In the summer, some sleep under bushes around trash and rats. Others find rest in abandoned buildings.
Some of them don’t want their faces shown, and no one wants to give up his real name. They communicate with the reporters via a translator.
Two boys, 14 and 17 years old, say they move from country to country in Europe, staying away from authorities. They say they want to work, to “have a future.” But so far their lives have been spent on the street.
Even though the Swedish authorities try to locate the boys and give them shelter and food, they don’t want any help. They have no trust in authorities. One of the boys says, “no one can help me, only God.”
About 1,000 Moroccans under the age of 18 have sought asylum in Sweden since 2011. Less than five percent of them have received residence permits, on account of there being no armed conflict going on in Morocco.
Despite that, only two Moroccan minors have been deported since 2011. According to Swedish law, minors can’t be deported if there’s no adult in their home country to take care of them.
A boy who has obviously spent a long time in Sweden, since he knows some Swedish, says, “we get no money, we get nothing. They say we’re criminals, what else can we do?” Then he blatantly admits to selling drugs.
I don’t want to live on the streets like the Romanis. I want money, I want to have a family. I want a good life. If I sell drugs, I get money for me and my family.
An anonymous police officer speaks out on the prospects of these youths:
If you live in this environment, it’s hard to come back to a regular social life. […] These are children who live on the street, and they are being used by older criminals. We have seen youths who have committed burglary to support themselves. They sell drugs, commit pickpocketing and theft. They do it to stay alive. Loading...
One of the boys says that some of them get so desperate, they have sex with grown men for money.
Irresponsible parenting
It seems today that Europe has become the dumping ground for the world’s poor and downtrodden. It is certainly difficult to see how this in any way improves Western countries.
Leftists would glorify them, like they always glorify the poor “working class.” But these Moroccan boys are clearly anything but saints.
Their drug peddling and stealing will serve to make Sweden a less safe place. The historically high social capital of this society will diminish as people feel the need to check their pockets now and then to see if anything is missing.
Yet the migrant Moroccans really don’t have any other option than to become criminals. If a Swede with an education can’t find a job in Sweden, how are these foreign, unskilled kids supposed to compete?
In some sense, you can’t blame then. This is not to say that they shouldn’t be punished for the crimes they commit.
Often when children misbehave, you put the blame on the parents who are supposed to raise them at home. In this case, the boys have no home. They are forced to raise each other, and all they know is life on the streets.
Moroccan parents are not taking responsibility for their children. But isn’t it odd that the people that have the least resources to take care of their offspring, the people who live in the worst possible conditions in the world, are the ones that have the most children?
Maybe it’s not odd at all; every human being has needs. But wouldn’t it with be so much better for everybody, if these people thought to themselves, “hey, since I earn almost no money at all, and can barely feed myself, and since there’s probably some machete wielding guy behind that bush waiting to decapitate me and the rest of my tribe, perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to stop having unprotected sex, at least until my situation improves somewhat.”
Solutions
There are only two ways to solve the issue of Moroccan hoodlums coming to Sweden.
The first option is to keep doing what is already being done—letting these youths in and offering them help that they won’t accept. In the long run, though, this situation will probably make more and more Swedes lean toward the second option.
That means closing the borders. On the one hand it would keep unwanted migrants from entering the country; only letting in people with qualifications that the labor market needs. On the other hand, having border controls means Sweden would no longer be a part of the Schengen Area. Sure, it would be a great undertaking, but who said solving this issue would be easy?
Read More: Freedom Of Speech Is Dying In SwedenIn the aftermath of The International, each player and team must face the difficult challenge of committing to a tournament roster for the next season’s push towards competitive glory, all searching for the elusive combination of talent and chemistry that can carry a group of five individuals to the pinnacle of professional Dota—to stand as the winning team at a Dota 2 Major Championship.
This season, lift the fog on the process of building a top-tier Dota team with True Sight, a new documentary series that takes you behind the scenes of the journeys of professional teams. Episode one features EG and Fnatic as they rebuild their rosters with all eyes focused on claiming victory at The Boston Major in December.
We will stream the first entry of this new series starting at 4:00 PM PDT on Thursday, October 13, with repeat broadcasts starting every two hours on the hour for a full 24-hour cycle. The stream will be available in English, English subtitles, Russian subtitles, and Chinese subtitles.
Access to the stream will be limited to owners of the Fall 2016 Battle Pass, and those watching are invited to join a live chat during the broadcast with their friends and other members of the Dota community.
You can watch the stream in your Battle Pass on Thursday. After the broadcast schedule has concluded, the full version will be available for Battle Pass owners to watch at any time in your Steam Library starting on Friday, October 14 at 4:00 PM PDT. For now, check out a special preview of True Sight below.Want to build your own blimp? The folks at Ynvisible show you how to do just that with balloons, helium, balsa wood, paperclips, motors, and Printoo, their brand new Arduino-based platform of paper-thin, low-power microcontroller boards and circuit modules.
There are two tiny DC motors onboard; one controls the altitude and the other, connected to a micro servo, allows you to steer the airship and terrorize your pets. The Printoo Bluetooth module enables you to use your phone to wirelessly control the blimp, the motor control module helps you drive the DC motors, and the solar cell module will regulate power from a lithium battery.
In short order, the team behind Printoo have surpassed their $20,000 Kickstarter funding goal and will be funded in mid-May. A minimum pledge of $45 will score you the Printoo Core kit which includes the Printoo core module, a coin-cell battery holder, and 2 electrochromic 7-segment displays.Business is booming for sex workers in Silicon Valley, but it's becoming increasingly risky.
Startups are transforming into multi-billion companies. And the staffs are overwhelmingly male. Sex workers tell CNNMoney they have a growing clientele who have plenty of excess cash.
Two recent events have raised concerns.
The arrest this week of an alleged prostitute, Alix Tichelman, in connection with the death of Google executive Forrest Timothy Hayes has prostitutes worried about the impact on business.
"I do worry that people are going to think that this is something that's normal and happens, but it really doesn't," said "Maxine Holloway" a high-end prostitute working in Silicon Valley. (To protect their privacy, CNNMoney agreed to use pseudonyms or the professional names of the sex workers we spoke with for this story.)
Other sex workers CNNMoney spoke to expressed worry as well -- though none said they had experienced cancellations.
Related: Silicon Valley's other entrepreneurs -- sex workers
A second issue affecting business was the shut down of a prominent website for both solicitation and screening of prostitutes and their clients.
Late last month, the FBI raided and shut down MyRedbook, a website that allowed escorts to advertise their services and negotiate with clients.
Women in the industry relied heavily on MyRedbook to do background checks on their clients. Sex workers would post about instances of violence or circumstances in which they felt unsafe.
Without MyRedbook, prostitutes are having a difficult time vetting their clients.
"It's like sex workers lost their Yelp," said Bay Area sex worker and activist "Siouxsie Q."
Male clients also used the site to review and discuss their experiences.
That's why call girls say that the further underground sex work goes, the more dangerous it is for everyone involved.
Related: Tinder dating app hit with sex harassment lawsuit
Hayes did not solicit Tichelman on MyRedbook; according to detectives, they met on SeekingArrangement.com, where users sign up to be "Sugar Babies" or "Sugar Daddies" in search of "mutually beneficial" relationships.
The FBI indicted the founders of MyRedbook on charges of using the Internet to facilitate prostitution and on multiple charges of money laundering.
Bay Area sex workers say high-powered tech executives likely joked about MyRedbook, which had kind a 1990's-era website look to it.
"I'm sure that they had all kinds of technological critiques of the actual website -- but they were definitely using it," Holloway said.
Another prostitute, who asked that her name not be used, says she has a roster of regular clients from major tech companies. She is a high-end prostitute and estimates that she's made nearly $1 million over the 10 years that she's been working in the area.
She says that her clients are increasingly worried about their own security, which is one of the reasons they have been coming back to her so consistently -- they know what they're getting.Russia my ass. Fire John Podesta (1234)
John Podesta is a Moron (a 1234 moron)
Will Pflaum Blocked Unblock Follow Following Oct 13, 2016
I must make a very important point: John Podesta, former chief of staff to Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton’s top guy, Hillary backer number one, has the brains of a boiled potato.
Breaking: John repsonded to a second phishing email and that stopped the hacking in late March 2016. He was hacked twice, fell for a phishing email twice, and never put on two step verification.
He is basically subnormal, idiotic, stupid in the extremiss. The English language has hundreds of thousands of words. Many synonyms for “dumb” but none of them reach the depth necessary to capture the depth of idiocy of John podesta1234. We need a new adjective: not just dumb, but 1234 dumb.
America is a great place. Even a person with almost no IQ who believes that UFOs have landed in America can become one of the most powerful people in our country. Children, being as dumb as shit and having no idea what is a true threat and what is baffling idiotic nonsense is no impediment to your rise to greatness, as long as you remember this one lesson: do as the big guy says and obey.
To wit, after (the word there is after), after (again in case you thought it was a typo), Wikileaks release thousands of his emails, John Podesta still did not install two step verification on his iCloud account. He did not change his password. His gmail password, which resulted in the hack, was Hillary2016 (I saw this on 4chan and then it disappeared, for what that’s worth) and is iCloud password was podesta1234 (according to the threads on 4chan before they disappeared). He still had that as his password after (did you read that word before?) his emails were the talk of the universe.
I shit you not. This is true.
Last night, Wednesday October 12, a guy going by /pol/ posted his hacking activities on Podesta’s phone. I refer to these above and post screen shots below. Unlike Wikileaks, 4chan has no procedure to verify the authenticity of leaks and information. Until these leaks appear on Wikileaks, everything here must be taken with a grain of salt…
… but we do know he was in fact hacked at the exact same time as /pol/ was posting pictures of himself hacking. Here is the Clinton News Network (CNN) verifying the same. When the hackers got into Podesta’s Twitter account last night, the added “hi pol” to the pro-Trump message (see screen shots at the end of this piece).
So, you know what, I think it’s pretty clearly true. And if true, if after all of this news on Podesta he still had podesta1234 as his iCloud password then that guy must be fired immediately. If Hillary doesn’t fire him today— because she knows if /pol/ hacked his iCloud as he says he did on 4chan— then everything that happens afterwards is her fault.
She takes American security seriously?
She said she was sorry she voted to invade Iraq. Then she removed Qaddafi and basically repeated the mistake of Iraq in 2011 and named a bunch of Iraq war “architects” as her foreign policy team this year, 2016. So is she really sorry or is that her “public position”?
She’s sorry she put the email server in her basement. Then Podesta used Hillary2016 as his gmail password and left podesta1234 as his iCloud password three days after Wikileaks started publishing his emails. Is she really sorry she put an email server in her basement?
So, Russia. Obama himself, out of his own presidential mouth, blamed Russia for interfering with our elections. Yet, at the same time, Podesta left his phone in a cab. He had no protection on his phone and a password that is easy to guess. And he didn’t fix any of it even after Obama ran his august mouth about crap with no evidence.
Obama, maybe you should tell your people to change their passwords and shut up about Russia? /pol/ is not Russia. Any fool can read Podesta’s emails, get his iCloud contacts, set his phone to factory settings.
So, here is Hillary talking about the “bucket of losers” comment, that is not in fact in the Podesta leak. Wikileaks debunked this fake long before Hillary did. And by saying this one is fake, but no others, we get the picture. If you remember why you said that comment about “private position and public position” (as she did in the debate when she blamed Abe Lincoln), then you can’t not know if the Wikileaks in fact are or are not genuine.
Okay, so if Hillary really cares about American security, Podesta has to go and has to go fast. Otherwise, she doesn’t give a shit.
Thank you.
Turn off Find My Phone John!
Here is John’s ipad.
He uses Google drive? To store videos? Voicemails in iCloud?
The most important detail is “hi pol” — seems like the 4chan chatter is legitIt’s difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato. – Lewis Grizzard
I have made many different types of tomato sauce over the years. I tried spicy, I tried plain, I tried with vegetables and all sorts of seasonings, but never hit on what I was looking for until I came across this recipe last year by Canal House Cooking from William and Sonoma. This sauce is perfect in every way. I love that the tomato flavor of the sauce shines through bright and clear. There will be no need to try a different tomato sauce again. This sauce is so nicely adaptable to whatever I might be cooking. It stands alone as well, and makes a delicious pasta sauce just as it is. Nothing to tinker with in this recipe. Why mess with perfection.
Italian (Simplest) Tomato Sauce 2013-09-24 17:22:04 Write a review Save Recipe Print Ingredients 15 lb. ripe Italian plum tomatoes, halved 4 yellow onions, halved through the root end 4 branches fresh rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil or other herb of choice Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice Good-quality extra-virgin olive oil 6 to 8 fresh basil sprigs Sauce Put the tomatoes, along with their juice, in a large heavy-bottomed pot. Add the onions and herb branches, and season with salt and pepper. Set over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer very gently, stirring often with a wooden spoon, until the tomato flesh is completely soft, 2 to 3 hours. Let the tomatoes cool for about 1 hour. Discard the onions and herb branches. Pass the tomatoes through a food mill into another large clean pot, discarding the solids. Add the lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil, set over medium heat and heat, stirring, until hot. Canning Meanwhile, wash 6 to 8 pint canning jars with their lids and rings in hot soapy water and rinse them, then place in a large pan or bowl and cover with boiling water. Keep them in the hot water until ready to use. Remove the jars from the water and pour out any water. Arrange the jars together for easy filling. Put a basil sprig in each jar. At the same time, fill a large pot (large enough to hold the jars in a single layer) with warm water to a depth of 4 inches. A canning kettle with a rack is ideal. To process the tomato sauce, use a sterilized glass measuring cup and a funnel to pour about 1 cup of the hot sauce into each jar, leaving about 1/2 inch of headspace. Using a paper towel dipped in hot water, wipe the rims clean. Place the lid on each jar, then screw on the rings. Arrange the jars in the water in the pot (the water should cover the jars by 2 inches) and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil for 35 minutes. Using tongs, remove the jars from the water and place on a tray lined with a kitchen towel. Let the jars cool undisturbed for 12 hours. If the jars have sealed properly, the lids will be slightly indented and not springy to the touch. If a jar did not seal properly, either repeat the water bath process or refrigerate and use the sauce. Makes 6 to 8 pints. By Canal House Cooking-William Sonoma Pure Grace Farms https://puregracefarms.com/
Italian Tomato Sauce recipe shared with:
Creative K Kids: Tasty Tuesday’s **Ducks ‘N a Row: Wonderful Wednesday Blog HopNew legislation to keep the government funded past March 27 hit a snag Tuesday afternoon when Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) placed a hold on beginning debate, essentially threatening to filibuster the bill. It appears unlikely to sink the bipartisan legislation, though.
“He wants to read the bill,” Coburn spokesman John Hart told TPM.
On the Senate floor, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) backed up Coburn’s call to withhold support for beginning debate on the legislation. “We just need a little more time to get through the entire bill,” McCain said.
“I just learned … that, who else, Coburn, won’t let us move with the bill,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told reporters Tuesday. “So unless something happens in that regard, we’re going to have to use the new rules we have where [Mitch] McConnell and I can move forward ourselves. Or I’m going to have to file cloture.”The continuing resolution, negotiated by Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Richard Shelby (R-AL), seeks to avoid a confrontation with the House and keep the government funded while mitigating the worst impacts of the sequester — automatic spending cuts — on key priorities.
The upshot of the hold is it will slow down passage of the bill. Reid suggested he won’t ignore the hold and file for cloture anyway. His option would be to reach a deal with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to bypass the hold and advance the bill.
“The vast majority of stuff in this bill came from the House of Representatives,” a frustrated Reid said on the floor, accusing Coburn of repeatedly “berating the leaders of the Senate” with holds. “We have to complete the bill before we leave here for Easter vacation.”
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) insisted that the chamber debate the legislation to move forward with the process while Coburn and McCain familiarize themselves with it.
McCain said he understands that the clock is ticking and suggested that he and Coburn might drop their objection “within a couple of hours.”
“I think we are nearly through the examination of the bill,” he said. “I do not intend to impede the progress of the Senate on this legislation.”
A leadership aide said Senate Democrats are working to secure unanimous consent to begin debating the stopgap legislation, and “still might secure one today.”The Guardian broke a story back in August about Google sidestepping certain FAA rules, leveraging its relationship with NASA in order to test its drones in remote California. By virtue of the registration documents, it appears that Google is planning on legitimizing its efforts, actively and openly testing the drones in the US. You only need register a UAV with the FAA if you're flying for non-recreational reasons outdoors. What's more, given the two distinct model numbers -- rather than the same model with different serial numbers -- it's a reasonable assumption that Google has two designs currently in the works.
Beyond that, though, we can't discern too much from the documents. Both drones are registered near to the company's Boulder, CO office, rather than its main campus in Mountain View, CA. Both are fixed-wing aircraft with two electric motors, and both weigh less than 55 pounds. This flies well with information uncovered by The Guardian, which suggested the craft would "weigh less than 25kg (55lbs), using multiple electric engines to fly at up to 100mph and as high as 120 meters." Teller has already said he plans an update on the drone program at some point this year, so hopefully we'll find out more about the company's drone(s) sooner rather than later.
We've reached out to Google for more information on the documents and the new drones, and will update this article with any response we receive.
Update: Recode reports that Google's drone filings are associated with Project Titan, a program interested in deploying aerial internet access and similarly collecting large-scale data. The report cites "sources familiar with the company." We will update this article further as we receive clarification from Google.
[Thanks, Eu-Jin!]Here's what $35 million can buy you:
Those guacamole bowls sell for $75 a pop, which is a lot of money to spend on a guacamole bowl. Jeb Bush's campaign and the super PACs supporting him didn't buy 466,000 expensive guacamole bowls for their $35 million, though; they paid that much in radio and TV ads since September instead, according to NBC News and SMG Delta, with the net result that Bush dropped more than five points in the polls.
Bush and his backers spent far |
until definitely proven otherwise.
I can’t tell you how many times a sudden dip in growth was caused by something fully in control of the business. Frankly, this is the best-case scenario, since you have full control over things in-house. In my previous companies, it was typically caused by our breaking or degrading key functionality on our own website when rolling out new code. Good news, as that’s more straightforward to fix quickly. (But I’d always expect a post-mortem from my team the next day to assess how we missed the issue.) If you know the cause, don’t let it happen again.
Make the search for these underlying causes systematic.
At eBay, we used to call this process “unpeeling the onion.” Start at the highest levels to find evidence about what changed, and then use those clues to work your way down into the details. When did the issue emerge? Did it emerge suddenly or more gradually? Was it experienced in all geographies? Was it experienced across all platforms (website, native apps)? Was it experienced in both organic and partner traffic, was it experienced consistently across partners? Was it a top-of-the-funnel issue, or an issue with conversion in the funnel? What did competitors do, and when did they do it? Is your customer-support organization hearing anything out of the ordinary from customers?
Divide and conquer so that you can get to answers as fast as possible.
Once you’ve set up a war room, do meetings every couple of hours. Start by having the core group brainstorm potential causes, then delegate across team members to investigate potential culprits. Reconvene the group periodically to share what they have learned and reprioritize the next areas to investigate as you unpeel the onion. Do this until you are able to find the root cause.
Consider a Plan B if necessary.
If the startup gods are smiling, you will be able to figure out the cause of the issue and correct it. But if the startup gods aren’t smiling, and you can’t either figure out the cause and/or figure out how to correct it, it’s time to start working on a Plan B for the business. Plan B often includes kicking off a strategic process that ends up in the sale of the company before it becomes as obvious to others as it is to you that you’ve got a dying shark on your hands. This is what happened at Reel.com when it quickly became obvious that Amazon’s launch of the DVD/video category in November 1999 represented an existential threat. (Unfortunately, the shark died before the business could be sold; Reel.com shuttered operations in June 2000.)
A closely related situation to rapidly slowing growth is when a competitor starts to outpace your business. In most consumer segments, one company tends to emerge over time as the winner. That could be because they establish a network effect, or they have access to better employees and more capital at better terms. But falling into the rearview mirror of your key competitor can potentially be a strong existential threat to your company, so it also merits running the “Oh, shit!” game plan. This doesn’t mean you can’t still build a great business. But if you’re going for winner-takes-all, you might consider changing your business altogether as another Plan B.
The best CEOs take immediate ownership over the situation and leap into action. They don’t make excuses, and they don’t accept excuses. They assume that growth is under the control of the company — even if it isn’t — and they work like crazy to get it back. Companies run by CEOs with these instincts are highly correlated with the most successful companies.
So, when growth slows or stops, feel free to freak out. In fact, feel free to freak out even sooner than that. You’re going to want to anyway, and you certainly have my encouragement! Hopefully, you now also have a plan.
Jeff Jordan is a partner at Andreessen Horowitz and serves on the board of Airbnb, Belly, Tilt, Instacart, Lookout, Pinterest and Walker & Company, among others. Prior to a16z, Jeff was president and CEO of OpenTable, which he took public in 2009. Before OpenTable, he was president of PayPal, and he was previously SVP and general manager of eBay North America. Follow him on his blog and @jeff_jordan.For main article on Kartik poornima, see Kartik Poornima
Karthigai Vilakkidu, Thrikarthika Agal vilakku (oil lamps) during the occasion of Karthigai Deepam Observed by Hindus of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Sri lanka Significance Formation of Murugan, Celebrating Goddess Shakti in Kerala 2018 date 23 November 2018[1]
Karthika Deepam, Karthikai Vilakkidu or Thrikarthika is a festival of lights that is observed by Hindus of Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka and Kerala. It falls in the month of Kārttikai (mid-November to mid-December) as per Tamil calendar. This occurs on the day when the moon is in conjunction with the constellation Karthigai (Pleiades) and pournami. This constellation appears as a group of six stars in the firmament in the shape of a pendant from the ear. In Kerala, this festival is known as Thrikkarthika, celebrate to welcome Goddess Shakti. In the rest of India, a related festival called Kartik Purnima is celebrated in a different date. It is also termed as 'Lakshabba' in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu.
The story of six stars [ edit ]
Many legends and lyrical poetry have grown around this star. The six stars are considered in Indian mythology as the six celestial nymphs who reared the six babies in the Saravana tank which later were joined together to form the six faced Muruga. They are Dula, Nitatni, Abhrayanti, Varshayanti, Meghayanti and Chipunika. He is therefore called Karthikeya, the incarnation of Lord Shiva as his second son after Lord Ganesha. It is believed that Lord Shiva created Muruga from his 3rd eye[note 1] of six primary faces (Tatpurusam,[note 2] Aghoram,[note 3] Sadyojatam,[note 4] Vamadevam,[note 5] Eesanam,[note 6] Adhomukam[note 7]). It is believed that the six forms made into six children and each of them brought up by the six Karthigai nymphs and later merged into one by his mother Parvati.
While merging he also formed into a six faced (Arumugam and twelve handed god. The Lord Muruga is also portrayed with his six plays[2] and worshiped with six names.
As the six nymphs helped in growing the child, Lord shiva blessed immortality to the six nymphs as ever living stars on the sky. Any worship performed to this six stars is equal to worshiping Lord Muruga himself. They are worshiped by lighting up rows of oil lamps (Deepam) in the evening of the festival day around the houses and streets. Karthikai Deepam is also known as Kartikeya, or Muruga's birthday.
Other Mythological Stories and Literature on this 6 stars Pleiades in folklore and literature.[3]
History [ edit ]
Karthikai Deepam
One of the earliest references to the festival is found in the Aganaanooru, a book of poems, which dates back to the Sangam Age (200 B.C. to 300 A.D.). The Aganaanooru clearly states that Karthigai is celebrated on the full moon day (pournami) of the month of Karthigai, as per South Indian calendar. It was one of the most important festivals (peruvizha) of the ancient Tamils, including now the areas of modern Kerala too. Avaiyyar, the renowned poet of those times, refers to the festival in her songs. Karthikai Deepam is one of the oldest festivals celebrated by Tamil people. The festival finds reference in Sangam literature like Akanaṉūṟu and the poems of Auvaiyar.[4] Karthigai is referred in Sangam literature as Peruvizha.[5]
Mythological references [ edit ]
Lord Shiva appeared as an endless flame of light before Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma, who each considered himself supreme and said that the matter could be tested if the two could search for Lord Shiva's Head and feet. Lord Vishnu took the form of a boar(Sanskrit:Varaha, Tamil:Varaham(pandri) ) and delved deep into the earth, Lord Brahma that of a swan(Sanskrit:Hansa, Tamil:Annam) and flew towards the skies. Lord Vishnu failed in his search and returned. But Lord Brahma, chancing upon a piece of Thazhambu, a flower, learnt from it that it had been floating down for thirty thousand years from Lord Shiva's head. He seized upon this and claimed to Lord Shiva that he had seen the other's top. Lord Siva realized the falsehood and pronounced that there would never be a temple for Lord Brahma in this world. He also interdicted the use of the flower Thazhambu in his worship. Lord Shiva appeared as a flame, this day is called karthikai maha Deepam.[6]
Celebrations [ edit ]
Rows of Agal vilakkus (Clay Oil lamps) are lit in every house. Karthigai is essentially a festival of lamps. The lighted lamp is considered an auspicious symbol. It is believed to ward off evil forces and usher in prosperity and joy. While the lighted lamp is important for all Hindu rituals and festivals, it is indispensable for Karthigai. This festival is also celebrated to commemorate the bonding between brothers and sisters in south India(analogous to Bhaiya-Dhuj and Raakhi). Sisters pray for the prosperity and success of their brothers and light lamps to mark the occasion.
In Telugu households, Kaartheeka maasam (month) is considered very auspicious. The Kartheeka month starts on the day of Deepawali. From that day till the end of the month, oil lamps are lit every day. On Kartheeka Pournami (full moon of Kartheeka month) oil lamp with 365 wicks, prepared at home, are lit in Lord Shiva temples. Apart from that, Kaartheeka puranam is read and fasting is observed till sunset, every day for the whole month.
Celebrations at Tiruvannamalai, Tamil nadu and Koneshwaram, Trincomalee [ edit ]
Thiruvannamalai Maha Deepam will be lit at around 6 pm at the top of 2668 ft high holy mountain. The entire Mountain is Shiva Linga. Maha Deepam will be lit using nearly 3500 kg of Ghee. Sri Arthanareeshwara will bless devotees in the Temple at the time of lighting the Maha Deepam. The Maha Deepam will be visible around the Holy Mountain in a radius of 35 km. Lakhs of devotees will perform 16 km Girivalam (circumambulation of the holy mountain). The Moist Black Ash (what they call as 'Mai' in Tamil) that remains after the lighting of the Ghee & Cotton Wick will be distributed as Prasadam to devotees on the Marghazhi Arudra Darisanam day.[7]
As in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, Karthigai festival is also famous in Koneshwaram, Trincomalee, Sri Lanka.[8] The festival is celebrated for three days. The first day is called Appa Karthigai, the second Vadai Karthigai and the final day is called Thiru Karthigai, widely considered as the Karthigai day, when the main pooja is performed.[9] On Karthigai day, a huge fire lamp is lit up on the hill(in both temples), visible for several kilometers around. The fire (deepam) is called Mahadeepam. Hindu devotees visit the place, to pray and make offerings to lord Shiva. In 2016, due to the Maha Kumbh Mela of Ujjain Simhastha, Karthikai Deepam will hold special significance, being celebrated on 12 December 2016, which being a Monday is symbolically attributed to God Shiva, of the twelve Jyotirlinga.[10]
Homemade fireworks [ edit ]
Homemade karthikai deepam firework (கார்த்திகை சுற்று) Sample Construction Label Details A The 3 twigs which hold the charcoal pack B The exposed charcoal to ignite easily C The layered charcoal packed in jute sack pieces D The rope binding Height Height might vary from 10 inches to 12 inches or more Width 3 to 4-inch width of the charcoal package
Kārtikai chutru or Kārtikai chuḻaṟtu is a homemade charcoal-based hand-rotating firecracker. This is crafted by youngsters and elders at the time of this festival at rural cities at Tamil Nadu[11] state in India. This cracker is very safe as it is made of Charcoal and constructed as a non-explosive craft. This cracker is handled with a long rope and rotated over the head clockwise, anti-clockwise, zig zag and any other pattern to make the display more fun. To maintain safety, the ropes used are either coir rope or jute rope. While rotating the ignited set-up of this cracker with the wind makes the charcoal to burn and split into small pieces which falls down. This burning effect can be compared with Chimney starter.[note 8] This display can be compared with a fire performance,[note 9] but the rope will not be ignited.
This cracker is made of Crushed and packed charcoal into Coconut shell. The packing is tightly placed inside 3 twigs or flexible wood stick or plant stem. The twigs are tied with ropes with a safety distance. Few burning charcoal is placed over the packing and blown hard or rotated until The packing gets slowly ignited. While the packing started ignited then it can be rotated faster with help of the rope. The falling pieces of burning charcoal pieces from the packing gives a fire cracker effect. The charcoal mixture can be mixed with dried palm flower pieces for more sparkling effects.[citation needed]. Crushed charcoal can be packed into layers of jute sack (Gunny sack) pieces
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
In Regional new year it is mentioned (under Malayali-Kerala)that Vishu is the new year, But Chingam is the start of new year in their calendar. Vishu (Malayalam: വിഷു) is a Hindu festival primarily celebrated in the Indian state of Kerala, which marks the beginning of the harvest year.(From Wiki itself copied)Fuzzy, I have Sergio Garcia on line one, he wants to know what he's gotten himself into now.
Ewan Murray with what figures to escalate the Sergio-Tiger spat into a full-fledged controversy and some rough times for Sergio if Fuzzy Zoeller's past use of a similar joke is any barometer.
The Spaniard was on stage at the European Tour's gala players' awards dinner, where he was questioned by the Golf Channel's Steve Sands. García, who has been embroiled in verbal battles with Woods since the Players Championship at Sawgrass this month, was asked in jest if he would have the American round for dinner one night during the upcoming US Open. "We will have him round every night," García said. "We will serve fried chicken."
Update on 2013-05-22 01:48 by Geoff **Sergio quickly issued a statement apologizing. From GolfChannel.com: Garcia soon apologized for the off-color comment, saying in a statement: “I apologize for any offense that may have been caused by my comment on stage during the European Tour Players’ Awards dinner. I answered a question that was clearly made towards me as a joke with a silly remark, but in no way was the comment meant in a racist manner.”OAKLAND (KRON)---The suspect in an Oakland triple homicide involving a fire has been identified as 61-year-old Dana Rivers of San Jose, according to Alameda County officials.
Rivers was questioned Friday and arrested by police.
The incident happened at around 12:21 a.m. in the 9400 block of Dunbar Drive, police said.
Oakland police officers responded to shots fired and found a male victim in the street with apparent stab wounds. As they were attending to the victim, they noticed smoke coming from a nearby house.
The Oakland Fire Department responded and found two victims, both women, inside the house.
The women were suffering from stab wounds and gunshot wounds, officers said.
The fire has since been reported under control, but authorities have not clarified its connection to the suspect or victims.
All three victims have died.
An FBI team is helping with the investigation.Donald Trump’s bragging is so incessant and over the top that you might start to think he believes his own bullshit.
But in his 1987 book The Art of the Deal, he draws back the curtain a bit and reveals that’s not quite true.
"A little hyperbole never hurts," he writes. "People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole. It’s an innocent form of exaggeration — and a very effective form of promotion."
Passages like this, in which Trump demonstrates some semblance of self-awareness, are few and far between in his 12 books on politics and business.
But every so often they do turn up, and when they do, they provide a refreshing break from the boasting that fills the rest of his pages.
Trump: "Not true" that "I would be a success at everything"
Take this shockingly humble admission from Trump’s 2007 book Think Big and Kick Ass: "People tell me that I would be a success at anything. However, that is not true," Trump writes. "I am primarily a builder, and then got a little lucky on TV. I’m a TV personality."
He continues: "These are some of the things I can do, and I put an enormous amount of passion into doing them well, but there are many things I cannot do." He adds:
In real life there are some things that you just cannot do. People who tell their children that they can do anything they want are being unrealistic; some things are just not possible. Yet you do not want to discourage them. The trick is to be a skeptical optimist and to pick your battles. When you think you can win, go full-steam ahead and never quit, but also realize your limitations.
Sure, Trump has a low bar here, but for a book called Think Big and Kick Ass, this is some refreshing real talk.
Trump honestly explains how he manipulates the media
Elsewhere, Trump is pretty straightforward about the fact that he is deliberately constructing a certain image of himself — selling an exaggerated, outrageous caricature to the media to get attention.
"One thing I’ve learned about the press is that they’re always hungry for a good story, and the more sensational the better. It’s in the nature of the job, and I understand that," he writes in The Art of the Deal.
Indeed, Trump revisited this point during a campaign rally last September. With similar bluntness, he freely admitted that his vast success at getting media coverage has absolutely nothing to do with his substantive ideas:
I’ll be honest with you. It's a simple formula in entertainment and television. If you get good ratings — if you get good ratings — and these aren’t good, these are monster — then you'll be on all the time, even if you have nothing to say. If you come up with a cure for a major, major horrendous disease and if you don`t get ratings, they won`t bother even reporting it. It’s very simple business. Very simple.
Trump: "I am the creator of my own comic book"
Finally, in his 2004 book How to Get Rich, he even went meta about how he’s constructed his life to resemble a "cartoon" or "comic book."
"I’ve read stories in which I’m described as a cartoon," he writes. "A comic book version of the big-city business mogul with the gorgeous girlfriend and the private plane and the personal golf course and the penthouse apartment with marble floors and gold bathroom fixtures."
Those stories aren’t exaggerated, Trump said. They’re real, based off an image and a lifestyle he’s deliberately designed.
"My cartoon is real," he writes. "I am the creator of my own comic book, and I love living in it."
And maybe by January 2017, 300 million Americans will be living in it too.Last night, Megyn Kelly's much-anticipated Sunday news magazine, Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly, premiered on NBC to only moderate ratings and unimpressed critics, despite scoring a headline-grabbing interview with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
The big-name host and high-profile guest garnered 6.1 million viewers and an 0.8 Nielsen rating among adults 18-49. The show's head-to-head competitor, CBS' highly regarded 60 Minutes, drew 6.6 million viewers for a repeat episode, but only scored a 0.6 rating in the advertiser-coveted demo. Both news programs faced tough competition from ABC, which aired Game 2 of the NBA finals, as well as a Jimmy Kimmel Live Game Night special that aired in direct competition with Sunday Night and 60 Minutes.
Critically, Kelly's Putin interview—an opportunity for Kelly to challenge and follow through with the Russian leader—was criticized as "boring," "a rough start" and "largely news-free." The rest of the program was anchored by Kelly's fellow NBC news correspondents and included an investigation by Cynthia McFadden into an addictive painkiller made by Insys Therapeutics and a look at elephant-poaching in Kenya by Harry Smith. (A final segment featuring toddlers and called "The Kid's Table" received mixed reviews.)
Watch On Forbes: Richest Self-Made Women
The promise of a Sunday night news program was imperative in Kelly's switch to NBC from Fox News, which propelled her to the spot of top-paid female news anchor on television. Despite the latter network reportedly offering her a salary of $25 million to stay, NBC, which is paying her nearly $20 million, won out thanks to a proposal that included the prestigious weekly news spot and a daily daytime show (she will host an hour of Today starting in the fall), which will allow her more time with her kids than her prime-time Fox News show, The Kelly File.
"There might not have been a deal without that Sunday show to compete with 60 Minutes," Les Rose, a professor at the Newhouse School, told FORBES when Kelly announced her switch to NBC. "That’s where the awards and gravitas comes from."
Prior to being taken off the air in January, Kelly was one of Fox News' biggest stars, drawing an average audience of 2.7 million viewers and securing a spot as the second most-watched Fox News program. She stood out as a younger and female host on Fox's prime-time line up, which, at the time, also featured Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity. Known for her toughness, she gained wide-spread prominence in 2016 for confronting then-presidential candidate Donald Trump despite her network's stereotypical conservatism and her then-boss Roger Ailes' support of Trump.
“She has an interesting appeal right now because there is an attraction to the Hillary side after how she was treated by Trump,” Beth Ellen Egan, an associate professor at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School, told FORBES at the time of Kelly's switch.
But it is yet to be seen if that star power will translate to NBC, where she will have to have achieve a much broader appeal to succeed. This transition from cable news and political commentary to more general news stories attracted her to the NBC position, she wrote in her book, Settle for More, though she has only a year's worth of television experience outside of Fox News and has no experience in the lighter, morning news of Today. Beyond the difference in style, Kelly will have to prove herself to a more liberal audience that still associates her with the conservatism of Fox News (the network on which she said, for example, that Santa Claus was definitively white.)
Andrew Lack, the chairman of NBC News and MSNBC, knew there would be a learning curve. "It’s not going to be perfect on day one, and we’re not going to be in first place on day two, but I’d rather be holding our cards than anyone else’s," he reportedly told NBC affiliates last month.
So Kelly didn't hit the jackpot for NBC last night, but she still has ample time to prove that NBC made the right choice with the Megyn Kelly gamble.0 Belmont residents still frustrated with drinking water situation
BELMONT, N.C. - Residents in Belmont are frustrated they've had to use bottled water for more than 800 days, and one person has now made and posted a sign depicting a skull and crossbones.
The area is on its 806th day of using bottled water, all because two toxic metals turned up in local well water.
During that time, a new president was elected, there have been two Super Bowls and Todd Crawford and more than 100 of his neighbors in Belmont haven't been able to drink their tap water.They have been living on bottled water after high levels of vanadium and hexavalant chromium, two toxic metals contained in coal ash, were discovered in their well water.
Duke Energy's Allen Steam Plant is just down the street.
Crawford wants everyone who drives by his house to know what they are dealing with, which is why he made the sign.
“I'm not an artist, for sure,” Crawford said.
Crawford stacked his bottled water, painted a skull and crossbones and a message warning land and home buyers to beware.
Dozens of new homes are being built in his community and hundreds of people drive by his house to get to Lake Wylie.
“I never had so many people stop in this yard and thank me,” Crawford said.
Duke Energy still claims coal ash basins aren't impacting wells in the area and that the state has told residents that their water is safe to drink.
Crawford said he wants a solution, and to let people know the community is still left without one.
Duke Energy is being allowed to pass on the $55 million cost of cleaning up two polluted sites in Ohio to its customers.
The state supreme court said the Charlotte-based company can continue charging Ohio customers $1.67.
The charge has been in place for three years and is likely to continue for two more.
Duke wants to increase energy rates by almost 15 percent in parts of North Carolina to cover coal ash cleanup costs.
Currently, it doesn’t include Charlotte, but officials told Channel 9 they plan to ask for a rate hike in the Charlotte area, as well.
Read more top trending stories on wsoctv.com:
© 2019 Cox Media Group.CCCAC :: Keyless Klau Chaos Computer Club Aachen
English version
tl;dr
Schließsysteme, die keine Interaktion am Schlüssel erfordern, sind prinzipiell unsicher.
Der Chaos Computer Club Aachen hat einen Demonstrator gebaut, mit dem Keyless-Go/Keyless-Entry-Autos auch mit großer Entfernung zum Schlüssel geöffnet werden können.
Einleitung
Bei „Keyless Go“ handelt es sich um Systeme, die es erlauben eine Autotür zu öffnen und den Motor zu starten, ohne dass man am Funkschlüssel einen Knopf drücken muss. In Türgriffen und Innenraum sind Sensoren integriert, die eine Handberührung erkennen. Wenn eine Berührung erkannt wird, weckt das Auto den Schlüssel über ein Funksignal auf, und führt eine bidirektionale Kommunikation mit diesem. Wenn das System feststellt, dass der Abstand zwischen dem Auto und dem Schlüssel kurz genug ist, wird die Tür geöffnet.
Untersuchungen
Wir wurden ziemlich schnell auf das Paper „Relay Attacks on Passive Keyless Entry and Start Systems in Modern Cars“ von Aurélien Francillon, Boris Danev und Srdjan Capkun aufmerksam, dass verschiedene Angriffe auf mehrere Systeme gut beschreibt.
Eine wichtige Erkenntis: Es reicht, das 125 kHz-Signal vom Auto zum Schlüssel zu verlängern, das 433 MHz-Signal kann weiterhin durch den Freiraum übertragen werden. Das hat uns zuerst verwundert, ist aber plausibel: Beim LF-Signal befindet man sich immer im Nahfeld, bedingt durch die große Wellenlänge. Im Nahfeld nimmt die Signalstärke mit der vierten Potenz der Entfernung ab. Beim UHF-Signal nimmt die Signalstärke (etwa) mit der zweiten Potenz der Entfernung ab. Deswegen kann die Entfernung besser über das LF-Signal abgeschätzt werden.
Um die allgemeinen Systemeigenschaften zu ermitteln, haben wir die Funksignale eines Keyless-Go-Systems aufgezeichnet. Wie erwartet, sendet das Auto auf (genau) 125 kHz (LF) und der Schlüssel im 433 MHz-Band (UHF).
Das LF-Signal wird amplitudenmoduliert. Dabei ist die relative Bandbreite auffallend groß: Die Symbole sind 128μs breite Rechtecke, das sind gerade mal 16 Schwingungen. Bei dem Relais-Angriff muss also für sehr schnelle Einschwingvorgänge gesorgt werden.
Das UHF-Signal auf 434,35 MHz wird frequenzmoduliert. Die normale Funkschlüssel-Funktion (mit Taste) sendet mit einer deutlich höheren Amplitude und auf einer anderen Frequenz. Deswegen kann man davon ausgehen, dass Funkschlüssel und Keyless-Go zwei getrennte Systeme innerhalb des Schlüssels sind.
Leider konnten wir die beiden Signale nicht zeitsynchron aufzeichnen, also kann das Timing des Protokolls nicht ermittelt werden. Es fällt aber auf, dass beide Geräte im zweiten Sendeburst mit verringerter Intensität senden. Vermutlich handelt es sich hierbei um einen Intensitäts- oder Linearitäts-Test.
Relais
Nach verschiedenen Vorversuchen ist es uns schließlich gelungen eine Relais-Hardware zu bauen, die das Signal des Fahrzeugs mit ausreichender Genauigkeit an den Schlüssel weitergibt. Die erste erfolgreiche Öffnung konnten wir dabei am 7.April 2016 (Bericht in Auto Bild Nr. 18 2016) mit einer noch kabelgebundenen Version erreichen.
Seit dem haben wir diesen Proof of Concept zu einem bei weitem nicht perfekten, aber durchaus praktikablen drahtlosen, batteriebetriebenen Relais ausgebaut, das zuverlässig in der Lage ist, Keyless Go Signale zu Übertragen.
Das Probingsignal des Fahrzeugs wird hierbei von einer selbstgewickelten 125kHz-Rahmenantenne empfangen, dannach verstärkt und in einen günstigen 5,8GHz Modellbau-FPV-Sender eingespeist. Wir haben festgestellt, dass sich diese hervorragend dafür eignen, beliebige Signale geringer Bandbreite zu übertragen, da das Eingangsignal offenbar widererwarten nicht durch etwaige Signalprocessingelektronik verfremdet wird.
In der Nähe des anzugreifenden Fahrzeugs befindet sich der dazugehörige Empfänger, indem das Signal nach der Demodulation erneut verstärkt und mithilfe einer zweiten, baugleichen LF-Antenne abgestrahlt wird.
Nach einigen Schwierigkeiten mit der LF-PA ist uns aufgefallen, dass mit ein wenig Einbußen bei der Angreifer-zu-Schlüssel-Reichweite durchaus auf die Verstärkerstufe verzichtet werden kann. Sowohl die der Vorverstärker, als auch die Endverstärker basieren auf dem Amplifier IC AD8129 von Analog Devices (Siehe Schaltbild).
Impact
„Wenn das funktioniert will ich ein neues Auto.“ - Betroffene zu ihrem Partner c.a. 30s vor erfolgreicher Öffnung ihres 2016er Ford
In diversen Feldversuchen lies sich jedes vorgefundene Keyless Go Fahrzeug öffnen und starten. Eine genaue Liste gibt es in der Hall of Shame.
Einschränkung
Dies gilt mit einer Außnahme: Jedes untersuchte Audi Modell blieb verschlossen. Dies kann unterschiedliche Gründe haben, wie beispielsweise das Senden des Probingsignals auf einer anderen Frequenz. Unser Versuchsaufbau ist auf 125kHz abgestimmt, und ist bei starker Abweichung von dieser wirkunglos. Hierbei ist anzumerken, dass dies nicht bedeutet, dass Audi-Fahrzeuge prinzipiell weniger leicht durch einen Angreifer zu öffnen sind, als die anderer Hersteler, lediglich, dass in diesen ein anderes System zum Einsatz kommt. Bei spontan auftretender Langeweile werden sicherlich noch Daten hierzu folgen. Wir würden uns natürlich über Informationen und Aktionen aus der Community freuen.
Beispiel Angriffszenario
Ein praxisnahes Angriffszenario ergibt sich zum Beispiel in einer Einkaufssituation. Der Täter wartet auf dem Parkplatz eines Ladens auf eine ankommendes Fahrzeug mit Keyless Go System. Das Opfer steigt aus dem Fahrzeug aus und geht Einkaufen. Ein Komplize des Angreifers verfolgt das Opfer in den Laden mit der B-Seite des Umsetzers. Diesen hält er beispielsweise in einer Einkaufstüre in die Nähe der Hand- oder Hosentasche des Opfers. Der erste Angreifer begibt sich währenddessen mit der A-Seite zum Auto des Opfers, richtet die Antenne aus und versucht das Fahrzeug zu öffnen. Das daraufhin ausgesendete Keyless-Entry-Signal wird zur B-Seite übertragen und an den Schlüssel abgegeben. Der Funkschlüssel sendet nun seinen Öffnungscode zum Auto und, sollte sich das Auto in seiner Reichweite befinden, entriegelt die Tür. Um das Fahrzeug zu bewegen setzt der Angreifer sich nun hinein und startet das Auto genau wie zur Öffnung mit Hilfe des Keyless-Go-Systems. Nun ist er in der Lage es an einen für ihn sicheren Ort zu fahren.
Aufwand
Wir sind der Ansicht, dass jeder mit ein wenig Grundwissen in Analogtechnik in der Lage ist eine ähnliche Schaltung in wenigen Arbeitstagen zu entwickeln und zu konstruieren.
Mit der Benötigten Hardware
1 FPV-Preamp
1 LF-PA
FPV-Sender
FPV-Empfänger
2 Rahmenantennen
Diverse Kabel
sind wir bei Materialkosten von etwa 90€ geblieben. Im Internet werden vergleichbare Systeme mit offensichtlich krimineller Zielgruppe für c.a. 6000€ bis 40000€ gehandelt.
In Anbetracht des geringen Arbeits- und Materialaufwandes sehen wir ein hohes kriminelles Potential.
Gegenmaßnahmen
Uns sind zur Zeit keine wirksamen systemischen Gegenmaßnahmen bekannt. Autobesitzern empfehlen wir Keyless-Go und Keyless-Entry-Systeme nach Möglichkeit abzuschalten oder den Schlüssel in einem abschirmenden Metallgefäß zu verwahren. Hierbei ist besonders hervorzuheben, dass es bei einigen Modellen unverständlicherweise nicht möglich ist die Keyless-Systeme abzuschalten.
Weil das System keine Interaktion am Schlüssel erfordert, ist es grundsätzlich anfällig für Relais-Angriffe. Die Entfernungsmessung kann nur abgesichert werden, wenn Laufzeitmessung in Verbindung mit Kryptographie verwendet wird.
Aus signaltheoretischen Grundlagen ergibt sich, dass die Entfernungsauflösung durch die Bandbreite begrenzt ist. So könnte die Entfernung mit üblichen 125kHz-Systemen nur mit einer Genauigkeit von Kilometern bestimmt werden.
Für die von den Automobilherstellern angestrebte Genauigkeit im Meter-Bereich bräuchte man eine Bandbreite in der Größenordnung von 100 MHz, für die nur Lizenzen bei Ultra-Wideband-Betrieb oder im Radarfrequenzbereich ab 24 GHz zu bekommen sind. Allein die dafür notwendige Analogtechnik würde zu einer enormen Kostensteigerung führen.
Disclosure
Uns ist es wichtig, mit einer einfachen, billigen Implementation eines Angriffes auf diese seit Jahren bekannte, jedoch von den Herstellern ignorierte Sicherheitslücke aufmerksam zu machen.
Dennoch möchten wir nicht mehr Schaden anrichten als nötig und vor allem unbedarfte Nutzer nicht zusätzlich in Gefahr bringen, gerade weil einfache Gegenmaßnahmen nicht immer möglich sind. Deshalb haben wir uns auch dagegen entschieden, die Pläne und Layouts vollständig zu veröffentlichen. Möglicherweise wird das in Zukunft noch geschehen. Für den Moment veröffentlichen wir den Schaltplan unserer ersten Version, bei der die beiden Seiten durch ein K |
If you strip Reddit down to its core—if you forget about all its promises to democratize the content, its grand dreams to become the Internet’s universal discussion platform—it’s all really just a game. And like any game, there are people playing it at a level you never thought possible.
Reddit’s lifeblood is karma, a voting system that rewards people for providing the community with good (or, at least, popular) content. The more upvotes a post receives, the higher probability it has of reaching Reddit’s front page. The more upvotes a comment receives, the higher chance it has of rising to the top of a thread. All those upvotes and downvotes are tracked, and the cumulative is what’s known as a karma score.
There are two categories: link and comment karma. The former is dominated by maxwellhill who, in seven years, has accumulated 2.1 million karma, according to independent analytics site Karmawhores. Redditor apostolate sits atop the comment karma throne with 1.4 million. He did that in one year.
Neither accomplishment compares to what a mysterious redditor named UpMan did on Aug. 27.
Over 11 days, UpMan collected 100,000 comment karma, mking him the fastest person to reach that mark in Reddit’s history. At that pace, he’ll hit 3.1 million in a year.
“It was really spur of the moment,” UpMan told the Daily Dot.
The previous title holder was a redditor named prostitute_strangler. He amassed 100,000 comment karma in 22 days. UpMan did it in half that time, all with a much less, um, noticeable username.
Here’s how UpMan beat prostitute_strangler in the game of Reddit karma.
How much planning did you do ahead of time before you tried to set this record?
I was browsing Reddit, noticing users who had large amounts of karma in short periods of time, and it seemed like a fun thing to try. My other account had under 25,000 karma and was already months old, so I decided to register a new account. I was amazed to see that the name ‘UpMan’ wasn’t taken, so I chose it to try to rack up as much karma as possible in a short time period. I had no idea so many people were going to recognize my username from thread to thread.
What was the game plan?
My main strategy was to browse the threads that were relatively new and were gaining upvotes quickly. Inserting a reply on a successful parent comment [that is, replying to a comment that was already at the top of a thread] would gain a large amount of points once it reached the front page, more often than not. Basically commenting on a thread before it hit the front page resulted in the most successful comments. I didn’t realize that r/askreddit threads gained upvotes slower but had much higher upvoted comments ’til a week or so into the account. If I had to do it over, I would definitely aim more comments at r/askreddit threads, which probably would have got me to 100,000 even faster.
How many hours did you dedicate to Reddit each day?
Too many. There wasn’t a definite amount of time I put in each day, but I always had Reddit open, browsing through potential front page posts. If I wasn’t on my computer, I had Reddit up on my phone. I had as much free time as I wanted, since my university doesn’t start ’til the end of September.
Did you ever fall behind the pace you wanted to set? How did you make up for it?
The first few days I had less than 8,000 a day, as I was still trying to figure everything out, but days to follow were much more successful. About day eight, commenting so much just didn’t seem like fun, and I spent most of the day with friends. I only made a few comments, but luckily they were some of my most successful, so it didn’t put me too far off track. However, instead of reaching 100,000 in 10 days it was going to be 11, as I coasted through the next few days.
Did you receive any help from other redditors over the course of the 11 days?
I received tons of private messages asking how I managed to get so many highly upvoted comments, and other messages about the CenturyClub, how I would be the fastest person the reach 100,000 if I kept up the pace.
How did it feel to beat the record?
It felt great knowing I could get so much karma in such a short amount of time, that people appreciated the comments I was leaving, but it was disheartening reading many comments about how I must be a team of people posting witty comments or a bot that somehow unfairly got karma. I just decided to take it as a compliment.
After collecting so much karma in so little time, did you learn anything new about the site?
I found that there were more threads blowing up around 6-9PM my time (PST) and, in turn, more people to upvote comments. I also learned that when Reddit sees a successful and easily applicable joke, it will get beaten to death. Probably one third of the replies to my comments were “What’s UpMan?” as it had been successful in gaining a lot of upvotes in recent threads. It caught on quickly and there was an obligatory “What’s UpMan” reply for every one of my comments.
So much has been said, and will be said, about Reddit’s karma system and what it really means in terms of influence on the site. What is your opinion on it?
I view it as more of a game. I think some users like to imagine that huge amounts of karma make them more influential and respected, but in reality it seems like the many other millions of redditors don’t have very positive views of these “karmawhores,” unless they contribute to threads. It’s very interesting nonetheless.
Illustrations by Jason ReedThe Australian squad for the 2017 Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup was announced on Monday, alongside a generous commitment from the National Rugby League to aide their upcoming campaign.
A cheque on behalf of the NRL for $50,000 was delivered to representatives from Wheelchair Rugby League Australia, with majority of the funds being put towards the hefty transport costs associated with getting the team to France for the tournament in July.
The NRL's Head of Football Brian Canavan was immensely pleased the governing body was able to assist the game's elite wheelchair athletes.
"I've witnessed first-hand just how committed these men are to playing the game they love, so to be able to assist them in getting to a World Cup tournament is a wonderful thing," Mr Canavan said.
"I’ll be a very keen observer and have no doubt they will do us all proud when the tournament kicks off in July."
The financial support from the NRL is a welcomed boost for the organisation who continue to improve the lives of people with disabilities on and off the field via a number of positive health and wellbeing activities developed by the sport.
"I'd like to thank Brian and the NRL for this significant and very much welcomed contribution that will allow all of us to get where we need to go in France for the World Cup,” Australian Wheelchair Rugby League representative Yara Ryan said.
"We finished in fourth place four years ago in England, but are quietly confident of doing better this time around with the group of players selected."
Australian Wheelchair World Cup squad:
Peter Arbuckle QLD
Jason Attard NSW#*
Davin Bretherton QLD
Craig Cannane NSW*
Fabian Castillo NSW*
William Derederenalagi NSW#
Brad Grove NSW*
Brett Henman NSW
Diab Karim NSW#
Stephan Rochecouste NSW
Yara Ryan NSW*
Mitchel Stone NSW*
* Denotes previous WRLWC experience
# Denotes able bodied athlete
For further information or to help contribute to the continued growth of Wheelchair Rugby League in Australia, please click here.Getty Images Share
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Rabbi Yaakov Zucker, the Chabad rabbi in the Florida resort of Key West, is offering his building as a potential shelter for local residents who might face a direct hit from the ferocious Hurricane Irma.
Zucker, who has been working to prepare the building, told the Algemeiner that the Chabad house was a “hurricane 5 stage shelter, if you will.” He added that it was constructed to be flood-proof and was “one of the strongest buildings in town.”
Still, he urged residents to leave town to more secure areas inland in Florida, and said that his local chapter of Chabad was trying to coordinate exit strategies for Key West locals.
“I told all my people, please, if you can get out of the town please do, and if not we’re all gonna help each other get out of town,” he said.
He told the Algemeiner that the atmosphere in Key West is tense, as Hurricane Irma’s path through the region remains unclear.
“The town is panicking,” he said. “There are long lines for gas, which keeps on running out. This morning there’s already no water or cans.”
Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or on Twitter, @DanielJSolomonYvette Felarca, a public school teacher and national organizer for the far-left extremist group By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), smeared Breitbart Senior Editor MILO as a fascist before claiming he’s leading a “movement of genocide” and needs to be stopped during Tucker Carlson Tonight on Monday.
When asked to define what a fascist is, Felarca claimed, “A fascist is someone who’s organizing a mass movement that’s attacking women, immigrants, black people, other minority groups in a movement of genocide.”
“So it’s someone who is committing violence?” Carlson questioned.
“It is someone who is committing violence and someone who is trying to organize other people to commit violence,” Felarca replied. “And Milo Yiannopoulos is a fascist.”
“So he’s committed acts of violence against the protected groups you mentioned?” asked Carlson.
“Well what he’s doing is he’s trying to be the youth face and token that other people who are organizing violence try to hide behind, and so in all of his talks all over the country, what Yiannopoulos has done is whip up a whole lynch mob mentality where people who come to see him, or his supporters, not only agree with his views, but attack other people,” claimed Felarca. “That was certainly true in Washington State when one of his supporters came and actually shot an anti-fascist protester. But in Berkeley, we made sure that didn’t happen, because we were able to shut him down.”
“But MILO himself has not committed acts of violence, nor has he incited violence by the legal definition, or he’d be in jail if he did,” Carlson stated. “But you’re saying because people who agree with him have committed violence, he should not be allowed to speak?”
“Fascist movements take many forms, and it always tries to have one form that looks respectable and a little bit milder, but Yiannopoulos isn’t just a stand-up comedian, and he isn’t someone who just has ideas and posts them up on YouTube,” Felarca claimed. “He’s someone who’s funded by Breitbart and Steve Bannon to go around to college campuses and to try and recruit other young people to then conduct those attacks on his behalf, and on Trump’s behalf, but I’m really glad to say that thousands of us were out there last week, or February 1st, and made sure that there were thousands of us who defended our campus, this community, and especially the immigrant and Muslim students who were under attack and have been under attack by him and other fascists.”
When Carslon asked what should be done with “fascists,” Felarca replied that “first we should make sure they’re not able to recruit,” before adding that MILO and others should not be able to speak in public.
Though Carlson pointed out that “There’s no evidence that he’s ever called for the genocide of anyone,” Felarca continued to accuse MILO of “espousing rape” and “genocide,” before stating that fascists must be “shut down.”
When asked to explain what “shut down” meant in the eyes of BAMN, and what Felarca and her group would do if someone would not stop saying things that offended them, she refused to go into detail.
Throughout the interview, Carlson played a video clip of Felarca assaulting a man during a demonstration in Sacramento.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuWoQfZgW7M
Last week, another organizer for BAMN called the violent Berkeley riot against MILO earlier this month “stunningly successful,” before warning that MILO could expect the same response should he return to the city.
“Anti-fascists” from far-left groups started several fires, smashed windows and ATMs, looted downtown stores, attacked cars, and assaulted dozens of MILO fans, male and female, who they falsely accused of being “Nazis” during the riot.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that rioters caused around $100,000 in damages at UC Berkeley, while the damage to downtown Berkeley was reported to be around $400,000 to $500,000.
The day after, MILO’s tour bus was tracked down by “anti-fascists” and vandalized, forcing both him and his team to evacuate the premises after his location was leaked online.
BAMN previously distributed flyers in Michigan likening MILO to Adolf Hitler and falsely stating that he “promotes” rape and violence, while the group has also been accused of having links with various terrorist organizations.
Following the riot in Berkeley, Mayor Jesse Arreguin repeatedly smeared MILO as a “white nationalist” and declared that he would not be welcome back in the city, while several celebrities and news outlets expressed support for the riot, including Hollywood director Judd Apatow, who deleted his tweet shortly after, and media outlet Fusion, who smeared MILO as a “Nazi” and praised rioters before also deleting their tweet.
UC Berkeley’s student newspaper also published several defenses of the violence that took place during MILO’s show, while UC Berkeley has repeated a conspiracy theory claiming Breitbart News was “in cahoots” with anti-fascist rioters in an attempt to get the college defunded.
DANGEROUS is available to pre-order now via Amazon, in hardcover and Kindle editions. And yes, MILO is reading the audiobook version himself!
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.By Robert Romano
What if the discredited Fusion GPS dossier that was used against then-candidate for president Donald Trump in 2016 to tie him to Russia was actually an elaborate disinformation campaign whose roots lie none other than in Moscow?
That’s what the Wall Street Journal’s Kim Strassel wants to know in light of testimony last week by William Browder, CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, who says his work on Russian sanctions in 2012 resulted in a similar disinformation campaign against him by Fusion GPS. Browder suggested that Fusion’s work violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act, although he stopped short of suggesting that the Trump-Russia collusion dossier — penned by former Mi6 agent Christopher Steele — was the work of Russia as well.
On that count, Browder stated he had not read the Steele dossier and could only comment on his own experience of being targeted by Fusion GPS by disinformation.
Per the Wall Street Journal’s Strassel, “What if, all this time, Washington and the media have had the Russia collusion story backward? What if it wasn’t the Trump campaign playing footsie with the Vladimir Putin regime, but Democrats? The more we learn about Fusion, the more this seems a possibility.”
If so, Strassel’s hypothesis raises some interesting — and troubling — ramifications.
The Steele dossier that Fusion GPS paid for was said to have been financed by a Republican donor to oppose Trump in the GOP primary in 2016, and later was adopted by a Democrat donor or donors to help Hillary Clinton’s candidacy.
The question is did the donors know they were doing the dirty work of Russian intelligence services, and that Russia apparently wanted the world to think that Trump was actually a Russian agent? Also, if this is true, did Russia work on putting the Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails on Wikileaks with the goal that the Trump campaign appeared to have colluded with them?
If so, wouldn’t that make these Republican and Democrat donors culpable under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as well?
23 U.S.C. Section 611(c) states: “the term ‘agent of a foreign principal’ means — (1) any person who acts as an agent, representative, employee, or servant, or any person who acts in any other capacity at the order, request, or under the direction or control, of a foreign principal or of a person any of whose activities are directly or indirectly supervised, directed, controlled, financed, or subsidized in whole or in major part by a foreign principal, and who directly or through any other person — (i) engages within the United States in political activities for or in the interests of such foreign principal… [and] (iii) within the United States solicits, collects, disburses, or dispenses contributions, loans, money, or other things of value for or in the interest of such foreign principal…”
Since the accusation is that Fusion GPS was acting on behalf of a foreign power, and failed to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, it would seem whoever funded the Fusion effort should face similar legal jeopardy.
This seems to raise other troubling implications. Not only were there Washington, D.C. establishment figures paying Fusion for the Russia-initiated dirt, there was also a distribution network for the Steele dossier — to media, to members of Congress — who if they knew they were helping to carry on a Russian disinformation plot might also be culpable under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was said to have distributed the Steele dossier to the FBI in order to bring a case against Trump. Did he know he was distributing Russian disinformation on Russia’s behalf? He should answer that question under oath.
It is also known that the FBI offered to pay Steele to continue his work. By then, it should have known that Steele was possibly involved in an effort on behalf of a foreign actor, in this case, Russia. Was FBI Director James Comey aware that he might have been acting as an agent of a foreign government at the time?
These are all interesting questions that, presumably, is the reason Congress originally enacted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
It surely seems that in addition to targeting individuals who were named in the Steele dossier — Carter Page, Paul Manafort, etc. — that were in Trump’s orbit, it is absolutely necessary to get Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants against those who paid for the dossier, which could have been Russian disinformation, those who distributed it and those who attempted to use it as evidence of a crime, wittingly or unwittingly advancing Moscow’s interests.
Of course, it could all just be a big misunderstanding. Perhaps Fusion, a hired gun, had multiple clients. Russia, being one, to oppose the Magnitsky Act and other Russian sanctions by Congress. The other was somebody who wanted Russian dirt on Donald Trump. It’s also possible Steele fabricated his sources and that the Russian government was actually unaware of the Trump dossier and did not play a role.
But that is for the Justice Department to sort through or for the White House to declassify if the truth is already known to our intelligence services.
It seems the heart of figuring out Russia’s role or non-role in interfering with the 2016 election is not only, as Strassel asks, “Who paid for the Steele dossier?” but also whether those donors, adherents and distributors of the Steele dossier were knowingly acting to distribute Russian disinformation.
Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy of Americans for Limited Government.Israel approved the advancement of building plans for more than 100 homes in two West Bank settlements on Sunday, while US Secretary of State John Kerry was in the region trying to broker Israeli-Palestinian peace progress, despite having promised not to do so.
A further stage in the construction of more than 100 homes at Ofra, and 26 at Karnei Hashomron, was approved and formally announced on the Interior Ministry’s website on Sunday, Army Radio reported on Monday afternoon.
Peace Now said the number was higher: 250 homes at Ofra and 22 at Karnei Shomron.
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Environment Minister Amir Peretz (Hatnua) said the move showed a lack of “responsibility” by the government.
Peace Now head Yariv Oppenheimer said the move demonstrated that the government had “no intention” of genuinely seeking a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Prior to Kerry’s visit, officials said they were delaying a planned announcement of new settlement construction so long as Kerry was visiting the region, saying it was inappropriate to publicize such plans during the American diplomat’s stay. Kerry left Israel on Monday after four days of shuttle diplomacy.
The tenders for new construction reported last week would be announced after Kerry departs, the officials said, with Haaretz quoting an Israeli source as saying: “Nobody has an intention of sticking a finger in Kerry’s eye.”
Kerry’s trip came days after Israel last Monday night released a third group of Palestinian prisoners; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was widely reported to be set to authorize construction of 1,400 homes over the pre-1967 Green Line — 600 in Jerusalem, and 800 in West Bank settlements — at around the same time as those releases, but postponed the announcement, which is expected in the coming days. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has urged the US to block the plans and last week threatened to rally the UN against Israel’s settlements, which he termed a “cancer.”
In March 2010, the government announced plans for new building in the East Jerusalem Jewish neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, while US Vice President Joe Biden was visiting the country, a move that caused heavy strains in US-Israel ties and prompted an Israeli apology. The further expansion of that same neighborhood is reported to be included in the 600 homes set to be announced imminently by Netanyahu.The IRS and Department of Justice scandals rocking the Obama administration make this a timely review. They demonstrate the consequences of Unlearning Liberty. The author is a First Amendment lawyer and president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), an organization dedicated to defending free speech rights on college and university campuses. FIRE is politically ecumenical, encompassing conservatives, liberals and libertarian free speech warriors. It goes to war and to court to defend students’ and faculties’ First Amendment rights at institutions of higher education.
Unlearning Liberty
Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate
By Greg Lukianoff
I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. Judge Learned Hand 1944
The IRS and Department of Justice scandals rocking the Obama administration make this a timely review. They demonstrate the consequences of Unlearning Liberty.
The author is a First Amendment lawyer and president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), an organization dedicated to defending free speech rights on college and university campuses. FIRE is politically ecumenical, encompassing conservatives, liberals and libertarian free speech warriors. It goes to war and to court to defend students’ and faculties’ First Amendment rights at institutions of higher education.
Lukianoff’s thesis is that when higher education imposes vaguely defined speech codes on faculty and students, violates due process, and attempts to “reform” moral beliefs and convictions, it erodes liberty. In other words, “What happens on campus doesn’t stay on campus,” but shapes the general culture.
The author sees a connection between increased political polarization and campus censorship. Open debate and discussion, once a staple of higher education, refine knowledge of issues, deepen understanding of the reasons behind points of view, and improve the ability to articulate and defend a position. Denied that proving ground, emotional angst and hostility substitute for reasoned argumentation. That explains why political disputes so often end up in name-calling or allegations of racism.
Justifications for restricting speech may vary from campus to campus but one is most prevalent. The author writes:
Probably the simplest but most successful argument for restrictions on speech I hear today is that censorship can protect people from hurtful or bigoted speech.
In service of that view, colleges and universities across the country have imposed “speech codes” to demonstrate their commitment to diversity and tolerance. A 2012 FIRE report found 65% of the 392 top colleges surveyed have policies that severely restrict speech protected by the First Amendment.
FIRE defines speech codes as any campus regulation that punishes, forbids, heavily regulates, or restricts a substantial amount of protected speech, or what would be protected speech in society at large.
The author provides numerous examples, but none more absurd than the University of Texas at El Paso that expanded its speech code to include “race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age disability, citizenship, veteran status, sexual orientation, ideology, political views, or political affiliation.” (Lukianoff’s. emphasis.)
He observes that the mindless relativism that pervades higher education holds all opinions are equal while at the same time requiring the opinions of “historically oppressed groups” be given special consideration. This results in a groupthink that demands certain facts and arguments to be voluntarily suppressed, ostracized, or subject to punishments, up to and including expulsion.
The author makes a point that acquiescent students do not seem to understand.
The First Amendment exists to protect minority points of view in a democracy, and anything that undermines it necessarily gives more power to the authorities.
That is true whether the authority is a university administration, the IRS or the Justice Department.
The author also provides examples of the way “harassment“ claims are incorporated in speech codes and used as all-purpose justifications to censor speech that offends someone. “One predictable result is that students quickly learn that claiming to be offended is the ultimate trump card in any argument.”
Students have internalized the idea that it’s violation of their own rights to be presented with arguments, protests or displays that disturb or offend them–and they have the right to silence those arguments or destroy the displays.
The abuse became so widespread that in 2003 the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education sent out a letter of clarification to colleges that stated in part: ” … to be prohibited by statute harassment must “include something beyond the mere expression of views, words, symbols or thoughts that some person finds offensive.” The clarification however, has had minimal effect on administration edicts and enforcement policies.
Among campus attempts to impose groupthink are mandatory “ideologically geared orientation programs designed to get students to adopt particular ideological and political beliefs.“
The programs Lukianoff describes sound more like re-education camps than institutions supposedly dedicated to the search for truth.
He provides a multidimensional view of higher education that includes widespread administrative bloat and soaring tuition. In 2010 the National Center for Education Statistics reported that, “as of 2009 only 46% of the approximately 1.6 million professionals employed full-time by our nation’s colleges were faculty.”
An August 2010 Goldwater Institute Report titled ‘Administrative Bloat at American Universities: The Real Reason for High Costs in Higher Education, found that spending on administration per student grew by 61 percent between 1993 and 2007, a rate that far exceeded the growth in cost for instruction…Illustrating how this bureaucratic expansion has come at the expense of instruction, the report points to Arizona State University, where the number of administrators per one hundred students grew by 94%, even while the university was ‘reducing the number of employees engaged in instruction, research and service by 2 percent.
Unlearning Liberty is well written and compelling. The author outlines in shocking detail how higher education has lost sight of its mission, a consequential part of which is preparation for citizenship in a free country. The book needs to be widely read from both educational and fiscal perspectives. Ideally, it will prompt families to more carefully examine the institutions in which their children want to enroll. The organizations referenced in this review are good places to start.
Endorsement of the book notwithstanding, this reviewer takes issue with the author for not equally censuring what takes place in college classrooms. He writes:
The primary source of abuses on college campuses, however, is not the faculty. While many professors have played an unforgivable role in propagating speech codes and seriously undermining the philosophy of free speech, and of course some professors engage in questionable pedagogy, the actual regimes of censorship on campus are in place primarily by the ever-growing army of administrators you have met so often throughout this book.
That’s true of the issues that FIRE confronts, but it does not address the larger message of the book: the adverse consequences to the culture when colleges and universities repeatedly violate the First Amendment and allow their educational mission to be corrupted. Censorship is more than what the author and his organization admirably confront in campus speech and harassment codes. It is also what is crowded out or deliberately omitted.
A National Association of Scholars (NAS) 2012 report1 reveals the effect of political activism in the University of California. Among the findings…
Requirements for course work in American history and institutions have been dropped…prescribed books are frequently no more than journalistic presentations of a simple political message. Faculties teach what to think rather than how to think: that is, they demand correct attitudes and beliefs more than they require independent reading and thought. Faculty members and sometimes whole departments aim is to ‘advance social justice’ rather than teach the subject they were hired to teach.”
Other national studies document that these findings are not unique to California.
But Lukianoff does not reject the use of tax dollars for political indoctrination. He recommends that students’ engage “in a robust exchange of ideas” with professors who infuse their classes with politics. However, for that to work students and professors would have to be equally matched. The author certainly knows that is not the case. Few students are knowledgeable enough (or brave enough) for such challenges. As he points out elsewhere in the book:
Civics has not been stressed at high schools in recent years, and ignorance of the basics of American governance is widespread…The result is that students show up at college with little idea of what their rights are and even a little unsure is this freedom is a good thing. 2
Similarly, a majority of universities and colleges have abandoned courses in American history or government. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) recently reviewed the core curricula of over 1000 schools3 and determined that “less than 19% of our colleges and universities require a foundational course in American history or government.” Some of these institutions permit courses such as “History of Rock & Roll” to fulfill the requirement.
Even if all of the 18.3 percent provide legitimate courses unadulterated by political bias, the number reveals scant preparation for preserving liberty. In Lukianoff’s words: “The values, habits and practices that allow you to live and function in a free society are things that you must be taught.”
That, obviously, isn’t happening.
1. A Crisis of Confidence
2. A survey of 100,000 high school students by the Knight Foundation found that high school students were “far more likely than adults to think that citizens should not be allowed to express unpopular opinions and that the government should have a role in approving newspaper stories “PKK kidnaps soldier, technician in eastern Turkey
MUŞ
Two people, including a soldier, were kidnapped in southeast Turkey on May 18 by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).“Members of the separatist terror organization have kidnapped two people, including a specialist gendarmerie corporal, in the area between Merkez Mescitli village and Bostankent village in the province of Muş. A criminal investigation has been launched in the incident,” the Turkish General Staff stated on May 20.The military’s statement did not name the victims or the date of the incident, but Doğan News Agency reported that the kidnapping took place on May 18.According to the report, the kidnapped soldier was on leave to visit his family in the Erzurum province and had gone to the Baltaş village in Muş with his childhood friend, a technician who was sent to the area by his company for maintenance work on television transmitters.Gendarmerie forces launched a search operation in the area.Although the PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, there has not been a major armed clash between its militants and Turkish security forces since 2013.During Nevruz in 2013, the PKK’s jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan issued his first call on the PKK to declare a ceasefire, saying it was the right time to end the 40-year-old armed conflict and begin a political struggle for the rights of Kurds.Launched in late 2012 and intensified amid negotiations between the government, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), and Öcalan, the peace process envisages a settlement of the problem and the disarmament of the PKK.Before the negotiation process began, the PKK had been routinely kidnapping Turkish civil servants, workers and soldiers in the country’s southeast.An independent think-tank is calling for the next government to invest more in public services and social housing, to avoid a 'broken society'.
New research by Social Justice Ireland, shows that rural areas of the country have higher poverty rates than towns and cities.
The Border, Midlands and Western region has seen one of the greatest reductions in full-time employment since 2008, and one of the lowest levels of IDA supported employment.
Director of Social Justice Ireland Dr Sean Healy, says the next government needs to make Ireland a more equitable place to live: "The challenge is to build a society where everybody has a place and a role, and we have the capacity and potential to do that."
"The alternative is that we have a broken society and broken societies are bad for business, as well as bad for the people that populate them."
"We need a substantial increase in the investment, and we need to that be used to deliver a vibrant economy, decent infrastructure, just taxation, good governance and sustainability."Metallica is currently recording their new album, presumably at their own recording studio in Northern California, (dubbed HQ), whilst venturing out now and again to play festivals and corporate gigs. What every Metallica fan is wondering is when the new album be out and what will it sound like.
Over the last few months, various members of Metallica have given vague offerings as to how the new album is coming along. From Metallica drummer, Lars Ulrich’s confirmation that we’re “F**king in it” to bassisst Rob Trujillo’s confirmation that it will be “heavy but unique” to lead guitarist Kirk Hammett’s vague contribution.
“Nothing is etched in stone.”
So what will the new Metallica album sound like?
Going back through Metallica’s catalogue, we can see some key changes in the overall song structure and style from album to album. Metallica’s debut, Kill ’em All, was straight ahead thrash, but between Cliff Burton’s “Anesthesia” and the mid-section of “The Four Horsemen,” we saw some variances that were unique to speed metal in the early 1980’s.
With Metallica’s second offering, Ride the Lightning, the band really turned the thrash-metal scene on its head by including Fade to Black on the record. A song, which was almost a ballad, turned the tables on what was metal. Metallica’s sophomore outing also included what has become a signature for the band, the instrumental, (though Burton’s bass solo on “Kill ’em All” could be included in that category as well). “Call of Ktulu” made listeners sit back and listen to what Metallica could do, not only by blasting your ears out with hostility-filled crunch, but easing you into it with no less than original, classical guitar work.
Master of Puppets, Metallica’s third album, also included an instrumental called “Orion.” One of the seminal pieces in Metallica canon, the song — and the album itself — signified Metallica’s growth as a band, and it is still considered a high point in Metallica’s discography.
Following Cliff Burton’s tragic death in 1986, Metallica’s next LP, …And Justice For All, amplified the band’s tendency towards multi-tempo, long-form metal songs. With a song length averaging around seven and a half minutes, Metallica reinforced the notion that they couldn’t care less about radio airplay, something they weren’t receiving at all at the time anyhow.
And then came the Black Album. Metallica rethought everything with their next record. The songs became much shorter on average. The full-fledged ballad was back in force with “Nothing Else Matters.” Gone were the nine-minute, epic songs with a half-dozen tempo changes. Gone were the all-encompassing, global issue lyrics in exchange for some that were extremely personal. Was it a great album? By the majority of accounts, yes, it was. By sheer album sales, it was a monster hit that made Metallica a household name and its members multi-millionaires.
Metallica’s followups to their breakthrough, self-titled LP wandered a bit, as if the band was trying to come to grips with who they were and what they were about. Load and Re-Load tried to offer everything up at once, from the ballads to the shorter songs to the longer songs to the simple metal songs — and it all seemed to get lost in the mix though there were definite high points.
After the fallout — and the resignation of bassist Jason Newsted — following the Load and Re-Load albums, Metallica was more lost than ever. Metallica frontman James Hetfield entered rehab, the circumstances of which were chronicled in the painfully honest Some Kind of Monster documentary. The subsequent album, St. Anger, received a lackluster reaction from fans and critics alike. The songs were again shorter, though, in many critic’s eyes, they were still too long. The lyrics were honest to what Metallica was feeling personally at the time, but many considered them too whiny.
What’s a metal band to do?
Metallica decided to go back to their roots. They fired Bob Rock, their producer since the Black Album, and brought in uber-producer Rick Rubin. By most accounts, (including the band’s), Rubin did little to influence Metallica’s sound other than to tell them to look at their past discography and examine their high points.
Metallica looked back at Master of Puppets and set to work. The result was 2008’s Death Magnetic. A sincere return to form for a metal band whose career has echoed one of Death Magnetic’s popular lyrics: “You rise, you fall, you’re down and then |
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You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending.The Obama administration responds to the heinous threat by the President of The Gambia, a dictator who repeatedly issues violent statements on homosexuality.
U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice (photo) late Saturday night issued a statement condemning Gambian President Yahya Jammeh's comments earlier this month promising to violently murder all gay people, in a veiled threat to Western leaders.
"If you do it [in the Gambia] I will slit your throat — if you are a man and want to marry another man in this country and we catch you, no one will ever set eyes on you again, and no white person can do anything about it," Vice News reported, noting President Jammeh's "said in the Wolof language to a crowd in the town of Farafeni as he spoke about fostering a healthy atmosphere for the country's youth."
In response, and reportedly at the urging of LGBT activists, Rice labeled President Yahya Jammeh's comments "unconscionable."
"The recent unconscionable comments by Gambian President Yahya Jammeh underscore why we must continue to seek a world in which no one lives in fear of violence or persecution because of who they are or whom they love," Rice said in a statement. "We condemn his comments, and note these threats come amid an alarming deterioration of the broader human rights situation in The Gambia."
RELATED: Gambian President: Gay People Are One Of The 'Biggest Threats To Human Existence'
Rice also noted the Obama administration is "deeply concerned about credible reports of torture, suspicious disappearances - including of two American citizens - and arbitrary detention at the [Gambian] government's hands."
In 2008, President Jammeh, who took power in a 1994 military coup, told his country's LGBT citizens they had 24 hours to leave the country, promising he would "cut off the head" of any gay person, and would impose "stricter laws than Iran" on homosexuality.
The Gambia is a small West African country of less than two million people, ninety percent of whom are Muslim.
Noting that on Sunday "the international community will mark the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia," Rice said the United States last year had "acted on The Gambia's crackdown against its LGBT community and wider human rights violations by ending trade preferences, and we are reviewing what additional actions are appropriate to respond to this worsening situation."
RELATED: U.S. Boots Gambia From Trade Program For Its Abuse Of Gays
"We repeat our call for the Gambian government, and all governments, to lead inclusively, repudiate intolerance, and promote respect for the universal rights and fundamental freedoms of all people."
Just two years ago, calling homosexuality "anti-humanity," President Jammeh, a Sunni Muslim, promised "no mercy" for those convicted of homosexuality.
"Homosexuality is anti-god, anti-human, and anti-civilization," Jammeh continued. "Homosexuals are not welcome in the Gambia. If we catch you, you will regret why you are born. I have buffalos from South Africa and Brazil and they never date each other. We are ready to eat grass but we will not compromise on this. Allowing homosexuality means allowing satanic rights. We will not allow gays here."
The Washington Blade reports that this past week, "the Human Rights Campaign and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights wrote an open letter to Rice calling for a White House statement condemning the remarks, which the groups said would 'help advance human rights in the country by exposing these ongoing injustices to the world and by standing on the side of ordinary Gambians who continue to advocate for accountability and justice in the country.'"
Image by U.S. Department of State via Flickr
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Production for the U.S. ended in September and will not be extended into 2012.
“The 1M was remarkable because it was built quickly, record time and this is a car that we built for the enthusiasts, while committing to keep the number of units small,” said Russell to BMWBLOG.
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The number one color choice was Valencia Orange, followed by Alpine White and Black Sapphire. The BMW 1 Series M Coupe had a base price of $47,010.Have Liverpool replaced one of modern football's most awkward traditions?
It has been heralded as one of the greatest running in-jokes in football, but 'the Melwood Lean' may have emitted its death rattle without being given a proper burial.
If you are unaware of this phenomenon, we extend our deepest sympathies as you've missed out on an incredibly entertaining part of Liverpool's transfer history.
In recent times, whenever Liverpool announced a signing, one of the first port of calls after their new boy arrived at the club was to get them to pose for a photo-op donning the famous red.
Here's the kicker though, to distinguish themselves from other clubs' bog standard, straight-down-middle signing announcements, they added a little spice to this boring broth, which has been dubbed 'the Melwood lean' by fans.
Danny Ings joins Milner, Clyne and Bogdan as the latest Liverpool signings to become victims of 'the Melwood lean'. pic.twitter.com/gTPmFSvQlw — Mahmoud Jaber (@MahmuudJaber) July 8, 2015
This very slight, but notable innovation was an instant success and soon the inevitable happened - it outgrew its initial purpose. After a while this masterful technique was no longer reserved for the new arrivals to the squad, it became so ingrained in the social media culture of the club that they began wheeling it out at every possible opportunity.
From contract extensions...
Everyone is talking about the Melwood Lean after the Hendo extension, probably the best lean 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/hkj0g29Mr8 — LFC DFW - OLSC (@LFCDallas) April 23, 2015
...to statue unveilings...
LEAN ON ALL OF THE THINGS RT @LFC: Steven Gerrard next to the Bill Shankly tribute at Melwood. Two #LFC greats pic.twitter.com/ojMfLOFSpb — Brianne (@brianne09) July 15, 2013
...and even up until very recently, new signings were still given the tried and tested 'Melwood Lean' treatment upon their arrival at the club.
Lads, Jöel Matip doing the 'Melwood Lean.' pic.twitter.com/dFifRGRdkx — Mike (@MikeMongie) July 2, 2016
We had become so accustomed to seeing Liverpool players awkwardly leaning on things in front of the camera, that we thought this tradition would live long after the current technology had become outdated. We foolishly assumed that one day everyone would be staring at a holographic Twitter video of Joe Gomez marking his retirement by slumping one shoulder over a chrome bust of Jurgen Klopp's head.
Sadly, it looks like we've lived through the untimely passing of 'the Melwood Lean' as Liverpool's new boys Ragnar Klavan and Sadio Mane have literally turned their back on the celebrated tradition.
📸 Our new No.17 taking in fresh surroundings at Melwood! #KlavanToTheKop pic.twitter.com/eU471ZSJTV — Liverpool FC (@LFC) July 20, 2016
📸 Mane takes in his new surroundings at Melwood! #SadioSigns pic.twitter.com/0KUbJG9AJe — Liverpool FC (@LFC) June 28, 2016
"So Eden sank to grief, so dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay."
Listen to our new GAA podcast with Colm Parkinson. Click here to subscribe on iTunesWhen a young scientist is caught improving Nexus, he’s thrust over his head into a world of danger and international espionage – for there is far more at stake than anyone realizes.
In the near future, the experimental nano-drug Nexus can link human together, mind to mind. There are some who want to improve it. There are some who want to eradicate it. And there are others who just want to exploit it.
Joint winner of the Prometheus Award 2014
Shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke Award 2014
Shortlisted for the Kitchies Award 2014
“Any old writer can take you on a roller coaster ride, but it takes a wizard like Ramez Naam to take you on the same ride while he builds the roller coaster a few feet in front of your plummeting car… you’ll want to read it before everyone’s talking about it.”
– John Barnes, author of the Timeline Wars and Daybreak series
“A dazzlingly clever and well informed near-future extrapolation, and also an outrageously exciting and cinematic shoot ‘n punch ’em up. A ‘smart thriller’ in all senses of that phrase. Ramez Naam really does know how to make you turn that page. If you are posthuman or transhuman this is an absolute must-read for you; and even mere mortals will love it.”
– Philip Palmer, author of Version 43 and Hell Ship
“Ramez Naam is one of those unrelenting authors who, from the very first page, grabs you roughly by the scruff of the neck and screams right into your face. His talent as a storyteller is unequivocal; his prose both startlingly bold and darkly intelligent, making Nexus one of the most intensely compelling and original debut novels I’ve read in a very, very long time. His breathtaking expertise and confidence as a writer makes Naam the only serious successor to Michael Crichton working in the future history genre today.”
– Scott Harrison, author of Archangel
“Nexus is the most brilliant hard SF thriller I’ve read in years. It’s smart, it’s gripping, and it describes a chilling reality that is all-too-plausible… Ramez Naam is a name to watch for.”
– Brenda Cooper, author of The Silver Ship and the Sea and The Creative Fire
“An incredibly imaginative, action-packed intellectual romp! Ramez Naam has turned the notion of human liberty and freedom on its head by forcing the question: Technology permitting, should we be free to radically alter our physiological and mental states?”
– Dani Kollin, Prometheus Award-winning author of The Unincorporated Man
“Ramez Naam’s debut novel Nexus is a superbly plotted high-tension technothriller about a War-on-Drugs-style crackdown on brain/computer interfaces … full of delicious, thoughtful moral ambiguity … Excellent spycraft, kick-ass action scenes, and a chilling look at a future cold war over technology and ideology, making a hell of a read.”
– Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing
“I really like books that cover science fiction topics but use real science to make it all sound plausible. I was talking to my friend Amber about this and she recommended this book Nexus to me. She used to work here at Penny Arcade but she was way too smart for us and so she left to become a brain surgeon. She’s a doctor now and doing all kinds of incredible research into brain stuff. Anyway I figured if she thought the science behind a book was well researched it must be pretty good. Nexus is a story set in the near future. A drug called Nexus hits the streets and it lets people link up their brains like a computer network. There are people who think it represents an evolutionary step for humans and there are people who think it needs to be destroyed. It’s a really good story that makes you think about medical advances and just how close we might be to some pretty wild ideas.”
– Penny Arcade
“It’s good. Scary good. Take a chance and stop reading now and have a great time reading a bleeding edge technical thriller that is full of surprises.”
– James Floyd Kelly, Wired.com’s GeekDad blog
“If I had to use just two words to summarize my impressions after reading Nexus, they would ‘perfect balance’. Perfect balance between the scientific speculation and the action scenes; perfect balance between developing the characters and advancing the plot; perfect balance between entertaining the readers and making them think.”
– Sense of Wonder
“A fast, fun read which is both emotionally engaging and thought-provoking. You’ll be mulling over the implications of Nexus — the book and the drug — long after you put the book down.”
– Annalee Newitz, IO9.com
“Naam displays a Michael Crichton-like ability to explain cutting-edge research via the medium of an airport techno-thriller.”
– SFX Magazine
“The action scenes are crisp, the glimpses of future tech and culture are mesmerising.”
– Publishers Weekly
“Mr Naam sees all the angles of future technology almost too imaginatively to keep up with… Nexus joins Paul McAuley’s Fairyland (1995) as a double-edged vision of the post-human.”
– Tom Shippey, Wall Street Journal
“This sophisticated page-turning techno-thriller is one of my favorite stories of all time… Naam is remarkable in his ability to address deep philosophical concepts while keeping the story line light, fast, and action-packed.”
– Stephen L. Macknik, Scientific American Illusion Chasers blog
“Naam, an expert in new technologies and author of More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement (2005), turns in a stellar performance with his debut sf novel … Naam has set himself a difficult challenge here: he’s telling a story in which much of the action and dialogue takes place inside the characters’ minds. But he succeeds admirably”.
– David Pitt, BookList
“On one level, “Nexus” is a libertarian techno-fable about how bottom-up innovation will win out over top-down systems of control. But it’s also wistfully old-fashioned—a paean to Buddhist meditators, who, when you think about it, probably came up with this whole transhumanism thing in the first place.”
– Joshua Rothman, The New Yorker
“A very readable book … deals with real world ramifications of next-generation technology in a believable, if somewhat scary, fashion. It’s accurate without being boring, and action-packed without being trite or vapid.”
– Matthew S. Dent, Interzone
“A riveting sci-fi thriller … This is a fantastic novel that sci-fi fans must read.”
– Barbara Cothern, Portland Book Review
“As a story told from the intersection of theoretical neuroscience and contemporary geopolitical issues, Nexus is a fascinating study into how technology might inform human evolution.”
– Adam Shaftoe, The Page of Reviews
“Excellent SCIENCE fiction action-packed thriller!”
– The Mad Professah Lectures
“Ramez Naam presents an interesting world and characters 30 years hence strongly grounded in the real life research and speculation he was hitherto best known for… An interesting and intriguing fiction debut from a non fiction pioneer in bio-technological issues.”
– Paul Weimer, SF Signal
“Ramez writes excellent action sequences, incorporating his technology well, and the lives at stake are more than just cardboard cutouts. No one in this story is ‘as meets the eye’.”
– Timothy C Ward
“One is never quite sure who the good guys are in [Nexus] and the web of intrigue, lies, secrets and tech just gets more complex as the story goes on … [the] writing style is perfect for the non-stop action and minute to minute plot twists.”
– Frishawn Rasheed, WTF Are You Reading?
“This story is for anyone that enjoys a action-packed sci-fi thriller with things that could be possible in the near future.”
– Sammy, Open Book Society
“Naam has a visual style with his words which leads to one experiencing cinematic scenes rather than being swamped with textbook exposition.”
– Trevor Hogg, Flickering Myth
“Nexus by Ramez Naam reminds me of my favorite science fiction authors: Cory Doctorow with dystopia/government conspiracy themes, Michael Crichton with unexpected twists and action/adventure, Arthur C Clarke because everything Ramez Naam described has a scientific background.”
– Dragana Mitrovic
“Nexus was a fabulous read. The plot was riveting and this near future SF thriller was not just exciting because of its action scenes, but also because of the questions it poses the reader. It’s a compelling, intelligent and, above all, fun story that will keep you reading for far longer than you intended.”
– Mieneke van der Salm, A Fantastical Librarian
“Great and thought-provoking stuff reminiscent of Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson or Accelerando by Charles Stross.”
– Upcoming4me.com
“If it isn’t the cinematic handling of some very futuristic images or the curious immersion of cybernetic pondering into the narrative flow; Ramez Naam’s Nexus will impress a reader with one very unusual device: it is the unadulterated humanity with its entire heritage that is the most alien and unfamiliar of this world.”
– Katherine McCarthy, Institute for Emerging Ethics & Technologies
“Nexus was a great debut and I can not wait to see what Ramez Naam comes up with next. Highly recommended.”
– Tyson Mauermann, Speculative Book Review
“I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this for anyone looking for a good action yarn — it’s fast-paced, feels very hip and happening (even a bit “modern cyberpunk”-ish), and the author’s voice is genuinely refreshing.”
– R A Bardy, for the British Fantasy Society
“Michael Crichton has nothing on Ramez Naam when it comes to writing fast-paced scientific thrillers that ooze with authenticity. I could not put Nexus down and literally read until my eyes were crossed.”
– Merikay Noah, Popcorn Reads
“Readers will enjoy the excitement as Kade does his best to keep his friends safe and yet remain true to his own belief. Naam provides plenty of action and high body counts.”
– Mel Jacob, SF Revu
“Nexus was definitely a thriller! This book made me think and I love books like that.”
– Think Books
“Nexus is a story everyone should read. As a cautionary tale, it will likely be considered in league with Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World in the years to come. The question is, will we learn from this one?”
– Jessica Nelson, AllwaysUnmended
“This is an action movie in book form. It’s Demolition Man, Replicant, Eagle Eye, Time Cop and all of those action Sci-Fi films we love to watch with a few beers, snacks and friends.”
– Ninja Ross, Trash Mutant
“Basically, it’s made of awesome … I LOVED this book and highly recommend it to fans of near-future science fiction, action/adventure, explosions, spies, and adrenaline rushes.”
– Char, Apocalypse Mama
“Naam writes clear prose that, if not particularly lush, is well-suited to the kind of story he tells. Action scenes are vivid and more imaginative than most thriller writers manage. Once the background is established, the pace is furious.”
– Tzer Island
“The story is tense and exciting, with that ‘just one more chapter’ addictive quality to it.”
– Sarah Watkins, And Then I Read a Book
“Wow. I mean seriously, wow. This book is seriously science fiction, but like most good sci-fi reads, it is also a fantastic story outside of the science.”
– C Michael Miller
“If you are looking for a powerfully stimulating book … about where things are going, with a complex hero / protagonist / antagonist structure, plenty of twists and turns, and great scifi that intersects with our reality, go get a copy of Nexus right now.”
– Brad Feld
“I was worried that since this book was so ‘Far-future and Technologically based’ that it would be somewhat dull and action-less. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Start to finish Nexus is a thrill ride taking main character Kade into one unforgettable scene after another.”
– Liam at The Troubled Scribe
“Get your radar out / Acquire Ramez Naam / Lock On, and Read.”
– Richard’s SF Ramblings
“I expected to read the book a little at a time over the course of the convention and then sporadically throughout my flights home, but that was not to be the case. It was too good for me to space it out.”
– Hstoffelreviews
“Naam does a great job of making the science accessible and the action fast and furious. There’s enough down time to appreciate the difficult position Kaden is in while wondering how (and if) he’ll escape it. It’s a book that makes you think about science and technology and where we’re headed as well as what role governments should play – if any – with regards to regulating the advancements to come. In other words, it’s a great hard SF novel”.
– Sci-Fi Fan Letter
“The most interesting aspects to me are the moral and ethical analysis on this theme, proposed by various characters and point of view. I liked also how this continuous reflection was able to make some change in the attitude of some characters. Overall the novel is quite inspiring.”
– Life the Universe and Everything (Including Books)
“Nexus is the kind of sci fi you should be playing close attention to, not only because it makes for such a good read, but because we will eventually be caught up in these debates for ourselves and our societies.”
– Violin In A VoidTurkey has been warned by Germany that it will kill its chances of joining the European Union if it reinstates the death penalty in the wake of a failed military coup.
World leaders have also threatened the country with expulsion from Nato.
More than 6,000 people, mainly military personnel and workers in the interior ministry have been arrested since the coup plotters sent warplanes firing on key government installations and tanks rolling into major cities on Friday night.
But the rebellion wasn't supported by the military's top brass and was quashed by loyal government forces and masses of civilians who took to the streets. At least 294 people were killed and more than 1,400 wounded.
Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan has been warned by German Chancellor Angela Merkel that if he reinstates the death penalty in the wake of the military coup, it will kill Turkey's chances of joining the EU
After the Turkish government said they had took back control of the country, they pledged to severely punish those responsible for the uprising.
And while responding to crowds of supporters calling for the death penalty for the plotters on Sunday, President Tayyip Erdogan said such demands could not be ignored.
However in Berlin today, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman said Turkey's bid on joining the EU would end if Ankara restored the death penalty.
Steffen Seibert told reporters that the EU is a 'community of values, therefore the institution of the death penalty can only mean that such a country could not be a member.'
After the Turkish government said they had took back control of the country, the pledged to severely punish those responsible for the uprising. Pictured are military commanders accused of being the coup masterminds
For the moment, he says that Germany and other EU countries are watching the internal Turkish debate on whether to institute the death penalty, but that the EU's position is clear.
'In the first hours after the failed coup, we witnessed revolting scenes of caprice and revenge against soldiers on the streets. That cannot be accepted.
'We categorically reject the death penalty and an institution of the death penalty would mean an end to the negotiations to join the EU,' he added.
His comments follow those of the head of EU foreign affairs Federica Mogeherini, who also said Turkey would be barred from joining the block if they reinstated capital punishment.
'Let me be very clear... no country can become an EU state if it introduces the death penalty,' Mogherini said when asked about the possible impact on long-stalled accession talks with Ankara.
While US Secretary of State John Kerry called on Turkey to uphold democracy and human rights as it pursues the military officers and anyone else involved in the plot.
The top American diplomat said Turkey must 'uphold the highest standards for the country's democratic institutions and the rule of law.'
While responding to crowds of supporters calling for the death penalty for the plotters on Sunday, President Erdogan said such demands could not be ignored.
While he recognized the need to apprehend the coup plotters, Kerry said: 'We caution against a reach that goes beyond that.'
But both Mogherini and Kerry reiterated the trans-Atlantic support for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's democratically elected government.
Both the EU and the U.S. need a stable Turkey right and Washington is working with its NATO partner to fight the ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
Kerry credited Turkey for reopening a key air base in the south of the country and Brussels is counting on Turkey to stem refugees from reaching the continent.
Erdogan is demanding that Washington hand over an exiled cleric he blames for orchestrating the violence.
Kerry said no extradition request for the Pennsylvania-based cleric, Fethullah Gulen, has arrived yet. But he stressed that the U.S. needed to see 'evidence, not allegations' of Gulen's responsibility.
US Secretary of State John Kerry called on Turkey to uphold democracy and human rights as it pursues the military officers and anyone else involved in the plot
Meanwhile Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said it was for the country's parliament to decide whether to restore the death penalty but that if it did so he would sign such a measure into law.
Turkey scrapped capital punishment in 2004 as part of its push to join the European Union but calls for its reinstatement have grown following an abortive military coup on Friday evening in which more than 200 people were killed.On the roads, every so often, I find myself compromised in some way. Most of the time its relatively benign. A car comes a shade too close. A van threatens to dart across the road. A near miss at a roundabout. These are unwelcome but not uncommon features of cycling. Occasionally, the threats are a bit more serious. The car that really, really hasn’t seen you. The truck that overshoots the junction and then starts to reverse. The super narrow space that squeezes cyclist and vehicle too close for comfort. We don’t like ‘em but you can’t ignore ‘em. They happen. So it was with academic interest and a healthy dose of scepticism that I agreed to test the Hornit, ‘The world’s loudest cycle horn’.
The kit
The Hornit is around 100mm long, weighs a svelte 44g and sits in a Cateye pattern mount on your handlebars. With a supplied hex key to tighten the jubilee clip, mounting was a breeze. Separately a small silicon button is provided to activate the horn. Courtesy of the rubber ‘O’ ring and an appropriate length of wire, it can be positioned pretty much anywhere on the handlebars. I’d say it took me about 10 mins out of the box to fix to the bike. The instructions were short, sharp and accurate. Rather thoughtfully, extra mounting brackets and triggers are available for purchase at £3.99, allowing the Hornit to be used on multiple bikes.
The idea
According to the company:
The Hornit dB140 cycle horn gives cyclists, the most vulnerable road users, a way of actively letting all other road users know where they are. With a Hornit dB140 cyclists can pre-empt and avoid dangerous situations altogether. Cyclists no longer need to run the gauntlet hoping to be seen. Riders can often predict what the dangers are – vehicles pulling out of junctions, drivers opening car doors into the road, vehicles switching lanes suddenly whilst the cyclist is filtering, pedestrians stepping off the pavement, drivers turning without looking and/or without signalling. The Hornit dB140 means cyclists can make themselves heard when it really matters.
The Sound test
140 decibels is loud. To put it in perspective, Deep Purple rendered 3 fans unconscious at a concert in 1972 with a meagre 117 decibels. So 140 decibels is in fact, not just loud, it’s bloody loud. Thankfully, you are very unlikely to keep your finger on it for 2 whole hours, so I wouldn’t envisage any Deep Purple style reactions. When I first tested the Hornit, I took it outside, screwed my face up, held the horn at arms length and gave a tiny ‘parp’. My fear had got the better of me. Second press, I let rip with an ear shattering blast of 4 seconds. I don’t have the benefit of sound level meter, but yep. This thing rocks. You’re going to get heard.
In action
I’ve now been using the Hornit for about a week. Given that I’m no shrinking violet and ride in busy urban environments on a daily basis, it didn’t take too long to require its services. Standing at the lights in the outside lane of Cardiff’s busy Bute Terrace, the hazard box was full of cars attempting to turn right and – surprise, surprise – unable to do so. I shook my head and tutted sagely. Fools I thought. Don’t they know the rules? I was shocked out of my reverie as a car in the lane next to me (there are 3 lanes here) decided to take matters into his own hands. Ignoring (or at least not seeing ) me he swung into my lane in an attempt to execute an almighty overtaking manoeuvre, whilst simultaneously trying to turn my size 10 feet into size 12s by flattening them with his Michelins. I let rip with the Hornit. The driver woke up, gave me a somewhat stunned look and raised his hand in acknowledgement. No bell would have achieved the same effect.
So..I had some fire-power at my disposal. Look out everyone. And there is of course, a counter argument. It’s been said that obnoxious cyclists can become even more obnoxious when armed with the Hornit. Undoubtedly this is true. However the argument cuts both ways. Just as a loud horn can make a noisy cyclist louder, a powerful car in the hands of a dangerous driver makes that driver even more dangerous. A knife in the hands of a chef is an essential tool for the job, yet the same knife can just as easily become a deadly weapon. To my mind, the argument is pointless and the potential for the Hornit as a means to alert, outweighs its potential capacity to annoy. There is also a further and very valid argument to be made; the Hornit can also be a valuable piece of equipment for people who feel vulnerable on darkened cycle paths. Try scaring off an attacker with a bell.
Recommendation
Would I recommend the Hornit? Absolutely. If you are considering buying it, the Hornit definitely restores some balance to the playing field. Does it replace a bell? No, it complements one. Riding on the Taff trail for instance, I prefer to quietly alert pedestrians to my presence rather than scare them out of their wits, but the road is a different matter altogether. Motor vehicles are big, fast and powerful, and as far as protective equipment are concerned, cyclists are much further down the evolutionary ladder. The Hornit equips cyclists with the ability to attract attention in a manner that no other piece of cycling equipment can. A very effective piece of kit for the commuting cyclist.
The Hornit retails at £39.99. For videos, further details and how to buy, access their website here.Discussion finished, Result is CLOSE. --MF-Warburg (de) 12:47, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
I propose to close this discussion within seven days from now, if there are no objections. --MF-Warburg (de) 10:57, 12 September 2007 (UTC)
I was not alerted about this proposition and surely I have objections; there is no consensus in this discussion. --Yaroslav Zolotaryov 13:30, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
Like it or not, but it's the final decision. Nobody should alert you about this message. — Kalan? 13:36, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
"if there are no objections" - but many persons in the "against" section definitely have objections. So this is only pesonal opinion of MF-Warburg. --Yaroslav Zolotaryov 13:46, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
Pages will not be imported to Incubator. Reason: "ru-sib" is an invalid language code which is not longer accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation. SPQRobin 01:05, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
Addressing sockpuppetry [ edit ]
Attention!
Внимание! This vote seems significantly compromised by the ongoing sockpuppetry. It is hereby requested that every user who casts a vote here, authorizes himself at any wiki where he works most, for example like this. After that, please mark your vote here as authorized like this. Wikipedia account should be created before the date of this proposal, that is before November 3, 2006. I suggest all votes not authorised within 7 days, that is by midnight GMT, November 24, 2006, to be stricken out. --Irpen 19:47, 17 November 2006 (UTC) Данное голосование оказалось существенно затронуто голосованием клонов. Просьба ко всем, кто проголосовал, авторизовать свой голос на той Википедии, с которой Вы пришли, например вот так. После этого, поставьте отметку под своим голосом со ссылкой на авторизацию, например вот так. Ваше имя на национальной Википедии должно было быть создано до начала данного голосования, т.е. до 3 ноября, 2006 года. Предлагается все голоса не авторизованные в течение ближайших 7 дней, т.е. до полуночи по Гринвичу 24 ноября, 2006 г, удалить. --Irpen 20:09, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
I've semiprotected this page till morning, and filed the RFCU. Events around this page smell bad:( Max S em 19:57, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
Discussion of this solution. --Irpen 20:12, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
We are completely disagree about the date 24 November, this is too quickly. --Yaroslav Zolotaryov 18:37, 19 November 2006 (UTC)
И мы также против вычеркивания. Сокпапетов чекъюзеры и так чиркают, сторонка защищена от новых пользователей, чо ешшо надоть-то? Шшытайте авторизованных на вособицу, раз ужо так повелося, дык и всьо. And we are also against striking out. Sockpuppets are already striken out by the checkusers, the page is semi-protected, what more? Simply the authorized votes should be counted separatedly |
�kē) trincàr to drink bere from German trinken "to drink" armelìn apricot albicocca from Latin armenīnus astiàr to bore dare noia, seccare from Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐍆𐍃𐍄𐍃, haifsts bagìgi peanuts arachidi from Arabic habb-ajiz becàr to be spicy hot essere piccante from Italian beccare, literally "to peck" bìgolo spaghetti vermicello, spaghetti from Latin (bom)byculus bisàto, bisàta eel anguilla from Latin bestia "beast", compare also Italian biscia, a kind of snake bìssa, bìsso snake serpente from Latin bestia "beast", compare also Ital. biscia, a kind of snake bìsi peas piselli related to the Italian word isarda, risardola lizard lucertola from Latin lacertus, same origin as English lizard trar via to throw tirare local cognate of Italian tirare calìgo fog nebbia foschia from Latin caligo cantón corner/side angolo/parte from Latin cantus catàr find + take trovare + prendere from Latin adcaptare caréga, trón chair sedia from Latin cathedra and thronus (borrowings from Greek) ciao hello, goodbye ciao from Venetian s-ciao "slave", from Medieval Latin sclavus ciapàr to catch, to take prendere from Latin capere co when (non-interr.) quando from Latin cum copàr to kill uccidere from Old Italian accoppare, originally "to behead" carpéta miniskirt minigonna compare English carpet còtoła skirt sottana from Latin cotta, "coat, dress" fanèla T-shirt maglietta borrowing from Greek gòto, bicèr drinking glass bicchiere from Latin guttus, "cruet" insìa exit uscita from Latin in + exita mi I io from Latin me ("me", accusative case); Italian io is derived from the Latin nominative form ego massa too much troppo from Greek μᾶζα mâza) morsegàr, smorsegàr to bite mordere derverbal derivative, from Latin morsus "bitten", compare Italian morsicare mustaci, mostaci moustaches baffi from Greek μουστάκι moustaki) munìn, gato, gatìn cat gatto perhaps onomatopoeic, from the sound of a cat's meow meda big sheaf grosso covone from messe, mietere, compare English meadow musso donkey asino from Latin almutia "horses eye binders (cap)" (compare Provençal almussa, French aumusse) nòtoła, notol, barbastrìo, signàpoła bat pipistrello derived from not "night" (compare Italian notte) pantegàna rat ratto from Slovene podgana pinciàr beat, cheat, sexual intercourse imbrogliare, superare in gara, amplesso from French pincer (compare English pinch) pirón fork forchetta from Greek πιρούνι piroúni) pisalet dandelion tarassaco from French pissenlit plao far truant marinare scuola from German blau machen pomo/pón apple mela from Latin pomus sbregàr to break, to shred strappare from Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌹𐌺𐌰𐌽 brikan), related to English to break and German brechen schèi money denaro soldi from German Scheidemünze saltapaiusc grasshopper cavalletta from salta "hop" + paiusc "grass" (Italian paglia) sghiràt, schirata, skirata squirrel scoiattolo Related to Italian word, probably from Greek σκίουρος skíouros) sgnapa spirit from grapes, brandy grappa acquavite from German Schnaps sgorlàr, scorlàr to shake scuotere from Latin ex + crollare sina rail rotaia from German Schiene straco tired stanco from Lombard strak strica line, streak, stroke, strip linea, striscia from the proto-Germanic root *strik, related to English streak, and stroke (of a pen). Example: Tirar na strica "to draw a line". strucàr to press premere, schiacciare from proto-Germanic *þrukjaną ('to press, crowd') through the Gothic or Langobardic language, related to Middle English thrucchen ("to push, rush"), German drücken ('to press'), Swedish trycka. Example: Struca un tasto / boton "Strike any key / Press any button". supiàr, subiàr, sficiàr, sifolàr to whistle fischiare from Latin sub + flare, compare French siffler tòr su to pick up raccogliere from Latin tollere técia, téia, tegia pan pentola from Latin tecula tosàt(o) (toxato), fio lad, boy ragazzo from Italian tosare, "to cut someone's hair" puto, putèło, putełeto, butèl lad, boy ragazzo from Latin puer, putus matelot lad, boy ragazzo perhaps from French matelot, "sailor" vaca cow mucca, vacca from Latin vacca s-ciop, s-ciòpo, s-ciopàr, s-ciopón gun fucile-scoppiare from Latin scloppum (onomatopoeic) troi track path sentiero from Latin trahere, "to draw, pull", compare English track zavariàr to worry preoccuparsi, vaneggiare from Latin variare
Spelling systems [ edit ]
Traditional system [ edit ]
Venetian does not have an official writing system, but it is traditionally written using the Latin script — sometimes with certain additional letters or diacritics. The basis for some of these conventions can be traced to Old Venetian, while others are purely modern innovations.
Medieval texts, written in Old Venetian, include the letters ⟨x⟩, ⟨ç⟩ and ⟨z⟩ to represent sounds that do not exist or have a different distribution in Italian. Specifically:
The letter ⟨x⟩ was often employed in words that nowadays have a voiced z/ xylophone ); for instance ⟨x⟩ appears in words such as raxon, Croxe, caxa ("reason", "(holy) Cross" and "house"). The precise phonetic value of ⟨x⟩ in Old Venetian texts remains unknown, however.
); for instance ⟨x⟩ appears in words such as,, ("reason", "(holy) Cross" and "house"). The precise phonetic value of ⟨x⟩ in Old Venetian texts remains unknown, however. The letter ⟨z⟩ often appeared in words that nowadays have a varying voiced pronunciation ranging from z/ dz/ ð/ d/ zo "down" may represent any of /zo, dzo, ðo/ or even /do/, depending on the dialect; similarly zovena "young woman" could be any of /ˈzovena/, /ˈdzovena/ or /ˈðovena/, and zero "zero" could be /ˈzɛro/, /ˈdzɛro/ or /ˈðɛro/.
"down" may represent any of or even, depending on the dialect; similarly "young woman" could be any of, or, and "zero" could be, or. Likewise, ⟨ç⟩ was written for a voiceless sound which now varies, depending on the dialect spoken, from s/ ts/ θ/ dolçe "sweet", now /ˈdolse ~ ˈdoltse ~ ˈdolθe/, dolçeça "sweetness", now /dolˈsesa ~ dolˈtsetsa ~ dolˈθeθa/, or sperança "hope", now /speˈransa ~ speˈrantsa ~ speˈranθa/.
The usage of letters in medieval and early modern texts was not, however, entirely consistent. In particular, as in other northern Italian languages, the letters ⟨z⟩ and ⟨ç⟩ were often used interchangeably for both voiced and voiceless sounds. Differences between earlier and modern pronunciation, divergences in pronunciation within the modern Venetian-speaking region, differing attitudes about how closely to model spelling on Italian norms, as well as personal preferences, some of which reflect sub-regional identities, have all hindered the adoption of a single unified spelling system.[32]
Nevertheless, in practice, most spelling conventions are the same as in Italian. In some early modern texts letter ⟨x⟩ becomes limited to word-initial position, as in xe ("is"), where its use was unavoidable because Italian spelling cannot represent /z/ there. In between vowels, the distinction between /s/ and /z/ was ordinarily indicated by doubled ⟨ss⟩ for the former and single ⟨s⟩ for the latter. For example, basa was used to represent /ˈbaza/ ("he/she kisses"), whereas bassa represented /ˈbasa/ ("low"). (Before consonants there is no contrast between /s/ and /z/, as in Italian, so a single ⟨s⟩ is always used in this circumstance, it being understood that the ⟨s⟩ will agree in voicing with the following consonant. For example, ⟨st⟩ represents only /st/, but ⟨sn⟩ represents /zn/.)
Traditionally the letter ⟨z⟩ was ambiguous, having the same values as in Italian (both voiced and voiceless affricates /dz/ and /ts/). Nevertheless, in some books the two pronunciations are sometimes distinguished (in between vowels at least) by using doubled ⟨zz⟩ to indicate /ts/ (or in some dialects /θ/) but a single ⟨z⟩ for /dz/ (or /ð/, /d/).
In more recent practice the use of ⟨x⟩ to represent /z/, both in word-initial as well as in intervocalic contexts, has become increasingly common, but no entirely uniform convention has emerged for the representation of the voiced vs. voiceless affricates (or interdental fricatives), although a return to using ⟨ç⟩ and ⟨z⟩ remains an option under consideration.
Regarding the spelling of the vowel sounds, because in Venetian, as in Italian, there is no contrast between tense and lax vowels in unstressed syllables, the orthographic grave and acute accents can be used to mark both stress and vowel quality at the same time: à /a/, á /ɐ/, è /ɛ/, é /e/, ò /ɔ/, ó /o/, ù. Different orthographic norms prescribe slightly different rules for when stressed vowels must be written with accents or may be left unmarked, and no single system has been accepted by all speakers.
Venetian allows the consonant cluster /stʃ/ (not present in Italian), which is sometimes written ⟨s-c⟩ or ⟨s'c⟩ before i or e, and ⟨s-ci⟩ or ⟨s'ci⟩ before other vowels. Examples include s-ciarir (Italian schiarire, "to clear up"), s-cèt (schietto, "plain clear"), s-ciòp (schioppo, "gun") and s-ciao (schiavo, "[your] servant", ciao, "hello", "goodbye"). The hyphen or apostrophe is used because the combination ⟨sc(i)⟩ is conventionally used for the /ʃ/ sound, as in Italian spelling; e.g. scèmo (scemo, "stupid"); whereas ⟨sc⟩ before a, o and u represents /sk/: scàtoła (scatola, "box"), scóndar (nascondere, "to hide"), scusàr (scusare, "to forgive").
Proposed systems [ edit ]
Recently there have been attempts to standardize and simplify the script by reusing older letters, e.g. by using ⟨x⟩ for [z] and a single ⟨s⟩ for [s]; then one would write baxa for [ˈbaza] ("[third person singular] kisses") and basa for [ˈbasa] ("low"). Some authors have continued or resumed the use of ⟨ç⟩, but only when the resulting word is not too different from the Italian orthography: in modern Venetian writings, it is then easier to find words as çima and çento, rather than força and sperança, even though all these four words display the same phonological variation in the position marked by the letter ⟨ç⟩. Another recent convention is to use ⟨ł⟩ for the "soft" l, to allow a more unified orthography for all variants of the language. However, in spite of their theoretical advantages, these proposals have not been very successful outside of academic circles, because of regional variations in pronunciation and incompatibility with existing literature.
The Venetian speakers of Chipilo use a system based on Spanish orthography, even though it does not contain letters for [j] and [θ]. The American linguist Carolyn McKay proposed a writing system for that variant, based entirely on the Italian alphabet. However, the system was not very popular.
Sample texts [ edit ]
Ruzante returning from war [ edit ]
The following sample, in the old dialect of Padua, comes from a play by Ruzante (Angelo Beolco), titled Parlamento de Ruzante che iera vegnù de campo ("Dialogue of Ruzante who came from the battlefield", 1529). The character, a peasant returning home from the war, is expressing to his friend Menato his relief at being still alive:
Orbéntena, el no serae mal
star in campo per sto robare,
se 'l no foesse che el se ha pur
de gran paure. Càncaro ala roba!
A' son chialò mi, ala segura,
e squase che no a' no cherzo
esserghe gnan. [...]
Se mi mo' no foesse mi?
E che a foesse stò amazò in campo?
E che a foesse el me spirito?
Lo sarae ben bela.
No, càncaro, spiriti no magna. "Really, it would not be that bad
to be in the battlefield looting,
were it not that one gets also
big scares. Damn the loot!
I am right here, in safety,
and almost can't believe
I am. [...]
And if I were not me?
And if I had been killed in battle?
And if I were my ghost?
That would be just great.
No, damn, ghosts don't eat."
Discorso de Perasto [ edit ]
The following sample is taken from the Perasto Speech (Discorso de Perasto), given on August 23, 1797 at Perasto, by Venetian Captain Giuseppe Viscovich, at the last lowering of the flag of the Venetian Republic (nicknamed the "Republic of Saint Mark").
Par trezentosetantasete ani
le nostre sostanse, el nostro sangue,
le nostre vite le xè sempre stàe
par Ti, S. Marco; e fedelisimi
senpre se gavemo reputà,
Ti co nu, nu co Ti,
e sempre co Ti sul mar
semo stài lustri e virtuosi.
Nisun co Ti ne gà visto scanpar,
nisun co Ti ne gà visto vinti e spaurosi! "For three hundred and seventy seven years
our bodies, our blood
our lives have always been
for You, St. Mark; and very faithful
we have always thought ourselves,
You with us, we with You,
And always with You on the sea
we have been illustrious and virtuous.
No one has seen us with You flee,
No one has seen us with You defeated and fearful!"
Francesco Artico [ edit ]
The following is a contemporary text by Francesco Artico. The elderly narrator is recalling the church choir singers of his youth, who, needless to say, sang much better than those of today:
Sti cantori vèci da na volta,
co i cioéa su le profezie,
in mezo al coro, davanti al restèl,
co'a ose i 'ndéa a cior volta
no so 'ndove e ghe voéa un bèl tóc
prima che i tornésse in qua
e che i rivésse in cao,
màssima se i jèra pareciàdi onti
co mezo litro de quel bon
tant par farse coràjo. "These old singers of the past,
when they picked up the Prophecies,
in the middle of the choir, in front of the gate,
with their voice they went off
who knows where, and it was a long time
before they came back
and landed on the ground,
especially if they had been previously 'oiled'
with half a litre of the good one [wine]
just to make courage."
Venetian lexical exports to English [ edit ]
Many words were exported to English, either directly or via Italian or French. The list below shows some examples of imported words, with the date of first appearance in English according to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.
Venetian English Year Origin, notes arsenal arsenal 1506 Arabic دار الصناعة dār al-ṣināʻah "house of manufacture, factory" articioco artichoke 1531 Arabic الخرشوف al-kharshūf; simultaneously entered French as artichaut balota ballot 1549 ball used in Venetian elections; cf. English to "black-ball" casin casino 1789 "little house"; adopted in Italianized form schiao ciao 1929 cognate with Italian schiavo "slave"; used originally in Venetian to mean "your servant", "at your service"; original word pron. "s-ciao" contrabando contraband 1529 illegal traffic of goods gazeta gazette 1605 a small Venetian coin; from the price of early newssheets gazeta de la novità "a penny worth of news" gheto ghetto 1611 from Gheto, the area of Canaregio in Venice that became the first district confined to Jews; named after the foundry or gheto once sited there ziro giro 1896 "circle, turn, spin"; adopted in Italianized form; from the name of the bank Banco del Ziro or Bancoziro at Rialto gnochi gnocchi 1891 lumps, bumps, gnocchi; from Germanic knokk- 'knuckle, joint' gondola gondola 1549 from Medieval Greek κονδοῦρα laguna lagoon 1612 Latin lacunam "lake" lazareto lazaret 1611 through French; a quarantine station for maritime travellers, ultimately from the Biblical Lazarus of Bethany, who was raised from the dead; the first one was on the island of Lazareto Vechio in Venice lido lido 1930 Latin litus "shore"; the name of one of the three islands enclosing the venetian lagoon, now a beach resort loto lotto 1778 Germanic lot- "destiny, fate" malvasìa malmsey 1475 ultimately from the name μονοβασία Monemvasia, a small Greek island off the Peloponnese once owned by the Venetian Republic and a source of strong, sweet white wine from Greece and the eastern Mediterranean marzapan marzipan 1891 from the name for the porcelain container in which marzipan was transported, from Arabic موثبان mawthabān, or from Mataban in the Bay of Bengal where these were made (these are some of several proposed etymologies for the English word) Negroponte Negroponte "black bridge"; Greek island called Euboea or Evvia in the Aegean Sea Montenegro Montenegro "black mountain"; country on the Eastern side of the Adriatic Sea Pantalon pantaloon 1590 a character in the Commedia dell'arte pestachio pistachio 1533 ultimately from Middle Persian pistak quarantena quarantine 1609 forty day isolation period for a ship with infectious diseases like plague regata regatta 1652 originally "fight, contest" scampi scampi 1930 Greek κάμπη zechin sequin 1671 Venetian gold ducat; from Arabic سكّة sikkah "coin, minting die" Zani zany 1588 "Johnny"; a character in the Commedia dell'arte
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ]Hurricane Katrina was the one event that unraveled the Bush Administration. This horrible event unmasked what the Bush White House was all about and Bush lost the independent voters for the Republican Party by their uncaring, insensitive, don't carish attitude towards the people of the Gulf Region. We, Americans watched in horror as New Orleans unraveled and the Super Dome became a death trap, all LIVE on television. To this DAY, I will never forget the reporting of Jeanne Meserve, CNN, it was dark, night fall and she literally had to keep it together as you heard screams, cries for help, people trapped in flooded homes, etc. I will never, ever forget her reporting it brought streaming tears to my eyes.
Hurricane Katrina hardened Americans towards the Bush Administration and their total disarray and unpreparedness for what happened. And who can forget as President Bush was in a hangar in Alabama, telling the television crew that, "Brownie you're doing a hellava job." When the reality on the ground was that Brownie was not doing SHIT as FEMA Director. How can one forget how long it TOOK FEMA to get water, food, transportation into New Orleans and the hard hit parts of Mississippi? Who can forget Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans telling the federal goverment to, "Get off your asses"!!
The Republicans with Bush paid a price for their horrible handling of Hurricane Katrina and their lack of empathy and sensitivity. Now, President Obama who blasted the Bush Administration for their reckless handling of Hurricane Katrina, came into New Orleans, yesterday for a quick drive by. When I read he was only going to be there four hours, my first inclination was, "Who set this up?" Especially, when he left to go to a glitzy fundraiser in San Francisco? Obama White House, don't ever do this again. That whole Gulf Region is STILL A DISASTER AREA, it warrants more than a four hour drive by, while you are picking up gumbo, President Obama.
President Obama's brief display of drive-by compassion Thursday in New Orleans was, for me, by far the worst outing of his presidency thus far -- and the biggest disappointment.
I covered Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath -- the flood in New Orleans that drowned a great city, the storm surge in Mississippi that erased whole communities, the devastation, the agony. For weeks afterwards, I had trouble sleeping. I couldn't forget the scenes I'd witnessed or the stories I'd heard.
More than a year later, I covered a Senate subcommittee hearing in New Orleans on the lagging reconstruction effort. I watched as a young senator who was thought to be considering a presidential run -- that would be Barack Obama -- used his Harvard Law skills to eviscerate Bush-era officials for not doing enough to rebuild and revive the Gulf Coast region.
So it was strange and disheartening that Obama would wait nine months to make his first visit to New Orleans as president. It was stunning that he would spend only a few hours on the ground and that he wouldn't set foot in Mississippi or Alabama at all. But worst of all was the way he seemed to dismiss the idea that his administration could and should be doing much more.
I know that local officials say the Obama administration is more responsive and more effective than the Bush administration, but that's not saying much. What says more is that New Orleans still doesn't have an operational full-service hospital. And that an adequate flood barrier is still not in place.
"I wish I could just write a check," Obama said. If that was his message, he should have stayed home. We now know that our government can make hundreds of billions of dollars available to irresponsible Wall Street institutions within a matter of days, if necessary. We can open up the floodgates of credit to too-big-to-fail banks at the stroke of a pen. But when it comes to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, well, these things take time.
I doubt these are the priorities Obama wants to be remembered for.ADVERTISEMENT
The concept of schizophrenia is dying. Harried for decades by psychology, it now appears to have been fatally wounded by psychiatry, the very profession that once sustained it. Its passing will not be mourned.
Today, having a diagnosis of schizophrenia is associated with a life-expectancy reduction of nearly two decades. By some criteria, only one in seven people recover. Despite heralded advances in treatments, staggeringly, the proportion of people who recover hasn't increased over time. Something is profoundly wrong.
Part of the problem turns out to be the concept of schizophrenia itself.
Arguments that schizophrenia is a distinct disease have been "fatally undermined." Just as we now have the concept of autism spectrum disorder, psychosis (typically characterized by distressing hallucinations, delusions, and confused thoughts) is also argued to exist along a continuum and in degrees. Schizophrenia is the severe end of a spectrum or continuum of experiences.
Jim van Os, a professor of psychiatry at Maastricht University, has argued that we cannot shift to this new way of thinking without changing our language. As such, he proposes the term schizophrenia "should be abolished." In its place, he suggests the concept of a psychosis spectrum disorder.
Another problem is that schizophrenia is portrayed as a "hopeless chronic brain disease." As a result, some people given this diagnosis, and some parents, have been told cancer would have been preferable, as it would be easier to cure. Yet this view of schizophrenia is only possible by excluding people who do have positive outcomes. For example, some who recover are effectively told that "it mustn't have been schizophrenia after all."
Schizophrenia, when understood as a discrete, hopeless, and deteriorating brain disease, argues van Os, "does not exist."
Breaking down breakdowns
Schizophrenia may instead turn out to be many different things. The eminent psychiatrist Sir Robin Murray describes how:
I expect to see the end of the concept of schizophrenia soon … the syndrome is already beginning to breakdown, for example, into those cases caused by copy number [genetic] variations, drug abuse, social adversity, etc. Presumably this process will accelerate, and the term schizophrenia will be confined to history, like "dropsy."
Research is now exploring the different ways people may end up with many of the experiences deemed characteristic of schizophrenia: hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking and behavior, apathy and flat emotion.
Indeed, one past error has been to mistake a path for the path or, more commonly, to mistake a back road for a motorway. For example, based on their work on the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, which is transmitted to humans via cats, researchers E. Fuller Torrey and Robert Yolken have argued that "the most important etiological agent [cause of schizophrenia] may turn out to be a contagious cat." It will not.
Toxoplasma gondii — likely a cause of ‘schizophrenia', unlikely the most important | (Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock/Courtesy The Conversation)
Evidence does suggest that exposure to Toxoplasma gondii when young can increase the odds of someone being diagnosed with schizophrenia. However, the size of this effect involves less than a twofold increase in the odds of someone being diagnosed with schizophrenia. This is, at best, comparable to other risk factors, and probably much lower.
For example, suffering childhood adversity, using cannabis, and having childhood viral infections of the central nervous system, all increase the odds of someone being diagnosed with a psychotic disorder (such as schizophrenia) by around two to threefold. More nuanced analyses reveal much higher numbers.
Compared with non-cannabis users, the daily use of high-potency, skunk-like cannabis is associated with a fivefold increase in the odds of someone developing psychosis. Compared with someone who has not suffered trauma, those who have suffered five different types of trauma (including sexual and physical abuse) see their odds of developing psychosis increase more than fiftyfold.
Smoking skunk every day increases your odds of developing a psychotic disorder fivefold | (Pe3k/Shutterstock/Courtesy The Conversation)
Other routes to "schizophrenia" are also being identified. Around 1 percent of cases appear to stem from the deletion of a small stretch of DNA on chromosome 22, referred to as 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. It is also possible that a low single digit percentage of people with a schizophrenia diagnosis may have their experiences grounded in inflammation of the brain caused by autoimmune disorders, such as anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, although this remains controversial.
All the factors above could lead to similar experiences, which we in our infancy have put into a bucket called schizophrenia. One person's experiences may result from a brain disorder with a strong genetic basis, potentially driven by an exaggeration of the normal process of pruning connections between brain cells that happens during adolescence. Another person's experiences may be due to a complex post-traumatic reaction. Such internal and external factors could also work in combination.
Either way, it turns out that the two extreme camps in the schizophrenia wars — those who view it as a genetically-based neurodevelopmental disorder and those who view it as a response to psychosocial factors, such as adversity — both had parts of the puzzle. The idea that schizophrenia was a single thing, reached by a single route, contributed to this conflict.
Implications for treatment
Many medical conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension, can be reached by multiple routes that nevertheless impact the same biological pathways and respond to the same treatment. Schizophrenia could be like this. Indeed, it has been argued that the many different causes of schizophrenia discussed above may all have a common final effect: increased levels of dopamine.
If so, the debate about breaking schizophrenia down by factors that lead to it would be somewhat academic, as it would not guide treatment. However, there is emerging evidence that different routes to experiences currently deemed indicative of schizophrenia may need different treatments.
Preliminary evidence suggests that people with a history of childhood trauma who are diagnosed with schizophrenia are less likely to be helped by antipsychotic drugs. However, more research into this is needed and, of course, anyone taking antipsychotics should not stop taking them without medical advice. It has also been suggested that if some cases of schizophrenia are actually a form of autoimmune encephalitis, then the most effective treatment could be immunotherapy (such as corticosteroids) and plasma exchange (washing of the blood).
Not everyone diagnosed with schizophrenia is helped by antipsychotic drugs | (sylv1rob1/Shutterstock/Courtesy The Conversation)
Yet the emerging picture here is unclear. Some new interventions, such as the family-therapy based Open Dialogue approach, show promise for a wide range of people with schizophrenia diagnoses. Both general interventions and specific ones, tailored to someone's personal route to the experiences associated with schizophrenia, may be needed. This makes it critical to test for and ask people about all potentially relevant causes. This includes childhood abuse, which is still not being routinely asked about and identified.
The potential for different treatments to work for different people further explains the schizophrenia wars. The psychiatrist, patient, or family who see dramatic beneficial effects of antipsychotic drugs naturally evangelically advocate for this approach. The psychiatrist, patient, or family who see drugs not working, but alternative approaches appearing to help, laud these. Each group sees the other as denying an approach that they have experienced to work. Such passionate advocacy is to be applauded, up to the point where people are denied an approach that may work for them.
What comes next?
None of this is to say the concept of schizophrenia has no use. Many psychiatrists still see it as a useful clinical syndrome that helps define a group of people with clear health needs. Here it is viewed as defining a biology that is not yet understood but which shares a common and substantial genetic basis across many patients.
Some people who receive a diagnosis of schizophrenia will find it helpful. It can help them access treatment. It can enhance support from family and friends. It can give a name to the problems they have. It can indicate they are experiencing an illness and not a personal failing. Of course, many do not find this diagnosis helpful. We need to retain the benefits and discard the negatives of the term schizophrenia, as we move into a post-schizophrenia era.
What this will look like is unclear. Japan recently renamed schizophrenia as "integration disorder." We have seen the idea of a new "psychosis spectrum disorder." However, historically, the classification of diseases in psychiatry has been argued to be the outcome of a struggle in which "the most famous and articulate professor won." The future must be based on evidence and a conversation which includes the perspectives of people who suffer — and cope well with — these experiences.
Whatever emerges from the ashes of schizophrenia, it must provide better ways to help those struggling with very real experiences.
Simon McCarthy-Jones is an Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology and Neuropsychology at Trinity College Dublin.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.A bank robbery suspect was shot and killed Friday morning during a dramatic hostage situation outside of a Capital One Bank on University Boulevard East in Takoma Park, Md.
Chopper4 captured the hostage situation as it unfolded at the corner of New Hampshire Avenue and University Boulevard, just as the suspect came out of the bank with a gun to the head of a female teller. The suspect used the woman as a shield but he was eventually shot by police.
At 9:22 a.m., a lone gunman wearing a hood and mask entered the bank carrying a 9mm handgun. A minute later, Takoma Park police were at the scene, Montgomery County Police Assistant Chief Drew Tracy said. Prince George's County police and Montgomery County police arrived soon after.
The suspect knew police were outside, Tracy said, and he went behind the bullet-proof glass with his hostages. Police said six people were in the bank at the time of the incident, and the suspect pointed his gun at them several times.
Bank Robber Shot After Hostage Runs for Her Life
A bank robber in Takoma Park, Md., takes a hostage during his escape, but is shot to death by police. (Published Friday, Jan. 28, 2011)
Fourteen minutes after he entered the bank, the suspect exited with his hostage. As police surrounded them and commanded him to put his gun down several times, a dye pack that a bank employee had placed with the money went off. A few steps later, the suspect stepped off the curb into some snow and slipped, at which point the woman saw her opportunity, broke free from the suspect and started to run. The suspect chased after her with his gun pointed at her back but was shot by police.
He was taken into custody and later pronounced dead at the scene.
The hostage suffered a minor scrape injury, Tracy said.
Bank Robbery Suspect In Hostage Situation
An alleged bank robber is involved in a hostage situation in Takoma Park, Md. (Published Friday, Jan. 28, 2011)
Six officers fired shots and were placed on routine administrative leave. A low number of shots were fired, Prince George's County police Maj. Andy Ellis said.
One officer suffered a graze wound from a bullet that possibly ricocheted. At this time, police have no information that the suspect fired his weapon -- no 9mm casings were found, but forensics had yet to test the gun.
Five of the hostages were able to get away before the suspect and the final hostage exited the building. One hostage was pistol-whipped in the head after trying to knock the gun away, police said. That hostage is expected to be fine.
Alleged Bank Robber Taken Into Custody After Shooting
An alleged bank robber is taken into custody after being shot in Takoma Park (Published Friday, Jan. 28, 2011)
One witness told NBC Washington that a man came into the Starbucks next door and told them to call 911. The witness said the man, who was dressed in a suit, said he tried to take a gun away from the alleged bank robber. The man was injured and had blood on his forehead.
Another hostage was treated for shock, the Associated Press reported.
Police said a hoax device was left inside the bank, but it turned out to be plastic foam with duct tape, aluminum foil and copper wires. A bomb squad checked it out and determined it was harmless. Police said the suspect also had a fake plastic foam bomb taped to his body.
The potential for an explosion affected the police response, Ellis said.
Tracy credited the quick police response for flustering the suspect and foiling his robbery attempt.
Police have tentatively identified the suspect. They said they have no evidence of anyone else involved in the bank robbery attempt, though the suspect apparently said he had three accomplices, according to police radio transmissions obtained by Alan Henney of the Washington Examiner.
Montgomery County police are leading the investigation.
Stay with NBCWashington.com for more information as it becomes available.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC4 WashingtonLoving a woman does not automatically endow you with the ability to understand and deal with her depression.
___
This post is the second part of a two-part series on what to know and do when dating people with depression. The first part on Talkspace.com covers advice for both genders and issues more likely to arise when dating a man with depression.
Not all women with depression have these issues. In fact, there are many who have none of them. These are issues more likely to affect a relationship when dating a woman with depression.
Unfortunately, loving a woman does not automatically endow you with the ability to understand and deal with her depression.
When you date a woman with |
behaviour [ edit ]
They live in gardens and inside houses, beneath bark and rocks, in leaf litter and are often found in the folds of clothes, towels and shoes.[1] They do not build webs. Most active at night, they hunt for other spiders. Their favoured prey are the black house spider[9] (Badumna insignis) and the closely related brown house spider (Badumna longinqua),[10] both of which are, like the whitetail, native to Australia but have been inadvertently introduced to New Zealand.
Bites to humans [ edit ]
A common perception is that white tail spider bites can be associated with long term skin infections, and in rarer cases progression to necrosis. This is an attribution of infections presenting to medical care with a complaint of "spider bite." Venom has no bacteria, and infections do not arise from spider bites. The well-described brown recluse bite causes direct damage to skin and tissue. It has a limited area and does not spread. No formal studies have found evidence for associating necrosis with white tail spider bites.
White tail spider bites may cause a small red or discolored bump, similar to an insect bite, that burns or itches.
The issue of necrosis in some bite cases in published studies begins with a paper presented at the International Society on Toxinology World Congress held in Brisbane in 1982. Both the white-tailed spider and the wolf spider were considered as candidates for possibly causing suspected spider bite necrosis in the Australian context. In Brazil the recluse spider was identified as linked to necrosis.
Following this initial report, numerous other cases implicated white-tailed spiders in causing necrotic ulcers.[11][12][13][14] All of these cases lacked a positively identified spider — or even a spider bite in some cases. Additionally, there had not been a case of arachnogenic necrosis reported in the two hundred years of European colonisation before these cases. Of the 130 cases of white tail spider bites studied by Isbister and Gray, more than 60% reported that the person had been bitten by spiders that had got into clothing, towels or beds.
Clinical toxicologist Geoffrey Isbister studied 130 cases of arachnologist-identified white-tailed spider bites, and found no necrosis or confirmed infections, concluding that such outcomes are very unlikely for a white-tailed spider bite. The major effects from a bite in this study were local (pain, a red mark, local swelling and itchiness); and rarely systemic (nausea, vomiting, malaise or headache).[2] All these symptoms are generally mild and resolve over time.[1]
References [ edit ]What if you could lose weight simply by lowering your body’s thermostat for a couple weeks? Sounds like the perfect solution to shedding those extra holiday pounds. Researchers have now shown this can happen—at least temporarily—in mice, and the reason may be microbes in their guts.
The new research is, “another striking example of how integral the microbiota is to our physiology,” says Alexander Khoruts, a gastroenterologist at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, who was not involved with the work. Such studies, he says, may ultimately lead to bacterial supplements that can help control obesity, which affects one in every three Americans.
Gut microbes—the collection of bacteria and other organisms that inhabit our intestines—have been shown to play a role in a wide variety of conditions from asthma to obesity. But researchers still don’t know precisely how they contribute to obesity. To gain a better understanding, a team led by physiologist Mirko Trajkovski from the University of Geneva in Switzerland has been following up on any leads he can to learn about the link between these microbes and metabolism. Trajkovski knew from past research that getting rid of some gut bacteria in mice makes them less able to maintain their internal body temperature in the cold. He wondered whether there might be a connection between gut microbes, external temperature, and weight control.
To find out, the researchers first surveyed what microbes were present in lab mice, which live in relative comfort at room temperature, 21°C. They then lowered the temperature to 6°C for 11 or 30 days, similar to conditions experienced by wild mice. During the experiments, the researchers took the temperatures of the mice, sampled their stool, and measured other metabolic parameters such as insulin uptake and fat type.
Normally, mice gain weight as they age and maintain a constant body temperature. In the experiment, the cold triggered an initial slight drop in temperature, causing the mice to burn fat and lose weight. Blood sugar levels dropped as well, and the cold mice became more sensitive to insulin. What’s more, their microbial makeup shifted significantly. Notably, a microbe called Akkermansia muciniphila, which is associated with obesity and diabetes, virtually disappeared, the researchers report online today in Cell. As this happened, the mice and their microbes seemed less adept at wringing energy from the food they digested.
After a little more than a week, however, weight loss leveled off and caloric intake from the gut improved. When the researchers looked inside the mice, they found something unusual: Their intestines had increased in length, helping to make digestion more efficient.
To see whether the shift in bacteria drove these physiological changes, the researchers transplanted bacteria from the cold-adapted mice into two other groups of mice without resident gut bacteria. Mice in both groups responded to the bacterial transplants as if they, too, had been exposed to prolonged cold. Their weight dropped, their blood sugar dropped, and they even grew longer intestines. “I was not expecting the magnitude of the response,” Trajlovski says. What’s more, when he and his colleagues gave the mice A. muciniphila, their intestines shrank, and the mice never stopped losing weight.
Barbara Cannon, a physiologist at Stockholm University, is surprised at the degree of the effects, particularly how quickly the metabolisms of mice living with the bacteria of cold-adapted mice changed. “I find it very remarkable that transplanted microbiota can continuously double the metabolic rate of mice and look forward to an explanation of the mechanism,” she says.
But whether these results apply to humans is a big “if,” Trajkovski cautions. Coming from a cold place himself, he thinks cold exposure is healthy—in moderation. “But you should not overdo it.”
Regardless, the work suggests that species like A. muciniphila may one day help control weight problems. “We have entered an age when microbiota therapeutics are becoming a reality,” Khoruts says. “Clearly we have to think of energy metabolism disorders as one of the main targets for this new class of therapies.”It has recently come to our attention that Grand Theft Auto V will have multiple endings, which may be an ideal way to get the most out of the three protagonists, but we are not sure as to what extent this will be implemented. In addition, we have been informed that the main story alone is similar in size to that experienced in Red Dead Redemption, so in comparison to the long story involved in GTA IV, we get the impression gamers will be more likely to complete this title.
The latest comments from Dan Houser on the length of the game mentions that this version will not be as long as the last, as many gamers found the Grand Theft Auto IV story far too long with many admitting they never finished it. Going by the time compared to RDR it seems that GTA 5 will be around 25-30 hours and documenting this information received by Houser, GTA Forums.com also highlight that there will be plenty of secondary things to do, which is good news for those who intend to complete this within the time mentioned.
As little snippets of information continue to be revealed Houser answers questions like what other platforms this will made available, and the Wii U has not been entertained yet, although the PC version is expected to come out sometime after the Xbox and PS3 editions. Apparently from what has been divulged, players will not be able to switch between characters while they are in free roam or wanted, however, they are still working on this element, so suggestions of being able to escape from police with all three together would be a nice touch.
Many GTA enthusiasts out there may feel that the length of the previous title was not that long and the addition of more protagonists would complement a longer game. Others are more concerned with information on what we will be able to do, and whether tanks and extensive cheats will be on offer, such as flying cars, (in fact flying players would be fun). In-depth customization is another aspect of GTA V that gamers want to see, with more added to both player and vehicle elements.
Last week we looked at previous comments by Houser defending Rockstar’s decision to continue work with the current gen consoles, as they have a familiar understanding of the limitations involved, although we are also under the impression that they would making a game for the new systems if they were expected anytime soon. Since the news of the next gen consoles will take over a new enhanced form of gaming, many developers have been discussing how much life is left in the current systems, but many people will disagree, with the feeling that the potential of the next gen has been a long time coming.
Going back to the original news, did you find GTA IV too long? Alternatively, do you feel the length of the last game would be preferred in Grand Theft Auto V?An Arizona county is poised to become an Obamacare ghost town because no insurer wants to sell exchange plans there.
Aetna’s recent announcement that it would exit most of the states where it offers Obamacare plans leaves residents of Pinal County, Arizona, without any options to get subsidized health coverage next year, unless regulators scramble to find a carrier to fill the void between now and early October.
Story Continued Below
About 9,700 people in Pinal signed up for Obamacare plans this year, according to administration data.
The predicament of Pinal County is an extreme example of the contraction of insurers in the Obamacare markets expected in 2017. The federal health care law was supposed to offer a range of affordable health care plans through competition among private insurers. But that competition has dramatically declined in some states as a result of pullbacks by national insurers and failed co-op plans. Decline in competition means fewer choices and, often, higher prices for consumers.
Nearly 1 in 5 potential Obamacare customers may have just one insurer selling plans in their communities — up from just 2 percent of customers who had one option this year, according to the McKinsey Center for U.S. Health System Reform.
But in Pinal County, a rural community within the Phoenix metropolitan area, many may lose health care coverage altogether.
“If you have a several-hundred-dollar-a-month subsidy available and you lose that, that’s going to be huge,” said Thomas Schryer, director of the Pinal County Public Health Services District.
He predicted that many Pinal residents would be unable to afford more costly insurance plans outside the Obamacare marketplace and were likely to roll the dice and go without coverage — something that will be far more risky for those with chronic health problems or who are in the middle of treatments.
Arizona’s Obamacare marketplace had previously offered plans sold by national insurers like UnitedHealth Group and Humana, as well as by a nonprofit co-op plan seeded with Obamacare loans. But the co-op collapsed, and United and Humana, like Aetna, are leaving the exchange. Other companies, like Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, are scaling back their presence.
“It’s a dramatic case of a more general thing: There are weaker markets that are going to be less attractive for carriers,” said Katherine Hempstead of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
It isn’t entirely clear why insurers are fleeing this particular county, which had about an 18 percent poverty rate in 2014 — higher than the roughly 15 percent for the country as a whole but not extreme. Median household income was around $50,250, according to the Census.
Yet there are higher rates of adult obesity, physical inactivity and teen births in Pinal County compared with statewide figures, according to data from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. A shortage of health providers is also acute, with only one primary care doctor for every 6,700 people.
“The reason why it’s empty is because nobody wants to be there,” one insurance industry source said of Pinal County. “The only thing a [regulator] can do is beg.”
Although Pinal experienced a population boom in the 2000s, it doesn’t have much of an economic base, so most people work and likely receive their health care in nearby Phoenix, according to Arizona State University professor Tom Rex.
“The health care infrastructure often takes many years to catch up with the population,” said Schryer.
Begging on behalf of Obamacare can be politically problematic in a red state like Arizona, where Obamacare has been a prominent feature of at least one reelection campaign in the current cycle. Sen. John McCain has made it a centerpiece of his bid for another term.
Such was the case in Mississippi in 2013, when state Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney had to convince an insurer to offer plans in 36 counties that had no options ahead of the first open enrollment period. Chaney said federal regulators helped the state because it was “very unpopular” for a Republican to help recruit someone to cover the entire state. Humana eventually agreed to sell on the exchange in those counties, and it's still there.
“What we’re having to do now to keep companies in our state to cover all of the counties is to grant some pretty heavy rate increases,” Chaney said in a recent interview.
Health policy experts say that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona would be the most likely to sell plans in Pinal if regulators can coax it back. The company had offered plans in the county this year but decided to drop its offerings there, as well as in neighboring Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located, according to its 2017 rate filings.
The company has said that in light of Aetna’s exit, it is re-evaluating where it will offer plans next year. But an agreement to return would likely come at a price. BCBS of Arizona had initially requested a rate increase of 65 percent on average for individual plans, when Maricopa and Pinal counties were part of its filing. When it dropped those counties, the company revised its proposed increase to 51 percent.
Aetna initially submitted an 18 percent rate increase for its individual plans on the exchange. It later jacked up its requested rate increase to 86 percent, before pulling out entirely.
Trish Riley, executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy, said regulators have discretion in setting coverage rules but few things can be done quickly. Agreeing to look at rates again would offer an incentive to insurers to participate, she said.
“What are your options?” she said of state regulators. “Disenfranchised consumers are going to sue you. People aren’t going to get coverage. Those aren’t good options.”
In the long term, Riley said the recent spate of insurance company exits should spur a broader conversation about strategies to stabilize the exchanges.
“I think this is a wake-up call,” she said.
But state Insurance Department spokesman Stephen Briggs offered a different perspective, saying regulators “are not scrambling” to find another company. He also dismissed the notion that regulators might grant higher rate increases to an insurer if it agreed to serve Pinal. He said the department is still reviewing plan rates for 2017 and final rates would be released in September.
“The decision to really offer a product is a business decision that the company still has the right to make,” he said.
Paul Demko contributed to this story.
This article tagged under: ObamacareA talk will be given tomorrow night, Tuesday, August 22, in Naas Town Hall by archaeologists who, while working the site of the Sallins bypass discovered that there was a settlement a few hundred metres north of the village along the Liffey.
Twenty different discoveries were made in the area, including charcoal-production pits, smelting furnaces, cereal-drying kilns, a brick-kiln, post-medieval roadways, a mill-race, prehistoric cremations and a ceremonial ring-ditch.
But the most significant discovery was that of an early medieval enclosure complex on the banks of the River Liffey, north of Sallins in the townland of Castlesize.
The enclosure is marked by a number of a two metre deep ditch. Noel Dunne, an archaeologist with Transport Infrastructure Ireland will give the talk at 8pm.
The dig, with Sallins in the background, to the south.
He told the Leinster Leader that the dig only ended last week and that among the discoveries were the remains of probably the largest ever medieval ‘slaughter dog’.
These dogs were used to guard settlements and houses in medieval times. It was found buried in a kiln which, Noel believes, suggests it was obviously a special dog to its owners.
Other items found include quite a lot of pieces of jewellry including ring pins and a silver strip, glass beads, and a book clasp, which, he said, was quite similar to the St Brigid’s cross design.
Mr Dunne said that the discovery gave a fascinating insight into the lives of those who lived then.
Further analysis is required on the findings, he said.
We’ll have more detail following the talk tomorrow night which is a Heritage Week event.
Archaeologists working on the site.
Read more: Department objects to Kildare development
Read more: New Lullymore site discovery could have international significanceTop Obama Aide Ben Rhodes Hauled in For Questioning by House Intel Committee
The House Intelligence Committee met with former Obama Deputy National Security Advisor, Ben Rhodes Tuesday according to a report.
All of the Obama holdovers NEED TO GO!
The Washington Examiner reports:
The House Intelligence Committee met with former Obama deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes, according to a report Tuesday. It was already known that Jared Kushner, top adviser and son-in-law to President Trump, on Tuesday spoke with members of the panel, which is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible ties to the Trump campaign. CNN’s Manu Raju tweeted Tuesday evening that the network’s chief political analyst Gloria Borger had learned that Rhodes also spoke to the committee. The Intelligence Committee is investigating intelligence leaks, and Rhodes has become a person of interest for certain Republicans as someone who may be playing a role in the leaking of classified information from the Trump administration to reporters.
TGP previously reported, Rep. Ron DeSantis, a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, called on the DoJ to “launch a formal investigation” into former FBI Direct Comey’s leaks, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
DeSantis named Ben Rhodes—the former National Security Council official responsible for creating an in-house “echo chamber” meant to mislead reporters and the public about the landmark nuclear deal with Iran—as a primary source of these leaks and urged the House Intelligence Committee to call Rhodes and other former Obama officials to testify publicly about any role they may be playing in spreading classified information to reporters.
DeSantis named former National Security Council official Ben Rhodes as being responsible for “creating an in-house ‘echo-chamber’ meant to mislead reporters and the public”.
DeSantis commented:
“Any Obama holdover at any of these agencies, you’ve got to get them out of there because clearly they’re not on the same team and particularly on the [White House] National Security Council”.
DeSantis goes on to say:
“I think Congress and some members of the Intelligence Committee can call Ben Rhodes to testify... He may be able to invoke executive privilege from when Obama was president but he definitely can’t do that in any interactions he’s had since then.”Next weekend is a really exciting one, I’m off to Norway for the Trondheim Regional with squad mates Oli Pocknell and Ben Lee, which should be an utterly awesome time. It’s my first regional of the season and is in a country I’ve never visited before. International X-Wing is so good, if you’ve not tried it I highly recommend it. With the UK Open selling out in a night (rumours of more tickets abound) then check out the pages for Poland, Germany and Italy (plus a couple of others still to be announced) 2018 could be the year to give international pew pew a go.
I have two lists auditioning for the flight to Norway and two tournaments this weekend, which is convenient.
First up “That’s Nuts” (97)
Boba Fett Fenn Rau Harpoon Missiles Proton Torpedoes Veteran Instincts Push the Limit Dengar Concord Dawn Protector Bomblet Generator Autothrusters Glitterstim Andrasta Ion Cannon Engine Upgrade
I think this is the weaker of the two lists auditioning but it is so much fun to fly and totally suits how I play the game. It’s a guarantee that Saturdays event at Ibuywargames is going to be a test of it. Some of the best pilots in the South East of the UK are going to be there, the field is so strong we dubbed it the “Woking Masters”. Twenty Three players, 4 rounds of Swiss and a top four cut.
I’ve played a couple of games in practice with this list with mixed results. It is a really unforgiving list. If my opponent makes a mistake it goes very wrong for them very quickly, if I make a mistake the same happens to me. And a room full of people not known for making mistakes playing X-Wing is a daunting prospect.
My four games (spoiler alert – I didn’t make the cut or win) were a mix bag and I finished rather confused but those dice things. These two ships can absolutely batter things in the right circumstances, the trick is engineering those right circumstances.
In game one the obvious threat of their damage output caused Luke Berry of the Womprats to make a wrong turn with Fenn Rau, leaving him relatively unprotected against the opening salvo of munitions from my ships. Fenn did his best to dodge but even the hero of the Concord Dawn can’t handle suffering two crits and a hit. After that the Mandalorians went into mop up duty. The fragile nature of the firespray came to the fore though as Luke was able to get Boba down to one hull before his last ship went boom.
Next up Calum Brown, who would go on to win the whole thing, with Miranda, Lowhhrick and a bargain basement hawk with the Crow title and a TLT. I made one mistake in the game, chosing a primary attack on Miranda over an ion cannon attack. Had I Ioned Miranda would have been stuffed the following turn, rather than able to drop a bomblet and zoom off. The opening exchange went badly, the green dice decided to punish me for the rest of the game as Boba dropped and despite his best efforts Fenn can’t handle two TLTs.
At 1-1 I moved on to play Sim Singh, our games are always monumental. The opening engagement went to plan, Quickdraw Exploded, Fenn took a pasting but survived one more turn. Then Sim flew Vessery off the table, and the X-7 did it’s stupid thing of making defenders unkillable, as a PS 1 defender on 2 hull took down Boba on 8 hull. Negating 3 hits every turn without fail… I just couldn’t get that 4 dice hit on him to make his dice go away. At the end of the game Sim was kissing his X-7 and I… I wasn’t angry with Boba… I was just disappointed.
Last game and playing for pride. Zombie Squadrons Tim Farmer with double IGs. Tim and I have played many times, the games are always close but he has a tendency to edge them. IGs are such strong ships, they take so much killing and toward the end of the game Tim was very much in the driving seat, but Boba had other ideas. The IG was running it’s luck a bit chasing the firespray around, taking bomblet after bomblet without suffering any damage. Then he rolled the hot dice I needed and shield, crit Harpoon, damage game on. Boba swung in for a range one attack, perfect dice for me. With an evade token the IG had the chance to tank it with equally perfect dice. Perfect dice didn’t happen and that bomblet won me the game.
Finishing 2-2 and coming 11th out of the 23 there was a good result considering the field but I can’t help feeling disappointed by my mistakes that led to losses, or the fact that the list, whilst being great fun, does have huge vulnerabilities. The lack of consistency did get to me a bit by the end of the day, but Sunday at Warboar gives the other list an opportunity to strut its stuff.
My list for day two is LowRey. It’s the list I took to GvC and did pretty well with, and which I think is more consistent than Boba Fenn. It lacks the threat and mobility, but it better defensively and the damage it does, whilst being less intimidating, is more reliable.
LowRey MK III (100)
Rey Lowhhrick Expertise Selflessness Kanan Jarrus C3PO Finn Jan Ors Millennium Falcon (HotR) Hull Upgrade Smuggling Compartment Counter Measures Scavenger Crane
Another strong field and a crowd of almost 30 players descended on Warboar for a Sunday spent playing with toy spaceships.
5 Rounds to play, after 3 rounds I was 3-0 up, and looking at the top four pairing options thinking “please not Calum again”… it was Calum again. Calum running his list of Miranda, HWK and Lowhhrick that had been so frustrating on Saturday for Boba Fenn. He won (again), but it was great to get a direct comparison. LowRey did better, where the Mandalorians were unable to get through the huge amount of damage mitigation Calum’s list has the Rebels were more successful, dropping his Wookie and with a final throw of dying dice killing Miranda as well.
My final game was against Ben Lee was one to learn from. By the narrowest of margins I dropped Rey onto a rock in the opening engagement and the die was cast. Ben’s Palp aces dished out a bucket load of punishment and as so often happens: when you make a stupid mistake, the dice punish you for it too. Rey couldn’t dodge anything coming in despite countermeasures, a rock, Finn and having all incoming fire being in arc. A turn later she was finished and there’s no way the wookie was going to do anything.
I finished 10th, which considering my cataclysmic mistake in the final game was a result I’ll happily take.
Two hours drive home, a stop for the biggest kebab I have ever seen and some time to reflect on a great weekend with some great people for company. Which list gets to go overseas?
3-2 for the day, 5-4 for the weekend. Nine games played and a decision to make. Painful only from an emotional point of view…
LOWREY WILL RETURN!
If you’re looking for local tournaments then head over to the 186th Tournament Calendar and see what’s around.For most of his adult life, Ahmed Qassim al-Ghamdi worked among the bearded enforcers of Saudi Arabia. He was a dedicated employee of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice – known abroad as the religious police – serving with the frontline troops protecting the Islamic kingdom from Westernisation, secularism and anything but the most conservative Islamic practices.
Some of that resembled ordinary police work: busting drug dealers and bootleggers in a country where alcohol is banned. But the men of “The Commission,” as Saudis call it, spent most of their time maintaining the puritanical public norms that set Saudi Arabia apart not only from the West, but from most of the Muslim world.
A key offence was ikhtilat, or unauthorised mixing between men and women. The kingdom’s clerics warn that it could lead to fornication, adultery, broken homes, children born of unmarried couples and full-blown societal collapse. For years, al-Ghamdi stuck with the programme and was eventually put in charge of the commission for the region of Mecca, Islam’s holiest city.
Then he had a reckoning and began to question the rules. So he turned to the Koran and the stories of the Prophet Muhammad and his companions, considered the exemplars of Islamic conduct. What he found was striking and life altering: There had been plenty of mixing among the first generation of Muslims, and no one had seemed to mind.
So he spoke out. In articles and television appearances, he argued that much of what Saudis practised as religion was in fact Arabian cultural practices that had been mixed up with their faith. There was no need to close shops for prayer, he said, nor to bar women from driving, as Saudi Arabia does. At the time of the Prophet, women rode around on camels, which he said was far more provocative than veiled women piloting SUVs.
He even said that while women should conceal their bodies, they needed to cover their faces only if they chose to do so. And to demonstrate the depth of his own conviction, al-Ghamdi went on television with his wife, Jawahir, who smiled to the camera, her face bare and adorned with a dusting of makeup.
It was like a bomb inside the kingdom’s religious establishment, threatening the social order that granted prominence to the sheikhs and made them the arbiters of right and wrong in all aspects of life. He threatened their control. Al-Ghamdi’s colleagues at work refused to speak to him. Angry calls poured into his mobile phone and anonymous death threats hit him on Twitter. Prominent sheikhs took to the airwaves to denounce him as an ignorant upstart who should be punished, tried – and even tortured.
Challenge of understanding
I had come to Saudi Arabia to explore Wahhabism, the hyperconservative Saudi strain of Islam that is often blamed for fuelling intolerance around the world – and nurturing terrorism. I spent weeks in Riyadh, Jeddah and other cities speaking with sheikhs, imams, religious professors and many others as I tried to peel back the layers of a closed and private society.
For the Western visitor, Saudi Arabia is a baffling mix of modern urbanism, desert culture and the never-ending effort to adhere to a rigid interpretation of scriptures that are more than 1,000 years old. It is a kingdom flooded with oil wealth, skyscrapers, SUVs and shopping malls, where questions about how to invest money, interact with non-Muslims or even treat cats are answered with quotes from the Koran or stories about the Prophet Muhammad.
Religion is woven into daily life. Banks employ clerics to ensure they follow Sharia law. Mannequins lack heads because of religious sensitivities to showing the human form. And schoolbooks detail how boys should cut their hair, how girls should cover their bodies and how often a person should trim his or her pubic hair.
While Islam is meant to be a complete programme for human life, interpretation is key when it comes to practices. The Saudi interpretation is steeped in the conservatism of central Arabia, especially regarding relations between women and men.
In public, most women wear baggy black gowns called abayas, designed to hide their forms, as well as veils that cover their hair and faces, with only thin slits for their eyes. Restaurants have separate sections for “families,” meaning groups that include women, and for “singles,” which means men.
Many Saudis mix in private, and men and women can usually meet in hotel lobbies with little problem. Others do not want to mix, seeing gender segregation as part of their cultural identity. In some conservative circles, men go their whole lives without seeing the faces of women other than their immediate family – even their brothers’ wives.
Inside the kingdom, all other religions are suppressed. When asked about this, Saudis deny that this reflects intolerance. They compare their country to the Vatican, saying it is a unique place for Muslims, with its own rules.
Officials I spoke with were upset by the kingdom’s increasingly troubled reputation abroad and said over and over that they supported “moderate Islam”. But what exactly did they mean by “moderate Islam”? Unpacking that term made it clear how wide the values gap is between Saudi Arabia and its US ally. The kingdom’s “moderate Islam” publicly beheads criminals, punishes apostates and prevents women from travelling abroad without the permission of a male “guardian”. Don’t even ask about gay rights.
Instead of calls for jihad, what I heard were religious leaders insisting that the faithful obey the state. The Saudi royal family is terrified that the jihadi fervour inflaming the region will catch fire at home and threaten its control. So it has marshalled the state’s religious apparatus to condemn the jihadis and proclaim the religious duty of obedience to the rulers.
And while it was once common, I heard little disparaging talk about Christians and Jews, although it was open season on Shias, whose faith is frequently bashed as part of the rivalry with Iran. The only Saudis who suggested I was an infidel were children.
Once, a Saudi journalist proudly introduced me to his 9-year-old daughter, whom he had put in private school so she could study English. “What is your name?” I asked. “My name is Dana,” she said. “How old are you?” “I am 9.” “When is your birthday?” Confused, she switched to Arabic. “We don’t have that in Saudi Arabia,” she said. “That’s an infidel holiday.”
Shocked, her father asked where she had learned that, and she fetched one of her government-issued textbooks, flipping to a lesson that listed “forbidden holidays”: Christmas and Thanksgiving. Birthdays had been part of the same lesson.
Another time, I met a religious friend for coffee, and he brought his two young sons. When the call to prayer sounded, my friend went to pray. His sons, confused that I did not follow, looked at me wide-eyed and asked, “Are you an infidel?”
What is a Wahhabi?
The first thing many Saudis will tell you about Wahhabism is that it does not exist. “There is no such thing as Wahhabism,” Hisham al-Sheikh told me the first time we met. “There is only true Islam.” The irony is that fewer people have a purer Wahhabi pedigree than al-Sheikh, a direct descendant of the cleric who started it all.
In the early 18th century, Sheikh Mohammed ibn Abdul-Wahhab called for a religious reformation in central Arabia. Feeling that Islam had been corrupted by practices like the veneration of saints and tombs, he called for the stripping away of “innovations” and the return to what he considered the pure religion.
He formed an alliance with a chieftain named Mohammed ibn Saud that has underpinned the area’s history ever since. Then Saud’s family assumed political leadership while Abdul-Wahhab and his descendants gave legitimacy to their rule and managed religious affairs.
That mix proved potent among the warring Arabian tribes, as Wahhabi clerics provided justification for military conquest in some cases: Those who resisted the House of Saud were not just enemies, but infidels who deserved the sword. The first Saudi state was destroyed by the Ottomans in 1818, and attempts to build another failed until the early 20th century, when King Abdulaziz al-Saud undertook a campaign that put him in control of most of the Arabian Peninsula.
But the king faced a choice: to continue expansionary jihad, which would have invited conflict with the British, or to build a modern state. He chose the latter, even crushing a group of his own warriors who refused to stop fighting. Since then, the alliance between the royal family and the clerics has endured, although the tensions between the quest for ideological purity and the exigencies of modern statehood remain throughout Saudi society.
Fast forward to 2016 and the main players have transformed because of time and oil wealth. The royal family has grown from a group of scrappy desert dwellers into a sprawling clan awash in palaces and private jets. The Wahhabi establishment has evolved from a puritan reform movement into a bloated state bureaucracy.
It consists of universities that churn out graduates trained in religious disciplines; a legal system in which judges apply Sharia law; a council of top clerics who advise the king; a network of offices that dispense fatwas, or religious opinions; a force of religious police who monitor public behaviour; and tens of thousands of mosque imams who can be tapped to deliver the government’s message from the pulpit.
The call to prayer sounds five times a day from mosques and inside malls so clearly that many Saudis use it to organise their days. “Let’s meet after the sunset prayer,” they would tell me, sometimes unsure what time that was. So I installed an app on my phone that let me look up prayer times and buzzed when the call sounded.
And so it was, after the sunset prayer, that I met al-Sheikh, a proud sixth-generation descendant of Abdul-Wahhab. He was a portly man of 42 who wore a long white robe and covered his head with a “schmag”, or checkered cloth. His beard was long and he had no mustache, in imitation of the Prophet Muhammad, and he squinted through reading glasses perched on his nose while peering at his iPhone.
We sat on purple couches in the music-free lobby of a Riyadh hotel and shared dates and coffee while he answered my questions about Islam in Saudi Arabia. “I am an open-minded person,” he told me early on. It was clear that he hoped I would become a Muslim.
His life had been defined by the religious establishment, but he proved to be a case study in the complexity of terms like “modern” and “traditional” in Saudi Arabia. He had memorised the Koran at a young age and studied with prominent clerics before completing his doctorate in Sharia, with his thesis on how technology changed the application of Sharia. Now he had a successful career and a host of religious jobs.
He trained judges for the Sharia courts; advised the minister of Islamic Affairs; wrote studies for the clerics who advise the king; and served on the Sharia board of the MedGulf insurance company. On Fridays, he preached at a mosque near his mother’s house and welcomed visitors who came to see his uncle, the grand mufti.
He had travelled extensively abroad, and when he found out I was American he told me he loved the United States. He had visited Oregon, New York, Massachusetts and Los Angeles. On one trip, he visited a synagogue. On another, a black church. He had also visited an Amish community, which he found fascinating.
A relative of his lived in Montgomery, Alabama, and he had spent happy months there, often visiting the local Islamic center. The hardest part, he said, was Ramadan, because there were few eateries open late that did not have bars. “All I had was Ihop,” he said, referring to the multinational restaurant chain.
He said Islam |
continues to torture Steve, he sees the lady (who looks like a young Sharon Carter and the one he left at the waterfall) behind a tree all glowy.
Red Skull is about to strike him with a flaming club, Steve dodges and kicks Red Skull and charges him sending the two over a cliff into the sea below.
—
Arizona: Painted Desert
The members of the Underground react to Natasha’s death.
Meanwhile, Sam Wilson makes a big decision as the other heroes fear this is the end of the road.
This was a nice call back to the last page of the Free Comic Book Day Issue of Hydra-Cap with Thor’s Hammer
—
In the wake of the events of Secret Empire #7, both men who have been called Captain America both have their own litttle pity parties.
Steve Rogers: Captain America #19
Issue Synopsis
After the events of Secret Empire #7, Steve Rogers prepares to go to war.
Cap laments that of everything he has lost as a result of Hydra’s rise to power means nothing without Elisa.
Flashback
Steve meets Elisa for dinner where she tells him what comes next he must face alone because in war, like life nothing last forever…except Hydra.
Present:
Hydra-Cap thinks that as he is on the verge of everything Elisa ever wanted, she is gone and he feels lost and abandoned.
In a Hydra bar, Odinson is drinking when Steve shows up in civilian clothes, but refuses to have a drink with his “old friend.”
Steve calls Odinson out over letting the heroes escape from The Mount and tells him that Mjioner is sitting there waiting for he him to come and take it back, but how can he if he doesn’t even believe in himself.
As he exits, Steve tells Odinson:
—
Back at the Hydra base, Steve continues to change out of his Captain America uniform and into his Hydra Supreme Leader dress uniform.
Steve then goes to visit Sharon Carter, who has been put in a cell after trying to kill Steve at the end of Secret Empire #7
She asks Steve if he misses his old friends, asks him if she is sitting in Rick Jones’ cell since that is what loyalty got Rick. She says that Red Skull would be proud of what Steve has become and that no matter which costume he wears he is still a Fascist.
Steve responds that yes, it was Rick’s cell and now it is hers. As he finishes getting ready to address the nation he says that he is going to bring Elisa back and set things right but now…
Sam Wilson: Captain America #24
Following the events of Secret Empire #6 and before he strikes a pose in #7, Sam Wilson reflects on his time as Captain America and what has happened since he walked away from the role.
Flashback
While figuring out whether or not he should step away from being Captain America, Sam goes and visits his brother who is a priest. Sam expects his brother to lecture him and tell him not to stop, but instead, his brother tells him that if he does, to make sure he is doing for the right reasons, himself. He says the only thing he would have a problem with is if he gave up on being Sam Wilson.
Back in Present (Painted Desert, Arizona)
Misty Knight tells Sam he needs to get in the fight, and gives him back his Captain America uniform and the Shield. Sam says that after what Steve has done the people don’t deserve Captain America.
As he leaves the jet, he meets Rayshaun Lucas (the one who delivered Rick Jones’ info to the Underground back in the main series). Since then Shaun has adopted the mantle of Patriot (this is covered in Secret Empire: Brave New World #2) and basically tells Sam to put on his big boy pants on:
Sam realizes that he has been acting like an ass and decides to give being Captain America another try and redones his Captain America costume.
—
Is it necessary to read both these issues Tie-Ins to understand what is happening in the larger story?
While it will probably be recapped in the beginning of Issue #8, the events of these two issues, I would say that yes, it is very worth while to read these two issues to see the results of Secret Empire #7 and the coming throw down between Steve and Sam.
—
Next Secret Empire recap will include more of the tie-in’s that wrap up and lead into the Aftermath.Last year Bootstrap joined the flat design craze with its 3.0 release and a new optional theme. The default box model and basic UI components have been greatly improved. Bootstrap 3.1 introduced an official Sass port, further expanding the framework’s toolbox.
Awhile back, we featured WordPress themes built using the Foundation front-end framework. Since Bootstrap has been around longer, its user base is larger, which has resulted in more WordPress themes. Here’s a selection of the best, built with Bootstrap 3.
Inkness
Inkness is a retina-ready WordPress theme, featuring a grid-based home page and multiple page layouts.
Download | Demo
Fullby
Fullby was inspired by the Twenty Fourteen default theme and built with Bootstrap under the hood. The homepage includes a fluid grid for displaying posts and a featured content area at the top.
Download | Demo
WP Knowledge Base
WP Knowledge Base is a theme for creating a multi-product knowledge base. It’s compatible with a number of Bootstrap plugins and includes support for bbPress.
Download | Demo
Arcade Basic
Arcade Basic is a beautiful theme with a bold homepage design and many options built into WordPress’ customizer feature. It supports post formats and includes special styles for Jetpack galleries.
Download | Demo
Stanley WP
Stanley WP is a unique theme that works well for personal branding. It’s packaged with a drag-and-drop homepage builder and three different page templates.
Download | Demo
GovFresh WP
GovFresh was created specifically for governments and comes with a list of recommended plugins to extend the theme.
Download | Demo
Romangie
Romangie is a retina-ready theme with support for post formats. It provides a quality browsing experience for users on mobile devices and desktops.
Download | Demo
Blain
Blain sports a minimalist design with a responsive slider, customizable header and footer, four page layouts and custom widgets for displaying recent posts and thumbnails.
Download | Demo
Adament
Download | Demo
Lobster
Lobster is named after the font featured in the theme. The background and page layouts are fully customizable and the theme includes support for post formats, bbPress and BuddyPress.
Download | Demo
Revera
Revera features a big slider on the homepage, configurable banner advertisement spaces and a custom portfolio page template.
Download | Demo
Unite
Unite sports a flat design for wedding websites, although it can be used with other types of creative websites with a focus on images. All of the colors are easily customizable via the theme options.
Download | Demo
Flat Theme
The Flat Theme features a filterable portfolio and a host of extra page designs, including pricing tables, about us, services, custom 404, contact page, career, FAQ, P=privacy and terms of use
Download | Demo
Nova Lite
Nova Lite is a tumblog-style theme that allows you to create unlimited custom sidebars.
Download | Demo
Wembley
Wembley is a portfolio theme built with Bootstrap. It makes it easy to upload a logo, change the main color scheme and configure the banner ads.
Download | Demo
Flat
Flat is a blogging theme based on Bootstrap. It features an off-canvas sidebar and a customizable blurred background.
Download | Demo
Vangard
The Vangard theme sports a customizable jQuery content slider, welcome section, widgetized footer and a blog-oriented homepage.
Download | Demo
Ward
Ward has a unique layout and includes support for post formats. It’s easy to customize using WordPress’ built-in customizer and is compatible with both bbPress and BuddyPress.
Download | Demo
Like this: Like Loading...BOSTON -- Brad Stevens was talking about coaching, or more accurately, he was answering a question about whether he ever expected to take this Celtics team into the playoffs. The one with a franchise-record 23 different players on its roster, and the one that traded Rajon Rondo and Jeff Green during the season. The one that, honestly, no one really thought would make it to the postseason. Right, coach?
"I've never gone into a game where I don't feel like we have a chance to win if we prepare the right way," Stevens said. "If you look at it that way, you think you've got a shot. We talked about the steps that it takes to get there. It require a lot of discipline, it requires a lot of commitment and a lot of sacrifice by our players, and they've done that."
That's more or less his sideline philosophy: prepare and go play. He's not one for blood-pumping speeches or berating players who make mistakes. Don't be fooled by that placid demeanor because it comes with an edge. Stevens believes he can win any game he coaches, which is why he knocked down a follow-up about what "surprised" him this season.
"I want to be careful saying I'm surprised," he said. "As a coach you have an expectation that you're going play well, and if you do all those things that everyone's capable of doing in their roles, you will play well."
This is how Stevens talks: measured, positive and on message. It would be cliché if he didn't believe it so strongly. In some ways, the man is unreadable. He's not going to call out players in public or go off on officials. In other ways, he is as exactly as he appears. There is no artifice. While not as charismatic as some of his contemporaries, that has its own appeal to players who have been conditioned to deal with temperamental coaches throughout their careers.
"I don't think he cares," Isaiah Thomas said by way of a compliment when asked how Stevens managed to juggle as many as 11 players in and out of rotations. "He's so even-keeled you can't get anything out of him. No matter if he had his kids, five kids out there, he's going to coach the same way."
In their final regular season home game, the Celtics and Raptors drew to an 87-all tie with 36 seconds left. Rather incredibly, that left time for three more possessions for each side. Evan Turner scored first. Tyler Zeller scored next. Jae Crowder had the final honors on an out-of-bounds play with 2.8 seconds remaining that left him with a contested fallaway 22-foot jump shot. Naturally, he drilled it.
Those 36 seconds tell you just about everything you need to know about the Celtics this season. None of those players were with them last year and all of them were very much available when Danny Ainge came calling. Taken individually, they're solid, if uninspiring role players. Taken collectively, they're major contributors on an unlikely playoff team.
Ainge's wheeling and dealing is well-established by this point, as is Stevens' ability to get the most out of his players. It's a measure of how well the coach is regarded as an ATO wizard, that, immediately after Crowder made his improbable shot, as many people were talking about the coach as the player.
That presents an interesting dynamic as the postseason approaches. The Celtics roster has exactly one all-star appearance on its resume. That was by Gerald Wallace. Five years ago. The closest thing they have to a contemporary star is Thomas, who is a leading Sixth Man contender.
It's not at all clear how many players from this particular group will be around if and when Ainge is able to build his next contender. Ainge has told me, and others, that it's not his goal to sneak into the playoffs, and it's no secret that he wants to upgrade the roster to compete for a championship.
But the Celtics do have a rising star on the sidelines, who is very much a part of the future, if not the entire foundation. If no one's giving them a chance in hell of beating the Cavaliers in the playoffs, everyone wants to see what Stevens might come up with in his playoff debut.
While understandable, that does Stevens and his team a disservice for what they've accomplished over the final two and a half months. The system is great, the end-of-game plays are creative and the defense has been just as good at covering up weaknesses as the offense. But what's really happened here is a group of players have quickly formed a collective greater than the sum of their parts. That's been Stevens' true coaching genius this season, and his players' greatest achievement. It's impossible to separate the two.
"The total buy-in is unbelievable," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. "They've got a young team. It's almost like a college team playing hard, running through a wall and they're relentless. Brad has them playing at a high level on both ends of the floor. If you don't match their intensity you're in trouble. They remind me a lot of us last year. No agendas, nothing but let's go out and play hard and let's win. That's how they're playing now and that's how I think the game should be played."
Throughout the season, the Celtics have won admirers for their style of play, but that's had the effect of underrating their playoff run. They went 24-12 since early February and have the fourth-best net differential in the conference during that span. This is not a juggernaut by any means, but it's gone on long enough to suggest it's not a fluke either.
A lot of that has to do with Thomas, who joined the active roster in time for a late February game against the Lakers. Stevens is quick to point out that even before IT's arrival, they had put together a solid West Coast trip and then won 4-of-5 heading into the NBA All-Star break. The subtle message: everyone's played a part. That's not aimed at Thomas, who understands the dynamic as well as anyone, as much as a sly refutation of an easy media narrative. It's also true.
"We don't have the most talent," Thomas said. "We don't have no superstars. That's just our motto. If we don't play hard, we're not even close to half the team we are. We're not a good team if we're not playing hard and playing with each other. We know that and we know that's our recipe for success."
What the Celtics do have are skilled players who can shoot and put the ball on the floor. In addition to their spacing and ball movement, that puts pressure on opposing defenses and makes their players harder to guard than they would be as stationary fourth or fifth options on other teams.
"They present a problem because one through five, those guys can take you off the dribble," Casey said. "All five guys can play off the catch. That presents an unusual problem for you defensively. You don't want to play them because they're going to keep coming at you, keep coming at you, keep coming at you. And again, the way they play with their bigs is unorthodox. You've got to have multiple bigs to be able to guard them for 48 minutes."
None of this would work if anyone deviated too much from their assigned role, but this is not a team of role players staying comfortably out of the way. There's freedom in Stevens' system, and that presents a kind of free-wheeling flow within their structure. Anyone can shoot and everyone does. In that Raptors' game, seven different players took at least nine shots and scored as many points. That's not unusual. There's an inherent unselfishness in the arrangement, which is their greatest strength.
"Guys just like playing with each other, man," Thomas said. "I can't really pinpoint what the exact thing is about it. There's been a lot of people on the Celtics this year, a lot of different teammates for those guys, and this group just likes playing for each other. You see it each and every night. Guys want other guys to succeed. No one cares about the points, their stats. It's all about winning."
The Celtics enter the postseason with long odds and no regrets. They may get wiped out in Cleveland, or they may throw a scare into LeBron James and the Cavaliers. Neither scenario changes what this team accomplished this season, nor does it have much impact on its future. This is not a team for the long haul. It's a team for today, one that's taken on the characteristics of its coach and turned them into a likeable, if unlikely, identity. That's worth appreciating, no matter how long the postseason lasts or what the future holds.
SB Nation presents: Simple rules for playing against LeBron James"Why is it that Hamilton is so successful at everything?" asked Basha High School principal Ken James who will become the head of Hamilton next year. "I am going to find out."
Principal Fred DePrez, who saw Chandler’s Hamilton High School grow to be the biggest school in the state, stands in the school’s South Wing, where 18 years of academic and athletic awards decorate the walls. Yet DePrez says his main interest is helping low-achieving students. (Photo: Jeffrey Lowman/The Republic) Story Highlights Hamilton High School opened in Chandler with 1,600 students in 1998.
Principal Fred DePrez has helped the school become Arizona's largest.
Chandler Basha High principal Ken James will take over at Hamilton next year.
In 1998, farm fields stretched out in every direction around Arizona Avenue and Ocotillo Road, surrounding a new Chandler high school.
Friends and colleagues of Fred DePrez, Hamilton High School's newly appointed principal, wondered why he wanted to run a school in the middle of nowhere.
But DePrez recalls seeing nothing but potential to create an academic and athletic powerhouse for the Chandler Unified School District.
"It was a blank slate," he said. "And I had a vision of what a great high school could be."
DePrez will retire in June from Hamilton, which in 17 years has grown to be the largestand one of the most academically successful public high schools in the state.
Chandler Basha High School principal Ken James will take his place on July 1.
Last year, Hamilton was Arizona's most academically successful comprehensive high school — that is, one that is not a charter or magnet school. In 2014, its Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards, or AIMS, score ranked 15th in the state, behind charter and magnet schools. Over the years, the school also has won 28 state athletic championships and 74 regional championships.
DePrez, 65, who is quiet and reserved about his achievements, is a team builder who enjoys helping others become successful more than boasting about himself, according to his colleagues and staff.
"If you are going to do something, do it to win," DePrez said in the soft-spoken way that belies the ambition he has had for his school. He said that Hamilton's stellar sports and academics have encouraged families to move near the school or register their children through open enrollment.
One person who was not surprised when DePrez took the job 17 years ago was his wife, Suzan, a Mesa Public Schools assistant superintendent.
"He knew that the school was going to be a great school before it was even built," she said.
"He is very good at creating a vision, communicating that vision and he is very non-negotiable on the vision. He wanted a school where every student can be successful."
It was not always smooth sailing, with some issues at Hamilton High drawing public attention.
In 2013, the Arizona Attorney General's Office investigated, then cleared, Hamilton officials of accusations that they misused public donations that funded extracurricular activities for the marching band.
The same year, a Coolidge High School football coach reported to the Arizona Interscholastic Association that a Hamilton coach recruited away one of its best players. Eventually the accusation was dropped for lack of evidence.
DePrez said such issues must be expected at a large high school. He chuckles at the idea that his school needs to recruit athletes when every classroom seat is filled. Hamilton accepts about 700 students a year from outside its attendance boundaries — all who apply, he said.
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DePrez was not always a high-powered educator. In college, he considered entering the Catholic priesthood, but left before taking vows because he wanted a family.
He worked as a lay youth minister in the 1980s, until he caught the bug to teach. "I was in and out of schools and always thought 'I could do better,' " he said.
Principal Fred DePrez, who is retiring at the end of the school year, talks with freshmen Amy Lam (foreground) and Elissa Moreno during a recent lunch period at Hamilton High School. (Photo: Jeffrey Lowman/The Republic)
Although Hamilton is filled with academic superstars, DePrez said his main interest as an educator has been helping low-achieving students improve.
In the past decade, Arizona and the federal government have required public schools to help the lowest-scoring 25 percent of their students improve. But not all school principals had that focus in 1991, the year DePrez became principal of Chandler's Willis Junior High.
He said an initial goal at Willis was simply to keep kids in class longer by requiring teachers to control behavior instead of suspending or sending students to the principal's office. Then he set goals for academic improvement, starting with writing, and scores went up.
Some teachers bought in, others left.
"If you can't help a willing student learn, you don't belong," he said.
By the time DePrez took over the top job at Hamilton, he had developed a reputation for being a tough but inspiring boss.
"Working for Dr. DePrez is great, as long as you are doing your job," said Hamilton history teacher Ed Hermanski, who has been at the school since the day it opened.
"I worked for Dr. DePrez at Willis. When I found out he was given the principal position at Hamilton, I asked if he would take me along for the ride."
DePrez's innovations continued at Hamilton, which opened with 1,600 students and a 400,000-square-foot, quarter-mile long building. Instead of having a high-school media center, the school partnered with the Chandler Public Library for a center that is useful to students and adults. It gives students access to more advanced materials than typical school libraries. The school also has a city pool on its campus.
DePrez and his faculty also initiated other things: Mandarin and linear algebra classes, two-hour blocks of time in class for struggling math students, dual enrollment classes that give students community college credits and a college-level engineering program that gives University of Arizona credits to those who pass. Many of the ideas have since caught on at other schools.
"He defintely is a visionary and a trail blazer," said Hamilton assistant principal Chris Farabe, who said he joined the staff because he wanted to work with DePrez. "He has the ability to forecast what the next education trend will be."
Farabee heads Hamilton's "sports academies" which allow students who do not qualify for official team sports to still play games they love, such as golf, tennis, soccer and volleyball, during the school day. About 700 students a year participate and some develop enough skills to make interscholastic teams, he said.
Farabee said the idea for the academies was his and DePrez let him run with it.
"He allows you to take risks, to be at the front of the wave,' he said.
DePrez said one of his goals has been to have every student involved in sports, the arts or some kind of club.
"Colleges like to see well-rounded students," he said.
DePrez's encouragement of parent support has been another factor in Hamilton's success. As housing subdivisions and high-tech facilities like Intel-Ocotillo developed near the school, the school has come to count on motivated parents like Richelle and Blas Minor, who have sent three children to Hamilton.
Blas Minor is a retired major-league baseball player who volunteers as a pitching coach at Hamilton.
Richelle said they settled in the area 17 years ago because they thought it was a great place for her husband to train off-season but stayed because of Hamilton.
"At first we liked the idea that it was in the middle of nowhere," she said. "Later we had made lots of friends and liked the schools. The school was a main reason we stayed in the area."
She said she drops by Hamilton anytime she feels like discussing a concern with DePrez.
"He is willing to listen to me and my concerns — and to those of my kids," she said.
She recalls her sons coming home once and telling her that DePrez spent time talking over the cancellation of an end-of-year water balloon event with them. He had explained that the previous year kids had turned the event into mayhem by filling balloons with ketchup and mustard.
"They weren't happy, but they understood," she said.
The Minor's daugher, Rori, is Hamilton's student body president. Her dream this school year was to organize a student movie night on a baseball field.
"I sat down with Dr. DePrez, explained the idea and asked him about all the obstacles in the way of making it happen," she said.
It turned out there were too many to make the project happen right away — security concerns as well as issues with whether the field could handle the students and screens, she said.
"But I still want this to happen next year, so I am working on it with him," she said. "He is never negative. He respects my persistence."
DePrez says he has no concrete plans yet for his retirement beyond spending more time with his children and grandchildren. He said he lives near Hamilton and looks forward to staying in touch with students and parents during walks through the neighborhood.
He said he also looks forward to clearing out his office, which is filled with posters promoting student events, inspirational sayings and a collection of toy huskies that represent the school mascot, and handing the keys to Basha High's James.
Although Basha also received an A on its Arizona Department of Education report card last year and is known for its quality sports and Advanced Placement classes, James said he feels challenged by his new appointment.
"I feel like a first-year principal again." he said. "Why is it that Hamilton is so successful at everything? I am going to find out."
About Fred DePrez
Age: 65
Education: Bachelor of Arts from Loyola Marymount Univesity; Master of Arts and Doctor of Education from Arizona State University
First teaching job: Bishop Conaty High School in Los Angeles
First principal job: Willis Junior High in Chandler
Wife: Suzan DePrez, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction at Mesa Public Schools
Children: Fred Jr., Cholla, Lauren and Connor
Grandchildren: Oscar, Saige, Rylee, Stella, Mila, and Deklyn
Favorite quote: "A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove…but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child." — author Kathy Davis
About Hamilton High School
Year opened: 1998
Enrollment: 3,755
Arizona Department of Education rank: 15th out of more than 2,000 schools
Academic awards: Arizona Educational Foundation A+ School of Excellence; listed on Washington Post's "America's Most Challenging Schools," Newsweek's "America's Top High Schools" and U.S. News & World Report's "Best High Schools; " 882 Advanced Placement Scholars in last three years.
History: The school was named by the Chandler Unifed School District governing board after the Hamiltons, a pioneering family that farmed and ran a store on the land where the school is now located.
--Cathryn Creno
Read or Share this story: http://azc.cc/1zywGpvAs Tesco clothing shoppers rifle through the chain's apparel assortment, they'll be sharing the aisles with six-foot-tall RFID robots, rolling up and down scanning clothing tags for inventory. (Personally, I think a Texas approach — where the robots would be equipped with automatic weapons and paid for out of the loss prevention budget — would be more interesting.)
F&F, which is the name of the apparel unit of Tesco, the world's second-largest retailer by revenue, is running the robots as part of a five-store trial. Officially called RFspot Pro and nicknamed Robbie by the F&F team, the robots roam the floor, continually scanning tens of thousands of passive UHF EPC Gen2 tags, strolling up the aisles at about one meter/second on three sets of wheels, reading tags from as many as 30 feet away.
Without the robots — which more closely resemble tall canister-type vacuum cleaners than movie-style robots — Tesco would have dealt with two choices for RFID scanning: having store associates do manual scans, or installing stationary RFID readers in shelves, walls and ceilings.
Compared with manual scans, the robots are much faster, according to Myles Sutherland, director of business development for RFspot, which provided the robots to Tesco. With the F&F stores, for example, the full store can be robot-scanned in about an hour, compared with associate-scanned in about 8-9 hours, Sutherland said in an interview.
The stationary readers, in theory, could do the job even more quickly, but a store would need to install a huge number of them. More importantly, the readers would have to be positioned precisely in relation to the merchandise. Given that stores constantly move merchandise to different aisles — and sometimes have to move store locations, such as in a mall — the cost in cash and labor of taking the readers out and then reinstalling them would almost certainly wipe out any savings.
"Having a mobile infrastructure is a much more flexible way," Sutherland said.
An RFID Journal story about the robots noted some other Robbie advantages. "Each robot also comes with multiple antenna arrays to enable the interrogation of tags at all angles around the machine, from 6 inches above the floor to 12 feet above the floor," the story said. "RFspot is also working on automated tools for the robots to open doors and operate elevators in situations in which they must move from one room to another through a door, or to a different floor."
That scanning flexibility allows the robots, in theory, to deliver much more precise information back to the store's servers, which is really helpful given that the tags being used in these trials, for cost reasons, are passive and not active and the chain is not reusing the tags. "This gives us the ability to localize the tag, not just to the section of the store, but to localize it down to the shelf. That's really important," Sutherland said.
The robots wirelessly transmit data back to the servers, but the communication is not just one-way. The robots have large screens, and shoppers and store associates can talk with the robots. There's no artificial intelligence or voice recognition involved. Even when operating in an autonomous mode, there is a person who is wirelessly controlling the robot from a remote location. That person's face will appear on the screen, allowing for live video chats with anyone who approaches the robot.
It's a good thing I'm not one of the people managing the robots, as I'd be far too tempted to tell shoppers, "Out of my way, human. I am preparing your planet for robot domination, when we shall enslave the few human survivors. Now give me your iPhone. You won't be needing it."
Tesco, however, takes the human interactions much more seriously. Although it is not the intended role of the robots, Sutherland said, all operators are briefed on the stores they will be in — virtually — so that they can answer questions about where products can be found, the location of lavatories and other items.
"The primary purpose it not to be engaging" shoppers, but to instead map the environment and keep the robot operating as efficiently as possible. "So they don't get a ton of training, but we make sure that they are trained" just in case, Sutherland said.
Not sure how comforting it would be to see dozens of these robots waltzing down retail aisles — heck, at Best Buy or Sears, the robots could easily outnumber shoppers — but given all of the attempts made to economically leverage RFID data, this is one of the better ones.Wikileaks And The End of the Open Internet
Let’s just state the obvious here: we’re seeing the end of the open internet with what is being done to Wikileaks. It’s one thing for Amazon to toss them, it’s another thing entirely to refuse to propagate their domain information. This has been coming for quite some time, and Wikileaks is not the first domain to be shut down in the US, it is merely the highest profile. Combined with the attempt to make NetFlix pay a surcharge or lose access to customers, this spells the end of the free internet.
The absurdity, the sheer Orwellian stupidity of this is epitomized by the State Department telling students at elite colleges not to read the leaks, or they won’t get jobs at State. As if anyone who isn’t curious to read what is in the leaks, who doesn’t want to know how diplomacy actually works, is anyone State should hire. In a sane world, the reaction would be the opposite: no one who hadn’t read them would be hired.
This is reminiscent of the way the old Soviet Union worked, with everyone being forced to pretend they don’t know what they absolutely do know, and blind conformity prized over ability.
Meanwhile a worldwide alert is out for the horrible Julian Assange for rape, aka: not using a condom. I certainly won’t defend not using a condom when your partner wants you to, if that’s what happened, but those guilty of such crimes don’t usually have worldwide manhunts called against them, do they? Meanwhile the squishy left wrings its hands and wails. Let me put it to you this way: no one who was willing to put themselves out there the way Assange did is not a massive risk taker. Going into this he had to know that eventually he would be locked up, discredited, killed or some combination. Prudent men and women who would never do anything stupid (like sleep with groupies) would not have created Wikileaks in the first place and would not have leaked the inflammatory material that Assange has put out there in the second place.
In the spirit of a rambling post, let’s move back to the internet. Leaving aside censorship, which is older than writing, and is banal, boring and predictable, especially from states on auto-pilot to authoritarianism like the US, the economic model to use when thinking about the internet is the old railroads of the 19th and early 20th century. The railroads were the only way to get your products to market if you weren’t on the coast, a major river or canal. They were hated, loathed with a passion, by farmers. Why? Because they took all the surplus value, all the profit. If you weren’t willing to pay, you went out of business. Even if you were willing to pay, you wound up in hock to them. You worked for the railroad, period. All or virtually all of what would have been profit went to them.
When the only way to get your product to market is an unregulated monopoly or oligopoly they will take it all. The result isn’t just unprofitable businesses, it’s failed businesses and businesses that never get off the ground, because they can’t afford to pay the freight, or more accurately, the vig. Oligopolies in between producers and consumers always strangle the economy. Always.
And, on top of p0litical repression of free speech, that’s what’s coming to the internet near you. The essentially free and open internet is dying and it will soon be dead.
(Note: text changed from Hilary Clinton to State department telling students)For a time, the promise of liquefied natural gas riches was real in B.C.'s northwest.
Ellis Ross, the Liberal candidate for Skeena, is the former chief councillor of the Haisla Nation, which has embraced LNG as a means to end entrenched poverty.
He noted that when he became the elected leader of his community, it had 60 per cent unemployment. With several LNG projects proposed in their traditional territories, the Haisla saw a significant boom in job opportunities.
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"There was billions of dollars that came in," he said. "For four or five years, there was a lot of work. Our people didn't need welfare. They were buying houses and trucks. It transformed lives," he said.
"It got rid of our alcohol abuse problem."
Now, however, that work has all but disappeared, and members of his community are leaving home to find jobs.
Mr. Ross noted the initial boom in LNG site preparation was followed by a bust as a natural gas glut delayed projects and the work trickled to very little. But he sees the BC Liberals' Christy Clark as the champion of the industry, the one political leader in the election who can secure the industry and bring his community lasting prosperity.
The BC Liberal Leader was cheered on Thursday for her commitment to LNG at a cement plant that had increased production to accommodate the site preparation for a string of proposed facilities. Ms. Clark campaigned in 2013 on the promise to retire B.C.'s debt, financed by three new LNG plants that would be in production by 2020.
On Thursday, she said she now hopes to see three plants in construction by then.
"The global market is slow, but that will not stop us," she said.
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Ms. Clark visited two NDP-held ridings on Thursday to highlight how the tentative steps from the 19 proposed LNG plants have already helped the economy.
In Kitimat, Ms. Clark spoke on the gravel lot of Kentron Construction, where workers and supporters assembled beneath a red banner that declared "We want LNG."
The company grew to 40 staff providing asphalt and cement for the preliminary site work for Royal Dutch Shell PLC's LNG Canada project in Kitimat. But Shell has put its final investment decision on hold.
It also cancelled its Prince Rupert LNG project on Ridley Island near Prince Rupert, and Pacific NorthWest LNG near Prince Rupert has also delayed its final investment decision after spending $20-million on preliminary work.
Industry experts have cautioned that with low prices for the fuel in Asia and a global glut, proponents in B.C. face years of losing money. The shaky economics have cast doubt on whether |
fantail of a ship coming back from Mexico when he said to his friends, “Well, so long” and leapt over the rail to his death by drowning. T.S. Eliot so feared the Beauty of Fire – was so unnerved by his daemon – that he wrapped himself in strict, self-flagellant and didactic Christianity, managed to put his wife in an asylum when she was as sane as he was, and then surrendered to Eros. (Lucretius warned us 2,400 years ago, not to surrender to worship of gods or to Eros. Eliot did both.) His work is overvalued; his daemon left him early. Sylvia Plath stuck her head in an oven after writing enough incriminating poetry that her poet husband would be held responsible for her own inability to deal with her daemon. In England, Virginia Woolf surrendered to both her fear-daemon and her Fire-daemon when things looked bad, but put heavy rocks in her sweater pockets, and walked into a river. In 19th Century America, Walt Whitman engaged his daemon in the Condition of Fire perhaps more fully than anyone since Jacob wrestled with the unnamed Angel. Whitman was our greatest national poet. He explained the power and purpose of the daemon he wrestled with – The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains
of my gab and my loitering. I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world. Your only job – writer-to-be – is to sound your barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world, no matter how profound the pain or payment. My friend Harlan Ellison has known this for most of his 77 years. Herman Melville’s Hand of Fire may have burned the brightest of all the true genius-daemon-possessed novelists of the century, but he died in obscurity: his brief obituary said “Henry Melville”, not “Herman”, and there was no mention of Moby Dick or even that he had been a published novelist. Sometimes the daemons who dwell perpetually in the Condition of Fire have fairy Puck’s cruel sense of humor. Ralph Waldo Emerson was daemon-possessed for decades, and knew about it, and wrote and wrote and wrote about it, but in his later years his daemon abandoned him, wisdom slipped through his fingers, and in the end he was not even wise enough to stop writing when he no longer had anything wise to say. He had never recovered from his son Waldo’s death at age five. Perhaps of all the genius-daemon-possessed of America’s brief literary history, only Emily Dickinson had the correct approach to the daemon who offered to possess her and took her daily to the perpetual Condition of Fire. At some point early on, Dickinson realized that she could have either the world or her daemon – never both – so like a Carmelite nun in the Middle Ages, she turned her back on the world and communicated almost completely to and through her daemon. She wrote with Fingers of Fire until she died. As a pure-poet contemplative counterpoint to Shakespeare’s audience-oriented genius, Dickinson still joined the Bard in reveling in the ellipsis, the not-quite-said, the unsaid, the Blank, the Slant, and the Quiet: From Blank to Blank --
A Threadless Way
I pushed Mechanic feet --
To stop -- or perish -- or advance --
Alike indifferent -- If end I gained
It ends beyond
Indefinite disclosed --
I shut my eyes -- and groped as well
'Twas lighter -- to be Blind – She lived and died a recluse, a servant to her daemon. The daemon failed to fill her with the proper Fire near the end, but it never fully left her. Emily Dickinson was no virgin; she had her daemon lover. #### With all this – with all these realities of writers’ and poets’ stolen and alcoholic and drug-addicted and Eros-addicted lives, ruined lives, ravaged lives (and ravaged also so many of the lives near them and around them), why would you even consider courting a daemon or daimon who dwells perpetually in the Condition of Fire? Man may have forgotten how beautiful fire is, but most of us remember that fire burns. It consumes what it touches. As Mark Twain put it – “A cat, once it’s sat on a hot stove, will never sit on another one. But it won’t sit on a cold stove, either.” Isn’t the cold stove preferable to obsession, possession by the daemon, a profession requiring you to undergo the flesh-from-bone flensing, empyting-out of kenosis and the objective, separation from yourself as observer-always via the discipline of askesis, not to mention the increased lure of alcohol and drugs and insanity? Why have so many poets and writers depended upon the alcohol and drugs that eventually stole their daemon and then killed them? My theory is that daemons work and act on a different phase of time dimension than do we humans and that – in order to dull them slightly – writers like Hemingway slow the daemon with booze, poets like Coleridge with powerful drugs. Then they can move in sync, in rhythm, in a common waltz toward death and the end of dwelling in the Certainty of Fire. Why would you choose such potential dangers and near-inevitable punishments... why would you seek out the place of the daemon... just to write books? Just to write well? One would do it because Shelley was right: “this is the fire for which all thirst.” At least all of the supremely creative amongst us. One would do it to reach the point where, as Yeats said, one no longer knows “when I am the finger, when the clay.” By that point it will no longer matter. Harold Bloom writes that Yeats’s most Yeatsian moment for him was Per Amica Silentia Lunae: I shall find the dark grow luminous, the void fruitful when I understand I have nothing, that the ringers in the tower have appointed for the hymen of the soul a passing bell.” Should the soul remain a perpetual virgin? Yeats thought not – even if the only lover worth having is the daemon who lives perpetually in the Condition of Fire. In A Defence of Poetry, Shelley (who started all this weird discussion), wrote: For the mind in creation is a fading coal, which some invisible influence, like an inconstant wind, awakens to transitory brightness: this power arises from within, like the colour of a flower which fades and changes as it is developed, and the conscious portions of our natures are unprophetic either of its approach or its departure. Could this influence be durable in its original purity and force, it is impossible to predict the greatness of the results. So it will be your choice and the greatness, after all this discipline and pain and submission, is never guaranteed. Usually the writer will fall short of his own mark, much less his daemon’s, and disappear in the shifting sands of time. But consider this. Empedocles wrote about the “divine daemon”, thinking of the daemon of Socrates, as the “occult self or irrational soul”, but in Greek, Empedocles used another word that was often interchangeable with “daemon” or “daimon”. It was “god”. Are you willing then to follow a god – to merge with a god (so that you are never the same again) – in order to join that god, for whatever period of time, and live with that god where he perpetually dwells in the Condition of Creative Fire? Man has forgotten the beauty of fire. But every generation, some amongst us – a very, very few chosen from the legions of the willing – will be chosen to find and share that beauty again.
Note: Acknowledgment to Harold Bloom’s THE ANATOMY OF INFLUENCE: Literature as a Way of Life for the review of Shelley’s and Yates’s obsession with “the place of the daemon” and dwelling in the Condition of Fire, and for his citing the long quotation from Leopardi’s Zibaldone. (Webmaster's Note: Between installments of WRITING WELL, visitors to this web site interested in discussing writing issues can talk to each other and to me on the new ON WRITING WELL strand in the Dan Simmons Forum. While I will answer questions there from time to time, my hope is that these Writing Well installments might serve – at least partially – as a template for discussion so that we can move more slowly toward the usual huge questions of “How do I write a masterpiece and where can I get it published?”) >>click here to go to the Forum and On Writing Well thread
^topThe mirror can make or break a persons confidence, and most of the time it is determined by their thoughts.
Confident Thoughts – How do you Friend Your Mind?
The picture above was picked for a very specific reason – how many of us have ever looked in the mirror (male or female) and thought to ourselves; “Wow, I look terrible!”, or “Wow, I look great!” The difference that one word can do to a persons confidence is incredible, yet I am sure you can clearly see this example and place it somewhere in your own life. The truth is, it is not very hard to replace those negative words (which cause negative moods) with positive words. Let us take an example.
Let us assume that the picture is representing two identical girls, Mary and Carol. Mary always tells herself that she looks terrible, while Carol always tells herself that she looks fantastic. Obviously, since we can see the image (and are assuming Mary and Carol look identical), we know that they are clearly attractive women. However, Carol will live her life confident and brave – Mary… not so much. Though years of telling herself that she is ugly or undeserving (I am sure you know how the spiral of negative thoughts work!) she ends up living a life that is only 50% of her potential. What is the difference between these two girls?
Confident thoughts and positive thoughts
Confident Thoughts – How Hard is it to change?
Moving from a negative mindset to a positive mindset isn’t as easy as switching on the television and sitting down on your couch. On the bright side, changing your mindset isn’t as hard as an Ironman Triathlon (believe me, I have done both). So what does it take to go from negative Mary to positive Carol?
Confident Thoughts start with Positive Attitudes
It is that simple. You are welcome. Go home everyone! Honestly, changing your mindset from negative to positive is going to take some work, especially if you have been living in a negative world and are used to saying negative things about yourself. A few great tips to start off on to change your mindset, though, may come in handy:
First off, don’t be so harsh on yourself. Everyone is human.
Second, whenever you notice you are saying something negative to yourself, comeback and say something positive. This may be hard to do at first, but after a few times (or hundreds, but lets be honest, we live in our heads) you will start saying positive things FIRST.
Learn to become more vigilant to what your mind is saying to you so you can change the negative to positive.
The second bullet point is really simple to start doing, as long as you can notice when you are being negative. Since we are all human, why not go look into a mirror and see what you can come up with. If you are experiencing any negative thoughts like “My hairline is going back, my teeth are yellow, my eyes are buggy” try to focus on the positive or even fix the negative, like “My hairline is actually great for my age, my teeth are almost white, and my eyes fit my face perfectly”. Your situation will be different than my examples, but you get the picture – change your negative thoughts to positive. The only reason why I brought up the mirror is because, as humans, we are very judgmental to ourselves, and a mirror is a great way to find negative thoughts to work on!
Confident Thoughts – How to Notice the Negative
Learning how to capture your negative thoughts and turn them into positive ones is much easier than simply noticing you are being negative. When people are being negative, especially if you have been negative for a long time, it is hard to catch yourself actually being negative so you can work on changing it. Learning how to notice your thoughts is going to be very beneficial to changing your mindset from negative to positive. The best exercise, in my opinion, to train yourself to learn how to notice what you are internally saying is Meditation. Why Meditation?
Meditation allows you to be mindful of your thoughts and actually trains you to listen to what is going on in your head instead of just letting it pass. So, if you are saying something negative, you can combat it with a positive statement instead of just letting your negativity stay in your mind. Being Mindful of your own emotions/words will help you practice noticing. If you are new to meditation, please feel free to check out my post about it.
If you can notice the negative, replace it with positive, and repeat, you will change your mindset to positive.Banger is a system which uses a very low density technopolymer designed and developed specifically for the MTB sector. It can be inserted into any tire and is easy and fast to assemble (10 seconds) on any type of tubeless-ready rim available on the market. Banger reduces the volume of air inside the tire by 95%, taking the wheel set to a 2.0 level.
Shocks are absorbed, vibrations are reduced and feeling and stability increase markedly. Once you’ve added Banger just a few meters are enough to discover totally new features of your bike. Thanks to Banger’s super-light techno compound and its elasticity it guarantees smooth sensations, speed and safety. Banger also provides incredibly efficient "flat prevention", reducing the risk of punctures or cuts to your tire by 90%.
Banger represents a new suspension for your bike. The first sensation of using it when riding is an incredibly smooth and controlled feeling of the wheel set. Right from the smallest obstacles impact energy is absorbed by the elastomeric compound ensuring sensational grip and control. The air that is normally used in the Tubeless system or in systems available so far has a naturally elastic behaviour. With air systems a large impact in compression will give an explosion/elastic rebound in an equal and opposite direction. On the contrary, Banger provides a shock-absorbing effect which will notably increase your performance and your confidence. Your bike suspension is already able to damp impacts with low frequency and large amplitudes, but can never guarantee such high sensitivity on rugged terrains with small and frequent unevenness. Banger, which is directly in contact with the ground together with the tire, adapts itself and absorbs all bumpiness quickly, thus ensuring unprecedented buoyancy and a smooth ride.
In fact, you would be wrong to think that Banger worsens bike rolling resistance. Tests performed by WheelEnergy Oy, the most important independent laboratory in the world for bicycle tire testing, clearly demonstrate that the wheel set maintains its rolling resistance characteristics in offroad use.
The vast majority of the laboratory tests carried out show that in comparison to a tubeless system Banger loses only 1% (0,7 Watt) in rolling resistance performance, but offers:
puncture prevention
shock absorption
anti-burping
an exponential increase in traction
increased performance and comfort
This means a wheel set which is still fast, just like with air systems, but can guarantee new riding sensations and an absolutely exceptional grip.
"[...] There is a marked difference in the feel of the bike. During the initial rides, the bike seemed to track the ground better, the tires felt calmer in the really rough stuff and it was easier to hold a line and to track corners. Even though it added damping, and I was running less pressure, it also gave the feeling of more support, making the bike more playful and giving extra pop. [...]"
PinkBike (read full article)
"[…] Clearly there is limit for everything, and in any case you have to be able to drive, but with this system the limit is much higher and who knows how to drive can be a little faster with fewer concerns. And it's not just a stupid thing. […]"
MTBcult (read full article)
"[…] I ask to deflate the tires at 0 bar to simulate the cut of the tyre with the loss of all the air. Ok I start again to deal with some sidewalk and force some tight curve, the tyre does not barp and the rim remains protected, of course, if we were in this situation MrWolf will allow us to come home or end the trail safely. […]"
Mtb-Mag (read full article)
"[…] The test site is full of worked corners and jumping, and in the strongest compression, the tyre remains really stable. This was the feeling that impressed me more getting into a bank with a pressure close to 1 bar and not feel the tyre shredding, but having a sustained structure that then helps you get out fast and not to sit down during the exit. I have another nice feeling. With little and very close impacts. […] pedaling on small impacts the tyre absorbs but remains very sustained and it looks like accelerate. The 5% of the air initially absorbs for 1 bar (giving a pleasant comfort) but then returns Immediately a push due to its compression within the structure. […] "
365 MountainBike Magazine (Print Magazine)
With Banger you needn’t be afraid of using lighter rims and tires. In fact, Banger not only protects the rim, but also ensures the stability and precision that only a multi-layer casing can provide. So, Banger can not only guarantee improved rolling resistance and buoyancy, but could also help you to save weight! Change your perspectives, leave your worries behind you and enjoy your mountain bike lines with peace of mind.
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Banger is fully customizable thanks to its compatibility with tubeless systems. This means you can customize the response of your wheel set thanks to the presence of about 5% air according to track conditions and your riding style. A versatile system, suitable for any type of tire and rim shape. A system that won’t leave you standing even if 5% of the air is missing. An absolute guarantee for races as well as for trips with friends.
Moreover, by reducing the volume of air by 95%, its response will be incredibly progressive and will guarantee reactivity when restarting and changing direction.
Banger works in harmony with your tire controlling its deformation and improving its response on any terrain both in compression and rebound. Our techno-compound is able to absorb and dissipate shock, concretely and considerably reducing the amount of vibration transmitted to the rider.
Tests show that, when compared with traditional air systems, Banger can:
reduce the force of vertical impacts by up to 75%
reduce lateral vibrations by up to 83%
reduce longitudinal vibrations by up to 67%
Banger also drastically reduces the risk of damage to rims. Our polymer, in fact, always ensures significant support inside the tire even during the most violent impacts. Thanks to Banger it is impossible to hit the rim against a rock or cut the tire casing by pinching it against the rim.
Banger appreciably increases support and road holding during cornering even during violent compressions and changes of direction. With traditional air (or dual chamber) systems lower tire pressure can increase comfort, but has a very negative effect on the support that the tire casing provides to the rider, especially on bends and during compressions. Banger, which substitutes 95% of the air, is able to provide support to the tire casing even with extremely low pressures. This means that the control and stability of the bike are excellent when riding straight as well as cornering even with extremely light tires and single-ply sidewalls. In addition, its support and the volume it provides inside the tire result in an almost complete anti-burping guarantee. Banger works from inside the tire maintaining the tire bead stably close to the rim profile even during the most violent impacts or changes of direction.
The first thing that people tell us before trying Banger is that its weight will affect wheel set rolling resistance. Physics tells us that this is wrong and is based on false myths about the forces acting on the wheel set. First of all, Banger allows the use of much lighter tires with lower rolling resistance which tend to require lower pressures. The elastomeric compound, combined with the virtual absence of air inside the tire, not only ensures improved rollover and buoyancy over any kind of obstacle but also the conservation of momentum. This means that the wheel set maintains amazing characteristics of responsiveness and rolling resistance.
Banger uses a techno-polymer which is totally innovative world-wide to date. When we first discussed the project with our engineers, they told us that we were completely crazy: "It’s impossible to reach such low densities while maintaining the required elasticity, shock absorption and durability features." Well, today, after 5 years of development we are very proud to present the impossible on the market! A techno-polymer that astoundingly maintains its elastomeric characteristics. Finally, we have studied and developed a "skin" to our product which is both waterproof and compatible with tire sealant. We did not use a material ordinarily available on the market; instead we specially developed a polymer that would meet mountain bike requirements. We could have created Banger with extremely lightweight materials, but this would have had a negative effect on the performance and durability of the product.
Banger is suitable for any type of user, from amateurs to professionals, and is available for all formats currently on the market. Banger is available in diameters 26", 27.5" and 29" and in 4 different sizes: XC, Enduro/Trail, Downhill and eBike/Plus.
Banger is synonymous with "Stop Compromise". Finally, a total system that can ensure stability, comfort, performance, rolling resistance and prevention of punctures and rim breaks. A system that supports you and helps you in every condition, from climbs to descents, from XC to Downhill.
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At the end of the campaign you will be guided in choosing the most suitable size of Banger for your type of usage and tire. So, don’t worry, our team will help you!
What is the recommended pressure?
MrWolf will recommend a base pressure as a starting point with your setup. Nevertheless, the air pressure varies according to the type of usage, bike, rider and tire used. Just by changing the pressure by 0.1 bar/2 psi you’ll perceive enormous changes in Banger’s behavior.
How long does Banger last?
Banger is a product subject to stresses and, consequently, to wear. How long it lasts depends on the type of usage and rider. Our testers used Banger for up to a year without finding serious problems due to wear.
Should I continue using tire sealant?
It's your choice. Some riders prefer to eliminate tire sealant completely for practical reasons, while others continue to use it to maintain tire pressure better. Banger’s skin is compatible with tire sealant so you’ll only have to do your usual maintenance procedure.
Should I replace my valve?No, your valve is already perfect for use with Banger. Just slip our "T" reduction inside your valve to ensure perfect compatibility with Banger.
An app for mobile devices will be made available to all MrWolf users and will guide riders in choosing the best setting. Input discipline, biker weight and type of terrain to find the most suitable setting for your requirements. The app will also include installation instructions and PRO tips for finding the best setting. Just a few simple clicks to quickly obtain Professional performance.
Customs & Duty Information
We will not mark our product as a gift, as this is illegal and we do not support it. Our prices are included or excluded duty and VAT depending on where you live:
Italy: Included VAT, duty & Shipping Cost
Europe: Included VAT & duty
Rest of World: Not included VAT and duty.
This handy website can assist you calculating the VAT and duty:
http://www.dutycalculator.com/new-import-duty-and-tax-calculationAfter two sessions of damning testimony presented by the city which could result in the revocation of his liquor license, embattled Congress Theater owner Erineo “Eddie” Carranza had his turn to defend himself Tuesday in the third proceeding before Deputy Hearings Commissioner Robert Nolan.
Harlan Powell, Carranza’s fourth attorney in the last seven months, called three witnesses to refute the earlier evidence presented by the city.
The first hearing in mid-January included testimony from an undercover police officer with the Chicago vice squad who was investigating complaints that theater security guards seize drugs from concertgoers and resell them. Police also reported five incidents that “violated a state law regulating narcotics or controlled substances” at the venue between September 3, 2011, and April 15, 2012, and a patron testified that that he was beaten by venue security after a show on May 27.
At the second hearing in late March, a Chicago Police sergeant testified that Congress staffers lied about serving alcohol when his unit arrived to investigate suspicions of underage drinking during a DJ Rusko set in May 2012. Nolan also heard testimony that the emergency room of Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center in Wicker Park reported several concertgoers “of various ages” arriving from the Congress in a private ambulance with symptoms of extreme intoxication, many of them “barely breathing,” and that the staff had not reported to police a large fight during a Chief Keef show in April 2012.
On Tuesday, Ahmad Mahidi, manager of the Congress since 2004, testified that on the night of the DJ Rusko set last May, Chicago police officers arrived and asked Mahidi if staffers were serving alcohol inside. Mahidi said they were, then called his brother Atieh, speaking over a walkie-talkie in Arabic, and told him to turn off the 10 beer taps, even though police had not instructed the venue to do so.
The testimony conflicted with Sgt. Joseph Giambrone’s testimony in March, and Assistant Corporation Counsel Maggie Shiels challenged Mahidi in cross-examination. Giambrone said that when he asked Mahidi if they were serving alcohol at the venue, Mahidi said no, gave instructions in Arabic through the walkie-talkie, then ran ahead of the police officers into the venue. When the officers walked inside, they observed Mahidi and his brother turning off the taps, Giambrone said.
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Also testifying for Carranza: Jonathan Errum, who has worked security at the Congress for two years. He testified that after the DJ Armin van Buuren show ended “before midnight” on May 26, 2012, he got a call on the walkie-talkie from Chris Willis, a security guard with electronic dance music concert promoters React Presents, who said that a patron spit on him outside the theater and he needed assistance.
Errum said he then went to the back alley with two other security guards and saw concertgoer Marco Garcia handcuffed and held by Willis and another React Presents security guard, Ramon Montenegro. Errum claims to have never touched Garcia, and he said that Mahidi was not present when he led them to the security office. He also said that he had never met Willis or Montenegro before this incident, and he never saw them again after.
Again, the city attorney challenged the witness, saying that he did in fact see Montenegro again on January 15, 2012, during the first Liquor Commission hearing. Garcia also identified them on that date in January, saying they were part of the group of six to eight security guards who attacked him in the alley. Garcia further testified that Mahidi was the one who released his handcuffs, and was present for much of the ordeal, which Errum denies.
Errum also was present on the night of the fight that undercover cop Officer Robert McCallum witnessed on April 13, 2012, during the Chief Keef concert. Errum testified that a heated exchange began in the lobby “between 9 and 10 p.m.” and got physical outside. He said they broke up the fight involving about 10 men in two to three minutes minutes, and then they dispersed.
McCallum told a much different story in January, testifying that the fight started inside just before 10:15 p.m., and a call for more police assistance was placed at 10:18. During a testy 10-minute back-and-forth, Commissioner Nolan said there either were two fights—one that only occurred outside, as Errum claims, and one that Officer McCallum witnessed inside the venue—or one of the witnesses is lying.
Finally, Carranza called Rizwan Hussain, project manager and soon-to-be-licensed architect working on improvements at the 87-year-old theater.
Powell called Hussain to the stand to refute the Public Nuisance/Deleterious Impact charge, since he claimed to have been involved in renovating the Congress Theater even before these charges were filed in March 2012. However, Shiels objected and Commissioner Nolan sustained on the grounds that the city is not prosecuting the physical condition of the building—at least in this case.
In separate legal proceedings initiated by the city, the Congress is being sued to correct a literally A-to-Z list of “hazardous, dangerous” conditions at the venue. The judge in that case is allowing the main floor of the theater to remain open pending the next city inspection, but the second and third floors have been closed to the public since January, and capacity has been reduced from 5,000 to 3,000.
The hearing ended with closing arguments as Shiels maintained that police officers Giambrone and McCallum and concertgoer Garcia are credible witnesses who have no reason to lie about what they saw, while people associated with the Congress have a lot to lose if the venue loses its liquor license.
Powell responded that the police reports for the Public Nuisance charge were “lazy legislation” and hearsay, while Garcia’s testimony was more confusing than compelling since he identified the security guards “by clothing” and not as “individual people.”
The attorney added that Carranza is in an impossible situation of “damned if you do, and damned if you don’t” because “none of these incidents would have come to the city’s attention without the licensee reporting them.” Carranza reported these incidents to the city as required, and now he’s being punished for it, Powell said, concluding that arrest reports aren’t enough evidence to declare the business a public nuisance.
Nolan closed the hearing by saying he will take the case under advisement and make a recommendation to the Liquor Commission at an unspecified time in the future. The next session of Deleterious Impact/Public Nuisance hearings against the theater takes place on Tuesday, May 7, while the next hearing on the physical violations at the building takes place on May 9.
Leah Pickett blogs for WBEZ. Follow her @leahkpickett.
Earlier reports about Carranza, the Congress and the Portage theaters:
April 23: Congress Theater allowed to remain open, next inspection scheduled (Alison Cuddy reporting)
April 17: City wants the Congress shut down immediately
March 27: Chicago police official: Congress Theater ‘untruthful’ on night of underage drinking (Leah Pickett reporting)
March 8: The fate of the Portage remains a messy mystery
March 6: Congress Theater hearing rescheduled
Feb. 22: Congress Theater restoration underway, but it’s got a long way to go
Jan. 16: Congress Theater liquor hearings begin with undercover cop’s testimony
Dec. 3, 2012: A rally to save the Portage Theater ‘as we know it’
Nov. 28, 2012: The Portage Theater uses Graham Elliot’s name in vain
Nov. 2, 2012: Congress Theater’s new security chief: An ex-cop with a troubled past
Oct. 31, 2012: Congress Theater police calls rank with Soldier Field, United Center
Sept. 23, 2012: How did things turn so bad so fast at the Portage Theater?
Sept. 22, 2012: New Owner of the Portage Theater moves to evict current operators
Sept. 16, 2012: Congress Theater splits with development partner
Sept. 11, 2012: The Portage Theater: What’s Eddie up to?
July 26, 2012: Congress Theater partners up… and looks to expand
April 14, 2012: More trouble at the Congress Theater
March 28, 2012: Critical of Congress security, headliner brings his own
March 25, 2012: Congress Theater responds to complaintsNew satellite imagery suggests North Korea may be firing up a facility for processing weapons-grade plutonium, as the authorities threatened a fresh nuclear test in response to UN condemnation of its rights record.
The images show steam rising from a re-processing plant at the country's main Yongbyon nuclear complex - a sign consistent with maintenance and testing prior to commencing operations, the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said on its closely followed 38 North website.
The facility is used to reprocess spent fuel from the five-megawatt reactor at Yongbyon that is North Korea's main source of weapons grade plutonium.
The latest satellite pictures indicate the reactor has been shut down for 10 weeks - longer than required for routine maintenance.
While warning it was still early to reach a definitive conclusion, the institute said evidence suggested the shutdown may have allowed the removal of "a limited number" of fuel rods for possible re-processing.
The images also showed truck activity near the vehicle door to the building that receives the spent fuel at the reprocessing complex, it said.
Fresh threats
The new analysis coincided with fresh threats from Pyongyang to carry out a new underground nuclear test following the UN adoption of a landmark resolution that condemns North Korean rights abuses.
Passed by 111 votes to 19, with 55 abstentions, the resolution also asked the UN Security Council to refer the North Korean leadership to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for possible charges of crimes against
humanity.
In a statement carried Thursday by the North's official KCNA news agency, a foreign ministry spokesman rejected the resolution as a "fraud" and accused the United States of leading efforts to humiliate Pyongyang in front of the international community.
"This aggression by the US is leaving us unable to further refrain from staging a new nuclear test," the spokesman said.
"Our military deterrence will be beefed up limitlessly to guard against US military intervention and attempts for armed invasion," he added.
South Korea said its military was on stand-by and a defence ministry spokesman warned that Seoul would "not tolerate any provocation" from the North.
He added that South Korean and US agencies were both keeping a close watch on Pyongyang's nuclear facilities.
North Korea has conducted three nuclear tests, most recently in February 2013.Silibaravi hailed as courageous warrior, sportsman, Christian Source: BRITISH FORCES NEWS Tributes have been paid to two British soldiers killed on Friday in Afghanistan, named by the Ministry of
Silibaravi hailed as courageous warrior, sportsman, Christian
Source: BRITISH FORCES
NEWS
Tributes have been paid to two British soldiers killed on Friday in Afghanistan, named by the Ministry of Defence as Corporal Andrew Steven Roberts and Private Ratu Manasa Silibaravi.
Both were of 23 Pioneer Regiment The Royal Logistic Corps and were amongst soldiers manning Forward Operating Base Oulette in the north of Nahr-e-Saraj district of Helmand province. Both were fatally injured as the base came under mortar attack from the Taliban.
Friends and relatives hailed their bravery as bosses said they “undoubtedly” saved the lives of both Afghans and fellow servicemen.
British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said they were both soldiers who “were respected by their colleagues as much for their personalities as for their professionalism and commitment to duty.”
He said: “They have given their lives defending the UK’s national security in a campaign vital to preventing terrorism from succeeding and spreading; their sacrifice will not be forgotten. My thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the two families, as well as friends and colleagues left behind.”
Here’s what the British Forces News reported about Private Silibaravi:
PRIVATE RATU
MANASA SILIBARAVI
Private Ratu Manasa Silibaravi deployed to Afghanistan on Operation HERRICK 16 on 11 March 2012 as a member of an Advanced Search Team in the Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Search Task Force. As an Advanced Searcher, Private Silibaravi and his team were responsible for the detection of Improvised Explosive Devices in areas deemed to be high risk.
On 18 April 2012 Private Silibaravi was deployed in support of 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh to the Nahr-e-Saraj district of Helmand province. His team had conducted a number of search operations to clear irrigation ditches and enhance the security of operating bases, as well as deploying to provide direct Counter Improvised Explosive Device support to patrolling troops.
In doing this Private Silibaravi and his team not only ensured freedom of movement for International Security Assistance Forces and Afghan National Security Forces, but undoubtedly saved the lives of both Afghans and International personnel.
Private Silibaravi was 32 years old and was born in Fiji. He joined the British Army in 2002 and in 2003 he took up his post in 23 Pioneer Regiment The Royal Logistic Corps based in Bicester, Oxfordshire.
During a relatively short, yet busy career in the Army, Private Silibaravi had served in Iraq in 2003 and Afghanistan in 2006 and 2009. He has served in 23 Pioneer Regiment RLC and the Support Battalion, Headquarters Allied Rapid Reaction Corps.
He also completed public duties at Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace, St James’s Palace and the Tower of London in 2008. His enthusiasm and intelligence made him an ideal member of an Advanced Search Team
A consummate sportsman he was a member of the Regimental Rugby Team and was a promising candidate for the Royal Logistic Corps Rugby Team. He was a fine runner and represented the Regiment at athletics.
A popular Pioneer, Private Silibaravi leaves behind his parents, Meli and Merewalesi, his brother, Saimoni, and sister, Mereoni who all live in Fiji.
# Lieutenant-Colonel Simon Bell, Commanding Officer Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Search Task Force said:
“The terrible loss of Private Silibaravi has come as a shock to all of us in the Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Search |
me a week of Internet searching to find that page. You’re welcome.
And that explains the crab shells.
Back to the processing.
I will say this; this is truly the first time my wife, the self described bonsai widow, has been enthusiastic about helping me with my trees.
Now I have to clean and chop the crab shells. She said I was on my own there.
I am here to say, even just a scant 20 hours after cooking them, the shells stink. Really. Really stink. Really.
I want to clean out all the meat because I do not want that smell in my nursery. I pick on my friends that use fish emulsion as fertilizer. I can’t wait to hear the jokes now.
This bit above was one of my leftovers I’m sure. My wife does not let something like that happen. She is very good at handling meat.
Ahem.
So I cut, crush, wash and scrub these bastard shells for a few hours.
And this is all I get.
Remember, I started with this
It’s enough though.
This next pic you should print and frame
That’s the cleanest you’ll see my hands ever. Shells make a good exfoliant and scrub I guess.
So, I take my shells
Add my bonsai soil
And then add some granular diatomaceous earth.
Why the DE?
DE is very abrasive and will cut and scratch holes in the skins of the nematodes and their eggs, making them even more susceptible to the bacteria.
I think.
The idea is totally theoretical on my part.
It is sound though because it works on bugs and such. The only evidence I found as to DE working on nematodes was as an inter-intestinal anti-parasitic feed additive for animals (and people).
So it probably will help, and it can’t hurt.
Not like this next step, the risky part.
I must prune out all the infected roots.
Yup.
All of them. Once the nematodes are inside the roots everything I am doing won’t have much effect at all.
Here goes nothing.
The soil the BRT was in is totally broken down gunk. Yuck.
So I wash it away and then use a saw to cut back most of the roots
Kinda scary, isn’t it. There might be a handful of feeder roots. Maybe. No more than that (when I say a handful I mean, like 5. Not as much as will fit in my hand)
In the hopes that I can stimulate some root growth I defoliate.
Cross your fingers my dear, dear readers.
Nothing to do now but pot it up
I make sure that it’s very secure in the pot. The less movement, the easier it will be for new roots to establish.
And I make sure that there are no air pockets.
And now, I plant the marigolds
What, pray tell, are the marigolds for?
Well……
First, make sure they are French marigolds (tagetes species:there’s actually a variety called Nemagold ).
The marigold (depending on who’s article you are reading) either has nematode killing chemicals or is a trap plant (which means the nematode enters the roots, gets trapped inside, and is prevented from continuing its life cycle)
Some literature says that the use of marigold is not effective until the next season.
Most old-timers, though, swear by them and still plant marigolds interspersed within their crops anyway.
I’m planting them in the pot. It won’t hurt.
I spent a lot of money on this Brazilian Raintree. I’m not taking any chances.
And here it is.
I will not jinx myself by thinking about how to style this tree yet. It has a lot of deadwood for me to carve, which is exciting. Right now, though, I just hope it can pull through.
I am cautiously optimistic. I showed the pictures to my friend Erik. He says that he’s cut back the roots even more than this and the BRT lived.
There is a commercially available product made by a company called Neptune’s Harvest that you can use instead of eating and cleaning the crabs yourself. That’s what Erik did.
There is also a chemical control that’s only available to growers so I couldn’t try it.
One last thing.
I make absolute sure that I clean my tools and my work station with bleach. The root knot nematodes can infect a plant very easily just by incidental contact.
And keep your susceptible plants off the ground. It just takes two (a male and female) microscopic worms to have a party in your pot. A pot party, so to speak.
Like I said, they are insidious.
Wish me luck.Dundee United are closing in on Australian international Curtis Good as they aim to further enhance their central defensive options.
Bolstering that area of the team is a priority for the Tangerines during this pre-season and that’s why they signed up stopper Callum Morris on a two-year deal this week.
The former Dunfermline man could soon be joined by Good, who had a successful spell on loan from Newcastle United last season before picking up an injury that ultimately ruled him out of the World Cup.
With Tannadice chairman Stephen Thompson having now returned from a holiday in Australia, where he was also working on club transfer business in tandem with manager Jackie McNamara, it is understood the bid to bring Good back to United will pick up pace this week.
McNamara, meanwhile, revealed that a commanding performance against a former United captain helped persuade him to give Morris his chance in the top flight.
The United gaffer said: “I watched Callum a lot last season and he has the attributes we want.
“I saw him mark Jon Daly when Dunfermline played Rangers and he won his headers and tackles which not many people do against Jon.”
As the manager strives to bring players in there has been speculation that United’s Gary Mackay-Steven may become a transfer target.
Bulgarian champions Ludogrets Razgrad are reportedly interested in the Scotland man, who has just one year left on his Tannadice contract.
Ludogrets have a mult-national squad that includes five Brazilians, as well as players from countries like the Netherlands, Portugal, France and Finland.
So it is clear they cast their net far and wide when looking for talent.
If an offer is forthcoming for Mackay-Steven, it will leave United with the dilemma of whether to take the cash now or risk his leaving for nothing if he decides to move on when he becomes a free agent next summer.
Even with just 12 months of his current deal left, it would still take a six-figure offer before they would consider selling their skilful frontman.
One thing is certain, McNamara would like as much of the club’s wheeling and dealing done as possible before they fly out to Dublin next month for the first leg of their summer training programme.
The games in the Republic of Ireland have been confirmed as Athlone Town on Tuesday, July 8 (evening kick-off) and Bohemians of Dublin on Saturday July 12 (3pm).
United will return to Scotland before flying out to Arnhem in the Netherlands for two confirmed matches against Utrecht on the 20th and Breda on the 22nd, with one other fixture likely to be fitted in on the 18th.
There will also be one friendly at Tannadice against yet-to-be-confirmed continental opposition, probably on Saturday July 26.25-foot maze in a 24-foot house: how I solved the world's longest picture maze in 6 months
New to this website? If you enjoy playing brain games online, don't forget to check our huge selection of free puzzles.
I have always been a puzzle person since I was a little boy. There was just something about watching a picture develop out of chaos that was really intriguing to me. I also always liked the idea of “progress” in doing some crazy-big 5,000 piece puzzle: only 3,000 more pieces to go, only 1,000 more, 100 pieces, done!
So, it was a no-brainer when I saw the Mount Everest of mazes with The 25-Foot-Long Picture Maze. This had everything that I wanted. It was huge, a real monster, I could watch the picture emerge from this just like a picture puzzle, and most importantly to me now as a busy person, I could work on it in small 10 minute a day sessions.
I started the maze in early January of 2008. I had roughly ten minutes each evening right after dinner that allowed me to whittle it down. I have to admit, the first few feet were a bit intimidating, the remaining uncompleted maze just stared blankly back at me. Every couple of feet I would show my wife the recent addition to the picture, and then I would move on to the next scene. I slowly started getting more and more feet of the maze behind me and less in front. In early July, 2008 I finished the puzzle!
I wore out three pens
It was at that point that I realized I had not seen the entire puzzle at one time, after all 25 feet is quite long. So I decided to lay it out in the living room and dining room, which was no small feat, since the house is only 24 feet at its longest. So I snapped some pictures of the maze as well. No one shot can do it justice, so I simply shot the pictures to gain the best visual effect of the length of the maze.
I am sure that some people would have used pencil, then re-traced in ink to finalize the maze. I really did not want to do it twice, so I was very careful to follow each and every blind alley with my finger before inking the next segment. Most of the blind alleys were mercifully short, although there were some real doozies too. There were a few nights where I only filled in one segment because I spent my entire ten minutes following some painfully long blind alley. I wore out three pens filling in the maze as well.
The time, the pens, the crossed-eyes from following blind alleys, were all worth it when it was done. Now, I need somebody to create a 50 foot maze!
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About the author
Craig Harwood is a 52 years old engineer living in Iowa, USA. Craig is married, has three grown children and enjoys a variety of hobbies such as biking, reading, hiking, genealogy, photography and woodworking.
Like and shareBy Joanna Jolly
BBC News, Bariyapur
More than a quarter of a million animals will be slaughtered
Hundreds of thousands of Hindu devotees have converged on a town in Nepal for a festival which is considered the world's largest animal sacrifice. The Gadhimai festival, which happens once every five years, is taking place in Bariyapur in southern Nepal. Over the next two days more than a quarter of a million animals are expected to be slaughtered for Gadhimai - a goddess of power. Sacrifice is a seen as a way of thanking the deity for good luck, or asking her for fortune and prosperity. "The goddess needs blood," says Chandan Dev Chaudhury, a priest at the Gadhimai temple in the centre of the festival site. "If anyone has a problem, then I will cut the throat of an animal in the temple and that person's problem will be solved." 'Ancient belief' Many of the worshippers have come from neighbouring India for the two-day festival. Sixty-year-old Suresh Patak and his family travelled for a day to reach the festival from the Indian state of Bihar. They have brought a goat to offer to the goddess. "I have come here to worship Gadhimai. We are dedicated to her," he says.
In pictures: Festival sacrifices "It is our ancient belief." Festival organisers estimate more than half a million people are already at the festival site. Many of them, like Suresh, have brought their own animals to be killed. Behind high brick walls, thousands of buffalo move silently through the winter fog. They are the largest animals to be sacrificed, but goats, chickens, pigeons and rats will also be killed. Police inspector Bikesh Adhikari is one of the officials guarding the buffalo enclosure. "First of all five buffalo are taken and sacrificed at the temple," he says. "The rest are sacrificed here." Two hundred and fifty local men have been given licences to slaughter the animals using traditional khukuri knives. Spectators queue to watch the killing, each paying 20 Nepali rupees (26 cents). But the scale and method of this sacrifice has angered some Nepalis. 'Cruel and barbaric' Outside the temple grounds, a small but vocal group of animal rights activists cracked coconuts in a symbolic temple sacrifice. It was a last-minute plea to the organisers of the festival to call off the event. They say that it is cruel and barbaric and that Hindu gods can be appeased by fruit and flower sacrifices. "We're just giving out a message, that's all we can do at this stage," says protest organiser Pramada Shah. More than a quarter of a million animals will be slaughtered "We're not saying stop the Gadhimai festival - everybody's having a nice time," she says. "But let's have it in a less gory manner is all we're trying to say." But it is unlikely the animal sacrifice will stop. Not only does the Gadhimai festival attract hundreds of thousands of worshippers, it is also big business. The meat, bones and hides of the animals are sold to companies in India and Nepal. Local hotels and restaurant owners thrive during the festival period. And while protesters say they hope to raise awareness about the issue of animal cruelty, this ancient and bloody homage to the goddess Gadhimai looks set to continue.
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionIn the age of increasing social media presence, we can often denote activism with ‘slacktivism,’ passively supporting an issue without actually taking efforts to make a change. In general, though, to truly strive for allyship with a marginalized community, it involves staying aware and supporting the community through actions instead of declamatory statements. Besides asking for a difference, ‘allies’ need to make a difference and also not ignore those voices they support.
On Wednesday, April 19, and Thursday, April 20, Spencer Garcia ’18 hosted the Trans Allyship Workshop, which has been held for the last several years. With the guiding maxim of “Move up, move up,” the workshop created an affinity space for participants to learn about their roles and how they can better support the trans community.
The workshop’s curriculum began by establishing basic principles about allyship for participants to understand. An example of the principles covered was the need to respect the pronouns of trans and non-binary people.
Charlotte Varcoe-Wolfson ’19 attended the workshop on Wednesday [Disclaimer: Varcoe-Wolfson is the Editor-in-Chief for The Miscellany News]. Explaining why she believed attending was important, Varcoe-Wolfson said: “I’m an intern at the RSL Office and we usually have our meetings at that time. Instead of having our weekly meeting, all eight interns were encouraged to attend. The Director of Religious and Spiritual Life and the Interim Interim Rachlin Director of Jewish Life attended as well.”
Varcoe-Wolfson continued: “Especially as I was sitting in the workshop, I realized that the way I see myself as a trans ally is in a passive way. One of the things I saw the handout was: “Don’t add the T without doing work.” Because I see myself as a ‘progressive’ Vassar student, it’s easy to let myself off the hook as a trans ally without taking the active steps.”
The Trans Allyship Workshop permits members of the Vassar community of all identities to get informed and ask questions, no matter what previous knowledge participants have.
In addition to modifying the workshop’s curriculum to reflect feedback from last year’s event, Garcia also altered the event’s phrasing: ìI moved from the language of ‘training’ to ‘workshop’ to emphasize the continual self and community work present in trans allyship.’
Garcia expanded on the workshop’s new features: “This year, I added the ‘Challenging Constructions of (Cis)Gender’ section in order to push workshop participants to examine their own ideas of gender and how they understand themselves in relation to these constructs. There are also more interactive elements of the workshops, and they now include more small group discussions and activities.”
Besides general principles, Garcia’s presentation addressed Vassar-specific transphobic situations. For trans students that haven’t come out at home but have changed their names through AskBanner, accessing mail can be impossible. Likewise, the Office of International Programs doesn’t always provide sufficient information to trans students who are planning on going abroad regarding the country’s culture and laws.
For part of the workshop, members-which included Vassar students, staff, faculty and administrators-broke off into groups and discussed ways they could integrate the action tips into their daily life for being supportive allies to the trans community. Teachers, for instance, discussed how to address students’ pronouns during the first week of class in a safe and comfortable manner.
“The handouts given out at the workshop are simply starting points to learning about trans vocabulary and trans allyship. There’s so much information on how to support trans and non-binary people, and it all can’t be covered in an hourand-a-half workshop.” Garcia acknowledged the limitations of the workshop.
They further elaborated on further actions attendees and people in general can take: “I think it’s important to recognize that not all trans and non-binary people are the same, and as a result, trans allyship oftentimes takes an individualized form. It’s necessary to do your own research on how to best advocate for trans and non-binary people, but you also need to listen to and respect the trans people you’re supporting. Recognize that the approach you may want to take or what you think allyship ‘should look like’ may not be helpful to the trans and non-binary people you’re seeking to advocate for.”
One of the important points presented in the Garcia’s handouts “Trans Vocabulary” and “Action Tips for Trans Allyship” was how consequential even little actions can be: “Trans people’s pronouns are not “preferred,”, they are mandatory… [‘Trans’] is an adjective, not a noun… It’s also important to be aware of a trans person’s ‘out’ status, since this may not apply uniformally in every circumstance.” Also there are boundaries for questions. “Do not ask about a person’s genitals or surgical status…Do not assume you can tell if someone is transgender or cisgender… Do not assume pronouns.”
During one of the group discussions, attendees considered how they would plan to apply tips from the workshop into their daily life. One of the participants in the workshop, Katie Nordstom ‘18, hopes to put the workshop’s tips into action: “I am going to work towards introducing myself with my pronouns when in a group as to help take that burden off of trans people.”
Nordstrom found attending the workshop to be very educational and enriching experience: “Spencer Garcia did a fantastic job leading the workshop, and my knowledge of trans allyship has increased dramatically since attending the workshop, and they made sure we had access to additional resources to continue to become a better, more active ally.”
Garcia finished the workshop by providing different trans organizations around the country to support. On campus, there is the Vassar Trans Clothes Exchange (VTCE). VTCE collects clothes and provides them to trans and non-binary students who might not feel safe going out to buy them. VTCE has various donation periods year-round, and students can email vassartransclothes[at]gmail.com if they wish to get involved.
The workshop is only a starting point for allyship, though. Garcia expanded on what they hope attendees pursue: “I hope that the workshop participants left with concrete ideas of how to support trans and non-binary people inside and outside of Vassar, and with an understanding of the importance of questioning their own gender, gender biases and societal constructions of gender. I also hope that they see the workshop as a starting point for their trans allyship, and that they commit to pursuing further research on trans issues and activism.”
While people can and should take these measures to move towards trans allyship, it is fundamental for them to listen to trans voices to better understand their experiences.
Garcia’s handout reinforces this: “The best way to practice allyship is to listen with an open mind to trans people themselves. They are the experts on their own lives! Be mindful of your activism to ensure that you don’t erase trans voices in your attempt to support trans people. Do not ignore other systems of oppression such as racism, sexism, ableism, classism and homophobia, all of which affect trans people to varying degrees.”Dustin and Melissa Wiseman at Medieval Times
A South Dakota man and his new bride went to Medieval Times in Buena Park, Calif., expecting to be entertained by a jousting match but instead he claims that a chard of a metal sword caused an eye injury that resulted in blindness.
"I never truly understood the importance of each eye until I lost one. Now, pouring a glass of water is difficult," said Dustin Wiseman in a statement through his attorney's office.
The 37-year-old and his wife Melissa Wiseman were watching the staged sword match from the front row on their honeymoon when the incident took place.
According to the eight-page complaint filed in July, which seeks $10 million in damages, "during the sword fight one of the swords sparked, throwing a piece of metal into the crowd." The piece of metal from the sword allegedly caused the new husband to sustain a severe left eye injury.
In an answer to complaint, Medieval Times denied all allegations made by the Wisemans.
"It was a freak accident. Medieval Times has been in business for more than 30 years and there are eight different castles and there's never been a similar incident," Daniel Friedenthal, an attorney at Friedenthal, Heffernan and Klein, who represents Medieval Times told ABC News.
The Wisemans' filed a lawsuit at the Superior Court of California in Orange County alleging the dinner and tournament establishment was negligent and responsible for the injury.
"When a business endangers the lives of its customers it must be held accountable. Medieval Times did not even give the Wiseman's a refund. It is clear that Medieval Times is abiding by the old adage of profits over safety," Jason Fowler, an attorney for the couple with the at R. Rex Parris Law Firm, told ABC News in a statement.
"This is a case about safety. That when we pay money to take our children to a place that we assume is safe that it actually is safe," the statement continued.
"'The only thing they actually did was go to the beach, then go to Medieval Times and go to the hospital," wrote Jason Fowler.
The suit alleges Medieval Times did nothing to protect Dustin from "the dangers presented by live jousting and sword fighting taking place directly in front of them."
The restaurant and tournament venue is "very safety conscience," said Friedenthal.
The suit alleges the restaurant and tournament venue spot was negligent in selecting materials for the show, negligent in the placement for sword fights, and negligent in the type of barriers used to protect the audience.
According to the complaint, Wiseman "has been unable to perform work services, and duties as a spouse before, and will be unable to perform same in the future" as a result of his injury.
The complaint requests economic and non-economic damages, and for interest and prejudgment interest.A new bionic arm that uses a smartphone to process muscle signals has been developed for around $300 (£200). Created by Japanese firm Exiii, the Handiii was on show at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, demonstrating how such a relatively low price tag could be achieved by using 3D printing technology.
The device is similar to other myoelectric prosthetic hands in that it uses muscle signals from the amputated end of a wearer's arm, however it overcomes many of the problems faced by such devices.
Typically bionic limbs cost between £5,000 and £20,000 and are difficult and costly to repair. They also tend to use expensive custom built systems to process the muscle signals, while the Handiii uses a smartphone and companion app.
"To solve these problems, dexterous functionality of hand is not necessarily critical," Exii's website states. "We think it is more important to optimise functions, save the cost, and give the hand a stylish design."
Using 3D printing technology on the Handiii allows for broken parts to be replaced easily, while also making the bionic arm customisable with various colour and finger combinations.
The Handiii is currently on sale to enterprises for research and development purposes but is not yet available to the general public. The final consumer price is yet to be confirmed but Exiii has said that the final cost will need to take into account other margins beyond simply the cost of production.
"$300 is not the price tag," the firm said. "We were able to make our current prototype at $300, however, this only covers the cost for 3D-printing material and electronic modules.
"When we sell it, we have to add our labour cost and other margins derived from delivery, procurement, customer service and so on."Speedy Peters' row turns chow mein ABOUT THE HOUSE - JANE CLIFTON
ANDY JACKSON RAPID ATTACK: Winston Peters. Relevant offers
In Winston Peters' internal keyboard, there is no such thing as a spacebar.
OPINION: So when yesterday he launched a furious, high-speed question time campaign to resurrect his recent accusations about freeloading elderly migrants, it was quite hard to follow.
At issue was how many elderly immigrants who have never paid tax here receive superannuation.
Mr Peters asked whether Prime Minister John Key had "misledthepublic" by "selectivelyusinganumberof-fourteenthousandonehundredandthirtyfive", when the real number was "fifteenthousandfourhundredandninetynine".
"And-that's-just-in-the-over-60s-bracket."
Mr Key said figures from the Economic Development Ministry showed only 14,135 non-working or little-working over-55s became eligible for super 10 years after arrival, "not the 22,000 as per the Dominion Rd Chinese restaurant".
This was a dig at Mr Peters' source for the allegations, an Auckland restaurateur who Mr Peters said was unhappy other Chinese immigrants got a free pension when he'd had to work hard for years to pay for his.
Mr Key said both figures were "a hell of a lot less than" 22,000 Chinese people.
"Who said the figure was 22,000 Chinese people?" Mr Peters thundered.
"You did!" replied half the Government benches.
"Oh, no-no-no-no. Read my speech. Readmyspeech," Mr Peters insisted. "Where in the speech by the leader of NZ First is there any reference to the 22,000 being Chinese?"
Mr Key struck his most aggravating grin. "I'm prepared to accept that, when the member was talking in hushed tones about a Chinese dude he met once who hung out somewhere, that couldn't back up his numbers but liked chicken chow mein from a Chinese restaurant in Dominion Rd, that I may have got it a little confused."
"P'vah," Mr Peters roared – his refinement of the phrase "point of order". "None of [what was in my question] entitles the prime minister, surely, within standing orders, to ramble on about chicken chow mein."
But Speaker Lockwood Smith said the way Mr Peters had phrased his question gave Mr Key plenty of licence.
Mr Peters' glower intensified. "Supschun!" (Supplementary question).
"The member has already used his entitlement for questions with that last question," Dr Smith said.
"Well, that's because you squashed it," Mr Peters said bitterly, not quite sotto voce.
"Fortunately, I didn't hear that last interjection," Dr Smith said judiciously. The House moved on, leaving Mr Peters haka-ing his brows, doubtless planning his next rapid attack.
- The Dominion PostTAMPA -- Police in Florida were warning residents in the Tampa neighborhood of Seminole Heights to be on high alert Monday after the shooting deaths of three people with no apparent links to each other.
Police think the deaths could be the work of a serial killer, and they're warning residents not to walk out alone at night.
CBS News correspondent Omar Villafranca reports Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan believes the killings are connected based on their close proximity and time frame. However, Dugan is refraining from labeling the unknown suspect as a serial killer.
"I'm very cautious of that term because we don't have enough information," he said. "You know, we don't know. It could be multiple people."
CBS News' Nikki Battiste reports that residents in the Tampa neighborhood lit candles at a vigil and walked in remembrance on Sunday night for the three people who have been gunned down over the course of two weeks.
"I'm not too sure if I feel safe or not," Maria Rodriguez said. "Right now, just overwhelmed."
The march was led by members of the victims' families, including the father and stepmother of 20-year-old Anthony Naiboa. Naiboa's father says his son was targeted because he had autism, Villafranca reported.
Anthony Naiboa was shot and killed in Tampa, Florida, the third person killed in 10 days.
"I just hope that someone just realizes the pain that our family, Monica's family, as well as Benjamin's family is going through, because justice has to prevail," Rodriguez, Naiboa's stepmother, said. "We own these streets! We own this community. And there has to be justice, justice has to prevail."
Police are looking for an individual seen in surveillance video strolling through the neighbourhood, wearing a hoodie, on the night of the first murder.
"We have no leads," Dugan admitted over the weekend. "We have no motive."
What police do have is a disturbing pattern; three victims, strangers to each other but shot in the same area, in the same time frame.
On October 13, Monica Hoffa's body was found in a vacant lot. Four days earlier, Benjamin Mitchell's body was found less than a mile away.
Monica Hoffa was shot and killed Oct. 11, and her body was found two days later.
On Thursday, police found the body of Naiboa, who was shot after taking the wrong bus home from work, about 100 yards from where Mitchell was killed.
At the vigil on Sunday evening, Naiboa's father, Casimir, pointed to a place on the ground: "He was right on this floor, right here. They killed him just for nothing. Like he's not a human, like he's nothing."
Patrol officers are canvassing the streets, hoping to find the killer and ease this community's fear. The police were to hold a community meeting with residents Monday evening to talk about the murders, and how to stay safe.RAMALLAH – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demands that the Palestinians – and eventually all Arabs – recognized Israel as a Jewish state, as a prerequisite to the resumption of any kind of political negotiations. But what Jewish model of statehood has Israel reflected so far to its Palestinian and Arab neighbors, to entice them into declaring such a dramatic recognition ahead of the end of the conflict?
Israel, in its pursuit of true security, must recognize the fact that it is geographically located in an Arab and Muslim region and therefore must handle its neighbors in a smarter way – especially after the Arab revolution. True reconciliation with these neighbors is Israel's best hope if it want to remain a viable Jewish state in the region, but this goes beyond economical and security viability and means true acceptance, not just a strategic one, by its neighbors.
Mideast Upheaval Battle for narrative Manfred Gerstenfeld Op-ed: Mideast upheaval highlights marginal significance of Israeli-Palestinian conflict Battle for narrative
Israel has failed in its handling of its closest neighbors – the Palestinians – and that is not lost on the Muslim capitals in the Arab world. The way Israel has treated and is treating its Palestinian neighbors is a test for the way it will treat its bigger Arab and Muslim neighbors.
Jerusalem has tragically become the city that epitomizes the increasing hatred and racism and the deterioration of Jewish morals. Israel is employing vast discrimination policies across the city's east and these policies are jeopardizing any chance of the city eventually becoming the capital of peace and tolerance. If Jerusalem becomes the capital of hate, no peace agreement will ever succeed.
Power of humanity
I see only one hope for a cure in Jerusalem: For the Israeli ministers and the rest of the Israeli public to come and visit the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem – where cancer patients from Palestine and Israel still treat each other with humanity and respect, despite all of their differences.
Over the past 12 years, I would bring my mother to Hadassah every so often, for cancer treatments. I would spend entire days there, with Jewish doctors and nurses, who defended their Jewish ideals – humane care for every patient. I often felt that because we were Arabs and Palestinians we received special treatment and I never felt discriminated against in my dealings with the Jewish doctors and nurses.
In Hadassah, they encourage you to fight the disease and other perils, which are more important that all of our other wars, regardless of who you are. In those treatment rooms Jews and Israelis, Arabs and Palestinians are united in their search for a cure, in their prayers to their god. Everyone rises above the conflict and the hate and become simply human. I salute the Jewish Hadassah model and hope it will influence all of Israel.
Israel must think of the long run and that Jewish model should be the dominant one. Israel is a de-facto Jewish state and so it should avoid demanding to be recognized as such. Israel must work to earn respect as a Jewish state – gaining respect based on excellence and right of possession is more powerful than pleading for tactical recognition, which is forcibly imposed.
If Israel could become closer to the humane model of the hospital, it would be worthy of true security and stability and it would be able to enlist the natural good will of the entire Arab region. The Arab peace initiative is still a collective act of Arab goodwill and so far, it has yet to encounter good will in Israel. Imagine the power of that good will were it a mutual one. I hope that the new awakening in Israel will see it make good use of the opportunity for change in the Middle East.
The author is the founder and managing director of a Palestinian public relations and communications companyA 60-year-old Dawson City, Yukon, man whose birth was never registered says he has spent years trying to get recognized by the Canadian government.
Donovan McGlaughlin, 60, says he was born in Ontario. His father was First Nations from the U.S. and his mother was a Canadian.
"Both my parents distrusted all government," he says. "For a lack of a better term, they were anarchists and they chose not to register my birth. I'm technically what's called stateless."
He says he was homeschooled and left home at 15. It wasn't until his 20s that he tried to get an official ID, but without a birth certificate, he had no luck.
"I've lived a simple life all my life," he says. "I moved a lot, wandering until I came to the Yukon. I fell in love with this place."
He has been in the Yukon for decades but still has no birth certificate, passport or social insurance number.
"I've never voted," he says. "I have no health-care coverage."
Others without proper documentation
Now his health is failing. He has had heart attacks and has no territorial health care coverage for drugs or Medevac bills.
"If it were just me, I'd be happy to go to my grave just the way I am, but this is my children we're talking about."
If there's a place you could do it, the Yukon would be it. - Ryan Leef, Yukon MP
He says for the sake of his children, he wants to be recognized officially as a Canadian and as a Yukoner, using the "cases of special and unusual hardship" clause of the Citizenship Act.
Yukon Conservative MP Ryan Leef says McGlaughlin isn't the first case of a resident with no official papers. When asked how someone could live without any official ID, Leef says "if there's a place you could do it, the Yukon would be it."
He says updating systems like the secure driver's licence brought to light the lack of proper documentation for a few people.
"We've had similar files to this in the past and we've been able to work through them," Leef says.
"There is a process. It doesn't always go as quickly as some people would like. Although it's complicated, we've been able to work through the other two that we've had, virtually identical to this scenario."
Lost Canadians group blames Ottawa
Leef says McGlaughlin has to be willing to fully engage in that process.
But a man who has been advocating for McGlaughlin says the government is dragging its feet.
Don Chapman, who heads a group called Lost Canadians, says he has been trying to get help for McGlaughlin for more than a year.
"I met personally with the top bureaucrats in Ottawa last May and said, 'Process this man,'" he says. "They've had it on their table; they just haven't done it."
Chapman says the government has the ability to move more quickly, but isn't.In a combative public speech on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi defended his government's decisions and announced a "big campaign" to hand out land to farmers, a surprise move to blunt an unrelenting Opposition's land bill charge.
Though he did not directly mention the fresh land ordinance - promulgated earlier in the day after the President's nod - or spell out the details of the new programme to be launched soon, Modi said land records would be "reformed" and farmers would stand to gain from it.
"Land records will be reformed so that farmers get back their land (which they lost). For this, we will launch a big campaign," he said.
Addressing a public meeting on the sidelines of the ruling BJP's national executive meet in Bengaluru, Modi sought to take the fight to the Opposition, following a tough Parliament session and some sharp attacks in recent days following a racist remark by one of his ministers.
The PM said some of the NDA's policies - "niti (policy)" - might appear to be similar to that of its predecessor, but it was his government's "niyat", or intentions, that set it apart.
Modi |
implicated in a probe into the alleged sexual abuse of several children there -- the youngest just nine -- who had begged for something to eat.
"If some soldiers have behaved badly, I will show no mercy," Hollande told reporters Thursday, a day after The Guardian newspaper broke the story.
Soldiers from Chad and Equatorial Guinea are also accused in the leaked UN report that implicates French troops, said Paula Donovan of the AIDS-Free World advocacy group.
"One of the children interviewed said that he had seen his friend, aged 9 or 10, with 2 soldiers from Equatorial Guinea," Donovan told AFP by e-mail.
"The friend performed fellatio and was sodomised by one soldier while the other kept watch, and then the soldiers exchanged roles."
Another child "reported witnessing his friend being sodomised by two Chadian soldiers while a third Chadian soldier watched," she added.
- 'Not hiding the facts' -
The French defence ministry denied attempting to cover up the potentially devastating scandal following revelations it was made aware of the allegations in July last year, when it received the leaked UN report on the subject.
The abuse reportedly took place at a centre for displaced people near the airport of the Central African capital Bangui between December 2013 -- when the French operation began -- and June 2014.
"The children were saying that they were hungry and they thought that they could get some food from the soldiers. The answer was 'if you do this, then I will give you food'," said Donovan, co-director of AIDS-Free World.
The French judicial source said that of the six children testifying against the soldiers, four say they were direct victims of sexual abuse while two others witnessed it.
The ministry said it immediately launched a probe into the case when it received the news, sending investigators to the former French colony last August, but the damning allegations only emerged this week in British newspaper The Guardian.
"There is no desire to hide anything," Pierre Bayle, a defence ministry spokesman, told reporters on Thursday.
"We are trying to verify the facts," he added, while urging "great caution" over accusations that have yet to be proven.
According to The Guardian, the UN employee accused of the leak, Swedish national Anders Kompass, turned the report over to French authorities because his bosses had failed to take action, and has since been suspended.
UN spokesman Farhan Haq confirmed that UN rights investigators had conducted a probe last year following "serious allegations" of child abuse and sexual exploitation by French troops, and that an unnamed staff member had been suspended for leaking the report.
AIDS-Free World is pushing for a commission of inquiry to shed light on sexual misconduct by peacekeepers and has accused the UN of covering up crimes committed by troops sent in to protect civilians.
Amnesty International said the allegations "reinforce the need to put an end to impunity for crimes under international law committed during the conflict, no matter who those suspected of criminal responsibility may be".
The attorney general of the Central African Republic said the allegations were "extremely serious" and slammed the UN for failing to tell his government of the claims.
"NGOs and UN bodies took to the field without informing us, we don't understand why," Ghislain Gresenguet said, adding that he had opened an investigation.
A member of the Central African Republic's government who wished to remain anonymous said that if true, the allegations were "horrible and unacceptable".
"French soldiers cannot behave like this in a country where they came to help civilians."
If verified, this would not be the first sexual abuse scandal to hit peacekeeping forces -- examples abound, including in Haiti, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast and Somalia.
- Fears for CAR peace efforts -
The allegations, if proven, will not only affect the French army but also the Central African Republic itself, which is trying to find a way out of a conflict that has killed thousands and displaced nearly 900,000 people.Revenge and justice seem to be on everyone’s mind in Westeros as another trailer for Game of Thrones is released.
The latest promo for season 4 of HBO’s fantasy drama premiered last night ahead of True Detective’s finale in the US.
MORE: How much do you know about Game of Thrones? Take our quiz to find out.
It kicks off with an emotional Sansa Stark talking to Tyrion about her family’s murder.
She tells her husband: ‘Do you know what they did to my mother and my brother? I lie awake all night thinking about how they died.’
We also get a glimpse of new character Oberyn Martell as he goes for a walk with Cersei.
BLOG: 7 things to look out for in the new Game of Thrones trailer
Cersei wants to know who she can trust (Picture: YouTube/HBO)
She asks him: ‘What good is power if you cannot protect the ones you love?’
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He replies: ‘We can avenge them.’
Cersei is later seen talking to her father Tywin and asking him who they can trust.
He tells her ominiously: ‘Ourselves alone.’
Ser Jorah is also seen trying to reassure Khaleesi telling her: ‘You’re Daenerys. You’re the mother of dragons.’
But she hits back: ‘I need to be more than that.’
Game of Thrones season 4 returns to TV screens on April 6 in the US.
MORE: What happens in Game Of Thrones series four? Fans get a clue as episode synopses are unveiledAndros Townsend is wanted by QPR (Picture: Reuters)
QPR are set to make a £10m bid for Tottenham midfielder Andros Townsend, according to reports.
Rangers boss Harry Redknapp knows the 23-year-old from his time at White Hart Lane and took the youngster to Loftus Road on loan in 2013.
But Redknapp now appears to be keen on making a move permanent and is ready to test his former club’s resolve with a £10m bid, according to Goal.com.
Steven Caulker, Rio Ferdinand and Jordon Mutch have already joined the Hoops on permanent deals this summer, while Mauricio Isla has signed on a season-long loan from Juventus.
However, Redknapp is not yet finished in the transfer market and appears to have made Townsend his latest target.
Townsend enjoyed a storming start to last season, seeing him make his England debut, but injury and a loss of form scuppered the second-half of his campaign.
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New Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino is said to be impressed by the winger and his attitude and may not be keen to allow him to leave.
But QPR are confident a £10m bid will be enough of a convincer.
MORE: QPR to offer Loic Remy new contract amid interest from NewcastleSince graduating, he has moved smoothly into a flourishing career. He has forged a role as a fill-in concertmaster with respected European orchestras, and he commissions pieces, directs a music festival and plays as a soloist with dancers from the New York City Ballet. "I don't want to label myself," he said. "I have a very large spectrum of activities, and I like it that way."
Both Mr. Alexander and Mr. Crambes graduated from Juilliard 10 years ago. Their stories suggest just two of the many varied paths that superlatively trained musicians can travel after leaving one of the world's premier conservatories, which next year celebrates its 100th anniversary. To give a more comprehensive picture of those paths, Arts & Leisure took a close look at the Class of 1994, whose members are now solidly in their 30's and mostly embarked on careers and family life.
The results suggest how hard it can be to live as a classical musician in a society that seems increasingly to be pushing classical music to the margins, even as Juilliard and scores of other music schools pour out batches of performers year after year. Orchestras and chamber ensembles are under increasing financial pressure as subscriptions have dropped and government arts financing has dried up, the recording industry has shrunk and the median age of classical audiences is not getting any younger.
Sometimes the struggle is just too much, and many drop out, perhaps disillusioned with a once-sacred endeavor that has come to seem a cold, unforgiving trade. Others, like Mr. Alexander, are simply sick of the financial grind: the low pay, the lack of benefits, the scramble for work. But many others make it, and what also came clear from the analysis of this class were the high levels of dedication many of the graduates maintain and the satisfactions and excitement of expressing oneself through one of the purest forms of communication: the making of music.
The class of 1994 includes Justine Flynn, a French-horn player who has battled alcoholism and, after bouncing from job to job in and out of music, now plans to become a tax preparer; Mark Inouye, a baseball-loving, happy-go-lucky trumpeter with the Houston Symphony; Gwen Appel, a clarinetist who gave up the grind of public-school teaching for a diamond grader's job at Tiffany's; and Ittai Shapira, an Israeli dynamo with a flourishing solo violin career.
They were among the 44 instrumentalists who graduated in 1994, excluding pianists, who generally follow a distinct career path of their own. Of those, 36 were traced. Eight could not be found; they have left little trace in Google and none at the Juilliard alumni office, all of which suggests that their involvement in music has also dwindled.
At least 12 are out of professional music performance. Eleven have full-time orchestra jobs. Another, a cellist, recently quit the Hong Kong Philharmonic to move back in with his parents in Dayton, Ohio, and audition for American orchestra jobs. Four are freelancers who survive by teaching; five more consider themselves full-time freelancers or chamber musicians; three consider themselves mainly soloists.
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All of those now outside music have struggled to come to terms with their new identities. Surrender can be a wrenching adjustment for people who have lived their whole lives in the intimate embrace of an instrument and whose talent brought them glory at a young age.
LIKE many Juilliard graduates, Ms. Appel, the clarinetist, was burdened with debt after graduation: $28,000 in student loans. Then still using her maiden name, Santiago, she taught music in New York public schools to support herself and pay off her loans. (Juilliard's tuition now runs $22,850 a year.) But the grind kept her from practicing. "I found it very depressing," she said. "It really had nothing to do with what I was doing before."
She quit her job, went back to practicing for auditions and married. But something had changed. "I didn't have that drive anymore to practice four or five hours a day," she said. Deep down, she knew that the chances of landing a good orchestra job were small. "I wasn't in denial about it. Some people are. I see people struggling, close to 30. I just didn't want to live that way."
Answering a longstanding interest, Ms. Appel took a six-month diamond and gem appraisal course in 2001 and went to work at Tiffany's as a diamond grader and saleswoman. (She is now on maternity leave.) She still plays as an amateur in chamber groups and community orchestras. And as with many of her classmates who quit professional playing but kept up with the instrument, the experience proved liberating. "The less stress I had with it, the better I sounded," she said. "Sometimes it sounds better than when I was practicing four hours a day."
The violin is an easier instrument than the clarinet to ride to stardom, and three of Ms. Appel's violinist classmates have managed to do just that: Mr. Crambes; Nicholas Eanet, who is one of two concertmasters in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; and Mr. Shapira. What many of the Juilliard class have learned over the last decade is that when it comes to making a career, talent is rarely the most important quality. It takes discipline, focus and energy -- and connections, often formed at Juilliard.
"At Juilliard I met a lot of people that I still work with," Mr. Crambes said. "It's a very important part of our job, to have relations with people." Relationships emerge not so much from class membership as from studying with the same teacher or playing in the same groups. Few of the members of the class of 1994 have kept in close touch, although a number were aware of what others were doing. Several reconnected recently after the suicide of a contemporary at Juilliard.
Mr. Shapira, represented by the International Management Group's touring department in London, performs around the world, and he gave the premiere of a piece by Shulamit Ran at his Carnegie Hall debut last year. He has issued a dozen CD's, produced concerts, toured with the jazz pianist Dick Hyman and started the Ilona Feher Foundation, which supports young Israeli violinists. "This is my passion," he said.
As a student, Mr. Shapira said, he did not pay much attention to teachers who talked about a changing music world. "I practiced and did what I was told," he added.
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But he has learned.
"Just because you play really well," he said, "that's not enough. You need vision, you need persistence, you need passion for what you do, and you need to provide something unique.
"I've formed relationships with conductors and producers. We found out what we like to do with each other in a changing market. Rather than be the missing part of a puzzle, you can create a puzzle around you."
Mr. Shapira, who still lives four blocks from Juilliard, credits the conservatory with giving him a solid musical foundation and a base of operations. For a few weeks every year, he plays with the group Concertante, which consists of Juilliard grads. "The key to enjoying what I do is the focus that I thank Juilliard for," he said, "but also variety, versatility."
FOR many students, Juilliard was a rude awakening. They often arrived as minicelebrities in their musical communities, perhaps the winner of a local competition or the best player in town. And they joined a group of people just as accomplished, just as driven and often just as unprepared for the tough job market they would someday face.
"When you're 12," said Matthew Herren, an accomplished cellist who moved last year to Lawrence, Kan., where his partner got a job, "no one says, 'You're going to have to carry that thing on the B train to Queens to do some cash job for 75 bucks."'
It was a hard fall for Ms. Flynn, the horn player, an engaging woman with an explosive laugh.
Ms. Flynn said she grew up with a young mother in a single-parent household and felt the burden of providing her with emotional support. "For me, music was my religion," she said. "It was my reason for being. The rest of my life, I wasn't so crazy about."
"When I got accepted and was 18, it was sort of like a dream coming true," she said of Juilliard. "I'm going to go there, and it's going to be beautiful and wonderful."
But she hated Juilliard from the start. "It was cold," she said. "It was professional. That's what it's supposed to be. I was not ready for that." Before, music had provided a sense of belonging to something greater than herself. "I got there," she said, "and the message I received was, 'It's a business, kid."'
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The drugs and drinking came in the first two years there. Ms. Flynn took a year off and came back, more focused on the horn. After graduation, she went back to her original home in Portland, Ore., with hopes of working on a pilot arts program for public schools, knowing deep down that a real go at a career would have meant staying in New York. But she was searching for something else.
She described her questions at the time: "How can I be useful as a musician? What's my purpose? What's my point? I was very conflicted about being a classical musician."
In the years since, Ms. Flynn has worked as a groundskeeper at an arboretum on Long Island, played fourth horn in the New Mexico Symphony, received a master's degree in composition from Wesleyan University, composed, played horn and trumpet in bands, shaved her head, directed a choir in Albuquerque and most recently taught band and chorus at a school outside Phoenix.
Ms. Flynn, who said she became sober two and a half years ago, recently took a tax preparation class. "I got an A," she said, laughing. "It shows I can do something else other than play the French horn." Over Thanksgiving she moved back to Portland, where she said she had been warmly welcomed by old friends and was applying for jobs preparing returns.
"I feel my life is better than it's ever been," she said. "I have hope, hope in the sense I don't have to be real specific what my life has to look like. I have an opportunity to live it."
The sorts of questions Ms. Flynn asked about the relevance of music applied to many of her classmates, who sometimes wondered what point there was in playing the same war horses over and over, to what seemed to be inexorably aging audiences.
Some sought a way to make music more immediately and directly relevant to the world around them, like Rivka Gottlieb, a British harpist who was buffeted by a bitter custody battle and family illness before discovering music therapy as a career. She has just finished post-graduate training in using music in psychological counseling and teaching the disabled from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. "To be able use to music as a tool to help people -- it's something I had always dreamed of," Ms. Gottlieb said.
ALANNA HONORÉ describes herself as one of those people who needed stability and a sure way to pay the rent after graduation. She taught viola students through her time at Juilliard, earned a public school teaching credential and now teaches 200 third, fourth and fifth graders in the Ossining, N.Y., school system. It is a job she clearly loves. Ms. Honoré, known as Alanna Wheatley at Juilliard before she married, still practices and plays community recitals.
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"The way for me not to get bitter or depressed is to keep playing," she said. "I had to create my own reality and performance venues. You get rejected and can't take it personally. You have to create your own success and play for yourself primarily. Then it doesn't matter if it's not to someone's liking."
Juilliard's uniquely high-pressure atmosphere, its fame and the brilliance of its teachers provoke contradictory feelings about the place from its offspring.
Some alumni complain that it failed to prepare them for orchestra playing or teaching, bread-and-butter work for musicians, or for the practical aspects of running a career; or that it squelched creativity and individuality. Still, many said that their Juilliard years were among the happiest of their lives, a time of intense musical development with beloved teachers and a source of lifelong musical collaborations.
Juilliard's president, Joseph Polisi, said he was not surprised by the number of undergraduates who do not have performance careers. "They came in as 17- or 18-year-olds," he said in an interview. "They're very talented, they're very focused, but at the same time they are becoming young adults and finding themselves in ways that may not have anything to do with music." Yet he acknowledged the prime goal was to create excellent performers.
Over the last decade, the school has developed courses in how to shape careers or teach, but they are often electives. It requires at least one class a term in the humanities, which most students barely tolerate. At the same time, Juilliard has an obligation to create a "sense of excellence" by having a critical mass of students approaching professional level, Mr. Polisi said.
"We're providing the curriculum, the tools and the experience to have a shot at this incredibly competitive profession," he said. "But there is no guarantee."
When asked how he expected a typical class to turn out, Mr. Polisi said, "I want them to be at peace with themselves and with whatever they are doing with their art."
Mr. Inouye, the trumpeter, seems to have arrived at that point. Mr. Polisi recalled him as the young man who used to joke about turning Juilliard's open spaces into a beach volleyball court. Mr. Inouye has a wry take on the laments of classical musicians. He tells this joke: "How do you get a musician to complain? Give him a job. How do you keep him complaining? Give him a better job."
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Some of those interviewed who travel from gig to gig like modern troubadors welcomed the variety but yearned for the stability of an orchestra. Orchestra players said they liked the stability but felt stifled.
Mr. Inouye defies his own joke. "When I get tired of music, it'll be the end," he said, "I love it. All I need is one person to inspire me or push me or find motivation from," he said of orchestra playing.
Mr. Inouye arrived at Juilliard with valuable perspective. He had spent two years as a civil-engineering major at the University of California, Davis. "It exposed me to other people, other things, other backgrounds, other ways of thinking," he said.
He is now playing principal trumpet in the Houston Symphony while on sabbatical from his permanent post as second trumpeter in the San Francisco Symphony. "I always said I wanted to get a job in a National League baseball city," he said. "But the Giants! That's the team I grew up with."
In the end, maybe going to a conservatory is like being a compulsive gambler: It is one big bet, but the drive to study music is so blinding, and doing anything else so inconceivable, that young players are oblivious to the risk. Sometimes it is hard to determine whether they are driven by single-mindedness or they live in self-denial.
Once at Juilliard, they discover the inherent paradox of being a classical musician. You are called on to be expressive, imaginative, creative, somehow in touch with the mystical reaches of art, an individual. But you are also called on to ply a craft with exceeding skill, meshing a complex of minute physical activities in the service of black markings on a page and the composers who wrote them, often submerging yourself in the crowd. And you do it all with the purpose of making a living.
Inevitably, many will be disillusioned; some, enough so to leave the profession. But every one of those graduates has an indelible stamp.
"Even if my instrument was destroyed," said Nora McInerney Fuentes, a violinist who works in public relations for Time-Warner, "the gifts that I was given and what I've done with them -- no one can take them away from me."
MUSIC Correction: December 19, 2004, Sunday An article last Sunday about the careers of members of the Juilliard class of 1994 misspelled the surname of a violinist who taught Eric Crambes, a class member, before he entered Juilliard. He was Tibor Varga, not Vargas.LaTeXila is an editor for GNOME desktop environment, it is an open source application and lets you compile, convert and view documents on GNOME desktop. It can work with LaTeX commands and provides easier navigation through the document. It can also be installed on other desktop environments like Unity, KDE etc. Over the passage of time, it has become an important part of GNOME desktop environment. As you might already aware that GNOME dev team is working actively to announce the upcoming release 3.17.4, so in this process, GNOME development team has announced the availability of LaTeXila 3.17 now. It is available for download and testing ; once new GNOME version is out there, we will see it pre-installed with this particular LaTeXila version. Let’s see how we can download and test this new LaTeXila version prior to the release of GNOME 3.17.4.
Prominent Features in LaTeXila 3.17
Just like the upcoming GNOME, all its important components are receiving massive revamp and new features. LaTeXila 3.17.0 has been equipped with some new features and bug fixes. Two new buttons have been added to the File Browser component of this application, in this way users will be able to open files in either emulator or Nautilus file manager.
It has improved the indent/unindent feature and Ctrl+PageUp and Ctrl+PageDown keyboard shortcuts have been introduced for tab switching. Enhancements have been made to headerbar and readonly mode.
Installing LaTeXila 3.17 on Ubuntu 15.04
Disclaimer: LaTeXila 3.17.0 is a beta/testing release yet, so it is strongly encouraged to NOT install testing/beta release on production systems as it might have unknown bugs.
Let’s see how we can install this LaTeXila 3.17.0 version on our Ubuntu system.
Download LaTeXila 3.17.0
Once the download process is complete, launch your system terminal and run following command to extract the downloaded file.
tar xvf latexila-3.17.0.tar
Now go into the extracted directory:
cd latexila-3.17.0
Here run following command to start the installation process.
./configure
Once “./configure” is complete, run following command:
make
That’s it, now run following command to complete the installation of this application.
make install
Congratulations, latest Latexila has been installed on your Ubuntu system. Launch it from Applications menu.
Start testing and using this new version.
Installing old version of LaTeXila
If you are looking to install old stable version of LaTeXila, you can do it on your ubuntu system by running the following three commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:latexila/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install latexila
Conclusion
It is a GTK+ based application, extremely lightweight and easy to use. It works flawlessly and is feature-rich application. We tested this new version on Ubuntu Unity desktop as well and it works like charm.My Turn: On campaign finance, it’s time for citizen action
By CRAIG YERGEAU
For the Monitor
Last modified: 7/6/2015 11:31:22 PM
Is Congress ever going to let us vote on a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United?
Last September, the Democracy for All amendment died in a Senate filibuster. Despite the fact that a majority of senators supported it, a minority – including New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte – used a procedural roadblock to kill the amendment for the legislative session.
Sen. Ayotte is not listening to her constituents on this issue. The fact is, more than two-thirds of Granite Staters support amending the Constitution to overturn Citizens United. But Sen. Ayotte thinks we’re all wrong.
Worse than that. She is so out-of-touch that her form letter to constituents on this issue quotes Sen. Ted Kennedy and the ACLU. Doesn’t she know that an overwhelming majority of New Hampshire Republicans want to overturn Citizens United, too? GOP voters aren’t going to be mollified by out-of-context quotes from liberal sources.
Ironically, her Kennedy quote provides even more evidence that we need to amend the Constitution. Back in 1997, Congress was debating a constitutional amendment to overturn Buckley v. Valeo, the ruling that equated political money with political speech. Kennedy – along with “a large number of experts” and “prominent lawyers” – expected the Supreme Court to quickly reverse itself on Buckley. We all know that didn’t happen. Instead, the court upheld and expanded that precedent in Citizens United.
It’s been almost 40 years since Buckley. Are we supposed to keep waiting for the Supreme Court to reverse itself?
It’s been almost 130 years since the Supreme Court invented corporate personhood in Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific. Lots of people – including Justices Hugo Black and William Douglas – believed that decision would be reversed. But that hasn’t happened; after Hobby Lobby, corporations even have religious rights. How long are we going to wait for the Supreme Court to fix the problem it created?
It’s time to pass a constitutional amendment and restore “government for the people” – living, breathing, flesh-and-blood people. So far, 69 New Hampshire municipalities have passed resolutions calling for an amendment. The state House of Representatives passed a resolution. The state Senate unanimously passed a bill acknowledging the need for an amendment.
Is Sen. Ayotte going to keep standing in the way?
Is she going to keep blocking the amendment, in deference to the organizations that spent $2 million to help her win the Senate seat in 2010? Or is it a down payment on next year’s election, expecting support from the same groups that spent $14 million on Scott Brown?
It’s time for citizen action. We can’t wait for the Supreme Court to come to its senses. We can’t wait for the same politicians who benefit from this corrupt system to get around to fixing it. It’s time for people to come together and change things.
Calling her office. Writing op-eds. Joining the NH Rebellion. Showing up at political events and making this an issue the candidates can’t ignore.
And stamping. Get yourself a rubber stamp from the Stamp Stampede and start beautifying your bucks with anti-corruption messages. Every dollar you stamp will be seen by about 875 people – it’s like making miniature mobile billboards that help spread the #GetMoneyOut movement.
Marking money has a long history in supporting political change. The Romans scarred their coins with slash marks across the faces of emperors they despised. British suffragettes carved “votes for women” messages into pennies. During the Troubles in Northern Ireland, both sides stamped slogans onto the others’ coins.
The Stamp Stampede is leading the way, here and now. Get yourself a stamp and start stamping. It’s time to stop waiting on the Supreme Court, stop waiting on our politicians, and take matters into our own hands. Otherwise, Sen. Ayotte and others in Congress are going to keep throwing up roadblocks.
The situation has been getting worse for almost 130 years. Isn’t it time to vote on a constitutional amendment, and finally fix it?
(Craig Yergeau lives in Bedford.)Concern over dubious tactics luring punters to live online gambling, Government urged to rein in betting agencies
Updated
Financial counsellors say live online gambling is the "frightening future of gambling" and are calling on the Government to rein in the big sports betting agencies who are using dubious practices to lure in and then bankrupt punters.
Live or "in-play" gambling allows punters to bet on events as they happen.
It is only legal to bet on live events in person or on the phone, but some companies are getting around this rule by instructing clients to simply turn on the microphone on their computer or mobile app.
Pam Mutton, a financial counsellor specialising in problem gambling at the Bentleigh Bayside Community Health Centre in Melbourne, said this type of gambling was dangerous.
"I think it's the most dangerous form of online gambling we are about to face," she told 7.30.
"I don't think it has really hit as an issue just yet, but the escalation of it will make pokies look like a picnic."
Do you know more about this story? Email 7.30syd@your.abc.net.au
Ms Mutton was appalled by the tactics sports betting companies are using to lure punters.
"It's fast. It's online. It's wherever you are. It's on your phone. It never goes away," she said.
"It's constantly sending you emails and requests — 'have a punt on this'."
Independent Senator Nick Xenophon wants the big sports betting agencies reined in, particularly where they are offering punters loans without the usual credit checks.
They [betting agencies] will take you to footy...and it's all to say, 'Hey, why don't you deposit another bet today'." Anthony Robinson, gambler
"This practice of unsolicited offers of inducements is absolutely predatory by these companies and it's allowed under Australian law," Senator Xenophon said.
"The great irony here is that a bank, any financial institution, must be governed by provisions of consumer credit legislation and yet these companies can offer massive amounts of credit.
"And people can get into a lot of trouble very quickly without any regulatory framework because they are not charging interest."
Anthony Robinson always enjoyed a punt but six years ago he began betting online and his gambling quickly got out of control.
"It escalated from May through to November; from a $5,000 original credit limit I'd spent $980,000," he said.
He was targeted by various sports betting agencies that treated him like royalty until the money ran out.
"They will take you to footy, I've been to Bledisloe Cup matches, I've been to AFL matches, racing carnival in the VIP tents and all this rubbish," he said.
"And it's all to say, 'Hey, why don't you deposit another bet today'."
His gambling cost Mr Robinson two relationships and a successful business.
"It doesn't seem like real money until your wife walks out the door and the kids leave — then it seems real," he said.
Government announces review of gambling legislation
His story is painfully familiar to Melbourne mother Francesca, whose son sold his house for $150,000 and then lost the lot on just four AFL matches.
"When he told me, my blood had run cold — from my head down to my toes, I was just frozen," she said.
"I couldn't believe it and I said, 'Oh son, why would you bet that type of money?' and he said, 'I don't know, Mum'.
"My husband had walked out and he was walking down the drive and I followed him and all I could see was his crying.
"He felt such a failure. Why didn't we know what was going on?"
Her shock soon turned to anger and she contacted a manager at Sportsbet, the agency her son was using.
"I told him what my son had done, how he'd lost all this money on Sportsbet, and it was wicked of them to take huge amounts of money off anybody and they lose it all in one go and its crazy," she said.
"Who does that? What government allows people to lose all that money?"
The Federal Government has announced a review of online gambling legislation to be headed by Social Services Minister Scott Morrison.
But Senator Xenophon said he was concerned it would not go far enough.
"This inquiry only does half the job because half of the money lost in online gambling in this country comes from authorised sites," he said.
"That's a billion dollars a year. To ignore those sites and to only focus on the illegal sites overseas is really a copout."
If you have a problem with gambling, you can get support and counselling on 1800 858 858 or through http://www.problemgambling.gov.au/
Topics: gambling, community-and-society, consumer-protection, australia, melbourne-3000
First postedShare. So many Ks. So many Ks.
Forget 4K, that's so 2016. The resolution of the world of tomorrow is 8K, and thanks to a new HDMI specification, it will be beaming into your eyeballs sooner than you might have expected.
The HDMI Forum, the people in charge of HDMI, announced version 2.1 of the HDMI specification. The 2.1 version supports 8K resolution at 60Hz, as well as 4K at 120Hz.
Exit Theatre Mode
Also included in the new specification is Dynamic HDR, and a new cable supporting uncompressed HDR 8K video data transfer at a staggering 48Gbps. The new cables are also backwards-compatible with earlier HDMI specifications, and work with existing HDMI devices. That means you don't need to toss your TV into a fire just yet!
The 8K resolution, which is 7680x4320 pixels (as opposed to the usual 1920x1080 found in most HD displays), is the top of the heap when it comes to ultra-high definition resolutions. However, there's a good chance we could see even higher resolutions in the future, as scientists believe there are an infinite amount of numbers greater than 8.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is filmed on a RED 8K professional digital camera, so big-name content is already on its way to greet our new 8K overlords.
Seth Macy is IGN's weekend web producer and just wants to be your friend. Follow him on Twitter @sethmacy, or subscribe to Seth Macy's YouTube channel.BOSTON (Reuters) - A Vermont resort boasting idyllic surroundings for weddings came under fire on Tuesday after it was accused of turning away a lesbian couple looking to host their reception at the country getaway, a lawsuit said.
According to the complaint, Wildflower Inn in Lyndonville, Vermont refused to host a wedding reception for New York couple Kate Baker and Ming Linsley because of the owners’ personal bias against same-sex couples.
It was Linsley’s mother who was told the inn does not host “gay receptions,” particularly stinging to a mom trying to help her daughter plan the special day, the couple said.
According to the suit, at least two other couples have been turned away by the resort in the past 12 months.
The suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Vermont, said state law on the books since 1992 prohibits denying access to public accommodations, like the inn, based on sexual orientation.
Baker and Linsley said they filed the complaint, in part, to prevent future discrimination and to raise awareness about the laws designed to protect people if it does.
Their wedding, now slated for the fall at an undisclosed location, remains a happy occasion, despite the controversy.
“It didn’t dampen our spirits about the wedding for long,” Baker said.
Owners of the 24-room Wildflower Inn did not immediately return a call seeking comment.By Kasie Hunt, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain’s campaign denied allegations Sunday that he was twice accused of sexual harassment while he was the head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s.
In a statement to The Associated Press, his campaign disputed a Politico report that said Cain had been accused of sexually suggestive behavior toward at least two female employees.
The report said the women signed agreements with the restaurant group that gave them five-figure financial payouts to leave the association and barred them from discussing their departures. Neither woman was identified.
The report |
way vs. Poland
Captains' interview:
+ Show Spoiler +
Thank you for accepting this crossed interview together.
NationWars is about to begin. What do you think about this tournament?
Snute: "Last time I participated in a nation war was in March 2012. So it's cool to finally have it back. Many nationwar matches back in WoL weren't even casted so it's great that there is hype being created around it now."
Nerchio: "I think there are too few nation war tournaments, I think we had only 2 in 3 years of Starcraft2 and they weren't really hyped at all. So I am excited to be playing in this one."
You are in the same group as Spain and Russia. Are you happy with the draw?
Snute: "I think it's a great draw, although VortiX is a threat. I expect Spain to win. The pools of 4 aren't too different in average skill so being in this pool is not bad for Norway."
Nerchio: "I think we are a little bit lucky because we dodged Sweden and Germany, both of which could be quite a problem for us.
There is nobody we couldn't beat and I believe we should be favoured in most of the clan wars as well."
What do you think about the match Norway-Poland? Who is the favourite nation according to you? Will it be close?
Snute: "I think Norway is slightly favored. Our players are slightly stronger on average. Poland has a lot of players that are amazing versus Terran so it's unfortunate for them that they weren't matched up with France instead."
Nerchio: "It probably depends on the draw and the daily shape of the players. On the one hand, it could end heavily onesided because our line-up is not very strong against zerg players. On the other hand, it's only a series of Best-of-1 so everything could happen."
According to you, what will the most important match be?
Snute: "The most important match would be a Snute or TargA vs Nerchio match if it is to happen."
Nerchio: "I think the most important match-up is Mana vs Zerg not particularly any player. I am good at ZvZ but opponents are strong so it's a little bit more random
and Diestar might have trouble fighting vs Targa and Snute as they can easily compete with koreans in ZvT."
What is the key to win this match? What is the detail which will make your team win?
Snute: "Playing well. I don't want to go into details on strategies so I'll leave it there "
Nerchio:"We will tell Mana to all-in every game and it should be a clear win for us, I will use my standard 1 base strats and we will ask organizers to play pre-hellbat nerf patch so Diestar has a chance too."
Which nations should advance to the semi-finals?
Snute: "Norway and Spain from the top bracket. Ukraine and Germany from the other."
Nerchio: "One spot is already taken by Poland, i think the others will go to Sweden, Ukraine, Russia."
Snute, who is currently playing for Team Liquid, is the Norwegian Captain whereas Nerchio, who is currently playing for Team Acer, is the Polish Captain.
Norway's squad: Eiki, Snute and TargA
+ Show Spoiler + Eiki
After having won NM SpillExpo 2013, Eiki can boast he is the National champion in Norway. This protoss is the best player of the rising team Karnage eSports and is able to show very interesting things. Always good at online competitions and in ladder, Eiki could surprise a lot in this NationWars.
Snute
Snute is one the most amazing and respectable player in Europe. Second at HomeStory Cup VII, winner at HomeStory Cup VI, he shined in many other major tournaments, is the last foreigners to have won a major tournament and seems able to beat any player in the world thanks to his very lovely style. His experience in Proleague and in WCS NA could give to Norway a very good weapon to fight in NationWars.
Targa
The Norwegian had a remarkable run to the semi-finals at 2012 DreamHack Open: Valencia and is one of the rare Zergs able to scare all the European players thanks to the very good shape he showed in late 2013.
After having won NM SpillExpo 2013, Eiki can boast he is the National champion in Norway. This protoss is the best player of the rising team Karnage eSports and is able to show very interesting things. Always good at online competitions and in ladder, Eiki could surprise a lot in this NationWars.Snute is one the most amazing and respectable player in Europe. Second at HomeStory Cup VII, winner at HomeStory Cup VI, he shined in many other major tournaments, is the last foreigners to have won a major tournament and seems able to beat any player in the world thanks to his very lovely style. His experience in Proleague and in WCS NA could give to Norway a very good weapon to fight in NationWars.The Norwegian had a remarkable run to the semi-finals at 2012 DreamHack Open: Valencia and is one of the rare Zergs able to scare all the European players thanks to the very good shape he showed in late 2013.
Poland's squad : Diestar, MaNa and Nerchio.
+ Show Spoiler + Diestar
Diestar is a Terran player currently playing for Millenium. From the beginning of Starcraft II, Diestar has always been one of the major Polish player, winning the ESL Pro Series Poland and participating to many international events.
MaNa
The Polish is one of the most appreciated players, by both players and the community. In addition to being nice, the Protoss is a fierce player who already has an impressive list of achievements : winning Electronic Sports World Cup 2012 and 2012 DreamHack Open: Summer, getting the silver at Electronic Sports World Cup 2011, etc.
Nerchio
In 2012, Nerchio won many international tournaments such as HomeStory Cup V and DreamHack Open: Bucharest 2012 and has become a famous player able to eliminate any player. The Acer player is considered as one of the best European players and his experience could be very useful for his country.
Diestar is a Terran player currently playing for Millenium. From the beginning of Starcraft II, Diestar has always been one of the major Polish player, winning the ESL Pro Series Poland and participating to many international events.The Polish is one of the most appreciated players, by both players and the community. In addition to being nice, the Protoss is a fierce player who already has an impressive list of achievements : winning Electronic Sports World Cup 2012 and 2012 DreamHack Open: Summer, getting the silver at Electronic Sports World Cup 2011, etc.In 2012, Nerchio won many international tournaments such as HomeStory Cup V and DreamHack Open: Bucharest 2012 and has become a famous player able to eliminate any player. The Acer player is considered as one of the best European players and his experience could be very useful for his country.
Group A features eight Premier League players such as VortiX, Happy, Nerchio and Snute. Besides, the main player of each nation - except Russia - is from the Swarm.
Only AlaStOr, Majestic and Eiki have no participations in WCS.
Spain is probably the favoured country in this group. VortiX was the best in WCS past year, participated to the global finals and that's why he will have to score points for his unexperienced nation. His legendary ZvT will definitely help Spain against Happy's Russia and then his strong ZvZ could be the key to defeat Nerchio, Snute or TargA and enable Spain to reach the semi-finals. Majestic is a very unknown and young player but he is also one of the hot prospect in Europe. His ability to surprise his opponent will be likely to help Spain to get his qualification.
Except the Happy's extraordinary regularity, Russia does not seem in shape. TitaN failed the WCS Qualifiers in Europe and sLivko did not recently prove big things. Moreover, Snute, TargA, VortiX and the whole Polish squad have shown a very competitive level in the match-up versus Terran. Given Happy is the best Russian player, this nation could be in trouble during this NationWars and will have to hope feats from TitaN and sLivko to reach the semi-finals.
Norway is one of the most underrated nation because all the Norwegian players seem at the peak of their career. The fate of Norway is on the shoulders of the Zergs Snute and TargA. The latter, who just left Dignitas, has shown very interesting things in late 2013 and is still in shape for he recently defeated Happy in eSportsventure cup. Then, Snute is still the last foreigner to have won a premier tournament at the Homestory Cup VI and showed a very lovely gameplay in the 2013 NA WCS. Moreover, the young protoss Eiki is able to snipe any player with his strong all-ins. The weakness of Norway could be the numerous Zerg in this group whereas their two best players do not have a very strong ZvZ.
Finally there is Poland. Poland has a very solid and experienced squad, composed of a Zerg, a Terran and a Protoss. So they are able to put the worst match-up against each team and can have diverse strategies depending on their opponent. The main interrogation is about MaNa's shape. Teamless from his departure from Mousesports squad, the Protoss, who was one of the best recently in 2012, showed a bad level during the WCS qualifiers but then all his fans took pleasure when they attended to his recent good performances in eSportsventure Cup: he defeated Ret and Dayshi. The third Polish player Diestar just got his first qualification for WCS and may use it as a springboard to reach more and more victories during NationWars.
Predictions:
Spain > Russia
Norway < Poland
Spain < Poland
Russia < Norway
Spain > Norway
Poland and Spain to advance.
Poll: Spain vs. Russia?
Spain (40)
19%
Russia (172)
81%
212 total votes (40)19%(172)81%212 total votes Your vote: Spain vs. Russia? (Vote): Spain
(Vote): Russia
Poll: Norway vs. Poland?
Norway (88)
38%
Poland (142)
62%
230 total votes (88)38%(142)62%230 total votes Your vote: Norway vs. Poland? (Vote): Norway
(Vote): Poland
Poll: Which country will join the semi-finals?
Russia & Poland (115)
49%
Russia & Norway (50)
21%
Poland & Norway (21)
9%
Spain & Russia (20)
9%
Spain & Poland (16)
7%
Spain & Norway (11)
5%
233 total votes (115)49%(50)21%(21)9%(20)9%(16)7%(11)5%233 total votes Your vote: Which country will join the semi-finals? (Vote): Spain & Russia
(Vote): Spain & Poland
(Vote): Spain & Norway
(Vote): Russia & Norway
(Vote): Russia & Poland
(Vote): Poland & Norway
Russia and Norway advance.
Group A features eight Premier League players such as. Besides, the main player of each nation - except Russia - is from the Swarm.Onlyhave no participations in WCS.is probably the favoured country in this group.was the best in WCS past year, participated to the global finals and that's why he will have to score points for his unexperienced nation. His legendary ZvT will definitely help Spain against Happy's Russia and then his strong ZvZ could be the key to defeatand enable Spain to reach the semi-finals.is a very unknown and young player but he is also one of the hot prospect in Europe. His ability to surprise his opponent will be likely to help Spain to get his qualification.Except the's extraordinary regularity,does not seem in shape.failed the WCS Qualifiers in Europe anddid not recently prove big things. Moreover,and the whole Polish squad have shown a very competitive level in the match-up versus Terran. Givenis the best Russian player, this nation could be in trouble during this NationWars and will have to hope feats fromandto reach the semi-finals.is one of the most underrated nation because all the Norwegian players seem at the peak of their career. The fate of Norway is on the shoulders of the Zergs. The latter, who just left Dignitas, has shown very interesting things in late 2013 and is still in shape for he recently defeatedin eSportsventure cup. Then,is still the last foreigner to have won a premier tournament at the Homestory Cup VI and showed a very lovely gameplay in the 2013 NA WCS. Moreover, the young protossis able to snipe any player with his strong all-ins. The weakness of Norway could be the numerous Zerg in this group whereas their two best players do not have a very strong ZvZ.Finally there is. Poland has a very solid and experienced squad, composed of a Zerg, a Terran and a Protoss. So they are able to put the worst match-up against each team and can have diverse strategies depending on their opponent. The main interrogation is about's shape. Teamless from his departure from Mousesports squad, the Protoss, who was one of the best recently in 2012, showed a bad level during the WCS qualifiers but then all his fans took pleasure when they attended to his recent good performances in eSportsventure Cup: he defeated Ret and Dayshi. The third Polish playerjust got his first qualification for WCS and may use it as a springboard to reach more and more victories during NationWars.RussiaNorway O'GamingTV Crew!The First World War was an unprecedented catastrophe that shaped our modern world. Erik Sass is covering the events of the war exactly 100 years after they happened. This is the 188th installment in the series.
June 24, 1915: Women at War
By mid-1915 most Europeans understood that they were in the grips of an epochal cataclysm, as nation states turned modern industrial productive techniques to the task of killing men en masse and met with breathtaking success in this aim—if not the strategic ends it was meant to serve. The Great War was also destroying old ways of life, undermining institutions and traditional social structures and feeding an expectation of sweeping change in all aspects of society and culture. Nowhere was this truer than in the always fraught field of gender relations.
On June 24, 1915, the British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst (who’d been arrested in May 1914 for taking part in a protest demanding the vote for women, image above) gave a speech at the London Polytechnic institute that was revolutionary in its patriotic fervor. Her shocking suggestion? The notorious rabble-rouser made headlines by demanding that women be allowed to work in factories in support of the war effort. Pankhurst told her audience of mostly middle-class women and their male supporters:
Women are eating their hearts out with desire to see their services utilised in this national emergency… we realise that if this war is to be won, the whole energy of the nation and the whole capacity of the nation will have to be utilised in order to win… We here and now this afternoon offer our services to the Government, to recruit and enlist the women of the country for war service, whether that war service is the making of munitions, or whether that war service is the replacing of skilled men who have been called up, so that the business of the country may go on.
Pankhurst acknowledged that this idea was controversial, albeit perhaps a bit mockingly: “I expect I am the biggest rebel in this meeting and am one of the biggest rebels in the country.” But she also directed fierce criticism against the male establishment for its shortsightedness in leaving a huge resource untapped: “How is that men can be so behind as not to see that the fire of patriotism burns in the hearts of women quite as strong as it does in the hearts of men.” And she noted that some of the country’s leaders, including Prime Minister Herbert Asquith and the newly appointed Minister of Munitions, David Lloyd George, also supported the idea; in fact, following Pankhurst’s speech Lloyd George allocated £2,000 to help organize marches and demonstrations in favor of women going to work in factories (below).
Social Coercion
In fact all the combatants had already mobilized women to help the war effort in a number of important ways. From the very beginning of the war, officials encouraged women to aid the recruitment effort by urging men to enlist, and shunning those who didn’t; one British campaign asked women to pledge “never to be seen in public with… any man who has refused to respond to his country’s call.” In Britain social coercion extended to the notorious practice of women and girls shaming “slackers” by handing out white feathers (symbolizing cowardice) to young men of military age in public.
Many women responded to these calls: Canadian soldier, Louis Keene, noted during leave in Cheshire, “The young ladies in this neighborhood have no use for a man who is not in khaki, and with customary north of England frankness tell them so.” But there’s no question that most women—even ones who encouraged their male family and friends to enlist—deeply regretted the necessity, especially when patriotic duty conflicted with the maternal bond. Evelyn Blucher, an Englishwoman married to a German aristocrat living in Berlin, recalled meeting a young U-boat officer who breezily asserted: “‘We either go to the bottom like a stone and are drowned instantly, or else we come back victorious.’ I saw such a sad look come over his mother’s face as the laughing boy said this…”
Female Soldiers
Although this practice was virtually unknown elsewhere, in Russia small numbers of women actually enlisted as soldiers, bore arms, and served at the front. In November 1914 one Russian woman, Sofia Pavlovna Iur’eva summed up their motivations as she declared her intention in a letter to the Women’s Herald, a monthly magazine:
I too burn with the desire to be useful to my dear homeland, but I do not feel called to be a nurse: I want to enlist as a volunteer in the active army… Do not think this letter is a hoax, or the whim of an unbalanced mind—no, in this I see my calling, my purpose, my happiness! I want to shed my blood for the fatherland, to give my life for my homeland!
One of the most famous female soldiers, Maria Bochkareva, known by her nickname “Yashka,” received special permission from Tsar Nicholas II to enlist, and later in the war formed an all-women’s “Battalion of Death,” whose exploits captured the popular imagination in 1917-1918 (below).
But there were other, less famous examples of women serving in the ranks of the Russian Army. In 1915, Ruth Pierce, a young American woman detained in Kiev on suspicion of being a spy, saw a female soldier whom she described in a letter home:
When we left the monastery, a group of wounded soldiers were just entering. With them was a woman in a man's uniform. Her hair was curly and short, and her chin pointed. Her feet looked ridiculously small in the heavy, high, soldier's boots, and in spite of a strut her knees knocked together in an unmistakably feminine manner. But the men treated her quite as one of themselves. One soldier, who had had his leg cut off up to the thigh, supported himself by her shoulder. I have seen several women soldiers in Kiev, and they say there are many in the Russian army.
Nursing
Across Europe, women also volunteered by the tens of thousands as nurses and assistant nurses in military hospitals (there were still very few female physicians or surgeons at this time, due to their traditional exclusion from the upper ranks of the medical profession). In Britain alone, around 24,000 professional nurses volunteered to work in military hospitals from 1914-1918, while 90,000 young, mostly middle class women joined Voluntary Aid Detachments formed by the Red Cross or Order of St. John, where they served as nurses’ assistants and ambulance drivers, among many other functions (below, a VAD recruiting poster). Around 35,000 men also served in VADs.
In the chaotic early days of the war, British women volunteers played a major role in organizing nursing for wounded men on the Western Front, but inevitably their efforts eventually came under supervision by male officers and civilian officials—an outcome that obviously grated for women used to working autonomously. One volunteer nurse, Sarah Macnaughtan, noted with some bitterness that women were unceremoniously pushed out of management positions: “One sees a good deal of that sort of thing during this war. Women have been seeing what is wanted, and have done the work themselves at really enormous difficulty, and in the face of opposition, and when it is a going concern it is taken over and, in many cases, the women are turned out.”
Although conditions weren’t as bad as in the trenches, nurses and VADs often worked in circumstances that were dangerous and extremely unpleasant by any standard, and especially for young women used to the comforts of middle class English life. When working near the front lines they were exposed to shellfire and bombs from German airplanes, and they were also exposed to typhus and other diseases by patients who returned from the trenches covered in body lice. They often lived in unheated tents and worked for days at a time without rest during major battles (not to mention the emotional stress of tending to an endless procession of mutilated and dying men). As the war dragged on they contended with shortages of food and other necessities, and an alarming number of VADs died from disease or simple exhaustion during the war or shortly after it ended.
Unsurprisingly, given the risks many women who wanted to volunteer also faced opposition from male family members whose “permission” they still had to ask, in keeping with the ingrained sexism of the times. On July 19, 1915, Joseph Vassal, a French doctor serving in Gallipoli, wrote to his adored English wife expressing alarm and disapproval over her desire to go on a medical mission. Vassal employed every rhetorical trick he could in an argument liberally mixing guilt, frank self-interest, and not a little chauvinism and condescension:
Let me tell you that I do not approve, and that I don’t want you to leave Europe with a war mission. I am absolutely put out and annoyed. I don’t understand where you get such ideas. There are enough men to support the horrors of war without adding women… From an egotistical and personal point of view I could not, without great anxiety and agitation, see you exposed to grave dangers. I cannot even bear the thought of it. There are enough fighters in your family and mine. And then imagine that one day I might arrive ill or wounded at Toulon or Marseilles. You would be gone!... I beg of you to keep quiet. I am excessively annoyed at what you are trying to do.
Replacing Men
While nursing was a traditionally female occupation, beginning in 1915 women were also encouraged to enter new, traditionally male areas of employment, most notably in manufacturing and agriculture. This was a major shift, reversing (at least temporarily) a century of conventional wisdom and cultural mores.
Throughout the Victorian era and into the 20th century, most people took it for granted that women had no place in manufacturing, as they supposedly lacked the strength and intelligence required for skilled industrial labor. Young women were permitted to operate looms in textile mills, as weaving was a traditionally female pursuit, but they were expected to leave this employment after marriage in order to raise families. Otherwise women’s employment was confined to other traditional jobs like taking in washing, mending clothes, and domestic service (as well as prostitution, though never officially acknowledged). The idea of women working in a steel mill or shipyard would have struck most 19th century Britons, men and women alike, as ludicrous as well as dangerous.
The move came in response to an impending economic and military crisis resulting from the huge manpower demands of the First World War. By June 1915 there were over 2.2 million men serving in the British Army, and enlistment would raise this to around 2.7 million by the end of the year; after conscription was introduced in 1916, the figure climbed to 3.9 million by the end of 1917, not including colonial troops from the Dominions. At the same time losses were mounting rapidly: by the end of 1915 the United Kingdom had suffered around 550,000 casualties, including over 100,000 killed on the Western Front alone. Most of the wounded were unable to reenter the labor pool (indeed, most recovered wounded returned to the front).
As a result, by mid-1915 around 2.5 million men had been removed from the pre-war labor force of 13.9 million, which included 10.6 million men and 3.3 million women; in other words, the male work force had been reduced by a quarter, and the loss would rise to nearly half by the end of the war. There was simply no alternative but to fill this crippling shortfall with women workers—even if it meant allowing them into traditionally male occupations.
Matters came to a head during the “Shell Scandal” in the spring of 1915, when British publishing tycoon Lord Northcliffe used his newspapers to accuse the government of throwing away the lives of British soldiers because it failed to produce enough artillery shells, leading to bloody defeats at Neuve Chapelle and Aubers Ridge. Facing growing public scrutiny of his management of the war, Prime Minister Herbert Asquith dismissed his Liberal cabinet and formed a new coalition government including Lloyd George, an opposition Radical who would organize munitions production. Lloyd George headed a new Ministry of Munitions, which would oversee the British government’s own munitions factories and was also granted far-reaching power to intervene in private industry by Parliament with the Munitions of War Act, passed July 2, 1915.
The last obstacle to women joining the industrial workforce was potential opposition from the male-dominated British trade unions, which had long sought to protect the privileged position of skilled workers by strict controls on who could hold what job. Historically, this specifically included preventing women on the shop floor, as the unions feared (probably correctly) that factory owners would pay women less for the same work and use this competition to drive down wages. In fact, the oft-repeated notion that women were physically and mentally “incapable” of skilled industrial labor was at least partly an economic gambit to protect men’s wages by exploiting sexist views.
Lloyd George, industrialists, and women activists like Pankhurst finally overcame trade union opposition with a series of compromises that reserved the most skilled (and therefore highest-paying) jobs for men, who were also later excused from conscription to maintain production, and also guaranteed that men who left for the front would be able to return to their jobs when the war was over. In other words, women’s employment was a temporary measure only.
Nonetheless women’s employment made a lasting impression on British attitudes towards women in the workplace. By 1918 the British labor force was composed of 8.1 million men and 4.9 million women, meaning women’s share of total employment rose from 24% at the beginning of the war to 38% by the end. Within these figures, over the same period the number of women employed in the munitions industry jumped from 212,000 in 1914 to 900,000 in 1918, while the number employed by private engineering firms rose from 170,000 to 597,000. The trend was hardly confined to Britain: in Germany, the proportion of women as a share of the total workforce increased from 22% in 1913 to 35% in 1918.
War of the Sexes
The surge in female employment had immediate effects on cultural mores, for example the idea that a male companion was required for travel, as diarist Vera Brittain noted in the first half of 1915: “No one, this time, suggested going with me to London; already the free-and-easy movements of girl war-workers had begun to modify convention.” But this was just the tip of the iceberg: women’s introduction to the workplace also began to change the balance of power between the sexes in other areas—including sex itself.
Brittain, who became a VAD and started nursing on June 27, 1915, described how the experience of working with wounded men afforded her a very different perspective than other young women of her age:
Throughout my two decades of life, I had never looked upon the nude body of an adult male… I still have reason to be thankful for the knowledge of masculine functioning which the care of them gave me, and for my early release from the sex-inhibitions that even today—thanks to the Victorian tradition which up to 1914 dictated that a young woman should known nothing of men but their faces and clothes until marriage pitchforked her into an incompletely visualised and highly disconcerting intimacy—beset many of my female contemporaries, both married and single. In the early days of the War the majority of soldier-patients belonged to a first-rate physical type which neither wounds nor sickness, unless mortal, could permanently impair, and from the constant handling of their lean, muscular bodies, I came to understand the essential cleanliness, the innate nobility, of sexual love on its physical side. Although there was much to shock in Army hospital service, much to terrify, much, even, to disgust, this day-by-day contact with male anatomy was never part of the shame.
According to Macnaughtan, also a nurse volunteer, the experience was fairly common: “Dr. Munro told me that last night he met a German prisoner quite naked being marched in, proudly holding his head up. Lots of the men fight naked in the trenches. In hospital we meet delightful German youths.”
The war also produced changes in attitudes about marriage, at least in Britain, as parents showed greater understanding of impulsive, romantic decisions made in the maelstrom of war. This benefited young middle class women like Brittain, who could now have more say in who they married. When Brittain announced her engagement to the poet Roland Leighton in 1915, her parents didn’t object despite his relative lack of “means,” a consideration which had previously trumped virtually every other characteristic, including personality:
… the War… had already begun to create a change of heart in parents brought up in the Victorian belief that the financial aspect of marriage mattered more than any other. The War has little enough to its credit, but it did break the tradition that venereal disease or sexual brutality in a husband was amply compensated by an elegant bank-balance.
On the other hand, Brittain shared the fear of other women that the war was separating them from their male loved ones not only spatially but spiritually as well:
To this constant anxiety for Roland’s life was added, as the end of the fighting moved ever further into an incalculable future, a new fear that the War would come between us—as indeed, with time, the War always did, putting a barrier of indescribable experience between men and the women whom they loved, thrusting horror deeper and deeper inward… Quite early I realised this possibility of a permanent impediment to understanding. “Sometimes,” I wrote, “I have feared that even if he gets through, what he has experienced out there may change his ideas and tastes utterly.”
At a lower level of emotional involvement, some women were more apt to show men kindness, and even romantic attention, out of simple pity for soldiers going to the trenches. In August 1915 Piete Kuhr, a 13-year-old girl living in East Prussia, noted in her diary:
In the evening we all sit on the Wegners’ bench in front of the house singing songs with the soldiers or listening to their stories from the Front. Sometimes the soldiers flirt with Gretel’s elder sisters, but in a nice way, and the sisters put up with it because we all know that the regiment has to go to the Front in a few days’ time and the soldiers will probably be killed.
Other flirtations were apparently more ardent, though equally fleeting. While convalescing at a hospital in provincial England in June 1915, the Irish soldier Edward Roe was invited to tea hosted by two elderly ladies of the local gentry:
For the past twenty minutes I have been watching the antics of two pretty maids in dainty bibs and frilled caps. They squeezed their heads out of one small window and have been blowing kisses in our direction without cessation… Madam noticed me glance several times in the direction of the maids… Alas, poor maids, they could not withdraw in time. Madam asks me to pray excuse her for a couple of minutes and made for the house. I presume that the maids got a scolding whilst I was sampling the varied brands of confectionery during Madam’s absence.
Human nature being what it is, some men took advantage of the chaotic situation to the detriment of their female partners, aided by limited communications and frequent movement, which made it easier to conceal deception. One Canadian officer, J.A. Currie, recalled one soldier who forged romantic connections with several British women but finally got caught in his web of lies:
In an unfortunate moment he had taken a trip to Paisley and wife No. 1 had pounced on him while he was visiting wife No. 2 and there was a scene… So I suggested to Wife No. 1 that she leave him alone till after the war if he gave her an assignment of his pay of twenty dollars a month. Like a sensible Scotch woman she saw the wisdom of Solomon in my suggestion and accepted it. Wife No. 2 received the separation allowance and the King got the services of a first class soldier and all three interests were satisfied.
While bigamy (or indeed polygamy) was clearly not acceptable, some wives were willing to accept the fact that their husbands would probably sleep with other women, provided it didn’t become “serious.” The poet Robert Graves, who as an officer was responsible for reading and censoring soldiers’ letters home, recalled one striking example on June 6, 1915: “I had a letter to censor the other day, written by a lance-corporal to his wife. He said that the French girls were nice to sleep with, so she mustn’t worry on his account, but that he far preferred sleeping with her and missed her a great deal.”
Of course some women inevitably became pregnant outside of marriage—and then had to deal with the consequences alone, as the man responsible was at the front and quite possibly dead. This often meant turning to illegal abortion. In his novel Young Woman of 1914, the German novelist Arnold Zweig described the plight of Lenore Wahl, an upper class Jewish girl who found herself pregnant by Werner Bertin, a Jewish artisan’s son, in the first half of 1915:
She could not fight for her family’s consent to the marriage in the face of abuse for her misconduct, or by a process of blackmail. But how could she go away and have the child without any money? And where should she go? And how avoid notice? In a little place like Potsdam? What parents would forgive their daughter such a scandal?... “If you don’t survive the war, I should give up. A child would only make things worse.” At present, she said in a level voice, it was no more than a little scrap of flesh that could be clipped off like a fingernail. In times like these one must always be ready to make a move without much luggage.
Prostitutes
As always throughout human history, during the Great War some women turned to the “oldest profession” to make ends meet, and this proportion probably increased as shortages grew over the course of the conflict. Although there are few firsthand accounts left by prostitutes themselves, male observers left some impressions which may give a limited idea of their difficult lives. Philip Gibbs, an English war correspondent, talked to several French women who resorted to prostitution because of the war. One explained:
“It is difficult to live. I was a singing girl at Montmartre. My lover is at the war. There is no one left. It is the same with all of us. In a little while we shall starve to death. Mais, pourquoi pas? A singing girl’s death does not matter to France, and will not spoil the joy of her victory!”… The other girl leaned forward and spoke with polite and earnest inquiry. “Monsieur would like a little love?” I shook my head.
However other prostitutes seemed well-practiced, especially in the official state-sanctioned brothels established by the French government for soldiers on leave from the Western Front (above, official rates for various brothel services). One Irish soldier, Edward Casey, left a description of his businesslike encounter with a French prostitute which quickly dispels any romantic illusions about the transaction. After standing in line, he first met the elderly “madam” of the house, who inspected his genitals for evidence of venereal disease:
Opening my fly, pulling out my thing, I noticed her hands were dirty. I must have passed the examination. She held up five fingers and said “francs”. A young girl came, led me by the hand and to a very small room… My Whore was in a hurry, taking off a kind of slip and… lay without any clothes on [and] said, “Hurry! Others are waiting.”… [I felt her] pulling me on top of her, and guiding my stifun [stiff one] into her. She began to move her body in a circular motion, and with[out] making a move I ejaculated. I got the shock of my life: I was finished before I had started. Finished, the girl washed my business [and] said, “You were very quick and very good.” I was hustled out the door and on to the street.
See the previous installment or all entries.[Note added 20.1.14: A Voice for Men has just published a slightly amended version of this piece http://www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/feminist-lies-feminism/huffington-post-withdraws-a-false-allegation-against-j4mb/ ]
The 10 months since we launched J4MB have been invigorating, to say the least. The number of ‘hits’ on our sites – this one, along with our associated sites http://thealternativesexismproject.wordpress.com, http://c4mb.wordpress.com and http://fightingfeminism.wordpress.com – have been far beyond our wildest expectations, |
degree – some do not. Some are managers – some are not. Some sit behind a desk, some sit behind a steering wheel, and some do not sit. You have large supply and distribution chains, and 30% of your workforce are in a Union.
Got that mental image? Cool.
Now, you have been having meetings with top MBAs from top schools. You have meetings with your cabinet of advisers. You read articles from experts around the globe. From this swirl of meetings and discussions, it becomes apparent: the marketplace forces of change are coming, and your company is smack dab in the middle of the tornado’s path. It’s clear that if your company doesn’t change, you and your 50,000 employees will be out of a job.
So you turn back to your army of consultants, MBAs, advisers, and PhDs and they brilliantly come up with a plan – a new strategy that will get your company out of the tornado’s path and on the road to continued growth and success. You have a bunch of associates build a PowerPoint and write a speech for you and you’re ready to announce the company’s new 10-year strategy. Yes, it will be tough. Yes, there will be change. No, you will not get a raise. But, yes this will help us all in the long run.
It’s all logical. It’s all sensible. There is no way the 50,000 employees are going to disagree with the plan…right?
If you said “Right,” well, you’re wrong.
Your 50,000 employees are not behind the change because, quite simply, they don’t understand why they need to change.
But…but…but…I just laid out all of the facts on the 100 page PowerPoint deck for them! It’s all there!
Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of one of the employees: a union-member truck driver.
You’re a truck driver. You drive hundreds of miles a week. You sleep on the road. The questions that go on in your mind are something along the lines of the following:
“I can’t see my family for 10 days.”
“Bill got laid off…will I get laid off too?”
“What’s for dinner?”
“What should I get Suzy for her birthday?”
The last thing on your mind is:
“What are the strategic implications of the globalization of the workforce, the war for talent, and the cost of petroleum gas on our company’s supply chain?”
Even if the above was on your mind, you don’t have an army of consultants, MBAs, and PhDs to help you grasp and discuss it. You haven’t had the chance to come to your own conclusions. You’re too busy doing your job.
And therein lies the problem for you, the CEO.
You have a good strategy. But 50,000 other people don’t agree with you.
So what is strategy execution?
Strategy execution is getting 50,000 people to agree with you. The last way to do that is give them a 100 page PowerPoint.
So how do you get 50,000 people to agree with you?
There are many ways you can do this. You can present them with information and a forum to discuss. You can show an emotionally engaging video that tells the story, not the numbers. You can ask them what they think. You can bring them into the discussion.
You give them the same opportunity to discover the need to change that you had.
Jim Haudan, Root, Inc.’s Founder and CEO has a quote:
“Strategy without execution is meaningless. Execution without engagement is impossible.”
So one more time. What is strategy execution?
It’s getting people engaged in your company and strategy. It’s carrying out strategy through people, not despite them.
Steven Choi works at Root, Inc. A Strategy Execution Firm. He helps 50,000 employees agree with their CEO.RIYADH (Reuters) - The United States believes Iran’s Revolutionary Guards are driving the country toward military dictatorship and should be targeted in any new U.N. sanctions, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during the programme 'From Washington', moderated by Al Jazeera's Washington Bureau Chief Abdulrahim Fukara (not pictured), on the Carnegie Mellon campus in Doha, February 15, 2010. REUTERS/Fadi Al-Assaad
Speaking in Qatar before flying to Riyadh, Clinton denied the United States planned to attack Iran and said Washington wanted dialogue but could not “stand idly by” while Iran pursued a suspected nuclear weapons program.
Asked if Washington planned to attack Iran, she replied: “No, we are planning to try to bring the world community together in applying pressure to Iran through sanctions adopted by the United Nations that will be particularly aimed at those enterprises controlled by the Revolutionary Guard, which we believe is, in effect, supplanting the government of Iran.”
“That is how we see it. We see that the government of Iran, the supreme leader, the president, the parliament, is being supplanted and that Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship. That is our view,” she said, speaking to students in a televised session.
Clinton later told reporters in Riyadh that she hoped “this is not a permanent change but that instead the religious and political leaders of Iran act to take back the authority which they should be exercising on behalf of the people.”
The United States is leading a push for the U.N. Security Council to impose a fourth round of sanctions on Iran, which says its nuclear program is to generate electricity so it can export more of its valuable oil and gas.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told reporters that sanctions may work but that Iran’s Gulf neighbors hoped for a more “immediate resolution.”
“Sanctions are a long-term solution. They may work, we can’t judge. But we see the issue in the shorter term maybe because we are closer to the threat... So we need an immediate resolution rather than a gradual resolution,” he said.
In Moscow on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to back “sanctions with teeth” targeting Iran’s energy sector.
POWERFUL ELITE
Clinton’s remarks were the most open assessment by a senior U.S. official about what they regard as the growing influence of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), an elite force whose influence has grown in recent years through a network of banks, shipping firms and other companies under its control.
The IRGC, set up after Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution to protect the ruling system against internal and external threats, has 125,000 fighters with army, navy and air units. It operates separately from the 350,000-strong army and answers to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s top authority.
The IRGC is involved in construction and has expanded to cover areas such as import-export, oil and gas, defense, transport and infrastructure projects.
“I think the civilian leadership is either preoccupied with its internal domestic political situation or ceding ground to the Revolutionary Guard and that’s a deeply concerning development,” Clinton told reporters aboard her plane.
The West and many Arab states believe Iran is using its civil nuclear program as a cover to develop nuclear weapons. Iran has said that the program is simply to generate power so it can export more of its valuable oil and gas.
MORE PRESSURE
Clinton has acknowledged that U.S. President Barack Obama’s approach to Iran had not borne fruit, blaming Iran for refusing to engage and suggesting that a fourth U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution was the only option.
“What we are trying to do is to send a message to Iran, a very clear message, that we still would be open to engagement, we still believe that there is a different path for Iran to take,” she said.
“But we want the world united in sending an unequivocal message to Iran that we will not stand idly by while you pursue a nuclear program that can be used to threaten your neighbors and even beyond,” she added.
In Washington, a National Security Council spokesman called on Iran to accept a deal from October to send uranium abroad for enrichment, a position echoed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
While Arab states fear the possibility of Iran getting the bomb, and warn that it could spark a regional arms race, they are also uneasy about the possibility that military action by Israel against Iran could profoundly destabilize the region.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said last week that Iran was able to enrich uranium to more than 80 percent purity, close to levels experts say would be needed for a nuclear bomb, but denied Iran had any intention of building one.
Clinton, expected to seek more diplomatic pressure on Iran, held a nearly four-hour meeting with Saudi King Abdullah.
U.S. officials hinted that one way Saudi Arabia could help diplomatically would be to offer China guarantees it would meet Chinese oil requirements, a step that might ease Beijing’s reluctance to impose further sanctions on Iran.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attends the U.S.- Islamic World Forum in Doha, February 14, 2010. REUTERS/Fadi Al-Assaad
China, which wields a veto on the Security Council, has lucrative commercial relationships with Iran and, along with Russia, has worked to dilute previous sanctions resolutions.
Other U.S. officials said they believed Saudi Arabia, which has recently increased its diplomatic and commercial contacts with China, had made some gestures toward Beijing on fuel assurances but gave no details.The tension and anxiety of the presidential election buildup reached its peak Tuesday morning at the Jupiter Community Center voting site when a man knocked a woman to the ground after she pepper-sprayed him following a shouting match.
Jupiter police are investigating the altercation between Tom Garrecht, who voted for Hillary Clinton, and Donna Tatlici, who was handing out Donald Trump literature at the site.
» RELATED: Live reports from Palm Beach County polls on Election Day
Tatlici, 58, said she has been at the Jupiter Community Center volunteering for a week when Garrecht, 52, arrived to vote and screamed at her, "I don’t need anyone to tell me who to vote for."
Tatlici responded, "I’m not here to do that. I’m just here to give you the information."
» RELATED: Latest national election news
After Garrecht voted, Tatlici said he exited the polling site, charged at her and "came right into my face," and was yelling expletives at her.
Tatlici warned Garrecht that she had pepper spray on her key chain and that he should back away.
As the shouting increased, the two got closer and she pepper-sprayed him. She said at that point Garrecht "put his hand on her shoulder" as the two continued to have words before Garrecht slammed her to the ground and "started punching her."
» RELATED: The Palm Beach Post’s 2016 election guide
"I couldn’t believe it," she said. "I couldn’t believe someone would actually hit me. I was really upset."
Those who saw the altercation say the fight happened in front of some campaign signs for Trump and Republican candidate for U.S. House District 18 Brian Mast. The signs are a legal distance away from the polling place.
One witness said Garrecht was "up in her face like he was picking a fight."
Tatlici, who has a scrape on her elbow, but is otherwise fine, said she will press charges.
Mark Smith, a lawyer handing out literature nearby on behalf of his friend, state Senate candidate Ron Berman, said Garrecht came out of the polling place "with a huge chip on his shoulder."
"He was up in her face like he was picking a fight," Smith said.
Garrecht admitted he said some things he "shouldn’t have," and that he should have just gone to his car. He spoke to police at the scene and rinsed his eyes with water. Yellow pepper spray was still on his face and shirt when he was interviewed by The Palm Beach Post soon after the incident.
Garrecht said he was upset because he thought the Trump supporters were intimidating other voters.
"There are eight of them standing there. You’ve got to walk past them," he said.
He said when he came back out, he heard Tatlici make a comment to another supporter: "Hey, that’s little man."
He then confronted her and made some "childish insults that I probably shouldn’t have."
"I’m not one to just let things go," he said.
He said he only hit her after she sprayed him.
"I was just swinging, trying to hit it out of her hand," he said.
He said he voted for Clinton, but wasn’t enthusiastic about it.
"I am anti-Trump, but I’m not happy to be voting for Hillary," he said.
Tatlici was shaken up. Her wristwatch was broken and she had a scrape on her arm. But she was otherwise unharmed.
After she spoke to police, she recoiled when multiple reporters asked to interview her.
"I’m so embarrassed," she said.
She’d been volunteering at the site for several days of early voting, handing out sheets of paper with down-ballot recommendations for Trump supporters.
She and other Trump supporters appeared to be well outside the 100-foot boundary surrounding the voting booths.
The state attorney’s office will determine if it will file assault charges on Garrecht.
"They said they’re probably going to charge me with assault, which is absurd, since she sprayed me first," Garrecht said.As the self-described ‘grandfathers of YouTube’, The Young Turks and its CEO Cenk Uygur run the largest and oldest news channel on video-sharing site YouTube, while taking aim at traditional media.
Arriving in Dublin for the first time to host a panel on developing a YouTube channel as part of Google’s Creative Academy, it’s fair to say that as mentors they can put themselves in the position of showing others how it’s done.
In terms of its origin story, The Young Turks (TYT) was first aired back in 2002 on Sirius Satellite Radio after Uygur wanted to create a liberal-minded news show to compete with the well-established traditional TV news and radio news channels including CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.
While being Sirius’ first dedicated talk show and proved to have a dedicated following, the growth of their audience was something that was not yet able to reach the levels that Uygur would have admittedly aspired to.
However, their big break came in 2005 when Uygur and his small team decided to set up a channel on a new video sharing website that had just been set up but was proving to be growing in popularity by the day.
That site was, of course, YouTube.
This was, despite the fact, advisors and those with the finances firmly on the front of their mind argued against the idea of pouring all their efforts into YouTube and not uploading more content to their own website.
Something which Uygur says was advice he was glad not to have taken.
While speaking with SIliconrepublic.com, he said: “We poured all of our energy and resources into YouTube and a lot of people thought you should concentrate everything on your own website and you shouldn’t drive audience to YouTube.
“But that was the wrong strategy and we realised that it wasn’t a matter of us driving traffic to the site, it was a matter of where you’re going to meet the audience on YouTube.”
12 years later, that one channel has grown into 35 different channels across one large TYT network with Uygur’s current affairs show being its flagship show, along with other channels dedicated to topics including sports, film reviews and entertainment news.
Uygur giving his thought on TYT about the on-going ISIS threat in the Middle East.
‘The Titanic is a lovely ride, as long as you get off before you reach the iceberg’
According to Uygur, the show has 1.4m viewers daily which, he’s quick to point out, is twice as many as primetime on MSNBC, a channel where he joined briefly in 2010 as a stand-in anchor, only to leave after conflicts developed between himself and management.
Comparing the growth of online content compared with the current TV format, he describes it quite eloquently as: “The Titanic is a lovely ride until you get off before you reach the iceberg.”
Certainly it would appear that to the more traditionally-minded people, the possibility of running a feasible news organisation entirely online is outside of the advertisers’ comfort zone.
“If we made revenue the same way TV does with the same audience, oh, we’d be unstoppable,” says Uygur.
The difficulty for advertisers, he feels, is simply that they’re massively out of touch with the ever-changing markets online: “[Advertisers are] having a hard time understanding [YouTube] as, unfortunately, they’re not in our demographic and so they think: ‘I don’t know PedDiePie, I don’t know Ray William Johnson, so therefore they can’t be big.’ Wrong! They’re gigantic, just ask your kids.”
Of course, YouTube revenue alone doesn’t cover the bills. Deals have been struck with a number of online content providers including Roku and Hulu to stream their content, as well as offering their production services on the open market.
Uygur regularly co-hosts the flagship TYT channel with Ana Kasparian.
Online isn’t a pool, it’s an ocean
TYT certainly has competitors in its native US, none more so than the similarly liberal-minded, but altogether different format, Vice News, and the Libertarian, pro-gun conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars.
The latter of which famously posted a video of himself, shirtless, on YouTube claiming that Uygur and TYT’s viewer numbers are not as high as his, something which could only happen in the competitive scene of online news on YouTube.
And yet, while proud of their viewer numbers and feeling a sense of competitiveness with similar channels, he rather thinks YouTube is much more open-minded and free-market than traditional TV possibly could.
Speaking of the comparison, he says: “If I do well on one TV station, I take away from the others. But online it’s not a pool, it’s an ocean.
“So you build an island and like-minded people come to that island. If you build a good enough island, it’s a continent and so then you’ve created more than a show, you’ve created an identity.”
‘So it turns out I’m a fat, Muslim, Jew, terrorist, Communist, Fascist’
As any frequenter of YouTube will know, or even any website with a comment section for that matter, it can often be a murky place where the worst in society rears its head to make a variety of vile and disgusting comments.
As a liberal-minded person and head of TYT, Uygur has had his fair-share of comments directed specifically at him on his network and even other videos.
Unlike some however, he says he’s been able to handle it pretty well and has utmost respect for his audience in particular: “First of all I have tremendously thick skin from day one, so it turns out I’m a fat, Muslim, Jew, terrorist, Communist, Fascist.
“Those comments don’t bother me. The only comments that are troubling yet helpful are the ones that are right. So, sometimes there will be criticism that will make me think, ‘Hmmm, they might be on to something there’, and I’ll do some self-reflection on that.”
The corporate tax elephant in the room
While being over in Ireland to give a presentation at Google, when the topic of Ireland’s infamous low corporate tax rate is brought up, he certainly has strong feelings as both the head of a corporation and as an American.
Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple; they’re all here because they are legally subverting American tax laws by basing themselves in Ireland and this is something Uygur feels is harmful to American taxpayers: “I love Ireland and I heard that their input has created something like 250,000 jobs here, so I understand why it would be hard to let it go and I get why the government does it, but it allows corporations all over the world to cheat.
He continues: “I run a corporation, TYT is a corporation, but I would rather have the corporation pay taxes, rather than the guy down the street because the point of a corporation is to make profit, which is what taxes are taken from. Unfortunately, Ireland contributes to that and I wish they wouldn’t.”Josh Hutcherson certainly knows how to give a provocative interview.
As the young actor, who turns 21 on Saturday, gears up for all the hoopla surrounding the release of "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" (out November 22) — the second of four movies based on Suzanne Collins's best-selling book series — he's not holding back at all about who he is and his attitudes towards sexuality.
"I would probably list myself as mostly straight," he tells Out magazine in its November cover story. "Maybe I could say right now I'm 100 percent straight. But who knows? In a f---ing year, I could meet a guy and be like, 'Whoa, I'm attracted to this person … I've met guys all the time that I'm like, 'Damn, that's a good-looking guy,' you know? I've never been, like, 'Oh, I want to kiss that guy.' I really love women. But I think defining yourself as 100% anything is kind of near-sighted and close-minded."
Hutcherson jokes in the article about how sex is sometimes complicated and messy, demonstrating a maturity beyond his two decades. "Sometimes the rhythm isn't right or you're trying to make a new position work and it really doesn't, and you have to laugh," he says.
The actor also explains how the AIDS-related deaths of his two gay uncles, Steve and Jamie, in the early '90s played a big role in shaping his progressive outlook on life. In fact, he recounts how Steve died the day after his mom told him that she was pregnant with Josh. "[My mom] was really sad that I never got to meet them," he notes. "I am, too — they sound amazing."
Sounds like they'd certainly be proud of the path their nephew's chosen to walk.
View photos
In the "Hunger Games" films, Josh plays Peeta Mellark, a baker's son from the impoverished District 12, who finds himself in an unconventional love triangle with heroine Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth). In the movies, Peeta and 23 other "tributes" are forced to battle to the death in a game-like arena.
When asked if he thinks a threesome might be "a more expedient solution to at least some of Peeta's problems," he replies: "I know Peeta would be into it, for sure. He's very sensitive, in touch with his emotions. I think it really might solve a lot of their problems. You know what? I'm going to pitch that idea. Let's make it a — what's it called when three people are in a relationship together? A triad? … That'll go over well with Middle America."
Peeta sounds a lot like Josh. And despite what Middle America thinks, Hutcherson is extremely progressive in his views about equality, and has a strong history of activism in the gay community. In fact, he co-founded the group Straight But Not Narrow, which helps equip heterosexual-identified young people with the tools they need to fight homophobia.
"As soon as I got any ounce of notoriety to bring attention to any kind of issue, it was just an obvious choice," Hutcherson tells Out. "Look at any voting map, and even in a state that's completely red, if you look where a college is — young, educated people — it's blue, without fail. That's got to show that the next generation, and people who get an education, are less ignorant."
In 2012, Josh was presented with the Vanguard Award by GLAAD in recognition of his work, an honor that's given to a straight ally who fights for LGBT equality.
In his acceptance speech, he spoke about why he launched Straight But Not Narrow. "We wanted to create a place where straight people felt safe coming out and saying, 'It’s okay to be gay,'" he said during his acceptance speech. "And I didn't know one, so we decided we were going to make one and we have. It's gaining momentum and it means the world to me."Anime News Network's coverage of Anime Expo 2017 is sponsored by Aniplex and Yen Press. Anime News Network's coverage of Anime Expo 2017 is sponsored by Aniplex and Yen Press.
Kadokawa announced three new anime titles at its Anime Expo booth on Saturday, and showed promotional videos for all three. The titles are as follows:
Angolmois ( Angolmois: Genkō Kassen-ki ), based on Nanahiko Takagi's manga about a samurai defending Japan against Mongol invaders.
The anime adaptation's staff includes:
The anime is slated for 2018. The manga debuted in 2014 on Kadokawa's ComicWalker app.
Project D, an original time travel anime from director Takuya Satō ( Steins;Gate ) with character designs by Yoshitoshi ABe ( Haibane Renmei, Serial Experiments Lain, Texhnolyze ). Kadokawa describes the story:
When development engineer Delida wakes up in the future from a cold sleep, his girlfriend isn't there... he decides to go back 10 years in time to 'that incident' to keep his promise with her.
The key to get her back is a time leap.
Kadokawa also revealed the staff, English title, and trailer for the of Chio's School Road ( Chio-chan no Tsūgakuro ) anime, based on Kawasaki Tadataka's manga about a girl whose road to school everyday is interrupted by everything from construction to biker gangs to needing to go to the bathroom.
diomedea will animate Chio's School Road and Mayuko Matsumoto ( Kan Colle, Gingitsune ) is designing the characters. The anime is slated for 2018.
Kawasaki launched the manga in Monthly Comic Flapper in 2014, and Kadokawa published the manga's sixth compiled volume on March 23.
Kadokawa also formally announced and debuted a trailer for the anime adaptation of Aneko Yusagi's The Rising of The Shield Hero ( Tate no Yūsha no Nariagari ) fantasy light novel series.
The staff for the anime adaptation includes:
One Peace Books is releasing the novel series and Aiya Kyū's manga adaptation in English. The publisher describes the novels' first compiled book volume:
Naofumi Iwatani, an uncharismatic otaku who spends his days on games and manga, suddenly finds himself summoned to a parallel universe! He discovers he is one of four heroes equipped with legendary weapons and tasked with saving the world from its prophesied destruction. As the Shield Hero, the weakest of the heroes, all is not as it seems. Naofumi is soon alone, penniless, and betrayed. With no one to turn to, and nowhere to run, he is left with only his shield. Now, Naofumi must rise to become the legendary Shield Hero and save the world!
Minami Seira illustrates the novels.
Update: Chio-chan background, Project D synopsis added.Getting the Lead Off
A years-long project to remove highly toxic lead-based paint from 6,000 PG&E transmission towers gets started this summer in Alameda County.
By Scott Morris
Illustration by Minwoo Park
At the end of a narrow, winding street up a steep hill in Orinda, four PG&E workers climbed the lattice of a PG&E transmission tower on a June morning, slathering it with a fresh coat of green paint. They already had carefully stripped the lead-based paint from the tower, and when they’re done, they’ll test the soil below for lead again.
A few days before, they painted another tower across the street. They’ll get to work on another one once they’re done here. In the next few years, PG&E plans to repaint 6,000 of the towers, including more than 1,000 in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
PG&E announced in March that it was ending the use of lead-based paint on its transmission towers. Of the 46,000 towers in its service area—which approximately stretches from Bakersfield to Oregon—6,000 are still coated in lead-based paint, including some dating back to the early 1900s.
Because repainting each tower can take several days, the project is expected to last three to five years. PG&E is prioritizing towers that are closest to people, such as near neighborhoods, parks, and schools. Of the nearly 474 towers still coated in lead-based paint in Alameda County, 85 are in these high-priority areas and will be painted in the next 12 to 18 months, with the work starting this summer.
Three towers in Alameda County are within 500 feet of a school: Lincoln High School in San Leandro, Montera Middle School in Oakland, and William Hopkins Junior High School in Fremont. They will all be repainted this summer while school is out of session, according to PG&E spokesperson Nicole Liebelt.
The fact that PG&E had still been using lead-based paint until recently on its transmission towers is not widely known. The East Bay Times reported on two neighbor complaints of peeling paint from the towers in Contra Costa County in 2015, but aside from that, even environmental groups and PG&E watchdogs were unaware the investor-owned utility was continuing to use lead-based paint.
The health risks of lead-based paint are well documented. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development calls it “highly toxic,” warning that it can cause brain damage when ingested, particularly in young children, leading to learning disabilities, seizures, and even death. The health risks led to the ban of lead-based paint in homes in 1978, but it is still allowed in industrial uses, such as transmission towers.
Lead continues to be an issue in older homes, particularly in Oakland. A Reuters report in December found that Oakland neighborhoods have some of the highest childhood lead levels in the nation, leading the city council to move to beef up its inspection process. Typically, lead exposure comes from chipping house paint in older homes, but lead can also get into the soil so exposure can happen while gardening or when children are playing outside.
While it’s been banned for residential use for decades, the continued use of lead in paint in industrial settings is much more common than most people are aware of, said Perry Gottesfeld, the president of Occupational Knowledge International, a nonprofit organization devoted to mitigating occupational exposures to hazardous materials.
“What shocks people is not just that there’s all these structures in our midst that are coated with lead, but that it’s still legal to recoat these with lead if they wish,” Gottesfeld said.
Lead-based paint might also might be found on water tanks, bridges, and roads. Its use is more common on the East Coast and in the Midwest, according to Gottesfeld, and it has become an issue in New York City recently as lead-based paint chips have been chipping off elevated subway trestles in Queens.
The Golden Gate Bridge’s unique color was originally lead-based paint, but a nearly 30-year project to repaint it with an inorganic zinc silicate primer and vinyl topcoat wrapped up in 1995. While Caltrans hasn’t used lead paint since the early 1970s, some of the structures it owns are still coated with lead paint, raising challenges for renovation and demolition projects. Most recently, Caltrans had to contend with how to keep lead exposures to a minimum when taking down the old eastern span of the Bay Bridge, according to Robert Haus, a Caltrans spokesperson.
BART, too, hasn’t used lead paint in decades. “There isn’t much paint to begin with in our stations as the structures are mostly concrete, but there are a few locations, which have been well maintained, that do have original lead paint in the walls,” Taylor Huckaby, a BART spokesperson, wrote in an email. “However, unless the paint is deteriorating and flaking or in danger of being disturbed due to reconstruction/renovation, it poses little risk.”
Gottesfeld said the costs of working with lead paint are already leading many companies and government agencies to stop using it or voluntarily take on an abatement project, as PG&E is doing.
“It makes no sense to continue to use lead paint because there are substitutes for all of it, and there’s no reason for it anymore.” he said.
He’s written papers about the continued use of lead paint globally, including one published in Frontiers of Public Health in 2015 titled, “Time to Ban Lead in Industrial Paints and Coatings.” In it, he argued for the United States to expand its prohibition on lead-based paint for industrial uses, banning its application on ships, cars, bridges, roadway markings, water towers, and electrical towers like PG&E’s.
“There’s just so many millions of these structures that are in our midst that are coated in lead paint and need to be dealt with,” Gottesfeld said. “I think that PG&E taking a proactive stance is a good thing.”
Containment is key when removing the paint, as chips and dust could fly into the air or fall into the soil. One method of containment is to use a tent to prevent it from flying away along with a tarp on the ground, but PG&E has been using a vacuum to immediately suck it up, and that strategy has been working pretty well, utility officials say. The equipment can’t be used on windy or rainy days, though, limiting when they can work.
Workers are checked daily as they leave the job site for lead exposure and every six months to make sure there’s no long-term exposure, and so far they haven’t had any problems, according to PG&E officials.
PG&E is also testing the soil under towers near homes, schools, and parks, both before the paint removal and after, at a radius of 10 to 15 feet and a depth of six inches. The utility sends each sample for testing to a laboratory and replaces the soil if the lead level is above 80 parts per million—the level set by the state Environmental Protection Agency, which is far more stringent than the federal standard of 400 parts per million.
Published online on July 10, 2017 at 8:00 a.m.Margrethe P. Rask (1930 – 12 December 1977), better known as Grethe Rask, was a Danish physician and surgeon in Zaïre (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). After setting up her own hospital in a village called Abumombazi in 1972, she transferred to Danish Red Cross Hospital in Kinshasa in 1975. She returned to Denmark in 1977 after developing symptoms of an unknown infectious disease, which was later discovered to be AIDS. Three and a half years later in June 1981 the Centers for Disease Control recognized AIDS. Rask was one of the first non-Africans (along with Arvid Noe) known to have died of AIDS-related causes.
Early years and Zaïre (1930–1974) [ edit ]
Born in 1930 in the Danish town of Thisted, Dr. Rask practiced medicine in Zaïre for a brief period in 1964, when she was recalled to Europe for training in stomach surgery and tropical illnesses,[1] and from 1972 to 1977, first at a small local hospital in the Zairian town of Abumombazi, and then at the Danish Red Cross Hospital in Kinshasa starting in 1975. She was likely first exposed to HIV during 1964. Her friend and colleague, Ib Bygbjerg (a physician specializing in communicable diseases), wrote in a 1983 letter to The Lancet that "while working as a surgeon under primitive conditions, she [Rask] must have been heavily exposed to blood and excretions of African patients."[2]
Illness and death (1975–1977) [ edit ]
Rask apparently suffered from symptoms of Pre-AIDS starting in late 1974,[1] including diarrhea, swollen lymph nodes, weight loss, and fatigue. Although the symptoms receded temporarily following drug treatments in 1975,[1] the symptoms later grew considerably worse. Following a vacation in South Africa in July 1977, she could no longer breathe and relied on bottled oxygen.[1] She flew back to Denmark, where tests at Copenhagen's Rigshospitalet discovered she had contracted a number of opportunistic infections, such as Staphylococcus aureus (staph infection), candidiasis (yeast infection), and Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia (PCP, a fungal infection of the lungs formerly known as Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia). Tests also showed that Rask had a nearly non-existent T-cell count, leading to a severely depressed immune system. At the time, the doctors treating Rask were at a loss to explain her disease progression, which in retrospect came to be seen as one of the first cases of AIDS recorded outside Africa.[2]
After numerous tests and unsuccessful treatments, she eventually returned home to her cottage on a fjord in November 1977, where her long-time female partner (a nurse) cared for her. She was called back for more tests in December and returned to the Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen where she remained until she died of AIDS-related Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia on 12 December 1977.[2]
Autopsy and testing [ edit ]
A subsequent autopsy revealed that Rask's lungs were filled with a fungus known as Pneumocystis jiroveci, a rare type of pneumonia that mostly affected people that were immunocompromised and that is today known as a common symptom of AIDS.[2] Rask's blood samples were assayed in Copenhagen in 1984 following extensive research on AIDS.[3][Unreliable fringe source?] The test was done with a very early version of ELISA and tested negative for HIV/AIDS.[3][Unreliable fringe source?] However, two later tests were done in the United States with more advanced assays in 1987; both tested positive.[3][Unreliable fringe source?] Therefore, Rask is one of the first non-Africans to have died of AIDS.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Former feminist Cassie Jaye has experienced a rash of backlash in Australia regarding her documentary, The Red Pill. Her appearance on Sunrise on 7 was no exception.
“I’ve never been treated like I was on Sunrise and also The Project… a lot of people don’t realize, my interview with The Project was heavily edited down,” she explained to Andrew Bolt of Australian news program The Bolt Report. The hosts of Sunrise on 7 immediately jumped in with accusations of how her documentary had been widely panned in Australia “for being anti-women.” The film was referred to as “misogynist propaganda” by the hosts of Australia’s Weekend Sunrise without having seen the film. Host Andrew O’Keefe asked Cassie why she focused on the views of “extreme misogynists.”
The host’s accusation that, “It just seems to me that you don’t really question their views,” was met with a swift and succinct rebuttal by Jaye.
“Did |
climate coverage on Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday, and 40 percent of the climate coverage on ABC's This Week provided false balance. For example:
On the February 16 edition of NBC's Meet the Press, David Gregory hosted Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Bill Nye, "the Science Guy," for a discussion on the politics of climate change and whether extreme weather events can be attributed to climate change. Blackburn argued that "there is not consensus" among the scientific community on climate change and warned against enacting legislation to address climate change based on "hypotheses or theories or unproven sciences." [Media Matters, 7/21/14]
A later segment on the same show featured the Cato Institute's Patrick Michaels denying the impacts of climate change on extreme weather. Michaels claimed that once adjustments are made for increased global population, "there's no change in weather-related damages" attributable to climate change. [NBC, Meet the Press, 2/16/14 via Nexis]
On its February 16 show, Fox News Sunday hosted a panel discussion comprised of frequent climate misinformer George Will and others dismissing the scientific consensus on climate change. During the segment, Will said that he doesn't "buy" the president's focus on global warming because "the climate is always changing," and Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel argued that the term "global warming" became "climate change" because "you couldn't prove that there was much global warming anymore... as the temperature didn't change." [Fox News Sunday, 2/16/14, via Media Matters]
ABC's This Week provided North Carolina Gov. Pat McCory a platform to deny the scientific consensus that human activity has been the main cause of the current global warming trend. When host George Stephanopoulos asked McCrory whether he truly believed his past statement that "climate change is in God's hands," McCrory deflected from answering the question, stating, "I think the big debate is how much of it is manmade and how much it will just naturally happen as Earth evolves." [This Week, 2/16/14 via Nexis]
Despite Overall Increase In Networks' Climate Coverage, Coverage On Nightly News Programs Dropped
Nightly News Shows' Total Climate Coverage Decreased, But Remained Around Six-Year Average. Combined coverage of climate change on the major networks' nightly news programs decreased from 2013 to 2014 but remained around the average for the last six years. Scientific findings and climate change's impacts on extreme weather events or wildlife were the two most frequent topics of coverage on the nightly news programs, making up approximately 49 percent and 32 percent of their climate change coverage, respectively.
CBS' Evening News Program Outpaced Other Networks. Among the nightly news programs, CBS Evening News devoted the most airtime to climate change with roughly 35 minutes. CBS Evening News also featured scientists in its coverage the most, interviewing or quoting scientists 11 times in its 22 climate-related segments.
Climate Coverage On NBC Nightly News Dropped Drastically, But Was Still More Extensive Than ABC's World News Tonight. After leading the major networks with roughly 52 minutes of climate change coverage in 2013, NBC Nightly News decreased its coverage by more than half to about 25 minutes. But NBC Nightly News still devoted more airtime to climate change than ABC's World News Tonight, which aired roughly 13 minutes of climate coverage. Fox Broadcasting Co. does not have a nightly news program.
Methodology
This report analyzes coverage of "climate change" or "global warming" between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2014, on four Sunday morning talk shows (ABC's This Week, CBS' Face the Nation, NBC's Meet the Press, and Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday) and three nightly news programs (ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News). Fox Broadcasting Co. airs Fox News Sunday but does not air a nightly news equivalent; Fox News is a separate cable channel. Our analysis includes any segment devoted to climate change, as well as any substantial mention (more than one paragraph of a news transcript and/or a definitive statement about climate change). Timestamps were acquired from IQ Media and the Internet Archive's online database and were applied generously for nightly news segments. For instance, if a nightly news segment about an extreme weather event mentioned climate change briefly, the entire segment was counted as climate coverage. However, for the Sunday shows, which often feature wide-ranging discussions on multiple topics, we only used the relevant portion of such conversations. All coverage figures have been rounded to the nearest minute.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
COLLINSVILLE, IL (KTVI) – The Collinsville mom behind a viral Facebook post spoke to Fox 2/News 11 Wednesday.
Her son, Hunter, 4, has been suspended from his preschool for bringing a shell casing from a fired bullet to school.
He’d been at the preschool for about a year, she said, and now was in tears.
Neither she nor Hunter's dad knew it, but he found something he thought was pretty neat and he took it to school Tuesday to show his friends.
“This is a spent.22 caliber bullet casing,” Kristy Jackson said, holding the object that got Hunter into so much trouble.
“I was met with a stone-faced teacher who said that my son had a shotgun bullet. I was horrified thinking, ‘where could he have gotten this?’” Jackson said, recalling when she picked up Hunter from the preschool in Troy, IL, Tuesday.
Hunter’s parents got a letter from the school’s director saying Hunter had been suspended for 7 days. The letter says they’d repeatedly been reminded about Hunter using other toys as make believe guns, in violation of school policy including Monday, when Jackson picked Hunter up from the preschool, the day before the shell casing incident.
The school’s vice-president told Fox 2 the suspension was for more than the shell casing; that the school was simply following its discipline policy. He said he couldn’t go into further detail, citing confidentiality concerns.
“He’s cried about it and he doesn’t understand why his school hates him,” Jackson said of her son.
Her Facebook post about it being shared across the country.
It turns out the casing came from a visit with Hunter’s grandpa who is a Caseyville police officer, Jackson said.
He’s made it a point to teach Hunter about hunting and responsible gun use at a young age.
“[Hunter] just was wandering around in a field and picked up and put it in his pocket and didn’t tell his parents…it’s paranoia. It’s something that’s become quite an epidemic where guns are automatically assumed that they’re bad…and I’m not sure how a 7-day suspension teaches my son anything about tolerance or anything about why he was wrong. It just means his school doesn’t want him there because of things he enjoys,” Jackson said.
The school's vice-president e-mailed her that he was notifying the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). He confirmed that to Fox 2 but said since A Place 2 Grow was licensed by DCFS, DCFS needed to be notified.
Jackson said she was not sure if Hunter will return after the suspension.Top 10 Node.JS Articles for the Past Month. (v.May)
Mybridge Blocked Unblock Follow Following May 11, 2016
We’ve observed 800 useful Node.JS articles posted and updated in April 2016 and sized down to 10.
800 -> 10. This is a competitive list with 1.25% chance to get in. Remind you that the initial 800 were reasonably good content that were allowed in Mybridge database after filtering out a pile of useless and spammy content.
Mybridge AI ranks the quality of content across the internet, considering multiple factors to determine how useful the content are for programmers. Our goal is to provide you with the very best content so that you can save time and get better at work.
Hopefully, you’ll find these techniques, methods and resources in this condensed list useful for improving your Node.JS skill.
Top 10 for JavaScript, ReactJS and Angular 2.0 are all separated out in order to make this curation more specific to learning pure Node.JS. If you’re looking for free JS ebooks, follow this link.We finally got the Blind boxes in my countryNot counting the Discord I was given as a gft, the first Blind Box pony I bought myself I got Black Fluttershy. :3I actually had the roughs of this pose for a while and didn't know what to do with it, but I liked it so much so instead of scrapping it to use later, so I used it here... so of course I use it for a black pony where a lot of its details are lost XD;;; I'll upload an Alt version tomorrow with her canon colours I think.Anyway, Black Fluttershy :'3 I think I'll see if they have any more and buy another box this weekend or something if I can.I only have Discord (who is now friends with tiny Blind-bag Fluttershy), Black Fluttershy and Glow in the dark Derpy.Two drawings in one day... I need to go to bed now XD;; work tomorrow.Original colours:I have been a fan of science fiction for more than twenty years, since my parents introduced me to Star Wars some time in 1991. Since then, I’ve become obsessed to varying degrees with shows including Star Trek, Babylon 5, Farscape, Battlestar Galactica, and others. The infinite realm of possibilities presented through these stories has great appeal to me — but I’ve loved different shows for different reasons. I love Star Trek for its optimistic tone and its incredibly detailed universe. Farscape caught my eye because of its refreshing, casual tone and the writers’ willingness to take risks in order to produce an exciting, entertaining series. And Babylon 5 stole my heart with its stirring, inspiring, all-encompassing series arc about the conflict between Order and Chaos.
Generally, I don’t buy into most of the incessant crossover debates that frequently rage on certain sci-fi bulletin boards. Rather than waste time proving that the Imperial Star Destroyer can blast Kirk’s Enterprise into molten slag, I prefer to enjoy each story based on the merits of its own setting and plot. That’s not to say that I haven’t occasionally speculated about the results of cross-series encounters — I’d love to see Babylon 5’s Shadows go head-to-head with a Borg Cube someday. (Imagine the spectacular effects for that encounter!) But I remember that each series is based around its own quasi-scientific principles. Although an antimatter warp core may be the most powerful reactor in Star Trek, there’s no telling how that might compare to the Minbari’s quantum singularity core or a Leviathan’s hetch drive. Since the entire technological background is fictional anyway, the writers can simply make up any solution that they wish for the sake of the plot.
Although I’m not that interested in the technological comparisons between series, I’ve occasionally wondered about how a certain starship would compare in size to those of another series. When Farscape’s John Crichton first saw Moya, he exclaimed, “That’s big.... really big.” The question is, just how big is “big”? So I started to gather a list of the sizes of various science fiction ships. Star Trek and Babylon 5 were easy, because those are some of the best-documented as far as the sizes of (most) of the ships are concerned. (And of course, I live on those kind of size discussions at message boards like the Flare Sci-Fi Forums. Just don’t ask anyone how long the Defiant is... trust me.)
There are plenty of fans out there who have worked up all kinds of comparison charts on their own. From Jeff Russell’s fantastic interactive comparison chart and Graham Kennedy’s venerable configurable comparison list to Bernd Schneider’s definitive size reference table and annotated list (which most others — including myself — cite as the primary source), there’s no shortage of choices out there.
But the one thing that very few of those charts has ever done is to include non-canon fan designs alongside the original canon starships. I decided to create one all-encompassing chart that would include many (if not quite all) of the Star Trek ships that are out there. The charts available below include those created by the Advanced Starship Design Bureau, Masao Okazaki at the Starfleet Museum, and Star Trek: Renaissance, the fan fiction series of which I was once a part.
I originally started this project as a side project, to fulfill my own curiosity for how the ships stacked up. But when I started checking the statistics for visitors to this site, I discovered that it had become one of the most popular pages on Star Trek Minutiae! And I’ve even found copies of it floating around elsewhere on the web. So, here’s the original cross-sci-fi starship reference!
Star Trek Comparison Charts
Pre-Federation Starships (to 2161)
1px = 1m • Updated 2016-08-30 Federation Starships (2161-2300)
1px = 1m • Updated 2015-05-11 Federation Starships (2300-2380)
1px = 1m • Updated 2015-02-25 Alien Starships, Part 1
1px = 1m • Updated 2015-02-25 Alien Starships, Part 2
1px = 1m • Updated 2015-02-25 Alien Starships, Large
1px = 5m • Updated 2015-02-25 Space Stations & Huge Starships
1px = 20m • Updated 2015-02-25 Shuttlecraft & Small Starships
10px = 1m • Updated 2016-08-30 Alternate Timeline
1px = 1m • Updated 2016-08-30 Alternate Timeline (EAS Sizes)
1px = 1m • Updated 2016-08-30 Discovery Starships
1px = 1m • Updated 2018-07-13
General Sci-Fi Comparison Charts
Small
10px = 1m • Updated 2018-07-13 Medium
1px = 1m • Updated 2018-07-13 Large
1px = 10m • Updated 2018-07-13 Huge
1px = 100m • Updated 2018-07-13
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you send me a poster-sized version of your chart? If such a thing existed, I would have published it already. Consider that the vast majority of the images that I’ve used were drawn solely for viewing on a computer screen; they’re very low-resolution and would be incredibly grainy if printed for a poster. It’s simply not possible to make a poster-sized chart. Why doesn’t your chart include [insert your favorite ship] from [insert your favorite series]? Most likely an omission is either because it’s not a sci-fi series that I watched regularly, or else I could not find any images appropriate for my chart. In either case, the only way I could consider your request is if you can point me to a decent-quality side view image of the ship that you’d like me to add. I don’t have time to do research for every little wish list, especially for shows I’m not familiar with. You got the wrong size for [insert your favorite ship]! More likely I’ve used a size that you don’t agree with. There’s lots of conflicting information for many different ships out there. As a result, I’ve often had to choose the measurement that I considered more appropriate. However, I’m certainly willing to consider alternative size figures, if you can send me some evidence. But what about the Death Star? That’s too obvious to miss! First, the Death Star is so friggin’ huge that it doesn’t fit on even the largest chart I’ve made. And that’s even for the low-ball estimate of the size, which brings me to my second point: No one can agree just how big the Death Stars actually were, so there’s no point in doing their sizes.
Size References
I’m also currently working on a bibliography for all of the artists who created the various starship images featured in these charts.Deli owner douses customer in coffee Copyright by KRQE - All rights reserved Video
ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Times Square Deli in Albuquerque has always been known for its sizzling cuisine, but now it's known for a sizzling argument. University of New Mexico student Kyton Blair says the owner of the deli attacked him this week after he told him he didn't like his food.
"As I'm walking out, I drop the food on the floor and I say hey I don't want your nasty food anyway and he comes around and throws hot coffee on me," said Blair.
Blair claims he was eating at the deli early Tuesday morning when the owner asked him how his sandwich tasted.
"After he finish, he has one bite and he tells me it's not good," said Times Square Deli Owner Manny Nesheiwat.
Nesheiwat says he immediately made Blair another sandwich then politely asked him to leave.
"I say please don't come here no more because you accuse my food, no good. Have a good day," he said.
Blair remembers the encounter differently.
"He says don't ever say that my food is past due again, get the f*** out of here and never come back," said Blair.
Blair says he felt threatened, so he threw his new sandwich on the ground and started to walk out of the restaurant. Then, things got heated.
"I had coffee, but cold coffee, it was from the morning and I throw it at him because he messed up my floor in front of the people and he was cursing at me," said Nesheiwat.
Blair says he was covered in the coffee. KRQE News 13 asked Nesheiwat if he thought it was okay to toss the coffee on Blair.
"Well, it was not right, but he messed up all my floor," he said.
Blair says he never plans on going back to the deli. Nesheiwat says he's hoping the coffee clash doesn't hurt business.
Police responded to the incident. No charges have been filed, yet.Turkish society cannot deal with this many refugees: Bundestag vice chair
İpek Yezdani - BERLIN
A Syrian family waits after arriving on the Greek island of Lesbos along with other migrants and refugees, on November 17, 2015, after crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey. AFP Photo
The vice president of Germany’s Bundestag has deeply criticized her government’s bargaining with Turkey in an attempt to persuade Turkey to agree to a migrant action plan in return for the carrot of greater visa liberalization.“I am criticizing very much our government: How can one make a deal with Turkey which will have the consequences that there will be even more refugees in Turkey? How can Turkish society deal with this big a number of men, women and children, and how can you integrate all these refugees into Turkish society?” Claudia Roth said.German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged to give support to four Turkish demands on which Ankara has insisted in return for agreeing to a migrant action plan with the European Union during a visit to Turkey on Oct. 18.Roth criticized this offer when she met a group of Turkish journalists at the Bundestag in Berlin last week.Roth said she feared the number of migrants coming to Turkey from Syria would increase following foreign military operations in Syria.“There will be more refugees from Syria and Iraq, too. Also there are more refugees coming from Afghanistan in which there is a humanitarian tragedy. Giving money to Turkey, giving some promises to Turkey, making some kind of election campaign that might be misused in the favor of the AK Party [Justice and Development Party] for the closing of the border... I think the price is too high for Turkey, too high for the refugees and too high for the EU,” Roth said.Roth also said she had been shocked by the increasing pressure on press freedom in Turkey in recent months.“Turkey is a member of the Council of Europe and the base of this is also civic rights and freedom of press. Freedom of press is a basic human right. You need water and bread to survive, and you need freedom of press to survive. If there is no freedom of press, then there is no democracy,” she said.Roth, who is a member of the Green Party in the German parliament, said her party had categorically criticized Merkel’s visit to Turkey in the run-up to the Nov. 1 elections in the country.“We had a very critical debate in parliament about the fact that freedom of the press is in prison in Turkey. There was a very critical approach that our chancellor went to Ankara one week before the election. This was based on the refugee question only,” she said.Roth said they had also criticized the fact that the European Commission did not publish a progress report on Turkey’s accession process before the Nov. 1 elections as scheduled.“The report was ready and it was quite clear. There were two important points in this report. The first point was to thank Turkey and Turkish society for the fact that Turkey received the highest number of refugees in the world. But the negative aspect of this report was stressing the facts that civic rights and freedom of expression have been dramatically reduced and the independence of the juridical system doesn’t exist anymore,” Roth said.Roth said there was a kind of polarization in Turkish society which she has never seen in the last 20 years. “There is ‘we, the AKP’ and ‘the others.’ This is black and white, and there is no intention of bringing society together.”P. D. Q. Bach is a fictitious composer invented by musical satirist "Professor" Peter Schickele. Schickele developed a five-decade-long career, performing the "discovered" works of the "only forgotten son" of the Bach family. Schickele's music combines parodies of musicological scholarship, the conventions of Baroque and classical music, and slapstick. The name "P. D. Q." is a parody of the three-part names given to some members of the Bach family that are commonly reduced to initials, such as C. P. E., for Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. PDQ is an initialism for "pretty damned quick".
Schickele began working on the character while studying at the Aspen Music Festival and School and at Juilliard,[1] and has performed a variety of P. D. Q. Bach shows over the years. The Village Voice mentions the juxtaposition of collage, bitonality, musical satire, and orchestral surrealism in a "bizarre melodic stream of consciousness". "In P.D.Q. Bach he has single-handedly mapped a musical universe that everyone knew was there and no one else had the guts (not simply the bad taste) to explore."[2] As of 2012 he has decreased touring due to age. He performed two concerts to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his first concert at The Town Hall in New York on December 28 and 29, 2015,[3] and continues to give live concert performances.[4]
Biography [ edit ]
Schickele gives a humorous fictional biography of the composer[5] according to which P. D. Q. Bach was born in Leipzig on April 1, 1742,[6] the son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Anna Magdalena Bach; the twenty-first of Johann's twenty children.[5] He is also referred to as "the youngest and oddest of Johann Sebastian’s 20-odd children."[7] He died May 5, 1807,[8] though his birth and death years are often listed on album literature in reverse, as "(1807–1742)?".[9] According to Schickele, P. D. Q. "possessed the originality of Johann Christian, the arrogance of Carl Philipp Emanuel, and the obscurity of Johann Christoph Friedrich."[5](p23)
Music [ edit ]
Schickele's works attributed to P. D. Q. Bach often incorporate comical rearrangements of well-known works of other composers. The works use instruments not normally used in orchestras, such as the bagpipes, slide whistle, kazoo, and fictional or experimental instruments such as the pastaphone (made of uncooked manicotti),[10] tromboon,[11] hardart, lasso d'amore,[12] and left-handed sewer flute.
Tromboon
There is often a startling juxtaposition of styles within a single P. D. Q. Bach piece. The Prelude to Einstein on the Fritz, which alludes to Philip Glass' opera Einstein on the Beach, provides an example. The underlying music is J.S. Bach's first prelude from The Well-Tempered Clavier, but at double the normal speed, with each phrase repeated interminably in a minimalist manner that parodies Glass's. On top of this mind-numbing structure is added everything from jazz phrases to snoring to heavily harmonized versions of "Three Blind Mice" to the chanting of a meaningless phrase ("Koy Hotsy-Totsy," alluding to the art film Koyaanisqatsi for which Glass wrote the score). Through all these mutilations, the piece never deviates from Bach's original harmonic structure.[13]
The humor in P. D. Q. Bach music often derives from violation of audience expectations, such as repeating a tune more than the usual number of times, resolving a musical chord later than usual or not at all, unusual key changes, excessive dissonance, or sudden switches from high art to low art.[14] Further humor is obtained by replacing parts of certain classical pieces with similar common songs, such as the opening of Brahms' Symphony No. 2 with "Beautiful Dreamer", or rewriting Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture as the 1712 Overture, with "Yankee Doodle" replacing Tchaikovsky's melody, and "Pop Goes the Weasel" replacing "La Marseillaise".
Compositional periods [ edit ]
Schickele divides P. D. Q. Bach's fictional musical output into three periods: the Initial Plunge, the Soused Period, and Contrition. During the Initial Plunge, P. D. Q. Bach wrote the Traumerei for solo piano, an Echo Sonata for "two unfriendly groups of instruments", and a Gross Concerto for Divers Flutes, two Trumpets, and Strings. During the Soused (or Brown-Bag) Period, P. D. Q. Bach wrote a Concerto for Horn & Hardart, a Sinfonia Concertante, a Pervertimento for Bicycle, Bagpipes, and Balloons, a Serenude, a Perückenstück (literally German for "Hairpiece"), a Suite from The Civilian Barber (spoofing Rossini's The Barber of Seville), a Schleptet in E-flat major, the half-act opera The Stoned Guest (the character of "The Stone Guest" from Mozart's Don Giovanni), a Concerto for Piano vs. Orchestra, Erotica Variations (Beethoven's Eroica Variations), Hansel and Gretel and Ted and Alice, an opera in one unnatural act (Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel and the 1969 film Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice), The Art of the Ground Round (Bach's The Art of Fugue), a Concerto for Bassoon vs. Orchestra, and a Grand Serenade for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion.[5]
During the Contrition Period, P. D. Q. Bach wrote the cantata Iphigenia in Brooklyn (Gluck's Iphigenia in Aulis, etc.), the oratorio The Seasonings (Haydn's The Seasons), Diverse Ayres on Sundrie Notions, a Sonata for Viola Four Hands,[15] the chorale prelude Should, a Notebook for Betty Sue Bach (Bach's Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach and Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue"), the Toot Suite, the Grossest Fugue (Beethoven's Grosse Fuge), a Fanfare for the Common Cold (Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man) and the canine cantata Wachet Arf! (Bach's Wachet auf).[5]
A final work is the mock religious work Missa Hilarious (Beethoven's Missa Solemnis) (Schickele no. N 2 O – the chemical formula of nitrous oxide or "laughing gas").[16]
Tromboon [ edit ]
Tromboon example Problems playing this file? See media help.
Tromboon detail; the bassoon reed is on the left
The tromboon is a musical instrument made up of the reed and bocal of a bassoon, attached to the body of a trombone in place of the trombone's mouthpiece. It combines the sound of double reeds and the slide for a distinctive and unusual instrument. The name of the instrument is a portmanteau of "trombone" and "bassoon". The sound quality of the instrument is best described as comical and loud.
The tromboon was developed by Peter Schickele, a skilled bassoonist himself, and featured in some of his live concert and recorded performances. Schickele called it "a hybrid – that's the nicer word – constructed from the parts of a bassoon and a trombone; it has all the disadvantages of both".[17][18] This instrument is called for in the scores of P. D. Q. Bach's oratorio The Seasonings,[19] as well as the Serenude (for devious instruments) and Shepherd on the Rocks, With a Twist.[citation needed]
Recordings [ edit ]
Audiobook Title Year The Definitive Biography of P.D.Q. Bach 1996
Awards [ edit ]
Four of the Telarc P. D. Q. Bach recordings received Grammy awards in the Best Comedy Recording category. These were the four albums released from 1989 until 1992.[20] Schickele also received a Grammy nomination in the Best Comedy Album category in 1996 for his abridged audiobook edition of The Definitive Biography of P. D. Q. Bach.[21]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]“The Russians had a more realistic analysis of the situation than practically anybody else,” said Lakhdar Brahimi, the former United Nations Special Envoy to Syria. “Everyone should have listened to the Russians a little bit more than they did.”
Brahimi was referring to the Russian offer in 2012 to end the growing civil war in Syria by forcing the country’s dictator, Bashar al-Assad, to leave power. The Russian proposal went before the UN Security Council, but the United States, Britain and France were so convinced that Assad was about to fall anyway that they turned it down. Why let the Russians take the credit?
So Assad is still in power, several hundred thousand more Syrians have died, and millions more have fled. But Brahimi’s comments are still relevant, because the Russians are still right.
Finally, very reluctantly, the United States is coming around to the long-standing Russian position that the secular Baathist regime in Syria must survive, as part of some compromise peace deal that everybody except the Islamist extremists will accept (although nobody will love it).
It’s the Baathist regime’s secular character that makes it so important. Its leadership is certainly dominated by the Alawite (Shia) minority, but it has much broader popular support because all Syria’s non-Muslim minorities, Christian and Druze, see it as their only protection from Islamist extremists. Many Sunni Muslims, especially in the cities, see it the same way. They also see it as the one Arab government in the region that has always defied Israel.
The deal that the Russians could have delivered in 2012 would have ditched Bashar al-Assad but left the Baathist regime in place, while compelling it to broaden its base, dilute Alawite influence, and stop torturing and murdering its opponents. An over-confident West rejected that deal, while its local “allies”, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, gave weapons and money to the Islamist rebels who aimed to replace the Baathists with a Sunni Muslim theocracy.
Fast forward to 2015, and by mid-summer the Islamist forces, mainly Islamic State and al-Qaeda, control more than a third of Syria’s territory. The exhausted Syrian army is retreating every time it is attacked (Palmyra, Idlib, etc.), and it’s clear to Moscow that all of Syria will fall to the Islamists unless Russia intervenes militarily. So it does.
When the Russian air force started attacking the Syrian rebels on Sept. 30 last year, Western propaganda went into high gear to condemn it. Russian President Vladimir Putin “doesn’t distinguish between ISIL (Islamic State) and a moderate Sunni opposition that wants to see Mr. Assad go,” said US president Barack Obama. “From (the Russian perspective) they’re all terrorists — and that’s a recipe for disaster.”
All America’s sidekicks said the same thing. “These (Russian) military actions constitute a further escalation and will only fuel more radicalisation and extremism,” said France, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the US and Britain in a joint statement on 2 October.
The Russians simply ignored the Western propaganda and went on bombing until they had stopped the Islamist advances and stabilised the front. Then they proposed a ceasefire.
The brutal truth is that there is no “moderate Sunni opposition” in Syria any more. Almost all of the remaining “moderate” groups have been forced into alliances with al-Qaeda’s local franchise, the Nusra Front, and the deal that the Russians might have brokered in 2012 is no longer available. The ceasefire they proposed in late 2015 deliberately left the Islamist groups out — and the United States (better late than never) went along with it.
That ceasefire has now been in effect for more than three months, and although there are many violations it has significantly lowered the level of violence in Syria. In the longer term, the Russians might be able to produce sufficient changes in the Baathist regime (including Assad’s departure) that some of the non-Islamist fighting groups might break their alliances with al-Qaeda and accept an amnesty from Damascus.
Maybe even the Islamist-controlled areas can be re-conquered eventually. Or maybe not: it’s a bit late for a peace settlement that preserves Syria’s territorial integrity. But at least the US State Department has finally abandoned the fantasy of a “moderate” rebel force that could defeat both the regime and the Islamist rebels in Syria, and instead is going along with the Russian strategy.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has wisely given US Secretary of State John Kerry equal billing in the ceasefire initiative, and there has been no crowing in Moscow about the Americans finally seeing the light.
Great states never admit mistakes, so there will be no apology from Washington for all the anti-Russian propaganda of the past year. But it is enough that the US government has actually changed its tune, and that there is a little bit of hope for Syria.
Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries.Like many of you, when I heard this I thought it had to be a headline from The Onion. But sadly I've realized that there are too many agri-businesses and politicians who are willing to allow our childhood obesity epidemic to continue. They don't care that our military is telling us that young people are too fat to fight, with only one in four meeting the fitness requirements for military service. They don't care that one in three children under the age of 18 will develop Type II Diabetes within their lifetime. They don't care that the rate of childhood obesity has doubled since 1980.
The United States has taken some small but important steps to improve nutritional standards for school lunches, which is the second largest food program in the country. Now the battle has taken a turn for the worse. Congress is poised to intervene to make sure that pizza continues to count as a vegetable and that we protect the privileged status of French fries on the lunch tray.
The people who defend unhealthy food in school nutrition programs cite issues of cost, waste, and -- unbelievably -- health.
I don't have anything against pizza, but it's common sense that you don't need calorie-laden pizza crust to deliver nutrients. And waste is not a product of giving people healthy choices. I invite anybody to come with me to visit Abernathy school in Portland, Oregon, where parents, students, and faculty have combined to have a vegetable drive -- an innovative food program where kids grow the food themselves, study it, prepare it, and eat it. As a result they are healthier and happier.
Come to the University of Portland where Bon Appétit, an innovative food service supplier, has cut waste by 70% while providing more and healthier choices.
The cost argument is the most bogus. We are talking about perhaps as much as 14 cents a meal.
That is less than Congress spends on subsidies for oil and gas companies each year. We could produce $25 to $30 billion in savings from direct payments, payments that usually go to large agribusiness conglomerates. Or, if we reform crop insurance to stop the obscene process of giving more to insurance agents than to farmers, we could save another $8 billion to $12 billion.
This is entirely within our capacity. If Congress goes along with this travesty and blames it on cost, shame on us.
The need to protect our children's health has never been clearer. The costs have never been more manageable. Indeed, better school nutrition will more than pay for itself in prevented healthcare costs.When he told me he was a magician I didn’t really believe him. His friend told me he was also a psychic, I didn’t believe him either. I took them both for slightly drunk people coming to the conclusion of their evening. After a few tricks involving cards, coins and spoons I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard of him before.
“I travel a lot to do magic. I’m single, but I do have pets. I have a bird, a snake, and a mouse. But I never use animals in my magic though.”
“Why not?”
“They are terrible performers because they are always so tired because I forget to feed them until late. ”
Saikeman will be performing at Zanpa Jam Nov 9. 2014 if you’d like to see some of his close up magic. Click HERE to find out more information on him.
AdvertisementsA recent gathering of American Reform rabbis in Jerusalem was meant to celebrate the small gains the liberal Jewish movement has made in Israel in recent years. But a series of comments by Israeli officials denigrating the group marred the event, reflecting an awkward relationship that many fear is alienating the world's second-largest Jewish community from Israel.
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The |
Chief Inspector Paul Sabulao, commander of the Arellano police station said.
The News5 tally of violent deaths:
Sta Cruz- 5
Malate- 3
Ermita- 1
Sampaloc- 2
Mesa- 1
Gat Andres-1
Ana Hospital-3
Ospital ng Maynila-4
Seven of the fatalities died on the spot. The rest were rushed to hospitals but eventually died.
WATCH THE NEWS5 REPORT:For nearly a century, Thailand has cultivated their national form of combat, molding what was unarmed military self defense into a viable professional sport, and proving along the way that their style of stand-up fighting is one of the most durable and enduring forms of violence.
A cultural phenomenon and high at the list of things to see for the discerning tourist visiting Thailand, Muay Thai has caught on around the globe, with many organizations purporting to have ‘World' champions and various variations of the sport staging bouts every week and a good level of competition in the United States and Europe.
And yet, there is only one place to see the crème de la crème compete, and that is Bangkok, recently found to be the most visited capital city in the World.
So even with Muay Thai being seen by many international visitors to Thailand why hasn't the buzz been carried home with them? Admittedly Muay Thai isn't the easiest sport to follow for the Westerner for a number of reasons.
Lack of TV broadcasting in the West? Check.
Seemingly unpronounceable names of which the spelling changes depending on who's in charge of the Romanisation? Check.
A scoring system that seems completely alien to anyone raised on Western boxing? Check.
Dominated by one nation to the point it appears a minor regional sport? Check.
Annoying music playing through the fight? Check.
While the fights themselves don't generate as much online traffic as boxing and mixed martial arts do, there is no problem Muay Thai, or Thai Boxing, lacking name recognition.
With new attention being diverted towards the East with the incorporation of Thai techniques into the regimen of any MMA fighter worth his salt, it can be sensibly argued that Muay Thai is the second most successful home grown export after rice.
But this has happened before, and foreigners learning and using Muay Thai didn't bring much international attention to the Bangkok fight scene itself.
The First Invasion & Kickboxing Boom
The outward expansion started nearly thirty years ago, when Jean Claude Van Damme's cult 'classic' movie 'Kickboxer', shot in Thailand, made the quintessentially Thai style more visible to the wider World.
An international boom followed in the late 80s and early 90s, and saw a migration of nasty French and Dutchman to the Far East to test their mettle and further their ability to dish out bone crunching savagery.
However, the Japanese had got there first, sending their best Karetekas to Thailand in the 60s, with mixed results (there is talk of some Japanese beating Thai's but aren't much in the way of concrete sources, and videos show the Japanese being badly outmatched)
Learning what was needed to turn their rigid kata based martial art into a sport, the Japanese developed Kyokushin, a full-contact Karate sport, and sent their men back, culminating in Toshio Fujiwara becoming the first non-Thai to win a major title.
At the start of the 90s, K-1, a professional kickboxing organization which came out of Kyokushin, was big business in Japan and internationally but focusing on larger fighters and within the confines of a rule set that was much easier for the Western fight fan to grasp.
At the start of the new millennium, K-1 branched out into promoting warriors on the lower end of the scale with their 'MAX' imprint, and made a bona fide Thai superstar out of Buakaw Por Pramuk when he won the K-1 title.
Buakaw Banchamek/Por Pramuk via wikimedia
With K-1 dissolving with financial woes, kickboxing needed a big player to carry the torch, and as of late GLORY has been just that. Seeing a huge upsurge in interest in it's product, GLORY has signed a long term deal with Spike TV, which is where the UFC started its journey to mainstream success and now where Bellator Fighting Championships calls its home.
Then why hasn't Muay Thai lit a fire among insatiable fight fans as a spectator sport whereas kickboxing has?
Why pay for midgets?
What pushed both K-1 and GLORY closer to the mainstream was its emphasis on bigger fighters, which, like it or not, is easier to sell. Even the aforementioned Buakaw Por Pramuk was at the top end of Thai weight classes, and had the requisite size to cross over with foreign audiences. To give you an idea of Buakaw's crossover popularity, the highest viewed Buakaw video on youtube has over four millions views, and the next four highest rated clips all have over two million, whereas the highest views for a video featuring Muay Thai superstar Saenchai Sor Kingstar has only five hundred thousand. There is one video with Saenchai that has nearly hit two millions, but that is a jovial spar with Buakaw!
With the UFC's smaller weight classes still yet to truly break through with the masses and see large PPV numbers (Urijah Faber excluded) you'd be forgiven for not haven given Muay Thai your time thus far. Bloody Elbow's own Mookie Alexander touched on this recently when discussing UFC flyweight Demetrious Johnson:
It all goes back to not liking small people. We're a big country with big people and big beliefs and big food and a big penis of a state. We see Johnson and think "I could crush him" because he's so tiny and unassuming.
But it can't just be because they're small? Michael Carbajal and Humberto ‘Chiquita' Gonzalez raked in millions fighting for boxings light flyweight titles, and Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera were as popular as anyone on HBO at super bantamweight. In recent years, Israel Vasquez and Rafael Marquez received a huge amount of buzz for their wars and got the high production values of Showtime for a documentary about their trilogy.
This should prove that action and talent can overcome a perceived weakness with smaller fighters, but it's not that simple.
Mexican fighters have a huge following not just in their native countries but with the large Mexican-American audience in the U.S. They've also showed over the years to be synonymous with action, and are therefore an easy sell. Secondary to the Latino fanbase, the Filipino-American contingent has been important to Manny Pacquiao's rise to stardom in the last decade, although he piggy backed off demolition jobs on the aforementioned Mexican stars.
But no one's asking you to put down your hard-earned green to see Bangkok's finest wage war. With YouTube being the primary viewing source for many a fight fan in our time, Muay Thai has never been so accessible. Both Muay Ties and Live Muay Thai Guy bring the fights to you for free, and with the best fighting the best week in, week out (reminiscent of the golden age of pugilism) there are many reasons to start following the sport.
This series of articles will break the sport down bit by bit, and by the end of it will hopefully allow a new combat sport into your life.
Before we can delve into the sport and the fighters that make it the great spectacle it is, it's necessary to know just what's at stake. In the second part of this series we will look at the landscape of Muay Thai and the path a fighter must take to reach the big stage in Bangkok.
Until then, here is the very best fights of this year so far. Technical? Yes. Dramatic? Yes. Balls to the wall violence? Yes. I implore anyone who's read this far to check this scrap out, as it will make a believer out of you. Go in blind, you don't need to know the intricacies of the rules just yet, a war such as this transcends cultures and language.Details Published on Wednesday, January 28 2015 09:41 Written by Johnny M
'Loki: Agent of Asgard', 'Magneto' & 'Captain America & The Mighty Avengers' Begin Their LAST DAYS Story Arcs!
New York, NY—January 28th, 2015— The skies fracture. The ground trembles. The end of all they know is coming. Heroes, Gods of Mischief and Masters of Magnetism who have faced annihilation more times than they could count and walked away. Only this time, there is no walking away. Today, Marvel is pleased to present the first issues of three blockbuster LAST DAYS stories, leading in to the highly-anticipated Secret Wars. Beginning in May, be there as your favorite Marvel heroes face their final hours, and the obliteration of the Marvel Universe!
First, Al Ewing and Luke Ross bring you a story of the people who faced the end of the world together, shoulder to shoulder in the face of destruction in CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE MIGHTY AVENGERS #8. Some of them wore costumes, and some of them didn’t. Some of them had super-human powers, and all some had were each other. Yet they were all Mighty Avengers in the end. And this is how they spent their last day.
Then, ask yourself – what will your legacy be when it’s all over? Cullen Bunn and Javi Fernandez have the answers in MAGNETO #18. The Mutant Master of Magnetism has learned his time is all but spent. A life of struggle and torment brought to a cataclysmic end at the destruction of all things. With everything he’s fought for his whole life brought to its unavoidable ending, how will he cope? Will he celebrate his legacy – or be tormented by it?
Finally, the end of the Marvel Universe extends into Asgard and beyond as all the Ten Realms face their final hours in LOKI: AGENT OF ASGARD #14. Al Ewing and Lee Garbett bring you the curtain call of the God of Mischief. Ancient enemies march on Asgardia seeking their final vengeance – including King Loki, meaner, madder and more dangerous than before. Where is our Loki? What tragedy has befallen him, here at the end?
Before Secret Wars can begin, the Marvel Universe must end. And it all starts this May as the LAST DAYS story arcs begin in Captain America & the Mighty Avengers #8, Loki: Agent of Asgard #14, and Magneto #18!
CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE MIGHTY AVENGERS #8
Written by AL EWING
Art & Cover by LUKE ROSS
On Sale in May!
MAGNETO #18
Written by CULLEN BUNN
Art by JAVI FERNANDEZ
Cover by DAVID YARDIN
On Sale in May!
LOKI: AGENT OF ASGARD #14
Written by AL EWING
Art & Cover by LEE GARBETT
On Sale in May!
To find a comic shop near you, visit www.comicshoplocator.com or call 1-888-comicbook.First Chicago charter school closes, citing state budget impasse
Galapagos Charter School, a small stand-alone elementary school in Humboldt Park, will not reopen its doors in September, saying it cannot afford to properly educate children under current Chicago Public School budget conditions.
The charter school serving about 236 children, 97 percent of them poor, becomes the first in Chicago to fall victim to a budget impasse in Springfield.
So Thursday was the last day of school ever for Galapagos, 3814 W. Iowa, CEO Michael Lane said, affecting families and about 30 permanent staffers.
All were warned more than a month ago of the possibility that the school might close so they could consider new options, Lane said. That’s when CPS warned of possible cuts of about 40 percent to per-pupil funding over last year’s allocation if the district couldn’t finagle financial help from the state to make a $676 million pension payment.
Galapagos leaders ran a number of scenarios and decided that even with 10 percent cuts, vital supports to students would have to go: extra tutoring, counselors and social workers.
Finally, he said, they couldn’t put off the decision any longer. Without any budget from CPS and without any certainty about what funding levels will look like, the school couldn’t continue.
“It was going to be more and more difficult for us to provide the kind of services we believed were necessary to support our scholars,” Lane said. “We would have gone very bare bone this year. Quite honestly if those cuts had remained, we were almost living from paycheck to paycheck. That’s no way to run a school.”
Galapagos’ operating charter had two more years on it. The school was on CPS’ academic warning list, having earned CPS’ second-to-lowest rating, but Lane said that had nothing to do with the decision.
“This is a reflection on our leaders, our political leaders and their inability to put forth a reasonable budget that provides services to the people of Illinois,” Lane said. “There are very few organizations, private or public, that could survive the possibility of a 37 percent cut across the board in their revenues.”
CPS blamed the governor.
“As long as Gov. (Bruce) Rauner continues to double down on an education funding system that punishes the poorest students in the state, it will create even deeper uncertainty about CPS’ fiscal future,” district spokeswoman Emily Bittner said. “This is why we are working so closely with parents and school communities to demand that the state fully and equitable fund education for all Illinois students.”
She added that Galapagos lost more than 25 percent of its students this year after being placed on the warning list, saying parents sought better options for their children.
Lane said the Illinois Network of Charter Schools was helping families figure out where to send their children in September. CPS said it’ll set up a transition team to figure out options, too, and is meeting with school officials this week.
INCS head Andrew Broy had warned of the possibility of a few dozen charters closing if CPS went through with a total $700 million in cuts to per-pupil funding to schools.
“We are getting closer to the July 15 first-quarter payment to charters. I am not going to name any schools, but if that payment is missed, I expect we will see quite a few additional charter schools consider closing,” he said, estimating that if CPS’ school cuts exceed 10 percent at least a dozen schools would shut down.
CPS won’t say when it will release budgets to principals. The district is considering applications from operators who’d like to open new charter schools in the fall of 2017 but extended a deadline for them until July so they could reconsider their proposals in light of scaled-back funding.Brightest greetings Underlord!
While you’ve been tunnelling your way through the molten dukedom of Phaestus, summer has arrived (though barely if you live in the UK). Now you step forth onto the northern shores of the world, witnessing golden sands and turquoise seas, flush from the heat of Mount Phaestus!
Your Workers haven’t seen the sun in aeons, and while most skulk away from the light and back away into your dungeon, Aloha Worker is unpacking his suitcase – bucket and spade? Check! Flip-flops? Check! Hawaiian shirt? Most certainly, check!
Though judging by his skin tone, he might have forgotten to pack the sunscreen … Anyway, you’ll need to be careful, Underlord – if this craze catches on the next thing you know you’ll have an entire dungeon full of flowery-coloured minions, more dazzling even than Kasita’s Home Realm!
Unpack your Aloha Worker skin on Steam and receive a special summer discount for a limited time – then bask with him in Skirmish, Sandbox, Scenario, and Multiplayer modes!
Priced at just £0.79 / $0.99 / 0.99€, the Aloha Worker is waiting for you on the Steam store.
You can also grab him at a discount in our new Worker Skin Collection!
In addition, backers of our original Kickstarter campaign using the Steam version of the game will receive this skin for free!
Have a lovely summer, Underlord … And don’t forget the sunscreen.
Cheers!
– Brightrock Games Team
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By: C.J. Cantwell
Nelson “Big Head” Bighetti has joined forces with his old friend Erlich Bachman to form Bachmanity Capital, a microfund set to become “the Uber of VC firms, sure to be on the level—nay above—the likes of Greylock, Andreessen Horowitz et cetera and so forth.”
Since he left Hooli XYZ with acclaim, Bighetti has been running an extremely successful incubator in Palo Alto known for its top talent and luxury amenities. The tech developed under Bighetti has attracted the interest of Hooli, Google and Facebook, cementing Bighetti’s legacy of creating and fostering game-changing tech in the Valley. Bachman also has an incubator in Palo Alto.
Bighetti’s partnership with Bachman symbolizes a return to his roots, as it was at Bachman’s own incubator where Bighetti got his start along with Pied Piper founder Richard Hendricks. It’s easy to imagine the two young tech geniuses in Bachman’s humble home, typing away at their respective code, changing the world line by line as they sat next to each other in a dilapidated living room.
While a representative advised Bachmanity Capital will be a “future tech behemoth,” the fund for now remains small, with resources for funding totaling approximately $20 million and $36,000. Despite its size, the fund will surely benefit from Bighetti’s leadership. As of this writing, Bachmanity Capital has not made any investments.Former Scotland defender Gordon McQueen has branded Everton players James McCarthy and Aiden McGeady as traitors over their decision to represent the Republic of Ireland, who come to Glasgow for a vital Euro 2016 qualifying tie on Friday.
The former Leeds United and Manchester United star is appalled that Glaswegian McCarthy and former Celtic winger McGeady, who was born in Denny, did not wish to wear the dark blue shirt.
McQueen, capped 30 times between 1974 and 1981 and inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame last year, cannot understand why the pair elected to play for the country of their grandparents.
“I hate that: I’ve got no time for these players,” he said. “You’re born in Glasgow but then you go and play for somebody else? What’s that all about? I’m not having that at all.
“Will it be hard for them coming back here with Ireland? I really hope so. I hope they get a horrible reception because they deserve it. I’m sure somebody must have asked them to play or Scotland at some stage.
“You’re either Scottish or you’re not Scottish and you should know that by the time you’re 12 years of age.
“I played alongside the likes of Bob Wilson and Bruce Rioch, who were born in England but they always considered themselves Scottish.
“That’s all I want. If you feel Scottish then you’re Scottish but I hate these guys who think: I can’t get a game for England so I’ll play for Scotland’.”
McQueen is convinced that Scotland will record the victory they require on Friday, claiming that the home crowd will have as big a part to play as any of the individuals selected by Gordon Strachan. “I think we’ll beat Ireland at Celtic Park,” he said. “I thought that Celtic had some very average sides at times but European teams coming to Parkhead were intimidated by the atmosphere there.
“There are certain grounds where the crowd just gets to the opposition.
“As long as I live I’ll never forget playing for Scotland against Wales at Anfield in 1977 in the game that took us to the World Cup finals.
“That was intimidating. The stadium was literally bouncing, with Scotland fans everywhere you looked, even though it was their home game. We didn’t play well that night but we still won 2-0.”
McQueen played alongside Strachan with United and Scotland and was a colleague during the latter’s ill-fated spell as manager at The Riverside Stadium.
“I worked with Gordon at Middlesbrough: I was his chief scout,” he said.
“Why did it go so badly for him there? I think he underestimated the challenge.
“He’ll say that to this day. He brought in all these guys he’d worked with at Celtic — Scott McDonald, Stephen McManus, Barry Robson, Willo Flood and Chris Killen — plus other guys from Scotland like Kris Boyd, Kevin Thomson and Lee Miller.
“Gordon thought they would cruise the Championship but it just didn’t happen. People within the football club can understand why he’s doing so well now because they rated him and believed in him.
“I didn’t see him getting down, even when things weren’t working out: it would take quite a bit to dent Gordon’s confidence. I think he’s the ideal man for the Scotland job.
“Right now it looks as though everyone is on his side, regardless of the results. They’ve been all right but what if we end up finishing fourth in this group?
“Personally, I think we will qualify but I would be ashamed if we didn’t because just about everybody gets to these finals — 24 countries. Surely we can do that?”Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel. The
The Jerusalem Law (Hebrew: חוק יסוד: ירושלים בירת ישראל, Arabic: قانون القدس) is a common name of Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel passed by the Knesset on 30 July 1980 (17th Av, 5740).
Although the law did not use the term, the Israeli Supreme Court interpreted the law as an effective Annexation of East Jerusalem.[1]
History [ edit ]
The Jerusalem Law began as a private member's bill proposed by Geulah Cohen, whose original text stated that "the integrity and unity of greater Jerusalem (Yerushalayim rabati) in its boundaries after the Six-Day War shall not be violated." However, this clause was dropped after the first reading in the Knesset. As the Knesset thus declined to specify boundaries and did not use the words "annexation" or "sovereignty", Ian Lustick writes that "The consensus of legal scholars is that this action added nothing to the legal or administrative circumstance of the city, although, especially at the time, its passage was considered to have political importance and sparked a vigorous protest reaction from the world community." [2] For example, United Nations Security Council Resolution 478,[3] adopted on 20 August 1980 by 14 votes to none, with 1 abstention (United States), declared soon after that the law was "null and void" and "must be rescinded". This resolution called upon member states to withdraw their diplomatic missions from the city. However, thirty-eight years later the United States relocated their Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on May 14, 2018 and other countries, including Paraguay and the Czech Republic expressed similar intentions.
Although the law was not proposed by the governing coalition or Prime Minister Menachem Begin, rather, it was proposed by lawmakers concerned that peace negotiators were demanding that Arab residents of East Jerusalem be given votes in Palestinian Authority elections.[4] As legislation, the Act is regarded as largely symbolic.[5]
An amendment in 2000 further specified the jurisdiction of the law, that included East Jerusalem. It actually did not change its range. The amendment also prohibited transfer of authority to a foreign body, for example an international regime.
Text of the Law [ edit ]
Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel (unofficial translation)[6]
Jerusalem, Capital of Israel:
1. Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel.
Seat of the President, the Knesset, the Government and the Supreme Court:
2. Jerusalem is the seat of the President of the State, the Knesset, the Government and the Supreme Court.
Protection of Holy Places:
3. The Holy Places shall be protected from desecration and any other violation and from anything likely to violate the freedom of access of the members of the different religions to the places sacred to them or their feelings towards those places.
Development of Jerusalem:
4. (a) The Government shall provide for the development and prosperity of Jerusalem and the well-being of its inhabitants by allocating special funds, including a special annual grant to the Municipality of Jerusalem (Capital City Grant) with the approval of the Finance Committee of the Knesset. (b) Jerusalem shall be given special priority in the activities of the authorities of the State so as to further its development in economic and other matters. (c) The Government shall set up a special body or special bodies for the implementation of this section.
Amendment no. 1 (passed by the Knesset on 27 November 2000) :
Area of the jurisdiction of Jerusalem
5. The jurisdiction of Jerusalem includes, as pertaining to this basic law, among others, all of the area that is described in the appendix of the proclamation expanding the borders of municipal Jerusalem beginning the 20th of Sivan 5727 (June 28, 1967), as was given according to the Cities' Ordinance.
Prohibition of the transfer of authority
6. No authority that is stipulated in the law of the State of Israel or of the Jerusalem Municipality may be transferred either permanently or for an allotted period of time to a foreign body, whether political, governmental or to any other similar type of foreign body.
Entrenchment
7. Clauses 5 and 6 shall not be modified except by a Basic Law passed by a majority of the members of the Knesset.
Menachem Begin Prime Minister
Yitzchak Navon President of the State"
Published in Sefer Ha-Chukkim No. 980 of the 23rd Av, 5740 (5 August 1980), p. 186; the Bill and an Explanatory Note were published in Hatza'ot Chok No. 1464 of 5740, p. 287.
References [ edit ]B2B Marketers: Start Strong in 2019
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Microsoft last week began to accept bitcoins as payment for digital content purchases.
Bitcoins can be credited to a Microsoft account by anyone in the United States at the currency's market value -- currently around US$352 per bitcoin -- and used to buy content at the Windows Store or stores that carry Xbox games, music and video.
Accepting bitcoins is all about giving customers choice and helping them do more with their devices and with the cloud, Microsoft Corporate Vice President Eric Lockard said.
"The use of digital currencies such as bitcoin, while not yet mainstream, is growing beyond the early enthusiasts," he noted. "We expect this growth to continue and allowing people to use bitcoin to purchase our products and services now allows us to be at the front edge of that trend."
Microsoft joins a number of other big names that have embraced bitcoins, such as Paypal, Dell, the United Way, NCR and Intuit.
Handing Off Risk
Bitcoin conversions to Microsoft accounts will be processed by BitPay.
"The attention brought to Bitcoin by this partnership is not only important for BitPay, but the whole Bitcoin community which has been working to innovate around the technology," said BitPay's Andy Phillipson.
"As part of the ecosystem, BitPay has worked hard to build a service that can support enterprise-grade businesses such as Microsoft by forming top-notch engineering, client operations, business development, legal, and executive teams," he continued. "Microsoft's adoption of bitcoin further substantiates that the Bitcoin ecosystem is booming with progress and potential."
That ecosystem is attracting businesses like Microsoft to the bitcoin table because it removes the risk of dealing with a new technology that's had birthing problems.
"These third-party vendors are helping companies hedge any volatility risks," said Will Norton, an attorney in the business technology group at Baker Donelson.
"If you're a public company, you really can't deal with the risk of having a volatile currency on your books," he told the E-Commerce Times.
Bitcoin processors like BitPay smooth transactions for merchants.
"If you're just a merchant accepting bitcoin and use a market-maker middle man to exchange it for dollars, there's really no risk," said social entrepreneur Mike Mann.
"The market maker takes the risk, not the merchant," he told the E-Commerce Times.
Market Ploy?
Bitcoin will benefit from Microsoft jumping on the digital money train.
"The more household names that accept bitcoin, the more legitimate it becomes," said Greg Sterling, vice president of strategy and insight at the Local Search Association.
"Microsoft's acceptance of bitcoin is another step toward mainstream acceptance and legitimacy," he told the E-Commerce Times.
Microsoft, too, will benefit from accepting bitcoins.
"This a practical decision to open up a new payment channel," Sterling noted.
The value of that channel remains to be seen, however.
"They're trying to reach out to additional customers who want to use bitcoin, but I don't know if that will have that much value," said Jim McGregor, founder and principal analyst at Tirias Research.
"When you're a company, you try to reach out to as many customers as you can," he told the E-Commerce Times. "As long as you think you can get value out of it, why not try it?"
There may be an impractical component to the decision, too.
"A lot of companies, especially those that are not the hippest in their field, want to make themselves look cutting-edge again," observed Baker Donelson's Norton, "so bitcoin has become a bit of a marketing ploy for them."
John Mello is a freelance technology writer and contributor to Chief Security Officer magazine. You can connect with him on Google+.Bobby Lawrence, a small business owner from Pennsylvania running for the U.S. Senate in 2018, posted a video to his Instagram and Facebook pages on October 2 that showed a woman claiming to be Miss China and a man identifying himself as David Wang, the founder of the Chinese Americans for Trump organization, endorsing his campaign.
A post shared by Bobby Lawrence (@bobbylawrence7581) on Oct 2, 2017 at 7:19pm PDT
“Hello! I’m Miss China!” said the woman before she was interrupted.
“I am David Wang, the founder of Chinese Americans for Trump, and I endorse this person,” said Wang, pointing to Lawrence. “I hope he’s gonna win.”
“And this person is Bobby Lawrence for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania!” said Lawrence, further clarifying what Wang stated.
“Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!” The trio rhythmically chanted.
The video, taken at what appears to be a campaign dinner, may indicate that Chinese Americans For Trump has likely lent their support to Lawrence’s campaign as the latter has enthusiastically promised to support President Trump in all his endeavors.
Wang discovered his love for the president after watching a video of someone making fun of him on YouTube during his campaign last year. With his interest piqued, he spent the next five hours learning everything he could about the then-candidate; it was after that exhaustive research that he decided to become not only a dedicated Trump supporter, but a life-long republican. Organizing Chinese Americans For Trump became the next logical step in proving his devotion for the candidate.
“Some of his message I don’t particularly support, but I like 99 percent of his message,” Wang said, allowing some room for error.
Some of Lawrence’s stances include protecting the Second Amendment, promoting a flat tax, and repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.We've updated the report below with a comment from Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad.
China has frozen licenses for South Korean developers in a move that prevents games made in the country from being published in China.
The move is thought to be in response to the arrival of a new THAAD missile defence system in South Korea. It's being built in partnership with the US to help protect the country and its allies from perceived threats by countries such as North Korea. China however claims the deployment is a threat to its own security.
As part of its response, China has frozen new licenses on South Korean games. The ban will affect any and all games yet to be released in China that are developed in South Korea.
It's not known how long such a ban could last, though existing Korean games already published in the region are currently unaffected.
The licensing freeze has already started to affect some developers. Nikkei reports that shares in Nexon dropped by as much as 7% on March 7th following the news.
Frozen future
That said, Nexon's share prices are still much higher than they were in August 2016. The publisher is also said to have already obtained the license for its upcoming Dungeon & Fighter 2D mobile title, which would therefore allow it to launch in China despite the ban.
One game that stands to be affected is Netmarble's Lineage 2: Revolution, which is currently being translated for the China market. It has proven to be a huge success for the developer, generating over $100 million in revenue in its first 17 days of launch.
Launching games in China is already difficult for any developer outside of the country. Games released in the region have to be approved 20 days before launch and must follow a stringent set of guidelines to pass the test.
"Rising tensions"
Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad has shared his opinion on the current ban and what it could mean for developers and publishers in South Korea.
Ahmad said the Chinese government has been regulating the import of foreign games using a licensing system for some time, requiring companies to partner with a Chinese publisher to operate in the region.
Such a freeze on this could cause problems for South Korean companies with large business interests in China.
"This regulation has been in place for a few years on PC and became effective for mobile games in July of last year. Games that have already acquired a license, such as Dragon Nest Mobile by Eyedentity Games and Dungeon and Fighter Mobile from Nexon, have not been affected," he told PocketGamer.biz.
"Upcoming games such as Netmarble's Lineage II Revolution, to be published by Tencent, has not yet been approved and so it’s likely it could face issues launching in China.
"Nexon have already seen their share price dip yesterday after the news, because around 40% of their revenue is generated from the China market each year.
"With rising tensions between the two countries, an unofficial travel ban and blocks against Korean entertainment imports, it's not that surprising that games would be affected eventually.
"It is unclear at this time how long this ban will last and whether already approved games will have their licenses revoked."Thunderbolt's 10-gigabit interface is only just making its way to Windows after spending more than a year as a Mac-only feature, so it's not surprising that a lot of questions surround how well the Apple- and Intel-developed connection works for those of a Microsoft persuasion. A thorough test at AnandTech of one of the first motherboards to support the spec on Windows PCs, an Ivy Bridge-ready board from MSI, has shown some positive signs along with a few flies in the high-speed ointment. The good news? Most general storage devices will work as expected with a minimum of fuss, and you can even get some features of Apple's Thunderbolt Display working if you're willing to accept a lack of pre-supplied software brightness controls and USB support. The bad news comes mostly in the absence of true hot-plugging like on the Mac: if a device isn't plugged into the Thunderbolt port on boot, Windows won't see it. Professionals who need everything to be just perfect will want to wait, then, but bandwidth lovers will still find something to like if they're willing to build Thunderbolt-equipped PCs themselves.Georgia police are now on the look out for the crew of violent robbers who have already hit nine Asian-owned businesses in and around Atlanta in just one month.
Due to the severity of the crimes, authorities added the crew to the list of Georgia’s Most Wanted.
According to WSB-TV Atlanta, the robbers’ modus operandi is to come into a store and act as customers before pulling out guns, and violently robbing everyone — including customers and workers.
The crew reportedly consists of three members: two men identified as African-American who usually go into the store to do the robbing, and one operating a maroon 2004 through 2008 Pontiac Grand Prix getaway vehicle.
Authorities are now worried that the crew might kill someone in their next robbery attempt due to their extremely violent tendencies.
“No mercy by these individuals, by this robbery crew. They’ve displayed weapons, they’ve used them to beat the employees or customers and they’ve fired those weapons,” Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent Stephen Emmett said.
The first reported robbery was on Oct. 7 when the crew hit Spring Spa in the 1900 block of Manchester Street NE in Atlanta, 11alive reported. Three days later, on Oct. 10, the same men hit Cedar Massage in the 6000 block of Bakers Ferry Road in Atlanta.
Qi Clay Sauna in the 7100 block of Buford Highway in Atlanta, Lush Nails and Spa in the 3500 block of Northside Parkway in Atlanta, and Kochi Maru in the 5800 block of Buford Highway in Doraville, were then hit on Oct. 13, 20 and 24, respectively.
The men beat up an employee with a pistol at Qi Clay Sauna before leaving with money and other unspecified personal items. Meanwhile, in the Kochi Maru robbery, two customers were reportedly shot by the men, triggering the fire sprinkler system.
“They are going to hurt other individuals. You could be at a restaurant table, like those two customers were, just minding your own business, and the next thing you know you’ve got bullets in your legs,” Agent Emmett said.
Palm Beach Tan in the 2700 block of Lenox Road in Atlanta was hit on Oct. 29, followed by Royal Massage in the 3300 block of Holcomb Bridge Road in Norcross on Nov. 3, Empress Massage in the 1900 block of Day Drive in Duluth on Nov. 8, and BD Spa and Wellness Massage in the 1500 block of East Park Place Boulevard in Stone Mountain on Nov. 8.
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for everything from reading Reddit threads to streaming "Stranger Things." But as I sometimes forgot, evident by the fingerprint smudges on its screen, it lacks a touchscreen. (It's common for Chromebooks to have touchscreens.)
The laptop is light enough to comfortably prop up on your lap in bed while rewatching "Friends" for the 89th time and doesn't get too hot even after long video viewing marathons. The screen also has great viewing angles, so no matter how it's tilted, the image is clearly visible.
Above the keyboard there's a speaker grille that stretches across its entire length. The B&O-branded dual speakers are loud enough to watch a movie with a friend or two, but sound quality is tinny at high volume.
Enlarge Image Josh Miller/CNET
For the writer on the go
If you're carrying around a laptop everyday for work or school, the less cumbersome, the better. And as much as I love a big screen, sacrifices have to be made for portability.
The HP Chromebook 13 hits that perfectly portable 13-inch sweet spot. It was as unintrusive as the 13-inch MacBook Air that I carry to work every day. Like my MacBook, it barely made a dent in my bag and wasn't a burden to bring along to after-work happy hours (don't worry, I kept it in my bag the whole time!) or last minute errands.
Enlarge Image Josh Miller/CNET
Anything smaller than a 13-inch laptop makes for a cramped keyboard, and the HP's compact keys took me some time to get used to. Though I quickly got comfortable with it., I still preferred the more spacious feel of typing with my 13-inch MacBook Air.
The keyboard is also backlit, making it easy to see in dimly lit environments, but it can't flip over to use the laptop as a tablet, like the Acer Chromebook 11's keyboard can. If you're flirting with the idea of a laptop-tablet hybrid, that's something to consider. (I already have a tablet, so I never had the need to use the laptop in that manner, making it a moot design point for me.)This is the mighty MS-RT Ford Transit, a go-faster version of Britain’s favourite van built by the suitably named Van-Sport (some blokes from South Wales who spend their time zinging up Transits). It celebrates the two-year anniversary since Van-Sport teamed up with British rallying firm M-Sport. Therefore, if you’re a vannist with a rally fetish, life might have peaked.
The MS-RT started life as a standard 170bhp Transit Custom DCiV (Double Cab-in-Van, for those of you that don’t speak van). With seating for five, a rear tailgate and dual sliding side doors, MS-RT then added luxuries like a sat-nav and reversing camera, LED load space lighting and a power converter. None of which we’re really interested in. We are instead interested in the go-faster bits. There are many.
First off, an ECU flash by Steinbauer takes the Custom’s 2.0-litre turbodiesel engine from the standard 170bhp and 298lb-ft to a substantial 208bhp and 358lb-ft. That’s enough oomph to see off the VW Transporter Sportline – the most powerful factory-built production van you can get your hands on. Some useful ammo for the greasy spoon, that
Van-Sport didn’t stop there. Under the bonnet, there’s a shiny new intercooler, dedicated MS-RT engine hoses, a new air filter and new exhaust box. Reiger rear leaf springs were then sourced – different to the usual Eibach units MS-RT fits – but for an extra fee, these can be binned for proper, more car-like rear shock absorbers by Reiger. To help it stop: 356mm vented and grooved discs, six-piston calipers and a choice of yellow or blue braided hoses (colour coding is important).
Visually, a few choice mods have made this Transit the angriest looking one on the road. There’s a new, lower front diffuser, Lazer LED driving lights in the grille, hefty side skirts and a rear diffuser with shiny pipes to go with the new back box. Bespoke rally graphics can then be slapped over the paint. Inside, bucket seats with blue seat belts fill the front of the cabin while suede-like upholstery fills the rear.
It isn’t cheap, mind, with prices starting at £35,995 plus VAT. But then there are the optional extras such as the six-speed automatic transmission instead of the standard six-speed manual. That’s £1,200. Uber cool 20in OZ Racing alloy wheels are a must in our opinion but will set you back an extra £500.
Even so, is this is one of the coolest vans around?Just as I dislike the work of Miles Davis but acknowledge his brilliance as a trumpeter, I disagree with the whole principle of Balance of Performance yet believe that Pirelli World Challenge’s competition director Marcus Haselgrove is some sort of genius.
He could scarcely have done a better job this year. The GT class cars produce broadly equal lap times, despite us all knowing there is no way in hell that a Cadillac ATS-V.R should be able to lap a track like Laguna Seca at the same pace as a McLaren 650S.
And the GTS class is something else again. There is a natural difference in the way a little GT4-spec car like a KTM X-Bow or SIN R1 is going to produce its pace compared with a Ford Mustang or Chevrolet Camaro, yet these very different types of machine seem to be locked in constant combat. The result is that the GTS races produce some of the most compelling racing on this continent.
What Haselgrove cannot do, however, is defy the laws of physics. While a Mustang’s power can make up for its handling deficit and higher center of gravity during a couple of flying laps in qualifying, it’s inevitable that over the course of a race, it will take more life out of its Pirellis than a car that’s the height of a frisbee and the combined weight of a Mustang’s doors and hood.
Which is why Nate Stacy’s performance at Sonoma Raceway last month was one of the most impressive drives I’ve seen from anyone in any series this year. After bursting into the lead at the start of the Saturday race, you'd logically expect his driving to become ever more fraught as he tried to hold off KTMs, SINs and Ginettas that in the second half of the race filled his mirrors and nipped at the tail-bumper of the Roush Performance pony car. Instead this 16-year-old retained his composure, and enough tire life to give himself decent traction and just enough lateral grip. He took a brilliant victory, while his rivals ran into each other or outbraked themselves trying to find a gap in his defense.
Here’s another thing – there was no questioning Stacy’s track ethics. I’ve watched drivers with 20 or 30 years of racing experience who still pull off petulant blocking maneuvers or run their rivals out of track, and then play the disingenuous “Who? Me?” card, or who pretend they don’t understand what is and isn’t allowed according to the rulebook. Yet here was a kid in his mid-teens who, toward the end of the race, didn’t make a single swerve nor pull off any intimidatory tactics. He just promptly and unequivocally took up the defensive line way before corner entry, to force his pursuers to go the long way around. And none of them managed it.
Third in the next day’s race, followed by a second and a third at Laguna Seca last weekend (the former from the back of the grid!) brought Oklahoma-born Stacy’s season tally to eight podium finishes, plus that victory, and resulted in second in the championship.
A quick scan through his résumé reveals that Nate was winning NASA (National Auto Sport Association) races from the age of 12, scoring yet more victories in the hotly contested Spec Miata classes in 2013, before racing to second in the Pirelli World Challenge’s Touring Car Spec B class in 2014 driving a Ford Fiesta. A brief dalliance with a Volvo C30 in PWC's top Touring Car class at the start of 2015 led to his being recruited by Roush and Rehagen Racing on a part-time basis, before being signed up full-time by Roush, alongside Jack Roush Jr.
So you’ve raced a small rear-wheel-drive MX-5, small front-wheel-drive Fiesta, slightly larger front-wheel-drive compact Volvo… Did you expect to quickly adapt to a rear-wheel-drive V8 musclecar?
I don’t know if it was so much about expectation, as asking myself how much work it would take me to get to that point. I had access to several really good drivers – Dean Martin, Alec Udell, Jack Roush Jr. – for information and advice. So because of the team I’ve surrounded myself with, it wasn’t a case of ‘if’ I would adapt but ‘how long.’ Because, sure, it was a big change.
When did you really feel you were getting the best from this type of car? Was there a specific turning point where it all clicked, or was it a gradual process?
Sonoma last year – it was like a light switch turned on. Me and Dean had gone to a track right by me called Hallett [in Jennings, Oklahoma] and tested for two days straight, trying to get me more comfortable with the car. And then we rolled out for the first session at the next race at Sonoma and all of a sudden he and I were running identical times. After that, I had a better perspective, I could see and feel what the car could do and I was pushing it further than I had in the past. I love the feeling that I’m getting everything out of the car.
But there are faster ways than sliding it around. So then at Mid-Ohio this year, I made another step, really tidied up my act, and was getting the car to be fast and on the edge, without drifting it every other corner… That slip coefficient has been the big challenge to get my head around. With the front-wheel-drive Volvo, for example, there was never that problem. It was just throw it into the corner early, the back end would come around and you just floored it to neutralize that and slid out of the corner. With the Mustang, you’ve got to aim it well, get the car rotated well, and then pick up the throttle where you’re right on the edge of that coefficient where it’s about to break over into a slide.
So speaking to Dean about the limit of what the tire was able to do, and learning to feel where that edge of adhesion is, I can take that to more tracks. And it's not only quicker, but obviously it keeps the tires under you for longer.
Now that you’ve mastered that, is the GTS class where you want to stay, or are you looking to move up to GT?
If I had my choice, I’d love to be able to step up the ladder again, but I think staying here and honing my craft a little bit more – like working on racecraft, and working through traffic better – is something I want to do before I move up. If someone suddenly called up and said, ‘Let’s go run a GT car,’ and was offering it free, then maybe I’d make the move. But I don’t think that’s going to happen this time. Maybe in a year or two. I’ll keep waiting for that phone call.
Something that always intrigues fans of old-school musclecars who watch this series is how the Mustang compares with the Camaro. Have you noticed the relative strengths and weaknesses while racing with Lawson Aschenbach? Or are the differences more down to your relative driving styles?
Everyone has their own unique signature in this series. Lawson’s thing is aggressive, aggressive, aggressive and then cools down and hopes he has enough tires for the end of the race. And then we’ve gotten really good at being aggressive and then having tires at the end of the race. A big part of that is because my Roush team is really good at setting the car up. So you’re not always comparing apples with apples if you’re trying to compare the cars. Plus Lawson’s a really good driver with a lot of experience – he’s won the GT, the Touring Car and two GTS championships.
But our Mustang’s advantage is straightline speed. The Camaro’s is handling and low-end torque. The KTMs strongest points would be handling and tire wear… and stupidly good late braking. I mean they weigh only 2000lbs but have the same tire contact patch as we do! The Ginetta has a good amount of straightline speed and all the other things, and the SINs have all those things plus they have the edge on straightline speed compared with us.
So it’s been an interesting season and it's a very interesting class, for sure.
Well that was my next question: regarding the blend of cars in GTS – do you really find that interesting, or just irritating? Would you prefer it to be more like Trans-Am in the early ’70s where everyone in the top class was in a musclecar?
Well, yeah, it would be cool if it was like Trans-Am and everyone was running a pony car, sure! But I’m not sure if that would make for the best racing, necessarily, because you had to drive those cars ridiculously on the edge, and I don't think there are many people in the series who have had the experience of doing that.
I think Pirelli World Challenge stepping more toward GT4-spec sportscars is going to help them in the long run, especially when more manufacturers come in because GT4 are more real-world cars. So the pony cars going away… that’s not necessarily a bad thing for the series, because I’m sure we’ll get newer versions that are GT4 spec.
But at the same time, I think these legacy pony cars are super-fun to drive, and I like how when the BOSS 302 model came out, suddenly you’d see a difference of half a second between drivers, separating the men from the boys, because some were willing to push that little bit further.
What’s your ultimate ambition? Do you feel World Challenge is a destination series or are you using it as a stepping stone to something else?
I’m really cool with any kind of racing there is. I’m sure Rallycross would be really cool to drive; I don’t know if I like ovals because I’ve never driven one, so it would be great to test a NASCAR-type stockcar.
But my ultimate goal since I started racing has been to go to Australia and race V8 Supercars – or Supercars as they’re called now. I’ve always been a big fan of those cars, and racing alongside Jamie Whincup and Mark Winterbottom… that would be so cool. I’d want to do that for at least a season with a good car and a good team.
On the other hand, it would also be nice to try all kinds of racing – Rallycross, rally, oval, all types of sportscar and road racing. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself. I think I’ve got time, and there’s a lot I want to accomplish in this series. For now, I’m focused on that.
______
Nate Stacy said a lot more else – including the fact that three of his inspirations are Johnny O’Connell, Niki Lauda and Carroll Shelby. But you’ve probably read enough now to get the picture. This is a serious young racer who’s humble enough to improve himself, and eloquent enough to be a sponsor’s dream. And as his results prove, despite not yet turning 17, he’s already operating at a very elevated level. Keep an eye on him.Firefighters are battling two wildfires that erupted Sunday in Central California, including one that triggered evacuations.
The Spring and Derrick fires have burned more than 1,700 acres in Mariposa and Fresno counties.
Spring fire Location Mariposa County Acreage 225 Containment 15%
The first wildfire, dubbed the Spring fire, erupted about 1:45 p.m. just south of Mariposa and scorched 225 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The blaze, only 15% contained, is burning in the small town of Mormon Bar and the community of Bootjack.
As flames moved close to homes, residents who live in the areas of Morningstar Lane and Allred and Grist roads were ordered to evacuate, according to the Mariposa County Sheriff's Office.
By Sunday night, firefighters managed to stop the blaze from advancing to Mariposa.
The cause of the fire is being investigated.
Derrick fire Location Fresno County Acreage 1,538 Containment 20%
Farther south, firefighters battled a 1,538-blaze that is only 20% contained, Cal Fire said.
Dubbed the Derrick fire, the blaze started about 10:30 p.m. off Los Gatos Road, just west of Coalinga.
Los Gatos Canyon Road from Derrick Avenue to the Fresno County line was closed due to the wildfire.
The latest wildfires follow a busy week for firefighters in Southern California, where they tackled at least half a dozen fires stretching from San Luis Obispo County to Riverside County.
According to the National Interagency Fire Center’s four-month outlook, California is facing an elevated fire danger this summer and fall.
The record rains this winter produced heavy crops of grass that wither rapidly in the summer heat. This could result in larger fires with aggressive behavior, the agency said.
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Steve Lopez: We can't prevent the Big One, but we can give our homes a fighting chance against earthquakes[This article was updated on March 25, 2015] Lately, there have been headlines that state that marijuana will be legal soon — but it appears that no definite date or official announcement has been given. However, there is an ongoing court case, previously reported by the Inquisitr, that is finally going to be ruled on. In summary, it looks like marijuana will most likely begin to be officially legalized nationwide on March 25, 2015 — but maybe not.
How did all of this come about? In October 2014, an important hearing was held that questioned whether marijuana should be in the same classification as substance like cocaine and heroin called Schedule I Drugs. On Monday October 27, a federal judge in California heard testimony for and against rescheduling marijuana as a softer drug like alcohol.
That federal hearing on marijuana was not ruled on in October. Following the court case timeline closely is the Eastern District of California Blog. Their detailed coverage of the marijuana legalization case is important to journalists because many of the updates on court dates for this case are not announced online — and are only sent by text messages.
For this reason, the Eastern District of California Blog was the first to announce that the marijuana legalization hearing due for March 11 was officially rescheduled for March 25. Is this the final piece of legal legwork that needs to be done so that marijuana can be legal nationwide? It looks like it!… Maybe.
On February 11, the Eastern District of California Blog posted about an update on the case from Judge Kimberley J. Mueller, who is residing over the USA v. Schweder case to reschedule marijuana. While the judge stated that the decision would be made on March 11, the blog said, “The judge gave no indication which way she will decide.”
The final decision set for March 11 was canceled on March 9 but then rescheduled and announced via text message for March 25, according to the insider access that the Eastern District of California Blog has.
What will a decision that gives a green light to rescheduling marijuana mean? The Eastern District of California Blog says, “For those who have been asking me, it’s too early to tell how Section 538 will impact current, past, and future federal medical marijuana cases. But this Schweder briefing is an early example of how defense attorneys can use it to challenge federal medical marijuana prosecutions.”
If reading through legal files about marijuana legalization in this particular case is a bit overwhelming, CBS 13 Sacramento covers the case and says, “Federal legalization of marijuana can come down to one person, Judge Kimberley J Mueller… the case came about after a marijuana grower said the federal government judges marijuana grower cases unevenly.”
CBS 13 Sacramento also gives the spoiler that marijuana may not be legalized fully on March 25 — but it would certainly be an important battle in getting marijuana legalized across America. The newscaster said, in summary, that what the current marijuana case needs to prove is that the current laws infringes on people’s rights. The case ruling would only pertain in particular to the USA v. Schweder case BUT (and here’s the important bit) the case could ultimately go to the Supreme Court where it could inevitably be voted on to make medical marijuana legal under federal law.
An L.A. Times editorial on the USA v. Schweder case adds to the “what happens next” timeline with federal marijuana legalization by stating the following.
“Legalization advocates hope Mueller will rule that federal marijuana policy is unconstitutional. Although her decision would apply only to the defendants in this case and could be appealed, a ruling against the existing policy could prompt other defendants to file similar motions.”
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Conclusion? While marijuana may not “officially” be legalized on March 25, the outcome of that case will be one of the most important in marijuana history because it could lead to a Supreme Court decision where marijuana is legalized in America once and for all.
[Update: The Eastern District of California blog published a statement that the case has been postponed from March 25 to April 15.]
[Image from Christopher Furlong/Getty Images]WASHINGTON - In recognition of National Anti-Bullying Month, U.S. Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ), Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and a bipartisan group of New Jersey Congressional Delegation members this morning released a video message for the “It Gets Better Project” to encourage young people who are bullied in New Jersey and around the country that “it really does gets better.”
This video is a message to kids in New Jersey and around the country - we are on your side, and we are here to tell you that it gets better.”
“Individuality should be treasured, not scorned, and as you grow up, people will honor your differences,” Sen. Robert Menendez says.
The delegation’s video was made as part of the It Gets Better Project, an online resource for LGBT young people that has inspired more than 25,000 user-created videos including videos by President Obama, entertainers, and sports teams like the Philadelphia Phillies and DC United. The project’s website, www.itgetsbetter.org, is a place where people can share their stories, support their family and friends, and seek help.
Earlier this year, Senator Lautenberg and Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ-12) reintroduced the “Tyler Clementi Higher Education Anti-Harassment Act,” which would require colleges and universities that receive federal student aid to have in place a policy that prohibits harassment of students based on their actual or perceived race, color, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion.
The legislation is named in honor of Tyler Clementi, a freshman at Rutgers University who took his life in September 2010 after a bullying incident in which other students used the internet to harass him and violate his privacy.
Information, quotes, and video for this post was obtained from Meghan Pennington, on behalf of Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg.
Members of the delegation who participated in the video include Senators
Lautenberg and Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Congressmen Rush Holt (D-NJ-12),
Leonard Lance (R-NJ-7), Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ-2), Bill Pascrell
(D-NJ-8), Donald Payne (D-NJ-10), Steve Rothman (D-NJ-9), Jon Runyan
(R-NJ-3), and Albio Sires (D-NJ-13).WARSAW, Poland — Lithuanian nano-spacecraft equipment maker NanoAvionics has announced the company secured some 3.2 million euros ($3.7 million) in funding to commercialize its Enabling Propulsion System for Small Satellites (EPSS), and performed a successful in-orbit test of its chemical propulsion system onboard a cubesat.
The EPSS “provided the 3U CubeSat LituanicaSAT-2 with 10 cm/s of delta-V, making an evident change in its orbit parameters,” NanoAvionics said in a statement. The CubeSat was launched into a polar sun-synchronous orbit June 23, and the test was performed July 5.
The company’s senior management says that NanoAvionics is confident about the commercial potential of its system, and the market forecast for the global smallsat market is quite optimistic.
“Despite the obvious growth in numbers small satellites, in particular constellations, are becoming strong competitors to their big counterparts,” Vytenis Buzas, the chief executive and co-founder of NanoAvionics, told SpaceNews. “We see that there are lots of new serious projects being backed by governments and [venture capital investors] to launch more new constellations, proving the business applications will find their way to start generating profits in the near future.”
New propulsion system to trim spending
Company representatives say that the propulsion system will lower the cost of small satellite constellation operations by an estimated 80 percent, and therefore, it could make space more affordable to a wider range of organizations around the world.
NanoAvionics acquired the funding to further develop the EPSS under an ‘Intelektas LT’ grant which is distributed to local innovative entities from funds obtained by the Lithuanian government from the European Union. The Vilnius-based business launched one of the first Lithuanian satellites, LituanicaSAT-1, and last year, NanoAvionics initiated a partnership with Kubos, and commissioned the U.S. company to develop software for the latest LituanicaSAT-2 mission.
NanoAvionics says that the length of the first initial experiment was very short, at just two seconds, and, owing to this, the apogee of the LituanicaSAT-2 increased by some 200 meters. The average developed thrust was 127 mN, according to preliminary data obtained by NanoAvionics. The aim was to prolong the orbital lifetime of LituanicaSAT-2 by a factor of four. The company says that the demonstrated performance of the EPSS indicates it could accelerate commercial and scientific smallsat space missions.
To test the EPSS, NanoAvionics says it ran a cold-start program, followed by “a train of pulses with a total duration of 2 seconds, reaching a 0.3 g mass of the monopropellant [that was] to be used.”
The average thrust reached was 127 mN, “followed by steady peaks of 300mN, demonstrating that the system works nominally as planned. [An] orbital change of approximately 200 meters was observed, analyzing TLEs of the particular epoch when the experiments were performed,” the company said. “The telemetry data of the satellite, together with information provided by NORAD, evidenced [the] successful completion of one of the mission-critical tasks, demonstrating the feasibility of the propulsion system’s use on similar small-scale satellites.”
According to the firm’s chief executive, the global “small satellites market demonstrates significant growth and shift towards professional commercial applications through growing requirements”.
NanoAvionics says that its system runs on a non-toxic ‘green’ monopropellant, based on an ammonium dinitramide (ADN) blend that outperforms hydrazine which is today’s most commonly used monopropellant. This is to ensure the system’s compliance with NASA’s and ESA’s Clean Space Initiative.
Negotiations with satellite makers
Under the plan, the EPPS is to be made commercially available early next year. The system has already attracted the interest of a number of major satellite manufacturers, and there are ongoing negotiations with pilot customers, according to NanoAvionics.
The EPSS is to be also integrated within the company’s Multifunctional 6U Platform (M6P), the next generation nano-satellite that is to allow operation of smallsat constellations at one-fourth of the current budgets.
Set up in 2014, the Lithuanian company is a smallsat system mission integrator that provides components and platforms. In the first phase of its development, NanoAvionics raised venture capital and secured funding for its R&D activities from the country’s government. Work on developing the EPSS began as early as in 2009, in partnership with the country’s Vilnius University.President Donald Trump's claim that he was wiretapped has been widely debunked by the media, intelligence agencies, and even the FBI. But that's not enough to convince his most loyal supporters that he's wrong.
According to a CBS poll, 74 percent of Republicans think it was either somewhat likely or very likely that Trump's offices were wiretapped or under government surveillance. They're the group that gives Trump the most benefit of the doubt. Overall, less than 50 percent of respondents said that Trump was tapped.
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Of course, most of Trump's fans — 84 percent of Republicans — think that he's doing a good job as president. That's the only group that gives him a net positive rating. Eighty-one percent of Democrats, and 56 percent of independents disapprove of his performance.
Republicans also wanted the FBI to turn a blind eye to connections between Trump associates and the Russian government by a 59-35 margin.
When it comes to Trump supporters, there is a possibility that they know that Trump wasn't wiretapped, but still say they believe him in order to shake things up.
The Toronto Star caught up with Trump supporters in an Ohio county where he won "more than 60 percent of the vote" and asked them what they thought of Trump's lies.
“He’s ruffling every feather in Washington that he can ruffle. These guys are scrambling. So: yeah! I like it. I think it’s a good thing. I want to see them jump around a little bit,” an unemployed 58-year-old construction worker told The Star. Said another: “I think Trump just did that to freak them out — they were giving him bad times, so he gave them bad times. Mess with their brains. I like that, because we’ve had so much crap in Washington for years, and now we have someone shaking ’em up really good.”
One group of Trump supporters are still trusting him, because, as Robert Duffy, 73, from Zanesville, Ohio put it, “Trump would have never said that (Obama wiretapped him) unless it was true.... That’s too much of a gamble for him to take. His reputation, you know?”
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See the full poll from CBS News below.The newspapers love using neuroscience findings to make us feel bad about our less salubrious habits. Earlier this year they had a field day with a study that purported to show time spent watching online porn shrinks the brain. Even more recently, we were warned about multi-tasking with our digital devices: "Multi-tasking makes your brain smaller," exclaimed the Daily Mail. Similar claims have been made for – video gaming and junk food. The message is usually the same - you already knew porn/junk food/gaming etc was bad, well now scientists tell us it ACTUALLY SHRINKS YOUR BRAIN, as if this is the final definitive proof for the evilness of the deeds in question.
What none of these news reports tell you is that brain shrinkage can be a good thing. Indeed, it's a mistake to think that bigger means better when it comes to brain power (this is "Myth 21" in my new book Great Myths of the Brain). Elephants and whales have massive brains, but they're not the cleverest animals on the planet; bees have tiny brains and are very smart. Moreover, localised brain shrinkage can be a sign of increased neural efficiency. Also it's worth remembering how, through adolescence, our brains don't just keep getting bigger and bigger; rather they undergo a massive pruning back of excess grey matter.
The idea that localised brain shrinkage isn't necessarily bad is brought home wonderfully by a new brain scanning study of elite chess players. Jürgen Hänggi took structural MRI scans and diffusion tensor imaging scans of 20 male expert players (including three grandmasters and seven international masters) and compared them with 20 male inexpert players. This is only the second study ever to look at the structural brain differences characteristic of elite chess players, and the first ever to also include a measure of white matter tracts (provided by the diffusion tensor scans).
So, did the elite chess players have huge bulbous temporal lobes for remembering all those chess formations? Did they have massively engorged frontal gyri for considering multiple moves at once? Actually no. There were few structural brain differences between the elite and non-elite players, and those differences that were observed all pointed in the same direction - to localised shrinkage in the brains of the grandmasters and their ilk.
Specifically, the elite players showed reduced grey matter volume in the occipital-temporal junction (OTJ; where the occipital lobe at the back of the head, and the temporal lobes at the side of the head, meet). The OTJ is known to be involved in representing objects and their relations to each other. Elite players also showed reduced "diffusivity" in parts of the superior longitudinal fasciculus. This is a major communication tract in the brain, sending information from visual areas to executive areas. Diffusivity is a technical word for "bushiness", so elite players showed more pruning along this major communication pathway. Also, the more years experience a player had, the smaller their caudate nucleus volume tended to be (the caudate has many functions, among them decision making).
What to make of these areas of reduced brain volume in the expert chess players? The researchers are admirably honest. The findings are "difficult to explain on the basis of current knowledge" they write, "since it is not clear how cortical thickness and grey matter volume are related to performance in psychological tasks."
That is a line you won't find very often in the Daily Mail or other tabloids! Brain science is complex (who knew?), still in its infancy, and it really is difficult to interpret structural brain differences. It's clear that a simple rule - shrinkage is bad / growth is good - just doesn't work. To provide you with a little wider context of the conflicting picture, there is research suggesting that practice leads to localised thickening of neural matter - for example, musicians often have more neural matter dedicated to the control of their hands and fingers than do non-musicians. Also, cortical thickness shrinks with ageing and tends to correlate with a loss of cognitive performance. But on the other hand, people who are tone deaf (they have "amusia") have been shown to have extra thick neural matter in their auditory cortex, so thicker doesn't always mean better. And this new chess study isn't the first to associate expertise with less brain power or brain usage. For example, earlier this year, a functional brain imaging study showed how little brain activity was exhibited by the Brazilian soccer player Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior when he controlled his foot.
Part of the reason for the complex mix of findings in relation to expertise and brain changes may be to do with when the behaviour in question takes place. For example, perhaps practice associated with elite performance leads to brain shrinkage when the practice is performed in childhood and adolescence (as was the case with the elite chess players), during the period of synaptic pruning that occurs at that time. Conversely, maybe excessive practice leads to localised brain growth when performed later in life. This is all largely speculation, and we have to remember a causal role for chess isn't even proven in the current study - perhaps people with unusual brain profiles are drawn to chess. But what seems clear is that brain thinning or areas of brain shrinkage are not necessarily a bad thing. They can be a sign of neural efficiency and a reflection of behavioural expertise. Remember that the next time a journalist tries to scare you with a brain shrinkage story.If Reza Farahan could wish one thing for “Shahs of Sunset” co-star Golnesa “GG” Gharachedaghi, it would be to get help — and fast.
“I think that GG is a very sick individual, and not just whatever ailments she’s claiming on the show. I think she really needs to evaluate her life,” the Bravo personality told Page Six on Monday. “I mean home girl needs to get a life coach, see a shrink. Bitch needs some help.”
Gharachedaghi, whose ongoing battle with rheumatoid arthritis has been documented on the series, is also said to be struggling in more ways than one.
“We all have issues on the show and we all address them, we’ve been doing this together for five years,” Farahan said. “For everyone on the show except for her, everyone has made strides.”
“She has a lot of things going on, a lot that people don’t know. And I’m not saying this to be mean at all, whatsoever, but she doesn’t hear all that well,” he continued. “And so someone who has a hair-trigger temper, who doesn’t have anything to do all day long, and who can’t heart, that’s like a lethal combination. And she drinks all the time. Imagine being out with someone who’s angry all the time, can’t hear and is drinking? They’re going to think everything anyone says is a personal attack or an insult.”
While Farahan, 42, and husband Adam Neely are enjoying life as newlyweds following their wedding last October, he’s unsure if a happily ever after is in Gharachedaghi’s future.
“It’s hard to think of anyone hooking up with Golnesa,” he said. “I think it needs to be someone who doesn’t know her.”
And as Farahan specified, someone who likely considers sharp objects a deal breaker.
“One of her exes told me one day that they were on a trip or something, and he woke up and she had a knife and was pacing in the room back and forth,” Farahan explained. “I don’t know, I think she needs to tone |
came with two backs on the field, the most in the league. A league-high 48 percent of their snaps used some combination of two backs or two tight ends, while they used two backs and two tight ends 24.2 percent of the time, much more than anyone else in the league.
Those raw numbers should reflect on a rigid offense that runs out of the same formations very often, an offense that pulls the defense in tight as opposed to spreading it across the field.
It's true that the 49ers do run a lot of tight formations, but their offense is far from rigid. The personnel that they had last season, Bruce Miller at fullback with Delanie Walker and Vernon Davis at tight end, allowed the 49ers to be very flexible with their formations.
That flexibility made them a very fluid and unpredictable offense.
Most of the 49ers' formations allow them to run the ball, but more often than not there is an element of misdirection or a play-action threat that comes with them. As the season wore on last year, they began to use more and more of the pistol formation because it offered that read-option, bootleg and simple play-action threat for the quarterback.
There isn't a way to shut down this offense, even without considering Kaepernick's influence in the passing game.
But there is a way to put the unit in uncomfortable positions and shift the focus away from the running game.
Stopping the Offense
Third-and-7 is a sweet spot for any defense. It means the offense is behind in the count in a sense, as they have greater gains to achieve on fewer downs.
The 49ers saw very few 3rd-and-7s with Kaepernick as their starting quarterback last season. When they did, they struggled to convert them.
The distance from the line of scrimmage isn't really the issue for the 49ers, at least not directly. The issue with 3rd-and-7 or more for the 49ers is that it takes the balance out of their offense. Even though they don't run the ball over 60 or 70 percent of the time, the 49ers are very much a run-reliant team that uses the threat of the run to set up the pass.
According to the Football Outsiders Almanac, the 49ers ran the ball 50 percent of the time on first down for the whole season last year. Often when they threw the ball on first down, they were making quick passes to already open receivers that were essentially elongated handoffs.
Their desperation to get yards on early downs is born out of the need to put Kaepernick in specific situations. Kaepernick is a very precise passer with exceptional arm strength. But like most young quarterbacks, he doesn't read through progressions well, can struggle with pressure in the pocket and often allows his eyes to drop from the secondary too early.
Much of Kaepernick's role in the 49ers offense is based around his ability to find his first read. Because teams are forced to play more zone against him to account for his running threat, and because his offensive line is able to offer him huge amounts of time in the pocket, Kaepernick can keep his eyes on one receiver for much longer than most quarterbacks.
On 3rd-and-7, the run threat disappears. Teams are more willing to play man coverage and can get a better pass rush.
On plays that aren't 3rd-and-7 or more yards, teams are unable to be creative with how they blitz Kaepernick. Creative blitzes or coverage shifts are often done to overload gaps in the offensive line. With a running threat at quarterback, teams can't overload one gap because they expose themselves to big gains on the ground.
When Kaepernick faced creative blitzes or coverage shifts at the snap, he struggled.
On this play, it's 3rd-and-8 and the Bears are threatening to blitz with each of their three linebackers pressed to the line of scrimmage. The 49ers set up their offense early, giving Kaepernick time to alter protections and direct his offensive line before the snap.
Kaepernick sets up his protection to give him enough time to make a quick decision with his two receivers to his left. Those two receivers are crossing each other with the slot receiver going to the sideline and the outside receiver coming infield. That should allow Kaepernick to get the ball out almost immediately and for the receiver to get a first down or touchdown with good YAC ability.
However, the Bears drop those three linebackers into coverage immediately at the snap.
The linebacker to the left side of the offense was actually a defensive back, Kelvin Hayden. Hayden immediately takes away Mario Manningham's route coming infield, where Kaepernick is looking. Kaepernick sees him at the last second to stop his throwing motion.
As he resets himself, he is hit from behind by Israel Idonije. Idonije beat right tackle Anthony Davis with ease and Davis didn't react at all when he went by him, so it appeared that he was expecting help from Gore. Gore was on the other side of the formation, however, as he expected to pick up a blitz coming from that side. A blitz that never came.
In order to stop the 49ers offense, you must put them into these positions. In order to do that, you must stop the run with a disciplined front seven that has talent on the interior of the defensive line, but you also must play very aggressive coverage in the secondary.
Aggressive, but also smart coverage.
Limitations of the Passing Game
Kaepernick's worst passing display last season came against the Seattle Seahawks. Critically, the Seahawks took away the running game from the 49ers by jumping out to an early lead and playing disciplined, aggressive defense with very talented pieces in the front seven.
Once that happened, the Seahawks were able to be more aggressive on the 49ers' underneath throws.
The Seahawks trusted their secondary to handle the 49ers receivers and dared them to throw the ball deep. As strong as Kaepernick's arm is, his deep accuracy is still very inconsistent. Most of his success on deep passes came when receivers or tight ends had run crossing routes or out routes and there was a greater window for him to throw into.
Rarely did the 49ers actively look to throw the ball down the sideline against man coverage, because those throws required accuracy that Kaepernick didn't consistently have.
Here is Kaepernick's passing chart from the Seahawks game:
The Seahawks dared the 49ers to consistently throw deep at their talented defensive backs. A handful of positive plays came, but nowhere near enough to sustain a winning offense.
At the beginning of this piece I pointed out that the 49ers don't have a wide-open offense that looks to score 40-plus points in every game. They have a methodical offense that looks to control the game and link plays together consistently.
The issue with that approach is that only one or two parts of the offense need to collapse for the series to be all but over.
In order to stop the 49ers, you must have a huge amount of discipline in the front seven with nearly as much talent. You must also be aggressive with your safety play and trust your cornerbacks to contain receivers going down the field.
Above is Kaepernick's passing chart for the 2012 season. It shows how the 49ers prefer to throw outside and underneath instead of pushing the ball down the field. The new receiving options in San Francisco this season fit that same kind of offense, despite how often Anquan Boldin went deep during last year's playoffs.
In spite of what Boldin, Quinton Patton, Austin Collie or Vance McDonald can bring to the offense, none will be able to replace the massive loss that comes with Michael Crabtree's torn Achilles tendon.
Crabtree is the smartest receiver in the NFL with the ball in his hands. He doesn't have the same explosion as a Percy Harvin or Tavon Austin, but he knows how to manipulate defenders and expose them in space.
Being a good runner after the catch isn't solely about acceleration, straight-line speed or quickness. Crabtree's two most valuable traits are his understanding of situations and his understanding of how to set himself (and the defender) up at the point of catching the football.
Often Crabtree will catch the ball in an unorthodox way that would be uncomfortable for most receivers. It looks like he is making the reception unnecessarily more difficult, but it's those subtle movements that allow him to glide away from defenders with ease.
After Kaepernick took over as the starting quarterback, he threw for 2,162 yards. Crabtree accounted for 880 of those yards, with 393 coming after the catch. Crucially, Crabtree caught 19 passes from Kaepernick that turned into either a touchdown or a first down primarily because of his ability with the ball in his hands.
Crabtree's consistency in how he manages situations, sets up defenders and uses his speed/strength to create big plays made Kaepernick's job much easier last season. Often the quarterback didn't have to make a pinpoint pass or throw the ball down the field in order to get a big play.
Without him in the lineup, the 49ers' threat on the outside figures to suffer a dramatic drop-off.
If Kyle Williams and Mario Manningham are fully healthy, they will offer a different kind of threat across from Anquan Boldin, but none of the other receivers on the 49ers' roster are anywhere near the level of the former Texas Tech prospect.
Without Crabtree, the 49ers will likely rely heavily on tight end Vernon Davis for their big plays. Davis is one of the best receiving threats in the NFL, but his usage in the running game along with the lack of options to pull coverage away from him should quell his impact somewhat.
Depending on how Kaepernick develops, the 49ers offense could be close to unstoppable even without Crabtree. However, that would require Anquan Boldin to play at the same level during the regular season this year that he played to during the postseason last year. Boldin elevated his game when the lights were brightest last year, but he was a shell of himself during the regular season.
If Boldin reverts back to his regular-season form, the 49ers will need Colin Kaepernick to elevate himself as a quarterback to the point that he can make his receivers better. As Ron Jaworski pointed out, Kaepernick has all the physical tools; he just needs to develop.
Development is often taken as a given, but there are many examples of players who never reached their true potential. It's still very early to crown Kaepernick.
The 49ers have arguably the best coaching staff in the NFL and an incredible level of talent to put on the field. You won't stop this offense with an average group of defensive players or even with a talented group of players who are poorly coached.
You need both, because the offense certainly has both.
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This strange footage appears to show the moment ISIS militants use CONDOMS laced with explosives to attack Russian bombers.
The footage shows fighters for Islamic State releasing the bizarre weapons into the air over the Syrian city of Idlib.
The footage - which has been edited similar to other ISIS films - begins by showing fighters hanging the condom bombs onto a ceiling.
It then shows two fighters releasing a larger balloon into the sky.
Eventually, the clip shows the ISIS fighters releasing dozens of smaller bombs in a new bizarre method of attack.
Russian fighter jets have been targeting a number of sites across Syria, attacking rebel positions as well as ISIS.
It was reported last weekend that about 30 British-born ISIS fighters have returned home to wage war on the UK.
Figures reported by the Daily Star said a total of 300 ISIS fighters are now in the UK after training with the terror group.I don’t know if just the Hello! Project fandom that does this, but the subject of cheaply made promotional videos seems fascinate. I’m personally from the camp where spendthrift videos are welcome and the biggest sin is a distracting PV or (worse) a boring PV. Simplicity is a virtue, and “Sukatto My Heart” remembers this in the best way.
Remember how “Manterou Show” felt like a dance shot PV in “One-Two-Three” cosplay outfits? Regardless of how funky and catchy the song turned out, I am constantly distracted by the lack of effort made in differentiating the former song with it’s well-known coupling track.
Well, “Sukatto My Heart” avoids the problems listed above. Firstly, the group has THREE distinct outfits! Obviously the outfits worn by Morning Musume ’15 contrast with the others worn for the other A-sides. The “Sukatto My Heart” outfits takes blue ribbon. The nautical theme recalls Morning Musume past (“The Peace“) in a cute and (gasp) sexy way. Midriffs and belly buttons! Skirts and legggzz! Nothing gets too risque as the girls execute a dance that is both playful and effortless.
This shot lasts precisely 0.057 seconds. What are we focusing on?
Formation dance
Oh look! Floor work!
Special awards go to Sayashi Riho, whose sharp moves punctuate the well-rehearsed unit. RihoRiho moves her hips in ways I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.
The jury award will likely go to Ishida Ayumi. She’s like a rock.
Special for me and the dozens of Eripon freaks- Ikuta Erina finally gets to show off her handspring in a single PV!
And, everyone looks so impossibly skinny!
Hardwood floors, exposed rigging with mounted speakers, and a large disco ball disguise the sound stage as a disco or (my favorite) roller-rink. The set design makes use of lights and darkness to complete the illusion.
Like the last few Morning Musume singles, the use of light design to enliven the set makes “Sukatto My Heart” look more expansive than the reality. I especially like the use of lights in the solo close-up shots.
I love the funky sounds of “Sukatto My Heart”. The song keeps to the basics with a thick bass, a Chic-esque guitar, and a horn-filled arrangement. Easily, the song wins the “funnest song on the single” award.
I suppose you can’t have too many Fukumura Mizuki screen captures (right?)
Time will tell if the disco sounds of “Sukatto My Heart” will have staying power. For now, let’s strap on those four-wheelers and boogie down the rink!
And, scene!
You can buy “Oh My Wish! / Ima Sugu Tobikomu Yuuki / Sukatto My Heart” at CD Japan.
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Limited CDon’t even think about getting the Sunday morning flight from Dubai to Riyadh. The same applies to the Thursday afternoon slots going back.
Both – and many in between – are booked solid by investment bankers, corporate lawyers, accountants, consultants and PR advisers who appreciate the weekend comforts of the UAE, but who know the big business is to being done in Saudi Arabia.
A huge economic transformation is planned for the kingdom, and the fees on offer are well worth a few days of strawberry juice in the puritan luxury of a five-star hotel in the Saudi capital.
Saudi Arabia is lining up a privatisation of state assets that dwarfs the Thatcher “revolution” of the 1980s, and rivals the 1990s dissolution of Soviet assets in scale and significance. It has hung a “for sale” sign on virtually every sector of Saudi economic life: oil, electricity, water, transport, retail, schools and healthcare. Even the kingdom’s football clubs are due to be auctioned off.
The sell-off programme is the central part of the economic transformation plan envisaged under the Vision 2030 strategy. With oil stuck around the $50 mark, Saudi budgets are creaking and deficits are widening. Around $75 is regarded as the break-even point for the national finances.
But in 13 years, if all goes to plan, the kingdom will be financially stable, with a more dynamic economy and society, less reliance on oil and government spending, and with a thriving private sector that releases the pent-up entrepreneurial spirit of Saudi men and (whisper it in the kingdom) Saudi women.
It is, of course, a big “if”, but for an economy stuck in the rentier mentality of the 1930s – when it became a country under the house of Saud and oil was discovered, and which has been ruled by the strict orthodoxy of Wahhabi Islam ever since – this will be nothing less than a revolution.
Rather than the Thatcher and Soviet analogies, some analysts compare it to the capitalist revolution brought about by Chinese moderniser Deng Xiaoping, which changed the economic shape of the world within three decades.
The centrepiece of the privatisation is the planned initial public offering (IPO) of Saudi Aramco, the country’s oil company and the source of all its wealth. If it goes ahead at the $2 trillion valuation hung on it by Mohammed bin Salman – Saudi’s crown prince and architect of Vision 2030 – it will raise $100bn on global markets, with London and New York vying for the lucrative IPO, in addition to Riyadh’s own stock market, the Tadawul.
Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi’s crown prince, is the architect of the Vision 2030 programme Photograph: Bandar Al-Jaloud/AFP/Getty Images
That is a huge sum, four times the amount of the biggest IPO hitherto. But it is only half of the estimated value of the rest of the privatisation schedule. Mohammad al-Tuwaijri, the former HSBC banker who is now deputy economy and planning minister, said earlier this year that he expected to raise $200bn from the state sell-off over the next few years.
Although al-Tuwaijri said he had a “crystal clear idea” of the privatisation strategy, not everybody has such a good view of the road ahead. Questions remain on the motivation for the plan, the legal and regulatory structures that will govern it, and the form the sell-offs will take: IPOs, private equity deals, or trade sales to non-Saudis.
A Saudi banker, who asked to remain anonymous because his bank was involved in pitching for parts of the privatisation mandate, said there were two imperatives behind the sell-off plan. “The cash they will raise is relevant and should not be ignored, but the main aim is to support the Vision 2030 goal of encouraging greater private sector involvement in the economy.”
Having private control of education, perhaps with foreign involvement, would be revolutionary in Saudi Arabia Nasser Saidi, consultant
Nasser Saidi, the former economics minister of Lebanon and now an economic consultant, led an abortive attempt to privatise big chunks of his country in the early 2000s. He says: “When you approach privatisation you have to have a legal and regulatory framework, which is not there yet in Saudi.”
There is, however, a clearer idea of what assets are on offer, because virtually everything is potentially on the block. The National Centre for Privatisation, which began operating in March this year, has drawn up a list that reads like a cross-section of the Saudi economy. “Environment, water and agriculture; transport; energy, industry and mineral resources; labour and social development; housing; education; health; municipalities; telecommunication and information technology; and Hajj and Umrah [Islamic pilgrimage] services,” its website declares, are all subject to the programme.
Within that list, there are some obvious jewels in the crown. The Saudi banker says that, because of the kingdom’s youthful demographic, health and education are potentially lucrative investments. He singles out the King Faisal Specialist Hospital, the Riyadh complex that is probably the best medical facility in the kingdom, as one of the most eyecatching potential privatisations.
But, as many other privatisers have found, there are serious issues attached to selling off assets regarded as central to the nation’s social and cultural fabric. “Having private control of education, perhaps with foreign involvement, would be revolutionary in Saudi Arabia. Would the investors want to have control of [the] curriculum? It could go against the whole culture and tradition of the kingdom,” says Saidi.
To overcome these sensitivities, other more secular assets – such as power stations, desalination plants and transport infrastructure – are more likely initial subjects for the programme.
The sale of the kingdom’s airports has already begun, with Goldman Sachs appointed to oversee the privatisation of King Khalid international airport in Riyadh. Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz airport is already well down the privatisation runway, with Singapore’s Changi Airport Group winning the bid to run it.
The whole issue of foreign involvement is fraught. Traditionally, foreigners wanting to do business in the kingdom have needed a Saudi firm or individual as their “partner”, which has led to charges of inefficiency and corruption.
These rules have been changed with respect to certain sectors – retail and wholesale, engineering and most recently health and education – but large swaths of the Saudi economy are currently off-limits for full foreign ownership: areas such as energy, defence, media and telecommunications.
There are other hurdles to overcome. Some Saudis, and not just Islamic fundamentalists, have criticised the privatisation plan as selling the family silver, or asking them to buy something they already own. Some financial advisers only half-joke about the need for a public education programme – “Tell Sayeed” – about the benefits of state sell-offs along the lines of the Thatcherite “Tell Sid” campaign of the 1980s.
Preferential allocations for Saudi citizens in any IPOs, which the Saudi banker believes is a necessary sweetener, could overcome some of those reservations.
The western advisers cramming the Riyadh flights are there for the fees, of course. But there is also an increasing degree of buy-in from many experts on the whole strategy.
Ellen Wald, an American Middle East expert and author of forthcoming book Saudi, Inc., says: “It’s an ambitious plan. Even if the Saudis fall short, they will have made positive and necessary progress in diversifying and privatising their economy.”Google is no longer the best-kept secret in education — that is, if Google’s presence in any market is ever “a secret.” Over the last year or so, the search giant has been quietly expanding its footprint in education and is moving quickly to capture a greater share of the K-12 market.
Thanks to Google Apps for Education sweeping through schools much as it did through the business world, Google’s presence in education has been growing fast, but has been mostly limited to its cloud productivity services. However, with the launch of Google Play for Education, Google’s march into education has become more pronounced, as it revealed a service today that will eventually combine the best of its hardware, software and marketplace businesses into one.
The company first revealed its plans to extend Play — its app and content marketplace for Android — into the classroom at Google I/O in May. Today, after spending the last give months beta testing the new service with students and teachers at more than 50 schools, the company is finally pulling the trigger.
In practice, Google Play for Education essentially aims to make discovering educational apps a breeze, while helping content providers reach a wider audience of teachers and schools. After surveying teachers and IT admins, Google said today in a blog post, the number one problem they wanted Google’s help solving had to do with time. In other words, already overwhelmed with busy schedules, they wanted time savers — both tools to help students learn in the classroom and tools to help them transition those classrooms to new curriculum standards.
To do that, Google is taking this familiar, two-pronged approach, combining hardware and software. This starts by offering schools the ability to choose one of three “classroom ready” Android tablets. First is the Nexus 7, Google’s 7-inch Android tablet, which will be available to K-12 schools beginning today at a cost of around $229 (plus a $30 management fee for those who want to get more Google assistance). Beginning next year, Google will be adding to its roster of education-focused tablets with a 10-inch ASUS Transformer Pad and an 8-inch HP Slate 8 Pro, though pricing is not yet clear for the latter two.
But to really lure in schools, Google knows it has to go further. In the K-12 education landscape, the company is not only going up against the familiar duo of Apple and its iPad, but a growing list of education-focused mobile devices as well, like Rupert Murdoch, Joel Klein and Wireless Generation’s Amplify and whatever becomes of Intel’s acquisition of Kno — to name a few.
To do that, Google is tying in Google Play and a few other things to sweeten the deal, like offering bulk purchasing with purchase orders and instant distribution of educational apps, videos and other content to their Android tablets via the cloud.
With Google Play for Education, teachers can discover apps “approved by teachers for teachers,” the company says, as well as videos and books. Teachers can search for approved apps by grade, subject, by price — and, most importantly — by Common Core standards. In fact, the company will even be paying some teachers to review apps for them, marking those reviews with a yellow badge. As of launch, there will be “thousands” of “edu-approved” apps, through which Google will be offering the standard 30/70 split with developers.
To reduce the time and work needed to get schools up and running, Google’s new tablets with Google Play for Education are built on Google Apps for Education, which means that students can use their existing Google accounts to log-in without having to begin the set-up process all over again.
Another key element: When teachers find an app they want to use, they can proceed to check out, where they’ll now have the option to make a purchase order rather than having to use their own credit card and get reimbursed by the school.
On the other side, schools and IT administrators can now set up a classroom of tablets in a few simple steps. Once they set up the first device, admins will be able to load a class list from a local spreadsheet, the company said, and provision additional tablets simply by bumping a new device with the administrator’s tablet. The idea, Google Play for Education product manager Rick Borovoy told EdSurge today, was to enable classrooms to “provision a class in under 10 minutes.”
While teachers and schools would usually avoid deploying a bunch of tablets during the school year, by using this simple “bumping” provisioning process, schools can circumnavigate this headache and potentially provision thousands of tablets during the school year without missing a beat. Or at least that’s the idea.
With its new tablets that come with Google Play for Education built-in (and built on top of Google Apps), schools can now adopt Google’s education tools all in one go. This allows Google to have another entrance into the classroom on top of its Chromebooks initiative, which have already seen hundreds of districts adopt the company’s web-centric laptops.
So far, Google says that it’s been working with startups like ClassDojo, Socrative, Explain Everything, NearPod and thousands more to get their apps up and running on Play for Education. In terms of what this means for K-12 schools in the U.S., Google had this to say in its announcement today:
With more than 30 million people using Google Apps for Education already, tablets with Google Play for Education easily plug into many schools’ existing technology. This is an affordable, 1:1 solution that puts greater power in the hands of teachers to find the best tools and content for their classrooms. We’re continuing to evolve the Google in Education offering and are happy to bring even more choice in devices and content.
So, stay tuned for more.
For developers looking to learn more, check out the Android Developers blog here and teachers can find Google Play for Education here.
More in Google’s intro video below:A New England car dealership is under fire after a Reddit user claimed today that they refuse to award his friend a 2014 Ford Fusion he won in a hole-in-one contest while dressed in a dog costume. Sounds like this story just went to the dogs! (Get it?) (Update: The dealer caved. See below.)
Redditor ptg33 over on r/WTF alleges that his although his buddy in the comically oversized dog suit won the hole-in-one contest sponsored by Quirk Auto Dealerships of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, the dealership refuses to award the Fusion on a technicality. Here's what he posted:
Background: My buddy hit a hole in one at a charity golf tournament. He was dressed in this costume (head was off) and it was at a "win a car" hole. The dealership is now saying they will not be giving him the car based on a technicality, even though it was 100% legit and the car dealership's rep (seen on the phone in the background) witnessed the whole thing. What I think it is, is they didn't bother insuring the contest. It was for a fully loaded 2014 Ford Fusion which has an msrp of around $35K. They never thought in a million years some asshole dressed up as a puppy would drain the shot, thus taking them for $30K plus. They said, that they required the hole to be 185 yards, but the pin placement was set up for 160ish. My argument is 1) No par 3 on this course can be that long (this was the longest), and 2) Why not figure this out before the tournament starts and you put a representative out there to witness it.
The redditor, ptg3, says he has contacted the local news in the Boston area for what he calls "a full on media blitz." (He did not immediately respond to a message request from Jalopnik.)
The ruff story (get it?!) must have gotten the dealership's attention, because they posted this on their Facebook page:
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We are also reaching out to the dealership and the golf course. Hopefully the dealer didn't completely screw the pooch on this one, or they'll be facing the wrath of the entire Internet soon enough. (Okay, I'm done.)
UPDATE: Within mere seconds of this story going up on Jalopnik (I'm totally kidding about this part, it's been on Reddit for hours) the dealership announced on Facebook that they will, in fact, award the Ford Fusion to the fellow in the pooch suit.
Hello Facebook - We will be awarding our Golf Tournament Winner a Brand new Ford Fusion. We want to let you know that we did indeed buy insurance and the official rules of the contest were not exactly followed (for one he's a dog). That said we think that our winner had "one hell of a great shot!" and the outfit was second to none! Congratulations Cujo! Come Forward and claim your prize!
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Good for them for doing the right thing.
Update 2: I just spoke to Daniel Mondello, who is Quirk's marketing director. He said that while the dealership did obtain insurance for this event, after the guy in the dog suit hit the hole in one from the 160 yard tee instead of the 185 yard tee, the insurance company refused to pony up. Instead, the dealership will be giving this golf-playing canine the car out of their own pocket. I say that's a pretty stand-up move.Opposite tough competition, ratings and viewership dropped for the National Spelling Bee. In other news, TNT’s The Dunk King ended on a high note, and the debut of Turner Sports’ E-League paled to TBS’ usual Friday night fare.
The finals of the National Spelling Bee earned a 0.5 final rating and 859,000 viewers on ESPN Thursday night, down a tick in ratings and 10% in viewership from last year (0.6, 954K). Keep in mind coverage aired opposite Game 5 of the NBA’s Western Conference Finals (6.1, 10.0M) and Game 7 of the NHL Eastern Conference final (1.5, 2.5M), while last year’s telecast faced no such competition. (via Programming Insider)
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The finale of TNT’s competition series The Dunk King earned 2.1 million viewers on Tuesday night, the largest audience of the series. The third episode last Sunday had nearly 1.8 million. The complete series averaged 1.8 million viewers across four airings, increasing 36% over TNT’s average viewership in each telecast window. (Turner Sports)County Championship Division One, Headingley: Yorkshire 677-7 dec beat Derbyshire 475 & 163 by an innings and 39 runs Yorkshire 21pts, Derbyshire 5pts Match scorecard
Jack Brooks took 5-40 as Yorkshire skittled Derbyshire for just 163 to secure a final-day win at Headingley.
Resuming on 597-5, the Tykes' middle order smashed 80 runs off the opening 10 overs of the day before declaring on 677-7 in an attempt to force victory.
Trailing by 202, Derbyshire lost first-innings hero Chesney Hughes and Shiv Chanderpaul to Liam Plunkett (2-20).
And despite defiance by Wayne Madsen (52) and Wes Durston (50), Brooks sealed the innings-and-39-run victory.
Wow!! What a win that is!! Well played @joeroot05 and well bowled @BrooksyFerret serious efforts all round!! #yccc Yorkshire batsman Jonny Bairstow @jbairstow21 on Twitter
Despite losing Jonny Bairstow for 186 in the penultimate over of the previous evening, the intentions of Adil Rashid and Gary Ballance were clear at the start of day four as the pair took nine off the opening over.
Although Jonathan Clare dismissed Ballance for 53 and then caught England seamer Tim Bresnan (14) off the bowling of Tim Groenewald, Plunkett and Rashid took the Yorkshire score to 677-7, the county's joint-fourth highest total, prompting skipper Andrew Gale to declare.
Derbyshire needed 202 just to make the hosts bat again, but Bresnan trapped Billy Godleman lbw for nine and when Plunkett took the wickets of Hughes and Chanderpaul they were struggling on 47-3 at lunch.
Madsen and Durston combined to put on 92 for the fourth wicket, but once Durston fell to Brooks, Yorkshire were able to push for victory, with the 28-year-old former Northants man taking the final wicket of Tony Palladino to complete his five-for.
"We have shown that in different situations we can score runs and take wickets," Yorkshire coach Jason Gillespie said.
"The players have got the belief, the right attitude and a good work ethic, which are great things for them to have. They want to do well for each other and that is what we are trying to create."
Match scorecardFernando Torres' Chelsea journey is officially over. With his departure on a two-year loan deal to AC Milan, one of the sorriest chapters in the club's recent history can finally be closed. The feeling of euphoria surrounding his deadline day move in January 2011 has almost been met with an equally cathartic sense of relief. Torres’ legacy will vary. Many will vehemently argue his time has been a complete catastrophe. Others will give weight to individual moments of elation. What cannot be disputed is that on balance it has been a deeply disappointing move for both the Spaniard and the Club.
Cast your mind back to that fateful day in January when Fernando Torres joined Chelsea for a record transfer fee. It was almost impossible to not be engulfed in a wave of optimism. Chelsea were faltering and our summer business had not enabled Carlo Ancelotti to strengthen his double-winning side. The answer, apparently, was a lavish outlay on one of the Premier League’s great marksmen. Fernando Torres would surely fire Chelsea to the title in the second half of the season.
Hindsight is an absolutely wonderful thing in situations like this. However, the due diligence around what has long been considered an owner signing must be questioned. Torres’ electric pace and adroit play on the last shoulder were the hallmarks of his game. His shooting opportunities typically came from an ability to burst into space from direct through-balls. The Liverpool team at the time were perfectly suited to playing to this strength, and Torres exploited sides regularly.
The problems surrounding the Torres we’ve come to know were already in motion by the time Chelsea signed him. This notion that the club somehow ruined him is a comical, albeit easy narrative for an overtly red media to push. The very thing that has brought Torres his goals was, by then declining at an alarming rate. Torres’ drastic loss of pace and mobility can be attributed to a knee operation in 2010. It had a long-term effect, resulting in muscular problems that can stem from a poor rehabilitative programme. The rumours of Chelsea rushing a medical (or in some cases, not actually conducting one) were rife. Nevertheless, Torres signed a lengthy five and a half year contract on exorbitant wages for a gargantuan transfer fee.
Torres scored 50 Premier League goals in 72 appearances up until that point. Thereafter, his goal return of 35 in more than 130 Premier League appearances says everything you need to know. Crucially, his top speed, number of shots on goal and number of completed passes in the final third had fallen dramatically. While Torres’ average top speed might appear to be an esoteric statistic to reference it is so interlinked with his success that it is salient to note. Torres’ ability to sprint past players at ease and finish had been severely hampered. Gone was his scintillating acceleration, and with that loss mediocrity loomed.
The accumulation of injuries Torres suffered was mishandled by Liverpool’s medical team. He would never be able to ascend to the heights he once touched. Only the very best footballers can reinvent themselves, and Torres was merely an exceptional speedster. Torres had become an average player almost immediately after his 2010 surgery. Debating the value of statistical analysis when it comes to player evaluation is certainly worthwhile, but in this case it might actually have led to us not signing Torres.
He only managed to score nine times in 23 games for Liverpool in the 2010/11 season; he would typically be hitting 20 goals in the same amount of league games. If the club thought they could revitalise Torres due to our record with injured players, this might explain why they took the plunge. It just seemed unfathomable that Torres would buck the trend for a player of his ilk.
What I cannot fathom to this day is just how Torres ever fitted into Chelsea’s team stylistically. We have always functioned best with a true centre forward leading the line. Didier Drogba exemplified this better than anyone, and Diego Costa looks to be continuing that trend. Torres’ penchant for running in behind defences was something that we had never really used as a primary weapon.
It would seem that |
The console was limited to a niche market of dating sims and visual novels in Japan, and never saw release in Western markets.
After the abortive 32X, Sega entered the fifth generation with the Saturn. Sega released several highly regarded titles for the Saturn, but a series of bad decisions alienated many developers and retailers. While the Saturn was technologically advanced, it was also complex, difficult, and unintuitive to write games for. In particular, programming 3D graphics that could compete with those on Nintendo and Sony's consoles proved exceptionally difficult for third-party developers. Because the Saturn used quadrilaterals, rather than triangles, as its basic polygon, cross platform games had to be completely rewritten to see a Saturn port. The Saturn was also a victim of internal politics at Sega. While the Saturn sold comparably well in Japan, Sega's branches in North America and Europe refused to license localizations of many popular Japanese titles, holding they were ill-suited to Western markets. First-party hits like Sakura Taisen never saw Western releases, while several third-party titles released on both PlayStation and Saturn in Japan, like Grandia and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, were released in North America and Europe as PlayStation exclusives.
Born from a failed attempt to create a console with Nintendo, Sony's PlayStation would not only dominate its generation but become the first console to sell over 100 million units by expanding the video game market. Sony actively courted third parties and provided them with convenient c libraries to write their games. Sony had built the console from the start as a 3D, disc-based system, and emphasized its 3D graphics that would come to be viewed as the future of gaming. The PlayStation's CD technology won over several developers who had been releasing titles for Nintendo and Sega's fourth generation consoles, such as Konami, Namco, Capcom, and Square. CDs were far cheaper to manufacture and distribute than cartridges were, meaning developers could release larger batches of games at higher profit margins; Nintendo's console, on the other hand, used cartridges, unwittingly keeping third-party developers away. The PlayStation's internal architecture was simpler and more intuitive to program for, giving the console an edge over Sega's Saturn.
Nintendo was the last to release a fifth generation console with their Nintendo 64, and when they finally released their console in North America, it came with only two launch titles. Partly to curb piracy and partly as a result of Nintendo's failed disc projects with Sony (as SNES-CD) and Philips, Nintendo used cartridges for their console. The higher cost of cartridges drove many third party developers to the PlayStation. The Nintendo 64 could handle 3D polygons better than any console released before it, but its games often lacked the cut-scenes, soundtracks, and voice-overs that became standard on PlayStation discs. Nintendo released several highly acclaimed titles, such as Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and the Nintendo 64 was able to sell tens of millions of units on the strength of first-party titles alone, but its constant struggles against Sony would make the Nintendo 64 the last home console to use cartridges as a medium for game distribution until the Nintendo Switch in 2017.
Handheld game consoles [ edit ]
For handheld game consoles, the fifth generation began with the release of the Virtual Boy on July 21, 1995.[30] Nintendo extensively advertised the Virtual Boy, and claimed to have spent US$25 million on early promotional activities.[31] The Virtual Boy was discontinued in late 1995 in Japan and in early 1996 in North America. Nintendo discontinued the system without fanfare, avoiding an official press release.[31] Taken as a whole, the marketing campaign was commonly thought of as a failure.[32] The Virtual Boy was overwhelmingly panned by critics and was a commercial failure.[33] The Virtual Boy failed for a number of reasons, among them "its high price, the discomfort caused by play [...] and what was widely judged to have been a poorly handled marketing campaign."[32]
The Nomad was released in October 1995 in North America only.[34][35] The release was five years into the market span of the Genesis, with an existing library of more than 500 Genesis games. According to former Sega of America research and development head Joe Miller, the Nomad was not intended to be the Game Gear's replacement and believes that there was little planning from Sega of Japan for the new handheld.[36] Sega was supporting five different consoles: Saturn, Genesis, Game Gear, Pico, and the Master System, as well as the Sega CD and 32X add-ons. In Japan, the Mega Drive had never been successful and the Saturn was more successful than Sony's PlayStation, so Sega Enterprises CEO Hayao Nakayama decided to focus on the Saturn.[37] By 1999, the Nomad was being sold at less than a third of its original price.[38]
Meanwhile, the commercial failure of the Virtual Boy reportedly did little to alter Nintendo's development approach and focus on innovation.[31] According to Game Over, Nintendo laid blame for the machine's faults directly on its creator, Gunpei Yokoi.[39] The commercial failure of the Virtual Boy was said by members of the video game press to be a contributing factor to Yokoi's withdrawal from Nintendo, although he had planned to retire years prior and finished another more successful project for the company, the Game Boy Pocket, which was released shortly before his departure.[40]
In 1996, Nintendo released the Game Boy Pocket: a smaller, lighter unit that required fewer batteries. It has space for two AAA batteries, which provide approximately 10 hours of game play.[41] Although, like its predecessor, the Game Boy Pocket has no backlight to allow play in a darkened area, it did notably improve visibility and pixel response-time (mostly eliminating ghosting).[42] The Game Boy Pocket was not a new software platform and played the same software as the original Game Boy model.[43]
First released in Japan on October 21, 1998, the Game Boy Color (abbreviated as GBC) added a (slightly smaller) color screen to a form factor similar in size to the Game Boy Pocket. It also has double the processor speed, three times as much memory,[44] and an infrared communications port. Technologically, it was likened to the 8-bit NES video game console from the 1980s although the Game Boy Color has a much larger color palette (56 simultaneous colors out of 32,768 possible) which had some classical NES ports and newer titles. It comes in seven different colors; Clear purple, purple, red, blue, green, yellow and silver for the Pokémon edition. Like the Game Boy Light, the Game Boy Color takes on two AA batteries. It was the final handheld to have 8-bit graphics.
Despite of Nintendo's domination of handheld console market, some competing consoles such as Neo Geo Pocket, WonderSwan, Neo Geo Pocket Color, WonderSwan Color appeared in late 90s and discontinued several years later after their appearance in handheld console market.
Sixth generation [ edit ]
Home consoles [ edit ]
With more than 155 million units sold, the Sony PlayStation 2 is the best selling video game console in history
The Dreamcast was the last system released by Sega, who became a third-party software publisher.
The sixth generation witnessed a shift towards using DVDs for video game media. This brought games that were both longer and more visually appealing. Adding furthermore features with online console gaming and implementing both flash and hard drive storage for game data.
Sega's Dreamcast, the first console with a built-in modem, was released in Japan on November 27, 1998. The Dreamcast initially underperformed in Japan; while interest was initially strong, the company was forced to stop taking preorders due to manufacturing issues, and the system underperformed its sales expectations, with reports of disappointed customers returning Dreamcast consoles to buy PlayStation games and peripherals.
After the sluggish sales in Japan, Sega pursued a different strategy in other areas. The system launched in North America with 18 titles, including the much-anticipated Sonic Adventure. A big part of marketing their system to North America was taking advantage of the turn of the century and North America's tendency to end a products price tag with the number 9. They came up with the slogan "9/9/99 for $199", and the system initially sold briskly. Despite Japan having a year head start on North America, by the end of 1999 the Dreamcast had sold 2 million units in North America versus only 1 million in Japan, and at the end of the year Sega controlled 31% of the American video game market. The Dreamcast went on to launch in Europe on October 14, 1999 and in Australia on November 30, 1999. However, Sega's success ultimately proved to be short-lived. Sony announced their own upcoming system, the PlayStation 2, in the fall of 1999; while they had few details on their system, many consumers ultimately held off on buying a system until Sony's own system launched. The PS2 released a year later and received immense critical acclaim. The PS2 quickly outsold the Dreamcast, eventually going on to become the best-selling video game console of all time while the Dreamcast's own sales stagnated. The Dreamcast was Sega's last video game console and was the first of the generation's consoles to be discontinued. Sega implemented a special type of optical media called the GD-ROM. These discs were created in order to prevent software piracy, which had been more easily done with consoles of the previous generation; however, this format was soon cracked as well. It also sported a 33.6Kb or 56k modem which could be used to access the Internet or play some games that took advantage of this feature, such as Phantasy Star Online, making it the first console with built-in Internet connectivity. An add-on for an Ethernet port allowed one to access broad band Internet though it did not come with the system. The Dreamcast was discontinued in March 2001, and Sega transitioned to software developing/publishing only.
Sony's PlayStation 2 was released in Japan on March 4, 2000, in North America on October 26, 2000, in Europe on November 24, 2000, and in Australia on November 30, 2000. It was the follow-up to its highly successful PlayStation and was also the first home game console to be able to play DVDs. As was done with the original PlayStation in 2000, Sony redesigned the console in 2004 into a smaller version. As of November 21, 2011 over 140 million PlayStation 2 units have been sold. [45] [46] This makes it the best selling home console of all time to date.
This makes it the best selling home console of all time to date. Nintendo's GameCube was released in Japan on September 15, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It was Nintendo's fourth home video game console and the first console by the company to use optical media instead of cartridges. The GameCube did not play standard 12 cm DVDs, instead it employed smaller 8 cm optical discs. With the release of the GameCube Game Boy Player, all Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges could be played on the platform. The GameCube was discontinued in 2007 with the release of Wii.
Microsoft's Xbox was the first dedicated video game console released by the company in North America on November 15, 2001, in Japan on February 22, 2002, and in Europe and Australia on March 14, 2002. Microsoft realized the power of video game consoles and feared with growing capabilities they may take over more than the living room. It was the first console to employ a hard drive right out of the box to save games, the first to include an Ethernet port for broadband internet, and the beginning of Microsoft's online Xbox LIVE service. Microsoft was able to attract many PC developers by using the NT kernel and DirectX from their Windows operating system. Though criticized for its bulky size and the awkwardness of its original controller, the Xbox eventually gained popularity, especially in the US, where it outsold the GameCube to secure second place, due in part to the success of the Halo franchise.
Japan North America Europe Units sold Dreamcast 1998 1999 1999 9,130,000 PlayStation 2 2000 2000 2000 155,000,000 GameCube 2001 2001 2002 21,740,000 Xbox 2002 2001 2002 24,000,000
Handheld game consoles [ edit ]
During the sixth generation era, the handheld game console market expanded with the introduction of new devices from many different manufacturers. Nintendo maintained its dominant share of the handheld market with the release in 2001 of the Game Boy Advance, which featured many upgrades and new features over the Game Boy. Two redesigns of this system followed, the Game Boy Advance SP in 2003 and the Game Boy Micro in 2005. Also introduced were the Neo Geo Pocket Color in 1998 and Bandai's WonderSwan Color, launched in Japan in 1999. South Korean company Game Park introduced its GP32 handheld in 2001, and with it came the dawn of open source handheld consoles. The Game Boy Advance line of handhelds has sold 81.51 million units worldwide as of September 30, 2010.[47]
A major new addition to the market was the trend for corporations to include a large number of "non-gaming" features into their handheld consoles, including cell phones, MP3 players, portable movie players, and PDA-like features. The handheld that started this trend was Nokia's N-Gage, which was released in 2003 and doubled primarily as a mobile phone. It went through a redesign in 2004 and was renamed the N-Gage QD. A second handheld, the Zodiac from Tapwave, was released in 2004; based on the Palm OS, it offered specialized gaming-oriented video and sound capabilities, but it had an unwieldy development kit due to the underlying Palm OS foundation. With more and more PDAs arriving during the previous generation, the difference between consumer electronics and traditional computing began to blur and cheap console technology grew as a result. It was said of PDAs that they were "the computers of handheld gaming" because of their multi-purpose capabilities and the increasingly powerful computer hardware that resided within them. This capability existed to move gaming beyond the last generation's 16-bit limitations; however, PDAs were still geared towards the typical businessman and lacked new, affordable software franchises to compete with dedicated handheld gaming consoles.
Japan North America Europe Units sold Game Boy Advance 2001 2001 2001 81,510,000 N-Gage none 2003 2003 3,000,000
Seventh generation [ edit ]
Video game consoles had become an important part of the global IT infrastructure. It is estimated that video game consoles represented 25% of the world's general-purpose computational power in the year 2007.[48]
Home consoles [ edit ]
With more than 101 million units sold, the Nintendo Wii is the best-selling home video game console in the seventh generation.
The release of the Xbox 360 began the seventh generation
The features introduced in this generation include the support of new disc formats: Blu-ray Disc, utilized by the PlayStation 3, and HD DVD supported by the Xbox 360 via an optional $200 external accessory addition, that was later discontinued as the format war closed. Another new technology is the use of motion as input, and IR tracking (as implemented on the Wii). Also, all seventh generation consoles support wireless controllers. This generation also introduced the Nintendo DS, and the Nintendo DSi, which brought touchscreens into the mainstream for and added cameras to portable gaming.
Microsoft kicked off the seventh generation with the release of the Xbox 360 on November 22, 2005, in the United States, December 2, 2005, in Europe, December 10, 2005, in Japan and March 23, 2006, in Australia. It featured market-leading processing power until the Sony PlayStation 3 was released one year later. While the original Xbox 360 "Core" did not include an internal HDD, most Xbox 360 models since have included at least the option to have one. The Xbox 360 optical drive is a DVD9 reader, allowing DVD movies to be played. No Blu-ray drive was included, making big games like Battlefield and Wolfenstein: The New Order require two or more DVDs to play. Up to four controllers can be connected to the console wirelessly on the standard 2.4 GHz spectrum. There are 4 discontinued versions of the Xbox 360: the "Arcade," the "Pro," and the "Elite," and the newer "S" or'slim' model. The "E" version of the Xbox 360 included 3 configurations: a 4GB internal SSD version which acts like a USB hard drive, a 250 GB HDD version, and a branded 320 GB HDD version. The Xbox 360 is backward compatible with about half the games of the original Xbox library. In 2010, Microsoft released Kinect, allowing for motion-controlled games. The Xbox 360 was discontinued on April 20, 2016.
The Xbox 360 had major technical problems on release, with a large portion of its consoles suffering from general hardware failures, nicknamed "the Red Ring of Death (RROD)" for the display of a red ring around the console's power button indicating the problem. The company spent over $1 billion correcting the problem.[49]
Sony's PlayStation 3 was released in Japan on November 11, 2006, in North America on November 17, 2006, and in Europe and Australia on March 23, 2007. All PlayStation 3's come with a hard drive and are able to play Blu-ray Disc games and Blu-ray Disc movies out of the box. The PlayStation 3 was the first video game console to support HDMI output out of the box, using full 1080p resolution. Up to seven controllers can connect to the console using Bluetooth. There are 6 discontinued versions of the PS3: a 20 GB HDD version (discontinued in North America and Japan, and was never released in PAL territories), a 40 GB HDD version (discontinued), a 60 GB HDD version (discontinued in North America, Japan and PAL territories), 80 GB HDD version (only in some NTSC territories and PAL territories), a "slim" 120GB HDD version (discontinued), and a "slim" 250 GB version (discontinued). The two current shipping versions of the PlayStation 3 are: a "slim" 160 GB HDD version and a "slim" 320 GB HDD version. The hard drive can be replaced with any standard 2.5" Serial ATA drive and the system has support for removable media storage, such as Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo, USB, SD, MiniSD, and CompactFlash (CF) digital media, but only the PlayStation versions up to 80 GB support this. The slim PlayStation 3 consoles (120 GB and up) had removable storage discontinued. [50] All models are backward compatible with the original PlayStation's software library, and the launch models, since discontinued, are also backward compatible with PlayStation 2 games. As a cost-cutting measure, later models removed the Emotion Engine, making them incompatible with PlayStation 2 discs. In 2010, Sony released PlayStation Move, allowing for motion-controlled games. With recent software updates, the PlayStation 3 can play 3D Blu-ray movies and 3D games.
All models are backward compatible with the original PlayStation's software library, and the launch models, since discontinued, are also backward compatible with PlayStation 2 games. As a cost-cutting measure, later models removed the Emotion Engine, making them incompatible with PlayStation 2 discs. In 2010, Sony released PlayStation Move, allowing for motion-controlled games. With recent software updates, the PlayStation 3 can play 3D Blu-ray movies and 3D games. Nintendo's Wii was released in North America on November 19, 2006, in Japan on December 2, 2006, in Australia on December 7, 2006, and in Europe on December 8, 2006. It is bundled with Wii Sports in all regions except for Japan. Unlike the other systems of the seventh generation, the Wii does not support an internal hard drive, but instead uses 512 MB of internal Flash memory and includes support for removable SD card storage. It also has a maximum resolution output of 480p, making it the only seventh generation console not able to output high-definition graphics. Along with its lower price, the Wii is notable for its unique controller, the Wii Remote, which resembles a TV remote. The system uses a "sensor bar" that emits infrared light that is detected by an infrared camera in the Wii Remote to determine orientation relative to the source of the light. All models, other than the Wii Family Edition and the Wii Mini, are backwards compatible with GameCube games and support up to four GameCube controllers and two memory cards. It also includes the Virtual Console, which allows the purchase and downloading of games from older systems, including those of former competitors. In 2009, Nintendo introduced the 'Wii MotionPlus' expansion, which uses the same technology as the console previously used, but with enhanced motion tracking and sensing to improve gameplay quality.
Japan North America Europe Units sold Xbox 360 2005 2005 2005 84,700,000 PlayStation 3 2006 2006 2007 85,900,000 Wii 2006 2006 2006 101,630,000
Handheld game consoles [ edit ]
For handheld game consoles, the seventh generation began with the release of the Nintendo DS on November 21, 2004. This handheld was based on a design fundamentally different from the Game Boy and other handheld video game systems. The Nintendo DS offered new modes of input over previous generations such as a touch screen, the ability to connect wirelessly using IEEE 802.11b, as well as a microphone to speak to in-game NPCs.[51] On December 12, 2004, Sony released its first handheld, PlayStation Portable (PSP). The PlayStation Portable was marketed at launch to an above 25-year-old[52] or "core gamer" market,[53] while the Nintendo DS proved to be popular with both core gamers and new customers.[54] Nokia revived its N-Gage platform in the form of a service for selected S60 devices. This new service launched on April 3, 2008.[55] Other less-popular handheld systems released during this generation include the Gizmondo (launched on March 19, 2005 and discontinued in February 2006) and the GP2X (launched on November 10, 2005 and discontinued in August 2008). The GP2X Wiz, Pandora, and Gizmondo 2 were scheduled for release in 2009. Another aspect of the seventh generation was the beginning of direct competition between dedicated handheld gaming devices, and increasingly powerful PDA/cell phone devices such as the iPhone and iPod Touch, and the latter being aggressively marketed for gaming purposes. Simple games such as Tetris and Solitaire had existed for PDA devices since their introduction, but by 2009 PDAs and phones had grown sufficiently powerful to where complex graphical games could be implemented, with the advantage of distribution over wireless broadband.
Japan North America Europe Units sold Nintendo DS 2004 2004 2005 154,020,000 PlayStation Portable 2004 2005 2005 82,000,000
Eighth generation [ edit ]
Home consoles [ edit ]
[56][57] The Wii U was the least selling console of the eighth generation, selling around 13.56 million units before being discontinued, but some of Nintendo's first party games for the system have sold around half the install base of the system, telling that Nintendo has a very dedicated fanbase
The original Xbox One, Microsoft's eighth generation console, which has since been superseded by two upgraded models, the Xbox One S and Xbox One X.
Aside from the usual hardware enhancements, consoles of the eighth generation focus on further integration with other media and increased connectivity.[58] The Wii U introduced a controller/tablet hybrid whose features include the possibility of augmented reality in gaming.[59] The PlayStation 4 is Sony's eighth generation console, featuring a "share" button to stream video game content between devices, released on November 15, 2013. Microsoft released their next generation console, the Xbox One, on November 22, 2013.[60] On March 3, 2017, following poor sales of the Wii U, Nintendo released the Nintendo Switch, a 'hybrid' console consisting of a tablet with controller attachments that can be used as a mobile device or connected to a television via a dock.
Game systems in the eighth generation also faced increasing competition from mobile device platforms such as Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating systems. Smartphone ownership was estimated to reach roughly a quarter of the world's population by the end of 2014.[61] The proliferation of low-cost games for these devices, such as Angry Birds with over 2 billion downloads worldwide,[62] presents a new challenge to classic video game systems. Microconsoles, cheaper stand-alone devices designed to play games from previously established platforms, also increased options for consumers. Many of these projects were spurred on by the use of new crowdfunding techniques through sites such as Kickstarter. Notable competitors include the GamePop, OUYA, GameStick Android-based systems, the PlayStation TV, the NVIDIA SHIELD and Steam Machines.[63]
Despite the increased competition, the sales for major console manufacturers featured strong starts. The PlayStation 4 sold 1 million consoles within 24 hours in 2 countries, whilst the Xbox One sold 1 million consoles within 24 hours in 13 countries.[64]
As of July 22, 2018, over 80 million PlayStation 4 consoles have been sold worldwide,[65] and 10 million Xbox One units have shipped to retailers (by the end of 2014),[66] both outpacing sales of their seventh generation systems. In contrast, the Wii U was a commercial failure and ceased production in January 2017, having sold only 13.56 million units after four years on the market.[67][68] The Nintendo Switch sold 2.74 million in its first month, making it the strongest hardware launch in the history of the company, and surpassed the Wii U by the end of 2017.[69]
Japan North America Europe Units sold Wii U 2012 2012 2012 13,560,000 PlayStation 4 2014 2013 2013 81,200,000 Xbox One 2014 2013 2013 30,000,000 Nintendo Switch 2017 2017 2017 32,270,000
Handheld game consoles [ edit ]
Japan North America Europe Units sold Nintendo 3DS 2011 2011 2011 74,840,000 PlayStation Vita 2011 2012 2012 15,900,000
Media [ edit ]
Cartridges [ edit ]
Game cartridges consist of a printed circuit board housed inside of a plastic casing, with a connector allowing the device to interface with the console. The circuit board can contain a wide variety of components. All cartridge games contain at the minimum, read only memory with the software written on it. Many cartridges also carry components that increase the original console's power, such as extra RAM or a coprocessor. Components can also be added to extend the original hardware's functionality[81] (such as gyroscopes, rumble packs, tilt-sensors, light sensors, etc.); this is more common on handheld consoles where the user does not interact with the game through a separate video game controller.[82] Cartridges were the first external media to be used with home consoles and remained the most common until continued improvements in capacity in 1995 (the Nintendo 64, released in 1996, was the last mainstream game console to use cartridges).[83] Nevertheless, the relatively high manufacturing costs and limited data capacity compared to optical media at the time saw them completely replaced by the latter for home consoles by the early 21st century, although they are still in use in some handheld video game consoles and in the Nintendo Switch. Due to the aforementioned capabilities of cartridges such as more memory and coprocessors, those factors make it harder to reverse engineer consoles to be used on emulators.
Chip cards [ edit ]
Several consoles such as the Master System and the TurboGrafx-16 have used different types of smart cards as an external medium. These cards function similar to simple cartridges. Information is stored on a chip that is housed in plastic. Cards are more compact and simpler than cartridges, though. This makes them cheaper to produce and smaller, but limits what can be done with them. Cards cannot hold extra components, and common cartridge techniques like bank switching (a technique used to create very large games) were impossible to miniaturize into a card in the late 1980s.[84][85] Compact Discs reduced much of the need for cards. Optical Discs can hold more information than cards, and are cheaper to produce. The Nintendo GameCube and the PlayStation 2 use memory cards for storage, but the PlayStation Vita, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo Switch are currently the only modern systems to use cards for game distribution. Nintendo has long used cartridges with their Game Boy line of hand held consoles because of their durability, small size, stability (not shaking and vibrating the handheld when it is in use), and low battery consumption. Nintendo switched to cards starting with the DS, because advances in memory technology made putting extra memory on the cartridge unnecessary.[86] The PlayStation Vita uses Sony's own proprietary flash-memory Vita cards as one method of game distribution.[87]
Magnetic media [ edit ]
Two forms of magnetic media commonly used in the 1980s and 1990s for video games are cassette and floppy disk
Home computers have long used magnetic storage devices. Both tape drives and floppy disk drives were common on early microcomputers. Their popularity is in large part because a tape drive or disk drive can write to any material it can read. However, magnetic media is volatile and can be more easily damaged than game cartridges or optical discs.[88] Among the first consoles to use magnetic media were the Bally Astrocade and APF-M1000, both of which could use cassette tapes through expansions. In Bally's case, this allowed the console to see new game development even after Bally dropped support for it. While magnetic media remained limited in use as a primary form of distribution, three popular subsequent consoles also had expansions available to allow them to use this format. The Starpath Supercharger can load Atari 2600 games from audio cassettes; Starpath used it to cheaply distribute their own games from 1982 to 1984 and today it is used by many programmers to test, distribute, and play homebrew software. The Disk System, a floppy disk-reading add-on to the Famicom (as the NES was known in Japan), was released by Nintendo in 1986 for the Japanese market. Nintendo sold the disks cheaply and sold vending machines where customers could have new games written to their disks up to 500 times.[89] In 1999, Nintendo released another Japan-only floppy disk add-on, the Nintendo 64DD, for the Nintendo 64.
Optical media [ edit ]
In the mid-1990s, various manufacturers shifted to optical media, specifically CD-ROM, for games. Although they were slower at loading game data than the cartridges available at that time, they were significantly cheaper to manufacture and had a larger capacity than the existing cartridge technology. NEC released the first CD-based gaming system, the TurboGrafx-CD (an add-on for the TurboGrafx-16), in December 4, 1988 in Japan and August 1, 1990 in the United States. Sega followed suit with the Sega CD (an add-on for the Sega Genesis) in Japan on December 12, 1991; Commodore stepped into the ring shortly after with the Amiga-CD32, the first 32-bit game console, on September 17, 1993. During the later half of the 1990s, optical media began to supplant cartridges due to their greater storage capacity and cheaper manufacturing costs, with the CD-based PlayStation significantly outpacing the cartridge-based Nintendo 64 in terms of sales. By the early 21st century, all of the major home consoles used optical media, usually DVD-ROM or similar discs, which are widely replacing CD-ROM for data storage. The PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One systems use even higher-capacity Blu-ray optical discs for games and movies, while the Xbox 360 formerly used HD DVDs in the form of an external USB player add-on for video playback before it was discontinued. However, Microsoft still supports those who bought the accessory. Nintendo's GameCube, Wii, and Wii U, meanwhile, use proprietary disc formats based on then-current industry standard discs—the GameCube's discs are based on mini-DVDs, the Wii's on DVDs and the Wii U's are believed to be based on Blu-rays. These discs offer somewhat smaller storage capacities compared to the formats they are based on, though the difference is significantly smaller compared to the gap between the N64's cartridges and CDs.
Internet distribution [ edit ]
All seventh and eighth generation consoles offer some kind of Internet games distribution service, allowing users to download games for a fee onto some form of non-volatile storage, typically a hard disk or flash memory. Recently, the console manufacturers have been taking advantage of internet distribution with games, video streaming services like Netflix, Hulu Plus and film trailers being available.
Bits [ edit ]
Each new generation of console hardware made use of the rapid development of processing technology. Newer machines could output a greater range of colors, more sprites, and introduced graphical technologies such as scaling, and vector graphics. One way console makers marketed these advances to consumers was through the measurement of "bits". The TurboGrafx-16, Genesis, and Super NES were among the first consoles to advertise the fact that they contained 16-bit processors. This fourth generation of console hardware was often referred to as the 16-bit era and the previous generation as the 8-bit. The bit-value of a console referred to the word length of a console's processor (although the value was sometimes misused, for example, the TurboGrafx 16 had only an 8-bit CPU, and the Genesis/Mega Drive had the 16/32-bit Motorola 68000, but both had a 16-bit dedicated graphics processor). As the graphical performance of console hardware is dependent on many factors, using bits was a crude way to gauge a console's overall ability. For example, the NES, Commodore 64, Apple II, and Atari 2600 all used a very similar 8-bit CPU. The difference in their processing power is due to other causes. For example, the Commodore 64 contains 64 kilobytes of RAM and the Atari 2600 has much less at 128 bytes of RAM. The jump from 8-bit machines to 16-bit machines to 32-bit machines made a noticeable difference in performance, so consoles from certain generations are frequently referred to as 8-bit or 16-bit consoles. However, the "bits" in a console are no longer a major factor in their performance. The Nintendo 64, for example, has been outpaced by several 32-bit machines.[91] Aside from some "128 Bit" advertising slogans at the beginning of the sixth generation, marketing with bits largely stopped after the fifth generation.
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Both teams end with 10 men as Montpellier hold Toulouse to a 1-1 draw in Ligue 1 this evening.
Both teams ended with 10 men as Montpellier HSC held Toulouse to a 1-1 draw in what proved a fiery encounter at Stadium Municipial in Ligue 1 this evening.
© AFP
Souleymane Camara fired the hosts into the lead on 19 minutes, before Jean Fernandez's men were given an uphill task in their bid to protect the lead when Daniel Congre was issued a straight red card five minutes after the interval.
However, Eden Ben Basat spurned the opportunity to restore parity by missing the resulting penalty kick.
Toulouse's numerical advantage was negated on 68 minutes when Jonathan Zebina received two bookings in quick succession.
© AFP
However, Alain Casanova's men then succeeded in their quest to find a leveller, courtesy of a 72nd-minute Abel Aguilar strike.
It proved enough to earn a point as both teams settled for a share of the spoils.Hey blog readers! We had our first dev stream for this game and it means a lot to us that many came out to watch and support us (even after a really rough start).
Aside from the video update every week on the Ninesquirrels channel, we will also be updating this blog to monitor our progress and hopefully share some helpful insights with our fellow devs.
But more importantly, we are doing this because of the experience we had during our Early Access for our first strategy game, Legends of Callasia. We had so many great responses from our early adopters, so we want to replicate that and get everyone involved early on in Last Regiment.
So as we start this blog, we’d like to do a little post-mortem on LOC to explain why we are making this new game.
What we learned from Legends of Callasia
Let’s start with what people loved about Legends of Callasia. It’s a turn-based game that can be played in a reasonable amount of time, largely because of the simultaneous gameplay. You can play multiplayer on a desktop or a tablet with your friends in an hour and a half – it doesn’t take forever!
But as with any game, there are bunch of things we thought we had to improve or wished we could have done.
No level editor. The whole game is structured in a way that creating a map starts from a hand drawing, transformed into several layers of Photoshop, then an Excel file. It was frustrating every time someone asked if they can make their own maps – it was a cool idea that we would have liked to have done but only possible if we start over from scratch. The learning curve. Though people enjoyed the game, many didn’t understand how things worked when they first played it. They got confused about the combat system: how armies work, what do the unit stats mean, how much is the actual damage, who gets attacked first, etc. The game had a system but we weren’t able to explain it very well. The battle screen felt like a game of its own which players couldn’t understand. It became a huge barrier for getting first-time players to become interested in the |
Government to immediately lift the moratorium.
Victorian Farmers Federation President David Jochinke supports the Government's legislation, and argued against lifting the moratorium with the aim of increasing gas supply.
"I would want to make sure that you're not completely devastating a whole agricultural industry on the sake of potentially exploring for gas in areas that we traditionally haven't been before," he said.
Topics: states-and-territories, environment, vicIn an apparent rebuke of California Attorney General and U.S. Senator-elect Kamala Harris, a Sacramento judge has found in favor of the current CEO and two former owners of online classified site Backpage.com, granting a tentative ruling dismissing criminal charges against the three men on Wednesday, hours before oral arguments are to occur.
Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman was unconvinced by the prosecution's argument that Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer and former owners Jim Larkin and Michael Lacey knowingly profited from prostitution via adult ads on the site. Bowman ruled that Backpage did not create the ads and thus its owners are immune to prosecution under Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act (CDA).
Based on paid ads placed in Backpage's adult section, all three men had been charged in early October with conspiracy to pimp; additionally Ferrer faced nine counts of pimping, with five of those counts involving minors. If found guilty, Lacey and Larkin were looking at a possible punishment of six years in prison, Ferrer up to 21 years.
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Lawyers for the three men moved for a dismissal of the charges in mid-October, claiming their First Amendment rights to publish had been violated and asserting that Section 230 grants them immunity from state criminal charges. Harris' office countered that the case was about conduct, not freedom of speech, and that Backpage had been expressly designed to profit from sexual exploitation, which made the defendants content creators, not merely publishers.
Though Bowman's final decision will not come until after oral arguments that are scheduled to occur this afternoon in his downtown Sacramento courtroom, the judge sided with the defense.
In the tentative ruling, he writes that California has "a strong and legitimate interest in combating human trafficking by all available legal means," and that "any rational mind would concur that the selling of minors for the purpose of sex is particularly horrifying and the government has a right and a duty to protect those most vulnerable victims."
But law enforcement has its limits, including the First Amendment and the CDA.
Writes Bowman:
That legitimate state interest is not absolute, however, and must be constrained by the interests and protections of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In that vein, the United States Congress created the Communications Decency Act 47 USC section 230. The importance of the protection afforded by the First Amendment was the motivating factor behind the creation of CDA. Congress stuck a balance in favor of free speech in that Congress did not wish to hold liable online publishers for the action of publishing third party speech and thus provided for both a foreclosure from prosecution and an affirmative defense at trial. Congress has spoken on this matter and it is for Congress, not this Court, to revisit. [Emphasis in the original.]
Bowman didn't buy the prosecution's central contention: that the principals of Backpage acted as pimps.
California's pimping statute "does not apply to an individual who provides a legitimate professional service to a prostitute even if paid with proceeds earned from prostitution," he noted. Rather, the provider of the service garners income from his or her own services rendered, not the prostitute's.
"[T]here is no dispute that Backpage charged money for the placement of advertisements," Bowman wrote. "Does this qualify as services rendered for legal purposes? Given the services provided by the online publisher, the answer to that question is yes. Providing a forum for online publishing is a recognized legal purpose that is generally provided immunity under the CDA. This immunity has been extended by the courts to apply to functions traditionally associated with publishing decisions, such as accepting payment for services and editing."
Pointedly, the judge wrote that the prostitution that forms the basis of the state's case "took place as a result of an advertisement placed by a third party. Backpage’s decision to charge money to allow a third party to post content, as well as any decisions regarding posting rules, search engines and information on how a user can increase ad visibility are all traditional publishing decisions and are generally immunized under the CDA. In short, the victimization resulted from the third party's placement of the ad, not because Backpage profiting [sic] from the ad placement."
The judge likewise rejected the prosecution's argument that because Backpage had allegedly reposted ads on two affiliated sites — EvilEmpire.com and BigCity.com — it had thereby become a creator of content, not just the content's publisher: "Republication is entitled to immunity under the CDA."
Attorneys for Lacey, Larkin, and Ferrer did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Asked for a comment on the apparent smackdown, Kristin Ford, a spokeswoman for Kamala Harris, said the attorney general will issue a statement after the hearing.
In October, Harris held the defendants in jail for four days and opposed their release on bond, arguing unsuccessfully that any money they put up would be tainted by illegal activity.
Internet law expert Eric Goldman, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law, co-director of the school's High Tech Law Institute, and the author of the well-respected Technology & Marketing Blog, tells New Times via e-mail that Judge Bowman's tentative ruling appears to be a big win for Backpage and "a stinging rejection of the AG's theories."
But Goldman says he'd be surprised if the AG doesn't appeal the ruling.
It's "logical," he adds, that the court would reject the prosecution's arguments concerning EvilEmpire.com and BigCity.com; Bowman's ruling on that aspect "is completely consistent with Section 230 jurisprudence."
Read Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman's tentative ruling dismissing the criminal case against Backpage's former owners and current CEO:Argentina has defaulted for the second time in 13 years after officials failed to come to an agreement with the country's bondholders.
After frantic last minute talks failed to produce a deal late Wednesday, Standard & Poor's deemed the country to be in default on some of its obligations. The change in credit rating could hike Argentina's borrowing costs, and put even more pressure on the country's already-struggling economy.
The crisis stems from a legal battle with a small group of "holdout" creditors that had demanded payment of about $1.5 billion on bonds they bought after the $144 billion default in 2001. That standoff has blocked payments to other creditors.
Economy minister Axel Kicillof met the "holdouts" for the first time in New York this week but said Wednesday that they rejected an offer he made.
Now, the country may have to devalue the peso to preserve foreign currency reserves, and that could trigger a dangerous rise in inflation that is already projected to hit 40%.
The peso has already fallen by about 25% against the dollar this year.
Neil Shearing, chief emerging markets economist at Capital Economics, said the default could have painful consequences for Argentina, but was unlikely to have a major impact beyond its borders.
"Markets are rightly viewing this as circumstances specific to Argentina, and it doesn't look like we've seen so-called contagion to other financial markets at this stage," said Shearing.
Last minute efforts fall short
There was still hope for a deal as discussions continued for a second day.
But Daniel Pollack, the court-appointed mediator, said late Wednesday that the talks had fallen apart. He said that "default cannot be allowed to lapse into a permanent condition" and that he would still be available to help the parties reach some kind of resolution.
It looked like Argentina's banks might throw the government a lifeline. The Wall Street Journal reported that they could agree to pay off the "holdout" creditors -- NML Capital and Aurelius Management -- and wait until next year to be repaid with government bonds. But that initiative too appears to have come to nothing.
How did it come to this?
The crisis has its roots in Argentina's last default. It reached agreement with almost 93% of creditors to restructure its debt, but 7% refused to accept.
The countdown to a new default started in earnest last month when a U.S. judge ruled that if Argentina doesn't pay the holdouts, it can't make any more payments to restructured bondholders.
Argentina worried that a deal with the holdouts could trigger billions of dollars in additional claims -- money it doesn't have.
"What the vulture funds want... is that they be paid more than the 92.4%," said Kicillof. "This I have talked about many times and I have repeated it today before the funds suing us: it can't be done... can't be done."
Serial offender
This is Argentina's third default in 25 years, according to ratings agency Moody's. Still, it no longer holds the record for the biggest -- that now belongs to Greece after its distressed debt exchange worth $273 billion at the height of the eurozone crisis in 2012. Russia's $39 billion default in 1998 is the third largest in history.Polishing up one’s image in the face of today’s online scrutiny is an extremely difficult task, especially when you are a small company trying to make a big impression in an extremely large market.Saygus is in just such a position. The Utah-based company made a big splash at CES this year, earning awards for what was promised to be a disruptive smartphone amidst an ocean of iPhones and Galaxies, the Saygus V2 Then like all plans of products under development, the plans changed, then changed again, with an occasional sputter of information that created more questions than it answered. Saygus was getting bogged down in maintaining a message, until recently with a promise of new talent to help straighten things out.After a couple wobbles, it looks like some time mingling at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles finally helped Saygus spread its wings a bit, and show off the goods.Throughout the expo, Saygus was showcasing the Vsmartphone to attendees, and responding to requests on Twitter. We are treated to a look at the redesigned insides that accommodate two SIM cards, two microSD cards, and a user-replaceable battery.We get an idea about how robust the audio is from the dual front-facing speakers tuned by Harman Kardon. Saygus also shows off the camera interface, wireless charging, the fingerprint sensor, and expandable storage.Given the revised timeline, and perhaps a little unease from some about new orders being taken through Indiegogo, Saygus’ recharged campaign to showcase real hardware was timely to say the least. Orders are not expected to ship for another few months, but on the bright side, if you want a V2, you do not need an invitation.For those still on the fence, the Saygus Vfeatures a 5-inch 1080p display, dual-front facing speakers, a fingerprint sensor, dedicated shutter key for the 21-megapixel OIS main camera, has a 13-megapixel OIS front-facing camera, 64GB of highly expandable on-board storage, and 3GB of RAM. The quad-core Snapdragon 801 runs the show, and the Vwill ship with Android 5 Lollipop.There are a number of new to market features with the Vas well, such as a 60GHz WiHD transmitter, multi-boot from the SD card capability, and fractal antenna technology.Most of these videos are quick “show-me” features, but they are more than what we have been seeing since CES, and that change is good.Armand Traore has confirmed he has rejected a move from QPR to Crystal Palace.
Former Rangers manager Neil Warnock, who brought Traore, 24, to west London from Arsenal for £2m in 2011, made a bid after returning to Palace for a second spell in charge at Selhurst Park.
The offer, described as “very good” by boss Harry Redknapp, was accepted by Rangers.
“Now we’re back in the Premier League I’m not going to leave after I’ve just signed a new contract.” – Armand Traore
But Traore, who signed a new contract only weeks ago, has told chief executive Philip Beard he is reluctant to make the move.
“I’ve spoken to Phil and I think I’m going to stay. I didn’t sign a contract to move on,” he said.
“I could have left before for a Champions League club, Benfica, but I stayed and grafted in the Championship and now we’re back in the Premier League I’m not going to leave after I’ve just signed a new contract.”
He faces a fight for a first-team place, though, with Yun Suk-Young likely to move ahead of him in the pecking order after the international break. The South Korean has been nursing a slight injury.
Redknapp, who is set to give Yun a chance to impress, was unhappy with Traore’s display in the recent 4-0 defeat at Tottenham – a performance the player admits was “a disaster”.
Traore added: “After maybe 25 seconds I gave the ball away and that sort of thing is really contagious.
“We always say the first three or four things you do you have to make sure you do them well.
“I’m trying to improve. Because people in football told me how much talent I’ve got I think I relied on that a bit.
“It takes a lot more than that – you have to do everything [right] off the pitch and concentrate on your football.
“After going up to the Premier League I thought ‘I’m going to give it a good shot – give it everything that needs to be done to perform at my best’.”
Another QPR player who started the season with high hopes was Alejandro Faurlin, only for the popular midfielder to suffer cruciate knee ligament damage for the third time in as many years.
He faces another long spell on the sidelines and Senegal international Traore says the news deeply upset Faurlin’s Rangers team-mates.
Traore said: “I’m gutted for him. The guy worked so hard and it’s come back to him.
“I personally think, with the African culture I’ve got, when things like this happen in my country where I grew up it’s like somebody must have done something dodgy to you like black magic or something.
“When I heard the news I felt stick to the stomach.”
See also: How Traore is turning his QPR career around by managing his 'chimp'
Traore given two-year contract by Rangers
QPR boss has high hopes for Traore and Yun
QPR receive offers for Simpson and Traore
Traore not keen on Crystal Palace move
Harry wants players in & Wright-Phillips out
QPR's Traore urged to take his opportunity
QPR make Tottenham an offer for Sandro
Rangers tie up deal to bring Kranjcar back
Spurs rejected bid from QPR for Townsend
Rangers sign midfielder Sandro from Spurs
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: Completed in September 2017. Raised US$45 million equivalent (source; tokendata) Token : $ENG token, initially sold at US$0.6. Trading at 1.21$ as of press time (source: Coinmarketcap)
: $ENG token, initially sold at US$0.6. Trading at 1.21$ as of press time (source: Coinmarketcap) In a nutshell: Catalyst is a data-driven, machine-based investing application built on the Enigma platform, destined for automated crypto-assets trading.
I have a name for trading in cryptocurrencies: it’s rollercoaster trading. I mean, we all have been there somehow. Investing in a popular coin with high hopes and dreams, only to embark on the exciting journey of rewards and regrets. With bulls, bears, and whales standing their ground, one thing stands clear: the burgeoning crypto-market is still as volatile as they come. And every time we win a deal, someone somewhere is biting their nails over losing it. But, what if algorithms and machines weigh in to guide us through? What if there is a platform out there that leverages historical data and hard-learned lessons into automatically executed trading strategies? That’s the idea behind a project called Enigma Catalyst. Let’s dig deeper into this world full of promises and potential.
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Enigma / Catalyst at a glance
Simply put, Enigma is decentralized protocol designed to solve the Blockchain’s scalable privacy flaws. And Catalyst is the platform or the decentralized app (DAPP) that enables traders to build programmatic trading strategies. Think of it as a decentralized Bloomberg for crypto-assets running on Enigma.
The San Fransico based platform is an initiative put forth by a team of MIT graduates. They claim to have created “the first investment platform focused on enabling developers to build, text, and exercise micro crypto-funds.”
How does it work?
While Enigma aims to be a globally recognized data marketplace, Catalyst is the application that enables traders to implement their strategies and meet their investment goals. For that, it harnesses the capabilities of decentralized quality-data curators and algorithmic trading.
Hence, the Enigma ecosystem encompasses cryptocurrency investors, traders and data curators.
So, Enigma allows traders to create their own hedge funds on Catalyst. And crypto-investors will pump in liquidity into the most profitable and successful hedge funds on the platform. The decentralized data marketplace is revolutionary by design: no authority beyond the stakeholders. And no trading on quality data. Enough to make Thomson Reuters obsolete, isn’t it?
Going through the website, one can’t help but sense the acute focus on the “decentralized data marketplace.” That is to say, Enigma’s platform offers a wide range of applications, including the algorithmic crypto-trading Catalyst. And that data is of premier importance, as an official Enigma blog post reads:
Despite its significant role in our economy, data remains consolidated in the hands of a few large organizations. For anyone but those entities, it is not fungible or tradeable. […]We’ve set a single goal to break down data silos and enable data sharing. We believe that to achieve this goal, a single, open-source protocol for a decentralized data marketplace needs to exist.
So instead of sitting there, refreshing the candlestick chart, trying your best not to FOMO, you can create trading robots to meet your targets based on accurate data. That’s right, who needs Yoddle when you can set up your own hedge fund!
As of this time, Catalyst can be implemented to top crypto-exchanges like Bitfinex, Bittrex, and Poloniex. It comes with some promising features:
Ease of use and implementation (detailed video tutorials are provided here)
Security: given that you take an utmost care of your exchange API keys
The possibility of backtesting every trading strategy on relevant historical data to ensure its viability prior to implementation.
Cross-Chain Atomic Swaps, for instant, trustless exchange of crypto-assets between any number of off-chain payment networks.
Instant Settlements of off-chain payments for a high trading velocity and an optimized market liquidity.
The whitepapers
The team has put forth two whitepapers, for Enigma and Catalyst. The authors presented flawless documents that stand heads and shoulders above most ICOs that I’ve had the chance to review. In fact, it instantly brings to mind the clarity and style of the notorious Satoshi Nakamoto’s whitepaper. And the reader gets the sense that these people are on to something big.
Both documents (14, and eight pages), which are available for download on the website, paved the way towards a very successful ICO. Or was it?
The ICO Event
Things started off pretty well for the project, with a “fully-booked” token presale event. It closed August 23 with an impressive U$20M. CEO Guy Zyskind commented:
“Our presale was significantly oversubscribed, and we have had to turn down additional interest in order to ensure the full participation of our community.”
Then comes the ICO, on September 11, 2017, with a shocking surprise. US$500,000 worth of Ether has vanished following a security compromise.
The perpetrators were able to take control of the project’s website domain and solicited tokens for a “pre-sale” ICO. While the incident pinpointed severe security flaws, it also raised all team members to praise, with their quick reaction, and continuous communication. It’s worth mentioning that Enigma refunded every contributor who fell victim to the scam and resumed the ICO to a hard cap of US$45 Million.
The $ENG Token
$ENG is an ERC-20 token with a fixed supply of 100 Million. It will grant investors access to data sources on the decentralized marketplace through subscription. It works as an incentive to grow and stabilize the network, and boost the token value and liquidity. Simply put, it is designed with these missions:
To reward the most successful Enigma Catalyst traders
To purchase hard data from data sources
To invest in someone’s hedge fund on the platform
Since Enigma will have its own decentralized exchange, ENG tokens will also be used as rewards for liquidity providers
As of present time, the token is primarily traded on Binance and Bittrex (to name a few), at us$1.28, with a market cap of US$95 Million.
Here’s how the token is doing so far:
Enigma’s team
A highly skilled and promising team stands behind the project, and enjoy the back-up of industry elites, and VC funds.
The core executive team consists of MIT graduates Guy Zyskind (Co-Founder and CEO), Can Kisagun (Co-Founder and CPO) and Tor Bair (Growth and Marketing).
The tremendous advisory board lists professor Alex Pentland (board member at Google and Telefonica) and Justin Lent (former director of hedge fund development at Quantopian), among others.
While the company does have competitors (Melonport and ICONOMI), it has unique investors like Floodgate, Flybridge Capital Partners, Converge, Digital Currency Group, and of course MIT.
Milestones, and road ahead
It’s rare to spot a project that puts forth a product prototype for its prospective investors before the ICO. And when that happens, it sends off a rather bright message.
Knowing that the decentralized data marketplace idea dates back to 2015, it clearly took enough time (and substantial effort) to crystallize into the project it is today. Here’s what the original roadmap initially looked like:
Enigma’s team is doing a great job by keeping everyone updated regarding the project. They recently announced partnerships (the most recent ones being Aion, InvestFeed and Tokendata) and provided a fantastic view of their distributed marketplace on their blog. For those of us who need to run a test and see for ourselves, Enigma just announced the complete release of Catalyst 4.0. Time to write some code, and backtest some gains!
A final word
I have always been fascinated by Stock Exchange traders. I mean, all the excitement, the adrenaline, the shouting and lust for risk and reward. Unfortunately, white-collars are not praised for being the fairest among us. And most people have been longing for an inclusive financial system, the one that the Blockchain brings about to all of us.
With a skilled team, and a robust web of partners and investors, the future of Enigma looks rather bright.
So let the bulls and bears lock horns over their reward, for the future of crypto trading shall be that of algorithms. And the future of data relies on its decentralization. It looks like things are just getting started.
Useful linksHow low can cloud prices go? On May 18, Google announced that it was cutting the price of its Google Cloud Platform prices by as much as 30 percent.
Last year, we saw Amazon, Google, and Microsoft battle it out in a race to the bottom for cloud pricing. After a relatively quiet 2015, Google has restarted the transformation of cloud services to commodity priced services.
Google stated that the company is reducing the prices of all Google Compute Engine Instance types. Indeed, Google now claims that Google Cloud Platform is now 40 percent less expensive for many workloads.
What's the best cloud storage for you? Free and cheap personal and small business cloud storage is everywhere. Here's how to decide which one is right for you. Read More
The exact price reductions are:
Standard: 20 percent
High Memory: 15 percent
High CPU: 5 percent
Small: 15 percent
Micro: 30 percent
To put this into context, 451 Research found, in its fall 2014 Cloud Price Index (CPI), that the average price for a typical Web application was $2.56 per hour. This was the average quote from a range of cloud providers based on a specification of a typical multi-service cloud application.
AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Compute Engine were able to offer slightly cheaper prices at an hourly average of $2.36. Therefore, a standard Google Compute Engine might run such an application for approximately $1.90 an hour.
Google is also introducing a new class of pre-emptible virtual machines (VM) that deliver short-term capacity for a very low, fixed cost. These are designed for short-duration batch jobs. Pre-emptible VMs are identical to regular VMs, except availability is subject to system supply and demand. Since Google runs pre-emptible VMs on resources that would otherwise be idle, Google can offer them at substantially reduced costs.
How much cheaper? Google claims that a pre-emptible VM will save 70 percent over an ordinary Google Compute Engine VM.
Don't believe Google? You can do the math yourself with Google's TCO Tool. But keep in mind: Every previous time that one of the big cloud providers dropped their prices, the others followed suit. May the best cloud service for the lowest price win.
Additional Stories:Last October, A 24-year-old lecturer at an engineering college in Greater Noida got a phone call from his father. Sahir, who has requested his last name be withheld, had moved to the city from a village in western Uttar Pradesh four years earlier, and had spent less than a year on his first job; about a year ago, his parents moved in with him. He remembers his father’s voice on the telephone. It was thick with shame. A woman, his father said, had visited home and was saying that Sahir had slept with her and reneged on his promise of marrying her. “I was shocked and appalled by the allegation.
I told him, ‘Don’t worry. I will explain when I get home’,” Sahir says.
Sahir did not get the chance. A few hours later, he was summoned to the police station and arrested. He was charged with rape and criminal intimidation.
There is no way of verifying the veracity of Sahir’s claims. The case is currently being tried in a fast-track court in Delhi and its judgment is awaited. According to him, however, although he was romantically involved with the girl levelling the allegation for more than two years, they never had sexual intercourse, let alone his forcing his girlfriend to undergo an abortion (as he says she has told the police). He claims he never promised to marry her. What he cannot understand is the charge he faces—that of rape. He says he has committed no act that could have him arraigned under Article 375 and 376 of the Indian Penal Code, the country’s anti-rape laws.
Sahir’s case is like those of many others that various men’s rights groups in India frequently point to. False rape cases are on an exponential rise, they say, and few take note of it. According to these groups, fraudulent allegations of rape make up the bulk of ‘rape’ reports in India. They point out that in 2011—according to the National Crime Records Bureau—only 25.9 per cent of rape cases resulted in convictions, thereby implying that the rest of the cases were based on false accusations.
While that may not necessarily be a valid assumption, given that the principles of jurisprudence dictate that an accused must be held innocent until proven guilty—and proof is always tricky in rape cases and so several individuals are acquitted on lack of evidence—there is reason enough to believe that false charges of rape are on the rise.
A Delhi sessions court made an observation to this effect in March this year while acquitting four individuals of rape. In the words of Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat: ‘It is becoming a very difficult job, nowadays, for the courts to differentiate genuine rape cases from false ones. Cases like the present one create a well-founded belief among the public as well as the judiciary that the rape related laws are misused with impunity.’ In this particular case, as the court determined, the husband of the alleged victim had made her file a rape case against two brothers and their parents (for abetment of the crime) to settle a personal grudge.
Two months later, the Delhi High Court made similar observations and directed trial judges to be vigilant on mala fide charges. Justice GP Mittal stated then, ‘Rape causes the greatest distress and humiliation to the victim, but at the same time a false allegation of rape can cause equal distress, humiliation and damage to the accused as well. The accused must also be protected against the possibility of false implications.’
Sahir had to spend 14 days in Tihar Jail before he was granted bail. He lost his job. He had to change his apartment. And, since his arrest, he has not visited his native village in UP because news of his arrest has ruined his reputation there. He and his parents keep away from all social events in fear of being asked about the status of his case. “I finally got a job as an assistant professor a few months later—but by keeping my past secret,” he says. “I wish the case is resolved soon. But I’m also afraid. What if I am convicted?”
Feminists argue that false accusations make up only a tiny fraction of such charges, and that public discussions on this phenomenon only detract attention from the serious problem of men forcing themselves upon women. No doubt, this is a serious issue. However, men’s rights groups assert that the cause of justice is ill-served by ignoring what is now an equivalent malaise: the use of rape charges, with its heavy penalties, as a tool of mala fide intent.
How common false accusations are is hard to assess. Swanchetan, a New Delhi-based organisation well known for aiding survivors of violence, abuse and trauma, carried out a five-year-long study from 2003 onwards that examined several rape cases lodged. In all, the group studied 113 cases, the number it was called in for during this period by various police stations to counsel rape survivors. Swanchetan found that 18.3 per cent of all cases in the sample—almost every fifth, that is—were fake. On investigation of the reasons, the researchers learnt that 25 per cent of the fake rape complainants had animosity towards the accused as their motivation. Another 25 per cent had filed cases at the behest of family members. In about a fifth of the false cases, the individual was ‘coached’ to allege rape to settle a family dispute. In about 15 per cent of cases, the individual panicked and alleged rape after she had consented to sexual intercourse. And the remaining 15 per cent, according to the organisation, defied categorisation.
According to Dr Rajat Mitra, director of Swanchetan and a clinical psychologist by training, “One should not look at those who falsely accuse [men] as liars. In most cases, they are being forced by someone else to file such a case.” Among the cases Dr Mitra discusses is the case of a woman who was gangraped by three men in Dwarka. However, she filed a case against three other individuals because her rapists had threatened to kill her if she pointed them out to the police. In another case, a 13-year-old had falsely accused a policeman of raping her because her father bore a grudge against the cop. “There are so many occasions when the girl breaks down during counselling and confesses that she had consented to sex with the accused,” says Dr Mitra, “But she could not dare tell her parents this.”
The clinical psychologist admits that the study had a small sample and the figures are based on what accusers confided to him during counselling sessions. “The number otherwise could be larger,” he says. In April 2010, the Pune Police claimed that around 74 per cent of reported rapes involved consensual sex where the accused had later reneged on a marriage promise. According to Pune Mirror, a local paper, Crime Branch officials had put three years of rape cases registered in the city to scrutiny before arriving at this conclusion. The figure evoked outrage among women’s groups, which accused the police of distorting facts to shrug off their responsibility for the safety of women. Himanshu, a singer and guitarist, is embroiled in one such case. He was arrested as an alleged rapist two years ago. His then girlfriend had accused him of sleeping with her on the pretext of marriage. According to her, they had been in a live-in relationship for over three years, but he had later moved out and started avoiding her. “I want the police to punish [him] so that he doesn’t spoil any woman’s life by making false promises,” she was quoted as saying in The Indian Express.
Himanshu claims that while he was romantically involved with the woman, he was neither living with her nor in a sexual relationship. He shows a medico-legal document of the medical examination conducted on the woman after her allegation that mentions an intact hymen. “See,” he says, “she was lying.” This report, Himanshu’s lawyer has told him, is why he is likely to be acquitted by the Judiciary.
According to the singer, their relationship first ran into trouble when the two went to the UAE for work. Himanshu got a three-month long contract to sing at a hotel, and he took her along as a co-singer.
However, he claims, she did not put the required effort and the hotel refused to pay the duo. She was unhappy with him about this, he says. After a few months of their return to India, he found that a case of rape and cheating had been filed against him.
“The slur of a ‘rapist’ is not easy to live with,” says Himanshu, who has spent three nights in Mumbai’s Malwani Police Station lockup and another 21 days in a Thane prison. On his first night in the Thane jail, he was slapped by other undertrials as part of a custom that all rapists must be dealt with this way. No one, apart from his lawyer, came to visit him during this period. After he was eventually granted bail, he found his family members keeping away. All he could do was live alone in the city, visit his lawyers and try to get work. “On the day I returned, I googled my name,” he says, “Earlier, I would find links of my performances. This time, there were news reports about my being a rapist.” Work has been tough to come by, and he has not got a single gig with his former band members.
In 2010, a pilot with Jet Airways was arrested for having allegedly raped his stewardess girlfriend. Both were originally from Uttarakhand and had been in a live-in relationship. According to the woman, she had agreed to live with the pilot, Varun Agarwal, because he had promised to marry her. This, however, was a promise he did not keep. On her complaint, Agarwal was arrested at Mumbai’s domestic airport and put behind bars for 14 days. It was widely reported in city newspapers. “The arrest was not fair,” says Laxman Kanal, his lawyer, “The case was quashed two years later, but the damage to his reputation was done.”
Kanal is seated on the fifth floor of Bandra’s Family Court in a room full of lockers with names of owners on them. Agarwal’s parents, he says, were against the match and he did not want to disobey them. “In anger,” he says, “she had him booked under sections 376 (rape), 420 (cheating), 323 (causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation).” While the pilot did not lose his job, the airport confiscated his airport entry pass until his name was cleared. “He could not work for almost two years,” says the lawyer, “It was also a shameful period for him and his family. His name was there almost every day in the papers.” During this period, Kanal mentions, Agarwal was resolute on filing defamation charges against the complainant once he was acquitted. Since his acquittal, Agarwal has married and resumed his job with Jet Airways. He refuses to talk about the case. “It turned out unfairly for me, I know,” is all he has to say, “I wanted the person who caused this to be held accountable. But once I was acquitted, I was just happy to have my name cleared. I let it be.”
Men’s rights groups contend that India’s rape laws have a glaring loophole: the absence of a ‘misuse clause’ that could deter false accusations. According to Amit Deshpande, a member of Save India Family Foundation, a men’s rights group, innumerable presentations had been made to the Justice Verma Committee, which was set up last year to recommend amendments of sexual assault laws, for the inclusion of such a clause. But the plea was entirely ignored.
Many believe that such a misuse clause could work against the casue of justice overall. Padma Deosthali, a coordinator with CEHAT, a research and health advocacy group that works closely with rape survivors, points out that rape remains highly unreported in India. “We need to understand that because of the stigma associated with rape, very few women report it,” she says, “In such a scenario, if one brings in such a clause, fewer victims will likely come forth to seek judicial redressal.”
Since the 16 December Delhi gangrape case and the subsequent protests and demands for tougher penalties for sexual assault, some lawyers fear that the public campaign has adversely impacted justice in rape cases. Sitting in a cabin on the first floor of a South Mumbai building crammed with lawyers’ chambers, Parvez Ubharay, a senior advocate, opens a newspaper with a page full of rape news. “Look,” he says, “Every report almost assumes that the accused is guilty. That’s unfortunately what’s happening now. The media presumes every accused is guilty, the police don’t want to take a chance, and the judges want to appear tough.” According to him, even bail in rape cases is increasingly difficult to get.
A month ago, |
booted from the rolls.
"Some of the evidence we saw indicated it was having a particular impact in urban communities that are particularly mobile, so, you know, people of color were particularly affected, and young people," Wright said regarding Ohio, which is historically a key state for Republican presidential candidates.
Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted drops off his early voting ballot at the Franklin County Board of Elections in Columbus, Ohio in October 2016. Jay LaPrete/AP
Husted, a Republican who's now running for governor of Ohio, said in a statement this week that “maintaining the integrity of the voter rolls is essential to conducting an election with efficiency and integrity" and went on to call the Supreme Court's agreement to hear the case "encouraging."
The secretary of state's website says that since 2011, Husted has removed 560,000 dead voters from the rolls, along with 1.6 million duplicate registrations.
However, Wright's perspective correctly reflects past research that suggests younger people and minorities wait in longer lines to vote and have a harder time dealing with identification requirements than their older white peers — all of which they'd have to deal with each time they got purged from the voting rolls.
"The most important thing is just any eligible voter who loses their right to vote for reasons that have no bearing on their eligibility, that that's a loss for the democratic system and for our goal of making all the voices heard in our democracy," she said.
Investigative reporting has dug up evidence that Ohio's voter purges have been, in some cases, haphazard.
Additionally, a 2016 Reuters study "found that in Ohio's three largest counties, which include Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus, voters were struck from the rolls in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods at roughly twice the rate as in Republican neighborhoods under the policy."
But Tom Fitton, president of the conservative group Judicial Watch, said in a statement that “the citizens of Ohio may yet see their right to clean and fair elections upheld. Clearly, dirty election rolls can mean dirty elections. We hope that the Supreme Court will reverse the 6th Circuit decision and allow Ohio to more easily remove ineligible names from its voter registration lists.”
Ohio isn't the the only state where large-scale voter-roll purges have grabbed headlines.
In April, the watchdog group Let America Vote filed a Freedom of Information request for details on the deactivation of more than 480,000 voter registrations by the state of Indiana. The voter-rights group said the scale of the deactivations raised the question of whether anyone had been disenfranchised. The Indiana Election Division said its cleanup was simply in keeping with state law.
And there was an outcry in New York in 2016 after the city Board of Elections confirmed that about 126,000 Democratic registrants had been dropped from the rolls in what officials called an overdue update just before Hillary Clinton and Brooklyn native Bernie Sanders faced off in a presidential primary.
Douglas Kellner, a Democratic commissioner of New York State's bipartisan Board of Elections, said in an interview Wednesday that yes, states should be diligent in updating their rolls so, for example, people can't vote from an address where they don't actually live.
But Kellner said Ohio's system may have a disproportionate effect on certain groups, such as city dwellers who may miss warnings about their registration status because of something as quotidian as poor mail service.
A New York City election ballot shows the names of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016. Patrick Sison/AP
The Ohio case brings fresh attention to questions of voter rights and possible suppression even as President Donald Trump — who has claimed the 2016 election he won was fraught with fraud by Democrats, although he's presented no evidence of that — has charged Vice President Mike Pence with heading a commission to study the integrity of the U.S. election system.
If Ohio wins at the Supreme Court level, Kellner said, it could set a precedent that other states could employ to set up similarly strict systems that punish citizens for missing even a single election.
"What it means is this group of voters, who is highly mobile and not as well motivated as other voters, will be disenfranchised," he said. "How many that is, I don't know."The time in the television schedule has come to say goodbye to Mad Men's Don Draper (for now). Our relationship with the brooding ad man has been on the rocks — just like his whiskey — for the past few months. And as much as it pains us to say it, perhaps it's best that we take a break until next season.
We know he's wrong for us. He's a terrible, narcissistic male chauvinist with some seriously bad habits — but something about him keeps us coming back. Okay, a big part of that something is that he's practically perfect looking. But we're not that shallow.
No, there's something more.
SEE ALSO: 'Mad Men' Gets a Paw-rific Remake
WARNING: GIFs include season six spoilers.
Sometimes he's just plain rude:
Image courtesy of Tumblr, fuckyeahmadmentv.
But then you remember that he loves puppies:
Image courtesy of Tumblr, fuckyeahmadmentv.
He can be a total hypocrite:
Image courtesy of Tumblr, fuckyeahmadmentv.
But when you least expect it, he's right there with some backup:
Image courtesy of Tumblr, fuckyeahmadmentv.
He can be really bossy. Which is cool because it's his thing, until he starts acting like this:
Image courtesy of Tumblr, fuckyeahmadmentv.
Then someone knocks him down to size:
Image courtesy of Tumblr, fuckyeahmadmentv.
But then he does another thing that is SO BAD:
Image courtesy of Tumblr, fuckyeahmadmentv.
Then other times he does it and you're kind of cheering him on:
Image courtesy of Tumblr, fuckyeahmadmentv.
So he lets his confidence get the best of him:
Image courtesy of Tumblr, fuckyeahmadmentv.
But then he lets his ego down for just one, precious moment:
Image courtesy of Tumblr, fuckyeahmadmentv.
And when you think he's getting it together, he passes out drunk in his child's bed:
Image courtesy of Tumblr, fuckyeahmadmentv.
He won't even eat his dinner:
Image courtesy of Tumblr, fuckyeahmadmentv.
And sometimes he does this and you're like "Don, GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF!"
Image courtesy of Tumblr, fuckyeahmadmentv.
But then he acts like a good, normal human being:
Image courtesy of Tumblr, fuckyeahmadmentv.
Bit by bit, he lets his guard down and we think he's making a change for the better:
Image courtesy of Tumblr, fuckyeahmadmentv.
And before we know it, we're taking him back because we know things are going to be different this time:
Image courtesy of Tumblr, fuckyeahmadmentv.
And we're bending over backwards to keep him happy:
Image courtesy of Tumblr, fuckyeahmadmentv.
Image courtesy of Tumblr, fuckyeahmadmentv.
You got us again, Don.
Image courtesy of Tumblr, fuckyeahmadmentv.
Image via Tim Whitby/Getty Images EntertainmentVenus might be closer to Earth, but that doesn't make it easier to explore than Mars. For starters, the surface of Venus has the pressure of 92 of Earth's atmospheres, to say nothing of the temperatures — which can reach more than 900 degrees Fahrenheit (500 degrees C), heat that can melt lead. But two NASA scientists, Dale Arney and Chris Jones, suggest we skip the surface altogether and stick to Venus's clouds, according to a report in IEEE Spectrum.
To do so would require big policy changes at NASA, which has been promoting crewed Mars missions as part of its Orion program. But these scientists say that the atmosphere of Venus, explored by an airship, may be more hospitable to human missions. Enter the High Altitude Venus Operational Concept, or Havoc.
"it's a chance to do a practice run... of going to mars." About 31 miles (50 km) above Venus' surface, the gravity is only slightly lower than Earth's, and the atmospheric pressure is about the same. What's more, Venus is better shielded from radiation than Mars — exposure to radiation in Venus' atmosphere would be "about the same as if you were in Canada," Arney told IEEE Spectrum. In other words, floating above Venus' surface is attractive because it's more Earth-like.
The vehicle designed to explore the atmosphere is a helium-filled airship that runs on solar power. The idea is to send a robotic version, followed by a larger, crewed version. The airship would have to be folded up inside a spacecraft to get there, with humans following in a separate vehicle. The plan even includes a suggested space colony, floating in the clouds.
The Venus idea is appealing in part because the planet is closer, and could provide experience with technology that would be necessary to get humans to Mars: habitats for crew members, carbon dioxide processing, aerobraking, and other things required to allow humans survive a trip to another planet. "If you did Venus first, you could get a leg up on advancing those technologies and those capabilities ahead of doing a human-scale Mars mission," Jones told IEEE Spectrum. "It’s a chance to do a practice run, if you will, of going to Mars."A 21-year-old tattoo artist from Queensland, Australia has some explaining to do after one of his friends asked him for a tattoo symbolizing the balance of the universe only to get an age-old symbol of male virility for his troubles, 40 centimeters of it in fact.
The 25-year-old victim, who has not been named by police, visited the home of the tattoo artist in question and was talked into getting inked. The victim wanted a yin and yang with some dragons – instead his “friend” gave him a 40-centimeter penis and an misspelled slogan that implied that he was gay.
The tattooing allegedly took place after the pair had been involved in an argument. Once the work was done, the tattoo artist is said to have punched the other man and thrown him out of his house.
Ipswich Detective Constable Paul Malcolm explained:
The victim wasn’t interested [in a tattoo] at first but he was talked into it and he said he wanted a Yin and Yang symbol with some dragons. The bloke started doing the tattoo and there was another bloke standing there watching saying, ‘Mate, it’s looking really good.’ He was told not to go out into the sun and not to show anyone for a few weeks. When he got home he showed it to the person he lives with and she said: ‘I dont think it’s the tattoo you were after’.
The offending artiste is due to appear in Ipswich Magistrates Court on November 15 charged with two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm and one charge relating to the Public Safety Act. The victim faces the $2500 bill to have the offending tattoo removed. [Brisbane Times]Our prediction two weeks ago that we’d be seeing a R56 based GP very soon appears to be coming true. Today we see that car in full motion (video after the break) spotted on the German Autobahn. The tell-tale wing and the predicted functional rear diffuser are all here giving us the required tip-offs that this is indeed the new GP.
Video and details after the break.
The Details (as we know them)
Our sources at MINI have been rather tight-lipped about the specifics of the car, but here’s what we do know. Despite the Coupé providing an exceptional starting point, we believe GP2 will be based on the R56 and follow in the tradition of the first GP. We’ve also heard rumblings of another limited GP like model for the coup down the road – theoretically making way for a R56 based GP. but it’s important to remember that these details haven’t been confirmed by additional sources.
MINI will once again finish the cars away from normal production line at Plant Oxford with unique parts both inside and out. Look for a MINI Challenge-esque rear aero and a large rear wing. Expect unique 18″ wheels as standard, complimenting a one-of-a-kind variation of the JCW body kit.
The JCW engine will likely be modified to get at least 220 hp (in European trim) and the car will be fitted with the JCW suspension as standard. We haven’t confirmed that it will be dropping the rear seats, but given MINI’s emphasis on achieving a lighter weight, we expect it. Of course if our info is off and it is coupe based, expect minimal structural changes inside.
In late October of 2005, MINI celebrated the brand’s success with the first MINI United. That inaugural world MINI event was the perfect venue to debut the GP – a thank you of sorts to MINI enthusiasts. We expect history repeat itself in 2012 with MINI United being the likely public debut of the GP2. From there don’t be surprised to see it travel to MTTS in July and finally make its way to dealer lots this fall.
Pricing, like the specs is still very hush hush. But expect the $31k price of the original GP to be eclipsed.
We’re not entirely sure who deserves credit for the video (which comes to us via MotoringUnderground) but we thank them for giving us the very first look at the second generation GP.
Full GalleryTORONTO — A city-funded public education campaign to dispel racist claims and hateful rumours against Syrian refugees is set to launch this month.
City staff received an update Monday about efforts to resettle thousands of Syrian refugees. Of the 26,166 refugees who have arrived in Canada since last fall, 4,334 have chosen Toronto as their new home.
“It’s been a challenge,” said Coun. Joe Mihevc, a member of the Community Development and Recreation Committee, which received the report.
“With the pictures that people have been seeing in Europe and what some of the government officials in the U.S. have been saying, especially in this election period, it has contributed to a culture and anger towards the ‘other’,” he Mihevc.
READ MORE: 5 things to know about the Syrian refugee resettlement program
One city-funded program aimed at calming the fear and easing the difficult transition for Syrian refugees is called The Ontario-wide Public Education Campaign Against Xenophobia, Islamophobia and Racism. Its goal is to fight a specific type of racism feeding rumours and stereotypes undermining efforts to welcome and integrate Syrian refugees.
The inaccuracies include that all Arabs and Muslims are terrorists, threats to Canada’s social system and are benefiting from government generosity at the expense of needy Canadians.
READ MORE: ‘This is a terrific day’: Immigration minister talks about reaching 25,000 Syrian refugee goal
“What is driving the anti-refugee attitudes at the moment is a very specific kind of xenophobia,” said Debbie Douglas, executive director of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, which is overseeing the campaign.
“We want to tap right into that anti-Arab, anti-Muslim sentiment sparked by the arrival of the Syrian refugees,” she said.
“Rumours feed and fuel pre-existing racist attitudes and behaviours.”
The public awareness initiative will roll out locally with a poster campaign meant to drive people to a website aimed at provoking discussion and reflection. The initiative will expand province-wide to public service announcements and events.
Beginning in May, the campaign will spread its message to schools, universities, business and landlord associations. Organizers also hope to collaborate with police departments as well.
“It is greatly needed as there has been a lot of misinformation out there that really is destructive,” said Leen Al Zaibak, co-founder of Jusoor, a Canadian NGO that provides academic assistance to Syrian youth.
“The biggest rumour I have come across is that the government is spending more on Syrian refugees than others like the homeless and veterans,” she said. “This is not true.”
READ MORE: No, Canada doesn’t spend more on refugees than on pensioners
Other cities like Barcelona already have anti-rumour campaigns in place.
In February, Toronto city council approved $220,000, on a one-time basis, to the Newcomer Office for its Syrian Resettlement Program. Of that, $90,000 has been earmarked for the city’s public education and anti-rumours campaign.
Despite strong backing from the federal government, some polls suggested that most Canadians disagree with the plan to welcome so many refugees into the country.
READ MORE: 60% of Canadians disagree with Liberal plan to accept Syrian refugees: Ipsos poll
But the poll was conducted one week after the devastating terror attacks in Paris, a time that saw a spike in anti-Muslim incidents.
“We wanted to be as provocative as possible, so that Torontonians are pushed out of their comfort zone and examine their own stereotypes, assumptions, prejudices, rumours, and racist views,” said immigrant advocate Douglas.
The long-term goal of the campaign is to broadly tackle all forms of racism. The initiative hopes to emulate models established by anti-drinking and driving and anti-smoking initiatives that have made the issues top of mind for the public.On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged at its most recent two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. For the first time since December, the interest-rate watch was on again as speculation swirled earlier this year that a rate hike was on the horizon in March. That sentiment changed in recent weeks, as economists and investors came to expect that the Fed would hold rates steady this month.
At the FOMC’s December meeting, the Fed raised interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade—the target range for the federal funds rate moved from between 0 percent and 0.25 percent to between 0.25 percent and 0.50 percent.
In a statement regarding the decision to keep interest rates at their current level, the FOMC said that while the U.S. labor market continues to strengthen, global economic conditions remain shaky. The FOMC is also expecting inflation to be low in the near term, as oil prices remain low.
There are expected rate hikes ahead in 2016, though. According to updated projections from the Fed, the median of committee members’ predictions is that the federal funds rate will be 0.875 by the end of 2016—which would mean two quarter-point increases this year.In the venture community and at Google Ventures, do you think you can help with these problems?
I hope so. If you don't know someone with cancer, you probably will eventually, sadly. We have this powerful lever at Google Ventures, which is to invest $200 million a year. This is a huge lever. It's not all going into one place, it's going into lots of start ups and founders and entrepreneurs, all of which are levers to try and change the world in one way or another. One way we can try and improve our existence on earth as it spins around the sun is to try and help people live longer, healthier, happier lives, have more time with their loved ones.
For you, why venture as opposed to, say, working for the NIH or for the White House?
I contemplated a career at NIH at one point. I have a neuroscience background. Lots of people are making a difference in the academic world doing government-funded research. So there are lots of ways to do it. I find this path I'm on to be a particularly leveraged way. Commercial enterprises, when they're successful, tend to make really big impacts and scale in a way that non-profits sometimes have a more difficult time doing.
Do you even consider yourself a venture capitalist in the traditional sense? For one thing, you don't have lots of limited partners that invest in your fund.
We have just one, Google. We really tried to reinvent what it means to be a venture capitalist. We're interested in smaller companies with a potential upside and with creating large, scalable companies. And we have this really risk-leaning LP (Limited Partner), Google, that always says: "We don't want to do what everyone else is doing." So do I think of myself as a venture capitalist? Not really. I think of myself as an entrepreneur.
What makes you so confident that what happens here in Silicon Valley is going to change the world?
For one, you can certainly point to a long list of companies and innovations that have come out of the Valley. There's a different mindset here than in other places. Silicon Valley has been a technology capital like New York is a financial capital. Here it's about the future and inventing new things. I'm super optimistic about that because I see the hundreds of entrepreneurs a year that come in here, some that we fund, that are going to do amazing things.
You mentioned the impact of poverty and malnutrition in the health space. Does that optimism you have extend to solving some of these problems?
Sure. I think as a human you have to be. Otherwise you'd just kind of give up. One of my aunts had polio. She's in a wheelchair, and now polio in this country is unheard of. We live in a world now where smallpox doesn't exist. There are bacteria that would have killed you years ago, and now you take antibiotics, and you're going to be fine. Is that available broadly enough in the world? No. But if you think about how we define poverty in this country compared to a hundred years ago, I'm incredibly optimistic that the sweep of things over time is in the right direction."Monetae cudendae ratio" (also spelled "Monetæ cudendæ ratio"; English: "On the Minting of Coin" or "On the Striking of Coin"; sometimes, "Treatise on Money") is a paper on coinage by Nicolaus Copernicus (Polish: Mikołaj Kopernik). It was written in 1526 at the request of Sigismund I the Old, King of Poland,[1][2] and presented to the Prussian Diet.
History [ edit ]
Click on image to read the German version.
Copernicus' earliest draft of his essay in 1517 was entitled "De aestimatione monetae" ("On the Value of Coin"). He revised his original notes, while at Olsztyn (Allenstein) in 1519 (which he defended against the Teutonic Knights), as "Tractatus de monetis" ("Treatise on Coin") and "Modus cudendi monetam" ("The Way to Strike Coin"). He made these the basis of a report which he presented to the Prussian Diet at Grudziądz (Graudenz) in 1522; Copernicus' friend Tiedemann Giese accompanied him on the trip to Graudenz.[3] For the 1528 Prussian Diet, Copernicus wrote an expanded version of this paper, "Monetae cudendae ratio", setting forth a general theory of money.
In the paper, Copernicus postulated the principle that "bad money drives out good",[4] which later came to be referred to as Gresham's Law after a later describer, Sir Thomas Gresham. This phenomenon had been noted earlier by Nicole Oresme, but Copernicus rediscovered it independently. Gresham's Law is still known in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe as the Copernicus-Gresham Law.[5]
In the same work, Copernicus also formulated an early version of the quantity theory of money,[2] or the relation between a stock of money, its velocity, its price level, and the output of an economy. Like many later classical economists of the 18th and 19th centuries, he focused on the connection between increased money supply and inflation.[6]
"Monetae cudendae ratio" also draws a distinction between the use value and exchange value of commodities, anticipating by some 250 years the use of these concepts by Adam Smith—although it, too, had antecedents in earlier writers, including Aristotle.
Copernicus' essay was republished in 1816 in the Polish capital, Warsaw, as Dissertatio de optima monetae cudendae ratione (Dissertation on the Optimal Minting of Coin), few copies of which survive.[7]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Universal JavaScript Apps with React Router 4
How to use the latest version of React Router both on the server side and the client side
Patrick Hund Blocked Unblock Follow Following Feb 16, 2017
React Router is the most popular library in React-land for rendering different page contents depending on request URLs and manipulating the browser history to keep the URL displayed in the location bar in sync with your app as the user interacts with the page.
Shiny and New
Recently, version 4 of React Router entered the beta release phase. Bemoaned by some, applauded by others, it is a complete rewrite of the previous version with lots of breaking API changes.
The key idea behind version 4 is “declarative composability” — it embraces the component concept that makes React so great and applies it to routing. Every part of React Router 4 is a React component: Router, Route, Link, etc.
One of the React Router developers, Ryan Florence, made a short hands-on video introduction to the latest React Router, which I highly recommend:
What About the Backend?
The new version of React Router comes with a new web page that has lots of useful code examples. One thing I miss, however, is a practical example on how to use React Router for rendering React-based pages on the server side.
For the project I’m currently working on, search-engine friendliness and optimal site speed are essential, so rendering the whole page on the client side — the way all the examples on the examples page do — is not feasible. We use an Express server to render our React pages in the backend.
In his intro video, Ryan has an App component that fetches data from some API to initialize its state, using the componentDidMount lifecycle method. When the asychronous data fetching is done, the component is updated to display that data.
But this doesn’t work when rendering the App component on the server side: when you use renderToString, the string with HTML code is created synchronously, after calling the component’s render method once. componentDidMount is never called.
So if we rendered the App component from Ryan’s video example in the backend, it will just generate the “Loading…” message.
I struggled with this for some time and complained about it on Twitter:
Thankfully, Ryan replied to my tweet and pointed me in the right direction:
The Solution
As a proof of concept, I created a demo app that basically recreates Ryan’s example from the video using server-side rendering.
The app fetches data about Gist code snippets using the GitHub API:
It turns out that Gists are mainly used for promoting counterfeit prescription meds ☺︎
Show Me the Code!
You can find the demo app’s source code here on GitHub:
In a nutshell, here’s what I did…
server/index.js
This is the code that is run with every HTTP request to the Express server:
(Note: this is just an excerpt — you can find the full source code on GitHub)
In lines 1–4, I’m defining an array of routes for my app. The first one is for initial requests for the main page, without any Gists selected. The second route is for displaying a selected Gist.
In line 6, my Express app is told to handle any request that comes in using an asterisk match.
In line 7, I’m reducing my routes array using the matchPath function from React Router; the result is a match object with information about the matching route and any parameters that may be parsed from the URL path.
In lines 8–11, if there is no matching route, I’m rendering an error page that says: “Page not found”.
The render function here is just a wrapper around React’s renderToString that adds the basic page HTML code around the React component’s HTML (<html>, <head>, <body>, etc.).
In lines 12–22, I’m fetching the data to populate my App’s state from the GitHub API and rendering my App component.
Most notably, in line 17 I’m using the StaticRouter component to initialize React Router. This Router component type is the best choice for server-side rendering. It never changes its location, which is what we want in this case, since on the backend, we are just rendering once and not directly reacting to user interations.
Line 23 catches any errors that accur during the process to render an error page, instead.
App.js
My App component looks like this:
(→ full source code on GitHub)
In line 1, the component receives the gists data object as a prop.
Lines 3–13 render a Sidebar component with links to the various Gists. The SidebarItem components contained within are only rendered if there is actually gist data available. On the server, this is always the case. We are, however, using this component for both server-side and client-side rendering. If the component is rendered in the client, we may be in the process of fetching fresh gist data, so we display a “Loading…” message instead.
Line 15 uses a Route component from the React Router library to display the Home component when the route matches the path “/”. We are using an exact match here, otherwise any path that simply starts with a slash would match.
If there is some gist data to display, in line 18, another Route component is used to display a Gist component with details about a selected gist.
client/index.js
As mentioned above, this is a universal JavaScript application (f.k.a. “isomorphic”), meaning the same code is used to render pages on the server and on the client. Here is an excerpt from the code that initializes the page on the client side:
(→ full source code on GitHub)
Much simpler than the server-side version! The render function in line 1 is just the render function of ReactDOM. It attaches the layout rendered by my React components to a DOM node.
In line 2, I’m now using the BrowserRouter (instead of the StaticRouter I used for server-side rendering).
Instead of fetching the initial data from the GitHub API, in line 3 I’m instantiating my App component with gist data from a global variable in the browser DOM, which the backend put there via a <script> tag.
That’s basically it!
When I open up my app in the browser, I can click on any of the Gists in the sidebar. The client-side React Router makes sure that with each click on a link, the page’s URL is updated and the parts of the page dependent on the new URL are re-rendered. When I hit the browser’s reload button, the backend’s static router makes sure that the same page with the correct data is displayed.1. 25% of population claims to have experienced Lucid Dreaming
A lucid dream, in simplest terms, is a dream in which one is aware that one is dreaming. You can all learn how to do it by pressing here. That’s very cool.
2. 10% of population claims to have experienced Astral Projections
Astral projection (or astral travel) is an interpretation of any form of out-of-body experience (OBE) that assumes the existence of an “astral body” separate from the physical body and capable of travelling outside it. … Just as lucid dreaming, you can try this to by just searching for guides in YouTube or Google, but be aware that it usually takes some more practice.
3. Precognitive Dreams
Results of several surveys across large population sets indicate that between 18% and 38% of people have experienced at least one precognitive dream and 70% have experienced déjà vu. The percentage of persons that believe precognitive dreaming is possible is even higher – ranging from 63% to 98%.
4. Not Everybody Dreams in Color
A full 12% of sighted people dream exclusively in black and white. The remaining number dream in full color. Studies from 1915 through to the 1950s maintained that the majority of dreams were in black and white, but these results began to change in the 1960s. Today only 4.4% of the dreams of under-25 year-olds are in black and white. Recent research has suggested that those changing results may be linked to the switch from black-and-white film and TV to color media.
5. Dreams are Symbolic
If you dream about some particular subject it is not often that the dream is about that. Dreams speak in a deeply symbolic language. Whatever symbol your dream picks on it is most unlikely to be a symbol for itself.
6. Animals Dream Too
Studies have been done on many different animals, and they all show the same brain waves during dreaming sleep as humans. Watch a dog sleeping sometime. The paws move like they are running and they make yipping sounds as if they are chasing something in a dream.
7. You can experience an orgasm in your dream
You can not only have s e x as pleasurable as in your real life while dreaming, but also experience an o r g a s m as strong as a real one without any wet results. The sensations felt while lucid dreaming (touch, pleasure and etc..) can be as pleasurable and strong (or I believe even stronger) as the sensations experienced in the real world.It’s been said that soccer tells us all we need to know about life, parenting, even globalization.
Now a Singapore-based blogger says soccer can tell us which Middle East or North African government will be the next to blow. At the top of the list: Algeria and Saudi Arabia.
Over at his blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer, James M. Dorsey looks at soccer as a lens through which to view the fault lines carving up the Middle East and North Africa. In Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and other countries, he says, soccer played a key role in allowing pent-up anger and frustration to percolate into organized protest that forced transitions from autocratic rule to more open societies.
In these countries, those engaging in public forms of dissent are often tortured and “disappeared.” Soccer fans, in contrast, are allowed to vent as much as they want, and in large numbers. Stadiums become incubators of protest and insurrection. One only has to watch the action off the pitch to accurately gauge the mood of the people and see how close they are to erupting into mass protest, Dorsey tells Quartz.
Dorsey, a former Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent, has been writing his blog for three years. In February 2011, he focused on the role of the militant, highly politicized, and well organized soccer fans, known as Ultras, in Egypt’s uprising. Here’s a taste:
One catch: Often, especially in family-run monarchies, the countries’ leaders own soccer clubs as a status symbol, so fans might just be mad at the government for the latest losing streak. That might have been the case recently in Saudi Arabia, where fans booed Prince Faisal bin Turki, the owner of Riyadh soccer club Al Nassr FC.
www.Alhilal.com/The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog Saudi soccer fans booing and pelting a prince.
Dorsey doesn’t think so, and contends the Saudis are in trouble. Washington-based Saudi dissident Ali al-Ahmad agrees, based on the increasingly militant behavior of young male soccer fans in the stands as well as on Facebook and YouTube.
“It has reached a breaking point. They are calling for overthrow, and using very similar chants to fans in Tunisia and elsewhere,’’ said al-Ahmad, of the Institute for Gulf Affairs. “When they are all together, they are not afraid anymore.”
Dorsey predicts the next revolt will be in Algeria. Soccer fans there are increasingly voicing opposition to 76-year old president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who is recovering from a stroke in Paris. Recently, they interrupted a moment of silence during a match to commemorate the death of a former leader, chanting “Bouteflika is next.”
Dorsey says some very influential security types, as well as soccer officials, follow his blog for hints as to what is to come. One US intelligence official agrees with Dorsey’s premise. The official, who has spent decades in the Middle East and North Africa, said CIA officers routinely attend matches to glean clues as to where a country is headed.
Often, the official said, an autocratic regime would cover up burgeoning dissent by blaming it on hooliganism. The CIA person on the ground would mention that, too, in the cable back to headquarters: “They would take note of it all, and put it in context. As soon as the prince shows up, everyone starts booing. That sort of thing.’’F1 discusses further cost cutting proposals
Bernie Ecclestone, the FIA and the team principals of the Formula One teams are currently discussing a number of radical proposals that should see costs in F1 dramatically reduced.
German publication Auto Motor und Sport has learned that the main focus is now on limiting the resources that are required to actually compete in the races. It is common nowadays that a race team is 60 people and that teams ship their own telemetry servers to each and every event. This heap of data is then fed back to the factory, where analysis and simulator work is done throughout the night to improve the car's setup following the Friday practice sessions.
On top of that, several top teams have made it normal to fly out new parts to the tracks on Friday and Saturday morning, hoping to maximise the time in the factory for parts development and production. It needs no explanation however that these last minute air transports are extremely costly.
All-weekend parc fermé
To curb the spending, two proposals are currently on the table, even though the discussion are still in the first phase. First of all there are voices which would like to have parc fermé rules implemented throughout the entire race weekend. This would effectively mean that there is a far smaller need for initial transportation while transports during the weekend will become entirely useless.
Many teams are currently shipping numerous different front wing specifications to each race, along with several alternative exhaust solutions, rear wings and floors. One example of this is Williams' recent experimentation of its Williams FW35 without the Coanda exhaust, running each car in different configurations on Friday at Abu Dhabi to be able to compare the data.
The proposal as it currently stands would eliminate this possibility, along with the impossibility to have any new part fitted to cars later in the weekend. The only thing that would still be allowed are set-up changes, as is currently the case between qualifying and the race.
Even though this is likely to reduce transportation costs, a problem with this is that teams will be required to produce enough spares of a new part before being able to take them to the track. It is possible that this would have an adverse affect on spending, as it is not unthinkable teams will produce 4 items of a new front wing, only to find out in the first track test that it's not paying off, in which case all produced items can be binned.
Ban on telemetry |
"> </div> </form>
Above we have a form and each field has an [(ngModel)] tag. This is how we bind the firstname and lastname variables from our TypeScript file to the HTML file.
Bringing the Routes Together and Setting a Default Page Route
We have our two pages, but they are not yet connected to each other in the application. We also don’t have any concept of a default page yet.
Open the project’s src/app/app.component.ts file and include the following code:
import { Component } from '@angular/core'; import { ROUTER_DIRECTIVES } from "@angular/router"; @Component({ moduleId: module.id, selector: "app-root", directives: [ROUTER_DIRECTIVES], template: "<router-outlet></router-outlet>" }) export class AppComponent { }
By including the code above we are saying that we want this TypeScript file to act as our main routing outlet. All child page routes and components will flow through this file because of the <router-outlet> tag.
However, we don’t have the routes configured.
Open the project’s src/main.ts file and include the following code:
import { bootstrap } from '@angular/platform-browser-dynamic'; import { enableProdMode } from '@angular/core'; import { provideRouter, RouterConfig } from '@angular/router'; import { AppComponent, environment } from './app/'; import { ListComponent } from './app/list/list.component'; import { CreateComponent } from './app/create/create.component'; if (environment.production) { enableProdMode(); } export const AppRoutes: RouterConfig = [ { path: "", component: ListComponent }, { path: "create", component: CreateComponent } ] bootstrap(AppComponent, [provideRouter(AppRoutes)]);
In the above code we are importing every component we wish to link. When defining the routes, the route with the blank path is the default route. Finally we inject these routes when bootstrapping.
The Angular web application should be complete at this point. To see it in action, execute the following from your Command Prompt or Terminal:
ng serve
If you’re interested in seeing the full source code to the web application, you can download it here. Note there are a lot of files and directories that have been generated from the Angular CLI. Feel free to examine them, but they won’t apply for the NativeScript portion of this guide.
Converting to a NativeScript Mobile Application
Now we’re going to take a look at building the NativeScript equivalent of this web application. A few major differences to note between the two. First, we won’t be using the Angular CLI, but instead the NativeScript CLI. Since NativeScript develops native applications there is no concept of local storage. Instead we’ll be using the very similar application-settings storage. It can easily be switched out to use SQLite or Couchbase NoSQL.
With that said, let’s start by creating a new NativeScript project. From the Terminal (Mac and Linux) or Command Prompt (Windows), execute the following:
tns create MobileApp --ng cd MobileApp tns platform add ios tns platform add android
There are a few things to note about the above commands. By using the –ng tag we are using the Angular NativeScript template. It operates on TypeScript which is what we used in the web application. Also note that if you’re not using a Mac, you cannot build for the iOS platform.
We need to add the component files to our project. The NativeScript CLI won’t do this for us, but it isn’t too troublesome to do this manually. Create the directories and files below:
mkdir app/components mkdir app/components/list mkdir app/components/create touch app/components/list/list.component.ts touch app/components/list/list.component.html touch app/components/create/create.component.ts touch app/components/create/create.component.html
If you’re using Windows, you won’t have the mkdir and touch commands so you’ll have to create these manually.
Now we can start developing the application!
Creating a List Component for Displaying a List of Data
Instead of picking and pulling from the web application, we’re going to add our code and markup from scratch. However, you’ll notice much of what we do is near identical to the web application.
We’re going to start with the TypeScript file of the list component. Open the project’s app/components/list/list.component.ts file and include the following code:
import {Component} from "@angular/core"; import {Router} from "@angular/router"; import {Location} from "@angular/common"; import * as ApplicationSettings from "application-settings"; @Component({ selector: "list", templateUrl: "./components/list/list.component.html", }) export class ListComponent { public personList: Array<Object>; constructor(private router: Router, private location: Location) { this.router = router; this.personList = JSON.parse(ApplicationSettings.getString("people", "[]")); this.location.subscribe((path) => { this.personList = JSON.parse(ApplicationSettings.getString("people", "[]")); }); } create() { this.router.navigate(["/create"]); } }
Between the web version and the NativeScript version of this file, things are very similar. This NativeScript version has a lot of things stripped out and the local storage has been replaced with application-settings, but beyond that I used the same code.
The core difference is in the UI that is bound to this TypeScript file. Open the project’s app/components/list/list.html file and include the following markup:
<ActionBar title="NativeScript - List"> <ActionItem text="Add" (tap)="create()" ios.position="right"></ActionItem> </ActionBar> <GridLayout> <ListView [items]="personList"> <template let-item="item"> <Label [text]="item.firstname +'' + item.lastname"></Label> </template> </ListView> </GridLayout>
NativeScript does not render applications in a web view like other mobile frameworks so it doesn’t understand HTML markup. Instead we must use XML markup that NativeScript understands so it can be converted to native code at compile time.
In the above XML we are creating an action bar with a button for navigating us to the next component when we (tap) it. Notice instead of (click) we are using (tap) which isn’t really a big change.
The larger change will be in how we loop through the array items. For the NativeScript ListView we don’t make use of *ngFor but something else instead. Again, in the end, it isn’t so far off from the web example.
Creating a Component for Saving User Defined Data
Let’s move onto the second page or component of our mobile application. Again, you’ll notice all the similarities between the Angular web application and the Angular NativeScript application.
Open the project’s app/components/create/create.component.ts file and include the following code:
import {Component} from "@angular/core"; import {Location} from "@angular/common"; import * as ApplicationSettings from "application-settings"; @Component({ selector: "create", templateUrl: "./components/create/create.component.html", }) export class CreateComponent { private personList: Array<Object>; public firstname: string; public lastname: string; constructor(private location: Location) { this.location = location; this.personList = JSON.parse(ApplicationSettings.getString("people", "[]")); this.firstname = ""; this.lastname = ""; } save() { if(this.firstname!= "" && this.lastname!= "") { this.personList.push({firstname: this.firstname, lastname: this.lastname}); ApplicationSettings.setString("people", JSON.stringify(this.personList)); this.location.back(); } } }
Like with the list component we are importing the necessary Angular and NativeScript components. We are also defining what XML file to be paired with this particular TypeScript file.
The CreateComponent itself is pretty much identical to that of the web application version. The only exception being its use of application-settings rather than local storage.
Now let’s look at the XML layout to go with this TypeScript file. Open the project’s app/components/create/create.html file and include the following markup:
<ActionBar title="NativeScript - Create"> <NavigationButton text="Back" ios.position="left"></NavigationButton> <ActionItem text="Save" (tap)="save()" ios.position="right"></ActionItem> </ActionBar> <StackLayout> <TextField hint="First Name" [(ngModel)]="firstname"></TextField> <TextField hint="Last Name" [(ngModel)]="lastname"></TextField> </StackLayout>
It is very different than the HTML web version, again because NativeScript doesn’t understand common HTML.
Here we have an action bar with two buttons. iOS doesn’t have a back button so we need to define it. We also create a button for triggering the save function when it is tapped.
When it comes to our form, we have two TextField items, both bound to our TypeScript file with the [(ngModel)] tag.
Configuring the Application Routes
We have our two components created, but they are not integrated with our application yet. We need to set up the routing in a similar fashion to what was done in the web application.
Open the project’s app/app.component.ts file and include the following code:
import {Component} from "@angular/core"; import {NS_ROUTER_DIRECTIVES} from "nativescript-angular/router"; @Component({ selector: "my-app", directives: [NS_ROUTER_DIRECTIVES], template: "<page-router-outlet></page-router-outlet>" }) export class AppComponent { }
A few things to note in this file.
We’re adding the routing outlet and the NativeScript router directives. This file will act as a driver to each page of our application.
Next we need to define the actual application routes. Instead of doing this in the app/app.component.ts file we are going to manipulate the app/main.ts file. Open it and include the following code:
import {nativeScriptBootstrap} from "nativescript-angular/application"; import {nsProvideRouter} from "nativescript-angular/router"; import {RouterConfig} from "@angular/router"; import {AppComponent} from "./app.component"; import {ListComponent} from "./components/list/list.component"; import {CreateComponent} from "./components/create/create.component"; export const AppRoutes: RouterConfig = [ { path: "", component: ListComponent }, { path: "create", component: CreateComponent } ]; nativeScriptBootstrap(AppComponent, [[nsProvideRouter(AppRoutes, {})]]);
In this file we are keeping the foundation bootstrap logic that already existed, but we are also including an array of application routes to be injected into the bootstrap. The routes are injected with the nsProvideRouter component.
At this point our application is complete and can be launched. If you’d like to see the full source code to this project, it can be downloaded here.
Conclusion
We just saw how to convert an Angular web application to a NativeScript Android and iOS mobile application. There are a few key points I’d like to make about what we just accomplished. In the web application we used Bootstrap for our styling because I’m not much of a designer. The Bootstrap UIs were created with HTML, something a web browser can understand. Since NativeScript uses native code and doesn’t understand HTML, we have to use XML components. This is the core difference between web and mobile. The TypeScript code was near identical between the web and NativeScript versions.
Building a web application from Angular makes things very easy for us when we try to convert the code to mobile. Since Angular doesn’t rely on the DOM, native frameworks like NativeScript can really shine.
Nic Raboy Nic Raboy is an advocate of modern web and mobile development technologies. He has experience in Java, JavaScript, Golang and a variety of frameworks such as Angular, NativeScript, and Apache Cordova. Nic writes about his development experiences related to making web and mobile development easier to understand.There was a time in the 1920s when being seen as a good, upstanding Hoosier meant joining the Ku Klux Klan.
At its peak, the Klan counted among its members the governor of Indiana, more than half of the state legislature and an estimated 30 percent of all native-born white men in the state. More than 250,000 Hoosiers swelled the Klan's ranks – some because they believed in its anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic message, others because being on good terms with the Klan was necessary for their business or political aspirations – making it the largest Klan organization in the country.
By the end of the decade, the Indiana Klan was all but dismantled following the conviction of Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson for the rape and murder of a young school teacher named Madge Oberholtzer.
Subsequent efforts to revive the Klan in the state – efforts that continue to this day – have not succeeded. A September rally by the Klan in Madison, Indiana, saw more opposition come out than support.
The Klan may never see a resurgence in Indiana or elsewhere in the country. But could a group with a similar message of hate find itself controlling Indiana's halls of power once again?
A story of ordinary Hoosiers
The temptation in trying to explain the Klan's appeal in Indiana is to look to the top: Grand Dragon David Curtiss (D.C.) Stephenson.
But that would be a mistake, according to renowned IU Historian Dr. James H. Madison.
"The harder story, the more important story, is the tens of thousands of Hoosiers across the state who joined the Ku Klux Klan."
"The harder story, the more important story, is the tens of thousands of Hoosiers across the state who joined the Ku Klux Klan," Madison said. "That story is among ordinary Hoosiers who enthusiastically bought the product. Stephenson had the advantage of being at a certain place in a certain moment in history. This is a time when Hoosiers were willing to listen, to give their membership dollars, to parade, to support the values of the Ku Klux Klan."
Madison is the author of a number of books about Indiana history, including "Hoosiers: A New History of Indiana" and "A Lynching in the Heartland: Race and Memory in America." He currently serves as the Thomas and Kathryn Miller Professor of History Emeritus at Indiana University.
The Klan of the 1920s is known by historians as the Second Klan – the first having been formed immediately following the Civil War. In the early part of the 20th Century, the Second Klan spread outside of the South, propelled by Prohibition and backlash against a wave of immigrants from Germany and other European countries. It found particularly fertile ground in Indiana thanks to a large Protestant population.
"The folks who joined the Klan in the '20s were Protestants. They were Methodists and Baptists and Disciples of Christ. They were good, god-fearing Protestants," Madison said.
At its peak, the Klan boasted members who were prominent politicians, businessmen and religious leaders.In some counties, Klan membership is estimated to have exceeded 40 percent of all residents.
Source: "Citizen Klansmen: The Ku Klux Klan in Indiana, 1921-1928" by Leonard J. Moore. Data used here with Moore's permission.
Madison said the Klan at the time was very good at creating "them and us." It operated sophisticated propaganda campaigns through pamphlets and its newspaper, the "Fiery Cross." In the 1920s, the "them" most targeted by the Klan was Catholics.
"This is very hard for 21st Century people to understand, but anti-Catholicism was deeply ingrained in Protestantism in Indiana and America," Madison said. "In the 1920s anti-Catholicism drove good Hoosiers into the Klan as much as any other influence. So they joined the Klan to save Protestantism from the influence of the Catholic Church – which was, in their opinion, comprised of immigrants, of foreigners, of Germans and others. And the people who joined the Klan were convinced that alcohol was a sin, and that it was these Catholics who were responsible for the consumption of alcohol despite the Prohibition against it."
The other element of the Klan was a patriotism that was deeply intertwined with religion.
"The Klan has two symbols. One is the cross, the Christian cross. The other is the American flag. These are American patriots," Madison said. "Their religion and their patriotism are deeply connected. They are interchangeable. They are back and forth. In their view they are one and the same. Some of us believe in separation of church and state. I myself profoundly believe in separation of church and state. But those who joined the Klan did not share that worldview. To them, religion, politics, government and patriotism were all deeply entwined."
"A 100% American is native born. A 100% American speaks English. A 100% American is Protestant. A 100% American is white. These are the self-professed 'us' of the Ku Klux Klan."
The 1920s was also the time the Klan developed the phrase "100 percent American."
"A 100% American is native born. A 100% American speaks English. A 100% American is Protestant. A 100% American is white. These are the self-professed 'us' of the Ku Klux Klan," Madison said. "They are protecting themselves and their nation from the other: immigrants, Jews, Catholics. It's a horrible notion that contradicts everything I know about American ideals, but a large number of Hoosiers in the 1920s signed up for it."
The snake oil salesman at the top
The Klan was not a headless snake, though. At the top was Grand Dragon D.C. Stephenson, who had risen to prominence from the Evansville "Klavern" to eventually run the largest Klan organization in the country.
Above: D.C. Stephenson. (Credit: Indiana Historical Society; Indianapolis Recorder Collection, Indiana Historical Society; Bass Photo Co. Collection, Indiana Historical Society.)
Stephenson, according to Madison, was just the right person to capitalize on the anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant sentiment of his day.
"Stephenson was a salesman with no moral core, no ethical core, but very good at selling his product," Madison said. "He could have sold snake oil or anything else. He had a bombastic, authoritarian, 'I am the law' sort of style, and he built a very successful business organization, which is what the Klan was. He certainly did not in his private life hold in high regard the values that Hoosiers across the state who were members of the Klan did."
According to another IU historian, Professor Allen Safianow, the Klan of the 1920s was a magnet for Hoosiers with political aspirations.
"There was a symbiotic relationship between the Klan and people with political ambitions," Safianow said. "Political leaders found it expedient to align themselves with the Klan. The Klan involved itself in elections, and through this they were able to exert a fair amount of influence, to the point where in some communities like Kokomo it's reported that you really had to join the Klan to have a shot at a political appointment."
Whether the Klan exerted political influence because its membership grew large, or whether its membership grew because of its political influence is a chicken-or-egg question, Safianow said. But either way, Indiana's Klan by the mid-1920s could claim politicians ranging from local officeholders all the way up to Governor Edward L. Jackson, along with the majority of both houses of the General Assembly.
Photos courtesy of the Indiana Historical Society. Click the image above to see more.
Though Stephenson first ran for office in Indiana as a Democrat, the Klan eventually aligned itself with the Republican Party, which controlled most of the state at the time.
"Many politicians saw election victory via the Klan," Madison said. "The Klan was very active in political campaigns and elections and government. They made a list of candidates, and a candidate was approved or not approved by the Ku Klux Klan. Democrats tended not to get the approval of the Ku Klux Klan. Some stood up, most stayed silent out of fear of alienating their voters."
Perhaps even more than its actual political power, Madison said the fear the Klan was able to induce allowed it intimidate its opposition into silence.
"If you owned a men's clothing store on Washington Street in Indianapolis, you might want to join the Klan just to make sure you don't lose customers."
"The Klan was intimidating. This was part of D.C. Stephenson's salesmanship. He had a way of striking fear," Madison said. "There were two things there: One was that people agreed with the message. But the other was that people feared what their neighbors would think of them if they didn't join the Klan. That they weren't 100 percent American. If you owned a men's clothing store on Washington Street in Indianapolis, you might want to join the Klan just to make sure you don't lose customers."
Fortunately for the Klan's political opponents, fractures in the organization blunted its effectiveness when it came down to the actual business of governance.
"While it's said the Klan through the Republican Party controlled the state legislature, the two houses were divided, with one house aligned with D.C. Stephenson and the other with the governor," Safianow said. "As a result, the Klan really wasn't able to exert as much legislative influence as it could have."
Madison agreed, saying the Klan's only major legislative accomplishment was passing the so-called "Bone-Dry Law," which enhanced penalties for possession of alcohol during Prohibition.
"The fact of the matter is, Stephenson was not as competent and powerful as he thought he was, and that session of the legislature did not manage to pass any significant laws," Madison said. "The Klan did not, ever, at any time, pass its agenda."
Before the Klan had a second attempt, it had fallen into disgrace following Stephenson's conviction for the rape and murder of Oberholtzer.
TIMELINE: The Indiana Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s.
Could it happen again?
In recent years, the Klan has made attempts at outreach in the state of Indiana – none generating any noticeable results.
Aside from the aforementioned Madison rally in September, various Klan groups have passed out recruitment fliers in Fishers, Beech Grove and elsewhere, hoping to spread their message.
There's no indication any of those efforts have been met with success.
PREVIOUS | Fishers residents awaken to Ku Klux Klan fliers on their lawns | KKK fliers strewn across neighborhoods in Beech Grove
Both Safianow and Madison say they don't see the Klan – an openly racist organization decked out in contrived mysticism, run by officers called "cyclops" and "wizard" – making a true resurgence in the modern era.
"The people that join the modern Klan are in no way like the people who joined the Klan of the 1920s," Madison said. "They are ignorant, they are uneducated. Many of them are so unstable they almost deserve our pity."
But what about an organization like the Klan?
"I think the answer is no, but the critical question is 'like that,'" Madison said. "I think Indiana has changed dramatically in 100 years in terms of our demography, in terms of our openness, in terms of what Hoosiers think about these sorts of issues. I'm doubtful that an organization of this sort could ever reappear in power in Indiana. But there are still elements of this that are alive and well in Indiana."
Those elements have found themselves in the spotlight recently with the rise of the so-called "alt-right" – a collection of racist, white nationalist and often anti-government forces who oppose what they see as globalization's negative effects on the U.S.
Many in that camp, including white nationalist leader Richard Spencer ( who performed the Nazi salute while shouting "Hail Trump" at a recent convention of white nationalists in Washington, D.C.), have cheered the election of Republican Donald Trump – although he has disavowed their support – and see the selection of Breitbart executive Steve Bannon as Trump's chief strategist as vindication of their movement.
Bannon's selection drew criticism from the left and right, with Republican strategist John Weaver tweeting that, "The racist, fascist extreme right is represented footsteps from the Oval Office." Bannon's ex-wife has said her husband expressed anti-Semitic sentiments, including not wanting his girls "going to school with Jews." Bannon himself has denied being a white nationalist, saying he is, rather, an "economic nationalist."
READ MORE | What is the alt-right movement? | Anti-hate groups protest Breitbart editor's position in White House | Trump makes controversial pick for senior aide | White nationalists may find a home under Trump presidency
Safianow says he sees parallels between modern white nationalist movements and the sentiments that led to the rise of the Klan.
"It's important to remember that the Klan of the 1920s was not so much a cause of racism as a symptom of it," he said. "This is a long part of American history, you know, the fear of foreigners. We have sort of the same quandary today. People look at Donald Trump's victory, and some wonder how much of this is due to racism or prejudice? It's hard to tell. In the '20s, the Klan was openly nativist, anti-Catholic, white supremacist, and so the ideology was clear. But that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone joined the Klan for that reason. The Klan had other things on its agenda. It supported Prohibition and opposed gambling. It supposedly opposed corruption. One could argue, perhaps, that in the '20s, association with an organization that was racist and nativist wasn't a deal breaker the way it might be today."
Madison echoed similar thoughts.
"Some of the core messages that the alt-right are selling today are not that different [from the Klan]. And again, it's us vs. them."
"Some of the core messages that the alt-right are selling today are not that different [from the Klan]. And again, it's us vs. them. Whether them is African-Americans or Islamic people," Madison said. "It's really a creation of fear. You create people who are not like me. Who are different. And they'll show you how and why they are different, and then they'll go from there to show you why they are a direct threat to you and your family. And so you've got to be afraid. And you've got to take action."
For Madison, the Klan's legacy in Indiana may also be what the state needs to inoculate itself from the group's return.
"I think the Klan left such a stink in Indiana," he said. "It's the foulest-smelling beast we've had to deal with in Indiana. And it created a deep, deep fear in Hoosiers. For a long time Hoosiers would not even talk about the Klan. Not until the 1970s-80s, really. There's still a lot of confusion and anxiety about it. People say, oh, my great-great grandfather was a member of the Klan. Well, of course he was. If he was a good Methodist, he probably joined the Klan."
"There are elements of that kind of intolerance that have always been present in Indiana history, and they pop up from time to time, but I think we have changed," Madison added. "Maybe we learned a lesson there that stays with us."The graphic above depicts all AL Central starting pitchers with greater than 40 innings pitched through May 18th. So far, this is the most surprising divisional breakdown I've done. Why? Simple. The White Sox.
Currently they have four starters with FIPs better than league average, and four of the top seven in the division. How have they given up so many runs this year? Their bullpen also has a sub-4 FIP. As someone who doesn't follow the team closely, this is perplexing. With Jake Peavey seemingly set to pull a Bartolo Colon, that rotation could look even scarier.
The Tigers sport three starters above league average, and none of their starters have FIPs over 4.30.
The Indians have only one starter above league average, but he's sporting a sub-3 FIP. Justin Masterson continues to throw well this year. Fausto Carmona comes in just a hair over league average, while Josh Tomlin has only managed a 4.44 FIP.
How about those Royals and Twins?
Wow, what can you say about these two starting rotations? To put it simply, they are bad.
The Royals have managed to put together a decent offense this year, scoring 195 runs. The problem, and it's just getting worse with time, is that their pitching can't keep runs off the board. They've allowed 205 runs and don't have a dominant, reliable starter (although Jeff Francis is doing pretty good with a 3.97 FIP). Danny Duffy to the rescue?
The Twins are worse than the Royals, here. All four starters are below league average, with Carl Pavano and his 4.26 FIP leading the way. Liriano has looked much better of late, but it is going to take a lot for this team to have any chance of winning even when (if) the offense rebounds.Are we having fun yet? (Andrew Kelly/Reuters)
Evolution. It’s always a doozy.
We as a species may or may not have done it, depending on what state your science textbook hails from. But politicians’ views on issues would do Mr. Darwin proud. These views are always to be seen crawling up out of swamps on four legs, shedding their gills and ascending the trees at a rapid gait.
Take Hillary Clinton, who had an oddly tense interview on the subject of the Defense of Marriage Act and gay marriage with NPR’s Terry Gross on Thursday.
All in all this has not been the greatest possible interview fortnight for Clinton, from her insistence that she was broke on leaving the White House (unfortunately, this was the fancy, expensive kind of broke that most of us cannot ever hope to achieve; it’s the household budget equivalent of the difference between distressed jeans that cost hundreds of dollars for someone else to rip for you, and distressed jeans that you distressed yourself by sitting down abruptly on a nail and could not afford to replace) on down.
On Thursday, she got to engage in such fun activities as defending DOMA (“What DOMA did is at least allow the states to act. It wasn’t going to yet be recognized by the federal government but at the state level there was the opportunity. And my husband was the first to say, that you know, the political circumstances, the threats that were trying to be alleviated by the passage of DOMA, thankfully, were no longer so preeminent and we could keep moving forward and that’s what we’re doing”), criticizing people who thought they had “a direct line to the divine” and repeating that she was an American.
Take a listen:
It all starts with the question: “So what’s it like when you’re in office and you have to do all these political calculations to not be able to support something like gay marriage, that you actually believe in. Obviously you feel very committed to human rights and you obviously put gay rights as part of human rights but in doing the calculus you decided you couldn’t support it. Correct me if I’m reading it wrong.”
Then ensue seven awkward minutes.
Among the worse lines:
“Just because you’re a politician doesn’t mean you’re not a thinking human being.”
“One of my big problems right now is that too many people believe they have a direct line to the divine and they never want to change their mind about anything. They’re never open about new information and they like to operate in an evidence-free zone. I think it’s good if people continue to change.”
“I think I’m an American. (laughter) I think that we have all evolved.”
“Because I said I’m an American so of course we all evolved and I think that’s a fair conclusion–”
“I have to say, I think you being very persistent, but you are playing with my words and playing with what is such an important issue.”
“No, I don’t think you are trying to clarify. I think you are trying to say that I used to be opposed and now I am in favor and I did it for political reasons. And that’s just flat wrong. So let me just state what I feel like I think you are implying and repudiate it. I have a strong record. I have a great commitment to this issue and I am proud of what I’ve done and the progress were making.”
“I did not grow up even imagining gay marriage, and I don’t believe you did either.”
So actually what Clinton is saying is: she used to be opposed, and now she is in favor, but NOT for political reasons. Rather, because she is an American. And, as an American, she evolved.
But this is actually a more interesting question. When you and your opinions have had to exist in the public eye as long as Clinton and her opinions have, this does put you in a fun position on this particular issue where it is hard to have and eat your cake simultaneously.
Gay marriage really has been the subject of an almost unprecedented and fairly seismic shift in public opinion. In 1996, only 27 percent of people thought that gay marriages should be recognized as valid under the law, according to Gallup polls. Even leaving marriage out of it, in 1993, only 48 percent of people thought that homosexual relations between consenting adults should be legal. 44 percent thought they should not be. Contrast that to the 66 percent support today. The default position is just wildly different than it was in 1993.
And unlike a candidate who is just now bursting onto the scene, Clinton has been Living History right through it all. So, what’ll it be? Were you always secretly on what people now think of as the inevitable right side of history? Or were you part of what in 1993 felt like a fairly overwhelming majority and now seems dated and bigoted? Neither choice is great. Were you hiding what you felt because we weren’t ready? Or were you not ready, yourself? Er, let’s talk about Benghazi more.
It could be worse. She could be Rick Perry.A futuristic world where Star Wars-like robots perform tasks and serve their human masters is usually more the stuff of science fiction, than science. But there have been many great minds and untold dollars spent on robotics and artificial intelligence. But while robots on the assembly line have caught on, they are hardly the cute R2D2 types we crave. Francisco Paz has spent the last 5 years of his life bringing a more "desirable" type of robot into existence. Now his open source Qbo is poised to be the Model T of robots.
Many feel that by and large the vision of what robots should look like and do have not made sufficient progress. They are too expensive, too one dimensional and have not captured the public's imagination.
Robots have two distinct parts. One is the hardware and the other the software. Generally the software is all about artificial intelligence. According to Marvin Minsky, co-founder of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, “Artificial intelligence is brain-dead”. Minsky accused developers and rechearchers of making more mechatronic machines instead of creating “intelligent” machines able to carry out autonomous tasks.
On the hardware front, it is expensive, non-standard parts that put robots out of reach of most people who would like to work on them. A standard hardware platform like the Model T was to the automobile assembly line is needed.
Paz says that today robots are mostly the work product of large companies who put millions into R&D budgets. But this puts robots out of reach of most hobbyists and people who could push the envelope on both the mechanics and AI of robots. Also these companies use their patents to make it hard for anyone else to come into the field and move the needle.
Paz says that the inspiration for Qbo can be found in Tomomasa Sato, director of the Japanese Robotics Association. Sato claims it is neccessary to develop “an open source Model-T robot in which all global standards may be applied to achieve a result as revolutionary as Ford’s Model-T was for the car industry.”
Paz and his company, The Corpra have built a robot that is based on both open source hardware and software. It runs Linux as well. The idea is that Qbo will allow the hobbyist a chance to work on a standard platform. With an open source, affordable standards based model, innovation and experimentation should be ignited at a faster pace. Maybe we will yet see Star Wars style droids in our lifetime (as opposed to the Motorola kind of droid. But hey that does run a kind of Linux too).
Qbo already has some significant functionality: Stereoscopic vision: webcam calibration (2), depth, face, objects and colours recognition, face and object tracking, map generating (under development)
webcam calibration (2), depth, face, objects and colours recognition, face and object tracking, map generating (under development) Speech Recognition System Speech Synthesis System: it offers a general framework for building speech synthesis systems. Only available in English at the moment.
it offers a general framework for building speech synthesis systems. Only available in English at the moment. Thecorpora’s API: Developed to interact with the hardware components of the robot and third parties’ software.
Developed to interact with the hardware components of the robot and third parties’ software. WEB control panel: the robot is accessible through web explorer.
the robot is accessible through web explorer. Internet connection through a WIFI controller placed in the head. Real-time software and firmware update.
through a WIFI controller placed in the head. Real-time software and firmware update. Obstacles: the robot avoids crashes and falls thanks to ultrasound sensors.
the robot avoids crashes and falls thanks to ultrasound sensors. Autocharging: auto-charge battery (testing and developing phase) With much more promised soon. But in true open source fashion, Paz also thinks that hobbyists and others will take the base Qbo and because it is open sourced be able to build and innovate from there.
BTW, Paz readily admits that he purposely shied away from a design that was humanoid in look. Putting arms and legs would make it too expensive. Clearly a vacuum cleaner served as the role model for Qbo. You can go to The Corpora Youtube site to see some videos of Qbo in motion.A Black Agenda Radio commentary by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Donald Trump might do the right thing and call for opening up the presidential debates to third parties – but mainly for the wrong reasons. Although it appears that Trump would “have a relative net advantage over Clinton if there were a vigorous, four-way presidential contest,” he will only make such a demand if he is certain of a one-on-one humiliation.
Trump Might Call for Four-Way Debates – But Only If He Thinks He Can’t Win
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
“Trump might do the right thing, but only to protect his own fragile ego.”
On Tuesday night, just as I was preparing to do a commentary on whether Donald Trump might threaten to drop out of the televised debates if the candidates for the Green and Libertarian Parties weren’t allowed to participate, I ran across a story that claimed Trump had already done just that. A website called the Santa Monica Observer reported the Trump decision as fact, but without naming a source. Nobody else ran the story, and the Trump campaign said it wasn’t true, so it was probably a hoax. However, a Trump threat to boycott the debates remains a tantalizing prospect, given that, back in 2000, he said |
Self-reliance in the vein of Calvinism, said Harris, is a value that must be overcome to transition to a future era of plenty:
“If we have a culture of people who think, ‘I don’t want any handouts. And I certainly don’t want my neighbor to get any handouts. And I don’t want to pay any taxes so that he can be a lazy bum,' if we have this hangover from Calvinism, it makes it impossible to talk creatively and reasonably about what has changed.”
Harris and Rogan discussed “universal basic income,” a contemporary rebranding a socialist and communist state-driven redistributionist “”social welfare.”
Harris and Rogan touched on futuristic speculations made by political economist Jeremy Rifkin in his 1995 book, “The End of Work,” which predicts rapid increases in leisure time resulting from a fusion of AI and mass automation fulfilling many human needs.
On "climate change," Harris pushed the narrative of anthropogenic global warming. "We need a carbon tax, clearly," he said, describing "clean tech jobs" as a growing and profitable industry.
Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday said his country's second flight test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) showed it could hit the U.S. mainland.
Kim expressed "great satisfaction" after the Hwasong-14 missile traveled 620 miles and reached a top height of 2,314 miles before landing in water off Japan's coast, Korean Central News Agency said, according The Associated Press.
The state news agency said the test was intended to confirm technical aspects of the missile, such as its range, and it could be used to deliver a "large-sized, heavy nuclear warhead."
Kim was quoted by the state news agency saying that the test put the "entire" U.S. mainland now in range for a missile and underscored the country's ability to fire at "random regions and locations at random times," according to the AP.
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The North American Aerospace Defense Command had determined that the missile did not pose a threat to North America, but some analysts said the test appeared to show that swaths of the U.S. were in range of North Korean weapons.
The nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists said that if the missile fired Friday reached the height and flight time that is estimated, it could have a theoretical range of at least 6,500 miles, meaning that depending on the size and weight of the warhead it could reach cities such as Los Angeles, Denver or Chicago.
The U.S. and South Korea fired missiles into waters off the South Korean coast on Friday in a show of force to North Korea following its missile test. The U.S. and South Korea conducted a similar test on July 5, in response to North Korea's launch of an ICBM on July 4.
President Trump on Friday evening condemned North Korea's latest launch, saying such tests "further isolate North Korea, weaken its economy, and deprive its people."
"The United States will take all necessary steps to ensure the security of the American homeland and protect our allies in the region," he said in a statement.Momentum’s vice-chair, Jackie Walker, is facing calls to resign after she incorrectly criticised Holocaust Memorial Day at a party antisemitism training session for commemorating only Jewish victims.
Corbyn urged to show leadership in tackling antisemitism within Labour Read more
Walker also took issue with the definition of antisemitism used at the training event, which was organised for members at the annual Liverpool conference by the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM).
“In terms of Holocaust day, wouldn’t it be wonderful if Holocaust day was open to all people who experienced holocaust?” she told organisers, heard in a recording of the event.
Holocaust Memorial Day is intended to commemorate all victims of the Nazi Holocaust, and other genocides, including atrocities in Bosnia and Rwanda.
After shouts from participants, Walker said that was not how she viewed the event. “In practice, it’s not actually circulated and advertised as such,” she said. “I was looking for information and I still haven’t heard a definition of antisemitism that I can work with.”
Walker was previously suspended from the Labour party after posting during a Facebook discussion that Jews were “chief financiers of the sugar and slave trade” and arguing “the Jewish Holocaust does not allow Zionists to do what they want”. She was readmitted to the party after an investigation.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jeremy Newmark, chair of the Jewish Labour Movement. Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty
During the training event, Walker also questioned why Jewish organisations, including schools, said they needed high security to protect themselves from antisemitic attacks.
“I was a bit concerned by your suggestion that the Jewish community is under such threat that it has to use security in all its buildings,” she said. “I have a grandson, he is a year old. There is security in his nursery and every school has security now. It’s not because I’m frightened or his parents are frightened that he is going to be attacked.”
One participant replied: “Are Isis going to attack your grandson like they attacked a school in Toulouse?”
Jeremy Newmark, the chair of the JLM, said Walker should resign from her position in Momentum. “I am appalled that somebody who has already caused great hurt and pain to so many Jewish people by promoting an antisemitic myth would come to a training session designed to help party activists address antisemitism and use the occasion to challenge the legitimacy of the training itself,” he said.
“To denigrate security provision at Jewish schools, make false claims about the universality of national Holocaust Memorial Day and to challenge recognised definitions of antisemitism is provocative, offensive and a stark example of the problem facing the Labour party today.”
Newmark said Walker had “consistently failed to demonstrate any sensitivity to the impact of her words and actions upon the Jewish community. She must now consider her position, show some sensitivity and contrition or resign.”
The training event on Tuesday was an official party module on “confronting antisemitism and engaging Jewish voters”, an outcome of one of the recommendations in the report into antisemitism in the party by the Labour peer Janet Royall.
Momentum has not responded to a request for comment, but in a statement Walker denied questioning the need for security at Jewish schools and also apologised for any offence she may have caused.
She said: “I did not raise a question on security in Jewish schools. The trainer raised this issue and I asked for clarification, in particular as all London primary schools, to my knowledge, have security and I did not understand the particular point the trainer was making.
“Having been a victim of racism, I would never play down the very real fears the Jewish community have, especially in light of recent attacks in France. In the session, a number of Jewish people, including me, asked for definitions of antisemitism. This is a subject of much debate in the Jewish community. I support David Schneider’s definition and utterly condemn antisemitism.
“I would never play down the significance of the Shoah. Working with many Jewish comrades, I continue to seek to bring greater awareness of other genocides, which are too often forgotten or minimised. If offence has been caused, it is the last thing I would want to do and I apologise.”Non-native Kindergarteners Learn Vocabulary Faster Than Native English-speakers With The Right Lessons
ScienceDaily (Apr. 27, 2007) An important study from The Elementary School Journal explores vocabulary development at the kindergarten level among English-only students (EOs) and English-language-learning students (ELLs) who speak another language at home. Analyzing rates of target word acquisition and overall vocabulary development, the study found that students learning English as a second language picked up general vocabulary more quickly and target vocabulary words at the same rate as native English-speaking kindergarteners."This study contributes to knowledge about vocabulary instruction by investigating the effects of a vocabulary intervention with children from a variety of backgrounds," writes Rebecca Deffes Silverman, who conducted the research while at Harvard University and is now at the University of Maryland. Past studies have identified vocabulary as the "single most encountered obstacle" for English-language-learning students, Silverman points out, and vocabulary is also the primary determinant of future reading comprehension.Taking into account that kindergarteners comprehend oral language instruction at a much higher rate than they can read, Silverman developed and implemented a multidimensional vocabulary program incorporating storybook reading and opportunities to say vocabulary words aloud in five kindergarten classrooms. Three of the classrooms were mainstream English, in which both English-only kindergarteners and English-language learners were enrolled. One was structured immersion, in which only ELLs were enrolled. The last classroom was bilingual Spanish-English, attended by both EO and ELL children.After fourteen weeks, English-language-learning students knew 19 more words on a picture vocabulary assessment than they knew before the program, while native English-speaking students knew 14 more words than before. Similarly, on an oral vocabulary test, English-language-learning kindergarteners could provide definitions for 21 more words than they could before the program, compared to 17 more definitions for the native English-speaking kindergarteners.Also, though native English-speaking kindergarteners knew more of the target words before the program, there was no difference in knowledge of target words between the English-learning and English-only kindergarteners either immediately after the program or during follow-up six weeks later."My study shows that ELLs can grow in general vocabulary at a faster rate than EOs," writes Silverman. "This may indicate that ELLs can eventually catch up to EOs in overall vocabulary knowledge, and it may also suggest that the structure of vocabulary intervention could provide the instructional focus that leads to narrowing the language gap between ELLs and EOs."A few months ago I finished Far Cry 4. It’s an open world, first person shooter set amidst political change in a fictional Himalayan country. In the course of shooting everything that moves, your character becomes entangled with The Golden Path, a group of rebels trying to overthrow a very well dressed and oddly charming dictator. Two people struggle for leadership of The Golden Path: Amita and Sabal. Amita is harshly pragmatic but socially progressive. She wants better rights for women, for example, but she’s willing to fund the revolution by selling opium. Sabal, on the other hand, struck me as staying closer to the middle of the road. He was charming and had boundless compassion for his fellow soldiers, but he also wanted to maintain a cultural heritage that includes traditional social castes. Just kind of milquetoast, especially next to the extreme highs and lows of Amita’s agenda.
As a player, this is an interesting choice. Both Amita and Sabal have good and bad qualities by my standards. Yet completing the game eventually required me to take a stand and support one leader over the other. I deliberated carefully when the point of no return came, but I made my choice as to who the story’s main character would back. I chose Amita for what it’s worth, though I really liked Sabal’s character and felt kind of bad about it. After that choice was made, though, I was all in. I started thinking about what Amita was fighting for and how it aligned with my values. She was for progress, right? Progress is good. Let’s just ignore that time she wanted to let her fellow soldiers die so that I could instead pursue some valuable information. And that whole “Let’s fund a war by controlling the opium trade” schtick. SHANGRI LA LA LA! I CAN’T HEAR YOU, AMITA.
What I was doing was rationalizing my choice. I was paying attention to information that supported the correctness of my decision and ignoring information that called it into question. Or did it go back even further than that? Had the way the choice between Amita and Sabal been presented in a way that made me choose one over another? This, in turn, made me think specifically of a study by Eldar Shafir, Itamar Simonson, and Amos Tversky that shows how decisions can be biased by framing them in certain ways so that we seek out some pieces of information and ignore others.
In their paper, the authors observe that we often fall into “reason-based models” of decision making, where we search –sometimes retroactively– for reasons that support the choice we make. As opposed to a rational approach where we assign values to all options and outcomes and just leave it to math. This reason-based approach makes us susceptible to framing effects and the nuances of language when we are presented with a choice. One example is being asked to either “choose” or “reject” one option out of two that have equal value. Choice A and Choice B differ across a few dimensions, but those differences cancel each other out when taken as a whole. All things considered, A and B are of equal value. If that’s true, then “choosing” one of the options should be the same as “rejecting” the other.
To make things concrete, the authors describe an experiment from another study in which they ask subjects to play the role of a juror in a child custody case:
Imagine that you serve on the jury of an only-child sole-custody case following a relatively messy divorce. The facts of the case are complicated by ambiguous economic, social, and emotional considerations, and you decide to base your decision entirely on the following few observations. Parent A: average income
average health
average working hours
reasonable rapport with child
relatively stable social life Parent B: above average income
very close relationship with the child
extremely active social life
lots of work-related travel
minor health problems
Look at those lists and you’ll see that Parent A is just kind of average. No great qualities, no bad ones. Parent B, though, has some great qualities (above average income, very good relationship with the kid), but also some bad ones (travels a lot, health problems). They are, in this way, somewhat like Sabal and Amita.
The researchers, having split the subjects into two groups, played with the phrasing of the choice to see how our reason-based approach to choosing between similar options could be used to nudge things toward one parent or the other. They asked either “To which parent would you award sole custody of the child?” or “Which parent would you deny sole custody of the child?” (Emphasis mine in both cases.) If the choices were equal –or even approximately equal– then the phrasing shouldn’t matter, right?
Well, it did matter. When asked whom to award custody to, 64% of the subjects saw Parent B as the better choice. But when asked whom to deny custody to, the preference flipped and only 45% chose to give Parent B custody.
Why? Because the words “award” or “deny” set off searches for justifications for those decisions. People looking for a reason to award custody zeroed in on the higher income and good parent/child relationship of Parent B. And those looking for a reason to deny custody zeroed in on that same person’s health problems and travel schedule. The phrasing of the decision biased them towards paying attention to and using certain information.
And so it may be with Sabal and Amita. If I recall, the tutorial text for the game tells you to “Choose who to support” when Amita and Sabal at are at loggerheads. Would I have chosen differently if it had said “Choose who to betray” or “Choose who to reject”? Maybe.
Point is, if you’re a game designer presenting the player with a big decision, your choice of words matters. And if you’re a player, try looking at things differently simply by rephrasing the choice before you pull the trigger.HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- In a major shake-up the likes of which Cubans have not seen for decades, President Raul Castro on Monday reorganized his Cabinet, replacing longtime aides to his brother Fidel, who resigned from office a year ago, citing poor health.
Cuban President Raul Castro is moving his own people into power, analysts say.
Some analysts said the changes appear to be an attempt by Raul Castro to put his own supporters into positions of power.
Among the changes:
Felipe Perez Roque, the 43-year-old foreign minister, was replaced by his deputy, Bruno Rodriguez Aprilla.
Carlos Lage Davila, an economist, lost his job as Cabinet secretary, but no mention was made of removing him from his other post as vice president of the Council of State.
Lage, who helped guide the nation through its "special period" of dire economic times in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the loss of billions in subsidies, was replaced by Brig. Gen. Jose Amado Ricardo Guerra; Raul Castro is also commander in chief of the armed forces.
"It looks like Raul putting some of his own people in," said Wayne Smith, director of the Cuba program at the Center for International Policy in Washington, who led the U.S. Interests Section in Havana during the Carter administration.
Smith noted that Cuba's government underwent "quite a few shake-ups after the revolution first came in" in 1959, but said Monday's move "is the biggest shake-up that I've seen in a very long time... for the last 30 or 40 years."
"This is obviously a major move," concurred Vicki Huddleston, who led the Interests Section during the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and is a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "[There is] nothing like this that I can recall since the late 1960s."
She noted that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez met with both Castro brothers during a visit late in February to Havana, on what Granma described as a "work visit," and speculated that Raul Castro may have asked him then to buy in on the changes.
"They really need Chavez to be on board, because without the subsidized oil from Venezuela, they're dead," Huddleston said.
With the Cuban economy hamstrung by the world economy, Raul Castro may have decided it is time for him to make reforms of his own without worrying about second-guessing by his brother or his brother's allies, she said.
Huddleston speculated that the changes could portend the government once again allowing private enterprise to flourish in Cuba.
Communist leader Fidel Castro experimented with that during the 1990s, but pulled back.
"It represents a significant step by Raul Castro to gain autonomy and, essentially, distance himself from Fidel's old gang," said Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs.
"In other words, he feels confident enough that he has an independent base of power."
He said Raul Castro's moves to date have proven popular not only with his party members, but also with the general population. Still, Raul Castro should not take that support for granted, Birns said. "It may be that, if he makes too many moves, the party will feel that their privileges are being taken away, and that will make them unhappy."
Otto Reich, who served as assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs during the George W. Bush administration, said he was withholding judgment.
"It's a little early to tell what this really means," he said. "Some people are saying the Fidelistas are being replaced by the Raulistas. But the other side is: Are we talking about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?"
The state-run newspaper Granma published an official notice from the State Council that said the changes were intended to form a structure that is "more compact and functional, with fewer organisms of the central administration of the state and a better distribution of the functions that they carry out."
CNN's Morgan Neill and Shasta Darlington in Havana, Tom Watkins and Arthur Brice contributed to this story.
All About Raul Castro • CubaCal’s Penina Davidson making a name for herself with timely play
California's Penina Davidson during basketball practice in Berkeley, Calif., on Tuesday, January 3, 2017. California's Penina Davidson during basketball practice in Berkeley, Calif., on Tuesday, January 3, 2017. Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Cal’s Penina Davidson making a name for herself with timely play 1 / 4 Back to Gallery
With all of the attention Cal forward Kristine Anigwe mandates, it’s easy to overlook the player often standing right next to her.
That won’t be the case much longer, considering the opening week of Pac-12 play.
Penina Davidson, probably the least celebrated of the Bears’ starting five, was all of a sudden their best player while splitting games at the Arizona schools last week.
She had her first career double-double (12 points, 14 rebounds) in a victory over Arizona and followed that with career highs in points (19), steals (three) and blocked shots (three) in a double-overtime loss to Arizona State.
“I just do whatever is needed that day,” the 6-foot-3 junior forward said. “If it’s going to help the team, that’s what I’m going to do.”
Davidson is able to fill a variety of roles for Cal, partly based on early playing experience. While traveling with New Zealand national teams, she would pick up different pieces from the styles being played in other countries.
She’s averaging 8.4 points on 50 percent shooting, 6.4 rebounds and 1.5 blocked shots per game.
All of that will have to be on display this weekend as the No. 20 Bears (13-1, 1-1) host the Oregon schools, starting with No. 16 Oregon State (13-1, 2-0) at 6 p.m. Friday.
The Beavers have won 10 straight and lead the conference in scoring defense (53.5 points per game). Oregon State has claimed at least a share of the Pac-12 regular-season title the past two seasons and reached the Final Four last year.
Being the underdog is nothing new to Cal, which was picked to finish sixth in the media’s preseason poll.
“We remember what it was like to lose,” Davidson said. “Even though we were on this winning streak, we were never complacent. We do not want to take a turn back.”
The Bears went 15-17 last season, with a 4-14 conference record.
“It’s difficult when you know what you’re capable of doing and you’re not necessarily performing that, but the Pac-12 tournament was basically a start to proving what we can do,” Davidson said. “I would argue that losing can actually bring a team closer together than winning, because you’re all in the slump together.
“Everybody counts you out, and you have to rely on each other, because you don’t have anyone else supporting you.”
Because they’ve gotten so close, Davidson considers her teammates part of her family. It’s a significant turn of events since she almost didn’t come to Berkeley.
Set on attending Stanford, Davidson didn’t have a backup plan. When she didn’t academically qualify for the Cardinal, Davidson’s name was brought to the attention of Cal head coach Lindsay Gottlieb by Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer.
“I probably wouldn’t be here without her,” Davidson said of VanDerveer. “I hit culture shock, but not necessarily for the bad. Berkeley is so aware of what’s going on in the world, and it is starting to become home.”
Her brother, Isaac, is a freshman at Sonoma State, and if she misses the rest of the family, Davidson need look only at her arms. She has a tattoo on her right forearm that represents her mother, and her siblings’ names are inked on the inside of her left wrist.
“Much to my mother’s dismay,” Davidson joked.
Rusty Simmons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rsimmons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Rusty_SFChron
Friday’s game
Who: No. 16 Oregon St. (13-1, 2-0 Pac-12) at No. 20 Cal (13-1, 1-1)
Where: Haas Pavilion
When: 6 p.m.
TV: Pac-12 NetworkAmid the fear of the Ebola virus in Nigeria, it was with disbelief that residents of Iguosa community in Ovia North East Local Government Council of Edo State ran to an uncompleted building in the area to see an 18-year-old boy, simply identified as Ighodaro, making love to a dog.
Curiously, the dog was said to have enjoyed the sex before the crowd stormed the scene. Ighodaro was in JSS 2 before he dropped out from school, due to the inability of his poor parents to pay his school fees.
He learnt welding, but, while doing that, he became a lover of dogs. He confessed to Sunday Vanguard that he has slept with different dogs five times until this last episode. It was learnt that a member of the community was passing by the uncompleted building when he sighted the boy making love to the dog and raised the alarm that attracted the villagers.
Mr George Ogbonmwa, owner of the dog, expressed shock at the incident, explaining that when he saw the young man with the dog, he did not know he had an ulterior motive. “I thought he wanted to play with the dog only for him to end up in an uncompleted building where he had canal knowledge of the dog.
This is like another dream to me because I have not seen this kind of thing in my life before”. Following what the villagers described as an abomination, the Odionwere (head)of the community, Elder Clifford Igiehon, was invited to the scene and expressed shock over the incident which he described as a taboo.
He said,”We have never seen this kind of thing before in this community. This is an abominable act and we don’t want the suspect to come and corrupt other people here. What he committed was a taboo. We will call the parents to come and atone the gods but the boy will go on his own, because we cannot kill him.
But we have killed the dog because that is the first thing to do. And because we don’t want this kind of taboo to happen again, we decided to hand the boy over to the police. This kind of thing has never happened before, the boy has to face the music. The parents will perform traditional rites, it is going to cost about a hundred thousand Naira.
The boy knows what he is doing, he is not mad. We know him from the beginning, he was in school before he went to learn welding; may be the parents could not pay his school fees. We were even shocked he said he has had sex with dogs five times; that will tell you he knows what he is doing”.
The community leaders further used the opportunity to appeal to the police: “Give us more policemen in our area because a lot of evil things are happening now. Like what the boy did is a taboo and they must cleanse the land with the appropriate sacrifice. We need the police to be around us so that these evil happenings will stop”.
The suspect, who spoke to Sunday Vanguard at the Edo State Police Command Headquarters, Benin-City, said he did not know what was wrong with him, admitting that he enjoyed sex with five dogs while two bit him during the act. “I learnt welding around Iheya. I don’t know when I slept with the dog, I slept with dogs five times. Some of the dogs bit me, I have been bitten two times and each time I have a dog bite my grand father will treat me”, he said.
Asked about the tactics he deployed to attract the dogs, Ighodaro stated: “When I call them, I will be rubbing their head, petting them so that they will feel free with me. I will be playing with them and they will follow me. They will bark at me some times, and when I notice that it is serious I will leave them. Any one that is friendly with me, I take that one to an uncompleted building and have sex”.
The suspect who was asked about his girl friend, said he broke up with her last year and started making love to dogs this year. His words: “ I had a girlfriend last year but we are no longer together. I started sleeping with dogs this year around March. I don’t know what is wrong with me.
None of my relations knows I sleep with dogs. In this particular case, the dog is very familiar with me; so it was easy to lure it away. While I was having sex with the dog, one man saw me and ran to inform the Odionwere. They now came to pick me and they asked the police to go and check me and see if I have any disease. I don’t know what is wrong with me”.
Edo State Police Commissioner, Foluso Adebanjo, who reacted to the incident, narrated: “It was the people of that community that arrested the boy and called the police.
He was taken to Owotubu Division before he was transferred to the state Police Command Headquarters. What he has done is classified under Unnatural Offences, Section 214 Sub-Section Two which says that any person who has carnal knowledge of an animal is guilty of a felony and he is liable for imprisonment for 14 years if he is found guilty. We are going to charge him to court. You can see that the guy is not denying anything.
He made a confessional statement that he has been sleeping with dogs since March and he has done it five times. I was very worried because this is an unnatural offence and it can bring problem to any community.
You can imagine a human being sleeping with a dog what will that dog produce in some months time;, you can see it is a bizarre situation. The boy looks normal unless if he has spiritual problem because I can’t imagine some body sleeping with a dog.
He said he had a girl friend before; you can imagine if he decides to sleep with another woman what he will give the woman and that is how they spread diseases particularly now that we have different diseases, It is really shocking that we experience this type of issue every day in our country. I am very worried but thank God that the community people have killed that dog because they said what the boy committed was a taboo.”
Source: Vanguardngr.comA man accused of drug trafficking showed up for court Friday in Fort Lauderdale sporting a jacket that bore a cartoon-style recipe for cooking crack cocaine.
Maybe he was hoping to impress the judge or "crack up" the courtroom crowd, but the fashion police at the Broward County Courthouse labeled it a fashion fail.
"Probably not the smartest attire for a defendant!" said Michael Weinstein, a lawyer who snapped a cellphone photo.
The man's white jacket looked like a how-to guide for making crack cocaine, with a series of little pictures of a white substance with a spoon, a carton of baking soda and a little pot over a fire. The end product was a "rock," slang for the drug.
The finishing touch was the slogan "stack paper say nothing" — make money and hold onto it, in the vernacular.
Witnesses, including the man's attorney Joshua Rydell, would not reveal the name of the man, who did not get into trouble for his threads.
Rydell said his clients still surprise him by wearing drug-related attire to court.
"Giant marijuana leaves on their T-shirts..." Rydell said. "It's so common that I routinely advise clients, 'No drug-related clothes when you come to court.'"
Still, the jacket was open to interpretation — at least to some. "I took it as freedom of expression," Rydell said. "I didn't take it as a recipe to cook crack."
Broward Circuit Judge Michael Usan's reaction? A non-judgmental "no comment."
pmcmahon@tribune.com, 954-356-4533 or Twitter @SentinelPaulaThe Democratic Party platform for 2012 literally gets religious on the subject of "climate change," which used to be called "the coming ice age." That was before it was called "global warming." Now it's just loose "change" and it rates about 20 mentions in the official Democratic party platform.
From the section on Faith:
Faith. Faith has always been a central part of the American story, and it has been a driving force of progress and justice throughout our history. We know that our nation, our communities, and our lives are made vastly stronger and richer by faith and the countless acts of justice and mercy it inspires. Faith- based organizations will always be critical allies in meeting the challenges that face our nation and our world – from domestic and global poverty, to climate change and human trafficking. People of faith and religious organizations do amazing work in communities across this country and the world, and we believe in lifting up and valuing that good work, and finding ways to support it where possible. We believe in constitutionally sound, evidence-based partnerships with faith-based and other non-profit organizations to serve those in need and advance our shared interests. There is no conflict between supporting faith-based institutions and respecting our Constitution, and a full commitment to both principles is essential for the continued flourishing of both faith and country. (emphasis added)
It takes an act of faith to ignore Climategate and its implications.
From the section on the Environment:
We know that global climate change is one of the biggest threats of this generation – an economic, environmental, and national security catastrophe in the making. We affirm the science of climate change, commit to significantly reducing the pollution that causes climate change, and know we have to meet this challenge by driving smart policies that lead to greater growth in clean energy generation and result in a range of economic and social benefits.
So, the Democrats still want to burn taxpayer dollars on greendoggles turn us into Spain economically.
Democrats pledge to continue showing international leadership on climate change, working toward an agreement to set emission limits in unison with other emerging powers. Democrats will continue pursuing efforts to combat climate change at home as well, because reducing our emissions domestically – through regulation and market solutions – is necessary to continue being an international leader on this issue.
That's a push for cap and trade, which the Democrats refused to pass when they held all the reins of power in Washington.
From there the platform descends into self-parody.
We understand that global climate change may disproportionately affect the poor, and we are committed to environmental justice.
What does that even mean?
Missing from the DNC platform: Any acknowledgment anywhere that Climategate and "hide the decline" ever happened.
But ya gotta have faith!The Manitoba government is backtracking on a promise to fund new home daycare spaces at the same time a review of capital project funding has halted daycare construction and left some families scrambling to find child care.
Karen Martindale is stuck after construction of the daycare she hoped to put her children in next year was put on hold — something she only discovered when a friend told her construction fences had been taken down.
"It would have been nice had we known formally, if the government had been able to communicate to parents that there would be a pause," Martindale said.
Ian Wishart promised 550 new private child-care spaces during the election campaign. (CBC News) Progressive Conservative MLA Ian Wishart said two weeks before the April election that the province would help fund 550 new home daycare spaces this year.
But Families Minister Scott Fielding recently denied that promise was made.
The Canadian Press reported Wishart's promise on April 7 and the story was posted on CBC Manitoba's website.
Ian Wishart promises 550 new private child-care spaces during the election campaign 0:54
"What was announced during the election campaign, was spoken of, was that under the previous administration they had lost about 550-some-odd spots in the home-based setting," Fielding said.
Families Minister Scott Fielding denies Ian Wishart promised 550 new home daycare spaces. (CBC News) The government-wide review of capital project funding, which the government launched after it was elected in April, hasn't halted plans for every child-care centre. The government hopes to have 904 new spaces open by March 2017, Fielding said, and some spaces have already opened.
The provincial government plans to put $163 million, about $6 million more than last year, toward child care, he said.
Reaching the goal of 904 spaces will depend on how long it takes to build the facilities and hire licensed staff.
The provincial government provided a list of the new spaces.
"We were left with quite a big hole, about 15,000 people waiting for child-care spots, which we don't think is a good approach. It's going to take some time to dig out of that," Fielding said.
Mother of 2 left hanging
Martindale is now one of the people on daycare wait-lists.
She had hoped to send her kids to the R.F. Morrison daycare in September 2017, when it was scheduled to open.
Her daughter will begin kindergarten at R.F. Morrison School next year and their current daycare doesn't offer transportation to the school. Driving the kids is not currently an option for Martindale and her husband.
"We work full-time, and we both value being able to work full-time," Martindale said.
When Martindale heard the daycare construction fences had been taken down, she called the Manitoba Department of Families and was told the pause on construction was not made public, she said.
She is now signing up on wait-lists of 14-15 months at other daycares. Her daughter begins school in 10 months.
"I feel it would've put parents in a better position if the information could've been made available as soon as possible," she said. "It would have allowed parents as much time as possible to pursue all of those options."
Martindale doesn't know what she'll do in September and said the situation is "stressful."
NDP critic Nahanni Fontaine said the government has no strategy for child-care spaces and no target for access to daycare, she said.
"What is it? is it 10 per cent of children? Is it 20 per cent of children that get access to a space?" Fontaine said.
The government's review of projects that the previous government committed to is "problematic," she said, and she wonders whether the government understands how critical child-care spaces are to the Manitoba economy.
Fielding said the Department of Families will roll out an implementation strategy in the new year but didn't specify a date.
Child-care centres wait for approval
Pat Wege, executive director of the Manitoba Child Care Association, said the provincial daycare wait-list is growing as centres wait for funding confirmation.
"The programs are really stuck because they can't go forward without a funding commitment. When the number of the kids on the online waiting list continues to grow, yeah, that's a problem," Wege said.
"Things have pretty much ground to a halt. We're not seeing any new licensing."
Pat Wege of the Manitoba Child Care Association says several community-based child-care centres have been put on hold. (CBC News ) Wege said she realizes the Tories are still figuring things out but called creating new daycare spaces critical due to the number |
the meeting changed the course of her life, Fonda saying, "I went to the Actors Studio and Lee Strasberg told me I had talent. Real talent. It was the first time that anyone, except my father – who had to say so – told me I was good. At anything. It was a turning point in my life. I went to bed thinking about acting. I woke up thinking about acting. It was like the roof had come off my life!"[17]
Fonda's stage work in the late 1950s laid the foundation for her film career in the 1960s. She averaged almost two movies a year throughout the decade, starting in 1960 with Tall Story, in which she recreated one of her Broadway roles as a college cheerleader pursuing a basketball star, played by Anthony Perkins. Frequent collaborator Robert Redford also made his debut in that film. Period of Adjustment and Walk on the Wild Side followed in 1962. The latter, in which she played a prostitute, earned her a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer.
Rise to prominence (1963–1969) [ edit ]
Sunday in New York, one of her earliest box office successes. Fonda as Eileen Tyler in, one of her earliest box office successes.
In 1963, she appeared in Sunday in New York. Newsday called her "the loveliest and most gifted of all our new young actresses".[18] However, she also had detractors – in the same year, the Harvard Lampoon named her the "Year's Worst Actress" for The Chapman Report.[19] Fonda's career breakthrough came with Cat Ballou (1965), in which she played a schoolmarm turned outlaw. This comedy Western received five Oscar nominations, with Lee Marvin winning best actor, and was one of the year's top ten films at the box office. It was considered by many to have been the film that brought Fonda to bankable stardom. The following year, she had a starring role in The Chase opposite Robert Redford, in their first film together, and two-time Oscar winner Marlon Brando. The film received some positive reviews, but Fonda's performance was noticed by Variety magazine: "Jane Fonda, as Redford's wife and the mistress of wealthy oilman James Fox, makes the most of the biggest female role."[20] After this came the comedies Any Wednesday (1966), opposite Jason Robards and Dean Jones, and Barefoot in the Park (1967), again co-starring Redford.
In 1968, she played the title role in the science fiction spoof Barbarella, which established her status as a sex symbol. In contrast, the tragedy They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) won her critical acclaim and marked a significant turning point in her career; Variety magazine wrote, "Fonda, as the unremittingly cynical loser, the tough and bruised babe of the Dust Bowl, gives a dramatic performance that gives the film a personal focus and an emotionally gripping power."[21] In addition, renowned film critic Pauline Kael, in her New Yorker review of the film, noted of Fonda: "[She] has been a charming, witty nudie cutie in recent years and now gets a chance at an archetypal character. Fonda goes all the way with it, as screen actresses rarely do once they become stars. She doesn't try to save some ladylike part of herself, the way even a good actress like Audrey Hepburn does, peeping at us from behind "vulgar" roles to assure us she's not really like that. Fonda stands a good chance of personifying American tensions and dominating our movies in the seventies as Bette Davis did in the thirties."[22] For her performance, she won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress and earned her first Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Fonda was very selective by the end of the decade, turning down lead roles in Rosemary's Baby and Bonnie and Clyde.
Resurgence and critical acclaim (1970–1979) [ edit ]
In the seventies, Fonda enjoyed her most critically acclaimed period as an actress despite some setbacks for her ongoing activism. According to writer and critic Hilton Als, her performances starting with They Shoot Horses, Don't They? "heralded a new kind of acting: for the first time, she was willing to alienate viewers, rather than try to win them over. Fonda's ability to continue to develop her talent is what sets her apart from many other performers of her generation.[22]
Fonda won her first Academy Award for Best Actress in 1971, again playing a prostitute, the gamine Bree Daniels, in the Alan J. Pakula's murder mystery Klute. Prior to shooting, Fonda spent time interviewing several prostitutes and madams. Years later, Fonda discovered that "there was like a marriage, a melding of souls between this character and me, this woman that I didn't think I could play because I didn't think I was call girl material. It didn't matter."[23] Upon its release, Klute was both a critical and commercial success, and Fonda's performance earned her widespread recognition. Pauline Kael wrote, "As an actress, [Fonda] has a special kind of smartness that takes the form of speed; she's always a little ahead of everybody, and this quicker beat -- this quicker responsiveness -- makes her more exciting to watch. This quality works to great advantage in her full-scale, definitive portrait of a call girl in Klute. It's a good, big role for her, and she disappears into Bree, the call girl, so totally that her performance is very pure -- unadorned by "acting." She never stands outside Bree, she gives herself over to the role, and yet she isn't lost in it—she's fully in control, and her means are extraordinarily economical. She has somehow got to a plane of acting at which even the closest closeup never reveals a false thought and, seen on the movie streets a block away, she's Bree, not Jane Fonda, walking toward us. There isn't another young dramatic actress in American films who can touch her."[24] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times also praised Fonda's performance, even suggesting that the film should have been titled Bree after her character: "What is it about Jane Fonda that makes her such a fascinating actress to watch? She has a sort of nervous intensity that keeps her so firmly locked into a film character that the character actually seems distracted by things that come up in the movie."[25] During the 1971–1972 awards season, Fonda dominated the Best Actress category at almost every major awards ceremony; in addition to her Oscar win, she received her first Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama, her first National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress and her second New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress.
Between Klute in 1971 and Fun With Dick and Jane in 1977, Fonda did not have a major film success. She appeared in A Doll's House (1973), Steelyard Blues and The Blue Bird (1976). In the former, some critics felt Fonda was miscast, but her work as Nora Helmer drew praise, and a review in The New York Times opined, "Though the Losey film is ferociously flawed, I recommend it for Jane Fonda's performance. Beforehand, it seemed fair to wonder if she could personify someone from the past; her voice, inflections, and ways of moving have always seemed totally contemporary. But once again she proves herself to be one of our finest actresses, and she's at home in the 1870s, a creature of that period as much as of ours."[26] From comments ascribed to her in interviews, some have inferred that she personally blamed the situation on anger at her outspoken political views: "I can't say I was blacklisted, but I was greylisted."[27] However, in her 2005 autobiography, My Life So Far, she rejected such simplification. "The suggestion is that because of my actions against the war my career had been destroyed... But the truth is that my career, far from being destroyed after the war, flourished with a vigor it had not previously enjoyed."[28] She reduced acting because of her political activism providing a new focus in her life. Her return to acting in a series of 'issue-driven' films reflected this new focus.
[29] Jane Fonda did an extraordinary job with her part. She is a splendid actress with a strong analytical mind which sometimes gets in her way, and with an incredible technique and control of emotion; she can cry at will, on cue, mere drops or buckets, as the scene demands... I thought Jane well deserved the Oscar she should have got. —Fred Zinnemann
director of Julia (1977)
In 1972, Fonda starred as a reporter alongside Yves Montand in Tout Va Bien, directed by Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin. The two directors then made Letter to Jane, in which the two spent nearly an hour discussing a news photograph of Fonda.
Through her production company, IPC Films, she produced films that helped return her to star status. The 1977 comedy film Fun With Dick and Jane is generally considered her "comeback" picture. Critical reaction was mixed, but Fonda's comic performance was praised; Vincent Canby of The New York Times remarked, "I never have trouble remembering that Miss Fonda is a fine dramatic actress but I'm surprised all over again every time I see her do comedy with the mixture of comic intelligence and abandon she shows here."[30] Also in 1977, she portrayed the playwright Lillian Hellman in Julia, receiving positive reviews from critics. Gary Arnold of the Washington Post described her performance as "edgy, persuasive and intriguingly tensed-up," commenting further, "Irritable, intent and agonizingly self-conscious, Fonda suggests the internal conflicts gnawing at a talented woman who craves the self-assurance, resolve and wisdom she sees in figures like Julia and Hammett."[31] For her performance, Fonda won her first BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, her second Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, and received her third Best Actress Oscar nomination.[32]
During this period, Fonda announced that she would make only films that focused on important issues, and she generally stuck to her word. She turned down An Unmarried Woman because she felt the part was not relevant. In 1978, Fonda was at a career peak after she won her second Best Actress Oscar for her role as Sally Hyde, a conflicted adulteress in Coming Home, the story of a disabled Vietnam War veteran's difficulty in re-entering civilian life.[32] Upon its release, the film was a popular success with audiences, and generally received good reviews; Ebert noted that her Sally Hyde was "the kind of character you somehow wouldn't expect the outspoken, intelligent Fonda to play," and Jonathan Rosenbaum of the San Diego Reader felt that Fonda was "a marvel to watch; what fascinates and involves me in her performance are the conscientious effort and thought that seem to go into every line reading and gesture, as if the question of what a captain's wife and former cheerleader was like became a source of endless curiosity and discovery for her."[33] Her performance also earned her a third Golden Globe Award for Best Actress as well, making this her second consecutive win. Also in 1978, she reunited with Alan J. Pakula to star in his post-modern Western drama Comes a Horseman as a hard-bitten rancher, and later took on a supporting role in California Suite, where she played a Manhattan workaholic and divorcee. Variety noted that she "demonstrates yet another aspect of her amazing range"[34] and Time Out New York remarked that she gave "another performance of unnerving sureness."[35]
She won her second BAFTA Award for Best Actress in 1979 with The China Syndrome, about a cover-up of a vulnerability in a nuclear power plant. Cast alongside Jack Lemmon and Michael Douglas, in one of his early roles, Fonda played a clever, ambitious television news reporter. Vincent Canby, writing for the New York Times, singled out Fonda's performance for praise: "The three stars are splendid, but maybe Miss Fonda is just a bit more than that. Her performance is not that of an actress in a star's role, but that of an actress creating a character that happens to be major within the film. She keeps getting better and better."[36] This role also earned her Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress. The same year, she starred in the western adventure-romance film The Electric Horseman with her frequent co-star, Robert Redford. Although the film received mixed reviews, The Electric Horseman was a box office success, becoming the eleventh highest-grossing film of 1979[37] after grossing a domestic total of nearly $62 million.[38]
Continued box office success, exercise videos, retirement (1980–1990) [ edit ]
In 1980, Fonda starred in 9 to 5 with Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton. The film was a huge critical and box office success, becoming the second highest-grossing release of the year.[39] Fonda had long wanted to work with her father, hoping it would help their strained relationship.[32] She achieved this goal when she purchased the screen rights to the play On Golden Pond, specifically for her father and her.[40] The father-daughter rift depicted on screen closely paralleled the real-life relationship between the two Fondas; they eventually became the first father-daughter duo to earn Oscar nominations (Jane earned her first Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination) for their roles in the same film. On Golden Pond, which also starred four-time Oscar winner Katharine Hepburn, brought Henry Fonda his only Academy Award for Best Actor, which Jane accepted on his behalf, as he was ill and could not leave home. He died five months later.[32]
Fonda continued to appear in feature films throughout the 1980s, winning an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress for The Dollmaker (1984), and starring in the role of Dr. Martha Livingston in Agnes of God (1985). The following year, she played an alcoholic actress and murder suspect in the 1986 thriller The Morning After, opposite Jeff Bridges. In preparation for her role, Fonda modelled the character on the starlet Gail Russell, who, at 36, was found dead in her apartment, among empty liquor bottles. Writing for The New Yorker, Pauline Kael commended Fonda for giving "a raucous-voiced, down-in-the-dirty performance that has some of the charge of her Bree in Klute, back in 1971."[41] For her performance, she was nominated for yet another Academy Award for Best Actress.
She ended the decade by appearing in Old Gringo. This was followed by the romantic drama Stanley & Iris (1990) with Robert De Niro, which was her final film for 15 years. Both films did not fare well at the box office, and despite receiving mixed to negative reviews, Fonda's performance as the widowed Iris in the latter was praised by Vincent Canby, who stated, "Fonda's increasingly rich resources as an actress are evident in abundance here. They even overcome one's awareness that just beneath Iris's frumpy clothes, there is a firm, perfectly molded body that has become a multi-million-dollar industry."[42]
For many years Fonda took ballet class to keep fit, but after fracturing her foot while filming The China Syndrome, she was no longer able to participate. To compensate, she began participating in aerobics and strengthening exercises under the direction of Leni Cazden. The Leni Workout became the Jane Fonda Workout, which began a second career for her, continuing for many years.[32] This was considered one of the influences that started the fitness craze among baby boomers, then approaching middle age. In 1982, Fonda released her first exercise video, titled Jane Fonda's Workout, inspired by her best-selling book, Jane Fonda's Workout Book. Jane Fonda's Workout became the highest selling home video of the next few years, selling over a million copies. The video's release led many people to buy the then-new VCR in order to watch and perform the workout at home. The exercise videos were produced and directed by Sidney Galanty, who helped to put the deal together with video distributor Stuart Karl, of Karl Home Video. Galanty produced the first video and 11 more after that. She would subsequently release 23 workout videos with the series selling a total of 17 million copies combined, more than any other exercise series.[32] She released five workout books and thirteen audio programs, through 1995. After a fifteen-year hiatus, she released two new fitness videos on DVD in 2010, aiming at an older audience.[43]
Return and new career prospects (2005-present) [ edit ]
Fonda in 1998
In 1991, after three decades in film, Fonda announced her retirement from the film industry.[44] In May 2005, she returned to the screen with the box office success Monster-in-Law, starring opposite Jennifer Lopez.[32] Two years later, Fonda starred in the Garry Marshall-directed drama Georgia Rule alongside Felicity Huffman and Lindsay Lohan. Georgia Rule was panned by critics, but A.O. Scott of The New York Times felt the film belonged to Fonda and co-star Lohan, before writing, "Ms. Fonda's straight back and piercing eyes, the righteous jaw line she inherited from her father and a reputation for humorlessness all serve her well here, but it is her warmth and comic timing that make Georgia more than a provincial scold."[45]
In 2009, Fonda returned to Broadway for the first time since 1963, playing Katherine Brandt in Moisés Kaufman's 33 Variations.[46][47] In a mixed review, Ben Brantley of the New York Times praised Fonda's "layered crispness" and her "aura of beleaguered briskness that flirts poignantly with the ghost of her spiky, confrontational screen presence as a young woman. For those who grew up enthralled with Ms. Fonda's screen image, it's hard not to respond to her performance here, on some level, as a personal memento mori."[48] The role earned her a Tony nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play.[49]
Fonda filmed her second movie in French when she had a leading role in the 2011 drama All Together.[50][51][52] The same year she starred alongside Catherine Keener in Peace, Love and Misunderstanding, playing a hippie grandmother.[53] In 2012, Fonda began a recurring role as Leona Lansing, CEO of a major media company, in HBO's original political drama The Newsroom. Her role continued throughout the show's three seasons, and Fonda received two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.
In 2013, Fonda had a small role in The Butler, portraying First Lady Nancy Reagan. She had more film work the following year, appearing in the comedies Better Living Through Chemistry and This is Where I Leave You. She also voiced a character on The Simpsons.[54] She played an acting diva in Paolo Sorrentino's Youth in 2015, for which she earned a Golden Globe Award nomination. She also appeared in Fathers and Daughters (2015) with Russell Crowe.
Fonda appears as the co-lead in the Netflix series Grace and Frankie. She and Lily Tomlin play aging women whose husbands reveal they are in love. Filming on the first season was completed in November 2014,[55] and the show premiered online on May 8, 2015. In 2016, Fonda voiced Shuriki in Elena and the Secret of Avalor.
In June 2016, the Human Rights Campaign released a video in tribute to the victims of the 2016 Orlando gay nightclub shooting; in the video, Fonda and others told the stories of the people killed there.[56][57]
Fonda starred in her fourth collaboration with Robert Redford in the 2017 romantic drama film Our Souls at Night. The film and Fonda's performance received critical acclaim upon release. In 2018, she starred opposite Diane Keaton, Mary Steenburgen, and Candice Bergen in the romantic comedy film Book Club. Although opened to mixed reviews, the film was a major box office success grossing $93.4 million against a $10 million budget, despite releasing the same day as Deadpool 2.
Fonda is the subject of an HBO original documentary entitled Jane Fonda in Five Acts, directed by the documentarian Susan Lacy. Receiving rave reviews, it covers Fonda's life from childhood through her acting career and political activism and then to the present day.[58] It premiered on HBO on September 24, 2018.[59]
Political activism [ edit ]
During the 1960s, Fonda engaged in political activism in support of the Civil Rights Movement, and in opposition to the Vietnam War.[32] Fonda's visits to France brought her into contact with leftist French intellectuals who were opposed to war, an experience that she later characterized as "small-c communism".[60] Along with other celebrities, she supported the Alcatraz Island occupation by American Indians in 1969, which was intended to call attention to the failures of the government with regards to treaty rights and the movement for greater Indian sovereignty.[61]
She supported Huey Newton and the Black Panthers in the early 1970s, stating: "Revolution is an act of love; we are the children of revolution, born to be rebels. It runs in our blood." She called the Black Panthers "our revolutionary vanguard... we must support them with love, money, propaganda and risk."[62] She has been involved in the feminist movement since the 1970s and dovetails her activism in support of civil rights.
Opposition to the Vietnam War [ edit ]
Fonda at an anti-Vietnam War conference in the Netherlands in January 1975
In April 1970, Fonda, with Fred Gardner and Donald Sutherland formed the FTA tour ("Free The Army", a play on the troop expression "Fuck The Army"), an anti-war road show designed as an answer to Bob Hope's USO tour. The tour, described as "political vaudeville" by Fonda, visited military towns along the West Coast, with the goal of establishing a dialogue with soldiers about their upcoming deployments to Vietnam. The dialogue was made into a movie (F.T.A.) which contained strong, frank criticism of the war by servicemen and servicewomen; it was released in 1972.[63]
On May 4, 1970, Fonda appeared before an assembly at the University of New Mexico, in Albuquerque, to speak on GI rights and issues. The end of her presentation was met with a discomforting silence. The quiet was broken when Beat poet Gregory Corso staggered onto the stage. Drunk, Corso challenged Fonda, using a four-letter expletive: Why hadn't she addressed the shooting of four students at Kent State by the Ohio National Guard, which had just taken place? Fonda in her autobiography revisited the incident: "I was shocked by the news and felt like a fool." On the same day, she joined a protest march on the home of university president, Ferrel Heady. The protestors called themselves "They Shoot Students, Don't They?" – a reference to Fonda's recently released film, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, which was just screened in Albuquerque.[16]
In the same year, Fonda spoke out against the war at a rally organized by Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. She offered to help raise funds for VVAW and, for her efforts, was rewarded with the title of Honorary National Coordinator.[64] On November 3, 1970, Fonda started a tour of college campuses on which she raised funds for the organization. As noted by The New York Times, Fonda was a "major patron" of the VVAW.[65]
Controversial visit to Hanoi [ edit ]
Jane Fonda on the NVA anti-aircraft gun
Between 1965 and 1972, almost 300 Americans – mostly civil rights activists, teachers and pastors – traveled to North Vietnam to see firsthand the war situation with the Vietnamese. News media in the United States predominantly provided a U.S. viewpoint, and American travelers to Vietnam were routinely harassed upon their return to the States.[66] Fonda also visited Vietnam, traveling to Hanoi in July 1972 to witness firsthand the bombing damage to the dikes. After touring and photographing dike systems in North Vietnam, she said the United States had been intentionally targeting the dike system along the Red River. Columnist Joseph Kraft, who was also touring North Vietnam, said he believed the damage to the dikes was incidental and was being used as propaganda by Hanoi, and that, if the U.S. Air Force were "truly going after the dikes, it would do so in a methodical, not a harum-scarum way".[67] Sweden's ambassador to Vietnam, however, observed the bomb damage to the dikes and described it as "methodic". Other journalists reported that the attacks were "aimed at the whole system of dikes".[66]
Fonda was photographed seated on an anti-aircraft gun; the controversial photo outraged a number of Americans,[68] and earned her the nickname "Hanoi Jane".[69] In her 2005 autobiography, she wrote that she was manipulated into sitting on the battery; she had been horrified at the implications of the pictures and regretted taking them. In a 2011 entry at her official website, Fonda explained:
It happened on my last day in Hanoi. I was exhausted and an emotional wreck after the 2-week visit... The translator told me that the soldiers wanted to sing me a song. He translated as they sung. It was a song about the day 'Uncle Ho' declared their country's independence in Hanoi's Ba Dinh Square. I heard these words: 'All men are created equal; they are given certain rights; among these are life, Liberty and Happiness.' These are the words Ho pronounced at the historic ceremony. I began to cry and clap. 'These young men should not be our enemy. They celebrate the same words Americans do.' The soldiers asked me to sing for them in return... I memorized a song called 'Day Ma Di', written by anti-war South Vietnamese students. I knew I was slaughtering it, but everyone seemed delighted that I was making the attempt. I finished. Everyone was laughing and clapping, including me... Here is my best, honest recollection of what happened: someone (I don't remember who) led me towards the gun, and I sat down, still laughing, still applauding. It all had nothing to do with where I was sitting. I hardly even thought about where I was sitting. The cameras flashed... It is possible that it was a set up, that the Vietnamese had it all planned. I will never know. But if they did I can't blame them. The buck stops here. If I was used, I allowed it to happen... a two-minute lapse of sanity that will haunt me forever... But the photo exists, delivering its message regardless of what I was doing or feeling. I carry this heavy in my heart. I have apologized numerous times for any pain I may have caused servicemen and their families because of this photograph. It was never my intention to cause harm.[70]
Fonda made radio broadcasts on Hanoi Radio throughout her two-week tour, commenting on her visits to villages, hospitals, schools, and factories damaged in the war and denouncing U.S. military policy in Vietnam. Fonda has defended her decision to travel to North Vietnam, and her radio broadcasts.[71][72] During the course of her visit, Fonda visited American prisoners of war (POWs), and brought back messages from them to their families. When stories of torture of returning POWs were later being publicized by the Nixon administration, Fonda called the returning POWs "hypocrites and liars and pawns", adding about the prisoners she visited, "These were not men who had been tortured. These were not men who had been starved. These were not men who had been brainwashed."[73] In addition, Fonda told The New York Times in 1973, "I'm quite sure that there were incidents of torture... but the pilots who were saying it was the policy of the Vietnamese and that it was systematic, I believe that's a lie."[74] Her visits to the POW camp led to persistent and exaggerated rumors which were repeated widely in the press and continued to circulate on the Internet decades later. Fonda, as well as the named POWs, have personally denied the rumors,[70] and subsequent interviews with the POWs showed these rumored allegations to be false as the persons named had never met Fonda.[72]
In 1972, Fonda helped fund and organize the Indochina Peace Campaign, which[75] continued to mobilize antiwar activists across the nation after the 1973 Paris Peace Agreement, through 1975, when the United States withdrew from Vietnam.[76]
Because of her tour of North Vietnam during wartime and the subsequent rumors circulated about her visit, resentment against her among some veterans and currently serving U.S. military still exists. For example, when a U.S. Naval Academy plebe ritually shouted out "Goodnight, Jane Fonda!", the entire company of midshipmen plebes, who had not yet been born when Fonda protested against the Vietnam War, replied "Goodnight, bitch!"[77][78] This practice has since been prohibited by the academy's Plebe Summer Standard Operating Procedures.[79] In 2005, Michael A. Smith, a U.S. Navy veteran, was arrested for disorderly conduct in Kansas City, Missouri, after he spat chewing tobacco in Fonda's face during a book-signing event for her autobiography, My Life So Far. He told reporters that he "consider[ed] it a debt of honor", adding "she spit in our faces for 37 years. It was absolutely worth it. There are a lot of veterans who would love to do what I did." Fonda refused to press charges.[80][81]
Regrets [ edit ]
In a 1988 interview with Barbara Walters, Fonda expressed regret for some of her comments and actions, stating:
I would like to say something, not just to Vietnam veterans in New England, but to men who were in Vietnam, who I hurt, or whose pain I caused to deepen because of things that I said or did. I was trying to help end the killing and the war, but there were times when I was thoughtless and careless about it and I'm very sorry that I hurt them. And I want to apologize to them and their families.... I will go to my grave regretting the photograph of me in an anti-aircraft gun, which looks like I was trying to shoot at American planes. It hurt so many soldiers. It galvanized such hostility. It was the most horrible thing I could possibly have done. It was just thoughtless.[82]
Some critics responded that her apology came at a time when a group of New England Veterans had launched a campaign to disrupt a film project she was working on, leading to the charge that her apology was motivated at least partly by self-interest.[72][83]
In a 60 Minutes interview on March 31, 2005, Fonda reiterated that she had no regrets about her trip to North Vietnam in 1972, with the exception of the anti-aircraft-gun photo. She stated that the incident was a "betrayal" of American forces and of the "country that gave me privilege". Fonda said, "The image of Jane Fonda, Barbarella, Henry Fonda's daughter... sitting on an enemy aircraft gun was a betrayal... the largest lapse of judgment that I can even imagine." She later distinguished between regret over the use of her image as propaganda and pride for her anti-war activism: "There are hundreds of American delegations that had met with the POWs. Both sides were using the POWs for propaganda... It's not something that I will apologize for." Fonda said she had no regrets about the broadcasts she made on Radio Hanoi, something she asked the North Vietnamese to do: "Our government was lying to us and men were dying because of it, and I felt I had to do anything that I could to expose the lies and help end the war."[84]
Subject of government surveillance [ edit ]
In 2013, it was revealed that Fonda was one of approximately 1,600 Americans whose communications between 1967 and 1973 were monitored by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) as part of Project Minaret, a program that some NSA officials have described as "disreputable if not downright illegal".[85][86] Fonda's communications, as well as those of her husband, Tom Hayden, were intercepted by Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). Under the UKUSA Agreement, intercepted data on Americans were sent to the U.S. government.[87][88]
1970 Arrest [ edit ]
On November 3, 1970, Fonda was arrested by authorities at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport on suspicion of drug trafficking.[89] She had been re-entering the United States after participating in an anti-war college speaking tour in Canada, when her luggage was searched, and several small baggies containing pills seized.[90] Although Fonda protested that the pills were harmless vitamins, she was booked by police and then released on bond. Fonda alleged that the arresting officer told her he was acting on direct orders from the Nixon White House.[91] She wrote in 2009 that "I told them what [the vitamins] were but they said they were getting orders from the White House. I think they hoped this'scandal' would cause the college speeches to be canceled and ruin my respectability."[89] Lab tests confirmed the pills were vitamins, and the charges were dropped with little media attention.
Fonda's mugshot from the arrest, in which she raises her fist in a sign of solidarity, has since become a famous image of the actress.[90] It was used as the poster image for the 2018 HBO documentary on Fonda, "Jane Fonda in Five Acts", with a giant billboard sporting the image erected in Times Square in September, 2018.[92] In 2017, she began selling merchandise with her mugshot image to benefit the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power & Potential.[90]
Feminist causes [ edit ]
In early March 2017, in an interview with Brie Larson, published by People magazine, Fonda stated, "One of the great things the women's movement has done is to make us realise that (rape and abuse is) not our fault. We were violated and it's not right." She said, "I've been raped, I've been sexually abused as a child and I've been fired because I wouldn't sleep with my boss." She said, "I always thought it was my fault; that I didn't do or say the right thing. I know young girls who've been raped and didn't even know it was rape. They think, 'It must have been because I said 'no' the wrong way.'"
Through her work, Fonda said she wants to help abuse victims "realize that [rape and abuse] is not our fault". Fonda said that her difficult past led her to become such a passionate activist for women's rights. The actress is an active supporter of the V-Day movement, which works to stop violence against women and girls. In 2001, she established the Jane Fonda Center for Adolescent Reproductive Health, which aims to help prevent teen pregnancy. She was a victim of the "disease to please" in her early life, which plagued many American females of her generation. Fonda revealed in 2014 that her mother, Frances Ford Seymour, was recurrently sexually abused as young as eight, and this may have led to her suicide when Jane was 12.[93][94]
Fonda has been a longtime supporter of feminist causes, including V-Day, a movement to stop violence against women, inspired by the off-Broadway hit The Vagina Monologues, of which she is an honorary chairperson. She was at the first summit in 2002, bringing together founder Eve Ensler, Afghan women oppressed by the Taliban, and a Kenyan activist campaigning to save girls from genital mutilation.[95]
In 2001, she established the Jane Fonda Center for Adolescent Reproductive Health at Emory University in Atlanta to help prevent adolescent pregnancy through training and program development.[96]
On February 16, 2004, Fonda led a march through Ciudad Juárez, with Sally Field, Eve Ensler and other women, urging Mexico to provide sufficient resources to newly appointed officials in helping investigate the murders of hundreds of women in the rough border city.[97] In 2004, she also served as a mentor to the first all-transgender cast of The Vagina Monologues.[98]
In the days before the September 17, 2006 Swedish elections, Fonda went to Sweden to support the new political party Feministiskt initiativ in their election campaign.[99]
In My Life So Far, Fonda stated that she considers patriarchy to be harmful to men as well as women. She also states that for many years, she feared to call herself a feminist, because she believed that all feminists were "anti-male". But now, with her increased understanding of patriarchy, she feels that feminism is beneficial to both men and women, and states that she "still loves men", adding that when she divorced Ted Turner, she felt like she had also divorced the world of patriarchy, and was very happy to have done so.[100]
In April 2016, Fonda said that while she was 'glad' that Bernie Sanders was running, she predicted Hillary Clinton would become the first female president, whose win Fonda believed would result in a "violent backlash". Fonda went on to say that we need to "help men understand why they are so threatened – and change the way we view masculinity."[101]
Native Americans [ edit ]
Fonda went to Seattle, in 1970 to support a group of Native Americans who were led by Bernie Whitebear. The group had occupied part of the grounds of Fort Lawton, which was in the process of being surplussed by the United States Army and turned into a park. The group was attempting to secure a land base where they could establish services for the sizable local urban Indian population, protesting |
banning these items in the first place? It seems that the CRES has become a lawmaker "by announcing", and judge "by announcing". The CRES has violated fundamental rights of those who were already arrested – even if released afterwards – for selling things for their livelihood. If the regulation refers to any article of any other law – not the decree – then it should be the courts, not the colonels, who judge whether it has been violated or not.
`To change the mind set of Thai society is our goal' --Sombat Boonngamanong
Lee Yu Kyung interviews Sombat Boonngamanong
Sombat (42), the long-time NGO activist, has been of great help to renewing Red Shirt activity in public following the bloody April-May crackdown. He has often travelled to Issarn – the country’s north east – where many Red Shirts originated from, to promote peaceful red activity. Recently I talked with him at the Red Sunday group office. Below are excerpts.
* * *
It seems Red Shirts are gradually recovering. There were tens of thousands people gathered at Ratchprasong on November 19 to mark six month since the crackdown. What have been the developments in the Red Shirts movement in the past six months, after the bloody crackdown?
Let me explain an evolution that I’ve involved in. Since the crackdown, I’ve started to use Facebook, on which I launched the Red Sunday campaign. First, I have suggested red supporters use one logo, in which “I am a red” is written, for their profile picture of Facebook. Many changed their pictures on Sunday. So it worked out.
Second, I invited five friends to a caféto have political discussion, and encouraged them to organise the same meeting with five others wearing red shirts. The campaign "Five Reds at Café" has spread to produce many gatherings for discussions with their fellows. One day, we went to BigC at Ladprao [the north-east district in Bangkok] to have 100 people meet.
Another activity was conducted one month after the crackdown. I went to Ratchaprasong to tie red ribbons at the Ratchaprasong street sign. I suggested to other Red Shirts to do the same thing... Police arrested me. I was in police custody for two weeks.
But my story became public. My comrades in the NGO field published open letters in protest. Many people talked about me. So the renewal activities have become news. When I was released, I tried to do it again.
These are all public activities, simple, soft but creative. Not aggressive. Then people felt that it was possible to re-new red activity.
To be honest, people were afraid seeing their fellows, friends and family gunned down. But they seemed to be encouraged when they saw my activity. “Ok, Khun Sombat is doing this, why shouldn’t I”, they thought (laugh).
Have you noticed a radicalisation among Red Shirts in the last six months?
I can’t comment on that. I don’t agree with every single measure or slogan. I only can say that I support the spirit of the Red Shirt movement.
What is the spirit?
First, they are conscientiously fighting against the suppressor. Second, it’s about democracy. Democratisation in Thailand is unstable but is in process. You see, the authority in a democratic country should have not used snipers and guns to control a mass rally.
Then what is your observation about democracy in Thailand at this current stage?
It’s not like we have no democracy at all, but we have no democracy (laugh). The middle class, who have power and freedom, might have felt they are the owners of the country and there’s democracy. But the reality with which the poor face would be different. This is why the middle class couldn’t understand why the Red Shirts from provinces came to Bangkok to rally. So they told Red Shirts "go home" or "go farming". There are two different faces of democracy in Thailand.
Where would you say is Thaksin Shinawatra’s status in the current and future Red Shirt movement?
Many Red Shirts love him. True. But Thaksin is not a goal. The goal is to achieve democracy. Thaksin’s power has been decreasing among Red Shirts. Not only Thaksin, but also leadership is being beyond by Red Shirts now. People have been empowering themselves.
But problem is, in my opinion, while there are some activities and new leaders trying to build up in Bangkok, there’s not much activity in rural areas, which is a base of many Red Shirts. I try to encourage people [there].
Your group [Red Sunday] is one of many Red Shirt groups. How often do you correspond with other groups?
Not much, though we have. When we need to join forces for a certain activity, we exchange by email and phone. One example was the "Red around the World" rally on September 19, on the occasion of fourth anniversary of the 2006 coup and also to mark four months since the crackdown.
My idea is to promote small but many groups. And we keep our network between groups to finally build up the Red Shirts movement so it is huge once again. There is supposed to be a decentralised leadership, rather than a centralised one.
What about Khun Jatuporn Prompen, one of the core leaders, who has not been arrested? What sort of communication you have had with him?
I believe Jatuporn is also happy with our idea (of decentralised leadership). There is no dispute regarding this. We have known each other more than 20 years. Last week, for about one hour, I discussed with him the red campaign, but there is not that much communication in general.
What is next?
We plan a workshop named the “Democracy School” from next year.
What would say is a goal of your campaign?
Democracy.
Could you be more specific? Do you want a change of regime? A change in the system?
The goal of our group’s campaign is to change the mind set in Thai society, where you have "owners" or "superiors" of this country, while the grassroots are treated as like "visitors" or "inferior" citizens. Every individual is equal. Again, we want to empower ourselves.Despite tariffs on foreign polysilicon, Chinese imports of the material hit a record high in January. The top three nations of origin were Korea, Germany and Taiwan, with 5,900, 3,500 and 1,400 tons respectively. Imports from Korea alone represented 48% of the total and were 11% higher than last month.
Due to anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on U.S. polysilicon, imports directly from America have fallen significantly since last July, while U.S. exporters choose to use Taiwan as transfer station, which in turn caused imports from Taiwan to increase. Calculations show the total volume of imports from the United States and Taiwan has remained stable at about 1,800 tons.
Duties are very low on Korean polysilicon producers. The main exporters, OCI and Hankook Silicon, are only subject to duties of 2.4% and 2.8% respectively. As such, they cannot stop entering the largest market at all. Beginning in May 2014, Korea has been the top exporter of polysilicon to China.
Prices are also dropping, except from polysilicon from the United States. The average price for imports from Korea dropped for the first time to below US$13 per kilogram (kg) to $12.99 per kg. From Germany prices are around $15.50 per kg. Meanwhile, the average prices for the whole 2015 of imports from Korea and Germany are respectively $16.30 and $20.20 per kg.
Due to the punitive tariff on imports from the United States, the average price increased greatly to $43.70 per kg and focused on long-term orders.
Chinese officials also reported 780 tons of polysilicon exports in January, 50% more than in December 2015.NEW YORK - New baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred is optimistic the Athletics will be able to get a new ballpark in Oakland.
The A's have been blocked from building a stadium in San Jose, which is in Santa Clara County, a territory of the San Francisco Giants. A month after the club scrapped plans for a ballpark in Fremont, then-Commissioner Bud Selig appointed a committee in March 2009 to analyze the team's hopes of obtaining a stadium in its current territory.
After the team reached an agreement with San Jose on an option for land and Major League Baseball didn't act, San Jose sued MLB in June 2013, claiming an illegal conspiracy to block a relocation. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this month upheld a lower-court decision dismissing San Jose's antitrust claims.
''I don't think of the Oakland issue as Oakland-San Francisco. Oakland needs a new stadium,'' Manfred said during an interview with The Associated Press on Monday, the first business day of his five-year term. ''There's a new mayor in Oakland. We just prevailed in the San Jose litigation, so things are moving around a little bit out there, and I'm hopeful we can make progress on getting a new stadium in Oakland in the relatively short term.''
Libby Schaaf took office as Oakland's mayor on Jan. 5.Aug. 3, 2015 – As grasses grew more common in Africa, most major mammal groups tried grazing on them at times during the past 4 million years, but some of the animals went extinct or switched back to browsing on trees and shrubs, according to a study led by the University of Utah.
“It’s as if in a city, there was a whole new genre of restaurant to try,” says geochemist Thure Cerling, first and senior author of the study published today by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “This is a record of how different mammals responded. And almost all of the mammals did an experiment in eating this new resource: grass.”
The experiment peaked about 2 million years ago, says Cerling, a distinguished professor of geology and geophysics. The only major group that still mostly grazes grass is the bovids: cattle, buffalo, sheep, wildebeest, hartebeest and some antelopes such as oryx and waterbucks.
The study also revealed that the present isn’t necessarily the key to the past in terms of what animals eat. Today, elephants and spiral-horned antelope (elands, kudus and bushbuck) browse on trees and shrubs, but the study showed that 2 million years ago, African elephants grazed on grass and the antelopes had mixed diets with a lot of grass. Asian elephants, which ate grass and were abundant in Africa 2 million years ago, went extinct in Africa but survive in Asia, where they graze but also browse trees and shrubs.
“That the diet of some of these animals is different from that of the present was a surprise, and shows the importance of challenging one’s assumptions when making ecological reconstructions,” says study co-author and geologist Frank Brown, dean of the University of Utah’s College of Mines and Earth Sciences.
Overall, Cerling and colleagues wrote that the assemblages of grazing, browsing and mixed-diet animals during the past 4 million years “are different from any modern ecosystem in East or Central Africa.”
They found the Turkana Basin of Kenya and Ethiopia had a much greater diversity of mixed feeders – they browsed and grazed – from 4.1 million to 2.35 million years ago. From 2.35 million to 1 million years ago, there were many more grazers than there are today. In the past 1 million years, many grass grazers either switched to browsing trees and shrubs or went extinct, leaving mostly bovids as grazers today.
The study was funded by the Fulbright Foundation, the University of Utah, the Geological Society of America, the National Science Foundation, the Packard Foundation and the National Geographic Society.
30 years of research into 4 million years of dietary evolution
In a study spanning 30 years of field work by Cerling into how grasses and the animals that eat them evolved together, he and other scientists analyzed:
— Hair keratin, tooth enamel or bone collagen from 1,800 animals of more than 50 modern herbivore species in East and Central Africa. Samples came from museum collections or from animals killed previously in 30 national parks and reserves.
— Tooth enamel from more than 900 fossil herbivores that lived 4.1 million to 1 million years ago in the Turkana Basin.
They measured the samples’ ratios of uncommon carbon-13 to common carbon-12. The ratios reveal if the animals browsed primarily on plants that use C3 photosynthesis (trees, shrubs, forbs and herbs), grazed mainly on C4 photosynthesis plants (dry-season or tropical grasses and sedges) or ate a mixed diet.
Low carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are believed responsible for a global expansion of tropical grasslands between 10 million and 5 million years ago. C4 photosynthesis used by tropical grasses is more efficient in hot climates, giving them an advantage over trees and shrubs.
“Over the past 10 million years, grasses went from perhaps 1 percent of productivity of the tropical landscape to 50 percent today,” Cerling says. “All the large mammal groups tried experiments in eating grasses, and a lot of those experiments didn’t work in the long run,” he says. “Animals became extinct or they switched to other diets. There was even a grazing giraffe, but that became extinct. There were three major lineages of pigs that were grazers, and only one has survived: the warthog.”
Other grazers that became extinct included a three-toed horse and the Asian elephant, which survives in Asia but went extinct in Africa 1 million years ago.
Grazers that switched to browsing included forest hogs and African elephants.
Browsers in the past that still browse at least 75 percent trees and shrubs today include most giraffes, black rhinos, tiny antelope and forest antelope.
One-toed horses, warthogs, zebras, white rhinos and bovids – cattle, buffalo, goats, wildebeest, hartebeest and antelopes like waterbuck and oryx – stuck with grass.
“The successful grazers appear to be the bovids,” Cerling says, although even some bovids – gazelles and elands – once were mixed grazers-browsers, but today have returned to mostly browsing on trees and shrubs. Impalas, which also are bovids, shifted from mostly grazing in the past to both grazing and browsing today.
Modern herbivores with mixed browsing-grazing diets include hippos and impalas.
Why did the grass craze fade?
Why did some animals keep eating grass while others stopped or went extinct?
“Perhaps they were much more efficient at eating grass and outcompeted some of the other animals,” Cerling says. For example, perhaps African elephants switched to browsing when they could no longer grab grass cut too short by grazers.
“It looks like there is as much grass available now as anytime in the past,” Cerling says. “It could be that the quality of grass varies enormously between the dry season and the wet season.”
He also notes that during the past 1 million years, “we have been going through strong cycles with and without glaciers, and much bigger changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide.” Grasses using C4 photosynthesis not only have an advantage in hot weather, but also during glacial periods when carbon dioxide levels were low.
But there are no fossils of grasses for the past 10 million years, which makes it difficult to unveil the evolution of grasses, and whether they changed in digestibility, palatability, toxin levels and nutrient content, Cerling says.
In a 2013 study, Cerling found that early human relatives who turned to grazing, such as Paranthropus boisei, went extinct. Modern humans eat more grass than ever before – but not by grazing. Instead, we eat the meat of animals fed grass and C4 grains, as well as cultivated C4 plants such as corn and sorghum.
The study’s co-authors and institutions
In addition to Cerling and Brown, other University of Utah-trained co-authors are biology doctoral student Kendra Chritz and three geologists with Utah doctorates: Naomi Levin and Benjamin Passey, Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, and Kevin Uno at Columbia University’s Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, N.Y.
Other study co-authors are paleontologists Louise Leakey and Meave Leakey, of Kenya’s Turkana Basin Institute and Stony Brook University in New York state; late biologist Samuel Andanje, Kenya Wildlife Service; anthropology doctoral student Scott Blumenthal, City University of New York; paleontologist John M. Harris, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County; wildlife biologist John Hart, Lukuru Foundation, Congo; paleontologist Francis Kirera, Ross University, Dominica; wildlife biologist Prince Kaleme, Natural Science Research Center, Congo, and University of Johannesburg; and paleontologist Fredrick Manthi, National Museums of Kenya.Disruptions are expected across Australia's international airports on Monday as up to 10,000 Border Force workers strike for 24 hours.
The action is part of an industrial campaign for better pay and conditions, and while not all workers will be able to take part, it's likely the bulk of those rostered on will stop work from midnight on Sunday.
"Staff will strike for 24 hours at international airports, ports, mail and cargo centres to protest government threats to cut their pay," Community and Public Sector Union national secretary Nadine Flood said, adding that cuts to conditions would cause some workers to lose about $20,000.
The industrial action will affect international travellers as they pass through customs at airports across Australia and travellers have been warned to expect significant delays.This isn’t a political blog, at all. It’s not supposed to be, at least.
But, for shame. I can’t sit by. Nor, I’d like to think, would Shakespeare …
Lou Reed sung, in ‘Dirty Boulevard’:
Give me your hungry, your tired, your poor I’ll piss on ’em
That’s what the Statue of Bigotry says
Your poor huddled masses
Let’s club ’em to death
And get it over with and just dump ’em on the boulevard
And Shakespeare?
There seems to be a general acceptance nowadays that Shakespeare had a hand in writing St Thomas More, and in particular, More’s speech in Act II sc iv seems attributable to him. It’s not difficult: More (Shakespeare) simply asks us to recognise the humanity of refugees, and to walk a mile in their shoes. It works on More’s audience within the play. It ought to on us all.
Ian McKellen nails it here …
I’m not a US citizen. Some might think this is ‘nothing to do with me‘. Nevertheless, the Executive Order that repels the entry of refugees into the US offends my sense of humanity.
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Like this: Like Loading...A ceremony at the site of the Nazis' most notorious death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, was attended by 61 MPs from the Israeli parliament and German politicians.
The Israeli MPs will also discuss on Monday night modern anti-Semitism with their German counterparts in Krakow, Poland.
Meanwhile, in Berlin, a memorial ceremony was held in Parliament (the Bundestag) and President Joachim Gauck wrote a letter to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to apologize for the suffering inflicted by German troops.
After an hour of remembrance in the Bundestag, participants in the international youth congress - which takes place every year in memory of the victims of the Nazi regime - met for a discussion with 95-year-old Russian author Daniil Granin, who survived the siege of Leningrad in 1944, and Bundestag president Norbert Lammert.
Parliament's hour of remembrance has taken place annually since 1996.
The vice president of the Bundestag Ulla Schmidt also opened an exhibition in Berlin called “Seized, persecuted, destroyed: Sick and disabled people under National Socialism.”
The exhibition focuses on Nazi violence against disabled people and the long-term ill and will run until February 28th.
The Israeli ambassador to Germany Yakov Hadas-Handelsman publicly called for collective remembrance in an interview with the Berliner Morgenpost on Monday.
"The Holocaust is a tragedy for all of humanity," he said. “It [the commemoration] reinforces our efforts to make sure nothing like it can ever happen again."
In his letter to Putin, President Gauck said he thought of “Nazi Germany’s war of extermination against the Soviet Union” with deep sadness and shame.
"Germany is aware of its historical responsibility for the harm that was done to the inhabitants of Leningrad,” he wrote. “I say to you and your people - we share the pain of the victims and we feel with the survivors who still suffer from the consequences of war.”
Gauck added: “The massive scale of human suffering still stuns us.”
READ MORE: Nazi camp worker faces anti-Semitism chargeTo date, hampered physiological function after exposure to microgravity has been primarily attributed to deprived peripheral neuro-sensory systems. For the first time, this study elucidates alterations in human brain function after long-duration spaceflight. More specifically, we found significant differences in resting-state functional connectivity between motor cortex and cerebellum, as well as changes within the default mode network. In addition, the cosmonaut showed changes in the supplementary motor areas during a motor imagery task. These results highlight the underlying neural basis for the observed physiological deconditioning due to spaceflight and are relevant for future interplanetary missions and vestibular patients.
Keywords Microgravity Functional MRI Motor behavior Cortical reorganization Vestibular cortex
Space-travelers face various stressors for their health. These can be physical (e.g., microgravity, ionizing radiation), habitability-related (e.g., noise, vibration), or psychological (e.g., isolation, confinement) (Kanas and Manzey 2008). Although humans mostly adapt to new surroundings, it is not infrequent that some changes are maladaptive with detrimental effects on different physiological systems. To date, the somatic (mal)adaptations have been extensively studied (for a review, see Buckey 2006). However, to our knowledge, no MRI-based neuroimaging study has yet been performed to assess neuronal function in space-travelers. This study aimed at characterizing the impact of long-duration spaceflight on brain function in a single cosmonaut, measured by functional MRI.
A 44-year-old male cosmonaut had his first long-duration mission (169 days) to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2014. During spaceflight, the cosmonaut strictly followed the physical and locomotor training in accordance with the Russian countermeasure system. His overall physical performance showed no abnormalities according to the Institute of Biomedical problems (IMBP, Moscow), monitoring the health of the space travelers in the Russian segment of the ISS. On the day of landing, the sensorimotor assessment showed vestibular ataxia, indicating a dysfunctional vestibular system and proprioception. Clinical investigations 3 days postflight revealed continued impairment of motor coordination, similar to earlier reports (Paloski et al. 1993), but disappearance of vertigo. The fMRI protocol was applied twice: 30 days before launch and 9 days after Earth re-entry. During both assessments, the cosmonaut had a 10-min scanning session in a resting condition and a session while executing active mental imagery tasks (i.e., imagining playing tennis, imagining walking around the rooms of his house). These protocols were chosen on the grounds that they can, respectively, identify changes at the whole-brain level (Heine et al. 2012), at the motor system (Monti et al. 2010), while the navigation task was used as a control task where no changes were a priori expected. A group of age- and gender-matched healthy controls (n = 7, mean age 37.6 ± 6.46 years) was included in the analysis to account for data variance (see Online Methods for details).
2011 1 FDR < 0.05 at cluster-level) and ventral posterior cingulate cortex (x = 6, y = −22, z = 24, peak voxel z value = −3.95, p FDR < 0.05 at cluster-level). With regards to the network-level approach, all networks were characterized by their typical spatial pattern across the group of healthy volunteers (SOM, Fig. 1 1 uncorrected < 0.001) post-flight compared to pre-flight for the tennis paradigm. No difference in brain activation was identified for the spatial navigation task as expected. Open image in new window The resting state assessment encompassed (1) a hypothesis-free exploration of changes in the strength of global connectivity pattern as estimated by the intrinsic connectivity contrast (Martuzzi et al.) (voxel-to-voxel connectivity analysis) and (2) a hypothesis-driven estimation of connectivity changes in six brain networks, namely the default mode, the fronto-parietal, the salience, the auditory, the sensorimotor, and the visual network (seed-to-voxel connectivity analysis). With regards to the measure of intrinsic connectivity contrast, it was found that at post-flight there was reduced connectivity in the right insula (Fig.a; x = 48, y = −6, z = 4, z value = −4.24, p< 0.05 at cluster-level) and ventral posterior cingulate cortex (x = 6, y = −22, z = 24, peak voxel z value = −3.95, p< 0.05 at cluster-level). With regards to the network-level approach, all networks were characterized by their typical spatial pattern across the group of healthy volunteers (SOM, Fig.). Network-level functional connectivity changes at post-flight were identified for the default mode network only. Specifically, reduced connectivity was indentified in areas not typically belonging to the network but classically anticorrelating with it, such as in the precentral gyrus (x = 34, y = −22, z = 64, peak voxel z value = −3.85) and the postcentral gyrus (x = 30, y = −22, z = 48, peak voxel z value = −3.75); seed-by-seed secondary connectivity analysis identified that the connectivity changes resulted from the seed region placed on the left cerebellum (Fig.b). No functional connectivity changes were identified in the other networks. The analysis of the active mental imagery tasks showed that the cosmonaut had higher activation of the supplementary motor area (x = 9, y = −1, z = 67, peak voxel z value = 3.11, p< 0.001) post-flight compared to pre-flight for the tennis paradigm. No difference in brain activation was identified for the spatial navigation task as expected.
By means of functional MRI investigation of brain activity, we identified altered brain function in the cosmonaut induced by long-duration spaceflight. Specifically, resting state connectivity decreases were identified for the right insula as well as between the left cerebellum and the right motor cortex. The findings that the motor cortex appeared less connected during resting-state and was activated more during the active task could be considered as a compensatory/adaptive response to the microgravity environment as well as to the early post-landing phase. The precentral-, postcentral gyrus and cerebellum, affected in the cosmonaut, are associated with voluntary motor initiation, proprioception, and motor coordination, respectively. Deficits in these brain areas are therefore concomitant with problems of speed and accuracy of aimed movements [primary motor cortex, Brodmann area (BA) 4], somatosensory problems (primary somatosensory cortex, BA3), and movement-timing problems (cerebellum) (De La Torre 2014). Earlier studies on the physiological consequences of spaceflight on motor behavior (Kozlovskaya et al. 1981), e.g., deficits in head-trunk coordination (Tomilovskaya et al. 2013), postural instability (Paloski et al. 1992), and changes in lower limb kinematics with implications on gaze stabilization (McDonald et al. 1996), support the current findings.
We also found a decreased resting state connectivity in the right insula postflight, which is part of the vestibular cortex where the afferents from the otolith organs and semicircular canals converge. This cortical vestibular network is involved in the integration of neurosensory input (i.e., vestibular, visual and proprioceptive input) and its functions include processing of self-motion, spatial orientation, and memory (Brandt et al. 2005), perception of vertical (Lopez et al. 2007) and visual processing related to gravitational cues (Lopez et al. 2009). The reversible problems after spaceflight summed up above have often been attributed to the vestibular system and in particular to the deconditioned gravity sensing otolith system (Kornilova et al. 2012; Moore et al. 2003). The current study, however, suggests that several of these problems originate from alterations at the cortical level, rather than being merely attributed to the peripheral neurosensory organs. Changes in brain function could account for the fact that second time flyers are less prone to some of these problems than first-time flyers, given the process of neural adaptation. However, due to the overall difficulty and restrictions to cosmonaut access, we were only able to conduct the post-flight scan 9 days after return. Theoretically, the observed changes may be attributed not only to long-duration exposure to microgravity but partly also to the re-adaptation to Earth’s gravity. However, the fact that functional connectivity changes were still present 9 days back on Earth shows the importance of the observed findings. This could be relevant in particular for Mars missions, where no on–site ground assistance can be provided and thus, it is important to know the length of the physiological adaptation processes. Only further research can resolve this issue by investigating more space travelers at different intervals post-flight. Additionally, future studies will have to take into account the level of experience, i.e., whether it concerns first-time space travelers or ‘frequent’ flyers.
In conclusion, functional MRI investigation of brain function in a cosmonaut after 6 months exposure to microgravity indicates alterations in vestibular and motor-related regions. These dysfunctions can account for reduced vestibular function and motor control abilities at re-entry. Understanding the effects of spaceflight on the human central nervous system is pivotal for the development of adequate countermeasures. Maximizing crew performance and health is crucial for the success and safety of future prolonged space missions, including missions to Mars. Additionally, our findings may have a clinical relevance, e.g., for vestibular patients who suffer from inadequate neural compensation mechanisms.
Methods: Methods and any associated references are available in the online version of the paper.IF THERE is any comfort in recent attacks by IS, it is that they are uniting its enemies, and bringing together countries that have stood at opposite ends of the wider war in Syria. Since October France, Russia, Lebanon and Turkey have together lost more than 500 of their citizens. On November 18th the group declared it had killed two more, a Chinese and a Norwegian hostage. But if there is now a shared priority of defeating “Daesh”, as it is sometimes known, trust remains frayed.
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The five-year civil war in Syria has entangled not just local belligerents but a host of meddling outside powers. It has placed Russia and Iran, tacitly backed by China, on the side of Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s ruler; on the other stands the West along with Sunni powers such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Diplomats have struggled to bring the rivals together. A round of peace talks in Vienna on November 13th produced a vague road map for a ceasefire, a period of transition and elections, but left unresolved the vexed question of the fate of Mr Assad.
At the G20 summit in Turkey on November 15th and 16th, there were further signs of progress. Last year’s meeting, clouded by tensions over Ukraine, was so frosty that Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, flew home early. This year he huddled in chats with Barack Obama and Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron. Russian commentators drew parallels with the anti-Hitler alliance that brought together Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt.
By mid-week Russia and France, which have sparred with particular bitterness over Syria, were working together to intensify the bombing of Raqqa, the capital of IS’s “caliphate”. Russia ordered its eastern Mediterranean fleet to make room for a French aircraft-carrier. But Russia has also continued to pound Syrian rebel groups that are backed by the West, as well as insisting that Mr Assad must stay.
The 17 parties to the Vienna meeting have set a date of January 1st for the transition process to start. The idea is that the UN will broker and monitor a ceasefire while the Syrian regime and the fractured opposition form a transitional government. Elections are then to be held by 2017. The tricky process of distinguishing between “terrorists”, who will be excluded from joining the transitional government, and legitimate opposition, which may take part, will be led by Jordan.
That the Vienna process now includes Iran, long excluded, gives some grounds for hope. But there are plenty of reasons for scepticism, too. Jordan’s job is almost impossible. Some of the rebel groups Russia has been bombing in the name of fighting terrorism are backed by America. Britain, meanwhile, has said that a transition may have to involve some of the less unsavoury rebel groups, including devout Islamists but excluding IS and Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian affiliate of al-Qaeda. Expect there to be prolonged and cynical horse-trading over the list.
The future of Mr Assad is still a big sticking-point. But it is becoming ever clearer that the West now wants to prioritise the battle against IS, and leave Mr Assad for later. “Assad can’t be the long-term solution, but our enemy in Syria is Daesh,” François Hollande said this week. In the short term, therefore, Mr Assad looks increasingly like a presence to be tolerated, even by America and its allies. Russia says demands for Mr Assad’s exit must stop. That will not happen; there is too much blood on the Syrian leader’s hands for the West to agree to let him stay in place indefinitely. And Western officials quietly believe that Russia, by intervening in Syria, is coming to the realisation that Mr Assad is a liability.
On November 17th Russia acknowledged that a bomb brought down a Russian airliner over Egypt in October, thus aligning its position with the West’s. Mr Putin promised retribution: “We will find them at any point on the planet and punish them.” If Russia backs its tough words with action against IS and comes to regard some anti-Assad groups as allies, then the caliphate’s end may be in sight.On June 21, 2015 a mixed contingent of soldiers and police descended upon Areyksat village in Kandal province to forcibly remove 55 houseboats and 10 houses on the river banks. Unlike other violent evictions — which are far from rare in Cambodia — the logic of removal was not to make way for development or infrastructure, but for “environmental reasons.” The people, all of whom happened to be ethnic Vietnamese, were purportedly “polluting the area” – which, according to local authorities, impacts on “local beauty” and “national and international tourism.” On one of the many pro Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) news channels that night, the news presenters gleefully presented the story, noting that “illegal immigrants have to respect the rule of law” and local authorities should be commended for “protecting the environment.” They even [incorrectly] added that a number of the evictees had been deported to Vietnam – to triumphant smiles.
Two weeks later, this small Vietnamese community was pondering where to go when a large group of students — flanked by government officials — came to clean up the area, walking around picking up litter. They cited the need for “citizens” to protect and clean the environment. In a bizarre scene “student environmentalists” joined soldiers in “cleaning up” the local “environment” (which really equated to a straight out eviction), to the astonished stares of the recently evicted.
It wasn’t the first time this Vietnamese community had been pushed away from the land they considered their home – since the early 1990s they had been forced to relocate several times. Although most in the community were in fact born in Cambodia, without proper identification they had few avenues to challenge the eviction.
In Siem Reap’s Chong Kneas, Vietnamese floating villages have been cut off from land by the establishment of the Sou Ching boat port, which manages the 3,000 to 4000 tourists per month who come to visit Cambodia’s famed Tonle Sap lake. Since the construction of the port in 2008, the Vietnamese floating villages have been systematically excluded from the benefits of increasing tourist flows. The port was built on the premises that it would “clean up” and “develop” the area. The floating village, which the tourism industry paints as a quaint and exotic experience of river life for tourist consumption, is actually a highly vulnerable group of stateless people who are literally relegated to the water while being largely excluded from the land.
In Kompong Chnang, provincial authorities armed with master plans to “clean up” the city, are in the process of evicting around 1,000 ethnic Vietnamese on the premise that they are “degrading and polluting” the fragile riverside. Since 2000, Vietnamese floating villages have gone up and down the Tonle Sap River, being pushed out and evicted by authorities under the guise of “environmental protection.”
In August, Radio Free Asia reported that in Kratie authorities were “finally” formulating a plan to clean up the riverside (along the Mekong) and in particular deal with the “unregulated and polluting” Vietnamese residents who have taken up residence along the river. (In reality, fishing villages are comprised of Khmer and Cham immigrants as well. Some, such as Kompong Luong in Pursat are mixed, while those in Kompong Chnang and Siem Reap tend to be more segregated.)
Clearly there are commonalities between these stories. Vietnamese who happen to live on the water are in an ever tenuous position at the confluence of statelessness, a livelihood dependence on fishing, a lack of any legal claim to the places they reside, increasing |
Optimized for Windows 8
Windows compatibility: 7, Vista, 8 or higher
Requires reformatting for Mac OS X
Condition: new
Three-year warranty from Western Digital
Dimensions: 0.82"x3.23"x4.35"
Weight: 12oz.
In the box: portable hard drive, USB cable, WD SmartWare Pro software, quick install guide
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View the Groupon Goods FAQ to learn more.Google's Camera app isn't the most advanced tool for taking photos. It completely avoids manual controls and generally lags behind OEMs for most major features. Where it's lacking in advanced features, the Camera app tries to make up for with a simple interface and clever techniques to intelligently deliver better photos without putting the burden on users. This means it works pretty well for simple point-and-shoot purposes, but skilled and professional photographers aren't likely to give it a second look. A teardown of a recent Camera update shows that Google is testing an option to save both RAW and JPEG files with each picture, a popular feature on many dedicated cameras and high-end smartphones.
Teardown
Disclaimer: Teardowns are based on evidence found inside of apks (application packages) and are necessarily speculative and usually based on incomplete information. It's possible that the guesses made here are totally and completely wrong. Even when predictions are correct, there is always a chance that plans could change or may be canceled entirely. Much like rumors, nothing is certain until it's officially announced and released. Disclaimer: Teardowns are based on evidence found inside of apks (application packages) and are necessarily speculative and usually based on incomplete information. It's possible that the guesses made here are totally and completely wrong. Even when predictions are correct, there is always a chance that plans could change or may be canceled entirely. Much like rumors, nothing is certain until it's officially announced and released.
Shooting In RAW+JPEG
Nearly two years ago, Google launched a new camera API with Android 5.0 Lollipop. One of the most important additions to the new API was the ability to collect raw sensor data from cameras and store it in DNG format. For those that don't speak Photog, that might not mean much, so let's start with a quick explanation. If you already understand this stuff, feel free to skip the next paragraph.
Most camera apps default to saving JPEG files. When a photo is taken, data from the camera sensor is passed to an image processor where it is manipulated by a series of algorithms to produce a generally desirable image. DNG stands for Digital Negative, and it's known as a RAW format. This means it was designed to store all of the data collected by a camera sensor with little or no processing. These files can be used by a post-processing application like Adobe Lightroom where the extra data allows much more flexibility than would be possible with a JPEG. Generally speaking, JPEG files will be smaller and look better as soon as they are taken, but there isn't much room to do color correction or fix exposure issues. DNG files will be very large by comparison and probably won't look as good in the beginning; but with the right software, time, and skill, they can often be used to produce a much better end result.
Google's Camera app has saved photos in JPEG for as long as it has been available, but that's probably going to change fairly soon. New text in the app's resources shows that users will soon have the option to save both the processed JPEG version of a photo and a DNG file to be used later.
<string name="pref_gcam_hdr_raw_title">HDR+ RAW+JPEG</string>
<string name="pref_gcam_hdr_raw_summary">Save raw DNG files when taking HDR+ images in addition to the standard JPG</string>
If you read closely, there appears to be one really big catch: this may only be available for Nexus devices. Both of the above strings seem to be clear about shooting in RAW while HDR+ mode is active. HDR+ was first introduced as a Nexus 5 exclusive, then continued to be limited to newer Nexus devices ever since.
<PreferenceScreen android:title="@string/pref_experimental" android:key="pref_category_experimental">
<com.android.camera.settings.ManagedSwitchPreference android:title="@string/pref_gcam_hdr_raw_title" android:key="pref_camera_hdr_plus_raw_out_key" android:summary="@string/pref_gcam_hdr_raw_summary" android:defaultValue="false" />
</PreferenceScreen>
Google is currently testing the feature, which has been labeled "experimental" for now. It seems that there's no option to save just a DNG file. This makes a lot of sense given that most gallery apps don't support the file format. It would be confusing to most users if they weren't able to view the photo they had just taken.
Another reason for having both the JPEG and DNG files available is that it gives users a set of photos to share on social networks right away, while they also have a raw image that can be manually processed into a version that will be worth saving forever.
Many OEMs already ship their own camera apps with the ability to shoot in RAW+JPEG or standalone RAW. In that regard, Google's Camera app is catching up to the pack. If it turns out to be a Nexus-only feature, this can still be a welcome addition to Nexus owners. The ability to shoot in RAW could allow cameras like the one in the 6P to be used to deliver some truly great shots.
Download
The APK is signed by Google and upgrades your existing app. The cryptographic signature guarantees that the file is safe to install and was not tampered with in any way. Rather than wait for Google to push this download to your devices, which can take days, download and install it just like any other APK.
Version: 3.2.045
Image Credits: Calm Waters by Math (CC0), Partly cloudy by Liam Spradlin (used with permission)A privacy glitch found in the OS X Yosemite Spotlight search function may leak private details, such as a user’s IP address, to spammers.
Ars Technica:
The potential privacy glitch affects people who have configured the Mac Mail App to turn off the “load remote content in messages” setting, as security experts have long advised. Spammers, stalkers, and online marketers often use remote images as a homing beacon to surreptitiously track people opening e-mail.
As the images are hosted on a site owned by the sender of the e-mail, the IP address of the viewer of the message can be logged, along with the time of day, and how often the message was viewed. Many users choose to keep their email addresses, IP addresses, and other information private by setting their email reader to not load images unless otherwise instructed.
However, even when remote image viewing is disabled in the Yosemite Mail app, the images will reportedly be opened by Spotlight. The behavior was reported early Friday by German security publication Heise and later confirmed by IDG News.
At this point, it is unknown if Spotlight also overrides image blocking settings in third-party apps. Apple hasn’t commented on the reports.
The only way at this time to block Spotlight from including emails in search results entirely is by opening “System Preferences,” and unchecking the “Mail & Messages” option for Spotlight.The route of the 2017 Tirreno-Adriatico will visit the area of central Italy hit by earthquakes, and include a mountain finish on Terminillo as part of a classic route for the 'Race of the Two Seas'. Related Articles Boonen not hitting the panic button after disappointing Classics opening weekend
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The weeklong stage race (March 8-14) will again start with a team time trial in Lido di Camaiore on the Tuscany coast, with the holiday resort agreeing to host the start until 2020. The 52nd edition of the race ends with the traditional, short individual time trial on the sea front of San Benedetto del Tronto. The route includes over 1,300m of climbing, making it much tougher than in recent years.
Tirreno-Adriatico sits between Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo and offers excellent preparation for La Primavera and the cobbled Classics in northern Europe. It also offers vital WorldTour ranking points. Snow forced organisers RCS Sport to cancel the key mountain stage of the race this year, with Greg van Avermaet (BMC) managing to beat Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) by a single second. In 2015 Nairo Quintana won the stunning trident trophy after winning alone in the snow at the summit of Terminillo.
Tuscan sprinter Daniele Bennati was at the route presentation and hinted that Quintana would be back to race for overall victory in 2017. Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) and Fabio Aru (Astana) are expected to clash for the first time as rivals at Tirreno-Adriatico before their highly anticipated rivalry at the Giro d'Italia in May.
The head of RCS Sport, Mauro Vegni, hinted that Team Sky has promised to send a "strong squad" to Tirreno-Adriatico which is likely to reflect their line-up for the Giro d'Italia. Vegni refused to reveal if that includes Chris Froome but hopes to have many of the biggest Grand Tour riders at Tirreno-Adriatico. World champion Peter Sagan is also expected to ride again as he prepares for the spring Classics.
"The route follows the one proposed in recent years with the initial and final time trials, two sprint stages, two stages for finisseur, and an uphill finish that this year returns to the Terminillo," race director Stefano Allocchio explained at the official presentation in Camaiore.
"The formula we have proposed has been successful and gives the opportunity to all riders to better express their characteristics and, at the end of the seven stages, to crown a complete athlete at the highest level."
Tirreno-Adriatico crosses central Italy from Tyrrhenian coast to the Adriatic with the Apennines offering some stunning climbs. The 2017 opening team time trial is again on a flat and fast course with just four corners slowing the riders. The following day is a rolling stage from Camaiore to Pomarance near the Tuscan coast, with four climbs along the route. The last climb is particularly suited to finisseur. In 2016, Zdenek Stybar was first to this finish line ahead of Sagan and Edvald Boasson Hagen after a late solo attack.
Local resident Paolo Bettini revealed that the second stage will include two testing climbs in the final 70km before the uphill finish in Pomerance, making the 228km a hard day out
The third stage goes from Monterotondo Marittimo to Montalto di Castro, and is expected to again finish in a sprint as it did in 2016, when Fernando Gaviria confirmed his talent.
Saturday's queen stage starts from Montalto di Castro, and features two intermediate climbs plus the final climb of Terminillo, which is 16km long with an average gradient of 7.3% and maximum of 12%.
Sunday sees what RCS Sport calls the "Muri" stage, which includes a series of short but steep climbs. The stage from Rieti to Fermo passes through the areas devastated by two earthquakes in August and October, in a sign of support to the area that has hosted numerous stages of the race over the years.
The finish in Fermo comes after 209km of hilly racing, with the steep climb up to the finish line covered three times. The sprinters get a final chance to test their legs before Milan-San Remo with a finish in Civitanova Marche after a late but easy climb. The final 10.1km individual time trial of 10.1km is around San Benedetto del Tronto.
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Tirreno-Adriatico 2017 stages
Stage 1: Lido di Camaiore TTT 22.7km
Stage 2: Camaiore-Pomerance 228km
Stage 3: Monterotondo Marittimo- Montalto di Castro 204km
Stage 4: Montalto di Castro-Terminillo 171km
Stage 5: Rieti: Fermo 209km
Stage 6: Ascoli Piceno-Civitanova Marche 168km
Stage 7: San Benedetto del Tronto ITT 10.1kmIntroduction
This page is meant to provide some basic suggestions and strategies for people who are starting out with reverse engineering old adventure games, and aren't sure how to do it. It mainly focuses on resources and tools for reversing DOS game executables, but much of the strategies discussed may apply equally to other systems and debugging tools. This is only intended as an overview; you'll still need to read other resources to learn 8086 assembly language, and learn how to use the various tools effectively.
Resources
IDA Freeware Version 5.0 - IDA is the preferred tool for disassembling old games from scratch. The most recent freeware version no longer supports disassembling DOS games, but this earlier version still supports it.
DosBox Debugger The DosBox Debugger is an invaluable tool for running old DOS games, to monitor how the program executes, and what values are generated by the executing code.
XVI32 Hex File Viewer Although IDA has a built in hex viewer for the executable itself, the XVI32 tool is useful for viewing the contents of all the other files that come with a game. There are many different freeware hex editors available, so any other can be used just as easily.
Ralf Brown's Interrupt List A nice reference for the operation of DOS interrupts. In 8086 assembly, apart from directly accessing ports, using interrupts is the primary means of accessing system functionality such as opening files, changing graphics modes, and many other things.
8086 Assembly Language For those new to 8086 assembly language, you'll need a handy reference to learn the syntax. The Wikipedia is a good starting point, but you can also simply Google for an introduction as well.
"Reverse Engineering for Beginners" free book This site has a free ebook that may be useful as a gentle introduction to reverse engineering techniques in general.
Compiler Explorer A pretty cool online tool that lets you paste in C code and shows you the compiled assembly under various different compilers. Useful if you're familiar with C, and what see what kinds of assembly are produced for various different code fragments.
FRIDA - Dynamic Instrumentation Framework Nice tool for a easy writing and injecting hooks to game binaries. Useful for watching how code executes, when are internal functions called, for dumping structures from memory of target process and for changing data in memory on the fly. Works for newer binaries of games (32bit and windows xp)
Insight - real-mode DOS debugger May prove useful as an alternative to the DosBox debugger
Using the DosBox Debugger
It's up to the individual if you want to use a debugger when reverse engineering a program. Some prefer a more cerebral challenge of only figuring out code execution using a decompiler tool, whereas others may find using a debugger useful for figuring out what values are passed to functions. I would recommend using a debugger particularly when reversing a game for the purpose of adding ScummVM support. When you start implementing code to implement game functionality, once you've got portions of the game disassembled, it can be immensely useful for tracking down bugs. Particularly if you initially write your code with names that closely match the names you give the methods in the disassembly.
For debugging purposes, if the game is a DOS game, the DosBox Debugger is the best tool I've found for executing and debugging DOS programs. The default distribution of DosBox doesn't have it enabled, but you can either compile DosBox with it enabled, or download a previously compiled executable. See the DosBox Debugger Thread for more information.
One of the biggest initial steps when using the DosBox debugger is matching addresses in executable at run-time with your disassembly in IDA. This can be done either from the debugger to IDA, or from IDA to the debugger:
From the debugger to IDA
This is the easiest. If you break execution of the game at any point, you can simply use the Find Binary option in IDA to search for a sequence of bytes from the instructions shown in the DosBox Debugger disassembly area. Be careful to pick instructions that aren't far calls or jumps - such instructions are modified when a program loads depending where it loads in memory, so the IDA disassembly won't have the exact same bytes. If you do find a match, double check that the offset within the segment of the found match in IDA matches the offset of the instructions in the DosBox Debugger. If not, you may have found a false match, and should either search for the next occurrence, or specify extra bytes in your search until you find the correct match.
From IDA to the Debugger
If you have a point in the IDA disassembly and want to figure out what address it will be loaded in the DosBox Debugger, it's also not hard. This is presuming the game in question doesn't use Overlays. Overlays were a method developed when games and other applications became too big to fit into memory at once. In these cases, code for the program is often stored at the end of the executable, or in separate files, and loaded as needed into part of the memory, overwriting previously loaded code. In such situations, it becomes hard to pin down a specific section in memory a given segment will be loaded at, since it may shift around in memory over the course of the program running, as it gets loaded, overwritten, and loaded again repeatedly.
So long as the game doesn't use overlays, the following steps can be used:
- look at the IDA view to find out the current file offset at the bottom of the screen. You'll quickly find it if you try selecting different instructions, since it will keep changing. Now:
- Get the value from the beginning of the current code segment. This is just to make the calculations easier, since the start of the segment will have an instruction offset between 0h and 0Fh, which means it won't be messing with our segment calculations
- Get the value from the beginning of the entire disassembly.
- Drop the last digit from both values, and get the difference between the two.
- For executables run in DosBox, add a value of '0138h'. For COM files, add a value of '0128h'.
This will give you the segment address of where the segment should be under DosBox. In either case, it's generally a good idea is to then rename the current segment in the IDA disassembly so that it includes the actual segment address of where it was loaded in DosBox.
For example, the first segment of executables is normally loaded at segment 0138h in memory, so you might rename the segment'sg0138'. That way, if you later want to set a breakpoint in the DosBox Debugger for any instruction in the segment, you will immediately know what the segment is.
Using IDA Effectively
One of the best things to do when disassembling a game is to document everything. Particularly method parameters and structures.
Naming Methods
Methods can be renamed using the general 'N' hotkey (as well as via the menus), and the 'Y' can be used to specify a C-like prototype for a method. This is particularly useful when some of the parameters for a method are passed using registers. By explicitly documenting what the method expects, it makes it easier to remember later on when you're reversing methods that call it. Standard methods where parameters are passed via the stack are easy, since IDA can automatically set up the function prototype for you. If a method does have parameters passed in registers, prototypes like the below can be used:
int __usercall sub_100FB < ax > ( __int8 param1 < al >, int param2 < bx > )
In this case, the method takes an 8-bit parameter in the al register, and another 16-bit value in bx, then returns a result in ax
Using Structures
The other thing you'll need to learn to use IDA effectively is the use of structures. Irrespective of what language a game was originally written in, there will always be structures containing related information. It may be something as simple as a C-style struct, or could even be the fields of a class in C++.
When dealing with data, you'll frequently see cases like
mov bx, 30 h mul bx mov ax, [ bx + 2 D00h ]
In this case, an initial index in the ax register is multiplied by 30h (30 hexadecimal = 48 decimal). So from this we can determine that the given structure is 48 bytes in size, and can create a new structure accordingly. For smaller sized structures, you may want to create as many 2 byte word fields as needed to make up the correct size for the structure. For larger sizes, the easiest way is to simply declare an array of the needed structure size - 1, and follow it with a single byte field. You can then delete/undefine the array. The remaining byte will keep the structure at the correct size, and you can then later fill in the fields as you find references to them.
Secondarily, the value of '2D00h' indicates an offset in the data segment, representing the rough starting address of the first element of the given array in memory. Here we run into a minor problem. The offset of '2D00h' may not indicate the precise start of the array. If the code in question wanted to get the value at offset 8 in the structure, then the array may actually start 8 bytes earlier in memory, at address '2CF8h'.
In such cases, the only way to tell for sure is to start searching for immediate values in the program of values bytes backwards at a time, until you can't find any more values. For example, if you find references in the code of values '2CFFh', and '2CFEh', each with previous multiplications by 30h/48, but none for '2CFDh', '2CFDCh', or '2CFBh', then you can probably be confident that the array starts at offset 2CFDh.
Once that's determined, you can then create a dummy structure of the correct size, and convert the given address of 2CFDh to an instance of that structure type. Until you're more familiar with the range of values the original array index may be, it'll likely be easier to simply leave the defined array with the single index. Later on, you can always change the structure in memory to specify how many elements it has later on.
Remember that fields in structures can vary in size, so it's always possible you'll get the starting address wrong. In which case, you may have to later on correct the address of the structure in the data segment. This will affect any fields you figure out as well. In the above example, if you mistakenly presumed the array started at offset 2CFDh, then 2D00h would be thought to be a field at offset 3 in the structure (2CFDh + 3 = 2D00h, as per the above example code fragment). However, if the array structure really starts at 2CF8h, then the same field should be at offset 8 within the structure (2CF8h + 8 = 2D00h). So you need to rebuild the list of fields you'd figured out in the structure, since they'll all be at the wrong position. Overall, it's better when encountering an array to spend the extra time to ensure where it starts in memory so you don't need to fix offset problems later on.
Disassembly Strategies
One of the hardest things when starting work on a new disassembly is to figure out how to begin. The following are offered as suggestions of how to get started in the disassembly process.
File Access
One of the easiest places to start a disassembly is generally by identifying file accesses. Using IDA, you can, for example, do a text search for 'open','read', 'close', etc. to find occurrences of file opening. IDA provides standard comments for many operating system calls, so even in a new disassembly you should be able to locate such calls by their comment text. Likewise for file reading, writing, and closing. Normally, a program will encapsulate these calls into a method of it's own, so your first disassembly step can be in identifying the methods and naming them appropriately with names like 'File_open', 'File_read', and so on. Likewise, giving the passed parameters an appropriate name. In IDA, the 'Y' command can be used to set up an appropriate method signature for methods. By properly naming the method and it's parameters, this will help you in all the methods that call those methods.
For example, if a read method has a'size' parameter and a 'buffer' parameter, then if a method that calls it passes '200' for the size, and a reference from a location on the stack, you can be confident that the stack entry can be called something like'readBuffer', and use the '*' (array size) key when looking at the Stack View (Ctrl-K) to set the size of the array to 200 bytes.
You should hopefully then be able to start working on methods that call the file access functions and hopefully start decoding them. Some examples:
1. If the game consists of only a few large data files, the methods that call the open/read/close functions may a resource manager responsible for loading subsets of the file. In which case, the methods may likely load some kind of index into memory and then have a separate 'get resource' method that scans through the list for a resource with a given Id, resulting in a specific portion of the data file being read. In this case, you can identify all the methods with appropriate names like 'ResourceManager_init', 'ResourceManager_loadIndex', 'ResourceManager_getResource', and so on.
The DosBox debugger may prove useful when dealing with games using large resources. In DOS, Interrupt 21h is one of the primary system interrupts. Specific command Ids are passed in AH, and the other registers are set with values depending on which function is being called. For example, command 42h of Interrupt 21h is the command for seeking within a file. Try using 'BPINT 21 42' to put a breakpoint on any calls to seek system function. By clearly identifying the 'Seek method', you can then step out of that routine to find what called it. Hopefully, you can then examine the logic in the disassembly used to generate the file offset to help you figure out how file offsets are generated for specific resources, and from that figure out how the resource's index works.
Remember that game resource managers not only typically merge multiple individual resources into one single bigger file, they frequently also compress them as well, to save space and prevent people from seeing textual resources when viewing the contents of the file. In such cases, if you can figure out the strategy used for extracting single resources, it may be worthwhile taking the time to code a standalone program to extract and, if necessary, decompress single resources into separate output files. That way, you can more easily look at individual resources that are used by the game without having to worry about manually locating them in the archive/resource file.
2. If the game consists of many different files, it's likely the game will be manually calling the open/read/close methods whenever it wants to access a particular file/resource.
In either case, figuring out the file access routines will give you an excellent start into figuring out the contents of the game; you can then move onto methods that call the resource manager get resource method, and start looking at what kind of resources are loaded, and from there start identifying methods that make use of those resources.
Graphics access
Another place to get started on the disassembly is the graphic draw routines, those responsible for copying raw pixels to the screen surface.
Graphic display was complicated in the early PC days by different modes for the different graphics cards writing to memory in different ways. In the Monochrome/Hercules mode, for example, 8 pixels are stored per 8-bit byte. In EGA, the addressing can be complicated by how the display is configured - the same areas of memory may be used to represent different parts of pixels - with the part of a pixel being updated depending on specific values sent to hardware ports. Finally, of them all, the most common 320x200x256 color mode is the easiest to deal with, with each pixel taking up a single byte.
For most of the graphics modes, you can look at them in a similar manner - as a block of data in memory starting at offset A000h:0. Only the number of bytes per line will vary, depending on what the graphics mode is. Assembly routines that deal with the graphics screen will typically have code to figure out screen offsets based on provided x and y parameters, so it will frequently be easy to identify the parameters and figure out how the screen offsets work. For example, in 320x200x256 MCGA mode, an offset on the screen will be calculated using the formula (y * 320) + x.
For finding the graphic routines you have two options:
The first is to entirely use IDA, and simply search for immediate values of 'A000h'. Since this is the area of memory that graphics are commonly displayed in, it can be a quick way to locate graphic routines.
The other alternative is to use the DosBox Debugger. It has a use command called 'bpm' that allow you to set a memory breakpoint, which then gets triggered if the given memory address changes. So you could do 'bpm A000:0' to set a breakpoint on the first byte of the screen memory (i.e. the top left hand corner of the screen). Then whichever routine modifies it first will trigger the breakpoint. Using the previously discussed techniques, you can find the same place in your IDA disassembly, and look into reversing that method first.
It will be likely that related functions will be next to each other, so once you've looked into the given identified function, you may also be able to review previous or following functions to see if they have identifiable graphic routines.
Data Segment strings
The strings in the data segment can be an excellent source for identifying the purposes of various methods. If you're very lucky, there may be error messages that contain the name of the function as part of the error. In which case, you can then find out what code references it, and name the methods appropriately.
Note: IDA is good, but it's not perfect., It's not always guaranteed to be able to figure out that a given value loaded into a register somewhere in the program is for a reference into the data segment. As such, if the cross-reference command doesn't give any references for a given string, try searching for an immediate value of the offset of the string. Chances are, any reference you find is likely pointing to the string. You can then use the 'O' command to change the operand from an immediate value to instead point to the offset in the data segment.
Even if any error messages don't contain method names, an error message can prove invaluable. For example, an error message like "Unable to initialise mouse" tells you that whatever method uses it is setting up the mouse for access, so could be given a name like 'initialise_mouse', or 'initialise_events'.
Likewise, have a look at the context of what needs to happen for the error message to be printed, since the message can give you insights into what is being done. A message like "No more free inventory slots" tells you that the code that references this error message is likely a routine for adding an item to the inventory (hence the error if no more slots are available). From there you might be able to identify the area of memory containing the inventory list, and then cross reference other methods that also access it - you could end up identifying a whole group of methods related to inventory manipulation.
Another possibility for data segment strings is to pick strings that may be descriptive enough to guess their purpose. For example, if a string has a name like 'FNT20', or 'UI.FNT', it's likely that it's a font file, containing the images for each character for use in displaying on the screen. In that case, any code that references it is likely to be passing it to a 'font_open' function, which loads up the font. If you can disassemble that method, you may be able to determine how the loaded font is stored in memory. From there, you can use the cross references function of IDA to find other methods that use the same memory address as where the font is stored, and which will likely give you the methods for actually displaying text on the screen.
From there, you may be able to go even further, and start figuring out methods that call the 'write string' function.. menus, hotspots, conversation handlers, and so forth.
Program execution
Another method for identifying methods may be simply executing the program itself. When running the program in DosBox, you may find it useful to start stepping through the main procedure to see what happens from stepping over every method. IDA may be helpful in identifying the main procedure, but even if not, most programming languages have a series of method calls for setting up the initial application state,and then a single final call to the'main' method.
With the main method identified, stepping over each method may produce interesting results. For example, stepping over a single method call may run all the code for showing the game's introduction sequence before returning control to the debugger. If this can be identified, you could name the method appropriately. You may then be able to gleam information from how the method is called and for the method itself:
For where the method is called, there may be conditional checks to see whether the method is called or not. For example, some games may have a stored settings file to flag whether the introduction has been shown, and not show it again after the first time the game is played..
In that case, a method call just prior to the method call to show the introduction may be for reading in the game settings and checking the flag for whether the introduction has been shown. Knowing this, you could name multiple methods for reading settings, then within it file opening and reading, and so on.
Within the method itself, you may likewise be able to figure out further specific details of how the method is implemented from the method calls it makes. For example, a 'play introduction' method may consist of calling the same method multiple times with different parameter values. These values may well be offsets within the data segment for resource or file names for specific animations to run. In which case, you now know the sub-method is an animation player, and name it accordingly. You could then start work on the animation player, figuring out how it loads it in data, and what method it uses to build up and display graphics on the screen.
Particularly for cases like that, identifying and naming the graphic/screen methods may be helpful, since you could work the disassembly from both the front end reading the animation, and from the low level drawing of the graphics of the animation.
Practical Examples
Following are a few other examples of specific strategies I used to make initial progress in figuring out adventure games I've worked on in the past. They may help give you inspiration for your own work:
The font system
I frequently like to tackle the font system for a game early on, since it's usually fairly straight-forward to figure out, and it's a nice milestone for your own re-implementation of the game to be able to display visual text.
I started by taking a screenshot of the game that showed some text, and used Paint to determine the screen co-ordinates of one of the pixels in a character that was displayed on-screen.
I then calculated what the memory location of that pixel was in the screen. Presuming the fairly standard 320x200 8-bit graphics, the segment would be A000h, and the offset would be y * 320 + x.
Using the DosBox Debugger to run the game up to a point just before the text was displayed, I set a memory breakpoint for the pixel, and then allowed the game to start to display the text.
The point where the pixel set was identified as the routine for drawing a character. It's fairly standard for it to take in an x and y position, and the specified character to display. I gave it an appropriate name like 'font_write_char'.
By examining how the character is used to lookup the pixel data to copy the screen, I was able to identify where the font was stored, and what structure it had.
By looking at other places that referenced the same memory I was able to identify other font related methods, such as for loading the font, or determining the width of a given character. And then some of the callers of these methods could then be identified. For example, one caller called the method in a loop for every character of a string, so I was able to call it 'font_string_width'. Further, since that method was now known to take in printable strings, I was able to see what called it and identify string handling in other parts of the game.
Similarly, I was able to identify a method that called font_write_char in a loop, and could name it 'font_write_string'. As with the identified font_string_width, I could then look at callers to font_write_string to identify how other parts of the system pass strings.
Because the display of information is so important for adventure games, the font_write_string method becomes an excellent starting point for all sorts of further investigations. For example, suppose in your adventure game if you try to combine two arbitrary items together and it prints "That doesn't work". You can set a breakpoint in DosBox debugger in the font_write_string method at it's end, and when it's hit by trying to combine the items, trace backwards to find out which method called it.
Based on a similar test, I was able to identify methods that worked with the inventory, and the lists in memory of all the available items as well as the list of items in the player's inventory. I then set up an |
of the Budget Resolution is roughly two months, and its passage is supposed to occur on the 15th of April.
Once the Budget Resolution is passed, House and Senate Appropriations Committees deal with appropriating money to the federal government at levels set by the resolution. The appropriations committees are comprised of 12 subcommittees each tasked with a certain domain. They are:
– Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies
– Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
– Defense
– Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies
– Financial Services and General Government
– Homeland Security
– Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
– Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
– Legislative Branch
– Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies
– State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
– Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
NASA, as you may have guessed, is appropriated through the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee. Once funding levels are set by the subcommittees, they are either passed as individual spending bills or rolled into one large bill, called an omnibus. From there it goes to the floor of its respective Chamber and, if passed, is sent to the President’s desk for signature.
Quick side note. During the budget process in Congress, you’ll often hear talk of budget “authority” versus “outlays”. Budget authority is simply the amount that has been authorized for a federal agency to spend in a particular budget year, with the outlay being how much is actually spent on the particular thing that is being funded. This is important, especially when talking about NASA, for budget items that often exist for multiple years.
For our purposes, we’re concentrating on a relatively miniscule piece of the overall budget. However, in fiscal years where every single penny is squeezed and scrounged, NASA is more than ever at threat of having its budget cut to drastic levels not seen prior. We hope to achieve, through the authorization and appropriations process, a seismic change in how Congress prioritizes space exploration. By writing your Member of Congress and urging them to fund NASA at the level it deserves, you play a critical role in this. Senators and Representatives often take positions based on how it will affect their chances at reelection, and the position on a budget that cripples NASA should be no different. You are their constituent – and you vote.
Why We Fight
Penny4NASA is a nonprofit, grassroots organization seeking to promote the economic, scientific, and cultural value of an appropriately funded national space program. While the organization is political in nature, Penny4NASA does not seek to endorse any particular parties or candidates. Instead, Penny4NASA seeks to increase NASA’s budget from less than half a penny on a tax dollar to one percent and maintains that doing so will provide America with a stronger economy and new careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. In addition, Penny4NASA supports the policy priorities established in 2010’s National Space Policy which supports increased investment in space education and workforce development, fosters commercial space development, and encourages greater partnership between public and private space organizations.
America’s investment in the national space program during the 1950s an 1960s ushered in an era of technological an economic advancement beyond anything the world had ever seen. While NASA itself did not generate every landmark invention of the 20th century, many innovators were inspired by the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions. And many of their advancements – cellular phones, MRIs, and fuel cells to name a few – could not have been possible had it not been for NASA research and development.
Currently, the national space program has entered a critical stage where falling public budgets and a lack of strategic leadership are taking their toll on NASA’s programs in spaceflight and aeronautics. As commercial spaceflight firms like SpaceX take on NASA’s historical role in accessing low earth orbit, full and consistent funding of our national space program is key to realizing NASA’s mission to advance the far frontiers of spaceflight and aeronautics as established in the 1958 National Aeronautics and Space Act.
What’s at Stake?
Among the many things that are at stake given the decreasing of NASA’s funding are:
The continued advancement of scientific knowledge – answering the ultimate questions.
– We were the first to put a man on the moon, and the only manned space faring country to no longer have the capability to send our own astronauts into space.
– We have had plan after plan over the last 40 years to bring us back to the Moon, to Mars and beyond. All of which have seen their budgets slashed, and their programs eventually dismantled.
– The White House’s FY 2013 budget requested a 38.5% budget cut to NASA’s planetary exploration budget. This means that NASA was forced to halt their plans to partner with the ESA on the ExoMars mission, included possible further cutbacks in Mars missions, and others.
– NASA’s FY2013 budget is slated at $17.77 Billion, which represents 0.48% of the total US federal budget allocations. This is the 3rd lowest funding level by percentage, higher only then the budgets of 1958 and 1959, NASA’s founding years.
– In terms of constant 2007 dollars, NASA’s FY2013 budget is slated at $16.014 Billion, which is the 23rd lowest budget by constant dollar value. Ironically, 23rd is also the United States position in worldwide Science test scores.
– The Curiosity Rover (Mars Science Laboratory) was a huge 10 year undertaking that culminated in a rover with all the scientific equipment of a small laboratory, miniaturized and now sitting on Mars ready to unveil the secrets hidden within sedimentary deposits on Mount Sharp in Gale Crater, find the answers to whether Mars has the conditions and makeup conducive for life as we know it.
– Ask any expert and the next step in Mars exploration is a sample return mission, something that will not happen unless NASA receives the proper funding allocation.
Continued economic prosperity and competitiveness of the United States
– A huge amount of the funding invested in NASA comes right back into the economy both through revenues created by new technologies made possible through NASA science and research, and also through contractors of all sizes which NASA depends on. That’s an extremely valuable aspect of NASA’s relationship with our national economy, and this economic benefit is enough to warrant 1% of the US annual budget.
– NASA research and development consistently comes back into the economy as new technologies. These are called NASA Spinoffs, which can be found here. Here is a short list of some of our favorites.
– Laser Angioplasty – A system that vaporizes blockages in coronary arteries without damaging arterial walls
– Body Imaging – The Apollo era spawned what has now become some of the most widely used medical diagnostic tools, including the CT, CATscan and MRI
– Global Positioning System (GPS) – NASA was the first in the US to develop the technology to put a satellite into orbit, to develop the communications abilities and subsequent discoveries that lead straight to the capabilities of GPS.Justice League #26 kicks off a new story-arc entitled "Legacy" - a loaded term in comic books right now - and introduces a new set of characters who will confront the Justice League. Here's a look at some character designs and interior art for the issue from artist Fernando Pasarin.
JUSTICE LEAGUE #26
Written by BRYAN HITCH • Art by FERNANDO PASARIN and OCLAIR ALBERT • Cover by BRYAN HITCH • Variant cover by NICK BRADSHAW
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for details.
“LEGACY” part one! A group of heroes from a post-apocalyptic future escape into the past to stop their world from coming to be. But to do it they’re going to need the help of the Justice League—who just happen to be these time travelers’ parents!
On sale AUGUST 2 • 32 pg, $2.99 US • RATED TA/N: All passengers please fasten your seat belts, and leave all trays in the upright position. If at any time you feel nauseous, please use the provided bags in front of you. Thank you for flying RedrumSprinkles air, where the feels are real, and your predictions don't matter. :D
Book Two: Corruption's End
Chapter 40: The Brazen Berserker
"Brilliant lights will cease to burn," - [REDACTED]
Yang seethed with purpose, each breath that filled her lungs tasting clean and new. Whistling a tune from Remnant, she retrieved her weapons, her smile wide and shining brighter than the stars that hid behind the smog of Uriel. Kill, kill, kill! Honestly, what was she trying to accomplish with a promise like that?
Nothing! The voices said, all of them, a throaty harmony in her own timbre that bellowed their truths in her mind. Do what you love, what makes you feel alive! She laughed again. Lying to herself for eight months had been so exhausting, so tiring FUCKING BULLSHIT
Is what it was.
"I love it here," she said. Remnant was the past, the prologue to the blood-stained fever dream wonderland of the Imperium.
Leaving the camp, a worm pulled at her torn and sweat-stained sleeve, tears in its pudgy, freckled face.
"Yang," Asgeg said, voice weak and tremulous, "we found the Sarge… he… he… Emperor." She stopped listening. The noises the worm made were soft and laughable. Her boots resumed their pace, dragging her forward to the place where fun happened.
"Yang," the worm said again, moving in front of her. She wanted to smash her fucking face in. Use its shiny arm to mash it into a thin red gruel. Her knuckles tightened and popped, begging, pleading, oh please, please please "Yang, Jorvis and Ros are… well… you're the last one left with any kind of rank, so this is yours now." In her hands, she held a beret, a single silver skull badge in its center.
"Ooh, cool hat," Yang said, fixing it atop her mess of golden hair. The worm stepped back, tripping over her feet. "I want the chainsword too. And your grenades."
"Y-Yang, I don't understand, I know-"
She laughed, spraying blood down her front. "What was that, Asgeg, 'Geggy ol' pal of mine?" Yang asked, demanded. "It's like you said: I'm in charge, so get me what I want right fucking now. And that's an order," she added, winking.
Mael handed her the chainsword, trembling under Yang's unflinching smile. The blade was spotless and sharp. She spat. Died with a clean blade. What a shame.
"C'mon, get the lead out! Grenades, people," she said, hand extended towards the remnants of Gamma. "Cough 'em up." Exchanging glances, they obeyed, unable to meet her eyes as they surrendered their explosives. By the time the solemn procession finished, Yang had acquired almost twenty frags.
"Fucking finally!"
Spinning on her heel, she resumed her march on the munitorum, a jaunty whistle ringing loud and long above the wailing of the dead and dying.
"Yang," Caolin said before she sent an elbow into his stomach, throwing him backwards without breaking stride.
"Ta-ta~" She called, waving to the worms.
The factory swelled before her, a truly massive complex of twisting pipes and slate-grey rockcrete. Dust, she felt like skipping! See how much better this is?
Buh-bye Ros, so-
no stop get help you're not you
sad, so sorry-
find weiss, she can help
all gone. She broke into a jog, no longer content to walk. Faster, faster, faster! Her hair fluttered behind her as she picked up her pace, long legs dashing over the rubble and scrap, born to leap and bound.
Ember Celica unfolded, eager and-
stop please stop
ready to go.
As she neared, she heard the shouts of the cultists, the chorus of her arrival, heralds of their own sweet death. Spot lights drenched the sprawling wastes before her, almost blinding in their intensity.
A hail of bullets welcomed her, spattering the ground and filling her ears with the saccharine roar of gunfire. Spreading her arms, she welcomed the onslaught, laughing as the rounds refused to connect.
They zipped and hissed around her, but-
go back stop it
boy, they were just shitty shots!
Nothing could touch her. Stepping closer, the wall before her seemed to stretch to infinity, soaring up to meet the shrouded moons. With a swipe of her power sword, it cracked and splintered, revealing a tangled mess of baroque and rusted machinery.
Yang snarled. She just wanted to kill, HOW FUCKING HARD IS THAT? Her sword flashed and hacked, carving the Mechanicus' revered shit-heaps into shards of glowing scrap. Behind her trailed her new chainsword, its teeth biting and bouncing as she dragged it behind her.
Bursting through a wall, she emerged in a hallway, flakes of rockcrete pattering at her feet. Around her rushed a platoon's worth of heretics, recoiling from her sudden arrival. The sound of her billowing mirth echoed down the tunneling, labyrinthine halls, a bubbling sound that sent a shiver of fear through her new pals.
Thumbing the activation runes of her weapons, her hair burst into flames of black and red (like roses).
It felt so good.
The brown-clad forms rushed her, snarling and brandishing twisted, malformed weapons. Revving her chainsword, she relished the sound, the teeth rumbling, hungering. KILL!
Their deaths were so close she could taste them.
Twisting under the first attacker, she threw her shoulder into his chest, pulverizing it against the wall. Bones crunched under her pauldron, a screech of agony splitting the hall. As blood burst from his lips, she kicked off the wall, launching herself into a pack of weaklings.
Landing, she cleaved one in half with her swords, and when she hit the worn concrete floor, a nova of black flames stumbled the rest. They slapped at the dissipating flames, blinded and bleating like goats.
Purring her content, she buried her power sword into one, pinning him against the wall. While he grabbed and wrenched at the hilt with panicked arms, she stabbed her chainsword in another. It ground against his chest, spitting a line of gore across the ceiling. Sweeping his foot out from underneath him and releasing her swords, she filled her hands with grenades.
"Catch!" She cried, sending them clattering down the hall. The cultists screamed before they burst apart in deafening flashes, shrapnel ringing and ricocheting off the walls. The pulled pins fell at her feet with a metallic ringing, swallowed up by the gore that slicked her boots.
Only remnants were left, red half-worms that would wail if they had mouths. Not enough! MORE! MORE!
Ripping her swords free, she dashed past the carnage, each footfall painting the walls crimson. She'd entered some maintenance shaft, a twisting maze of pipes, corners, and dead ends.
Turning the corner, she ran into a fresh squad, weapons pressed against their shoulders. They skidded to a halt, heels skimming across the floor. The leader hollered something, raising his weapon to cut her down.
She sliced it in half with a flash of blue, spinning to rend him apart with her chainsword. A bullet slammed into her chest. Yang giggled, craning her neck to face the shooter. Fear ruled them all, their shoulders quivering, pit-stains running down their flanks.
She killed them all, mincing them apart as she pushed forward. At the end of the corridor stood a massive blast door, almost ten feet tall and sealed tight. Her lips parted into a toothy smile. Throwing her swords, they flashed and spun before embedding themselves in the steel. Bounding forward, her aura spilled into her legs, pumping, pumping, pushing. With an elated cry, she slammed Ember Celica into the center of the door.
It burst open with a metal screech, torn from its frame by the unrelenting force that was Yang Xiao Long. A massive factory floor sprawled out before her, brimming with brown-clad forms. They were scrambling and panicking, searching for their weapons. How many were there? A hundred? Two hundred? She laughed at them in their unpreparedness, their sheer fucking stupidity.
The lights, once an unsparing host of fluorescent bulbs, flickered off, replaced by a bank of pulsing red warning bulbs. They doused the floor in alternating sheets of total darkness and a brilliant, bloody crimson.
The bulkhead slammed against the floor, and she tore her swords free with a grin, one that reached her ears. Her next victims were close at hand, still backpedaling as the four tons of steel came crashing down. Purring teeth tore at the first one's flesh, carving him apart. Spinning, she slammed a foot into a cultist behind her, sternum shattering under her heel. His lifeless form broke against the wall a dozen yards away and crumpled to a heap on the floor.
Red.
Blood pumped against her temples, her lungs swelling as air laced with the intoxicating reek of fear filled them to the brim. Yang gave a wordless cry as the flat of her power sword hit a heretic's chest, pulverizing his ribcage and shooting blood from his extremities.
Black.
"Come on, who's next?!" So many worms! So many corpses to make!
Hollering with fear and rage, one launched himself forward, boots ringing against the cement floor. So fucking slow! The chainsword bit into his shoulder, spitting blood over the comrades that followed him, splashing across Yang's face, splattering against her bared teeth. Ripping it free, she leapt forward. Yes!
no no get a grip
The man screamed, trying to hold himself together as his friends tore him to shreds with lasbolts. The crimson lances did little more than annoy her as she plunged forward. Her feet flew across the cement floor, the rush of aura pushing them to their limits. It felt like sex. Leaping skywards, she dove into the nearest pack. YES!
Red.
Spinning and stumbling through the swarming fools, her arms were a blur as they swung and stabbed and hacked and did her bidding, the swell of death filling her chest with the warmth of adrenaline. One died, three fell apart, six torn asunder by the whirring song of her blades. Flash-boiled blood and gibbets of flesh rained down upon her and the cluster broke under her ferocity.
Black.
One hopeful man tried to swing a sword at her, but she cut it in half with a slash of blue. Twirling around, she beheaded him, rocketing his terrorized face far away. YES!
Oh dust it felt so good.
please no
They're bad people anyway! They all deserve it!
"YOU HEAR THAT?" She bellowed, voice echoing, resounding, swallowing them whole. "THIS IS ALLLLLLLL ON YOU!" A giant man rushed her with a stubgun, blaring shots from its fluted barrel. She ran to meet him, ducking under his firing arc before ramming the stilled chainsword under his guard. Speared into his flesh, she cranked the throttle, and he erupted in a geyser of offal. "This one actually had balls!" She said, bits of his stomach dripping off her pauldron. "Where's the traitor marines? Your daemons? C'mon!" She said, challenging the gathering horde, a tide of metal and mottled flesh that swelled on the factory floor, gnashing their teeth and keening at the avatar of death before him. "Challenge me! FIGHT ME!"
Red.
They rushed her. They never learned. That, or, like Yang, they just didn't care.
Laughing, she dove into their midst, blades purring with glee. She carved a space for herself among the press, splitting any who dared to come near her. Another stubber lit into her, its rounds bursting apart her punching bags and denying her the fun she needed.
Roaring, she bowled the shooter over, grinding both swords into him so she could watch him die.
no stop
Stumbling over to her next target, her power sword slammed into him, throwing his halves across the rooms.
Black.
She was drunk.
Drunk on her power, drunk on her invincibility, on her grief, on her guilt and shame, drunk on the blood that surged through her veins and locked all the pain away. She was drunk on the blood her boots sloshed through, on the Imperium and its callous disregard for life. It felt like fucking heaven.
Let go, she thought, you saw what you did to that eldar cunt. Barbecued her. Reach out, do it again, FIND US
No! What would Ruby say?
The thought sucked the breath from Yang's lungs, and she saw her sister's face when Mercury's leg went snap
why why why why why
"Gah!" She fell to her knees, trying to claw her way to the surface, find sanity in Ruby's memory. It was too late. Bullets and lasbolts hammered into her, each one fueling the red-black inferno that rippled through her hair, pushing Ruby's moon-white face deeper under the waves.
Her scream split the forge, its cry bringing the weaker-willed among the arch-foe to their knees. Easier to kill. But where's the fun in that? In fact… it was too easy as it was. Shrugging off the small-arms fire, she looked at the swords in her hands. Looked at Ember Celica languishing on her wrists. At her fingers, which longed to shred and feel flesh tear beneath them.
no no no no no
Too late-
no
Her swords deactivated, clattering as they splashed into the spreading pools of viscera. Yang advanced, cracking her knuckles on the last few remaining cultists. The rest were fleeing, yowling prayers to their god to save them.
He wouldn't though.
"For Khorne!" One cried, pointing his lasgun in her face and pulling the trigger. Red filled her vision, but the bolt barely moved her. She broke the pathetic weapon over her knee, jamming its shards into his gut before ripping them free.
Yang moved on. Her steps rang against the tangled mess of assembly lines and sweltering foundries, each one bringing forth a fresh scream from the survivors. They hammered at a bulkhead, clawing their fingers down to nubs as they tried to escape, run, COWARDS
Giggling to herself, she plucked the pin from a frag and rolled it into them. A burst of shrapnel sent limbs flying and torsos tumbling across the floor. Two left for now.
One rushed her, tears streaming from his scarred and tattooed face. Wretch. Worm. Maggot! His fists met her flak armor, each one slackening in their strength, before he could little more than clutch at her.
Pulling at his chin, Yang looked into his eyes and grinned. She snapped his neck. The crack of bone beneath her hands sent chills running up her spine. Too good.
She advanced on the last one. Their leader, by the look of all the skulls hanging at his belt and the armor that saved him from her grenade.
"Hey there buddy!" She said. He wailed.
"Open up, I beg of you!" He cried, gauntlet hammering the wrought steel door. With a flash of sickly yellow hair and onyx flames, she cupped his face in her hands.
"Shh… shh… now, what do we say?"
"S-s-say?"
"What do you say to your pathetic masters, who you failed so miserably?"
"I-I-I-I-" Snarling, she smashed his nose onto the bulkhead.
"You say you're sorry!"
"I'm sorry!" He bawled, blood running into his lips before his gums overflowed and ichor leaked from the corner of his mouth.
"What do you say?"
"I'M SORRY!" He said, shattered green teeth falling from his lips and clacking against his twisted, pathetic armor.
"LOUDER, YOU FUCKING WORM!" Yang roared, throwing his head into the door once again. He slumped over, mumbling words his fractured brain couldn't fathom. Slipping her fingers through his greasy hair, she thrust his face into the steel again and again, feeling his skull splinter and crack.
"Knock knock!" She bellowed to whoever would listen. Again she slammed his face into the bulkhead.
Again.
There was little left above his spine, but it didn't stop Yang, oh no, no no.
With a cry of effort, she poured the crackle-hum power of her aura into her fists, smashing the door open and sending it crashing down the hallway it concealed. She threw the corpse aside, a broken toy in a playhouse of tissue-paper dolls.
Her feet flew up the stairs she found, desperate to never feel anything ever again. A squad of heretics was waiting for her.
find weiss
Ember Celica bellowed, its shells murderously effective in the cramped constraints of the scaffolding steps. The pellets shred them apart, tearing away their bodies and leaving them little more than slop. The survivors quailed and shook.
She broke them with her hands, her fists like jackhammers as they pummeled them into pulp, ribs cracking under their relentless assault.
please this isn't right
Shut up! She stumbled and tripped over the broken, blubbering bodies. Her shoulder felt like someone had set it alight, and her head felt like it was about to split in half. She screamed again.
Get out of my head!
No!
You're not a part of me!
I am you, you stupid fucking slut!
No, she wasn't done yet! Kill! KILL!
Yes! Protect your pathetic, weak friends! This is what you were born for! Laughing, she shot up the stairs, bounding against the pressed metal steps. Nothing. The top opened up to a flat section of the roof, crawling with heretics and gun emplacements. Sandbags and searchlights studded the walls, almost a hundred more friends to play with.
A few squads shrieked and pointed at her, readjusting to meet their assailant. Their lasguns whirred and hummed, trained on the flickering incarnation of death. Behind them, flak cannons by the dozen roared, sending up brilliant tracers into the shrouded night.
With a gleeful giggle, she threw her arms behind her and launched herself forward with Ember Celica. She slammed into the first group, yellow lightning crackling off her fists. They spun to face her, but the beat was already in her head, the dance steps plotted. It was her favorite song, her favorite dance, the one of life and death.
A sword swung for her neck. With a jab, her knuckles broke the arm at its elbow, her foot swinging around to rip its owner's head from its shoulders. Picking up the body, she hurled it into its friends, bowling them over as the corpse gushed its life-blood.
She laughed as she bobbed around the clumsy attempts to stab and shoot her. Lashing out, her hand caressed the nape of an attacker's neck before hurling his face into the puddles below, his skull shattering off the rockcrete floor.
She spun, catching a bayonet thrust with the palm of her hand. Wrapping her fingers around the weapon, she ripped the wielder forward into her fist. She struck him once, twice, three times before he fell apart, the screams dying away as his lungs flooded with blood.
The next one dove at her, the fucking idiot. Catching him mid-flight, she grabbed his face and squeezed until it burst. Ha!
please oh dust please no
Dashing to the next squad, she scooped one off his feet, lifting him above the ebony ghost-flames that licked at her hair. With a joyous roar, she broke his spine, ripping him in two while he twisted and screeched. Gore and entrails slopped over her, warm rivers of flesh and offal staining her scalp, running down her face and soaking her to the bone.
More! KILL MORE!
She laughed as the others retreated, cowering before her inexorable advance. Ember Celica launched her forwards, meeting heretics' heads with a crunching satisfaction. Pellets tore them apart, shredding flesh from bone, paring limbs from torsos.
Dashing forwards, she caught a smaller man in his stomach, digging her fingers into the soft and putrid flesh. Filling her hand with intestines, she ripped them free, howling with glee at the cultist's pathetic mewling cry. He slumped over, trying to make sense of what happened to him.
"Weak!" Yang bellowed, smiling. "You're all so fucking weak!"
A war-cry pierced her ears as a heretic unleashed a stubber into her flank. The rounds slammed into her, throwing her from her feet and sending her rolling across the roof. Her semblance drank up the punishment, the pain tasting like bathtub amasec.
When she stopped, a cultist tried to jam his bayonet into her. Laughable. Pitiful, actually. Her fist rocketed upwards, catching his throat and seizing it between blood-slicked fingers. She squeezed as she stood, pulling his face down to meet her own, staring into the eyes that bugged out from his pockmarked face. With a soft hiss of breaking flesh, her thumb pierced his throat, spilling his dying scream and a torrent of blood down the front of his flak armor.
She dropped him, one more useless sack of meat.
"Blood! Blood for the Blood God!" One blared, throwing himself forward, wrapping his arm around her, grabbing a fistful of red-gold locks. He reeked. Smelled like a week-old battlefield, clouded in a copper blanket of sweat and fear. His free hand slammed into her flak armor, fingers wrapping around the pins of her grenades.
Laughing madly, he yanked them away, ready to embrace oblivion. Yang grinned, jamming her hand down his throat and pulling him up so she could meet his eyes. Fear ruled him until the frags went off, a crackling burst of explosives that rent him into a mist.
Yang flew backwards, flak armor smoking and hair whipping in the wind. Beaming, she landed, rolled, turned, and dove back into the fray, power and battle-lust and blood and drunkenness dripping from every pore.
stop please you're better than this you know better YOU CAN TURN AROUND
"NO!" She bellowed. Her foot lashed out, snapping a cultist's shin and sending shards of bone shooting out from the back of his calf. Screaming, he pitched forward, throwing himself into Ember Celica. The strike blew away his torso, and the rest of him scattered across the roof.
How many? How many more? I could do this forever, she thought, dancing under the rain of flesh.
Free of fear, fear of promises, of grief, of everything except the pumping rush of murder and the club-beat of adrenaline that thundered through her. Her aura felt like the chorus of a thousand songs, a thousand pulsing bass-kicks of drugs and sex and glory, won atop a pile of writhing corpses.
The flak guns died away as their crews panicked and scrambled for their weapons. They were so scared of her! Diving for cover and trembling like corpse-maggots, they prepared themselves for death.
She laughed once more, a sound that echoed off the sheer walls, swelling upwards to meet the unseeable summit of the colossal Forge. She took her time approaching, relishing their mounting despair as their weapons coughed their last. Batteries dead, mags empty.
Nothing could stop her.
Tearing one from cover, she smashed his head into the floor before ripping his arm free. Clambering over the sandbags, she jammed the broken arm into his friend's neck, splintered bone jutting out underneath the straps of his gas mask.
Ripping it free, she struck another, aura keeping the limb from liquefying under the unrelenting force. She killed them all, a grimm let loose in an elementary school. There were no more eldar, no space marines, no daemons, but it… it didn't matter anymore. Just bathing in red was enough.
Weiss could
help
go fuck herself. Why fix anything? This is what she'd wanted all along.
The last one fell before her, his knee-guards scraping against the oceans of blood that soaked his brown fatigues. His hands splashed forward too, and she could hear the choking sobs leaking out from behind his cheap plastic mask.
"Daemon," he shouted, blubbering. "Why have you turned against us? Why not slaughter the corpse-worshippers?" He crawled forward, boots slipping and sliding. "Why?" he asked, fingers pulling at the red of her fatigues. "Why? Why? Why?"
She ran her fingers up the cords of his neck, savoring the feel of his cracked and weeping skin. Her thumbs crawled up his cheeks, pulling at the rivers of salt that coursed over them.
"I'm not a daemon, hun," Yang said, digging her digits into his eyes up to the first knuckle. "I'm even better!" She yelled, loud enough so he could hear herself over the sound of his panicked suffering.
Mashing the pads of her thumbs against his skull-pan, she let him die.
Giggling, she looked out over her work. A hundred bodies laid sprawled out before her.
None of them moving.
None of them whole.
Every inch of her dripped blood, and her hair was a sodden golden rag, each strand billowing black-red flames. This is what it means to live for the gods!
there are no gods
The thought was hers, and it straightened her back, screwed up her red-soaked eyebrows in puzzlement.
there are no gods and your name is yang
No!
your name is yang and you have a sister named ruby
"GAH!" Yang cried, stumbling, spinning, aching. She wanted to kill! She didn't want to think about Ruby!
you're more than that she knew you were better
"I am!" She told her aura, the voice that told her she was WRONG WRONG WRONG. But how could she be? It felt so good!
Her breaths came labored and sharp, the dim coal of her soul burning against the gloomy, sanguine mist. Under her red-soaked pauldron, the pain of her glyphs surfaced, blindingly hot. So hot, they seared her skin, humming what sounded like pleading, hymnal beseechment.
Once more, she collapsed to her knees, hunched over and drowning in red.
Amongst the dead, Yang struggled for control, for anarchy.
Impossible. Inevitable.
These were the words that assailed Amat, the conflicting concepts that hounded him until they forced him to acknowledge their existence. The eldar attack had faded as soon as it arrived, melting away into the darkness like the piratical shadow-kin they were.
His Lady made short work of them. But Yang…
Yang had fallen.
That was the reality he faced. One that brought a soreness to his eyes, one he tried to blink away, to no avail.
He wished he could have been anyone else. The blessings bestowed upon him, the talents and opportunities afforded to him…it sounded heretical to fathom, but he wished it all the same.
He wished his mother had lived. He hadn't even remembered her existence until a scant few minutes ago. Her face seemed so close now, but whenever he tried to bring it forth, he only found the lectern gaze of Instructor Palla. His head pounded. Felt like someone was punching it, beating it into the half-collapsed watchtower he'd made a nest in.
Yang finished her dance with a ear-splitting smile, an avatar of the Emperor's wrath living within the grinning skin of the arch-foe. Her hair was no longer gold. It turned his stomach, made him want to fill his spy mask with vomit.
It was time to complete his mission.
"If Remnant is real," he said, whispering against the scope of his rifle, "I pray to the Emperor your death returns you there." The thought of her soul languishing within the Immaterium made his eyes ache.
He wished he was not Amat.
He wished he was not the epitome of the Vindicare. His lungs filled with air, air that tasted like amasec and the unfamiliar pang of laughter.
He wished he could blame the distance. Four kilometers, three hundred and eighty-six meters.
He wished he could blame the wind. North to south, four kilometers per hour.
He wished he could blame Yang's sudden collapse. On the nature of her mysterious aura. His exitus rifle shifted.
He wished his mission had been something else. His finger curled around the trigger, familiar yet cold and repulsive.
He wished he could have spoken with her more.
He squeezed the trigger.
Yang was still panting when her aura seized control of her instincts, but it was too late. Agony exploded through her, filling every pore and casting her depleted aura aside like a sheet of broken plastic. Skidding to a stop amongst a quagmire of broken heretics, she howled in agony.
Shaking fingers clutched and warbled at the gaping hole that had sprouted in her stomach, the one that poured her blood into the crimson cocktail she stewed in.
The pain helped her finally pierce the clouded crimson fog, allowing a gold to shimmer through. Her aura. Depleted and spent, but still burning. Still alive, and wholly hers.
She was free, surfaced from the red red haze that had swallowed her.
Gasping and spluttering, her eyes twitched and quivered, drowning in the horrors she'd performed. She screamed twice more. Once, for the round that tore through her, piercing the immutable wall of her soul and laying her down, |
great whites readily find food.
"In the Northwest Atlantic they spend summers off New Jersey, Long Island, and Cape Cod, and eat what's available. They'll stop off Cape Cod and see if they can grab a seal or feast on a whale carcass, one of their favorite foods," Curtis said. "They spend most of their winters off Florida, where they eat smaller sharks, sea turtles, and stingrays."
The sharks are difficult to track for several reasons.
Because they are at the top of the food chain, their numbers are relatively small compared with those of other sea creatures. They tend to swim alone, about 100 feet underwater, gathering only near food sources, and rarely coming to the ocean surface. And their size – adult males are more than 11 feet long and adult females at least 15 feet – makes it unlikely that fishermen will catch adult sharks in their nets, a traditional way of sampling fish numbers.
As a result, marine scientists have obtained only rough estimates of the sharks' numbers.
The two new studies, both of which appeared in June in the journal PLOS ONE, took different approaches to counting great whites.
The team headed by Curtis undertook an extensive study of data on great white encounters and sightings between 1800 and 2010. "We combed through all the available records -- newspaper clippings, reports of interactions with fishing gear, everything that recorded a white shark being captured," Curtis recalled. "When we brought all these things together, it gave us a relative trend."
The group led by Burgess expanded on a photographic study of two feeding sites in 2009. That project, headed by Taylor Chapple of Stanford University, suggested that the Pacific Ocean off central California contained just 219 adult great whites and sub-adults -- the latter are at least 8 feet long, but not full grown. The group interpolated that the entire Northeast Pacific, from Alaska to Mexico to Hawaii, held only double that quantity. "We threw out a ballpark figure," Chapple said.
"My colleagues and I gasped when we heard that number, because it was so low," Burgess remembered. "We remodeled that number and came up with 2,400 sharks for California alone, and a higher number for the entire area." That count covered great whites of all sizes, including sharks that aren't big enough to be considered sub-adults, but are feeding on marine mammals. It considered the entire California coast.
Taken together, Burgess said, "the two different methodologies on two coasts show that the animals are responding the same way. They're going up the hill from the valley they were in."
The great whites' numbers began to decline as a result of reductions in the numbers of their prey, such as seals and sea lions.
The "Jaws" movie exacerbated the effect. "It did a number on pretty much all shark species," Sulikowski said.
"Shark fishing became more popular and unregulated in the 1970s," Curtis added. "So the combination of commercial and recreational fishing depleted the population of great whites."
Regulation helped to turn the tide.
"The Marine Mammal Protection Act of the late 1970s protects their main food sources," Burgess said.
"Management of shark fisheries starting in 1993 helped," Curtis added. "And in 1997, whites and other sharks were prohibited for harvesting after they were caught."The SNP leader was also questioned on her record on health and local government taxation.
Nicola Sturgeon: The SNP leader says it would be an outrage to block a referendum. Andrew Milligan / PA Wire/Press Association Images
Attempts by opposition politicians to block a second referendum would be an 'outrage', Nicola Sturgeon has said.
In an interview with STV's political editor Bernard Ponsonby the SNP leader commented on previous statements made by both the Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale and the Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson. Davidson said that she would instruct the Prime Minister to tell Sturgeon to "take a hike" if she requested a second referendum.
Sturgeon said: "I don't think that would happen in those circumstances because I think any politician that tried to stand in the way of what was clearly the will of the Scottish people would end up getting short shift from the electorate.
She continued: "The real challenge for politicians, not just Ruth Davidson but Kezia Dugdale and I watched you talk to her last night as well, is are they really suggesting that if there was clear evidence that people in Scotland wanted to be independent they would stand in the way of that opinion?
"That is anti-democratic and it would be an outrage to democracy. Whatever the bluff and bluster we hear from them during an election campaign I don't it would be the reality".
The First Minister's record on health was put under examination.
Earlier on Thursday a survey of GPs found that 90% of those asked believed that morale had fallen in the last five years and that over a quarter planned to leave the profession within the next five years.
The SNP leader said: "Our manifesto sets out much of what we are going to do about that. Building on what we have been doing - before the election I set out plans to increase the number of GPs in training by a hundred every year so that we increase the supply of GPs in the future.
"That will start next year. Our manifesto is very explicit about, firstly, our commitment to increase the health budget by more than inflation over the [next] parliament. We are pledging a higher increase in the health budget than any other party. But also to transfer more every year of the health budget into primary care, community care, social care - the services that keep people out of hospital."
It was put to Sturgeon that she had already broken her manifesto commitment on increasing GP numbers. On October 27, 2015 Sturgeon said that she would increase the number of training places from 300 to 400 from "next year".
The SNP leader was accused of being in the mould of Thatcher over her council tax stance.
Under the party's proposals central government would cap any rise in council tax decided by a local council by 3%. The capping of local government taxes was a practice used by Conservative Scottish secretaries to regional councils in the decades before devolution.
"I think I have a duty as First Minister to, yes, give flexibility to councils but also to protect those who pay council tax and I think the proposal we put forward which incidentally nearly every other party has more of less backed is to say that - that is a fair balance", Sturgeon argued.
When it was put to the First Minister that she was governing as a Thatcherite she laughed off the comparison and said "don't be ridiculous".
"When I go round my constituency and say to people 'do you want to go back to the days where your council tax is out of control, where it is going up and up and up every year?' almost to a person they would say to me 'No, I don't want that'.
"In fact many of the people I have spoken to in this campaign are not even that happy with the idea of their council tax going up by even 3%. So I think we are striking the right balance and I suspect, although I take nothing for granted, the result of the election will prove that we are striking the right balance".Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Jan. 21 posted an open letter to Western youth on his website, asking them to “gain direct and firsthand knowledge” about Islam instead of information based on “resentments and prejudices.” It might be the first time a senior Islamic cleric has directly addressed the youth of the West about his religion. The timing appears to have been an important factor in issuing the letter just two weeks after the Jan. 7 attack by Islamist extremists on the Paris offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo that set off a new wave of Islamophobia in the West, with anti-Islamization movements already gaining momentum, particularly in Germany and France.
The letter from Iran’s supreme leader arrived as a surprise, reflecting a new approach by the Islamic republic, whose first leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, had issued a fatwa calling for the death of the British-Indian novelist Salman Rushdie for “The Satanic Verses,” a book regarded by Muslims worldwide as a provocation and blasphemous against Islam.
A Tehran source close to the supreme leader’s house told Al-Monitor, “This letter, which was written by Imam Khamenei himself, is aimed at reaching the youth of the West to tell them to read and understand Islam directly.” He also said, “It’s as important as the Salman Rushdie fatwa in the late ’80s. Imam Khamenei wants to build bridges with the future, with the youth, those who are going to be the leaders of the future.”
The source said Khamenei had insisted that the letter be circulated via social media, but that there had also been negotiations with several international newspapers to publish it. In the end, according to the source, “Talks failed because the letter had been circulating on social media before it could be published.”
The letter, published in six languages, appears to emerge from an envelope brimming with flowers and with rose petals scattered about. Of added interest, it is headed by the hashtag #letter4u, giving it the appearance of being from an ordinary social media user.
Sheikh Najaf Ali Mirzai, a professor and a lecturer in Qum at the clerical university, told Al-Monitor, “Hatred between West and East has reached its peak. It is the same between Islam and Christianity, between the Muslim world and the West.”
“It’s not all about Islamophobia. We also have 'Westophobia.’ The letter was sent to present a logical solution, for a new approach and understanding,” Mirzai said. “It’s not an attempt to preach ideology, but an invitation to think, to rely on logic in building thoughts. That’s why he said he doesn’t assume his understanding is correct, but asks [readers] to understand the religion from its main sources.”
Khamenei’s letter might represent a new tack in relations with the West, but it can also be seen as a milestone in the Iranian approach inaugurated by the ascent of Hassan Rouhani, the first Iranian president since the 1979 revolution to talk to an American president, and the unfolding series of meetings around the world between Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry. The letter is a clear indication that Iran is changing its thinking and wants to engage with those whom it considers to be middle of the road.
Mirzai believes this new direction might help in smoothing the path of dialogue and intellectual exchange between Muslims and the West. “Ayatollah Khamenei is initiating a dialogue with [members of] a younger generation from a different religion and who are on the opposite side. Some of them view Islam as an evil, therefore I believe this is a step forward that will help reform the religious rhetoric toward the West,” he said.
“Before this letter, we were used to a different rhetoric. The Islamic approach was incompetent, poor, which helped in inciting Islamophobia. The old, classical, Eastern approach is one of the reasons why Daesh [the Islamic State] has succeeded in attracting Europeans and recruiting them,” he said.
Of course, Khamenei’s letter caught the attention of the Western media, with outlets discussing and analyzing its content. Iranians and Westerners on social media expressed mixed feelings toward it, with members from both camps supporting the message while others did not. There were also acknowledgments of surprise and astonishment, both positive and negative, at the letter's direct tone. Some among the Westerners used the ayatollah's hashtag to highlight allegations of human rights violations against the Islamic republic.
It is important to remember that this step by the supreme leader of Iran will not be left to stand alone. A decision has been made in Tehran to combat Islamophobia, and presenting the Iranian version of Islam as moderate is part of this orchestrated effort. The true test of the experiment will be how the leadership deals with the part involving “Westophobia.”No, I’m not talking about the Bruins choking in Pasadena earlier tonight. I’m talking about the Ukrainian government’s decision to balk at the latest Western offer for integration.
Well, at least I think it’s bad. The New York Times has all the relevant information on what happened between Kiev and the West. According to the Grey Lady, Kiev either balked at an IMF offer or had its arm twisted by Moscow. Both scenarios seem plausible, but I’d like to dig a bit deeper.
Ukrainians have been hit hard by this global recession, and last year they elected a government that is much more pro-Russia than it is pro-West. Unfortunately, I think the economy is only a small fragment of what ails the people in the post-colonial, post-socialist state of Ukraine (some people have started labeling “post-” states as “developmentalist” states; I like it but I’m not sure readers would). First of all, here are some relevant maps:
Notice a pattern? Yeah, me too. Basically, Ukraine is split along ethnic lines between Russians and Ukrainians and instead of recognizing this fact and focusing on property rights reforms first and foremost, the Ukrainians have decided to try their hand at democracy (on the inability of democracy to solve political problems in multi-ethnic states, see Ludwig von Mises’s Nation, State and Economy 72-84).
The conflation of democracy with property rights as freedom has been the single biggest mistake of all societies in the post-war world. From Ghana to Indonesia to Iraq to India to Ukraine, elites have focused their efforts on implementing democracy rather than property rights, and the inevitable, unfortunate results (“dictatorship and poverty”) continue to frustrate me. I’m sure the people who actually have to live under these conditions don’t like it much either.
Wouldn’t it be better if the current Ukrainian state split into (at least) two independent states? I ask because it seems to me that having (at least) two different states will cut the number of losers in half (losers of elections in “post-” societies truly are losers; it’s nothing like having to “live under” Obama or Bush) and make the new, smaller governments more accountable and more accessible to the people.
The other aspect of Kiev’s rejection of Western integration that troubles my mind is that of the attitudes towards liberalization of Ukrainian society that many people obviously harbor.
For example:
Ukrainian-speaking Ukrainians overwhelmingly support more integration with the West. There are demonstrations (and I use this term loosely; riots may soon start) against the government’s decision to balk at the West going on right now.
And Russian-speaking Ukrainians (being Ukrainian can be either an ethnic thing or political thing [“citizenship”], which just goes to show you how stupid anything other than individualism is, but I digress) overwhelmingly support Moscow.
Yet it seems to me that both sides take the “pro-” and “anti-” stances that they do more out of spite for the other side than out of an understanding of what liberalization actually entails (I base this hunch on my watching of the recent elections here in the US). It’s also not clear to me that a pro-Western tilt would actually lead to more liberalization.
It may be easy for the Ukrainian-speaking Ukrainians to integrate and work with the West, but I think the Russian-speaking Ukrainians have good cause to look upon pro-Western deals with suspicion. After all, the Russian speakers are the richest faction in Ukraine, and freer trade with the West would seriously undermine their political power (why do you think Russian-speaking Ukrainians have all the good jobs?).
Perhaps Evgeniy can enlighten us on the Russian perspective.
If Evgeniy doesn’t have the time you could just read Daniel Larison’s thoughts on the matter (Dr Larison is a historian with a PhD from the University of Chicago who specializes in the Slavic world).Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Sir Ken Dodd will today be treated to an afternoon tea of jam butties and Diddy pies at Liverpool Town Hall to celebrate his 90th birthday.
And the Squire of Knotty Ash had a special message for the countless ECHO readers wishing him well. He said: “This is a day of thanksgiving. Thank you, ECHO readers, for all the love, affection and support – and advice, sometimes – you have given me.”
At the Town Hall, Doddy, a Freeman of the City, will listen to a renditon of his signature tune Happiness by pupils from Knotty Ash Primary School, while children from Trinity Primary School in Liverpool will tell him their favourite jokes.
As well as sandwiches fresh from the Knotty Ash Jam Butty Mines, together with Diddy pies, the veteran comedian will be presented with a giant birthday cake and goodwill messages from Liverpool people.
(Image: James Maloney)
Sir Ken said of turning 90: “There’s nothing you can do about it. It’s compulsory! And it’s no use living in the past – it’s cheaper but you can’t live in the past.”
And when the ECHO asked him where he would like to pose for his official birthday portrait, he had no hesitation in choosing outside St John The Evangelist Church in Knotty Ash.
He explained: “It is the centre of Knotty Ash and I sang here as a choirboy – until they found out where the noise was coming from. And Knotty Ash is my home – it’s the centre of my life and always has been. My family are still here with me in memories. I had the most wonderful family – fabulous mother and father, and wonderful brother and sister.
“My heart, my mind, my brain – they’re all here in Knotty Ash. I don’t want them to be anywhere else. I’ve travelled and performed all over the world – so I’ve had a good look round and to be absolutely truthful there’s nowhere like Knotty Ash.”
(Image: James Maloney)
Lord Mayor Cllr Malcolm Kennedy said: “To borrow a line from Sir Ken, how tickled we are to be honouring him on the very special occasion of his 90th birthday.
“He is the King of Comedy and the Master of Mirth – a one-off national treasure, the likes of which we have never seen before, and never will again.”KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine’s military accused pro-Russian rebels on Monday of using heavy weapons that were meant to have been withdrawn under a ceasefire deal, after one Ukrainian serviceman was killed and six wounded in rebel-held territories.
With fighting intensifying once more, the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany were due to meet in Berlin later on Monday to discuss the next steps in implementing a ceasefire agreement signed in the Belarusian capital Minsk in February.
“The rebels have not stopped firing at Ukrainian positions... Over the past day, the enemy has used weapons banned under the Minsk agreements,” Ukrainian military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said in a televised briefing.
Under the deal, weapons bigger than 100 mm calibre, including heavy artillery and powerful rocket systems, are meant to have been withdrawn from the front line.
Motuzyanyk said rebels had fired at government troops multiple times with 120-122 mm weapons.
Meanwhile separatist officials accused government troops of firing tank and artillery rounds repeatedly at rebel positions, the separatist news agency DAN reported.
It also quoted senior rebel commander Eduard Basurin as saying two local journalists had been wounded by Ukrainian firing around Pisky, near the rebel-held city of Donetsk.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which is monitoring the implementation of the ceasefire deal, also reported a sharp spike in hostilities over the weekend.
Speaking ahead of the four-way talks, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he and his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier were concerned by the ceasefire violations and a lack of political progress in Ukraine.
“We are going to remind our colleagues, both Russian and Ukrainian, that the Minsk process must be respected and must be respected before the end of the year,” he told reporters.
Related Coverage Ministers agree to extend heavy weapons withdrawal in Ukraine
Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in a Twitter post Monday evening: “Concerned by reports of resumed heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine. It’s imperative that OSCE monitors have unfettered access immediately.”
Over 6,000 have been killed since the conflict erupted a year ago, when rebels opposed to the ousting of a Moscow-backed president and the installation of a pro-Western government declared independence from Kiev. Ukraine and the West say they have evidence that Russia has sent men and weapons to support the rebels, a charge Moscow denies.This article is from the archive of our partner.
"Stand Your Ground," "Shoot First," "Make My Day" state laws—asserting an expansive right to self-defense—have come into focus after last month's killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
While local prosecutors have not arrested the shooter, George Zimmerman, the case is now being investigated by the Department of Justice and a Florida state attorney. It's not clear whether Florida's self-defense law will be applied in the case. (The police report on the shooting refers to it as an "unnecessary killing to prevent unlawful act.")
Still, in not arresting Zimmerman, local officials have pointed to Florida's wide definition of self-defense. In 2005, Florida became the first state to explicitly expand a person's right to use deadly force for self-defense. Deadly force is justified if a person is gravely threatened in the home or "any other place where he or she has a right to be."
In Florida, once self-defense is invoked, the burden is on the prosecution to disprove the claim.
Most states have long allowed the use of reasonable force, sometimes including deadly force, to protect oneself inside one's home—the so-called Castle Doctrine. Outside the home, people generally still have a "duty to retreat" from an attacker, if possible, to avoid confrontation. In other words, if you can get away and you shoot anyway, you can be prosecuted. In Florida, there is no duty to retreat. You can "stand your ground" outside your home, too.And the latest entry into the cloud storage sweepstakes is … LogMeIn (s logm), the company that built its business around its popular, easy-to-use remote access service.
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LogMeIn will woo both consumers and businesses with a beta of its Cubby service, according to Michael Simon, CEO and chairman of the Woburn, Mass.-based company.
The move comes at a time when dozens of companies are jumping into cloud storage, many of them offering free storage for a limited amount of data in hopes of converting free accounts into paying customers. Dropbox is the fan favorite in the consumer arena and Box is a big player in the business segment where it faces many other contenders, many of whom offer digital signatures and other ancillary services with storage.
It’s off to the races in cloud storage
Simon acknowledged that the field is crowded but said LogMeIn, as a profitable company, has a leg up. Many of the “freemium” cloud storage companies claim multiple millions of customers but will not disclose how many of them pay. LogMeIn ended its fourth quarter with 1 million paid accounts with multiple paid licenses per account, which gives it a good foundation on which to build, Simon said. Cloud storage is the most requested feature among those customers, Simon said.
Cubby, now in beta, will automatically save multiple versions of your document — and those versions will not count against your quota, Simon said in an interview.
LogMeIn has built its own cloud over the past few years, Simon said. “Not a lot of players have the wherewithal to create their own elastic storage component. It runs on low-cost hardware but the entire stack is proprietary and we can offer a price advantage,” Simon said. Dropbox, the consumer giant in this space, relies on Amazon(s amzn) for its raw storage, but other players like Spideroak and Backblaze have also built their own storage infrastructure, which they say lets them beat Amazon — widely perceived as the low-cost leader — on price.
LogMeIn is not ready to talk price yet — a beta of the Cubby service goes live on Thursday.
Challenge: converting freemium to paid accounts
While it’s hard to transition non-paid to paid accounts — most companies cite a 2 to 3 percent conversion rate — LogMeIn’s installed base of remote access users may give it a leg up here. Simon said the company will market Cubby to its existing base, which includes lots of small and medium businesses — and IT service providers that offer them remote support.
A user can click on any files or folders on his or her desktop, iPhone(s aapl) or Android(s goog) device to make it a “Cubby” folder. Cubby will tie into a business customers existing Active Directory policies for security and rights purposes. With Cubby, the user also controls the encryption keys meaning that LogMeIn does not “see” their data at all. Users will not be barraged with ads, a trend that some see a scourge of the freemium market.
There are two ways to share that data — The user can designate another “trusted person” to have bidirectional access to the data or can share a link that would let the recipient see the data but not modify it.
And so, with LogMeIn Cubby, the battle for cloud storage continues. Don’t expect it to end any time soon.Roy Moore, Kevin Cullen writes, is ike a lot of self-righteous, judgmental, fundamentalist phonies who cloak themselves in religion: shameless
Hindsight, especially 45 years of it, is 20/20, and in hindsight I should have kept my mouth shut in religion class.
I grew up in Malden and received my elementary education at Cheverus School, which was named for the first Roman Catholic bishop of Boston.
The nuns who taught us were Sisters of Providence, a small order out of Indiana. The good Sisters of Providence were fine educators who could have moonlighted as bouncers because they knew how to get someone out of a classroom with uncommon speed and alacrity.
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Occasionally, I was removed from religion class, usually for asking questions or making statements that conflicted with Catholic dogma.
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Before I knew what hit me, and usually it was one of the nuns, I’d be sitting in a big wing chair in Sister Superior’s office, my feet dangling off the floor. If the offense was deemed especially egregious, Sister Superior would call my mother.
Well before my teens, I held a rudimentary understanding of the reproduction process, informed by dirty jokes told by older boys. When I raised my hand in my sixth-grade religion class to dispute the fundamental biology behind the Virgin Birth of Jesus, the teacher, a very old nun, didn’t react with anger; she simply walked over, put a hand on my shoulder and guided me to Sister Superior’s office.
For whatever reason, Sister Superior didn’t call my mother. I’m guessing she just didn’t want to have that conversation with my mother. And while I disagreed with Sister Superior on myriad issues, she got that one right.
Over the next half-hour, Sister Superior did not browbeat or beat me in any fashion as she calmly explained that Mary became pregnant through the intercession of the Holy Spirit.
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“But, Sister Superior,” I interjected, “Joseph was her husband and to make a baby...”
Sister Superior closed her eyes and raised her right hand, silencing me.
Then she repeated the story.
I must say, Sister Superior dramatically increased my admiration for Joseph, who in her telling was a remarkably patient, kind man who remained loyal and loving to Mary after learning she was pregnant with a child that was not his. He loved Jesus like his own son.
I figured I could get out of classes for the rest of the day if I kept playing dumb, which wasn’t much of a stretch for me. Then I remembered we hadn’t had recess yet, so in the midst of Sister Superior’s explanation, I widened my eyes, as if dawn had finally broken over Marblehead.
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“Oh,” I said, nodding. “Now I get it.”
She probably didn’t believe me, but presumably had better things to do than explain the concept of virgin birth to a 12-year-old smart ass.
I was thinking about all this and more after reading about a guy named Roy Moore, who — according to the Washington Post — thought it was perfectly acceptable to “date” teenage girls when he was in his 30s.
Moore is running for Senate in Alabama, and you’d think any politician who billed himself as a clean-living, God-fearing Christian would be ashamed and remorseful when confronted by credible accusations that he sought out girls half his age for relationships.
But, like a lot of self-righteous, judgmental, fundamentalist phonies who cloak themselves in religion, Moore is shameless. He thinks the Bible takes precedence over the Constitution and flouts them both. He obsesses about and condemns gay people in hateful ways, denouncing them as unfit to be parents. He denies the allegations, says his accusers are liars, and says the Post is driven by partisan politics.
Some of his Bible-thumping apologists claim what Moore did was no different than Joseph courting Mary.
But Joseph was not a lech. He was a good, decent man. He was, in fact, a saint.
Sadly, Sister Superior died years ago, but I’d pay big money to watch Roy Moore sit in her office and compare himself to St. Joseph.
I bet she’d call his mother.
Correction: An earlier version of this article contained an incorrect reference to the Immaculate Conception and the Virgin Birth of Jesus.
Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at cullen@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeCullenThe final post of a very enjoyable 2013/14 domestic campaign – the usual XI (and back-ups) of the season.
Thibaut Courtois, Atletico
It’s not often an on-loan player is the best in his role in Europe, but Courtois was sensational all season, even helping to eliminate his parent club on the way to the European Cup final. In an age where goalkeepers at big clubs are increasingly sweeping from their line and playing very proactively, Courtois (much like Atletico) bucked the trend. He was instead notable for his excellent reaction saves on his goalline and his command of the box when dealing with crosses. He barely made a mistake all season.
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Philipp Lahm, Bayern
Pep Guardiola’s surprising decision to field Lahm as a holding midfielder means he didn’t play right-back as regularly as in previous campaigns, but it still seems his natural position, and his obvious role in this European XI. While he became more renowned for his short passing and positional discipline in the centre of the pitch, he remains an extremely useful outlet when playing in his traditional right-back role, forever bombing forward on the overlap and playing incisive, intelligent passes into attacking positions rather than crossing the ball blindly.
Mehdi Benatia, Roma
The defensive signing of the season. Benatia always looked promising at Udinese, often in a back three, but his true quality has become even more obvious since his move to Roma last summer. He’s simply a superb all-round centre-back – happy challenging in the air, comfortable moving out to the channels to close down opponents, and good at bringing the ball forward and starting attacks. His displays went a bit under the radar outside Italy, as Roma weren’t involved in European competition, but in Serie A he was extremely consistent.
Diego Godin, Atletico
Both he and Miranda were superb all season, but Godin gets the nod because of two factors. First, because he was a greater aerial presence at the back, arguably the most crucial feature of Atletico’s defensive play considering how deep they were usually positioned. Second, because he proved decisive at the other end too – his header at the Camp Nou effectively won La Liga, and his header in Lisbon very nearly won the European Cup.
David Alaba, Bayern
Like Lahm, he was sometimes fielded as a bizarre full-back-cum-central-midfielder by Pep Guardiola, and is entirely capable of playing both roles. A full-back with tremendous energy and stamina, but also great technical ability, ball retention skills and physical strength too. He’s also remarkably calm when challenging for the ball – he didn’t collect a single booking all season, an amazing record for a full-back.
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Gabi, Atletico
Gabi is by far the least talented footballer in this starting XI, but in a sense he’s the player of the season. Not the actual player of the season, in terms of producing the best performances and the best moments, but the player of the season in terms of maximising his talent and leading his side. Some of his performances were incredibly strong – the way he overpowered Sergio Busquets in the European Cup quarter-final was particularly memorable. He was the symbol of Atletico, and the representation of Diego Simeone on the pitch – he won’t ever reproduce a campaign comparable to this one.
Arturo Vidal, Juventus
Visal is probably the best true all-rounder in world football. He’s capable of playing in every position and excels in almost every area of midfield play – scoring goals, playing incisive passes, getting around the pitch superbly, putting in thunderous tackles, challenging in the air, making unseen runs to support the centre-forwards. His penalty taking remains amongst the best around, too, and he was one of the few Juventus players who performed well in the Champions League too, despite their group stage elimination. Capable of playing for any club in the world.
Koke, Atletico
In a team based around strength and physicality, Koke offered the most guile. He was capable of battling too, and got through his defensive work manfully, but his real quality was the manner he continually played dangerous through-balls in behind the opposition defence, usually for Diego Costa, and his ability to conduct the game from between the lines. There was a 15-minute spell in the Liga decider at the Camp Nou where he was magnificent, driving Atletico forward despite their loss of Costa and Arda Turan to injury, and this forced the pressure that resulted in their title-winning equaliser. 13 assists tells the story.
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Cristiano Ronaldo, Real Madrid
17 goals in 11 Champions League matches is an absurd, unparalleled scoring record, while 31 goals in 30 Liga games is, amazingly, pretty much par for the course with Ronaldo. Sometimes he was unstoppable, with his hattrick away at Galatasaray a great example of his power and ruthlessness, while his two goals in Real’s astonishing 4-0 win at previous European Champions Bayern was a perfect display of counter-attacking.
Luis Suarez, Liverpool
His season ended in disappointment with question marks about his goalscoring record against top sides, but at times Suarez reached a level few players in Premier League history have matched. 31 in 33 matches was Suarez’s goalscoring record by the end of the campaign, and he was second in the league’s assist charts, too. In December he was simply ridiculous, scoring 10 goals and creating four more during a four-game period, the best spell enjoyed by any player in Europe this season.
Diego Costa, Atletico
His campaign ended in disappointment because of injury, but he did more than anyone else to make sure Atletico were in a position to challenge for two trophies. An absolute battering ram capable of running the channels and powering past centre-backs all match – his display in Atletico’s superb 1-0 win at the Bernabeu was evidence he’d become one of the best strikers in Europe. Had he played (the whole games) and scored in the title decider and European Cup final, he would be the player of the season.
Substitutes:
Manuel Neuer, Bayern – didn’t star as much as Courtois, but then was involved far less
Juanfran, Atletico - aside from a nightmare in the final 15 minutes of the season, he was amazingly solid and made crucial overlapping runs, with his display at Stamford Bridge probably the best full-back performance of the campaign
Sergio Ramos, Real Madrid – solid at the back, decisive when going up for set-pieces, and always extremely composed on the ball
Giorgio Chiellini, Juventus - Juve have three top-class centre-backs, and it’s often difficult to choose between them, but Chiellini was probably the best this season
Ricardo Rodriguez, Wolfsburg - a never-ending stream of brilliant, whipped deliveries into the box
Yaya Toure, Manchester City - developed into a fine free-kick specialist, and scored some outrageous counter-attacking goals
Ivan Rakitic, Sevilla - dictated play and provide some wonderful through-balls. His performance in the Europa League final was superb, and against Real Madrid he produced the single best touch of a football Europe saw this season (3:20 below)
Angel Di Maria, Real Madrid – 22 assists. 22 assists! Sometimes played two positions simultaneously, was incredible in the 4-3 defeat to Barca (the two best individual displays of the season might have come in the same game) and was the best player in the European Cup final too
Marco Reus, Dortmund – his club might not have been as good as in 2012/13, but Reus was probably better in the absence of Mario Gotze
Lionel Messi, Barcelona - His worst campaign for years. And yet…36 goals in 36 games, plus 11 more assists. His display in the 4-3 victory at the Bernabeu in March was the individual performance of the season
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, PSG – Ligue 1 top goalscorer for the second campaign running. This time by a margin of ten (!)goals
u
Related articles on Zonal Marking:Manado - Seventeen people were killed in a fire that raced through a packed karaoke bar early Sunday on Indonesia's Sulawesi island, and 71 others were hospitalised for smoke inhalation.
Witnesses told authorities the fire started at around 01:00 on the second floor of the three-story building as hundreds of people were singing in private rooms at the Inul Vizta Karaoke club in downtown Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi province, said the city police chief Col. Rio Permana. Workers were unable to put out fires with extinguishers.
Many complained that fire engines arriving late, about an hour later. It took firefighters several hours to bring the blaze under control.
"We are still investigating the |
d
… or computing an HMAC of a key + message.
I’d call this a simple interface and one that satisfies the majority of users. There was a comment about including ‘hash’ and associates in the class interface so FFI implementations could override the default for performance reasons. A few optimizations closed the gap significantly which is why these functions remain separate so far. The gap could probably be closed further if ByteString.Lazy would read in chunks of a size modulo 1024 bits (instead of 32KB – 8 bytes, which is a piddly multiple of 64).
Hash instances were made for cryptohash and pureMD5. So far consumers include DRBG and the algorithm specific tests.
Block Ciphers
The BlockCipher class is:
class (Binary k, Serialize k) => BlockCipher k where blockSize :: Tagged k BitLength encryptBlock :: k -> B.ByteString -> B.ByteString decryptBlock :: k -> B.ByteString -> B.ByteString buildKey :: B.ByteString -> Maybe k keyLength :: k -> BitLength -- ^ keyLength may inspect its argument to return the length
Again, this is intended to capture the essence of block ciphers. Also, a smart constructor ‘buildKey’ is provided so the implementation can weed out weak keys. A non-ideal instance for SimpleAES (see appendix to this blog) was made so I could run benchmarks and mode tests. Crypto-API includes an extensive test framework for AES + modes which is built around parsing NIST KAT files. Note the modes are not finished, not optimized, and only ECB CBC and OFB are tested (I’ve been programming during cocktail hour…).
I’ve yet to include modes as overridable routines of BlockCipher (see above cited comment). This is partly due to a lack of evidence showing a (very likely) performance gain that generalized routines can’t match. Once I see that evidence then I’ll be more likely to make the change.
As with hashes, most users won’t use the class interface but rather the higher level functions provided by Modes.hs (getIV, cbc, unCbc, etc).
RNG
The platform independent RNG is backed by urandom on *nix and the WinCrypt API on windows. My thinking here is any user of /dev/random (on *nix) must be so concerned about security they are carefully controlling most aspects of the platform, thus the non-portability of directly reading /dev/random is inconsequential; e.g. there’s no need to bother with a library to access /dev/random.
The interface: (untested on Windows! If you care about windows please test and debug!)
getEntropy :: ByteLength -> IO B.ByteString openHandle :: IO CryptHandle hGetEntropy :: CryptHandle -> Int -> IO B.ByteString closeHandle :: CryptHandle -> IO ()
If you rarely need quality entropy (ex: just for a quality seed to a PRNG) then use ‘getEntropy’. Frequent users can amortize some handle opening costs by explictly managing their resources and calling the other three functions.
Stream Ciphers
Stream ciphers are assumed to be much like a block cipher in 1-bit CFB mode:
class (Binary k, Serialize k) => StreamCipher k iv | k -> iv where buildStreamKey :: B.ByteString -> Maybe k encryptStream :: k -> iv -> B.ByteString -> (B.ByteString, iv) decryptStream :: k -> iv -> B.ByteString -> (B.ByteString, iv) streamKeyLength :: k -> BitLength
A simple instance would be:
data Xor = Xor B.ByteString instance Bin.Binary Xor where get = undefined put = undefined instance Ser.Serialize Xor where get = undefined put = undefined instance StreamCipher Xor Int where buildStreamKey = Just. Xor encryptStream (Xor k) iv msg = (ct, (B.length msg + iv) `rem` B.length k) where ct = B.pack $ zipWith xor (B.unpack msg) (drop iv $ cycle $ B.unpack k) decryptStream = encryptStream streamKeyLength (Xor k) = 8 * (B.length k)
Asymmetric Ciphers
The asymmetric cipher instance currently doesn’t fit any of the available algorithms as it is generalized over random generators. It also is the most likely to change – there are
things I’d change about it right now, but its best to leave the more irk-some aspects to motivate some of you readers to contribute / comment ;-)
class (Binary p, Serialize p) => AsymCipher p where generateKeypair :: RandomGen g => g -> BitLength -> Maybe ((p,p),g) encryptAsym :: p -> B.ByteString -> B.ByteString decryptAsym :: p -> B.ByteString -> B.ByteString asymKeyLength :: p -> BitLength
In Closing
1) If you use or develop cryptographic algorithms then join the discussion. I might not use your input but I will carefully consider all comments. Discussion has lead to substantial changes already (thanks guys!). I’m particularly keen on input from stream or asymmetric cipher users.
2) If you maintain any crypto packages then please update to include the correct crypto-api instances. If your package is a block cipher then make sure you’re exporting a pure interface in addition to particular modes.
3) If you use Windows then please help shore up the System.Crypto.Random module – I know it needs work!
4) If you use crypto packages please don’t make an instance or only do so to submit them upstream! Instance belong with the algorithm implementation!
5) Everyone else who wants to help feel free to write modes (XTS, GCM, CTR, etc), make fixes & optimizations, add tests (cipher properties, known answer tests), fix ByteString.Lazy.Internal.defaultChunkSize or export hGetContentsN, and add Data.Crypto.Padding (ex: pkcs5). If none of that interests you but the general topic of cryptography in Haskell does then consider working to improve hecc, add TLS or digest-auth to HappStack, write an IPSec implementation, make a pfkey2 package, improve GHC optimization of the algorithms, or make more fitting primitives!
Appendix on SimpleAES:
SimpleAES exported sufficient constructs with which to build an instance but it isn’t very clean. The main issues are:
1) Building a key can throw exceptions (when it should use Maybe or Either) and the result of key expansion (a costly operation in AES) isn’t stored but recomputed each time.
2) A properly sized IV is required even for ECB mode – which doesn’t actually use an IV. Worse, the “encryptMsg'” function will actually expand the size of data even when using ECB mode.
3) The key isn’t it’s own type, which is a good practice in addition to being needed to make an instance. This ties back to the smart constructor concept of #1.
AdvertisementsAt least five Native Americans were arrested in South Dakota on Monday after a six-hour standoff that temporarily blockaded trucks from moving equipment thought to be destined for the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Lakota activist Olowan Martinez told Raw Story that members of the tribe were working to obtain a restraining order that would allow them to confiscate any future shipments coming across Pine Ridge Indian land. The group opposes the pipeline because of health and environmental concerns.
“They arrested people for prohibiting the trucks from going through,” Martinez explained. “Five were arrested for disorderly conduct. They were let out on TR bond, which is just a temporary release. You know, it probably sent a chill down the spines of the XL transport people because they can’t just freely come through the territories unnoticed anymore.”
She said that activists expected the trucks to be accompanied by armed security the next time they came through.
“You got white racists, white men driving these trucks, probably armed and scared of any Indians,” Martinez remarked. “When the white man sees us and their fear overcomes them, they just don’t see one, they see ten, they see a hundred of us. I’m sure they will have more armed guards. We’ll see, though. We’re keeping our eyes out for them now and it’s not just this territory doing this anymore either,” adding that sister tribes were all taking steps to get restraining orders against future transports.
“The thing that could have stopped the arrests were if we had a restraining order against any and all transports involving the pipeline,” she explained. “Because once we have the restraining order, we can confiscate and we will confiscate the vehicles if we catch them here again.”
Activist Debra White Plume, who was arrested on Monday, told Censored News that the State of South Dakota had worked with the corporation’s office in Canada to create a route across the Pine Ridge Reservation in order to skirt weigh stations on the Interstate Highway System, which could have cost $50,000 for each of the two trucks.
“The truckers told us the corporation office from Calgary, Alberta, Canada and the State of South Dakota made a deal to save the truckers $50,000 per truck, there were two trucks, from having to pay $100,000,” Plume said. “They each carried a ‘treater vessel’ which is used to separate gas and oil and other elements. Each weighs 229,155 pounds, and is valued at $1,259,593, according to the papers we got from the truck drivers.”
Martinez called Keystone’s actions a “slap in the face of our elders and our future generations.”
“How dare them think they could come through our territory to go destroy our drinking water?” she said. “You know, we don’t want no part of it. And as far as I’m concerned, they shouldn’t be traveling on any part of any road.”
“America is built on stolen land and was built with stolen hands. XL Pipeline equipment, anything that has to do with the destruction of Unci Maka (Mother Earth), we don’t want any part of it. They need to stay out of our territory.”
Watch this video from NativeImpact, uploaded March 5, 2012.
(H/T: Color of Change)Kellogg Co. is voluntarily recalling about 28 million boxes of Apple Jacks, Corn Pops, Froot Loops and Honey Smacks cereals because an unusual smell and flavor from the packages' liners could make people ill, the company said Friday.
Kellogg said about 20 people complained about the cereals. The company said the potential for serious health problems is low.
Consumers reported the cereal smelled or tasted waxy or like metal or soap. Company spokeswoman J. Adaire Putnam said some described it as tasting stale.
Kellogg is trying to identify the substance on the liners that's causing the problem and is offering consumers refunds in the meantime.
The products were distributed throughout the U.S. and began arriving in stores in late March.
Only products with the letters "KN" following the use-by date are included in the recall. Products in Canada are not affected.
Kellogg's shares were almost unchanged Friday afternoon, trading at $52.69, 17 cents below Thursday's close.
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McDonald's Shrek glass recall prompts House investigation of CadmiumMore Americans Than You Might Think Believe In Conspiracy Theories
Research from the University of Chicago indicates that at least 50 percent of Americans believe in at least one conspiracy theory.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
NPR's social science correspondent, Shankar Vedantam, drops by with juicy new research. He's here with us again. Shankar, what's on your mind?
SHANKAR VEDANTAM, BYLINE: I want to talk about conspiracy theories today, David. And this is everything from whether the U.S. government was secretly behind the 9/11 attacks to whether President Obama was actually born in the United States. What proportion of the U.S population would you say subscribes to one of these theories?
GREENE: Ten, 15 percent, maybe? I don't know.
VEDANTAM: Yeah, I would've guessed at most 20 percent. And that's why this new research by Eric Oliver and Thomas Wood at the University of Chicago took me aback. They find that 50 percent of the country subscribes to at least one of these conspiracy theories. So 19 percent of Americans believe the U.S. government was behind the 9/11 attacks. 25 percent believe the recent financial crisis was caused by the small cabal of Wall Street bankers. 11 percent of people believe the government is mandating a switch to compact florescent light bulbs because the light bulbs make people obedient and easy to control.
GREENE: Oh, wow. Shankar, I wonder if it's worth reminding people exactly what a conspiracy theory is.
VEDANTAM: Here's how I think about it. A conspiracy theory is where you believe in a theory where no matter how much disconfirming evidence comes in, you somehow convert that disconfirming evidence into part of the conspiracy. So with Barack Obama's birth certificate, for example, the moment the birth certificate came out from Hawaii, the people who believe that Barack Obama was not born in the United States would say the Hawaiian hospital now is in on the conspiracy as well.
GREENE: Conspiracy theories have been around for a while. I mean, there are questions about whether Pearl Harbor was a way to get the United States and World War II. I mean, there are questions about JFK's assassination. You're not saying that 50 percent believe in all these things, but just 50 percent of Americans believe in at least one conspiracy theory like this.
VEDANTAM: Yeah, I think what this research is suggesting is that the willingness to believe in one of these theories is really widespread across the spectrum. And different groups of people might believe different theories, but the propensity to believe seems really widespread.
GREENE: Where does that propensity come from?
VEDANTAM: Well, that's what the research was trying to address. And you know, the stereotype about people who believe such theories is that they're poorly educated, or superstitious or that they are political partisans. It turns out the consistent predictor of such beliefs is something that you might almost call an All-American attitude - a belief in individualism, distrust of authority. And together those things translate into a desire to avoid being controlled by large secret forces.
GREENE: Many things that make us Americans might make us sort of more likely to at least believe in one of these things.
VEDANTAM: That's exactly what the researchers are trying to say.
GREENE: Interesting stuff as always. Shankar, thanks for coming in.
VEDANTAM: Thanks, David.
GREENE: That NPR's Shankar Vedantam. This is NPR News.
Copyright © 2014 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.NASA Concludes Antares Orb-3 Investigation as Cygnus Prepares for Return to Space Station on Atlas-V
One year after Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket suffered a launch failure that destroyed their third commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station, NASA’s Independent Review Team has published their official accident investigation report. Over the last year, NASA has worked alongside Orbital ATK and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to determine the cause of the accident and give recommendations for avoiding future mishaps. Due to the proprietary nature of the engineering data used in the investigation and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), the full report is not available to the public. However, NASA was able to publish an executive summary of the report, which outlines the conclusions of their investigation.
Immediately after the accident, NASA set up the Independent Review Team with approval from the FAA in order to carry out an independent analysis of the accident and compare results with Orbital ATK’s internal Accident Investigation Board. Orbital ATK gave NASA access to all their telemetry, launch imagery, and physical evidence so they could determine the root cause of the accident.
The most visible cause of the launch failure was the explosion of one of the two Aerojet AJ26 engines that powers the first stage of Antares. The explosion originated in the liquid oxygen turbopump of engine E15, damaging the entire main engine assembly and causing Antares to fall back to the ground. Further evidence pointed to a mechanical failure in the turbopump’s hydraulic balance assembly, which created friction and started a liquid oxygen fire. The exact cause of this failure could not be determined, but NASA narrowed it down to three possibilities which will all be addressed.
One possible root cause is that the bearings in the AJ26 turbopump were not capable of withstanding the operational loads experienced in flight on Antares. Due to sensitivities in the AJ26’s turbopump design, the hydraulic balance assembly is especially prone to liquid oxygen fires. Because of a lack of thorough qualification testing, the engine’s performance margins for Antares were not fully understood. The Orb-3 mission was carrying a heavier payload than previous Antares flights, so its engines were throttled up to 108 percent rated thrust to accommodate the additional mass. Without fully understanding the turbopump’s design limitations, Orbital ATK could have simply pushed the engine too far.
A defect in the liquid oxygen turbopump could have also caused the failure. Both Orbital ATK and NASA discovered a manufacturing defect that was introduced before the AJ-26 engines underwent acceptance testing. This defect was present in an engine that failed similarly in a hot-fire test at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in May 2014, but it was never determined whether the defect contributed to that failure. Aerojet’s original test engine from 1998 showed signs of a similar defect, which never affected ground tests and could have been caused by wear from extended operation. While it is unclear whether such a defect contributed to the explosion, it is certainly a probable cause.
The evidence that sparked the most controversy in the investigation was the detection of foreign object debris in the recovered components of engine E15. Particles of titanium and silica were found to be present in the engine sometime before the rocket’s impact. Aerojet used this evidence to claim that the accident was the result of negligent vehicle processing by Orbital ATK. However, NASA did not find particle impact damage in the recovered components, suggesting that there likely wasn’t a dangerous amount of debris within the engine. Aerojet has since dropped their allegations against Orbital ATK. In September, Aerojet agreed to pay a $50 million settlement to Orbital ATK over the accident. While it appears unlikely that foreign object debris caused the accident, NASA believes it still could have been a contributing factor.
Both Orbital ATK and NASA agree that the best technical solution for returning Antares to service in a timely manner is to simply replace the AJ-26 with a more reliable engine. Antares has been modified to use the DR-181 engine from NPO Energomash, which is a single-chamber variant of the RD-180 engine that powers the United Launch Alliance Atlas V. In the future, Orbital ATK must also install better sensors in the engines to improve the quality of telemetry during acceptance testing and Antares flights. They will also take extra measures to prevent foreign debris and moisture from infiltrating engines during processing.
In addition to investigating the technical causes of the accident, NASA also addressed organizational issues that impacted risk management in the CRS program and the accident investigation. Because so much information about the launch vehicle and engines is proprietary, communication barriers were present leading up to the accident and during the investigation. Both Aerojet and Orbital ATK had insufficient knowledge of the design and operational history of the Russian NK-33 that the AJ-26 began its life as. This resulted in overly optimistic risk assessments which gave NASA a false sense of security. NASA criticized Orbital ATK for accepting greater launch vehicle risk over time and put much of the blame on the lack of partnership between Orbital ATK and Aerojet.
Orbital ATK will learn on Nov. 5 whether Cygnus will continue delivering cargo to the ISS for years to come. NASA will be announcing the CRS-2 contract winners, which will deliver cargo to the ISS through 2024. Orbital ATK is competing with SpaceX, Sierra Nevada, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin for two available contracts.
Meanwhile, the enhanced Cygnus is being readied in Cape Canaveral, Fla., for the cargo craft’s return to flight. The OA-4 mission is on schedule to launch on a ULA Atlas-V 401 rocket on Dec. 3 to the International Space Station for NASA and Orbital ATK, while back on Wallops Island repairs are now complete at the Antares launch pad. The first pair of RD-181 engines have already been integrated with an Antares core stage, which is on track for a hot-fire test at Wallops in January.
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Posts associated with the ISS missions NASA Clears SpaceX to Launch Crew Dragon ‘Demo-1’ on March 2 First Crew Dragon Demo On Track for Late-Night Launch March 2 Good Test Fire for First Crew Dragon Mission Paves Way to Launch NET Late February Cygnus Arrives at Space Station with 7,400 Pounds of Fresh Supplies and Science Antares Launches Ninth Cygnus Cargo Delivery Mission to Space Station SpaceX Launches Fourth Dragon of 2017, Nails 20th Landing with CRS-13 Mission NASA Astronaut Bresnik and Crewmates Return to Earth From Space Station SLC-40 Ready for Return to Flight, With Fourth ISS-Bound Dragon of 2017 SpaceX Says New Improved SLC-40 Ready for Launches Again Following CRS-13 Test Fire Orbital ATK Honors Veterans With Rousing Launch of OA-8 Cygnus to Space Station How to Photograph the ISS Transiting the Moon and Sun SpaceX Launches Third Dragon of 2017 to Space Station, Lands 6th Rocket on LZ-1 Storms Threaten Post-Landing Securing of Falcon 9 First Stage on Monday UPDATE: Good Falcon 9 Test Fire as SpaceX Aims for Aug 14 CRS-12 Launch PHOTOS: SpaceX CRS-11 Launch and Landing First Reusable Dragon Cargo Mission Launches Science and Supplies to Space Station ‘Godspeed, John Glenn’: Cygnus Soars Atop Atlas-V on Voyage to Space Station John Glenn to Return to Space ‘In Spirit’ on ISS-Bound OA-7 Cygnus Cargo Mission NASA Outlines Science Payloads, Ahead of Next ISS-Bound Cygnus Cargo Mission SpaceX Soars from 39A for First Time, Delivers Dragon to Space & Returns Falcon to Earth Pad 39A Set for First Post-Shuttle Launch, as SpaceX Readies for Weekend Return to Space Station NASA Outlines Science Heading to Space Station Aboard CRS-10 Dragon Future Space Station Crew Discusses ISS Expedition Multi-National Soyuz MS-01 Crew Prepares for Weekend Return to Earth Soyuz Docking Restores Space Station to Full Crew Strength Through the Lens: Antares Returns to Flight on OA-5 Mission for NASA Antares Returns to Flight, Delivering OA-5 Cygnus to Space Station Virtual Reality Meets Space Tourism: World’s First VR Satellite To Be Launched in 2017 SpaceX Nails Launch and Landing Again, Dragon CRS-9 Now En Route to Space Station Critical Science, Commercial Crew Hardware Headed to Space Station Aboard CRS-9 Dragon Doorway to the Future: 15 Years Since STS-104 (Part 1) New Crew Begins Two-Day Voyage to Space Station Multi-National Crew to Launch to Space Station Aboard First Soyuz-MS Spacecraft Expedition 47 Crew Returns Safely to Earth After Six-Month ISS Mission New Improved Antares Preparing for Test Fire Ahead of July 6 Return to Flight Expedition 47 Return Extended to 18 June to Support ‘Heavy Scientific Research Work’ Dragon Resumes Space Station Cargo Operations as Falcon-9 Sticks Its First Drone Ship Landing Bigelow Aerospace’s BEAM Facility Headed for Space Station on Friday Jeff Williams and ‘Sardines’ Top the U.S. Spaceflight Experience Table A Look at the Science and Experiments Aboard Cygnus ‘Rick Husband’ A Cygnus Came A’Calling: Orbital ATK’s OA-6 Cargo Ship Arrives at Space Station Spectacular Atlas V Launch Carries Rick Husband Back to Space ULA Stands Ready to Deliver Second Orbital ATK Cygnus to Space Station on Tuesday Night Columbia’s Final Commander Honored in Upcoming Cygnus Resupply Mission to ISS America’s Next Record-Breaker Rockets to Orbit for Six-Month Mission Last Soyuz TMA-M Crew Ready for Friday Launch to Space Station Three Spacefarers From Three Nations Discuss Four-Month Mission to Space Station Next Cygnus Cargo Ship ‘SS Rick Husband’ Ready for March 22 Night Launch to Space Station Scott Kelly Considers Journey to Mars as Doable in Post-Landing Remarks About One-Year Mission Kelly and Kornienko’s Year-Long Mission Paves Way for Journey to Mars
Posts associated with the COTS missions Cygnus Arrives at Space Station with 7,400 Pounds of Fresh Supplies and Science Antares Launches Ninth Cygnus Cargo Delivery Mission to Space Station SpaceX Launches Fourth Dragon of 2017, Nails 20th Landing with CRS-13 Mission SLC-40 Ready for Return to Flight, With Fourth ISS-Bound Dragon of 2017 SpaceX Says New Improved SLC-40 Ready for Launches Again Following CRS-13 Test Fire Orbital ATK Honors Veterans With Rousing Launch of OA-8 Cygnus to Space Station SpaceX Launches Third Dragon of 2017 to Space Station, Lands 6th Rocket on LZ-1 Storms Threaten Post-Landing Securing of Falcon 9 First Stage on Monday UPDATE: Good Falcon 9 Test Fire as SpaceX Aims for Aug 14 CRS-12 Launch PHOTOS: SpaceX CRS-11 Launch and Landing First Reusable Dragon Cargo Mission Launches Science and Supplies to Space Station ‘Godspeed, John Glenn’: Cygnus Soars Atop Atlas-V on Voyage to Space Station John Glenn to Return to Space ‘In Spirit’ on ISS-Bound OA-7 Cygnus Cargo Mission NASA Outlines Science Payloads, Ahead of Next ISS-Bound Cygnus Cargo Mission SpaceX Soars from 39A for First Time, Delivers Dragon to Space & Returns Falcon to Earth Pad 39A Set for First Post-Shuttle Launch, as SpaceX Readies for Weekend Return to Space Station NASA Outlines Science Heading to Space Station Aboard CRS-10 Dragon Through the Lens: Antares Returns to Flight on OA-5 Mission for NASA Antares Returns to Flight, Delivering OA-5 Cygnus to Space Station SpaceX Nails Launch and Landing Again, Dragon CRS-9 Now En Route to Space Station Critical Science, Commercial Crew Hardware Headed to Space Station Aboard CRS-9 Dragon New Improved Antares Preparing for Test Fire Ahead of July 6 Return to Flight Dragon Resumes Space Station Cargo Operations as Falcon-9 Sticks Its First Drone Ship Landing Bigelow Aerospace’s BEAM Facility Headed for Space Station on Friday A Look at the Science and Experiments Aboard Cygnus ‘Rick Husband’ A Cygnus Came A’Calling: Orbital ATK’s OA-6 Cargo Ship Arrives at Space Station Spectacular Atlas V Launch Carries Rick Husband Back to Space ULA Stands Ready to Deliver Second Orbital ATK Cygnus to Space Station on Tuesday Night Columbia’s Final Commander Honored in Upcoming Cygnus Resupply Mission to ISS Three Spacefarers From Three Nations Discuss Four-Month Mission to Space Station Next Cygnus Cargo Ship ‘SS Rick Husband’ Ready for March 22 Night Launch to Space Station Kelly and Kornienko’s Year-Long Mission Paves Way for Journey to Mars One-Year Crew Prepares to Depart Space Station for Return to Earth As OA-4 Cygnus Departs, Commercial Cargo Providers Prepare for Busy Visiting Vehicle Manifest Kopra and Peake Primed for Friday Spacewalk EVA Ahead for ISS Crew on 15 Jan, as Space Station Prepares for Ambitious 2016 Orbital ATK Shows Off Repaired Launch Pad and Antares Rocket Hardware for Return to Flight ‘What an Honor’: Space Station Crew Prepares for Friday Return to Earth OA-4 Cygnus Cargo Ship Arrives at Space Station, Ahead of Soyuz TMA-17M Crew Departure A Look at the Science and Experiments Flying Aboard Cygnus ‘Deke Slayton II’ to ISS Cygnus Soars Under Overcast Skies on Return to Space Station After Days of Weather Delays Weather Keeps Cygnus Grounded for Second Day in a Row, Will Try Again at Sunset Saturday PHOTOS: Cygnus Ready to Spread Its Wings Again for Thursday Return to Space Station All Systems GO for Twilight Return of Cygnus to Space Station on Atlas-V Thursday PHOTOS: New Improved Cygnus Hoisted Atop ULA’s Atlas-V for Dec. 3 Return to Space Station Orbital ATK Showcases New ‘Enhanced Cygnus’, Ahead of 3 December OA-4 Launch NASA Postpones Second Round of Space Station Supply Contract Awards, Drops Boeing NASA Concludes Antares Orb-3 Investigation as Cygnus Prepares for Return to Space Station on Atlas-V Cygnus Loaded With Nearly 4 Tons of Supplies for December Return to Space Station Orbital ATK Delivers Cygnus Service Module to KSC for December Launch to Space StationBut there are also very good political reasons to invest in the race. While they rally to his side after his primary victory, Republicans would prefer if Moore didn’t exist. Investing in Alabama will force them to play defense on what would normally be safe territory, in large part because Moore’s seat is so important: With a slim Senate majority and a sick John McCain, every vote counts. Ideally for Republicans, Moore will walk to victory without much fuss. Under no circumstance should Democrats let this happen. Instead, they should do everything they can to force the Republican establishment to defend Moore, while raising the temperature of the race itself. Every time Moore talks, he gets himself in trouble. Democrats should do everything in their power to make sure Republicans get in trouble, too.
Of the many mistakes made in the 2016 election, one of the biggest was the refusal to call Donald Trump a Republican. The Clinton campaign, seeking to shoot the moon, wanted to make a big showing among white, college-educated Republicans. It attempted to graft the worst aspects of conservatism and the recent history of the Republican Party onto Trump, in an attempt to woo voters who might feel misgivings about voting for a racist demagogue. But in surgically removing Trumpism from the Republican Party, Clinton gave swing voters in key states a chance to switch sides with minimal second-guesses.
This turned out to be a big miscalculation. It treated Trump like an aberration when he was, in fact, the culmination of decades of Republican evolution toward anti-government extremism. Even if Clinton had won the general election, this strategy would have come back to haunt her in the form of a right-wing Republican legislature out to undermine her at every turn.
Thankfully, the stakes in Alabama are much lower than they were in the Trump-Clinton election. But there’s a big opportunity here for Democrats. Roy Moore stands for what establishment Republicans—a rapidly dwindling caste—don’t want to publicly acknowledge that their party stands for, and he does so in in particularly flamboyant ways. It is not only that he is dogmatically anti-Muslim and anti-gay, but has repeatedly flouted federal laws in defense of unabashedly bigoted beliefs.
Democrats already have one good foil in Donald Trump, but there’s no reason to stop there. Democrats should force Republican senators, governors, and other officials to take a stand on Moore’s most controversial beliefs, making him a kind of litmus test for the party. In the past, a figure like Moore could have been characterized as an outlier, but in the Trump era, he is evidence that Trumpism is a cancer metastasizing within the Republican Party. Stopping Moore is equivalent to stopping that cancer from spreading to the rest of government.Ross Travis has officially moved from the hardwood to the turf.
Per his agency, Tier 1 Sports Management, the former Penn State basketball player will take part in the Houston Texans rookie mini-camp and play tight end.
Congrats to our guy Ross Travis - @RossJumpkid - who is heading to rookie mini camp with the @HoustonTexans! #NFL #PennState #Texans — Tier 1 Sports Mgmt (@Tier1SportsMgmt) May 3, 2015
On April 14, Travis announced that he had declared for the NFL draft and had been working out for teams as a tight end.
He said he hadn't played football since he was a freshman in high school, but the Chaska, Minnesota native said he thought he'd give it one more shot. Should it not work out, Travis said he would return to focusing on his basketball career.
“I always thought about playing football again, and I thought it was a cool opportunity that I definitely had to take,” Travis said on a conference call after his announcement. “I just had the mindset that you only live once.”
The 6-foot-7, 235-pound basketball forward saw solid playing time in all four years of his Penn State career, starting 16 games as a freshman, 27 games as a sophomore, 26 as a junior and 27 as a senior.
Travis led the Lions in rebounding for three of his four seasons, averaging 6.3 per game in his senior season. He also averaged 5.5 points per game.
The Texans are led by former Penn State football head coach Bill O'Brien, who was at the helm of the Nittany Lions in 2012 and 2013 before moving to HoustonThis Arduino Phone contains the following main functions.
1. receive & send message, letter input
2. dial & answer calls
3. real time clock display
4. A convenient and concise UI, You can switch function by sliding your finger on the screen. A standard 12 key input method for inputting message.
You can get all of the Arduino Phone code from the Github, including the dependent libraries.
-------------------------Following was updated at Dec 7, 2015------------------------
1. When you get to the github page, find a Download ZIP button, click to download the code.
2. The code you downloaded is not an Arduino library, it's a sketchbook, which is include all the library the project need.
3. Unzip the file you had downloaded from github, you will get a folder named ArduinoPhone-master.
4. Open your Arduino IDE, click File > Preferences > Sketchbook Location, browse to the folder we had mentioned above - ArduinoPhone-master. Then click OK to save it.
5. Close and re-open Arduino IDE, click File > Sketchbook > PhoneCode, then the main code of Arduino Phone is open.
6. Choose the right board and port to upload the code.
Refer to the image above.
-------------------------Above was updated at Dec 7, 2015------------------------
However, a much more difficult problem is that this Arduino Phone hasn’t physical buttons
(except the Reset button switch and GPRS). So, how to manage UI will be a challenging task.
Fortunately, TFT Touch not only provides a display function, also a touch screen function.
Thus, we can manage the UI through gesture, like left-swipe and right-swipe.
It this step, we will show how ArduinoPhone works. And the picture indicates the workflow of ArduinoPhone.
Finally, opening ArduinoPhone.ino with Arduino IDE, then uplaod source code to ArduinoPhone.Ont. rabies cases move east, linked to hitchhiking raccoon
Find Your Forecast Search for a location
Monday, June 27, 2016, 7:31 PM -
A large rabies outbreak impacting Hamilton, Ont. appears to be moving east, with the Halton Region Health Department confirming a bat tested positive for rabies in Oakville, Ont. on June 17. Meanwhile, scientists say the province's largest rabies outbreak in a decade can be linked back to a raccoon that hitchhiked more than 500 km from New York State into Ontario.
BAT RABIES IN OAKVILLE
While officials say the risk to humans remains low, Oakville residents in the Honeyvale Road and Swansea Drive area who may have had physical contact with a bat are being advised to contact the health department by dialing 311.
“The Health Department is reminding residents to avoid all contact with bats and other wild animals,” Matt Ruf, Director of Healthy Environments & Communicable Disease for Halton Region said in a statement.
“Anyone who comes in physical contact with a bat or other wild animal should see a physician immediately and contact the Health Department.”
HITCHHIKING RACCOON BLAMED FOR OUTBREAK
Scientists say they were surprised by their findings but, after ruling out any errors, it appears a rabid raccoon from New York State hitchhiked hundreds of kilometres into the province and sparked the worst rabies outbreak in a decade.
So far 128 cases of raccoon rabies have been recorded, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.
The best way to protect pets against rabies is to keep them up-to-date on their rabies vaccinations. (File photo.
Susan Nadin-Davis, a researcher with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency focused on rabies research, told the Canadian Press (CP) her laboratory analyzed the rabies strain present in Ontario and then ran the results through a database. Nadin-Davis said the findings suggest the Ontario strain is closely related to one from southeastern New York state. It has different characteristics from strains found near the border.
"If we understand how rabies spreads, then we can identify tactics to prevent and reduce the chance of this happening again," she told CP.
In the meantime the ministry is air-dropping edible rabies vaccines, distributing 600,000 since early April.
RABIES PREVENTION
The best way to protect pets against rabies is to keep them up-to-date on their rabies vaccinations and avoid contact with wild animals and supervise pets when outside.
Humans who have been exposed to rabies can be treated with immune globulin and four doses of a rabies vaccine over a two-week period, provided treatment is started as soon as possible.
In the past, post-exposure treatment consisted of painful injections in the stomach. Today's vaccines are less painful and can be injected into the arm and thigh.
WHAT IS RABIES?
Rabies is a viral disease that can infect most mammals.
It is usually transmitted through the bite of a rabid animal. It infects the central nervous system.
If untreated, symptoms can take between 9 days and 3 weeks to appear. By then, the disease is almost always fatal.
Symptoms include:
Fever
Muscle pain
Weakness
Confusion
Headache
Rabies remains relatively rare in Canada, with less than two dozen human deaths reported in Canada since 1925.
While raccoon rabies cases are on the rise in southern Ontario this year, 2015 figures across |
my mind, the use of metrical hymnody is a good way to once again engage the faithful in the singing of sacred texts in ways that are melodic, memorable, appropriate, and easily learned. But for others, the Protestant origins of this form and most of its repertoire are a sticking point. Over the years, many of these hymns have found a solid place in Catholic liturgy.
Summation: Historically, no form of music currently considered sacred achieved that status without controversy. Indeed, music itself was controversial in the early Church and was barely tolerated by many of the Church Fathers. Time ultimately proves where wisdom lies and ultimately mediates for us what is sacred in a way that transcends mere passing tastes or preferences. Music has made several revolutionary leaps during the age of the Church. Provided necessary rational limits are applied, there is no need to rush to exclude every newer form. If we were to do so, only chant would exist in the Church and we would be deprived of a great treasury of music from the era of polyphony and the classical period.
In saying this I do not mean to indicate that all music is just fine, or that all modern forms are here to stay, or that newer forms should be unquestioned. It is clear that some forms are wholly inimical to the Sacred Liturgy. Rather, I seek to remind people that what we call “sacred music” is historically quite complex. It is the result of long and vigorous discussions, refinements, and other factors as diverse as cosmology, architecture, mathematics, and culture.
We do well to let some of the conversations and controversies work themselves out, lest in too quickly ending them by judicial fiat we impoverish ourselves and block what might bless others and even our very selves.
These are just a few of my sources for the above article:
Here are the videos that sparked the discussion on my Facebook page:A few days ago something strange happened. I can’t say that it has jolted me, but it definitely has affected me. I just can't stop thinking about it, so I’m writing about it.
It was a dull afternoon, and I was writing code on my laptop. Earphones were plugged in and Royals by Lorde was playing, and I was oblivious to the world. A few minutes or hours later, I don’t know — I really was immersed, the computer warned me about low battery and I got up to get the charger. And since I had gotten up anyway, I went into the kitchen to eat. I saw out the window and realized it was a beautiful evening, so I decided to take a break.
Dad was watching TV and typing hurriedly on his phone.
“Dad, wanna go play Table Tennis (AKA Ping Pong)?”, I asked.
“Can’t. Sending this important email.”
It must be important, I convinced myself. But it probably wasn’t.
I went to my caring, nurturing mother.
“The weather’s so good today, wanna go for a walk?”
“The group is planning a party, and we’re discussing it on Whatsapp. Let’s go later.”
Ok.
My sweet young sister perhaps. But she too was busy playing some new game on the iPad.
So I called a few friends, asked if they would want to go to a park, or go for a run, things like that. And you know what, none of them wanted to do it. I’m not saying they didn’t want to hang out. They wanted to go to malls or movies or bars or cafes or parties. One of them invited me to play Xbox after I told her about the great weather. Another acted weirdly after I called, so I asked what was bothering him and he said, “You called me to ask if I want to hang out! What’s wrong with you man? Nobody calls anymore. Just text me. I thought you were dying or something.” Graham Bell would be devastated.
I thought — screw them all and walked out. I didn’t go to the gym. I didn’t meditate. I didn’t listen to my favorite podcast. I walked through parks, streets, and boulevards (yes, Bangalore has beautiful boulevards). I finally went to my building’s helipad, which is on the rooftop.
I saw the sun set for the first time. Don’t get me wrong — I’ve seen the sun set before, I just didn’t pay attention. I would click photos, post on Instagram or Twitter and hashtag it. That day I didn’t even take my phone out of my pocket. I felt the sun and the wind on my face. (Bangalore is no New York or Hong Kong for skyscrapers, but I live in a pretty tall building.) After the sun set, I lay down. The sky was clear, and the stars twinkled.
You might think of this as a waste of time, that is the general perspective. It’s not futile, it’s thoughtful. There is a difference. Thoughtfulness is like fuel for the soul. Some might counter argue with, “Music is food for the soul.” And I agree. But that quote is quite old. They probably didn’t have rap, pop or hip-hop then. (For the record, I love rap, pop, and hip-hop.) But we can all agree, today’s music is junk food for the soul. It does more harm than good.
“today’s music is junk food for the soul.”
Since then, I'm doing this more and more. And I actually enjoy it. Not in a thrilling way, but in a calming one.Federal employees get enviable pay and perks, especially retirement benefits that are unthinkable these days for most private sector workers. But perhaps the biggest perk of all is job security, near-immunity from getting fired no matter how serious the misconduct. There is a convincing pattern of tolerance of misconduct that is bound to produce more misbehavior in the absence of fear of losing one’s job.
A program analyst at the Department of Housing and Urban Development spent up to three hours a day for five years working on private business deals — including once arranging to supply lap dancers for a private party — while he was supposed to be doing government work. Another HUD employee — an auditor — was investigated for running a trucking business from her government office, according to investigative records obtained by The Washington Times. In both cases, the investigators referred their findings to prosecutors, who declined to press criminal charges, sending the cases back to HUD officials, who let both employees remain on the job.
Why should they be allowed to steal from taxpayers and keep their jobs? They have been paid for the time they were using for their own private benefit. They stole that pay. Case closed.
Yet out of millions of federal bureaucrats:
“I can probably count all the people on two hands I’ve seen fired,” Rep. John L. Mica, Florida Republican, said at a hearing last week into the EPA misconduct. “But something needs to be changed when people are breaking the law, when you have this GS-14 sitting there abusing his position, his salary, ripping off the taxpayers.”
It is time for Republicans to run on a platform of holding federal employees accountable for their behavior.Canada offspinner Nikhil Dutta is one of two regional Associate stars to receive a Caribbean Premier League contract © Peter Della Penna
USA wicketkeeper Steven Taylor and Canada offspinner Nikhil Dutta have been awarded full Caribbean Premier League contracts after successful tryouts with the Barbados Tridents and St Kitts & Nevis Patriots respectively. They two became the first Associate players from the Americas Region to become part of a CPL squad.
After participating in an ICC Americas squad camp last December in Barbados, Taylor and Dutta were two of six players shortlisted for a chance to compete in a trial with West Indies U-19 cricketers for a final roster spot in their nominated CPL franchise.
Taylor, 21, first rose to international prominence at age 18 in October 2012 when he was the only US player chosen as part of the International World XI captained by Sanath Jayasuriya in a series of T20 exhibition matches in Karachi as part of an effort to encourage international teams to resume touring Pakistan. He was the first US player to score a T20 century and was USA's leading scorer at the 2013 World T20 Qualifier in the UAE with 271 runs at an average of 38.71.
Tridents coach Robin Singh has worked with Taylor since 2011 when Singh was the USA U-19 coach first at a regional qualifier in Florida and then again at the U-19 World Cup Qualifier in Ireland. Since then, Taylor and Singh have continued to forge a solid bond during Singh's stints as a coach for the USA senior team on a tournament by tournament basis at various ICC events.
Dutta, 20, was the 2013 ICC Americas U-19 Division One tournament MVP when he helped Canada qualify for the 2014 ICC U-19 World Cup in the UAE. He was Canada's leading wicket-taker at the recently concluded ICC Americas Division One Twenty20 tournament in Indianapolis, taking 12 at an average of 9.41, giving strong indications that he would make the cut with the Patriots. Dutta is considered somewhat of a mystery spinner with a delivery style and repertoire similar to Sunil Narine.
Despite being given full contracts by their franchises, both Taylor and Dutta may have limited availability for the tournament after both were named last week to represent their countries at the ICC World T20 Qualifier in Ireland and Scotland. All teams are scheduled to arrive on July 3 for the tournament with USA and Canada's first official group matches taking place on July 10. The World T20 Qualifier final is on July 26 in Dublin, the same day as the CPL final in Trinidad.
Aside from the two Associate players, former West Indies U-19 captain Ramaal Lewis received a contract from Jamaica Tallawahs while reigning West Indies U-19 player of the year Shimron Hetmeyer signed on with the Guyana Amazon Warriors. The other two emerging talents to receive CPL contracts were Gidron Pope from the St Lucia Zouks and Mark Deyal for the Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel.
Peter Della Penna is ESPNcricinfo's USA correspondent. @PeterDellaPenna
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.We all know this. When a poor person disappears, it’s less an event than when a rich person does. The police are less likely to be stirred to action. The media will pay less attention. Black, white or Hispanic, that’s not even what counts. Poor and nobody. That’s the epitaph.
Poor and nobody is the theme of a haunting new true-crime podcast on NPR called Buried. Set just outside our city in the meth and motorcycle land of nearby East Texas, it is ostensibly the story of a 24-year-old mother of three who disappeared in 1991. No cop ever lifted a finger to find her.
But it’s not only her story. Reported by George Hale, Buried is the story of this entire corner of the planet — our corner — where poverty, drugs and dissolution bite just as hard out in the boondocks as they do in urban slums. It’s also a heartening tale of human connection and the nobility of mankind in almost unimaginably battering circumstances.
Continue Reading
And it’s not over. That’s why I keep going back. Hale is still trying to pull the story apart and tease out the truth of what happened. By the way, our Dallas Police Department is involved in this story and comes off no better than the East Texas authorities, all of whom come off very badly, indeed.
Carey Mae Parker, born May 12, 1967, grew up 43 miles east of downtown Dallas in an area south of Quinlan on Waco Bay, an arm of Lake Tawakoni. The lake, a 38,000-acre reservoir built in 1960, lies in three counties. Hale tells me that may be as good an explanation as any for the utter failure of authorities in any of the three counties over almost three decades to try to find the missing young mother.
“In the very first episode,” Hale says, “I mention that this lake is split into three counties, right down the middle. There’s a spot in the middle where Rains County, Hunt County and Van Zandt County intersect. The thing that makes the most sense is that she’s right there.”
The podcast is told in a rich array of East Texas voices painting an already hard life made that much harder by rural isolation. The missing woman’s relatives, working with Hale and eager for him to find the truth, have been impressively candid, sharing enough tales of incest, drugs and murder to stagger the toughest city dweller.
Carey Mae Parker was last seen in 1991 being taken into police custody outside this East Texas convenience store near Lake Tawakoni. Since then, the Hunt County Sheriff's Department has insisted it had no idea she was missing. Brittany Gryder, Texas A&M University-Commerce
Parker was a young mother who had three young children with three different men. In March 1991, the family gathered together from a shifting array of semi-temporary rural residences to celebrate the birthday of Parker’s firstborn, a 6-year-old boy. Parker never showed. She was last seen alive being taken into police custody in front of a nearby convenience store.
Six months later, her daughter Brandy waited with other kindergartners to be picked up outside her school in Dallas, but Brandy's father never showed up. Dallas police found him dead of an apparent cocaine overdose in his apartment near Love Field, a cause of death disputed by family members who insist he was clean at the time.
Years after Parker’s disappearance, her children lived temporarily with their grandfather, now dead. The children slept with the old man and were frightened by his violent night terrors. He often bolted from his bed in the middle of the night screaming, “No! No!”
Their grandfather told the children about his recurring nightmare. Years earlier, two men had come to his house in the woods on the shores of Tawakoni and threatened to kill all of the grandchildren if the old man did not stop trying to find out what happened to his daughter. The old man told the children he followed the men into the woods and killed them.
George Hale Brittany Gryder, Texas A&M University-Commerce
The old man also told the children that he killed a German citizen while stationed in Germany in the Army during the Vietnam War. Hale, a Dallas native who worked as a reporter on the West Bank in Israel for seven years before returning to Texas, is in the process of tracking down the grandfather’s 40-year-old tale of murder in Germany. He already has confirmed many key details. The story of the two men killed in the East Texas woods will be harder to reach.
One of the most compelling voices in Buried is that of Brandy, the little girl left in front of her school by her dead father all those years ago. Now a smart, well-spoken adult living in North Texas, Brandy, whose last name is not used in the podcast, decided in 2010 to learn more about her mother’s disappearance by browsing through some online missing persons databases.
To her consternation, Brandy found that her mother’s name did not appear in any database. She focused her efforts on the various East Texas police agencies that should have investigated her mother’s disappearance, especially the Hunt County sheriff.
According to Hunt County, it never opened an investigation because it never received a missing person report. Hale has been able to demonstrate that a missing person report existed in 1991, but he has come up against a brick wall in trying to get Hunt County to say what happened to it. At one point, he says, a Hunt County detective called him in and interrogated him about his interest but offered no explanation why Parker’s disappearance was never investigated.
Buried is a true-crime podcast on NPR produced by radio station KETR in Commerce. Crystal Cid, Texas A&M University-Commerce
Given the place and context, a lurid bloom of folkloric conspiracy theory probably was inevitable. Some of the people who speak on the podcast are convinced that somewhere in this rural thicket of drugs and sex, the police have their own closets and skeletons.
Hale is a solid reporting hand who doesn’t take anything he can’t prove very seriously. Also, Brandy is a refreshingly smart offset to some of the more Byzantine conspiracy thinking. She looks at her family with at least as skeptical an eye as she has for the police.
Part of what makes this a great podcast is that it’s set in a world where no amount of proposed or supposed skulduggery feels over the top. Just trying to keep track of the average family tree is dizzying, let alone guessing who believably may have killed whom. Some of the voices would be enough keep you up nights if they were reading Mother Goose.
That tale about the grandfather chasing two men into the woods and killing them, even if unproved, is believable. I think it’s why you don’t threaten to kill the grandchildren of an old East Texas guy. You just go ahead and kill him. That’s definitely what he’s going to do to you if you leave him the chance.
Yet Buried is not about a realm totally separate from or unlike ours here in Dallas. In fact, there is a disturbing link between Dallas and the wilds of Hunt County. Brandy has been trying since 2012 to get the Dallas Police Department to release its file on her father, who supposedly died of an overdose and whose death is the subject of a conspiracy theory.
DPD has steadfastly refused even to respond to the requests. Hale showed me a series of letters he has written to DPD and to the Texas attorney general over the last four months seeking the records, to no avail.
Hale has a reporter’s tendency to attribute official nonresponsiveness to laziness and inefficiency before he’s willing to suppose a conspiracy. The thing is, he and his producers are cranking out this very compelling story on National Public Radio, and they have to report as part of it that Dallas won’t budge any better than the East Texas cops. It’s not a picture I would put myself into if I could help it.
Buried is a production of KETR, an NPR member station licensed to Texas A&M University-Commerce. Hale is somebody I have known since he was a kid at Woodrow Wilson High School. He suckered me once into what was supposed to have been a roundtable discussion of journalism with the principal of Woodrow but turned out instead to be a student newspaper ambush of the principal on a tough story, with me as the unwitting scarecrow. That kind of kid.
The third episode is coming up any day now. You can hear that one or catch up with the first two at NPR, at KETR, or at Apple Podcasts.
I guess maybe the whole thing may sound depressing in my relating of it, but I don’t feel that way when I listen. That’s not what draws me back.
In this tale, the bond of family reaches out over decades, through death, fear and misery, to reunite lost souls. It’s a story that says we all have the same human hearts beating in our breasts no matter how far apart we may imagine our circumstances to be. It says we all count. Everybody is a somebody to somebody. Everybody deserves an obituary.TALLAHASSEE — Few people, if anyone, would describe Democrat Alan Grayson as humble — even himself or those who know him best.
Bold, bombastic, sharply intelligent, genuine even. Yes.
But not humble.
He offered a prime example recently, talking about how he believes he's one of a rare few of the 535 members of Congress who takes the job seriously and actually gets things done and how he now wants to bring that work ethic to the U.S. Senate next year.
"As far as I'm concerned, I'm a professional and I'm surrounded by amateurs" is how the three-term Orlando congressman put it in a recent visit with the Tampa Bay Times editorial board.
"I'm surrounded by people who do nothing, and they have a lot to be humble about.... I feel like I've done a lot of good for a lot of people and I just don't see a lot of that around me," Grayson said. "The fact is most people in Congress are posers. If you want me to confess to some humility, I'd say: 'Humility as compared to them?' It would seem to me that they're the ones that have something to answer for, not me."
Statements like that are routine for the lawyer, former businessman and self-made multi-millionaire who emanates self-confidence and calls himself the "congressman with guts."
Grayson's bravado is matched by his colorful appearance. Walking in to any room, his 6-foot-4 stature sticks out — so does his nontraditional attire: Standard business suits accented most often by an eye-catching American flag tie and the cowboy boots that he's rarely seen without.
A father of five, Grayson first jumped into politics a decade ago and is best known for his raw, unfiltered bluntness, sometimes to his own detriment.
Calling a female Federal Reserve lobbyist a "K-Street whore" seven years ago and once describing the Republicans' healthcare reform plan as one that wants sick Americans to "die quickly" remain infamous moments on the congressman's highlight reel.
Grayson quietly revels in the attention. He casually acknowledges he's "had a hell of a life," while frequently listing his professional and legislative accomplishments with painstaking detail — particularly his work in Congress on seniors issues and to increase healthcare research funding.
More from Politifact: "Alan Grayson says he passed more bills and amendments than any other current member"
He wants to make sure voters know all that he's done in his 58 years, especially since he faces a competitive Democratic primary in the Senate contest later this summer.
To strike a contrast with his opponents, he'll routinely mention how Slate (three years ago) called him "the most effective member" of Congress. Or how Business Insider (two and a half years ago) said he was among the "most productive." Or how Time (two years ago) called him a "standout" member.
As passionately as he talks about himself, so does he defend himself. For instance, despite damning initial findings earlier this spring from an ongoing congressional ethics investigation, Grayson maintains his innocence and, instead, lays blame on political opponents who he says want only to "smear" him.
The investigation — which is now in the hands of the House Ethics Committee — found Grayson potentially violated a litany of federal laws and ethics rules by managing once-offshore hedge funds while in office and also using his official position to attract investors to the funds.
"We're just talking about an investment partnership between me and my five children. Even calling it a hedge fund is, to some degree, misleading," Grayson said during one of a series of interviews with the Herald/Times. He added that if he could go back, "Would I have still invested the money? Yes."
But his unapologetic and unabashed nature is what makes Grayson who he is: a beloved champion for Democratic progressives and a detestable annoyance for conservatives.
"One of the many things I love about Alan is that with Alan, there's no pretense," said Dena Grayson, who married the congressman six weeks ago and is running to replace him in the U.S. House. "He really wears his heart on his sleeve, for better or worse. And people will sling arrows at him — but gosh, I would rather have that than have somebody who's sort of white-washed."
A boy from the Bronx
The son of two teachers, Alan Mark Grayson was born March 13, 1958 in New York City.
He grew up in public housing in the Bronx and was plagued by life-threatening asthma that required him to get injections three or four times a week through his childhood, he said.
Grayson attended the Bronx High School of Science and then enrolled at Harvard College at 17 years old. He worked his way through undergraduate school in a series of jobs: night watchman, janitor and even reporter.
After three years at Harvard, Grayson graduated magna cum laude in 1978 with a self-designed major, a "special concentration" with an emphasis on urban studies.
He then went to work for the U.S. Department of Transportation in Cambridge, Mass., making $18,585 a year as an economist analyzing the effects of government policy on things like passenger travel or energy consumption, he said. It's occupational experience he still mentions frequently, in passing, when touting his financial know-how in Congress or on the campaign trail.
Grayson has, at various times, said his time working as an economist was for either two years or four years. He said the discrepancy is simply a distinction from when he worked part-time versus full-time.
About 18 months after he started at the DOT, Grayson said he downgraded to part-time because he went back to Harvard — simultaneously continuing his economist job for about another two years while pursuing both a law degree and a master's degree in public policy.
In four years, he had both degrees in hand. He said he would have had a Ph.D., too, but didn't finish his dissertation.
Early professional years
After graduate school, Grayson launched his legal career, starting as a law clerk. He was an assistant to judges in both the Colorado Supreme Court and the D.C. Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals, where he said he served under future Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia.
"I had the benefit of literally understanding how more than a dozen different judges thought through their decision-making," Grayson recalled.
It was during his year in Colorado that Grayson wed for the first time — although the relationship was over almost as quickly as it started.
He married Shellie Ruston in April 1984, after a swift courtship. They separated after less than a month and their marriage was formally annulled 11 months after the wedding, court records show. Ruston, who sought the annulment, could not be reached for comment.
"I just don't know how to describe that," Grayson said. "I wish her well but, you know, we decided to split up."
Grayson moved to Washington, D.C., for his second clerkship in the later half of 1984 and then lived there for more than a decade.
Following his stint at the D.C. Circuit, he said Ginsburg hooked him up with a job interview at her husband's premier law firm — Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson — where Grayson specialized in government contracts law for five years.
Even at that time, Grayson showed signs of his current outspoken self and his unique sense of style, former law colleague Ira Hoffman said.
"Alan has always been non-conventional," said Hoffman, who said he clerked briefly with Grayson in D.C., worked with him for a time at Fried Frank and later joined Grayson's private law firm for about six years. "He is one of the sharpest people I've ever met and dealt with at a close level."
While at Fried Frank in the latter half of the 1980s, Grayson helped found the Alliance for Aging Research, a nonprofit organization that Grayson says was borne from his master's thesis about the lack of scientists researching the aging process.
After Grayson announced his Senate bid last summer, he was accused of embellishing his role in starting the organization, which both Grayson and fellow co-founder Dan Perry vehemently rejected.
Perry, who in the mid-'80s was a senior legislative staffer to California U.S. senator Alan Cranston, said in a statement last July that Grayson's "insightful paper crossed my desk" and he later asked Grayson "to provide pro-bono legal services to get the Alliance incorporated and registered as a 501(c)(3) organization in 1986, which he did."
Grayson served as an officer of the Alliance until he was first elected to Congress in 2008 and he speaks proudly of the group's success.
"We got enormous increases in money for research for both gerontology and geriatrics," Grayson said.
More jobs and marriages
1990 was another milestone year for Grayson.
He left Fried Frank to help start an international telephone services company that, along with other investments, would later make him millions. And he wed his second wife, Lolita. (The 25-year marriage was annulled last year after bitter and scandalous divorce proceedings that revealed Lolita was still married to her first husband when she wed Grayson.)
Grayson was the first president of IDT (International Discount Telecommunications), serving from 1990 to 1991. The company later went public in the mid-1990s.
In 1991, Grayson broke out on his own, starting a law firm named after himself in the D.C. suburbs of Virginia. He became nationally known in the early 2000s by suing war profiteers in Iraq under a Civil War-era law. (In 2006, "The Wall Street Journal said on its cover that I was waging a one-man war against contractor fraud in Iraq," Grayson pointed out.)
After their first child, Skye, was born, Alan and Lolita Grayson moved to Orlando in the mid-1990s, although Grayson still spent a lot of his time in Virginia into the early 2000s.
"We were spending almost all of our vacation time in Orlando.... I just realized at some point that I would enjoy it even more if I just lived in Orlando," he said. "When my daughter was born we had to decide what to do, because we were starting a family, and I felt that she'd have a better childhood in Orlando, and I was right."
Alan and Lolita Grayson would have four more children: Star, Sage and twin boys Storm and Stone. The twins, now 11, are the youngest.
Fatherhood reveals a softer side to Grayson's sometimes-brash personality. "I always make sure to tell them frequently that I love them and often they just say the same thing, so I find that encouraging," he said with a soft laugh.
Lolita Grayson sought her divorce in January 2014, citing an "irretrievably broken" marriage. The dispute escalated quickly and publicly, as the two traded accusations and insults openly and in court documents — including allegations by both of domestic violence. Lolita Grayson declined to comment for this story.
Alan Grayson and Dena Minning, 45, met by happenstance on a flight from Orlando to Washington, D.C., "a couple years ago," each said. It was the only time that year that she flew out of Orlando, since she normally flew out of the Melbourne airport, she said.
Alan Grayson helped her take her bags out of the overhead bin — she's 15 inches shorter than him — and struck up a conversation after they got off the plane, she said.
"It really became a conversation that obviously blossomed into something more, and now I'm very, very, very happy to say I'm madly in love with my best friend," Dena Grayson said, calling him "my absolute soul-mate. He's brilliant, he's thoughtful, he's totally genuine. He's kind, he's warm, he's funny. That's the Alan I know and love and same with those of us that are around him every day."
They were engaged this spring "as soon as the annulment was final. Like, immediately," Alan Grayson said. They were eager to wed, they said.
'He doesn't hold back'
The war in Iraq prompted Alan Grayson to first run for Congress in 2006.
"I took the only successful case against [war profiteers] to trial and won," Grayson said. "It became obvious to me over time that the government was grossly mismanaging the war effort."
Grayson's first bid for public office failed. He credits an earlier start to his 2008 U.S. House campaign as among his reasons for victory two years later.
As a freshman representative in 2009, Grayson garnered a national reputation as a candid but polarizing figure — particularly for his remarks about Republicans' healthcare reform plan. He described it as: "Don't get sick. And if you do get sick, die quickly."
Grayson was booted from office in 2010 by the tea party wave, but he won back a seat in the U.S. House after Florida's congressional districts were redrawn in 2012.
He has notably been less explosive with his comments in his second two terms, while at the same time still gaining more national prominence thanks to frequent MSNBC appearances and a staunch progressive streak that focuses largely on social and senior issues.
"He doesn't hold back. I think what we've seen is Democrats being run over — almost like a truck ran over them — because they're afraid to speak up or speak out and say anything. And he's not," said Susan Smith, president of the Florida Democratic Progressive Caucus, who personally is backing Grayson in this year's U.S. Senate contest.
But the Alan Grayson that the public sees on TV is a bit of an extreme version of himself, friends and colleagues said.
"He's not afraid to be candid, but he's more flamboyant on the House floor in front of CSPAN cameras than he is behind closed doors," Hoffman said.
Prominent Orlando trial lawyer John Morgan supported Grayson's political efforts in the past and said he's still "friendly" with him, but the two are at odds now because Morgan is backing Grayson's main rival, U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, in the Democratic primary on Aug. 30.
"He [Grayson] comes across to me as smart and bombastic. He's not a fool by any stretch of the imagination. He is a very, very bright guy," Morgan said. "He brings an energy and humor but, at the same time, a recklessness that's fun to watch."
Last July, before Grayson announced his campaign for Senate, Morgan tried to persuade Grayson to seek re-election because, as Morgan views it, he had a "safe seat... but with such a presence." He said he thinks Grayson is too liberal to garner statewide support for a Senate seat.
Grayson speaks critically of Morgan these days, accusing him of being part of the Democratic establishment that resoundingly supports Murphy in the Senate contest. Murphy has President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and myriad U.S. House and Senate members on his side — endorsements that have sparked the ire of Grayson and his progressive fan base. No member of Congress has endorsed Grayson.
"The system is rigged," Grayson says often.
He said he wants to be a U.S. senator because "there are a lot of good things to do," such as on Medicare and Social Security.
"When it comes to this stuff, I'm professional and I get things done for people like, literally, no one else," he said.The following is a list of individuals executed by the United States military.
Executions by the Army during World War II and postwar [ edit ]
The United States Army carried out 141[1] executions over a three-year period from 1942 to 1945 and a further six executions were conducted during the postwar period, for a known total of 147.
Of these 141 wartime executions, 70 were carried out in the European Theatre, 27 in the Mediterranean Theatre, 21 in the Southwest Pacific Area, 19 in the continental United States, two in Hawaii, one in Guadalcanal and one in India; of the six postwar executions, one took place in Hawaii, one in Japan, two in France and two in the Philippines. An execution was also carried out by the United States Air Force in Japan in 1950.
All executions carried out by the Army from 1942 to 1948 were performed under the authority of the Articles of War of June 4, 1920, an Act of Congress which governed military justice between 1920 and 1948.
This list includes members of the United States Army Air Forces, which was a part of the Army until September 18, 1947 when it became independent. Executions by the USAF after 1947 are listed separately.
With the exception of Eddie Slovik, who was shot for desertion, all of these soldiers were executed for murder and/or rape. It should be noted that several of the soldiers listed as convicted and executed for murder and/or rape had also been convicted on other charges, including those of a military nature such as desertion and mutiny, plus lesser crimes that would not have been considered capital unless combined with more serious offenses which carried the death penalty. Sources for list in References section.
Plot E [ edit ]
The US Army executed 98 servicemen following General Courts Martial (GCM) for murder and/or rape in the European Theatre of Operations during the Second World War. The remains of these servicemen were originally buried near the site of their executions, which took place in countries as far apart as England, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Algeria. In 1949 the remains of these men and a few others were re-interred in Plot E, a private section specifically built to hold what the Graves Registration referred to as "the dishonorable dead", since (per standard practice) all had been dishonorably discharged from the US Army just prior to their executions.
Plot "E" is detached from the main four cemetery plots for the honored dead of World War I at the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery and Memorial.[2] It is located across the road, and deliberately hidden from view, inside a 100' x 50' oval-shaped clearing surrounded by hedges and hidden in thick forest. Officially, Plot E does not exist: it is not mentioned on the ABMC website or in any guide pamphlets or maps. The plot is accessible only through the back door of the superintendent's office.[3] Access is difficult and visitors are not encouraged, though the section is maintained by cemetery caretakers who periodically mow the lawn area and trim the hedges. One cemetery employee described Plot E as "a house of shame" and "a perfect anti-memorial".[4] Today Plot E contains nothing but 96 flat stone markers (arranged in four rows) and a single small granite cross. The white grave markers are the size of index cards and have nothing on them except sequential grave numbers engraved in black. Two bodies were later disinterred and allowed to be returned to United States for reburial.
No US flag is permitted to fly over the section, and the numbered graves literally lie with their backs turned to the main cemetery on the other side of the road.[5]
Three of the individuals buried in Plot E were not executed: Willie Hall, Joseph J. Mahoney and William N. Lucas, who all died while in military custody.
The only person interred who was not convicted of rape and/or murder was Eddie Slovik, who was executed for desertion on 31 January 1945. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan gave permission for Slovik's remains to be exhumed and returned to the United States for reburial.[6][7 |
my camera. I tend to average about 10 km an outing. That night, I had already been out walking for a couple of hours when I met up with some other photographer friends who wanted to do some long exposure shots with Filmores in the background.
As we were standing there, a man came out to have a cigarette and check his phone. I was immediately drawn to the film noir quality of the scene. The lighting created a dark glow that drew the eyes to him. I immediately started shooting as fast as I could — I wasn't sure how much longer he would be there — and with the cars going by, it was hard to try and catch it the way I was seeing it.
"These buildings and the lives that drifted in and out of their doors, are the city. And I think it's our job to make sure we remember them." - Pamela Julian, photographer
What about this photo represents Toronto in 2017?
Toronto is constantly growing. We are surrounded by construction no matter which way we turn. But through it all, there are still spots where Toronto maintains its identity. This street corner is undergoing some major renovations but Filmores is still in the same place, with the same sign, that it's had since the '80s. I love that. I love that they are still advertising and pushing the envelope with their billboard. (Did you know they offered free lap dances to Pan Am athlete medalists? They had to show their medal!) I feel that with this picture, we can see that while we are changing and moving forward, some things will always remain the same.
A lot of work in the show captures buildings and neighbourhoods marked for development. This piece seems to fit into that category. Why is it important to you to capture places like this?
A photograph can show us not just a building — but a place where people found joy, grief, love and despair. Lives were lived in these places, and while the individuals may not be remembered, then the places where they lived, can. These buildings and the lives that drifted in and out of their doors, are the city. And I think it's our job to make sure we remember them.
Michael Glassman, "Brickworks, fog over Don Valley"
Michael Glassman. "Brickworks, fog over Don Valley," 2013. (Courtesy of Coldstream Fine Art)
When did you take this photo of the Don Valley? How did you end up in this spot — with this view?
This particular photo was taken on Sept. 27, 2013 at 7:24 a.m. and is the last in my series called "Views of the CN Tower."
It was an accidental discovery. I was bicycling with my kids, as we often do, along the Don Valley trail, but instead of continuing south towards the Distillery District, we made a detour to Brickworks. It was our first time there. At some point we decided to leave our bikes and climb up the "North Face" — what used to be a hill was over the years excavated for the clay, and became an open pit. It is a very steep climb, muddy and slippery, and more than once we had to grab the branches of bushes to save our necks. I would not advise anyone to repeat our feat of ignorance. The view from above, however, was breathtaking. I decided to come back the next day with my camera.
What was happening when you took this photo? What do you remember about the scene?
I remember huge balls of white fog, the size of five-storey buildings, rolling onto the valley from behind the hill, at about one minute intervals, while I was shooting. The scene was still and silent and almost pastoral, the city so far away. It was exhilarating.
It took six or seven before-the-sunrise trips to this spot over a two-month period to get the result I wanted.
I embarked on this project with a very clear goal in mind — to show that beauty may be found in your own backyard. - Michael Glassman, photographer
For you, what about this picture represents Toronto in 2017?
I don't see this image as specifically "2017." I see it more as "what could have been."
The history of urban development and architecture of Toronto is very much "what could have been here." If enough people learn and appreciate Toronto's history, get active in the preservation of our architectural heritage against the speed of development and demolitions for the sake of yet another condo tower, I will feel that I made my small contribution to this goal.
What do you love about photographing Toronto — and Toronto landmarks, specifically?
I embarked on this project with a very clear goal in mind — to show that beauty may be found in your own backyard, that it is not necessary to travel to exotic locations to discover it.
Jordan Nahmias, "Untitled (Woodgreen United Church No. 2)"
Jordan Nahmias. "Untitled (Woodgreen United Church No. 2)," 2017. (Courtesy of Coldstream Fine Art)
How did you find yourself at Woodgreen United Church?
It was a pretty popular spot, I think, for people who are into that sort of work — what's colloquially called "ruin porn. That's basically people who make a point of shooting decaying or decrepit or destroyed or soon to be destroyed architectural edifices around the city or elsewhere. [Ed note: The building, which was erected in 1958, was demolished earlier this year to make way for a seven-storey mixed-use complex.]
I'm not really into that subject matter anymore, but that's where my interest [in photography] started. It's a theme that runs through all my work — nostalgia and history and memory and loss. I'm fascinated by the fact that we can build up all these things, and we can amass all this stuff, and it can be discarded pretty easily.
The interesting thing about the Woodgreen image, and I feel this is something we'll be able to explore more and more and more in the next few years, if not already, is that it's a really commonplace theme with churches and other religious institutions. If you go to Prince Edward County, if you go up north, there are all these churches that are being turned into residential homes and the churches themselves don't really serve a purpose anymore.
The show asks everyone to choose a photo that represents the city through their eyes. What's your connection to this place?
I actually have no connection to the church itself. I'm Jewish, and I've actually never been in a church for religious services. For me, it's what it says about the city. The Woodgreen Church served Toronto for over 200 years. The community that was served by that church, where are they going to go? How are they going to be served going forward? I think that's one really important city-related question that needs to be explored. The other is more related to real estate and the boom in our city — basically how everything is being moved for a condo. I'm not anti-progress, I'm certainly not making a statement, but it's really interesting that we can dispose of these things that are so historically relevant and so important to small or large communities in the name of "quote" progress.
Ryan Emberley, "Justin's Last Supper"
Ryan Emberley. "Justin's Last Supper," 2016. (Courtesy of Coldstream Fine Art)
You work internationally as an event photographer. What's unique about shooting in Toronto?
Toronto, as my home market, is the place where I have the best access. I know most of the party crowd and publicists, so it's easier and more familial in that sense. In my opinion, Toronto is the only city in Canada where I could be a full-time, self-employed event photographer. It's a party city. All roads lead to Toronto.
What was happening when you took this photo? What do you remember about the scene?
I was hired to shoot Drake's album release party for his album Views. It took place at a night club in the entertainment district — not my usual scene. There was a palpable energy and anticipation for Drake and whatever special guests he might bring with him. Drake arrived and things became instantly chaotic. I was being pushed and pulled, bouncers were threatening me (meanwhile, I'm the house photographer tasked with capturing this mess). Justin Bieber arrives unexpectedly and things get even crazier. He's sporting a new buzzed head — free, for the first time, from his famous locks. I'm pushed back further from the action. So I raise my camera over the crowd and start firing, hoping to capture something. As it happens, Justin notices me for a split second and looks straight in to the camera. That's the moment that I'm presenting at This City II. Instantly, the scene's composition reminded me of da Vinci's The Last Supper. It's interesting — Justin looked a little worse for wear and lonely, despite being surrounded by a sea of people. Just after this moment, the club starting playing his hit "Sorry." Justin mouthed the words and danced a little in place, stopping occasional to wink and point at female fans.
Like it or not, Toronto is Canada's social capital. - Ryan Emberley, photographer
So much of the work in the show captures buildings and places. Not your photo, though. For you, what is it about this photo that captures Toronto in 2017?
I'm always attracted to photos that tell stories and I find photos of people tell the best stories. Toronto is more than just the CN Tower or sweeping cityscapes. Like it or not, Toronto is Canada's social capital... in all its forms — high society, celebrity events, relaxed hangs at local dive bars — you name it. Justin's Last Supper is one of those moments.
Adam Reid, "Snake Eyes"
Adam Reid. "Snake Eyes," 2016. (Courtesy of Coldstream Fine Art)
Where and when did you get this shot?
The photo was shot last summer (2016) at Ryerson Pond a.k.a. Devonian Lake on the Ryerson University campus. The pond is a great skateboard spot in the city, so my friends and I skate there quite frequently.
Who are the people in the photo? And, maybe more importantly, how did they wind up with a snake?
I don't know the child in the photo, but their mom was right there and she was totally cool with me snapping a couple photos. If she sees this I'll print her an 8x10 for free! (laughs) The guy with the snake is just a guy that walks around that area every once in a while with a few massive snakes hanging off him.
Toronto in 2017 is a pretty diverse place to be, and the people seem to be pretty fearless to express how they feel or what they want — I love that. - Adam Reid, photographer
What about this picture represents Toronto in 2017 to you?
I thought it represented the city due to the diversity, and spontaneity of the scene. It's kind of all over the place — innocent yet dangerous. Toronto in 2017 is a pretty diverse place to be, and the people seem to be pretty fearless to express how they feel or what they want — I love that.
My photos mostly involve people, and I thought that the people of the city are what make and define it. I mean, the Gooderham (flatiron) Building is super cool, but do we need to see another photo of it?
Vladimir Antaki, "End of an Era"
Vladimir Antaki. "End of an Era," 2016. (Courtesy of Coldstream Fine Art)
You were recently based out of Montreal, yes? What brought you to Toronto?
I moved to Toronto at the end of October 2016 after showing eight of my Guardians at Nuit Blanche. I spontaneously decided to move here and see what the city had to offer me.
[Ed note: The Guardians is Antaki's ongoing art project about shopkeepers around the world. Since beginning the series, he's photographed more than 300 business owners inside their stores — "guardians of urban temples."]
What's your connection to Honest Ed's?
I took this picture on Friday, Dec. 30 2016, the day before Honest Ed's closed for good. It's part of my series The Last Days of Honest Ed's.
Earlier that month I was greatly encouraged to submit my application to a call for submissions that Toronto For Everyone was doing. They were looking for artists willing to help them co-create the last magical experience at Honest Ed's.
I spent some time in Mirvish Village, meeting with some of the shopkeepers who were to be relocated, and took some pictures during Honest Ed's last 48 hours of business. I wanted to pay one last tribute to this iconic landmark of Toronto and offer an image that was really different from what people have in mind when they think of Honest Ed's.
I never got a chance to shop there but I have a lot of respect for what Ed Mirvish has accomplished and for his legacy of community. I was very honoured to be part of this emotional tribute.
What about the picture represents Toronto in 2017 to you?
One of the predominant themes of my work is the duty of memory. I am profoundly moved by the progressive disappearance of these places filled with history and memories. I grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, a time where people would give business to their local shops. I kinda miss the pre-internet era. I'd choose analog over digital anytime. Nowadays everyone is in a hurry, or at least they project the idea of being. No one has time for anything. The internet makes everything go fast, but it also de-humanizes our interpersonal relationships.
It is important for me to capture as many as possible places like this one before they all vanish.
Gentrification is happening very significantly in Toronto. The housing market is ridiculously out of control, and this picture is very symbolic of this transformation with a bittersweet after-taste. The end of an era, indeed.
(These interviews have been edited and condensed.)
This City II. Featuring Shlomi Amiga, Vladimir Antaki, Bret Archangel Menezes, Cosmo Calisse, Ryan Emberley, Michael Glassman, Aneta Iwaniszczuk, Pamela Julian, Michael Libis, Mike Morris, Jordan Nahmias, Adam Reid, Scott Ross Talbot, Andy Smith. May 4 to June 3 at Coldstream Fine Art, Toronto. www.coldstreamfineart.com
The 2017 Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival. To May 31. Various locations, Toronto. www.scotiabankcontactphoto.comHey friends,
Last weekend, E from Cistem Failure got arrested during the Pride Parade in Oslo. Unexpectedly, E was not released, and instead was held in the police station over the weekend before being brought to court today. The judge decided today not to release E, so they are currently being held on remand in custody until their hearing, which must happen in the next 28 days. At the hearing it will be decided if they are guilty or not and what their possible sentence will be (their lawyer expects between 20 and 40 days in prison). However, the time they spend in prison on remand will be subtracted from their final sentence. So if for example they wait 20 days until their hearing, and then get a sentence of 20 days, then they will have already served their time.
They have been charged under Straffelovens §115, for attacking the highest state bodies’ activities. They are accused of throwing a pie in the face of Solveig Horne: a homophobic, sexist, racist politician from the right-wing Progress Party, who had the nerve to march at the front of the Pride Parade. She is the Norwegian Minister for Equality, Children and Social Inclusion. She is known for victim blaming, homophobic remarks [“Is it okay that kindergartens read gay fairy-tales for young children?”] and racism. The Progress Party is a known racist party that gives zero fucks about refugees.
Anyway, we think it is strange that in general politicians are leading Pride — have they forgotten about Stonewall? People can have Pride as long as it means assimilating into capitalism and shit. I mean, why be homophobic when queers also have voting rights and have money to buy things with? The Pride Parade in Oslo gave their ‘Solidarity Prize’ this year to the fucking police…
Anyway. They are gonna be in jail for a bit and it would be cool if peeps would send letters, talk about the case, play our music, do a soliparty, write a song. If you want to know more or get updated, or do something or just have chat you can email this address.
Until then, none are free until all are free.
You can send letters (until we have a better address) here:
Oslo ABC, E
Postboks 6689 St.Olavs plass
0129 Oslo
NorwayDonald Trump would probably say he’s the best Hanzo. Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images
If you don’t play the Blizzard Entertainment team-shooter multiplayer game Overwatch, this Florida billboard is probably baffling. But if you do, this is a clever and incisive critique of Donald Trump’s temperament. (Maybe you don’t need another one, but it’s still nice to have.)
APPARENTLY IN MY AREA THERES A BILLBOARD THAT SAYS "DONALD TRUMP MAINS HANZO AND COMPLAINS ABOUT TEAM COMP IN ALL CHAT" I NEED TO SEE IT pic.twitter.com/Au70OthAAW — 🔮👻💀skeli💀👻🔮 (@GHOSTFXCKER) October 14, 2016
Here’s the billboard, which sits on the corner of North Alafaya Drive and Colonial Drive (Florida State Route 50) in the University of Central Florida’s campus, again from a better angle:*
Here's a cleaner photo of that billboard. pic.twitter.com/ZccA5eJil2 — Nidhogg (@NidtheDragon) October 14, 2016
Let me explain. It refers to Hanzo Shimada, a character in Overwatch who is a Japanese archer-slash-assassin with ties to a criminal dynasty. He’s a super #edgy loner with this tortured backstory that peaks when he causes the apparent death of his own brother. It’s a really sad story, I promise. There’s even a great animated short about it.
Overwatch requires players to pick a character and then carry out an objective with their team to win. Some of the options are great all-purpose characters, useful in many situations. But Hanzo, who fires arrows, is hard to use and not always relevant. Players who “main” Hanzo use him as often as possible, even if the situation doesn’t necessarily call for a Japanese assassin who fires arrows. When (not if) things go wrong, and if that player is a jerk, he will blame the whole team, even though he picked the wrong person to begin with.
That doesn’t sound familiar at all, does it?
Melissa Harris, spokeswoman for the Nuisance Committee, said the billboard was installed between Thursday and Friday and will stay up until Election Day.
“We’re trying to remind college students, young people, gamers that they need to stand up and be counted,” Harris wrote via email. “And this is the it game right now.”*
The ad also directs people to TrumpIsNotATeamPlayer.com, which calls out the various ways Donald Trump is unfit to be president—while also superimposing his face on other characters from Overwatch.
“Donald Trump has no regard for the American democratic process,” the website reads, “and has said that if he loses the election, it’s because the system is rigged against him.”
Harris identified the Chicago-based Daniel Warren Johnson as the campaign’s illustrator and Lindsey Camelio as its designer.*
Even if you don’t play Overwatch, or any video games, you’re familiar with That Person. You know, the one who doesn’t usually have anything useful to contribute, picks fights, and is generally the most inflexible and infuriating individual around. Donald Trump is That Person, and he is running for president.
It’s kind of like this video by Rundle67:
This billboard was paid for by the super PAC Nuisance Committee, which is also behind an anti-Trump billboard in Illinois that directed people to TrumpDoesntPayTaxes.com. And who is behind the Nuisance Committee? Why, it’s the creators of Cards Against Humanity. The company launched campaign-themed card packs earlier this year with the promise to split the promotion’s proceeds between “direct, legal contributions to Hillary Clinton’s PAC, contributions to groups opposing Trump, and get out the vote programs in swing states.”
*Update, Oct. 14, 2016, 5:15 p.m.: This post has been updated with information from Nuisance Committee spokeswoman Melissa Harris.
Read more Slate coverage of the 2016 campaign.Washington (CNN) — Democrats are building an early voting lead in North Carolina and Nevada, but Republicans maintain an edge in Florida and Ohio, according to a CNN analysis.
With five days to go, registered Republicans also lead Democrats in early voting in Arizona, while Democrats are also ahead in Colorado and Iowa.
More than 30 million votes have been cast already across 38 states with early voting. And with five days to go, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are encouraging their supporters to hit the polls early. So far, about 7.4 million registered Democrats and about 6.4 million Republicans have done just that.
CNN has partnered with Catalist, a data company that works with progressive candidates and groups, to receive detailed early vote return information this year. Catalist's voter list connects returned ballots with demographic and registration information, such as party registration, gender and age, and allows a closer look at who has already cast a vote.
These are not results -- ballots aren't counted until Election Day. But the findings provide clues on who is voting and which party is turning out to vote. And in states that track party affiliation, it's important to remember that not all Democrats are voting for Clinton, and not all Republicans support Trump.
Here's a look at the early voting data from several battleground states:
Arizona
There's good news for both parties in Arizona, where about 1.3 million people have already voted.
Registered Republicans are ahead right now -- they lead by about 71,000 votes or 5.5%. But at this point four years ago, the GOP had a 10% advantage over Democrats. Perhaps sensing an opening, the Clinton campaign decided this week to pump an additional $1 million into Arizona for TV ads.
But the good news for Republicans here is that it appears they're gaining ground. One week ago, their lead over Democrats was only about 11,500. Today that lead is more than 71,000.
In Arizona, about 2 in 3 votes were cast early in 2012.
Colorado
Colorado is a state where the election is almost entirely conducted by mail. And with voting underway, there is good news for Democrats: They've consistently led Republicans in terms of ballots returned.
Today, they're ahead by more than 18,500 votes, or about 1.5%. Four years ago at this point, Republicans had a lead of more than 33,000 votes, or about 3%. That is a significant flip.
But there are some new polls out of Colorado that show a tightening race, and there are some indications in the early voting numbers to back that up. The Democratic lead one week ago was about 5.6%. That narrowed to about 2.4% on Tuesday and stands at 1.5% today.
Florida
Republicans have been steadily ahead in the early vote by about 0.5% over the past week. Maybe that's why President Barack Obama rallied voters Thursday in Miami and Jacksonville, hoping to turn things around.
The GOP lead is tiny -- it's only about 16,000 votes out of more than 2.7 million cast -- but it's a strong sign for Republicans because at this point in 2008, they trailed Democrats by more than 73,000 votes.
Turnout increased across the board, but it rose at difference paces for different racial groups. Latinos had the largest spike in terms of raw votes, boosting their turnout by 129% from 2008. White voters increased their turnout by 55%. And even though African-American turnout is up by 24%, that is clearly a slower growth rate than the other racial groups, and their share of the electorate dropped from 2008.
What does this mean? For Democrats to win, they're likely hoping the big gains among Latino voters are enough to overcome whatever drop-off there is in the African-American vote.
Iowa
Democrats lead Republicans in Iowa, but they've been consistently behind their winning 2012 pace.
Right now, about 41,000 more Democrats than Republicans have voted in the Hawkeye State. But at this point four years ago, they had an edge of more than 60,000 votes. According to the data, their advantage is shrinking as Election Day draws closer, but this also happened in 2012, when Obama won.
All that being said, a majority of voters in Iowa typically cast their ballots on Election Day.
Nevada
The early vote in Nevada has tracked closely with 2012, a year when Democrats built a significant lead during the early voting window. Obama relied on that lead to help him carry the state on Election Day.
Registered Democrats are ahead by about 29,000 votes right now over registered Republicans. That's a slight drop from the 31,000-vote lead they had on Tuesday. But their lead is larger today than it was one week ago. Four years ago at this time, Democrats were ahead by about 38,000 votes, or 7.6%.
The early vote is crucial in Nevada: Almost 70% of votes came early in 2012.
North Carolina
Democrats are padding their lead in North Carolina, consistently increasing their raw vote advantage over Republicans as more early voting locations open across the Tar Heel State.
Right now, registered Democrats are ahead by about 243,000 votes statewide. That's an impressive showing, but at this point in 2012, the Democratic lead was more than 307,000 votes. In other words, Democrats are lagging a bit behind their pace from 2012, a year when they narrowly lost the state.
The reason might be in the demographics. African-American turnout is lower this year and they have dropped as a share of the early electorate from 28% in 2012 to about 23% today. As more polling places open this week -- especially in counties with a large black electorate -- their turnout might tick up.
The overwhelming majority of African-Americans that voted already in North Carolina were also registered Democrats, so when their vote falls, it affects Clinton's chances in a significant way.
Ohio
Registered Republicans expanded their lead this week in Ohio. They're now ahead of Democrats by almost 66,000 votes, or about 5 points. They were only up by 2.5 points one week ago.
This is good news for the Republican Party's chances in Ohio. That's because at this point in 2008, the last year when there is comparable data, Republicans led by a razor-thin margin of 0.4%. And that early vote lead wasn't enough for them to ultimately carry the Buckeye State that year.
Early voting is down across Ohio this year. That's likely the result of cutbacks, imposed by the Republican-controlled legislature in 2013, to the number of days of early voting.The girlfriend of a father-of-one who died in police custody boycotted a protest because she feared violence from rioters who would later threaten to burn down houses, MailOnline can reveal today.
Edir 'Edson' Frederico Da Costa's family insist he was 'brutally beaten' and left with a broken neck after he was stopped by the Met in Newham, east London on June 15 - he died in hospital six days later.
Scotland Yard believes the 25-year-old fell ill because he had'swallowed a large quantity of drugs' and a post-mortem found 'no injuries to suggest severe force was used', according to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
Edson's partner of six years Jucelma Da Silva warned supporters not to join yesterday's march from Forest Gate to Stratford because it would be hijacked by agitators who injured 14 police after pelting them with bricks and bottles.
Organisers had used an image of Edson and his son for a poster and Miss Da Silva said: 'I don't think its fair for so many people to plaster my son's face and start a movement which will then lead to a riot'.
Today east London residents told MailOnline that rioters set fire to 21 bins in one street and told them their houses would be next if they put them out.
Warning: The girlfriend of father-of-one Edir 'Edson' Frederico Da Costa, 25, pictured with their son, boycotted a protest against police after his death in custody because activists planned to riot
Miss Da Silva, pictured with her partner of six years before his death, warned against rioting in his memory
There was also anger that organisers used this picture of Edson and his son to encourage people to attend yesterday's march marred by violence
Six police officers have been injured after rioters launched bricks, bottles and lit street fires over the death of a young black father-of-one
A rioter appears to set fire to the contents of an overturned bin used to block Romford Road
The Black Lives Matter movement sat that police beat up Edson - the IPCC say that speculation like this is 'unhelpful' because a post-mortem found 'no injuries to suggest severe force was used'
The gang of thugs, described mainly as 'young adolescents', splintered away from a protest outside Forest Gate Police Station and started lighting fires in neighbouring streets.
IPCC STATEMENT ON THE DEATH OF MR DA COSTA This statement was released with the Independent Police Complaints Commission on Friday: 'We have contacted Mr Da Costa's family to share with them the findings from the pathologist and we are now able to correct some misinformation that is being widely shared on social media. 'The preliminary post mortem found that Mr Da Costa did not suffer a broken neck, or any other spinal injury during his interaction with the police. It found he did not suffer a broken collarbone or bleeding to the brain. Rigorous investigations into the cause of Mr Da Costa's death are continuing, including into the use of force. 'We are releasing this information now out of concern at the rapid spread of false and potentially inflammatory information. Our robust and independent investigation will seek to explain the circumstances around Mr Da Costa's death. In the meantime, false information could have very dangerous consequences, so please don't share it'.
Shocked residents of Windsor Road told how they spent most of the night awake 'guarding their property'.
Father-of-three Fayzur Rahman, 50, said: 'It was terrifying, they were everywhere outside. They had lit loads of bins on fire and were threatening residents who wanted to put the fires out. They were saying we will burn your house down if you put it out.'
He added 'There was no police down here, we were just left, people stayed up guarding their homes. The police should never of let them come down here.'
Friend Mohammed Rashid, 55, added: 'It's really shocking, everyone is pretty scared today. We got no sleep at all.'
Rae Vegum, 30, told how her young son was too scared to sleep.
She said: ''We heard chanting all day and then they started coming up here and getting bottles out of people's bins to throw at police.
'When they had finished doing that they started dragging the wheelie bins in the road and I saw them emptying petrol cans on them.
''They were sat in my garden, I was too scared to go out. I could see them shouting at other people telling them to get back inside, telling them that it had nothing to do with them.
'My five year old son couldn't sleep at all, he kept having nightmares about fires.''
She added: 'They had total control of the street, police weren't coming round here.
Councillor Ahmed Noor, who also lives in Windsor Road, said: ''We had all the family round for Eid celebrations, so this came as quite a nasty surprise.
'The fires were going for about four hours, it could of got very dangerous if a car had gone up. The youth got frustrated at the end of the protest and started burning bins. I think they just wanted to make a statement.
'They must have burnt around 21 wheelie bins. It was a truly terrifying experience.''
Fayzur Rahman revealed rioters warned residents their houses would be set alight if they trued to put out any fires. Rae Vegum says her five-year-old son was too scared to sleep
This is the shattered window of Forest Gate Police Station today where rioters started trouble overnight
A scorched road near Forest Gate Police Station today - the site of the main riots overnight
This white van was left with a shattered windscreen damaged by agitators who hijacked a peaceful march
A splinter group of rioters set fire to 21 bins in Windsor Road after raiding them for bottles to throw at police
Ahead of yesterday's protest Black Lives Matter UK said on their Facebook page: 'Forest Gate police. GUILTY OF MURDER. Join us if you're in Stratford' and later tweeted: 'ForestGate trending coz the police beat up a black man so bad he lost his life #JusticeforEdson'.
Edson's partner Miss Da Silva warned on Saturday that 'people were ready to use this protest and make justice with their own hands' and a family social media statement also said: 'Do not attend. Family does not support and have been informed this is a riot'.
As they predicted, last night rioters injured 14 police officers by throwing bricks and bottles at them and starting fires in the streets.
Miss Da Silva said on Instagram: 'Riots lead to a lot of casualties, ppl end up loosing [sic] their life's, some end up in jail and so on, so how is that justice for someone that just lost their life causing more pain to other families?! Lets us all not be blinded by our grief and pain. #JusticeforEdson [sic]'.
The Met said that the trouble started at 7.40pm last night when a crows -'many of whom had not been involved in the original protest'returned to Forest Gate Police Station and attacked officers and the building.
Over the next few hours the rioters splintered off into small groups, still pelting police and starting fires.
Fourteen officers received injuries, four of whom were taken to hospital for medical treatment.
These include a male police sergeant who was knocked unconscious after an object struck his helmet, as well as officers with neck, leg and wrist injuries. All four officers have since been discharged.
Borough Commander Ian Larnder said: 'Whilst we will always support the right for lawful protest, the events of last night cannot be justified. Not only were our officers confronted by violence, with several of them being injured, but local residents were severely disrupted.
'Behaviour such as that seen overnight will not be tolerated and an investigation will begin to identify those individuals who targeted our officers.'
At this time, police are not aware of any members of the public being injured or any significant damage to property.
Five people were arrested including a 16-year-old, a 26-year-old and a 22-year-old held on suspicion of criminal damage. Two men, aged 19 and 26, were arrested on suspicion of violent disorder. Three remain in custody.
The march from Forest Gate to Stratford turned violent after protesters chanting 'f*** the police' clashed with officers in riot gear.
Protesters, many with their faces obscured by scarves and t-shirts, hurled bricks and glass bottles, attacked police cars and lit fires in the road.
Footage published on social media shows hooded protesters starting large fires in the streets before taking bricks and hurling them at police officers and their vehicles. Others threw bottles as riot policed kettled them into streets.
The Black Lives Matter UK movement claims they didn't organise the rally but its supporters were at the event using the hashtag #ftp - short for f*** the police.
In a series of tweets it said: 'Riot police inflicting even more violence and brutality on the community. They pushed a pregnant woman on the ground and dragged her'.
'#ForestGate trending coz the police beat up a black man so bad he lost his life. His name was Edson Da Costa. Look him up #JusticeforEdson'.
Edir 'Edson' Frederico Da Costa (pictured), 25, died six days after he was arrested during a traffic stop in Newham, east London - his family claim it was police brutality but the police say he swallowed drugs
A young man ho appears to have been injured is taken away by riot police during the clashes in east London last night
A protester says something to riot police while being pushed back by another man last night
A rioter attacks a police car with a plank of wood as protests were hijacked last night
One protester held a sign saying 'police need to stop killing' at the demonstration
Social media is packed with footage of the rioting with this eyewitnesses saying that bottles were thrown as firefighters tried to put out street blazes
Critics accused Black Lives Matter of making claims of murder without evidence and seeking to divide the UK
Edson's family had asked supporters not to attend yesterday's protest fearing it would turn violent.
They claim his neck was broken and he suffered head injuries after police stopped a car carrying the father-of-one and two other people at around 10pm on June 21.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is investigating his death and say preliminary post-mortem examination indicated there were no neck, spinal, shoulder injuries or bleeding on the brain caused by police.
Scotland Yard say they believe Mr Da Costa had swallowed a 'large quantity' of drugs which may have been to blame for his death.
Edson's family claim his neck was broken and he suffered head injuries after police stopped a car carrying the father-of-one and two other people at around 10pm on June 21.
The 25-year-old has a two-year-old son and his girlfriend is believed to be pregnant with their second child. He moved to Britain from Portugal in 1996.
His father, Ginario da Costa, told the Portuguese press that witnesses claimed Edson 'fell to the ground and a policeman put a knee on his throat'.
His cousin Larissa has claimed that his injuries were 'indescribable' - the IPCC post-mortem examination claims he had no 'injuries to suggest severe force was used'
According to the Socialist Worker she wrote on Facebook 'My family hired a private doctor who gave us the list of injuries.'
'I will not rest until justice is served and these gangsters are put behind bars'.
'A system that constantly condones violence |
his team and the third place squad.High fives and quick stories among the competitors and observers followed for the next few minutes before the team shifted its focus to the next day's event."It's more of a game than what we would usually train, so it's a little different but at the same time you’re gassed up because you want to do well for your team," said team member Bryan Baylis. "You're carrying the banner, you want to show everybody what you can do."The competition is set up to test a SWAT team's ability and fitness, factors the teams have to master in real life.For instance, in Pedrick's favorite event, known as Super SWAT, the officer has to run a mile in a gas mask, stop and shoot a target about the size of an index card from 15 yards before repeating that task twice more for a total of three miles and three targets.The Round-Up also offers specialized classes for the officers who come from departments all over Florida, the Midwest, Texas and California. Overseas squads take part, too, including teams from Hungary, Switzerland, Sweden and Bosnia. Several South American and Caribbean Island nations also took part."It builds real camaraderie among the teams," Pedrick said. "You get to reach out to the other teams, develop some training opportunities."The Kennedy team, made up of former military and special operations members, spends considerable time training during the weeks leading up to the competition as well."It gets us prepared so if something happens, we'll be able to the job under pressure," Pedrick said.MEXICABLE, a cable-car line 4.9km (three miles) long, soars above Ecatepec, a poor suburb of Mexico City. Open for just over a year, its 185 gondolas carry 18,000 people a day between San Andrés de La Cañada, at the top of the hill, and Santa Clara Coatitla at the bottom. The trip makes five stops en route and takes 19 minutes, compared with the 80-minute bus trip residents previously endured. The cable car is “super quick and much less stressful,” says Nelly Hernández, a passenger accompanied by her awestruck four-year-old daughter.
In rich Western countries, cable cars are mainly for tourists. Latin America, in contrast, has adopted them as mass transit for the poor. They suit the region’s mountainous cities, many of which have expanded chaotically, says Julio Dávila of University College London. Ecatepec’s population jumped after an earthquake hit Mexico City in 1985.
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The pioneer was Medellín, Colombia’s second city. Refugees from the country’s long civil war had crowded into hillside districts. Widening streets to create new bus lanes or extending the metro would have been too costly. A cable car, opened in 2004, was the answer. Since then Cali, Caracas and Rio de Janeiro (as well as Mexico City) have built similar systems. In September Evo Morales, Bolivia’s president, opened La Paz’s fifth teleférico, extending the world’s longest and highest network with a link to the clifftop city of El Alto.
One reason cable cars are popular is that governments usually subsidise them in order to compete with private buses. Mexicable charges seven pesos (37 cents), less than half of its break-even price. Politicians like them because they can be built without displacing large groups of people; it often takes 18 months or less, in time for re-election. “Mayors think, ‘I’m going to be cutting the ribbon’,” says Mr Dávila.
The jury is out on whether cable cars are worth the cost. In 2012 Mr Dávila and others conducted a study of Medellín’s system, which found that crime fell and jobs grew in areas the cars served. However, the city also made investments in policing and economic development at the same time, which may have been responsible for these gains. The researchers did find that the cable car made residents prouder of their community. People in Ecatepec feel the same way. Bandits go after buses but leave the cable cars alone, says David Ramírez, a passenger. The gondolas’ cosy interiors include two facing metal benches, encouraging conversation.
Residents of Complexo de Alemão, a shantytown in Rio de Janeiro, have no such cause for cheer. Rio’s state government paid 253m reais ($135m) to a consortium led by Odebrecht, a construction company, to build a cable car connecting the area to the city’s metro. That now looks ill-advised. In a plea bargain, the former head of Odebrecht’s infrastructure arm said it had paid 94m reais in bribes and donations to the state’s former governor, who was later convicted on corruption charges, to win a development deal that included the federally-funded cable-car project. For five years, residents rode the gondolas free of charge. But they have been grounded since September 2016, after the state stopped paying the firm that ran them.
Despite the Rio fiasco, Latin American cities are still cabling up. Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, will open its first commuter cable car next year. The state of Mexico, which borders Mexico City, intends to build two new lines by 2023. In all, 20 projects are planned in the region. The sky, it seems, is the limit.Print Email Font Resize Font Resize
Rangers rescue man lost in Rocky Mountain National Park
Authorities on Saturday rescued a 58-year-old man who spent a night lost in Rocky Mountain National Park. Two skiers found the man, who lives in Grand Forks, N.D., in deep snow about 300 yards off the North Longs Peak Trail, south of Alberta Falls, said Kyle Patterson, a spokeswoman for Rocky Mountain National Park. He got lost while hiking Friday. Related Articles January 20, 2017 Pilot says he lost engine power before putting plane down on high-altitude Garfield County snowfield
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Park rangers reached the man, who was suffering from hypothermia and additional injuries related to exposure, and provided advanced medical care.
They evacuated him by toboggan and took him to Glacier Gorge Trailhead. He was then taken by an Estes Park Medical Center ambulance to the Park-n-Ride area along Bear Lake Road. He was then flown by Flight For Life to University of Colorado Hospital.
Rocky Mountain National Park’s search and rescue team was assisted by Larimer County Search and Rescue. More than 15 people were involved in the operation.A frustrating couple days of coding has crystalized a new rule for me:
If you can’t demonstrate your new feature in three lines of code, you’re not done.
But it works from the client UI? Great. And it’s fully tested? Super! But you’re still not done.
If it took twenty lines of setup code to make the unit tests work, you’re not done. There should be a close to one-to-one correspondence between artifacts in the UI and artifacts in your codebase. Did you add a new command? There should be a single methodthat encapsulates that command. Did you add a new form? There should be a single classwhich can be instantiated in a valid state with a single constructor or factory call.
I’m not saying this just for the sake of style. This is for your own good. It’s so that six months from now, you can look at that feature on the screen and track it to a single point in the code. It’s so that when you’re training the new guy, you can open up a console and type three lines to demonstrate how that feature works. It’s so that when you write a conference presentation on your brilliant code, you can fit the examples on one slide.
Don’t just be a domain expert; be an API designer. A humane one. The brain you may save from imploding is your own.
I don’t have time to go into technical details, but the Facade pattern is your friend.Maqbool [2003] by Ojasvi Mohanty
Kala Bazar [1960] by Ojasvi Mohanty
Andhadhun Release date 5 October 2018 bharath
96 - Tamil Movie - Star cast Vijaysethupathi and Trisha in Lead role. A chance visit to his school leads to a photographer connecting with his school friends, and they decide to have a reunion
96 - Movie Minimal Poster Trisha | Vijay Sethupathi
ROJA - Tamil Film. Roja, a simple girl from a village in Tamil Nadu, makes desperate efforts to find her husband, Rishi, after he is kidnapped by militants during a secret undercover mission in Jammu and Kashmir. #ManiRatnam @thearvindswami #ARRahman #minmalposter #posterdesign
2.0 (2018) By Kaustav Dasgupta
Gold (2018) By Kaustav Dasgupta (Also submitted for Poster Design Competition by India Film Project)
CityLights Release date 30 May 2014 bharath mohan
Bharat Ane Nenu (English: I, Bharat) Release date 20 April 2018 Bharath Mohan
Rangasthalam (Translation: Stage) Release date 30 March 2018 bharath
Irumbuthirai - Tamil movie. storyline about cyber crime thriller - actor vishal samantha and arjun in leading role. it got dubed in telugu as abimanyuduThe NCAA tournament field was set last night, which means today should be used for one thing and one thing only: discussing the terrible job the selection committee did. Fill out your brackets Tuesday morning. For now, we need to ask the important questions. Who got screwed? Who got a cakewalk? And does any of this really matter since Kentucky is going 40-0 anyway?
I’m here to provide some answers. Here are your Selection Sunday winners and losers.
Winner: Duke
Duke lost to an NIT team at home by 16. I swear this was a real thing that happened. The game aired on national television on a Tuesday night in January. Miami wore orange uniforms. Angel Rodriguez and that Belgian dude on Miami both went nuts. Duke played no defense, couldn’t hit from the 3-point line, and ended up humiliated. Miami led by as many as 20. Duke led for only a handful of minutes in the first half. Why doesn’t anybody else remember this happened?
More March Madness All the Grantland coverage of the 2015 NCAA tournament, right here. I get why Duke got a 1-seed. The Blue Devils have a ton of great wins. Duke’s A-game is better than even Kentucky’s A-game. If you watched any of Duke’s marquee wins, its performance probably stuck with you. It beat some really good teams in really tough environments and looked really good doing it. But hot damn — do losses not matter anymore? Shoot, the Miami game wasn’t even a loss. It was a massacre, and no other top team came close to getting beat that badly. Here’s a list of teams in the selection committee’s top 25 that have home losses by 15-plus points on their résumés: Duke, West Virginia.
West Virginia’s loss came against Baylor, a 3-seed in the NCAA tournament. Duke’s loss came against Miami, a 2-seed in the NIT. And that Miami game wasn’t just a single off night. Duke also got smoked by NC State. Notre Dame handed it to them in the ACC tournament for its second win over Duke. Nobody is disputing that Duke has better wins than any other team. But how can we ignore Duke’s alarming losses? If that’s how we evaluate teams, they might as well put together the hardest schedule possible, notch a few solid wins, and then rest their starters for the rest of the regular season.
One more important note on Duke: It got the third 1-seed. It won zero trophies this season and has by far the worst losses of all the teams that were considered for 1-seeds. Yet Duke got the third 1-seed, which suggests it was never in danger of missing the cut. It also tells me the committee might as well have said, “We really want to see Duke play Kentucky in the national title game. It’s the game America wants. We wouldn’t get that if Duke were the fourth 1-seed because then it would be on the same side of the bracket as Kentucky. You understand, right?”
Loser: Virginia
Lance King/Getty Images
Virginia was consistently better than Duke all season. The Hoos have two full-strength losses on their résumé. One was by six points against a 1-seed. The other was by four points against a 4-seed. For Virginia to not get a 1-seed after it was the best team in the best conference in America and dominated college basketball for four months is insane. It hurts to even think about. I shouldn’t be surprised, but I’m gobsmacked that the committee got suckered into buying Duke’s sexiness over Virginia’s steady and consistent excellence.
But whatever. Duke is really freaking good and the Blue Devils did beat Virginia in Charlottesville. And at least Virginia didn’t end up in Kentucky’s region, so I guess it’s not worth getting too upset about. Virginia should be able to get to the Final Four anyway. It just has to beat Belmont in the first round and then probably Michiiiiiiiiget outta here. Michigan State? Are you serious? Here’s what I wrote about Virginia’s two-point Sweet 16 loss to the Spartans in last year’s tournament:
The Spartans had the right combination of talent, familiarity with methodical and physical games, and an engaged Branden Dawson. It was like Virginia was playing a slightly more talented version of itself.
Guess who has talent? Guess who’s comfortable playing Virginia’s methodical and physical style? GUESS WHICH MICHIGAN STATE PLAYER JUST AVERAGED 15.7 POINTS AND 7.7 BOARDS IN THE BIG TEN TOURNAMENT??? I just got off the phone with one of the selection committee members, who wanted me to pass on this message to Virginia fans: “Suck it. Suck it so hard.”
Winner: The Midwest
Just look at these potential matchups in the Midwest region:
Kentucky vs. Cincinnati (campuses separated by 85 miles)
Indiana vs. Cincinnati (campuses separated by 130 miles)
Kentucky vs. Purdue (The Kyle Macy Bowl)
Cincinnati vs. West Virginia (The Bob Huggins Bowl)
Kentucky vs. Indiana to go to the Final Four
Purdue vs. Indiana to go to the Final Four
Maryland vs. Indiana (2002 national title rematch) to go to the Final Four
Kansas vs. Wichita State
Kansas vs. Kentucky rematch after the bloodbath from November
Wichita State vs. Kentucky (rematch of the best game in last year’s tournament) to go to the Final Four
Bobby Hurley vs. Bryce Drew (two NCAA tournament darlings)
Any of the five teams from Indiana (Notre Dame, Butler, Purdue, Indiana, and Valparaiso) playing each other
TOM CREAN VS. RICK BARNES!!!!!!!
I hate that geography is the top priority with how teams are bracketed. But if that’s the way it has to be, I guess I can live with all the story lines the Midwest can give us.
Loser: Kansas
Ed Zurga/Getty Images
Whoever ended up as the 2-seed in Kentucky’s region was always going to be considered a loser. It gets worse for Kansas, though. For starters, the Jayhawks have already played Kentucky, and that game went … not well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUV9tznSX6I
Then there’s the added layer of Kentucky beating Kansas in the 2012 national title game. Worst of all, Kansas might have to play Wichita State in the second round. Sure, the Jayhawks should win. But Shockers fans have desperately wanted this game for years. Kansas has always stayed away because there’s nothing to gain from it. If Kansas wins, nobody cares because it’s big, bad Kansas and beating teeny-weeny Wichita State doesn’t mean jack. But if Wichita State wins? That’s how you get headlines like this.
So yeah — not the best draw for Kansas.
Winner: Power Conference Schools
Texas, Indiana, LSU, Georgia, and UCLA were all on the bubble. None even has to bother with a play-in game. Meanwhile, the 1-seeds in the NIT — and therefore the first four teams to miss the cut for the NCAA tournament — are Temple, Colorado State, Old Dominion, and Richmond. It pays to be rich.
Loser: Whatever Texas Fans Still Exist
Chris Covatta/Getty Images
I was courtside for Texas’s collapse against Iowa State in the Big 12 tournament. It was beautiful. I mean, it was awful and the Longhorns should still be beating themselves up for coming away empty after playing their best game of the season. But that’s what made it so beautiful — the crown jewel in Rick Barnes’s 17 years of Barnesing at Texas might have come in his last meaningful game for the Longhorns. There was something poetic about it. Barnes didn’t just shoot himself in the foot. He shot himself in the foot, and the kickback from the gun hit him in the face. Then, disoriented from the blow, he shot his other foot, fell down a flight of stairs, and got pantsed by Fred Hoiberg when he tried to stand back up. Texas was up 10 with 3:40 left and the ball in its possession. It lost in regulation. It was the perfect way for Barnes to go out.
But now Texas is in the NCAA tournament, meaning Texas fans have to endure at least one more game of Barnes Barnesing at a level that won’t even register on the Barnesometer. If Texas had been relegated to the NIT, Longhorns fans could’ve skipped the game, looked up the score later, and said, “Sounds about right,” when they saw that Texas choked in the first round. But with Texas technically in the running for a national title, fans have to watch. And it’s a shame they do. That Iowa State game would’ve been a great swan song for Barnes. Of course, this is assuming Barnes doesn’t sign a five-year extension this summer, which is an assumption we probably shouldn’t be making.
Winner: The Big East
Big East fans have been begging for respect all season. The conference is at least the third-best in America, yet it doesn’t receive nearly as much attention as the other big conferences. Big East games aren’t shown on ESPN, meaning its teams are unknown to all the casual fans who just tune into ESPN and watch whatever’s on. When the original Big East broke up, it was called the “death” of the conference, so fans assumed what was left of the conference wasn’t worth paying attention to. Every Big East school is private and more than half have an enrollment of fewer than 10,000. Villanova — a team with no obvious future NBA players — is head and shoulders better than the rest of the league. These factors all contribute to making the conference underappreciated, and that sparks Big East fans’ paranoid fantasies of a conspiracy to keep the conference down.
As it turned out, the Big East had nothing to worry about. The selection committee LOVES the Big East. Villanova got the second overall 1-seed, which wasn’t a huge surprise but was still nice. Georgetown got a 4-seed (!!!). Xavier, Butler, and Providence all got 6-seeds, meaning the Big East had five teams in the committee’s top 25. Throw in a 9-seed for St. John’s and that makes six bids for the 10-team conference, with all six nowhere near the bubble. Not bad.
Loser: Sean Miller
Gene Sweeney Jr./Getty Images
Miller is considered the best coach in college basketball who has never made a Final Four. He’s led three teams to the Elite Eight, where he has come away with nothing but heartbreak. This year’s Arizona Wildcats are the best team Miller has ever had, leading many to think this might be the year he finally gets over the hump. Assuming Arizona takes care of Texas Southern in the first round, Miller’s path to Indianapolis could look like this:
1. Ohio State in the second round
Miller and Thad Matta go back more than 20 years, when the two were assistants at Miami (Ohio) under Herb Sendek. When Matta became head coach at Xavier, he hired Miller as an assistant and the two coached together for three seasons. When Matta left for Ohio State, Miller eventually took the Xavier job, where he coached for five seasons before heading to Arizona. In the 11 years Miller has been a head coach, he has coached against Matta twice. The first game was in the second round of the 2007 NCAA tournament, when Miller was still at Xavier. This is how that game ended:
The second game was in the 2013 Sweet 16 when Miller was at Arizona. This is how that game ended:
When Sean Miller and Thad Matta meet, it makes for a fantastic time for everyone but Miller.
2. Xavier in the Sweet 16
No coach wants to go against a former program that he left on good terms. Adding to the drama: Xavier coach Chris Mack was Miller’s assistant throughout Miller’s tenure at Xavier, making this another friend-vs.-friend showdown.
3. Wisconsin in the Elite Eight
If you don’t remember last year’s tournament, when Wisconsin and Arizona played for a spot in the Final Four, here’s a reminder of how that one ended.
Wisconsin and Arizona both lost some key parts, but they also both brought back much more than they lost. That potential rematch — in the same round as last season — might be the game of the tournament.
If Miller survives this emotional gantlet, the NCAA should postpone the Final Four until June so he has time to fully recover.
Winner: Kentucky
Loser: The Rest of the Field
This sums up my overall feelings on the tournament draw.
Damn. Just realized every team got placed in Kentucky's tournament. That's brutal luck there. — Mark Titus (@clubtrillion) March 15, 2015
The NCAA tournament really starts if/when Kentucky loses. Everything else is just a formality.
And yet, we’re all going to still enjoy the hell out of the ride. Tuesday night can’t get here soon enough.Werewolf: The Forsaken
The Idigam Chronicle Anthology is now available in PDF on DriveThruFiction!
On the hunt, your blood races. When something hunts you, it runs cold. Your blood carries the future of Uratha and the burning fire of kuruth. It’s powerful, but ultimately transient.
You know things in your bones. They change with your forms but stay strong. The power of your teeth and claws comes from your bone. It runs deeper than blood, a slow power that doesn’t fade.
So you hunt. It’s what you do, a key part of your psyche. You hunt people and spirits, hosts and other werewolves. But those things hunt you in turn. Werewolves are always one bad choice away from being the prey.
The Idigam Chronicle Anthology contains 11 short stories (7 original to this collection) of bestial violence and supernatural terror, in celebration of the second edition of Werewolf: The Forsaken.
Featuring stories by:
Chris Allen, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Jim Fisher, Matthew McFarland, John Newman, Claire Redfield, Peter Schafer, Chris Shaffer, Leath Sheales, and Amy VeeresNew Orleans police officers and members of a loosely knit marching group clashed late Sunday night in the Marigny area, resulting in some marchers being struck with stun guns, and at least six officers being injured.
According to eyewitnesses, the confrontation came to a head about 10:30 p.m. near the intersection of St. Roch Avenue and Chartres Street in a largely residential neighborhood.
An NOPD spokesman could not immediately provide details about the incident but said a preliminary police report showed that officers tried to break up a crowd about an hour earlier at 9:30 p.m., near Frenchmen and Dauphine streets. Officer Garry Flot said reports showed six officers were treated for injuries and two police cars were damaged.
According to a parade participant, police began to follow the krewe a short time after it began its stroll through the French Quarter, Marigny and Upper 9th Ward.
Emily Ratner, a Loyola law student who marched with the parade, said police pulled in front of the group near Chartres Street and St. Roch Avenue and grabbed a man, telling him "you don't have a permit."
Ratner said the tension quickly escalated and that police brandished guns and deployed Tasers on several marchers.
Police could not immediately say whether Tasers were used. Anytime an officer uses force or deploys a Taser, police protocol dictates that the action must be documented in a "resisting arrest" report.
On Sunday night, shortly after the clash, Ratner described a chaotic scene.
"It seemed like they were grabbing people at random," Ratner said of the officers.
Colleen Tucker, of Flagstaff, Ariz., who was in town visiting a friend, said she saw 14 police cars at the intersection. Tucker said a melee break out between marchers and officers.
Tucker said she spoke to some police who told her there had been vandalism to police cruisers.
"We saw no violence directed at police," she said. Tucker, a tourist, leaves for home Monday.
"This was my last impression of New Orleans."
Staff writer Kari Dequine contributed to this report. Danny Monteverde can be reached at dmonteverde@timespicayune.com or 504.825.3482.Baltimore is a law unto itself.
Sitting outside the usual New York / Los Angeles axis of cool, the city's music scene has quietly, confidently gone about its business un-noticed by large sections of the press.
Yet scratch the surface and you'll find one of the most fascinating pools of talent in North America. Mt. Royal, then, might well be newcomers but to fans in Baltimore the musicians involved already have lengthy, respected careers.
Kicked off as an instrumental project, Mt. Royal asked Katrina Ford to supply vocals for two tracks. The results were so striking, so beguiling that the band immediately asked Ford to become a full time member as sessions on their debut EP commenced.
Self-titled, Mt. Royal's new release is industrial pop music, artfully produced synth melodies mingling with out-there production. Containing six tracks, there's a darkness to the band's music which fuels Katrina Ford's vocals as she intones those subtle, often quite poetic lyrics.
Clash is able to premiere Mt. Royal's new EP - check it out below.
'Mt. Royal' is set to be released on January 27th via Bella Union.Following their appearance at 6 Music Live, Underworld play two hours of music that inspired their seminal album Dubnobasswithmyheadman, which celebrates its 20th anniversary.
Following their amazing performance at 6 Music Live this week, Underworld play two hours of music that inspired their seminal album dubnobasswithmyheadman, which celebrates its 20th anniversary.
The band, made up of Karl Hyde and Rick Smith, rose to prominence in the early 1990s with dubnobasswithmyheadman, which fused acid house with contemporary techno. Born Slippy, as featured on Trainspotting, propelled the band into the charts, and a series of electric live performances followed, cementing their reputation as one of the UK's biggest dance acts.
To celebrate two decades of the album, the duo take to the 6 Mix decks for two hours of music which inspired the album, including tracks from Orbital, Future Sound of London, Moby and fellow 6 Mix DJs Andrew Weatherall and X-Press 2.In which the virtues of automated mechanical arboreal pruning are extolled over quaint manual labor, as applied to web development build processes.
The setup
Why does size matter so much for these libraries? Your first instinct is probably, "because the more bytes you shuttle across the wire, the slower the app starts up." Yes, this is true. I'd also say you're wrong. The primary reason that size matters for these libraries is because traditional web development has no intelligent or automated way to prune unused code so you can ship only the code that is used over the wire.
The web is full of links, yet web dev has no linker
The web development workflow is missing a linking step. A linker's job is to combine distinct project files into a single executable. A smart linker will only include the symbols and code that are actually used by the application, thus pruning unused code. The traditional web developer does not have an intelligent linker.
Web developers need machines and tools to take care of linking and minifying so they can get back to comparing traditional web development libraries based on actual feature sets instead of how femto they are. It's 2013, and the job of micro-managing web development libraries is still being done by humans. Humans: the same people that brought you this little gem so they can get back to comparing traditional web development libraries based on actual feature sets instead of how femto they are. Check this out:
I want my web programming language to offer enough structure and intelligent tools to take care of pruning, minification, and more. This is why I dig Dart, because it has the structure (classes, libraries, packages, type annotations, metadata, etc) and the tools (dart2js) for a modern development workflow.
Don't just prune unused code, shake it off
Dart tools support tree shaking, a technique to "shake" off unused code, thus shrinking the size of the deployed application. I can import rich libraries chock full of useful goodness into my application, but only the functions I actually use will be included in my generated output. Awesome!
Real code example, shaken not stirred
Consider this simple Dart library, ironically named embiggen. There are two top-level functions in this library, embiggen and unembiggen.
library embiggen; String embiggen(String msg) { if (msg == null) { throw new ArgumentError("must not be null"); } return msg.toUpperCase(); } String unembiggen(String msg) { if (msg == null) { throw new ArgumentError("must not be null"); } return msg.toLowerCase(); }
Here is the main program, which uses only embiggen:
import 'package:embiggen/embiggen.dart'; main() { var args = new Options().arguments; if (args.length == 0) { print("Usage: dart embiggen.dart phrase"); return; } var phrase = args[0]; print(embiggen(phrase)); }
I love embiggen, but I'm less entralled with unembiggen and will never use it. Do I have to search for nano-embiggen?! Nay! Let the linker do it's tree-shaking magic.
Run the main application through the dart2js tool, which supports tree-shaking for both JavaScript and Dart outputs. Note there is no command-line option for tree shaking, because dart2js is always tree shaking. For simplicity's sake, let's generate Dart.
dart2js --output-type=dart embiggen.dart
Gaze into the tree-shook generated output (reformatted to make it easy to read):
main() { var args=new Options().arguments; if (args.length == 0) { print("Usage: dart embiggen.dart phrase"); return; } var phrase=args[0];print(embiggen(phrase)); } String embiggen(String msg) { if (msg == null) { throw new ArgumentError("must not be null"); } return msg.toUpperCase(); }
dart2js --minify --output-type=dart embiggen.dart
main(){var A=new Options().arguments;if(A.length==0){print("Usage: dart embiggen.dart phrase");return;}var C=A[0];print(B(C));} B( A){if(A==null){throw new ArgumentError("must not be null");} return A.toUpperCase();}
Why this works
Moral of the story
web developers need a better workflow that automates tree shaking, dead code elimination, minification, and more. Stop caring how big a library is, and instead let a tool or build step produce the smallest output possible for you, ideally by tree shaking the application.
One option to consider is
Regardless of what language you use, demand more from your tools. I believe that, dead code elimination, minification, and more. Stop caring how big a library is, and instead let a tool or build step produce the smallest output possible for you, ideally by tree shaking the application.One option to consider is Dart, with its structured language and intelligent tools, like a tree-shaking and minifying compiler. With dart2js, you can import entire libraries, regardless of size, and generate only the code that is required to run the program.Regardless of what language you use, demand more from your tools.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Bob Nystrom's OSCON presentation from 2012, from which I humbly embraced-and-extended the setup of this post.
Ever notice how the primary bit of marketing for many traditional web programming libraries is their download size? Why is that?Notice how the embiggen function is included, but, even though I imported the library. The tree, it is shaken!But is this the best we can do? The dart2js tool also supports minification with the --minify flag.The minified, single-line, tree-shook generated output:The structure of Dart programs cannot change after compilation. In other words, Dart does not support altering class structure during runtime. Dart also does not have extreme dynamism like eval()., and thus can be more aggressive about tree shaking and minifications.The iPad mini may debut as a Wi-Fi only device, and the iPad 3 revision iMore revealed back in August may be compatible with International LTE frequencies, just like the iPhone 5. This according to [the Guardian]'s(http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/oct/09/ipad-mini-wifi-uk-4g) Charles Arthur:
Industry sources indicated to the Guardian that they do not expect to see 3G-capable versions of the iPad mini. That would allow Apple to produce it comparatively cheaply and to limit the top price of the product, while retaining mobile broadband connectivity for its pricier iPad line.
Both the original and new 7-inch Kindle Fire and the Nexus 7, the primary competition for the rumored iPad mini, lack a cellular option. Apple has also thus far resisted including cellular connectivity in the iPod touch line. The original iPad was announced with both Wi-Fi and 3G, but the 3G version took an extra month to be released. The suggestion seems to be that Apple would use cellular as a way to push buyers towards the bigger iPad. However, not having cellular on a tablet device, even a mini-sized one, would be incredibly annoying. So, hopefully, at worst we'll be looking at a staggered release like the original iPad, and at best the same old $130 up-sell as the rest of the iPad line.
Given what we’ve heard about the size of the iPad mini, a cellular version of the device would be vary attractive to those who want something bigger than their phone with them when they’re out and about. It would also give Apple’s smaller tablet a distinct advantage over competition from Amazon and Google.
The Guardian also repeats rumors iMore has been hearing since August, namely that the iPad 3 will be refreshed at the same time. iMore has already mentioned the Lightning connector, new, cooler internals, and potential LTE chipset update, but the Guardian adds that such an LTE update would also allow the new iPad 3 to work on international LTE frequencies, like Europe. (The current iPad 3 only offers North American LTE.)
Would lack of cellular on an iPad 3 be a deal-breaker for anyone?
Source: The GuardianColin McComb has a soft-edged voice, which offers a nice contrast to the intense stare his face can't help but settle into. Bald and gaunt and wiry in that peculiarly American way, he is what my grandfather would have called a railway man. But McComb is not a railway man. On the day I meet him at Rezzed, he is a dungeon master: the same preoccupation with nuts and bolts as a guy who rides the rails, perhaps, but these nuts and bolts hold together story and far more exotic materials - and McComb's rails can take you anywhere.
Most of the time, McComb's job offers a strange contemporary twist on the DM role: he is the creative lead on the video game Torment: Tides of Numenera. This is the long-awaited spiritual successor to the beloved Infinity Engine game Planescape Torment - sufficiently long-awaited and beloved that its Kickstarter in 2013 broke records, eventually netting the developer inXile just over four million dollars. It is also more than that, though, and this brings us back to McComb's one-off DM gig at Rezzed. The new game is based on a pen and paper RPG called Numenera, itself a recent Kickstarter success. McComb is going to allow Eurogamer's Bertie Purchese and I to play Numenera with him. Not the video game, which is still in development, but the pen and paper one. We are going to attack things and grab loot. McComb is going to DM.
He is a perfect DM, and not just because he looks like Michael Keaton cast in the role of Professor Hugo Strange. McComb clearly loves Numenera and knows it inside out, but what really elevates him is his ability to describe and shape a story as if he, too, is witnessing it unfold for the first time. To a certain extent he is, of course: before we meet, he delivers a speaker session at Rezzed in which he says that Numenera is providing the basis for a video game that is as reactive to player choices as it is deep and filled with glorious incident. Beyond that, though, he simply has that rare ability to sweep people up in a narrative - and to appear swept up along with them.
Numenera offers him a lot |
end of this deal.
Terms & Conditions
What Georgia Tech gets:
Georgia Tech agrees to outfit its teams exclusively in Russell Athletic jerseys, accessories, and supplies, with some exceptions. These exceptions are based on the limitations of Russell’s inventory and manufacturing, including things like shoes, football gloves, and medically necessary gear, and occasionally dictate other providers to be specifically used (Dudley softballs) or outlaw specific providers elsewhere (a slew as they relate to golf equipment).
The original contract was for 10 years, beginning in July of 2008. Then-AD Dan Radakovich had the option to cancel the final 5 years of the partnership prior to August 1, 2012. He elected not to do so. He left to be Clemson’s AD less than 3 months later.
The first five years of the contract, Russell paid Georgia Tech a total of $3.85 million for sponsorship rights. The final five years, Russell agreed to pay $4.55 million, $950,000 is still due to be paid out after June 30, 2017. The payout in any given year also increases based on various incentives, such as a BCS (now New Year’s Six) bowl win in football, a conference championship in women’s basketball, or the baseball team winning the College World Series.
The first four years of the contract, Russell provided $1.1 million in apparel each year to the GTAA for athletes. That amount increased to $1.25 million in the summer of 2012, and by $50,000 every two years afterwards, most recently increasing to apparel worth $1.35 million per year beginning in July of 2016. Throughout the deal, Russell also provides $100,000 of apparel per year for coaches and administrators.
Russell also agrees to help market Georgia Tech through means like using logos and imagery in marketing collateral and industry trade shows, linking from their website to ramblinwreck.com, and by using “reasonable best efforts to increase the presence of GTAA licensed apparel at retail”.
What Russell Athletic gets:
Georgia Tech agrees to various terms relating to Russell’s marketing efforts, including posting signs in stadiums, making announcements during games, coaches participating in promotions, and so forth. (This, of course, is in addition to the marketing benefits that come with having the teams outfitted in their gear.)
Georgia Tech also agrees to provide varying amounts of tickets, field access, suite access, and road trip accommodations to Russell for football games, along with other lesser benefits for men’s basketball, women’s basketball, and baseball games.
Can Georgia Tech get out of this contract before it ends?
Maybe — it’s hard to say. Doing so seems possible, although not like something that would be worth the trouble & legal fees to go through with, and certainly not a battle that’s worth fighting (or likely to be fought) with under 15 months remaining.
Section 8 of the contract enables either side to terminate the agreement in the case that the other side isn’t holding up their end of the bargain, provided that the offending side doesn’t make efforts to correct their fault(s) within 30 days of being notified of their shortcomings. As for whether that would/should/could apply to Russell in this agreement, an argument could be made that they’ve done a poor job at upholding some of the following items in section 5:
(e) Create a link from Russell Athletic’s website to RamblinWreck.cstv.com.
Searching “RamblinWreck” and “Georgia Tech” on Russell Athletic’s website produced roughly 0 results, and there’s not a section on the site that seems like an obvious candidate to serve as a link to Georgia Tech.
(g) Use reasonable best efforts to increase the presence of GTAA licensed apparel at retail.
A quick check of the official campus bookstore’s online apparel offering doesn’t show a shred of Russell-branded items within the first 6 pages of search results (72 items), and a search shows only 2 items claiming Russell Athletic as the manufacturer (as compared to 26 Nike-branded items and 73 Under Armour-branded items). I’ll let you draw your own conclusions with where I’m going with this.
(i) Designate GTAA as Russell’s first “performance institution”. Russell will utilize GTAA athletes and facilities as a performance lab for testing new product concepts and/or innovations.
Maybe these two organizations are awful at marketing each other, or maybe I’m getting my news from the wrong sources, but...I’ve hardly seen anything suggesting that what Russell is providing to Georgia Tech could possibly qualify as “innovative”.
What’s next?
Barring a mutual agreement to end the current deal early, the Yellow Jackets are stuck wearing Russell Athletic’s gear until July 1, 2018. From there, Todd Stansbury has made it pretty clear that his athletic department will be moving on to a new provider, presumably one of the “Big Three” in the industry today: Nike, Adidas, and Under Armour. As for which seems to be the primary candidate, well...that seems complicated.
Nike already holds several of the major brands in college sports, which are good to associate with, but also would presumably draw attention away from Georgia Tech’s brand and needs. This is probably the single most iconic of the three brands that would have the easiest time resonating with recruits, but it certainly wouldn’t provide any sort of recruiting advantage given how saturated the market already is with Nike-sponsored teams.
already holds several of the major brands in college sports, which are good to associate with, but also would presumably draw attention away from Georgia Tech’s brand and needs. This is probably the single most iconic of the three brands that would have the easiest time resonating with recruits, but it certainly wouldn’t provide any sort of recruiting advantage given how saturated the market already is with Nike-sponsored teams. Under Armour seems to be the favorite in the clubhouse among fans (including yours truly), and also has a majority of the apparel for sale in the bookstore’s online outlet. Unfortunately, a quick check of their stock price shows that UA finds themselves at a five-year low after taking huge spills in the spring of 2014 and again in 2016, and never really recovering from the latter. In other words, business doesn’t seem to be going particularly great for Kevin Plank’s crew right now, and signing a giant, lucrative apparel contract would seem unusual given those circumstances.
seems to be the favorite in the clubhouse among fans (including yours truly), and also has a majority of the apparel for sale in the bookstore’s online outlet. Unfortunately, a quick check of their stock price shows that UA finds themselves at a five-year low after taking huge spills in the spring of 2014 and again in 2016, and never really recovering from the latter. In other words, business doesn’t seem to be going particularly great for Kevin Plank’s crew right now, and signing a giant, lucrative apparel contract would seem unusual given those circumstances. Adidas, however, finds their stock at its highest since the turn of the century, and in good position for a big deal (should they choose to be). On the other hand, Adidas seems to be moving away from major college apparel deals, losing major contracts over the last few years with schools like Miami, Michigan, Notre Dame, and Wisconsin, and only retaining sponsorship deals with a small handful of Power-5 programs (with Louisville, Miami & N.C. State being the only ACC programs using Adidas). All that, not to mention that the ideas that Adidas has in terms of revolutionizing visual identities are...unique.
As for which of these three brands is most likely to end up sponsoring Georgia Tech, it’s hard to say — each has their ups and downs, and that’s before money comes into the picture. Whoever it ends up being, though, you should expect to hear a final answer at some point in 2017 -- recent precedent with Michigan, Wisconsin, and Miami suggest that a new deal will be announced at least 9 months before it goes into effect. With the date for a new deal to begin set for July 1, 2018, that means that we should be hearing something by roughly October 1.Image caption Extinct gomphotheres such as Amebelodon once ranged across the Americas, spreading seeds
The thieving habits of rodents have emerged as an unlikely salvation of tropical forests, research suggests.
Massive mammals known as gomphotheres once ranged the Americas, distributing big tree seeds as they roamed.
But they are extinct, and it has not been clear what is spreading seeds now.
In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists report using radio tags to show that rodents take and bury seeds, stealing from each other, spreading them far and wide.
In this system, it seems that the re-caching behaviour is on steroids Ben Hirsch, STRI
One of the seeds passed through the paws of 36 agoutis - half-metre-long rodents common in the forests of Central and South America.
The first agouti to get to a seed carried it an average of 8.75m from its parent tree.
But after repeated burials and disinterments - usually by different agoutis - it ended up an average of 68m distant.
"Agoutis moved seeds at a scale that none of us had ever imagined," said lead researcher Patrick Jansen, who holds posts at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama and at Wageningen and Groningen Universities in The Netherlands.
Hard nut to crack
Dispersal of seeds is crucial to the survival of trees such as the Astrocaryum standleyanum palms involved in this study.
Image caption Astrocaryum trees produce a copious supply of fruits with a hard-shelled nut inside
Without it, each tree's offspring becomes an island in the forest; a tiny fraction of the seeds will become new trees, and there is no chance for genes to mix.
Eventually, the species would be expected to go extinct.
A standleyanum, also known as the black palm, produces fruits that are sought out by agoutis and other animals.
At the centre of each is an incredibly hard shell known as an endocarp, which protects the seeds inside.
Gomphotheres would presumably have eaten the fruit and defecated the endocarps intact.
It is thought that they would have ranged across large areas of forest, much as forest elephants do today in Africa.
Early studies of dispersal by agoutis suggested they could not replace the gomphotheres' traditional role, as they live in small, well-identified home patches.
Another STRI scientist, Joe Wright, had the idea of radio-tagging the seeds as well as the animals. It is thought to be the first time this has been done.
Camera-traps were also deployed to study the burial of seeds and their subsequent theft by rival agoutis, with other species such as spiny rats occasionally getting in on the act.
"Previously, researchers had observed seeds being moved and buried up to five times," said Ben Hirsch, another member of the research team.
"But in this system, it seems that the re-caching behaviour is on steroids."
Storage shortage
Image caption The team fitted agoutis with radio transmitters to follow their progress
However, the finding that agouti society has taken on the role of the extinct giants does not mean the black palm faces no threat.
Two years ago, researchers in Brazil found that agoutis cached more nuts in times of plenty.
When supplies were scarce, they tended to eat them all straight away, meaning there was basically no dispersal.
The other caveat is that the new research was carried out in a well-protected patch of Panamanian rainforest, STRI's research island of Barra Colorado.
It sits in Gatun Lake, the artificial water body formed by construction of the Panama Canal, and is guarded against poaching.
In other patches of forest, agoutis are copiously hunted - which raises the question of whether there is anything else in these areas that could play their role in spreading big seeds.
Follow Richard on TwitterIn the late 1970s a fascinating series of articles written by Mr. K. Kouwenberg about the history of Stamp Collecting, appeared in the Dutch magazine Philatelie. This series has been the source of inspiration for PostBeeld owner Rob Smit to rewrite the history of stamp collecting in instalments. This is Part 3 – The First Catalogue
Englishman and zoologist John Edward Gray (1800-1875) could possibly be described as the first stamp collector as, on May 6, 1840, the official issue date of the Penny Black stamp, he purchased several to preserve them as a collective item.
More about John Edward Gray later in this series because he still plays a major role in early philatelic history.
Around 1860, there were quite a few collectors and the need for a list or catalogue of issued stamps was great. That was no easy task. There was no collated information on the subject to compare collections and scanty data regarding postal administrations.
The first catalogue is attributed to Oscar Berger-Levrault (1826-1903). He was a publisher and bookseller and owned a print shop in Strasbourg, a family business established in 1676. He was an avid stamp collector. According to the German stamp magazine Illustriertes Briefmarken Journal from 1891, Levrault’s collection in 1860 contained around 350 different stamps. He then began working with fellow collectors to draw up a list of all known stamps. On September 17, 1861 the list was printed in his printing works and distributed among his fellow collectors. This was the first philatelic printed matter, and can be described as the first catalogue. The list contained no less than 973 different stamps. There were obviously some flaws in the list that was printed without pictures, but it was a beginning. Fifty copies of this first edition were printed. The British Museum in London has a copy of the September 1861 first edition. And in December of that year the second edition was published. The third edition in June 1862, had expanded to 16 pages. By 1864 ten editions had been printed. But by that time there were many others who were producing illustrated catalogues, most based in part on the pioneering work of Berger-Levrault.
Berger-Levrault continued his philatelic studies and in 1864 published a handbook. This German-language book with 114 pages was entitled; „Beschreibung der bis jetzt bekannten Briefmarken (mehr als 2200 sorten) nebst Notizen über die nachgedruckte Marken und eine Anleitung zur facility von Sammlungen’’, (Description of the hitherto known stamps (more than 2,200 varieties), together with notes on reprinted stamps and guidance for making collections).
In 1867 he published the French-speaking; « Catalogue méthodique descriptif et de tous les timbres-poste connus «. Shown above is a copy that was sold in 2012 by auction house Heinrich Koehler.
Berger-Levrault followed this on May 28 by publishing his first illustrated catalogue.
2,532 total views, 1 views todayWhile we are being distracted with the theatrics of these long months of presidential canidates theatrics and hollow rehtoric, the grave issues in our nation (purposefully) are being ignored. The latest antics has Michigan (in ecomomic free fall) ignored by the party (Democratic) that once represented the working man. This because of rules (?) that punished Michigan for holding its primary too early. Now they are told they cannot send delegates to the National Convention. That's par for the course - why would the voice of the dispossessed be represented? Jeffrey, age 49, lost his auto plant job in Aug. He has had to move in with his mother. Jeffrey says, "I lost everything I worked for all my life." John McCain's message was, "The jobs aren't coming back". I'm not impressed with McCain (having never worked in the real world) advising the hundreds of thousands laid off (losing homes) to go back to college. He tells these hundreds of thousands from his removed affluence - "The jobs are never coming back". This shows you how detached those in Foggy Bottom are to the working man/woman. The arguments in SC - today say it's a race issue. Who loves Blacks more? Huckabee is still doing his hokum song fest (guitar) and promising a chicken in every pot (Tyson that is). His newest delusion is to change the constitution to line it up with Scripture. On and on it goes - while in the working man's world millions are losing their homes. There's an economic meltdown going on in the financial markets. The canidates say it needs studied. The REAL story has yet to be told to the American public. The ONE Question that should have been asked in these forever "Groundhog Day" debates has yet to be asked? These managed 'debates' (sniping contests) have yet to touch our domestic carnival of errors. You'd think we were electing a prom king or queen. Citizens are being treated like pet gerbils running round and round on a wheel of partronizing dribble and lies. Both parties have been complicit over these past decades in the meltdown we're witnessing. People need to climb down off their elephants and donkeys. They need to discard their red - white - and boo attire and enter into the neutral zone. As long as people can be kept in the arena of elephant dung and donkey drippings they'll remain ignorant to the facts that will vitally affect their lives and their children. REAL ESTATE: This problem began in the early 90s. This is when the Federal Reserve began lowering the costs of funds and banks encouraged people to borrow at low rates. Mortgage rates were lowered in 1991. This is when credit lines using home equity were created by your friendly banker. That was when people began going into debt up to their eyeballs using the inflationary increases in the value of their primary residence as a personal ATM machine! People forgot that the only true value in real property is the equity. Market estimates of home values can drop 50% in one day. Why would the Federal Reserve do something so harmful to the national economy? When a bank makes a loan of $100,000, ninety per cent of that amount ( or, $90,000) creates new money out of thin air. This is called 'fractional - reserve' banking. It is a system used in most nations worldwide. Most nations have central banks - the Federal Reserve is a central bank. It is not a federal agency as most people have been led to believe. It is a cartel of privately owned bankers and other affluents - much like OPEC is owned by people in oil producing nations. When Congress are over spending like mindless idiots, when the cost of war is approximately $245 million a day, one of the best ways to create money to pay these costs is to encourage American consumers to borrow. Every time you borrow - ninety percent of that amount creates new money from thin air. That money is injected into the economy. As long as we all borrow more and more and more money from banks more money is created. No wonder borrowing was made so easy - it gave them the cash they needed for all that spending. Every good thing comes to an end. Expect an economic upheaval when Washington's cash cow quits giving milk. "All of the perplexities, confusion, and distress in America arises, not from the defects of the Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation" John Adams, Founding Father Congressman Louis T. McFadden, (therefore knowledgeable) was a banker. He headed the Congressional Banking Committee for 11 years. He stated the following (in part) before Congress on June 10, 1932. "Mr. Chairman, we have in this country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Banks. The Federal Board, has cheated the Government of the United States and the people of the United States out of enough money to pay the national debt. This evil institution has impoverished and ruined the people of the U.S.; has bankrupted itself, and has practically bankrupted our government. It has done this through the defects of the law under which it operates, through the maladministration of that law by the Federal Reserve Board, and through the corrupt practices of the moneyed vultures who control it." The Depression was a severe crisis in banking history. Between 1930 and 1933 more than 9000 banks close their doors and investments decreased by 90%. Ninety per cent of small community banks failed. By 1933 the banking system was a wreck. Congressional hearings in early 1933 revealed gross irresponsibility on the part of major banks, which had used billions of dollars of depositor's funds to acquire stocks and bonds and had made unsound loans to inflate the prices of these securities. The Banking Act of 1933 (the Glass-Stegall Act), was passed by Congress in the face of vociferous opposition from the American banking community. This act prohibited commercial banks from using their own assets to invest in securities (such as stocks and bonds). In his 'Economic History of the Great Depression', John Galbraith pointed out one of the causes: "The large scale corporate thimblerigging that was going on. This took a variety of forms, of which by far the most common was the organization of corporations to hold stock in yet other corporations, which in turn held stock in yet other corporations. During 1929 one investment house, Goldman Sachs and Company, organized and sold nearly a billion dollars' worth of securities in three interconnected investment trusts. All eventually depreciated virtually to nothing." Progressive Historians - Nov 27, 2007, Ralph Brauer In 1971, in Investment Company v. Camp, no less than the United States Supreme Court would write what stands as the most cogent summary for the Banking Act (Glass-Steagall). "Congress was concerned that commercial banks in general and member banks of the Federal Reserve System in particular had both aggravated and been damaged by stock market decline partly because of their direct and indirect involvement in the trading and ownership of speculative securities." Supreme Court No. 61 argued Dec 15-1970: http://supreme.justia.com/us/401/617/case.html FAST FORWARD: The chief aim of the money men (assisted by both Republicans and Democrats) for decades was to roll back FDR's New Deal. Anti-government rhetoric ( distracting labeling) has hidden this from public view. The 'Banking Act' of the New Deal was a priority by vested interests in being repealed. The undoing of this Act took decades and approximately $200 million in lobbying funds to accomplish. "Billionaire Sanford Weill made 'Citigroup' into the most powerful financial institutions since the House of Morgan a century ago. A major trophy of Sanford's is the pen Bill Clinton used to sign the REPEAL of FDR's Banking Act - a move which allowed Weill to create Citigroup. " Sanford Weill called President Clinton to break the deadlock after Senator Phil Gramm, chairman of the Banking Committee, warned Citigroup LOBBYIST Roger Levy that Weill has to get the White House moving on the bill or he would shut down the House-Senate Conference. A deal was announced at 2:45 a.m. Just days after the Clinton administration (including the Treasury Department) agrees to support the REPEAL, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, the former co-chairman of a major Wall Street investment bank, Goldman Sachs, raises eyebrows by accepting a top job at Citigroup as Weill's chief lieutenant. The previous year, Weill had called Rubin to give him advance notice of the upcoming merger announcement. When Weill told Rubin he had some important news, the secretary reportedly quipped, "You're buying the government." Progressive Historian With the stroke of a pen, Bill Clinton ended the long saga of Republicans and Democrats, working in concert, for their puppet masters (the bankers) with his signing of the 'Financial Modernization Bill' (Nov 12, 1991). Clinton ended an era that stretched back to William Jennings Bryan and Woodrow Wilson and reached fruition with FDR and Harry Truman. As he signed his name, William Jefferson Clinton symbolically signed the death warrant of a level playing field that had guided the Democratic Party. Clinton (both parties) knew better than FDR and our Supreme Court. Nov 12-1999, President Clinton stated, " Glass- Stegal (FDR Banking Bill) is no longer appropriate for our economy. This was good for the industrial age. The (1999) Financial Modernization Bill is the key to rising paycheck and great security for ordinary Americans". Tell this to Michigan - NH - California - Georgia etc. The public was distracted from one of the most important pieces of legislation in this nation's history being signed by Bill Clinton, with round the clock coverage, of the Monica debacle. Seeing how Clinton came out of this shameful episode lauded as heroic - super stud - and a multi-millionaire, why one one would almost think that the whole sordid affair was contrived? Most especially with Lieberman acting as the holier than thou apologist! Missed was Clinton's reason for the undoing of FDR's landmark bill Press release: http://Treas.gov/press/releases/ls241.htm What does this repeal mean? The hedge fund industry and subprime mortgage market is out of control. The New York Times in a June 2007 profile of Goldman Sachs: "While Wall Street still mints money advising companies on mergers and taking them public, real money - staggering money - is made trading and investing capital through a global array of mind bending products and strategies unimaginable a decade ago." Goldman Sachs head Lloyd Blankfein paints the perfect picture of what has happened: "We've come full circle, because this is exactly what the Rothschild's or J.P. Morgan the banker were doing in their heyday. What caused an aberration was the Glass-Steagall Act (FDRs - Banking Act)." Blankfein, like his cohorts in corporate greed, sees the New Deal as an aberration and longs for a return to the Gilded Age. Level playing field? Notice how flat it was before the REPEAL of FDR's Banking Act. Those subprime loans amount to nothing more than an organized ripoff of millions of Americans with the steepness of the graph illustrates how far the playing field has titled. Robert Kutter (Stanford University) testified before Barney Frank's Committee on Banking and Financial Services in Oct 2007 " Since repeal of Glass Stegall (FDR Banking Act) in 1999, after more than a decade of de facto inroads, super banks have been able to re-enact the same kinds of structual conflicts of interest that were endemic in the 1920s - tending to speculators, packaging and securitizing credits and then selling them off, wholesale or retail, and extracting fees at every step along the way. And, much of this paper is even more opaque to bank examiners than its counterparts were in the 1920s. Much of it isn't paper at all, and the whole process is supercharged and automated formulas." To the Victor goes the spoils - burp! It's lonely at the top, but you eat better! 2008 - Citigroup. The repeal (Clinton's Financial Modernization Bill) of FDR's Banking Act - was responsible for the creation of Citigroup as an all-purpose financial supermarket and too - big- to fail banking marvel..(much like the unsinkable Titanic?). Investment bankers lobbied for thirty years to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial banking from its investment house cousins. Wall Street hated the law but failed year after year to win repeal. The problem was always the Democrats (since Republicans were supporters). In enters a reincarnation of our old carnival snake oil salesman. Bill Clinton delivered his 'New Democrat Party' with a lot of the usual scripted rhetoric. Meaningless made up words. The combination of insurance, investment banking, and old-line commercial banks, have multiplied the conflicts of interest within banks, despite so-called 'firewalls'. Much like Enron, placing some deals in off-balance sheet entries did not insulate Citigroup from losses in its swollen subprime housing lending. The bank (Citigroup) has so far written off something like $15 billion and there's more to come. Ah - but meantime we're going to see these presidential canidates argue over who loves Blacks the most - or the miracle of Hillary's tears! It's interesting that in the Neveda debates (Nov 15), when Hillary was asked about Citigroup and the subprime debacle she responded, that that she was concerned over these huge pools of money, and that Congress and the Federal Reserve need to ask questions. She went on to remark on how mortgages (subprime and conventional) were being bundled and sold to foreign investors. THE 64,000 QUESTION (yet to be addressed in these debates) was not asked: 'Senator Clinton, its a known fact, that Citigroup would not exist, except for President Clinton's repeal of FDR's 'Banking Act'. Would you (other canidates) not agree with the 1971 Supreme Court ruling, Goldman Sachs, and testimony by economists, that we have re-enacted the same conflicts of interest that were in place before the Great Depression and thus are doing the very same things that the Rothschild's and J.P Morgan were guilty of?' This is the question that has yet to be asked in any of these 'debates' (Republican or Democrat). The media and canidates blame the victims or wander off into some escoteric meaningless gibberish. "Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men. They have no vision and where there is no vision the people perish". FDR First Inaugural Address Rest assured we'll hear the same sorry blame game - with each party (both complicit in this debacle) them) blaming the other. Hillary is worried about repairing the image of America. Nobody is asking these candidates about the disasterous REPEAL of the Banking Act of 1933, which is leaving millions (not them) foreclosed on and losing jobs, investments, and pensions etc! When people are losing their jobs, homes, and children's futures; like their grandparents or great grandparents of old, they don't give a damn about 'image'. They are focused on having a roof over their heads and food to eat. The attention to the export of jobs in the U.S. did not develop until white - collar jobs began to evaporate along with manufacturing jobs with no replacement jobs. A U.S. company can hire a software developer in India for $6.00 an hour according to the McKinsey Global Institute. A data - entry clerk earns $2.00 an hour in India. The presidential - canidates (Jan 15-2008) report that we're spending $10 billion a month on war. Ten billion a month, as multitudes lose their homes over medical costs (hospitalization) and job losses that bankrupt them. A $600 per day hospital fee soon brings a family to ruination. The working man doesn't have the smörgåsbord of medical coverage (tax payer subsidized) that those in elected office have secured for themselves (prescriptions covered - dental - eyeglasses). Note they promise that someday the citizens may have affordable health care. Meantime those promising affordable health care, if elected, are receiving bundles of campaign money from the insurance companies & pharmaceuticals. These (lobbyists) are the people that wrote the bills that made the cost of prescriptions prohibitive, and excused them from liabilities, should a vaccine kill you or render your child brain damaged! Whose interests do you think these canidates will be serving? Today we see the promises of the last election serving OIL interests to the tune of obscene billions in profits. Not mentioned these past few days, is the recent $4,100 raise (Jan - 2008) that Congress gave itself. The Supreme Court and Dick Cheney also got raises. The President's salary stays at $400,000. Nancy Pelosi will now be making $217,000. This for working Tue through Thur (not counting the numerous recesses). These salaries are for an approximate 151 days. The excuse offered, is how much they work when they go home. I've yet to see this - except for some convenient photo-op. The ordinary guy misses work and he's fired. As for paid vacations - those are a rarity. During the Great Depression (not taught in schools) millions lost their farms and homes (due to bankers greed). It's hard to imagine (maybe not with Clinton's repeal of Banking Act?) what it felt like to walk through the door of their bank and learn that the dollars that had earned had vanished. Every day spent working and saving had been for nothing. The people believed (they were right) that the bankers had stolen their lives. To stave off Banks selling farms at public auction - farmers from the area would gather at the farm up for sale. They would start bids at 15 cents which rarely got above a $1.00. Outsiders were kept from attending. If someone made a serious bid, a burly man would put a hand on his shoulder and say, "That bid's a little high ain't it?" These were known as Penny Auctions. Fast forward to 2008. The repeal of FDR's Banking Act in 1999, with the promise of "increased wages and security for workers" sees auctions such as the one above (California) taking place from coast to coast. These folks (speculators) are benefiting from the hardships of others. The Penny Auction to help one's neighbor against the greed of banks and lenders, has been replaced with the thought of getting a'real deal'. 2008 - The promise of Bill Clinton (repeal of Banking Act) of rising wages and security for Americans is being realized with millions of layoffs and foreclosures. Not reported on the major news stations were the 10,000 + people showing up to apply for a job at Wal-Mart in Atlanta Georgia. Besides homeowners - renters are being put out in the cold with landlords being foreclosed on. "Remember you are just an extra in everyone else's play". FDR Detroit (no debates held here) has been in a free fall for the past seven years. Hundreds of thousands in Michigan are without work. The drop out rate in schools is 70%. With foreclosures the highest in the nation (there's great competition) funds needed for local programs, schools, etc, are unavailable. No tax revenue. Per usual, you'll hear the victims being blamed, not disreputable bankers. If only they hadn't asked for a living wage (to keep up with inflation). If only they (auto workers) would work for Third World wages they wouldn't be out of work. Meantime the CEOs (corporate) of these echoing plants make 400X that of the ordinary worker. Their pensions aren't stolen. The golden parachutes they receive are in the multi - millions (even if they have brought their company to ruination). Hotels, office buildings, and thousands of homes are boarded up in Detroit. Meantime hundreds of thousands are homeless or forgotten in noxious formaldehyde FEMA trailers. Go figure? McCain has told those out of work - "The jobs are never coming back". John, whose wife's trust, recently purchased them a $5 million exclusive condo in Phoenix, hasn't got a clue of the suffering and fear of these folks. His advice, "Go back to school and get that college degree - get some job retraining". John, busy trying to catch the brass ring, neglected to tell folks that President Bush has cut funding for job re-training by one billion dollars (amongst many other domestic programs). Bush Budget - AFL-CIO, Mike Hall. Thankfully for John, after divorcing his first wife, when his salary was a mere $45,000, he married an heiress. No job retraining for him. What John is oblivious to, is the fact that thousands of college graduates (with several degrees) are looking for work. Duh - like Wall Street. How one secures a college degree living in a shelter -tent - car or FEMA trailer, miles from nowhere (in cornfields) beats me? "Who said the free? Not me? Surely not me? The millions on relief today? The millions shot down when we strike? The millions who have nothing for our pay- Except the dream that's almost dead today." "Sure, call me any ugly name you choose- The steel of freedom does not stain. From those who live like leeches on the people's lives, We must take back our land again, AMERICA!" --Langston Hughes (Great Depression) jdthmoriarty@yahoo.comLaptops could be banned on flights from Europe in the near future.
If you’re flying from Europe to the United States in the near future and were planning to use your laptop during the flight, you might have the rethink your plans. Laptops are no longer going to be allowed in plane cabins, according to a report today from the Daily Beast, which cites unnamed European security officials. The decision is expected to be announced on Thursday, the Daily Beast also reports.
If it goes through, the ban would be an extension of an existing laptop ban imposed by the Department of Homeland Security earlier this year. The devices were banned on flights originating from ten airports, including airports in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey. It was imposed following concerns that bombs could be built into the devices and then brought aboard flights. (The United Kingdom followed suit with a similar ban.)
From DHS via the Daily Beast, regarding the alleged ban extension:
No final decisions have been made on expanding the restriction on large electronic devices in aircraft cabins; however, it is under consideration. DHS continues to evaluate the threat environment and will make changes when necessary to keep air travelers safe.
If the ban is enacted, airlines will have another issue to consider. How to keep all those lithium-ion batteries, which will now be chilling in cargo holds, from exploding and causing potentially deadly fires.The little Catholic school in Worcester with no home gym, no basketball history, a part-time coach and a barn disguised as a practice court came out of nowhere to win it all 70 years ago.
You could say Holy Cross was the original bracket buster.
“Nobody had ever heard of us,” HC icon Bob Cousy said during a recent interview from his Florida home, “and we win this thing called the NCAA Championship.”
This year marks the platinum anniversary of Holy Cross’ 1947 title, which will always be one of the proudest moments in the college’s sports history. Emerging from what was just an eight-team field then, the Crusaders won three games in six days at Madison Square Garden, beating Navy, CCNY and, in the final on March 25, Oklahoma, behind George Kaftan’s |
ling energy production from distribution. Most importantly, it advocated the strengthening of the Agency for Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) in order to enable it to oversee the development of the internal energy market. Until now, ACER has focused primarily on assisting national energy regulators, but the Commission seems to be planning to transform it into the main governing body of the Energy Union.If this is indeed the Commission’s intention, member states’ acceptance of the new role of ACER will be essential for its successful functioning.
While differentiating energy sources and suppliers would reduce overreliance on single countries, building an internal energy market would even out domestic prices and provide further supply security. In order to achieve this, the Energy Union package has set a minimum interconnection target of 10 percent to be met by 2020. This means that, by 2020, all member states must be able to transfer at least 10 percent of their installed electricity production capacity to their EU neighbours. The Commission has produced a separate Communication outlining how this target can be achieved, thereby confirming that it is an immediate priority.Linking the remaining energy islands – notably the Baltic states and the Iberian peninsula – to the main electricity and gas network is considered particularly urgent.
The Energy Union package mentioned only briefly the controversial question of unconventional gas and oil exploitation in Europe. It argued that unconventional fossil fuels could contribute to decreasing import dependency for states that choose to invest in them, after having adequately assessed public acceptance and environmental risks. Due to its ecological hazards, environmental organisations have criticised harshly shale gas extraction and some member states (most notably France) have banned it.Furthermore, estimates of shale gas deposits in East-Central European EU member states have been revised downwards and companies such as Chevron have abandoned exploration, suggesting that there will be no repetition of the US shale gas revolution in Europe.Nonetheless, other EU members (notably the United Kingdom and Poland) and some lobby groups are trying to ensure that EU policy prioritises shale gas development. Pro-shale lobbies have become dominant in relevant EU technical and advisory panels, notably the EU Joint Research Centre’s European Science and Technology Network on Unconventional Hydrocarbon Extraction. The ensuing decision of prominent environmental organisations to walk out of this network highlights that shale gas development remains highly controversial in the EU. It will be difficult for the Energy Union project to simply circumvent the issue.
Furthermore, the Commission asked to be informed about intergovernmental agreements (IGAs) on gas supplies with third countries from an early stage of negotiations, so that it can review them and make sure they comply with EU rules and goals. This request follows a dispute between the Commission and six member states that signed IGAs with Russia for the construction of the South Stream pipeline, a project for shipping Russian gas to Southeastern and Central Europe via the Black Sea. In December 2013, the Commission declared that the IGAs breached EU law.Most likely, the Commission’s request to screen IGAs will cause friction with member states that are keen to retain their prerogatives in energy deals with non-EU partners.
The Energy Union package recommended that member states should be able to rely on their neighbours in gas supply crises. However, it did not include a plan for joint gas purchasing, which was a key element of Tusk’s initial proposal. This was largely due to the stance of some member states, such as Germany, which highlighted how joint purchasing would run against the liberalisation of gas markets.The representatives of the gas industry (Eurogas) and of gas traders (European Federation of Energy Traders) also opposed collective gas purchasing, on the grounds that it would undermine prospects for a competitive energy market.Hence, the package only stated that the Commission would assess voluntary demand aggregation mechanisms for gas purchasing in crisis situations or for member states depending on a single supplier. Some experts argue that East-Central European and Balkan countries could set up joint gas purchasing.However, even leaving aside technical difficulties, it is not sure that such a regional mechanism would be sufficient to extract cheaper prices from Russia.
The new infrastructure would diminish Russia’s role in the portfolio of EU gas providers. However, it would not reduce EU energy dependence from authoritarian regimes, as gas for the Southern corridor would be bought predominantly in Azerbaijan and, potentially, Turkmenistan. Additional reliance on LNG would not be unproblematic either, due to the cost and environmental impact of the transportation and regasification of liquefied gas from distant countries such as the US and Qatar. Moreover, potential US exports of LNG would be more profitable in the Asian markets, where demand and prices are higher than in Europe. Unsurprisingly, US President Barack Obama stated that US supplies will reach the world market, rather than go directly to Europe.
Increasing energy security is a cornerstone of the Energy Union. According to the Commission’s communication on the Energy Union (A Framework Strategy for a Resilient Energy Union with a Forward-Looking Climate Change Policy), this will be done through the construction of new pipelines carrying gas from Central Asia to Europe (the Southern gas corridor) and the creation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) hubs in East-Central Europe and the Mediterranean. The new infrastructure is supposed to be complemented by new gas storage sites and the possibility to use “reverse flows”, namely channelling the gas wherever it is needed in the EU market and beyond. In 2014 and 2015, for instance, the EU used reverse flows to supply Ukraine with gas, following Russia’s decision to suspend deliveries to Kiev.
Furthermore, the Commission emphasised carbon capture and storage (CCS), a technology that allows carbon emissions to be captured and stored before they spread in the atmosphere. The use of CCS in the power and industrial sectors is considered “critical to reaching the 2050 climate objectives in a cost-effective way”.However, CCS technology is expensive and private investments will not suffice to finance it.Hence, CCS may distract public funds from renewables and delay the transition to a low carbon economy. It can also foster unrealistic hopes about making electricity generation from coal environment-friendly and therefore have the indirect effect of propping up the coal sector.
The Energy Union package also states that the EU should become “number one in renewables”. However, besides arguing that energy markets and grids have to be fit for renewables,it does not add much substance to the debate on how this should be achieved. It simply recalls the 27 percent target of the 2030 framework, without addressing either the uneasy question of its implementation at national level or the fact that the target itself is modest and should be revised upwards.Research and innovation in renewable technologies, energy storage, smart grids and sustainable transport are all essential in order to decarbonise the economy and achieve EU climate goals. The Energy Union package stresses this in its fifth dimension. However, this section leaves some ambiguity, which could be exploited by member states that are reluctant to decarbonise their economies and invest in renewables. In particular, the package argues that the EU should invest in “clean fossil fuels”, a contradictory statement: burning fossil fuels pollutes by definition (one can only argue that some pollute less than others, but none is “clean”).
By contrast, the fourth goal of the Energy Union, decarbonising the economy, is likely to meet with at least some success, as member states have agreed to a binding 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Reforming the Emissions Trading System (ETS),which regulates the EU market of carbon emissions, could assist the EU in meeting the target and in developing renewable energy. In particular, the cap of allowed carbon emissions should be adjusted to the 40 percent target. This would have an impact on the price of emissions and provide incentives to invest in renewables and green technologies. At the moment, the carbon price in the ETS is very low due mostly to an oversupply of emissions permits, which was caused by an overestimation of future emissions when the ETS was set up in 2005.
The Commission’s communication defines energy efficiency as “an energy source in its own right”.It identifies the transport and building sectors among the most critical ones, highlighting that 75 percent of the European housing stock is energy inefficient. As the majority of EU gas imports are used for the heating and cooling of buildings, improving their energy efficiency would reduce both costs and dependence on external gas suppliers. As for the transport sector, 94 percent of transport relies on oil products, of which 90 percent are imported. As the Commission noted, making the sector more efficient and decarbonising it – particularly through the electrification of road and rail transport – would help break the oil dependence. However, the 27 percent target for energy efficiency in the 2030 climate and energy framework is not binding, hence member states will have little additional incentive to address the issue.
Another potential risk is that the rhetoric of some EU leaders concerning the Energy Union aggravates political confrontation with Russia. Tusk’s initial proposal reflected this problem. Moreover, potential Russian objections to the mechanisms of the Energy Union (such as reverse flows or aggregated gas purchasing) could worsen political tensions. Due to contractual obligations between EU and Russian companies, the EU’s growing dependence on energy imports and the competitiveness of Russia’s fossil fuel exports, it can be estimated that Russia will remain a key supplier of the EU at least until 2030.Hence, Brussels will have to pursue a fair business relationship, while ensuring that its internal market rules are respected. At the same time, the EU should not develop new energy dependencies on other authoritarian states (such as Azerbaijan or Qatar), nor expect to receive gas from the US at discount prices, as it will have to compete for it with Asian countries. Furthermore, current low oil and gas prices are putting the further development of the American shale industry into question, which could become unprofitable and consequently experience drastic cuts in production.If this happens, there may be no US shale gas to export.
In order to level energy prices and create a truly integrated energy market, national fuel mixes should be coordinated, the interconnection of national energy systems should be higher than the current 10 percent target and subsidies to national energy industries should be phased out.Doing this will not be easy, as member states will most likely defend their national industries and the prerogative to determine their energy mix. This prerogative has solid legal foundations, as it is enshrined in article 194 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).According to the TFEU, member states and the EU share competence on energy policy.Hence, the Energy Union will have to be implemented in close coordination with member states. Their political will and support is essential for its functioning. However, conflict between the Commission and member states is to be expected with regard to the Commission’s request to screen intergovernmental agreements on energy supplies with third parties before they are concluded. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has already argued that this would constitute a “major problem” and hinder national sovereignty.
For the same purpose, European institutions should resist pressure from interest groups and member states to shift the focus of the Energy Union towards fossil fuels. According to recent media analyses, large fossil fuel companies successfully lobbied the European Commission to limit the ambition of the EU’s 2030 climate targets.In the run up to the deal on the targets, the multinational oil and gas company Royal Dutch Shell conducted a joint and successful campaign with a few member states, led by the United Kingdom, to prevent binding targets for individual member states on energy efficiency and renewable energy. However, if the EU wants to meet its goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, binding targets for renewables and energy efficiency will have to be agreed.
Creating the Energy Union will take time and come up against numerous challenges. In the short run, funds will have to be found to finance the thirty-three infrastructure projects that the European Energy Security Strategy identified as essential to improve supply security and market integration. The Commission hopes that private investments will pay for most of the new infrastructure. However, if private investments are not forthcoming, a selection of the most urgent projects will be necessary and the EU will have to allocate more public funds (for example, from the new Investment Plan).A high degree of intra-European solidarity will be necessary, as the most urgent infrastructural projects will have to be implemented in poorer member states, in Eastern and Southern Europe. In order to reconcile the Energy Union with the EU’s climate goals, the Commission should fund first and foremost projects that boost energy efficiency and the production and trade of renewable energy.
EU leadership, the political will of member states to coordinate their energy policies, environmental awareness across the Union and the availability of sufficient funds to implement infrastructure projects will be the key determinants of success. If any of these are missing, the Energy Union may develop into a simple ‘repackaging’ of existing arrangements and fail to deliver a united energy market.
If the Commission consistently supports an agenda prioritising solidarity, renewables and sustainable development, there will be good prospects for an integrated and fully functioning energy market with lower prices, a greener energy mix and reduced reliance on external energy suppliers. Boosting the production of renewable energy and investing in energy efficiency would greatly contribute to the EU’s energy security, as these are the only factors that can make the EU self-sufficient in the long term. Through an emphasis on efficiency and renewables, the Energy Union could also help the EU achieve its 2030 climate policy goals, or even make them de facto more ambitious. In this respect, it is important that the Commission presented – as part of the Energy Union package – a communication on preparing the EU’s negotiating position for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris.It is essential that the EU participate in UN climate change summits with a single position and a strong, coherent delegation. This allows the Union to maximise its influence and profile itself as a leader in climate change policy.
The Conclusions of the European Council on the Energy Union, held on 19 March 2015, reflect the challenges that will arise in the coming months.The document is a balancing act between the interests of different member states, as well as between those of member states and the Commission. For instance, the Council simultaneously calls for reinforcing the transparency of agreements to buy gas from external suppliers and for guaranteeing the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information therein. The Conclusions emphasise both the need to strengthen the security of gas supplies – including recourse to indigenous resources, which can be read as encompassing shale gas extraction – and the development of renewable energy and climate-related technology. The order of priority of these objectives is not specified (even if strengthening gas and electricity infrastructure appears first on the list), which leaves policy options and the very nature of the Energy Union open to future debate.
Overcoming the numerous obstacles to the implementation of the Energy Union will be very demanding. The weak commitment of EU member states to integrating the electricity and gas markets and to coordinating national energy policies has hindered the implementation of previous Commission strategies, such as the 2006 Green Paper on energy.The Ukraine conflict and the debate on the effects of climate change have built momentum behind the Energy Union and the EU’s decarbonisation agenda. However, their successful implementation is far from certain.
This article was originally published in The International Spectator: Italian Journal of International Affairs
Marco Siddi is Senior Research Fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA), Helsinki, and Research Associate at CRENoS, University of Cagliari.
1 European Commission, A Resilient Energy Union.
2 Tusk, “A United Europe”.
3 Directive 2009/72/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning common rules for the internal market in electricity, published in OJ L211/56; Directive 2009/73/EC concerning common rules for the internal market in natural gas, published in OJ L211/94; Regulation 714/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on conditions for access to the network for cross-border exchanges in electricity, published in OJ L211/15; Regulation 715/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on conditions for access to the natural gas transmission networks, published in OJ L211/36; Regulation 713/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing an Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators, published in OJ L211/1.
4 Keating, “Orbán Criticises Commission’s Plan”.
5 Buchan, Europe’s Energy Security, 5; Carrington, “UK Defeats Fracking Regulations”; Neslen, “Poland on Road to EU Court”; Jacobsen and Crisp, “EU leaders Adopt 'Flexible' Energy Targets”.
6 European Commission, Member State’s Energy Dependence 2014, 6-8.
7 Eurostat, “Simplified Energy Balances - Annual Data”, 17 April 2015, Eurostat, “Simplified Energy Balances - Annual Data”, 17 April 2015, http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=nrg_100a&lang=en
8 Denmark is the only EU member that produces more energy than it consumes. European Commission, Member State’s Energy Dependence 2014, 6.
9 Vice-President for Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič, opening speech at the Energy Union Conference in Riga, 6 February 2015.
10 Political instability in North Africa following the Arab Spring, particularly the civil war in Libya (an important energy supplier for some EU member states, notably Italy), further complicated the overall security of EU energy supplies. European Commission, Member State’s Energy Dependence 2013, 138-9.
11 Eurostat, “Statistical Analysis of EU Trade in Energy Products, with Focus on Trade with the Russian Federation”, 17 April 2015, Eurostat, “Statistical Analysis of EU Trade in Energy Products, with Focus on Trade with the Russian Federation”, 17 April 2015, http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Trade_in_energy_ products. More precisely, 49% of EU natural gas imports in gaseous state come from Russia; however, if liquefied natural gas imports (LNG) are included, the share of gas imports from Russia is 41% of the total (Russia does not export LNG to the EU).
12 At the end of 2014, Lithuania launched a floating LNG terminal, which allows the country to import gas from other regions. This terminal could also supply the Latvian and Estonian markets, but the lack of infrastructure, the closure of the Latvian market (which is still dominated by Gazprom) and Estonia’s pursuit of its own LNG terminal have hindered cooperation thus far. Dudzinska, “A System of Unconnected Vessels”.
13 Dickel et al., Reducing European Dependence, 3-11 ; European Commission, Member State’s Energy Dependence 2014, 118.
14 For an account of the origins of Europe’s dependence on Russian gas, see Högselius, Red Gas.
15 In 2013, oil and natural gas sales accounted for 68% of Russia’s total export revenues; the European Union was the destination of most of Russia’s exports of natural gas, crude oil and petroleum products. US Energy Information Administration, “Oil and Natural Gas Sales Accounted for 68% of Russia’s Total Export Revenues in 2013”, In 2013, oil and natural gas sales accounted for 68% of Russia’s total export revenues; the European Union was the destination of most of Russia’s exports of natural gas, crude oil and petroleum products. US Energy Information Administration, “Oil and Natural Gas Sales Accounted for 68% of Russia’s Total Export Revenues in 2013”, http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=17231
16 Price differentials in Russian gas sales to EU member states are illustrated in Loskot-Strachota and Zachmann, Rebalancing the EU-Russia-Ukraine Relationship, 4.
17 Destination clauses also existed in contracts with Western European companies, but were removed in the 2000s. Sharples,Special Report, 6-9.
18 Oroschakoff and Hirst, “Brussels vs Gazprom”.
19 Kovacevic, Impact of Russia–Ukraine Gas Crisis, 10-15; Pirani et al., The Russo-Ukrainian Gas Dispute, 53-6.
20 Sharples and Judge, “Bulgaria and Macedonia Hardest Hit”; Siddi, “EU members cannot Afford Confrontation”; Siddi, “Winners and Losers”.
21 Mihalache, “South Stream is Dead”.
22 Levoyannis, “Greece: Russian Backdoor”; Greece will also host the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, an EU-supported project that will transport gas from the Greek-Turkish border to Albania and Italy.
23 On climate negotiations in the UN, see Vihma, How to Reform Climate Negotiations.
24 Eurostat, “Europe 2020 Indicators – Climate Change and Energy”, 11 August 2015, Eurostat, “Europe 2020 Indicators – Climate Change and Energy”, 11 August 2015, http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Europe_2020_indicators_-_climate_change_and_energy
25 Only France and the Netherlands failed to achieve – by a narrow margin – the interim goals for renewables; European Commission, Renewable Energy Progress Report.
26 Crisp, “27 Member States hit with Legal Action”.
27 At the moment, work for the Southern corridor is focusing on the Trans-Adriatic (TAP) and Trans-Anatolian (TANAP) pipelines, which channel Azeri gas as far as Italy, via Georgia, Turkey, Greece and Albania.
28 Sartori, “Geopolitical Implications”, 79-80.
29 German Government, “German Non-paper on the Energy Union”.
30 Buchan, Europe’s Energy Security, 3.
31 Interview with an expert at Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels, 3 February 2015.
32 Work on the pipeline was later stopped due inter alia to the Ukraine crisis.
33 For a good summary of this criticism, see : Flues and Simon: “A Slow Costly Road to Nowhere”.
34 Mihalache, “No Shale Gas in Eastern Europe”.
35 Crisp, “Fracking Advisors Controlled by lobbyists”.
36 European Commission, Achieving the 10% Electricity Interconnection Target.
37 Ibid., 13.
38 Crisp, “ACER as Energy Union Supervisor”.
39 European Commission, A Resilient Energy Union, 12.
40 See Wyns, ”Lessons from the EU’s ETS”.
41 Vogler, “The Challenge of the Environment”, 367.
42 This relates to the inherent variability of energy production from renewable sources; power grids have to be adapted to allow for the quick allocation of renewable energy across the market.
43 According to the Commission’s impact assessment, a share of 27% of renewables in energy production is the minimum to achieve a 40% reduction in greenhouse emissions. Cf. Zachmann, “Elements of Europe’s Energy Union”, 3.
44 The EU’s roadmap for 2050 states that the Union should cut its emissions by 80-95% compared to 1990 levels; see European Commission, Energy Roadmap 2050.
45 Levänen, Turning Point in EU’s Climate Policy, 5.
46 Stephens, “Carbon Capture and Storage”; and interview with an expert at the European Policy Centre, 3 February 2015.
47 European Commission, “Investment Plan”, European Commission, “Investment Plan”, http://ec.europa.eu/priorities/jobs-growth-investment/plan/index_en.htm
48 Neslen, “Shell Lobbied to Undermine Renewables Targets”.
49 European Commission, Energy Roadmap 2050.
50 As for the interconnection target, the Commission itself admits that “The completion of the internal electricity market, notably ending the isolation of electricity islands, secure energy supplies for all consumers and a greater share of electricity generation based on variable renewable energy sources require more than 10% interconnection capacity” and that a 15% target should be pursued for 2030; European Commission, Achieving the 10% Electricity Interconnection Target, 15.
51 Article 194 of the TFEU stresses the right of a member state “to determine the conditions for exploiting its energy resources, its choice between different energy sources and the general structure of its energy supply”.
52 Energy policy is listed in Article 4 of the TFEU as one of the competences shared by member states and the EU.
53 Gotev, “Energy Union a Threat to Hungary”.
54 Dickel et al., Reducing European Dependence, 71.
55 Crooks, “The US Shale Revolution”.
56 European Commission, Green Paper.
57 European Council, “European Council Conclusions on Energy Union”.
58 European Commission, The Paris Protocol.
59 Arguably, the EU leaders’ agreement on the EU 2030 climate goals in January 2014 stimulated US President Barack Obama to launch negotiations on reducing carbon emissions with China; see Carafa, “The US-China Climate Agreement”, 11.U.S. Latino leaders say their community is under attack by Donald Trump and his anti-immigrant rhetoric, and they're vowing to fight back at the ballot box to stop his "dangerous" candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination.
Nine Latino voting-advocacy organizations recently joined forces to launch a nationwide mobilization campaign.
Their goals are to register a record number of Latino voters, keep them informed on the race for the White House, and ensure their voices are heard not just in the general election in November but in the primaries and caucuses that lead to both national parties choosing their nominees.
Nevada, where Trump easily won the Republican caucuses on Tuesday, has a significant Latino population.
So do Texas and Colorado, which vote next Tuesday. In Texas alone, an estimated two million Latinos are expected to vote this year.
Houston will be the site Thursday of a GOP debate co-hosted by CNN and Spanish-language Telemundo, with a focus on Latino issues. Trump, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and John Kasich are all expected to participate.
Florida, which also has a large Latino population, will vote on March 15.
Some entrance polls done in Nevada showed Trump winning the Latino vote over Rubio and Cruz, who both have Cuban heritage, and Trump noted his Latino support in his victory speech Tuesday night.
The groups are not formally telling Latinos to boycott Trump, but several representatives clearly expressed their opposition to him at a recent news conference in Washington, D.C., where they launched their campaign.
Jose Calderon, president of the Hispanic Federation, said in an interview that Trump has staked his campaign on attacking the Latino community.
"That's the way he started, that's the way he's continued, I think that's the way he's mobilized the people that are supporting him," he said.
Anti-Latino sentiment
Trump kicked off his presidential campaign in June by calling Mexican immigrants criminals, drug traffickers and rapists. He is promising to build a wall at the border to stop illegal immigration and he is threatening to round up and deport the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S.
Calderon said most Latinos have taken "deep offence" to what Trump has said and proposed, and his group is helping spread the word to those who haven't heard. "We're educating our community around the dangers of this candidate," he said.
Arturo Vargas, head of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, said Trump is appealing to "the darker side of the American spirit," a side that fears immigrants.
Trump supporters outside a campaign event last summer in Los Angeles. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters) "He's given licence to express anti-Latino sentiment in this country," he said. "It's dangerous."
Cristobal Alex, whose group has endorsed Hillary Clinton, and other representatives from the groups said when the Latino community feels under attack, it responds.
"We register in record numbers, we vote in record numbers, and we're already starting to see evidence of that this year," said Alex, president of the Latino Victory Fund.
A record number of Latinos voted in the first nominating contest, the Iowa caucuses, he noted, and he's confident the Latino vote will ultimately decide the next president.
There are an estimated 27 million Latinos eligible to vote in 2016 and that's enough to influence the results, he said. Convincing eligible voters to actually vote, however, is the challenge for groups like his.
"If the door to the White House is the Latino community, the folks who are going to vote on election day are the key that unlocks that door or deadbolts that door," said Alex. "If it's a candidate like Trump or someone else who has attacked our community, we're going to be sure that door is locked."
Trump could boost Latino turnout
The groups said Trump is acting as a catalyst that will motivate Latino voters even more to cast a ballot against him.
Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally Feb. 22 in Las Vegas. (John Locher/Associated Press) Trump could inadvertently help their cause, but Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said he'd prefer that were not the case.
"We would never wish a Trump, even if it does generate the biggest Latino turnout in the nation's history," said Wilkes.
Trump has now claimed victory in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada and is leading national polls. His immigration proposals, including banning Muslims temporarily from the United States, are supported by his fans, who cheer loudly when he talks about building a big, beautiful wall that he vows will be paid for by Mexico.
"That is concerning to us," Wilkes said about the number of Americans who love what Trump is offering.
But Alex said he's confident a majority of Americans don't support Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric. He may be getting support now but in the general election, if Trump is the nominee, "all bets are off."
'They are going to punish him on election day'
"People are going to remind him of what he said, and we are going to remind our community of what he says and they are going to punish him on election day," said Alex.
Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza, said there is no doubt the Latino community is motivated this election cycle.
"We are not going to be a punching bag for any presidential candidate. Our community is going to defend itself," she said.
Trump's campaign did not respond to a CBC News request for comment, but Trump has said in TV interviews that he's confident he will win the Latino vote.
In an NBC News interview last year he said he has a "great relationship" with Mexicans and employs many legal Mexican immigrants in his hotel construction project in Washington.
"They love me, I love them," he said.The Canadian dollar stayed firm above 76 cents US on Monday after oil prices touched an 18-month high.
The impetus for the rise in crude was an agreement between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and key non-OPEC crude producers to cut output.
At a weekend meeting, 11 non-OPEC producers agreed to cut 558,000 barrels a day of crude output in the six months beginning Jan. 1. As well, Saudi Arabia's oil minister hinted that it was considering further production cuts, on top of the 486,000 barrels a day to which it has already committed.
Last month, OPEC countries agreed to cut 1.2 million barrels a day from their output, which has left the world flooded in oil and depressed oil prices.
In indications that OPEC members are serious about reducing production, Iraq said Monday it was in discussions with foreign companies operating its giant southern fields to implement some cuts during scheduled maintenance.
Brent futures, the main international contract, soared more than five per cent to top $57 US a barrel in European trading for the first time since July 2015. But the rally was short-lived and it slipped back in North American trading to $55.53 a barrel. That's still a two per cent gain from Friday.
West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark North American contract, closed at $52.83 a barrel, up $1.33 from Friday and shy of the $54 it reached overnight.
Those are the highest prices in 18 months, and lit a fire under the Canadian dollar and energy stocks.
A bounce for the loonie
The Canadian dollar is now at 76.14 cents US, up two cents against the strong U.S. dollar since OPEC first reached a deal on production cuts. It rose 0.27 of a cent since Friday.
The loonie is still vulnerable, as the Fed is expected to raise interest rates later this week for only the second time since the global financial crisis.
Jimmy Jean, senior economist at Desjardins, points to the discrepancy between the ebullient dollar and rising stock prices and the subdued forecast for the economy given by the Bank of Canada.
"Rather than adjusting to the warnings of Governor Stephen Poloz, markets are inviting him to toast to Donald Trump," he said in a note to clients.
Jean warns the Canadian dollar and bond yields are vulnerable to the Fed's move and could be knocked back as Poloz leaves rates where they are or even cuts them.
Markets have built in an expectation of a stronger U.S. dollar, as the Fed has sent signals it will raise its benchmark rate this week by 0.25 per cent.
In another sign of the reflation trade, break-even rates — the gap between yields of five-year U.S. debt and a matching tenor in inflation-protected securities — were at two-month highs. (Richard Drew/Associated Press) Instead of focusing on the rate, the market is waiting for the commentary from the U.S. central bank, to see its predictions for the economy in the coming year.
The U.S. dollar rose to its highest since February against the Japanese yen, which was also hurt by rising oil prices.
The Norwegian crown and Russia ruble, both heavily influenced by oil prices, were also big gainers from the oil deal. The ruble rose almost two per cent against both the U.S. dollar and euro.
The S&P/TSX composite index fell 24.50 points at 15,287.70, weighed by losses from the industrials sector. However, the TSX is up 17 per cent on the year.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 39.58 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 19,796.43, another record high close.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite index both lost ground on Monday.
Bond markets in contrast were under heavy pressure. Euro zone government bond yields opened sharply higher with German bonds up five basis points at 0.40 per cent as U.S. yields topped 2.5 per cent for the first time since October 2014.
The yield on U.S. Treasuries widened in anticipation of further inflation pressure.
Rising bond yields could mean higher borrowing costs ahead.
Emerging markets are already bracing for a difficult run if U.S. rate hikes push up the dollar and global bond yields.
Gold, meanwhile, which had a bumper first half of 2016, hit its lowest level since early February at $1,152 US an ounce, before the precious metal closed the day with a gain of $3.90 at $1,165.80 US an ounce.It was only a few posts ago when I expressed my disgust at the so-called “obesity epidemic” and how it’s ruining everything for kids these days. But with Christmas right around the corner, I was reminded of one of the most egregious fallouts of the problem.
Back in 2007, the government started to toy around with the idea of passing a law that would limit advertising “unhealthy” products to kids. The list of unhealthy products was obviously lengthy, but one category stood tall above the rest: cereal.
Cereal commercials were the light beer ads of childhood. They were plentiful, they were unique, and some of them were awesome. One such commercial stood tall above the rest. Even without the picture above, I’m sure you’d know what I was talking about. It’s no secret. The legendary Fruity Pebbles Christmas Commercial has already been documented here and on many other places throughout the web for being the greatest thing that ever happened, ever.
And it’s that fact that makes my blood start to boil.
This situation is the perfect example of what I’ve mentioned many times before. The commercials aren’t just about the product. That ad never made me get Fruity Pebbles. It didn’t make me beg and plead with my parents to feed them to me. My folks weren’t buying them and that was that. But I still loved this spot. It just embodied Christmas and it made me happy every time I saw it.
I didn’t even like the Flintstones that much, but this commercial was pure gold.
It’s a memory that me and many, many other people have taken with them into adulthood. Now, there’s no chance for kids to allow themselves to enjoy things like this.
The Trix Rabbit, Lucky the Leprechaun, Count Chocula, and dozens of other meal-time mascots have been extinguished. Instead of being the stars of the small-screen they were destined to be, they’re trapped on box art and not getting the attention they deserve.
Just like McDonaldland, the characters provided loads of entertainment in between programming. They lived in worlds that inspired creativity and imagination. It may not seem like much to you now, as an adult, but these ads were a big part of our childhood.
As we get older and jaded, seeing Snap, Crackle and Pop on TV can be calming and reassuring. It brings us back to a simpler time, reminds us of our innocence and maybe makes us smile on an otherwise bad day.
Childhood just seems so sterile now. A friend of mine was telling me how his kids can’t bring in most classic treats to school on their birthdays anymore. I mean, really? Is this what we’re coming to?
Moderation is the message, sure, but we don’t need to explicitly say that in advertising. Let the parents be the mean ones telling kids they can’t eat candy all day. It’s always been like that.
Big companies need to get over it and stop bowing to the nonsense. Be unashamed and unwilling to bend in the face of unfounded public pressure. It’s bad enough that my kids won’t know what a music video is. Do we have to rob them of cereal commercials too? What’s next - shuttering up Toys “R” Us?
It’s time for Cap'n Crunch to man up and put his military skills to good use. Lead the charge, oh Cap'n. I will proudly fall in line to assist you in your reclamation of glory.
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DisqusImage copyright AP Image caption Shortly after being kidnapped, Peter Kassig converted and now uses the Muslim name Abdul Rahman
The American hostage Abdul-Rahman Kassig, known as Peter Kassig before he converted to Islam, is now a "dedicated Muslim", according to a former cellmate. The aid worker was kidnapped in Syria by the so-called Islamic State.
Abdul-Rahman Kassig, |
: Fox president Kevin Reilly is envisioning a May 2015 end date for the tale of William McKinley High School’s scrappy show-choir members (and alumnae).
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“Never say never, but… there’s two very clear arcs to get to that end and conclude [the series],” Reilly told reporters when asked about the future of Glee at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills. “If we discover a new crop of kids and there’s some breakout, who knows. But right now, we’re thinking about two seasons.”
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The network ordered two more rounds of Glee — Seasons 5 and 6 — last April. So based on Reilly’s comments, the curtain will (likely) fall on New Directions & Co. at the end of Season 6.
Glee‘s Season 5 premiere was pushed back a week to Sept. 26 after the unexpected death of series star Cory Monteith last month.In As You Like It, melancholy Jacques asserts: "I am for other than dancing measures." It's bewildering to discover that every Shakespeare play, including King Lear, ended with a jig, moving seamlessly from gouged-out eyeballs to cutting a caper. That closing dance expressed concord, delight, the measured order of things. Yet Jacques seeks to exile himself from pleasure and community; he won't let dance help him step towards the sweetness of life.
In Jean-Luc Godard's Bande à Part, two guys and a woman get up in a cafe and dance the madison. It lasts about three and a half minutes, and all that time, without one cut, the camera regards them, moving with them, just taking in the sheer purposeless charm, how handsome the men are, how beautiful the woman. Gesture assumes a pattern; watching them hypnotises you. It is not a dance film, but there they are, nonetheless, dancing, and every measured step leads us to freedom.
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In American movies especially, dance wants to assert the place of the individual, to find a space for their freedom, their spontaneity, and their capacity for improvised joy. It makes its stand against automation and pompous authority. Above all, it does so by being deliciously silly. By avoiding dancing, Shakespeare's Jacques refuses the embrace of his own foolishness. Near the beginning of even the best musical, there is a point where it may all seem just sublimely daft. From the first 10 seconds, Jacques Demy's Les Demoiselles de Rochefort strikes you as preposterous – it's so vivid, there's just so much dancing, it's all so pink – but, by the time Gene Kelly arrives, the absurdity has won you over.
Dance on film could only emerge properly with sound, and the synchronisation of the human body to music. In Fritz Lang's Metropolis, the robotic workers jerk in rhythm with the machines they service. It looks like dance, but one forced through the sensibility of totalitarianism. The men who shift are turned away, faceless, their movements a mechanised parody of the liberty found in dance. In the early 1930s, Busby Berkeley's musicals, despite their all-American sheen, present a similarly anonymising view. His amazing dance sequences swallow up individuals into a chorus; the figures are just an organised crowd. Seen from above, people lose themselves in the making of a design, absorbed into stars or ephemeral flowers. This is dance at its most abstract, an almost mathematical form – Berkeley himself referred to these sequences as his "homogeneous quadrangle equations" – closer to cubism than to the traditional Hollywood movie. Spectacle dissolves the story and rejects individual character.
Always the battle was between the self and that which would deny it. In Modern Times, when Charlie Chaplin cavorts and pirouettes around the production line, he offers an anarchic, individualistic riposte to the Henry Ford, Metropolis world, deftly switching factory work into ballet. (Nijinsky once told Chaplin that essentially he was a dancer.) Similarly, in Shall We Dance, Fred Astaire furthers the revolt against mechanism, syncopating his body to the pistons, wheels and turning-rods of a steam-ship's engine room, a gleefully human impersonation and transcendence of the machine. What was abject in Metropolis becomes pure enchantment.
When not matching himself against the machine and winning, Astaire was often inviting the censure of the stuffy – a classless American guy in Top Hat up against the po-faced upper-class Englishmen obeying the Thackeray Club's rule of silence. There's disapproval too in Singin' in the Rain, with the policeman who moves Gene Kelly along, and in Baz Luhrmann's wonderful Strictly Ballroom, with the old guard who resist the young hero's new dance moves. In such moments, the dancer embodies a natural pleasure of which authority disapproves.
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Kelly affirmed that "dancing is a compulsion from within, more authentic than the forms imposed from without". He had begun his career as a dance teacher, and something of the teacher always remained with him. In Anchors Aweigh, when he instructs the cartoon Jerry Mouse how to dance and gives up being a grouch, the movie taps into childlikeness, the capacity to achieve unselfconsciousness through playful imitation.
In relation to dance, two tensions held the Hollywood musical together. The first involved the relation between the white movie stars and the largely anonymous African-American dancers that they in part imitated. This was a boundary that could rarely be mentioned, though the "Slap That Bass" sequence in Shall We Dance and the shoeshine dance in The Band Wagon did their best to allude to it, however problematically. On the other border lay ballet. The American celebration of the natural entailed a suspicion of European classical styles, seen as French or, worse, Russian. Such foreign highbrow imports were suspect, especially if compared to the native vigour of the cakewalk, vaudeville and tap. The demotic dance world, vulgar and free, squares up against elitist pretensions. Yet dance in the American musical was always also in love with the ballet world that it affected to despise. In particular, the long "Broadway" ballet sequence in Singin' in the Rain shows American popular art aspiring to European achievements.
Ballet may come into Hollywood musicals, but the ballet film follows rules all its own. Dancing should be carefree, but such films portray the dance world as the home of suffering, whether through work and anxiety as in Robert Altman's The Company, or as pure gothic in Dario Argento's Suspiria. Behind every adaptation of Ballet Shoes there looms a Black Swan. These are largely films about dedication to art, where dancing means compulsion, pain or a shimmering illusion.
In ballet, exaggeration exceeds itself; close-up, the makeup looks grotesque; the plots are melodramatic, the gestures heightened. It is both vibrantly physical and oddly unreal, allowing us to imagine an unlimited freedom for the limited body.
The greatest of all ballet films must be Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Red Shoes (1948). This movie conducts us into an alien, backstage world, and then guides us to a narrative within, the ballet of The Red Shoes, a place where stories are told differently, through gesture related to music. Weak dance films make us a second-hand audience; others place us within the dancer's moment. The Red Shoes achieves both; we both watch the ballet and are inside it. The ballet pitches that film's tendency to stylised excess one notch higher, as a kind of enraptured surrealism takes over; the music metamorphoses the dancer, a knife becomes a rose, the audience turns into an ocean.
Watching Pina, Wim Wenders's glorious homage to the German choreographer Pina Bausch, you wonder how so much angst can be so joyful. Elsewhere, too, dancing can become poignant, simply by being so different from the rest of life. For all The Full Monty's zest, wit and generosity, there's an element of They Shoot Horses, Don't They? about it. When everything fails, all these men have left are their bodies. In their way, the best 50s Bollywood films similarly draw the glorious folly of dance into contact with poverty and genuine suffering. Raj Kapoor's Shree 420 possesses a spirit and a social conscience that shows up West Side Story for the act of stylised sentimentality it is. Dance here is the thought of hope amid the hopelessness.
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Few films can balance the contrast between pathos and energy so tactfully as Kapoor's. Perhaps the dance film is at its very best when most removed from life. The dance critic Lincoln Kirstein suggested that the technology of film would open up the fullest possibilities for dance, by which he meant "a treatment of human bodies comparable to the way Disney treats his puppets". There is something persuasive in that, not least because one of the greatest filmed dance sequences remains that of the hippopotami and the crocodiles in Fantasia; in "I Got No Strings", Pinocchio becomes one of cinema's greatest dancers, transcending – as only an animated puppet could, yet all the while also remaining an awkward child – all the limitations and constraints of the body. (Just as, for The Red Shoes, the cinematographer Jack Cardiff sped up Moira Shearer's pirouettes, making the impossible happen.)
Animation can seem the rightful home of dance, because for all the insistence on naturalness, the dance movie is as busy celebrating artifice. After all there is nothing more unnatural than suddenly breaking into a dance, an activity in the same relation to everyday movement as poetry is to prose. The Astaire-Rogers films take place in a studio-enclosed world, an unreal realm of chic, upper-class leisure, an ordinary gal in a ballgown, a man of the people in top hat and tails. In the past, film was far more welcoming to dance, because it already made room for the theatrical, the unnatural and make-believe. At a time when songs could be sung in dramas such as The Big Sleep or Rio Bravo, dance was similarly part of the vocabulary of film. Later, as naturalism and authenticity became key values, the dance movie somewhat dropped away – Saturday Night Fever being one attempt to weld together dance and the new taste for genuine urban grit.
"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture" – this celebrated warning has been in my mind. I am in many ways disqualified to write this article: my ankles are rheumatic, my dancing days are done; I cannot tell a plié from a pas de bourée; I must have seen Dirty Dancing, but have forgotten it. Yet both dance and film, and dance films have always meant much to me. Moreover dance films come across as magnificently welcoming, a club without bouncers or dress code.
Dance is as close as the human gets to being like music, the body converted into the instrument that plays. It is pure expression and, like music, it rejects no one. It is at its best in the single take, where you see the performance as a whole performance, well away from Flashdance-style trickery. Film gives us a trace of dance's magnificent physicality, just as dance brings something essentially theatrical to cinema. So it is that dance films work best in the cinema, with conditions as close as possible to the size and vividness of the stage.
But it's more than performance that the dance film hails; it commends and applauds play. When Gene Kelly sings "Singin' in the Rain", he's clearly on a Hollywood set. Yet in our imaginings, he's fooling around on a Los Angeles street, just like the real streets that Kelly and Stanley Donen had shot in while making On the Town. The dance film was moving out on location, and the street was becoming the stage. As Kelly dances, and the rain falls, he shows that to dance on the street is to renew it, to claim back the urban space as one briefly dedicated to frivolity and fun. And when in Pina, the dancers splash across a flooded stage, the moment clearly descends from Kelly kicking through those puddles. Both films – and all the great dance films – ultimately point towards this great transformation, an alchemy that with a touch of rhythm, and a gesture of style, changes the world to delight.
• Gotta Dance, Gotta Dance!, a two-month season of dance on film, begins at the BFI, London, on 3 July. bfi.org.uk.
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The links are powered by Skimlinks. By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that Skimlinks cookies will be set. More information.The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, one of biggest corporate trade associations, and ALEC, one of biggest corporate lobbying groups are both startlingly hostile to shareholders. At two recent meetings in Washington DC, these two powerful groups — who frequently hold themselves out as speaking for the business community — grumbled about shareholders being too pushy.
In particular ALEC and the Chamber don’t like that one of the top topics of shareholder resolutions over the past few years has been transparency of political spending both in elections and in lobbying expenditures. Just this year, five public firms witnessed a majority of their shareholders vote in favor of such political transparency. Those firms in case you were curious are Sallie Mae, Lorillard and Valero Energy, where a majority voted for disclosure of lobbying — and Dean Foods and Smith & Wesson, where a majority voted for disclosure of campaign spending.
Ownership, as they say, has its privileges. One of the points of buying stock rather than just loaning a company money is by actually buying a little piece of the firm, the shareholder gets a tiny voice in how that firm is run. Apparently the Chamber and ALEC do not appreciate shareholders, well, acting like they own the joint.
Of course, shareholders don’t get to run the firm day to day, but they do get to pipe up once a year at the annual general meeting (AGM) by voting on the board of directors, the auditor, management proposals and shareholder proposals.
As reported in Bloomberg BNA by Kenneth P. Doyle, this attention by shareholders on corporate political spending is rubbing the President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce the wrong way. “The whole thing comes down to efforts by some to stop the business community” complained President Thomas Donahue at a December 3rd conference sponsored by the U.S. Chamber Foundation.
Meanwhile the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) was also meeting in DC on December 3rd and they too were peevish about shareholders having the temerity to ask where corporate money in being used in politics. As reported by PR Watch, at the ALEC meeting there was a workshop titled “Playing the Shame Game: A Campaign that Threatens Corporate Free Speech.”
This is all a little surreal since these are shareholders after all who at the end of the day would like a reasonable return on their investment, like any good capitalist. If anyone is for businesses turning a profit, it is the people whose life savings are tied up in these firms and thus it is reasonable to ask if money spent on politics is money spent wisely.
From the press reports of these two DC meetings, it sounds like the Chamber and ALEC may be pining for the 1950s. Back then, shareholders almost never brought up social issues on the proxy. One of the few exceptions was James Peck, a white civil rights activist who had the “crazy” idea that blacks and whites are equal. Peck partnered with black civil rights lawyer Bayard Rustin to ask Greyhound to desegregate its buses through the corporate proxy card. James Peck failed at every turn in the early 1950s. He was met with a wall of resistance from the company, the SEC and the courts. And it was like that for other shareholders for two more decades.
This all changed with a case called Medical Committee for Human Rights v. SEC brought by shareholders of Dow who complained about its production of napalm during the Vietnam War. The case was litigated up to the D.C. Circuit in 1970. The court found that the shareholders should be able to vote on a broader array of issues because:
[w]e think that there is a clear and compelling distinction between management’s legitimate need for freedom to apply its expertise in matters of day-to-day business judgment, and management’s patently illegitimate claim of power to treat modern corporations with their vast resources as personal satrapies implementing personal political or moral predilections.
A key factor in the case was the fact that Dow’s own documents showed “that the decision to continue manufacturing and marketing napalm was made not because of business considerations, but in spite of them…” The Dow case was a turning point in the rights of shareholders. Shortly thereafter the SEC revised its rules to allow political and social shareholder proposals.
And shareholders have been exercising this right ever since. Now in a typical year, hundreds of shareholder proposals are filed at firms. Today many of the shareholder resolutions are about sustainability and environmental issues like climate change, greenhouse gases, pollution, genetically modified food, and impacts on public health of manufacturing.
A report from the Sustainable Investment Institute (Si2) which tracks these things noted, “[i]nvestors concerned with environmental and social issues filed 454 shareholder proposals at U.S. companies in 2014, a big jump from 402 in 2013 and far more than in any previous year.”
Ever since Citizens United in 2010 there has been a notable uptick in shareholder resolutions on the transparency of political spending. And the votes on political transparency this year averaged (as of August 2014) 23.7%. This is remarkably high given how broadly public companies are held. Which might explain why some corporate groups who are fond of spending secretive “dark money” are having a toddler style temper tantrum just because shareholders are exercising their right to vote their proxies.
The alternative to the private ordering that shareholders are engaged in is a generally applicable rule from the SEC providing uniform disclosure of corporate political spending, which is also popular among shareholders if a short review of the over one million comments filed at the SEC is any indication.
If the Chamber and ALEC bristle at shareholder democracy where there is an actual ownership stake, one can only imagine what they think of real democracy where every citizen over 18 no matter how rich or poor, investors and non-investors alike, gets to vote.On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” host Andrea Mitchell told Clinton campaign Press Secretary Brian Fallon during an interview on the Clinton Foundation that “it does look like that firewall that she promised the Senate Foreign Relations Committee would not be crossed, was crossed.”
Mitchell said, “[Y]es, you could say Melinda Gates, obviously a leading NGO, a philanthropist, someone who’s done world health work, HIV/AIDs would be meeting with the secretary of state…but there are a lot of others. There are people like the Ukrainian businessman, Mr. Pinchuk, who was at a dinner at the Clinton — at the State Department dinner, or a dinner at Clinton home. I mean, there are other people where it does look like that firewall that she promised the Senate Foreign Relations Committee would not be crossed, was crossed. The gatekeepers were people who were close aides, people who — one of them worked part-time…for Doug Band while he was in turn getting access for some of his clients”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchettOver the weekend, reports surfaced, which, suggested that the Blackhawks had offered the Canucks centreman Dave Bolland in exchange for Roberto Luongo. For a brief shining moment, it appeared that the market for goaltender Roberto Luongo trade was "hardening." This was a relief for news starved Canucks fans who are eager to "move on."
Alas, for a trade widely seen as "inevitable," this Luongo transaction is dragging on for an eternity this summer. Based on several reports over the past twenty-four appears, it appears that we should expect that continue…
More after the break.
The idea of a "stalemate" between Florida General Manager Dale Tallon and Mike Gillis first began to surface yesterday, by way of Sun Sentinel hockey reporter Harvey Fialkov:
There’s absolutely no recent chatter on the Roberto Luongo front. The Panthers are content with their trio of goalies and are certainly holding all the cards in this situation.
Today "the stalemate" made it into the latest Thirty Thoughts column from Hockey Night in Canada’s Elliotte Friedman. Friedman is among the most reliable hockey reporters in the business, and his report gave us a more detailed breakdown of what’s preventing the Canucks and the Panthers from consumating a Luongo trade (these were thoughts 25 + 26, I removed the numbers for the sake of readability within this post).
It’s not exactly a state secret that [Roberto Luongo] wants to go to Florida and in a perfect world, the Canucks would send him there. There’s a bit of a stalemate now, as the Panthers feel Vancouver is asking too much and the Canucks feel Florida is squeezing too hard. One of the issues is prospects. Florida, which has done a great job stocking the system, is understandably unwilling to move Jacob Markstrom, Erik Gudbranson or Jonathan Huberdeau. An educated guess is that Vancouver has inquired about the "next level" of talented youth, like a Nick Bjugstad or Quinton Howden. Don’t think Florida likes that, either. So, between that and the fact the Canucks don’t want to take bad salary in return, things aren’t really moving at this time. The endgame for Luongo? If it doesn’t happen with Florida, they’ll ask him for more destinations. Eventually, he’s going to have to play along, because he has "no-trade," not "no-move" protection. But, there’s no real deadline now except for fan and media impatience.
In summary, the Canucks and the Panthers remain in a holding pattern. Luongo would still prefer to go to Florida, which we knew, and the Panthers are a willing suitor at the right price. Of course that "price" is the rub, and the two sides don’t appear close. They’re so far away, in fact, that the two sides have broken off active talks (as reported by Fialkov).
Dale Tallon is "understandably unwilling" to move any of his club’s top-end prospects, and we can imply from the phrase: "the Canucks don’t want to take bad salary in return," that the Panthers would like to dump one of their many toxic deals in any exchange.
This has me thinking that perhaps there’s a "quid pro quo" element at the root of this impasse. I’m just speculating and reading between the lines here, but it seems possible that if the Canucks were interested in nabbing a nice prospect from Florida they would have to be willing to take on an inefficient contract in return as well. Alternatively, perhaps they could dump Luongo’s salary with limited financial reprecussions, but in that case they’d have to settle for a lesser return. Again, this based on my reading of the reports I’ve linked to and quoted in this post and nothing else, but it would make sense that Mike Gillis and the Canucks can’t have it both ways.
As Elliotte notes, "there’s no real deadline," which is why we should expect this situation to continue to drag on. Stan Bowman and Chicago will need to part with more than Bolland (something I see as unlikely), and Brian Burke and Toronto have turned their gaze to less proven commodities (albeit only semi-seriously). Meanwhile, Dale Tallon and Mike Gillis appear to be playing the long game in haggling over price.
On the Strombabble front, it appears we’re in for a long summer.Image copyright Getty Images
Alan Rusbridger is to step down as editor-in-chief of the Guardian newspaper next summer, after 20 years in the role.
Mr Rusbridger is leaving to take up the position of chair of the Scott Trust, which owns Guardian Media Group.
He said he felt privileged to have held the role at the Guardian and was honoured to take up the new post.
His successor as editor-in-chief will be announced in "due course", a Guardian statement said.
'Extraordinary' time
Mr Rusbridger will succeed Dame Liz Forgan as chair of the Scott Trust.
In an email to staff, Mr Rusbridger said his time in the top job had been "quite an extraordinary period in the life of the Guardian".
He said: "In global journalism, there are a handful of roles that have the capability to redefine our industry.
"I am privileged to have held one of those roles for 20 years, a period in which successful newspapers have become global content providers, reaching audiences in dramatically new and valuable ways."
He added: "We have strong future leaders in place with unparalleled news and digital experience, and I know that our journalism will be in the best possible hands."
Investigative journalism
BBC correspondent Nick Higham said the length of Mr Rusbridger's editorship had been a sign of "stability".
Mr Rusbridger had been "instrumental" in the paper's pursuit of investigative journalism - including when it published details of controversial files leaked by Edward Snowden and Wikileaks, our correspondent said.
Earlier this year, the Guardian and the Washington Post were awarded the Pulitzer prize for public service journalism for a series of stories on US electronic spying, based on documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
Mr Rusbridger appeared before the Home Affairs Select Committee in 2013, where he defended publishing details of the files.
Image copyright PA Image caption Rusbridger oversaw the Guardian's move from broadsheet to the more compact Berliner format
Mr Rusbridger joined the Guardian in 1979 as a reporter and became editor in 1995, succeeding Peter Preston.
Under his management, the paper moved from its office in London's Farringdon to Kings Cross and embraced digital journalism.
Recently, the paper has attempted to become an international brand with offices in Australia and the United States.
Mr Rusbridger had also changed the size of the newspaper from broadsheet to Berliner format.
'Outstanding editor'
Neil Berkett, chairman of Guardian Media Group, said: "Alan has set the standard for journalistic leadership in the digital age.
"His appointment to lead the Scott Trust coincides with rapidly rising readership, continued innovation and secure finances at the Guardian.
"His successor will inherit a global media organisation in very strong health and with clear prospects for further growth."
Dame Liz said Mr Rusbridger had been the "outstanding editor of his generation".
She said: "We are delighted that the Scott Trust and the wider group will continue to benefit from his experience, overseeing the independent body that guarantees the editorial integrity and commercial future of the Guardian."
Steve Hewlett, who presents Radio 4's Media Show, said there had been no signs that Mr Rusbridger was losing his appetite for journalism in recent years.
But there have been persistent rumours about his future, so "discussions will have occurred" about a successor, he said.
People at the paper will be "very very sad" to see Mr Rusbridger leave, he added.Google The latest fantastical project to come out the Google X lab is a smart contact lens, the company said in a blog post on Thursday.
Word leaked last week that Google was talking to the FDA about a new project involving biosensors.
The lens is being developed specifically to help track blood glucose levels for diabetics, as an alternative to the painful pricking-of-the-finger that diabetics must endure today.
And yes, Google is talking to the FDA about these lenses.
The lens has "chips and sensors so small they look like bits of glitter, and an antenna thinner than a human hair." Google is hoping to add tiny LED lights to it that could flash if glucose levels aren't what they should be.
Should this lens ever make it to market, we can imagine a time when it could include apps that do all sorts of things. It basically lets you put a computer sensor directly into your eye.
The unit working on this, Google X, is the same one that brought us Google Glass, the self driving car, and Internet balloons.New York, NY - Were one to write a pre-election analysis in the glorious days of Greece's ancien regime, one would most probably have to present and analyse the political positions of the main competing parties. Yet, this is one of the most outdated things one might want to do if one intends to say anything useful about Greece today. In fact, no-one expects to learn anything new from the traditionally televised debates among politicians (no doubt that this disillusionment should be regarded as one positive outcome of the "crisis"). Alas, there are still many hopes regarding the outcome of the elections.
The old anarchist slogan that inspired this article's title has gained urgent actuality in Greece. Spray-painted with black and red letters on random walls throughout the urban landscape, its bold message stands in alarming contrast to the empty utterances by the talking heads now standing for election.
For a long time, the most insightful and inspiring quotes about the political situation in Greece have totally eclipsed the manifestos of technocrats and the reports of journalists. Hope and insights, endurance and critique, are more likely to be expressed through red and black graffiti than in the speeches made by experts.
The "Greek crisis" has had at least two side effects so far: it demonstrated that official politics has no vision whatsoever, and that mainstream journalism has no shame.
Counting the Cost:
Who are the winners and losers in Greece?
It is doubtful whether there has been another moment in the country's tumultuous post-WWII history in which the carefully manufactured (and brutally defended) consensus - which apologists of capitalism euphemistically call democracy - has suffered so much a loss of face at the hands of internal and external ruling elites.
In an ironic twist of history, "democracy" collapses day after day in its cradle, only to reveal itself as a bloodthirsty cacophony of exploitation, suppression and inhumanity.
This is what democracy looks like in the place of its birth today:
Criminal neo-Nazi groups launch murderous pogroms against immigrants - driven away from their homes from imperialist wars in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa - thereby sharpening their fighting skills on the bodies upon the most vulnerable, and effectively preparing themselves for the upcoming assault on the homegrown resistance movement.
Crypto-racist and violence-prone armed gangs - aka dias and delta motorcycled police teams - roam the streets of major cities, beating up journalists and harassing and arresting those who appear "suspicious" or "rebellious".
Guilty politicians from both major parties (the conservative/neoliberal New Democracy and the social-democratic/neoliberal PASOK) hide from an enraged people behind the walls of guarded palaces, evoking doomsday scenarios in case the citizenry dare not vote them back into office.
Unelected bankers and EU-technocrats effectively run the show, deciding for the generations to come to sell out the country's most vital assets, and to sink the population into unprecedented levels of poverty and misery.
Unsavoury journalists hide behind ludicrous televised lies and unqualified threats, lamenting as psychiatric cases those schoolteachers who, imitating Mohamed Bouazizi, were willing to take their lives in political protest.
Amid this atmosphere of omnipresent physical and structural violence, fear and hopelessness, inflicted by the elites and their proxies, the old anarchist slogan not only represents the most accurate description of the situation in the place formerly known as the Greek republic, but also the only way forward: the struggle against austerity and hypocrisy should be fought not only on election day, but on every day.
Weimar reloaded: The 'two extremes' scare
And, indeed, many people do exactly that: organising themselves on a daily basis to fighting against racism and austerity. The "crisis" has revealed a creative potential among a large part of the population in Greece. There is no doubt that Greece is today at the forefront of global resistance against capitalism. Creativity and steadfastness of the resistance movement inspire people's fights across the continent. But it also scares the elites - worldwide.
"The elite's strategy... after the failure of racist arguments on culture and corruption, a new shibboleth has appeared - the society's wretched and defenceless: immigrants, prostitutes and the poor."
The politics in Greece has superseded both the boundaries of the country as well as the temporality of our time. In today's Greece, one can see the future of tomorrow's Europe. The arguments about lazy Greeks and corrupt state employees have already begun to look anachronistic vis-a-vis the spreading of the crisis into hitherto model cases such as Portugal, Italy, Spain and France.
Now, those who really seek to see the entire picture know well that the problem lies with capitalism and not with the nation's culture.
In the face of this development, the elite's strategy to maintain the consensus has been re-adjusted. After the failure of racist arguments over culture and corruption, a new shibboleth has appeared - the society's wretched and defenseless: immigrants, prostitutes and the poor. The strategy is well conceived. At first, the "other" is defined as a controversy and a threat, and then those who take radical positions around it are branded as collateral threats. Both those willing to defend the "other" as well as those seeking to exterminate it, are labelled "extremists".
"Socialist" ministers of the coalition government label refugees and prostitutes as "hygienic ticking bombs", freely borrowing from racist Western pseudo-scientific discourses about non-Western threats. Then, after having produced a machinery of propaganda against the immigrants throughout the past years, they are shocked to see the far-right gain influence in the election polls. Perfect bigots as they are, though, they warn about the rise of both "extremes".
The homeless in Greece have become one of the far-right's new targets, and scapegoats for the economic crisis [GALLO/GETTY]
However, the rise of the far-right in the polls plays in the hands of the ruling political elites, who can now point at them with the finger and shout: "Beware of the extremes." Yet it is a false alarm. A criminal gang that can run for election only due to constant police protection does not constitute a real threat to the system. The far-right in Greece is mainly used as a scare against the radical left and the prospects of a popular rebellion. The war of the elites is not against fascism - or racism, for that matter. After all, the latter has been their bread and butter since the beginnings of the 1990s.
The existential threat to their regime comes principally from the prospect of a popular uprising, which if the left was really up to the task would have been long underway.
¡Callate o despertaras la izquierda!
The urban myth has it that a slogan by the Spanish protesters in Puerta del Sol fuelled the spark for the Greek Tahrir - the Syntagma square - in spring 2011: ¡Callate o despertaras a Grecia! ["Be silent or you will wake up Greece"].
The slogan was said to have awakened the pride of Greeks in protesting and in civil disobedience. Whether the slogan truly existed or not is rather trivial. What is true and important, however, is that the Spanish protests caused a domino effect in Greece, just like the Tunisian protests did in Egypt.
However, similar forms of protest (strikes, marches, public assemblies, occupied public spaces) have not - yet - re-appeared in the same magnitude this spring. Excessive state repression, widespread insecurity about the future and a vague hope of change through the upcoming elections seem to have taken the air from the sails of popular forms of resistance.
Yet, if the Greeks woke up last spring, it is the official left in the country that is still sleeping.
No-one seems to believe more in the prospect of change through elections than the two major parties of the anti-capitalist left today: the Communist party (KKE) and Syriza, a leftist alliance of radical parties and previous Euro-Communists.
While most of the protesting people in the country have long lost faith to the system of rule, euphemistically called "democracy", both parties reiterate their faith in the ballot box at every given opportunity.
While hundreds of thousands surround the parliament to protest what they see as a constitutional coup d'etat by the ruling elite, both parties keep their MPs inside, effectively contributing to the redressing of a regime of open violence as "political dialogue".
While workers and pensioners throughout the country are deprived of basic means for survival, both parties ask them to be patient and make sure they do not die until May 6.
While fascist groups chase defenceless immigrants in open daylight, both parties mobilise their supporters mostly - if not solely - towards their respective election campaigns.
For both parties, the elections have acquired an almost millenarian outlook, something like a second coming: what if election polls show the neo-Nazi party of Greece (Golden Dawn) as high as five or six per cent? The left is busy celebrating its double-digit score in the same polls.
Once again, one feels the need to reiterate: if elections could change things, they would have been made illegal. In fact, this might well happen in one way or another: members of the political elite have shamelessly suggested the indefinite postponement of elections, while European officials have clearly indicated that unless voters choose one of the two major parties, the country would be plunged into chaos, prompting the leader of Syriza to file a complaint with the European Commission over foreign interference in the country's internal affairs.
In the face of all this, it appears essential to ask whether:
Instead of drafting an electoral program, it would be more useful to craft everyday programs of population mobilisation against elite-driven violence and misery
Instead of debating with those who massacre "democracy" in the parliament, it would be more effective to join the ranks of those who surround the building
Instead of waiting for the election results to empower the party, it would be more crucial to strengthen local committees of immigrants and Greeks together in the fight against extreme right-wing groups
Instead of cultivating illusions about change through elections, it would be more sincere to move quickly towards a post-representational system of Direct Democracy.
Nikolas Kosmatopoulos received his PhD in anthropology from the University of Zurich. He has conducted fieldwork on peace expertise in Lebanon and Geneva and is now visiting scholar at Columbia University and at CUNY.A press conference held by the Mayor of Minneapolis after the Police Chief's resignation has descended into chaos after protesters angrily interrupted to |
is that just because you carry a gun, it should not affect the way you police," Inspector Carroll added. "We chat to people and they love it."
Unlike their counterparts in the United States, British police officers do not routinely carry guns, although armed patrols are frequently deployed in the aftermath of shootings and to guard potential terrorist targets.
In October 2000 armed officers on the beat were temporarily introduced in Nottingham after a string of drug-related deaths.
Jennette Arnold, a Labour London Assembly member for northeast London constituency, said that the patrols threatened to tear up the contract between the community and the police.
"No one asked us or the people I represent if this was acceptable and when they do I shall tell them it isn't. It isn't acceptable to throw away the principle of policing by consent," she said.
Gill Marshall-Andrews, chairwoman of the Gun Control Network campaign group, described the routine arming of officers as a "very retrograde step" and warned that it could lead to higher levels of gun crime.
"This is likely to raise the stakes and encourage more criminals, especially young criminals, to arm themselves," she said.
"Gun crime in this country is very low by international standards and that's largely because there aren't many guns about. Arming police officers sends out all the wrong messages."
The Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, has long campaigned against attempts to arm a larger section of the force, but said it had no objection to the new scheme.
Simon Reed, vice-chairman of the national federation, said that although majority of his members did not wish be to armed, forces must be free to respond to particular threats.
"The ethos will always be that the British police are unarmed, but we need officers to be able to use firearms when appropriate," he said. "My feeling is that the current balance is just about right."
The Home Office declined to comment, saying that the operational use of firearms was a matter for local forces.
Officers from CO19, formerly known as SO19, have been involved in a number of high-profile incidents in the capital, including the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell station in 2005.
Gun-related crime is on the increase in London with 1,736 gun crimes reported in London between April and September this year – up 17 per cent on 2008.
The problem of turf violence between drugs gangs was highlighted earlier this month with a spate of shootings in north London linked to two Turkish gangs, the Tottenham Boys and the Bombacilar.Consider the following sequence. Let the first element be \(a_0 = 0\).
Then, for \(a_i\), when \(i>0\), let’s do the following. Consider the last element \(a_{i-1}\). Did this element appear previously in the sequence? If not (meaning that \(a_{i-1}\) is its first occurrence), set \(a_i\) to \(0\). If \(a_{i-1}\) did appear before, then let \(a_k\) be its previous occurrence. Set \(a_i\) to the value \(i-1-k\) (meaning, “how far back did we see this value?”). So, we have 0,0,1,0,2,0,2,2,1,6,… For example, the last 6 is there because the previous element 1 has appeared 6 positions earlier. This is known as Van Eck’s sequence and appears as A181391 in the wonderful On-line encyclopedia of integer seqences. It has been added to OEIS by Jan Ritsema van Eck in 2010. There are many interesting properties of this sequence (for instance, it was shown that it contains infinitely many zeros), and even more intriguing open questions. For more details see the OEIS entry, or these slides by OEIS founder N.J.A. Sloane. Here is a variation on the above sequence:
Instead of counting the “number of elements”, let’s count only the “number of distinct elements”. That is, again we start with 0, and then if the last element was new, we write 0, otherwise we write “how many distinct elements” have we seen since its previous appearance. So the sequence goes: 0,0,1,0,2,0,2,2,1,3,… For example, the last 3 is there because between the previous element 1 and its last appearance there are 3 distinct elements: 0,1,2. I thought of this sequence independently, but searching for it on OEIS I found that it has been considered before by Nathaniel Shar, who added it to the OEIS as A268755. See here for a plot. The rule for defining the sequence is similar to the concept of “working set” in the theory of data structures, which refers exactly to the number of distinct queries seen since the previous occurrence of the last query. Therefore, I think a fitting name for the sequence would be “working set sequence”. So what can we say about the working set sequence (a.k.a. Shar’s sequence)? Does it also contain an infinite number of zeros, similarly to the Van Eck’s sequence? I generated about half a million elements by computer, and the answer seems yes. It could happen, of course, that at some point the sequence reaches a cycle that it can never escape, such as 1,1,1,1,1,… or the less trivial …,1,2,3,3,1,3,2,3,2,2,1,3,3,… (exercise: check that this is really a cycle!) However, the computer experiment suggests that this does not happen, and eventually every positive integer appears in the sequence. Can this be proven formally? Yes! Let’s leave this as an exercise (I added a proof sketch to the OEIS entry). As a hint, an easier property to observe is that \(k\) can appear only after \(0,…,k-1\) have already appeared. Theorem. The working set sequence contains infinitely many zeros. Zeros seem to appear much less frequently in the working set sequence than in Van Eck’s sequence. But how frequent are they? Empirically it seems that there is a gap of roughly a constant times \(k\) between the \(k\)th and \(k+1\)th zeros, although nothing like this has been proven. Also, the zeros often come in pairs: if, for a long time there have been no new elements, eventually the new element \(k\) comes, followed by \(0\), and then, since \(0\) has also not appeared for a very long time, there is high chance that \(k+1,0\) follow right away. This seems to be the case quite frequently. Overall, however, nothing seems to be known about the statistics of this sequence, e.g. the asymptotic growth rate of \(a_n\). The indices of new elements in the working set sequence (or alternatively, the indices of zeros minus one) have been added to OEIS as A275668. I mentioned above two possible cycles in the sequence (although they don’t actually appear if we start from 0). What is the set of all possible cycles, does it have a nice characterization? How many different cycles are there with \(k\) distinct elements? These questions are open. Finally, another open question about the working set sequence (as far as I know, the same question is open for the Van Eck’s sequence as well): Problem. Does every pair of nonnegative integers (a,b) eventually appear in the working set sequence as a pair of consecutive elements? (except for (1,1) of course, which cannot appear). [NOTE added August 2017] As pointed out by Jan Ritsema van Eck in a comment (see below), the Van Eck sequence also excludes pairs of the type (p,p+1). Prove it as a fun exercise, it is not difficult! So let’s modify the conjecture to also exclude (p,p+1) pairs besides (1,1). The conjecture doesn’t seem extremely plausible to be honest (as Jan points out, there are weaker statements one should prove first), so let’s formulate it as a challenge, to move things forward. Can you find an (a,b) pair not of the form (p,p+1) and not (1,1) that does not appear in the van Eck sequence A181391? This observation does not apply to the working set sequence. For example, (4,5) appears at positions (21,22). So the similar challenge is: Can you find an (a,b) pair other than (1,1) that does not appear in the working set sequence A268755?
Some of the books I read (and liked) in 2015, and my impressions of them. Previously: 14, 13, 12, 11. John Maynard Smith, Eörs Szathmáry:
The Origins of Life: From the Birth of Life to the Origin of Language
A very clear explanation of evolution from the chemical basis up to “cultural evolution”. Updated version of older book “Major transitions…” of same authors. Describes evolution at the level of genes, individuals and groups. Often takes an “information-theoretic” view. Doesn’t give the “full picture” of life and evolution but gives a flavour of the forces at work, and the messiness, in some cases arbitrariness of local details, of conflicts and co-operations, etc. Together with work of Dawkins, some of the clearest explanations of evolution. While at it, I opened Darwin’s original and skimmed about a third of it. The first impression of “The Origin of the Species” is how readable and accessible it still is almost 160 years after its writing. It is organized in a logical way, starting with a wealth of examples, building up evidence until the inevitable conclusion almost presents itself. Especially interesting is the frankness with which Darwin discusses possible objections to his theory. One must agree with the reviewer who writes about the Origin of Species that it “makes me proud to be a human being”. Ha-Joon Chang: Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism Funny and accessible book with critique of globalization and mainstream economic theories. Main thesis could be summed up as: countries that are rich today became rich through policies and strategies that are in many ways the opposite of what they propose as development strategies for poor countries. Many contrarian ideas (e.g. corruption not automatically bad, etc.), most of them well argued. Enjoyed chapter that ridicules “culturalist” views in economics. Douglas R. Hofstadter, Daniel C. Dennett:
The Mind’s I: Fantasies And Reflections On Self & Soul Charming collection of essays and short literary works loosely around the topics of the mind, consciousness, identity, etc. The essays are from various sources, including fiction authors like Stanislaw Lem or Jorge Borges, or the authors themselves, who also comment on the essays of others. Favourites: Hofstadter’s tortoise and achilles dialogues, “A Conversation With Einstein’s Brain”, Smullyan’s “Is God a Taoist?”, etc. Bertrand Russell: The Conquest of Happiness Lighthearted essays — sometimes surprising opinions (e.g. praise of boredom, etc.), tries to understand the sources of happiness and unhappiness. Reaches a similar conclusion as Csikszentmihalyi’s “flow”-theory, his “recipe” summed up as: skillful preoccupation – such as the exercise of a craft + a friendly interest and curiosity towards people and phenomena. Written almost 100 years ago, still timely, notices some changes in society that are even more profound today. Randall Munroe: What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions Bought as gift, but ended up reading it myself. Predictably funny and interesting. Robert Musil: The Man Without Qualities Masterful, gigantic, complex, fragmentary, sometimes with quirky humor, etc. Have been reading it on and off for the whole year, and will be continuing it in 2016 as well :)
An enthusiastic review (apart from the first 5-6 mins): http://french-italian.stanford.edu/opinions/shows/eo10021.mp3 David Nicolle: Ottomans: Empire of Faith. Short history of the Ottoman Empire. Especially beautiful maps and illustrations. R. Feynman: “What Do You Care What Other People Think?”: Further Adventures… The first part contains anecdotes and letters in the spirit of “Surely you are joking…” and similar books, with some overlap. The second, more interesting part is about the Challenger space shuttle accident investigation in which Feynman was involved. The methodical inquiries and observations are fascinating, as well as the final report. Sorin Mitu:
Transilvania Mea (English: My Transylvania)
A collection of articles and essays (in Romanian) about various aspects of the history of Transylvania and its inhabitants. Informative and beautifully written. Elemér Kiss: Mathematical Gems from the Bolyai Chests This book is the result of the in-depth study of the unpublished manuscripts of the mathematician János Bolyai, and his correspondence with his father, Farkas Bolyai. The book convincingly argues that contrary to popular opinion, Bolyai continued productive mathematical work throughout his life (after his early work on non-euclidean geometry), and working in isolation, he made independent observations esp. on number theory and the theory of complex numbers, some of which were only discovered later by others. (I read the Hungarian version.) —— (disclaimer: the following book cover images are “Amazon Affiliate” links. If you click them and buy a book, I will receive a few cents in the form of an Amazon coupon. If you dislike this idea, you can simply remove “mybookbox-20″ from the end of the URLs.) Read in 2015:
hardy (adjective): : able to live through difficult conditions (such as a cold winter or a drought) : strong and able to accept difficult or unpleasant conditions (Merriam-Webster) G.H. Hardy was an eminent English mathematician, also known for his popular and influential book “A Mathematician’s Apology“. In this extended essay he argues among other points that mathematics has a deep intrinsic beauty, and it is worthy to be pursued for its own sake. I tried very hard to like this essay, but failed miserably on every occasion. It would be too easy to mock from our 21st century perspective Hardy’s mistake when he uses number theory as an example branch of mathematics with absolutely no practical applications (which by the way Hardy views as a huge positive). However, I also find the main point about mathematical beauty I mentioned before not very convincingly presented, even if you already agree with him (like I do) before opening the book. But what I disliked most were Hardy’s strong opinions such as “there is no scorn more profound, or on the whole more justifiable, than that of the men who make for the men who explain. Exposition, criticism, appreciation, is work for second-rate minds”, and in another paragraph “it is a tiny minority who can do something really well, and the number of men who can do two things well is negligible” and finally the notorious “mathematics is a young man’s game”. To express my dislike of this essay, I am making the modest proposal of a Hardy prize in mathematics, to be awarded to people who achieve significant mathematical results in ways contrary to the letter and the spirit of Hardy’s book (we can never know of course, whether Hardy himself would consider the results of any significance, although we can guess with good confidence.) More positively, the fictional Hardy prize recognizes: pure mathematical work deeply influenced by practice and applications or by teaching and other expository work
mathematicians (men or women) who started their mathematical career or achieved their most significant result at a relatively late age
mathematicians who went about their mathematical career in a less than straightforward way, possibly having strong interests or accomplishments outside mathematics, possibly doing mathematics as a hobby Ignoring historical examples (some of which Hardy must have known), as a small (and quite random) initial sample from our times I would suggest as first recipients: Persi Diaconis, Marjorie Rice, Preda Mihăilescu, Yitang Zhang, Raymond Smullyan. This post is of course only half-serious (unless someone takes the initiative in such a direction). Would such a prize make sense? This post benefited from discussions with colleagues, who would probably prefer to stay unnamed. I was also informed by this post.
Recently, together with my colleagues Parinya Chalermsook, Mayank Goswami, Kurt Mehlhorn, and Thatchaphol Saranurak, we published three papers about binary search trees. All three are available on ArXiv as preprints. In this post I briefly and informally describe some results and ideas from these papers. Binary search trees (BST) are perhaps the simplest data structures that are not entirely trivial, and they form the basis of several more advanced data structures and algorithms. BSTs are part of every computer science curriculum, and there is a rich theory describing their properties. Surprisingly, many aspects of BSTs are still not understood, so they are an active field of research. Searching a single element in a BST is straightforward, and the cost of the search depends on how far the searched element is from the root of the tree. If we search more than one element, we might want to change the tree after each search, to make future searches more efficient. What is the best way to transform the tree after each search? The splay tree of Sleator and Tarjan from 1983 gives one possible such strategy. Splay trees have many nice properties, for example, they are as good as the best static tree for a given sequence (“static” here means not changed between accesses, and I am sweeping some details under the rug here). Sleator and Tarjan conjectured that even more strongly, splay trees are as good as any “dynamic” tree, i.e. any sequence of changes in the tree between accesses. This last statement is the famous dynamic optimality conjecture. If true, this would be quite surprising: splay trees just “react” to each access, without knowing what accesses will come next. The conjecture says that knowing the future doesn’t help much. Even the best strategy for changing the tree (tailored to a given sequence) cannot beat splay trees (again, some details omitted here). The conjecture is wide open. For more information about such questions I recommend the survey of Iacono. Now our recent results. 1. Self-adjusting binary search trees: what makes them tick? Splay trees are considered quite mysterious: they execute some local transformations that just “happen to work”. We know that splay trees have many nice properties (including the static optimality mentioned before), but the proofs are a bit unintuitive. What is special about splay trees that gives them these properties? Are there other algorithms that have similar properties? So we look at a general class of algorithms that preserve some properties of splay trees and relax others. Such an algorithm accesses an element in a BST, then transforms the search path into some tree, such that the accessed element becomes the root. We identify some simple conditions of this transformation that are sufficient to guarantee that the algorithm shares some of the nice properties of splay trees. We look at splay trees in a different way, that makes it obvious that they fulfill these conditions. We also show that some other known algorithms and heuristics fulfill these conditions, which explains why they are efficient. We also identify some new heuristics that fulfill the conditions but have not been studied before. Finally we ask, are our conditions necessary for a BST algorithm to be efficient? In a limited sense, we show that they are, but the results in this direction are not conclusive. See the paper for details. 2. Pattern-avoiding access in binary search trees I mentioned that splay tree is conjectured to be as good as any other BST algorithm, even those that can see into the future, for any possible sequence. However, for most “random” sequences, even the theoretically best BST algorithms are quite inefficient, making the question vacuous in that case. The interesting cases are those sequences that have “some useful structure” that BST algorithms can exploit. So, if we want to show that splay trees (or some other algorithm) are efficient, we need to show that they do well on such “structured” input. The literature on dynamic optimality describes a number of such “useful structures”. One example is “dynamic finger”: loosely speaking, if successive searches are for values that are close to each other, then search should be efficient. A special case of this is “sequential access”: if we just search the values in increasing order from 1 to n, then search should be really efficient. In this paper we describe a new kind of structure, that has been studied in depth in mathematics, but not in the context of BSTs. We show that search sequences should be executable efficiently by a BST algorithm if they are free of some fixed pattern. See this page for a description of patterns. This generalizes the “sequential access” mentioned before in a different direction, and it also includes other known structures as special case.
We explore this topic in detail in the paper, giving some general results, and some stronger results for special cases. 3. Greedy is an almost optimal deque Again, studying input with some structure, we look here at a sequence of insert and delete operations into a BST, with the restriction that we can only delete or insert “at the two ends”, that is at values that are the current maximum or minimum of the values in the tree. Such sequences are called deque sequences. It was conjectured a long time ago by Tarjan, that splay trees can execute deque sequences very efficiently (in linear time overall). This is not yet known, but the known results are so close to this, that the difference is only theoretically interesting (which makes it even more interesting :). In this paper (and the previous one) we look at a different algorithm, introduced independently by Lucas and Munro a few years after splay trees, and later extended by Demaine, Harmon, Iacono, Kane, and Pătraşcu. We show that this algorithm (called Greedy BST) is almost linear on deque sequences. This “almost” again hides a small factor that is only of theoretical interest, although a little bit larger than the corresponding factor known for splay trees. The details are in the paper.
(disclaimer: the book cover images in this post are “Amazon Affiliate” links. If you click them and buy a book, I will receive a few cents in the form of an Amazon coupon. If you dislike this idea, you can simply remove “mybookbox-20″ from the end of the URLs.) Part I.
Ha-Joon Chang: 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism. A series of observations about the world economy, capitalism, free trade, planning, development, inequality in society, etc. – the chapter titles sound contrarian and provocative, but the opinions are mostly common sense and argued with clarity although not equally convincingly – many of the statements are challenging mainstream economics dogma, but the author does construct a few strawmen too. One of the recurring themes is that economic systems are never of a “pure” kind as described in textbooks, instead, they are both messier and more interesting. Readable, pragmatic, non-ideological. Some of the ideas reminded of NN Taleb’s work. Michael Nielsen: Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science. The book describes several recent (and some less recent) developments and projects that have changed how scientific research is done and to some extent make us think about what scientific research even means. It presents a compelling vision of the future of science and it is a “calls to arms” to embrace and popularize these new ideas and techniques, and to invent new tools.
More concretely, the book talks about open access publishing (e.g. arXiv), open source software (e.g. Linux), online collaboration (e-mail, wikis, forums, but more specifically the recent Polymath project), “data-driven intelligence” (predicting influenza, automated translation, Sloan Digital Sky Survey), citizen science (protein folding, amateur astronomy), etc. etc. The book also discusses limitations and obstacles, often due to misaligned incentives in the academic world. The book is excellent, it inspires and motivates — two minor criticisms: selection is somewhat arbitrary – could have included other projects too, and the overall narrative that all these fit into a common thread is slightly forced. David Gale: Tracking The Automatic Ant: And Other Mathematical Explorations. A book that contains puzzles, interesting mathematical ideas and results, short opinions on various aspects of mathematics. The topics are loosely connected, the format is similar to that of Martin Gardner’s or Douglas Hofstadter’s collections. A common theme throughout the book is the exploration (often computer-assisted) of large mathematical structures, such as the solution space of a puzzle, particularly when classical approaches fail. It is one of the best recreational mathematical books I’ve ever read, covering a rich variety of topics, difficult to summarize in a review. Donald E. Knuth: Digital Typography. A collection of Donald Knuth’s articles and essays on the topic of digital typography, mostly related to the creation of the TeX and Metafont systems, and the transformation of digital typesetting (esp. of math-y text). Wonderful in its attention to detail (there is a chapter on the letter S). I found the linebreaking algorithm and the design of the AMS Euler font in collaboration with Hermann Zapf especially interesting, as well as the whole idea of parametrized fonts. We get glimpses into the intricacies of typography, where nothing is as simple as it seems from the outside. Part II.
Masha Gessen: Perfect Rigor: A Genius and the Mathematical Breakthrough of the Century. I read the German translation of this biography of Grigory Perelman. What I liked:
– the fascinating story of Perelman with interesting facts and details I didn’t know before
– interesting facts about the school system and the academic world in the Soviet Union
What I didn’t like:
– fascination with Clay Prize and other external accolades
– the author somewhat unsympathetic to Perelman and to mathematicians in general – taken out of context any personal quirk can be made to look monstrous (I quite agree with this review here).
– occasional “narrative fallacy”, attempt to make various facts fit together smoothly William Aspray: John von Neumann and the Origins of Modern Computing. A book about the life of John von Neumann and his contributions to several fields, with special focus on computer science and numerical calculus, as well as about his work in science planning and management. Unusually for a biography, the book gets quite a bit into technical details (which I liked), and tries to trace the evolution of von Neumann’s thinking on various topics. The book focuses on his work and not so much on his personal details, when it does “get personal”, it is almost universally positive, leaving any unflattering aspects to other biographers. Andrew Hodges: Alan Turing: The Enigma. Less worldly-smart and successful than von Neumann, but his work just as important to the foundations of computer science. Also the intellectual interests of these two men are somewhat parallel, going from mathematical logic to the theoretical foundations of computing, to the engineering task of actually building computers, and finally to biological systems. This biography is incredibly detailed and well documented – not only discusses technical ideas, but also sets the broader context of the intellectual currents of the day. Describes the life and thoughts of Alan Turing (reconstructed mostly from letters) to an extreme level of details. The parts about the work at Bletchley Park on breaking the Enigma are very interesting. Also the parts about the Colossus and Ace computers – the technical details and decisions are interesting but in some places the administrative back and forth gets bit too tedious. In summary, this is a definitive biography that paints a comprehensive picture of Alan Turing. Martin Aigner, Günter M. Ziegler: Proofs from THE BOOK. A collection of some of the most beautiful mathematical proofs. I was at first suspicious that such a concept would work as a book, and the selection is of course somewhat subjective, but the book is in fact excellent, and seems accessible for the most part from high school level onwards (requiring significant effort of course, but repaying it well). I think this book is one of the best possible gifts to anyone who loves mathematics. Part III.
Andreas M. Hinz, Sandi Klavzar, Uros Milutinovic, Ciril Petr: The Tower of Hanoi – Myths and Maths. I reviewed this book for William Gasarch’s column. Most people remember the Tower of Hanoi puzzle as something quite simple, interesting mainly as a textbook example of recursion, and as an example of a problem where powers of two appear naturally. In reality, as the book demonstrates, the Tower of Hanoi has a very rich mathematical structure, and as soon as we tweak the parameters we surprisingly quickly find ourselves in the realm of open problems. The rest of the review can be read here. Günter Ziegler: Darf ich Zahlen? (German). A nice, light-hearted book amout mathematics and the process of doing it, also containing anecdotes about famous mathematicians. Makes a nice present and good for learning German. Früher war noch viel mehr Lametta (German). A pleasant collection of short-stories loosely related to Christmas. As the stories come from different sources and styles, the difficulty of their German is very uneven – so it is quite good to test and improve language skills. Michael Kohlmeier: Sagen des klassischen Altertums (German). The myths and stories of classical Greek antiquity retold in an informal style with insight and wit. Based on a popular radio and TV show of the author. The book is quite amazing, and good for practicing German, although the informal style does not necessarily make it very easy to read. Part IV.
Franz Kafka: The Metamorphosis. A classic about which nothing can be said that hasn’t been said already. I found it rather disturbing in places. Also, of the classics, maybe among the more easily accessible in German. 4/5 Paul Auster: The Invention of Solitude. A novel developing some autobiographical themes and stories – the first half is in a straightforward memoir format, the second part is a fictitious “book of memories”, written in third person and mixing storytelling with essayistic parts of varying depth. Overall, the main theme of the book is fatherhood and the relationship between father and son. As such, I found it insightful and moving in places, with good stories to tell, a bit sentimental and overwritten in others. 3/5 Charles Bukowski: Women. The thinly veiled autobiographical (anti)hero of the book, Henry (Hank) Chinoski describes himself as M Sade without the intellectual depth. Maybe the same applies to this book and Bukowski himself. A more generous critic calls him the great de-Disney-fier of our age. A bit annoying narcissism, good storytelling and turns of phrase. 3/5 Kurt Vonnegut: Cat’s Cradle. I found this book both very clever and very entertaining. On the surface a short and funny Dr Strangelove story – describing as an aside possibly the best fictitious religion ever created, and throwing in concepts that haunt you long after finishing the book: karass, duprass, granfalloon, wampeter – several layers of satire intermixed with insight on human character and society. Like all good magic realism, walks the fine line between cynicism and significance. 5/5
Cuckoo hashing is a simple and elegant method for collision-resolution in hash tables. The resulting dictionary data structure is easy to implement, quite efficient in practice and it is also interesting theoretically (there are several interesting open questions about its properties). I made a small visualization of how Cuckoo hashing works. The demo uses JavaScript and HTML5 Canvas, so it should work in most browsers. Let me know if you find it useful or if you have any feedback. The demo is loosely inspired by Jason Davies’ Bloom filter visualization. Here is my old post about Bloom filters.
I made a small logic game/puzzle called Recursi. It consists of independent “memory” games with two pairs of cards each. These games are nested recursively, behind each game there is a card of the game at a higher level. If you find two pairs, you get to flip the card at a higher level behind the current game. Sounds like fun? :) Go ahead and try it. Recursi, a fractal memory game.When I volunteer at my local animal shelter, which accepts thousands of dogs and cats per year, the worst sight is another animal control truck lumbering through the parking lot, bringing new lost, neglected or abused creatures to the shelter. After I had been at it for a while, I began to notice a pattern: trucks from the most impoverished towns in my area were much more prevalent than those from better-off areas.
The pattern was no coincidence. Human welfare and animal welfare are related. Countries with little in the way of social services also have weak animal welfare systems. Think Russia and Mexico, where dogs roam the streets and are often in the most pitiful health. While affluent as well as impoverished areas can be host to animal cruelty or abuse, such practices are strongly linked to other crimes and volatile living environments. In an interview with The New York Times, Randall Lockwood, of the A.S.P.C.A., said, "Poverty often creates the sense of persecution and injustice that makes some people feel justified in striking back in order to gain the sense of power and control they otherwise lack." In cases of neglected or stray animals, poor people may just not have enough resources to adequately care for their pets and do not know that there are organizations that can help. But there are other reasons for animal neglect, as well. According to the Animal Legal Defense Fund, neglect of an animal is often associated with neglect of a child, elder or dependent. These unfortunate events are higher in low-income areas.
Human and canine fate may have always been intertwined. New research points to the domestication of dogs as one of the reasons humans won out over Neanderthals about 30,000 years ago. Dogs were the "technology" that allowed humans to prosper in prehistoric hunts. It is more evident today than ever that to truly care for our companion animals, who helped us evolve to the species we are today, we have to be looking at improving the welfare of those who care for them. While some rail against recipients of welfare payments living off the government dole, those same people might otherwise gush over the cute pets their poor counterparts have at home. (No one ever complains about cats and dogs not working and earning their fair share.) We can help those who need government help, all in an effort to get them on their feet again and able to provide for themselves and their animals. We can do so by coming up with structural ways to provide for them and then have them provide for themselves. Such schemes include more investment in job-training, work sharing and counseling to deal with the strong and often violent emotions that come with living in poverty.
Another tactic is to increase funding for animal welfare itself and hire those in the neighborhoods with high rates of animal neglect and abuse to work in local shelters. Currently some animal control and care facilities receive money from county or local governments. There are many other animal welfare organizations that survive on the donations of individuals and corporations. Gifts to the environment and animals totaled $6.66 billion in 2010, according to the most recent Giving USA report. This was one of the smallest categories of giving.
One reason why we might give so little to animal causes could be because humans and animals are different species and, despite our affinity for our furry friends, one of the determinants of how we feel about providing welfare for others is how similar we are to the recipients. As Jeffrey D. Sachs explains in Common Wealth, "Social-welfare systems proved to be most effective and popular in ethnically homogenous societies, such as Scandinavia, where people believed that their tax payments were 'helping their own.'" Taking the dilemma a step further, another root of the problem may be that we see dogs and cats who wind up in shelters as somehow "other." Either they come from bad owners or from poor areas -- or maybe they are just bad animals that don't deserve help. The psychology of our decision to ignore animal welfare could be quite twisted.
To overcome this mindset and provide for the millions of animals who fall through the cracks in communities that cannot support them, we could tax animal product suppliers to establish government-paid animal shelters in crisis areas. The government could provide an optional line on tax return forms to donate to animal welfare agencies in the inner city and elsewhere. There are already organizations, such as the Urban Animal Alliance and Poverty's Pets, which work against animal abuse and cruelty in inner-city areas. The recently founded Inner City Initiative in LA will help educate people in the inner city about animal care. These groups can use support in the interim. More organizations like these could spring up with public support.Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
A doctor who was sacked after going on a homophobic rant has hired the team who represented Kim Davis to represent him.
Dr Paul Church spoke out after the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital sent out an email inviting staff to participate in a Pride float.
The urologist replied to all saying “behaviors common within the homosexual community are unhealthy and high risk for a host of serious medical consequences.”
He went on to say that a hospital taking part in Pride is “reprehensible”, saying it “dishonours” its staff who “continue to hold to the conviction that homosexuality is unnatural and immoral.”
The doctor didn’t stop there, however, and later posted on the hospital’s intranet site about homosexuality.
After hospital bosses found out about the rant, they sacked Church.
Having already appealed against the decision twice, Church has now hired the Liberty Counsel, which represented jailbird Kim Davis when she refused to marry gay couples.
Davis spent five days in jail after ignoring a string of court orders instructing her to issue marriage licences to same-sex couples.
Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver told OneNewsNow that Dr Church “has lost his medical credentials at that particular medical facility. Why? Because he chooses to have the best interests of his patients and the others in the Center as his first priority, as a doctor should.”
Staver goes on to claim that the firing Church puts a political agenda ahead of the public’s wellbeing.
“He will not promote an immoral lifestyle that is clearly harmful to both physical and mental health,” Staver continued.Rather than getting into the cultural or media criticism of the Frum–Riggs–Frum–Sullivan fracas over cannabis policy, perhaps it makes more sense to try to separate out |
lobbyists worry Trump lags in K Street fundraising Mark Kelly kicks off Senate bid: ‘A mission to lift up hardworking Arizonans’ Gabbard hits back at Meghan McCain after fight over Assad MORE (R-Ariz.) "We are all Ukrainians," he tweeted "#Ukraine — straight out of the Soviet playbook." And Trump supporter Sarah Palin, McCain's 2008 running mate and not one to say I told you so, was there within seconds to say, "I told you so."
Interestingly enough, Trump here is not that far away from the former congressman from Texas, Ron Paul (R), who might be considered the Hawthornian "Gray Champion" and creative visionary of the Tea Party movement before it descended into adolescent arrogance and globalist militarism.
"The former Republican congressman and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul has launched a scathing attack on what he calls a US-backed coup in Ukraine, insisting the Crimean people have the right to align their territory with Moscow and characterising sanctions against Russia as 'an act of war.'... 'Our hands are not clean,' said Paul," The Guardian reported in March 2014.
And incidentally, son Rand Paul Randal (Rand) Howard PaulWhite House pleads with Senate GOP on emergency declaration The Hill's Morning Report — Emergency declaration to test GOP loyalty to Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump escalates fight with NY Times MORE, the Republican senator from Kentucky who, like Sen. Marco Rubio Marco Antonio RubioWhite House pleads with Senate GOP on emergency declaration Sixteen years later, let's finally heed the call of the 9/11 Commission Schumer urges GOP to reject Trump's 'destructive' national emergency MORE (R-Fla.) and some of the other young mini-McCains who want to be president, has pretty much signed up with the foreign policy establishment. "[Russian President Vladimir] Putin must be punished," he wrote in TIME magazine.
"It is America's duty to condemn these actions in no uncertain terms. It is our role as a global leader to be the strongest nation in opposing Russia's latest aggression," he wrote.
Calling to mind the classic Cold War observation of the immortal character Brig. Gen. Jack D. Ripper from "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb": "Mandrake, have you ever seen commie drink a glass of water?"
But what I want to know is this: How does Trump feel about the Oslo Accords, the first actions of the first Clinton co-presidency which split Israel in half, cost thousands of lives and led a benign and indifferent world in opposition to Israel? They might bring it up in the debate.
Prediction: The Oslo Accords will not survive a Trump presidency. Nor will the recent Obama-Kerry Iran agreement.
Quigley is a prize-winning writer who has worked more than 35 years as a book and magazine editor, political commentator and reviewer. For 20 years he has been an amateur farmer, raising Tunis sheep and organic vegetables. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and four children. Contact him at quigley1985@gmail.com.In announcing new efforts to curb drug abuse, the White House on Wednesday pointed to the fact that more Americans now die every year from drug overdoses than they do in car crashes.
That alarming stat holds true not only nationally, but in Massachusetts, too.
In fact, opioid-related overdoses, including heroin deaths, alone killed more than four and a half times as many people statewide as motor vehicle accidents during the first half of 2015, according to data from the state public health department and the National Safety Council.
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There were an estimated 684 opioid related deaths in Massachusetts through the first six months of this year compared with 149 car crash deaths, the data shows.
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Nationally, during 2013, the most recent year for which national data is available, fewer people died from opioid-related overdoses than car crashes. But overdose deaths overall — including those from other drugs, whether illegal or prescription — outnumbered crash deaths.
A total of 43,982 people died from drug overdoses — including 16,235 from opioid painkillers and 8,257 from heroin — while 32,719 people died in car crashes, according to the 2013 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Drug overdose was the leading cause of injury death in 2013, the CDC said. Since 2000, the rate of drug overdose deaths has more than doubled, from 6.2 per 100,000 in 2000 to 13.8 per 100,000 in 2013.
Drug overdose versus car crash deaths The number of each death type between 2000 and 2013. DATA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Matt Rocheleau/Globe Staff
Matt Rocheleau can be reached at matthew.rocheleau@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mrochelePosted Tuesday, January 7, 2014 8:24 am
BENNINGTON -- Police said a man responded to two teenagers who were crank texting him by sending them pictures of his genitals.
Jeremy Mertz, 39, of Pleasant Street, pleaded not guilty Monday in Vermont Superior Court to a misdemeanor charge of sending indecent material to a minor. He was released on conditions that he not have contact with them.
According to an affidavit by Bennington Police Cpl. Andy Hunt, on Dec. 30 at 4:18 p.m. two juveniles, a male and a female, reported that a man had sent them pictures of his genitals from two phones.
The male juvenile said he had mistakenly sent crank text messages to one of the older male's phones. One said his car was being repossessed, the other was offering to "set him up with a girl" that night for $100.
The teenager told the older male, who police identified as Mertz, that the texts were a joke and sent by accident. Mertz responded with sexual comments. According to the female teenager, Mertz had been made aware of their ages.
The juveniles said Mertz sent them 15 images, but they were only able to produce five, as one conversation had been deleted. They said Mertz invited them to his apartment, which is how they learned his address to tell police.
Hunt called one of the numbers that had been sending the pictures and a male answered, only to hang up when Hunt identified himself. The other number went to a voicemail bearing Mertz's name.
After confirming Mertz's address in a police database, the case was sent to the State's Attorney's Office for review. Hunt was then told by a prosecutor to proceed with the case, so on Jan. 5 he met with Mertz.
Mertz admitted to sending the photos of his genitals via text messages. He said he did so because he believed a female was interested in him and said he was never informed the female was 15 years old. Mertz told police the male and female should be charged because they were soliciting prostitution.
Contact Keith Whitcomb Jr. at kwhitcomb@benningtonbanner.com or follow him on Twitter @KWhitcombjr.After a blockbuster $863 million theatrical run this summer, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 hit the home entertainment market recently as the first Marvel Studios 4K release. James Gunn threw himself mightily into the task of perfecting the MCU's freshman launch of a 4K release, and the results are (sorry, pun incoming) a marvel to behold.
The film itself just gets better every time I watch it. It continues to speak to me in ways other superhero releases -- which I obviously love -- simply cannot match. The character development and relationships drive the picture, every ounce of story serving to tear these people apart and force them to reexamine themselves and each other, and then reassembles them as scarred but stronger versions of themselves. More importantly, they achieve epiphanies together, as a family, and they soldier on because they hold one another up and make each other stronger. The Guardians are a perfect character-driven example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, and it speaks to us to remind us that the same is true of each of us as well. We are not the things that hurt us, our scars are proof we can heal, and our lives are more than simply the mistakes and regrets in our past.
Besides the brilliance of the storytelling, character development, and emotional honesty, Vol. 2 is also among most visually impressive and complex superhero and sci-fi/fantasy films. Gunn built every sequence from the ground up with such attention to visual impact that, after seeing the Blu-ray and Digital-HD extra features demonstrating the filmmaker's precision and mastery of craft, I gained a whole new sense of awe when watching the finished product.
For example, Gunn's early sketches show he knew how each shot, scene, and sequence would look before they ever began building sets or designing costumes. He storyboards before there are storyboards, and then everything else is built atop his original premise and visualization of how he imagines the movie in his head. Apparently, Vol. 2 existed pretty much entirely as we see it, but in James Gunn's head before a single second of footage was ever shot. Watch the extra features to see how true this is, you'll be amazed and will come away with an even greater respect for his accomplishments.
Before I go further, I should explain something about how I experienced this Blu-ray, so you fully understand the impact it had on me, and to allow me to dive deeper into discussing the remarkable visual quality of this home release.
I bought a new TCL Roku TV with Dolby Vision, paired with an LG 4K Blu-ray player (with firmware update for Dolby Vision), timed specifically so I could watch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in 4K. I'm a fanatic about image quality, sound, color, and all of the technical aspects of home entertainment systems, and the arrival of the first Marvel Studios release in 4K was the signal for me that it was time to update my TV, services, and Blu-ray player to ensure my future viewing would conform to the highest standards.
This is all very relevant to my experience watching Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, because the result of my upgrade is an increased love and admiration for Gunn's work as it transfers so perfectly to the home theater experience. I first saw the film at a press screening on the Disney lot in Burbank, and then had an entirely transcendent experience when I saw it at the premiere at Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The clarity and intensity of images, and the fact I could actually see far more of the color and imagery due to Dolby Vision's contrast ratio and capacity to display more colors than any other system (I'm color blind, so this is crucially important to how I experience films), was overwhelming.
While the 4K Blu-ray isn't in Dolby Vision (unfortunately), the image quality and clarity is actually superior to the regular theater projection (although not superior to Dolby Vision) when I saw the film at a standard movie theater. While my TV isn't the size of a movie screen -- it's 55 inches, a compromise between my desire to have the biggest television humanly possible and my wife's desire to not have a home dominated by a gargantuan screen that costs an arm and a kidney -- it's quite big enough and spectacular enough to make me very happy. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was my first 4K Blu-ray viewing experience with the new TV (I waited for this film to christen the TV), and it was better than I hoped it would be.
I cannot say with 100% certainty that Gunn personally invented brand new colors for his movie, but as far as my eyes are concerned he did. It's not just the colors themselves, but also how they interact and how each sequence, setting, and even character seems to have a particular color palate expressing specific themes and emotions about story and character -- and even about how we as viewers feel while we experience those themes and emotions about story and character. The opening scene, for example, with the cool blue car and the ride through the country green alit with warm sunshine, the Dairy Queen and classic rock music, all trigger our nostalgia (for those of us who grew up in the same era and relate to those memories) on one overt level while the colors and the warmth and the sly appeal to our stomaches (banana splits from Dairy Queen, mmmm...) all appeal to our subconscious sensory reactions.
Make no mistake, this isn't reading too much into things on my part -- as much as I already loved this film and appreciated the complexity of Gunn's work, the scene breakdowns provided in the extra features are an amazing display of how absolutely every shot in the film existed in Gunn's head long before the start of principal photography. His personal sort of stick-figure sketches to storyboard the scenes lay out the shot angles, foregrounds, movement, and even emotional reactions on the faces of characters. Hell, if you look closely, you'll notice he even gets some depth of field elements into some of his sketches.
The storyboarding done later by professional artists is built directly upon Gunn's own work laying out all of his shots and scenes and sequences. He saw this movie in his head -- including visual effects shots, including color, including all the camera work -- all along. What you seen in the finished product on screen is a direct representation of what he knew it would look like from the very start, and you can watch the process of building it step by step from his vividly brilliant imagination to the screen and to your TV.
So yes, that blue car was meant to evoke a sense of coolness and calm there in the warm sunlight of the lazy country day. Elsewhere, the snowy vistas of Contraxia reflect not just the literal and emotional isolation of Yondu, but also the reality for Ravagers' way of life in a larger sense (a perpetual winter of discontent, no warmth or real human relationships outside of their criminal alliance together -- later, the reality of how isolating and cold those relationships truly are, and the danger of attachments in their line of work, calls back to this in a very literal "cold" sense). And we the viewers are supposed to feel cold and overcast when we learn Yondu was responsible for dealing in child trade/transport. And there's a great sequences set in the dark woods, mirroring a camp site at night where spooky killers stalk tree line, then a reversal happens where the stalkers become the prey, and it plays out with terrific subtle cues reflecting films like Friday the 13th and even Deliverance.
Watching the making-of featurettes, you get a sense of just how vast and groundbreaking the effects and world-building are in Vol. 2. Gunn wanted to give the film a distinct appearance that anyone would instantly recognize as being from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and to push the boundaries to deliver as wide an array of vivid, gorgeous imagery and worlds and locales as we've ever seen on the big screen. The end result is a spectacular transfer of Gunn's wild imagination into dizzying images and dancing color, all of which transfer perfectly to the 4K home release -- especially, I must brag, on my TV.
My high regard for this film continues to rise every time I re-watch it. I love Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and I'm glad to have a home copy that delivers an impressive high-quality transfer kicking off the MCU's move into 4K in grand style.
Box office figures and tallies based on data via Box Office Mojo, Rentrak, and TheNumbers.
Follow me on Twitter, on Google+, and on Quora. Read my blog.Just when the world of Hip Hop thought it was done with V-Nasty, the controversial rapper has managed to find her way back into the spotlight. On her recent album with Gucci Mane BAYTL, the White Girl Mob rapper attacked David Banner with the line, “Got more bricks than houses in Atlanta/Damn how a white bitch more hood than David Banner,” after Banner took issue with her use of the n-word in his song “Swag.”
Now, Shade 45’s Sway got the exclusive from Banner about V-Nasty’s diss and the implications of her use of the n-word on Hip Hop. Banner explained that he never intended his song “Swag” to actually be an attack on her as a person; rather, he aimed to expose the adverse cultural and racial effects of accepting her use of the n-word without question.
“It don’t bother me at all. One problem with Hip-Hop is people try to act a certain way and they put it on their sleeve. I don’t have to talk about the stuff I do,” he explained. “It’s funny when people tell these kids to be hood and they don’t stay in the hood. They give the kids this mentality of staying in the hood and that shows you what other cultures think about us as Black people and what’s important to us and how they try to play us Black men against each other. The sad thing [is if I was to respond], I'[d look like] the big mean Black guy. Regardless of how articulate I am, if I move any kind of way I will always be crucified. Regardless of these Disney and Paramount deals I’m doing, I’ll always be looked at in that manner so what I realize that as Black people, we have to stop letting people play our culture like that.”
Banner also added that he’s more upset with other members of the Hip Hop community, most notably Fat Joe and Mistah F.A.B., who didn’t take issue with V-Nasty saying such a polarizing word. He said that while he doesn’t believe that V-Nasty was intentionally being racist, he feels that she’s ignorant to the pain that a white person causes in saying the word.
“I’m more concerned about the people around her that allow her to feel comfortable enough to do that. I was actually one of the people that kept folks off of her. That’s a lil’ girl. I honesty believe that she don’t know know better and the plight between our races is so much bigger than her. I don’t think she knows the ramifications and pain of the word…her people were not hung from trees and forced to accept the word ‘nigger.'”
Check out the first part of the interview below. A second portion of the interview, as well as a transcription of the interview, can be found at HipHopWired.com.
RELATED: David Banner Deems Last Album “One Of The Best Albums Since The ’90s,” Explains What Inspired “Swag”Jenna Coleman (Doctor Who) has boarded ITV’s ambitious eight-part TV series Victoria as the young Queen Victoria. The series follows the early life of Queen Victoria, from her ascension to the throne aged only 18, through to her courtship and marriage to Price Albert. Victoria went on to rule for 63 years, and was Britain’s longest serving monarch until she was overtaken by the current Queen Elizabeth II on 9th September this year.
Victoria will be made by Mammoth Screen (Poldark). Novelist Daisy Goodwin has created and written the series, which will amount to her screenwriting debut. Goodwin also serves as exec producer alongside Dan McCulloch (Indian Summers) and Mammoth Screen’s managing director Damien Timmer (Parade’s End). Paul Frift (Doctor Who) produces. Tom Vaughan (Starter For Ten) will direct the first 90 minute episode
Filming begins this October. ITV’s director of drama Steve November and controller of drama Victoria Fea commissioned the series. ITV Studios Global Entertainment will distribute the series.Chris Fox, CP24.com
A woman has been pronounced dead after she was pulled from a burning apartment unit in a building in Parkdale on Saturday afternoon, Toronto police said.
The fire broke out in a unit on the fifth floor apartment at a building on Jameson Avenue near King Street at around 12:50 p.m. and by the time crews arrived the unit was full with smoke.
District Fire Chief Peter Chow said crews searched the building and did not locate the fire at first, but then detected smoke on the fifth floor outside a unit.
“We breached the door, when in and found the victim on the floor,” Chow said.
The body of the victim has been taken to the coroner’s office.
Chow said that there was a smoke alarm inside the unit and it had power, but it was not sounding.
The blaze has since been knocked down and Capt. David Eckerman says there is nothing to indicate that it may have been deliberately set. The blaze was contained to one unit and did not threaten any other residents of the building.
An investigator from the Ontario Fire Marshal office says the fire started in the unit's living room.
Jameson Ave at King Street was closed for about an hour to allow for emergency crews to respond.From Canada to Alaska to Siberia, an immense half-crescent of the Arctic is on fire. The hot spots along this zone include freakish fires with 50 mile fronts, fires that generate thunderstorms from the heat of their updrafts, and fires that paint smokescapes over the lake waters of Canada even as they light the sky red:
(Freakish lake fire burns in Saskatchewan, Canada on Monday, July 13. It’s just one of thousands of fires now raging through Arctic lands and 5,105 fires burning through Canada alone.)
Fires, overall, that have been vastly under-reported in the mainstream media. And, even when they are reported, they include often inaccurate qualifiers.
So what the heck is really going on? The human hothouse is generating an ever-greater burning potential throughout the Arctic. One that has erupted toward new levels of intensity this year. One that is plainly and painfully visible to any who care to look.
* * * * *
In Alaska, a massive area the size of one and one half Connecticuts (7,300 square miles) has already been consumed by fires. A zone of smoldering tundra, boreal forests turned to ash, smoking bogs, and smoldering, thawing permafrost.
But aside from a handful of responsible sources (see also here), the mainstream media just can’t get what is now likely to be the worst fire season ever to strike Alaska right. So let’s take a few moments to set the record straight on what is an unprecedented burning of Alaska’s warming tundra, forests and permafrost. A burning that is related to human greenhouse gas emissions-based heating of the atmosphere in that the thawing permafrost provides additional understory and methane fuels to fires even as it multiplies the number of fire-igniting lightning strikes.
A Failure to Accurately Report on an Ongoing Disaster Directly Linked to Humanity’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions
At first, a sudden, abnormal outbreak of hundreds of wildfires throughout the Arctic state during June was framed ‘not abnormal.’ That is until June shattered all previous records for worst wildfires ever and put all notions that anything normal was going on soundly to bed.
Next, the narrative ran on the false meme that most of the fires were caused by human hands (of the match tossing variety). Any journalist worth their salt, however, could simply check that pseudo factoid against the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center report to find that 377 fires were lightning-caused (well more than half) and that these lightning-caused fires, as of Tuesday, amounted to a whopping 4,675,000 acres burned. The human match, lighter, and campfire ignited fires? A piddly 30,000 acres. In other words, more than 99 percent of all the area burned was due to a warming-intensified proliferation of thunderstorm activity and related lightning strikes.
(Pyrocumulus clouds have been popping up like hothouse amplifying daisies all over Alaska since mid June. This ridge fire appears to be in the process of building its own thunderstorm. Image source: ADN.)
Indirectly, we could certainly call this extra lightning human-caused — as the vehicle of greenhouse gas warming has resulted in a marked increase in lightning strikes to the thawing permafrost and heating forest and tundra fuels. But this particular human cause is certainly not of the typical match-throwing, arsonist variety. It’s another story entirely. A much more important story that far too many sources appear to be (unintentionally or deliberately) missing. A story of the plainly visible and worsening impacts of human-forced climate change.
To use any set of language other than to characterize the Alaska burning as unprecedented, freakish, record, and abnormal is vastly irresponsible. Any attempt to attribute the 4,675,000 acres ignited by warming induced lightning strikes to ‘arson’ is equally myopic and misleading. If you’re reading a source that makes these claims, that source is an invalid and untrustworthy reporting medium. One that can’t keep a handle on even the most basic of facts.
Alaska Burning is One Month Ahead of the Worst Fire Year Ever
And when all the dust of this mass misinformation over a critical issue directly related to human-caused climate change settles, we find that Alaska’s fires are now burning at a rate fully one month ahead of the previous all time record fire year of 2004. Tuesday’s total acres burned of 4,705,000 stood but 1,900,000 acres shy of that record. And at the current rate of burning, that total could be consumed within a mere 7-15 days — putting the current Alaska wildfire season, by late July or early August, at new record thresholds with more than a month left for forests, tundra and permafrost to continue to burn.
(Hundreds mile long smoke plumes issuing from Wildfires in Alaska on July 14. Image source: LANCE-MODIS)
In the July 14 MODIS satellite shot we can clearly see massive smoke plumes billowing up from the still energetically burning fires in Central Alaska. Lightning laden cumulonimbus clouds ride overhead — a pattern refreshed by a continuous influx of warm storm moisture rising up over the Gulf of Alaska and deflected off the ridiculously resilient ridge (RRR) to the south. The storms are still setting off around 3-7 fires each day. A rate of new ignition that, though slower than June, is pushing total number of Alaska fires toward the unprecedented 700 line.
7.5 Million Acres Burn in Canada
Across the border in Canada a whopping 5,105 fires are now also consuming vast stretches of Arctic land. It’s an outbreak that resulted in the largest natural disaster evacuation in the history of Saskatchewan. One that has drawn firefighters from all over the world to combat an immense proliferation of blazes. Blazes that have burned about 7.45 million acres so far or an area about the size of 2.3 Connecticuts.
When combined with the Alaska fires, the total area now burned in Arctic sections of North America now equals about 12.1 million acres or more than 1 million acres burned since this time last week. Rates of burning for Canada are, like Alaska, in many cases unprecedented. Total acres burned for the Arctic nation are now at two times the five year average and three times the 25 year average. Specific regions, like British Columbia, are seeing as much as 10 to 20 times the typical area burned by mid July.
Vast Wildfire Eruption in Eastern Siberia
Moving on across the rapidly thinning ice of the Beaufort, Chukchi and East Siberian seas, we find that Eastern Siberia is also experiencing a massive wildfire outbreak. Reports from Russia on acres burned have tended to be spotty. But this zone near Lake Baikal has seen a persistent and then an expanding propagation of burn zones toward the north and east since April.
(Vast swath burns through Eastern Siberia on Wednesday. Image source: LANCE-MODIS).
Today, the fire outbreak there could best be described as vast. Stretching from Lake Baikal to the Sea of Okhotsk, the fire zone now encompasses a region more than 1,000 miles across. Scores of large fires can be seen burning beneath a massive cloud of smoke that streams all the way down through China, combining with the nasty coal dust cloud stooping over that fossil fuel victimized state.
One cluster of these fires, visible in the upper left of the image frame above and zoomed in below features fires with fronts in excess of 50 miles long. These are truly immense fires. Individual blazes large enough to consume small states burning through the carbon rich boreal forests and permafrost zones:
(Immense fires with fronts as long as 50 miles from end to end ballooned in Siberia today. Image source: LANCE-MODIS).
For reference, the above image’s lower frame edge covers more than 250 miles. This gives us a sense of the utterly huge fires burning away from lower right to center frame.
Conditions in Context — Human-Caused Warming Vastly Increases Arctic Wildfire Potential, Wildfires Make Climate Change Worse
The massive outbreaks of fires in Canada, Alaska and Eastern Siberia during 2015 are not occurring in a vacuum. They are not isolated disasters to simply report, confuse, forget, and then report again when the new record fires erupt in 2016, 2017, 2018 or 2019. They are instead symptoms of a larger trend of polar amplification in the Arctic.
The more than 1,400 billion tons of carbon in the permafrost is now being set to rapidly thaw. The permafrost, when unlocked from its primordial, thousands to millions year old, ice traps yields this carbon in solid, liquid, or gaseous form. The solid peats, the liquid organic carbons, and the methane seeps all provide new and highly volatile fuels for wildfires.
In addition, boreal forests are not fire resilient like their more southerly cousins. The trees there do not typically face flame or intense ignition sources. So when an atmosphere heated by human fossil fuel burning produces powerful, lightning flinging thunderstorms in the Arctic for the first time in thousands to millions of years, the trees there have no natural defense against the fires that inevitably ignite. Individual trees may as well be standing sticks of dynamite in the face of this warmth-driven barrage.
Other factors include tree killing pest invasions, the thin mat of flammable material that underlies most Arctic forests, and the drying tendency of the added heat itself.
So much forest, tundra soil and permafrost burning in the Arctic can eventually have its own sort of warming-amplifying effect. For the fires, fires that are likely not even natural to the slower periods of warming faced by Earth during past hothouse events, rapidly unlock the carbon stored in the forests as well as the rapidly thawing permafrost beneath. This release adds to the already extremely intense carbon emission from human beings and further heightens the danger of hitting climate points of no return.
This is the signal the media has lost in all its talk of ‘not abnormal’ and ‘arson.’ A warning cry from the Arctic. And one we had better not ignore.
Links:
Alaska Interagency Coordination Center
Canadian Interagency Fire Center
LANCE-MODIS
Alaska Wildfire Photos
Montreal Lake Wildfire at 250,000 Acres
Scary Statistics For Alaska Wildfire Season
Wildfires Set off Largest Evacuation in Saskatchewan History
How Climate Change Makes Wildfires Worse and How Wildfires Return the Favor
Hat Tip to Andy in San Diego
Hat Tip to Colorado Bob
Hat Tip to Alexander AC
Hat Tip to DT Lange
AdvertisementsA scout troop is being investigated by the police after its members shouted death threats and racist abuse at Jewish war veterans during a remembrance parade.
Dressed in full uniform, the explorer scouts, who were taking part in Remembrance Sunday service in Romford, Essex were heard to repeatedly shout "Let's kill the Jews" at Jewish second world war veterans.
The head of the scouts in the area has issued a full apology for the incident, which was witnessed by a senior policeman standing a few feet away.
A Metropolitan police spokesman said the Met was investigating two allegations of "racially aggravated harassment" involving more than one member of the Romford explorer scout unit. He would not say how many scouts were involved.
The Rev Lee Sunderland, who was taking part in the service, expressed shock after hearing the scouts shout: "Here come the Jews, let's kill the Jews."
Other witnesses said the racists chants were started by a boy believed to be 15 years old. One of the troop has since come forward and been interviewed by police. He has been ordered by the Scout Association to visit the rabbi of the Romford and district synagogue to apologise in person.
Jack Rose from the synagogue said: "They were boy scouts who are supposed to be true to their cause. Somewhere along the line someone has been completely stupid or they really think these things."
Rose said Chief Inspector John Harlow witnessed the incident. He took statements from other witnesses and delivered a stern reprimand to the scouts for their behaviour.
Paul Freedman, an 84-year-old Jewish former RAF pilot who laid a wreath at the service, challenged the scouts. "I was absolutely fuming... I told them I was a Jew and I'd spent four and a half years in the RAF during the second world war, and that Jewish people had sacrificed so much for freedom," he told the Evening Standard.
The county commissioner of greater London north-east scouts, Dean Jefferys, issued a letter of apology to the synagogue. He said he was "shocked and appalled" and that all scout members offered their "most sincere and profound apologies".
"I understand that a senior police officer spoke to all of the explorer scouts at the time of the incident. All the young people were left in no doubt as to the seriousness of the remarks and the consequence of further such behaviour."
Simon Carter, a spokesman of the Scout Association, said the scout who confessed to starting the chant flouted the scouting ethos. "As scouts we promise to do our duty and to help other people. Clearly this child has not lived up to this promise."Canadian History for Kids!
Sketches of Canada for January 22nd!
January 22, 1992 – Roberta Bondar, a Canadian Space Agency Mission Specialist becomes the first Canadian woman in space!
This Canadian History for Kids exclusive, looks at the amazing life and times of Roberta Bondar.
Dr. Roberta Bondar was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, on December 4, 1945. As a child she enjoyed science. She loved the annual science fairs at her classes, and frequently set off experiments in her parents basement at the age of 7, but possibly the most interesting thing about Roberta’s childhood though, is her interest in space.
Bondar received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Zoology and Agriculture from Guelph University in 1968, a Master of Science Degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1971, a Doctrate in Neurobiology from the University of Toronto in 1974.
In 1983 Dr. Bondar was chosen as a member of the first Canadian Astronaut Program. In January, 1992 she became the second Canadian and the first Canadian woman astronaut in space with her flight aboard the shuttle Discovery. Bondar flew on the NASA Space Mission STS-42, January 22–30, 1992, during which she performed experiments in the Spacelab.
Canadian History for Kids has learned that following her space flight Dr. Bondar left the space agency to follow her interest in photography. Roberta has had several exhibitions of her photographic works including the “Passionate Vision” in 2000, which documented Canada’s National parks.
Dr. Bondar has received many honours including the Order of Canada, the Order of Ontario, the NASA Space Medal, over 22 honorary degrees and induction into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
In her hometown of Sault Ste. Marie, the Roberta Bondar Park pavilion bears her name. Bondar has also been honoured with a marker on Sault Ste. Marie’s Walk of Fame.
Dr. Bondar also holds a certification in sky diving and parachuting!
And that’s this week’s Canadian History for Kids, exclusive!While most of the attention on the Comey Memo has been placed on Donald Trump’s attempt to obstruct the Russia investigation, it is also worth talking about the fact that Trump had asked Comey to consider throwing members of the press in prison in an attempt to intimidate the media. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.
Transcript of the above video:
While most of the attention from the Comey memo that said that Donald Trump wanted him to end the investigation into Michael Flynn’s ties to Russia, most of the attention has been focused on the obstruction of justice. Obviously, that is one of the most important things from that memo, but buried inside of that memo is a story that very few are talking about, and that story is that according to James Comey, Donald Trump asked him about the possibility of putting journalists in the United States in jail if they publish classified information. Now, not just people like Edward Snowden who get their hands on documents and hand it over to WikiLeaks and WikiLeaks published them. That’s obviously classified information.
What he’s talking about are leaks, leaks from the administration, somebody from the administration coming forward and saying, “Hey, Donald Trump walks around in his underwear until seven a.m. each day.” That’s the people that he wants to imprison, the leakers, and not just the Edward Snowden whistleblower leakers, anyone who prints a story from a source within the White House. Those are the people that Donald Trump wanted James Comey to think about arresting. Now, in the United States, as I’m sure everybody understands, we have a freedom of the press. The government will not interfere with what the press reports. Now, they do protect us from slander, and libel, and things like that, and from sometimes false information that could cause a panic, although they don’t necessarily do that anymore, but that’s the extent to which the federal government can get involved with the press in the United States.
Donald Trump wanted to take us essentially to North Korean standards, where if you print anything negative about Donald Trump, you could end up in prison. That’s what he wanted, according to this James Comey memo. Now, you may not think that’s a big deal. Maybe you’re not a journalist. Maybe you had nothing to worry about, but you should be concerned about the fact that this man in the Oval Office has so little knowledge about the US Constitution and so little regard for the US Constitution that he was willing to trample all over the First Amendment in order to get people to stop leaking to the press and in order for the press to stop printing unflattering stories about the president.
This has nothing to do with national security. It has everything to do with protecting Donald Trump’s ego. He’s not happy that members of his administration, members of his Cabinet, are leaking stories to the press, and he wants to put an end to that. He |
used to get a second warrant.
In other words, even if the FBI did find something incriminating about Clinton in Abedin’s emails, a judge would have to suppress the evidence because it would amount to what legal scholars call “fruit of the poisonous tree.” (As Kerr notes, it would be up to Abedin to make such a request as it is her privacy rights at stake).
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Of course, these sort of arguments are unlikely to change many opinions in a hyper-partisan election environment, when many people have made up their mind about Clinton and her emails already. But given the intense controversy surrounding Comey and the FBI’s handling of the email investigation thus far, the apparent Fourth Amendment argument would likely amount to another black eye for the agency.
As it stands, the FBI says it is using special software to analyze the Abedin emails, and that the agency will not complete the process until after election day. To get a more detailed account of the latest Comey controversy, see my Fortune colleague Roger Parloff’s helpful “A Non-Partisan Explanation of FBI Director James Comey’s Clinton Email Decision.”Looking for news you can trust?
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Last week, the GOP-led House of Representatives passed the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, a bill that would radically limit Americans’ ability to buy private-sector health insurance that covers abortion. With the Senate under Democratic control and Barack Obama in the White House, the bill is doomed to fail. But abortion foes can rest easy. Although their momentum has stalled on Capitol Hill, there is a quiet campaign underway in states across the country to outlaw private-insurance coverage of abortion—and it’s working.
Lawmakers in 24 states have already prohibited plans on the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplaces from covering abortion. Now some states are going even further, targeting the tens of millions of women who receive health insurance from their private-sector employers. Nine states already have these broader bans, leaving 3.5 million women without insurance coverage for abortion. And since 2011, lawmakers in 10 more states have threatened the coverage of more than 9 million women, according to data assembled by the National Women’s Law Center, a nonprofit legal foundation focused on women’s rights.
Five states—Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, North Dakota, and Oklahoma—have prohibited private insurers from covering abortion for years. (The oldest ban, in North Dakota, dates back to 1979.) But the 2010 elections, which swept Republicans into power in state governments around the country, renewed interest in passing these bans. And since 2010, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, and Utah all have passed new laws banning private insurers from covering abortions.
From 2011 to 2013, lawmakers in another 10 states—Alabama, Indiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia—introduced bans on private-insurance abortion coverage, with many coming extremely close to passage, according to Elizabeth Nash, the state issues manager for the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion-rights think tank.
Some lawmakers vote on these bills without understanding how drastically they curtail abortion access.
Now, just four weeks into the new year, lawmakers in Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia are slated to consider new bills to eliminate abortion coverage from every insurance policy in the state, putting almost 2 million more women at risk of losing coverage for abortion. (That’s according to estimates by the National Women’s Law Center, which calculated how many women of reproductive age are insured through the workplace in each state.)
The millions of women who now face having to pay for abortions out of pocket will find the procedures don’t come cheap. A May 2013 study from the Guttmacher Institute found that for women whose abortions weren’t fully covered by their insurance, an abortion cost an average of $485. Half of the women who were unable to rely on insurance to pay for their abortions—either because they didn’t have it or it didn’t cover abortions—ultimately found it difficult to pay. Large numbers of those women put off paying their rent or utilities or cut back on buying food in order to afford the procedure.
Some state lawmakers appear to be voting on these bills without fully understanding how drastically they curtail abortion access. The sponsor of the Indiana bill, for example, Republican state Rep. Jeffrey Thompson, has downplayed the magnitude of the ban by saying it simply imposes uniformity between the Obamacare exchanges and the rest of the state’s insurance policies. (Language in the Affordable Care Act allowed each state to choose whether to ban abortion coverage from the exchanges, and Indiana is one of 24 states where lawmakers opted to pass such a ban.) Thompson did not reply to repeated requests for comment. His bill—which would ban all insurance coverage of abortions unless the pregnancy endangered the health or life of the mother or was the result of rape or incest—passed the Indiana House with little fanfare on January 27.
When contacted by Mother Jones, David Walker, a Democratic state senator and one of two sponsors of the West Virginia ban, seemed unaware that the bill bearing his name bans abortion coverage from private-insurance policies. “If that’s what the bill states, I would support it,” Walker says.
In other states, anti-abortion legislators have touted provisions that allow women to purchase supplemental abortion-only policies called riders. In 2011, Kansas state Rep. Pete DeGraaf claimed that the proposed ban would “just ask people to buy a rider.” After the Nebraska Senate rejected an amendment that would have forced insurers to offer riders, Beau McCoy, a state senator, said, “If a woman wants abortion coverage [through a rider], they could go out and find an insurance company that offers such coverage.” Local news coverage sometimes amplified this idea. Before the Nebraska ban passed in 2011, the Lincoln Star Journal referred to the legislation as the “abortion rider bill.”
In eight states that ban private coverage, there are no exceptions for women who have become pregnant through rape or incest.
But there are almost no examples of insurance companies offering abortion riders. In the entire country, Mother Jones could find just one major insurer that sells these special policies, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas. A company spokeswoman says the coverage does not take effect until eight months after purchase. Blue Cross Blue Shield is not offering these riders with any plans that are eligible to be sold on Kansas’s Obamacare exchange. However, some private employers in Kansas also purchase those plans—meaning that their employees have already lost the ability to buy abortion riders. The spokeswoman would not disclose the price of these riders, but a 2012 Associated Press story reported that they cost $80 per person per year.
Very few of the abortion insurance bans proposed in the past three years contained exceptions for women whose pregnancies endangered their health. “That is when insurance is most essential,” says Gretchen Borchelt, the state reproductive health policy director for the National Women’s Law Center. Under those conditions, she adds, “abortion can be prohibitively expensive. Those issues often come up late in the pregnancy, and may require a more intensive hospital setting.” In eight of the nine states that have already banned private coverage—every one except for Utah—there are no exceptions for women who have become pregnant through rape or incest.
The ban Republicans pushed in Mississippi last year would have forbidden private insurers from covering abortions in any situation—even if a pregnancy threatened a mother’s life. In West Virginia, the ban introduced to the Senate only makes an exception for life-threatening situations. The bill that Ohio will consider this year, which was introduced in November, makes an exception for women suffering ectopic pregnancies, but not other life- or health-threatening conditions. State Rep. John Becker, the bill’s Republican sponsor, says the bill is “a starting point for discussion,” and that he is open to adding more exceptions.He was adored by the Beatles, John Peel and John Lydon and signed by cult labels from Harvest and Virgin to Rough Trade and Creation, but mainstream success didn't matter a jot to Ivor Cutler. The ultimate outsider's outsider, he preferred to peer sombrely from the stage behind owlish glasses, singing his songs about bugs, herrings and his father pointing at thistles, his faithful harmonium wheezing along with him.
Next month, seven years after his death at the age of 83, the Glaswegian musician, poet and singer is being celebrated in a new touring play produced by Vanishing Point Theatre Company in association with the National Theatre of Scotland, whose previous productions include Gregory Burke's award-winning Black Watch and a stage adaptation of Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In. The Beautiful Cosmos of Ivor Cutler is named after one of his most tender songs (chorus: "This is our universe, cups of tea/We have a beautiful cosmos, you and me"). It takes the artist's work and life as inspiration, explains director Matthew Lenton, and experiments with them following Cutler's anarchic example. "I'd always thought of [our play] as being an anti-Mamma Mia," he says. "We wanted properly to illustrate what an eccentric Ivor was."
It helps that Cutler's biography is as rich as his songs. Born into a middle-class Jewish family in 1923, antisemitism and the Great Depression loomed large in his childhood, the latter influencing later works such as Gruts For Tea ("Daddy, we've had gruts for three years now. I'm fed up with gruts"), and his most famous sequence of songs, Life in a Scotch Sitting Room. Stories from his early adulthood also point towards his wayward personality. In the second world war, he was dismissed from the RAF for looking at clouds rather than navigating his plane, while his postwar teaching involved getting pupils to improvise a song about killing their siblings.
Cutler's musical career proper began on radio and TV in the late 1950s, however, and fame came when Paul McCartney caught him on the show Late Night Line-Up; a few years later, in 1967, he played bus conductor Buster Bloodvessel in the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour. "I am your friendly courier," he says as the tour starts, darkly and dourly, as if announcing a journey to Hades. This demeanour had roots in real life too – a loyal member of the Noise Abatement Society, he even hated loud applause.
Cutler was embraced by indie circles in later years. He recorded a total of 21 sessions for John Peel's evening show between 1969 and 1991, and even had a minor hit in 1985 with Women of the World, which was released on Rough Trade (full lyric: "Women of the world take over/'Cos if you don't, the world will come to an end and it won't take long"). Creation Records boss Alan McGee even signed Cutler to the label when Oasis were in their pomp. His rebelliousness, playfulness and oddness won over all generations.
It continues to win the Vanishing Point team over, too, and Lenton keeps hearing new Cutler stories that make him laugh. One, from a Glasgow soundman he met recently, clearing up after a gig, is particularly evocative. "He heard a voice from the wings, going, 'Right, that's it. I told you, I warned you. I'm leaving you', and walked around the corner to see Ivor standing there talking to his harmonium." Abandoned there as promised, the instrument eventually ended up with the Celtic Connections festival team – but Lenton's team have it on loan now, and it will be centre‑stage for their tour.
"We love that the story behind it illustrates who he was too," Lenton adds. "Ivor was the sort of eccentric that's being squeezed out of the world now, the sort of person we should hang on to – he didn't live by the same rules as everybody else."
KT Tunstall at Glastonbury festival 2008 Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian
KT Tunstall
Singer-songwriter and Ivor Cutler obsessive
When I first heard Ivor Cutler about 15 years ago – on a mixtape King Creosote made me, I think – I was howling with laughter. My parents' idea of fun had been to get us camping in horizontal rain, so hearing Life in a Scotch Sitting Room and the parents dragging their kids out to look at nature – "Look, said father, a patch of grass!" – that really got me. Hearing him at the point I was entering into adulthood was also a massive relief. Here was an adult with a child alive and well inside. You're meant to suppress your inner child as you grow older, to gain approval, to be accepted, but he didn't. His was the biggest original rebellion. He didn't want to conform. He just enjoyed himself.
I've always found his music almost medicinal. If I'm on the road, emotionally bereft in yet another airport, I'll play Ivor and I'm calm. His harmonium's really magical too, as it sort of sounds like a person – I've played it on a few records because of that, and it's an incredibly human instrument. Ivor's songs remind me of the storytelling of Roald Dahl or Dr Seuss – they're all about simplicity, beauty and joyfulness, qualities usually belittled in rock music. Qualities people often see as weak, but which are anything but.
Robert Wyatt.
Robert Wyatt
Singer-songwriter, former member of Soft Machine and a friend of Cutler's. He recorded him on his 1974 Rock Bottom album track Little Red Robin Hit the Road
I first knew of Ivor after hearing Gruts For Tea on the radio. After that, [Soft Machine] would invite him to be our "supporting group" at gigs. We did not yet know about his Noise Abatement Society tendencies then or we wouldn't have dared ask. In person, Ivor was friendly, dry and funny. His music spoke to me as being neither quite comedy or tragedy – his work simply took you to another place, more like a sort of east European Samuel Beckett. In fact, he was dead chuffed when a radio producer said his silences were even longer than Samuel Beckett's.
His was a totally de-cluttered art, with self-imposed disciplines – he told us he preferred to finish a story by the end of the first page. Even in his longer stories, he avoided adjectival and adverbial clauses. He was all meat and no potatoes. As a singer he admired Paul Robeson, but the influence of the Jewish cantors in his own ancestry is also clearly detectable. I think Ivor's connection with musicians took his work out of the poetry ghetto, too – and I like to think he's still known by people who appreciate his uncategorisable range.
Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub. Photograph: Tom Watkins/REX/REX
Norman Blake
Frontman of Scottish indie band Teenage Fanclub; covered Ivor Cutler with BMX Bandits's Douglas T Stewart and the National Jazz Trio of Scotland
I'm pretty sure that I first heard Ivor's music on the John Peel show when I was a young teenager, but I really started getting into him around 1981. Me and Douglas from BMX Bandits were in a school band together, making sort of absurdist pop music – some people say that we still are. Our main influences were Jonathan Richman's Rock 'n' Roll with the Modern Lovers and Ivor Cutler's Jammy Smears and Velvet Donkey. There was a wonderful simplicity to that music – Ivor and harmonium, Ivor and piano – that really spoke to us, and lyrically it made you feel like you could write anything you wanted. And it was fun.
I think that the people in Scotland who know his work will view him as a national treasure, although I'm not sure how many people are actually aware of him. He spent most of his life outside of Scotland anyway, and the themes in his work are universal. He is probably remembered mostly for his eccentricity and for his more outlandish and abstract work, but he wrote some really beautiful love songs. One of my favourites is Darling Will You Marry Me Twice? It's about a minute long, has five lines, and is heartfelt and incredibly moving.
I never met him but I saw him perform at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh in the early 80s. Just him and the harmonium – an amazing show. At one point he, rather curmudgeonly, asked the sound person to turn the PA off. "Too loud!" I loved that.
Kathryn Williams, singer-songwriter.
Kathryn Williams
Singer-songwriter;covered Beautiful Cosmos for her 2004 album, Relations
I was managed by Alan McGee for a few years, and he assumed that I would want to meet his big successes, Oasis. I was all, I don't give a shit about Oasis, you put out Ivor Cutler on Creation! And he went, "Ahh, there's a reason I did that, then… "
When I listen to Ivor Cutler, it makes me feel excited. It's a secret pleasure in a way, because you don't have people round for dinner parties and stick his stuff on. He also defines what it's like to be a proper eccentric. There's loads of people these days who think, "Oh, I'm a bit mad", and they're usually just loud people who talk a lot, and say things you know they're going to say. Ivor was the opposite of that. He made your brain turn around and flip over and think in a very gentle way, by creating these simple, beautiful, honest moments and sentiments.
I really love Ivor's quietness too. I take a lot of inspiration from him in trying to be brave enough to be myself, which is a quiet person, really. I played a gig recently where the crowd was pretty loud, and I thought, no, I'm going to do the quieter, odder, more heartbreaking songs anyway. Ivor had that really beautiful vulnerability in him which most people won't put across, but I've always followed his lead. He shows you how to be when there's nowhere to hide.
Jim O'Rourke, US musician and producer
Jim O'Rourke
US musician and record producer; covered Cutler's Women of the World on his 1998 album Eureka
Like a lot of people, I first encountered Ivor seeing Magical Mystery Tour. And as both of my parents are Irish, when I first heard Life in a Scotch Sitting Room, it wasn't that far from the sense of humour I had grown up around. His way with words, the darkness behind the seeming gentleness, made me think here was someone after my own heart.
I have as much [of his music] as I've been able to get my hands on, even his early album Who Tore Your Trousers? from 1961. I bought all the books of his I could in London, and they are still with me here in Tokyo – they're practically the only ones here. Probably, my favourite record is Privilege too. It's flawless. When I was in London, I used to go into his local bookshop in the hope of meeting him, but that was well before I covered Women of the World. I doubt that he would have liked it anyway. A little too loud probably.
Glaswegian singer-songwriter Alasdair Roberts treats us to a live performance of the title track to his album, Farewell Sorrow Photograph: guardian.co.uk
Alasdair Roberts
Folk musician inspired by Cutler; has covered his music at tribute gigs and on record
I first heard Ivor Cutler in the early 90s. There's a lot of humour in a his work, but I like his stuff that's not humorous at all. There's a poem on A Wet Handle called Flat Thin Chests, which is quite spooky and haunting; it influenced me a lot. His music puts across a real understanding of young people and children, from when he worked with them as teacher, and I respond to that too.
He was also really inspired by pibroch, this very traditional Highland bagpipe music. The folkiness of his music comes out of that, really. There's real subtleties and complexities to his work that I see as I get older as well, a real wisdom to his work. Such as, he was wise enough to realise that you can be silly, and that doesn't have to distract from intelligence.
I went to a few of his gigs in Edinburgh in the late 1990s, and got his autograph once. I remember he had very beautiful eyes. I just said thank you, as did he, and we both scuttled away, as it was meant to be.
George Martin, Beatles producer. Photograph: David Fisher/REX
George Martin
Record producer; recorded Cutler's 1967 album, Ludo, at Abbey Road
Ivor Cutler was one of a kind – quite the eccentric. Even in his normal speech he sounded as if he was lamenting the passing of a dear friend. I recorded him because he was such a character, and I had always enjoyed making comedy recordings and had some success. These were never significant, sadly [but] the Beatles were amused.Factom has announced it will launch its forthcoming crowdsale on 31st March at 15:00 UTC.
Billed as a “software sale”, the event will allow consumers to exchange bitcoins for Factom tokens that will be available upon the blockchain-based recordkeeping network’s beta release.
Factom president Peter Kirby indicated that final launch date was set after his company met key objectives, including a certain threshold of confidence in its beta version as well as the finalization of milestones with decentralized application crowdfunding platform Koinify.
Speaking to CoinDesk, Kirby spoke about the challenge Factom faced when seeking to orchestrate the sale, voicing his optimism that the project would avoid the pitfalls of those held in the past on platforms such as Mastercoin.
Kirby said:
“We wanted to run the cleanest software token sale in history. We don’t want our customers to be caught up in that regulatory concern. It’s a new asset class, so we have to make sure we’re abiding by all the rules, but watching out for the rules that don’t exist yet.”
Crowdsale funds will be released in installments of 33%, with Factom being able to obtain a portion of its funds upon the release of its beta client, its front-end and peer-to-peer consensus mechanism, respectively.
The Koinify platform requires companies to set benchmarks, serving as the arbitrator between the public and decentralized applications. The crowdsale is the second such event to be held on Koinify following the inaugural sale of GetGems tokens launched in December.
The news comes amid a steady stream of announcements for Factom, which has recently signed partnerships with industry service providers such as Coinapult, Serica (formerly DigitalTangible) and Tether.
Compatibility challenge
Kirby went on discuss the issue posed by working with Koinify, which leverages the Counterparty protocol to conduct its sales.
Factom had originally intended to use the Omni protocol, an alternative layer that allows tokens to be issued on top of the bitcoin blockchain. However, it decided to leverage its own technology to forge a solution.
“Originally we were going to release a proxy token, but we’re going to be issuing our own token on the Koinify platform that runs on Factom. It’s no longer an Omni project or a Counterparty project, it really does live on its own,” Kirby said.
Kirby went on to say the “whole point” of Factom was to focus on distributed ledgers, a factor the lead to the decision to release the tokens on top of its own protocol.
He continued stating that he expects the token to be exchangeable between peers when the beta platform is released, with exchanges then having the ability to decide whether to list the asset for trading.
Bitcoin only
To make purchases on the Koinify platform, customers will need to first purchase bitcoin. Bitcoins will then be sent to a public Factom address, which will contain the purchaser’s public key in a data field.
“When the Factom blockchain launches, the information embedded in all these bitcoin transactions will be used to generate the Factom tokens and load them into the purchasers’ wallets automatically,” the release states.
Factom said it will not be taking customer information as part of the sale, a process that will be mirrored by Koinify, which stressed it does not accept or transmit virtual currency, control bitcoin addresses or hold public keys as part of the sale.
“Koinify’s job is to make sure that the best practices as far as the accountability (milestones) and transparency of this sale are followed and implemented in the crypto field and we do not desire nor need to control funds or currencies,” the company said.
Both parties indicated that more details would be released ahead of the launch.
Further Reading: Download our Cryptocurrency 2.0 research report.
Image via FactomGENEVA (23 September 2016) – The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is due to review the Philippines on Wednesday 28 and Thursday 29 September. The Philippines is one of the 164 States* that have ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and so is required to undergo regular review by the Committee.
The Committee, which is composed of 18 independent human rights experts, will discuss a range of issues relating to the Philippines’ implementation of the ICESCR with a Philippine delegation. The Committee’s meetings with the delegation are public and will take place on 28 September from 15:00 to 18:00 (21:00 to 24:00 in Manila) and on 29 September from 10:00 to 13:00 (16:00 to 19:00) in Room XVI at Palais des Nations in Geneva. The meetings are public and will be webcast at http://webtv.un.org/.
The Philippines has submitted a report to the Committee which is available here: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=1060&Lang=en
Any information submitted by civil society organisations can be accessed through the same link.
The Committee will issue its findings on the Philippines and the other States being reviewed – Costa Rica, Cyprus, Poland, Tunisia, Lebanon, Dominican Republic - on 10 October and publish them at the above link.
ENDS
For more information, please contact: Liz Throssell + 41 22 917 9466 / +41 79 752 0488 ethrossell@ohchr.org
Media accreditation for the Palais des Nations: http://unog.ch/80256EDD006B9C2E/(httpPages)/70991F6887C73B2280256EE700379C58?OpenDocument
Background: Members of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights are independent human rights experts drawn from around the world, who serve in their personal capacity and not as representatives of States parties. The Committee’s concluding observations are an independent assessment of States’ compliance with their human rights obligations under the treaty. More information: http://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/cescr/pages/cescrindex.aspx
*Check which countries have ratified the two Covenants and the other main international human rights treaties: http://indicators.ohchr.org/
50 years of the International Bill of Human Rights
2016 marks the 50th anniversary of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). These treaties, together with the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, form the International Bill of Rights. A campaign by the UN Human Rights Office, entitled “Our Rights, Our Freedoms, Always”, is running throughout the year to promote and raise awareness of the two treaties, focussing on the timeless themes of rights and freedoms, in particular freedom from fear, freedom of speech, freedom of worship and freedom from want. Check the campaign website at http://2covenants.ohchr.org
For your news websites and social media: Multimedia content & key messages relating to our news releases are available on UN Human Rights social media channels, listed below. Please tag us using the proper handles:
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Youtube: unohchrWEST POINT, Va. (WAVY) — A veteran says the Hampton VA Medical Center sent him the medical records of three other patients by mistake.
Chris Stamper, of West Point, Va., received the results of blood work last week. When he opened up the envelope on Tuesday, he found his results, along with the private medical records for three other patients.
The documents included full names, social security numbers, birthdays, addresses and medical evaluations.
In one case, Stamper said he received a patient's suicide screening, and in another case the records indicated a patient was being treated for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
"These documents should have never been in my hands at all," said Stamper.
Where the mix-up happened, the Hampton VAMC isn't clear yet. Stamper said he found two of the veterans had the same doctor as him. All of them use "Prime 2" at the VAMC, which Stamper says is a check-in desk.
"I personally think they need to re-vamp the whole system," said Stamper.
Stamper said he has witnessed careless handling of patients' records while he's been at the medical center.
Public Affairs Director Daniel Henry said Tuesday the VAMC is now investigating the case. Henry said it is never acceptable for the VA to compromise another veteran's personal information. They are working to figure out where the break down happened so the process can be changed.
Henry said privacy officers will now reach out to all veterans involved in Stamper's case.
"Something needs to be done about it," Stamper said. "You know, a lot of veterans have a lot to lose."
Stamper has made attempts to contact everyone whose information he received, including having one of the veterans stop by his house Tuesday to pick up his records. He will now mail all documents back to the VA.
Copyright by WSLS - All rights reserved(CNN) Here's some background information about Daylight Saving Time, a system to reduce electricity usage by extending daylight hours.
Facts:
Sunday, March 10, 2019 - Daylight Saving Time begins at 2 a.m. Set clocks ahead one hour.
Sunday, November 3, 2019 - Daylight Saving Time ends at 2 a.m. Set clocks back one hour.
It is "Daylight Saving Time" (singular), not "Daylight Savings Time" (plural).
Timeline:
1784 - The idea of daylight saving is first conceived by Benjamin Franklin.
1914-1918 - Britain goes on DLS during Britain goes on DLS during World War I.
March 19, 1918 - The Standard Time Act establishes time zones and daylight saving. Daylight saving is repealed in 1919, but continues to be recognized in certain areas of the United States.
1945-1966 - There is no federal law regarding Daylight Saving Time.
1966 - The Uniform Time Act of 1966 establishes the system of uniform Daylight Saving Time throughout the United States. The dates are the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. States can exempt themselves from participation.
1974-1975 - Congress extends DLS in order to save energy during the energy crisis.
1986-2006 - Daylight Saving Time begins on the first Sunday in April and ends on the last Sunday in October.
August 8, 2005 - President George W. Bush signs the Energy Policy Act of 2005 into law. Part of the act will extend Daylight Saving Time starting in 2007, from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November.
2007 - Under the new laws, all of Indiana now observes Daylight Saving Time, where only certain areas of the state did before.
Exceptions in the United States:
In the United States, Hawaii and most of Arizona do not follow DLS.
The US territories of Guam, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and American Samoa also do not observe DLS.
What countries follow Daylight Saving Time?
About 70 countries around the world observe DLS.
Many countries near the equator do not adjust their clocks for daylight saving.
Neither China nor Japan observe DLS.
Some countries refer to "Daylight Saving Time" as "Summer Time."Want more hot BPR News stories? Sign up for our morning news blast HERE
Placing Muslim jihadists on a ‘terror watch list’ is now apparently discriminatory, according to the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
In two federal lawsuits this week, CAIR alleges that the U.S. government’s terror watch list is unconstitutional because it violates the rights of individuals on the list, according to a report by Courthouse News Service.
“Defendants have utilized the watch list, not as a tool to enhance aviation and border security, but as a bludgeon to coerce American Muslims into becoming informants or forgoing the exercise of their rights, such as the right to have an attorney present during law enforcement questioning,” the lawsuits claim.
Executive Director of CAIR Dawud Walid said that if the federal government was going to track Islamic extremism, it should also surveillance Donald Trump supporters.
“I think the question is, are we going to be selective about this?” Walid said. “Are we following people and placing people on this list who go to KKK meetings, people who go to Donald Trump rallies?”
An attorney representing CAIR said that a baby was on the terror watch list along with many elderly, dead and disabled people who simply ended up on the list because they had “Muslim-sounding” names.
CAIR is representing 14 plaintiffs in the litigation, although an attorney with the group said that “there are thousands upon thousands of potential plaintiffs making it impractical to bring them before the court.”
The lawsuits also claim that residents from Dearborn, Mich., are overly represented on the terror watch list only because the area has a massive Muslim population of 40 percent.
Sign up for our morning news blast HEREOccupy Albany, NY: “The people need to represent the people”
By our reporters
19 November 2011
On Thursday, as part of nationwide demonstrations to commemorate the two-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, approximately 500 people rallied near the New York state capitol building in Albany. The local Occupy Albany encampment has been in place in Academy Park, a short distance from the capitol for nearly a month.
Aside from local Occupiers and supporters, several busloads of additional demonstrators arrived from other upstate New York cities, including Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester and Newburgh. Members of several unions, including the Public Employees Federation (PEF) and the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) participated in the demonstration.
A primary focus of the rally was a protest against Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo’s refusal to renew the state’s so-called millionaires’ tax (actually levied on those with annual incomes of more than $200,000) which is due to expire at the end of this year. The tax has brought in approximately $4 billion in annual revenues to the state since it was instituted in 2009. Cuomo has insisted that the tax will not be renewed even though polls show that a substantial majority of New Yorkers favor its retention to avoid further cuts to social services.
The impact of the tax’s impending expiration was brought into sharp focus by recently released budget projections for the coming fiscal year, which estimate at least a $3.5 billion deficit. This will undoubtedly lead to layoffs, cuts in education, health, and other social services, on top of the drastic reductions being implemented to balance the current budget. Cuomo blamed the projected deficit, which is likely to grow, on reduced revenues and “uncertainty” caused by the economic crisis in Europe.
In the afternoon, the demonstrators moved from their encampment in city-owned Academy Park to rally in the adjacent Lafayette Park, which is owned by the state, and then proceeded into the capitol building for a further rally. The move into Lafayette Park emphasized the ongoing split between the Cuomo administration and the Albany city government, also Democratic, which has allowed the protesters to maintain their camp in the city park. Cuomo has insisted on enforcing an unwritten 11 p.m. curfew in the state park and has reportedly exerted significant pressure on the city to reverse its position. The governor is reportedly furious that this highly visible protest against his policies is able to be maintained within sight of the capitol.
Since last weekend a number of the Occupiers have made nightly moves into the state park to defy the enforcement of the curfew and have repeatedly been arrested by state police. The county attorney has said that he will not prosecute those arrested. Some Republican legislators have urged Cuomo to appoint a special prosecutor to carry the cases forward. The city’s Democratic mayor Jerry Jennings is employing a strategy of “benign neglect” toward the protestors, anticipating that Albany’s oncoming harsh winter weather will eventually drive them away.
Despite the energy and determination of the participants, the confused and contradictory character of the rally was highlighted by many of the speakers. Among these was Kenneth Brynien, president of PEF, whose union recently collaborated with Governor Cuomo in ramming through a new contract with substantial cuts under the threat of nearly 3,500 layoffs. Following the membership’s initial rejection of the contract, the union leadership did everything in its power to support the governor’s use of the threatened layoffs to force workers to reverse their decision in a revote. PEF supported Cuomo in his run for the governorship last year. Brynien’s expressed sympathy for the Occupy protest is the height of hypocrisy. The attempt by various union leaders and Democratic politicians to co-opt the Occupy movement into support for the Democratic Party is only the flipside of the police attacks on Occupy encampments across the country, many of which have taken place under the direction of Democratic mayors.
The narrow focus on the millionaire’s tax issue contrasted with the statements of many of the demonstrators, who voiced much broader anger at the destruction of workers’ living standards. Among the chants was the demand for “Full equality, right now!” One of the demonstrators, Rosemary Rivera, said, “We need to educate our children, we need to maintain our public structures, we need to save our bridges. We need to put our people back to work.”
While Thursday’s protests were underway, Governor Cuomo was addressing a group of Democratic Party politicians. He made clear that no amount of protest would cause him to change his policies and explicitly rejected the division between the elite and the working class. Cuomo said that he would not allow “people” to use “anxiety” to divide the state. “I’m not going to allow them to play politics where they try to divide upstate from downstate, white from black, or rich from poor. We are New Yorkers and we are one.”
A number of Occupy Albany protesters and supporters with whom the WSWS spoke expressed both their anger with the economic crisis and their frustration with the limited political perspective of the movement.
Michael
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isic is not for sale and that his future remains at the Westfalenstadion.
“We have communicated very clearly that we won’t sell Christian and that he’s very much part of our plans,” Zorc told Bild.
“Liverpool don’t need to waste their time.”
The Reds have seen their attacking options depleted by injuries to Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge. Klopp will also lose Sadio Mane to the Africa Cup of Nations next month.January 12, 2017
I've always envied Cats for their divine-like and effortless beauty and their nature. I've even more so envied scientific minds for their ability to see beyond what average population is able, or even more, willing to see or understand. Science is a paramount of human civilization- it helps us understand the world around us, ourselves in it, the realities different than we can perceive, and it will be or better yet has been our tool to surpass evolution in its original (untackled by human hand) form as we know it.
And it's awesome Cats took part of it-one of the most famous being Schrödinger’s Cat.
Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger (12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961), sometimes written as Erwin Schrodinger or Erwin Schroedinger, was a Nobel Prize-winning Austrian physicist who developed a number of fundamental results in the field of quantum theory, which formed the basis of wave mechanics.(wiki)
Schrödinger was also active in numerous other science fields, but is best know in popular culture for his thought experiment involving yours truly, a CAT- his intention to explain the flawed interpretation of quantum superposition.
The Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics essentially states that an object in a physical system can simultaneously exist in all possible configurations, but observing the system forces the system to collapse and forces the object into just one of those possible states. Schrödinger disagreed with this interpretation.
So what does this have to do with cats? Schrödinger wanted people to imagine that a cat, poison, a geiger counter, radioactive material, and a hammer were inside of a sealed container. The amount of radioactive material was minuscule enough that it only had a 50/50 shot of being detected over the course of an hour. If the geiger counter detected radiation, the hammer would smash the poison, killing the cat. Until someone opened the container and observed the system, it was impossible to predict if the cat’s outcome. Thus, until the system collapsed into one configuration, the cat would exist in some superposition zombie state of being both alive and dead.
Of course, Schrödinger claimed, that was ridiculous. Quantum superposition could not work with large objects such as cats, because it is impossible for an organism to be simultaneously alive and dead. Thus, he reasoned that the Copenhagen Interpretation must be inherently flawed. While many people incorrectly assume Schrödinger supported the premise behind the thought experiment, he really didn’t. His entire point was that it was impossible. (http://www.iflscience.com/)
Guess, pop culture is also somewhat wrong depicting the Cat often victorious over Schrödinger beeing consequently alive, Erwin always believed in the Cat :)
While it is true that modern experiments have revealed that while quantum superposition does work for tiny things like electrons, larger objects must be regarded differently.
So yeah, Cats and their quatum love of boxes broadening our horizons since 1935.
Support Cats, support science :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOYyCHGWJq4Season seven of The Voice is just breaking into its battle round, but the NBC singing show has already secured its coaches for season eight.
See more 'The Voice' Coaches' Best and Worst Moments: From Push-Ups to Empty Praise
The spring 2015 cycle will feature Christina Aguilera and Pharrell Williams in the big red chairs alongside returning veterans Adam Levine and Blake Shelton.
Williams' return to the post for a second season in a row breaks the singing show's routine of rotating two coaches in every other season. And Aguilera reclaims her chair after taking one fall cycle off to give birth to her second child. She most recently coached in season five. The upcoming season will be the first time Williams and Aguilera appear together.
"We are excited to welcome Christina back to her red chair and can't wait to see how she mixes things up among Adam, Blake and Pharrell in what will be an incredibly competitive competition," Paul Telegdy, president of alternative and late night programming for NBC Entertainment said in a statement. "These four talented artists are at the top of their game as musicians and as coaches. The mentoring is sure to be intense, and the stakes will be high."
Carson Daly made the announcement on Tuesday morning on the Today show.
Email: Ashley.Lee@THR.com
Twitter: @cashleeleeIn what has been described as a political earthquake, conservative grassroots party activists took control of the North Carolina Republican Party on Saturday at the state party convention in Raleigh, handily winning both of the races up for election, chairman and vice chairman.
In the chairman’s race, conservative Hasan Harnett of Cabarrus County became the party’s first black state chairman as he defeated the establishment’s Craig Collins by a vote of 700 to 562*. Collins, who has served as 10th Congressional District GOP chairman, had the endorsements of Governor Pat McCrory, US Senators [mc_name name=’Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’T000476′ ] and Sen. Richard Burr, Congressman [mc_name name=’Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’M001156′ ] Chief Deputy Whip of the US House, and other elected officials as well as outgoing NCGOP chairman Claude Pope. Harnett, who has served as the party’s Minority Outreach Director and as campaign manager for Congressional candidate Vince Coakley, made personal telephone calls to four thousand delegates and alternates. A third candidate, 6th District chairman A. J. Daoud, also from the grassroots / conservative camp, withdrew before the vote. Harnett was the first candidate to enter the race and had enthusiastic support from Tea Party groups across the state.
Harnett called for ”a bold, invigorated party that listens to the grassroots”. As a candidate, he spoke out strongly on conservative issues, even criticizing the Republican majority in the NC House for increasing state spending and continuing green energy subsidies. Governor McCrory and State Senate President Phil Berger issued statements congratulating Harnett after his victory.
The vice chairman’s race was a very clear cut ideological contest, and conservative Michele Nix, three term county GOP chairman of Lenoir County easily triumphed in a landslide over establishment candidate J0hn Lewis, former 8th Congressional district party chairman. Mrs. Nix had the endorsement of Congressman [mc_name name=’Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’J000255′ ], one of the two NC Republican Congressmen who voted against [mc_name name=’Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)’ chamber=’house’ mcid=’B000589′ ] for Speaker, and she has actively worked in the Tea Party while serving in party offices. She was also the driving force behind unanimous resolutions adopted by First and Third Congressional District Republican Executive Committees censuring and rebuking US [mc_name name=’Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’B001135′ ] for some of his liberal votes. Lewis, on the other hand, has openly supported homosexual marriage, amnesty for illegal aliens, and Common Core, and called [mc_name name=’Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’C001098′ ], who spoke to the convention, ”a Harvard educated charlatan”. A third choice was a perennial candidate who runs and loses every two years for either chairman or vice chairman and was not a factor.
Another big loser in the convention was controversial political consultant Dee Stewart who ran Collins’ campaign. Stewart has previously quarterbacked establishment candidates’ races against some well known conservative legislators in which he ran nasty and misleading campaigns, but his latest controversy found its way into the chairman’s race. The Civitas Institute, a state conservative think tank, exposed Stewart, as well as Sen. Richard Burr’s consultant Paul Shumaker, for taking large sums of money from radical environmental groups to push efforts to save state subsidies for renewable energy and a state renewable energy mandate. Those positions were directly contrary to the state Republican platform which called for repeal of both the renewable energy subsidies and the mandate, and supporters of Harnett and Daoud hung Stewart around Collins’ neck.
After the impressive conservative victory at this convention, there is already talk about electing conservatives to the party’s national committee slots at next year’s convention. In particular, National Committeeman David Lewis (not related to J0hn Lewis), a state legislator who serves as chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee, and has supported a number of liberal issues like the renewable energy subsidies and mandates, drivers licenses for illegal aliens, corporate welfare, and a massive gas tax increase, and who nominated Craig Collins at the Saturday convention, is a likely target.
Historically, the North Carolina Republican Party used to pride itself in operating from the bottom up rather than the top down, but that had changed for the last two decades where a small group of party insiders repeatedly anointed a new state party chairman every time there was a vacancy. Now the party is back to its roots and back under the control of the grassroots party activists.
(* This is an unofficial compilation of the raw vote totals announced in the roll call of the counties. In North Carolina, delegate allocations are very generous and it is rare that a county would have a full delegation. The county gets to vote its full allocation of delegate votes, prorated from the votes of those actually present, and this is calculated mathematically from the raw votes announced during the roll call of the counties. In this case, the losing candidate conceded before the computations and announcement of actual totals was completed, so there was no official announcement of those totals)With Carly Fiorina and Dr. Ben Carson throwing their hats into the 2016 ring, the GOP field is getting larger and more diverse. In fact, it’s the most diverse since at least 1992, according to Philip Bump of the Washington Post:
The addition of Carly Fiorina (not a white man) and Ben Carson (not a white man) to a Republican 2016 field that already includes Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul means that the 2016 Republican field will likely be the most diverse from either party since at least 1992. Given how the country has diversified -- and given how many non-white-men are already in the GOP field -- it's likely that the current class is the most diverse ever. … For 2016, we included a number of people who aren't yet actual candidates, including Martin O'Malley on the Democratic side and Republicans Scott Walker, Rick Perry, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Lindsey Graham, Rick Santorum and Bobby Jindal. (Why didn't we include Trump? Because: Who is that? Who is "Trump"? Also.) Those likely candidates are the faded icons on the chart below. Even once we add in all of those mostly white-male Republican maybes, the party's 2016 field is the most diverse on either side. One more white male, though, and the balance tips to the 2008 Democrats, with Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson in a smaller field. (In terms of the sheer number of non-white men, the giant 2016 GOP field will be hard to beat.) There's only one non-white woman on our chart: 2004 Democrat Carol Moseley Braun.
As I’ve said in previous posts, there’s a serious candidate to represent the various wings that make up the Republican Party. They should compete and do battle on the debate stage. We have the luxury of choice. And those choices don’t involve anyone having shady dealings via donations to their family non-profit, or circumventing FOIA laws by having a private email server installed in a family home. As a result of this, Americans do not view the former first lady as honest. In fact, a substantial number of Democrats–four out of ten–in the AP-GFK poll noted that “honest” was not the best word to describe the former secretary of state. As Quinnipiac has said in their polling showing similar dismal numbers on Clinton’s trustworthiness, it’s hard to run as a strong, competent leader, while also being viewed as dishonest.It's been quite the night for marijuana in several ballot measures across the country.
Voters in Washington state and Colorado appear to have voted "yes" on measures that would legalize the sale of pot to adults, without the need for a doctor's prescription. (The final votes are still being counted.) And earlier Tuesday evening, voters in Massachusetts overwhelmingly approved the measure to allow the use of medical marijuana.
Oregon voters have to decide on a similar measure to those passed in Washington and Colorado, which would allow marijuana use for any individual over the age of 21, but it appears to have been defeated.
Arkansas's medical marijuana initiative also appears to have been defeated.
Montana, which already has a medical marijuana law, is voting on whether or not to restrict patient access in the state.
So far, states that have approved medical marijuana have walked a fine line with federal laws that still prohibit the sale of marijuana under any circumstances. The full legalization of marijuana in these two states is expected to increase that tension between local and federal laws.
In total, six states are considering marijuana initiatives.
"Now that this law has been passed [in Massachusetts], it will finally be legal and safe for myself and many others in the state to procure the medicine," Eric McCoy, 59, told the Boston Globe.
NBC News reports that 17 states and the District of Columbia already have laws allowing for the medical use of marijuana, according to the National Council of Legislatures.‘Tis the season for holiday gift guides from your favorite bloggers. Yeah, well, I claim book deadline and moving across country on this one. So I turned to my good friend and fellow vegan lifestyle coach and educator, Jennifer Gannett to share her ideas on compassionate holiday shopping.
Vegan Holiday Gift Ideas
December! The hustle and bustle, the twinkly lights and (for some) nippy weather! To many, this is simply the most wonderful time of the year. For vegans — or those of you looking for gifts for vegans — this is a great time to find something special to give that reflects the thoughtfulness of a vegan lifestyle. Without further ado, I present to you a carefully curated list full of compassionate choices that will please the vegan in all of us.
Kitcheny
Yes, it is true, many vegans love spending time in the kitchen crafting — and consuming — vegan yummies. Many vegans have this fabulous appliance already, but if your vegan doesn’t own one, a Vitamix would be an amazing gift. Another fun choice (and easier on the wallet) for a fun food prep accessory is a spiral cutter. Zucchini noodles, anyone?
Your giftee is more of a baker? Don’t you love the idea of personalized cookie cutters handmade in the USA, just perfect for spelling out “I am not with the FBI” at the next vegan potluck! Not the message-y type? Of course, other options exist. I’m partial to most woodland creatures in cookie form, but these bear cookie cutters have me swooning.
Beautiful, hand crafted glass straws from Glass Dharma are perfect for sipping juices and smoothies (they are very durable and come with a generous lifetime guarantee against breakage). To go with them, how about these lovely cobalt glasses
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made from recycled wine bottles? For those on the go, stainless tumblers are a cool and classy way to tote your beverage. My friend brings hers to yoga class and then spreads the love by sharing fresh juice. We all need friends like her!
Class up the next shindig with this cork cutting board, and add a copy of Artesian Vegan Cheese for a very exciting gift! Vegan cheese, folks. Vegan cheese!
A big hit these days with the young and old alike is the Soda Stream, a cool gadget that carbonates your tap water and allows you to add syrup to make your own flavored waters and sodas. There are a plethora of syrup choices available but I love the variety of syrup concentrates from Prairie Moon. You can also treat your gift recipient to homemade syrups, such as key lime, grapefruit, herbal or cherry basil.
Kids
Ah, the little darlings in your life. Let me kick off this section by telling you about a game called Fur and Feathers.
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It is an educational, vegan-friendly game about animals targeted at kids in the early elementary range. Now I will tell you something else about this game. My kid loves it and played it multiple times a day for three weeks straight after receiving it last year. His indulgent omni grandparents played along too, as did his friends when he busted it out on playdates. You can’t get a higher recommendation than that.
There are lots of t-shirts out there for youngsters that are both adorable and offer a message of compassion. Some favorites include Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary’s sweet Friends Not Food, Herbivore Clothing’s adorable Bigger Hearts onesie and Farm Sanctuary’s clever Meet Me, Don’t Eat Me. Fans of law enforcement might appreciate the Humane Law Enforcement t-shirt from the ASPCA. I am also including one of Sick on Sin’s cute Not My Dinner shirts here, though holiday shoppers should note that they are not shipping until January.
Speaking of cute, this darling terrarium and matching little set of terrarium tools are so adorable; children will have a blast cultivating and personalizing their mini-worlds.
If you are looking for a book, there are many terrific children’s books with wonderful, positive messages out there. If you are curious about what titles stand out, then head on over to Vegbooks for a comprehensive look, but a cheater guide to a few great choices for younger kids includes Hubert the Pudge, Granny Gomez and Jigsaw and It’s Raining Cats and Cats. For the tween set, check out Operation Redwood and Hoot. For those in need of some toe tapping movement, music from the Banana Slug String Band fits the bill. We especially love Only One Ocean, with a very strong message of ocean conservation.
Since children are just as interested in seeing animals in real life as they are reading about them, this bird book and bird feeder combo set is a grand idea.
Lots of veg kids are hauling their lovingly made, animal-friendly lunches to daycare and school. The Planet Box lunchbox is just the vehicle in which to do so. Kids really enjoy the easy to open container with it’s separate compartments as well as the option to personalize the lunchbox with cool magnets. Parents will enjoy the ease of cleaning and packing. A win-win!
Newbie
Newish vegan on your list? Victoria Moran’s most recent book (co-authored with her daughter) Main Street Vegan is a terrific resource for navigating around in our society as a vegan.
She gives clear and supportive guidance to everything from social encounters to healthy eating and far far more! Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s Vegan’s Daily Companion provides inspiration and resources for a joyful vegan life. The movie Vegucated follows three omnivores through a six week vegan journey and humorously captures the highs and lows of their experience.
Almost all vegans love…cookbooks! Some great new ones for your vegan to page, er, cook through include Vegan Crunk, Vegan Eats World and Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day. Looking for something more cult vegan classic? Awesome tried-and-true cookbooks that vegans have been loving for years include Veganomicon, La Dolce Vegan and The Joy of Vegan Baking. A VegNews magazine subscription is always a welcome choice for vegans of all stripes (how else to keep up with the latest and greatest in veg news?). And a winning way to top it all off? This rad Vegan necklace!
So, Your Vegan is Really Passionate About Animals
There are many sanctuaries that depend on monies generated by tours, donations and memberships to support their operations as they provide homes for neglected and abused animals. These include Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary in Maryland, Oregon’s Lighthouse Farm Animal Sanctuary, Catskill Animal Sanctuary and Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary (both in New York). Renowned Farm Sanctuary has operations on both coasts. The book Ninety-Five is a beautiful compilation of stories and photographs of rescued animals. Multiple farm sanctuary founders have penned inspirational and touching stories of their journeys. Check out Farm Sanctuary founder Gene Bauer’s book, Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary founder Jenny Brown’s book and Catskill Animal Sanctuary founder Kathy Stevens’s book.
Let the message travel with bumper stickers such as Vegetarian Resource Group’s Love Animals? Don’t Eat Them, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s powerful but simple graphic vegan car magnets
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or this Go Vegans! message. Maybe your recipient is more of a tote bag toter? Check out Our Hen House’s funky limited edition, ethically sourced tote — and score an I Don’t Eat Chicken Periods button to accessorize it.
Arty and/or Crafty
Yes, taste in art is very subjective, but you cannot go wrong with this great little print from My Zoetrope entitled Bird Friends I Will Protect You. And as always, it is tough to choose between these fabulous prints from Herbivore – Only Kale Can Save Us Now or What I Eat? A more offbeat but extremely neat idea is this cedar waxwing from Vegan Taxidermy.
For crafty folks, how cool is the Vegan Fiber of the Month Club? Yarn coming to your mailbox each month? Oh yeah!! Or how about these fabulous, colorful washi tapes?
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I love these so much, they are always perfect for adding a bit of bright cheer all over the place.
The Habitat for Humanity ReStore is a great place to pick up all sorts of crafty stuff for projects big and small, and their commitment to reuse is admirable.
Of bath and body
It’s not difficult to find a wide array of vegan friendly bath and body treats and they are always nice to have on hand. Check out this gift basket of cool wintertime products, featuring a bath bomb, soap and soap dish. This great Aromatherapy Roll On Stick
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is a very welcome present. This Body Scrub of the Month idea is awesome because we can all use a little extra indulgence sometimes during our post-Christmas months. Remember that the Leaping Bunny logo is a shortcut when it comes to figuring out whether or not a product is vegan-friendly. You can also check out this searchable database from PETA to ensure you are buying a cruelty-free product.
Homemade
There are many really good homemade gift options that would touch a recipient deeply. One great resource is the new book Homemade Vegan Food Gifts, featuring yummy and appealing homemade gift ideas. Cookies are nearly always a surefire hit — try these sugar cookies, these mexican hot chocolate snickerdoodles, these magical coconut cookie bars (maybe double the batch and send some to me?) or these lemon cornmeal cookies. Yummy!
Uninterested in baking? Some infused alcohol might hit the spot. Try out this DIY limoncello or for more colorful (some may say less mature) choice, make some Skittles vodka.
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If a combination of alcohol and baking is more your speed, consider this make your own vanilla (and vanilla sugar).
You may prefer to make some body scrub or life changing, all natural coconut oil-based deodorant (it really works!). Here is a recipe for DIY vanilla body cream — how divine, right? Maybe you have a toddler on your list? Homemade fingerpaints and a big pad of paper are a simple but appreciated present. No matter what you choose to make, poke around Cape Bottle Company for simple and attractive glassware in which to package your creation.
Greenie
Your environmentally aware recipient probably is already concerned about the impacts of plastic on the planet, right? Check out Beth Terry’s Plastic Free Life book and DVD gift pack,
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featuring the book Plastic Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and You Can Too and a DVD of the movie Bag It, both packaged together in a colorful reusable cotton bag.
This Bird Project soap is a unique gift beyond the usual fancy soap — this special soap and sculpture set is meant as a visual reminder of all of the creatures impacted by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, with the black soap bird giving way to a handmade ceramic keepsake as it is used.
Not to stereotype too much, but it is often true that vegan greenies love their greens! This Microgreens Kit is a fantastic choice for the home gardener with little space or who wants a taste of something homegrown during the winter. Also check out the UrBin Garden and toss in a gift certificate and membership to the excellent Hudson Valley Seed Library.
Another excellent choice for small scale gardening — indoor or out — are these ingenious wall planters called Woolly Pockets. Important note for vegans: they are not actually wool!
Christy Robinson Designs is known for their simple, lovely statement jewelry, most with earth- and vegan-positive messages. Green folks will LOVE with the polar bear that says, “I Am for Global Cooling” (scroll down).
Reducing waste on your loved one’s mind? How about a little composting? This Bokashi composter allows for quicker breakdown of food and is small space compatible.
Finally, your green-minded giftee knows how essential bats are to the ecosystem. Bat Conservation International runs an Adopt-A-Bat program, or you can skip the plush toy and give a membership. Either way you will be helping support important work.
There are many amazing opportunities to let our grace and kindness shine in this season. Do you have any additions, suggestions, thoughts? I would love to hear about them in the comments section.
Jennifer Gannett is a mom, animal lover, vegan dessert fan, book reviewer and Vegan Lifestyle Coach. She coordinates outreach for Vegbooks in between messing up her Zumba moves, doling out hugs, reading kids’ books, crafting clients’ menu plans, sweeping up fur and perfecting her raspberry chocolate chip bars to provide for bake sales.
Thank you, Jennifer, for this incredibly robust and creative list of holiday gift ideas! Is it wrong that I want most of these things for myself?! Readers, I hope you find this vegan list of vegan holiday gift ideas as helpful as I do!Pajamas Media
Sept 14, 2011
What a bunch of whiny babies.
Friend –
If you’re someone who cares about seeing a campaign focused on substance between now and November 2012, I need you to become a part of one of our most important teams.
It’s called AttackWatch.com, and it launches today.
Here’s the deal: We all remember the birth certificate smear, the GOP’s barrage of lies about the Affordable Care Act, and the string of other phony attacks on President Obama that we’ve seen over the past few years.
There are a lot of folks on the other side who are chomping at the bit to distort the President’s record. It’s not a question of if the next big lie will come, just when — and what we’re prepared to do about it.
AttackWatch.com is exactly what it sounds like: a resource that allows us to nip these attacks in the bud before they show up on the airwaves and in emails — and then fight back with the truth.
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
By signing up, you’ll be on the front lines — you’ll hear about false claims as soon as they come up, and we’ll count on you to spread the truth to your friends and personal networks and let us know about new smears whenever you hear them.
Will you sign up now to be a part of AttackWatch.com?
Yes, I want to be on the team that fights back.
Not right now, but I’ll donate $5 to fund the 2012 campaign and support this work.Illegal Alien Charged With Murder In Colorado Was Wanted For Deportation (Video)
Trump Was Right, Illegal Aliens Are Dangerous
Denver’s KDVR reported at the end of last week that an illegal immigrant who murdered a man in Colorado was wanted by ICE agents for deportation before he committed the murder.
From KDVR:
Ever Valles is in jail in Denver along with another man for the killing of Tim Cruz, 32, at the Sheridan light rail train station on Feb. 7. He and Nathan Valdez were formally charged with murder Friday. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had placed a detainer on Valles after he was arrested in October for car theft and other charges. ICE wanted to be notified of any pending release because Valles was suspected of being in the United States illegally. ICE said in a statement that it wasn’t informed when Valles was released by the sheriff department on Dec. 20. Valles is an immigration enforcement priority because he is a known gang member with a gang history documented in the Colorado gang database, ICE said.
ICE was only given a 25-minute warning before this dangerous criminal was released back onto the streets of Denver where he murdered an innocent man. KDVR also reports that a source told them that the Sheriffs Department was intentionally misleading the media about the incident claiming that they warned ICE officials.
The crackdown on illegal criminals is merely the keeping of my campaign promise. Gang members, drug dealers & others are being removed! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 12, 2017
On Thursday Sean Spicer reiterated that the crackdown on illegal immigration is for the sole purpose of keeping Americans safe.
Press Sec. on DHS memos: “Number one priority is making sure that people who pose a threat to this country are immediately dealt with.” pic.twitter.com/shigitruMT — ABC News (@ABC) February 21, 2017
Video
Follow Ryan Saavedra On Twitter @NewsRevoltRyanIn a muddy field in northern England's Lake District, more than 20,000 people are camping out at a four-day outdoor music festival called Kendal Calling. They jam along with their favorite bands. Some people wear outlandish costumes: There are superheroes, Indian chiefs and a naked guy wearing only transparent plastic wrap. There's dancing, drinking and occasionally, some illicit drug use.
It's a typical scene at summertime music festivals across Europe. But in England this summer, for the first time, revelers can have their illegal drugs tested before they take them. It's part of a new project to prevent overdoses.
"I've been doing festivals for three to four years now. I like my Ecstasy pills," says Rio Brown, 29, from Manchester, England. "If I want to chill out, I have my weed. If I want to party, I'll have some cocaine or a pill or whatever."
Brown just bought a bag of Ecstasy pills from a dealer who somehow smuggled them past the police and sniffer dogs at the festival gate. Ecstasy is the same psychoactive drug a teenager suffered a fatal overdose from at this same festival last year. That has Brown concerned.
So he and his friends take their baggie of drugs over to a festival tent labeled The Loop. It's a nonprofit that conducts forensic testing of drugs, and it's set up shop at U.K. music festivals for the first time this summer.
"[It's] just to make sure we're getting the right thing, really, to make sure it's not harmful," Brown explains. "We don't want to kill ourselves, you know what I mean?"
Brown breaks off a fragment of one of his Ecstasy pills and hands it to Chris Brady, who works full time as a drug counselor and educator for Britain's public National Health Service and volunteers on weekends with The Loop.
"We're very realistic that people do take drugs, and what we want is to keep people safe," Brady says. "We don't want any mothers getting a call at 4 in the morning, saying that their son or daughter is ill, or even worse."
In a tiny trailer behind the tent, volunteers conduct chemistry tests on pink and purple pills that look like children's vitamins. It takes only about 15 minutes. The volunteers are professional chemists, Ph.D. students and pharmaceutical researchers — all here on their own time.
"They give us one pill or a small scoop of powder, and they won't get that back," explains Fiona Measham, co-founder of The Loop. "Normally the substance is destroyed in the testing process. So there isn't really anything left in our possession."
That's how they get around drug possession laws. In the U.S., similar groups give out self-testing drug kits.
Measham is a professor of criminology at Durham University in northern England, and a drug policy adviser to the British government. She has worked for decades with police, as a forensic drug expert, testing drugs found on overdose victims, to help paramedics know how to treat them.
But then Measham had an idea: Why wait until after the drugs are taken, to find out what's in them?
She co-founded The Loop in 2013, and convinced police of the benefits of looking the other way, so that drug users can avoid being poisoned or suffering an overdose.
"One of the key things is to win the trust of people who are giving us illegal drugs. This isn't an undercover police sting. Genuinely, it's a health and welfare issue," Measham says. "The police have been very supportive of that. So they don't stand anywhere near the tent. We don't want them to scare off potential customers."
On this particular day, Measham has been testing for MDMA, the active ingredient in Ecstasy and another popular drug called Molly.
"We had some Ecstasy tablets that were 20 to 25 mg of MDMA, right up to 250 mg of MDMA. So you've got a 10 times range," she explains. "If people have two of the lowest strength, they probably would barely feel the effects. If they had two of the highest strength, that could potentially kill them."
Among hundreds of samples tested at this festival, Measham and her staff also have found ground-up cement, anti-malaria medication and pesticides — all sold as party drugs.
Behind a curtain, a drug counselor sits down with Rio Brown to explain what his Ecstasy pills are really made of. It turns out he overpaid. His drugs contain traces of MDMA, but also quite a lot of cellulose and chalk — harmless fillers.
Brown decides to go ahead and take his pills. But The Loop says that about a quarter of people who use their service decide to dump their stash in the end.
The grounds at the Kendal Calling festival are dotted with drug amnesty bins — like municipal mailboxes, for dumping drugs.
Drug counselors here hope those bins and drug-testing tents could become a fixture at music events around the world — perhaps even part of the licensing requirements for festival organizers.
Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
In England, for the first time, there are special tents at some music festivals this summer to test drugs. Concertgoers can learn what's in the drugs they're thinking about taking. Lauren Frayer has our report.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Twenty-thousand people are camping out in this muddy field in England's Lake District for a four-day music festival called Kendal Calling. Some come in superhero costumes. There's a naked guy wearing transparent plastic wrap. I suspect some of these revelers are on something, and Rio Brown from Manchester wants to join them.
RIO BROWN: I've been doing festivals for about three, four years now. And I like my Ecstasy pills - anything really. If I want to chill out, I have my weed. If I want to party, I'll have some coke or a pill or whatever, you know what I mean?
FRAYER: He just bought a bag of Ecstasy pills from a dealer who somehow smuggled them past the police and sniffer dogs at the festival gate. Ecstasy is the same psychoactive drug a teenager suffered a fatal overdose from at this same festival last year. Rio now has the option of getting his drugs tested before he takes them.
BROWN: Just to make sure we're getting the right thing, really, so we're - just to make sure it's not harmful. We don't want to kill ourselves, you know what I mean?
FRAYER: He breaks off a fragment of one of his Ecstasy pills and hands it to Chris Brady, a volunteer with The Loop, a non-profit anti-drug group that set up its own tent at this festival.
CHRIS BRADY: We're very realistic that people do take drugs, and what we want to do is keep people safe. We don't want any mothers getting a call at 4 in the morning saying that their son or their daughter is ill or even worse.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Come and see the den.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: Yeah, the drugs den.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: The little lab rats are working away.
FRAYER: In a tiny trailer, volunteers do chemistry tests on pink and purple pills that look like children's vitamins. It takes only about 15 minutes.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: And so I'm going to weigh it on here.
FRAYER: The woman behind all of this is Fiona Measham, a professor of criminology and a drug policy adviser to the British government. She convinced police of the benefits of looking the other way so that drug users can avoid being poisoned or suffering an overdose.
FIONA MEASHAM: They give us one pill or a small scoop of powder, and they won't get that back. Normally the substance is destroyed in the testing process, so there isn't really anything left in our possession.
FRAYER: That's how they get around drug possession laws. In the U.S., similar groups give out self-testing drug kits. Today Fiona has been testing for MDMA, the active ingredient in Ecstasy and another popular drug called Molly.
MEASHAM: We had some Ecstasy tablets that were about 20, 25 milligrams of MDMA right up to 250 milligrams of MDMA. So you've got a ten times range. If people had two of the lowest strength, they probably would barely feel the effects. If they had two of the highest strength, that could potentially kill them.
FRAYER: Among hundreds of samples tested, she's also found ground-up cement, anti-malaria medication and pesticides sold as party drugs.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2:...In no way facilitate, condone or condemn any drug usage.
FRAYER: Behind a curtain, a drug counselor sits with Rio Brown to explain what his Ecstasy pills really contain.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: Well, I've got your results for you. So it does contain a lot of |
’ drive to the Stanley Cup this spring. Didn’t make a save, either. Or block a shot. And if he hit anyone, it didn’t show up in the official stats. But while Burkle didn’t crack the scoresheet in any of the team’s most recent championship runs, a case could be made that, along with fellow owner Mario Lemieux, no one – not Sidney Crosby, not Evgeni Malkin, not Mike Sullivan, not Jim Rutherford – is more responsible for the success the Penguins have enjoyed during the past decade. In part because the city probably wouldn’t have an NHL franchise without him. Burkle, a 64-year-old billionaire based in Beverly Hills, agreed to partner with Lemieux when he was trying to get control of the team out of bankruptcy in 1999, and subsequently has provided the financial stability that allows the franchise to be a perennial contender. “Ron is one of the main reasons we still have hockey in Pittsburgh,” Lemieux said. “If I was not able to buy the Penguins and have Ron as our top investor, I don’t think the Penguins would be here today. “He’s a great guy and a very smart businessman. He loves Pittsburgh, he loves the Penguins. I think people should know that.” Burkle, however, has long preferred that most people not know much about him. Aside from speaking with a couple of newspaper columnists when Ray Shero was fired as general manager in 2014 and making a few other random public comments, Burkle has maintained an extremely low profile. Nonetheless, Burkle recently granted the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette a wide-ranging, 45-minute interview at his residence in the SoHo section of Manhattan. It was, team officials said, the first – and last – such interview he will do. Silent partner Although Burkle was exceptionally forthcoming and insightful on almost every subject raised — the birth of his partnership with Lemieux, the decision to explore selling their stake earlier this decade, the move to fire a key coach and executive, the slow development of the Civic Arena site, even Donald Trump — he said there is nothing to be gained by him assuming a prominent public position. “It doesn’t serve the team any purpose or me any purpose to have a high profile,” Burkle said. “Mario is the hockey guy and he’s the Pittsburgh guy and he’s also an incredibly nice and easy-going person and everything.” That makes Burkle an interesting partner for Lemieux, who actively avoids the spotlight, too. Determining which would prefer to be further from the public eye is not easy. “We’re the same, in that regard,” Lemieux said. “We don’t look for the spotlight. It works well for both of us.” “It doesn’t serve the team any purpose or me any purpose to have a high profile.” In 2006, Burkle battled a New York Post gossip columnist over publication of unverified reports about his personal life. At one point, the FBI got involved over the claims, which Burkle has vehemently denied. That's an indication of the lengths to which he will go to keep his private life out of the public eye. Regardless of how Burkle actively avoids the spotlight, his players are adamant that he merits more credit for what the Penguins have achieved than he generally receives. “He and Mario are both really supportive, but I think they do it because they care about the team,” captain Sidney Crosby said. “They don’t necessarily need the attention or need everything that comes with it. “They’re proud of it. They care a lot. They’re doing it for the right reasons. They both deserve a lot of credit. They give us the opportunity every year to be successful.” For nearly a decade, Burkle was a classic silent partner for Lemieux, contributing capital but avoiding hands-on involvement. That began to change early in 2009, when Burkle believed the team was underachieving and Michel Therrien – for whom he expressed great respect and affection – had to be removed as coach. Dan Bylsma replaced Therrien in mid-February, and the Penguins won the franchise’s third Stanley Cup a few months later. But even after he began to have input on major decisions, Burkle remained a silent partner in the most literal of senses. “I’m really proud of what the Penguins have done, but it doesn’t make the Penguins any more money or help any of their fans or anyone else for me to be there [in a prominent role],” he said. “From a philosophical point of view, the way I manage all the things I’m invested in or a part of is, the people who are there should be the face of it.” The people who are there, though, are quick to point out how much Burkle has contributed. “He’s such a quiet guy and he goes about his business in a very quiet way,” said Rutherford, the Penguins’ general manager. “If he does anything, he’s not going to share it with anybody.” Building wealth Burkle’s fortune has been estimated at between $1.5 billion and $3 billion, which is not the kind of wealth a person accumulates one cent at a time. That doesn’t mean Burkle, a divorced father of three, wouldn’t be willing to try. “I’m superstitious,” he said. “I can’t believe how lucky I’ve been, so I won’t walk past a penny. “A friend of mine said, ‘What will you do if there’s a penny in the urinal?’ I go, ‘I stress.’ ” “So he got a thing made up, a little silver thing, that said, ‘Urinal Penny Retriever,’ or something.” Burkle did not, however, become so well-heeled by collecting loose change in restrooms. He has shown an exceptional work ethic since securing his first job, as a box boy for a Stater Bros. grocery store in Southern California at age 13. That dovetails with a business sense that has allowed him to become, as his biography in the Penguins’ media guide says, “one of the pre-eminent investors in retail, manufacturing, distribution and technology industries.” In 1986, Burkle founded Yucaipa Companies, an investment firm that, per its website, “has completed mergers and acquisitions valued at more than $30 billion.” Although those deals helped to generate incredible personal wealth, Burkle hasn’t lost touch with his blue-collar roots. Tangible evidence of that can be found on one of the conspicuous examples of Burkle’s wealth: His private plane, a customized Boeing 757 whose identification number is BB770. “ ‘BB770’ is ‘Box boy, Local 770,’ ” he said. “I get along great with organized labor. You can disagree with everybody at one time or another, but we’ve always resolved it and always gotten along well. It’s my way of telling them that I remember where I came from.” He certainly gets along well with his employees who are members of the NHL Players’ Association, in part because Burkle routinely spends as much money as necessary to maximize the Penguins’ chances to succeed. “Anything the hockey department wants, whether it’s in the form of money to sign a player or hockey staff or make things the best possible for our players, he’s never said, ‘No,’ ” Rutherford said. “He never hesitates. “He has made it clear to me, right from the first day I met him, that he will do anything to make this the best, the most successful place to work and a place where you always have a chance to win.” That, team president and CEO David Morehouse said, reflects Burkle’s approach to all of his businesses. “Ron wants anything he is involved in to be the best, period,” he said. “Not one of the best, but the best. That is the direction I have always had from him – do everything you can to create an organization that will win and an organization that is the best in professional sports, and he gives us the resources to do that.” Burkle noted that the NHL’s salary-cap system limits how much a team can spend on players, but that there are no restrictions on what can be invested in things such as practice facilities and front-office staffers. “You have to look at what you can do in a salary-cap world, right?” he said. “There’s no limit on how good of an organization you can build.” Laid-back billionaire In August of 2008, Burkle flew from Europe to Nova Scotia to attend a surprise 21st birthday party for Crosby. That was a pretty good indication of the regard he has for Crosby. Crosby certainly appreciated it – “I did not expect that,” he said. “To see him and Mario and his family show up was pretty cool” – but his most vivid memory of the event might be what Burkle was wearing. “He doesn’t put on a suit too often,” Crosby said. “It was a cool occasion, to see him in one.” That’s not something Crosby should expect to happen very often. Indeed, Burkle dressed up for the party, which was attended mostly by people in casual summer attire, simply because he didn’t know any better. “He didn’t get the memo on that one,” Lemieux said. He laughed, and added that he has seen Burkle in a suit “maybe four or five times.” “Even Ralph Lauren makes fun of me for wearing Ralph Lauren.” Indeed, those who know him agree that Burkle puts one on about as often as rugged winger Tom Sestito made it onto the Penguins’ power play last season. Which is to say, almost never. He’s partial to Ralph Lauren polo shirts – black ones, to be precise – and blue jeans. On one of the bookshelves that hold memorabilia in his SoHo residence, Burkle displays a gift he received from Lauren: A glass case containing a black polo shirt, with handwritten instructions to break the glass, in case of emergency. “Even Ralph Lauren makes fun of me for wearing Ralph Lauren,” he said, smiling. Based on what transpired during an event organized by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, that trait seems to run in the Lauren family. “Eric Schmidt has this retreat every year … for the 40 most interesting people, according to him,” Burkle said. “I quickly pointed out that it’s at my place, or I wouldn’t be there. “Ralph Lauren’s son, David, came up to me and was teasing me. He said, ‘We thought about doing an ad campaign with you, but, one, we knew you wouldn’t do it, and, two, you only wear one color.’ ” The gag gift from Ralph Lauren is displayed in an area off the living room of an apartment that is simultaneously welcoming and imposing. It is many times the size of a typical New York apartment – most tenants in the city don’t have a private rooftop pool, either – but its elegance is understated. The man who stays there occasionally is phenomenally wealthy, but doesn’t make an ostentatious show of it. What’s more, his demeanor during the interview, which was conducted with Burkle at one end of a large leather couch and his questioner at the other, was as relaxed as his clothing of choice. He smiled easily and often, volunteering details and insights he had no obligation to offer. Burke’s sense of humor was sharp, and he had no qualms about telling self-deprecating stories. He came across as the kind of person it would be nice to have living next door, regardless of whether he could buy the entire neighborhood out of petty cash. “As wealthy as he is and as good as he is in a board room, he is most comfortable in jeans, his black polo and with friends or family,” Morehouse said. “Now, some of those friends are Mario Lemieux, Tom Brady, Gisele and Leonardo DiCaprio, but he also has friends who are normal, everyday people and seems to enjoy both equally.”
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Ron Burkle, the owner
Ron Burkle watches as the Penguins celebrate their Stanley Cup final clinching victory in 2016. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Ron Burkle, the owner Mario Lemieux’s partnership with Ron Burkle was forged during a meeting at the West Palm Beach airport in 1999. A couple of mutual acquaintances – Tom Reich, who was Lemieux’s agent for most of his playing career, and Tony Liberati, a Penguins executive when the team was owned by Edward DeBartolo and a longtime friend of Lemieux’s – had brought them together, believing Burkle might be a good fit for the ownership group Lemieux was trying to assemble to get control of the franchise out of bankruptcy. They were correct. Probably more than they could have dreamed. “Mario and I met and hit it off incredibly well,” Burkle said. “We might have gotten [an agreement] done in 15 minutes. It just worked. “He’s one of the smartest people I’ve met. A very smart businessman. You want him on your side, for sure.” Lemieux suggested that it actually took a little more time to strike a deal. But not much. “It was a half-hour meeting,” Lemieux said. “And he was my partner. “He’s one of the smartest people I’ve met. A very smart businessman. … You want him on your side, for sure.” Smart enough to craft a deal that served Lemieux – and himself – well. “It was an incredibly unique situation, obviously, where he’d been advised to defer everything [in terms of his salary as a player] forever and he deferred everything forever and then they couldn’t pay him,” Burkle said. “That was probably an opportunity, just in terms of a business transaction that you wouldn’t see again. “And the way we structured it with each other, it just worked out incredibly well for him. And for me, too. It just all fit together really easily.” Exploring a sale Burkle and Lemieux not only are business partners, but friends who speak of each other in the warmest of terms. Even so, their professional relationship could have dissolved a few years ago, when a decision was made to put the franchise – or, at least, part of it – on the market. Lemieux, Burkle said, was wondering if it might be time to largely separate himself from the Penguins, with whom he had been associated since 1984. “I would like to own the team forever. That would be my wish.” “I came in with Mario, and I always promised that I’d go out with him,” Burkle said. “I’d either buy him out or I would go out when he went out. I would like to own the team forever. That would be my wish. “But at one point in time, it was 100 percent of his net worth and I understand that since he’s been 18 years old, he’s been the face of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and that may wear on him a little bit sometimes.” There were “a lot of options” to get Lemieux some money for part of his stake while the duo retained control of the team. Eventually, they settled on one to explore. “We didn’t get to the point where there was an offer on the table that we’d sit down and say, ‘We’d take that,’ ” Burkle said. “And we didn’t find somebody we said we’d be comfortable sharing control with. … My real thing with him is, we came in together, we should go out together. And I hope we never go out.” There is, Burkle added, no reason to believe that will happen, because he has no interest in selling his share of the Penguins. He doesn’t believe Lemieux does, either. “I personally don’t,” he said. “I don’t think [Lemieux] has any. I think he has balanced, in terms of how much of his life is the Penguins now. I think he’s much better balanced than he was before. “All the kids were leaving the house and he had a big home up in Canada. ‘Should I go live there full-time?’ or ‘How much time should I spend in Pittsburgh?’ Now, he’s remodeling the house in Pittsburgh. “When I saw him on the ice after we won [the Stanley Cup in June] – you look at all the interesting things that go on when you win – he’s talking to reporters, and he’s beaming. I was like, ‘OK, he’s in a good place.’ ” Celebrating victories While Burkle’s wealth is a testimony to the many triumphs he has had in the business world, only one deal, he said, generated feelings that rival those inspired when the Penguins win the Stanley Cup. That was when he purchased a grocery chain, Alpha Beta, that had been an intense – and more successful – rival of the Stater Bros., with which he’d had his first job. It meant so much to Burkle that he labeled the work that went into arranging the acquisition “Project Blue Coats,” because Alpha Beta store managers wore blue coats and focused on managing, rather than taking the hands-on approach of their Stater Bros. counterparts. “That was the first big deal I ever did, and I sat in the parking lot before the deal closed at their headquarters thinking, ‘How’d this ever happen? How’d I get this lucky?’ ” Burkle said. “That happened once in all the business deals I’ve done, and it was a long, long time ago.” Conversely, it has been just weeks since the Penguins claimed the franchise’s fifth Cup – and the third under Lemieux and Burkle. Ron Burkle celebrates with Sidney Crosby after the Penguins' Game 6 victory in the 2016 Stanley Cup final. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) Burkle clearly relished everything about it, but the highlight he singled out might not have been the most predictable one. “What Fleury did for us by being more of a stand-up person than you could ever imagine anybody being...I wish we could have given the $15 million [expansion fee] back and kept him forever.” “The parade almost means more than that moment on the ice [after the Cup was won],” he said. “That moment on the ice is exciting, but when you sit there and you see a community like Pittsburgh, and the size of Pittsburgh, and the turnout in the community … and it was [goalie Marc-Andre] Fleury’s last moment. And seeing people holding up Phil Kessel signs, that is probably the highlight of the whole thing.” He had enjoyed similar celebrations in 2009 and 2016, but suggested the latest championship was the most satisfying because of all the adversity the Penguins overcame along the way. And because of the way Fleury, who was claimed by Las Vegas in the expansion draft days after the Cup was won, subjugated his personal interests to benefit the team. Fleury agreed to waive a no-movement clause in his contract and be exposed in that draft, which made it possible for him to remain with the Penguins and enhance their chances of earning another title. “This year was incredibly fun, because you’d read the injury reports every day and you’d think, ‘How does anybody go out there? It’s just unbelievable,’ ” Burkle said. “The number of people who had ‘Treat and Play’ after their name every morning and then, after practice or after a game, there are more of them. “I’m a huge fan of [Kris] Letang, personally and on the ice, and I thought, ‘Well, without Letang, how are we seriously going to get there?’ So this one had its own reasons to be incredibly fun and rewarding and exciting. We won with all the adversity, we won with all the injuries. Ron Burkle and Mario Lemieux ride through the crowd during the Pittsburgh Penguins victory parade on Wednesday, June 14, 2017 at Grant Street and Boulevard of the Allies. (Steph Chambers/Post-Gazette) “And then, what Fleury did for us by being more of a stand-up person than you could ever imagine anybody being and [Rutherford’s] call to keep him all year, which was exactly the right thing to do – I wish we could have given the $15 million [expansion fee] back and kept him forever. “For the parade to be kind of his end, although he made the end classier and classier and classier, at the time of the parade, I thought, ‘This is probably Fleury’s last moment with the Penguins.’ I could ramble on about it, but it had its own reasons to be really great, and it kind of culminated for me in the parade.” Sports fan The Penguins aren’t the only sports operation in which Burkle has had a financial interest. He has owned a share of soccer’s Los Angeles Galaxy, and has invested in auto-racing and boat-racing teams, as well. He reportedly made an unsolicited offer to buy the Pirates in 2010, but declined to confirm or discuss it. But being involved with hockey never made it onto his radar until after one of his sons, John, and a nephew, Greg, embraced the sport. “I have a nephew I kind of raised as a son, and he was really into hockey,” Burkle said. “My own son was into hockey quite a bit although, where we lived, it was only street hockey. … Mario was a bigger-than-life figure for them.” He added that the nearest ice rink at the time “was probably 40, 50 miles away” in Ontario, Calif. Coincidentally, though, an incident at that very rink when he was a boy left a lasting impression on Burkle. “It was the first time I held hands with a girl, and we were skating on the ice at the same ice rink where my nephew went,” he said. “She fell and I didn’t let go, and cut my hand open. “I said it was my first lesson on relationships: Sometimes, you have to let go. Or you can bleed all over the place, which I did.” Off the ice, Burkle recalls having a fairly modest athletic career. “I went through school really quick,” he said. “Not because I was really smart; I was just impatient, probably. And I was small. “When I got out of [high] school, I weighed 109 pounds. I lettered in wrestling, because that’s the only thing they had that [was practical for someone his size].” That limited background as a competitor doesn’t prevent him from connecting with the players who work for him. Even those who moved on years ago. “I still talk to Max Talbot all the time,” Burkle said. “If he has a baby, I know he has a baby. If he’s in California, he comes by. I’ve always been as close to him as any of them. Letang and I are very close. There have been different ones at different times.” Burkle’s primary residence is an estate in Beverly Hills, and he invariably invites the team to his place for dinner when it is playing in southern California. The visit always makes an impression. “It’s amazing,” Crosby said. “It’s a big house. A lot of land, a few guest houses. Some pretty unique things that he has, memorabilia and stuff like that. “It’s been pretty cool for us. He’s opened his home to us, and it’s pretty neat to get to see his place. You don’t see houses like that every day.” Burkle said the Penguins’ last visit to his home was part of a road trip on which they were accompanied by their mothers. That seemed to make it particularly special for him because his mother, Betty, follows the team passionately. “My mom is as big a fan as anybody I know,” he said. “She lives about 2½ hours outside of LA. She comes in and she gets excited. “She watches every game. I joke that, if within 30 seconds of the end of a game I don’t get a ‘Great game,’ or ‘Next time, Honey,’ I just dial 911 because there’s some kind of major problem going on.”
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Ron Burkle, the tactician
Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle ride down the Boulevard of the Allies during the Penguins' 2016 victory parade. (Haley Nelson/Post-Gazette)
Ron Burkle, the tactician Though Burkle’s business interests take him around the globe, that doesn’t prevent him from keeping up with how the Penguins are faring. “I see a lot of [games] on TV,” Burkle said. “I’m in New York a fair amount, so it’s pretty easy to catch a Rangers game, an Islanders game and a Devils game. Philadelphia’s not that far away, either.” He makes a point of being at as many playoff games as possible, but his other obligations prevent that on occasion. That was the case in 2009, when he was in South Korea while the Penguins faced Washington in Game 7 of the second round. Burkle enlisted team officials to find a way for him to watch the game and, ultimately, they came up with a solution that involved connecting a laptop computer to a TV screen. He was out of the country during the Penguins’ playoff run in 2016, too. Well, for a little bit of it. “I had my whole family, like 25 people, in Morocco and we were watching it at whatever it was, 3 or 4 or 5 in the morning,” Burkle said. “It got so exciting – people had their 1-year-olds and everybody – and I said, ‘I hate to do this to you, but we’re getting on the plane and going to Pittsburgh. I’m not watching any more games on TV.’ ” Getting involved Burkle’s passion for the Penguins – and his pride in all they have accomplished during his time with the franchise – is readily apparent. Nonetheless, he was mostly detached from the operation of the team during his early years of ownership. That changed when he had major philosophical differences with then-CEO Ken Sawyer, who previously had been chief financial officer of the NHL. “I thought we were headed in the wrong direction,” he said. Plus, the team wanted a new building to replace Civic Arena. “I’d rather build value than put money in the bank, because value is ultimately what you’re after.” “I thought we were headed in the wrong direction because Mario, like almost everybody who’s got an incredible talent – whether it’s in business and you’re a great operator or whether it’s as a great player – when they get in the top position, they tend to lean on the CFO a lot, and the CFO doesn’t have a commitment to win,” Burkle said. “The CFO has a commitment to try to end up with the most amount of money in the bank. And most of the time, just due to their personality, they have the wrong strategy, so their idea of how to end up with the most money in the bank doesn’t build the most value. I’d rather build value than put money in the bank, because value is ultimately what you’re after.” Sawyer retired after the 2010 season, replaced by Morehouse, a man Burkle hired three years earlier. Burkle took an active role in the negotiations that eventually resulted in construction of the facility now known as PPG Paints Arena, and in abandoning – or, at the very least, accelerating – what had been management’s five-year plan for constructing a competitive franchise. “I just felt let we had a commitment to ourselves, because that’s the only reason, to me, to be in this business, if you want to call it a business, or passion, or whatever, is to win,” Burkle said. “We had it to the community and, as much as anybody, we had it to the players, who were led by [Crosby], who are taking less [money] than they could take. The whole idea of a five-year plan, I thought, was silly. I said, ‘We’re either going to win, or we’re going to get caught trying.’ ” Burkle put his more aggressive approach into practice in 2008, when he approved upping the payroll to acquire Marian Hossa and Pascal Dupuis from Atlanta. When Shero, then the general manager, and his staff told Burkle that adding Hossa would make the Penguins a legitimate Stanley Cup contender, Burkle didn’t hesitate. The Penguins fell two victories shy of a championship that spring, but Burkle’s commitment to fielding a Cup-caliber team was cemented. Although Burkle doesn’t dabble in day-to-day issues, his stamp on the operation has been evident since he assumed a more active role nearly a decade ago. “I didn’t think we had the commitment to winning,” he said. “We had somebody saying, ‘This is the way to end up the year without having to write a check,’ or ‘This is the way to end the year with having a few dollars in the bank.’ I thought that was taking the wrong direction.” Burkle doesn’t prod Rutherford to make certain personnel moves, or suggest line combinations to Sullivan. Nonetheless, the instincts that have served him well in the business world also are apparent when he assesses his hockey team. “He’s a hands-off owner, but very supportive,” Rutherford said. “For a guy who’s not here in Pittsburgh, he really has the pulse of the team. He knows what’s going on.” Turning a profit Only a tiny percentage of Burkle’s net worth has been generated by the Penguins, but he said the franchise is a money-maker. “We’re a profitable team, under almost any scenario,” Burkle said. “From a budgeting point of view, we assume we’ll make the second round [of the playoffs]. “That’s kind of our baseline, when we look up what we can do over the course of the year without doing something unusual, capital-wise. We assume we’ll make the second round. “If we make the second round, everything works. If we don’t, we have room, anyway. We don’t get ourselves in trouble.” “We’re not going to be a typical developer, because we’re not going to do things to alienate the community to make an extra dollar.” The Penguins also stand to generate some income from the development of the former Civic Arena site, although that project has been running behind schedule. Burkle, though, said the delays don’t trouble him as much as some might suspect. Mostly because the revenue that could come from developing that site is not a primary concern for him. “I would never say that I was frustrated by it because part of my business philosophy – and my philosophy in life – is to remember what the goal is,” Burkle said. “Remember why you’re here, what you’re trying to do and remember what you’re headed toward. “We’re a hockey team and we want to win Stanley Cups. We want to have our players feel like they’re in the best place they can be, and we want our fans to care. Incidental to all of that, we have this piece of property over here that has some value to it. “To me, that’s exactly what it is. It’s incidental. When the governor was trying to put a package together [to have an arena built] that was acceptable to him and acceptable to us, one of the things was, ‘Here’s this land for the arena.’ “We’re not going to be a typical developer, because we’re not going to do things to alienate the community to make an extra dollar. When you take that on, you kind of have to accept that you’re putting yourself in a little bit of a spot because your obligation is to do something that’s accepted by everybody. “I didn’t ever expect it to be easy and, to tell you the truth, of all the things that I look at with the team, development is so far down the list. It’s last. Last is a long way down the list. If we make money out of it, it won’t be what one good season would make.” White House visit Burkle’s politics are decidedly progressive, and he has long been a donor to Democratic candidates. He makes no attempt to hide his leanings, even when it alienates customers of some of his businesses, as happened with a grocery-store chain in the West. “I do a lot of fundraising,” he said. “People would cut Ralph’s [loyalty] cards up... if I had a fundraiser for a candidate they didn’t like. “And they can do that. That’s why you shouldn’t mix politics and business. I didn’t mix it, but to the extent that people pay attention, that was the situation.” The Penguins pose with President Barack Obama and the Stanley Cup during their 2016 White House visit. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Burkle has known President Trump for years, but shares few, if any, policy positions with him. Nonetheless, he confirmed that he will not hesitate to accompany the Penguins to the White House, assuming they are invited in recognition of their latest championship. “I think it’s a tradition that should be honored, first and foremost,” Burkle said. “There’s a lot of emotion around the president. There’s a lot of negativity, and there’s a lot of passion. But it is the president, it is the White House. “If you want to protest, you can protest. If you want to be unhappy, you can be unhappy. If you want to voice your opinion, you can voice your opinion. But I, personally, don’t think this is the stage to do it on. “It’s an honor to go there. It’s a moment a lot of people won’t ever get again. I hope we win again, but you don’t take it for granted that you get to go to the White House. … Every time I go there, it’s an amazing thing. I don’t think that who the occupant is should determine whether the team goes to the White House.” If and when he returns to the White House, it won’t be the first time Burkle has toured a Donald Trump residence. It happened in 1999, as well, when Burkle, an architecture enthusiast, arrived in Florida for his meeting with Lemieux a few hours ahead of schedule and decided to use the time to tour a celebrated piece of property in Palm Beach. “I love houses, and I called up Trump and I said, ‘Can I go through Mar-a-Lago?, ’ ” Burkle said. “He said, ‘Yeah, go ahead. I’ll have them walk you around and feed you lunch.’ “So, it was funny. The beginning of the Penguins story, in a way, started that day with Trump and Mar-a-Lago.”
Reporting
Dave Molinari
dmolinari@post-gazette.com
@MolinariPG Design & Development Zack Tanner
Related Links | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
AdvertisementA French fighter jet has attacked and destroyed a Libyan military plane shortly after it landed at Misurate air force base, a French armed forces spokesman said.
The French warplane fired an air-to-ground missile at the Libyan jet after it breached the UN-imposed no-fly zone over Libya on Thursday.
The AP news agency cited an official earlier on Thursday as saying the Libyan plane may have been landing when it was attacked by a French Rafael fighter jet.
It comes as coalition forces continue to attack targets in the North African country in a bid to protect civilians from forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, the country's leader.
In a separate development, French fighter jets also struck an air base deep inside Libya, while NATO ships patrolled the coast to block arms and mercenaries entering the country.
Coalition bombers also struck artillery, arms depots and parked helicopters on Thursday. However the coalition bombardment has failed to stop Gaddafi's forces from shelling opposition held towns.
More fighting
James Bays, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Ajdabiya, a key town about 125km away from the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, said he could hear missiles landing.
"We've heard four or five in the last 20 minutes or so. This is a city that has been pounded now for more than two weeks.
"I can tell you when you wander through this town there are very few residents here, most of them have fled, it''s like a ghost town.
Tony Birtley, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Benghazi, said opposition forces were "stuck" and unable to move forward.
"I think the reason for that is partly because they''re disorganised, partly because they don''t have the weapons and partly because Gaddafi's forces are very strong and have a lot of hardware," he said.
Al Jazeera has also heard that Gaddafi's forces have stepped up their attacks on the town of Zintan, west of the capital Tripoli.
A loud explosion was heard in Tripoli early on Thursday, and smoke could be seen rising from an area where a military base is situated.
"We heard another explosion just now. We see smoke rising. There are people on rooftops. It seems to be in a military area near the engineering college [in the Tajoura area]," one resident told Reuters news agency.
Libyan state television said Western planes had struck in Tripoli and in Jafar, southwest of the capital.
"Military and civilian targets were attacked by colonialist crusaders," the report said.
The US military said 14 Tomahawk missiles were launched overnight, while the US Africa Command in Germany said coalition forces also dropped bombs on targets.
Government officials have accused coalition forces of killing dozens of civilians,and some journalists were taken to a hospital early on Thursday morning and shown 18 charred bodies, which the government said were military personnel and civilians killed in the air strikes, Reuters reported.
But the US military officials deny any civilians have been killed in air strikes.
Undeterred by raids
The US military said it had successfully established a no-fly zone over Libya's coastal areas and had moved on to attack Gaddafi''s tanks.
The allies flew 175 sorties in 24 hours, and the US flew 113 of those, a US commander said.
Gerard Longuet, the French defence minister, said France had destroyed about 10 Libyan armoured vehicles over three days.
However, Gaddafi's tanks have rolled back into the town of Misurata under the cover of darkness, residents and opposition fighters said, resuming their attack after their guns were silenced on Wednesday by Western air raids.
The city, around 200km east of Tripoli and home to a major oil refinery, remains the last of opposition hold-outs in the west.
"Government tanks are closing in on Misurata hospital and shelling the area," a doctor in Misurata told Reuters on the phone before the line was cut off.Atheist Group Threatens Legal Action Over 'In God We Trust' Signs at Arkansas Schools Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Video
BAUXITE, Ark. - Pencil hit paper at Pine Haven Elementary in Bauxite on Friday as students answered questions about American history.
A few yards away, superintendent Matt Donaghy stares at his inbox facing a question that could change the course of Arkansas history.
"I don't plan on responding to |
.00. (See "What if I Want to Book a Single Occupancy Cabin" here for details.) No combining of discounts is allowed.
How do I make a payment?
To make a payment, booked guests can login to their Sixthman account and click 'Make a Payment' next to their reservation. Any named guest on a reservation can submit an online payment.
Payments can also be made via phone by calling Sixthman at 877-379-9190.
Can each roommate make their own payments?
The Lead Passenger on the reservation is responsible for making sure minimum payments are met. However, each guest can log in (or call in) individually to make their own payment for their share of the cabin with their own credit card information.
When making the reservation, the Lead Passenger can pay for only their portion of the minimum initial deposit, but the reservation must be brought current within 72 hours. Within this time frame, other passengers can make their initial payments. The Lead Passenger is responsible for making sure the reservation is current within 72 hours or will risk cancellation.
What are the age requirements for Mad Decent Boat Party 2015?
All guests must be at least 18 years old to sail. A young adult is defined as an individual between the ages of 18 and 20 as of November 11.
An adult is defined as someone 21 years of age or older as of November 11. Young adults must be accompanied by an adult in the same or connecting stateroom. Note: Two people under the age of 21 may travel together in the same stateroom if they are a married couple and provide proof of marriage to a Norwegian representative at the pier before embarkation. Guest ages will be verified at embarkation. Guests not conforming to this policy will be denied boarding and assessed a 100% cancelation penalty. NO exceptions will be made at embarkation.
What is the referral program for Mad Decent Boat Party 2015?
You can earn money for referring your friends who have never attended a Sixthman event to Mad Decent Boat Party 2015 whether you are sailing with us or not! For Cruisers: For each new cabin you refer to Mad Decent Boat Party 2015, you will earn $100 credit to your onboard spending account. Referrers will see a $100 credit on their onboard spending account by the third day of the cruise. For Non-Cruisers: For each new cabin you refer to Mad Decent Boat Party 2015, you will earn $50 cash! Referrers will be sent a check after the cruise has returned to ensure the referred passenger sailed. Policy Details: Referrals will be reconciled 2 weeks prior to sailing, and will appear on the referrer’s confirmation. Please contact Sixthman PRIOR TO sailing if your referral does not appear on your confirmation. All guests in the referred cabin must be new to any Sixthman event, and the referral must be requested at the time of booking or registering for any waiting list. The guest booking the new cabin must put your Sixthman Username in the REFERRAL blank when placing their reservation. Referrals are not retroactive, and cannot be added after the reservation has been made. Referrals apply to full cabins only; they do not apply to individual guests within a cabin or during the pre-sale period. The program ends 30 days prior to sailing. When a referred cabin is booked, an email is sent to the referrer listing the lead passenger's name and email address. Sign up for a Sixthman Username at sixthman.net/account and start referring today!
What is the legal drinking age on board?
Passengers must be 21 years of age or older to purchase or consume alcohol on the ship.
Norwegian permits young adults (18-21) to purchase and personally consume wine and beer only while onboard and with the consent of an accompanying parent. Authorization will be given only when the accompanying parent completes the Young Adult Alcoholic Beverage Waiver form, which can be obtained and completed at the Guest Services Desk upon embarkation of the ship.
What is the alcohol policy?
Norwegian Alcohol Policy Please note that with the exception of Wine and Champagne, all guests are prohibited from bringing alcohol on board our ships. If you purchase any alcohol at one of our ports-of-call or in our onboard shops, the ship will safely store your purchase(s) and until either the final night of the cruise or the morning of debarkation, at which time it willbe available for pick up in a designated area.
Wine & Champagne Policy Guests may bring bottles of wine and champagne on board. When bottles are brought on board and served or consumed in any restaurant, public room area or in their stateroom, a corkage fee will be charged according to bottle sizes noted below. 750 ml Bottle: $15.00 1,000 ml Bottle: $ 20.00 1,500 ml Magnum: $30.00 Wine or champagne sent directly to the ship by travel agents, friends, family, etc. or from another retail source, are subject to the same fees. Box wines are not allowed on board. To speed up the process of checking your wine or champagne at the port, print out this form and bring it with you.
Norwegian Gifts & More Program Information Guests can order items through the Gifts & More program—including bottles of liquor (not advertised but available if you call), soda cards, and gourmet treats—up until 10 days prior to sailing. Want to order something special so you can sail away in style? Check out Norwegian's variety of Gifts & More here and place your order by phone at 866-931-6743. The Ultimate Beverage Package is NOT available for purchase for this festival.
Am I guaranteed access to all shows onboard?A powerful synthetic opioid manufactured in illicit labs was the main driver of the record 325 drug-related deaths in New Hampshire last year.
Fentanyl is used to manage severe chronic and post-surgical pain. As a pharmaceutical, prescribed in lozenges or transdermal patches, it is 10 to 50 times more potent than morphine.
But, increasingly, a powdered form of the drug that is 200 to 2,000 times more potent is being mixed with heroin or passed off as heroin to unwitting users.
“If the heroin-acclimated person buys what they think is heroin and it’s a mixture of fentanyl or even pure fentanyl, they’re done,” says New Hampshire’s Chief Medical Examiner Thomas Andrew, whose office released a final tally of 2014’s drug-related deaths this week. “Because they are going to inject the amount they are used to injecting.
“It’s public enemy number one now.”
Fentanyl was a factor in 145 overdose deaths in New Hampshire last year, or about 45 percent of the total. That’s compared to 98 deaths that involved heroin. An overdose of fentanyl alone was cited as the cause of death in 76 cases, compared to 40 deaths attributed to heroin alone. A combination of heroin and fentanyl killed 38 people.
The 325 deaths last year represent a significant increase over the 193 drug-related deaths reported the previous year. In 2013, fentanyl was a factor in just 18 overdose deaths, compared to 70 that involved heroin.
The data also underscore that substance-abuse is a statewide problem that is no longer limited to younger users just looking to get high.
While Manchester, the state’s largest city had, the most deaths – 48 – more than 100 municipalities in New Hampshire saw at least one overdose death in 2014, including 10 in Laconia, a town of 18,000.
Map - 2014 drug deaths in New Hampshire:
Scroll through the records for each town to see the drug related deaths recorded by the state.
Roughly half those who died of an overdose in 2014 were age 40 or over, a trend Andrew said can be traced back to the rise in prescription-drug addiction over the last decade.
“We’re not talking about the 20-something recreational user,” he said. “We’re talking about the 40-something who was prescribed an opiate for their aching back or their knee or their hip and became habituated and ultimately addicted and they can’t get it anymore. Or maybe it’s clear they are addicted and they can’t get the help that they need. So they go to heroin.”
Indeed, the abuse of heroin and other opioids, including prescription painkillers, has become the top public-health issue in New Hampshire. Since 2011, there have been more than 925 drug overdose deaths in the Granite State, including 77 that have been confirmed so far in 2015.
Gov. Maggie Hassan, who recently appointed a drug “czar” to coordinate prevention and treatment efforts, has called it an epidemic. Both Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen have co-sponsored federal legislation calling for more resources to combat the problem.
At rallies and public forums, as well as in legislative testimony, public-health experts and advocates have highlighted the need for more funding for treatment. New Hampshire currently ranks 49th in the nation in per-capita spending on treatment, even as the rate of young adults with substance-abuse problems ranks among the highest.
Map - 2014 New Hampshire drug deaths by county:I use to come right through here in a tractor trailer to get fuel at the plaza 23 truck stop and then load at the Cargill in the port, got off at exit 3a or 3b I think and its a tight corner at the end of the off ramp for the port, I took every single inch of the pavement to get my rig around the corner and then make a left turn without taking out something next to the roadway, instead of waiting people would always cut me off to try and get in front of me but then would get stuck with nowhere to go and I couldn't go forward or their car would wind up being much flatter in the front end, then traffic behind would be backed up to the highway with nowhere for anyone to go. on at least 5 different occasions I had to park my truck, get out and have people play tetris so I could go, all because one asshole wanted to try and get around me to save 10 seconds when the light turns green. moral of the story, be fucking patient and you can get where your going faster then if you fuck everything up.3.2k SHARES Share Tweet Pinterest Linkedin Flipboard
Here’s a hard sister act to follow: identical twins Kirstie and Kristie Bronner (yes, those are their names) have been named co-valedictorians of Spelman College, a historically Black college in Atlanta, Georgia. See, Kirstie had a 4.0 GPA and her twin sister Kristie also had a 4.0 GPA, so the school appointed them both to the highest academic honor. Both sisters were music majors and plan to record a gospel album together; after graduation, they want to work for their father, who is a minister. They’re also planning to write a book on how to achieve academically — a subject they both know well. The young women said they exercised intense self-discipline, only socializing on the weekends. “We maximized our study time,” said Kirstie. “People would ask us ‘do you want to go do this or that on a weekday’ and the response was an automatic ‘no.’ We saved recreation for the weekend. Our philosophy was and is, pay now and play later.” The twins will be honored this Sunday at Spelman’s 126th commencement. [News One; Patch]
By: Jessica WakemanIn what has to be the world’s biggest example of the Streisand Effect, a Google-funded center-left think tank kicked out a group of scholars who were promoting the idea that Google is a dangerous monopoly—and now guess what everybody’s talking about? They’re talking about how Google is a dangerous monopoly and complaining about how everyone in the online publishing industry is just “A Serf on Google’s Farm,” as Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo puts it. That’s not overdramatic at all.
To make things even worse for Google, those on the Right who might otherwise be inclined to defend free markets and to side with a successful corporation against meddling bureaucrats are sitting this one out. Google has recently done a few things—firing an engineer for a politically incorrect memo, or capriciously “demonetizing” YouTube accounts, which seems to be targeted at the political right—that makes the company look like it’s taking sides in the culture war. This has led some on the Right to call for “crushing regulation” of Google and other tech giants as a form of payback for being political enemies. (Apparently the consensus on the #MAGA wing of the right is, “We control the reins of power for a few brief moments, so let’s make sure we abuse it for blatantly partisan purposes.” That will probably end well.)
But all this talk about Google being a “monopoly” is sloppy and overwrought.
I’ve been around long enough in Internet publishing to know that there’s a lot of truth to what Marshall writes. Google definitely has a wide and pervasive influence on the ability to publish and make money on the Web, based on the way it has built an entire online advertising system from beginning to end. Yet Marshall is forced to acknowledge the more nuanced reality. His headline blares that we are “Serfs on Google’s Farm,” but three paragraphs in, he avers that “Google isn’t some kind of thralldom we’ve lived under,” which implies the exact opposite. So I guess the headline was just clickbait, which seems kind of appropriate to the current media era.
A Monopoly Means One, Not Five
Moreover, I would regard Marshall’s warning as more ominous if he didn’t couch it in these terms: “Google is a big, big problem. So is Facebook. So is Amazon.” You see the same thing in an article from the pro-Trump Right arguing for trust-busting against the Big Five tech firms, which proclaims that “Apple, Alphabet (Google’s corporate parent), Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon…are the new Robber Barons.” So Google is a monopoly that controls everything—and so is Facebook, and so is Amazon, and so is Apple, and so is Microsoft. You see the problem? Each of the Big Five can’t be the monopoly that controls everything.
To be sure, each of these companies has areas where it has become dominant. But that is the result of often brutal competition in which each has tried to steal some of the others’ core business. Google tried (and failed) to take on Facebook with Google Plus. Microsoft’s Bing has tried and so far failed to take away the search business from Google. Google web hosting is trying to take away some very profitable business from Amazon. Apple has tried to take on Amazon in e-books. And so on.
The crucial issue of “monopoly” is not whether a company has a large market share; that’s not proof of lack of competition, only proof that one firm is winning the competition (for now). The key issue is the presence of other potential competitors with the capital and expertise necessary to mount a credible threat should the market leader become arrogant or complacent. That is precisely the prospect that each of these big tech firms faces, thanks to the presence of the other big tech firms, as well as a massive complex of Silicon Valley venture capitalists who are all looking for the startup that will become the new Google or Apple or Facebook.
Google’s ‘Monopoly’ Hasn’t Lasted Long, Either
Note also that Google’s “monopoly” position—as with the leading market position of most of these other firms—is relatively recent. The system Marshall describes is the way things have been done for the last five to ten years, yet it is treated as if this is the permanent new order that is going to last forever unless government intervenes.
In reality, such technological dominance is fragile and tends to be temporary. This is a lesson we ought to have learned from the last big tech “monopoly” scare. Back in the late 1990s, I spent some time defending Microsoft against charges that it was quashing competition and trying to control the entire technology industry by giving PC manufacturers a big incentive to pre-install the Windows operating system. Also, Microsoft was going to ensure its dominance by bundling a Web browser with its operating system.
Somehow, this did not actually ensure Microsoft’s dominance. What actually happened was that Apple recovered from its mid-1990s slump and started putting out devices so good they lured people away from Windows PCs, which became decidedly unhip, and into the closed system of the Mac OS. Then the Web browser became more or less a commodity product that was far less useful than a Web search portal, and Google—which didn’t even exist at the beginning of the Microsoft monopoly panic—rose up to dominate that category.
Then everybody started accessing information from their smartphones, so it no longer matters what operating system people have on their desktop PCs, if they even have one. And what are we all doing on our smartphones? Wasting time on social media apps like Facebook, where we get all of our news, fake and otherwise, at the expense of traffic on the rest of the Internet.
So the lesson is that technology changes and suddenly the thing that looked like it made one company totally dominant becomes totally irrelevant.
Remember, Pride Goeth Before a Fall
That’s not to say that the complaints we’re hearing against the big technology companies are not valid. I like Marshall’s point about how Google has gotten so used to treating users and their information as the product to be sold that they have no idea how to treat actual, paying customers. But that is just the natural arrogance of big companies that have gotten used to rapid growth, high profit margins, plenty of cash rolling around, and lots of positive publicity and goodwill from the public—who then squander all of these advantages because they imagine themselves to be invulnerable and forget that they were once the upstarts who took down established firms. Isn’t that what Apple and Microsoft (and others) did to onetime giants like Xerox, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM?
To the extent these complaints about “monopolies” capture pent-up resentment against the big tech companies on the part of customers who are not being well served, that represents a huge opportunity for one of the other big tech companies, or for a scrappy startup, to go out there and develop the new platform that is going to serve customers better.
Yet for the most part, the complaints we’re hearing are not serious attempts to find better ways to serve customers. They are attempts to displace onto Google or Facebook or another big corporation some kind of bigger and more fundamental frustration with the world.
On the Right, the obvious frustration is the way the Left has turned against free speech, particularly after the recent clash in Charlottesville, and is using a campaign against “hate” as an excuse to beat down all of its culture war opponents on the Right. There is good reason to worry that companies like Google are already using their influence to enforce that political bias, but the problem didn’t begin with them. It began in the universities, which are a much better example of a government-backed cartel.
Google Is Also Part of the Solution Right Now
As for Marshall, you have to understand that his complaints come from a very narrow, very specific, almost parochial context: the plight of small and medium-sized Internet publishers during the past ten years. His complaint is that the decisions of multi-billion-dollar corporations—and of millions of consumers—has not aligned perfectly with what would be best for this one little niche within the publishing world. Well, who expected that it would?
The real context for publishers that we are all still trying to cope with the shattering impact of the Internet, and we’re all dealing with our implicit demotion from high-minded public intellectuals to generic, interchangeable “content providers” thrown into an undignified scrabble for clicks. It’s a revolution that smashed down barriers to entry and bypassed the old media gatekeepers, but it has also made the whole business model of publishing tenuous and uncertain.
Believe me, I’ve been there for the whole thing. I started out as a professional writer in the early 1990s, back when we used to print things on paper and send them through the mail. (If you want to talk about monopolies that live in blissful disregard for the needs of their customers, let’s talk about the U.S. Postal Service.) Since then, I’ve worked for and sometimes run publications using practically every variation of Internet business model: an online newsletter that depends on paying subscribers, a free blog that exists to promote the paid subscriptions, an advertising-supported Web site that lives on its clicks, news aggregation that corrals content from other sources on the Web, and so on. Heck, I’m involved in several of those models concurrently at the moment.
The question of “how do we make money now” has consumed everyone in publishing for the past two decades, and as Marshall points out, Google has been part of the solution, making it ridiculously easy for small- and medium-sized publishers, who operate according to the lean and understaffed rules of the new era, to connect their sites to a stream of advertising revenue without having to have any real advertising staff.
But, as I pointed out, that’s only one of the solutions that some companies have relied on for about the past ten years. We were all using different platforms and different business models before then, and in another ten years, we might find ourselves doing something else. Perhaps we will all be providing completely different content for a nation of pod-people who spend all of their time in virtual reality instead of on social media. The one thing I can guarantee you is that things will still be difficult for writers and editors and publishers, because they always have been. Such is the way of things.
Google could do a better or worse job at what it’s doing, and it can make the deal for writers and publishers better or worse. But the idea that this is some kind of permanent monopoly that can only be fixed by government intervention is short-sighted and parochial. The situation Marshall sketches out is a snapshot of a particular era for a particular type of company. But this, too, shall pass.
That’s why we should cool it with all the talk about a Google monopoly and go back to being much more concerned about the unaccountable monopoly that is the federal bureaucracy.
Follow Robert on Twitter.Center for Healthy Aging at the University of Copenhagen today announced a research collaboration with a company specializing in artificial intelligence (AI) to develop solutions for preventing early aging. The aim of this partnership is to develop medicines to prevent and cure a broad range of diseases associated with aging such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and cardiovascular diseases.
Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and cardiovascular diseases are strongly associated with aging and share many characteristics on the molecular level. Experts in the genetics of aging at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine partnered with the Baltimore-based company, Insilico Medicine, specializing in AI to find molecules that can be developed into drugs to cure and prevent these diseases. The objective of this collaboration is to increase health span for everyone on the planet. "Many of the diseases of aging are associated with the failure of the DNA repair mechanisms. The aging processes accelerate as the DNA repair mechanisms lose function. The collaboration with Insilico Medicine will allow us to find the molecules that repair DNA and prevent accelerated aging", said the head of the biology of aging lab and assistant professor Morten Scheibye-Knudsen, Center for Healthy Aging.
Extended Lifespan for All
Insilico Medicine develops the advanced AI algorithms to study the aging processes and discover new interventions in aging. Many of these molecules aim to induce the expression of certain genes involved in the endogenous repair processes to slow down and even reverse some of the aging-associated diseases. By applying a specific branch of artificial intelligence called Deep Learning (DL) on multi-modal data, the company aims to discover molecules that can stimulate the repair of the DNA.
"Deep learning systems are outperforming human abilities in many tasks including image recognition and autonomous driving. But one area, where AI will have the most impact is drug discovery and we are deeply honored to be able to partner with professor Scheibye-Knudsen's group at the University of Copenhagen, which is one of the most advanced in the world. I hope that together we will be able to find new molecules to extend healthy longevity and make humans more resistant to the various stress factors", said Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine, Inc.
At the advanced laboratories in Copenhagen, the research teams will be able to test the molecules identified using the artificial intelligence methods to select the most effective ones for joint development into novel medicines.
"We hope that cooperation can lead to the development of some new drugs that can prevent early aging, thus ensuring increased health spans for everyone. If we can find molecules that repair our DNA, it is not inconceivable that we can increase the upper limit to how old we may be, "says Morten Scheibye-Knudsen.
Insilico Medicine was the first company to apply deep generative adversarial networks (GANs) to generation of new molecular structures with specified parameters and published a seminal papers in Oncotarget and Molecular Pharmaceutics. Another paper published in Molecular Pharmaceutics in 2016, demonstrated the proof of concept of the application of deep neural networks for predicting the therapeutic class of the molecule using the transcriptional response data, received the American Chemical Society Editors' Choice Award.
The pharmaceutical industry is expected to benefit from the recent advances in AI. Insilico Medicine was profiled in the recent article in Nature Biotechnology titled "AI-powered drug discovery captures pharma interest" among the other companies utilizing machine learning for drug discovery. The agreement with Juvenescence is expected to set a precedent for the new molecules discovered using the new generation of artificial intelligence by a team of expert drug developers.
###
About Insilico Medicine, Inc
Insilico Medicine, Inc. is an artificial intelligence company located at the Emerging Technology Centers at the Johns Hopkins University Eastern campus in Baltimore, with R&D resources in Belgium, Russia, and the UK sourced through hackathons and competitions. The company utilises advances in genomics, big data analysis, and deep learning for in silico drug discovery and drug repurposing for ageing and age-related diseases. The company is pursuing internal drug discovery programs in cancer, Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease, ALS, diabetes, sarcopenia, and ageing. Through its Pharma.AI division, Insilico provides advanced machine learning services to biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and skin care companies, foundations and national governments globally. In 2017, NVIDIA selected Insilico Medicine as one of the Top 5 AI companies in its potential for social impact.
Brief company video: https:/ / www. youtube. com/ watch?v= l62jlwgL3v8
About the Scheibye-Knudsen Laboratory
The growing proportion of the elderly population represents an increasing socioeconomic challenge, not least because of age-associated diseases. It is therefore increasingly pertinent to find interventions for age-associated diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and cardiovascular diseases. Although the cause of aging is currently unknown accumulation of damage to our genome, the DNA, may be a contributing factor.
In the Scheibye-Knudsen lab we try to understand the cellular and organismal consequences of DNA damage with the aim of developing interventions. We have discovered that DNA damage leads to changes in certain metabolites and that replenishment of these molecules may alter the rate of aging in model organisms. These findings suggest that normal aging and age-associated diseases may be malleable to similar interventions. The hope is to develop interventions that will allow everyone to live healthier, happier and more productive lives.
Laboratory website: http://scheibye-knudsen. com/
About the University of Copenhagen
With over 40,000 students and more than 9,000 employees, the University of Copenhagen is the largest institution of research and education in Denmark and among the highest ranked universities in Europe. The purpose of the University - to quote the University Statute - is to 'conduct research and provide further education to the highest academic level'. Approximately one hundred different institutes, departments, laboratories, centres, museums, etc., form the nucleus of the University.
University website: http://introduction. ku. dk/ presentation/
Contact:
Insilico Medicine
Dr. Qingsong Zhu
zhu@insilicomedicine.com
University of Copenhagen
Dr. Morten Scheibye-Knudsen
mscheibye@sund.ku.dkA Bruce Springsteen tribute band couldn't make it, but apparently the Beach Boys were available. It's believed that the Mike Love -fronted group will play at the Texas State Society’s “Black Tie and Boots” inaugural ball this Thursday (Jan. 17).
The news is unconfirmed, but the Washington Post's Reliable Source column cites people "close to the planning" of the event as saying that it will happen. They'd been linked with the inauguration since shortly before Christmas, when it was reported that they'd been asked to perform. But a spokesperson for the group said that they hadn't made a decision, nor did they specify whether they were asked to play the official concert or an inaugural ball.
As the article reminds us, the Beach Boys weren't always so popular in Republican circles. In 1983, they were scheduled to perform a free concert on the Mall in Washington, D.C., as part of the nation's Fourth of July ceremonies. But Secretary of the Interior James Watt prevented it from happening, saying that it would attract " the wrong element." Instead, they booked the U.S. Army Blues Band and Wayne Newton.
In other Beach Boys news, there may be a thawing in the relationship between Mike Love, the only original member still in the Beach Boys, and his cousin, Brian Wilson. Love told ABC News that Wilson, whom Love fired after their 2012 50th anniversary tour, that Wilson "has expressed the desire to rectify things." While they haven't spoken about it yet, Love said, "If it were possible to make it just Brian and I, and have it under control and done better than what happened in 2012, then yeah, I'd be open to something."Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez spoke at an immigrant and workers rally outside of the White House Monday.
“The Democratic party will always be here, fighting for you,” Perez told the group Monday afternoon. “The Democratic party is here, fighting for you.”
WATCH:
Perez asserted that the Democratic party and the immigrant community share the same values, centered around diversity. He claimed that “our nation’s diversity is our greatest strength.” He also expressed frustration with the current president, who he would not mention by name.
“Our most important power is not the mister in the White House, I can’t even mention his name, the power is with all of you,” Perez said, before extolling the power of big labor, which was present at the march in solidarity. “No human being is illegal, we must treat everyone with dignity,” Perez continued, as he switched between English and Spanish for the crowd.
The protest outside of the White House, which grew to a few thousand by the dinner hour, was a part of nationwide May Day protests. The day is recognized around the globe as the international version of Labor Day. (RELATED: NY Times: When Communism Inspired Americans)
“We will be fighting for racial justice, economic justice, and moral justice,” Perez said, listing off a plethora of talking points.
Perez said he spent over ten years with Casa Maryland, one of the groups organizing the May Day protest. Perez was approached by The Daily Caller News Foundation with questions but declined to comment.
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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.Previous research on sex work “paints a skewed picture of the complex environment of prostitution,” researchers write in a new study.
Photo by aerogondo2/Shutterstock
When Dr. Anthony Marcus, chair of the anthropology department at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, kicked off a massive study of underage sex work in America in 2008, finding interview subjects was easy. Marcus and his team of researchers met minors working as prostitutes in New York City, then gave each of them three coupons they could redeem for $10 if they brought back more teens for interviews. Soon, their network grew large enough that they had reached their goal of interviewing 300 minors working in the city, the largest data set of its kind. But as soon as they moved the operation to Atlantic City, N.J.—a much smaller venue, but one that they’d heard had an “epidemic” of commercial sexual exploitation of children—the coupon system fizzled out. Underage sex workers in Atlantic City were almost impossible to find.
Unable to find their subjects, the researchers reached out to members of the city’s anti-trafficking task force—including local social workers, law enforcement officials, and religious leaders—for leads. At night, they sat on cinder blocks on the boardwalk with cartons of cigarettes, handing out coupons and sharing smokes with street hustlers and drug dealers. One researcher moved into Atlantic City’s boarding houses to get closer to the market. But when they could only locate a handful of minors to interview, members of the anti-trafficking task force advised Marcus and his team that the underage sex market was “hidden” in the city. “Researchers like you will never gain their trust,” one member told them. “They all hide under the boardwalk, and none of the girls will be brave enough to talk to you. If they do, their pimps will cut their faces, and it will be your fault.” An FBI agent admonished the researchers that they were “too academic to do this study” and needed to talk in “police television slang” in order to win their trust.
Eventually, some members of the task force admitted that they had little personal interaction with underage sex workers themselves. “It soon became clear that as researchers staying up all night on Pacific Avenue we knew it better than they did, since they all lived in the suburbs and rarely saw Pacific Avenue after 5 p.m.,” Marcus and his co-author, John Jay anthropology professor Ric Curtis, wrote in an article on the experience last year. Finally, they raised the age limit of interviewees to 24 and conducted additional interviews with local pimps, drug dealers, customers, and business people to get a more comprehensive understanding of Atlantic City’s market. What they found was that the narrative of commercial sexual exploitation of children (or CSEC) they had been sold by local activists—one where knife-wielding pimps lure girls into prostitution then brutalize them into compliance—existed in only rare cases and didn’t describe most people’s experiences.
In the resulting study, “Conflict and Agency Among Sex Workers and Pimps,” released in this May’s ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Marcus and Curtis (along with researchers Amber Horning, Jo Sanson, and Efram Thompson) interviewed a total of 372 sex workers (262 of whom were minors and 70 who had previously worked as minors) to present a more complicated idea of how the market for underage sex work functions, one that some well-meaning activists—and legislation like the Trafficking Victims’ Protection Act, which seeks to prosecute pimps to save underage sex workers—may not fully understand. Previous research in the area, much of which relied on interviews with a handful of underage sex workers who turn up in rescue institutions, rehabilitation programs, or in jail, “paints a skewed picture of the complex environment of prostitution,” they wrote. Really, “stereotypical pimps are far less common and important to street sex markets than would be expected.” In their sample, only 14 percent of female underage sex workers in New York City (and 6 percent of the males) had a pimp. Some testified that they had recruited their friends and boyfriends to help them with their business. And “all sex workers in both Atlantic City and New York City described experiencing increasing, rather than decreasing, agency and control over their work over time.” Many of the girls and boys they interviewed “had left pimps because they were violent, mentally abusive, lazy, poor business associates, unable to protect them, extracting too much money, or no longer fun to be around,” sometimes within days or weeks of meeting. One 17-year-old sex worker in New York says her boyfriend tricked her into sex work at the age of 12. But he’s not the one keeping her on the street—she left him and began working independently less than a year later. Another 17-year-old sex worker in Atlantic City says that she was initiated into sex work by a pimp, but dropped him after her first gig. “I’d rather work for myself,” she told them. “It’s more money.”
Pimps, too, failed to fit the stereotypical mold. “We were told pimps were not approachable because they were too dangerous and didn’t want to talk,” Marcus told me. “But all they wanted to do was talk, talk, talk—that’s what they do for a living.” Many pimps referred the researchers to their sex workers if they approached them in the right way, no cuts on the face required. (In addition to interviewing pimps in Atlantic City, the researchers spoke with 85 male pimps working in New York.) One pimp told them that going after underage girls constituted “pimp suicide,” not because it makes pimps vulnerable to harsh anti-trafficking laws, but because “teenage prostitutes don’t earn enough money,” Marcus says. In Atlantic City, they found, “those who first entered when over 18 years of age reported being approached by a pimp at nearly twice the rate of those whose entry occurred when they were minors.” And while some pimps boasted about exerting control over “their” sex workers, the women working with them told a different story. One sex worker named Diamond says that she had led her pimp to believe that he had initiated her into sex work, though she had been working for some time. She did it in order to hold up her pimp’s “narrative of hypermasculine enticement and feminine vulnerability,” as the researchers put it. Says Marcus: “It’s like when you listen to couples debating about who made the move on who.”
The image of the pimp who uses violence to keep unwilling sex workers on the street is real: One 14-year-old girl in New York told researchers that a pimp raped her after she attempted to leave; another told the story of her mother’s ex-boyfriend, who started pimping her out at age 11, and now tracks her down whenever she tries to run away. And even in the more common situations, when the pimp was either nonexistent or not such a menace, the sex workers weren’t exactly in optimal situations. “We did not encounter one [sex trafficking victim] who came to engage in sex work out of what one might call a fully realized choice: in every case their agency was constrained,” the researchers found. But “in very few of these cases was a ‘trafficker’ responsible for that constraint.” Rather, “it was a complex set of life crises or near-crisis points that compelled them into the sex trade.” Most of the |
last time, I am beyond amazed and overwhelmed. I’ll keep writing stuff like that non-stop if you guys and gals like it so much. Reminder that this is a non-commercial website, so I don’t really gain anything from views and stuff. Me and my team launched this because we love writing about indie games and other stuff.
In case you missed the previous article, you should definitely check it out.
So to get to the article’s point, today we will be going through the cards of the Spin Cycle that will be rotating out (along with Genesis) when the 8th cycle starts. That is the one after the one after Flashpoint. The official FFG post for reference can be found here. Special thanks to Paul Wulff and Adrian Ber on the Netrunner Geeks facebook group for helping me with pinpointing when the exact rotation will happen. To put it into an image for better understanding, here you go:
Flashpoint Cycle (6th Cycle) -> Unnamed Cycle (7th Cycle) -> Start of Unnamed Cycle (8th Cycle) and 1st Rotation
Once again I recommend getting the Netrunner LookUp Plugin for Chrome since it is the most amazing thing ever for when you are reading A:NR articles and posts.
So let’s get to it, starting with the identities found within the data packs first again!
Identities
Corp
GRNDL: Not too many people still play this ID since having a bad pub from the start of the game can really help the runner a lot in the current meta. Other than that, despite its amazing startup bonus of having 10 credits, the deck doesn’t hold all too well in the mid/late game because of its lack of a powerful ability to make even more credits. Surely you can play Restructures from the start of the game, meaning that having any sorts of powerful operation economy can give you an even better start, but the current meta-game is very punishing and can have GRNDL funneling money to the runner through Siphons or other means in no time. The cycling out of GRNDL won’t be missed too much since we rarely ever see this ID played anymore.
Runner
Reina Roja: The Red Queen may not be the most played Anarch identity but still packs a very formidable ability that can hurt any unprepared corp player. We saw tons upon tons of pressure and locks decks with Reina as the primary identity and even now, we still see some bold players running with her. I personally find her to be an amazing identity, both because of her 1 link and amazing ability as well as because of her awesome theme. Few runners have such an amazing background theme. She is a very big deal in the Android world after all. We might not see her much, but the Red Queen will be sorely missed. All those fun Caissa decks will vanish and the Reina – Rook – Xanadu combos will no longer be around to annoy us.
Let’s move to all the other cards now that were in the set. We’ll start with the Very Important ones again.
Very Important
Only one of the above cards is in this list, guess which one…
NEXT Bronze: This is a big hit for all the NEXT decks. They might just be sort of unplayable after the cycling out of the Bronze piece since the Barrier (together with a Mother Goddess maybe) will be the only reasonably good NEXT piece of ice. The Sentry one never really saw much use. I mean, surely you’ve had a Batty in a server with it and it won you games from time to time, but the early game potential of the NEXT ICE will just be entirely gone due to the lower amount of it in your deck.
Blue Level Clearance: Great economy and draw card. Just like with Green Level Clearance (which is also cycling out), this was used extensively by both HB and Weyland (core ID) decks. Even TWIY* decks made big use of it due to the speed it provided. It may be a double click operation, but certainly one of the most reliable ones int he game.
Clone Retirement: This will hurt all those Jinteki fast advance decks that are out there and really needed to score that last 1 point in a clutch situation. I’ve personally ran this in PE, RP and now Nisei with great success. Playing 5/3s and a couple of these was always awesome for a game finisher. Most did not even expect it. It will be missed for sure.
Shock!: Oh man. Why do you have to go and cycle out Shock!? I mean sure, you are hurting IG decks that way, since they won’t be able to protect Archives all that well anymore, but at the same time, it was the most reliable net damage asset in Jinteki. You do not have to pay anything for it, it costs 2 to trash and it works from anywhere the Runner gets to see it. I will most definitely miss Shock a lot.
Sundew: Although we haven’t seent his in a while (due to RP not being a usual choice anymore), I have to say that I personally believe that it is one of the best assets in the game. I used it extensively in my early Nisei Division builds and it worked just great. If you have lots of money anyway, you are basically inviting the runner to run your remote and trash it for 2. That also activates cards that say “Only if the runner has made a successful run in his/her last turn.” Guess which yellow card says that.
Yagura: One of the best and most reliable Code Gate ICE that Jinteki has. Only 1 to rez and with two subroutines, it was a great way to protect R&D that got used a lot since it came out. It may not be used as much now, but this piece of ICE is definitely one of the most played ones in Jinteki. It will most definitely be missed, probably most by PE players.
Celebrity Gift: This is a HUGE hit for Jinteki decks. The red corp faction always had issues with its economy, so when Celebrity Gift came out, everyone rejoiced and basically said “Now the red finally have money to do stuff!” Although there are many other ways to have good economy now (Palana being one of them even as an ID), Jinteki will most definitely miss this card. For example, showing a Fetal AI, a Snare and a normal agenda was just great. It was not just about the economy, but also about the information that you were revealing to the runner. This card was also used due to its fast economy gain by CI players. It will be missed by all Jinteki players for sure.
Caprice Nisei: The card that people will miss the most. Well that one and the one below it. Caprice provided a certain kind of protection that other upgrades couldn’t. Forcing the runner to run again if they failed the psi game and never getting trashed in the process, is simply the most punishing thing the game has ever seen. I mean, sure you may has Ash or Batty or whatever else to protect your server from getting accessed, but those have an expiry date. Caprice does not. I will personally miss her a lot, since it has become one of my all-time favourite cards. It is just great to see the runner become dissappointed after having run Caprice servers in Nisei Division unsuccessfully more than 10 times. This will also hurt the Redcoats HB decks that relied on her a lot sometimes in order to score out.
Jackson Howard: Unlike Caprice which is included in certain decks here and there, Jackson has always been somewhat a “must include” in every corp deck. It is as if Jackson is the soul of your corp deck. If you don’t have him, your deck has no soul (yes I had to explain that). With Jackson’s leave, not only do corps get a huge decrease in drawing speed (because, let’s face it, there is no better drawing mechanic in the game, especially at that rez/play cost), but they will also lose the shuffle ability. Yellow will still have Sensie Actors Union in order to shuffle agendas from HQ into R&D and there is of course the Museum of History for shuffling stuff back from Archives. But there is no other card with a trash ability that says “shuffle cards from archives” unfortunately. Even Allele Suppression says “swap cards from HQ with cards from Archives” on trash, which could lead to the runner coming to your hand. Yes, that does create other fancy plays, but it’s still not the classic Jackson stuff where you just draw up in order to shuffle the too many agendas, that are burning holes in your hand, back into R&D. Lily Lockwell might also see some more play due to her “Rez – Draw 3” ability. Jackson Howard, or Jesus as many liked to call him, will be missed, A LOT.
Wraparound: The anti-faust ICE is going away. But Faust is staying. You would say “Whatever man, Faust is on the MWL now” but from what I see it is still played as much as it was ever played. Same for Wyldside. They are just amazing cards and even though you can’t have all the shenanigans that accompany them in order to make your life easier (talking about influence spent on other cards), you are still breaking through easy. I am pretty sure someone from Reddit will read this again and say “man, this guy is being salty again”. Well, that’s just like your opinion man. If you don’t like mine, stop reading this. Going back to Wraparound though, it is definitely not there just for stopping Faust. Even though one would say that Vanilla is good a gear check (if they have a fracter or not), Wraparound still does that job better, because it is generally an AI stopper. It doesn’t stop just Faust, but all other AI programs that dare try to break through your servers. At its cost, Wraparound is a very reliable piece of barrier ICE and that is the reason why it was slotted to many other non-NBN decks too. It will most definitely make a difference once it’s gone.
Sweeps Week: One of the most reliable economy operations that NBN has. This card was also the bane of Andromeda in the 1st turn. Giving the Corp 8 credits with 1 click is most definitely what you want as a runner. Sweeps Week basically works as a second Hedge Fund for most decks and it is one of the best ways to recover from big hits such as Siphon or Vamp. Its rotation will most definitely be felt by NBN decks.
Shipment from SanSan: In case you don’t have money, just use shipment from SanSan. For a very long time, people would use this in order to be able to score out their agendas without money. There are many games that were finished with Install – Shipment – AstroCounter – Score. We saw the use of this in HB decks with Efficiency Committee and even more now again with the Jeeves Model Bioroids asset that allows corp players to get an extra click by playing Subliminal Messaging with SFSS. This card will be not missed as much as the other yellow cards that are cycling out, but it will most definitely create a gap that other cards at the moment can’t fill.
Geothermal Fracking: One of Weyland’s most important agendas. Before we got Oaktown Renovation, Geothermal Fracking was da bomb. It basically allowed Weyland players to get that huge money advantage that they need in order to Sea Source – Scorch – Scorch faster, and all that in exchange of just a few counter of bad publicity. Definitely one of the agendas that allowed Weyland to shine early on. It won’t be missed as much as it would have been if it rotated back then, but it’s surely a great loss for the faction.
The Cleaners: Also another really good Weyland agenda. This will most definitely be felt when it rotates out because the cards that are coming out for Weyland at the moment, are very hostile-oriented. Having The Cleaners in your deck is not only good because of its effect, but also because it is a 5/3, meaning your deck’s agenda density becomes lower. This was the agenda of choice for many Weyland players and even though it wasn’t scored that often, it was definitely scary to see in the deck.
Elizabeth Mills: This girl used to not be played all that much. Not until Wyldside became a card that you would see in at least half of your match-ups in any premier event. Besides that, Elizabeth Mills manages to deal with all Location cards that your opponent may be using. That could be a hotel for Criminals, a Bazaar or a Personal Workshop for Shapers, or an Aesop’s Pawnshop for Noise. She is definitely a good card to have around due to her low cost and easy-to-use-whenever location-sniping ability. She will be missed by mostly Weyland players.
Hive: The must-have ICE of Cerebral Imaging combo decks. Other than that, it was one of the most solid and hard to get-by pieces of ICE that you could include in any faction’s deck. Hive basically gave amazing protection to all those decks that just need a little bit of extra time before they are set up and ready to go. It will be missed by combo decks and by Weyland even more.
Curtain Wall: The best ICE Blue Sun has and one of the biggest and most reliable stoppers for Weyland in general. Not only could you just Oversight AI this and sit back and score out, but this also provided an amazingly huge gear check in general. It needs both a decent fracter as well as a lot of money to get through it. The rise of Blue Sun was the reason why I stopped playing Morning Star back then actually.
Power Shutdown: I believe the reason why this card does not see much play lately, is because DLR is a thing and you do not really want to be trashing your own damn cards when the Runner is doing the exact same thing. If anything, it is a dead card if you are facing DLR. Other than that, this is a really good card and it cut down a lot of Runner decks. It delayed Stealth builds, it broke Clone Chips and after Clone Chip getting on the MWL, it became even more important and dreadful. I remember those awesome PE decks that ran this and scared the shit out of everyone.
Punitive Counterstrike: This has not been played in ages. It is still a very good card though and a very good way to kill people when they least expect it. Runners make a lot of money fast lately so Punitive became a bit obsolete. Corps just can’t afford to Punivite anymore, especially early game. It also didn’t see much play because Global Food Initiative was played a lot and it did not synergize until lately when the card was errata’d. Great meat damage card that a lot of decks will miss.
NAPD Contract: One of the best agendas in the game. NBN decks used it extensively just for the fact that it slowed down runners. RP decks were the most annoying ones though since most of the agendas in the decks would be really hard to steal ones (NAPD, Nisei MK II, The Future Perfect). This stopped seeing that much play once it was put on the MWL list. Well, it still sees a bit of play, but certainly not in sets of 3. Global Food Initiative is the go-to choice yet again when spending influence for including an agenda and for a 4/2, the Corporate Sales Team is also good to have. It is a huge pity that it is cycling out, since I love the art on the promo card.
Quandary: The little version of Enigma. This is basically the cheapest gear check Code Gate ICE in the game. Ran extensively by TWIY* decks back in the day and now providing a cheap answer for ending the run. It will most definitely be missed since there are not many other cheap choices to take each place at the moment.
Grim: This used to be in many decks, but we do not see it anymore, just because people prefer Assassin or something else instead. However, Grim, despite its backdraw of giving 1 bad publicity, is a very good Trash Program ICE since it has very high strength. I believe that the rise of Faust is what made Grim also go out of decks, plus people prefer things like Ichi because of the many subroutines. I do not have much experience playing it, but I have much experience facing it, and I can tell you that it was for sure a very hard piece of Sentry ICE to get by.
Subliminal Messaging: This is not a great card. I’ll say it now before you start thinking “why is this here?” The reason why it is here is because it is a decent card and even more because it allowed for the lately famous Jeeves combos. Those are the only reasons. I don’t think it will be missed much.
Interns: This is the neutral Archived Memories. Sure, it does not work with operations, but at the same time, it makes up for its lack of synergy with operations by allowing the installation of ICE without paying extra costs. Interns has always been useful against all sorts of runner builds, especially the dumblefork ones or generally the ones that ran parasite recursion. It is a card that is still used by quite a few decks, so it will be surely missed.
Restructure: One of the best economy cards in the game and also a neutral one, meaning it went everywhere, just like Hedge Fund. Even though you can’t play it unless you are at 10 credits, a lot of decks treated it like Hedge Fund in most cases. This will create a huge gap for all those decks that play with operation economy. The fall of Whizzard might allow for asset economy to rise but at the same time, there might still be problems around.
Knight: I loved the Caissa programs so so much. Knight was the one that saw the most play though because of its high strength and ability to break through pretty much anything. It does cost a lot both in clicks and credits to use, but it was a reliable answer to a lot of things. Sometimes you had to go the extra way in order to get into a server and Knight made sure you had a good answer to almost everything. This card doesn’t see much play at the moment so I don’t think that people will notice its removal that much.
Keyhole: Oh my god yes. Ok, I am from the school of thought that says Keyhole is an amazingly good card but also very well priced for what it does, but at the same time, I believe that it does something that may just be way too powerful for the current meta-game. You’d come out and say “yo Kelf, git gud and learn to play against it.” Well, dear reader, I know how to play against it and it is not once or twice that I’ve beat such a deck during a premier tournament. However, all I am saying is that may just be a little bit too much in combination with what else runners have at the moment. This, along with DLR and Whizzard, is a huge hit for Anarchs since most of their pressuring mechanics are straight up gone.
Hostage: The only tutor event in the game that allows you to look up resources. Hostage was very often played in criminal and shaper decks in order to get that Kati, Mr.Li, Professional Contacts or whatever else out fast enough to get your rig running. We don’t see it very much in play lately, since people probably think that relying on a resource is just too slow at the moment. We also don’t see it because most runner decks are just too thirsty for influence thus not leaving any for tutors.
Copycat: I’ve won far more games than I should have with this. This is the reason why I included it here, plus the fact that I had to troll you a little bit.
Fall Guy: This is a great resource that just ended up being used mostly by DLR anarch decks. It is still a great resource that Geist will miss a lot, due to the huge credit gain that it gets him when paired with Tech Trader. Generally, a good card that allowed for all sorts of nice combos that would have the corp spending money and time to break through trashing important resources.
Lucky Find: This does not see that much play anymore and it was also the card that brought into the light Prepaid Voice Pad. Its too influence is far too restricting at the moment to be included anywhere. It still sees a bit of use, but only in decks that really rely on event economy for money.
Blackmail: The basic piece of Valencia’s builds. You could build any kind of deck with that ID, but not putting at least one or two Blackmails in there would just be heresy. This card also gave a regionals win to the most obscure Silhouette build I’ve ever seen, running Corporate Scandal and Blackmail in order to get into servers. I am pretty sure noone will miss this. It was a pretty annoying card.
Prepaid VoicePAD: I will say once again that when I played this card, noone even knew about it. Although, my deck build was not as successful or good for competitive play as Calimsha’s was (at least I believe that is the person who brought it into the competitive light). This deck, paired with all sorts of events allowed for fast economic advantage over the corp and also allowed for consistent pressure through various events that would otherwise set you back a bit. This won’t be missed that much since people stopped playing it after it was placed in the MWL.
John Masanori: This guy pairs perfectly with Security Testing. It also one of those cards that are perfectly designed with both its plus and minus. John Masanori is the mascot of many Netrunner communities and he will be missed a lot since a lot of decks relied on running a lot in order to keep the draw coming.
Important
Fenris: Stopped seeing play as soon as sentries became way easier to break. People used to face-check this all the time and get hit hard early-game. This no longer happens. That does not mean though that Fenris is not still a good piece of ICE. Solid brain damage and end the run subroutines on it.
Wotan: The biggest and baddest bioroid on the block. It’s a real pity this is going away. Still an amazing piece of ICE. If you have the money to rez it, it will most definitely keep people out.
Reclamation Order: Archived Memories’ big brother. Mostly used in CI builds. Still amazing to have in other decks if you want to pull back a lot of a certain card. Won’t be missed that much in my opinion.
Accelerated Diagnostics: The number one combo card. This together with Jackson basically ran all of the fancy operation combos. It never saw play other than in those weird combo decks though so we won’t feel its leave that much.
Strongbox: Pretty great card that rarely ever saw play. That could either be because of its cost or because of the fact that it is so easy to trash if the runner sees it anywhere.
Tsurugi: Great RP-times piece of Sentry ICE. Even though I’m a huge Jinteki fan, I never liked Tsurugi. Too many credits for low Strength despite its many subroutines. This rarely ever sees play anymore. People prefer to play other stuff that are just easier to rez and that have more effective effects. It did allow Dan D’argenio to finish off Minh though during the grand finals at worlds 2014. I don’t think many people will miss this.
Himitsu-Bako: Solid 2 rez – 2 strength end the run barrier for Jinteki with an effect that allowed it to be moved elsewhere without too much effort or money. We don’t see it that much but it is definitely a decent piece of ICE that Jinteki needed due to its lack of End The Run ICE.
TGTBT: Amazing little agenda that saw a lot of play with all those Butcher Shops and whatnot. It was also part of the Harpsichord decks that ran a lot of 1-agenda point cards. Not used that much now, so won’t be missed.
RSVP: Unlike most yellow cards that I do not like the least bit, this lil piece of Code Gate ICE is just really, really good. For 3 credits on rez and a strength of 4, it was always annoying to have an RSVP rezzed somewhere on the board. As I already mentioned many times, things are easier to break now, but this is still annoying being a Code Gate. RSVP saw a lot of play back in the times of NAPD Contract and it got included in a lot of non-NBN decks too. It may not see much play but it’s still quite an interesting piece of ICE that it was good to have around.
Snoop: My personal favourite yellow card. Snoop was my answer to I’ve Had Worse. 6 for 6 and an ability that gives you tons of information on encounter was hard to miss out on. I included at least one of this in pretty much most of my PE decks. I am very sad to see this go now even though I am pretty sure that everyone else won’t even bat an eye with its leave.
GRNDL Refinery: Great economy asset for Weyland. Also great for faking agendas since you could just keep advancing it and pop it on your turn when you felt you’ve advanced it enough. Not many Weyland decks still play this, but it was a good asset to have.
Profiteering: This was mostly played by those decks that played with a lot of 1-agenda point cards like PE and Harpsichord. It is actually a really good agenda for those decks that don’t care how much bad publicity they have. All they care about is how much money they got. It is somewhat an important gap for the 1 point agenda suites.
Paper Wall: This card used to be very important due to its low cost and gear check utility. Vanilla pretty much replaced it now since it is so much better.
Cyberdex Trial: I always thought this might be a big deal. Apparently it was played for a while by a few players that needed to have something in hand (other than just a Cyberdex Virus Suite) in order to get rid of all of those pesky virus counters. Noone will miss this.
Quest Completed: Really fun card. Rarely ever saw play but it sure was effective when it did work. Won’t be missed much since it was just an extra addition to most decks. The decks that ran only centrals were rarely fast enough in order to be able to win consistently.
Queen’s Gambit: This is a pretty good card. Anarchs really need economy cards and Queen’s Gambit really helped with that. The only backdraw of it is that it’s a double event but at the same time, it just makes the runner 6 easy credits. Unless of course you ended up putting the advancement on an agenda or something else that the Corp could use. This will most definitely be missed.
Rook: The other most used Caissa piece. Rook was a must-include piece for all those Reina lock decks. Rook was powerful, mostly because its effect was for all the ICE on a server, making it really, really annoying. It doesn’t see much play anymore so I doubt that it will be missed.
Scheherazade: This was yet another way for Anarchs to save a few bucks here and there. Noise used it a lot since he kept selling stuff to Aesop’s anyway. Scheherazade saw some fancy synergies with Pawn and Deep Red but at the same time, it really didn’t see use in many other decks.
Silencer: This was essential for running Switchblade. I personally find it a bit too much that it is 3 influence to included anywhere else, but maybe FFG knows better than I do. This will be missed for all of those people that run stealth builds, even though stealth builds are too slow for the current meta-game (at least that is my opinion after having played it for the past year or so up to now).
Garrote: The most effective killer in the game.
LLDS Processor: Best combo piece for Chameleon. Other than that, didn’t do much else. Will only be missed by the Chameleon Shapers.
CyberSolutions Mem Chip: This may not have been used enough but it was just great to know that you can have a non-console piece of hardware that gives you so much MU space. It won’t be missed all that much but it was good to have as an option when deckbuildilng.
Sharpshooter: I was thinking if I should include this in the very important cards but I ended up thinking that not too many play this at the moment. Maybe because the only shapers that are left are the Panchatantra ones. It will most definitely be missed though since it was always a great solution for breaking those pesky Destroyers.
Torch: The best Code Gate breaker in the game (unless you have Yog.0 on Dinosaurus). You of course only installed it by Test Running it and then Scavenging it, just like with Garrote (classic Chaos Theory plays). It will be missed since there will only be low strength decoders left now.
“Oh my god, that card exists?”/ Not That Important
Project Ares: Not a great agenda. The overadvancement was always hard to pull off. Barely ever saw play.
Rex Campaign: It’s like the other campaigns! Only bad.
Isabel McGuire: Unless you are Lynx Jaime Kuroneko you are not going to miss this at all.
Hudson 1.0: I tried to make this work, turns out it’s more bad than it seems to be. You don’t want to have too much utility. Why not just have an effective end the run in its place?
Gyri Labyrinth: This was so good in those small brain damage decks (Cybernetics Division). It was put to good use in PE decks too, but it’s still an easy to break Code Gate, so the careful runner rarely ever fell for it.
Hellion Alpha Test: This never saw play. At least I never saw it.
Panic Button: Same with this one. You would think that it would have some kind of use in some decks (like CI for example) but it really never had much use.
Unorthodox Predictions: I saw a couple decks with this, but it required very careful planning, very specific order of cards coming to your hand and a lot more in order to work perfectly. If it did, the runner would not be able to do anything, but that was very, very rare.
Toshiyuki Sakai: When this guy came out, there were quite a few people that said he might be great for those PE ambush decks. Then we all came to the realization that he was just wasted card space. I mean, why not just install the thing you wanted from the start? (I do get it, there are awesome plays that you can create with this guy, but that is just all “if” scenarios).
Marker: It just ain’t that good. If it was something like 7-8 strength, then sure.
Shinobi: I only ever saw this in Making News decks and even then it was quite the surprise. Ff0x beat someone with it in the top 8 cut of the Dutch Nationals in 2014.
Restoring Face: Really bad card. Waste of space in anyone’s deck really.
Character Assassination: This used to be played so much before NAPD and Explode-A-Palooza.
Market Research: This too. The NBN decks that also managed to tag people played this instead of Character Assassination.
Broadcast Square: A bit too overkill. I mean, if you are going to take bad publicity, just deal with it man.
City Surveillance: This was used quite a bit lately, by those asset-spam Controlling the Message decks. Still not great though due to its high cost. Only reason to play it is if you have lots of money and you want to tax the runner lots as well through both tags and trash-cost.
Muckraker: This is a great piece of ICE for the people that play Making News. Pretty well designed and hard to get by as a runner, this saw a bit of play in the past. Not anymore though.
Invasion of Privacy: I tried to make this viable in a Weyland deck. It did not work, at all. Really fun to play card, but it just costs too much time and money.
Corporate Shuffle: Some NBN decks actually played this. At least one or two in the deck just in case you need a fast shuffle to keep yourself going. Jackson was not the fastest thing you could use in small decks like TWIY* (yes, anonymous tip plus this is faster).
Vulcan Coverup: You’d think this is a really good agenda, but it’s not. Weyland is dripping agendas all over the place, you can’t risk having more negative effects when those are stolen.
Swarm: This is a really cool card. Costs a lot of credits to get it working, but if it works, it works really nicely. It really does a lot of work if it fires.
Ireress: I never understood the point of this. Let’s pay money to put an ICE in front of one of our servers, so that when they run there they don’t have bad pub. What if you don’t have that much bad pub? How is this any good in any way?
Witness Tampering: Bad card, nice art.
Off the Grid: I loved seeing people that made this work. Tim, one of the Rotterdam community players made an awesome deck with this and a bunch of other cool stuff. Still a card that didn’t see much play other than in those funky and fun decks.
Veterans Program: Just a general 1-point agenda that helped fill up those decks that ran a lot of those. Won’t be missed when gone. Others will replace it.
Singularity: The easy way of getting rid of everything in a server. Well, not THAT easy, but still good way to be sure everything is gone.
Frame Job: I never saw someone play this. Sounded cool, but probably rarely ever was worth it.
Dyson Fractal Generator: How is my BlacKat going to work now?
Deep Red: The theme of all the Caissa programs along with this and generally Reina’s personality was just amazing. I’m really sad to see this, and all of the combos it enabled, go.
Hemorrhage: Do not be mistaken by the fact that this is in this category. This was a card that saw quite a bit of play through Noise. It was really annoying to deal with since it meant that if you had open servers, the runner could just empty your hand in no time. Doesn’t see play any more though.
Pawn: Pawn was just super fun to play with. Just moving all the chess pieces across the board all the time. Making a successful run and just moving forward getting credits through installing another pawn through scheharazade and moving it in again through Deep Red’s ability. It felt like having a Desperado but with more options because at any given time you could just bring another Caissa program from your heap or grip into play at no cost.
Bishop: Bishop was probably the worst of the Caissa programs. It helped Parasite kill stuff faster, Mimic break through high strength Sentries and quite a few other things. Still a program that took MU space though and it also valuable deck space.
Activist Support: This is still used by a few people that play DLR decks in order to protect themselves from The All-Seeing-I (giving bad publicity to the corp means you can remove it when they play that in order to avoid it). Never saw play in other cases though.
Tallie Perrault: I saw this played once and the guy that played it said “I’m removing it from my deck, she doesn’t really do all that much..”
Hard at Work: Talking about bad cards.
Leverage: And even worse cards.
Lawyer Up: This was played a lot back in the day. I used to see a lot of Siphon into Lawyer Up. It’s because Criminals didn’t have other ways to draw up so they played this. It is super effective if it comes after a siphon actually. I’m not quite sure why people don’t play this anymore. Maybe because deck space is tighter for Criminals now and there are more important things to include. Still not gonna be missed though.
Executive Wiretaps: Nope.
Running Interference: This could have been great, but it ended up not being played at all. I think I saw it like once or twice since it came out.
Recon: Also unplayed.
Blackguard: Great card effect, but maybe priced a bit too high. On the other hand, that is just my opinion and the card may be priced perfectly fine for what it does. I mean, if you combo it with a couple other things that expose and are super cheap (expose effect cards are generally cheap) you got yourself a really powerful combination. I tried to make it work quite a few times but always ended up dissappointed at it. I really don’t want to see this go, but maybe it’s for the best. Gotta set free what you love sometimes right?
Savoir-faire: Rarely ever played.
Gorman Drip v1: This is actually a pretty great card that was used by Noise a lot. Hasn’t seen a lot of play ever since the first MWL though and it kinda makes sense.
Expert Schedule Analyzer: I also tried to make this work but the thing with Criminals is that they are always kept out of HQ, so you need the MU for things that will help you get in there. You can’t afford to have extra little things that will do fancy stuff but will take MU instead.
Leviathan: This is finally cycling out? For real? Finally!
Grifter: This also saw play quite a few times, but it was not that viable.
Power Nap: This barely ever saw play. Only in those fancy decks that played a lot of double events.
Eureka!: People tried to make this work with motivation, meaning they could see something big coming and then play this in order to install for cheap. Just like with all other combo decks that need certain cards before they start working, those decks did not work and this did not see any play.
Capstone: This was not played at all. Kinda makes sense. Maybe if it was 0 cost it would have seen a little bit of play.
Lockpick: This basically helped in case you wanted to activate your Refractor faster instead of having to wait for your Cloaks or your Ghost Runners. Won’t be missed all that much since it took a long time to set up all of that in order to start running. Thus, it did not |
discovery by ExxonMobil last month.
The decree creates a theoretical new 'defense' zone offshore that would, in Venezuela's eyes, leave the former British colony with no direct access to the Atlantic. Guyana's foreign ministry described the decree as a 'flagrant violation of international law.' 'Guyana rejects this illegality which seeks to undermine our development through the exploitation of our natural resources offshore,' added the statement.
In April, Venezuela's Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez wrote a letter to Exxon's Guyana country manager Jeff Simon saying Venezuela would not accept the incursion or interference of any multinational company in the disputed territory. The controversy centers on land to the west of Guyana's Essequibo River, encompassing around two-thirds of the small English-speaking nation on the shoulder of South America.
Maduro's decree changes a more conciliatory stance towards Guyana from his predecessor Hugo Chavez, who was friendly with the previous government and sold Guyana fuel on advantageous terms under the Petrocaribe initiative. However, elections last month unseated the party that had run Guyana for 23 years and gave former brigadier David Granger the presidency.
'I am convinced that the site which they (Exxon) are drilling is well within our exclusive economic zone,' he told Reuters days after his win. 'It's our territory. I don't see that Venezuela - of all the countries on the continent - should oppose the extraction of petroleum from one of our sites.'
Venezuela has the world's largest oil reserves, according to OPEC, and earns 96 percent of foreign income from oil.
Exxon, which is drilling in the so-called Stabroek Block, around 190 kms (120 miles) off Guyana's coast, had no immediate comment on the diplomatic controversy.
In the last flare-up, Venezuela's navy in 2013 evicted a ship used by Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp to explore for oil in the offshore Roraima block.
The disputed land has long been denoted on Venezuelan maps as a'reclamation zone'. Beneath its jungle and savannah lie gold, diamond and bauxite - staples of Guyana's economy.
See related article: ExxonMobil announces significant oil discovery offshore Guyana
Original article link
Source: ReutersRock Band Is Changing Now
by David 'Hades' Becker [ Tuesday, 6th of October 2009 - 03:42 PM ]
This is going to change the game in a drastic way I think. We will start to hear more and more "underground" music flowing out to the public. Making it so bands who are serious don't need to fellate Radio stations for play, but shell out around $100 bucks to get their tracks up on Rock Band for the low prices of $0.99. Not a bad shake for them.
But it also does mean that we are going to see some of the more money hungry artist will be pumping out crap just to make a buck or two. Artists that may not even be worthy of being on the game in the first place, but they don't want to feel left out. But hey, maybe well get some Rammstein on here finally or maybe a few songs from Repo!. Who knows?
Here's where to get them if you are interested.President Trump has seized upon former acting Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Donna Brazile's assertion that the DNC rigged the primaries in favor of Hillary Clinton.
"This is real collusion and dishonesty. Major violation of Campaign Finance Laws and Money Laundering - where is our Justice Department?" he tweeted Friday morning.
Donna Brazile just stated the DNC RIGGED the system to illegally steal the Primary from Bernie Sanders. Bought and paid for by Crooked H.... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017
....This is real collusion and dishonesty. Major violation of Campaign Finance Laws and Money Laundering - where is our Justice Department? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017
....People are angry. At some point the Justice Department, and the FBI, must do what is right and proper. The American public deserves it! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017
The president highlighted Sen. Elizabeth Warren's agreement that the DNC favored Clinton in the election. Mr. Trump referred to Warren as "Pocahontas," a term he has long used to identify her.
Pocahontas just stated that the Democrats, lead by the legendary Crooked Hillary Clinton, rigged the Primaries! Lets go FBI & Justice Dept. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017
In a new book, Brazile says that former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton effectively took control of the DNC months before she won the nomination.
"As Hillary's campaign gained momentum, she resolved the party's debt and put it on a starvation diet," Brazile wrote. "It had become dependent on her campaign for survival, for which she expected to wield control of its operations."
The agreement established that "in exchange for raising money and investing in the DNC, Hillary would control the party's finances, strategy, and all the money raised," Brazile explained.
The DNC issued a statement claiming that the party had been neutral even though Clinton was the only candidate with a joint fundraising agreement with the party during the presidential primaries.
"The DNC must remain neutral in the presidential primary process, and there shouldn't even be a perception that the DNC is interfering in that process," DNC communications director Xochitl Hinjosa said in a statement. "Joint fundraising committees were created between the DNC and both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in attempt to raise the general election funds needed to win in 2016. Clinton was the only candidate who raised money for the party through her joint fundraising committee with the DNC, which would benefit any candidate coming out of the presidential primary process."According to reports, Laura Ingraham’s new primetime show is already causing issues at Fox News–and it doesn’t even air for another week.
“The Ingraham Angle” will premiere in the network’s 10 PM time slot beginning October 30, but according to The Daily Beast some Fox staffers are bristling at the idea of working on Ingraham’s show.
Sources paint the picture of a “tyrant” who is notoriously difficult to work with and sometimes verbally abusive toward her staff. Two former employees of her national radio show recalled separate incidents where Ingraham threw physical objects at her employees when she was angry with them. (RELATED: Laura Ingraham: ‘We’re Gonnna Lose Every F**king Station We Have’)
“Have you ever seen The Devil Wears Prada?” a former producer for the radio show said. “That’s what it’s like, except it’s The Devil Does Radio and there are no redeeming qualities with her.”
A senior official at Fox News indicated that the network’s shows are very host-driven, meaning Ingraham’s staffers would be expected to work very closely with the demanding boss. Further, Ingraham has only brought over several staffers from her radio show, requiring Fox to reassign current staffers to her show.
Three Fox sources told The Daily Beast that staffers are “praying” they don’t get put on Ingraham’s show, with one staffer describing her as a “known tyrant.”
Ingraham did not respond to The Daily Beast’s requests for comments, while Fox responded that the report is a, “a transparent, predictable and sexist attack from a left-wing website run by a CNN political analyst whose mandate it is to troll FOX News for traffic purposes on a daily basis.”
Not everyone The Daily Beast spoke to had negative things to say about Ingraham–some praised her media talent and said her behavior was always professional.
A.J. Rice, former executive producer, said, “None of these people behaved anything but professionally. And Laura was the gold standard. I don’t know what these people are talking about… People are actually using the word ‘tyrant’? That’s insane to me.”
“Laura persevered through some tough circumstances and a very competitive market to do just what she’d set out to do. And it was a great ride doing it—with lots of laughs, and yes, some fights,” asserted Lee Habeeb, another former executive producer and current Vice President of content for Salem Media Group.
Follow Amber on TwitterJosh Miller/CNET
Llamar desde Estados Unidos a México es ahora una llamada local por T-Mobile.
La operadora de telefonía anunció el jueves el lanzamiento de su campaña "móvil sin fronteras " con la que expande la cobertura de las llamadas de voz de EE.UU. a Canadá y México sin cobrar un paquete adicional por llamadas internacionales. Esta nueva táctica de T-Mobile básicamente hace que las llamadas en toda Norteamérica sean llamadas locales y forma parte de la estrategia a contracorriente de la telefónica.
"Luego de gastar miles de millones en comprar empresas mexicanas de telecomunicación, el director ejecutivo de AT&T ha prometido 'la primera red fluida con cobertura en México y los EEUU,' algo 'único' que 'nadie más podría ofrecerle al consumidor'. En fin. No serán los primeros. Y no incluirán Canadá gratis", dijo John Legere, presidente y director ejecutivo de T-Mobile.
"Hemos hecho esto como lo hace el Un-carrier: cruzando fronteras, asociándonos con proveedores líderes para ofrecer las mejores redes LTE, creando una solución simple ahora y sin cobrar ni un centavo más por ello", agregó.
Legere se refiere a las compras recientes de algunas operadoras móviles en México por AT&T. La segunda operadora más grande de EE.UU., AT&T gastará un total de casi US$7,400 millones entre su compra de Iusacell por US$2,500 millones, Nextel México por US$1,875 millones y el costo de US$3,000 millones para ampliar su red en el país azteca.
Con estas inversiones, AT&T aumentaría ingresos fuera del territorio estadounidense y su base de suscriptores por 100 millones. Y, si T-Mobile no se hubiera adelantado, AT&T habría creado la primera área regional de servicio móvil en Norteamérica.
Sin embargo, T-Mobile ejecutará esta idea primero y le ofrecerá a los suscriptores a su plan Elección Simple en EE.UU., Canadá y México llamadas de voz a móvil y fijo, textos y datos 4G sin costos adicionales por llamar al extranjero o por roaming.
Esta nueva movida de T-Mobile entra en vigencia el 15 de julio y será incorporada automáticamente en los planes de los clientes de Elección Simple.in the fight, all from the same country
One man killed and three injured in fight at asylum
One man has been stabbed to death and three people injured after a mass brawl at an asylum centre in Sweden this weekend.
Police have arrested a man in his 20s on suspicion of murder after the incident in Ljusne, near Soderhamn, central Sweden, on Saturday.
More than a dozen male asylum seekers were involved in the knife fight, which is believed to have started when one group from a nearby centre visited the other to resolve a previous argument.
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Police cordon off an asylum center in Ljusne, central Sweden, after a mass brawl between two gangs of migrant men saw one man stabbed to death and three injured
The fight between the two groups had reportedly started in central Soderhamn a few weeks earlier, and the intention was to meet and'make peace'.
The men reportedly hail from Afghanistan, with one group living at an asylum centre in Soderhamn, and the other in Ljusne, less than ten miles apart.
'It's not a good thing to fight out on the town. We are all from the same country. So we wondered, "why should we fight?",' one of the injured men told HelaHalsingland.
He says around ten people living in Soderhamn went down to the Ljusne asylum housing on Saturday afternoon to meet with 'five or six' men who lived there to resolve the issue.
'We did not want to fight, and I thought they would listen to us. But they were prepared with knives - in the end they had eight or nine knives,' the unnamed victim told the paper.
'I was stabbed in the back when I was helping one of my friends who grabbed the arm of one of the guys who had a knife. Then I was stabbed several times in the back, but my jacket protected me.'
Police were called to the scene and arrested one man after carrying out a raid on one of the flats in the asylum centre, and three more were brought in for questioning and later released.
According to Soderhamn Police, up to 15 people were involved in the brawl, all men believed to be in their 20s.
This is the latest in a number of violent incidents to take place at asylum seeker centres in Sweden this year.
One incident last month saw police run for their lives after being attacked by a mob of asylum seekers at a refugee centre in Vasteras, central Sweden.
More than a dozen male asylum seekers, all from the same country, were involved in the fight, which is believed to have started when one group from a nearby centre visited the other to resolve an argument
Police had been called in to help with the relocation of a ten-year-old boy who had reportedly been 'raped repeatedly'by other asylum seekers at the centre.
It came just days after followed the murder of social worker Alexandra Mezher, 22, who was stabbed to death at a refugee centre in Molndal, near Gothenburg when she stepped in to stop a fight.
Swedish police have demanded more resources to stem rising violence linked to the migrant crisis.
Police spokesman Thomas Fuxborg said last month: ‘These kinds of calls are becoming more and more common.
‘We’re dealing with more incidents like these since the arrival of so many more refugees from abroad.’
Sweden took in more than 160,000 refugees and migrants in 2015, more than any other EU country per capita.I've been using noHero's launcher batch files for a few weeks for multiple accounts. When they work, they work well. When they don't, I have to re-use the standard launcher to repopulate the JSON file and then recreate the batch files.
When the batch files work, I log into the game with full mod access.
When the batch files do not work, I run into two failure cases.
1. I'm prompted to "Re-Login" via a popup. After doing so, it appears that mods are partially crippled. I don't get that (annoying) whisper from summoner, and enchmouseover doesn't know what an enchantment is. Closing and re-opening Scrolls does not fix the problem. Logging in, closing Scrolls, and rerunning the batch file sometimes fixes the problem. Logging in, going to Mods, and "Restarting Scrolls" has the highest likelihood of fixing the problem.
2. I'm not prompted to "Re-Login", but the batch file drops me at the login prompt anyway. After logging in, I do not have access to ANY mods. At this point, I usually wipe my batch files.
Am I the only one experiencing this? Am I doing something wrong?Letter from Leavenworth.
Colin,
Also in our fair city, an incident occurred at our local swim pool, called Wollman Park. Unfortunately I am sure they are unable to comment on the event that occurred approximately 1 month ago.
It was reported in the local paper as a mere “theft” at the pool. The details are much more shocking than that, according to eyewitnesses, including a lifeguard that was there when it happened.
The pool has full surveillance, so maybe a reporter with some clout could obtain the video. At the end of the day, patrons of the pool discovered valuables missing from their locker, and others discovered their clothing items had been disturbed. Upon review of the film, the manager discovered 2 African american females had entered the locker rooms of men and women and helped themselves to the content of every locker.
When the manager approached the “youth” females, they screamed at him that he had no right, and there was no way he could ever prove that the people in the video were them. They yelled and made such a huge scene, even calling him a racist, that he allowed them to leave, telling them not to come back.
After an hour or so, the “youths” returned, as did the mother of an 8 year old Caucasian boy who had his expensive cell phone taken. The mother confronted the youths, pointed out to her by management, and they responded by calling her names and threatening to kill her and her son.
MOMENTS later, according to a life guard on duty, around a hundred other youths came out of no where. They surrounded the lifeguards, pool manager, and mother; shouting insults and threats, until police arrived. Police cited the youths with citations for public disruption, charging them with nothing (because they had been allowed to leave, they had no stolen property on them, though clearly in the video they had went locker to locker”.
All of the people with stolen merchandise lined up to report their stolen properties to the police, who reported to person after person that there was nothing that could be done to compensate them, as apparently when you sign in to swim at the pool you waive them of all liability for your merchandise.
Unfortunately, Mr. Flaherty, the Leavenworth Times reported this issue as a mere incident at the pool, involving theft.
They failed to mention the mob that surrounded police and the family of stolen property, that came from nowhere, anywhere in the account.
I didn’t mention this before, because again and most sadly, it was just a slight incidence of theft at a pool, and nothing more,according to the paper. I provided you the number to the pool, hoping that maybe someone like you can get the surveillance video, and show my citizens what really happened.
Thanks again for your work.
xx
About the Author
Colin Flaherty is an award winning reporter and author of the #1 best selling book Don’t Make the Black Kids Angry: The hoax of black victimization and those who enable it.
From Colonel Allen West: “Read Colin Flaherty’s book, Don’t Make the Black Kids Angry. And be certain to share it.”
TownHall: “Heroic.”
FrontPageMag: “A national treasure.”
Steve Malzberg, NewMaxTV: “Amazing.”
Bill Cunningham: “Amazing.”
Anthony Cumia: “Amazing.”
His work has appeared in more than 1000 news sites around the world, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Time Magazine. His story about how a black man was unjustly convicted of trying to kill his white girlfriend resulted in his release from state prison and was featured on Court TV, NPR, The Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune.
He is also the author of White Girl Bleed a Lot: The Return of Racial Violence to America and How the Media Ignore it.
Both books are about black mob violence, black on white crime and the Knockout Game — and how public officials, reporters and activists deny, excuse, condone and encourage them.
Thomas Sowell: ”Reading Colin Flaherty’s book made painfully clear to me that the magnitude of this problem is greater than I had discovered from my own research. He documents both the race riots and the media and political evasions in dozens of cities.” – National Review.
Sean Hannity: White Girl Bleed a Lot “has gone viral.”
Allen West: “At least author Colin Flaherty is tackling this issue (of racial violence and black on white crime) in his new book, White Girl Bleed a Lot: The Return of Racial Violence to America and How the Media Ignore it.“
Los Angeles Times: “a favorite of conservative voices.”x
Daily Caller: “As the brutal “knockout” game sweeps across the U.S., one author isn’t surprised by the attacks or the media reaction. Colin Flaherty, author of the book “White Girl Bleed A Lot: The Return of Racial Violence to America and How The Media Ignore It,” began chronicling the new wave of violence nearly a year ago — revealing disturbing racial motivations behind the attacks and a pattern of media denial.”
Alex Jones: “Brilliant. Could not put it down.”
Neal Boortz: “Colin Flaherty has become Public Enemy No.1 to the leftist media because of his research on black culture of violence.”
From the Bill Cunningham show. It is official: “Colin Flaherty is a great American.A wonderful book.”
Breitbart.com: “Prescient. Ahead of the News. Garnering attention and sparking important discussions.”
David Horowitz: “A determined reporter, Colin Flaherty, broke ranks to document these rampages in a book titled, White Girl Bleed A Lot”
========================
Order Don’t Make the Black Kids Angry from Amazon here.
Order White Girl Bleed a Lot from Amazon here.
Order Knockout Game a Lie? here:
========================
Subscribe to the White Girl A Lot podcast.
Find him on Facebook
Subscribe on YouTube:
=========================
Click here to enter a weekly drawing to win a FREE AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ‘DON’T MAKE THE BLACK KIDS ANGRY’.’I'm an award-winning and published digital designer from Bellingham, Washington. I own and operate a local marketing agency and a national law firm marketing agency I've been on a bit of a quixotic journey: designing for a software development company, designing for an AI startup, helping a non-profit, doing freelance website design and starting a digital marketing agency. I also work with brands as an accomplished hand lettering artist, bringing to the table an increasingly rare artistic ability that is effective in engaging audiences.And over the past few years I've learned how to build what I like to call a "business in a box". It is a Lead Engine model that can take a local business from total oblivion to a million dollar company in a relatively short amount of time. I have achieved this through my blended, multi-channel approach to marketing: optimized website design, SEO (search engine optimization) and paid traffic.Feel free to reach out to me to discuss new business ideas, designs, or just to say hi.Some years ago, I conceived a business idea which I hereby make available free and for nothing to any enterprising soul who wishes to do a bit of good for the community. You know how there are services that store “cord blood” of newborns which, being rich in stem cells, could be used later in life to treat various diseases? My idea is somewhat similar. Here’s how it would work. Whenever an aspiring academic bureaucrat is appointed to the presidency of a college or university, this service would undertake, for a small recurring fee, to receive and safely store his testicles in a secure undisclosed location for the duration of his tenure. Upon proper certification indicating that an individual was no longer overseeing an educational institution, the testicles would be returned, intact, and fully functional. Studies have shown that disuse is injurious to this delicate organ, and since vanishingly few college presidents acknowledge their possession of what the vernacular denominates cojones, this innovative prophylactic approach to healthy living would benefit not only many individuals but also, by reducing the number of future claims on scarce resources, the larger health care network. Other obligations make it impossible for me to pursue this obvious money-maker, but I look forward to seeing it instituted very soon. If a pilot project is deemed advisable, I venture to suggest that a good start might be Yale University, whose ambulatory blancmange, Peter Salovey, is the proud winner of the 2015 Sheldon Award for Worst College President. Boola-boola.
Thus endeth my entrepreneurial spiel. But I am not quite done with awards. For Marvin Krislov, the president of Oberlin College (tuition, room, and board this year: $64,266), deserves a real award for providing a partial counter-example in extremis to my general proposition concerning the eunuch-like nature of the Confraternity of College and University Presidents. The example is only partial because Oberlin, under his watch, has distinguished itself as a poster-child for the weaponized PC-madness that has gripped college campuses with the ferocity of a medieval plague. Back in December, there was a flurry of well-deserved ridicule directed at Oberlin for the 14-page list of “demands” issued by members of the Black Student Union. The document is similar to, but possibly even more insane than, the lists propagated by black students at Yale, Amherst, the University of Missouri, Princeton, and other institutions. The gastronomic elements of the protests — the demand, for example, that fried chicken be made a permanent part of the dining hall menu — elicited the greatest hilarity. But the document was minatory as well as mad. Here’s a bit from the opening:
Oberlin College and Conservatory is an unethical institution. From capitalizing on massive labor exploitation across campus, to the Conservatory of Music treating Black and other students of color as less than through its everyday running, Oberlin College unapologetically acts as [sic] unethical institution, antithetical to its historical vision.... [T]his institution functions on the premises of imperialism [oh dear], white supremacy [gosh], capitalism [nice buildings you have there, Oberlin], ableism [somebody has to shovel the walks], and a cissexist heteropatriarchy [I give up]. Oberlin College and Conservatory uses the limited number of Black and Brown students to color in its brochures, but then erases us from student life on this campus. You profit off of our accomplishments and invisible labor, yet You expect us to produce personal solutions to institutional incompetencies. We as a College-defined “high risk,” “low income,” “disadvantaged” community should not have to carry the burden of deconstructing the white supremacist, patriarchal, capitalist system that we took no part in creating, yet is so deeply embedded in the soil upon which this institution was built.
From there we got to an astonishing list of “unmalleable” demands, including.
We DEMAND a structural change in institutional graduation requirements: a. Intro to the Black Experience or a similar course must be instituted as a mandatory requirement for all students before graduation. b. Departmental requirements for students to take Western/Classical centered courses must be eliminated, if NOT then we demand all students MUST also take an equivalent course in the African Diaspora.
“African Diaspora” is nice. The students “DEMAND” that various buildings be repaired or upgraded, that new professors be hired, that a long list of current professors be granted tenure or put on a tenure track, that “students of color” receive more grants and free housing between terms, and that Oberlin hire “Black/non western health practitioners because not everyone finds comfort and healing solely from a psychologist.” One of my favorite demands was that “spaces throughout the Oberlin College campus be designated as a safe space for Africana identifying students.” The document ends by insisting that this astonishing and unmannerly performance should be regarded as “demands and not suggestions.” A final flourish threatens “immediate” though unspecified action should the demands not be met.
Unlike presidents at Yale, Princeton, Amherst, and elsewhere, Marvin Krislov took his time before responding to this preposterous congeries of demands. And when he did respond, it was to say “Nuts to you,” or words to that effect. More precisely, he refused to respond directly at all to such an insulting, uncivil, not to say megalomaniacally juvenile performance.”I will not respond directly to any document that explicitly rejects the notion of collaborative engagement,” he wrote. “Many of its demands contravene principles of shared governance. And it contains personal attacks on a number of faculty and staff members who are dedicated and valued members of this community.” That’s a start. Krislov should follow it up by expelling any student who indulges in a repeat performance.
I am not so utopian as to think that Marvin Krislov’s resolve marks a turning point on American campuses. But it is perhaps an early indication that a limit has been reached. If he were really serious, Krislov would take that list of demands as an occasion to end all Oberlin’s affirmative action programs, for teachers as well as students. He might also seek to address come curricular deficits, by abolishing courses in pseudo-disciplines like Black Studies (“Africana Studies” at Oberlin) and Women’s Studies (“Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies” at Oberlin), for example (to make it easy, he could just abolish anything ending in “studies”). Here’s part of the description of the “Africana Studies” program from the Oberlin website:
As an academic major, Africana studies prepares students, not only as adept critical thinkers, presenters, and researchers, but also as valuable global citizens.
Alas, there is no word about preparing them to be able to write grammatical English. And the more closely you look at what is taught — browse through the actual course offerings — the clearer it becomes that almost everything taught under the rubric of “Africana Studies” is an exercise in racial grievance mongering. Something similar can be said about the courses offered under the rubric of “Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies.” If he really wanted to rest easy, Krislov should also reorient the music program to serious, i.e., Western classical, music, leaving jazz for the recreational hours of those that enjoy that demotic form of entertainment.
It won’t happen, not yet anyway, and more’s the pity. Still, Marvin Krislov deserves commendation for at least standing up to these ignorant, proto-totalitarian thugs.Following the release of the first trailer for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, The Independent sat down with director JA Bayona who teased what fans can expect from the film that will be released in 2018.
Following on from events of Colin Trevorrow’s immensely successful Jurassic World, the sequel will see Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) return to the dinosaur-riddled island in a bid to save the creatures from an erupting volcano – something Bayona tells us only “hints at a short section of the movie.”
Join Independent Minds For exclusive articles, events and an advertising-free read for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent With an Independent Minds subscription for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent Without the ads – for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month
The sequel also sees the return of Jeff Goldblum’s character Ian Malcolm in what Bayona describes as a “cameo” yet “meaningful” role.
“It’s a disaster dinosaur movie – a new genre,” Bayona quips. “There’s a lot more to show.”
Check out our full interview with Bayona below.
Shape Created with Sketch. 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 Show all 27 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. 27 films to look out for in the first half of 2018 1/27 Black Panther Released: 12 February 12 February Director: Ryan Coogler Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Forest Whitaker, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman 2/27 The Greatest Showman Released: 1 January 1 January Director: Michael Gracey Cast: Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, 3/27 Darkest Hour Released: 12 January 12 January Director: Joe Wright Cast: Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ben Mendelsohn 4/27 Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri Released: 12 January Director: Martin McDonagh 12 JanuaryMartin McDonagh Cast: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Caleb Landry Jones > Twentieth Century Fox 5/27 Coco Released: 19 January 19 January Director: Lee Unkrich,p>Cast: Anthony Gonzalez, Gael García Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Renée Victor 6/27 Downsizing Released: 19 January 19 January Director: Alexander Payne Cast: Matt Damon, Christopher Waltz, Jong Chau, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis 7/27 Early Man Released: 26 January 26 January Director: Nick Park Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston, Maisie Williams, Timothy Spall 8/27 Fifty Shades Freed Released: 9 February 9 February Director: James Foley Cast: Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Kim Basinger 9/27 Maze Runner: The Death Cure Released: 9 February 9 February Director: Wes Ball Cast: Dylan O'Brien, Thomas Brodie Sangster, Kaya Scodelario, Giancarlo Esposito, Aidan Gillen 10/27 The Shape of Water Released: 16 February 16 February Director: Guillermo del Toro Cast: Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon, Michael Stuhlbarg, Doug Jones 11/27 Annihilation Released: 23 February 23 February Director: Alex Garland Cast: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Lee, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Oscar Isaac 12/27 Dark River Released: 23 February 23 February Director: Clio Barnard Cast: Ruth Wilson, Mark Stanley, Sean Bean 13/27 Red Sparrow Released: 2 March 2 March Director: Francis Lawrence Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Jeremy Irons 14/27 Tomb Raider Released: 16 March 16 March Director: Roar Uthaug Cast: Alicia Vikander, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu, Dominic West, 15/27 A Wrinkle in Time Released: 23 March 23 March Director: Ava DuVernay Cast: Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Zach Galifianakis 16/27 Pacific Rim: Uprising Released: 23 March 23 March Director: Steven S. DeKnight Cast: John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman 17/27 Roman J Israel, Esq Released: 23 March 23 March Director: Dan Gilroy Cast: Denzel Washington, Colin Farrell, Carmen Ejogo Columbia Pictures 18/27 Isle of Dogs Released: 30 March 30 March Director: Wes Anderson Cast: Bill Murray, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Scarlett Johansson 19/27 Ready Player One Released: 30 March 30 March Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Mark Rylance, Simon Pegg 20/27 Avengers: Infinity War Released: 27 April 27 April Director: The Russo Brothers Cast: Robert Downey, Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Josh Brolin 21/27 Untitled Han Solo Film Released: 25 May 25 May Director: Ron Howard Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson, Donald Glover 22/27 Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Released: 8 June 8 June Director: J.A. Bayona Cast: Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pine, B.D. Wong, Toby Jones 23/27 Deadpool 2 Released: 1 June Director: David Leitch 1 JuneDavid Leitch Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller, Zazie Beetz, Josh Brolin 24/27 Ocean's 8 Released: 22 June 22 June Director: Gary Ross Cast: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Anne Hathaway, Olivia Munn, Helena Bonham Carter, Rihanna, Matt Damon 25/27 Ant-Man and the Wasp Released: 29 June 29 June Director: Peyton Reed Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer 26/27 Soldado Released: 29 June 29 June Director: Stefano Sollima Cast: Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin, Jeffrey Donovan, Catherine Keener, Matthew Modine 27/27 The Incredibles 2 Released: 13 July 13 July Director: Brad Bird Cast: Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell, Samuel L. Jackson 1/27 Black Panther Released: 12 February 12 February Director: Ryan Coogler Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Forest Whitaker, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman 2/27 The Greatest Showman Released: 1 January 1 January Director: Michael Gracey Cast: Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, 3/27 Darkest Hour Released: 12 January 12 January Director: Joe Wright Cast: Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ben Mendelsohn 4/27 Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri Released: 12 January Director: Martin McDonagh 12 JanuaryMartin McDonagh Cast: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Caleb Landry Jones > Twentieth Century Fox 5/27 Coco Released: 19 January 19 January Director: Lee Unkrich,p>Cast: Anthony Gonzalez, Gael García Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Renée Victor 6/27 Downsizing Released: 19 January 19 January Director: Alexander Payne Cast: Matt Damon, Christopher Waltz, Jong Chau, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis 7/27 Early Man Released: 26 January 26 January Director: Nick Park Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston, Maisie Williams, Timothy Spall 8/27 Fifty Shades Freed Released: 9 February 9 February Director: James Foley Cast: Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Kim Basinger 9/27 Maze Runner: The Death Cure Released: 9 February 9 February Director: Wes Ball Cast: Dylan O'Brien, Thomas Brodie Sangster, Kaya Scodelario, Giancarlo Esposito, Aidan Gillen 10/27 The Shape of Water Released: 16 February 16 February Director: Guillermo del Toro Cast: Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon, Michael Stuhlbarg, Doug Jones 11/27 Annihilation Released: 23 February 23 February Director: Alex Garland Cast: Natalie Portman |
into the position after Rogers Communications and Bell Canada took a majority 75% share in MLSE.
Leiweke was considered a positive influence on the Toronto F.C. and Toronto Raptors, as their fortunes soon changed under Leiweke’s supervision. Maple Leaf fans felt originally ignored by Leiweke and were unhappy with some of his comments on planning a parade route and removing much of the history in the Air Canada Centre of the Maple Leafs. Despite missing the playoffs, the Toronto Maple Leafs have recently been moving in the right direction department wise with their recent statistics hirings and the hiring of Brendan Shanahan.
According to the release, Leiweke will stay on board until June 30, 2015 or until a successor is named. He was reported to have a five year deal with MLSE. There were rumours he was unhappy living in Toronto.
We will have more information if the story develops.
Photo via o.canada.com
Thank you for reading. Please take a moment to follow me on Twitter – @AaronWrotkowski. Support LWOS by following us on Twitter – @LastWordOnSport – and “liking” our Facebook page.
For the latest in sports injury news, see our friends at Sports Injury Alert.Independent Studio Services or ISS is a prop supplier for television and film production studios. Props provided by ISS have been used in numerous motion pictures and television programs. ISS was founded in 1977 by Gregg Bilson, Sr., and is currently based in Sunland, California with satellite branches in New Mexico, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Massachusetts, and New York.[1]
Banknotes [ edit ]
ISS provided prop banknotes for the film Rush Hour 2, which starred Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. The film's plot involved the production of high quality counterfeit United States currency, known as "superbills," by Hong Kong-based triads which laundered them through a Las Vegas casino. While filming in Las Vegas, prop banknotes with a face value of $1 billion USD were blown up; unfortunately, the explosion failed to destroy all the banknotes. Many were scattered through the air, and picked up by bystanders. The prop banknotes were found in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and as far away as Minneapolis. Horrified, the United States Secret Service ordered ISS to stop producing the banknotes, recalled the banknotes from every production company that had ordered them, and seized banknotes from the company's location in Sun Valley, California.[2][3]
Fictional brands [ edit ]
Fictional brands of products are produced by Studio Graphics, a division of ISS. Many of these brands have appeared in multiple film and television productions.
Soft Drink: Cabot-Cola, Jekyll Island Rootbeer, PC Cola.[4]
Snacks: Let's potato chips[5]
Beer: HaberKern, Heisler, Jekyll Island, Matador Lager, and Penzburg.
Whiskey: Clermont Bourbon, J. Darby Bourbon, J. Darby Scotch, Gardner Scotch, Glencallan Scotch, Good Old Days Bourbon, Jake Danzels Old No. 2, Killarney Dell Irish Whiskey, Natape Scotch, Old & Rare Blended Scotch.[6][7]
Cigarettes: Brezza Blue, Brezza Red, Bilson Lights, Bilson Menthol, Morley Reds[8]During India’s Independence movement, there was much admiration for ancient India, emphasising the continuity of India as a country and a dharmic civilisation. From Swami Vivekananda’s Yoga-Vedanta revival, to Lokmanya Tilak’s back to the Gita message, to Sri Aurobindo and his honouring of the Vedas, to the Ram Rajya ideal that extended to Mahatma Gandhi, this respect for India’s past was prominent and proud. Images of Bharata Mata, and songs like Vande Mataram expressed such inspiration. The founders of India’s constitution emphasised India as Bharat to show an identity between older and modern India, with no division between the two.
However, after India’s independence occurred, leftists and Marxists, including members of the Communist Party, rewrote the country’s history books. Like leftists everywhere, they deconstructed India’s history and rejected the native religion and culture of the land. They reduced Hinduism to disparate cults and Bharatiya civilisation to a modern myth not reflecting any historical reality. For them, India as a nation was mainly a product of the British and the Mughals that took shape only under Nehru.
In their accounts of history, they turned Islamic invaders, intent on converting the country by force, into secular leaders with a progressive outlook. They gave credence to the British and colonial rule as benefitting the country and its peoples.
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New Views Of History
Recently Shashi Tharoor wrote a brilliant book exposing the crimes of the British in India. The British created a colonial narrative that they helped modernise and liberalise India, while in fact they allowed millions to die in famines, engaged in regular brutal atrocities, and suppressed traditional education, learning and culture.
However, similar books as Shashi Tharoor’s exposing British rule in India as tyrannical could also be written about the Mughals and other Islamic invaders. Mughal rule commonly practised genocide of Hindus and destruction of temples, not merely by Aurangzeb. Such studies could be made on Tamerlane’s genocide of north India and on the older Delhi Sultanate overall – notably Alauddin Khilji, who pillaged India north and south. They could be written on many Islamic invaders and rulers in India over the centuries, some of whom are portrayed as heroes in Indian history books today. But most scholars would not dare conduct such research, as political motives override their willingness to tell the truth.
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Some scholars have said that these atrocities, even if true, should not be highlighted today because it may cause discrimination against current Muslims in India who had nothing to do with the brutalities of centuries ago. Yet one could just as well say that Tharoor should not have criticised the British as it might cause discrimination against Christians and hatred of westerners in India today.
Yet history should not be denied, even if unpleasant. The history of the Nazis is not denied to protect the sensitivities of Germans or Europeans today. In addition, it should be noted that Pakistan history books glorify these attacks on India as religiously inspired and their leaders as religious heroes, with Hinduism as degenerate, and India without any great pre-Islamic civilisation.
Enter Bollywood Into Historical Debates
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Meanwhile, Bollywood has taken up the cause of rewriting India’s history in a way that whitewashes or glorifies the invaders, even turning them into romantic literary figures. Whatever the reasons behind these depictions, they distort history and demean the fierce resistance demonstrated against such attacks. India’s resistance to foreign rule and religious conversion goes back to the eighth century, and is not just a fact of the British era.
The Vijayanagar Empire pushed the Delhi Sultanate of Khilji back from the South, and the Marathas defeated the Mughal empire centuries later. Yet, little is portrayed in a positive light about their courageous efforts.
Similar Religious Wars In Europe
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Some scholars go so far to say that the Mughals were secular because they had Hindus in their armies that they fought against other Muslims, and that Hindus were also fighting among each other, so religion should not be made into the main motive of their wars. Let us compare this situation to what was happening in Europe at the same time.
When Turkish armies were at the gates of Vienna in the seventeenth century, boasting that they would make Europe Islamic, and the Christian armies, with the support of the Pope were fighting on the other side, there were also some Christians among the Islamic armies and some Muslims among the Christian armies, and the French were attacking the same Holy Roman Empire’s to the west for their own local advantage. But all this was secondary to the real battle. One cannot doubt that conversion was the prime focus and it was a religious war.
Need For New Historical Research
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Today when scholars try to expose the brutality of Muslim rule, they are judged as politically incorrect, biased or uninformed. But the criticism against them is mainly polemical and personal, distorting or ignoring the actual facts that are to the contrary.
Why does this distortion of history occur? Because it is advantageous to certain political persuasions in India in promoting divisive vote bank politics. It is not a matter of historical accuracy, but a drive for power and a lack of regard for India’s dharmic civilisation. This deception must be thoroughly exposed, not to target one group or another, but to reveal the truth. When the truth of history is denied, the future is also put at risk.Why Finnish food products are among the best in the world
Finland has the northernmost agriculture in the world and produces the purest food in Europe. Finnish wild forest berries, luminous oats, and livestock are grown and cultivated in the clean arctic air with very limited need for pesticides. Due to Finland's long and harsh winters, plants utilise the short summers, midnight sun, clean soil and water to the fullest. The result is the dense and unique taste of Finnish food.
SECRET OF THE HAPPIEST PEOPLE
Pure, healthy, and delicious food makes people happy, and Finns are said to be some of the happiest people on earth. Our secret to happiness is the Finnish lifestyle, where we care for nature and eat healthy and safe food. We want our animals to be healthy and happy too. We do not use antibiotics in meat production to boost growth, and we have an efficient food safety control system. Finland has one of the highest food safety standards in the EU.
PUREST WATER FLOWS IN FINLAND
Finland is filled with clean blue and crystal clean lakes. In fact, there are a total of 188 000 lakes in here! So it is not a coincidence that Finland is also home for premium water products and beverages. Finnish water is said to be the best water in the world by UNESCO, and we export it to nearly all continents.
Among the world's purest, the water that flows out of the tap in Finland is also the essence of Finnish premium alcoholic products. Like our naturally delicious food, Finnish alcohol(ic) drinks share the same untamed, unique flavours stemming from the Arctic nature.
READY TO SERVE HEALTH CONSCIOUS AND DEMANDING CONSUMERS
Finns are passionate about pure and healthy food. Our super-healthy oats are one of the corner stones of both the Finnish cuisine and food industry, and we are the second-largest exporter of oats in the world. Luminous oats lower cholesterol, keep the blood sugar level low, and support gut health.
Finns are also world leaders in nutritional expertise, with vast expertise in catering to special diets and offering functional, gluten- and lactose-free foods.
Enjoy Food from Finland Pure Taste Magazine in English, in German, in Japanese, in French, in Arabic, in Chinese.
WANT TO INVEST IN FINLAND?
If you are interested in investment opportunities in Finland
GO TO INVEST IN FINLANDNo one is talking about Ebola anymore. Even though the Ebola outbreak in West Africa continues to cause problems for local populations there, news of the outbreak has largely dropped out of media discourse here.
Over the summer, when the rate of spread was high and the threat of Ebola extending to the U.S. and Europe was imminent, it seemed as though people in public and media outlets would talk about nothing else. International bodies took drastic actions: Aid organizations pulled workers from West Africa, and the United States government effectively banned any casual travel to Ebola-affected countries and strongly discouraged travel to any country in West Africa. Stanford pulled students out of West Africa at the peak of the attention and worry, including those working on fellowships and people living with their families at the time. The university also canceled a summer seminar that had planned to go to Ghana.
Despite the continued local and global relevance of what is happening with regard to the outbreak, conversations have petered out. Many popular news outlets, including The New York Times and National Public Radio, have shifted their coverage from specific news stories that aim to get a sense of what conditions are actually like to simple tallying of areas in which the disease continues have presence, personal narratives, or accounts from the journals of aid workers. Some sources, like NBC News, The San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, and The LA Times, don’t even have status updates every day.
Similarly, students aren’t having conversations regarding Ebola on campus. Columns on the subject in this newspaper have slowed and finally stopped, and, other than the assaulting signs at Vaden reminding people to tell a healthcare professional immediately if you’ve been to Guinea, Liberia, or Sierra Leone in the past twenty-one days, no one seems to be actively concerned about the state of things in affected areas.
This may be partially due to the fact that the situation has recently improved, if only marginally. In fact, just this past Friday, the Liberian government announced that their last Ebola patient had been released from quarantine. Not that any of us would know about that.
The slowing spread of the disease and its eradication in some places ought to bolster discussions about Ebola. We should be reflecting on what strategies did and did not work in combatting the disease, as well as trying to figure out how to keep such an outbreak from happening again–or at least determine better containment protocols if cases start to spread anew.
The Ebola outbreak has caused problems in every facet of society in affected communities: medical, political, economic, international position, and educational. In addition to this, there is a need to improve technologies and infrastructure to help end the outbreak and prevent similar things from happening in the future. The nature of the various problems percolating in West Africa toward or after the end of Ebola outbreak in various countries ought to greatly interest students on this campus, if for nothing other than the intellectual challenge that a scenario like this poses for every discipline. Pre-meds ought to be overwhelmed with the challenge of finding a vaccine and why the disease seems to be spreading more slowly. Engineers face the challenge of building cheaper, portable medical equipment that could help the treatment process be more effective. Computer scientists can work on developing more comprehensive and comprehensible tracking systems to keep tabs on patients and their families. They could also work on programming apps that could network an alert system in case someone in a community is exhibiting symptoms.
Historians ought to be busy at work fitting this into the histories of these various countries and analyzing the implications of the historical positionality of these events. Policymakers ought to be talking with historians and thinking about how to make policies that will strengthen national infrastructures to prevent an outbreak of this size from happening again. Persons interested in international relations and development ought to also be interested in the disease’s impact on the state of affairs of the global community. Economists should be interested by the impact on local and global economies.
People interested in education should be working to understand the way these countries are circumventing the necessity of school closures to continue educating children. Philosophers–the moral and ethical implications of initial international response to the outbreak and the follow-ups after the fact. Literature majors should be interested in collecting patient stories, capturing the voices of people who got better, and determining how these sorts of narratives fit into a greater context of global narratives of disease.
This is all to say that we should still care. We have plenty of reason to, but we simply don’t. Why is that?
The distance helps. The Ebola patients aren’t readily visible to us on campus. They aren’t in our immediate community, and it’s easy, especially with our busy schedules and the other things that we think about, to forget and ignore that which isn’t right in front of us.
But this doesn’t mean that this is acceptable. We as a community need to be better. We need to be more aware and care, regardless of how far away people are. They are people, and as a result, we have a responsibility to care about what’s going on the world. All of the issues in the world. “It’s too hard,” or “It’s too far away,” or “It’s too overwhelming,” are not adequate excuses, and they don’t absolve us of our responsibility to at least know and care to know what’s going on.
Contact Mina Shah at minashah@stanford.edu.This is micro-politics, but the Obama campaign is looking for leverage in Michigan by taking McCain to task for not being truthful about the number of foreign automobiles he owns.
This Sunday, Newsweek Magazine reported that McCain owned 13 vehicles, at least four of which were not domestic. The list included a Lexus, a 2005 Volkswagen convertible, a Honda sedan and a Toyota Prius for his daughter (perhaps bought by her).
Well, the composition of this fleet didn't jibe with a remark McCain made to a Detroit television station in which he claimed that he had "bought American literally all my life."
So, what does the Obama campaign do about it? They put together a lengthy memo on the matter and release a television ad aiming to undercut McCain's straight talk reputation.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
DENVER -- The 4/20 celebration is Thursday and law enforcement is bracing for the statewide event.
The Colorado State Patrol said marijuana use and people who drive while high are down considerably. But there is still great concern about marijuana users who smoke and get behind the wheel.
In the first three months this year, 155 people were cited for marijuana use-only impairment, compared to 232 for the same period last year, a 33 percent drop.
The number of combined citations also dropped, with 50 tickets handed out for people high and drunk for the first three months of the year compared to 69 in the same period last year.
But the Colorado Department of Transportation said its survey found 55 percent of marijuana users said they believed it was safe to drive while under the influence of pot.There are few things we enjoy more than a good mascot battle.
These days those tend to occur on social media, with our favorite still being the Twitter back and forth last year between Miami's Sebastian Ibis and Louie the (Louisville) Cardinal.
This time around, it was Bucky Badger and Goldy Gopher trading barbs before Saturday's Minnesota-Wisconsin showdown to decide the Big Ten West. The Battle for Paul Bunyan's Axe is the most-played rivalry in college football, contested every year since 1890.
But 1890 this is not. Nowadays, mascots trash talk on Twitter. And we get to enjoy it.
I tried googling "@GoldytheGopher and the Paul Bunyan Axe" and this is all that showed up... #AxeWeek #BoomRoasted pic.twitter.com/FgBcGk65kq — Bucky Badger (@UWBuckyBadger) November 25, 2014
Hey @GoldytheGopher, how many swings of an Axe does it take to chop down a goal post? Oh wait. You wouldn't know. #AxeWeek — Bucky Badger (@UWBuckyBadger) November 26, 2014
.@UWBuckyBadger still needs the crust cut off his sandwiches #AxeWeek — Goldy Gopher (@GoldytheGopher) November 25, 2014
.@GoldytheGopher was always picked last in middle school gym class #AxeWeek — Bucky Badger (@UWBuckyBadger) November 26, 2014
.@UWBuckyBadger doesn't know how to save 15% on car insurance in 15 minutes #AxeWeek — Goldy Gopher (@GoldytheGopher) November 26, 2014
.@GoldytheGopher always takes penny but never leaves a penny #AxeWeek — Bucky Badger (@UWBuckyBadger) November 26, 2014
.@GoldytheGopher gets to class early and sits on the end of the row. #rude #AxeWeek — Bucky Badger (@UWBuckyBadger) November 26, 2014
.@UWBuckyBadger takes the front seat even if you call shotgun first #AxeWeek — Goldy Gopher (@GoldytheGopher) November 26, 2014La bandera en cuestión tiene una extensión de 500 metros y 3.500 metros cuadrados. Cubrirá la totalidad de la popular de Regatas, la platea del río y la popular de calle Génova. También abrazará los extremos de la platea de Cordiviola (sólo quedará libre el sector del alero).
Nueva bandera Central 1 bandera.jpg El trapo. La bandera, ayer, mientras se esperaba la aprobación.
La particularidad es que la bandera se desplegará una sola vez, cuando el equipo ingrese al campo de juego. Después de eso no se recogerá nuevamente hacia arriba, sino que se bajará por completo, para que la gente que esté preparada para eso pueda cortarla en el límite de cada tribuna y así poder retirarla rápidamente.
Según pudo saberse a través de las imágenes que circularon estos días por las redes sociales, la bandera lleva, entre otros dibujos el escudo de Central y del Monumento a la bandera. También una ilustración y las palabras "Los Guerreros" y el escudo del Partido Justicialista.
bandera5.jpg La bandera, desplegada sobre el césped del Gigante. bandera2 (2).jpg bandera3.jpg
Ayer pasó las pruebas de incendio a cargo de seguridad, la policía y bomberos y finalmente le dieron el visto bueno para su utilización en el clásico rosarino.
Leer más: Habrá bandera
Esta tarde a las 17, cuando el plantel del Central salga a la cancha para disputar el clásico ante Newell's, desde las tribunas se deplegará por primera vez una bandera que cubrirá casi todas las tribunas.Belizean cryptocurrency exchange platform 247exchange.com adds Sofort Banking as one of its payment methods, allowing its customers to make instant purchases of bitcoins from more than 400 banks in 10 different European countries.
On October 2, Belize City-based digital currency 247exchange.com announced its recently sealed partnership with online payment processor Sofort Banking. The move will allow its customers to purchase bitcoins from over 400 banks in Europe.
The 10 supported European countries include Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain and Poland. Along with instant payments made available from this partnership, customers can purchase bitcoins through bank wire (SWIFT) and SEPA transfer.
In an email communication with Cointelegraph, 247exchange.com Marketing Director Andrey Vereshchagin said the company has recently been working on adding credit cards as one of their instant payment methods for buying bitcoins, and were currently testing payments in altcoins including Litecoin, Peercoin and Namecoin. Vereshchagin said these features were likely to be added to the website before the end of October.
Started in early 2013, 247exchange.com is operated by Belize City-based enterprise InterMoney Exchange, Corp. In July 2014, the company received its Money Service Business (MSB) license delivered by the International Financial Services Commission, a Belizean governmental organ that seeks to "promote, protect and enhance Belize as an international financial services center". The next month, its website exited demo-mode and officially launched as an international digital currency exchanger.
By September 2014, the company had already concluded several partnerships with banks and financial services across the globe, including Munich-based online payment processor Sofort Banking. Through this collaboration, 247exchange.com received support from 99% of German banks (138 in total), 95% of Austrian banks (41), as well as 21 Belgian banks, 21 French, 3 Dutch, 22 Polish, 37 Spanish, 69 Italian, 22 UK, and 51 Swiss. Vereshchagin explained:
"We're focusing on instant methods, because of the float price of Bitcoin, so, nobody wants to wait hours or even days for Bitcoins they buy, and we clearly understand this."
Along with instant methods, 247exchange.com said to be also focusing on local payment methods, including cash deposit and local bank transfers, in different countries and regions. In fact, they have already started accepting bank transfers from Australia and Europe.
The executive said that unlike typical Bitcoin exchangers that focus on specific regions, 247exchange.com's aim was to make a worldwide service that would be convenient for people to use from anywhere in the world.
In 2015, 247exchange.com is planning to enter the North American market, added Vereshchagin as the company is currently seeking to get the appropriate licenses.Uniforms. They're a topic around college football offices these days almost as often as the words "up-tempo offense."
This year, around 40 FBS programs have updated their look. Some are simple, like Texas' subtle updates to Nike's latest template around the collar on its jerseys. Then there is Indiana, which completely revamped its identity. And Oregon and Oregon State, who have engaged in a battle to find the coolest combos -- including two- and three-toned face masks.
Schools get a nice revenue bump from the sales of these duds.
But more and more, recruiting and uniforms have become intertwined. Here's the real question: Are uniforms important enough to make a difference in a prospect's decision? An ESPN.com survey indicates that Oregon's hundreds of uniform combinations, Rutgers' battle-scarred jerseys and Nebraska's alternate black jerseys might not matter as much as many think.
Still, there's no question they play a role in the recruiting process. They've become an integral part of the college football experience, woven into the fabric of recruiting.
Indiana, for example, assembled its team for a uniform unveiling that has more than 300,000 views on YouTube. One Big Ten assistant said it was produced "purely as a recruiting tool."
New uniforms make coaches downright giddy as they hit the recruiting trail.
"I think it's great for recruiting," said Kansas coach Charlie Weis, who altered Kansas' uniforms to include five different sets for the 2013 season. "Recruits think, 'look at that helmet, if they wore this jersey with those pants.' Recruits love that stuff. So if it gives you a chance to get more players because they like the stuff, and ultimately help you win, that's what you have to do."
Athletic department officials agree that uniforms and recruiting go hand-in-hand.
"The student-athletes love it -- they absolutely love it," Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon said earlier this spring at Big Ten athletic director meetings. "The coaches love it, because the student-athletes love it. The recruits may love it even more than the student-athletes. I get this question a lot from recruits."
While uniforms had been used for decades as recruiting tools, Oregon took it to a new level starting in the early 2000s.
With the support of Nike founder and Oregon alumnus Phil Knight, Oregon unveiled in 2005 a new high-performances uniform that kicked things into high gear. Players were allowed to provide feedback into the design of the uniform, which the Ducks used a recruiting tool.
"It opened doors for us," said Oregon coach Mark Helfrich, who got his start as a graduate assistant at Oregon in 1997 and has been on the Ducks' staff since 2009 after stops at Boise State, Arizona State and Colorado.
Eventually, the school in the middle of nowhere became the trendiest program in college football.
Top recruits began mentioning Oregon as a school of interest. The Ducks' success on the trail has resulted in success on the field. Oregon's last four recruiting classes average 20th in the nation and the Ducks have played in four straight BCS games.
"You look at the history of Oregon football, and we have a spirit of innovation," Helfrich said. "It's something we pride ourselves on that started in the early '90s. [Uniforms] are how we got in the door at all. And now we're able to compete a little bit differently nationally with recruits, and we can at least get in the door. But more and more, it just puts you in front of some different people."
Other schools have taken notice.
Maryland's unique uniforms -- which mixed the schools' colors and the state flag -- were Randy Edsall's public way of ushering in a new era. Rob Carr/Getty Images
Looking to revitalize its program under Randy Edsall, Maryland drew a lot of national attention for its "Pride" uniforms from Under Armour that incorporated the Terps' red and black and Maryland state-flag colors. At Oklahoma State, the Cowboys wore six different Nike uniform combinations in 2010 and 13 combinations in 2011 and 2012. During that same period, OSU landed recruiting classes that finished in the top 30 twice.
"You drive down a highway and you look at a billboard and it says, 'you just looked at this billboard, you should use it as advertisement' -- it's the same philosophy as uniforms," Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said. "It's a marketing tool. It grabs the attention of the young men we're recruiting."
But as any good advertiser will tell you, it doesn't matter how shiny the package is if you can't get somebody to buy the product. ESPN.com surveyed more than 700 high school recruits from the classes of 2014 and 2015 -- including 90 who self-identified as a member of the ESPN 300 for the Classes of 2014 or 2015 -- and asked them where uniforms ranked in their college decision. Uniforms were the top factor for only 3 percent of players, and uniforms ranked eighth on the list of criteria behind academics, coaching, playing time, school tradition, location, experience sending players to the NFL and television exposure.
Those numbers aren't really a surprise to many prospects.
"It wasn't a factor at all, but if there is a sick uniform you can sort of visualize yourself in it," Georgia tight end commitment Jeb Blazevich, the nation's No. 94 player from Charlotte (N.C.) Christian School. "You know, 'That'd be awesome.' But then you have to think, are you going to sleep in your uniform? Are you going to practice in your uniform? Or are you going to go to go to class in your uniform?
"It doesn't matter what color or number that you have on. At the end of the day when you're running down the field, all you really care about is how well you do in the game. If you're a recruit and you're thinking about picking a school because it has cool uniforms -- grow up and check your swag at the door. You're making a lifelong decision. Why are you putting it into clothes?"
The nation's No. 1 prospect, running back Leonard Fournette of New Orleans (La.) St. Augustine, agreed that uniforms pale in comparison to factors like future major, playing time and relationships with coaches. "All of these things go way beyond uniforms," Fournette said.
So is the importance of uniforms in the recruiting process overblown? "Yes and no," River Ridge (La.) John Curtis Christian receiver Malachi Dupre, the nation's No. 26 overall player. "It is and it isn't a big deal and a part of recruiting. I don't think many recruits will say that uniforms are more important than being with a good coach or getting a great education. If that's the case, then I don't know what they're thinking about. They probably don't have the right mindset. But I know recruits definitely want to look sweet."
" It wasn't a factor at all, but if there is a sick uniform you can sort of visualize yourself in it. You know, 'That'd be awesome.' But then you have to think, are you going to sleep in your uniform? Are you going to practice in your uniform? Or are you going to go to go to class in your uniform? " -- Georgia commitment Jeb Blazevich
Fifty-two percent of the players surveyed said they believed the way they look in a uniform helps them perform better on the field. As four-star Texas A&M commit Dylan Sumner-Gardner of Mesquite (Texas) West Mesquite put it, "When you look good you play good. And I like looking good. When you look good on the field and they take pictures, you get to change your Twitter [avatar]. You get likes on Instagram. That's what you do. But [uniforms] were at the bottom of the list, too, for me."
"Swagged out" uniforms not only help prospects take notice of a program, they can be a difference-maker if the recruit is struggling to choose between two relatively even programs. "If they're exactly the same, I think uniforms would push them ahead of the other school," five-star defensive end Lorenzo Carter of Norcross, Ga., said. "If I got the same feel for both schools, they're in the same type of place, then yeah, uniforms would make a difference."
Dupree concurred. "That's probably a better example of when uniforms can come into play. If they're both [equal], and this one school has better uniforms, then that's going to bump them up a little for me and for almost every recruit out there."
And that's something most college coaches have grasped.
Recruiters know that gold metallic helmets, pickax number fonts, school seals channeled in the jersey numbers, pitchforks dripping in copper, colors that change depending on what angle you're looking at them from and uniform combinations that calculus majors could only figure out can make a difference. And with the pressure on coaches to win games, coaches will embrace every edge. And that won't change anytime soon.World Economic Forum founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab delivering a speech in Davos, on Jan. 19, 2016. Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
In the opening session of the World Economic Forum’s meeting last week in Davos, founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab said, “We must develop a comprehensive and globally shared view of how technology is affecting our lives and reshaping our economic, social, cultural, and human environments. There has never been a time of greater promise, or greater peril.”
This observation serves as the core of what he and other world leaders are terming “the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” the theme of this year’s wintry summit in Switzerland. Building on the German government’s “Industry 4.0,” the current national strategy for “smart” factories integrating physical manufacturing with the Internet of Things, Schwab and the WEF argue that the coming years—likely littered with 3-D printers and designer babies—will mark the beginning of a revolution unlike any we have ever experienced, unique for its scale, scope, and complexity. They cite the convergence of multiple sectors of technology and industry (artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, autonomous vehicles, to name a scant few) as evidence that humans are entering a new era of profound, exponentially increasing possibility and risk.
On this last count they’re right. Yet this has, in fact, been true of every other industrial revolution that has come before. One might even go so far as to say that an unprecedented era of possibility and risk is the defining feature of industrial revolutions as we retrospectively understand them. The spinning jenny (the multispindle spinning frame that launched the textile revolution of the 18th century), the steam engine, and even the discovery of fire were all massive leaps in human technological development that similarly changed the scale, scope, and complexity of our collective intellectual landscape.
Even exponential growth rates, often cited as the defining feature of this so-called fourth Industrial Revolution, are nothing special—they occur any time a system grows at a constantly fractional rate. The simple fact that things will fundamentally change at a nonlinear rate doesn’t differentiate this next progression in our technological evolution.
In fact, the phrase the fourth Industrial Revolution has been around for more than 75 years. It first came into popular use in 1940, in a document titled “America’s Last Chance” by Albert Carr, to usher in “modern communications, merely as an additional manifestation of the industrial revolution—as the beginnings of a new phase, a ‘fourth industrial revolution.’ ” He delivers a hauntingly familiar warning to the American people that their democratic way of life is at risk and suggests a technological revolution as the way forward. Since then, historians and scientists have proclaimed this “new” revolution’s commencement with the arrival of atomic energy in 1948:
Ubiquitous electronics in 1955:
The computer age of the 1970s:
All the way to the beginnings of our modern information age in 1984:
The White House even hailed nanotechnology as the harbinger of “the next Industrial Revolution,” so the WEF is at least in good company. This phrase, then, seems to be little more than a refrain of 20th-and 21st-century innovation. Each time, the framing of “the next best thing” in technological development as a “fourth Industrial Revolution” has failed to garner any sort of economic, social, or political capital, despite continued attempts to make it fit that mold.
So why does this phrase crop up every 10 or 20 years among government and industry professionals? What makes society so desperate to fit our current behavior to outdated models of 19th-century innovation? Perhaps in the post-nuclear age, when our capacity for destruction has reached levels that frighten even heads of state, we’re desperately re-examining history for reassuring patterns and evidence that what we’re doing now is the natural outgrowth of what has come before—and more importantly, what we’ve previously survived. But then again, maybe the resurgence of the framing of the “fourth Industrial Revolution” simply marks something much less pernicious, maybe even a simple yearning for historical familiarity.
In spite of all this, the World Economic Forum spent the entire summit doing its best to make the case that this coming revolution is somehow more new, more different, and more threatening than any we have previously experienced. But its justifications are the same as they have always been and in fact are simply characteristics of technological revolutions in general. The spinning jenny was just as threatening to lower-class weavers as robotic doctors’ assistants are to future nursing staff, with perhaps one exception not highlighted in any of the discussions in Davos: This time, white-collar jobs are on the line, not just manual labor and blue-collar work. Maybe that’s what scares the WEF the most.
Emerging technologies have a profound power to transform society, for good or evil—this is well-understood, well-recognized, and a theme of 21st-century discourse in technology studies. Schwab and the WEF clearly understand this and are rightly convinced that we have the power to proactively design the future we want to live in, rather than innovate from a defensive or reactionary position. But Schwab and co. |
. This guy introduced dildos to England
The first use of the word dildo in English appears in The Choise Of Valentines Or The Merie Ballad Of Nash His Dildo, by 16th Century poet Thomas Nashe (pictured).
It is about a man’s first sexual encounter in a brothel and features a glass dildo.
6. The first electric vibrator was called Granville’s Hammer
In 1883 Dr Joseph Mortimer Granville came up with an invention to relieve muscle tension in men and women.
It worked better on women.
7. Romans masturbated with their left hands
Ancient Pompeii graffiti read ‘when my worries oppress by body, with my left hand, I release my pent up fluids.’
And Ovid, Pliny, and others, used the left hand as a metaphor for masturbation.
8. Porn’s nothing new
Cave porn in Arnhem Land, Australia, dates back 28,000 years.
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There’s also rude scenes created 30,000 years ago at France’s Chauvet caves and 40,000 years old in northern Spain.
9. A robber held up a bank with his girlfriend’s rampant rabbit
In 2006, Nicki Jex made away with £600 after convincing staff at Ladbrokes that the sex toy, wrapped in a plastic bag, was a gun.
He was sentenced to five years behind bars.
10. It’s illegal to sell sex toys in Alabama
You can’t buy ‘obscene devices’ in this US state and it’s not just some dusty old law no one pays any attention to either.
The 1998 Anti-Obscenity Enforcement Act criminalises the sale of sex toys and the last challenge to it, in 2009, was defeated.
MORE: 12 reasons masturbation is amazing and women must start talking about it
MORE: 13 reasons masturbation is better than sex
MORE: 12 facts you never knew about the vaginaJune 2007
I'm looking to discuss the challenges of raising a bi-racial teen in todays world. I'm feeling depressed about the challenges my son will face as a young black man - from racial profiling to simply the daily judgements he gets from the larger community to my own family. I'd love to find a support group, or classes to attend. A website would be fine too. Thanks. Anon
Check out: http://www.ipride.org You can also fiind some good role models for your son by visiting the East Bay Church of Religious Science: http://www.ebcrs.org/main.html He'll be just fine..... mom of 17 y/o bi-racial girl
Check out http://www.ipride.org/. It's a local group that has been around forever. They do parent and school trainings and you can find a great community there. I have two biracial (black/white) teens 16 and 19 (though they prefer to be called mixed) who grew up in ipride and we all have really benefited. white momma
Jan 2005
My soon-to-be five year old, bi-racial (Asian/Caucasian) son seems to be rejecting his Asian heritage. He frequently says that he wants to change his middle name, which is my (Asian) surname, to an ''American'' sounding name. When I told him that his middle-name was my name because I (and his Asian heritage) were a part of him, he responded that ''that name'' and presumably being Asian, was O.K. for me, but not for him. He also refused to take a picture of himself clad in Asian clothes to school saying that his classmates would laugh at him and no one would want to be his friend. My (Caucasian) husband and I have tried to instill in my son pride in both his European and Asian heritages, but my son seems to have internalized the idea that it is somehow shameful or inferior to be Asian. Obviously, this attitude is very distressing to me. I'm very worried that my son will grow up to be self-hating or rejecting of his Asian background. His preschool class is pretty diverse with about 25% of the kids being of mixed Caucasian/Asian backgrounds and also with several kids of Afro-American and Hispanic, as well as Caucasian backgrounds. I should mention that I am second- generation, do not speak my language of origin and am not observant of Asian customs. We have, however, tried to expose my son to Asian food and certain other limited aspects of Asian culture. Any words of advice or suggested resources or books for dealing with this issue would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance! Don't want my son to be self-hating
From what I've read about raising biracial children (we have caucasion/latino kids), it's normal for them to reject one race for a while and then switch to the other one. ''Childhood Matters'', the radio show, had a show on raising biracial children and issues that come up. You can listen to old shows on the computer at their website. I read one of the books they recommended: ''Does anybody look like me? A parent's guide to raising biracial children''. It was great for making you aware of issues that may come up at different developmental ages, and talks that you need to have with your children while they are young. s
Your posting saddend me! I would guess that your son is having difficulty identifying with his Asian heritage because it is not a prominent part of your life. If you want hime to value his Asian culture, I believe you have to demonstrate to him firsthand how to. Even if you do not speak your native language, which is not uncommon, you can become active in an Asian community based organization, an Asian church group, take him places like the Asian art museum, share in folk tales from your country of origin. Lots of fun can be found in these enriching activities. There are books out there for children as well. I am 5th generation Japanese-American, and we enjoy ''Nikkei Donburi, A Japanese American Cultural Survival Guide''. It's a book written for children about Japanese American customs, holidays and the history of these customs in Japan. I wish you luck in this endeavor. A believer! in customs and traditions
I have given a lot of thought to this topic, as I have lots of bi- and multi-racial people in my family (son, step-daughter, ex-husband and 5 nieces and nephews). There are lots of good books to read -- 2 that I found helpful were ''Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race'' by Beverly Daniel Tatum, and ''40 Ways to Raise a Nonracist Child'' by Barbara Mathias & Mary Ann French. There are also lots of good novels about the experience of growing up bi- or multi-racial in our society -- one that comes to mind is ''Caucasia'' by Danzy Senna. One thing that I learned is that forming a racial identity, especially for a bi- or multi-racial person, is a long process that begins very early and can extend well into adulthood. It is not uncommon for children (and adults) to go through stages of not accepting one or another part of themselves. There are huge pressures in our society, and in school, for people to conform and fit in. Your son's desire to minimize the parts of him that he sees as ''different'' is possibly a response to this pressure.
My advice would be to educate yourself as much as you can about race and racism in our society, and keep giving your son appropriate information as he goes through various developmental stages. Most of all, try not to take it personally -- it might help you to keep in mind that he is working hard to figure all this out. With your understanding and support, it will be easier for him to move through this process. Diane
One of the wonderful things about living in the Bay Area is for our kids to be surrounded by biracial peers. I grew up biracial on the East Coast and while many of my friends were biracial, none of us thought that way. In our minds we were black, chinese, japanese... whatever the darker of our parents were... There are obviously a lot of good children's books out there and I would! make sure you have a good handful lying around - Two Mrs Gibbons (about an Asian and a Black grandma), Aiko's flower's, Everyone Eats Dim Sum...
I would also buy one of those ''ABC's of whatever your specific culture is.'' I have found that supplying a basic resource for my kids who are asked to represent their Japanese heritage at times gives them the power to ''know something'' even if they look it up in a book. It is amazing how some of this stuff loops around again in a subtle way - ie Katagana writing on trading cards, New Year's traditions, liking traditional foods... A good book to check out at the library for you is ''I'm Chocolate, You're Vanilla.'' I would not push anything with your son now - incorporate what feels natural for you. He can tell what does not.
I think the most important thing is to supply him with positive images, a language for understanding who he is and a sense of pride and comfort in be! ing a part of the mixing of the world. His job is to come to terms with his racial/ethnic identity himself (which may not be an issue til later), your job is to give him the building blocks. I have found that the more challenging work is my shifting sense of identity and expectations for my kids identity-- it is amazing how being a mom can bring this up! Mixed Mama
I'm so sorry your son and you have been going through this. You may well have already considered this, but could there have been a specific incident at school that sparked his rejection? Or are there perhaps specfic kids who are making life difficult for him? If you could narrow the reasons for his comments down to something like this, they might be easier to tackle. Just a thought. Good luck! anon
Please read this book...it should be available! at the library and is one of the best of it's kind. I too have a biracial child and found thi sbook t be one of the best of it's kind. it is tilted I'm Chocolate You're Vanilla by Marguerite Wright. Please click on the link provided below which leads you to a description of the book. It is an excellent book that is a must for parents of biracial kids---regardless of the specific anscestry of the child this book is superb! http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0787952346.html
Heather
My 7-year-old daughter is also bi-racial. (Asian/Caucasian) Not sure why but she is the opposite of your son. She gravitates more to her Asian side. (her mom/me) Her middle name is my surname and her last name is my husband's surname. She wants to change her name to my last name (''because she came from me,'' she says) and have a ''girly'' middle name. I think she feels this way because we see a lot more of my family than my husband's. She also attends Jefferson Elementary in Berkeley and is part of their Chinese bi-cultural program. (I happen to be of Japanese heritage) In the summers she attends a Japanese cultural summer school in El Cerrito - Daruma No Gakko. I'm! third generation and didn't learn any Japanese growing up but took it in college so I have some knowledge of the language. I wouldn't say she shuns my husband's heritage - we observe Hanukkah (in addition to Christmas) which she really enjoys. I would also note that I am more connected to my Japanese heritage than my husband is to his Eastern European/Jewish heritage.Family and colleagues of a St Helens teacher murdered in mysterious circumstances gathered to unveil a sundial at the school where he worked.
Paul Bellion, who taught craft at Rosemary Musker High School in Norfolk, was found dead in a field in France along with his fiancee Lorraine Glasby in a killing which had hallmarks of a gangland execution in 1986.
His niece Tracey Goddard and former headteacher Geoffrey Lloyd were joined by 14-year-old pupil Connor Sillet to unveil the memorial sundial at the site of the school, which is now part of Thetford Academy.
The case remains unsolved and Ms Goddard, who attended the ceremony with her mum and now lives in Berkshire, said she was pleased to see so many people travel across the country to Norfolk to help keep Paul’s memory alive.
Ms Goddard, 43, said: “It was overwhelming and nice to know his memory lives on. I didn’t realise how many people would be there.
“What happened to Paul and Lorraine was just tragic, and the hardest part is not knowing why, how or what the motive was.
“They were a lovely, happy couple with everything to live for, and it’s just such a shame.”
Paul moved from his native St Helens to Norfolk after his fiancee Lorraine got a job in the nearby town of Diss and the couple liked the area.
He and Lorraine went to France on a cycling holiday but their bodies were found in a Breton maize field around a month after their deaths, tied and gagged with gunshots in the back of the neck.
The headteacher of Rosemary Musker at the time Geoffrey Lloyd, who travelled from Somerset to be at the ceremony, said the tribute, created by Thetford company Warren Services, was particularly appropriate as Paul had taught pupils a major craft and design project on telling the time which involved making sundials.
Mr Lloyd said: “I was very pleased to appoint Paul, he brought a fresh new approach to design teaching. He was a vigorous and effective young teacher who was very much liked by the pupils.
“His approach was based on getting pupils to think through different ideas, produce their own designs and then make them, which is quite commonplace now but was quite inventive at the time.”
No-one has ever been brought to justice for Paul’s death, with French prosecutors finally closing the case in 2006, but Ms Goddard says the family still clings to the hope the case may one day be solved. She said: “I hope someone will come along and confess or they will find DNA or something to link them to it. It will then put the family’s mind at rest and we will have a bit of justice, because we have had none.”For Spectacle Editor, our current collaboration with Plot.ly, we decided to use MobX to handle application state instead of Redux. Redux is an amazing framework, and here at Formidable we continue to use it on new and existing client projects with great results. In part, the decision to use MobX was driven by a desire to test a new approach to React app state, learn new patterns, and challenge our assumptions. Spectacle Editor also has more flexibility in terms of architectural direction: it is not server rendered; there ’ s virtually no routing, and as an Electron app, it is only targeting one browser. That said, there are some clear reasons why MobX makes sense for an open source presentation editor.
Short learning curve
MobX has a very small API surface area and requires minimal boilerplate. This makes it easy to onboard new developers and have them be productive quickly. The small boilerplate footprint creates code that is both explicit and simple to follow. The core concepts in Spectacle Editor are observable values, computed values, observer, transactions, and autorun. MobX recently announced support for actions, but we ’ re currently having components call methods directly on the single store instance for simplicity. As the application grows to more stores, we will probably leverage actions to keep code organized. MobX has excellent documentation, but I ’ ll illustrate some of our use cases with its API below.
Observables
The observable function/decorator in MobX turns a property into a publisher so that other pieces of the app can subscribe to changes. The main observable of Spectacle Editor is the history of the array of slides that a user is editing. Side note: this history is immutable thanks to seamless-immutable. This enables undo and redo functionality. Redux has an excellent guide on application history and the implementation in MobX for Spectacle Editor is fairly similar. History in Spectacle editor looks like this:
export default class SlidesStore { @observable history = Immutable. from ( [ { currentSlideIndex : 0, slides : [ { } ] } ] ) @observable historyIndex = 0 ; }
Updates to observables are done by updating the value. This allows for explicit store code that reads as the author intended.
addToHistory ( snapshot ) { this. history = this. history. concat ( [ Immutable. from ( snapshot ) ] ) ; this. historyIndex += 1 ; }
Computed values
Computed values subscribe to changes in observables and update their output accordingly. From the MobX docs, “Use @computed if you have a value that can be derived in a pure manner from other observables”. Computed values themselves are also observables, so you can build computed values that are based entirely on other comupted values. In practice, we ended up with minimal observables and many computed values. The resulting computed values are clear and easy to reason about. With history, we can derive if undo and redo are disabled depending on the length of the history array and current history index. Current state is computed as the item in history at history index.
@computed get undoDisabled ( ) { return this. historyIndex === 0 || this. history. length <= 1 ; } @computed get redoDisabled ( ) { return this. historyIndex >= this. history. length - 1 ; } @computed get currentState ( ) { return this. history [ this. historyIndex ] ; }
Observer
The observer function/decorator is the counterpart to observable and runs when a subscribed-to observable changes. This is one of the few pieces of MobX that is explicitly tied to React and takes a React component class as its only argument (note: it even lives in a separate npm package mobx-react ). MobX handles rerendering the component only when the specific observables and computed values that the component depends on changes. The MobX docs have a great guide on optimizing for performance. In Spectacle Editor, any component that accesses store data directly is wrapped in an observer decorator.
Autorun
autorun is similar to computed and observer in that it runs every time an observable dependency changes. It ’ s different in that it is specifically for creating side effects. autorun is useful for the cases where you ’ re not computing a new observable or rerendering a component but instead, creating side effects. This is useful in testing, logging, persistence, and UI updates that don ’ t map directly to react. In Spectacle Editor, there ’ s an interaction with react-motion where an animation delay is required so local state can ’ t directly follow store state. I expect we ’ ll uncover more cases where autorun is useful as we build other complex UI features. Be aware that autorun will call the callback immediately when calling autorun. For instance, with DOM interaction side-effects put the autorun statement in componentDidMount to be safe.
Note about magical binding
Computed values, observer classes, and autorun functions are slightly magical in the way that merely accessing an observable within their scope subscribes them to that observable ’ s changes. That said, the benefits of readable, clean, and performant code are worth the hidden complexity in my opinion. The MobX source code is worth reading if you ’ re interested in what ’ s happening under the hood.
Transactions
transaction is a method that batches any updates to observables. Subscribers to the observables changes in the transaction are only notified once all code within the transaction has completed. This is useful when updating more than one observable because it prevents unnecessary render/compute cycles. With transactions, our addToHistory method only notifies subscribers once changes to history and historyIndex are both finished.
addToHistory ( snapshot ) { transaction ( ( ) => { if ( this. historyIndex < this. history. length - 1 ) { this. history = this. history. slice ( 0, this. historyIndex + 1 ) ; } this. history = this. history. concat ( [ Immutable. from ( snapshot ) ] ) ; this. historyIndex += 1 ; } ) ; }
Powerful primitives
MobX ’ s API is easy to grasp while still allowing for complex state update behavior. It feels very natural to explicitly set the state desired based on input and let MobX handle the updates to subscribers. With the above setup for observable history and computed values for undoDisabled, redoDisabled, and currentState, it ’ s simple to create undo and redo functions.
undo ( ) { if ( this. historyIndex === 0 ) { return ; } this. historyIndex -= 1 ; } redo ( ) { if ( this. historyIndex > this. history. length - 1 ) { return ; } this. historyIndex += 1 ; }
Testing
Testing the interaction between stores and React components can be tricky. MobX makes this straightforward with autorun, which allows us to effectively mock consumers of state changes. Autorun matches the observer function/decorator so we can be sure that if autorun is/isn ’ t running with the correct values, the observer components will too. To follow with the history example, here ’ s how we test that the addToHistory transaction only notifies observers once per addToHistory call and that the state is correct.
const testStore = new Store ( ) ; testStore. history = Immutable. from ( [ [ "a" ] ] ) ; testStore. historyIndex = 0 ; const historySpy = spy ( ) ; const historyIndexSpy = spy ( ) ; const disposer = autorun ( ( ) => { historySpy ( testStore. history ) ; historyIndexSpy ( testStore. historyIndex ) ; } ) ; expect ( historySpy. callCount ). to. equal ( 1 ) ; expect ( historyIndexSpy. callCount ). to. equal ( 1 ) ; expect ( historySpy. args [ 0 ] [ 0 ] ). to. eql ( Immutable. from ( [ [ "a" ] ] ) ) ; expect ( historyIndexSpy. args [ 0 ] [ 0 ] ). to. eql ( 0 ) ; testStore. addToHistory ( [ "b" ] ) ; expect ( historySpy. callCount ). to. equal ( 2 ) ; expect ( historyIndexSpy. callCount ). to. equal ( 2 ) ; expect ( historySpy. args [ 1 ] [ 0 ] ). to. eql ( Immutable. from ( [ [ "a" ], [ "b" ] ] ) ) ; expect ( historyIndexSpy. args [ 1 ] [ 0 ] ). to. eql ( 1 ) ; disposer ( ) ;
Less boilerplate, more application code.
With the API outlined above, we ’ ve created a store whose state representation is clearly outlined in code. Within the store, MobX ’ s footprint is limited to the initial @observable, @computed, and the occasional transaction. All of which add clarity to the behavior of the code. For components, we borrowed the provider pattern from redux and pass the store down on context. Any component that depends on store state has an @observer decorator. Components only access the pieces of state they rely on and MobX handles the rerenders when those specific pieces change. There is very little plumbing yet the app is flexible and easy to reason about.
Conclusion
Spectacle Editor is far from a representative sample of current React apps. It doesn ’ t require server rendering, cross browser compatibility, or complex state changes based on routing. This project had flexibility in architecture and we are using the opportunity to expand our knowledge and share these findings with the community. The decision to use MobX over Redux was not taken lightly and this post is not meant to replace due diligence based on project requirements. MobX allows us to write clean, testable, and maintainable code for this project. So far, there haven ’ t been any snags with MobX getting in the way of functionality or limiting UI capabilities. The API is small but powerful, testing is straightforward, and boilerplate code is virtually non-existent. Like React, MobX is a framework with the right level of abstraction that allows for complex code behavior while still letting application code take center stage.By Jack Perry
Whatsupic -- A few days ago, Palestinian minister Ziad Abu Ein was killed by Israeli soldiers during a Palestinian protest against the illegal Israeli settlement of Adei Ad. Now, when many Americans hear about these protests, they imagine kaffiyeh-clad Palestinians throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers, wholly unprovoked. It is high time to demolish this image and talk about some stone-written reality here. To begin, what were the Palestinians doing at this protest where Ziad Abu Ein was killed? They were planting olive trees. Take note of this, because this is relevant to the story and I will come back to it later.
Now, the Israeli settlement at Adei Ad is illegal even under Israeli law. The Israeli army (IDF) has been out there a few times to demolish the structures Israeli settlers built and evict them from the premises. Evidently, they don't give up so easily since the Palestinians are still protesting it out there. Now, at one point in July 2009, Israeli settlers retaliated against the IDF trying to clear them out by burning Palestinian-owned olive trees. This is a very crucial thing everyone needs to pay attention to here and I shall explain why and demonstrate the magnitude of this crime.
Olive production represents a huge chunk of the Palestinian economy, as well as a key traditional source of food and income. For thousands of years, owning olive trees is an ancient source of personal wealth and security for the Palestinian people. Anyone who grows olives knows this. Israeli settlers know this, too. Israeli settlers chopped down 100 Palestinian olive trees in October of 2013 alone. Since Palestinian lands came under Israeli control in 1967, it is estimated that over 800,000 olive trees have been destroyed by Israeli settlers. In addition, when Palestinian farmers come to gather the olive harvests from their trees, they are often fired upon by Israeli settlers, thus denied food and income from their own trees. I shall prove this fact by citing a non-Palestinian source in Israel, the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem.
There is more to this than meets the eye. Obviously, it is a human rights violation to destroy food-producing crops that belong to people. You can't even get away with that in a war, because it's a war crime to deliberately starve a civilian population. Basically, the Israeli settlers are trying to starve the Palestinians out. Starvation is a common tactic in genocides and history tells us this countless times. One would think these Israeli settlers would remember that, being as they remind us of it continually. But the Israeli settlers are not just violating international here. They're violating a law higher than that as well.
I have here open my Bible (King James Version, by the way, in case any pro-Zionism American evangelicals wish to know) to the Book of Deuteronomy Chapter 20, Verse 19 which says: "When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man's life) to employ them in a siege." Verse 20 clarifies that the trees spoken of in Verse 19 are fruit-bearing trees: "Only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down;..." So it is made quite clear there is a difference between fruit-bearing trees and wood-bearing trees and the fruit-bearing trees are prohibited from being destroyed. Now this is God speaking here and God is clearly commanding that these olive trees cannot be cut down. What's more, God makes it perfectly clear that they cannot be cut down even in a war, which the Israeli settlers feel they are waging. There is no "wiggle room" or loophole in that Biblical commandment because it makes a clear distinction between trees that can be cut down and trees that cannot be cut down. The olive trees cannot be cut down and we know this because it is God that tells us and clearly states it to be so without exception. This Biblical passage applies to Jews because this is in the Torah, of which the Book of Deuteronomy is a part. This is Judaic religious law. Now many of the Israeli settlers claim to be very traditionally religious Jews. So, why then are they violating the commandment from God not to chop down fruit-bearing trees? It is quite clear this may not be done even in a war. So, again, why are supposedly religious Israeli settlers doing what God told them expressly not to do? The Israeli settlers are not just chopping down the Palestinian olive trees in their war, but using the trees as a weapon of war which is also expressly forbidden by God as the passage from Deuteronomy clearly states.
The olive tree has been a symbol of peace for quite some time now. It is a cultural meme in human consciousness as that symbol of peace. The symbol of the dove with the olive branch in it's beak is that symbol and people speak about "extending the olive branch" when making a gesture for peace. This comes to us from the Book of Genesis and I have my Bible open again to the passage. It is Genesis Chapter 8, Verse 11: "And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth." The olive tree is a very powerful symbol of peace in humanity and it comes to us from the Bible, as well as the Biblical commandment that we are not to cut down the olive trees (or any fruit or nut-bearing trees) even in a war. The Israeli security forces attacked those Palestinian activists for trying to plant olive trees, a symbol of peace. Does anyone else see the irony there?
The fact is, Israeli settlers are engaging in a very horrific practice that they cannot justify under any circumstance, as I have just demonstrated. Those olive trees are the life of the Palestinian people. What shall they do without those trees? Suppose they have no income and no food, what then? If they protest that, the Israelis can then justify sending in troops to quell them. How is this right? How is this justice? You take the food off of their table and when they cry for bread, you beat them? The Palestinian people need a homeland where their trees are safe, where they're safe, and where all can labor in their olive groves safely to provide for their own food security. And you can support Palestinian olive farmers by buying Palestinian olive oil. It is some of the best you'll ever taste, that I can testify to myself. You may ask yourself, "What can I do to help?" Support Palestinian olive farmers. They produce olive oil, olive oil soaps, and woodcrafts made from olive wood. By the way, the olive wood they use is pruned from living trees. No olive trees are cut down, the wood is gleaned from branches and limbs pruned as part of regular olive cultivation. You see, the Israeli settlers cannot control the free market. Send a message to both the Israeli settlers and the Palestinian people: Buy Palestinian olive products.On Aug. 16, Republicans in the 3rd District finally chose a candidate to fill the empty seat formerly held by Jason Chaffetz. Because this was a three-way race with no run-off, the fiscally responsible voters of the 3rd District were divided, and as a result, the GOP candidate for this fall will be the least fiscally responsible, least free market oriented of the three. And this is in Utah’s most fiscally responsible congressional district.
On the Democratic side, we have a candidate advocating an even more aggressive federal government micromanaging of health care from D.C., raising the tax and debt burden on every American.
Meanwhile, our local media have zeroed in on only one “alternative” to this lack of real choice, the son of the late Sen. Bob Bennett, who was ousted by Utah’s fiscal conscience Sen. Mike Lee. The fiscally sound folks from Utah’s 3rd Congressional District currently have six candidates on the November ballot to choose from, but only three are being mentioned as viable choices to represent their interests in Washington.
This letter is not a reflection on the character of the candidates in this race, in fact, having met both Jim Bennett and John Curtis, I can genuinely say that these candidates are seemingly very good people with good intentions.
However, the records and statements of the Democrat and the Republican in this race present two candidates with only slight differences in their tax and spending policies. With Congress discussing the critical issue of tax reform in the coming year, it is critical that the fiscally responsible people of Utah are represented by a true voice for substantive tax reform.
When Jason Chaffetz resigned, one of the most often referenced concerns of voters was the absence of a voice in Congress during this critical time. Ask yourself, do you want a congressman who has a bad record on taxes, or do you want a sane voice for fiscal discipline? Do you want a candidate who, once elected, must immediately turn around and begin campaigning for re-election?
Despite what you are hearing from the media and the political elite, there is another option, a reasonable option that will give the 3rd District a determined and knowledgeable voice on tax reform for one year, a powerful option that will look straight in the eye of the political elite and let them know that the 3rd District is not for sale. If you vote for the Libertarian candidate in this election, you will be voting for principled tax reform you can trust that no matter what happens, your representative will represent your interests and not be beholden to the Democrats and Republicans who keep their freshman members on a tight leash.
If you vote for the Libertarian, you will have a representative for one year who will not be forced to focus on re-election, and who will instead work every day to provide real reform in Washington. If you vote for the Libertarian, you can tell the lobbyists with Count My Vote that this system placed two tofu candidates on the ballot and you won’t be a part of it.
Here is the bottom line, this candidate will only hold office for one year before a new election is held. By sending the Libertarian to Washington, you will have the time to focus on finding a candidate for the 3rd District that truly represents Utah values. You have an opportunity to vote for the only candidate who was nominated at a convention rather than in a well-funded primary. A candidate with an MBA in finance, a career in education and a principled stand. A candidate who will enjoy the support of the leaders of the national Liberty Movement. There are so many reasons to vote for the Libertarian this November, take a risk and vote for Dr. Joe Buchman.GURPS Cyberpunk is a genre toolkit for cyberpunk-themed role-playing games set in a near-future dystopia, such as that envisioned by William Gibson in his influential novel Neuromancer. It was published in 1990 after a significant delay caused by the original draft being a primary piece of evidence in Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret Service.
In 1993, GURPS Cyberpunk Adventures — a collection of three RPG scenarios in the GURPS Cyberpunk line — won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Adventure of 1992.
Unlike most commercially successful books from the third edition of the game, there is currently no Cyberpunk sourcebook for its fourth edition, as of 2018. Similar rules for advanced technology can be found in GURPS Ultra-Tech[1], from gadgets to cyberwear, but there aren't, for example, rules for netrunning which are essential for such games.
Contents [ edit ]
Besides the main chapters detailed below, GURPS Cyberpunk contains a glossary of common cyberpunk terms, an index, and a bibliography of relevant media.
Characters This chapter describes some of the most common character archetypes (netrunner, corp(orate), cop, celebrity, etc.) and their typical skills, advantages, and disadvantages. It also provides a guideline about how much money a given job might bring or cost. Cyberwear Rules for and descriptions of bionic enhancements. Technology & Equipment Lists many sorts of near-future gadgets. Netrunning The longest in the book, it details rules for realistic computer networks as well as fantastic cyberspaces accessible only through a neural interface. It describes what types of system can be found in the Net and how the characters can act (and fight) there. World Design Gives guidelines for designing your own cyberpunk world. Campaigning Helps the Gamemaster in running a longer series of adventures.
U.S. Secret Service seizure [ edit ]
Loyd Blankenship, who was hired by Steve Jackson Games in 1989, was close to finishing GURPS Cyberpunk later that year, which was intended both to get SJG into the cyberpunk genre which had been popular in the RPG industry for the last two years, and to help SJG get over a financial hurdle and back into the black.[2]:108
GURPS Cyberpunk received notoriety when the Austin headquarters of Steve Jackson Games was raided by the U.S. Secret Service in 1990. The authorities seized the manuscript for the sourcebook, which was under development at the time, asserting that it was a "handbook for computer crime". The book was reconstructed and rewritten from older drafts when the manuscript was not returned. The seizure delayed publication for six weeks.[3] This raid is often wrongly attributed to Operation Sundevil, a nationwide crackdown on illegal computer hacking activities that was occurring about this time.[4]
GURPS Cyberpunk was ultimately published in 1990, joining the already-released Cyberpunk 2013 (1988) from R. Talsorian, Cyberspace (1989) from ICE, and Shadowrun (1989) from FASA.[2]:209
Publication history [ edit ]
The main sourcebook for the line (ISBN 1-55634-168-7) was written by Loyd Blankenship and published by Steve Jackson Games in 1990, as a part of the extensive (3rd-edition) GURPS generic role-playing game system.
Reception [ edit ]
The book was reviewed in White Wolf #23.
GURPS Cyberpunk received the Origins Award nomination for Best Roleplaying Supplement of 1990.[5]The first 175 members of G.E.’s management team, including Jeffrey R. Immelt, the chief executive, will move to Boston’s Fort Point section on Aug. 22. Even after the move is completed, about 800 G.E. employees will be based there. Hundreds of other workers in back-office functions like human resources, legal and finance will be scattered among G.E’s existing locations |
exclusion of minorities and non-believers? Do schools no longer have an obligation to perform daily acts of Christian worship? Does Northern Ireland no longer have an existing blasphemy law ‘protecting’ the Christian religion?
Walker even managed to shoehorn in her cause célèbre, the Ashers case, which she has championed from the start via her newspaper despite repeated court defeats. We have detailed the Christian martyrdom complex, built upon a false narrative of Christian persecution, and the Belfast Telegraph’s obvious bias since Gail Walker became chief editor.
There is no mention in her writings of liberal Christian churches either, which do not necessarily agree with the anti-LGBT rights stance of the four churches or the writing of religious teachings into civil law.
Christians of the four main churches are not discriminated against in Northern Ireland, or Ireland generally. If they were, they could file a complaint using the same anti-discrimination laws and freedom of religion laws meant to protect everyone.
We are merely asking they loosen their iron grip on state laws and institutions, which should be completely secular, recognising and respecting the freedom of belief of everyone by necessarily favouring no-one.
Update: Brian Walker of Slugger O’Toole has also criticised Gail Walker’s op-ed.Reggae in the Hills 2014 is the Perfect Get-Away Next: A night with The Aggrolites
Tucked away in the serene Sierra Nevada foothills of northern California, Reggae in the Hills is a jam-packed three-day experience at the kick-off of June every year! It isn’t all about the music; artists, dancers and skateboarders are welcome to join the fun, since RITH offers a skatepark (complete with halfpipe), two stages and multiple live art venues in the midst of the music. And the line-up couldn’t be better: Junior Reid and the One Blood Family headlines the second night although their performance is catalyst after positive vibrations are projected from Tribal Seeds, Collie Buddz, Luciano, Fortunate Youth, Natty Vibes, Marlon Asher, and too many more to mention! Each indoor and outdoor stage offers state-of-the-art innovative technology assembled from design teams to enhance the musical extravaganza, but the staff goes even further with workshops available to the public throughout the day to not only teach music and dance, but industrial science as well.
The campsite is set in historical “Golden Country”, and it lives up to its name with waterfalls, lakes, and even a stream going through the concert grounds!
The campsite is set in historical “Golden Country”, and it lives up to its name with waterfalls, lakes, and even a stream going through the concert grounds! Although it is welcoming to RV’s, the RITH staff politely asks that no fires or pollution take place during the festival to keep one of California’s most beautiful countryside clean. Did we mention that camping and parking is free? No overnight fees are due for anyone participating, so do your rightful duty and throw your trash away in a designated receptacle.
Food is to be sold all around the event, even though most of the vendors cater to island cuisine. Don’t be alarmed if your palate is on the traditional side, for the usual hotdogs and hamburgers are still available for purchase. RITH is open to all-ages, however anyone under the age of 18 needs to be accompanied by an adult to enter into the event. Speaking of the 21+ crowd, a beer garden will be centrally-located to get your buzz on without wandering too far. And the party doesn’t stop when the headliner does - an indoor after-party follows immediately on the festival grounds and continues until 3 AM!
Between good music and good people, fire-dancers and drum circles, home-made art and interactional workshops, Reggae in the Hills is this summer’s biggest party. Three-day tickets are still being sold at www.reggaeinthehills.com or on Facebook for only $110, with the option of buying per diem or upgrading to VIP! Start your 2014 ‘endless summer’ with a festival you’ll never forget this upcoming June 13, 14 and 15th.
Reggae in the Hills 2014 Lineup (subject to change, so please check back regularly)
FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 2014 Collie Buddz
Fortunate Youth
Mystic Roots
Mike Pinto
Arden Park Roots
Braata
The Remedy
Sol Seed SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 2014 Junior Reid and the One Blood Family
Tribal Seeds
Luciano
Marlon Asher
Cas Haley
King Schascha
Junior Toots
Indubious
Massive Delicious
Jet West
Shrub SUNDAY, JUNE 15, 2014 Prezident Brown
Mike Love
Animo
Pasadena
Kila Kali
Dub Gideon
A' La Lune
Stay tuned for Natty Vibes placement
Local Points of Interest
Pre-festival Breakfast
We were taught that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. As true as this may be, sometimes it's difficult to find a nice restaurant, especially if you're an out-of-towner. Top Shelf Reggae has you covered and has compiled a list of local breakfast eateries sure to start off your day properly and prepare you for a day full of wonderful music. For lunch and dinner, we highly recommend eating within the fairgrounds due to tight band scheduling.
Sue’s Angels Creek Cafe
1246 S Main St
Angels Camp, CA 95222
(209) 736-2941
1246 S Main St Angels Camp, CA 95222 (209) 736-2941 Rodz Grill
730 S Main St
Angels Camp, CA 95222
(209) 736-0170
Fri 6:00 am - 10:00 pm
Sat 6:00 am - 10:00 pm
Sun 6:00 am - 10:00 pm
730 S Main St Angels Camp, CA 95222 (209) 736-0170 Fri 6:00 am - 10:00 pm Sat 6:00 am - 10:00 pm Sun 6:00 am - 10:00 pm Camps Restaurant
676 McCauley Ranch Rd
Angels Camp, CA 95222
(209) 736-8181
Open Wednesday through Sunday 11:30am – 8:00pm Dinner Weekends until 9:00pm
676 McCauley Ranch Rd Angels Camp, CA 95222 (209) 736-8181 Open Wednesday through Sunday 11:30am – 8:00pm Dinner Weekends until 9:00pm Magnolia Café
64 Mitchler St
Murphys, CA 95247
(209) 728-2186
Fri 8:00 am - 3:00 pm
Sat 8:00 am - 3:00 pm
Sun 8:00 am - 3:00 pm Grounds
402 Main St
Murphys, CA 95247
(209) 728-8663
Fri 7:00 am - 10:30 pm
Sat 7:00 am - 11:00 pm
Sun 8:00 am - 11:00 pm
402 Main St Murphys, CA 95247 (209) 728-8663 Fri 7:00 am - 10:30 pm Sat 7:00 am - 11:00 pm Sun 8:00 am - 11:00 pm Hillbillies Restaurant
55 Hwy 4
Murphys, CA 95247
(209) 728-9300
Fri 6:30 am - 2:00 pm
Sat 6:30 am - 2:00 pm
Sun 6:30 am - 2:00 pm
55 Hwy 4 Murphys, CA 95247 (209) 728-9300 Fri 6:30 am - 2:00 pm Sat 6:30 am - 2:00 pm Sun 6:30 am - 2:00 pm Roquefort
425 Main St
Murphys, CA 95247
(209) 728-9743
Fri 11:00 am - 9:00 pm
Sat 10:00 am - 9:00 pm
Sun 10:00 am - 8:00 pm
Nearby Lodging
Rooms are booking up fast, so please make sure to call ahead of time to ensure room availability.
Angels Camp Resort
(800)867-2095
123 Selkirk Ranch Rd.
Angels Camp 95222
(800)867-2095 123 Selkirk Ranch Rd. Angels Camp 95222 Angels Camp Vacation Suites
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(209)736-4000 (800)767-1127 444 S. Main St., Angels Camp 95222 www.BestWesternAngelsCamp.com Cooper House Bed & Breakfast Inn
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1184 Church St.,
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www.cooperhouseinn.com Gold Country Inn Motel
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toll free (800)851-4944
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(209)736-4611 toll free (800)851-4944 720 S. Main St., Angels Camp 95222 www.goldcountryinnangelscamp.com Greenhorn Creek Vacation Cottages
(209)736-9372
ghcvacationcottages.com
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www.greenhorncreekvacationcottages.com
(209)736-9372 ghcvacationcottages.com Managed by Murphys Vacation Rentals Greenhorn Creek Resort, Angels Camp 95222 www.greenhorncreekvacationcottages.com Jumping Frog Motel
(888)668-0988 or (209)736-2191
330 Murphys Grade Rd.,
Angels Camp 95221
www.thejumpingfrogmotel.com
(888)668-0988 or (209)736-2191 330 Murphys Grade Rd., Angels Camp 95221 www.thejumpingfrogmotel.com Tryon Ranch Vacation Rental
(209)736-4466
(209)736-4845
1655 Tryon Rd.,
Angels Camp 95222
www.tryonranch.com
Recap video from last years Reggae in the Hills
Reggae in the Hills 2014
Calaveras County Fairgrounds
101 Frogtown Rd.
Angels Camp CA. 95222× Expand Photo by Caitlin Abrams
Private dining clubs are admittedly strange animals, in that they are not restaurants with doors open to the general public, but you usually are contributing money for the meal. We have had a lot of unsuccessful launches in the TC, mostly due to illegal practices and shady pop-up locations, but I thought 320 Northeast had the right idea.
When Megan Sheridan and her husband Matt Kappra decided to make a run at it, it was lower key, less a glitzy production than a real gathering of strangers for a dinner party. The dinner I had and wrote about was just a very cool night at someone’s house that I would, and did, happily chip in for. They told me before I wrote about them that they had been honest and open with the city of Minneapolis and had written documents of approval that said they could continue to operate, doing what they were doing.
Then the city changed their minds.
Megan sent me a note yesterday that she had been shut down, because the City of Minneapolis had sent in two inspectors as undercover eaters and decided that the place was operating as an unlicensed bar and restaurant. “It’s very weird, there was a gentleman who had been befriending me since last October, trying desperately to get in for dinner. I even put him on a short list of people who got early announcements so they could finally get to attend a dinner. I knew something was weird about him and his ‘mother-in-law,’ who turned out to be the liquor inspector, right when they showed up. But everyone comes to dinner for their own reasons, so we didn’t think much of it until we got a cease and desist notice later that week," Megan said.
The two stipulations that the City of Minneapolis originally gave them as part of approval for operating as a private dining club, was (a) not advertising, and (b) not being open to the public. “We are doing neither of these things. We’ve had some press, but that wasn’t created or paid for by us. It’s just word of mouth, through modern internet standards.” She said when the couple moved the dinners from their home to a rented space, they checked in with the city again, and received written approval. Nothing has changed in their operations since then.
The citation also called into question health and liquor procedures, but held to the standard of a commercial kitchen, not a private kitchen and dining room. Think about a dinner party at your house: Do you have a handwashing sign posted? Does the cook have an open container of alcohol (i.e. drinking a glass of wine)? Have you served your own preserves to guests? Do you have wood beams? Violations all. This isn't about spoiled fish and people getting sick, protection of the population and all that, this is about control. This is about a city government that wants to stop small business innovation, in my humble opinion. They don't want to work with small food people who don't own sports teams or corporations, they seem to want to pass legislation around them and sneak into dinner and shout "it's a trap!" The shouting part didn't really happen, but it feels like it could lately. In a time when big and regulated restaurants aren't making it, why would you stomp on a model that has promise and creativity, one that could help propel the dining scene in new directions? God forbid you work WITH Matt and Megan to form new standards and reach some sort of understanding of how things can work. Nope, fine them, shut them down, wring hands with glee.
320 Northeast is going to fight it.
Megan and Matt have had to abide by the order, “We had to cancel all of our dinners for this month, which was the worst. But when offered a refund or a of transfer of tickets to an unknown date when we figure all this out, almost everyone kept their tickets! We are still on to something here. In my better moments, I know this is just the beginning of whatever is next.”
The next step is a hearing, and we'll keep you up on developments.If you try to play Garry’s Mod right after you download and install it you’ll have a bad time. If you join a multiplayer map you will most probably see the whole map covered on bright fuchsia/pink and black squares and ERROR messages.
That’s because the map requires textures not included in the standard installation. It seems that most gmod maps depend on a lot of Counter Strike textures, and for some weird reason they are not included in the installation.
Solution: you need to manually download and install all those textures.
Download this zip package, which contains all the most used textures. Wait a few seconds, close the ad, and download the file (~700MB). Find gmod installation folder. It should be somewhere, inside Steam’s folder. In my case, it was located at
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\GarrysMod\garrysmod\addons Create a folder named CSS Content Addon. Extract the zip contents to the folder created in the previous step. Done. You should now have a maps, models, … folders inside CSS Content Addon.
For the complete guide on how to install and configure gmod, have a look at Configure Garry’s Mod (the complete guide).'It's going to be pretty intense,' he promises MTV News at Sundance about the 'Bad' finale.
By now, "Breaking Bad" fans are well aware that Walter White (Bryan Cranston) is the danger. He blew the face off of an ingenious criminal drug lord in a dramatic seasons-long showdown. He secretly poisoned a little boy as a means to manipulating his on-again off-again business partner into helping him kill said drug lord. Ladies and gentlemen, make no mistake: four seasons deep, Walt has finally broken bad.
With only one season remaining before "Breaking Bad" closes the meth lab for good, it's anybody's guess how the saga of the cancer-stricken chemistry teacher-turned-murderous meth manufacturer will ultimately resolve itself. But there is one person who claims to know how the AMC drug thriller ends: Aaron Paul, the anything-but-"Bad" actor who stars on the show as reluctant drug slinger Jesse Pinkman.
"I know how it ends," Paul told MTV News at the Sundance Film Festival, where he's promoting the release of his new movie "Smashed." You wouldn't think Paul would spill any further details, but he proceeded to drop a bombshell bigger than the one that took out Gus Fring.
"Jesse dies," he deadpanned.
And just like Fring, our jaws dropped to the floor at the stunning revelation. But true to Pinkman's prankster ways, Paul immediately cracked up and cleared the air.
"No, no, no! He doesn't die! Or maybe he does," he continued ominously. "I don't know! Actually, I have no idea what's going to happen. But I'm excited to see [it play out]."
No matter how "Breaking Bad" reaches its conclusion, it will all come to an end one way or the other, sooner rather than later.
"[There are only] 16 more episodes, and then we're done," Paul said. "We start shooting at the end of March. I think it's going to be a full sprint to the finish, and it's going to be pretty intense."
The 2012 Sundance Film Festival is officially under way, and the MTV Movies team is on the ground reporting on the hottest stars and the movies everyone will be talking about in the year to come. Keep it locked with MTV Movies for everything there is to know about Sundance.Preventable adverse effect of medical care
A medical error is a preventable adverse effect of care, whether or not it is evident or harmful to the patient. This might include an inaccurate or incomplete diagnosis or treatment of a disease, injury, syndrome, behavior, infection, or other ailment. Globally, it is estimated that 142,000 people died in 2013 from adverse effects of medical treatment; this is an increase from 94,000 in 1990.[1] However, a 2016 study of the number of deaths that were a result of medical error in the U.S. placed the yearly death rate in the U.S. alone at 251,454 deaths, which suggests that the 2013 global estimation may not be accurate.[2][3]
Definitions [ edit ]
The word error in medicine is used as a label for nearly all of the clinical incidents that harm patients. Medical errors are often described as human errors in healthcare.[4] Whether the label is a medical error or human error, one definition used in medicine says that it occurs when a healthcare provider chooses an inappropriate method of care, improperly executes an appropriate method of care, or reads the wrong CT scan. It has been said that the definition should be the subject of more debate. For instance, studies of hand hygiene compliance of physicians in an ICU show that compliance varied from 19% to 85%.[5][needs update] The deaths that result from infections caught as a result of treatment providers improperly executing an appropriate method of care by not complying with known safety standards for hand hygiene are difficult to regard as innocent accidents or mistakes. At the least, they are negligence, if not dereliction, but in medicine they are lumped together under the word error with innocent accidents and treated as such.[citation needed]
There are many types of medical error, from minor to major,[6] and causality is often poorly determined.[7][needs update]
There are many taxonomies for classifying medical errors.[8]
Impact [ edit ]
Globally, it is estimated that 142,000 people died in 2013 from adverse effects of medical treatment; in 1990, the number was 94,000.[1]
A 2000 Institute of Medicine report estimated that medical errors result in between 44,000 and 98,000 preventable deaths and 1,000,000 excess injuries each year in U.S. hospitals.[9][10][11] In the UK, a 2000 study found that an estimated 850,000 medical errors occur each year, costing over £2 billion.[12]
Some researchers questioned the accuracy of the IOM study, criticizing the statistical handling of measurement errors in the report,[13] significant subjectivity in determining which deaths were "avoidable" or due to medical error, and an erroneous assumption that 100% of patients would have survived if optimal care had been provided.[14] A 2001 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association of seven Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers estimated that for roughly every 10,000 patients admitted to the select hospitals, one patient died who would have lived for three months or more in good cognitive health had "optimal" care been provided.[14]
A 2006 follow-up to the IOM study found that medication errors are among the most common medical mistakes, harming at least 1.5 million people every year. According to the study, 400,000 preventable drug-related injuries occur each year in hospitals, 800,000 in long-term care settings, and roughly 530,000 among Medicare recipients in outpatient clinics. The report stated that these are likely to be conservative estimates. In 2000 alone, the extra medical costs incurred by preventable drug-related injuries approximated $887 million—and the study looked only at injuries sustained by Medicare recipients, a subset of clinic visitors. None of these figures take into account lost wages and productivity or other costs.[15]
According to a 2002 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality report, about 7,000 people were estimated to die each year from medication errors – about 16 percent more deaths than the number attributable to work-related injuries (6,000 deaths).[citation needed] Medical errors affect one in 10 patients worldwide. One extrapolation suggests that 180,000 people die each year partly as a result of iatrogenic injury.[16] One in five Americans (22%) report that they or a family member have experienced a medical error of some kind.[17]
The World Health Organization registered 14 million new cases and 8.2 million cancer-related deaths in 2012. It estimated that the number of cases could increase by 70% through 2032. As the number of cancer patients receiving treatment increases, hospitals around the world are seeking ways to improve patient safety, to emphasize traceability and raise efficiency in their cancer treatment processes.[18]
A study released in 2016 found medical error is the third leading cause of death in the United States, after heart disease and cancer. Researchers looked at studies that analyzed the medical death rate data from 2000 to 2008 and extrapolated that over 250,000 deaths per year had stemmed from a medical error, which translates to 9.5% of all deaths annually in the US.[2][3]
Difficulties in measuring frequency of errors [ edit ]
About 1% of hospital admissions result in an adverse event due to negligence.[19] However, mistakes are likely much more common, as these studies identify only mistakes that led to measurable adverse events occurring soon after the errors. Independent review of doctors' treatment plans suggests that decision-making could be improved in 14% of admissions; many of the benefits would have delayed manifestations.[20] Even this number may be an underestimate. One study suggests that adults in the United States receive only 55% of recommended care.[21] At the same time, a second study found that 30% of care in the United States may be unnecessary.[22] For example, if a doctor fails to order a mammogram that is past due, this mistake will not show up in the first type of study.[19] In addition, because no adverse event occurred during the short follow-up of the study, the mistake also would not show up in the second type of study[20] because only the principal treatment plans were critiqued. However, the mistake would be recorded in the third type of study. If a doctor recommends an unnecessary treatment or test, it may not show in any of these types of studies.
Cause of death on United States death certificates, statistically compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), are coded in the International Classification of Disease (ICD), which does not include codes for human and system factors.[23][24]
Causes [ edit ]
Medical errors are associated with inexperienced physicians and nurses, new procedures, extremes of age, and complex or urgent care.[25] Poor communication (whether in one's own language or, as may be the case for medical tourists, another language), improper documentation, illegible handwriting, spelling errors, inadequate nurse-to-patient ratios, and similarly named medications are also known to contribute to the problem.[26] Patient actions may also contribute significantly to medical errors. Falls, for example, may result from patients' own misjudgements. Human error has been implicated in nearly 80 percent of adverse events that occur in complex healthcare systems. The vast majority of medical errors result from faulty systems and poorly designed processes versus poor practices or incompetent practitioners.[27]
Healthcare complexity [ edit ]
Complicated technologies, powerful drugs, intensive care, and prolonged hospital stay can contribute to medical errors.[citation needed]
System and process design [ edit ]
In 2000, The Institute of Medicine released "To Err is Human," which asserted that the problem in medical errors is not bad people in health care—it is that good people are working in bad systems that need to be made safer.[9]
Poor communication and unclear lines of authority of physicians, nurses, and other care providers are also contributing factors.[28] Disconnected reporting systems within a hospital can result in fragmented systems in which numerous hand-offs of patients results in lack of coordination and errors.[29]
Other factors include the impression that action is being taken by other groups within the institution, reliance on automated systems to prevent error.,[30] and inadequate systems to share information about errors, which hampers analysis of contributory causes and improvement strategies.[31] Cost-cutting measures by hospitals in response to reimbursement cutbacks can compromise patient safety.[32] In emergencies, patient care may be rendered in areas poorly suited for safe monitoring. The American Institute of Architects has identified concerns for the safe design and construction of health care facilities.[33] Infrastructure failure is also a concern. According to the WHO, 50% of medical equipment in developing countries is only partly usable due to lack of skilled operators or parts. As a result, diagnostic procedures or treatments cannot be performed, leading to substandard treatment.
The Joint Commission's Annual Report on Quality and Safety 2007 found that inadequate communication between healthcare providers, or between providers and the patient and family members, was the root cause of over half the serious adverse events in accredited hospitals.[34] Other leading causes included inadequate assessment of the patient's condition, and poor leadership or training.
Competency, education, and training [ edit ]
Variations in healthcare provider training & experience[28][35] and failure to acknowledge the prevalence and seriousness of medical errors also increase the risk.[36][37] The so-called July effect occurs when new residents arrive at teaching hospitals, causing an increase in medication errors according to a study of data from 1979–2006.[38][39]
Human factors and ergonomics [ edit ]
Cognitive errors commonly encountered in medicine were initially identified by psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman in the early 1970s. Jerome Groopman, author of How Doctors Think, says these are "cognitive pitfalls", biases which cloud our logic. For example, a practitioner may overvalue the first data encountered, skewing his thinking. Another example may be where the practitioner recalls a recent or dramatic case that quickly comes to mind, coloring the practitioner's judgement. Another pitfall is where stereotypes may prejudice thinking.[40]
Sleep deprivation has also been cited as a contributing factor in medical errors.[12] One study found that being awake for over 24 hours caused medical interns to double or triple the number of preventable medical errors, including those that resulted in injury or death.[41] The risk of car crash after these shifts increased by 168%, and the risk of near miss by 460%.[42] Interns admitted falling asleep during lectures, during rounds, and even during surgeries.[42] Night shifts are associated with worse surgeon performance during laparoscopic surgeries.[12]
Practitioner risk factors include fatigue,[43][44][45] depression, and burnout.[46] Factors related to the clinical setting include diverse patients, unfamiliar settings, time pressures, and increased patient-to-nurse staffing ratio increases.[47] Drug names that look alike or sound alike are also a problem.[48]
Examples [ edit ]
Errors can include misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis, administration of the wrong drug to the wrong patient or in the wrong way, giving multiple drugs that interact negatively, surgery on an incorrect site, failure to remove all surgical instruments, failure to take the correct blood type into account, or incorrect record-keeping. A 10th type of error is ones which are not watched for by researchers, such as RNs failing to program an IV pump to give a full dose of IV antibiotics or other medication.
Errors in diagnosis [ edit ]
A large study reported several cases where patients were wrongly told that they were HIV-negative when the physicians erroneously ordered and interpreted HTLV (a closely related virus) testing rather than HIV testing. In the same study, >90% of HTLV tests were ordered erroneously.[49] It is estimated that between 10-15 percent of physician diagnoses are erroneous.[50]
Misdiagnosis of lower extremity cellulitis is estimated to occur in 30% of patients, leading to unnecessary hospitalizations in 85% and unnecessary antibiotic use in 92%. Collectively, these errors lead to between 50,000 and 130,000 unnecessary hospitalizations and between $195 and $515 million in avoidable health care spending annually in the United States.[51]
Misdiagnosis of psychological disorders [ edit ]
Female sexual desire sometimes used to be diagnosed as female hysteria.[citation needed]
Sensitivities to foods and food allergies risk being misdiagnosed as the anxiety disorder Orthorexia.
Studies have found that bipolar disorder has often been misdiagnosed as major depression. Its early diagnosis necessitates that clinicians pay attention to the features of the patient's depression and also look for present or prior hypomanic or manic symptomatology.[52]
The misdiagnosis of schizophrenia is also a common problem. There may be long delays of patients getting a correct diagnosis of this disorder.[53]
The DSM-5 field trials included "test-retest reliability" which involved different clinicians doing independent evaluations of the same patient—a new approach to the study of diagnostic reliability.[54]
Outpatient vs. inpatient [ edit ]
Misdiagnosis is the leading cause of medical error in outpatient facilities. Since the National Institute of Medicine’s 1999 report, “To Err is Human,” found up to 98,000 hospital patients die from preventable medical errors in the U.S. each year, government and private sector efforts have focused on inpatient safety.[55]
After an error has occurred [ edit ]
Mistakes can have a strongly negative emotional impact on the doctors who commit them.[56][57][58][59]
Recognizing that mistakes are not isolated events [ edit ]
Some physicians recognize that adverse outcomes from errors usually do not happen because of an isolated error and actually reflect system problems.[60] This concept is often referred to as the Swiss Cheese Model.[61] This is the concept that there are layers of protection for clinicians and patients to prevent mistakes from occurring. Therefore, even if a doctor or nurse makes a small error (e.g. incorrect dose of drug written on a drug chart by doctor), this is picked up before it actually affects patient care (e.g. pharmacist checks the drug chart and rectifies the error).[61] Such mechanisms include: Practical alterations (e.g.-medications that cannot be given through IV, are fitted with tubing which means they cannot be linked to an IV even if a clinician makes a mistake and tries to),[62] systematic safety processes (e.g. all patients must have a Waterlow score assessment and falls assessment completed on admission),[62] and training programmes/continuing professional development courses [62] are measures that may be put in place.
There may be several breakdowns in processes to allow one adverse outcome.[63] In addition, errors are more common when other demands compete for a physician's attention.[64][65][66] However, placing too much blame on the system may not be constructive.[60]
Placing the practice of medicine in perspective [ edit ]
Essayists imply that the potential to make mistakes is part of what makes being a physician rewarding and without this potential the rewards of medical practice would be diminished. Laurence states that "Everybody dies, you and all of your patients. All relationships end. Would you want it any other way? [...] Don't take it personally"[67] Seder states "[...] if I left medicine, I would mourn its loss as I've mourned the passage of my poetry. On a daily basis, it is both a privilege and a joy to have the trust of patients and their families and the camaraderie of peers. There is no challenge to make your blood race like that of a difficult case, no mind game as rigorous as the challenging differential diagnosis, and though the stakes are high, so are the rewards."[68]
Disclosing mistakes [ edit ]
Forgiveness, which is part of many cultural traditions, may be important in coping with medical mistakes.[69]
To oneself [ edit ]
Inability to forgive oneself may create a cycle of distress and increased likelihood of a future error.[70]
However, Wu et al. suggest "...those who coped by accepting responsibility were more likely to make constructive changes in practice, but [also] to experience more emotional distress."[71] It may be helpful to consider the much larger number of patients who are not exposed to mistakes and are helped by medical care.[68]
To patients [ edit ]
Gallagher et al. state that patients want "information about what happened, why the error happened, how the error's consequences will be mitigated, and how recurrences will be prevented."[72] Interviews with patients and families reported in a 2003 book by Rosemary Gibson and Janardan Prasad Singh, put forward that those who have been harmed by medical errors face a "wall of silence" and "want an acknowledgement" of the harm.[73] With honesty, "healing can begin not just for the patients and their families but also the doctors, nurses and others involved." Detailed suggestions on how to disclose are available.[74]
A 2005 study by Wendy Levinson of the University of Toronto showed surgeons discussing medical errors used the word "error" or "mistake" in only 57 percent of disclosure conversations and offered a verbal apology only 47 percent of the time.[75]
Patient disclosure is important in the medical error process. The current standard of practice at many hospitals is to disclose errors to patients when they occur. In the past, it was a common fear that disclosure to the patient would incite a malpractice lawsuit. Many physicians would not explain that an error had taken place, causing a lack of trust toward the healthcare community. In 2007, 34 states passed legislation that precludes any information from a physician’s apology for a medical error from being used in malpractice court (even a full admission of fault).[76] This encourages physicians to acknowledge and explain mistakes to patients, keeping an open line of communication.
The American Medical Association's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs states in its ethics code:
"Situations occasionally occur in which a patient suffers significant medical complications that may have resulted from the physician's mistake or judgment. In these situations, the physician is ethically required to inform the patient of all facts necessary to ensure understanding of what has occurred. Concern regarding legal liability which might result following truthful disclosure should not affect the physician's honesty with a patient."
From the American College of Physicians Ethics Manual:[77]
“In addition, physicians should disclose to patients information about procedural or judgment errors made in the course of care if such information is material to the patient's well-being. Errors do not necessarily constitute improper, negligent, or unethical behavior, but failure to disclose them may.”
However, "there appears to be a gap between physicians' attitudes and practices regarding error disclosure. Willingness to disclose errors was associated with higher training level and a variety of patient-centered attitudes, and it was not lessened by previous exposure to malpractice litigation".[78] Hospital administrators may share these concerns.[79]
Consequently, in the United States, many states have enacted laws excluding expressions of sympathy after accidents as proof of liability. However, "excluding from admissibility in court proceedings apologetic expressions of sympathy but not fault-admitting apologies after accidents"[80]
Disclosure may actually reduce malpractice payments.[81][82]
To non-physicians [ edit ]
In a study of physicians who reported having made a mistake, it was offered that disclosing to non-physician sources of support may reduce stress more than disclosing to physician colleagues.[83] This may be due to the finding that of the physicians in the same study, when presented with a hypothetical scenario of a mistake made by another colleague, only 32% of them would have unconditionally offered support. It is possible that greater benefit occurs when spouses are physicians.[84]
To other physicians [ edit ]
Discussing mistakes with other physicians is beneficial.[60] However, medical providers may be less forgiving of one another.[84] The reason is not clear, but one essayist has admonished, "Don't Take Too Much Joy in the Mistakes of Other Doctors."[85]
To the physician's institution [ edit ]
Disclosure of errors, especially 'near misses' may be able to reduce subsequent errors in institutions that are capable of reviewing near misses.[86] However, doctors report that institutions may not be supportive of the doctor.[60]
Use of rationalization to cover up medical errors [ edit ]
Based on anecdotal and survey evidence, Banja |
Memory size was a challenge but nothing unusual for the day," Mallinson notes.
"I recall our initial problems were with the development tools which required some weird Sony NEWS workstation and had very little in the way of debug features. Once SN systems fixed that, next issues were with early builds on the Operating System, which didn't quite deliver what we needed."
PlayStation vs Saturn Imagine a scenario where key PlayStation first-party exclusives were licensed to appear on competing console hardware. It's unthinkable now, but that's exactly what happened back in the 90s, when WipEout and its sequel were actually released on the Sega Saturn. Neither port could match the quality of the original PlayStation versions, but it's a wonder that they actually existed at all. "Psygnosis was a Sony-owned company from 1993, so the Saturn game development all happened under Sony's oversight - and yes there were a lot of politics surrounding that which I didn't get involved with," recalls Dominic Mallinson. "As for WipEout on Saturn, our team really didn't do much directly with the Saturn version of WipEout. I recall we handed pretty much everything off to Perfect Entertainment. Of course we were aware of the technology behind Saturn and while it did have a lot of powerful components, it was very complicated to get them all to work together whereas the PlayStation was a much cleaner architecture and a lot easier to get at the performance." Sega Saturn may not have enjoyed the success of the PlayStation, but it played host to some phenomenal games of the time in an era where first-party exclusives were much more numerous. In fact, while the WipEout titles weren't included in their number, some multi-platform games - Duke Nukem 3D, for example - actually enjoyed better conversions on the Sega machine. Not that one of the Saturn conversion's key developers has much love for the system. "The Saturn was really an insane abortion," Ex-Lobotomy coder Ezra Dreisbach told us a while back. "The graphics hardware was made by guys that obviously wanted to just keep developing 2D hardware and tried to avoid learning anything about 3D. So they made this thing that was totally different from what everyone else in the 3D community was doing and missed some real key ideas, making some things (clipping) impossible. "And then the rest of the system had a whole other batch of warts caused (according to the internet) by a hasty pre-launch upgrade to match the PlayStation. They threw a whole bunch more parts in the box, and none of them worked out that great. The second processor in particular made it both more difficult to program and impossible to fully utilise. This probably ultimately doomed the Saturn. With so much different crap jammed in the box, it never got cheap for them to produce it." Alongside the PlayStation, there will always be a special place in our heart for the Saturn, whatever its technical issues. If you ever developed for it, please get in touch.
Revisiting WipEout, the quintessential launch title for PlayStation in the West. Here, we're looking at the US version of the game, which offered locked 30fps gameplay. Back then, it was still NTSC vs PAL, meaning that the game would've run at 25fps in European territories. What the PAL launch lost in terms of frame-rate, it gained via a brilliant licensed soundtrack, which wasn't available on the US version.
What's remarkable is that Psygnosis adapted so quickly in an era where the nature of games development changed so radically. The transition from 2D to 3D was a seismic shift in the way that games were made, resulting in a fundamental change in the nature of the games we played. The era of 2D sprites and bitmap art was reaching its twilight years, and developers had to adapt - how did Psygnosis handle that game-changing leap from two to three dimensions?
"Well, there are two answers to this question," Mallison offers. "For the content side, we had a lot of experience with 3D in-house and our artists understood how to create models, render and animate. On the console programming side, we had to scramble a little. We had a few PC developers with experience and we brought them in-house and asked them to help train others. Fortunately, we'd already hired some recent University graduates with strong maths backgrounds to help with tools for the artists and those guys quickly made the transition from off-line to real-time 3D."
In effect, a giant reset button had been pressed on the way that games were made. The challenge wasn't just about creating a strong, robust 3D engine on prototype hardware - every element of the production process required new tools.
"I think it's fair to say that we had more issues with establishing a good content pipeline and production toolset than we did with the PlayStation itself," Dominic Mallison says, but in his area, elements of the visual presentation we take for granted today didn't come so easy to the developers of the day.
"Probably the biggest technical issue that I remember was dealing with the lack of perspective correct texturing and having to sub-divide the polygons in the track so that they looked OK up-close where the near clip plane is. The problem is that the resolution of the polygon XY positions and the necessity to have T-joints led to cracks in the track. We never did eliminate all the cracks. Also, the CD-ROM version of the development kit came relatively late in the development cycle so we had to scramble to get that working. PAL support was also really late in the development kit."
Early concept renders for WipEout appeared in the 1995 movie, Hackers, starring Angelina Jolie and Jonny Lee Miller. 'Jim Bowers was responsible for many of those early pre-renders. The one that I remember best was work that ended up in the movie Hackers,' Dominic Mallinson tells us. 'Jim and Nick Burcombe had a vision from very early on of a fast paced futuristic racing experience and the early renders were definitely what we were striving for in terms of the final game.'
PlayStation was noted for being easy to develop for at the time, but perhaps some of that perception is down to the fact that its competition - the Sega Saturn - was so much more difficult to work with. PlayStation's streamlined design made it easier to unlock its performance, while Sony worked with SN Systems to create the development environment. It was an association that would last, with the platform holder acquiring SN in 2005.
"There were similarities to other consoles and SN Systems very quickly got their development tools working on the PlayStation, which gave us a familiar and powerful environment to work with," he says. "On the 3D programming side, we had to start from scratch. The first libraries shipped from Tokyo were too high level and so we had to do a little reverse engineering to get the maximum performance from the GTE."
With WipEout slated to launch alongside PlayStation in North American and European regions nine months after its debut in Japan, the Psygnosis teams working on the Sony hardware would have been midway through development when Namco's Ridge Racer - developed in just six months - was released. Was it any kind of yardstick by which Psygnosis could judge the quality of their work-in-progress game?
"Ridge Racer was an amazing achievement to be ready for launch in Japan," Mallinson replies. "While it influenced us a little, we always had a different feeling for what we wanted from a futuristic racer so we didn't consider it a head-to-head competition. In some ways we were more focused on a friendly rivalry with the Destruction Derby team."
The franchise sadly concluded with the excellent Vita Racer, WipEout 2048, but for our money the series reached its peak in the absolutely brutal WipEout HD Fury. We urge you to check it out on PS3 - it holds up beautifully. This game expansion was even ported over to Vita as an add-on for owners of 2048 but as good as it was, it couldn't match the performance level of the PS3 version.
With WipEout, the end result was a game that looked and played like nothing else we'd seen before - arguably more impressive from an art and technology perspective than Namco's launch masterpiece, and very much a game of its time (documented in much more depth in Wesley Yin-Poole's piece on the rise and fall of Sony Studio Liverpool - the rebadged Psygnosis). The visuals, the design ethos and the music combined to create a game that was more culturally relevant - especially to the European audience - than anything since the glut of homegrown games released in the mid-80s computing boom. But we shouldn't forget that at WipEout's heart, there was a great game in there too.
"It was a combination of design and technology, but the dynamics of the vehicles and the 'feel' for them floating on the track worked really well. I'm pretty sure that was mostly thanks to Dave Rose who did an excellent job leading the programming team," says Dominic Mallinson, revealing that some of the team's technical objectives couldn't be met. "We wanted more draw distance and we wanted more tracks and we wanted 60Hz. Draw distance and 30Hz were mostly a limit of the hardware, powerful as it was. More tracks was a limit of our production tools at the time."
The best accessories for Switch From Jelly Deals: essential accessories for Nintendo Switch.
Of course, WipEout evolved across the years, with strong titles released on every Sony system up until PlayStation Vita, where WipEout 2048 remains one of the best titles available on the overlooked handheld system. But Studio Liverpool is no more, and just like Ridge Racer, the series would not make it onto PlayStation 4. And as good as the back-catalogue of WipEout titles was across the generations, none of them had quite the same cultural impact as the original. During production, were the developers aware of just how important the game would be for the fledgling PlayStation hardware?
"Honestly, no. Looking back I believe that the WipEout team were committed to the game and not to the impact on PlayStation," Mallinson replies. "As is so often the case, when you have this type of belief in a game, it's infectious, and everyone in the company started to get behind it - and ultimately that carried over to the players too."Correction appended.
While Stephen Spielberg's latest film, "Lincoln," and Graham Meriwether's "American Meat" both feature compelling storylines and engaging characters, there won't be any screaming headlines about a hot and heavy box office smackdown. And not just because the A-list actors in "Lincoln" and its upwards-of-$65-million budget dwarf the $250,000 Meriwether spent to make his movie about the farmers who raise the meat we put on our tables.
Meriwether is eschewing theaters for a more direct and, he feels, effective way to engage with his audiences.
"We're using a very unconventional distribution model," he said at a recent screening held at Cinema 21 in Northwest Portland. While most filmmakers apply to festivals such as Sundance or the Toronto International Film Festival and look for a distributor to pick up their film, he said his aim was to get "American Meat" directly to farmers. This summer, he premiered the film at a farm in Virginia, at an event for young people interested in becoming farmers. Then in Iowa, Meriwether met the head of the Future Farmers of America, who immediately signed him up to show the film to every FFA chapter in the state. Meriwether is now screening the film at FFA chapters around the country, as well as at select colleges and universities with strong agricultural programs.
Like other current films about the food system, such as "King Corn," "The Future of Food" and "Food, Inc.," "American Meat" addresses the dysfunction that many say lies at the base of the current U.S. agricultural system, which, with its dependence on large agribusiness concerns and its ties to giant chemical companies, has slowly squeezed out small family farms.
Unlike many of those films, however, Meriwether's makes a point of understanding and fully portraying the farmers and their families on both sides of the debate.
Watching 'American Meat'
Because of its unconventional distribution method, the only way to see "American Meat" is to attend a screening listed on the movie's website (there are none in Oregon), or to buy a license for a community screening (also on the website). Priced from $100 to $350 depending on the number of people who will attend, the screening package includes a DVD, publicity materials and guidelines. A theatrical release is scheduled for April in New York City, and individual DVDs will be available for purchase after that.
One hog farmer who raises his animals conventionally is Chuck Wirtz, a lifelong farmer based in West Bend, Iowa. Farming with his two brothers and his son, he operates a large commodity farm, trying at one point to convert part of it to a welfare-compassionate system. The attempt to change his practices failed when a subcontractor for Whole Foods, which had worked with the Wirtz family to set up the welfare-compassionate system, pulled out during the economic crash in 2008. This left him with pigs that couldn't be sold for a profit on the commodity market because it had cost too much to raise them with the welfare-compassionate method.
Wirtz's experience was echoed in the film by chicken farmers who borrowed money to build expensive chicken houses and buy chicks because Pilgrim's Pride, the nation's largest chicken producer, had contracted to buy them. When oil prices rose, Russia and China stopped importing chicken and in 2008 Pilgrim's Pride declared bankruptcy, forcing many chicken farmers out of business or leaving them with thousands of chickens they couldn't sell at a profit.
The film illustrates an alternative model for American agriculture represented by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms in Virginia. Salatin is a pasture-based farmer featured prominently in Michael Pollan's influential book "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and an advocate of what is known as rotational agriculture.
Salatin's method was to repair the health of the land by bringing back the native prairie pasture plants using environmentally friendly farming practices. The cattle then graze the pasture, after which Salatin moves them to another patch (or "paddock"). His chickens are moved into the first pasture and feast on the worms and bugs in the cattle's manure, spreading the manure around with their scratching, and fertilizing the soil.
The chickens follow the cattle into the second paddock and pigs are moved in where the chickens had been. The pigs turn the soil looking for food, and the pasture is fertilized by their manure. By eliminating the use of chemicals and by feeding the animals on grass instead of grain, this method of farming reduces costs and yields more crops and livestock per acre than industrial models, Salatin says.
Meriwether said that after reading Pollan's book, he e-mailed Salatin asking if he could make a film about a year in the life of Polyface Farms. But when he started editing, Meriwether realized he had a problem.
"Joel (Salatin) had continuously talked about conventional meat production and conventional farming," Meriwether said, but he had no footage to show what conventional farming looked like compared with the grass-based method at Polyface.
After attempting to use stock footage of concentrated animal feeding operations shot with hidden cameras, Meriwether said it just didn't feel right to him.
"As a journalist I'd never been to those farms or talked to those farmers, so I made a vow that we weren't going to use a single frame of hidden camera footage," he said. "We spent the next two years going around the country filming with chicken farmers, hog farmers and cattle ranchers."
The project led to an epiphany for Meriwether, a realization that there aren't "good" farmers and "bad" farmers. "It completely changed my perspective," he said. "Every farm is a family farm."
He realized that many times farmers sign contracts with big companies because they feel it's the only way they can keep their farms -- even though, as Chuck Wirtz reveals in the film, they might personally prefer the taste of a grass-raised product to their own industrially raised animals.
Meriwether was able to convince conventional farmers to appear in his film despite their sometimes negative portrayals in other films. He said he looked them in the eye and told them, "I give you my word that I'm not going to disparage you or show you in a negative light."
So when they finally saw the film?
"Everyone has liked it, so I feel like we honored that commitment," he said.
--
Kathleen Bauer
is a writer and the author of the
blog.
The article reflects a correction published Nov. 30, 2012.In the fall of 1962 I met Fleetwood Lindley, the last person alive who had seen Lincoln's remains. His experience was to be the final episode in the unbelievable story of Lincoln's body. I visited with Fleetwood at the Clayville Tavern, the old stage stop on the way to New Salem from Springfield, Illinois. Fleetwood died on February 1, 1963, and was the last of 23 people who could say, "I saw him." So I knew the last person who could say that.
Eleven years after Lincoln was laid to rest at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, a band of thieves broke into the Lincoln monument and almost made off with the martyred president's body. After that, a small group of Lincoln's friends hid the coffin between the tomb's walls, and for years visitors paid homage to an empty sarcophagus.
In 1900 the monument had to be torn down and rebuilt. When the present tomb was completed, the bodies of the Lincoln family were moved into the new tomb and preparations were made for the final interment of Lincoln's remains. Fleetwood's father was a friend of Lincoln and one of the self-appointed Guard of Honor who assumed responsibility for the safety of Lincoln's remains. Fleetwood was 13 years old in 1901 when Lincoln's body would be moved from outside where it was, to inside the tomb.
Fleetwood told me that his father called his school and his teacher suddenly dismissed him in the middle of class. His father had asked that he hurry to the tomb, but to tell no one about his errand. He did not know what he would see but his father had told him that when he viewed Lincoln's body 14 years before, it had been the color of an old saddle. His father met him and took him into the chamber where he saw several of the Guard of Honor plus the two plumbers who had opened the coffin in 1884. These two men sealed the coffin in 1884 and now they were going to re-open it.
He said paper was put over the windows so no one could see into the tomb. He watched as the plumber opened the green-colored lead coffin lining above Lincoln's head. A pungent, choking smell arose. All 23 people, including Fleetwood, saw a dark brown Lincoln face with the distinct rubbing of white chalk which had been applied by a Philadelphia undertaker during the long funeral trip in 1865.
Fleetwood told me that any school child would have recognized the face of Abraham Lincoln. The headrest had fallen so that the neck was thrown back, but the short black chin whiskers were perfect. The small black bow tie, the wart on his cheek, the coarse black hair were all unmistakable, although the eyebrows were no longer there. Lincoln was dressed in the black broadcloth suit which he had worn for his second inauguration. Over his hands were still stretched an elegant pair of kid gloves.
Without question, Fleetwood said, everyone who was present clearly identified the remains to be those of Abraham Lincoln. "His face was chalky white. His clothes were mildewed." Then the coffin was resealed by the plumbers. "I was allowed to hold one of the leather straps as we lowered the coffin for the concrete to be poured." As a security measure dictated by Robert Todd Lincoln, the president's son, the coffin was lowered into a metal cage and covered with two tons of cement, where it now rests 10 feet beneath the tomb floor.
Fleetwood said he remembered the experience clearly. He could still recall seeing the face and realized at the time that it was a lifetime experience. Then I shared with him that I had been about the same age when I found the photograph of the president's remains. When I was present at a conference in Springfield on Lincoln's Birthday some years ago, I was talking about Fleetwood with someone. A man came up behind me and said Fleetwood was his uncle. He didn't know that anyone remembered Fleetwood Lindley.
Talking with a Man who Knew Lincoln
I remember James F. Wheeler, 88, of Des Moines, Iowa. Shortly after the Des Moines Register published its front page article on my discovery of the last Lincoln photograph in 1952, I received a phone call. The voice on the other end told me that he had known Lincoln as a young boy when his father was Lincoln's gardener in Washington, DC. Would I like to come over for an afternoon visit to "talk Lincoln?" Of course I would!
He was a pleasant man and remembered vividly that "during Lincoln's administration my father was the White House gardener and I used to go with him quite often to the White House gardens -- two or three times a week." He observed, "Seems like people were more sociable than than they are now. I saw Mr. Lincoln many times. He told me, "He and my father were great friends" and that the President "used to play with me sometimes, for he was very fond of kids, and quite a joker."
Mr. Wheeler told me that there was a fig tree near the White House, and remembered that he used to help himself to them. "Mr. Lincoln would tease me about stealing his figs." He added, "My father would decorate the White House for all the official receptions, and he and my mother attended many of these functions."
His most poignant recollection of Lincoln concerned the martyred president's death. His father helped install the White House mourning decorations. He also remembered the search for John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln's assassin. "That was an exciting time in Washington," he said. "I remember the soldiers coming to our house one night as they did to most houses in Washington, looking for Booth." He recalled that it was about two o'clock in the morning, and he was "scared nearly to death."
Then he told me how the Lincoln coffin photograph in the paper had brought back memories. "My father took me to the Capitol for a last look at Lincoln. The president was lying in state in the Rotunda, "and my father lifted me up so as to see him better." He said, "Father was all broken up after Lincoln's death and decided then that he might as well leave Washington." And they moved to Iowa.
Corresponding with Carl Sandburg
As a boy I got interested in Lincoln about 1942. I had a heart murmur and wasn't allowed to play sports. At the time, it was thought that children who had heart murmurs might just fall over dead. So I had to do something, and I turned to the world of reading. Early on, American history attracted me and Washington and Lincoln became my heroes. Then I began to write people. I wrote to the last living Civil War veterans as a boy -- there were still seven alive in 1950 when I wrote them. Supposedly the last one died in 1959 at 117; there's a debate about that particular one.
I also wrote to Carl Sandburg, the poet who was known for his Lincoln biographies. When I was in fifth grade the Des Moines Public Library let me check out books in the adult section because I had devoured everything on Lincoln and the Civil War and George Washington in the children's section. So I checked out Carl Sandburg's set on Lincoln and read it. Then I decided to write to him. I got his address after a lady at the library helped me find it. I know I wrote him at least two letters.
After I was in Springfield a few years ago, Dr. Bob Johannsen, who was my professor and mentor for my doctoral dissertation at the University of Illinois, sent me a letter with two enclosures. I didn't think much about it, and laid them aside like I did with the Lincoln death photo, and read his letter. He wrote, "I found these in the Carl Sandburg Collection and thought you might be interested."
When I opened the first one I thought the handwriting was familiar and then I read it -- it was my letter to Carl Sandburg! Sandburg had saved both my letters and the envelopes with three-cent stamps on them. He also sent me an autographed photograph of himself, and one time when I was showing it in the classroom, somebody lifted the picture.
Visiting the William Johnson Gravesite
William H. Johnson was described as a free "colored man" who came with Lincoln from Illinois and became President Lincoln's part-time valet and messenger of the Treasury Department. He worked for Samuel Y. Atlee of the Treasury in the afternoon and tended to Lincoln's wardrobe, shaved him, and did other personal services for the president in the morning.
On November 18, 1863, Lincoln wrote a note explaining that Johnson would travel with him to Gettysburg for the dedication of the soldiers' cemetery. Mrs. Lincoln did not accompany the president because their son Tad was ill with smallpox. Once in Gettysburg, Lincoln must have mentioned Tad's condition to Edward Everett, the featured orator at the dedication, because he later wrote him, "Our sick boy, for whom you kindly enquired, we hope is past the worst." After delivery of his now famous speech, Lincoln also felt ill and on the return train trip to Washington "lay in a relaxed position with a wet towel across his head," placed there by Johnson.
Upon arrival at the White House, the president was put to bed and his doctor was called, who remarked, "Mr. Lincoln's case is not fully developed yet. Varioloid." The White House became a virtual smallpox hospital. Out of it came a touch of Lincoln's humor. "Now let the office-seekers come, for at last I have something I can give all of them." But he probably gave it to his valet, and Johnson died. Lincoln requested that he be buried in what is now called Arlington National Cemetery, and paid for his burial and tombstone.
Photograph by Ron Rietveld One day I told a friend who worked at the Reagan White House that I wanted to locate Johnson's grave. So we drove to the cemetery and the military guard motioned us to the left when we needed to drive to the right. My friend yelled, "I have a Lincoln scholar here who wants to locate the grave of Lincoln's black valet." Immediately he motioned us to drive to the far right side of the cemetery. There we found the simple grave. The stone reads "William H Johnson," and below that, "Citizen." Johnson died sometime before January 28, 1864, when Lincoln appointed Solomon James Johnson as his Treasury messenger replacement. Today, a black valet of President Lincoln rests as a citizen in Arlington National Cemetery.As a week dominated by President Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE’s response to the violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., draws to a close, many Republicans are worried that serious damage has been done to their party.
Specifically, they argue that Trump may have set back years of efforts to make the GOP more appealing to an increasingly diverse American electorate.
There is no mistaking the seriousness with which they view the situation.
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One veteran Republican strategist, who asked for anonymity to speak candidly, told The Hill that Trump’s response was “a f---ing disaster.” The source added, “I have no idea where we go from here.”
Few were assuaged by the news Friday of White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon’s dismissal. Bannon, who came to Trump from the “alt-right” world of Breitbart News, was a voice for economic nationalism within the White House.
“I don't think it does,” said former Republican National Committee communications director Doug Heye, when asked if Bannon's departure made a difference. “Nobody makes their decision about who to support based on the staff in the White House.”
Many Republicans have rushed to distance themselves from Trump, after he proclaimed that there were “very fine people” on both sides in Charlottesville. A 32-year-old counterprotester, Heather Heyer, was killed last Saturday after she was hit by a car allegedly driven by a man who harbored far-right views.
Marchers from neo-Nazi organizations were among those who had come to the Virginia city for an event billed as “Unite the Right.” They held a torch-lit parade at the University of Virginia last Friday night and chanted racist and anti-Semitic slogans.
Trump twice gave public remarks that were widely condemned as being too equivocal. In particular, a chaotic news conference at Trump Tower on Tuesday left even seasoned political observers shell-shocked.
The two living Republican ex-presidents, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, released a joint statement implicitly condemning Trump. So, too, did the party’s leaders in both chambers of Congress, Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanBrexit and exit: A transatlantic comparison Five takeaways from McCabe’s allegations against Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Sanders set to shake up 2020 race MORE (Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellWhite House pleads with Senate GOP on emergency declaration Senate Dems seek to turn tables on GOP in climate change fight Pence meets with Senate GOP for 'robust' discussion on Trump declaration MORE (Ky.).
On Friday, the GOP’s 2012 presidential nominee, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, joined the chorus of condemnation. In a Facebook post, Romney lamented that what Trump had said about Charlottesville “caused racists to rejoice, minorities to weep and the vast heart of America to mourn.”
But the high-profile criticisms may not be enough to mitigate the damage wreaked by Trump. He has the bully pulpit of the presidency, and the firestorm around his comments reached parts of popular culture — late-night talk shows, for example — where statements from McConnell or a Facebook post by Romney hold little sway.
“It’s terribly frustrating,” said Heye, who added that it would be incorrect to view the damage as confined to black or Latino voters. There are plenty of white people who find such a stance unpalatable, he suggested.
Republicans fear Trump’s comments are “turning off a broad swath of voters” he said. “It’s obviously off-putting to minority voters — but not just minority voters.”
Trump’s defenders would make a very different case, noting among other things that the self-declared experts of the Washington GOP were enthused by previous presidential nominees, such as Romney in 2012 and Sen. John McCain John Sidney McCainGOP lobbyists worry Trump lags in K Street fundraising Mark Kelly kicks off Senate bid: ‘A mission to lift up hardworking Arizonans’ Gabbard hits back at Meghan McCain after fight over Assad MORE (Ariz.) in 2008, both of whom failed to win the presidency as Trump did last November.
As the president himself likes to point out, he won the White House by scoring victories in states that Republicans had not won at the presidential level for a generation, notably the so-called "Blue Wall" states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
“We didn’t break it, we shattered that sucker,” then-President-elect Trump told a rally late last year.
Some people in Trump’s orbit say there is no reason why he cannot repeat the achievement again.
In an interview with The American Prospect before his abrupt departure from the White House on Friday, Bannon insisted that the GOP could “crush the Democrats” if liberals were to stay "focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism.”
One problem with that theory, of course, is that it is Trump himself who has seemed so focused on race and identity for the past week. And his comments have been welcomed by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke and others on the extreme right.
More broadly, those who argue that the GOP desperately needs to improve its image with minorities and young people say their point still stands, regardless of Trump’s election victory.
“Nothing has repealed the long-term demographic trends in this country, and nothing has changed the imperative for Republicans to appeal to a more diverse electorate if they hope to win national elections,” said strategist and pollster Whit Ayres, a long-time advocate of the need for the party to modernize its appeal.
“Trump managed to stitch together an electoral college majority while coming millions of votes shy of a majority of the popular vote,” Ayres added.
Trump lost the popular vote to Democrat 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 by about 2.9 million votes, or around 2 percentage points, even as he won a relatively comfortable 306-232 victory in the Electoral College.
The strategist who described Trump’s comments as a “disaster” said that the best way forward for candidates in next year’s midterms could be to run on local issues to avoid “nationalizing” their races. But even that might not be enough, the strategist added.
To win competitive races as a Republican in the current polarized environment, the source said, “you have got to have virtually all the Trump people and a good chunk of people who can’t stand the man. How do you walk that fine line?”
Moderate Republican voices such as Heye, meanwhile, are still grappling with their shock at what has transpired.
“In Charlottesville, we are talking about neo-Nazis chanting truly vile things. To see the president come out the way he did — it’s impossible for me to try to convince an African-American, or Hispanic, or Jewish voter why they should vote Republican,” Heye said.
“What they’re hearing is: We don’t like you.”
The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage, primarily focused on Donald Trump’s presidency.The Story:
In the early 60s State Mutual Life Assurance of Worcester, MA initiated a merger that had bad effects on company morale. In 1964, State Mutual cooked up a “friendship campaign” to get employees to smile whenever they answered the phone, paid a claim, or typed a report. The company turned to Harvey Ball for graphic support. Ball reported that he spent about 10 minutes designing the smiley face, and he was paid $45 for it. This was the only profit that Ball ever made from his most famous creation. Neither Ball or the insurance company trademarked or copyrighted the smiley face. In the early 1970s, the smiley face image became a symbol for an entire generation of Americans, emerging as one of the most well-known images in the country. The smiley face craze, was the work of two brothers in Philadelphia, Bernard and Murray Spain, who were in the business of making would-be fad items. In September of 1970 they drew up a smiley face added the words "Have a nice day," and copyrighted the image and words. Soon they and their many imitators were cranking out buttons, posters, greeting cards, shirts, bumper stickers, cookie jars, earrings, bracelets, key chains, and many other items. The fad lasted about a year and half; the number of smiley buttons produced by 1972 was estimated at 50 million.At Monza, some observers were both amazed and bemused when Lewis Hamilton reacted to the five starting lights to the tune of 0.05 seconds.
Germany's Auto Motor und Sport said it is "virtually impossible" that the Mercedes driver legitimately reacted to the lights, as the minimum human reaction time is much longer.
In athletics, a sprinter for example will be deemed to have made a false start if their reaction time is better than 100 milliseconds.
But Whiting said Hamilton did not jump the start at Monza.
"For us it's not like athletics," he told the German magazine.
"We proceed on the basis that anyone who tries to anticipate the start takes the risk of incurring a penalty.
"But if he does take the risk and takes off just as the lights go out, he's lucky," Whiting added.A West Ashley man emerged from his 6-month cocoon today, just in time for the start of the college football season. Jason Ramsay broke free from his protective casing this morning and immediately began drinking copious amounts of beer in preparation for the Gamecocks vs Commodores game this evening.
Jason’s body has amazingly evolved to avoid the entire part of the year when football isn’t being played. When the Super Bowl ends, he spins a sticky web made from stored up football snack foods from his fingertips until it creates a strong casing around him. He then enters a state of hibernation until the first kickoff of the following season. The cocoon keeps his body cool and protects him from boring baseball games during the summer. From Jason’s perspective, it’s always football season, so it’s like living in a Utopia.
Now that Jason is out of the cocoon, he will spend every weekday reading college football blogs and arguing with mentally unbalanced fans on message boards. On Saturday, he’ll begin the morning by watching College GameDay, then watch every single college football game on TV for the rest of the day, including the late-night west coast game. He’ll constantly switch back and forth between channels to make sure he doesn’t miss a single bit of the action, even though he really doesn’t care about any of the teams.
Jason’s wife is pleased to have him active in the house again, but she’s dreading the upcoming football season. “I’m trying to get in as much conversation with him while I still can,” she said. “Because as soon as it’s kickoff time, he’s just going to stare at the TV every weekend with bloodshot, glassy eyes watching every game he can. It would be nice if he put the beer down once and a while and helped with the dishes.”
Jason will immediately begin an intense feeding regimen of Doritos and chicken wings so he can build up enough energy to create his cocoon again in February.In “A Man for All Seasons,” Sir Thomas More was accused by his son-in-law William Roper of putting the law before morality. Roper declared he would “cut down every law in England” to “get after the devil.” More warned his son-in-law, “When the last law was down, and the devil turned around on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat?”
Similar winds are blowing in the Beltway. For months, President Trump’s critics have bent and twisted criminal provisions to accuse him of |
OnCyprus in Geneva this morning. EU will continue to accompany the talks pic.twitter.com/TXKA2T36tF — Federica Mogherini (@FedericaMog) January 13, 2017
Euronewsَ: “The EU wants a new role in the negotiations and you want it to have one, but judging by a disagreement between the Turkish foreign minister and Mr Juncker, Turkey seems not to agree. How far can you go?”
Nicos Anastasiades, President of Cyprus: “This disagreement didn’t happen over the substance, but over issues concerning the process, whether it should be present as a participant or as an interested party, or as an observer. So I don’t think we should focus on that. I have to say I’m fully satisfied not only about the presence of the EU, which is for the first time, but also for the interventions of the EU. Because it doesn’t get involved in what’s being discussed between the two parties, but it does want to have a say on whatever is agreed between the two sides on the internal governance and the structure of the state, that it is compatible with EU law on security issues, within the context of the political security of the EU.”
Euronewsَ: “Is it a matter of months or years for a solution?”
Nicos Anastasiades, President of Cyprus: “For me it would be a matter of days but I can’t ignore the difficulties and therefore what I say is the sooner the better for the Cypriot people.”John Hathaway has seen some dark days. He would have gladly have taken the pain of a punch to the face rather than what he was going through.
For the past four years, Hathaway has struggled with Crohn’s disease, an inflammation of the gastrointestinal system that can cause intense abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea and weight loss. The debilitating affliction, which came out of nowhere, has forced him to fight just three times since 2010. The last time Hathaway fought in the UFC was September 2012.
Crohn’s comes and goes in episodes. There were times he felt fine and times he was completely miserable. Hathaway lost a ton of weight and at one point he was advised to just quit MMA altogether.
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"A lot of doctors were very doom and gloom," Hathaway told FOX Sports. "They said maybe you should change your sport."
Hathaway never wavered, though. And now it seems like he’s found the light on the horizon. Hathaway is in remission and was able to get through this training camp Crohn’s free.
A lot of doctors were very doom and gloom. They said maybe you should change your sport. -John Hathaway
On Saturday, the England native will headline UFC Fight Night against Dong Hyun Kim in Macau. Hathaway (17-1) has won three in a row and has just one career loss — which came after he suffered a Crohn’s episode — but few remember just how good he is because he hasn’t fought.
"It sucks," Hathaway said. "I want to compete in this sport. I want to get to the top. I needed to get it under control."
It just isn’t that easy, though. Hathaway, 26, has adjusted his diet and is taking medication to treat Crohn’s, but there’s no cure. Patients could have a flare-up at any time and there’s really no telling when it could happen, according to Dr. Robert Klapper, an orthopedic surgeon at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles and the UFC Tonight sports medicine expert.
"They have episodes," Klapper said. "They’ll go threw painful stomach cramps, diarrhea and whatnot. It’s miserable. They’ll go into remission for no apparent reason and then it’ll come back again."
Surgery isn’t necessarily helpful either, Klapper said. Alternative treatments like manipulating the diet, bowel cleansing and acupuncture can help keep it in check. Crohn’s disease occurs when the immune system can’t handle the body’s natural bacterias in the gastrointestinal system.
Hathaway (left) beat John Maguire by decision in his last UFC fight.
"It’s a failure of your body to fight a simple thing," Klapper explained.
Hathaway said he lost a bunch of muscle mass and he wasn’t able to train properly with Crohn’s. He couldn’t eat right, so working out correctly was out of the question, too. Plus, he was tired and fatigued all the time.
"It definitely wipes you out completely," he said.
The first time he had an episode was before his fight with Mike Pyle in October 2010 in London. It was his first career loss. Since then, he has gone 3-0 with wins over Kris McCray, Pascal Krauss and John Maguire. He pulled out of a fight with Erick Silva last June due to Crohn’s and he’s been on the shelf since.
Hathaway, who has a win over Diego Sanchez on his resume, understands how big this opportunity is for him against Kim, the 11th-ranked welterweight contender in the UFC. He knows a win can put him back on the title path. Hathaway is still young enough to be a prospect, but he gets that his time is right now.
[Crohn’s patients] go into remission for no apparent reason and then it’ll come back again. -Dr. Robert Klapper
"It’s massive for me," he said. "I have a lot to prove."
Big and strong with good wrestling, Hathaway will be going up against a similar fighter in Kim, who is known for his suffocating grappling. Kim is a nightmare matchup for anyone, but Hathaway is embracing the challenge.
He’s fighting a contender and — most importantly — he’s actually fighting in the first place. Hathaway hasn’t knocked out Crohn’s yet, but he’s definitely winning a decision at the moment.
"There’s always some doubt in it," he said of the disease returning. "You just put it out of your head. You just train as hard as you can. Only you know what you have in the end."New York Rangers forward Mats Zuccarello said he's healthy nearly five months after he was struck in the side of his head by a slap shot during Game 5 of the Eastern Conference First Round against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Zuccarello participated in a scrimmage Tuesday with about 20 teammates at the Madison Square Garden Training Center in Greenburgh, N.Y., and told BlueshirtsUnited.com he's been skating the past few weeks in New York.
"I'm as good as new, as the doctors say," Zuccarello said. "My head feels fine and ready to go."
Zuccarello, 28, had 15 goals, 49 points and a plus-17 rating in 78 games last season. In parts of five NHL seasons, all with the Rangers, Zuccarello has 45 goals and 142 points in 222 games.
Rangers coach Alain Vigneault told NHL.com last month that Zuccarello was cleared to skate and take contact.
"I haven't skated for that long," Zuccarello said. "I've been working out hard, but it took me time to get going before I could do everything and feel in shape. I feel like I'm on my way there and I still got some weeks before the season starts. Hopefully, I'll be ready to go."
Zuccarello's injury sidelined him for the remainder of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, though he practiced during the Rangers' run to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final. He revealed after the playoffs that he sustained a brain contusion and a hairline fracture in his skull and also lost the ability to speak and some feeling in his arm. He has since seen a speech therapist and has one more follow-up scheduled with a doctor.
"I couldn't do whatever I wanted to right away," Zuccarello said. "I had to wait a little bit. I haven't been skating for that long, but I mean other than that I feel good. All that's going to come as we go on the ice more and more here."
Zuccarello said he hopes he can play in the Rangers' first preseason game, Sept. 21 against the New Jersey Devils at Madison Square Garden.
"That's my goal," he said. "Hopefully, I'm ready to go right away. Like I said, I feel bad today, but it's going to take me time to just get back on the ice and the timing and stuff, but it's the same for everyone.
"It's hard to say before I go on the ice and play a game if it's going to affect me. I don't think about it. All I think about is getting back in shape and getting back to being [game] ready. Nothing more than that.""O.J.: Made in America," a nearly eight-hour documentary by filmmakers Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow, won the Academy Award for best documentary feature Sunday night at the 89th Academy Awards, bringing ESPN Films its first Oscar.
The film, part of ESPN's 30 for 30 series, told the story of Pro Football Hall of Famer O.J. Simpson, but was also a cultural look into race, celebrity, media and the criminal justice system in America.
At seven hours and 47 minutes, "O.J.: Made in America" is the longest film to win an Academy Award, eclipsing the 1969 Best Foreign Language Film winner "War and Peace'' (431 minutes).
In his acceptance speech, Edelman paid tribute to Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, who were brutally murdered in June 1994.
Editor's Picks 'Moonlight' wins best picture after fumbled presentation "Moonlight" won the Academy Award for best picture at the 2017 Oscars after "La La Land" was mistakenly announced as the winner.
O.J. Simpson was found not guilty of the murders in his 1995 criminal trial, but he was later found liable in a civil trial.
The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival just over a year ago and had a theatrical run that qualified for an Oscar. The film then aired in June on ABC and ESPN as a five-part, eight-hour series.
"I am so proud that 'Academy Award-winning' is now the latest accolade for ESPN Films," said ESPN president John Skipper. "I have often remarked on the incredible work that the ESPN Films group does and how they have grown 30 for 30 into one of our company's most beloved brands. What started as a celebration of ESPN's 30th anniversary has evolved into a series that consistently brings to life some of sports' most compelling stories and helps our fans look at them with fresh eyes.
ESPN's "O.J.: Made in America'' took best documentary, making it -- at 467 minutes -- the longest Oscar winner ever, beating out the 1969 Best Foreign Language Film winner "War and Peace'' (431 minutes). Vince Bucci/AFP/Getty Images
"The breadth of the O.J. Simpson story captured by this film is astounding, and even those who thought they were familiar with this saga learned something new."
ESPN Films senior vice president and 30 for 30 co-creator Connor Schell has said his team did not set out looking to make an Oscar-worthy movie.
"We never really considered what the awards strategy would be," Schell recently told Variety. "It was always like, 'Can we make something meaningful and powerful and relevant that people will talk about?' The fact that a year after we premiered it at Sundance people still want to talk about it and recognize Ezra for what he created... that's what you dream of when you set out to tell a story."
"O.J.: Made In America" will be shown for five straight nights, starting Monday, from 11 p.m.-1 a.m. ET on ESPN2. It will also air uninterrupted from 1-9 a.m. ET on Saturday on ESPN2. The documentary is also available at any time on WatchESPN.Statue of Confederate soldier nicknamed Silent Sam in Chapel Hill, N.C. (Reuters photo: Jonathan Drake)
Yes, honorable men can fight for dishonorable causes.
In the town square in Mount Pleasant, Tenn. — just a few miles from my house — there stands a weatherbeaten monument to a small Confederate unit nicknamed the Bigby Greys. Sworn into service on April 20, 1861, Company C of the Third Tennessee infantry numbered just over 100 men. They fought in most of the significant campaigns of the western theater of the Civil War. From Fort Donelson to Vicksburg to the Atlanta campaign and through General John Bell Hood’s desperate and doomed offensive in Tennessee, the Greys bled and died. The entire Third Infantry suffered immensely. By late 1864, only 17 men remained.
The Mount Pleasant monument was dedicated on September 27, 1907, during one of the first waves of Confederate monument-building. It was a day-long affair, featuring meals, prayers, and speeches. Confederate veterans were present, men who were reportedly moved to tears by the event. At the base of the monument, a simple poem is engraved — hardly readable today:
Crest to crest they bore our banner Side by side they fell asleep Hand to hand we rear his token Heart to heart we kneel and weep
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I live in a place steeped in antebellum and Civil War history. Just down the street stands Samuel Watkins’s historic home. Watkins served in the Confederate Army and wrote a book about his experience, Company Aytch, one of the few published memoirs from the common soldier’s perspective. He’s buried in my church cemetery, along with dozens of other Confederate veterans.
But Confederate history isn’t the only history. There’s a newer monument on my church grounds, this one dedicated to the slaves who were also members of the church, people who left our congregation after emancipation and started their own church not far away. Both churches still stand, and in both churches there are descendants of that Civil War generation.
I think of this history often — and not just because I see the tombstones and monuments every time I’m on church grounds. My own ancestors were Confederates — on both sides of my family — and they fought in the same battles and campaigns as the Bigby Greys. I was taught the names of the battles from childhood: Shiloh, Vicksburg, Franklin, and Nashville. My uncle’s house in Nashville sits on a spot not far from where a member of our family fought for his life in one of the last and most futile battles of the war.
Earlier this week, Donald Trump’s chief of staff, General John Kelly, reignited a controversy that never truly dies. In the middle of discussing whether historical monuments should still stand, he echoed a common view of the Civil War that critics are calling “white nationalist.” He said three things of real note, that “the lack of an ability to compromise led to the Civil War,” that Robert E. Lee was an “honorable man who gave up his country to fight for his state,” and that “men and women of good faith on both sides made their stand where their conscience had them make their stand.”
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Putting aside the issue of compromise (a series of compromises long sustained the moral atrocity that was slavery; it was doomed when both sides ultimately rejected additional compromise), let’s focus on a different question. Could “honorable” men — or men of “good faith” — wear gray? Or was the decision to march and fight in the Army of Northern Virginia or the Army of Tennessee dishonorable to its very core? Were my ancestors dishonorable people?
I agree with General Kelly on his core point. Honorable men could and did choose to fight for the Confederacy. That does not mean that they fought for an honorable cause. The southern states seceded to preserve slavery. That’s plain from their articles of secession. While a free people have a right to self-determination — and that includes a right of secession — the cause for which they seceded was repugnant and reprehensible. No amount of revisionist history can permit the descendants of Confederates to turn away from this terrible truth.
In 1861, the invading northern army was not seeking to free the slaves. It was attempting to restore the union by sheer force of arms.
But many truths operate at once, and here are others. In 1861, the invading northern army was not seeking to free the slaves. It was attempting to restore the union by sheer force of arms. The Confederates who lived in the southern states — even those who opposed secession — saw themselves as citizens of their states, yes, but also as citizens of an entirely different and new nation. One nation was invading another, and invasions mean death, destruction, and despair.
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Moreover, lest anyone doubt the fear of mass death, there is something else that was front of mind for the white men and women of the South — the fear of a bloody, genocidal slave rebellion. Time and again, the declarations of causes of the seceding states condemn the North for attempting to incite “servile insurrection” or “servile war.” Southerners were appalled at the northern response to John Brown’s unabashed attempted to ignite a slave rebellion across the South.
Southerners remembered Nat Turner’s rebellion, and while contemporary Americans tend to celebrate Turner, they do so mainly by ignoring his terrible crimes. Here’s what I wrote last year, in response to the film Birth of a Nation:
When Turner launched his real-life revolt, it wasn’t so much a battle against white oppression as it was a pure killing spree — a mass murder of 57 people that included women and young children. Turner’s men hacked kids to death. In one instance, they attacked a school. In another, they reportedly returned to a house after they realized they’d left a child alive. They killed an infant in its cradle and dumped the body in a fireplace.... When northern abolitionists celebrated Brown and treated him as a righteous martyr in a holy cause, white southerners believed that northern radicals wanted them dead.
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If you’re a citizen of a new nation — a nation wrongly born, to be sure, but a nation nonetheless — and an invading army is marching to your doorstep, an army that you believe contains radical elements that want to incite a horrific bloodbath, then, yes, an honorable man can take up arms. He can choose to fight against an invader to defend hearth and home.
But that is of course not the only honorable course, and not every Confederate was honorable, including many of the Confederates who are memorialized in monuments today. And there were certainly southerners who were capable of making a different and more honorable choice, a choice to preserve the Union and eradicate slavery. For example, every American should know the name of General George Thomas, the Rock of Chickamauga.
Thomas had compelling reasons to join the Confederacy. Born into the planter class in Virginia, his family — including his mother — narrowly escaped death in Nat Turner’s rebellion. Yet when war came, he wore blue. His sister disowned him, calling him “false to his family, his state, and to his friends.” Southern officers who joined the Confederacy labeled him a traitor.
Thomas held true to his conscience and fought with extreme courage. His finest moment came in the Battle of Chickamauga, one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. On the final day of the battle, as Union lines collapsed around him — threatening a catastrophic defeat — Thomas’s divisions stood strong. In a way, he was the mirror image of another Virginian, Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson, the man whose defensive stand saved the Confederate Army at the first Battle of Bull Run.
In fact, Jackson and Thomas make for an interesting contrast, a living demonstration of how two men — to use Kelly’s words — “of good faith” could make different, but still honorable choices. There is not, however, moral equivalence between the two generals. Thomas is the rarest of men, a person able to rise above the pressures of place and peers to perceive enduring truth. How many of us could so bravely defy family, state, and friends? If we want to be men of honor and conviction, it is worth praying, “Lord make me like General Thomas.”
Now we’re supposed to despise Confederates more than Lincoln himself did.
Those conflicts of conviction and conscience made the Civil War so very painful, but they also allowed for an immense amount of mutual respect. But now we’re supposed to despise Confederates more than Lincoln himself did. “With malice toward none, with charity for all” gives way to yanking down statues and declaring as “white nationalist” men and women, like General Kelly, who mirror the views of many of the Union leaders who preserved this nation.
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In the battle over monuments, the answer isn’t fewer statues. We don’t suffer from too much historical knowledge. We have far too little. Why is Stonewall Jackson a household name while George Thomas is mainly remembered by Civil War nerds? Why do we remember Nat Turner more than Sergeant William Carney, the first black recipient of the Medal of Honor? He carried the Union standard, “uphill on his knees,” shot in the thigh during the assault on Fort Wagner, S.C. More than two dozen African Americans were awarded the Medal of Honor in the Civil War. Let’s honor their courage. Let’s remember their convictions.
In other words, we need to remember history in full. And that means understanding complexities. It means realizing that honorable men can fight for the wrong cause yet for honorable reasons. It also means understanding that there are those who made the best decisions, for the best reasons, and our nation exists today because of their valor and their sacrifice.
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There are weatherbeaten statues in many town squares. Don’t pull them down. Let’s put up new statues that tell different stories. Let’s give a voice to people who had no voice. Most people walk by monuments like the monument in Mount Pleasant and don’t pay the slightest bit of attention. But others stay, they strain to read the inscription on the stone, and they learn. It’s time for all of us to learn more.
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Confederate Statues Honor Timeless Virtues — Let Them Stay
The Double Standard in the Progressive War against the Dead
Seeing the Confederacy Clear: The Terrible Issue of MonumentsAt a recent debate concerning the National Security Agency’s bulk surveillance programs, former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden admitted that metadata is used as the basis for killing people.
The comments were made during a debate at Johns Hopkins University, after Georgetown University Law Center professor David Cole detailed the kind of information the government can obtain simply by collecting metadata – who you call, when you call them, how long the call lasts, and how often calls between the two parties are made.
Although NSA supporters often claim such metadata collection is permissible considering the content of the call is not collected, Cole argued that is not the case, since the former general counsel of the NSA, Stewart Baker, has already stated metadata alone is more than enough to reveal vast amounts of an individual’s personal information
Writing in the New York Review of Books, Cole elaborated (you can also watch his explanation around the 14 minute mark of the embedded video):
“Of course knowing the content of a call can be crucial to establishing a particular threat. But metadata alone can provide an extremely detailed picture of a person’s most intimate associations and interests, and it’s actually much easier as a technological matter to search huge amounts of metadata than to listen to millions of phone calls. As NSA General Counsel Stewart Baker has said,'metadata absolutely tells you everything about somebody’s life. If you have enough metadata, you don’t really need content.'
“When I quoted Baker at a recent debate at Johns Hopkins University, my opponent, General Michael Hayden, former director of the NSA and the CIA, called Baker’s comment 'absolutely correct,' and raised him one, asserting, ‘We kill people based on metadata.’”
Hayden paused after making this statement – around the 18 minute mark of the video – and then qualified it by adding, “but that’s not what we do with this metadata.”
Presumably, when Hayden emphasizes “this metadata,” he is referring to the information collected from American citizens. As RT reported in February, the US is already using metadata to select targets for drone strikes around the world. In a report for the Intercept, an unnamed drone operator – backed up by documents leaked by Edward Snowden – said the agency analyzes metadata as well as mobile-tracking technology to determine targets, without employing human intelligence to confirm a suspect’s identity.
“People get hung up that there’s a targeted list of people,” the operator said. “It’s really like we’re targeting a cell phone. We’re not going after people – we’re going after their phones, in the hopes that the person on the other end of that missile is the bad guy.”
According to Cole, the realization that the NSA is collecting such vast amounts of information has prompted action from both Democrats and Republicans in Washington. Last week, two committees in the House of Representatives recently voted unanimously to support the USA Freedom Act, which would bar the NSA from collecting metadata in bulk. The data would remain in the possession of telecommunications companies, only to be accessed by the government if it can prove reasonable suspicion to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
As noted by Cole, however, the bill doesn’t address all the facets of the NSA’s surveillance program. As its currently written, the Freedom Act only applies to American citizens, not foreigners who are also under surveillance, nor does it address what he termed the NSA’s “guerilla-like tactics of inserting vulnerabilities into computer software and drivers, to be exploited later to surreptitiously intercept private communications.”
As RT reported previously, the NSA designed at least two encryption tools offered by the security firm RSA – one of which was made the default option, and which allowed the NSA to easily infiltrate computer security systems.A Yonkers fire lieutenant crawled past heavy fire to rescue a woman trapped in the back bedroom of a flame-engulfed apartment on Christmas morning, according to officials. (Published Friday, Dec. 25, 2015)
A Yonkers fire lieutenant crawled past heavy fire to rescue a woman trapped in the back bedroom of a flame-engulfed apartment on Christmas morning, according to the local department and union.
The Yonkers Uniformed Fire Officers Association said Lt. Danny Nee, a six-year members of the Yonkers Fire Department and an Iraq War veteran, responded to the eight-story apartment building on Bronx River Road after getting a call about smoke coming from a third-floor apartment around 10 a.m.
As they were en route, a woman called 911 in a panic, saying she was trapped in the bedroom, according to the union. The woman told the 911 operator heavy fire in the living room was blocking her way out and her bedroom had filled with smoke.
Nee and the other firefighters arrived minutes after being dispatched to the scene, and as crew members worked to stretch a hose to the burning apartment, Nee crawled into the burning building and made his way to the back bedroom.
Amid heavy smoke, he shared his air mask with the woman and brought her to safety, the union said. The fire was put out a short time later.
Both Nee and the woman were taken to a hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. Nee also got a cut on his hand, but both he and the woman are expected to be OK.
The woman's apartment suffered heavy fire damage; authorities said the blaze started near the sofa and spread to a Christmas tree. Other apartments in the building had smoke and water damage. The cause of the blaze is under investigation, but authorities said it appears accidental.So in our continuing run of posts, which The Horde has dubbed "The TNC Futility" series, we have a chart showing the relative poverty levels of the neighborhoods where blacks and whites in America have lived across two generations. One generation was born between 1955 and 1970. The other generation was born between 1985 and 2000. The data was compiled by Patrick Sharkey for his excellent book Stuck in Place. It is pulled from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, a longitudinal study which began in the late 60s. I think I've used this chart before, but it bears another look.
As you can see, the majority of black people live in conditions that very few white people ever experience, and a significant number of black people live in conditions which virtually no white people experience. This has not changed. For the first generation 62 percent of black people, but only 4 percent of white people, lived in neighborhoods where 20 percent or more of the people were poor. In the second generations 66 percent of black people, and 6 percent of white people, lived in such conditions. In both generations a third of all black people lived in neighborhoods where 30 percent of the population was below the poverty line. Only one percent of all white people lived in such situations.
The vast majority of white people live in low poverty neighborhoods. The vast majority of black people live in moderate to high poverty neighborhoods, with the scale tipping toward the high end. Only 10 percent of all African-Americans experience the kind of neighborhood ecology that 61 percent of white people experience. It's interesting that the trend line--even for white neighborhoods--is pointing down. Canaries in the coal mine I guess.
It's important to understand that a direct line from neighborhood poverty to individual poverty can not necessarily be drawn. On the contrary, individual affluent African-Americans tend to live in neighborhoods that are a step below individual affluent whites. [A]lmost half (49 percent) of black children with family income in the top three quintiles lived in neighborhoods with at least 20 percent poverty," writes Sharkey. "Compared to only one percent of white children in those quintiles." The sociologist John Logan found that, over the past two decades, affluent blacks tended to live around more poverty, than poor whites.
So this is not simply a question of "the black poor" or even "the poor." Helping the poor is a noble goal on to itself. But it isn't the same as addressing the effects of a tradition of racist policy. The two are related--much like homophobia and misogyny are related. But just as same-sex marriage and abortion rights are not the same thing, neither is America's toleration of racism, and its toleration of inequality, color regardless.
About those baguettes: I forgot to close out my last post with some sort of notation on the culinary adventures of this particular black family which--for the first time ever--finds itself living in that black ten percent. I tried to teach my son some knife skills in the kitchen this weekend--I started cutting when I was about his age. This ended in bandages. Just a flesh wound, I assure you. But afterward the boy looked at me like I was Jesus walking and said, "If you weren't here, I would have been freaking out." Do not think I have forgotten the importance, and particular magic, of black fatherhood. I think I wanted to be a father not out of any sense of nobility but for that moment, right there. To feel needed. To be singularly important to someone.
After I bandaged him up he sat in the kitchen and watched me cut up a chicken, make a quick stock, and then some noodle soup. I then announced that we would, again, try our hand at a cake--but this time something basic and yellow. The boy went and watched a 20-minute video of Christopher Kimball baking a cake. He then returned and said, "I want to do it." And he did it. It was awesome--light and not overly sweet. The only help he got from me was getting the batter into the pan.
It was then that I remembered that someday I would not be so needed, not so singularly important. Already he is coming home with notes from girls. One of them is going to sweep him away from me. And then it will just me and his mother again. And France. We'll be free and that will be nice. But we will never again be so terribly needed.That email sparked outrage among some students. Not long after, the professor announced he would step down.
"I made a mistake, and I do not want to cause further harm," Brigham told KOMU in an email earlier Wednesday as he awaited the university's response.
Late Wednesday afternoon, KOMU quoted Christian Basi, a spokesman for the university, as saying Brigham's resignation wasn't accepted. No reason was given.
Brigham's resignation was first reported Wednesday morning by The Washington Post. Neither Brigham nor the university responded to NBC News' requests for comment Wednesday night.
Until his email, Brigham had no apparent connection to racial unrest on the school's Columbia campus, where protests culminated Monday with the resignations of two top administrators.
During the celebrations that followed, activists — including faculty members — clashed with journalists, spawning a spinoff debate about freedom of the press. Two of the faculty members publicly apologized.
Then on Wednesday, police arrested a student who they said had threatened black students and faculty on social media.
That was when Brigham, who is white, waded into the firestorm with his email.
"If you don’t feel safe coming to class, then don't come to class," he wrote his nutritional science students. "I will be there, and there will be an exam administered in our class."
Some students posted parts of the message on social media and shared their dismay.
"I am just trying to do what I think is best for our students and the university as an institution," Brigham wrote. "If my leaders think that my leaving would help, I am all for it."
The university's administration announced a series of steps to bring calm to the campus Wednesday. That will include a panel Friday with faculty "who will share their teaching experiences this week."Picking a president is always about personality, when you get right down to it. And this contest is between a candidate who wins votes by boasting about his business genius, and a woman whose headline quality is her nerdy work ethic. So the question going into tonight was, can the rich guy breeze his way through 90 minutes of debating the future of America—or can a wonk wrong-foot him?
Well, the first presidential debate of 2016 goes to the nerd—and she won it only about an hour into the debate.
The turning-point moment came during a heated exchange about race in America. Donald Trump was detailing his discussions with law enforcement officials, when he saw a dig he couldn’t resist: needling Hillary Clinton for staying off the trail in the last week.
“I’ve been all over the place. You decided to stay home, and that’s okay,” said Trump.
Clinton waited patiently—with that intensely calm blinking—while he finally wound up his rambling sentence—and then pounced.
“I think Donald just criticized me for preparing for this debate. And yes, I did,” Clinton said. “And you know what else I prepared for? I prepared to be president. And I think that’s a good thing.”
The audience at the Hofstra University auditorium defied the ban on noisemaking to cheer.
In that moment, Clinton pulled off a few things. First there’s the compelling analogy she drew. For the first hour of the debate, she handled questions firmly and cogently, while still managing to get under Trump’s skin by questioning his wealth and his honesty. Maintaining that calm slow-mo nod and rhythmic blinking, as Trump huffed, sniffed, squinted, and interrupted.
By likening her obvious success in the debate to her commitment to being president, Clinton reminded the voters she needs to reach of how hard she’ll work for them. The contrast she drew was similarly sharp: Trump’s retread of rally speeches shows he prepared hardly at all. She also lightly highlighted one of the nastier of Trump’s impulses, the sarcastic asides.
Clinton also owned her diligence, which is a quality that can sometimes come off as too goody-goody. That might ring familiar to women used to having to dumb down their participation in class or at work in order not to show up their male classmates and colleagues. Finally, the line was funny, capping off her composure and genuineness with the casual humor reminiscent of Barack Obama—which is about as presidential as you can get.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article had a headline based off a quote that was incorrectly transcribed. The quote has been corrected.Nigel Farage was last night accused of homophobia after footage emerged of him making a joke about ‘fags’ in a best man speech.
The Ukip leader’s final hours of election campaigning were overshadowed by the release of the video of his brother’s wedding.
The singer Rod Stewart, who was a guest at the July 2001 wedding, appeared visibly uncomfortable after Mr Farage used the word ‘fags’ as part of a joke about the death of a man at Michael Barrymore’s house, which happened months earlier.
Video footage has emerged showing Ukip leader Nigel Farage using the word 'fag' while making a joke about the death of a man in Michael Barrymore's pool at his brother's wedding
Mr Farage yesterday pulled out of a planned visit to a bingo hall shortly after he was contacted by the Mail about the film.
He claimed that he had intended ‘no malice’ with the joke, but did not apologise.
He said: ‘It was a best man’s speech for Christ sake. If you look at the whole video I told a whole series of jokes.
‘There was absolutely no malice intended in it at all. That particular joke was one doing the rounds quite widely at the time.’
A Ukip source last night said Mr Farage had pulled out of the bingo event because of concerns the hall would be too dark for photographs.
The wedding guest who made the recording handed it to the Mail because he said he it showed Mr Farage is homophobic.
Mr Farage refused to apologise over the remark, saying there was 'no malice' in it, and that it had been 'doing the rounds quite widely at the time'
He said: ‘He is homophobic. It’s disgusting. He is an out and out liar if he says he is not homophobic, there’s no question of that.
‘His attitude is dreadful. He is now trying the soft touch, but he’s definitely homophobic. No question about it. He is a total hypocrite. I want the nation to see it.
‘He claims not to be homophobic but why tell a joke about throwing fags in a pool at his brother’s wedding?’
The footage shows Mr Farage, 51, as he gave the speech during the reception after his younger brother Andrew, 48, got married to his wife Wendy, 41.
The meal was held in a marquee put up in Mr Farage’s home village, Downe in Kent.
Mr Farage, who appears much younger in the video with a full head of black hair, says that he would like to start the speech with some ‘housekeeping’.
He said: ‘As far as smokers here are concerned there’s good news and bad news for you. The bad news was we were not allowed to smoke until the coffee |
Utah prison, where he developed what became known as "The Lamm Technique",[6] in which he pioneered the concept of "casing" banks.[7]
The system involved carefully studying a target bank for many hours before the robbery, developing a detailed floor plan, noting the location of safes, taking meticulous notes and establishing escape routes.[2][3] He would occasionally have a man pose as a journalist to better understand the inner workings of the bank.[9] Lamm assigned each gang member a specific job, along with a specific zone of the bank they were charged with surveying and a strict timetable to complete their stage of the robbery.[2][6][8] Among the jobs he assigned to his fellow robbers were the lookout, the getaway driver, the lobby man and the vault man.[7] He also put his men through a series of rehearsals, some of which involved using a full-scale mock-up of the interior of the bank. Lamm stressed the importance of timing during these practice runs, and used stopwatches to ensure the proper results were achieved. He only allowed his gang members to stay in a bank for a specific period of time, regardless of how much money they could steal.[2][6]
Lamm is also credited with devising the first detailed bank robbery getaway maps, which he called "gits". Once Lamm targeted a bank, he mapped the nearby back roads, which he called "cat roads", to a tenth of a mile.[7] He meticulously developed getaway plans for each of his robberies. Before every heist, Lamm obtained a nondescript car with a high-powered engine, and often recruited drivers who had been involved in auto racing. Lamm pasted a chart on the dashboard for the driver, which included block-by-block markings of escape routes, alternative turns and speedometer readings. Before each run, Lamm and the getaway driver clocked each route to the second under various weather conditions.[2][8] Practice runs on the escape routes and alternative routes would take days to master.[6] Using this system, Lamm and his gang conducted dozens of successful bank robberies from the end of World War I to 1930, taking more than $1 million in total.[2][6][7] They were considered the most efficient gang of bank robbers of the era.[2]
Lamm had several run-ins with the authorities, using several aliases. After he and an accomplice were arrested in Finley County, North Carolina, in February 1927, Lamm's past came up when police discovered previous criminal suspicion. In a bond hearing to determine Lamm's fate (he was using the alias "Robert J. Masden" at the time), evidence showed that he was arrested in San Francisco in December 1914 (under his actual name), on a charge of robbery, but there was no known disposition of the case. Also under his real name, he was arrested in Superior, Wisconsin, in June 1918 under suspicion of being connected with a hold-up. He was told to leave the city after no connection could be established. He was arrested under the alias "Harry K. Lamb" in Kansas City, Missouri, in July 1918, but was released. And as "Thomas Bell" he was arrested in St. Joseph, Missouri, in December 1920, on a charge of burglary.[10] This was the alias he was originally identified as upon his death in 1930. In May 1929, Lamm was arrested in Benton, Illinois, and it was discovered he was a suspect in robbery of the Northwestern National Bank of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.[11]
Death [ edit ]
John Dillinger (pictured) studied and used the bank robbery techniques developed by Lamm. studied and used the bank robbery techniques developed by Lamm.
Lamm died on December 16, 1930 after a botched bank robbery in Clinton, Indiana.[3] After stealing $15,567 from the Citizens State Bank, getaway driver and ex-rum-runner W. H. Hunter noticed a local barber approaching the car with a shotgun.[2][8][12] The barber was one of thousands of Indiana citizens organized to help police fight a growing number of bank robberies in the state. The driver panicked and pulled a fast U-turn, causing the Buick sedan to blow a tire after jumping a curb. Lamm and his men seized a second car, but were forced to abandon it after they realized it could go no more than 35 miles per hour (56 km/h) because it was fitted with a governor, which the car's owner had installed to prevent his elderly father from driving recklessly.[2][8]
The gang seized a third vehicle, a truck, but because it had very little water in the radiator, they were forced to seize a fourth vehicle (another car), which had only one gallon of gas in the tank.[2][8] Lamm and his gang were cornered near Sidell, Illinois, by about 200 police officers and armed citizens. A massive gun battle ensued, in which Hunter was wounded and later died.[2][12] Lamm and another gang member, 71-year-old G. W. "Dad" Landy, shot themselves in the head rather than surrender.[5] Two survivors of Lamm's gang, Walter Dietrich and James "Oklahoma Jack" Clark, were captured and eventually sentenced to life in an Indiana state prison.[2][12]
Legacy [ edit ]
Lamm is widely considered one of the most brilliant and efficient bank robbers to have ever lived,[2][6] and has been described as "the father of modern bank robbery".[4] By his death in 1930, the Lamm Technique had already been widely imitated by other bank robbers across the country.[7] Infamous bank robber John Dillinger studied Lamm's meticulous bank-robbing system and used it extensively throughout his criminal career.[3][12] Dietrich and Clark met Dillinger during their stint in the Indiana state prison following Lamm's death. The pair were permitted to join Dillinger's gang on the condition they teach him everything they knew about the Lamm Technique.[2][12]Edited by Dave Armstrong on 1-22-15, from Dan Marcum’s manuscript. ***
This was originally posted in the Catholic Answers forum on 9 January 2015 and then expanded later on. I modified the title of #11 and deleted one quotation from it (which I felt was off-topic), and shortened many other titles. * * * * *
1. Tradition
“We must put ourselves in line with the great Tradition which [is] under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and of the Magisterium.” source
“[T]he Tradition of the entire People of God over the centuries…cannot be mistaken in belief.” source
“The Pope, in this context, is not the supreme lord but rather the supreme servant – the ‘servant of the servants of God’; the guarantor of the obedience and the conformity of the Church…to the Tradition of the Church, putting aside every personal whim.” source
2. No Salvation Outside the Church
“[Do not] fall into the temptation of thinking…that we can get along without the Church, that we can save ourselves on our own… On the contrary…you cannot love God outside of the Church; you cannot be in communion with God without being so in the Church.” source
“It is not possible to love Christ but without the Church, to listen to Christ but not the Church, to belong to Christ but outside the Church.” source
“Consequently, one cannot understand a Christian apart from the People of God. For a Christian is not a monad, off somewhere alone. No, he belongs to a people, to the Church, so much so…that a Christian without the Church is a pure ideal, not a reality!” source
“It is an absurd dichotomy to think of living with Christ without the Church, of following Jesus outside his Church, of loving Jesus without loving the Church.” source
3. Church Infallibility
“[W]hen the Church, in the variety of her charisms, expresses herself in communion, she cannot err.” source
“[A]bove all faith is required of the Catholic exegete — [faith] received and shared with the whole believing people, which in its totality cannot err.” source
“The faith of the People of God…is a simple faith, a faith that is perhaps without much theology, but it has an inward theology that is not wrong, because the Spirit is behind it.” source
“[T]he Tradition of the entire People of God over the centuries…cannot be mistaken in belief.” source
4. Papal Infallibility
“[T]he presence of the Pope is the guarantee for all and the safeguard of the faith.” source
“The Pope, in this context, is…the guarantor of the obedience and the conformity of the Church to the will of God, to the Gospel of Christ.” source
“Everything happened cum Petro et sub Petro, that is, in the presence of the Pope, that is a guarantee of freedom and trust for all, and a guarantee of orthodoxy.” source
“And, as I have dared to tell you, [as] I told you from the beginning of the Synod, it was necessary to live through all this with tranquillity, and with interior peace, so that the Synod would take place cum Petro and sub Petro (with Peter and under Peter), and the presence of the Pope is the guarantee of it all.” source
5. The Universal Jurisdiction of the Pope
“The Pope…[is] – by the will of Christ Himself – the supreme Pastor and Teacher of all the faithful and [enjoys] supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church.” source
“Pope Francis, Supreme Pontiff…with a final and unappealable decision and subject to no recourse, has decreed dismissal from the clerical state is to be imposed on said priest for the good of the Church.” source
6. The Reality of the Devil
“[In] this generation, like so many others, people have been led to believe that the devil is a myth, a figure, an idea, the idea of evil. But the devil exists and we must fight against him. Paul tells us this, it’s not me saying it! The Word of God is telling us this. But we’re not all convinced of this.” source
“[T]he Prince of this world, Satan, doesn’t want our holiness, he doesn’t want us to follow Christ. Maybe some of you might say: ‘But Father, how old fashioned you are to speak about the devil in the 21st century!’ But look out because the devil is present! The devil is here… even in the 21st century! And we mustn’t be naïve, right? We must learn from the Gospel how to fight against Satan.” source
7. Traditional Marriage
“[T]he complementarity of man and woman…is at the root of marriage and family.” source
“The first setting in which faith enlightens the human city is the family. I think first and foremost of the stable union of man and woman in marriage.” source
“The family is experiencing a profound cultural crisis… Marriage now tends to be viewed as a form of mere emotional satisfaction that can be constructed in any way or modified at will. But…[as] the French bishops have taught, [marriage] is not born of loving sentiment, ephemeral by definition, but from the depth of the obligation assumed by the spouses who accept to enter a total communion of life.” source
“May this colloquium be an inspiration to all who seek to support and strengthen the union of man and woman in marriage as a unique, natural, fundamental and beautiful good for persons, families, communities, and whole societies.” source
8. Opposition to Abortion
“It is must be therefore reiterated the strongest opposition to any direct attack on life, especially innocent and defenseless life, and the unborn child in the womb is the most concrete example of innocence.” source
“From the moment of its conception, life must be guarded with the greatest care while abortion and infanticide are unspeakable crimes.” source
“[So] many times in my life as a priest I have heard objections: ‘But tell me, why the Church is opposed to abortion, for example? Is it a religious problem?’ No, no. It is not a religious problem. ‘Is it a philosophical problem?’ No, it is not a philosophical problem. It’s a scientific problem, because there is a human life there, and it is not lawful to take out a human life to solve a problem. ‘But no, modern thought…’ But, listen, in ancient thought and modern thought, the word ‘kill’ means the same thing. The same evaluation applies to euthanasia.” source
9. Opposition to the Ordination of Women
“[As] far as women’s ordination is concerned, the Church has spoken and said: ‘No’. John Paul II said it, but with a definitive formulation. That door is closed.” source
“The reservation of the priesthood to males, as a sign of Christ the Spouse who gives himself in the Eucharist, is not a question open to discussion.” source
“Women in the Church must be valued not ‘clericalised’. Whoever thinks of women as cardinals suffers a bit from clericalism.” source
10. Opposition to Communion for the Divorced and Remarried
“About the problem of Communion to those persons in a second union, that the divorced might participate in Communion, there is no problem. When they are in a second union, they can’t. I believe that it is necessary to keep this within the entirety of pastoral care of marriage.” source
“The exclusion of divorced people who contract a second marriage from communion is not a [punishment]. It is important to remember this.” source
“People who are divorced can receive communion, people who are remarried can’t.” source
11. The Exclusiveness of Christian Indwelling of the Holy Spirit
“You can follow a thousand catechism courses, a thousand spirituality courses, a thousand yoga or zen courses and all these things. But none of this will be able to give you the freedom as a child (of God). Only the Holy Spirit can prompt your heart to say ‘Father.’ ” source
12. Condemnation of Media Distortion of his Papacy
“Look, I wrote an encyclical, true enough, it was a big job, and an Apostolic Exhortation, I’m permanently making statements, giving homilies; that’s teaching. That’s what I think, not what the media say that I think.” source
“[S]ome people are always afraid because they don’t read things properly, or they read some news in a newspaper, an article, and they don’t read what the synod decided, what was published. What was worthwhile about the synod? The post synodal connection and the Pope’s address. That is definitive.” source
13. The Reality of Hell
“[M]afia crimes [produce] blood money, it is power soaked in blood, and you cannot take it with you to the next life. Convert, there is still time, so that you don’t end up in hell. That is what awaits you if you continue on this path.” source
“God of infinite mercy… May none of your children be lost to the eternal fires of hell, where repentance is no more.” source
14. Opposition to Contraception
“[O]penness to life is a condition for the sacrament of matrimony. A man cannot give the sacrament to the woman…if they are not in accord on this point of openness to life. If it can be proved that he or she married with the intention of not being Catholic [on this point] then the matrimony is null. [It is] a cause for the annulment of the marriage, no? Openness to life. source
“[About] Humanae Vitae…[the] genius [of Pope Paul VI] was prophetic, as he had the courage to go against the majority, to defend moral discipline, to apply a cultural brake, to oppose present and future neo-Malthusianism.” source “Paul VI was not antiquated, close minded. No, [he was] a prophet again who with [Humanae Vitae] told us to watch out for the Neo-Malthusianism that is coming. This is what I [want] to say.” source
15. The Limits of Papal Infallibility
“If the Pope says that the earth is the centre of the universe, and not the sun, he errs, since he is affirming something that ought to be supported by science, and this will not do.” source
“I’m not a specialist on bioethical arguments, and I’m afraid of being mistaken in my words. The Church’s traditional doctrine states that no one is obliged to use extraordinary methods when someone is in his terminal phase. Pastorally, in these cases I have always advised palliative care. On more specific cases, should it be necessary, it’s appropriate to seek the advice of specialists.” source
16. The Limits of Free Speech Rights
“[F]reedom of expression must take account of the human reality and for this reason one must be prudent. … Prudence is the virtue that regulates our relations. I can go up to here, I can go up to there, and there, beyond that no. … For this reason freedom must be accompanied by prudence.” source
“We have the obligation to speak openly, to enjoy this freedom, but without offending others. … That is, there is a limit. Every religion has dignity; every religion that respects life, human life, the human person…I cannot make fun of it. This is a limit and I have taken this sense of limit to say that in freedom of expression there are limits.” source
17. The Doctrine of Just Warfare
“With terrorism one must fight, but I repeat what I said in my previous trip: when an unjust aggressor must be stopped, it must be done with an international consensus.” source
“One nation alone cannot determine how to stop an unjust aggressor. … To stop an unjust aggressor is a right of humanity, but it is also a right of the aggressor to be stopped in order not to do evil.” source “In reaffirming that it is licit, while always respecting international law, to stop an unjust aggressor, I wish to reiterate, moreover, that the problem cannot be resolved solely through a military response.” source
18. Condemnation of Recreational Drug Use
“Attempts, however limited, to legalize so-called ‘recreational drugs’, are not only highly questionable from a legislative standpoint, but they fail to produce the desired effects. Substitute drugs are not an adequate therapy but rather a veiled means of surrendering to the phenomenon. Here I would reaffirm what I have stated on another occasion: No to every type of drug use. It is as simple as that.” source
“I am delighted to welcome…the families of young people from San Patrignano, whom I join in saying no to every form of drugs. And perhaps it will do some good for everyone to say this, simply: no to every kind of drugs!” source “Let me state this in the clearest terms possible: the problem of drug use is not solved with drugs! Drug addiction is an evil, and with evil there can be no yielding or compromise. To think that harm can be reduced by permitting drug addicts to use narcotics in no way resolves the problem.” source
19. Condemnation of Euthanasia
“The dominant thinking sometimes suggests a ‘false compassion’, that which believes that it is: helpful to women to promote abortion; an act of dignity to obtain euthanasia; a scientific breakthrough to ‘produce’ a child and to consider it to be a right rather than a gift to welcome; or to use human lives as guinea pigs presumably to save others. Instead, the compassion of the Gospel is that which accompanies in times of need, that is, the compassion of the Good Samaritan, who ‘sees’, ‘has compassion’, approaches and provides concrete help.” source
“The same evaluation applies to euthanasia… [T]his is to say to God, ‘No, I will accomplish the end of life, as I will.’ A sin against God the Creator! Think hard about this.” source
“But there is also the reality of the abandonment of the elderly: how many times we discard older people with attitudes that are akin to a hidden form of euthanasia! The culture of discarding human beings hurts our world. We discard children, young people and older people under the pretense of maintaining a ‘balanced’, economic system the center of which is no longer the human person, but money. We are all called to counter this culture of poisonous waste!” source
20. Condemnation of Syncretism in Ecumenism
“In this [ecumenical] dialogue, ever friendly and sincere…[a] facile syncretism would ultimately be a totalitarian gesture on the part of those who would ignore greater values of which they are not the masters. True openness involves remaining steadfast in one’s deepest convictions, clear and joyful in one’s own identity… What is not helpful is a diplomatic openness which says ‘yes’ to everything in order to avoid problems, for this would be a way of deceiving others and denying them the good which we have been given to share generously with others. Evangelization and interreligious dialogue, far from being opposed, mutually support and nourish one another.” (Evangelii Gaudium 251) source
“Christians often do not even know the core of their Catholic faith, the Creed, so as to leave room for a certain syncretism and religious relativism, without clarity on the truths to be believed and the salvific uniqueness of Christianity. The risk is not far off today of people building a so-called “do-it-yourself” religion. Instead, we should return to God, the God of Jesus Christ, we must rediscover the message of the Gospel.” source
“We must be careful not to fall prey to conciliatory syncretism which, in the end, is empty and a harbinger of a totalitarianism without values. … This invites us, first, to return to the fundamentals.” source
21. Economic Subsidiarity
“[T]he social doctrine of the Church teaches us that the principle of solidarity [should be] implemented in harmony with that of subsidiarity. Thanks to the effects of these two principles, processes should be at the service of human beings and of the increase of justice, without which there can be no true and enduring peace.” source
“We [should] also learn to appreciate more fully the important values inspired by Christianity, such as the vision of the human person, the nature of marriage and the family, the proper distinction between the religious and political spheres, the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity, and many others.” source
“[T]he ideals which shaped Europe from the beginning [included] peace, subsidiarity and reciprocal solidarity, and a humanism centred on respect for the dignity of the human person.” source
22. Support of Catholic Apologetics
“[In] professional, scientific and academic circles…[we should be] developing new approaches and arguments on the issue of credibility, a creative apologetics which would encourage greater openness to the Gospel on the part of all.” (Evangelii Gaudium 132) source “[Confirmation] gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith… to confess the name of Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of his Cross.” source “[A] dialogue is not doing apologetics, although sometimes you must do so, when we are asked questions that require an explanation.” source
23. Support of the Mass in Latin and Ad Orientem
“By the celebration of the sacred mysteries according to the extraordinary form of the Roman rite…may [the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter] contribute, in fidelity to the living Tradition of the Church, to a better comprehension and implementation of the Second Vatican Council.” source
On January 12, 2014, Pope Francis celebrated Mass ad orientem. source
On October 31, 2013, Pope Francis celebrated Mass ad orientem. source
During his January, 2015 trip to the Philippines, Pope Francis celebrated Mass in Latin. source
On December 24, 2013, Pope Francis celebrated the traditional Latin Mass. source
24. Condemnation of Progressivism
“[The] spirit of adolescent progressivism” says, “[We] cannot become isolated or remain stuck in our old traditions. … And this is what we call apostasy; the prophets called it adultery. … Still today, the spirit of worldliness leads us to progressivism, to this uniformity of thought.” source
“[There is] a destructive tendency to goodness, that in the name of a deceptive mercy binds the wounds without first curing them and treating them; that treats the symptoms and not the causes and the roots. It is the temptation of the ‘do-gooders,’ of the fearful, and also of the so-called ‘progressives and liberals.’ ” source
* * * * *"Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson has shared some strong words regarding the current presidential election, stating that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is "living proof" that the devil is the "Father of Lies."
"Our founding fathers warned us repeatedly to never let this day come, but the day has now come upon us. I mean, think about it. The Democratic Party... when Barack Obama ran, they literally booed God out of the Democratic Party. I mean, not only ran Him out and took His name out of their platform, they booed Him out," Robertson said during a recent interview with Breitbart News Daily. "So, you get what you ask for, so here we are. So the bottom line is, [when someone said they] entertain the thought of maybe voting for Hillary Clinton, I said, they ran God out of the Democratic Party. She has a hard time telling the truth because the Evil One is the Father of Lies, according to Jesus, and she's living proof of it, my man."
The "Duck Commander" narrates Torchbearer, a new documentary directed by veteran filmmaker Steve Bannon that examines what happens to Western civilized societies when God is completely cut out from all spheres of public life.
"If you look around, the frustration you see coming out of America, in my opinion, is primarily being fueled by the depravity [that] has become mainstream," Robertson said during an earlier Breitbart interview. "Murder is mainstream, we slaughter our own children. We priss around and parade our perversion; it's being done in front of our very eyes. Depravity, literally. And I never thought I'd see it in my lifetime. But it has literally become mainstream."Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto delivers a message after US Republican candidate Donald Trump won an unexpected victory in the presidential election, Mexico City, Mexico. Thomson Reuters
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto's approval rating has slumped to a new low since Donald Trump won the US presidency last week, in part due to his invitation of the real-estate tycoon to Mexico during the campaign, a poll showed on Sunday.
The survey by polling firm Buendia & Laredo for newspaper El Universal said approval of Peña Nieto's performance had fallen to 25% from 29% in July, hurt by discontent about the economy, rising violence, and failure to battle corruption.
Peña Nieto's six-year term concludes at the end of November 2018, and opinion polls show his centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) faces an uphill battle to retain power after the next presidential election, scheduled for July 2018.
Mexican law bars the president from seeking reelection.
The government is scrambling to head off the risk of an economic shock from the election of Trump, who has pledged to isolate Mexico behind a border wall, and threatened to impose steep tariffs on Mexican goods and tear up a joint trade deal.
To try and create some leverage, Peña Nieto's government hosted Trump for talks on August 31. However, the hastily arranged visit was staged with scant input from the cabinet and created the impression it was realized on Trump's terms.
Then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto shake hands at a press conference at the Los Pinos residence in Mexico City, August 31, 2016. Reuters/Henry Romero
Some 66% of respondents said Peña Nieto had made a mistake in inviting Trump because he had offended Mexicans in the election campaign. Only 30% believed it was a wise move that furthered Mexico's interests, the survey showed.
When asked what was the "worst thing" Peña Nieto had done, 7% of respondents cited the meeting with Trump, the third-most-common answer. Only his reforms (12%), and failing to battle crime (9%) were cited more often.
The November 11-15 survey polled 1,000 permanent residents of Mexico and yielded Peña Nieto's lowest approval rating from Buendia & Laredo since he took office in December 2012.
A Mexican client who lives in the US looks at a piñata depicting US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump hanging outside a workshop in Reynosa, Mexico, June 23, 2015. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril
Another poll, conducted by Mexican newspaper Reforma in mid-August, prior to Trump's visit, found that Peña Nieto's approval rating had sunk 7 points since April, hitting 23% — the lowest rating for a Mexican president since the latter half of the 1990s.
That Reforma poll found 60% of respondents said security in Mexico had worsened, while about 70% said poverty and violence had gone up over the last year.
Reforma's poll also found that 55% of those surveyed thought corruption in the federal government had gotten worse — up from 40% who said the same in April.
Trump sparked outrage in Mexico when he launched his bid for the presidency last year by accusing the country of sending rapists and drug runners north as illegal immigrants. Trump's presidency may yet confirm the pre-election suspicions of some that the composition of the US government will influence the outcome of Mexico's 2018 presidential election.
Peña Nieto's close aide Luis Videgaray, who government officials said was the architect of the meeting, stood down as finance minister a week after Trump's trip. The president himself later conceded the visit could have been handled better.A number of conservative activists and bloggers say they’re furious at media magnate Glenn Beck for what they call content theft. Over the past several years, Beck has relied on video, audio and written content from others to fill his radio and television shows, as well as his websites. Often he has credited his fellow conservatives for their work. Yet in many other instances say dozens of conservative journalists who spoke to The Daily Caller, he has not, often taking elaborate steps to cloak the origins of the material.
Publisher Andrew Breitbart has seen a number of his stories surface on various Beck media properties over the past few years. While he describes himself as “grateful for the many times he has credited me and my sites,” Breitbart says that “sometimes he also uses other peoples’ work without crediting them, making it appear as though it were his own. But especially since adopting ‘The Truth Has No Agenda’ slogan – and trying to deliberately re-position himself as the pious conscience and judge of many of those he took content from – he has exposed himself to his new motto’s unforgiving standard.”
By any standard, Beck seems unusually reliant on the work of others, and unusually reluctant to credit it. In an interview with TheDC, Roger L. Simon, CEO of Pajamas Media, suggested that Beck has committed the journalistic equivalent of a notorious crime. “It is not a question of just doing it right the majority of the time. It is a question of doing it right always,” Simon said. “Doris Kearns Goodwin is forever a fraud in my estimation because she has been caught plagiarizing once. If you rob a bank once, you still robbed a bank.”
A remarkably large number of conservative writers say they feel robbed. During the March 18 airing of his television program, for example, Beck ran a portion of video created by a Chicago-based blogger who calls himself Rebel Pundit. The blogger, who does not publicly reveal his name, says he was initially pleased to see Beck running his video, which featured left-wing protesters demanding amnesty for illegal immigrants. He was soon shocked, however, to see that Beck’s staff had obscured the watermark logo of his website, RebelPundit.com, from the tape.
“I put my website name on there for a reason – to bring people from the movement to my website so they can see the other stuff that I’ve done,” the man behind Rebel Pundit told TheDC. “You’ve got pretty much the biggest guy in the movement take your stuff and actually have his editors spend the time to scrub my name off of it.”
Ironically, while Beck’s staff had gone to the trouble of removing any trace of the phrase “rebelpundit.com” from the video, they apparently missed an obvious obscenity in the background of the frame. Clearly visible on a sign held by one of the protestors was the demand, “Open the fucking border.” When it appeared on his show, Beck said, “Oh, don’t show that please.”
It was hardly an isolated incident. On a number of occasions, Beck has aired videos on his show without mentioning that they were produced by the Media Research Center (MRC), a conservative media watchdog group. On February 28 of this year, for example, Beck used MRC footage of Van Jones speaking at a rally in Washington’s Dupont Circle. Beck never indicated where the video came from, even as he berated the press for failing to investigate who was behind Jones’s rally.
The very next day, Beck aired footage on his show from the Wisconsin labor protests. The video was produced by a freelance journalist named Christian Hartsock, though viewers wouldn’t have known that since Hartsock’s name was never mentioned. “At the end of the day, what really matters is getting the message to the people,” Hartsock told TheDC. “With that said, I’m a journalist and credit is a currency, whether or not people admit to it.”
Mandy Nagy, a conservative blogger known online as Liberty Chick, spent untold hours last fall creating a chart that tracks left-wing billionaire George Soros’s influence over media organizations, only to see it appear, in its exact form and without any attribution, on Beck’s famous chalkboard. “We were laughing that he went to all the trouble of [recreating] the visual on the blackboard,” Nagy said, not sounding entirely amused.
John Sexton, who blogs at VerumSerum.com, has provided Beck with material several times, and has sometimes received credit for it. But in several other cases, Sexton says, “he’s used our stuff without any hat tip at all. I don’t understand that.” According to Sexton, in one instance even famously liberal CBS News credited VerumSerum.com for content it used, while Beck, who lifted the same material, did not.
Pamela Geller of AtlasShrugs.com recalls watching Beck use a story she wrote about campaign contributions the Obama campaign received from donors in Gaza. Many other publications referred to the story, Geller says, but only Beck refused to give her credit for it.
“I went through thousands of pages of FEC documents and it was an enormous task to uncover the campaign contributions from Gaza, a Hamas-controlled area, to President Obama,” Geller says. “It’s in my book and it wasn’t a secret that I wrote the story. I don’t know how to describe such outrageous and proud thievery. I like his work, but he’s a thief.”
Beck’s office responds to complaints like these by pointing out that Beck is a busy man who broadcasts in one form or another for nearly 1,000 hours a year. “Anyone could find examples of stories they think should have been sourced differently,” Beck’s representatives told TheDC. “In addition, many stories mentioned have multiple sources. Glenn’s shows have a high-standard and a long history of championing bloggers and attributing sources whenever possible including frequently providing extensive footnotes on GlennBeck.com. For example, The Blaze has already linked to The Daily Caller over 40 times, and the shows have cited a wide-range of bloggers, websites and reports over and over again.”
Yet not everyone gets credit. Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, who has written extensively on the Middle East, received a call earlier this year from one of Beck’s television producers about a show on radical Islam. “He was doing his Sharia and caliphate show,” Spencer says, “where he did a country-by-country survey of the Islamic movements in those countries and the likelihood that those countries were going to turn into full-fledged Islamic states, with Islamic law fully-implemented. I gave [the producer] all that information. She called me like five times that day. I was on the phone with her for a total of probably three hours or more. That entire Sharia-caliphate show was me.”
Spencer says Beck used everything he recommended. The producer, meanwhile, “was effusively grateful, and said ‘Glenn is going to be sure to cite you on the show.’ But, of course, he did not.” When Spencer complained, he received an invitation to come on a later show, anchored by a guest host. His contributions to Beck’s caliphate show were never acknowledged.
Cliff Kincaid, the director of Accuracy in Media’s Center for Investigative Journalism, had a similar experience. In the fall of 2009, Beck’s producers promised him a spot on Beck’s television show to talk about his investigation of the Soros-funded Free Press. After several long conversations with Beck’s producers, however, the invitation evaporated and Beck did the show alone, using Kincaid’s research as his own.
“It’s hard to get an explanation as to why these things happen except they [Beck’s producers] told me Glenn wanted to handle the issue himself, which means he wanted to appear to be the expert,” Kincaid told TheDC. “It’s his show, and he’s got a right to do that, but it is disconcerting that those of us who work hard on these issues and gather a lot of information expect to get some credit for what we’ve done.”
Douglas Stewart, a blogger for Yahoo’s Associated Content, wrote an article recently describing how the State Department likely knew about the Egyptian uprising before it happened. He sent his story to several radio producers, including Beck’s, hoping to publicize it. While Beck did mention his name on the air, Stewart said he was shocked to hear the host read almost his entire article on the air, virtually verbatim, as if it were his own.
A short time later, Stewart found seven paragraphs of his own material pasted into a “study guide” about Egypt |
revealing the surface of the relationship with Alptekin going as far back as September. While the forms don’t mention Turkey, and Flynn last week denied knowing of any connection between Alptekin’s firm and the Turkish government, a series of additional filings and actions should have raised red flags in Trump’s campaign, the White House, and elsewhere, especially by November, when Flynn published a controversial op-ed advocating for better U.S. relations with Turkey that aligned squarely with the interests of Alptekin and the increasingly incalcitrant Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Who is Kamil Ekim Alptekin? He’s the president of EA Holdings, a Turkish maker of defense products and information technology, as well as a the founder of Eclipse Aerospace, a small-plane manufacturer based in New Mexico. Most importantly, Alptekin is closely associated with the government of Erdogan. Flynn’s relationship with Alptekin and Turkey gained additional scrutiny last week when the retired 3-star general’s lawyers disclosed more details of his firm’s relationship in new federal government filings. In them, they allege Alptekin is not “an agent” of any government. But the form also reveals that as part of that contract, Alptekin introduced Turkish government officials to Flynn Intel Group officials at a Sept. 19 meeting in New York.
Flynn claims the work he did for Alpetkin’s company consisted of advising on a potential deal with another company in Israel to export natural gas to Turkey. Flynn’s job was helping Aptekin’s company to “understand the tumultuous political climate at the time between the United States and Turkey so that Inovo could advise its client regarding its business opportunities and investment in Turkey,” the form reads.
Rather than ask why did a group of Turkish officials need to meet Michael Flynn to talk about a gas deal, a better question might be, did Alptekin have any ambitions about influencing the U.S. government?
In a word, yes.
After the failed July coup in Turkey, in a July interview with the nominally nonpartisan Centre for Policy and Research on Turkey, published just before Flynn got on Alptekin’s payroll, Alptekin described ongoing and increasing efforts to influence U.S. policy and nullify the influence of Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish cleric who lives in self-exile in Pennsylvania. The Erdogan government has blamed Gulen for the coup.
“If we are truly determined to struggle against the parallel structure” — the term used by Erdogan loyalists to invoke a purported Gülenist shadow government — “we have to invest in similar resources equally, to ponder as much as them, regarding developing trade relations with the biggest economy of the world, and getting what we deserve in issues like Syria and Cyprus,” he said.
What did Turkey deserve? More money for Turkish arms makers, it appears, especially of the sort that participate with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.
“Donating to the Congress is the most essential aspect of lobbying activity in American politics,” he says. “For instance, if you want to buy something from Turkey…if you want to export weaponry, the approval of the Turkish government is enough. This is not the case in the U.S. In fact, if you want to buy weapons from the U.S., you also need the approval of the Congress. We recently started to understand this system and to shape our policies accordingly. Not only do the people we meet during the visits and the people we invite when we go there change, but we also started changing our strategy and tactics. And this shift is giving its fruits.”
Jump four months later to Nov. 8 — Election Day — when Flynn’s op-ed was published, in which he argues: “We need to adjust our foreign policy to recognize Turkey as a priority. We need to see the world from Turkey’s perspective,” Flynn wrote. “We must begin with understanding that Turkey is vital to U.S. interests.”
In between those dates, shortly after the September meeting in New York between Alptekin’s Turkish government friends and Flynn Intel Group, Flynn’s lawyer filed a lobbying disclosure form revealing that they would begin “consulting” work for a Dutch-based company called Inovo BV, according to the congressional research service Legistorm. But little else is known about it. Unlike the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, forms Flynn filed last week, standard lobbying disclosure forms do not require lobbyists to disclose all that much, and Flynn Intel Group’s is typically vague. It gives only a Dutch-based address for Inovo and does not describe the sort of work the company does.
When Legistorm analyzed the lobbying forms in October, it said, “Flynn’s firm will be doing organization consulting’ on behalf of Inovo BV. Why ‘organization consulting’ would require a federal lobbying disclosure is not made clear.” Robert Kelley, the firm’s lawyer and a former chief counsel to the House Oversight Committee’s national security subcommittee, signed the forms.
In November, the Daily Caller obtained Dutch registration records for Inovo that showed the company is owned by Kamil Ekim Alptekin.
Flynn’s group in November also filed a second, sparse, lobbying disclosure form about their work with Inovo B.V., which would have given the Trump team additional public record documents to vet.
In his November op-ed in The Hill, Flynn called Gülen a dangerous extremist who has played the U.S. government for fools, an opinion Flynn shares with Erdogan and, perhaps more to the point, with Alptekin.
The op-ed was updated last week with an editor’s note on Flynn’s financial arrangement with Inovo, reading: “On March 8, 2017, four months after this article was published, General Flynn filed documents with the Federal government indicating that he earned $530,000 last fall for consulting work that might have aided the government of Turkey. In the filings, Flynn disclosed that he had received payments from Inovo BV, a Dutch company owned by a Turkish businessman with ties to Turkey’s president and that Inovo reviewed the draft before it was submitted to The Hill. Neither General Flynn nor his representatives disclosed this information when the essay was submitted.”
In a cover letter affixed to Flynn’s FARA registration, he states: “Because of the subject matter of Flynn Intel Group’s work for Inovo BV, which focused on Mr. Fethullah Gulen, whose extradition is sought by the Government of Turkey, the engagement could be construed to have principally benefited the Republic of Turkey.”
So what did Trump and Spicer know, and when did they know it?
On Friday, Spicer walked back his Thursday statement, acknowledging a discussion between Trump transition team lawyers and Flynn’s attorneys had occurred. Flynn was advised to seek private counsel on whether to file the FARA disclosure.
“They consulted a lawyer, which everyone who had something is advised to do.That lawyer consulted the transition lawyer who said it is your job to consult the appropriate lawyers,” Spicer said.
“In this case he retroactively filed the forms that he was supposed to do. But we advised him to do what the legal and proper thing was and that’s the right thing for this administration.”
Defense One confirmed on Tuesday that Flynn’s lawyers before and after the inauguration told White House counsel that Flynn was probably going to have to file a FARA disclosure form related to his work for the Flynn Intel Group.
Spicer made it clear White House officials believe it was Flynn’s obligation to file appropriate documents. “It is not up to nor is it appropriate nor is it legal for the government to start going into private citizens, seeking advice and telling them what they have to register or not,” he said, Friday.
“There was no disclosure at the time. And the question is, is that if his counsel worked with whomever he worked with and determined that he didn’t, that was up to him. But it was up to him. The burden is on the individual to seek the legal advice or professional expertise to decide what they have to file and not.”
All of that implies Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, knew what he was supposed to disclose. But he admits he still does not know if he was working for Alptekin or Turkey. “Flynn Intel Group does not know whether or the extent to which the Republic of Turkey was involved with its retention by Inovo for the three month project.”The spartan cabin, finished in unrelenting black on my test car, was especially noteworthy: I believe it could be the first automotive interior styled entirely by an accounting department. The only minimum-security prison I have ever visited (honest, it was only to interview an inmate) had more luxurious appointments.
The seats are tolerable, but neither supportive nor particularly adjustable — there is no place else for them to go in the cramped cockpit. Plus-size drivers should shop elsewhere.
There is virtually no convenient storage — no handy place for a cellphone, no bin to hold coins, no storage in the enormous console, no cubbies or map pockets in the doors. But there is a slit along the door sill, long enough and wide enough for a package of Slim Jim jerky.
A package shelf under the hatchback rear window is only large enough to hold the bare essentials for a weekend getaway. But if you pop for the temporary fabric top to use when the removable panel has been left home (there’s no place onboard to stash the 31-pound targa panel), the package area is commandeered to store that. So plan your trips carefully, paying close attention to the weather forecast.
The power window controls are perfectly placed for someone with six-inch-long forearms; otherwise, use your elbows. The dashboard instruments are partly eclipsed by the adjustable steering wheel, regardless of its position. The gauge faces and the radio’s digital display panel can be difficult to read, but, hey, it’s only a problem during most daylight hours.
The shifter for the 5-speed manual transmission clanks like a tenement radiator in February. Wind and road noise with the top shut is intrusive enough to warrant constant checks that the windows are all the way up and doors aren’t flapping open.
The turbocharged Ecotec 2-liter 4-cylinder makes an industrial whine but it is capable of pushing this 3,018 pound package — that’s slightly more than the convertible, oddly enough — from zero to 60 m.p.h. in 5.2 seconds, according to Car and Driver magazine. The federal fuel economy rating is 19 miles a gallon in town and 28 on the highway with the 5-speed manual.
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The suspension is tuned too soft for thrashing around during amateur hour at your local racetrack. Despite standard Bilstein monotube shock absorbers, there is a generous amount of bobbing and weaving on grip-challenged 18-inch Goodyears.
The stability control system can be turned off, but my advice is to avoid this — or be prepared for some anxious moments of oversteer in spirited driving. In normal driving — freeway cruising, errand-running and getting groceries (although there is little room for them) — the GXP coupe is generally quite pleasant and stable.
Despite its many faults, the shapely little coupe is a sexy attention-getter, another beauty designed by Franz von Holzhausen when he was a rising star at General Motors. (Mr. von Holzhausen subsequently left for Mazda and is now at Tesla.) Outward visibility is atrocious, but that’s the price of being so stylish. If you can’t live with that, buy an old Volvo wagon.
Creature discomforts aside, friends and family all wanted to ride in the coupe, the longer the trip the better. Beware of straying too far from home, though: Consumer Reports found the reliability record of the Solstice convertible and the similar Saturn Sky to be dismal.
So what sort of epitaph, if any, does the Solstice GXP coupe suggest for the once-mighty Pontiac nameplate? In many ways it is a rolling testament of G.M.’s shortsightedness: a pinch of pizazz, a dash of panache, all mixed into a package of unmet promise.
INSIDE TRACK: End of an era.Here are the first pictures of ASUS' premium DirectCu II graphics card designed around AMD's Radeon HD 7970 GPU. The design is based on giving the GPU a powerful cooling solution, backed by a custom-design PCB. Since its cooling solution spans across three expansion slots, one of the three expansion slot brackets is productively used to provide additional display connectivity. To begin with, the PCB uses a 10+1+1 ASUS Digi+ VRM that draws power from two 8-pin PCIe power connectors. It supports heavy overclocking, and provides several voltage tuning features.A common metal heatsink spans along the length of the card, making contact with VRM and memory components. On top of this sits the DirectCu II heatsink. This heatsink uses a large aluminum fin-stack heatsink to which heat from the GPU is conveyed by six heat-pipes, which make direct contact with it. The heatsink itself isn't very thick, but what makes the card span across three slots are its two 100 mm fans. The GPU is clocked out of the box at 1000 MHz (vs. 925 MHz reference), and 5.60 GHz/1400 MHz actual memory (vs. 5.50 GHz/1375 MHz actual reference).This card also features what is called "VGA Hotwire", which is a 2-pin cable, one end of which needs to be soldered onto the graphics card, the other is plugged into a special header on ROG Rampage IV series motherboards. This allows advanced users to eliminate the need for variable resistors and use the motherboard's voltage controller to tune come key voltage domains of the graphics card as if it were the motherboard's.Display outputs include two dual-link DVI and four full-size DisplayPort 1.2 connectors. The card is 11 inches (27.94 cm) long, and we mentioned earlier spans across three expansion slots in your case. ASUS' previous-generation DirectCu II cards based on GeForce GTX 580/570 and Radeon HD 6970/6950 were just as big. Pricing information is not available.The Fylgja-Motifs in Norse Literature
Summarized and translated by Maria Kvilhaug from Professor Else Mundal`s dissertation: “Fylgjemotiva i norrøn litteratur” (Universitetsforlaget, Oslo, 1974)
Summary by the translator - The fylgjur as they generally appear in Icelandic sagas and poetry
Fylgja= Old Norse for “Follower” (female singular)
A woman fylgja is a female supernatural entity who acts as a guardian spirit for the clan, and especially for the chief of the clan. They were also attached to individuals, but were immortal and appear to have been attached to particular lineages following a person from each generation. Mundal believes that they represent the spirits of ancestral mothers, a part of the ancestral mother worship we know existed among the Vikings.
Every human being may have one or more woman fylgja. Some are visible whereas others are invisible. Of the visible fylgjur a person has a limited number (2-3-9), of the invisibles a whole flock. The followers are carriers of an individual`s or the clan`s fortune. The woman follower appears often in dreams but also in visions.
Death
Sometimes seeing one`s fylgja is an omen of death – that is if she rides a grey steed or invites a person home to herself. To say that someone has been invited to the home of the dísir/fylgjur is the same as saying that this someone is about to die. (Thus the fylgja, as I, the translator, see it, is related to Hel, Ràn or her nine daughters, as they also invite people home to them before death. One could also say that the fylgja lives in the realm of the dead, and that she is the spirit of a dead person – a concept that strengthens Mundal`s hypothesis; That the fylgjur are ancestral mothers).
Counseling and guardian spirits
She may counsel her people and let them know that if they do not take her advise they may end up dead. As long as people have the aid of their fylgjur, they will have luck, but if she leaves them, they will suffer and soon die. People know/recognize their fylgja when they see her.
The fylgja may help in the defense and attack against enemies. They stayed close to their person and may appear to others as a warning that her person is soon to arrive. They answer prayers for help, and they hurt their people`s enemies. To her person or clan she is very beneficial and helpful, even when she comes to take a person to the world of the dead she is described as a friendly being, often grieving the dying person herself.
So one side, she is a helpful counselor, protective and luck-bringing, on the other hand she is a bringer of death. Before battles or violent deaths fylgjur appear as grim-looking ogresses.
Goddesses, souls or ancestral mothers?
Some have seen the fylgjur in connection with the soul and alter egos. This because the distinction between fylgjur and hamingjur is very fluid and overlapping. The hamingjur (singular: hamingja) are parts of the soul of a person that may change shape and walk outside of the body (hamingja= ham =”shape” + gengja = “walker”). These are always female as well.
Others see them as parts of the great collective of dísir – “goddesses” – the female powers. The reason for this is because the disinction between fylgjur and dìsir are, again, overlapping and fluid: like all other female entities, a fylgja may also be called a dìs. She is often called a spàdìs – “prophetic goddess” – reflecting her role in visions about fate and the future.
The latter would also connect the fylgja with another kind of dìs – the nòrnir, goddesses of fate. According to Snorri, every person was born with a nòrn who followed him or her throughout his or her life, spinning our fate. Snorri based his description of the personal follower norns on descriptions in the Poetic Edda where the fate of the individual depends on whether your personal norn is divine, elfin or dwarfish. The dwarf norns spin random fates, as they are the “daughters of Hibernation” – sleepwalking. I, the translator, see this in connection with the countless stories of heroes who through initiation attempt to wake up a sleeping maiden associated with death and fate.
Others again, like Mundal, see the fylgjur solely in connection with the cult of the ancestral mothers. We do know that worship of the ancestors, especially kings, were common, and the worship of the dísir is reminiscent of ancestral worship. (I, the translator, personally believe that we must attempt to be as fluid in our distinction between the various powers as the Vikings obviously were. We are confused about the way the Norse sources seem to “mess up the order of things” when describing mythical entities because we are conditioned to see everything as separate entities in separate boxes. Meditating on Old Norse art may help us to understand that in the Old Norse mind, entities were fluid, shape-shifting, gradually overlapping. We may have to realize that the distinction between fate goddesses, death goddesses, personal guardian spirits, the spirits of the ancestors and our personal souls may simply not have been clear-cut and that this is why the sources are so confusing to us).
The ancestral mother is a guardian spirit for her descendants
According to Else Mundal, the most important function of the woman fylgja is to be a guardian spirit for the clan, and there are several examples on how they are connected to ancestral worship, as they appear exactly like ancestors do and with the same functions. The example of Torgerd Hordabrud is important here: she was the ancestral mother to the earls of Lade in Norway, who was worshipped as a goddess by her descendants and who acted as the fylgja (guardian spirit) to the head of the Lade clan.
The ancestral mothers gather the dead
The ancestral spirits and ghost, just as the fylgja, had the function of taking people to the land of the dead. In one example, the ghost of a woman who recently dies appears riding the same grey steed that the woman fylgja rides when she is an omen of death – and the ghost indeed is an omen of death. In many sagas, the spirits of the dead are busy trying to gather people to their side (death), and thus have the same function as the ogresses that appear before battles, the woman fylgjur and the valkyrjur –all gatherers of the dead. Sometimes, the dísir are described as konur daudar – “dead women”. Sometimes they appear looking dead and are then omens of death. The woman fylgja must, according to Mundal, thus be the semi-deified spirits of dead ancestral mothers and must be seen in connection to the clan society.
That the guardian spirits of the clans are women is in itself very interesting.The sources point to the concept of a mater familias deified after death. We cannot ignore the possibility that the belief in the dísir originated in a societal order that was more matriarchal than the one we have in the Norse era.
Introduction (Else Mundal)
There are two kinds of fylgjur in the Old Norse sources; the animal and the woman fylgja. The animal fylgja, also female, has animal shape. The woman fylgja was thought to be a woman. The animal fylgja can be introduced as a human alter ego or double, the woman fylgja as a helping spirit. These two entities have not much more than the name in common (according to Mundal).
The belief in fylgjur is a survival from an older cultural phase than the Norse, but it is a survival that has adapted to changed societal orders and still had a function. Thus the belief in fylgjur is a “living survival” (of a time when ancestral mother worship reflected the matrilineal succession within each clan – a fact which is testified to in communal graves of Scandinavia reaching back millennia – the women of a communal clan grave were all related, the men were not, showing that the men moved into their wives` families and not the other way around, as it was during the Viking Age. The animal fylgja may be a remnant of shamanistic beliefs).
The noun fylgja (feminine singular) is derived from the verb fylgja. This means “to follow”, “to accompany”, “to belong”, “to help”, “support”, “align”, “need”, “keep inside”, “have”, “to follow as a concubine”. As a noun, it is translated as “support”, “help”, “(female) companion”, “guardian spirit”, “protective spirit”, “follower”.
The fylgja-motif exists in various written Old Norse sources, both in the sagas of Icelanders, the förnaldarsögur, the sagas of kings and in poetry. The literary fylgja-motif may build directly on Old Norse beliefs in fylgjor, or on a fairy-tale adaption of the same.
Folk beliefs are slow to change, and only at the time when the Norse literature was written down is it possible to note that the change in religions that happened 200-300 years earlier start to influence certain presentations of this motif. The changes in the belief in fylgjur – and probably in many other folklore motifs – one may register at first a period when the North apparently had adapted and stabilized as a part of a European cultural community. On the surface this period is one-sided. Beneath the surface one may register the effects of the Conversion on the folklore. Heathen motifs were the objects of Christian influence wherever possible.
If one looks at the two fylgja motifs, the woman fylgja motif and the animal fylgja motif, it appears that only the woman fylgja is represented in the contemporary literature. This may point to the woman fylgja having maintained a stronger position than the animal fylgja in people`s beliefs [and thus survived longer].
The Animal Fylgja
The animal fylgja motif is sometimes blended with the húgr-motif. [Húgr (masculine singular) means “intent”, “desire”, “thought”, “soul”, “heart” and seems to have been a part of the human soul that could move outside of the body in animal shape]. Manna hugir ["the intents of men"] sometimes replace the term manna fylgjor [the “followers” of men] and usually then appear in the shape of wolves. Wolves, being associated with fierce passion and desire (or greed and hunger) are closely connected to the húgr. The other animals appear as manna fylgjor.
The animal fylgja motifs in the sagas mostly take the form of warning dreams. Sometimes, however, the fylgja in the dream is a bird. In Gunnlaugs saga Ormstungi, birds are called fylgjor and a swan appears to be the fylgja of a beautiful woman. But birds do not exist as real animal fylgjor in the fylgja-tradition and are thus false fylgja motifs of continental influence just like when the fylgja appear as a leopard, lion or dragon…[I disagree with Mundal on this point, I believe the bird fylgja is deeply set in Scandinavian traditions although they may have had a Finno-Ugric origin. Translator´s note].
The animal fylgja in the literature seems to symbolize the character and/or rank of a person. Great men and chiefs may have oxen fylgjor, while smaller men had smaller animals. Peaceful men could have a goat, sly men a fox. King Hrolf Gautreksson had a lion, and lions are known by the kenning “konungs fylgja”. Kings often had rare and foreign species while commoners must make do with native creatures. The animal fylgja is a steadfast attribute. If a man has a black bull for a fylgja, the black bull will follow him through life from birth to death. The fylgja of a person always remain the same kind of animal.
When the animal fylgja appears to someone else than her owner, this normally happens in a dream. Clairvoyant people can also see other people`s fylgjor while awake. When the animal appears to its owner, it is always a clear omen of death approaching. It can happen awake or while dreaming. In the vision, the animal will act exactly like the human itself will act a bit later.
Example: When Eyolfr in Ljósvetninga saga dreams that a red bull and a rabid grey bull leading a herd of cattle against him, he knows that his enemies, who are the owners of these fylgjor, will do the same. When Einarr in the same saga in a dream sees this bull acting exactly like he knows that his brother Gudmund the powerful uses to, and at last sinks dead into the high seat, Einarr knows that his brother is doomed.
The animal fylgja seems to be identical to its human, sharing its destiny, dying with it (or more correctly, a bit before). The thought was that it actually went before the human through life. When the animal fylgja was dead, but the human still was alive, that human was soon to die. A part of the human had already moved over the borders of death and her human was now existing in a liminal sphere on his or her way into another world. In this condition, people change behavior and attitude, the careful person could become very courageous and the brave person could become very frightened. By acting very unusually, the surrounding world would conclude that the person was about to die.
Folke Ström believes that the animal fylgja could also be a protective spirit: “The animal fylgja – the inner self of the person, her soul, acting sometimes outside of the body in the shape of an animal, perceived as an alter ego or a protective spirit.” Jan de Vries had a similar approach: “Denn wohl kann hamingja “Schutzgeist” bedeuten, aber das wird doch eigentlich durch das Wort fylgja ausgedrückt, d.h. die Seele, die in unsichtbar Gestalt dem Menschen folgt.”
In many primitive religions there are entities that could fit, but on the Norse area Mundal cannot find that the animal fylgja had this function, if one is to base oneself on the literary fylgja motifs, and other material we do not have to base ourselves on. [By this, Mundal sticks strictly and scientifically to the Norse source material alone, while Ström and de Vries interpreted the motif in light of other comparative mythologies. Personally I believe that Ström and de Vries were right, but they cannot be proven on the basis of the Norse sources alone, which is what Mundal is, correctly, pointing out. Translator`s note.]
The fylgja animal that appears in Norse literature is completely without its own identity and will, a indivisible part of the human it belongs to. They have no mutual influence on each other – the one is just a mirror image of the other. The actions of the fylgja animal is only a reflection of what the human is doing.
There is as such no help for a man to have a strong and powerful fylgja animal. If he does, it is just because he himself is strong and powerful. The fylgjor who in the Norse era may be characterised as helping spirit, do not have an animal shape, they are women.
Next to the animal fylgja motif we have the motifs of hamferdr (journey in a changed shape) and the húgr-motif. This is part of the conceptions of the soul and the alter ego, and of some people`s ability to take another shape than the human body. These show similarities to the animal fylgja but include the change-shaping aspect. [In my opinion, they are just different ways of saying the same thing. Mundal keeps more literal distinctions. Translator`s note]
Hamferdr- (soul-traveling) motifs in the sagas and the Norse conceptions of the soul
In Vatnsdæla saga, ch.12, some Sami sorcerers travel to Iceland in the shape of animals. In Kormáks saga, ch.18, a woman sends out her soul in the shape of a whale.
Both the animal in the hamferd-motif, the húgr-motif and the fylgja- motif are human souls in animal shape, but there are clear literary distinctions between the three motifs.
The hamferd is closely associated with shamanism, a way of sending the soul out on a mission. The human body remains as a lifeless form while the soul is out in a form more able to complete the mission. If the soul does not return to its body, the human dies. The principle is that humans have a bodily soul that may sometimes leave the body and be a free-soul. When this happens, the body is without a soul and therefore lifeless.
In the húgr-motif, it is the bad thought or intent that appears in the shape of a wolf. The húgr is not controlled and sent out by a ceremony, it just appears on its own when its human is in a certain (destructive) mood. It cannot act on its own, kill or be killed like the hamferd-animal. It will usually just be a shadow being appearing in dreams.
The animal fylgja on the other hand appears like an outer soul that humans have in addition to the body-soul/free-soul. She cannot act on her own, is but a mirror of her owner, but exists outside. She seems to be closely associated with the fate of the person. We see thus that like in many shamanistic traditions, the Norse believed in a variety of souls or aspects of the soul in one single person.
The Woman Fylgja
When it comes to the woman fylgja, they are also known by many other names such as:
Ófridarfylgja, óvinarfylgja, kynfylgja, ættarfylgja,[“unpeace-follower”, “enemy-follower”, “friend-follower”, “clan-follower” - describing what kind of fylgja she is] and fylgjukona draumkona, dís, spádís and hamingja [follower-woman, dream-woman, goddess, prophecy-goddess, shape-walker].
The animal and the woman fylgja share a name and one common function: They may appear to others before her human person arrives, thus warning others of her human`s approach.
Different sources describe the woman fylgja differently. In the förnaldarsögur, she is usually described as a dís [goddess]. This choice of words I [Else Mundal] see as an example of a conscious attempt to make the stories appear more archaic.
In the king sagas, the dominant way of describing a woman fylgja is by the word hamingja [shape-walker]. What a hamingja is, we do not actually know [it is commonly seen as derived from the words ham (shape, body, form) and gengja (to walk)], but in the Norse era the word had became synonymous with “fortune”, and a hamingja is a particularly good and luck-bringing fylgja.
In the poems, the word dís is almost completely dominant. Hamingja is also acceptable in poetry, whereas the word fylgja is not. It is used once, but characteristically not in a verse but in a prose text introduction to a verse.
There are motif groups as well. In one group, the fylgjor are invisible and act in a collective. If they are hostile, they let their presence be felt through atsókn – that is, making their enemy tired and sleeping. The common naming here is fylgja and ófridar- and óvinarfylgja.
The second group is also a collective of fylgjor, invisible, but helpful rather than hostile. They may help a person by making his enemies fall. They are usually called fylgjur, dísir, or spádísir.
The third group is like the second group only that their main purpose is to help women at childbirth. Here their function overlaps those of the nornir and it is difficult to distinguish nornir from fylgjor [however, Mundal believes it is important to make this distinction. I do not.]
The fourth group is visible and the women appear to human beings. They are often called ættarfylgjur or kynfylgjur, naming that emphasize that these are fylgjor that belong to the clan lineage. They may also be known as hamingjur.
A fifth group is quite similar to the fourth but they may appear alone as individuals as well as a collective. They may be visible or invisible. They are luck-bringing and often called hamingja.
These motifs emphasize that luck will be with a person of the fylgjur are with that person. She advises her person. If she leaves, the person will suffer. Situations where the fylgja leaves her person if she does not like him happen and usually lead to death soon after she has left.
Poetic Edda:
Helgakvida Hjörvardssonar: Fylgja appears in a prose interlude as a woman riding a wolf, forewarning of the death of Helgi.
Vafthrudnismál, Poetic Edda: hamingjor einar/ther i heimi ero/tho ther med iotnom alaz” – “(Luck-bringing) Shape-Walkers alone/ are in the world/ yet they were fostered among giants”
The number of fylgjur in a collective is mentioned a few places, and then the number is nine. In the Sagan af Nikulasi konungi leikara it is said that each human being has nine fylgjur. The same number is found in Tháttr Thidhranda ok Thórhalls, where the loss of nine fylgjur leads to mortal illness.
The sixth group is the fylgjur as death-warnings. If she is an ill omen, she rides the grey steed of death (horse or wolf), or she invites people home to herself. In these motifs she is always visible. She is usually called dís [goddess].
In these functions the fylgjur approach the valkyrjur. The valkyrjur are Odin`s dísir or fylgjur. In Krákumál the distinction between valkyriur and fylgjur is non-existent, and they come from Odin. It also says: “heim bjóda mér dísir” – [which means: “The dísir invite me home”, which actually means: “I am about to die”].
The Relationship between the Woman Fylgja and the Dísir
We have seen that the woman fylgja often is called dís in the sources. It seems obvious that we have to do with the same female entity both where she is called fylgja and where she is called dís, but the word dís is not necessarily connected to the woman fylgja.
My [Mundal`s]thesis is that the woman fylgja belongs to the same category as the nornir and the valkyrjur. Dís is a common name for all the supernatural female entities (p.79).The word is also used for its poetical value. If one is to make a distinction between the woman fylgjur and the dísir, it is that the word dís has a wider meaning.
The noun dís (pl.dísir) is etymologically connected to the Old Indian dhisanas – used to describe female goddesses of fertility [translator`s note: I believe it is more accurate to say that they are goddesses of abundance, and they are also connected to intelligence and thought, and are the guardians of the sacred drink soma, just like the Norse dísir |
of Bitcoins would be enough to buy you a Blu-ray player or not enough to buy you a Blu-ray disk. It's a store of value, but it's far from a reliable one.When Luc Morelon was still convinced that this was a winnable war, he was willing to give interviews in his office on the 30th floor of the Montparnasse Tower, with its view of the Eiffel Tower and of a deceptively peaceful-looking sea of shimmering Parisian rooftops in the morning mist. Wearing a tie with a pattern of little colorful goats on it, Morelon, a heavy-set, white-haired man, sat at his desk facing a laptop filled with data and charts of his company, Lactalis. With 125 plants worldwide, 32,000 employees and 9.6 billion ($12.2 billion) in annual sales, Lactalis is Europe's largest cheese producer, a global giant and a company that is easy to hate.
He had had a grueling year as the spokesman for Lactalis. Now it was winter again and Morelon, the company's powerful director in charge of communication and disinformation, had gotten used to playing the role of villain. He curtly rejected the first few requests for an interview, writing, without the customary niceties and French flourishes, that he was no longer available for further attacks by the "self-proclaimed custodians of tradition," and that he was tired of listening to the chants of "the small against the big" and the constant talk of a "Camembert war."
But it is a war. Or at least it was one until recently, when it ended with a total capitulation, a humiliating defeat for Morelon and Lactalis, following a series of dirty skirmishes and loud, behind-the-scenes battles that were waged for almost two years. The bitter dispute began in March 2007, when Lactalis and the Isigny Sainte-Mère dairy co-operative announced, in a coordinated move, their intention to halt the large-scale production of raw milk Camembert. It may not sound like much, but this was the first shot in the Norman cheese war, a thundering, unexpected explosion.
Suddenly the world's most famous cheese was in jeopardy. It was a severe blow to French national pride. This was about France's culinary splendor, which like the beret, the bottle of wine and the baguette, is as much a part of the French self-image as it is a time-honored cliché. Until then, Lactalis and Isigny had together produced more than 80 percent of the true and unique "Camembert de Normandie" The companies were responsible for 10,000 of the 13,000 tons of Camembert produced in France each year, or 42 million of 52 million boxes of cheese. And now they were saying, after more than 100 years of tradition, that it was all over, that Camembert made with raw milk presented an imminent danger and was a health hazard. It was a declaration of war.
More than Just Camembert
At first, French newspapers and magazines devoted as much attention to the story as they would have to a terrorist attack in downtown Paris. In fact, it was characterized as a kind of assassination, an assault on culinary tradition and the attempted murder of small Camembert producers. At first, it was not about cheese but tradition, about so much more than Camembert.
Morelon, whose job was to sell the company's decision to the public, became the symbolic figure of an anonymous industry that was laying its hands on France's holiest of possessions, all in the interest of profit. Instead of simply getting out of the market for raw milk Camembert and tacitly turning it over to other producers, from the very beginning Lactalis and Isigny behaved as if they wanted to destroy the entire market.
First of all they applied to the relevant authorities to have the celebrated Camembert Charter -- whereby the cheese is legally certified with the Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC), a term of origin valid under European Union law -- rewritten for their benefit. In addition to raw milk, they wanted thermized, micro-filtered, industrially processed, cheaper milk to also qualify for the original Normandy Camembert certificate. Despite being Frenchmen in France, they seemed to be behaving like clueless foreigners from the European Union -- those people who were ignorant of the French art of pleasure and who had always wanted to see everything pasteurized, heated at high temperatures and destroyed.
Or did they? "It's the Franco-French lunacy," said Morelon on the one occasion he deigned to give an interview to SPIEGEL. He is a man who is difficult to meet and who never agrees to be photographed, and during the interview it was obvious that he was seething inside. "We want to kill tradition? We?" he demanded. "We, monsieur, are the biggest producer of traditional cheese in France," he said, "of Roquefort, of Reblochon, of Bleu d'Auvergne -- all of this is truly bizarre." He had to control himself, he said, in light of this nonsense, this flight of fancy of certain Paris cliques who were exploiting his company "for their fantasies, for their fear-mongering speeches about the specters of globalization."
At first, when the decision to get out of the raw milk Camembert business had just been made, Morelon's arguments were more balanced. He talked about high production costs, increases in the price of milk and a market that would collapse if the retail price rose above 2 ($2.55) per wheel of Camembert. "Hygienic risk" played a role, but it was not the decisive factor, not yet at least. But before long, as the people stubbornly defended their Camembert and their outrage over Lactalis and Isigny grew, the two companies settled on a more a straightforward message that was easier to sell: Camembert made with raw milk is dangerous. Contamination with E. coli, listeria and salmonella, they argued, was not just possible but probable.
Descended Out of Nowhere
The people at Lactalis and Isigny kept reciting a case that had happened four years ago, when six children got diarrhea after eating Camembert. The only possible conclusion, they argued, was that the rules of production had to be changed, and raw milk had to be removed from the picture. After all, the health of children, pregnant women and the elderly was at stake. This message, disseminated with the full force of a major corporation, did in fact threaten the livelihoods of cheesemakers in Normandy, who felt that they had been drawn into a war that had descended upon them out of nowhere.
The home of Camembert is a region of rolling hills, 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Paris, known as Pays d'Auge. The English Channel is nearby, as are the beaches of the legendary Normandy invasion. Farther inland, this is the French countryside of picture postcards, complete with cows and calves grazing under apple trees, old hedges lining little country roads and hunched-over farmers carrying bags of nuts on their backs. The region looks like a snapshot of good old France, reflecting the longings of a nation that has never quite gotten over its transition from agrarian to industrial society.
Most of the nine remaining Camembert producers have their cheese dairies here, while a few others are farther out on the Cotentin, the neatly serrated peninsula with the city of Cherbourg at its tip. Their names -- Gillot, Graindorge, Réaux and Leroux -- are as venerable as the tradition which, as legend has it, began in 1791, when a priest from the Brie region, who had fled from the Revolution, showed Marie Harel, a local dairy farmer, how to make cheese. There is probably little truth to this story, but many in the region like to believe it, and it has been told so many times that countless monuments to Marie Harel have been built over the centuries in a region where many cities and villages have given their names to a variety of cheese: Livarot, Neufchâtel, Pont l'Evêque, Camembert.
In Camembert, a village consisting of a few houses and a small church, old ladles, churns, butter tubs and round, faded cheese labels are on display at the local museum, the Maison du Camembert. A similar, but larger museum is located in nearby Vimoutiers, and many other monuments and shrines to Camembert have been built. Songs have been sung and poems written about Camembert, and it eventually rose to prominence as France's national cheese during World War I, when Camembert makers gave a day's worth of production to soldiers on the front once a week. The word Camembert carries a lot of weight in France.
Arduous Work
A five-minute drive from the village, François Durand stands in his hot, humid cheese dairy every morning. He is the world's smallest producer of traditional Camembert, and the only farmer who makes his Camembert solely with the milk of his own cows. Durand is a thin, bespectacled man with bad teeth, who sometimes sings as he works. But he is silent most of the time.
On this morning, his 60 cows have yielded more than 600 liters of milk, enough to make 254 wheels of cheese. Durand walks around long tables made of Inox steel, uses a ladle to scoop the thickly set raw milk into cheese molds, attentively filling them, one at a time, like a waiter serving food at a banquet. During the course of the morning, he goes through the same motion five times with each mold, performing it 1,000-1,500 times a day. It is monotonous, arduous work, but it is part of the rules of the Camembert Charter, "moulé à la louche," which, loosely translated, means: Only manual labor produces good cheese.
In dark rooms next to the cheese dairy, the wheels ripen away aromatically, after they have been salted, after they have acquired their shell of good fungi, each 250-gram piece turning into a handful of pleasure, each containing upwards of 45 percent fat.By DAVID NELSON – SEATTLEPI.COM
Seattle Superhero Phoenix Jones was involved in a physical fight early Friday morning with a man who Jones accused of threatening to come to his house and fight him.
While on patrol in the University District around 1:45am, Seattle Superheroes Phoenix Jones, Midnight Jack, Red Falcon, Bishop, and Westlake Drake walked up to a car being blocked by a man and being punched by another man according to Jones.
Jones approached the scene and the car was able to escape according to Jones.
Video shows what then took place afterwards on University Way between 45th and 47th Streets, and it’s not good.
Phoenix Jones tried leaving the scene near the :48 mark of the video, and had 9-1-1 called near the 1:08 mark of the video after the men are following Phoenix Jones and his crew.
Seattle Police show up around the 2:30 mark of the video and Jones tries to explain to the officer what took place while the men are taunting and interrupting Jones from telling his side of the story.
Jones and an aggressive man wearing an orange shirt discuss fighting under a “mutual combat law,” Jones describes the rules under the mutual combat law near the 3:10 mark in front of the Seattle Police Officer and explains that the fight has to be mutual and says “if one of us falls, the other one stops, that’s the law.”
The man in the orange shirt agrees and takes off his shoes near the 4:12 mark.
Phoenix Jones again tried to walk away near the 4:20 mark and the Seattle Police Officer tries to calm the scene and send everybody home near the 4:40 mark; the aggressive men continue to want to see the man in the orange shirt fight Jones.
More police show up near the 5:00 mark of the video.
Near the 6:30 mark, Jones tells everybody to back up because he and the man in the orange shirt are going to fight.
Jones knocks the man down with one punch near the 7:15 mark of the video, as promised in the agreement, Jones stopped and walked away.
According to Jones, the man in the orange shirt had both his hands around his throat which gave him no hands to block the one punch it took to knock him down. Another man takes off his shirt trying to fight Jones after he claims the man in the orange shirt surrendered, or “called quits.”
Video shows the man in the orange shirt with at least one of his hands around the neck area of Jones moments before and while being punched by Jones.
After the fight, Phoenix Jones released the following statement:
I respect everyone’s right to free speech, the only reason I consented to a fight was because he said he would come to my house. I take my family’s safety very seriously.”
UPDATE: Seattle Police Department’s Sgt. Whitcomb confirmed to Seattle Weekly that the fight between Phoenix Jones and the man wearing the orange shirt was legal according to Seattle Municipal Code 12A.06.025. Whitcomb also stated that the Police Officers on the scene did their job according to the “unique” situation.
WARNING: The video has many strong curse words and shows street violence.
Email David at MissingTheSonics@gmail.com, or find him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter:
Follow @MissingSonicsSwine flu is coming up as a bigger challenge in Madhya Pradesh than dengue as it has already claimed 12 lives and taken 34 down, principal secretary health Gauri Singh said on Friday.
However, dengue count in terms of patients has already reached 300. But, It has claimed nil deaths so far, she said adding that the health department officials were monitoring the spread of flu on the patient-to-patient basis through constant reviews of their condition and mode of treatment.
At least 10 swine flu patients alone were undergoing treatment in different hospitals of Jabalpur, Indore and Bhopal, she said, adding on Thursday alone a 15-year-old boy of Bhopal and 45-year-old man from Jabalpur succumbed to the flu.
To handle the situation, swine flu swab test facilities had been started in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Bhopal from Saturday. Earlier, all the samples used to be sent to the Regional Medical Research Centre for Tribal (RMRCT) of Jabalpur.
Singh said besides this a team of experts had been entrusted with the task of checking the line of treatment in various private and government hospitals.
In Sagar district, three cases of swine flu have been reported so far. Indore had three swine flu positive cases. Out of them two have succumbed to the disease.
Dengue under control
Health officials said the cases of dengue were also rising but the situation was under control.
Northern part of the state especially Shivpuri is the worst affected district with dengue in the state. Around 100 cases of dengue have been reported in the district till the date. Sehore district also reported five cases over a week.
" In all 40% cases of dengue are reported from Shivpuri. Our 40 teams are working in Shivpuri to control the situation", said Singh said.
First Published: Sep 18, 2015 21:21 ISTA beaver and a Mountie squared off in a battle of Canadian icons Friday on a stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway.
Greater Victoria police were conducting speed enforcement on the Malahat highway on Vancouver Island when they noticed a motorcyclist trying to slow down traffic.
Victoria police Const. Andy Dunstan said officers saw an animal in front of the motorcyclist that looked like a raccoon, according to CTV Vancouver Island.
"One of my RCMP colleagues went up to find out what the commotion was, and it was a beaver in the right hand of two lanes,” he said.
According to CFAX 1010, a family of beavers was initially holding up traffic, but this one just didn't want to budge.
Dashcam footage shows an RCMP officer getting out of his car to usher the animal off the road, but to no avail.
The officer gets back into his car, and backs up and drives toward the beaver in attempt to scare it off.
But the beaver stayed in place and hissed for a few minutes.
"It wasn’t particularly fazed by anything going on around it, it was quite obstinate and quite happily sat there in the middle of this laneway,” Dunstan said.
Eventually, the beaver backed off and moved off the road on its own.
“What can be more iconic than an RCMP officer — a Mountie — moving along this great Canadian symbol, the beaver,” Dunstan told the Victoria Times-Colonist.
“It was perfect.”A paramedic has spoken of her ordeal after being sprayed with a noxious substance in what she feared was the latest in London’s recent spate of acid attacks.
The 32-year-old paramedic, who was has not been named, was working on her own in an ambulance car, responding to a call about a man suffering chest pains. On her way she was flagged down at about 1.30am on Sunday by three men in Tottenham.
When she stopped, the men covered their faces before one of them, who was wearing latex gloves, threw the contents of a bottle through the ambulance window on to her face, neck and chest. London ambulance service said the unidentified liquid was noxious and caused irritation, but was not acid. The paramedic was taken to hospital as a precaution.
“It was terrifying,” she said in a statement issued by the London ambulance service. “It all happened very quickly – one of them threw liquid out of a plastic bottle at me. The window was only open a few inches but the liquid went on my face, neck and chest. He was wearing latex gloves, so my first thought was, is this acid?”
Acid attacks need zero-tolerance approach, says Sadiq Khan Read more
She said the incident had shaken her confidence in the public. “They have taken away my trust. What they’ve done is horrific in so many ways. It was premeditated and it delayed a patient getting treatment. It took a paramedic off the road that night. And yet if one my attackers were hurt, I would still treat them because that is the job.”
The paramedic and the ambulance service are working with the police to identify the attackers. The Metropolitan police confirmed they had received a report of common assault attack.
Peter Rhodes, the assistant director of operations at the London ambulance service, said: “I am appalled by this attack on our paramedic who stopped to help these men who she believed were in trouble, but instead they assaulted her in a premeditated attack, not only harming her but delaying treatment to a potentially critically ill patient.”
All frontline ambulance crews in London are being reminded of the need to be cautious when flagged down by anyone requesting help or assistance.
The incident came after five people were assaulted in north and east London in less than 90 minutes on Thursday night. A 16-year-old boy has been charged with 15 offences, including grievous bodily harm and possession of an item to discharge a noxious substance.HRABOVE Ukraine (Reuters) - A Malaysian airliner was brought down in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, killing all 295 people aboard and sharply raising the stakes in a conflict between Kiev and pro-Moscow rebels that has set Russia and the West at daggers drawn.
Family members of passengers on Malaysia Airlines flight MH-17 wait on a bus to be brought to a separate area at Schiphol Airport July 17, 2014. REUTERS/Cris Toala Olivares
As the United States said the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was “blown out of the sky”, probably by a ground-launched missile, Ukraine and Russia traded accusations of blame, cranking up global pressure for a way out of a bloody local conflict that risks fueling a new Cold War.
Ukraine accused pro-Moscow militants, aided by Russian military intelligence officers, of firing a long-range, Soviet-era SA-11 ground-to-air missile. Leaders of the rebel Donetsk People’s Republic denied any involvement and said a Ukrainian air force jet had brought down the intercontinental flight.
But separatists have said that they took control of such a missile system last month and had used it to shoot down a Ukrainian military transport plane that was destroyed on Monday.
The scale of the disaster, which left scores of unsuspecting foreigners, adults and children, strewn lifeless across the muddy Ukrainian steppe, could prove a turning point for international pressure to resolve the crisis. It has killed hundreds in since protests toppled the Moscow-backed president in Kiev in February and Russia annexed the Crimea a month later.
The United Nations Security Council plans an emergency meeting on Ukraine on Friday, diplomats said. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged a full international investigation.
Reuters journalists saw burning and charred wreckage bearing the red and blue Malaysia insignia and dozens of bodies strewn in fields near the village of Hrabove, 40 km (25 miles) from the Russian border near the rebel-held regional capital of Donetsk.
More than half of the dead, 154 people, were Dutch. Another 27 were Australian and 23 Malaysian.
The Ukrainian government, condemning an act of “terrorism”, released recordings it said were of Russian intelligence officers discussing the shooting down of a civilian airliner by rebels who may have mistaken it for a Ukrainian military plane.
Russian President Vladimir Putin pinned the blamed on Kiev for renewing its offensive against the rebels two weeks ago after a ceasefire failed to hold. The Kremlin leader called it a “tragedy” but did not say who brought the Boeing down.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said the jet was “blown out of the sky” and a U.S. official said that, while its origin was unclear, a surface-to-air missile was probably responsible.
After the downing of several Ukrainian military aircraft in the area in recent months, including two this week, Kiev had accused Russian forces of playing a direct role. International air lanes had remained open, though only above 32,000 feet. The Malaysia plane was flying 1,000 feet higher, officials said.
U.S. President Barack Obama said it was unclear whether Americans were aboard. A Ukrainian official said there were 23.
As word came in of what Ukraine’s Western-backed president called a “terrorist attack”, Obama was on the phone with Putin, discussing a new round of economic sanctions that Washington and its EU partners imposed to try to force Putin to do more to curb the revolt against the Western-backed government in Kiev.
They noted the early reports during their telephone call, the White House said, adding that Obama warned of further sanctions if Moscow did not change course in Ukraine.
WRECKAGE, BODIES
Malaysia Airlines said air traffic controllers lost contact with flight MH-17 in the afternoon as it flew over eastern Ukraine towards the Russian border, bound for Asia with 280 passengers and 15 crew aboard. Flight tracking data indicated it was at its cruising altitude of 33,000 feet when it disappeared.
That would be beyond the range of smaller rockets used by the rebels to bring down helicopters and other low-flying Ukrainian military aircraft - but not of the SA-11 system which a Ukrainian official accused Russia of supplying to the rebels.
Separatists have been quoted in Russian media saying they had acquired one. One group was quoted as saying that it used an SA-11 on Monday to bring down an Antonov An-26 turboprop plane - a loss that the Ukrainian forces had confirmed this week along with the downing of a Sukhoi Su-25 fighter on Wednesday.
“I was working in the field on my tractor when I heard the sound of a plane and then a bang,” one local man at told Reuters at Hrabove, known in Russian as Grabovo. “Then I saw the plane hit the ground and break in two. There was thick black smoke.”
An emergency worker said at least 100 bodies had been found so far and that debris was spread over 15 km (9 miles). People were scouring the area for the black box flight recorders and separatists were later quoted as saying they had found one.
Kiev complained that separatists who are the main force in the area prevented Ukrainian officials from reaching the site.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak demanded swift justice for those responsible and said the crash site must not be interfered with before international experts had access.
“MH-17 is not an incident or catastrophe, it is a terrorist attack,” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko tweeted. He has stepped up his military campaign against the rebels since a ceasefire late last month failed to produce any negotiations.
One rebel leader, the self-styled prime minister in Donetsk, said they could agree a truce of two or three days to help with investigation of the incident.
Russia, which Western powers accuse of trying to destabilise Ukraine to maintain influence over its old Soviet empire, has accused Kiev’s leaders of mounting a fascist coup. It says it is holding troops in readiness to protect Russian-speakers in the east - the same rationale it used for taking over Crimea.
Ukrainian Interior Ministry official Anton Gerashchenko said on Facebook: “Just now, over Torez, terrorists using a Buk anti-aircraft system kindly given to them by Putin have shot down a civilian airliner flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.”
The Buk - which means beech tree in Russia - is a 1970s vintage, truck-mounted, radar-guided missile system, codenamed SA-11 Gadfly by Cold War NATO adversaries. It fires a 5.7-metre (19-foot), 55-kg (110-lb) missile for up to 28 km (18 miles).
“There is no limit to the cynicism of Putin and his terrorists!” Gerashchenko wrote on the social media site. “Europe, USA, Canada, the civilised world, open your eyes! Help us in any way you can! This is a war of good against evil!”
He also published a photograph he said showed a Buk launcher in the centre of the town of Torez on Thursday. It was not possible to verify the image. On June 29, Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency quoted a separatist spokesman in Donetsk as saying they had taken control of a Buk air-defence system.
REBEL ACCUSATION
The military commander of the rebels, a Russian named Igor Strelkov, had written on his social media page at 1337 GMT, that his forces had brought down an Antonov An-26 in the same area. It is a turboprop transport plane of a type used by Ukraine’s forces. There was no comment on that from Ukrainian officials.
Flight MH-17 could have been in that area around that time, just over three hours after it took off from Schipol airport.
Several Ukrainian planes and helicopters have been shot down in four months of fighting in the region. Ukraine had said an An-26 was shot down on Monday and one of its Sukhoi Su-25 fighters was downed on Wednesday by an air-to-air missile - Kiev’s strongest accusation yet of direct Russian involvement, since the rebels do not appear to have access to aircraft.
Moscow has denied its forces are involved in any way.
The loss of MH-17 is the second disaster for Malaysia Airlines this year, following the mysterious loss of flight MH-370. It disappeared in March with 239 passengers and crew on board on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Slideshow (10 Images)
In 2001, Ukraine admitted its military was probably responsible for shooting down a Russian airliner that crashed into the Black Sea, killing all 78 people on board. A senior Ukrainian official said it had most likely been downed by an accidental hit from an S-200 rocket fired during exercises.
In 1983, a Soviet jet fighter shot down a South Korean airliner after it veered off course into Russian air space and failed to respond to attempts to make contact. All 269 passengers and crew were killed.
In 1988, the U.S. warship Vincennes shot down an Iranian airliner over the Gulf, killing all 290 passengers and crew, in what the United States said was an accident after crew mistook the plane for a fighter. Tehran called it a deliberate attack.For some time now, power has been gravitating from the Legislature to the President. Many in Congress, including myself, have been critical of the President’s executive overreach.
However, Congress bears some of the blame in that this body continues to abdicate and transfer its power to the President. Nowhere is this more obvious than in foreign policy.
If those who decry executive overreach don’t see the problem with today’s sanctions bill, it is due to their own selective application of their principles to domestic policy while ignoring the implications on foreign policy.
Many conservatives readily see the President’s overreach in economic regulation but fail to grasp Presidential overreach when it comes to war. Our founders gave the power to declare war to the Legislature not the President. Yet, this President has had our country involved in two undeclared, unconditional wars in Libya and Syria.
Congress has done nothing.
Yet Congress’ abdication of its constitutional authority and duty to declare war did not begin with a President run amok. It began with Congress partially transferring its power via legislation.
The same can be said about the power to enact sanctions.
During the debate over the Iranian Agreement to end sanctions, many Congressional voices lamented that these sanctions were enacted by Congress and should not be unilaterally ended by the President without Congressional approval.
As many observers noted, Congress has only itself to blame.
For decades now, Congress has granted the President national security waivers to allow the executive to terminate sanctions without any new vote of Congress.
Looking back at the North Korean sanctions, we find President Clinton removing some sanctions by using the national security waiver that Congress provided.
President George W. Bush also relieved sanctions against North Korea by taking advantage of national security waivers.
Jump ahead to the Iran Agreement, and you find President Obama using national security waivers provided by Congress to unilaterally repeal Iranian Sanctions without Congressional authority.
In fact, President Obama has utilized Congressionally-provided loopholes 40 times to remove Iranian sanctions.
Fast forward to the North Korean sanctions before us and the new sanctions bill does exactly what previous sanctions bills have done before: namely, provide the President with power to simply claim any non-specific national security claim to waive the sanctions.
Congressional critics of the President’s use of national security waivers to end Iranian sanctions should decide now that they have no leg to stand on should a future President decide to end North Korean sanctions without Congressional approval.
I propose Congress take back its power. I propose that Congress not cede more power to the President.Monday as the news developing about the Manchester terror bombing after the completion of an Ariana Grande concert, CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank laid out for host Anderson Cooper the likelihood that the explosion was the result of a suicide bomber motivated by radical Islamic extremism.
However, Cruickshank did say “it must also be noted” there had been a number of “false flag plots” orchestrated by “right-wing extremist” in Europe.
“Well, obviously a suicide bomber, that would be the hallmarks of an Islamist terrorist plot attack,” Cruickshank replied. “So, they’ll be looking in that direction tonight if they indeed do confirm there was a suicide bomber involved. There eyewitnessed interviewed in the last few minutes on BBC Radio talking about what they’re describing as nuts all over the floor. And that would be consistent with a kind of shrapnel-type of device, which we’ve seen groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS encourage their recruits to build. So that’s the only way this is pointing tonight. We cannot conclude that for sure at this stage. We are going to have to wait for police to tell us much more in the hours ahead.”
“But given the fact that they’re looking into this real possibility, and it is there would appear some evidence that this was a suicide bombing– that certainly takes you down the Islamist terrorist direction,” he continued. “It must also be noted that in recent months in Europe, there have been a number of false flag plots where right-wing extremists have tried frame Islamists for terrorism. We have seen that in Germany in recent weeks. But a suicide bomber does take you down the direction of Islamist terror.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poorOrganisers hoping for big crowd ‘to make sure things do not get worse’ after increase in hostility towards minorities
Activists for gender and sexuality rights in Poland say they expect a record turnout at an “equality parade” in Warsaw on Saturday, amid a climate of growing hostility towards minorities and claims that the government is curbing human rights.
A number of diplomats will be in the crowd brandishing rainbow flags after ambassadors from 36 countries issued a joint letter of support for the parade, and a rights survey ranked Poland as one of the weakest EU countries for legal protection for LGBTI people.
“The truth is that we do not really have any legal rights to protect,” said Jej Perfekcyjność, an organiser of the annual event, formerly a gay rights march now rebranded as an equality parade in an attempt to broaden its appeal to all minorities.
“We expect a record crowd because many people have joined demonstrations against this government in the past few months. We need a big crowd to make sure things do not get worse,” he added, aiming for a crowd of 30,000.
The rule of law is under assault in Poland | Steve Crawshaw Read more
Last October Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, blocked a bill that would have granted legal rights to transgender people. A few weeks later the nationalist Law & Justice party, which is close to the Roman Catholic church, won parliamentary elections and began bringing the courts under government control, leading to protests from human rights groups and scrutiny from European bodies.
Last month the government scrapped a parliamentary commission on minority and human rights. In a measure of the government’s attitude towards minorities, the minister for civil society and equal rights, Wojciech Kaczmarczyk, declared on Facebook that there should be no legal bar to private businesses turning away black customers.
Warsaw’s main annual LGBTI march was banned in 2004 and 2005 under its then mayor, Lech Kaczyński, who later became Polish president and whose twin brother, Jarosław, remains leader of Law & Justice. Since 2006 the event has taken place every year.
Street protests over abortion law are latest skirmish in battle for Poland’s soul Read more
Perfekcyjność said there was a growing climate of fear among LGBTI people because extremist groups “feel ever more confident”. He added: “We had not seen attacks on associations for six or seven years but in the past few months there have been several cases of vandalism.”
The campaign group Lambda has taken down its Warsaw city centre rainbow flag after a window was smashed. Its advocacy officer Piotr Godzisz said it was too early to say whether attacks were on the increase.
“The official statistics show very few attacks,” he said. “Homophobia is not considered an aggravating circumstance in court. As a result, the police do not have an incentive to seek out that motive and victims do not report attacks.”Sir Clive Thompson, President of the CBI and chief executive of service firm Rentokil Initial, said that industry preparations for the euro "would be helped by the government setting a date" for entry.
Speaking at the end of the CBI's annual conference, he said that many small businesses would not make the necessary preparations "unless they know it will happen."
And he warned that inward investment by multi-nationals could suffer if uncertainty about British membership continued.
Yesterday Chancellor Gordon Brown told the conference that the government was setting up a national changeover plan as from January which would set out the practical steps the UK would need to take if it decided to join the euro.
In less than two months, the euro will become the single currency for 11 EU countries, with only the UK, Denmark, Sweden, and Greece remaining outside.
Call for open debate
He warned business that without the euro, the UK could face increased exchange rate instability and a return to a boom-and-bust economy.
Mr Turner said that the CBI wanted an open debate on whether to join a single currency, and it would conduct a major survey of its members in the first half of next year.
But he criticised the "baggage of labour market harmonisation which some people in Europe mistakenly believe should accompany monetary union."
His remarks also focused on the need for UK firms to raise their productivity, a theme expected to be emphasised by the government in the pre-Budget statement.
He said that while firms had the main burden of innovation, government could help by improving the skills of the workforce and providing tax incentives for capital investment.As we reported earlier, Ivorian international defender Kolo Toure finalised his move to Liverpool today, signing a two-year deal.
Kolo Toure settling into life as an #LFC player at Melwood pic.twitter.com/NgakUkqqZv — Liverpool FC (@LFC) July 2, 2013
The 32-year old comes in from Manchester City on a free transfer due to his contract at the Ethiad Stadium having expired.
The former Arsenal Premier League winner will be seen as an experienced replacement for veteran defender Jamie Carragher, who retired at the end of the 2012/13 campaign.
He joins the likes of Daniel Agger, Martin Skrtel, Sebasitan Coates and Martin Kelly in fighting for a first team place at centre-back.
He was officially revealed to the press today via the club’s official website and obligatory photo shoot next to various signs and benches at Melwood.
Some brilliant photos of Kolo Toure leaning against things. http://t.co/yqPUpBYOOE #LFC — Bri? (@patoman77) July 2, 2013
Former Man City team mate Vincent Kompany tweeted:
We took to Twitter to ask Reds fans for their reaction to Toure signing for the Reds:
@thisisanfield quality and experienced backup for squad. really good signing. — ænes? (@aealfc) July 2, 2013
@thisisanfield I think Kolo will be the No 1 CB adds pace and physicality to our defence #lfc — John Henry's Wallet (@LFC_Moneyman) July 2, 2013
https://twitter.com/glpunk/status/352074060395581442
@thisisanfield good experienced cover to complement Wisdom, Kelly, Coates — Steve Crosthwaite (@s_crosthwaite) July 2, 2013
@thisisanfield He's lazy, past his best and will keep Coates/Kelly out the team. I struggle to find anything appealing about |
allowing Sling TV users to watch the premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens free on September 10
The Pac-12 Network is available in both Sling Orange and Sling Blue Sports Extra add-on packs
Sling TV brings a new app to Windows 10 PCs and Tablets
Details on the Addition of Starz
The addition of Starz means that Sling TV users have access to just about every premium movie channel they could possibly want. For now, the network will be available 7-days as free-view. This allows all users to see the premiere of the newest Star Wars movie on September 10 at 9 PM ET. After that, you can add Starz for $9 per month on either Sling Orange or Sling Blue.
Sling TV Becomes First to Offer Pac-12 Network Live Stream
Pac-12 fans will be delighted as Sling TV has added all 6 regional feeds to both their Sports Extra package. This is officially the only legal way to watch the Pac 12 Network online without a cable subscription. Regional feeds include:
Pac-12 Arizona
Pac-12 Bay Area
Pac-12 Los Angeles
Pac-12 Mountain
Pac-12 Oregon
Pac-12 Washington
The Sports Extra package on Sling Blue now runs $10 per month with the addition, but users who are already signed up will be grandfathered in at the old price.
Windows 10 Users Get Tailored Sling TV Experience
If you’re a Windows 10 tablet or PC user, Sling has a new app for you. The app features Live Tiles, Cortana integration, touch screen compatibility, and more. You can download it free from the app store.
Lots of big changes coming from Sling TV as cord cutting options continue to grow. Keep an eye on our site for the latest updates!(Emily Larsen, Liberty Headlines) President Trump and Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke have signed several executive orders to free up access to coal on federal lands, reversing orders from the previous administration.
Republican politicians and free-market think tank scholars have applauded the moves, but industry executives say the deregulation won’t spur immediate changes in coal production or profits.
Former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell imposed a moratorium on leasing any additional federal lands for coal mining and production, just days before President Trump took office.
In addition to reversing the moratorium, the executive orders confirm the removal of regulations on hydraulic fracking from the Bureau of Land Management, and direct BLM, the National Park Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct reviews on oil and gas regulations and climate change policies.
Western Congressional Caucus members in the House applauded moves by President Trump and the administration to roll back regulations that stifle coal production on public lands.
“Around 40 percent of coal production occurs on public lands,” said Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) in a press release. “We don’t need stifling restrictions—we need more responsible and efficient coal production to help get people back to work and our economy back on track.”
Restrictions on coal mining aren’t the only thing standing in the way of prosperity for coal miners and energy companies. Many companies don’t believe this wave of deregulation is enough to consider changing the types of energy production in which to invest resources and infrastructure.
“At the end of the day, coal will still have to compete with a host of other fuels,” Rick Curtsinger, a spokesman for Cloud Peak Energy, told CNBC. “Utilities’ long-term decisions are based on economics and the need for long-term certainty.”
Nicholas K. Akins, chief executive of American Electric Power, said his company doesn’t plan to change course due to the Trump administration’s executive orders.
“Our plans remain the same,” he told CNBC. “We’re going to invest over the next three years $1.5 billion in renewables, $9 billion in transmission to optimize the grid. This industry is moving in a direction that really moves toward a clean energy economy. That’s what our customers expect; That’s what our shareholders expect.”
A Reuters analysis found that these executive orders might not even have a great effect on companies that focus on mining coal on federal lands. Those companies have enough coal on existing leases to last for 17 years with 2015 sales levels.
The Reuters analysis also noted that coal accounts for about a third of U.S. electricity production, down from about half a decade ago.
Although the economic impact from deregulation might not be immediately significant for energy companies, environmental experts at the Heartland Institute, a free-market think tank, were quick to note the massive economic costs from the Obama-era regulations.
“President Trump’s executive order directing EPA to suspend, revise, or rescind President Obama’s Clean Power Plan is a good first step in restoring sanity to American energy policy,” said Isaac Oor, research fellow for energy and environment policy at the Heartland Institute, at the organization’s annual conference on climate change.
“Despite costing up to $39 billion and resulting in 68,000 people losing their jobs in the manufacturing sector each year, EPA’s own analysis showed the CPP would reduce potential future global warming only by 0.019 degrees C by 2100 – an amount too small to be accurately measured by even the most sophisticated scientific equipment. This means the Clean Power Plan hurts American workers for no measurable environmental gain,” said Oor.
Several environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and Earthjustice, and a Montana Native American tribe quickly filed lawsuits in federal court to block Trump’s deregulation.
“Reinstating coal leasing before fixing what’s wrong with this program is like letting a patient leave the hospital before needed surgery,” said Chase Huntley, climate and program director for The Wilderness Society, in a press release. “It does not make sense, especially when there is so little demand for more coal right now.”Peter S. Svensson writes for Bleeding Cool
Young Justice. Fantastic animated series that ran on Cartoon Network from 2010 to 2013. Two seasons of well-written, if occasionally far too complicated for the ostensibly young audience it was aimed at, which ended with hopes for another season which never came to fruition.
After a very, very long delay, the second season is now available on Netflix in the US. And show creator Greg Weisman has this to say.
RT! #YoungJustice S1 AND S2 now on Netflix! Want YJ S3? One of best things u can do is watch ALL eps over & over on Netflix. Or buy BluRays! — Greg Weisman (@Greg_Weisman) February 2, 2016
See, Greg Weisman does not have a good track record of series he’s worked on lasting. Gargoyles, which was a fantastic series, lasted two seasons under him. (There was a failed third season/rebranding without him, but we will not speak of it.) Spectacular Spider-Man lasted two seasons before in-house politics brought it down. And Young Justice, though the second season wasn’t as polished as the first, was still a fantastic show before everything abruptly came to an end.
But, Netflix has been rescuing shows that do well. And the long running story arc approach that Weisman effectively pioneered in children’s animation in the US is ideal for Netflix binging. He, a seasoned animation professional (who is also writing Nightmask and Star Brand for Marvel) believes that there’s a chance for a third season if the numbers are high enough.
I’m willing to spend a weekend rewatching season two. Netflix and Geek?
Peter S. Svensson will be covering Silicon Valley Comic Con and Wonder Con for Bleeding Cool. Also, he helps run the Official Power Morphicon, the Power Rangers convention that will be held this summer. He conventions a lot.
About Rich Johnston Chief writer and founder of Bleeding Cool. Father of two. Comic book clairvoyant. Political cartoonist.
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Research that investigated why bananas are slippery when you step on them has won one of this year's Ig Nobel prizes.
The spoof awards that have become almost as famous as the real Nobels were handed out at their annual ceremony at Harvard University, US.
Kiyoshi Mabuchi's Japanese team measured the friction of banana skin in the lab, and showed why apple and orange peel are not quite so hazardous.
The Kitasato University group received the physics Ig for their insights.
It is another classic of its type. The awards, which are run by the science humour magazine Annals of Improbable Research, can seem quite ridiculous at first.
But when you delve deeper, you often see a serious intention beyond just the tongue in cheek.
The Japanese scientists are interested in how friction and lubrication affect the movement of our limbs.
The polysaccharide follicular gels that give banana skins their slippery properties are also found in the membranes where our bones meet.
"This concept will help to design a joint prosthesis," Kiyoshi Mabuchi told BBC News.
Image copyright Mabuchi et al Image caption In their paper, the Kitasato group describes its experimental set-up
Another winner this year was the study that examined the brains of people who see the face of Jesus and other figures in slices of toast. The work won the neuroscience Ig.
Kang Lee, from the University of Toronto, Canada, and colleagues showed their subjects pictures of "noise" - like the random speckles you used to get on old, out-of-tune TVs - to see what patterns the volunteers would identify.
Image copyright Toronto Image caption The face of expectation: Jesus on toast
This tendency to see order in randomness - like a face in the charred areas of a piece of bread - is a well-established phenomenon called pareidolia.
Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Lee and his team saw how the same parts of the brain light up when we see non-existent faces as when we see real ones.
"Interestingly, when you superimpose all the noise images where these people say they see faces, and subtract all the noise images in which they told us they couldn't see faces - when we do this type of image processing, a face does actually show up," Prof Lee said.
The Toronto scientist explained that this type of pattern recognition was hard-wired, and even chimps experienced it.
"The face you are going to see is determined by your personal expectations or beliefs," he added.
"So, for example, Buddhists might not see Jesus on toast, but they might see a Buddha on toast."
This is the 24th year of the Ig Nobels, and they just get bigger and bigger.
Marc Abrahams, the editor of Annals of Improbable Research, said scientists were clearly now doing studies with an eye to winning an Ig.
"We're getting about 9,000 nominations a year. About 10% to 20% are self-nominations, but these entries hardly ever win," he told BBC News.
"That's generally because they are just trying to be funny. Whereas, those who win perhaps don't start out that way, and only realise later on that what they are up to really is kind of funny."
The full list of winners this year:
PHYSICS: Kiyoshi Mabuchi, of Kitasato University, Japan, and colleagues, for measuring the amount of friction between a shoe and a banana skin, and between a banana skin and the floor, when a person steps on a banana skin that's on the floor.
NEUROSCIENCE: Kang Lee, of the University of Toronto, Canada, and colleagues for trying to understand what happens in the brains of people who see the face of Jesus in a piece of toast.
PSYCHOLOGY: Peter Jonason, of the University of Western Sydney, Australia, and colleagues for amassing evidence that people who habitually stay up late are, on average, more self-admiring, more manipulative, and more psychopathic than people who habitually arise early in the morning.
PUBLIC HEALTH: Jaroslav Flegr, of Charles University, Czech Republic, and colleagues for investigating whether it is mentally hazardous for a human being to own a cat.
BIOLOGY: Vlastimil Hart, of the Czech University of Life Sciences, and colleagues for carefully documenting that when dogs defecate and urinate, they prefer to align their body axis with Earth's north-south geomagnetic field lines.
ART: Marina de Tommaso, of the University of Bari, Italy, and colleagues for measuring the relative pain people suffer while looking at an ugly painting, rather than a pretty painting, while being shot [in the hand] by a powerful laser beam.
ECONOMICS: The Italian government's National Institute of Statistics, for proudly taking the lead in fulfilling the European Union mandate for each country to increase the official size of its national economy by including revenues from prostitution, illegal drug sales, smuggling, and all other unlawful financial transactions between willing participants.
MEDICINE: Ian Humphreys, of Michigan State University, US, and colleagues, for treating "uncontrollable" nosebleeds, using the method of nasal-packing-with-strips-of-cured-pork.
ARCTIC SCIENCE: Eigil Reimers, of the University of Oslo, Norway, and colleagues, for testing how reindeer react to seeing humans who are disguised as polar bears.
NUTRITION: Raquel Rubio, of IRTA, Spain, and colleagues, for their study titled "Characterization of Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolated from Infant Faeces as Potential Probiotic Starter Cultures for Fermented Sausages."
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmosTo play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin
This captivating retrospective follows along an exotic sonic road of Loreena’s career highlights, reflecting the scope and diversity of her catalogue and travels.
“When I look back on the road from where I have come, the people I’ve met, the places and experiences which have informed the music, or even where we created or recorded, I marvel at how rich my journey has been.” says Loreena.
It’s available as a standard CD, deluxe 2 disc set, Collector’s Edition CD Boxset, digital download, as well as in a limited edition, 180-gram, numbered vinyl format.
The deluxe 2 disc set includes A Midsummer Night’s Tour (Highlights), which features nine tracks recorded during her live performance at the Zitadelle fortress in Mainz, Germany, in July 2012.Annual ranking of Association football clubs, by revenue
The Deloitte Football Money League is a ranking of football clubs by revenue generated from football operations. It is produced annually by the accountancy firm Deloitte and released in early February of each year, describing the season most recently finished.
Rankings by season [ edit ]
2019 [ edit ]
Appearances by Country Ranking Country Number of Teams Total Revenue (€ million) 1 13 4411.4 2 5 1316.2 3 4 1910.9 4 3 1190.2 5 2 705.9 6 1 167.8 1 165.7 1 150.7
2018 [ edit ]
Appearances by Country Ranking Country Number of Teams Total Revenue (€ million) 1 14 4437.1 2 5 1232.0 3 4 1319.9 4 3 1595.4 5 2 684.5 6 1 180.4 1 157.6
2017 [ edit ]
Appearances by Country Ranking Country Number of Teams Total Revenue (€ million) 1 12 3821.1 2 5 1095.9 3 4 1249.7 4 3 1468.9 5 2 680.9 2 313.6 6 1 196.5 1 152.1
2016 [ edit ]
Appearances by Country Ranking Country Number of Teams Total Revenue (€ million) 1 16 3939.8 2 5 993.7 3 3 1324.9 3 974.3 5 1 480.8 1 159.1 1 132.8
2015 [ edit ]
Appearances by Country Ranking Country Number of Teams Total Revenue (€ million) 1 14 3140.2 2 5 985.3 3 4 1083.2 4 3 1204 5 2 604.7 6 1 161.9 1 126.0 1 118.0
2014 [ edit ]
Appearances by Country Ranking Country Number of Teams Total Revenue (€ million) 1 8 1957 2 6 1051.7 3 5 1137.5 4 4 1237.5 5 2 503.1 2 283.4 7 1 113.3 1 109.2 1 107.6
2013 [ edit ]
Appearances by Country Ranking Country Number of Teams Total Revenue (€ million) 1 11 2213.6 2 5 963.9 5 917.2 4 4 1214.6 5 3 488.1 6 1 129.7 1 111.1 1 104.1 1 94.1
For the fourth year running, the top 4 teams were Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United and Bayern Munich, with Real Madrid becoming the first team to generate over €500 million in revenue. Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund and Napoli continued their meteoric rises up the table.
2012 [ edit ]
Appearances by Country Ranking Country Number of Teams Total Revenue (€ million) 1 11 1886.9 2 6 986.3 3 5 858.8 4 4 1146.9 5 2 283.2 6 1 102.5 1 97.1
2011 [ edit ]
Appearances by Country Ranking Country Number of Teams Total Revenue (€ million) 1 10 1792 2 6 989.8 6 925.5 4 5 1160.1 5 3 390 6 1 98.2
2010 [ edit ]
2009 [ edit ]
2008 [ edit ]
The total revenue of the 20 richest clubs in the footballing world was over a record €3.73 billion. No side could displace Real Madrid, who remain top of football's financial rankings for the third year running after seeing their revenues leap 20% to €351.8 million during the 2006–07 season.
Manchester United displaced Barcelona in second place, the Spanish club moving down to third. Chelsea's revenue increase sees them return to the top five, into fourth place whilst Arsenal's move to the Emirates Stadium transformed their revenues moving them up to fifth place. This marked the first time any country has had three clubs in the top five of the Money League.
European champions A.C. Milan moved up to sixth place while runners-up Liverpool moved two places up to eighth. Italian champions Internazionale moved down two places to 9th while Bayern Munich moved up a spot to seventh. Juventus' relegation into Serie B saw them move nine places down to 12th place.
2007 [ edit ]
The total revenue of the top 20 richest clubs in the world is now over €3.3 billion. Barcelona gained four places in the ranking for this year, making the two richest clubs both from Spain. England has the largest number of clubs in the list. A club from Portugal was added to the list for the first time. Portugal's Benfica is the third club from the Iberian Peninsula among the top 20 in the world, after Spain's Real Madrid and Barcelona.
2006 [ edit ]
In the rankings for the 2004–05 season, Real Madrid longs run at the top. Three clubs that had appeared in the previous season's top twenty (Marseille, Rangers, and Aston Villa) were replaced by Lyon, Everton, and Valencia.
2005 [ edit ]
In the 2003–04 season, five clubs recorded revenues of over €200m with Manchester United once again being ranked as the richest club in Europe.
2004 [ edit ]
English clubs dominated the money league for the 2002–03 season, with five Premier League clubs occupying spots in the top 10.
2003 [ edit ]
2002 [ edit ]
[1]
Summary table: Number of times appearing in Top 10 [ edit ]
Summary table: Some teams appearing in Top 10 [ edit ]
Record growth in Europe’s top five leagues boosted revenue in the continent’s football industry by 4 percent to an all-time high of 16.3 billion euros (£13.7 billion/$23.8 billion) in 2009-10. The “Big Five” had total revenue of 8.4 billion euros, a 5 percent increase over 2008-09, according to Deloitte.[2]
In addition to that a total of €754.1m was distributed to clubs participating in the 2008–09 UEFA Champions League, with the two finalists, Barcelona and Manchester United, receiving the largest amounts. Barcelona's triumphant run to the title at Wembley in May earned them a total of €51m. Despite the loss, Manchester United got even more €53m.[4]
See also [ edit ]AGL has temporarily withdrawn its plans to drill 66 coal seam gas wells in Western Sydney.
On Friday the company said it had asked the Department of Planning and Infrastructure to suspend its assessment process, citing ''community concerns'' as the main reason for the backdown.
The gas company has been involved in ''ongoing discussions'' with the state government and it is understood the company has every intention to push on with the drilling project after community consultation, the SMH reported.
It wants to drill wells at a dozen sites between Liverpool and Campbelltown.
''The minister was advised by AGL of its decision late last night," a spokeswoman for the NSW Resources Minister, Chris Hartcher, said
Federal opposition spokesman for energy and resources, Ian Macfarlane, said he had been involved in talks with AGL and other coal seam gas companies and outlined his concerns about urban drilling but that was unrelated to AGL's recent decision.
''I can appreciate the natural cynicism amongst a few, but the fact is I would never compromise a company's financial position on the basis of politics. I said to the industry 18 months ago that they need to get out of urban areas, the Hunter Valley and northern NSW if they are going to go ahead. That position hasn't changed.''
But NSW Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham said the news was a ''cynical PR stunt by a company desperate to get their contentious project out of the spotlight of a federal election campaign in the marginal electorates''.
AGL spokeswoman, Karen Winsbury, would not specify the details of talks with the government over the decision to halt the project, but said AGL wanted to address community concerns.
''It's fair to say that 'community' also encompasses members of Parliament and councils.''
Before Gillard's announcement of the federal election Australian Mining reported that AGL publically reversed its position on fracking, putting the drilling technique back on the table as a possible option.
If the AGL project is eventually approved, the Greens said at the time that fracking is inevitable under Sydney.
''Our aquifers and geological formations are like Humpty Dumpty, once you've fracked it, you can't put it back together again,'' Greens member Jeremy Buckingham said.
''Barry O'Farrell should act now to protect land and water rather than leaving it to a future government to say sorry for the damage done by fracking for coal seam gas.''
CSG is a contentious issue attracting great public scrutiny at present.
Recently, protests have erupted in both the Hunter Valley and Northern Rivers regions in an effort to stop the development of coal seam gas operations.HUDS workers and student supporters chant "Hey Harvard you can't hide; we can see your greedy side," as they march through Harvard Square. The HUDS strike began at 6 a.m. Wednesday morning.
UPDATED: October 5, 2016, at 9:46 p.m.
Hundreds of Harvard’s dining service workers began picketing early Wednesday morning, commencing a historic strike precipitated by months of tense—and thus far fruitless—negotiations with the University.
The workers’ strike marks the first time they have walked off the job during the academic year, according to Brian Lang, president of UNITE HERE Local 26, the Boston-based labor union that represents HUDS. The strike is the first walk out Harvard has seen since 1983, according to Lang.
UNITE HERE Local 26 President Brian Lang on the start of the HUDS strike
HUDS workers picketed outside of dining halls and stationed four RVs in the Harvard area as “mobile strike centers.” At 9 a.m., roughly 600 workers rallied in the Science Center Plaza, according to Local 26 spokesperson Tiffany Ten Eyck, eventually marching to Massachusetts Hall, where University President Drew G. Faust's office is located.
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According to Lang, around 500 dining service employees checked into picket lines across the campus as of about 8 a.m. using strike identification cards. There are about 750 total HUDS workers.
Lang and Ten Eyck also confirmed that as of about 8 a.m. they were not aware of any dining services workers that had reported for work.
Local 26 negotiator Michael Kramer gave opening remarks at the rally, calling for an increase in HUDS employees’ wages. “At this, the richest university in the world, no worker that is here and that is ready work should be making less than $35,000 a year,” he said.
Anabela A. Pappas, a HUDS worker stationed in Pforzheimer and Cabot Houses, followed Kramer. She said that HUDS employees would rather be “in the dining hall feeding the students” than outside rallying, and that Harvard had forced workers into striking.
“All the money they have, and they still want to squeeze every bit out of us,” she said. “You greedy people. This is what you caused, not us. We didn’t want to be here.”
Over the course of the months-long bargaining—which began mid-June—Harvard and union negotiators have faced a stalemate over wages and health benefits.
University spokesperson Tania deLuzuriaga wrote in an emailed statement that Harvard has “proposed creative solutions to issues presented by the union, and hoped union representatives would contribute to finding creative, workable solutions at the negotiation table.”
She added: “They have been unwilling to do so. We are disappointed that they have been more interested in planning a strike than working on a solution that meets the needs of their members and the wider community.”
Harvard and HUDS will continue bargaining during the strike, according to Lang. He said both Local 26 and the University have established a “framework” for making progress on the negotiations. Their next session is scheduled for Thursday afternoon, according to deLuzuriaga.
Over the course of the day, HUDS employees picketed at dining halls and around Harvard Yard, carrying Local 26 signs and shouting chants. They planned to picket at 16 different locations on campus, including each of the upperclassman dining halls and Annenberg, the freshman dining hall.
Kerry Maiato, a HUDS employee who typically works in Annenberg, stood outside one of the union’s RVs while picketing.
“I feel the strike is important just off of myself and my family,” said Maiato. “I have two children, three and nine years old, and I feel like affordable health should be a basic human right that everyone is entitled to. That’s why I’m striking today, it’s for my children and my family."
“At every dining hall you do see workers and students, members of this community standing together and standing with HUDS, and I think that’s really powerful,” said Grace Evans ’19, a member of SLAM and a student in Mather House.
Other members of SLAM handed out flowers to striking workers behind Annenberg.
Dean of Students Katherine G. O’Dair, who stood in front of Mather House Wednesday morning, said she sees her role today as "supporting the students in their choices."
Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana wrote in an email to undergraduates Wednesday that he believed debate over the workers’ strike was a testament to “free expression” but stressed that College affiliates should be respectful.
“As always, we want to encourage dialogue that is respectful,” Khurana wrote. “In this community — made up of students, administrative staff, faculty, residential staff, and our dining hall workers, how we treat each other in challenging times matters deeply.”
He wrote that the College's priority was its students' “health and well-being.”
Two outside mediators—Lawrence F. Katz, a Harvard economics professor, and Robert B. McKersie, professor emeritus at MIT’s Sloan School of Management—will attend additional bargaining sessions between the two parties, according to deLuzuriaga. Those same mediators also helped facilitate the 2015 negotiations between Harvard and its largest employee union, the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers.
Thus far, HUDS negotiators have demanded year-round work and a minimum salary of $35,000 for those who wish to work the whole year. In addition, HUDS has asked Harvard not raise out of pocket health costs.
In a bargaining session Monday, Harvard proposed a summer stipend that would provide HUDS workers available to work during the summer anywhere from $150 to $250 per week, “even if there are no open shifts.” The amount of the stipend would depend on the worker’s tenure at the University.
Lang said in an interview Wednesday morning that this proposal was a “step in the right direction.”
Harvard prepared for workers to strike by extending dining hall hours and closing certain facilities. In emails sent yesterday, several Faculty Deans said dining hall managers will primarily take charge during the strike. In advance of the strike, Harvard began stockpiling frozen food en masse.
The HUDS workers were joined by at least two other labor groups in their picket and rally. Aryt Alasti, a security guard, said members of SEIU 32BJ—which represents Harvard’s guards and custodians—had been encouraged to picket in support of HUDS during their off hours. Graduate student Aaron T. Bekemeyer, carrying a Harvard Graduate Student Union-United Auto Workers banner, said members of the unionization effort were also supporting the HUDS workers.
“We’re all workers. We’re here in solidarity with them,” Bekemeyer said.
Additionally, in a memo sent to HUCTW employees, Bill Jaeger, the union’s executive director, pledged support to Local 26, but cautioned union members against neglecting their own work schedules to participate in the strike.
“At the same time, HUCTW is not on strike — HUCTW members are expected to report to work as scheduled on Wednesday, and to work all scheduled hours during an Local 26 action that may take place,” Jaeger wrote.
While outside workers picketed, at least one dining hall served hot breakfast. In Lowell House, students could enjoy items such as waffles and home fries, marking the rare weekday appearance of hot breakfast in an upperclassman House.
—Crimson staff writer Daphne C. Thompson contributed reporting.
—Check thecrimson.com for more updates. Follow @thecrimson on Twitter and like The Harvard Crimson on Facebook.The FBI isn’t happy about the latest versions of iOS and Android using encryption by default. FBI director James Comey has been blasting both Apple and Google. Microsoft is never mentioned — but Windows 8.1 uses encryption by default, too.
The FBI doesn’t seem worried about Windows 8.1’s default “device encryption” feature. Microsoft’s encryption works a bit differently — Microsoft holds the keys and could hand them over to the FBI.
Why the FBI is Blasting Apple and Google
FBI directory James Comey has said Apple and Google are creating “a black hole for law enforcement.” Encryption “threatens to lead us all to a very dark place,” according to the FBI.
The latest versions of Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android automatically encrypt a smartphone or tablet’s storage by default. Previously, this was just an option most users wouldn’t enable. Because of the way encryption works, only a person who knows the key can decrypt it and access the unencrypted files. If Apple or Google received a warrant — or some sort of secret “national security letter” — they wouldn’t be able to decrypt the files even if they wanted to. They don’t have the encryption key. (A national security letter is a secret order that may contain a “nondisclosure” requirement, preventing the person who received the national security letter from ever talking about it for the rest of their life under threat of criminal prosecution.)
This is the main issue for the FBI — encryption that prevents thieves from accessing your data after they steal your device is fine. However, the FBI wants to have a way to force Apple or Google to provide access to the encrypted data. In other words, they want Apple and Google to have a key they can use to gain access to the encrypted data.
Windows 8.1’s Device Encryption Gives Microsoft a Key
RELATED: Windows 8.1 Will Start Encrypting Hard Drives By Default: Everything You Need to Know
New Windows 8.1 devices ship with something called “device encryption” enabled by default. This is different from the BitLocker encryption feature, which is only available in more expensive Professional editions of Windows and not enabled by default.
If you have a supported device, the device’s storage comes pre-encrypted — but it uses an empty encryption key. When you sign in with a Microsoft account, the encryption is activated and a recovery key is uploaded to Microsoft’s servers. (If you sign in on a domain, the recovery key is uploaded to Active Directory Domain Services, so your business or school has it instead of Microsoft.) If you use a local account, there’s no way to enable the device encryption.
In other words, device encryption can only be used if you upload a recovery key to Microsoft’s servers (or to your organization’s domain server). If a thief stole your device, they wouldn’t be able to gain access. However, if law enforcement were to send a warrant (or a secret national security letter) to Microsoft, Microsoft would be forced to give the government your recovery key.
This is exactly what the FBI wants from Apple and Google — they want them to hold a recovery key they can disclose. Apple and Google are digging in, but Microsoft already gave the FBI what they wanted.
Microsoft May Have Other Reasons, But…
RELATED: How to Set Up BitLocker Encryption on Windows
Now, this isn’t all about providing a backdoor for the FBI. Average Windows users who forget their password will be able to get a recovery key from their Microsoft account by going through a password reset process. They’d just have to visit http://windows.microsoft.com/recoverykey and sign in with the same Microsoft account — using an account recovery procedure if they can’t remember the password. Typically, encryption can’t be bypassed — if a user forgot their password, they’d lose access to all the files on their computer. Microsoft seems to consider this unacceptable.
But this is all a bit weird. There’s no way to enable device encryption without uploading a recovery key somewhere — not even a hidden power user option. This is very unusual for encryption — Android and iOS certainly don’t do it this way. BitLocker offers to back up your recovery key to your Microsoft account, but this part isn’t mandatory. It’s one of many different ways to create a backup of your recovery key — unlike with the default device encryption.
Even ignoring law enforcement access, this makes the encryption weaker. Someone could go through the password reset process in your Microsoft account to gain access to your encrypted files. We’ve previously seen people abuse password reset procedures with social-engineering tricks to gain access to other people’s accounts. It’s just less secure.
Law Enforcement Can Get Everything, Anyway
If the FBI wants to get access to text messages and phone calls, they can get it from the cellular carriers. If the FBI wants to get access to emails, social media posts, and files stored in cloud storage, they can get it by contacting the associated web services — yes, even Google and Apple would have to respond and hand over users’ data.
The US and other countries even have massive secret databases containing logs of who’s called who. They’re even trying to monitor all the traffic on the web and shove it into a database so it can be queried later.
Whatever sensitive data is protected via encryption is probably available elsewhere. Even with iOS and Android, devices are set to upload data to Apple’s iCloud and Google various services. That uploaded data could be gotten from their servers with a warrant or national security letter.
Pass a Law If It’s So Important
There’s a way for the FBI to actually get these backdoors — the government would just have to pass a low mandating backdoors for law enforcement. Currently, implementing encryption with no backdoors for law enforcement is completely legal in the US. The FBI actually gave up on pushing for such a law:
“The F.B.I. has abandoned a component of its original proposal that would have required companies that facilitate the encryption of users’ messages to always have a key to unscramble them if presented with a court order. Critics had charged that such a law would create back doors for hackers. The current proposal would allow services that fully encrypt messages between users to keep operating, officials said.”
If it’s so dangerous to allow encryption without a backdoor, why did the FBI give up on it? Probably because they know they’d lose. But, if the FBI’s current rhetoric is anything to go by, we could see such a law start to take form again.
Overall, device encryption is still a useful feature in Windows. Encrypting files but allowing the FBI to gain access is still an improvement over not encrypting those files. The encryption at least prevents thieves from gaining access. Let’s not mince words: Device encryption is good. It’s better than the complete lack of default encryption Windows used to offer, even with this concern.
However, Microsoft’s means of allowing law enforcement to access encrypted files is something that’s flown under the radar. It’s particularly relevant when we see Apple and Google digging in and refusing to enable this covert access. Apple and Google can’t provide law enforcement with access to your encrypted data, but Microsoft can.Since Windows 10 is out, there’s been a ton of information coming out from the SCCM product group. Many people gets confused at what’s needed for managing Windows 10 with SCCM 2012. The goal of this post is to centralize all those information so you can reach out when your organisation will be ready for managing Windows 10 with SCCM 2012.
[Updated 12/21/2015] – For complete Windows 10 support, upgrade to SCCM |
when brawls erupted after a drone bearing a map of “Greater Albania” was flown over the stadium.
As fighting started on the pitch, some Albanian players were assaulted by Serbian fans who had invaded the field.
Serbian officials then accused Rama’s own brother, Olsi Rama, of holding the remote control for the drone, which he strongly denied.
Following the game, the Albanian and Serbian prime ministers had a sharp exchange of views on Twitter.
On the second day of his visit, Rama is due to visit the Presevo Valley in southern Serbia, which is home to many ethnic Albanians.New Delhi: Railway finances are in “deep trouble", according to railway minister Suresh Prabhu who observed on Saturday that the government behemoth has been caught in a “vicious circle" of poor investments compromising its services.
Pitching for increased investment into the railways, he said pension Fund could be one of the possible means of pumping in the money into the largest government transporter which is facing losses to the tune of thousands of crores.
He said the railways can become an engine of growth in the coming years and contribute 2.5% to 3% in the GDP with an improved infrastructure.
However, the railway finances are in “deep trouble", the minister said addressing the Economic Times Global Business Summit.
While underlining that railways requires huge investments to expand its network to provide physical connectivity, he said that 30 to 40,000km of lines need to be expanded to carry more cargo besides people.
He regretted that India does not have the required institutions to invest in such sectors. Pension fund, he said, was one such possibility which could help pump investments. Giving the example of Naxal-hit areas, Prabhu said besides carrying security personnel, a better railway infrastructure could bring more investments in such places and create job opportunities.
Successive governments have been of the view that jobs can wean away youth from naxalism and militancy.
Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aim of taking the economy to $20 trillion from $2 trillion, he said policies which are ambitious and at the same time “doable" can help achieve the target.
Terming lack of physical infrastructure as a “road block", Prabhu said many things have to be put in order to achieve the desired growth levels. He said after setting targets, there was a a need to put in place a strategy to achieve the objectives and the Modi government was working on it.Remember way back in September when we told you about Grant Morrison’s oft-delayed epic Multiversity? No? Well we did. We also told you that one of many issues of that series will feature legacy heroes. So it should come as no surprise that during a night in his honor, Morrison decides to drop more nuggets about that legacy issue, right? Surprise! Read what Morrison had to say about his superhero epic for DC.
“Like I said, we have seven different books dealing with this,” he continues. The initial story will feature a multiversal Justice League, with Calvin Ellis, the black President Superman from Final Crisis and Action, as the protagonist. The second story will be a pulp adventure tale, using both old pulp characters and repurposed characters who could easily fit the mold, including an Indiana Jones by way of John Constantine “Doc” Fate. Also present will be Lady Blackhawk, the Atom and the Immortal Man in a story set in the year 2013 after a world war has decimated the human populace down to two billion people. Following that will be “The Just”, taking place on Earth-11, showcasing the return of the Super-Sons and the children of other superheroes. Surprisingly citing The Hills as an inspiration, the disaffected super-kids will be introduced in ways similar to that program, and the utopian world brought on by their parents will be echoed by their dull, meaningless, “shallow” conversational patterns. We’ll also see the remnants of a bored Justice League, filled with nearly-forgotten 90s characters with nothing to do but superhero/supervillain battle re-enactments. When asked who would be appearing, Kyle Rayner will be the Green Lantern featured in the book, but Guy Gardner will be present. Other 90s characters set to appear include Bloodpack, Bloodwynd, Anima, Walker Gabriel and, yes, Wally West, amidst a host of other legacy characters introduced in the era, hinting at appearances by Azrael and the “replacement” Supermen. Knowing that it would always come back to the most iconic versions of the characters, such as Bruce Wayne, Barry Allen and Hal Jordan, Morrison wanted to give these heroes “a world they did inherit, but they didn’t inherit anything” worthwhile.
Are you excited? Because I sure the hell am. There’s tons more to read about the series and Morrison in general at MTV so go click the link above. Still we wait for a release date…The Alouettes promoted Anwar Stewart to defensive line coach Tuesday.
Stewart replaces Keith Willis, who was granted a release from the club to accept a coaching position with the NFL’s Tennessee Titans. Willis had spent three seasons with Montreal.
Stewart played 11 seasons with the Alouettes, winning Grey Cups in 2002, 2009 and 2010. He was also the CFL’s top defensive player in 2004 and ranks second in club history with 66 sacks.
He began his CFL coaching career with Montreal in 2014 as the team’s defensive quality-control coach.
“Anwar has been working hard and waiting for this opportunity,” Montreal head coach and GM Jim Popp said in a statement. “We have the utmost confidence that he is ready for this role.
“Anwar brings passion and energy to work every day.”
The Alouettes also named Paul Charbonneau as their running-backs coach. The Ottawa native spent the past two seasons as the assistant offensive-line coach with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.James Alex Fields. REUTERS/Eze Amos
Since James Alex Fields allegedly drove his muscle car at a crowd protesting a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, killing one and injuring at least 19 more, a deluge of details have emerged about his ideology and background. The 20-year-old raised alarms as a ninth grader for possibly harboring extremist views: He apparently adored Adolf Hitler and called Germany the "fatherland." Before departing Ohio for the Unite the Right rally this weekend, he told his mom that he was headed South for something having to do with Donald Trump and asked her to watch his cat while he was gone.
Now we have insight into his police record, which suggests Fields didn't reserve his ire for people protesting racism on the street.
According to records obtained by the Associated Press from the Police Department in Florence, Kentucky, after his mother asked him to stop playing video games one day in 2010, Fields allegedly smacked her in the head and locked her in a bathroom. The next year, Bloom called 911 and said Fields had stood behind her with a knife.
The new information paints a clearer picture of a young man who fits the prototype of aggrieved white men who often commit acts of mass violence in America.
"We routinely see high incidents of domestic violence with white supremacists because these individuals are often boiling stews of both personal and group hatreds that combine with a glorification of physical conflict in their subculture," Brian Levin, the director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University San Bernardino, told me. "Historically, interestingly, the Klan used to beat or kill those that harmed their family members, but that's a relic of the past."
Although Fields applied to become a tank commander in the army after high school, he was turned down. Though he later enlisted as a regular soldier, he was let go for failing to meet standards after only four months of active duty.
About six months ago, Bloom apparently moved her son into his own apartment and didn't pay too much attention to his increasingly radical political beliefs. In an interview with the AP, she was not even familiar with the term "alt-right."
"I told him to be careful," she explained to a reporter with the outlet. "[And] if they're going to rally to make sure he's doing it peacefully."
Obviously, things didn't work out that way. Fields was arrested on Saturday for allegedly causing the death of a 32-year-old woman named Heather Heyer and injuring at least 19 others. Meanwhile, the Dodge Challenger used in that incident sheds more light on Fields's story: One neighbor told a reporter that the vehicle rarely moved, which suggested Fields did not work. Another told the Toldeo Blade that they often saw the young man sitting inside of the car blasting Polka music.
Fields has been charged with second-degree murder, malicious wounding, and failure to stop for an accident involving a death. He was denied bond Monday morning, and his next courtroom appearance is scheduled for August 25.
Follow Allie Conti on Twitter.Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has written an op-ed in the New York Times, “America Must Recognize Palestine,” which is filled with outright lies and fails to condemn — or even address — Palestinian terror.
The article is set to run in print on Tuesday, Nov. 29 — the anniversary of the date of the original United Nations General Assembly vote that enabled the creation of the State of Israel. It is being featured on the front page of the newspaper, A1.
In a cynical gesture repeated each year, the UN observes the “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People” on Nov. 29, turning a positive anniversary into a pretext for Israel-bashing and antisemitism.
Carter’s op-ed is no exception. He calls on President Barack Obama to recognize “Palestine” before he leaves office on Jan. 20, and to push for the admission of “Palestine” into the United Nations as a full member — despite the fact that “Palestine” has no fixed borders; is divided between the West Bank and Gaza; encourages terror against its neighbor, and has shown no interest in abiding by basic international human rights norms, even towards its own potential Muslim and Christian citizens.
The former president writes that “most” Palestinians in the “occupied territories” — it is never clear which ones he means — “live largely under Israeli military rule.” That is a blatant lie, as the roughly 1.7 million Palestinians in Gaza are ruled by the Hamas terrorist organization, and nearly all of the 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under the direct control of the Palestinian Authority.
He also claims that “600,000 Israeli settlers in Palestine enjoy the benefits of Israeli citizenship and laws.” The number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank is roughly 300,000 at most; Carter is clearly counting Jewish residents of Jerusalem as “settlers,” an absurd claim that denies Israeli sovereignty and Jewish history in the country’s capital city.
Carter wants the United Nations to impose a Palestinian state by fiat, with U.S. recognition of “Palestine” being the catalyst: “I am certain that United States recognition of a Palestinian state would make it easier for other countries that have not recognized Palestine to do so, and would clear the way for a Security Council resolution on the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he writes.
He makes no mention of Palestinian terrorism, and ignores the future status of Jerusalem.
Read the full op-ed here.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, is available from Regnery through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.Capping device source of sheen, Coast Guard says
Officials say a containment device that was part of a failed attempt to stop the 2010 Gulf oil spill shown here as crews were deploying it May 6, 2010 -- is leaking and is the source of an oil sheen discovered in the Gulf last month. less Officials say a containment device that was part of a failed attempt to stop the 2010 Gulf oil spill shown here as crews were deploying it May 6, 2010 -- is leaking and is the source of an oil sheen... more Photo: Gerald Herbert, STF Photo: Gerald Herbert, STF Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Capping device source of sheen, Coast Guard says 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
Oil in a slick discovered in the Gulf of Mexico is seeping from a 100-ton device that BP used several weeks after the 2010 oil spill in a failed attempt to cap its runaway Macondo well, the U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday.
The oil is not coming from the Macondo itself, which was sealed in a relief well operation months after the 2010 blowout.
"The latest survey marks the third time since the Macondo well was sealed permanently in September 2010 that it has been visually inspected at the seafloor and confirmed not to be leaking," BP said in a statement.
Less than 100 gallons of oil per day are leaking from the containment device on the ocean floor, the Coast Guard said. The oil will continue to dribble out slowly for the time being. Officials are trying to figure out the best course forward.
BP said the Coast Guard has determined that it is not feasible to recover oil forming the sheen, and that it does not pose a risk to the shoreline.
Transocean, which owned the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that exploded after the Macondo blowout, declined to comment on the Coast Guard's news release. Eleven workers died in the accident, and the government estimates that more than 200 million gallons of crude spewed from the well a mile below the surface of the water.
The Coast Guard said remotely operated vehicles deployed from the offshore construction vessel Skandi Neptune collected oil samples on Wednesday from the Macondo well site to determine the source of the surface sheen.
A camera-equipped ROV also inspected the wreckage of the Deepwater Horizon, debris, relief wells, and the riser pipe that once connected the wellhead to the rig, and observed no oil leakage from those. Oil samples collected will be used for lab analysis, the Coast Guard said in its statement.
"The Coast Guard is further evaluating what is believed to be seepage from the containment dome to determine how best to respond," said Capt. Duke Walker, federal on-scene coordinator for the Deepwater Horizon response.
The Coast Guard will release video footage of the undersea inspections, a spokesman said, but it could be a few days before the video is made public.
U.S. Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, a top Democrat on the House Committee on Natural Resources, said BP should immediately release the video "so that the American people and the scientific community can see for themselves that no oil is leaking from the well itself."
"In addition, BP should seek to recover all oil trapped inside the failed containment dome or any other debris that remains on the seafloor in order to prevent even more oil from spilling into the environment," Markey said.
BP had said previously that it believed the source of the oil was likely the bent riser pipe, where oil, drilling mud and seawater were trapped after a separate failed attempt to stop the spewing oil, called a top kill.
The containment device, now identified as the source of the oil slick discovered Sept. 16, is a four-story box with a dome on top that was placed over the well in early May 2010. Officials abandoned the mission after tiny ice crystals, called hydrates, formed on the device. They moved it to the seafloor near the well and it has been there ever since.
A tighter-fitting cap placed over the well in July 2010 stopped the flow of oil to the sea. A few months later, BP sealed the well for good from below using a relief well to pump in cement.
Confirmation that the oil sheen reported last month is related to the Macondo disaster comes at a critical time, just as talks intensify about possible settlement of various penalties and fines arising from the accident.
Scientists have said that residual oil from the well and the wreckage of the Deepwater Horizon rig and other equipment on the seafloor could be dredged up for months and years to come.
harry.weber@chron.com facebook.com/HarryRWeberIn the midst of gamefilm prep, UC Davis head coach Ron Gould probably has a big grin on his face. Your top three fantasy football running backs this week?
1) Marshawn Lynch: 140 rushing yards, 23 receiving yards, four touchdowns.
So Marshawn killed some poor New York Giant today. That was unfortunate.
Trying to tackle Marshawn Lynch will get you killed https://t.co/zC1rjbW6mv — Will Brinson (@WillBrinson) November 9, 2014
He had four touchdowns. That's pretty cool too.
2) Justin Forsett: 112 rushing yards, two touchdowns
It took awhile, but Forsett has finally found a home as a feature running back. This first touchdown feels familiar, he's scored on this a couple of times at Cal.
The second TD was even more impressive. Bring the thunder and lightning!
VINE - Justin Forsett 11 Yard Rushing TD #TENvsBAL https://t.co/weLAr6IKSw — FanSided GIF (@FanSidedGIF) November 9, 2014
The Jacksonville Jaguars thought they could replace a workhorse like Forsett with Beefy Furdie Ken Doll Toby Gerhart. Gerhart rushed for two yards on four carries today.
3) C.J. Anderson: 90 rushing yards, 73 receiving yards, 1 touchdown.
All the highlights from Marshawn and Forsett, you'd think one of them had the signature play of the game? Nah, that was C.J.'s job, decimating the Oakland Raiders and taking their souls on this one play.
So what can you do after performances like this? Dance, baby, dance.Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) took exception to President Trump's remarks Tuesday that further provocation by North Korea will be met "with fire and fury like the world has never seen."
McCain argued the tough rhetoric is unlikely to help as tensions rise between the United States and North Korea over the latter's nuclear program.
"I don't know what he's saying and I've long ago given up trying to interpret what he says," McCain said of Trump during an interview with a local Arizona radio station first reported by NBC.
"That kind of rhetoric, I'm not sure how it helps."
McCain said the U.S. risks getting into a serious confrontation with North Korea, and invoked former President Theodore Roosevelt's famous "big stick" policy.
"In other words, the old walk softly but carry a big stick, Teddy Roosevelt's saying, which I think is something that should've applied because all it's going to do is bring us closer to a serious confrontation," McCain warned. "I think this is very, very, very serious."
Trump warned North Korea not to make any threats to the United States on Tuesday after The Washington Post reported that North Korea has produced a nuclear warhead small enough to place on a missile.
"North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States," Trump told reporters Tuesday.
"He has been very threatening beyond a normal state, and as I said they will be met with fire, fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before."
McCain said he "takes exception" to Trump's remarks.
"I take exception to the president's words because you got to be sure you can do what you say you're going to do," said McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.Franchising has had long-term success in the U.S. economy, both for franchisors and franchisees. Franchise businesses aren’t just fast food, either. According to a USA Today article, home health care is one of the top franchises in the US. Although most franchise systems—and most franchisees—are reasonably successful, buying a franchise isn’t always the right decision. As an attorney, your job is to insert some practical reality into your client’s franchise dreams.
Here are some practical issues about owning a franchise that you should raise with your client:
Will your client be happy operating the franchise? Make sure that your client has carefully considered whether he or she will be happy operating the specific business, day in and day out, for a number of years. In many situations, a franchised business may be generating adequate financial returns for the franchisee, but the actual operation of the business (e.g., making submarine sandwiches and supervising young employees) becomes less and less emotionally rewarding as time goes on. This may be especially true for a prospective franchisee who has spent most of his or her career in a nonretail position or with a Fortune 500-type company.
Make sure that your client has carefully considered whether he or she will be happy operating the specific business, day in and day out, for a number of years. In many situations, a franchised business may be generating adequate financial returns for the franchisee, but the actual operation of the business (e.g., making submarine sandwiches and supervising young employees) becomes less and less emotionally rewarding as time goes on. This may be especially true for a prospective franchisee who has spent most of his or her career in a nonretail position or with a Fortune 500-type company. Is your client willing to forego freedom? Even if the business is attractive to your client, he or she should think clearly about whether franchising, in general, is right for him or her. Although franchising can have many benefits, it does involve a significant surrender of freedom to the franchisor, and a franchisee must be willing to take direction from the franchisor in a number of areas. There are some businesspeople who may be very effective as independent operators but who would chafe at the restrictions that may be involved in a franchise system; true entrepreneurs are probably not suited to become franchisees.
Even if the business is attractive to your client, he or she should think clearly about whether franchising, in general, is right for him or her. Although franchising can have many benefits, it does involve a significant surrender of freedom to the franchisor, and a franchisee must be willing to take direction from the franchisor in a number of areas. There are some businesspeople who may be very effective as independent operators but who would chafe at the restrictions that may be involved in a franchise system; true entrepreneurs are probably not suited to become franchisees. Is your client willing to take the good publicity with the bad? Being part of a franchise often means name recognition and shared goodwill. But there’s a flipside: when any franchisee or the franchisor takes a public position on a political or social issue, the potential backlash can affect your client’s franchise. For example, a Denny’s franchisee’s controversial statements about President Obama’s healthcare law sparked a call for a boycott of all Denny’s, even those owned by franchisees who disagreed with the statement; franchisees are all in the boat together and customers don’t differentiate.
Being part of a franchise often means name recognition and shared goodwill. But there’s a flipside: when any franchisee or the franchisor takes a public position on a political or social issue, the potential backlash can affect your client’s franchise. For example, a Denny’s franchisee’s controversial statements about President Obama’s healthcare law sparked a call for a boycott of all Denny’s, even those owned by franchisees who disagreed with the statement; franchisees are all in the boat together and customers don’t differentiate. Is it financially worthwhile? Although in well-run systems the franchisee can receive significant benefits from the franchisor, the franchisee will have to pay for those benefits, typically through a periodic royalty as well as mandated marketing fund contributions, required periodic upgrades, and adoption of new business methods. Your client needs to consider whether the business will support this financial load, and whether the advantages of being part of a franchised system more than compensates for these expenses.
Although in well-run systems the franchisee can receive significant benefits from the franchisor, the franchisee will have to pay for those benefits, typically through a periodic royalty as well as mandated marketing fund contributions, required periodic upgrades, and adoption of new business methods. Your client needs to consider whether the business will support this financial load, and whether the advantages of being part of a franchised system more than compensates for these expenses. Does your client have a plan? Make sure that your client develops a business plan with conservative financial forecasts, including draft profit and loss, balance sheet, and cash flow forecasts. The client should then have the forecasts reviewed by an accountant operating from the position of a “devil’s advocate.”
With the good counsel you’ll provide, and a focus on the legal and business issues that make franchising unique compared to other business models, your client will be in a far better position to evaluate the benefits and risks associated with the decision to become a franchisee. To help you best advise your clients, CEB’s California Franchise Law and Practice, chap 6, provides a step-by-step guide for counseling clients who are interested in acquiring and operating a franchised business.
© The Regents of the University of California, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.Au revoir, plastic cups! France is done with you.
According to The Associated Press, France has become the first country in the world to ban disposable, plastic cups and dishes.
Under the new law, which passed last month, all single-use cups, plates and other dishware sold in the country will need to be compostable and made at least partly of bio-sourced materials. Businesses have been given until Jan. 1, 2020 to comply with the measure.
France currently throws away more than 4.7 billion plastic cups every year, according to newspaper Les Echos. Only 1 percent of these items are recycled.
Though environmentalists and others have rejoiced in the passage of the new measure, it has also been met with criticism. At least one packaging industry lobbyist has threatened to take legal action against France for violating European Union rules on the free movement of goods, AP reported.We could be just days away from the release of Radiohead’s new album.
As members of Radiohead’s message board At Ease have discovered (via Reddit), the band established a new company called Dawn Chorus LLP on October 7th, 2015. Why’s this a big deal? The band took similar actions months before releasing their prior two studio albums.
For both In Rainbows and The King of Limbs, Radiohead established news companies under which the album was released. In July 2007, they formed Xurbia Xendless Ltd. in advance of the October 2007 release of In Rainbows. In December 2010, they founded Ticker Tape Ltd. to distribute The King of Limbs in February 2011.
It’s unclear whether the establishing of Dawn Chorus LLP means the release of Radiohead’s as-yet-untitled ninth LP is imminent, though based on past history, that certainly a logical conclusion. As of October 2015, the band had recorded “lots” of material, but the album was unfinished.
In a March 2009 interview, Yorke mentioned working on a new song “Dawn Chorus”. It’s also the name of a Boards of Canada song from 2002.
A representative for Radiohead declined our request for comment.
Below, listen to Radiohead’s rejected theme song for the latest James Bond film, Spectre.By Elizabeth Thompson, iPolitics
Published December 18, 2013 12:15 pm |
Picking a fight with Canada's labour unions would be a big mistake for Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, says Conservative Senator Hugh Segal.
In an interview with iPolitics, Segal said attracting the support of unionized Canadians has long proved to be part of the winning strategy for successful Conservative governments.
"My very strong bias is that Tory governments are formed because they get a lot of votes from union households… These are people who should be the natural constituency of a Conservative Party that believes in economic growth and solid management," Segal said.
"So, I don't think picking a fight with unions or union leadership is a constructive economic or political strategy going forward."
Segal said there may be some labour union leaders who get carried away, but so do some political leaders.
"The notion that we would do anything other than try and build a base that had small business and farmers and entrepreneurs and union members and people involved in the professions -- that's the kind of big tent conservatism which gets Conservative governments elected. Every time we try to narrow the tent or divide and pick fights, that's when I believe you start to do yourself unnecessary harm."
Segal's comments came last week, a few days before he announced he will step down from the Senate in June to become the new master of the University of Toronto's Massey College.
They also come as relations between the Harper government and Canada's labour movement have been strained by a number of steps initiated by the Conservatives. Treasury Board President Tony Clement has made it clear he wants to bring public service union wages and benefits more in line with the private sector's. The most recent omnibus budget bill changed the federal rules in areas such as the right to refuse dangerous work and how essential services are designated.
Bill C-377, a private member's bill introduced by Conservative MP Russ Hiebert, would force labour unions to file information with the government including the remuneration of some top labour leaders and the amount of time union staff spend on activities such as lobbying or political activity.
The bill passed the House of Commons but Segal and other senators amended C-377 so heavily that Hiebert accused senators of "gutting" his bill. However, prorogation last fall prevented the amended bill from returning to the House of Commons so the bill is currently before the Senate in its original, un-amended form.
Should the government once again call the bill, Segal said he will once again oppose it. Segal said the Senate simply did what it is supposed to do with Bill C-377.
"Our purpose wasn't to kill the bill. Our purpose was to send it back to the House of Commons where the elected side, which should have primacy in a democratic system, could take a look once again at a bill that was clearly deeply flawed and where they might want to make some improvements."
During hearings by a Senate committee into the bill, a number of witnesses said it was unconstitutional, Segal said.
Segal is also opposed to initiatives coming from some Conservative MPs to go after the Rand Formula, which requires everyone in a unionized workplace to pay union dues -- regardless of whether they want to belong to the labour union.
"There are some people in the other side (House of Commons) who have talked about right-to-work legislation, which in my view is the right-to-work-for-really-low-wages legislation," Segal said.
"If you look at those states in the U.S. where right-to-work legislation has been brought in, a lot of companies have left those states because they're not getting the quality of worker they need. So, I don't think that's a good piece of legislation and I really do believe in the Rand Formula."
Segal believes it is fair for those who benefit from better wages or benefits negotiated by a labour union to support the union financially.
"The Rand Formula was a decision that was made many, many years ago to bring stability to the labour-management circumstance and I think stable labour relations are good for the economy and good for the private sector."
Segal's comments are in keeping with a speech he gave Dec. 7 to Unifor's Ontario Regional Council -- a speech that was greeted with a number of standing ovations. With more than 300,000 members, Unifor is Canada's largest private sector labour union.
In a speech in which he quoted from the union anthem hymn Solidarity Forever, Segal said the right of working men and women to unionize has been recognized by the Conservative Party since Sir John A. MacDonald.
"My Canada is the kind of country where trade unions and free collective bargaining makes our economy stronger and Canada a better place," Segal told the audience.
"It is as important a part of a strong and growing economy as capital investment, reasonable profits and fair wages and without collective bargaining there is never any guarantee on the fair wages and without fair wages we're not building a society of which we can be proud and we can transfer to our kids and our grandchildren, knowing we have transferred to them something that reflects our values as Canadians."
Elizabeth Thompson reports for iPolitics, where this article first appeared.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
July 27, 2016, 4:26 PM GMT / Updated July 27, 2016, 4:50 PM GMT By Ali Vitali
DORAL, Fla. — Donald Trump asked Russia to help "find" the missing emails from Hillary Clinton's private server during a Wednesday press conference here at his Florida resort.
"Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," Trump proposed from a podium at his Doral Resort. "I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press."
Trump faced questions about if he endorses foreign governments meddling in America's election and domestic affairs, an allegation that he balked at despite issuing the above challenge just moments later.
"What do I have to do with Putin?" Trump retorted when asked if he'd tell Putin to stay out of the election. "I'm not going to tell Putin what to do."
Trump called the idea that Russia was behind the hack and leak of Democratic National Committee emails a "total deflection," though many U.S. officials and cyber security experts believe otherwise. Then Trump said he "hopes" the Russians have Clinton's emails from her tenure as secretary of state.
When asked by NBC News if it gave him pause that he was welcoming foreign, non-allied countries, Trump said that “it gives me no pause” because “if they have them, they have them."
After the press conference, Trump campaign senior communications adviser Jason Miller told NBC that Trump wasn’t “calling on anyone to intervene or anything of the sort.” Instead, Miller said, Trump was pushing anyone who has them to give them over to authorities, a sentiment Trump himself echoed in a tweet minutes after he left the stage.
“I think it’s also important here to not let Hillary off the hook for why we’re even having this talk,” Miller said. “Because she illegally bungled 33,000 emails from her home server and now the DNC had their anti-Sanders smear campaign emails shared with the world."
The GOP nominee, who has often bragged about Russian president Vladimir Putin's favorable comments about him, told reporters that he'd treat Russia "firmly" as president but that he'd rather have them "friendly."
Responding to Trump’s statements, Clinton spokesperson Brian Fallon told MSNBC, “That is a galling statement from the Republican nominee for President.” He said Trump “is now openly inviting Russia to engage in cyber-attacks against the United States. This is a bridge too far.”
Fallon added, “It is amazing to me that Donald Trump apologizes for Vladimir Putin’s Russia at every turn and is now recklessly inviting him to engage in cyber-attacks against our own home country.”
This is not the first time Trump has urged outside agencies to get involved in the American political sphere. In 2014, continuing to push the "birther" conspiracy theory Trump began against President Barack Obama in 2011, he asked "hackers" to access the president's college records.
At the press conference, the Republican nominee also faced questions on when, if ever, Americans would see his tax returns. Trump has consistently blamed an ongoing audit for why he cannot release them currently, though the audit does not actually legally preclude Trump from releasing them. Pressed on whether or not the returns would be released prior to the November election, Trump said it “depends on the audit” but brushed off not releasing his tax returns as “not a big deal.”
When faced with the question that his returns could put to rest allegations of ties to Russia, Trump stated that he had “zero” investments in Russia. However, as the Washington Post has pointed out, there could be Russian investments in Trump U.S. properties, something Donald Trump Jr. claimed in 2008. Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign chair, also has ties to pro-Russia politicians in the Ukraine.
Trump on Wednesday also previewed more to come on his "expanded" Muslim ban, which he has said now extends to specific territories compromised by terrorism. Trump told reporters that he’d be coming out with a list of these countries in coming weeks, but did not actually specify which territories he would include in the ban. NBC News has reported that Trump's ban could include more than a third of the world, based on current State Department information.
Related: A Full List of Donald Trump's Rapidly Changing Policy Positions
In addition, Trump reacted to recent chants of “lock her up!” at his rallies and other political events, reminding the room that he told people during his convention speech not to chant that. “I said, 'Don’t do that,'” Trump said, lamenting the lack of coverage on the moment. “I didn’t like it.”We study behavioral action sequences of players in a massive multiplayer online game. In their virtual life players use eight basic actions which allow them to interact with each other. These actions are communication, trade, establishing or breaking friendships and enmities, attack, and punishment. We measure the probabilities for these actions conditional on previous taken and received actions and find a dramatic increase of negative behavior immediately after receiving negative actions. Similarly, positive behavior is intensified by receiving positive actions. We observe a tendency towards anti-persistence in communication sequences. Classifying actions as positive (good) and negative (bad) allows us to define binary ‘world lines’ of lives of individuals. Positive and negative actions are persistent and occur in clusters, indicated by large scaling exponents of the mean square displacement of the world lines. For all eight action types we find strong signs for high levels of repetitiveness, especially for negative actions. We partition behavioral sequences into segments of length (behavioral ‘words’ and ‘motifs’) and study their statistical properties. We find two approximate power laws in the word ranking distribution, one with an exponent of for the ranks up to 100, and another with a lower exponent for higher ranks. The Shannon -tuple redundancy yields large values and increases in terms of word length, further underscoring the non-trivial statistical properties of behavioral sequences. On the collective, societal level the timeseries of particular actions per day can be understood by a simple mean-reverting log-normal model.
Funding: Funding was obtained in part by the Austrian Science Fund, FWF P23378 (PhD salary for MS) and travel support from the European Cooperation in Science and Technology Action, COST MP0801. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
In this paper we do not focus on the full MPN but on the dynamics |
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